Not Even A Lamp

Published on May 28, 2013.
 In the Persian Bayan, the Bab recorded that during the long nights of His imprisonment in the remote mountain fortress of Mah-ku, He was denied even a lamp. In memory of His suffering, Abdu'l-Baha spoke of a day when the Shrine of the Bab and "Mount Carmel itself, from top to bottom, will be submerged in a sea of Light." The waves of light that illuminate the terrace gardens are symbolic of His triumph and that of His Faith. This definitive documentary presents a comprehensive report on what has happened on Mount Carmel, whose transformation is a physical expression of the growing strength of the world-wide Baha'i community.

 This remarkable story draws upon hundreds of hours of footage taken from the inception of the Mount Carmel Projects to their opening in May 2001 and is an important historical document for present and future generations.
 Copyright 2001 by the Baha'i World Centre, all rights reserved.

The passing of Bahá’u’lláh

In the early hours of 29 May 1892, Bahá’u’lláh passed away at the Mansion of Bahjí. Nine days later His will was unsealed. It designated ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as His successor and head of the Bahá'í Faith — the first time in history that the founder of a world religion had made explicitly clear whom people should follow after His death. This declaration of a successor is the pivotal provision of what is known to Bahá'ís as the "Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh." It has enabled the Bahá'í Faith to remain united around one central authority for over a century.

Shortly after the passing of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent this message: "The Sun of Truth, that Most Great Light, hath set upon the horizon of the world to rise with deathless splendour over the Realm of the Limitless. In His Most Holy Book He calleth the firm and steadfast of His friends: 'Be not dismayed, O peoples of the world, when the day-star of My beauty is set, and the heaven of My tabernacle is concealed from your eyes. Arise to further My Cause, and to exalt My Word amongst men.'"

Read more at The life of Bahá’u’lláh

Commemoration of the passing of Baha’u’llah,

In the early hours of May 29, Baha’is and friends will gather to commemorate the passing of Baha’u’llah, the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith, 121 years ago.
 The unity of the peoples of the world is central to Baha’u’llah’s teachings. The concept that we are one human family is relevant to understanding current society and its interdependence. Reinforcing this idea of the unity of humanity, Baha’u’llah’s teachings include the equality of women and men, the limitation of the extremes of wealth and poverty, and the common purpose and Divine Source of all world religions.
 As with all previous Messengers of God, Baha’u’llah was subjected to persecution by the ruling authorities and clergy. Nevertheless, the number of Baha’u’llah’s followers grew quickly. Exiled from His Persian homeland to Iraq, to Constantinople (Istanbul), to Adrianople (Edirne), and finally to the distant prison-city of Akka — then part of the Ottoman Empire and now in Israel, the attempts of the authorities to limit Baha’u’llah’s influence actually caused His message to spread...

Canadian Baha'i News Service.

Dost thou believe thou ....

Dost thou imagine, O Minister of the Sháh in the City (Constantinople), that I hold within My grasp the ultimate destiny of the Cause of God? Thinkest thou that My imprisonment, or the shame I have been made to suffer, or even My death and utter annihilation, can deflect its course? Wretched is what thou hast imagined in thine heart! Thou art indeed of them that walk after the vain imaginings which their hearts devise. No God is there but Him. Powerful is He to manifest His Cause, and to exalt His testimony, and to establish whatsoever is His Will, and to elevate it to so eminent a position that neither thine own hands, nor the hands of them that have turned away from Him, can ever touch or harm it.
“Dost thou believe thou hast the power to frustrate His Will, to hinder Him from executing His judgement, or to deter Him from exercising His sovereignty? Pretendest thou that aught in the heavens or in the earth can resist His Faith? No, by Him Who is the Eternal Truth! Nothing whatsoever in the whole of creation can thwart His Purpose . . . ” Know thou, moreover, that He it is Who hath, by His own behest, created all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. How can, then, the thing that hath been created at His bidding prevail against Him?”

Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh,

O army of God!

O army of God! Beware lest ye harm any soul, or make any heart to sorrow; lest ye wound any man with your words, be he known to you or a stranger, be he friend or foe. Pray ye for all; ask ye that all be blessed, all be forgiven. Beware, beware, lest any of you seek vengeance, even against one who is thirsting for your blood. Beware, beware, lest ye offend the feelings of another, even though he be an evil-doer, and he wish you ill. Look ye not upon the creatures, turn ye to their Creator. See ye not the never-yielding people, see but the Lord of Hosts. Gaze ye not down upon the dust, gaze upward at the shining sun, which hath caused every patch of darksome earth to glow with light.
O army of God! When calamity striketh, be ye patient and composed. However afflictive your sufferings may be, stay ye undisturbed, and with perfect confidence in the abounding grace of God, brave ye the tempest of tribulations and fiery ordeals.

Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

The Báb’s exalted station

Wishing to stress the sublimity of the Báb’s exalted station as compared with that of the Prophets of the past, Bahá’u’lláh in that same epistle asserts: “No understanding can grasp the nature of His Revelation, nor can any knowledge comprehend the full measure of His Faith.” He then quotes, in confirmation of His argument, these prophetic words: “Knowledge is twenty and seven letters. All that the Prophets have revealed are two letters thereof. No man thus far hath known more than these two letters. But when the Qá’im shall arise, He will cause the remaining twenty and five letters to be made manifest.” “Behold,” He adds, “how great and lofty is His station! His rank excelleth that of all the Prophets and His Revelation transcendeth the comprehension and understanding of all their chosen ones.” “Of His Revelation,” He further adds, “the Prophets of God, His saints and chosen ones, have either not been informed, or, in pursuance of God’s inscrutable decree, they have not disclosed.”

Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh

Declaration of the Bab

The Birth of the Bábí Revelation

House of The BÁB In shiraz, Iran.

May 23, 1844, signalizes the commencement of the most turbulent period of the Heroic Age of the Bahá’í Era, an age which marks the opening of the most glorious epoch in the greatest cycle which the spiritual history of mankind has yet witnessed. No more than a span of nine short years marks the duration of this most spectacular, this most tragic, this most eventful period of the first Bahá’í century. It was ushered in by the birth of a Revelation whose Bearer posterity will acclaim as the “Point round Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve,” and terminated with the first stirrings of a still more potent Revelation, “whose day,” Bahá’u’lláh Himself affirms, “every Prophet hath announced,” for which “the soul of every Divine Messenger hath thirsted,” and through which “God hath proved the hearts of the entire company of His Messengers and Prophets.”

House of The BÁB In shiraz, Iran.

The opening scene of the initial act of this great drama was laid in the upper chamber of the modest residence of the son of a mercer of Shíráz, in an obscure corner of that city. The time was the hour before sunset, on the 22nd day of May, 1844. The participants were the Báb, a twenty-five year old siyyid, of pure and holy lineage, and the young Mullá Husayn, the first to believe in Him. Their meeting immediately before that interview seemed to be purely fortuitous. The interview itself was protracted till the hour of dawn. The Host remained closeted alone with His guest, nor was the sleeping city remotely aware of the import of the conversation they held with each other. No record has passed to posterity of that unique night save the fragmentary but highly illuminating account that fell from the lips of Mullá Husayn.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By

The Báb

Of all the tributes which Bahá’u’lláh’s unerring pen has chosen to pay to the memory of the Báb, His “Best-Beloved,” the most memorable and touching is this brief, yet eloquent passage which so greatly enhances the value of the concluding passages of that same epistle. “Amidst them all,” He writes, referring to the afflictive trials and dangers besetting Him in the city of Baghdád, “We stand life in hand wholly resigned to His Will, that perchance through God’s loving kindness and grace, this revealed and manifest Letter (Bahá’u’lláh) may lay down His life as a sacrifice in the path of the Primal Point, the most exalted Word (the Báb). By Him, at Whose bidding the Spirit hath spoken, but for this yearning of Our soul, We would not, for one moment, have tarried any longer in this city.”

Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh

مهمترين و مؤثّر ترين محامدی که از يراعهء عظمت حضرت بهآءاللّه در ذکر محبوب خويش يعنی حضرت اعلی نازل و در ضمن آن به بلايا و رزايای واردهء بر خود در مدينهء بغداد اشاره فرموده‌اند اين بيان موجز و بليغ است که مسک الختام آن کتاب مستطاب ميباشد : " و اين عبد در کمال رضا جان بر کف حاضرم که شايد از عنايت الهی و فضل سبحانی اين حرف مذکور مشهود ( حضرت بهآءاللّه ) در سبيل نقطه و کلمه عُليا ( حضرت باب ) فدا شود و جان در بازد و اگر اين خيال نبود فوالّذی نطق الرُّوح بامره آنی در اين بلد توقّف نمينمودم . "

The Báb

That the Báb, the inaugurator of the Bábí Dispensation, is fully entitled to rank as one of the self-

sufficient Manifestations of God, that He has been invested with sovereign power and authority, and exercises all the rights and prerogatives of independent Prophethood, is yet another fundamental verity which the Message of Bahá’u’lláh insistently proclaims and which its followers must uncompromisingly uphold. That He is not to be regarded merely as an inspired Precursor of the Bahá’í Revelation, that in His person, as He Himself bears witness in the Persian Bayán, the object of all the Prophets gone before Him has been fulfilled, is a truth which I feel it my duty to demonstrate and emphasize. We would assuredly be failing in our duty to the Faith we profess and would be violating one of its basic and sacred principles if in our words or by our conduct we hesitate to recognize the implications of this root principle of Bahá’í belief, or refuse to uphold unreservedly its integrity and demonstrate its truth. Indeed the chief motive actuating me to undertake the task of editing and translating Nabíl’s immortal Narrative has been to enable every follower of the Faith in the West to better understand and more readily grasp the tremendous implications of His exalted station and to more ardently admire and love Him....


Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh

The Báb

The short duration of His Dispensation, the restricted range within which His laws and ordinances have been made to operate, supply no criterion whatever wherewith to judge its Divine origin and to evaluate the potency of its message. “That so brief a span,” Bahá’u’lláh Himself explains, “should have separated this most mighty and wondrous Revelation from Mine own previous Manifestation, is a secret that no man can unravel and a mystery such as no mind can fathom. Its duration had been foreordained, and no man shall ever discover its reason unless and until he be informed of the contents of My Hidden Book.” “Behold,” Bahá’u’lláh further explains in the Kitáb-i-Badí’, one of His works refuting the arguments of the people of the Bayán, “behold, how immediately upon the completion of the ninth year of this wondrous, this most holy and merciful Dispensation, the requisite number of pure, of wholly consecrated and sanctified souls had been most secretly consummated.”
The marvelous happenings that have heralded the advent of the Founder of the Bábí Dispensation, the dramatic circumstances of His own eventful life, the miraculous tragedy of His martyrdom, the magic of His influence exerted on the most eminent and powerful among His countrymen, to all of which every chapter of Nabíl’s stirring narrative testifies, should in themselves be regarded as sufficient evidence of the validity of His claim to so exalted a station among the Prophets.

Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh