Ascension of Baha'u'llah May 29th

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Ascension of Baha’u’llah

will be observed Tuesday May 29th at 3:00 am by Baha'is around the world..Work and school attendance will be suspended...

Video on the Ascension:

http://nybahai.org/ascension/ascension.html


“With the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh draws to a close a period which, in many ways, is unparalleled in the world's religious history. The first century of the Bahá'í Era had by now run half its course. An epoch, unsurpassed in its sublimity, its fecundity and duration by any previous Dispensation, and characterized, except for a short interval of three years, by half a century of continuous and progressive Revelation, had terminated. The Message proclaimed by the Báb had yielded its golden fruit. The most momentous, though not the most spectacular phase of the Heroic Age had ended. The Sun of Truth, the world's greatest Luminary, had risen in the Siyah-Chal of Tihran, had broken through the clouds which enveloped it in Baghdad, had suffered a momentary eclipse whilst mounting to its zenith in Adrianople and had set finally in 'Akká, never to reappear ere the lapse of a full millenium.


“God's newborn Faith, the cynosure of all past Dispensations, had been fully and unreservedly proclaimed. The prophecies announcing its advent had been remarkably fulfilled. Its fundamental laws and cardinal principles, the warp and woof of the fabric of its future World Order, had been clearly enunciated. Its organic relation to, and its attitude towards, the religious systems which preceded it had been unmistakably defined. The primary institutions, within which an embryonic World Order was destined to mature, had been unassailably established.

"The Covenant designed to safeguard the unity and integrity of its world-embracing system had been irrevocably bequeathed to posterity. The promise of the unification of the whole human race, of the inauguration of the Most Great Peace, of the unfoldment of a world civilization, had been incontestably given. The dire warnings, foreshadowing catastrophes destined to befall kings, ecclesiastics, governments and peoples, as a prelude to so glorious a consummation, had been repeatedly uttered. The significant summons to the Chief Magistrates of the New World, forerunner of the Mission with which the North American continent was to be later invested, had been issued. The initial contact with a nation, a descendant of whose royal house was to espouse its Cause ere the expiry of the first Bahá'í century, had been established. The original impulse which, in the course of successive decades, has conferred, and will continue to confer, in the years to come, inestimable benefits of both spiritual and institutional significance upon God's holy mountain, overlooking the Most Great Prison, had been imparted. And finally, the first banners of a spiritual conquest which, ere the termination of that century, was to embrace no less than sixty countries in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres had been triumphantly planted.


“In the vastness and diversity of its Holy Writ; in the number of its martyrs; in the valor of its champions; in the example set by its followers; in the condign punishment suffered by its adversaries; in the pervasiveness of its influence; in the incomparable heroism of its Herald; in the dazzling greatness of its Author; in the mysterious operation of its irresistible spirit; the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, now standing at the threshold of the sixth decade of its existence, had amply demonstrated its capacity to forge ahead, indivisible and incorruptible, along the course traced for it by its Founder, and to display, before the gaze of successive generations, the signs and tokens of that celestial potency with which He Himself had so richly endowed it.”


~ Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 223

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The Ascension of Baha´’u’lla´h (1817–1892), prophet-founder of the Baha´’ı´ Faith,is a solemn occasion commemorated by Baha´ ’ı´s worldwide at 3:00 a.m. on May 29 annually.

It is one of the nine major Baha´’ı´ holy days, on which work is
to be suspended. Shortly before dawn, Baha´’u’lla´h passed away at 3:00 a.m. on May 29, 1892 in the Mansion of Bahjı´ (Arabic, “delight”), near ‘Akka´ in Palestine (now Israel).

Local Baha´’ı´ communities worldwide therefore gather at that time
(3:00 a.m.) to commemorate their founder with Baha´’ı´ prayers and scriptures, usually
culminating in the chanting in Arabic, or recitation in translation, of what is
known as the “Tablet of Visitation,” a special prayer reserved for the commemoration
of Baha´’u’lla´h, as well as the Ba´b.

A telegram bearing the news, “The Sun of Baha´’ has set,” was immediately dispatched
by ‘Abdu’l-Baha´ (1844–1921), Baha´’u’lla´h’s eldest son and successor), to
Sulta´n ‘Abdu’l-Hamı´d, with a request for permission to bury Baha´’u’lla´h at Bahjı´, which was granted.

Baha´’u’lla´h was interred shortly after sunset, on the very day of his ascension. Where the sacred remains of Baha´’u’lla´h are interred is now known as the Shrine of Baha´’u’lla´h—a building that, in 2008, was designated a UNESCO World

Heritage Site along with the Shrine of the Ba´b, making these two Baha´’ı´ sacred sites the first modern religious edifices to be so distinguished. By virtue of their outstanding value to humanity, World Heritage Sites belong to all the peoples of the world.

Of far greater moment, however, is Baha´’u’lla´h’s contribution to a future world heritage of global unity and world peace, culminating in a golden age envisioned and promised by Baha´’u’lla´h himself. One example of this promise appears in Cambridge scholar Edward Granville Browne’s historic meeting with Baha´’u’lla´h, in 1890:

Thou hast come to see a prisoner and an exile.

. . .We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations. . . . 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. . . . These strifes and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one

family. Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind.

(Browne,

A Traveller’s Narrative, xl)

http://bahai-library.com/pdf/2011_11..._bahaullah.pdf