needed. To its purposes a more complete dedication is demanded. In its
fortunes a more widespread concern is required. For its further
consolidation and speedy fulfilment a larger number and a greater variety
of participants are indispensable. For its success a more abundant flow of
material resources should be assured.
Let the privileged few, the ambassadors of the Message of Baha'u'llah,
bear in mind His words as they go forth on their errands of service to His
Cause. "It behoveth whosoever willeth to journey for the sake of God, and
whose intention is to proclaim His Word and quicken the dead, to bathe
himself with the waters of detachment, and to adorn his temple with the
ornaments of resignation and submission. Let trust in God be his shield,
and reliance on God his provision, and the fear of God his raiment. Let
patience be his helper, and praise-worthy conduct his succorer, and goodly
deeds his army. Then will the concourse on high sustain him. Then will the
denizens of the Kingdom of Names march forth with him, and the banners of
Divine guidance and inspiration be unfurled on his right hand and before
him."
Faced with such a challenge, a community that has scaled thus far such
peaks of enduring achievements can neither falter nor recoil. Confident in
its destiny, reliant on its God-given power, fortified by the
consciousness of its past victories, galvanized into action at the sight
of a slowly disrupting civilization, it will--I can have no doubt--continue
to fulfil unflinchingly the immediate requirements of its task, assured
that with every step it takes and with each stage it traverses, a fresh
revelation of Divine light and strength will guide and propel it forward
until it consummates, in the fulness of time and in the plenitude of its
power, the Plan inseparably bound up with its shining destiny.
July 4, 1939
THE MOST FATEFUL HOUR
A triple call, clear-voiced, insistent and inescapable, summons to the
challenge all members of the American Baha'i community, at this, the most
fateful hour in their history. The first is the voice, distant and
piteous, of those sister communities which now, alas, are fettered by the
falling chains of religious orthodoxy and isolated through the cruel
barriers set up by a rampant nationalism. The second is the plea, no less
vehement and equally urgent, of those peoples and nations of the New
World, whose vast and unexplored territories await to be warmed by the
light and swept into the orbit of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. The third,
more universal and stirring than either of the others, is the call of
humanity itself crying out for deliverance at a time when the tide of
mounting evils has destroyed its equilibrium and is now strangling its
very life.
These imperative calls of Baha'i duty the American believers can
immediately if only partially answer. Their present status, their
circumscribed resources, debar them, however great their eagerness, from
responding completely and decisively to the full implications of this
threefold obligation. They can, neither individually nor through their
concerted efforts, impose directly their will upon those into whose hands
the immediate destinies of their persecuted brethren are placed. Nor are
they as yet capable of launching a campaign of such magnitude as could
capture the imagination and arouse the conscience of mankind, and thereby
insure the immediate and full redress of those grievances from which their
helpless coreligionists in both the East and the West are suffering. They
cannot moreover hope to wield at the present time in the councils of
nations an influence commensurate with the stupendous claims advanced, or
adequate to the greatness of the Cause proclaimed, by the Author of their
Faith. Nor can they assume a position or exercise such responsibilities as
would enable them by their acts and decisions to reverse the process which
is urging so tragically the decline of human society and its institutions.
And yet, though their influence be at the present hour indecisive and
their divinely-conferred authority unrecognized, the role they can play in
both alleviating the hardships that afflict their brethren and in
attenuating the ills that torment mankind is none the less considerable
and far-reaching. By the range and liberality of their contributions to
mitigate the distress of the bereaved, the exiled and the imprisoned; by
the persistent, the wise and judicious intervention of their elected
representatives through the authorities concerned; by a clear and
convincing exposition, whenever circumstances are propitious, of the
issues involved; by a vigorous defence of the rights and liberties denied;
by an accurate and dignified presentation of the events that have
transpired; by every manner of encouragement which their sympathies may
suggest, or their means permit, or their consciences dictate, to succor
the outcast and the impoverished; and above all by their tenacious
adherence to, and wide proclamation of, those principles, laws, ideals,
and institutions which their disabled fellow-believers are unable to
affirm or publicly espouse; and lastly, by the energetic prosecution of
those tasks which their oppressed fellow-workers are forbidden to initiate
or conduct, the privileged community of the American Baha'is can play a
conspicuous part in the great drama involving so large a company of their
unemancipated brethren in the Asiatic, European and African continents.
Their duties towards mankind in general are no less distinct and vital.
Their impotence to stem the tide of onrushing calamities, their seeming
helplessness in face of those cataclysmic forces that are to convulse
human society, do not in the least detract from the urgency of their
unique mission, nor exonerate them from those weighty responsibilities
which they alone can and must assume. Humanity, heedless and impenitent,
is admittedly hovering on the edge of an awful abyss, ready to precipitate
itself into that titanic struggle, that crucible whose chastening fires
alone can and will weld its antagonistic elements of race, class, religion
and nation into one coherent system, one world commonwealth. "The hour is
approaching" is Baha'u'llah's own testimony, "when the most great
convulsion will have appeared... I swear by God! The promised day is come,
the day when tormenting trials will have surged above your heads, and
beneath your feet, saying: 'Taste ye, what your hands have wrought.'" Not
ours to question the almighty wisdom or fathom the inscrutable ways of Him
in whose hands the ultimate destiny of an unregenerate yet potentially
glorious race must lie. Ours rather is the duty to believe that the
world-wide community of the Most Great Name, and in particular, at the
present time its vanguard in North America, however buffeted by the
powerful currents of these troublous times, and however keen their
awareness of the inevitability of the final eruption, can, if they will,
rise to the level of their calling and discharge their functions, both in
the period which is witnessing the confusion and breakdown of human
institutions, and in the ensuing epoch during which the shattered basis of
a dismembered society is to be recast, and its forces reshaped,
re-directed and unified. With the age that is still unborn, with its
herculean tasks and unsuspected glories, we need not concern ourselves at
present. It is to the fierce struggle, the imperious duties, the
distinctive contributions which the present generation of Baha'is are
summoned to undertake and render that I feel we should, at this hour,
direct our immediate and anxious attention. Though powerless to avert the
impending contest the followers of Baha'u'llah can, by the spirit they
evince and the efforts they exert help to circumscribe its range, shorten
its duration, allay its hardships, proclaim its salutary consequences, and
demonstrate its necessary and vital role in the shaping of human destiny.
Theirs is the duty to hold, aloft and undimmed, the torch of Divine
guidance, as the shades of night descend upon, and ultimately envelop the
entire human race. Theirs is the function, amidst its tumults, perils and
agonies, to witness to the vision, and proclaim the approach, of that
re-created society, that Christ-promised Kingdom, that World Order whose
generative impulse is the spirit of none other than Baha'u'llah Himself,
whose dominion is the entire planet, whose watchword is unity, whose
animating power is the force of Justice, whose directive purpose is the
reign of righteousness and truth, and whose supreme glory is the complete,
the undisturbed and everlasting felicity of the whole of human kind. By
the sublimity and serenity of their faith, by the steadiness and clarity
of their vision, the incorruptibility of their character, the rigor of
their discipline, the sanctity of their morals, and the unique example of
their community life, they can and indeed must in a world polluted with
its incurable corruptions, paralyzed by its haunting fears, torn by its
devastating hatreds, and languishing under the weight of its appalling
miseries demonstrate the validity of their claim to be regarded as the
sole repository of that grace upon whose operation must depend the
complete deliverance, the fundamental reorganization and the supreme
felicity of all mankind.
