(The Glory of God)
12 November, 1817 - 29 May, 1892
Mirza Husayn 'Ali was born to a noble and
wealthy family in Mazindaran, Iran in the province of Nur.
His father, Mirza Abbas was known in royal circles as Mirza
Buzurg at the court of the Shah. Mirza Husayn 'Ali took
the surname Baha'u'llah (the Glory of God) when His station
was made known to Him while He was imprisoned for the crime
of being a Babi in the Siyah-Chal, The Black Pit, in Tihran,
Iran. This prison had formerly been an underground reservoir
for one of the public baths of the city. It was a filthy
place where some of the prisoners had no clothing or bedding.
The conditions were matched only by the brutality of the
guards. The notorious chains of 'Qara-Guhar' and 'Salasil'
(the former weighed about 51 kilos, over 104 pounds) one
of which was placed around His neck at all times, cut through
His flesh and left their marks on Him for the rest of His
life. They were so heavy that a special wooden fork was
provided to support their weight. It was in this prison
that Baha'u'llah received His awakening to His station.
Baha'u'llah was descended from Zoroaster
and the Sasaniyan kings of Persia, thereby fulfilling certain
traditions that the great Redeemer of mankind would be of
pure Persian lineage. Baha'u'llah was also descended from
Abraham through His third wife Katurah, thus uniting in
His own person two branches of the Aryan and Semitic religions.
Baha'u'llah was known from His boyhood for His love, compassion,
and generosity for the poor in an age when nobles were most
often aggressive and arrogant, able to terrify innocent
people with their mere presence.
As a member of the noble class Baha'u'llah
received an elementary education, consisting of reading,
writing, calligraphy (a very highly regarded art form),
the study of the Qur'an and the works of some famous Persian
poets. Only divines in this culture received extensive education.
He was known from His boyhood on several occasions to expound
with simplicity and eloquence on abstruse and mysterious
traditions of Islam in the presence of divines who were
astonished at the depth of His knowledge and His profound
utterance. This, in a culture in which, although government
officials wielded authority, the all-powerful clergy looked
down on them as inferior beings, unworthy to enter with
them into the realms of knowledge and learning.
The lack of formal education is important
to note. The Manifestations of God, in most cases, were
devoid of learning. Moses and Christ were not learned men.
Muhammad was not educated, but when Divine Revelation came
to Him, He uttered the words of God. The Bab and Baha'u'llah
had elementary education's, yet their knowledge, which was
derived from God, was innate and encompassed the whole of
humankind. In one of His Tablets, Baha'u'llah revealed the
source of His knowledge and the divine origin of His Mission
in these words:
"O King! I was but a man like others,
asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious
were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all
that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One
Who is Almighty and All-Knowing. And He bade Me lift up
My voice between earth and heaven, and for this there befell
Me what hath caused the tears of every man of understanding
to flow. The learning current amongst men I studied not;
their schools I entered not. Ask of the city wherein I dwelt,
that thou mayest be well assured that I am not of them who
speak falsely. This is but a leaf which the winds of the
will of thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-Praised, have stirred."
(Excerpt from Baha'u'llah's letter to Nasiri d-Din Shah,
proclaiming His Station)
Baha'u'llah was married at the age of 19
to a lady of noble birth, Asiyih Khanum, who bore Him seven
children, of whom only three survived, a son, and two daughters.
His son, Abbas Effendi (later to be known as 'Abdu'l Baha,
"the Servant of Glory"), attended Him faithfully
all through His exiles from the age of nine until His death
in the Holy Land.
Baha'u'llah, in fulfillment of prophecy,
was exiled many times, first from Tihran in Iran, to Baghdad
in Iraq. The journey to Baghdad was undertaken in the middle
of a severe winter across the snow-bound mountains of western
Persia. Baha'u'llah dwelt in Iraq for 10 years, two of which
He spent alone in the wilderness of Kurdistan, and most
of the time in Baghdad. The enemies of Baha'u'llah succeeded
in having Him banished again and Baha'u'llah was called
to Constantinople. On the eve of His departure from Iraq
in 1863, Baha'u'llah, outside the city of Baghdad, declared
His station to His companions as 'Him Whom God shall make
manifest', the One foretold by the Bab and anticipated by
His followers.
After He had remained 5 months in the capital
city of the Ottoman Empire, His enemies again sought to
banish Him. This time He was sent to Adrianople. There He
declared His Message to the whole world. After five years
of tribulation in that city, Baha'u'llah was finally exiled
to the prison-city of Akka in the Holy Land. It was said
of that place that if a bird flew over 'Akka that bird died.
The last twenty-four years of Baha'u'llah's ministry were
spent partly in 'Akka and partly in the surrounding countryside.
The sufferings He endured during the first nine years of
His imprisonment within the walls of 'Akka were so grievous
that, as Baha'u'llah remarks in one of His Tablets, "upon
Our arrival at this Spot, We chose to designate it as the
'Most Great Prison'. Though previously subjected in another
land [Tihran] to chains and fetters, We yet refused to call
it by that name..." (quoted by Shoghi Effendi in God
Passes By, p. 185)
Baha'u'llah died outside the prison-city
of 'Akka in May, 1892. During His life He revealed over
a hundred volumes in which He formulated the laws, ordinances,
and principles of His Faith. He proclaimed His Message to
the Kings and Rulers of both the East and West, both Christian,
and Muslim. He addressed the Pope, the Caliph of Islam,
the Chief Magistrates of the Republics of the American continent,
the entire Christian sacerdotal order, the leaders of Shi'ih
and Sunni Islam, and the high priest of the Zoroastrian
religion.
"His station is the Lawgiver and Redeemer
of mankind... To Israel He was neither more nor less than
the incarnation of the "Everlasting Father", the
"Lord of Hosts" come down "with ten thousands
of saints;" to Christiandom Christ returned "in
the Glory of the Father;" to Shi'ih Islam the descent
of the "Spirit of God (Jesus Christ);" to the
Zoroastrians the promised Shah-Bahram; to the Hindus the
reincarnation of Krishna; to the Buddhists the fifth Buddha."
(Shoghi Effendi, Guidance for Today and Tomorrow, pp 11-12)
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The information given here about Baha'u'llah
and His Station was mostly paraphrased from the excellent
history of the Baha'i Faith entitled "The Revelation
of Baha'u'llah, Volume I, by Dr. Adib Taherzadeh, copyright
(c) Adib Taherzadeh, 1974, 1975, 1976, George Ronald Press,
46 High Street, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 2DN, all rights reserved.
Other quotations are from the works of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian
of the Baha'i Faith as given in the text above. These works
are copyrighted to various Baha'i Publishing Trusts, all
rights reserved.
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