With the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, the Apostolic Age of the Cause reached
its end. The Divine intervention that had begun seventy-seven years
earlier on the night the Bab declared His mission to Mulla Husayn--and
'Abdu'l-Baha Himself was born--had completed its work. It had been, in the
words of Shoghi Effendi, "a period whose splendours no victories in this
or any future age, however brilliant, can rival...."(50) Ahead lay the
thousand or thousands of years in which the potentialities that this
creative force has planted in human consciousness will gradually unfold.
Contemplation of so great a juncture in the history of civilization brings
into sharp focus the Figure whose nature and role have been unique in this
six-thousand-year process. Baha'u'llah has called 'Abdu'l-Baha "the
Mystery of God". Shoghi Effendi has described Him as "the Centre and
Pivot" of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, the "perfect Exemplar" of the teachings
of the Revelation of God for the age of human maturity, and "the
Mainspring of the Oneness of Humanity". No phenomenon in any way
comparable to His appearance had accompanied any of the Divine Revelations
that had given birth to the other great religious systems in recorded
history; all of these had been essentially stages preparing humanity for
its coming of age. 'Abdu'l-Baha was Baha'u'llah's supreme Creation, the
One that made everything else possible. An understanding of this truth
moved a perceptive American Baha'i to write:
Now a message from God must be delivered, and there was no mankind to hear
this message. Therefore, God gave the world 'Abdu'l-Baha. 'Abdu'l-Baha
received the message of Baha'u'llah on behalf of the human race. He heard
the voice of God; He was inspired by the spirit; He attained complete
consciousness and awareness of the meaning of this message, and He pledged
the human race to respond to the voice of God. ...to me _that_ is the
Covenant--that there was on this earth some one who could be a
representative of an as yet uncreated race. There were only tribes,
families, creeds, classes, etc., but there was no man except 'Abdu'l-Baha,
and 'Abdu'l-Baha, as man, took to Himself the message of Baha'u'llah and
promised God that He would bring the people into the _oneness of mankind_,
and create a humanity that could be the vehicle for the laws of God.(51)
Beginning His mission as a prisoner of a brutal, ignorant regime and
relentlessly assailed by faithless brothers who ultimately sought His
death, the Master single-handedly created of the Persian Baha'i community
a brilliant demonstration of the social development the Cause could
produce, inspired the expansion of the Faith across the Orient, raised up
communities of devoted believers throughout the West, designed a Plan for
the world-wide expansion of the Cause, won the respect and admiration of
leaders of thought wherever His influence reached, and provided
Baha'u'llah's followers throughout the world with a vast body of
authoritative guidance as to the intent of the Faith's laws and teachings.
On the slopes of Mount Carmel He erected with enormous pain and difficulty
the Shrine housing the mortal remains of the martyred Bab, the focal point
of the processes by which the life of our planet will gradually be
organized. Through it all, in every least occasion of a life filled with
cares and demands of every sort--a life exposed at all times to examination
by enemy and friend alike--He ensured that posterity will possess that
treasure of which poets, philosophers and mystics have dreamed all down
the ages, a demonstration of unshadowed human perfection.
And finally, it was 'Abdu'l-Baha who made certain that the Divine Order
conceived by Baha'u'llah for the unification of the human race and the
institution of justice in humanity's collective life would be provided
with the means required to realize its Founder's purpose. For unity to
exist among human beings--at even the simplest level--two fundamental
conditions must pertain. Those involved must first of all be in some
agreement about the nature of reality as it affects their relationships
with one another and with the phenomenal world. They must, secondly, give
assent to some recognized and authoritative means by which decisions will
be taken that affect their association with one another and that determine
their collective goals.
Unity is not, that is, merely a condition resulting from a sense of mutual
goodwill and common purpose, however profound and sincerely held such
sentiments may be, any more than an organism is a product of some
fortuitous and amorphous association of various elements. Unity is a
phenomenon of creative power, whose existence becomes apparent through the
effects that collective action produces and whose absence is betrayed by
the impotence of such efforts. However handicapped it often has been by
ignorance and perversity, this force has been the primary influence
driving the advancement of civilization, generating legal codes, social
and political institutions, artistic works, technological achievements
without end, moral breakthroughs, material prosperity, and long periods of
public peace whose afterglow lived in the memories of subsequent
generations as imagined "golden ages".
Through the Revelation of God to humanity's coming of age, the full
potentialities of this creative force have at last been released and the
means necessary to the realization of the Divine purpose have been
instituted. In His Will and Testament, which Shoghi Effendi has described
as the "Charter" of the Administrative Order, 'Abdu'l-Baha set out in
detail the nature and role of the twin institutions that are His appointed
Successors and whose complementary functions ensure the unity of the
Baha'i Cause and the achievement of its mission throughout the
Dispensation, the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice. He laid
particularly strong emphasis on the authority thus conveyed:
Whatsoever they decide is of God. Whoso obeyeth him not, neither obeyeth
them, hath not obeyed God; whoso rebelleth against him and against them
hath rebelled against God; whoso opposeth him hath opposed God; whoso
contendeth with them hath contended with God....(52)
Shoghi Effendi has explained the significance of this extraordinary Text:
The Administrative Order which this historic Document has established, it
should be noted, is, by virtue of its origin and character, unique in the
annals of the world's religious systems. No Prophet before Baha'u'llah, it
can be confidently asserted,... has established, authoritatively and in
writing, anything comparable to the Administrative Order which the
authorized Interpreter of Baha'u'llah's teachings has instituted, an Order
which ... must and will, in a manner unparalleled in any previous
religion, safeguard from schism the Faith from which it has sprung.(53)
Before the reading and promulgation of the Will and Testament, the great
majority of the members of the Faith had assumed that the next stage in
the evolution of the Cause would be the election of the Universal House of
Justice, the institution founded by Baha'u'llah Himself in the
Kitab-i-Aqdas as the governing body of the Baha'i world. An important fact
for present-day Baha'is to understand is that prior to this point the
concept of Guardianship was unknown to the Baha'i community. There was
widespread rejoicing at the news of the unique distinction that the Master
had conferred on Shoghi Effendi and the continuing link with the Founders
of the Faith that his role represented. Until then, however, there had
been no appreciation of Baha'u'llah's intent that such an institution
should emerge or of the interpretive function it would have to perform--a
function whose vital importance has since become readily apparent and
which hindsight makes clear was implicit in certain of His Writings.
What was entirely beyond the imagination of anyone then living, whether
faithful or ill-disposed, was the transformation in the life of the Cause
that the Will of the Master set in motion. "Were ye to know what will come
to pass after Me," 'Abdu'l-Baha had declared, "surely would ye pray that
my end be hastened"? (54)
V
An appreciation of the place of the Guardianship in Baha'i history must
begin with an objective consideration of the circumstances in which Shoghi
Effendi's mission had to be carried out. Particularly important is the
fact that the first half of this ministry unfolded between wars, a period
marked by deepening uncertainty and anxiety about all aspects of human
affairs. On the one hand, significant advances had been made in overcoming
barriers between nations and classes; on the other, political impotence
and a resulting economic paralysis greatly handicapped efforts to take
advantage of these openings. There was everywhere a sense that some
fundamental redefinition of the nature of society and the role its
institutions should play was urgently needed--a redefinition, indeed, of
the purpose of human life itself.
In important respects, humanity found itself at the end of the first world
war able to explore possibilities never before imagined. Throughout Europe
and the Near East the absolutist systems that had been among the most
powerful barriers to unity had been swept away. To a great extent, too,
fossilized religious dogmas that had lent moral endorsement to the forces
of conflict and alienation were everywhere in question. Former subject
peoples were free to consider plans for their collective futures and to
assume responsibility for their relationships with one another through the
instrumentality of the new nation-states created by the Versailles
settlement. The same ingenuity that had gone into producing weapons of
destruction was being turned to the challenging, but rewarding, tasks of
economic expansion. Out of the darkest days of the war had come poignant
stories, such as the impulse that had briefly moved British and German
soldiers to leave the slaughterhouse of the trenches to commemorate
together the birth of Christ, providing a flickering glimpse of the
oneness of the human race which the Master had tirelessly proclaimed in
His journeys across that same continent. Most important of all, an
extraordinary effort of imagination had brought the unification of
humanity one immense step forward. The world's leaders, however
reluctantly, had created an international consultative system which,
though crippled by vested interests, gave the ideal of international order
its first suggestion of shape and structure.
The post-war awakening expressed itself world-wide. Under the leadership
of Sun Yat-sen, the Chinese people had already thrown off the decadent
imperial regime that had compromised the country's well-being, and were
seeking to lay foundations of a rebirth of that country's greatness.
Throughout Latin America, despite terrible and repeated setbacks, popular
movements were likewise struggling to gain control over their countries'
destinies and the use of their continent's immense natural resources. In
India, one of the century's most remarkable figures, Mohandas Gandhi,
embarked on an enterprise that would not only revolutionize the fortunes
of his country, but also demonstrate conclusively to the world what
spiritual force can achieve. Africa was still awaiting its moment of
destiny, as were the inhabitants of other colonial lands, but for anyone
with eyes to see, a process of change had been set in motion that could
ultimately not be suppressed, because it represented the universal
yearnings of humankind.
These advances, however encouraging, could not conceal the historic
tragedy that had occurred. During the second half of the nineteenth
century, the proclamation of the Day of God addressed by Baha'u'llah to
the rulers of His day, in whose hands lay the destiny of humankind, had
been either rejected or ignored by its recipients in both East and West.
Reflection on so great a breach of faith throws into sobering perspective
the subsequent response that had met the mission of 'Abdu'l-Baha to the
West. However much one may rejoice in the praise poured on the Master from
every quarter, the immediate results of His efforts represented yet
another immense moral failure on the part of a considerable portion of
humankind and of its leadership. The message that had been suppressed in
the East was essentially ignored by a Western world which had proceeded
down the path of ruin long prepared for it by overweening
self-satisfaction, leading finally to the betrayal of the ideal embodied
in the League of Nations.
In consequence, the two decades immediately after Shoghi Effendi assumed
his responsibility for the vindication of the Cause of God were a period
of deepening gloom throughout the Western world, which seemed to reflect a
massive setback in the process of integration and enlightenment so
confidently proclaimed by the Master. It was as if political, social and
economic life had fallen into a kind of limbo. Grave doubts developed
about the capacity of the liberal democratic tradition to cope with the
problems of the times; indeed, in a number of European countries,
governments inspired by such principles were replaced by authoritarian
regimes. Soon, the economic crash of 1929 led to a world-wide reduction in
material well-being, with all the further moral and psychological
insecurities that resulted.
