The Advent of Divine Justice
by Shoghi Effendi
Edition 1, (September 2006)
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CONTENTS
Baha'i Terms of Use
"To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful ..."
"Dearly beloved friends! Great as is my love and admiration ..."
"Dearly beloved friends! I have attempted, in the beginning ..."
"Such, dearly beloved friends, is the vista that stretches ..."
"One more word in conclusion. Among some of the ..."
"TO THE BELOVED OF GOD AND THE HANDMAIDS OF THE MERCIFUL ..."
To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout the
United States and Canada.
Best-beloved brothers and sisters in the love of Baha'u'llah:
It would be difficult indeed to adequately express the feelings of
irrepressible joy and exultation that flood my heart every time I pause to
contemplate the ceaseless evidences of the dynamic energy which animates
the stalwart pioneers of the World Order of Baha'u'llah in the execution
of the Plan committed to their charge. The signature of the contract, by
your elected national representatives, signalizing the opening of the
final phase of the greatest enterprise ever launched by the followers of
the Faith of Baha'u'llah in the West, no less than the extremely
heartening progress recorded in the successive reports of their National
Teaching Committee, attest, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the fidelity,
the vigor, and the thoroughness with which you are conducting the manifold
operations which the evolution of the Seven Year Plan must necessarily
involve. In both of its aspects, and in all its details, it is being
prosecuted with exemplary regularity and precision, with undiminished
efficiency, and commendable dispatch.
The resourcefulness which the national representatives of the American
believers have, in recent months, so strikingly demonstrated, as evidenced
by the successive measures they have adopted, has been matched by the
loyal, the unquestioning and generous support accorded them by all those
whom they represent, at every critical stage, and with every fresh
advance, in the discharge of their sacred duties. Such close interaction,
such complete cohesion, such continual harmony and fellowship between the
various agencies that contribute to the organic life, and constitute the
basic framework, of every properly functioning Baha'i community, is a
phenomenon which offers a striking contrast to the disruptive tendencies
which the discordant elements of present-day society so tragically
manifest. Whereas every apparent trial with which the unfathomable wisdom
of the Almighty deems it necessary to afflict His chosen community serves
only to demonstrate afresh its essential solidarity and to consolidate its
inward strength, each of the successive crises in the fortunes of a
decadent age exposes more convincingly than the one preceding it the
corrosive influences that are fast sapping the vitality and undermining
the basis of its declining institutions.
For such demonstrations of the interpositions of an ever-watchful
Providence they who stand identified with the Community of the Most Great
Name must feel eternally grateful. From every fresh token of His unfailing
blessing on the one hand, and of His visitation on the other, they cannot
but derive immense hope and courage. Alert to seize every opportunity
which the revolutions of the wheel of destiny within their Faith offers
them, and undismayed by the prospect of spasmodic convulsions that must
sooner or later fatally affect those who have refused to embrace its
light, they, and those who will labor after them, must press forward until
the processes now set in motion will have each spent its force and
contributed its share towards the birth of the Order now stirring in the
womb of a travailing age.
These recurrent crises which, with ominous frequency and resistless force,
are afflicting an ever-increasing portion of the human race must of
necessity continue, however impermanently, to exercise, in a certain
measure, their baleful influence upon a world community which has spread
its ramifications to the uttermost ends of the earth. How can the
beginnings of a world upheaval, unleashing forces that are so gravely
deranging the social, the religious, the political, and the economic
equilibrium of organized society, throwing into chaos and confusion
political systems, racial doctrines, social conceptions, cultural
standards, religious associations, and trade relationships--how can such
agitations, on a scale so vast, so unprecedented, fail to produce any
repercussions on the institutions of a Faith of such tender age whose
teachings have a direct and vital bearing on each of these spheres of
human life and conduct?
Little wonder, therefore, if they who are holding aloft the banner of so
pervasive a Faith, so challenging a Cause, find themselves affected by the
impact of these world-shaking forces. Little wonder if they find that in
the midst of this whirlpool of contending passions their freedom has been
curtailed, their tenets contemned, their institutions assaulted, their
motives maligned, their authority jeopardized, their claim rejected.
In the heart of the European continent a community which, as predicted by
'Abdu'l-Baha, is destined, by virtue of its spiritual potentialities and
geographical situation, to radiate the splendor of the light of the Faith
on the countries that surround it, has been momentarily eclipsed through
the restrictions which a regime that has sorely misapprehended its purpose
and function has chosen to impose upon it. Its voice, alas, is now
silenced, its institutions dissolved, its literature banned, its archives
confiscated, and its meetings suspended.
