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religion, morals, habits and customs of Persia were shaken. He instituted in their
place new laws, higher moral and ethical standards, and a new
religion, called the Báb’i Faith. The Báb imparted divine
education and illumined the minds, souls and hearts of Persia. The
principal theme which underlay all of His words, Tablets and Books,
was the glad tidings of the imminent appearance of "Him Whom
God Shall Make Manifest (a reference to Bahá’u’lláh). He
declared that He was the herald and forerunner who was to prepare
the way for that great event, prophesied in all the world’s
religions as the ‘time of the end’, the ‘second coming’, the
‘Lord of Hosts’, and others. The Báb likened Himself as the
‘dawn’, preparing the way for the ‘sun’ who would illumine
the entire planet.
In Muslim Persia, as in Christian societies, the
years leading up to 1844 (1260 in the Muslim lunar calendar), were
ones of increasing fervor and excitement. Leading clerics pronounced
the imminent appearance of the "Qa’im" ("He Who
Shall Arise". Shia Muslims have prophecies referring to two
events, the Qa’im and the Qayyum, which correspond to the Biblical
references to the ‘Twin Trumpet Blasts’, Sunni Muslims awaited
the ‘Mahdi’, or Jesus Christ). In May*
of that year, the Báb proclaimed that He was the Chosen One of God,
and He immediately began attracting thousands of devoted believers.
His new disciples spread throughout the country and beyond,
proclaiming His appearance. Persia became engulfed in civil turmoil
as religious leaders fought to retain spiritual and temporal control
of their subjects. After six years of increasing disorder, the
religious authorities sentenced the Báb to death. On July 9th,
1850, in the city of Tabriz, while ten thousand people looked on,
seven hundred and fifty Muslim soldiers lined up in three ranks and
discharged their muskets, killing the Báb and one of His young
followers. This followed an attempt by the clergy to have the Báb
executed by 750 Christian soldiers, which dramatically failed.
Today, the sacred remains of the Báb are entombed
in a beautiful shrine on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Haifa,
Israel. It is a place of great beauty and of pilgrimage for the
millions of Báhá’ís throughout the world who are devoted not
only to Him, but to the One whose coming He made possible.
*The evening
of May 22, 1844. This precedes by one day the sending of Samuel
Morse’s first telegraph message: "What hath God
wrought". |
