( 'Baha'u'llah, The King of Glory', by Balyuzi)
August 29, 2018
August 28, 2018
Total number of National Spiritual Assemblies as of Ridvan 1983 --> 135
Among the outstanding features of the teaching and
consolidation work are the continuing effective results of the participation of
more than sixteen thousand believers from all parts of the world in the five
International Conferences; intensive teaching campaigns carried out with the
active support of all levels of the community and drawing upon the enthusiasm
and capacity of Baha'i youth; the establishment of a second radio station in
South America; the re-formation of the National Spiritual Assemblies of Uganda
and Nepal, and the establishment of nine new National Spiritual Assemblies, two
of which will be elected during the month of May this year, bringing the total
of these secondary Houses of Justice to 135.
- The Universal House of Justice (Ridvan 1983 message of the
Universal House of Justice)
August 25, 2018
1979-1982: Passing of five Hands of the Cause
Enoch Olinga (1979), Rahmatu'llah Muhajir (1979), Hasan A
Balyuzi (1980), Abu'l-Qasim Faizi (1980), Adelbert Muehlschlegel (1980), and
Paul Haney (1982).
(Adapted from explanatory notes included in ‘Messages from
the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)
August 20, 2018
July 1957: Establishment of “a spiritual axis, extending from the Antipodes to the northern islands of the Pacific Ocean”
...The emergence of a new Regional Spiritual Assembly in the
North Pacific Area [1], with its seat fixed in the capital city of a country
which by reason of its innate capacity and the spiritual receptivity it has
acquired, in consequence of the severe and prolonged ordeal its entire
population has providentially experienced, is destined to have a preponderating
share in awakening the peoples and races inhabiting the entire Pacific area, to
the Message of Bahá'u'lláh, and to act as the Vanguard of His hosts in their
future spiritual conquest of the main body of the yellow race on the Chinese
mainland -- the emergence of such an assembly may be said to have, at long last
established a spiritual axis, extending from the Antipodes to the northern
islands of the Pacific Ocean -- an axis whose northern and southern poles will
act as powerful magnets, endowed with exceptional spiritual potency, and
towards which younger and less experienced communities will tend for some time
to gravitate.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a message dated 19 July 1957 to the
National Spiritual Assembly of Australia; ‘Letters from the Guardian to
Australia and New Zealand’)
[1] National Spiritual Assembly of North East Asia, with its
seat in Tokyo, Japan.]
August 15, 2018
circa 1948: First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia
(The Baha'i World 1946-1950)
August 14, 2018
Some dates associated with three Baha’i Houses of Worship: Ishqabad, India, and Australia
Construction of the first Baha'i House of Worship in
'Ishqabad, Russia, began in 1902 and was completed circa 1921. The House of
Worship in India is near New Delhi; it was dedicated 23-27 December 1986. The
House of Worship in Australasia, outside of Sydney in Ingleside, was dedicated
on 16 September 1961.
(Explanatory notes included in ‘Messages from the
Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)
August 12, 2018
February 12-18, 1953: Hands of the Cause attending the First intercontinental Baha'i Conference in Kampala, Uganda, Africa
Left to right: Musa Banani, Valiyu'llah Varqa, Shu'a'u'llah
'Ala’i, Mason Remey, Horace Holley, Tarazu'llah Samandari, Dhikru'llah Khadem,
Leroy Ioas, Dorothy Baker, 'Ali-Akbar Furutan. The Kampala Haziratu'I-Quds is
in the background.
(The Baha’i World 1950-1954)
August 8, 2018
April 1934: First National Baha’i Convention in Iran - First National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran
This Ridvan will go down in the history of Baha’i Persia
because during the feast days the first national Baha’i Convention met in
Tihran and elected the first National Assembly of Persia, with 84 delegates
present from all over the country. Friends in the West will appreciate what
achievement such a gathering represents in a country where travel is still a
considerable adventure and where even a brief stay in the capital entails a
long absence from home.
The delegates made their headquarters at the
Haziratu’l-Quds, where the Central Assembly and the Service Committee had made
the necessary arrangements for their reception; all kinds of furniture, beds,
tables and the like had been requisitioned from Baha’is throughout town, and
the fact that the delegates were in a sense the house guests of the Tihran
friends added to the pleasure of the Convention. Many of the local friends
entertained the delegates, both at the Haziratu’-l-Quds and at their homes; the
social aspects of the Convention were highly important because the Persian
friends of different centres cannot communicate with one another with the
frequency enjoyed in the West. A significant event of this Convention was the
sending of representatives by the four women’s committees to report to the
delegates and submit their program for the coming year.
The members of the National Assembly are as follows:
Jenabi Fazel Mazandarani.
Haji Ghulam Reza Amin Amin.
Mirza Valiullah Khan Varqa.
Dr. Yunis Khan Afrukhtih.
Mirza Shuaullah Khan Alai.
Mirza Ahmed Khan Yazdani.
Mirza Ali Akbar Khan Froutan.
Mirza Mahmud Khan Badiyi.
Mirza Enayatullah Ahmed Poor.
(Baha’i News, no. 86, August 1934)
August 6, 2018
Teachers sent to America by ‘Abdu’l-Baha
The following is the list of the four teachers whom the
Master sent to America in order to spread the Cause.... Their names are as
follows: ‘Abdu’l-Karim, Haji Mirza Hasan, Mirza ‘Abdu’l-Fadl and Mirza
Asadu’llah.
- Shoghi Effendi
(From a letter dated December 14, 1933, written on behalf of Shoghi
Effendi to the NSA of the United States and Canada; Baha’i News, no. 81,
February 1934; also a note in Baha'i News, no. 83, May 1934)
August 1, 2018
Countries Opened to the Faith of Baha'u'liah from 1844 to 1921 – by Shoghi Effendi
Listed alphabetically:
Period of the Báb's Ministry (1844-1853)
- Iraq
- Persia
Period of Bahá'u'lláh's Ministry (1853-1892)
- Adhirbayjan
- Armenia
- Burma
- Egypt
- Georgia
- India
- Israel
- Lebanon
- Pakistan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
Period of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Ministry (1892-1921)