Allah-u-Abha! Praise be to God! I have spent a number of days among you,
associating with you in love and fragrance. Praise be to God! Your hearts
are pure, your faces radiant, your spirits exhilarated through the glad
tidings of God. I pray in your behalf, seeking heavenly confirmations for
you that each one may become a radiant candle, shedding light in the world
of humanity. May you become the quintessence of love. May you prove to be
the effulgence of God, replete with the efficacy of the Holy Spirit and
the cause of unity and fellowship in the world of humanity, for today
mankind has the greatest need of love and agreement. If the world should
remain as it is today, great danger will face it. But if reconciliation
and unity are witnessed, if security and confidence be established, if
with heart and soul we strive in order that the teachings of Baha'u'llah
may find effective penetration in the realities of humankind, inducing
fellowship and accord, binding together the hearts of the various
religions and uniting divergent peoples, the world of mankind shall attain
peace and composure, the will of God will become the will of man and the
earth a veritable habitation of angels. Souls shall be educated, vice be
dispelled, the virtues of the world of humanity prevail, materialism pass
away, religion be strengthened and prove to be the bond which shall cement
together the hearts of men.
In the world of existence there are various bonds which unite human
hearts, but not one of these bonds is completely effective. The first and
foremost is the bond of family relationship, which is not an efficient
unity, for how often it happens that disagreement and divergence rend
asunder this close tie of association. The bond of patriotism may be a
means of fellowship and agreement, but oneness of native land will not
completely cement human hearts; for if we review history, we shall find
that people of the same race and native land have frequently waged war
against each other. Often in civil strife they have shed the same racial
blood and destroyed the possessions of their own native kind. Therefore,
this bond is not sufficient. Another means of seeming unity is the bond of
political association, where governments and rulers have been allied for
reasons of intercourse and mutual protection, but which agreement and
union afterward became subject to change and violent hatred even to the
extreme of war and bloodshed. It is evident that political oneness is not
permanently effective.
The source of perfect unity and love in the world of existence is the bond
and oneness of reality. When the divine and fundamental reality enters
human hearts and lives, it conserves and protects all states and
conditions of mankind, establishing that intrinsic oneness of the world of
humanity which can only come into being through the efficacy of the Holy
Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is like unto the life in the human body, which
blends all differences of parts and members in unity and agreement.
Consider how numerous are these parts and members, but the oneness of the
animating spirit of life unites them all in perfect combination. It
establishes such a unity in the bodily organism that if any part is
subjected to injury or becomes diseased, all the other parts and functions
sympathetically respond and suffer, owing to the perfect oneness existing.
Just as the human spirit of life is the cause of coordination among the
various parts of the human organism, the Holy Spirit is the controlling
cause of the unity and coordination of mankind. That is to say, the bond
or oneness of humanity cannot be effectively established save through the
power of the Holy Spirit, for the world of humanity is a composite body,
and the Holy Spirit is the animating principle of its life.
Therefore, we must strive in order that the power of the Holy Spirit may
become effective throughout the world of mankind, that it may confer a new
quickening life upon the body politic of the nations and peoples and that
all may be guided to the protection and shelter of the Word of God. Then
this human world will become angelic, earthly darkness pass away and
celestial illumination flood the horizons, human defects be effaced and
divine virtues become resplendent. This is possible and real, but only
through the power of the Holy Spirit. Today the greatest need of the world
is the animating, unifying presence of the Holy Spirit. Until it becomes
effective, penetrating and interpenetrating hearts and spirits, and until
perfect, reasoning faith shall be implanted in the minds of men, it will
be impossible for the social body to be inspired with security and
confidence. Nay, on the contrary, enmity and strife will increase day by
day, and the differences and divergences of nations will be woefully
augmented. Continual additions to the armies and navies of the world will
be made, and the fear and certainty of the great pandemic war--the war
unparalleled in history--will be intensified; for armament, heretofore
limited, is now being increased upon a colossal scale. Conditions are
becoming acute, drawing nigh unto the degree of men warring upon the seas,
warring upon the plains, warring in the very atmosphere with a violence
unknown in former centuries. With the growth of armament and preparation
the dangers are increasingly great.
