Thy side, and by this the pillars of joy were shaken to their base, and
the hearts of the devoted were terrified, and the smoke of their sorrow
overspread the earth. At such a time that hate-filled band, seeing their
advantage in the dire event, came in from every highway and byway,
advancing on every side to topple over the throne of Thy Covenant, and
lead Thy loved ones to perdition. They have laid their very being in ruins
and they know not. How far, how very far have they gone in their
ignorance!
But the Centre of Thy complete and flawless Covenant, He Who occupies the
seat of servitude to Thee in Thine exalted and all-glorious Cause, had
written by Thy will and Thy power a Book that shall never be lost nor ever
forgotten. Within it by Thy predestinating knowledge and might, He had set
forth all that is essential and obligatory for the upraising of Thy Cause
in this world below. It is a book in which all things are explained in
minute detail, in such wise that no matters whether small or great have
been left out. And by Thy will and pleasure He designated therein, in
place of His own Person, a Branch grown out from the Tree of Thy holiness,
one fresh and tender, verdant and flourishing, arising to serve Thee,
dwelling in the groves of Thine eternity, and Thine immortal gardens. And
he, after turning to Thy gracious countenance and through Thine ancient
succour, is inviting the people unto Thee and unto Thy Covenant, sound and
firmly-established, and is spreading Thy commandments and Thy doctrines
throughout Thy land, and guiding Thy servants to the path that leads
aright.
O my God, I beg of Thee by all the days which Thy Light, the Centre of Thy
Covenant, did spend in scattering Thy sweet scents abroad, and by all the
nights when that delicate and fragile Being rested not, but kept the long
vigils, crying out unto Thee, expending His efforts to guard Thy Cause and
Thy dear ones, exerting His utmost to spread out Thy bounties and
bestowals--while the malevolent, comfortable against their pillows, rested
in their beds--I entreat Thee, by the ordeals He endured, for the sake of
exalting Thy Word, at the hands of those who join partners to God, and the
deniers, and the deserters, to keep Thy loved ones safe from the arrows of
the calumniators, and the doubts of those who mislead and betray. Hold
them fast, then, in the gardens and groves of Thy Covenant and Testament,
and make them to enter the pavilions of Thy good pleasure, and shelter
them in the refuge of Thy protection, and cast upon them the glance of Thy
mercy's eye, and guard them from deviation and schism. Make them to live
in unity and harmony, one with the others, and aid them to serve Thy Faith
and to spread Thy Teachings far and wide.
Verily Thou art the Living, the Eternal, the Watchful, the All-Powerful,
the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
O you true servants of the Holy Threshold, you faithful friends of
'Abdu'l-Baha!
Our hearts are burning away with the intense emotions aroused by this most
dreaded of calamities, and our souls are suffering the torments of this
separation causing delay in correspondence with you, yet God be praised,
you are all among the well-favoured at the divine Threshold, and are
drinking from the winecup of the Eternal Covenant. To the holy summons,
you have all replied 'Yea!'; you have seized the chalice of His Testament
and held it high. You are enamoured of that world-adorning Face, your
hearts are tightly bound to those curling locks, that waft the fragrance
of the musk-deer's scent; you are held spellbound by that magic nature,
and by the teachings like nectar on the tongue, refreshing the spirit; and
all continually receiving divine bounties from the One alone beloved, and
ministering at His Threshold, and sincere and pure of heart.
The glories of that Sun are shining now from out the high, immortal
realms, and His glance is resting on His loved ones. The portals of
everlasting blessings are opened wide. The succouring armies are standing
ready, waiting to behold what efforts the loved ones will exert as they
carry out the holy Will, as they boil up and roar like waves of the sea.
Let them rest not for a moment, nor wish for quiet and repose; let them
carry out all His behests and thus prove their loyal gratitude for all His
endless grace.
