Baha'i Faith
 In
the early part of the 19th century there were a number
of scholars from several world religions who, working independently
and unknown to each other, came to the conclusion that the appearance
of the Promised One of their respective Holy Scriptures was imminent.
In fact, they separately concluded that the year 1844 would be
a momentous one for all of humanity. Notably, in the United States,
Rev. William Miller predicted that Christ would return that year.
A German religious group settled in the Holy Land at the foot
of Mount Carmel to await the coming of Christ there. [image: the
Shrine of the Bab on Mount Carmel]
In Persia, a devoted band of students gathered around two scholars
who prepared them to scatter and look for a new Messenger from
God Who would fulfill the prophecies of Islam. The Baha'is believe
that all of these hopes were eventually realized.
The Bab (The Gate)
In May of 1844, a young Persian declared that He was the promised
Qa'im of Shi'ah Islam. He assumed the title of The Bab (Gate).
The Bab's mission was twofold: first, He was an independent Messenger
of God and, second, like John the Baptist, He prepared the way
for another Messenger of God soon to follow, Baha'u'llah.
The first six years of the Bab's Ministry saw a dramatic increase
in both the number of his followers and in the energy spent by
the Shi'ah clergy of Iran to stamp out this new religion. Eventually
20,000 Babis were put to death for their beliefs. The Bab Himself
was imprisoned and, at the youthful age of thirty, cruelly executed
in July of 1850.
During His Ministry, the Bab, in numerous writings and in clear
language, directed the people to prepare themselves for the coming
of another Manifestation of God Who would be none other than the
Promised One of all the religions of the world. The Bab, emphatically
and repeatedly, stated that the Promised One was already on earth
and that many of His own followers would have the bounty of meeting
Him and embracing the Cause of "He, Whom God shall make manifest."
The Faith of the youthful Herald was, like Himself, magnificent,
intense and short-lived. It lasted for only 19 years. It remained
for the second Manifestation to administer the full range of the
divine teachings needed to vivify a sorely-ailing humanity.
Baha'u'llah (The Glory of God)
Among the followers of the Bab was Mirza Husayn-`Ali, later given
the title of Baha'u'llah, which means the Glory of God. He was
born in 1817 in Tehran, the capital of Persia. His father, Mirza
Buzurg of Nur, wealthy nobleman from the mountainous regions of
Mazindaran, was a Vazir, or Minister, of the Shah of Persia. From
His earliest years Baha'u'llah possessed remarkable and unusual
powers. At the age of seven, He appeared before the Shah to argue
a case on behalf of His father, and won His claim. The loftiness
and purity of His character endeared Him not only to His kinsmen
and immediate associates, but to strangers as well. His father,
the minister, was fully aware of his son's extraordinary powers,
although the destiny of the Child could not be known to him.
Baha'u'llah grew up in an environment of wealth, power and comfort.
When His father died, his post in the court was offered to Baha'u'llah,
but He declined to accept it. The Grand Vazir reportedly responded
by saying that the young man was destined for a work of greater
magnitude, and service in the government was too insignificant
for His vast capacities.
Although unschooled, Baha'u'llah displayed an unequaled knowledge
of many subjects, ranging from religious scriptures and history
to poetry and the arts. His love of animals and nature was matched
by His deep affection for the poor, the downtrodden and the sick.
Married at an early age to a young woman of an equally noble family,
He and His wife devoted themselves to the service of all who needed
help, sustenance and the redress of injustice. They became known
as "the Father and the Mother of the Poor." Those who
sought their help found them truly loving and caring.
Soon after the Bab declared His Mission in 1844, this young nobleman
embraced the Faith of the Bab and arose, in the face of grave
danger, to champion His Cause.
The Bab spoke and wrote of Baha'u'llah with great love and fervor
and longed to offer His all in service to Him, knowing full well
that Baha'u'llah was the Promised One, Who would announce His
Own mission in the fullness of time.
After the Martyrdom of the Bab, as the chief Champion of the
Faith of His Herald, Baha'u'llah attracted the pure in heart and
those who were spiritually awakened. At the same time, the misguided
and self-serving clergy found Him a great threat to their positions
of power.
Eventually, the government of the Shah capitulated to the clamor
of the clergy that the new religion be extinguished. In 1853 Baha'u'llah
was imprisoned by the government in a dreadful dungeon in Tehran
for several months. The infamous Garah Guhar chain, weighing a
hundred pounds and reserved for the worst criminals, was placed
around His neck, leaving its marks on His body for the rest of
His life. He was put into a deep, underground pit crowded with
notorious thieves and murderers, as well as other innocent believers
of the Bab.
