Bahá'í New Zealand: Bahá'u'lláh

Bahá'u'lláh — the Glory of God — was born to wealth and privilege at dawn on 12 November 1817, in Tehran, the capital of Persia. During childhood his perceptive powers, kindness and intellect astonished his elders. In young adulthood he devoted himself to charity and became "the father of the poor". Then, from his acceptance of the prophetic mission of the Báb in 1844, he made his life-long career in standing for justice and truth, gladly accepting scorn and severe hardship in return.

The towering grandeur of the life of Bahá'u'lláh, like those of Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, or Buddha, cannot be appreciated within the usual framework of a saintly life — for a Messenger of God is so very much more than a saint.

As Bahá'í historian H.M. Balyuzi writes: "The immensity of such a life presents itself in that mysterious influence which it exerts over countless lives — an influence which does not function through social status and prestige, wealth, secular power or worldly dominion, indeed not even through the medium of superior knowledge and the force of intellectual achievement."

The worldly status that Bahá'u'lláh could have had, he gave up for higher aims. Although his intellect and knowledge were unparalleled, it was his spirit that changed lives, and it changes them still.

He began his mission as a Messenger of God under circumstances of extraordinary difficulty. The task he took up was to mould the dejected Bábí community of Persia into the makings of a universal religion — a task which he began while imprisoned in a ghastly dungeon and which he continued for 39 years of further imprisonment and exile, until his death in 1892.

Although Bahá'u'lláh's character and conduct were beyond reproach, he received condemnation and suffered immensely for the cause that he championed. The primary reason for this was the perception by the religious establishment of the day that his message was an intolerable threat to orthodox belief. Moreover, if it spread, implicitly the religious leaders feared their power in society would decline or vanish.

In the years immediately after the Báb had died a martyr in 1850, the fortunes of the once vigorous Bábí community had sunk to a critically low ebb. Most of its leading figures had perished in a wave of brutal anti-Bábí persecutions that had swept through Persia, while a great many of its rank and file members had either become deeply dispirited or had even given up the cause entirely.

As one of the last main leaders of the Bábí community still left alive in 1853, Bahá'u'lláh was arrested and thrown into the Siyah-Chal, the "Black Pit", an underground dungeon in Tehran. The pretext for the arrest was a crime of violence against the Shah, committed by individuals he was acquainted with but whose plans were unknown to him and which he afterwards unreservedly condemned. He was imprisoned without trial.

As a nobleman who had been brought up accustomed "to the touch of silk", he now found himself in the company of "thieves, assassins and highwaymen", in "a place foul beyond comparison" — as he later described in his writings:

Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on. God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!

Because he came from a distinguished family, and because his innate wisdom had been evident from an early age, while Bahá'u'lláh was still a youth senior figures at the Persian royal court assumed he would pursue a career in high public office. He chose instead a pathway of service to humanity, and later wrote that he had "consented to be bound with chains that mankind may be released from its bondage".

So it was that while locked away in a dreadful prison, and faced with the likelihood of his own death at any time, Bahá'u'lláh received the first intimation of his mission:

One night, in a dream, these exalted words were heard on every side: "Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety. Erelong will God raise up the treasures of the earth — men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through Thy Name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized Him."

Bahá'u'lláh did not disclose this experience to others until many years later.

Eventually, Bahá'u'lláh was released from the Black Pit. He and his family were exiled from their native Persia to Baghdad in Iraq, the journey an arduous one in bitterly cold winter weather. Once in Baghdad, he worked to rally the Bábí community there, made up of believers who had fled the persecutions in Persia.

Two years of Bahá'u'lláh's time in Iraq were spent living the life of a hermit in the mountainous Kurdistan region, where he withdrew for a period of profound reflection. He then returned to Baghdad, in response to urgent appeals from members of the Bábí community who valued his leadership. There were to be no more such periods of seclusion in a life that would be filled thereafter with ceaseless effort in guiding the emergence of a world-changing movement.

While in Iraq, indeed even before he left Persia, Bahá'u'lláh began writing to expound the spiritual truths that would form the basis of his teachings. The Hidden Words was written in Baghdad — a small volume of sayings on moral principles which represents the heart of his ethical message. He also produced during those days a comprehensive exposition of the nature and purpose of religion, entitled The Book of Certitude.

In The Book of Certitude, Bahá'u'lláh referred to the Qur'an and to the Bible with penetrating insight, in a revolutionary interpretation of religious history, depicting the Messengers of God as agents of a single, unbroken process, awakening the human race to its spiritual and moral potentialities.

