1948: Workers constructing the retaining wall behind the Shrine of the Báb

('Coronation on Carmel', by Michael Day)

1973: The Universal House of Justice establishes the International Teaching Center

5 June 1973:

To all National Spiritual Assemblies

ANNOUNCE ESTABLISHMENT HOLY LAND LONG ANTICIPATED INTERNATIONAL TEACHING CENTRE DESTINED EVOLVE INTO ONE THOSE WORLD-SHAKING WORLD-EMBRACING WORLD-DIRECTING ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONS ORDAINED BY BAHA'U'LLAH ANTICIPATED BY 'ABDU'L-BAHA ELUCIDATED BY SHOGHI EFFENDI. MEMBERSHIP THIS NASCENT INSTITUTION COMPRISES ALL HANDS CAUSE GOD AND INITIALLY THREE COUNSELLORS WHO WITH HANDS PRESENT HOLY LAND WILL CONSTITUTE NUCLEUS ITS VITAL OPERATIONS. CALLING UPON HOOPER DUNBAR FLORENCE MAYBERRY 'AZIZ YAZDI PROCEED HOLY LAND ASSUME THIS HIGHLY MERITORIOUS SERVICE. OFFERING PRAYERS HEARTFELT GRATITUDE SACRED THRESHOLD THIS FURTHER EVIDENCE ORGANIC EVOLUTION ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER BAHA'U'LLAH.

With loving Baha'i greetings,

The Universal House of Justice

(Messages from the Universal House of Justice, ‘1963-1986’)

1973: Mansion of Mazra’ih was finally purchased after many years of lease

Aerial view of the Mansion of Mazra'ih
and surrounding gardens-April 1979
(Baha'i Media Bank)

15 March 1973

To all National Spiritual Assemblies

OCCASION NAW-RUZ 130 JOYOUSLY ANNOUNCE BAHA'I WORLD ACQUISITION BY PURCHASE MANSION MAZRA'IH RESULT SEVERAL YEARS PATIENT PERSISTENT DETERMINED NEGOTIATIONS THEREBY ADDING TO BAHA'I ENDOWMENTS HOLY LAND FIRST RESIDENCE BAHA'U'LLAH AFTER NINE YEARS SPENT WALLED PRISON CITY 'AKKA. CONTROL THIS HOLY SITE REACQUIRED BY BELOVED GUARDIAN AFTER LAPSE MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS WHEN HE SECURED LEASE MANSION 1950 EXTENDED TO PRESENT TIME. PURCHASE INCLUDES LAND AREA APPROXIMATING TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND SQUARE METRES HIGHLY SUITABLE EXTENSION GARDENS CULTIVATION. OFFERING PRAYER THANKSGIVING SACRED THRESHOLD THIS GREATLY CHERISHED BOUNTY.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

(Messages from the Universal House of Justice, ‘1963-1986’)

1973: The Universal House of Justice completed the Synopsis and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas initiated by the Guardian

19 January 1973:

To all National Spiritual Assemblies

JOYFULLY ANNOUNCE COMPLETION SYNOPSIS CODIFICATION KITAB-I-AQDAS FOR PUBLICATION RIDVAN SYNCHRONIZING CELEBRATION HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY REVELATION MOST HOLY BOOK FULFILLING WORLD CENTRE GOAL NINE YEAR PLAN. CONFIDENT RELEASE THIS PUBLICATION ENVISAGED BY BELOVED GUARDIAN AND WHOSE MAIN FEATURES HE OUTLINED WILL CONSTITUTE ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT STEP PATH LEADING BAHA'I COMMUNITY FULL MATURITY ESTABLISHMENT WORLD ORDER BAHA'U'LLAH.

THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

(Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’)

1972: Constitution of the Universal House of Justice was adopted – a document referred to by the Guardian as the “Most Great Law of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh”

26 November 1972

To all National Spiritual Assemblies

Dear Baha'i friends,

The following cable has just been sent to the United States Baha'i News for publication.

