* 1863 – Bahá ' u ' lláh, the founder of the Bahá ' í Faith, declares his mission as " He whom God shall make manifest ".

‘ Abdu ’ l-Bahá (‎; 23 May 1844 – 28 November 1921 ), born ‘ Abbás Effendí, was the eldest son of Bahá ' u ' lláh, the founder of the Bahá ' í Faith.

In 1863 Bahá ' u ' lláh was again exiled to Constantinople.

` Abdu ' l-Bahá was born in Tehran, Iran on 23 May 1844 ( 5th of Jamadiyu ' l-Avval, 1260 AH ), the eldest son of Bahá ' u ' lláh and Navváb.

` Abdu ' l-Bahá accompanied his mother to visit Bahá ' u ' lláh who was then imprisoned in the infamous subterranean dungeon the Síyáh-Chál.

Bahá ' u ' lláh was eventually released from prison but ordered into exile, and ` Abdu ' l-Bahá then eight joined his father on the journey to Baghdad in the winter ( January to April ) of 1853.

After a year of difficulties Bahá ' u ' lláh absented himself rather than continue to face the conflict with Mirza Yahya and secretly secluded himself in the mountains of Sulaymaniyah in April 1854 a month before ` Abdu ' l-Bahá's tenth birthday.

In 1856, news of an ascetic carrying on discourses with local Súfí leaders that seemed to possibly be Bahá ' u ' lláh reached the family and friends.

Immediately, family members and friends went to search for the illusive dervish – and in March brought Bahá ' u ' lláh back to Baghdad.

In 1863 in what became known as the Garden of Ridván Bahá ' u ' lláh announced to a few that he was the manifestation of God and He whom God shall make manifest whose coming had been foretold by the Báb.

In 1863 Bahá ' u ' lláh was summoned to Constantinople ( Istanbul ), and thus his whole family including ` Abdu ' l-Bahá, then nineteen, accompanied him on his 110-day journey.

This was further solidified by Bahá ’ u ’ lláh ’ s tablet of the Branch in which he constantly exalts his son's virtues and station.

It was in Adrianople that Bahá ’ u ’ lláh referred to his son as " the Mystery of God ".

Bahá ' u ' lláh gave his son many other titles such as " the Most Mighty Branch " the " Branch of Holiness ", " the Center of the Covenant " and the apple of his eye.

` Abdu ' l-Bahá (" the Master ") was devastated when hearing the news that him and his family were to be exiled separately from Bahá ' u ' lláh.

Bahá ’ u ’ lláh and his family were – in 1868 – exiled to the penal colony of Acre, Palestine where it was expected that the family would perish.

Fátimih was brought from Persia to Acre, Israel after both Bahá ’ u ’ lláh and his wife Navváb expressed an interest in her to marry ` Abdu ’ l-Bahá.

` Abdu ' l-Bahá himself had showed little inkling to marriage until meeting Fátimih ; who was entitled Munírih by Bahá ’ u ’ lláh.

Bahá ' u ' lláh wished that the Bahá ' ís follow the example of ` Abdu ' l-Bahá and gradually move away from polygamy.

After Bahá ' u ' lláh died on 29 May 1892, the Will and Testament of Bahá ' u ' lláh named ` Abdu ' l-Bahá as Centre of the Covenant, successor and interpreter of Bahá ' u ' lláh's writings.

In Bahá ' í belief, each consecutive messenger prophesied of messengers to follow, and Bahá ' u ' lláh's life and teachings fulfilled the end-time promises of previous scriptures.

Bahá ' ís do not expect a new manifestation of God to appear within 1000 years of Bahá ' u ' lláh's revelation.

Followers of Subh-i-Azal, Bahá ' u ' lláh's half-brother who tried to poison him, engaged in active opposition to Bahá ' ís, and Shoghi Effendi did inform Bahá ' ís that they should avoid contact with his descendants, writing that " No intelligent and loyal Baha ' i would associate with a descendant of Azal, if he traced the slightest breath of criticism of our Faith, in any aspect, from that person.

Bahá ' u ' lláh's son-in-law was, thus, a long-standing enemy of ` Abdu ' l-Bahá ( who had declared him a Covenant-breaker.

Evidences multiplying attesting Ruhi's increasing rebelliousness, efforts exerted my eldest sister pave way fourth alliance members family Siyyid Ali involving marriage his granddaughter with Ruha's son and personal contact recently established my own treacherous, despicable brother Riaz with Majdi'd-Din, redoubtable enemy Faith, former henchman Muhammad -' Ali, Archbreaker Bahá ' u ' lláh's Covenant.

