Baháʼí prophecies


Throughout the Baháʼí writings, future events have been prophesied. The most specific prophecies are related to the rise and fall of leaders and organizations. Most of these prophesies can be found in Baháʼu'lláh's tablets to the kings and rulers of the world and in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.

Historical events

The downfall of various leaders

Sultan Abdu'l-Aziz

Baháʼu'lláh wrote a condemnatory letter to then Sultan ʻAbdu'l-ʻAzíz, the original of which has been lost. Originals of three other letters addressing two of the Sultan's ministers are recorded in Summons of the Lord of Hosts, which also mention the Sultan. The letters condemn their misrule, abuse of civil power, and character; especially their role in Baháʼu'lláh's banishments and imprisonment.
Two of the three letters, the Súriy-i-Ra'ís and the Lawh-i-Fu'ád, predict that ʻAbdu'l-ʻAzíz will lose control of the Ottoman Empire. In 1868 Baháʼu'lláh wrote,
Later in 1869, Baháʼu'lláh compares the Sultan and his Prime Minister ʻAlí Páshá to Nimrod and Pharaoh who rose up against Abraham and Moses and writes that they will lose power:
Sultan ʻAbdu'l-ʻAzíz was deposed on May 30, 1876 and a fortnight later he was found dead in the palace where he had been confined, and trustworthy medical evidence attributed his death to suicide although many people believed he was murdered by a conspiracy.
The prophecies regarding the downfall of the Sultan played an important role in the conversion of Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl, one of the Baháʼí Faith's foremost scholars, after the fulfilment of the prophecies.

ʻAlí Pashá and Fu'ád Páshá

Baháʼu'lláh addressed two letters to ʻAlí Páshá and an additional letter written reflecting on the death of Fu'ád Páshá, both of whom served at different times as Grand Viziers of Sultan ʻAbdu'l-ʻAzíz. Among the strong condemnations of the ministers, written from 1868–1869, Baháʼu'lláh also predicts the downfall of ʻAlí Pashá. Writing to him in the Súriy-i-Raʼís, Baháʼu'lláh says:
Writing to him in the Lawh-i-Ra'ís, Baháʼu'lláh says:
Fu'ád Páshá died of a heart disorder in February 1869. ʻAlí Páshá tried to perform the vacant role of foreign minister as well as prime minister, but also began having health problems, later getting tuberculosis and dying in September of 1871. After his death, his reforms were changed and his enemies returned from exile. Five years later the government was reformed, and the steady decline of the empire culminated in its dissolution during World War I.
Juan Cole wrote a commentary on the prophecies, suggesting that "predictions of the Sultán's downfall, such as Baháʼu'lláh made in that Tablet, were not unusual but rather were commonplaces..." He continues,

Napoleon III

was the Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. In 1869 Baháʼu'lláh wrote to him in one of the five chapters that compose the Súriy-i-Haykal. In the tablet Baháʼu'lláh writes that if Napoleon III does not follow Baháʼu'lláh he will lose his kingdom and that commotion will occur in France:
Within the year, in battle against Prussia in July 1870, the Emperor was captured at the Battle of Sedan and was deposed by the forces of the Third Republic in Paris two days later; he was sent into exile to England where he died.
After Napoleon's capture by the Prussians, General Louis Jules Trochu and the politician Léon Gambetta overthrew the Second Empire and established the "Government of National Defence" which later became the conservative Third Republic. Its creation was overshadowed by the subsequent revolution in Paris known as the Paris Commune, which maintained a radical regime for two months until its bloody suppression in May 1871.

Caliphate

Baháʼu'lláh prophesied the fall of the Caliphate, the title of the head of state in Sunni Islam. From 1517 onwards, the Ottoman sultan was also the Caliph of Islam, and the Ottoman Empire was, from 1517 until 1922, synonymous with the Caliphate or the Islamic State. Addressing the people of Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Baháʼu'lláh, in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas which was completed in 1873, claims that the leaders of Constantinople, the Caliph, has been a source of tyranny, and that they will lose control:
On March 3, 1924, the first President of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Atatürk, constitutionally abolished the institution of the Caliphate. Its powers were transferred to the Turkish Grand National Assembly of the newly formed Turkish nation-state and the title has since been inactive.

The rise and fall of Communism

Baháʼu'lláh wrote:
Some point to this as a statement about the discovery of nuclear energy and the use of nuclear weapons. Baháʼu'lláh also wrote that planets would be found around other star systems, and that life would be found on those planets:

A ruler who will raise up the Baháʼí Faith

In 1873 Baháʼu'lláh wrote in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas:
This is elaborated specifically:

The establishment of a World Commonwealth

The Lesser Peace

wrote:

Signs for the coming of age of the human race

Baháʼu'lláh wrote in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas:
The first sign refers to the selection of a single language and the adoption of a common script:
The second sign refers to the emergence of a "divine philosophy" which will include the discovery of a radical approach to the transmutation of elements:
In Baháʼu'lláh's tablet addressed to Shaykh Salmán, he mentions a third sign, which is that no one will accept to bear the weight of kingship:

The establishment of a World Commonwealth

Shoghi Effendi wrote:
This commonwealth must consist of:
Further features:

The Most Great Peace

Shoghi Effendi wrote:

Future Manifestation of God

On Ridván 1863, the period in which Baháʼu'lláh made public his claim to have received a revelation from God, he stated that the next Manifestation of God will not appear before 1000 years have passed:
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Baháʼu'lláh stated:
In a similar verse he says:
In the Maʼidiy-i-Asmani, Baháʼu'lláh anticipates a different “proof ” for the next Manifestation of God: