Bahá’í World/Volume 13/Selections from the Writings of Shoghi Effendi
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V
SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF SHOGHI EFFENDI
The two essays selected to represent Shoghi Effendi’s voluminous writings
present in the one instance his evaluation of world conditions and tend encies in relationship to the principles and laws revealed by Bahá’u’lláh,
and in the other his portrayal of a momentous event in the unfoldment
of the Bahá’í Faith. The former, written in 1931, is the first of his
“World Order” letters; the latter is Chapter Nine of his stupendous history of the Faith, God Passes By, completed in 1944.
THE GOAL OF A NEW WORLD ORDER
Fellow—believers in the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh:
THE inexorable march of recent events has carried humanity so near to the goal foreshadowed by Bahá’u’lláh that no responsible follower of His Faith, viewing on all sides the distressing evidences of the world’s travail, can remain unmoved at the thought of its approaching deliverance.
It would not seem inappropriate, at a time when we are commemorating the world over the termination of the first decade since ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sudden removal* from our midst, to ponder, in the light of the teachings bequeathed by Him to the world, such events as have tended to hasten the gradual emergence of the World Order anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh.
T en years ago, this very day, there flashed upon the world the news of the passing of Him Who alone, through the ennobling influence of His love, strength and wisdom, could have proved its stay and solace in the many afflictions it was destined to suffer.
How well we, the little band of His avowed supporters who lay claim to have recognized the Light that shone within Him, can still remember His repeated allusions, in the evening of His earthly life, to the tribulation and turmoil with which an unregenerate humanity was to be increasingly afiiicted. How poignantly some of us can recall His pregnant remarks, in the presence of the pilgrims and visitors who thronged His doors on the morrow of the jubilant celebrations that greeted the termination of the World
‘ November 28. 192].
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War — a war, which by the horrors it evoked, the losses it entailed and the complications it engendered, was destined to exert so farreaching an influence on the fortunes of mankind. How serenely, yet how powerfully, He stressed the cruel deception which a Pact, hailed by peoples and nations as the embodiment of triumphant justice and the unfailing instrument of an abiding peace, held in store for an unrepentant humanity. ”Peace, Peace,” how often we heard Him remark, “the lips of potentates and peoples zmceasingly proclaim, whereas the fire of unquenched hatreds still smoulders in their hearts.” How often we heard Him raise His voice, whilst the tumult of triumphant enthusiasm was still at its height and long before the faintest misgivings could have been felt or expressed, confidently declaring that the Document, extolled as the Charter of a liberated humanity, contained within itself seeds of such bitter deception as would further enslave the world. How abundant are now the evidences that attest the perspicacity of His unerring judgment!
Ten years of unceasing turmoil, so laden with anguish, so fraught with incalculable consequences to the future of civilization, have brought the world to the verge of a calamity too awful to contemplate. Sad indeed is the contrast between the manifestations of confident enthusiasm in which the Plenipotentiaries at Versailles so freely indulged and the cry of unconcealed distress which victors and vanquished alike are now raising in the hour of bitter delusion.
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Neither the force which the framers and guarantors of the Peace Treaties have mustered, nor the lofty ideals which originally animated the author of the Covenant of the League of Nations, have proved a sufficient bulwark against the forces of internal disruption with which a structure so laboriously contrived had been consistently assailed. Neither the provisions of the so—called Settlement which the victorious Powers have sought to impose, nor the machinery of an institution which America’s illustrious and far-seeing President had conceived, have proved, either in conception or practice, adequate instruments to ensure the integrity of the Order they had striven to establish. “The ills from which the world now stzflers,” wrote ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in January, 1920, "will multiply; the gloom which envelops it will deepen. The Balkans will remain discontented. Its restlessness will increase. The vanquished Powers will continue to agitate. They will resort to every measure that may rekindle tlte flame of war. Movements, newly-born and world—wide in their range, will exert their utmost efl’ort for the advancement of their designs. The Movement of the Left will acquire great importance. Its influence will spread.”
Economic distress, since those words were written, together with political confusion, financial upheavals, religious restlessness and racial animosities, seem to have conspired to add immeasurably to the burdens under which an impoverished, a war-weary world is groaning. Such has been the cumulative efi'ect of these successive crises, following one another with such bewildering rapidity, that the very foundations of society are trembling. The world, to whichever continent we turn our gaze, to however remote a region our survey may extend, is everywhere assailed by forces it can neither explain nor control.
Europe, hitherto regarded as the cradle of a highly-vaunted civilization, as the torchbearer of liberty and the mainspring of the forces of world industry and commerce, stands bewildered and paralysed at the sight of so tremendous an upheaval. Long—cherished ideals in the political no less than in the economic sphere of human activity are being severely tested under the pressure of reactionary forces on one hand and of an insidious and persistent radicalism on the other. From the heart of Asia distant rum THE Bahá’í WORLD
blings, ominous and insistent, portend the steady onslaught of a creed which, by its negation of God, His Laws and Principles, threatens to disrupt the foundations of human society. The clamour of a nascent nationalism, coupled with a recrudescence of skepticism and unbelief, come as added misfortunes to a continent hitherto regarded as the symbol of age-long stability and undisturbed resignation. From darkest Africa the first stirrings of a conscious and determined revolt against the aims and methods of political and economic imperialism can be increasingly discerned, adding their share to the growing vicissitudes of a troubled age. Not even America, which until very recently prided itself on its traditional policy of aloofness and the self—contained character of its economy, the invulnerability of its institutions and the evidences of its growing prosperity and prestige, has been able to resist the impelling forces that have swept her into the vortex of an economic hurricane that now threatens to impair the basis of her own industrial and economic life. Even faraway Australia, which, owing to its remoteness from the storm-centres of Europe, would have been expected to be immune from the trials and torments of an ailing continent, has been caught in this whirlpool of passion and strife, impotent to extricate herself from their ensnaring influence.
Never indeed have there been such widespread and basic upheavals, whether in the social, economic or political spheres of human activity as those now going on in different parts of the world. Never have there been so many and varied sources of danger as those that now threaten the structure of society. The following words of Bahá’u’lláh are indeed significant as we pause to reflect upon the present state of a strangely disordered world: “How long will humanity persist in its waywardness? How long will injustice continue? How long is chaos and confusion to reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate the face of society? The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned. inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to be lamentably defective."
The disquieting influence of over thirty million souls living under minority conditions
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throughout the continent of Europe; the vast and ever—swelling army of the unemployed with its crushing burden and demoralizing influence on governments and peoples; the wicked, unbridled race of armaments swallowing an ever-increasing share of the substance of already impoverished nations; the utter demoralization from which the international financial markets are now increasingly suffering; the onslaught of secularism invading what has hitherto been regarded as the impregnable strongholds of Christian and Muslim orthodoxy—these stand out as the gravest symptoms that bode ill for the future stability of the structure of modern civilization. Little wonder if one of Europe’s preeminent thinkers, honoured for his wisdom and restraint, should have been forced to make so bold an assertion: “The world is passing through the gravest crisis in the history of civilization.” “We stand,” writes another, “before either a world catastrophe, or perhaps before the dawn of a greater era of truth and wisdom.” “It is in such times,” he adds, “that religions have perished and are born.”
Might we not already discern, as we scan the political horizon, the alignment of those forces that are dividing afresh the continent of Europe into camps of potential combatants, determined upon a contest that may mark, unlike the last war, the end of an epoch, a vast epoch, in the history of human evolution? Are we, the privileged custodians of a priceless Faith, called upon to witness a cataclysmical change, politically as fundamental and spiritually as beneficent as that which precipitated the fall of the Roman Empire in the West? Might it not happen—every vigilant adherent of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh might well pause to reflect—that out of this world eruption there may stream forces of such spiritual energy as shall recall, nay eclipse, the splendour of those signs and wonders that accompanied the establishment of the Faith of Jesus Christ? Might there not emerge out of the agony of a shaken world a religious revival of such scope and power as to even transcend the potency of those world-directing forces with which the Religions of the Past have, at fixed intervals and according to an inscrutable Wisdom, revived the fortunes of declining ages and peoples? Might not the bankruptcy of this present, this highly-vaunted materialistic
civilization, in itself clear away the choking weeds that now hinder the unfoldment and future efflorescence of God’s struggling Faith ?
Let Bahá’u’lláh Himself shed the illumination of His words upon our path as we steer our course amid the pitfalls and miseries of this troubled age. More than fifty years ago, in a world far removed from the ills and trials that now torment it, there flowed from His Pen these prophetic words: “T he world is in travail and its agitation waxeth day by day. Its face is turned towards waywardness am! unbelief. Such shall be its plight that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly. Its perversity will long continue. And when the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to quake. Then and only then will the Divine S tandard be mifurled and the Nightingale of Paradise warble its melody.”
Dearly beloved friends! Humanity, whether viewed in the light of man’s individual conduct or in the existing relationships between organized communities and nations, has, alas, strayed too far and suffered too great a decline to be redeemed through the unaided efforts of the best among its recognized rulers and statesmen—however disinterested their motives, however concerted their action, however unsparing in their zeal and devotion to its cause. No scheme which the calculations of the highest statesmanship may yet devise; no doctrine which the most distinguished exponents of economic theory may hope to advance; no principle which the most ardent of moralists may strive to inculcate, can provide, in the last resort, adequate foundations upon which the future of a distracted world can be built.
No appeal for mutual tolerance which the worldly-wise might raise, however compelling and insistent, can calm its passions or help restore its vigour. Nor would any general scheme of mere organized international cooperation, in whatever sphere of human activity, however ingenious in conception, or extensive in scope, succeed in removing the root cause of the evil that has so rudely upset the equilibrium of present-day society. Not even, I venture to assert, would the very act of devising the machinery required for the political and economic unification of the world—a principle that has been increasingly advocated in recent times—provide in itself
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the antidote against the poison that is steadily undermining the vigour of organized peoples and nations.
What else, might we not confidently affirm, but the unreserved acceptance of the Divine Programme enunciated, with such simplicity and force as far back as sixty years ago, by Bahá’u’lláh, embodying in its essentials God’s divinely appointed scheme for the unification of mankind in this age, coupled with an indomitable conviction in the unfailing efficacy of each and all of its provisions, is eventually capable of withstanding the forces of internal disintegration which, if unchecked, must needs continue to eat into the Vitals of a despairing society. It is towards this goal—the goal of a new World Order, Divine in origin, allembracing in scope, equitable in principle, challenging in its features—that a harassed humanity must strive.
To claim to have grasped all the implications of Bahá’u’lláh’s prodigious scheme for worldwide human solidarity, or to have fathomed its import, would be presumptuous on the part of even the declared supporters of His Faith. To attempt to visualize it in all its possibilities, to estimate its future benefits, to picture its glory, would be premature at even so advanced a stage in the evolution of mankind.
All we can reasonably venture to attempt is to strive to obtain a glimpse of the first streaks of the promised Dawn that must, in the fullness of time, chase away the gloom that has encircled humanity. All we can do is to point out, in their broadest outlines, what appears to us to be the guiding principles underlying the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, as amplified and enunciated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Centre of His Covenant with all mankind and the appointed Interpreter and Expounder of His Word.
That the unrest and suffering afflicting the mass of mankind are in no small measure the direct consequences of the World War and are attributable to the unwisdom and shortsightedness of the framers of the Peace Treaties only a biased mind can refuse to admit. That the financial obligations contracted in the course of the war, as well as the imposition of a staggering burden of reparations upon the vanquished, have, to a very great extent, been responsible for the maldistribution and consequent shortage of
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the world’s monetary gold supply, which in turn has, to a very great measure, accentuated the phenomenal fall in prices and thereby relentlessly increased the burdens of impoverished countries, no impartial mind would question. That inter-governmental debts have imposed a severe strain on the masses of the people in Europe, have upset the equilibrium of national budgets, have crippled national industries, and led to an increase in the number of the unemployed, is no less apparent to an unprejudiced observer. That the spirit of vindictiveness, of suspicion, of fear and rivalry, engendered by the war, and which the provisions of the Peace Trea ties have served to perpetuate and foster, has led to an enormous increase of national competitive armaments, involving during the last year the aggregate expenditure of no less than a thousand million pounds, which in turn has accentuated the effects of the world-wide depression, is a truth that even the most superficial observer will readily admit. That a narrow and brutal nationalism, which the post-war theory of self-determination has served to reinforce, has been chiefly responsible for the policy of high and prohibitive tariffs, so injurious to the healthy flow of international trade and to the mechanism of international finance, is a fact which few would venture to dispute.
