Dear readers, welcome!

I will present the Bahai Faith here at this new Forum with  texts from the revealed Word of Bahaullah,Founder of the Bahai Faith and links and sites about this World Religion.   I will answer serious questions about this Faith and also the Faith of Christ and  tell you how I have come to know it and what it means to me.
I will also meet and receive you as my guest who have doubts of the Truth of this Cause and answer you as good as I can.

Here the Bahai Faith is presented on the net :www.Bahai.org and www.Bahai.us.

Follow this link and you will both meet Bahais (film 1 and 3)and see  the historic environment in which this Faith was revealed.(film 2 and 4)

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bahaullah+and+the+bahai+faith&search=Search

In "Gleanings from the writings of Bahaullah" we read:

"The utterance of God is a lamp, whose light is these words: Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship. He Who is the Day-Star of Truth beareth Me witness! So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth. The One true God, He Who knoweth all things, Himself testifies to the truth of these words."

Here follows  verses from "Hidden Words"


                             HE IS THE GLORY OF GLORIES
     
           This is that which hath descended from the realm of glory,
           uttered by the tongue of power and might, and revealed unto
           the Prophets of old. We have taken the inner essence thereof
           and clothed it in the garment of brevity, as a token of grace unto
           the righteous, that they may stand faithful unto the Covenant of
           God, may fulfill in their lives His trust, and in the realm of spirit
           obtain the gem of Divine virtue.


1        O SON OF SPIRIT!
             My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart,                     that thine may be a sovereingty ancient, imperishable and                                 everlasting.

2        O SON OF SPIRIT!
             The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not
          away  therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may
          confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and
          not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own know-
          ledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbour. Ponder this
          in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily, Justice is My gift
          to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine
          eyes.



5          O SON OF BEING!
                Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can
          in no wise reach thee. Know this ,O servant.


I didn't know much about spirituality  and even doubted its existence in those days,(the 70ies) when I was studying art at the university of Lund (in the south of Sweden) but , surely, I was a seeker looking for Man with a big M and a big S like in security.  I had always lived without God and had no knowledge about the spiritual dimension at all.. When reading this verse ,nr 5,I felt that," O, of course I will love God, then". I exclaimed a long ahaaa, from the end of my beings toes.                                                                                                                    It may seem very simple, too simple for all of you Christian members of various forums here, who know the Bible by heart! Well, one never knows where the wind of the Spirit blows. However I was obviously able to feel love. Or able to long for it, rather, and to receive it, feeling eternity right inside of me, seeing everything with completely new eyes.   This is the "key state of mind and heart. And I was resurrected from the death of unbelief and ignorance.

I was  also a seeker looking for the salvation of the whole worlds physical existence (back in the 70ies!) as well as one unconsciously looking for spiritual medicin for my heart. Yes, I'll tell you, and you might wonder, I didn't even know I was looking for spirituality. It was an empty word for me once.
My country is a very secularised one. I thought sunday school was awful. Those ladies couldn't sing at all.
But still the miracle of Gods love breathing into my heart happened to me as I with great interest studied this Faith.  A long time , being in love," floating on the inside", both feet on the ground though, I thought that I had all by myself chosen to adhere to this wonderful all embracing Faith. But now I understand a little better that I was guided  to it, all through " the wilderness of longing", shouting from the grave of hopelessness and bewilderment at this destructive world.
Well...
are you looking for Something, something spelled with a big S like in Spirit! Then you are wellcome to independently investigate the truth of Bahaullahs Cause and hold to the first principle of the Bahai Faith. Look at the sites, check the link above. Ask me questions if you like.
I am just an informer. The Faith will be planted by God into your heart through reading His Words with an open mind and heart, without me ever trying to persuade you, myself. I wish only to be able to remove the veils between human hearts and God, that is my task.
"Independent search for truth". Isn't that wonderful!

Bye for now

Take care
Laila in Sweden

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Hi Laila, I see you have made a forum! Congratulations.  I wish you well, especially in sharing your faith!

    Hi James, welcome to my forum. And thanks for kind words.This is great fun, I will lay out many threads is my intention. Threads where Christians and Bahais meet. And all others. There is no end to them really. Bahaullah has revealed more than a hundred volymes and letters, of which only a fraction is translated to English yet.

Laila

PAUS

Today, the 21th/nov I will continue with excerpts from the Book of Certitude. This is the first book I read about the Bahai Faith. Even though the language was quite knew to me and extremely solemn, I was quite eager to understand something. The only thing I understood was that the Holy Spirit had touched me, but I couldn't at that time say what I had read. I just said (The Holy Spirit of )Christ is  back! Of course people were wondering at me, and they were saying...You believe in those things?".
The first stirrings of New Life in me was there , I saw everything in a new Light and I felt eternity surge within. I had never imagined that a secret corner of my soul would be filled with such joy and fashination. Nota bene a SECRET corner I never knew of before..
Therefore I wish to tell my fellowbeings about ithe Faith of Bahaullah.

