• Teheran where Baha'u'llah was born in 1817

    An Outline of Bahá’u’lláh’s Life

    The bare facts of anyone’s life don’t do it justice. Yet they help us put the many complex pieces of the puzzle together and foster understanding. In this series we have dived straight in: exploring concepts, events and writings. Here we will step back and think about the outlines of Bahá’u’lláh’s life. There are two tools that I would like to use for this purpose. One is to refer you to the beautiful pictorial display of Bahá’u’lláh’s life maintained by the Baha’i International Community at bahaullah.org.  There you will find a brief chronology, images associated with Bahá’u’lláh’s life and a narrative of key events. The second tool I will use is to adopt ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s…

  • Bahá’u’lláh’s Love

    Rarely does the historical record show us the fullness of Bahá’u’lláh’s human experience. An exception is a moment of love between Bahá’u’lláh and his son, captured in the recollections of Bahiyyih Khanum (Bahá’u’lláh’s daughter). More of that story below. Love is a recurrent theme in Bahá’u’lláh’s writings. Love of the divine, of creation, of humanity. An example is the story of the two lovers Majnun and Layli. The story is an ancient one retold many times, often used to convey love of the divine. In Bahá’u’lláh’s telling Majnun is seeking Layli. It is related that one day they came upon Majnún sifting the dust, and his tears flowing down. They said, “What doest…

  • Troubled Times

    It won’t have escaped your attention that we live in troubled times. The sense of uncertainty and unease is palpable even for those of us lucky enough to live at a distance from the world’s conflict zones. The world is suffering and we all know it. Every few days a new shock, a new event seems to edge us closer to even worse disaster. All the while human beings are suffering. We feel moved to respond in some way, but we often feel powerless. Increasingly human beings, communities and institutions are being driven apart. It can be easy to become disheartened, to conclude (as many have done) that human beings are…

  • Oneness of humanity in action (c) Baha'i International Community //media.bahai.org/detail/0969294

    We Are One – Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings on the Oneness of Humanity

    Shoghi Effendi, the great-grandson of Bahá’u’lláh, described the oneness of humanity as the “pivot” of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings. When Bahá’u’lláh’s son ‘Abdu’l-Bahá travelled to the West in the early twentieth century, he would often begin his talks with the principle of the oneness of humanity as the first of Bahá’u’lláh’s principles. When the English scholar Edward Granville Browne visited Bahá’u’lláh, towards the end of Bahá’u’lláh’s life, the theme of oneness was at the heart of what he took from Bahá’u’lláh’s words. That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion…

  • Baha'u'llah's reed pen and ink spoon Copyright © Bahá'í International Community

    200 Articles in 200 Days for the 200th Anniversary of Bahá’u’lláh’s Birth

    21 and 22 October 2017 mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh, the prophet-founder of the Baha’i Faith. The event will be celebrated around the world. This is the first of what I hope will develop into 200 articles in the days until then. Bahá’u’lláh has been my guide and inspiration for much of my life. And his teachings guide the work and lives of millions of members of the Baha’i Faith who are found in virtually every country. Yet most of humanity still hardly knows of Bahá’u’lláh’s life – let alone being familiar with the concepts embedded in his teachings. Perhaps someone may have heard that he founded the…

  • Silence

    Silence

    Silence. One day I visited a bookstore. It’s one of those clinging to survival in an increasingly post-book world. Aimed at a “discerning” audience it carries a rich diversity of titles – fiction and non-fiction on virtually every topic.  It is particularly well stocked with historical works – Europe, America, Australia, Germany, Britain, France  and others. Plenty to choose from. But that day I was looking for Italian history. I was looking for my history, for “Italy”. I found the Italian history section. It consisted of two books. One was a book on Simon Bolivar, the great liberator of South America, misclassified as “Italian”. The second was a book on the mafia. Here was all…

  • Peace Bell Cowra

    Peace Bell

    In Cowra, the Peace Bell tolls a warning, And magpies caw their raucous and wry chorus in reply. Their voices reach a quiet graveyard, An unusual place, Here Japanese mothers and children sleep. So far from home – they are not forgotten. ANZACS sleep nearby -almost – almost – beside them. They too attract the living – not forgotten. How strange, the earth’s embrace draws them so close. The Peace Bell tolls a warning. Keep them out the shrill galah shrieks And fearful faces turn to listen, hatred rising in their eyes. Across the plain a musty folk museum lies, Its most sacred relic, a roll-up flag. Turn them out the galah…

  • Adelard of Bath: When English Kings Studied the Learning of the Arabs

    Once upon a time, Norman kings of England studied the learning of the Arabs. A strange story indeed, largely forgotten. At that time the “English” were subjects of their Normans rulers. And Norman “cousins” also ruled in another island to the south. Before they arrived it had been called the Emirate of Sicily. The hero of our story is Adelard of Bath (1080s-1150s): an English scholar monk greatly learned in ancient and foreign tongues. The secret languages of science he acquired: Greek, Latin and Arabic. Born in England, and likely an Anglo-Saxon himself, Adelard travelled widely. His life took him on long journeys – France, Southern Italy, Sicily, Greece, Syria and Palestine. As…

  • Dubai

    The Middle West hiding in the Middle East

    There is something wrong with the term “the Middle East”. To come straight to the point, it should really be the Middle West. Of course it won’t escape the reader’s attention that this thought bubble occurs in a moment angst about the relationship between the “West” and “the Middle East”. And in the western public mind, as projected by popular media, danger lurks everywhere. Some dangers (religious fanaticism and terrorism) are sadly all too real – and the victims are all over the world, although it has to be said largely in the Middle West. Other existential dangers are well, fanciful. The “burkini”, or to describe it accurately “modest” or…