the Báb departed Medina, having completed his Hajj pilgrimage.

February 6. On this date in 1845, the Báb departed Medina, having completed his Hajj pilgrimage. The Báb performed the Hajj after the eighteen Letters of the Living had accepted him as the Báb.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OnThisDateInBahai/comments/1ajh7q4/february_6_on_this_date_in_1845_the_báb_departed/

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"While there are many complexities surrounding the biological issues pertaining to sex and the social issues pertaining to gender"

The Universal House of Justice declares that:

"While there are many complexities surrounding the biological issues pertaining to sex and the social issues pertaining to gender, the Bahá’í writings affirm the generally held perspective that there are two sexes, male and female. This, of course, is not in conformity with some recent social theories that divide gender into multiple types."

(Extracts from three letters from 2017 and 2018, with updated or "additional" guidance on gender and sex-change operations. Compilation attached to a letter from the House dated 2021 February 4.)

https://bahai-library.com/compilation_uhj_transsexuality

also check

https://www.reddit.com/r/OnThisDateInBahai/comments/1ajhew1/february_6_on_this_date_in_1973_the_uhj_wrote_but/

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Farzam Arbab destroyed the Baha'i faith

In other words, shun Covenant Breakers when they are small, before they rise through the ranks and do real damage to the faith.

But wait, if this works, then why didn't it prevent the one who did the most damage to the faith from gaining power? I am of course talking about Dr. Arbab, who single-handedly took control of the UHJ, stacked it with his own buddies, shoved his Ruhi idol down the throats of Baha'is worldwide, and ended up basically killing the Baha'i Faith, sending an entire generation of Baha'i youth down the toilet. Why wasn't Dr Arbab shunned before he could do all this shit?

Shunning doesn't work because you are no one is God. No one knows who is going to end up damaging the Baha'i Faith. Dr Arbab seemed like a nice well-intentioned guy to lots of people. In reality he was a psychopathic, manipulative bastard who sacrificed the Baha'i Faith for the benefit of his own scam NGOs FUNDAEC and ISGP. Dr Arbab is the one who ought to have been shunned early on, so that he couldn't go on to do all this damage to the Baha'i Faith, but it is just too hard to tell who is going to be the one that does the damage before they actually do the damage.

https://old.reddit.com/r/FreeSpeechBahai/comments/1ahmsh0/haifan_bahai_gives_an_argument_for_shunning/

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Covenant Breakers or Covenant Keepers?

The Covenant as Haifan Bahais understand it is a fabrication. Nothing Baha'u'llah wrote would imply the line of succession that Bahais accept today. Baha'u'llah simply wrote:

"O My Branches! In this Existent Being the greatest strength and the most perfect power is hidden and concealed; look towards It and gaze in the direction of Its union and not at Its seeming differences. This is the Testament of God that the Branches, Twigs, and Relations must each and every one look to the Greatest Branch. Reflect upon that which is revealed in My Book, the Aqdas: "When the Ocean of My Presence hath disappeared and the Book of Origin is achieved to the end, turn your faces towards Him whom God hath purposed, Who hath branched from this Pre-Existent Root." The aim of this blessed verse hath been the Greatest Branch. We have likewise elucidated the Command as a favor from before Us; and I am the Generous, the All-Giving!

Verily, God hath ordained the station of the Greater Branch after the station of the former. Verily, He is the Ordainer, the Wise. We have surely chosen the Greater after the Greatest as a Command from the All-Knowing, the Omniscient!"

-Baha'u'llah, Kitab i Ahd, translated by Horace Holley

If this excerpt from Baha'u'llah's Book of my Covenant were to be followed then the line of succession would be Baha'u'llah->Abdul Baha->Mirza Muhammad Ali and people who follow this succession would be Covenant Keepers.

Do you think that if this line of succession makes sense to someone, this makes him a wicked soul who suffer from a "spiritual disease"? This is what Haifan Bahais believe. They can't justify their position with logic or scripture, so they resort to scare tactics and attacks that appeal to emotion rather than logic.

