Birth of the Bab

Consider how the Báb endured difficulties and tribulations; how He gave His life in the Cause of God; how He was attracted to the love of the Blessed Beauty, Bahá’u’lláh; and how He announced the glad tidings of His manifestation. We must follow His heavenly example; we must be self-sacrificing and aglow with the fire of the love of God. We must partake of the bounty and grace of the Lord, for the Báb has admonished us to arise in service to the Cause of God, to be absolutely severed from all else save God during the day of the Blessed Perfection, Bahá’u’lláh, to be completely attracted by the love of Bahá’u’lláh, to love all humanity for His sake, to be lenient and merciful to all for Him and to upbuild the oneness of the world of humanity. - `Abdu'l-Bahá

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This past Saturday our Bahá'í community got together to celebrate the Birth of the Bab.  Our community actually held a joint celebration with the Birth of Bahá'u'llah, and with some awesome visiting musicians it was a really fantastic event.

Friday night we went over to the Modarai's to spend some time with Iain, Michael, and Jimmy.  Iain and Michael are Asiyih's second cousins, and I've known them since we were kids.  Jimmy is their friend that decided to come along at the last minute - a really cool guy!  They're Canadian, and I wish they had been teaching my history classes growing up.  I probably learned more about Canada in 24 hours than I had in the past 25 years.  We ended up staying til almost midnight, and it was quality time with some quality people.  On our way home we stopped by Scott's because it was his birthday.  We had not expected to stay at the Modarai's so late, but felt that we really should make the effort to get to Scott's like we said we would.  Of course, we're not really good at just stopping by.  So we got home at 2am.

Studying at Biggby Coffee with Steph

What time did I have to be up Saturday morning?  7am.  To study with Steph at a coffee shop.  Regardless of the sleepless night, we had a really great study sesh and I made it to the holy day celebration in time for the delicious potluck lunch.  My mommy came and brought some super yummy desserts.  She also brought Persian food, but I think this time her desserts trumped her Persian cooking. That's a rare occurrence, folks.  Even better than bringing food: my mom brought empty tupperware for me to bring leftovers home.  Awesome.

Iain & Jimmy

Potluck lunch

The highlight of the day was getting to spend a few hours with local Bahá'ís of all ages.  Technically, there was a gap between the ages of 5 and 24, but those two little ones were the life of the party!  Icing on the cake: the music.  Iain and Michael were phenomenal and I'm really disappointed that they forgot their CDs.  They promised they'd get them to the Modarais so hopefully we'll be hearing them a lot more often!

Iain & Michel

Iain & Michael

Me reading a brief history of the Bab's life and death.

Once the program was over, they had a 90-year-old Bahá'í named Allie come up and talk about Dorothy Baker.  Dorothy Baker taught Allie the Faith when she was a younger woman and her stories were very inspiring.

Allie

The dessert table.  My favorite, of course.

After the event, I headed home and slept.  Nothing like a 3 hour nap to get me back in study mode.

All photos from the event were taken by Bruce Modarai.