Bahā'ullāh

Persian religious leader

• Born: November 12, 1817
• Birthplace: Tehran, Persia (now in Iran)
• Died: May 29, 1892
• Place of death: Acre, Ottoman Empire (now 'Akko, Israel)

A leader of a Persian messianic group, Bahā՚ullāh founded an Islamic cult known as Bahā՚ī that developed into a world religion during the twentieth century. Through his writings, his beliefs in radical social justice and pacifism spread, and Bahā՚ī remains a moral force in the modern world.

Early Life

Bahā՚ullāh (bah-HAH-oo-LAH) was born Mīrzā Ḥoseyn ՙalī Nūrī, the son of Mīrzā Abbas Nūrī, a highly placed member of the court of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. He served as the vizier to the twelfth son of the shah of Persia and was rewarded for his service with the positions of governor and tax-farmer of the provinces of Borojerd and Luristan. Young Mīrzā and his brothers were educated in the best fashion of the day, basking in the expectation that they would one day serve at the royal court.

In 1835, the situation of Mīrzā’s family was upset when the father’s patron at court, the first minister, fell into disfavor with the new monarch, Muḥammad Shah, and was executed. Having been reduced from courtier to refugee, Mīrzā and his family retired to family estates near Takor. The disillusionment with worldly power and wealth that followed his father’s fall helped shape young Mīrzā into an antimaterialist, and one who distrusted power in all of its forms.

Said to have been a sensitive child, Mīrzā also developed a radical pacifism that would deny to political powers the right to use force in enforcing their arbitrary wills. As part of his reaction against the Persian power structure he at first flirted with and then joined, in 1844, a newly developing sect of Shī ՙites known as Bābīism. Members of this group believed that one of their number, an imam known as the Bāb, or “gate,” had received special post-Islamic revelations from Allah, and that his teachings constituted a new layer of authority atop Islam . Despite the family’s fall from grace, young Mīrzā retained friends and some influence at the Persian court and soon emerged as a kind of protector for other Bābīists, whose messianic ideas conflicted with Muslim tradition and teaching.

Life’s Work

At a meeting of Bābīists in Khorasan in 1848, Mīrzā adopted a new name: Bahā՚ullāh, which means Glory of Allah. Other Bābīists adopted similar names, as the group’s members decided that changing their names was a fine means to give glory to God. At the same meeting, they also decided to reject shari՚a law—the Muslim code of correct conduct—completely in favor of following the revelations of the Bāb, Sayyid ՙAlī-Muḥammad Sḥīrāzi. However, the Bāb had been arrested and imprisoned in 1847, and at the 1848 meeting a majority of the group chose Bahā՚ullāh’s brother Azal to serve as its leader in the Bāb’s absence. The minority split off in several factions, all harboring some degree of resentment toward to the government for having seized their leader. By 1850, some of these people had directly threatened the government, which executed the Bāb himself and generally attempted to suppress the movement.

Amid this chaos, Bahā՚ullāh abandoned Tehran for Karbala in neighboring Iraq in June, 1851. There he served as a missionary for Bābīism and treated his brother as the sect’s leader. At the same time, however, he began to sense his own divinely appointed role, though he kept it to himself. Soon, a new first minister in Tehran called Bahā՚ullāh back in order to gain Bābīist support for the throne and generally mend fences. An attack on the shah’s life by a fringe Bābīist forced Bahā՚ullāh to seek safety at the quarters of the Russian ambassador. However, Anti-Bābīist riots forced the Russians to turn Bahā՚ullāh over to the authorities, and he spent an agonizing time in a dark, dank Tehran prison. However, this experience among the most downtrodden had its impact on him, too. Although found innocent at his trial, Bahā՚ullāh was exiled to Baghdad on January 12, 1853. Many of his followers, including Azal, accompanied him there. However, the group again fractured, and Bahā՚ullāh left for Kurdistan in 1854 to live the life of a Sufi dervish in one of Islam’s oldest mystical sects.

