January 1861: Bahá’u’lláh reveals the Kitab-i-Iqán (The Book of Certitude)

In a discussion of the exact date of the revelation of the Kitab-i-Iqán, attention has been drawn to a letter dated 17 January 1861 written in Baghdad by Haji Mirza Siyyid Muhammad to his son Vakilu'dDawlih. In this letter, Haji Mirza Siyyid Muhammad describes attaining Baha'u'llah's presence. Assuming the accuracy of the date as written, the date of the revelation of the Kitab-i-Iqan can be determined to be just a few days before the writing of the letter, or mid-January 1861. The letter reads in part:

“If you wonder over our state, praised be God and His grace, on the night of the first of Rajab [12 January 1861] we attained the threshold of the Shrines of the twin Imams at Kazimayn.... God willing, the day after next--that is, on the seventh of the month--we will depart this location...

Thank God that one thing I need to write you is that I attained unto the presence of His Holiness Baha [Bahá'u'lláh], upon Him be God's peace.... He showered us with utmost affection and kindness and asked that we stay for the night, and we remained in His presence. The evident truth is that to be deprived of the blessing of His presence is a mighty and evident loss. May God bestow His grace upon me so that I would everlastingly attain unto the blessing of His presence. 

- Ahang Rabbani (‘The Conversion of the Great-Uncle of the Bab’; Baha'i Library Online)

‘Abdu’l-Baha relates some particulars about His Father’s early days

From childhood He was extremely kind and generous. He was a great lover of outdoor life, most of His time being spent in the garden or the fields. He had an extraordinary power of attraction, which was felt by all. People always crowded around Him. Ministers and people of the Court would surround Him, and the children also were devoted to Him. When He was only thirteen or fourteen years old He became renowned for His learning.... When Bahá’u’lláh was twenty-two years old, His father died, and the Government wished Him to succeed to His father’s position in the Ministry as was customary in Persia, but Bahá’u’lláh did not accept the offer. Then the Prime Minister said: ‘Leave him to himself. Such a position is unworthy of him. He has some higher aim in view. I cannot understand him, but I am convinced that he is destined for some lofty career. His thoughts are not like ours. Let him alone.’ 

- 'Abdu'l-Baha (Quoted by Dr. J. E. Esslemont in ‘Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era’; footnotes to Chapter 2 of ‘The Dawn-Breakers’, provided by Shoghi Effendi)

The Tomb of Baha'u'llah in the years immediately following His ascension

(The Baha'i World 1932-1934)

To be “manifestations of the love of Bahá'u'lláh”

I pray that you may be manifestations of the love of Bahá'u'lláh, that each one of you may become like a clear lamp of crystal from which the rays of the bounties of the Blessed Perfection may shine forth to all nations and peoples. This is my highest aspiration. 

- ‘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’)

References to Bahá’u’lláh from Zoroaster, Buddha, and Krishna

To His [Bahá’u’lláh’s] Dispensation the sacred books of the followers of Zoroaster had referred as that in which the sun must needs be brought to a standstill for no less than one whole month. To Him Zoroaster must have alluded when, according to tradition, He foretold that a period of three thousand years of conflict and contention must needs precede the advent of the World-Savior Shah-Bahram, Who would triumph over Ahriman and usher in an era of blessedness and peace.

He alone is meant by the prophecy attributed to Gautama Buddha Himself, that "a Buddha named Maitreye, the Buddha of universal fellowship" should, in the fullness of time, arise and reveal "His boundless glory." 

To Him the Bhagavad-Gita of the Hindus had referred as the "Most Great Spirit," the "Tenth Avatar," the "Immaculate Manifestation of Krishna." 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Buddah, Krishna, Zoroaster and Related Subjects)

“Him Who is the Day Spring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation”

The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of Him Who is the Day Spring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation. Whoso achieveth this duty hath attained unto all good... It behoveth every one who reacheth this most sublime station, this summit of transcendent glory, to observe every ordinance of Him Who is the Desire of the world. These twin duties are inseparable. Neither is acceptable without the other.... 

- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh’; The Compilation of Compilations vol. I, The Covenant)

“true consolidation” = “the love of Bahá'u'lláh and devotion to His Faith are firmly rooted in the hearts of the believers”

... true consolidation is to ensure that the love of Bahá'u'lláh and devotion to His Faith are firmly rooted in the hearts of the believers; this is the essential foundation for the subsequent addition of increased knowledge of the Teachings and the development of the Bahá'í way of life. 

- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter of the Universal House of Justice, November 3, 1974: Teaching and Commitment, a compilation from the World Centre; compilations, Lights of Guidance)

“the Sun of Truth shining from its most exalted station”

“This holy Dispensation,” He [‘Abdu’l-Baha], alluding to the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, explains, “is illumined with the light of the Sun of Truth shining from its most exalted station, and in the plenitude of its resplendency, its heat and glory.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

Exceptionally cold weather during which Baha’u’llah and His Family were exiled to Adrianople

Pursuant to the peremptory orders issued for the immediate departure of the already twice banished exiles, Bahá'u'lláh, His family, and His companions, some riding in wagons, others mounted on pack animals, with their belongings piled in carts drawn by oxen, set out, accompanied by Turkish officers, on a cold December morning, amidst the weeping of the friends they were leaving behind, on their twelve-day journey, across a bleak and windswept country, to a city characterized by Bahá'u'lláh as "the place which none entereth except such as have rebelled against the authority of the sovereign." "They expelled Us," is His own testimony in the Suriy-i-Mulúk, "from thy city (Constantinople) with an abasement with which no abasement on earth can compare." "Neither My family, nor those who accompanied Me," He further states, "had the necessary raiment to protect them from the cold in that freezing weather." And again: "The eyes of Our enemies wept over Us, and beyond them those of every discerning person." "A banishment," laments Nabil, "endured with such meekness that the pen sheddeth tears when recounting it, and the page is ashamed to bear its description." "A cold of such intensity," that same chronicler records, "prevailed that year, that nonagenarians could not recall its like. In some regions, in both Turkey and Persia, animals succumbed to its severity and perished in the snows. The upper reaches of the Euphrates, in Ma'dan-Nuqrih, were covered with ice for several days -- an unprecedented phenomenon -- while in Diyar-Bakr the river froze over for no less than forty days." "To obtain water from the springs," one of the exiles of Adrianople recounts, "a great fire had to be lighted in their immediate neighborhood, and kept burning for a couple of hours before they thawed out."

Traveling through rain and storm, at times even making night marches, the weary travelers, after brief halts at Kuchik-Chakmachih, Buyuk-Chakmachih, Salvari, Birkas, and Baba-Iski, arrived at their destination, on the first of Rajab 1280 A.H. (December 12, 1863) 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Bahá'u'lláh's shawl and comb

January 1853:Baha’u’llah and His family leave Iran for Baghdad

On the first day of the month of Rabi'u'th-Thani, of the year 1269 A.H., (January 12, 1853), nine months after His return from Karbila, Bahá'u'lláh, together with some of the members of His family, and escorted by an officer of the Imperial body-guard and an official representing the Russian Legation, set out on His three months' journey to Baghdad. Among those who shared His exile was His wife, the saintly Navvab, entitled by Him the "Most Exalted Leaf," who, during almost forty years, continued to evince a fortitude, a piety, a devotion and a nobility of soul which earned her from the pen of her Lord the posthumous and unrivalled tribute of having been made His "perpetual consort in all the worlds of God." His nine-year-old son, later surnamed the "Most Great Branch," destined to become the Center of His Covenant and authorized Interpreter of His teachings, together with His seven-year-old sister, known in later years by the same title as that of her illustrious mother, and whose services until the ripe old age of four score years and six, no less than her exalted parentage, entitle her to the distinction of ranking as the outstanding heroine of the Bahá'í Dispensation, were also included among the exiles who were now bidding their last farewell to their native country. Of the two brothers who accompanied Him on that journey the first was Mirza Musa, commonly called Aqay-i-Kalim, His staunch and valued supporter, the ablest and most distinguished among His brothers and sisters, and one of the "only two persons who," according to Bahá'u'lláh's testimony, "were adequately informed of the origins" of His Faith. The other was Mirza Muhammad-Quli, a half-brother, who, in spite of the defection of some of his relatives, remained to the end loyal to the Cause he had espoused.

