What is unity?

In the Tablet of Ittihad, Bahá'u'lláh describes in some detail several features of unity. He states that unity in the first place is the unity of religion, meaning that people must follow the same religion which is His Faith in this day. He declares that when the majority of the people in a country embrace His Cause, then the government will be able to put into practice His teachings and commandments. He asserts that in past dispensations such a unity has always brought victory to the Cause of God.

https://bahai-library.com/rev_bahaullah_4/taherzadeh_revelation_bahaullah_4.txt

Read More

Every house that is raised up will one day fall to ruin

"...Every house that is raised up will one day fall to ruin, except the house of God; that will grow more massive and be better guarded day by day. Then serve the Court of God with all your might, that you may discover the way to a home in Heaven, and found an edifice that will endure forever."

-Baha'u'llah

https://bahai-library.com/rev_bahaullah_4/taherzadeh_revelation_bahaullah_4.txt

Read More

Shi'ih - Sunni

In the Tablet of Salman Bahá'u'lláh explains that in the Islamic Dispensation the letter of negation stood above that of affirmation. Those among the followers of Muhammad who disregarded His wishes about the appointment of His successor and violated His wishes after His passing, dominated over the faithful ones and ruled over them for centuries.

https://bahai-library.com/rev_bahaullah_4/taherzadeh_revelation_bahaullah_4.txt

Read More

Christians and Muslims

They have rejected the bounty of God and His proofs and have repudiated the testimony of God and His signs. They have gone astray and have caused the people to go astray, yet perceive it not. They worship vain imaginings but know it not. They have taken idle fancies for their lords and have neglected God, yet understand not. They have abandoned the most great Ocean and are hastening towards the pool, but comprehend not. They follow their own idle fancies while turning aside from God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.

-Baha'u'llah (Lawh-i-Ishraqat)

https://bahai-library.com/rev_bahaullah_4/taherzadeh_revelation_bahaullah_4.txt

Read More

Bahaism is not so much an organization as a spiritual attitude, not so much a new religion...

Apparently, it is not so much an organization as a spiritual attitude, not so much a new religion as religion renewed. Its followers are found in all sorts of ecclesiastical organizations. To be a Baha'i a man need not sever his previous religious affiliations; he may remain a Buddhist, or Hindu Brahmin, a Parsee, a Mohammedan, or a Christian. He becomes one of the Baha'i Movement when he catches the Baha'i spirit.

(Page 339, BAHAISM—A STUDY OF A CONTEMPORARY MOVEMENT, ALBERT R. VAIL, 1914)

Read More

The Bab dreamt that the Blood of the Imam Husayn touched and sanctified His lips.

His Holiness the Exalted Bab dreamt that the Blood of the Imám Husayn touched and sanctified [made holy, purified] His lips.

(Shoghi Effendi: Messages to America, p. 100)

Read More

Shoghi Effendi's masterly use of the English language

It is a great pity if some of the friends fail to recognize the matchless prose to be found in the Guardian's writings. Shoghi Effendi's masterly use of the English language makes the meaning abundantly clear, and that is an essential quality of great works.

-THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

https://bahai-library.com/uhj_infallibility_history_guardian

https://bahaism.blogspot.com/2018/04/shoghi-effendis-masterly-use-of-english.html

Read More

"The Baha'i Faith places no importance on religious rituals"!

Following the passing of Bahá’u’lláh in 1892, the focal point of the pilgrimage experience was His Shrine in Bahjí. After the interment of the remains of the Báb on Mount Carmel in 1909, the focus was enlarged to include His Shrine. Visitation to these two shrines included the practice of circumambulation, the removal of footwear upon entry, and the recitation of a particular text from the scriptures entitled the “Tablet of Visitation”.

https://www.bahai.by/fileadmin/_processed_/5/c/csm_Bahai-Bahji-Shrine_of_Baha_u_llah-3_8d7e7e1fc0.jpg

Pilgrims entering the Shrine of the Báb and
circumambulating the Shrine of Baha'u'llah

Pilgrim praying outside the Shrine of the Bab

Read More

Baha'u'llah is omnipresent & omniscient!

In Isfahan there was a believer, a prominent man who accepted Baha'u'llah with his brain as the right prophet for today. He was a new believer and tried hard to overcome his shortcomings, like all of us, but had no success with his drinking habit, and friends could smell alcohol on his breath. In defense, he would state that his addiction was too difficult, and besides that, he was harming no one, and he was too lowly a servant for Baha'u'llah to be concerned about his private life. Then he had the bounty of attaining the presence of Baha'u'llah. One day when he was among other believers and Baha'u'llah was pacing back and forth, a thought occurred to him that it is true that Baha'u'llah is a great Messenger of God, but he wondered what Baha'u'llah meant when He stated, "I am the Sender of the Messengers and the Revealer of the Books.'' He had not finished his thought when suddenly Baha'u'llah walked to him, put His blessed hand on his shoulder, and said, ''It is true, We are the Sender of the Messengers and the Revealer of the heavenly Books." (Stories of Baha'u'llah, by Hand of the Cause A. A. Furutan, p. 74-5)

