How the Day of the Covenant Began

‘Abdu’l-Bahá was born in Tihrán on 23 May 1844, the same night on which the Báb declared His mission in Shíráz. He told the Bahá’ís that this day was not, under any circumstances, to be celebrated as His birthday. It was the day of the Declaration of the Báb and belonged to Him alone.

The Bahá’ís begged for a day to celebrate as His. So He gave them 26 November, to be observed as the day of His appointment as the Centre of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant. In Persian it was called Jashn-i-A‘ẓam, the Greatest Festival, because He was Ghuṣn-i-A‘ẓam, the Greatest Branch. In the West it became known as the Day of the Covenant.

The Master wrote many tablets to the believers in the West urging them to be firm in the Cause and in the Covenant, and a number of them were published in Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas (1909). One, addressed to those attracted by the Fragrances of God, speaks of their letters that told of your steadfastness in the Cause of God, and prepares them for trials to come:

When the winds blow severely, rains fall fiercely, the lightning flashes, the thunder roars ... and storms of trial become severe, grieve not; for after this storm, verily, the divine spring will arrive.

He reminds them that when Christ appeared, a storm of trials arose. The weak were shaken, but the disciples endured and remained firm in the Religion of God, and in time the people who had reviled the believers came to honour them. So the friends are not to grieve when people stand against you, persecute you, afflict and trouble you:

This we inform you before it occurs, so that when the hosts of people arise against you for my love, be not disturbed or troubled; nay, rather, be firm as a mountain, for this persecution and reviling of the people upon you is a pre-ordained matter. Blessed is the soul who is firm in the path!

The Guardian asked that the Bahá’ís observe the Day of the Covenant by coming together, though they are not required to suspend work on that day.

A retelling based on Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbas (Bahai Publishing Society, 1909; Project Gutenberg eBook #19312), from which the indented passages are quoted. The origin of the Day of the Covenant is told in a note to H. M. Balyuzi's 'Abdu'l-Bahá: The Centre of the Covenant, and the Guardian's guidance on its observance is in Letters from the Guardian to Australia and New Zealand. For the fuller account, see the original.

'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1909). *Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbas*. Bahai Publishing Society. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19312