Without attempting an exhaustive survey of the distinguishing features and
purpose of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, I should feel content at the present
time to draw your attention to what I regard certain misleading statements
that have found currency in various quarters, and which may lead gradually
to a grave misapprehension of the true purpose and essential character of
the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar.
It should be borne in mind that the central Edifice of the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, round which in the fulness of time shall cluster
such institutions of social service as shall afford relief to the
suffering, sustenance to the poor, shelter to the wayfarer, solace to the
bereaved, and education to the ignorant, should be regarded apart from
these Dependencies, as a House solely designed and entirely dedicated to
the worship of God in accordance with the few yet definitely prescribed
principles established by Baha'u'llah in the Kitab-i-Aqdas. It should not
be inferred, however, from this general statement that the interior of the
central Edifice itself will be converted into a conglomeration of
religious services conducted along lines associated with the traditional
procedure obtaining in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other temples of
worship. Its various avenues of approach, all converging towards the
central Hall beneath its dome, will not serve as admittance to those
sectarian adherents of rigid formulae and man-made creeds, each bent,
according to his way, to observe his rites, recite his prayers, perform
his ablutions, and display the particular symbols of his faith, within
separately defined sections of Baha'u'llah's Universal House of Worship.
Far from the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar offering such a spectacle of incoherent
and confused sectarian observances and rites, a condition wholly
incompatible with the provisions of the Aqdas and irreconcilable with the
spirit it inculcates, the central House of Baha'i worship, enshrined
within the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, will gather within its chastened walls,
in a serenely spiritual atmosphere, only those who, discarding forever the
trappings of elaborate and ostentatious ceremony, are willing worshipers
of the one true God, as manifested in this age in the Person of
Baha'u'llah. To them will the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar symbolize the
fundamental verity underlying the Baha'i Faith, that religious truth is
not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is not final but
progressive. Theirs will be the conviction that an all-loving and
ever-watchful Father Who, in the past, and at various stages in the
evolution of mankind, has sent forth His Prophets as the Bearers of His
Message and the Manifestations of His Light to mankind, cannot at this
critical period of their civilization withhold from His children the
Guidance which they sorely need amid the darkness which has beset them,
and which neither the light of science nor that of human intellect and
wisdom can succeed in dissipating. And thus having recognized in
Baha'u'llah the source whence this celestial light proceeds, they will
irresistibly feel attracted to seek the shelter of His House, and
congregate therein, unhampered by ceremonials and unfettered by creed, to
render homage to the one true God, the Essence and Orb of eternal Truth,
and to exalt and magnify the name of His Messengers and Prophets Who, from
time immemorial even unto our day, have, under divers circumstances and in
varying measure, mirrored forth to a dark and wayward world the light of
heavenly Guidance.
But however inspiring the conception of Baha'i worship, as witnessed in
the central Edifice of this exalted Temple, it cannot be regarded as the
sole, nor even the essential, factor in the part which the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, as designed by Baha'u'llah, is destined to play in
the organic life of the Baha'i community. Divorced from the social,
humanitarian, educational and scientific pursuits centering around the
Dependencies of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, Baha'i worship, however exalted
in its conception, however passionate in fervor, can never hope to achieve
beyond the meagre and often transitory results produced by the
contemplations of the ascetic or the communion of the passive worshiper.
