Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper (The Baha'i World 1938-1940)
February 28, 2015
February 25, 2015
December 13, 1971: Erection of the obelisk on Mount Carmel
The obelisk, marking the site of the future
Mashriqu'l-Adhkar on Mount Carmel, was raised. This project was initiated by
the beloved Guardian.
(Adapted from two messages of the Universal House of
Justice dated 13 December 1971 and Ridvan 1973)
February 22, 2015
1925: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada
(Researched and prepared by Duane Troxel)
February 19, 2015
October 1941: Egypt's first Haziratu'l-Quds
February 17, 2015
The great expansion of the Faith at the end of the Nine Year Plan – April 1964 to April 1973
- 113 National Spiritual Assemblies
- 17,000 Local Spiritual Assemblies
- 69,500 localities worldwide
- Bahá'í literature was translated to 571 languages – a gain of 225 from 1964
- The Faith acquired: 63 more Temple sites, 56 additional National Haziratu'l-Quds, and 62 more National Endowments bringing the total numbers of these properties to 98, 112 and 104 respectively.
- As of April 1973 there were 50 Teaching Institutes and Summer and Winter Schools and 15 Baha’i Publishing Trusts
- The Mother Temple of Latin America was built and dedicated during the Nine Year Plan
- 90 National Spiritual Assemblies and 1,556 Local Spiritual Assemblies were incorporated
- Bahá'í Holy Days were recognized in 64 countries
- Bahá'í marriage certification was recognized in 40 countries
- 3,553 pioneers left their homes during the Plan --2,265 of whom were still at their posts in April 1973.
February 14, 2015
The Mansion of Mazra'ih was purchased during the Nine Year Plan (1964-1973)
The Mansion of Mazra'ih, often referred to by the beloved
Guardian as one of the "twin mansions" in which the Blessed Beauty
resided after nine years within the walled prison city of 'Akká, and dear to
the hearts of the believers by reason of its associations with their Lord, has
at last been purchased together with 24,000 square metres of land extending
into the plain on its eastward side.
(The Universal House of Justice, from Ridvan 1973
message; Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1968-1973)
February 11, 2015
17000 Local Spiritual Assemblies worldwide as of April 1973
The number of Local Spiritual Assemblies was increased from
5,000 at the beginning of the Nine Year Plan (1964) to 17,000 at the end of the
Plan (April 1973)
(Adapted from the Ridvan 1973
message of the Universal House of Justice)
February 8, 2015
1911: The Baha’is in Iran “founded the Tarbíyat School for Girls in Tihrán”
In 1911, nearly a century ago, you founded the Tarbíyat
School for Girls in Tihrán, which provided girls of all backgrounds with an
opportunity for education, encouraging, in this way, progressive thinking and
making an indelible mark on society.
(The Universal House of Justice, from a message dated 20 June 2008 addressed to the Baha’is in Iran)
(The Universal House of Justice, from a message dated 20 June 2008 addressed to the Baha’is in Iran)
February 4, 2015
Philippines 1972: Three thousand people marched in the funeral procession of three Iranian Baha’i students and six hundred went to the burial site
Message from the Universal House of Justice:
19 September 1972
To the Bahá'ís of the world
With feelings of deep sorrow we relate to the Bahá'í world
the distressing circumstances surrounding the murder of three Iranian Bahá'í
students, pioneers to the Philippine Islands.
Parviz Sadiqi, Faramarz Vujdani and Parviz Furughi were
among a number of Iranian Bahá'í youth who answered the call for pioneers. With
eleven others they registered at the Universities in Mindanao with the
intention of completing their studies and proclaiming the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
These three had conceived the plan of making teaching trips to a rural area
inhabited by Muslims. When on 31 July the authorities of Mindanao State
University were notified that they had left the campus the previous day and had
not yet returned, search parties were immediately formed and the assistance of
the police and local authorities obtained. After inquiries and search, led
entirely by President Tamano of Mindanao State University, the bodies of the
three young men were found in a shallow grave. They had been shot, grievously
mutilated and two had been decapitated. The bodies were removed and given
Bahá'í burial in a beautiful plot donated for the purpose.
January 31, 2015
The unveiling of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, New York, April 1919
They were dispatched to America and unveiled in a ceremony
during the ‘Convention of the Covenant’ held at the Hotel McAlpin in New York
in April 1919. Mary Maxwell (seated, center) and Elizabeth Coristine (seated, right), unveiled the Tablets addressed to Canada. Seated to the left of Mary is Bahiyyih Randall.
