Bicentenary celebrations of Baha’ullah start

Islamabad :The Baha’i community all over the world is celebrating bicentenary of the birth of the founder of their faith, Syed Ali Muhammad who declared himself as ‘Bab’ (doorway) and announced that he was the ‘heralder’ to announce arrival of Hazrat Baha’ullah.

Syed Ali Muhammad, known as ‘Bab’ was born on 20th October 1819 and at the age of 25 years he announced that he is ‘Bab’ and heralded the arrival of the promised one for whom the whole world was waiting.

To celebrate the 200th birth anniversary of Bab, the Baha’i community all over the world is busy arranging receptions, events and functions. In Islamabad the Baha’i community is also busy arranging receptions and functions.

The young children have wrote special poems and songs, which they have composed beautifully, spreading the message of supremacy of Allah Almighty, the oneness of human beings, and promoting love, peace and harmony.

Prominent personalities of the Baha’i community based in Islamabad have been inviting the people from all faiths and religions to join them in the celebrations and they are not shy of throwing open the doors of their homes even to welcome the guests who may wish to join them in their celebrations.

“The basic objective is to spread the message of ‘oneness’ of human race without their faith, color or creed and live in peace and harmony, accepting and respecting each other,” said a leader of the Baha’i community at a reception here the other day.

H said that the best way to promote this acceptance and the desire to live in peace and harmony is to join the followers of other faiths in their festivals, religious as well as cultural. “This participation will greatly enhance the happiness and will play a big role in creating acceptance and tolerance in the society, leading to greater peace and harmony in the society,” he added.

Others present on the occasion to join in Baha’i community’s celebrations also share their ideas and spoke out their minds, everybody supportive of the idea to promote and encourage inter-faith interaction and celebrating the festivals of followers of other faiths.

A young man present at the reception said that the religion should not be made the basis of a divide in a broader term such as ‘Muslims’ and ‘non-Muslims’. “I think people belonging to different faiths, other than Islam, should be identified by their faith and not by simply calling them ‘non-Muslims’, which some time make people from other faiths feel bad, cut off and left as marked,” the young man said.

Overall, it was a warm celebration with the hosts eager to make the guests as comfortable as possible.