In central Asia, in the city enjoying the unique distinction of having
been chosen by 'Abdu'l-Baha as the home of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar
of the Baha'i world, as well as in the towns and villages of the province
to which it belongs, the sore-pressed Faith of Baha'u'llah, as a result of
the extraordinary and unique vitality which, in the course of several
decades, it has consistently manifested, finds itself at the mercy of
forces which, alarmed at its rising power, are now bent on reducing it to
utter impotence. Its Temple, though still used for purposes of Baha'i
worship, has been expropriated, its Assemblies and committees disbanded,
its teaching activities crippled, its chief promoters deported, and not a
few of its most enthusiastic supporters, both men and women, imprisoned.
In the land of its birth, wherein reside the immense majority of its
followers--a country whose capital has been hailed by Baha'u'llah as the
"mother of the world" and the "dayspring of the joy of mankind"--a civil
authority, as yet undivorced officially from the paralyzing influences of
an antiquated, a fanatical, and outrageously corrupt clergy, pursues
relentlessly its campaign of repression against the adherents of a Faith
which it has for well-nigh a century striven unsuccessfully to suppress.
Indifferent to the truth that the members of this innocent and proscribed
community can justly claim to rank as among the most disinterested, the
most competent, and the most ardent lovers of their native land,
contemptuous of their high sense of world citizenship which the advocates
of an excessive and narrow nationalism can never hope to appreciate, such
an authority refuses to grant to a Faith which extends its spiritual
jurisdiction over well-nigh six hundred local communities, and which
numerically outnumbers the adherents of either the Christian, the Jewish,
or the Zoroastrian Faiths in that land, the necessary legal right to
enforce its laws, to administer its affairs, to conduct its schools, to
celebrate its festivals, to circulate its literature, to solemnize its
rites, to erect its edifices, and to safeguard its endowments.
And now recently in the Holy Land itself, the heart and nerve-center of a
world-embracing Faith, the fires of racial animosity, of fratricidal
strife, of unabashed terrorism, have lit a conflagration that gravely
interferes, on the one hand, with that flow of pilgrims that constitutes
the lifeblood of that center, and suspends, on the other, the various
projects that had been initiated in connection with the preservation and
extension of the areas surrounding the sacred Spots it enshrines. The
safety of the small community of resident believers, faced by the rising
tide of lawlessness, has been imperiled, its status as a neutral and
distinct community indirectly challenged, and its freedom to carry out
certain of its observances curtailed. A series of murderous assaults,
alternating with outbursts of bitter fanaticism, both racial and
religious, involving the leaders as well as the followers of the three
leading Faiths in that distracted country, have, at times, threatened to
sever all normal communications both within its confines as well as with
the outside world. Perilous though the situation has been, the Baha'i Holy
Places, the object of the adoration of a world-encircling Faith, have,
notwithstanding their number and exposed position, and though to outward
seeming deprived of any means of protection, been vouchsafed a
preservation little short of miraculous.
A world, torn with conflicting passions, and perilously disintegrating
from within, finds itself confronted, at so crucial an epoch in its
history, by the rising fortunes of an infant Faith, a Faith that, at
times, seems to be drawn into its controversies, entangled by its
conflicts, eclipsed by its gathering shadows, and overpowered by the
mounting tide of its passions. In its very heart, within its cradle, at
the seat of its first and venerable Temple, in one of its hitherto
flourishing and potentially powerful centers, the as-yet unemancipated
Faith of Baha'u'llah seems indeed to have retreated before the onrushing
forces of violence and disorder to which humanity is steadily falling a
victim. The strongholds of such a Faith, one by one and day after day, are
to outward seeming being successively isolated, assaulted and captured. As
the lights of liberty flicker and go out, as the din of discord grows
louder and louder every day, as the fires of fanaticism flame with
increasing fierceness in the breasts of men, as the chill of irreligion
creeps relentlessly over the soul of mankind, the limbs and organs that
constitute the body of the Faith of Baha'u'llah appear, in varying
measure, to have become afflicted with the crippling influences that now
hold in their grip the whole of the civilized world.
How clearly and strikingly the following words of 'Abdu'l-Baha are being
demonstrated at this hour: "The darkness of error that has enveloped the
East and the West is, in this most great cycle, battling with the light of
Divine Guidance. Its swords and its spears are very sharp and pointed; its
army keenly bloodthirsty." "This day," He, in another passage has written,
"the powers of all the leaders of religion are directed towards the
dispersion of the congregation of the All-Merciful, and the shattering of
the Divine Edifice. The hosts of the world, whether material, cultural or
political are from every side launching their assault, for the Cause is
great, very great. Its greatness is, in this day, clear and manifest to
men's eyes."
The one chief remaining citadel, the mighty arm which still raises aloft
the standard of an unconquerable Faith, is none other than the blessed
community of the followers of the Most Great Name in the North American
continent. By its works, and through the unfailing protection vouchsafed
to it by an almighty Providence, this distinguished member of the body of
the constantly interacting Baha'i communities of East and West, bids fair
to be universally regarded as the cradle, as well as the stronghold, of
that future New World Order, which is at once the promise and the glory of
the Dispensation associated with the name of Baha'u'llah.
Let anyone inclined to either belittle the unique station conferred upon
this community, or to question the role it will be called upon to play in
the days to come, ponder the implication of these pregnant and highly
illuminating words uttered by 'Abdu'l-Baha, and addressed to it at a time
when the fortunes of a world groaning beneath the burden of a devastating
war had reached their lowest ebb. "The continent of America," He so
significantly wrote, "is, in the eyes of the one true God, the land
wherein the splendors of His light shall be revealed, where the mysteries
of His Faith shall be unveiled, where the righteous will abide, and the
free assemble."
Already, the community of the believers of the North American continent--at
once the prime mover and pattern of the future communities which the Faith
of Baha'u'llah is destined to raise up throughout the length and breadth
of the Western Hemisphere--has, despite the prevailing gloom, shown its
capacity to be recognized as the torchbearer of that light, the repository
of those mysteries, the exponent of that righteousness and the sanctuary
of that freedom. To what other light can these above-quoted words possibly
allude, if not to the light of the glory of the Golden Age of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah? What mysteries could 'Abdu'l-Baha have contemplated except
the mysteries of that embryonic World Order now evolving within the matrix
of His Administration? What righteousness if not the righteousness whose
reign that Age and that Order can alone establish? What freedom but the
freedom which the proclamation of His sovereignty in the fullness of time
must bestow?
The community of the organized promoters of the Faith of Baha'u'llah in
the American continent--the spiritual descendants of the dawn-breakers of
an heroic Age, who by their death proclaimed the birth of that Faith--must,
in turn, usher in, not by their death but through living sacrifice, that
promised World Order, the shell ordained to enshrine that priceless jewel,
the world civilization, of which the Faith itself is the sole begetter.
While its sister communities are bending beneath the tempestuous winds
that beat upon them from every side, this community, preserved by the
immutable decrees of the omnipotent Ordainer and deriving continual
sustenance from the mandate with which the Tablets of the Divine Plan have
invested it, is now busily engaged in laying the foundations and in
fostering the growth of those institutions which are to herald the
approach of the Age destined to witness the birth and rise of the World
Order of Baha'u'llah.
A community, relatively negligible in its numerical strength; separated by
vast distances from both the focal-center of its Faith and the land
wherein the preponderating mass of its fellow-believers reside; bereft in
the main of material resources and lacking in experience and in
prominence; ignorant of the beliefs, concepts and habits of those peoples
and races from which its spiritual Founders have sprung; wholly unfamiliar
with the languages in which its sacred Books were originally revealed;
constrained to place its sole reliance upon an inadequate rendering of
only a fragmentary portion of the literature embodying its laws, its
tenets, and its history; subjected from its infancy to tests of extreme
severity, involving, at times, the defection of some of its most prominent
members; having to contend, ever since its inception, and in an
ever-increasing measure, with the forces of corruption, of moral laxity,
and ingrained prejudice--such a community, in less than half a century, and
unaided by any of its sister communities, whether in the East or in the
West, has, by virtue of the celestial potency with which an all-loving
Master has abundantly endowed it, lent an impetus to the onward march of
the Cause it has espoused which the combined achievements of its
coreligionists in the West have failed to rival.
What other community, it can confidently be asked, has been instrumental
in fixing the pattern, and in imparting the original impulse, to those
administrative institutions that constitute the vanguard of the World
Order of Baha'u'llah? What other community has been capable of
demonstrating, with such consistency, the resourcefulness, the discipline,
the iron determination, the zeal and perseverance, the devotion and
fidelity, so indispensable to the erection and the continued extension of
the framework within which those nascent institutions can alone multiply
and mature? What other community has proved itself to be fired by so noble
a vision, or willing to rise to such heights of self-sacrifice, or ready
to achieve so great a measure of solidarity, as to be able to raise, in so
short a time and in the course of such crucial years, an edifice that can
well deserve to be regarded as the greatest contribution ever made by the
West to the Cause of Baha'u'llah? What other community can justifiably lay
claim to have succeeded, through the unsupported efforts of one of its
humble members, in securing the spontaneous allegiance of Royalty to its
Cause, and in winning such marvelous and written testimonies to its truth?