Thus Bahaullah says, addressing the Christian World.

"Consider the past. How many, both high and low, have, at all times yearningly awaited the advent of the manifestations of God in the sanctified persons of His chosen Ones." (Like Jesus Christ and other Founders of Religions). "How often have they expected His coming, how frequently have they prayed that the breeze of divine mercy might blow, and the promised Beauty step forth from behind the veil of concealment, and be made manifest to all the world. And whensoever the portals of grace did open, and the clouds of divine bounty did rain upon mankind, and the light of the Unseen did shine forth above the horizon of celestial might, they all denied Him, and turned away from His face - the face of God Himself."   My brackets

So Bahaullah was denied by the people of His generation, He was chained and, tortured and imprisoned, then banished with His whole family and some of His followers to Palestine. During the rest of His life He was a prisoner of State.

From the old Crusaders Fort in Acre, by Bahaullah called the Most Great Prison,  Bahaullah addressed the kings and rulers of the world, its religious leaders and mankind in general, proclaiming  "in clear and unmistakable language,... that the long-promised age of world peace and brotherhood had at last dawned and that He Himself was the Bearer of the new message and power from God which would transform the prevailing system of antagonism and enmity between men and create the spirit and form of the destined world order."
Excerpts from the Introduction to the Proclamation of Bahaullah, ( Bahai World Centre 1972)

Summons to the kings and rulers of the world, collectively:

O KINGS OF THE EARTH!
 He Who is the sovereign Lord of all is come. The Kingdom is God's, the omnipotent Protector, the Self-Subsisting. Worship none but God, and, with radiant hearts, lift up your faces unto your Lord, the Lord of all names. This is a revelation to which whatever ye possess can never be compared, could ye but know it. We see you rejoicing in that which you have amassed from others, and shutting out yourselves from the worlds which naught except My Guarded Tablet can reckon. The treasures ye have laid up have drawn you far away from your ultimate objective. This ill beseemeth you, could ye but understand it. Wash your hearts from all earthly defilements, and hasten to enter the Kingdom of your Lord, the Creator of earth and heaven, Who caused the world to tremble, and all its peoples to wail, except them that have renounced all things and clung to that which the Hidden Tablet hath ordained....
O Kings of the earth! The Most Great Law hath been revealed in this Spot, this Scene of transcendent splendour. Every hidden thing hath been brought to light, by virtue of the Will of the Supreme Ordainer, He Who hath ushered in the Last Hour, through Whom the Moon hath been cleft, and every irrevocable decree expounded.
Ye are but vassals, O Kings of the earth! He Who is the King of Kings hath appeared, arrayed in His most wondrous glory; and is summoning you unto Himself, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Take heed lest pride deter you from recognizing the Source of Revelation; lest the things of this world shut you out as by a veil from Him Who is the Creator of heaven. Arise and serve Him Who is the desire of all nations, Who hath created you through a word from Him, and ordaineth you to be, for all time, the emblems of His sovereingty.
By the righteousness of God! It is not Our wish to lay hands on your kingdoms. Our mission is to seize and possess the hearts of men. Upon them the eyes of Bahá is fastened. To this testifies the Kingdom of Names, could ye but comprehend it. Whoso followeth his Lord, will renounce the world and all that is therein;...Forsake your palaces, and haste ye to gain admittance into His Kingdom. This , indeed will profit you both in this world and in the next. To this testifieth the Lord of the realm on high, did ye but know it.
How great is the blessedness that awaiteth the king who will arise to aid My Cause in My Kingdom, who will detach himself from all else but Me! Such a king is numbered  with the Companions of the Crimson Ark, the Ark which God hath prepared for the people of Bahá...Such a king is the very eye of mankind...
We have asked nothing from you. For the sake of God We, verily, exhort you, and will be patient as We have been patient in that which hath befallen Us at your hands, O concourse of kings!


Bahaullah warns the rulers that if they do not turn to Him they will loose their empires, and they would fall into the hands of the people. They all renounced Him. So they lost whatever they had. We can remember what befell the Tsar.  Only the Queen of London, Victoria uttered a few positive words on reading His Message.
"If this is from God, it is good. If it is not , it does no harm."

Since the Faith of Bahaullah could not be spread by the aid of the kings and other leaders and be taught in schools, we, ordinary people, have to carry Bahaullahs Message far and wide,and therefore I am here together with you dear adlanders.

I'll be back soon
Laila