WITH GRATEFUL JOYOUS HEARTS ANNOUNCE ENTIRE BAHA'I WORLD ADOPTION PROFOUNDLY SIGNIFICANT STEP IN UNFOLDMENT MISSION SUPREME ORGAN BAHA'I WORLD COMMONWEALTH THROUGH FORMULATION CONSTITUTION UNIVERSAL HOUSE JUSTICE. AFTER OFFERING HUMBLE PRAYERS GRATITUDE ON DAY COVENANT AT THREE SACRED THRESHOLDS BAHJI HAIFA MEMBERS GATHERED COUNCIL CHAMBER PRECINCTS HOUSE BLESSED MASTER APPENDED THEIR SIGNATURES FIXED SEAL ON INSTRUMENT ENVISAGED WRITINGS BELOVED GUARDIAN HAILED BY HIM AS MOST GREAT LAW FAITH BAHA'U'LLAH. FULLY ASSURED MEASURE JUST TAKEN WILL FURTHER REINFORCE TIES BINDING WORLD CENTRE TO NATIONAL LOCAL COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT WORLD RELEASE FRESH ENERGIES INCREASE ENTHUSIASM CONFIDENCE VALIANT WORKERS HIS DIVINE VINEYARD LABOURING ASSIDUOUSLY BRING MANKIND UNDER SHELTER HIS ALL-GLORIOUS COVENANT.

Please share this joyous news with the friends. It is anticipated that the Constitution will be published at Ridvan.

With loving Baha'i greetings,

The Universal House of Justice

(Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’)

1956: First Regional National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of North West Africa

 

(Baha'i News, August 1956)

1948: First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Oslo, Norway

 

(Baha'i News, May 1948)

1951: Local Spiritual Assembly of Cairo, Egypt - First time women were elected to serve in Muslim counties

 

(Baha'i News, December 1951)

1982: Baha’i representatives made a presentation to the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States House of Representatives concerning the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran

 

(World Order magazine, Spring 1982)

1949: First Regional Teaching Conference in Brazil

 

(Baha'i News, December 1949)

1942: Study Class conducted by Miss Adelaide Sharp, Tihran, Iran

(Baha'i News, Feb. 1943)

1942- December: Transfer of the remains of Lua Getsinger to the new Baha'i Cemetery in Cairo Egypt

 

(Baha'i News, July 1943)

1947: First Spiritual Assembly of Medellin, Colombia

 

(Baha'i News, September 1947)

February 1949: First Baha'i Youth Symposium in Switzerland

 

(Baha'i News, April 1949)

1944: National Haziratu'l-Quds of the Baha'is of Iran, Tihran

(Baha'i News, July 1944)

circa 1948: The "Most Great Prison" in Akka - Baha'u'llah suffered cruelty and deprivation as a prisoner for 24 years

(World Order magazine, December 1948)

circa 1954: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran

Seated, left to right: Ali Akbar Furutan, Adelaide Sharp, Shoallah Alai. Standing, left to right: Jalal Khazeh, General Sohrab, Monir Darakhshan, Zikrullah Khadem, and Kazem Kazemzadeh 

(World Order magazine, 2006, vol. 37, no. 3)

circa 1926: A view of the Garden of Ridvan near Akka

(Star of the West [The Baha'i Magazine], vol. 17, no. 8, November 1926)

circa 1926: Pilgrim house at Bahji

(Star of the West [The Baha'i Magazine], vol. 17, no. 8, November 1926)

circa 1925: The Girls' School in Ishqabad Russia - One branch of the Baha'i activities

Former students of this school provided active service in 
the Baha'i community and some went to London to continue their studies. 
(Star of the West, [The Baha'i Magazine], vol. 16, no. 12, March 1926)

1985: “The time has come for the Baha'i community to become more involved in the life of the society around it…”

The time has come for the Baha'i community to become more involved in the life of the society around it, without in the least supporting any of the world's moribund and divisive concepts, or slackening its direct teaching efforts, but rather, by association, exerting its influence towards unity, demonstrating its ability to settle differences by consultation rather than by confrontation, violence or schism, and declaring its faith in the divine purpose of human existence. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (Ridvan 1985; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)