I have read Mirza Muhammad Ali's side of the story. He was not a bad person. His life's mission was to promote the idea that Baha'u'llah's successors were not partners of Baha'u'llah. Indeed Baha'u'llah says:

"He Who is the Dawning-place of God’s Cause hath no partner in the Most Great Infallibility."

-Baha'u'llah, Kitab i Aqdas, paragraph 47

https://old.reddit.com/r/FreeSpeechBahai/comments/1ah06fz/covenantbreakers/komm4an/

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Abdul Baha was addressed by the name of prophet, he answered...

When Abdul Baha was addressed by the name of prophet, he answered, “My name is Abdul Baha, the Servant of God” [literally, the Slave of Glory.]

(Abdul Baha in London, p 113)

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Mohammed Ali Bahai’s claim about hidden portion of the will

Mr. Bahai claims that the hidden portion of the will (If Mohammed Ali Bahai’s story is to be believed, this will that was read to the Baha’is, printed and distributed, is an incomplete version of the document originally written by Baha’u’llah. It is known today as the Kitab-i-'Ahd (“Book of the Covenant”). To this editor’s knowledge, no other version with additional verses has ever been published or circulated, and the original handwritten will (if extant) has not been made available for forensic analysis.) included two points: special recognition of the service of Baha’u’llah’s chief secretary, Mirza Aqa Jan Kashani (Khadim), and an enjoinder to Abbas Effendi and Khadim to continued faithfulness. The latter point is very significant, since it would imply that Baha’u’llah did not intend for the Baha’is to regard his successor as perfect or infallible, as Baha’is today believe about ‘Abdu’l-Baha. Instead, calling for him to be faithful—together with such a call to another important figure in the cause—presupposes the possibility that, in Baha’u’llah’s view, ‘Abdu’l-Baha could err in his practice of Baha’i faith, like anyone else.

(A Lost History of the Baha’i Faith, p. 208)

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-History-Bahai-Faith-Progressive/dp/0692331352

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General status of Baha’is in Iran according to a “confidential” memorandum

In 1991, the Iranian Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council (ISRCC) drew a memorandum on the “Baha’i Question” which referred to the general status of Baha’is in the country, as well as their cultural, educational, legal, and social status. Dated 25 February 1991, this document which was stamped “confidential” was drawn up at the request of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (b. 1939) and President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1934–2017).

The major summary of the memorandum is as follows:

1. General status of the Baha’is within the country’s system:

a. They will not be expelled from the country without reason.

b. They will not be arrested, imprisoned, or penalized without reason.

c. The government’s dealings with them must be in such a way that their progress and development are blocked.

2. Educational and cultural status:

a. They can be enrolled in schools provided they have not identified themselves as Baha’is.

b. Preferably, they should be enrolled in schools which have a strong and imposing religious ideology.

c. They must be expelled from universities, either in the admission process or during the course of their studies, once it becomes known that they are Baha’is.

d. Their political (espionage) activities must be dealt with according to appropriate government laws and policies, and their religious and propaganda activities should be answered by giving them religious and cultural responses, as well as propaganda.

e. Propaganda institutions (such as the Islamic Propaganda Organization) must establish an independent section to counter the propaganda and religious activities of the Baha’is.

f. A plan must be devised to confront and destroy their cultural roots outside the country.

3. Legal and social status:

a. Permit them a modest livelihood as is available to the general population.

b. To the extent that it does not encourage them to be Baha’is, it is permissible to provide them the means for ordinary living in accordance with the general rights given to every Iranian citizen, such as ration booklets, passports, burial certificates, work permits, and so on.

c. Deny them employment if they identify themselves as Baha’is.

d. Deny them any position of influence, such as in the educational sector, and so on (BIC, 2008, p. 22).

This memorandum came to the attention of the international community in 1993 when it was disclosed by the United Nations Special Rapporteur (UNSR). However, the Iranian government claimed that this document was a forgery.

