March 12, 2024

Ridvan 2008: A “panorama” of “the progress of the worldwide Bahá’í community”

Thousands upon thousands, embracing the diversity of the entire human family, are engaged in systematic study of the Creative Word in an environment that is at once serious and uplifting. As they strive to apply through a process of action, reflection and consultation the insights thus gained, they see their capacity to serve the Cause rise to new levels. Responding to the inmost longing of every heart to commune with its Maker, they carry out acts of collective worship in diverse settings, uniting with others in prayer, awakening spiritual susceptibilities, and shaping a pattern of life distinguished for its devotional character. As they call on one another in their homes and pay visits to families, friends and acquaintances, they enter into purposeful discussion on themes of spiritual import, deepen their knowledge of the Faith, share Bahá’u’lláh’s message, and welcome increasing numbers to join them in a mighty spiritual enterprise. Aware of the aspirations of the children of the world and their need for spiritual education, they extend their efforts widely to involve ever-growing contingents of participants in classes that become centres of attraction for the young and strengthen the roots of the Faith in society. They assist junior youth to navigate through a crucial stage of their lives and to become empowered to direct their energies toward the advancement of civilization. And with the advantage of a greater abundance of human resources, an increasing number of them are able to express their faith through a rising tide of endeavours that address the needs of humanity in both their spiritual and material dimensions. Such is the panorama before us as we pause this Ridván to observe the progress of the worldwide Bahá’í community. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From Ridván 2008 message to the Bahá’ís of the World; online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

March 7, 2024

The Institution of the Hands of the Cause: “Chief Stewards of Bahá’u’lláh’s embryonic World Commonwealth”

We trace the origins of the Institution to Bahá’u’lláh Himself, Who designated four renowned promoters of His teachings as Hands of the Cause of God. In a period before the administrative system of the Faith was inaugurated, they became rallying points for the friends, as much because of the virtuous character of their personal lives as for their unceasing endeavours in proclaiming the Teachings and defending the Faith against its detractors. They remained resolute in such activities despite the severe persecution, including imprisonment in some instances, to which they were subjected by the authorities. These distinguished personages remained active during the ministry of ‘Abdu’lBahá, Who, in 1899, instructed them to take steps to form the Local Spiritual Assembly of Tihrán, on which they all served. The focus of these first Hands on propagation and protection of the Faith, as well as their efforts to edify believers as to the importance of the new Laws, intimated even then the pattern of functioning the Institution would adopt at a later stage in the advancement of the Bahá’í community.

The Master did not Himself appoint Hands of the Cause, but referred to four believers posthumously as such. However, His Will and Testament confirmed the Institution and extended it by authorizing the Guardian of the Faith to appoint consecrated souls to it. At first, over a period of three decades, Shoghi Effendi named ten such souls posthumously; all were distinguished for the constancy, vigour and impact of their efforts to propagate the Cause and promote its best interests. The Guardian’s designation in December 1951 of twelve living believers as Hands of the Cause introduced the Bahá’í world to a wholly new dynamic in the operation of the Order of Bahá’u’lláh; through it the Hands exerted an unusual vitality during the Ten Year Crusade, particularly after the sudden passing of the Sign of God. His subsequent appointment of seven more in February 1952 and replacement thereafter of five of those deceased kept the number of living Hands at nineteen until less than a month before his departure, when in his last message to the Bahá’í world he identified an additional eight, bringing the total to twenty-seven. Shoghi Effendi’s description of them as the “Chief Stewards of Bahá’u’lláh’s embryonic World Commonwealth” prefigured the world-shaking reality of the unexpected responsibilities that would be thrust upon them on the morrow of his passing. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a message dated 26 November 2007 to the Bahá’ís of the World; online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center) 

February 28, 2024

1846 Isfahan: The argument that one of the invited clergy used to dissuade others from attending the meeting to face the Báb at the home of the governor

Hájí Siyyid Asadu’lláh refused the invitation and endeavoured to dissuade those who had been invited, from participating in that gathering. “I have sought to excuse myself,” he informed them, “and I would most certainly urge you to do the same. I regard it as most unwise of you to meet the Siyyid-i-Báb face to face. He will, no doubt, reassert his claim and will, in support of his argument, adduce whatever proof you may desire him to give, and, without the least hesitation, will reveal as a testimony to the truth he bears, verses of such a number as would equal half the Qur’án. In the end he will challenge you in these words: ‘Produce likewise, if ye are men of truth.’ We can in no wise successfully resist him. If we disdain to answer him, our impotence will have been exposed. If we, on the other hand, submit to his claim, we shall not only be forfeiting our own reputation, our own prerogatives and rights, but will have committed ourselves to acknowledge any further claims that he may feel inclined to make in the future.” 

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

February 25, 2024

1973: Announcement of “the first reigning sovereign to enter beneath the shade of this Cause” - His Highness Malietoa Tanumafili II, the Head of State of the independent nation of Western Samoa

7 May 1973

To the Bahá’ís of the World

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

It is now possible to share with you all the news of an event which crowns the victories with which Bahá’u’lláh has blessed His followers during the Nine Year Plan, an event of which the true significance will be fully understood only in the course of centuries to come: a reigning monarch has accepted the Message of Bahá’u’lláh.

Among those to whom The Proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh was presented in 1967 was His Highness Malietoa Tanumafili II, the Head of State of the independent nation of Western Samoa in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. His Highness, who had already heard of the Faith, showed immediately that the sacred Words had touched his heart, and the Universal House of Justice thereupon asked the Hand of the Cause Dr. Ugo Giachery, who had presented the book to him, to return to Western Samoa for further audiences with His Highness. Following this visit the Malietoa conveyed his acceptance of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh to the Universal House of Justice and became the first reigning sovereign to enter beneath the shade of this Cause.

His Highness decided, with the full agreement of the Universal House of Justice, that it was not propitious to make his declaration public at that time. He has been visited from time to time by Hands of the Cause and other believers, and continual touch with His Highness has been maintained by the House of Justice through Mr. Suhayl ‘Alá’í, a member of the Continental Board of Counselors for Australasia. Gradually the Malietoa has let it be known to those around him that he has accepted Bahá’u’lláh. Now he has judged the time ripe to share this wondrous news with his fellow-believers in all parts of the world, by addressing to the International Bahá’í Convention the gracious and inspiring message of which a copy is enclosed with this letter.…

With loving Bahá’í greetings,

The Universal House of Justice

(Online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

February 21, 2024

2007: “a recently disclosed communication by Central Security Office of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology, confidentially conveyed to the officials of eighty-one universities in Iran… called for the expulsion of any student discovered to be a Bahá’í”

The persistent position of the Iranian authorities in banning Bahá’í students from access to higher education is deeply saddening. The policy was clearly confirmed in a recently disclosed communication by the Central Security Office of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology, confidentially conveyed to the officials of eighty-one universities in Iran, which called for the expulsion of any student discovered to be a Bahá’í. It has now been reaffirmed by the action taken recently by the Education Evaluation Organization, which declared as “incomplete”—and therefore invalid—the applications of some 800 Bahá’ís who took the national exam for university entrance for the coming academic year (2007–2008). These official acts are disappointing and shameful.

Only a few months ago, reports carried by newspapers about the expulsion of Bahá’í students in Iran were denied by a spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, who said outright that no one in Iran is expelled from university because of religion. That same assurance was given by the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the United Kingdom, in a written response to the concern a British Member of Parliament had expressed about the government’s treatment of Bahá’í students. A similar avowal by the Iranian embassy in Ethiopia appeared in a newspaper in that country following the publication of a story reporting Iran’s covert plan to identify Bahá’ís and secretly monitor their activities throughout the country.

For more than two decades Bahá’í students in Iran were unable to enter university because the only way open to them would have been to misrepresent their Faith. Then, consequent to a concerted worldwide effort—involving governments, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, and individuals—that raised questions about this situation, your government’s representatives responded by averring that the reference to religion on the forms was not to identify university applicants by belief but only to specify the religion on which they wished to be examined. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a message dated 09 September 2007, addressed to the Bahá’í students deprived of access to higher education in Iran; online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

February 16, 2024

“sufferings which, for no less than seventy years, were endured by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá”

To the mounting tide of trials which laid low the Báb, to the long-drawn-out calamities which rained on Bahá’u’lláh, to the warnings sounded by both the Herald and the Author of the Bahá’í Revelation, must be added the sufferings which, for no less than seventy years, were endured by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as well as His pleas, and entreaties, uttered in the evening of His life, in connection with the dangers that increasingly threatened the whole of mankind.