1979-1985: The “emergence of the Faith from obscurity”

As we enter the final year of the Seven Year Plan, [1979-1986] confidence of victory and a growing sense of the opening of a new stage in the onward march of the Faith must arouse in every Baha'i heart feelings of gratitude and eager expectation. Victory in the Plan is now within sight, and at its completion the summation of its achievements may well astonish us all. But the great, the historic feature of this period is the emergence of the Faith from obscurity, promoted by the steadfast heroism of the renowned, the indefatigable, dearly loved Baha'i community of Baha'u'llah's and the Bab's native land. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (Ridvan 1985; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)

1984-1985: New believers in India

In India alone, over 150,000 new believers have joined the Baha'i community… 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a message dated 3 January 1985, to the followers of Baha'u'llah in every land; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)

circa 1844: – A new believer in Mashhad, Persia, placed his home at the disposal of Mullá Husayn to teach the Faith – his home became known as Bábíyyih – First Bábí-Baháí Center

circa 1935: views of Bábíyyih

Mírzá Muhammad Báqir-i-Qá’iní, who, for the remaining years of his life, had established his residence in Mashhad, was the next to embrace the Message. The love of the Báb inflamed his soul with such a consuming passion, that no one could resist its force or could belittle its influence. His fearlessness, his unsparing energy, his unswerving loyalty, and the integrity of his life, all combined to make him the terror of his enemies and a source of inspiration to his friends. He placed his home at the disposal of Mullá Husayn, arranged for separate interviews between him and the ‘ulamás of Mashhad, and continued to endeavour, to the utmost of his power, to remove every obstacle that might impede the progress of the Faith. He was untiring in his efforts, undeviating in his purpose, and inexhaustible in his energy. He continued to labour indefatigably for his beloved Cause until the last hour of his life, when he fell a martyr at the fort of Shaykh Tabarsí. In his last days he was bidden by Quddús, after the tragic death of Mullá Husayn, to assume the leadership of the heroic defenders of that fort. He acquitted himself gloriously of his task. His home, situated in Bálá-Khiyabán, in the city of Mashhad, is up to the present time known by the name of Bábíyyih. Whoever enters it can never escape the accusation of being a Bábí. May his soul rest in peace! 

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

1846 – While a guest of the Imám-Jum‘ih of Isfahán, the Báb revealed a commentary on a surih of the Qur’an – “verses that equalled in number a third of the Qur’án”

It was at the request of this same prelate [the Imám-Jum‘ih of Isfahán] that the Báb, one night, after supper, revealed His well-known commentary on the súrih 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 súrih—a letter which Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsá’í 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. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

1931: Delegates and friends in attendance at the Twenty-third Annual Convention of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada

(Star of the West [The Baha'i Magazine], vol. 22, no. 3, June, 1931)

1931: Chicago Baha'i Temple under construction

(The Star of the West [The Baha'i Magazine], vol. 22, no. 1, April, 1931)

May 12, 1912: Unity Church, Montclair, N.J. - Translation of the prayer ‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote in the church book at the request of the minister

O God! Thou pure Lord! Thanks be unto Thee, that the mountains and deserts were traversed and the great Atlantic was crossed until we reached this continent and in this country, we have mentioned Thy name and fame with our tongue. Even in this church, like unto Elijah, we have proclaimed Thy Kingdom.

O God! Make the people of this church to be attracted to Thy beauty, and in Thy shelter, protect and bless them.

- 'Abdu'l-Baha Abbas

(Star of the West [The Baha’i Magazine], vol. 19, no. 5, August 1928)

1930: Twenty-three hundred Baha’is in attendance at the Naw-Ruz Feast in Tihran, Iran

This illustration has been enlarged from a small kodak picture taken by Dr. Lotfullah Hakim. It shows only a section of the group of twenty-three hundred in attendance at the Baha'i New Year Feast in Tihran, Persia, March 21, 1930. 

