1911: Elizabeth Stewart - Baha'i American nurse resident in Tihran, Persia, for many years

Elizabeth first heard of the Baha'i Movement in 1899 from her aunt M Isabella D. Brittingham, a Baha'i teacher. It is significant that the only question she asked was, "Are there any martyrs in this Cause?',' She possessed the spirit of the martyr, and lived the life of a humble maidservant, never aggressive, but always and sacrificing as a true Baha'i.

She was graduated from the Medico- Chirurgical hospital in Philadelphia in 1899 and in 1911 went to Tihran, Persia, to become the assistant to Dr. Susan I. Moody, who had preceded her by two years. Undoubtedly these two women saved hundreds of lives. Nursing patients with typhoid fever and other contagious diseases, Elizabeth succumbed to typhoid and later to amoebic dysentery, recovering her strength each time sufficiently to resume her professional services.

Dr. Moody has written intimately of their life in Tihran, from which we quote the following: "We had visions of a hospital and a training school for nurses, but social conditions proved unfavorable; our practice was largely confined to the homes. . . . Miss Stewart was a skillful assistant, a fine anesthetist . . . . Naturally her work was heavy and often exhausting. Sometimes while I was on a case, another urgent call would come and it was necessary for her to take it and work it out alone, and she never failed. One year she gave instructions in "First Aid" to teachers and the graduating class at the Tarbiyat School for Girls. How many days, months, years, were filled with varied services: out on cases, assisting in office work, directing houshold affairs, trips to the bazaars, supplementing the efforts of our one boy servant.

We need God’s assistance to “enable” us to “cleave steadfastly” to His “Love” and “remembrance”

I entreat Thee to enable me to cleave steadfastly to Thy Love and Thy remembrance. This is, verily, within my power, and Thou art the One that knoweth all that is in me. Thou, in truth, art knowing, apprised of all. 

- Baha’u’llah (Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u’llah)

Baha’i elections: not to allow practices such as “intrigues, party politics and propaganda” “ever reach the Bahá'í community, exert any influence whatsoever upon the friends, and thus bring all spirituality to naught.

Beware, beware lest the foul odour of the parties and peoples of foreign lands in the West, and their pernicious methods, such as intrigues, party politics and propaganda--practices which are abhorrent even in name -- should ever reach the Bahá'í community, exert any influence whatsoever upon the friends, and thus bring all spirituality to naught. The friends should, through their devotion, love, loyalty and altruism, abolish these evil practices, not imitate them. It is only after the friends completely ignore and sanctify themselves from these evils, that the spirit of God can penetrate and operate in the body of humanity, and in the Bahá'í community. 

- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 30 January 1923 to the Central Spiritual Assembly of Iran, translated from the Persian; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Baha’i Elections)

The “awakening of compassion and understanding in the hearts of all men and women”

At the very core of the aims of the Faith are the establishment of justice and unity in the world, the removal of prejudice and enmity from among all people, the awakening of compassion and understanding in the hearts of all men and women, and the raising of all souls to a new level of spirituality and behavior through the vitalizing influence of divine Revelation. The course set forth by Baha'u'llah for the attainment of these aims is the double task of simultaneously building an ideal society and perfecting the behavior of individuals. For this dual and reciprocal transformation He has not only revealed laws, principles and truths attuned to the needs of this age, but has established the very nucleus and pattern of those institutions which are to evolve into the structure of the divinely purposed world society. 

- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 2 July 1996 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)

December 1898: First North American Baha’is to visit ‘Abdu’l-Baha in the Holy Land

Lua and Edward Getsinger arrived in Akka on 10 December 1898 and became the first North American Baha'is to visit 'Abdu'l-Baha. 

(Adapted from ‘The Baha’i Faith in America, vol. 1’, by Robert Stockman)

Shoghi Effendi was a humble, gentle person and generally spoke in a soft voice, but when he explained the Administration, he spoke with a firm tone and great authority

Each evening at dinner Shoghi Effendi wore a light tan camel's hair overcoat, a white shirt, and a black tie. His complexion was a soft tan and his large brown eyes expressed his every emotion. From under his black fez, on each side, a few white hairs were mingled with the black. He was not a large man, but his presence filled the room. When the Guardian spoke of the accomplishments of the Bahá'ís the world over, he never included himself. He was a humble, gentle person and generally spoke in a soft voice; but when he explained the Administration, he spoke with a firm tone and great authority. When he was not speaking in a serious vein, he often made us laugh as he related some funny incident or experience that he or someone else had had, and then his eyes twinkled as he laughed. Nothing made Shoghi Effendi happier than news of the unity among the believers. During dinner he often spoke of what was occurring in many parts of the world. some evenings he would stay after dinner was over and tell us of good news he had received or explain some special Teaching.

