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    Quantum Mechanics, Modern Physics and the Baha’i Teachings

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    Tony Ramos
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    Quantum Mechanics, Modern Physics and the Baha’i Teachings

    When I reflect on the Baha’i teachings, which stunningly prefigure many of the discoveries of modern physics, I see an interesting pattern.

    As a physicist, I’ve noticed that most of the clearest scientific expressions and explanations in the Baha’i teachings come from the writings and talks of Abdu’l-Baha. Looking carefully, those explanations usually trace back to the original concept provided by Baha’u’llah. However, ultimately Abdu’l-Baha seems uniquely capable of pulling these concepts out, explaining them in clear, modern language, and rendering them intelligible to us—or at least to me.

    For example on the question of the ultimate substance of matter, in Baha’u’llah’s “Tablet of Wisdom” we can see the presence of the ideas later expressed by Abdu’l-Baha:

    … He (Socrates) it is who perceived a unique, a tempered, and a pervasive nature in things, bearing the closest likeness to the human spirit, and he discovered this nature to be distinct from the substance of things in their refined form. – Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 146.

    This, I suspect, forms the kernel of the idea that underlies Abdu’l-Baha’s statement that:

    Even the ether, the forces of which are said in natural philosophy to be heat, light, electricity and magnetism, is an intelligible and not a sensible reality. – Abdu’l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, newly revised edition, pp. 93-94.

    Perhaps this alludes to the other uniquely modern ideas from the Baha’i teachings about non-existence of rest and a void, which both flow from the concept of a pervasive and spirit-like essence underlying all matter. For those reasons and from my perspective, it seems it would behoove us to pay extremely careful attention to what Abdu’l-Baha says about science and the universe, despite how deceptively simple it may sound.

    With hindsight we can easily see the many important principles contained in Abdu’l-Baha’s writings and speeches—for example, the understanding that both matter and light arises from the ether, the understanding that this field represents a non-physical “intellectual reality” and that absolute rest is impossible via his statement “that motion be an inseparable concomitant of existence.” These concepts expose some of the core ideas of quantum mechanics and later field theory—which developed as guiding lights of contemporary science long after Abdu’l-Baha first expressed them.

    Louis de Broglie

    All this makes me wonder how a scientist existing before the advent of the quantum wave function might have used Abdu’l-Baha’s statements to hasten these discoveries. One could imagine an insightful individual who might have taken Abdu’l-Baha’s statements on ether and matter to heart, and seen, as the pioneering French physicist Louis de Broglie eventually postulated, that matter might be modeled as a wave; or later understood that this same field could also explain electromagnetism. Yet still, this kind of discovery requires formulating these principles in terms of the problems and the mathematics at hand, which makes me doubt anyone will discover a fully formed theory of physics hidden in scripture. Instead, we can sometimes find principles which should inspire and hopefully point the direction towards fruitful scientific inquiry.

    With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at some of the probable truths contemporary science still wrestles with and attempts to prove, and see if we can find corollaries or clues within the Baha’i teachings. Several ideas seem to be suggested in the Baha’i writings which many physicists think are true, but haven’t conclusively proven yet. I’ll list two of the most important ones here:

    The Cosmos Exhibits Self-similarity

    This concept perhaps should really belong in the category of known scientific facts, since this is a plainly observed phenomena of our universe, due to the nature of our physical laws. While it hasn’t yet been conclusively proven—it would be a very difficult theory to prove, after all—most scientists already accept it; and most laymen do, too. In part, it has driven the development of such emerging sciences as fractal mathematics. The Baha’i teachings express this cosmic self-similarity in terms of the obvious patterns of nature, from the smallest element to the largest:

    … earthly and heavenly, material and spiritual, accidental and essential, particular and universal, structure and foundation, appearance and reality and the essence of all things, both inward and outward—all of these are connected one with another and are interrelated in such a manner that you will find that drops are patterned after seas, and that atoms are structured after suns in proportion to their capacities and potentialities. – Abdu’l-Baha, Tablet of the Universe, provisional translation.

    The Cosmos is Infinite

    Despite the belief that our universe originated with a singularity, scientists now have a strong suspicion that our cosmos is infinite, populated by a multi-verse. In fact, the infinite nature of the universe is now almost a requirement for many existing theories beyond the standard model. Since science centers so much on measurement, this theory also approaches impossibility in terms of proof—but the Baha’i teachings have proclaimed the infinitude of the universe since the beginning of the revelation:

    Know thou that the expressions of the creative hand of God throughout His limitless worlds are themselves limitless. Limitations are a characteristic of the finite, and restriction is a quality of existent things, not of the reality of existence. – Ibid.


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    The Baha’i Definition of Paradise: The First Day of Ridvan

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    Tony Ramos
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    The Baha’i Definition of Paradise: The First Day of Ridvan

    Starting today, and for the next twelve days, Baha’is all around the world will celebrate Ridvan, which means “paradise,” the holiest and most joyous time of the Baha’i year.

    Pronounced rez-vahn, the Baha’i teachings refer to this 12-day period every spring as “the King of Festivals,” because it marks the anniversary of the declaration of a new religion in an earthly paradise of a rose-scented, birdsong-filled garden.

    RELATED: From Prison to Poverty and Exile: Baha’u’llah’s Journey

    That actual garden, named Ridvan or Paradise by Baha’u’llah, witnessed the birth of the Baha’i Faith, the world’s newest independent religion, in April of 1863.

    The bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq.

    It happened on a verdant island in the Tigris River near Baghdad. The garden on that island marks the exact spot where Baha’u’llah first declared his mission and inaugurated the Baha’i Faith, as he recounted in his Book of Certitude:

    Consider how all created things eloquently testify to the revelation of that inner Light within them. Behold how within all things the portals of the Ridvan of God are opened, that seekers may attain the cities of understanding and wisdom, and enter the gardens of knowledge and power. Within every garden they will behold the mystic bride of inner meaning enshrined within the chambers of utterance in the utmost grace and fullest adornment.

    A decade before his momentous declaration, in 1853, the Persian government had exiled Baha’u’llah to Baghdad, fearing the rapid spread of his teachings and their progressive impact on society. In April of 1863, because Baha’u’llah’s message of oneness and harmony continued to spread and threaten the clerics and their hold on power, he faced another exile – described in Star of the West Magazine by Jinab-i-Fadil:

    At last the enemies of the Cause secured from the government authorities an order banishing Baha’u’llah from Baghdad. It first read that he should go, alone. But later this was changed, permitting his family and a few followers to accompany him. The band of exiles left Baghdad and paused, first, in a beautiful garden outside the city. Here they sojourned for twelve days. A tent was pitched for Baha’u’llah, and around it the tents for the others. These days in the garden are called “The days of Ridvan” and they are of supreme importance, for it was then that Baha’u’llah declared, to a few followers, his great mission and began to build the palace of peace and unity for the world. He revealed many wonderful verses which sing the melodies of the New Day of God.

    When the twelve days were over, the party, mounted on horses and donkeys and guarded by Turkish soldiers, set out again. The believers who could not accompany them were utterly broken-hearted. It was as though Baha’u’llah was a king starting upon a glorious journey. Outwardly, an exile – but in his spirit a great light was shining.

    Baha’u’llah, his family, and the band of exiles and believers who accompanied them faced a grueling, arduous overland journey to Constantinople. It took them four months of traveling, on foot and horseback, through the deserts and mountains of Asia Minor in the heat of the summer. During that period Baha’u’llah continued to proclaim the mission of his new Faith – the oneness of humanity and peace between all nations – to a widening circle of new adherents and followers in each village they passed through.

    Constantinople circa 1870 – 7 years after Baha’u’llah arrived there in exile.

    This profound announcement transformed the occasion of Baha’u’llah’s banishment from crisis to victory.

    RELATED: How Baha’u’llah’s Followers Learned Not to Fear Death

    The flower pots on the ground mark the location of the bench where Bahá’u’lláh often sat when He visited the replica of the Ridvan garden in Israel, c. 1920

    So each year in April, the twelve days of Ridvan – which Baha’is observe this year from sunset on April 20th to sunset on May 2nd – commemorate Baha’u’llah’s sojourn in the garden, and joyously celebrate the birth of his new Faith. To commemorate and observe this holiday, Baha’i communities and their friends around the world remember the eve of Baha’u’llah’s banishment from Baghdad to Istanbul, not as a time of sorrow or regret, but as a happy festival of revelation and renewal.

    In that way, the Ridvan Baha’i holy days symbolize the power of the prophet of God to bring forth light from darkness and win triumph from seeming defeat, as Abdu’l-Baha said in this 1912 speech he gave in New York City:

    The Persian government believed the banishment of [Baha’u’llah] from Persia would be the extermination of his cause in that country. These rulers now realized that it spread more rapidly. His prestige increased, his teachings became more widely circulated. The chiefs of Persia then used their influence to have Baha’u’llah exiled from Baghdad. He was summoned to Constantinople by the Turkish authorities. While in Constantinople he ignored every restriction, especially the hostility of ministers of state and clergy. The official representatives of Persia again brought their influence to bear upon the Turkish authorities and succeeded in having Baha’u’llah banished from Constantinople to Adrianople, the object being to keep him as far away as possible from Persia and render his communication with that country more difficult. Nevertheless the cause still spread and strengthened.

    Baha’is believe that Baha’u’llah’s announcement of his new revelation in the paradise of the Ridvan garden brought a new, inner paradise to humanity.

    The Garden of Ridvan in Baghdad, Iraq.

    During that first day of Ridvan in 1863 Baha’u’llah revealed the Suriy-i-Sabr, known as the “Tablet of Job.” In it, Baha’u’llah wrote a sentence that revealed one of the great themes of the Baha’i teachings, the concept of progressive revelation and the inherent unity of all religions:

    God hath sent down His Messengers to succeed to Moses and Jesus, and He will continue to do so till ‘the end that hath no end;’ so that His grace may, from the heaven of Divine bounty, be continually vouchsafed to mankind.

    A decade later, in 1873, Baha’u’llah referred to that first day of Ridvan as the moment when all humanity was “immersed in the sea of purification:”

    Verily, all created things were immersed in the sea of purification when, on that first day of Ridvan, We shed upon the whole of creation the splendours of Our most excellent Names and Our most exalted Attributes. This, verily, is a token of My loving providence, which hath encompassed all the worlds.


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    How the Founder of America’s Most Important Black Newspaper Became a Baha’i

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    Tony Ramos
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    How the Founder of America’s Most Important Black Newspaper Became a Baha’i

    In the October 12, 1952 issue of Ebony magazine, a feature article appeared titled, “Baha’i Faith, Only Church in World That Does Not Discriminate.” 

    At that time, Ebony magazine enjoyed a huge share of the African-American media market across the United States and wielded considerable influence on popular Black opinion. 

    RELATED: Hazel Scott: A Famous Black Pianist, Singer, and Baha’i

    Displayed prominently on page 39 was a photograph of the Baha’i intellectual and Harlem Renaissance hero, Alain Locke, featured in a number of articles in this series. Next to the picture of Alain Locke is a photograph of Robert S. Abbott, founder of The Chicago Defender, which, prior to World War I, emerged as the nation’s most influential Black weekly newspaper. Abbott’s original motto for the Defender (self-styled as the “World’s Greatest Weekly”) was “American race prejudice must be destroyed.” 

    Portrait of Robert Sengstacke Abbott (1870 – 1940)

    The Defender had one animating impulse as the hallmark of its outspoken journalism — a strident and trenchant criticism of racism, bigotry, and discrimination against African Americans, quite similar to the Baha’i teachings on the issue, expressed here by Abdu’l-Baha in a talk he gave in Montreal in 1912:

    All prejudices are against the will and plan of God. Consider, for instance, racial distinction and enmity. All humanity are the children of God; they belong to the same family, to the same original race. There can be no multiplicity of races, since all are the descendants of Adam. This signifies that racial assumption and distinction are nothing but superstition. …

    Therefore, all prejudices between man and man are falsehoods and violations of the will of God. God desires unity and love; He commands harmony and fellowship.

    The Chicago Defender’s founder, Robert Sengstacke Abbott (1868–1940) — LL.M., Legum Magister, meaning master of laws in Latin, an internationally recognized post-Juris Doctor (JD) law degree — was one of the greatest newspaper publishers of all time. 

    The acclaimed sociologist Gunnar Myrdal (awarded The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1974), in his magisterial work “An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy” — cited in the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas — proclaimed that the Black press was “‘the greatest single power in the Negro race’.” 

    Abbott’s motto, “With drops of ink, we make millions think,” frequently appeared in The Chicago Defender. In fact, he had the power to influence and, therefore, change the entire United States of America, which he did by launching and catalyzing what is known as the “Great Migration,” when more than six million African Americans moved from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest, and West from around 1916 to 1970. Mr. Abbott became a Baha’i in 1934, thereby publicizing an otherwise little-known social movement at the time into something that would become better-known thanks to the many articles on the Baha’i Faith that The Chicago Defender would publish during Abbott’s illustrious and distinguished career.

    Since the 1912 visit of Abdu’l-Baha to the United States, the Black media mogul had been a long-time admirer and friend of the Baha’i Faith. (Mark Perry effectively rediscovered Robert S. Abbott’s compelling Baha’i story, including information published in this article).

    In 1912, the year the Defender’s first newsstand sales began, Abbott attended Abdu’l-Baha’s first of three visits to Chicago in a meeting held at Jane Addams’s Hull House. As Abbott recalled years later, Abdu’l-Baha placed his hand on Abbott’s head and said that “he would get from me some day a service for the benefit of humanity.” Perry notes that, as early as 1924, Abbott and his wife, Helen, appeared in the Chicago Baha’i community membership list. Abbott read and studied a number of Baha’i books prior to becoming a Baha’i during the 26th annual National Baha’i Convention of 1934, held in Foundation Hall at the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.

    The Jane Addams Hull House complex once covered a city block on Chicago’s West Side. (Chicago Historical Society, Barnes Crosby photo)

    One news story, published in March 1924 in The Chicago Defender, reported that Robert S. Abbott presented a lecture, “Friendly Race Relations,” to students and faculty at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, under the auspices of the “Race Friendship League.” In describing the gist of the lecture, the Defender reporter wrote: 

    Students of Northwestern University, Evanston, gathered recently at Garrott Hall, under the auspices of the Race Friendship League, a body of professors and students intensely interested in race relations. The speaker of the evening was Robert S. Abbott of the Chicago Defender. …

    Dr. Abbott, as the guest at the meeting, chose as his topic, “Friendly Race Relations.” By way of introduction, attention was directed to the great Bahai movement that is attempting, through religious forces of the present day, to bring about the hoped-for fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. …

    “I feel,” said Dr. Abbott, “that America will never take its place alongside the nations in the world until she makes up her mind that the black man and the black woman, the black boy and the black girl are sharing and sharing alike with the whites of this country in everything that makes for peace, happiness and contentment. I feel that no church has done its full duty to God and man until its doors are thrown open to all, regardless of race or color. When all races come together and serve God under one vine and fig tree, and not until then, will the blessings of God come to this nation of ours.”

    – “Northwestern Students Hear Editor Abbott,” The Chicago Defender (National edition) March 22, 1924, p. 4. 

    Little is known about Abbott’s relationship with the Baha’i community in the intervening years prior to his declaration of faith in 1934. Yet, as noted and quoted above, it is noteworthy that Dr. Abbott publicly promoted the ideals of the Baha’i Faith a full decade before his public declaration of his faith as a Baha’i.

    Robert S. Abbott and his mother Flora.

    Dr. Zia Bagdadi, perhaps the most active and prominent promoter of the Baha’i Faith among Chicago’s African Americans, had served as one of Abdu’l-Baha’s attendants in 1912. Perry notes that “it is quite likely that Dr. Bagdadi first met Abbott at the Hull House talk and was present when Abdu’l-Baha spoke to the fledgling publisher.” After Abbott became a Baha’i, Shoghi Effendi (Abdu’l-Baha’s grandson and appointed successor) wrote to Dr. Bagdadi, stating that Abbott “may truly be regarded as your spiritual son,” which shows that friendship with Dr. Bagdadi was Abbott’s primary connection with the Baha’i community before his conversion. (See Perry, “Robert S. Abbott and the Chicago Defender,” New Pittsburgh Courier (Nov. 11, 1995), p. 7.)

    RELATED: African American Baha’is During Abdu’l-Baha’s Lifetime

    Abbott’s declaration of faith as a Baha’i occurred on Sunday, June 3, 1934, the final day of the 1934 National Baha’i Convention, held in “Foundation Hall” at the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. Dr. Bagdadi and the convention delegates witnessed and described a “touching and impressive incident,” which he recounted a few days later in a letter to Shoghi Effendi:

    Just before the closing of this Convention, speaking on the subject of publicity, I happened to think of Doctor Abbot [sic], Negro publisher of a newspaper in Chicago. I mentioned how I succeeded in publishing Baha’i articles on the first page of his paper. As I finished this statement, someone in the audience shouted, “Dr. Abbot [sic] is now here with us.” The Delegates expressed their desires to hear a word from him, and he responded by declaring his faith in the Baha’i Cause! This was one of the happiest moments in the Convention.

    – Ibid.

    On June 9, 1934, The Chicago Defender itself reported on the 1934 American Baha’i national convention, stating, in part: 

    Robert S. Abbott, editor and publisher of The Chicago Defender, addressed the delegates and visitors to the convention Sunday afternoon. His talk was one of the highlights of the program. The editor is intensely interested in the Baha’i movement, and is thoroughly in accord with its broad principles as was evidenced by his excellent remarks during the convention.

    – “Baha’i Delegates End 26th Annual Convention: Followers of Faith Gather at Temple in Wilmette.” The Chicago Defender (June 9, 1934), 4.

    RELATED: Audre Lorde: Transformation of Silence Into Language and Action

    As recounted by Louis Gregory, this is what Dr. Abbott said:

    Dear friends: Sorry I am hoarse and do not want to find it necessary to speak all over again. Happy am I to see people whom I have been praying to God all my life to see, those who recognize me as a man. Everywhere I have travelled I have been received as a man save in my own country. Here my people have been cruelly treated and even burned at the stake! … Abdu’l-Baha when in America put His hand on my head and told me that He would get from me some day a service for the benefit of Humanity. I am identifying myself with this Cause and I go up with you or down with you. Anything for this Cause! Let it go out and remove the darkness everywhere. Save my people! Save America from herself!

    – Perry, “Robert S. Abbott and the Chicago Defender,” New Pittsburgh Courier (Nov. 11, 1995), p. 7.

    Abbott’s interest in the Baha’i religion was no mere passing fancy; rather, his passion and fervent enthusiasm were translated into a significant number of articles on the Baha’i movement that Dr. Abbott published (and sometimes personally authored) in The Chicago Defender, which reached a remarkably wide readership within the Black community across the United States. 

    Note: This two-part essay originated in this previously-published journal article by the author: “The Baha’i ‘Race Amity’ Movement and the Black Intelligentsia in Jim Crow America: Alain Locke and Robert S. Abbott.” Baha’i Studies Review 17 (cover date, 2011; publication date, 2012): pp. 3–46, available online: https://bahai-library.com/buck_race_amity_movement.


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    Dizzy Gillespie, Music, and the Baha’i Faith

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    Tony Ramos
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    Dizzy Gillespie, Music, and the Baha’i Faith

    …music, sung or played, is spiritual food for soul and heart. The musician’s art is among those arts worthy of the highest praise, and it moveth the hearts of all… – Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 112.

    Within the New York City Baha’i Center sits the John Birks Gillespie Auditorium, dedicated to the late jazz great, affectionately referred to as “Dizzy” due to his playful on-stage antics. Of course, many folks will remember his trumpeting skills; some might recall his mischievous humor, and still others may fondly think of his famous bent trumpet and puffy cheeks. People may also know of his numerous awards and accolades. However, perhaps not as many may know that this trumpet virtuoso and famous bebop musician was a Baha’i. Dizzy Gillespie wrote:

    Becoming a Baha’i changed my life in every way and gave me a new concept of the relationship between God and man—between man and his fellow man—man and his family… I became more spiritually aware, and when you’re spiritually aware, that will be reflected in what you do… The [Baha’i] writings gave me new insight on what the plan is—God’s plan—for this time, the truth of the oneness of God, the truth of the oneness of the prophets, the truth of the oneness of mankind.

    John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie

    RELATED: How Electronic Dance Music Brought Me Closer to God

    Born in South Carolina, John Birks Gillespie was the youngest of nine children. He began learning piano at the tender age of four, when many of us were playing at the park, and not quite ready for school. As his father was in a band, he was around many instruments as a child. By the age of 12, Dizzy had taught himself to play the trumpet. His high-caliber talents eventually earned him a musical scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina.

    This gifted young man went on to create remarkable music. In addition to playing the trumpet, Dizzy was also a scat singer and composer, an innovator, and an improviser.

    Watching YouTube videos of his performances alongside other musicians, demonstrating his fantastic horn techniques, showcasing his charming demeanor, and using his characteristic bent trumpet was not only entertaining but inspiring. But his musical prowess only reveals one mere facet of this talented man; he was also a spiritual being, attracted to the writings of Baha’u’llah—the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith.

    The William Sears’ book “Thief in the Night”—a great book that reads like a mystery novel and encourages independent investigation of reality—impacted Dizzy’s soul and led him to the Baha’i Faith. Learning about the spiritual side of this musical genius reminded me how music can cheer our hearts, and take our minds off our worries and sadness. Music is an art form that truly can “moveth the hearts.” I’ve felt this power firsthand when I’ve struggled through challenging times—times when listening to an upbeat song helped take my mind off my pain.

    Music is, in fact, so vital to all of us that Baha’u’llah discusses this topic in his book of laws:

    We, verily, have made music as a ladder for your souls, a means whereby they may be lifted up unto the realm on high; make it not, therefore, as wings to self and passion. – The Most Holy Book, p. 38. 

    Isn’t that a lovely analogy? Thinking of music as a “ladder for [our] souls” provides a mental picture of that spiritual ladder quite literally lifting us off the ground. In other words, music helps connect us to the ethereal side of ourselves and lets us forget about worldly matters. 

    In yet another excerpt from the Baha’i writings, music is used as an important metaphor for teaching us about unity in diversity:

    The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord. – Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 53.

    Dizzy Gillespie Quintet-(Jazz 625) 1966.

    RELATED: How the Power of Music Heals Racism

    This quote from the Baha’i teachings is a particular favorite of mine, and I’m sure many people can relate to its gentle reminder that, despite our superficial physical differences, we are all one human race, and we should be loved and appreciated for the uniqueness of our individuality. When united, different musical notes create a beautiful song, just as different human personalities, ethnicities, sizes, and shapes create our beautiful global human family.

