Back by popular demand, here is the second installment of this series (for those of you who don’t know what this is all about, its basically a fact or trivia that for some strange reason, 99.99% of Baha’is don’t know of). Here is your chance to use it to win a bet, to stump the “know-it-all” or simply for the sheer pleasure of watching them draw a blank. So without further ado, lets get to it:Its a little known fact. . . that Baha’i pilgrimage is NOT to Haifa.
I know, I know. Its a bit of a shock. Some of you are on the waiting list, even as you read. Others have already gone and come back with a few hundred pictures. Well, if you just stay with me for a second more I’ll explain what I mean and why that’s a little known fact.
If you haven’t seen it yet, there is a neat little website created by the Baha’i World Centre entitled “Baha’i Pilgrimage”. I think its about time we had this because there are a lot of Baha’is who want to go to pilgrimage and many don’t know what the steps are or where to get information. But “Baha’i Pilgrimage” as the name of that website is a misnomer.
Part of this new website says:
“The first and supreme obligation of all Bahá’ís who visit the Holy Land is to pray and meditate in the Sacred Shrines of Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. To receive this bounty of visiting the Holy Places at the Bahá’í World Centre is an inestimable privilege, infinitely precious to every Bahá’í pilgrim.”
This excerpt is implying that a Baha’i visitor to the Holy Land is a pilgrim and the “supreme obligation” of all Baha’is who go, is to visit the shrines of the three central figures of the Faith. While visiting and spending time in reverent meditation and prayer at those special places is the choice of every Baha’i, it is wrong to imply or state that this is Baha’i pilgrimage.
Why?
Well, for the simple reason that Baha’i pilgrimage was set down by Baha’u'llah in a tablet and He wrote that the sites or locations for it are:
- His house in Baghdad
- and the Bab’s house in Shiraz
As well, He went on to explain the rites and forms which a Baha’i must follow for pilgrimage. There was also some things which were made explicit which Baha’is don’t have to do for pilgrimage – like shaving one’s head, ala the Muslim tradition. You can find the relevant information in two separate Tablets, which are known collectively as the Suriy-i-Hajj or the Tablet of Pilgrimage (see below).
Baha’u'llah also mentions pilgrimage in the Kitab-i-Aqdas. There He explains that it is a duty for all Baha’is but that women are exempt from pilgrimage – please don’t misunderstand this. . .this does not mean that they are prohibited. And that either the House of the Bab in Shiraz or the House of Baha’u'llah in Baghdad will do (a Baha’i can decide which they prefer to go to or which is closer).
So why do Baha’is from all around the world go to Haifa and call it pilgrimage? The answer to that has several parts. First of all, after Baha’u'llah’s passing, Abdu’l-Baha wrote that Bahji was a site of visitation for Baha’is. He did not specify any specific rites or forms for this visitation. The second is that, currently, Baha’is simply can not perform pilgrimage (as written by Baha’u'llah) because those places, the very buildings Baha’u'llah referred to are either not there anymore, or they are not in the control/ownership of Baha’is. The House of the Bab in Shiraz was razed to the ground after the revolution, while there are sensitive and ongoing negotiations to regain title to the the House of Baha’u'llah in Baghdad. Of course, these buildings and sites will be rebuilt in the future to the exact original specifications which the Baha’is have kept.
Here is the current location of the house of the Bab in Shiraz (the utility poles at 0:23 mark the approximate original location of the room where the Bab and Mulla Husayn spoke on that special night):
Here is an old video showing the outside and inside of the house of the Bab (Persian audio with no English transcription):
It might help to settle the issue if we go back to the original words used when referring to pilgrimage. The word that Baha’u'llah used is ‘hajj’. Someone who performed ‘hajj’ in the Muslim tradition was called ‘Haji’ on his return. And actually, Persian/Arab Baha’is who performed pilgrimage were also known as ‘Haji’ (this would explain all the Haji So-and-so’s you read about in Nabil’s Narratives or other historical books). But for the most part they were considered Haji because they had visited Baha’u'llah in person and attained to His presence.
On the other hand, there is another word which is used to denote visitation (not pilgrimage!) and it is ‘ziyarat’. This word is much more general and it can even refer to going to visit your friend down the street (it is actually a very polite way of saying exactly that in Persian). All other special or holy places visited by Baha’is for reverent prayer and meditation (the apartment Abdu’l-Baha stayed in Paris, the House of Abbud and Abdu’l-a-Pasha, Mazrayi, the Maxwell house in Montreal, the Shrine of the Bab, the resting place of Abdu’l-Baha, etc.) are actually visitations. Not pilgrimages.
I’m trying to simplify something quite complex here and some may correctly object that the differences are not so clear cut (as ‘ziyarat’ and ‘hajj’). But whatever we decide to ultimately call them or whatever words we choose to use, we must acknowledge that there are two levels at work here. One which is prescribed explicitly by Baha’u'llah (as well as the Bab) and which involves very specific rites and actions to be performed, and another which is much more widely applicable to holy places and has not been mentioned by Baha’u'llah and has no specific rites or actions to be performed.
Am I splitting hairs here? Maybe to some. But I hope others see that all I’m trying to do is to separate truth from misconceptions and ignorance.
So why does the Universal House of Justice continue to use the English word ‘pilgrimage’ (the equivalent of ‘hajj’) when referring to trips made to the Holy Land? Beats me. Maybe you can ask them and then let us all know.
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