Revelation of Baha’u’llah Volumes I-IV
Exploring the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh: A Journey Through His Writings and Ministry
As the writer, Adib Taherzadeh wrote in the forward “This book is an attempt to describe, in language however inadequate, something of the supreme spiritual phenomenon of this age, namely, the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh.”
In order to indicate the manner of, and the background to, the revelation of some of Bahá'u'lláh's Writings during the forty years of His ministry, this book recounts part of the history of His life, and also of the lives of some of His companions and followers whom He addressed, or who were affected, directly or indirectly, by the outpouring of His words or served Him by recording His utterances, transcribing and disseminating His Tablets, or propagating His Message in the land of His birth and in adjoining countries. The author has drawn on narratives which they have left us, in most cases providing the translations.
The first Volume surveys the better known Writings of Bahá'u'lláh throughout the period of His ministry. It deals only with a number of Tablets which He revealed in 'Iráq during the ten years of His sojourn in that land, the majority of them unavailable in Western languages.
The second volume describes the contents of some of the writings of Bahá'u'lláh revealed by Him in Constantinople and Adrianople. However, in order to present the background to the revelation of these writings, it also includes a brief history of His life and that of His companions during His five-year sojourn in these two cities.
There is a distinctive tone in the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh revealed in Adrianople in as much as they were revealed soon after the public unveiling of His station. In these He often portrays the treacherous behaviour of Mírzá Yahyá, the arch-breaker of the Covenant of the Báb, and, as the outpouring of His Revelation reaches its climax, He proclaims the advent of the Day of God to the generality of mankind and issues His summons to the kings and rulers of the world.
While for the most part the author has merely outlined the main points of a Tablet, he has in some cases dwelt at length on certain topics which constitute the basic spiritual verities of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and, at times, has deliberately taken excursions into other subjects which throw further light on the original theme, and which are thought to be of interest to the reader.
The third volume, covering the first nine years of the ministry of Bahá'u'lláh in 'Akká, is an attempt to catch a glimpse of this mighty Revelation. The arrival of Bahá'u'lláh in 'Akká, signalizing the long-awaited fulfilment of the prophecies of the advent of the Lord of Hosts in the Holy Land, opens a new chapter of glorious consummation in the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. The momentous events associated with this period surpass those of the earlier days of His ministry. The final acts of the proclamation of His Message to individual kings, rulers and ecclesiastics, the revelation of the laws of His Dispensation regarded as the warp and woof of His World Order, the reversing of the tides of misfortune and misrepresentation into those of honour and public reverence, the revelation of countless Tablets bringing to a mighty climax all that had been revealed in the past, and the release of vast spiritual energies destined to regenerate human society and create a new race of men, all these characterize this period of Bahá'u'lláh's ministry in 'Akká and later in Bahjí.
The fourth volume covers the most momentous period in the Ministry of Bahá'u'lláh, a period during which His Revelation reached its climax, and His own Person, after years of exile and imprisonment, majestically ascended the throne of His sovereignty in a delightful Mansion designated by Him as 'the most sublime vision of mankind'.
The great many Tablets that streamed forth from the Supreme Pen during this period were to a large extent concerned with promulgating those teachings and principles which, in conjunction with the laws of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, constitute the framework of Bahá'u'lláh's World Order. The events associated with this period were highly significant, contributing as they did to the emergence of the Faith in Persia, and demonstrating its universality, its vitality and its invincibility as a young Faith possessed of a dynamism unequalled in the annals of religion. While the Faith was steadily growing in the land of its birth, its healing message had also begun to penetrate the neighbouring countries of the East.
Some of these accounts appear in this volume. The story begins from where it was left off in volume 3--the arrival of Bahá'u'lláh at the Mansion of Mazra'ih. It continues with the main events during the remainder of His Ministry, and some of the outstanding Tablets revealed by Him until His ascension in the Mansion of Bahjí.
