Here to save the day:

& Guide Humanity For the Next 861 Years -- The Baha'i Faith's Bizarre "Book of Laws"



E lder & Miller published the first English translation of the mysterious Baha'i "Kitab-i-Aqdas" in 1961. Though Baha'is revered it with superlative names like "Most Holy Book" and "The Book of Laws, a full eighty-eight years had already passed with the Baha'i administration refusing to publish it or make its contents known. This was for obvious reasons: Release of the text in any unadulterated form would have damaged the religion's prospects in the west.



Thus the publication in England by the Royal Asiatic Society was an unwelcome development for Baha'i Officials, who were centered in Haifa, Israel and Wilmette, Illinois and developing a carefully crafted image for their religion. It was an image designed to appeal to western intellectuals and social progressives, and an image very different from the impression one received when opening the "Most Holy Book."



An informal English translation by Anton Haddad had circulated among the few early western Baha'is as early as 1900. Why wouldn't it? It is utterly understandable that religious devotees would want to have access to their central scripture! Still it was allowed to fade by Baha'i promoters, and only circulated in the form of a few typewritten copies in the earliest years, and among the few. Though the 1900 translation was written by a Baha'i partisan and translated to put the best face on the spectacular Islamic unction of their mysterious avatar Baha'u'llah --it was still "too much, too soon."

The author was an active member of the Baha'i Faith for 13 years, then a casual observer of Baha'is and avid religious seeker for 20 years after.



╬ ╬ ╬ The Haddad translation was, from the point-of-view of Baha'i managers, an early undisciplined "leak" that they could manage with time and attrition of members. By the 1960's it was nowhere to be seen in Baha'i circles. Only Baha'i officialdom was aware of its existence. Incoming believers now accepted it when told by their administration: "The Kitab-i-Aqdas has not been translated yet."

