| ←Previous | Bahá’í News Issue 514 |
Next→ |
 Proofread onceReturn to PDF view
|
| No. 514 | BAHA’I YEAR 130 | JANUARY, 1974 |
Dorothy Beecher Baker
Toward the unity of East and West
Bahá’ís and the UN
[Page 0]
page one
page six
page thirteen
| CONTENTS |
Toward the unity of East and West | page 1 |
Bahá’ís and the United Nations | page 6 |
Dorothy Beecher Baker | page 13 |
Around the World | page 21 |
| COVER PHOTO |
The Hand of the Cause of God Dorothy Baker.
| PHOTO AND DRAWING CREDITS |
Cover: Mrs. Mary Lou Ewing; Inside Cover: Bahá’í News, United Nations, Bahá’í News; Page 1: Bahá’í News, Mr. Ugo Giachery; Page 2: Bahá’í News; Page 3: Mrs. Rouhieh McComb; Page 6: United Nations; Page 7: World Peace Through Law Center, Bahá’í International Community; Page 8: United Nations; Page 9: United Nations; Page 10: Afro-American Newspaper; Page 11: Bahá’í International Community; Page 13: Dr. Ugo Giachery; Page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19: Bahá’í News; Page 21: Bahá’í News. Drawings; Page 5, 12, 20: Dr. David Ruhe.
| CORRECTIONS |
On page 11, Bahá’í News, November 1973, the name “Mr. Slessinger” appeared in a story entitled, “You Have Been Chosen: The story of Carrie and Edward Kinney”, by O.Z. Whitehead. The name should read, Mr. Edward Schlesinger.
| POSTAL INFORMATION |
Bahá’í News is published for circulation among Bahá’ís only by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, as a news organ reporting current activities of the Bahá’í world community.
Bahá’í News is edited by an annually appointed Editorial Committee.
Material must be received by the twenty-fifth of the second month preceding date of issue. Address: Bahá’í News Editorial Office, 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091, U.S.A.
Change of address should be reported directly to Membership and Records, National Bahá’í Center. 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. U.S.A. 60091.
[Page 1]
Lua Getsinger
Muẓzaffari’ d-Din-Sháh
Toward the unity of East and West[edit]
The meeting between Lua Getsinger and Muẓzaffari’ d-Din-Sháh[edit]
| Lua remembered the promise given to her by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that one day he would send her to the Sháh of Persia. |
Mr. Edward Getsinger, (right), with Persian believers.
Lasting ties of fellowship, mighty bridges of understanding, and indissoluble alliances of affection are now being established between the East and the West, once thought hopelessly divided. How infinitely precious is the luster imparted to the resplendent history of the Cause of God by these imperishable bonds of harmony so joyously forged by the loving and devoted servants of Bahá’u’lláh. The darkness of a world of hypocrisy, intrigue, hatred, and dishonesty is dispelled by the penetrating force of the divine light of these miracles of love, shedding their radiance and warmth upon all mankind.
An instance of this love and understanding resulted from the meeting between Muẓaffar Sháh, King of Persia, during the early part of this century, and the courageous Lua Getsinger. Mrs. Getsinger’s services and sacrifices, according to the beloved Shoghi Effendi, conferred luster upon the American Bahá’í community, and the influence upon the King resulting from that meeting may have changed the course of Bahá’í history.
The loving hearts of all the scattered friends in the West were melting when they heard reports of the barbaric atrocities being inflicted upon the Bahá’ís in the homeland of Bahá’u’lláh. The Western friends passionately desired to do something to end these interminable persecutions. It happened in 1902 that, when Lua Getsinger was in Paris with her husband, the Sháh had come to Europe to learn firsthand of the material and political progress of the West, about which he had heard fabulous stories and descriptions. Hedged in by his staff, his servants, and his guards, he was inaccessible to any but those who interested him. His life in Paris was a busy one of extensive visits throughout the city: into shops, public places, theaters, gardens, and government institutions. Naturally, the French press avidly reported the activities of this Middle Eastern Potentate who was surprisingly enlightened, tenderhearted, and a generous member of an historically rapacious dynasty.
Reading, praying, and meditating on what she might do on behalf of the Faith, Lua Getsinger spontaneously decided to seek an audience with the Sháh to make him aware that the Bahá’í Faith had followers in the West and that they longed to see their brothers and sisters in Persia also enjoying liberty of conscience and freedom of worship, relieved from being continuous targets of inhuman treatment and undeserved cruelties.
Dramatic Appeal[edit]
It was difficult to obtain an audience with the King, but Lua’s determination would not allow her to concede. First, she sought an audience through the Persian representative in Paris. Then she met with the Sháh’s Chief Minister, Atábak Áazam. During her attempt to see the Sháh, which seemed an impossible task, Lua constantly remembered the promise given to her by Abdu’l-Bahá who assured her that one day he would send her to the Sháh of Persia. Lua was a gentlewoman of the West with great beauty and excellent manners and breeding. Eventually, she was confirmed in securing an appointment to offer a “dramatic and tragic appeal” to His Majesty, the Sháhansháh.
Muẓaffar Sháh was surely intrigued by this handsome woman in an elegant black dress tailored specifically for this historic occasion. Lua was given full scope to express her feelings and describe how pitilessly the Bahá’ís were being treated in Persia. She said: “Our souls tremble, our minds are agitated, and our hearts burn and break.” Her “irresistible charm and remarkable gifts, with the great and added charm of the spirit” so impressed the King, so won his respect for her courage, that he gave his promise, seconded by his Chief Minister, that he would ameliorate the suffering of the Bahá’ís. “Be at ease!” was the Sháh’s promise as he dismissed her, “Be at ease... everything will be taken care of.”
[Page 3]
The King returned to Persia to later become the monarch to sign the first Constitution of his land, earning for him the designation “The Just,” and bringing hope to all his subjects that they too might soon have those broad freedoms so hard won throughout the world.
Fire of Persecution[edit]
The fire of persecution could be ignited in the capital and provinces of Írán by the slightest spark of the most insignificant event. Muẓaffar Sháh’s promise to Mrs. Getsinger was fulfilled.
It happened (circa 1905) that a very well-known and learned man from the Jewish community of Hamadán, Hájí Mihdí Arjumand, embraced the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Inspired by the Word of God, he was articulate and full of his convictions and began to propagate the Cause amongst both Jews and Muslims. This proved to be a terrible blow to the prestige of the ecclesiastical leaders of both religions. This new convert was well-versed in the Qur’án as well as the Old and New Testaments, and this seemed incredible to the Muslims. “A Jew proving to us the advent of our own Promised One!” was the lamentable cry of every adherent of the Islamic religion in that region. So, the Jewish and Muslim ‘ulamás lodged a grave complaint against the new intruder.
