‘ÁdoddTribe living in Arabia immediately after Noah, and which built large edifices and pillars in “al-Aḥqáf” (The Sand Dunes). They grew haughty because of their prosperity and were destroyed for rejecting their Prophet, Húd. Cf. Qur’án 7:65, 41:15, 26:128, 89:5, etc.
AdamManifestation of God who inaugurated a 6,000 year cycle ending with the Dispensation of the Báb. “The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh should indeed be regarded, if we wish to be faithful to the tremendous implications of its message, as the culmination of a cycle, the final stage in a series of successive, of preliminary and progressive revelations. These, beginning with Adam and ending with the Báb, have paved the way and anticipated with an ever-increasing emphasis the advent of that Day of Days in which He Who is the Promise of All Ages should be made manifest.” (Shoghi Effendi, WOB 103). The Guardian further writes of “the rise of the Orb of Bahá’u’lláh’s most sublime Revelation marking the consummation of the six thousand year cycle ushered in by Adam, glorified by all past prophets and sealed with the blood of the Author of the Bábí Dispensation.” (BN, insert dated Oct. 8, 1952). Adam in Persian means man. The Qur’án uses the same phrase for the creation of Adam as for that of Jesus Christ; cf. 15:29, 66:12, etc.: “breathed of My spirit into him.”
Adamic cycleCycle “stretching back as far as the first dawnings of the world’s recorded religious history …” and ending with the Dispensation of the Báb.
Adhánaz-awn“Announcement”; the Muslim call to prayer, proclaimed
by the muezzin before the five stated times of prayer.
ÁdhirbáyjánOz-air-by-JohnProvince in Northwest Persia.
Afchihaff-chehVillage near Ṭihrán, site of Bahá’u’lláh’s summer
residence.
Afnánaff-nawnTwigs, i.e., the relatives of the Báb. (GPB 239).
Aghṣánax-awnBranches, i.e., the sons and descendants of Bahá’u’lláh. (SW 94) (GPB 239).
A.H.Anno Hejirae—in the year of the Hegira; date reckoned according to the Muḥammadan era, which began in 622 A.D. with the “flight”—properly emigration or severing of relations—of Muḥammad from Mecca to Medina. Other spelling: Hijrah
Ahlu’l-Kitábahl-ol-ket-obThe People of the Book. Qur’ánic term explained by Bahá’u’lláh, Iqán, 16: “It is evident that by the ‘people of the Book,’ who have repelled their fellow-men from the straight path of God, is meant none other than the divines of that age.....” Cf. Qur’an 3:70; 3:71; 3:99.
Aḥmad Big Tawfíqa-h-mad-beg-tow-feeg“Sagacious and humane” governor of ‘Akká, who at the suggestion of Bahá’u’lláh restored the aqueduct leading to ‘Akká.
Akbarack-bar (ar as in Harry)Greater; greatest.
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