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Gate of the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Báb (Bahá’í Studies)

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The corpus of works from the pen of the Bab (["Gate"] Seyyed Ali Muhammad, 1819-1850) forms the scripture of the Babi religion and part of the scriptural background and tradition of the Baha'i Faith. Nader Saiedi, in this book, applies to the writings of the Bab the same thoughtful exploration that he applied to the writings of Baha'u'llah (["Glory of God"] Mirza Husayn-'Ali, 1817-1892) in "Logos and Civilization: Spirit, History and Order in the Writings of Baha'u'llah." Saiedi sheds a clear light on the revelational themes, metaphors, and symbols in these foundational Babi-Baha'i texts. Of particular interest is Saiedi's lucid exposition of the consistency of the Bab's self-concept throughout his writings and during the entire period of his public ministry. Saiedi includes a respectful but incisive critique of some academic writers' misconceptions about supposed "contradictions" in the Bab's thought, or the "development" of his claims. He corrects these misimpressions by careful citation and evidence. The book clearly elucidates the sources for many aspects of the modern Baha'i view of the sacred, situating them within the Bab's foundational discourse on the divine. Saiedi posits that the Bab's intent was a radical realignment of meanings for spiritual ideas and religious terms; what appear to be "developments" in the Bab's thinking are in fact a carefully calculated unfoldment of truths and new meanings geared to the developing capacities of the recipients. Saiedi clearly has a wide grasp of the Bab's writings and even includes his own translations of passages previously unavailable in English to explain his points. This is an indispensable roadmap to the myth (stories serving to unfold higher truth), metaphor and symbol in Babi scripture. I have one suggestion for for improvement: the book would have benefitted from a chart showing the Bab's schema of Divine Action and its relationship to various hierarchies of meaning in the Bab's writings. Because the writings of the Bab are still complex on these points, the reader occasionally has to refer back to other parts of the text to recall Saiedi's analyses in previous chapters. There are also a few minor typographical errors that should be fixed in any reprints or revised editions. These are minor shortcomings. This book is highly recommended for those trying to understand the Babi and Baha'i religions.

The Gate of the Heart is an eloquently written decription and analysis of the writings of the Bab, a meteoric prophetic figure that rocked the orthodoxy of the Persian and Iraqi religious world views in the mid 19th century. Saiedi's approach in his analysis, inspired by the Bab's own definition of religion, "transcends the limited categories of both the fundamentalist/traditionalist and the postmodern concepts of religion" (p. 243). Thus this tome, although it examines works from the 1800s, is au currant, providing insight into universal spiritual themes of great import for the 21st century.

Additionally, as a professor of psychology, I was intrigued to find gems throughout the text on the Bab's psychology. The title of the text emphasizes this -- it is through the gate of one's innermost being, one's heart, that spiritual knowledge is to be found. Additionally, Chapter 8, "The Stages of Divine Creation," is provocative for theorizing about the journey of the individual soul. For example, it deals with the dialectic between fate and free will in a fresh way. I won't be a spoiler -- read it and find out how.

It is a compelling read -- a must read -- for anyone interested in the most amazing religious upheavel of the 19th century, or in the roots of the Baha'i Faith, or in my case, spiritual psychology.