    The life of this jazz legend, and the importance of music to our spiritual existence, cannot be solely contained within the confines of this short article. The legacy of Dizzy’s music will endure for future generations to enjoy. His timeless songs, and the joyfulness of his music will continue on, inspiring, uplifting and feeding our souls. 

    I hope this essay will encourage readers to learn more about Dizzy’s life, listen to his music, and delve deeper into the Faith he followed.


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    Barabbas: A Unique Baha’i Artist Paints the Big Bang

    By
    Tony Ramos
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    Barabbas: A Unique Baha’i Artist Paints the Big Bang

    How does an artist depict the human spirit’s journey? The Austrian Baha’i artist Claus Mayrhofer, who adopted the artist’s name Barabbas, attempted to do just that throughout his career.

    Barabbas was an extreme individualist in his work as a painter. No art historian has been able to assign him or his work to one of the existing art movements.

    RELATED: Healing Through Art and Activism on Chicago’s South Side

    Born in Vienna, a cosmopolitan city known for producing unique works for centuries in music, painting, and science, Barabbas was fascinated by the avant-garde jazz scene there as a young man. In 1967, he became a Baha’i, and the principles of his faith were reflected in his impressive paintings.

    In 1986, Barabbas moved to Bali, where he spent three years as part of a UNESCO transcultural exchange program sponsored by the Ministry of Education, working with Udayana University in Denpasar. He then moved to Australia, where he lived in Bendigo until his death in 2009. He was also a member of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i community in the greater Bendigo area. Barabbas’s visual work has been shown in 45 exhibitions in Australia, Germany, France, and Austria.

    What inspired Barabbas and made his paintings so unique? Let him speak for himself from his diary entry dated November 22, 1990:

    From the beginning, my painting had nothing to do with pop art, psychedelic art, etc. My painting developed through my engagement with the carvings of the Papuans on the Sepik (River), with Maori tattoos and with Hundertwasser. I also immersed myself in the art of Gauguin — who directed my attention to the Pacific region — Kandinsky, Kupka, Paul Klee and Klimt.

    Barabbas worked as an artist in an extremely individualistic realm, in which Native American folk art, the magic of the Orient, the primitive, fairy-tale quality of the naive, as well as abstraction and pop art, all flowed in. As he himself emphasized, Barabbas was concerned with the “timeless capture of the unmeasurable,” for which he coined the term Overground in the 1960s. For him, Overground meant a counterpoint to “underground” — signifying subtle spirituality, unity in art, and the desire to integrate this artistic inspiration into all areas of human life.

    Berthold Ecker, art historian and curator of modern art at the Vienna Museum, described Barabbas as the most paradigmatic Austrian painter of the 1960s and 1970s, saying that his art reveals a powerful, thoughtful, and consistently developed body of work in which playful lightness and the primal power of the forces of nature are in a tense exchange.

    The Baha’i writings explicitly value art and our engagement in it very highly — as an expression of the spiritual. Abdu’l-Baha said:

    All Art is a gift of the Holy Spirit. When this light shines through the mind of a musician, it manifests itself in beautiful harmonies. Again, shining through the mind of a poet, it is seen in fine poetry and poetic prose. When the Light of the Sun of Truth inspires the mind of a painter, he produces marvellous pictures. These gifts are fulfilling their highest purpose, when showing forth the praise of God.

    While Barabbas initially painted small-format pictures, in the 1970s, his attention turned to the creation of monumental, large-format works. In 1975, he created the 200 square meter painting “Big Bang,” also called “Genesis,” which is dedicated to the unity of humanity. It was exhibited in 1975 and 2013 in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. The realization of the unity of humanity, a coexistence of all people in peace and harmony, is one of the essential ethical principles of the Baha’i Faith. 

    Barabbas symbolically depicted numerous Baha’i principles in this gigantic painting, whose rediscovery Gerhard F. Schweter described in his speech at the opening of the exhibition in the Vienna Künstlerhaus in 2013

    The ’Big Bang’ had an extremely dramatic fate, and it is only thanks to the initiative of a few committed people that the monumental painting is hanging here at all. After its first exhibition in 1975, it was stored in the basement of the Künstlerhaus, was forgotten, did not appear in a later inventory and was rediscovered in 2011 thanks to the persistence of family members. So it was as good as gone for 36 years. This is not the only reason why it can be compared to Gustav Klimt’s ’Beethoven Frieze’ from 1902. In the extraordinary giant painting ’Big Bang’ we experience the painter Barabbas as a deeply heartfelt mystic and partly also as a romantic. He shows us a concrete utopia based on the writings of a new universal religion whose ultimate goal is the unity of humanity.

    Today, Barabbas’s painting “Big Bang” is the property of the City of Vienna, displayed in the depot of the Vienna Museum.

    Barabbas worked on the mammoth painting, as he called it, for three months. He later commented on it in a letter: 

    You have to remember that I painted the giant picture like a scroll (from right to left), but never had more than five to seven meters of canvas in front of me to work on. In other words: what I had previously painted was rolled away so that I could continue working. 

    Accordingly, the painting can be viewed as having three distinct parts: right, center, and left.

    The Right Part of ‘Big Bang’

    On the far right, Barabbas depicted the creation of the universe. Then man appears. His first cry is indicated in the stylized symbol of the sunflower, slightly to the right of the center, which represents the beginning of life. Further development is symbolized by the stylized representation of the formula of Einstein’s theory of relativity: E=mc². This is followed, in the left quarter, by a double figure walking forward, representing the dual nature of humans as both physical and spiritual beings.

    The Middle Part of ‘Big Bang’

    In the middle of the painting, the path of life leads through trials to the goal of the incomprehensible, depicted as the yellow light in the center. Without conscious effort, this journey of life into the light is not possible. First, we must climb the mountain of purifying our ego.

    After passing spiritual tests and overcoming the mountain of the ego, the path continues through a gate — also a symbol for The Bab, Baha’u’llah’s herald and predecessor, whose name means the gate. This represents the birth of a new spiritual existence. Those who are not attached to worldly and material things, symbolized by the two pastel-colored sunflowers, show that only light and transparent beings can float through this gate.

    Attracted by the light, the purified person immerses himself in the eternal mystery — the tabernacle, the proximity of the Creator. In the innermost core, emitting dazzling and radiant light, is the Baha’i symbol of the “Greatest Name:” “Ya Baha’u’l-Abha” — which, in English, means: “O Thou Glory of Glories,” and refers to the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, Baha’u’llah. (This sacred symbol is not visible in most photographs and can only be seen in the original painting.)

    This Baha’i message of the oneness of humanity refers to the beginning of an age of global unity. From this bright center, nine rays emanate in all directions. In a sense, the concept of the Big Bang is repeated here, but this time on a spiritual level — a new humanity is created, and the impetus is given for a further step in human evolution.

    RELATED: Exploring a Baha’i and Native American Cultural Perspective on Art

    The Left Part of ‘Big Bang’

    In the “Big Bang,” everything begins anew from the center, and everything is in flux. The future leads to a new beginning, and a new world is created. The left side — the end of the picture — is actually not an end. The large, hanging yellow drops on the left side mean that the spiritual development of humanity continues and always will. Barabbas said: “Actually, the whole picture drips and runs from my longing heart. It is dedicated to the unity of humanity.”

    Also, on the left side of the painting, on the way to the future, a house by a lake, mountains, and forest appears in an air bubble. On the far left of the painting, one of Baha’u’llah’s “Hidden Words” appears: “O Son of Man! Rejoice in the gladness of thine heart, that thou mayest be worthy to meet Me and to mirror forth My beauty.”

