Now my question Arsalan: Was the Baha'i Prophet the REAL Last Prophet of God? If not then HOW ON EARTH did he come to have these almost exact same stories as found in the Qur’an? Using those brain cells tell me how he came to know of these stories?
Not only do the contents of the Holy Qur’an show that it is a perfect code of laws and the best book for the spiritual guidance and uplift of mankind, the Babi leaders themselves admit that it is so. ‘Ali Muhammad Bab wrote:
"Since at the time when the Holy Qur’an was revealed the people of those days prided
themselves over their mastery of the language, Allah sent down this book in such a beautiful, vigorous and perfect style of language that nothing better can be imagined. And in this book the truth of the claims of the Holy Prophet Muhammad has been established on the most evident, manifest and irrefutable basis" (Al-Bayan Ms.)
‘Abdul Baha’ writes:
"Among the miracles of the Holy Qur’an one is that it stands on a sure foundation
of reason and wisdom in everything it teaches. On the basis of complete certainty it has propounded a sharia which for the people of this age forms the very essence of spiritual life. In addition to formulating a sharia the Qur’an also explains some weighty points of History and Mathematics which run counter to the theories accepted in those days, and it has been proved that the Qur’anic view is the correct one".
Baha’ullah himself says:
"The faulty intelligence and grasp of human beings cannot fully comprehend the vast body of truths embodied in the Holy Qur’an, just as a spider cannot hunt down and catch a bird".
‘Abdul Fadal, a well-known Baha’i missionary, says:
These verses of the Holy Qur’an clearly indicate that the principles of sharia, its details, the arguments which support it, its origin and achievement, in short everything has been fully and conclusively dealt with in it, no aspect of any worthwhile question having been left incomplete or inconclusive".
Baha’ullah wrote during his life at ‘Akka:
"The sharia of Muhammad is complete and perfect in every way. The fault lies with the Muslims that they do not live up to it. If the Muslims were to act upon it, there would be peace in the whole world".
But it is not correct to attribute to Baha’ullah any claim of prophethood. He never claimed to be a nabi. He seems to believe in the Holy Prophet being Khatamul Nabiyyin in the same sense as the generality of Muslims interpret this expression.
‘Abdul Fadal, a well known Baha’i missionary, writes:
"This idea of the Shaikh (‘Abdul Salam) that the Bab and Baha’ullah claimed prophethood for themselves is altogether wrong and imaginary. Everyone acquainted with Baha’i literature knows fully well that this claim is neither to be found in the Alwah, nor have any of their followers used this word in regard to them".
In the book entitled Al-Baha’iya, published in Egypt, one reads:
"Baha’ullah, ‘Abdul Baha’, or the Bab, none of them ever claimed to be a prophet"
(Page 49)
In the Baha’i journals entitled Kaukab-e-Hind we read:
"Neither does the word Nabi (Prophet) occur in the Ayah Mubaarakah, nor has the Promised One of the Furqan been called a nabi nor do the Baha’is take Hadrat Baha’ullah as a prophet: and this has been openly proclaimed a number of times in Kaukab-e-Hind.
Then what did the claim of Baha’ullah precisely amount to? Kaukab-e-Hind answers this question as follows: The Baha’is hold that the epoch of prophethood has come to an end. They hold that prophethood has come to an end even among the followers of Muhammad. But of course they do not hold that the Power of God has come to an end. Therefore they accept a new manifestation of the power, which goes a step beyond prophethood, implying thereby the end of the epoch of prophethood.
This is the reason why the Bha’is never say that prophethood has not ended and that the Promised One of all the religions is a nabi or rasul. What they say is this that advent was a Mustaqil Khuda’i Zahur. Moreover, it stands only too true to reason that one-step beyond prophethood is nothing else but Godhead and Divinity itself.
In spite of Baha’ullah’s claim to Divinity, it was and always shall be quite impossible for the Baha’is to run away from the fact that he was just as much a frail human being as any one else. They have therefore taken the stand that in this respect he was like Jesus Christ.
A lot of people now acknlowedge that he claimed Divinity. Shaikh Rashid, Editor Al-Manar, Egypt, writes:
"The Baha’is are a culmination of the Batini sect who worship Baha’ullah, believing in his Godhead and Divinity. The Baha’is have their own separate sharia".
A well-known Christian scholar, Ilyas Khaduri, writes:
"In numerous places in his book Baha’ullah has by implication, and also openly claimed Godhead and Divinity for himself."
Maulawi Sanaullah of Amritsar insisted for a long time that Baha’ullah claimed prophethood. But at last he had to admit that Baha’ullah, according to his followers, had claimed Godhead and Divinity:
"Till now we have been insisting that Shaikh Baha’ullah had claimed prophethood for himself. But today the Baha’i organ, Kaukab-e-Hind, has very strongly refuted our stand"
From the writings of Baha’ullah himself in regard to this question, the following two references should suffice where Baha’ullah says:
"He who is at the moment speaking from prison, is the creator of all things, and the originator of all names. He has borne great hardships in order to give life to the world".
And:
"Other than myself, who am in prison, alone at the moment, there is no God".
To those less familiar with the Bab and Bahai religion, let’s dig into their origins and intentions. Among variants of the Shia point of view there is a sect called the Ithna ‘Asharia. The Shias regard Hadrat ‘Ali as invested with special sanctity, to an extent where it involves denial of the authority of the three Khalifas who preceded Hadrat ‘Ali in this office, namely, Abu Bakr, ‘Umar and Uthman. According to the belief of the Ithna ‘Asharia, there have been
twelve rightful Imams after Hadrat ‘Ali, eleven of them having died after the normal span of their lives, but the twelfth having disappeared and gone into hiding in some cave, to reappear towards the end of the world as the expected Imam Mahdi to bring the mission of his Imamat to completion.
Shias of the Ithna ‘Asharia sect also hold that ever since the time the twelfth Imam went into hiding, he keeps one of his followers, the best and most devoted, in the position of a Bab, i.e., a door through which the rest of his followers could maintain spiritual contact and communion with him. According to Alqami, a noted Shia writer and divine:
"To this day there have always been among his followers people of special devotion who have held the position of a Bab (door) in relation to him, with functions to serve as a link between the Imam and his followers for the communication of what should and what should not be done."
Moderator Edit: The remaining text was deleted because it was a large copy/paste from another site. This is against forum rules and plagiarism is also unethical. The original text can be viewed in this PDF document: http://www.alislam.org/library/books/babi/babi-and-bahai.pdf (beginning at around page 13).