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In 1898, the first person in Britain to become a Baha'i was Mrs Mary Thornburgh‑Cropper, an American lady married to Col. E.D. Cropper. In 1878, according to a Kent Register
of that year, they lived at Ovenden House, Sunbridge, Sevenoaks. But their names no longer appear on the 1891 Register. It is known that Mrs Thornburgh‑Cropper
moved to London after the death of her husband. A year later, in 1899, the first
person of British birth, Miss Ethel Rosenberg, became a Baha'i. She was a very talented painter of miniatures and she shared her interests with her aunt, Mary Rosenberg Duffield, who became the oldest living member of the 'New Watercolour Society'. Mrs Duffield, who would have been visited by her niece
many times, lived at the Rectory, Sowting, East Kent, until her death, at the age of 94, in 1914. In 1910, Lutfu'llah Hakim, a young Persian whose grandfather had been the first member of the Jewish
Faith to become a follower of Baha'u'llah, came to England to train as a physiotherapist. A letter of 23 June, 1918, confirms that he was then working in a hospital at Westgate Thanet. After many years of exemplary service to the Faith, Dr Hakim was elected in 1963 as a member of the first Universal House of Justice[For further details of Dr Hakim's life, see Unfolding Destiny, p.479]. In 1911, the growing Baha'i Community in London was visited by 'Abdu'lBaha. In September of that year He left London by train and passed through Kent on His journey to Dover to take the cross Channel ferry to France. Eastwell Manor at Boughton Aluph near Ashford, Kent, was the birthplace (29 October 1875) and childhood home of Marie
[Alexandra Victoria of Saxe Coburg], granddaughter of Queen Victoria, who became Queen Marie of Roumania from 1914 to 1927, and Queen Dowager from 1927 until her death in 1938. She was the first 'crowned head' to become an ardent supporter of the Faith; and her glowing tributes to the Faith and its Teachings were published periodically between 1926 and 1936................. When she became a Bahá'í in 1899 Ethel Jenner Rosenberg was the first native Believer in the United Kingdom. She served the Faith with distinction for many years, including as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly. |  Mrs Thornburgh-Cropper, an American living in London, was the first person in the British Isles to become a Bahá'í (1898). |
For centuries humankind lived
with the notion that its problems were to be solved in the scope of its
national states. With the progress of science and technology, nations
wound up finding themselves dependent on decisions lying outside their own
domain. More than attesting to the fragility of national states in an
independent world, this fact reveals the extreme necessity of searching
for new institutional forms fitting this new reality-- a reality in which
the flag of world unity, more than a mere appeal for fraternity, is a
vital necessity for putting an end to chaos, poverty, establishing new
paradigms and responsibilities. The quest for this new unity plateau
represents a new historical trend, superior to anything ever built in the
past. It carries with it the most noble social, economical, political and
institutional aims, because it places the entire human kind under the same
political, economical and institutional roof and demands that all members
of the human race, regardless of their origin and background , enjoy
security and peace and have access, in a just measure, to the wealth
produced in the world.
The stresses within our society can be seen as symptoms of an unprecedented global restructuring of human society over the past 150 years or so: the mingling of races, cultures and creeds to a previously unimagined degree, the reordering of long-cherished institutions and a growing perception of our world as an increasingly inter-dependent “global village”. The failure to respond fully to such change and what lies behind it is reflected not only in signs of social disintegration but also in an accompanying moral crisis and abdication of ethical and behavioural standards. These are all signs of a loss of understanding of our true nature as human beings. The challenges which we face clearly demand a profound and continued change in attitudes, a willingness to see life in a much wider frame of reference than satisfaction of our own immediate needs; in short, a moral or spiritual rebirth. Bahá'í Faith speaks specifically to the challenges of this age and one which is spreading rapidly amongst all peoples and all classes around the world. It has a special attraction to the idealistic young and the oppressed. Already its followers have established the embryo of a world government with supporting bodies in every country of the world. It holds the promise of a golden age. It was of Bahá'u'lláh, the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, that, Leo Tolstoy wrote: "We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe, but there was a Turkish prisoner,(Bahá'u'lláh in Akka, Palestine) who had the key".