An appreciation of these circumstances helps us to understand the
magnitude of the challenge facing Shoghi Effendi at the outset of his
ministry. So far as the objective condition of humankind, as he
encountered it, was concerned, there was nothing that would have inspired
confidence that the vision of a new world bequeathed him by the Founders
of the Baha'i Cause could be significantly advanced during whatever span
of years might be allowed him.
Nor did the instrument available to him appear to possess the strength,
the resilience or the sophistication his task required. In 1923, when
Shoghi Effendi was eventually able to assume full direction of the Cause,
the core of Baha'u'llah's followers consisted of the body of believers in
Iran, of whose number not even a reliable estimate could have then been
produced. Denied most of the means necessary to their promotion of the
Cause, and severely limited in the material resources at their disposal,
the Iranian community was hedged about by constant harassment. In North
America, charged with the daunting responsibilities of the Divine Plan,
small communities of believers found themselves struggling with the simple
challenges of making a livelihood for themselves and their families as the
economic crisis steadily deepened. In Europe, Australasia and the Far
East, even smaller Baha'i groups kept the flame of the Faith alive, as did
isolated groups, families and individuals scattered throughout the rest of
the world. Literature, even in English, was inadequate, and the task of
translating the Writings into other major languages and of finding the
funds to publish them represented an almost impossible burden.
Though the vision communicated by the Master burned as brightly as ever,
the means at their disposal must have appeared to Baha'is as pitifully
inadequate in the face of the conditions prevailing everywhere. The
hulking black foundation of the future Mother Temple of the West, rising
over the lake front north of Chicago, seemed to mock the brilliant
conception that had dazzled the architectural world only a few years
before. In Baghdad, the "Most Holy House", designated by Baha'u'llah as
the focal centre of Baha'i pilgrimage, had been seized by opponents of the
Faith. In the Holy Land itself, the Mansion of Baha'u'llah was falling
into ruin as a result of neglect by the Covenant-breakers who occupied it,
and the Shrine housing the precious remains of both the Bab and
'Abdu'l-Baha had progressed no further than the simple stone structure
raised by the Master.
A series of exploratory consultations with leading Baha'is made it clear
to the Guardian that even a formal discussion with qualified believers
about the creation of an international secretariat would be not only
useless, but probably counterproductive. It was alone, therefore, that
Shoghi Effendi set out on the task of propelling forward the vast
enterprise entrusted to his hands. How completely alone he was is almost
impossible for the present generation of Baha'is to grasp; to the extent
one does grasp it, the realization is acutely painful.
Initially, the Guardian assumed that the members of the Master's extended
family, whose distinguished lineage brought them immense respect from
Baha'is everywhere, would welcome the opportunity to assist him in
realizing the purpose that the Master's Will had set out in language so
imperative and moving. Accordingly, he invited his brothers, his cousins
and one of his sisters, whose education made them qualified for the
purpose, to provide the administrative support that the demanding work of
the Guardianship required. Tragically, as time passed, one after another
of these persons proved dissatisfied with the supporting role thus
assigned and careless in the discharge of its functions. Far more
seriously, Shoghi Effendi found himself facing a situation in which the
authority conferred on him, although expressed in uncompromising terms in
the Will and Testament, was seen by those related to him as relatively
nominal in character. These individuals preferred to regard the leadership
of the Faith as essentially a family affair in which great weight should
be placed on the views of senior figures among them, who were supposedly
qualified to assume such a prerogative. Beginning with demonstrations of
sullen resistance, the situation steadily deteriorated to a point where
the children and grandchildren of 'Abdu'l-Baha felt free to disagree with
His appointed successor and to disobey his instructions.
Ruhiyyih _Kh_anum, who saw this process of deterioration in its later
stages and herself suffered greatly in witnessing its effects on both the
work of the Cause and the Guardian personally, has written:
...one must understand the old story of Cain and Abel, the story of family
jealousies which, like a sombre thread in the fabric of history, runs
through all its epochs and can be traced in all its events.... The
weakness of the human heart, which so often attaches itself to an unworthy
object, the weakness of the human mind, prone to conceit and
self-assurance in personal opinions, involve people in a welter of
emotions that blind their judgment and lead them far astray.... Even
though this phenomenon of Covenant-breaking seems to be an inherent aspect
of religion this does not mean it produces no damaging effect on the
Cause.... Above all it does not mean that a devastating effect is not
produced on the Centre of the Covenant himself. Shoghi Effendi's whole
life was darkened by the vicious personal attacks made upon him.(55)
This sombre background casts in an all the more brilliant light the
achievements of the Greatest Holy Leaf, sister of 'Abdu'l-Baha and last
survivor of the Faith's Heroic Age. Bahiyyih _Kh_anum played a vital role
in guarding the interests of the Cause after the Master's death and became
Shoghi Effendi's sole effective support. Her fidelity evoked from his pen
perhaps the most deeply moving passages he was ever to write. The
apostrophe he addressed to her after her passing in 1932 was set in a
letter to the Baha'is "throughout the West", which itself read in part:
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....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.(56)
For long years, the Guardian felt that the protection of the Cause
required him to maintain silence about the deteriorating situation in the
Holy Family. Only as opposition finally burst into acts of open defiance,
eventually involving the family in shameful collaboration and even
marriages with members of the very band of Covenant-breakers against whose
treachery the Will and Testament of the Master had warned in vehement
language, as well as with a local family deeply hostile to the Cause, did
Shoghi Effendi eventually feel compelled to expose to the Baha'i world the
nature of the delinquencies with which he was having to deal.(57)
This sad history is of importance to an understanding of the Cause in the
twentieth century not only because of what the Guardian called the "havoc"
it wreaked in the Holy Family, but because of the light it casts on the
challenges the Baha'i community will increasingly face in the years ahead,
challenges predicted in explicit language by both the Master and the
Guardian. Apart from the insincerity that marked all too many of them, the
relatives of Shoghi Effendi demonstrated little or no awareness of the
spiritual nature of the role conferred on him in the Will and Testament.
