# End of Days

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Moshe Sharon, End of Days, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> End of Days
> 
> Moshe Sharon
> 
> The End of Days, namely the end of current history and the start
> of messianic times, when a divinely inspired, and guided holy leader
> will come to the world to initiate an eternal era of bliss, has occupied
> humanity to this very day. The ultimate redeemer, whose Biblical
> designation “Messiah” entered both Christianity and Islam, is known
> by various other names in religions not influenced by the Bible. The
> word “messiah”, the anointed (“mashiya˙” in Hebrew), describes the
> redeemer, consecrated by being anointed with holy oil in the same
> way that any person (e.g. priest) or object is consecrated. The Greek
> translation of the term is Christos, Christ, and this term is sometimes
> used instead, together, or separate from, the messiah. In Arabic the
> term masí˙ is used specifically to denote Jesus of Nazareth who is
> regarded in Islam to be a prophet whose birth from his mother Mary
> was caused by divine intervention (“...His word that he committed to
> Mary and a spirit from Him” [Q 4:171]).
> In Christianity the duration of the blissful messianic times
> beginning with the “second coming” of Jesus is one thousand years,
> for which Christianity yearns, and for that matter, Christians add, the
> entire humanity should yearn for. In Judaism, it is the Messiah, the
> anointed one, the son of David who will finally bring ultimate
> freedom from bondage and exile to the Jewish people, and will re-
> establish the perfect kingdom of God in their holy land. For the Jews,
> the redemption is very well defined: it is finally the end of their
> suffering, it is the renewal of their independence and their freedom
> from persecution and physical destruction. In many ways, the
> 314                                                   Lights of Irfán vol. 19
> 
> universal redeemer for the Christianity and Islam is for the Jews a
> national savior, and an actual human king belonging to the sacred
> dynasty of David. In Islam, the mahdí, whether Sunní or Shíʿite, with
> all the differences between them, will come like the others at the end
> of days, to fill the world with justice, replacing the evil and injustice
> with which it is filled nowadays. The Sunnís, of course regard the
> mahdí, the one supported and directed by G-d, in whose time, and as
> the outcome of whose activity the whole world will follow the true
> religion, namely Islam, Sunní Islam.
> 
> The Shíʿites are more specific as far as the identity of the mahdí is
> concerned. Unlike the Sunna, the Shíʿite mahdí is still alive, he is the
> twelfth imám, who until his reappearance to fulfill his major
> function, is hidden in the mystery of his “greater occultation.” But
> when he appears he also will fill the world with justice and bring it
> under God’s true religion, presumably Islam in its Shíʿite version.
> 
> Jesus also plays a role in the drama of the end of days according to
> Islam, mainly in its Sunní version. He also appears at the end of days
> next to, or with, the mahdí, mainly to clear the world of the major
> opponent of the mahdí, the Dajjál, the false messiah, the Anti-Christ.
> In all three or four versions of the apocalypse of the End of Days, the
> appearance of the ultimate redeemer is connected with the final
> battle between the forces of evil and those of righteousness. This
> battle, which assumes different names and takes place at various sites
> in the Holy Land, ending with the victory of the good side over the
> evil one, must precede messianic times. [See in Detail N. Cohn, The
> pursuit of the Millennium, London [1962], pp. 1-21 and throughout the book.]
> 
> Observing that the world is full of evil, and yearning for its
> redemption, religious thinkers were induced to look for clues in the
> scriptures, and transmitted tradition in order to calculate the exact
> era of messianic times. Each one of the religions mentioned above,
> Jewish, Christian and Islamic, tried to calculate the time of the
> arrival of as-sáʿah — the “Hour” if we use the Arabic-Islamic term;
> a˙arithayamím — the “End of Days,” or yemothamashiya˙ — “The
> Days of the messiah” or just haketz — “The End,” in Hebrew, if we
> use the Jewish term. Similarly “the Millennium,” and the “Second
> advent” used in the Christian eschatology [ibid, pp. 13f.]. The search
> was for two different signs foretelling the approach of the final
> redemption. One related to its circumstances — unusual occurrences
> End of Days                                                          315
> 
> or major events of colossal magnitude including moral corruption;
> the second was the actual mathematical calculation of the exact date
> in which the messianic age should be expected.