- Ramona Brown (Notes from pilgrimage in 1954; ‘Memories of ‘Abdu’l-Baha: Recollections of the Early Days of the Baha’is of California’)

1900: The Board of Counsel of the Baha'i Assembly of New York City

Seated, left to right: Clement Woolson, Howard Mac Nutt, Arthur P. Dodge, Charles E. Sprague Standing, left to right: Anton F. Haddad (honorary), Frank E. Osborne, Hooper Harris, William H. Hoar, Andrew Hutchinson, Edwin A. Putnam

Payment of Huqúqu'lláh

In brief, payment of Huqúqu'lláh is one of the binding spiritual responsibilities of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh and the proceeds thereof revert to the Authority in the Cause to whom all must turn. Moreover, the Ancient Beauty — magnified be His praise — has affirmed that after the establishment of the Universal House of Justice necessary rulings would be enacted in this connection in conformity with that which God has purposed, and that no one, except the Authority to which all must turn, has the right to dispose of this Fund. In other words, whatever portion of one's wealth is due to the Huqúqu'lláh belongs to the World Centre of the Cause of God, not to the individuals concerned.

Thus the friends should not follow their own volition and judgement in using any of the funds set aside for Huqúqu'lláh for any other purpose, even for charitable contributions of the Faith.

We earnestly hope that everyone may be privileged to observe this sacred and blessed obligation which would ensure the attainment of true happiness and would serve to promote the execution of Bahá'í enterprises throughout the world.

Verily God is Self-Sufficient above the need of His creatures.

- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 25 October 1970 to the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran, translated from the Persian; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Huququ’llah)

"In this day everyone must be tested" - "The 'first fruits' must be ripened in spirit, mellowed in love, and consumed by their self-sacrifice and severance."

In this day everyone must be tested, as the time of the "chosen ones" to prove their worth is indeed very short. The day of attainment is drawing to a close for them. The "first fruits" must be ripened in spirit, mellowed in love, and consumed by their self-sacrifice and severance. None others are acceptable as first fruits and all who fail to attain to the standard through the tests, are relegated to the "many who are called."

The more one is severed from the world, from desires, from human affairs and conditions, the more impervious does one become to the tests of God. Tests are a means by which a soul is measured as to its fitness, and proven out by its own acts. God knows its fitness beforehand, and also its unpreparedness, but man, with an ego, would not believe himself unfit unless proofs were given him. Consequently, his susceptibility to evil is proven to him when he falls into the tests, and the tests are continued until the soul realizes its own unfitness, then remorse and regret tend to root out the weakness.

The same test comes again in greater degree, until it is shown that a former weakness has become a strength, and the power to overcome has been established. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, recorded by Dr. Getsinger during his pilgrimage in 1915; Star of the West, Vol. VI, no. 6, June 24, 1915)

Robes of Bahá'u'lláh

Brief description of Tablets revealed by Bahá’u’lláh during the Baghdad period (January 1852 – April 1863) – listed alphabetically: Part 1

[Source for the list of Tablets: Geoffry Marks, ‘Call for Remembrance, Connecting the Heart to Baha’u’llah’; Descriptions by Adib Taherzadeh, 'The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, vol. 1']

Az-Bágh-i-Iláhí (From the Garden of Holiness)

It is an ode revealed not long before the Declaration of Bahá'u'lláh. It is one of His most joyous odes, composed in an exalted style. Each Persian verse is followed by one in Arabic, and the combination of the two creates a rich melody of unsurpassed beauty and enchantment. Its theme is the advent of the Promised Day of God, but to describe its contents is not an easy task, especially in the absence of an English translation.

In each and every line Bahá'u'lláh alludes to Himself and extols His own attributes. He unveils the splendours of His exalted station and, among other designations, refers to Himself as the Lord of all mankind, the Day-star of Truth, the Promise of all ages, the Youth of Paradise, the Quickener of men and the Essence of the Spirit of Truth. This poem is an eloquent description of Bahá'u'lláh's stupendous station, the character of His Mission and the outpourings of His Revelation.

The chanting of this beautiful ode creates an atmosphere of ecstasy and joy. It moves the heart and evokes a feeling of awe and excitement within the soul. No wonder that the companions of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, who chanted it in their gatherings, were carried away into the realms of spirit, completely oblivious of this world and all its peoples.

Proof of one’s “allegiance to the Faith of God?”

Say: O people, do ye imagine that, after rejecting the One through Whom the religions of the world have been made manifest, ye still bear allegiance to the Faith of God? By the righteousness of God! Ye are accounted among the inmates of the Fire. Thus hath the decree been recorded in the Tablets by the Pen of God. Say: Never will the barking of dogs deter the Nightingale from warbling its melodies.  Ponder awhile that perchance ye may discover a path leading to the Eternal Truth. 

- Baha’u’llah (‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)

1927: Baha'is of Burma

“…greed and envy becloudeth the radiance of the soul even as the clouds obstruct the light of the sun.”

