The Bāb and Bahā’u’llāh have written many of their works in Arabic but since this wasn’t their mother tongue, their Arabic works have a fair amount of etymological and syntactical errors. We have showed in Chapter 4 some of the grammatical errors Bahā’u’llāh had made in the book of Īqān that were subsequently fixed. Since this topic is fairly advanced and only suitable for a special audience, we will only mention a few of the more obvious errors here that can be understood with little explanation and without delving into Arabic linguistics.

a- Using non-Arabic characters and words in Arabic sentences

Arabic and Farsi share almost the exact same alphabet. The only difference between them are four characters that exist in Farsi but not in Arabic: p, ch, g, zh. Interestingly enough, the Bāb wrote in the Arabic Bayān:

If possible acquire all the writings of the Point (meaning the Bāb) even if they are in printed form (not hand-written).[1]

The Farsi word for print is chāp. The characters ‘ch’ and ‘p’ used in this word do not exist in Arabic. The Bāb used this Persian word with non-existent characters in an Arabic sentence. This is while the Arabic word for printing is ṭab`, which he could have been easily used!

A similar fallacy can be seen in the works of Bahā’u’llāh. In a tablet addressed to Pope Pius IX he says:

O Pope!  Rend the veils asunder.  He Who is the Lord of Lords is come overshadowed with clouds, and the decree hath been fulfilled by God.[2]

The Farsi word for Pope is Pāp. The Arabic word is al-Bābā. Bahā’u’llāh has used the Farsi word with non-existent Arabic characters in the Arabic sentence. Here is an image of what he has written: [3]

The errors in these works were so obvious that the Bāb decided to justify them in one of his writings:

Finding errors in diacritics (‘irāb), recitation (qirā’at), and linguistics of the Arabic [works] is invalid, because the linguistic laws are derived from these verses and not (the opposite) where the verses are based on these (laws). There is no doubt that the owner of these verses (meaning himself) has denied having any knowledge about these (linguistic) laws.[4]

What the Bāb is saying here boils down to this: Any mistakes you find in my words and any inconsistencies with the Arabic language are due to your own ignorance. From now own, Arabic language laws and linguistics must be updated to become in conformity with my words!

As we mentioned in Chapter 4, Bahā’u’llāh had made the exact same justification when he was questioned about the errors in his writings and the writings of the Bāb:

Say, oh you ignorant man; look at the words of God using His Eyes so that you may realize they are free of the allusions and the grammatical conventions  of the people for He possesses the knowledge of the worlds. Say, if the words of God were revealed based on your grammatical conventions and (the laws) that are with you, then they would be like your words, oh group of people who are veiled (from the truth).[5]

You and your kind have said that the words of the Great Bāb and the Most Complete Remembrance are wrong and not in conformance with the grammatical conventions of the people. You still haven’t understood that the divine revealed words are the yardstick for all and what is lower than it cannot be a yardstick. Every grammatical convention that is not in accordance with the divine verses has no credibility.[6]

These words are senseless. According to Bahā’u’llāh the criterion for the truth is he and only he. Reason, knowledge, language and everything imaginable are to be measured by his words even though his words are unscientific, illogical, unreasonable, and in many cases simply wrong. He uses similar reasoning in the Aqdas:

Say: O leaders of religion![7] Weigh not the Book of God with such standards and sciences as are current amongst you, for the Book itself is the unerring Balance established amongst men. In this most perfect Balance whatsoever the peoples and kindreds of the earth possess must be weighed, while the measure of its weight should be tested according to its own standard, did ye but know it.[8]

We analyzed this subject extensively in Chapter 4 and will not repeat our statements here.

 b- Using Meaningless Arabic Words and Phrases

The use of meaningless words and Arabic phrases is especially apparent in the works of the Bāb. For instance the Bāb says:

The water of life (semen) is pure and you have been created from it. You must talṭufanna [!] your bodies from it so that you may have great pleasure.[9]

The underlined word is totally meaningless in this context and does not make sense. We will not refer to any more examples of this kind. We will simply mention a quote from Professor John Walbridge of Indiana University:

The Aqdas is written in a lofty and austere Arabic with little rhetorical ornamentation, a style somewhat similar to that of the Qur’an. As is usual in Bahā’u’llāh’s Arabic, there are some deviations from Arabic norms reflecting Persian usage. There are occasional grammatical innovations but many fewer than in the Arabic writings of the Bab.[10]

Professor Walbridge is clearly stating the works of the Bāb have even more mistakes in them than the works of Bahā’u’llāh. He solves the problem of the errors in the writings of these figures by stating these errors are simply innovations or deviations from Arabic norms. Is it really that hard to see that these obvious mistakes were made because neither the Bāb nor Bahā’u’llāh had sufficient knowledge about the Arabic language?

[1] Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 9, chap. 10. The Arabic sentence says:

 “انتم اذ استطعتم کل آثار النقطه تملکون و لو کان چاپا“

[2] Bahā’u’llāh, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 54–55.

[3] For the original Arabic sentence see Bahā’u’llāh, Āthār-i Qalam-i A`lā, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 33.

[4] The Bāb, Farsi Bayān, unit 2, chap. 1.

[5] Bahā’u’llāh, Majmū`iy-i alwāḥ-i mubārak-ih, p. 71.

[6] Bahā’u’llāh, Majmū`iy-i alwāḥ-i mubārak-ih, p. 78.

[7] In the Arabic version of the Aqdas, the words used are yā ma`shar al-`ulamā which translates to “O group of scholars.” This has been translated to “O leaders of religion,” in the official Baha’i version.

[8] Bahā’u’llāh, The Kitābi Aqdas, p. 56.

[9] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 5, chap. 15.

[10] This is part of an article authored in 1999 and titled Kitab-i Aqdas, the Most Holy Book. It was intended for possible inclusion in The Baha’i Encyclopedia: http://bahai-library.com/walbridge_encyclopedia_kitab_aqdas (retrieved 12/2/2014)