> 
> It is interesting that these calculations, somehow, led those who
> were engaged in them to reach the conclusion that their calculations
> pointed to their own time as the time of redemption, the messianic
> era and the time of the appearance of God’s revealed, guided,
> inspired and even manifested, promised one. William Miller, for
> instance, fixed the end of 1843 and the beginning of 1844 as the date
> of Jesus’ second coming. In Judaism there were such calculations,
> mostly in times of great stress and persecution. Each such calculation
> ended with disappointment. Some Talmudic scholars tried to stop the
> repeated exercise of the “calculation of the End” and the activities of
> “calculators of the End” (mehashevekitzin) by bringing proofs that
> “the Holy One blessed be He will not renew his world before 5000 or
> 7000 years (have passed since creation)” [BT, Sanhedrin 97b]. However,
> some scholars want to be more specific. An old document in Hebrew,
> they said, was found in the Roman archives, in which it was stated
> that ”the world will come to an end 4291 years after the creation”
> [ibid.]. In Sunni Islam, the calculation of the End is described in great
> detail in the hadith, and is based on the division of Islamic history
> into two cycles (dawlah): a short one of one hundred years and a long
> one of an unspecified period. The short one is based on a ˙adíth that
> states that Gods sends a “renewer” at the beginning of every century
> to revive the collapsing Islam.” At the beginning of each century,
> Allah will send to this nation someone to renew its religion: inna allah
> sayabʿathiláhádhihi al-umma, ‘ala raʾs kull qarn man yujaddidlahá
> dínaha. The second indication of the end of days, or the “Hour” in
> Sunní Islam is not connected with a date but with some major event,
> which will initiate the period of wars preceding the final redemption.
> 
> In Judaism, “the calculators of the end” based their calculations
> on the Book of Daniel, chapters 7, 9 and 12, where the cryptic
> language, and the no less cryptic numbers, have excited and
> challenged these calculators. They have been attracting them to the
> present day. Already in the early third century, Talmudic scholars
> attempted to stop the practice of apocalyptic calculations because
> they felt that they involved disappointment on the one hand, and
> hasty activity such as attempting revolt, which ended usually with
> 316                                                Lights of Irfán vol. 19
> 
> national disaster. The irresponsibility of such calculations could also
> lead to blasphemy. For if according to the calculators the Messiah
> was to come at a certain date, and he did not come then some people
> could conclude that he would never come, which would be a denial of
> one of the articles of faith — the belief in the coming of the Messiah.
> In the language of the Talmud: “Accursed are the calculators of the
> End for they used to say: since the End has come (according to the
> calculations) and he (the Messiah) has not come, it follows that he
> will not come.” This negates the obligation to say, “even if he tarries,
> I shall wait for him” [ibid.].
> 
> However, in institutionalized Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is
> generally believed that since the true redeemer has not yet come; there
> is no need, therefore, to prove the authenticity of anyone who claims
> to be the promised one. Yet, in more than one case in modern times,
> there appeared claimants to messianic status who created a need for
> such proofs, namely objective sources proving such claims beyond
> doubt. The proofs are needed mainly to ward off the attacks of
> opponents, but they also help to strengthen the faith of believers.
> One of such cases is that of the Mormon religion in which the claim
> of Joseph Smith was supported by the mysterious gold plates that
> only he could read and translate. It was the testimony of eleven
> people who vowed that they had seen the tablets with their own eyes
> that established their existence, and therefore firmly supported the
> claim of Joseph Smith’s prophecy, which led to the foundation of the
> Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [see “Testimony of three and
> eight witnesses,” Book of Mormon].
> 
> The case of the Bábí-Bahá’í faiths is particularly significant in this
> regard. A few proofs were needed to confirm the claims of the Báb
> and then Bahá’u’lláh. Both claimed to have been prophets and the
> manifestations of God. During their lifetime, their claims were based
> on, and reinforced by, their personalities, writings and sayings. In the
> case of the Báb, at least, there were also the circumstances of his
> appearance. The Báb put his claim forward on a very significant date
> for the Shíʿah, in the year of 1260 of the Hijrah, a thousand years
> after the disappearance of the 12th imám, the hidden mahdí. Towards
> the year 1260 AH, and particularly during this exact year, the
> Messianic expectations in the Shíʿah soared high, and the Báb could
> well present himself as a Ṣá˙ibaz-Zamán, the master of time. The
> End of Days                                                        317
> 
> proof that he was indeed divinely inspired was put forward when he
> wrote in Arabic a mystical interpretation of the Súrat Yúsuf, the 12th
> Súrah of the Qurʾán, right in front of the amazed eyes of Óusayn
> Bushrúʾí, who became his first disciple.
> 
> The short ministry of the Báb needed no external, independent
> proofs. His writings were the best proof, particularly the Bayán, his
> major opus. His recognition as a Sayyid, namely the acceptance of his
> genealogy as the descendent of the Prophet, and particularly his
> imprisonment far away from his disciples which conferred on him the
> aura of mystical occultation (ghaybah) reserved until then only for
> the Hidden Mahdí, added to the establishment of his claim to
> mahdíhood, and to even more.
> Bahá’u’lláh openly claimed to be the manifestation of God, and
> the promised one of all ages and all creeds. During his lifetime he had
> no need for external proofs, his charismatic personality, his prophetic
> writings, and his firm claim for divine station were sufficient to
> secure this status. After he passed away, however, Abdu’l-Bahá’, his
> son and heir, felt that in spite of the fact that a growing Bahá’í
> community worshiped his father, it was still necessary to delve into
> the former scriptures, and look for the proofs for his claim. Like
> calculators of the End before him (including William Miller) he
> concluded that the best proof could be the one that would show the
> correlation between the dates of the revelations of the Báb and of
> Bahá’u’lláh, and the dates found in the cryptic prophecy of Daniel.
> The Qur’án could also be used for that matter, through the
> interpretation of some verses, but the Book of Daniel is a different
> matter. If one could work out mathematically the meaning of
> Daniel’s numbers, that would be a “scientific” proof for the claim of
> prophecy.
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ was no doubt familiar with the correlation between
> Arabic letters and their numerical value. The heart of the faith
> created by the Báb and his father was established on such
> correlations. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’, using the numbers in Daniel 9:24 proves
> that Daniel prophesized the martyrdom and ascendance of Christ
> [SAQ, 40-45]. We have to note in passing that the calculations of
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ were based on wrong translation of a verse in Numbers
> 14:34, which has nothing to do with “The day of the Lord is one
> year”. This does not appear anywhere in the Bible. What appears in
> 318                                                                                 Lights of Irfán vol. 19
> 
> the Bible is that the day of the Lord is a thousand years [Ps. 90:4, “For a
> thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is passed”]. However,
> there are other sources to support the notion that one day could
> mean one year. At any rate, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ introduces the supposed
> prophecy about Christ only as an introduction to Daniel’s prophecy
> about the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh: “Now that the manifestation of Christ
> has been proved by the prophecies of Daniel, let us prove the
> manifestation of Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb” [ibid].
