bountiful blessings, and urge on our steeds in the field of service, of
purity and sincerity, and of high endeavour--nor is this much to ask of the
loving-kindness and grace of our exalted Lord.
47: The purport of your letter is highly indicative ...
(170) The purport of your letter is highly indicative of your
steadfastness in His Cause, of your unswerving constancy in the Covenant,
of having set your face toward Shoghi Effendi, the authorized Point to
whom all must turn, the Centre of the Cause, the Chosen Branch, the bough
that has branched out from the twin heavenly Trees. Indeed, this is the
essential thing, this is the meaning of true devotion, this is the
unshakable, the indubitable truth whereby the people of Baha, the dwellers
of the Crimson Ark, are distinguished.
The loved ones of the All-Merciful are those that have truly served the
Most Exalted One,(171) have been nurtured by the hand of the Abha Beauty,
have received training under the care of 'Abdu'l-Baha--may our life be
sacrificed for the wrongs suffered by Them. Such souls have drunk from the
soft-flowing river of true understanding, have quaffed their fill from the
living waters of assurance, have set their affection on the one true God,
and have rid themselves of all attachment to aught except Him. They tread
the straight path of truth and stride along His undeviating way. They
incline their attentive ears to the Call of the Concourse on High and are
attracted to the Celestial Voice ringing from the realms of glory. Great
indeed is their blessedness, and may they meet with a good ending.
We earnestly hope that through the bounty of the Lord of eternity a fresh
measure of His confirmations may soon appear and you may be encompassed by
His pervasive aid and assistance.
48: At this hour while yet the heart burns with ...
(172) At this hour while yet the heart burns with the anguish of sorrow,
and the gloom of bereavement still hangs low, my thoughts turn in loving
remembrance to my sincere beloved sisters and brothers in the Cause.
The news of your firmness in the Covenant, of your endeavour to work in
unity and harmony, and of your untiring zeal and devotion in the Path of
Service, has been a source of untold joy to me. For now my sole comfort
lies in the loyalty and faithfulness of the friends, and my one joy in the
progress of the Cause.
Dear friends! At this critical time through which the Cause is passing the
responsibility that has fallen on every individual Baha'i is great, and
his duties are pressing and manifold. Now that the Sun of the Covenant has
set on the horizon of the world, the eyes of all the people are turned
expectant upon us. Now the time has come for the faithful friends of
'Abdu'l-Baha, who have been the recipients of the Glorious Light, to shine
forth even as brilliant stars. The radiance of our Faith must be such as
to dispel the clouds of doubt and guide the world to the Day-spring of
Truth.
Our firmness must be such as to cause him who wavers and errs to turn back
penitent unto the fold; our unity and love must be such as to cause the
peoples of the world to join hands in amity and brotherhood; and our
activity in service must be such as to have all parts of the world resound
with the echoes of 'YA-BAHA'U'L-ABHA!'.
For inspiration and guidance let us turn unto His life-imparting
exhortations: 'O friends, show forth your fidelity! O my loved ones,
manifest your steadfastness and your constancy! O ye who invoke His Name,
turn ye and hold fast unto Him! O ye who lift up your hearts and implore
His aid, cling to Him and walk in His ways! It is incumbent upon every one
of us to encourage each other, to exert our utmost endeavour to diffuse
His divine fragrances and engage in exalting His Word. We must, at all
times, be stirred by the breeze that bloweth from the rose-garden of His
loving-kindness, and be perfumed with the fragrances of the mystic flowers
of His grace.'
Thus does 'Abdu'l-Baha still call to us from His realm of effulgent glory.
Will not each of us hearken unto His voice, and exert the utmost endeavour
to fulfil His hopes?
Dear friends, this is the day of faithfulness; this is the day of unity;
this is the day of service. Let us not wait, nor ponder, but, detached
from the world and its concerns, clad in the armour of faith, filled with
the divine spirit of love, and quickened by His life-giving exhortations,
let us arise in utmost love and harmony, hasten to the field of service,
and subdue the domain of hearts with the arms of the love of God and the
sword of peace and brotherhood.
For all inspiration and assurance let us turn unto Baha'u'llah's promise:
'Be not dismayed, O peoples of the world, when the day-star of My beauty
is set, and the heaven of My tabernacle is concealed from your eyes. Arise
to further My Cause, and to exalt My Word amongst men. We are with you at
all times, and shall strengthen you through the power of truth. We are
truly almighty.'
Dear friends! A great obligation of every Baha'i is vigilance to protect
and shield the stronghold of the Faith from the onslaught of the enemies.
In these days their activity has waxed strong. They are constantly on the
alert, and exert the utmost endeavour to cause such harm as would impede
the onward march of the Cause.
Association with such people will cause discord and unrest among the
friends and will be detrimental to the progress of the Cause. Therefore it
is urgent that the friends exercise great wisdom and vigilance lest
through the evil schemes of the enemies a breach be made in the Faith. The
few people whom 'Abdu'l-Baha pronounced as injurious to the Cause must be
shunned by all the friends, as Shoghi Effendi himself tells us to do in
his second letter to the American believers.
49: O steadfast ones, gathered beneath the ...
(173) O steadfast ones, gathered beneath the Abha Beauty's standard of
oneness, O faithful lovers of 'Abdu'l-Baha! Sad news has come to us out of
Iran in recent days, and it has intensely grieved the entire Baha'i world:
they have, in most parts of that land, set bonfires of envy and
malevolence, and hoisted the banner of aggression against this
much-wronged community; they have left no means untried, no plot or
strategy neglected, and have arisen with extreme hostility and spite to
pull out by their very roots the trees of this garden of God.
From every side, they are aiming their arrows at hearts that rejoice in
the knowledge of God and are filled with the love of Him. From every
ambush, they are hunting down gazelles that pasture in the meadows of His
unity. They are taking the men and women believers captive, and making
orphans of the children. They are plundering the believers' property,
sacking their hearths and homes.
Those, however, who have been trained and educated in the school of God,
even when coming to such a pass, are resignation itself, and to the brutal
aggressor they are as the living waters of Heaven. They are rivers of pure
mercy and peace. Though powerful and well able to defend themselves, they
never raise a hand to strike, nor do they open their lips to protest. They
confront the others' taunts and curses with prayers that God will forgive
them, and their reply to the wounds of bullet and sword is to offer milk
and honey. They kiss the murderer's hand; as intoxicated lovers, they
drain the martyr's cup.
Such is the way of those who are attracted to His Kingdom, and that other
is the behaviour of the foolish, the heedless of God. So has it been, at
the time when the Manifestations of God appeared: the heedless and the
ignorant turned upon their heavenly Teachers, and the diseased harried and
tortured their loving Physicians in the spirit, idly thinking that they
were acquiring merit thereby. Thus have their imaginings always been, at
the outset of every Faith: that by such cruel acts they could destroy that
seed, the Word of God; or that by blowing against it, they could put out
the lamp that He has lit; or that by directing a storm of denial against
them, they could bring down His trees, so flourishing, so firmly rooted in
His Kingdom, or lay His fair gardens in ruins.
But as, time and again, experience has shown, in every age they have only
seen verified the Blessed Beauty's assurance that calamity's rushing rain
is the greening of His planted field, and afflictions are the oil that
feeds and adds to the radiance of the lamp of God. And then, as the days
go by, and they see with their own eyes the Day-Star in its noonday
splendour, witness the bewildering richness of the fields that God has
sown, behold His great and all-pervading Cause--then the fires of hatred
and envy flame out of the hell of their natures; they can contain
themselves no longer, and the truth of the holy words is proved, that God
will not bring down a people from their station unless they have corrupted
their good qualities themselves, and it becomes clearly shown that God
brings on the downfall of the heedless little by little and in ways that
they know not.
During occurrences of this kind, it is incumbent upon the believers in
other countries to immediately adopt prudent and reasonable measures, that
through wise methods such fires may be put out. Let them not allow the
claws of ravening wolves to be reddened with their brothers' blood; let
them defend God's lambs from the hungry leopard's knife-sharp teeth; let
them guard the members of the one and single Baha'i family from the
poisoned sting of scorpions and snakes.
