# I am a Baha'i

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

---

> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Guy Murchie, I am a Baha'i, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> I am a Bahá'í
> 
> Guy Murchie
> pp. 1-4, of 4 pages total
> 
> Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1958-07-13
> 
> An Exotic Faith Has Built One of the World's Great Temples Here. A Believer Tells What That Faith Means
> to Him.
> 
> I AM A BAHA'I. This means I believe
> in the new world faith that began in Persia a hundred years ago and is just
> now coming to general attention in the west.
> 
> World center of
> Bahá’í Faith in Haifa
> 
> It sounds so strange and oriental to most people who were brought up either
> as Protestants, Catholics, Jews, or without any formal religion, that I am continually
> being asked, "How did you happen to get mixed up in that Bahá'í faith?"
> or "Where did you ever discover such a queer religion?" To which I
> usually reply: "I was paid to investigate it and found it so good I made
> it my own."
> 
> This is literally true, for when it happened some 17 years ago I was a writer
> for The Chicago Tribune. Col. Robert R. McCormick, who had seen an exotic nine-sided
> temple being built on the shore of Lake Michigan in Wilmette, asked me to find
> out what it was all about.
> 
> I did so and found the temple absolutely unique of architecture, a blend of
> east and west that also expressed classic feeling in modern form. I found nothing
> but beauty in the lacy texture of its great dome, its nine white quartz doorways
> inscribed with Bahá'í quotations such as "The best beloved of all things
> in My sight is justice," or "I have made death a messenger of joy
> to thee; wherefore dost thou grieve?"
> 
> The spiritual creed behind this extraordinary
> creation struck me as so reasonable and beautiful that, after a few months of
> studying its history and principles and finding it stood for world unity and
> love and progress, and that it did not conflict with Christianity (but rather
> fulfilled it) nor modern science, nor anything else I believed in, I embraced
> it in its entirety. Although I was brought up as an Episcopalian and my grandfather
> had been successor of the famous Phillips Brooks as rector of Trinity church
> in Boston, I did not think that one's religion should be decided solely by the
> "accident" of birth.
> 
> I had long since read the Koran and the Torah and had studied Buddhism in China,
> coming to the general conclusion that an oriental really has just as much ground
> for accepting Buddha as an occidental has for feeling partial to Christ-that
> the true meaning of the "many mansions of the Lord" is that spiritual
> truth comes to this world in many forms, while divine revelation (if you consent
> to calling it that) is not a once-and-for-all phenomenon but rather a progressive
> development that will continue indefinitely.
> 
> In other words, it seemed apparent that just as scientific truth has been revealed
> by a succession of teachers from Pythagoras to Copernicus to Galileo to Kepler
> to Newton to Einstein, so has spiritual revelation come in turn from such prophets
> as Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, and now the Bahá'í prophets,
> the Bab and Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> And will not both successions continue in future as has been clearly explained
> not only by Einstein for the scientists but by all the great religious teachers?
> 
> Christ Himself said at His Last Supper
> (John 16:12) : "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear
> them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you unto
> all truth."
> 
> Bahá'ís believe that Bahá'u'lláh, whose title means "The Glory of God,"
> literally fulfilled that prophecy of Christ in the 19th century. Certainly He
> boldly claimed as much, declaring Himself none other than the very Spirit of
> Truth referred to at the Last Supper. And His life was His great testament to
> the fact, most of it spent under severe persecution and imprisonment by the
> fanatical Muslim rulers of Persia and Turkey, during which He managed to write
> some 200 profound books and tablets.
> 
> The essence of His teachings, all so universal in scope, was summarized in
> a number of basic principles by His son, Abdu'l-Bahá, when He spoke before western
> audiences. These seemed beyond any practical possibility of realization, yet
> have ever since, in their various ways, come nearer and nearer to the grasp
> of people everywhere:
> 
> Exquisite detail from the Bahá'í
> temple at Wilmette, Ill.
> 
> 1. The oneness of mankind.
> 
> 2. The common foundation of all religions.
> 
> 3. The independent investigation of truth.
> 
> 4. Religion and science as integral parts of one truth.
> 
> 5. Equality of men and women.
> 
> 6. Elimination of prejudice of all kinds.
> 
> 7. Universal compulsory education.
> 
> 8. Spiritual solution of the economic problem.
> 
> 9. A universal language.
> 
> 10. Universal peace guaranteed by a world government.
> 
> The beginning of this unique, modern revelation was felt first early in the
> last century in Persia, where a few devout members of the Shaykhis, a Muslim
> sect, believed that Mohammed's announcement in the Koran of a prophet succeeding
> him would actually come to pass in the year 1844.
