(From an earlier discussion)
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 1995
From: Juan R Cole
Subject: Aqdas verse 2

hikmat) and Divine utterance (bayan)". Is there any significance in this differentiation?"

A. In Baha'i terminology "wisdom" is unspoken wisdom, and even becomes a synonym for taqiyyah or prudent dissimulation (i.e. speaking only when one is likely to gain a hearing, and otherwise letting people assume you are a Shi`ite). So it is possible that God's "wisdom" is an unspoken Platonic Idea, whereas His utterance is the Revelation of Baha'u'llah. Is this the sort of thing you are getting at?

Question. A while back, you were discussing that the whole thrust of KIA and particularly K1 is at Babi/Baha'i believers. How is that reconciled with K3 where it's clearly aimed at the generality of mankind? (or is it?)

A. Both the Qur'an and the Aqdas employ a style of discourse in which both audience and speaker are constantly shifting. At one point God is speaking, at another the Prophet. Sometimes God is speaking to the Prophet in the text. Sometimes God addresses the believers, sometimes the unbelievers. Sometimes the Prophet addresses the believers, sometimes the unbelievers. This instability of author and audience is confusing to those who are not used to it, but is dazzling once you get the hang of it.

I would suggest that the arguments against antinomianism at the beginning of the Aqdas are definitely mainly aimed at the Babis. But other, interwoven passages, such as that on the ordering of the world, are aimed at the whole world. And, of course, the whole world can also benefit from being warned against antinomianism.

Setting the verses in context does not limit them to that context. Shakespeare's plays had a context, too, and one's understanding of them can be much helped by knowing it. But one can also go see Henry V and be moved by it without knowing so much specific context. If this is true of Shakespeare, how much more so of God's Revelation?

cheers, Juan Cole, History, Univ. of Michigan