July 26, 2015

1873: Baha’u’llah revealed the Lawh-i-Ru'ya (Tablet of the Vision)

This Tablet was revealed “on the anniversary of the birth of His Forerunner [the Báb]” “nineteen years” before His ascension in 1892. (Shoghi Effendi, ‘God Passes By’)

In the Lawh-i-Ru'ya Bahá'u'lláh describes His vision of a Maiden dressed in white and illumined with the light of God. She entered the room in which Bahá'u'lláh was seated upon His throne of Lordship. She displayed an indescribable enthusiasm and devotion, circled around Him, was enraptured by the inebriation of His Presence, was thunderstruck at His Glory. And when she recovered, she remained in a state of bewilderment. She longed to offer up her life for her Beloved and finding Him captive in the hands of the unfaithful, she bade Him leave 'Akká to its inhabitants and repair to His other dominions 'whereon the eyes of the people of names have never fallen', words which found their fulfilment nineteen years later with the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh. In the absence of a translation it is not possible to convey the beauty of the verses and the mystery of the subject revealed in the Lawh-i-Ru'ya. The theme of this Tablet is as enchanting as it is unfathomable and mysterious. 
- Adib Taherzadeh  (‘The Revelation of Baha'u'llah vol. 3)

July 20, 2015

“For a space of three years Bahá’u’lláh continued to extol in His writings the heroism of” Badi

Áqá Buzurg of Khurásán, the illustrious “Badí” (Wonderful); converted to the Faith by Nabíl; surnamed the “Pride of Martyrs”; the seventeen-year old bearer of the Tablet addressed to Násiri’d-Dín Sháh; in whom, as affirmed by Bahá’u’lláh, “the spirit of might and power was breathed,” was arrested, branded for three successive days, his head beaten to a pulp with the butt of a rifle, after which his body was thrown into a pit and earth and stones heaped upon it. After visiting Bahá’u’lláh in the barracks, during the second year of His confinement, he had arisen with amazing alacrity to carry that Tablet, alone and on foot, to Tihrán and deliver it into the hands of the sovereign. A four months’ journey had taken him to that city, and, after passing three days in fasting and vigilance, he had met the Sháh proceeding on a hunting expedition to Shimírán. He had calmly and respectfully approached His Majesty, calling out, “O King! I have come to thee from Sheba with a weighty message”; whereupon at the Sovereign’s order, the Tablet was taken from him and delivered to the mujtahids of Tihrán who were commanded to reply to that Epistle—a command which they evaded, recommending instead that the messenger should be put to death. That Tablet was subsequently forwarded by the Sháh to the Persian Ambassador in Constantinople, in the hope that its perusal by the Sultán’s ministers might serve to further inflame their animosity. For a space of three years Bahá’u’lláh continued to extol in His writings the heroism of that youth, characterizing the references made by Him to that sublime sacrifice as the “salt of My Tablets.” 
- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

July 15, 2015

1900: The "Board of Counsel" of the Baha'i Assembly of New York City

Seated left to right: Orosco C. Woolson, Howard MacNutt, Arthur P. Dodge, Charles E. Sprague. Standing, left to right: Anton F. Haddad (honorary), Frank E. Osborne, Hooper Harris, William H. Hoar, Andrew Hutchinson, and Erwin A. Putnam. (The Baha'i World 1940-1944)

July 9, 2015

The “miracle associated with the Báb’s execution” and comparisons of His Mission and the forces of opposition He encountered with those of Christ

It should be remembered, however, that apart from the miracle associated with the Báb’s execution, He, unlike the Founder of the Christian religion, is not only to be regarded as the independent Author of a divinely revealed Dispensation, but must also be recognized as the Herald of a new Era and the Inaugurator of a great universal prophetic cycle. Nor should the important fact be overlooked that, whereas the chief adversaries of Jesus Christ, in His lifetime, were the Jewish rabbis and their associates, the forces arrayed against the Báb represented the combined civil and ecclesiastical powers of Persia, which, from the moment of His declaration to the hour of His death, persisted, unitedly and by every means at their disposal, in conspiring against the upholders and in vilifying the tenets of His Revelation. 
- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

July 1, 2015

The martyrdom of the Báb: “the most heroic phase of the Heroic Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation”; “unparalleled in the annals of the lives of all the Founders of the world’s existing religious systems.”

Thus ended a life which posterity will recognize as standing at the confluence of two universal prophetic cycles, the Adamic Cycle stretching back as far as the first dawnings of the world’s recorded religious history and the Bahá’í Cycle destined to propel itself across the unborn reaches of time for a period of no less than five thousand centuries. The apotheosis in which such a life attained its consummation marks, as already observed, the culmination of the most heroic phase of the Heroic Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation. It can, moreover, be regarded in no other light except as the most dramatic, the most tragic event transpiring within the entire range of the first Bahá’í century. Indeed it can be rightly acclaimed as unparalleled in the annals of the lives of all the Founders of the world’s existing religious systems. 
- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)