> 
> Then, on May 22, 1844, a young merchant of Shiraz quietly revealed that he
> was the promised one foretold by Mohammed.
> 
> Beautiful temple located on the shores
> 
> of Lake Michigan at Wilmette, Ill.
> 
> Startling as was this bold claim to
> the Muslim world, even more astonishing was the declarant's message that a much
> greater prophet would appear shortly after him whose teachings would not only
> fulfill the prophecies of Islam but of all religions and would within a very
> few generations drastically change the whole world of mankind.
> 
> The young merchant took the symbolic title of the Bab, meaning "The Gate,"
> and showed such vision and beauty of character that he soon had 18 devoted disciples
> known as "The Letters of the Living."
> 
> The governor of Shiraz feared his influence so much he sent a company of soldiers
> on horseback to capture him and bring him back in chains. The story of this
> expedition is revealing. Advancing cautiously along a country road, the captain
> of the troop met a smiling young man wearing a green sash, riding on horseback.
> When the gay horseman greeted him and offered to help him find his destination
> in this unfamiliar area, the captain, afraid to trust a stranger, replied, "No,
> thank you, sir. We're on a special mission by order of the governor."
> 
> "But I can save you time and trouble," said the young man, "for
> it is I the governor sent you to arrest."
> 
> This rare exhibition of clairvoyance, selflessness, and friendly cooperation
> completely amazed the soldier, who had expected the Bab to try to run away.
> As he talked with him, he became so overwhelmed with the radiant warmth and
> quality of his intended prisoner that he got down and kissed the Bab's stirrup,
> at the same time begging him to escape from the province and go beyond reach
> of the governor's authority.
> 
> The Bab refused to run away. Assuring the captain that God would reward his
> kindness, he insisted on going to the governor with the soldiers, explaining
> to them that he himself had nothing to fear, as God was always with him. "No
> man can harm me until my work on earth is done," he said gently. "And
> then I will be happy to die for God, Whom I love."
> 
> The magistrates and high mullas did not all respond in the same way to the
> Bab's spiritual qualities, and during the next four or five years he was subjected
> to a relentless series of imprisonments, inquisitions, scourgings, and indignities
> culminating, as he had foreseen, in his death sentence in 1850. This was executed
> by a regiment of 750 Armenian soldiers who publicly shot him on July 9 in the
> old barrack square of Tabriz, together with a devoted youth who had begged for
> the honor of sharing his martyrdom.
> 
> The first volley of bullets missed both men completely while severing their
> ropes to set them free. A second regiment was called because the first refused
> to fire again after the "miracle." Immediately after the shooting,
> a black whirlwind swept throug the city.
> 
> Heroic Woman Is Early Bahá'í
> Disciple
> 
> Only one of the Bab's disciples (or
> Letters of the Living) was a woman. Known for her beauty as a girl, she was
> later named Tahirih, "the Pure One," by Bahá'u'lláh. So brilliant
> was her mind that it was said her father and brothers were often embarrassed
> to discuss anything important in her presence for fear they might expose their
> inferiority.
> 
> It was inevitable that such a woman would be condemned by the orthodox Muslim
> authorities. Tahirih herself foresaw her own martyrdom so precisely that she
> fasted in-- praise of God all the preceding day and dressed in a bridal gown
> of snow white silken cloth in time for the unannounced arrival of the executioner's
> men.
> 
> At night she was taken on horseback to a remote garden and brutally strangled
> with a large silken kerchief she herself had brought for the purpose. Nothing
> was too ruthless in the attempt that was then made to exterminate completely
> the Babis and to stamp out the light of their faith. Still the light burned
> and faith continued.
> 
> In 1863, Bahá'u'lláh made His great announcement. The world stirring message
> of his new revelation was publicly released. By then He too had suffered imprisonment
> as a Babi, was tortured, and nearly starved while in chains in a putrid dungeon
> for four months.
> 
> Meanwhile, a fanatical mob ransacked
> His beautiful home in Mazindaran, and His suddenly impoverished family were
> left to hide with friends. Tormented with worry, they tried to think of a way
> to save His life. The extreme persecution made a particularly dramatic contrast,
> because Bahá'u'lláh's father had been a respected minister of state and His
> family one of high nobility and wealth, even tho He had given away a large part
> of it to the poor.
