Baha’u’llah testifies that He accomplished “to deliver that whereunto I was bidden by God”

“We verily,” He [Baha'u'llah] Himself has testified, “have not fallen short of Our duty to exhort men, and to deliver that whereunto I was bidden by God, the Almighty, the All-Praised. Had they hearkened unto Me, they would have beheld the earth another earth.” And again: “Is there any excuse left for anyone in this Revelation? No, by God, the Lord of the Mighty Throne! My signs have encompassed the earth, and My power enveloped all mankind, and yet the people are wrapped in a strange sleep!”

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

The reason for the appearance of a Manifestation of God in a given place

The reason for the appearance of a Manifestation of God in a given place is not to honor a particular people or nation. Shoghi Effendi indicates a quite different reason in The Advent of Divine Justice and, more concisely, in a letter to an individual written on his behalf on 23 January 1944:

“The ever-recurring miracle in the establishment of every religion is that such poor instruments accomplish the work of God. It is to demonstrate the fact that God is the power that overcomes every obstacle, and that Revelations are divine in origin, that leads Him to always choose the worst people among whom to manifest His Messenger and the most obscure and helpless of the population -- relatively speaking -- to establish the foundations of His Faith. The Baha'i Dispensation is no exception to this rule, as you yourself have observed.”

Beyond these points is the fact that God, the Almighty Creator, does not have to justify His choice of a race or nationality from which to raise up a Manifestation. As all sacred scriptures tell us, He does as He wills and shall not be asked of His doing, and we bow in humility before Him. Besides, as you must know, conceptions of race, nation, oriental, occidental, and the like reflect earthly limitations and are not qualifications attached to the reality of the soul in the limitless realms of God. 

- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual Baha’i, dated 27, October, 1986; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1986-2001)

Bahá'u'lláh sought justice as a child

While still a child, the Blessed Beauty (Bahá'u'lláh) watched as a government tax-collector, on three separate occasions, accosted His father and demanded, in cruel and unjust manner, the payment of taxes. Unable to bear the injustice of it all, He, though in early childhood, mounted His horse and rode fpr two days until He arrived in Tihran (the capital of Persia). There He sought the dismissal of this unjust and tyrannical tax-collectot. He succeeded in obtaining the necessary papers ordering the dismissal, and returned to His parents.

- Mr. Furutan  ('Story of Baha'u'llah')

The Mansion of Bahji as of 1900s

The Mansion of Baha'u'llah at Bahji as it appeared during the time of the first pilgrimage of the Western believers in the early 1900s. 

(Baha'i News March 1976)

“The Báb wrote a letter containing three hundred and sixty derivatives of the root Baha”

…[when the Báb appeared] Bahá'u'lláh declared the Báb's mission to be true and promulgated His teachings. The Báb announced that the greater Manifestation would take place after Him and called the Promised One "Him Whom God shall make manifest," saying that nine years later the reality of His own mission would become apparent. In His writings He stated that in the ninth year this expected One would be known; in the ninth year they would attain to all glory and felicity; in the ninth year they would advance rapidly. Between Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb there was communication privately. The Báb wrote a letter containing three hundred and sixty derivatives of the root Baha. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk; ‘The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912’)

Laws of Bahá'u'lláh: - to obey them “out of love” for Him

It is a vital and urgent duty of the Assemblies, both National and Local, not only to apply the Laws of Bahá'u'lláh with justice and firmness, but to increase the believers' understanding of and devotion to these Laws. In this way they will obey them not through fear of punishment but out of love for Bahá'u'lláh and because their whole lives have been transformed and re-oriented in the Way of God. 

- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, October 11, 1965; United States Supplement to Bahá'í News, No. 97, March 1966; compilation: ‘Lights of Guidance’)

Bahá'u'lláh sacrificed His life for us –- “so that He might educate us, so that He might make us illumined, so that He might make us heavenly, so that He might change our character, change our lives, so that He might illumine our inmost self.”

