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September 24, 2018
September 16, 2018
1934: Last day of Tarbiyat school and the shocking effect of its closure on 1500 students – excerpt from a letter by Clara and Adelaide Sharp from Tehran
The closing of the school was a great shock although we had
expected that it might happen. The Bab’s Martyrdom in this country is kept by
the Arabic calendar and came this year on December 6. ... Saturday afternoon a
policeman came with an order from the Board of Education to close the schools.
They said Tarbiyat had been closed for no reason Thursday and the license for
Tarbiyat School existed no longer. The order came after school had been
dismissed and there was no time to tell all the children, so Adelaide and her
assistant went to school the next morning at 6:30 A.M., before the policeman
could get there, and as the children came to enter the school they had to be
turned back. This was very hard as many of the little ones did not understand
and called to Adelaide to tell the policeman to let them in, and many cried.
... The Baha’i children have not gone to other schools. ... The Muhammadan
children of course went to other schools but they are not satisfied and happy.
Tarbiyat School was far ahead of the other Persian schools, in their text
books, character training and everything else. All the schools say this. The
educated Muhammadans are with the Baha’is. One important Muhammadan said he
knew it was a Baha’i School when he sent his children there and said that was
no reason for closing the school. ... We had many of the best families in town
sending their children and they are feeling very badly about it. There were
nearly 1500 pupils in both schools and about 50 teachers. ... This has
advertised the school and called attention to the Cause and what they are
working for more than anything else that could have happened. ... Shoghi
Effendi has written for us to be patient and not make any disturbance but
persevere and keep trying to gain religious liberty, that the school will again
open and things will be better than ever.
(Baha’i News, no. 96, December 1935)
September 11, 2018
September 6, 2018
Progressive unfoldment of the Bábi Revelation
…[in 1844] the Author of the Bábí Revelation had declared
His mission to Mullá Ḥusayn in the privacy of His home in Shíráz. Three years
after that Declaration, within the walls of the prison-fortress of Máh-Kú, He
was dictating to His amanuensis the fundamental and distinguishing precepts of
His Dispensation. A year later, His followers, under the actual leadership of
Bahá’u’lláh, their fellow-disciple, were themselves, in the hamlet of Badasht,
abrogating the Qur’ánic Law, repudiating both the divinely-ordained and
man-made precepts of the Faith of Muḥammad, and shaking off the shackles of its
antiquated system. Almost immediately after, the Báb Himself, still a prisoner,
was vindicating the acts of His disciples by asserting, formally and
unreservedly, His claim to be the promised Qá’im, in the presence of the Heir
to the Throne, the leading exponents of the Shaykhí community, and the most
illustrious ecclesiastical dignitaries assembled in the capital of Ádhirbayján.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
September 5, 2018
circa 1935: Mount Carmel
View taken by Miss Effie Baker to show the general area of
land surrounding the Shrine which has come under Baha’i ownership and control.
(Baha’i News, no. 97, January 1936)
September 3, 2018
On closing of Tarbiyat schools in 1934 by government – the Guardian explains
With regard to the closing of the Tarbiyat Schools: the
school authorities have, in enforcing the observance of Baha’i anniversaries,
acted on the advice and direction of the Guardian. These Schools, being
independent and official Baha’i institutions, could not very well ignore, much
less violate the express provisions and laws of the Aqdas. Had they any
connection with government institutions, or had their ownership and control
been shared by non-Baha’is, the situation would have been different. This
distinction between institutions that are under full or partial Baha’i control
is of a fundamental importance. Institutions that are entirely managed by
Baha’is are, for reasons that are only too obvious, under the obligation of
enforcing all the laws and ordinances of the Faith, especially those whose
observance constitutes a matter of conscience. There is no reason, no
justification whatever, that they should act otherwise, and any restriction
should also take into consideration the rights and interests of their
non-Baha’i partners and associates, and not to force these to stop working when
they are under no moral or religious obligation to do so.
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