What other community has shown the foresight, the organizing ability, the
enthusiastic eagerness, that have been responsible for the establishment
and multiplication, throughout its territory, of those initial schools
which, as time goes by, will, on the one hand, evolve into powerful
centers of Baha'i learning, and, on the other, provide a fertile
recruiting ground for the enrichment and consolidation of its teaching
force? What other community has produced pioneers combining to such a
degree the essential qualities of audacity, of consecration, of tenacity,
of self-renunciation, and unstinted devotion, that have prompted them to
abandon their homes, and forsake their all, and scatter over the surface
of the globe, and hoist in its uttermost corners the triumphant banner of
Baha'u'llah? Who else but the members of this community have won the
eternal distinction of being the first to raise the call of Ya
Baha'u'l-Abha in such highly important and widely scattered centers and
territories as the hearts of both the British and French empires, Germany,
the Far East, the Balkan States, the Scandinavian countries, Latin
America, the Islands of the Pacific, South Africa, Australia and New
Zealand, and now more recently the Baltic States? Who else but those same
pioneers have shown themselves ready to undertake the labor, to exercise
the patience, and to provide the funds, required for the translation and
publication, in no less than forty languages, of their sacred literature,
the dissemination of which is an essential prerequisite to any effectively
organized campaign of teaching? What other community can lay claim to have
had a decisive share in the worldwide efforts that have been exerted for
the safeguarding and the extension of the immediate surroundings of its
holy shrines, as well as for the preliminary acquisition of the future
sites of its international institutions at its world center? What other
community can to its eternal credit claim to have been the first to frame
its national and local constitutions, thereby laying down the fundamental
lines of the twin charters designed to regulate the activities, define the
functions, and safeguard the rights, of its institutions? What other
community can boast of having simultaneously acquired and legally secured
the basis of its national endowments, thus paving the way for a similar
action on the part of its local communities? What other community has
achieved the supreme distinction of having obtained, long before any of
its sister communities had envisaged such a possibility, the necessary
documents assuring the recognition, by both the federal and state
authorities, of its Spiritual Assemblies and national endowments? And
finally what other community has had the privilege, and been granted the
means, to succor the needy, to plead the cause of the downtrodden, and to
intervene so energetically for the safeguarding of Baha'i edifices and
institutions in countries such as Persia, Egypt, 'Iraq, Russia, and
Germany, where, at various times, its fellow-believers have had to suffer
the rigors of both religious and racial persecution?
Such a matchless and brilliant record of service, extending over a period
of well-nigh twenty years, and so closely interwoven with the interest and
fortunes of such a large section of the worldwide Baha'i community,
deserves to rank as a memorable chapter in the history of the Formative
Period of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. Reinforced and enriched as it is by
the memory of the American believers' earlier achievements, such a record
is in itself convincing testimony to their ability to befittingly shoulder
the responsibilities which any task may impose upon them in the future. To
overrate the significance of these manifold services would be well-nigh
impossible. To appraise correctly their value, and dilate on their merits
and immediate consequences, is a task which only a future Baha'i historian
can properly discharge. I can only for the present place on record my
profound conviction that a community capable of showing forth such deeds,
of evincing such a spirit, of rising to such heights, cannot but be
already possessed of such potentialities as will enable it to vindicate,
in the fullness of time, its right to be acclaimed as the chief creator
and champion of the World Order of Baha'u'llah.
Magnificent as has been this record, reminiscent as it is, in some of its
aspects, of the exploits with which the dawn-breakers of an heroic Age
have proclaimed the birth of the Faith itself, the task associated with
the name of this privileged community is, far from approaching its climax,
only beginning to unfold. What the American believers have, within the
space of almost fifty years, achieved is infinitesimal when compared to
the magnitude of the tasks ahead of them. The rumblings of that
catastrophic upheaval, which is to proclaim, at one and the same time, the
death-pangs of the old order and the birth-pangs of the new, indicate both
the steady approach, as well as the awe-inspiring character, of those
tasks.
The virtual establishment of the Administrative Order of their Faith, the
erection of its framework, the fashioning of its instruments, and the
consolidation of its subsidiary institutions, was the first task committed
to their charge, as an organized community called into being by the Will,
and under the instructions, of 'Abdu'l-Baha. Of this initial task they
have acquitted themselves with marvelous promptitude, fidelity, and vigor.
No sooner had they created and correlated the various and necessary
agencies for the efficient conduct of any policy they might subsequently
wish to initiate, than they addressed themselves, with equal zest and
consecration, to the next more arduous task of erecting the superstructure
of an edifice the cornerstone of which 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself had laid. And
when that feat was achieved, this community, alive to the passionate
pleas, exhortations, and promises recorded in the Tablets of the Divine
Plan, resolved to undertake yet another task, which in its scope and
spiritual potentialities is sure to outshine any of the works they have
already accomplished. Launching with unquenchable enthusiasm and dauntless
courage the Seven Year Plan, as the first and practical step towards the
fulfillment of the mission prescribed in those epoch-making Tablets, they
entered, with a spirit of renewed consecration, upon their dual task, the
consummation of which, it is hoped, will synchronize with the celebration
of the centenary of the birth of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. Well aware that
every advance made in the external ornamentation of their majestic edifice
would directly react on the progress of the teaching campaign initiated by
them in both the northern and southern American continents, and realizing
that every victory gained in the teaching field would, in its turn,
facilitate the work, and hasten the completion, of their Temple, they are
now pressing on, with courage and faith, in their efforts to discharge, in
both of its phases, their obligations under the Plan they have dedicated
themselves to execute.
Let them not, however, imagine that the carrying out of the Seven Year
Plan, coinciding as it does with the termination of the first century of
the Baha'i era, signifies either the termination of, or even an
interruption in, the work which the unerring Hand of the Almighty is
directing them to perform. The opening of the second century of the Baha'i
era must needs disclose greater vistas, usher in further stages, and
witness the initiation of plans more far-reaching than any as yet
conceived. The Plan on which is now focused the attention, the
aspirations, and the resources of the entire community of the American
believers should be viewed as a mere beginning, as a trial of strength, a
stepping-stone to a crusade of still greater magnitude, if the duties and
responsibilities with which the Author of the Divine Plan has invested
them are to be honorably and entirely fulfilled.
For the consummation of the present Plan can result in no more than the
formation of at least one center in each of the Republics of the Western
Hemisphere, whereas the duties prescribed in those Tablets call for a
wider diffusion, and imply the scattering of a far greater and more
representative number of the members of the North American Baha'i
community over the entire surface of the New World. It is the undoubted
mission of the American believers, therefore, to carry forward into the
second century the glorious work initiated in the closing years of the
first. Not until they have played their part in guiding the activities of
these isolated and newly fledged centers, and in fostering their capacity
to initiate in their turn institutions, both local and national, modeled
on their own, can they be satisfied to have adequately discharged their
immediate obligations under 'Abdu'l-Baha's divinely revealed Plan.
Nor should it for a moment be supposed that the completion of a task which
aims at the multiplication of Baha'i centers and the provision of the
assistance and guidance necessary for the establishment of the
Administrative Order of the Baha'i Faith in the countries of Latin America
realizes in its entirety the scheme visualized for them by 'Abdu'l-Baha. A
perusal, however perfunctory, of those Tablets embodying His Plan will
instantly reveal a scope for their activities that stretches far beyond
the confines of the Western Hemisphere. With their inter-American tasks
and responsibilities virtually discharged, their intercontinental mission
enters upon its most glorious and decisive phase. "The moment this Divine
Message," 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself has written, "is carried forward by the
American believers from the shores of America and is propagated through
the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa, and of Australasia, and as
far as the islands of the Pacific, this community will find itself
securely established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion."
And who knows but that when this colossal task has been accomplished a
greater, a still more superb mission, incomparable in its splendor, and
foreordained for them by Baha'u'llah, may not be thrust upon them? The
glories of such a mission are of such dazzling splendor, the circumstances
attending it so remote, and the contemporary events with the culmination
of which it is so closely knit in such a state of flux, that it would be
premature to attempt, at the present time, any accurate delineation of its
features. Suffice it to say that out of the turmoil and tribulations of
these "latter years" opportunities undreamt of will be born, and
circumstances unpredictable created, that will enable, nay impel, the
victorious prosecutors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Plan, to add, through the part
they will play in the unrolling of the New World Order, fresh laurels to
the crown of their servitude to the threshold of Baha'u'llah.