To get some idea of the vigor with which Baha'i managers have suppressed their own "most holy" text, there is evidence that a repectable translation existed even prior to that of Anton Haddad. In "The Baha'i Faith and It's Claims," Samuel Graham Wilson provides excellent renderings of the Aqdas that are not those of Haddad, but appear to be translations by the English orientalist scholar Edward G. Browne. If true, that no one in modern times ever knew about this scholarly translation is hard to believe. Yet I can find no trace of its existence except as cites in the Wilson book. Obliterating any trace of an E.G. Browne Aqdas translation from western awareness could have only occurred through strenuous efforts by Baha'i managers and possibly in collusion with Browne himself. Thus the 1961 Elder-Miller translation was no doubt a crisis to Baha'i image managers. But by ignoring it, and through the constant membership churning characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, and through assiduous book-weeding by Baha'i stalwarts early on -- it soon attained non-existence within the insular culture that is Baha'i life. I know, I was one of the Baha'is who was continually told this by Baha'i authorities whenever I asked, eagerly and innocently: "When will the Kitab-i-Aqdas be translated?" Then by happenstance, just after another Baha'i "Auxiliary Board Member" answered me "It's not been translated yet," I happened upon the Elder-Miller version hidden away in a very old, messy, and poorly-managed Baha'i lending library. Somebody had not had the heart to destroy it. Baha'is believe their Most Holy Book was God's guidance to mankind for the next thousand years. This "revelation" by the Baha'i founder Baha'u'llah is believed to have been completed by 1873, thus 139 years have already passed and Baha'is are still not wearing sable or marking thieves on the forehead. (In this article terms like "Wilmette version" or "Haifa-Wilmette" will be synonymous with "official" and "authorized." These refer to the dominant sect of Baha'is based in Haifa and Wilmette whose Aqdas suppression and translation is being critiqued.) Elder and Miller were two English orientalists and Arabic scholars, Elder an author of an Arabic grammar who had spent 50 years in the near east. Miller was living in Persia and exposed to Baha'is, was keenly interested in the them, and interviewed early Baha'is and Babis. I am fortunate to possess an original first edition hardcover copy of the rare 1961 book (shown here). It's old enough to be printed in hot lead type. Why is it rare? Because Baha'is sought to suppress it. Book suppression is common with Baha'is. They even extirpated the writings of their own ostensible prophet-founder, The Bab, so well that no copy of his central scripture, the Bayan, is known to exist. Baha'is even have the habit of confiscating books they deem to be adverse to their growth. I recall going through the estate of a famous early Baha'i Ruth Moffett and finding many "no no" books about the Baha'i Faith that she had removed from libraries over the years. Baha'i book purging is one reason that hardcover copies of Elder & Miller's Aqdas are so rare today. As with the 1901 Haddad translation, after Elder-Miller's translation was published in 1961 western Baha'is were kept in the dark about its existence. I was an active Baha'i for nearly 15 years and never heard of it. This was deliberate. The Baha'i leadership did not want rank-and-file members to read the Kitab-i-Aqdas and especially not the general public. They considered it a problematic, for good reasons. It wasn't that there were serious faults in the translation, but because the content of the Aqdas itself was something they did not want westerners to see. They were buying time, waiting for the religion to grow enough before it had to receive that blow. When an official version was finally offered by the Baha'is in 1992, the starkness and directness of the both the earlier translations were softened and obscured. Certain highly controversial verses were effectively controverted or rendered void by verbal sleight-of-hand. A great deal of skillful psychological word tricks comparable to Neuro-Linguistic Programming are brought to bear on the "marriage" verses until two simple sentences that apparently assume polygamy as normative end up feeling as if polygamy is being prohibited. (See extended analysis below.) The Elder-Miller translation is an important resource in the continuing saga of Baha'i efforts to both obscure and alter their own original foundations and texts. It's a New Day -- The men in Baha'u'llah's New Dawn, when they decide to wander the world, have to tell their wives when they're coming back. That is, he has to tell the one that he's leaving. Talk about enlightened. One fascinating fact about this line from Elder-Miller, regularly missed, is the fact that it says "this spouse." He was to inform that spouse -- the spouse he' leaving. In the scenario above a fellow is leaving one wife, perhaps to visit another wife in another place. What a life guys had back then! When Baha'is refer to the Elder-Miller version, which they now occasionally must do, they refuse to acknowledge "this spouse" in Elder-Miller's trans. and misquote it "his spouse." The graphic is a scan of the original hardcover publication. Some assume it is a typo in the original hot-lead publication from uber persnickety England. But I have never seen this line 'corrected ' as errata by the authors or assigns. People carrying forward the verse online by typing HTML stupidly "correct" it because they think it's a typo. It is not a typo. Polygamy was normative to Baha'u'llah and he had at least two wives himself. His "spouse" (singular) would have been confusing to himself and everybody else around him. ('His "spouse," master? Wait. We usually have more than one wife, and so do you!') Based on what he wrote in his Book of Laws, he assumed polygamy would continue in future. The laws and ordinances of the Baha'i New Age were written by polygamists, and all of them married into their own race. The subject of the Baha'i administrations desperate efforts to cover up the male-centric, patriarchal, and polygamy-approving reality of their founders is explored further below. England's Royal Asiatic Society and Oriental Translation Fund evidently felt that a translation of a "missing Aqdas" was well in order. Elder and Miller's agenda was to make available an important religious work that was, unaccountably, still unavailable in the west. Dr. Elder remarks on this oddity in his preface:



"Anyone who studies Baha'ism learns very soon of the volume sacred to those who profess this religion and known as "The Most Holy Book." Of this book Baha in his Will said, "...reflect upon that which is revealed in my book the Aqdas." And his son and successor 'Abdu'l Baha said in his Will, "unto the Aqdas everyone must turn." Yet, strange to say, although the teachings of the Baha'is have been widely proclaimed in Great Britain and America, only fragments of al-Kitab al Aqdas have been translated previously into English." Elder-Miller Kitab-i-Aqdas Elder and Miller were surprised that the ready market of Baha'is was not interested in their book and Baha'i publishing bodies would not carry it, even though they lacked their own version of their "Most Holy Book." The book I have is very well-made and scholarly, with all the plethora of necessary transliteration punctuation marks and detailed footnotes set in 6 pt-on-9 type and I haven't found one typo in it. Baha'is try to discredit the Elder-Miller translation on the basis that William Miller, who spent years in Persia and interviewed Babis and early Baha'is, was a Christian missionary. Over at Wikipedia, in order to discredit their translation, they attribute the entire book to 'William Miller the Christian missionary," suspecting him of bias and the desire to hurt the reputation of the Baha'i religion. However, the translator of the text was Dr. Earl Elder of England, not Miller. It was Elder who did the heavy lifting. He was an Arabic scholar. He wrote an Arabic grammar, spent 50 years in the near-East, and had his Arabic translations published by Columbia University Press. William Miller essentially procured the translator Elder for the worthy project. Miller was so peripheral to the book -- mainly writing the introduction -- that he is not even on the copyright. Earl Elder is the sole copyright owner, telling us that it's really Elder's work. (Do a right click to view the umber-colored background graphic on the masthead and you'll see Elder is the sole copyright claimant.) Thus the Baha'is claim that the book somehow lacks scholastic credibility because a Christian was involved with it -- is a red herring. Truly, I'd like to see who produced their "Authorized" Aqdas. I strongly suspect that they were, in fact, more partisan wordsmiths than they were qualified Arabic translators. But then Baha'is never let you see the nameless people who produce their propaganda. The committees behind the Oz curtain in Wilmette. In any case, Baha'is don't have much point in complaining that the Elder-Miller version exists when they refused to publish one of their own for 120 years after their "Most Holy Book" came out. Baha'is suspect that William Miller was suspicious of them; that he suspected the Baha'is were hiding their Most Holy Book as they proselytized among Americans and the English. If this is what William Miller suspected, it is certain that he was correct. Once seeing the content it's all-too obvious that Baha'is suppressed their own scripture to give their religion a chance to grow before it had to come out in some magically more palatable translation. Miller also had to see that the "Baha'i Faith" being developed and presented by Baha'i teachers, which over-hyped a few "universalist" statements by "Baha" while ignoring most other facts of the religion, was deceptive. So you thought the

Baha'i Founders taught

the equality of

men and women? Baha'is attack the Elder-Miller version as "literalist." As if a translation shouldn't be accurate! What that means is the Elder-Miller version does not contain all the changes and distortions Baha'i leadership wanted to make to the text. I guess it means Elder-Miller were too "literalist" when reporting that Baha'u'llah directed Baha'is to be buried it coffins made of "beautiful hard woods," "crystal," or "rare stones." The Baha'i admin. thought they knew better, and must have gone through legions of translators before finding the right hired gun. In the religion-cum-utilitarianism so dire in Baha'is, they decided he really meant that Baha'i coffins should simply be "hard, resistant, and durable" -- and they jettisoned what Baha'u'llah actually said. He wasn't omniscient enough, apparently, to know hardwoods would become rare early in his thousand-year Dispensation. And not smart enough (like Baha'i admins and translators-turned-avatar) to simply say: "Get buried in coffins made of durable stuff." As if that's not the way people already made coffins before Baha came along. When Baha'is complain that the Elder-Miller version is too 'literal,' their real complaint is that it lets you see what Baha'u'llah's text actually said. But even when reading Haifa-Wilmette's preprocessed-with-additives-and-emollients version, one sees that the original Baha'i religion was something quite different from the program that later came to be sold as "The Baha'i Faith." Values of the

