The remains of the Bab were kept in the room of Bahiyyih Khanum for ten years

Abdul Baha entrusted her with the sacred remains of the Báb which were housed in her room for some ten years in the house of 'Abdu'lláh Páshá.

https://bahai-library.com/50th-anniversary_greatest_holy_leaf

The construction of the Shrine had begun over forty years ago. The Guardian recounted how the Bab’s Sacred remains journeyed in hiding for decades in Iran before arriving in the Holy Land where they were hidden in the room of the Greatest Holy Leaf for another ten years. ‘Abdu’l-Baha showed the remains to the assembled Baha’is to verify that they had arrived intact, and he buried them with great solemnity in a marble sarcophagus sent by the Baha’is of Burma.

(The Memoirs of Shamsi Sedaghat by Shamsi Sedaghat edited by Hillary Chapman - 2023)

https://bahai-library.com/sedaghat_chapman_memoirs

Read More

The Baha'i administration has increasingly come under the control of fundamentalists

In his book Modernity and the Millennium, published by Columbia University Press in 1998, Professor Cole observes the Baha'i administration has increasingly come under the control of fundamentalists, "stressing scriptural literalism... theocracy, censorship, intellectual intolerance, and denying key democratic values (196)."

Similarly, Karen Bacquet has written an insightful article on Baha'i fundamentalism: "Enemies Within: Conflict and Control in the Baha'i Community," which was published in the American Family Foundation's Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 18, 2001, pp.109-140:

https://www.angelfire.com/ca3/bigquestions/enemies.html 

Read More

Converting to the Baha'i faith is very easy

Israelis

Whenever an Israeli citizen living in the West, irrespective of his background and religious affiliation, declares his belief and interest in becoming a member of the Baha'i community, he should be informed that the Faith is not taught in Israel and that [6.6] there is no Baha'i community there apart from those who are associated with the Baha'i World Center. He cannot be accepted into the Baha'i community if he is planning to return to Israel to reside there.

If he plans to continue to reside outside Israel, his enrollment can be accepted, but he will then be subject to the same restrictions about travel to Israel as any other Baha'i, in that he could do so only with the express permission of the Universal House of Justice. In any event, the Universal House of Justice should be informed of any such declaration.

Letter from the Universal House of Justice, dated October 20, 1994, to several National Spiritual Assemblies

Mainland Chinese

Citizens of the PRC [People's Republic of China] may be accepted as believers without making a written declaration of faith or being officially registered. It should be made clear to them that there is no Baha'i administration in China and therefore at this time Baha'i laws of personal status are not binding, nor are they required to withdraw from membership in other associations. However, they should endeavor to learn about Baha'i laws and principles and should, as a matter of conscience, endeavor to practice these to the best of their ability.

Chinese believers who are citizens of the PRC should be introduced to each other as Baha'is only if they are willing for this to be done. They may participate in the social life of the Baha'i community in a normal manner but not be singled out for undue attention or be subjected to public gaze.

Baha'is from the PRC should be advised of the caution needed regarding teaching the Faith on the Chinese mainland and be asked to observe it for their own protection as well as the future of the Faith there.

Membership records of the Baha'is who are citizens of the PRC are maintained at the World Center at present. Each National Spiritual Assembly is asked to supply the House of Justice with the following information on each of these friends who have accepted the Faith under its jurisdiction: full name of the person in Chinese script, full name in the Roman alphabet, current address, home address in China, date of declaration and occupation.

Letter from the Universal House of Justice, dated April 19, 1989, to a National Spiritual Assembly

Iranians and Arabs

Iranian declarants (any persons from an Iranian background regardless of their immigration status or length of stay in the United States) and other Muslim declarants from the Middle East may participate in administrative functions only after their enrollments are confirmed by the National Spiritual Assembly. Every Iranian seeking to be enrolled as a Baha'i should complete the Persian Enrollment/Registration Information Form in addition to completing the declaration card. This form can be obtained from the Baha'i National Center (Department of Management Information Systems).

In addition to ensuring that the appropriate forms are completed and sent to the Baha'i National Center, the Local Spiritual Assembly should meet with declarants to find out the depth of their understanding of the Faith and the sincerity of their claims. A report of the meeting and the Local Assembly's recommendations for accepting the enrollments should be sent to the Department of Management Information Systems.

The enrollment process is completed when the Baha'i National Center issues an identification card. Except for children of registered members of the American Baha'i community, enrollment of all Persians (including youth) requires confirmation from Baha'is in Iran. Enrollment of Muslims from other Middle Eastern countries requires confirmation from the Universal House of Justice. These communications are coordinated through the Baha'i National Center.

Because communication with the believers in Iran is extremely difficult, the verification process may be lengthy more than a year in some instances. In the meantime, the Local Assembly may invite these persons to attend those events open to the public and encourage them to continue their study of the Faith.

