Announce to believers, through all National Assemblies, termination
initial stage of construction of domed structure designed to embellish and
preserve the Bab's sepulcher on Mount Carmel.
The two-year enterprise launched on the eve of the gravest turmoil rocking
the Holy Land in modern times, involving the expenditure of a quarter of a
million dollars, necessitating the transportation and placing of almost
eight hundred tons of stone and marble mosaic, was consummated on the eve
of the Centenary of His martyrdom. My soul is thrilled in contemplation of
the rising edifice, the beauty of its design, the majesty of its
proportions, the loveliness of its surroundings, the historic associations
of the site it occupies, the sacredness of the Sanctuary it envelops, the
transcendent holiness of the Treasure it enshrines.
My gratitude is deepened by the miraculous recovery of its gifted
architect, Sutherland Maxwell, whose illness was pronounced hopeless by
physicians. I acknowledge the valuable service rendered by Ugo Giachery,
through his supervision of the work of shipment of consignments to Haifa.
The hour is ripe to undertake the preliminaries for the erection of the
octagonal first unit of the superstructure, another milestone in the
process set in motion sixty years ago by Baha'u'llah's visit to Mount
Carmel. This process which gathered momentum through the transportation of
His Holiness, the Bab's remains to the Holy Land after fifty years'
concealment, through the erection of the sanctuary by 'Abdu'l-Baha in the
darkest years of His Ministry, through the entombment of the remains by
Him on the morrow of His forty year incarceration, through the
commencement of the construction of the arcade on the fortieth anniversary
of the interment of the Holy Dust, through the termination of the parapet
on the eve of the Centenary of the Bab's martyrdom, must be accelerated
through the erection of the dome, attaining consummation through the
emergence of the institutions of the world administrative center of the
Faith in the vicinity of its world spiritual Center, signalizing the
sailing of the Divine Ark on God's Mountain, prophesied in the Tablet of
Carmel.
I appeal to entire body of believers to seize this priceless opportunity
to stimulate the unfoldment of this process through generous, sustained
contributions for the furtherance of an enterprise transcending any
national institution whether Hazira or Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, reared in
the past or in process of construction. The hour is propitious,
particularly during the three year interval separating the Centennials of
the Bab's martyrdom and the birth of Baha'u'llah's Mission, coinciding
with the hundredth anniversary of the greatest holocaust in the history of
the Faith, to repay part of the infinite debt of gratitude owed its
martyrs, through hastening the conclusion of the holiest enterprise since
the dawn of the Revelation, interwoven with the ministries of Baha'u'llah,
and 'Abdu'l-Baha, linking the Heroic and Formative Ages of the Baha'i
Dispensation, cementing the ties binding the communities of the East and
West with the World Center of the Faith and shedding imperishable luster
on the first and second centuries of the Baha'i Era, which posterity will
hail as the most befitting tribute to the One Who made the most precious
sacrifice for the sake of the most sublime Faith in mankind's spiritual
history.
--Shoghi
[July 7, 1950]