Bahá’u’lláh declared, in 1863,
that He was the Promised One of all religions, and subsequently revealed a
religion suited to the age into which we have recently moved – an age in which
all parts of the planet are interconnected and interdependent. His teachings
include the oneness of the whole human race, the oneness of religion, the equality
of women and men, the choice of a common world language and the creation of
institutions more suitable for administering the entire human world.
Although, naturally, most of humanity was unaware of Bahá’u’lláh’s coming, a
surprising number of prominent people did hear about it. People as diverse as Tolstoy,
Queen Marie of Romania and Gandhi expressed their support for this new
movement.
During the late nineteenth century, information about the new
religious dispensation first begun by the Báb and then continued by Bahá’u’lláh,
had already reached the salons of Europe. Professor E.G. Browne, from Cambridge
University, resolved to get first-hand information about the early history of
this new religion before it was too late. He travelled to the Holy Land to meet
Bahá’u’lláh Himself, and left a pen-portrait for us: “The face of him on whom I
gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes
seemed to read one's very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow...
No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is
the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for
in vain. A mild, dignified voice bade me be seated, and then continued: ‘Praise
be to God, that thou hast attained!... Thou hast come to see a prisoner and an
exile... We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations;
yet they deem us a stirrer-up of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and
banishment... That all nations should become one in faith and all men as
brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should
be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of
race be annulled -- what harm is there in this?... Yet so it shall be; these
fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the 'Most Great
Peace' shall come...’”
Bahá’u’lláh passed on
to the next world in 1892. The following year, the world’s first Parliament of
Religions was held in Chicago. Up until this time, the Bahá’í Message had not
been heard in the United States. The Rev. Henry Jessup,
who had been a missionary in the Middle East, attended the Parliament. He felt
that it was important to introduce the other religions to the news of the birth
of the Bahá’í Faith, and presented a paper on Bahá’u’lláh and His Teachings.
This was the first public mention of the Bahá’í Faith in the United States.
Some members of the audience later went on to accept Bahá’u’lláh’s message for
themselves.
In the early 1900s, the Rev. T.K. Cheyne, a leading Anglican theologian, wrote:
”If there has been any prophet in recent times, it is to Bahá'u'lláh that we
must go. Character is the final judge. Bahá'u'lláh was a man of the highest
class - that of prophets.”
In 1908, the great writer Leo Tolstoy
wrote: “We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe,
but there was a Turkish prisoner, Bahá’u’lláh, in Akká, Palestine, who had the
key… Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings now present us with the highest and purest form of
religious teaching….”
A few years after these words were written, Lenin, the Soviet leader, found
that the Bahá’ís had a House of Worship on what had now become Soviet
territory, and proceeded to examine the Bahá’í message. He made the astounding
written statement that, “This is from God”!
The writer Wellesley Tudor-Pole summarised his writings about the Bahá’í Faith as
follows: “I am bound to say that my visits to these places… have
deepened my conviction that the Bahá’í movement has an important part to
play in the religious regeneration of the world.”
In the 1930s, Queen
Marie of Romania, who was a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, stated that
the Bahá’í Writings are “a great cry toward peace, reaching beyond all limits
of frontiers, above all dissensions about rites and dogmas… It is a wondrous
message that Bahá’u’lláh and His Son Abdu’l-Bahá have given us! They have not
set it up aggressively, knowing that the germ of eternal truth which lies at
its core cannot but take root and spread… It is Christ’s message taken up anew…
but adapted to the thousand years and
more difference that lies between the year one and today.” In fact, Queen Marie
was so impressed by the Bahá’í message that she herself became a Bahá’í.
The renowned
deaf-blind writer Helen Keller wrote: “The philosophy of Bahá’u’lláh deserves
the best thought we can give it… What nobler theme than ‘the good of the world
and the happiness of the nations’ can occupy our lives? The message of
universal peace will surely prevail.”
The Bahá’í teaching
that all human beings, of whatever caste, class, colour, creed or background
are all members of one human race has particularly elicited a lot of support.
Mahatma Gandhi proclaimed simply that, “The Bahá’í Faith is a solace to mankind.”
In
the second half of the 20th century, the celebrated scientist Ervin
László wrote: “The Bahá’í call for peace comes at a crucial moment in the
history of humanity. Peace in the contemporary world is no longer an option but
a necessity. All leaders and peoples of the world must come to realise this
fact, and achieve the maturity which the Bahá’í Faith foresees for the coming
of age of humanity.”
In more recent years,
the clergyman and broadcaster Peter Owen-Jones stated: “There’s one
particular Bahá’í saying that I really do admire and it is, ‘The world is one
country and we are all its citizens’. That implies equal rights and an equal
relationship with God – not fractured upon one belief system or another… I see
Bahá’í as a religion which welcomes all religious perspectives… This is
inclusive, all-embracing monotheism and I hope that this is the future, I do.”
Over
time, of course, the Bahá’í Faith has spread throughout the world. Bahá’í
communities do all they can to promote unity, justice and world peace, and the
community-building activities of the Bahá’ís have not gone unnoticed. In the
United Kingdom for example, several of the recent Prime Ministers have written
positively of the contribution that the Bahá’ís already make to British life,
despite still being small in numbers in this country. For example, Gordon Brown
wrote in 2009: “I would like to express my respect and admiration to
the Bahá’í community, which makes a contribution to British life out of
all proportion to its size. The principles of the Bahá’í Faith are rightly
shared and appreciated by many in our different communities… I very
much welcome your increased participation in public life and hope you will
build on this in the future.”
Bahá’ís across the world continue with their efforts to make the world a better
place and to share the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. The world needs “doers” –
practical people who will take up these principles and play their part in a
world-wide effort to improve the lot of humanity. The Bahá’í community sees
itself as being for everybody. It is a community of doers, thinkers,
administrators, teachers, builders and educators. Perhaps it is the very
practical, positive and universal nature of the Bahá’í vision, based on genuine
spirituality, that these writers and thinkers have glimpsed.
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
The photograph shows the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, at the Bahá'í World Centre, in Haifa.
One site which you can visit to read more of these appreciations is the Bahá’í
Tributes website:
<https://bahaitributes.wordpress.com/>
No comments:
Post a Comment