The steady expansion of the activities conducted so devotedly and so
efficiently, during the last twelve months, by the members of the valiant
and exemplary American Baha'i Community, under the aegis of their elected
national representatives, is such as to evoke feelings of deep and sincere
admiration in my heart, and will serve to heighten the esteem in which
they are held by their brethren in every continent of the globe.
The completion of the interior ornamentation of the holiest House of
Worship ever to be raised by the followers of the Faith of Baha'u'llah,
the initiation of the landscaping of the immediate approaches of this
sacred and majestic Edifice, the actual launching of the highly promising,
profoundly significant African Campaign, through the arrival and
settlement of American pioneers in both East and West Africa; the
energetic efforts exerted for the multiplication of Baha'i administrative
institutions and the stimulation and consolidation of the all-important
teaching work throughout the States of the American Union; the generous,
the unhesitating and effectual support extended to the newly fledged
communities in Latin America in their efforts for the consolidation of the
administrative structure so laboriously erected in recent years; the ready
and enthusiastic response to the world-wide call for a befitting
celebration by the entire Baha'i world of the hundredth anniversary of the
birth of Baha'u'llah's prophetic Mission; the magnificent services already
rendered by the recently elevated American Hands of the Cause of God, in
diversified spheres of Baha'i activity, at the World Center of the Faith,
in the triple function of hastening the construction of the Bab's
Sepulcher, of consolidating the ties binding the International Baha'i
Council to the civil authorities of Israel, and of completing the design
of the projected Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar on Mt. Carmel, as well as in Latin
America; the repeated contributions made for the erection of that
Sepulcher, for the extension of Baha'i international endowments and the
institution of the Haziratu'l-Quds in Kampala; the marvellous loyalty
demonstrated in connection with the repeated defection of members of the
Holy Family and the nefarious activities of Covenant-breakers, both old
and new; as well as the share a number of these Hands have had in
administering a stunning defeat to the enemies of the Faith who, so boldly
and shamelessly sought, through legal action, to challenge the authority
of the Guardian of the Faith, and to publicly humiliate, the institution
created through the provisions of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Testament; the further
unfoldment of the European project through the initiation of the two
historic Conferences held in the Low Countries and in the Iberian
Peninsula, and the convocation of the fateful Conference in Rome,
heralding the formation of the Italo-Swiss National Assembly--the fairest
fruit of that mighty Project--these stand out as the distinctive, the
unforgettable, the infinitely meritorious achievements which posterity
will record as the noblest exploits immortalizing the concluding years of
the Second Seven Year Plan, and conferring untold benefits on its
executors throughout the length and breadth of the Great Republic of the
West.
So notable a record, such splendid achievements, investing, as they
inevitably must, the American Baha'i Community, with the potentialities so
essential for the adequate conduct of the impending Ten Year Plan, that
will constitute the third and last stage in the initial epoch, in the
unfoldment of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Plan, and auguring well for the triumphant
conclusion of the present Seven Year Plan, can, and must, if the star of
this enviable community is to continue to rise, rapidly and
uninterruptedly, to its meridian, be converted into a stepping-stone for
the achievements of such feats as will not only outshine the splendor of
the services already enumerated, but constitute a befitting termination to
the second collective enterprise undertaken in American Baha'i history, in
the service of the Cause of Baha'u'llah, and for the execution of the
grand Design conceived by the Center of His Covenant.
The support extended by a self-sacrificing, high-minded, ever alert
community, for the erection of the Drum of the Sepulcher of the Bab and
the raising of its crowning unit--the Dome itself--must, in the course of
this current year, be consistently maintained, both by the individual
members of this community, and the body of its elected representatives.
