Bahaullah's Life

  • baha'u'llah's exiles

    Exile Over Snowbound Mountains

    Bahá’u’lláh was the son of a wealthy noble family. His family had extensive estates in their ancestral province of Nur. The transformation that Bahá’u’lláh’s life underwent from the day he was imprisoned in the Siyah-Chal is captured in the following passage from Bahá’u’lláh’s writings. My God, My Master, My Desire!… Thou hast created this atom of dust through the consummate power of Thy might, and nurtured Him with Thine hands which none can chain up.… Thou hast destined for Him trials and tribulations which no tongue can describe, nor any of Thy Tablets adequately recount. The throat Thou didst accustom to the touch of silk Thou hast, in the end, clasped with strong…

  • light in the dungeon darkness

    A Light in Dungeon Darkness: the Siyah-Chal and the beginning of Bahá’u’lláh’s mission

    Chained, humiliated and conducted over fifteen miles in the heat of summer, Bahá’u’lláh had been cast into Tehran’s most notorious dungeon: Siyah-Chal – the Black Pit. In the city outside a pogrom was sweeping the city taking the lives of hundreds. Baha’u’llah’s own words describe what was done to him: … from Niyavaran [they] conducted Us, on foot and in chains, with bared head and bare feet, to the dungeon of Tihran.  A brutal man, accompanying Us on horseback, snatched off Our hat, whilst We were being hurried along by a troop of executioners and officials.[1] In God Passes By, Shoghi Effendi records: On the way He several times was stripped of His outer garments, was overwhelmed with ridicule,…

  • captain von goumoens

    The Resignation of Captain von Goumoens

    When the Austrian Captain Alfred von Goumoens obtained a posting as a military attache to Persia, it was the kind of appointment that is the making of a career and the height of adventure. The country was thought of by Europeans as “oriental” and far away. It was a time when European military technology and know-how was in demand in other countries. It was a position of potential influence where he could serve the interests of his country. The Captain was to be Iran during some of the most momentous events of the time. He may have been in Iran when, in 1850, the Bab was executed. Captain von Goumoens…

  • fish

    A Father’s Dream

    Mirza Abbas Buzurg, Bahá’u’lláh’s father, was a prominent minister of the Persian government. In 1817, in the ancient city of Tehran, his wife Khadijah Khanum gave birth to Bahá’u’lláh; their third child. One night, when Bahá’u’lláh was still a child, night Mirza Buzurg had a dream. In the dream he saw his son in an ocean – a vast ocean stretching out in every direction. Bahá’u’lláh’s body was aglow – lighting up all around him. His long black hair was floating on the waves in every direction. A vast number of fish began to gather around him, each fish clinging to the end of one of his hairs. Fascinated by…

  • tree courage

    Courage

    Mona Mahmudnizhad’s short life was crowned with courage. It’s not the kind of courage that most us of imagine having. We saw the courage of George Townshend who set out his belief in Baha’u’llah knowing it would deprive him of his livelihood. Lidia Zamenhof also courageously faced death to be with friends and family. Baha’u’llah’s own life was a life of courage – facing decades of suffering for his teachings. not for a moment did I allow Myself to be hidden from the eyes of men, nor did I consent to shield My person from their injury.[1] Although these stories are in an altogether higher league, it is clear that some level of courage…

  • shrine of baha'u'llah the sun of baha has set

    Night Vigil – the Sun of Baha has set

    At 3.00 am on 29 May 1892, Bahá’u’lláh left this mortal world. He had lived 75 years. Abdu’l Baha, his eldest son, immediately sent a telegram to the Ottoman Sultan Abdu’l Hamid:  “… the Sun of Baha has set“. On the night of 28 or 29 May, depending on the Baha’i calendar, Baha’is around the world, gather in the middle of the night to commemorate the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh: a vigil offering prayers and reading passages memorialising Bahá’u’lláh’s life and passing. Most of Bahá’u’lláh’s life was full of hardship – of deprivation – exile and imprisonment. As a young man he was heir to a fortune, being a nobleman of Persia. When he died –…

  • room in the house of the bab where he declared his mission to mulla husayn 22 may 1844 before dawn

    Before the Dawn: The Bab – Prophet Herald

    Several times we’ve encountered mention of the Bab – the prophet-herald of Baha’u’llah. Here, is a little of the story of the time that preceded Baha’u’llah, as told in Nabil’s Narrative. The time before the dawn. Mulla Husayn, a young seminarian, was undertaking a search. He was carrying out the last wishes of his spiritual teacher who had passed away not long before. Before his death, this teacher had instructed Mulla Husayn and his fellow students to disperse and search for the new messenger of God. For this was the time foretold – the time of the return. The time when the ancient promises of sacred writings would be fulfilled. They would find that messenger if…

  • prison in akka suffering of the prophets

    Into the Prison City: Suffering of the Prophets

    Yesterday we read Bahá’u’lláh’s good news. Yet Bahá’u’lláh’s own life was full of suffering. “O the misery of men! No Messenger cometh unto them but they laugh Him to scorn.” …“Each nation hath plotted darkly against their Messenger to lay violent hold on Him, and disputed with vain words to invalidate the truth.”[1] Bahá’u’lláh was exiled from place to place at the whim of absolute rulers who held his life and that of his loved ones in their hands. I have been, most of the days of My life, even as a slave, sitting under a sword hanging on a thread, knowing not whether it would fall soon or late upon him.…

  • a wall of chains - abolition fo slavery

    Bahá’u’lláh’s Abolition of Slavery

    Bahá’u’lláh came to emancipate human beings from slavery. This statement is true in more senses than one. Bahá’u’lláh explicitly institutes an abolition of slavery in his teachings. It is forbidden you to trade in slaves, be they men or women. It is not for him who is himself a servant to buy another of God’s servants, and this hath been prohibited in His Holy Tablet…. Let no man exalt himself above another; all are but bondslaves before the Lord, and all exemplify the truth that there is none other God but Him.[1] He also freed slaves in practice. Bahá’u’lláh was the son of a noble family of Iran. In his early life, the…