(See also Chapter 7, Appendix C, Section entitled "Special Circumstances Regarding Teaching Muslims in the West")

Read More

Music in the Baha'i Temples (Yes or No?)

Bahāʾ-Allāh urges the recital and the melodious chanting of scripture in the Mašreq al-Aḏkār, especially by children and especially at dawn (Ketāb-e Aqdas, vv. 115-16, 150, pp. 110-11, 143-44; tr., pp. 61, 74). With regard to saying prayers at dawn, he states that this could be done anytime from dawn until two hours after sunrise (Ketāb-e Aqdas, p. 47; tr., p. 111). In writing to the prominent Iranian musician and Bahai, Mirzā ʿAbd-Allāh Farāhāni (ca. 1843-1918, see ʿABDALLĀH, MIRZĀ), ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ encourages music in the Mašreq al-Aḏkār (Māzandarāni, Amr va Ḵalq, III, p. 364, tr. Compilation of Compilations, II, p. 76). Shoghi Effendi has stated that there should be no musical instruments used, only a capella singing by live singers (not recorded). The words sung should be from the Bahai or other scriptures (Shoghi Effendi, 1982, pp. 607-8).

https://iranicaonline.org/articles/mashreq-adkar

Read More

Baha’is may not move to Israel without the permission of the Universal House of Justice.

Registered Baha’is may not move to Israel without the permission of the Universal House of Justice. They are, of course, free to move anywhere else in the world, provided they do it legally. Some registered Baha’is who are not volunteers at the Baha’i World Centre do live in Israel.

https://cementanswers.com/what-do-bahai-believe-about-afterlife/

Whatever the purpose of their travel to Israel, Bahá'ís must have the permission of the Universal House of Justice for their visit.

https://pilgrimage.bwc.org/visits/

Read More

How the NSA warns the Baha'i believers

ANNOUNCEMENT

The National Spiritual Assembly advises the friends that Mr. Dale Williams, sometimes known as Allen Warren Hanson, and at other times by other aliases, who, it is reported, may be travelling in Canada at the present time, had his voting rights removed by the N.S.A. a year ago. Once again the friends are reminded of the need for insisting that Baha’i credentials be presented by all strangers claiming to be Baha’is in good standing so that the Canadian communities may be protected from abuses of their hospitality and the borrowing of money etc.

https://bahai.works/Canadian_Bahá’í_News/Issue_97/Text

Read More

Abdul Baha's station of divinity

Mrs. P.: Was Abdul Baha the first who knew and realized the reality of Baha'u'llah?

Ibn Asdaq: As he had the station of divinity, he would know. Baha'u'llah says Abdul Baha is not a human being. How is it possible that man should not know himself first? In the world of man my father was one of the first to realize the station of Baha'u'llah. Baha'u'llah while in Baghdad, wrote a tablet with his own hand for my father:

"O thou Sadiq, that Word which his holiness The Bab wrote has appeared. That Word has appeared through the Lord. It has appeared in the form of man. Then prepare to meet his Beauty and see him in that beautiful garment (garment of man) and be humble and submissive to him."

My father became humble and submissive before his declaration...

All the qualities of Baha'u'llah are seen in Abdul Baha. The form, movement, talking, walking, even the feet, are the same. When Abdul Baha begins to chant, the Words and the voice are the same. The other day I was present when Abdul Baha was revealing tablets, and it reminded me of Baha'u'llah.

https://bahai-library.com/pdf/p/pilgrims_notes_us-archives_1919.pdf

Read More

The Bab was insane

Following the Tribunal, the matter of the Báb’s sanity was raised, and a conditional death sentence was issued pending a confirmation of the Báb’s sanity. Dr. William Cormick, the crown prince’s physician, and two Persian physicians were instructed to examine the Báb and determine “whether he was of sane mind or merely a madman.” In his recollections of his visit to the Báb in the Tabríz citadel, Dr. Cormick wrote:

"He only once deigned to answer me on my saying that I was not a Musulman and was willing to know something about his religion, as I might perhaps be inclined to adopt it. He regarded me very intently on my saying this, and replied that he had no doubt of all Europeans coming over to his religion. Our report to the Shah at that time was of a nature to spare his life." (Qtd. in Amanat, Resurrection 391)

The “of a nature to save his life” carried within it the implicit assumption that the Báb was insane.

https://bahai-library.com/pdf/w/woodman_metaphor_language_revelation.pdf

Edward Browne also brings this is his book "Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion".

