Haifa Souvenir

This February I went on a three day visit to Haifa. This is a snapshot of the prayerbook cover I bought at the Dan Carmel Hotel in Sara Papo’s wonderful lobby shop (http://www.sarapapo.com/). It’s the first picture i took with my new Canon digital SLR. The symbol in the center is made with golden threads and is about 1mm thick.

What does the symbol on the cover represent?

[Excerpt]

This part of the symbol comprises three levels, each level indicated by a number. Together they represent the underlying belief which is the basis of all the religions of God. They are as follows:

(1) The World of God – The Creator
(2) The World of the Prophets or Manifestation – Cause, or Command
(3) The World of Man – Creation.

The followers of all religions believe that man, left to himself, can never recognize God and attain His presence; nor is man able to fathom the mystery and purpose of his own creation. God, in His unlimited bounty has singled out His Chosen Ones and will continue to do so, sending them to man at different times and ages in order to grant him penetrating insight and to enable him to have a glimpse of the unfading glories of the innumerable worlds beyond.

The Prophets accept descent from their realms on high and suffer the abasement of living in human temples, walking amongst men and speaking their languages. The Manifestations are invariably denied, ridiculed, humiliated and even put to death. Were it not for their spiritual upliftment and leadership, man would have continued to live as a wild beast and would have been eternally doomed to deprivation and loss.

These functions of the Prophets are clearly demonstrated in the design of the Greatest Name by having the world of the Prophets (shown in horizontal line) repeated in vertical line, thus joining the world of the Creator to that of His creation.
http://www.bahai-library.com/books/greatest.name/

From the same book (halfway down the page in Section 3) are Mr. Faizi’s letters written to me about my photography and artwork.
http://bahai-library.org/books/conqueror/excerpts.html

Two of his letters were beautifully hand illuminated with designs and calligraphy. I should really scan them and put them up here or on my website. Better yet! — I will take pictures of them with my new digital camera, a 10mp Canon EOS 40D. I just unwrapped it this morning and am still charging the battery and waiting to try it out. There’s a small matter of reading the 200-page manual first. The camera accepts the four great Canon lenses I already own. The rolls of film I shot in Haifa were badly fogged due to repeated X-ray exposure. There are much better pictures of the holy places online anyway but I would have liked to keep a few of my own images as souvenirs. When and if I go on pilgrimage again I’ll be all digital. My first pilgrimage was way back in 1973 right after the Six-Day War. I had already been a Bahá’í for ten years then. More about my visit to Haifa this year in a future blog entry…

iPhone = Danger on the Road

I’ve had my iPhone for two months and really have only a few complaints about it except for the most common ones such as lack of a Flash player, no cut-and-paste when replying to an email, and most definitely the battery issue. When my battery goes dead about 14 - 18 months from now I’ll have to part with the phone for at least three days to get it replaced. When it’s finally returned to me it will probably have its memory completely wiped. Why did Apple design the hardware that way?

But here’s the real complaint: YOU CAN’T USE AN IPHONE IN A MOVING VEHICLE! That’s right, there’s no way to answer a call without using two hands, taking your eyes off the road, and making three touches on specific areas of the screen. And that’s with a handsfree device on your ear. Does that make any sense? You can’t call someone either without looking at the addressbook and at least two touches. The phone has no voice dialing feature. The much less expensive RAZR phone I had before this automatically answered the phone when a handsfree device was in use and it also had voice dialing. Driving without a handsfree device is dangerous. With an Apple iPhone driving with one is also dangerous.

The RAZR could also run a number of add-in applications (albeit it with a clunky interface) because it incorporated Java which Apple bans. The RAZR also had another important feature that the iPhone lacks and may never have. When a stored alarm or Datebook event came due the RAZR automatically powered itself on and sounded a loud alarm. Alarms only work on the iPhone when it’s turned on. The sound of an alarm is almost inaudible.

Oh, and there are the Google Maps and YouTube limitations also. Google Maps is only marginally useful because the phone doesn’t have a GPS built-in. The YouTube viewer only lets you see the small subset of a few thousand genuinely uninteresting videos that were specifically reformatted for the iPhone. Most of YouTube’s content is unviewable on an iPhone. I still enjoy the gadget for the few cool features that it has. Out of ten points I give it five. Although I also have a G5 iPod I’m no fan of Apple.

Today’s link:

Darth Apple and the iPhone: The Dark Side Revealed?
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000301.html

Battling With The Dead

3. October 2007 by admin.

I requested and received written permission to post these powerful words.

Battling with the dead
Posted by: S.M. [address deleted for privacy]
Dear friends,

Recently the Baha’i cemetery in Yazd, Iran was desecrated and destroyed. Below is a translation of an essay written in Persian about this event. The essay mentions how Baha’is are not allowed to attend universities in Iran. More recently they have been banned from vocational schools as well.

[Translation from Persian]

Should you fail to attain victory upon the living; battle with the dead.

Author: Anonymous

I know not what it is that has overcome this land and nation. With the passing of each day, one notices more and more manifestations of weakness and desperation amongst those who reign powerful. It is as though a wellspring of the uttermost degrees of anger and hatred is gushing out of the depths of their beings. They are lost in a frenzy of bewilderment as to the manner in which to employ all that rage and fury.

Their animosity towards the Baha’is goes back a long, long, way: they captured the Baha’is; killed them; looted their homes and belongings; and fancied that they could extinguish the Divine Light of Truth. But, they did not succeed!

They picked upon the meek and threatened their lives and belongings! They exiled them and — running them away from their own homes and nation — sent them astray in strange lands. They burnt a few alive, while they took many in captivity; yet they did not succeed!

For a time, they inflicted their vengeance upon the students, and deprived them of entrance into universities. Then, they called upon them to enroll into universities! The youth welcomed the invitation and honoured their bidding, but instead were faced with obstacles as firm and mighty as the Uhud Mountain of Medina. Yet, the oppressors did not succeed!

The following year, they called upon Baha’i students again — asking them to try yet another time. Those youth abided by their bidding and participated in the university entry exams. They even entered the universities and endeavoured to embark upon their studies; but the oppressors began to expel those students one by one hoping that they may succeed in quenching the flame of their faith; yet they still did not succeed — for those youth also stood as firm and mighty as lofty mountains.

They turned their attention towards the schools. They employed a plan to train school-teachers to heap their retribution upon innocent children by somehow belittling them, insulting them, bringing them to tears, and making them shake with fear; yet they did not succeed! Not one soul turned away from his beliefs!

Upon failing to reign victorious on the living — be they children, youth or elderly - they set out to make war with the dead; for naught could be heard from the dead — nor any movement discerned from their direction — and so they were deemed the meekest of the lot.

Thus, riding upon their bulldozers, they directed their attack towards the Bahá’í Cemetery in Yazd. Like onto victorious warriors and brave soldiers, they charged upon the battlefield to fight the dead, so that perchance they may hear the cries of those resting in peace. They must have returned to their homes filled with pride and glory and announced to their families news of their victory! They must have announced as to how none amongst the inhabitants of the cemetery showed any resistance; and how they annihilated successfully all those residing there and demolished their homes.

Such is the bravery of a few amongst those in this land who bear claim to humanity!

Who will they turn against after the dead - I wonder? I recall a learned man saying that “Some imagine that Faith consists of an edifice; and they destroy the edifice thinking that they have also abolished Faith. Some imagine that Faith consists of a book; and they burn the book or turn its pages into some other use thinking that they have destroyed Faith. Some imagine that Faith consists of people; and so they capture the people, kill them and turn them away from their homes thinking that they can annihilate Faith.”

Where is the learned man now to see that there are even those who imagine that Faith consists of a bunch of dead resting in a cemetery; so they demolish the graves, desecrate the corpses, break the tombstones, tear down the mortuary and leave in its place a deep hollow - thinking that by so doing they can wipe out Faith.

Are these not all manifestations of utter weakness?

Tell me then: to what do these signs bear witness?

[ end of original message ]

It’s easy to understand why the author of these poignant words is anonymous. In contemporary Iran Bahá’ís have been imprisoned and even sentenced to death for their beliefs.

Related to this is a powerful blog that I was told about a few days ago: http://bahai-egypt.blogspot.com/

“In a land full of bounties, history, ancient civilization and friendly people, the Baha’is, followers of an emerging global religion, struggle every day just to co-exist peacefully with all others and to serve their society. Here is their story….”

The author’s blog entry for 27 Sept. 2007 discusses Iran’s President Ahmadinejad, one of the potentially most dangerous people on earth today.

Also see the continuation of this topic here:
http://enochsvision.name/2007/10/07/hezbu%e2%80%99llah%e2%80%99s-warning-to-bahais/