Noah came and with lamentation, helplessness and supplication called the servants to the Self-Sufficient, the Exalted.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1306 ? [1888-1889], to Aqa Baqir -- BH04696)
Noah: steadfastness, mercy, and a new beginning
Noah
Editorial introduction
For nine hundred and fifty years, the tradition says, Noah called his people every day and was beaten for it with sticks and stones, and did not flag. The Bahá’í writings return to him as the figure of a voice that keeps calling when an answer seems impossible: promised victories that failed to arrive and shook his few followers, a son who was not of his family because his conduct was unrighteous, a flood that in one retelling is the drowning of the heedless in their own desires. In Bahá’u’lláh’s long account the angels twice stay Noah’s hand when he would call down affliction, bidding him have mercy on the weak, so that mercy precedes judgment for ages before the Ark of the Spirit is built. Genesis closes the story with a covenant that takes in every living creature under the sign of the rainbow [1], widening what a community understands itself to protect. The carpenter who built an ark of salvation becomes a pattern for any craftsman’s service. The way leads on into the Torah and the Jewish people, and into firmness in the Covenant.
Selected passages
His Holiness Noah (peace be upon him) called the people for nine hundred and fifty years each day, and they would abuse him so severely with sticks, clubs, fists, slaps, stones and whips that they were certain he would die. Despite this he did not flag or fall short.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Siyyid Asadullah Qumi -- AB00881)
(Bahá’u’lláh, Kitab-i-Iqan (The Book of Certitude), 1278 ca. [1861-1862], to Haji Mirza Siyyid Muhammad, great uncle of the Bab (Khal-i-Akbar) -- BH00002)
This is why it is said to Noah: "He is not of thy family, for his conduct is unrighteous." That is, O Noah, Canaan is not of your children and lineage, he is outside it, for this relationship is metaphorical not real.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1909-Jun-09, to Baqiruf Sadat Khams, Mir Nasir et al -- AB02338)
And after him He sent Noah with guidance, who said: "O people! Fear ye God and follow His Messengers if ye have believed in God. Then remember God and be ye among those who remember God." When they turned away from him, God drowned them in the depths of fire in the waves of heedlessness in the valley of sulfur, and therein they perished.
(Bahá’u’lláh, to Habib -- BH02051)
We beseech God's grace that He may grant such a life to His loved ones that the ages of Noah and Hud, according to common conception, would appear as but a moment compared to their centuries and ages.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1903 ca., to Aqa Siyyid Mahmud son of Aqa Mirza Baba Dahaji -- AB03352)
O thou who followest Noah the Carpenter! O carpenter! Thou art of the same craft and profession as His Holiness Noah. He built the ark of salvation and played the game of service at the Sacred Threshold. He protected a company of souls from the Most Great Flood and preserved them from destruction. Thou too must engage in service to the Ark of the Covenant, that thou mayest become the cause of salvation to all regions and attain, beneath the shelter of the effulgent light, to the greatest gifts of the Lord of the Day of Meeting.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Haji Muhammad Najjar -- AB09698)
Then We sent down to him the angels of heaven that he might be among those who show mercy, and they descended upon him and said: "O Noah, deal not with them as they have dealt with thee. Have mercy upon them and take them not to task for their rebellion, for they are weak upon the earth and poor in the kingdom, possessing neither death nor life nor resurrection for themselves.
… When he heard the call of God, his soul was stirred with longing and he raised his hands, saying: "O my Lord! Leave not these people upon the earth." We answered his prayer and commanded him to build the Ark. When the Ark of the Spirit was completed through the Most Great Word, We said: "O Noah! Embark therein those of thy kindred for whom the decree hath already gone forth, those who excel in the religion of God." Then did We cause the clouds of wrath to rain down showers of heedlessness, and We drowned all who were on earth save those who were embarked upon the Ark of the Spirit.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Suriy-i-Nush, to Aqa Siyyid Jafar Yazdi et al -- BH00031)
Then when ages and epochs passed, We sent forth Noah from Our presence to guide people unto God and give them glad tidings of these days. We commanded him to take from the people of earth a covenant concerning this Manifestation. … At every moment he was afflicted with hardship and adversity in God's path - the King, the Powerful, the Most High, the All-Knowing - until We delivered him and those with him, and drowned the evil-doing people who were among the lost.
(Bahá’u’lláh, to Muhammad Rida -- BH00705)
Continue exploring
For thought and discussion
Questions to carry forward
- What kind of steadfastness do these accounts attribute to Noah, and how does it differ from certainty about an immediate result?
- How does the discussion of Noah’s son change the meaning of belonging to a spiritual family?
- What tensions between mercy and judgment remain in these retellings, and what do they ask of a reader?
- How do the spiritual ark and Genesis’s covenant with living creatures each broaden the meaning of deliverance?