Why Do We Need to Know about Bahá’u’lláh’s Life?

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In the Tablet of Ahmad Bahá’u’lláh exhorts us to remember His days during our days:

“O Ahmad! Forget not My bounties while I am absent. Remember My days during thy days, and My distress and banishment in this remote prison….”

We need to know the events of His days and His life to help us remember His days during our days. This knowledge creates understanding and love. We can then take the third step in the process of ‘Knowledge, Love and Action’ and to translate this love into the action, that, is service to His Cause and obedience to His commands.

We also need the knowledge of His life to:

Develop a better understanding of the significance of His Mission.
Appreciate His sufferings and sacrifices.
Develop an understanding of His life, family and cultural background.
Understand the significance and extent of His Revelation.

How do we learn about the Life of Bahá’u’lláh?

We are very fortunate in that we live so close to the time of Bahá’u’lláh and that there are numerous recorded documents from within and outside the Bahá’í community that can help us to put together a full picture of His life story. Some of the available sources are:

The Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and the Guardian
The stories related by the Greatest Holy Leaf (Bahá’íyyih Khánum, daughter of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sister)
The narratives and reminiscences written by early believers, such as Nabíl-i-A‘zam, Áqá Ridá-i-Qannád, Áqá Husayn-i-Áshchí.
Sources outside the Bahá’í Faith such as government documents, newspaper reports, foreign ambassador’s reports.

Writings of Bahá’u’lláh

Bahá’u’lláh revealed, during the forty years of His Ministry, the Word of God for today. His recorded utterances and writings in Persian and Arabic, if compiled together, would exceed 100 volumes of books. Most of His writings have not been translated from the original language into English.

Some of the major writings of Bahá’u’lláh and the year they were revealed: