February 20, 2020
February 12, 2020
circa 1920s: View of Bahji at beginning of Shoghi Effendi's ministry
Left to right: House occupied by Covenant-breakers, Balcony of the Mansion, Entrance to Baha'u'llah's Tomb, Pilgrim House.
(The Baha'i World 1954-1963)
February 8, 2020
The “apparent evolution in the scope” of the teachings of the Faith during 1844-1944
We perceive a no less apparent evolution in the scope of its
teachings, at first designedly rigid, complex and severe, subsequently recast,
expanded, and liberalized under the succeeding Dispensation, later expounded,
reaffirmed and amplified by an appointed Interpreter, and lastly systematized
and universally applied to both individuals and institutions.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Preface to God Passes By’)
February 5, 2020
“no less than half” of Nabil’s narrative is devoted to the first nine years of Baha’i Era
Little wonder that the immortal chronicler of the events
associated with the birth and rise of the Bahá’í Revelation has seen fit to
devote no less than half of his moving narrative to the description of those
happenings that have during such a brief space of time so greatly enriched,
through their tragedy and heroism, the religious annals of mankind.
- Shoghi Effendi
(‘God Passes By’)
February 1, 2020
October 1848: Mulla Husayn and his companions enter the Shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi
Mulla Husayn and his companions entered the Shrine of Shaykh
Tabarsi and were attacked that night by a body of horsemen from Qadi-Kula.
- Moojan Momen (The
Baha’i World, vol. 18)
January 27, 2020
The gradual increase in Baha’i literature during 1844-1944
We notice a similar development in the extent of its
literature—a literature which, restricted at first to the narrow range of
hurriedly transcribed, often corrupted, secretly circulated, manuscripts, so
furtively perused, so frequently effaced, and at times even eaten by the
terrorized members of a proscribed sect, has, within the space of a century,
swelled into innumerable editions, comprising tens of thousands of printed
volumes, in diverse scripts, and in no less than forty languages, some
elaborately reproduced, others profusely illustrated, all methodically and
vigorously disseminated through the agency of world-wide, properly constituted
and specially organized committees and Assemblies.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Preface to
God Passes By’)
January 24, 2020
The Báb’s “arch-enemy”
The arch-enemy who repudiated His claim, challenged His
authority, persecuted His Cause, succeeded in almost quenching His light, and
who eventually became disintegrated under the impact of His Revelation was the
Shí‘ah priesthood. Fiercely fanatic, unspeakably corrupt, enjoying unlimited
ascendancy over the masses, jealous of their position, and irreconcilably
opposed to all liberal ideas, the members of this caste had for one thousand
years invoked the name of the Hidden Imám, their breasts had glowed with the
expectation of His advent, their pulpits had rung with the praises of His
world-embracing dominion, their lips were still devoutly and perpetually
murmuring prayers for the hastening of His coming.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
January 20, 2020
The people among whom the Báb appeared
The people among whom He appeared were the most decadent
race in the civilized world, grossly ignorant, savage, cruel, steeped in
prejudice, servile in their submission to an almost deified hierarchy,
recalling in their abjectness the Israelites of Egypt in the days of Moses, in
their fanaticism the Jews in the days of Jesus, and in their perversity the
idolators of Arabia in the days of Muhammad.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
January 16, 2020
January 12, 2020
1954: The first Baha'is in the British Cameroons
Enoch Olinga, pionner from East Africa (top left, dark suit) carried the Faith to this goal country of the Ten-Year Plan.
(The Baha'i World 1950-1954)
January 11, 2020
The sufferings of Baha’u’llah: “No torment was there left that His sacred form was not subjected to.” - ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains
The Abhá Beauty Himself—may the spirit of all existence be
offered up for His loved ones—bore all manner of ordeals, and willingly
accepted for Himself intense afflictions. No torment was there left that His
sacred form was not subjected to, no suffering that did not descend upon Him.
How many a night, when He was chained, did He go sleepless because of the
weight of His iron collar; how many a day the burning pain of the stocks and
fetters gave Him no moment’s peace. From Níyávarán to Ṭihrán they made Him
run—He, that embodied spirit, He Who had been accustomed to repose against
cushions of ornamented silk—chained, shoeless, His head bared; and down under
the earth, in the thick darkness of that narrow dungeon, they shut Him up with
murderers, rebels and thieves. Ever and again they assailed Him with a new
torment, and all were certain that from one moment to the next He would suffer
a martyr’s death. After some time they banished Him from His native land, and
sent Him to countries alien and far away. During many a year in ‘Iráq, no
moment passed but the arrow of a new anguish struck His holy heart; with every
breath a sword came down upon that sacred body, and He could hope for no moment
of security and rest. From every side His enemies mounted their attack with
unrelenting hate; and singly and alone He withstood them all. After all these
tribulations, these body blows, they flung Him out of ‘Iráq in the continent of
Asia, to the continent of Europe, and in that place of bitter exile, of
wretched hardships, to the wrongs that were heaped upon Him by the people of
the Qur’án were now added the virulent persecutions, the powerful attacks, the
plottings, the slanders, the continual hostilities, the hate and malice, of the
people of the Bayán. My pen is powerless to tell it all; but ye have surely
been informed of it. Then, after twenty-four years in this, the Most Great
Prison, in agony and sore affliction, His days drew to a close.
To sum it up, the Ancient Beauty was ever, during His
sojourn in this transitory world, either a captive bound with chains, or living
under a sword, or subjected to extreme suffering and torment, or held in the
Most Great Prison. Because of His physical weakness, brought on by His
afflictions, His blessed body was worn away to a breath; it was light as a
cobweb from long grieving.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the Writings of
‘Abdu’l-Baha’)
January 7, 2020
Baha’u’llah describes the incident in Adrianople when soldiers were posted round His house and His followers were told to prepare for their departure from Adrianople
Know thou, O servant, that one day, upon awakening, We found
the beloved of God at the mercy of Our adversaries. Sentinels were posted at
every gate and no one was permitted to enter or leave. Indeed, they perpetrated
a sore injustice, for the loved ones of God and His kindred were left on the
first night without food. Such was the fate of those for whose sake the world
and all that is therein have been created. Woe betide the perpetrators and
those who led them into such evil!
Erelong will God consume their souls in the fire. He, verily, is the
fiercest of avengers.
The people surrounded the house, and Muslims and Christians
wept over Us, and the voice of lamentation was upraised between earth and
heaven by reason of what the hands of the oppressors had wrought. We perceived
that the weeping of the people of the Son exceeded the weeping of others—a sign
for such as ponder.
One of My companions offered up his life, cutting his throat
with his own hands for the love of God, an act unheard of in bygone centuries
and which God hath set apart for this Revelation as an evidence of the power of
His might. [1] He, verily, is the Unconstrained, the All-Subduing. As for the
one who thus slew himself in ‘Iráq, [2] he truly is the King and Beloved of
Martyrs, and that which he evinced was a testimony from God unto the peoples of
the earth. Such souls have been influenced by the Word of God, have tasted the
sweetness of His remembrance, and are so transported by the breezes of reunion
that they have detached themselves from all that dwell on earth and turned unto
the Divine Countenance with faces beaming with light. And though they have
committed an act which God hath forbidden, He hath nevertheless forgiven them
as a token of His mercy. He, verily, is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most
Compassionate. So enraptured were these souls by Him Who is the All-Compelling
that the reins of volition slipped from their grasp, until at last they
ascended to the dwelling of the Unseen and entered the presence of God, the
Almighty, the All-Knowing.
