In the seaside city of Haifa (Israel), there are amazingly beautiful gardens that "sew" from top to bottom half of the city, and unique architectural buildings - the embodiment of the philosophy of the youngest religion on Earth - the Bahai. This religion is monotheistic and autonomous - it is not a branch of Christianity, Judaism, Islam or Buddhism. In order to visit such a truly fabulous place, tens of thousands of tourists from all over the world come here every year.
Divine revelation
In 1844, in the Persian city of Shiraz, a man named Sayyid Ali Muhammad declared himself Bab, that is, a mediator who carried the news of the imminent appearance of a new messenger of the Most High on Earth. Acting as the bearer of a new divine revelation, the Báb considered himself the forerunner of the coming prophet and saw his destiny in preparing humanity for his coming.
The new teaching spread quickly, and the number of Babis, as the adherents of the Shiraz preacher began to call themselves, grew rapidly. Moreover, all this aroused the anger of the authorities and the clergy, since the ideas of the Bab were adopted by the opponents of the then Persian regime. As a result, Muhammad was arrested, tried, and in 1850 he was publicly shot in one of the central squares of Tabriz.
The successor to the work of the Bab was Mirza Hussein-Ali, the heir to one of the most ancient families of Persia. In the winter of 1852, while in prison on charges of complicity with the Babis, Ali, as he claimed, received a divine revelation: he was to become the messenger of the Most High. At certain stages of history, said the successor of the Bab, God sends prophets who educate humanity in accordance with the requirements and demands of the time. These messengers were Abraham, Moses, Zarathustra, Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, and Muhammad. And now the time has come for a new prophet, which Mirza Hussein-Ali proclaimed himself, accepting the title of Bahá'u'lláh, which means "Glory of God."
For such blasphemous ideas from the point of view of Islam, the new prophet was subjected to severe persecution. In 1853, Bahá'u'lláh was exiled outside the country, and 15 years later, after passing through the prison chambers of Baghdad, Constantinople and Adrianople, he ended up in Palestine, in Akko (now the city is located in Israel).
The holy book of the new faith
In 1879, the prophet settled not far from his last place of imprisonment - in the Bahji estate, where he created the Kitab-i-Aqdas - the holy book of the new faith.
The unification of all mankind, the rapprochement of various religions, the reconciliation of religion and science, the establishment of an international arbitration court, the establishment of universal peace, the creation of a single international language, the liberation of women, the introduction of universal education, the abolition of slavery and industrial enslavement, the organization of a single society with rights and freedom for everyone - here are the basic principles put forward in this essay. They formed the basis for a new monotheistic religion called Bahai.
Bahá'u'lláh died in 1892 at the age of 74 and was buried in one of the rooms of the mansion in Bahji, but his son Abbas, aka Abdu'l-Bahá, and his grandson continued the work of the herald. Shoghi Effendi, through whose efforts Vera Bahai has won numerous adherents on all continents.
At one time, visiting Haifa. Bahá'u'lláh indicated the place where the remains of the Bab were to be reburied. A consistent follower of the traditions of monotheism, the prophet knew perfectly well the history of these places and the holiness of the Carmel mountain range (in the Bible it is called Mount Carmel) for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and in his writings he characterized this place with the following words: “Give thanks to your Lord, O Carmel! There was no deliverance for you from the heat of separation from me that consumed you, and now I appeared to you as an ocean that surged in front of your face, and your eyes and all things rejoiced.
He truly loved the place where His throne was set, where His feet stepped, the place that He honored with His presence, from which He raised His voice and which He watered with His tears."
Therefore, in 1909, Abbas transported the remains of the Bab to Haifa and buried them in a tomb specially arranged for this purpose on the picturesque slope of the Carmel. And in 1921 he himself was buried here. Subsequently, a wonderful park was laid out around the holy graves and the small mansion where Abdu'l-Bahá once lived.
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Bahai Garden of 18 Terraces
In 1953, according to the design of the Canadian architect William Sutherland Maxwell, the so-called Golden Dome was erected over the tomb of the Bab built in 1909. For its construction were used marble and granite, mined and processed in Italy, local Carmel limestone, as well as tiles and golden tiles made by a special firing method, made by Dutch craftsmen. Inside, the temple is filled with flowers, colorful carpets, vases and original lamps.
In May 2001, the hanging gardens were inaugurated on the side of the mountain, turning this corner of Haifa into a real wonder of the world. They represent 18 terraces ranging from 60 to 400 meters wide, spreading along the side of the mountain from Louis Avenue in the Central Carmel region to Ha-Gefen Street in the German Colony.
In the center of this openwork necklace, like a precious stone, shines the Tomb of the Bab, framed by a man-made park. The 1,700 steps leading up to the temple lead past tall palms, silvery olives, cypresses, year-round flowers and cacti of a wide variety of varieties and sizes. Visitors are greeted here with bizarre vases, figurines of outlandish animals and birds, numerous fountains and gurgling streams underfoot, shady paths strewn with fragments of red tiles or sea pebbles.
Everything around creates an atmosphere of tranquility, peace and high spirituality. Every evening, this man-made miracle is colored with hundreds of lights, and Carmel turns into a fantastic Christmas tree with a giant garland.
The globe is one country
At the top of the gardens are the administrative offices of the Bahai. It is here that the World House of Justice is located, built in 1983 by the Iranian architect Hussein Amanat. The Bahai International Archive, which began its work in 1957, contains relics related to the life of the founders of the new religion, and the originals of their works.
In 1999, the Center for the Study of Scriptures opened here, and a year later - the International Center for the Training of Counselors - those who develop and implement programs for the development of the world community. It just so happened that Haifa became a sacred city for the Bahai of the whole world. And each of the five million followers of the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh living on the earth considers it a great honor to visit this shrine at least once in his life.
“The globe is a single country, and all people are its citizens. Let not the one who loves his fatherland be proud, but the one who loves the entire human race”- this is how Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the youngest world religion on Earth, defined the essence and divine purpose of our existence.
On July 8, 2008, at a regular meeting of the UNESCO Commission in Quebec (Canada), the holy sites of the followers of the Bahai religion in Haifa and Acre were included in the list of world cultural heritage. The reason for this, as stated in the decision of the commission, was the strong traditions of pilgrimage and their deep significance for the faith."
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №10. Author: Yuri Poltorak