Correspondence to the Friends.
–
Response to inquiry from Mark Marangella:
Guardian of The Orthodox Bahá’í Faith
Nosrat’u’llah Bahremand
November 20, 2014
Hand of the Cause of God Mark Marangella
Dear Mark,
Following information is in response to your questions.
The specific times for commemoration:
Naw-Ruz at vernal equinox.
Declaration of the Bab about two hours after sunset.
Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh 8 hours after sunset.
Martyrdom of the Báb at noon
Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá one hour after midnight.
Telephone conference is not suitable for the commemoration of the Martyrdom of the Báb, the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh, and the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, which must be observed in a solemn and reverent manner. Also the celebration the anniversary of the Declaration of the Bab at about two hours after sunset and the celebration of Naw-Ruz at vernal equinox do not seem to be feasible by telephone.
Other Holy Days; Ridvan, the anniversaries of the Birth of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh and the day of the Covenant; friends can rejoice together by telephone, considering that the Bahá’í day begins and ends at sunset.
With best wishes and loving regards,
Nosrat’u’llah Bahremand
Response to inquiry from Ian Roebuck:
Guardian Of The Orthodox Bahá’i Faith
Nosrat’u’llah Bahremand
November 25, 2014
Hand of the Cause of God, Ian Roebuck
Dear Ian,
I am responding to your question about the Bahái Calendar and the activities of the bogus UHJ, who are intending to make changes in the implementation of the Badi calendar.
As the friends are well aware, wherever in the Writings of Baha’u’llah, Abdu’l Baha and the Guardians there is a mention of the Universal House of Justice, it is the true and real UHJ with the Guardian of the Cause of God as its Sacred Head, not a manmade fake and false one.
During the last 57 years, the bogus UHJ, following their creators, the violating former Hands of the Cause, did not only disobey the Commands of Abdu’l Baha, but violated and misrepresented His Will and Testament and the Directives of Shoghi Effendi. They have also transgressed against the Aqdas and violated this most Holy Book and altered its evident meaning in some parts by their unauthorized and erroneous interpretations.
During these years they committed multiple acts of wrongdoing and misconduct, each of which needs to be discussed separately.
The Bahái Calendar (Badi) is a solar calendar. A solar year consists of 365.242199 days (i.e. 365 days, 5 hours, and 49 minutes).
The Gregorian calendar, which now is used internationally, is also a solar calendar based on a 365-day common year divided into 12 months of irregular lengths. Eleven of the months have either 30 or 31 days, while the second month, February, has only 28 days during the common year. Nearly every four years is a Leap Year, when one extra, or intercalary day, is added on February 29th.
According to the Badi calendar, a Bahái year consists of nineteen months with each month having nineteen days, and the addition of four days in an ordinary year and five days in a leap year (intercalary days).
In the Bahái Calendar, each year starts at Naw-Ruz, which means ‘new day,’ and is celebrated at the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere. The equinox is a point of time when night and day are equal. It is the time that the Earth takes to circle once around the sun.
Naw-Ruz, historically and contemporary, is the celebration of the traditional Persian new year holiday and is celebrated throughout the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia such as in Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.
“Naw-Ruz and Ridvan are celebrated all over the Bahá’í world according to the solar calendar – there is no difference in the dates in the east or the west.”
(Shoghi Effendi, The Light of Divine Guidance v I, p. 167)
“It is advisable to use both the Bahá’í dates, according to the Bahá’í Calendar, and the usual Gregorian dates as well. The friends at present are free to do as they please.”
(Shoghi Effendi, Directives from the Guardian, p. 12)
The bogus UHJ has written:
“We have decided that Tihran, the birthplace of the Abha Beauty, will be the spot on the earth that will serve as the standard for determining, by means of astronomical computations from reliable sources, the moment of the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere and thereby the day of Naw-Ruz for the Baha’i world.”
This is not something new. For many years, not only the Iranian Baháis, but also all Iranians irrespective of their religions celebrate Naw-Ruz around the world at the same moment that Iranians in Tehran are celebrating Naw-Ruz.
Attached is a schedule prepared by non-Bahái Iranians showing the time of Naw-Ruz around the World (pdf and Word).
Usually every year the Geophysics Institute of Tehran University calculates and announces the exact timing of Naw-Ruz.