The governor, venal and corrupt, saw in the vindictiveness of the Jews and Muslims an opportunity to extort large sums of money from the defenseless Bahá’ís. He used the charges as a basis for their arrest. The governor’s agents immediately seized Hájí Mihdí Arjumand and several other outstanding believers and carried them to the seat of the governor where they were cast into prison, chained, and detained without recourse to the courts. He then demanded large sums of money for their release.
The Bahá’ís in Hamadán, encouraged by the reports of the King’s willingness to intervene in such cases and by his reputation for justice, cabled the Sháh to protest the falsity of the charges and the extortion by the governor. To their great joy and satisfaction, the King immediately ordered the governor to free the prisoners and to see to their well-being. Alarmed at this royal intervention, the governor hastened to release the Bahá’ís and to make such restitution as would quell any possible retribution from the Court.
The other incident took place in Tehran, and the account is as follows:
Public Meeting Place[edit]
It was considered an act of worship, to be observed diligently by good Muslims, to visit the graves of the Imáms or those considered to be saints. For this reason, cemeteries were centers of attraction in olden days. They provided welcome, open spaces in the crowded and congested cities of the East. The people gathered not only to visit the resting places of the dead but to meet the living as well; to receive and exchange news, to mourn those passed away, and to listen to religious songs.
| The fire of persecution could be ignited in Írán by the slightest spark of the most insignificant event. |
Lua Getsinger with young child in Chicago.
| The ignorant mob accepted the commands of the mullás as words coming from heaven. |
and sermons. Sometimes they even came to watch the performances of jugglers and dervishes, who played with snakes and performed acts of hypnosis. These gatherings typically occurred on Holy Days, and usually every week on Thursday afternoons. Activities would continue into the early night hours on this eve of the Muslim day of rest.
A well-known cemetery near Tehran’s eastern gate, called Sar-Qabr-áqá, attracted many persons on these occasions. The noise, bustle, commotion, and excitement was food and drink to the deprived and unruly population of the district. On Thursday afternoons, the populace would crowd to the cemetery, some to sit at the feet of a mullá to ask for answers to religious problems, some to listen to the storytellers with their endless yarns, others to watch the cavalrymen demonstrate their feats of horsemanship. The dervishes would attract people into a circle to be amused or instructed by their unusual appearances and gestures. There were in this restless mob many of the royal mule-drivers, hardy ruffians who carried the King’s equipment and supplies on his hunting expeditions. The wildest of men, they frequently victimized the inhabitants of Tehran with their brutality and cruelty and were also noted for their vicious and irresponsible tongues.
The Bahá’ís, who were always harried and timid and seeking to avoid provocations, would band together for self-protection and buy or rent houses in one of the quarters of Tehran. The Bahá’ís of this particular quarter called Sar-Qabr’áqá were renowned for their numbers, successful teaching activities, and their audacity. When one of the Bahá’ís died and was buried in the public cemetery, the local mullás seized upon this to incite the muledrivers, who immediately hung the dead bodies of dogs around the grave and marched in the streets and lanes, attracting a following, shouting, and cursing the hapless Bahá’ís. No human focus for their anger materialized, and the mob dispersed without a victim.
A Second Death[edit]
By happenstance, another Bahá’í died soon thereafter; and his body was also interred in the same cemetery. The second burial ignited the full fury of the Muslims, who declared the burial of the Bahá’í infidels to be an act of presumptuous desecration of the precincts of holy tombs. Taking advantage of the excitability of the idle holiday throngs, the mullás whipped up the expectant people with their tirades. One by one, the mullás stood atop a mound and shouted at the top of their voices: “Attack the Bábi houses and shops! Confiscate and plunder! Do not purchase anything from them! Prevent their filling their jars with water from the public reservoirs ...!” Since the commands came from the priests, the ignorant mob accepted these words as coming from heaven through the mouths of the mullás. Besides, it pleased their appetite for violence and plunder to hear the assurance given to them by their religious leaders that their ignominious deeds would be pleasing to God.
What could the defenseless Bahá’ís do except to protect themselves by keeping aloof, and in the silence of the hours of suffering pray to God!
Bahá’í shops were closed. The Bahá’í men and their families sequestered themselves in their homes, knowing that to emerge meant to be set upon and murdered. The humble stores of provisions kept in their homes were quickly consumed. Night after night, a local reign of terror against the Bahá’ís continued. The Muslim terrorists prowled about with guns, swords, and knives, seeking their quarry. The fate of the Bahá’ís wavered on the sword edge of chance. Ultimately, hunger and need would flush them from their retreats.
A few women living in one house, anticipating the inevitable violence and possible death of all the Bahá’ís, met together and after prayerful consultation decided to appeal directly to the Sháh. They agreed upon a day for concerted action and, by going from roof to roof, asked all the Bahá’í women of Sar-Qabr’áqá to leave their houses at the specific hour. They decided to go first to the mansion of the Gran Vazír, the Chief Minister, Atábak, then on to the court of the Sháh himself.
On the morning set for the appeal, the Bahá’í women came forth from their houses dressed in their customary black garb. Fearful but determined, they walked down the lanes and streets of the quarter, first to the gate by which the King usually left the capital city on his hunting expeditions. When they learned that the Sháh would not go hunting that day, they turned to the house of the Grand Vazír. They walked slowly through the narrow streets. News of their coming and mission spread throughout the quarter. The volatile Tehranis came running to the spot. Stones flew. The women were greeted with every insult and epithet. Some fell and were maltreated. A few were beaten to death. But the urgency of their mission drove them onward through the sea of opponents, the execrations, and the missiles. Like a black stream, they meandered through the narrow streets of Tehran until at last they reached the great house of Atábak. They were quickly admitted to the large outside courtyard, the bírúní, extensive enough to swallow the entire procession of women and boys, but small enough to exclude the throng of tormentors.
Informed of their coming, the Minister sent for the court photographer to record their presence and number. After reading their written appeal for protection and justice, he advised the women to proceed immediately to the Sháh’s Court, there to plead directly with the monarch for intervention. Further incited by the rumors of their favorable audience with Atábak, the mob redoubled its harassment of the women as they proceeded to the gates of the King’s palace.
Two-edged Appeal[edit]
It must be remembered that such appeals were dangerously two-edged.
[Page 5]
The absolute power of the Sháh was exercised unpredictably. A man could lose his life as easily as he could gain justice.
When kind-hearted Muẓaffar Sháh learned about their complaints and their supplication for relief from harassment and peril, from damage to property and the threats of injury and death, he immediately sent fifty armed cavalrymen and ten farráshes from his private guard to disperse the mob. Further, they were ordered to protect the Bahá’ís and to remain in Sar-Qabr’áqá district until peace and quiet had been completely re-established. And so it was done. The hand of the King was extended over the hapless Bahá’ís, shielding them from mullás and muleteers alike.
