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Baha'u'llah, constantly in exile, as a prisoner in the big fortress of Akka, in Palestine, was deprived of His properties. His family was decimated. Twenty thousand of His disciples were persecuted and killed in the most atrocious ways. He Himself was tortured and beaten. He ended His life as a prisoner, in May 1892. Only today His works, His life, His principles are becoming known. (13:3) A fascinating individual! Wonderful writings in style and content, denote an extraordinary personality, as exceptional as are His writings and His interpretation of History. His vision of the world as a common nation of people and as one family is certainly a forerunner of our time. Often progress, in order to assert itself, finds nourishment in sufferings, victims and blood. (13:4) Unlike Greek philosophy and Christian theology, Baha'u'llah asserts that the history of our planet evolved through ever widening and complex social aggregations. In the beginning only couples existed. These couples, aggregating with others to better cope with problems related to survival, became tribes. Then, stimulated by commercial trade, they again developed into villages. The need to defend themselves from enemies, from predators, from hostile nature and from the increasing population created the premises to turn villages into cities. Cities, through military conquests and new social structures, became city states (initially dependent, then independent). Subsequently they grew into territories, regions and nations. Diagram number1 (not shown) briefly shows the evolution of human society as a whole
(13:5)
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