Over a span of thirty years the Centre of God's Covenant rested not, nor
was His human temple ever tranquil and at peace. By day, by night, He
would be teaching and guiding stranger and friend alike, and protecting
the Cause, and seeing to its progress, and for these things He sacrificed
His life. Now does loyalty to Him require that the beloved should rise up
in obedience to His instructions, and devote their efforts to teaching the
Faith, and to passing around from one to the next this winecup tempered at
the camphor fountain,(146) and to protecting God's Cause from the evil
suggestions and the mischief of the adversary, and to guarding the
structure of the holy Covenant from disruption at the hands of the
Covenant-breakers. Now is the time to stand as an impregnable rampart
around the city of the Cause of God, to defend it from the assaults of
alienation and violation, that come against it like Gog and Magog.(147)
Praised be God, those of His friends who have been cradled and fostered
for many a year within His wisdom and His teachings, and have drunk deep
from the soft-flowing waters of true and mystic knowledge, and whose eyes
have been opened, whose ears are attentive, whose hearts are wise--these,
in all that concerns faith and certitude and the abiding by His
instructions, stand fixed and firm as the high mountains. They are even as
the towering palm, the goodly tree 'its root firmly fixed, and its
branches in the heavens.'(148) Their roots run deep, and the fruits they
yield are sweet. They know a mirage for what it is; they know, too, what
will endure--for 'As to the foam, it is quickly gone: and as to what is
useful to man, it remaineth on the earth.'(149) They have heard and read
of how the Covenant met with opposition and violation in the Dispensations
of the past, and have both heard of and seen for themselves the storms of
mischief and the tests that appeared in the early days of this Cause. They
know how these trials are designed to sift and purify, and how the dense
clouds of revolt and violation would gradually pass from its skies; for
the errors and falsehoods of the violators can never withstand the
overwhelming power of the Covenant, nor can the mountains of diabolical
suggestions ever stand under the rod of God's majesty and might.
O faithful loved ones of 'Abdu'l-Baha! The centre of sedition, the focus
of rebellion--whose evil character and passions, even in the days of the
Ancient Beauty, made him known for his stubborn perversity and his
ambition to lead--began to put forward certain claims, gathered about him a
pitiful band, raised up the ensign of self-glorification and self-love,
and considered himself to be a partner in authority with none other than
Him Who was the True One, until in the end the hand of the Lord's
omnipotence struck down his plans and hopes.
For a period of thirty years, he opposed the Centre of the Covenant and,
to bring down His structure in ruins, did everything that lay in his
power. This in spite of the fact that the divine Beauty had made His
Covenant so strong, and appointed its Centre so explicitly, in writing,
unmistakably, that He had left no room for any questions or doubts. In the
Most Holy Book of Aqdas, which in this most excellent of all ages is the
Mother Book, and embraces all, and again in the Kitab-i-'Ahdi,(150) the
last revealed Tablet by the Tongue of knowledge and wisdom, which contains
the final wishes of God--the people of Baha are directed with perfect
clarity to turn their faces toward Him Whom God has purposed, and He is
designated as the Interpreter of the Book, the Resolver of all complex and
difficult questions, and the Centre of the Faith. Therein as well are the
other Branches, the Afnan and the rest of the believers bidden to direct
themselves unto that One so that all might face one and the same Centre,
and all be bound thereto. Thus would the basic foundation of God's Cause,
which is unity, remain unassailable. Thus the root of heresy and rebellion
would wither away, and just as in the days when He Who is the Truth was
made manifest, so too in the day of His Covenant the light of unity would
pervade all things, and put to flight the murk of disbelief and dualism
and rebellion and opposition--and thus the tree of His holy Cause would
grow and flourish, and the rich fruits borne by the holy Teachings would
satisfy all needs and be sweet in the mouth of all mankind.
This fact of there being only one Centre and of turning unto a single holy
Being is, in the Kingdom of His Cause, as the shaft or spindle of a
millstone, and all the other laws and ordinances must needs revolve around
this one. In the temple of God's religion the Centre of the Cause can be
likened to the heart, for upon it depends the life of the human body as
one entity, as well as the relationships of its organs and their essential
growth and vitality. In human society the Centre of the Cause can be
compared to the sun, whose magnetic force controls the movements and
orbits of the planets. The Centre of the Cause is also like the spine of a
book, for by it the pages are all banded together into one book, and
without the spine the papers would become loose and scattered.
Now each separate member of the community who is within the shelter of
that blessed unity is, according to his rank and station, the recipient of
grace; and that rank is respected and protected, in conformity with the
verse: 'Not one of us but hath his clearly designated station.'(151) Thus,
in the body of man, the eye has a preordained station, one not belonging
to some lesser members; and yet, should it once depart from the whole, and
its connection with the centre be broken, then its membership in the body,
and its very life, are ended, let alone its previous station and degree.
Or should the eye be plucked from its place, torn out of the body, it
would be deprived of life itself, how much less would it continue to enjoy
the station that rightly belongs to the eye.
How strange! With reference to one who smokes opium, the Ancient Beauty,
the Most Great Name, has said: 'He is not of Me', making no distinction
here between one enjoying God's special favour, and some other. If the
smoking of opium, which is one of the secondary and lesser prohibitions,
completely severs the smoker from membership in the community and from
relationship to the Person of the Manifestation, then what must be the
condition of him who refuses to acknowledge the Centre of the holy
Covenant? In the words of Christ, 'If thine eye cause thee to stumble,
pluck it out ... if thy hand offend thee, cut it off...'(152)
O would that they had contented themselves with their refusal to recognize
that shining Being--with their failure to obey Him and to be lowly before
Him. But no, they beat upon rebellion's drum, and hoisted the flag of
contumacy and spite, and blew the trumpet of calumnies across the world.
In the hearts of the credulous they sowed seeds of disaffection, and
inconstancy and opposition. They made common cause with the hostile, the
biased, the mockers, who were arrayed against the Faith of the Blessed
Beauty, flattering them and paying them bribes and holding out promises
and hopes; they worked hand in glove with those occupying the seats of the
judiciary, and those authorized to interpret the law and pronounce
judgment, and those who sat on despots' thrones, and with still others who
were engaged in affairs remote from God's; and by all manner of deceits
and stratagems incited them to utterly extirpate the Covenant of Almighty
God and the Centre of it. They even, with a liberal distribution of funds,
hired assassins to shed the sacred blood of that Vicegerent of the
Glorious Lord.
Could any just person imagine that such as these have any relationship or
spiritual connection whatever with the Beauty of the One true God, or that
they could be accounted as members of the Baha'i community? Would not such
as these be only plucked-out eyes and palsied hands?
Look at the treatise that their second chief wrote, regarding their first
chief and his associates--in which he described, with his own pen, in
minute detail, their shameful purposes and actions relative to the Centre
of the divine Covenant--aims and acts that no perverse and godless tyrant
would consider permissible treatment for anyone. Their second chief tells
how, to a despotic and oppressive government, they brought false and
malicious accusations against 'Abdu'l-Baha; how they undertook to uproot
the holy Tree; how they forged Tablets, in Baha'u'llah's name, that
denounced the Centre of His Covenant; how they altered and corrupted the
holy Texts to such a degree that he said his confidence in the reliability
of the holy Tablets was virtually shattered.(153) These and their other
shameless activities are all set forth; and strangest of all is this, that
he, their second chief--the very one who wrote the confession so full of
the abominable acts of their first chief and his associates--now cleaves to
the first one like flesh to bone.
They are setting the axe to the root of the Cause of God; nor are they in
the least ashamed, nor put to the blush, before the Lord God and His
watchful and perceptive servants. There even exists a paper in the hand of
_Sh_u'a', son of their first chief, in which he tells of a person who was
commissioned and was ready and waiting to martyr the Centre of the
Covenant.
If I my tale could tell,
No bounds my pen would know;
My work would swell,
My book will grow,
For tons of scroll
Would bear my woe.
For over a period of thirty years, always increasing their efforts, they
inflicted extreme anguish on 'Abdu'l-Baha; and they did not, in all this
span, ever take one step nor draw a single breath to help the Faith. They
spent their entire time in attempts to wean to beloved of God away from
obedience to the Centre of the Covenant, and to undermine their
convictions, making them waver in their faith, and turning them cold; and
because of what they did, thousands of souls were veiled from the holy
Cause, and prevented from embracing it.
Such then is a glimpse of their aims and actions, which made them to be
cut off from the Holy Tree, and excluded them from glory and joy
everlasting. They lost out, both here and hereafter, and 'this verily is
utter perdition'.(154)
O you men who stand fast and firm, you women who are steadfast and firm in
you faith! Whensoever I visit the Holy Shrines, I think of you, and in all
lowliness at His Threshold, I entreat the Almighty to send down upon you
all His invisible confirmations, and to let His endless bounties enwrap
each one of you--so that through the efforts of those chosen ones of God,
the lights of loyalty and sincerity and truth, and staunchness in the
divine Covenant, will be shed upon that town;(155) that it may be
delivered from the consequences of ill-omened disaffection and violation,
and that instead, a fortunate star may rise there out of the concealing
depths and mount upward to the heavens; that no scrolls of doubt, and of
calumnies against the divine Covenant, may remain therein; and that every
name there may be written down in the heavenly register of those who have
kept the faith.
O Lord, set their feet firm in Thy Covenant; let them hold fast to the
cord of steadfastness in Thy Cause. Protect them from the hosts of discord
and calumny, and cause them to come under the sheltering banner of Thy
Testament, that is raised high on the summits of the earth.
Light up then in their hearts the flame of severance from everything
except Thy love, and help them by Thine overwhelming might to labour for
Thy Teachings.
Verily Thou art the Generous. Verily Thou art He Whose bounty embraceth
all things.
May the lights and the splendours be shed upon all of you.
34: To the doves of faithfulness, ever since ...
(156) To the doves of faithfulness, ever since that most grievous of
disasters, the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, this world of dust has become a
cage, and a place of torment; and to the unrestrained nightingales it is
only a prison, narrow and dark.
Certainly, a pure soul will not bind his heart to this passing show, and
the gems of spiritual love will yearn only to be let go, out of this
world. Nevertheless, the all-compelling will of God and His
all-encompassing and irresistible purpose has desired that this dark earth
should become as the Abha Kingdom, and this heap of dust be changed until
it becomes the envy of the rose gardens of Heaven.
This is why the Manifestations of God, the Day-springs of that
all-glorious Sun, have willingly accepted to bear, and take upon Their own
sacred and immaculate Selves, every trial and tribulation and calamity and
hurt. And They have established laws and ordinances, that assure the
flourishing and freedom and joy and salvation of all the human race. In
this way that primal purpose will be revealed, and that subtle mystery
divulged.
Thus too, have They trained certain souls, and reared them with the hands
of loving-kindness, that these should arise to perform the noble and
exalted task, and should devote their efforts toward carrying out this
duty, watering the Tree of life and serving all mankind.
Praise be to God, you are confirmed and flourishing in the Faith, and
partaking of your portion from that heavenly table, and are receiving your
benefits in both worlds.
35: The passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, may our lives ...
(157) The passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, may our lives be a sacrifice for His
meekness, was the ultimate calamity, the most great disaster. The light
has fled our hearts, and our souls are wedded to sorrow, and no power in
all the world can furnish any consolation, save only the power that comes
from the steadfastness of the believers and their deep-rooted faith, and
their unity, and their love for one another.
Only these can lessen the pain and quiet the anguish.
Although to outward seeming the Sun of the Covenant has hidden Himself
behind the clouds, and the Orb of the Testament is concealed, and on the
holy horizon of glory, He has now set, and is lost to view--still His rays
are shining from out His hidden place, and forever will His light shed
down its splendours.
For ever and ever will He, with all that invisible grace, and those
bestowals of the spirit, lead the seeker onward, and guide the yearning,
and ravish the hearts of the lovers.
The Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha is His decisive decree; it gathers
the believers together; it preserves their unity; it ensures the
protection of the Faith of God. It designates a specific Centre,
irrefutably and in writing establishing Shoghi Effendi as Guardian of the
Faith and Chosen Branch, so that his name is recorded in the Preserved
Tablet, by the fingers of grace and bounty. How grateful should we be that
such a bounty was bestowed, and such a favour granted.
Now is the time to arise to serve the Faith with all our might, that our
loyalty may be clearly proven, and that we may perfectly, to the fullest
extent and in minutest detail, carry out the requirements of
self-sacrifice. It is my hope that one and all, we shall succeed in this.
36: The ascension of Him Who was the Temple ...
(158) The ascension of Him Who was the Temple of the Covenant, the setting
of Him Who was the Orb of harmony, 'Abdu'l-Baha, may our lives be
sacrificed for the wrongs He suffered, was the most dire calamity, and the
most dread of ordeals. It dissolved our very hearts, it laid low the very
pillars of our being. It made our eyes to shed tears of blood, and our
sighs and the sound of our weeping reached upward to the Concourse on
High. Then did a sea of anguish roll up great waves of grief, and a
whirlwind of sorrow swept over the peoples of the earth.
That blessed soul, following the ascension of the sacred Abha Beauty, may
our lives be sacrificed for the dust of His sacred threshold, and until
the hour when His own luminous spirit rose up to the realms on high, for a
period of thirty years had neither a peaceful day nor a night of quiet
rest. Singly and alone, He set about to reform the world, and to educate
and refine its peoples. He invited all manner of beings to enter the
Kingdom of God; He watered the Tree of the Faith; He guarded the celestial
Lote-Tree from the tempest; He defeated the foes of the Faith, and He
frustrated the hopes of the malevolent; and always vigilant, He protected
God's Cause and defended His Law.
That subtle and mysterious Being, that Essence of eternal glory, underwent
trials and sorrows all the days of His life. He was made the target of
every calumny and malicious accusation, by foes both without and within.
His lot, in all His life, was to be wronged, and be subjected to toil, to
pain and grief. Under these conditions, the one and only solace of His
sacred heart was to hear good news of the progress of the Faith, and the
proclaiming of God's Word, and the spreading of the holy Teachings, and
the unity and fervour of the friends, and the staunchness of His loved
ones. This news would bring smiles to His countenance; this was the joy of
His precious heart.
Meanwhile He trained a number of the faithful and reared them with the
hands of His grace, and rectified their character and behaviour, and
adorned them with the excellence of the favoured angels of Heaven--that
they might arise today with a new spirit, and stand forth with wondrous
power, and confront the forces of idle fancy, and scatter the troops upon
troops of darkness with the blazing light of long endurance and high
resolve; that they might shine out even as lighted candles, and moth-like,
flutter so close about the lamp of the Faith as to scorch their wings.
The Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha, may our souls be sacrificed for
His meekness, is our guiding light upon the path, it is the very bounty of
the Abha Kingdom. This Text is the decisive decree, the way that leads
aright, the highest hope of all who stand firm in the Covenant of the Lord
of Lords. It is tidings of great joy; it is the ultimate bestowal.
37: We rejoiced greatly to learn of the unity ...
(159) We rejoiced greatly to learn of the unity among the friends, their
staunchness, their ardour, and the fact that they have established a
Spiritual Assembly. It is clear that the stronger grow the bonds of
yearning love among the believers, and the fiercer its fire, the more will
they find themselves embraced by the bounties of the Ancient of Days, and
receiving the continuous confirmations of the Greatest Name. Thus will the
Assemblies of the friends become reflections of the gardens of the
Concourse on High, mirroring forth the radiance of the Abha Kingdom.
From Their supernal realms and Their immortal heights, He the exalted Bab,
and He Who is the Beauty of the All-Glorious, and the wondrous presence of
'Abdu'l-Baha, all These are gazing down upon Their faithful loved ones,
beholding what they do under all conditions, their behaviour and conduct,
and all their words and ways, waiting to cry 'Well done!' when They see
the Teachings carried out, and 'Blessed art thou!' to whoso may excel in
doing the bidding of his Lord.
Those divine, those sacred and exalted Beings bore every grief, and They
accepted tyranny from every traitor, to make an Abha Paradise out of this
dust heap of the world, and change this place of thorns and sorrows into
blossoming bowers of love. They trained Their loved ones, and fostered
them with the hands of grace, and sent them forth, with countless
treasures, with goodly gifts, and with the forces of Heaven massed behind
them--that they might become guides, and holy cup-bearers, of the living,
soft-flowing waters of divine bestowals.
God be thanked, the believers in that country are confirmed and blessed,
and have arisen to serve the Cause, and are straining every nerve to
spread the heavenly Teachings far and wide. They are faithful ministers at
the Holy Shrine of the Blessed Beauty, and true lovers at the sacred
Threshold of 'Abdu'l-Baha.
38: That supreme affliction, the passing of ...