It cannot afford lasting satisfaction and benefit to the worshiper
himself, much less to humanity in general, unless and until translated and
transfused into that dynamic and disinterested service to the cause of
humanity which it is the supreme privilege of the Dependencies of the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar to facilitate and promote. Nor will the exertions,
no matter how disinterested and strenuous, of those who within the
precincts of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar will be engaged in administering
the affairs of the future Baha'i Commonwealth, fructify and prosper unless
they are brought into close and daily communion with those spiritual
agencies centering in and radiating from the central Shrine of the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar. Nothing short of direct and constant interaction
between the spiritual forces emanating from this House of Worship
centering in the heart of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, and the energies
consciously displayed by those who administer its affairs in their service
to humanity can possibly provide the necessary agency capable of removing
the ills that have so long and so grievously afflicted humanity. For it is
assuredly upon the consciousness of the efficacy of the Revelation of
Baha'u'llah, reinforced on one hand by spiritual communion with His
Spirit, and on the other by the intelligent application and the faithful
execution of the principles and laws He revealed, that the salvation of a
world in travail must ultimately depend. And of all the institutions that
stand associated with His Holy Name, surely none save the institution of
the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar can most adequately provide the essentials of
Baha'i worship and service, both so vital to the regeneration of the
world. Therein lies the secret of the loftiness, of the potency, of the
unique position of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar as one of the outstanding
institutions conceived by Baha'u'llah.
Dearly-beloved friends! May we not as the trustees of so priceless a
heritage, arise to fulfill our high destiny?
Your true brother,
SHOGHI.
Haifa, Palestine,
October 25, 1929.
Letter of July 17, 1932.
The beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout the United
States and Canada.
Brethren and fellow-mourners in the Faith of Baha'u'llah:
A sorrow, reminiscent in its poignancy, of the devastating grief caused by
'Abdu'l-Baha's sudden removal from our midst, has stirred the Baha'i world
to its foundations. The Greatest Holy Leaf, the well-beloved and treasured
Remnant of Baha'u'llah entrusted to our frail and unworthy hands by our
departed Master, has passed to the Great Beyond, leaving a legacy that
time can never dim.
The community of the Most Great Name, in its entirety and to its very
core, feels the sting of this cruel loss. Inevitable though this
calamitous event appeared to us all, however acute our apprehensions of
its steady approach, the consciousness of its final consummation at this
terrible hour leaves us, we whose souls have been impregnated by the
energizing influence of her love, prostrated and disconsolate.
How can my lonely pen, so utterly inadequate to glorify so exalted a
station, so impotent to portray the experiences of so sublime a life, so
disqualified to recount the blessings she showered upon me since my
earliest childhood--how can such a pen repay the great debt of gratitude
and love that I owe her whom I regarded as my chief sustainer, my most
affectionate comforter, the joy and inspiration of my life? My grief is
too immense, my remorse too profound, to be able to give full vent at this
moment to the feelings that surge within me.
Only future generations and pens abler than mine can, and will, pay a
worthy tribute to the towering grandeur of her spiritual life, to the
unique part she played throughout the tumultuous stages of Baha'i history,
to the expressions of unqualified praise that have streamed from the pen
of both Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, the Center of His covenant, though
unrecorded, and in the main unsuspected by the mass of her passionate
admirers in East and West, the share she has had in influencing the course
of some of the chief events in the annals of the Faith, the sufferings she
bore, the sacrifices she made, the rare gifts of unfailing sympathy she so
strikingly displayed--these, and many others stand so inextricably
interwoven with the fabric of the Cause itself that no future historian of
the Faith of Baha'u'llah can afford to ignore or minimize.
As far back as the concluding stages of the heroic age of the Cause, which
witnessed the imprisonment of Baha'u'llah in the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran,
the Greatest Holy Leaf, then still in her infancy, was privileged to taste
of the cup of woe which the first believers of that apostolic age had
quaffed.
How well I remember her recall, at a time when her faculties were still
unimpaired, the gnawing suspense that ate into the hearts of those who
watched by her side, at the threshold of her pillaged house, expectant to
hear at any moment the news of Baha'u'llah's imminent execution! In those
sinister hours, she often recounted, her parents had so suddenly lost
their earthly possessions that within the space of a single day from being
the privileged member of one of the wealthiest families of Tihran she had
sunk to the state of a sufferer from unconcealed poverty. Deprived of the
means of subsistence, her illustrious mother, the famed Navvab, was
constrained to place in the palm of her daughter's hand a handful of flour
and to induce her to accept it as a substitute for her daily bread.
