By far the most dramatic of these millennialist movements
[in the early nineteenth century] had been the one in Persia, which had focused
on the person and teachings of a young merchant from the city of Shiraz, known
to history as the Báb. For nine years, from 1844 to 1853, Persians of all
classes had been caught up in a storm of hope and excitement aroused by the
Báb’s announcement that the Day of God was at hand and that He was himself the
One promised in Islamic scripture. Humanity stood, He said, on the threshold of
an era that would witness the restructuring of all aspects of life. New fields
of learning, as yet inconceivable, would permit even the children of the new
age to surpass the most erudite of nineteenth-century scholars. The human race
was called by God to embrace these changes through undertaking a transformation
of its moral and spiritual life. His own mission was to prepare humanity for
the event that lay at the heart of these developments, the coming of that
universal Messenger of God, “He Whom God will make manifest,” awaited by the
followers of all religions.
(From ‘Baha’u’llah’, a brief introduction to
Bahá’u’lláh’s life and work, prepared at the request of the Universal House of
Justice by the Bahá’í International Community Office of Public Information and
published in 1992.)
