In November of 1817 AD, Mírzá Ḥusayn-ʻAlí Núrí was born in Tehran, Iran. His title, Bahá’u’lláh, is the Name invoked by Bahá’ís in times of peril, sorrow, gratitude and love. The Bahá’í Faith began in April of 1863, in a garden across the Tigris river from Baghdad, Iraq, when Bahá’u’lláh, facing another exile, announced to an expectant group of followers that He is the Promised One for the current age, a Station He Himself had become aware of 10 years earlier while incarcerated in a Tehran dungeon.

Up until recent times, Iran was called Persia in English. Persia was Zoroastrian prior to 633 AD. The ancient historian Plutarch gave the time of Zoroaster as 5000 years before the Trojan war, which was in 1184 BC, making Zoroaster’s time around 6000 BC. Aristotle concurred, stating that Zoroaster lived 6000 years before Plato.

Leaping forward 5-1/2 millennia, the Persian King, Cyrus the Great, founded the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia around 550 BC, and made Zoroastrianism its official religion, although there may have been Zoroastrians among the Persians for millennia prior to that. The Israelites were freed by the Persians about 10 years after the beginning of Cyrus’ reign, ending their 40 years of captivity in Babylon. Cyrus is mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament, mostly in the books of Ezra, Isaiah, and Daniel, in praise for freeing the Jews and enabling them to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Zoroastrian teachings became part of Judaism, and  also Christianity and Islám. Concepts that can be traced to Zoroastrianism, such as good and evil; heaven and hell; and even monotheism, are taught in Zoroastrianism, and also in the Abrahamic religions.

Fast forwarding another thousand years, the Islamic conquest that began in 633 AD continued until about 1500 A.D. Gradually during that time, Zoroastrianism was suppressed and Islam enforced. Some Moslem converts were forced, but many were attracted to the then new teachings of Islam.

By the time of Bahá’u’lláh’s announcement in 1863, it had been well over a millennium since Muhammad had dictated the writing of the Qur’an, and many were hungering for a fresh revelation from God.

In 1819 AD, Mirza Ali Muhammad Shirazi was born in Shiraz, Iran. In 1844, shortly after receiving the call from God, He announced that He was the Báb, the Gate to the Hidden One.

Until the early 16th century, Iran had been predominantly Sunni.  The Safavid shah, Ismail I, who reined from 1501 to 1524, was of the other predominant sect of Islam, Shia. He and the shaws after him began to enforce Shia Islam on Iran, until by the time of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, and continuing today, Iran is mostly Shia, in contrast to most other Moslem countries, which are mostly Sunni.

In 632 AD, when Muḥammad passed on, the Sunni Moslems elected Abu Bakr as Caliph (leader of Islám). The Shia Moslems (Shi’ites) insist that Muḥammad’s desire was to have his son-in-law and cousin, Alí, become Caliph after Muḥammad’s passing. This caused the split between the two major sects of Islám. This schism that arose over Muḥammad’s heir, resulted in horrible battles of infighting, the murder of one of Muḥammad’s two grandsons, and the disappearance of the other.

In the 1830s and ’40s, an Iranian sect of Shia Islám, known as the Shakhi School, were predicting the return of the 12th Imam (Muhammad’s grandson Hasan), who had gone into hiding over a millennium earlier, because the other Imams had been killed from infighting between the two major sects of Islam. The Shakhis were expecting a man to be born the regular way and grow up, while other Shiites were expecting a supernatural appearance.

One of the Shakhis met the Báb near his home in Shiraz and was invited up for tea and conversation on the evening before May 23, 1844. During the interview, this Shakhi, Mulla Husayn, became a believer in the Báb.

The Báb taught that a new dispensation was at hand and that He was the Herald of it. The mutilated corpses of His followers lined the streets and He Himself, after sev⁴eral year’s imprisonment, in the north of Irán, far from His origin in the south, was executed by a firing squad on July 9, 1850, at the age of 30, in Tabriz, Persia. In His talks and writings He repeatedly referred to Him Whom God would make Manifest, meaning the One known as Bahá’u’lláh, Who would declare 13 years after the Báb’s death.

Throughout history, founders of religion have been spaced around 500 to 1000 years apart: Zoroaster 8000 years ago, Krishna 5000 years ago, Abraham 4000 years ago, Moses 3000 years ago, Buddha 2500 years ago, (Confucious, Lao Tsu, and a second Zoroaster, were all roughly contemporary with Buddha), Jesus Christ ascended 33 AD, Muhammad ascended 632 AD, the Báb ascended 1850, Bahá’u’lláh ascended 1892.

Bahá’u’lláh and His son, Abdul-Baha, teach that all of these and others more ancient than these, such as Adam, were Manifestations of God. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna emphasizes that devotion to the Manifested, such as Himself, is much easier than devotion to the Unmanifested, for the attainment of salvation. Bahá’u’lláh teaches that God is the Unknowable Essence. Jesus said, the Father and I are one. He who has known Me has known the Father.

Desired spiritual states such as joy, forgiveness, Divine love, and faith are difficult to impossible without a relationship to a Manifestation of God.   Just as today’s sun is warmer than the memory of a former day’s sun, the more recent are better.