The Bahá'í Faith is the youngest of the world's independent religions. Baha'u'llah (1817-1892), is regarded by Bahá'ís as the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad.
Bahá'u'lláh taught that there is one God whose successive revelations of His will to humanity have been the chief civilising force in history. The agents of this process have been the Divine Messengers Whom men have seen chiefly as the founders of separate religious systems but whose common purpose has been to bring the human race to spiritual and moral maturity. They have been sent down for the sole purpose of guiding mankind to the straight Path of Truth:" The purpose underlying their revelation hath been to educate all men, that they may, at the hour of death, ascend, in the utmost purity and sanctity and with absolute detachment, to the throne of the Most High."
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The way of life which Bahá'ís seek to cultivate, therefore, is one that encourages personal development by mutual social change and spiritual development. "The morals of humanity must undergo change" and the uplifting of the human race in the aggregate depends on the love and spiritual bonds uniting the hearts of people. Daily prayer and meditation free the soul from conditioned patterns and open it to new possibilities. Bahá'í writings attach great importance to the institution of the family at the foundation of human society. The sanctity of marriage, recognition of the equality of the husband and wife, and the use of consultation are especially emphasised. There is no clergy in the Bahá'í Faith. Because the human race has entered upon the age of its maturity, each individual is able to explore the revelation of God and decide on the issues of life through prayer, reflection, and consultation with others. To make this possible, the Bahá'í scriptures have been translated into some 750 different languages.
The same principle applies to the community's collective life. Elected councils, designated as Spiritual Assemblies, administer the affairs of the Faith at both local and national levels. All adult believers are equally eligible and election is by secret ballot and plurality vote. Bahá'í community life involves a minimum of ritual. Nine holy days throughout the year, which usually commemorate events in the lives of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh, represent times for Bahá'í communities to meet and for families to share their Bahá'í commitment together. Once every Bahá'í month (which has nineteen days) the Bahá'í community meets in what is called a feast. It consists of a worship portion, where Bahá'í scriptures and prayers are recited; a business portion, where the community and its spiritual assembly consult together; and a social portion, where fellowship is shared. Prayer meetings, deepenings (where the Bahá'í scriptures or teachings are studied) and firesides (where the Bahá'í teachings are discussed at an introductory level) are sponsored by many individuals and local spiritual assemblies in homes on a weekly or monthly basis, and constitute the most common social events in a local Bahá'í community.
In the first half of the nineteenth century the world was swept by a religious fragment now forgotten. Bahá'ís regard it as divine preparation for the coming of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh, parallel to the first stages of the Industrial Revolution, which constituted a similar preparation in the material world. In Europe and America a belief grew that Christ was about to return. It was so strongly held by some people that they left their homes to go to the places where they expected Him to appear; religious bodies founded by such people still exist. In Islam also there was ferment. The leaders of a Persian sect known as the Shaykhis, believing that the Promised One of Islam was already on earth, set out in 1844 to find Him. Unlike their Christian counterparts, they were successful in their search . Eighteen of them independently accepted a young merchant of Shiraz, named Ali-Muhammad, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, to be the One for Whom they were looking. Bahá'ís believe this event to have introduced the new era and to have marked the beginning of the transformation of the human spirit already commented upon.
Throughout recorded history men have lived in opposition and antagonism to their neighbours and in ignorance of the benefits to be obtained from friendship with distant peoples. The effect upon human development of a change of spirit causing all to live and work in unity is incalculable:"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 should cease, and differences of race be annulled-what harm is there in this?...Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strives, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come...
