A Tablet from the Báb before His declaration to Mulla Husayn

Known as “Fi’s-Sulúk I” (On the Virtuous Journey I), this very early work was written before the declaration of the Báb and even before the death of Siyyid Kázim. A short text, it was most likely written for Mullá Hasan and is mentioned in the Kitábu’l-Fihrist. In the text the Báb refers to a work by Siyyid Kázim with a similar title. Unlike Siyyid Kázim’s work, the Báb’s focuses on the inner and mystical meanings of religious law, turning ritual action into a spiritual journey. The mediating category is love for the four layers of the divine covenant in the Islamic Dispensation. (Nader Saiedi, ‘Gate of the Heart – Understanding the Writings of the Báb’)

The “progressive stages in the tumultuous and tragic ministry" of the Báb – the “One Whose age inaugurated the consummation of all ages, and Whose Revelation fulfilled the promise of all Revelations.”

The Báb—“the Point,” as affirmed by Bahá’u’lláh, “round Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve”—was the One first swept into the maelstrom which engulfed His supporters. Sudden arrest and confinement in the very first year of His short and spectacular career; public affront deliberately inflicted in the presence of the ecclesiastical dignitaries of Shíráz; strict and prolonged incarceration in the bleak fastnesses of the mountains of Ádhirbayján; a contemptuous disregard and a cowardly jealousy evinced respectively by the Chief Magistrate of the realm and the foremost minister of his government; the carefully staged and farcical interrogatory sustained in the presence of the heir to the Throne and the distinguished divines of Tabríz; the shameful infliction of the bastinado in the prayer house, and at the hands of the Shaykhu’l-Islám of that city; and finally suspension in the barrack-square of Tabríz and the discharge of a volley of above seven hundred bullets at His youthful breast under the eyes of a callous multitude of about ten thousand people, culminating in the ignominious exposure of His mangled remains on the edge of the moat without the city gate—these were the progressive stages in the tumultuous and tragic ministry of One Whose age inaugurated the consummation of all ages, and Whose Revelation fulfilled the promise of all Revelations. (Shoghi Effendi, from a letter dated 28 March 1941; ‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

April 2013: The newly elected members of the Universal House of Justice

The newly elected members of the Universal House of Justice are (left to right) Paul Lample, Firaydoun Javaheri, Payman Mohajer, Gustavo Correa, Shahriar Razavi, Stephen Birkland, Stephen Hall, Chuungu Malitonga, and Ayman Rouhani (The American Baha'i May-June 2013)

The shop used by the Bab during His days in Bushihr, Persia

The shop which was used by the Bab during His days in Bushihr, Persia. (The Baha'i World 1938-1940)

1996: The “first step in the acquisition of sites sanctified by the residence of the Master in the cities of Europe”

The National and Regional Spiritual Assemblies in Europe were notified in a letter dated 28 October 1996 of the acquisition of the apartment at 4, Avenue de Camoens in Paris, in which 'Abdu'lBaha stayed during His visit to the city. The House of Justice noted:

“This marks the first step in the acquisition of sites sanctified by the residence of the Master in the cities of Europe during the three visits He made to that continent, between 1911 and 1913, for the purpose of spreading the Message of Baha'u'llah, sites which are second only in holiness to those places in Istanbul and Edirne where the Manifestation of God Himself blessed the soil of the European continent.”
(The Baha’i World 1996-1997)

1938: First Baha'i Summer School in India

The First Baha'i Summer School of India held at Simla. In the center is Martha Root, beloved teacher of the Faith throughout East and West, who was touring India and Panama. (The Baha'i World 1938-1940)

Inter-Assembly Teaching Conference, Los Angeles, Claifornia, February 26th, 1939

Inter-Assembly Teaching Conference

Held in Los Angeles, California, February 26th, 1939, at the time of the visit of the National Spiritual Assembly (The Baha'i World 1938-1940)

April 2013: 11th International Baha'i Convention, Haifa, Israel

A group photograph of the 11th International Baha'i Convention. The bouquet of red roses in the foreground noted the absence of delegates from Iran. (Baha’i World News Service)

1953: Hands of the Cause attending first of the four Intercontinental Conferences of the Holy Year in Kampala, Uganda -- The Guardian's Ten Year World Crusade is launched

Left to right: Tarazu’llah Samandari (1874-1968), 'Ali Akbar Furutan (1905-2003), Musa Banani (1886-1971), Dorothy Baker (1898-1954), Shu’a’u’llah ‘Ala’i (1889-1984), Horace Holley (1887-1960), Valiyu'llah Varqa (1884-1955), Leroy Ioas (1896-1965), and Dhikru'llah Khadim (1904-1986). Missing: Mason Remey (1874-1974)

Video showing the Hands of the Cause and friends attending this very historic conference

April 21, 1863: Baha’u’llah declares His Mission to His companions in the Najibiyyih garden outside the city of Baghdad

The arrival of Baha’u’llah in the Najibiyyih Garden, subsequently designated by His followers as the Garden of Ridvan, signalizes the commencement of what has come to be recognized as the holiest and most significant of all Baha’i festivals, the festival commemorating the Declaration of His Mission to His companions. So momentous a Declaration may well be regarded both as the logical consummation of that revolutionizing process which was initiated by Himself upon His return from Sulaymaniyyih and as a prelude to the final proclamation of that same Minion to the world and its rulers from Adrianople … (Shoghi Effendi, ‘God Passes By’)

Entrance to the Siyah-Chal

Entrance to the Siyah-Chal - the Black Pit - the subterranean dungeon in Tihran where Baha'u'llah was chained for four months

Tree, near the shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi, from which Mulla Husayn was shot

Tree, near the shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi, from which Mulla Husayn, the Babu'l-Bab, was shot. (The Baha'i World 1932-1934)

“God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!”

“We were consigned,” He[Baha’u’llah] wrote in His “Epistle to the Son of the Wolf,” “for four months to a place foul beyond comparison. As to the dungeon in which this Wronged One and others similarly wronged were confined, a dark and narrow pit were preferable.... The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves, assassins, and highwaymen. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on. God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!” “‘Abdu’l-Bahá,” writes Dr. J.E. Esslemont, “tells how one day He was allowed to enter the prison-yard to see His beloved Father when He came out for His daily exercise. Bahá’u’lláh was terribly altered, so ill He could hardly walk. His hair and beard unkempt, His neck galled and swollen from the pressure of a heavy steel collar, His body bent by the weight of His chains.” “For three days and three nights,” Nabíl has recorded in his chronicle, “no manner of food or drink was given to Bahá’u’lláh. Rest and sleep were both impossible to Him. The place was infested with vermin, and the stench of that gloomy abode was enough to crush the very spirits of those who were condemned to suffer its horrors.” “Such was the intensity of His suffering that the marks of that cruelty remained imprinted upon His body all the days of His life.” (Shoghi Effendi, letter dated March 28, 1941 addressed to “the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout the West”; ‘The Promised Day is Come’)

“… one of Bahá’u’lláh’s greatest miracles” – ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains

Although the policy of Sultán ‘Abdu’l-Hamíd was harsher than ever; although he constantly insisted on his Captive’s strict confinement—still, the Blessed Beauty now lived, as everyone knows, with all power and glory. Some of the time Bahá’u’lláh would spend at the Mansion, and again, at the farm village of Mazra’ih; for a while He would sojourn in Haifa, and occasionally His tent would be pitched on the heights of Mount Carmel. Friends from everywhere presented themselves and gained an audience. The people and the government authorities witnessed it all, yet no one so much as breathed a word. And this is one of Bahá’u’lláh’s greatest miracles: that He, a captive, surrounded Himself with panoply and He wielded power. The prison changed into a palace, the jail itself became a Garden of Eden. Such a thing has not occurred in history before; no former age has seen its like: that a man confined to a prison should move about with authority and might; that one in chains should carry the fame of the Cause of God to the high heavens, should win splendid victories in both East and West, and should, by His almighty pen, subdue the world. Such is the distinguishing feature of this supreme Theophany. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Memorials of the Faithful’)

January 1971: Baha’i continental conference in Liberia – The Universal House of Justice explains the role of the emerging Baha’i community in alleviating the various ills afflicting the people of Africa

January 1971

To the Friends of God assembled in the Conference in Monrovia, Liberia

Dearly loved friends,

The emergence on the African Continent of a widely spread, numerous, diversified and united Baha'i community, so swiftly after the initiation of organized teaching plans there, is of the utmost significance and a signal evidence of the bounties which God has destined for its peoples in this day.

The great victories in Africa, which brought such joy to the Guardian's heart in the last years of his life, resulted from the self-sacrificing devotion of a handful of pioneers, gradually assisted by the first few native believers, all labouring under the loving shadow of the Hand of the Cause Musa Banani. From their efforts there has been raised up an increasing army of African, teachers, administrators, pioneers and valiant promoters of the Divine Cause, whose main task is to bring to all Africa the bounties conferred by the Word of God, bounties of enlightenment, zeal, devotion and eventually the true civilization of Baha'u'llah's World Order.

The number of National Spiritual Assemblies: 56 in 1963, 94 in 1970!

Since 1963 when there were 56 National Spiritual Assemblies, to the present time when there are 94 (soon to be 101), the work of the Cause has expanded so rapidly, both in the teaching field and at the World Centre, that the Universal House of Justice has had to increase more than fourfold the annual international budget of the Cause. (The Universal House of Justice, from a letter dated 29 December 1970, ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’) (To see the entire message please visit Messages to the Baha’i World Community – by the Universal House of Justice)

Birthplace of the New Revelation

Persia, the birthplace of the Bahá’í Revelation, has occupied a unique place in the history of the world. In the days of her early greatness she was a veritable queen among nations, unrivaled in civilization, in power and in splendor. She gave to the world great kings and statesmen, prophets and poets, philosophers and artists. Zoroaster, Cyrus and Darius, Háfiz and Firdawsí, Sa’dí and ‘Umar Khayyam are but a few of her many famous sons. Her craftsmen were unsurpassed in skill; her carpets were matchless, her steel blades unequaled, her pottery world famous. In all parts of the Near and Middle East she has left traces of her former greatness.

1938: Martha Root tours India and Burma

The Baha'i Youth Committee of Bombay, India, taken with Martha Root on the occasion of her tour of India and Burma during 1938. (The Baha'i World 1938-1940)

After the "Association of Baha'is" was officially registered in Mongolia in 1993 the way was opened for election of Mongolia's first National Spiritual Assembly in the spring of 1994

In Mongolia, the "Association of Baha'is" was officially registered as a "public organization" in June 1993, effecting formal registration at the highest level provided under Mongol Law. As a result, the Mongolian Baha'i community gained the right to own property and to issue invitations to foreign visitors, and the way was opened for election of Mongolia's first National Spiritual Assembly in the spring of 1994. (The Baha’i World 1993-1994)

The dire afflictions that the Babis endured at Fort Tabarsi – depicted by ‘Abdu’l-Baha

Think, for example, how the enemy had completely hemmed in the Fort, and were endlessly pouring in cannon balls from their siege guns. The believers, among them Ismu’lláh, [Hand of the Cause Ismu’lláhu’l-Asdaq] went eighteen days without food. They lived on the leather of their shoes. This too was soon consumed, and they had nothing left but water. They drank a mouthful every morning, and lay famished and exhausted in their Fort. When attacked, however, they would instantly spring to their feet, and manifest in the face of the enemy a magnificent courage and astonishing resistance, and drive the army back from their walls. The hunger lasted eighteen days. It was a terrible ordeal. To begin with, they were far from home, surrounded and cut off by the foe; again, they were starving; and then there were the army’s sudden onslaughts and the bombshells raining down and bursting in the heart of the Fort. Under such circumstances to maintain an unwavering faith and patience is extremely difficult, and to endure such dire afflictions a rare phenomenon. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Memorials of the Faithful’)

November 1933: LSA of Teaneck, New Jersey is incorporated

Certificate of Incorporation, the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Teaneck, New Jersey, USA (The Baha'i World 1932-1934)

circa 1934: The First Baha'i Group in Abyssinia (Ethiopia)

The First Baha'i Group in Abyssinia (Ethiopia), circa 1934

The Masjid in Amul, Mazindaran, Persia, where Baha'u'llah was confined and bastinadoed

The Masjid in Amul, Mazindaran, Persia, where Baha'u'llah was confined and bastinadoed. (The Baha'i World 1932-1934)

April 27, 1910: Baha'is invoking the Greatest Name at Chicago Temple grounds

Baha'is assembled at the geometrical center of the Temple grounds near Chicago, and invoking the Greatest Name as their faces are turned towards Akka, April 27, 1910. (The Baha'i World 1932-1934)

First National Spiritual Assembly of Congo and Gabon

Hand of the Cause Dr. Ali-Muhammad Varqa (front row, second right) and members of the first National Spiritual Assembly of Congo and Gabon, 1971. (Baha'i World News Service)