A 'Plato of the Age', Epistemology in Váhid VI, báb 1 of the Persian Bayán

A Criterion of Knowledge in the Writings of the Báb

Nov 06, 2025

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What is knowledge and what does it mean to know? What is the relationship between knowledge and the ‘knower’? What types of knowledge are there? How do we distinguish between truth and falsehood? What is ‘truth’ and is their knowledge that is ‘fruitless’? What is rational or scientific knowledge and what is ‘self-knowledge’, wisdom, and ‘Revelation’?

Questions of this nature concerning what it means to ‘know’, the significance of knowledge for the ‘knower’, the types of knowledge, and indeed one’s whole theory of knowledge; these are all part of a branch of philosophy known as ‘epistemology’.

The foundations of epistemology in the West are rooted in Greek thought, especially Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy. Plato (d. 347BCE), the famed Greek philosopher made many of the most decisive early contributions and he remains one of the most pivotal thinkers in world history. His pupil Aristotle (d. 322BCE), himself a titan of philosophy in his own right, made similarly impactful contributions to the systematization of knowledge, opening a discourse on the nature of knowledge itself that continues to this day.

Although epistemology is most often considered the domain of philosophy, the nature of knowledge and being a ‘knowing individual’ have been an inseparable part of the great religions, spiritual traditions, and world faiths rooted far back into antiquity.1 Whether in the philosophical traditions they gave rise to, or in their revelatory texts and mystic practices, the themes of ‘self-knowledge’, wisdom and ‘knowledge of the sacred’ are each of supreme importance and weighty contributions have been made in this critical area of thought. Many of these contributions were made even before the birth of formal philosophy, or were generative of philosophical investigations that followed, prior to the sequestering of epistemology as one of the formal branches of philosophical thought.

In this article, we will explore a contribution to epistemological thought by the hand of Siyyid `Alí Muḥammad Shírází, best known by His title ‘the Báb’ [meaning the Gate]. In the excerpt we will review, the Báb makes a fascinating reference to Plato in the course of an exposition that strikes at the heart of epistemology in the Bábi and Bahá’í Faiths. This excerpt comes from a chapter (6:1) of the Báb’s magnum opus, the Persian Bayán, and offers us a foundational distinction between ‘true knowledge’ and ‘knowledge which does not bear fruit’. It also explores the value of rational discursive knowledge compared to another, higher form of knowledge, what we could call ‘gnostic’ recognition or ‘true understanding’.

In this discourse, the Báb fittingly mentions Plato in a way reminiscent to how the name ‘Einstein’ has in our time become a generic stand-in for archetypal ‘Genius’ or a titanic intellect of the age. What is unique about this reference is that it is one of only two identified direct references2 to a Greek philosopher that I’ve yet found in the Writings of the Báb, who generally does not make direct reference to philosophers (with a few notable exceptions, more on this below).

Given Plato’s influence, which in the Islamic world and the Baha’i Faith amounts to status as a ‘divine philosopher’, it is perhaps not a surprise that his name would be mentioned in an exposition that explores questions related to epistemology. However, as we will see, this unique reference of the Báb’s fits alongside what we may consider a fundamental criterion for an epistemology rooted in the Bahá’i Revelation.

About the Persian Bayán

Totaling some 8,000 verses and over 106,000 words, the Persian Bayán is the masterwork of the Báb, declared by Him as His "conclusive proof for all created things" and described as the “Mother Book”. The Persian Bayán, due to its depth, length, and the circumstances of its revelation, is a work of scripture unique in religious world history. It was composed in the third and fourth year of His ministry during imprisonment in the remote mountain fortresses of Mah-ku and later Chihriq, a period where He scarcely had a lamp to light His dark prison cell. Yet His pen poured out copiously during this period.

The Bayán is the Supreme Text of the Báb and a wide-spanning exposition of the fundamental verities of spiritual reality, human nature, spiritual hermeneutics, the nature of Divinity, and more. The Bayán reveals and explicates the laws and ethics to guide His Dispensation, casting a new vision of personal life and the life of society, simultaneously abrogating and fulfilling the religions of the past. What is more astounding is that even as it promulgates these laws and ethics, the Bayán simultaneously announces and prophesies its own imminent abrogation and fulfillment in the immediate future, in the person of the Babi Promised One, known as ‘He Whom God shall make Manifest’. This Figure is referred to hundreds upon hundreds of times throughout the text and is the centerpiece of almost every concept, ordinance, and theme found in the text. This context is critical for understanding the conceptualization of epistemology we will see below.

