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"lighten and uplift
them, so that they may soar on the wings of the Divine verses"
-Baha'u'llah
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Bahá'u'lláh |
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Messenger of God
Bahá'u'lláh's
writings offer answers to the timeless theological and
philosophical questions that have plagued humanity since
antiquity--such as Who is God? What is goodness? and Why are
we here? He also addresses the modern questions that have
preoccupied today's society, discussing the basic
motivations of human nature, answering whether peace is indeed
possible, and explaining how God provides for humanity's
security and welfare.
In
the middle of the last century, one of the most notorious
dungeons in the Near East was Teheran's "Black
Pit." Once the underground reservoir for a public bath,
its only outlet was a single passage down three steep
flights of stone steps. Prisoners huddled in their own
bodily wastes, languishing in the pit's inky gloom,
subterranean cold and stench-ridden atmosphere.
In this grim setting, the rarest and most cherished of
religious events was once again played out: mortal man, out-wardly
human in other respects, was summoned by God to bring to
humanity a new religious revelation.
The year was 1852, and the man was a Persian nobleman, known
today as Bahá'u'lláh. During His imprisonment, as He sat
with his feet in stocks and a 100-pound iron chain around
his neck, Bahá'u'lláh received a vision of God's will for
humanity.
The event is comparable to those great moments of the
ancient past when God revealed Himself to His earlier
Messengers: when Moses stood before the Burning Bush; when
the Buddha received enlightenment under the Bodhi tree; when
the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove descended upon Jesus;
or when the archangel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad.
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"And
since there can be no tie of direct
intercourse to bind the 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."
--Bahá'u'lláh
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Bahá'u'lláh's
experience in the Black Pit set in motion a process of
religious revelation which, over the next 40 years,
led to the production of thousands of books, tablets
and letters--which today form the core of the sacred
scripture of Bahá'í Faith. In those writings, He
outlined a framework for the reconstruction of human
society at all levels: spiritual, moral, economic,
political, and philosophical.
In the past, God's Messengers have for the most part
presented their messages to humanity by speaking or
preaching; these outpourings have been recorded by
others, sometimes during the Prophet's life, sometimes
later, from the memory of His followers. The Founder
of Bahá'í Faith, however, Himself took up pen and
paper and wrote down for humanity the revelation He
received or dictated His message to believers who
served as secretaries.
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Bahá'u'lláh
addressed not only those timeless theological and
philosophical questions that have plagued humanity since
antiquity--such as Who is God? What is goodness? and Why are
we here?--but also the questions that have preoccupied 20th
century thinkers: What motivates human nature? Is real peace
indeed possible? Does God still care for humanity?
From His words, the worldwide community of Bahá'u'lláh
draws its inspiration, discovers its moral bearing and
derives creative energy.
Bahá'u'lláh, whose name means "The Glory of God"
in Arabic, was born on 12 November 1817 in Teheran. The son
of a wealthy government minister, Mirza Buzurg-i-Nuri, His
given name was Husayn-'Ali and His family could trace its
ancestry back to the great dynasties of Iran's imperial
past. Bahá'u'lláh led a princely life as a young man,
receiving an education that focused largely on horsemanship,
swordsmanship, calligraphy and classic poetry.
The
resting places of Asiyih Khanum, Navvab (Left),
and Mihdi (right), the wife and son of Baha'u'llah.
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In
October 1835, Bahá'u'lláh married Asiyih Khanum, the
daughter of another nobleman. They had three children:
a son, `Abdu'l-Bahá, born in 1844; a daughter,
Bahiyyih, born in 1846; and a son, Mihdi, born in
1848. Bahá'u'lláh declined the ministerial career
open to Him in government, and chose instead to devote
His energies to a range of philanthropies which had,
by the early 1840s, earned Him widespread renown as
"Father of the Poor." This privileged
existence swiftly eroded after 1844, when Bahá'u'lláh
became one of the leading advocates of the Bábí
movement.
Precursor to the
Bahá'í Faith, the Bábí movement swept Iran like a
whirlwind--and stirred intense persecution from the
religious
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establishment. After the execution of its
Founder, the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh was arrested and
brought, in chains and on foot, to
Teheran. Influential members of the court and the clergy
demanded a death sentence. Bahá'u'lláh, however, was
protected by His personal reputation and the social position
of His family, as well as by protests from Western embassies.
Bahá'u'lláh spent four months in the Black Pit, during which
time he contemplated the full extent of His mission. "I
was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the
breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me
the knowledge of all that hath been," He later wrote.
"This thing is not from Me, but the One Who is Almighty
and All-Knowing. And He bade Me lift up My voice between earth
and heaven..." > MORE
Excerpted
from The Bahá'ís, a publication of the Bahá'í
International Community.
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