Ruins of the Bath visited by the Bab in Urumiyyih, Persia

Ruins of the Bath visited by the Bab in Urumiyyih, Persia (The Baha'i World 1934-1936)

1936: Members and delegates of the International Youth Group meet with Baha'is at Green Acre

Members and delegates of the International Youth Group which held a session in Green Acre, Eliot, Maine, USA, in order to meet with the Baha'is while on their tour of America during 1936. (The Baha'i World 1936-1938)

The station of the Letters of the Living – gleaned from the Writings by the Guardian

• The “first Letters generated from the Primal Point”;
• The “company of angels arrayed before God on the Day of His coming”;
• The “Repositories of His Mystery”;
• The “Springs that have welled out from the Source of His Revelation”;
• The first companions who, in the words of the Persian Bayán, “enjoy nearest access to God”;
• The “Luminaries that have, from everlasting, bowed down, and will everlastingly continue to bow down, before the Celestial Throne”;
• The “elders” mentioned in the Book of Revelation as “sitting before God on their seats,” “clothed in white raiment” and wearing on their heads “crowns of gold”. (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By)

“… personalities should not be made centers around which the community may revolve ” –- a “cardinal principle of Bahá'í Administration”

I fully approve and wholeheartedly and unreservedly uphold the principle to which you refer that personalities should not be made centers around which the community may revolve but that they should be subordinated under all conditions and however great their merits to the properly constituted Assemblies. You and your co-workers can never over-estimate or over-emphasize this cardinal principle of Bahá'í Administration. (Shoghi Effendi, April 11, 1933, ‘Messages to America’)

Penmanship of Baha'u'llah's father, Mirza Buzurg

Penmanship of Baha'u'llah's father, Mirza Buzurg (The Baha'i World 1936-1938)

The cause of rejection and persecution of the Báb and the Christ

The cause of the rejection and persecution of the Báb was in its essence the same as that of the rejection and persecution of the Christ. If Jesus had not brought a New Book, if He had not only reiterated the spiritual principles taught by Moses but had continued Moses’ rules and regulations too, He might as a merely moral reformer have escaped the vengeance of the Scribes and Pharisees. But to claim that any part of the Mosaic law, even such material ordinances as those that dealt with divorce and the keeping of the Sabbath, could be altered—and altered by an unordained preacher from the village of Nazareth—this was to threaten the interests of the Scribes and Pharisees themselves, and since they were the representatives of Moses and of God, it was blasphemy against the Most High. As soon as the position of Jesus was understood, His persecution began. As He refused to desist, He was put to death.

For reasons exactly parallel, the Báb was from the beginning opposed by the vested interests of the dominant Church as an uprooter of the Faith. Yet, even in that dark and fanatical country, the mullás (like the Scribes in Palestine eighteen centuries before) did not find it very easy to put forward a plausible pretext for destroying Him whom they thought their enemy. (George Townshend, Introduction to ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)

The twofold nature of a believer’s task – the Guardian explains

Let every believer, desirous to witness the swift and healthy progress of the Cause of God, realize the twofold nature of his task. Let him first turn his eyes inwardly and search his own heart and satisfy himself that in his relations with his fellow-believers, irrespective of colour and class, he is proving himself increasingly loyal to the spirit of his beloved Faith. Assured and content that he is exerting his utmost in a conscious effort to approach nearer every day the lofty station to which his gracious Master summons him, let him turn to his second task, and, with befitting confidence and vigour, assail the devastating power of those forces which in his own heart he has already succeeded in subduing. Fully alive to the unfailing efficacy of the power of Bahá'u'lláh, and armed with the essential weapons of wise restraint and inflexible resolve, let him wage a constant fight against the inherited tendencies, the corruptive instincts, the fluctuating fashions, the false pretences of the society in which he lives and moves. (Shoghi Effendi, in a letter dated 12 April 1927 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, published in "Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932"; ; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Excellence in All Things)

‘Abdu'l-Baba’s prediction concerning the future of Green Acre – Tablet to Sarah Farmer, Founder of Green Acre

O Maid-servant of God! Be rejoiced at this glad tidings, whereby the hearts of the people of the Kingdom of Abha are moved with joy. Verily, I beseech God to make Green Acre as the Paradise of Abha, so that the melodies of the Nightingales of Sanctity may be heard from it, and that the chanting of the Verses of Unity may be raised therein, to cause the clouds of the great Gift to pour upon it the rains falling from heaven, to make those countries become verdant with the myrtles of Truth and Inner Significances, and to plant therein blessed trees, with the Hand of Providence, which may bring forth pure and excellent fruits wherefrom the Fragrances of God may be diffused throughout all regions. These signs shall surely appear, and these lights shall shine forth. (The Baha’i World 1936-1938)