[From the Guardian:]
To the Hands of the Cause, the members of the National Spiritual
Assemblies, the pioneers, the resident believers and visitors attending
the Asian Intercontinental Teaching Conference in New Delhi, India.
Well-beloved friends:
With high hopes and a joyful heart I acclaim the convocation, in the
leading city of the Indian sub-continent, of the fourth and last of the
Intercontinental Teaching Conferences of a memorable Holy Year
commemorating the centenary of the birth of the prophetic Mission of
Baha'u'llah.
On this historic occasion, when the members of the National Spiritual
Assemblies of the Baha'is of the United States of America, of the Dominion
of Canada, of Central and of South America, of Persia, of the Indian
subcontinent and of Burma, of Iraq and of Australasia, as well as
representatives of the sovereign states and dependencies of the Asiatic
continent, of the Republics of North, Central and South America, and of
Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania are assembled, and are to deliberate
on the needs and requirements of the recently launched triple Campaign
embracing the Asiatic mainland, the Australian continent and the islands
of the Pacific Ocean--a campaign which may well be regarded as the most
extensive, the most arduous and the most momentous of all the campaigns of
a world-girdling Crusade, and which, in its scope, is unparalleled in the
history of the Faith in the entire eastern Hemisphere--my thoughts, on such
an occasion, go back to the early dawn of our Faith, to those
unforgettable scenes of matchless heroism, of dark tragedy, of
imperishable glory which heralded its birth, and accompanied the spread,
of its infant Light, in the heart of the Asiatic continent.
I vividly recall the meteoric rise of the Faith of the Bab in the
provinces of Persia and the stirring episodes associated with His cruel
incarceration in the mountain-fastnesses of Adhirbayjan, with the
revelation of the laws of His Dispensation, with the proclamation of the
independence of His Faith, with the peerless heroism of His disciples,
with the fiendish cruelty of His foes--the Chief Magistrate, the civil
authorities, the ecclesiastical dignitaries and the masses of the people,
of His native land--with the humiliation, the spoliation, the dispersal,
the eventual massacre of a vast number of His followers, and, above all,
with His own execution in the City of Tabriz.
With a throb of wonder I call to mind the early and sudden fruition of His
Dispensation in the capital city of that land, and the dramatic
circumstances attending the birth of Baha'u'llah's Revelation culminating
in His precipitate banishment to Iraq.
I am reminded, moreover, of the initial spread of the light of this
Revelation, in consequence of the banishment of Baha'u'llah, to the
adjoining territories of Iraq, and, as far as the western fringes of that
continent, to Turkey and the neighbouring territories of Lebanon, Jordan
and Syria, and, at a later stage, to the Indian sub-continent and China,
situated on the southern and eastern extremities of that continent as well
as to the Caucasus and Russian Turkistan.
Nor can I fail to remember the series of alternating crises and
victories--each constituting a landmark in the evolution of the Faith--which
it has experienced in some of these territories, associated with the
distressful withdrawal of its Author to the mountains of Sulaymaniyyih;
with the glorious Declaration of His Mission in Baghdad; with His second
and third banishments to Constantinople and Adrianople; with the grievous
rebellion of His half-brother; with the proclamation of His own Mission;
with His fourth banishment to the desolate and far-off penal colony of
Akka in Syria; with the revelation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, His Most Holy
Book; with His ascension in the Holy Land; with the establishment of His
Covenant and the inauguration of the Ministry of Abdu'l-Baha, His son and
the Exemplar and authorized interpreter of His teachings.
These opening stages in the evolution of His Faith in the Asiatic
continent were followed, while the first and Apostolic Age of His
Dispensation was drawing to a close, by the opening of the Islands
situated in the Pacific Ocean, Japan in the north, and the Australian
continent in the South. To these memorable chapters of Asian Baha'i
history another was soon added, on the morrow of the ascension of the
Centre of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, and during the initial epoch of the
Formative Age of the Faith, distinguished by the rise of the
Administrative Order and the erection of its pillars in the cradle of that
Faith, in Iraq, in India, Pakistan and Burma and in the Antipodes. This
memorable episode in its development in that vast continent was succeeded
by the initiation, during the second Epoch of that same Age, of a series
of Plans in those same territories in support of Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan
and as a prelude to the opening of the recently launched world-embracing
Spiritual Crusade.
