Maid of Heaven


Maid of Heaven refers to a vision that Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith was said to have had of a maiden from God, through whom he received his mission as a Manifestation of God.
In August 1852, during the height of the persecutions of the followers of the Báb, Baháʼu'lláh was arrested in Tehran with about 30 or more other Bábís. He was cast into the underground dungeon, nearby the court of the Sháh, known as the Síyáh-Chál. In October 1852, after two months had passed in the gloom and stench of the dungeon, Baháʼu'lláh had a vision of a heavenly Maiden. In his Súriy-i-Haykal Baháʼu'lláh describes his vision as follows:
The Maid of Heaven also appears in several tablets of Baháʼu'lláh's, which include the following: Tablet of the Maiden, Tablet of the Deathless Youth, Tablet of the Holy Mariner , Húr-i-'Ujáb , the Súriy-i-Qalam and the Tablet of the Vision. The first four of these were written in the Baghdad period.
Shoghi Effendi compares the Maid of Heaven with the Holy Spirit as manifested in the Burning Bush of Moses, the Dove to Jesus, the angel Gabriel to Muhammad. Further, Farshid Kazemi discusses links with the Zoroastrian Daena.

Inner reality of Baháʼu'lláh

The Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith, Shoghi Effendi, wrote about the Maiden in God Passes By: "He lauded the names and attributes of His Creator, extolled the glories and mysteries of His own Revelation, sang the praises of that Maiden that personified the Spirit of God within Him". Also, he states that the Most Great Spirit took the form of a 'Maiden'.