How do you like that for confirmation? Well, he was spellbound, all right. He was zapped in his head with which he had accepted Baha'u'llah. Now, he became a true believer, and accepted Him with his heart and every fiber of his being. After his return from pilgrimage believers could no longer smell alcohol on his breath, and upon their inquiry he said, "If Baha'u'llah could read my mind, He surely can see my actions." He is everywhere, omnipresent; and knows everything, omniscient.

https://bahai-library.com/wttp/PDF/A%20Glimpse%20of%20Glory.pdf

Read More

He is the Speaker in the Burning Bush on Sinai

This beautiful and dramatic explanation by the Guardian clearly tells us that Baha'u'llah is the essence, the culmination and the consummation of all the revelations of the past. He is not just another prophet. He is the Lord of Hosts, the incarnation of the Holy Spirit, and the Inaugurator of the Day of God. Doesn't he state in the medium obligatory prayer that He is the Speaker in the Burning Bush on Sinai?

https://bahai-library.com/wttp/PDF/A%20Glimpse%20of%20Glory.pdf

Read More

Equal to one thousand verses were revealed by Baha'u'llah within one hour.

"The revelations which came like a copious rain are unsurpassed in their beauty, richness and eloquence. The Holy Book of Qur'an consists of six thousand, three hundred verses revealed by Muhammad in twenty-three years. In this Dispensation, within one hour, equal to one thousand verses were revealed by Baha'u'llah, and as testified by Himself, were the secretary capable of recording, in a single day and night He could reveal equal to the Persian Bayan which the Bab revealed within one year, consisting of eight thousand verses."

https://bahai-library.com/wttp/PDF/A%20Glimpse%20of%20Glory.pdf

Read More

"The Sender of the Messengers and the Revealer of the Books is Our station."

This description by Aqa Siyyid Mihdi Gulpaygani has been heard by the compiler on several occasions in 'Ishqabad:

An influential resident of the city of Isfahan embraced the Cause of God ...

Eventually, he had the opportunity of travelling to the Holy Land and attaining the presence of Baha'u'llah. ...

'During the pilgrims' very first visit,' he continued, 'we stood while the Ancient Beauty paced to and fro as He addressed us. I was entranced by His graceful bearing, and thought to myself: 'It is readily acknowledged that He is the Manifestation of God and the Promised One of all nations, but what does it mean when He describes His station in some of His Tablets as "The Sender of the Messengers and the Revealer of the Books"? [Mursil-i-Rusul va Munzil-i-Kutub]

'No sooner had this thought occurred to me than the Blessed Beauty, in the midst of His pacing, came towards me, placed His blessed hands on my shoulders and majestically stated: "It is so! The Sender of the Messengers and the Revealer of the Books is Our station."

-Stories of Baha'u'llah, Compiled by Ali-Akbar Furutan, George Ronald, Oxford, 1986, pp. 74–5:

Read More

Qurrat ul Ayn's fame as a poetess is great... I only succeeded in obtaining three of the poems attributed to her

Kurratu'l-'Ayn's fame as a poetess is great, but during my sojourn in Persia I only succeeded in obtaining three of the poems attributed to her, viz. two short but very beautiful ghazals and a long masnaví. Of one of these ghazals I published the Persian text with a translation into English verse in my second paper on the Bábís in the J. R. A. S. for 1889 (pp. 936-937 and 991). I now give the second, which, though its authorship is more disputed, certainly savours strongly of Bábí doctrines and modes of expression.

-E.G. Browne

http://bahai-library.com/books/tn/tn.q.html

Read More

The United States was chosen as the Cradle of the New World Order, not because of its spiritual qualities, but because of its corruption

Our Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, stated that the United States was chosen as the Cradle of the New World Order, not because of its spiritual qualities, but because of its corruption, the same as Persia was chosen for the Revelation of Baha'u'llah because the Persians were worse than the African savages and far more barbaric.

https://bahai-library.com/moffett_pilgrims_notes

Read More

There will be great destruction, yes world civil war... There is nothing to keep the Soviets from marching into Israel.

There will be great destruction, yes world civil war in Europe, U.S., Israel, the Islands of the Pacific, even in Africa, wherever bases are established. The White race in Africa will be almost diminished and will be unimportant in the future. The difficulty will be racial, civil, religious, all over the world. There is nothing to keep the Soviets from marching into Israel. Tehran and Baghdad are also in great danger. Oil is the goal. The Heart of the Baha'i world, Haifa, and the Cradle of the Faith, Chicago, and the greatest strongholds of the Administrative Institutions are all in danger. The Baha'is must pray that God will mercifully protect the Faith, as in the past. This is all due to the decline in religion and of materialism and of spiritual decadence.

https://bahai-library.com/wwwboard/messages00/626.html

Read More