Incest!?

...the text of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas forbids a man to marry his father’s wife (i.e. his stepmother), and the Guardian has indicated that likewise a woman is forbidden to marry her stepfather.

http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/KA/ka-2.html

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Ninety-five times Allahu Abha

It hath been ordained that every believer in God, the Lord of Judgement, shall, each day, having washed his hands and then his face, seat himself and, turning unto God, repeat “Alláh-u-Abhá” ninety-five times.

Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Aqdas

http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/KA/ka-4.html

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Petition of Baha'is of Shushtar, Iran, March, 1867, to U.S. Government

"An extraordinary document reached Beirut April 3rd, addressed to the United States consul, from fifty-three Persians in Bagdad [actually from Shushtar, Iran, via Baghdad], petitioning the United States Congress for the release of their leader, Beha Allah, the Babite Persian reformer, who appeared in 1843,* and was followed by thousands, 30,000 of whom were killed by the Shah of Persia. He was arrested in Bagdad by the Turkish government, and is now (1867) in prison in Adrianople, European Turkey. His particular doctrine is 'the universal brotherhood of man.' The petitioners claim that they number 40,000. A German traveller writes from Bagdad enclosing the petition and speaks admiringly of the reformer, and asks for his release on the grounds of religious liberty which is now granted by the Sultan to all his subjects. One of the documents appended to the petition is signed with a Free Masonic Seal.**"

--Rev. Henry Harris Jessup, Fifty-three Years in Syria. New York and Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1910, Volume I, p. 329.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160403060044/http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/arabic/vol1/ardhal.htm

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What happened when Avarih's 'evil whisperings' reached the ears of the loyal and vigilant followers of Baha'u'llah?

No sooner had his evil whisperings reached the ears of the loyal and vigilant followers of Baha'u'llah, than they arose with overwhelming force and unhesitating determination to denounce him as a dangerous enemy seeking to undermine the faith and sap the loyalty of the adherents of the Cause of God. Shunned by the entire body of the believers, abandoned by his life-long and most intimate friends, deserted by his wife, separated from his only child, refused admittance into even his own home, denied of the profit he hoped to derive from the sale and circulation of his book, he found to his utter amazement and remorse his best hopes irretrievably shattered.

- Shoghi Effendi (1927)

Baha'i News Letter (US & Canada), No. 21, January 1928

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In 1864, Baha'u'llah and his entourage had rented a mansion, It had thirty inner, private rooms on three storeys.

By August, 1864, Baha'u'llah and his entourage had rented a mansion, called the house of Amru'llah, near the Sultan Selim mosque at the center of the city. It had thirty inner, private rooms on three storeys. The public portion of the house had four or five reception salons, as well as many bedrooms. Baha'u'llah and his family lived on the upper floor of the private half of the house.

(Baha'u'llah's Surah of God: Text, Translation, Commentary by Juan R.I. Cole, Department of History, University of Michigan)

https://web.archive.org/web/20160517145913/http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/trans/vol6/surall.htm

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you expel God from his House!

Say: O people, you are so wrapped in dense veils that you expel God from his House and yet make mention of his names at morn and eventide.

Say: Blinded be the eyes that open every morning and yet shall never fall upon my glorious and refulgent Beauty, deaf be the ears that hear every sound but neglect to hearken to my wondrous and sweet melodies, and dumb be the tongue that shall never move with my Name, the All-Subduing, the Omnipotent, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. Contemplate within yourself my calamities, and that which has befallen Me. By God, they have afflicted no one else before me, and they shall never be borne by the heavens and the earth.

Baha'u'llah, The Surah of God

https://web.archive.org/web/20160517145913/http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/trans/vol6/surall.htm

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I am powerful to do what I will, and I am the pardoner, the compassionate.

By God, the creation has never seen my like and no eye has beheld my peer, for I am powerful to do what I will, and I am the pardoner, the compassionate. Whoever denies my Cause has repudiated all the Messengers, and whoever turns away from my face has shunned the Countenance of God.

Baha'u'llah, The Surah of God

https://web.archive.org/web/20160517145913/http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/trans/vol6/surall.htm

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shun the serpent that hides within its heart a hatred for the All-Bountiful

Through the power of the All-Merciful, shun the serpent that hides within its heart a hatred for the All-Bountiful, and turn away from it, though it recite for you all that has been revealed in the Holy Scriptures and though it cling to glorious and articulate Tablets.

Baha'u'llah, The Surah of God

https://web.archive.org/web/20160517145913/http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/trans/vol6/surall.htm

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To be a Baha'i simply means to love all the world!!!!

When asked on one occasion, ‘What is a Bahá’í?,’ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá replied: ‘To be a Bahá’í simply means to love all the world; to love humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal brotherhood.’ On another occasion He defined a Bahá’í as ‘one endowed with all the perfections of man in activity.’

“In one of His London talks He said that a man may be a Bahá’í even if He has never heard the name of Bahá’u’lláh. He added:

“The man who lives the life according to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is already a Bahá’í. On the other hand, a man may call himself a Bahá’í for fifty years, and if he does not live the life he is not a Bahá’í. An ugly man may call himself handsome, but he deceives no one, and a black man may call himself white, yet he deceives no one, not even himself.”

Quote from Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era pp 71-72

http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/o/BNE/bne-59.html

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"O wayward generation!"