Another view of the assembled Baha'is at their New Year’s Feast in Tihran, March 21, 1930. 

(Star of the West [The Baha’i Magazine], vol. 21, no. 3, June 1930)

The Báb was a guest of the Imám-Jum‘ih of Isfahán for 40 days

Isfahan 1839

The first forty days of His [Báb's] the  sojourn in Isfahán were spent as the guest of Mírzá Siyyid Muhammad, the Sulṭanu’l-‘Ulamá, the Imám-Jum‘ih, one of the principal ecclesiastical dignitaries of the realm, in accordance with the instructions of the governor of the city, Manuchihr Khán, the Mu ‘Tamidu’d-Dawlih, who had received from the Báb a letter requesting him to appoint the place where He should dwell. He was ceremoniously received… 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

September 1846: The Báb left Shiraz and proceeded to Isfahán

Miraculously preserved by an almighty and watchful Providence, the Báb proceeded to Isfahán (September, 1846), accompanied by Siyyid Kázim-i-Zanjání. Another lull ensued, a brief period of comparative tranquillity during which the Divine processes which had been set in motion gathered further momentum, precipitating a series of events leading to the imprisonment of the Báb in the fortresses of Máh-Kú and Chihríq, and culminating in His martyrdom in the barrack-square of Tabríz. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

1967-YellowKnife LSA: Canada's most northerly Spiritual Assembly

(Canadian Baha'i News, no. 211, August 1967)

1967: Canada - Fort Qu'Appelle Native Teaching Conference

The photo shows Hand of the Cause John Robarts and his wife Audrey, a number of Auxiliary Board Members, eight members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Canada, members of the National Advisory Committee on Indian Teaching and the newly appointed members of the N.T.C. branch for Saskatchewan.  Also shown are many well-known friends working in that region. (Canadian Baha’i News, no. 211, August 1967)

1969: Continental Conference of Indigenous Teaching at Fort Qu’appelle Institute, Saskatchewan, Canada

DEEPLY GRATIFIED HISTORIC CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE OF INDIGENOUS TEACHING FORT QU’APPELLE INSTITUTE HARBINGER GREAT EXPANSION AMONG ORIGINAL PEOPLES NORTH AMERICA STOP PRAYING ABUNDANT CONFIRMATIONS YOUR EFFORTS ADVANCEMENT DIVINE PLAN ABDU’L-BAHA.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

To develop ways and means to achieve a continental approach in reaching and consolidating the native peoples of North America — that was the aim of the August Conference at Fort Qu’Appelle. Inspired by Hands of the Cause Ali Akbar Furutan and John Robarts on the first night, the stage was set for two days of workshops. Within the framework of consultation, recommendations were developed amid healthy cultural encounter. The Pow Wow on the last day brought all together in fellowship — a fitting climax, generating a new surge of spirit. 

(Canadian Baha’i News, No. 234, November, 1969)

1844-1845: The first province in Persia to eagerly embrace the Divine Message of the Báb

The people of Núr, when Bahá’u’lláh had departed from out their midst, continued to propagate the Cause and to consolidate its foundations. A number of them endured the severest afflictions for His sake; others quaffed with gladness the cup of martyrdom in His path. Mázindarán in general, and Núr in particular, were thus distinguished from the other provinces and districts of Persia, as being the first to have eagerly embraced the Divine Message. The district of Núr, literally meaning “light,” which lay embedded within the mountains of Mázindarán, was the first to catch the rays of the Sun that had arisen in Shíráz, the first to proclaim to the rest of Persia, which still lay enveloped in the shadow of the vale of heedlessness, that the Day-Star of heavenly guidance had at length arisen to warm and illuminate the whole land. 
- Nabil  (‘The Dawn-Breakers’, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)

1846: Divine intervention at exactly the same time as the Báb was arrested – an outbreak of a devastating cholera in Shiraz

While the situation was steadily deteriorating in the provinces, the bitter hostility of the people of Shíráz was rapidly moving towards a climax. Husayn Khán, [the Governor] vindictive, relentless, exasperated by the reports of his sleepless agents that his Captive’s power and fame were hourly growing, decided to take immediate action. It is even reported that his accomplice, Hájí Mírzá Áqásí, [the Prime Minister] had ordered him to kill secretly the would-be disrupter of the state and the wrecker of its established religion. By order of the governor the chief constable, ‘Abdu’l-Hamíd Khán, scaled, in the dead of night, the wall and entered the house of Hájí Mírzá Siyyid ‘Alí, where the Báb was confined, arrested Him, and confiscated all His books and documents.