> By a simple arithmetic exercise, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ shows that Daniel
> prophesized the appearance of the Báb in 1844. The cryptic verse in
> Daniel              8:14,      which           in          the         original   Hebrew                      says:
> :‫ ”וַיּ ֹאמֶר ֵאלַיעַדע ֶֶרבבֹּקֶראַ ְל ַפּי ִםוּשְֹׁלשׁמֵאוֹת ְונִצְדַּ קק ֹדֶ שׁ‬And he said unto me: Unto
> two thousand and three hundred [days] then shall the sanctuary be
> cleansed” [Translation: Authorized King James Version]. The Arabic
> translation (published in Beirut, December 1880) which ʿAbdu’l-Bahá
> must have consulted reads: ‫ﺛﻼث ﻣﺌ ِﺔﻣﺴﺂ ٍء وﺻﺒﺎحٍ ﺛ ﱠُﻢ ﻳُﻄَ ﱠﻬ ُﺮ‬                 ِ ‫َﻓﻘ ََﺎل ِﱄ إِﻟ َﯩﺄَﻟْ َﻔ ْﻴ ِﻨ َﻮ‬
> ‫اﻟْﻘُﺪْ ِس‬. This is interpreted by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ to mean that in 2300
> years, “the sanctuary will be cleansed,” namely that will be the time of
> the “dawn of the Manifestation”. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ then makes the
> following calculation: From the time of the edict of Artaxerxes to
> rebuild Jerusalem until the birth of Christ there were 456 years, and
> the Báb appeared in 1844. Adding these two numbers (1844+456) and
> you get 2300. (Artaxerxes’ rule began in 465 BC, and the permission
> to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem was issued by the King to Nehemiah
> as late as summer 445BC.JE, 2:146)
> 
> Daniel’s cryptic verse probably means 2300 days, which, in Biblical
> terms could also mean years. ( ‫ יוֹם‬day, and ‫ י ָ ִמים‬days, in the plural,
> mean both a day and a year). Otherwise, as we have just seen, based
> on Ps. 90, yom (day), would be a thousand years and this surely is not
> the interpretation of Daniel in this verse. Daniel, therefore,
> according to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s calculations prophesized the “dawn of
> the Manifestation of the Báb” [SAQ, 42]. One note should be added
> here; the Septuagint Greek translation of the Bible says clearly “two
> thousand three hundred days.” (The word “days” does not appear in
> the original Hebrew text, but it is implied by the usage of “evening
> and morning” which was translated correctly into Arabic.)
> Incidentally, William Miller used the text of Daniel to prove that the
> Second Advent will take place in 1844.
> End of Days                                                        319
> 
> Once Abdu’l-Bahá’ established the manifestation of the Báb by
> Daniel’s prophecy, he used the same source to prove the
> Manifestation of Bahá’u’lláh. For this purpose, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’
> changed calendar, and based his proof on the Islamic one instead of
> the Christian one, which he just used to prove the manifestation of
> the Báb. In Chapter 12: 11, Daniel mentions twelve hundred and
> ninety years “from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken
> away and the abomination that maketh desolute set up...” This is a
> very cryptic verse too. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ was not interested in the “daily
> sacrifice” nor the “abomination that maketh desolute” ( ‫שקּוּץ ש ֹ ֵמם‬
> ִ in
> Hebrew). Only the number 1290 interested him for proof. With no
> effort he shows that 1290 lunar years had elapsed from the
> announcement of Muhammad’s prophecy, ten years before the
> Hijrah, until the announcement of Bahá’u’lláh of his prophecy and
> manifestation in 1280 AH, namely in 1863, at the Garden of Ri∂wán.
> 
> The obscure text of Daniel and its cryptic numbers allowed
> ”Calculators of the End” throughout the ages to find in them almost
> anything they wanted. Here ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ goes as far as attributing
> to Daniel full knowledge of both the Hijrah and the Christian
> calendars(in the 2nd century BC), calculating of the appearance of the
> Báb using the Christian calendar and placing the birth of Christ in the
> centre of his calculation, an event of no significance for the Jews.
> 
> On the Jewish side and about the same time, the number 1290 was
> used in a short treatise by Joseph ben ‘Uliel (1858-1937), a rabbi who
> was born in Morocco, was a professor of Roman languages at the
> University of Lisbon, and the consul of Morocco in Portugal. In 1917
> he wrote his “Five Statements of Daniel on the Redemption” ( ‫חמישה‬
> ‫)מאמרי דניאל על הגאולה‬. He regarded the year 1917, or 5677 of the
> Jewish calendar, as the year of global redemption, but particularly the
> long awaited redemption of Israel. According to his calculation, all
> the numbers in Daniel’s prophecies lead to the same conclusion –that
> the Hebrew year 5677 definitely signifies Messianic times. He goes so
> far as to suggest that the number 1335 in Daniel 12:12, “Blessed be he
> that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and
> thirty days,” refers to the Hijrah year equivalent to 1917 CE. “It is
> possible that this number hints to the date counted by the
> Mohammedans, the rulers of the Holy Land, from then until now,
> which comes to one thousand three hundred and thirty five.”