When the Master received news of the great courage of these Bahá’í women in that glorious episode of the Faith, he promptly dispatched a very eloquent Tablet to them. In it He said they “quaffed the brimful cup... May it be all to their health!” Furthermore, He assured them that the sufferings, insults, and iniquities sustained in the path of the Lord were the signs of God’s special mercies and bounties, and indicated the coming of the day wherein all would be changed into praise and grace. He said they were candles burning in the gatherings of women and stars shining from the horizon of eternity.
| The hand of the King was extended over the hapless Bahá’ís, shielding them from the mullás and muleteers alike. |
Could it be that the King, when confronted with those incidents, remembered the graceful, black-clad Western woman in Paris, and recalled his promise, “Be at ease ... everything will be taken care of”?
[Page 6]
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Bahá’ís and the United Nations[edit]
[Page 7]
Bahá’í participation in three events of late summer 1973 provided outstanding opportunities to proclaim the Bahá’í solution to world problems before distinguished audiences. The Bahá’í International Community was invited to send representatives to the United Nations seminar on “The Family in a Changing Society,” London; the “World Congress on World Peace Through Law,” Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and the United Nations seminar on ”Youth and Human Rights,” San Remo, Italy.
The Bahá’í International Community Representatives were able not only to address delegates of UN member nations, UN non-governmental organizations, and internationally-known jurists, but, in addition, were able to circulate statements on Bahá’í perspectives on current issues to all participants and the press. The Bahá’í representatives and alternates made many valuable personal contacts, as well as discussing the Faith and answering questions.
Law[edit]
An event that attracted considerable international press attention recently was the Sixth World Conference on World Peace Through Law, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. More than 2,000 lawyers, jurists, and government ministers, from over 100 nations met between August 26-31, to discuss the strengthening of international law and the promotion of world legal institutions at a time when the evidences of chaos and disorder were reaching painful and epidemic proportions throughout the world. The press coverage reflected an interest in seeing whether luminaries of the legal world, in the relative isolation of a scholarly conference, in an untroubled corner of the world, could devise some common outlooks on the more prickly legal issues of the day. On the agenda were such volatile items as hijacking, human rights, multi-national business, the regulation of ocean resources, the treatment of refugees, and population control.
The conference, a biennial event, was sponsored by the World Peace Through Law Center, a worldwide
Inaugural session of the conference.
Dr. Azíz Navídí
| The Bahá’í representative spoke immediately following the message of the President of the Ivory Coast. |
Stock farming in the Ivory Coast.
organization of lawyers, judges, and legal scholars, determined to educate the nations about the potential for world order with justice, under the rule of law. The Center, like the Bahá’í International Community, is a Non-Governmental Organization affiliated with the United Nations. In addition to attempting to unravel the monumental legal snarls of this period, the delegates attended an August 25th ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Human Rights. On the second conference day, work sessions on harmonizing African national needs with the requirements of international law were conducted, as were sessions on the values fostered by African tribal law.
The international observance of World Law Day, on August 26, culminated with a program in Abidjan. World Law Day is an annual event sponsored by the World Peace Through Law Center. For 1973 the Center made an effort to demonstrate to the more than two billion followers of the world’s religions the purposes and goals shared by religion and law in building peace. A handbook entitled “Religion and Law” was published for the occasion. It outlined the Center’s thesis on the complementary nature of religious and secular law. In the words of the Center’s President, Charles S. Rhyne: “as transnational contacts among individuals grow in importance with the technological miniaturization of the world, we believe it well to spotlight the moral basis of law and its expanding coverage of individuals. This focusing of attention on the similarities between law systems and religions, and the impact which these great human forces can have by common efforts on the creation of the peaceful world order with justice for all, is a most worthwhile endeavor,” he said. Neither the volume on “Religion and Law”, nor the conference program itself, initially afforded an opportunity for the presentation of a Bahá’í view on world peace. In fact, the Center’s booklet attributed many of the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith to Islam. Nonetheless, a Bahá’í delegate sent to Abidjan by the Bahá’í International Community to attend the conference managed, upon his arrival, to partially rectify the oversights.
Dr. ‘Azíz Navíd’i, himself an international lawyer, and a resident of Mauritius, serving as representative of the Bahá’í International Community for Africa, arrived in the Ivory Coast four days before the start of the conference. He promptly met with Judge William S. Thompson, Secretary-General of the sponsoring center, to request the allotment of time for a Bahá’í presentation on world peace. Judge Thompson indicated that permission could be granted by the permanent chairman of the conference, Chief Justice Alphonse Boni, of the Ivory Coast Supreme Court. Dr. Navíd’i presented his request to Justice Boni, who although never having heard of the Bahá’í Faith, was sufficiently impressed with his petitioner to grant him his wish. He promised Dr. Navíd’i an opportunity to speak during the official reception by the Ivory Coast Government to inaugurate the conference, immediately after the message from the Head of State, President Felix Houphouet-Boigny. Dr. Navíd’i later characterized his amazing good fortune as “a miracle from Bahá’u’lláh”.
On the evening of the 26th, exactly as promised, Chief Justice Boni, upon reading the presidential message, introduced Dr. Navíd’i to the more than 2,000 people assembled at the University of Abidjan.
Dr. Navíd’i said that man’s collective life had passed through many stages: infancy, adolescence, and now had entered its stage of maturity. Everything that in earlier times had served the needs of humanity was no longer sufficient. In abandoning its adolescence it acquired new virtues, attained a new moral level, achieved new capacities, and began to develop a new kind of civilization, infinitely richer and more noble than any which preceded. But at the same time it developed characteristics and behavior that endangered its very survival.
Since the turn of the century man has pursued the elusive goal of peace, he said. But the goal has been unattainable. “We are the victims of war, of animosity and strife among nations, races, religions, classes, sects, and colors,” he observed. Among the afflictions
[Page 9]
to humanity he enumerated: neo-colonialism, the exploitation of man by man, the spiraling arms race, political and economic rivalries, intolerance, ignorance, egotism, suspicion, the increasing severity of terrorism, inequality, madness, crime, etc. Alone and collectively, these maladies have limited man’s ability to establish peace. “The malaise and suffering which have afflicted humanity since the last World War are the result, for the most part, of the world’s pervasive lack of spirituality,” Dr. Navíd’i concluded.
While afflictions become more aggravated, the various peoples of the world depend increasingly on one another. “It is no longer possible for anyone to isolate himself with the expectation of self-sufficiency,” Dr. Navíd’i said. In addition to the political ties, there are inextricable commercial, agricultural, educational, and myriad other ties that are reinforced each day. “It therefore appears that universal peace and the unification of humanity can be realized in this epoch,” he said. This peace, however, “is not supported and cannot be safeguarded unless it is in accord with the Divine Ordinances, applied by a Divinely inspired Physician.” It is from these ordinances that man must fashion his laws. “A new world order, for the establishment of universal peace, has become legally possible, socially imperative, and divinely ordained,” he said. Peace should come, he estimated, as the result of the spiritualization of the world and the fusion of its peoples and beliefs. “The Bahá’í Peace Program which Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, revealed more than a century ago, contemplated from the beginning the establishment of a peaceful order,” Dr. Navíd’i said. “Our epoch has unalterably demonstrated the interdependence of the earth’s peoples. It is upon this reality that the Bahá’í Peace Program rests.”