January 26, 2015
March 1909: The interment by 'Abdu'l-Baha of the sacred remains of the Báb in their permanent resting place on God's holy mountain
On the 28th of the month of Safar 1327 A.H., the day of the
first Naw-Ruz (1909), which He celebrated after His release from His
confinement, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had the marble sarcophagus transported with great
labor to the vault prepared for it, and in the evening, by the light of a
single lamp, He laid within it, with His own hands -- in the presence of
believers from the East and from the West and in circumstances at once solemn
and moving -- the wooden casket containing the sacred remains of the Bab and
His companion.
When all was finished, and the earthly remains of the
Martyr-Prophet of Shiraz were, at long last, safely deposited for their
everlasting rest in the bosom of God's holy mountain, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who had
cast aside His turban, removed His shoes and thrown off His cloak, bent low
over the still open sarcophagus, His silver hair waving about His head and His
face transfigured and luminous, rested His forehead on the border of the wooden
casket, and, sobbing aloud, wept with such a weeping that all those who were
present wept with Him. That night He could not sleep, so overwhelmed was He
with emotion.
"The most joyful tidings is this," He wrote later
in a Tablet announcing to His followers the news of this glorious victory,
"that the holy, the luminous body of the Báb ... after having for sixty
years been transferred from place to place, by reason of the ascendancy of the
enemy, and from fear of the malevolent, and having known neither rest nor
tranquillity has, through the mercy of the Abha Beauty, been ceremoniously
deposited, on the day of Naw-Ruz, within the sacred casket, in the exalted
Shrine on Mt. Carmel..."
(Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By)
January 23, 2015
1942: First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Tegucigalpa, Honduras
January 21, 2015
A group of early Persian Baha'is imprisoned for their Faith
On the left: Jinab-i-Varqa and his son Ruhu'llah who were later martyred. On the extreme right: Haji Iman-i-Zanjani, a survivor of the Zanjan upheaval. Second from right: Mirza Husayn-i-Zanjani. (The Baha'i World 1940-1944)
January 18, 2015
1912: ‘Abdu’l-Baha comments on the growth of the Baha’i community from Tehran to San Francisco
When they exiled us from Persia, from Tehran to Baghdad,
the journey was made in thirty stages and in these thirty stages we did not
find one Baha’i. Now in every one of these places there are great numbers of
Baha’i friends.
Notwithstanding that the ruler of Persia and the Sultan of
Turkey opposed the Cause so violently exercising tyranny and oppression
thinking to extinguish the Lamp of God yet this Lamp day by day grew in
radiance, its power increased and its illumination became greater, until it
reached such a degree that now its lights are spread throughout the world even
as far as San Francisco, which is very far from Persia. See what this will mean
in the future!
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, from a talk, San Francisco, October 5, 1912; Star
of the West, vol. 10, no. 13, November 4, 1919)
(To read the entire talk please
visit: Talks of
‘Abdu’l-Baha)
January 17, 2015
Táhirih “advocated the emancipation of women in 1848”
Táhirih, that peerless heroine of Iranian history,
courageously advocated the emancipation of women in 1848, at a time when
efforts to improve the status of women were only beginning to gather momentum
in a few parts of the world.
(The Universal House of Justice, from a message dated
20 June 2008 addressed to the Baha’is in Iran)
January 11, 2015
January 10, 2015
1948: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran
Members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran, 1948
January 3, 2015
While besieged within the fort of Shaykh Tabarsi Quddus completed a commentary about Baha’u’llah comprising five hundred thousand verses
Though distant in body, these heroic souls are engaged in
daily communion with their Beloved, partake of the bounty of His utterance, and
share the supreme privilege of His companionship. Otherwise how could Shaykh
Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim have known of the Bab? How could they have perceived the
significance of the secret which lay hidden in Him? How could the Báb Himself,
how could Quddus, His beloved disciple, have written in such terms, had not the
mystic bond of the spirit linked their souls together? Did not the Báb, in the
earliest days of His Mission, allude, in the opening passages of the
Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', His commentary on the Surih of Joseph, to the glory and
significance of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh? Was it not His purpose, by
dwelling upon the ingratitude and malice which characterised the treatment of
Joseph by his brethren, to predict what Bahá'u'lláh was destined to suffer at
the hands of His brother and kindred? Was not Quddus, although besieged within
the fort of Shaykh Tabarsi by the battalions and fire of a relentless enemy,
engaged, both in the daytime and in the night-season, in the completion of his
eulogy of Bahá'u'lláh -- that immortal commentary on the Sad of Samad which had
already assumed the dimensions of five hundred thousand verses? Every verse of
the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', every word of the aforementioned commentary of Quddus,
will, if dispassionately examined, bear eloquent testimony to this truth.
