Martyrdom of The BábToday, July 9, is commemorated by Bahá’ís throughout the world as the Martyrdom of The Báb. Today, July 9, is commemorated by Bahá’ís throughout the world as the Martyrdom of The Báb.

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But first, who is The Báb?

“The Báb (born ʿAlí Muhammad; October 1819 to 9 July 1850) was the messianic Founder of Bábism, and one of the central figures of the Baháʼí Faith,” according to Bahaikipedia. “He was a merchant from Shiraz in Qajar Iran who, in 1844 at the age of 25, claimed to be a Messenger of God. He took the title Báb Arabic: meaning “Gate” or “Door”), a reference to the deputy of the Hidden Imam, while instigating a religious revolution that proposed the abrogation of Islamic laws and traditions, and the establishment of a new religion.”

“In the middle of the 19th century—one of the most turbulent periods in the world’s history—a young merchant announced that He was the bearer of a message destined to transform the life of humanity,” according to the Bahá’í International Community’s website. “At a time when His country, {Persia at the time}, was undergoing widespread moral breakdown, His message aroused excitement and hope among all classes, rapidly attracting thousands of followers. He took the name ‘The Báb,’ meaning ‘The Gate’ in Arabic.

“With His call for spiritual and moral reformation, and His attention to improving the position of women and the lot of the poor, The Báb’s prescription for spiritual renewal was revolutionary. At the same time, He founded a distinct, independent religion of His own, inspiring His followers to transform their lives and carry out great acts of heroism.

“The Báb announced that humanity stood at the threshold of a new era,” the BIC continues. “His mission, which was to last only six years, was to prepare the way for the coming of a Manifestation of God Who would usher in the age of peace and justice promised in all the world’s religions: Bahá’u’lláh.”
Martyrdom of The BábToday, July 9, is commemorated by Bahá’ís throughout the world as the Martyrdom of The Báb. The Báb was not universally popular.

“Though He was popular among the lower classes, He faced opposition from the orthodox clergy and government, which eventually executed Him and thousands of His followers, known as Bábís,” according to Bahaikipedia.

The breadth of His writings was immense.

“The Báb composed numerous letters and books in which he introduced the ideas of a new social order and a promise that a new divine messenger was coming soon,” Bahaikipedia noted. “He encouraged learning arts and sciences, gave prescriptions to regulate marriage, divorce, and inheritance, and set never-implemented rules for a future Bábí society. Though several upheavals saw clashes between the government and Bábís defending themselves, The Báb taught his followers to be peaceful and not convert by the sword.”

On July 9, 1950, aged 30, The Báb was executed, or martyred as many people refer to his death, but it was not without miracles plainly in sight for all to see.

“When The Báb was executed for apostasy, he was tied up in a public square in Tabriz and faced a firing squad of 750 rifles,” according to Bahaikipedia. “Following the first volley, The Báb was discovered to be missing and later found and returned to the square. He was eventually killed by the second volley. Accounts differ on the details, but all agree that the first volley failed to kill him. This widely documented event increased interest in his message.

“His remains were secretly stored and transported until they were interred in 1909 into the shrine built for them by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá on the slopes of Mount Carmel {in Haifa, Israel).”

What does he mean to Baháʼís?

“The Báb fills a similar role as Elijah in Judaism or John the Baptist in Christianity: a forerunner or founder of their own religion,” according to Bahaikipedia. “Adherence to The Báb as a divine messenger has survived into modern times in the form of the 5 to 8 million member Baháʼí Faith, whose founder, Baháʼu’lláh, claimed in 1863 to be the fulfillment of The Báb’s prophecy. The majority of Bábí adherents converted and became Baháʼís by the end of the 19th century.”

Martyrdom of The BábToday, July 9, is commemorated by Bahá’ís throughout the world as the Martyrdom of The Báb. What transpired next also could not be denied and it also was linked to prior revelations.

“‘And their enemies beheld them.’41 That is, many of their enemies realized after their martyrdom the sublimity of their station and the excellence of their virtues, and testified to their greatness and their perfections,” wrote ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá in “Some Answered Questions.”1

“‘And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand.’2 This earthquake occurred in Shíráz after the martyrdom of The Báb. The city was plunged into turmoil, and many people were killed. Great agitation ensued, moreover, from diseases, cholera, scarcity, famine, starvation, and other afflictions ~ an agitation the like of which had never before been witnessed.

“‘And the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.’3 When the earthquake took place in Fárs, the survivors were wailing and lamenting day and night, and were occupied with praising and imploring God. So great was their fear and agitation that at night they could find no rest or composure.”

The Báb’s divinely revealed religion unleashed worldwide change.

“The creative energies released at the hour of the birth of His Revelation, endowing mankind with the potentialities of the attainment of maturity are deranging, during the present transitional age, the equilibrium of the entire planet as the inevitable prelude to the consummation in world unity of the coming of age of the human race,” wrote Shoghi Effendi in “Citadel of Faith.”

“The portentous but unheeded warnings addressed to kings, princes, ecclesiastics are responsible for the successive overthrow of fourteen monarchies of East and West,” Shoghi Effendi continued, “the collapse of the institution of the Caliphate, the virtual extinction of the Pope’s temporal sovereignty, the progressive decline in the fortunes of the ecclesiastical hierarchies of the Islámic, Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Hindu Faiths.”

The Bábí movement did not go unnoticed.

“He sacrificed himself for humanity;” according to scholar A.L.M. Nicolas. “For it he endured privations, insults, torture and martyrdom. He sealed, with his very lifeblood, the covenant of universal brotherhood. Like Jesus he paid with his life for the proclamation of a reign of concord, equity, and brotherly love.”

“I have known about the Bábís for a long time, and have always been interested in their teachings,” stated Russian novelist Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). “It seems to me that these teachings, as well as all the rationalistic social religious teachings that have arisen lately out of the original teachings of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam distorted by the priests, have a great future for this very reason that these teachings, discarding all these distorting incrustations that cause division, aspire to unite into one common religion of all mankind.

“Therefore, the teachings of the Bábís, inasmuch as they have rejected the old Muhammadan superstitions and have not established new superstitions which would divide them from other new superstitions…and inasmuch as they keep to the principal fundamental ideas of brotherhood, equality and love, have a great future before them. .. I therefore sympathize with Babiism with all my heart inasmuch as it teaches people brotherhood and equality and sacrifice of material life for service to God.”

“The story of the Báb…was the story of spiritual heroism unsurpassed ...,” according to explorer Sir Francis Younghusband. “If a young man could, in only six years of ministry, by the sincerity of his purpose and the attraction of his personality, so inspire rich and poor, cultured and illiterate, alike with belief in himself and his doctrines that they would remain staunch though hunted down and without trial sentenced to death, sawn asunder, strangled, shot, blown from guns; and if men of high position and culture in Persia, Turkey and Egypt in numbers to this day adhere to his doctrines; his life must be one of those events in the last hundred years which is really worthy of study. …”

Note 1: “Some Answered Questions” is “a collection of transcriptions of table talks given by ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá in ‘Akká between 1904 and 1906 in response to questions posed by Laura Dreyfus-Barney, an American Bahá’í resident in Paris, and first published in 1908,” according to the Bahai International Community’s Authoritative L