Mulla Husayn – The Báb revealed eulogies and prayers concerning him equivalent to thrice the volume of the Qur’án

Mullá Husayn, surnamed the Bábu’l-Báb, the first to recognise and embrace the new Revelation. At the age of eighteen, he, too, departed from his native town of Bushrúyih in Khurásán for Karbilá, and for a period of nine years remained closely associated with Siyyid Kázim. Four years prior to the Declaration of the Báb, acting according to the instructions of Siyyid Kázim, he met in Isfáhán the learned mujtahid Siyyid Báqir-i-Rashtí and in Mashhad Mírzá Askarí, to both of whom he delivered with dignity and eloquence the messages with which he had been entrusted by his leader. The circumstances attending his martyrdom evoked the Báb’s inexpressible sorrow, a sorrow that found vent in eulogies and prayers of such great number as would be equivalent to thrice the volume of the Qur’án. In one of His visiting Tablets, the Báb asserts that the very dust of the ground where the remains of Mullá Husayn lie buried is endowed with such potency as to bring joy to the disconsolate and healing to the sick. In the Kitáb-i-Íqán, Bahá’u’lláh extols with still greater force the virtues of Mullá Husayn. “But for him,” He writes, “God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor have ascended the throne of eternal glory!”  

- Nabil  (‘The Dawn-Breakers’, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)  

Quddús recognized the Báb when he was twenty-two years old

First and foremost among them [“those who quaffed the cup of martyrdom while defending the fort of Tabarsí”] stands Quddús, upon whom the Báb bestowed the name of Ismu’lláhu’l-Akhar.  He, the Last Letter of the Living and the Báb’s chosen companion on His pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, was, together with Mullá Ṣádiq and Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar-i-Ardistání, the first to suffer persecution on Persian soil for the sake of the Cause of God. He was only eighteen years of age when he left his native town of Barfurúsh for Karbilá. For about four years he sat at the feet of Siyyid Kázim, and at the age of twenty-two met and recognised his Beloved in Shíráz. Five years later, on the twenty-third day of Jamádiyu’th-Thání in the year 1265 A.H., [May 16, 1849 A.D.] he was destined to fall, in the Sabzih-Maydán of Barfurúsh, a victim of the most refined and wanton barbarity at the hands of the enemy. The Báb and, at a later time, Bahá’u’lláh have mourned in unnumbered Tablets and prayers his loss, and have lavished on him their eulogies. Such was the honour accorded to him by Bahá’u’lláh that in His commentary on the verse of Kullu’t-Tá’am, [Qur’án, 3:93] which He revealed while in Baghdád, He conferred upon him the unrivalled station of the Nuqṭiy-i-Ukhrá, [Literally “The Last Point] a station second to none except that of the Báb Himself. 

- Nabil  (‘The Dawn-Breakers’, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)  

While in Isfahan, the Báb revealed a Commentary on a Surih of Qur’an – “verses that equalled in number a third of the Qur'án”

The Báb revealed this commentary in October or November of 1846 while He was in Isfahan -- during the time that He was a guest at the residence of the ‘Imam Jum'ih of that city. It was at the request of His host that the “Báb, one night, after supper, revealed His well-known commentary on the surih of Va'l-'Asr. Writing with astonishing rapidity, He, in a few hours, had devoted to the exposition of the significance of only the first letter of that surih -- a letter which Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i had stressed, and which Bahá'u'lláh refers to in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas -- verses that equalled in number a third of the Qur'án, a feat that called forth such an outburst of reverent astonishment from those who witnessed it that they arose and kissed the hem of His robe.” Interpreting various parts of the short Qur'ánic surih, the Báb discusses many fundamental issues in religion including how to recognize spiritual truth, the nature of the human being, the meaning of faith, the nature of good deeds, and the preconditions of spiritual journey.

(Adapted from ‘God Passes By’, by Shoghi Effendi; and ‘Gate of the Heart’, by Nader Saiedi)

January 1982: Summary of Actions taken by the Baha'i International Community and National and Local Baha'i Institutions in connection with the persecution of the Baha'is of Iran

The Baha'i International Community

• Issued official statements to the press;
• kept the Secretary-general and appropriate offices of the United Nations apprised of developments as they occurred;
• cabled the Ayatollah Khomeini, the President and Prime Minister of Iran, and the President of the Iranian Supreme Court, urging their intervention and refuting accusations made against the Faith;
• prepared materials and made statements in connection with the adoption of resolutions by the United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, the European Parliament, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe;
• made statements at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on the Question of Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances;
• contacted the Iranian representative to the United Nations in New York in order to repudiate falsehoods made about the Faith and provide him with the true facts; and
• prepared the "White Paper" and "Update" and arranged for their translation in three languages, the "Chronological Summary of Individual Acts of Persecution in Iran," and other documents for submission to high- ranking officials, government and United Nations offices, and world-wide distribution to National Spiritual Assemblies.

