In the case of Baha’u’llah, I concur and apologise for my error. You’re exactly right, Baha’u’llah Himself never went to school. Good catch!
May I say, though, that His education was never more than elementary, while His writings are of a profoundly scholarly nature, as noted by the likes of Cambridge Professor and orientalist Edward Granville Browne. How can this be accounted for unless one were to admit that His knowledge was innate?
As for the Bab, He only spent that long in school because His uncle insisted on it, even though His teacher had brought Him home to the uncle and told him that the Bab was in no need of teachers. The point is His education was elementary and this fact alone doesn’t explain His evident erudition. Here’s the story:
"Shaykh Abid, known by his pupils as Shaykhuna, was a man of piety and learning. He had been a disciple of both Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim. “One day,” he related, “I asked the Báb to recite the opening words of the Qur’án: ‘Bismi’llahi’r-Rahmani’r-Rahim.’[1] He hesitated, pleading that unless He were told what these words signified, He would in no wise attempt to pronounce them. I pretended not to know their meaning. ‘I know what these words signify,’ observed my pupil; ‘by your leave, I will explain them.’ He spoke with such knowledge and fluency that I was struck with amazement. He expounded the meaning of ‘Allah,’ of ‘Rahman,’ and ‘Rahim,’ in terms such as I had neither read nor heard. The sweetness of His utterance still lingers in my memory. I felt impelled to take Him back to His uncle and to deliver into his hands the Trust he had committed to my care. I determined to tell him how unworthy I felt to teach so remarkable a child. I found His uncle alone in his office. ‘I have brought Him back to you,’ I said, ‘and commit Him to your vigilant protection. He is not to be treated as a mere child, for in Him I can already discern evidences of that mysterious power which the Revelation of the Sáhibu’z-Zamán [2] alone can reveal. It is incumbent upon you to surround Him with your most loving care. Keep Him in your house, for He, verily, stands in no need of teachers such as I.’ Haji Mirza Siyyid Ali sternly rebuked the Báb. ‘Have You forgotten my instructions?’ he said. ‘Have I not already admonished You to follow the example of Your fellow-pupils, to observe silence, and to listen attentively to every word spoken by Your teacher?’ Having obtained His promise to abide faithfully by his instructions, he bade the Báb return to His school. The soul of that child could not, however, be restrained by the stern admonitions of His uncle. No discipline could repress the flow of His intuitive knowledge. Day after day He continued to manifest such remarkable evidences of superhuman wisdom as I am powerless to recount.” At last His uncle was induced to take Him away from the school of Shaykh Abid, and to associate Him with himself in his own profession.[3] There, too, He revealed signs of a power and greatness that few could approach and none could rival.
[1 In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.]
[2 “The Lord of the Age,” one of the titles of the promised Qá’im.]
[3 According to Haji Mu’inu’s-Saltanih’s narrative (p. 37), the Báb assumed, at the age of twenty, the independent direction of His business affairs. “Orphaned at an early age, he was placed under the tutelage of his maternal uncle, Aqa Siyyid Ali, under whose direction he entered the same trade in which his father had been engaged (that is to say, the mercantile business).”
A. L. M. Nicolas’ “Siyyid Ali-Muhammad dit le Báb,” p. 189.)]
- Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 75