Before it was even clear that he would be a conference speaker, Dr. Navíd’i visited the editor of the single daily newspaper in the country, Fraternite, requesting publicity on the Bahá’í Faith. The editor remembered meeting Rúḥíyyih Khánum on her visit to the Ivory Coast and confided to Dr. Navíd’i that at that time he tried to familiarize his countrymen with the Faith through his thoughtful and sympathetic articles. He offered to publish a statement on the Faith if Dr. Navíd’i was allowed to speak; but he was skeptical of this transpiring because the program was planned and confirmed well in advance. He may have been surprised by Dr. Navíd’i’s successful encounter with Justice Boni, but true to his word, the day after Dr. Navíd’i’s presentation, he published the text of his remarks, with a photograph.
On August 28, Mr. Albert Lincoln, Dr. Navíd’i’s alternate, from the Central African Republic, was invited to address a study session on the revision of the United Nations Charter and about the necessity to establish a world commonwealth of nations. He explained at that session that Bahá’ís support the concept of the United Nations, as well as many of its programs around the world.
| The editor remembered meeting Rúḥíyyih Khánum on her visit to the Ivory Coast, and offered to publish a statement on the Faith. |
Vendors selling fruit at railway stop in Ivory Coast.
| The London seminar on family life was the first ever held under the auspices of the United Nations on that subject. |
At the opening of the conference, Mr. Charles Rhyne (center), with Ivory Coast President Felix Houphouet-Boigny (left), and Mr. William S. Thompson (right).
world. He spoke at length about those characteristics of the Bahá’í Faith which encourage the development of a sense of world community, and suggested that it would be upon this foundation that a world peace would be built. On the same day, Dr. Navíd’i addressed a work session considering ways of strengthening the International Court of Justice.
Throughout the conference, both men were able to meet informally with many of the attending dignitaries, jurists, scholars, and lawyers. A copy of Dr. Navíd’i’s remarks was presented to people attending the conference as well as copies of the pamphlet, “Pattern for Future Society”.
Women[edit]
The two other international events attended by representatives of the Bahá’í International Community were not as well publicized, or possibly even as dramatic, but the problems confronted were also at the very core of our modern existence, and Bahá’ís were able to make important contributions to the consultation.
Madame Lea Nys, an Auxiliary Board member for Belgium, and her alternate, Mrs. Shomais Afnan, represented the Bahá’ís at the United Nations Inter-Regional Seminar on “The Family in a Changing Society” in London, July 18-31. Mrs. Nys and Mrs. Afnan, one from the West the other from the East, were soon referred to affectionately by their co-conferees as the “Bahá’í twins.” The Bahá’í representative to the seminar on “Youth and Human Rights,” in San Remo, Italy, August 28 to September 10, was Mr. Foad Katirai, a student of International Trade at Oxford University.
The seminar on family life was organized by the United Nations at the instance of the United Kingdom, as part of a UN policy of providing advisory services to member states in the field of human rights. This London seminar was the first ever held on the subject of the family under United Nations auspices.
The role of women in the family has been a major concern of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in recent years. A number of studies, particularly concerned with the status of women in family law, have been completed or set in motion for the Commission’s deliberation. Several of these studies came up for discussion at the London seminar, such as reports on the status of unmarried mothers, and the legal capacity of married women. Other studies are being readied for submission to the 25th session of the Commission in 1974.
Participants from 28 countries attended the London seminar, as did representatives of 30 Non-Governmental Organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, including the Bahá’í International Community. The United Nations Children’s Fund was represented, as well as UNESCO and the World Health Organization. Several intergovernmental organizations were represented; the League of Arab States, and the Organization of American States, among them.
Some of the topics discussed at the fourteen-day conference were the family in a changing society, problems and responsibilities of its members; allocation of rights and responsibilities within the home; the welfare of children; the responsibility of society toward children; the special problems of working parents; and the national and international measures required to promote the principle of the equality of men and women in the family.
In her brief address to the conference, Madame Nys said the importance of the family should be understood within the context of great forces of change propelling mankind toward a single world society.
“Marriage is the foundation of a good family,” she said; “good families, in turn, are the foundation of a stable civilization.” Love, needed in marriage more than in other relationships, is essentially a divine force that creates spiritual and physical union, she said.
“The most important person in the family is the mother,” she noted.
[Page 11]
“Equality of rights, status, and opportunities for women and men is recognized in the Bahá’í Faith as a divine law, but the education of girls as future mothers, and therefore first educators of mankind, is even more important.
“Their obligation as parents constitutes the first and foremost duty for husband and wife, equally binding on both. Parents must promote the oneness of mankind through example and develop in their children the growing consciousness that ‘The world is but one country and mankind its citizens’.”
Among the rights of children, in addition to those normally recognized, such as academic instruction, she listed as most important instruction in human and spiritual virtues, stressing the latent divine nature of man. This is so that “free from all prejudice they may grow up in turn to form their own families in the service of each other and of mankind,” she explained.
The essential, long-term solution to the ills of the planet, according to Mrs. Nys, lies in the transformation of human values. “We believe that nothing short of the kind of change that is beginning to take place in Bahá’í communities throughout the world, where the basic transformation in purpose and character occurring in each individual is reflected in his social and family life, will be able to provide the highest quality of human life on this planet. A new consciousness must emerge, based on understanding of the spiritual nature of man and belief in the organic oneness of humanity,” she told the assemblage.
Both Madame Nys and Mrs. Afnan were invited to receptions, dinners, and lunches where they spoke further about the Faith to participants from a variety of countries; many were given Bahá’í literature.
There were many interesting conclusions agreed upon by the participating national and international organizations. Perhaps of most significance was the agreement that the family, whatever its form or pattern, fulfills many basic biological, sociological, and psychological needs of the individual, essential to the stability of nations. “It should therefore be preserved and receive the full support that society could give in fulfilling these fundamental functions,” the participants concluded in their post-conference report.
The participants also noted a growing acceptance of the principle of the equality between men and women. This was considered a major influence on family life, and upon the perceived roles of men and women within the family. It was observed that the traditional picture of the father as the sole provider and head of the family was no longer consonant with the reality of many present-day family situations, where women find it necessary or challenging to work. “The tradition which designated the mother responsible for the entire care of the children and all the household tasks made it difficult for couples to adjust to the changing requirements of the family,” the participants’ report stated. A trend was said to be developing, whereby functions such as child-rearing and maintenance, as well as employment outside the family, are no longer strictly identified as the sole responsibility of one or another of the marriage partners. These functions are increasingly being shared by mothers and fathers, the report maintained.
Despite the increasing tendency to share household responsibilities, several participating groups insisted that great care should be taken “to preserve the positive aspects of the woman’s role as mother and homemaker, and her confidence and dignity in the face of the trend towards greater involvement of women in the economy, and in community affairs.”
