Religions begin when a prophet first announces a new revelation, just as Christ did to John the Baptist or the Buddha did to his first two disciples, Trapusa and Bahalika.

That’s how religions are always born—a messenger of God receives a revelation and begins to share the new and yet ancient wisdom with others. The prophet’s message spreads, people follow it, and the revelation creates an entirely new reality, upending the old ways and eventually altering entire civilizations.

In that exact same way the Bab, the young herald of the Baha’i Faith and the founder of its revolutionary precursor the Babi Faith, declared his mission on May 22, 1844 to a young seeker named Mulla Husayn.

Just six years and six weeks later, on July 9th, 1850, the Bab would die in a hail of bullets from a huge firing squad, summarily executed by a Persian government that feared the potent power of the Bab’s message, the stunningly rapid growth of his new Faith, and the sacrificial devotion evinced by tens of thousands of his followers.

Baha’is believe that the Bab–a title which means “the Gate”–opened the way for the eventual establishment of the unity of humanity. So who was the Bab, whose declaration people all around the world celebrate today?

The Bab was Siyyid Ali Muhammad, born in Shiraz, in the province of Fars, Persia in 1819. (Siyyid means “descended from the lineage of the prophet Muhammad”) Born into a family of merchants and traders; raised by his maternal uncle after the premature death of his father in 1826; a mystic descended from many generations of mystical Sufis; known from childhood for his wisdom, intelligence and humility; the Bab inaugurated a movement comparable only to the birth of Christianity:

The passion of Jesus Christ, and indeed His whole public ministry, alone offer a parallel to the Mission and death of the Bab, a parallel which no student of comparative religion can fail to perceive or ignore. In the youthfulness and meekness of the Inaugurator of the Babi Dispensation; in the extreme brevity and turbulence of His public ministry; in the dramatic swiftness with which that ministry moved towards its climax; in the apostolic order which He instituted, and the primacy which He conferred on one of its members; in the boldness of His challenge to the time-honored conventions, rites and laws which had been woven into the fabric of the religion He Himself had been born into; in the role which an officially recognized and firmly entrenched religious hierarchy played as chief instigator of the outrages which He was made to suffer; in the indignities heaped upon Him; in the suddenness of His arrest; in the interrogation to which He was subjected; in the derision poured, and the scourging inflicted, upon Him; in the public affront He sustained; and, finally, in His ignominious suspension before the gaze of a hostile multitude—in all these we cannot fail to discern a remarkable similarity to the distinguishing features of the career of Jesus Christ. – Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 56-57.

On this day, Baha’is believe—a few hours after sunset on May 22, 1844—a new era of faith began, a renewal of the eternal promise of religion itself. Soon many thousands became followers of the Bab, who abrogated the laws of the past and declared that he had come to pave the way for another prophet of God, the Promised One of All Ages, who would found a universal and unifying world religion.

Historians who study the enormous societal transformation the Bab initiated often remark on the virulent persecution his message engendered:

The fire of His eloquence, the wonder of His rapid and inspired writings, His extraordinary wisdom and knowledge, His courage and zeal as a reformer, aroused the greatest enthusiasm among His followers, but excited a corresponding degree of alarm and enmity among the orthodox Muslims. The Shi’ih doctors vehemently denounced Him, and persuaded the Governor of Fars, namely Husayn Khan, a fanatical and tyrannical ruler, to undertake the suppression of the new heresy. Then commenced for the Bab a long series of imprisonments, deportations, examinations before tribunals, scourgings and indignities, which ended only with His martyrdom in 1850 … In consequence of these declarations of the Bab and the alarming rapidity with which people of all classes, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, were eagerly responding to His teaching, attempts at suppression became more and more ruthless and determined. Houses were pillaged and destroyed. Women were seized and carried off. In Tihran, Fars, Mazindaran, and other places great numbers of the believers were put to death. Many were beheaded, hanged, blown from the mouths of cannon, burnt or chopped to pieces. Despite all attempts at repression, however, the movement progressed. – Dr. J.E. Esslemont, Baha’u’llah and the New Era, pp. 14-16.

Abdu’l-Baha described the Declaration of the Bab and the sacrifices his followers made in a speech he gave in the United States on the anniversary of the Bab’s declaration:

On this day in 1844 the Bab was sent forth heralding and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, announcing the glad tidings of the coming of Baha’u’llah and withstanding the opposition of the whole Persian nation. Some of the Persians followed Him. For this they suffered the most grievous difficulties and severe ordeals. They withstood the tests with wonderful power and sublime heroism. Thousands were cast into prison, punished, persecuted and martyred. Their homes were pillaged and destroyed, their possessions confiscated. They sacrificed their lives most willingly and remained unshaken in their faith to the very end. Those wonderful souls are the lamps of God, the stars of sanctity shining gloriously from the eternal horizon of the will of God. – The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 138.

Baha’is rejoice and celebrate every year on the anniversary of the Declaration of the Bab, which sounded the great call for the unity of all peoples, cultures, nations and religions:

Know thou that first and foremost in religion is the knowledge of God. This attaineth its consummation in the recognition of His divine unity … – The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 117.