That the Revelation of God to the age of humanity's maturity should have
brought with it, as a central feature of its mission, an authority
essential for the restructuring of social order represented a spiritual
challenge they seemed unable, or perhaps never sought, to understand.
Their abandonment of the Guardian is a lesson that will remain with
posterity down through the centuries of the Baha'i Dispensation. The fate
of this most privileged but unworthy company of human beings underlines
for all who read their story both the significance that the Covenant of
Baha'u'llah holds for the unification of humankind and the uncompromising
demands it makes on those who seek its shelter.
* * * * *
In considering the events of the ministry of Shoghi Effendi, Baha'is need
to make the effort of imagination to see, through his eyes, the nature of
the mission laid on him. Our guide is the body of writings he has left.
'Abdu'l-Baha had proclaimed in countless Tablets and talks the pivotal
principle of Baha'u'llah's message: "In this wondrous Revelation, this
glorious century, the foundation of the Faith of God and the
distinguishing feature of His Law is the consciousness of the Oneness of
Mankind."(58) 'Abdu'l-Baha had been equally emphatic in asserting, as
already noted, that the revolutionary changes taking place in every field
of human endeavour now made the unification of humanity a realistic
objective. It was this vision that, for the thirty-six years of his
Guardianship, provided the organizing force of Shoghi Effendi's work. Its
implications were the theme of some of the most important messages he
wrote. Addressing in 1931 the friends in the West, he opened for them a
brilliant vista:
The principle of the Oneness of Mankind--the pivot round which all the
teachings of Baha'u'llah revolve--is no mere outburst of ignorant
emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not
to be merely identified with a reawakening of the spirit of brotherhood
and good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of
harmonious cooeperation among individual peoples and nations. Its
implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of
old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the
individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those
essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as
members of one human family.... It implies an organic change in the
structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not
experienced.... It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the
demilitarization of the whole civilized world --a world organically unified
in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its
spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and
yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its
federated units.(59)
A concept that showed itself strongly in the Guardian's writings was the
organic metaphor in which Baha'u'llah, and subsequently 'Abdu'l-Baha, had
captured the millennia-long process that has carried humanity to this
culminating point in its collective history. That image was the analogy
that can be drawn between, on the one hand, the stages by which human
society has been gradually organized and integrated, and, on the other,
the process by which each human being slowly develops out of the
limitations of infantile existence into the powers of maturity. It appears
prominently in several of Shoghi Effendi's writings on the transformation
taking place in our time:
The long ages of infancy and childhood, through which the human race had
to pass, have receded into the background. Humanity is now experiencing
the commotions invariably associated with the most turbulent stage of its
evolution, the stage of adolescence, when the impetuosity of youth and its
vehemence reach their climax, and must gradually be superseded by the
calmness, the wisdom, and the maturity that characterize the stage of
manhood.(60)
Deliberation on this vast conception was to lead Shoghi Effendi to provide
the Baha'i world with a coherent description of the future that has since
permitted three generations of believers to articulate for governments,
media and the general public in every part of the world the perspective in
which the Baha'i Faith pursues its work:
The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Baha'u'llah, implies the
establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds
and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy
of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the
individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded.
This commonwealth must, as far as we can visualize it, consist of a world
legislature, whose members will, as the trustees of the whole of mankind,
ultimately control the entire resources of all the component nations, and
will enact such laws as shall be required to regulate the life, satisfy
the needs and adjust the relationships of all races and peoples. A world
executive, backed by an international Force, will carry out the decisions
arrived at, and apply the laws enacted by, this world legislature, and
will safeguard the organic unity of the whole commonwealth. A world
tribunal will adjudicate and deliver its compulsory and final verdict in
all and any disputes that may arise between the various elements
constituting this universal system.... The economic resources of the world
will be organized, its sources of raw materials will be tapped and fully
utilized, its markets will be cooerdinated and developed, and the
distribution of its products will be equitably regulated.(61)
Writing a definitive interpretation of the Administrative Order in "The
Dispensation of Baha'u'llah", Shoghi Effendi made particular reference to
the role that the institution he himself represented would play in
enabling the Cause "to take a long, an uninterrupted view over a series of
generations...." This unique endowment expressed itself with particular
clarity in his description of the dual nature of the historical process
that he saw unfolding in the twentieth century. The landscape of
international affairs would, he said, be increasingly reshaped by twin
forces of "integration" and "disintegration", both of them ultimately
beyond human control. In the light of what meets our eyes today, his
previsioning of the operation of this dual process is breathtaking: the
creation of "a mechanism of world inter-communication ... functioning with
marvellous swiftness and perfect regularity";(62) the undermining of the
nation-state as the chief arbiter of human destiny; the devastating
effects that advancing moral breakdown throughout the world would have on
social cohesion; the widespread public disillusionment produced by
political corruption; and--unimaginable to others of his generation--the
rise of global agencies dedicated to promoting human welfare, coordinating
economic activity, defining international standards, and encouraging a
sense of solidarity among diverse races and cultures. These and other
developments, the Guardian explained, would fundamentally alter the
conditions in which the Baha'i Cause would pursue its mission in the
decades lying ahead.