The journey, undertaken in the depth of an exceptionally severe winter, carrying the little band of exiles, so inadequately equipped, across the snow-bound mountains of Western Persia, though long and perilous, was uneventful except for the warm and enthusiastic reception accorded the travelers during their brief stay in Karand by its governor Hayat-Quli Khan, of the Alliyu'llahi sect. He was shown, in return, such kindness by Bahá'u'lláh that the people of the entire village were affected, and continued, long after, to extend such hospitality to His followers on their way to Baghdad that they gained the reputation of being known as Bábís. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Two opposing types of conduct that Bahá’u’lláh doesn’t approve

In this Day, We can neither approve the conduct of the fearful that seeketh to dissemble his faith, nor sanction the behaviour of the avowed believer that clamorously asserteth his allegiance to this Cause. Both should observe the dictates of wisdom, and strive diligently to serve the best interests of the Faith. 

- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh’; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. III, Issues Concerning Community Functioning)

Bahá’u’lláh’s amazement as a boy on pointless discourses by some clerics

Bahá'u'lláh ... records that on one occasion, when visiting his future mother-in-law, he listened to a cleric with a large turban expounding on whether the arch-angel Gabriel was the greater or Qanbar, the servant of the Imam ‘Ali. He writes that although he was still but a boy, he was astonished at the ignorance of these elders and when an opportunity came, he expressed his thoughts saying that since Gabriel is stated in Qur’an to be the one through whom the Word of God is revealed to the prophet Muhammad, then even Qanbar's master the Imam ‘Ali would not reach that station. Bahá'u'lláh states that some time later, he visited Qum and was dismayed to find the same cleric expounding the same sort of pointless and fruitless discourse. 

- Moojan Momen ('Baha’u’llah, A Short Biography')

The sufferings of Baha’u’llah: “By Thy might! No pen can recount them, nor can any tongue describe or number them.”

Glorified be Thy name, O Lord my God! Thou beholdest my dwelling-place, and the prison into which I am cast, and the woes I suffer. By Thy might! No pen can recount them, nor can any tongue describe or number them. I know not, O my God, for what purpose Thou hast abandoned me to Thine adversaries. Thy glory beareth me witness! I sorrow not for the vexations I endure for love of Thee, nor feel perturbed by the calamities that overtake me in Thy path. My grief is rather because Thou delayest to fulfill what Thou hast determined in the Tablets of Thy Revelation, and ordained in the books of Thy decree and judgment.

My blood, at all times, addresseth me saying: “O Thou Who art the Image of the Most Merciful! How long will it be ere Thou riddest me of the captivity of this world, and deliverest me from the bondage of this life? Didst Thou not promise me that Thou shalt dye the earth with me, and sprinkle me on the faces of the inmates of Thy Paradise?” To this I make reply: “Be thou patient and quiet thyself. The things thou desirest can last but an hour. As to me, however, I quaff continually in the path of God the cup of His decree, and wish not that the ruling of His will should cease to operate, or that the woes I suffer for the sake of my Lord, the Most Exalted, the All-Glorious, should be ended. Seek thou my wish and forsake thine own. Thy bondage is not for my protection, but to enable me to sustain successive tribulations, and to prepare me for the trials that must needs repeatedly assail me. Perish that lover who discerneth between the pleasant and the poisonous in his love for his beloved! Be thou satisfied with what God hath destined for thee. He, verily, ruleth over thee as He willeth and pleaseth. No God is there but Him, the Inaccessible, the Most High.”

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u’llah’)

By acquiring “greater love for Bahá'u'lláh” the believers will have “greater love for each other”

The thing the friends need -- everywhere -- is a greater love for each other, and this can be acquired by greater love for Bahá'u'lláh; for if we love Him deeply enough, we will never allow personal feelings and opinions to hold His Cause back; we will be willing to sacrifice ourselves to each other for the sake of the Faith, and be, as the Master said, one soul in many bodies. 

- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 5 September 1946 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; The Compilation of Compilations vol. II)

“Persian poems revealed by the Blessed Beauty”

I earnestly hope that thou wilt memorize all the Persian poems revealed by the Blessed Beauty and wilt sing them in a voice of incomparable sweetness at Bahá'í meetings and gatherings. The day is not far distant when these poems will be set to Western music and the sweet accents of these songs will reach the Abha Kingdom with exceeding joy and gladness. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a Tablet; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. III, The Importance of Arts in Promoting the Faith)

“the most weighty and sacred of all the works of Bahá'u'lláh”

Whether in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the most weighty and sacred of all the works of Bahá'u'lláh, or in the Kitáb-i-'Ahd, the Book of His Covenant, or in the Suriy-i-Ghusn (Tablet of the Branch), such references as have been recorded by the pen of Bahá'u'lláh -- references which the Tablets of His Father addressed to Him mightily reinforce -- invest 'Abdu'l-Bahá with a power, and surround Him with a halo, which the present generation can never adequately appreciate. 

- Shoghi Effendi ('The World Order of Baha'u'llah')

“the transcendent character of the Revelation” of Bahá’u’lláh

… 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own tribute to the transcendent character of the Revelation identified with His Father: "Centuries, nay ages, must pass away, ere the Day-Star of Truth shineth again in its mid-summer splendor, or appeareth once more in the radiance of its vernal glory." "The mere contemplation of the Dispensation inaugurated by the Blessed Beauty," He furthermore affirms, "would have sufficed to overwhelm the saints of bygone ages -- saints who longed to partake for one moment of its great glory." "Concerning the Manifestations that will come down in the future 'in the shadows of the clouds,' know verily," is His significant statement, "that in so far as their relation to the source of their inspiration is concerned they are under the shadow of the Ancient Beauty. In their relation, however, to the age in which they appear, each and every one of them 'doeth whatsoever He willeth.'" And finally stands this, His illuminating explanation, setting forth conclusively the true relationship between the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh and that of the Bab: "The Revelation of the Báb may be likened to the sun, its station corresponding to the first sign of the Zodiac -- the sign Aries -- which the sun enters at the vernal equinox. The station of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation, on the other hand, is represented by the sign Leo, the sun's mid-summer and highest station. By this is meant that this holy Dispensation is illumined with the light of the Sun of Truth shining from its most exalted station, and in the plenitude of its resplendency, its heat and glory."

To attempt an exhaustive survey of the prophetic references to Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation would indeed be an impossible task. To this the pen of Bahá'u'lláh Himself bears witness: "All the Divine Books and Scriptures have predicted and announced unto men the advent of the Most Great Revelation. None can adequately recount the verses recorded in the Books of former ages which forecast this supreme Bounty, this most mighty Bestowal." 

- Shoghi Effendi (God Passes By)

“Siyyid Kázim explicitly specified…the name of Bahá’u’lláh”

..Siyyid Kázim explicitly specified, in the preamble of his book “Sharh-i-Qqsídih”,[1] the name of Bahá’u’lláh: “Praise be to God Who hath adorned the preamble of the book of His Essence with the mystery of distinction, the ornament of that Point wherefrom the Há is manifested, with neither assimilation nor separation, through the Alif.” To fully explain this expression to you would take a long time, since you are unfamiliar with such words and expressions, and were I to do so it would fill an entire book. But since time is short I will briefly provide a word-for-word translation [2] so that you will understand the general meaning. He says: Praise be to God who has adorned the book of existence with the mystery of distinction through degrees, for it is through such differences that the world of existence is adorned. If all things were of one kind and there were no distinctions, existence would be imperfect. The realm of God and the realm of creation, the realm above and the realm below, the realm of truth and the realm of illusion: All these distinctions are among the inherent requirements of existence. He then says that the book of existence is adorned with that Point wherefrom the letter Há’ appears and the letter Alif is manifested. And in the same book he explains in numerous passages that the Point is the letter Bá’. And when the letters Bá’, Há’, and Alif are brought together it makes “Bahá.” 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk, new resources prepared by the Baha’i World Center, 2019; Online Baha’i Reference Library)

[1] See God Passes By, p. 97

[2] That is, from Arabic into Persian