Yet do We see your kings and rulers lavishing their treasures more freely on means for the destruction of the human race than on that which would conduce to the happiness of mankind....These strives and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one family...Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind..".The transformation of the human spirit from which the civilisation was born was the true source of all the bounties civilisation has bestowed.For Bahá'ís, evolutionary process is also an essential feature of all the phenomena of life including the revelations of God. The series of stages through which their own Faith gradually made its appearance and established itself throughout the world is itself an expression of this principle. The rise of the Bahá'í Faith has also been marked by a second feature that it shares in common with the formative period in the history of each of the earlier world religions.
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On May 23,1844, in Shiraz, Persia, a young man known as the Báb announced the imminent appearance of the Messenger of God awaited by all the peoples of the world. The title Báb means "the Gate". In some respects, the Báb's role can be compared to that of John the Baptist in the founding of Christianity. The Báb was Bahá'u'lláh's herald: His principle mission was to prepare the way for Bahá'u'lláh's coming. Accordingly, the founding of the Bábi Faith is viewed by Bahá'ís as synonymous with founding of the Bahá'í Faith--and its purpose was fulfilled when Bahá'u'lláh announced in 1863 that he was the Promised One foretold by the Báb. Bahá'u'lláh later affirmed that the Báb was "the Herald of His Name and the Harbinger of his Great Revelation which hath caused ...the splendour of His light to shine forth above the horizon of the world." Although Himself the bearer of an independent revelation from God, the Báb declared that His purpose was to prepare mankind for this advent.The Báb referred to this coming Divine Teacher as "Him Whom God shall make manifest" and stated that "no words of Mine can adequately describe Him, nor can any reference in My Book, the Bayan, do justice to His Cause." He clarified the central aim of His mission by explaining that "the purpose underlying this Revelation, as well as those that preceded it, has, in like manner, been to announce the advent of the Faith of Him Whom God will make manifest." The basis for all human accomplishment is to be found in the teachings of this promised universal Manifestation of God, and "the sum total of the religion of God is but to help him."
Throughout His writings, the Báb warned his followers to be watchful, and as soon as the promised Teacher revealed himself, to recognise and follow him. To be worthy of "Him Whom God shall make manifest" required entirely new standards of conduct, a nobility of character that human beings had therefore not achieved: "purge your
hearts of worldly desires", the Báb urged His first group of disciples, "and let angelic virtues be your adorning...The time is come when naught but the purest motive, supported by
deeds of stainless purity, can ascend to the throne of the Most high and be acceptable unto Him..."
His promotion of
education and useful sciences was by any measure revolutionary. Thus, by proclaiming an entirely new religion, he was able to help His followers break free from the Islamic frame of reference and to mobilise them in preparation for the coming of Bahá'u'lláh. The Báb sent his first eighteen disciples also known as the eighteen Letters of Living to spread throughout
Persia the news of His coming. Each religion acknowledges a few people to have been especially close to the spirit of the Manifestation of God, like the twelve Immams of Shi'ih Islam, the twelve Disciples of Jesus, the twelve leaders of
the tribes of Israel in the Day of Moses, and so on. The greatness of the Revelation of the Báb was signified by there being eighteen such chosen ones and in the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh there are to be twenty-four.
His pure teachings, which set aside the superstructure successive generations of divines had built upon the fundamental truth revealed by Muhammad, fired the hearts of the oppressed Persians. Swift and savage persecution at the hands of the dominant Muslim clergy followed this announcement.The extraordinary moral courage envied by the Bábis in the face of this onslaught was recorded by a number of Western observers. European
intellectuals such as Ernest Renan, Leo Tolstoy, Sarah Bernhardt, Lord Cruzen who was later Viceroy of India, E.G.Brown
who was a professor of oriental studies at Cambridge and the Comte de Gobineau were deeply affected by this spiritual drama that had unfold in what was regarded as a darkened land. The Báb was arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and finally on July 9 1850 was executed in the public square of the city of Tabriz. The Báb and a young follower were suspended by two ropes against a wall. A regiment of 750 Armenian soldiers, arranged in three files of 250 each, opened fire in three successive volleys. So dense was the smoke raised by the gunpowder and dust that the entire yard was obscured. Some 20000 of His followers perished in a series of massacres
throughout Persia. The bodies of the Báb and His companion were put on the edge of the moat outside the city in the hope that they would, contrary to the prophecies about the body of the Promised One, be eaten by wild animals.