The two years that Bahā՚ullāh spent among the mystics adjusted his vision of the religious life from worldly concerns for religious power to an emphasis on inner spiritual transformation. After returning to Baghdad at his followers’ insistence, Bahā՚ullāh began writing some of his key texts, which he composed in both Persian and Arabic. These included the Book of Certitude, Hidden Words, and Seven Valleys. Meanwhile, his own influence among the Bābīists grew and spread, as did his reputation as their leader. Persian authorities blamed him for fringe Bābīist violence and insisted that the Ottoman rulers of Baghdad move him farther away from Persian soil. Before leaving Baghdad, however, he decided to share with a few of his closest followers his slowly dawning revelation that he was the promised one promised by the Bāb himself. Indeed, Shīrāzi had prophesied the coming of one greater than he, and Bahā՚ullāh was convinced that he was that person. His followers agreed.

Along with twenty family members and Bābīists, Bahā՚ullāh trekked westward to the Ottoman capital of Constantinople, where he began laying the groundwork for a new worldwide ministry of personal and social reform. As part of this plan, he called for the development and use of a universal language that would unite all people and began writing letters to world leaders. When he wrote to Christian leaders, he referred to himself as the returned Messiah, Jesus Christ himself. To others he made it clear that he was a special divine manifestation, a prophet whose message trumped the Qur՚ān and all other holy books. Indeed, Bahā՚ullāh called his letters “suras”—a term normally used by Muslims for chapters of the Qur՚ān.

Once again, the Persian government asked the Ottomans to relocate the troublesome Bahā՚ullāh, and the latter complied by sending him to Edirne in Rumelia. There Bahā՚ullāh’s small colony lived from December, 1863, until August, 1868. Meanwhile, Azal and Bābīism were slowly eclipsed as Bahā՚ullāh developed his new message, role, and persona. His followers slowly abandoned the label “Bābīist” and adopted a new one, derived from Bahā՚ullāh’s name: Bahā՚ī, the people of glory.

In August, 1868, Bahā՚ullāh and his followers were again exiled, this time to the prison colony of Acre on the Mediterranean coast of Palestine. Bahā՚ullāh spent two years there, locked in the citadel, but continued to write to such world leaders as the Roman Catholic pope, the Russian czar, and Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Azal and his followers were sent to Famagusta on the island of Cyprus in a parting that embodied the end of Bābīism. In Persia and elsewhere, many Bābīists became Bahā՚īs, while Bahā՚ullāh created new rituals and codes to replace the Qur՚ān and Shari՚a, and all other such works. These were laid out in his Kitab-i-aqdas (most holy book).

Following Bābīist custom, Bahā՚ullāh had two wives (some authorities claim that he had three), who bore him a total of fourteen children. From 1877 to 1879 he lived in a fine mansion in Acre. He died in 1892. Before he died he appointed his oldest son, ՙAbd ol-Bahā, to lead the new faith.

Significance

Bahā՚ullāh’s significance is bound up with the success and influence of the religion he founded. During the 1990’s it was estimated that about five million Bahā՚ī followers were living in nearly two hundred countries. Their belief in ultimately a single, universal world religion to which all current ones are related directly reflects Bahā՚ullāh’s understanding of God’s presence in the world and the imperfection of humanity’s relation to it. Many followers are drawn by the Bahā՚ī emphasis on social justice and pacifism.

Remarkably, the exiled and imprisoned prophet Bahā՚ullāh was able not only to establish a new world religion but also to exert a powerful and independent moral voice in the modern world. On the other hand, he was not able to fulfill the mission he believed that he had been called to undertake. His letters to world leaders had little effect, and the century that followed him was history’s most violent and, in many ways, least just.

Bibliography

Baha՚u՚llah. The Kitab-i-Aqdas. Haifa, Israel: Bahai Publishing Trust, 1994. English translation of the key Bahā՚ī text on ritual and conduct.

Balyuzi, H. M. Baha՚u՚llah. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Although written more than one-quarter century ago, this book remains the only scholarly monograph on the life of Bahā՚ullāh.

Esslemont, J. E. Bahā՚ullāh and the New Era: An Introduction to the Baha՚i Faith. Includes a biographical sketch of Bahā՚ullāh and material on the development of his ideas, as well as detailed coverage of the later history of the Bahā՚ī faith.

Momen, Moojan. The Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts. Oxford, England: G. Ronald, 1981. Contains original sources that reveal the impact of Bahā՚ullāh’s thought on non-Muslims in Europe and America.

Smith, Peter. The Babi and Baha՚i Religions: From Messianic Shī ՙism to a World Religion. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. A study of the emergence of Bahā՚ī out of Bābīism. It places Bahā՚ullāh’s role in reshaping the Muslim cult in the context of the development of a truly universal moral system.