Race Unity Day: Join Baha’is in urging ‘unity of humanity’

June 09, 2013 by Leave a Comment

“Let neither think that anything short of genuine love, extreme patience, true humility, consummate tact, sound initiative, mature wisdom, and deliberate, persistent, and prayerful effort, can succeed in blotting out the stain which this patent evil has left on the fair name of their common country.”

-Shoghi Effendi, 1938

SUNDAY, JUNE 9: Work to erase racial stigmas in your community today by joining Bah’ais for Race Unity Day. Since 1957, Baha’is have reserved the second Sunday in June as a time to hold celebrations for racial harmony, all the while working toward equality. From the beginning, the founder of the Baha’i faith stressed the importance of humanity as a single race. Specifically, Baha’u’llah instructed his followers: “Close your eyes to racial differences and welcome all with the light of oneness.” Although Baha’is welcome all races and classes into their congregations every day of the year, Race Unity Day calls for an extension of this openness.

For almost a century, Baha’is of North America have considered racial prejudice to be “the most challenging (moral) issue.” In 1938, Baha’i Guardian Shoghi Effendi addressed faith communities in the United States and Canada with the notion that racial prejudice was a vital issue; Baha’is in this region have regarded racial unity as their top social priority ever since. Striving to live an international example, Baha’is have implemented unity into their individual lives, too: the first Baha’i interracial marriage in the United States took place in 1914. Two years earlier, Baha’u’llah’s son, Abdu’l-Baha, took a nine-month tour of the United States and frequently addressed racial unity in his speeches.

With the understanding that each community faces its own challenges, Baha’u’llah preached the elimination of all forms of prejudice: racial, ethnic, national, gender and economic. (Read more at Planet Baha’i.) At its foundation, the Baha’i faith teaches that inequality and injustice thwart a thriving society. If willing to undergo a deeper, spiritual transformation, Baha’is believe that the collective behavior can be changed. (Learn more perspectives on race unity from Bahai.US.)

ASCENSION OF BAHA’U’LLAH: Baha’is recall the Promised One

May 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

WEDNESDAY, MAY 29: As a relatively new world faith, followers of the Baha’i religion mark a religious milestone from 1892—the Ascension of Baha’u’llah. From a life that began in nobility, Baha’u’llah turned down luxury and earned a reputation for charity. Tragically,  Baha’u’llah was imprisoned several times, banished and tortured for his beliefs. (Read more at Baha’i.us.)

In stark contrast to that suffering, Baha’u’llah lived out his final years in serenity in a mansion outside of Acre in Israel. (Planet Baha’i has details.) In this mansion, Baha’u’llah passed away from illness at age 75. The small stone house adjacent to the mansion, where Baha’u’llah is buried, remains the holiest place on earth for Baha’is.

One year prior to his death, Baha’u’llah began preparations by naming his oldest son, Abdu’l-Baha, as his successor. The year passed and, at approximately 3 a.m. on May 29, Baha’u’llah died. For a week following his death, mourners from all walks of life gathered with Baha’u’llah’s family to lament his death: “rich and poor, Shi’ahs, Sunnis, Christians, Jews and Druzes, as well as poets, ulamas and government officials …” (as written by Shoghi Effendi).

Note: Baha’is days begin at sunset; work and school are suspended the day of May 29.

RIDVAN: Baha’is celebrate 150th anniversary of 12-day festival

April 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

SUNDAY, APRIL 21-THURSDAY, MAY 2: Baha’s around the world are celebrating an event 150 years ago in a garden of paradise. In that beautiful setting, Baha’u’llah initiated his prophethood, signaling a 12-day period that would become known as “The Most Great Festival”—or Ridvan. For a period of 12 days in 1863, Baha’u’llah inhabited the Najibiyyih Garden (calling it the Garden of Ridvan, literally Paradise) before beginning his journey to Constantinople. Today, Baha’is hold sacred these 12 days, particularly the first, ninth and 12th days. (Learn more from the Baha’i Library.) Amid several announcements and tablets produced in the garden, Baha’u’llah officially declared his mission as the one foretold by the Bab.

Two decades before Baha’u’llah’s time in the Garden of Ridvan, a Persian man known as Siyyid Ali-Muhammad began proclaiming that he was “The Bab” (Arabic for The Gate), and that a Messianic figure would soon be coming. Followers, known as Babis, began slowly growing in numbers. (Wikipedia has details.) Time passed, and a prisoner in Iran known as Baha’u’llah received a revelation: that he was the Promised One of the Bab. Nonetheless, Baha’u’llah kept quiet about his revelation for 11 years, all the while gaining more leadership within the Babi community. Finally, Baha’u’llah received so much attention that governments and enemies of the Babi feared a threat, and Baha’u’llah was asked to leave. To allow his family time to pack for the journey to Constantinople, Baha’u’llah spent 12 days in the Garden of Ridvan. (View photos of the garden at Bahaullah.org.)

BAHA’U’LLAH AND MUHAMMAD

In a move he compared with Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to Medina, Baha’u’llah departed from his “Most Great House” in Baghdad to the Garden of Ridvan. As hoards of visitors had come to see Baha’u’llah in the weeks before his departure from Baghdad, he moved to the garden to receive the final crowds. Along with his sons, secretary and a few others, Baha’u’llah arrived in the garden two hours before sunset. On that first afternoon, Baha’u’llah made three critical announcements: one, that religious war would no longer be permitted for Babis; two, that there would not be another Manifestation of God for 1,000 years; and three, that all the names of God are fully manifest in all things. Furthermore, Baha’u’llah announced his identity as a Manifestation of God, thus forming the beginnings of the Baha’i faith.

THE NINTH AND TWELFTH DAYS

In addition to the First Day of Ridvan, Baha’is suspend work and school on the Ninth Day and the Twelfth Day. On the Ninth Day, Baha’u’llah’s family joined him in the garden; on the Twelfth Day, the group departed for Constantinople.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLIES COMMENCE

The Baha’i administrative year begins today, on the First Day of Ridvan, and local spiritual assemblies also are elected. National and international spiritual assemblies will be elected later in Ridvan. (Note: International spiritual assemblies are held every five years, with 2013 being a participating year. The Eleventh International Baha’i Convention will be held April 25-May 2, 2013, in Haifa, Israel.)