Haifa, 1957: Saichiro Fujita, Adelaide Sharp, and Anges Alexander

(Baha'i News, no. 630, December 1983)

circa 1950s:Baha'is of Sydney Australia with Hand of the Cause Clara Dunn

An example of how one’s faith and beliefs are tested when a new Manifestation of God appears

One of his disciples, one day, questioned Shaykh Ahmad [a forerunner to the Báb] concerning the Word which the promised One is expected to utter in the fulness of time, a Word so appallingly tremendous that the three hundred and thirteen chiefs and nobles of the earth would each and all flee in consternation as if overwhelmed by its stupendous weight. To him Shaykh Ahmad replied: “How can you presume to sustain the weight of the Word which the chieftains of the earth are incapable of bearing? Seek not to gratify an impossible desire. Cease asking me this question, and beseech forgiveness from God.” That presumptuous questioner again pressed him to disclose the nature of that Word. At last Shaykh Ahmad replied: “Were you to attain that Day, were you to be told to repudiate the guardianship of ‘Alí and to denounce its validity, what would you say?” “God forbid!” he exclaimed. “Such things can never be. That such words should proceed out of the mouth of the promised One is to me inconceivable.” How grievous the mistake he made, and how pitiful his plight! His faith was weighed in the balance, and was found wanting, inasmuch as he failed to recognise that He who must needs be made manifest is endowed with that sovereign power which no man dare question. His is the right “to command whatsoever He willeth, and to decree that which He pleaseth.” Whoever hesitates, whoever, though it be for the twinkling of an eye or less, questions His authority, is deprived of His grace and is accounted of the fallen. And yet few, if any, among those who listened to Shaykh Ahmad in that city, and heard him unfold the mysteries of the allusions in the sacred Scriptures, were able to appreciate the significance of his utterances or to apprehend their purpose. Siyyid Kázim, his able and distinguished lieutenant, alone, could claim to have understood his meaning. 

- Nabil  ('The Dawn-Breakers, chapter 1; translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)

The Cause of God is like a house

The Cause of God is like a house. As long as man has not entered therein he does not know what it contains. In the house there are many precious jewels, many rare objects the like of which cannot be found anywhere in this world. But the men in the street may pass by the house a 1000 times and know nothing about it. Only the one who has the key can enter. That key is the love of God. 

- 'Abdu'l-Baha  (Words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha recorded by Ahmad Sohrab, ‘Abdu'l-Baha in Britain, 1913’)

To see more such pilgrim notes please visit: Baha’i Pilgrim Notes

Baha'i Buildings & Places

Photos & brief descriptions of Baha'i places and buildings - collection 1

An example of how a disciple of Shaykh Ahmad, though physically not in Tehran, recognized the Birth of Baha’u’llah, and told a friend about its significance, and his friend’s ability to “behold that Day of days”

See the brief account at Insights from “The Dawn-Breakers”