lunes, 24 de febrero de 2020

“Ah woe, that Day, to the Rejecters of Truth!” Surah Mursalat, Chapter 77


“Ah woe, that Day, to the Rejecters of Truth!”.

is repeated ten times in the Surah and every time follows a new topic.

Surah Mursalat, 77:15, 19, 24, 28, 34, 37, 40, 45, 47, 49





THE world is in travail, and its agitation waxeth day by day. Its face is turned towards waywardness and unbelief. Such shall be its plight, that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly. Its perversity will long continue. And when the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to quake. Then, and only then, will the Divine Standard be unfurled, and the Nightingale of Paradise warble its melody. 
                                                             Baha'u'llah (1817-1892)

https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/gleanings-writings-bahaullah/4#978731768


"The Bab instructed his followers to make and wear talismans, and there are numerous references to these in his writings." While the Bahá'í teachings de-emphasize such esoteric practices, there are prayers and other Writings that mention or provide talismanic protection.

https://bahai-library.com/bab_daira_haykal_1

BEHOLD, how the divers peoples and kindreds of the earth have been waiting for the coming of the Promised One. No sooner had He, Who is the Sun of Truth, been made manifest, than, lo, all turned away from Him, except them whom God was pleased to guide. We dare not, in this Day, lift the veil that concealeth the exalted station which every true believer can attain, for the joy which such a revelation must provoke might well cause a few to faint away and die.
He Who is the Heart and Center of the Bayán (Báb) hath written: “The germ that holdeth within itself the potentialities of the Revelation that is to come is endowed with a potency superior to the combined forces of all those who follow Me.” And, again, He saith: “Of all the tributes I have paid to Him Who is to come after Me, the greatest is this, My written confession, that no words of Mine can adequately describe Him, nor can any reference to Him in My Book, the Bayán, do justice to His Cause.”
Whoso hath searched the depths of the oceans that lie hid within these exalted words, and fathomed their import, can be said to have discovered a glimmer of the unspeakable glory with which this mighty, this sublime, and most holy Revelation hath been endowed. From the excellence of so great a Revelation the honor with which its faithful followers must needs be invested can be well imagined. By the righteousness of the one true God! The very breath of these souls is in itself richer than all the treasures of the earth. Happy is the man that hath attained thereunto, and woe betide the heedless.
                                             Baha'u'llah (1817-1892)



The Virtue of Studying this Surah (Mursalat 77)

It is narrated from the Prophet (S) that:
“One who studies Surah Mursalat will be registered as a non‑pagan”.1
Another narration from Imam Sadiq (as) cites that:
“If one studies this Surah, Allah makes him familiar to Muhammad (S)”.2
This reward is certainly for a person who studies it, thinks it over and acts accordingly. So, we see by a narration that some of the Prophet’s close friends told him:
“Oh Muhammad, how soon you have grown old!”
He answered:
“Hud, Vaqiah, Mursalat, and Nabaa brought old age upon me”.3
It is worth considering that in all these Surahs the circumstances of the Here after and the horrors of the Resurrection Day and the Great Judgment are illustrated; and are the very things that affected the Prophet’s (S) holy soul.
Obviously, reading without thinking and acting cannot be very fruitful.
1.  Majma'-al-Bayan, vol 10, p.414
2.  ibid
3.  Khisal-i-Saduq, Chapter 4, Tradition 10


Electrocutions, beatings and mass arrests: Houthis’ Iran-inspired campaign against the Yemeni Baha’is


Arabic Translation: Here
Mr. Badi’u’llah Sana’i, who has been imprisoned since 2017.
Mr. Badi’u’llah Sana’i, who has been imprisoned since 2017.
GENEVA—23 February 2020

Twenty-four members of the Baha’i community in Yemen are due in a Houthi courtroom on 25 February, in Sana’a, for the latest session of a religiously-motivated sham trial which the Baha’i International Community believes is at least partly a result of directives from Iranian authorities.
A Yemeni Baha’i among those due to be tried—who was also previously arrested, and has asked for his name to be withheld—told the Baha’i International Community that the Houthi authorities have tried to systematically “eradicate the Baha’i community” from the country. “It’s not just targeting a few people,” he added. The Houthis also wanted other Baha’is to “feel afraid.” The Yemeni also said that such persecution harms not only those arrested or jailed but also their families and dozens of other lives.
The Yemeni Baha’i added that his Houthi interrogators had confirmed his arrest was due to his religious beliefs—and because the Baha’is were promoting peace during a time of war. He and other jailed Baha’is were also harassed by extremist individuals in prison who called them “infidels” and threatened them with death.
The trial of the 24 members of the Baha’i community on Tuesday follows years of arbitrary and violent detention of six Baha’is by the Houthi authorities.
Mr. Waleed Ayyash—one of five Baha’is arrested in 2017—was physically tortured while in seven-month solitary confinement in the National Security Bureau. He was also physically forced to affix a fingerprint stamp to a written statement under his name. Mr. Ayyash has insisted that this statement is false.
Four others of the jailed Baha’is—Mr. Kayvan Ghaderi, Mr. Wael al-Arieghie, Mr. Badiullah Sana’i and Mr. Akram Ayyash—have been barred from seeing their lawyers and have been physically mistreated and denied access to medical care.
“The Baha’is that are held in Sana’a are innocent and the physical and mental torture they are experiencing is designed to force them to admit to crimes they have not committed,” says Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha’i International Community. “Moreover, the Houthis must cease the financial extortion they are inflicting on the Yemeni Baha’is by confiscating and attempting to seize properties belonging to all of the accused as a result of the trial.”
The first Yemeni Baha’i to be arrested after the 2011 revolution was Mr. Hamed bin Haydara. He was detained in 2013, beaten and electrocuted, forced to sign documents while blindfolded, accused of being a “destroyer of Islam and religion” and of being a spy for Israel. Mr. Haydara’s case continued for several years and on 2 January 2018 he was sentenced to public execution for his religious beliefs. Appeals were filed and are currently under review. Since his arrest, 18 appeals court hearings have been held. Mr. Haydara’s next hearing is set to take place on 31 March.
“If the Houthis are to fully commit to the process underway that will bring the peace that is so desperately needed by the people of Yemen, they must respect freedom of religion and belief,” said Diane Ala’i, Representative of the Baha’i International Community in Geneva.
The Baha’i International Community calls on the Houthi authorities to respect the rights of the six detained Baha’is, to grant them access to their lawyers, to release the Baha’is immediately and to cease to persecute the members of this faith in Yemen.