A Plato of the Age

What follows is my provisional translation (meaning unofficial and reflecting only my own understanding) of an excerpt from the Persian Bayán, Váhid VI, báb 1 (Book 6, Chapter 1):

“Strive, to the utmost limits of endeavor, on the Day of the Manifestation of Truth [e.g. He Whom God shall make manifest, the Promised One of the Báb] not to vehemently oppose Him with His own Words [e.g. the Bayán], inasmuch as the whole of the Bayán is but the Word of His very own Manifestation that precedeth Him and He is more knowledgeable in whatsoever He hath revealed than all men, for the spirit [or essence] of the whole [Bayán] is within His grasp.

And in His sight all are as naught but a mere shadow unless they are firmly established in the Truth [al-haqq]. Otherwise, they are not worthy of mention!

For in this day even if one became a 'Plato of the age' in every science, if he affirms [tasdiq] not the Truth [al-haqq, the Manifestation], will his knowledge bear any fruit? Nay, Gracious God! Rather, for him, it would not truly be knowledge at all.”

*Persian Bayán, Váhid 6:1, provisional translation from Persian by AJRF

* An alternative translation of the portion of the above excerpt is also covered in Velasco in 'Fixing the Gaze: Reflections on "The Order of Bahá'u'lláh' in the Báb's Persian Bayan', 2006)

* Special thanks to Mohammad Norozi for offering helpful feedback on the translation.

A Brief Commentary on Epistemology in the Bab’s Writings and More About Váhid VI, báb 1

We’ve already said above that ‘He Whom God shall make Manifest’ is a Figure referred to hundreds upon hundreds of times throughout the text. Almost every concept, ordinance, and theme found in the text pivots around the coming arrival of this Figure.

“…Day of the Manifestation of Truth…”

This is one such instance. The Báb frequently refers to this Figure by the appellation Manifestation of ‘al-Haqq’ (the Truth). A useful way to think about the presence of this Figure in the theoretics of the Bayán is via the analogy of a pivot, axis, or apex. This Figure, and more generally the role of the Manifestation of God, is the axis around which every other matter ultimately revolves. The Day of the Appearance of Manifestation of this figure is the Day where the Truth itself is made manifest.

“…not to vehemently oppose Him with His own Words…” … “as the whole of the Bayán is but the Word of His very own Manifestation that precedeth Him”

The opening of this passage touches on the quintessential theme of the Báb’s concept of religious unity and the succession of religions: the Truth and Fruit of every prior Revelation reaches its fulfillment in the Person and Revelation of the Manifestation who succeeds it.

This does not apply merely to the relationship betwen His own Revelation and those that preceeded Him. Uniquely, the Báb as the very revealer of the Bayán is openly declaring that its true fruition is truly with the Promised One who follows Him. He subjugates the entirety of the Bayán as being within His grasp and affirms Him as the one “more knowledgeable” in it than all others. This is why He declares that the people should not contest with Him regarding the Bayán, for the Bayán is naught but His own Revelation, and His knowledge encompasses it completely. In other words, due to the essential unity of all Manifestations, each Revelation is the outpouring of Their own Knowledge and an expression of the Reality of Their own Essence.

The tragic drama that the Báb alludes to by mention of “vehemently oppose Him”, a drama He discusses extensively elsewhere, is that upon their Appearance, the people attempt to justify their denial of the Manifestation using Their very own words, in effect elevating their own particular knowledge over the universal knowledge accessible to those Exalted Souls.

Stopping here we already have a potent theme for reflection on the nature of the knowledge achievable about Scripture, informing our approach to its hermeneutics [e.g. manner of interpretation], and understanding of the nature of Divine Theophany (Manifestationhood).

However, the Báb takes this even a step further, which catapults us into a whole different way of thinking about knowledge as a whole, offering a criterion for epistemologic certitude itself. It is not just that our knowledge of Divine Scripture and spiritual wisdom that is subsidiary to Theirs, but all knowledge in totality.

He continues:

“even if one became a ‘Plato of the age’ in every science [‘ilm],3 if he affirms [tasdiq] not the Truth [al-haqq, the Manifestation], will his knowledge bear any fruit? Nay, Gracious God! Rather, for him, it would not truly be knowledge at all.”

