Introducing Vahid—Baha’i-Inspired Literary Magazine

Happy Naw-Rúz to everyone—it’s the Baha’i New Year.

This year marks an historical moment in the Baha’i world. As of today, Baha’is of the east and west will observe the same Baha’i calendar. You can read more about the change in this letter from the Universal House of Justice.

Photographers from around the world share their art at Nineteen Months each Baha’i month—and consequently we spend a lot of time thinking about calendars.

So when we learned that this year would mark the unification of the Baha’i calendar, we wanted to share something a little different. This Naw-Rúz is the close of the 9th Vahid and the beginning of a new era in which Baha’is from around the world will count time by the hand of the same clock, so to speak.

Mindful of the past and joyful for the future, a small group of artists offers a small token to mark the occasion: Vahid magazine.

Vahid is an Arabic word that means unity. But it’s also a measure of time—19 years—in the Baha’i calendar. And it’s the name of this small literary magazine, filled with poems, stories, and art.

We’ve made Vahid available to anyone who might want it; you can download it for free at the link. If you prefer to have a copy printed on demand and mailed to you, you can buy it at MagCloud.com for cost—that means we’re selling the magazine for exactly the price it costs to print—and we’re not making money from the sales.

DOWNLOAD VAHID MAGAZINE

Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll find inside:

He simply got on his donkey one night and slipped out beyond the narrow lanes amid the shadow of minarets, and made his way into the wild darkness. At that moment he became a moth defying the wind, making a slow and dizzy flight toward a distant flame. When he returned a year later, he was a different person.

—excerpt from Everything Behind Us Is A Dream by Bahhaj Taherzadeh

To read this entire story—and enjoy all the other art and literature—download a copy of Vahid.

DOWNLOAD VAHID MAGAZINE

We hope you enjoy our modest artistic offering and wish you a Happy Naw-Rúz!

Update: Vahid Issue 2 is now available here.

UPDATE: To learn how you can submit to a future issue of Vahid, click here.