Nor should any of the manifold opportunities, of a totally different
order, be allowed to pass unnoticed which the evolution of the Faith
itself, whether at its world center, or in the North American continent,
or even in the most outlying regions of the earth, must create, calling
once again upon the American believers to play a part, no less conspicuous
than the share they have previously had in their collective contributions
to the propagation of the Cause of Baha'u'llah. I can only for the moment
cite at random certain of these opportunities which stand out
preeminently, in any attempt to survey the possibilities of the future:
The election of the International House of Justice and its establishment
in the Holy Land, the spiritual and administrative center of the Baha'i
world, together with the formation of its auxiliary branches and
subsidiary institutions; the gradual erection of the various dependencies
of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the West, and the intricate issues
involving the establishment and the extension of the structural basis of
Baha'i community life; the codification and promulgation of the ordinances
of the Most Holy Book, necessitating the formation, in certain countries
of the East, of properly constituted and officially recognized courts of
Baha'i law; the building of the third Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i
world in the outskirts of the city of Tihran, to be followed by the rise
of a similar House of Worship in the Holy Land itself; the deliverance of
Baha'i communities from the fetters of religious orthodoxy in such Islamic
countries as Persia, 'Iraq, and Egypt, and the consequent recognition, by
the civil authorities in those states, of the independent status and
religious character of Baha'i National and Local Assemblies; the
precautionary and defensive measures to be devised, coordinated, and
carried out to counteract the full force of the inescapable attacks which
the organized efforts of ecclesiastical organizations of various
denominations will progressively launch and relentlessly pursue; and, last
but not least, the multitudinous issues that must be faced, the obstacles
that must be overcome, and the responsibilities that must be assumed, to
enable a sore-tried Faith to pass through the successive stages of
unmitigated obscurity, of active repression, and of complete emancipation,
leading in turn to its being acknowledged as an independent Faith,
enjoying the status of full equality with its sister religions, to be
followed by its establishment and recognition as a State religion, which
in turn must give way to its assumption of the rights and prerogatives
associated with the Baha'i state, functioning in the plenitude of its
powers, a stage which must ultimately culminate in the emergence of the
worldwide Baha'i Commonwealth, animated wholly by the spirit, and
operating solely in direct conformity with the laws and principles of
Baha'u'llah.
The challenge offered by these opportunities the American believers, I
feel confident, will, in addition to their answer to the teaching call
voiced by 'Abdu'l-Baha in His Tablets, unhesitatingly take up, and will,
with their traditional fearlessness, tenacity, and efficiency, so respond
to it as to confirm, before all the world, their title and rank as the
champion-builders of the mightiest institutions of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah.
Dearly beloved friends! Though the task be long and arduous, yet the prize
which the All-Bountiful Bestower has chosen to confer upon you is of such
preciousness that neither tongue nor pen can befittingly appraise it.
Though the goal towards which you are now so strenuously striving be
distant, and as yet undisclosed to men's eyes, yet its promise lies firmly
embedded in the authoritative and unalterable utterances of Baha'u'llah.
Though the course He has traced for you seems, at times, lost in the
threatening shadows with which a stricken humanity is now enveloped, yet
the unfailing light He has caused to shine continually upon you is of such
brightness that no earthly dusk can ever eclipse its splendor. Though
small in numbers, and circumscribed as yet in your experiences, powers,
and resources, yet the Force which energizes your mission is limitless in
its range and incalculable in its potency. Though the enemies which every
acceleration in the progress of your mission must raise up be fierce,
numerous, and unrelenting, yet the invisible Hosts which, if you
persevere, must, as promised, rush forth to your aid, will, in the end,
enable you to vanquish their hopes and annihilate their forces. Though the
ultimate blessings that must crown the consummation of your mission be
undoubted, and the Divine promises given you firm and irrevocable, yet the
measure of the goodly reward which every one of you is to reap must depend
on the extent to which your daily exertions will have contributed to the
expansion of that mission and the hastening of its triumph.
"DEARLY BELOVED FRIENDS! GREAT AS IS MY LOVE AND ADMIRATION ..."
Dearly beloved friends! Great as is my love and admiration for you,
convinced as I am of the paramount share which you can, and will,
undoubtedly have in both the continental and international spheres of
future Baha'i activity and service, I feel it nevertheless incumbent upon
me to utter, at this juncture, a word of warning. The glowing tributes, so
repeatedly and deservedly paid to the capacity, the spirit, the conduct,
and the high rank, of the American believers, both individually and as an
organic community, must, under no circumstances, be confounded with the
characteristics and nature of the people from which God has raised them
up. A sharp distinction between that community and that people must be
made, and resolutely and fearlessly upheld, if we wish to give due
recognition to the transmuting power of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, in its
impact on the lives and standards of those who have chosen to enlist under
His banner. Otherwise, the supreme and distinguishing function of His
Revelation, which is none other than the calling into being of a new race
of men, will remain wholly unrecognized and completely obscured.
