The Birth of Baha'u'llah

Mirza Husayn-Ali Nuri, who would later take the title Baha'u'llah, meaning the Glory of God, was born on 12 November 1817 in Tehran, into a family of considerable standing at the Persian court; his father held a position as a government minister under the ruling Qajar dynasty. Baha'i biographical accounts describe his childhood as marked by unusual intelligence and generosity, and as a young man he was offered, but declined, a position in government service, choosing instead to devote himself to charitable and religious activity.

He became an early and prominent follower of the Bab after 1844, using his social standing and personal resources to support the young Babi movement, and he was among the leading figures who suffered under the persecutions that followed, including the imprisonment in Tehran's Siyah-Chal in 1852 during which he described receiving the revelation of his own prophetic mission, though he would not declare that mission publicly until 1863.

His noble birth and social position within Persian society are treated in Baha'i tradition as significant context for understanding both his early support of the Bab, given at real personal risk and cost, and the scale of the exile and imprisonment he endured across the following four decades of his life.

Like the Birth of the Bab, Baha'u'llah's birth is dated on the Islamic lunar calendar rather than fixed to the Baha'i solar calendar, falling on the second day of Muharram, immediately following the Bab's own birthday on the first day of that month, and consequently shifting position relative to the Gregorian calendar from year to year. Baha'i communities worldwide generally mark the two births together across consecutive days as the Twin Birthdays, one of the most widely and warmly celebrated periods in the Baha'i calendar.

The pairing reflects a central theological claim of the Baha'i Faith: that the Bab's mission and Baha'u'llah's mission form a single continuous unfolding of revelation, the Bab preparing the way for and explicitly foretelling the coming of the figure Baha'u'llah would later declare himself to be, so that commemorating their births together expresses a theological relationship as much as a calendrical coincidence.

Baha'u'llah's extensive later writings, composed across decades of exile following his public declaration, form the core scripture of the Baha'i Faith, and his birth anniversary accordingly holds a place of particular significance in the Baha'i devotional calendar, second in prominence only to the Ridvan festival marking his declaration itself.