- Baha’u’llah (Súriy-i-Ra’ís, addressed to ‘Álí
Páshá, the Ottoman Prime Minister; ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
[1] Hájí Ja‘far-i-Tabrízí; he was prevented in time from
ending his life
[2] Siyyid Ismá‘íl of Zavárih
December 31, 2019
The gradual increase in the diversity of the followers of the Faith during 1844-1944
We witness a corresponding increase in the diversity of the
elements within its fellowship, which from being confined, in the first period
of its history, to an obscure body of followers chiefly recruited from the
ranks of the masses in Shi‘ah Persia, has expanded into a fraternity
representative of the leading religious systems of the world, of almost every
caste and color, from the humblest worker and peasant to royalty itself.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Preface to God Passes By’)
December 27, 2019
1990- Moscow: First national Baha'i conference held in the USSR in about 60 years
(Baha'i International News Service, no. 224)
December 22, 2019
The gradual spread of the Faith during 1844-1944
We watch, through these periods, the infant light of the
Faith diffuse itself from its cradle, eastward to India and the Far East,
westward to the neighboring territories of ‘Iráq, of Turkey, of Russia, and of
Egypt, travel as far as the North American continent, illuminate subsequently
the major countries of Europe, envelop with its radiance, at a later stage, the
Antipodes, brighten the fringes of the Arctic, and finally set aglow the
Central and South American horizons.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Preface to God Passes
By’)
December 17, 2019
High-level features of the Faith during 1921 to 1944
The fourth period
(1921–1944) is motivated by the forces radiating from the Will and Testament of
‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, that Charter of Bahá’u’lláh’s New World Order, the
offspring resulting from the mystic intercourse between Him Who is the Source
of the Law of God and the mind of the One Who is the vehicle and interpreter of
that Law. The inception of this fourth, this last period of the first Bahá’í
century synchronizes with the birth of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Era,
with the founding of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—a
system which is at once the harbinger, the nucleus and pattern of His World
Order. This period, covering the first twenty-three years of this Formative
Age, has already been distinguished by an outburst of further hostility, of a
different character, accelerating on the one hand the diffusion of the Faith
over a still wider area in each of the five continents of the globe, and
resulting on the other in the emancipation and the recognition of the
independent status of several communities within its pale.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Preface to ‘God Passes
By’)
December 10, 2019
1892-1921: High-level features with respect to the Faith
The third period (1892–1921) revolves around
the vibrant personality of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, mysterious in His
essence, unique in His station, astoundingly potent in both the charm and
strength of His character. It commences with the announcement of the Covenant
of Bahá’u’lláh, a document without parallel in the history of any earlier Dispensation,
attains its climax in the emphatic assertion by the Center of that Covenant, in
the City of the Covenant, of the unique character and far-reaching implications
of that Document, and closes with His passing and the interment of His remains
on Mt. Carmel. It will go down in history as a period of almost thirty years’
duration, in which tragedies and triumphs have been so intertwined as to
eclipse at one time the Orb of the Covenant, and at another time to pour forth
its light over the continent of Europe, and as far as Australasia, the Far East
and the North American continent.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Preface to 'God Passes By’)
December 1, 2019
1853-1892: High-level summary of events associated with the Faith
The second period (1853–1892) derives its inspiration from
the august figure of Bahá’u’lláh, preeminent in holiness, awesome in the
majesty of His strength and power, unapproachable in the transcendent
brightness of His glory. It opens with the first stirrings, in the soul of
Bahá’u’lláh while in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán, of the Revelation anticipated by
the Báb, attains its plenitude in the proclamation of that Revelation to the
kings and ecclesiastical leaders of the earth, and terminates in the ascension
of its Author in the vicinity of the prison-town of ‘Akká. It extends over
thirty-nine years of continuous, of unprecedented and overpowering Revelation,
is marked by the propagation of the Faith to the neighboring territories of
Turkey, of Russia, of ‘Iráq, of Syria, of Egypt and of India, and is
distinguished by a corresponding aggravation of hostility, represented by the
united attacks launched by the Sháh of Persia and the Sultán of Turkey, the two
admittedly most powerful potentates of the East, as well as by the opposition
of the twin sacerdotal orders of Shi‘ah and Sunní Islám.
- Shoghi Effendi (Preface to ‘God Passes By’)
November 27, 2019
1844–1853: High-level summary of events associated with the Faith
The first period (1844–1853), centers around the gentle, the
youthful and irresistible person of the Báb, matchless in His meekness,
imperturbable in His serenity, magnetic in His utterance, unrivaled in the
dramatic episodes of His swift and tragic ministry. It begins with the
Declaration of His Mission, culminates in His martyrdom, and ends in a
veritable orgy of religious massacre revolting in its hideousness. It is
characterized by nine years of fierce and relentless contest, whose theatre was
the whole of Persia, in which above ten thousand heroes laid down their lives,
in which two sovereigns of the Qájár dynasty and their wicked ministers
participated, and which was supported by the entire Shi‘ah ecclesiastical
hierarchy, by the military resources of the state, and by the implacable
hostility of the masses.
- Shoghi Effendi (Preface to ‘God Passes By’)
November 25, 2019
Dr. August Forel and the Baha’i Faith – The Guardian explains
 |
| (Wikipedia) |
Shoghi Effendi, however, in his letter addressed personally
to your father explained to him that the Bahá’ís should firmly believe in the
existence of God and in the immortality of the soul and in many other
fundamental teachings which the Bahá’ís share with the adherents of many other
religions. Our lamented doctor may have most probably considered it unwise to
declare openly that he had rejected all his previous conceptions in regard to
the existence of God and such similar ideas and preferred to express in an
indirect way the many changes which the knowledge of the Faith had brought in
his mind by declaring that he had become a Bahá’í.
