portrays a fresh crisis, is laden with the description of a new calamity,
recounts the tale of a base betrayal, and is stained with the account of
unspeakable atrocities, there emerges, clear and incontrovertible, the
supreme truth that with every fresh outbreak of hostility to the Faith,
whether from within or from without, a corresponding measure of outpouring
grace, sustaining its defenders and confounding its adversaries, has been
providentially released, communicating a fresh impulse to the onward march
of the Faith, while this impetus, in its turn, would through its
manifestations, provoke fresh hostility in quarters heretofore unaware of
its challenging implications--this increased hostility being accompanied by
a still more arresting revelation of Divine Power and a more abundant
effusion of celestial grace, which, by enabling the upholders of that
Faith to register still more brilliant victories, would thereby generate
issues of still more vital import and raise up still more formidable
enemies against a Cause that cannot but, in the end, resolve those issues
and crush the resistance of those enemies, through a still more glorious
unfoldment of its inherent power.
The resistless march of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, viewed in this light,
and propelled by the stimulating influences which the unwisdom of its
enemies and the force latent within itself, both engender, resolves itself
into a series of rhythmic pulsations, precipitated, on the one hand,
through the explosive outbursts of its foes, and the vibrations of Divine
Power, on the other, which speed it, with ever-increasing momentum, along
that predestined course traced for it by the Hand of the Almighty.
As opposition to the Faith, from whatever source it may spring, whatever
form it may assume, however violent its outbursts, is admittedly the
motive-power that galvanizes on the one hand, the souls of its valiant
defenders, and taps for them, on the other, fresh springs of that Divine
and inexhaustible Energy, we who are called upon to represent, defend and
promote its interests, should, far from regarding any manifestation of
hostility as an evidence of the weakening of the pillars of the Faith,
acclaim it as both a God-sent gift and a God-sent opportunity which, if we
remain undaunted, we can utilize for the furtherance of His Faith and the
routing and complete elimination of its adversaries.
The Heroic Age of the Faith, born in anguish, nursed in adversity, and
terminating in trials as woeful as those that greeted its birth, has been
succeeded by that Formative Period which is to witness the gradual
crystallization of those creative energies which the Faith has released,
and the consequent emergence of that World Order for which those forces
were made to operate.
Fierce and relentless will be the opposition which this crystallization
and emergence must provoke. The alarm it must and will awaken, the envy it
will certainly arouse, the misrepresentations to which it will
remorselessly be subjected, the setbacks it must, sooner or later,
sustain, the commotions to which it must eventually give rise, the fruits
it must in the end garner, the blessings it must inevitably bestow and the
glorious, the Golden Age, it must irresistibly usher in, are just
beginning to be faintly perceived, and will, as the old order crumbles
beneath the weight of so stupendous a Revelation, become increasingly
apparent and arresting.
Not ours, dear friends, to attempt to survey the distant scene; ours
rather the duty to face the trials of the present hour, to ponder its
meaning, to discharge its obligations, to meet its challenge and utilize
the opportunity it offers to the fullest extent of our ability and power.
August 12, 1941
THE PROCESS OF INTEGRATION AND DISINTEGRATION
Heart thrilled with pride at message announcing the approaching completion
of the ornamentation of seven faces of Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, proclaiming
an intensification of North American teaching campaign, and revealing the
adamantine resolution of the Temple builders and stalwart crusaders, in
face of the perfidy, ingratitude and opposition of the enemies both within
and without the Holy Faith. As the fury and destructiveness of the
tremendous world ordeal attains its most intensive pitch, so the Mission
conferred twenty years ago by 'Abdu'l-Baha's sacred Will on the worldwide,
indivisible and incorruptible body of His followers unfolds its fullest
potentialities. Securely abiding and confidently battling within the
impregnable structure which that Will has divinely established, the
dwellers in the ark of the divine Covenant the world over watch with awe,
pride and delight the evidences of the mounting momentum of the eternal
process of integration and disintegration hurrying the Faith along its
predestined course. The royal adversary, personally responsible for the
recrudescence of persecution closing all Baha'i schools in Baha'u'llah's
native land, has been humbled to the dust. The sufferings endured by the
builders of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar are being avenged. The
cornerstone of the National Administrative Headquarters of the Egyptian
Baha'i community has been ceremoniously laid. The first officially
recognized Baha'i cemetery is ready to receive the precious remains of the
illustrious Abu'l-Fadl and the immortal Lua. The Haziratu'l-Quds in
Ba_gh_dad has been extended and is nearing completion. The property
dedicated as first Administrative Center of the Syrian Baha'is has been
purchased. A group of families of Persian believers, Muslim, Jewish,
Zoroastrian in origin, afire with the example set by American pioneers,
are settling the adjoining territories of Hijaz, Yemen, Afghanistan,
Baluchistan and Bahrein Island. The spiritual competition galvanizing the
organized followers of Baha'u'llah in East and West waxes keener as first
Baha'i century speeds to its close. With bowed head, exultant spirit and
thankful heart I acclaim these recurrent, increasingly compelling
manifestations of the solidarity, loyalty and unquenchable spirit
animating, throughout five continents, the community of the followers of
the Most Great Name.
Cablegram November 22, 1941
THE CRUCIBLE OF WORLD CONFLAGRATION
The most great convulsion envisaged by the Prophets from Isaiah to
Baha'u'llah, cataclysmic in violence, planetary in range, is assailing, at
long last, the predominating nations of the Asiatic and American
continents. The leading Power of the Western Hemisphere which, together
with sister republics, Baha'u'llah's ringing call significantly summoned
in His Most Holy Book, the object of 'Abdu'l-Baha's tender solicitude and
ardent prayers, the center of His hopes, the recipient of His promises and
the beneficiary of His blessings, has been suddenly though not
unexpectedly plunged into the crucible of world conflagration. Purged,
tested, galvanized, coalescing with its sorely-tried sister nations the
world over, the great Republic of the New World, the enviable parent of
System heralding the World Order of Baha'u'llah, must assume through
adversity its preponderating share of responsibility to lay down, once for
all, broad, worldwide, unassailable foundations of that discredited yet
immortal System. Though the immediate future be dark, critical and fraught
with anguish, I feel it my bounden duty to appeal in this hour as never
before to the Trustees of Baha'u'llah's priceless Revelation whether
teachers or administrators, individuals or Assemblies, North or South,
white or colored, young or old, to refuse at all costs to surrender their
solemn spiritual responsibilities, refrain from relaxing their teaching
efforts, determine never to slacken their sacred task of building the
institutions whose progress destiny has indissolubly linked with the
fortunes of the most disastrous, most challenging, most pregnant period of
human history.
Cablegram December 13, 1941
A TRULY WORLD-EMBRACING CRISIS
Dear and valued co-workers: The entry of the United States of America into
the war invest it with the character of a truly world-embracing crisis,
designed to release world-shaking, world-shaping forces, which, as they
operate, and mount in intensity, will throw down the barriers that hinder
the emergence of that world community which the World Religion of
Baha'u'llah has anticipated and can alone permanently establish. It marks
a milestone on the road which must lead the peoples of the North American
continent to the glorious destiny that awaits them. It confronts the
American Baha'i community, already so well advanced in the prosecution of
their Seven Year Plan, with a challenge at once severe and inescapable.
The exterior ornamentation of their consecrated Edifice has been
providentially expedited to a point where its completion is now assured.