The assistance required for the acquisition of extensive properties,
comprising both lands and houses, in the immediate neighborhood of the
Most Holy Tomb in Bahji, and for the embellishment of the approaches of
that hallowed Shrine--the Qiblih of the Baha'i world--as a necessary prelude
to the ultimate erection of a befitting Mausoleum to enshrine the remains
of God's Supreme Manifestation on earth, must be generously and
systematically extended. The scheme of landscaping the area surrounding
the recently completed Mother Temple of the West, in time for its
consecration and formal opening for public Baha'i worship, must be rapidly
and carefully carried out. The subsidiary Plan, formulated for the
intensification of the Campaign of internal expansion and consolidation in
every State of the American Republic, must be assiduously executed, and
under no circumstances, be allowed to deteriorate or to fall into
abeyance. The flow of pioneers to the African continent, to Liberia, North
Africa, West and East Africa, must, at whatever cost, and while there is
yet time, be substantially accelerated, as the essential prerequisite to
the Ten Year crusade to be launched by no less than five National
Assemblies in the African continent, on the morrow of the celebrations of
the impending Holy Year. The process of multiplication of Baha'i local
Assemblies in the ten goal countries of Europe, and particularly in Italy
and Switzerland, and the preparatory measures required to ensure the
success of the twin historic assemblages destined to commemorate the last
year of the Seven Year enterprise launched in the European continent--the
European Teaching Conference in Luxemburg and the Italo-Swiss Convention
in Florence--must be pushed forward with extreme care, vigilance and vigor.
The utmost help and the necessary guidance must be vouchsafed to the newly
emerged sister communities, in both Central and South America, to enable
them to consummate their spontaneously undertaken Plans, so vital to their
future association with the organized communities, in both the Eastern and
Western Hemispheres, in the prosecution of the world-wide undertaking
destined to be launched on the morrow of the celebration of the
approaching Great Jubilee. Above all, the most careful, prayerful,
concentrated attention should be given by your Assembly, in conjunction
with the several national committees, appointed for this purpose, to the
adequate celebration of the fast approaching Holy Year, both locally,
nationally and internationally, with particular emphasis on the three
outstanding functions which the members of this Assembly must discharge,
namely, the solemn consecration of the completed House of Worship and the
commemoration of its Jubilee, the formal convocation of the
Inter-continental Conference, and the holding of the Annual Convention in
Wilmette, and the effective participation of the members of the American
Baha'i Community, both officially and unofficially, in the three other
historic Inter-continental Conferences to be convened successively in
Kampala, Stockholm and New Delhi.
The tasks ahead, calling for the expenditure of every ounce of energy on
the part of the members of the indefatigable irresistably advancing,
majestically unfolding American Baha'i community and for the unrelaxing
vigilance of its national elected representatives, are immense, highly
diversified, truly challenging, sacred in character, undreamt of in their
potentialities, urgent by their very nature, and inescapable in the
responsibilities they involve. At the World Center of the Faith, where, at
long last the machinery of its highest institutions has been erected, and
around whose most holy shrines the supreme organs of its unfolding Order,
are, in their embryonic form, unfolding; amidst the diversified tribes and
races, peopling the Dependencies and Principalities of the Dark Continent
of Africa; in the far-flung territories of Central and South America so
alien in culture, temperament, habits, language and outlook; in the
capital cities and traditional strongholds of a materially highly advanced
yet spiritually famished, much tormented, fear-ridden,
hopelessly-sundered, heterogeneous conglomeration of races, nations, sects
and classes overspreading the continent of Europe; in the heart of the
African continent, in the capital city of the Indian sub-continent; in one
of the leading capitals of the Scandinavian countries in Northern Europe;
in the very heart of the leading Republic of the Western Hemisphere, the
standard-bearers of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, the champion-builders of the
Administrative Order, the vanguard of the Heralds of His World Order, and
the Chief and appointed executors of the Master Plan of the Center of His
Covenant, have, in the course of the few, fast-fleeting months ahead,
separating them from the grandest crusade thus far launched in Baha'i
history, been assigned tasks, obligations and responsibilities that they
can afford to neither minimize, neglect or shirk for a moment.
