Bahai’s celebrate birth of the Bab |20 October 2010

The personage of the Bab (meaning the Gate) in the Baha’i faith is the herald and forerunner of Baha’u’llah. His mission is similar to that of John the Baptist as forerunner and herald of Jesus Christ in Christianity.

He, however, was given the prophetic station due to the magnitude and station of the manifestation of God, for whom he had come to prepare humanity. 
   
The Bab was a young merchant of pure lineage. He was born in Iran, and when in his early childhood his father Siyyid Muhammad-Rida died, he was brought up in Shiraz in the loving care and guardianship of his maternal uncle Mirza Siyyid 'Al, a merchant by profession.

On attaining maturity he engaged in trade in Bushir, first in partnership with his uncle and afterwards independently. On account of what was observed in him, he was noted for godliness, devoutness, virtue and piety, and was regarded in the sight of men as such.

From a religious perspective, the birth of the Bab resembles the dawn, for the dawn holds the promise of the sun. The dawn of the Bab promised the rising of the sun of truth of Baha’u’llah’s revelation that was to envelop the whole world.

This is historically affirmed from the official date of Baha’u’llah’s  public declaration in 1963 in Iraq as the manifestation of God and prophet for this day, as promised by all the religions and prophets of the past.

In 1842, when the Bab was 23, certain signs became apparent in his conduct and behaviour. Different accounts testify to a bearing of grace and power, and he spoke with spiritual elevation and divine authority attributed to prophets and saints. In 1844 he made his official declaration of his station as the Bab meaning the Gate to his first disciple in a private audience with these words:

“O thou who art the first to believe in me! Verily I say, I am the Bab, the Gate of God, and thou art the Babu'l-Bab, the gate of that Gate. Eighteen souls must, in the beginning, spontaneously and of their own accord, accept me and recognise the truth of my revelation.

Unwarned and uninvited, each of these must seek independently to find me. And when their number is complete, one of them must be chosen to accompany me on my pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. There I shall deliver the message of God to the Sharif of Mecca.” 

The Bab later made his declaration to the public in Mecca, where 100,000 people had congregated for pilgrimage.

Throughout his ministry, he humbly and devotedly referred to a great and divine personage yet hidden behind the veil of glory, who was the possessor of countless and boundless perfections, by whose will he existed, and to the bond of whose love he clung.

In the first book, which he wrote in explanation of the Surih of Joseph, he related to that person unseen from whom he received help and grace, sought aid in the arrangement of his preliminaries, and craved to sacrifice his life as a sign of his love.

As proof of that love and bond between them as inseparable luminaries of the Baha’i dispensation Baha’u’llah later revealed: “We, verily, believe in him who, in the person of the Bab, hath been sent down by the will of the one true God, the king of kings, the all-praised.

He likewise composed a number of works in explanation and elucidation of the verses of the Qur'án, of sermons, and of prayers in Arabic; inciting and urging men to expect the appearance of that person.

His teachings met with instant and fierce opposition on the part of the orthodox religionists of the day. After two years he was imprisoned and held until 1850, when he was shot in the public square of Tabriz, wherefore the Baha’is are still being killed and persecuted to this day.

To this epilogue Baha’u’llah wrote: “And when, after the lapse of a few years, the heaven of divine decree was cleft asunder, and the beauty of the Bab appeared in the clouds of the names of God, arrayed in a new raiment, these same people maliciously rose up against him, whose light embraceth all created things.”

Baha’is all over the world celebrate the birth of the Bab by offering devotions and prayers at Baha’i houses of worship, Baha’i centres or in homes, and as much as possible take leave off work as ordained in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, being the most holy book of the Baha’i dispensation.