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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."
66 stories on this theme.
In our solar system, the center of illumination is the sun itself.
The Báb has been compared to John the Baptist, but the station of the Báb is not merely that of the herald or forerunner.
The Writings of Bahá’u’lláh are most comprehensive in their range, dealing with every phase of human life, individual and social, with things material and things spiritual, with the interpretation of ancient and modern scriptures …
When the Báb declared His mission in 1844, Bahá’u’lláh, Who was then in His twenty-seventh year, boldly espoused the Cause of the new Faith, of which He soon became recognized as one of the most powerful and fearless exponents.
Bahá’u’lláh teaches that everyone endowed with the Station of Prophethood is given sufficient proofs of His Mission, is entitled to claim obedience from all men and has authority to abrogate, alter or add to the teachings of His predecessors.
According to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:— A mediator is necessary between man and the Creator—one who receives the full light of the Divine Splendor and radiates it over the human world, as the earth’s atmosphere receives and diffuses the warmth of the sun’s rays.
After His return from this retirement, His fame became greater than ever and people flocked to Baghdád from far and near to see Him and hear His teachings.
Esslemont quotes Bahá'u'lláh's own description, from the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, of the dungeon in Tihrán where He was held for four months in 1852, with nearly a hundred and fifty fellow-prisoners.
Tarázu'lláh Samandarí, a youth on pilgrimage in the last months of Bahá'u'lláh's life, recalls twice being present as Bahá'u'lláh revealed verses at great speed while His secretary wrote them down.
During a visit to 'Akká, Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥaydar-'Alí was allowed into Bahá'u'lláh's presence while verses were being revealed, and he left a brief account of that memorable occasion.
In ‘Akká, Dr. Yúnis Khán watched ‘Abdu’l-Bahá dictate a long Arabic Tablet that two visiting Muslim divines had asked to carry to Iran, then overheard the visitors marvelling at what they had witnessed.
In Baghdad in 1862 the Báb's eldest uncle, still doubtful of his Nephew's claim, brought his questions to Bahá'u'lláh, Who answered them in two days and two nights with the Kitáb-i-Íqán, the Book of Certitude.
Bahá'u'lláh's family lives happily in Tihrán until the day He is arrested and cast into an underground prison, where He comes to know that God has given Him a mission for the whole world.
In the summer of 1848 eighty-one Bábís gathered at Badasht as the guests of Bahá'u'lláh. There Táhirih appeared unveiled and declared that the fetters of the past were burst asunder.
In Iṣfáhán the Báb was the guest first of the Imám-Jum'ih and then of the governor, Manúchihr Khán. He wrote a commentary on a Súrih of the Qur'án with great speed, and told the governor how His Cause would be preserved.
In 1847 the Báb was taken from Iṣfáhán toward Ṭihrán and then sent to the fortress of Máh-Kú, and later to Chihríq. At both prisons the wardens and the people of the district came to revere Him, and at Máh-Kú He wrote the Persian Bayán.
During the Báb's nine months in the castle of Máh-Kú, its strict warden, 'Alí Khán, saw Him at prayer outside the locked castle, came to Him in humility, and opened the castle to His visitors.
After two young Bábís tried to kill the Sháh in August 1852, Bahá'u'lláh was chained for four months in the Síyáh-Chál, the underground dungeon of Ṭihrán. There, in a dream, He heard the words that announced His mission.
Muḥammad Sháh sent the learned Siyyid Yaḥyá-i-Dárábí to Shíráz to investigate the Báb. At their third meeting the Báb revealed, unasked, the commentary Siyyid Yaḥyá had silently resolved to request, and he embraced the Báb's Cause.
In the *Epistle to the Son of the Wolf*, Bahá'u'lláh briefly recalls the conditions of His four-month imprisonment in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán in 1852 — the underground dungeon in which the first intimations of His Revelation came to Him.
In Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh began to proclaim His Mission to the kings of the world in the Súriy-i-Mulúk and other Tablets, and from the prison of 'Akká He wrote to Napoleon III, Queen Victoria, the Czar and the Pope.
The Báb and Quddús spent about two months on a rough sea voyage from Búshihr to Jiddah. Through storms and hardship they remained calm, the Báb revealing writings and Quddús taking them down.
Chained in the darkness of the Síyáh-Chál, Bahá'u'lláh felt the first stirrings of God's Revelation and saw the Maiden of Heaven, yet He told no one, awaiting the hour God had appointed.
In Iṣfáhán the Báb stayed with the city's chief religious leader and then with its governor. He wrote an explanation of a chapter of the Qur'án with amazing speed, and told the governor how God's Cause would be kept safe.
The Báb was sent to a far-off mountain castle so that His followers could not reach Him. Instead, the warden and the townspeople came to love Him, and the same thing happened at a second prison.
In 1852 Bahá'u'lláh was chained for four months in the Síyáh-Chál, an underground prison in Ṭihrán. There, in a dream, He heard the words that told Him of His Mission.
Sent by the king to test the Báb, the scholar Siyyid Yaḥyá silently resolved to ask for a commentary on the Súrih of Kawthar. At their third meeting the Báb offered to reveal exactly that.
In Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Mulúk, the Súrih of Kings, in which He addressed the monarchs of East and West together for the first time, called them to justice, and described His own banishment.
In Baghdád in 1862 an uncle of the Báb brought Bahá'u'lláh a list of questions about the promised Qá'im. In two days and two nights Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Íqán in reply, and the uncle's doubts were dispelled.
Esslemont records that the Báb composed His voluminous Writings with great rapidity, without study or premeditation. He went on writing while confined in the mountain fortresses of Máh-Kú and Chihríq, and in His Writings He called Himself a dew-drop from a limitless ocean.
About 1873, still a prisoner in 'Akká under a sentence of perpetual banishment, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, which Shoghi Effendi calls the Mother Book of His Dispensation and the Charter of His New World Order.
Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Haykal in Adrianople and recast it in 'Akká, joining to it His messages to Pope Pius IX, Napoleon III, Czar Alexander II, Queen Victoria and Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh, and had the whole written in the shape of a pentacle.
On the night of His Declaration in Shíráz in May 1844, the Báb revealed in Mullá Ḥusayn's presence the first chapter of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', the book Bahá'u'lláh called the first, the greatest and mightiest of all books in the Bábí Dispensation.
In a Tablet revealed in answer to a believer's questions, Bahá'u'lláh set out nine of His teachings for the rulers and peoples of the world, each called an Ishráq, a Splendour.
In Baghdád in 1862 an uncle of the Báb brought Bahá'u'lláh his written questions about the promised Qá'im. In two days and two nights Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Íqán, the Book of Certitude, in reply.
On 22 April 1863, on the eve of His exile to Constantinople, Bahá'u'lláh crossed the Tigris to the Najíbíyyih Garden. During the twelve days He spent there He declared His mission to His companions.
About 1873, still a prisoner in 'Akká and living in the house of 'Údí Khammár, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book, which sets out the laws and institutions of His Faith.
Toward the end of 1871, while still a prisoner in 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh answered a letter from a devoted believer in Persia with the Fire Tablet, in which He laments His sufferings and then replies to Himself as the Tongue of Grandeur.
In Baghdád and Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh revealed verses faster than they could be written down. Shoghi Effendi gathers the testimony of those who saw it, including the verses He had thrown into the Tigris.
Bahá'u'lláh wrote His Will, the Kitáb-i-'Ahd, in His own hand and entrusted it to 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His last illness. On the ninth day after His ascension it was read aloud, naming the Most Mighty Branch as the One to whom all must turn.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá'u'lláh told the believers to turn, after His passing, to "Him Whom God hath purposed." In His Book of the Covenant He wrote that this verse meant the Most Mighty Branch, 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
On the evening of 22 May 1844 the Báb met Mullá Ḥusayn outside the gate of Shíráz and took him to His house. That night He declared that He was the One Mullá Ḥusayn had been seeking, and revealed the first chapter of His commentary on the Súrih of Joseph.
