Beginning in approximately 1904, a learned Iranian believer known as Ṣadru’ṣ-Ṣudúr established the first teacher-training class for Bahá’í youth in Tehran with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s encouragement. The classes met daily, and the graduates, who had been trained in the beliefs of other religions as well as various aspects of the Bahá’í Faith, contributed greatly to the expansion and consolidation of the Cause in their native land.
The model in question is the “Ruhi Institute”, whose materials and methods have been adopted by many Bahá’í communities throughout the world. Its guiding philosophy is an integration of service activities with focused study of the Bahá’í Writings themselves. Organized as a series of levels of study, which form a central “trunk” of basic understanding of the spiritual essentials taught by Bahá’u’lláh, the system allows for the almost infinite development by various user communities of branching subsets that serve particular needs.
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, op. cit., p. xiii.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, op. cit., pp. 43-44.
Moojan Momen, The Babí and Bahá’í Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts, op. cit., pp. 186-187.
The Bahá’í World, vol. XV, op. cit., pp. 29, 36.
The Bahá’í World, vol. IV (New York City: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1933), pp. 257-261. Provides a short history of the bureau’s founding and operations.
The Bahá’í World, vol. III (New York City: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1930), pp. 198-206. Contains the text of a formal Petition to the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League from the Bahá’ís of Iraq, that summarizes the history of the case.
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, op. cit., p. 360.
The full text of the Declaration may be found in World Order Magazine, April 1947, vol. XIII, No. 1.