The Secret of Divine Civilization. `Abdu'-Bahá

the aid of the Baní Kinánih, the Baní Qahtán and the Jewish Baní Qurayzih and rose up with all the tribes of the Quray to put out the Divine Light that flamed in the lamp of Yarib (Medina). In those days the great winds of trials and tribulations were blowing from every direction, as it is written: “Do men think when they say ‘We believe’ they shall be let alone and not be put to proof?”14 The believers were few and the enemy attacking in force, seeking to blot out the new-risen Sun of Truth with the dust of oppression and tyranny. Then Salmán (the Persian) came into the presence of the Prophet—the Dawning-Point of revelation, the Focus of the endless splendors of grace—and he said that in Persia to protect themselves from an encroaching host they would dig a moat or trench about their lands, and that this had proved a highly efficient safeguard against surprise attacks. Did that Wellspring of universal wisdom, that Mine of divine knowledge say in reply that this was a custom current among idolatrous, fire-worshiping Magians and could therefore hardly be adopted by monotheists? Or did He rather immediately direct His followers to set about digging a trench? He even, in His Own blessed person, took hold of the tools and went to work beside them.

      It is moreover a matter of record in the books of the various Islamic schools and the writings of leading divines and historians, that after the Light of the World had risen over Ḥijáz, flooding all mankind with Its brilliance, and creating through the revelation of a new divine Law, new principles and institutions, a fundamental change throughout the world—holy laws were revealed which in some cases conformed to the practices of the Days of Ignorance.15 Among these, Muḥammad respected the months of religious truce,16 retained the prohibition of swine’s flesh, continued the use of the lunar calendar and the names of the months and so on. There is a considerable number of such laws specifically enumerated in the texts:

      “The people of the Days of Ignorance engaged in many practices which the Law of Islám later confirmed. They would not take in marriage both a mother and her daughter, and the most shameful of acts in their view was to marry two sisters. They would stigmatize a man marrying the wife of his father, derisively calling him his father’s competitor. It was their custom to go on pilgrimage to the House at Mecca, where they would perform the ceremonies of visitation, putting on the pilgrim’s dress, practicing the circumambulation, running between the hills, pausing at all the stopping-places, and casting the stones. It was, furthermore, their wont to intercalate one month in every three-year period, to perform ablutions after intercourse, to rinse out the mouth and snuff up water through the nostrils, to part the hair, use the tooth-stick, pare the nails and pluck the armpits. They would, likewise, cut off the right hand of a thief.”

      Can one, God forbid, assume that because some of the divine laws resemble the practices of the Days of Ignorance, the customs of a people abhorred by all nations, it follows that there is a defect in these laws? Or can one, God forbid, imagine that the Omnipotent Lord was moved to comply with the opinions of the heathen? The divine wisdom takes many forms. Would it have been impossible for Muḥammad to reveal a Law which bore no resemblance whatever to any practice current in the Days of Ignorance? Rather, the purpose of His consummate wisdom was to free the people from the chains of fanaticism which had bound them hand and foot, and to forestall those very objections which today confuse the mind and trouble the conscience of the simple and helpless.

      Some, who are not sufficiently informed as to the meaning of the divine Texts and the contents of traditional and written history, will aver that these customs of the Days of Ignorance were laws which had come down from His Holiness Abraham and had been retained by the idolaters. In this connection they will cite the Qur’ánic verse: “Follow the religion of Abraham, the sound in faith.”17

      1

      Qur’án 39:69.

      2

      Qur’án 55:1–3.

      3

      Qur’án 39:12.

      4

      Qur’án 41:53.

      5

      Qur’án 7:178; 8:22.

      6

      The original Persian text written in 1875 carried no author’s name, and the first English translation published in 1910 u

1

Qur’án 39:69.

2

Qur’án 55:1–3.

3

Qur’án 39:12.

4

Qur’án 41:53.

5

Qur’án 7:178; 8:22.

6

The original Persian text written in 1875 carried no author’s name, and the first English translation published in 1910 under the title The Mysterious Forces of Civilization states only “Written in Persian by an Eminent Bahai Philosopher.”

7

Qur’án 76:9.

8

2 Chronicles 36:22–23; Ezra 1:2; Esther 1:1; 8:9; Isaiah 45:1, 14; 49:12.

9

Qur’án 6:90; 11:31.

10

Qur’án 14:23; 35:18.

11

Qur’án 95:4.

12

The Imám ‘Alí.

13

Qur’án 5:85.

14

Qur’án 29:2.

15

Jáhilíyyih: the period of paganism in Arabia, prior to the advent of Muḥammad.

16

The pagan Arabs observed one separate and three consecutive months of truce, during which period pilgrimages were made to Mecca, and fairs, poetry contests and similar events took place.

17

Qur’án 16:124.

14

Qur’án 29:2.

15

Jáhilíyyih: the period of paganism in Arabia, prior to the advent of Muḥammad.

16

The pagan Arabs observed one separate and three consecutive months of truce, during which period pilgrimages were made to Mecca, and fairs, poetry contests and similar events took place.

17

Qur’án 16:124.