The 1961 Fragmentary Letters of Sama’u’llah

Fragment from Visions of the Awakening, January 31, 1961

The following is a fragment extracted and translated from a letter written by the Baha’i Hands of the Cause of God in Israel, circa 1964. It is uncertain if certain comments, such as ‘what is meant by,’ and ‘the signature of the letter was as follows:’ are insertions or part of Jamshid’s own words. If part of his own words, it is possible that he received a spiritual vision of a letter dictating a prophecy of visitation to several countries by a specific individual, revealed at the end of the letter by the signature to be Jamshid. If this is instead an insertion, it is likely the letter about the vision which was sent out bore such a signature from Jamshid himself, declarative of such titles after being awakened to his status as the Avatar.

"One day, one morning, I was resting in a comfortable bed. In the meantime it reached my ears: 'A person will appear who will travel to various countries. What is meant by the various countries is Indonesia, and then he will go to Belait — what is meant is Brunei.' The signature of the letter was as follows: 'King of the World and Light of the World, Jamshid.'"

Fragment on the Perpetuation of Divine Grace, Early 1961

The following fragment was mentioned only in passing, and constitutes only one part of a full sentence, the rest of which may only be inferred from surrounding passages.

After the October, 1960 message was given stating that the pathway to crowning another guardian was found to be impossible, and Charles Mason Remy made his counter-claim prior to this, Jamshid Ma’ani, on January 31, 1961, awakened to his spiritual state as the Avatar, and, for “the necessity of the continuity and perpetuation of divine grace,”‍ ‍either alluded to or otherwise newly declared to be the Manifestation of God (Avatar) succeeding Baha’u’llah and the Bab.

This was potentially followed by an exegesis of Genesis 6 in which mankind, symbolic of the religious community of an Avatar, multiplied and grew, whereby the Sons of God, who are the Avatars themselves, are the husbands to the devout believers, who are represented as the fair and beautiful daughters of mankind. Yet, Genesis warns, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years,” as the Nephilim which follow from the union of the devout believer and the Avatar is symbolic of religious institution, which all too frequently becomes the subject of corruption. Thus, the awakening of Sama’u’llah can be said to be prophetically fulfill this measure, with Sama’u’llah’s own declaration occurring 120 years after the Bab, occurring 120 lunar (116 solar) years after the Declaration of the Bab, a holiday celebrated by its respective lunar date. It is also possible, however, that this exegesis was written separately in 1964, 120 solar years after the Bab, in which Sama’u’llah is known to have made an open declaration in Israel.