Sufferings of Baha’u’llah – summarized by ‘Abdu’l-Baha

He is God.

O ye two handmaidens of Bahá! The Ancient Beauty, the Most Great Name—may my life, my soul, and mine inmost being be offered up for His sacred dust—was burdened with anguish at every breath. At one time, He was a captive to unyielding cruelty, and at another, a target to the darts of woe. At one time, He was a wanderer on the plain of Badasht, and at another He suffered the tribulations of Níyálá. At one point, He was bound with chains and shackles, and afflicted by grievous torment in Ámul; at another He had for associates His most despicable and cruel enemies. By day He was assailed by sorrow and grief in Karbilá; by night He lay within the embrace of afflictions in the camp of adversity. One day, He was conducted in chains, with bared head and bare feet, all the way from Shimírán to Tihrán. There He remained in confinement for four months, weighed down with fetters and irons and threatened at every breath by blades and arrows. At another time, He was exiled to Iraq, and at yet another He roamed the wilderness of Kurdistan, where the birds of the air and the beasts of the field were His only companions. For many a long year, He was beset from all sides by the onslaught of His foes in Baghdad, and was encompassed by the fiercest woes and troubles. Every day brought a fresh adversity, and every night season an arduous calamity. Not for a moment did He rest; not for a second did He find repose. He was then exiled to the Great City [Constantinople] and was pierced by the arrows of gross calumny. Men of high rank and stature arose, one and all, to denigrate Him, whilst the leaders of nations were intent upon His demise. Thereupon they banished Him to the Land of Mystery, where they submerged Him in dire adversities and woeful tribulations.

Increasing one’s love for God and for Baha’u’llah

25 May 1978

To an individual Baha'i

Dear Baha'i friend,

The Universal House of Justice has received your letter of 21 March 1978 in which you express concern that you do not yet feel in your heart the degree of love for God and for Baha'u'llah that you wish to have and which you witness in others, and is touched by the depth of your longing and effort. We have been requested to convey the following.

One source of true joy and happiness which you would do well to concentrate upon is that you have been able to recognize and accept God's supreme Manifestation in the Day of His appearance. There is no greater bounty than this and the souls of all Baha'is should be filled with gratitude for this supreme gift.

The House of Justice encourages you to continue your reading of the Words of Baha'u'llah and the Master and adds that spiritual growth has been likened to organic growth. Everything living must change. Growth and change can be imperceptible or dramatic and rapid. It is stated in a letter dated 6 October 1954 written on behalf of the beloved Guardian to an individual believer:

Baha’u’llah found the “generality of mankind…still immature” and not having “acquired sufficient capacity” to receive a fuller measure of His Revelation

The generality of mankind is still immature. Had it acquired sufficient capacity We would have bestowed upon it so great a measure of Our knowledge that all who dwell on earth and in heaven would have found themselves, by virtue of the grace streaming from Our pen, completely independent of all knowledge save the knowledge of God, and would have been securely established upon the throne of abiding tranquillity. 

- Baha'u'llah  (From a Tablet, quoted by Shoghi Effendi in ‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah; included in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)

Baha’i House of Worship in New Delhi, India and ancient village of Bahapur, (‘the Abode of Baha’ in Arabic)

During the Ten Year World Crusade, [1953-1963] twenty-two acres of land in New Delhi were acquired as a site for a House of Worship. In the process of demarcating the boundaries, it was discovered that the land was part of an ancient village named Bahapur, meaning "the Abode of Baha". In Hindustani, a dialect of Hindi, Baha means "a channel" or "a water course". By a happy coincidence, Baha is Arabic for "light", 'splendour", or "glory" and is a form of Baha'u'llah's name. Later the government requisitioned the property for use as a greenbelt area.  After several years of constant negotiation by the National Spiritual Assembly of India, and upon viewing the beautiful design for the Temple, the government agreed to release the entire twenty-two acres. 

(Footnote to a message from the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of India dated 10 October 1977; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)

Talks of ‘Abdu’l-Baha recorded in Star of the West and The Pomulgation of Universal Peace

…extracts from talks of 'Abdu'l-Baha recorded in Star of the West and The Promulgation of Universal Peace. It is hoped that in future it will be possible to have such well-known addresses verified against authenticated transcripts of the talks in the original language, but until that time the friends may use them in their present form for their reference and study. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a message dated 31 August 1976 to all National Spiritual Assemblies regarding the new compilation on Baha’i education; Messages from the Universal House of Justice, ‘1963-1986’)

Introducing a new site: 'The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh'

Passages in sequential order from a weighty treatise by Shoghi Effendi known as ‘The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh’, 8 February, 1934.