That very night, however, took place an event which, in its dramatic suddenness, was no doubt providentially designed to confound the schemes of the plotters, and enable the Object of their hatred to prolong His ministry and consummate His Revelation. An outbreak of cholera, devastating in its virulence, had, since midnight, already smitten above a hundred people. The dread of the plague had entered every heart, and the inhabitants of the stricken city were, amid shrieks of pain and grief, fleeing in confusion. Three of the governor’s domestics had already died. Members of his family were lying dangerously ill. In his despair he, leaving the dead unburied, had fled to a garden in the outskirts of the city. ‘Abdu’l-Hamíd Khán, [the chief constable in Shiraz] confronted by this unexpected development, decided to conduct the Báb to His own home. He was appalled, upon his arrival, to learn that his son lay in the death-throes of the plague. In his despair he threw himself at the feet of the Báb, begged to be forgiven, adjured Him not to visit upon the son the sins of the father, and pledged his word to resign his post, and never again to accept such a position. Finding that his prayer had been answered, he addressed a plea to the governor begging him to release his Captive, and thereby deflect the fatal course of this dire visitation. Husayn Khán acceded to his request, and released his Prisoner on condition of His quitting the city. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

circa 1845-46: The Shah of Persia appointed “one of the most erudite, eloquent and influential of his subjects” to investigate the claims of the Báb

Portrait of Muhammad Shah and
his Vizier Haj Mirza Aghasi

The commotion had assumed such proportions that the Sháh, unable any longer to ignore the situation, delegated the trusted Siyyid Yaḥyáy-i-Dárábí, surnamed Vahíd, one of the most erudite, eloquent and influential of his subjects—a man who had committed to memory no less than thirty thousand traditions—to investigate and report to him the true situation.

Broad-minded, highly imaginative, zealous by nature, intimately associated with the court, he, in the course of three interviews, was completely won over by the arguments and personality of the Báb. Their first interview centered around the metaphysical teachings of Islám, the most obscure passages of the Qur’án, and the traditions and prophecies of the Imáms. In the course of the second interview Vahíd was astounded to find that the questions which he had intended to submit for elucidation had been effaced from his retentive memory, and yet, to his utter amazement, he discovered that the Báb was answering the very questions he had forgotten. During the third interview the circumstances attending the revelation of the Báb’s commentary on the súrih of Kawthar, comprising no less than two thousand verses, so overpowered the delegate of the Sháh that he, contenting himself with a mere written report to the Court Chamberlain, arose forthwith to dedicate his entire life and resources to the service of a Faith that was to requite him with the crown of martyrdom during the Nayríz upheaval. He who had firmly resolved to confute the arguments of an obscure siyyid of Shíráz, to induce Him to abandon His ideas, and to conduct Him to Tihrán as an evidence of the ascendancy he had achieved over Him, was made to feel, as he himself later acknowledged, as “lowly as the dust beneath His feet.” Even Husayn Khán, [the Governor of Fars] who had been Vahíd’s host during his stay in Shíráz, was compelled to write to the Sháh and express the conviction that his Majesty’s illustrious delegate had become a Bábí.