    With this work, Barabbas wanted to depict the cycle of life and creation, full of intense colors like precious stones, along with the mysterious labyrinths where we can each go on an external and internal journey of discovery, indulge, dream, and find our true selves.

    This essay was initially published at: https://www.perspektivenwechsel-blog.de/bahai-artikel/barabbas-kuenstler

    (The rights to all images in this article belong to the author.)


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    Hazel Scott: A Famous Black Pianist, Singer, and Baha’i

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    Tony Ramos
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    Hazel Scott: A Famous Black Pianist, Singer, and Baha’i

    Often, when women of color are vocal about discrimination, they become the targets of hostile sexism and are tone policed or silenced.

    And, if you were a Black woman during segregation, speaking up about racial injustice — regardless of how famous and talented you were — could cost you your career.

    RELATED: Benevolent vs. Hostile Sexism: When Race and Gender Collide

    That’s what happened to Hazel Dorothy Scott, a famous Black musician, jazz singer, and actress, after she stood up for what was right. She was blacklisted, and her legacy was almost forgotten, but the truth can’t be buried forever. Here is her story.

    Hazel Scott

    Hazel Scott was born on June 11, 1920 in Port of Spain, Trinidad to R. Thomas Scott, an academic scholar, and Alma Long Scott, a classical pianist, saxophonist, and music teacher. 

    Musically gifted from a young age, Hazel was able to play the piano by ear at just three years old. Whenever her mother’s music students would hit a wrong note, she would even yelp with disapproval. No one realized that Hazel’s cries were a sign of her sensitive ear until she went to the piano one day and played “Gentle Jesus” — a church hymn that her grandmother sang to her during her nap times. 

    Abdu’l-Baha, one of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith, said:

    All art is a gift of the Holy Spirit. When this light shines through the mind of a musician, it manifests itself in beautiful harmonies. …These gifts are fulfilling their highest purpose, when showing forth the praise of God.

    When Alma noticed her daughter’s natural talent, she set aside her own dreams of making it in the music industry and focused on developing Hazel’s gift. In 1924, Alma moved to Harlem, New York, with her daughter and mother. She played in several all-female bands and became friends with several famous African-American musicians, including Art Tatum, Lester Young, and Fats Waller, who helped guide Hazel with her music. In 1928, Hazel auditioned for enrollment in the Juilliard School of Music. Although students had to be at least 16 to enroll, eight-year-old Hazel was given the chance to audition with the help of her family friends.

    Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, described “music as a ladder for [the] souls, a means whereby they may be lifted up unto the realm on high…” And Professor Oscar Wagner was definitely uplifted after he heard Hazel’s rendition of Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude in C-Sharp Minor.” He realized that she was a musical genius and offered her a scholarship, so he could teach her privately.

    Not long after she graduated from high school, Hazel debuted in the Broadway musical revue, “Sing Out the News.” The next year, when singer Billie Holiday could no longer perform at Café Society, New York City’s first fully integrated night club, she insisted that Hazel replace her, and Hazel became the nightclub’s new headliner. She was both a talented pianist and singer, and her “Bach to Boogie” recordings broke sales records across the country. 

    Hazel never let her rising fame prevent her from standing up for racial justice. She was one of the first Black performers to refuse to play before segregated audiences. She asked:

    Why would anyone come to hear me, a Negro, and refuse to sit beside someone just like me?

    As a promising actress, Hazel also spoke about racism in the film industry as well. She demanded pay equal to her white counterparts and refused to play subservient, stereotypical roles. She even advocated for other Black female actresses to be dressed in proper attire in films as well.

    Before she became a Baha’i, she already understood, that “racial prejudice, the corrosion of which, for well-nigh a century, has bitten into the fiber, and attacked the whole social structure of American society” should “be regarded as constituting the most vital and challenging issue” in the United States. 

    Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, described the “ceaseless exertions which this issue of paramount importance calls for, the sacrifices it must impose, the care and vigilance it demands, [and] the moral courage and fortitude it requires.”

    flyer for the Hazel Scott Showflyer for the Hazel Scott Show
    Flyer for the Hazel Scott Show

    After word spread about her efforts to bring about racial equality in Hollywood, she stopped receiving movie offers, and her concert dates became very limited. Even her television show, the Hazel Scott Show, came to an end after a few months despite the great ratings it received. She was the first African American to host a television show.

    Hazel was brilliant — she spoke seven languages and could play two pianos simultaneously. She was an inspiring activist and artist to live up to, sacrificing her career to stand up for racial justice. She became a Baha’i on December 1, 1968, after she learned about the Baha’i Faith from Dizzy Gillespie. She passed away in 1981.


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    Joaquim Sampaio: A Baha’i Martyr’s Legacy in Angola

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    Tony Ramos
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    Joaquim Sampaio: A Baha’i Martyr’s Legacy in Angola

    What cause would you give your life for? When we think about early African Baha’is who died as a result of their beliefs, the names of Enoch Olinga (Uganda, 1979) and Duarte Vieira (Guinea-Bissau, 1966) come to our minds. 

    But there were other Baha’i martyrs in Africa — one of them was Joaquim Sampaio. Mr. Sampaio was born in Angola, near the city of Malanje, in 1922. In those days, Angola was an impoverished Portuguese colony, and it was forced to grow cotton as a commodity crop for Portugal.

    Joaquim Sampaio

    From his early youth, Joaquim developed a deep interest in spiritual and religious subjects. He read and studied the Bible, and eventually, he claimed to have a spiritual gift, announcing that a great message from God was coming, which would unite all peoples. He also said that this message had not yet reached Malanje, but that he would recognize it when it appeared. By then, his radiant spirituality had made him known in the Malanje area as the “Revealed One.”

    RELATED: Dr. George Washington Carver: Inventor and Baha’i Advocate

    In 1956, he received a letter from his uncle Francisco Ebo in Luanda, who told him that a new divine message had indeed appeared. Joaquim was very curious and answered his uncle with three straight questions: Where was the center of this new Faith? What nationality is this messenger? What is his mission? 

    The answer from Mr. Ebo came a few weeks later: The center of the new Faith is in the Holy Land, in Haifa; the messenger, Baha’u’llah, came from the East, from Persia; his message is to unite all humanity. Having read this answer, Joaquim Sampaio said to his family and friends: “This is the Faith I have been waiting for!”

    After a few weeks, Mr. Sampaio traveled to Luanda to meet his uncle Francisco and other Baha’is. They had long, deep, and significant conversations. The Baha’is of Luanda were impressed with Mr. Sampaio’s discourse, his conviction, and his enthusiasm. Back in Malanje, Mr. Sampaio claimed openly to be a Baha’i, stirring family and friends with the news of the new revelation. In the following weeks, they received a visit from the Baha’is of Luanda, several persons from the Malanje area accepted the Faith, and, in 1957, the first Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Malanje was elected.

    Joaquim Sampaio was married and had five children. His life wasn’t easy. He worked as a foreman for Cotonang, a cotton plantation company. He earned 350 escudos a month when, at that time, a good pair of shoes cost 250 escudos. When John Robarts visited Angola in 1959 and met Mr. Sampaio in Luanda, he described him with these words: “Sampaio is thin, undernourished. I suspect he is at a starvation level and eating almost nothing so that his family can have more.”

    Joaquim Sampaio and his family.

    In his spare time, Joaquim would ride his bicycle to go to various villages near Malanje to carry the Baha’i message to others. Mrs. Hilda Xavier Rodrigues, a Baha’i living in Luanda, described him this way: “He is the type who would love to go out and pioneer all over the country, such a spirit he has. I love the way he feels the [Baha’i] Cause and tells his friends to unite and be prudent, be silent, be observant.”

    During his travels to Malanje’s neighboring villages, Mr. Sampaio no doubt witnessed the terrible conditions in which rural populations lived, forced to cultivate and produce large quantities of cotton, and often prevented from maintaining their traditional agricultural crops, which meant many went hungry.

    Mr. Sampaio’s enthusiasm for the revelation of Baha’u’llah and for teaching the Baha’i Faith led, in 1957, several students from the Evangelical school in Quizanga to abandon the church and accept the Baha’i Faith. Joaquim’s activities as Baha’i became more and more visible. It didn’t take long for the colonial authorities to raise eyebrows at the man who they called “that propagandist of the Baha’i Faith.” Family and friends warned Joaquim to be careful and keep a low profile. After all, this new religion was not known to the authorities, and his teaching it to others could bring him bad consequences. But Joaquim ignored the warnings.

    RELATED: W.E.B. and Nina Du Bois: Lovers of the Baha’i Principles

    The police of Malanje detained Mr. Sampaio on several occasions due to his Baha’i activities. In one of the statements recorded at the police station, Mr. Sampaio is described as “the main preacher of the Baha’i Faith in Malanje,” even though Baha’is have no clergy. The statement includes Joaquim’s narrative of his discovering the Baha’i Faith and his mystical dreams. As he told the police:

    … he read Baha’i books and liked them a lot because they were not against his religion, nor against the government, there only one God and the Bible seems to be one of his bases. When he began to have doubts, he began recording them in a notebook. At night he began to have visions in which a figure he could not recognize appeared to him, and clarified his doubts about several passages of the Bible that until then were incomprehensible to him. He told these visions to several friends, and these friends later asked him to learn more about the new religion.

    John Robarts with Bahais in Luanda, Sampaio is in the middle, 1960.

    In early January 1960, Mr. Sampaio wrote a letter to a Baha’i committee. His words were almost a premonition: 

    The people of Angola are afraid because they are slaves of another race and have always been dominated. We are told that if we accept the [Baha’i] Faith we will probably be arrested. It is a shame that this spirit of fear dominates the people of Angola, because if God freed them from their cage, they would still be afraid to fly. Only the revealed ones are not afraid because they are servants of Baha’u’llah. This is not due to a lack of willingness to convey the Glad Tidings, but because people are afraid unless the enemies of the Faith stop harassing them. But the people testify that this, in fact, is the Promised One that the people are waiting for. Let’s see if in 1960, Angola will become freer.

    However, during that time, Angola became less and less free, and the activities of the Baha’is were being monitored by PIDE, the national political police. In June 1960, a document from PIDE stated that the Baha’i Faith could be a source of political unrest masquerading as a religion, and the Baha’is “are being used for the de-nationalization movement” with its “principles and teachings of development, peace and equal rights.” These allegations were not true, but in late 1960, a general strike broke out among the cotton farmers around Malanje. It was violently repressed throughout the province. In February of 1961, Angola’s War of Liberation began, and unprecedented violence and repression spread across the entire country. Any African considered suspicious by the colonial authorities would be arrested, detained, and imprisoned, his fate unknown. 

    Soon, PIDE began to arrest prominent Baha’is in Malanje and Luanda. They were all sent to a prison camp at Baia dos Tigres in southern Angola. In the middle of the night, the PIDE detained Mr. Sampaio at his home, and he was never seen again. 

    Angolan Baha’is understand that Joaquim Sampaio died in prison because of his firm belief in the Baha’i Faith. Most likely, he was the first Angolan Baha’i martyr. Abdu’l-Baha, in a speech he gave in North America in 1912, praised such martyrs and spelled out the reasons a person would give his life for his beliefs:

    Through the teachings of Baha’u’llah the horizon of the East was made radiant and glorious. Souls who have hearkened to His words and accepted His message live together today in complete fellowship and love. They even offer their lives for each other. They forego and renounce worldly possessions for one another, each preferring the other to himself. This has been due to the declaration and foundation of the oneness of the world of humanity. Today in Persia there are meetings and assemblages wherein souls who have become illumined by the teachings of Baha’u’llah — representative Muslims, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and of the various denominations of each — mingle and conjoin in perfect fellowship and absolute agreement. A wonderful brotherhood and love is established among them, and all are united in spirit and service for international peace. More than twenty thousand Baha’is have given their lives in martyrdom for the Cause of God. The governments of the East arose against them, bent upon their extermination. They were killed relentlessly, but day by day their numbers have increased, day by day they have multiplied in strength and become more eloquent. They have been strengthened through the efficacy of a wonderful spiritual power.

    RELATED: Artist Masud Olufani Honors the First African American Baha’i

    Historian Moojan Momen recalls that the political unrest that plagued several African countries eager for independence “had a great impact on a growing Baha’i community.” Regarding the Baha’is of Angola, he adds: 

    The Roman Catholic clergy decided to take advantage of the fears of the Portuguese authorities and accused the Baha’is of being terrorists. Many believers were detained and interrogated. Among the main victims was Joaquim Sampaio. He was taken away in the middle of the night and they never saw him again. It is believed that he was executed or died in a prison camp …

    Many, many people have given their lives for their firm belief in the Baha’i teachings of peace, love, and unity. Their courageous acceptance of those spiritual teachings transcended even the fear of death.


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    The Life and Legacy of the First Colombian Baha’i

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    Tony Ramos
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    The Life and Legacy of the First Colombian Baha’i

    In the mid-20th century, Colombia experienced a spiritual shift as the teachings of the Baha’i Faith began to spread throughout the country. 

    RELATED: Forging a Path From Mexico: The First Latino Baha’i Community

    At the heart of this historic development was Aura María Bernal de Sánchez, the first Colombian to declare her belief in the Baha’i teachings, inspiring countless souls to follow in her footsteps. Learn about her life and legacy.

    Aura María Bernal de Sánchez’s Upbringing, Family, and Introduction to the Baha’i Faith

    Aura María Bernal was born on June 18, 1899, in Bogotá, Colombia. For 12 years, she received a strict religious education at a Catholic convent school. Alongside her sister Juanita Bernal, she studied nursing, preparing herself for her career as a nurse and midwife.

    In 1930, Aura married Luis Augusto Sánchez Cuervo in 1930, and they had two kids — Luis and Gloria. Little did their children know how much their lives would be transformed by their parents’ spiritual search.

    Aura María Bernal de Sánchez

    Aura’s husband was a freethinker who was open to exploring a variety of spiritual movements and philosophies, affiliated with Theosophy and the Rosicrucian school. Aura often accompanied her husband to the activities of the different associations he was involved in.

    It was at a Theosophical meeting where Aura and Luis were introduced to the Baha’i Faith, a world religion centered around oneness — one God, one human race, and one progressive divine revelation. As Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, wrote:

    The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men.

    In 1942, a Canadian Baha’i of German ancestry spoke about the Faith to the Theosophical group while visiting on one of his business trips, inspiring Luis and Aura to invite him to their home. From then on, they met every week to talk about the Baha’i teachings.

    At one of these meetings, he gave the couple the book “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era” — the sole Baha’i book available in Spanish at the time. Aura began to read this book and asked questions at the weekly talks.

    Aura María Bernal de Sánchez’s Life as the First Colombian Baha’i

    In 1942, Aura became the first Colombian Baha’i, and her husband, Luis, followed suit, declaring his belief months later.

    Sadly, sometimes, people make fun of what seems different and unfamiliar to them. Aura was no exception and faced shock and ridicule from those around her for being the first Colombian Baha’i. However, she refused to let this mockery deter her, following the advice of Abdu’l-Baha, one of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith, who said in a 1912 talk in New York:

    ​Let not your heart be offended with anyone. If someone commits an error and wrong toward you, you must instantly forgive him.

    So, she continued to share the revolutionary teachings of the Baha’i Faith with everyone around her, including the eradication of all forms of prejudice, the elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty, the equality of women and men, the agreement of science and religion, the truth and oneness of all religions, the independent investigation of truth, and the importance of a universal language and education.

    Several of her friends embraced the Baha’i Faith, and the number of Baha’is quickly grew, allowing them to elect the first Local Spiritual Assembly in Colombia.

    Local Spiritual Assemblies are composed of nine elected members in a Baha’i community who, as Abdu’l-Baha described, focus their discussions on “spiritual matters that pertain to the training of souls, the instruction of children, the relief of the poor, the help of the feeble throughout all classes in the world, kindness to all peoples, the diffusion of the fragrances of God and the exaltation of His Holy Word.”

    A 1954 letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, states:

    When a person becomes a Bahá’í, actually what takes place is that the seed of the spirit starts to grow in the human soul. This seed must be watered by the outpourings of the Holy Spirit. These gifts of the spirit are received through prayer, meditation, study of the Holy Utterances and service to the Cause of God.

    “From the first moment of her life as a Bahá’í, her orientation and guidance were the Sacred Teachings, her behaviour exemplified simplicity, humility, and determined collaboration, both within and outside the community,” wrote the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Colombia.

    “Parallel to teaching the Faith, she devoted her best efforts to the education of her two children, giving them the responsibility of demonstrating ‘a model of Bahá’í life.’”

    Aura and Luis’s son Luis Augusto Sánchez BernalAura and Luis’s son Luis Augusto Sánchez Bernal
    Aura and Luis’s son, Luis Augusto Sánchez Bernal

    During the 1950s, Aura and her daughter Gloria traveled throughout Colombia, sharing the unifying message of the Baha’i Faith in regions like Santander and La Guajira. By 1960, she relocated to Manizales to establish a Local Spiritual Assembly there to help achieve the goal of electing Colombia’s first National Spiritual Assembly at Riḍván 1961. Her hard work paid off.

    In her memoriam, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Colombia wrote: 

    She always had deep conviction in the truth of Baha’u’llah and His Teachings, and was surrounded with the feeling of service. The last 15 years of her life were devoted to the care of the Bahá’í Center, and whoever entered into that house received affection and attention from her, in one way or another.

    Everyone who met her called her ‘Mamita.’ Until the last moment of her life, she counselled her family to be firm and constant, emphasising that the only real and enduring things are noble and pure acts in service to the Kingdom and to humanity.

    She passed away peacefully on August 15, 1986, at her son’s home in Bogotá. Today, there are more than 30,000 Baha’is in Colombia. Let’s honor Aura María Bernal de Sánchez’s role in paving the way for generations to come.


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    Understanding Intercalary Days and the Baha’i Calendar

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    Tony Ramos
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    Understanding Intercalary Days and the Baha’i Calendar

    This week, Baha’is around the world will celebrate four days of festivities, gifts, parties, service projects and charitable humanitarian work during the Baha’i holidays called Ayyam-i-Ha. That Persian phrase designates the Baha’i Intercalary Days, describing the four or five days in the annual Baha’i calendar that don’t fall into any given month. Baha’is set aside those days for joyous celebrations and preparation for the Baha’i fast that always follows Ayyam-i-Ha.

    Confused? Let’s start by explaining that the Baha’is of the world, just like many other major global Faiths, have a unique calendar.

    RELATED: What Are the Baha’i Intercalary Days?

    Understanding Lunar and Solar Calendars

    Most of the world’s calendars base their months, either roughly or exactly, on the phases of the moon or the earth’s 365¼ day rotation around the sun. Actually, one trip around the sun takes our planet 365 days, 5 hours and 50+ minutes, which makes solar calendars tough to calibrate. The lunar calendars depend on the moon’s 28-day cycle around the Earth to mark the passage of time. Some calendars, notably the Islamic one, have twelve lunar months, strictly calibrated to the moon’s phases. Even the universally-accepted symbol for Islam – the new or crescent moon – comes from the Muslim calendar.

    RELATED: The Spiritual Meaning and Symbolism of the Moon

    Pope Gregory XIII

    Much of the Christian world uses the solar Gregorian calendar, which also has twelve months, but which extends those months to fill out a full solar year – which explains why the length of the Gregorian months varies, from 28 to 31 days. The Gregorian calendar, adopted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, was initially designed to keep the Easter celebration closest to its original date on the Vernal Equinox. Some Eastern Orthodox Christian communities, most notably in Russia and nearby countries, still use the predecessor to the Gregorian calendar, the Julian. Both of these calendars use “leap” or intercalary days to account for the extra time of the earth’s solar orbit, adding a day every third or fourth year.

    The Hebrew calendar used by much of the Jewish community combines solar and lunar observations to produce a lunisolar schedule, which operates on a cycle of 19 years.

    Hindu Calendar from 1871Hindu Calendar from 1871
    Hindu Calendar from 1871

    The Hindu calendar, called the Vikrami lunar calendar, allows most of the people of India and Nepal to mark their religious activities and festivals. In the Hindu calendar, a lunar month can have 29 or 30 days – which means twelve lunar months adds up to about 360 days, and that the Hindus have to insert an additional 13th month every few years.

    Here’s the problem with all of these calendars, whether they’re based on astronomy or arithmetic:

    Every calendar that uses astronomy to mark its months has to base its dates on consistent observation of the Earth’s sky and its moon and stars. Astronomical calendars like the Islamic calendar and the old Hebrew calendar work that way, and they’re very accurate – except when you try to figure out when a particular date will occur.

    RELATED: We’re All Made of Stars. What Does This Mean Spiritually?

    On the other hand, every calendar based on a strict set of mathematical rules, like the Gregorian calendar or the current Jewish calendar, makes it simple to calculate when a particular date will occur – but arithmetically-calculated calendars sacrifice accuracy. Their accuracy diminishes slowly over time, because the Earth’s rotation varies, and because of that extra five hours and fifty-some minutes every year, which leap year tries to make up for in the Gregorian calendar.

    Understanding the Baha’i Calendar

    The Baha’i calendar uses a new and different approach that accounts for and corrects both of these inherent problems. It has a unique system of nineteen months, each made up of nineteen days. That means 361 days every year have very specific, arithmetically predictable dates. When the end of the 18th month occurs, the Baha’i calendar inserts four or five intercalary days, which flexibly correct the calendar every year to synchronize it exactly with the earth’s rotation around the sun.

    Baha'i CalenderBaha'i Calender

    The Baha’i calendar has more new features, as well – each day begins and ends at sunset; New Year’s day happens on March 21st, the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere; and instead of being named for pagan Roman holidays like the Gregorian months, the Baha’i calendar’s months all are named for aspirational spiritual qualities and attributes:

    …Splendor, Glory, Beauty, Grandeur, Light, Mercy, Words, Perfection, Names, Might, Will, Knowledge, Power, Speech, Questions, Honor, Sovereignty, Dominion, and Loftiness. Meditating upon these sublime attributes, man is enabled to gaze beyond the curve of time, wherein the swing and change of planetary movements exists, to the eternal qualities that stabilize the soul.

    As the seasons return with their quaternary beauty, as the seed sacrifices to the mystery of the harvest, we see reflected in the mirror of the physical world the spiritual spring-time when the Word of God is planted in the heart of man by the coming of God’s Messengers. – Shoghi Effendi, Principles of Baha’i Administration, pp. 53-54.