Although participants noticed an accelerating trend toward equal partnership in decision-making between spouses, it was felt, nonetheless, that in still too many instances, the husband was, in law, the head of the family, enjoying a dominant status to that of the wife. “More often than not,” the report stressed, “the wife would not enjoy the legal capacity to contract or bring suit or defend in court without the consent of her husband.” Too often, the report
|
Conferees agreed that the family, whatever its form or pattern, fulfills many needs of the individual and is essential to the stability of nations. |
Participants at the youth seminar. Mr. Katirai, the Bahá’í representative, is seated at the extreme right.
[Page 12]
said, decision-making rests with the husband. As the father, he is the sole guardian of his children and is entitled to administer the property of his wife, without her consent or participation. Several participants consequently referred to the need for protective legislation for women in such circumstances.
In all, there were almost 100 recommendations made by the participants at the London seminar.
Youth[edit]
The two-week seminar on “Youth and Human Rights” in San Remo explored ways by which young persons can participate more effectively in the implementation of the principles established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in national and international programs serving the cause of human rights. Much attention was devoted to the problem of creating educational conditions that would enable young people to fully develop their potentialities and to strengthen their respect for human rights. Observers from 28 countries attended the UN seminar.
At the end of the seminar, many recommendations were unanimously adopted and published in the seminar report. Among them: that governments ratify the existing international covenants on human rights; that governments establish educational means to promote in young people the respect for human rights; that the member states of the United Nations include more young people in their delegations to the General Assembly.
In the Bahá’í view, Mr. Katirai said to the seminar, human rights are God-given rights, and youth have perhaps a greater responsibility than other segments of the population in ensuring that the human rights of all people are respected.
“The first step in this direction is the arousal of the consciousness of youth to the oneness of mankind,” he said. “Before unity and agreement are firmly established among the peoples of the world, we are convinced, nothing can be thoroughly effected.” Youth must, through a process of self-enlightenment, instill in itself a global perspective and adopt a new set of values permeated by such characteristics as truthfulness, kindness, sincerity, and justice. The expression of these values, he said, will be the respect and promotion of human rights.
Both Mr. Katirai and his alternate, Mr. Sohrab Youssefian, were able to speak about the Faith to the press, a representative of the Vatican, and participants from many nations.
| Dorothy Beecher Baker
by Ugo and Angeline Giachery |
| ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sensed the virtues and capacities of young Dorothy, who was to become an outstanding Bahá’í teacher and administrator. |
Mrs. Baker, (second from left), during her last public appearance in Pákistán, in 1954.
“This is a Matchless Day. Matchless, must, likewise, be the tongue that celebrateth the praise of the Desire of all nations, and matchless the deed that aspireth to be acceptable in His sight.”
This passage from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh was a favorite of Hand of the Cause, Dorothy Baker, and she quoted it frequently. An eloquent teacher and brilliant administrator, Mrs. Baker rendered outstanding service to the Faith and characterized herself by distinguished words and deeds. On the twentieth anniversary of her passing, Dr. and Mrs. Giachery recall Mrs. Baker’s life and her special role in the development of the Bahá’í community.
Dorothy Beecher Baker, a grandniece of the famous author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, was born in Newark, New Jersey, on the 21st of December, 1898. Her grandmother, Betty Beecher (known to the Bahá’ís as Mother Beecher), embraced the Bahá’í Faith early in this century; later her parents also accepted the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.
In 1912, when she was a young girl, Dorothy’s grandmother took her to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The Master called Mrs. Beecher on the following day and said, “I called you to say that your granddaughter is my own daughter. You must train her for Me.” Indeed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sensed the virtues and capacities in Dorothy, who was to become one of the outstanding teachers and Bahá’í administrators of the Western Hemisphere. Following graduation from college, Dorothy spent a few years teaching school in Newark. She was offered a position to teach at the Ethical Culture School in New York but did not accept it. She then married Frank Albert Baker. They had two children, William and Louise. They lived first in Buffalo, New York, and then in Lima, Ohio. In Lima, their address became well known to almost every believer in America and Canada. Dorothy’s life was completely devoted to the Faith. She was gifted with warm, convincing, and brilliant eloquence and was able to teach with great impetus and enthusiasm. Her first public talk was given at a Riḍván celebration at Foundation Hall at the House of Worship in about 1929. After that talk, Mrs. Baker was frequently asked to speak at public meetings. She was elected a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of North America and served for 16 years. She was chairman of the Assembly for many of those years and resigned in 1954, intending to pioneer. Hand of the Cause Horace Holley served with Mrs. Baker on the NSA for much of that time. He characterized her role in this way: “Dorothy Beecher Baker’s public and administrative Bahá’í activities came to fruition during the period when the forces of the American Bahá’í community were being summoned to undertake great teaching missions. She was carried to the heights of intercontinental Bahá’í achievement by the impetus of the Master’s Divine Plan released through the Guardian, and she poured forth with superb energy and brilliance her unique contribution to the Seven Year Plan and World Crusade.”1 Mrs. Baker had a special ability to speak to young people and lectured in hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the world on the Message of Bahá’u’lláh. She journeyed six times to Latin America, where she assisted in teaching, addressed various groups on the subjects of peace and international relations, and helped establish many local communities, as well as the Central American National Spiritual Assembly. “Wherever she went, she was almost inevitably cast in the role of problem-solver. She not only led people to Bahá’u’lláh but also helped them to meet and solve their problems in His way.”2 Mrs. Baker was an observer at the Chapultepec Inter-American Conference of 1945 and was a representative of the Bahá’ís of North America at the San Francisco Conference later that year, where the Charter of the United Nations was drawn up. She was deeply interested in harmonious interracial relations and for some years was Chairman of the Race Unity Committee of North American Bahá’í community. She represented the Bahá’ís in countless gatherings of Negro, Indian, Jewish, and white people. At the very beginning of the Seven Year Plan (1946-1953) Mrs. Baker visited Ireland, England, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium,
[Page 15]
Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. During this trip she encouraged the pioneers and lectured to the general public in the capitals of all those countries. We well remember her visit to Rome, her charm, smiling countenance, and oratory, with which she conquered many a heart. The believers in that city who had the privilege of meeting her still remember the glow of her kindness and love. Even in recent years, we have met many believers who, with a tone of pride, have said, “I first heard of the Faith from Mrs. Baker,” or, “it was Mrs. Baker who brought me into the Faith.” On 24 December 1951, Mrs. Baker was appointed a Hand of the Cause of God by Shoghi Effendi, among the first contingent of the Hands. Her devotion, enthusiasm, profound knowledge of the teachings, and eagerness to serve, all of which had made her a true champion of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, had thus been rewarded.
As a Hand of the Cause, Mrs. Baker participated in the four Intercontinental Conferences held in late 1953. We well remember her in Stockholm and New Delhi, where her grace and eloquence were at their zenith. She visited the then Prime Minister of India, Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru, and during the New Delhi Conference sat by that statesman, radiating purity and distinction, and conversing with him with poise and conviction for well over a half hour. At the request of Shoghi Effendi, she remained in India for two months, traveling far and wide, lecturing at some fifty colleges and universities. The seeds she planted in the hearts of so many youth have now blossomed, and in the last few years, India has been afire with the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.
It was upon her return flight from India, on 10 January 1954, that the plane on which she was traveling exploded over the Island of Elba and plunged into the sea on her way to rejoin her husband to pioneer on the West Indies island of Grenada, north of Trinidad.
No survivors of the crash were found. On Monday, January 18, on an Italian naval corvette, we went with the Baker family to the site of the disaster. Floral wreaths were thrown into the sea from the ship and from a Naval plane flying overhead while the bugles sounded taps and flags were lowered to half-staff. We read Bahá’í prayers on deck, throwing handfuls of carnations upon the water. The service lasted about 15 minutes.
Returning to the Island, we had an opportunity to speak of the Faith to the ship’s commander. Other people in Porto Azzuro became interested in the Faith, and in Italian newspapers, the accounts of the disaster referred to Mrs. Baker’s association with the Bahá’í Faith. It was discovered that the day after the accident, a pamphlet written by May Bolles Maxwell entitled “An Early Pilgrimage” was found at sea and given to a British newspaperman, who, after perusing it for a few minutes, threw it back into the water, attaching no importance to it. In his cablegram to the Bahá’ís on the occasion of Mrs. Baker’s passing, Shoghi Effendi said:
| Wherever she went, she was almost inevitably cast in the role of a problem-solver. |
Mrs. Baker, (left), in India; with the Maharani of Scindia, (center), and Mrs. Shirin Boman, (right), a resident Bahá’í teacher.
| To tread the eternal path with dignity and joy is the birthright of every man. |
The Hands of the Cause attending the first Intercontinental Bahá’í Teaching Conference, in Kampala, Uganda, February 1953. Dorothy Baker is second from the right.
Baker’s passing, the Guardian spoke of her special role in Bahá’í history:
We vividly remember our last goodbye to Dorothy on a November morning in New Delhi. She was to leave the hotel for another lecture at a college. Elegant in her simplicity, she looked like a young girl going to a feast. Although she was suffering from a bad cold and a temperature, she looked as beautiful as ever, smiling with a sweetness that cannot be forgotten. Our separation was moving and affectionate. The greatest tribute we can pay to the memory of the beloved Hand of the Cause Dorothy Baker is the certitude that her sacrifice, born from her deep dedication to the Faith, was made in the same selfless spirit of service that distinguished her brilliant life. Her noble personality shall never be forgotten by ours and countless generations of followers of Bahá’u’lláh.
- Horace Holley, “Memorial Meeting for Dorothy Beecher Baker,” Bahá’í News, March 1954, No. 277, p. 2.
- Mr. Edwin Matton, Ibid, p. 4
- Ibid, p. 1
The Path to God[edit]
by Dorothy Baker
He who would view religion impartially must remove himself sufficiently from any single part of it to look upon the panorama. At first, he will see only wilderness and will become confused, berating the sense of honesty that bade him see. Looking back through history, however, his eye will catch sight of a white highway somewhat hidden by the thickets of the wilderness, but very straight, and marked at definite intervals by brilliant lights. What is that path through the maze of human thought and feeling? Is it a figment of the imagination, or has a merciful Creator given to His created a planned Way to Him? Steadily rising in the world today is the disturbing belief that religious institutions have failed. The sincere seeker finds in every house of Worship, be it Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, or Muhammadanism, the same exalted sentiments of worship and of brotherhood, yet sees the failure of each to translate that sentiment into the disposition of its people. The church, a house divided against itself, is torn by nationalism, racial suppressions, and economic injustice. At such a time Bahá’u’lláh recalls us to the oneness of the foundation of all religions and to the essential rightness of that foundation. Religion has never failed, though human institutions have had their hours of birth and death.
Even earthly cultures have resulted directly or indirectly from the impetus of revealed religion. The lettered Jews sprang from the spiritual genius of Moses; the glory of ancient Persia reflects the fire of Zoroaster; unfolding Europe lifts her spires in homage to the glorious Nazarene; the mathematics of the Arabs of Cordova, the architecture, astronomy, and poetic genius of the Muhammadan world in the middle centuries, speak in like manner the gift of Muhammad. The force which has repeated itself often out of the blackest despond, brought into being such brilliant marks of progress, and more amazingly still, renewed that grip on life, joy, and salvation which characterizes the spring season of a great religion, is the eternal Christ, the Word that is in Prophethood. Through it, man is imbued with the Holy Spirit and is motivated by a master emotion. One hundred years after Jesus lived on earth, a Greek Christian would not have raised a sword against a Roman Christian. He would have been conscious first that he was Christian, second that he was Greek. Today one is first German, French, American, or English, and as an afterthought, we are Christians together. In the spring season of Christianity, the master emotion was a common
[Page 17]
love for God, and other emotions were sublimated to it. Nothing short of such vitality can today raise to the point of good health the spiritual temperature of the world.
That the seed of such a renewal is even now at work cannot be doubted. While on the one hand we have a falling away of faith, on the other hand are to be found signs of the budding of new spiritual powers. Thousands of seekers, Galahads in quest of Truth, have scaled walls of superstition and intolerance which were centuries in the making. The Message of Bahá’u’lláh, divine in origin and free from artificial wrappings, constitutes a new light to the seeker and reopens before his eyes the kingdom of heaven.
But what is the kingdom of heaven? Does the goal we seek pertain entirely to other-worldliness? Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” One would do well to ask oneself each morning, “Do you live in heaven?” Neither heaven nor hell can be limited to place, but rather are described by Bahá’u’lláh as conditions. To the Eskimo, hell has ever been an ice-floe to which one is infinitely bound; to the Arab, it is boiling oil into which one is cast; to some of the ancients, it appeared as a refuse heap outside the city gate. The paintbrush of symbolism has faithfully portrayed in terms of mortal experience a state of utter deprivation, suffering, and loss that is applicable to both this world and the next. Heaven, on the other hand, is conscious nearness to God, and this condition too is possible on earth. To be sure, the worlds beyond are an endless reality, for the soul, a creation of God, cannot be annihilated. Just as the child in the womb of the mother develops faculties for its earthly experience, similarly, we develop in this matrix world our spiritual sight, hearing, speech, and the like, for an abundant life through all the further realities of God. Indeed, so infinitely precious is that continuance that Bahá’u’lláh says, “If anyone could realize what hath been ordained—he would immediately yearn with a great longing for that immutable, exalted, holy, and glorious station.”