(Baha’is in Post-revolution Iran: Perspectives of the Ulema by Ankita Sanya)

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The One Who had sent down the Prophets

After my arrival in Haifa, Shoghi Effendi had often spoken of another task he would entrust to me, a task which he defined as ‘spiritual’. It concerned the erection of the Most Holy Shrine of the Bahá’í world: “The Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh, the One Who had sent down the Prophets”.

(Shoghi Effendi: Recollections by Ugo Giachery, Oxford: George Ronald, 1973)

https://bahai-library.com/giachery_shoghi_effendi_recollections

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Huge pieces of land and donations of thousands of dollars

The area surrounding, and dedicated to, the Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel has been enlarged by the acquisition of further holdings.

The new plots have been registered in the name of the American National Spiritual Assembly, Palestine Branch. The total area now held by that Assembly in ‘Akká and Haifa amounts to more than 60,000 square pics, equivalent to 33,750 square meters.

A plot situated in Beersheba, southern Palestine, consisting of approximately 15,000 square pics, donated by Mr. Ratib Halabi, was in course of transfer in April, 1938.

(The Bahá’í World, Volume 7)

https://bahai.works/Bahá’í_World/Volume_7/Survey_of_Current_Bahá’í_Activities_in_the_East_and_West

DONATION OF LAND IN SOUTHERN PALESTINE

A DONATION of property made by Natib Halabi has been transferred to the Palestine Branch of the American National Spiritual Assembly. Mr. Halabi, at the time Secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Damascus, wished to present a tract of approximately 10,000 sq. metres to the Cause, and at the Guardian’s request had the property recorded for ownership by the Palestine Branch.

In previous volumes of this biennial record the origin and development of the Palestine Branch of the American Assembly has been described. It holds title to a number of tracts in the vicinity of the Shrines on Mount Carmel purchased by individual American believers for the protection of the Faith and transferred to this Bahá’í religious society administered by the Guardian as its recorded agent and representative.

(The Bahá’í World, Volume 8)

https://bahai.works/Bah%C3%A1%E2%80%99%C3%AD_World/Volume_8/Survey_of_Current_Bah%C3%A1%E2%80%99%C3%AD_Activities#pg125

In his message addressed to the Intercontinental Conference of New Delhi, in 1953, Shoghi Effendi announced preliminary steps taken to acquire the land, made possible by the munificent donation of one hundred thousand dollars by the Hand of the Cause Mrs. Amelia Collins.

(Shoghi Effendi: Recollections by Ugo Giachery, Oxford: George Ronald, 1973)

https://bahai-library.com/giachery_shoghi_effendi_recollections

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Dayyanis and sectarianism among the Babis

The genesis of the Bábí and Bahá’í Faiths in Rasht dates back to the Bábí period when apparently a number of its inhabitants embraced the Báb’s movement. By early 1850s, in the confused state following the Báb’s martyrdom, the Bábí community fractured and various pockets of the Bábís turned to different Bábí leaders for inspiration and guidance. It was around 1271 AH [1854] that one of the Rasht’s Bábís, a certain Karbalá’í Ibráhím Samsár [“dealer of second-hand goods”] Rashtí twice went to Adharbayjan and met Mírzá Asadu’lláh Dayyán, and became a staunch follower of him, a sentiment which he shared with other Bábís of the region as well. At the present, not much is known of these Dayyánís and they presumably disappeared as a group.

Around 1270 AH [1853], several Bábís migrated from Qazvin to the nearby Lahijan, which was the major town of Gilan at that time. One of them, Siyyid Javád, had been a Shaykhí in Qazvin – which had a robust Shaykhí-Bábí community – and succeeded in converting a number of residents to the Báb’s Faith. Siyyid Javád however threw his lot with Mírzá Yahyá Azal and tried to keep his group of Bábís isolated from the other Bábís of Lahijan who had become followers of Bahá’u’lláh. On an occasion when Siyyid Javád was away in Qazvín, one of his associates, Mírzá ‘Alí Ashraf (known later as the poet ‘Andalíb), searched out the Bahá’ís and became convinced that Baha’u’llah was the new Manifestation. Soon Mírzá ‘Alí Ashraf succeeded in converting Siyyid Javád as well as the others Azalís.