How often have the Prophets of God, not excepting Baha'u'llah Himself,
chosen to appear, and deliver their Message in countries and amidst
peoples and races, at a time when they were either fast declining, or had
already touched the lowest depths of moral and spiritual degradation. The
appalling misery and wretchedness to which the Israelites had sunk, under
the debasing and tyrannical rule of the Pharaohs, in the days preceding
their exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses; the decline that
had set in in the religious, the spiritual, the cultural, and the moral
life of the Jewish people, at the time of the appearance of Jesus Christ;
the barbarous cruelty, the gross idolatry and immorality, which had for so
long been the most distressing features of the tribes of Arabia and
brought such shame upon them when Muhammad arose to proclaim His Message
in their midst; the indescribable state of decadence, with its attendant
corruption, confusion, intolerance, and oppression, in both the civil and
religious life of Persia, so graphically portrayed by the pen of a
considerable number of scholars, diplomats, and travelers, at the hour of
the Revelation of Baha'u'llah--all demonstrate this basic and inescapable
fact. To contend that the innate worthiness, the high moral standard, the
political aptitude, and social attainments of any race or nation is the
reason for the appearance in its midst of any of these Divine Luminaries
would be an absolute perversion of historical facts, and would amount to a
complete repudiation of the undoubted interpretation placed upon them, so
clearly and emphatically, by both Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha.
How great, then, must be the challenge to those who, belonging to such
races and nations, and having responded to the call which these Prophets
have raised, to unreservedly recognize and courageously testify to this
indubitable truth, that not by reason of any racial superiority, political
capacity, or spiritual virtue which a race or nation might possess, but
rather as a direct consequence of its crying needs, its lamentable
degeneracy, and irremediable perversity, has the Prophet of God chosen to
appear in its midst, and with it as a lever has lifted the entire human
race to a higher and nobler plane of life and conduct. For it is precisely
under such circumstances, and by such means that the Prophets have, from
time immemorial, chosen and were able to demonstrate their redemptive
power to raise from the depths of abasement and of misery, the people of
their own race and nation, empowering them to transmit in turn to other
races and nations the saving grace and the energizing influence of their
Revelation.
In the light of this fundamental principle it should always be borne in
mind, nor can it be sufficiently emphasized, that the primary reason why
the Bab and Baha'u'llah chose to appear in Persia, and to make it the
first repository of their Revelation, was because, of all the peoples and
nations of the civilized world, that race and nation had, as so often
depicted by 'Abdu'l-Baha, sunk to such ignominious depths, and manifested
so great a perversity, as to find no parallel among its contemporaries.
For no more convincing proof could be adduced demonstrating the
regenerating spirit animating the Revelations proclaimed by the Bab and
Baha'u'llah than their power to transform what can be truly regarded as
one of the most backward, the most cowardly, and perverse of peoples into
a race of heroes, fit to effect in turn a similar revolution in the life
of mankind. To have appeared among a race or nation which by its intrinsic
worth and high attainments seemed to warrant the inestimable privilege of
being made the receptacle of such a Revelation would in the eyes of an
unbelieving world greatly reduce the efficacy of that Message, and detract
from the self-sufficiency of its omnipotent power. The contrast so
strikingly presented in the pages of Nabil's Narrative between the heroism
that immortalized the life and deeds of the Dawn-Breakers and the
degeneracy and cowardice of their defamers and persecutors is in itself a
most impressive testimony to the truth of the Message of Him Who had
instilled such a spirit into the breasts of His disciples. For any
believer of that race to maintain that the excellence of his country and
the innate nobility of its people were the fundamental reasons for its
being singled out as the primary receptacle of the Revelations of the Bab
and Baha'u'llah would be untenable in the face of the overwhelming
evidence afforded so convincingly by that Narrative.