We must use our utmost endeavors in order that the Holy Spirit may
influence minds and hearts toward peace, the bounties of God surround, the
divine effulgences become successive, human souls advance, minds expand in
wider vision, souls become more holy and the world of humanity be rid of
its great menace. For the betterment of the world Baha'u'llah endured all
the hardships, ordeals and vicissitudes of life, sacrificing His very
being and comfort, forfeiting His estates, possessions and honor--all that
pertains to human existence--not for one year, nay, rather, for nearly
fifty years. During this long period He was subjected to persecution and
abuse, was cast into prison, was banished from His native land, underwent
severities and humiliation and was exiled four times. He was first exiled
from Persia to Ba_gh_dad, thence to Constantinople, thence to Rumelia and
finally to the great prison-fortress of Akka in Syria, where He passed the
remainder of His life. Every day a new oppression and abuse was heaped
upon Him until He winged His flight from the dungeon to the supreme world
and returned to His Lord. He endured these ordeals and difficulties in
order that this earthly human world might become heavenly, that the
illumination of the divine Kingdom should become a reality in human
hearts, that the individual members of mankind might progress, the power
of the Holy Spirit increase its efficacy and penetration and the happiness
of the world of humanity be assured. He desired for all tranquillity and
composure and exercised loving-kindness toward the nations regardless of
conditions and differences. He addressed humanity, saying, "O humankind!
Verily, ye are all the leaves and fruits of one tree; ye are all one.
Therefore, associate in friendship; love one another; abandon prejudices
of race; dispel forever this gloomy darkness of human ignorance, for the
century of light, the Sun of Reality hath appeared. Now is the time for
affiliation, and now is the period of unity and concord. For thousands of
years ye have been contending in warfare and strife. It is enough. Now is
the time for unity. Lay aside all self-purposes, and know for a certainty
that all men are the servants of one God Who will bind them together in
love and agreement."
Inasmuch as great differences and divergences of denominational belief had
arisen throughout the past, every man with a new idea attributing it to
God, Baha'u'llah desired that there should not be any ground or reason for
disagreement among the Baha'is. Therefore, with His own pen He wrote the
Book of His Covenant, addressing His relations and all people of the
world, saying, "Verily, I have appointed One Who is the Center of My
Covenant. All must obey Him; all must turn to Him; He is the Expounder of
My Book, and He is informed of My purpose. All must turn to Him.
Whatsoever He says is correct, for, verily, He knoweth the texts of My
Book. Other than He, no one doth know My Book." The purpose of this
statement is that there should never be discord and divergence among the
Baha'is but that they should always be unified and agreed. In His prayers
Baha'u'llah also said, "O God! Whosoever violates My Covenant, O God,
humiliate him. Verily, whosoever violates My Covenant, O God, erase and
efface him." In all His Tablets, among which is the Tablet of the Branch,
He has mentioned and explained the attributes and qualities of the
Personage to Whom He referred in the Book of His Covenant. He has fully
expounded the function and potency of that Personage, so that no one shall
say, "I understand this from the writings of Baha'u'llah," for He has
appointed the Center, or Expounder, of the Book. He said, "Verily, He is
the appointed one; other than He, there is none," intending that no sects
or prejudices should be formed, and preventing every man here and there
with a new thought from creating dissension and variance. It is as though
a king should appoint a governor-general. Whosoever obeys him, obeys the
king. Whosoever violates and disobeys him, violates the king. Therefore,
whosoever obeys the Center of the Covenant appointed by Baha'u'llah has
obeyed Baha'u'llah, and whosoever disobeys Him has disobeyed Baha'u'llah.
It has nothing to do with Him ('Abdu'l-Baha) at all--precisely as the
governor-general appointed by the king--whosoever obeys the
governor-general obeys the king; whosoever disobeys the governor-general
disobeys the king.
Therefore, you must read the Tablets of Baha'u'llah. You must read the
Tablet of the Branch and regard that which He has so clearly stated.
Beware! Beware! lest anyone should speak from the authority of his own
thoughts or create a new thing out of himself. Beware! Beware! According
to the explicit Covenant of Baha'u'llah you should care nothing at all for
such a person. Baha'u'llah shuns such souls. I have expounded these things
for you, for the conservation and protection of the teachings of
Baha'u'llah, in order that you may be informed, lest any souls shall
deceive you and lest any souls shall cause suspicion among you. You must
love all people, and yet if any souls put you in doubt, you must know that
Baha'u'llah is severed from them. Whosoever works for unity and fellowship
is a servant of Baha'u'llah, and Baha'u'llah is his assistant and helper.
I ask God that He may cause you to be the very means of agreement and
unity, that He may make you radiant, merciful, heavenly children of the
divine Kingdom; that you may advance day by day; that you may become as
bright as these lamps, bestowing light upon all humanity. Salutations and
farewell!