November 18, 2019
1844-1944: The “gigantic” and “catastrophic” consequences experienced by various dynasties for rejecting the Divine Summons
What, then—might we not consider—has, in the face of so
complete and ignominious a rejection, happened, and is still happening, in the
course, and particularly in the closing years, of this, the first Bahá’í
century, a century fraught with such tumultuous sufferings and violent outrages
for the persecuted Faith of Bahá’u’lláh? Empires fallen in dust, kingdoms
subverted, dynasties extinguished, royalty besmirched, kings assassinated,
poisoned, driven into exile, subjugated in their own realms, whilst the few
remaining thrones are trembling with the repercussions of the fall of their
fellows.
This process, so gigantic, so catastrophic, may be said to
have had its inception on that memorable night when, in an obscure corner of
Shíráz, the Báb, in the presence of the First Letter to believe in Him,
revealed the first chapter of His celebrated commentary on the Súrih of Joseph
(The Qayyúm-i-Asmá), in which He trumpeted His Call to the sovereigns and
princes of the earth. It passed from incubation to visible manifestation when
Bahá’u’lláh’s prophecies, enshrined for all time in the Súriy-i-Haykal, and
uttered before Napoleon III’s dramatic downfall and the self-imposed
imprisonment of Pope Pius IX in the Vatican, were fulfilled. It gathered
momentum when, in the days of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Great War extinguished the
Romanov, the Hohenzollern, and Hapsburg dynasties, and converted powerful
time-honored monarchies into republics. It was further accelerated, soon after
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing, by the demise of the effete Qájár dynasty in Persia,
and the stupendous collapse of both the Sultanate and the Caliphate. It is
still operating, under our very eyes, as we behold the fate which, in the
course of this colossal and ravaging struggle, is successively overtaking the
crowned heads of the European continent. Surely, no man, contemplating
dispassionately the manifestations of this relentless revolutionizing process,
within comparatively so short a time, can escape the conclusion that the last
hundred years may well be regarded, in so far as the fortunes of royalty are
concerned, as one of the most cataclysmic periods in the annals of mankind.
- Shoghi
Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)
November 10, 2019
The reaction of the monarchs who received direct Tablets from Baha’u’llah
Dear friends! Enough has been said to portray the
tribulations which, for so long a time, overwhelmed the Founders of so
preeminent a Revelation, and which the world has so disastrously ignored.
Sufficient attention has also been directed to the Messages addressed to those
sovereign rulers who, either in the exercise of their unconditioned authority,
have deliberately provoked these sufferings, or could have, in the plenitude of
their power, arisen to mitigate their effect or deflect their tragic course.
Let us now consider the consequences that have ensued. The reaction of these
monarchs was, as already stated, varied and unmistakable and, as the march of
events has gradually unfolded, disastrous in its consequences. One of the most
outstanding amongst these sovereigns treated the Divine Summons with gross
disrespect, dismissing it with a curt and insolent reply, written by one of his
ministers. Another laid violent hold on the bearer of the Message, tortured,
branded, and brutally slew him. Others preferred to maintain a contemptuous
silence. All failed completely in their duty to arise and extend their
assistance. Two of them, in particular, prompted by the dual impulse of fear
and anger, tightened their grip on the Cause they had jointly resolved to
uproot. The one condemned his Divine Prisoner to yet another banishment, to
“the most unsightly of cities in appearance, the most detestable in climate,
and the foulest in water,” whilst the other, powerless to lay hands on the
Prime Mover of a hated Faith, subjected its adherents under his sway to abject
and savage cruelties. The recital of Bahá’u’lláh’s sufferings, embodied in
those Messages, failed to evoke compassion in their hearts. His appeals, the
like of which neither the annals of Christianity nor even those of Islám have
recorded, were disdainfully rejected. The dark warnings He uttered were
haughtily scorned. The bold challenges He issued were ignored. The
chastisements He predicted they derisively brushed aside.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘The
Promised Day Is Come’)
November 1, 2019
October 16, 2019
October 1, 2019
April 1953: Baha'is attending the First Italo-Swiss Baha'i Convention, Florence, Italy
(The Baha'i World 1950-1954)
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