The hour has now struck for this continent, on whose soil, more than a
century ago, so much sacred blood was shed, in whose very heart deeds of
such tragic heroism were performed, and in many of whose territories such
brilliant victories have been won, to contribute, in association with its
sister continents, to the progress and ultimate triumph of this global
Crusade, in a manner befitting its unrivalled position in the entire
Baha'i world.
The various Baha'i Communities dwelling within the borders of this
continent and those situated to the south of its shores in the Antipodes,
which include the oldest and most venerable among all the communities of
the Baha'i world, and whose members in their aggregate constitute the
overwhelming majority of the followers of Baha'u'llah, are called upon, in
close association with four other Baha'i communities in the Western
Hemisphere, to undertake in the course of the coming decade: First, the
construction of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Baha'u'llah's native land,
in the City of Tihran, surnamed by Baha'u'llah "Mother of the World".
Second, the purchase of land for the future construction of three
Mashriqu'l-Adhkars, one in the city of Baghdad, enshrining the "Most Great
House", the third holiest city of the Baha'i world, one in New Delhi, the
leading city of the Indian sub-continent, and the third in Sydney, the
oldest and foremost Baha'i Centre in the Antipodes. Third, the formation
of no less than eleven National Spiritual Assemblies, one each in
Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon, under the aegis of the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of India, Pakistan and Burma; one in Turkey and
one in Afghanistan, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Baha'is of Persia; one in Japan, under the aegis of the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States of America; one in
New Zealand, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of Australia and New Zealand, as well as four regional National
Spiritual Assemblies, one in the Arabian Peninsula, under the aegis of the
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Persia; one in South-East
Asia, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of
India, Pakistan and Burma; a third in the South Pacific, under the aegis
of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States of
America; and a fourth in the Near East, under the aegis of the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is in Iraq. Fourth, the opening of the
following forty-one virgin territories and islands: Andaman Islands,
Bhutan, Daman, Diu, Goa, Karikal, Mahe, Mariana Islands, Nicobar Islands,
Pondicherry, Sikkim, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of India, Pakistan and Burma; Caroline Islands, Dutch New Guinea,
Hainan Island, Kazakhstan, Macao Island, Sakhalin Island, Tibet, Tonga
Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the
United States of America; Brunei, Chagos Archipelago, Krigizia, Mongolia,
Solomon Islands, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, assigned to the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Persia; Admiralty Islands, Cocos
Island, Loyalty Islands, Mentawei Islands, New Hebrides Islands,
Portuguese Timor, Society Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Australia and New Zealand; Gilbert and Ellice
Islands, Marshall Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago, assigned to the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Central America; Hadhramaut,
Kuria-Muria Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of Iraq; Marquesas Islands, Samoa Islands, assigned to the
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada; Cook Islands,
assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of South
America. Fifth, the translation and publication of Baha'i literature in
the following forty languages, to be undertaken by the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of India, Pakistan and Burma, in association with
the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Australia and New
Zealand: Abor Miri, Aneityum, Annamese, Balochi, Bentuni, Binandere,
Cheremiss, Chungchia, Georgian, Houailou, Javanese, Kado, Kaili, Kopu,
Kusaie, Lepcha, Lifu, Manchu, Manipuri, Manus Island, Marquesas, Mentawei,
Mongolian, Mordoff, Mwala, Na-Hsi, Nicobarese, Niue, Ossete, Ostiak, Pali,
Panjabi, Pashto, Perm, Petats, Samoan, Tho, Tibetan, Tonga, Vogul. Sixth,
the consolidation of Aden Protectorate, Adhirbayjan, Afghanistan, Ahsa,
Armenia, Bahrayn Island, Georgia, Hijaz, Saudi-Arabia, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, Yemen, allocated to the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Persia; of Baluchistan, Borneo,