(Memoirs of a Bahá'í in Rasht 1889-1903: Autobiography of Mírzá Yahyá `Amídu'l-Atibbá Hamadání translated and edited by Ahang Rabbani)

https://bahai-library.com/rabbani_memoirs_bahai_rasht

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Contribution from non-Baha'is

A non-Baha’i who owns an airplane equipped with a light board for night-time advertising contacted the Baha'is and offered his services to support the benefit concert. As a result, the name of the Faith was seen in lights above the Dallas-Fort Worth area for three nights prior to the concert.

(The American Bahá’í March, 1982)

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In an effort to increase my monthly contribution to the National Fund, I took an extra part-time job!

Even ‘all’ is not enough

To the Editor:

I was distressed to learn ... that virtually no funds had been sent by December for early completion of the $1.5 million donation to the Universal House of Justice.

In an effort to increase my monthly contribution to the National Fund, I took an extra part-time job. Although it will pay well, it does not start until January.

While feeling frustrated by the late starting date, I learned that I had received a merit award of $2,000.

I first decided to send half of it toward early completion of the $1.5 million goal, but as I was writing the check I remembered two stories told by the Hand of the Cause of God William Sears.

The first was the story of Ella Bailey and how she had sent half her life savings to the Fund, then later sent the rest of it anyway.

The second was the story of Eduardo Durante Viera, the first African martyr. After recounting that story, Mr. Sears spoke of the martyrs in Iran who did not ask, “How much of my blood shall I give today? Ten per cent? Twenty per cent?’ They gave it all—all they had.

After remembering these stories and knowing that the same martyrdom is continuing today, 50 per cent—even 100 per cent—seems too small!

Name withheld by request New York

(The American Bahá’í, Volume 18, Issue 2)

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Renting silent movies to raise Baha'i fund!

Fund Fun...

The Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Wheaton, Illinois, recently wrote: “Our community has found a fun and successful fund-raising activity!

“We rent silent movies from our local library for 10 cents. Members of the community provide refreshments and we hold a ‘movie night.’

A donation is charged at the door, and there is a charge for refreshments (cookies 10 cents, lemonade 25 cents, popcorn, fruit, etc.).

“Of course, if non-Baha’is attend, there is no charge for them (unless their Baha'i friend wishes to pay for them), and there is no charge for anyone who cannot afford to pay.

“In this way we have been able to raise more than $100. It’s a social activity, and when non-Baha’is attend it usually becomes a fireside too.”

(The American Bahá’í, June, 1980)

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Should we carry on mass-teaching or pay attention to consolidation ?

Q.2 “Should we carry on mass-teaching or pay attention to consolidation ?”

A. “Now I would like to say what I feel about what you asked me regarding the question of mass conversion and consolidation : the value of stopping teaching to consolidate, or to go on with the teaching work. I do not see any reason why I should not say to the Baha’is — because we are, after all, all one, whether we are National Spiritual Assembly members, or Local Assembly members, or nothing official, we are all Baha’is together and it is our joint religion, we all love it — therefore, why shouldn’t I say to you what I said to your National Assembly ? I said I would not be a bit surprised if the National spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of India did not feel sometimes as if it had got hold of a crocodile by the tail, a big one, and did not quite know what to do with it. Now, this mass conversion or mass teaching that you have — and I don’t like personally any of these terms, I like the term of ‘entering the cause in troops’ which is a term of the Master and is a wonderful, wonderful term — but this entering the Cause of Baha’u’llah in troops, which is now taking place in India, of course poses tremendous problems — any one can understand that. You have people coming in by the thousands who are not in a position, at the present time, with a few exceptions, to do anything directly for the Faith. You see what I mean: they do not support the Fund yet, because they either haven’t learnt to or they haven’t got enough money to give any thing. They don’t go out and circulate because they are villagers, they are living, in their own small communities. It is all very new to them. They want to hear more and understand more and learn more and that means somebody has to go and teach them and they have yet not reached a point where they are beginning to give back great returns to your community. Many of the people in this room, I suppose, are businessmen with experience, merchants perhaps, or some kind of businessmen or may be students of Economics. Now you all know that when you invest something, I am not talking about something that is already a going concern, but when you want to develop something that is entirely new, like a gold mine, a diamond mine or an oil well, the capital expenditure is tremendous. You have to put in a great deal of capital before you get any dividends back before you get any return on your investment, because you have to set up machinery, you have to send out people to exploit the situation, you have to get the thing out of the ground, you have to refine it and then you start to market it, then you get very heavy returns on your investment.