One of the striking developments of this kind that Shoghi Effendi
discerned in the Writings he was called on to interpret concerned the
future role of the United States as a nation, and, to a lesser extent, its
sister nations in the Western hemisphere. His foresight is all the more
remarkable when one remembers that he was writing during a period of
history when the United States was determinedly isolationist in both its
foreign policy and the convictions of the majority of its citizens. Shoghi
Effendi, however, envisioned the country assuming an "active and decisive
part ... in the organization and the peaceful settlement of the affairs of
mankind". He reminded Baha'is of 'Abdu'l-Baha's anticipation that, because
of the unique nature of its social composition and political development
--as opposed to any "inherent excellence or special merit" of its
people--the United States had developed capacities that could empower it to
be "the first nation to establish the foundation of international
agreement". Indeed, he foresaw the governments and peoples of the entire
hemisphere becoming increasingly oriented in this direction.(63)
The role that the Baha'i community must play in helping bring about this
consummation of the historical process had been prefigured in the summons
addressed to His followers by the Bab, at the very birth of the Cause:
O My beloved friends! You are the bearers of the name of God in this
Day.... You are the lowly, of whom God has thus spoken in His Book: "And
We desire to show favour to those who were brought low in the land, and to
make them spiritual leaders among men, and to make them Our heirs." You
have been called to this station; you will attain to it, only if you arise
to trample beneath your feet every earthly desire, and endeavour to become
those "honoured servants of His who speak not till He hath spoken, and who
do His bidding".... Heed not your weaknesses and frailty; fix your gaze
upon the invincible power of the Lord, your God, the Almighty.... Arise in
His name, put your trust wholly in Him, and be assured of ultimate
victory.(64)
As early as 1923, Shoghi Effendi was moved to open his heart on this
subject to the friends in North America:
Let us pray to God that in these days of world-encircling gloom, when the
dark forces of nature, of hate, rebellion, anarchy and reaction are
threatening the very stability of human society, when the most precious
fruits of civilization are undergoing severe and unparalleled tests, we
may all realize, more profoundly than ever, that though but a mere handful
amidst the seething masses of the world, we are in this day the chosen
instruments of God's grace, that our mission is most urgent and vital to
the fate of humanity, and, fortified by these sentiments, arise to achieve
God's holy purpose for mankind.(65)
* * * * *
Fully aware of the condition into which society had fallen, the
consequences of his betrayal at the hands of family members on whose
assistance he should have been able to rely, and the relative weakness of
the resources available to him in the Baha'i community itself, Shoghi
Effendi arose to forge the means needed to realize the mission bequeathed
to him.
To one degree or another, most Baha'is no doubt appreciated that the
Assemblies they were being called on to form had a significance far beyond
the mere management of practical affairs with which they were charged.
'Abdu'l-Baha, who had guided this development, had spoken of them as:
...shining lamps and heavenly gardens, from which the fragrances of
holiness are diffused over all regions, and the lights of knowledge are
shed abroad over all created things. From them the spirit of life
streameth in every direction. They, indeed, are the potent sources of the
progress of man, at all times and under all conditions.(66)
It fell to Shoghi Effendi, however, to assist the community to understand
the place and role of these national and local consultative bodies in the
framework of the Administrative Order created by Baha'u'llah and
elaborated in the provisions of the Master's Will and Testament. An
obstacle faced by a significant number of believers in this respect was
the unexamined assumption of many that the Cause was essentially a
"spiritual" association in which organization, while not necessarily
antithetical, did not constitute an inherent feature of the Divine
purpose. Emphasizing that the Kitab-i-Aqdas and the Will and Testament
"are not only complementary, but ... mutually confirm one another, and are
inseparable parts of one complete unit",(67) the Guardian invited the
believers to reflect deeply on a central truth of the Cause they had
embraced:
Few will fail to recognize that the Spirit breathed by Baha'u'llah upon
the world, and which is manifesting itself with varying degrees of
intensity through the efforts consciously displayed by His avowed
supporters and indirectly through certain humanitarian organizations, can
never permeate and exercise an abiding influence upon mankind unless and
until it incarnates itself in a visible Order, which would bear His name,
wholly identify itself with His principles, and function in conformity
with His laws.(68)
He went on to urge the Faith's followers to realize the essential
difference between the Cause of Baha'u'llah, whose Revealed Texts contain
detailed provisions for such an authoritative Order, and those preparatory
Revelations whose Scriptures had been largely silent on the administration
of affairs and on the interpretation of their Founders' intent. In the
words of Baha'u'llah: "The Prophetic Cycle hath, verily, ended. The
Eternal Truth is now come. He hath lifted up the Ensign of Power...."(69)
Unlike the Dispensations of the past, the Revelation of God to this age
has given birth, Shoghi Effendi said, to "a living organism", whose laws
and institutions constitute "the essentials of a Divine Economy", "a
pattern for future society", and "the one agency for the unification of
the world, and the proclamation of the reign of righteousness and justice