> 320                                                 Lights of Irfán vol. 19
> 
> Abdu’l-Bahá by the way does not refer to this number. [For an
> interesting Christian interpretation of the same date see The New Scofield
> Reference Bible, Daniel 12:12, note 3.] Ben ‘Uliel, however, does refer to
> 1290 which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ calculates as the time from the
> proclamation of Mohammad’s mission until the proclamation of
> Bahá’u’lláh in 1280 AH (1863). ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ does not refer to the
> whole verse in Daniel 12:11, which speaks about 1290 (days/years)
> which will elapse from “the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken
> away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up.” For Ben
> ‘Uliel this entire verse is important for establishing his calculation
> based on the general, not the Muslim calendar. This verse mentions
> two events — the taking away of the daily sacrifice (in the Temple)
> and the setting up of the destructive “abomination.” In between the
> two, he adds the destruction of the Temple, about ten years after the
> abolition of the sacrifice. The “abomination that maketh desolate”
> according to his understanding, is the mosque built by caliph ‘Umar
> on the Temple Mount (meaning the Dome of the rock which was built
> over the site, that is generally regarded as the location of the Holy of
> Holies in the Temple.). This took place, he says, in 637 when ‘Umar
> conquered Jerusalem. Now the calculation up to 1290 adds up as
> follows:
> 
> From the abolition of the daily sacrifice to the destruction of
> the Temple: 10 years
> 
> From the conquest of Jerusalem by ʿUmar until Ben ‘Uliel’s
> present: 1280 years
> 
> In this way, says Ben ‘Uliel, Daniel’s verse points directly to 1917
> (1280 + 637), his own time, interpreting the whole verse rather than
> only using the number 1290. I quoted Ben ‘Uliel to show that the
> Book of Daniel can be easily manipulated to serve the needs of the
> user. It is, however, interesting that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ turns to the Bible
> when searching for proofs from a sacred text. For the Western
> faithful, this has been surely convincing.
> 
> Until now I have not dealt with the involvement of the Bahá’í
> Jews in supplying proofs for the validation of the manifestation of
> Bahá’u’lláh. A very interesting manuscript, which came to my
> attention some time ago, triggered the present discussion.
> End of Days                                                          321
> 
> The manuscript is a one page document in Hebrew, Judeo Arabic
> and Aramaic. It surfaced in the antiquities market in Jerusalem. Its
> owner, an antique dealer, demanded for it an exorbitant price. Since
> the document is still in his possession, I cannot publish it. I was able
> to make, however, a copy of it. The writer of this document is a
> Jewish convert to the Bahá’í faith who brings proofs that the actual
> name Bahá’u’lláh is no less than the representation of the most secret,
> the most holy name of the Lord in Hebrew consisting of the four
> letters, the tetragrammaton, which no Jew is allowed to pronounce.
> The true vowels of this sacred name has been intentionally obscured
> to prevent its exact pronunciation. Instead the vowels of the word
> Adonai (“my Lord”) was attached to the four consonants of the
> Lord’s name creating a bizarre meaningless combination. The usage in
> western languages of the pronunciation “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” is
> based on these purposefully confusing vowels. Even the writing of
> the four consonants outside the realm of sacred writing is not
> allowed. In post-Biblical literature we are told that only the high
> priest could pronounce the name of the Lord in its correct form, and
> only on the Day of Atonement and only next to the holiest place in
> the Temple.
> 
> In this document, the Jewish writer has no such restrictions.
