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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
101 stories on this theme.
The Vazír dreamed that his son Bahá’u’lláh swam in a limitless ocean, with a multitude of fishes clinging to His hair. A soothsayer explained the dream, and after meeting the boy praised Him greatly.
A fire from the Kingdom hath been kindled in the heart of the world, in the Blessed Tree, whose flame shall ere long set aglow the pillars of the earth and its rays illumine the horizons of the nations.
O ye beloved of God! O ye children of His Kingdom! Verily, verily the new heaven and the new earth are come.
In the day of Christ all nations were expecting that His Holiness Christ should come from heaven, and He came from heaven, though outwardly He came from the womb of Mary.
The body is composed, in truth, of corporeal elements and every composition is necessarily subject to decomposition; but the spirit is an essence, simple, pure, spiritual, eternal, perpetual and divine.
Verily, I, from this brilliant and Blessed Spot, speak to you face to face, while ye are in that far distant country,…
A disciple of Siyyid Kázim, Shaykh Ḥasan met the Báb in Karbilá, later served Him as a scribe and go-between, and, as the Báb had promised, met Bahá’u’lláh in Karbilá in 1851.
Major Tudor Pole recorded, while noting that he could not vouch for it at first hand, how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá foretold that ‘Akká would be surrendered to two unarmed British soldiers, and how that came about.
Seated by the window of a Pilgrim House in Haifa on February 14, 1914, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá foretold that Akká and Haifa would join into one mighty metropolis, and that Mount Carmel would become a sublime spectacle of light.
The hostility aroused by the claim of Bábhood was redoubled when the young reformer proceeded to declare that He was Himself the Mihdí (Mahdi) Whose coming Muḥammad had foretold.
Amid these troublous times, however, the Cause of God will prosper.
God, and God alone, has the power to do whatever He wills, and the greatest proof of a Manifestation of God is the creative power of His word—its effectiveness to change and transform all human affairs and to triumph over all human opposition.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes:— When Christ appeared, twenty centuries ago, although the Jews were eagerly awaiting His Coming, and prayed ever day, with tears, saying: “O God, hasten the Revelation of the Messiah,” yet when the Sun of Truth…
Bahá’u’lláh’s mission in the world is to bring about Unity—Unity of all mankind in and through God.
The interpretation of prophecy is notoriously difficult, and on no subject do the opinions of the learned differ more widely.
As to the manner of His coming at the end of the age, Christ said:— And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
In the year 1869 Bahá’u’lláh wrote to Napoleon III, rebuking him for his lust of war and for the contempt with which he had treated a former letter from Bahá’u’lláh.
In consequence of these declarations of the Báb and the alarming rapidity with which people of all classes, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, were eagerly responding to His teaching, attempts at suppression became more and more ruthless and determined.
Bahá’u’lláh asked no one to accept His statements and His tokens blindly.
In many of His conversations Christ speaks of the future Manifestation of God in the third person, but in others the first person is used.
In the Hebrew, Christian, Muḥammadan and many other Scriptures, there is a remarkable similarity in the description of the signs which are to accompany the coming of the Promised One.
Both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá also foretold a period of great social upheaval, conflict and calamity as an inevitable result of the irreligion and prejudices, the ignorance and superstition, prevalent throughout the world.
In the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah are several references to a man called the Branch.
The “Coming of the Lord” in the “last days” is the one “far-off divine event” to which all the Prophets look forward, about which Their most glorious songs are sung.
The word “Day” in such phrases as “Day of God” and “Last Day” is interpreted as meaning “Dispensation.”
Christ spoke much in parables about a great Day of Judgment when “the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father ... and ... shall reward every man according to his works” (Matt. xvi, 27).
The title “Bahá’u’lláh” is the Arabic for “Glory of God,” and this very title is frequently used by the Hebrew prophets for the Promised One Who is to appear in the last days.
Both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on many occasions foretold with surprising accuracy the coming of the Great War of 1914–1918.
If we study the story of the “ascent of man” as recorded in the pages of history, it becomes evident that the leading factor in human progress is the advent, from time to time …
In all ages the Prophets of God have foretold the coming of an era of “peace on earth, goodwill among men.”
The Writings of the Báb were voluminous, and the rapidity with which, without study or premeditation, He composed elaborate commentaries, profound expositions or eloquent prayers was regarded as one of the proofs of His divine inspiration.
Told by the Báb to await the promised Husayn in Karbilá, the aged Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunúzí met Bahá'u'lláh there in October 1851 and became one to whom He confided the secret He would later reveal in Baghdád.
'Abdu'l-Bahá recounted how a famous mujtahid of Yálrúd told His grandmother of a dream in which Bahá'u'lláh, then the son of a vizier, was closeted with the Qá'im in a house no one else could enter.
When Bahá’u’lláh was a child, His father dreamed that He swam in a limitless ocean with a multitude of fishes clinging to His hair. A renowned soothsayer interpreted the dream as a sign of His future ascendancy.
Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí recalls going at dawn with his teacher Siyyid Kázim to visit a Youth from Shíráz in Karbilá, and later recognizing that Youth as the Báb.