upon the earth".(70)
The friends should strive to appreciate, therefore, the Guardian urged,
that the Spiritual Assemblies they were painstakingly establishing
throughout the world were the forerunners of the local and national
"Houses of Justice" envisioned by Baha'u'llah. As such, they were integral
parts of an Administrative Order that will, in time, "assert its claim and
demonstrate its capacity to be regarded not only as the nucleus but the
very pattern of the New World Order destined to embrace in the fullness of
time the whole of mankind".(71)
For a few in the young communities of the West, such a departure from
traditional conceptions of the nature and role of religion proved too
great a test, and Baha'i communities suffered the distress of seeing
valued co-workers drift away in search of spiritual pursuits more
congenial to their inclinations. For the vast majority of believers,
however, great messages from the Guardian's pen, such as "The Goal of a
New World Order" and "The Dispensation of Baha'u'llah", threw brilliant
light on precisely the issue that most concerned them, the relationship
between spiritual truth and social development, inspiring in them a
determination to play their part in laying the foundations of humanity's
future.
The Guardian provided, as well, the organizing image for this mighty work.
The "Heroic Age" of Baha'u'llah's Dispensation, he declared, had ended
with the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha. The Baha'i community now embarked on the
"Iron Age", the "Formative Age", in which the Administrative Order would
be erected throughout the planet, its institutions established and the
"society building" powers inherent in it fully revealed. Far ahead lay
what Shoghi Effendi called the "Golden Age" of the Dispensation, leading
eventually to the emergence of the Baha'i World Commonwealth that will
constitute the establishment on earth of the Kingdom of God and the
creation of a world civilization.(72) The impulse that had been initially
communicated to human consciousness through the revelation of the Creative
Word itself, whose revolutionary social implications had been proclaimed
by the Master, was now being translated by their appointed interpreter
into the vocabulary of political and economic transformation in which the
public discourse of the century was everywhere taking place. Lending the
process irresistible force, illuminating ever new dimensions of Baha'i
experience, and serving as the mainspring of the unification of humankind
it proclaimed was the Covenant that Baha'u'llah had established between
Himself and those who turn to Him.
Although not initially designated "Spiritual Assemblies", the councils
that local Baha'i communities in Persia had been encouraged by
'Abdu'l-Baha to create had assumed responsibility for the administration
of their affairs. In the light of what was to follow, no one with a sense
of history can fail to be struck by the fact that the Faith's first
Spiritual Assembly, that of Tehran, was founded in 1897, the year of
Shoghi Effendi's own birth. Under the Master's guidance, intermittent
meetings held by the four Hands of the Cause in Persia had gradually
evolved into this institution that served simultaneously as Persia's
"Central Spiritual Assembly" and as the governing body of the local
community in the capital. By the time of 'Abdu'l-Baha's passing, there
were more than thirty Local Spiritual Assemblies established in Persia. In
1922 Shoghi Effendi called for the formal establishment of Persia's
National Spiritual Assembly, an achievement delayed until 1934 by the
demands related to the taking of a reliable census of the community as a
basis for the election of delegates.
Outside Persia, the believers in 'I_sh_qabad, in Russian Turkestan,
elected their first Local Spiritual Assembly, a body that assumed an
important role in the project for the construction of the first Baha'i
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar in 'I_sh_qabad. In North America a variety of
consultative arrangements--"Boards of Council", "Council Boards", "Boards
of Consultation" and "Working Committees"--performed analogous functions,
evolving gradually into elected bodies that constituted the forerunners of
Spiritual Assemblies. By the time of the Master's passing, there were
perhaps forty such councils functioning in North America. These
developments prepared the way for the eventual emergence of the first
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and
Canada, which evolved from the "Temple Unity Board", a body created in
1909 to coordinate construction of the future House of Worship. It was
formed in 1923, although the administrative requirements set by the
Guardian for this step were met only in 1925. Before this latter date
arrived, National Assemblies had been established in the British Isles, in
Germany and Austria, in India and Burma, and in Egypt and the Sudan.(73)
As the formation of National and Local Spiritual Assemblies was taking
place, the Guardian began to lay emphasis on the importance of their
securing recognition as "corporate persons" under civil law. By securing
such formal incorporation, in whatever fashion proved practicable, Baha'i
administrative institutions would be enabled to hold property, enter into
contracts, and gradually assume a range of legal rights vital to the
interests of the Cause. The importance Shoghi Effendi attached to this new
stage of administrative evolution becomes clear in the photocopies of such
civil instruments that began to become a major feature of the photographic
coverage of the expansion of the Faith in successive volumes of _The
Baha'i World_. Indeed, once the Mansion at Bahji had been repossessed and
fully restored to its original condition, and appropriately furnished,
Shoghi Effendi put together a collection of this much valued documentation
for display there as an encouragement and education for the growing stream
of pilgrims to the World Centre.
