Death of Bah'u'llah

iBrian

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I'm curious - how did Bah'u'llah die, and are there any particular traditions associated with regards to what happened after his death (ie, to Bah'u'llah particularly)? If it is not a silly question, is his person, spirit - even soul - ever invoked in Baha'i belief?
 
His passing

I said:
I'm curious - how did Bah'u'llah die, and are there any particular traditions associated with regards to what happened after his death (ie, to Bah'u'llah particularly)? If it is not a silly question, is his person, spirit - even soul - ever invoked in Baha'i belief?

It's refered to as His Ascension.

It's a Holy Day to Baha'is.

Here's an ouline of events lifted from _God Passes By_...

Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh

Well nigh half a century had passed since the inception of the Faith....

Already nine months before His ascension Bahá'u'lláh, as attested by `Abdu'l-Bahá, had voiced His desire to depart from this world....

Six days before He passed away He summoned to His presence, as He lay in bed leaning against one of His sons, the entire company of believers, including several pilgrims, who had assembled in the Mansion, for what proved to be their last audience with Him. "I am well pleased with you all," He gently and affectionately addressed the weeping crowd that gathered about Him. "Ye have rendered many services, and been very assiduous in your labors. Ye have come here every morning and every evening. May God assist you to remain united. May He aid you to exalt the Cause of the Lord of being." To the women, including members of His own family, gathered at His bedside, He addressed similar words of encouragement, definitely assuring them that in a document entrusted by Him to the Most Great Branch He had commended them all to His care....

The inconsolable Nabíl, who had had the privilege of a private audience with Bahá'u'lláh during the days of His illness; whom `Abdu'l-Bahá had chosen to select those passages which constitute the text of the Tablet of Visitation now recited in the Most Holy Tomb; and who, in his uncontrollable grief, drowned himself in the sea shortly after the passing of his Beloved, thus describes the agony of those days: "Methinks, the spiritual commotion set up in the world of dust had caused all the worlds of God to tremble.... My inner and outer tongue are powerless to portray the condition we were in.... In the midst of the prevailing confusion a multitude of the inhabitants of Akká and of the neighboring villages, that had thronged the fields surrounding the Mansion, could be seen weeping, beating upon their heads, and crying aloud their grief."

For a full week a vast number of mourners, rich and poor alike, tarried to grieve with the bereaved family, partaking day and night of the food that was lavishly dispensed by its members. Notables, among whom were numbered Shí'ahs, Sunnís, Christians, Jews and Druzes, as well as poets, `ulamás and government officials, all joined in lamenting the loss, and in magnifying the virtues and greatness of Bahá'u'lláh, many of them paying to Him their written tributes, in verse and in prose, in both Arabic and Turkish. From cities as far afield as Damascus, Aleppo, Beirut and Cairo similar tributes were received. These glowing testimonials were, without exception, submitted to `Abdu'l-Bahá, Who now represented the Cause of the departed Leader, and Whose praises were often mingled in these eulogies with the homage paid to His Father....
 
specifics

The Ascension of Baha'u'llah occurred in the early hours of the morning of 29 May 1892 in Bahji -the name of the Mansion in which he lived out his last years.This solemn anniversary is observed at 3:00 am. See this for various Holy Days

The prayer read at such moments says in part "The remembrance of God and His praise, and the glory of God and His splendor, rest upon Thee, O Thou Who art His Beauty! I bear witness that the eye of creation hath never gazed upon one wronged like Thee. Thou wast immersed all the days of Thy life beneath an ocean of tribulations. At one time Thou wast in chains and fetters; at another Thou wast threatened by the sword of Thine enemies. Yet despite all this, Thou didst enjoin upon all men to observe what had been prescribed unto Thee by Him Who is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."
 
Hm, there's a lot of romantic writing there - but is there something a little more in the Western tradition? ie, Bah'u'llah died on XX of XX, XXXX. He died from XX, and was buried XX days later in XX.
 
I said:
Hm, there's a lot of romantic writing there - but is there something a little more in the Western tradition? ie, Bah'u'llah died on XX of XX, XXXX. He died from XX, and was buried XX days later in XX.

Baha'u'llah was born Nov 12, 1817 and passed away in the early morning hours of May 29th, 1892. It is reported he had a brief illness but no diagnosis. I don't have the exact day his body was entombed at Bahji but above it says there was a week of visitation and on 7 June 1892 there was an unsealing and reading of Baha'u'llah's Kitab-i-'Ahd at Bahji. 'Abdu'l-Baha ["the Centre of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah", "the Master", "the Most Mighty Branch", "the Exemplar"] is appointed as the interpreter of His teachings and the source of authority in all affairs of the faith.Here's a view towards his tomb.
 
invoke

I said:
... is his person, spirit - even soul - ever invoked in Baha'i belief?

