Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Nasser Sabet, Introduction to the Kitáb-i-Iqán, An, bahai-library.com.
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Published in the Journal of Bahá’í Studies Vol. 3, number 4 (1991)
© Association for Bahá’í Studies 1991

An Introduction to the Kitáb-i-Íqán1
Nasser Sabet
(1935—1991)
Abstract
This article discusses the importance, style, and contents of the Kitáb-i-Íqán (the Book of
Certitude) by Bahá’u’lláh. The five major themes of the book—the True Seeker and the
Conditions and Constraints of an Independent Investigation of Truth; Rebirth of Spirituality;
Subjects Related to Christianity and Islam; the Bábí Dispensation; and the Process of
Revelation—are then succinctly yet perceptively summarized.

Résumé
Cet article traite de l’importance, du style, et du contenu du Kitáb-i-Íqán (Le Livre de la
certitude) de Bahá’u’lláh. Ce livre peut se diviser en cinq thèmes principaux: le vrai chercheur et
les conditions et les contraintes de la recherche indépendante de la vérité; la renaissance de la
spiritualité; les sujets reliés au Christianisme et á l’Islam; la dispensation bábíe; et le processus
de la révélation qui sont résumés de façon succincte mais perspicace.

Resumen
Este estudio ventila la importancia, el estilo, y el contenido del Kitáb-i-Íqán (Libro de la
Certidumbre) escrito por Bahá’u’lláh. Los cinco temas principales del libro, El Verdadero
Buscador y las Condiciones y Restricciones de la Búsqueda Independiente de la Verdad; el
Renacimiento de Ia Espiritualidad; Materias Relacionadas a la Cristiandad y el Islam; la
Dispensación Bábí; y el Proceso de Revelación—se recapitulan con brevedad y acierto

T    he Works of Bahá’u’lláh, although comprising many tablets addressed to individuals,
contain universal messages: universal in the sense that they have been and will be
applicable to all times, conditions, and individuals. An extraordinary work of this type is his
well-known Kitáb-i-Íqán (Book of Certitude) which, from the time of its revelation, has
been a great source of inspiration for the most distinguished scholars of the Bahá’í Faith.

The Importance of the Kitáb-i-Íqán
After the Kitáb-i-Áqdas, the Kitáb-i-Íqán is Bahá’u’lláh’s most important work and has a two-
fold position in the Bahá’í Faith. First, the Báb had not completed the Persian Bayán and had
prophesied that “He Whom God will make Manifest” would reveal the remaining chapters and
would complete the text of the Persian Bayán. Second, an authentic explanation and
interpretation of the symbolic and abstruse verses and terms of the Bible and the Qur’án were to
be considered as a proof of the Manifestation of God in this age.

This paper was first presented at the Fifth Annual Conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, University of
Ottawa, and is printed posthumously in tribute to Nasser Sabet.
Style of the Book
As indicated by Shoghi Effendi, the Kitáb-i-Íqán is a “model of Persian prose, of a style at once
original, chaste and vigorous, and remarkably lucid, both cogent in argument and matchless in its
irresistible eloquence …” (God Passes By 138–39). Shoghi Effendi himself did the miraculous
and accurate translation of the Kitáb-i-Íqán—a translation giving those familiar with Persian and
English an unsurpassed reference source of mystical and literary terms used in the vast literature
of the Bahá’í Faith and past religious traditions. For its English readers, Shoghi Effendi’s
translation is a priceless gift, for no other person would have been able to accomplish this
difficult task so admirably.

Contents of the Book
The Kitáb-i-Íqán consists of a flow of themes with a unique approach to many subjects. These
themes, although independent in their nature, are interrelated. Thus, the book does not lend itself
to a conventional table of contents. However, Bahá’u’lláh has divided the whole book into two
chapters.
For the purposes of this presentation, most of the themes elaborated in the Kitáb-i-Íqán have
been classified into five headings:

   The True Seeker and the Conditions and Constraints of an Independent Investigation of
Truth;
   Rebirth of Spirituality;
   Subjects Related to Christianity and Islam;
   The Bábí Dispensation;
   The Process of Revelation.

The True Seeker and the Conditions and Constraints
of an Independent Investigation of Truth
As with every other scientific endeavor in which analysis is carried out in an unbiased way under
well-defined conditions, here too, to attain the “shores of the ocean of true understanding”
(Kitáb-i-Íqán) true spiritual seekers must obtain certain prerequisites. These prerequisites are
both exogenous and endogenous to the seeker’s nature. Body and soul must be completely
detached from all internal and external influences in order to purify “their ears from idle talk,
their minds from vain imaginings, their hearts from worldly affections, their eyes from that
which perisheth” (Kitáb-i-Íqán 3). Furthermore, “they should put their trust in God, and, holding
fast unto Him, follow in His way” (Kitáb-i-Íqán 3).
If the seeker should consider the words of “mortal men as a standard for the true
understanding and recognition of God and His Prophets” (Kitáb-i-Íqán 4), the seeker will be
misled. Who might these mortals be? An analysis of history shows that these have always been
the divines of the age. In this dispensation, humanity is reaching the stage of maturity, having
passed the stage of childhood. Humankind should realize its nobility and its capacity to pass even
beyond the realm of angels and progress to a station beyond imagination (an allusion to a poem
by Molavi). This noble creature is, without doubt, capable of rejecting the role of the clergy in a
new world order. Bahá’u’lláh states in irrefutable terms that humanity possesses every necessary
qualification to act as mature and independent beings. Religious leaders have no role to play in
this age of the maturity of humankind.
Rebirth of Spirituality
The period of the 1860s in which the Kitáb-i-Íqán was revealed was also a period of the rapid
expansion of atheism. In this period, religious beliefs were strongly rejected. Religious leaders
were incapable of finding answers to many questions that arose due to new discoveries in science
and technology. In this chaotic period of human history, Bahá’u’lláh’s reiteration of religious
beliefs and his scientific and logical approach in explaining religious beliefs represents the
“rebirth of spirituality.”
In the words of Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’u’lláh “proclaims unequivocally the existence and
oneness of a personal God, unknowable, inaccessible, the source of all Revelation, eternal,
omniscient, omnipresent and almighty” (God Passes By 139). He further emphasizes that the
only way for humankind to know God is through his Manifestations. Namely, that humankind
has always been and will always be barred from comprehending God except through the life and
teachings of a prophet of God. This clear approach to God has no resemblance in the different
philosophical lines of thought contained in the ontology of St. Anselm, the cosmology of St.
Thomas Aquinas, the teleology of William Paley, nor the arguments formulated by Immanuel
Kant. Nor is the concept of “Most holy outpouring” expressed by some Sufis acceptable to
Bahá’u’lláh as a means of attaining “the divine presence.” Only the Manifestations of God, these
divinely appointed beings, can reflect all the attributes of God. This resounding theme of the
oneness and inaccessibility of God is further elaborated in other themes unique to the Bahá’í
Dispensation: the “relativity of religious truth and the continuity of Divine Revelation,” the
“unity of the Prophets, the universality of their Message, the identity of their fundamental
teachings,” and “the sanctity of their scriptures” (God Passes By 139).

Subjects Related to Christianity and Islam
In the Bible and the Qur’án, there are allegorical and symbolic verses that, despite numerous
previous attempts to explain their meaning, have never been adequately interpreted. In the Bible,
we read: “But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time
… go your way Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end of time”
(Daniel 12:4).
The Qur’án itself distinguishes two types of verses within it: the didactic and the allegorical.
In the Súrih of Al-i-‘Imrán it says: “ ‘the Book’ [Qur’án] … some of its verses are of themselves
perspicuous others are symbolic … none knoweth the meaning thereof except God and those
who are well grounded in knowledge” (Qur’án 3:5).2
Both the Bible and the Qur’án are full of allegorical and symbolic terms. As mentioned in the
Kitáb-i-Iqán:

the purpose underlying all these symbolic terms and abstruse allusions, which emanate from
the Revealers of God’s holy Cause, bath been to test and prove the peoples of the world; that
thereby the earth of the pure and illuminated hearts may be known from the perishable and
barren soil. From time immemorial such hath been the way of God. (49)

- Most translators have rendered this passage as Rodwell did in 1909: “Yet none knoweth its interpretation but God.

And the stable in knowledge say, ‘We believe in it: it is all from our Lord” (386). However, the majority of the
Shi’ah scholars concur with Bahá’u’lláh’s quotation: “None knoweth the meaning thereof except God and them that
are well-grounded in knowledge” (Kitáb-i-Íqán 17).
Some of the symbolic terms are as follows: return; resurrection; day of judgment; sun, moon,
and stars; angels; clouds; earth; heaven; Mi‘ráj; death and life; trumpet; veils of glory; and city
of God. Each of these terms will be elaborated upon later in this article.

The Bábí Dispensation
The Kitáb-i-Iqán was revealed immediately prior to Bahá’u’lláh’s public declaration, in honor of
Hájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad, the Báb’s maternal uncle.3 As yet unconvinced, Hájí Mirzá
Siyyid Muḥammad had questioned Bahá’u’lláh as to how the prophecies in the Shí’ah traditions
could have been realized in his nephew. In response to this question, Bahá’u’lláh clarified the
meanings behind the signs of the promised Qá’im. Many of these, signs, such as “sovereignty,”
“judgment,” “resurrection,” and so on are symbolic terms. Thus, a vast portion of the book deals
with the explanation of these terms and an analysis of related traditions. In the course of these
explanations, Bahá’u’lláh irrefutably demonstrates “the validity, the sublimity and significance
of the Báb’s Revelation …” (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 139). In fact, Bahá’u’lláh divides
the Kitáb-i-Íqán into two parts, the first focusing on the explanation of symbolic terms and the
second, on the sovereignty of the Báb.

The Process of Revelation
Sometimes during the course of revelation, Bahá’u’lláh would suddenly diverge from the topic at
hand and express his most intimate feelings about the process of revelation itself. Never before in
the history of religion has anyone heard or read about the personal feelings of a Manifestation of
God at the moment of inspiration:

Great God! When the stream of utterance reached this stage, We beheld, and lo! the sweet
savours of God were being wafted from the day-spring of Revelation, and the morning breeze
was blowing out of the Sheba of the Eternal. Its tidings rejoiced anew the heart, and imparted
immeasurable gladness to the soul. It made all things new, and brought unnumbered and
inestimable gifts from the unknowable Friend … At this hour, so liberal is the outpouring of
Its grace that the holy Spirit itself is envious!...
The universe is pregnant with these manifold bounties, awaiting the hour when the effects
of Its unseen gifts will be made manifest us this world. … In the soil of whose heart will these
holy seeds germinate? … Verily, I say, so fierce is the blaze of the Bush of love, burning in
the Sinai of the heart, that the streaming waters of holy utterance can never quench its flame.
(Kitáb-i-Íqán 59–61)

Conclusion
To conclude this summary, I would like to quote Shoghi Effendi on the significance of the Kitáb-
i-Íqán in Bahá’í literature:

Well may it be claimed that of all the books revealed by the Author of the Bahá’í Revelation,
this Book alone, by sweeping away the age-long barriers that have so insurmountably

The Kitáb-i-Íqán was revealed in the two days and two nights prior to April 21, 1862.
separated the great religions of the world, has laid down a broad and unassailable foundation
for the complete and permanent reconciliation of their followers. (God Passes By 139)

Works Cited

Baha’u’lláh. Kitáb-i-Íqán (Book of Certitude). Trans. Shoghi Effendi. 2d ed. Wilmette, IL:
Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1950.

New American Standard Bible. Study ed. Philadelphia: A. J. Holman, 1975.

Shoghi Effendi. God Passes By. Rev. ed. Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1974.