The processes of civil incorporation began with the adoption in 1927 of a
Declaration of Trust and By-Laws for the National Spiritual Assembly of
the United States and Canada, which gained civil recognition as a
voluntary trust two years later. On 17 February 1932 the first local
Baha'i Assembly, that of Chicago, adopted papers of incorporation which,
together with those adopted by that of New York City on 31 March of that
year, were to become a pattern for such instruments throughout the world.
By 1949, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada--formed
when the two North American Baha'i communities had separated the previous
year--was able to secure formal recognition of its status under civil law
through a special Act of Parliament, a victory which Shoghi Effendi hailed
as "an act wholly unprecedented in the annals of the Faith in any country,
in either East or West".(74)
These pressing administrative demands did not distract Shoghi Effendi from
other tasks that were vital to shaping the spiritual life of a global
community. The most important of these was the arduous work that he alone
could perform in providing the growing body of the believers who were not
of Persian background with direct and reliable access to the Writings of
the Faith's Founders. The Hidden Words, The Kitab-i-Iqan, the priceless
treasury brought together with so much love and insight under the title
_Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah_, _Prayers and Meditations of
Baha'u'llah _and Epistle to the Son of the Wolf provided the spiritual
nourishment the work of the Cause urgently required, as did Shoghi
Effendi's translation and editing of Nabil's "Narrative" under the title
_The Dawn-Breakers_.
Baha'i pilgrims found spiritual enrichment of yet another kind in the Holy
Places and historic sites that the Guardian acquired--often at the cost of
protracted and wrenching negotiations--and lovingly restored. Shoghi
Effendi was equally responsive to unexpected opportunities that offered
themselves to his historical perspective. In 1925, a Sunni Muslim
religious court in Egypt denied civil recognition to marriages contracted
between Muslim women and Baha'i men, insisting that "The Baha'i Faith is a
new religion, entirely independent" and that "no Baha'i, therefore, can be
regarded a Muslim" (and therefore qualified to enter into marriage with
someone who was).(75) Seizing on the larger implications of this apparent
defeat, the Guardian made wide use of the court's definitive judgement to
reinforce the claim of the Cause in international circles to be an
independent Faith, separate and distinct from its Islamic roots.
* * * * *
As the Baha'i community was constructing administrative foundations which
would permit it to play an effective role in human affairs, the
accelerating process of disintegration that Shoghi Effendi had discerned
was undermining the fabric of social order. Its origins, however
determinedly ignored by many social and political theorists, are
beginning, after the lapse of several decades, to gain recognition at
international conferences devoted to peace and development. In our own
time, it is no longer unusual to encounter in such circles candid
references to the essential role that "spiritual" and "moral" forces must
play in achieving solutions to urgent problems. For a Baha'i reader, such
belated recognition awakens echoes of warning addressed over a century
earlier by Baha'u'llah to the rulers of human affairs: "The vitality of
men's belief in God is dying out in every land.... The corrosion of
ungodliness is eating into the vitals of human society...."(76)
The responsibility for this greatest of tragedies, the Guardian
emphasized, rests primarily on the shoulders of the world's religious
leaders. Baha'u'llah's severest condemnation is reserved for those who,
presuming to speak in God's name, have imposed on credulous masses a
welter of dogmas and prejudices that have constituted the greatest single
obstacle against which the advancement of civilization has been forced to
struggle. While acknowledging the humanitarian services of countless
individual clerics, He points out the consequences of the way in which
self-appointed religious elites, throughout history, have interposed
themselves between humanity and all voices of progress, not excluding the
Messengers of God Themselves. "What 'oppression' is more grievous," He
asks, "than that a soul seeking the truth, and wishing to attain unto the
knowledge of God, should know not where to go for it...?"(77) In an age of
scientific advancement and widespread popular education, the cumulative
effects of the resulting disillusionment were to make religious faith
appear irrelevant. Impotent themselves to deal with the spiritual crisis,
most of those clerics of various Faiths who became aware of Baha'u'llah's
message either ignored the moral influence it was demonstrating or
actively opposed it.(78)
Recognition of this feature of history does not diminish the harm done by
those who have sought to take advantage of the spiritual vacuum thus left.
The yearning for belief is inextinguishable, an inherent part of what
makes one human. When it is blocked or betrayed, the rational soul is
driven to seek some new compass point, however inadequate or unworthy,
around which it can organize experience and dare again to assume the risks
that are an inescapable aspect of life. It was in this perspective that
Shoghi Effendi warned the members of the Faith, in unusually strong
language, that they must try to understand the spiritual calamity
engulfing a large part of humankind during the decades between the two
world wars:
God Himself has indeed been dethroned from the hearts of men, and an
idolatrous world passionately and clamorously hails and worships the false
gods which its own idle fancies have fatuously created, and its misguided
hands so impiously exalted.... Their high priests are the politicians and
the worldly-wise, the so-called sages of the age; their sacrifice, the
flesh and blood of the slaughtered multitudes; their incantations, outworn
shibboleths and insidious and irreverent formulas; their incense, the
smoke of anguish that ascends from the lacerated hearts of the bereaved,
the maimed, and the homeless.(79)
Like opportunistic infections, aggressive ideologies took advantage of the
situation created by the decline of religious vitality. Although
indistinguishable from one another in the corruption of faith they
represented, the three belief systems that played a dominant role in human
affairs during the twentieth century differed sharply in their secondary
and more conspicuous characteristics to which the Guardian drew attention.