O children of understanding! If the eyelid, however delicate, can deprive man’s outer eye from beholding the world and all that is therein, consider then what would be wrought if the veil of covetousness were to descend upon his inner eye. Say: O people! The darkness of greed and envy becloudeth the radiance of the soul even as the clouds obstruct the light of the sun. Should anyone hearken unto this utterance with a discerning ear, he will unfurl the wings of detachment and soar effortlessly in the atmosphere of true understanding. 

- Baha’u’llah (‘The Tabernacle of Unity, Bahá’u’lláh’s Responses to Mánikchí Sáhib and Other Writings’)

Tarázu’lláh Samandarí (1874-1968) – “Ornament of God”; “The Divine Adornment”; Hand of the Cause; a "strong pillar" and an outstanding example of “obedience and dedication”; "an Apostle of the Crimson Ark"; a "strong pillar of the luminous Faith of God"; a "Knight of the arena of detachment"; a "foremost exemplar for the righteous"; "a true herald of the Greatest Name"; "the most distinguished of friends"; "the shining lamp among Bahá’i teachers"; “exemplary service to the Lord of Hosts”; “precious remnant of the Heroic Age”

Tarázu’lláh (Ornament of God) was the name given by Bahá’u’lláh to the son of Samandar,[1] one of the nineteen Apostles of Bahá’u’lláh, and Ma’súmih Khánum Farhádí, both from families of early Bábís. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called him Mírza Taráz and bestowed upon him many honorifics including Taráz-i-Iláhí (The Divine Adornment). The beloved Guardian addressed him as Jináb-i-Samandarí and appointed him a Hand of the Cause, one of the twelve in the first contingent, on December 24, 1951.

Tarázu’lláh Samandarí was born in 1874, in Qazvín, Persia, and was brought up by his parents and his grandmother, who was one of the companions of that immortal early heroine of the Faith, Táhirih. His upbringing is described by ‘Abdu'l-Baha, in a prayer revealed for him:

“...I supplicate before the Throne of Thy mercifulness and the threshold of Thy oneness that Thou mayest rain down Thy manifold confirmations and favours upon this servant of Thine who was born in the cradle of Thy love, nourished from the breast of Thy knowledge, reared in the lap of Thy servitude, nurtured in the bosom of Thy life-giving Faith, until such time as he was fully developed through the outpourings of Thy bounty, attained maturity through Thy loving kindness and turned his face with devotion toward Thy countenance, with his heart wholly centred on Thee and his reliance completely placed in Thee ...”

Read more…

God admonishes the generation that mistreated the Báb: “All that is on earth hath been created for Him”

“How veiled are ye, O My creatures,” He [the Báb], speaking with the voice of God, has revealed in the Bayán, “...who, without any right, have consigned Him unto a mountain [Mákú], not one of whose inhabitants is worthy of mention.... With Him, which is with Me, there is no one except him who is one of the Letters of the Living of My Book. In His presence, which is My Presence, there is not at night even a lighted lamp! And yet, in places [of worship] which in varying degrees reach out unto Him, unnumbered lamps are shining! All that is on earth hath been created for Him, and all partake with delight of His benefits, and yet they are so veiled from Him as to refuse Him even a lamp!” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

The Greatest Holy Leaf: - In her teens she was “entrusted by the guiding hand of her Father with missions that no girl of her age could, or would be willing to, perform”

And when at a later time this revered and precious member of the Holy Family, then in her teens, came to be entrusted by the guiding hand of her Father with missions that no girl of her age could, or would be willing to, perform, with what spontaneous joy she seized her opportunity and acquitted herself of the task with which she had been entrusted! The delicacy and extreme gravity of such functions as she, from time to time, was called upon to fulfill, when the city of Baghdád was swept by the hurricane which the heedlessness and perversity of Mírzá Yaḥyá had unchained, as well as the tender solicitude which, at so early an age, she evinced during the period of Bahá’u’lláh’s enforced retirement to the mountains of Sulaymáníyyih, marked her as one who was both capable of sharing the burden, and willing to make the sacrifice, which her high birth demanded. 

- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 17 July 1932; ‘Baha’i Administration’)

'Abdu'l-Baha at Bahji

Meaning of “hoisting of the Standard of God among all nations”

One of the great events which is to occur in the Day of the manifestation of that Incomparable Branch [Bahá’u’lláh] is the hoisting of the Standard of God among all nations. By this is meant that all nations and kindreds will be gathered together under the shadow of this Divine Banner, which is no other than the Lordly Branch itself, and will become a single nation. Religious and sectarian antagonism, the hostility of races and peoples, and differences among nations, will be eliminated. All men will adhere to one religion, will have one common faith, will be blended into one race, and become a single people. All will dwell in one common fatherland, which is the planet itself. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Quoted by Shoghi Effendi in The Promised Day is Come)

“every created thing is a sign of the revelation of God. Each, according to its capacity, is, and will ever remain, a token of the Almighty.”