It would be idle, however, to contend that the war, with all the losses it involved, the passions it aroused and the grievances it left behind, has solely been responsible for the unprecedented confusion into which almost every section of the civilized world is plunged at present. Is it not a fact—and this is the central idea I desire to emphasize—that the fundamental cause of this world unrest is attributable, not so much to the consequences of what must sooner or later come to be regarded as a transitory dislocation in the affairs of a continually changing world, but rather to the failure of those into whose hands the immediate destinies of peoples and nations have been committed, to adjust their system of economic and political institutions to the imperative needs of a rapidly evolving age? Are not these intermittent crises that convulse present-day society due primarily to the lamentable inability of the world’s recognized leaders to read aright the signs of the times, to rid themselves once for all of
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their preconceived ideas and fettering creeds, and to reshape the machinery of their respective governments according to those standards that are implicit in Bahá’u’lláh’s supreme declaration of the Oneness of Mankind—the chief and distinguishing feature of the Faith He proclaimed? For the principle of the Oneness of Mankind, the cornerstone of Bahá’u’lláh’s world-embracing dominion, implies nothing more or less than the enforcement of His scheme for the unification of the world—the scheme to which we have already referred. "In every Dispensation,” writes ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, "the llght of Divine Guidance has been focussed upon one central theme. . . In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious century, the foundation of the Faith of God and the distinguishing feature of His Law is the consciousness of the Oneness of Mankind."
How pathetic indeed are the efforts of those leaders of human institutions who, in utter disregard of the spirit of the age, are striving to adjust national processes, suited to the ancient days of self—contained nations, to an age which must either achieve the unity of the world, as adumbrated by Bahá’u’lláh, or perish. At so critical an hour in the history of civilization it behooves the leaders of all the nations of the world, great and small, whether in the East or in the West, whether victors or vanquished, to give heed to the clarion call of Bahá’u’lláh and, thoroughly imbued with a sense of world solidarity, the sine qua non of loyalty to His Cause, arise manfully to carry out in its entirety the one remedial scheme He, the Divine Physician, has prescribed for an ailing humanity. Let them discard, once for all, every preconceived idea, every national prejudice, and give heed to the sublime counsel of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the authorized Expounder of His teachings. “You can best serve your country,” was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s rejoinder to a high official in the service of the federal government of the United States of America, who had questioned Him as to the best manner in which he could promote the interests of his government and people, ”if you strive, in your capacity as a citizen of the world, to assist in the eventual application of the principle af federalism underlying7 the government of your own country to the relationships now existing between the peoples and nations of the world.”
In “The Secret of Divine Civilization,”
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‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s outstanding contribution to the future reorganization of the world, we read the following:
“True civilization will unfnrl its banner in the midmost heart of the world whenever (I certain number of its (llsllllglllsllt’ll and highmina'ecl sovereigns—the shining exemplars of devotion and determination—shall,fbr the good and happiness of all IIIaIIkiIIzl, arise, with firm resolve and clear vision, to establish the Cause of Universal Peace. They must make the C aIIse ofPeace the object a/"general consultation, and seek by every means in their power to establish a Union of the nations of the world. They must conclude a binding treaty and establish a covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound, iIIviolab/e and definite. They must proclaim it to all the worhl and obtain for it the sanction ofnll the human race. This Sll/JI‘C‘HIL‘ and noble IIIIdertakiIIg—the I'eal source of the peace and well-being of all the worlzl—shouhl be regarded as sacred by all that dwell on earth. All the forces ofhumanity must be mobilized to ensure the stability and permanence of this Most Great Covenant. III this all—eIIIbraciIIg Pact the limits andfi'ontiers ofeac'h and every nation should be clearly fixed, the principles underlying the relations ofgo vermnents towards one another definitely laid down, and all international agreeIIIeIIts and obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of the armaments of every government should be strictly limited for if the [)Iepatations for war and the military {ones of any nation should be allowed to increawse they will arouse the suspicion of others. The I/tllIllaltlé’Illal principle underlying this solemn Paet should be so fixed that If any government later violate any one of its provisions, all the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the human race as a whole should resolve with eveI y power at its dispo sal to destroy that go ver nment. S hoIIld this gr eatest 0/ all I emeilies be applied to the sIck body of the w0Ild it will assmedly recoveI fiom its ills and will remain eteIIIall y safe and secure.