In denouncing "the dark, the false, and crooked doctrines" that would
bring devastation on "any man or people who believes in them", Shoghi
Effendi warned particularly against "the triple gods of Nationalism,
Racialism and Communism".(80)
Of Fascism's founding regime, created by the so-called "March on Rome" in
1922, little need be said. Long before it and its leader had been swept
into oblivion during the concluding months of the second world war,
Fascism had become an object of ridicule among the majority of even those
who had originally supported it. Its significance lies, rather, in the
host of imitators it spawned and which were to proliferate throughout the
world like some malignant series of mutations, in the decades since then.
Fuelled by a manic nationalism, this aberration of the human spirit
deified the state, discovered everywhere imaginary threats to the national
survival of whatever unhappy people it had fastened upon, and preached to
all who would listen the notion that war has an "ennobling" influence on
the human soul. The comic opera parade of uniforms, jackboots, banners and
trumpets usually associated with it should not conceal from a contemporary
observer the virulent legacy it has left in our own age, enshrining in
political vocabulary such anguished terms as _desaparecidos_ ("the
disappeared").
While sharing Fascism's idolatry of the state, its sister ideology Naziism
made itself the voice of a far more ancient and insidious perversion. At
its dark heart was an obsession with what its proponents called "race
purity". The single-minded determination with which it pursued its
murderous ends was in no way weakened by the demonstrably false postulates
upon which it was based. The Nazi system was unique in the sheer
bestiality of the act most commonly associated with its name, the
programme of genocide systematically carried out against populations
considered either valueless or harmful to humanity's future, a programme
that included a deliberate attempt literally to exterminate the entire
Jewish people. Ultimately, it was Naziism's determination that a "master
race" of its own conception must rule over the entire planet which was
principally responsible for fulfilling 'Abdu'l-Baha's prophetic warning of
twenty years earlier that another war, far more terrible than the first,
would ravage the world. Like Fascism, Naziism has left a detritus in our
own time. In its case, this takes the form of a language and symbols
through which fringe elements in present-day society, demoralized by the
economic and social decay around them and made desperate by the absence of
solutions, vent their impotent rage on minorities whom they blame for
their disappointments.
The false god that the Master was moved to identify explicitly, and the
one denounced by name by Shoghi Effendi, had demonstrated its character at
its outset by brutally destroying, during the latter part of World War I,
the first democratic government ever established in Russia. For long
years, the Soviet system created by Vladimir Lenin succeeded in
representing itself to many as a benefactor of humankind and the champion
of social justice. In the light of historical events, such pretensions
were grotesque. The documentation now available provides irrefutable
evidence of crimes so enormous and follies so abysmal as to have no
parallel in the six thousand years of recorded history. To a degree never
before imagined, let alone attempted, the Leninist conspiracy against
human nature also sought systematically to extinguish faith in God.
Whatever view of the situation political theorists may currently hold, no
one can be surprised that such deliberate violence to the roots of human
motivation led inexorably to the economic and political ruin of those
societies luckless enough to fall under Soviet sway. Its longer-term
spiritual effect, tragically, was to pervert to the service of its own
amoral agenda the legitimate yearnings for freedom and justice of subject
peoples throughout the world.
From a Baha'i point of view, humanity's worship of idols of its own
invention is of importance not because of the historical events associated
with these forces, however horrifying, but because of the lesson it
taught. Looking back on the twilight world in which such diabolical forces
loomed over humanity's future, one must ask what was the weakness in human
nature that rendered it vulnerable to such influences. To have seen in
someone like Benito Mussolini the figure of a "Man of Destiny", to have
felt obliged to understand the racial theories of Adolf Hitler as anything
other than the self-evident products of a diseased mind, to have seriously
entertained the reinterpretation of human experience through dogmas that
had given birth to the Soviet Union of Josef Stalin--so wilful an
abandonment of reason on the part of a considerable segment of the
intellectual leadership of society demands an accounting to posterity. If
undertaken dispassionately, such an evaluation must, sooner or later,
focus attention on a truth that runs like a central strand through the
Scriptures of all of humanity's religions. In the words of Baha'u'llah:
Upon the reality of man ... He hath focused the radiance of all of His
names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self.... These
energies ... lie, however, latent within him, even as the flame is hidden
within the candle and the rays of light are potentially present in the
lamp.... Neither the candle nor the lamp can be lighted through their own
unaided efforts, nor can it ever be possible for the mirror to free itself
from its dross.(81)
The consequence of humanity's infatuation with the ideologies its own mind
had conceived was to produce a terrifying acceleration of the process of
disintegration that was dissolving the fabric of social life and
cultivating the basest impulses of human nature. The brutalization that
the first world war had engendered now became an omnipresent feature of
social life throughout much of the planet. "Thus have We gathered together
the workers of iniquity", Baha'u'llah warned over a century earlier. "We
see them rushing on towards their idol.... They hasten forward to Hell
Fire, and mistake it for light."(82)