> Bahá’u’lláh is the Lord in his most majestic, secret and mystical name
> Y-H-W-H. The document begins with the four letters, the
> tetragrammaton, and under these letters we read ‫ בהאאלאבהי‬which is
> the exact transliteration of the Arabic ‫ﺑﮭﺎ اﻷﺑﮭﻰ‬. The article al in
> Hebrew is written in small letters above the text; the real name
> should accordingly be read without the article, Bahá Abhá in Arabic
> ‫ﺑﮭﺎ أﺑﮭﻰ‬. The numerical value of these letters (2+5+1+1+2+5+10)
> is 26, which is the exact numerical value of the tetragrammaton
> (10+5+6+5=26). In other words ‫( בהא אבהי‬note that ‫ אבהי‬is the exact
> transliteration of the Arabic) is ‫י ה ו ה‬. For a Jew this is no less than
> pure impudent blasphemy. Following this we read:
> 
> ‫“ ברוך הבא אדני י ה ו ה‬Welcome Adonai (the Lord) Y-H-W-H.”
> The four letters beginning the four Hebrew words create the
> acronym ‫ — בהאי‬Bahai. The same is repeated at the end of the
> document where this acronym is specified.
> 322                                               Lights of Irfán vol. 19
> 
> The text then continues in Judeo-Arabic and Aramaic written in
> Hebrew letters: ha bisharat hadrati rabbina wa moshí’ ana bahá
> elohayah. This is the good tidings of our Lord and Saviour Bahá
> (splendor) of God. The word Saviour is in Hebrew with the Arabic
> possessive ending in the plural. Instead of al-Abhá which in the
> Arabic means the “most glorious”, “most splendid” referring to God
> and to Bahá’u’lláh in the designation “Bahá’ al-Abhá” — the glorious
> of the most glorious, the Hebrew/Aramaic text has the word
> elohayah — God, and the combination for Bahá’u’lláh — The splendor
> of God (bahá elohayah). This one sentence is a statement repeating
> the idea which defines Bahá’u’lláh as both the Lord and the Saviour.
> 
> The usage of the Hebrew moshiyaʿ to denote “saviour” is
> important, for it comes from the list of the adjectival appellations of
> the God of Israel, defined in the first Benediction of the daily
> “Eighteen Benedictions Prayer” as ‫מלך עוזר ומושיעומגן‬. The word
> moshiyaʿ (Gr. σωτὲρ) indicates the exalted divine station of
> Bahá’u’lláh in his capacity as the ultimate Savior. He is described in
> terms saved for God Himself: “A Helper King, Saviour and
> Protector.” The text moves to Aramaic quoting the qaddish prayer:
> yehesh mehrabbahmeborakhle’alam we-’alme‘almayah.” May His
> Great Name (in the original the Lord’s, but here could well mean
> Bahá’u’lláh) be blessed forever and ever.” The text continues in
> Hebrew: bishnat shalosh‘esrim malkhut Náßir-al Dín Sháh Melekh
> Paras ...etc.
> “In the year twenty three of the rule of Nasir ad Din Shah, the
> King of Persia, concerning the vision of Daniel, fulfilling his
> prophecy” (12:11]. “And from the time that the daily sacrifices shall
> be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up one
> thousand two hundred and ninety days; every day is a year from the
> Caliphate of ‘Umar until now and this is in the year 5633 (=1873) of
> the creation)”. The year 1290 AH is 1873 corresponding to 5633 of
> the Creation, which the writer identifies as “now”. However, 23 years
> of the rule of Náßir ad-Dín Sháh is not 1873 but 1871. This date
> cannot be explained, but could well be a mistake. This date 1873
> however is very important for the writer, as we shall soon see.
> 
> Here, just as in the calculations of Ben ‘Uliel, we read the name of
> ‘Umar. Ben Uliel identified “the abomination that maketh desolate” in
> Daniel’s prophecy, as the mosque of ‘Umar, and it seems that here
> End of Days                                                             323
> 
> also ‘Umar’s Caliphate in general could well be the “abomination.” If
> one takes into consideration that for the Shí‘ah ‘Umar is probably the
> most hated figure in the entire Islamic history, this hatred filtered
> through into the Bábí and Bahá’í thought, and found its way to
> occupy the place of the “abomination” in Daniel’s vision. One thing
> seems sure, the 1290 date in this document is not the period of time
> that elapsed from the time of ‘Umar’s Caliphate but of the time from
> the Hijrah. It is only thus that we arrive at 5633 corresponding to
> 1873 the accepted date of the writing of al-Kitáb al-Aqdas. Unless
> there is a mistake in the dating. The text that follows says:
> 
> The majesty of the Divine presence (or the Being) shone and
> blazed; the light of ‘I am that I am’ glittered, rising, when the
> mighty and awful God became jealous for the shrine of Zion
> in the tower of Akko. ‘Look upon Zion, the city of our
> solemnities etc. [Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet
> habitation a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one
> of its stakes shall ever be removed neither shall any of its
> cords be broken. [Isaiah 33:20]’.]
> 
> In the document, “etc.” is written after ‘solemnities’ leaving the
> continuation of the very well-known verse (continued here in square
> brackets) to the reader. In this part the writer describes the
> appearance of Bahá’u’lláh as ‘rising light’ and his imprisonment in the
> fortress (“tower”) of ‘Akko as the time when he had the vision of the
> revival of Jerusalem and the “shrine of Zion” (‫)היכל אלציונא‬. The
> language is basically Hebrew to with the Arabic article (“al”) added.
> For the glitter of light of the new manifestation, the writer uses the
> Hebrew words‫אור אל אהיה‬the light of God Ehyeh, the word by which
> God defined himself to Moses: “I AM” [Exodus 3:14]. The
> manifestation is defined by the Hebrew ‫ כבוד אלהויה‬the Majesty of
> Being ( ‫)הויה‬.
> 
> In the fortress of Akko the angry God is jealous for the temple of
> Zion. This is an interesting interpretation of the redemptive station
> of Bahá’u’lláh as an angry god for Zion, and its saviour. In this way,
> he fulfills the role of the Jewish Messiah who redeems Zion, and heals
> its wounds. The following paragraph in the text moves again to deal
> with yet another date connected with the time of redemption:
> 324                                                 Lights of Irfán vol. 19
> 
> Blessed is he who waits and reaches the days of one thousand,
> three hundred and thirty five days — each day means a year
> (‫)הימים לשנה‬. Until now (Aramaic: ‫ ) ְכּ ָען‬he revealed the year
> 5675 as the [time of] redemption according to the full
> calendar.
> 
> (In the text    —
> ‫לפ”ק‬acronym: “according to the lesser calendar
> system” namely without the figure of thousands, but it should be
> ‫לפ”ג‬, acronym: “according to the full calendar” system including the
> reckoning of the thousands as we have it in the text. Without the
> thousands, the date is 675, but the text explicitly gives the full date
> with the thousands that is to say 5675.
> 
> This is a difficult part. 5675 corresponds to 1915, the middle of
> the First World War. The writer uses the Aramaic ‫ כען‬meaning “now,
> at this time,” to denote the time of redemption. However it is
> possible that he means that the year 1335 of the Hijrah which
> corresponds to 1917 is the awaited date of the redemption which is
> expected already in 1915 (5675). This brings us back to the
> calculations of Ben ‘Uliel from Lisbon who in his own way calculated
> that the redemption would occur in 1280 after ‘Umar’s conquest of
> Jerusalem (1280 + 637 = 1917). The combination of General Allenby’s
> conquest of Jerusalem in 1917, and the Balfour Declaration in the
> same year obviously had the qualities of redemption for the Jewish
> rabbi, professor and a consul at Lisbon, as well as for our obscure
> writer, who at this point breaks into exaltation with the verse of
> Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him
> that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good
> tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that sayeth unto Zion: Thy
> God reigneth!” This verse is used by Christians to mean Jesus and by
> Bahá’ís to mean Bahá’u’lláh.
> 
> Following this, the writer finishes the happy part of the text by
> quoting a verse from a religious hymn sung by the Jews on the
> conclusion of Sabbath (Saturday night). Only a Jew could have
> thought of including this verse in a text dedicated to Bahá’u’lláh in
> his capacity of the harbinger of the redemption of Zion and his
> coronation, according to Isaiah, as her king. The harbinger could be
> Bahá’u’lláh but it could also be the Báb proclaiming the ascension of
> Bahá’u’lláh to the throne of Zion.