New religions begin when a prophet of God receives a divine revelation—a mystical transference of inspiration, knowledge and spiritual power from the Creator. With Buddha, with Abraham, with Jesus, with Muhammad, with the Bab and Baha’u’llah, this same basic pattern took place. Each of those prophets opened the path to a new level of human consciousness. Baha’is all around the world believe that the Bab brought into being the means for the eventual establishment of the unity of humanity.

Streaking across the heavens in 1843, a great comet alarmed many and served to validate the belief of others that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent. In that same year, poet James Russell Lowell wrote in “The Crisis”

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.

Some great Cause, God’s new Messiah…

The early to mid-nineteenth century witnessed a world gripped by millennial zeal, as Biblical scholars across the globe deduced from their studies and mathematical calculations, based on scripture, that Christ would return sometime during the mid-1840’s. Some chose 1844 as the precise year. Reactions to these millennialists varied; some were excommunicated from their churches, some committed to mental institutions, some ridiculed, some respected and listened to (Harriet Livermore preached Christ’s return on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives), while another had great followings from which sprang the Seventh Day Adventists–a religious denomination that calls 1844 “The Year of Disappointment.”

One group from Germany, the Templars, moved to Palestine and established a community at the foot of Mount Carmel in Haifa to await the Return. They inscribed above their doors, “Der Herr ist Nahe” (The Lord is Near).

In the year 1844, an official of the U. S. Patent Office wrote in a report that he believed everything that could possibly be worthwhile had already been invented, and said the Patent Office might just as well close its doors. Yet from that time on, there has been a constant and ever-increasing amount of new inventions and discoveries. That very year, on the 24th of May, Samuel F. B. Morse sent out the first telegraphic communication, tapping out this Bible text,

What hath God Wrought? – Numbers 23:23.

The press hailed Morse’s invention as a modern miracle and scholars of Scripture asked,

Is this not still another proof that the hour has come for Christ’s appearance? Is it not written in the Book of Job that only God can send “lightnings that they may go and say unto thee here we are!” – quoted in William Sears, Release the Sun, p. 192.

On the preceding evening, in a modest home in Shiraz, Persia, Siyyid Ali-Muhammad, a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad through both his mother and his father, laid claim to a direct Revelation from God, announcing:

I am, I am the Promised One! I am the One Whose name you have for a thousand years invoked, at Whose mention you have risen, Whose advent you have longed to witness, and the hour of Whose Revelation you have prayed God to hasten. – quoted by Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 21.

Although the Bab brought his own religion and his own holy book, he proclaimed his entire purpose was to prepare the way for the coming of an even greater revelation:

The purpose underlying this Revelation, as well as those that preceded it, has, in like manner, been to announce the advent of the Faith of Him Whom God will make manifest. – The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 105.

That is just one of many references the Bab made to Baha’u’llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha’i Faith.

Hundreds of thousands of people became Babis, but the Bab’s followers were cruelly persecuted. Fanatical leaders within the Persian Shi’a Islamic community feared losing their power over the people, and jealous government officials felt their political careers would be in jeopardy should this new Faith continue to spread unchecked. Over 20,000 lives, including that of the gentle Bab himself, were sacrificed in unspeakably cruel and vicious attacks.

Following the public execution of the Bab by firing squad, the authorities had his body tossed at the edge of a moat, intent on it being devoured by animals. Sentinels were stationed to guard it from being retrieved by the Bab’s followers. But they kept a constant watch, waiting for the sentinels to be distracted or drift off to sleep. Their patience was rewarded, and they succeeded in rescuing the remains which were kept hidden for many years, having to be moved from place to place to avoid discovery. Finally they were interred on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land—in the exact spot designated by Baha’u’llah—directly above the street of the homes of the Templars. A befitting monument has now been erected over this final resting place.

The martyrdom of the Bab and his followers, rather than wiping out the new religion, only served to kindle the flame in the hearts of the believers and whet the curiosity of others, many of whom investigated the new Faith and joined it.

And, as foretold by the Bab, his revelation was quickly followed by the Baha’i Faith. Baha’u’llah’s teachings revolve around unity and oneness:

• The unity of God. There is only one God, by whatever name people choose.
• The essential unity of all religions. All the major religions have been direct revelations from the one God and are like the chapters of a single book, each one following logically and developing further the great author’s message.
• The oneness of humanity. There is only one race, the human race, and our outward differences are to be appreciated for their variety and beauty, like the beautiful blending of various flowers in a magnificent garden.

Followers of Baha’u’llah are called Baha’is, and though they profess the Baha’i Faith, the lives and revelations of the Bab and Baha’u’llah are so closely intertwined as to be practically inseparable. Therefore, the year 1844, the date of the Declaration of the Bab, is considered the first year in the Baha’i calendar.

Today Baha’is all around the world observe this solemn anniversary called the Martyrdom of the Bab.

At sunset on Friday, November 1, 2024, Baha’is everywhere will begin joyously celebrating the birthday of the Bab, the forerunner of Baha’u’llah and the founder of the Babi Faith — and you’re invited!