The Blessed Beauty (Bahá'u'lláh) loved the friends so much that for their sakes He accepted a thousand difficulties and afflictions. Four times He was exiled. He was banished from one place to another. His properties were confiscated. He gave all -- His family, His relatives, His possessions. He accepted imprisonment, chains and fetters. His holy person was imprisoned in the fortress of Acca until the last moment of His life. He was made to suffer more calamities, afflictions and difficulties than could be enumerated. He had not a moment's rest. He had not an hour's comfort. He was continually under the greatest hardships and ordeals. What great persecutions He endured from His enemies! What great afflictions He bore from His own relatives! He accepted all these trials for our sakes so that He might educate us, so that He might make us illumined, so that He might make us heavenly, so that He might change our character, change our lives, so that He might illumine our inmost self. All these troubles He accepted for our sakes. He did indeed sacrifice His life for us. This love is the real love. This is the inner attachment and the genuine friendship. This is the love which sacrifices one's all, one's life. This is the reality of love. He accepted all these troubles. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk in the Holy Land, November 19, 1921; Star of the West, vol. 13, October 1922)

“He Who hath come from the heaven of divine revelation is the Hidden Secret, the Impenetrable Mystery”

God testifieth that there is none other God but Him and that He Who hath come from the heaven of divine revelation is the Hidden Secret, the Impenetrable Mystery, Whose advent hath been foretold in the Book of God and hath been heralded by His Prophets and Messengers. Through Him the mysteries have been unravelled, the veils rent asunder and the signs and evidences disclosed. Lo! He hath now been made manifest. He bringeth to light whatsoever He willeth, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, invested with transcendent majesty and power.

Blessed is that strong one who will shatter the gods of vain imaginings through the potency of the Name of his Lord, He Who ruleth over all men. 

- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)

November 1898: ‘Abdu’l-Baha ends the period of mourning for Baha’u’llah by opening His tomb to pilgrims for the first time

This event which took place on 13 November 1898 was in commemoration of the arrival of Ibrahim Kheiralla (Khayru’llah) to Akka on 11 November 1898 – “the same year that this precious Trust [the precious remains of the Báb] reached the shores of the Holy Land and was delivered into the hands of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He, accompanied by Dr. Ibrahim Khayru'llah, whom He had already honored with the titles of "Baha's Peter," "The Second Columbus" and "Conqueror of America," drove to the recently purchased site which had been blessed and selected by Bahá'u'lláh on Mt. Carmel, and there laid, with His own hands, the foundation-stone of the edifice, the construction of which He, a few months later, was to commence. About that same time, the marble sarcophagus, designed to receive the body of the Báb, an offering of love from the Bahá'ís of Rangoon, had, at 'Abdu'l-Bahá's suggestion, been completed and shipped to Haifa.” (God Passes By)

Kheiralla (who later became a Covenant-breaker) and his wife Marion were among of the first group of American pilgrims who left New York on 22 September 1898. Phoebe Hearst, Robert Turner, and Lua and Edward Getsinger were also in that historic group. In Paris they were joined by May Bolles and Hearst’s two relatives.

From Paris Kheiralla went to Egypt in early October, where he had children to visit. His wife went to England to invite her aunt to accompany them to Akka. After twenty-one days in Egypt Ibrahim Keiralla proceeded to Akka and was first to arrive on 11 November 1898. Anxious to reach Akka, Edward and Lua Getsinger left Paris for Cairo in November. About mid-December Phoebe Hearst also arrived in Cairo. Accompanying her were her butler, Robert Turner; her maid, Amalie M. Bachrodt; her little niece, Agnes Lane; her niece's governess, Julia Pearson; another niece, Anne Apperson; and an old friend, Mrs. Thornburgh. All nine Westerners could not visit ‘Abdu’l-Baha simultaneously, for they would stir up too much suspicion. While Hearst and her relatives and employees remained in Egypt, the Gestingers proceeded to Akka. They arrived on 10 December 1898 and were the first North American Baha’is to visit ‘Abdu’l-Baha. 

(Adapted from ‘The Baha’i Faith in America’, vol. 1, by Robert Stockman)

Bahá'u'lláh's ancestral home in Takur

Two views of Bahá'u'lláh's ancestral home in Takur, in the district of Nur, where He usually spent His summers as a boy.

Baha’u’llah’s sufferings – Yahya’s contribution

I am the one, O Lord, whose heart and soul, whose limbs, whose inner and outer tongue testify to Thy unity and Thy oneness, and bear witness that Thou art God and that there is no God but Thee. Thou didst bring mankind into being to know Thee and to serve Thy Cause, that their station might thereby be elevated upon Thine earth and their souls be uplifted by virtue of the things Thou hast revealed in Thy Scriptures, Thy Books and Thy Tablets. Yet no sooner didst Thou manifest Thyself and reveal Thy signs than they turned away from Thee and repudiated Thee and rejected that which Thou didst unveil before their eyes through the potency of Thy might and Thy power. They rose up to inflict harm upon Thee, to extinguish Thy light and to put out the flame that blazeth in Thy Burning Bush. Their iniquity waxed so grievous that they conspired to shed Thy blood and to violate Thy honour. And likewise acted he [1] whom Thou hadst nurtured with the hand of Thy loving-kindness, hadst protected from the mischief of the rebellious among Thy creatures and the froward amidst Thy servants, and whom Thou hadst set the task of writing Thy holy verses before Thy throne.

Alas! Alas! for the things he perpetrated in Thy days to such an extent that he violated Thy Covenant and Thy Testament, rejected Thy holy Writ, rose up in rebellion and committed that which caused the denizens of Thy Kingdom to lament. Then no sooner had he found his hopes shattered and had perceived the odour of utter failure than he raised his voice and gave tongue to that which caused Thy chosen ones, who are nigh unto Thee, and the inmates of the pavilion of glory, to be lost in bewilderment. 

- Baha’u’llah (‘Ishraqat [Splendours], ‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)

[1] Mirza Yahya

“The sun of justice hath risen above the horizon of Bahá’u’lláh.”

“God be praised!” ‘Abdu’l Bahá, in His turn, exclaims, “The sun of justice hath risen above the horizon of Bahá’u’lláh. For in His Tablets the foundations of such a justice have been laid as no mind hath, from the beginning of creation, conceived.” “The canopy of existence,” He further explains, “resteth upon the pole of justice, and not of forgiveness, and the life of mankind dependeth on justice and not on forgiveness.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (Quoting 'Abdu'l-Baha in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

The religious and historical significance of Bahá'u'lláh’s Declaration in the Garden of Ridván

The arrival of Bahá'u'lláh in the Najibiyyih Garden, subsequently designated by His followers the Garden of Ridvan, signalizes the commencement of what has come to be recognized as the holiest and most significant of all Bahá'í festivals, the festival commemorating the Declaration of His Mission to His companions. So momentous a Declaration may well be regarded both as the logical consummation of that revolutionizing process which was initiated by Himself upon His return from Sulaymaniyyih, and as a prelude to the final proclamation of that same Mission to the world and its rulers from Adrianople.

Through that solemn act the "delay," of no less than a decade, divinely interposed between the birth of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation in the Siyah-Chal and its announcement to the Báb's disciples, was at long last terminated. The "set time of concealment," during which as He Himself has borne witness, the "signs and tokens of a divinely-appointed Revelation" were being showered upon Him, was fulfilled. The "myriad veils of light," within which His glory had been wrapped, were, at that historic hour, partially lifted, vouchsafing to mankind "an infinitesimal glimmer" of the effulgence of His "peerless, His most sacred and exalted Countenance." The "thousand two hundred and ninety days," fixed by Daniel in the last chapter of His Book, as the duration of the "abomination that maketh desolate" had now elapsed. The "hundred lunar years," destined to immediately precede that blissful consummation (1335 days), announced by Daniel in that same chapter, had commenced. The nineteen years, constituting the first "Vahid," preordained in the Persian Bayan by the pen of the Báb, had been completed. The Lord of the Kingdom, Jesus Christ returned in the glory of the Father, was about to ascend His throne, and assume the sceptre of a world-embracing, indestructible sovereignty. The community of the Most Great Name, the "companions of the Crimson Colored Ark," lauded in glowing terms in the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', had visibly emerged. The Báb's own prophecy regarding the "Ridvan," the scene of the unveiling of Bahá'u'lláh's transcendent glory, had been literally fulfilled. 