To continue in heaven, one must necessarily be born into that condition here. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains that to be in heaven is to “move in the atmosphere of God’s Holy Will.” Surely this is heaven, but who can discover the will of God? Bahá’u’lláh gives us the key. “Whatsoever hath been revealed in His Tablets is but a reflection of it. So complete must be thy consecration that every trace of worldly desire will be washed from thy heart. Know assuredly that My commandments are the lamps of My loving providence among My servants and the keys of My mercy for My creatures.”
Revelation, the open door to paradise, is indissolubly linked with the Messenger. With one gracious gesture, God bestows upon the world a divine physician, an infallible law-giver, a perfect pattern of His holy attributes, and a point of union of a man with his God. Happy is the heart that directly experiences fusion with the Manifestation of God’s Perfection. Paul would be made alive in Christ Jesus. Ali, youthful disciple of this day, proclaimed as he gave his life, “If I recant, whither shall I go? In him I have found my paradise.” The Word is the bread of life, one Word throughout the ages and though the speakers have been many. How well has God done His part? The soul, refreshed by the heavenly bread and wafers of Revelation, finds itself on the ancient, eternal path! To tread that path with dignity and joy is the birthright of every man. Therefore, once in about a thousand years, God in His great compassion clears the path of the accumulation of superstition and imagination that the way may be made plain once more for the sincere seeker. And this has He done today through Bahá’u’lláh.
But we have yet to travel that path, to become steadfast to enter the City of Certitude, and to come into spiritual possession of life through the motivation of the Will of God. Granted that God has done His part; what steps are left to us?
The call of God is simple, clear, compelling. Bahá’u’lláh reminds us that the first need is for a pure heart and a desire to become ever more pure. He proclaims, “My first counsel is this: possess a pure, a kindly and a radiant heart that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.” A static purity cannot exist. Today’s degree must melt into tomorrow’s. Even the fire of tests and
| When our beliefs are raised to the plane of deeds and our hearts harmonized with a common passion, then society will inherit a new earth. |
The Hands of the Cause at the Third Intercontinental Conference in Sweden. Mrs. Baker is at far left, second row.
| ...renunciation is still the law of rebirth, and he who would sidestep this law in his life will be spiritually impoverished. |
Delegates to the Central American Annual Convention in 1952. Mrs. Baker is fourth from left, sitting.
Ordeals are a blessing to this end. “With fire we test the gold,” Bahá’u’lláh writes. How else can gold be purified? Great souls discover that they are either the possessors or the possessed. Life, the teacher, becomes the enemy of the soul who, steeped in self-love, is the continual prisoner of the clutch of circumstance; but the friend of one who, purified of self-demands, counts as pure gain the lessons of this time. Such a teacher and learns to possess as a happy treasure, for the sake of God, the Dear, the Knower.
The second step is assuredly the attainment of understanding. Meditation and prayer, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá assures us, are the wings of our understanding. Faculties all wed to rust or fallen into disuse must be called into activity. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá points out that the mind is like a mirror which reflects that to which it is turned. If the mirror reflects the lustful and sordid, can the owner claim better than the lowest condition? If the same mirror becomes the reflector of arts and scientific realities, its status is undeniably high. Greatest of all is the noble station of the soul that turns its mirror toward the spiritual Sun of Revelation and becomes warmed and illumined by its direct ray. A well-known business genius attributes a large measure of success to undisturbed meditation upon his affairs for fifteen minutes at the beginning of each day. He is undoubtedly correct. How much more, then, it is necessary that the soul seeking a heavenly condition learn the use of such a faculty for the reaction of the kingdom of heaven. More interesting stuff considers the possible result of a whole world of people using the power of meditation, or reflection, for the dispensing of God’s affairs on earth. Such meditation is akin to prayer.
What sincere traveler would not give the half of his kingdom to consciously walk and talk with God? Yet the science of prayer is so little understood that in the words of Tennyson we are:
- “A child crying in the night,
- A child crying for the light,
- And with no language but a cry.”
How different the mature experience of the heart that turns in complete abandonment to the Will of God, never dictating always listening. The fears, bafflement, and complexities of the world fade before the grandeur of his adoration. His heart is a shrine in which he meets with his Beloved. Four suggestions are made for us by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “The worshipper must pray with a detached spirit, unconditional surrender of the will, concentrated attention and passionate eagerness.”
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was in New York, He called to him an ardent Bahá’í and said, “If you will come to me at dawn tomorrow, I will teach you to pray.” Delighted, the man arose at four and crossed the city, arriving for his lesson at six. With what exultant expectation he must have greeted this opportunity! He found ‘Abdu’l-Bahá already at prayer, kneeling by the side of the bed. He followed suit, taking care to place himself directly across. Seeing that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was quite lost in his own reverie, he began to pray silently for his friends, his family, and finally for the crowned heads of Europe. No word was uttered by the quiet man before him. He went over all the prayers he knew then and repeated them twice, three times—still no sound broke the expectant hush. Surreptitiously he rubbed one knee and wondered vaguely about his back. He began again, hearing as he did so, the birds heralding the dawn outside the window. An hour passed, and finally two. The man was quite numb now. His eyes, roving along the wall, caught sight of a large crack. He dallied with a touch of indignation but let his gaze pass again to the still figure across the bed. The ecstasy that he saw arrested him, and he drank deeply of the sight. Suddenly he wanted to pray like that. Selfish desires were forgotten. Sorrow, conflict, and even his immediate surroundings were as if they had never been. He was conscious of only one thing, a passionate desire to draw nearer to God. Closing for the time the world firmly aside, and amazingly his heart teemed with prayer, eager, joyous, tumultuous prayer. He felt cleansed by humility and lifted by a new peace. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had taught him to pray! The “Master of Akká” immediately arose and came to him. His eyes rested smilingly upon the newly humbled believer. “When you pray,” He said, “you must not think of your aching body, nor of the birds outside the window, nor of the cracks in
[Page 19]
the wall!” He became very serious then, and added, “When you wish to pray you must first know that you are standing in the presence of the Almighty!”
What balm is in detachment. What peace is in true surrender to His Will. To spiritual passion, who shall enter paradise without it? Verily, I believe that God will choose to lift into His very Presence the least peasant who hurls himself upon the breast of God in fiery supplication in preference to the kings and learned men of the whole earth if to the latter the smug complacency of a dulled age is sufficient. In the book of Revelation it is said, “So because thou art lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth!” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “In the highest prayer, men pray only for the love of God.” This is spiritual passion indeed.
Even prayer and meditation, mighty channels of spiritual vitality, do not fully constitute the steps of man to the kingdom of God. The religion that is fruitless is dead. Bahá’u’lláh writes: “Let deeds not words be your adorning.” Sincere prayer and meditation lead us to the next great step, effective living. Good deeds are the wealth of the friends. “Come not into My Court with empty hands,” we are urged. Even daily work done in the spirit of service is accounted by Bahá’u’lláh as worship, and living apart for pious worship is discouraged. The very motive power of progress on the path to God is supplied by acceptable deeds, for spirituality itself, far from being a subjective experience, is the reflection of Godliness into channels of human living.
