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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Lua’s Last Journey
Lua Getsinger is a household name among Baha’is. She was among the first Western Baha’is to visit Abdu’l Baha and when he met her said to her “I have given you the power to speak and have loosened your tongue” and indeed she was to go on to become a great teacher of the Baha’i Faith. She travelled to India to support the teaching work there. When Abdu’l Baha was in America he entrusted her with travelling to California ahead of him to arrange his speaking engagements. She was sent by him to deliver a message to the Shah of Persia who was visiting Paris, to implore him to end…
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Mirza Abu’l Fadl – the Man Who Would Not Believe
Mirza Abu’l Fadl of Gulpaygan is remembered as one of the greatest scholars of the Baha’i Faith and he lived in the time of Bahá’u’lláh and Abdu’l Baha. Abdu’l Baha would mention his works – for example his treatise, The Brilliant Proof, responding to Christian preacher in London and he recommended reading Mirza Abu’l Fadl’s writings as a way of learning about the Baha’i Faith.[1][2] Mirza Abu’l Fadl wrote many works about the Baha’i teachings. He is buried next to another great Baha’i, Lua Getsinger. One of the exterior doors of the Shrine of the Bab is named after him. The stories of how people become Baha’is are often beautiful and the…
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Arrival in the Prison of Akka: Abdu’l Baha
Abdu’l Baha, Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son, is held up as the best example of what a Baha’i life can be. Most of us struggle to exemplify even occasionally the virtues that were evident in Abdul Baha’s life. Nonetheless, reflection on his life gives us a standard for which to strive, and many stories are told about him. Among those stories, as told by his sister Bahiyyih Khanum, are the first days in the prison of Akka. Initially, conditions were extremely harsh and Baha’u’llah and his followers were confined to the barracks (which were a prison within a prison). As we have seen, in Adrianople, the people, who had come to know Bahá’u’lláh,…
