Melting Snow

Contemplating The Gate: Dawn of the Baha'i Faith

This is the first of ten entries for "The Bard's Hall Contest" .

Yesterday, June 8, 2018, I went to the Baha'i Center in Las Vegas. The event was a screening of The Bab: Dawn of the Baha'i Faith. This is a documentary about The Bab, who was the forerunner of Baha'u'llah and, an independent prophet. The Bab, which means the Gate, declared His mission to Mulla Husayn--the first to accept the Bab's claim--on the evening of May 22, 1844. At this meeting, the Bab revealed the Surih of Mulk. Mulla Husayn was in awe, and did not leave the house of the Bab until it was time for morning prayers on May 23.

The early to middle 1800s, was a time of millennial zeal across the Earth. In America, and other western nations, people were waiting for the return of Christ. In the Muslim countries, they were waiting for the return of the 12^th Imam. To outward appearances these events did not take place, which--in America--resulted in the Great Disappointment of 1844. In Persia (Iran), the Bab's message of equality and justice spread quickly across the country. This resulted in the persecution and execution of many of the Bab's followers.

This documentary, in which the face of the Bab is never shown, tells the story of the Bab. The actors portray the Letters of the Living, who were the Bab's first eighteen believers, the Islamic clergy, the Shah, soldiers, and crowds. A narrator reads the words of the Bab, while they are shown on the screen. The scene I found most moving was about the Conference of Badasht when Tahirih, the only woman among the Letters of the Living, removed her veil. This act did two things, (1) upset the men at the conference, and (2) it revealed the independent nature of the Bab's revelation.