108. the Bayan # 77The Bayan, the Mother Book of the Babi Dispensation, is the title given by the Bab to His Book of Laws, and it is also applied to the entire body of His Writings. The Persian Bayan is the major doctrinal work and principal repository of the laws ordained by the Bab. The Arabic Bayan is parallel in content but smaller and less weighty. When describing the Persian Bayan in God Passes By Shoghi Effendi indicated that it should be regarded "primarily as a eulogy of the Promised One rather than as a code of laws and ordinances designed to be a permanent guide to future generations".
Abdu'l-Baha has written: "The Bayan hath been superseded by the Kitab-i-Aqdas, except in respect of such laws as have been confirmed and mentioned in the Kitab-i-Aqdas."
109. the destruction of books # 77In the Tablet of Ishraqat Baha'u'llah, referring to the fact that the Bab had made the laws of the Bayan subject to His sanction, states that He put some of the Bab's laws into effect "by embodying them in the Kitab-i-Aqdas in different words", while others He set aside.
With regard to the destruction of books, the Bayan commanded the Bab's followers to destroy all books except those that were written in vindication of the Cause and Religion of God. Baha'u'llah abrogates this specific law of the Bayan.
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 Babi 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 Baha'u'llah. To assert the independence of the new Dispensation, and to p destruction of books. [note 3] approaching Revelation of Baha'u'llah, 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.
110. We have permitted you to read such sciences as are profitable unto you, not such as end in idle disputation # 77The Baha'i Writings enjoin the acquisition of knowledge and the study of the arts and sciences. Baha'is are admonished to respect people of learning and accomplishment, and are warned against the pursuit of studies that are productive only of futile wrangling.
In His Tablets Baha'u'llah counsels the believers to study such sciences and arts as are "useful" and would further "the progress and advancement" of society, and He cautions against sciences which "begin with words and end with words", the pursuit of which leads to "idle disputation". Shoghi Effendi, in a letter written on his behalf, likened sciences that "begin with words and end with words" to "fruitless excursions into metaphysical hair-splittings", and, in another letter, he explained that what Baha'u'llah primarily intended by such "sciences" are "those theological treatises and commentaries that encumber the human mind rather than help it to attain the truth".