  • Born in the very year that witnessed the inception of the Bábí Revelation;
  • baptized with the initial fires of persecution that raged around that nascent Cause;
  • an eyewitness, when a boy of eight, of the violent upheavals that rocked the Faith which His Father had espoused;
  • sharing with Him, the ignominy, the perils, and rigors consequent upon the successive banishments from His native-land to countries far beyond its confines;
  • arrested and forced to support, in a dark cell, the indignity of imprisonment soon after His arrival in Akká;
  • the object of repeated investigations and the target of continual assaults and insults under the despotic rule of Sultán ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd, and later under the ruthless military dictatorship of the suspicious and merciless Jamál Páshá—

He, too, the Center and Pivot of Bahá’u’lláh’s peerless Covenant and the perfect Exemplar of His teachings, was made to taste, at the hands of potentates, ecclesiastics, governments and peoples, the cup of woe which the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, as well as so many of their followers, had drained. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

February 11, 2024

1976: “Bahá'ís form a majority or even the entire population of the village”: - “many villages in India, the Philippines, Africa, Latin America, etc.”

There are, at the present time, many villages in India, the Philippines, Africa, Latin America, etc., where the Bahá'ís form a majority or even the entire population of the village. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a letter dated 27 July 1976 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer; The Compilation of Compilations, Vol. III, Social and Economic Development)

February 6, 2024

2006: The “most significant developments in the process of integration… directly related to the Faith”: - “many of which were nurtured by the Guardian”

…for the followers of Bahá’u’lláh the most significant developments in the process of integration are those directly related to the Faith, many of which were nurtured by the Guardian himself and which have advanced tremendously since their modest beginnings.

  • From the small nucleus of believers to whom he imparted his first teaching plans has grown a worldwide community with a presence in thousands of localities, each following a well-established pattern of activity that embodies the Faith’s principles and aspirations.
  • Upon the foundation of the Administrative Order he so painstakingly laid during the early decades of his ministry has been raised a large, closely knit network of National and Local Spiritual Assemblies diligently administering the affairs of the Cause in more than one hundred and eighty countries.
  • From the first contingents of Auxiliary Board members for the Protection and Propagation of the Faith brought into being by him has arisen a legion of nearly one thousand stalwart workers serving in the field under the direction of eighty-one Counsellors ably guided by the International Teaching Centre.
  • The evolution of the World Administrative Center of the Faith, within the precincts of its World Spiritual Center, a process to which the Guardian consecrated so much energy, has crossed a crucial threshold with the occupation by the Universal House of Justice of its Seat on Mount Carmel and the subsequent completion of the International Teaching Centre Building and the Centre for the Study of the Texts.
  • The Institution of Huqúqu’lláh has steadily progressed under the stewardship of the Hand of the Cause of God Dr. ‘Alí-Muhammad Varqá, appointed Trustee by Shoghi Effendi fifty years ago, culminating in the establishment in 2005 of an international board designed to promote the continued widespread application of this mighty law, a source of inestimable blessings for all humanity.

February 1, 2024

2004: “the great majority of National Spiritual Assemblies have chosen to adopt the course materials devised by the Ruhi Institute”

As foreseen, the training institute is proving to be an engine of growth. On assessing the opportunities and needs of their respective communities, the great majority of National Spiritual Assemblies have chosen to adopt the course materials devised by the Ruhi Institute, finding them most responsive to the Plan’s needs. This has had the collateral benefit that the same materials have been translated into many languages and, wherever Bahá’ís travel, they find other friends following the same path and familiar with the same books and methods. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (Ridván 2004 message to the Bahá’ís of the World; online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

January 28, 2024

2004: Election of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iraq – “restored after more than thirty years”

…we announce with great joy the election, this Ridván, of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iraq, restored after more than thirty years of stifling oppression, to take its rightful place in the international Bahá’í community. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (Ridván 2004 message to the Bahá’ís of the World; online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