This is the unique obligation of the Baha'is of the world. Addressing the
believers, Baha'u'llah says: 'Be ye as the fingers of one hand, the
members of one body.' This means that just as each member safeguards the
rest, warding off any threatened harm, so too must the individual Baha'is
do, whether in the East or the West. At this time it is urgently needful,
and it is the request of this grieving servant, that the assembly of the
believers in that area act at once, and take the case to the ambassador of
the Iranian government. Let them tell him, 'The holy Cause of Baha'u'llah
has so unified us who are His world-wide followers, and has brought us so
close together, that we have become like a single body. If the foot of a
Baha'i, in the farthest Eastern land, is so much as scratched by a thorn,
it is even as if we Baha'is here in the West had suffered the same. We
have now received word from Iran that in _Sh_iraz, in Sultanabad, in
Hamadan, in Ka_sh_an, even in Tihran, and in other places as well, the
fanaticism of the ignorant and heedless has been fanned into flame, and
that agitators are stirring up the populace--with the result that our
brothers and sisters, who are but well-wishers of all humankind and are
indeed the world's only hope for peace, and are obedient and helpful
citizens of Iran and her government, find themselves under attack and
pushed into the heart of the fire.
'We therefore request the representative of Iran to ask his government to
safeguard our brothers in Iran from the aggressions of their enemies, and
to deliver that flock of God's lovers from the claws of the wolf, and
provide for their security and well-being. By bringing us word of this
outcome, Iran will earn the deep and heartfelt gratitude of thousands of
Baha'is who reside in these countries, and widespread appreciation will be
voiced by us in our many gatherings, of her government's good offices on
our behalf.'
And further, if it be possible, you should make this same representation
through your own ambassador in Tihran, so that he may direct the attention
of the Iranian authorities to these persecutions, and awaken that
government to the possibility of divine retribution and to the shameful
stigma occasioned by such actions directed against this innocent community
by the heedless and ignorant amongst the mass of the people.
Let him make them aware that there are thousands of adherents of this
Faith of the love of God around the world, who are gazing in astonishment
and disbelief at the savage acts now being perpetrated against their
brothers, and are eagerly waiting to hear that the government has come to
the rescue of this unique, this law-abiding people, who are the
well-wishers of mankind, from the attacks of the ravening wolves.
I pray for you continually at the Holy Threshold, and call upon Him on
behalf of each one of you, and beg that He will bestow on you the
blessings of the Kingdom.
Upon you, men and women alike, be the Glory of the All-Glorious.
50: A physician treats every illness with a ...
(174) A physician treats every illness with a certain remedy and to every
painful sore he applies a specially prepared compound. The more severe the
illness, the more potent must be the remedy, so that the treatment may
prove effective and the illness cured. Now consider, when the divine
Physician(175) determined to conceal His countenance from the gaze of men
and take His flight to the Abha Kingdom, He knew in advance what a violent
shock, what a tremendous impact, the effect of this devastating blow would
have upon His beloved friends and devoted lovers. Therefore He prepared a
highly potent remedy and compounded a unique and incomparable cure--a cure
most exquisite, most glorious, most excellent, most powerful, most
perfect, and most consummate. And through the movement of His Pen of
eternal bounty He recorded in His weighty and inviolable Testament the
name of Shoghi Effendi--the bough that has grown from the two offshoots of
the celestial glory, the branch that has branched from the two hallowed
and sacred Lote-Trees. Then He winged His flight to the Concourse on High
and to the luminous horizon. Now it devolves upon every well-assured and
devoted friend, every firm and enkindled believer enraptured by His love,
to drink this healing remedy at one draught, so that the agony of
bereavement may be somewhat alleviated and the bitter anguish of
separation dissipated. This calls for efforts to serve the Cause, to
diffuse the sweet savours of God, to manifest selflessness, consecration
and self-sacrifice in our labours in His Path.
51: I was very glad to know of your meeting ...
(176) I was very glad to know of your meeting with the Chinese students,
and I am sure your effect and influence shall be great upon them because
their fresh and receptive minds are ready to grasp the importance of this
Manifestation; and when you go to China, which you may if you think it
wise, your influence and success, I hope, will be still more.
I pray God that He should confirm you in your teaching, and when you go to
China, He should make you a pioneer in carrying the Message of this
Dispensation to the farthermost countries of the world and to the most
obscure.
