our step daughters who are in your guardianship born of your wives to whom you have gone in, but if you have not gone into them, there is no blame on you, and the wives of your sons who are of your loins; and that you should have two sisters together, except what has already passed. Surely Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful." (4: 23) Upon this comprehensive statement, Bahaullah has made the followin g improvement in his new law; ~ ~jj ~I ~ til ~4 i ~IJjl ~~ ~ ..Ii J""'
"Forbidden fathers; tioning boys." to you are the wives of your and we feel ashamed in menour commandment regarding
Bahaullah probably wanted to revive the custom of marrying one's own daughter or sister which existed among some tri bes of Persia in ancient times. He has however, reduced the number of wives a man can have at a time to two:
i.e., "Marry not more them two wives." And himself he had three: (1) Umm al-Ka'inaat ~L:j~jl 1"1 daughter of the N awab of Tehran (originally called Nawaba Sahiba) the mother of Abbas Effendi. (2) Mohd Alya and (3) Gauhar Khanum, married in Baghdad. They gave birth to many children, of whom only seven survived, foul' sons and three daughters. Bahauliah, however has permitted that if a man should have a young virgin for his service, there is no sin on him:
But, when the son and successor of Bahaullah, Abdul Baha Effendi, went to the Western countries to preach the Bahai creed, be taught,
in order to find their favour, that the Law of
Bahaullah forbids polygamy:
(3) The Law of Islam has taken a very serious view of the crime of adultery which "ruins families, destroys household peace, and deprives innocent children of their loving mothers." It has, therefore, laid down (24 : 2) : The adulteress and the adulterer, flog each of them with a hundred stripes, and let not pity for them detain you from obedience to Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day, and let a party of believers witness the chastisement. Bahaullah "improved" upon this law, and commanded that the adulterer should remit, as a fine, only nine miskals of gold (which comes to about four mashas in Pakistani weight) into his Bait al-Adal (Treasury), and go on his way. In English weight a mtskal is equal to 4.6 grams only. This ridiculous punishment may cause some embarrassment to the poorer people, but it cannot certainly act as a deterrant for the rich and the wealthy who will, on the other hand, be encouraged to violate the honour of a person at the paltry cost of nine miskals of
46 gold. It will, however, be a good source of income to the Bahai Bait al-Adal, if it should ever come into existence; for, so important an institution as it is, the Bait al-Adal which was to replace the Islamic Bait al-Mal, has not, for a hundred years, come into being. Bahaullah's aim, it appears, was not the regeneration and reform of a fallen humanity nor their moral and spiritual uplift. He wanted, by these means, to gain a cheap popularity for his movement among the Western nations, addicted to the two great vices of wine and woman. (4) The food which a man uses it has now been accepted by medical science also, produces an effect not only on his constitution but also on the building up of his character. It was for this reason that the Holy Quran had directed (2: 172) :
who believe, eat of the good things that We have provided you with and give thanks to Allah, if Him it is that you serve. He has only forbidden you that which dies of itself, and blood and flesh of swine, and that over which any other name than that of Allah has been invoked. Intoxicants and games and sacrificing to stones set up and the divining arrows
are only an uncleanliness, the devil's work; shun it, therefore, that you may be successful. (5: 90). Bahaullah set aside and smashed all these limits, and taught:
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"From the very first day of Ridzwan when We manifested ourselves with excellent names and elegant attributes unto ourcreatures, all things have been immersed and washed