“the chief motive actuating” the Guardian “to undertake the task of editing and translating Nabíl’s immortal Narrative”

Indeed the chief motive actuating me to undertake the task of editing and translating Nabíl’s immortal Narrative has been to enable every follower of the Faith in the West to better understand and more readily grasp the tremendous implications of His[the Báb’s] exalted station and to more ardently admire and love Him.

Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah’; included in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)

The “superlative character of His [Bahá’u’lláh’s] Revelation as compared with the Dispensation preceding it”

Stressing the superlative character of His Revelation as compared with the Dispensation preceding it, Bahá’u’lláh makes the following affirmation: “If all the peoples of the world be invested with the powers and attributes destined for the Letters of the Living, the Báb’s chosen disciples, whose station is ten thousand times more glorious than any which the apostles of old have attained, and if they, one and all, should, swift as the twinkling of an eye, hesitate to recognize the light of My Revelation, their faith shall be of no avail and they shall be accounted among the infidels.” “So tremendous is the outpouring of Divine grace in this Dispensation that if mortal hands could be swift enough to record them, within the space of a single day and night there would stream verses of such number as to be equivalent to the whole of the Persian Bayán.”

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah; included in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)

The Báb asks Baha’u’llah: - to “reveal from the heights of the Most Lofty and Mystic Mount a faint, an infinitesimal glimmer of Thy impenetrable Mystery”

“And when the appointed hour hath struck,” He [the Báb] again addresses Bahá’u’lláh in that same commentary, [the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá] “do Thou, by the leave of God, the All-Wise, reveal from the heights of the Most Lofty and Mystic Mount a faint, an infinitesimal glimmer of Thy impenetrable Mystery, that they who have recognized the radiance of the Sinaic Splendor may faint away and die as they catch a lightening glimpse of the fierce and crimson Light that envelops Thy Revelation.”

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah’; included in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)

‘Abdu’l-Baha’s hour of birth

My brother, Abbas Effendi, now our Lord, was born at Teheran in the spring of 1844, at midnight following the day upon which, in the evening, the Bab made his declaration. 

- Bahiyyih Khanum  (Recorded in an interview by Madam Canavarro, Akka, included by Myron H. Phelps in his book: ‘Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi’, 1903)

“the mystery of supplication…the wisdom of praying for the fulfilment of one’s needs”

Thou didst question the necessity for prayer, and the wisdom that might lie behind it. What reason could there be, thou didst ask, considering that God hath perfected His creation, ordering all matters in the best way possible, assigning unto every thing its due measure, and appointing for it, with consummate exactitude and precision, its proper station—what reason could there be to make supplication and entreaty, to pray for needs to be fulfilled, and to beg for succour and assistance? 

Know thou that it belongeth to the weak to make entreaty to the Source of strength, and that it becometh the petitioner of heavenly grace to humbly supplicate to Him Who is the All-Glorious, the Lord of grace abounding. Whensoever the worshipper communeth with his Lord, turneth wholly unto Him, and supplicateth some portion of His boundless grace, then this very act of supplication is a light unto his heart, a collyrium unto his eye, a source of life unto his soul, and a cause of exaltation unto his being. 

Observe then how, when thou dost thyself commune with God and recitest “Thy Name is my healing”, thy heart is thrilled, thy soul transported with the rapture of the love of God, and thy spirit drawn towards His heavenly Kingdom. Through these sensations, moreover, thy receptive capacity is increased, and the more capacious the container, the more copious its contents; the more vehement one’s thirst, the sweeter in one’s palate the outpouring bounty of the cloud. This is the mystery of supplication; this is the wisdom of praying for the fulfilment of one’s needs. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha  (From a Tablet; Additional Tablets, Extracts and Talks; online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

Some Extracts from the Baha’i Writings on the nature of God

Prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, 1992

From the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh

...God, the unknowable Essence, the divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His glory that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery. He is and hath ever been veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men. "No vision taketh in Him, but He taketh in all vision; He is the Subtile, the All-Perceiving."[Cf. Qur’án 6:104] No tie of direct intercourse can possibly bind Him to His creatures. He standeth exalted beyond and above all separation and union, all proximity and remoteness. No sign can indicate His presence or His absence; inasmuch as by a word of His command all that are in heaven and on earth have come to exist, and by His wish, which is the Primal Will itself, all have stepped out of utter nothingness into the realm of being, the world of the visible. (The Kitáb-i-qán (Wilmette: Bahá’i Publishing Trust, 1985), p. 98)

And since there can be no tie of direct intercourse to bind the one true God with His creation, and no resemblance whatever can exist between the transient and the Eternal, the contingent and the Absolute, He hath ordained that in every age and dispensation a pure and stainless Soul be made manifest in the kingdoms of earth and heaven. Unto this subtle, this mysterious and ethereal Being He hath assigned a twofold nature; the physical, pertaining to the world of matter, and the spiritual, which is born of the substance of God Himself. He hath, moreover, conferred upon Him a double station. The first station, which is related to His innermost reality, representeth Him as One Whose voice is the voice of God Himself.... The second station is the human station, exemplified by the following verses: "I am but a man like you." "Say, praise be to my Lord! Am I more than a man, an apostle?" (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh (Wilmette: Bahá’i Publishing Trust, 1983). pp. 66-67)

Know assuredly that God’s creation hath existed from eternity, and will continue to exist forever. Its beginning hath had no beginning, and its end knoweth no end. His name, the Creator, presupposeth a creation, even as His title, the Lord of Men, must involve the existence of a servant.

New Site: The Advent of Divine Justice

Passages in sequential order from a letter by Shoghi Effendi known as ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’, 25 December 1938

How to view junior youth and the program for their spiritual empowerment

The rapid spread of the programme for the spiritual empowerment of junior youth is yet another expression of cultural advance in the Bahá’í community. While global trends project an image of this age group as problematic, lost in the throes of tumultuous physical and emotional change, unresponsive and self-consumed, the Bahá’í community—in the language it employs and the approaches it adopts—is moving decidedly in the opposite direction, seeing in junior youth instead altruism, an acute sense of justice, eagerness to learn about the universe and a desire to contribute to the construction of a better world. Account after account, in which junior youth in countries all over the planet give voice to their thoughts as participants in the programme, testifies to the validity of this vision. There is every indication that the programme engages their expanding consciousness in an exploration of reality that helps them to analyse the constructive and destructive forces operating in society and to recognize the influence these forces exert on their thoughts and actions, sharpening their spiritual perception, enhancing their powers of expression and reinforcing moral structures that will serve them throughout their lives. At an age when burgeoning intellectual, spiritual and physical powers become accessible to them, they are being given the tools needed to combat the forces that would rob them of their true identity as noble beings and to work for the common good.

That the major component of the programme explores themes from a Bahá’í perspective, but not in the mode of religious instruction, has opened the way for its extension to junior youth in a variety of settings and circumstances. In many such instances, then, those who implement the programme enter confidently into the area of social action, encountering a range of questions and possibilities, which are being followed and organized in a global process of learning by the Office of Social and Economic Development in the Holy Land. Already the accumulating body of knowledge and experience has given rise to the capacity in several clusters scattered across the globe to each sustain over one thousand junior youth in the programme. To help others advance swiftly in this direction, the Office is establishing a network of sites in all continents, with the assistance of a corps of believers, that can be used to provide training to coordinators from scores upon scores of clusters. These resource persons continue to support coordinators upon their return to their respective clusters, enabling them to create a spiritually charged environment in which the junior youth programme can take root. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (Ridan 2010 message; (Online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)

1984: Questions from the Universal House of Justice for each NSA before formulating a new Plan

The House of Justice therefore invites your participation in the process of formulating a new Plan, and we are asked to request each of your Assemblies to send it your comments on the following points in view of the prevailing situation in the area under your jurisdiction.

• Current status and specific needs of the Baha'i community. What distinctive strengths and weaknesses do you see in your community? Are there any unusual features of the condition of the Faith in your community which must be taken into account in the formulation of the next Plan?

• Condition of the nation. Do the social, political and economic trends indicate any unusual opportunities or difficulties for the development of the Baha'i community in the immediate years ahead?