The members of the Holy Family join me in extending to you their love and
Baha'i greetings, and may the spirit of 'Abdu'l-Baha guide you and keep
you.
52: We were delighted to receive your excellent ...
(177) We were delighted to receive your excellent letter ... and read it
with joy. It gladdens our hearts to witness from its contents the
evidences of loyalty and sincerity and perfect steadfastness in the Cause
of God, and unshakeable constancy in His Covenant.
I offered praise to my Lord, the All-Glorious, for His abundant blessings,
the prodigality of His bestowals, and His wondrous grace; for He has
created such spiritual beings, such illumined essences, who attract bounty
from the Sun of Truth, and are lit by its heavenly light, which unravels
the mysteries, parts the curtains, and tears aside the veils. He has sent
forth pure and holy souls whom the blame of the blamer cannot shut out
from the Faith of God, nor frighten away from establishing the truth of
His Teachings. These are they whose thirst is quenched, whose ills are
healed, whose hearts are gladdened, whose minds are set at rest, whose
souls are stirred, whose spirits rejoice, whose eyes find consolation by
beholding the splendours of the beauty, and the graces of perfection, that
come down, one following after another, from the firmament of glory. Well
is it with them for such wondrous gifts, and bliss be to them for such
blessings!
As for me, acquainted with great grief as I am, subjected as I am to
calamities, I have no solace in this dire ordeal that has suddenly come
upon me to darken my days, save only to see happiness in the hearts of the
believers; to breathe in the sweet scents of loving-kindness from the
gardens of their hearts, and to behold the sparkling lights of unity
amongst God's chosen ones, and to note how widespread are the breaths of
fellow-feeling and love amongst the righteous, and how His teachings and
the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha are being disseminated throughout
those lands--always in accord with wisdom, as enjoined by the Almighty and
set forth in the Writings.
I beg of God, even as a pauper, and I implore Him with all lowliness,
feebleness and contrition, to assist you all with His unseen favours, and
open before your eyes the portals of His bounty and grace, and make ready
for you whatsoever you desire out of His everlasting bestowals, and make
all things easy for you, and fulfil your hopes--so that in serving the
Faith of your Lord, the Glory of the All-Glorious, you will reach your
furthermost goals. Verily is He the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving.
I beg of Him too, that He will cause every difficulty to vanish away, and
will dispel every cloud, until it becomes possible for you to present
yourselves at this blessed, this luminous and fragrant Spot, and bow down
your foreheads in the dust of this bright Threshold, and attain this
ultimate goal, for the friends long to behold you.
Again, I supplicate the Eternal Glory to send down His herald of holiness
with the garment in his hands,(178) that all eyes may be solaced and all
hearts rejoiced by the return to this country of the Chosen Branch, the
Guardian of the Cause of God, Shoghi Effendi, in the briefest of times.
This indeed is well within the reach of the bounties of our Almighty and
All-Generous Lord.
53: Following the ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha ...
(179) Following the ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha to the Abha Kingdom the only
thing that can afford consolation to the heart of this grief-stricken and
wronged maidservant is to see the lovers of that luminous Countenance
happy, joyful and radiant and to behold the diffusion of the sweet savours
of God, the exaltation of His Word, and the growth of His Faith. Nothing
else matters.
The duty of the concourse of the faithful in this day should be but one
duty, their purpose but one purpose, their aim but one aim, and the object
of their endeavour but one object, and this is none other than to foster
the spirit of unity and harmony, to serve and teach His Cause and to
promote His Word. Such is the meaning of true faithfulness; and in this
lies the good-pleasure of 'Abdu'l-Baha.
54: The letter that you wrote in your burning ...