Burma, Ceylon, Indo-China, Indonesia, Malaya, Nepal, Pakistan, Sarawak,
Siam, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of
India, Pakistan and Burma; of China, Formosa, Japan, Korea, Manchuria,
Philippine Islands, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of the United States of America; of Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Qatar, Syria, Trucial Sheikhs, Umman, allocated to the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Iraq; of Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji, New
Caledonia, Australian New Guinea, allocated to the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Australia and New Zealand; of Hong Kong,
allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the British
Isles. Seventh, the incorporation of the eleven above-mentioned National
Spiritual Assemblies, as well as those of Persia and Iraq. Eighth, the
establishment by these above-mentioned eleven National Spiritual
Assemblies of national Baha'i endowments. Ninth, the establishment of a
national Haziratu'l-Quds in the capital cities of each of the countries
where National Spiritual Assemblies are to be established, as well as one
in Suva, one in Jakarta, one in Bahrayn and one in Beirut. Tenth, the
establishment of a national Baha'i Court in the capital cities of Persia,
of Iraq, of Pakistan and of Afghanistan--the leading Muslim centres in the
Asiatic continent. Eleventh, the establishment of two National Baha'i
Publishing Trusts, one in Tihran and one in New Delhi. Twelfth, the
formation of Israel Branches of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the
Baha'is of Persia, of Iraq and Australia; authorized to hold on behalf of
their parent institutions property dedicated to the holy Shrines at the
World Centre of the Faith in the State of Israel. Thirteenth, the
appointment, during Ridvan 1954, by the Hands of the Cause in Asia and in
Australia of an auxiliary Board of nine members who will, in conjunction
with the eight National Spiritual Assemblies participating in the Asiatic
and Australian campaigns, assist, through periodic and systematic visits
to Baha'i centres, in the efficient and prompt execution of the Plans
formulated for the prosecution of the teaching campaigns in the continent
of Asia
and in the Antipodes.
The Asiatic continent, the cradle of the principal religions of mankind;
the home of so many of the oldest and mightiest civilizations which have
flourished on this planet; the crossways of so many kindreds and races;
the battleground of so many peoples and nations; above whose horizon, in
modern times, the suns of two independent Revelations--the promise and
consummation of a six thousand-year-old religious Cycle--have successively
arisen; where the Authors of both of these Revelations suffered banishment
and died; within whose confines the Centre of a divinely-appointed
Covenant was born, endured a forty-year incarceration and passed away; on
whose Western extremity the Qiblih of the Baha'i world has been definitely
established; in whose heart the City proclaimed by Baha'u'llah as the
"Mother of the World" is enshrined; within whose borders another City
regarded as the "cynosure of an adoring world" and the scene of the
greatest and most glorious Revelation the world has witnessed is
embosomed; on whose soil so many saints, heroes and martyrs, associated
with both of these Revelations, have lived, struggled and died--such a
continent, so privileged among its sister continents and yet so long and
so sadly tormented, now stands, at the hour of the launching of a
world-encompassing Crusade, on the threshold of an era that may well
recall, in its glory and ultimate repercussions, the great periods of
spiritual revival which, from the dawn of recorded history have, at
various stages in the revelation of God's purpose for mankind, illuminated
the path of the human race.
May this Crusade, launched simultaneously on the Asiatic mainland, its
neighbouring islands and the Antipodes, under the direction of eight
National Spiritual Assemblies, and through the operation of eight
systematic Teaching Plans, and the concerted efforts of Baha'i communities
in both the East and the West, provide, as it unfolds, an effective
antidote to the baneful forces of atheism, nationalism, secularism and
materialism that are tearing at the vitals of this turbulent continent,
and may it re-enact those scenes of spiritual heroism which, more than any
of the secular revolutions which have agitated its face, have left their
everlasting imprint on the fortunes of the peoples and nations dwelling
within its borders.--SHOGHI