The self-proclaimed prophet of Baha’ism has considered the divine prophets’ sciences as infallible and related to the divine source while the Baha’ism leaders’ texts possess clear mistakes for which the Baha’ism heads have had to reform them. For instance, Abdul Baha’s prediction concerning the fulfillment of the general peace and the establishment of the Baha’i kingdom in 1957 A.D. has been replaced by vague phrases!
The self-proclaimed prophet of Baha’ism has considered the divine prophet’s science as infallible: “…Their science has been originated from His and this power from His and this kingdom, beauty and emergence from His ones. They are the sources of the divine sciences and the positions of divine wisdom and the sources of eternal grace…[۱]”
While the Baha’ism leaders’ texts possess too many literary and contextual mistakes that the Baha’ism heads have had to reform them. As we read in one of the confessions: “other handwriting copies related to 1280 and the following years were observed and there are differences in the recent copies that some Arabic sentences were changed to be compatible with the literary rules.[2]”
Thus, Vance Salisbury has pointed out various cases of deviations in an article called the critical investigation of the Baha’i texts in the 20th century. He writes about the censorship of the date for Abdul Baha’s prediction concerning the fulfillment of general peace and the establishment of the Baha’i kingdom in 1957 A.D. by the Baha’ism organization:
“Maybe the most important change in the book Abdul Baha and the new era has been occurred on page 212 printed in 1923 A.D. This part has been mentioned as the prediction of Baha’ism concerning approaching the divine kingdom. In this part, Esslement narrates Abdul Baha’s interpretation about two last verses of Daniel book in the Bible. Abdul Baha claims 1335 mentioned by Daniel means 1335 S.H. since the departure of Muhammad to Medina in 623 A.D. that is 1957 A.D. when he is asked: “What should we wait for?” he answers: “The universal peace will be fulfilled fully. An international language will be expanded. The misunderstanding will be removed. The Baha’i faith will be expanded. The oneness of human being will be established and really splendid period of time will be existent!” in the next copies published after Esslement’s death, his speech were deviated as follows: “Abdul Baha has counted the fulfillment time for Daniel’s prophethood since the beginning of the Islamic Hijrat year.” Then, it is mentioned in one of Abdul Baha’s tablets that he has said:
“لان بذلک التاریخ ینقضی قرن من طلوع شمس الحقیقه”
Esslement has written that Abdul Baha has clearly said that this prediction must be counted since the beginning of Hijrat or the very year 623 A.D. and special conditions in the year 1957 A.D. in which this matter will be fulfilled will be existent. When it was clear that the Baha’i prediction isn’t fulfilled, this statement or the vague ones were replaced existent in this book so far.[3]”
[۱] Hussein Ali Nouri, the Iqan, Germany: The national assembly of publishing the Baha’I works in Persian and Arabic languages, 1988 A.D. p. 64.
[۲] Fadhel Mazandarani, Asrarul Athar, Bija: the national institute of the faith press, 124 BAdi’a, Vol. 1, p. 268.
[۳] Basiti, Moradi, Akhondi, Ali, The song of Kettledrum (Avaz-e-Dohol) the 2nd edition, Fall 1394 S.H., p. 47.