- Shoghi Effendi ('God Passes By')

To “read the utterances of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá with selflessness and care”

If you read the utterances of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá with selflessness and care and concentrate upon them, you will discover truths unknown to you before and will obtain an insight into the problems that have baffled the great thinkers of the world. 

- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 30 January 1925 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, Living the Life)

Range of Baha’u’llah’s suffering

Forsaking fame and fortune, accepting imprisonment and exile, careless of ostracism and obloquy, submitting to physical indignities and cruel deprivations, He, the Vicegerent of God on earth, suffered Himself to be banished from place to place and from country to country, till at length He, in the Most Great Prison, offered up His martyred son as a ransom for the redemption and unification of all mankind. 

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

“Consider...the Báb…how He was attracted to the love of the Blessed Beauty, Bahá'u'lláh;…We must follow His heavenly example”

Consider how the Báb endured difficulties and tribulations; how He gave His life in the Cause of God; how He was attracted to the love of the Blessed Beauty, Bahá'u'lláh; and how He announced the glad tidings of His manifestation. We must follow His heavenly example; we must be self-sacrificing and aglow with the fire of the love of God. We must partake of the bounty and grace of the Lord, for the Báb has admonished us to arise in service to the Cause of God, to be absolutely severed from all else save God during the day of the Blessed Perfection, Bahá'u'lláh, to be completely attracted by the love of Bahá'u'lláh, to love all humanity for His sake, to be lenient and merciful to all for Him and to upbuild the oneness of the world of humanity. Therefore, this day, 23 May, is the anniversary of a blessed event. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk; ‘The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912’)

1848: Bahá’u’lláh’s confinement in ‘Amul, Persia

When… We went to Ámul, [December 1848] such was the turmoil which the people had raised that above four thousand persons had congregated in the masjid and had crowded onto the roofs of their houses. The leading mullá of the town denounced Us bitterly… We informed him that, although We had never met Him [the Qá'im] face to face, yet We cherished, none the less, a great affection for Him. We expressed Our profound conviction that He had, under no circumstances, acted contrary to the Faith of Islám.

The mullá and his followers, however refused to believe Us, and rejected Our testimony as a perversion of the truth. They eventually placed Us in confinement, and forbade Our friends to meet Us. The acting governor of Ámul succeeded in effecting Our release from captivity. Through an opening in the wall that he ordered his men to make, he enabled Us to leave that room, and conducted Us to his house. No sooner were the inhabitants informed of this act than they arose against Us, besieged the governor’s residence, pelted Us with stones, and hurled in Our face the foulest invectives.

- Bahá’u’lláh  (Quoted in ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)

Baha’u’llah has come “for the education and training of all humanity”

… Baha’u’llah has manifested for the education and training of all humanity. He is the Teacher of all, whether rich or poor, black or white, oriental or occidental, northern or southern. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a Tablet to Mr. and Mrs. Ostburg, Boston, Mass; Star of the West, vol. 2, no. 5, June 5, 1911)

“The Revelation of Baha’u’llah is, in relation to the body of the world, as the spirit of man is to his body.”

The Revelation of Baha’u’llah is, in relation to the body of the world, as the spirit of man is to his body. In relation to the body of the world (humanity) Divinity is as the light within a lantern. In relation to the soil of the hearts, it is the quickening shower. In relation to the spiritual growth of the trees, it is the vernal breeze; and in relation to the recovery of the diseased body politic, it is a quick acting remedy, because it is the cause of the oneness of the world of humanity. It is love among all mankind. It is a bond which unites all the religions. It is the unity which welds together all the races. It is the connection between all the countries. It is universal peace among the nations. It is universal peace among all the peoples. It is the universal peace which will bring together all nativities. And undoubtedly it is the spirit of the world. It is the light of the world. Likewise, it is an impetus to the promulgation of knowledge, and it is the cause of agreement of religion with science and reason. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk in Oakland, California, at the home of Helen Goodall, October 3, 1912; Star of the West, vol. 4, no. 11, September 27, 1913)