A large percentage of seekers who join study circles go on to accept the Faith.

"The process of the Baha'i communities opening their activities has been slow but successful. About 70 to 80 per cent of the participants in Baha'i classes for children are from non-Baha'i families and 50 to 60 per cent of seekers participate in the devotional meetings. A large percentage of seekers who join study circles go on to accept the Faith."

(The Five Year Plan 2001-2006 - Summary of Achievements and Learning)

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Baha'i Children Classes

The increase in the number of children's classes worldwide during the Five Year Plan was dramatic. At the beginning of the Plan, there were some 3,800 children's classes worldwide serving 42,000 children, the vast majority of whom (87 per cent) came from Baha'i families. By April 2006, there were well over 10,000 classes serving more than 93,000 children, of which 56 per cent came from the wider community.

(THE FIVE YEAR PLAN, 2001-2006: Summary of Achievements and Learning - Prepared under the supervision of the International Teaching Centre)

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Baha'i Education in State Schools (BESS) programme in Australia

The largest, most systematic approach to providing Baha'i education for children was undoubtedly the Baha'i Education in State Schools (BESS) programme in Australia which, while initiated before 2001, expanded and improved significantly during the Five Year Plan. A number of school principals, as a means of attracting enrolments to their school, promoted the fact that they offered Baha'i classes. So great was the demand for this programme from school administrators and non-Baha'i parents that the community could not raise up a sufficient number of teachers. At the conclusion of the Plan, the BESS programme was serving more than 6,000 children throughout Australia, and more than 90 per cent of them were from non-Baha'i families.

(THE FIVE YEAR PLAN, 2001-2006: Summary of Achievements and Learning - Prepared under the supervision of the International Teaching Centre)

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training and deploying human resources

At the heart of this framework were "two complementary, reinforcing movements'', which guided and focused the efforts of the believers in systematically advancing the process of entry by troops. Through patient, sustained endeavour it became apparent that as more and more friends completed the sequence of courses and arose to carry out the tasks of expansion and consolidation, an impetus was given to the development of the cluster and its capacity to achieve and sustain growth. Concentrated attention to these two movements was seen as essential to the progress of the Plan and became the standard by which progress was assessed.

Training institutes grew progressively more able "to provide their communities with a constant stream of human resources to serve the process of entry by troops". By 2006, more than 36,000 tutors and nearly 75,000 children's class teachers had been trained. The number of core activities rose correspondingly, showing a sixfold increase in devotional meetings and a threefold increase in children's classes. The impact of the success in training and deploying human resources was reflected in a growing number of advanced clusters. After achieving a vigorous institute process, the multiplication of core activities, and an increase in the tempo of teaching, the conditions were favourable for launching intensive programmes of growth in these clusters. By the end of the Five Year Plan, 296 such programmes had been initiated.

(THE FIVE YEAR PLAN, 2001-2006: Summary of Achievements and Learning - Prepared under the supervision of the International Teaching Centre)

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Baha'i schools

Many schools have gone beyond the initial stages of establishment, often fraught with difficult yet inevitable challenges, to infuse their programmes with elements that enhance their Bahá’í character. The presence of such a well-functioning school in a region redounds to the good name of the Faith and provides for the sound intellectual and moral development of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young people. The following schools run by Bahá’í’s, only a fraction of the total number, are together serving more than 16,500 students:

School of the Nations in Brazil; Unidad de los Pueblos in Bolivia; Satara International School in Burkina; Maxwell International Bahá’í School and Nancy Campbell Collegiate Institute in Canada; Ecole Les Etoiles Brillantes in Chad; Faizi and Muhájir Schools in Chile; Escuela Nuevo Jardin, Ruhi—Arbab School and Simmons School in Colombia; Louis Gregory School in the Congo Republic; Townshend International School in the Czech Republic; Ecole Internationale Enfants du Monde and Les Gouttelettes School in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Riḍván School in El Salvador; Raul Pavén Bahá’í School in Ecuador; Ani’s Zum’izr’ Bahá’í School in Haiti; School of the Nations in Guyana; Blossoms School, Brilliant Stars School, New Era High School, Rabbani School, Rúḥíyyih School, Splendour School, and Tadong Bahá’í School in India; William Foster Bahá’í Academy in Liberia; School of the Nations in Macau; Bambino Schools in Malawi; Abhá English School in Nepal; Ecole Prive’e Alliance and Lycée Enoch Olinga in Niger; New Day School in Pakistan; Badi’ School in Panama; Miki Rutan Bahá’í School in Paraguay; Bahá’í Schools in Swaziland; Ruaha Secondary School in Tanzania; Santitham Witthayakhom School in Thailand; Ecole Internationale Arc-en-ciel in Togo; Ocean of Light International School in Tonga; Auntie Claire’s Kindergarten and Louis Gregory Memorial Bahá’í Schools in Uganda; Rowhani School in Vanuatu; and Banani International School in Zambia.

(THE FIVE YEAR PLAN, 2001-2006: Summary of Achievements and Learning - Prepared under the supervision of the International Teaching Centre)

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They need to know what the Baha'i Faith is all about

A goal of the Bloomington conference is for every Baha’i to bring a friend of the Faith. To do this, though, the non-Baha’is need to be prepared for a truly Baha'i conference.

They need to know what the Baha’i Faith is all about and who Bahá’u’lláh claims to be.

The American Baha'i, Volume 18, No. 12 December 1987

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A 'capable and devoted' Baha'i, Husayn Ruhi, was a capable British agent.

He appears as a bit character in generally British-focused narratives of the Revolt, and intelligence during the First World War. T. E. Lawrence briefly refers to Ruhi as “more like a mandrake than a man” (perhaps in reference to his multiple wives and numerous children). Storrs, who spent many more months with Ruhi, gave him the codename “the Persian Mystic” and described Ruhi as “a fair though not profound Arabist, and a better agent than scholar.” Ruhi himself, a petite spy, translator, poet, and textbook author spent decades working for British officials, diplomats, spies, and educationalists, including a fifteen-year stint in the Department of Education of the Mandate for Palestine.

His interactions with colleagues in the Mandate bureaucracy, as well as the British individuals who had hired him, point to the chameleon-like character of the man himself.

Ruhi grew up in Persia after the death of his father, and received some schooling in Chicago as part of a Baha’i mission to that city, earning a license in the English language. Upon his return, Ruhi taught English in Cairo at a variety of schools, and published a bi-weekly magazine that promoted the Baha’i religion.

By 1912, Ruhi had married two of the three wives he would marry (possibly simultaneously), and had fathered two of the twelve children he would raise. Ruhi founded two schools in Egypt, one for boys and one for girls, which closed at the end of the First World War.

While Storrs [Sir Ronald Storrs (Britain’s Oriental Secretary, spy, and later governor of Jerusalem)] viewed him as Persian, Ruhi’s colleague Abdul Latif Tibawi, a fellow inspector of education in the Mandate for Palestine, defined him in passing as Arab, although in later works described Ruhi in more detail as an Egyptian “of Persian origin” and an “Arabic-speaking Persian.”

...a lack of attachment both to the Ottoman Empire and to the Arab community among whom Ruhi lived (and married) facilitated his career with different British administrations. Ronald Storrs preferred employing Baha’i individuals, believing them to be naturally suited to intelligence (one would presume due to their frequent need to keep their religion secret).* Ruhi’s fitness for his post as an intelligence officer, from the point of view of his employers, is clear.

*[Storrs noted that the “leading Persian of Jedda, a Bahai,” not only protected British agents, but also supplied the British with information himself. Ronald Storrs, “Hejaz Events, Excerpt from Diary,” 27 September 1916, Middle East Politics and Diplomacy, 1904–1950: The Papers of Sir Ronald Storrs (1881–1956) from Pembroke College, Cambridge (Marlborough, Wiltshire [England]: Adam Matthew Publications, 1999), Reel 5, Section II, Box 4. Storrs also employed a Baha’i doctor, asserting that this doctor, “being of Ruhi’s spiritual persuasion – can be trusted to keep you well and intimately informed on professional and non-professional matters.” Letter from Ronald Storrs to Colonel Wilson, 1 August 1916. Middle East Politics and Diplomacy, Reel 5, Section II, Box 4.]

From 1914 to 1920, Husayn Ruhi, and briefly his father-in-law, worked as agents for the British government across the Middle East.

Husayn Ruhi translated documents; wrote clandestine reports on the local situation in Cairo, Mecca, and Jeddah; carried messages and funds from the British to the Hijaz and back again; and generally contributed to the fomenting of the Arab Revolt. Ruhi’s official title was “confidential secretary,” working from 1914 to 1916 for Ronald Storrs, then British Oriental Secretary living in Cairo. From 1916 to 1918, Ruhi became the “confidential secretary to the British Agency Jeddah,” under Colonel Cyril Wilson. In transferring Ruhi’s services, Storrs commended Ruhi to Wilson: “he is delivered over to you body and soul. He is to consider himself not only your eyes and ears, but also if necessary your hands and feet. He may even, should an especially unsavoury occasion present itself, be called upon to represent your nose.”

Ruhi is best known for his translation of the Husayn-McMahon correspondence.

Elie Kedourie in particular criticized Ruhi’s Arabic as “shaky” with “grammatical mistakes” that indicated a lack of the necessarily facility to deal with the correspondence. Kedourie argues that certain mistranslations of difficult words led to confusion over the territory promised to Sharif Husayn. Kedourie also attributes to Ruhi the “florid style” of McMahon’s letters to Husayn, citing a British representative at Jeddah’s statement that “Ruhi used to address the King (Hussein) with the most extravagant titles when he wanted anything out of him.” It seems that the Sharif returned the favor, as Ruhi’s translation of one letter of the Sharif reads, “To our most ingenious, respectable and honourable [M]ister [S]torrs. Verily, I present to you my propensity and I ask for your health and rejoice.” Leaving aside the question of Ruhi’s Arabic, his English indicates a lack of fluency. Ruhi’s reports and his translations of Sharif Husayn’s correspondence, written in pen, are replete with crossed out words and phrases, words inserted after having completed a line, misspelled words, and prepositions used incorrectly.

One British captain noted Ruhi’s invaluable services, lauding his ability to find information due to “his energy, unique knowledge of the workings of men of the stamp concerned in this conspiracy and his selection of agents.” The captain further praised Ruhi’s dedication to his job, stating that “at great personal risk, underlying extreme discomfort and abuse, being imprisoned on several occasions he (Ruhi) traversed the whole [Suez] canal zone gaining information of the greatest value.” Ruhi not only collected intelligence, he also offered “disconcerting suggestions” of tactics that could be employed against those who were not friendly to the Revolt or the British. Ruhi told Storrs to “take strict measures” to prevent Rashid Rida from travelling to the Hijaz and convincing the people to “ignore the English.” Ruhi floated the idea of deporting Rida to Malta.

In his own evaluation of his espionage abilities, Ruhi boasted to Storrs, “I am known here as an Alem or Mohammedan Theologian as I went into mosques and delivered lectures and interpreted some verses. …All of the great people here are my friends. I picked some of them whom I found really pro-English and they may be a great help to our work.” It is of course impossible to verify Ruhi’s account of his own exploits. It is interesting that Ruhi sold himself as being able to pass as a Muslim scholar, despite the fact that he was Baha’i, and a somewhat lackluster academic overall. Ruhi’s infiltration of Mecca and ability to preach in a mosque would also likely have appealed to British officials’ overarching focus on religious affiliation as the primary motivating factor behind Middle Easterners’ actions.

Ruhi’s motivations for working for the British, beyond his paycheck, remain obscure. However, in that same report to Ronald Storrs in which Ruhi boasted of his ability to charm the Sharif, and indeed pull the wool over the eyes of the citizens of Mecca, he begged Storrs to support his school, by convincing others to support it. Ruhi’s passion for the school he had founded clearly increased his need for funds. He claimed the school could be propped up by Egyptian awqaf. Ruhi asserted that he would “live loyal to the British government” for his entire life, so long as they supported his school, claiming, “If my school will fall I will be the saddest fellow upon earth.”

Sadly, for Ruhi, both the boys and girls sections of the school he founded would close during the war, due to “force of circumstance.” But Ruhi was able to find new work in education: He maintained a certain loyalty to the British, and continued his tendency to inform, in his new post as an inspector of education in Mandate Palestine.

In 1917, Hussein Ruhi was awarded 100 pounds in lieu of a title, which was feared would preclude him from ever working again secretly on behalf of the British government.

Ruhi also became the focus of some international ire: the French mission in the Hijaz complained that Ruhi was spying on them.

Ruhi apparently ceased his work in espionage in 1919. He received the titles of Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) and Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). In March of 1920, he became an inspector with the Department of Education in Jerusalem.

Ruhi’s unique career demonstrates the variety of experiences government educators’ possessed, but also points to the complications of post-Ottoman nationality. Although Ruhi, like many others, was now a citizen of Palestine, the category of Palestinian nationality – and, to some degree, nationality itself as a way of defining identity – ill fitted him, due to his languages, birthplace, family, and religion.

In returning to the profession of education, Ruhi also authored Arabic language textbooks specifically focused on Palestine for use in its government schools. Ruhi’s texts illustrate his unique perspective and perhaps a desire to pander to British preferences, as the books concentrate on the specific territory of Palestine, as opposed to either Greater Syria or the Arab world, and include Jewish as well as Arab narratives. His history of Palestine, al-Mukhtasar fi al-ta’rikh, printed in 1922, listed its most important sources as the Qur’an and other holy books, contemporary American and Middle Eastern works of history and literature, as well as Titus Flavius Josephus’s writings. Ruhi’s history begins with the story of Abraham and ends with Ibrahim Pasha. It also contains a surprisingly positive portrayal of certain aspects of Jewish history in the region, describing the Maccabees, for example, as a family of patriotic heroes. Ruhi’s geography of Palestine (al-Mukhtasarfi Jughrafiyat Filastin) was written up briefly in al-Muqtaṭaf, which noted that the book included the political, natural, and administrative geography of Palestine as well as more than twenty maps. This work begins with a Muslim blessing (bismillah al-rahman al-rahim) and includes a discussion of Palestine’s Jewish colonies and an overview of its educational system, as well as a somewhat pointed drill that required students to calculate the meager proportion of Palestine’s inhabitants attending school at all. Husayn Ruhi even drew some of the book’s maps himself. Moreover, in another unique turn, this Arabic language geography was published by the London Jews Society, a British missionary society geared toward converting Jews to Christianity and encouraging Jews’ resettling in Palestine.

In the Mandate, Ruhi’s presence was in some ways an affront to his peers. One Palestinian academic derided Ruhi as simply Ronald Storrs’s “protégé,” whose appointment in the education department was incongruous at best. Khalil al-Sakakini, who also worked as an inspector in the Mandate Department of Education and authored grammar textbooks, held up Ruhi as an example of problems with the department as a whole. In a somewhat lengthy series of complaints to his son, Sakakini listed individuals employed by the British administration in Palestine whom he thought were undeserving of their salaries and status, specifically including Husayn Ruhi.

Husayn Ruhi retired from service in the Mandate for Palestine in 1935. He returned to Cairo where he founded a school, as he had before his service with the British. Ruhi died in 1960. Ruhi remains best remembered for his translations and reports. Yet, his preference for British-backed governments continued in the careers of two of his sons. ‘Ali Husayn Ruhi and Hasan Husayn Ruhi followed their father’s example working as educators and government officials in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. ‘Ali taught in Transjordan from 1928 to 1945. He composed several mathematics and science textbooks used by Arabic-speaking students throughout the region, specifically in the government schools of Transjordan and Palestine. ‘Ali seems to have also renounced his father’s faith, or at least hidden it, as he defined himself as Muslim on his application to teach in Transjordan.

Husayn Ruhi’s journey from education to espionage and back is hardly characteristic of educators or ethnic or religious minorities in the Middle East. However, his story raises (although does not answer) a number of questions and issues connecting to schooling, governance, and intelligence in the twentieth-century Middle East. By choosing Ruhi, a Baha’i of unclear nationality, the British presumed, to some degree correctly, that they could command a greater sway over Ruhi’s loyalties than those of other Egyptians, Persians, or Palestinians.

(Hilary Falb Kalisman - The Little Persian Agent in Palestine: Husayn Ruhi, British Intelligence, and World War I, Jerusalem Quarterly 66)

Read complete article here :
https://www.academia.edu/28212491/The_Little_Persian_Agent_in_Palestine_Husayn_Ruhi_British_Intelligence_and_World_War_I

https://www.nli.org.il/en/articles/RAMBI990005858830705171/NLI

Additional points from Baha'i sources:

The journey began after Mirza Asadu'llah had returned to Persia from the Holy Land and had recovered the casket (of the Bab's remains) from its hiding place in Tehran. He then set off with the assistance of other believers, including a ‘capable and devoted’ Baha'i named Husayn Ruhi, who was the son of Haji ‘Ali-‘Askar, a distinguished Bahai who had attained the presence of the Bab. Like his father, Husayn Ruhi had been in prison in Acre with Baha'u'llah.

(Michael Day, Journey to a Mountain - The Story of the Shrine of the Bab)

Ruhi's father 'Ali-'Askar-i-Tabrizi?

Haji Haji 'Ali-'Askar was one of the notable merchants of Tabriz, and a believer from the time of the Bab. At last the persecutions forced him to leave his home town and he emigrated with his brother and family to Adrianople, where he settled down and made a living by peddling small wares. He was arrested and sent with Baha'u'llah to 'Akka, where he passed away in AH 1291 (AD 1874)....

...Muhammad-Javad-i-Qazvini next records in his tract the murder of two other men, previous to the murder of Siyyid Muhammad-i-Isfahani and his two accomplices. He names them as Husayn-'Ali of Kashan, known as Khayyat-Bashi, and Haji Ibrahim, also of Kashan; but he does not name those who murdered them. Apparently, these two men of Kashan, who had always been fickle, had been in communication with the Azalis, although they lived with the companions in Khan al-'Umdan. Muhammad-Javad writes that one day, in the bazar, Haji Ibrahim denounced Aqay-i-Kalim, in his presence, before the Mufti. This reprehensible behaviour roused the ire of the companions, and some of them (unnamed) murdered those two, and buried them in a room in the inn. This happened at a time when Baha'u'llah, because of the mounting animosity of the Azalis, had ceased admitting anyone into His presence. However, Siyyid Muhammad had noted their disappearance and had reported it to the authorities. But, at the time, there was no reason to suspect any crime. After the murder of the three Azalis, during the interrogation of the companions, the murder of the two Kashanis came to light. Again, Muhammad-Javad does not mention any names, but merely records that the authorities were told that the two had died of cholera, and lest all should be taken away and put into quarantine, they had been immediately and quietly interred in a room of the inn. The authorities exhumed their corpses and had them buried beside the Azalis.

Another point worth noting in the tract by Muhammad-Javad-i-Qazvini is that whereas the wife of Mirza Yahya, sister of Mirza Rida-Quliy-i-Tafrishi, has been named elsewhere as Badri-Jan, Muhammad-Javad calls her Badr-i-Jahan. And the sixteen men detained in the Khan-i-Shavirdi for six months are named as follows: Haji 'Ali-'Askar-i-Tabrizi, his son, Husayn-Aqa, and his brother, Mashhadi Fattah; Haji Ja'far and his brother, Haji Taqi; Muhammad-Javad-i-Qazvini, himself; Aqa Faraj-i-Sultanabadi; Aqa Riday-i-Shirazi; Mirza Mahmud-i-Kashani; Haji Faraju'llah-i-Tafrishi; Aqa 'Azim-i-Tafrishi; Aqa Muhammad-'Aliy-i-Isfahani; Aqa Muhammad-'Aliy-i-Yazdi; Darvish Sidq-'Aliy-i-Qazvini; Aqa Muhammad-Ibrahim-Nayrizi, known as Amir-i-Nayrizi; and Haji Aqay-i-Tabrizi.

(Baha'u'llah - The King of Glory by Hasan Balyuzi)

For some time 'Abbás Effendi bore with these alarming circumstances, until latterly he set himself to stir up the fanaticism of a man named Hájji Mírzá Hasan of Khurásán, one of the leading Bábís in Egypt, and commissioned him to proceed to America to repair this rupture. The latter obediently accepted this commission, took with him as interpreter Husayn Rúhí the son of Hájji Mullá 'Ali of Tabriz, and went to America, where he remained some time. At first he tried to bring back Ibráhím Khayru'lláh to Abbás Effendi, but, not succeeding in his efforts, he busied himself for a while in declaring and proving to his friends the sanctity of 'Abbás Efendi. But he failed to achieve his object, and returned to Egypt, where he was stricken with imbecility, and is at present under treatment in Egypt.

https://books.google.com/books?id=eLnR-tJO5MQC&pg=PA146&dq=%22Husayn+ruhi%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLs8LJ4JX9AhXYEogKHZzZAQ4Q6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Husayn%20ruhi%22&f=false

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"valuable public services" to convert more and more people to the Baha'i faith

Medical camps operating through the devoted efforts of Bahá’í physicians and traveling teachers in Bangladesh have led to a large number of enrollments in addition to carrying out a valuable public service.

Last November 19, the Ruhí Camp, named after a recent martyr in Iran, treated 150 patients, 54 of whom embraced the Cause.

Four days later, the Faizí Camp treated more than 100 patients and enrolled 35 of them.

The Farhangi Medical Camps, initiated early last year, are still functioning; the most recent was reportedly held last November 21.

Also in November the Haqíqí Medical Project, also named after a recent martyr, treated more than 200 patients and enrolled 110 new believers including the residents of one entire village.

https://bahai.works/Baha%27i_News/Issue_698/Text

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Promoting the Baha'i faith in Iran in a semi-clandestine manner.

Nasir al-Din Shah’s successor, Muzaffar al-Din Shah, had a more favourable attitude towards Baha’is. They were able to publish semi-clandestinely through alternative print technologies, such as the lithograph and jellygraph, that proved difficult to regulate.

Baha’is were also active in the early history of Iranian newspapers where, so long as they made no explicit reference to their religious affiliation, they could thrive and prosper. Mirza Mahmud Khan was the editor of the late nineteenth century Isfahan-based newspaper Farhang, a copy of which was regularly sent to ‘Abdu’l-Baha in ‘Akka. Sayyid Faraj Allah Kashani edited the newspaper Surayya in Egypt, Tihran, and Kashan during the 1903–1910 period. With the outbreak of the Constitutional Revolution in 1906, Baha’is continued to play a part in publishing newspapers. In the capital Tehran, Sayyid Ahmad Khavari Kashani published the newspaper Mizan. During these years, the Baha’i female activist Ta’irah published a series of articles in the leftist newspaper Iran-i Naw. Another Baha’i, Muhammad ‘Ali Hidayat, established his own press, Matba‘ah-i Khurasan, and published two newspapers: Bisharat and the constitutional-era Tus.

In the capital Tehran, the Imperial Press (Matba‘ah-i Shahi) sometimes employed Baha’is where they engaged in clandestine Baha’i publishing. Mirza ‘Ali Akbar Rawhani Milani Muhibb al-Sultan was a case in point. Muhibb al-Sultan lived in Central Asia for several years, including in Bukhara and Samarqand, before making a pilgrimage to ‘Akka in 1895 to 1896. He stayed there for six months, copying Baha’i texts, before returning to Ashkabad. Two years later, he once again made pilgrimage to ‘Akka, copied Baha’i texts, but this time he travelled and settled in Iran. Reaching Tehran in 1898/1899 he worked for the Imperial Press. Two Baha’is close to Muzaffar al-Din Shah — Ahmad Khan Sani‘ al-Saltanah and his son Mirza Ibrahim ‘Akkasbashi — had established the press thereby providing Muhibb al-Sultan crucial access to print technology. In addition to his involvement with the Imperial Press, ‘Akkasbashi was Muzaffar al-Din Shah’s court photographer and the first Iranian to record a motion picture. Muhibb al-Sultan was appointed the director and editor of the Imperial Press. In his spare time, he published a great number of Baha’i publications through jellygraph (tab‘-i ‘aksi) in his own handwriting. The fall of the Qajar dynasty and the rise of Riza Shah provided Muhibb al-Sultan the opportunity to use type-set printing for Baha’i Persian publications in Iran for the first time. The life of Muhibb al-Sultan in some ways parallels that of Mirza Mahdi Gulpayigani. Like Mirza Mahdi, he travelled extensively through Central Asia, Iran, and made pilgrimage to Palestine. Both men benefited greatly from being involved in government print operations and utilized their expertise to produce Baha’i publications.

Through the efforts of Muhibb al-Sultan’s clandestine press, the popular Baha’i poet Na‘im was able to publish his apologetic works meant to assist Baha’is in their propagation efforts. ‘Abdu’l-Baha even commissioned the translation of an English apologetic work into Persian with the intention of having it published by Muhibb al-Sultan for the Iranian community.

(Farzin Vejdani, Transnational Baha’i Print Culture: Community Formation and Religious Authority, 1890–1921, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2012)

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How Baha'is invaded the Bans?

In 1917, ‘Abdu’l-Baha appointed an association (anjuman) to run the operations of the press and to establish a Baha’i magazine, Khurshid-i Kavar. Mirza Mahdi [Gulpayigani] drew on his previous printing expertise to publish the magazine, using it in part to respond to what Mashhad newspapers would write about the Baha’i Faith. Since the magazine was blocked from being imported into Iran from Khurasan, it was often brought to Gilan — a province in which Baha’is were in charge of customs duties — and circulated from there.

(Farzin Vejdani, Transnational Baha’i Print Culture: Community Formation and Religious Authority, 1890–1921, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2012)

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How they converted the innocent people?

Baha'is went from house to house up and down the road, asking blacks "if they believed in peace, brotherhood, and equality." If they answered: "yes", they were told that they were Baha'is and should Sign a declaration card. Seeberger claims that these blacks were not told of any restrictions resulting from membership in the Faith and were led to believe that they would benefit from educational, scholarship, or welfare programs if they became Baha'is.

(The Baha'i Faith: A Historical Bibliography, Pg 92, Joel Bjorling)

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What holds back the development of the Cause of Baha'u'llah?

One danger is that an ultra-conservative attitude, mistrustful of any critical thought, makes unjust claims to interpretative authority and strives to maintain everything the way it is, by disallowing critical questions and by ‘keeping the lid on.’ Such a fundamentalist stance attempts to disallow critical questions from being asked, and holds back the development of the Cause of Baha'u'llah in a sectarian manner. Not only does it prevent its natural unfoldment, but is partly responsible when intellectuals feel repressed, begin to rebel, and end up throwing the baby out with the bath water, as can be witnessed in certain Internet discussion groups.

(Loyalty to the Covenant and Critical Thought - A Commentary by Udo Schaefer)

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Three or four Baha'is were killed by the Persians for ridiculing their religious ceremonies

These sectarians (of Baha'u'llah), though long resident at Baghdad, had not hitherto openly professed the new creed, but during the last Mohurrem they attracted the ill-will of true Shiahs by ridiculing the ceremonies usual with the latter at that season, and three or four of their number have since lost their lives in encounters with the Persians.

The Babi and Baha'i Religions 1844-1944 Some Contemporary Western Accounts edited by MOOJAN MOMEN M.A., M.B. GEORGE RONALD, Publisher, page 267

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Babi killing of non-Babis and Baha'i killing of Azalis

Babis (predecessors of the Baha'is) have killed many Muslims in Iran. Baha'is have also killed many Azalis.

...the Bab ordered to kill non-Babis, burn all non-Babi books, destroy Muslim shrines, shun all non-Babis, remove all non-Babis from 5 major cities of Iran. The Babis were a cause of at least 3 civil wars in Iran. At least 20 Azalis were killed by the Baha'is.

Source : http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/babism-index

The names of a number of Azalis murdered by the Baha'is are given by Edward Browne in the Persian Introduction to Nuqtatul-Kaf, p. 42, and also in New History, pp. XXIII, XXIV, and J.R.A.S. July 1889, p. 517

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Conflict between Baha'u'llah and Subh-i-Azal

In Baghdad, says Bahiyyih Khanum, "disharmony and misunderstanding arose among the believers--discord--strife--contention." Therefore Baha'u'llah went, off to Kurdistan.

