Baha'is to Dedicate New Landscaping Effort at World Headquarters

HAIFA, Israel, May 21 (RNS)--The new Baha'i garden terraces dribble down the 1,600-foot slope of Mount Carmel in a symphony of color and scent, a parade of natural foliage against a manicured, man-made landscape.

But these gardens are far more than greenery, say members of the faith. They are a visual composition dedicated to the glory of God and the memory of the "Bab," the Baha'i prophet buried here in a gold-domed shrine.

Thousands of Baha'is will gather Tuesday (May 22) in a gala international ceremony inaugurating the decade-long landscaping effort around the Baha'i World Center located here on the grounds. The ceremony is scheduled to include the dramatic sunset lighting of the kilometer-long terraces and an open-air concert of musical compositions by Baha'i composers from Norway and Tajikistan set to excerpts of sacred Baha'i texts.

The Shrine of the Bab has been a fixture on Haifa's skyline for nearly a century. The stone mausoleum houses the remains of the Persian prophet of the Baha'i faith, known simply as the "Bab," which were spirited here from Persia in the early 20th century.

For the world at large, the inauguration of the new terraces is sure to shed new light on the story of the Baha'i faith, one of the lesser-known chapters in Middle East history, and on the modern saga of the faithful adherents to one of the world's youngest and most-persecuted religions.

The Bab was a Persian who in 1844 declared he had a new revelation from God, which was to prepare humanity for the advent of a universal divine messenger anticipated by the world's major religions, said Doug Samimi-Moore, a spokesman for the Baha'i World Center.

The Bab's teachings called for the spiritual and moral reformation of Persian society, the equality of women and men, and the uplifting of the poor. Those were radical themes in Islamic Persia, and eventually led to the Bab's execution in 1850.

"The story of the Bab was a story of deprivation and hardship," notes Samimi-Moore. "These terraces, which are beautiful, elegant and full of life, come as an appropriate counterpoint, doing justice to the Bab, his teachings and his identity as a manifestation of God."

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