As mentioned, the character of this reference to Plato is akin to how ‘Einstein’ is used colloquially in our era, speaking to the (deserved) preeminence of Plato in history of thought. The Báb draws on this to emphasize the core point fully: no matter one’s preeminence, no matter one’s attainment to whatever heights of knowledge in any or every field, the end or outcome (‘fruit’) of their knowledge revolves ultimately around the Criterion of Truth established by the Manifestation of that very Truth their knowledge relates to, Truth being the chief aim of knowledge. He declares that any such knowledge, bereft of the critical act of recognition of the one He calls elsewhere the very “Point of Truth”, does not actually amount to true knowledge, a startlingly bold epistemic proclamation.

We can discern three matters for consideration with respect to epistemology that form the crux of this idea:

the universal relationship of all souls to the Manifestations of God as the Unfolders of God’s Wisdom and the successive Appearance of these Figures in each age
the Peerless Knowledge they possess and express in their Scripture (here the Bayán), by which all other truth and validity of all other knowledge is ascertained
the ultimate aim of the human being, which is to say the very purpose in the light of which we weigh whether the Knowledge we attain bears fruit or whether it falters.

Each of these merits a full-fledged exploration, which we will save for another day. For now, we will close with that immortal opening passage from of Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i-Íqán that epitomizes each of these points woven together in full:

“…they that tread the path of faith, they that thirst for the wine of certitude, must cleanse themselves of all that is earthly—their ears from idle talk, their minds from vain imaginings, their hearts from worldly affections, their eyes from that which perisheth. They should put their trust in God, and, holding fast unto Him, follow in His way. Then will they be made worthy of the effulgent glories of the sun of divine knowledge and understanding, and become the recipients of a grace that is infinite and unseen, inasmuch as man can never hope to attain unto the knowledge of the All-Glorious, can never quaff from the stream of divine knowledge and wisdom, can never enter the abode of immortality, nor partake of the cup of divine nearness and favor, unless and until he ceases to regard the words and deeds of mortal men as a standard for the true understanding and recognition of God and His Prophets.

On Philosophy & Philosophers in the Bábi and Bahá’i Revelation

I have said above that the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh tended not to make direct reference to philosophers in their Writings, although these are often replete with themes that intersect and have direct concordance with those of the philosophers. Bahá’u’lláh is slightly more forthcoming in some of His works on the topic of certain venerable philosophers, most notably “the Divine Plato” and other Greek philosophers whom He deeply praised (see the Lawh-i-Hikmat, or ‘Tablet of Wisdom’). This opens an interesting question of why, given the resonance of philosophy with their Writings, they tended not to engage with philosophers this way?

One level of this relates to the Writings of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh as ‘Revelatory’ and the very nature of the knowledge they possess as ‘Manifestations’. In that their Word is, as they attest, the Word of God, it involves Speech aimed at the most universal and fundamental levels of Reality and Knowledge as such. While they variously ‘descend’ at times to different levels of discourse (whether philosophical, ethical, personal, narrative, prayer, or even poetic) they are not especially focused on such matters as extensive direct references to philosophers and ‘copious citations’ of the intellectual tradition. It is not their direct purpose, at least generally.

Even still, the language of, and even terminology deployed in, the Writings is at times directly rooted in that of philosophical discourse, even when certain figures are not directly mentioned by name.4 At other times, they are of a markedly different style and mode altogether and don’t directly concern philosophical topics. This ‘multimodality’ should be seen as dimensions of what makes up the diverse hues of the totality of Revelation as a mode of discourse and epistemic phenomenon.5 The flexibility and multimodality is also a signal of their ‘universal potency’. If we were to situate Revelation with respect to epistemology or philosophy as a whole, we would consider the former as generative of the latter. This accords with the depth of its truth claims.

Further, as the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh each make specific claims to direct communion with a higher Source, they consequently disclaim their Knowledge as being sourced from instruction in ‘human knowledge’ and sciences (refer to the above quote from the Iqán). Were they constantly conversant with philosophers and their work—indeed, as the philosophers themselves are—this would belie the origin of their Knowledge, which is definitionally and phenomenologically transcendent by comparison. Despite this, the Writings do remain deeply philosophical and relevant to many of the same subjects treated by philosophers, as the brief commentary on epistemology in this excerpt hopefully makes evident. They simply approach those same topics from a distinctive vantage point with Their own intent and positionality, to our benefit.

