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Commemoration of the martyrdom of the Báb

Shrine of the Báb

Montreal, Quebec, July 10, 2015 – The Bahá'í communities on the island of Montreal and the world commemorated the day of the martyrdom of the Báb which took place on 10 July 1850, a holy day of the Baha'i Faith. 

Who was the Bab? On 24 May 1844 in Shiráz in Persia, he received a Divine Revelation to prepare the hearts and announce the imminent arrival of "Him Whom God shall make manifest", the promised of all ages to fulfil the prophecies of the past Divine messengers. This spiritual and social transformation process that should usher in the Promised one as a magical and instantaneous act was not expected as an immature design could imagine. This wonderful achievement of the Promised one would rather,according to the design of the Báb, the revelation of new divine principles of unity and justice suitable to our times. These principles would be revealed by the Promised one as means of evolution and to raise forces inevitable to the process of complete reorganization of humanity. This process would be the ultimate goal of the unification of the peoples of the world and the respect of their diversity as well as the construction of a just and lasting peace, all united by the love of the creator. 

The cruel events, which accompanied this clash of beliefs, does not fail to remind the dramatic birth of Christianity in the arenas of lions, or Islam greeted by swords of the polytheistic. Just as St Jean the Baptiste announced the imminent arrival of "the Lamb of God" (Jesus), the Báb announced the imminent arrival of "the Glory of God" (name of Bahá'u'lláh in Arabic). Both, the Báb and St Jean the Baptiste, were yet sacrificed for having dared to announce such news so hard to accept.

While the religion of the Báb dramatically arose in Persia, thousands of kilometres away in old Europe, Western artists and men of letters wrote on the life of the Báb, and were moved by the universality of its Message, contrasting with the injustice of his martyr and the massacre of twenty thousand of its believers:

*Sarah Bernhardt asked Catulle Mendès to write a play on the theme of this historic tragedy.

* The great scholar Arminius Vambéry spoke of Báb to the French Academy, affirming that the Báb "has expressed a concept worthy of the greatest thinkers of the time".

* A dramatic play was set on stage as early as 1903 entitled "the Báb", and was played at St. Petersburg in Russia followed by Europe, and particularly in France. It was published in London and then translated into French and German by the poet Fiedler.

* The famous Oxford scholar, Reverend Dr. T.K. Cheyne, called the Báb "the Jesus of the time" stating that "the combination of sweetness and majesty of His utterance are so rare that we have to place Him in the lineage of supernormal" (to designate the lineage of the prophets)

* Sir Francis Younghusband wrote in his "History of time": "the history of the Báb is the story of unparalleled heroism... his life must be one of the events of the last hundred years that is really worth to be studied."

According to the Báb, the spiritual and social challenges of the coming of the Promised of all Ages, is a process of gradual but inevitable introduction of the World Peace and Universal Justice to benefit all men united by the love and knowledge of a Creator. This is what the prophets of the past have symbolically revealed by the metaphor of the "Kingdom of God on Earth as in heaven" or "Paradise" on Earth.

 

Bahá'í Center

 

177, av des Pins E
Montréal, QC H2W 1N9
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Phone: 514-849-0753

Click here for map and hours

 

 

Montreal Shrine

 

1548, av des Pins O, Montreal
Phone: 514-568-2104

Click here for map and hours

 

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