Though the Báb was under guard in Tabríz, Ḥájí ‘Alí-‘Askar was admitted to His presence again and again, fulfilling Mullá Ḥusayn's promise that he would meet the Báb seven times.
Shaykh Ahmad becomes sure from the Qur'an that the Promised One will soon appear. He travels far and wide to tell people, and at last asks Siyyid Kazim to carry on his work.
An Arab shepherd tells Siyyid Kázim of a dream in which Muhammad foretold that Siyyid Kázim would die three days after returning to Karbilá, and that the Promised One would soon make Himself known.
On 9 July 1850 in Tabríz, the first volley fired at the Báb and Anís cut only their ropes, and the Báb was found back in His room finishing a conversation. A second regiment carried out the execution.
In 1851 Bahá'u'lláh visited Karbilá. There He met the aged Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí, whom the Báb had sent to wait in that city to see the promised Ḥusayn, and confided His secret to him.
In July 1848, at the Báb's bidding, Mullá Ḥusayn left Mashhad wearing the Báb's green turban, with the Black Standard carried before him, and led his companions to the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí in Mázindarán.
At forty, Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í left his home in Baḥrayn to prepare the way for the promised One. Nabíl records that he recognized the meaning of Bahá'u'lláh's birth in 1817 and later entrusted his mission to Siyyid Káẓim.
In his last years at Karbilá, Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí sent Mullá Ḥusayn on a mission to Iṣfahán, described to his students the signs of the Promised One, and urged them to scatter far and wide in search of Him.
Nabíl records Siyyid Káẓim's last days: his urging his students to scatter in search of the Promised One, an Arab shepherd's dream foretelling his death, and his passing at Karbilá at the close of 1843.
In 'Akká in July 1909, some believers met to settle how the Master's station should be spoken of. At lunch that day 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke of Bahá'u'lláh's warnings to the kings and ended by declaring that His only name was 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
In San Francisco on 22 October 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá foretold a great war and said the generality of mankind would one day reproach statesmen who send them into war while they themselves live in comfort.
When the Báb was brought to Tabríz in 1847, crowds acclaimed Him and a crier warned that anyone who approached Him would be imprisoned. Yet Ḥájí ‘Alí-‘Askar was admitted to His presence seven times, as Mullá Ḥusayn had foretold.
The Báb told Shaykh Ḥasan to wait in Karbilá, where he would see the promised Ḥusayn. Years later, at the gate of a shrine there, Bahá'u'lláh took him by the hand.
At forty, Shaykh Aḥmad left his home in Bahrayn to prepare people for the coming of the Promised One. In Ṭihrán he understood the meaning of Bahá'u'lláh's birth, and before he died he passed his work to Siyyid Káẓim.
Siyyid Káẓim gave his students clues about the Promised One and, near the end of his life, urged them to scatter far and wide in search of Him. Mullá Ḥusayn went, and found the Báb.
Near the end of his life, Siyyid Káẓim urged his students to go and search for the Promised One. A shepherd's dream foretold the day of his death, and soon afterwards Mullá Ḥusayn found the Báb.
On the death of the Ottoman Foreign Minister Fu'ád Páshá in 1869, Bahá'u'lláh, a prisoner in 'Akká, foretold the fall of the Grand Vizier and of Sultán 'Abdu'l-'Azíz. When the Sultán was deposed and killed in 1876, the fulfilled prophecy led the scholar Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl to accept the Faith.
When Bahá'u'lláh was a child, His father, the Vazír Mírzá Buzurg, dreamed of Him swimming in a limitless ocean with a multitude of fishes clinging to His hair. A soothsayer said the ocean was the world of being.
Bahá'u'lláh was born at dawn in Tihrán on 12 November 1817. Shoghi Effendi traces His descent to Abraham, Zoroaster, the last Sasanian king and Jesse, and names the Promised One of each earlier faith whom He fulfils.
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells how the Báb, in His twenty-fifth year, declared Himself the Gate, the channel of grace from a great Person still hidden, and how most opposed Him while a few seekers arose to spread His Cause.
In A Traveller's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá records the Báb's words calling Himself a dewdrop from a limitless ocean and pointing to One yet to come. Shoghi Effendi explains how the Declaration in the Garden of Riḍván fulfilled the Báb's prophecy.
The Báb foretold the coming of "Him Whom God shall make manifest," pointing to the year nine and to a span of nineteen years. Shoghi Effendi shows how both were fulfilled, in the Síyáh-Chál and in the Garden of Riḍván.
After Siyyid Káẓim's death, Mullá Ḥusayn refused his fellow disciples' offer to accept him as the promised One, spent forty days in prayer and fasting at the mosque of Kúfih, and set out on the search that led him to the Báb.
Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í gave his life to preparing people for the coming of the Promised One and chose Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí to carry on his work. Before he died, Siyyid Káẓim urged his disciples to scatter far and wide in search of Him.
Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í and his successor Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí spent their lives preparing disciples for the Promised One. Before he died in 1843 the Siyyid urged them to scatter and seek Him, and within months Mullá Ḥusayn found the Báb in Shíráz.
