Celebration of the Birthday of the Báb in Haifa
Rainbow over the Shrine of the Báb and the International Teaching Centre
My recent trip to the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa in Israel coincided with the twin anniversaries of the Birthday of the Bab and the Birthday of Baha’u'llah, as celebrated in the lunar calendar.
Most Baha’i communities celebrate these birthdays according to the solar calendar on 20 October and 12 November respectively. But, because the Báb and Baha’u'llah were born in early 19th century Iran, at a time and in a place where the calendar was a lunar one, the anniversaries of their births are celebrated at the Baha’i World Centre according to the lunar calendar. This places them on successive days, the 1st and 2nd days of the Islamic month of Muharram. This year these days fell on Thursday 10th January and Friday 11th January. Next time they will fall 11 days earlier as the lunar year precesses.
Many hundreds of pilgrims, visitors, consultants, staff and their families gathered in the Reception Concourse of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice on the side Mt Carmel in Haifa for a programme of prayers and readings in Arabic, English and Persian. Halfway through the programme the Baha’i World Centre Choir, a diverse body of people with members from all over the world, sang (unaccompanied) extracts from the Words of Baha’u'llah. The choir stood on the gallery that is formed by the floor above the Concourse and raised its voice to heaven.
The combination of beautiful words and beautiful music, sung in the presence of this vast international gathering of believers in Baha’u'llah, penetrated to my very core and started me crying. I just could not help myself. The emotions of the Kingdom are powerful indeed, and once released, are not to be denied.
Once the prayers and readings had come to an end, we all moved outside into the chill wind and stood on the steps at the front of the Seat, facing the Shrine of the Bab while Dr Farzam Arbab chanted the Tablet of Visitation of Baha’u'llah in Arabic and Dr Peter Khan read the Tablet of Visitation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in English.
As the words of these Tablets died away, Mr and Mrs Barnes led the long procession to circumambulate the Shrine of the Bab. In silence we crossed Hatzionut Avenue by means of the bridge and descended to the level of the Shrine to perform the circumambulation. As I approached the Shrine, the emotions of the Kingdom once again overcame me as I thought of the Bab, His Martyrdom in Tabriz in 1850, the martyrdom of 20,000 of His followers, and the miraculous spread of knowledge of this Manifestation of God to the extent that thousands of people come from all corners of the globe each year to visit and pray at His shrine.
As we walked back to the Pilgrim House, the wind blew cold from the north and darkness came as the sun set. But hearts were full and warm, deeply touched by this most spiritual of celebrations.
Collins Gate, on the path towards the Shrine of Baha’u'llah
The following day, those who remained were to travel out to the Shrine of Baha’u'llah at Bahji (on the outskirts of Akko) to celebrate the second of the Twin Birthdays. Sadly I was booked to return to England that day and could not join the throng for the celebration.
Mansion of Bahji, Baha’u'llah’s final residence in His earthly life
Photos by John Barnabas Leith © under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons Licence
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Bab, Baha’u'llah, Haifa, Israel
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22 comments
Magnificent… splendid…
Thank you, Barney, for letting me be there with you through your wonderful descriptions. I was touched and transported into the chilled air and heard the imagined the prayers from afar…
Loretta
Wayne PA USA
This is very beautiful, thank you for describing it. Tears are a very potent form of prayer, I feel.
Thank you all for your kind comments.
Tess, I very much agree that tears are a potent form of prayer. Even some members of the Baha’i World Centre Choir were overcome with tears as they sang. It is difficult - perhaps impossible - to describe the intensity of the thoughts and feelings that pass through one’s mind, one’s very soul at such moments.
lovely and i love u sooooooooo much dearest heart thank u for sharing it with your permission i will put it on a blog of mauritius love jo
Dear Papijoon, thank you so much for your loving comment. Do please include the report on a blog of Mauritius.
