This Monday, October 20th, Bahá’ís across Canada commemorate the Birth of the Bab, the first of two divine Messengers of God associated with the Bahá’í Faith. The Bab, along with Baha’u’llah, are the two central figures who founded the Bahá’í Faith in the nineteenth century.
“Bab” means “gate” in Arabic, and was the title taken by Siyyid ‘Ali-Muhammad who was born on 20 October 1819, in Shiraz, Iran. In 1844, He announced that He was a Messenger of God whose mission was to inaugurate a new period of religious history and prepare the way for another prophet of God, Baha’u’llah. Nineteen years later, in 1863, Baha’u’llah announced that He was that new Messenger of God whose central teachings are focused on unity of humankind, and who provides an understanding of the religious history of humanity that brings coherence and unity to the world’s diverse religious traditions and communities.
The Bab’s teachings attracted tens of thousands of followers in mid-nineteenth century Iran, then known as Persia. He was executed in 1850 in the public square of Tabriz, Iran, at the same time that many thousands of his followers were murdered on the order of the government and at the instigation of clerical leaders. His remains were eventual brought to Mount Carmel, in Haifa, in the Holy Land, where a beautiful Shrine was constructed that is now a place of pilgrimage for followers of the Bahá’í Faith.
There are more than 30,000 Bahá’ís living in more than a thousand localities across Canada. This past year, Canadian Bahá’ís were pleased to see the publication, by the Wilfrid Laurier University Press, of a new book on the Bab. “The Gate of the Heart” by sociologist Nader Saidi provides an excellent overview of the Bab’s teachings and how they represent a revolutionary and modern understanding of religion that was, then, further developed in the progressive teachings of Baha’u’llah. This book is available at the Bahá’í Distribution Service website.