‘The speed with which the Cause is spreading here shows that the capacity of the villagers in India is your oil field. The people that are exploiting it at the present time, let us say, are the Indian Baha’is. All this honour goes to you. In time the immense riches from this spiritual investment will flow back into your community.

“The destiny of the human race is to accept Baha’u’llah, we know that as Baha’is. Now, it has to start sometime and it is a little late in starting, because this Cause is over 120 years old and we are only beginning to get the entrance of people by troops into the Faith. We must not say that this is too soon, we must say this is too late. We are in a hurry. We have lost a hundred years of the Baha’i cycle. We want it to go faster every day, no matter what kind of problems arise from its going faster. Everything in the world goes by its own time. This evidently is the time for a spiritual harvest in India. No one of you, no one in Haifa, no one on this planet can tell you how long this time is going to last. You see what I mean? It may last long enough for India’s 450 million Indians to become Baha’is, it may stop tomorrow like that. (Ruhiyyih Khanum snapped her fingers). You don’t know. You don’t know whether we are going to find that the political development of India goes forward so fast that the people in villages become politically minded and instead of being interested in the Teachings of Baha’u’llah, which we know are the Solution to the world’s problems, they are going to be interested in whatever the local politician says who comes and sits under a tree and talks to them. For one reason or another you have no way of knowing whether it is going on for one year, ten years, a hundred years or a thousand years. All you now know here in India is that you have this extraordinary opportunity. You and Africa are leading the whole world, so far, in this field of teaching, but you don’t know how long the opportunity will last. I only know one case in the whole Baha’i teachings where it says, you must not teach, and that is when it is forbidden by the Government, because we must be loyal to our Government; but if you can show me one single place in the Teachings where there is any other excuse for not teaching, I would like to know what it is. And Baha'u'llah certainly does not say anywhere that you must stop teaching in order to consolidate. You must do the two together. You cannot say that ‘the crocodile is getting too big and I am not going to do anything more about it.’ I think there is a story —I don’t remember from which country it comes — that the dragon swallowed the world. Perhaps it is a nice dragon that you have by the tail that will go on getting bigger and bigger and bigger and swallow the world with the teachings of Baha’u’llah. How do you know? You don’t have to be afraid of it. All you have to do is to hang on to its tail. Let it pull you ahead, and have confidence in Baha’u’llah. If anything goes wrong with this system, then you say to Baha’u’llah: “Look, You are the One who said to teach, all I did was to obey You.”

(Amatul-Baha Visits India, by Violette Nakhjavani, Baha’i Publishing Trust - India)

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Tafsir Surat Kawthar

Another important work from this period is a tafsīr on the Sūrat al-kawthar, a commentary of over 200 pages written for Sayyed Yaḥyā Dārābī (q.v.) during a visit he made to Shiraz to interview the Bāb, possibly on behalf of Moḥammad Shah. This commentary consists largely of highly abstract and insubstantial speculations on the verses, words, and letters of the sūra in question.

(The Messiah of Shiraz, 601)

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