# The Followers of Beha in Persia

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Charles H. Stileman, The Followers of Beha in Persia, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> The Followers of Beha in Persia
> 
> Charles H. Stileman
> 
> published in The Church Missionary Intelligencer49:593, 23:273, pp. 645-648
> 
> Salisbury Square: Church Missionary Society, 1898-09
> 
> 1. Text
> 
> [page 645]
> 
> "He declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles And
> when they heard it they glorified the Lord" - Acts xxi. 19,20.
> 
> An able and interesting article on the Rabbis of Persia from the pen
> of the Rev. E. Sell, B.D., appeared in the C.M. Intelligencer for May, 1896 [online here]. In
> that paper, after tracing the origin and the early history of this strange
> sect, Mr. Sell pointed out that in the year 1866 an entirely new character was
> given to the movement by Baha'ullah claiming to be not merely the successor of
> Mirza 'Ali Muhammad, the Bab, but a far greater than he; in fact none other
> than Man Yudhhiruhullah ("He whom God shall manifest"), of whose coming
> manifestation the Bab had testified to his disciples. For example, we read in
> the Bayan - a book written by the Bab when in prison, shortly before he was put
> to death -"A thousand perusals of the Beyan are not equal to the perusal of one
> verse of what shall be revealed by `Him whom God shall manifest.'"*
> 
> This claim on the part of Beha, as Mr. Sell rightly says, virtually deposed the
> Bab from the exalted position he had previously occupied in the eyes of all his
> followers, and made him the mere forerunner of Beha.
> 
> Beha himself died exactly six years ago, viz. in May, 1892, but his followers,
> who look upon him as Divine, never allow themselves to speak of his death, but
> always refer to it as his Ascension.
> 
> Having recently spent a few days in one of the strongholds of Behaism in this
> neighbourhood, and had much conversation with some of their leading teachers,
> it may perhaps be not uninteresting to record a few of the views expressed by
> them, and to give some idea of the possibilities of missionary work among them.
> Let me say at once that the death of Beha does not seem to have materially
> influenced the movement during the six years that have elapsed since that
> event. But at the same time, it is only right to add that there is amongst them
> some difference of opinion as to the exact amount of honour which should be
> paid to Beha's eldest son and successor, `Abbas Effendi, whom they now call Man
> Aradahullah ("He whom God hath desired"). Some of the Behais maintain that he
> is also, like Beha, a Divine manifestation, and not a mere man. Others hold
> that he is in no sense Divine, and support their argument by referring to words
> of his own, to the effect that he is nothing more than a servant of Beha. These
> latter also believe that there will be no further Divine manifestation for a
> thousand years.
> 
> As our controversy with the followers of Beha turns chiefly on the doctrines of
> the Resurrection and Second Advent of our Lord Jesus
> 
> * See Mr. E.G. Browne's Traveller's Narrative, p. 348.
> 
> [page 646]
> 
> Christ, it may perhaps be worth while to deal briefly with their
> views on these two subjects.
> 
> I. As regards the Resurrection from the dead. All the Behais with whom I have
> conversed professed to believe and accept every word of our Christian
> Scriptures as they stand. When any view to which they are opposed is supported
> by passages of God's Word I have never known them resort to the stock
> Muhammadan arguments that our Holy Rooks have been corrupted, or abrogated, or
> have in any other way lost their authority. But while recognizing the authority
> of God's Word, they know comparatively little of it, and are very clever at
> reading their special views into it, and explaining away what is opposed to
> their own teaching. For example, one of their teachers informed me the other
> day that our Lord did not rise from the dead at all in the sense we suppose,
> but that the Jews were spiritually dead, and when He is said to have risen from
> among the dead it only means that He got up and left the place where these
> (spiritually) dead Jews were assembled! This man was, however, obliged to admit
> that our Lord was never Himself spiritually dead in any possible sense, and he
> was therefore completely silenced by our Lord's own words in (Rev. i. 17, 18,
> R.V.) "I am the First and the Last and the Living one, and I was dead, and
> behold I am alive for evermore." Christ speaks of Himself as dead: His death
> was not a spiritual but a literal death: consequently His Resurrection was not
> a figurative but an actual Resurrection. Nor could the proofs of Christ's
> Resurrection, as accorded to Thomas (St. John xx. 27) be explained sway, nor
> yet His Words, "Behold My hands and My feet that it is I Myself: handle Me and
> see; for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have." (St. Luke xxiv.
> 39.)
> 
> It is, of course, of the greatest possible importance that the Behais - who are
> numbered in this country by hundreds of thousands - accept the authority of the
> Christian Scriptures, and it is this especially which makes us look forward
> hopefully to the future of the movement. At the present time the great majority
> of them have studied God's Word very little, and are only acquainted with a
> certain number of texts from the New Testament which seem to support their
> views. Such a statement, for instance, as that "flesh and blood cannot inherit
> the Kingdom of God" (1 Cor. xv. 50) is continually made use of by them to prove
> that there is no resurrection of the body in total ignorance of the fact that
> the whole chapter from which that verse is taken proves the exact opposite of
> their contention! Many of them honestly believe and constantly affirm that
> their own sacred books - viz. the Kitab i Agdas ("Most Holy Book "), and other
> writings of Beha - are absolutely at one with the New Testament, and it is
> quite a revelation to them to find that the teaching of the Gospel is
> diametrically opposed to their views as to the Resurrection of Christ, and the
> whole Resurrection of the body. Surely it is incumbent upon the Church of
> Christ to enter the open door amongst these people, and with the Word of God,
> and in the power of the Holy Spirit, teach them that Christ Himself is the
> Resurrection and the Life!