Within only a few weeks the Baha'i World will enter upon the centenary of
that fateful day of August the fifteenth, when a dastardly act, fraught
with such terrible consequences, unleashed a series of tragic events that
stained the annals of the Faith, that precipitated calamities on a scale
unprecedented since its inception and unsurpassed in their tragic
character by any event except the martyrdom of its Herald, which
culminated in an holocaust reminiscent of the direst tribulations
undergone by the persecuted followers of any previous religion, and which,
in turn, paved the way, even as the darkest hour of the night precedes the
dawn, for the first glimmerings that were to proclaim, to an unsuspecting
world, and amidst the gloom and stench of the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran, the
birth of the Mission of the Founder of our Faith. Less than four months
separate us from the centenary celebrations designed to befittingly
commemorate that glorious event in Baha'i history, an event even more
potent in its implications than the birth of the Babi Dispensation, and
yielding in sacredness to none other except the memorable occasion when
the Founder of the Faith Himself ascended the throne of His spiritual
sovereignty and formally assumed in the City of Ba_gh_dad, His Prophetic
Office. The radiance of God's infant light shining within the walls of
that pestilential Pit--a radiance, an infinitesimal glimmer of which, as
the Founder of the Faith, Himself, later testified, caused the dwellers of
Sinai to swoon away--seemed, as it were, to be intermingled, whilst
Baha'u'llah lay in chains and fetters in that subterranean dungeon, and,
for many months after, with the somberness of the tragedy which enveloped
the members of a persecuted community in almost every province of that
hapless land. The dawning-light of the Revelation promised and lauded by
the Bab marks the termination of the second and darker crisis in the
annals of the Babi Dispensation, and signalizes the commencement of a
ten-year long crisis, the first of the three successive ones that left
their lasting imprint on His Ministry.
Little wonder that, in the months immediately ahead, when our thoughts are
fixed upon those days which heralded the outbreak of this reign of
unprecedented terror, and the outburst of a light of such inconceivable
brightness and in the twelve-month period immediately following when we
commemorate the centenary of that reign of terror as well as throughout
the succeeding decade, constituting the hundredth anniversary of the
period following the birth of so glorious a Mission--little wonder that the
followers of the Author of such a Revelation should be called upon to pour
forth, as a ransom for so much suffering, and in thanksgiving for such
priceless benefits conferred upon mankind, their substance, exert
themselves to the utmost, scale the summits of self-sacrifice, accomplish
the most valorous feats, and, through a concerted, determined, consecrated
ten-year-long effort, achieve their greatest victories in honor of the
Founder of their Faith, in grateful memory of His unnumbered slaughtered
servants, and for the world establishment, and ultimate triumph, of His
embryonic World Order.
The four inter-continental Conferences, constituting the highlights of the
centenary celebrations commemorating this unique period in Baha'i history,
commingling so much tragedy and glory, as well as the public consecration
of the Most Holy House of Worship ever to be raised for the glory of the
Most Great Name, must alike proclaim, in no uncertain voice, the
significance of the happenings which, a hundred years ago, endowed mankind
with a potency unapproached at any period in the world's spiritual
history, and signalize the inauguration of what may yet come to be
regarded as a period of collective administrative and teaching
accomplishments distinguishing the Formative Age of our Faith and endowed
with a fertility comparable to that which marked the spiritual feats of
the dawn-breakers of the Heroic Age which preceded it.