Dear Barney:
What a surprise to get something about a Celebration of the Birth of the Bab in January (to my western mind!), but how delightful. This was a treasure to read. My only comment is the date of the Celebration in the west: I believe it’s 20 October, rather than 23 October.
The rest was wonderful.
Allah-u-Abha,
Valerie in CT
Thank you so much for this beautiful collection of the Holy Sites.
This is the first time I see the combination of the shrine of the Bab, teaching centre with rainbow
Insrpiring
Amrullah
Dear Valerie, a warm thank-you for your comment and for your correction about the date.
Amrullah, in all my years visiting Haifa I have never seen a rainbow in such a position. So it was a wonderful opportunity to take some pictures.
Barney,
Thank you for “taking us there” though your descriptions and photos. Reading your words and pausing to look at your wonderful photographs, I felt close to the celebration and to what you and my wife and others experienced in person.
Your site is such an incredible value to all of us. Thank you.
Your friend, David
Thank you for your kind comments, David. I very much appreciate them.
Thank you for sharing your photos and thoughts. I am still hopeful that I can make a similar pilgrimage in the future. Thanks again, Maryellen
Peace Barney,
Thank you for your moving description. Truly, tears of love are a blessing from God. Strange that we should both be thinking along similar lines:
http://thecorner.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/tears-from-the-sea-of-love/
For Muslims, Muharram begins the Islamic year and the first ten days are especially important in connection with the death of Imam Husayn (God bless him always).
Abdur Rahman
Dear Barney
Having just recently gone on pilgrimage and experiencing the pangs of remoteness from the Holy land, your wonderful article brought tears of joy to my eyes. Thank you!
Carl
Maryellen, Carl, thank you both for your lovely comments. I am very happy that the sharing of my experience has touched you both.
And, dear friend Abdur Rahman, your poem touches the same part deep inside us. Our society so often denies us the importance of tears as an expression of love and joy and tenderness for God and for our fellow human beings. These tears come unbidden and with great force. Once the sluice gates are open, there’s nothing to stop that flow of these heavenly jewels.
Bahá’u'lláh speaks with deep love of the Holy Imams and He Himself is named for two of them, Husayn and Ali. He is surnamed Nuri, since he came from the province of Nur (Light or Glory) in Iran.
Your magnificent, soul-stirring photo over the Shrine of the Bab reminds me of the following quotes I compiled on the eternal Covenant of God. I am happy to share it with you here:
OT - Genesis 6:18 - But with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
OT - Genesis 9:1, 9:8-17 - And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth… And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud; And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
OT - Genesis 15:18-21 - In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
OT - Genesis 17:2-21 - And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
OT Numbers 25:10 - And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
OT Psalms 89:3 - I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.
OT Psalms 105:6-15 - O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
OT Malachi 2:10 - Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
OT Malachi 3:1 - Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
NT Romans 11:26-27 - And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Tablets of Baha’u'llah, p 119 - Say: ‘The light hath shone forth from the horizon of Revelation, and the whole earth hath been illumined at the coming of Him Who is the Lord of the Day of the Covenant!’
Baha’u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p 63 - This is the Father foretold by Isaiah, and the Comforter concerning Whom the Spirit had covenanted with you.
‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith, p 358 - His Holiness Abraham, on Him be peace, made a covenant concerning His Holiness Moses and gave the glad-tidings of His coming. His Holiness Moses made a covenant concerning the Promised One, i.e. His Holiness Christ, and announced the good news of His Manifestation to the world. His Holiness Christ made a covenant concerning the Paraclete and gave the tidings of His coming. His Holiness the Prophet Muhammad made a covenant concerning His Holiness the Báb and the Báb was the One promised by Muhammad, for Muhammad gave the tidings of His coming. The Báb made a Covenant concerning the Blessed Beauty of Bahá’u'lláh and gave the glad-tidings of His coming for the Blessed Beauty was the One promised by His Holiness the Báb. Bahá’u'lláh made a covenant concerning a promised One who will become manifest after one thousand or thousands of years. He likewise, with His Supreme Pen, entered into a great Covenant and Testament with all the Bahá’ís whereby they were all commanded to follow the Center of the Covenant after His departure, and turn not away even to a hair’s breadth from obeying Him.
