The Asiatic continent, the cradle of the principal religions of mankind;
the home of so many of the oldest and mightiest civilizations which have
flourished on this planet; the crossways of so many kindreds and races;
the battleground of so many peoples and nations; above whose horizons, in
modern times, the suns of two independent revelations--the promise and
consummation of a six thousand year old religious cycle--have successively
arisen; where the Authors of both of these revelations suffered banishment
and died; within whose confines the Center of a divinely appointed
Covenant was born, endured a forty-year incarceration and passed away; on
whose western extremity the Qiblih of the Baha'i world has been definitely
established; in whose heart the city proclaimed by Baha'u'llah as the
"Mother of the World" is enshrined; within whose borders another city
regarded as the "cynosure of an adoring world" and the scene of the
greatest and most glorious revelation the world has witnessed is
embosomed; on whose soil so many saints, heroes and martyrs, associated
with both of these revelations, have lived, struggled and died--such a
continent, so privileged among its sister continents and yet so long and
so sadly tormented, now stands at the hour of the launching of a
world-encompassing Crusade, on the threshold of an era that may well
recall, in its glory and ultimate repercussions, the great periods of
spiritual revival which, from the dawn of recorded history have, at
various stages in the revelation of God's purpose for mankind, illuminated
the path of the human race.
May this Crusade, launched simultaneously on the Asiatic mainland, its
neighboring islands and the Antipodes, under the direction of eight
national spiritual assemblies, and through the operation of eight
systematic teaching plans, and the concerted efforts of Baha'i communities
in both the East and the West, provide, as it unfolds, an effective
antidote to the baneful forces of atheism, nationalism, secularism and
materialism that are tearing at the vitals of this turbulent continent,
and may it re-enact those scenes of spiritual heroism which, more than any
of the secular revolutions which have agitated its face, have left their
everlasting imprint on the fortunes of the peoples and nations dwelling
within its borders.
[October 1953]