Observed each year in October or November, the Bab’s birthday marks the first of two successive Baha’i Holy Days. Celebrated on the following sunset, on Saturday, November 2, 2024, the birthday of Baha’u’llah will be celebrated, capping these Twin Holy Days with another important observance. Together, these celebrations create one of the happiest and most delightful times of the year throughout the global Baha’i community.

RELATED: The Birth of the Bab: First of the Twin Holy Days

Baha’u’llah, in his “Most Holy Book,” asked the Baha’is to celebrate a feast of unity, joy, and commemoration on each of these two special days, making them second in importance in the Baha’i calendar to the two “Most Great Festivals,” which commemorate the Declaration of Baha’u’llah in the garden of Ridvan in 1863 and the Declaration of the Bab in Shiraz in 1844. In his “Most Holy Book,” Baha’u’llah wrote:

All Feasts have attained their consummation in the two Most Great Festivals, and in the two other Festivals that fall on the twin days … Thus hath it been decreed by Him Who is the Ordainer, the Omniscient.

The first of these Twin Holy Days commemorates the birthday of the Bab, whose title means “the gate.” The Bab, as Baha’u’llah’s predecessor and as a prophet of God in his own right, unlocked the metaphorical gate of the advent of a new age of fulfillment and maturation for all humanity. His revelation’s primary mission — to herald the arrival of a divinely-inspired spiritual educator the Bab referred to as “He Whom God shall make manifest” — opened the way for the coming of Baha’u’llah:

Denounce ye not one another, ere the Day-Star of ancient eternity shineth forth above the horizon of His sublimity. We have created you from one tree and have caused you to be as the leaves and fruit of the same tree, that haply ye may become a source of comfort to one another. Regard ye not others save as ye regard your own selves, that no feeling of aversion may prevail amongst you so as to shut you out from Him Whom God shall make manifest on the Day of Resurrection. It behooveth you all to be one indivisible people; thus should ye return unto Him Whom God shall make manifest. 

Like John the Baptist, the Bab instructed his hopeful followers to prepare for a new prophet’s appearance. He also announced the coming of a new era in human history, one that would witness the emergence of a just, unified, peaceful world civilization. 

Baha’is call these Holy Days “twins” because the lunar calendar in use when the Bab and Baha’u’llah were born in Persia caused their birthdays to fall on successive days. The Bab was born on the first day of the month of Muharram in the Islamic lunar calendar, in the Gregorian year 1819, and Baha’u’llah’s birthday occurred in 1817 on the second day of that same month. Born just a day short of two years apart, both of these prophets and founders of their respective Faiths are now celebrated around the world.

For decades in the Middle East, Baha’is traditionally observed those Holy Days in accordance with the Muslim lunar calendar and celebrated them together on consecutive dates, counting them as a single two-day festival. Baha’u’llah himself observed them this way. 

In the Islamic lunar calendar, however, the actual dates of the Twin Holy Days change every year because each new month begins with the appearance of a new moon. In relationship to the solar calendar, the Muslim calendar “loses” about eleven days every year since twelve lunar cycles amount to approximately 354 days, which falls short of a full solar cycle. In the Western solar calendar, the Bab’s and Baha’u’llah’s birthdays occur about three weeks apart. That means Baha’u’llah’s birthday — 2 Muharram of the Islamic calendar year 1233 A.H. — fell on November 12, 1817; while the Bab’s birthday – 1 Muharram of 1235 A.H. — fell on October 20, 1819.

In the global West, Baha’is used to observe the Twin Holy Days on October 20 and November 12, the historical Gregorian calendar — but in 2014, a significant shift took place in that practice. The Universal House of Justice, the democratically-elected global leadership body for the world’s Baha’is, asked the Baha’is to begin celebrating these joyous holy days according to a new, unique melding of the solar and the lunar calendars. Instead of relying solely on either calendar, Baha’is now celebrate the Twin Holy Days eight lunar months from the Baha’i New Year, which occurs on the vernal equinox of the solar year, usually March 21.

In that way, just as the Baha’i teachings reconcile and unite the religions, so too do they unite and reconcile the world’s calendars, adapting the lunar and solar observances into one.

RELATED: The Baha’i Faith Begins with the Bab

Would you like to celebrate with us? Of course, when Baha’is observe these happy occasions, everyone is invited. At the worldwide Baha’i gatherings for the birth of the Bab today, and the birth of Baha’u’llah tomorrow, happiness and good cheer will prevail. Music will play, friends will come together, children will laugh, and warm fellowship will fill the air. In past celebrations, that fellowship and love have happened in person, but in the era of the global pandemic, many Baha’i communities will get together online. 

Held during the autumn months in the Northern hemisphere and in the spring in the Southern part of the world, the Twin Holy Days signal a joyful, celebratory season of the Baha’i year, when the Baha’i community comes together to commemorate the advent of their two prophets of God, the Bab and Baha’u’llah, the twin founders of their Faith, and to hail the beginning of a new era in human unity. 

Happy Birthday of the Bab!