We lovingly invite you to join us this week in commemorating the Martyrdom of the Báb.  
The meeting will be held via Zoom.
Date:  Friday, July 9, 2021 Time:  1:00 pm CT

Zoom link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89512022949

This Friday, July 9, Bahá’ís around the world will observe the Martyrdom of the Báb, commemorating the 1850 execution of the co-founder of the Bahá’í faith, the Báb, in Persia.

On July 9, 1850 the Báb, who was thirty years old at the time, was charged with apostasy and shot by order of the Shiite Prime Minister of the Persian Empire. Apostasy is the abandonment or rejection of a religious belief. The Bab’s Mission was to renew religious belief and herald the coming of Bahá’u’lláh, not to refute Islam or the preceding faiths of the previous prophets.

On that morning, the Báb was taken to a Tabriz courtyard filled with nearly ten thousand people wishing to watch his execution. The Báb and and one of his companions, a youth named Anís, were suspended on a wall in front of a firing squad of 750 riflemen.

But a serious complication arose—earlier that morning Sam Khan, the commander of the Armenian regiment of soldiers ordered to execute the Báb, had begged his forgiveness in advance. “I profess the Christian faith,” the Russian officer told the Báb in his cell, “and entertain no ill will against you. If your Cause be the Cause of Truth, enable me to free myself from the obligation to shed your blood.”

The Báb gently told the commander: “Follow your instructions, and if your intention be sincere, the Almighty is surely able to relieve you from your perplexity.”

At noon that day Sam Khan gave the order to fire and when the musket smoke cleared the Báb had disappeared. Anis stood alone completely unscathed at the base of the wall, the ropes that had bound him and the Báb hanging in tatters. Astonished, the crowd shouted that they had witnessed a miracle. Sam Khan, now relieved from his perplexity, immediately ordered his regiment to march away, swearing that he would never again obey such an order, even if it cost him his own life.

After Khan’s troops left the square, the colonel of the official Sunni Tabriz bodyguard volunteered to carry out the execution. After the guards found the Báb in his cell peacefully dictating letters, He and Anis were again suspended by robe for their execution.

It had been a mere six years after the Báb’s announcement of His new Faith in 1844. The Persian government and the Islamic clerics had already gruesomely tortured and killed more than 20,000 of the Báb’s ardent followers during the short, intense duration of the Babi movement.

For many years after the Báb’s death, his followers secretly transported his body from place to place to avoid the desecration of his remains. The Báb was finally laid to rest at the Shrine of the Báb in Haifa on the middle terrace of the Bahá’í Gardens in Haifa, Israel. 

The Martyrdom of the Báb is one of nine holy days during which work and school is suspended.