Though the obstacles confronting the followers of Baha'u'llah in the
American continent in their efforts to completely emancipate their
fellow-Baha'is on the one hand, and to speedily rehabilitate the fortunes
of their fellow-men on the other, be in the main unsurmountable, such
impediments cannot as yet be said to exist that can frustrate their
efforts to fully discharge the second duty now incumbent upon them in the
inter-continental sphere of Baha'i teaching. The field, in all its
vastness and fertility, is wide open and near at hand. The harvest is
ripe. The hour is over-due. The signal has been given. The spiritual
forces, mysteriously released, are already operating with increasing
momentum, unchallenged and unchecked. Victory, speedy and unquestioned, is
assured to whosoever will arise and respond to this second, this urgent
and vital call. In this field, as in no other, the American believers can
most easily evince the full force of their latent energies, can exercise
in their plentitude their conspicuous talents, and can rise to the highest
level of their God-given opportunities.
Fired by their zeal, their love for and faith in Baha'u'llah; armed with
that Holy Charter, wherein 'Abdu'l-Baha's mandate investing them with
their world mission is inscribed; piloted through the instrumentality of
those agencies which a divine, a smoothly functioning Administrative Order
has providentially placed at their disposal; disciplined and invigorated
by those immutable verities, spiritual principles and administrative
regulations that distinguish their religious beliefs, govern their
individual conduct and regulate their community life; aspiring to emulate
the example of those heroes and martyrs, the narrative of whose exploits
they have admired and pondered, it behooves all members of the American
Baha'i community to gird themselves as never before to the task of
befittingly playing their part in the enactment of the opening scene of
the First Act of that superb Drama whose theme is no less than the
spiritual conquest of both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Their
immediate task, under the Seven Year Plan, the object of which is the
establishment of a minimum of one Baha'i center in each of the Republics
of Middle and South America, has now been gloriously ushered in through
the settlement of one pioneer in most of the Central American Republics,
and bids fair to be recognized by posterity as the original impulse
imparted to an enterprise that will go round the world. That impulse must,
as time goes by, communicate itself to the farthest extremities of Latin
America, and must be reinforced in every manner, by as many of the
American believers as possible. The broader the basis of this campaign,
the deeper its roots, the finer the flower into which it shall eventually
blossom. That its call may be heeded, that its implications may be
recognized and its potentialities progressively unfold, is my earnest
prayer, and the supreme longing of my heart.
July 28, 1939
IMPERILLED HUMANITY
Shades of night descending on imperilled humanity are inexorably
deepening. American believers, heirs of Baha'u'llah's covenant,
prosecutors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Plan, are confronted by supreme opportunity
to vindicate indestructibility of their faith, inflexibility their
resolution, their incorruptibility, sanctity for appointed task.
Anxiously, passionately entreat them, whatever obstacles the march of
tragic events may create, however distressing barriers predicted
calamities raise between them and sister communities and possibly Faith's
World Center, to unwaveringly hold aloft torch whose infant light heralds
the birth of the effulgent World Order destined to supplant disrupting
civilization.
Cablegram August 30, 1939
IN GALAXY OF BAHA'I IMMORTALS
Martha's unnumbered admirers throughout Baha'i world lament with me the
earthly extinction of her heroic life. Concourse on high acclaim her
elevation to rightful position in galaxy of Baha'i immortals. Posterity
will establish her as foremost Hand which 'Abdu'l-Baha's will has raised
up in first Baha'i century. Present generation of her fellow-believers
recognize her to be the first, finest fruit which the Formative Age of the
Faith of Baha'u'llah has as yet produced. Advise hold befitting memorial
gathering in Temple to honor one whose acts shed imperishable lustre on
American Baha'i community. Impelled share with National Assembly expenses
of erection of monument in symbolic spot,(2) the meeting-place of East and
West, to both of which she unsparingly dedicated the full force of her
mighty energies.
Cablegram October 3, 1939
MANDATE CONFERRED BY 'ABDU'L-BAHA
Weighty resolutions of San Francisco meeting call forth emotions too deep
for expression. Fondest hopes excelled. Indomitable courage and
overflowing energy of the firmly-welded, providentially-directed American
Baha'i community impelling them outstrip pace and surpass the limits of
the theatre of action assigned to the third year of the Seven Year Plan.