1950: Approximate number of localities where Bahá'ís reside in leading Bahá'í communities throughout the world

• Ten European Goal Countries: --> Over thirty localities.
• Germany and Austria: --> Over forty localities.
• British Isles: --> Over fifty localities.
• Australia and New Zealand: --> Over sixty localities.
• Dominion of Canada: --> Over eighty localities.
• India, Pakistan and Burma: --> Over eighty localities.
• Latin America: --> Over one hundred localities.
• Persia: --> Over seven hundred localities.
• United States of America: --> Over eleven hundred localities. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Bahá'í Faith, The: 1844-1950: Information Statistical and Comparative’, compiled by Shoghi Effendi)

World War II – The Guardian’s reference to

A tempest, unprecedented in its violence, unpredictable in its course, catastrophic in its immediate effects, unimaginably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is at present sweeping the face of the earth. Its driving power is remorselessly gaining in range and momentum. Its cleansing force, however much undetected, is increasing with every passing day. Humanity, gripped in the clutches of its devastating power, is smitten by the evidences of its resistless fury. It can neither perceive its origin, nor probe its significance, nor discern its outcome. Bewildered, agonized and helpless, it watches this great and mighty wind of God invading the remotest and fairest regions of the earth, rocking its foundations, deranging its equilibrium, sundering its nations, disrupting the homes of its peoples, wasting its cities, driving into exile its kings, pulling down its bulwarks, uprooting its institutions, dimming its light, and harrowing up the souls of its inhabitants. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 28 March 1941, published as ‘The Promised Day is Come’)

circa 1902: Some believers in Haifa

Shoghi Effendi is the second child from the right

Spring of 1845: The Báb assured Quddus of his meeting Baha’u’llah – “the Beloved of their hearts”, and foretold their own tragic ends

The Báb’s visit to Medina marked the conclusion of His pilgrimage. Regaining Jaddih, He returned to Búshihr, where one of His first acts was to bid His last farewell to His fellow-traveler and disciple, [Quddus] and to assure him that he would meet the Beloved of their hearts. He, moreover, announced to him that he would be crowned with a martyr’s death, and that He Himself would subsequently suffer a similar fate at the hands of their common foe. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Queen Marie of Rumania’s planned pilgrimage to Baha’i World Center

…the widely publicized yet sadly frustrated visit of a noble Queen, who, at the very threshold of the city of her heart’s desire, was compelled, according to her own written testimony, to divert her steps, and forego the privilege of so priceless a benefit. 

-Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Revolutionary changes in the world during the ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Baha – summarized by Shoghi Effendi

…the revolutionary changes in the great world which that ministry [‘Abdu’l-Baha’s] has witnessed… —most of them flowing directly from the warnings which were uttered by the Báb, in the first chapter of His Qayyúmu’l-Asmá, on the very night of the Declaration of His Mission in Shíráz, and which were later reinforced by the pregnant passages addressed by Bahá’u’lláh to the kings of the earth and the world’s religious leaders, in both the Súriy-i-Mulúk and the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.

• The conversion of the Portuguese monarchy and the Chinese empire into republics;
• the collapse of the Russian, the German and Austrian empires, and the ignominious fate which befell their rulers;
• the assassination of Násiri’d-Dín Sháh, the fall of Sultán ‘Abdu’l-Hamíd—
• these may be said to have marked further stages in the operation of that catastrophic process the inception of which was signalized in the lifetime of Bahá’u’lláh
• by the murder of Sulṭán ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz,
• by the dramatic downfall of Napoleon III, and the extinction of the Third Empire, and
• by the self-imposed imprisonment and virtual termination of the temporal sovereignty of the Pope himself.
•  Later, after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing, the same process was to be accelerated
•  by the demise of the Qájár dynasty in Persia,
•  by the overthrow of the Spanish monarchy,
•  by the collapse of both the Sultanate and the Caliphate in Turkey,
•  by a swift decline in the fortunes of Shí’ah Islám and of the Christian Missions in the East, and
•  by the cruel fate that is now overtaking so many of the crowned heads of Europe. 

- Shoghi Effendi  ('God Passes By')