> 
> Tho Bahá'u'lláh nearly perished in the dungeon and was one of the few survivors
> of that horrifying experience, throughout the ordeal, He tried to spare His family
> as much anguish as possible. His daughter, remembering His deliverance from
> the black pit a half century later, said:
> 
> "We who saw the marks of what He had endured, where the chains had cut
> into the delicate skin, especially that of His neck, His wounded feet so long
> untended, evidence of the torture of the bastinado, how we wept with my dear
> mother . . . He, on his part, told only of the steadfast faith of the friends
> (fellow prisoners) who had gone forth to meet their death at the hands of their
> torturers with joy and gladness . . ."
> 
> The glorious spiritual victory was so overwhelming that He hardly seemed to
> recall the shame and pain and scorn at all!
> 
> This exaltation may have been due also to the divine vision Bahá'u'lláh had
> while in the dungeon, for, paradoxically. it was in this very manmade hell that
> the first full realization came to Him that He, Himself, was to be the promised
> one referred to by the Bab.
> 
> "We saw a new radiance seeming to enfold Him like a shining vesture,"
> said His daughter, "tho we had no idea yet as to its significance."
> 
> In fact, 10 years were to pass before the time was ripe for His declaration
> of Prophethood, during which He and His family were exiled from Persia and ordered
> to live in Baghdad. This journey was made by muleback in winter under conditions
> of great hardship while His wife was about to have her fourth child and Bahá'u'lláh
> was still seriously ill from the horrors of the dungeon.
> 
> For one period of two years, following the exile to Baghdad, Bahá'u'lláh lived
> apart in a mountainous wilderness in the guise of a dervish, subsisting on what
> little coarse bread and goat cheese He could find, living in caves, praying
> on the windy slopes, fasting often, ministering to the few simple folk who chanced
> His way - until His body and soul were tempered to the keenest pitch of purity
> and He felt the call to return for His major creative ministry to the world.
> 
> As His reputation and influence now
> grew more rapidly than ever, with Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians as well
> as Muslims flocking to Baghdad to hear His teachings, the orthodox mullas of
> Islam, fearing anew the doom of their authority, prevailed upon the Turkish
> government to banish Bahá'u'lláh still farther -first to Constantinople, then
> to Adrianople.
> 
> Finally, He was sent to the pestilential Turkish prison city of Akka in Palestine,
> where, they imagined, his influence must inevitably be lost through forced isolation
> from the world and association only with the most sordid and hardened of criminals.
> 
> Little did they realize that they were actually causing Him literally to fulfill
> many biblical prophecies as well as the scriptural prophecies of other world
> religions that would later help to confirm their followers in His faith.
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh was serene through it all. Once a relative, jealous of the power
> that radiated from Him and the love of His devoted followers, poisoned Him,
> almost fatally. Locked up in makeshift quarters, He wrote almost daily either
> with His own hand at a crude table in a tiny room under guard, where sometimes
> rats competed with the children for meagre crusts of bread, or more often pacing
> back and forth dictating far into the night to one of His devoted followers
> who penned His words by candlelight.
> 
> Many pilgrims still sought His presence, even at great risk. More than 70 actually
> contrived to have themselves convicted as His followers so they could share
> imprisonment with Him in Akka, while others disguised themselves as merchants
> in some nearby town in order to be close to Him.
> 
> In 1869 Bahá'u'lláh composed His famous
> second Tablet to Napoleon III, rebuking him for his contemptuous attitude and
> for imagining he could gain anything by another war: "...Thy doings shall
> throw thy kingdom into confusion, sovereignty shall pass from thy hands . .
> . Hath thy pomp made thee vain-glorious? It shall not endure. Nay, it shall
> pass away unless thou dolt cling unto this strong cord. We behold abasement
> hastening upon thy heels and thou art yet of them that are heedless . . ."
> 
> Napoleon, then at the zenith of his power, paid no heed to this "crank
> note" and truculently launched the Franco-Prussian war the following year.
> But instead of the easy triumph he expected, he was decisively overwhelmed,
> taken prisoner, and dragged in disgrace to Prussia. Two years later he ignominiously
> came to his end in England.
> 
> Similarly significant and prophetic were the tablets Bahá'u'lláh wrote from
> time to time to other heads of state, including the Sultan of Turkey (whose
> prisoner He was), the Shah of Persia, Queen Victoria, and Kaiser Wilhelm If
> of Germany to whom he plainly pointed out the lesson of Napoleon, warning of
> the inevitable outcome of World War 1, a quarter of a century later!
> 
> The only westerner to interview this
> extraordinary prisoner was the distinguished orientalist, Prof. Edward G. Browne
> of Cambridge university, who saw him in Akka in 1890 when He was 73 years old.
