The Bahá'í community OF Ajax
The official site of the Bahá'ís of Ajax,
Ontario, Canada
About the Bahá'í Faith!
The Bahá'í Faith is the youngest of the world's independent religions and is established in more locations around the planet than any faith other than Christianity. Its founder, Bahá'u'lláh (a title meaning The Glory of God)), is regarded by Bahá'ís as the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Christ and Muhammad.
Bahá'u'lláh
(1817-1892) taught that there is one God Who, through a series of
divine teachers, has revealed His immeasurable love for humanity and
His will for human spiritual progress. These teachings have been the
chief civilizing force in history. While the bulk of humanity has
seen these successive divine revelations as separate, irreconcilable
religious systems, Bahá'u'lláh taught that, in fact, they have all
served the common purpose of bringing the human race to spiritual
and moral maturity. The central theme of
Bahá'u'lláh's
message is that humanity is one single race and that
the day promised by all the world’s religions for its unification
into one global family has come.
Bahá'u'lláh was born a Persian prince, heir to great wealth and a position in the court of the shah. Because of His teachings, He was stripped of his title, tortured, imprisoned, and exiled from his homeland. Tens of thousands of the earliest believers were tortured and killed for believing that God had sent a new messenger to help humanity progress to a new level of spiritual development. The persecution and sacrifices of those thousands drew the attention of the world, invoking admiration and comment from such contemporary figures as Leo Tolstoy and Sarah Bernhardt.
During the forty years
of his exile and imprisonment Bahá'u'lláh wrote over 100 volumes.
These works constitute the foundation of the Bahá'í scriptures and
the bedrock of the Bahá'í belief system. Bahá'u'lláh
was eventually imprisoned in Akka, in what is now Israel. The World
Center of the Bahá'í
Faith is based in Haifa, not far from Akka, where the life of
Bahá'u'lláh ended
in 1892. The beautiful Bahá'í shrines, located on Mount Carmel, the
"mountain of the Lord", stand in glorious splendor, a testament to
the beauty and majesty of
Bahá'u'lláh's
teachings for the day in which we live.
Among the principles which the Bahá'í Faith promotes as vital to the achievement of this goal are:
Bahá'u'lláh said of the unity of humankind:
"O CHILDREN OF MEN!
Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory."
Significance of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelations:
If we study the story of the "ascent of man" as recorded in the pages of history, it becomes evident that the leading factor in human progress is the advent, from time to time, of persons who pass beyond the accepted ideas of their day and become the discoverers and revealers of truths hitherto unknown among mankind. The inventor, the pioneer, the genius, the Prophet -- these are the people on whom the transformation of world primarily depends.
In the history of science, of art, of music, we see abundant illustrations of this truth, but in no domain is the supreme importance of the great person and his message more clearly evident than in that of religion. All down the ages, whenever the spiritual life of humanity has become degenerate and their morals corrupt, that most wonderful and mysterious of men, the Prophet, makes His appearance. Alone against the world, without a single human being capable of teaching, of guiding, of fully understanding Him, or of sharing His responsibility, He arises, like a seer among blind men, to proclaim His gospel of righteousness and truth.
Amongst the Prophets some stand out with special pre-eminence. Every few centuries a great Divine Revealer -- a Krishna, a Zoroaster, a Moses, a Jesus, a Muhammad -- appears in the East, like a spiritual Sun, to illumine the darkened minds of men and awaken their dormant souls. Whatever our views as to the relative greatness of these religion-founders we must admit that They have been the most potent factors in the education of mankind.
With one accord these Prophets declare that the words They utter are not from "Themselves, but are a Revelation through Them, a Divine message of which They are the bearers. Their recorded utterances abound, too, in hints and promises of a great world teacher Who will appear "in the fullness of time" to carry on Their work and bring it to fruition, One Who will establish a reign of peace and justice upon earth, and bring into one family all races, religions, nations, and tribes, that "there may be one fold and one shepherd" and that all may know and love God "from the least even unto the greatest."
Surely the advent of this "Educator of Mankind," in the latter days, when He appears, must be the greatest event in human history. And the Bahá'í Movement is proclaiming to the world the glad tidings that this Educator has in fact appeared, that His Revelation has been delivered and recorded and may be studied by every earnest seeker, that the "Day of the Lord" has already dawned and the "Sun or Righteousness" arisen. Some on the mountaintops have caught sight of the Glorious Orb, but already its rays are illumining heaven and earth, and erelong it will rise above the mountains and shine with full strength on the plains and valleys too, giving life and guidance to all.
