Celebration of the Declaration of the Báb

Join us as we celebrate the Declaration of the Báb, a momentous event marking the birth of a new spiritual era in 1844. This program honors the Báb’s courageous message and its profound impact on the hearts and minds of people around the world.

All majesty and glory, O my God, and all dominion and light and grandeur and splendour be unto Thee… I bear witness that Thou Thyself alone art the sole expression of Thine attributes, that the praise of no one besides Thee can ever attain to Thy holy court nor can Thine attributes ever be fathomed by anyone other than Thyself. Glory be unto Thee, Thou art exalted above the description of anyone save Thyself, since it is beyond human conception to befittingly magnify Thy virtues or to comprehend the inmost reality of Thine Essence. Far be it from Thy glory that Thy creatures should describe Thee or that any one besides Thyself should ever know Thee. I have known Thee, O my God, by reason of Thy making Thyself known unto me, for hadst Thou not revealed Thyself unto me, I would not have known Thee. I worship Thee by virtue of Thy summoning me unto Thee, for had it not been for Thy summons I would not have worshipped Thee.

—The Báb

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O Lord!  Provide for the speedy growth of the Tree of Thy divine Unity; water it then, O Lord, with the flowing waters of Thy good-pleasure, and cause it, before the revelations of Thy divine assurance, to yield such fruits as Thou desirest for Thy glorification and exaltation, Thy praise and thanksgiving, and to magnify Thy Name, to laud the oneness of Thine Essence and to offer adoration unto Thee, in as much as all this lieth within Thy grasp and in that of none other.

Great is the blessedness of those whose blood Thou hast chosen wherewith to water the Tree of Thine affirmation, and thus to exalt Thy holy and immutable Word.

—The Báb

Verily I say, this is the Day in which mankind can behold the Face, and hear the Voice, of the Promised One. The Call of God hath been raised, and the light of His countenance hath been lifted up upon men. It behoveth every man to blot out the trace of every idle word from the tablet of his heart, and to gaze, with an open and unbiased mind, on the signs of His Revelation, the proofs of His Mission, and the tokens of His glory. Great indeed is this Day! The allusions made to it in all the sacred Scriptures as the Day of God attest its greatness.

—Bahá’u’lláh

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Consider how the Báb endured difficulties and tribulations; how He gave His life in the Cause of God; how He was attracted to the love of the Blessed Beauty, Bahá’u’lláh; and how He announced the glad tidings of His manifestation. We must follow His heavenly example; we must be self-sacrificing and aglow with the fire of the love of God. We must partake of the bounty and grace of the Lord, for the Báb has admonished us to arise in service to the Cause of God, to be absolutely severed from all else save God during the day of the Blessed Perfection, Bahá’u’lláh, to be completely attracted by the love of Bahá’u’lláh, to love all humanity for His sake, to be lenient and merciful to all for Him and to upbuild the oneness of the world of humanity.

— The Promulgation of Universal Peace

The Orange Tree in the House of the Báb

In the city of Shíráz, in the modest home where the Báb (the forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh and Herald of the Bahá’í Faith) first declared His mission in 1844, stood a simple orange tree in the courtyard. This tree, although ordinary in appearance, became imbued with deep spiritual symbolism for the Bahá’ís.

It was in a small upstairs room of this house, on the evening of May 22, 1844, that the Báb declared to Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in Him, that He was the Promised One foretold in Islamic prophecies. This moment marked the beginning of a new era in religious history.

The orange tree in the courtyard was said to have blossomed abundantly and out of season after the Báb’s declaration—a sign that deeply moved those who witnessed it. Over time, the tree came to be seen not just as a physical feature of the house, but as a symbol of spiritual rebirth, renewal, and divine confirmation.

Pilgrims who visited the house would sit under this tree to pray and reflect, finding its shade peaceful and its presence profoundly moving. The tree stood as a silent witness to the beginning of a divine mission that would eventually transform the world.

Tragically, during periods of persecution and religious intolerance, the House of the Báb was destroyed by elements opposed to the Bahá’í Faith. Yet the story of the orange tree lives on in the hearts of the Bahá’ís, symbolizing the beauty and resilience of a faith that began with a single spark of divine revelation in that modest home.