This account is taken from the writings of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian and Head of the international Bahá'í community from 1921 - 1957, and great-grandson of the Bahá'í Prophet-Founder Bahá'u'lláh.

"The Forerunner of the Faith was Mirza 'Ali-Muhammad of Shiraz, known as the Báb (The Gate) Who proclaimed on May 23, 1844, His twofold mission as an independent Manifestation of God and Herald of One greater than Himself, Who would inaugurate a new and unprecedented era in the religious history of mankind. On His early life, His sufferings, the heroism of His disciples, and the circumstances of His tragic martyrdom I need not dwell . . .

The Founder of the Faith was Bahá'u'lláh (Glory of God), Whose advent the Báb had foretold. He declared His mission in 1863 while an exile in Baghdad. He subsequently formulated the principles of that new and divine civilization which by His advent He claimed to have inaugurated. He too was bitterly opposed, was stripped of His property and rights, was exiled to Iraq, to Constantinople and Adrianople, and was eventually incarcerated in the penal colony of 'Akká [Acre] where He passed away in 1892 in His seventy-fifth year.

The authorized Interpreter and Exemplar of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings was His eldest son 'Abdu'l-Bahá (Servant of Bahá), who was appointed by his Father as the Center to whom all Bahá'ís should turn for instruction and guidance. 'Abdu'l-Bahá ever since his childhood was the closest companion of his Father, and shared all His sorrows and sufferings. He remained a prisoner until 1908, when the old regime in Turkey was overthrown and all religious and political prisoners throughout the empire were liberated. After that he continued to make his home in Palestine but undertook extensive teaching tours in Egypt, Europe and America, being ceaselessly engaged in explaining and exemplifying the principles of his Father's Faith and in inspiring and directing the activities of his friends and followers throughout the world. He passed away in 1921 in Haifa, Palestine . . ."

Information in this section has been taken from the archives of the international Bahá'í community at www.bahai.org.

The idea of the existence of a divine pattern for the continuous administration and development of the Bahá'í Faith is as important to the definition of Bahá'í belief as are the spiritual and social doctrines of Bahá'u'lláh. The Bahá'í administrative order is a tangible expression of the covenantal arrangement made between Bahá'u'lláh and His followers. `Abdu'l-Bahá gave significant attention to delineating the administrative system conceived by Bahá'u'lláh, and in His Will and Testament specified the responsibilities and functions, powers and authority particularly of the two institutions that would succeed Him, thus providing for continuity in the unity of the Bahá'í Faith. The twin institutions at the apex of the administrative order are the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice.

In the same manner as He had been Himself appointed Center of the Covenant by Bahá'u'lláh, `Abdu'l-Bahá designated His grandson Shoghi Effendi as Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith. "For he is, after `Abdu'l-Bahá, the guardian of the Cause of God ... and the beloved of the Lord must obey him and turn unto him" is the explicit language of the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá. To the Guardian was given the role of authoritative interpreter, and he was charged with the further expansion of the Bahá'í world community along the lines previously revealed by Bahá'u'lláh and elaborated by `Abdu'l-Bahá.

One of Shoghi Effendi's chief goals was the development of the community to the point where it could sustain the establishment of the Universal House of Justice, the elected international council ordained by Bahá'u'lláh. Later, `Abdu'l-Bahá through the provisions of His Will and Testament, had shown how its aims and purposes were to be complementary to those of the Guardianship.

Through the thirty-six years of the Guardian's ministry, the Bahá'í community remained unified, grew rapidly, and spread over vast regions of the globe, gradually erecting the local, national and international institutions that constitute the Bahá'í administrative order. Eventually conditions necessary for the establishment of the Universal House of Justice were fulfilled, five and a half years after the passing of Shoghi Effendi in 1957.

`Abdu'l-Bahá defined the work of the Universal House of Justice in His Will and Testament, specifying that secondary Houses of Justices (temporarily known as National Spiritual Assemblies) must be instituted in all countries, and their members are to elect the Universal House of Justice. The first election of this institution in 1963 by the members of 56 National Spiritual Assemblies not only initiated a new stage in the evolution of the administrative order; it also marked the first time in history that an international governing body of this character had been brought into being by a democratic election devoid of campaigning or nominations, in the manner of all Bahá'í elections. Since then the number of National Spiritual Assemblies has increased more than threefold.

Information in this section has been taken from the official website of the Canadian Bahá'í Community, www.ca.bahai.org.

The Bahá'í Community of Canada dates from 1898 when Edith Magee of London, Ontario became the first Bahá'í in Canada. In 1902 May and William Sutherland Maxwell established a Bahá'í group in Montreal, a firm basis for much of the early development of the Bahá'í Community of Canada.

In 1948 the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada was established. In 1949, an Act of the Canadian Parliament incorporated the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada. Today, The Canadian Bahá'í National Centre is situated on the northern edge of Toronto.

Since its inception the Bahá'í Community of Canada has continued to attract people from all walks of Canadian society, and today numbers more than 25,000 members living in every province and territory of Canada, from the large metropolitan cities to remote villages in Canada's north. Bahá'ís are doing all they can to contribute to the quality of life in their local communities. The Bahá'í Community of Canada has developed collaborative relationships with Canadian governments and organizations of civil society, and has sponsored a number of social and economic development projects in different countries around the world.

Information in this section has been taken from the archives of the international Bahá'í community at www.bahai.org.

For Bahá'ís, evolutionary process is an essential feature of all the phenomena of life including the revelations of God. The series of stages through which their own Faith gradually made its appearance and established itself throughout the world is itself an expression of this principle.

The rise of the Bahá'í Faith has also been marked by a second feature that it shares in common with the formative period in the history of each of the earlier world religions. The implications of a new stage in the unfoldment of God's will are unwelcome to influential segments of existing society. The result has frequently been bitter persecution of followers of the new faith. During its first century and a half of life the Bahá'í Faith has passed through several periods of such oppression.

To assert that a religion is independent of other faiths is not to argue that it began in a religious vacuum. Buddhism emerged from a traditional Hindu background, and only after it had crossed the Himalayas did it assume its full character as a separate faith destined to become a major cultural force in China, Japan, and the lands of Southeast Asia. Similarly, Jesus Christ and his immediate followers began their mission within the context of Judaism and for some two centuries the movement was regarded by neighbouring peoples as a reformed branch of the parent religion. Christianity did not appear as a separate religion with its own scriptures, laws, and institutional and ritual forms until it had begun to attract large numbers of adherents from the many non-Semitic races in the Mediterranean world.

The religious matrix of the Bahá'í Faith was Islam. Much as Christianity was born out of the messianic expectations of Judaism, the religion that was to become the Bahá'í Faith arose from eschatological tensions within Islam. In the same way, however, the Bahá'í Faith is entirely independent of its parent religion.