> 
> [page 647]
> 
> II. As regards the Second Advent of our Lord, the Behais maintain that
> He will never again come visibly from heaven. Here again they are familiar with
> a few verses of the New Testament which speak of our Lord's return, but they
> are almost entirely ignorant of the great range of Prophetic Scripture which
> throws light on the subject of His glorious appearing. Some of them maintain
> that He actually came again in the person of Beha. Others hold that the Divine
> manifestation in the case of Beha was of a superior nature, he being the Father
> Incarnate, and therefore greater than Christ the Incarnate Son.
> 
> But all agree that our Lord's words as to His Second Advent are not to be taken
> literally but figuratively; the angels being the emissaries of Beha who
> proclaimed his advent: the sound of the trumpet their proclamation: the clouds,
> the doubts which prevent the mass of the people from accepting his claims: the
> raising of the dead, the newness of life obtained by those who accept his
> authority, and so forth. One of them said the other day, "How can you possibly
> look for Christ to come from heaven? You do not know where heaven is. Heaven is
> the place of God's abode, and God is everywhere. Therefore heaven is
> everywhere, and it is absurd to affect that Christ will come from the clouds.
> You are like the Jews of old who rejected their Messiah when He first came,
> because they were expecting Him to come in very different garb. You are equally
> blind, in that you will not believe in His second coming, because with your
> preconceived opinions you will insist upon looking up into the clouds for
> Him!"
> 
> I took this man at once to (1 Thess. iv, 16, 17) "The Lord Himself shall
> descend from heaven... then we... shall be caught up.. in the clouds to meet
> the Lord in the air, and said to him, "It you are told that a large bird is
> descending from heaven, that it is up in the clouds, and that you can see it in
> the air, would you look down at your own feet for it, or would you look up?
> Then if God, who cannot lie, tells you to look for Christ descending from
> heaven on the clouds and in the air, is it not much better to believe the clear
> statements of His Holy Word and to look for the same Jesus so to come in like
> manner, as His disciples saw Him go into heaven (Acts i. 11), than to argue
> that we cannot tell where heaven is?" This Behai was completely silenced by the
> power of God's own Word in the above mentioned and other similar passages, and
> his own friends - many of whom were present - said the next day, "Our teacher
> had not another word to say when you asked him if he would look down at his own
> feet to see a bird coming down from heaven and the clouds and the air!" I
> mention this by way of showing how very hopeful is the work of witnessing for
> Christ and His Truth to a people who admit the authority of His Word, and who
> would, I doubt not, in very many cases become true Christians if they were led
> to study that Word humbly and prayerfully.
> 
> God's Word has still its ancient power, and the very fact that during the last
> few years at least six of these people have been baptized into Christ's Church,
> and that others of them are asking for
> 
> [page 648]
> 
> baptism, should call forth the
> prayers of God's people for a mighty outpouring of His Spirit upon the Behais
> of Persia. They have almost entirely come out from under the heavy yoke of
> Islam, and seem to be a people prepared for the special work of spreading the
> Kingdom of Christ in this dark Muhammadan land, if we Christians do our duty by
> prayer and effort to bring them out of the twilight of the faith of Beha into
> the bright sunshine and glorious liberty of the Gospel of Christ.
> 
> I can again testify, as I did in the pages of the C.M. Intelligencer five years
> ago [online here], to the exceeding friendliness, and even brotherliness of these dear
> people.
> 
> Beha told his followers to "consort with all the people of the world with joy
> and fragrance," being all "the fruit of one tree and the leaves of one branch."
> As far as we Christians are concerned they certainly carry out these
> instructions. The Christian missionary is freely invited to their homes to
> share their meals and meet their friends, and above all to take with him the
> Word of the Living God, to explain its truths and even to lead in prayer.
> 
> The Behais are at the present time rejoicing in the far larger measure of
> religious liberty they enjoy under Muzaffarud din Shah than they did under his
> father the murdered Nasirud din. They have their separate festivals based upon
> various incidents in the Life of Beha: e.g. they have just kept a feast of
> thirteen days in commemoration of Beha spending thirteen days in a garden when
> commencing a journey. They believe that the Muhammedan mullahs are the false
> prophets of whose coming our Lord warned His disciples, and, from the
> standpoint of the Christian missionary, it would I think, be difficult to
> overestimate the importance in a Moslem land of such s people as this who, in
> their thousands, are, in every position and walk in life, daily and hourly
> undermining the fortress of Islam, and are, I verily believe, being used of God
> to prepare the way for the final triumph of the Gospel of Christ in Persia.
> Julfa, Isfahan, May, 1898
> 
> Charles H. Stileman.
> 
> 2. Image scans (click image for full-size version)
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views9722 views since posted 2002-10-06; last edit 2025-07-06 17:23 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../stileman_followers_baha;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
> Language
> English
> Permission
> public domain
> History
> Scanned 2001 by Dan Povey; Formatted 2012-01-01 by Jonah Winters.
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> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/2083
> Citation: ris/2083
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> — *The Followers of Beha in Persia (Used by permission of the curator)*