> End of Days                                                          325
> 
> In Jewish tradition, the herald of the Messiah is the zealot prophet
> Elijah. He will precede the coming of the Messiah, preparing the way
> for him. It is not surprising that the Báb is represented as Elijah. In
> Jewish tradition Elijah, who destroyed the priests of the Phoenician
> god Ba’al out of jealousy for the God of Israel is likened to the priest
> Phineas who is described in the Bible as the ultimate zealot. In reward
> for his jealousy, God says: “I give to him my covenant of peace”
> [Numbers 25:12]. Of course, it is Moses who brought the divine
> promise to Phineas, who reappeared, many generations later, as
> Elijah. This idea is conveyed in the hymn sung at the end of the
> Sabbath the first verses of which run as follows:
> 
> Elijah the Prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, Elijah the Gileadean:
> Let him come quickly to us with the messiah, the son of
> David.
> 
> He is a man who was jealous for the name of God; He is a man
> who received the good tidings of peace by Yekutiel.
> 
> Yekutiel is another name of Moses in Jewish tradition. Only a Jew
> who kept the Sabbath and was well acquainted with the ritual at its
> conclusion could quote the verses of this hymn, which refer to the
> Messianic ideas of this document. This in fact could be the end of the
> document but the writer finishes by emphasizing yet again the divine
> station of Bahá’u’lláh. For in this hymn the Báb who is Elijah, and
> beforehand Phineas, was chosen to receive the good tidings by no less
> than Moses himself. However the text continues with going back to
> the holy tetragrammaton. Y-H-W-H, he says, is Bahá’u’lláh in
> gematry, as we saw above. The acronym “Welcome the Lord Y-H-W-
> H” in Hebrew‫( ברוך הבא אדוניי ה ו ה‬which we met at the very
> beginning of the document), gives us the word ‫– בהאי‬Bahá’í. The text
> mentions the reference to Daniel 12:11-12, which we dealt with
> above, and is used here towards the end of the document as a
> reminder. It ends with a sentence in Aramaic: “It came from the Holy
> Torah to the people of the world, from the vision of the later
> prophets who brought the good tidings of Oneness.” The meaning of
> this sentence is more or less clear. The message of Divine unity,
> brought to the world in general, is found in the Holy Torah and the
> prophecies of the later prophets meaning, most probably one
> prophet, Daniel, to whom the reference is supplied. Above of the
> 326                                               Lights of Irfán vol. 19
> 
> words “vision of the later prophets” the writer inserted two words
> “visions that bring good tidings” correcting the language of the text
> under them.
> 
> Summary
> 
> The Calculation of the End in the anonymous document presented
> here refers to the same dates used by Ben ‘Uliel and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. All
> three documents refer to the date of a number of years in the esoteric
> prophecies in the Book of Daniel. The main number is 1290 which
> appears in the last chapter of the book, chapter 12 verses 11-12.
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, regards it to refer to the time that elapsed from the
> public proclamation of Mo˙ammad’s mission, ten years before the
> hijrah. If we detract 10 years from 1290, we are left with the 1280
> years that have elapsed since the hijrah, which corresponds to 1863
> CE, the year of Bahá’u’lláh’s proclamation at Ri∂wán.
> 
> Ben ‘Uliel refers to the whole verse (12:11) and also detracts 10
> years from 1290 — the time that elapsed from the abolishment of the
> daily sacrifice to the destruction of the Temple. According to him the
> “abomination” mentioned by Daniel refers to the mosque, which was
> built by Umar in 637.
> 
> The calculation in the anonymous document is similar to Ben
> Uliel’s although the interpretation is none too clear. However, in this
> document the important parts are dedicated to proving the divinity
> of Bahá’u’lláh using combinations of letters which demonstrate that
> the name Bahá’u’lláh is no less than the revered, mystical and great
> name of the Lord.
>
> — *End of Days (Used by permission of the curator)*