ancient Islamic world

fill the

Baha'i Book of Laws. So the Kitab-i-Aqdas was long considered a problematic book by the Baha'i promoters in the west. Its primitive outlook was noticed in 40 seconds of opening it. Its contents by now bore no resemblance to the religion that American promoters had invented and were selling to socialist-leaning intellectuals. They continued to buy time, hoping to create their own translations that would soften or obscure the content, while letting the Baha'i Faith develop and grow free of the damaging effect they knew the text would have. So they avoided publishing even an "authorized" text of their own for a full 120 years after their founder promulgated it. All other Baha'i works of significance were long available and this was ostensibly their central scripture. It's importance is obvious in its very title: "Book of Laws -- Most Holy Book." Yet both the Haddad and Elder-Miller translations were obviously unwelcome to the Baha'i Administration, who refrained from even making their congregation aware of it. Thus the first approach the Baha'is took to suppressing the Kitab-i-Aqdas was, indeed, to ignore all translations available. Even after this Elder-Miller translation was out in 1961, they continued to tell their membership "It has not been translated yet." The versions published by others, lacking the proper filters or spin-doctoring, were both ignored. More than this, the Baha'i leadership warned the Baha'is off them, classifying them as negative; to be avoided. This touches on the whole "forbidden books" and "forbidden people" thing that is a reality in the Baha'i Faith. It's a feature of the Baha'i culture, if you can call it that, that believers are very susceptible to fear in connection with banned and forbidden books. There is a very strong group-think among Baha'is. Baha'i founders such as 'Adbu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi actually promulgated shunning doctrines early on, explicitly directing Baha'is to have no interaction with various blackballed individuals or read their writings. They created the term "Covenant Breaker" for these. 'Adbu'l-Baha even practiced shunning on his own family, most of whom he excommunicated from the movement as Covenant Breakers. This strong word, now an administrative designation along with "Enemy of the Faith" (an outside critic never enrolled) reinforces the shunning idea to Baha'is. It is a word that sends chills down Baha'i backs. Baha'is pick up immediately, and with great sensitivity, any scent that a person or book is taboo. A designated "Covenant Breaker" in particular, usually associated with a banned book, is actively shunned by Baha'is. Even an individual who gave years of service to the Baha'i Faith, was sincere and mightily devoted to it, obtains a pariah status that is almost non-human when declared a Covenant Breaker. I recall Baha'is saying to me that Covenant Breakers and their books carry a "spiritual disease." Baha'is take that idea seriously. Working on the Ruth Moffett estate (an old, prominent Baha'i) I and a few other highly sincere Baha'is found a pile of a dozen naughty books mouldering in the darkest basement corner. Although they were curious looking, rare, and spanned decades -- not one of us so much as cracked a page. An older leader only looked at some inside covers, enough to see they'd been taken from public libraries! The small group of Baha'is working on this Baha'i personage's estate behaved as if they literally feared the little pile. They kept a distance from it, making their disinterestedness a demonstration of Baha'i piety. We dutifully shipped off Ruth Moffett's confiscated books (from places all over America as she was a traveling Baha'i teacher) to the Baha'i World Headquarters in Haifa, Israel. I remember we gravely marked the box "Covenant Breaker Books," as in "hazardous materials." This also reflects the particular psychological profile of Baha'is: They want to believe in the religion as formulated by their administration, with full faith. This is will-to-faith is a valid element of religion and brings good spiritual results. I am not criticizing it as such. This kind of will-to-faith brings inner fruit from religion. But it is perhaps stronger in the Baha'i movement than even the traditional Christian churches today, in part because agreement on particular dogmas are considered more critical to Baha'is in their nascent state whereas Christians are accustomed to 20 centuries of dogma controversies and are well afloat. I am not using the term "dogma" negatively here, either. (Firmly held beliefs are useful.) But simply explaining how it is that the general Baha'i culture, and especially newer Baha'is, can end up completely unaware of even important translations of their own central scripture. Because of the strong consensus culture of the Baha'i Faith and the equally strong demonization of any free-thinkers or question-askers, the religion has been