The Day Given to Him: Origins of the Day of the Covenant

The Day of the Covenant — November 26 — is one of the youngest Holy Days in the Bahá’í calendar, and the only one that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself designated. Its origin is recorded in the early histories of the Cause.

1 / 11

After Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension in 1892, the friends in the East began asking whether the Master’s birthday — which fell on the 23rd of May — might be observed as a festival of His own. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá refused. The 23rd of May, He said, already belonged entirely to the Báb: it was the night of the Báb’s Declaration in Shíráz in 1844, and that day was not to be shared.

2 / 11

He asked the friends instead to remember Him on the 4th of Qawl — corresponding in the Bahá’í calendar to November 26 — as the day on which Bahá’u’lláh had appointed Him *Centre of the Covenant.*

3 / 11

In Persian the day was called *Jashn-i-A‘ẓam,* the Greatest Festival, because the Master Himself was *Ghuṣn-i-A‘ẓam,* the Greatest Branch. In the West it became known as the *Day of the Covenant.*

4 / 11

The early American Bahá’ís received from the Master many tablets in this period urging firmness in that Covenant. One such tablet, in *Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas* (1909), opens:

5 / 11

> O ye who are sincere! O ye who are firm! O ye who are steadfast!

6 / 11

The Master then explains that trials and divisions will arise — *a slight difference hath caused a great dissension and hath been made a reason for division* — and He calls upon the friends to remain *"firm as a mountain"* whatever happens. Persecution, He reminds them, has always preceded victory in the path of God:

7 / 11

> Blessed is the soul who is firm in the path!

8 / 11

He encourages them by recalling the early Christians who endured hardship before the Cause of Christ ultimately triumphed, and assures them that *after this storm, verily, the divine spring will arrive.* The believers are not to grieve when *people stand against you, persecute you, afflict and trouble you* — for the only response to trial in the Covenant is unity, and the only response to division is more love.

9 / 11

This is the spirit of the Day of the Covenant. It is not, in the strict sense, a celebration of the Master’s person — He would not permit that. It is a remembrance of His office: the unbroken thread that runs from Bahá’u’lláh, through the Master, into the unity of the worldwide community.

10 / 11

Work is not suspended on this day. The Bahá’ís simply gather — as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asked — to recommit themselves, in whatever quiet way they can, to that single firmness of which He wrote.

11 / 11