# Foreword: Time and the Badi' Calendar

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Udo Schaefer, Foreword: Time and the Badi' Calendar, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Foreword
> Time is a strange thing.
> 
> In resolving to make ‘time’ and the ‘Badí‘ calendar’ the subject of a thoroughgoing investigation –
> a topic which has until now by and large escaped scrutiny and whose significance is as yet little
> appreciated – my friend Gerald Keil has ventured into difficult territory. Bahá’ís are generally
> aware of the basic structure of the new calendar and can appreciate its contribution to the
> consolidation of their Bahá’í identity, for it provides the temporal framework for their daily prayers,
> their monthly gatherings, their days of commemoration, the period of fasting and the New Year
> festival (Naw-Rúz). Its inherent symbolism, however, has until now remained largely unexplored,
> so that the systematic investigation presented by this wide-ranging, impressive study is no doubt the
> first of its kind.
> 
> The passage of time is measurable. Rigidly periodic processes such as the rotation of the Earth
> on its axis, its orbit around the sun, the succession of the moon phases, or the pulsations of a
> pendulum, quartz crystal or atom, provide objective forms of periodicity by means of which the
> passage of time can be quantified. This natural concept of time is closely linked with astronomy and
> theoretical physics.
> 
> Subjective time, the experience of objectively measurable periods of time in human
> conscience, is an altogether different matter. The same span of time can, as everyone knows, be
> experienced in widely varying ways. We experience as slow and burdensome time which simply
> passes without anything happening in particular, such as when standing in a queue or waiting for a
> bus or train; but when we are diverted or entertained the same physical span of time flies by
> quickly, and the rare moments in which we experience real happiness are fleeting in the extreme, as
> Goethe puts it:
> 
> Werd’ ich zum Augenblicke sagen,
> 
> Verweile doch! Du bist so schön!
> 
> I will beseech the moment’s time,
> 
> Abide a while! Thou art sublime! 2
> 
> That which has already transpired and which we collectively consider noteworthy or important
> becomes history, and the question whether world history makes any sense at all — the endless
> historical episodes, the rise and fall of systems of political rule, the origin and demise of great
> cultures — is the subject of the philosophy of history.3 History is an empirical science; but since
> human reason is capable of judging very little concerning the meaning and goal of history, the
> interpretation of world history lies beyond the reach of empirical knowledge. Without appeal to
> religion and theology, history remains uninterpreted.4
> 
> According to Bahá’í teaching, God is the Lord of history. He manifests Himself to mankind
> through His successive prophets and messengers, leading mankind progressively to salvation.
> World history is salvation history. It proceeds in universal cycles, within which the founders of the
> world’s great religions leave behind historical caesurae, each of which invariably gives rise to a new
> chronology. The Adamic 5 cycle entered its final phase with the coming of Muh&ammad, the last
> prophet in this series and accordingly called the ‘Seal of the Prophets’ in the Qur’án, who foretells
> the great upheaval at the end of days, the ‘Day of Decision’. 7
> 
> With the coming of the Báb a new universal era began and the ‘prophetic cycle’ attained
> fulfilment: The ‘Day of Resurrection’ 8 was the advent of the new Revelation. The consummation of
> mankind will take place during the new cycle which began with the Báb. The fulfilment of the
> prophetic promises of the unity of mankind and of the messianic kingdom of peace will follow in
> the wake of an upheaval of apocalyptic proportions. The Badí‘ calendar, revealed by the Báb in his
> Persian Bayán9 and taken over in slightly modified form by Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitáb-i Aqdas,10
> signalizes both: the incursion of transcendence through God’s self-revelation and the upheaval
> announced to mankind, in which the ‘present-day order [will] be rolled up, and a new one spread
> out in its stead.’11
> 
> The Báb, as his adopted title implies, had at first raised his claim within the traditional Shí‘ite
> paradigm of expectation, in conformity with the concept of the Babú’l-Imám (Gate to the Hidden
> Imám). He withheld from revealing his true spiritual identity for a considerable period of time and,
> like the Jesus of the Gospel of St Mark, kept his ‘messianic secret’12 concealed. Only gradually did
> he announce his prophetic claim to be a Manifestation of God, a claim which transcended the
> horizon of expectation of the orthodox Shí‘a. At the Conference of Badásht in 1848 some of the
> prominent members of his community announced the abolition of Islamic religious law.
> 
> Yet the true claim of the Báb was discernible in his writings from the very beginning. 13 The
> abrogation of the Islamic sharí‘a is impossible to overlook, especially in the Persian Bayán, which
> he composed during his imprisonment in Máh-Kú. The change which he undertook in the basmala14
> alone clearly demonstrates the break with the past. In this work, the Báb not only announced his
> teachings, rejuvenating all aspects of religious life, he also introduced a new religious law, 15 thus
> making clear that his mission was far more than an Islamic reform movement: he endowed mankind
> with an independent revealed religion, with its own ‘Book’, its own teachings, its own legal system
> and its own ritual. He thereby accomplished what no Islamic reformer had ever managed: a
> complete severing with the past. And nothing makes this severance more explicit than a new basis
> of time calculation and a new calendar. 16
> One might wonder what the purpose of the Bayánic law was, many of the details of which
> appear strange and severe to the uninitiated Western reader and which was ultimately to be
> superceded by the legislation of the Kitáb-i Aqdas less than two decades later.17 Shoghi Effendi
> provides an answer to this question:
> 
> . . . the Bábí Dispensation was essentially in the nature of a religious and indeed social
> revolution, and its duration had therefore to be short, but full of tragic events, of sweeping
> and drastic reforms. Those drastic measures enforced by the Báb and His followers were
> taken with the view of undermining the very foundations of Shí‘ih orthodoxy, and thus
> paving the way for the coming of Bahá’u’lláh. 18
> 
> Designedly severe in the rules and regulations it imposed, revolutionizing in the
> principles it instilled, calculated to awaken from their age-long torpor the clergy and the
> people, and to administer a sudden and fatal blow to obsolete and corrupt institutions, it
> proclaimed, through its drastic provisions, the advent of the anticipated Day . . . 19
> 
> The Badí‘ calendar promulgated in the Persian Bayán is to be numbered among the revolutionary
> innovations which convulsed the bastions of Islamic orthodoxy; it heralded the end of the Islamic
> era with unsurpassable clarity, to the chagrin of the Islamic authorities. Even recently, in a Sunnite
> fatwa from the 1990s, the fact that the Badí‘ year consists of nineteen months, when of course
> everyone knows that there are only twelve, was noted with particular indignation.
> 
> Gerald Keil has not restricted his investigations to the historical background, the theological
> implications and symbolic significance of the new calendar; nearly half of his study is devoted to
> the problems surrounding its practical introduction. A glance at the table of contents for Part III
> already intimates how difficult it will one day be for the Universal House of Justice officially to
> implement this new calendar so that it may serve Bahá’ís the world over as their sole time system.
> The problems to be solved are highly complex; they range from the clarification of the written
> sources, through the multifaceted astronomical considerations, the various possibilities for resolving
> the issue of the reference point for determining the day of Naw-Rúz, up to new possibilities and
> challenges such as ‘Badí‘ time’ and the nineteen-day life rhythm.
> 
> It is obvious that the official, formal introduction of the Badí‘ calendar is not the most pressing
> issue facing us today. The Bahá’í community must progress much further before this matter
> becomes topical. We cannot predict when the critical point will be reached – we might continue to
> approach it slowly and steadily, or we might get there spontaneously, suddenly spurred on by
> unexpected events. But an appreciable span of time will undoubtedly lapse before the calendar
> project can be taken up in earnest.