When His house in Baghdád could not hold all who came to bid Him farewell, Bahá'u'lláh crossed the Tigris to the Najíbíyyih garden, later called the Garden of Riḍván, and there on 22 April 1863 declared His station to His companions.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá'u'lláh named the days of Riḍván the first of the two Most Great Festivals and called the Most Great Festival "the King of Festivals." He wrote that on the first day of Riḍván "all created things were immersed in the sea of purification."
In Ṭihrán in 1844 Mullá Ḥusayn gave a student from Núr a scroll to hand to Bahá'u'lláh at dawn. Bahá'u'lláh read it aloud, declared that its words had the same regenerating power as the Qur'án, and sent Mullá Ḥusayn a gift of tea and sugar.
In Baghdád, after His return from Sulaymáníyyih, Bahá'u'lláh answered the mystical questions of Shaykh Muḥyi'd-Dín, a Ṣúfí judge of Khániqayn, with the Seven Valleys, which describes the soul's journey toward God in seven stages.
While a prisoner in the mountain fortress of Máh-Kú, the Báb revealed the Dalá'il-i-Sab'ih, the Seven Proofs, in answer to a questioner. Shoghi Effendi calls it the most important of the Báb's polemical works.
In Baghdád, about 1858, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Hidden Words as He paced the banks of the Tigris in meditation. He described the book as the inner essence of what had been revealed to the Prophets of old.
About two years before His passing, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kalimát-i-Firdawsíyyih, the Words of Paradise, in honour of Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥaydar-'Alí. Its "leaves" set out counsels on the fear of God, religion, justice, unity, education and peace.
In Haifa in 1891, after nine days of silence that followed the martyrdom of seven believers in Yazd, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Lawḥ-i-Dunyá, a Tablet that sets out principles for the peace and betterment of the world.
In the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Bahá'u'lláh recalls the four months He spent chained in the underground dungeon of Ṭihrán in 1852, and the first stirrings there of His Revelation.
Sent by the Báb to Ṭihrán in 1844, Mullá Ḥusayn entrusted a scroll of the Báb's writings to a student from Núr, who carried it at dawn to Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'lláh at once affirmed its truth, and the news brought the Báb great joy.
Sent by Muḥammad Sháh to investigate the Báb, the learned Vaḥíd resolved to ask, only in his heart, for a commentary on the Súrih of Kawthar. At their third meeting the Báb offered it unasked and wrote it before him.
Moved from Máh-Kú to the castle of Chihríq under a warden ordered to admit no one, the Báb won over both the warden, Yaḥyá Khán, and the Kurds of the district, and seekers again came to Him in numbers.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, revealed in 'Akká around 1873, Bahá'u'lláh told the kings of the earth that the King of Kings had appeared and summoned them to serve Him. He addressed the rulers of America and foretold suffering on the banks of the Rhine.
November 5th Today the weather is gloomy and dull! In the East there is continual sunshine, the stars are never veiled, and there are very few clouds.
The last illness and ascension of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí on 29 May 1892, His farewell to the friends, His burial, and the reading of the Kitáb-i-'Ahd nine days later.
In the Lawḥ-i-Aqdas, the Tablet to the Christians, Bahá'u'lláh tells the followers of Christ that the Father has come, and calls on their bishops, priests and monks to recognize Him.
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.
Doth it seem strange to the people that We should have revealed the Book to a man from among themselves in order to purge them and give them the good tidings that they shall be rewarded with a sure stance in the presence of their Lord?
The Lord hath, in truth, inspired Me: Verily, verily, I am God, He besides Whom there is none other God, and I am indeed the Ancient of Days...
There is no doubt that the Almighty hath sent down these verses unto Him [the Báb], even as He sent down unto the Apostle of God.
This Book which We have sent down is indeed abounding in blessings and beareth witness to the Truth, so that the people may realize that the conclusive Proof of God in favour of His Remembrance is similar to the one wherewith Muḥammad …
Unto every people We have sent down the Book in their own language.
In the Name of God, the Most Exalted, the Most High. Verily I am God, no God is there but Me, and aught except Me is but My creation.
Verily We made the revelation of verses to be a testimony for Our message unto you.