Welcome particularly recent action designed expedite termination of
Divinely-founded Temple ordained to be the Ark destined to ride triumphant
the tidal wave of world-encircling calamities and offering sole refuge to
storm-tossed sufferers of sinful, steadily sinking civilization. Kindly
renew to every established and intending pioneer in enumerated Republics
and dependencies my ardent plea to resolve to refuse, despite the
deepening world confusion, to abandon their posts and surrender the
responsibilities solemnly assumed under the Mandate conferred by
'Abdu'l-Baha.
Cablegram October 23, 1939
THE SPIRITUAL POTENCIES OF THAT CONSECRATED SPOT
The transfer of the sacred remains of the brother and mother of our Lord
and Master 'Abdu'l-Baha to Mount Carmel and their final interment within
the hallowed precincts of the Shrine of the Bab, and in the immediate
neighborhood of the resting place of the Greatest Holy Leaf, constitute,
apart from their historic associations and the tender sentiments they
arouse, events of such capital institutional significance as only future
happenings, steadily and mysteriously unfolding at the world center of our
Faith, can adequately demonstrate.
The circumstances attending the consummation of this long, this profoundly
cherished hope were no less significant. The swiftness and suddenness with
which so delicate and weighty an undertaking was conducted; the
surmounting of various obstacles which the outbreak of war and its
inevitable repercussions necessarily engendered; the success of the
long-drawn out negotiations which the solution of certain preliminary
problems imposed; the execution of the plan in the face of the continued
instability and persistent dangers following the fierce riots that so long
and so violently rocked the Holy Land, and despite the smoldering fire of
animosity kindled in the breasts of ecclesiastics and Covenant-breakers
alike--all combined to demonstrate, afresh and with compelling power, the
invincible might of the Cause of Baha'u'llah.
The Purest Branch, the martyred son, the companion, and amanuensis of
Baha'u'llah, that pious and holy youth, who in the darkest days of
Baha'u'llah's incarceration in the barracks of Akka entreated, on his
death-bed, his Father to accept him as a ransom for those of His loved
ones who yearned for, but were unable to attain, His presence, and the
saintly mother of 'Abdu'l-Baha, surnamed Navvab by Baha'u'llah, and the
first recipient of the honored and familiar title of "the Most Exalted
Leaf," separated in death above half a century, and forced to suffer the
humiliation of an alien burial-ground, are now at long last reunited with
the Greatest Holy Leaf with whom they had so abundantly shared the
tribulations of one of the most distressing episodes of the Heroic Age of
the Faith of Baha'u'llah. Avenged, eternally safeguarded, befittingly
glorified, they repose embosomed in the heart of Carmel, hidden beneath
its sacred soil, interred in one single spot, lying beneath the shadow of
the twin holy Tombs, and facing across the bay, on an eminence of
unequalled loveliness and beauty, the silver-city of Akka, the Point of
Adoration of the entire Baha'i world, and the Door of Hope for all
mankind. "Haste thee, O Carmel!" thus proclaims the Pen of Baha'u'llah,
"for lo, the light of the countenance of God, the Ruler of the Kingdom of
Names and Fashioner of the heavens, hath been lifted upon thee." "Rejoice,
for God hath in this Day established upon thee His throne, hath made thee
the dawning-place of His signs and the day-spring of the evidences of His
Revelation."
