The prophecy contained in Daniel 12:12: “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá comments in a
Tablet to a Kurdish Bahá’í, “Now concerning the verse in Daniel, the interpretation whereof thou didst ask. … These days must be reckoned as solar and not lunar years. For according to this calculation a century will have elapsed from the dawn of the Sun of Truth, then will the teachings of God be firmly established upon the earth, and the Divine Light shall flood the world from the East even unto the West. Then, on this day, will the faithful rejoice!” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá further explains in the same Tablet that the 1,335 years must be reckoned from AD 622, the year of
Muḥammad’s flight from
Mecca to
Medina.
Shoghi Effendi associates Daniel’s reference to the 1,335 days and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s statements about the prophecy with the centenary of
Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration of His mission in 1863 and with the world-wide triumph of the Faith. He stressed that the prophecy refers to occurrences within the Bahá’í community, rather than to events in the outside world. While Shoghi Effendi clearly allied the Faith’s triumph with the successful completion of the third teaching
plan to be undertaken by the Bahá’ís, in his letters and in those written on his behalf, four specific dates are mentioned as marking the fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy: 1953, 1957, 1960, and 1963.
Regarding the year 1960 (derived by a lunar reckoning), Shoghi Effendi anticipated, in God Passes By, p. 151, and in a number of his letters, the successful completion of a third Seven Year Plan that was to be inaugurated. Had there been a third Seven Year Plan, it would have concluded in 1960, one hundred lunar years after Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration. When the
Ten Year Crusade (1953-63) was announced in 1952, Shoghi Effendi linked its completion with the fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy. There are also several references in letters written on Shoghi Effendi’s behalf that give 1957 as the date of the prophecy’s fulfilment. In still other letters Shoghi Effendi allies the “hundred lunar years” after Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration with the year 1953, although the significance of this hundred years is unclear.
Thus it seems the prophecy is not fulfilled by a single date but, rather, by a process that extended over a period of time. A letter dated 7 March 1955 written on Shoghi Effendi’s behalf says, “In the Ten Year Crusade, we are actually fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel, because with the completion of the Ten Year Crusade in 1963 we will have established the Faith in every part of the globe.” Thus the fulfilment of the prophecy coincided with the period of the Ten Year Crusade, a span of time that included 1953, 1957, 1960, and 1963.
“High constable.”
Daryáy-i-Núr
“State,” “government.”
The
Bábí and early Bahá’ís, many of whom gave their lives as martyrs
Dawn-Breakers, The
Dawning Place of Revelation
Yom Kippur
Holiest Jewish Festival
An expression used variously, according to context, to refer to the appearance of a
Manifestation of God, to the duration of His life on earth, or to the duration of His
Dispensation.
It is also used to refer specifically to the advent of
Bahá’u’lláh.
Also known as the Day of Resurrection.
Day of Resurrection
The Bahá’ís wished to celebrate ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s birthday, but He did not want this because it coincides with the anniversary of the Declaration of the
Báb (23 May), when all attention should be given to that sacred event. He gave them instead the Day of the Covenant to celebrate, choosing a date that is six Gregorian months away from the commemoration of Bahá’u’lláh’s Ascension.
The people of Daylam or Delam, a district in the north of Persia, south of the Caspian Sea.
The Daylamites established a semi-independent dynasty in Persia, after conquest of that country by Arabs.
Days of Há
Days, Intercalary
“I have asked the
Guardian concerning the exact meaning of the word ‘Dayspring’. Literally it means ‘Dawn’. It is sometimes used in the sense of ‘Horizon’ or ‘Rising point’, and taken figuratively it is equivalent to fountain or source. It can also be used as referring to a
Manifestation of God, as in the following expression ‘Dayspring of Truth’.”
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, February 19, 1935). (Lights of Guidance by Helen Bassett Hornby, page 479).Dayspring of Divine Guidance
Title given by the
Báb to Asadu’lláh of
Khoy, a devoted and distinguished believer.
An Arabian term meaning “clad in armor” applied to
Mullá ‘Abdu’lláh the arch-killer of
Imám-Ḥusayn.
A main Zoroastrian Scripture
A unit of weight, originally to measure silver.
Derived from the Greek drachma. It is still in use in some Arab states. The dirham has had varying values at various times and in various states.
The period of time during which the laws and teachings of a
Prophet of God have spiritual authority. For example, the Dispensation of Jesus Christ lasted until the beginning of the Íslámic Dispensation, usually fixed at the year AD 622, the year
Muḥammad emigrated from
Mecca to
Medina. The Íslámic Dispensation lasted until the advent of the
Báb in 1844. The Dispensation of the Báb ended when
Bahá’u’lláh experienced the intimation of His mission in the
Síyáh-Chál, the subterranean dungeon in Ṭihrán in which He was imprisoned between August and December 1852.
The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh will last until the advent of the next
Manifestation of God, which Bahá’u’lláh asserts will occur in no less than one thousand years.
Symbolic reference to the Elixir of the alchemists, that was supposed to transform base metals into gold.
God
In general usage,the term “Lote-tree” is an archaism that has been used to refer to the nettle tree; to the jujube tree identified with the mythical lotus-fruit in Homer’s Odyssey; to the date-plum tree; and to the lotus-lily, erroneously thought to be a tree.
In Bahá’í usage it is a reference to the Sadratu’l-Muntahá, meaning literally in Arabic “the furthermost Lote-Tree,” translated by
Shoghi Effendi as “the Tree beyond which there is no passing”—in ancient times, the tree that Arabs planted to mark the end of a road.
In Islam this term is used to symbolize the point in the heavens beyond which neither humans nor angels can pass in their approach to God and thus delimits the bounds of divine knowledge as revealed to humankind.
Teaching Plans undertaken within the framework of the Divine Plan include the first Seven Year Plan (1937-44); the second Seven Year Plan (1946-53) pursued at first by the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada and extended by supplementary plans adopted with the approval or at the behest of Shoghi Effendi by the British Isles, Egypt and the Sudan, Germany, India, Írán, and ‘Iráq; and the
Ten Year World Crusade (1953-63), all of which were inaugurated by Shoghi Effendi, and the
Nine, Five, Seven, Six, Three, and Four Year Plans launched by the Universal House of Justice.
The Divine Plan is divided into
epochs. The first epoch included the years 1937-63. We continue to be in the second epoch. The epochs of the Divine Plan are different from those of the
Formative Age.
A-Z :
Plan ~ Divine, of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Divine Threshold
Clergy, priesthood.
Dunn, Clara
Dunn, Hyde