To the members of the valorous American Baha'i Community, the chosen
trustees and principal executors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan, who, by
virtue of the mission entrusted to them by the Center of Baha'u'llah's
Covenant, have been empowered, and are fully qualified, to assume a
preponderating role in the conduct of this world-encompassing crusade; to
the long-suffering, the unflinching, the much loved and steadfast members
of the venerable and still persecuted community of Baha'u'llah's followers
laboring in His native land, whose spiritual ancestors have left a legacy
of unsurpassed heroism and saintliness to the rising generation in both
the East and the West; to the members of the small, yet intensely alive,
community dwelling in the heart and center of the far-flung British
Commonwealth of Nations, whose destiny is to lend a notable impetus to the
progress of this world Crusade; through awakening the vast and
heterogeneous multitudes that owe allegiance to the British Crown, and are
dispersed throughout the five continents of the globe; to the members of
the equally small yet virile and highly promising community, planted in
the heart of the European continent, whose mission is to spread the light
of the Faith throughout the regions that lie in its neighborhood and
project its radiance as far as the heart of the Asiatic continent; to the
members of the newly emerged yet swiftly advancing community established
in the Dominion of Canada, worthy allies of the American Baha'i Community
in the furtherance of the Grand Design delineated in 'Abdu'l-Baha's
immortal Tablets; to the members of the loyal, the assiduously laboring
and highly diversified community in the Indian sub-continent, whose
geographic position entitles them to extend substantial assistance to the
prodigious task of awakening the peoples of South East Asia to the
redemptive Message of Baha'u'llah; to the members of the second most
persecuted yet resolute community established in the heart of both the
Arab and Muslim worlds, who, by virtue of the position they occupy, must
play a distinctive part in the emancipation of a proscribed Faith from the
fetters of religious orthodoxy; to the members of the youthful yet
vigorously functioning community, championing the Cause of Baha'u'llah in
the Antipodes who, by reason of their close proximity, are expected to
contribute a substantial share to the establishment of the institutions of
the Faith in the numerous and widely scattered islands and archipelagos of
the South Pacific Ocean; to the members of a long-established yet still
persecuted community dwelling in a territory which may well rank, next to
the Holy Land and the Cradle of our Faith, as the most holy in the entire
Baha'i world, who are destined to share with their brethren in Persia,
Egypt and Pakistan in the task of achieving the recognition of a
down-trodden Faith, by the ecclesiastical leaders of Islam; to the
newly-fledged, spiritually alert communities of Central and South America,
who, by virtue of the responsibilities invested in the inhabitants of the
Western Hemisphere through the ringing call of Baha'u'llah in the Aqdas
and the utterances of the Center of His Covenant, are expected by their
brethren, in both the East and the West, to worthily play their part as
associates of the chief executors of the Plan bequeathed by 'Abdu'l-Baha;
to the members of the communities in Italy and Switzerland, as yet in the
embryonic stage of their development, and who will soon take their place
as an independent entity in the international Baha'i community, and must
assume their share in planting the banner of a triumphant Faith in the
heart of a continent regarded as the cradle of Western civilization as
well as in the stronghold and nerve-center of the most powerful church in
Christendom; indeed, to each and every believer, whether isolated, or
associated with any local Assembly or group, who, though as yet
unidentified with any specific national Plan for the systematic
prosecution of this Crusade, can still, and indeed must, lend his
particular assistance in this gigantic enterprise--to all, without
distinction of race, nation, class, color, age or sex, I feel moved, as
the fateful hour of a memorable centenary approaches, to address my plea,
with all the fervor that my soul can command and all the love that my
heart contains, to rededicate themselves, collectively, and individually,
to the task that lies ahead of them.
Under whatever conditions, the dearly loved, the divinely sustained, the
onward marching legions of the army of Baha'u'llah may be laboring, in
whatever theatre they may operate, in whatever climes they may struggle,
whether in the cold and inhospitable territories beyond the Arctic Circle,
or in the torrid zones of both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres; on the
borders of the jungles of Burma, Malaya and India; on the fringes of the
deserts of Africa and of the Arabian Peninsula; in the lonely, far-away,
backward and sparsely populated islands dotting the Atlantic, the Pacific
and the Indian Oceans and the North Sea; amidst the diversified tribes of
the Negroes of Africa, the Eskimos and the Lapps of the Arctic regions,
the Mongolians of East and South East Asia, the Polynesians of the South
Pacific Islands, the reservations of the Red Indians in both American
continents, the Maoris of New Zealand, and the aborigines of Australia;
within the time-honored strongholds of both Christianity and Islam,
whether it be in Mecca, Rome, Cairo, Najaf or Karbila; or in towns and
cities whose inhabitants are either immersed in crass materialism, or
breathe the fetid air of an aggressive racialism, or find themselves bound
by the chains and fetters of a haughty intellectualism, or have fallen a
prey to the forces of a blind and militant nationalism, or are steeped in
the atmosphere of a narrow and intolerant ecclesiasticism--to them all, as
well as to those who, as the fortunes of this fate-laden Crusade prosper,
will be called upon to unfurl the standard of an all-conquering Faith in
the strongholds of Hinduism, and assist in the breaking up of a rigid
age-long caste system, who will replace the seminaries and monasteries
acting as the nurseries of the Buddhist Faith with the divinely-ordained
institutions of Baha'u'llah's victorious Order, who will penetrate the
jungles of the Amazon, scale the mountain-fastnesses of Tibet, establish
direct contact with the teeming and hapless multitudes in the interior of
China, Mongolia and Japan, sit with the leprous, consort with the outcasts
in their penal colonies, traverse the steppes of Russia or scatter
throughout the wastes of Siberia, I direct my impassioned appeal to obey,
as befits His warriors, the summons of the Lord of Hosts, and prepare for
that Day of Days when His victorious battalions will, to the accompaniment
of hozannas from the invisible angels in the Abha Kingdom, celebrate the
hour of final victory.