The machinations of Badi'u'llah--the brother and lieutenant of the Focal
Center of sedition and Arch-Breaker of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah, the
deceased Muhammad-'Ali--who with uncommon temerity and exceptional vigor
addressed his written protest to the civil authorities, claiming the right
to oppose the projected transfer of the remains of the mother and brother
of 'Abdu'l-Baha, have been utterly frustrated. So foolish a claim,
advanced by one who in the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha has been
denounced as an "alert and active worker of mischief," and whose life has
been marked by so many instances of extravagance, of betrayal and folly,
has been summarily rejected by the fairness and justice of the civil
authorities, in whose custody the notorious Sa_dh_ij, the daughter of that
same Badi'u'llah, is still retained, as a direct result of her ceaseless
instigations to rebellion and terrorism, and whose acts constitute a clear
and double violation of the civil law of the land and of the spiritual
ordinances of Baha'u'llah, in Whose Faith she professes to believe.
Unabashed by his appalling mistakes and blunders; undeterred by the
galling failure of his persistent efforts, in conjunction with his
brother, to establish, in the days following the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha,
their alleged right to the custody of the Most Holy Tomb; unrestrained by
the memory of the abortive attempt of Muhammad-'Ali to retain the Mansion
of Baha'u'llah as a private residence for himself and his family;
unchastened by the spiritual and material misery into which he and his
kindred have sunk; and impotent to perceive the contrast between that
misery and the consolidating strength and ever-enhancing prestige of the
institutions heralding the birth of the World Order of Baha'u'llah at its
international center, he has, with characteristic insolence, dared to
raise once again his voice against the resistless march of events that are
steadily accelerating the expansion and establishment of the Faith in the
Holy Land.
For it must be clearly understood, nor can it be sufficiently emphasized,
that the conjunction of the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf with
those of her brother and mother incalculably reinforces the spiritual
potencies of that consecrated Spot which, under the wings of the Bab's
overshadowing Sepulchre, and in the vicinity of the future
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, which will be reared on its flank, is destined to
evolve into the focal center of those world-shaking, world-embracing,
world-directing administrative institutions, ordained by Baha'u'llah and
anticipated by 'Abdu'l-Baha, and which are to function in consonance with
the principles that govern the twin institutions of the Guardianship and
the Universal House of Justice. Then, and then only, will this momentous
prophecy which illuminates the concluding passages of the Tablet of Carmel
be fulfilled: "Ere long will God sail His Ark upon thee (Carmel), and will
manifest the people of Baha who have been mentioned in the Book of Names."
To attempt to visualize, even in its barest outline, the glory that must
envelop these institutions, to essay even a tentative and partial
description of their character or the manner of their operation, or to
trace however inadequately the course of events leading to their rise and
eventual establishment is far beyond my own capacity and power. Suffice it
to say that at this troubled stage in world history the association of
these three incomparably precious souls who, next to the three Central
Figures of our Faith, tower in rank above the vast multitude of the
heroes, Letters, martyrs, hands, teachers and administrators of the Cause
of Baha'u'llah, in such a potentially powerful spiritual and
administrative Center, is in itself an event which will release forces
that are bound to hasten the emergence in a land which, geographically,
spiritually and administratively, constitutes the heart of the entire
planet, of some of the brightest gems of that World Order now shaping in
the womb of this travailing age.
For such as might undertake, in the days to come, the meritorious and
highly enviable pilgrimage to these blessed shrines, as well as for the
benefit of the less privileged who, aware of the greatness of their virtue
and the pre-eminence of their lineage, desire to commune with their
spirits, and to strive to acquire an added insight into the glory of their
position, and to follow in their footsteps, let these testimonies written
by Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha be their inspiration and guidance in their
noble quest:
"At this very moment," Baha'u'llah testifies, "My son is being washed
before My face, after Our having sacrificed him in the Most Great Prison.
Thereat have the dwellers of the Abha Tabernacle wept with a great
weeping, and such as have suffered imprisonment with this Youth in the
path of God, the Lord of the promised Day, lamented. Under such conditions
My Pen hath not been prevented from remembering its Lord, the Lord of all
nations. It summoneth the people unto God, the Almighty, the
All-Bountiful. This is the day whereon he that was created by the light of
Baha has suffered martyrdom, at a time when he lay imprisoned at the hands
of his enemies."