To a lesser degree this principle must of necessity apply to the country
which has vindicated its right to be regarded as the cradle of the World
Order of Baha'u'llah. So great a function, so noble a role, can be
regarded as no less inferior to the part played by those immortal souls
who, through their sublime renunciation and unparalleled deeds, have been
responsible for the birth of the Faith itself. Let not, therefore, those
who are to participate so predominantly in the birth of that world
civilization, which is the direct offspring of their Faith, imagine for a
moment that for some mysterious purpose or by any reason of inherent
excellence or special merit Baha'u'llah has chosen to confer upon their
country and people so great and lasting a distinction. It is precisely by
reason of the patent evils which, notwithstanding its other admittedly
great characteristics and achievements, an excessive and binding
materialism has unfortunately engendered within it that the Author of
their Faith and the Center of His Covenant have singled it out to become
the standard-bearer of the New World Order envisaged in their writings. It
is by such means as this that Baha'u'llah can best demonstrate to a
heedless generation His almighty power to raise up from the very midst of
a people, immersed in a sea of materialism, a prey to one of the most
virulent and long-standing forms of racial prejudice, and notorious for
its political corruption, lawlessness and laxity in moral standards, men
and women who, as time goes by, will increasingly exemplify those
essential virtues of self-renunciation, of moral rectitude, of chastity,
of indiscriminating fellowship, of holy discipline, and of spiritual
insight that will fit them for the preponderating share they will have in
calling into being that World Order and that World Civilization of which
their country, no less than the entire human race, stands in desperate
need. Theirs will be the duty and privilege, in their capacity first as
the establishers of one of the most powerful pillars sustaining the
edifice of the Universal House of Justice, and then as the
champion-builders of that New World Order of which that House is to be the
nucleus and forerunner, to inculcate, demonstrate, and apply those twin
and sorely needed principles of Divine justice and order--principles to
which the political corruption and the moral license, increasingly
staining the society to which they belong, offer so sad and striking a
contrast.
Observations such as these, however distasteful and depressing they may
be, should not, in the least, blind us to those virtues and qualities of
high intelligence, of youthfulness, of unbounded initiative, and
enterprise which the nation as a whole so conspicuously displays, and
which are being increasingly reflected by the community of the believers
within it. Upon these virtues and qualities, no less than upon the
elimination of the evils referred to, must depend, to a very great extent,
the ability of that community to lay a firm foundation for the country's
future role in ushering in the Golden Age of the Cause of Baha'u'llah.
How great, therefore, how staggering the responsibility that must weigh
upon the present generation of the American believers, at this early stage
in their spiritual and administrative evolution, to weed out, by every
means in their power, those faults, habits, and tendencies which they have
inherited from their own nation, and to cultivate, patiently and
prayerfully, those distinctive qualities and characteristics that are so
indispensable to their effective participation in the great redemptive
work of their Faith. Incapable as yet, in view of the restricted size of
their community and the limited influence it now wields, of producing any
marked effect on the great mass of their countrymen, let them focus their
attention, for the present, on their own selves, their own individual
needs, their own personal deficiencies and weaknesses, ever mindful that
every intensification of effort on their part will better equip them for
the time when they will be called upon to eradicate in their turn such
evil tendencies from the lives and the hearts of the entire body of their
fellow-citizens. Nor must they overlook the fact that the World Order,
whose basis they, as the advance-guard of the future Baha'i generations of
their countrymen, are now laboring to establish, can never be reared
unless and until the generality of the people to which they belong has
been already purged from the divers ills, whether social or political,
that now so severely afflict it.
Surveying as a whole the most pressing needs of this community, attempting
to estimate the more serious deficiencies by which it is being handicapped
in the discharge of its task, and ever bearing in mind the nature of that
still greater task with which it will be forced to wrestle in the future,
I feel it my duty to lay special stress upon, and draw the special and
urgent attention of the entire body of the American believers, be they
young or old, white or colored, teachers or administrators, veterans or
newcomers, to what I firmly believe are the essential requirements for the
success of the tasks which are now claiming their undivided attention.
Great as is the importance of fashioning the outward instruments, and of
perfecting the administrative agencies, which they can utilize for the
prosecution of their dual task under the Seven Year Plan; vital and urgent
as are the campaigns which they are initiating, the schemes and projects
which they are devising, and the funds which they are raising, for the
efficient conduct of both the Teaching and Temple work, the imponderable,
the spiritual, factors, which are bound up with their own individual and
inner lives, and with which are associated their human and social
relationships, are no less urgent and vital, and demand constant scrutiny,
continual self-examination and heart-searching on their part, lest their
value be impaired or their vital necessity be obscured or forgotten.
Of these spiritual prerequisites of success, which constitute the bedrock
on which the security of all teaching plans, Temple projects, and
financial schemes, must ultimately rest, the following stand out as
preeminent and vital, which the members of the American Baha'i community
will do well to ponder. Upon the extent to which these basic requirements
are met, and the manner in which the American believers fulfill them in
their individual lives, administrative activities, and social
relationships, must depend the measure of the manifold blessings which the
All-Bountiful Possessor can vouchsafe to them all. These requirements are
none other than a high sense of moral rectitude in their social and
administrative activities, absolute chastity in their individual lives,
and complete freedom from prejudice in their dealings with peoples of a
different race, class, creed, or color.