It should also be borne in mind that the machinery of the Cause has been
so fashioned, that whatever is deemed necessary to incorporate into it in
order to keep it in the forefront of all progressive movements, can,
according to the provisions made by Baha'u'llah, be safely embodied
therein. To this testify the words of Baha'u'llah, as recorded in the
Eighth Leaf of the exalted Paradise: "It is incumbent upon the Trustees of
the House of Justice to take counsel together regarding those things which
have not outwardly been revealed in the Book, and to enforce that which is
agreeable to them. God will verily inspire them with whatsoever He
willeth, and He, verily, is the Provider, the Omniscient." Not only has
the House of Justice been invested by Baha'u'llah with the authority to
legislate whatsoever has not been explicitly and outwardly recorded in His
holy Writ, upon it has also been conferred by the Will and Testament of
'Abdu'l-Baha the right and power to abrogate, according to the changes and
requirements of the time, whatever has been already enacted and enforced
by a preceding House of Justice. In this connection, He revealed the
following in His Will: "And inasmuch as the House of Justice hath power to
enact laws that are not expressly recorded in the Book and bear upon daily
transactions, so also it hath power to repeal the same. Thus for example,
the House of Justice enacteth today a certain law and enforceth it, and a
hundred years hence, circumstances having profoundly changed and the
conditions having altered, another House of Justice will then have power,
according to the exigencies of the time, to alter that law. This it can do
because that law formeth no part of the divine explicit text. The House of
Justice is both the initiator and the abrogator of its own laws." Such is
the immutability of His revealed Word. Such is the elasticity which
characterizes the functions of His appointed ministers. The first
preserves the identity of His Faith, and guards the integrity of His law.
The second enables it, even as a living organism, to expand and adapt
itself to the needs and requirements of an ever-changing society.
Dear friends! Feeble though our Faith may now appear in the eyes of men,
who either denounce it as an offshoot of Islam, or contemptuously ignore
it as one more of those obscure sects that abound in the West, this
priceless gem of Divine Revelation, now still in its embryonic state,
shall evolve within the shell of His law, and shall forge ahead, undivided
and unimpaired, till it embraces the whole of mankind. Only those who have
already recognized the supreme station of Baha'u'llah, only those whose
hearts have been touched by His love, and have become familiar with the
potency of His spirit, can adequately appreciate the value of this Divine
Economy--His inestimable gift to mankind.
Leaders of religion, exponents of political theories, governors of human
institutions, who at present are witnessing with perplexity and dismay the
bankruptcy of their ideas, and the disintegration of their handiwork,
would do well to turn their gaze to the Revelation of Baha'u'llah, and to
meditate upon the World Order which, lying enshrined in His teachings, is
slowly and imperceptibly rising amid the welter and chaos of present-day
civilization. They need have no doubt or anxiety regarding the nature, the
origin or validity of the institutions which the adherents of the Faith
are building up throughout the world. For these lie embedded in the
teachings themselves, unadulterated and unobscured by unwarrantable
inferences, or unauthorized interpretations of His Word.
How pressing and sacred the responsibility that now weighs upon those who
are already acquainted with these teachings! How glorious the task of
those who are called upon to vindicate their truth, and demonstrate their
practicability to an unbelieving world! Nothing short of an immovable
conviction in their divine origin, and their uniqueness in the annals of
religion; nothing short of an unwavering purpose to execute and apply them
to the administrative machinery of the Cause, can be sufficient to
establish their reality, and insure their success. How vast is the
Revelation of Baha'u'llah! How great the magnitude of His blessings
showered upon humanity in this day! And yet, how poor, how inadequate our
conception of their significance and glory! This generation stands too
close to so colossal a Revelation to appreciate, in their full measure,
the infinite possibilities of His Faith, the unprecedented character of
His Cause, and the mysterious dispensations of His Providence.
In the Iqan, Baha'u'llah, wishing to emphasize the transcendent character
of this new Day of God, reinforces the strength of His argument by His
reference to the text of a correct and authorized tradition, which reveals
the following: "Knowledge is twenty and seven letters. All that the
Prophets have revealed are two letters thereof. No man thus far hath known
more than these two letters. But when the Qa'im shall arise, He will cause
the remaining twenty and five letters to be made manifest." And then
immediately follow these confirming and illuminating words of Baha'u'llah:
"Consider: He hath declared knowledge to consist of twenty and seven
letters, and regarded all the prophets, from Adam even unto Muhammad, the
'seal,' as expounders of only two letters thereof. He also saith that the
Qa'im will reveal all the remaining twenty and five letters. Behold from
this utterance how great and lofty is His station! His rank excelleth that
of all the prophets, and His revelation transcendeth the comprehension and
understanding of all their chosen ones. A revelation, of which the
prophets of God, His saints and chosen ones have either not been informed
or which, in pursuance of God's inscrutable decree, they have not
disclosed--such a revelation, these vile and villainous people have sought
to measure with their own deficient minds, their own deficient learning
and understanding."
In another passage of the same Book, Baha'u'llah, referring to the
transformation effected by every Revelation in the ways, thoughts and
manners of the people, reveals these words: "Is not the object of every
Revelation to effect a transformation in the whole character of mankind, a
transformation that shall manifest itself, both outwardly and inwardly,
that shall affect both its inner life and external conditions? For if the
character of mankind be not changed, the futility of God's universal
Manifestations would be apparent."
Did not Christ Himself, addressing His disciples, utter these words: "I
have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit
when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth"?
From the text of this recognized tradition, as well as from the words of
Christ, as attested by the Gospel, every unprejudiced observer will
readily apprehend the magnitude of the Faith which Baha'u'llah has
revealed, and recognize the staggering weight of the claim He has
advanced. No wonder if 'Abdu'l-Baha has portrayed in such lurid colors the
fierceness of the agitation that shall center in the days to come round
the nascent institutions of the Faith. We can now but faintly discern the
beginnings of that turmoil which the rise and ascendancy of the Cause of
God is destined to cast in the world.