Read More

Abdul Baha's miracles

There was a certain inhabitant of ‘Akká whose name was ‘Abdu’l-Mutallib, a son of a certain Mustafa-Dallál. He was devoted to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He acquired intense hiccups and no remedy was working. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went to visit him in his home and to inquire of his health. He noticed that hiccups would not let the man speak a word. He asked, “Are there any apples here?” He was told, “It is not the season for apples.” He said, “Someone should go to the House and search for one.” An apple was found [in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s House] and brought to His blessed presence. A corner of this apple had gone bad. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá instructed, “Eat the apple.” He ate a piece of the apple and his hiccup subsided some. He continued eating the apple and his hiccup was completely cured. He even started eating the apple core, but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said to him, “There is no need to eat these.” However, he ate it anyway, perhaps thinking that his cure was due to the apple. In short, he was rescued from this intense ailment.

Such incidents would occur very often, each evidence of the might and influence of His blessed Person. The Guardian of the Cause of God used to say, “Whatever we have willed has occurred.” It is certain that whatever the divine manifestations will, will occur since their will is God’s will.

(A Lifetime with 'Abdu'l-Bahá: Reminiscences of Khalíl Shahídí - translated and edited by Ahang Rabbani. Vol. 9, 2008)

Read More

Nader Saiedi's ignorance and Baha'u'llah evolving claims

Another problem within the same and other chapters is that Saiedi attempts to bypass the degree to which Baha'-Allah's voicing of his claims evolved from 'ubudiyya' ("servitude") and 'Husayniyya' (being the spiritually returned eschatological Husayn b. 'Ali), to 'mazhariyya' (theophanology) and 'rububiyya' ("Lordship"), or (subordinate) 'ilahiyya' (divinity). Such a progression, from "messianic secret" to the claim of divine theophany, was affirmed by both the Bab in his (Persian) 'Dala'il-i sab'a' (Seven Proofs) and Baha'u'llah himself in, for example, his little studied 'Surat al-fath' (early 1860s?). In the latter work, Baha'u'llah clearly states that the claims of both the Bab and himself evolved in accordance with the capacity of their hearers and according to a divinely ordained progression. At one point in the 'Surat al-fath', Baha'u'llah clarifies his earlier position by writing, "O people! I did not desire any 'amr' (religious "Cause") for myself and followed all the [founding] theophanies of old (mazahir al-qabl)" Unaware of this and related passages, Saiedi renders a phrase in Baha'u'llah's (Persian) 'Sahifah-i shattiyya' (Scroll of the Torrent, c. 1857) in a way that dismisses the nature of his unfolding claims. In so doing he mistakenly criticizes Juan Cole's translation of 'amr' in the aforementioned 'Sahifah' as "Cause," over-confidently reckoning 'amr' as having the basic sense of "issue" or "task." Much work remains to be done in order to clarify the evolving nature of Baha'-Allah's multi-faceted and ultimately theophanic claims.

-Stephen N. Lambden

(Logos and Civilization, Spirit, History and Order in the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh by Nader Saiedi Review by: Stephen N. Lambden Iranian Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Mar., 2003), pp. 118-121)

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iranian-studies/article/abs/logos-and-civilization-spirit-history-and-order-in-the-writings-of-bahaullah-nader-saiedi-bethesda-university-press-of-maryland-2000-404-pp-isbn-1883053609-cloth-isbn-1883053633-pb/201B0B0C99E02697C8D785E3ACFB4D0E

Read More

Misleading loyal Baha'i scholars

Twentieth century Baha'i attempts to survey Baha'u'llah's writings are for the most part highly selective, often digressive and unreliable. Such is to some extent the case with Abd al-Hamid Ishraq Khavari's (d. 1972) Persian 'Ganj-i shaygan' (The Befitting Treasury,1968) and Adib Taherzadeh's (d. 1998) often disappointing four-volume English language 'The Revelation of Baha'u'llah' (first edition, 1974-83). Little solid academically and philologically informed writing on this subject has appeared until now aside from Juan Cole's 'Modernity and Millennium' (1998), several of the findings of which are contested in the uneven, often polemically oriented and convoluted volume under review.

'Logos and Civilization', written by a professor of sociology at Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota, USA), does not exactly carry matters forward. Saiedi's book is divided into three major parts: (1) "The Dynamics of Spiritual Journey" (15-110); (2) "The Critique of Spiritual and Historical Reason" (113-210) and (3) "The New World Order" (211-370) spanning ten chapters. These sections contain distasteful and distracting polemic against a few Baha'i academic scholars whose opinions are often misrepresented or overstated. Throughout the book there are numerous overly categorical statements about Baha'u'llah's writings and contemporary academic scholarship which say more about the author's own apologetical concerns than anything especially illuminating. Saiedi bemoans allegedly "reductionist" methodologies utilized by largely unnamed Baha'i and other scholars working within modem Islamic and Middle East studies and out of line with conservative, traditionalist currents in the Baha'i world.