How the Báb viewed a Christian who would believe in Baha’u’llah

Addressing Siyyid Yahyáy-i-Darábí surnamed Vahíd, the most learned, the most eloquent and influential among His followers, the Báb utters this warning: “By the righteousness of Him Whose power causeth the seed to germinate and Who breatheth the spirit of life into all things, were I to be assured that in the day of His manifestation thou wilt deny Him, I would unhesitatingly disown thee and repudiate thy faith.… If, on the other hand, I be told that a Christian, who beareth no allegiance to My Faith, will believe in Him, the same will I regard as the apple of Mine Eye.” 

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

The mystical reality of the Manifestation of God

Magnified be Thy name, O Lord my God! I know not what the water is with which Thou hast created me, or what the fire Thou hast kindled within me, or the clay wherewith Thou hast kneaded me. The restlessness of every sea hath been stilled, but not the restlessness of this Ocean which moveth at the bidding of the winds of Thy will. The flame of every fire hath been extinguished except the Flame which the hands of Thine omnipotence have kindled, and whose radiance Thou hast, by the power of Thy name, shed abroad before all that are in Thy heaven and all that are on Thy earth. As the tribulations deepen, it waxeth hotter and hotter.

Behold, then, O my God, how Thy Light hath been compassed with the onrushing winds of Thy decree, how the tempests that blow and beat upon it from every side have added to its brightness and increased its splendor. For all this let Thee be praised.

I implore Thee, by Thy Most Great Name, and Thy most ancient sovereignty, to look upon Thy loved ones whose hearts have been sorely shaken by reason of the troubles that have touched Him Who is the Manifestation of Thine own Self. Powerful art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. Thou art, verily, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u’llah’)

The Báb testified to the “incomparable greatness” and the “preëminence of that superior Revelation that was soon to supersede His own”

In a communication addressed to the American believers I have in the course of my explanation of the station of the Báb made a passing reference to the incomparable greatness of the Revelation of which He considered Himself to be the humble Precursor. He Whom Bahá’u’lláh has acclaimed in the Kitáb-i-Íqán as that promised Qá’im Who has manifested no less than twenty-five out of the twenty-seven letters which all the Prophets were destined to reveal—so great a Revealer has Himself testified to the preëminence of that superior Revelation that was soon to supersede His own.

• “The germ,” the Báb asserts in the Persian Bayán, “that holds within itself the potentialities of the Revelation that is to come is endowed with a potency superior to the combined forces of all those who follow me.”
• “Of all the tributes,” He again affirms, “I have paid to Him Who is to come after Me, the greatest is this, My written confession, that no words of Mine can adequately describe Him, nor can any reference to Him in My Book, the Bayán, do justice to His Cause.”
• “The Bayán,” He in that same Book categorically declares, “and whosoever is therein revolve round the saying of ‘Him Whom God shall make manifest,’ even as the Alif (the Gospel) and whosoever was therein revolved round the saying of Muhammad, the Apostle of God.”
• “A thousand perusals of the Bayán,” He further remarks, “cannot equal the perusal of a single verse to be revealed by ‘Him Whom God shall make manifest.’…
• Today the Bayán is in the stage of seed; at the beginning of the manifestation of ‘Him Whom God shall make manifest’ its ultimate perfection will become apparent.…
• The Bayán and such as are believers therein yearn more ardently after Him than the yearning of any lover after his beloved.…
• The Bayán deriveth all its glory from ‘Him Whom God shall make manifest.’ All blessing be upon him who believeth in Him and woe betide him that rejecteth His truth.” 

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

To have the “torch” of God’s “love” ignited in our hearts

Ignite, then, within their hearts [“them that have set their hopes" in God, and them who have "sought" God] the torch of Thy love, that its flame may consume all else except their wondrous remembrance of Thee, and that no trace may be left in those hearts except the gem-like evidences of Thy most holy sovereignty, so that from the land wherein they dwell no voice may be heard except the voice that extolleth Thy mercifulness and might, that on the earth on which they walk no light may shine except the light of Thy beauty, and that within every soul naught may be discovered except the revelation of Thy countenance and the tokens of Thy glory, that haply Thy servants may show forth only that which shall please Thee and shall conform wholly unto Thy most potent will.

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Prayers and Meditations of Baha’u’llah’)