aidan

I am greatly intrigued by and have great affection for the Bab.Please enlighten me friends.Was the sole purpose of His dispensation to foretell the coming of Baha'u'llah?

arthra

There are some selections I came across that might help answer your question:

In another connection He, likewise, saith: "Were He to appear this very moment, I would be the first to adore Him, and the first to bow down before Him." Be fair, O people!

The purpose of the Most Exalted One (the Bab) was to insure that the proximity of the Revelation should not withhold men from the Divine and everlasting Law, even as the companions of John (the Baptist) were prevented from acknowledging Him Who is the Spirit (Jesus).

Time and again He hath said: "Suffer not the Bayan and all that hath been revealed therein to withhold you from that Essence of Being and Lord of the visible and invisible." Should any one, considering this binding injunction, cling unto the Bayan, such a one hath, verily, passed out of the shadow of the blessed and exalted Tree.

Be fair, O people, and be not of the heedless.

(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 171)

And this from Shoghi Effendi is interesting:

As to the nature and severity of the laws of the Bayan,
Shoghi Effendi in a letter written on his behalf provides the
following comment:

The severe laws and injunctions revealed by the Bab
can be properly appreciated and understood only when
interpreted in the light of His own statements regarding
the nature, purpose and character of His own Dispensation.
As these statements clearly reveal, the Bábí
Dispensation was essentially in the nature of a religious
and indeed social revolution, and its duration had
therefore to be short, but full of tragic events, of
sweeping and drastic reforms.

Those drastic measures
enforced by the Bab and His followers were taken with
the view of undermining the very foundations of Shi'ih
orthodoxy, and thus paving the way for the coming of
Bahá'u'lláh.

To assert the independence of the new
Dispensation, and to prepare also the ground for the
approaching Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, the Bab had
therefore to reveal very severe laws, even though most of
them were never enforced.

But the mere fact that He
revealed them was in itself a proof of the independent
character of His Dispensation and was sufficient to create
such widespread agitation, and excite such opposition on
the part of the clergy that led them to cause His eventual
martyrdom.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 214)

aidan

the []Bab was indeed a revolutionary.He ploughed the soil for Baha'ullah to sow the seed[/B]

cire perdue

My understanding is He was the fulfillment of Islam and its in depth and detail to its theology, prophecies, and esoteric knowledge and was unique in doing that compared to other Manifestations along with being the forerunner for Baha'u'llah. THE GATE OF THE HEART really shows what the Writings of the Bab meant to Islam. Future Baha'i Islamic scholars will reveal this more fully I am sure. That was the toughest book I have read. I am glad I did.

drhine

Hello! This is an interesting question with a number of correct answers. I recall a talk that I attended some time back where the speaker brought up a number of interesting thoughts about the Bab, His titles, and some thoughts as to what these meant. One of the most interesting observations regarded His station and place in religious history.

As you know, Muhammad's title was the Seal of the Prophets and the Bab's title was The Gate. The observation he made was that Muhammad closed, or 'sealed' the Prophetic Cycle and Baha'u'llah oped the Cycle of Fulfillment. One aspect of the Bab's mission was to act as the gateway between these two divine cycles. I couldn't find any scriptural references that would support or reject this understanding so you should take it for what it is worth. I think that the fact that the Bab and Baha'u'llah came so close together could indicate that this is at least part of the answer.