Social and Ethical Teachings
In His Writings the Bab tells His followers that they must be distinguished by brotherly love and courtesy. Useful arts and crafts must be cultivated. Elementary education should be general. In the new and wondrous Dispensation now commencing, women are to have fuller freedom. The poor are to be provided for out of the common treasury, but begging is strictly forbidden, as is the use of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes (20:1)

The guiding motive of the true Babi must be pure love, without hope of reward or fear of punishment. Thus He says in the Bayan: - (20:3)

So worship God that if the recompense of thy worship of Him were to be the Fire, no alteration in thy worship of Him would be produced. If you worship from fear, that is unworthy of the threshold of the holiness of God... So also, if your gaze is on Paradise, and if you worship in hope of that; for then you have made God's creation a Partner with Him. - Babis of Persia, II, by Prof. E. G. Browne, J.R.A.S., vol. xxi (20:4)

Passion and Triumph
This last quotation reveals the spirit which animated the Bab's whole life. To know and love God, to mirror forth His attributes and to prepare the way for His coming Manifestation - these were the sole aim and object of His being. For Him life had no terrors and death no sting, for love had cast out fear, and martyrdom itself was but the rapture of casting His all at the feet of His Beloved (20:5)

Strange! that this pure and beautiful Soul, this inspired Teacher of Divine Truth, this devoted Lover of God and of His fellowmen should be so hated, and done to death by the professedly religious of His day! Surely nothing but unthinking or willful prejudice could blind men to the fact that here was indeed a Prophet, a Holy Messenger of God. Worldly greatness and glory He had none, but how can spiritual Power and Dominion be proved except by the ability to dispense with all earthly assistance, and to triumph over all earthly opposition, even the most potent and virulent? How can Divine Love be demonstrated to an unbelieving world save by its capacity to endue to the uttermost the blows of calamity and the darts of affliction, the hatred of enemies and the treachery of seeming friends, to rise serene above all these and, undismayed and unembittered, still to forgive and bless? (20:7)

The Bab has endured and the Bab has triumphed. Thousands have testified to the sincerity of their love for Him by sacrificing their lives and their all in His service. Kings might well envy His power over men's hearts and lives. Moreover, "He Whom the Lord shall make manifest" has appeared, has confirmed the claims and accepted the devotion of His forerunner, and made Him partaker of His Glory (20:8)

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