The intercontinental and national teaching campaigns, that constitute the
second and even more vital aspect of that plan, though progressing
magnificently in the States, in Canada and throughout Latin America, are
still far from having attained their consummation. The obstacles which the
extension of the war to the Western Hemisphere has raised are, I am well
aware, manifold and formidable. The heroic self-sacrifice exhibited by the
North American Baha'i community will, I am confident, surmount them. The
Hand of Omnipotence, which has led so mighty a member of the human race to
plunge into the turmoil of world disaster, that has provided thereby the
means for the effective and decisive participation of so promising a
nation in the immediate trials and the future reconstruction of human
society, will not and cannot allow those who are directly, consciously and
worthily promoting the highest interests of their nation and of the world,
to fall short of the accomplishment of their God-given task. He will, more
than ever before in their history, pour out His blessings upon them, if
they refuse to allow the present circumstances, grievous though they are,
to interfere with the full and uninterrupted execution of this initial
undertaking in pursuance of their world mission. The coming two years must
witness, fraught as they may well be with the greatest ordeal afflicting
their countrymen, a manifestation of spiritual vitality and an output of
heroic action, commensurate with the gravity and afflictions of the
present hour, and worthy of the concluding years of the first Baha'i
century.
January 15, 1942
IMPELLED TO DEPUTIZE FIVE MEMBERS
Message to 1942 Convention
Last phase of Seven Year Plan so auspiciously begun, so vigorously
prosecuted, is opening. The first Baha'i Century is fast running out. The
agonies of a travailing age are culminating. The Bab's stirring, unique
injunction, directing the peoples of the West to leave their cities to
insure the triumph of the Divine Cause was recorded a century ago in the
Qayyumu'l-Asma. Baha'u'llah's significant summons calling upon all the
Presidents of the Republics of the western hemisphere to champion the
Cause of Justice was issued seventy years ago in His Most Holy Book. The
broad outlines of 'Abdu'l-Baha's matchless design, conceived twenty-five
years ago for the benefit of the North American believers, was transmitted
to posterity in the Tablets of the Divine Plan. The Seven Year Enterprise,
regarded as the initial stage in the execution of a World Mission, has
been already launched. The gigantic Temple undertaking, constituting the
major obligation of this enterprise, has been virtually consummated. The
vast Intercontinental Teaching Campaign is visibly yielding first fruits
in every Republic of Latin America. Upon the crucial year ahead hinge the
fortunes of this historic crusade. From Alaska to Chile, the Americas are
astir with the leavening influences of the rising Order of the newborn
Revelation. The great Republic of the West is inescapably swept into the
swelling tide of the world tribulations, presaging the assumption of a
preponderating share in the establishment of the anticipated Lesser Peace.
Invisible hosts are marshalled, eager to rush forth and crown every
effort, however humble, however belated, exerted to speed the unfinished
tasks. Again I renew plea for closer communion with the Spirit of
Baha'u'llah, for more passionate resolve, for more abundant flow of
material resources, and for wider dispersion, intenser concentration, by a
still greater number of pioneers, settlers and itinerant teachers to
insure for the Plan a termination commensurate with and wondrous as the
exploits marking the opening decade of first Baha'i Century. Myself
deprived of personal participation in the task allotted to the prosecutors
of the epoch-making Plan, I am impelled to deputize five members of the
American Baha'i community to help fulfill in my behalf whatsoever pioneer
field is most vital to its urgent requirements. Pledging five thousand
dollars for accomplishment of this purpose.
Cablegram April 26, 1942
THE SEVEN YEAR PLAN
Viewed in the perspective of Baha'i history, the Seven Year Plan,
associated with the closing years of the First Baha'i Century, will come
to be regarded as the mightiest instrument yet forged, designed to enable
the trustees of a firmly established, steadily evolving Administrative
Order to complete the initial stage in the prosecution of the world
mission confidently entrusted by the Center of the Covenant to His chosen
disciples. The Divine Plan, thus set in operation, may be said to have
derived its inspiration from, and been dimly foreshadowed in, the
injunction so significantly addressed by Baha'u'llah to the Chief
Magistrates of the American continent. It was prompted by the contact
established by 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself, in the course of His historic
journey, with the entire body of His followers throughout the United
States and Canada. It was conceived, soon after that contact was
established, in the midst of what was then held to be one of the most
devastating crises in human history. It underwent a period of incubation,
after His ascension, while the machinery of a divinely appointed
Administrative Order was being laboriously devised and its processes set
in motion. Its initial operations were providentially made to synchronize
with the final years of a century that witnessed the birth and rise of a
Faith of which it is the direct consequence. The opening stage in its
execution has been faced by, and will survive, the severe challenge of a
crisis of still greater magnitude than that which baptized its birth. The
conclusion of the first phase of its tremendous and irresistible
unfoldment is now approaching. The hopes and aspirations of a multitude of
believers, in both the East and the West, young and old, whether free or
suppressed, hang on its triumphant consummation. The Temple itself, that
fair incarnation of the soul of an unconquerable Faith, and the first
fruit of the Plan now set in motion, stands in its silent beauty, ready to
reinforce the strenuous endeavors of its prosecutors. Towering in grandeur
and resplendent in its majesty it calls aloud incessantly for a greater, a
far greater number of pioneers who, both at home and in foreign fields,
will scatter to sow the Divine seeds and gather the harvest into its
gates. The Author of the Plan Himself, looking down from His retreats
above, and surveying the prodigious labors of His defeatless disciples,
voices, with even greater insistence, the same call. The time in which to
respond to it is relentlessly shortening. Let men of action seize their
chance ere the swiftly passing days place it irretrievably beyond their
reach.
May 26, 1942
CONSECRATED TO TEACHING TASKS
The completion of the Temple should, and I feel confident will, release
tremendous and unprecedented forces of spiritual energy destined to be
wholly consecrated to the teaching tasks now confronting the American
believers. The concentrated, the sustained, and undivided attention of the
individual believers and all Baha'i agencies, local, regional, as well as
national, should be directed to the attainment of this supreme, this
shining goal. The increase in the number of pioneers, of every class,
race, age and outlook is the vital need of the present hour. May the
Beloved bless richly and continually this mighty and glorious endeavor.
June 17, 1942
A BEFITTING CLIMAX
I am thrilled with admiration as I contemplate, at this advanced stage in
the unfoldment of the Seven Year Plan, the vastness of the field already
covered by the pioneer activities of its stalwart and valiant prosecutors.
The heights of heroic self-sacrifice to which they have attained, the
depths of faith and devotion they have plumbed in the course of their
ceaseless exertions are no less noteworthy than the immensity of the task
they have already performed. An effort so prodigious, a mission so
sublime, a solidarity so truly remarkable, an achievement, which in its
scope and quality, stands unparalleled in American Baha'i history, provide
a befitting climax to the century old record of magnificent
accomplishments associated with the rise and progress of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah. Such a glorious century, so unique in the annals of mankind's
spiritual history, is, however, not yet completed. The gigantic
enterprises which the American believers are pledged to consummate are as
yet but partially concluded. The remaining two years must witness an
intensification of Baha'i activity, throughout the entire Western
Hemisphere on such a scale as to eclipse the splendor of all past
achievements, and worthily crown this initial phase in the progressive
evolution of the Divine Plan. An unprecedented multiplication in the
number of pioneer teachers and settlers; an unexampled flow of material
resources for their maintenance and the extension of their labors; a still
wider dissemination of Baha'i literature, to aid and support them in their
presentation of the Faith to Latin American peoples; an immediate increase
in the number of groups and Assemblies in the States and Provinces of
North America; an increased awareness on the part of all believers,
whether in the North or in the South, whether newly enrolled or of old
standing in the Faith, that every one of them shares, vitally and directly
and without any exception, in the responsibility for the successful
prosecution of the Plan; a still firmer resolution not to allow a
world-convulsing conflict, with its attendant miseries, perils,
dislocations, and anxieties, to deflect them from their course or distract
their attention; these are the crying needs of this critical, this
challenging, this swiftly passing hour; to exploit its possibilities, to
meet its challenge, to grasp its implications, is the manifest, the
inescapable and urgent duty of every member of the Baha'i communities now
laboring so assiduously in the Western Hemisphere. May the cumulative
effect of their concentrated and sustained labors shed further lustre on
the concluding years of this, the first century of the Baha'i Era.
August 15, 1942
ACCLAIM WITH GRATEFUL HEART
Acclaim with grateful heart, on twenty-first Anniversary of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
Ascension, the glorious emergence of the firmly-welded, incorruptible
American Baha'i community from severest crisis since His passing which the
blindness of the breakers of Baha'u'llah's and 'Abdu'l-Baha's Covenants
has, amidst His kindred, and in the City of the Covenant, recently
tragically precipitated. Posterity will unhesitatingly recognize so
spontaneous, shining, stirring demonstration of fidelity rendered alike to
the Lord of the Covenant and to its Center as a victory more enduring,
more momentous, than any triumphs, however notable, which the
standard-bearers of the Administrative Order, the champion builders of the
Temple, the stalwart executors of the Divine Plan have achieved or may yet
achieve in the closing years of the expiring First Baha'i Century. Nursed
since birth in the lap of the unfailing solicitude of the Center of the
Covenant, torch-bearer of the Divine Order recognized as child of that
Covenant, vanguard of that host destined to diffuse the Light of that same
Covenant over the face of the entire globe, American Baha'i community is
now assuming rightful place at the forefront of the world-wide, loyal,
unbreachable spiritual army of Baha'u'llah preparing, both in the East and
West, to launch still greater campaigns, scale loftier heights, at the
dawning of the Second Baha'i Century.
November 30, 1942
THE IMMORTAL LUA
The immortal Lua, mother-teacher of the American Baha'i Community, herald
of the dawn of the Day of the Covenant, has been ceremoniously and
reverently transferred by Egyptian brethren representing the local Baha'i
communities to the immediate vicinity of the grave of far-famed Abu'l-Fadl
in the newly established Baha'i cemetery in Cairo. The Isma'iliyyih
believers together with Assembly delegates of Egypt have held an inaugural
ceremony at the second Baha'i cemetery allocated by the Egyptian
authorities. The sacred rights of the persecuted, expelled community,
repeatedly denied legitimate burial, are now vindicated. The progressive
emancipation of the Faith of Baha'u'llah from the traditional shackles of
religious orthodoxy is increasingly evident and humbly, gratefully
recognized by followers of the Faith the world over.
Cablegram January 7, 1943
THE UNFINISHED TASKS
The recent response of the American friends to my appeal for pioneers to
go forth and settle in virgin territories and places where the need is
greatest has raised a load from my heart, and mightily reinforced the
hopes and expectations which their past achievements have aroused within
me. We stand at the threshold of the last year of the first Baha'i
century. The unfinished tasks, however much they have been reduced, are
still formidable. The Temple is as yet unfinished. The initiation of a
nation-wide publicity campaign, intelligently directed and energetically
pursued, utilizing to the full the advantages gained in recent years in so
many fields of Baha'i activity still remains to be undertaken. Measures
for a befitting celebration of the Centennial anniversary of the Faith
must be carefully considered and duly executed. The aims and purposes of
our beloved Cause, the achievements of its heroes, martyrs, teachers,
pioneers and administrators, the unity of its followers, the character of
the institutions they have reared, should, one and all, be ably presented,
widely broadcast, carefully explained in publications, through the radio
and the press. There is no time to lose. A great responsibility rests on
the elected representatives of the most envied community in the Baha'i
world, whose advantages are unique, whose capacities are incomparable,
whose vision, courage, tenacity, resolution and loyalty are exemplary;
which has amply demonstrated its worthiness to be the recipient of the
countless favors showered upon it by 'Abdu'l-Baha and of the specific
bounty conferred upon the rulers and presidents of the continent of which
it is a part by no one less than Baha'u'llah Himself, in His Most Holy
Book. To His "Apostles," as testified by the Center of His Covenant, I
direct my fervent plea that they establish, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
in these concluding months of the first Baha'i century, their indisputable
right to be designated by so exalted a title, and vindicate their ability
to execute the mission with which that title has invested them.
January 8, 1943
COMPLETION OF TEMPLE EXTERIOR