We are going to talk about the childhood stories of the Manifestations of God.  Many lessons can be learned from theses stories.  From the life of Jesus Christ we have one episode recorded in the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 2.  Jesus was 12 years old.  He was taken by His mother Mary and Joseph, along with the other villagers to Jerusalem to celebrate the great feast of Passover, this being one of the greatest festivals of Judaism.  This was a yearly custom that the Jews would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast.  On their return from Jerusalem, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents’ knowledge.  So his parents, supposing that Jesus was in the company, travelled a day’s journey before they realised that Jesus was not in their midst.  They looked for him in the company of the travellers and their acquaintances and friends.  But he was nowhere to be found.  They understandably became worried and anxious and set out back to Jerusalem to look for Him.  For three days they searched for Him, until eventually, they found Him sitting in the great Temple in Jerusalem, conversing with the scholars, the religious leaders of the time.  He was both hearing them and asking them questions and challenging their ideas.  All that heard Him, were astonished at His understanding and answers.  When His parents saw Him, they were amazed and His mother said: “Son, why have you dealt with us in this way?  Look, your father and I have been looking for you, terribly worried.” And Jesus said to them: “Why have you been looking for me?  Did you not know that I must do My Father’s business?”  And they did not understand what He was trying to tell them.  He then went back to Nazareth, His own village, and was under the care of His parents, but Mary kept these things in her heart.  She must have told this story to Luke some years later.  Clearly Jesus had not entered any schools – He was apparently illiterate.  Yet He showed evidences of an innate knowledge that is exclusive to the Manifestations of God.

Nearly 2 millennia later, another extraordinary child is born in Shiraz, Persia.  Here we have several stories of the childhood of the Báb.  Some of these stories have been told by His great maternal uncle, who had become the guardian of the little Boy after His father passed away while He was only a few years old.  Others are told by eyewitnesses and even His teacher.  When the Báb was 5 years old, His uncle decided to give the Báb some preliminary education.  He was therefore sent to the class of the Sheikh Abid, who was renowned for his knowledge and wisdom.  On the first day at school, the Báb was sat between two older pupils.  The pupils were supposed to repeat sentences after the teacher as he read from a book.  All the children repeated after the teacher, except the little Báb.  When the teacher asked Him why He did not repeat after him, the Báb remained silent.  But one of the older pupils sitting beside Him was inspired to recite the following verse of Hafiz, the great mystic poet of Persia:

From the pinnacles of Heaven they call out unto thee,

I know not what hath thee here entrapped

In other words, you belong to the heavenly realm,  I don’t know why you have been entrapped in this earthly plane. 

The Báb often went late to school.  When asked why, He would normally not reply.  But one day, Sheikh Abid sent another pupil to the house of the Báb to investigate what He was doing that He was late.  When the pupil arrived at the house, he saw the Báb standing in the corner of the room wrapt in devotion and prayer.  When He was brought to school, the teacher said to Him; “You are under the age of obligation and are not obliged to say prayers.”  The Báb replied in a quiet voice: “I want to be like My Grandfather.”  Here he is referring to Muhammad from whose lineage the Báb had descended.  On another occasion, when asked where He had been, He had replied: “I was in the house of My Grandfather,” once again referring to the Prophet Muhammad. 

On another occasion the children were told to learn one of the verses of the Quran by heart.  The Báb said to the teacher: “Do you not think it would be wise to know the meaning of the verse before we actually learn it?”  His teacher, pretending that he didn’t know the meaning of the verse asked the Báb to explain the meaning.  The Báb said:  “Let us start with the opening statement:  ‘In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful’.”  He then set out to explain the meaning of every word of this verse in the most amazing language, and in a style and simplicity which Sheikh Abid had never heard before. 

On another occasion, at a gathering of the older pupils with their teacher, the pupils posed a question to their teacher which he could not answer.  He therefore deferred the answer to another day when he would have had the chance to consult the books.  The little Báb raised His hand and asked for permission to answer the difficult question.  The teacher gave his permission.  Then the Báb set out to explain the answer in the most wonderful way, eloquently and simply, so that every one was fully satisfied.  The astounded Sheikh Abid asked the Báb: “Where have you acquired all this knowledge from?  Clearly in your tender age, you have not learned this from books.”  The Báb’s answer was from one of the verses of Hafiz’s poetry:

Should the grace of the Holy Spirit once again deign to assist,

Others will also do what Christ could perform

Finally Sheikh Abid took the hand of the little Báb and took Him to His uncle’s house and said to him: “This boy, verily, stands in need of no teachers such as I.  I have nothing that I can teach Him; on the contrary, He has to teach me.”  His uncle turned to the little Boy and said: “Didn’t I tell you to be like the other boys and not to behave in such a way?”  This same teacher, many years later, became a fervent believer in the Báb when He declared His mission.  He remarked that from the age of childhood the Báb evinced such knowledge and behaved in such as only the Prophets and Holy Souls would do.

His uncle, similarly had many storied to tell.  On one occasion, the family went on pilgrimage to a shrine of one of the Holy Imams.  On the way they rested overnight in the wilderness.  In the middle of the night, the uncle woke up, to find that the little boy was missing.  He and others then arose and went looking for the little boy.  They eventually found Him standing in the bottom of a valley, beautifully chanting in a melodious voice prayers and devotions. 

And as for the great Uncle of the Báb – he became an ardent believer of his blessed Nephew and later laid down his life in the path of the Cause of his Nephew as one of the illustrious Seven Martyrs of Tehran. 

There are some stories from the childhood of Bahá'u'lláh as well.  One day Bahá'u'lláh had a dream as a child.  He dreamt that He was swimming in the sea, and as he was swimming, large fish came from every direction and attacked His head and each of them got hold of a strand of His hair, but they did not harm His person, nor did they prevent Him from swimming further.  He then dreamt that the birds of the air attacked Him, but again they could not harm Him.  When He woke up, He recounted this dream to His father, who being a minister in the court of the Shah, brought a soothsayer, who could interpret the meaning of the dream.  The soothsayer said that this child is not an ordinary child.  He will grow to become a great person.  He will be possessed of tremendous power in the world.  All the forces of the universe will try to stop Him from achieving His purpose and will attack Him from all sides, yet they will be unable to harm Him or prevent Him from reaching His goal and fulfilling His mission. 

Then we have a letter Bahá'u'lláh had sent to His aunt, when He was only a few years old.  It is a masterpiece of Persian literature, and contains profound truths about the nature of the Manifestation of God.  Here is an unauthorised translation of the letter:

“He is the Well-Beloved.  God willing, you are abiding restfully beneath the canopy of Divine mercy and the Tabernacle of His bounty.  Although to outward seeming, I am little and cannot write, yet because this illiterate One is connected to the Divine Lote Tree, He can read without knowledge and can write without schooling.  This fact is clear and evident in the spiritual realm to those endued with insight.  Others have not been and are not aware of this mystery.”

What do we conclude from these stories?

One of the conclusions to draw is that the Manifestations of God were fully aware and conscious of Their stations even from early childhood. 'Abdu'l-Bahá explains:

“Verily, from the beginning that Holy Reality [Manifestation] is conscious of the secret of existence and from the age of childhood, signs of greatness appear and are visible in Him.  Therefore, how can it be, that with all these bounties and perfections, He should have no consciousness?” (Some Answered Questions, chapter 39)

Bahá'u'lláh also explains:

“Consider the hour at which the supreme Manifestation of God revealeth Himself unto men.  Ere that hour cometh, the Ancient Being, Who is still unknown of men and hath not as yet given utterance to the Word of God, is Himself the All-Knower in a world devoid of any man that hath known Him.” (Gleanings LXXVIII)

Now, one may ask about the start of every Revelation when an apparently normal person is suddenly “chosen” to become the Prophet of God and the mediator between God abd mankind.  For example, in Judaism, Moses heard the voice of God out of the Burning Bush and was greatly perturbed; in Christianity, at the time that Jesus was being baptised by John the Baptist, a voice out of heaven was heard proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God and a dove came and sat on His head; in Islam, the angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad in the cave and He was very perturbed; in Buddhism, the Buddha achieved enlightenment as He sat meditating under a tree and then started teaching others about His experience; Bahá'u'lláh experienced the Holy Spirit appearing to Him in the depth of the Siah Chal in the form of a maiden.  And all of the Manifestations of God have spoken with symbolic language about the start of Their missions.  For example, Bahá'u'lláh wrote in His Tablet to the Shah of Iran: “O King! I was but a man like unto others, asleep upon my couch, when lo, the breezes of the Merciful wafted over me and taught me the knowledge of all that hath been.  This thing is not from me, but from One, Who is Almighty.” (Gleanings XLI)

Now Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá explain that this kind of language is symbolic and refers not to the soul but to the body of the Manifestation of God.  They also emphasise that They speak such language in consonance with the understanding and knowledge of the people of their time, so that they may not become overwhelmed with the power of the Prophets.   (See quotes from Some Answered Questions and Gleanings on next page)

The Báb, in an untranslated passage from the Persian Bayan clarifies this truth further:

“Although He (the Manifestation of God) may be unknown among His own kindred and before the appearance of physical maturity, even if crying in His cradle for milk, still at that very moment, all created things have their being through His assistance and power.”

In conclusion, the reality of the Manifestations of God is pre-existent and They have always been and are always perfectly consciousness of Their own stations and have knowledge of all the secrets of the universe.