Left the BARRACK-SQUARE IN TABRÍZ, WHERE THE BÁB SUFFERED
MARTYRDOM. Right the Bob's house in Shiraz which was demolished by IRI-regime after the revolution in 1979.
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The Bábis succeeded, however, in removing the bodies, which were thereafter transferred from one place to another as each hiding-place became insecure. Fifty years later they were finally brought to the Holy Land by instruction of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and laid to rest on Mt.Carmel in a specially erected Shrine. Since ancient times Mt.Carmel has been considered the Garden of God, the literal translation from both Hebrew and Arabic being the 'Vineyard of God'. Numerous references have been made to it in the Old Testament; a poignant one, indicating its destiny, occurs in the Book of Amos. Bahá'u'lláh Himself designates this mountain as the seat of God's Throne.
The nobility of the Báb's life and teachings and heroism of his followers became a frequent topic of conversation in the salons of Europe. The story of Tahirih, |
| Tahirih "the pure" |
The Báb is both an independent Manifestation of God and the Forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh is proclaimed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in His Will to be part of the foundation of Bahá'í belief. The Guardian explains in the 'The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh that the intensity of the Báb's Revelation was greater than that of any previous Manifestation'. Bahá'u'lláh Himself affirmed: " No eye hath beheld so great an outpouring of bounty, nor hath any ear heard of such a Revelation of loving-kindness." The Báb proclaimed His station thus in a Tablet to Muhammad Shah:"I am the Primal point from which have been generated all created things...I am the Countenance of God whose splendour can never be obscured, the light of God Whose radiance can never fade...I am one of the sustaining pillars of the Primal Word of God. Whosoever hath recognised Me, hath known all that is true and right, and hath attained all that is good and seemly..."
This is no mere claim to be the Gate to a hidden Immam, which some of the Muslims of the time thought the title 'Báb' signified. That designation had long been used of four men supposed to have acted as intermediaries between the twelfth Imam, who disappeared, and the faithful. Some imagined the Báb was claiming to be a fifth such Gate; but His own words clearly define His station as something far more exalted than that. He was no less than the Promised One, known as the Qa'im by the Shi'ih sect of Islam and the Mihdi by the rival Sunni sect. He was indeed a Gate, but not to a hidden Immam; He was the Gate to the new age, to the Bahá'í era, the Gate to the Promise of All Ages, the Gate to the Glory of God, Bahá'u'lláh.
It is one of the signs of the greatness of this age that the Forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh was Himself a Manifestation of God with a Revelation so intense. The magnitude of the outpouring of grace may be gauged from a traditional utterance of Muhammad quoted by Bahá'u'lláh:" Knowledge is twenty seven letters. All that the Prophets have revealed are two letters thereof. No man thus far hath known more than these two letters. But when the Qa'im shall arise, He will cause the remaining twenty and five letters to be made manifest." Upon this Bahá'u'lláh states: " cosider; he hath declared Knowledge to consist of twenty and seven letters, and regarded all the Prophets, from Adam even unto the "Seal," as Expounders of only two letters. He also saith that the Qa'im will reveal all the remaining twenty and five letters. Behold from this utterance how great and lofty is His station! His rank excelleth that of all the Prophets, and His Revelation transcendeth the comprehension and understanding of all their chosen ones."
How much greater, then, must be the station of "Him Whom God shall make manifest," of Whom the Báb wrote: " Were He to appear this very moment, I would be the first to adore Him, and the first to bow down before Him."
 The Bab adored The Greatest Name "Baha" and used it profusely in all His Writings. | |
Baha'u'llah's mission in the world is to bring about Unity of all mankind: "Of the Tree of Knowledge the All-glorious fruit is this exalted word: Of one Tree are all ye the fruits and of one Bough the leaves. Let not man glory in this that he loves his country, but let him rather glory in this that he loves his kind". Previous Prophets have heralded an age of peace on earth, goodwill among men, and have given their lives to hasten its advent, but each and all of them have plainly declared that this blessed consummation would be reached only after the "coming of the Lord" in the latter days, when the wicked would be judged and the righteous rewarded. Zoroaster foretold three thousand years of conflict before the advent of Shah Bahram, the world-saviour, who would overcome Ahriman the spirit of evil, and establish a reign of righteousness and peace. Moses foretold a long period of exile, persecution and oppression for the children of Israel, before the Lord of Hosts would appear to gather them from all the nations, to destroy the oppressors and establish His Kingdom upon earth. Christ said: "Think not that I have come to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace but a sword" (Matt.x,34), and he predicted a period of wars and rumours of wars, of tribulations and afflictions that would continue till the coming of the Son of Man "in the Glory of the Father." Muhammad declared that, because of their wrongdoings, Allah had put enmity and hatred among both Jews and Christians that would last until the Day of Resurrection, when He would appear to judge them all.
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'Abdu'l-Bahá in His Will and Testament appointed his grandson, Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith and interpreter of its teachings. Shoghi Effendi served until his death in 1957. During these thirty-six years the Guardian translated many of the writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá into English, expounded their meanings, encouraged the establishment of local and national Bahá'í institutions, and guided a series of plans aimed at diffusing Bahá'í ideals throughout the world. The completion of the shrine of the Báb was his work as was the construction of the International Bahá'í Archives building. It was also Shoghi Effendi who designed and laid out the beautiful gardens at Bahji and on the slopes of the Mount Carmel.
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| Night view looking down to the Shrine of the Báb and the bay, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel |
In Epistle to the son of The Wolf, Bahá'u'lláh states: "Carmel, in the Book of God, hath been designated as the Hill of God, His Vineyard. It is here that, by the grace of the Lord of Revelation, the Tabernacle of Glory hath been raised. Happy are they that attain thereunto; happy they that set their faces towards it." Shoghi Effendi said that Bahá'u'lláh chanted the words of that Tablet with supreme majesty and power; that 'the forceful tone of his exalted language sounded all around, so that even the monks, within the walls of the monastery, heard every word uttered by Him'. Towards the end of the Tablet, He unveiled future events, some of which have already materialised under the Ministry of the Master, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and some under the stewardship of Shoghi Effendi. These and yet others will resistlessly continue to be developed and to flourish, under the guidance of the Universal House of Justice: "Ere long will God sail His Ark upon thee, and will manifest the people of Bahá who have been mentioned in the Book of Names." Shoghi Effendi has explained that it is reference to the establishment of the World Administrative Centres of the Faith on Mount Carmel, and the people of Bahá are the members of the Universal House of Justice.
The universal House of Justice, ordained by Bahá'u'lláh as the legislative authority in the Bahá'í Faith, came into existence in 1963. It is a nine member body elected at five-year intervals by the entire membership of the national governing institutions of the Bahá'í world.
The House of Justice directs the spiritual and administrative affairs of the Bahá'í International Community. It serves, as well, as custodian and trustee of the Bahá'í Holy Places and other properties in the Holy Land. Endowed by Bahá'u'lláh with authority to legislate on all matters not specifically laid down in the Bahá'í scriptures, the House of Justice is the institution that keeps the Bahá'í community abreast of an ever-changing world.
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| Mona Mahmudinejahad, 17, was one of 10 Bahá'í women executed in Shiraz on 18 June 1983. The primary charge against her: teaching Bahá'í children's classes - the equivalent of Sunday school in the West. The story of Mona and many like her, is a story of conviction and belief, a kind of deep dedication and love for a cause...The Bahá'í cause(their conviction in its principles one day being able to bring peace and prosperity to mankind). |
Iran is the cradle of the Bahá'í Faith. This section covers Iranian Bahá'í information, and related items, especially human rights concerns.