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

1980: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada

Back row:(Left to right) - Jameson Bond, Glen Eyford, Husayn Banani, Hossain Danesh, Michael Rochester. Front Row: (left to right) - Edmund Muttart, Elizabeth Rochester, Ruth Eyford, Douglas Martin. 
(Baha'i Canada, vol. 2, no. 10, May/June 1980)

1845: The “initial collision of irreconcilable forces”: The “raging” of a “violent controversy”; the anger of the mullás

With the Báb’s return to Shíráz the initial collision of irreconcilable forces may be said to have commenced…The people of Shíráz were by that time wild with excitement. A violent controversy was raging in the masjids, the madrisihs, the bazaars, and other public places. Peace and security were gravely imperiled. Fearful, envious, thoroughly angered, the mullás were beginning to perceive the seriousness of their position. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

1845: The “initial collision of irreconcilable forces”: - the immediate disgraceful and inhumane punishment of Quddús and Mullá Sádiq

With the Báb’s return to Shíráz the initial collision of irreconcilable forces may be said to have commenced…Mullá Sádiq-i-Khurásání, impelled by the injunction of the Báb in the Khasá’il-i-Sab‘ih to alter the sacrosanct formula of the adhán, sounded it in its amended form before a scandalized congregation in Shíráz, and was instantly arrested, reviled, stripped of his garments, and scourged with a thousand lashes. The villainous Husayn Khán, the Nizámu’d-Dawlih, the governor of Fárs, who had read the challenge thrown out in the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’, having ordered that Mullá Sádiq together with Quddús and another believer be summarily and publicly punished, caused their beards to be burned, their noses pierced, and threaded with halters; then, having been led through the streets in this disgraceful condition, they were expelled from the city. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

1845: The “initial collision of irreconcilable forces”: - the fate of Mullá ‘Alíy-i-Basṭámí, the second Letter of the Living

With the Báb’s return to Shíráz the initial collision of irreconcilable forces may be said to have commenced. Already the energetic and audacious Mullá ‘Alíy-i-Basṭámí, one of the Letters of the Living, “the first to leave the House of God (Shíráz) and the first to suffer for His sake,” who, in the presence of one of the leading exponents of Shí‘ah Islám, the far-famed Shaykh Muhammad Hasan, had audaciously asserted that from the pen of his new-found Master within the space of forty-eight hours, verses had streamed that equalled in number those of the Qur’án, which it took its Author twenty-three years to reveal, had been excommunicated, chained, disgraced, imprisoned, and, in all probability, done to death. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

1845: Circumstances resulting in the immediate fierce opposition against the Báb

Already within the space of less than two years it had kindled the passions of friend and foe alike. The outbreak of the conflagration did not even await the return to His native city of the One Who had generated it. The implications of a Revelation, thrust so dramatically upon a race so degenerate, so inflammable in temper, could indeed have had no other consequence than to excite within men’s bosoms the fiercest passions of fear, of hate, of rage and envy. A Faith Whose Founder did not content Himself with the claim to be the Gate of the Hidden Imám, Who assumed a rank that excelled even that of the Sáhibu’z-Zamán, Who regarded Himself as the precursor of one incomparably greater than Himself, Who peremptorily commanded not only the subjects of the Sháh, but the monarch himself, and even the kings and princes of the earth, to forsake their all and follow Him, Who claimed to be the inheritor of the earth and all that is therein—a Faith Whose religious doctrines, Whose ethical standards, social principles and religious laws challenged the whole structure of the society in which it was born, soon ranged, with startling unanimity, the mass of the people behind their priests, and behind their chief magistrate, with his ministers and his government, and welded them into an opposition sworn to destroy, root and branch, the movement initiated by One Whom they regarded as an impious and presumptuous pretender. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By)

February–March, 1845: The Báb returned to Persia – The “signal for a commotion that rocked the entire country”

The Báb’s return to His native land (Safar 1261) (February–March, 1845) was the signal for a commotion that rocked the entire country. The fire which the declaration of His mission had lit was being fanned into flame through the dispersal and activities of His appointed disciples. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By)

1985: 150,000 new believers have joined the Baha'i Faith in India

In India alone, over 150,000 new believers have joined the Baha'i community… 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a message dated 3 January 1985 to the followers of Baha'u'llah in every land; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)

The “marked improvement in the conditions surrounding the pilgrimages” during 1844-1944