able to let unwelcome books slip down the memory hole among the believers. There is a third reason as well, and that is the fact that Baha'i membership is a churning affair. Baha'i Membership Churning -- the Inflation of Baha'i Membership Numbers Only a few Baha'is remain active and loyal for life. Largely the Baha'i Faith is a way station for men and women going through a process of religious search and experimentation. Membership numbers reported by the Baha'i administration are, in fact, grossly distorted since most names are people long disaffected from the religion but still carried on their rolls. For Baha'is always seek to point to two things in order to sell their faith: 1) Look at our majestic buildings! and 2) Look at how big our membership is! However, the Baha'i administration steadily acquires an absurdly inflated membership figure by requiring a formal, rather painful and unnecessary recanting exercise involving a signed repudiation of Baha'u'llah for those who wish to have their names removed. Most are not interested or don't want to be bothered. The constant loss of old members, the arrival of wide-eyed new ones seeking to Be Good, the incessant voice of the Baha'i administration, and overall Baha'i culture-of-conformity -- makes it possible for particular materials to be wholly absent from the bubble of Baha'i life. Already well-shunned in the past by the few old stalwarts in the know, a "bad book" permanently falls off the radar for the newer Baha'is, eager to embrace the piety that avoids all forbidden materials. As a Baha'i one does not seek to find or read banned books. If he or she rarely stumbles onto one, they pick it up carefully like a loathsome object and dispose of it to the proper authorities. I was an active member of the Baha'i Faith for 13 years. I was astounded to find later, after years where I actually inquired and was told "It's not been translated" -- that there were two English translations of the Aqdas going back as far as 1900! Though deeply involved in Baha'i life I never heard a whisper about either the Haddad or the Elder-Miller publication and all my Baha'i friends believed there were no English translations. The truth is, I wanted to read it. And the truth is: I would not have joined the Baha'i Faith, or worked for it for 13 years, if I had been able to simply read the Kitab-i-Aqdas. This touches on an item Baha'is list on their "Ten Principles" sales card: "Independent investigation of truth." I can confidently assert that their claim to value this is pure mendacity. Oh, there are so many things Baha'is are avid to cover up and never let you see or know! The Baha'is dominate the Wikipedia page with Soviet level information control, working 24-hours to allow only the Official Baha'i line and deleting facts that don't fit their pretty sales package. This includes history and the contents of their "Holy Book" itself -- even their own translation! How was I able, in my 20's, to do any "independent investigation of truth" when the Baha'is were suppressing their central text and deliberately keeping me (and others) in the dark about it? They are particularly annoyed to see the Elder-Miller translation of their Aqdas cited by anybody. But how can we "independently investigate truth" if we are not allowed to read alternate translations and hear alternate views on Baha'i history and texts? Amazingly, the internet has seriously downgraded the ability of organizations to suppress information they wish to suppress. It was only through the internet that I was able to learn about the Anton Haddad translation though it was in existence since 1900. Likewise it was by the internet that I was able to finally see a photograph of the Baha'i founder. (Baha'is have have fought a losing battle trying to keep the Mansonesque photo of their guru off of Wikipedia.) Haifa-Wilmette's second approach to Aqdas-suppression, when obligated to translate the text, was to distort and obfuscate its content with the translation. Examples given here. Thus the priceless value of the Elder-Miller version. It is my opinion, based on available evidence, that the Elder-Miller translation is a more accurate and direct translation than the one offered by the Baha'i administration 120 years late in 1992. This is natural to expect since the main purpose of western Baha'is, since first encountering the book, has been to hide it because of its problematic contents. When finally obligated to come out with their own translation, their main purpose was, understandably, to translate it in such a way as to soften, obscure, or alter its contents. By looking at the Elder-Miller and Haddad versions, it becomes evident that their offering, "The Kitab-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book," contains obfuscations, dressings, and distortions designed to protect the fortunes of the Baha'i Faith. The Early Growing Gap Between the Baha'i Promotional Package And the Baha'i Scriptures



