Nineteen
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The number nineteen appears in several roles in the Bábí and Bahá’í faiths. Among these are: the gathering of 19 Letters of the Living, the use of 19 per cent in monetary matters, the calendar, and therefore the Nineteen Day Feast.
In Bábí and Bahá’í history[edit]
The Báb gathered round him nineteen Letters of the Living. This was clearly all planned and pre-ordained, because the Báb told Mullá Ḥusayn on the first night of the new Dispensation that eighteen people would each independently recognise him. One of these eighteen was, of course, Ṭáhirih, who could not be physically present. With the Báb Himself, the gathering grew to become nineteen persons in all, and then the flow stopped. Clearly, the exact number of persons required to complete the circle of 19 were present in Shiraz at that time, and no more.
Nineteen people have been named as Apostles of Bahá’u’lláh. These were eminent early followers of Bahá’u’lláh, and were so designated by the Guardian.[1] These individuals played a vital role in the development of the Faith, consolidating its adherents and taking its teachings around the world.
From 1844 and the Declaration of the Báb, until 1863, when Bahá’u’lláh declared Himself as the Manifestation of God, was nineteen years. The Báb had said that the Promised One would appear in the Year nine (this would agree with Bahá'u'lláh's revelation in the Siyáh-Chál), but that His Cause would be manifested in the Year nineteen.
In the Badi calendar[edit]
Nineteen is central to the Badi calendar. There are 19 days in each month, and these 19 days each have a name, or ordinal identifier. There are 19 months in a year, and these months each have a name. 19 years make up a Váḥid ( واحد ), or "unity". The numerological value of the word "Váḥid" is also 19. A set of 19 Váḥids comprise a Kull-i-Shay’ ( كل شىء ), or "[cycle of] all things", of 361 years in length.
Interestingly, the phases of the moon recur at the same time of year every 19 years (every Váḥid) in a natural celestial phenomenon known as the Metonic cycle.[2] This means the Badi and lunar calendars align with each other after every 19 years.
In financial matters[edit]
The number 19 is used a number of times in Bahá’í law. In the calculation of Ḥuqúqu’lláh, ("The Right of God"), 19 per cent is payable upon the amount of increase. If a person gains possessions or wealth in excess of what is necessary, equal in value to at least that of nineteen mithqáls of gold (19 mithqáls are equal in weight to 80.75 grams, or 2.2246 ounces), it is a spiritual obligation to pay nineteen percent of the total amount, once only, as Ḥuqúqu’lláh.
In the calculation of the dowry to be paid to the woman, 19 mithqáls is the amount set by Bahá'u'lláh, and this is to be in gold for city-dwellers and silver for village-dwellers. Should someone wish to make it more, then 95 mithqáls is the limit. 95 is, of course, a multiple of 19.[3]
In the Qur'án[edit]
In 1972, researcher Rashid Khalifa put the text of the Qur'án through a computer program to count the frequency of word and letters in the original Qur'ánic Arabic and detect any patterns. His results, published in a book, suggest that the number 19, and its multiples, appear throughout the Qur'án far more times than would be statistically expected. For example, the total occurrence of the word "God" (Allah) in the Qur'án is 2,698, which is 19 x 142. The reader can ascertain the accuracy of this total by randomly checking the numbers of the word "God" at the bottom of any pages in the book. Additionally, if one adds the verse numbers wherever the word "God" occurs, the total comes to 118,123, also a multiple of 19 (118,123 = 19 x 6,217). In these counts, the earliest formats of the Qur'an were used, because of slight changes in spelling, etc., over the centuries.[2]
There are 114 chapters (surihs) to the Qur'án. 114 is 19 x 6. The dedication before each chapter, "In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful" has 19 letters. It is at the start of each chapter, except chapter nine. In one chapter, chapter 27, this phrase appears twice, balancing the number back up to 114 (a multiple of 19). The group of chapters from 9 to 27 numbers 19. Each of the four substantive words (name, God (see above), Compassionate, Merciful) of the phrase appears in the Qur'án, obviously, a certain number of times, but in each case that number is a multiple of nineteen. The chapter usually referred to as "Q" ("Qaf") begins with the "disconnected letter" Q. The inclusion of this otherwise inexplicable introductory letter brings the number of "q"s in the chapter up to a multiple of nineteen.[2]
Explanation[edit]
The Qur'án itself only offers one explanation for its use of the number nineteen: that it is a test for the true believers.
The one direct reference to the figure nineteen appears in chapter 74. Verse 30, one of the shortest in the Qur'án, states: "Over it are nineteen." (This is the entirety of the verse, and does not with any certainty relate to the preceding verse.) Verse 31 (by contrast a particularly long verse) carries the explanation referred to above:
"And we have set none but angels as guardians of the fire; and we have fixed their number only as a trial for unbelievers, - in order that the people of the Book may arrive at certainty, and the believers may increase in Faith - and that no doubts may be left for the people of the Book and the believers, and that those in whose hearts is a disease and the unbelievers may say, "What symbol doth Alláh intend by this?" Thus doth Alláh leave to stray whom He pleaseth, and guide whom He pleaseth: and none can know the forces of the Lord..."[4]
Robert Cameron argues that the number 19 is part of a covenant between Muḥammad and His believers: that they should recognise the Báb as the next Messenger of God.[2]
Notes[edit]
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1930). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. New York City, NY. Volume 3 (1928-1930), Pg(s) 80-81. View as PDF.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Disconnected Letters of the Qur'an and the Significance of the Number Nineteen, by Robert T. Cameron, 1997
- ↑ Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, paragraph 66.
- ↑ Qur'an, chapter 74, verse 31 (Abdu'lláh Yusuf Alí translation)