Know thou that every created thing is a sign of the revelation of God. Each, according to its capacity, is, and will ever remain, a token of the Almighty. Inasmuch as He, the sovereign Lord of all, hath willed to reveal His sovereignty in the kingdom of names and attributes, each and every created thing hath, through the act of the Divine Will, been made a sign of His glory. So pervasive and general is this revelation that nothing whatsoever in the whole universe can be discovered that doth not reflect His splendor. Under such conditions every consideration of proximity and remoteness is obliterated.... Were the Hand of Divine power to divest of this high endowment all created things, the entire universe would become desolate and void.

Behold, how immeasurably exalted is the Lord your God above all created things! Witness the majesty of His sovereignty, His ascendancy, and supreme power. If the things which have been created by Him -- magnified be His glory -- and ordained to be the manifestations of His names and attributes, stand, by virtue of the grace with which they have been endowed, exalted beyond all proximity and remoteness, how much loftier must be that Divine Essence that hath called them into being?...

- Baha'u'llah ('Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah')

1847: While the Báb was in the hamlet of Kulayn, 10 miles south of Tihran, He received “a sealed letter together with certain gifts” from Bahá’u’lláh

While in the hamlet of Kulayn, the Báb received three believers from Tihran. One of them who had been closely associated with Bahá'u'lláh in Tihran, had been commissioned by Baha’u’llah to present to the Báb “a sealed letter together with certain gifts which, as soon as they were delivered into His hands, provoked in His soul sentiments of unusual delight. His face glowed with joy as He overwhelmed the bearer with marks of His gratitude and favour.”

“That message, received at an hour of uncertainty and suspense, imparted solace and strength to the Báb. It dispelled the gloom that had settled upon His heart, and imbued His soul with the certainty of victory. The sadness which had long lingered upon His face, and which the perils of His captivity had served to aggravate, visibly diminished. He no longer shed those tears of anguish which had streamed so profusely from His eyes ever since the days of His arrest and departure from Shiraz. The cry "Beloved, My Well-Beloved," which in His bitter grief and loneliness He was wont to utter, gave way to expressions of thanksgiving and praise, of hope and triumph. The exultation which glowed upon His face never forsook Him until the day when the news of the great disaster which befell the heroes of Shaykh Tabarsi again beclouded the radiance of His countenance and dimmed the joy of His heart.”

(Adapted from ‘The Dawn-Breakers’, by Nabil, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)

The Báb elaborates on His name: - Alí-Muhammad

In Qayyúmu’l-Asmá, Surih al-Qarabih [kinsmen], verse 14, tire Báb reveals:

“Verily, We have named this Remembrance by two Names from the divine Self, after two Beloved Ones among Our servants in the heavens.” 

(Provisional translation, Footnotes to ‘The Báb in Shiraz, An Account by Mírzá Habíbu’lláh Afnán’, provided by Ahang Rabbani)

“The darkness of error that has enveloped the East and the West is, in this most great cycle, battling with the light of Divine Guidance.”

How clearly and strikingly the following words of ‘Abdu’l Bahá are being demonstrated at this hour: “The darkness of error that has enveloped the East and the West is, in this most great cycle, battling with the light of Divine Guidance. Its swords and its spears are very sharp and pointed; its army keenly bloodthirsty.” “This day,” He, in another passage has written, “the powers of all the leaders of religion are directed towards the dispersion of the congregation of the All-Merciful, and the shattering of the Divine Edifice. The hosts of the world, whether material, cultural or political are from every side launching their assault, for the Cause is great, very great. Its greatness is, in this day, clear and manifest to men’s eyes.”

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

A Baha'i Teaching: We should “gather together in meetings” and “read the verses of God”

The friends of God, one and all, are remembered by the Supreme Pen: The bounties of the Source of Bounty are at every moment visibly descending. It behooveth the friends in whatever land they be, to gather together in meetings, and therein to speak wisely and with eloquence, and to read the verses of God, for it is God's Words that kindle love's fire and set it ablaze." 

- Baha’u’llah (From a Tablet; compilations: ‘Baha’i Meetings, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice; Baha’i Library Online)

'Abdu'l-Baha: - "I am the lamp and the love of God is my light"

I am the lamp and the love of God is my light. This light hath become reflected in the mirrors of hearts. Therefore turn thou unto thy heart, that is, when it is in the utmost freedom, and behold how the radiance of my love is manifest in that mirror, and thou art near unto me. Recite the Greatest Name at every morn, and turn thou unto the Kingdom of Abha, until thou mayest apprehend my mysteries.

-‘Abdu'l-Baha (Tablets of ‘Abdu'l-Baha vol. 3)