Napoleon III is reported to have flung down Bahá'u'lláh's first Tablet. From the barracks of 'Akká Bahá'u'lláh wrote again, warning that the Emperor's empire would pass from his hands. In 1870 he was defeated at Sedan and lost his throne.
In The Promised Day Is Come, Shoghi Effendi surveys the fall of the great monarchies of Europe and the Middle East between 1870 and 1925, reading the collapses in the light of the warnings Bahá'u'lláh had sent to those same sovereigns from Adrianople and 'Akká.
In The Promised Day Is Come, written in 1941 during the Second World War, Shoghi Effendi described the upheaval of his time as a judgment of God, at once a punishment and a cleansing, and as the birth pangs of a new Order.
4 Avenue de Camöens, Morning of Friday, October 27th The day is fine, the air is pure, the sun shines, no mist nor cloud obscures its radiance.
October 30th In the Bible there are prophecies of the coming of Christ.
During His last visit to Haifa in 1891, Bahá'u'lláh pitched His tent near the Carmelite monastery on Mount Carmel and revealed the Tablet of Carmel, which is considered the charter of the Bahá'í World Centre.
At Naw-Rúz 1863, in His tent outside Baghdád, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Tablet of the Holy Mariner. His companions were filled with sorrow when they heard it, and the next day He was told He must go to Constantinople.
Napoleon III left Bahá'u'lláh's first Tablet unanswered. The second, sent from 'Akká in 1869, warned that his empire would pass from his hands. In 1870 he was defeated at Sedan and taken prisoner, and his empire fell.
Around 1869, while a prisoner in 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet to Pope Pius IX, calling him to leave his palaces and abandon his kingdom unto the kings. In 1870 the Pope lost his temporal rule.
Today, at table, let us speak for a little of proofs.
In the beginning of the eleventh chapter of the Revelation of St.
In Isaiah, chapter 11, verses 1 to 10, it is said: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and…
We have before explained that what is most frequently meant by the Holy City, the Jerusalem of God, which is mentioned in the Holy Book, is the Law of God.
It is said in the Holy Books that Christ will come again, and that His coming depends upon the fulfillment of certain signs: when He comes, it will be with these signs.
Question.—Will you explain the subject of Return? Answer.—Bahá’u’lláh has explained this question fully and clearly in the Íqán.
Question.—If God has knowledge of an action which will be performed by someone, and it has been written on the Tablet of Fate, is it possible to resist it?
In *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá comments on the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, with its Branch out of the stem of Jesse and its peaceable kingdom of the wolf and the lamb, and applies its verses to Bahá'u'lláh and His cycle.
As a token of pure justice, We have indeed sent tidings unto every Prophet concerning the Cause of Our Remembrance, and verily God is supreme over all the peoples of the world.
At the time of the manifestation of Him Whom God shall make manifest everyone should be well trained in the teachings of the Bayán, so that none of the followers may outwardly cling to the Bayán and thus forfeit their allegiance unto Him.
Be Thou patient, O Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, for God hath indeed pledged to establish Thy sovereignty throughout all countries and over the people that dwell therein.
By My glory!
Consider the manifold favours vouchsafed by the Promised One, and the effusions of His bounty which have pervaded the concourse of the followers of Islám to enable them to attain unto salvation.
From the beginning that hath no beginning all men have bowed in adoration before Him Whom God shall make manifest and will continue to do so until the end that hath no end.
He is God, the Supreme Ruler, the Sovereign Truth, He Whose help is implored by all.
The glory of Him Whom God shall make manifest is immeasurably above every other glory, and His majesty is far above every other majesty.
O thou dear handmaid of God! Praise thou God, because thou art favoured at His Holy Threshold, and cherished in the Kingdom of His might.
O thou who hast drawn nigh unto the spirit of Christ in the Kingdom of God!
Thou didst write as to the question of spiritual discoveries.
O ye lovers of truth, ye servants of humankind! Out of the flowering of your thoughts and hopes, fragrant emanations have come my way, wherefore an inner sense of obligation compelleth me to pen these words.
O thou who art captivated by the truth and magnetized by the Heavenly Kingdom!
O ye handmaids of the Lord! In this century—the century of the Almighty Lord—the Day-Star of the Realms above, the Light of Truth, shineth in its meridian splendour and its rays illuminate all regions.
O servant of God!
Praise be to Him Who hath made the world of being, and hath fashioned all that is, Him Who hath raised up the sincere to a station of honour and hath made the invisible world to appear on the plane of the visible—yet still, in their drunken stupor, do men wander and stray.
O thou favoured handmaid of the heavenly Kingdom! Thy letter hath been received.
As an infant Bahá'u'lláh never cried. At five or six He dreamt that birds and fishes attacked Him without harming Him, and an interpreter told His father that the peoples of the world would assail Him in vain.
O thou spiritual youth! Japan hath made wonderful progress in material civilization, but she will become perfect when she also becometh spiritually developed and the power of the Kingdom becometh manifest in her.
O thou who art acknowledging the Oneness of God!
O thou who art confessing the Oneness of God!
O thou who hast addressed Abdul-Baha!
O thou who hast confessed and believed in the Words of God!
O thou wooer of Truth and attracted one toward the Kingdom of God!