Early in the religion's development certain ideas, only minimally present in the original teachings of Baha'u'llah, began to be enlarged a great deal. These could be called socialist, Marxist, or progressive ideas found in the statements of most mystics. From a text that contained great mysticism, emphasis on obedience to God and devotion to Baha'u'llah arose a religion that instead promoted feminism, world government, and deracination. The feminism is particularly remarkable since the Kitab-i-Aqdas appears to be directed to men, makes certain prohibitions for women, and quite clearly assumes polygamy as normative. Baha'u'llah himself had, according to accounts, four wives.

But a few minor reforms or relaxing of Islamic regulations on women were spinned by the Baha'is into a program in which the Baha'i Faith became "feminist" in a Marxist sense. The longer the Baha'is suppressed and ignored the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the larger grew the gap between the Kitab-i-Aqdas text and what Baha'is were teaching. Continually attempting to appeal to progressives, they ended up with a "Ten Basic Principles" list that was quite different than their actual founding texts. Nothing made the gap between teaching and text more obvious than the briefest perusal of the Kitab-i-Aqdas! Elder-Miller Kitab-i-Aqdas

The earlier Haddad translation (1901) of the above thief verse goes this way: "To the first or second offence of theft imprisonment or banishment is decreed. But on the third conviction a mar, or sign is to be placed on the forehead of the thief whereby he may be known, and man become aware of him, lest he may be received by other cities and countries of God." Baha'ullah is obviously referencing a heritage of these disciplinary practices that we consider to be barbaric today, that of marking or otherwise physically damaging the body of the offender. The modern Baha'i handlers are doing some fancy dancing around this one, saying 'It's up to the UHJ to decide what the mark will be, for how long it's worn, etc." But it's clear from Haddad's use of "mar," and Baha'u'llah's follow-up to the effect of "Don't be softies about this" -- that this referred to something permanent like a scar, tattoo, or brand. The Haddad "don't be softies" follow up goes this way: "Beware not to allow clemency to take hold of you in the religion of God, but do that whereunto you are commanded by one pitiful and clement. Verily we have reared you up with the scourges of wisdom and ordinances for the purpose of your preservation and the exaltation of your station; as children are reared by their parents." The admin is now posturing towards some sort of "compassionate mark" but this is clearly not what Baha'u'llah intended. The verses say: 'These Baha'i laws are indeed scourge-like. Don't be shy about branding thieves on the forehead.' Baha'is point to their religion as superior by virtue of having their original, unaltered writings. But which religious text is the most collapsed and "owned"? The one that has 1) some changes in meaning creep in over time? Or 2) The text that is withheld, wholesale, from the people, deliberately corrupted and obfuscated? Or 3) The text doled out only gradually over decades and centuries becoming irrelevant by the time it's released? Or 4) The text gradually made void, with each piecemeal rollout, with nullifying explanations and "this-can't-be-so" abrogations? A few religious texts have a bit of problem #1. But the Baha'i text is blighted by problems #2, #3, and #4. Baha'is rejected their own "Holy Book" from the start, then gave the world a carefully doctored version. Baha'is say God gives guidance to man in a "progressive revelation" as mankind evolves and becomes ready. Baha'u'llah promulgated his "new dispensation" in 1873. 139 years have now passed and Baha'is still have to say "Mankind isn't ready yet" for this more advanced Baha'i Revelation. Their "manifestation of God" seems to have misfired and mis-timed. Another statement Baha'is would make to their newcomers to explain the Aqdas-delay was: "Mankind is not ready for it." But as the modern age developed, each passing year made mankind more "unready" for the content of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, until now those contents are positively antique.



Their "Most Holy Book" was to be mankind's prime guidance and law for a thousand years. That is rather sad considering they didn't allow us (in the west) to even read the text for the first 120 years. Now Baha'is can see mankind is "still not ready" for their Most Holy Book. Interestingly, now after releasing it some Baha'is are spinning it as a book of laws that will apply "in some future age." That is to say, at some time far in the next 861 the Baha'is will finally take seriously their book of laws and apply it. Happily then the world will enjoy a primitive Islamic state! This is how the modern Baha'i propagandists are coping with their Kitab-i-Aqdas at the present time: Saying it's held in abeyance and for some "future time." The Baha'i propaganda crew hovering around "Aqdas" page at Wikipedia is saying this about it: "Some laws and teachings of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas are, according to Bahá'í teaching, not meant to be applied at the present time; their application depends on decisions by the Universal House of Justice." That's their entire content under the "Laws" section for the Kitab-i-Aqdas! No laws are listed, just a statement saying the Aqdas is not relevant yet. It keeps getting funnier! This sort of flies in the face of another Baha'i teaching: That God withholds teachings from mankind and only doles them out "progressively" when mankind is ready for them. Apparently Baha'u'llah misfired. Mankind's still not "ready" for his Book of Laws a century after he's dead! This is the absurd corner Baha'is now occupy.

Baha'is have obviously refused their own Book of Laws, turned it away at the door. First they kept it at bay and hidden. (The real "hidden words.") Now they are abrogating it's laws before they arrive. They will no doubt consider it null and void during the next 861 years as during the first 120 -- when it was far more palatable to the average man. Or will continue their pattern of abrogating each law (thinking of reasons it's not valid) bit by bit until by, say, 200 years into his thousand-year dispensation the whole thing's a dead letter and we have Marxist deracination instead of the real Baha'i Faith. Upon reading the "Book of Laws" the reader will notice a few things. One notices a definite Islamic tone and attitude -- of the harsher variety. One law in the case of arson is put bluntly: "Whoever burns a house intentionally, burn him." This is the straightforward Elder-Miller phrasing. The Baha'i officials couldn't find a way to pretty that up as with other jarring verses. They translated it this way: "Should anyone intentionally destroy a house by fire, him also shall ye burn."



The Strange Laws of the Kitab-i-Aqdas / The Textual Manipulations by Baha'i Officials Perceivable Thanks to the Elder-Miller Translation



Baha'u'llah was a prince. He wanted his followers to be an attractive group. He wants them to wear silk. The Kitab-i-Aqdas tells them to completely replace their furniture every 9 years. (I myself like to keep some of my old furniture, including antiques.) The Baha'i Avatar outlaws the shaving of the head or men having hair longer than their earlobes. Elder-Miller Kitab-i-Aqdas, 1961 No John, Paul, Ringo and George! The scripture instructs them to use perfume, to wear silk and furs. This is succinctly and cleanly stated in the form of one of many commands in the Elder-Miller:



"Wear sable (sammur) just as you wear silk and squirrel-skin and other things." Elder-Miller, 1961 In the Elder-Miller version one can usually distinguish easily the difference between a mere "allowing" of an activity (not forbidden) and a command to do it. Note the clear phrase "Do not shave your heads" above. Now note the likewise-clear command to "Wear sable, just as you wear silk..." The Elder-Miller translation has this as a command, like the command to wear perfume. Seeing how absurd this perfume command looks to our present culture the Baha'i administration altered the lines in significant ways:



"Ye are free to wear the fur of the sable as ye would that of the beaver, the squirrel, and other animals."

Official Baha'i, 1992 The Baha'i version turns it into a mere option; as something not prohibited. The early Haddad version has Baha'u'llah both instructing them to wear furs while explaining that past Muslim priests only banned it because of misunderstanding: "Attire yourselves with the fur of sable in the same manner as ye use silkware and the fur of minever and aught else. Verily it was not forbidden in the Koran, but was misunderstood by the divines. He is the potent, the omniscient." Anton Haddad, 1901 According to Dictionary.com miniver is "an unspotted white fur derived from the stoat, and with particular use in the robes of peers." You see, this Most Holy Content is so irrelevant today I didn't know what miniver or sable even were! With all of the vexing problems facing mankind, how would we have gotten through the next thousand years without this instruction? It is interesting that neither of the earlier non-official translations contains the word "beaver" but the Wilmette version does. Later the Wilmette-Haifa people also elaborate on Baha'u'llah's falcon-hunting instructions. Now time for the Baha'i perfume command... PART TWO J. Curtis Lee Mickunas is of Lithuanian and Norwegian heritage and raised

Catholic. His profession is astrologer, writes and sings songs, and a racial activist

for White European survival. Author of

The Yoga Sutra -- A New Commentary ,"

from the age of 21 until the age of 33. He lives in Portland, Oregon.



BahaiFace.com Kitab-i-Aqdas.info BahaiAwareness.com