By 1863, Bahá'u'lláh concluded that the time was right to disclose to some of those around him the mission that had been entrusted to him during his imprisonment in the Black Pit. This declaration was confided to individuals among his companions, whom he had called together in a garden in Baghdad, just before he set out on a further journey of exile, this time to Constantinople (now known as Istanbul), in Turkey. Gradually over the next four years, his claim was communicated by word of mouth from one person to another among the Bábís.

Over the remaining 30 years of his life, Bahá'u'lláh continued to expound the theme introduced in The Book of Certitude — the relationship between the will of God and the evolutionary process that brings out the spiritual and moral powers latent within human nature. He explained the role of the Prophets as mediators between God and humanity, the creative influence of their teachings being the driving force of civilisation.

Among the writings in which Bahá'u'lláh put forward his ideas on God, spirituality and civilisation were a series of letters to kings and rulers of the day. Three of the early recipients were Sultan 'Abdu'l-Aziz of Turkey, Nasiri'd-Din Shah of Persia, and Napoleon III, Emperor of France. A lengthy letter was also addressed to the world's rulers collectively.

The letter to the Sultan was written in Constantinople, but the latter three letters were written in the provincial city of Adrianople, after Bahá'u'lláh had yet again been required by government authorities to move on. This new exile occurred as a result of intrigue by Persian representatives at the Turkish Sultan's court, who portrayed Bahá'u'lláh's exemplary conduct as a ruse to distract from seditious intentions which they attributed to him. The reason for their false accusations was their desire to put an end to his growing influence.

After Adrianople, one further exile awaited, to the city of ‘Akká in the Holy Land, a penal colony where Bahá'u'lláh with his family and a company of his followers arrived in August 1868. New Zealanders and Australians will be interested to know that on the journey, Bahá'u'lláh and his companions stopped at Gallipoli, where they boarded a steamer bound for Egypt, followed by voyages on two further ships to their final destination. (Gallipoli was later to be the location of a first world war battle in which thousands of New Zealand, Australian and Turkish troops lost their lives, and which is remembered as a significant event in the history of these three countries.)

For the first two years in ‘Akká, the exiles suffered extreme hardship, illness and abuse, packed into small cells in a grim fortress. Upon release from the fortress, Bahá'u'lláh spent the rest of his life under house arrest. At first the confinement continued to be strict and oppressive, but eventually the grace and dignity of the distinguished prisoner, and the outstanding behaviour of his companions, so won over the governor of the city that he allowed Bahá'u'lláh to move to the countryside nearby, where he remained for the last 15 years of his life.

In ‘Akká, Bahá'u'lláh continued the series of letters to individual rulers he had begun while in Adrianople. The recipients included, among others, Napoleon III (a second letter), Pope Pius IX, Czar Alexander II, Queen Victoria, the rulers and presidents of the American continent, and Wilhelm I, the King of Prussia.

Some of these letters contained remarkable prophetic warnings of downfall awaiting the particular rulers if they did not change their ways — warnings that were later fulfilled with stunning accuracy. An example was the total humiliation that befell the mighty Napoleon III, overthrown less than a year after Bahá'u'lláh had written to him: "... thine empire shall pass from thine hands, as a punishment for that which thou hast wrought. ... Has thy pomp made thee proud? By my life! It shall not endure..."

The letter to Queen Victoria gave praise for Britain's efforts in abolishing slavery and developing parliamentary government. The letter to the rulers of America called upon them: "Bind ye the broken with the hands of justice..."

The crowning work among Bahá'u'lláh's writings was his Most Holy Book, written around 1873 in ‘Akká. (The book's original title in Arabic is Kitab-i-Aqdas.) It can be described as a book of laws, but the author made it clear that it was not "a mere code of laws", but rather he had in this book "unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and power." The implication is that the purpose of the laws is spiritual liberation.

The Universal House of Justice has written of the Most Holy Book: "Of the more than one hundred volumes comprising the sacred Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, the Kitab-i-Aqdas is of unique importance. 'To build anew the whole world' is the claim and challenge of His Message, and the Kitab-i-Aqdas is the Charter of the future world civilization that Bahá'u'lláh has come to raise up."

Bahá'u'lláh passed over to the next world at 3.00 a.m. on 29 May 1892, at Bahji near ‘Akká, having laid the foundations for a new world religion. After his death, his work was continued by his eldest son, 'Abdul-Baha, and after him by the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, Shoghi Effendi. Since 1963, the affairs of the Faith have been guided by the Universal House of Justice, an elected body whose role was stipulated by Bahá'u'lláh in his Most Holy Book.

This article follows on from the article in this section on the Bab, who was the founder of the Bábí religion and the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh.

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