January 22, 2024

1846: At the request of the Imám-Jum’ih of Isfahan, the Báb revealed a commentary on the Súrih of Va’l-‘Asr of Qur’an in the presence of His host and his companions – “a number of verses as to equal a fourth, nay a third, of the Qur’án”

One night, after supper, the Imám-Jum’ih, whose curiosity had been excited by the extraordinary traits of character which his youthful Guest had revealed, ventured to request Him to reveal a commentary on the Súrih of Va’l-‘Asr.  His request was readily granted. Calling for pen and paper, the Báb, with astonishing rapidity and without the least premeditation, began to reveal, in the presence of His host, a most illuminating interpretation of the aforementioned Súrih. It was nearing midnight when the Báb found Himself engaged in the exposition of the manifold implications involved in the first letter of that Súrih. That letter, the letter ‘váv’ upon which Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsá’í had already laid such emphasis in his writings, symbolised for the Báb the advent of a new cycle of Divine Revelation, and has since been alluded to by Bahá’u’lláh in the “Kitab-i-Aqdas” in such passages as “the mastery of the Great Reversal” and “the Sign of the Sovereign.” The Báb soon after began to chant, in the presence of His host and his companions, the homily with which He had prefaced His commentary on the Súrih. Those words of power confounded His hearers with wonder. They seemed as if bewitched by the magic of His voice. Instinctively they started to their feet and, together with the Imám-Jum’ih, reverently kissed the hem of His garment. Mullá Muḥammad-Taqíy-i-Haratí, an eminent mujtahid, broke out into a sudden expression of exultation and praise. “Peerless and unique,” he exclaimed, “as are the words which have streamed from this pen, to be able to reveal, within so short a time and in so legible a writing, so great a number of verses as to equal a fourth, nay a third, of the Qur’án, is in itself an achievement such as no mortal, without the intervention of God, could hope to perform. Neither the cleaving of the moon nor the quickening of the pebbles of the sea can compare with so mighty an act.” 

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

January 14, 2024

Some of the “ordeal[s] and…indignities” that Baha’u’llah suffered - summarized by Shoghi Effendi

To enumerate a few of the outstanding features of this moving drama will suffice to evoke in the reader of these pages, already familiar with the history of the Faith, the memory of those vicissitudes which it has experienced, and which the world has until now viewed with such frigid indifference.

  • The forced and sudden retirement of Bahá’u’lláh to the mountains of Sulaymáníyyih, and the distressing consequences that flowed from His two years’ complete withdrawal;
  • the incessant intrigues indulged in by the exponents of Shí’ih Islám in Najaf and Karbilá, working in close and constant association with their confederates in Persia;
  • the intensification of the repressive measures decreed by Sultán ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz which brought to a head the defection of certain prominent members of the exiled community;
  • the enforcement of yet another banishment by order of that same Sultán, this time to that far off and most desolate of cities, causing such despair as to lead two of the exiles to attempt suicide;
  • the unrelaxing surveillance to which they were subjected upon their arrival in Akká, by hostile officials, and the insufferable imprisonment for two years in the barracks of that town;
  • the interrogatory to which the Turkish páshá subsequently subjected his Prisoner at the headquarters of the government;
  • His confinement for no less than eight years in a humble dwelling surrounded by the befouled air of that city, His sole recreation being confined to pacing the narrow space of His room—

these, as well as other tribulations, proclaim, on the one hand, the nature of the ordeal and the indignities He suffered, and point, on the other, the finger of accusation at those mighty ones of the earth who had either so sorely maltreated Him, or deliberately withheld from Him their succor. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

January 8, 2024

May 1992: The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies expressed “profound admiration” for Bahá’u’lláh: The Author of “the most colossal religious work written by the pen of a single Man”

The world’s appreciation of Bahá’u’lláh came perhaps most explicitly into focus on 29 May 1992, the centenary of His death, when the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies met in solemn session to pay tribute to Him, to His teachings and to the services rendered to humanity by the community He founded. On that occasion, the Speaker of the Chamber and spokespersons from every party rose, successively, to express their profound admiration of One who was described in their addresses as the Author of “the most colossal religious work written by the pen of a single Man”, a message that “reaches out to humanity as a whole, without petty differences of nationality, race, limits or belief”. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a message dated 26 November 2003, addressed to the Followers of Bahá’u’lláh in the Cradle of the Faith; Online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

January 5, 2024

2003: “17,000 clusters worldwide”

During the initial months of the Plan, National Spiritual Assemblies proceeded with relative ease to divide the territories under their jurisdiction into areas consisting of adjacent localities, called clusters, using criteria that were purely geographic and social and did not relate to the strength of local Bahá’í communities. Reports received at the World Centre indicate that there are now close to 17,000 clusters worldwide, excluding those countries where, for one reason or another, the operation of the Faith is restricted. The number of clusters per country varies widely—from India with its 1,580 to Singapore, which necessarily sees itself as one cluster. Some of the groupings are sparsely populated areas with only a few thousand inhabitants, while the boundaries of others encompass several million people. For the most part, large urban centers under the jurisdiction of one Local Spiritual Assembly have been designated single clusters, these in turn being divided into sectors, so as to facilitate planning and implementation. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a message dated 17 January 2003 to the Bahá’ís of the World; Online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

December 31, 2023

The “other tribulations which, before and immediately after this dreadful episode [Siyah-Chal], touched Baha’u’llah

And what of the other tribulations which, before and immediately after this dreadful episode, touched Him?

  • What of His confinement in the home of one of the kad-khudás of Tihrán
  • What of the savage violence with which He was stoned by the angry people in the neighborhood of the village of Níyálá?
  • What of His incarceration by the emissaries of the army of the Sháh in Mázindarán, and His receiving the bastinado by order, and in the presence, of the assembled siyyids and mujtahids into whose hands He had been delivered by the civil authorities of Ámul?
  • What of the howls of derision and abuse with which a crowd of ruffians subsequently pursued Him?
  • What of the monstrous accusation brought against Him by the Imperial household, the Court and the people, when the attempt was made on the life of Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh?
  • What of the infamous outrages, the abuse and ridicule heaped on Him when He was arrested by responsible officers of the government, and conducted from Níyávarán “on foot and in chains, with bared head and bare feet,” and exposed to the fierce rays of the midsummer sun, to the Síyáh-Chál of Ṭihrán?
  • What of the avidity with which corrupt officials sacked His house and carried away all His possessions and disposed of His fortune?
  • What of the cruel edict that tore Him from the small band of the Báb’s bewildered, hounded, and shepherdless followers, separated Him from His kinsmen and friends, and banished Him, in the depth of winter, despoiled and defamed, to ‘Iráq?

Severe as were these tribulations which succeeded one another with bewildering rapidity as a result of the premeditated attacks and the systematic machinations of the court, the clergy, the government and the people, they were but the prelude to a harrowing and extensive captivity which that edict had formally initiated. Extending over a period of more than forty years, and carrying Him successively to ‘Iráq, Sulaymáníyyih, Constantinople, Adrianople and finally to the penal colony of Akká, this long banishment was at last ended by His death, at the age of over three score years and ten, terminating a captivity which, in its range, its duration and the diversity and severity of its afflictions, is unexampled in the history of previous Dispensations. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

December 26, 2023

“For three days and three nights no manner of food or drink was given to Bahá’u’lláh”

“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  (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

December 19, 2023

Eight-year-old ‘Abdu’l-Bha was allowed to see Baha’u’llah while in Siyah-Chal

“‘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.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

December 12, 2023

Bahá’u’lláh describes the awful conditions of the Black Pit

“We were consigned,” He 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!” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

December 7, 2023

Bahá’u’lláh was “for nearly half a century… under the domination of the two most powerful potentates of the East”

What of Bahá’u’lláh, the germ of Whose Revelation, as attested by the Báb, is endowed with a potency superior to the combined forces of the Bábí Dispensation? Was He not—He for Whom the Báb had suffered and died in such tragic and miraculous circumstances—made, for nearly half a century and under the domination of the two most powerful potentates of the East, the object of a systematic and concerted conspiracy which, in its effects and duration, is scarcely paralleled in the annals of previous religions? 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)