His Tomb is visited during pilgramage and the Prayer of Visitation was already spoken of -it is read on His Anniversaries. His Soul and the Spirit that animated it are the object of great veneration to use too low a word. He is at once the presence of God and "a man like you". His Essence (perhaps the same as soul, perhaps not?) is considered pre-existent as are all the Manifestations. He is celebrated in many many ways.
 
Ah - thanks for that. :)

So his ascension is a form of metaphor, rather than the familiar "bodily ascension" that both Romulus and Elijah were both claimed to have experienced?
 
Eepers, I should be in bed, but I want to reply a bit more fully to your questions about "where is He now?" (paraphrased, obviously) and "do we invoke Him?"

Just as the "Abha Kingdom," or the spiritual realms of the soul following this life, are shrouded in mysteries, so, in any exact way, is the - shall we say - "lifestyle?" of Baha'u'llah's present, um, situation. We don't have a convenient "seated upon the right hand of God" statement - tho that, as a metaphor for the relationship between the Manifestation and God (and what He is "doing" right now) are perfectly valid to my mind.

It would seem that Baha'u'llah (and Manifestations generally) - as best I understand it at this point - continue on and continue to possess both their individual realities and the station of Intermediary (Logos) after leaving the physical plane. There are many reassurances in Baha'u'llah's words that He will be with us always, and even implies that His power would be even greater after being freed of the earthly existence.

Baha'is are encouraged to (and generally happily do) seek His assistance and converse with His spirit. We often experience "answers" - ah, but this would need a thread of it's own to address - just briefly, that these come, I think for most of us, "apparently" mundanely - as in events and accidents and thoughts which fulfill our needs or questions in remarkable ways. Or as we sit in meditation following our prayers, in getting a strong impression of being told something that provides the just insight we were seeking in a very unexpected way.

We are at the same time made strongly aware by both His own words and by the guidance of His son, 'Abdu'l-Baha; the Guardian after Him; and the Universal House of Justice, that we must nevertheless be conscious that Baha'u'llah is not to be thought of AS God, but as an Intermediary and Expression of the divine qualities. Thus we may pray "to" Him while being aware that this is actually praying "through" Him to God.

The answers we receive, perhaps, are really God's answers. But I think, perhaps either, or both, or it doesn't really matter.

But, I truly do think Baha'u'llah Himself is actively involved in looking out for His followers and interceding on behalf of the success of the Faith. And 'Abud'l-Baha, too. Many Baha'is have vivid dreams, especially of 'Abdu'l-Baha, and there are many, many reports of seeing Him, sometimes by several people together. One incident I've read of, shortly after the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, where a mob of people was on their way to kill some Baha'is, but who were turned back by seeing 'Abdu'l-Baha walking around the premises, guarding it. That's an odd one - because the people who reported that they'd seen Him were not believers ... they might well have been people who had known Him, though, during His life, at least on sight.

I don't have any definitive theories or explanations for this. It can all be easily written off as imagination. Personally I think it can be imagination AND true. I have to say that it feels very real and believable to me, and I find that I take these stories as true on at least some level, while if anyone told me such tales about any other figures, I'm sure I would take them with a very big grain of salt. Has to do with the power of love, I think. Much as people experience and have conversations with loved ones who have passed away. Also I tend to grant such stories at least "conditional" validity, because I have had intense personal experiences of my own (tho have never "seen" 'Abdu'l-Baha or Baha'u'llah), I've certainly had a very powerful sense of Their presence sometimes, guiding me through a thicket of bad options, or dangerous possibilities.

Well -- I don't know if that answers your questions or if that's just the meanderings of an imaginative mind kept up dangerously long past it's bedtime!

You DO ask such good questions!

;-)
 
Ascension is spiritual:

I said:
Ah - thanks for that. :)

So his ascension is a form of metaphor, rather than the familiar "bodily ascension" that both Romulus and Elijah were both claimed to have experienced?

Baha'is observe a Baha'i Holy Day on May 29th which is the anniversary of the Ascension of Baha'u'llah.

Baha'is believe in the spiritual worlds so when Baha'u'llah left this physical plane we believe His influence is still there.. in a spiritual sense. In the same way, we believe Christ was resurrected or ascended we accept it in a spiritual sense. Baha'is don't believe in the bodily or physical resurrection of Jesus.

Baha'is also believe in intercessory prayer as long as you understand you are praying to God through Baha'u'llah ...

- Art
 
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