One final dimension worth mentioning is that Revelation not just the receipt of dialogue by the figure of the Manifestation from ‘On High’, but is also an unfolding dialogue between Them and humanity, in their particular setting. Hence, their language is to a degree conditioned in accordance with our needs. Just as they communicate to us in a particular historico-linguistic context, they also converse with respect to the branches of human knowledge, including the philosophical. So we shouldn’t be surprised to find they express themselves in rich philosophical language, or even with direct recourse to one or another philosopher when the occasion demands.

Indeed, the philosophical language of the Bahá’i Writings is redolent with terms and concepts that have their origin in the philosophies of such figures as Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and Ibn ‘Arabi, to name a few.6 This is in part due to the vigorous uptake of Greek philosophical thought within the Islamic world, but also can be taken as a broad confirmation of and deep correspondence of Bahá’i thought with certain fundamental philosophical concepts found in those intellectual traditions. In Islamic philosophy this foundational basis in Greek thought is often called falsafah, a direct loan word from the original Greek ‘philosophía’. However, what we know more broadly as ‘Islamic philosophy’ is more often known through the indigenous Arabic term ‘al-hikmah’ or ‘Wisdom’ (hence the naming of the Lawh-i-Hikmat), a broader concept which more organically ties ‘philosophical’ thought to the Word of God, divine knowledge, and sage-like spiritual perfection as seen in the well-known passage of the Qur’án:

“He grants wisdom [al-hikmah] to whoever He wills.” - Q2:269

In light of the prior points about the situation of ‘Revelation’ (1) being generative of philosophy, and (2) being a source of universal potency, we can expect that in addition to the ‘broad confirmation’ & endorsement of certain philosophical ideas and concepts we find in the Writings, we will also undoubtedly encounter many correctives and repudiations of others in turn. As we see in the arc of prior religions, such as Islam and the rise of Islamic philosophy in the centuries after Qur’an, we can expect that the philosophical life of the Baha’i Community will unfold over time, engaging deeply with various intellectual traditions. However, given the depth and expansiveness of the Bahá’i Revelation, this will be a process that interfaces with the entire span of human thought across cultures and time periods, not just one segment of it. Likewise, it will move beyond mere engagement and into the realm of holistic reoriention in light of the new social, theological, civilizational, and metaphysical horizons offered by the Writings.

More About Váhid VI, báb 1

This moderate-length chapter concerns a number of topics such as the arrangement or “Order” [nazm] of the Bayán, metacommentaries on the Báb’s typological divisions of His Writings, and epistemology. The overt topic relates is the Báb’s division of His Writings in ‘Five Modes’ of Revelation (Panj Sha’n), but the gate is threaded through with a number of interrelated topics that connect it with unfolding themes found throughout the rest of the Bayán. The gate opens with a title verse on the overt topic in Arabic, stating:

The first gate of the sixth unity: On that the Order of the Bayán [Nazm-i-Bayán] should not exceed 19 volumes in composition. In the first three, verses [áyát], the following four, prayers [munáját], the next six for interpretations [tafasir], and six [finally] in the manner of scientific expositions [sawwar al-'ilmiyya]. The gates [al-abwab] thereof shall each one [span between] nineteen [al-wahid] and two thousand and one [2001] [al-Mustagháth]. And all should have a small book containing at least 1,000 verses [of the Bayán]... "

*Persian Bayán, Vahid 6:1, provisional translation from Arabic by Aaron Ferguson

In addition to the passage highlighted in the excerpt above, the chapter offers further hermeneutic and epistemological contributions. One of these includes a passage provisionally translated by Nader Saiedi in ‘Gate of the Heart’. Here, the Báb instructs believers to apprise themselves of the entirety of His Revelation as one coherent whole, and consistently expresses that no part of it should become a ‘veil’ or hindrance to any other.

"Say! Gain ye certitude in that which God hath revealed in the Bayān. For understanding the Bayān is dependent on understanding the totality of its revelation from beginning to end. For that which was revealed first is based on the Qur'anic laws; only later were the true measures of the Dispensation of the Bayān manifested. Neither be ye shrouded from the later writings by the earlier writings, nor fix your eyes merely on the later writings and ignore the earlier ones . . . Yet, the later the revelation of the writings, the more manifest is the divine intention therein. Verily, all the Bayān is the word of the Point of Truth." (Persian Bayan 6:1, provisional translation by Saiedi, GoH, p. 240)

A few other translated excerpts from this chapter and discussion of its themes may be found in Fixing the Gaze: Reflections on “The Order of Bahá’u’lláh” in the Báb’s Persian Bayan by Ismael Velasco.

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