Holy Days in the Baha'i Calendar:

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BAHA'IS COMMEMORATE ANNIVERSARY OF THE PASSING OF BAHA'U'LLAH

HAIFA, Israel, 27 May 2007 (BWNS) -- On May 29, Baha'is around the
world will observe the 115th anniversary of the ascension of Baha'u'llah,
the founder of their faith.

Baha'is recognize Baha'u'llah as the divine educator who, as the one
promised in the scriptures of all the world's religions, has come to
inaugurate a new age of peace and justice for the entire human race.

Edward Granville Browne, a prominent scholar from Cambridge University,
was granted an audience with Baha'u'llah near Acre, Palestine, in 1890,
two years before Baha'u'llah's passing, and recounted the meeting this
way:

"The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot
describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul; power
and authority sat on that ample brow.... No need to ask in whose presence
I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion
and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!"

Baha'u'llah passed away in the early morning of May 29, 1892, at the
age of 75.

Baha'i historian H.M. Balyuzi later wrote:

"Many there were who came to
mourn Him. They did not bear allegiance to Him, they could not see in
Him the Redeemer of Mankind, yet they knew that a great Being had gone
from their midst.

"They were from diverse backgrounds and sects and faiths and nations -
officials and leading figures and priests, learned men and poets and
men of letters, rich and poor, Druses, Sunni and Shi'ih Muslims,
Christians of diverse denominations, and Jews. From other cities renowned in
the history of the world, such as Damascus and Aleppo and Cairo, they
sent their eulogies and poems and panegyrics and tributes.

"And Baha'u'llah, at the time of His ascension, was still a prisoner of
the Turkish government."

Baha'u'llah was laid to rest in the northernmost room of a house
adjacent to where He had been living outside of Acre. The shrine is the
holiest place in the world for Baha'is - the point to which they turn in
prayer and visit on pilgrimage.



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