"O, that I could travel," 'Abdu'l-Baha, crying out from the depths of His
soul, gives utterance to His longing, in a memorable passage, in the
Tablets of the Divine Plan, addressed to the North American believers,
"even though on foot and in the utmost poverty, to these regions, and
raising the call of 'Ya-Baha'u'l-Abha in cities, villages, mountains,
deserts and oceans, promote the Divine teachings! This, alas, I cannot do.
How intensely I deplore it! Please God, ye may achieve it!"
"Teach ye the Cause of God, O people of Baha," the Author of our Faith,
Himself, admonishes His followers, "....for God hath prescribed unto every
one the duty of proclaiming His Message, and regardeth it as the most
meritorious of all deeds.... Should any one arise for the triumph of Our
Cause, him will God render victorious though tens of thousands of enemies
be leagued against him." "They that have forsaken their country," He
assures them, "for the purpose of teaching Our Cause--these shall the
Faithful Spirit strengthen through its power.... Such a service is,
indeed, the prince of all goodly deeds, and the ornament of every goodly
act." "When the hour cometh that this wronged and broken-winged bird will
have taken its flight unto the celestial Concourse," is 'Abdu'l-Baha's
last poignant call to the entire body of the followers of His Father's
Faith, as recorded in His Will and Testament, "it is incumbent upon ...
the friends and loved ones, one and all, to bestir themselves and arise,
with heart and soul, and in one accord ... to teach His Cause and promote
His Faith. It behoveth them not to rest for a moment.... They must
disperse themselves in every land ... and travel throughout all regions.
Bestirred, without rest, and steadfast to the end, they must raise in
every land the cry of 'Ya-Baha'u'l-Abha ... that throughout the East and
the West a vast concourse may gather under the shadow of the Word of God,
that the sweet savors of holiness may be wafted, that men's faces may be
illumined, that their hearts may be filled with the Divine Spirit and
their souls become heavenly."
No matter how long the period that separates them from ultimate victory;
however arduous the task; however formidable the exertions demanded of
them; however dark the days which mankind, perplexed and sorely-tried,
must, in its hour of travail, traverse; however severe the tests with
which they who are to redeem its fortunes will be confronted; however
afflictive the darts which their present enemies, as well as those whom
Providence, will, through His mysterious dispensations raise up from
within or from without, may rain upon them, however grievous the ordeal of
temporary separation from the heart and nerve-center of their Faith which
future unforeseeable disturbances may impose upon them, I adjure them, by
the precious blood that flowed in such great profusion, by the lives of
the unnumbered saints and heroes who were immolated, by the supreme, the
glorious sacrifice of the Prophet-Herald of our Faith, by the tribulations
which its Founder, Himself, willingly underwent, so that His Cause might
live, His Order might redeem a shattered world and its glory might suffuse
the entire planet--I adjure them, as this solemn hour draws nigh, to
resolve never to flinch, never to hesitate, never to relax, until each and
every objective in the Plans to be proclaimed, at a later date, has been
fully consummated.
Your true brother
--Shoghi
[June 30, 1952]