End of Days by Sylvia Browne

Posted by admin_akashic on Aug 9th, 2022 in Stories

He was brought to Tabriz in northern Iran and suspended in front of a firing squad in a square where the public could witness his execution.

On command, the squad of soldiers fired at the Bab. In what the Baha’i regard as a great miracle of their faith, not a single bullet struck the Bab, and he actually seemed to vanish into thin air. He was discovered later, committing his final words to writing, and was brought back to the public square. The first firing squad refused to participate in another attempt at executing the Bab, so a replacement firing squad was summoned. They tragically succeeded, and the Bab was killed. His body was spirited away by a few of his followers and eventually interred in a shrine at Mount Carmel in the city of Haifa.

One of the Bab’s primary missions on Earth was to prepare humankind for the impending arrival of another great prophet and teacher who would lead the world into a new era of global peace. In 1863 a follower of the Bab named Mirza H’usayn Ali Nuri, whose father was an Iranian nobleman, declared that he himself was that prophet and teacher. He took the title Baha’u’llah, which translates to “the glory of God,” and was the leader to whom the Bab’s followers turned after the Bab’s execution.

The Babis were still being tortured and killed when Baha’u’llah took charge of the Bab’s faithful, and he was arrested and severely beaten many times. It was while imprisoned in an underground pit that he had a vision considered in the Baha’i Faith to be equivalent to the Burning Bush that transformed Moses and to the enlightenment of Siddhartha beneath the Bodhi Tree that elevated him to the great Buddha:

While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden—the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord—suspended in the air before Me. So rejoiced was she in her very soul that her countenance shone with the ornament of the good-pleasure of God, and her cheeks glowed

with the brightness of the All-Merciful. Betwixt earth and heaven she was raising a call which captivated the hearts and minds of men. She was imparting to both My inward and outer being tidings which rejoiced My soul, and the souls of God’s honoured servants. Pointing with her finger unto My head, she addressed all who are in heaven and all who are on earth, saying: “By God! This is the Best-Beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but understand. This is the Mystery of God and His Treasure, the Cause of God and His glory unto all who are in the kingdoms of Revelation and of creation, if ye be of them that perceive.”

—from God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi

Before he died in 1892, Baha’u’llah had created the Baha’i Faith based on the teachings of the Bab. The Baha’is believe in one God, the Supreme Being who sent such divine teachers and prophets as Buddha, Abraham, Jesus, Moses, Krishna, Zarathustra, and Muhammad—in addition to the Bab and Baha’u’llah—to educate humankind on the religious revelations that will guide “an ever-advancing civilization.” They believe in unity, expressed in Baha’u’llah’s writings with the statement that “the earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” This global civilization must and will include such principles as the total elimination of prejudice; a uniting of the world’s great religions based on the fact that they share one omnipotent Source; elimination of both extreme poverty and extreme wealth; mandated worldwide education; a cooperative harmony among the religious and scientific communities; and the teaching that every person is responsible for their own search for truth and wisdom.

The Baha’i belief about “sin” has nothing to do with an external evil power or even necessarily with the concepts of “right” and “wrong.” Instead, sin is anything that interferes with spiritual progress, while right or good is anything that is helpful and encouraging to spiritual progress. One of the greatest hindrances to spiritual progress, they believe, is pride, since it creates illusions of overimportance and superiority