Those imprisoned for the new Faith prayed and sang together in
the total darkness, amid the stench of that loathsome place. Every
day several of the Bab's followers were summoned from the dungeon
to their executions. It was here that Baha'u'llah began to receive
His full revelation from God. He told no one what was occurring
to Him.
Through the intercession of foreign diplomatic missions, His
life was spared with the stipulation that He be permanently banished
from Persia. Exiled to Baghdad, His ill-wishers hoped that the
longstanding animosity of the local people against Persians would
make life there like a prison for Him.
Baha'u'llah, His young family, and followers reached Baghdad
after a tortuous journey through the mountains in the depths of
winter, poorly clad, and ill-fed. Once settled there in a small
dwelling, the magnificence of the transcendent character of Baha'u'llah
quickly overcame the deeply-rooted Arab-Persian hostility. Many
people, from all strata of society, were irresistibly attracted
to Him and sought His presence.
Once again the clergy became alarmed at Baha'u'llah's spiritual
influence and induced the two despotic kings, the Shah of Iran
and the Sultan of the Ottoman Turks, to banish Baha'u'llah even
farther away, to Constantinople, now called Istanbul.
In April, 1863, just before leaving Baghdad in exile, Baha'u'llah
camped with His family and followers for 12 days in a garden named
Ridvan on the banks of the Tigris River in preparation for the
arduous journey ahead. Many of the citizens of Baghdad, from all
classes, were heartbroken when they learned of their impending
separation from the Person they had come to love and revere. They
came, Arabs, Kurds, visiting Persians alike, to attain the presence
of Baha'u'llah and to bid Him a tearful farewell. Even the Governor
of the province came to the garden to pay his respects.
Baha'u'llah received them with loving kindness, assuring them
that a physical separation was temporary and that the souls of
the pure at heart would forever abide together in the spiritual
worlds of God. He exhorted one and all to lead a sanctified life
worthy of the high destiny that God has ordained for every soul.
It was in the garden of Ridvan, filled with the lovely roses
of the season, just before His forced departure to distant lands,
that Baha'u'llah chose to reveal His great Announcement, that
He was, indeed, the Promised One expected by all the world's religions.
Beholding the Manifestation of God with one's very own eyes was
almost more than many souls could bear. What an honor! What a
joy to see Him, to hear Him and receive His glad tidings of the
new age for all of humanity.
"...how numerous are those people of divers beliefs,...who,
through the reviving fragrance of the Divine springtime, breathing
from the Ridvan of God, have been arrayed with the new robe
of divine Unity..." --Baha'u'llah, Kitab-I-Iqan, pp. 112-3
The brief interlude ended and the exiles departed for a weary
journey of three months to Constantinople. After a brief stay,
Baha'u'llah and His followers were again exiled, in the dead of
winter, to Adrianople, a city in European Turkey.
Finally in 1868, Baha'u'llah was exiled for the last time. He
was sent to the dreaded prison city of Akka (Acre) in Palestine
where He was expected to die in the terrible conditions of that
place. The worst criminals of the entire Ottoman empire were confined
to that filthy and unhealthy prison. The air of the city was so
foul, it was said that a bird flying over it would drop dead.
Even so, Baha'u'llah's family and devoted followers, numbering
around seventy, voluntarily accompanied Him, choosing to share
the misery of the prison city rather than to be separated from
their Beloved.
Slowly, as before, the presence of the Messenger had its effect
upon all who came in contact with Him. His prison guard, perceiving
the Station of Baha'u'llah, became a believer. Eventually even
the Governor of Akka would humbly request to be received by Baha'u'llah
and to ask His advice. Although gradually the situation of the
exiles improved somewhat, Baha'u'llah remained in Akka and its
vicinity, nominally still a prisoner of the Ottoman Turks, until
the end of His life in 1892.
In 1889, famed Cambridge orientalist, Professor Edward G. Browne
became the only Westerner to meet Baha'u'llah and leave an account
of his experience. Browne, who visited Baha'u'llah in His home
at Bahji, near Akka, recorded the meeting:
"The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though
I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes read one's very soul;
power and authority sat on that ample brow.... No need to ask
in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who
is the object of devotion and love which kings might envy and
emperors sigh for in vain! continued: 'Praise be to God that
thou hast attained!...Thou hast come to see a prisoner and an
exile...We desire but the good of the world and the happiness
of the nations; yet they deem us a stirrer-up of strife and
sedition worthy of bondage and banishment...These strifes and
this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one
kindred and one family....Let not a man glory in this, that
he loves his country; let him rather glory in this that he loves
his kind.' " --Edward G. Browne, A Travelers Narrative,
p. xxxix-xl.