The House of Justice would appreciate concise but adequate comments, which it would like to receive at your earliest convenience, but no later than 31 March 1985.  Kindly send a copy of your comments to the Continental Board of Counsellors.

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a message dated 25 November 1984 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’)

1934: The growth of the “mighty administrative structure” of the Faith and “evidences of a power which a disillusioned and sadly shaken society can ill afford to ignore”

• The vitality which the organic institutions of this great, this ever-expanding Order so strongly exhibit; 
• the obstacles which the high courage, the undaunted resolution of its administrators have already surmounted; 
• the fire of an unquenchable enthusiasm that glows with undiminished fervor in the hearts of its itinerant teachers; 
• the heights of self-sacrifice which its champion-builders are now attaining; 
• the breadth of vision, the confident hope, the creative joy, the inward peace, the uncompromising integrity, the exemplary discipline, the unyielding unity and solidarity which its stalwart defenders manifest; 
• the degree to which its moving Spirit has shown itself capable of assimilating the diversified elements within its pale, of cleansing them of all forms of prejudice and of fusing them with its own structure—

these are evidences of a power which a disillusioned and sadly shaken society can ill afford to ignore. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah; included in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)

References to Bahá’u’lláh from Isaiah, “the greatest of Jewish prophets”

To Him [ Bahá’u’lláh] Isaiah, the greatest of the Jewish prophets, had alluded as 

• the “Glory of the Lord,” 
• the “Everlasting Father,” 
• the “Prince of Peace,” 
• the “Wonderful,” 
• the “Counsellor,” 
• the “Rod come forth out of the stem of Jesse” and 
• the “Branch grown out of His roots,” 
• Who “shall be established upon the throne of David,” 
• Who “will come with strong hand,” 
• Who “shall judge among the nations,” 
• Who “shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips slay the wicked,” and 
• Who “shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  ('God Passes By')

The amazingly high station of the Greatest Holy Leaf

O thou Greatest Holy Leaf! If I cry at every moment out of a hundred mouths, and from each of these mouths I speak with a hundred thousand tongues, yet I could never describe nor celebrate thy heavenly qualities, which are known to none save only the Lord God; nor could I befittingly tell of even the transient foam from out the ocean of thine endless favour and grace.

Except for a very few, whose habitation is in the highest retreats of holiness, and who circle, in the furthermost Sanctuary, by day and by night about the throne of God, and are fed at the hand of the Abhá Beauty on purest milk—except for these, no soul of this nether world has known or recognized thine immaculate, thy most sacred essence, nor has any befittingly perceived that ambergris fragrance of thy noble qualities, which richly anoints thy brow, and which issues from the divine wellspring of mystic musk; nor has any caught its sweetness.

To this bear witness the Company on High, and beyond them God Himself, the Supreme Lord of all the heavens and the earths: that during all thy days, from thine earliest years until the close of thy life, thou didst personify the attributes of thy Father, the Matchless, the Mighty. Thou wert the fruit of His Tree, thou wert the lamp of His love, thou wert the symbol of His serenity, and of His meekness, the pathway of His guidance, the channel of His blessings, the sweet scent of His robe, the refuge of His loved ones and His handmaidens, the mantle of His generosity and grace. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘Bahíyyih Khánum, The Greatest Holy Leaf’, a compilation by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, 1982)

Visit: The Greatest Holy Leaf: The "archetype of the people of Bahá"

Rúhíyyih Khánum’s systematic travels around the globe: 185 countries, dependencies, major islands, and 154 territories

Rúhíyyih Khánum’s systematic travels around the globe began in the year 1964. Many times, she talked about the genesis of these unique trips, recounting an incident in the lifetime of Shoghi Effendi. One day, as he was passing by her desk, he stopped and looked at her and said, “What will become of you after I die?” She was shattered by this unexpected remark and began to weep, saying, “Oh, Shoghi Effendi, don’t say such terrible things. I don’t want to live without you.” He paid no attention, however, and after a pause continued, “I suppose you will travel and encourage the friends.” She said that this was the only remark he ever made about what she should do with her life after his passing. And so it was that, when she was somewhat freed from her arduous administrative duties and the affairs of the Cause were placed under the infallible guidance of the Universal House of Justice, she took these words as his last instructions to her and did her utmost to fulfil his hopes.

