• House of Abbud - Kitab-i-Aqdas

    The Kitab-i-Aqdas: A Spiritual Life

    In previous articles, we have considered what we mean by law, and we have looked at the process of law reform in the context of Bahá’u’lláh’s mission. When Bahá’u’lláh and his family and followers were initially brought to Akka they had been confined in the citadel of Akka. After two years and two months and 5 days, the citadel being needed to house soldiers, Bahá’u’lláh and his followers were moved elsewhere in the city. After several more moves, Bahá’u’lláh and his family were housed in the House of Udi Khammar. The Kitab-i-Aqdas was written in the House of Udi Khammar in 1873. Although much of the Kitab-i-Aqdas is concerned with…

  • sunrise - baha'u'llah as law reformer

    Bahá’u’lláh as Law Reformer

    Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, like the teachings of all prophets, arise in a particular time and place in history. The language used is conditioned by the language which that time and place can hear. Jesus is believed to have spoken Aramaic (a common language of his time and place). His teachings speak to the realities of the people around him – whose daily lives were mediated through Judaic custom, law and teachings. Jesus necessarily spoke in a language connected with those realities — for otherwise it would have been impossible for the people to understand him at all. Nevertheless, we see that although the symbols used are particular to time and place —…

  • what is law?

    What is Law?

    Bahá’u’lláh’s purpose throughout his mission was to promote the oneness of humankind but, he notes, that “At one time We spoke in the language of the lawgiver; at another in that of the truth-seeker and the mystic.“[1] If “law” is interchangeable with “mystic truth” it begs the question: what is law? It’s a question that has engaged legal philosophers for centuries – and prominent among their theories is that laws are “commands” – they are “rules” that we have to obey. But, it quickly gets complicated. As legal scholars ask – why can we say that the commands of the head of a criminal gang are not “law” but the…

  • Baha'i House of Worship Battambang

    A New Temple Rises in the East: The First Local House of Worship Battambang Cambodia

    Yesterday marked a milestone – the official dedication in Battambang Cambodia of the first local House of Worship in the world designated as such.  The building has been constructed to translate into reality Bahá’u’lláh’s call in his book of laws, the Kitab-i-Aqdas: O people of the world! Build ye houses of worship throughout the lands in the name of Him Who is the Lord of all religions.[1] Bahá’u’lláh’s word indicate the universality of the concept. Such Houses of Worship are open to every human being and the words of all sacred scriptures are read in them. The lead set by the people of Battambang is itself an indication of universality.  Battambang was…

  • gender and the divine

    Gender and the Divine World

    In Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, God has no gender. Indeed, to think of God in anthropomorphic terms (as a kind of “super human”) is entirely imaginary. To every discerning and illuminated heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the Divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. …[1] However, the topic presents us with complexities. First, we have to pause to clarify our thinking about what we mean by “gender”. Gender has layered biological and cultural aspects and it is easy to mix them up. Aspects of gender such as “pink” and “blue” for example are recent – and purely cultural inventions,…

  • tabernacle of unity - zoroastrian symbol

    Bridging East and West – Bahá’u’lláh’s Dialogue with a Zoroastrian Leader

    Zoroastrianism is one of the world’s most ancient faiths. One of its leaders wrote to Bahá’u’lláh. His reply was an exploration of the oneness of religion and the needs of today. Although not well-known in the English speaking world, beyond the fact of its existence, it was once the faith of a great civilization that stretched from Central Asia to Greece. It comes from the same part of the world in which Bahá’u’lláh was born and there was in his day, and still today a Zoroastrian community in Iran. When visiting America, Abdu’l Baha would sometimes comment on the effects of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings. Communities which had kept apart for hundreds of…

  • Czar Alexander II coronation

    Czar Alexander II – Living in a Tomb

    Much of Bahá’u’lláh’s letter to Czar Alexander II is concerned with proclaiming Bahá’u’lláh’s mission and calling on the Czar to respond to it. But one aspect of the letter unfolds a thematic exploration. When the letter is written Bahá’u’lláh is, to external appearances, a prisoner in one of the Ottoman Empires worst prisons (indeed he is in the citadel of Akka – a prison within a prison). Despite those persecutions, Baha’u’llah wrote to the Czar: My spirit is filled with a gladness with which all the joys of the earth can never compare.[1] Later he continues: O proud ones of the earth! Do ye believe yourselves to be abiding in…

  • Queen Victoria

    Bahá’u’lláh’s letter to Queen Victoria: Reform the World

    Of all the sovereigns who received letters from Bahá’u’lláh, the only one who is recorded to have responded thoughtfully was Queen Victoria. She is reported to have said, “If this is of God it will endure; if not, it can do no harm.”  Bahá’u’lláh’s letter to her was written around 1868, after his arrival in Akka, and is one of the letters that Baha’u’llah compiled together with the Suriy-i-Haykal (the Tablet of the Temple). In Bahá’u’lláh’s words to Queen Victoria we see another unfolding dimension of Bahá’u’lláh’s mission and teachings. As in letters to the other sovereigns to whom he wrote, Bahá’u’lláh explicitly sets out the purpose of his mission: to “quicken…

  • most great bell - second letter to napoleon III

    Bahá’u’lláh’s Second Letter to Napoleon III: A New Way of Life

    Bahá’u’lláh’s second letter announcing to Napoleon III his mission, is multilayered. It was written not long after Bahá’u’lláh arrived in the prison city of Akka. As we read it, it is easy to forget that these are the words of a persecuted prisoner of an absolute monarch. He Who is the Unconstrained is come, in the clouds of light, that He may quicken the world with the breezes of His name, the Most Merciful, and unite its peoples, and gather all men around this Table which hath been sent down from heaven.[1] The tragedy was that the Emperor could not hear and his fate hung by a thread. He had…