The greatest deeds are those of purposeful sacrifice. So great is this wealth that through it man’s life takes on a sovereignty. Useless asceticism is not implied, for Bahá’u’lláh says, “Deprive not yourself of what is created for you.” There is today, however, even in religious trends, a common emphasis on acquisition rather than giving. As truly as that the acorn is sacrificed to achieve the oak, renunciation is still the law of rebirth, and he who would side-step outside of this law in his life will become spiritually impoverished.
Sacrifice for the eternal Cause of God is the greatest of all. Consider the peculiar joy of the apostles of all ages. The ruthless grip of circumstance can remove the pleasures and joys of the world with a single blow, but the poise and serenity of these spiritual giants point to an almost unbelievable freedom. What earthly bondage could touch a Stephen, spat upon and stoned, who cried, “Behold, I see the heavens opened!” Hasan, a Persian, starved and persecuted for the sake of his Lord, finding himself at last in the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, knew the earth to be a handful of dust in his fingers while every joy and fragrance of spirit filled his being. Haider Ali, whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called the angel of Akká because he had suffered every persecution, said quite simply to an American, “I have known only joy.” The same joyous sovereignty completely enveloped the life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá whose years of imprisonment were worn like an ermine cloak. At one time, he wrote, “Though I stay in prison it is just like paradise; afflictions and trials in the path of God give me joy; troubles rest me; death is life; to be despised is honor.... Seek, O servant of God, this life until day and night you remain in limitless joy.”
The secret of so great a station is intimacy with God through His Messenger, an intimacy in which pure and selfless love is born. True love for God generates love for humanity, for one who strives to serve God will find he can only do so by serving man. This devotion is a step immeasurably great along the Way. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá calls every soul to have love and more love, a love that melts opposition, sweeps away all barriers, abounds in charity, large-heartedness, and noble striving, boundless, irresistible, sweeping love. “Ah me!” he writes, “Each one must be a sign of love, a center of love, a sum of love,—a world of love, a universe of love! Hast thou love? Then thy power is irresistible. Hast thou sympathy? Then all the stars will sing thy praise.”
These steps will lead infallibly to unity, the command of God for this age. Unity is not only the last step but the proof of the spiritual reality of the other steps. A Bahá’í becomes a Bahá’í only when this ideal is expressed in his life. He must seek to be the embodiment
|
“If you will come to me at dawn tomorrow, I will teach you to pray,” said the Master. |
Five members of the National Assembly of the United States left in 1954 to take up pioneering posts. They were, left to right, Dr. William Kenneth Christian, Mrs. Mamie Seto, Mrs. Elsie Austin, Mrs. Dorothy Baker, and Mr. Matthew Bullock.
[Page 20]
of love untainted by arrogance. The door is open to black and white, rich and poor, fellow countryman and foreign-born. He extends the hand of friendship to every sincere soul and honors at his table every type and kind in the garden of his Lord. No ephemeral lines divide him from his fellows. He glories in the accomplishments of the strong and is a steward of the rights of the weak. He is, in short, the servant of all, the friend of all, the lover of all. He has cast himself into the sea of unity.
Bahá’u’lláh writes, “Ye are the fruits of one tree, the leaves of one branch. Deal ye with one another with the utmost love and harmony. So powerful is the light of unity that it can illumine the whole earth.... Exert yourselves that ye may attain this transcendent and most sublime station ... this goal excelleth every other goal; this aspiration is the monarch of all aspiration.” Moreover, He assures us, “That which God willeth shall come to pass and thou shalt see the earth even as the most Glorious Paradise.”
A unity greater than fellowship will exist between the true lovers. Out of perfect union with the Will of the Beloved will appear a common passion, unity in the love of God. This celestial accomplishment of near ones will give rise to the harmony of the race.
This in short is the path to God renewed. When we attain a united faith through the ever-flowing waters of Revelation; when our beliefs are raised to the plane of deeds and our thoughts harmonized by a common passion, then heaven will be opened before every sincere soul and society will inherit a new earth.
Today the stage is set for the greatest spiritual drama of history, for the rebirth of the powers of the human race will be for the first time world wide and in proportion to infinitely higher development. The promise of the end of the world is kept. The old world passes; tomorrow, swords are beaten into plowshares. Bahá’u’lláh fulfills and renews all of the great Scriptures of the world and infuses all things with new life. He is the Michael spoken of by Daniel for the troublous times of the end when there is an increase of knowledge, and running to and fro. He is the One promised by Jesus, of whom that sanctified Spirit said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all truth.” He is the Mihdi promised by Muḥammad. He is the friend spoken of by Gautama, and the Sunrise of Zoroaster. His universal Spirit is the “Glory of God that shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” His coming is the bow of promise in the sky. “Lo, every stone and clod crieth, ‘The Promised One hath appeared, and the Kingdom is to God, the Powerful, the Mighty, the Pardoner.’ ”
Around the World[edit]
Tanzanian Exhibition[edit]
A Bahá’í Exhibition was held at the Saba Saba Fair in Dar Es Salaam last July. Many people visited the booth, and seven of those declared. Over 3,000 people saw showings of “It’s Just the Beginning” during the week-long exhibition.
Bahá’í friends in Switzerland.
Hands Cause visit Swiss[edit]
Two Hands of the Cause of God visited Basel, Switzerland earlier this year. In August, Hand of the Cause Mr. Khádem met with the Bahá’ís and spoke of his life in the Faith. Hand of the Cause Mr. Kházeh visited in September and told of his meetings with the Guardian and how they have affected his life.
The Hand of the Cause Mr. Kházeh.
Ghana Assembly[edit]
Members of the fourth National Spiritual Assembly of Ghana with Auxiliary Board Member Mrs. Vera Edwards.
Left to right, first row: Mrs. Edwards, Mr. Ernest Bentil, Prince Abaidoo, Mr. David Tanyi (Treasurer).
Second row: Mrs. June Jackson (Secretary), Dr. Vadlamudi, Mr. Abdu’l-llah Yazdani, Mr. Emanuel Kumi.
Third row: Mr. Gordon Jackson (Vice Chairman), Dr. John Powell (Chairman).
| Kaiser Wilhelm I | Napolean III | Násrid-Dín Shah |
|
The Kings who said no
The pictures are available in black and white prints, black and white glossies, and black and white 35mm slides. Unlimited international rights have been secured for the reproduction of these pictures by any Bahá’í institution, and for reproduction of these pictures by any other media in connection with a Bahá’í story. Your local Bahá’í librarian or authorized Bahá’í distributor may have them in stock, or can supply you with prices and ordering information. If these materials are not available in your area, please write the International Bahá’í Audio-Visual Centre, 1640 Holcomb Road, Victor, New York 14564, for additional information.
International Bahá’í Audio-Visual Centre
| ||