(Shoghi
Effendi, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)
December 29, 2014
Baha'u'llah's ancestral home in Takur
Two views of Baha'u'llah's ancestral home in Takur, in the district of Nur, where He usually spent His summers as a boy.
December 23, 2014
The Author of "the most colossal religious work written by the pen of a single Man" – 29 May 1992: “the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies met in solemn session to pay tribute to” Baha’u’llah
Iran's crisis of civilization will be resolved neither by
blind imitation of an obviously defective Western culture nor by retreat into
medieval ignorance. The answer to the dilemma was enunciated on the very
threshold of the crisis, in the clearest and most compelling language, by a
distinguished Son of lran Who is today honoured in every continent of the world,
but sadly not in the land of His birth. Persia's poetic genius captures the
irony: "I searched the wide world over for my Beloved, while my Beloved
was waiting for me in my own home." The world's appreciation of Baha'u'llah
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 to the ‘Followers
of Baha’u’llah in the Cradle of the Faith)
December 16, 2014
April 2003: The first time the International Baha'i Convention was cancelled and the election of the Universal House of Justice was conducted through mailed ballots
The
Universal House of Justice
4 April
2003
To all
National Spiritual Assemblies
Dear
Baha'i Friends,
We have
been following closely developments in the world as they affect
the Middle East, in the hope that the passage of
events would make it possible for the International Baha'i Convention to be
held as planned. However, for the sake of all concerned we can wait no longer. To our regret, current conditions are such that we feel compelled to cancel the holding of the International Convention, and we write to so inform
you.
This is
the first time we have had to implement
the provision of the Constitution of the Universal House of Justice that
states: "If at the time of an election the Universal House of Justice
shall consider that it is impracticable or unwise to hold the International
Convention it shall determine how the election
shall take place." The ballots of the members of all National Spiritual Assemblies are arriving daily, and
we are arranging for the nineteen delegates chosen to be tellers to come to the
Holy Land to count the votes on the Ninth Day of Ridvan. Should circumstances
make it impossible for these friends to come, we shall adopt another means for the
discharge of this task.
National
Conventions should continue to be held in May, around the Anniversary of the
Declaration of the Báb, as currently planned.
We are
confident that the friends, surrounded by the confirmations of Baha'u'llah,
will pursue the aim of the Five Year Plan with undimmed zeal.
With
loving Baha'i greetings,
The
Universal House of Justice
December 6, 2014
1929: Certification of Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada
Certification of Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada, 1929. (The Baha'i World 1940-1944)
November 29, 2014
Mulla Husayn miraculously finds Baha’u’llah in Tihran and delivers an excerpt from the Báb’s newly-revealed Writings
The glorious mission entrusted to Mulla Husayn was truly
enviable. Its nature was intimated to him by the Báb in assuring words:
"In this pilgrimage upon which We are soon to embark, We
have chosen Quddus as Our companion. We have left you behind to face the
onslaught of a fierce and relentless enemy. Rest assured, however, that a
bounty unspeakably glorious shall be conferred upon you. Follow the course of
your journey towards the north, and visit on your way Isfahan, Kashan, Qum, and
Tihran. Beseech almighty Providence that He may graciously enable you to
attain, in that capital [Tihran], the seat of true sovereignty. A secret lies hidden
in that city. When made manifest, it shall turn the earth into paradise. My
hope is that you may partake of its grace and recognize its splendour.”
When Mulla Husayn reached the capital, Tihran, he lived in
one of the rooms of a religious school. The leader of the Shaykhi community of
Tihran, who acted as an instructor in that institution was approached by Mulla
Husayn but failed to respond to his motivation to accept the Message of the
Báb. Mulla Husayn assured him that he had no intention of prolonging his stay
in Tihran, that his aim was in no wise to abase or suppress the teachings
inculcated by Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim.
During his stay in that capital Mulla Husayn did not appear
in public. He limited himself to confidential conversations with those who
visited him. He received a fair number of individuals and won over a large
number of enquirers. According to the French historian Comte de Gobineau, among
the people who showed interest in seeing him were the King, Muhammad Shah and his
Minister, Haji Mirza Aqasi. Mulla Husayn presented them with some of the
Writings of the Báb.
November 22, 2014
September 1994: Liberia's first National Baha'i Youth Conference
November 16, 2014
1942: First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Port-au-Prince, Haiti
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