In the Book of Aqdas, He has given positive command in two clear instances and has explicitly appointed the Interpreter of the Book. Also in all the Divine Tablets, especially in the Chapter of The Branch — all the meanings of which mean the Servitude of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá — all that was needed to explain the Center of the Covenant and the Interpreter of the Book has been revealed from the Supreme Pen. Now as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is the Interpreter of the Book He says that the “Chapter of The Branch” means ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that is, the Servitude of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and none other.
‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith, p 425 - The first condition is firmness in the Covenant of God. For the power of the Covenant will protect the Cause of Bahá’u'lláh from the doubts of the people of error. It is the fortified fortress of the Cause of God and the firm pillar of the religion of God. Today no power can conserve the oneness of the Bahá’í world save the Covenant of God; otherwise differences like unto a most great tempest will encompass the Bahá’í world. It is evident that the axis of the oneness of the world of humanity is the power of the Covenant and nothing else. Had the Covenant not come to pass, had it not been revealed from the Supreme Pen and had not the Book of the Covenant, like unto the ray of the Sun of Reality, illuminated the world, the forces of the Cause of God would have been utterly scattered and certain souls who were the prisoners of their own passions and lusts would have taken into their hands an axe cutting the root of this Blessed Tree. Every person would have pushed forward his own desire and every individual aired his own opinion!
Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith, p. 429 - Through the power of the divine springtime, the downpour of the celestial clouds and the heat of the Sun of Reality, the tree of life is just beginning to grow. Before long, it will produce buds, bring forth leaves and fruits, and cast its shade over the East and the West. This Tree of Life is the Book of the Covenant.
Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 136 - This is the changeless Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future. Let him that seeketh, attain it; and as to him that hath refused to seek it — verily, God is Self-Sufficient, above any need of His creatures.
Sue, my very warm thanks for sharing your fascinating compilation of quotations about the eternal Covenant. It is interesting how the rainbow has been the symbol of the Covenant from the Old Testament to this day.
This compilation is a very useful resource.
Barney,
I had the bounty of being on Pilgrimage during this time of the Twin anniversaries. I had heard several people mention the rainbows, but I did not see them myself, so I am glad that you have posted a photo.
I also found the commemoration of the Birth of the Bab to be deeply moving and beautiful. I could not see the choir from where I was sitting and I thought it was a recording! I am happy to know that it was not. The performance was so flawless and perfect, it sounded as if it had been mastered, which was why it was easy to think it was a recording.
The commemoration of the Birth of Baha’u'llah at Bahji was equally moving and beautiful, albeit there was no choir. The whole program was held outside facing the Shrine of Baha’u'llah. The Persian chanting was very beautiful and melodious. Unfortunately, I do not know who the woman was who chanted. A couple birds in the air were even moved to sing loudly during the chanting. At the end of the program, the group circumambulated the Shrine of Baha’u'llah. There were over 1,400 in attendance, so I heard.
Phil
West Deptford, NJ
Phil, it is good to know that we both had the inexpressible bounty of being in these holy spots for the Twin Birthdays. I am sorry to have missed the Birthday of Baha’u'llah, but I had to return to the UK that day. But friends were there and I thought of them outside the Shrine of Baha’u'llah as I was awaiting my flight home.
I had the great honour of attending the celebrations of the Twin Birthdays during International Convention in 1998. The celebration of the Birthday of Baha’u'llah and the circumambulation of the Shrine of Baha’u'llah by the members of almost every National Spiritual Assembly in the world was particularly moving.
Barney, Many thanks for all your efforts & sharing! Your pictures & comments transports one to the “real world”!!!!
Margaret,
Toronto, Canada.
Margaret, many thanks for your kind comments. It is a pleasure to be able to communicate with friends across the world.
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