In the course of her long life she travelled to 185 countries, dependencies and major islands of the globe. While she visited just 31 countries in her first 54 years, she travelled in all the rest between 1964 and 1997. When I tried to count the number of territories she visited in these 34 years, I came up with the astounding figure of 154. Many of these countries were visited more than once, and some, like India, were honoured by her presence as many as nine times. 

- Violette Nakhjavání  (‘A Tribute to Amatu’l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum’; The Baha’i World, https://bahaiworld.bahai.org/)

Bahá’u’lláh tells Pope Pius IX that “The Word which the Son concealed is made manifest…in the form of the human temple”; “The Father is come”

The Word which the Son concealed is made manifest. It hath been sent down in the form of the human temple in this day. Blessed be the Lord Who is the Father! He, verily, is come unto the nations in His most great majesty. Turn your faces towards Him, O concourse of the righteous! ...This is the day whereon the Rock [Peter] crieth out and shouteth, and celebrateth the praise of its Lord, the All-Possessing, the Most High, saying: ‘Lo! The Father is come, and that which ye were promised in the Kingdom is fulfilled!...’ My body longeth for the cross, and Mine head waiteth the thrust of the spear, in the path of the All-Merciful, that the world may be purged from its transgressions....

- Baha’u’llah  (Quoted by Shoghi Effendi in ‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

1955: Half the total number of Japanese Baha’is

Seventeen of the nineteen Japanese Baha’is who attended the Asia Teaching Conference in Nikko, Japan, September 23-25, 1955. This represents about half the total number of Japanese Baha’is. (Baha’i News, December 1955)

1955-1956: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Italy and Switzerland

Seated, left to right: Miss Elsa Steinmetz, Dr. Ugo R. Giachery, Miss Honor Kempton, Prof. Mario Fiorentini, Mrs. Marion Little. Standing, left to right: Dr. Walter Ott, Mrs. Anna Kunz, Dr. Alessandro Bausani, Mr. Fritz Schar. (Baha’i News, August 1955)

1951: Terraces leading to the Shrine of the Báb on Mt. Carmel

The recently built two additional terraces can be seen at the top of the avenue; there is now a direct access from the Shrine to the city. (Baha’i News, August 1951)

1953: Panoramic view of newly developed garden of the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh at Bahjí

(Baha'i News, August 1953)

The first person to recognize Bahá'u'lláh as a Manifestation of God

Mr. ... refers to several sources in the literature of the Bahá'í Faith where the first person to recognize Bahá'u'lláh as a Manifestation of God is identified. Those named include 'Abdu'l-Bahá (see Balyuzi's book "'Abdu'l-Bahá The Centre of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh" (Oxford: George Ronald, 1987, p. 13), Mírzá Áqá Ján and Shaykh Hasán-i-Zunúzi (see "Bahá'u'lláh: The King of Glory" (Oxford: George Ronald, 1980, p. 109 and pp. 67-68). He asks how this apparent contradiction is to be resolved.

It is evident that the term "the first" to recognize Bahá'u'lláh had different meanings according to the context of its use. For example, given 'Abdu'l-Bahá's designation as "the Mystery of God" and His unique relationship with His Father, it is possible that the reference is to the spiritual realm, a realm which transcends time. While, in the case of Mírzá Áqá Ján and Shaykh Hasán-i-Zunúzi, the application of the term is necessarily in the context of the human plane of existence.

In relation to Mírzá Áqá Ján, Shoghi Effendi in "God Passes By", p. 115, clearly affirms that Mírzá Áqá Ján was "the first to believe" in Bahá'u'lláh, and that to him, Bahá'u'lláh, more than to anyone else, was moved to disclose, at this critical juncture, a glimpse of the as yet unrevealed glory of His station.

Hence, one possible distinction between Mírzá Áqá Ján and Shaykh Hasán-i-Zunúzi could well relate to the degree or extent of their recognition, with primacy being accorded to Mírzá Áqá Ján. 

(Memorandum from the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice dated 23 May 1991, attached to a letter dated 20 June 1991, written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer; Baha’i Online Library)