> 
> It is therefore legitimate to ask what the point is of such a detailed introduction into the
> problems associated with the introduction of a new form of reckoning time. After all, the task will
> fall to the Universal House of Justice, which, when the time is ripe, will enact the necessary
> supplementary legislation. In the light of the exclusive competency of the House of Justice in this
> question, can it be at all legitimate and sensible to discuss the abundance of matters that will
> eventually need to be resolved? Wouldn’t it be better simply to place one’s complete trust in the
> wisdom and infallible leadership of the Supreme Body, which, when the appropriate time has come,
> will do what is right and necessary? Isn’t the production of a study such as this in fact tantamount to
> meddling in the affairs of the Universal House of Justice?
> 
> Such objections overlook several important considerations.
> 
> As I have pointed out elsewhere, 20 the decisions of the Universal House of Justice are not
> revelational in character. The Universal House of Justice is not a mere recipient, transformer and
> mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit. Its decisions do not come about through quasi-prophetic inspiration
> (‘quasi per inspirationem’, ‘Divino afflante Spiritu’),21 but instead they are arrived at in the course
> of a rational discursive process in which, subsequent to the establishment of the facts and the
> clarification of the normative guidelines set out in the Writings, a formal process of consultation
> leads to a consensus, and finally to a decision reached by majority vote or by the achievement of
> unanimity.
> 
> As the Universal House of Justice has expressly stated, it is not omniscient. 22 Like any other
> decision-making body, the Universal House of Justice is dependent on information. The divine,
> unerring guidance which is vouchsafed to the Universal House of Justice does not hover over it like
> a deus ex machina. Instead, it manifests itself through the conduct of consultation which precedes
> the decision stage and in this manner enables infallible decisions through the assistance of the Holy
> Spirit.
> 
> Legislation is a highly complex process and impossible without expert knowledge. Among the
> necessary foundations are legal dogmatics and legal techniques, but every act of legislation also
> requires that the legislator have at his disposal all-encompassing knowledge of the relevant material.
> The introduction of calendar legislation presupposes that all astronomical and technical information
> pertaining to the calendar be considered and befittingly taken into account in the legislation. No
> lawgiver in the world could draft such legislation without the support of competent experts.
> 
> The procedure of clarifying all relevant questions cannot begin early enough, since the ‘shining
> spark of truth’ will first come forth after all the various differing points of view have undergone the
> ordeal of a public scientific discourse, so that those positions which do not stand up against critical
> examination need no longer be taken into consideration. Such discourse conducted world-wide can,
> in the first instance, relieve the wheat of much chaff. Profiting from the collective reasoning of the
> community at large, open discourse over the Badí‘ calendar would enable a preliminary scrutiny of
> all legal, technical and historical questions. Its fruits would represent a valuable source of
> information for the commission of experts which will one day be convened for the purpose of
> preparing the ground for the calendar legislation. This commission would not have to begin at
> square one, so to speak, but instead would profit from the results of informed discourse.
> Any open discourse, any exchange of arguments, must be carried out in the spirit of mutual
> respect and forbearance, oriented on the cardinal virtues of moderation and wisdom. Open dialogue
> over specific questions is the ‘trial by ordeal’ for diverse points of view. It leads closer to the truth,
> even if it does not necessarily result in consensus. Such a discourse can be likened to scientific
> procedure, in which hypotheses are continuously being tested against the evidence of reality and, if
> found wanting, rejected in favour of new hypotheses in a never-ending process of inching forward
> towards the truth. We, too, must reflect upon our Faith in this fashion, since the Bahá’í Faith is, as
> Shoghi Effendi explained, ‘scientific in its method’. 23
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has explained how rational dialogue is to be conducted:
> 
> Every subject presented to a thoughtful audience must be supported by rational
> proofs and logical arguments.24
> 
> In other words, he who expounds a thesis is obliged to provide proofs in support of his position. He
> must present rational, logical arguments. But that also implies that his fellow participants in
> dialogue must address the arguments presented. They must come to terms with them and in the end
> explain not only what they find acceptable or otherwise, but why.