And when at a later time this revered and precious member of the Holy
Family, then in her teens, came to be entrusted by the guiding hand of her
Father with missions that no girl of her age could, or would be willing
to, perform, with what spontaneous joy she seized her opportunity and
acquitted herself of the task with which she had been entrusted! The
delicacy and extreme gravity of such functions as she, from time to time,
was called upon to fulfill, when the city of Ba_gh_dad was swept by the
hurricane which the heedlessness and perversity of Mirza Yahya had
unchained, as well as the tender solicitude which, at so early an age, she
evinced during the period of Baha'u'llah's enforced retirement to the
mountains of Sulaymaniyyih, marked her as one who was both capable of
sharing the burden, and willing to make the sacrifice, which her high
birth demanded.
How staunch was her faith, how calm her demeanor, how forgiving her
attitude, how severe her trials, at a time when the forces of schism had
rent asunder the ties that united the little band of exiles which had
settled in Adrianople and whose fortunes seemed then to have sunk to their
lowest ebb! It was in this period of extreme anxiety, when the rigors of a
winter of exceptional severity, coupled with the privations entailed by
unhealthy housing accommodations and dire financial distress, undermined
once for all her health and sapped the vitality which she had hitherto so
thoroughly enjoyed. The stress and storm of that period made an abiding
impression upon her mind, and she retained till the time of her death on
her beauteous and angelic face evidences of its intense hardships.
Not until, however, she had been confined in the company of Baha'u'llah
within the walls of the prison-city of Akka did she display, in the
plenitude of her power and in the full abundance of her love for Him, more
gifts that single her out, next to 'Abdu'l-Baha, among the members of the
Holy Family, as the brightest embodiment of that love which is born of God
and of that human sympathy which few mortals are capable of evincing.
Banishing from her mind and heart every earthly attachment, renouncing the
very idea of matrimony, she, standing resolutely by the side of a Brother
whom she was to aid and serve so well, arose to dedicate her life to the
service of her Father's glorious Cause. Whether in the management of the
affairs of His Household in which she excelled, or in the social
relationships which she so assiduously cultivated in order to shield both
Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, whether in the unfailing attention she paid
to the every day needs of her Father, or in the traits of generosity, of
affability and kindness, which she manifested, the Greatest Holy Leaf had
by that time abundantly demonstrated her worthiness to rank as one of the
noblest figures intimately associated with the life-long work of
Baha'u'llah.
How grievous was the ingratitude, how blind the fanaticism, how persistent
the malignity of the officials, their wives, and their subordinates, in
return for the manifold bounties which she, in close association with her
Brother, so profusely conferred upon them! Her patience, her magnanimity,
her indiscriminating benevolence, far from disarming the hostility of that
perverse generation, served only to inflame their rancour, to excite their
jealousy, to intensify their fears. The gloom that had settled upon that
little band of imprisoned believers, who languished in the Fortress of
Akka, contrasted with the spirit of confident hope, of deep-rooted
optimism that beamed upon her serene countenance. No calamity, however
intense, could obscure the brightness of her saintly face, and no
agitation, no matter how severe, could disturb the composure of her
gracious and dignified behaviour.
That her sensitive heart instantaneously reacted to the slightest injury
that befell the least significant of creatures, whether friend or foe, no
one who knew her well could doubt. And yet such was the restraining power
of her will--a will which her spirit of self-renunciation so often prompted
her to suppress--that a superficial observer might well be led to question
the intensity of her emotions or to belittle the range of her sympathies.
In the school of adversity she, already endowed by Providence with the
virtues of meekness and fortitude, learned through the example and
exhortations of the Great Sufferer, who was her Father, the lesson she was
destined to teach the great mass of His followers for so long after Him.
Armed with the powers with which an intimate and long-standing
companionship with Baha'u'llah had already equipped her, and benefiting by
the magnificent example which the steadily widening range of
'Abdu'l-Baha's activities afforded her, she was prepared to face the storm
which the treacherous conduct of the Covenant-breakers had aroused and to
withstand its most damaging onslaughts.