The bogus UHJ has written:
“The Festivals of the Twin Birthdays, the Birth of the Bab and the Birth of Baháu’llah, have, in the East, been traditionally observed according to their correspondence to the first and second days of Muharram in the Islamic calendar. ‘These two days are accounted as one in the sight of God,’ Baha’u’llah affirms. Yet, a letter written on behalf of the Guardian states, ‘In the future, no doubt all of the Holy Days will follow the Solar calendar, and provisions be made as to how the Twin Festivals will be celebrated universally.’ How to satisfy the intrinsic lunar character of these blessed Days within the context of a solar calendar has hitherto been unanswered. We have decided that they will now be observed on the first and the second day following the occurrence of the eighth new moon after Naw-Ruz.”
The above assertion shows how wrong they are. They are trying to insert two days into the calendar, which do not have any historical connection with the Birthdays of the Bab and Baha’u’llah.
This is what Shoghi Effendi himself has written in his cablegram of October 8, 1952:
“Moreover request communities observing Bahá’í Holy Days, solar calendar, celebrate with befitting solemnity the approaching anniversary of Bahá’u’lláh’s Birthday, falling in the middle of the two month period during which, a hundred years ago, the Author of the Faith received the first intimation of His glorious Mission…” – Shoghi
(Messages to the Bahái World – 1950-1957, p. 44)
The Islamic Calendar does not align with the seasons since it is based on the lunar system and has twelve months and consists of 354 or 355 days. It starts from the month of Muharram and ends on Zul-Hijja.
It is necessary to celebrate the Holy Days on the same historical days. The following quotations prove this fact:
“The Guardian would advise that, if feasible, the friends should commemorate . . . the anniversary of the Declaration of the Bab on May 22, at about two hours after sunset.”
(Shoghi Effendi, Principles of Bahái Administration, p. 56)
“The Naw-Ruz Feast should be held on March 21 before sunset and has nothing to do with the 19-day Feast. The 19-day Feast is administrative in function whereas the Naw-Ruz is our New Year, a Feast of hospitality and rejoicing.”
(Shoghi Effendi, Directives from the Guardian, p. 29)
“Regarding your question of the proper time to celebrate or hold our meetings of commemoration: the time should be fixed by counting after sunset; the Master passed away one hour after midnight, which falls a certain number of hours after sunset; so His passing should be commemorated according to the sun and regardless of daylight saving time. The same applies to the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh who passed away about eight hours after sunset.”
(Shoghi Effendi, in Principles of Bahá’í Administration, pp. 56 – 57)
The bogus UHJ proves that it is not able to understand the reason why the two Holy Days, the Birthdays of the Bab and Baha’u’llah, are considered the same in the sight of God. The following quotations show the reason:
“Behold how the people of the Bayan have utterly failed to recognize that the sole object of whatsoever My Previous Manifestation and Harbinger of My Beauty hath revealed hath been My Revelation and the proclamation of My Cause. Never — and to this He Who is the Sovereign Truth beareth Me witness — would He have, but for Me, pronounced what He did pronounce.”
(Baháu’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baháu’llah, p. 244)
“O FRIEND! In the Bayán We directed everyone in this Most Great Revelation to see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears. However when the horizon of the world was illumined with the resplendent light of this Revelation, many people forgot this divine commandment, lost sight of this heavenly exhortation and immersed themselves in the vain imaginings which their minds had devised. Indeed the face of the sun of justice and fairness is hidden behind the clouds of idle fancy, which the foolish ones have conceived. Therefore it is not to be wondered at that the movements of the birds of darkness attract attention. Through the potency of the Name of the Best-Beloved, invite thou the receptive souls unto God’s holy court, that perchance they may not remain deprived of the heavenly Fountain of living water. He is in truth the Gracious, the Forgiving.”
(Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas p236)
“At one time We address the people of the Torah and summon them unto Him Who is the Revealer of verses, Who hath come from Him Who layeth low the necks of men…. At another, We address the people of the Evangel and say: ‘The All-Glorious is come in this Name whereby the Breeze of God hath wafted over all regions.’… At still another, We address the people of the Qur’án saying: ‘Fear the All-Merciful, and cavil not at Him through Whom all religions were founded.’… Know thou, moreover, that We have addressed to the Magians Our Tablets, and adorned them with Our Law…. We have revealed in them the essence of all the hints and allusions contained in their Books. The Lord, verily, is the Almighty, the All-Knowing.”
(Proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh p.87)
Finally, I repeat the directive of the first Guardian:
“It is advisable to use both the Bahá’í dates, according to the bahái Calendar, and the usual Gregorian dates as well. The friends at present are free to do as they please.”
(Shoghi Effendi, Directives from the Guardian, p. 12)