He Whom God Shall Make Manifest
The Bab has been compared to John the Baptist, but the station of the Bab is not merely that of the herald or forerunner. In Himself the Bab was a Manifestation of God, the Founder of an independent religion, even though that religion was limited in time to a brief period of years. The Baha'is believe that the Bab and Baha'u'llah were Co-Founders of their Faith, the following words of Baha'u'llah testifying to this truth: "That so brief a span should have separated this most mighty and wondrous Revelation from Mine own previous Manifestation, is a secret that no man can unravel and a mystery such as no mind can fathom. Its duration had been foreordained, and no man shall ever discover its reason unless and until he be informed of the contents of My Hidden Book." In His references to Baha'u'llah, however, the Bab revealed an utter selflessness, declaring that, in the day of "Him whom God shall manifest": "If one should hear a single verse from Him and recite it, it is better that he should recite the Beyan [i.e. the Revelation of the Bab] a thousand times." - A Traveller's Narrative (Episode of the Bab), p. 349. (19:1)

He counted Himself happy in enduring any affliction, if by so doing He could smooth the path, be ever so little, for "Him Whom God shall make manifest," Who was, He declared, the sole source of His inspiration as well as the sole object of His love. (19:3)

Resurrection, Paradise, and Hell
An important part of the Bab's teaching is His explanation of the terms Resurrection, Day of Judgment, Paradise and Hell. By the Resurrection is meant, He said, the appearance of a new Manifestation of the Sun of Truth. The raising of the dead means the spiritual awakening of those who are asleep in the graves of ignorance, heedlessness and lust. The Day of Judgment is the Day of the new Manifestation, by acceptance or rejection of Whose Revelation the sheep are separated from the goats, for the sheep know the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow Him. Paradise is the joy of knowing and loving God, as revealed through His Manifestation, thereby attaining to the utmost perfection of which one is capable, and, after death, obtaining entrance to the Kingdom of God and the life everlasting. Hell is simply deprivation of that knowledge of God with consequent failure to attain divine perfection, and loss of the Eternal Favor. He definitely declared that these terms have no real meaning apart from this; and that the prevalent ideas regarding the resurrection of the material body, a material heaven and hell, and the like, are mere figments of the imagination. He taught that man has a life after death, and that in the afterlife progress towards perfection is limitless. (19:4)

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