Bahá’í World/Volume 12/The Centenary Celebrations of the Birth of the Mission of Bahá’u’lláh

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[Page 115]

IV

THE CENTENARY CELEBRA TIONS OF THE

BIRTH OF THE

MISSION OF BAHA’U’LLAH, 1953

1. MOMENTOUS ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE JUBILEE CENTENARY

CONVEY all National Assemblies Bahá’í World (the) following momentous announcement.

Approaching Great Jubilee commemorating Centenary termination Bábi Dispensation, birth Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation (in) Siyéh Q1211, Ṭihrán, as well as imperative necessity adopt effectual measures insure befitting inauguration third concluding phase of initial epoch (in the) execution ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan destined culminate hundredth anniversary (of) Declaration (of) Founder (of) Faith (in) Bag_hdéd, impel me summon entire Bahá’í world, through eleven National Assemblies already functioning (in) East (and) West, bestir itself, arise during sixteen months ahead through supreme concerted sustained effort, prepare for demonstration (of) Bahá’í solidarity (of) unprecedented scope (and) intensity (during) entire course Bahá’í history.

Forthcoming celebrations must be signalized through inauguration long anticipated intercontinental stage in administrative evolution (of) Faith marking its gradual development through successive phases (of) local, regional, national, international Bahá’í activity. Initiation this highly significant measure further cementing Bahá’í National Assemblies (in) five continents (of) globe will be acclaimed (by) posterity as counterpart (to) consolidation Faith at its World Center through recent formation International Bahá’í Council (in) Holy Land.

Centennial festivities (of) Year Nine continuing throughout Holy Year commencing October 1952 must include, apart from con 115

summation plans initiated (by) various National Assemblies both hemispheres, (the) formal dedication (for) public worship (of) Mother Temple (of) West (in) heart North American continent, and possible termination superstructure (of) Báb’s Sepulcher (in) Holy Land, (the) convocation (of) four intercontinental Bahá’í Teaching Conferences to be held successively (in) course historic Year (on) continents (of) Africa, America, Europe, Asia.

First conference (will be) convened by British National Spiritual Assembly (in) Kampala, Uganda (in) early spring, representative of British, American, Persian, Egyptian, Indian National Spiritual Assemblies, to which Bahá’ís residing (in) America, Persia, Indian subcontinent, British Isles, every territory African continent (will be) invited attend, aiming planting banner (of) Faith (in) remaining territories (and) neighboring islands east, south, west African continent.

Second conference (will be) convened by United States National Spiritual Assembly (in) Wilmette, (in) Riḍván period, representative (of) chief trustees ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Plan, their ally and associates United States, Canadian, Latin American National Assemblies, to which Bahá’ís every state American Union, every Province Canada, every Republic Latin America (will be) invited attend, designed pave way establishment Faith (in) remaining territories (of the) Americas (and) neighboring islands (in) both Atlantic (and) Pacific oceans.

Third conference (will be) convened by

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American European Teaching Committee (in) Stockholm, Sweden, during summer, representative (of) American, British, German National Assemblies, to which Bahá’ís (of) each ten goal countries Europe (and) England, Scotland, Wales, Eire, France, Germany, Austria, Finland, (will be) invited attend, for purpose gradual introduction (of) Faith (into) remaining sovereign states European continent (and) neighboring islands Mediterranean, Atlantic Ocean, North Sea.

Fourth conference (will be) convened by National Spiritual Assembly subcontinent India (in) New Delhi, autumn, representative (of) National Assemblies (of) Persia, Indian subcontinent, ‘Iráq, Australasia, United States, Canada, Central and South America, to which Bahá’ís residing (in) every sovereign state (and) dependency (in) Asia, North, Central, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania (will be) invited attend, in order deliberate measures calculated open Faith remaining Asiatic states (and) dependencies, particularly South East Asia and islands (of) South Pacific (and) Indian Oceans.

Address plea particularly (to) convenors above-mentioned conferences (to) arise within short time (at their) disposal, prayerfully consider, carefully plan, energetically prosecute, respective sacred delegated tasks, take immediate preliminary steps issue invitations, fix procedure, provide smooth working, accord wide publicity, insure resounding success, epoch-making conferences immortalizing Centenary (of) memorable Year, anticipated (by) St. John (the) Divine, foreshadowed (by) Shaykh Ahmad, eulogized (by the) Bab, extolled (by) both Bahá’u’lláh (and) ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and constituting prelude (to) Most Great Jubilee, which will alike commemorate Centenary formal assumption (by) Author (of) Bahá’í Revelation (of) His Prophetic Office, (and) mark, God willing, world-wide establishment Faith forecast (by) Center (of) Covenant (in) His Tablets, prophesied (by) Daniel (in) his book, thus paving way (for) advent (of) Golden Age destined witness world recognition, universal proclamation, ultimate triumph (of the) Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.

(Signed) SHOGI—II

Cablegram received November 30, 1951 at Wilmette, Illinois.

THE BAHA’I WORLD

MESSAGES FROM THE GUARDIAN

The Year Nine

1.

The following statement is an excerpt from the portion of the Guardian’s letter of November 23, 1951, written through his Secretary.

Regarding your question about the Centenary, the Guardian wishes you to share the following information with the Persian and other National Assemblies; the “Year Nine” is an abbreviation of 1269 A.H. This term has been used by the Báb in His Writings, foreshadowing the Birth of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. The friends should refer, in God Passes By, to the passages mentioning the year Nine in order to appreciate its significance as well as the great importance attached to it by the Báb. In that same book the Guardian has explained that the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh was progressive: It commenced with the first intimation He received, of His Prophetic Mission while in the Siyéh—Qiél of Tihran. The beginning of the year Nine occurred about two months after His imprisonment in that dungeon. We do not know the exact time He received this first intimation, nor have either the Báb, or Bahá’u’lláh, made mention of any specific date in this connection. We therefore regard the entire year Nine as a Holy Year, and the emphasis should be placed, in accordance with the Báb’s Writings, on the entire Year which started in October, 1852. This means our Centenary Year of Celebration will be from October, 1952, to October, 1953. All celebrations must be held within these two dates. As the Riḍván period is associated with Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation it should be regarded as the most important time of that year and therefore the most suitable period for the celebrations.

The second stage in that progressive Revelation was when Baha’u’llah declared His Mission to His companions in Baghdad; this is considered the most momentou_s stage in His Revelation, hence it is called the “Most Great Festival,” the One Hundredth Anniversary of which will be celebrated in Riḍván 1963 and will constitute the Most Great Jubilee, the third of its kind, the first Jubilee having been the Centenary of the Báb’s Declaration; and the second the one we will be celebrating all over the world in 1952-1953.

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The third and last stage in Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation was when He proclaimed His Mission to the rulers and religious leaders of the world in Adrianople. The first was an intimation, the second a declaration and the third a proclamation—the intimation was from God to Him, which He kept a secret within His own Spirit, the declaration was to His faithful companions, and the proclamation was to the entire body of the religious and political leaders of mankind.

II.

This statement is an excerpt from the Guardian’s letter of June 15, 1946, published as “A God-Given Mandate” in “Messages to America,” pages 99-10].

What greater reward can crown the labors of that community, now launched on the second stage of its world mission, than that the consummation of the second Seven Year Plan should coincide with the celebrations commemorating the centenary of the “Year Nine,” the year which alike marked the termination of the Babi Dispensation, and signalized the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s prophetic Mission? It was at a time when the Faith for which the Báb had suffered and died was hovering on the brink of extinction, when Baha’u’llah lay wrapped in the gloom of the Siyéh-Qiél of Tihran, His feet in stocks, His neck freighted with chains, and surrounded by vile and wretched criminals, that the auspicious year 1269 A.H., acclaimed by the Báb as the “Year Nine,” dawned upon the world, ushering in the most glorious and momentous stage in the Heroic Age of the greatest religious dispensation in the spiritual history of mankind. To that year He had referred as the year in which “the realities of the created things” will “be made manifest,” the year in which mankind “will attain unto all good,” in which the “Bayén,” as yet “in the stage of seed,” will manifest “its ultimate perfection,” in which the “embryo of the Faith will attain the station of ‘the most comely of forms,’ ” and in which “a new creation” will be beheld. It was in that same year that the “third woe,” as anticipated by St. John the Divine, quickly succeeded the second. To that same year Sliaylg'i-Ahmad—i-Ahsé’i, who had heralded the Faith of the Báb, had alluded as the year “after Hin” (68), when, according to His written testimony, the “mystery” of the Cause of God would be “manifested,” and the “secret” of His Mes 117

sage “divulged.” It was in that same year that, according to Bahá’u’lláh, Himself, “the requisite number of pure, of wholly consecrated, and sanctified souls” had been “most secretly consummated.”

It was in such dramatic circumstances, recalling the experience of Moses when face to face with the Burning Bush in the wilderness of Sinai, the successive visions of Zoroaster, the opening of the heavens and the descent of the Dove upon Christ in the Jordan, the cry of Gabriel heard by Muhammad in the Cave of Hira, and the dream of the Báb, in which the blood of the Imam Husayn touched and sanctified His lips, that Bahá’u’lláh, He “around Whom the Point of the Bayén hath revolved,” and the Vehicle of the greatest Revelation the world has yet seen, received the first intimation of His sublime Mission, and that a ministry, which, alike in its duration and fecundity, is unsurpassed in the religious history of mankind, was inaugurated. It was on that occasion that the “Most Great Spirit,” as designated by Bahá’u’lláh Himself, revealed itself to Him, in the form of a “Maiden,” and bade Him “lift up” His “voice between earth and heaven”—that same Spirit which, in the Zoroastrian, the Mosaic, the Christian and Muhammadan Dispensations, had been respectively symbolized by the “Sacred Fire,” the “Burning Bush,” the “Dove,” and the “Angel Gabriel.”

“One night in a dream,” Bahá’u’lláh Himself, recounting His soul-shaking experience of the first stirrings of His prophetic Mission, in the Year Nine, in that abominable pit, has written, “these exalted words were heard on every side: ‘Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety. Ere long will God raise up the treasures of the earth—men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through Thy Name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized Him.’ ” And again, “During the days I lay in the prison of Tihran, though the galling weight of the chains and the stench—filled air allowed Me but little sleep, still in those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of My body would, as a result, be set

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afire. At such moments My tongue recited what no man could bear to hear.”

What still greater reward could await those who, inspired by the success achieved by the prosecutors of the second Seven Year Plan, will have arisen to carry forward to a triumphant conclusion the third phase of the Mission entrusted to them by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, than that their prodigious labors, having embraced territories far beyond the confines of the continents of Europe and of America, should climax in, and be worthily commemorated through, the worldwide celebrations of the “Most Great Festival,” the “King of Festivals,” the “Festival of God” Himself—the Festival associated with the accession of Him Who is the Lord of the Kingdom to the throne of everlasting glory, and with the formal assumption by Him of His prophetic office? What greater reward than that the consummation of the third Seven Year Plan, marking the close of the first, and signalizing the opening of the second, epoch in the evolution of the Divine Plan, should synchronize with that greatest of all Jubilees, related to the year 1335, mentioned by Daniel in the last Chapter of His Book, and associated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with the world triumph of His Father’s Faith? What greater glory than that those who have brought this initial epoch in the resistless march of a world-embracing Plan to a triumphant termination should be made to feel that they, and those gone before them, have, through their collective, their sustained, and heroic endeavors, organized through three successive stages, and covering a span of almost a quarter of a century, been vouchsafed by the Almighty the privilege of contributing, more than any other community consciously laboring in the service of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, to this blissful consummation, and to have played a preponderating role in the world triumph of its institutions?

III.

From the Guardian’s letter of November 23, 1951.

The historic significance of this period cannot indeed be overestimated. For it was a hundred years ago that a Faith, which had already been oppressed by a staggering weight of untold tribulations; which had sustained shattering blows in MazinHaran, Nayriz, Ṭihrán and Zanjan, and indeed throughout every province in the land of

THE BAHA’I WORLD

its birth; which had lost its greatest exponents through the tragic martyrdom of most of the Letters of the Living, and particularly of the valiant Mulla’t Husayn and of the erudite Vahid and which had been afflicted with the supreme calamity of losing its Divine Founder; was being subjected to still more painful ordeals—ordeals which robbed it of both the heroic Hujjat and of the farfamed Táhirih; which caused it to pass through a reign of terror, and to experience a blood—bath of unprecedented severity, which inflicted on it one of the greatest humiliations it has ever suffered through the attempted assassination of the Sovereign himself, and which unloosed a veritable deluge of barbarous atrocities in Tihran, Mazindaran, Nayriz and Shiraz before which paled the horrors of the seige of Zanjén, and which swept no less a figure than Bahá’u’lláh Himself—the last remaining Pillar of a Faith that had been so rudely shaken, so ruthlessly denuded of its chief buttressesinto the subterranean dungeon of "fibrin, an imprisonment that was soon followed by His cruel banishment, in the depths of an exceptionally severe winter, from His native land to ‘Iráq. To these tribulations He Himself has referred as “aflfiictions” that “rained" upon Him, whilst the blood shed by His companions and lovers He characterized as the blood which “impregnated” the earth with the “wondrous revelation” of God’s “might.”

Nor should the momentous character of the unique event, that may be regarded as the climax and consummation of this tragic period, be overlooked or underestimated, inasmuch as its centenary synchronizes with the termination of the sixteen month interval separating the American Bahá’í Community from the conclusion of its present Plan. This unique event, the centenary of which is to be befittingly celebrated, not only in the American continent but throughout the Bahá’í World, and is destined to be regarded as the culmination of the Second Seven Year Plan, is none other than the “Year Nine,” anticipated 2,000 years ago as the “third woe” by St. John the Divine, alluded to by both Shaylgh Ahmad and Siyyid Káẓim —the twin luminaries that heralded the advent of the Faith of the Báb—specifically mentioned and extolled by the Herald of the Bahá’í Dispensation in His Writings, and eulogized by both the Founder of our Faith and the Center of His Covenant. In that

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year, the year “after Bin” (68), mentioned by Shay1_<_h Ahmad, the year that witnessed the birth of the Mission of the promised “Qany’lm,” specifically referred to by Siyyid Káẓim, the “requisite number” in the words of Bahá’u’lláh, “of pure, of wholly consecrated and sanctified souls” had been “most secretly consummated.” In that year, as testified by the Pen of the Báb, the “realities of the created things” were “made manifest,” “a new creation was born” and the seed of His Faith revealed its “ultimate perfection.” In that year, as borne witness by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a hitherto “embryonic Faith” was born. In that year, while the Blessed Beauty lay in chains and fetters, in that dark and pestilential Pit, “the breezes of the AllGlorious,” as He Himself described it, “were wafted”.over Him. There, whilst His neck was weighted down by the Qara-Guhar, His feet in stocks, breathing the fetid air of the Siyéh—Qlél, He dreamed His dream and heard, “on every side,” “exalted words,” and His “tongue recited” words that “no man could bear to hear.”

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There, as He Himself has recorded, under the impact of this dream, He experienced the onrushing force of His newly revealed Mission, that “flowed” even as “a mighty torrent” from His “Head” to His “breast,” whereupon “every limb” of His body “would be set afire.” There, in a vision, the “Most Great Spirit,” as He Himself has again testified, appeared to Him, in the guise of a “Maiden” “calling” with “a most wondrous, a most sweet Voice” above His Head, whilst “suspended in the air” before Him, and, “pointing with Her finger” unto His Head, imparted “tidings which rejoiced” His “soul.” There appeared above the horizon of that dungeon in the city of Tihran, the rim of the Orb of His Faith, whose dawning light had, nine years previously, broken upon the city of Shiréz,—an Orb which, after suffering an eclipse of ten years, was destined to burst forth, with its resplendent rays, upon the city of Bag_hdéd, to mount its zenith in Adrianople, and to set eventually in the prison-fortress of ‘Akká.

[Page 120]Hands of the Cause attending the First Intercontinental Bahá’í Conference in Kampala, Uganda, Africa, February 12—18, 1953. Left to right: Musé Banéni, Valiyu’lláh Varqé, Shu’2’1’u’lláh ‘Alá’í, Mason Remey, Horace Holley, Tarézu’lláh Samandari, D_hikru’lláh Iglédem, Leroy Ioas, Dorothy Baker, ‘Ali-Akbar Furfitan.

The Kampala Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds is in the background.

[Page 121]2. THE AFRICAN INTERCONTINENTAL TEACHING CONFERENCE HELD IN KAMPALA, UGANDA, FEBRUARY, 1953

(1) THE GUARDIAN’S MESSAGE TO THE CONFERENCE

Presented by LEROY IOAS

TO THE Hands of the Cause, the Members of the National Spiritual Assemblies, the pioneers, the resident believers and visitors attending the African Intercontinental Teaching Conference in Kampala, Uganda.

Well-beloved Friends:

I hail with a joyous heart the convocation in the heart of the African continent of the first of the four Intercontinental Teaching Conferences constituting the highlights of the world wide celebrations of the Holy Year which commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Mission of the Founder of our Faith. I welcome with open arms the unexpectedly large number of the representatives of the pure-hearted and the spiritually receptive Negro race, so dearly loved by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, for whose conversion to His Father’s Faith He so deeply yearned and whose interests He so ardently championed in the course of His memorable visit to the North American continent. I am reminded, on this historic occasion, of the significant words uttered by Bahá’u’lláh Himself, Who as attested by the Center of the Covenant, in His Writings, “compared the colored people to the black pupil of the eye,” through which “the light of the spirit shineth forth.” I feel particularly gratified by the substantial participation in this epoch-making Conference of the members of a race dwelling in a continent which for the most part has retained its primitive simplicity and remained uncontaminated by the evils of a gross, a rampant and cancerous materialism undermining the fabric of human society alike in the East and in the West, eating into the Vitals of the conflicting peoples and races inhabiting the American, the European and the Asiatic continents, and alas threatening to engulf in one common catastrophic convulsion the generality of mankind. I acclaim the pre ponderance of the members of this same race at so significant a Conference, a phenomenon unprecedented in the annals of Bahá’í Conferences held during over a century, and auguring well for a corresponding multiplication in the number of the representatives of the yellow, the red and brown races of mankind dwelling respectively in the Far East, in the Far West and in the islands of the South Pacific Ocean, a multiplication designed ultimately to bring to a proper equipoise the divers ethnic elements comprised within the highly diversified world-embracing Bahá’í Fellowship.

I feel moved, on this auspicious occasion, to pay a warm tribute to the elected representatives, as well as the members, of the British, the Persian, the American, the Egyptian and the Indian Bahá’í Communities which have participated, in pursuance of their respective Plans, in the opening stage of a colossal teaching campaign, constituting a Vital phase of the impending decade-long World Crusade, and aiming at the spiritual conquest of the entire African continent. I desire in particular to express to all those gathered at this Conference my feelings of abiding appreciation of the magnificent role played and of the remarkable prizes won, by the small band of Persian, British and American pioneers, in the course of the initial stage of this divinely propelled and mysteriously unfolding collective enterprise, which has overshadowed both the Latin American and European teaching campaigns launched in recent years, which is destined to exert an incalculable influence on the fortunes of the Faith throughout the world, and which may well have far—reaching repercussions among the two chief races dwelling in the North American continent.

To the American Bahá’í Community, the chief executor of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan; to the British Bahá’í Community, des 121

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tined to play in future decades a predominating role in opening to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh not only the British Territories throughout the African continent, but the divers Dependencies of the British Crown scattered on the surface of the globe; to the Persian Bahá’í Community, at once the most venerable and most consistently persecuted among its sister communities in both the East and the West; to the Egyptian Bahá’í Community that may well boast of having erected in that continent the first pillar of the Universal House of Justice; to the Indian Bahá’í Community, fated to contribute, to a marked degree, to the spiritual quickening of the Indians constituting a noble element of the population of Africa—to these Communities I feel I must acknowledge my deep sense of thankfulness for the strenuous efforts exerted by their pioneers to raise aloft the standard of the Faith in the territories allocated to them in Liberia, Uganda, Tanganyika, the Gold Coast, Kenya, Somaliland, Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, Libya, Algeria, Zanzibar and Madagascar. To others Who, though not following the fixed pattern of the Plan initiated for the present African campaign, have arisen to introduce the Faith in the Territories of Sierra Leone, Angola, Mozambique and Southern Rhodesia I feel, moreover, a debt of gratitude is due for their share in extending the range of Bahá’í pioneer activity in that continent.

The hour is indeed propitious, as the climax of the world wide rejoicings signalizing the Holy Year approaches, for the National Spiritual Assemblies of these same Communities to gird up their loins, in collaboration with the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of ‘Iráq, in a supreme effort to launch, on the morrow of this fateful Conference, that phase of the ten-year Crusade which, God willing, will culminate in the introduction of our glorious Faith in all the remaining territories of that vast continent as well as the chief neighboring islands lying in the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans. The decade on whose threshold they now stand must, circumstances permitting, witness:

F irst, the erection of three additional pillars within the confines of that continent and its neighboring islands, designed to support, together with no less than forty-five other National Spiritual Assemblies to be established in other parts of the world, the final unit in the erection of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,

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namely: The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Central and East Africa, to be formed under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles, with its seat in Kampala; the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of South and West Africa, to be formed under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America, with its seat in Johannesburg; the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of North West Africa, to be formed under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Egypt and Sfidén, with its seat in Tunis.

Second, the initial purchase of land for the future construction of three Mashriqu’l-A(flikérs, one in Cairo, one in Kampala and one in Johannesburg, situated respectively in the north, the heart and the south of the African continent.

Third, the opening of the following thirtythree virgin territories and islands: Cape Verde Is., Canary 15., French Somaliland, French Togoland, Mauritius, Northern Territories Protectorate, Portuguese Guinea, Reunion 1., Spanish Guinea, St. Helena, and St. Thomas I., assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America; Ashanti Protectorate, Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Italian Somaliland, Southern Rhodesia and Swaziland assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Persia; French Equatorial Africa, French West Africa, Morocco (Int. Zone), Rio de Oro, Spanish Morocco and Spanish Sahara assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Egypt and SL’Idén; Comoro Is., French Cameroons, Gambia, Ruanda-Urundi and Socotra I. assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of India, Pékistén and Burma; the British Cameroons, British Togoland, Madeira and South West Africa, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles; and Seychelles Is. assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of ‘Iráq.

F ourth, the translation and publication of Bahá’í literature in the following thirty-one languages to be undertaken by the National Spiritual.Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles: Accra, Afrikaans, Aladian, Ashanti, Banu, Bemba, Bua, Chuana, Gio, Gu, Jieng, Jolof, Kuanyama, Krongo, Kroo, Luimbi, Malagasy, Nubian, Pedi, Popo, Ronga, Sena, Shilha, Shona, Sobo, Suto,

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Wongo, Xosa, Yalunka, Yao, and Zulu.

F ifth, the consolidation of the twenty-four following territories already opened to the Faith in the African continent: Angola, Belgian Congo, Gold Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanganyika, Uganda and Zululand, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles; Abyssinia, Algeria, Eritrea, Libya, French Morocco, Somaliland, St’ldén and Tunisia, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Egypt and Sfidén; Madagascar, Mozambique and Zanzibar, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of India, Pékistén and Burma; Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Persia; Liberia and South Africa, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America. .

Sixth, the establishment, circumstances permitting, of a National Bahá’í Court in the capital city of Egypt, the recognized center of both the Islamic and Arab worlds, officially empowered to apply, in matters of personal status, the Laws and Ordinances revealed in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the MotherBook of the Bahá’í Revelation.

Seventh, the incorporation of the three above-mentioned Regional National Spiritual Assemblies.

Eighth, the establishment by those same National Spiritual Assemblies of National Bahá’í Endowments.

Ninth, the establishment of a National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in Johannesburg and one in Tunis and the conversion into a similar institution of the local Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds of Kampala.

Tenth, the formation of a National Bahá’í Publishing Trust in Cairo.

Eleventh, the formation of an Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly

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Of the Bahá’ís of Egypt and Sfidén, authorized to hold, on behalf of its parent institution, property dedicated to the Holy Shrines at the World Center of the Faith in the State of Israel.

Twelfth, the appointment, during Riḍván 1954, by the Hand of the Cause in Africa, of an auxiliary Board of nine members who will, in conjunction with the six National Spiritual Assemblies participating in the African Campaign, assist, through periodic and systematic visits to Bahá’í Centers, in the efficient and prompt execution of the Plans formulated for the prosecution of the teaching campaign in the African continent.

May the six aforementioned National Spiritual Assemblies, aided by the Hand of the Cause appointed in that continent, and the auxiliary Board to be chosen by him, and supported by the national committees and sub-committees to be formed in due course, and reinforced by the constant and energetic efforts of an ever-swelling number of pioneers, whether settlers or itinerant teachers, and assisted by the whole-hearted collaboration of the indigenous believers in all localities, be spiritually welded into a unit at once dynamic and coherent, and be suffused with the creative, the directing and propelling forces proceeding from the Source of the Revelation Himself, and be made, as the projected campaign unfolds, the vehicle of His grace from on High, and prove themselves worthy and efiective instruments for the execution and ultimate consummation of one of the most thrilling and far-reaching enterprises undertaken in the Formative Age of the Faith and constituting one of the noblest phases of the most glorious Crusade ever launched in the course of Bahá’í history for the systematic propagation of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh over the surface of the entire planet.

—SH00HI

(2)

REPORT OF THE AFRICAN INTERCONTINENTAL TEACHING CONFERENCE

K AMPALA, Uganda, is one of the lovelier and more temperate spots of Africa where the native African and the European are not in bitter conflict. In this Protectorate from February 12 to 18, 1953, the first of

the four Bahá’í Intercontinental Conferences was held.

Meetings took place in a large and wellmade army Marquee erected on the spacious attractive grounds of the Kampala Ḥaẓíratu’l [Page 125]CENTENARY OF BIRTH OF BAHA’U’LLAH’S MISSION

Quds. In that tent, which was literally and figuratively a tent of the Oneness of Mankind, two hundred and thirty-two Bahá’ís, representing thirty ethnic groups from nineteen countries of the continents of America, Asia, Europe and Africa, were assembled. The Africans were well represented and constituted a majority of the Conference. They came from eighteen tribes of Uganda and in addition, there were Bahá’ís from North, South, East and West Africa. This mingling of races and nationalities taking place on such a high and dignified level was productive of much happiness and inspiration.

Thus the Kampala Conference demonstrated the Bahá’í pattern for harmony and unity among the children of men. Completely missing was the sense of alienation and tension characteristic of the meeting of races which have long practiced the embittering separations established by old traditions in Africa. The choice of the theme, “Light Over Africa,” was amply justified. There was earnest consultation over the tasks and opportunities of the Great Teaching Crusade, the training of Bahá’í teachers, the maturing of individual Bahá’ís to the spirit and principles of their Faith, and the important work of developing and consolidating Bahá’í groups and Assemblies throughout the African continent.

The earnest and beautiful prayers which opened the Conference gave it the momentum and high spirit which prevailed. Following this, powerful messages from the Beloved Guardian were read, giving a set of definite objectives and the magnificent scope of the Crusade with its relationship to the development of the World Order of Baha’u’llah. Along with these great messages, the Guardian sent a striking map of the world on which he had drawn the Crusade objectives, and, by means of colors and lines, charted the assignments and responsibilities given to each country.

The messages and the maps were presented by Leroy Ioas, Hand of the Cause, who came as the Guardian’s representative to the Conference. He gave us the Beloved Guardian’s words and views, pointing out that through this Holy Crusade the Bahá’ís would in ten years double the accomplishments of the past one hundred and ten years. “They.will cover the earth with the glory of the Lord,” thus fulfilling the ancient prophecy of Daniel. He made us understand that the victories ahead like those of

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the past would result from our ability to strengthen the administrative order and demonstrate the devotion and service which is the spirit of the Bahá’í Faith.

The Conference agenda was designed to draw upon the teaching and administrative experience of the Bahá’ís around the world. Talks of great wisdom, information and inspiration were given by the Hands of the Cause, the Assembly representatives from the United States, Great Britain, India and Iran. The Africa pioneers who had done the ground-breaking in Africa’s widely differing areas contributed much in their down-toearth discussion of the pioneers’ problems, and in their presentation of the attitudes which they must be prepared to face and with which they must deal.

Following are excerpts from some of the talks given:

Horace Holley, American Hand of the Cause: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “Blessed are those who work in groups.” Small groups which learn to solve their problems train themselves for larger problems. The small group is but the flowerpot in which the seed is planted. When the seed grows we transplant it to a larger garden.

. . . The Bahá’í local community with the local assembly is civilization in miniature. The individual begins to realize that the Faith establishes a social order. The unified community is civilization. Human society is a series of human relationships. The Bahá’í Faith gives us the form of perfect government for our own Bahá’í affairs. Man is not wholly man until he learns the spirit of the Teachings.

. . . The seed has all the potentialities of the tree. The little group is the seed, and when it has attained a tiny sprout, community development begins which will result in the maturity of the tree. God has no time. He is timeless. Man conquers time when he is imbued with moral purpose. He knows that the power of God will bring His work to perfection.

The Guardian wrote the American Bahá’ís that the world is in dire need of the love of God. At every stage in the consolidation of the community, the friends must do their utmost to convey the love that is born of God.

‘Ali Nak_hjavdni, Persian pioneer to Africa: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said that teaching is like the science of medicine. In each case you find a different disease, and the treat [Page 126]«mm» m. WWW

African choir at Kampala Conference public meeting, singing “Lord, I want to be a Bahá’í with all my heart.”

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ment changes accordingly. The Guardian has given us the general principle for teaching in Africa, “One teaches the receptive souls one finds.” Also in The Challenging Requirements the Guardian emphasizes the fundamental prerequisites of Teaching and tells us teaching methods must be adapted to the various backgrounds, temperaments and susceptibilities of the races.

The susceptibilities of the African people are (1) an abhorrence of any racial discrimination; (2) fear of plans and activities originated by white people; (3) a dissatisfaction with the methods used by missionaries; (4) a consciousness of the superiority of the outside world, coupled with a thirst for knowledge and progress; (5) an understanding and preference for simpler ideas; (6) a hesitation at the use of reason in the study of religious methods; (7) an acceptance of the teachings of the Church and the Bible; (8) a sensitiveness and appreciation for true and sincere love, lack of prejudice and genuine hospitality; (9) a strong faith in God and His Prophets.

. . . The first thing a pioneer must have is devotion, understanding and love for the Guardian. He should study the writings constantly and turn to the Guardian in his heart. The second most important thing is prayer at all times, not in words, but in deeds. . . . Where there is more than one pioneer, there must be unity . . . real unity among the Bahá’ís. The spirit of love and unity is absolutely necessary, or there can be no success. Deeds not words must be the attitude of the pioneer.

Philip Hainsworth, British pioneer to Africa: An African once said to me . . . “Our hearts are like mirrors, we reflect what we see.” Thus the African reflects the state of mind of the person with whom he deals or works. The white man’s condemnation of the African is a condemnation of himself. The success of the Persian pioneers is explained by the fact that they show such an abundance of love to the African who reflects it back.

Translation difficulties with the African language are not so much in words as in ideas. The person of a narrow environment cannot understand the problems of the world. Then there are problems unique to Africa. For thirteen hundred years the Islamic countries have been struggling to develop ideas of nationalism. For two thousand years the Western world has had peo 127

ple working for certain ideas of civilization. In Africa, however, some of the groups have not even evolved to the village stage, as we know it in the West. The village for them is merely a boundary line for administration or collection of taxes. The African family often lives in two villages. There is little community life as we know it. As Bahá’ís the Africans have made the jump from a family or clan stage of society to the sense of world community in on] a few months. Only the power of Bahá’u’lláh could have made this possible. It is only this power which can create a new society and environment for this progress.

The assuming of responsibility, as we understand it in the West, will be new to the African. The African leaders never give responsibility to the members of their flock. They may dispense charity or similar actions, but they never permit the development of responsibility. It must be noted, too, that the African has had very little experience in voting, in administrative responsibility and in the exercise of the mind over the dictates of the heart; these are all new experiences for him. The lack of equality between the sexes is another factor to be considered.

. . . The Bahá’ís must instill in the African a crusading spirit for African advancement. They must demonstrate the Unity of the Faith, and prove that they have come to drive out disunity. To meet the need there must be preparation, prayer, meditation, study classes for deepening, and classes for educating the illiterate in every Village. The Africans must be urged to help themselves and to develop and share the Message of Bahá’u’lláh. . . .

The high spiritual note of the Conference came when its participants were afforded the privilege of viewing the photograph of the portrait of the Báb which the Beloved Guardian had sent as a special gift. Prior to the actual viewing of the portrait, a short period was devoted to stories of the Báb related by two Hands of the Cause, Mr. Valiyu’lláh Varqé and Mr. Leroy Ioas. Mr. Varqé’s story on the history of the portrait was as follows:

As part of a plot against the life of the Bab, the Governor of Urfimiyyih invited Him to the public bath when He arrived in that city. A wild and dangerous horse, notorious for its unruliness, was sent to the Bab and the attendants accompanying the

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horse had been instructed to run away as soon as He had mounted. Under such circumstances, the Governor was certain that the Báb would be killed.

On being told of the plot, the Báb merely replied, “I have left My Life in the Hands of God.”

According to plan, the dangerous horse was led to the Báb and as He mounted, the attendants ran away.'At His first touch, however, the horse grew tame and gentle, carrying Him to the public bath calmly and comfortably. When the Báb dismounted, the horse again became so unruly that seven or eight men rushed to subdue it, but when the Bab was ready to return home and the wild horse was once more led up to Him, the same incidents occurred—the attendants dashing away when the Báb mounted, and the dangerous horse becoming tame and gentle. Thus, it carried the Báb back to His home.

Crowds of people who had heard of the vicious nature of the horse came to see the spectacle. They marveled at the behavior of the animal, and to their simple minds the extraordinary demonstration appeared nothing short of a miracle. Therefore, when the Báb left the bath, they hurried with receptacles and cloths to carry away every bit of the water that had touched His Holy Person.

After this episode, great numbers of people went to see the Báb and among them was a young painter who wanted to paint a picture of the Holy Man. When he was permitted to visit Him and was ushered into His presence, the Báb gathered His ‘aba about Him, placed His hands on His knees and gazed intently at the painter, who studied His face. On arriving home the painter tried to paint it from memory but could not, so he went a second time to see the Báb. Again the Báb pushed back His turban, drew His ‘abé around Him, placed His hands on His knees and gazed intently at the painter. This whole incident was repeated once again and then the painter, having a perfect impression of the Countenance, drew the portrait with a pencil. When Varqé’s father was shown this portrait, he asked the painter to do it in water color. This was executed and a copy sent to Baha’u’Ilah, who upon receiving it, sent for a great Afnán, a cousin of the Báb, who happened to be in the Holy Land at that time, to come and identify it. The Afnan stated that the portrait was a true likeness.

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Varqé’s father asked Bahá’u’lláh if nine copies could be made for future Mashriqu’l-Acfltkérs of the world but Bahá’u’lláh said that only one or two copies could be made of the countenance of that “Father of Beauty and Grandeur.” The painter drew another and gave it to Varqé’s father. When He was martyred, this picture was taken to the House of the Báb and the original pencil sketch was taken to the House of the Master.

Two water colors are in the World Center Archives and another is at present in the Royal Archives, but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said the latter would come back to the Bahá’ís. The copy of the portrait sent to Kampala and that sent to America are photographs of the painting in the World Center Archives.

Mr. Leroy Ioas told the following story:

When the Báb was martyred, His body was thrown into a moat to be devoured by dogs. This was done because there was a verse in the Qur’án declaring that the dogs would not devour the body of the Promised One and they wished to make certain that this prophecy would not apply to the Báb. However, dogs did not molest the remains and the body of the Báb was promptly rescued by the Bábis.

Today the Guardian walks in the gardens on Mt. Carmel. He loves to point out that the most beautiful sepulcher in the world, surrounded by lovely gardens, now houses those remains which were thrown into the moat, and that all over the world there are friends who proclaim the Divinity and Holiness of the Blessed Báb.

The actual viewing of the portrait was an occasion of great reverence and spiritual dedication. Preceding the procession of the viewers, Mr. ‘AIi-Akbar Furutan, Hand of the Cause, chanted the Tablet of Visitation in the original tongue. The portrait was set upon a table covered with a fine silk cloth and adorned with roses. The believers walked solemnly by so that they might gaze upon it. The Persians and Africans evidenced great devotion, kneeling before the portrait and kissing the cloth beneath it. Tears streamed from many eyes, for every heart was filled with love and respect for the great suffering and service of the Báb Who was martyred for heralding the dawn of a World Faith.

Along with the portrait the Guardian sent another very valuable and impressive gift to the Conference. It was a beautifully lettered

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Leroy Ioas greeting African Bah

scroll of portions of the Btib’s Commentary on the 511th of Joseph. This magnificent revelation of the Báb was the one He gave on the night of His announcement of His Station and Mission. The Guardian said that this Commentary was the Bible of the early Bábis and that the Báb sent portions of it to Bahá’u’lláh, Who when He read it, acknowledged the Báb. In this highly significant Commentary, the Báb addressed the rulers and leaders of the world, giving prophecies concerning the suffering which would come, and the extension of the Faith to Africa. In it, also, He first called the people of the West to issue, forth from their cities in the service of the Faith.

Despite their primitive background, the African Bahá’ís showed great interest and

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2,;

ans on behalf of the Guardian, Kampala, Uganda, Africa, February, 1953.

gave concentrated attention during the Conference. They followed the consultation closely and frequently participated, expressing their views on matters discussed. Two African women of the Teso tribe addressed the Conference, being particularly concerned with the emphasis the Faith places upon education and freedom from prejudice. Several of the speakers made an appeal for Bahá’í teachers and schools.

Conference languages were English, Persian, Teso and Swahili. The African and Persian interpreters did a masterful job of translating the talks and the ensuing discussions. They spoke with eloquence and ease, so that none of the listeners lost the expression and fire of what was said.

The Persian Bahá’ís brought a unique

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spirit to the Conference. There was a spontaneous and natural friendliness about them and they showed the African believers great courtesy and whole-hearted affection. One of them, Tarézu’lláh Samandari, the only living Hand of the Cause who saw Bahá’u’lláh, enchanted all with the stories and reminiscences of his visit with Him.

The American Bahá’ís also won the interest of the Africans who seemed eager to learn about America and asked many questions about it. The spirit of America’s Louis Gregory, first Negro Hand of the Cause, was keenly felt at the Conference. The story of his life, as published by the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, was eagerly read and the Africans expressed keen interest and deep admiration for this distinguished servant of the Cause of Baha’u’llah who devoted his life to the promulgation of the Teachings. Several asked that a large picture of Louis Gregory be sent to the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in Kampala.

Two public meetings were held in connection with the Conference in Kampala. The first was at Makere College, the leading college in East Africa for African natives, and was well attended by Europeans, Africans and Asians. Horace Holley, American Hand of the Cause, and H. M. Balyuzi of Great Britain were the speakers. The second was held under the Conference Marquee and the speakers were Dorothy Baker, American Hand of the Cause, and Matthew Bullock of the United States. This meeting

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attracted lively comment in the Kampala press and from it came an opportunity to reply to an article which misstated the teachings of the Faith. In addition to the public meetings and the press publicity, mention should be made of the two fine window displays in prominent shops on the main street of. Kampala, which were arranged by the Collisons and the Elstons, American pioneers. The displays were of books, posters and pamphlets on the Faith, pictures of the Temple in Wilmette, and a circle of dolls which represented the various races and nationalities. These windows drew crowds of people.

The Conference released a special booklet for teaching use in Africa. It was The Bahá’í Life, an unusually fine compilation of the teachings selected and arranged by Rex and Mary Collison for the British Africa Teaching Committee who published it.

The Conference closed on a high note of dedication. Every believer there understood the grave responsibilities the Bahá’ís face as they enter upon the greatest religious Crusade in history and every one resolved to share in the great task of achieving the goals. All knew that the victories sought come only through deeds which express sincere devotion, wisdom, purity of heart, and courageous and tireless service in the promotion of that which will advance the unity of mankind. The spiritual influence and fellowship this Conference generated will be far-reaching in its efiect upon Africa.

(3) AFRICA’S NEW HORIZON

By MILDRED MOTTAHEDEH

IN THE months preceding the Kampala Conference the Guardian spoke to many of the pilgrims who came to Haifa of the African Bahá’ís and how pure-hearted they were. Some of the pilgrims wondered how these Africans, coming from so primitive a culture, could integrate themselves in the Bahá’í world which was trying to emerge as the highest type of civilization the world had yet known. It seemed beyond comprehension that these primitive people could learn, in so short a time, to function according to Bahá’í principles when it had taken Bahá’ís from the more highly developed countries decades to evolve working communities.

Most of the African Bahá’ís had joined the Faith during the six months preceding the Conference, and the majority of them came from the interior bush country where they had had little contact with governmental processes. To this Conference came Bahá’ís of nineteen countries outside of Africa, and Africans representing thirty tribes. Even those in charge of the program could scarcely visualize the result of mingling such diverse elements of race and culture.

From the very moment that the African Bahá’ís began to arrive in Kampala and to meet the Bahá’ís of other countries, new and dazzling facets of the unity of the human

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race appeared to all the participants with a brilliant clarity. Racial and cultural differences disappeared into a pattern of unity. For all the world to see, here was the example of an emerging world commonwealth with all races joining hands in a united effort for the betterment of all. Racial and cultural differences properly became the variations which added richness and color to men’s lives rather than becoming sources of contention. Imbued with the noble principles of the Teachings of Baha’u’llah, designed to weld the races of man together, there was no difficulty whatever in making a bridge from one Bahá’í to another, regardless of national or racial origin. Animated by the same great purposes, the force of unity increased with each passing day of the Conference. It soon became apparent that the so-called differences that divide men were wholly imaginary and that all peoples have the same capacity to take their proper share, as brothers, in the advancement of civilization.

The African Bahá’ís, in accepting the principles of the Faith, had bridged a gap of six thousand years of civilization and had advanced to a viewpoint which has not as yet been achieved by the peoples of highly evolved nations. In the many hours of consultation during the nine days of the Conference they spoke With dignity and wisdom as individuals and not as “blocks” of people. When they voted on any question by a show of hands it was easy to see that all were voting as individuals and not by national or racial blocks. Though the Africans had had no previous experience in such conferences, both men and women freely participated in an orderly fashion in the discussion of various questions.

The Bahá’ís coming from outside of Africa were deeply moved to see and hear the many evidences of the love that the African Bahá’ís bore for their new-found Faith. Their faith was no passing emotional fancy but a firmly rooted conviction that they had found the truth for this day. Some spoke of the fact that they wished it to be understood that they had not come for material gain but for spiritual enrichment. Many spoke of their desire to teach their fellow Africans. They considered it their responsibility to awaken their fellow Africans to this light which had newly illumined their lives. A group of young men coming from different parts of Africa who were then attending

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the Aggrey Memorial School, composed a letter to the Conference in which they wrote that they were glad of the long history of martyrdoms in the Bahá’í Faith because when they might perhaps sufler a similar fate in teaching their African brothers they would have this noble example before them. They went on to say that should they be burned for their Faith they would hope that their ashes would be blown over Africa to fertilize the soil for the planting of the seeds of the Bahá’í Faith.

All the Africans who spoke showed by their comments how well they had grasped the basic principles of the Faith. Though the position of women in Africa is not high, the women spoke with ease and freedom and declared their intention to share in the task of teaching Africa. Both men and women found in their Faith a fresh objective viewpoint on the problems of Africa itself. More than that, their horizon had been broadened to include not only their own continent but all the world. There was a newly acquired sense of responsibility that cried oilt for action—not action to overcome their problems by force, but to foster their own development and that of their continent by teaching the principles of their Faith. All pleaded for education so that they might truly take their places as citizens of the world.

This Conference, the first of four Intercontinental Bahá’í Conferences, was also the first time that large groups of Bahá’ís from different continents had gathered to work together. The ease with which all national and cultural barriers were hurdled became apparent even the first day. Orientals, Africans and Occidentals found no difficulty in understanding each other’s viewpoint. Midway in the Conference it would have been difficult for an outside observer to guess that the participants had, for the most part, never met until the Conference opened. There was an atmosphere of love, trust and mutual respect which blended all into a cooperative whole, moving forward together toward the great goal destined to launch the whole earth into a new era of understanding.

Touching, indeed, to Bahá’ís long in the Faith, were the devotion and respect of these new Bahá’ís, their desire to know everything in the Bahá’í books, their expressions of surprise and joy when they realized that the National Headquarters building belonged to them! Every one of the thousands of martyrs

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who died for their Faith in the early years of its history would surely have felt his death newly vindicated in the glowing faces of these new Bahá’ís as they walked with devout feet before the Portrait of the Báb. In Him they saw the Herald who had given His life that men might find the Promised One.

Bahá’ís present who had been in the Faith for many years felt a sharp sting of remorse when the Africans asked why the Bahá’ís had waited one hundred and nine years before bringing them the joyful tidings of a new day. Well might they reproach themselves, having at last discovered that in the heart of Africa were millions of souls untainted by the materialism now eating into the Vitals of the Western world. Here, waiting, were a people as pure in heart as those who first believed in Jesus Christ. The Guardian has said that many of the Africans had accepted the Bahá’í Faith like the Christians in The Book of Acts. Indeed, many had come through dreams and visions as did the early Christians whose faith shed

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light on all the civilized world. Like them, the Africans at once realized the burning truth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Message. Like them, they longed to hasten with the tidings to their fellow-men. From them flows at dynamic force of belief that will hasten the emergence of their great continent and will, in turn, spread its influence to other parts of the world.

This Conference forever laid to rest the time-worn idea that primitive people are child-like and cannot shoulder their share of responsibility for world development. They, like all other peoples, can readily assume their place when their hearts and minds are won over to a noble ideal, divinely inspired. This is the alchemy that brings the true brotherhood of man and true progress in civilization.

Though it was the Africans who thanked the Bahá’í visitors for having demonstrated to them the unity of man, it was the Visitors who learned the profound lesson that spiritually, there are no primitive people—only those waiting to be awakened.

[Page 133]3. THE ALL-AMERICA INTERCONTINENTAL TEACHING CONFERENCE HELD IN CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., APRIL 29-MAY 6, 1953

THE GUARDIAN’S MESSAGES TO THE CONFERENCE

(1)

Presented by RUHfYYIH IQJIANUM

ON THE occasion of the launching of an epochal, global, spiritual, decade-long crusade, constituting the high-water mark of the festivities commemorating the Centenary of the birth of the Mission of Bahá’u’lláh, coinciding with the ninetieth Anniversary of the Declaration of that same Mission in the Garden of Riḍván, and synchronizing with both the convocation of the All-American Intercontinental Teaching Conference in Chicago, and the fiftieth Anniversary of the inception of the holiest Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Bahá’í world and its dedication to public worship—on such a solemn and historic occasion I invite His followers, the world over, to contemplate with me the glorious and manifold evidences of the onward march of His Faith and of the steady unfoldment of its embryonic World Order both in the Holy Land and in the five continents of the globe.

This infinitely precious Faith, despite eleven decades of uninterrupted persecution, on the part of governments and ecclesiastics, involving the martyrdom of its ProphetHerald, the four banishments and fortyyear—long exile suffered by its Founder, the forty years of incarceration inflicted upon its Exemplar, and the sacrifice of no less than twenty thousand of its followers, has succeeded in firmly establishing itself in all the continents of the globe, and is irresistibly forging ahead, with accelerating momentum bidding fair to envelop, at the close of the coming decade, the whole planet with the radiance of its splendor.

Confined within the lifetime of its Martyr Prophet to two countries, reaching during the period of the ministry of its Author thirteen other lands; planting its banner in the

course of the ministry of the Center of the Covenant in twenty additional sovereign states and dependencies in both hemispheres, this Faith has spread, since the ascension Of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to ninety-four countries, raising the total number of the territories within its pale to one hundred twenty-nine, no less than eighteen of which were added in a single year, while fifty-one were opened in the course of the nine year interval separating the first from the second Bahá’í Jubilee. The number of eastern and western languages into which its literature has been translated and printed, or is in the process of translation, and which reached forty-one a decade ago, is now ninety-one, including thirteen African and twenty-five Indian and Burmese languages. The number of settlements in Greenland provided with Bahá’í Scriptures in the Greenlandic tongue has been raised to forty-eight, including Thule beyond the Arctic Circle and Etah near the 80th latitude, whilst Bahá’í literature in that same language has been despatched as far north as the radio station at Brondlunsfjord, Pearyland, 82nd latitude, the northernmost outpost of the world. Representatives of thirty-one races and of twenty—four African tribes have been enrolled in the Bahá’í World Community. Contact has been established with the following seventeen minority groups and races: the Eskimos of Alaska and Greenland, the Lapps of Scandinavia, the Maoris of New Zealand, the Sea-Dayaks of Sarawak, the Polynesians Of the Fiji Islands, the Cree Indians of Prairie Provinces, Canada, the Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, the Oneida Indians in Wisconsin, the Omaha Indians in Nebraska, the Seminole Indians in

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Florida, the Mexican Indians in Mexico, the Indians of the San Blas Islands, the Indians of Chichicastenango in Guatemala, the Mayans in Yucatan, the Patagonian Indians in Argentina, the Indians of La Paz in Bolivia and the Inca Indians in Peru.

The national Plans, formulated and vigorously and systematically prosecuted, in the course of the concluding years of the first, and the opening years of the second, epoch of the Formative Age of the Faith, by the Bahá’í Communities in the United States, in Persia, in the British Isles, in Latin America, in Canada, in India, Pékistén and Burma, in ‘Iráq, in Australia and New Zealand, in Germany and Austria, in Egypt and the Sfidén, have raised the number of Bahá’í centers established in both hemispheres to two thousand five hundred maintained by representatives of the white, the black, the yellow, the red and the brown races of mankind, comprising ten in the Arabian Peninsula, over thirty in Egypt and the Sfidén, over forty in the recently opened European goal countries, over fifty in the British Isles, over sixty in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, over seventy in Germany and Austria, over ninety in Canada, over ninety in India, Pékistén and Burma, over one hundred in Central and South America, over six hundred in Persia and over one thousand two hundred in the United States of America. The Superstructure of the Sepulcher of the Martyr Herald of the Faith—a threequarters of a million dollar enterprise—is nearing completion, on the slopes of the Mountain of God, within the heart of the Holy Land, the nest of the Prophets, and the divinely chosen Spiritual and Administrative Center of the Bahá’í world. The preliminary measures, heralding the unfoldment of the institution of Guardianship, the pivot of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament, have been adopted, through the appointment of the first two contingents of the Hands of the Cause, numbering nineteen, recruited from the five continents of the globe, representative in their extraction of the three principal religions of mankind, and constituting the nucleus of that august institution invested with such weighty and sacred functions by the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant. The International Bahá’í Council, comprising eight members, charged with assisting in the manifold activities attendant upon the rise of the World Administrative Center of the Faith, which must pave the

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way for the formation of a Bahá’í International Court and the eventual emergence of the Universal House of Justice, the Supreme Legislative Body of the future Bahá’í Commonwealth, has been established, enlarged, and the functions of its members defined. The number of the pillars of the Universal House of Justice has been raised to twelve through the successive formation of the Canadian, the Central American, the South American and the Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assemblies. The stupendous process of the rise and consolidation of the World Administrative Center of the Faith has been accelerated through the acquisition, in the Plain of ‘Akká, of a one hundred and sixty thousand square meter area, surrounding the Qiblih of the Bahá’í world, permitting of the extension of the Outer Sanctuary of the Most Holy Tomb—to be designated henceforth the Ḥaram—i-Aqdasthrough the initiation, at the inception of the Holy Year, of the landscaping and embellishment of a tenth of the acquired area, and through the adoption of measures for the extensive illumination of the entire Sanctuary and the erection of stately portals constituting a befitting tribute to the memory of the Author of the Faith, within the Sacred Precincts of His Sepulcher, on the occasion of the celebration of the Greatest Festival of the Year commemorating the Centenary of the birth of His Mission. The fifty-year-old enterprise, involving the purchase of land for the construction, the exterior and interior ornamentation, and the landscaping of the grounds of, the holiest House of Worship ever to be reared to the glory of the Most Great Name, the Mother Temple of the West, and involving the expenditure of over two and a half million dollars, has been consummated, in time for its dedication to public worship during the Riḍván period of this Holy Year coinciding with both the fiftieth anniversary of the inception of this enterprise and the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s ministry. The design for the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár on Mt. Carmel, conceived by the architect appointed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, has been completed, and a model constructed, which is soon to be unveiled at the All-America Intercontinental Teaching Conference, in anticipation of the selection and the purchase of its future site, and of its ultimate construction in the neighborhood of the Báb’s Sepulcher. The total area of Bahá’í

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international endowments, surrounding and permanently dedicated to the Tomb of the Báb has been raised, through recent successive purchases of extensive plots, overlooking that hallowed Spot, to almost onequarter of a million square meters. The estimated value of the Bahá’í international endowments and holy Places at the World Center of the Faith, in the twin cities of ‘Akká and Haifa, has passed the four million dollar mark. The Bahá’í national endowments in the United States of America now exceed three million dollars. The area of land purchased on the slopes of the Elburz Mountains, overlooking the city of Ṭihrán, in anticipation of the construction of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of Persia, has reached approximately four million square meters. The area of land dedicated to the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh, in the vicinity of the confines of the Holy Land, exceeds two million three hundred thousand square meters. The area of land dedicated to the Shrine of the Báb and registered in the name of the Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America, is more than one hundred thousand square meters. Over one hundred and fifty thousand square meters of land have been dedicated to the Faith in the Antipodes, eighty thousand square meters in the Territory of Alaska, whilst the lands contributed in Latin America for a similar purpose approximate one—half of a million square meters, ninety thousand of which have been set aside near Santiago, Chile for the first Mashriqu’l-Acfllkér of South America. The estimated value of the National Bahá’í administrative headquarters established in Ṭihrán, in Wilmette, Illinois, in Baghdád, in Cairo, in New Delhi, in Sydney, in Frankfurt and in Toronto, exceed one and three-quarters of a million dollars. The Bahá’í Spiritual Assemblies now incorporated number one hundred and fourteen, of which nine are national and the rest local Assemblies, fifty-six of which are in the United States of America, sixteen in India, eleven in South America, six in Central America, three each in Pékistén, in Burma and in Canada, two in Australia and one each in Germany, in Baluchistén, in New Zealand, in the Philippine Islands and in Malaya. The Bahá’í Marriage Certificate has been recognized by the Israel Civil Authorities, as well as by twenty-one federal districts and states of the United States of

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America. The Bahá’í Holy Days have been recognized by the Ministry of Education of the State of Israel, in the British Isles, by the state of Victoria in Australia, in Anchorage, Alaska, in Washington, DC. and in seven states of the American Union. National Bahá’í Conferences have been held in recent years in Bern, Ziirich, Basel, Rome; National Bahá’í Women’s Conventions and Youth Conferences have convened in Ṭihrán, whilst Regional Teaching Conferences have been organized in Buenos Aires, in Panama City, in Scandinavia, in the Iberian Peninsula, and in the Benelux countries. European International Teaching Conferences have been convened successively in Geneva, in Brussels, in Copenhagen, in Scheveningen and in Luxembourg City, paving the way for the convocation of four successive Intercontinental Teaching Conferences, the first of which has recently been held in Kampala, in the heart of the African continent, the rest to be successively convened in Wilmette, Illinois, in Stockholm and in New Delhi—Conferences which, God Willing, will be the forerunners of the World Bahá’í Congress, to be convened in the City of Bag_hdéd, on the occasion of the centenary of the formal assumption by Bahá’u’lláh of His prophetic Office. Recognition has been extended to the Faith by the United Nations as an international nongovernmental organization enabling the Bahá’í International Community to appoint accredited representatives, who have already attended, in their capacity as observers, the Conference on Human Rights held in Geneva and the United Nations General Assembly held in Paris and participated in United Nations regional non-governmental conferences, held in localities as far apart as New York, Santiago, Manila, Istanbul, Den Passar, Paris, Managua, Geneva and Montevideo.

So glorious a record of accomplishments in the service of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, whether local, national or international, in both the teaching and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity, can be regarded in no other light than as a prelude to a period of prodigious expansion and consolidation to be inaugurated by the launching of a global spiritual crusade, on the threshold of which the Bahá’í world now stands. This crusade extending through ten years will involve the simultaneous prosecution of twelve National Plans, will necessitate the active and sus [Page 136]136

tained participation of each of the twelve existing National Spiritual Assemblies representing no less than thirty-six nations and will demand the utmost exertion, consecration and heroism. It aims at the broadening and the reinforcement of the foundations of the Faith in each of the twelve areas that are to serve as operational bases for the prosecution of these twelve National Plans; the opening of one hundred and thirty-one territories to the Faith, the consolidation of one hundred and eighteen territories; the translation and printing of literature in ninety-one languages; the construction of two Mashriqu’l-Acfllkérs; the acquisition of sites for the future construction of eleven Temples; the formation of forty-eight National Spiritual Assemblies; the founding of forty-seven National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds; the incorporation of fifty National Spiritual Assemblies; the framing of Bahá’í national constitutions and the establishment of Bahá’í national endowments by each of these National Assemblies; the adoption of preliminary measures for the construction of Bahá’u’lláh’s Sepulcher; the erection of the first Dependency of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the western world; the development of the institution of the Hands of the Cause; the transformation of the International Bahá’í Council into an international Bahá’í court; the codification of the Laws and Ordinances of the Kitáb—i—Aqdas; the establishment of six National Bahá’í Courts in the chief cities of the Islamic East; the extension of international Bahá’í endowments in the Plain of ‘Akká. and on the slopes of Mt. Carmel; the construction of the International Bahá’í Archives in the neighborhood of the Báb’s Sepulcher; the construction of the Tomb of the Báb’s Wife in Shiréz; the identification of the resting—places of Bahá’u’lláh’s father, of the Báb’s mother and of His cousin and their reburial in the neighborhood of the Most Great House; the acquisition of the Garden of Riḍván in Baghdád, and of the sites of the Siyah-C_t1él_in Ṭihrán, of the Báb’s martyrdom in Tabríz and of His incarceration in Chiríq; the establishment of six Bahá’í National Publishing Trusts; the formation of seven Israel Branches of Bahá’í National Spiritual Assemblies; the participation of women in the membership of Bahá’í local and national Spiritual Assemblies in Persia; the establishment of a Bahá’í National Printing-Press in Ṭihrán; the reinforcement of the ties bind THE BAHA’I WORLD

ing the Bahá’í World Community with the United Nations; the opening to the Faith, circumstances permitting, of eleven Republics comprised in the Soviet Union, as well as two Soviet-controlled European statesall, please God, culminating in the convocation of a World Bahá’í Congress, in the vicinity of the Garden of Riḍván, in the third holiest city of the Bahá’í world, on the occasion of the world-wide celebrations commemorating the centenary of the formal assumption by Bahá’u’lláh of His prophetic Office.

Let there be no mistake. The avowed, the primary aim of this Spiritual Crusade is none other than the conquest of the citadels of men’s hearts. The theater of its operations is the entire planet. Its duration a whole decade. Its commencement synchronizes with the Centenary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission. Its culmination will coincide with the Centenary of the Declaration of that same Mission. The agencies assisting in its conduct are the nascent administrative institutions of a steadily evolving divinely appointed Order. Its driving force is the energizing influence generated by the Revelation heralded by the Báb and proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh. Its Marshal is none other than the Author of the Divine Plan. Its standardbearers are the Hands of the Cause of God appointed in every continent of the globe. Its generals are the twelve National Spiritual Assemblies participating in the execution of its design. Its vanguard is the chief executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Master Plan, their allies and associates. Its legions are the rank and file of believers standing behind these same twelve National Assemblies and sharing in the global task embracing the American, the European, the African, the Asiatic and Australian fronts. The charter directing its course is the immortal Tablets that have flowed from the Pen of the Center of the Covenant Himself. The armor with Which its onrushing hosts have been invested is the glad tidings of God’s own Message in this Day, the principles underlying the Order proclaimed by His Messenger, and the laws and ordinances governing His Dispensation. The battlecry animating its heroes and heroines is the cry of Ya Bahá’u’l~Abhá, Yé ‘Aliyyu’l-A‘lé’.

So vast, so momentous and challenging a crusade that will, God willing, illuminate the annals of the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, and

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immortalize the second decade of the second Bahá’í century, and the termination of which will mark the closing of the first Epoch in the evolution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan, will, in itself, pave the way for, and constitute the prelude to, the initiation of the laborious and tremendously long process of establishing in the course of subsequent crusades in all the newly opened sovereign states, dependencies and islands of the planet, as well as in all the remaining territories of the globe, the framework of the Administrative Order of the Faith, with all its attendant agencies, and of eventually erecting in these territories still more pillars to share in sustaining the weight, and in broadening the foundation, of the Universal House of Justice.

Then, and only then, will the vast, the majestic process, set in motion at the dawn of the Adamic cycle, attain its consummation—a process which commenced six thousand years ago, with the planting, in the soil of the Divine Will, of the Tree of Divine Revelation, and which has already passed through certain stages and must needs pass through still others ere it attains its final consummation. The first part of this process was the slow and steady growth of this Tree of Divine Revelation, successively putting forth its branches, shoots and offshoots, and revealing its leaves, buds and blossoms, as a direct consequence of the light and warmth, imparted to it by a series of progressive Dispensations associated with Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and other Prophets, and of the vernal showers of blood shed by countless martyrs in their path. The second part of this process was the fruition of this Tree, “that belongeth neither to the East nor to the West,” when the Báb appeared as the Perfect Fruit and declared His Mission in the Year Sixty in the City of S_l;iiréz. The third part was the grinding of this sacred Seed, of infinite preciousness and potency, in the mill of adversity causing it to yield its oil, six years later; in the City of Tabríz. The fourth part was the ignition of this oil by the Hand of Providence in the depths and amidst the darkness of the SiyéhQ1511 of Tihran a hundred years ago. The fifth, was the clothing of that flickering Light, which had scarcely penetrated the adjoining territory of ‘Iráq, in the lamp of Revelation, after an eclipse lasting no less than ten years, in the City of Bag_hdad. The sixth, was the spread of the radiance of that

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Light, shining with added brilliancy in its crystal globe in Adrianople, and later on in the fortress-town of ‘Akká, t0 thirteen countries in the Asiatic and African continents. The seventh was its projection, from the Most Great Prison, in the course of the ministry of the Center of the Covenant, across the seas and the shedding of its illumination upon twenty sovereign states and dependencies in the American, the European, and Australian continents. The eighth part of that process was the difiusion of that same Light in the course of the first, and the opening years of the second, epoch of the Formative Age Of the Faith, over ninetyfour sovereign states, dependencies and islands of the planet, as a result of the prosecution of a series of national Plans, initiated by eleven National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the Bahá’í world, utilizing the agencies of a newly emerged, divinely appointed Administrative Order, and which has now culminated in the One Hundredth Anniversary of the birth of Baha’u’llah’s Mission. The ninth part of this process—the stage we are now enteringflis the further diffusion of that same Light over one hundred and thirty-one additional territories and islands in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, through the operation of a decade-long world spiritual crusade whose termination will, God willing, coincide with the Most Great Jubilee commemorating the centenary of the Declaration of Bahá’u’lláh in Bag_hdéd. And finally the tenth part of this mighty process must be the penetration of that Light, in the course of numerous Crusades and of successive epochs of both the Formative and Golden Ages of the Faith, into all the remaining territories of the globe through the erection of the entire machinery of Bahá’u’lláh’s Administrative Order in all territories, both East and West, the stage at which the Light of God’s triumphant Faith shining in all its power and glory will have suffused and enveloped the entire planet.

This present Crusade, on the threshold of which we now stand, will, moreover, by virtue of the dynamic forces it will release and its wide repercussions over the entire surface of the globe, contribute effectually to the acceleration of yet another process of tremendous significance which will carry the steadily evolving Faith of Baha’u’llah through its present stages of obscurity, of repression, of emancipation and of recogni [Page 138]138

z, tion—stages one or another of which Bahai national communities in various parts of the world now find themselves in, to the stage of establishment, the stage at which the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh will be recognized by the civil authorities as the State Religion, similar to that which Christianity entered in the years following the death of the Emperor Constantine, a stage which must later be followed by the emergence of the Bahá’í state itself, functioning, in all religious and civil matters, in strict accordance with the Laws and Ordinances of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy, the Mother-Book of the Bahá’í Revelation, a stage which, in the fullness of time, will culminate in the establishment of the World Bahá’í Commonwealth, functioning in the plenitude of its powers, and which will signalize the long-awaited advent of the

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Christ-promised Kingdom of God on earth ——the Kingdom of Bahá’u’lláh—mirroring however faintly upon this humble handful of dust the glories of the Abhá Kingdom.

This final and crowning stage in the evolution of the Plan wrought by God Himself for humanity will, in turn, prove to be the signal for the birth of a world civilization, incomparable in its range, its character and potency, in the history of mankind,—a civilization which posterity will, with one voice, acclaim as the fairest fruit of the Golden Age of the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh, and whose rich harvest will be garnered during ' future Dispensations destined to succeed one another in the course of the five thousand century Bahá’í Cycle.

—SHOGHI

May 4, 1953.

(2)

Presented by RUHIYYIH QANUM

TO THE Hands of the Cause, the members of the National Spiritual Assemblies, the pioneers, the resident believers and visitors attending the All-America Intercontinental Teaching Conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Well-beloved Friends:

With a heart overflowing with joy and thankfulness I acclaim, at this hour marking the climax of the world-wide festivities of this Holy Year, the convocation, in the heart of the North American continent and under the shadow of the newly consecrated Mother Temple of the West, of the second and, without doubt, the most distinguished of the four Intercontinental Teaching Conferences commemorating the Centenary of the inception of the Mission of Bahá’u’lláh. On the occasion of the opening of this epochmaking Conference, at which members of the United States, the Canadian, the Central American and South American National Spiritual Assemblies, as well as representatives of the Bahá’í Communities in the States of the American Union, in the Provinces of the Dominion of Canada, in Alaska, and in the Republics of Latin America, are assembled, I recall the unique, the historic, the highly significant and profoundly moving

summons issued by the Author of the Bahá’í Faith Himself, and enshrined for all time in the Mother-Book of His Revelation and Repository of His Laws, and addressed collectively to the rulers of the entire Western Hemisphere, conferring upon them an honor such as has not been conferred by Him on the rulers of any other continent of the globe. With a throbbing heart I call to mind, at a distance of more than a century, since the Herald of the Faith bade in His Qayyfimu’l-Asmá’ the “peoples of the West” to “issue forth” from their “cities” to aid His Cause, the long series of events which have illuminated the annals of Bahá’í history in the course of six memorable decades stretching from the time when the name of Bahá’u’lláh was first publicly mentioned on the American continent to the present hour when the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West has finally been dedicated to public worship on the occasion of the celebrations signalizing the termination of the first century since the birth of His Mission. I can but, at this juncture, touch upon certain outstanding episodes which, Viewed in their proper perspective, may well be regarded as landmarks in the rise and development of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh throughout the Americas. I am particularly reminded of the

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holding of the World Parliament of Religions of Chicago in September 1893; of the arrival of the first American Bahá’í pilgrims in the Holy Land in December 1898; of the inception of the Temple enterprise in June 1903; of the opening of the first American Bahá’í Convention in March 1909; of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s arrival in America in April 1912; of the laying by Him of the cornerstone of the Mashriqu’l-Atflukér in May 1912; of the unveiling of the Tablets of the Divine Plan in April 1919; of the birth and rise of the Bahá’í Administrative Order on the morrow of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ascension; of the official inauguration of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Plan through the launching of the first Seven-Year Teaching enterprise in April 1937; of the completion of the exterior ornamentation of the Mashriqu’l-Ac_l_hkér, on the eve of the Centenary Celebrations of the Founding of the Faith, in May 1944; of the inception of the second Seven-Year Plan in April 1946; of the formation of an independent National Spiritual Assembly in the Dominion of Canada in April 1948; of the establishment of the National Spiritual Assemblies of Central and South America in April 1951; and of the completion of the interior ornamentation of the Temple in October 1952.

So remarkable a development in the course of the past six decades, spanning the concluding phase of the Heroic, and the opening decade of the Formative, Age of the Faith, and encompassing the length and breadth of a continent, so greatly blessed, so richly endowed, has resulted in the extension of the ramifications of a nascent Administrative Order to every State of the American Union, to every Province of the Dominion of Canada, and to every Republic of Central and South America; in the construction, the ornamentation, and the dedication to public worship of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Western World; in the erection of no less than four pillars destined with others to sustain the weight of the final and crowning unit of the Administrative Structure of the Faith; in the establishment of over ninety centers in the Dominion of Canada, of over an hundred centers in Latin America, and of over twelve hundred centers in the Great Republic of the West, covering a range that stretches from the Arctic Circle in the North to the extremity of Chile in the South; in the founding of local and national endowments estimated at over three million dollars; in

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the incorporation of no less than four national, and of more than fifty local, Bahá’í Spiritual Assemblies; in the recognition by eighteen States of the American Union of the Bahá’í Marriage Certificate; in the establishment of two national administrative headquarters, one in the Dominion of Canada and the other in the heart of the North American continent; in the framing of national Bahá’í constitutions; in the inauguration of summer schools; and in a notable progress in the translation, the printing and the dissemination of Bahá’í literature.

The hour has now struck for the National Bahá’í Communities dwelling within the confines of the Western Hemisphere—the first region in the Western World to be warmed and illuminated by the rays of God’s infant Faith shining from its World Center in the Holy Land—to arise and, in thanksgiving for the manifold blessings continually showered upon them from on high during the past six decades and for the inestimable bounties of God’s unfailing protection and sustaining grace vouchsafed His Cause ever since its inception more than a century ago, and in anticipation of the Most Great Jubilee which will commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Bahá’u’lláh’s formal assumption of His Prophetic Office, launch, determinedly and unitedly, the third and last stage of an enterprise inaugurated sixteen years ago, the termination of which will mark the closing of the initial epoch in the evolution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan. Standing on the threshold of a ten-year long, world-embracing spiritual crusade these Communities are now called upon, by virtue of the weighty pronouncement recorded in the Most Holy Book, and in direct consequence of the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, to play a preponderating role in the systematic propagation of the Faith, in the course of the coming decade, which will, God willing, culminate in the spiritual conquest of the entire planet.

It is incumbent upon the members of the American Bahá’í Community, the chief executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan, the members of the Canadian Bahá’í Community acting as their allies, and the members of the Latin American Bahá’í Communities in their capacity as associates in the execution of this Plan, to brace themselves and initiate, in addition to the responsibilities they have assumed, and will assume, in other continents of the globe, an intercon [Page 140]140

tinental campaign designed to carry a stage further the glorious work already inaugurated throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The task, at once arduous, thrilling and challenging, which now confronts these four Bahá’í Communities involves: First, the formation, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, and in collaboration with the two existing National Assemblies in Latin America, of one National Spiritual Assembly in each of the twenty Latin American Republics as well as the establishment of a National Spiritual Assembly in Alaska under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America. Second, the establishment of the first Dependency of the Mashriqu’l-Acfllkér in Wilmette. Third, the purchase of land for the future construction of two Mashriqu’l-A(ihkérs, one in Toronto, Ontario; one in Panama City, Panama, situated respectively in North and in Central America. Fourth, the opening of the following twenty-seven virgin territories and islands: Anticosti Island, Baranof Island, Cape Breton Island, Franklin, Grand Manan Island, Keewatin, Labrador, Magdalen Islands, Miquelon Island and St. Pierre Island, Queen Charlotte Islands and Yukon, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada; Aleutian Islands, Falkland Islands, Key West and Kodiak Island assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America; Bahama Islands, British Honduras, Dutch West Indies and Margarita Island, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Central America; British Guiana, Chiloé Island, Dutch Guiana, French Guiana, Galapagos Islands, Juan Fernandez Island, Leeward Islands, and Windward Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of South America. Fifth, the translation and publication of Bahá’í literature in the following ten languages, to be undertaken by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America: Aguaruna, Arawak, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Iroquois, Lengua, Mataco, Maya, Mexican and Yahgan. Sixth, the consolidation of Greenland, Mackenzie and Newfoundland, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada; of Alaska, the Hawaii Islands and Puerto Rico allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of Amer THE BAHA’I WORLD

ica; of Bermuda, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Central America; and of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Perfi, Uruguay and Venezuela, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of South America. Seventh, the incorporation of the twenty—one above mentioned National Spiritual Assemblies. Eighth, the establishment by these same National Spiritual Assemblies of national Bahá’í endowments. Ninth, the establishment of a National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in the capital city of each of the afore-mentioned Republics, as well as one in Anchorage, Alaska. Tenth, the formation of two National Bahá’í Publishing Trusts, one in Wilmette, Illinois, and the other in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Eleventh, the formation of an Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada, authorized to hold, on behalf of its parent institution, property dedicated to the holy Shrines at the World Center of the Faith in the State of Israel. Twelfth, the appointment during Riḍván 1954, by the Hands of the Cause in the United States and Canada, of an auxiliary Board of nine members who will, in conjunction with the four National Spiritual Assemblies participating in the American campaign, assist, through periodic and systematic visits to Bahá’í centers, in the efficient and prompt execution of the Plans formulated for the prosecution of the teaching campaign in the American Continent. Mindful of the magnificent services rendered during over half a century by the chief executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan, within a territory that posterity will regard as the cradle of the embryonic World Order of Bahá’u’lláh and the stronghold of its nascent institutions, and confident that this vast and historic assemblage, over which the national elected representatives of this privileged Community are presiding, will prove to be the harbinger of still greater victories, I have been impelled to transmit, through my special representative, who will participate on my behalf in the proceedings of this Conference and act as my deputy at the official dedication of the Mashriqu’l-chhkér, a reproduction of the Portrait of Bahá’u’lláh Himself, made in the prime of His life, whilst an exile in Baggidéd, as a token of my

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admiration for this Community’s unflagging and herculean labors, and as a benediction and inspiration for those who, whether officially or unofficially, are participating in the proceedings of a Conference that will go down in history as the most momentous gathering held since the close of the Heroic Age of the Faith and will be regarded as

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the most potent agency in paving the way for the launching of one of the most brilliant phases of the grandest crusade ever undertaken by the followers of Bahá’u’lláh since the inception of His Faith more than a hundred years ago.

—SHOGHI Sunday, May 3, 1953.

(3)

THE GUARDIAN’S MESSAGE ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEDICATION OF THE MOTHER-TEMPLE OF THE WEST

Presented by RI’JHiYYIH QANUM

ON BEHALF of the Guardian of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, I have the great honor of dedicating this first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Western World to public worship.

“Initiated fifty years ago, its foundation stone laid by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of the Founder of the Faith, raised by contributions from its followers all over the world, reared in the vicinity of the first Bahá’í center established in the West, this House of Worship, now opening wide its doors to peoples of all creeds, of all races, of all nations and of all classes, is dedicated to the three fundamental verities animating and underlying the Bahá’í Faith—the Unity of God, the Unity of His Prophets, the Unity of Mankind.

“I greet and welcome you on behalf of the Guardian of our Faith within these walls, and invite you to share with us the words recorded in the Sacred Scriptures which we believe to be repositories of the eternal and fundamental truths revealed by God in various ages, for the guidance and salvation of all mankind.

“May I now request you all to rise while I read on behalf of the Guardian of the Faith these words of prayer written by the Author of the Bahá’í Revelation:

“ ‘O God, Who art the Author of all Manifestations, the Source of all Sources, the Fountain-Head of all Revelations, and the Well-Spring of all Lights! I testify that by Thy Name the heaven of understanding hath been adorned, and the ocean of utterance

hath surged, and the dispensations of Thy providence have been promulgated unto the followers of all religions . . . Lauded and glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! Thou art He Who from everlasting hath been clothed with majesty, with authority and power, and will continue unto everlasting to be arrayed with honor, with strength and glory. The learned, one and all, stand aghast before the signs and tokens of Thy handiwork, while the wise find themselves, without exception, impotent to unravel the mystery of Them Who are the Manifestations of Thy might and power. Every man of insight hath confessed his powerlessness to scale the heights of Thy knowledge, and every man of learning hath acknowledged his failure to fathom the nature of Thine Essence.

“‘Having barred the way that leadeth unto Thee, Thou hast, by virtue of Thine authority and through the potency of Thy will, called into being Them Who are the Manifestations of Thy Self, and hast entrusted Them with Thy message unto Thy people, and caused Them to become the DaySprings of Thine inspiration, the Exponents of Thy Revelation, the Treasuries of Thy knowledge and the Repositories of Thy Faith, that all men may, through Them, turn their faces towards Thee, and may draw nigh unto the kingdom of Thy Revelation and the heaven of Thy grace.

“ ‘I beseech Thee, therefore, by Thyself and by Them, to send down, from the right

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Rúḥíyyih Khánum presenting the Guardian’s Message of Dedication of the Bahá’í House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois, May 2, 1953.

hand of the throne of Thy grace, upon all that dwell on earth, that which shall wash them from the stain of their trespasses against Thee, and cause them to become wholly devoted to Thy Self, O Thou in

Whose hand is the source of all gifts, that they may all arise to serve Thy Cause, and may detach themselves entirely from all except Thee. Thou art the Almighty, the AllGlorious, the Unrestrained.’ ”

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REPORTS OF THE ALL-AMERICA INTERCONTINENTAL TEACHING CONFERENCE

(4) REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE

By BEATRICE ASHTON

THE second and, in the Guardian’s words, “without doubt, the most distinguished of the four Intercontinental Teaching Conferences commemorating the Centenary of the inception of the Mission of Bahá’u’lláh” was held in Chicago and Wilmette, Illinois, May 3 through 6, 1953. As the Guardian stated in one of his messages to the Conference, this occasion marked the launching of the “epochal, global, spiritual decade-long crusade.” This crusade represents the “third and last stage of an enterprise inaugurated sixteen years ago, the termination of which will mark the closing of the initial epoch in the evolution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan.”

The Inter-America Conference, convened by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, embracing the United States, Canada, Central and South America, was endowed by our beloved Guardian with great and special blessings. The sacrifice of the Guardian, already overburdened with work, in sending to the Conference as his personal representative ‘Amatu’l-Bahá. Rúḥíyyih Khánum, gave to the deliberations of the Conference and to the next ten years their basic clue.

The presence of all five Hands of the Cause from Persia, ever ready with inspiring stories of heroic deeds, brought a unique blessing to this Conference of the West. Sacrifice—love—deeds, these must needs be our equipment for the coming ten years, already begun.

The Conference was especially blessed with two tremendously pregnant messages .from Shoghi Effendi, read by Rúḥíyyih Khánum, one at the opening session and the other the following day.

The unveiling by Charles Mason Remey, president of the Bahá’í International Council and Hand of the Cause, of the model of his design for the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár on Mount Carmel was also an event of this Conference by the special request of the Guardian. That

the Conference itself was convened during Riḍván period, the mid-point of the Holy Year, was again due to the loving plans of our Guardian.

In all, twelve Hands of the Cause were present. Besides the three members of the Bahá’í International Council and the five Hands of the Cause from Persia, there were Mr. Mt’isa Banéni of Africa, Mr. Fred Schopflocher of Canada, and Mrs. Dorothy Baker and Mr. Horace Holley of the United States.

The Conference was held in the Medinah Temple in Chicago, a large building which comfortably accommodated the sessions and activities attended by two thousand three hundred and forty-four registered Bahá’ís from thirty-three different countries of the world, including two hundred and thirty-five who came from countries other than the United States. A total of some twenty-five hundred Bahá’ís had attended the Bahá’í Consecration Service held at the House of Worship on May 1.

One of the important services rendered by the Jubilee Committee was the provision of a duplicate set of attractive, leather-bound Guest Books for the registration of Bahá’ís attending all or any of the Jubilee events conducted in Medinah Temple. One of these volumes has been sent to the Guardian, and the other is preserved permanently in the National Archives.

A second set of duplicate volumes was maintained at the Temple for registration of believers unable to attend the sessions held in Chicago.

From the moment, on Sunday morning, May 3, that the Inter-Ameriea Conference was opened with prayers read in English and Spanish and chanted in Persian, and the chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, Paul Haney, spoke its cordial welcome to all present, saying, “This is a unique and historic event,” one felt caught up in a transcending spiritual current

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which presaged indeed a new phase in the evolution of the Faith, the like of which had never before been experienced in the world.

The roll call of visitors from the various countries included Bahá’ís from Persia, Turkey, Australia, J apan, Denmark, British East Africa, Sweden, Finland, France, the provinces of Canada, as well as the Northwest Territories, ten of the fourteen countries and islands of Central America opened to the Faith, nine of the ten republics of South America, and forty-seven States of the United States, plus Alaska and Hawaii. Races represented included the Negro, North American Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian and Caucasian, Persian and Turkish.

The high note of the opening session came when the love of the Guardian was brought to the Conference by ‘Amatu’l-Bahá. Rúḥíyyih Khánum and she read his opening message [see page 133].

At the morning session of the second day, the Guardian’s second message was read by Rúḥíyyih Khánum. In this message the Guardian gives a monumental survey of the progress of the Faith to date, which, however, must be regarded as a “prelude” to the ‘period now inaugurated. The beloved Guardian, in his love and mercy, as ever holds before us the promise of the glorious future, while outlining to us the challenging tasks of the present.

Then Rúḥíyyih Khánum spoke to the Conference on “The Character and Purpose of the World Crusade.” [See page 151.]

Following this stirring session four pioneer tables—one for each of the four “allied” and “associated” National Spiritual Assemblies—were set up. During the luncheon period these tables were crowded with Bahá’ís volunteering to pioneer, leaving their names and addresses with the respective National Spiritual Assembly representative. At the opening of the afternoon session the co-chairman of the Conference, Mrs. Dorothy Baker, called all those, and others who wished to pioneer, to the platform to give their names over the microphone. Most of them also spoke a few words and stated where they would like to go. An eventual total of one hundred and fifty Bahá’ís of various countries signified their wish to pioneer. Included were two anonymous offers to serve in leper colonies.

To implement the consultation on pioneering under the topic “The Art of Open THE BAHA’I WORLD

ing New Territories” during the afternoon session, Mr. Mt’isé Banéni, Hand of the Cause from Africa, gave an absorbing account of how it is done in Africa.

Mr. Banéni first conveyed the greetings sent by the Bahá’ís from all centers of Africa. He stated that there were three reasons for the great success of the teaching work in Uganda: (1) The bounties and confirmations of Bahá’u’lláh. (2) The complete unity of the pioneers. (3) The exemplary way in which ‘Ali Nalgijavéni, one of the pioneers, conducted himself, with absolute freedom from prejudice. “He went and lived with the Africans in the heart of the jungle,” Mr. Banéni said, “and this was a new experience for the Africans, because at no time previously had any white man acted toward these Africans as he did. In the past the Africans had heard many promises and many beautiful words from white men, but in actions they had always seen the opposite. When they saw that words and deeds were one in the person of ‘Ali Nalgijavéni they immediately warmed up to the Faith and have received the Message of the Faith very eagerly and in exultation.”

Mr. Banéni also emphasized how important it is for the Bahá’í pioneers to make the authorities in the country understand that Bahá’ís have no connection with politics. He told a story of how cooperation with the police on the part of the Bahá’í pioneer, in letting them know he was making a trip to a region of the jungle, vitiated the attempts of a white person to make trouble. Now one of the tribal villages visited has a spiritual assembly. Many of that tribe and others came to the Kampala Conference, eighty Africans in all, invited as guests of the Guardian. The fact that they returned “hale and hearty and much happier” after contact with the Bahá’ís resulted in fifty more coming into the Faith after the Conference.

Consultation on opening new territories was continued on Tuesday morning. The National Spiritual Assembly representatives from Canada, Central America, South America (the “allied” and “associated” Assemblies) and the United States each spoke of the opportunities presented in their virgin areas, and gave short descriptions of the territories assigned to each by the Guardian. All those who had had experience in pioneering anywhere were then asked to give their suggestions for opening new territories.

The role of Bahá’í Youth in pioneering

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Bahá’ís gathered in the House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois,

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on the occasion of its Dedication.

in the World Crusade was presented in the afternoon session. Following the opening devotions, Mrs. Amelia Collins spoke briefly and read the following words spoken by the Guardian, as they offer the “key for all of us today”: The magnetic power is the action of the believers. If they arise and show the right spirit it will act as a magnet and attract this power which is accumulated ready to aid every believer who will arise to serve.

The chairman of the National Bahá’í Youth Committee, Dwight Allen, emphasized the role of Youth as part of the Bahá’í Community in the Ten-Year Crusade—in consultation and in pioneering. He then opened the discussion to all “Youth.” Practical points were brought out concerning the need for Youth to orient their education toward work useful in pioneering and to plan their lives and marriage to that end; and concerning opportunities for jobs in international organizations. The problem of Bahá’í Youth in military service was clari fied, and a recommendation was made to the National Spiritual Assembly that teaching committees be asked to make a special point of contacting foreign students in our universities.

Mr. ‘Ali-Akbar Furl’ltan, Hand of the Cause and secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of Persia, who has written textbooks for Bahá’í children in Persia and for teachers training the Youth, spoke about the pioneering preparation given to Bahá’í Youth in Persia. First, he said, it was made sure that every Bahá’í, young or old, was convinced that this particular phase of the Divine Plan could be achieved. Then, they were assured of the promise of Divine help. Mr. Furfitan gave the Guardian’s three guarantees for the fulfillment of the TenYear Crusade as recently written to the Bahá’ís of Persia: (1) To arise with love, (2) to persevere after one has arisen, and (3) the occurrence of certain events in the world which will in some way assist the ful [Page 146]146

fillment of this Crusade. Mr. Furfitan explained that the Youth are taught that pioneering has two aspects, the personal (that of prayer and study) and the administrative which involves cooperation with their Assemblies and Committees.

At this session there was also consultation concerning the work among the Indians and the Eskimos. Members of the Indian Teaching Committees of Central and of South America reported activities initiated to reach the Indians. The efforts of Bahá’ís in Greenland and Alaska to reach the Eskimos were reported. Teaching in schools, nursing and study of anthropology were mentioned as valuable ways of making these contacts. Mr. Eli Powlas, a full-blooded Oneida Indian now a Bahá’í, was one Who spoke. He was asked by Rúḥíyyih Khánum to translate a Bahá’í pamphlet into his language for Shoghi Effendi. “This would make the Guardian happy,” she said. Of course he eagerly agreed to do it.

Rúḥíyyih Khánum urged us to study the methods of the Guardian, to try to see things with far-seeing vision and make use, in our teaching, of developments on the periphery of the Faith, as evidenced in his pamphlet Information Statistical and Comparative, 1844-1952 and his A ppreciations Of the Bahá’í Faith, which we should use to give people an idea of the extent of the Faith and the quality of those who speak favorably of it.

Monday evening was the time set aside for the Guardian’s representative, ‘Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum, to speak to the Bahá’ís from her heart. She spoke to the heart of every Bahá’í, about many things, all helpful. She spoke chiefly of that which “you want most to hear about—Shoghi Effendi.” And she told how when she first went to serve with the Guardian she had a mental image of the Cause of God as a ship, the Captain of the ship was Shoghi Effendi and the Bahá’ís were all on deck and she was one of them. After a time the image needed revising—the Guardian was the ship, the sea was the Cause of God and the Bahá’ís were traveling on the ship. “Time went by and that image was no longer large enough. Finally I came to the conclusion that the ocean was the Guardian and the Cause of God was the ship and the Cause of God often gets a rough ride and the ocean is tossed by the winds of God.”

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She said: “There is nothing diffuse about Shoghi Effendi. He is like the point of flame that comes out of a blowtorch. . . . Intensity of concentration and action.”

Rúḥíyyih Khánum told of the way in which the Guardian, in two and one-half months, had converted twelve thousand square meters (almost three acres) of land, all sand, around Bahjí and the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh, into beautiful gardens. She said he concentrated sixteen hours a day on getting this work done. “Otherwise it could have taken two years. Everything he does, he does that way. And we must learn to work the way Shoghi Effendi does, because only in that way will we get the Work accomplished.”

She gave instances of the great integrity of the Guardian. “Shoghi Effendi is like the law. . . . He has the mOSt tremendous courage where principle is concerned.” And she told of his returning thirty-four thousand pounds sterling donated at one time during the Guardian’s absence from Haifa by a man “with whom Shoghi Effendi was displeased. He considered that the man’s spirit was not right, that his motives were not pure, and Shoghi Effendi could not accept money from him. He said, ‘How can I take his money and not reinstate him in my good graces? And he can’t buy me.’ ” Rúḥíyyih Khánum added: “You see, it is these things that set the standard of Bahá’ís ill the world. When our integrity is as shining and as clear cut as Shoghi Effendi’s, we will not have much'trouble bringing people into the Faith.”

Rúḥíyyih Khánum spoke of the absolute necessity for us to learn to think in terms of principle and not in terms of personality. “It seems to be a terrible disease that we all have, of constantly thinking of everything in terms of personality. We never seem to get to terms of principle. You see, the Guardian doesn’t care anything about personality. It doesn’t exist as far as he is concerned. He cares only for principle. There are no exceptions to his rule. It doesn't matter who you are or what you have done, how much you have given, how prominent you are, anything to do with you that you might feel entitles you to some special consideration. . . . It is only principle.

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Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum receiving the Bahá’ís at reception given in her honor at the All—America Intercontinental Teaching Conference, Chicago, Illinois, May 4, 1953.

ciple. The principle is your Spiritual Assemblies composed of nine people. They have been elected by you. They are supposed to fulfill certain functions specified in our teachings which are quite clear. Whether they do it very well or very poorly or you think Mrs. Jones is a person who actually started the whole thing and you are sure it is Mr. Smith who doesn’t like you, or whatever the thing is that is going on in your mind, you have got to learn, always, that it is principle that is the thing to follow. . . . We are never, never going to get this administrative order swinging until we forget all individuals, however much they get into our hair, and devote ourselves to the application of the principles involved. . . . You will be astonished what you can do if you ever get over the question of personalities. . . . Don’t look at each other so much as an individual. Look at each other as all Bahá’ís, all belonging to Bahá’u’lláh and all belonging to Shoghi Effendi. . . . And when you see those things, think of that love in your heart for Shoghi Effendi, and say, ‘All right, I love you.’ ”

Following her stirring talk, Rúḥíyyih

Khánum graciously answered about fifty questions written out by Bahá’ís and sent to the platform at her invitation.

The reception for Rúḥíyyih Khánum which followed gave the friends the opportunity to shake hands with her and speak a few words individually with her.

The evening of Tuesday, May 5, was devoted to the World Center, with the unveiling by Charles Mason Remey of his model for the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár to be erected on Mt. Carmel, a talk by Mr. Furutan on the institutions of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, and the viewing of color moving pictures of the Shrines and gardens in Haifa and Bahjí, sent by the beloved Guardian to be shown at the Conference.

As Mr. Remey unveiled the model the friends saw the exquisitely beautiful design for the Mashriqu’l-Acfllkér Of the Holy Land, with the landscaping of its surrounding terrace. Five drawings were also displayed, of various elevations, cross section and interior design. Acquisition of land for its erection is one of the objectives in the development of the World Center during this Crusade.

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Mr. Furfitan’s talk on the World Order was a very comprehensive review tracing the development of the Administration, the importance of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the functions of the two great “pillars" of interpretation and legislation

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later, after he had also visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. On this visit he had with him two of his sons; one of them, Rfihu’lláh, a very gifted child, was only eight years old. One day the Greatest Holy Leaf, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sister, asked the boy what he did in Persia. He

Bahá’ís attending the All-America Intercontinental Teaching Conference who had met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

which support the Administrative Order, and, finally, the steps outlined by the Guardian in his second communication to the Conference through which the development of the Faith would progress.

At the last morning session of the Conference four of the Persian Hands of the Cause had been asked to speak on the “Significance of the Year Nine”—General Shu’é’u’lláh ‘Alá’í, Valiyu’lláh Varqé, Tarazu’lláh Samandari and D_hikru’lláh Khádem.

General ‘Ala’i read from passages in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and told that the exact site of the dungeon Of the Siyéh—C_hal is known but that large buildings have since been built over this property.

Mr. Varqé had been asked to tell about his father and brother who attained to martyrdom. He told the moving story of his grandfather’s making the trip to Bahjí on foot from Persia only to become ill and die just before he reached his goal. He was buried by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in a grave made with His own hands. Mr. Varqé’s father attained the presence of Bahá’u’lláh several times and asked for martyrdom for himself and one of his sons. He was a physician and traveled about Persia to promulgate the Faith. His wish was granted many years

replied, “I was teaching.” So the Greatest Holy Leaf asked him how he taught. He said he spoke only to those who had “perception.” The Greatest Holy Leaf then asked him to tell her whether two boys who were present (sons of Bahá’u’lláh) could understand what he had to say. Ruhu’lláh went to the boys, looked attentively into their faces, and returned to Bahíyyih Khánum saying, “It is no use; they would not understand.” Both of these brothers of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá became Covenant-breakers.

Mr. Varqa himself had accompanied ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’. on His visit to the United States.

Mr. Samandari, the oldest Hand of the Cause among the five Persians, is descended from one of the pupils of s_liaylgi Ahmad, first of the two forerunners of the Báb. At the age of fifteen, Mr. Samandari attained the presence of Bahá’u’lláh. He recalled his' impression of the great humility and the grandeur and majesty of Bahá’u’lláh, and told many reminiscences of that memorable visit.

Then, inevitably, came the closing session of the Conference, a Conference which the Guardian stated in his opening message “will go down in history as the most mo [Page 149]CENTENARY OF BIRTH OF BAHA’U’LLAH’S MISSION

mentous gathering held since the close of the Heroic Age of the Faith, and will be regarded as the most potent agency in paving the way for the launching of one of the most brilliant phases of the grandest crusade ever undertaken by the followers of Bahá’u’lláh since the inception of His Faith more than one hundred years ago.”

At this session the Guardian’s own chosen representative, Rúḥíyyih Khánum, called upon us to “Mount Your Steeds!”*

When Rúḥíyyih Khánum finished, just before the reading of the closing prayer Mrs. Amelia Collins spoke briefly: “Now I have witnessed in this audience day after day your great joy, your inspiration, your longing to serve, the pledges you have made, and

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all of this I feel is the result of our Guardian’s sacrifice. Let us just cherish this thought all through the next ten years, that our Guardian is sacrificing for us daily, and with great joy. To see the Guardian smile just once is enough to cause you to wish to lay down your life, really and truly it is. But that is not it. We are to make our Guardian happy, and this it is really our privilege to do.”

Mrs. Collins then concluded the Conference with reading ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablet of Visitation.

• These were the words of Quddfis as he led the

Babis at the siege of Tabarsi. See The Dawn-Breakers, page 365.

(5) THE JUBILEE PUBLIC MEETINGS

By FARRUKH IOAS

THE impressive public events of the AllAmerican Jubilee celebrations, which included four public meetings and the dedication of the House of Worship, received widespread notice in the press and attracted much public attention and interest. Each of the four meetings, with their distinguished guest participants and outstanding Bahá’í speakers, drew large audiences, estimated to have varied from fifteen hundred to twentyfive hundred.

The first meeting was held Wednesday evening, April 29, the opening day of Jubilee week, at Medinah Temple in Chicago. Mr. Matthew Bullock was chairman and the two speakers on the theme of “Religion for Humanity” were Dr. Paul Hutchinson and Mrs. Dorothy Baker.

Dr. Hutchinson is widely known and respected as an outstanding analyst of present day problems and spokesman for the lay Protestant Church world. He is editor of the Christian Century, generally considered to be the most influential Protestant periodicali Dr. Hutchinson’s subject was “Points of Light in the Dark World.” He began his remarks by offering his congratulations on the completion of the House of Worship, which he described as a symbol of mankind’s oneness in this vital quest for spiritual

satisfaction which will be achieved when all are gathered as brothers in one common household of faith under one God. In a forceful manner, Dr. Hutchinson then presented his analysis of the hopeful factorspoints of light—in the general darkness of the present age. He outlined five such points of light which exist in the thinking of common men everywhere, and which therefore offer promise for the future. These are: the faith of common men in the reality of progress, the belief in the reality and authority of moral values, the belief in the reality of human oneness, common man’s increasing awareness of the necessity for world government, and his deep belief in the spiritual basis for all life.

Mrs. Baker spoke on the “Mission of the Prophets” with eloquence and persuasiveness. She identified the Prophets as the founders of civilization and described their two—fold mission as individual and social, “to glorify the individual and to safeguard and unify the race.” Then she traced the development of this two—fold mission in the stories of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, showing that religion has given repeated proofs that it is the source of human progress and redemption. Bahá’u’lláh was proclaimed as the fountain—head of light and

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salvation for this chaotic hour. Mrs. Baker concluded by outlining the movement of the Faith toward the achievement of the eternal plan of God—the “Kingdom indivisible, whose watchword is the oneness of the human race—all rivers flow to the ocean; all missions are fulfilled in this mission.”

On the eve of the dedication of the Temple, Friday, May 1, a public meeting was held in the New Trier High School, Winnetka, a suburb north of Chicago in the vicinity of the House of Worship. Bahá’ís came from their special service of consecration held at the Temple in the afternoon to join with guests—for the most part residents of the northern suburbs who have watched the Temple during the long years of its building as they have flowed past on the highway that borders the Temple groundsin a happy prelude to the great event of the next day, the public dedication. On this evening the story of their beloved House of Worship was publicly unfolded.

Mr. Paul Haney, the chairman, presented several messages of greeting and congratulations on the dedication of the House of Worship from well-known people.

The history, architecture and purpose of the Temple were discussed by Bahá’ís whose close association with the work has familiarized them with its every detail. Mr. Alien McDaniel, a former member of the National Spiritual Assembly, for many years supervising engineer of the building and more recently on the Technical Committee, gave the history of the project from its beginning, through the purchase of the land, the choice of a plan and the completion of the con struction. Mr. Robert McLaughlin, Director of the School of Architecture of Princeton University and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, who has served for some years on the Technical Committee, described the unusual architectural elements of the building, pointing to the unique fitness of the plan to the Bahá’í conception of unity and manner of worship. He stressed the timeless quality of the architectural design for it has stood apart and aloof from the changing fashions of the last thirty years. Regarding it as an example of early Bahá’í architecture, Mr. McLaughlin speculated on the wonders of world architecture that will develop as the world becomes spiritually and physically united.

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Mr. Haney then introduced the third member of the Technical Committee, Mr. Edwin Eardley, and the Landscape Architect, Mr. Hilbert Dahl. The chairman presented Mr. William Alexander, the President of the Village of Wilmette, to whom he expressed the appreciation of the Bahá’ís for the friendly attitude and cooperation extended by the village authorities during the years of the Temple’s building. Mr. Alexander, in the name of the Village of Wilmette, offered greetings and congratulations and stated that the village feels privileged to have this world famous structure in its community and has sincere regard for the lofty ideals which it represents.

Mr. Horace Holley then gave a penetrating and profound definition of the purpose of the Bahá’í House of Worship.

The meeting was closed with the reading of an editorial from the Chicago Daily News on the dedication of the Temple, praising the ideals for which it stands.

Rúḥíyyih Khánum, the Guardian’s representative to the All-American Intercontinental Conference, and Dr. Charles Wesley were speakers on the theme “One God and One People,” Sunday, May 3, at Medinah Temple in Chicago. There was much excitement over the participation of Rúḥíyyih Khánum in a public program and the large audience rose as she came on the huge stage with Dr. Wesley, guest speaker, and Mr. ‘Ali Yazdi, Chairman.

Dr. Charles H. Wesley, president of Central State College at Wilberforce, Ohio, author, historian and educator, chose as his topic “The Significance of Oneness—Principle or Expediency?” He stated that the principle of oneness is recognized and advocated by the great religions and by most world thinkers, but practice departs from theory._ In application to life in the modern world, the principle of oneness has faced obstacles which Dr. Wesley listed as selfish nationalism, self—serving industrialism, and self—contained racism. In the movement toward world unity and the oneness of mankind, he questioned whether it would be reached by principle or expediency, the latter being thus far the most influential argument. Permanent and enduring change will come only through the translation of democratic and religious ideals into practical activities. What is needed, he asserted, “is a consistent application of principle by people

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of principle with a consistent and intelligent plan of action. Resistance may be great, but the cause is greater.”

Rúḥíyyih Khánum had chosen to speak on “A World Crusade.” She spoke at first directly to the comments of Dr. Wesley, and stressed the essential importance of the principle of oneness to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. She then announced that the Bahá’ís are undertaking a specific program to diffuse the teachings of one God, one people, and one religion to all parts of the planet. She presented the broad outlines of the ten-year Crusade to reach practically all peoples and remote corners of the world, closing with the invitation to all to join this vast spiritual crusade, or if not, to wish us well. Certainly Rúḥíyyih Igiénurn herself impressed the large gathering more than any words that were spoken. Everyone was touched by the spirit which flowed through her, by her dignity, simplicity and candor, and even more by those indefinable qualities of a selfless Bahá’í. Each knew that he had spent a moment with a rare soul.

The fourth public meeting on the theme of “The Human Goal” was held the closing evening of Jubilee week, Wednesday, May 6, at Medinah Temple. Mr. Norman Cousins and Dr. W. Kenneth Christian shared the platform and Mr. H. Borrah Kavelin was chairman.

Mr. Norman Cousins, well-known writer and lecturer, is editor of The Saturday Review, America’s oldest literary magazine, and president of the United World Federalists. His most recent book Who Speaks for Man? was currently receiving widespread notice. Mr. Cousins’ subject was “A New Moral Order." His friendly manner and informal style immediately won his audience, when he said he was scared because he was “in the presence of people who live out the things I have been talking about.” He referred to his inclusion of quotations from the Faith in his latest book because it stresses “integration as opposed to compartmentalization of mankind,” and it talks of the “unity of the whole man: economical man, political man and social man.” He stated that the crisis of modern man is one of human destiny, one of unity versus fragmentation and disintegration. He spoke of the compartmentalization of life as the disease of our age, and of the limitations of education, whether religious or academic, to

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prepare men for the modern crisis. He recounted vividly his experiences and impressions at Los Alamos, viewing the electronic brain, visiting a horribly scarred victim of the atom bomb at Hiroshima, Japan; seeing the refugees in Korea; and being at a cemetery for American soldiers in Korea. His analyses of the fundamental ills of this age sprang from his critical examination of the deep meanings of these events in the total question of human destiny. He asked, could the deformed figure of the atom bomb victim and the pitiful plight of the refugee be the face of tomorrow’s man? Man needs faith and “a rule of law in a responsible world government.” The question, he continued, is what kind of qualities, human and spiritual, will be brought to bear on the creation of world order? Men have created war and destruction, and they can now create a moral and just peace.

Dr. W. Kenneth Christian spoke on “Religion for a World Society.” He reviewed some of the basic tenets of the Bahá’í Faith, stressing the progressive revelations of God’s Will and the oneness of mankind. “Disunity is the disease of our civilization,” he asserted, and “we cannot have an enduring and peaceful world society without the spiritual foundation of a world faith.” “If a world government were set up and ready to start tomorrow, what ethics would knit together the actions of the people?” he asked. “What would supply the world loyalty to support a world government?” He declared that only a “world religion can meet the basic needs to support and firmly knit together the billions of people on this planet.” “The Bahá’í Faith provides a standard of morality and human rights above convenience and political pressure. Bahá’u’lláh stands as the conscience of humanity in this age.” He calls men to “Unity of faith as rightful equals in the Kingdom of God.”

It is interesting to the Bahá’í to note the unanimity of basic ideas among our three eminent guest speakers. Though differing markedly in approach each stressed that the essence of the problem of this age and the urgent need for the world of tomorrow is the oneness of mankind and world government, demonstrating so clearly that the humanitarian and spiritual principles enunciated decades ago by Bahá’u’lláh are now viewed by a world conscious of their source

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as fundamental verities of our time. Though each man analyzed the crisis of society today, none could provide the answers as to the source of the power to realize these aims, nor could they define the character of the goal of human destiny, or tell by what

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1,;

means it could be achieved. The Bahai speakers, on the other hand, were able not only to describe the disease of society, but could and did deal quite fully with the healing remedy of the world religion, given men in this era by Bahá’u’lláh.

(6) JUBILEE AT WILMETTE

By MARZIEH GAIL

ON FRIDAY afternoon, May 1, there was a simple consecration service at the Temple for Bahá’ís alone; a private dedication and a commemoration of the Master’s coming to this spot by the Lake in 1912 and with His own hands placing the Temple cornerstone. This afternoon the Bahá’ís swarmed all over the Temple walks and steps, but upstairs in the vast auditorium everything was quiet.

High up in the tip of the Dome against a white background the golden Greatest Name was written. The Hands of the Cause were seated directly before the reading stand. Microphones were placed in front of it, and behind at either side were huge bouquets of yellow, pink and white flowers, stretched out like wings. The sun had come out but it was not too bright. In the second gallery above us there were great bug-like mechanisms, startlingly black against the white; these were the “juniors,” the lights which unseen technicians working up in the air were focusing on the lectern.

The people were absolutely silent. The Dome, its white rays dropping away, poured down a lacy rain of grace. Light filtered through the closed Temple drapes.

Madame Samihih Banani, wife of the Africa Hand of the Cause, now rose and chanted a haunting Persian prayer. Then Harlan Ober read the passage beginning “They apprehended Us” from the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf. It tells of Bahá’u’lláh’s imprisonment in the slums of Tihran. The contrast between the Black Pit and this Edifice and this Jubilee took sudden shape: that darkness and stench, this light and fragrance; those murderers and thieves, these massed disciples from around the world; those sweating walls, that slime, three flights

down into the earth, that hollowedv-out hole; this great mother-of—pearl bubble of 3 Temple that can hardly stay on the ground and seems to float above it. If people want a miracle, this is it.

Elsie Austin of the National Spiritual Assembly was reading the words which the Master spoke as He laid the Temple cornerstone in the fields here, forty-one years ago. Her delicate bronze profile shone out against the wing of flowers to her right.

Jinab-i-Varqé, whose father and small brother both died for the Cause and who was present here in 1912, now chanted the Arabic Visitation Tablet (Prayers (211d Meditations, p. 310) just as it is chanted in Bahjí and at the Shrine of the Báb. When the words came to: “Waft, then, unto me, O my God and my Beloved, from the right hand of Thy mercy and Thy loving kindness, the holy breaths of Thy favors, that they may draw me away from myself and from the world unto the courts of Thy nearness and Thy presence”—I remembered being told that when the Master was here, He would sometimes chant or repeat these lines and then Lua Getsinger would weep, and she would say, “He is pleading so to go, to die and then we shall be left alone.”

On Saturday afternoon, May 2, I had hurried upstairs with the Press, to the first gallery which looms high above the audience level. A capacity crowd of eleven hundred people waited below us. The silence was absolute. Members of the Press were collecting wooden chairs on which to stand so they could peer over the high parapet into the crowd below; their comings and goings had to be utterly silent because of the acoustical properties of the Dome; any noise would have dissipated the great spiritual

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atmosphere that was accumulating from the time and the place, the unseen presences and the actual presence of the Guardian’s consort, of the other Hands of the Cause—six of whom were here from the far side of the earth—and of the multitudes of Bahá’ís who had come, in some cases with the greatest sacrifice, to witness this hour. Across dizzy space from us was the silent black-robed choir. The dedication was about to take place.

In a moment Paul Haney spoke: “On this historic occasion. . . . Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, has sent his wife, ‘Amatu’l—Baha Rúḥíyyih Khánum, as his personal representative to present a message of dedication from him as world leader of the Bahá’í Faith.” And then we heard Rúḥíyyih Khánum, in her grave and youthful voice, giving full value to each of the beautiful English words of the message from our beloved Guardian dedicating this first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár Of the Western World to public worship.

They say it was the first time in history that a woman figured so prominently in the dedication of a Temple of an independent Faith.

There was a pause. Then another voice began, a man’s voice, Borrah Kavelin’s, reading from the nineteenth Psalm: “Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”

As Margot Worley, Chairman of the National Assembly of South America, read from the words of Jesus, I thought again how the references to Him in our teaching are apt to be tender and full of pathos, like imminent spring not yet come on, or a recurring song, mournful and delicate, as if the world would never get over the Crucifixion, while time lasts.

Matthew Bullock read from the Qur’án, as Louis Gregory had read from it under this same Dome, at the Centenary in 1944. After a delay of thirteen hundred years, Islam is being befittingly proclaimed in the West: “0 our Lord! Punish us not if we forget, or fall into sin. . . . 0 our Lord! . . . lay not on us that for which we have not strength; but blot out our sins and forgive us, and have pity on us!”

The Guardian had said to use the Psalms (‘Abdu’l-Bahá loved the Psalms) and to use the words of Jesus, and to quote from the Qur’án passages on the unity of God and His Prophets which would appeal to the

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Western world; he had sent on the exact Persian and Arabic readings which were to be chanted, together with translations where these had been made; he had chosen Jinab-iFurt’itan and Jinab-i-Khádem to chant the selections, and had directed the Hands of the Cause of God to choose who should chant the final commune, and they had chosen Jinab-i-Samandari. Just then someone parted the great off—white drapes, and I saw below us a blinding flash of bright green tree tops over against the darker green of the grass.

The service was given, all except for ‘Amatu’l—Bahá’s words of dedication, three times to accommodate the many more than capacity crowds which came. Horace Holley opened the second one, reading, as we all stood, the commune which Rúḥíyyih Khánum had read before. I sat in the first row, off center, and watched the light coming through the sixty red roses massed at either side of the reading stand, the Persian rug glowing beneath it, and the shadow of the roses thrown by the lights against one of the pillars. It was brighter than day from the lights, except when they were dimmed as the choir sang. Again I listened to words read or chanted in three languages, to the Hands of the Cause Furutan, K_hédern and Samandari, to Albert Windust, Selma Solomon, and David Bond. The end came when Jináb-i—Samandari, tiny under the looming white reaches of the Dome, with that austere dignity which is his special characteristic, finished his Persian chant, put on his glasses again, and took up the book which had been open but not referred to, on the reading stand before him.

Like all other Bahá’í pilgrims, I had, during successive visits to the Holy Land, seen the Portraits of Bahá’u’lláh. The one that remained in memory through the years Was the photograph made in Adrianople, where He was exiled from December 12, 1863 to August 12, 1868. It has the direct, probing glance that all who saw Him describe. It is not the face of youth, but of the Ancient of Days.

As Rúḥíyyih Khánum described the sacred gift which the Guardian had sent us in her care—the colored, photographically reproduced Portrait of Bahá’u’lláh “in the bloom of manhood”—a new and different Being began to take shape; a youthful Personage, still in His thirties, perhaps, or early

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forties, since the Portrait was done in Bag_hdéd; One Whom painters forever wanted to paint and poets to write about. The Master tells how even hostile poets had eulogized Him, one of them writing: “He charms men, He drugs them; He is a hypnotizer! Beware! Beware!” (Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 431). We know too that others maintained He bewitched His guests by dropping a magic philter in their tea (Dawn-Breakers, p. 113). Not yet, in this Portrait, the Manifestation Whom the world had forsaken (Gleanings, p. 261), the freshness of Whose countenance had faded (Promised Day Is Come, p. 7), the One Who cried with such a bitter cry that every mother in her bereavement was bewildered at Him and forgot her own anguish (Prayers and Meditations, p. 271). ‘Amatu’l-Bahá spoke of the strong and youthful beauty He had once and of the redness of His lips. She told us this Portrait—which has never before been out of the hands of the Master or the Guardian—was made by a Christian artist who had seen Him at the public baths.

We went remembering what the Báb had said: “Look not upon Him with any eye except His own. For whosoever looketh upon Him with His eye, will recognize Him; otherwise he will be veiled from Him” (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 153).

That Sunday afternoon, May 3, a great crowd of us massed for hours on‘the Temple steps. It was cold and windy and we

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herded together for comfort. Some maintained that they waited five hours; I waited about three. Finally we worked our way clear up the Temple steps and reached the great glass doors.

Here, one by one, we passed through, to find Rúḥíyyih Khánum on our left, anointing each one with attar of rose. The use of this attar, enjoined by Bahá’u’lláh, was familiar to the early American Bahá’ís because of its use by the Master, but some of the newer Bahá’ís had not heard of the custom until Mrs. Amelia Collins had anointed us on the Guardian’s behalf at the Convention in 1952.

We sat in fragrant silence. about sixteen hundred of us at a given time, and since every detail had been carefully planned, we had only to follow the ushers’ directions and were soon passing quietly, single file, toward the tables where two Portraits were placed. It was a white ethereal and muFfled scene; a verse from the Qur’án described it: “And 10w shall be their voices before the God of Mercy, nor shalt thou hear aught but the light footfall” (Surih 202107). We drew near to the Portraits and there was hardly a moment to look, first on the grave countenance of the Báb, the One “Who had never taken His eyes away from the face of God” (Gleanings, p. 221 )—and then on the young and joyous Bahá’u’lláh. He seemed to be greeting each one of us.

It was really jubilee.

(7)

THE PUBLIC DEDICATION OF THE BAHA’I HOUSE OF WORSHIP

By WILLIAM B. SEARS

Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The Branch;* and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord; Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his

throne. . . . Zechariah 6:12, 13.

IT IS impossible to report upon a prayer or a meditation. They exist in a realm of

‘ “The Branch" is a title of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

values independent of words. To convey the exaltation that animated Bahá’ís on this never-to-be-repeated occasion is equally beyond the power of expression. To each worshiper, the moment was a personal one, associated with the heart and spirit. Therefore, these pages will try to share the joy and rapture that filled one heart only. These pages will recall the wonderful river of memories that flowed ceaselessly throughout the Dedication, the stream of thoughts that made every barren period of the past become liv [Page 155]CENTENARY OF BIRTH OF BAHA’U’LLAH’S MISSION

ing and fertile, that banished all sorrow, healed all suflering; and led the wayfarer at last to the sea of understanding, to this harbor of the love of God, to safety inside this Ark of His Covenant.

Across the aisle could be seen the glowing and triumphant faces of those apostles of Bahá’u’lláh who had stood upon this same plot of ground with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on that cold, windy May day forty—one years ago. They had watched their beloved Master dedicate this spot, then an empty, open field, to the welfare of all humanity. The real Temple, he had told them, was the Word of God; for to it all humanity must turn. Then he looked up, smiled, and assured them that “in the unseen world, the Temple is already built.”

On that day of Dedication you could look into the tranquil, confident eyes of those followers of Bahá’u’lláh who had helped to draft the immortal cablegram to the Holy Land back in 1909, a message which had brought solace to the heavy-laden heart of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. In a Tablet written later to His followers He told the story of its coming and announced the triumphant event that synchronized with it.

“The most joyful tidings is this, that the holy, the luminous body of the Báb . . . after having for sixty years been transferred from place to place, . . . has, through the mercy of the Abhá Beauty, been ceremoniously deposited, on the day of NawRt’lz, within the sacred casket in the exalted Shrine on Mount Carmel. . . . By a strange coincidence, on that same day of Naw-Rúz, a cablegram was received from Chicago, announcing that the believers in each of the American centers had elected a delegate and sent to that city . . . and definitely decided on the site and construction of the Mashriqu’l-A(1l_1kér” [House of Worship].

Every moment inside that dome of exquisite beauty and majesty, on the day of its dedication, was enriched by memories of the love and sacrifice that had raised this jewel of God.

Its inception, the architect of the Temple has himself testified, was not from man, for, as musicians, artists, poets receive their inspiration from another realm, so the Temple’s architect, through all his years of labor, was ever conscious that Bahá’u’lláh was the creator of this building to be erected to His glory.

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When gazing upon a model of this House of Worship, a famous professor of architecture had said, “This is a new creation which will revolutionize architecture in the world, and it is the most beautiful I have ever seen.”

The model had now become reality. The dream had become clothed in flesh. Here, on this day of dedication, were gathered together people of all races, religions and nations. The words had been fulfilled: “And they that are afar off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord, and ye shall know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me unto you,” for “Mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people,” and “all nations shall flow unto it.”

From a lofty gallery, the unseen choir filled the Temple with the music and words “Who can comprehend Thee?” Through the mind flowed the wonderful creative words of Bahá’u’lláh:

“Lauded and glorified art Thou, O Lord, my God! How can I make mention of Thee, assured as I am that no tongue, however deep its wisdom, can befittingly magnify Thy name, nor Can the bird of the human heart, however great its longing, ever hope to ascend unto the heaven of Thy majesty and knowledge.”

“Know thou of a certainty,” Bahá’u’lláh proclaims further, “that the Unseen can in no wise incarnate His essence and reveal it unto men. . . . He Who is everlastingly hidden from the eyes of men can never be known except through His Manifestation [the Prophet], and His Manifestation can adduce no greater proof of the truth of His Mission than the proof of His own person.”

The music soared up to the dome of the Temple and departed. Then were heard the first spoken words, delivered by Rúḥíyyih @énum, the representative of the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith.

“On behalf of the Guardian of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, I have the great honor of dedicating this first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Western World to public worship.” [For the entire message of Dedication, see page 141.]

As the address of Dedication ended, a quiet settled over the assembled throng. Through the doorway to the East could be seen the blue waters of Lake Michigan rushing toward the Temple in great white waves, bowing and prostrating themselves upon the

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sand. Through the doors to the South were visible the throngs of people streaming toward the Temple. The clouds, which had threatened to shut out the sun, parted and down through the glass dome came the flooding sunlight as the first of the Holy Books was opened.

From the scriptures of all Faiths, the one religion of God was to be recognized as one sheltering tree, of which Moses was the seed, Jesus the trunk, Muhammad the branches, the Báb the leaves, and Bahá’u’lláh the fruit. “The word is one, though the speakers are many.”

From the Faith of Moses came the all encompassing praise of one God:

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork.

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.

There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. . . .

The law of the Lord is perfect. . . .

The statutes of the Lord are right. . . .

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, 0 Lord,

my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19.

The statutes of the Lord are right! What untold blessings Moses has conferred upon mankind. The ten commandments for which He was the channel from God are the basis of the structure of law in the western world.

The eternal fountain of the Faith of Moses continued to pour out its words:

The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. . . .

This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, . . .

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory

shall come in. . . . Psalm 24.

As the reading of the Psalm ended, the echo rang through the silence: “Who is this King of glory?” And the heart answered: “Who has brought together from all racial, religious, and national backgrounds these lovers of God? Bahá’u’lláh, whose very name means ‘The Glory of God.’ ”

“To Israel He was the incarnation of the ‘Everlasting Father,’ ‘The Lord of Hosts’ come down ‘with ten thousands of saints’; to

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Christendom, Christ returned ‘in the glory of the Father’; to Shi‘ah Islam, the return of the Imam Husayn; to Sunni Islam, the descent of the ‘Spirit of God’ [Jesus Christ]; to the Zoroastrians, the promised ShéhBahrém; to the Hindus, the reincarnation of Krishna; to the Buddhists, the fifth Buddha.”

This was the King of Glory, and this His Temple, God’s Temple, the House of Worship for all His prophets and people.

. . . The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your head, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come m. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of Glory.

Psalm 24.

What moments of satisfaction these words stirred in the mind. Those delicious hours when the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith were heard for the first time. Those exciting hours of research and study, unveiling proof after proof of the vitality and the great need of Bahá’u’lláh’s universal truth. Those equally exciting mental expeditions deep into the holy scriptures of the past confirming the conditions of the coming of the great Promised One to the mountain of God in Israel; those prophecies which disclosed the enforced journeys of Bahá’u’lláh, His exile to Baghdad, His banishment to Constantinople, Ad—r—ianople, and to the prison of ‘Akká across the bay from Mt. Carmel in Israel.

Baha’u’llah, the shepherd of the one fold of God, was to spend no less than a third of His allotted span of life here in the “valley of Achor” which in the book of Isaiah had been singled out as a “door of hope” for “my herds to lie down in.” This was the land promised by God to Abraham; sanctified by the Revelation of Moses; honored by the lives and labors of the Hebrew patriarchs, judges, kings, and prophets; revered as the cradle of Christianity; and as the place where Zoroaster, according to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s testimony, “held converse with some of the prophets of Israel.” This was the land associated by Islam with the apostles’ nightjourney through the seven heavens to the throne of the Almighty.

“His enemies intended that His imprisonment should completely destroy and annihilate the blessed Cause,” says ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,

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“but this prison . . . . became the means of its development. . . . From this prison His light was shed abroad; His fame conquered the world, and the proclamation of His glory reached the East and the West. . His light at first had been a star, now

it became a mighty sun.” Then the second Holy Book was opened:

And He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. . .

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain

mercy. Matthew 5:2, 3, 6, 7.

These were the words of Christ. Words alive with a new richness and pOWer because of the fresh measure of love and devotion which Baha’u’llah had instilled in the hearts of His followers for Jesus of Nazareth.

“Know thou,” says Bahá’u’lláh of His Holiness Christ, “that when the Son of Man yielded up His breath to God, the whole creation wept with a great weeping. By sacrificing Himself, however, a fresh capacity was infused into all created things. Its evidences, as witnessed in all the peoples of the earth, are now manifest before thee. The deepest wisdom which the sages have uttered, the profoundest learning which any mind hath unfolded, the arts which the ablest hands have produced, the influence exerted by the most potent of rulers, are but manifestations of the quickening power released by His transcendent, His all-pervasive, and resplendent Spirit.

“We testify that when He came into the world, He shed the splendor of His glory upon all created things. Through Him the leper recovered from the leprosy of perversity and ignorance. Through Him, the unchaste and wayward were healed. Through His power, born of Almighty God, the eyes of the blind were opened, and the soul of the sinner sanctified.”

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. . . .

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

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Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am come not to destroy, but to

fulfill. Matthew 5:8, 9, 16, 17.

From the Mount of Olives, Jesus had poured out His teachings into those hearts that were athirst for the words of God. They were not His teachings, not His words, but the words and counsels of an infinite, unknowable God. How plainly Christ had tried to tell mankind this: “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.”

These words of the Sermon on the Mount were the “bread of life” which comes down from Heaven in the time of each Prophet. They are the food with which each Prophet nourishes mankind. This “bread of life” is in the Old Testament in the generous and loving “holiness code” of Leviticus, a model of charity, hospitality, kindness and unity. It came again in the Sermon on the Mount. It is once more in this day in the book of the Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh.

Judge not, that ye be not judged.

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. . .

Ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. . . .

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them:

for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:1, 2, 7, 12.

With the reading of the words of the “golden rule” from the New Testament, eyes met across the sunlighted interim of the Temple. The teacher smiled, the student responded, and in that moment, memory recalled the happy evening of the great discovery that the “golden rule” was to be found in all the Holy Books. It was like the theme of a symphony; it repeated, growing ever stronger. The words were one because God is one, His prophets one, and His creatures inhabitants of one home, the earth. The messages of the Books cry out that God is not in competition with Himself. There is no exclusive salvation for the Jew, the Buddhist, the Christian, the Muslim, the Bahá’í. Christ did not come to the Christians; He came to the world. Bahá’u’lláh did not come to the Bahá’ís; He came to all humanity.

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In the Old Testament man was his brother’s keeper; in the New Testament he was his brother’s brother; in this day of the great Covenant with all Faiths, it is written: “Blessed is he who prefers his brother before himself, such a one is of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh.”

What heart can fail to be stirred and made richer by the belief in this oneness of Almighty God, and this unity of His messengers, who are the lights stationed at intervals along one road of life—when the light of one age and its prophet begins to fade back into time and another appears to banish darkness. They are the strata of earth along the river bank that mark the history of man. For a time, each was the topmost layer from which grew the fruits, grains and vegetables to nourish man. Each layer later became the foundation for the next, the new that was to grow upon it.

In yet another way, the “word” of each Messenger is like unto the air which men breathe in every part of the earth and in every age. It never fails to give life to each creature, in each age, in each part of the earth. It is the “word” that was with God and “became flesh and dwelt amongst man” in the form of Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus, Muhammad, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh.

Here, today, in this House of God, united as “leaves of one tree and the drops of one ocean,” the followers of Bahá’u’lláh linked their hopes and energies with those of their fellow-men and cried out together the joy that is in their hearts:

“This is the Day in which God’s most excellent favors have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things. It is incumbent upon all the peoples of the world to reconcile their differences, and, with perfect unity and peace, abide beneath the shadow of the Tree of His care and loving-kindness.”

The page of the Book of Jesus was turned, and His words were read for all to hear:

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 will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things

to come. John 16:12, 13.

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The Spirit of Truth has come! The light of splendor has been shed upon the earth, but as in the days of its previous appearance in Jerusalem, only an eye that sees with the sight of the true seeker can recognize Him. Raise thy voice in thanks within this House of God, that thou hast heard His voice for “many are called, but few are chosen.”

“Call thou to remembrance Him who was the Spirit [Jesus],” Baha’u’llah warns humanity, “Who, when He came, the most learned of His age pronounced judgment against Him in His own country, whilst he who was only a fisherman believed in Him. Take heed, then, ye men of understanding heart! Consider those who opposed the Son [Jesus], when He came unto them with sovereignty and power. How many the Pharisees who were waiting to behold Him, and were lamenting over their separation from Him! And yet, when the fragrance of His coming was wafted over them, and His beauty was unveiled, they turned aside from Him and disputed with Him. . . . None save a very few, who were destitute of any power among men, turned toward His face. . . .”

How our hearts had wept, when, as children, we had heard how His own people had refused to accept Jesus. They called him a false prophet. “Nay, but He deceiveth the people,” they said.

The Messiah, they insisted, was to come from an unknown place, to sit upon the throne of David, to rule with a sword, and to promulgate the law of Moses. “This poverty-stricken upstart,” they said of Jesus, “fulfills none of these conditions. He is a false prophet!”

Alas! Had they not blindly insisted on a material fulfillment of these prophecies, they would have seen that although Jesus’ body came from the womb of His mother, Mary, His spirit came from God, “the unknown place,” that the throne upon which He sat was in the kingdom He established in the hearts of the people. His sword was His tongue and teachings with which He conquered the world. Today wherever the Bible is read throughout the world, there we find the Old Testament of Moses linked with the New Testament of Christ. Jesus brought the Word and Book of Moses to people who would never have heard of Moses if Christ had not appeared.

“Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers . . . .” Jesus had cried out because of their

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disbelief. “I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill or crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city.”

How accurately these words of Christ were to be fulfilled not only in His own life, but again in the day of His return. The herald of the Bahá’í Faith had been “scourged in the synagogue” and “killed.” He was lashed With the bastinado in the prayer house in Tabríz. Later, in this same city, He was suspended before a mocking and disbelieving multitude as Christ had been suspended; finally, His breast was made a target for a volley of musket balls.

Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Faith, shared each step of persecution with His Herald, the Báb. He was held captive in Tihran, Amul, and again “in the Black Pit” of Tihran. He was scourged in the prayer house of Amul. He was exiled from His native city, Tihran, to Bag_hdad, ‘Iráq, to be persecuted “from city to city” as Jesus had foretold. He was banished from Baghdad to Constantinople, to Adrianople, and finally to ‘Akká in Syria, across the bay from Mt. Carmel.

“O J erusalem, J erusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”

What a tragedy, that all through history the liberals of one age become the orthodox of the next. They accept the symbolical interpretation of the prophecies that validate their own prophet and call down shame upon those who insist that the prophecies must be fulfilled to the letter. Then, having won their goal and captured the citadel, they turn the same well-directed cannon of orthodoxy upon those who come after them. No wonder His Holiness Christ censored them saying, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. . . . For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”

For years the Jews had searched the scriptures which testified to the coming of the Messiah, but still they denied Christ. The followers of Jesus sighed sorrowfully at the perversity of the Jews, yet, holding

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the Book of Christ in their hands—a Book laden with testimony of the coming of Bahá’u’lláh—they have repeated the sin of the “generation of vipers.” They have denied the Messenger of God.

Every prophet seems false to the age in which He appears. He calls men from their sensual desires and pleasures and they fight against responding to His summons. They ask for a great sign so they can be certain of His truth before they give up their physical comforts and satisfactions. They wish to be hypnotized into belief by miracles and wonders so that they need not exert any personal effort.

Bahá’u’lláh recognized this insincerity and challenged it. While in exile in Baghdad, He was asked, as an evidence of the truth of His Mission, for a miracle that would satisfy completely all concerned. Bahá’u’lláh told them that the Cause of God was not a theatrical display to be presented upon demand. “Although you have no right to ask this,” He said, “for God should test His creatures, and they should not test God, still I allow and accept this request. the ‘ulamas (clergy) must assemble, and with one accord, choose one miracle, and write that, after the performance of this miracle, they will no longer entertain doubts about Me, and that all will acknowledge and confess the Truth of My Cause. Let them seal this paper, and bring it to Me. This must be the accepted criterion: if the miracle is performed, no doubt will remain for them; and if not, We shall be convicted of imposture.”

This clear, challenging, courageous reply, unexampled in the annals of any religion was addressed to the most illustrious of the clergy in the heart of their stronghold. They did not accept the challenge. “What if He should perform the miracle?” they asked themselves. The matter was dropped.

Baha’u’llah, the Spirit of Truth, has come to fulfill the prophecies of the past. He is the Father in the parable of the vineyard, who has seized the vineyard (this earth) from those who destroyed His servants (the prophets) and slew His son (Jesus). Bahá’u’lláh (the Father) has come into the Vineyard to give it out to those who will render to Him the fruits of love and service. He has come! The Spirit of Truth, the Father, the Lord of Hosts, the Glory of God! What tongue can voice its thanks?

“Address yourselves to the promotion of

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American Indian Bahá’ís at the All-America Intercontinental Conference, Chicago, Illinois, May, 1953.

the well-being and tranquillity of the children of men,” the Spirit of Truth has commanded. “Bend your minds and wills to the education of the peoples and kindreds of the earth, that haply the dissensions that divide it may, through the power of the Most Great Name, be blotted out from its face, and all mankind become the upholders of one Order, and the inhabitants of one City. Illumine and hallow your hearts; let them not be profaned by the thorns of hate or the thistles of malice. Ye dwell in one world, and have been created through the operation of one Will. Blessed is he who mingleth with all men in a spirit of utmost kindliness and love.”

The tidings have been given, the song sung, and the great bell tolled. But as in the days of Jesus the ears are stopped up with the clay of desire.

Then the third Holy Book was opened, and a voice spoke, calling us back to our presence beneath the sheltering dome of this house of prayer. These words were the words of the prophet of Islém, words read

with joy and reverence. They were lifted to heaven with a devotion and respect long denied in the West to this glorious Messenger of the light of truth.

Moreover, to Moses gave we “the Book,” and we raised up apostles after him; and to Jesus, son of Mary, gave we clear proofs of his mission, and strengthened him by the Holy Spirit. S0 oft then as an apostle cometh to you with that which your souls desire not, swell ye with pride, and treat some as impostors, and slay

others? Qur’án 2:81.

There is a generation of vipers born to strike at the representative of God in whatever age He appears. God does not send a Messenger to enforce His edicts. He sends the Laws and the Life. If we are athirst, we shall drink and be revived. If we are not, we will turn aside and wither away. The choice is ours; the channel of God’s grace, the Prophet, offers us the cup. Perhaps none of the Messengers of God have been more maligned in the West than Muhammad, but

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through the agency of Baha’u’llah, who connects and unifies all the links in God’s chain of educators, Muhammad has come into His rightful place in the hearts and minds of all the people of the earth.

Here in the Bahá’í Faith we had been brought to a true understanding of Islam. Here is the only place in the Western world where the Prophet of Arabia has received an unprejudiced hearing as one of God’s Messengers. The truth and beauty of His teachings have been acknowledged as Godgiven. His words, “Let there be no compulsion in religion” witness to the tolerance of Muhammad.

Love for His teachings and His life was created in our hearts by the Bahá’í World Faith which spontaneously engenders a depth of devotion for all the Messengers of God—unmatched by the most zealous of those who support any one Faith exclusively. Bahá’ís have come to see Muhammad through new eyes; Muhammad of stately and commanding presence. He was described affectionately by one who knew him intimately as having “depth and feeling in His dark black eyes and the winning expression . . . . gained the confidence and love even of strangers.” Another admirer declared, “He was the most generous of men. It was as though the sunlight beamed in His countenance.”

The Prophet of Islam not only united the warring tribes of Arabia in a common faith in one God, but also by introducing the concept of the nation as a unit in the organization of society, He made a major contribution to civilization. He recognized the rights of the individual, abolished privilege of birth, banished the concept of superiority of skin color, gave protection to the nonbeliever, and advanced man’s social consciousness to a height so advanced that Europe could not boast of accomplishing the same until many centuries after His coming. Human solidarity as well as spiritual oneness were basic principles in Islam. Small wonder that His words are recognized as God-inspired.

Now in the western world, His words were being voiced under the dome of the Bahá’í Temple:

We believe in God, and that which hath been sent to us, and that which hath been sent down to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes: and that which hath been given

to Moses and to Jesus, and that which was given to the prophets from their Lord. No diflerence do we make between any of them: and to God

are we resigned. Qur’án 2:130.

The invisible choir, raising its voice to the sunbathed dome, began the words “Have ye not heard?” The lips of the followers of Baha’u’llah silently repeated the words, those words they had been crying out to all mankind in every corner of the planet, “Have you not heard? He has come! The new Jerusalem has descended!”

“Allnations and kindreds . . . . will become a single nation . . . . the hostility of races and peoples, and differences among nations, will be eliminated. All men . . . . will have one common Faith, will be blended into one race, and become a single people. All will dwell in one common fatherland, which is the planet itself.”

Then the Books of the Bahá’í World Faith were opened, and the words of a prayer of the Báb, the Herald of the Faith, were chanted in the original tongue.

Is there any Remover Of difi‘iculties save God? Say: Praised be God! He is God! All are His servants, and all abide by His bidding.

The heart felt impelled to cry out in triumph when it thought of the words spoken by this Holy Youth that night so long ago in shiréz, Iran. It happened just two hours and eleven minutes after the sun had set on the twenty-second of May in 1844. This was the hour of the birth of the Bahá’í Faith. “This night, this very hour,” the Báb had said, “will, in the days to come, be celebrated as one of the greatest and most significant of all festivals.”

The Báb, the Herald, had ushered in this new Day of God. Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder, had established it upon an enduring foundation. The words first spoken to but one soul on that historic night had echoed and reechoed down through the years until now its message had been planted and was bearing fruit in almost every nation of the world.

No Messenger was ever foretold with such accuracy and power, as the coming of Baha’u’llah was foretold by the Báb. Lest the hour of Baha’u’llah’s appearance be mistaken, the Báb wrote this clear prophecy, “Ere nine will have elapsed from the inception of this Cause, the realities of the created things will not be made manifest. All

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that thou hast as yet seen is but the stage from the moist germ until We clothed it with flesh. Be patient, until thou beholdest a new creation.”

In the year Nine (1269 of the calendar of Islam and 1853 of the Christian calendar) Baha’u’llah was imprisoned in the Black Pit in Tihran. He later described his experience there in these words: “I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when 10, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing. And He bade Me lift up My voice between earth and heaven. . . .”

Then a song of oneness was heard as the words of Baha’u’llah, the unifier of mankind, wafted upward in His holy house of prayer.

That the divers communions of the earth, and the manifold systems of religious belief, should never be allowed to foster the feelings of animosity among men, is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God and His Religion. T hese principles and laws, these firmly-established and mighty systems, have proceeded from one Source, and are rays of one Light. That they difler one from another is to be attributed to the varying requirements of the ages in which they were promulgated.

The Books of all Faiths were closed, and the moment sealed, forever, in the memory. The promises of all the Holy Books were fulfilled and the day of the “one fold and one shepherd” had come at last. The choir joyously sang out:

From the sweet—scented streams of Thine eternity give me to drink, O my God, and of the fruits of the tree of Thy being enable me to taste, O my Hope. . . . Within the meadows of Thy nearness, before Thy presence, make me able to roam, O my Beloved. . . . To the melodies of the dove of Thy oneness sufi‘er me to hearken, 0 Resplendent One. . . . To the heaven of Thy loving-kindness lift me up, O my Quickener. . . .

The public dedication of the Bahá’í House of Worship was completed. As we passed through one of the nine archways of the Temple, we could read the words of Bahá’u’lláh, graven upon the stone above our heads: “The earth is but one country; and mankind its citizens."

The steps outside were thronged with

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those who were waiting to enter. Bahá’ís and their friends were still arriving on foot, by bus, by car, from every direction. The ceremony of Dedication would have to be repeated until all had shared in this occas10n.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá had said that this Temple would be one of the greatest of teachers. “When that Divine Edifice is completed, a most wonderful and thrilling motion will appear in the world of existence. . . . From that point of light the spirit of teaching, spreading the Cause of God and promoting the teachings of God, will permeate to all parts of the world.” Out of this Mother Temple of the West, thousands of Temples would be born, He had promised. “It marks,” he furthermore had written, “the inception of the Kingdom of God on earth.”

The world has long awaited such a house of prayer. It is not dedicated to the East or the West, to the light or dark skin, to the rich or the poor, but to all humanity. It was established by Baha’u’llah in His great Book of Laws for this new age. This Temple is a symbol of the spirit of service which gives life to the Bahá’í World Community in its relation both to the Faith of God and to mankind in general. In the future, within the walls of these Houses of Worship throughout the world, the representatives of Bahá’í local and national communities will gather daily at the hour of dawn to derive the necessary inspiration enabling them to discharge their administrative responsibilities as the elected and Chosen trustees of the World Faith of Baha’u’llah.

This House of Worship is the first fruit of a slowly maturing Administrative Order which will be guided by the words found above the Temple entrances: “The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me.” “0 rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust.” “The source of all learning is the knowledge of God, exalted be His glory.”

Only a future age will fully comprehend this great gift of Bahá’u’lláh to society. This House of Worship is the nucleus of a great social evolution which will establish the Kingdom of God when the “Will” of God will be “done on earth as it is in Heaven.” A temple will be the heart of a community center in each city. Around it will be built a hospital, a hospice, an orphanage, a col [Page 163]CENTENARY OF BIRTH OF

lege and scientific laboratories. These educational, humanitarian, and scientific institutions will complete the dedication of the individual to God. To the Bahá’í there is no rigid division between the spiritual and practical parts of life.

Services in the Temple will not be elaborate. There will be no ritual or set forms. Bahá’ís have no professional clergy to preside. Services are for prayer, meditation, and the reading of writings from the sacred scriptures of the Bahá’í Faith and other great Faiths of the world.

This House of Worship does not belong to the Bahá’ís alone; it belongs to humanity.

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It is a gift from the Bahá’ís; a house of prayer with doors thrown wide open to men and women of all races and religions. Inside its doors there is no infidel or pagan; all are children of one God. All may turn their hearts to Him and know that they are brothers.

”Blessed is the spot, and the house, and the place, and the city, and the heart, and the mountain, and the refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow where mention of God hath been made, and His praise glorified.”

(8)

UNVEILING THE MODEL OF TEMPLE TO BE CONSTRUCTED ON MOUNT CARMEL

Address by CHARLES MASON REMEY

MANY years ago our beloved Master, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, told us that certain material objects, certain material constructions have a spiritual mission in the world, have a spiritual effect in the world, and before the Bahá’í Temple, the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, was built here in Wilmette, he told us that when that Temple was built, it would have a great spiritual effect in the world, that it would be a symbol manifesting forth to all of the world the spiritual ideals and the services to the world of humanity of the friends of the Bahá’í Faith.

As we study into the history of the religions of the past, we see that each religion has developed a civilization in the world and has developed also a style of architecture which has found its full and perfect development in the temples of the epoch. Way back in the very dawn of religious history, when the Prophet Abraham came out from his homeland and took his band of followers to the Land of Promise, the Holy Land, one of His first activities was building a temple to the Lord, and that temple was a very simple place of worship, the altar which he built on the mountain top for the sacrifices that He instituted as the ritual for the people of His day. It was probably a very, very simple affair, built, laid up, of rough stones gath ered from the top of the mountain. But it was the center; that simple altar on the mountain top, that place of worship, was the center of the civilization of that day. In those days, the people lived pastoral lives in the valleys below, but on certain occasions they went up onto the mountain top for their spiritual worship, for their sacrifices.

Later on, centuries later, when Moses, the Prophet of God, led the children of Israel out of Egypt, out of the land of bondage to the land of promise, one of the first institutions that He instituted was the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was a portable temple of worship. I suppose the Tabernacle described in the Old Testament was probably covered with skins of animals, but it had certain elements of worship in it. There was the inner Holy of Holies, there was the court around that, and finally the outer court, and during the long forty years that the children of Israel were in the wilderness, when they struck their camp, their first duty was to set up this Tabernacle, so the Tabernacle during those years was the center of their religious life in the wilderness.

Later on, when the Jewish civilization developed in Jerusalem, the T emple of Solomon, the Temple in Jerusalem, was the center of their religious life and their cultural

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life, and it was built very much on the plan, the rudimentary plan, of the tabernacle in the wilderness. There was the inner Holy of Holies and then the inner court and the outer court.

At that time, people flowed from all nations to Jerusalem in order to partake of the learning and the culture that developed around the civilization there, the center of which was the Temple.

Centuries later, when the Christian Church was established, little by little, these churches, places of worship, were the cultural centers of Christianity. First, the style developed out of the Roman style in the City of Rome. Later on it developed into the Romanesque style in the West, into the Byzantine style of the Eastern Church, and after some thirteen or fourteen centuries, we have the flowering out of the magnificent cathedrals and churches of Europe.

This style of architecture, the Gothic style, developed in its greatest fragrance and development and beauty around in the central part of France; the Cathedrals of Lyon, of Chartres, of Amiens, Rheims, and Notre Dame of Paris are the outstanding temples of the Christian epoch.

When Muhammad gave His teaching off in the deserts of Arabia, one of the first developments of architecture was the Mosques that were built in and about the city of Cairo, and this Islamic culture went westward into Northern Africa and up into Spain. It went East into Persia and then down into India and the Mosques of these countries were the spiritual centers of education and culture in that magnificent civilization which Islém gave to the world.

And so it was with the other religions in the far East. The place of worship has been the cultural center and the point for the development of architecture and all of the allied arts.

Now, in the Bahá’í Faith, which is the new religion of the present day and present age, in the writings of Baha’u’llah, we have exhortations that we should build in this epoch, temples for worship, and He has given us a general plan for these temples. There shall be a temple proper, a circular building, built on the plan of a nine-sided polygon, which is to be the sanctuary for worship and prayer and meditation, and this central temple is to be surrounded by various institutions for the physical benefit of mankind, schools and hospitals and all the

institutions that go to make up the activities of a great world civilization.

The first one of these Bahá’í temples was built many years ago over in that country east of the Caspian Sea, sometimes spoken of as Trans-Caspian. There, in the City of ‘Isliqabad, our friends of the Orient built the first Bahá’í Temple. It was my privilege to visit it back some forty—five years ago. We have heard very little about our friends there in the last few years. The present Russian Government has confiscated our Temple and the Bahá’í community there in ‘Ishqábád has been scattered and dispersed, but now, only in the last few days, we have dedicated and completed the Temple here in Wilmette with which you are all so familiar.

A number of years ago, when I was still a student of architecture, I first heard of the Bahá’í Faith, and one of my first recollections was that when the time came for me to create my thesis in architecture, I would like very much, indeed, to take as my subject a typical Bahá’í Temple. That was way back a little over fifty years ago and, following that, I spent a good deal of time in making different studies for Bahá’í Temples, and some of you may recall that when the design was chosen for the Temple here in Wilmette, a number of us architects offered drawings. Some of my drawings were offered at that time. But shortly after that, the Master, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, revealed a Tablet to me and told me that my mission in the future would be to design the Temple to be built on Mt. Carmel in the Holy Land.

As we all know, the Holy Land is the Holy Land of all the religions of the world. The Jewish religion, the Christian religion, it is the Holy Land for Islam, and now in these days, it is the Holy Land for all the world in the Bahá’í Faith. Our spiritual background is there and also our Administrative Center is there, and it was the plan in the mind of the Master, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that there should be a Bahá’í Temple built upon Mt. Carmel.

During these years, I have made a number of studies and along about five years ago, our beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, wrote to me and told me that it was time to begin to think of the design, the completed design for that Temple.

At that time, in the latter part of 1947 and the early days of 1948, I made a complete set of drawings for the Temple and later on I took those drawings over to our

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Guardian and he made a number of suggestions that really created within my mind an entirely unique and different design from any of those studies that I had made before, and that is the design that we are going to show you this evening. These designs were made during the past two or three years that I have been spending in Haifa and they were made under the direction of our Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, and I must say that the architecture, the architectural motifs, are really his rather than mine. He gave me a great many criticisms, a great many suggestions, and after a period of time, of working and making drawings and submitting them to him and restudying them, etc., a design was made that he approved of, and it was his idea that a model should be made

of this design and that it should be unveiled here in this Conference, and 1 left Haifa a little over three months ago, and I went to Italy, and there in the City of Florence, I engaged a wood carver to make this model, carved of wood. I had had some rather bad experience With some of the models that I had made of plaster. It didn’t hold up in transportation, but this model of wood has transported very well and it is assembled and we are going to show it to you now.

This ensemble of models will give you an idea of the architecture. It speaks for itself. It shows the Temple proper which will be erected upon Mt. Carmel in the Holy Land, surrounded by terraces and gardens, with fountains and avenues leading up to it. It speaks for itself.

(9)

MESSAGES OF GREETING RECEIVED FOR TEMPLE DEDICATION

THE Dedication of the Temple brought many messages of greeting from public leaders. Following are excerpts from some of the greetings received.

From the Ambassador of Israel in the United States came the message: “On occasion of dedication of Bahá’í House of Worship I wish to convey to you sincere greetings and congratulations of State of Israel. Israel people and government, harboring in their country the Bahá’í spiritual Center, have always cherished cordial, friendly relations with Guardian of that Center and all Bahá’ís. Ideals of peace and brotherliness underlying Bahá’í Faith are dear and sacred to Israel, ancient and revived alike. Wish you every success.” (signed) Abba Evan, Ambassador, State of Israel.

From Charles Malik, Ambassador of Lebanon in the United States, came: “The devotion to the highest spiritual realities is the greatest thing in the world. I believe without the judgment and guidance of God all is of no avail. May you therefore be quickened in your endeavors to search for, know and worship Him.”

Justice William 0. Douglas of the Supreme Court wrote: “The Bahá’í House of Worship at Wilmette, Illinois, is a structure of great beauty, as millions who have seen it

know. But perhaps not so many realize its symbolic significance. It teaches the essential unity of mankind under one God, irrespective of the various sects and creeds that give expression to the various faiths. There is a basic wholeness among people the world around. There are spiritual ties that unite them in the brotherhood of man. . . . The important thing is recognition of the essential unity of mankind under one God. That is a force which cuts across politics, trade routes, racial groupings the world around. It can be made a powerful moral force in the practical affairs of the world if there is a dedication to the cause—the kind of dedication that went into the long and difficult task of constructing the Bahá’í House of Worship at Wilmette.”

Mrs. Ruth Bryan Rhode, former United States Ambassador to Denmark sent this message: “On the occasion of the dedication of the Bahá’í House of Worship, I join in spirit with the Assembly whose aspiration is the unification of mankind. May the beauty of the edifice and its symbolism carry inspiration in wider and wider circles around our troubled earth.”

Dr. Paul R. Anderson, President of the Pennsylvania College for Women, wrote: “I am delighted to learn of the dedication of

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the Bahá’í House of Worship at Wilmette. In times like these it stands as a great monument of liberalism and internationalism.

“I have never met more serious believers in the cause of humanity than Bahá’ís. Such loyalty to the highest ideals is what we need to bring us closer to the goal of a peaceful, friendly world.”

Dr. Marcus Bach, of the State University of Iowa, sent the following tribute: “The Bahá’í emphasis on the unity of religions is the richest adornment of our contemporary faith.

“While the dedication of your House of Worship symbolizes this fact in ceremonial, it remains for true followers of the Glory of God to instill its principle in the hearts of men.

“The words of Bahá’u’lláh, which have become a challenge and a working formula for our time, have long been my text, ‘The earth is but one country; and mankind its citizens.’

“These words, strengthened by my recent visit with the Guardian, are now further intensified by the rising influence demonstrated in the Intercontinental Centenary Conferences.

“It is my earnest hope that men of every belief and race may catch the spirit and power inherent in the Bahá’í cause and that this day of dedication will hasten the dawn of concord and direct the eyes of nations toward the light of brotherhood and peace.”

Among the clergymen sending greetings was Dr. David Rhys Williams, of the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York, who wired that the members of his congregation “extend fraternal greetings and best wishes for an inspiring centennial celebration of the Bahá’í Revelation and join you in affirming the oneness of all religions as you dedicate your beautiful Temple as a symbol of this oneness.”

Dr. Karl M. Chworowsky, minister of the First Unitarian Church of Fairfield County, Conn., wrote: “The writer who for these past several years has enjoyed the high privilege and profound inspiration of active fellowship with the Bahá’ís of New York, desires to join with your many friends and well-wishers in congratulating the Bahá’ís of the United States on this occasion of the dedication of your beautiful House of Worship. . . . The richest blessings of the Eternal One be and abide with you . . .”

Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, of Cleveland,

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wrote: “May I be permitted to send you my felicitations on this occasion and to express the hope that your newly-dedicated House of Worship will be a source of inspiration and spiritual guidance to many people in our country.”

From Syracuse University, the Department of Philosophy, Dr. Raymond Frank Piper, sent this message: “The Bahá’í House of Worship is a unique and magnificent achievement in the history of the world’s religions and cultures because it embodies, in incomparable, compelling, and unforgettable beauty, the glorious ideal of the enlightened and creative unity of religions, and also because it is a sun-clear, enduring symbol which invites all religionists, and others too, to work together in loving sympathy for the sake of multiplying those precious fruits of goodwill, wisdom, peace, and joy of which mankind now stands in profound and painful need."

A long letter came from Dr. Shao Chang Lee, Head of the Department of Foreign Studies at Michigan State College. With the letter came a large Chinese card with the twelve Bahá’í principles beautifully lettered in Chinese by Dr. Lee. In his letter, Dr. Lee said in part: “I for one deeply appreciate the efforts that you and other members of the Assembly have made and are making to achieve an integrated community of truth-loving and peace-loving peoples. At this critical point in world history, you bring to mankind the spiritual and practical values which Baha’u’llah has emphasized, and which the world greatly needs.”

Dr. Kirtley F. Mather, Professor of Geology at Harvard University, wrote: “You and your associates are greatly to be congratulated upon the completion of this lovely edifice, but even more because of the effective work you are doing to unite the people of many lands and creeds in a spiritual unity that cannot help but bear rich fruits in coming years.”

From The Hoover Institute and Library, Stanford University, the Chairman, Dr. H. H. Fisher, wrote: “Please accept my sincere good wishes. I am sure that believers in human brotherhood and workers for understanding among the peoples of the earth will be happy to know, as I am, of the dedication of this House of Worship to these great causes.”

From the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University, Dr. E. A. Burtt wrote:

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“All I can say is that this seems to me a notable occasion in the history and progress of religion in the United States, and that I hope the Temple will increasingly help to bring about a spirit of union and of hope among adherents of all religious creeds.”

From Dr. Harry A. Overstreet came the following: “Your effort to make a new feeling come alive in us—that of ongoing revelation—is to me most impressive. This is the feeling all of us, I think, must somehow manage to make intimately part of ourselves. This must be our worship of the One God that liveth.”

Mr. Thurgood Marshall, Director and Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, wired: “We are happy to extend greetings and best wishes on the occasion of the dedication of the Bahá’í House of Worship. You affirmatively offer full religious fellowship to all without distinctions based upon race and color and are thereby

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attempting to put into practice one of the highest ideals of religious and democratic teachings. Our organization is dedicated to the same end although through use of different tools. We are, therefore, fellowsoldiers trying to build a society in which there will be no place for distinctions and diflerences based upon race, color, class or religion.”

Mr. Roy Wilkins, Administrator for the NAACP, wrote: “I am happy to send greeting to the members of the Bahá’í faith and their friends upon the occasion of the dedication of your Temple to the brotherhood of man. Our poor world is in great need of the deep faith and sincere and unostentatious practices of the Bahá’ís.”

Greetings were also received from: Dr. Dwight J . Bradley; Dr. Albert Guerard; Dr. Channing H. Tobias, Director of the Phelps Stokes Fund; and Dr. Frank H. Hankins.

4. THE EUROPEAN INTERCONTINENTAL TEACHING CONFERENCE HELD IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, JULY 21-26, 1953 (1)

THE GUARDIAN’S MESSAGE

Presented by UGO GIACHERY

TO THE Hands of the Cause, the members of the National Spiritual Assemblies, the pioneers, the resident believers and visitors attending the European Intercontinental Teaching Conference in Stockholm, Sweden:

Well-beloved friends:

With a glad and grateful heart I welcome the convocation, in the capital-city of Sweden, of the third of a series of Intercontinental Teaching Conferences associated with the world-wide festivities commemorating the centenary of the Mission of Bahá’u’lláh and destined to exert a profound and lasting influence on the immediate fortunes of His Faith in all continents of the globe.

I look back, with feelings of wonder, thankfulness and joy, upon the chain of memorable circumstances which, a little over a century ago, accompanied the introduction of the Faith into, and marked the inception of its nascent institutions within, a continent which, in the course of the last two thousand years, has exercised on the destiny of the human race a pervasive influence unequaled by that of any other continent of the globe.

I feel impelled, on this historic occasion, when the members of the American, the British, the German and the newly formed Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assemblies, as well as representatives of the Bahá’ís of the United Kingdom, of Eire, of Germany, of Austria, of the Scandinavian and Benelux

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countries, of the Iberian Peninsula, of Italy, of Switzerland, of France, and of Finland are assembled, to pay a warm tribute to the valiant labors of the early British and French Bahá’í pioneers, who at the very dawn of the Faith in Europe, strove with such diligence, consecration and resolution, to fan into flame that holy Fire which the hand of the appointed Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant had kindled in the northwest extremity of that continent on the morrow of His Father’s ascension. I recall the slow eastward spread of that infant Light which led to the gradual emergence of the German and Austrian Bahá’í Communities, during the darkest period of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s incarceration in the prison-fottress of ‘Akká. I am reminded of His subsequent epoch-making visit, soon after His providential release from His forty—year confinement in the Most Great Prison, to these newly-fledged struggling Communities, of His patient seed—sowing destined to yield at a later age its first fruits, and constituting a landmark of the utmost significance in the rise and establishment of the Faith of Baha’u’llah in that continent.

I, moreover, call to mind, on this occasion, the successive episodes which, on the morrow of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ascension, in the course of the initial Epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation, signalized the emergence of those administrative institutions, both local and national, which proclaimed the germination of those potent seeds which had lain dormant for more than a decade in these newly-opened European territories, and which culminated in the construction of the framework of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha’u’1121b and the erection of the first two pillars destined to sustain in that continent the weight of the final unit of that Order.

Nor can I fail to acclaim, as a further milestone in the irresistible evolution of that Faith, the launching, following the creation of the administrative agencies designed to provide the effectual instruments for its propagation, of the Six-Year Plan of the British Bahá’í Community followed successively by the European Teaching Campaign, inaugurated in accordance with the provisions of the second Seven-Year Plan of the American Bahá’í Community, the Five-Year Plan conceived by the German and Austrian Bahá’í Communities and the Two-Year Plan later initiated by the British Bahá’í Com THE BAHA’I WORLD

munity—Plans which, within less than a decade, succeeded in laying the structural basis of the Administrative Order of the Faith in Wales, in Scotland, in Northern Ireland and in Eire, in multiplying and consolidating Bahá’í institutions throughout the British Isles, in broadening and strengthening the foundations of that same Order in Germany and Austria, in erecting the National Administrative Headquarters of the Faith in the city of Frankfurt, in establishing Spiritual Assemblies in the capital cities of no less than ten sovereign states in Europe, in reenforcing the administrative foundations of that Faith in those territories, in providing the means for the convocation of five European, and a series of regional, Teaching Conferences, and above all, in the convocation of the historic Convention in Florence culminating in the emergence of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Italy and Switzerland, the third in a series of institutions destined to play their part in the eventual establishment of the Supreme Legislative Body of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha’u‘llz’th.

The hour is now ripe for these Communities whether new or old, local or national, already functioning on the Northern, the Western and the Southern fringes of that continent, as well as those situated in its very heart, to initiate befittingly and prosecute energetically the European Campaign of a global Crusade which will not only contribute, to an unprecedented degree, to the broadening and the consolidation of the foundations of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh on the continent of Europe, but will also diffuse its light over the neighboring islands, and will, God willing, carry its radiance to the Eastern territories of that continent, and beyond them as far as the heart of Asia.

The privileged prosecutors of so revolutionizing, so gigantic, so sacred and beneficent a campaign, are, on the morrow of its launching, and, at such a crucial hour in the destinies of the European continent, summoned to undertake:

First, the formation, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, of one National Spiritual Assembly in each one of the Scandinavian and Benelux Countries, and those of the Iberian Peninsula, and one in Finland, as well as the establishment, in collaboration with the Paris Spiritual Assem [Page 169]CENTENARY OF

BIRTH OF BAHA’U’LLAH’S MISSION 169

Hands of the Cause of God present at the Third Intercontinental Teaching Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, July 21-26, 1953.

bly, of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of France, the establishment, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Germany and Austria, of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Austria, and the establishment, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, and in association with the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Italy and Switzerland, of independent National Spiritual Assemblies in Italy and Switzerland.

Second, the construction of the first Mashriqu’l-Aclhkér of Europe in the city of Frankfurt, the heart of Germany, which occupies such a central position in the continent of Europe.

Third, the purchase of land for the future construction of two Mashriqu’l-Aqtlkérs, one in the North in the city of Stockholm, and one in the South in the city of Rome, the seat and stronghold of the most powerful church in Christendom.

Fourth, the opening of the following

thirty virgin territories and islands: Albania, Crete, Estonia, Finno-Karelia, Frisian Islands, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Rumania, White Russia, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Germany and Austria; Channel Islands, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Hebrides Islands, Malta, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles; Andorra, Azores, Balearic Islands, Lofoten Islands, Spitzbergen, Ukraine, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America; Liechtenstein, Monaco, Rhodes, San Marino, Sardinia, Sicily, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Italy and Switzerland.

Fifth, the translation and publication of Bahá’í literature in the following ten languages to be undertaken by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America, through its European Teaching Committee: Basque, Estonian, Flemish, Lapp, Maltese, Piedmon [Page 170]170 THE BAHA’I WORLD

tese, Romani, Romansch, Yiddish, Ziryen.

Sixth, the consolidation of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America; of Austria, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Russian S.F.S., Yugoslavia, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Germany and Austria; of Eire allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles; of Iceland allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada; and of Corsica allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Italy and Switzerland.

Seventh, the incorporation of the thirteen above-mentioned National Spiritual Assemblies.

Eighth, the establishment by these same National Spiritual Assemblies of national Bahá’í endowments.

Ninth, the establishment of a national Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in the capital city of each of the countries where National Spiritual Assemblies are to be established, as well as one in London and one in Paris. ,,,

Tenth, the formation of a National Bahá’í Publishing Trust in Frankfurt, Germany.

Eleventh, the formation of Israel Branches of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles and of Germany and Austria, authorized to hold, on behalf of their parent institutions, property dedicated to the holy Shrines at the World Center of the Faith in the State of Israel.

Twelfth, the conversion to the Faith of representatives of the Basque and Gypsy races. Thirteenth, the appointment, during Riḍván 1954, by the Hands of the Cause in Europe, of an auxiliary Board of nine members who will, in conjunction with the four National Spiritual Assemblies participating in the European campaign, assist, through periodic and systematic visits to Bahá’í centers, in the efficient and prompt execution of the Plans formulated for the prosecution of the teaching campaign in the European continent.

A continent, occupying such a central and strategic position on the entire planet; so rich and eventful in its history, so diversified in its culture; from whose soil sprang both the Hellenic and Roman civilizations; the mainspring of a civilization to some of whose features Bahá’u’lláh Himself paid

tribute; on whose southern shores Christendom first established its home; along whose eastern marches the mighty forces of the Cross and the Crescent so frequently clashed; on whose southwestern extremity a fast evolving Islamic culture yielded its fairest fruit; in whose heart the light of the Reformation shone so brightly, shedding its rays as far as the outlying regions of the globe; the well-spring of American culture; whose northern and western fringes were first warmed and illuminated, less than a century ago, by the dawning light of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh; in whose heart a Community, so rich in promise, was subsequently established; whose soil was later sanctified by the twice-repeated Visit of the appointed Center of His Covenant; which witnessed, in consequence of the rise and establishment of the Administrative Order of His Faith, the erection of two of the foremost pillars of the future Universal House of Justice; which, in recent years, sustained the dynamic impact of a series of national Plans preparatory to the launching of a world spiritual crusade—such a continent has at last at this critical hour—this great turning-point in its fortunes—entered upon what may well be regarded as the opening phase of a great spiritual revival that bids fair to eclipse any period in its spiritual history.

May the elected representatives of the National Bahá’í Communities entrusted with the conduct of this momentous undertaking launched on the soil of this continent, aided by the Hands of the Cause and their auxiliary Board, reinforced by the local communities, the groups and isolated believers sharing in this massive and collective enterprise, and supported by the subsidiary agencies to be appointed for its efficient prosecution, be graciously assisted by the Lord of Hosts to contribute, in the years immediately ahead, through their concerted efforts and collective achievements, in both the teaching and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity, to the success of this glorious Crusade, and lend a tremendous impetus to the conversion, the reconciliation and the ultimate unification of the divers and conflicting peoples, races, and classes dwelling within the borders of a travailing, a sorely—agitated, and spiritually-famished continent.

May all the privileged participators, en [Page 171]CENTENARY OF BIRTH OF BAHA’U’LLAH’S MISSION 171

listing under the banner of Bahá’u’lláh for the promotion of so preeminent and meritorious a Cause, be they from the Eastern or Western Hemisphere, of either sex, white or colored, young or old, neophyte or veteran, whether serving in their capacity as expounders of the teachings, or administrators, of His Faith, as settlers or itinerant teachers, distinguish themselves by such deeds of

heroism as will rival, nay outshine, the feats accomplished nineteen hundred years ago, by that little band of God-intoxicated disciples who, fearlessly preaching the Gospel of a newly-arisen Messiah, contributed so decisively to the illumination, the regeneration and the advancement of the entire European

continent. —SHOGH‘I

(2)

REPORT OF THE EUROPEAN INTERCONTINENTAL TEACHING CONFERENCE

THE Third Intercontinental Bahá’í Teaching Conference, held in Stockholm, Sweden, from July 21-26, 1953, can be described in one word, Action! In this Jubilee celebration of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission “the spirit of the Year Nine was revived” and the European campaign was launched.

Visualize, for a moment, the large auditorium of the Medborgarhus [Citizens Hall], its stage decorated with pink gladiolas, yellow roses and carnations; Ugo Giachery, the special representative of the Guardian at the speaker’s table with Edna True, Chairman of the European Teaching Committee, Marion Hofman, Co—Chairman for the Conference, Honor Kempton and Anne Lynch, secretaries.

The Conference was convened by Edna True on Wednesday morning, July 22, and the message of the Guardian was read by Ugo Giachery, outlining the thirteen goals of “so revolutionizing, so gigantic, so sacred and beneficent a campaign.” Honor Kempton read messages and greetings from the International Bahá’í Council, many of the National Spiritual Assemblies, the European Teaching Committee and countless local Assemblies and individuals.

The Chairman then presented each of the fourteen Hands of the Cause who were present: Amelia Collins, Vice-President of the International Bahá’í Council, Charles Mason Remey, President of the International Bahá’í Council, Dorothy Baker, Hermann Grossmann, Adelbert Mühlschlegel, Valiyu’lláh Varqé, shu’é’u’llah ‘Alé’f, Tarazu’lláh Samandari, ‘Ali-Akbar Furfitan, George Townshend, Mfisé Banéni, Horace Holley, D_hikru’lláh Khádem and Ugo

Giachery. On this occasion Mrs. Baker remarked, “I begin to understand why Europe has been considered the pulse of the world. If we regenerate its pulse, the world may be conquered!”

Then, as the believers answered the roll call, three hundred and seventy-seven from thirty countries responded: One hundred and ten from the ten goal countries,1 seventy-six from Germany, sixty-six from Iran, forty-two from England, and fortyeight from other lands!

On the afternoon of this first day of the Conference, following the reading of the prayer, “The Remover of Difficulties,” the story of the meeting of Mullá Husayn with the Báb, and the chanting of the Tablet of Ahmad by a descendent of the Báb, the sacred gift of our beloved Guardianthe blessed portrait of His Holiness the Báb —was unveiled. Profound reverence touched each heart as the friends gazed on the portrait of the Blessed Bab, creating a sense of dedication and consecration which was to burst into a flame of action! It was a holy moment, a moment in eternity.

The public meeting, held that night in the Concerthus, brought an audience of almost seven hundred to hear Mrs. Gerd Strand of Oslo, Norway, and Professor Zeine N. Zeine of Beirut, Lebanon. Hans Odemyr of Stockholm presented the speakers after giving a brief résumé of the principles of the Faith. Mrs. Strand, who spoke in Swedish on “The Spiritual Regeneration of the Individual Man,” pictured the “winter darkness of

1 Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, France, Finland.

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doubt and restlessness” with the Bahá’í Revelation “coming as a sunrise from the east, carrying the hope and promise of spring in its bosom.” She reviewed the effects of education and religion on the character of man and closed her talk with a quotation from Bahá’u’lláh giving the Bahá’í standards of conduct. Professor Zeine, speaking of “The Reconstruction of Human Society,” explained that the reason “we are living in a time of confusion, perplexity and insecurity is that most people have lost their sense of values and their sense of direction, admitting no authority higher than their own, rejecting spiritual authority.” He logically unfolded his subject, showing that “only God can save humanity from itself” and ended with the thought that “human society cannot be reconstructed on any solid, lasting foundation unless we turn to God again.”

The session Thursday morning opened with the reading of the cable to be sent to the Guardian:

“Three hundred and seventy-seven believers (from) thirty countries humbly thank (the) beloved Guardian (for the) sacred, blessed bounty (of his) priceless gift (and) join (in) heartfelt loving greetings. (Our) hearts (are) joyously, solemnly united (and) uplifted (by) your message (sent) through (your) honored representative (and by) greetings from fourteen revered, beloved Hands (of the) Cause. (The) vision (of) Europe’s great destiny (and this) immense Crusade calls us (to) rededication (and a) greater loyalty. (We are) entreating your prayers. Devoted love, Third Intercontinental Conference.”

Introducing the subject, “Launching the European Campaign of the World—Embracing Crusade,” Dr. Giachery summarized the Guardian’s cable for us and made an impassioned appeal for us not to consider our limitations and human frailties but to arise, one and all, to shoulder our responsibilities. He listed the three immediate goals as follows:

1. To get our pioneers to the virgin territories as soon as possible.

2. To start translations.

3. To purchase land for future Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs in Rome and Stockholm and the construction of the Mashriqu’l-A(fllkér in Frankfurt.

The response began immediately with Horace Holley’s announcement that the Bahá’ís of America, through their National Spiritual Assembly, were making what

THE BAHA’I WORLD

might be called a token contribution of $250. “Undoubtedly, the first payment,” he added. This was followed by an offer of $5,000 each for Stockholm and Frankfurt, another of $1,000 for each, and then came offers in kroner, pesetas, marks, lire, francs, so that in a few moments a total of $8,567 each was reached. But this was not all, for the floodgates had opened and Bahá’ís, young and old, gave cameras, wedding rings, Bahá’í rings, diamonds, watches, necklaces, earrings. One young man offered to sell his motorcycle and walk. Two brothers offered to work for two months on the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Frankfurt. Many laid on the altar of sacrifice the last piece of jewelry belonging to the family, heirlooms, precious and historic gifts associated with the Holy family and the early believers, objects which could never be replaced. Some of the gifts were given in memory of departed mothers, sisters, brothers, pioneers Dagmar Dole and Johanna Schubarth; in memory of the chairman of the Persian National Assembly and of Louis Gregory, first Negro Hand of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. Numerous gifts were given for the Stockholm Mashriqu’l-Adhkár; photographs and paintings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Persian rugs carrying the symbol of the Greatest Name, embroidered cloths, a silver picture frame, a vase, precious soil from the home of the Báb in Iṣfahán and other offerings from the friends.

In the afternoon a glimpse of the First and Second International Conferences was given as Mfisé Banéni, Shu’é’u’lláh ‘Alá’í, Horace Holley, Mildred Mottahedeh and Beatrice Ashton made their reports. Mr. Banani told many interesting incidents in connection with the preparations for the Kampala Conference and explained how seemingly insurmountable obstacles had been miraculously overcome, many at the very last moment. General ‘Alá’í compared the gathering to an experimental farm, wherein God was trying out new seeds which were destined to bring in a bumper crop. He confessed that, before the Conference, he had had misgivings as to the firmness of the African believers so recently converted to the Faith. Much to his joy he found that “each of these African believers is deep in the Faith . . . and that their knowledge is superior to that of many of the people who have been in the Faith for years.”

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The Temple Dedication was vividly described by Horace Holley, who spoke of the structural beauty of the edifice and of its interior ornamentation and read the statement made at the dedication in behalf of the Guardian by Rúḥíyyih Khánum. Then Mrs. Mottahedeh covered the high points of the Second Intercontinental Teaching Conference held in Wilmette. The afternoon session closed with a showing of slides and films taken by believers at the First and Second Intercontinental Conferences and the Temple Dedication. These were explained by Beatrice Ashton.

Two evenings of the Conference were devoted to the early history of the Faith, with George Townshend and D_hikru’lláh Khádem speaking Thursday evening on “The Sufierings of Bahá’u’lláh and Their Significance.” Mr. Townshend explained that “the pains, the griefs, the sorrows, the sufferings, the rejections, the betrayals, the frustrations which were the common lot of all the High Prophets reached their culmination in Him” and, be significantly added, “Not He Himself alone but the Cause of God was in prison.” Again, he said: “Wrongs done to the founder of a religion have two inevitable efiects: one is that of retribution against the wrong done—the severity of which we may judge from the two thousand year exile of the Jewish people; the other is that of reward to the High Prophet through the release of fresh powers of life that otherwise would have lain latent, enabling Him to pour forth Divine energies which in their boundlessness will utterly overwhelm the forces of evil and empower Him to say, ‘Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’ ” Mr. Townshend closed with these words, “Love is a priceless thing, only to be won at the cost of death . . . Those heroic souls who are rapt in the love of the Lord, they are the true lovers.”

Mr. Kllédem traced the life of Bahá’u’lláh in His imprisonments and banishment. He told of His great sufferings and loneliness, pointing out that, “When we look back a hundred years ago, Bahá’u’lláh was alone, but now His lovers all around the world in twenty-five hundred localities in one hundred and twenty-nine countries speak of Him in ninety different languages!” He then enumerated many of the achievements of the Faith, ending with the establishment of the Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assembly, another pillar of the Universal House of

BAHA’U’LLAH’S MISSION 173

Justice. “By 1963 we shall have a Universal House of Justice, no doubt, and in Baghdad Witness to that great day of Daniel. He could not live to see that day but he said, ‘Blessed are they who will see that day.’ . . . Daniel, whose grave is in ‘Iráq, will, in each one of us, see his prophecy fulfilled. . . .”

Friday morning Ugo Giachery read the paragraph of the Guardian’s cable setting forth Europe’s part in the Global Crusade, listing the territories in which we must have pioneers before the end of the Jubilee year, just a little over two months from now! He made a moving appeal saying, “We are young and strong and able to go; we all have our businesses, our family connections and things that are important to do, but when we realize that we can do Without them and that by pioneering we can accomplish something that will last for all eternity! . . .

“I am hoping that before the day is over we shall be able to cable the Guardian that every place is filled. The Guardian will inscribe the name of every pioneer on a special scroll, the Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, and this will remain forever in the inmost tomb of Bahá’u’lláh in Bahjí.”

Dr. Giachery then announced that another message from the Guardian had been received and read it to the assembled believers.

This cable from the beloved Guardian set ablaze the true spirit of sacrifice and devoted souls responded to the call; singly, in families, in couples, offering to go wherever needed. Sixty-three volunteered, in all: twenty—seven from the Persian ranks, eleven from England, four from Germany, fifteen from the ten goal countries with five offers from American pioneers now serving under the European Teaching Committee and one from America.

On Friday afternoon, the friends had the joy of seeing moving pictures of the Holy places of the Faith in Israel. The beauty of the gardens, as well as the tremendous achievements at the World Center, is just one more miracle to add to the wondrous testimonies to the power of Bahá’u’lláh in our day!

Friday evening, Horace Holley, in his presentation of “The Birth and Development of the Institutions of the Faith,” traced the power and authority of Bahá’u’lláh perpetuated in Bahá’í institutions. “Now what we have here is indeed a divine creation. It is humanity being raised toward God and

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Volunteer pioneers for the Ten-Year Global Crusade, Third Bahá’í Intercontinental Teaching Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, July 21-26, 1953.

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the divine grace of God descending to humanity . . . Therefore, in our daily lives when we have troubles and difficulties of an administrative nature, let us not be too impatient or too easily discouraged because we are in the process of making possible the formation of that spiritual body of the Universal House of Justice. There is the basis of the world’s peace. There is the order and security of the world. There is the nobility and enlightenment of the human race . . . If by the purity of our motives, by the depths of our self-sacrifice, we could hasten by one year or one month the establishment of that body, the whole human race would bless us for that great gift.” Mr. Holley concluded with this thought: “ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told us to see God in every human face, and we should also see God in our institutions. When we do this, we can with more patience and insight join in this great new order of justice and peace.”

Mr. Tarazu’lláh Samandari spoke of “The Stirring Episodes of the Early Days of the Faith.” He said: “When there is a Divine Beloved, He needs lovers . . . A farmer needs, first of all, soil in which to plant . . . The Manifestations require the heart in which to plant their love . . . In the days of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, there were lovers who went through the fire of martyrdom.” Mr. Samandari pointed out that today “Pioneering is the equivalent of martyrdom and suffering. They will reap the same fruits as the early believers for their sacrifice.” He told of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s prophecy that kings would one day carry flowers to the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh and visit the Holy Places of the Bahá’í world.

One time, in the presence of Bahá’u’lláh as He chanted the Tablet to the Sultan, Mr. Samandari said: “He was seen in two states at the same time; that of the majesty and might of kingship, and one of modesty and meekness; the two could be seen, side by side.” In conclusion, he related a story of the last days of the Blessed Perfection. He had summoned all the believers to come to His bedside and chanted verses from the Book of Aqdas referring to His passing. Seeing the believers overcome with grief, He counseled them, “The most important attribute in the life of the believers should he love and unity.”

In beginning his presentation of “The Dawn-Breakers,” Mr. ‘Ali-Akbar Furt’itan said that the Guardian had instructed the

believers to study the history of the Faith and compare it with the early days of past religions. Mr. Furl’itan showed that the disciples of other religions had not fully recognized the true and exalted station of their own prophets and gave examples of disobedience to the expressed wishes and commands of Moses, Christ and Muhammad. As contrast, he cited the many examples of absolute obedience in the Bahá’í Faith. One, taken from the record of the last days of the earthly life of the Báb, tells that when the Bab called for a volunteer to take His life (not wishing, as He said, to die by the hand of an unbeliever) a youth sprang to his feet, ready to obey His command and later explained that his obedience was to His Cause, not to His person; to His Word, not to His personality.

Mr. Furfitan closed his remarks by quoting a saying of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “A small piece of cotton can prevent the ear from hearing sweet melodies. A very thin veil can cover the eyes and make it impossible for them to see. A very small headache can cause our mind to stop functioning . . . a small drop of mortal poison can kill the person who takes it. The veils of selfishness are like the piece of cotton, the thin veil, the small headache and the drop, but those heroic souls, the Dawn-Breakers, did not let any veils come in between them and their true responsibility.”

At the opening of the session Saturday morning a letter from King Gustav Adolph of Sweden was read in which he acknowledged receipt of the Jubilee booklet.

Dr. Grossmann then called attention to four maps of Europe on which were designated the goals of each of the four National Spiritual Assemblies and Local Spiritual Assemblies in the European campaign and endeavored to orient, geographically, the needs of the Crusade. He brought out many interesting historical facts with regard to these countries and enumerated the languages into which Bahá’í literature is to be translated during the next ten years.

At this point a letter written by Rúḥíyyih Khánum at the request of the Guardian was read by Dr. Giachery: “The friends in Stockholm must realize that the most important institutions to support at this time are the London Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds and the funds for the Temple land in Stockholm and Frankfurt. The back of some of the hardest work in the plan will then be broken. . . .

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The Guardian wishes that the friends should do their utmost to fill the remaining virgin territories and after returning home they should urge the Bahá’ís generally to do the same. The Hands of the Cause in their travels should do likewise. . . .”

John Ferraby, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles, was asked to report on the efforts made thus far in England to secure a site for their Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds. “Nearly the whole of the center of London is owned by a few landowners,” he said, “and the few properties available command a very high price indeed. There is only one property offered which seems in any way suitable. If we cannot find a cheaper place, the Guardian has told us We may purchase it. . . . For a lease they are asking five thousand pounds sterling, but for the land thirteen thousand pounds sterling, making a total of eighteen thousand pounds in all. The Guardian has cabled two thousand pounds toward the cost.”

Again the Conference was moved to action and excitement mounted as contributions were offered. Soon it was announced that the London Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds was assured a very substantial amount by this Conference.

Consultation on the Guardian’s cable continued and many points were clarified, among them the meaning of “incorporation” and “national endowments,” set forth by Horace Holley. “The legal incorporation of a national or local assembly,” he said, “is very important from several points of view. In the first place, it produces recognition and enhances the prestige of the Faith and in the second place, it brings to -the Bahá’í community the advantage of legal protection in the case of lawsuits, litigation, etc. Finally, it creates of the institution of the Spiritual Assembly a legal person, a corporate body which is free from the personalities of the nine members. This legal person has perpetuity of existence.” In considering endowments, he added, “In the future the Local Spiritual Assembly and, of course, the National Spiritual Assembly will build schools, libraries and other Bahá’í institutions. As these institutions come into existence they are held legally by the aggregate body and not by the nine members of the Spiritual Assembly. The nine members of the Spiritual Assembly are the trustees of these properties.” He drew attention to the lesson taught the American believers by

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‘Abdu’l-Bahá when He told them to build the Mashriqu’l-Acfllkér. “Little by little the friends began to contribute their funds to build the Temple. After a while we had sufficient funds to begin construction and by the time the Temple was completed $2,600,000 had been spent! Because the Bahá’ís concentrated on carrying out the Master’s wish, they produced a building that is the glory of America. The Master told Mrs. Corinne True who was the first and, for many years, the financial secretary, that they must make a beginning and then all things would come and, therefore, no matter how small or how weak your community is, realize that it is the seed from which will come the fruitful trees!”

At the beginning of the afternoon session, Amelia Collins, at the request of our Guardian, showed the latest photographs of developments in the work on the Shrine of the Bab and explained how, on the day of the Feast of Riḍván, the Guardian had sealed a bit of the plaster from the ceiling of the prison room of the Báb at Méh—Kfi behind one of the golden tiles in the Dome of the Shrine.

Discussing “Opening up New Territories,” Edna True outlined some salient considerations and shared experiences of the European Teaching Committee in the work in Europe. Dorothy Ferraby, of England, reviewed the work of the British Africa Committee in its collaboration with other National Spiritual Assemblies in the development of the first world project. Dorothy Baker followed with practical suggestions for opening new territories and placing pioneers, using Spitzbergen as a concrete example. Honor Kempton spoke on spiritual prerequisites and practical preparation for pioneers, suggesting The Advent of Divine Justice and The Challenging Requirements of the Present Hour as excellent textbooks for this study. Many pioneers in the European field shared their experiences for the remainder of the afternoon.

The night of the Unity Banquet arrived. A full moon watched its reflection in the waters surrounding Stockholm’s Town Hall. Inside, the magnificent Golden Room, dazzling in its splendor, was filled with joyous “God-intoxicated souls” gathered to commemorate the great Jubilee of the Year Nine. In this perfect setting all were enchanted, as the Guardian’s special representative, the President and the Vice—Presi [Page 177]CENTENARY OF BIRTH OF BAHA’U’LLAH’S MISSION 177

dent of the International Bahá’í Council, Hands of the Cause, seven members from National Spiritual Assemblies, delegates from each of the goal countries, and visitors from other lands were presented. Heartwarming greetings in many languages heightened the spirit of love and unity in the hearts until all were “as one soul in many bodies.” Each believer, leaving this golden scene, carried with him a precious little packet of petals from the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh, brought from the Holy Land for this occasion. As it had opened, the Unity Banquet closed with chanting by Persian believers. The Jubilee had indeed been befittingly commemorated.

Summarizing the Conference next morning, Marion Hofman declared, “These days have been days of faith, obedience, detachment, love, heroism, and sacrifice!” As examples she pointed out that even before the Guardian’s request that the friends establish Funds to purchase Temple sites, $27,000 had been donated; that, in response to the appeal of the Guardian for the participants to “swell the roll of honor through enlisting promptly under the unfurled banner of the advancing Hosts of Bahá’u’lláh,” one out of seven arose and enlisted under that banner. A third achievement she likened to the Holiest Temple of the Bahá’í World. “As that building of steel and concrete rose in Wilmette, a symbol of the transcendence of the Cause . . . it brought joy to the believers around the world . . . even so does the arising of the European Bahá’í community reinforce all of us.”

At the close of the morning session, Edna True expressed the appreciation of the European Teaching Committee for the assistance given by all who contributed to the success of the Stockholm Conference. Ugo Giachery, the Guardian’s special representative to the Stockholm Conference, commented on the maturity which the European community had reached, lauded the European Teaching Committee and the pioneers for their work and addressed special thanks to the Persian friends who contributed so generously to the achievement of the European goals.

Closing the Conference Sunday afternoon, Horace Holley announced that the representatives of the National Spiritual Assemblies had held several sessions during the Conference and had appointed a special committee to accept all pioneer offers and

achieve settlement of the goal areas as quickly as possible. He read the following cable, sent to the Guardian by the Hands of the Cause and representatives of the National Spiritual Assemblies:

“Fourteen Hands (and) members (of the following) National Spiritual Assemblies: United States, British Isles, Germany, ItaloSwiss, Iran, ‘Iráq, present (at) Stockholm, consulting (on the) rapid settlement (of) pioneer territories, impressed (by the) spiritual fervor (and) capacity (of the) Third Conference, pledge (and) humbly beseech prayers. Devoted love.”

Dorothy Baker reported that of the European goals assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, the Azores, Balearic Islands, Lofoten Islands, and Spitzbergen had been filled, leaving one virgin territory to be assigned—Andorra. As she spoke, a believer immediately offered to pioneer in that country.

Dr. Eugen Schmidt announced that pioneers under the National Spiritual Assembly of Germany and Austria had been assigned to Greece, Frisian Islands and Crete.

Dr. Ugo Giachery announced for the Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assembly that assignments have been made for Monaco, Sicily, Rhodes, and Sardinia. This left Liechtenstein and San Marino but, again, believers immediately rose to volunteer for these posts.

Mr. Ferraby, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles, announced assignments to Cyprus, Malta, and the Shetland Islands. Pioneers were available to fill other posts, he said, but funds were lacking. A Persian believer at once assured the necessary amount to send pioneers to the Channel, Hebrides and Orkney Islands, while a Bahá’í from Sweden offered to settle in the Faroe Islands.

Thus, pioneers were assigned to all the territories to be opened to the Faith in Europe! For those territories where, for the present, admittance to the countries cannot be secured, the pioneers are preparing themselves by thrift and study for the moment when they shall take their posts. The others either are en route or planning their imminent departures to positions for the waging of the World Crusade.

With these miracles of action the Conference drew to its close. In his farewell remarks, Mr. Ig'iadem drew attention to other tangible miracles: the presence at the Con [Page 178]178

ference, as Bahá’ís, of a descendent of Nésiri’d—Din S_112’1h, a descendent of the Imam Jum‘ih whose father’s uncle was the Son of the Wolf, and the former head of the Shayl_(_hi School of Iṣfahán, at whose declaration as a believer it was said, “the

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backbone of the Silaylglis is broken.”

The Third Intercontinental Bahá’í Teaching Conference closed with the reading, in English and in the original Persian, of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s prayer for the unity of East and West.

5. THE ASIAN INTERCONTINENTAL TEACHING CONFERENCE HELD IN NEW DELHI, INDIA, OCTOBER 7-15, 1953 (1)

THE GUARDIAN’S MESSAGE TO THE CONFERENCE

Presented by CHARLES MASON REMEY

TO THE Hands of the Cause, the members of the National Spiritual Assemblies, the pioneers, the resident believers and visitors attending the Asian Intercontinental Teaching Conference in New Delhi, India.

Well-beloved friends:

With high hopes and a joyful heart I acclaim the convocation, in the leading city of the Indian sub-continent, of the fourth and last of the Intercontinental Teaching Conferences of a memorable Holy Year commemorating the centenary of the birth of the prophetic Mission of Bahá’u’lláh.

On this historic occasion, when the members of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America, of the Dominion of Canada, of Central and South America, of Persia, of the Indian subcontinent and of Burma, of ‘Iráq and of Australasia, as well as representatives of the sovereign states and dependencies of the Asiatic continent, of the Republics of North, Central and South America, and of Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania are assembled, and are to deliberate on the needs and requirements of the recently launched triple Campaign embracing the Asiatic mainland, the Australian continent and the islands of the Pacific Ocean—a campaign which may well be regarded as the most extensive, the most arduous and the most momentous of all the campaigns of a world—girdling Crusade, and which, in its scope, is unparalleled in the history of the

Faith in the entire Eastern Hemispheremy thoughts, on such an occasion, go back to the early dawn of our Faith, to those unforgettable scenes of matchless heroism, of dark tragedy, of imperishable glory which heralded its birth, and accompanied the spread, of its infant Light in the heart of the Asiatic continent.

I vividly recall the meteoric rise of the Faith of the Báb in the provinces of Persia and the stirring episodes associated with His cruel incarceration in the mountain-fastnesses of Adhirbéyjén, with the revelation of the laws of His Dispensation, with the proclamation of the independence of His Faith, with the peerless heroism of His disciples, with the fiendish cruelty of His foes —the Chief Magistrate, the civil authorities, the ecclesiastical dignitaries and the masses of the people, of His native land—with the humiliation, the spoliation, the dispersal, the eventual massacre of a vast number of His followers, and, above all, with His own execution in the City of Tabríz.

With a throb of wonder I call to mind the early and sudden fruition of His Dispensation in the capital city of that land, and the dramatic circumstances attending the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation culminating in His precipitate banishment to ‘Iráq.

I am reminded, moreover, of the initial spread of the light of this Revelation, in consequence of the banishment of Bahá’u’lláh, to the adjoining territories of ‘Iráq,

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and, as far as the western fringes of that continent, to Turkey and the neighboring territories of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, and, at a later stage, to the Indian sub—continent and China, situated on the southern and eastern extremities of that continent as well as to the Caucasus and Russian TurkiStan.

Nor can I fail to remember the series of alternating crises and victories each constituting a landmark in the evolution of the Faith—which it has experienced in some of these territories, associated with the distressful withdrawal of its Author to the mountains of Suliméniyyih; with the glorious Declaration of His Mission in Bag_hdéd; with His second and third banishments to Constantinople and Adrianople; with the grievous rebellion of His half—brother; with the proclamation of His own Mission; with His fourth banishment to the desolate and far-oif penal colony of ‘Akká in Syria; with the revelation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, His Most Holy Book; with His ascension in the Holy Land; with the establishment of His Covenant and the inauguration of the Ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His son and the Exemplar and authorized Interpreter of His teachings.

These opening stages in the evolution of His Faith in the Asiatic continent were followed, while the first and Apostolic Age of His Dispensation was drawing to a close, by the opening of the Islands situated in the Pacific Ocean, Japan in the north, and the Australian continent in the South. To these memorable chapters of Asian Bahá’í history another was soon added, on the morrow of the ascension of the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, and during the initial epoch of the Formative Age of the Faith, distinguished by the rise of the Administrative Order and the erection of its pillars in the cradle of that Faith, in ‘Iráq, in India, Pakistan and Burma and in the Antipodes. This memorable episode in its development in that vast continent was succeeded by the initiation, during the second epoch of that same Age, of a series of Plans in those same territories in support of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan and as a prelude to the opening of the recently launched world-embracing Spiritual Crusade.

The hour has now struck for this continent, on whose soil, more than a century ago, so much sacred blood was shed, in whose very heart deeds of such tragic hero BAHA’U’LLAH’S MISSION 179

ism were performed, and in many of whose territories such brilliant victories have been won, to contribute, in association with its sister continents, to the progress and ultimate triumph of this global Crusade, in a manner befitting its unrivaled position in the entire Bahá’í world.

The various Bahá’í Communities dwelling within the borders of this continent and those situated to the south of its shores in the Antipodes, which include the oldest and most venerable among all the communities of the Bahá’í world, and whose members in their aggregate constitute the overwhelming majority of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh, are called upon, in close association with four other Bahá’í communities in the Western Hemisphere, to undertake in the course of the coming decade:

First, the construction of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Bahá’u’lláh’s native land, in the City of Ṭihrán, surnamed by Baha’u’llah “Mother of the World.”

Second, the purchase of land for the future construction of three Mashriqu’l-A(filkars, one in the City of Bag_hdad, enshrining the “Most Great House,” the third holiest city of the Bahá’í world, one in New Delhi, the leading city of the Indian subcontinent, and the third in Sydney, the oldest and foremost Bahá’í Center in the Antipodes.

Third, the formation of no less than eleven National Spiritual Assemblies, one each in Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of India, Pakistan and Burma; one in Turkey and one in Afg_hénistén, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Persia; one in Japan, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America; one in New Zealand, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia and New Zealand, as well as four regional National Spiritual Assemblies, one in the Arabian Peninsula, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Persia; one in South-East Asia, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of India, Pakistan and Burma; a third in the South Pacific, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America; and a fourth in the Near East, under the

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I

aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of ‘Iráq.

Fourth, the opening of the following forty-one virgin territories and islands: Andaman Islands, Bhutan, Daman, Diu, Goa, Karikal, Mahé, Mariana Islands, Nicobar Islands, Pondicherry, Sikkim, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of India, Pékistén and Burma; Caroline Islands, Dutch New Guinea, Hainan Island, Kazakhstan, Macao Island, Sakhalin Island, Tibet, Tonga Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America; Brunei, Chagos Archipelago, Kirgizia, Mongolia, Solomon Islands, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Persia; Admiralty Islands, Cocos Island, Loyalty Islands, Mentawai Islands, New Hebrides Islands, Portuguese Timor, Society Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia and New Zealand; Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Marshall Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Central America; Hadhramaut, Kuria-Muria Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of ‘Iráq; Marquesas Islands, Samoa Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada; Cook Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of South America.

Fifth, the translation and publication of Bahá’í literature in the following forty languages, to be undertaken by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of India, Pékistén and Burma, in association with the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia and New Zealand: Abor Miri, Aneityum, Annamese, Balochi, Bentuni, Binandere, Cheremiss, Chungchia, Georgian, Houailou, Javanese, Kado, Kaili, Kopu, Kusaie, Lepcha, Lifu, Manchu, Manipuri, Manus Island, Marquesas, Mentawai, Mongolian, Mordoff, Mwala, Na—Hsi, Nicobarese, Niue, Ossete, Ostiak, Pali, Panjabi, Pashto, Perm, Petats, Samoan, Th6, Tibetan, Tongan, Vogul.

Sixth, the consolidation of Aden Protectorate, A(filirbéyjén, Afg_hénistén, Ahsé, Armenia, Bahrayn Island, Georgia, Hijéz, Saudi—Arabia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Yemen, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Persia; of Balfichistén, Borneo, Burma, Ceylon, Indo-China,

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Indonesia, Malaya, Nepal, Pékistén, Sarawak, Siam, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of India, Pékistain and Burma; of China, Formosa, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Philippine Islands, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America; of Jordan, Koweit, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, Trucial Sheiks, ‘Ummén, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of ‘Iráq; of Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji, New Caledonia, Australian New Guinea, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia and New Zealand; of Hong Kong, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of British Isles.

Seventh, the incorporation of the eleven above-mentioned National Spiritual Assemblies, as well as those of Persia and ‘Iráq.

Eighth, the establishment by these abovementioned eleven National Spiritual Assemblies of national Bahá’í endowments.

Ninth, the establishment of a national Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in the capital cities of each of the countries where National Spiritual Assemblies are to be established, as well as one in Suva, one in J akarta, one in Bahrayn and one in Beirut.

Tenth, the establishment of a national Bahá’í Court in the capital cities of Persia, of ‘Iráq, of Pékistén and of Afghénisténthe leading Muslim centers in The Asiatic continent.

Eleventh, the establishment of two national Bahá’í Publishing Trusts, one in Ṭihrán and one in New Delhi.

Twelfth, the formation of Israel branches of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’ís of Persia, of ‘Iráq, and of Australia, authorized to hold on behalf of their parent institutions property dedicated to the holy Shrines at the World Center of the Faith in the State of Israel.

Thirteenth, the appointment, during RidVa’tn 1954, by the Hands of the Cause in Asia and in Australia of an auxiliary Board of nine members who will, in conjunction with the eight National Spiritual Assemblies participating in the Asiatic and Australian campaigns, assist, through periodic and systematic Visits to Bahá’í centers, in the efficient and prompt execution of the Plans formulated for the prosecution of the teaching campaigns in the continent of Asia and in the Antipodes.

The Asiatic continent, the cradle of the

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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 Cyclehave 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 Bahá’í world has been definitely established; in whose heart the city proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh 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 Bahá’í 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.

—-SHOGHI Haifa, Israel October, 1953.

(2)

REPORT OF THE ASIAN INTERCONTINENTAL TEACHING CONFERENCE

THE fourth Intercontinental Teaching Conference held under the auspices of the National Spiritual Assembly of India, Pakistain and Burma convened the first international Bahá’í gathering ever to be held in the East. This great event took place in New Delhi, the picturesque metropolis of India, from October 7—15, 1953. West had come East at the behest of the Guardian. The attendance registered four hundred and eighty—nine, coming from thirty-one countries. The President of the Indian Republic, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, declared that it was the first gathering of its kind in the East. The delegates assembled beneath the colorful canopy erected on the grounds of the Constitution Club—undoubtedly the most varied congregation of Bahá’ís yet as sembled anywhere in the world. Here were seen the many races and peoples of India, Pakistan and Burma, Ceylon, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, Persia, ‘Iráq, Egypt, Africa, Turkey, Europe, Canada, United States, Central and South America, unified in spirit and purpose within the Guardian’s consummate application of the Divine Plan of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for the redemption and unification of humanity at the time of impending peril.

Surmounting the difficulties of language, the Conference exemplified that world unity which already exists among Bahá’ís. Its sessions concentrated the forces of the Bahá’í world upon those goals of the Ten-Year Plan which are to establish firmly the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh throughout the lands of the

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Far East and the islands of the South Pacific Ocean.

After devotions conducted in English, Persian, Hindustani and Burmese, the Conference was opened by the Chairman of the Indian National Spiritual Assembly, Mr. ‘Abbés ‘Ali Butt, with a gracious address of welcome:

“On behalf of the Bahá’ís of India, Pakistén and Burma, I welcome the representative of the beloved Guardian, the Hands of the Cause, the representatives of the National Spiritual Assemblies, and the friends who have come to participate in this great Conference.”

Chairman Butt concluded his address with the following survey of the Faith in India, Burma and Pakistan. “We have a Publishing Committee and have published Bahá’í literature in all the languages of India and Pakistan and the principal languages of Burma, Ceylon and Indonesia, reaching a total of twenty—six languages.

“We hold trust properties valued at more than one million rupees in the three countries of India, Pakistan and Burma. We have a school in Panchgani where we have recently purchased an extensive piece of land.”

All arrangements for the sessions, which were varied, dramatic and altogether appealing, were made by the Indian National Spiritual Assembly. They displayed remarkable initiative and resourcefulness in making the Conference an occasion for outstanding public events and contacts.

As at the previous Intercontinental Conferences, the agenda included public meetings—one held on the grounds of the Constitution Club and one in New Delhi Town Hall. The Guardian’s representative, Charles Mason Remey, Hand of the Cause and President of the International Council, presided at the first. The theme was “Universal Peace—A Need and Exigency of the Time,” and the speakers were Horace Holley, Dorothy Baker and Dr. Ugo Giachery, Hands of the Cause, and Stanley Bolton, Sr. Mrs. Baker presided at the Town Hall meeting which was based on the theme “Towards a World Federation,” the speakers being H. C. Featherstone, John Robarts, Mildred Mottahedeh and Abu’l Qasim Faizi.

This Conference, however, surpassed the previous Conferences in that it provided a public reception and tea in the garden of the Imperial Hotel. The scene was picturesque and charming—the spacious lawn and ter THE BAHA’I WORLD

race filled with tea tables under the soft light of late afternoon. There were about one thousand guests, including high officials of the Indian government, representatives from embassies and consulates, and men from the press.

In addition, the National Spiritual Assembly arranged to present delegations of Bahá’ís to the three leaders of the Indian government—Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President; Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Vice-President; and Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister —each on a separate occasion and in his own office or reception room.

The evening before the Conference, a reception was held at the Hotel Imperial for the representatives of the local and foreign press. Reporters from over thirty newspapers and news agencies had the opportunity to meet Mr. Remey, the Guardian’s representative, a number of other Hands of the Cause, and delegates from many countries. Mrs. Mildred Mottahedeh, International Observer for the Bahá’ís at the United Nations, served as chairman and made a statement on the purpose of the New Delhi Conference. This was followed by Mrs. Dorothy Baker’s outline of the history of the Cause and plans for expansion during the ten-year World Crusade.

One evening was devoted to a program of Indian dancing and music given by professional entertainers. On another occasion, an organized sight-seeing tour, making use of a fleet of ten forty-seat buses, enabled the delegates to visit historical and other famous spots. Looking upon the remnants of a glorious past, the visiting Bahá’ís felt the inherent capacity of the Indian people to build a new civilization, as part of the great world civilization of the future.

To return to the Conference proper: following the address of welcome, the Guardian’s message to the Conference was presented by Mason Remey,

Of the thirteen goals set forth by Shoghi Effendi in this communication, the Conference made immediate effort to fulfill the fourth goal, “the opening of. . . . fortyone virgin territories and islands”; and the second goal, “the purchase of land for the future construction of three Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs, one in the city of Baghdad, enshrining the ‘Most Great House,’ the third holiest city of the Bahá’í world, one in New Delhi, the leading city of the Indian subcontinent, and the third in Sydney, the old [Page 183]CENTENARY OF BIRTH OF BAHA’U’LLAH’S MISSION 183

est and foremost Bahá’í center in the Antipodes.”

The achievement of these goals was handsomely supported by the Conference: Fortyfive thousand dollars was contributed toward the purchase of the three tracts of land; seventy-four pioneers offered their services, were interviewed by a special committee and twenty-five of them were able to depart almost immediately to their posts; almost ten thousand dollars was contributed to a fund for pioneer budgets and all applications from pioneers not assigned definite posts at this time were referred to the National Spiritual Assemblies concerned.

It was reported that the Indian National Spiritual Assembly had chosen the site for the future House of Worship, nine acres overlooking New Delhi.

“Such a Continent,” the Guardian wrote, “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 Bahá’í 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 reenact 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.”

The Guardian likewise described to the Conference the teaching campaign upon which it was to deliberate, “a campaign which may well be regarded as the most extensive, the most arduous and the most momentous of all the campaigns of a worldgirdling Crusade.”

The spirit of consecration and deepened

understanding engendered by the Guardian’s Message was heightened by the privilege of viewing the Portrait of the Báb, the Martyr Prophet of the Faith. One by one, kneeling before it in awe and reverence, rising to behold the likeness of the divine Herald, anointed by the Guardian’s representative with attar of rose, the followers of the Cause of God besought the purity essential to service in His Kingdom.

During the afternoon of the first day of the Conference, another message from the Guardian, a cablegram, was presented. It bore a triple announcement: the completion of the Shrine of the Báb; the arrival of nineteen additional pioneers at their posts; and preliminary steps taken toward the acquisition of an extensive area preparatory to purchase of the site for the future House of Worship on Mt. Carmel, through the munificent donation by Mrs. Amelia Collins, Hand of the Cause.

The Guardian urged that this triple bounty called for concerted exertion on the part of the assembled believers to carry out a triple responsibility. First, redoubled consecration to the task of sending pioneers, particularly into the Pacific area; second, increased self—sacrifice in order to purchase land for future Temples in Asia; third, earnest consultation by representatives of the Persian and ‘Iráqi National Spiritual Assemblies and the assembled Hands of the Cause on thorough investigation of ways and means to insure the purchase of Holy Places, particularly the site of the SiyéhC_hal, as well as identification and transfer to Bahá’í cemeteries of the bodies of relatives of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. The Guardian also expressed his ardent hope that the New Delhi Conference would contribute in unprecedented degree to the ultimate attainment of the goals of the World Crusade.

The Conference agenda as prepared and printed by the Indian National Assembly was set aside at this point because of the Guardian’s cable and instead, the purchase of three Temple sites, the sending of pioneers and the purchase of Holy Places in Iran and ‘Iráq took priority and became the focus of attention.

Mr. Horace Holley emphasized the need for action and closed his talk by stating that a world poised for suicide could never be healed unless we spread the Faith of Baha’u’llah. Dr. Ugo Giachery and other speakers reiterated the call for action.

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To give inspiration and help to delegates already thinking of offering their services as pioneers, those who had taken this step in earlier years spoke of their experiences. These talks were interspersed with a steady flow of volunteering pioneers who came to the platform and were presented to the assemblage. A moving statement was made by ‘Ali-Akbar Furfitan, Hand of the Cause, quoting from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on the spiritual significance of pioneering, and likening events today to the early days of Christianity.

The first of the early pioneers to speak was Mrs. Clara Dunn, Hand of the Cause, and spiritual mother of Australia and New Zealand, who said:

“Dear friends, this is the most wonderful

occasion of my life. My late husband, John Henry Hyde Dunn, and I responded to the Divine Plan. I want to tell those who have answered the call of the Guardian to stand and go. It will be the greatest joy and pleasure of your lives even if the tests come. We need them to prove us. Bahá’u’lláh paid the price, set the pace, and the Master [‘Abdu’l-Bahá] gave us the path to follow. We have nothing to fear. If we have faith we can conquer the whole world. The Supreme Concourse is waiting to help us. . . .” Then Miss Agnes Alexander told the friends that she was in Geneva, Switzerland, when World War I broke out and found herself without luggage and unable to cash her checks. On August 22, 1914, she received a letter from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá telling her to go to Japan.

“Of course,” she said, “I had no desire but to follow the Master’s wish.” She explained how miraculously she was enabled to do so. After ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing, Shoghi Effendi wrote a beautiful letter to the friends in Japan in which he stated:

“As attendant and secretary of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for well nigh two years after the termination of the Great War, I recall so vividly the radiant joy that transfigured His face whenever I opened before Him your supplications as well as those of Miss Agnes Alexander. What promises He gave us all regarding the future of the Cause in that land at the close of almost every supplication I read to Him. Let me state straightaway, the most emphatic, the most inspiring of them all. These are His very words that still keep ringing in my ears: ‘Japan will turn ablaze!

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J apan is endowed with the most remarkable capacity for the spread of the Cause of God. . . .”’

Mr. Musa Banani from Kampala, Uganda [British East Africa] was then asked to speak:

“I was in Ṭihrán when the call of the Guardian came for pioneers for Africa, and finally I decided to go with Mr. ‘Ali Nak_hjavéni. Overcoming many difficulties, both of us got our visas. I settled in Kampala where ‘Ali joined me and after some months we had two believers. We lived in a hotel and the teaching work was done while walking in the street; the morning prayers were held in the parks. Then the Guardian permitted both Mrs. Banéni and me to make the pilgrimage to Haifa. He gave us many instructions and on the last day, he appointed me Hand of the Cause for Africa. While we were away, ‘Ali had been living and teaching in the villages and when we returned, little by little the number of believers grew.

“We heard from the Guardian that the majority of believers attending the Kampala Conference would be Africans or native believers, but when the time came for the Conference, they thought they would have to stay at home to help with the harvest. Moreover, their friends had told them that the white people would gather them in and sell them as slaves. ‘Ali and another Bahá’í went to them and said, ‘ ‘Ali is not inviting you; Banani is not inviting you; but you will all be guests of the Guardian.’ So many of them decided to come and thus, we had a majority of Africans at the Conferenceout of two hundred and thirty people, one hundred and forty were natives. They went back to their villages extremely happy and their suspicious relatives were surprised to see them.”

Mrs. Gloria Faizi spoke of the experiences of herself and her husband, Abu’lQasim Faizi:

“The pioneers to Arabia are poor, very poor. The people belong to the Sunni sect of Islam and whenever'you openly speak about the Faith, you are advised to keep quiet if you wish to stay in Arabia. After the Guardian asked the Persians to volunteer for Arabia many wanted to go, but only two families out of forty were able to get there.

“We at Bahrayn are in a position to see all the pioneers who are on the way to

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The President of the Union of India, Dr. Shri Rajendra Prasad, with some members of the Bahá’í delegation whom he received in his official residence during the Asian Intercontinental Teaching Conference held in New Delhi, October, 1953.

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Vice—President of India, with some members of the Bahá’í delegation, New Delhi, October 5, 1953.

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Arabia. We see young men who have finished their studies in colleges and have obtained their degrees, leaving their education behind to take jobs as carpenters, tailors, barbers. After completing their studies, they take a short course in some manual work so that they can earn a livelihood. . . . A large family lives in only one room in the winter and during the summer months of intense heat and moisture, they live on the roof of the house, which is merely a covering of palm branches and leaves. They have no water in the house, nor electricity. Their food consists of bread, rice, dates and tea, and in the winter a few vegetables. But do not think they are less happy than people 1n other parts of the world.

Mr. Artemus Lamb of South America felt that his experiences would be helpful to Occidentals: “Many believe that everything will open up right away; often there comes a rude awakening.” He told how he left for South America with everything he thought would be needed. Arriving in Mexico, he went ashore sightseeing, leaving all belongings on board the ship. Returning later to continue the next stage of the voyage, he noticed people running toward the waterfront and when he reached the wharf, there was his ship being towed out to sea in flames. Thus he found himself in Mexico without clothes, money, or any documents for identification—indeed anything that connected him With the past. At the moment, this seemed a sign of God and he felt he should turn back. But later in a hotel room, he began to pray and then came the realization that he must be detached from all else save God. So he prepared his mind to go anywhere in Latin America. With the help of the Consul, he was able to go to Chile and in one-third of the time expected, arrived in the most southerly town of South America.

Mr. Jamsliid Fozdar, from Sarawak, Borneo, said that they had had their difficulties in Sarawak—difficulties in finding employment, housing and establishing themselves. Their activities came under suspicion, but they finally won the confidence of the authorities and were able to secure publicity for the Faith. When he and Mrs. Fozdar left Sarawak, there was an assembly and fourteen members in the community. Recently, he had heard of further enrollments.

Mr. C. P. M. Anver Cadir of Thailand related that after twenty fruitless days of

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pioneering effort, he attended a moving picture show and saw ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s picture and a view of the Temple in Wilmette. This gave him an opportunity to hand out literature to those leaving the theater and resulted in his being questioned by the Police Department, but eventually they approved his literature.

Mrs. Shirin Fozdér described the results of her pioneering in Singapore and the prestige accorded her as a Bahá’í by civil authorities there. Dr. H. M. Munji of India dwelt on the difficulties a Bahá’í faces in teaching the Cause to Hindus.

Other pioneers who shared their experiences were Saeed Nahvi, Pondicherry, India; Mr. ‘Ilmi, Pakistan; Mr. Mawlavi, Aden; Mrs. Salisa Kirmani, Karikal, India; Mr. Alvin Blum, New Zealand, on technique of pioneering; Dr. Lukmani, on teaching in India and Ceylon; and Mrs. Bahíyyih Nadiri who presented greetings from a Bahá’í pioneering in Zanzibar.

In the Guardian’s first cablegram announcing the completion of the Shrine of the Báb, he requested that the Conference should hold a befitting memorial gathering to pay tribute to Hand of the Cause Sutherland Maxwell, the “immortal architect of the arcade of the superstructure of the Shrine.” He further suggested that acknowledgement should be made on the same occasion to the “unflagging labors and Vigilance of Hand of the Cause Ugo Giachery in negotiating contracts, inspecting and dispatching all the materials required for the construction of the edifice,” and also to the “assiduous and constant care of Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas in supervising the construction of both the drum and the dome.” Two doors of the Shrine had recently been given the names of Sutherland Maxwell and Ugo Giachery. The cable announced that a door of the octagon would be associated henceforth with the name of Leroy Ioas. The memorial gathering held in accordance with the Guardian’s wishes was most impressive. Eulogies of Sutherland Maxwell were given by John Robarts. Ugo Giachery and Mason Remey. Mrs. Mildred Mottahedeh paid tribute to Ugo Giachery and Mrs. Dorothy Baker to Leroy Ioas.

Another undertaking urged by the Guardian in his first cablegram was that the Hands of the Cause, together with representatives of Iranian and ‘Iraqi National Spiritual Assemblies, should consult on ways and means

[Page 187]CENTENARY OF BIRTH OF BAHA’U’LLAH’S MISSION

to acquire Holy Places of the Faith, particularly the Siyéh—Chél, where, during His imprisonment in that foul dungeon, Bahá’u’lláh received the first intimations of His mission. It was announced later that the consultation had been held as the Guardian

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which he felt were of the greatest concern to the Guardian. First, the Guardian wanted more cooperation and spiritual oneness among the Bahá’ís in India coming into the Faith from different backgrounds, Hindu, Muslim and Persian. Bahá’í love should be

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Public reception held during the Fourth Bahá’í Intercontinental Teaching Conference, New Delhi, India, October, 1953.

requested, and that Mr. Habib Sabet of New York City had offered to purchase the site of the Siyéh-Qlal. This generous and courageous offer was received with great joy and word was promptly sent to the Guardian.

A second cablegram was received from the Guardian directed to the Hands of the Cause who were present at the Conference. It called upon them to disperse at the close of the Conference to teach for one or two months in Asia, Africa and Australia, in order to establish close contact with the respective National Assemblies, and assist the local assemblies to attain the goals of the Ten—Year Plan. This message laid out the itinerary of all the Hands, and the Guardian contributed three thousand pounds for the expense of the undertaking.

The evening of the third day of the Conference was given over to the Guardian’s representative, Mason Remey. It was designed to bring to the delegates a more vivid realization of the Guardian as a person in lieu of his actual presence.

Mr. Remey emphasized three matters

very strong among them. In America the white and colored should be united in the same way. Second, he hoped that the friends in India would give greater emphasis now and in the future to teaching the Hindu people. In India where there is a preponderance of Hindus as compared with the Muslims, the same proportion should be the goal: twice as many Hindus as Muslims in the Bahá’í community. Third, the Guardian was now concentrating on the Pacific islands and the surrounding countries. Expansion of the Faith had been planned in stages and in the following order: Latin America, the Ten Goal countries of Europe, Central and South America. Now the time had come to spread the Faith in the islands of the Pa: cific and the countries nearby. With this new advance, the new emphasis on reaching American Indians and Eskimos, together with consolidating the gains already won, the Bahá’ís would be busy indeed during the ten-year World Crusade.

When Mr. Remey was called upon to deliver a last word during the closing hours of the Conference, he reiterated these same

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three points. At that time, Mr. Butt, Chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly for India, Pakistan and Burma asked Mr. Remey to let the Guardian know that enrollments were coming in from the Hindu people and that the National Assembly was taking action to carry out still further the Guardian’s desire for the Hindus.

During the evening with the Guardian’s representative, Mrs. Dorothy Baker upon being asked to give her impressions of the Guardian said:

“The Guardian is a new creation. You can never fully understand his station nor describe your meeting with him. In some strange way your existence becomes changed. You can never let go that first look when he greets you. Then the moment at table when he talks about the Faith and the teachings. It is so clear, so simple. . . . I left Haifa with this impression of the Guardian—the courtier and the court; the lover and the beloved; the king and the vassal of God.”

It would be impossible to include in this account of the New Delhi Conference everything that deserves description. Much that added richness must be omitted and only brief reference can be accorded to other weighty occurrences.

Jinab—i—Fáḍil, who made two visits to America, sent once by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. and once by the Guardian, was called upon to address the Conference. He spoke chiefly of the history of the Faith which the Guardian had asked him to write. It is to comprise nine volumes. Before coming to the Conference he had sent the completed eighth volume in manuscript form to the Guardian.

The five Hands of the Cause from Iran, Valiyu’lláh Varqé, Tarazu’llah Samandari, ‘Ali-Akbar Furfitan, Shu’a’u’lláh ‘Ala’i and D_hikru’lláh Khádem, all graced the Conference with their presence and were often heard as they chanted prayers and contributed to the consultations. Mr. Samandari’s stories of his youthful contacts with Bahá’u’lláh were greatly appreciated.

The Conference was grieved by information from Basra [‘Iráq] that a Bahá’í had

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recently been martyred there—the first Bahá’í to be confirmed from the ancient John the Baptist community. A eulogy of him was delivered by Kamil ‘Abbés. One session was devoted to a memorial gathering in honor of Mr. Fath-i—A‘zam, a Persian martyr. Mr. Furutan chanted a prayer for a still more recent Bahá’í martyr of Persia. At the very first session, Siegfried Schopflocher, Hand of the Cause, who had recently passed on, was eulogized and a prayer was chanted for him.

At the request of the National Spiritual Assembly of India, Pakistan and Burma, the office of Conference Chairman was assumed in daily rotation by representatives of the participating Assemblies. The final sessions, however, devoted to the Bahá’í community of India, and the concluding hours of the Conference were conducted by our hosts in the persons of Mr. ‘Abbas ‘Ali Butt, Chairman, and Mr. A. Rahmén, Secretary.

The Vice-Chairman of the Indian National Spiritual Assembly spoke on the Bahá’í School at Panchgani, which the Guardian has said will become a University. At present there are eighty-three children living there and attending classes in Bahá’í and academic subjects. Seventy-five thousand rupees [about sixteen thousand dollars] are needed now for a new school building, and additional sums for equipment, laboratory and general repairs to the existing plant. Contributions were made for this purpose.

Mrs. Mildred Mottahedeh outlined Bahá’í activities in relation to the United Nations. Particularly enjoyed was her remark that the Non-Governmental Organization Conference in Istanbul was conducted in the palace of the Sultan who persecuted Bahá’u’lláh.

The commission for interviewing pioneers headed by Alvin Blum did magnificent work; Habib Sabet very capably handled the appeal for funds; and Abu’l Qasim Faizi’s translation work was essential to the success of the Conference.

This historic gathering closed with a celebration of the Nineteen Day Feast, which signalized likewise the end of Holy Year.