Great as had been her sufferings ever since her infancy, the anguish of
mind and heart which the Ascension of Baha'u'llah occasioned, nerved her,
as never before, to a resolve which no upheaval could bend and which her
frail constitution belied. Amidst the dust and heat of the commotion which
that faithless and rebellious company engendered she found herself
constrained to dissolve ties of family relationship, to sever
long-standing and intimate friendships, to discard lesser loyalties for
the sake of her supreme allegiance to a Cause she had loved so dearly and
had served so well.
The disruption that ensued found her ranged by the side of Him Whom her
departed Father had appointed as the Center of His Covenant and the
authorized Expounder of His Word. Her venerated mother, as well as her
distinguished paternal uncle, Aqay-i-Kalim--the twin pillars who, all
throughout the various stages of Baha'u'llah's exile from the Land of His
Birth to the final place of His confinement, had demonstrated, unlike most
of the members of His Family, the tenacity of their loyalty--had already
passed behind the Veil. Death, in the most tragic circumstances, had also
robbed her of the Purest Branch, her only brother besides 'Abdu'l-Baha,
while still in the prime of youth. She alone of the family of Baha'u'llah
remained to cheer the heart and reinforce the efforts of the Most Great
Branch, against whom were solidly arrayed the almost entire company of His
faithless relatives. In her arduous task she was seconded by the diligent
efforts of Munirih _Kh_anum, the Holy Mother, and those of her daughters
whose age allowed them to assist in the accomplishment of that stupendous
achievement with which the name of 'Abdu'l-Baha will forever remain
associated.
With the passing of Baha'u'llah and the fierce onslaught of the forces of
disruption that followed in its wake, the Greatest Holy Leaf, now in the
hey-day of her life, rose to the height of her great opportunity and
acquitted herself worthily of her task. It would take me beyond the
compass of the tribute I am moved to pay to her memory were I to dwell
upon the incessant machinations to which Muhammad-'Ali, the arch-breaker
of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah, and his despicable supporters basely
resorted, upon the agitation which their cleverly-directed campaign of
misrepresentation and calumny produced in quarters directly connected with
Sultan 'Abdu'l-Hamid and his advisers, upon the trials and investigations
to which it gave rise, upon the rigidity of the incarceration it
reimposed, and upon the perils it revived. Suffice it to say that but for
her sleepless vigilance, her tact, her courtesy, her extreme patience and
heroic fortitude, grave complications might have ensued and the load of
'Abdu'l-Baha's anxious care would have been considerably increased.
And when the storm-cloud that had darkened the horizon of the Holy Land
had been finally dissipated and the call raised by our beloved
'Abdu'l-Baha had stirred to a new life certain cities of the American and
European continents, the Most Exalted Leaf became the recipient of the
unbounded affection and blessings of One Who could best estimate her
virtues and appreciate her merits.
The decline of her precious life had by that time set in, and the burden
of advancing age was beginning to becloud the radiance of her countenance.
Forgetful of her own self, disdaining rest and comfort, and undeterred by
the obstacles that still stood in her path, she, acting as the honoured
hostess to a steadily increasing number of pilgrims who thronged
'Abdu'l-Baha's residence from both the East and the West, continued to
display those same attributes that had won her, in the preceding phases of
her career, so great a measure of admiration and love.
And when, in pursuance of God's inscrutable Wisdom, the ban on
'Abdu'l-Baha's confinement was lifted and the Plan which He, in the
darkest hours of His confinement, had conceived materialized, He with
unhesitating confidence, invested His trusted and honoured sister with the
responsibility of attending to the multitudinous details arising out of
His protracted absence from the Holy Land.