> 
> Man is a thinking being, one who strives to understand and one who poses questions in order to
> improve his comprehension. A Bahá’í is not content simply with believing in holy scripture, he also
> wants to understand it. God speaks to mankind in human language, and language is dependent on
> analysis, on interpretation. In this respect, every contact with the Writings is an act of analysis and
> interpretation. Even during the most casual perusal of a text the reader is at pains to understand it,
> i.e. he interprets in pectore while reading. Everything we say about the Word of God is based on
> personal interpretation of the Writings, whether we speak in private circles, in public, or indeed at
> any time while engaged in teaching and proclamation. Our understanding may be correct, or it may
> be in error – in any event we cannot claim any authority with respect to it.
> 
> The yearning to reach an understanding of the Faith is incidentally not merely the predilection
> of the thinking individual; it is, as Shoghi Effendi stressed, the duty of every believer. The Guardian
> enjoined the believers time and again to ‘strive to obtain a more adequate understanding of the
> significance of Bahá’u’lláh’s stupendous Revelation’, to acquire ‘a clearer apprehension of the
> truths it enshrines and the principles on which it is based’. 25
> 
> In his effort to achieve a proper understanding of scripture, the individual makes use of his
> ability to reason. According to the scripture, God has given a unique rank to the rational faculty, to
> ‘aql (reason, mind, intellect):
> 
> First and foremost among these favours, which the Almighty hath conferred upon
> man, is the gift of understanding [‘aql]. His purpose in conferring such a gift is
> none other except to enable His creature to know and recognize the one true God
> – exalted be His glory. This gift giveth man the power to discern the truth in all
> things, leadeth him to that which is right, and helpeth him to discover the secrets
> of creation. 26
> 
> However, reason is easily influenced by vested interests. If the individual is not purged of his
> attachment to his own preferences and preconceptions and to his partiality, reason will be hindered
> from working through to the truth. Bahá’u’lláh’s call to independent search for truth, such that the
> searcher see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears and know with his own knowledge, 27 is
> well the most revolutionary innovation in His entire revelation and a leitmotif which pervades His
> writings. Independence of judgement is a condition of justice (ins&áf) and has been called ‘the
> essence of all that We have revealed for thee’, 28 and the purpose of justice is ‘for man to free
> himself from idle fancy and imitation [taqlíd], discern with the eyes of oneness His glorious
> handiwork, and look unto all things with a searching eye. 29 Bahá’u’lláh writes, ‘scrutinize the
> writings with thine own eyes’30 . . . scatter the idols of vain imitation [taqlíd].31
> 
> The endeavour ‘to arrive at the truth of things’, 32 the search for a hermeneutic comprehension
> of texts, is ijtihád, the right and the duty of every believer. The Bahá’í community possesses no
> clergy (see Appendix B), no ‘ulamá’ with vested authority, no mujtahids, and the Bahá’í Faith
> knows no taqlíd, i.e. there exists no circle of authoritative and influential mentors whom one is
> obliged to follow and imitate unquestioningly. Shoghi Effendi made patently clear that every
> believer has the right to his own understanding of scripture and that he is entitled to express his
> opinion:
> 
> Shoghi Effendi believes that we should not restrict the liberty of the individual to
> express his own views so long as he makes it clear that these views are his own. In
> fact, such explanations are often helpful and are conducive to a better
> understanding of the teachings. God has given man a rational power to be used
> and not killed.33
> 
> Gerald Keil has made use of this prerogative – to the benefit of the friends, who as a result will gain
> valuable insights into a body of material with which few are acquainted. If this study achieves
> nothing more than to provoke discussion – and it should, because it places a number of long-
> standing assumptions in question and suggests possible future developments which present genuine
> challenges to the community – then it will have fulfilled Gerald’s own primary objective.
> 
> Hirschberg near Heidelberg, Germany
> 
> Jalál 165 - May 2008
> 
> Udo Schaefer
> 
> Hugo v. Hoffmannsthal, libretto of the opera ‘Der Rosenkavalier’, Act 1, Marschallin.
> Faust, Part 2, Act 5.
> Löwith, Meaning in History, provides an excellent overview of historical-philosophical models.
> The striking parallelism between the Jewish-Christian belief in salvation and political messianism has been discussed
> in Schaefer, The Imperishable Dominion, pp. 12f. The whole process of history as outlined in the Communist
> Manifesto corresponds to the general scheme of the Jewish-Christian interpretation of history as a providential
> advance toward a final goal. The communist philosophy of history has been called ‘a pseudo-morphosis of Jewish-
> Christian messianism’ (Löwith, Meaning in History, pp. 44ff.).
> According to the Qur’án and the Bahá’í teachings, Adam was a prophet.
> 33:40. See also note 7 in Chapter 5 of the present study.
> Qur’án 78:17.
> See Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i Íqán, paras. 121-128, 153, 182 for an allegorical interpretation of this term.
> Wáhid 5, Chapter 3.
> paras. 16, 127.
> Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings 4:2; see also 143:3.
> Mark 8:30; 9:9; see also Matt. 16:20; 17:9; Luke 9:21. On the theme of ‘messianic secret’ see also Gollmer, in
> Schaefer et al., Making the Crooked Straight, pp. 571ff.
> The self-description of the Báb as dhikr und nuqa in his Qayyúmu’l-Asma’ already prove this assertion (cf. Abbas
> Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, pp.201ff.; Gollmer, in Schaefer et al., Making the Crooked Straight, p. 588,
> note 61). See also Unity in diversity: The number nineteen in Chapter 5 of the present study.
> In place of the phrase ‘In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate’, which introduces every Súrah in the
> Qur’án except the 9th, the Bayán opens with ‘In the name of God, the Most Inaccessible, the Most Holy’ (see also
> Persian Bayán 3:6 and A brief history in Chapter 4 of the present study).
> The logic of the Roman sentence ‘Lex posterior derogate legi priori’ (A later law cancels an earlier: Dig. 1,4,4
> (Modestin)) holds for salvation history as well.
> The reader is referred to Dr Armin Eschraghi’s illuminating article, ‘Undermining the Foundations of Orthodoxy.
> Some Notes on the Báb’s Sharí‘a (Sacred law)’, forthcoming.
> Armin Eschraghi offers many details in his informative paper.
> Shoghi Effendi, quoted from Bahá’ú’lláh, Kitáb-i Aqdas, note 109.
> Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 25.
> Making the Crooked Straight, pp. 180f.
> As if by inspiration, animated by the Holy Spirit.
> The Universal House of Justice, letter dated 22 August 1977, available in Ocean Research Library.
> Shoghi Effendi, The Bahá’í Faith - The World Religion: A Summary of Its Aims, Teachings and History; also
> printed in US Bahá’í News, No. 85 (July 1934), p.1. Available in Ocean Research Library.
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, talk given 16 August 1912, in Promulgation, p. 253.
> Shoghi Effendi, ‘The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh’, in World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 100.
> Gleanings 95:1.
> Cf. Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words, Arabic 2; Tablets 17:24; Gleanings 75:1; Kitáb-i Íqán 176. On the whole subject of
> the independent search for truth see Schaefer, Bahá’í Ethics, vol. 1, pp. 50ff., 68ff., 301ff.; 341ff; vol. 2, § 43,
> section 4.
> Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets 10:23, p. 157.
> Ibid.
> Ibid. 4:36, p. 43.
> Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings 75:1.
> ‘ Abdu’l-Bahá, talk given 10 October 1912, in Promulgation, p. 355.
> Principles of Bahá’í Administration, pp. 24f.
>
> — *Foreword: Time and the Badi' Calendar (Used by permission of the curator)*