INDEX
My Change of Life.
Bahá'í Introduction
Bahá'í History
Bahá'í Principles.
Bahá'í Writings
Bahá'í Symbols
The Báb.
Bahá'u'lláh
`Abdu'l-Bahá
Shoghi Effendi
Universal House Of Justice
Bahá'í Links
My Thanks To
The Beginning
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The date was May 1844, a young persian named Mirza `Ali Muhammad
declared that he was the new Messenger from God. At this time he took
upon the name of The Bab meaning 'The Gate'. He
announced to the people of his home land that it was he who was the
promised Qa'im of Shi'ah Islam.
His mission was two-fold, Firstly to announce to the people of his Home Land of his station as an independant Messenger, and to secondly prepare the way for the coming of a second Prophet soon after The Bab. For the following six years the teachings of The Bab became increasingly popular amongst the people, with more and more moving away from Islam to follow the words of this amazing man named The Bab. The popularity of The Bab ultimately disgruntled the Shi'ah clergy of Iran, and their efforts to stamp out this new religion resulted in 20,000 Babis being put to their death. The Bab himself was turtured and imprisoned until 9 July 1850 the time of The Bab's Martydom.
A second man, named Bahá'u'lláh ('The Glory of God') two years later was also imprisoned in the Siyah-Chal at Teheran for his following of the Babi religion. Named at birth Husayn-`Ali before taking the title of Bahá'u'lláh, he was exiled after his imprisonment to Baghdad, Iraq in 1853. Ten years later on the 22 April 1963 Bahá'u'lláh announced to a group of Babis that he was the Prophet The Bab had made the way for. The majority of Babi's accepted Bahá'u'lláh's claims and became known as Bahá'í's, the followers of Baha. Shortly after his declaration Bahá'u'lláh was agained exiled even further from his native land to first Constantinople, then Adrianople before being exiled for the last time to Acre in Palestine, a prison city in 1867. It was here he stayed until his death on the 29th of May 1892 in the town of Bahji, near Acre.
On his death Bahá'u'lláh appointed his eldest son `Abdu'l-Baha to be the center of his Covenance and the interpreter of his writings. `Abdu'l-Baha was the leader of the Bahá'í Faith, and while the `Abdu'l-Baha did not claim to be another Prophet, his words and writings where believed to be divinely guided and are considered a part of Bahá'í's sacred scripts. On `Abdu'l-Baha's death, he apointed the "Guardianship" of the Bahá'í Faith unto his grandson, as he had no son, Shoghi Effendi and was he who spread the words of the Faith to all corners of the globe.
PRINCIPLES