No sooner had 'Abdu'l-Baha stepped upon the shores of the European and
American continents than our beloved _Kh_anum found herself well-nigh
overwhelmed with thrilling messages, each betokening the irresistible
advance of the Cause in a manner which, not withstanding the vast range of
her experience, seemed to her almost incredible. The years in which she
basked in the sunshine of 'Abdu'l-Baha's spiritual victories were,
perhaps, among the brightest and happiest of her life. Little did she
dream when, as a little girl, she was running about, in the courtyard of
her Father's house in Tihran, in the company of Him Whose destiny was to
be one day the chosen Center of God's indestructible Covenant, that such a
Brother would be capable of achieving, in realms so distant, and among
races so utterly remote, so great and memorable a victory.
The enthusiasm and joy which swelled in her breast as she greeted
'Abdu'l-Baha on His triumphant return from the West, I will not venture to
describe. She was astounded at the vitality of which He had, despite His
unimaginable sufferings, proved Himself capable. She was lost in
admiration at the magnitude of the forces which His utterances had
released. She was filled with thankfulness to Baha'u'llah for having
enabled her to witness the evidences of such brilliant victory for His
Cause no less than for His Son.
The outbreak of the Great War gave her yet another opportunity to reveal
the true worth of her character and to release the latent energies of her
heart. The residence of 'Abdu'l-Baha in Haifa was besieged, all throughout
that dreary conflict, by a concourse of famished men, women and children
whom the maladministration, the cruelty and neglect of the officials of
the Ottoman Government had driven to seek an alleviation to their woes.
From the hand of the Greatest Holy Leaf, and out of the abundance of her
heart, these hapless victims of a contemptible tyranny, received day after
day unforgettable evidences of a love they had learned to envy and admire.
Her words of cheer and comfort, the food, the money, the clothing she
freely dispensed, the remedies which, by a process of her own, she herself
prepared and diligently applied--all these had their share in comforting
the disconsolate, in restoring sight to the blind, in sheltering the
orphan, in healing the sick, and in succoring the homeless and the
wanderer.
She had reached, amidst the darkness of the war days, the high water-mark
of her spiritual attainments. Few, if any, among the unnumbered
benefactors of society whose privilege has been to allay, in various
measures, the hardships and sufferings entailed by that Fierce Conflict,
gave as freely and as disinterestedly as she did; few exercised that
undefinable influence upon the beneficiaries of their gifts.
Age seemed to have accentuated the tenderness of her loving heart, and to
have widened still further the range of her sympathies. The sight of
appalling suffering around her steeled her energies and revealed such
potentialities that her most intimate associates had failed to suspect.
The ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha, so tragic in its suddenness, was to her a
terrific blow, from the effects of which she never completely recovered.
To her He, whom she called "Aqa," had been a refuge in times of adversity.
On Him she had been led to place her sole reliance. In Him she had found
ample compensation for the bereavements she had suffered, the desertions
she had witnessed, the ingratitude she had been shown by friends and
kindreds. No one could ever dream that a woman of her age, so frail in
body, so sensitive of heart, so loaded with the cares of almost eighty
years of incessant tribulation, could so long survive so shattering a
blow. And yet history, no less than the annals of our immortal Faith,
shall record for her a share in the advancement and consolidation of the
world-wide community which the hand of 'Abdu'l-Baha had helped to fashion,
which no one among the remnants of His Family can rival.
Which of the blessings am I to recount, which in her unfailing solicitude
she showered upon me, in the most critical and agitated hours of my life?
To me, standing in so dire a need of the vitalizing grace of God, she was
the living symbol of many an attribute I had learned to admire in
'Abdu'l-Baha. She was to me a continual reminder of His inspiring
personality, of His calm resignation, of His munificence and magnanimity.
To me she was an incarnation of His winsome graciousness, of His
all-encompassing tenderness and love.