…we can even bear witness to the marked improvement in the conditions surrounding the pilgrimages performed by its devoted adherents to its consecrated shrines at its world center—pilgrimages originally arduous, perilous, tediously long, often made on foot, at times ending in disappointment, and confined to a handful of harassed Oriental followers, gradually attracting, under steadily improving circumstances of security and comfort, an ever swelling number of new converts converging from the four corners of the globe, and culminating in 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  (‘Preface to God Passes By’)

The “appreciable advance in the rise” of the institutions of the Faith during 1844-1944

We can likewise discern a no less appreciable advance in the rise of its institutions, whether as administrative centers or places of worship—institutions, clandestine and subterrene in their earliest beginnings, emerging imperceptibly into the broad daylight of public recognition, legally protected, enriched by pious endowments, ennobled at first by the erection of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of ‘Ishqábád, the first Bahá’í House of Worship, and more recently immortalized, through the rise in the heart of the North American continent of the Mother Temple of the West, the forerunner of a divine, a slowly maturing civilization. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘Preface to God Passes By’)

1984: The Pacific region and the Baha’i Faith – a brief summary by the Universal House of Justice

In reviewing the religious history of the Pacific during the Baha'i Dispensation we recall that it was only a short time prior to the Declaration of the Bab that the Teachings of Christ spread throughout these islands; that the Teachings of Baha'u'llah were first proclaimed there when the Hand of the Cause Agnes Alexander arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in December 1901; that at the beginning of the World Crusade in 1953 only a handful of islands had had any contact with the Faith; and that at Ridvan 1959 when the first regional National Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific was established in Suva there were in its area but twelve Local Spiritual Assemblies in nine island groups. Witness now what has happened in the quarter century since 1959.

• The first reigning monarch in the world to embrace the Faith of Baha'u'llah is the Head of State of Western Samoa whose official residence is near the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
• There are now a total of thirteen National Spiritual Assemblies in the homelands of the Polynesians, the Melanesians and the Micronesians.
• The Caroline Islands
• Fiji
• The Hawaiian Islands
• Kiribati
• The Mariana Islands
• The Marshall Islands
• New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands
• Papua New Guinea
• Samoa
• The Solomon Islands
• Tonga
• Tuvalu
• Vanuatu

The “distinct gradation in the character of the opposition” the Faith encountered during 1844-1944

We can discover a no less distinct gradation in the character of the opposition it has had to encounter—an opposition, at first kindled in the bosom of Shi‘ah Islám, which, at a later stage, gathered momentum with the banishment of Bahá’u’lláh to the domains of the Turkish Sulṭán and the consequent hostility of the more powerful Sunní hierarchy and its Caliph, the head of the vast majority of the followers of Muhammad—an opposition which, now, through the rise of a divinely appointed Order in the Christian West, and its initial impact on civil and ecclesiastical institutions, bids fair to include among its supporters established governments and systems associated with the most ancient, the most deeply entrenched sacerdotal hierarchies in Christendom. We can, at the same time, recognize, through the haze of an ever-widening hostility, the progress, painful yet persistent, of certain communities within its pale through the stages of obscurity, of proscription, of emancipation, and of recognition—stages that must needs culminate in the course of succeeding centuries, in the establishment of the Faith, and the founding, in the plenitude of its power and authority, of the world-embracing Bahá’í Commonwealth. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘Preface to God Passes By’)

Following Mullá Husay’s recognition of the Báb, “the enrollment of the seventeen remaining Letters of the Living” commenced after forty days

With this historic Declaration the dawn of an Age that signalizes the consummation of all ages had broken. The first impulse of a momentous Revelation had been communicated to the one “but for whom,” according to the testimony of the Kitáb-i-Íqán, “God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the throne of eternal glory.” Not until forty days had elapsed, however, did the enrollment of the seventeen remaining Letters of the Living commence. Gradually, spontaneously, some in sleep, others while awake, some through fasting and prayer, others through dreams and visions, they discovered the Object of their quest, and were enlisted under the banner of the new-born Faith. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By)