> "The face of Him on whom I gazed t can never forget, tho I cannot describe
> it," wrote Browne afterward. "Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's
> very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow, while the deep lines
> on the forehead and face implied an age which the jet black hair and beard flowing
> down to indistinguishable luxuriance almost to the waist seemed to belie.
> 
> "No need to ask in whose presence I stood as I bowed myself before one
> who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors
> sigh for in vain!" Abdu'l-Bahá, whom His father, Bahá'u'lláh had long recognized
> as having great spiritual insight, was appointed by Him to serve as exemplar
> of His Teachings after His death. Thus the Bahá'í cause continued into the 20th
> century to have a powerful guiding leadership in the person of one qualified
> and entrusted to live as a perfect example to the world.
> 
> It may seem too much to an unprepared outsider to accept thus three divinely
> inspired leaders of one faith, but to an independent, unbiased mind could there
> not also be abundant evidence here of the spiritual source in their unique and
> perfect unity?
> 
> Although the Bab never once saw Bahá'u'lláh in body, he prepared the world for
> Him with supreme devotion, recognizing and identifying Him beyond any question
> as the one to usher in a new age. Abdu'l-Bahá, in turn, never claiming the rank
> of prophethood, lived a life that was almost universally accepted as Christlike.
> 
> Since the death of Abdu'l-Bahá in 1921, the Bahá'í Faith has continued to grow.
> Under the guidance of their late leader, Shoghi Effendi, grandson of Abdu'I-Baha,
> Local and National Assemblies are building their unified organization in more
> than 250 countries, territories, and dependencies.
> 
> The believers in this faith have included
> many celebrated persons, including Queen Marie of Rumania. Woodrow Wilson's
> daughter was an ardent student of the Bahá'í teachings; it is said that she
> was instrumental in influencing her father to include the Bahá'í principles
> in his "Fourteen Points" at Versailles.
> 
> Concerning the Bahá'í teachings Tolstoy has written that it presented "the
> highest and purest form of religious teaching." A man of science, Luther
> Burbank stated: "The religion of peace is the religion we need . . . and
> in this Bahá'í is more truly the religion of peace than any other.”
> 
> Without any professional clergy or priesthood, without ritual or passing the
> collection plate in their simple informal meetings, the Bahá'ís everywhere are
> making themselves the ripples of a flowing tide that is rising steadily and
> inexorably, directed from their World Center in Haifa, Israel. They believe
> the light of God shines on their great and growing work which is nothing less
> than to give a lasting peace to the whole Earth.
> 
> I AM A BAHÁ'Í
> Reprinted by permission of Chicago Sunday Tribune
> 
> MAGAZINE SECTION
> 
> BAHA'Í PUBLISHING TRUST
> 
> 415 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
> 
> Printed in U.S.A.
> 
> Guy Murchie is a former staff writer for this magazine and author
> of "Music of the Spheres" and other books. He is now [1958. -ed] living in Malaga,
> Spain, where he is working on a new book.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views20161 views since posted 2006-06-10; last edit 2026-04-22 20:15 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../murchie_pamphlet_reprint_article;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
> Language
> English
> Permission
> publisher
> History
> Scanned 2006-06-07 by Richard Stamats; Formatted 2006-06-07 by Richard Stamats.
> Share
> 
> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/2964
> Citation: ris/2964
> 
> select Collection:
> Archives
> Articles
> Articles-unpublished
> Audio
> Bibliographies
> BIC
> Biographies
> Books
> Chronologies
> Compilations
> Compilations-NSA
> Compilations-personal
> Documents
> East-asia
> Encyclopedia
> Essays
> Etc
> Excerpts
> Fiction
> Glossaries
> Guardian
> Histories
> Introductory
> Letters
> Maps
> Music
> Newspapers
> NSA-documents
> NSA-letters
> Personal
> Pilgrims
> Poetry
> Presentations
> Resources
> Reviews
> Scripts
> Software
> Statistics
> Study
> Talks
> Theses
> Transcripts
> Translations
> UHJ-documents
> UHJ-letters
> Video
> Visual
> Writings
> 
> home
> 
> sitemap
> 
> series
> 
> chronology
> 
> search:
> author
> 
> title
> 
> date
> 
> tags
> 
> adv. search
> languages
> 
> inventory
> 
> bibliography
> 
> abbreviations
> 
> links
> 
> about
> 
> contact
> 
> RSS
> 
> new
>
> — *I am a Baha'i (Used by permission of the curator)*