False Prophets Series – Part 3: Bahá’u’lláh and Abdul-Bahá

History is littered with individuals and sacred texts that make the momentous claim of being able to see into the future. In this series of articles, we are going to examine the prophetic credentials of those in whom millions of people have put their trust. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and we will utilise a number of different tools in order to put the most popular of those in history to the test.

Bahá’u’lláh and Abdul-Bahá

The Bahá’í religion was established in Iran in 1863. It is the youngest of the world religions, and today there are over 5 million adherents, known as Bahá’ís, all over the world. The founder of the Bahá’í religion, a man by the name of Bahá’u’lláh, claimed to be divinely inspired:

He proceeded to send letters of warning to the rulers and leaders of the world. In these letters, Bahá’u’lláh openly proclaimed his station as a Messenger of God. Followers of Bahá’u’lláh cite these letters as evidence of his prophetic ability, they claim that they contain clear predictions which came true. One such letter addressed the people of Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Bahá’u’lláh wrote that the sultans, the leaders of Constantinople, had been a source of tyranny and told them that their rulership would soon come to an end:

This warning can be found in the book Kitáb-i-Aqdas which was completed in 1873 and is the central religious text of the Bahá’í faith. The collapse of the Ottoman empire in 1918 ultimately brought with it an end to the rulership of the sultans. On March 3rd, 1924, the sultans lost their powers and they were replaced by parliamentary rule in the newly formed Turkish Republic. Is this really a remarkable prophecy? When Bahá’u’lláh penned the warning, the once mighty Ottoman empire was already in terminal decline. In fact, rival nations were referring to it as “the sick man of Europe” as early as 1853, over twenty years before Bahá’u’lláh made his prediction [3]. In the prophecy itself, Bahá’u’lláh even highlighted the fact that the rulership of the throne, a reference to the sultans, had become “filled with manifest pride” and were a “throne of tyranny”. He also mentioned that “the flames of hatred” had been kindled in the people of Constantinople. If you think about it, the most likely fate of any rulership in such circumstances is that it would come to an end. When those who are ruled are dissatisfied with their rulers, then there is always the chance of an uprising or revolution. This has been the pattern through history; examples include the fall of the French monarchy during the French Revolution and the rebellion of American colonies against British rule during the American Revolution. Another issue is that there are no details of how it would come to an end, Bahá’u’lláh just stated in very general terms that “it shall soon perish”. In fact, the end of sultan rule took place nearly half a century later in 1924, long after he made the prediction.

In another letter, he wrote to the French emperor Napoleon III in 1869. He was warned that he would soon lose his empire unless he embraced Bahá’u’lláh as a Messenger of God:

In July 1870, within a year of writing this letter, Napoleon III lost a battle against Prussia and was captured. This was followed by his exile to England and a bloody revolution in Paris known as the Paris Commune in May 1871. Did this prediction require a special insight into the future? If one analyses the political events that occurred in the decade leading up to Napoleon’s downfall, then a France-Prussia conflict and civil strife in France were inevitable. Napoleon III was a warmonger who actively sought to expand French influence in Europe and around the world. He had fought wars against Russian in the Crimea and in Italy against the Austria-Hungarian empire. Napoleon III was also acquiring colonies throughout Asia and Africa. In the 1860s, Prussia emerged as a new rival to French power in Europe. In 1862, Prussia’s chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, famously declared: “The great questions of the day will not be settled by resolutions and majority votes — that was the mistake of the men of 1848 and 1849 — but by blood and iron” [5]. Prussia was the most powerful German state and under Bismarck’s leadership it sought to unify Germany. Bismarck engineered wars with Denmark and Austria-Hungary, which resulted in Prussia coming to dominate the Northern German States. The historian David Wetzel wrote: “it seemed that it was only a matter of time before they brought all the German states under the control of Berlin” [6].

Prussia’s ambition and victories made it a direct threat to France who did not want a strong and unified Germany on its borders [7]. Napoleon III recognised the threat that a unified Germany would pose to France, and he looked for allies to challenge Prussia. But this was without success, as Britain, Russia, Austria and Italy all refused to form an alliance with France. Napoleon III was isolated and would be helpless in the event of a conflict with Prussia. In 1866, Prussia, with a population of 22 million, had been able to mobilise an army of 700,000 men, while France, with population of 26 million, had an army of only 385,000 men, of whom 100,000 were in Algeria, Mexico, and Rome. [8]. The Prussian army, combined with the armies of other German states, would be a formidable enemy. Napoleon III ordered a rapid expansion of his armed forces and this greatly added to tensions with Prussia. We can see that years before Bahá’u’lláh made his prediction, France was on a collision course for war, with a very real prospect of defeat at the hands of its enemy. Finally, with regards to his prediction that “commotions shall seize all the people in that land”, which implies that there would be civil unrest in France, this is by no means remarkable as civil unrest goes hand in hand with political instability. When dictators like Napoleon III are deposed, it results in a vacuum and it’s not uncommon for power struggles to take place. These are often violent affairs, this is especially the case throughout France’s turbulent history.

In summary, we have seen that even the most accurate predictions of Bahá’u’lláh did not require any supernatural ability, just an astute awareness of world history and politics. Bahá’u’lláh died in 1892. His eldest son, Abdul-Bahá, was appointed by his father to be his successor and head of the Bahá’í Faith, a position he served until 1921. Abdul-Bahá’s writings and talks are also regarded as a source of Bahá’i sacred literature [9]. Like his father before him, Abdul-Bahá made predictions about political events that he claimed would occur in the near future, some of which turned out to be accurate. However, a true test of one’s prophetic ability is not to analyse political trends in the present and then estimate outcomes. Rather, a true test is to make accurate predictions for events in multiple fields, not just politics, and also for events that will occur far into the future. Let’s look at examples of such predictions that have been made by Abdul-Bahá. He decreed that his grandson, Shoghi Effendi, would lead the religion after his death, and he predicted that Shoghi would father a line of descendants who would also lead the religion:

Shoghi Effendi did go on to lead religion in 1921, just as Abdul-Bahá decreed. However, the situation changed dramatically in 1957, when Shoghi suddenly died at the age of sixty. Shoghi died childless, and so he had no descendants who could lead the religion [11]. This was a situation which went directly against Abdul-Bahá’s prediction that Shoghi would be “the expounder of the words of God and after him will succeed the firstborn of his lineal descendants”. Shoghi died without having appointed his successor, and as a result the Bahá’i religion underwent a significant restructure. No longer would the faithful be led by a single individual, instead a governing council made up of nine elected members, the Universal House of Justice, assumed full authority over the affairs of the Bahá’í religion.

In another prophecy, when Abdul-Bahá was questioned about what would happen by the year 1957, he stated that there would be a worldwide transformation of humanity:

These predictions by Abdul-Bahá were first published in 1923. He foretold that by the year 1957, the Bahá’í religion would spread everywhere and that there would be worldwide peace and unity among mankind. In actual fact, the decades leading up to the year 1957 and the decades since then have been among the most bloody in history. Social ills like poverty, racism and crime still plague mankind and are only getting worse, nearly a century after Abdul-Bahá’s prediction.

We can conclude that the leaders of the Bahá’í religion, its founder Bahá’u’lláh and his son Abdul-Bahá, did not have any special insight into the future. While they may have been skilled in analysing political trends, when they ventured into fields other than politics and attempted to make predictions that were far into the future, they made false prophecies and therefore were not genuine prophets.

Muhammad ﷺ A Genuinely Inspired Prophet

The purpose of spending some time looking at examples of false prophets and false systems of prophesy was to establish a benchmark to help us distinguish truth from falsehood. One can only make accurate predictions about the future and get it right every time when one is inspired by God, Who has perfect knowledge of the future. Muhammad ﷺ demonstrated this unique quality of possessing an insight into the unseen throughout his Prophethood. He not only made numerous detailed predictions about the future which came true, as shown in this article here, but he also rejected the baseless superstitious beliefs and practices of his day, as shown in this article here. These facts should leave us in no doubt that he was inspired by God Almighty.

References

1 – Bahá’u’lláh, Epistle, p. 11.

2 – Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, verse 89.

3 – Candan Badem, The Ottoman Crimean War (1853 – 1856), p. 68.

4 – Bahá’u’lláh, Proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 20 – 21.

5 – Joachim von Kürenberg, The Kaiser: a life of Wilhelm II, last Emperor of Germany, p. 437.

6 – David Wetzel, A Duel of Giants: Bismarck, Napoleon III, and the Origins of the Franco-Prussian War, p. 123.

7 – A.J.P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848–1918, p. 347.

8 – Philippe Séguin, Louis Napoléon le Grand, p. 387.

9 – Peter Smith, A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahái Faith, p. 20.

10 – Abdul-Bahá, The Will and Testament, part one.

11 – Peter B. Clarke, Peter Beyer, The World’s Religions: Continuities and Transformations, see section “Succession and routinisation of Bahá’i leadership”.

12 – J. E. Esslemont, Baha’u’llah and the New Era, 1923 edition, Chapter XIV – Prophecies of Bahá’u’lláh and Abdul-Bahá.