“O wayward generation!” were the last words of the Báb to the gazing multitude, as the regiment prepared to fire its volley, “Had you believed in Me every one of you would have followed the example of this youth, who stood in rank above most of you, and would have willingly sacrificed himself in My path. The day will come when you will have recognized Me; that day I shall have ceased to be with you.”

http://www.bahai.org/the-bab/articles-resources/execution-the-bab

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al-Ahsai received divine knowledge from the Imam al-Hasan

In modern times, the Shaykhis, an offshoot of the Twelver Shiites, maintain an extreme belief in the infallible fourteen. The Shaykhis derive their name from Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsai (d. 1830), who taught that the infallible fourteen are the cause of the universe, in whose hands are life and death and the livelihood of men. Al-Ahsai seems to justify this belief by explaining that God is too transcendent to operate the universe personally, and therefore deputized the infallible fourteen to operate the universe on His behalf Al-Ahsai further maintains that when a believer has achieved a high degree of purity and righteousness, he will be able to receive from these fourteen divine knowledge through sufic trances or dreams. He claims that he personally received divine knowledge from the fourteen, especially from the Imam al-Hasan. Al-Ahsai relates that once he saw al-Hasan in a dream and asked him some esoteric questions. Al-Hasan placed his mouth on that of al-Ahsai and emitted into it saliva which tasted sweet, like honey. Thus, al-Ahsai received divine knowledge from the Imam al-Hasan.

Ref. : Extremist Shiites - The Ghulat Sects by Matti Moosa
https://archive.org/details/Moosa1988GhulatBeliefs_201712

Ghulat : A Shi'i term for theological extremists who go beyond what is considered reasonable in what they claim about the Prophet and Imams. The Shaykhis and Babis fall into this category. (Denis MacEoin)

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The chipped ceramic tiles, around both Shrines at Bahji and Mount Carmel, were collected & hauled by their trucks from the demolished Arab homes.

Mr Ioas was truly a gem and an incredible administrator. He used to frequent my brother Shukrullah's store in Akka, for recruiting master builders and mason master, as well as to commission him and my other brother Hasan to haul the Marble pieces Shipped from Italy to the sea port of Haifa, for the Shrine of the Bab, which they transported to the site on Mount Carmel in their own trucks. Mr Ioas frequented my brother's business for many work project, either to seek advice on procuring workers or to procure materials from what places, and often be as the go in between as Mr Ioas spoke no Hebrew or Arabic; As Shukrullah and Hasan, both born at Akka, knew and were known as staunch Baha'is, by many of its citizens and those of the surrounding areas. A few examples are; the brothers hauled the pebbles that pave the path from the Collins gate north to the entrance of the Shrine of Bahaullah. Such pebbles were collected from the seashores of lake Tiberius. The chipped ceramic tiles, around both Shrines at Bahji and Mount Carmel, were collected & hauled by their trucks from the demolished Arab homes [in Yafo mainly], Fill dirt of different colors- yellow and Red clay,fro different areas of the Gardens and especially in the gardens south east of the Old Pilgrimage House on Mount Carmel near the Shrine of the Bab; Another was hauling the hand cut stones from the Quarries of the Druz Villages of Yarka, Jules and Yanoh; the white hand cut stone which is the outer facade of most of the holy sites and buildings. Of course some of these things were done before Mr Ioas'es tenure, right after 1948, when Israel was established. I have written in my book a detailed account of Mr Ioas's relationship to my family in general, and to working with Shukrullah in particular.

With great appreciation

Hossein Ashchi

http://bahai-covenant.blogspot.com/2010/05/leroy-ioas-champion-charters.html

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Redolent Droplet, the miserable Avarih

After the passing of our kind Father, 'Abdu'l-Bahá', the Centre of the Covenant, - may My spirit be a sacrifice to His lovers! - certain degraded, vain and unfaithful ones, among them their chief, the Great Raven, the Redolent Droplet, the miserable Avarih*, -- what an uproar they caused! What foul noises were raised by them! What senseless ravings were disseminated by them! What plottings were conceived by them! What staunch efforts they exerted in order that the Sacred Cord of the Divine Testament be broken apart and a breach be created in the divine Guardianship, so that they might be able to accomplish what the wicked groups of the past failed to achieve. But God did cut off their tongue. And soon will God cause them to join the company of those who acted unjustly in the past and waxed vainglorious. Then they will learn their true abode!

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*Jináb-i-'Abdu'l-Husayn-i-Avarih, who was formerly known a respected teacher and historian of the Faith. Shoghi Effendi details his Covenant-breaking activities and denounces him in a message dated October 17th, 1927. See Bahá'í Administration, pp. 137-139.

https://bahai-library.com/shoghieffendi_tarikhiyyih_ahd_mithaq

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Lawh-i-Times (Tablet to the Times)

O 'Times', O thou endowed with the power of utterance! O dawning place of news! Spend an hour with the oppressed of Irán, and witness how the exemplars of justice and equity are sorely tried beneath the sword of tyrants. Infants have been deprived of milk, and women and children have fallen captive to the lawless. The blood of God's lovers hath dyed the earth red, and the sighs of His near ones have set the universe ablaze.

O newspapers published throughout the cities and countries of the world! Have ye heard the groan of the downtrodden, and have their cries of anguish reached your ears? Or have these remained concealed? It is hoped that ye will investigate the truth of what hath occurred and vindicate it...

https://bahai-library.com/bahaullah_lawh_times_london

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By what proof can ye establish the truth of Muhammad, Whom we sent aforetime?

If He Who hath come unto you with clear verses be not the True One from God, even as ye proclaim this day from your seats of worldly honour, then by what proof can ye establish the truth of Muhammad, Whom we sent aforetime? Be fair in your judgement, O concourse of ill-wishers!

- Days of Remembrance (Selections from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh for Bahá’í Holy Days)

http://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/days-remembrance/days-remembrance.docx?fa27a24c

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