The present descendants of expelled members of Bahá ' u ' lláh's family have not specifically been declared Covenant-breakers, though they mostly do not associate themselves with the Bahá ' í religion.

While it is the core text on laws of the religion, it is not the exclusive source of laws in the religion, nor of Bahá ' u ' lláh's own writings, and complimentarily the reader is told explicitly to not view the text as a " mere code of laws ".

*" Questions and Answers "', which consists of 107 questions submitted to Bahá ' u ' lláh by Zaynu ' l-Muqarrabin concerning the application of the laws and Bahá ' u ' lláh's replies to those questions

The writing of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and Bahá ' í teachings on gender equality and monogamy post-date Bahá ' u ' lláh's marriages and are understood to be evolutionary in nature, slowly leading Bahá ' ís away from what had been a deeply rooted cultural practice.

Some of his longer letters include World Order of Bahá ' u ' lláh, regarding the nature of Bahá ' í administration, Advent of Divine Justice, regarding teaching the religion, and Promised Day is Come regarding Bahá ' u ' lláh's letters to world leaders.

The Bahá ' í writings also state there are distinctions between souls in the afterlife, and that souls will recognize the worth of their own deeds and understand the consequences of their actions.

The Bahá ' í teachings state that the attributes which are applied to God are used to translate Godliness into human terms and also to help individuals concentrate on their own attributes in worshipping God to develop their potentialities on their spiritual path.

Bahá ' ís, however, assert that their religion is a distinct tradition with its own scriptures, teachings, laws, and history.

Concerning his own brother Husayn, Shoghi Effendi sent the following cable to the Bahá ' í world in April 1945:

The two are similar in many respects, with Mary Magdalene often being viewed as a Christian antecedent of the latter, while Tahirih in her own right could be described as the spiritual return of the Magdalene ; especially given their common, shared attributes of " knowledge, steadfastness, courage, virtue and will power ", in addition to their importance within the religious movements of Christianity and the Bahá ' í Faith as female leaders.

Another of Remey's followers, Leland Jensen ( d. 1996 ), who made a several religious claims of his own, formed a sect known as the Bahá ' ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant following Remey's death ; he believed that Remey was the adopted son of Abdu ' l-Baha, and that Remey's adopted son Joseph Pepe was the third Guardian.

His leadership style was however, quite different than that of ` Abdu ' l-Bahá, in that he signed his letters to the Bahá ' ís as " your true brother ", and he did not refer to his own personal role, but instead to the institution of the guardianship.

Contemporaneously, on this day in nearby Tehran, was the birth of ` Abdu ' l-Bahá ; the eldest Son of Bahá ' u ' lláh, Prophet-Founder of the Bahá ' í Faith, the inception of which, the Báb's proclaimed His own mission was to herald.

` Abdu ' l-Bahá Himself was later proclaimed by Bahá ' u ' lláh to be His own successor, thus being the third " central figure " of the Bahá ' í Faith.

While the Bábí movement was violently opposed and crushed by the clerical and government establishments in the country in the mid 1850s, the Bábí movement led to the founding of the Bahá ' í Faith which sees the religion brought by the Báb as a predecessor to their own religion, and gives a renewed significance to the Bábí movement.

Since the questioner is a Muslim, Bahá ' u ' lláh uses verses from the Bible to show how a Christian could interpret his own sacred texts in allegorical terms to come to believe in the next dispensation.

A prominent Bábí, and subsequently Bahá ' í, historian cites the wife of an officer who had the chance to know her that she was strangled by a drunken officer of the government with her own veil which she had chosen for her anticipated martyrdom.

Subh-i-Azal responded to these claims by making his own claims and resisting the changes of doctrine which were introduced by Bahá ' u ' lláh.

She was greatly esteemed and revered by Bahá ’ ís and even by her own children and was referred to as " the Exalted Leaf " by them.

The Universal House of Justice is seen as morally infallible, though this belief has subtleties, in that the Universal House of Justice can both make new Bahá ' í law and repeal its own laws.

Bahá ' í marriages became recognized in their own right in several regions and the Bahá ' í Faith was recognized as an independent religion by many nations and religious courts, including Islamic religious courts in Egypt.

Shoghi Effendi described the passing of ` Abdu ' l-Bahá and the start of his own administration as the end of the " Heroic age " and the start of the " Formative " age of the Bahá ' í Faith.