With featured content in Bahaipedia we hope to give you an overview of existing content while providing you with links to useful articles that relate to the Bahá’í Faith. As we work to make Bahaipedia a complete encyclopedia about the Bahá’í Faith the best content will be featured in hopes that more people will join our effort to improve access to information about the Bahá’í Faith.
The Hands of the Cause of God were a select group of Bahá’ís, appointed for life, whose main function was to propagate and protect the Bahá’í Faith on the international level. In all there were fifty Hands of the Cause, four named by Bahá’u’lláh, four by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and forty-two by Shoghi Effendi (including ten posthumously). The title is no longer given out, and there are no longer any living Hands of the Cause, the last surviving Hand being Dr. 'Alí-Muhammad Varqá. The work of the Hands of the Cause is now carried out by the Continental Board of Counsellors and the Auxiliary Boards. The most complete list of the Hands available is from "The Bahá’í World: Vol XIV". The Universal House of Justice has confirmed that this list may not be complete, and that a study of the letters and archives may reveal others named to this station.
Martha Root was a prominent traveling teacher of the Bahá’í Faith in the late 19th and early 20th century. Shoghi Effendi called her "the foremost travel teacher in the first Bahá’í Century", and named her a Hand of the Cause posthumously. Known by her numerous visits with Heads of State and other public figures. Of special importance was her efforts with Queen Marie of Romania, considered the first Monarch to accept Bahá’u’lláh. Introduced to the Faith in 1909 by meeting Roy C. Wilhem she spent several months researching the religion and met several members of the Bahá’í community, including Thornton Chase and Arthur Agnew in Chicago, and she, later in that year, declared her faith in the Bahá’í teachings. During this time, she kept on writing and in 1909 she wrote a detailed article for the Pittsburgh Post about the history and teachings of the Bahá’í Faith. She also participated in the first annual Bahá’í convention, which took place in Chicago in 1911.
In Release the SunWilliam Sears describes the Millennial fervor that gripped many people around the world in the early nineteenth century. While Christians anticipated the return of Jesus Christ, a wave of expectation swept through Islam that the "Lord of the Age" would soon appear.
God has given man the eye of investigation by which he may see and recognize truth. He has endowed man with ears that he may hear the message of reality and conferred upon him the gift of reason by which he may discover things for himself. This is his endowment and equipment for the investigation of reality. Man is not intended to see through the eyes of another, hear through another's ears nor comprehend with another's brain. Each human creature has individual endowment, power and responsibility in the creative plan of God. -‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Foundations of World Unity
The Shrine of the Báb in Haifa, Israel, is the spot where the remains of the Báb, founder of the Bábi faith and forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh in the Bahá’í Faith, have been laid to rest; it is considered to be the second holiest place on Earth for Bahá’ís. Its precise location on Mount Carmel was designated by Bahá’u’lláh himself to his eldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in 1891. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá planned the structure, which was designed and completed several years later by his grandson, Shoghi Effendi.