(180) The letter that you wrote in your burning grief, on the passing of
the world's Beloved, the Orb of the Covenant--wrote with weeping eyes and a
heart afire, has come. Once again, it brings back the full force of this
calamity, and renews our mourning. This was the most ruinous of disasters,
the most dreaded of ordeals, the most hurtful of misfortunes. It was an
earthquake that shook the pillars of the world; it caused a tumult and an
uproar among the dwellers of earth and heaven. This terrible separation
came upon us as an inescapable trial and a dismal decree. It destroyed all
hopes of happiness, and all joy perished. By this departure, the sparkling
stars were dimmed, and the heavens of mystic meaning split apart. It set
the skies on fire, it scorched the seven spheres. From this departure,
sorrow enveloped all mankind, it brought pain and tears to all the peoples
of the earth. The lightning bolt of it consumed the world and struck the
hearts of its inhabitants, so that they put on sackcloth and poured ashes
on their heads. This disaster, coming all unawares, made the morning dark,
and turned bright noon to night. From our breasts rose burning sighs, and
from our eyes streamed our life blood. Even the Concourse on High moaned
and lamented, and their clamour rose to the highest Heaven, and the
weeping denizens of the pavilions of glory, striking at their faces,
raised their plaintive cries. Mourning, shedding tears, their garments
rent, their heads uncovered, their feet bare, the Maids of Heaven hastened
out of their lofty, immaculate chambers, and groaned and cried out.
'Abdu'l-Baha, may our lives be sacrificed for His sacred dust, that
peerless Beloved of the world, from the day that Baha'u'llah ascended
until the hour of His own spotless soul's departure to the kingdom of
light and the realm beyond, had neither a quiet night's rest nor a
peaceful day, for thirty years. At all times His heart wept and sorrowed,
and in the dark of the night from His anguished breast rose burning sighs,
sorely wounded as He was by the arrows of the opposers and the rebellious.
Then at first light, He would lift up His wondrous, melodious voice and
commune with the dwellers in the high mansions of Heaven.
He would face the storms of tribulation with a heart full of fervour and
love; He would breast the waves of calamities and oncoming ordeals with
overflowing joy. With the balm of His loving-kindness, He would remedy
unhealing wounds, and the medicine of His unending grace was a cure for
mortal ills. Through His tenderness and care the sorrowful found comfort,
and through His Words the despairing received the blissful consolation of
their incomparable Lord. He would hearten the despised and the rejected
with outpourings of grace.
In the pathway of Baha'u'llah, He made His holy breast a shield to bear
adversities, made His beauteous face a target for the blows that rained
upon Him from all sides. He, the Wronged One of the world, was compassed
about by rebel hosts; the armies of treachery assailed Him from every
direction. The disaffected were not remiss in their cruelty and
aggression; never once did that arrogant crew fail to spread a calumny or
to show their opposition and their malice. At every moment, they inflicted
wounds upon Him, injured Him, brought fresh grief to His heart. Their sole
aim was to bring down the structure of the Holy Faith and to destroy its
very base and foundation. They did all in their power to split the Baha'i
community, and in their strivings to shatter the union of the believers,
they neglected nothing. They joined hands with every enemy of the Faith,
became boon companions of all who betrayed it. There was no mischief, no
plot, no slander, no aspersion, that they would not allow themselves, no
individual so vile that they would not cleave to him.
And thus, with all His own ordeals and cares, and banished from His home,
He Whom the world wronged devoted Himself to counselling and nurturing the
people with the utmost loving-kindness, divinely admonishing them, leading
and guiding them at all times to complete and utter steadfastness in the
Cause of God.
From one direction He would ward off the assaults of the nations, from
another He would hold back the people of hatred from tormenting the
believers. Now He would scatter the waverers' clouds of doubt, again He
would demonstrate the truth of the clear and manifest Verses, and at all
times and seasons He would guard the Cause of God with His very life, and
protect its Law.
His fundamental purpose in enduring that continual toil and pain, and
bearing those calamities, was to safeguard the divine and all-embracing
Word, to shelter the tree of unity, to educate persons of capacity, to
refine those who were pure in heart, and to transform the hearts of the
receptive, to expound the mysteries of God and illumine the minds of the
spiritual.
All praise be to Baha'u'llah! The meaning of those bounties became
apparent and the splendour of those bestowals was made manifest: that
conclusive Text, the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha, was given us, and
what had been hidden at the beginning was made known at the end. His
infinite grace became clearly manifest, and with His own mighty pen He
made a perfect Covenant, naming Shoghi Effendi the Chosen Branch and
Guardian of the Faith. Thus, by God's bounty, what had been a concealed
mystery and a well-guarded secret, was at last made plain.