It would take me too long to make even a brief allusion to those incidents
of her life, each of which eloquently proclaims her as a daughter, worthy
to inherit that priceless heritage bequeathed to her by Baha'u'llah. A
purity of life that reflected itself in even the minutest details of her
daily occupations and activities; a tenderness of heart that obliterated
every distinction of creed, class and color; a resignation and serenity
that evoked to the mind the calm and heroic fortitude of the Bab; a
natural fondness of flowers and children that was so characteristic of
Baha'u'llah; an unaffected simplicity of manners; an extreme sociability
which made her accessible to all; a generosity, a love, at once
disinterested and indiscriminating, that reflected so clearly the
attributes of 'Abdu'l-Baha's character; a sweetness of temper; a
cheerfulness that no amount of sorrow could becloud; a quiet and
unassuming disposition that served to enhance a thousandfold the prestige
of her exalted rank; a forgiving nature that instantly disarmed the most
unyielding enemy--these rank among the outstanding attributes of a saintly
life which history will acknowledge as having been endowed with a
celestial potency that few of the heroes of the past possessed.
No wonder that in Tablets, which stand as eternal testimonies to the
beauty of her character, Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha have paid touching
tributes to those things that testify to her exalted position among the
members of their Family, that proclaim her as an example to their
followers, and as an object worthy of the admiration of all mankind.
I need only, at this juncture, quote the following passage from a Tablet
addressed by 'Abdu'l-Baha to the Holy Mother, the tone of which reveals
unmistakably the character of those ties that bound Him to so precious, so
devoted a sister:
"To my honored and distinguished sister do thou convey the expression of
my heartfelt, my intense longing. Day and night she liveth in my
remembrance. I dare make no mention of the feelings which separation from
her has aroused in my heart, for whatever I should attempt to express in
writing will assuredly be effaced by the tears which such sentiments must
bring to my eyes."
Dearly-beloved Greatest Holy Leaf! Through the mist of tears that fill my
eyes I can clearly see, as I pen these lines, thy noble figure before me,
and can recognize the serenity of thy kindly face. I can still gaze,
though the shadow of the grave separate us, into thy blue, love-deep eyes,
and can feel, in its calm intensity, the immense love thou didst bear for
the Cause of thine Almighty Father, the attachment that bound thee to the
most lowly and insignificant among its followers, the warm affection thou
didst cherish for me in thine heart. The memory of the ineffable beauty of
thy smile shall ever continue to cheer and hearten me in the thorny path I
am destined to pursue. The remembrance of the touch of thine hand shall
spur me on to follow steadfastly in thy way. The sweet magic of thy voice
shall remind me, when the hour of adversity is at its darkest, to hold
fast to the rope thou didst seize so firmly all the days of thy life.
Bear thou this my message to 'Abdu'l-Baha, thine exalted and
divinely-appointed Brother: If the Cause for which Baha'u'llah toiled and
labored, for which Thou didst suffer years of agonizing sorrow, for the
sake of which streams of sacred blood have flowed, should, in the days to
come, encounter storms more severe than those it has already weathered, do
Thou continue to overshadow, with Thine all-encompassing care and wisdom,
Thy frail, Thy unworthy appointed child.
Intercede, O noble and well-favoured scion of a heavenly Father, for me no
less than for the toiling masses of Thy ardent lovers, who have sworn
undying allegiance to Thy memory, whose souls have been nourished by the
energies of Thy love, whose conduct has been moulded by the inspiring
example of Thy life, and whose imaginations are fired by the imperishable
evidences of Thy lively faith, Thy unshakable constancy, Thy invincible
heroism, Thy great renunciation.
Whatever betide us, however distressing the vicissitudes which the nascent
Faith of God may yet experience, we pledge ourselves, before the
mercy-seat of thy glorious Father, to hand on, unimpaired and undivided,
to generations yet unborn, the glory of that tradition of which thou hast
been its most brilliant exemplar.
In the innermost recesses of our hearts, O thou exalted Leaf of the Abha
Paradise, we have reared for thee a shining mansion that the hand of time
can never undermine, a shrine which shall frame eternally the matchless
beauty of thy countenance, an altar whereon the fire of thy consuming love
shall burn forever.