Far from the aristocratic life that was His birthright, Baha'u'llah
chose to spend forty years in prison and in exile to bring to
the world a truly revolutionary order. Unlike most of the Messengers
of the past Whose words were written down years, even generations,
after they were spoken, Baha'u'llah either wrote out His teachings
with His own Pen or reviewed His statements after others had taken
down His words in writing. He left more than one hundred volumes
of His authenticated writings as the guiding blueprint for the
future of humankind. Never before had a Messenger of God left
such an extensive Revelation.
Baha'u'llah's Writings are like an all-encompassing ocean. They
range from the deeply spiritual teachings that bring joy and inner
peace to the individual human heart to the highly practical prescriptions
for establishing a global civilization based on justice.
He has given humanity profound insights regarding our true spiritual
reality and our relationship with our purposeful Creator--God.
As a Divine Messenger speaking on God's behalf, He proclaims:
O SON OF SPIRIT!
My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant
heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable
and everlasting.
O SON OF SPIRIT!
The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn
not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that
I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine
own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know
of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy
neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to
be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of my loving-kindness.
Set it then before thine eyes.
"O SON OF MAN!
Veiled in My immemorial being and the ancient eternity of My
essence, I knew My love for thee: therefore I created thee,
have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty."
--Baha'u'llah, The Hidden Words, Arabic, Nos. 1-3
`Abdu'l-Baha (Servant of the Glory)
Before Baha'u'llah passed away, He wrote a Will and Testament
which appointed His eldest son, `Abdu'l-Baha, as the Center of
His Covenant and the Interpreter of His writings. Baha'u'llah's
written Will gave `Abdu'l-Baha the indisputable authority to interpret
His Father's teachings and to be the focal point for unifying
the community. Although not a Messenger of God Himself, `Abdu'l-Baha,
because of Baha'u'llah's own statements about Him, is believed
by Baha'is to have been divinely inspired. Therefore, the Writings
of Baha'u'llah, the Bab, as well as those of `Abdu'l-Baha, constitute
the Baha'i Sacred Scriptures.
After being released from prison in Akka, `Abdu'l-Baha made several
journeys, including a trip to America in 1912 where He spoke at
hundreds of meetings in churches, on college campuses and many
other public places. Thousands of people heard His talks on race
amity, the equality of men and women, the need for world peace,
and other subjects. These talks were widely reported in the press,
were written down by Baha'is and have been gathered into books.
One of His most important talks was given at Stanford University
in October, 1912, attended by the faculty and the entire student
body. Stanford University President David Starr Jordan said of
Him:
"`Abdu'l-Baha will surely unite the East and the West:
for He treads the mystic way with practical feet." --H.M.
Balyuzi, `Abdu'l-Baha, p. 288
The Guardian, Shoghi Effendi
On 28 November 1921, `Abdu'l-Baha passed away peacefully in His
sleep. Continuing to safeguard the unity of the Faith, He had,
in His own Will and Testament, designated His oldest grandson,
Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, as the Guardian of the Cause. Shoghi Effendi
was the authoritative interpreter of the Baha'i teachings and
directed the ever-burgeoning community of the Baha'is throughout
the world. It was during Shoghi Effendi's guardianship (1921 to
1957) that the Baha'i Faith spread and flourished throughout the
globe. His clear vision, deep understanding of the teachings and
tireless efforts guided the development of the community to a
new stage of maturity.
Educated at Oxford, Shoghi Effendi perfected his knowledge of
English and translated many of Baha'u'llah's Writings. He holds
a special place in Baha'i history as the wise and loving guide
who nurtured the Baha'i community to the maturity necessary for
conducting its affairs.
Since 1963 the Faith has been headed by the Universal House of
Justice and continues to grow around the world, most recently
in Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union.
We will be discussing the current activities of the Faith in the
final class session.
This was a very brief glimpse of the history of the Baha'i Faith,
a history which is well documented. The dramatic events of the
early days are chronicled in several interesting books which you
may wish to study.
Next Section: Beliefs
& Practices
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