Not an easy work to digest, 'Logos and Civilization' mixes up the author's polemic with attempts to survey some of Baha'u'llah's major writings as if they dropped down from heaven uninfluenced by Islamic categories or a progressive unfolding over a forty-year period. Islamic dimensions of Baha'u'llah's works (e.g. the use of 'dhikr', "recollection of God") are played down, implying that a proper understanding of his doctrines does not require a knowledge of their Islamic roots and the nineteenth-century Sufi-Shi'i milieu. Saiedi has it that the use of 'dhikr' by the Bab in his 'Qayyum al-asma' is "a subtle but unmistakable declaration of His station as a Manifestation of God" (106) though this messianic term is often a cipher representative of the Hidden Imam. Although chapter 1 very loosely sketches "the background, in Islamic Sufism of Baha'u'llah's early writings," the diverse, multi-faceted phenomenon of Sufism and the opinions of some of its major figures, are several times portrayed in generalized, misleading ways.

-Stephen N. Lambden

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iranian-studies/article/abs/logos-and-civilization-spirit-history-and-order-in-the-writings-of-bahaullah-nader-saiedi-bethesda-university-press-of-maryland-2000-404-pp-isbn-1883053609-cloth-isbn-1883053633-pb/201B0B0C99E02697C8D785E3ACFB4D0E

Read More

Number of writings of Baha'u'llah

The Arabic and Persian writings of the Iranian born messianic claimant Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri (born in Tehran in 1817; died in Acre in 1892), self-designated 'janab-i baha' and subsequently Baha'Allah (= Baha'u'llah, "The Splendor of God") are extensive. They perhaps number between 15,000 and 20,000 items of varying length, from letters of a few lines to weighty books. Regarded by Baha'is as expressions of 'wahy' (divine revelation), many texts within this massive canon of Baha'i sacred scripture are identified by their author as 'alwah' (scriptural "Tablets"), sometimes also further designated after such time-honored (Abrahamic) Islamic literary forms as 'kitab' (communication, letter, book), 'sura' (portion, "chapter"), 'sahifa' (paper, scroll), 'risala' (tract, epistle) and 'ziyarat-namah' (commemorative visitation texts).

This Baha'i sacred literature has been only inadequately and very selectively surveyed, dated, and studied by believing adherents and trained academics. Most nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholars and orientalists, including E. G. Browne (d. 1926), A. L. M. Nicholas (d.1937) and more recently Denis MacEoin, concentrated on Babi history and scripture, largely bypassing the writings of Baha'u'llah. Much work thus needs to be done to establish the precise Sitz im Leben of these numerous alwah penned and dictated by Baha'u'llah over a more than forty-year period...

-Stephen N. Lambden

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iranian-studies/article/abs/logos-and-civilization-spirit-history-and-order-in-the-writings-of-bahaullah-nader-saiedi-bethesda-university-press-of-maryland-2000-404-pp-isbn-1883053609-cloth-isbn-1883053633-pb/201B0B0C99E02697C8D785E3ACFB4D0E

Read More

Bab's "tawba-namih" (recantation text)

Edward Granville Browne published the official transcript of the meeting in Tabriz in the "Materials for the Study of the Bábí Religion" (pp. 248-55), along with the Báb's "tawba-namih" [recantation text] (Ibid., pp. 256-258).

Read More

Dishonesty of Moojan Momen

Mr. Azal visited Iran in 1963 and was a guest of Atiyya Ruhi a great-grand daughter of Subh-i Azal. According to his relatives, Mr. Azal suffered from high blood pressure and died as a result of a heart at the age of 74 on April 5, 1971 with no prior warning. The Baha'i Moojan Momen who has been on a dirt finding mission to Cyprus claims in his report that the cause of Jalal's heart attack was 'excessive use of alcohol'. Momen's claim like the rest of the Baha'i has no foundation and is a pure speculation. Jalal's wife and his relatives reject it as plain lie.

His death occurred only a few days before their planned second visit to Iran. His wife says: "Our luggage was still packed when Jalal suddenly died".

(The Religion of the Bayān and The Claims of the Bahā’is, Foreword, Page 21)

Read More

Personal pronouns referring to the Manifestations of God or to Abdul Baha should invariably be capitalized!

February 3. On this date in 1975, the Universal House of Justice wrote "In English translations of the Sacred Bahá'í Writings personal pronouns referring to the Manifestations of God or to 'Abdu'l-Bahá should invariably be capitalized; in the Guardian's writings in English his own style must be followed. Capitalization of pronouns relating to the Manifestations of God and to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in introductory books or books about the Faith in the English language is left to the personal choice of the author."

In English translations of the Sacred Bahá'í Writings personal pronouns referring to the Manifestations of God or to 'Abdu'l-Bahá should invariably be capitalized; in the Guardian's writings in English his own style must be followed. Capitalization of pronouns relating to the Manifestations of God and to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in introductory books or books about the Faith in the English language is left to the personal choice of the author. (3 February 1975)

https://bahai-library.com/uhj_mihdi_pronouns_english 

Read More