He refers in the "Iqan" to the dissensions, "Such an odour of jealousy was diffused, banners of discord hoisted, enemies endeavoured to destroy this servant,--hardships, calamities and sufferings inflicted by Moslems were as nothing compared with what hath been inflicted by the believers." His opponents say that he wished to introduce innovations, relax the law and put forward on his own account a claim to be a Manifestation and being resisted in this, he" got angry." After they were removed to Adrianople the quarrel waxed hotter. Abul Fadl describes it as one of "interior fires of dissension and jealousy between the rival leaders, far exceeding the jealousy of outsiders. Mohammed Jawad Qazvini says there were "all manner of intrigues, falsehoods and untruths." I have received from a Muslim convert to Christianity an interesting account of conditions then and there. He was at that time a peesh-khidmat to the Persian Minister at Constantinople. He was at Samsun when Subh-i-Azal and Baha'u'llah and their parties embarked and was introduced to them by Haji Rajab Ali Khan, brother-in-law of my informant. He saw them day by day and became a serious inquirer. Afterwards he went to Adrianople bearing presents to Baha'u'llah. He found Baha'u'llah and Subh-i-Azal living in separate rooms of the same house under guards. The two brothers were in dispute over the supremacy, and the mureeds had been won over by Baha'u'llah. He narrates "I entered one day. I heard words of angry disputation and revilings. Yahya said, "Ay! Husayn Ali, you are vile! Do you not remember your sodomies? You are defiled. Your wife is a bad one!" Husayn Ali (Baha'u'llah) answered, "Ay, cursed one! Your son Nur'u'llah is not your son but son of Sayyid --. You yourself are a sodomite, an adulterer." Such like revilings they hurled at each other. I called Mishkin Qalam and said to him, "What are these words and doings? If Baha'u'llah is true why does he talk so? Why do these brothers revile each other? What a fool I am to come so many miles to hear such revilings from a divinity!" We then went to the room of Ishan. My companion said to Ishan, "Why do they curse so?" I said, "I wish to ask a question." He said, "What is it?" I said, "You say they do not work miracles, but must there not be personal power and influence in words?" [1]

The condition at Adrianople culminated in a series of crimes, which now come before us for examination. Charges have been made, in detail, against the companions of Baha'u'llah of assassinating the Azalis, the followers of his rival Subh-i-Azal. Most of the information regarding the matter is to be found in the books and translations of Professor Browne, the great authority on Baha'i Faith in the Anglo-Saxon world.

[1] Professor Browne, afterwards in Persia, found the attitude of the Bahais towards the Azalis "unjust and intolerant" and reprimanded them, for "their violence and unfairness." They cursed and reviled in the presence of Professor Browne ("A Year Among the Persians," pp. 525-530).

http://bahai-library.com/books/bahaism/bahaism10.html

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Abdul Baha burnt those letters.

When I (Namık Kemal) met 'Abbàs Effendi . . . two years ago [1917] in the town of Haifa he told me with complete sorrow that he had an extensive correspondence with Kemal Bey but that out of worry about investigation and persecution in the time of Sultan Abdülhamid II he had burnt those letters.

-NECATI ALKAN, OTTOMAN REFORM MOVEMENTS.

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There are now close to 17,000 clusters (2003) worldwide, out of which 500 clusters have crossed 3rd milestone (in 2019)

"Reports received at the World Centre indicate that there are now close to 17,000 clusters worldwide, excluding those countries where, for one reason or another, the operation of the Faith is restricted."

-The Universal House of Justice, 17 January 2003

https://www.bahai.org/r/532027753

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Houses of justice are supposed to take care of the old, the weak, and the ill who have fallen into poverty

Among the general functions of the Houses of Justice, as enunciated by Baha'u'llah, are the following: to promulgate the cause of God; to educate the souls of men; to preserve the law; to make the land prosperous; to administer social affairs; to educate the children; to take care of the old, the weak, and the ill who have fallen into poverty (Ganjīna-ye ḥodūd, p. 214).

Contributed by Moojan Momen

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bayt-al-adl-house-of-justice-a-bahai-administrative-institution

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Violent upheaval and agony because of great failure to respond to Baha'u'llah's instructions

Shoghi Effendi:

"No doubt to the degree we Baha'is the world over strive to spread the Cause and live up to its teachings, there will be some mitigation of the suffering of the peoples of the world. But it seems apparent that the great failure to respond to Baha'u'llah's instructions, appeals and warnings issued in the 19th century, has now sent the world along a path, or released forces, which must culminate in a still more violent upheaval and agony. The thing is out of hand, so to speak, and it is too late to avert catastrophic trials."

- Unfolding Destiny, p.454

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All Baha'i activities are for teaching the Cause

The cornerstone of the foundation of all Bahá'í activity is teaching the Cause. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has categorically proclaimed in His Will and Testament, ‘the guidance of the nations and peoples of the world’ is ‘the most important of all things’ and “Of all the gifts of God the greatest is the gift of Teaching’.

~ The Universal House of Justice, Baha'i World Centre, March 3, 1977

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