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    Coralie Franklin Cook: A Famous Suffragist, Speaker, and Baha’i

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    Tony Ramos
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    Coralie Franklin Cook: A Famous Suffragist, Speaker, and Baha’i

    An African American woman, who was born into enslavement, later became a famous public speaker, inspiring suffragist, and devoted Baha’i. Learn about the life of Coralie Franklin Cook.

    Coralie Cook’s Background, Family, and Career

    Coralie Cook was born in 1861 in Lexington, Virginia to enslaved parents, Albert and Mary Elizabeth Edmondson Franklin. 

    Coralie Franklin Cook

    She was a great-granddaughter of Brown Colbert — the grandson of Elizabeth Hemings, the matriarch of the enslaved Hemings family at President Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Elizabeth Hemings was the mother of Sally Hemings — the famous enslaved woman who was impregnated at least six times by her enslaver, Thomas Jefferson, who was 30 years older than her.

    In 1880, Coralie became the first known descendant of people enslaved by Thomas Jefferson to earn a college degree when she graduated from Storer College in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. She taught English and elocution at Storer College and purchased her own home from the college in 1884 when she was just 23 years old.

    Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia in 1865Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia in 1865
    Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia in 1865

    She later moved to Washington D.C. and became a faculty member at Howard University. She was the Chair of Oratory at Howard and taught elocution there. That’s where she met her husband, George Cook.

    Like Coralie, her husband, George, was born into slavery in Winchester, Virginia, in 1855. He managed to escape from slavery, attend school, and graduate from Howard University with a bachelor’s degree in 1886 and a law degree in 1898. He was the Professor of Commercial and International Law and the Dean of the School of Commerce and Finance. Coralie and George got married on August 31, 1898, and had one son, George William Cook Junior.

    In addition to teaching at Howard University, Coralie was the second woman of color to be appointed by the judges of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia to the Board of Education. She held this position for 12 years — the longest term held by any board member. She was also the director of the Home for Colored Children and Aged Women and a member of the Red Cross, the Juvenile Protective Society, and the NAACP.

    Coralie Cook’s Work As A Famous Writer, Speaker, and Suffragist

    Coralie was an ardent activist, dedicated to obtaining equal rights for women, especially the right to vote.

    RELATED: In Pursuit of Equality: 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage

    As Abdu’l-Baha, one of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith, said at a talk at a women’s suffrage meeting in New York in 1912:

    The most momentous question of this day is international peace and arbitration, and universal peace is impossible without universal suffrage.

    In a talk in Paris, he addressed how:

    the female sex is treated as though inferior, and is not allowed equal rights and privileges. …Neither sex is superior to the other in the sight of God. Why then should one sex assert the inferiority of the other, withholding just rights and privileges as though God had given His authority for such a course of action?

    He also spoke about the unique and vital role that mothers have in society:

    In the necessity of life, woman is more instinct with power than man, for to her he owes his very existence.

    If the mother is educated then her children will be well taught. When the mother is wise, then will the children be led into the path of wisdom. If the mother be religious she will show her children how they should love God. If the mother is moral she guides her little ones into the ways of uprightness.

    It is clear therefore that the future generation depends on the mothers of today.

    In her editorial, “Votes for Mothers,” published by the NAACP magazine, “The Crisis,” Coralie wrote:

    Mothers are different, or ought to be different, from other folk.  The woman who smilingly goes out, willing to meet the Death Angel, that a child may be born, comes back from that journey, not only the mother of her own adored babe, but a near-mother to all other children.  As she serves that little one, there grows within her a passion to serve humanity; not race, not class, not sex, but God’s creatures as he has sent them to earth.

    It is not strange that enlightened womanhood has so far broken its chains as to be able to know that to perform such service, woman should help both to make and to administer the laws under which she lives, should feel responsible for the conduct of educational systems, charitable and correctional institutions, public sanitation and municipal ordinances in general.  Who should be more competent to control the presence of bar rooms and ‘red-light districts’ than mothers whose sons they are meant to lure to degradation and death?  Who knows better than the girl’s mother at what age the girl may legally barter her own body?  Surely not the men who have put upon our statute books, 16, 14, 12, aye be it to their eternal shame, even 10 and 8 years, as ‘the age of consent!’

    If men could choose their own mothers, would they choose free women or bondwomen?  …I transmit to the child who is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh and thought of my thought; somewhat of my own power or weakness.  Is not the voice which is crying out for ‘Votes for Mothers’ the Spirit of the Age crying out for the Rights of Children?

    votes for womenvotes for women
    Suffragette Banner

    Coralie was a founding member of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and a member of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. Coralie, who was recognized nationally as an excellent public speaker, was the only African American woman who was invited to speak at Susan B. Anthony’s 80th birthday party in 1900. 

    However, she had spent so much of her life advocating for the rights of women and women of color and had grown disappointed by white women’s reluctance to work with Black women within the suffrage movement. Disheartened that the movement had, in her words, “turned its back on the woman of color” and did not view the rights of African American women as a priority, Coralie expressed her grievances in her speech.

    …no woman and no class of women can be degraded and all womankind not suffer thereby.

    Coralie said, “…And so Miss Anthony, in behalf of the hundreds of colored women who wait and hope with you for the day when the ballot shall be in the hands of every intelligent woman; and also in behalf of the thousands who sit in darkness and whose condition we shall expect those ballots to better, whether they be in the hands of white women or Black, I offer you my warmest gratitude and congratulations.”

    She would later refuse to participate in white-dominated suffragist organizations and activities and became very active in the fight against Jim Crow laws.

    As author and college professor Paula Giddings wrote, “Throughout their history, Black women also understood the relationship between the progress of the race and their own feminism. Women’s rights were an empty promise if Afro-Americans were crushed under the heel of a racist power structure. In times of racial militancy, Black women threw their considerable energies into that struggle—even at the expense of their feminist yearnings.” 

    Coralie Cook’s Life As a Baha’i and Racial Justice Activist

    Coralie and George learned about the Baha’i Faith in 1910 and became Baha’is in 1913. In the Baha’i Faith, racism is regarded as “the most vital and challenging issue” confronting the United States. 

    RELATED: 5 Inspirational Baha’i Women in American History

    Howard University in 1868

    Coralie and George organized Baha’i events at Howard University, including one talk by Abdu’l-Baha, and they even won awards for their social welfare work in the African American community. 

    In a letter she wrote to Abdu’l-Baha in 1914, she described how egregious racism was in the U.S.:

    Knowledge of the progress of the colored people during their fifty years of freedom has astounded the world and incited the envy and hatred of those who prophesied their extinction and argued their inability to work for themselves. 

    In the midst of unfriendly surroundings they have accumulated $7,000,000,000 worth of property raising a million and a half of dollars in the past year alone for educational work, coming out of slavery with 95 percent of their whole number unable to read or write to say that number is reduced to only 30 percent an advance surpassing that of the whites during the same period. 

    Instead of this marvelous achievement appealing to all that is best and noblest in the whites, it has seemed to have a contrary effect. Laws are being passed in many sections compelling colored people to live in segregated districts, where they have had handsome houses among white residences these houses have been attacked, lives endangered, valuable property ruthlessly destroyed, anonymous orders to vacate, if ignored, have even resulted in the use of dynamite and total destruction of a house and its contents, the Law Courts offer no redress for the word of a black man is not taken against that of a white man where Judge and Jury are all of the dominant class.

    She believed that the Baha’i teachings are “not only the last hope of the colored people, but must appeal strongly to all persons regardless of race or color…” So, she encouraged Baha’is to “stand by the teachings though it requires superhuman courage…” 

    She worked for racial justice and taught the oneness of humanity until she passed away in 1942. What a remarkable woman in our history to look up to.


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