Around the world, people are searching for answers to life’s most pressing questions.
Two hundred years ago, two Manifestations of God, the Bab and Baha’u’llah, came to bring answers to those questions – a new light to the world.
So begins Dawn of the Light, a new feature film commissioned by the Universal House of Justice for the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Bab, released today on the bicentenary website, bicentenary.bahai.org. The newly-released film, free for all viewers, can also be seen on YouTube.
The new movie follows the personal search for truth and meaning undertaken by eight people from different parts of the world. Each one describes the journey to discovering that God has sent two divine messengers for today, the Bab and Baha’u’llah, whose teachings are revolutionizing human thought and behavior. Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, wrote:
The world’s equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind’s ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System – the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed.
...O contending peoples and kindreds of the earth! Set your faces towards unity, and let the radiance of its light shine upon you. Gather ye together, and for the sake of God resolve to root out whatever is the source of contention amongst you. Then will the effulgence of the world’s great Luminary envelop the whole earth, and its inhabitants become the citizens of one city, and the occupants of one and the same throne.
The Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, Shoghi Effendi, characterized the advent of these two powerful religious dispensations and the growing impact of their principles on human society as a “two-edged sword:”
That God-born Force, irresistible in its sweeping power, incalculable in its potency, unpredictable in its course, mysterious in its workings, and awe-inspiring in its manifestations – a Force which, as the Bab has written, "vibrates within the innermost being of all created things," and which, according to Baha’u’llah, has through its "vibrating influence," "upset the equilibrium of the world and revolutionized its ordered life" – such a Force, acting even as a two-edged sword, is, under our very eyes, sundering, on the one hand, the age-old ties which for centuries have held together the fabric of civilized society, and is unloosing, on the other, the bonds that still fetter the infant and as yet unemancipated Faith of Baha’u’llah.
Dawn of the Light explores the stories of eight individuals from different races, cultures and classes, and the profound influence the remarkable life of the Bab, the forerunner of Baha’u’llah, has had on each of their lives, families and neighborhoods. The Bab wrote:
O peoples of the earth! Verily the resplendent Light of God hath appeared in your midst, invested with this unerring Book, that ye may be guided aright to the ways of peace and, by the leave of God, step out of the darkness into the light and onto this far-extended Path of Truth …
Available in Arabic, English, French, Persian, Russian, Spanish, and Swahili voiceover and subtitled versions, the 48-minute film can be viewed here.
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