”Afew,” He further adds, “Imaware of the power latent in human endeavour, consider this matter as highly impracticable, nay even be yoml the scope of man's utmost efforts. Such is not the case, however. 0n the contrary, thanks to the unfailing grace of God, the loving-kindness of Hisfavoured ones, the unrivalled endeavours of wise and capable souls, and the thoughts and
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ideas of the peerless leaders of this age, nothing whatsoever can be regarded as unattainable. Endeavour, ceaseless endeavour, is required. Nothing short of an indomitable determination can possibly achieve it. Many a cause which past ages have regarded as purely visionary, yet in this (lay has become most easy and practicable. Why should this most great and lofty C ause—the clay-star of the firmament of true civilization and the cause of the glory, the advancement, the well—being and the success of humanity—be regarded as impossible of achievement ? Sure] y the day will come when its beauteous light shall shed illumination upon the assemblage of man.”
In one of His Tablets ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, elucidating further His noble theme, reveals the following:
“In cycles gone by, though harmony was established, yet, owing to the absence of means, the unity of all mankind could not have been achieved. Continents remained widely divided, nay even among the peoples of one and the same continent association and inter-change of thought were well nigh impossible. C onsequentl y intercourse, understanding and tmity amongst all the peoples and kindreds Of the earth were unattainable. In this day, however, means of communication have multiplied, and the five continents of the earth have virtually merged into one . . . In like manner all the members of the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly interdependent. For none is selfsufficiency any longer possible, inasmuch as political ties unite all peoples and nations, and the bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being strengthened every (lay. Hence the unity of all mankind can in this day be achieved. Verily this is none other but one of the wonders of this wondrous age, this glorious century. Of this past ages have been deprived, for this century—the century of light——has been endowed with unique and unprecedented glory, power and illumination. Hence the miraculous unfolding of a fresh marvel every day. Eventually it will be seen how bright its candles will burn in the assemblage of man.
“Behold how its light is now dawning upon the world's darkened horizon. The first candle is unity in the political realm, the early glimmerings of which can now be discerned. The second candle is unity of thought in world undertakings, the consummation of which will
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ere long be witnessed. The third candle is unity in freedom which will surely come to pass. The fourth candle is unity in religion which is the corner-stone of the foundation itself, and which, by the power of God, will be revealed in all its splendour. The fifth candle is the unity of nations—a unity which in this century will be secure! y established, causing all the peoples of the world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland. The sixth candle is unit y of races, making of all that dwell on earth peoples and kindreds of one race. The seventh candle is unit y of language, i.e., the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples will be instructed and converse. Each and every one of these will inevitably come to pass, inasmuch as the power of the Kingdom of God will aid and assist in their realization."
Over sixty years ago, in His Tablet to Queen Victoria, Bahá’u’lláh addressing “the concourse of the rulers of the earth,” revealed the following:
"Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profitetlz mankind, and bettereth the condition thereof. . . Regard the world as the human body which, though created whole and perfect, has been afi‘licted, through divers causes, with grave ills and maladies. Not for one day did it rest, nay its sicknesses waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of unskilled ph ysicians who have spurred on the steed of their worldly desires and have erred grievoasly. And if at one time, throtgh the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afi‘licted as before. Thus informeth you the AllKnowing, the All—Wise. . . That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerfnl and inspired Physician. This verily is the truth, and all else naught but error."
In a further passage Bahá’u’lláh adds these words:
” We see you adding every year unto your expenditures and laying the burden thereof on the people whom ye rule; this verily is naught but grievous injustice. Fear the sighs and tears of this Wronged One, and burden not your peoples beyond that which they can endure . . . Be reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need
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armaments I10 ”10"6’ save in a measure {0 safeguard your territories and dominions. Be united, O concourse of the sovereigns Of the world, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you am] your peoples find rest. Should any one among you take up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest justice.”
What else could these weighty words signify if they did not point to the inevitable curtailment of unfettered national sovereignty as an indispensable preliminary to the formation of the future Commonwealth of all the nations of the world? Some form of a world SuperState must needs be evolved, in whose favour all the nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim. to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective dominions. Such a state will have to include within its orbit an International Executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a World Parliament whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be confirmed by their respective governments; and a Supreme Tribunal whose judgment will have a binding etTect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration. A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of Capital and Labour definitely recognized; in which the clamour of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code of international law—the product of the considered judgment of the world’s federated represent.atives—shall have as its sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units; and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of world citizenship—such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.
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"The Tabernacle of Unity,” Bahá’u’lláh proclaims in His message to all mankind, "has been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers . . . Of one tree are all ye the fruit and of one bough the leaves . . . The world is but one country and mankind its citizens . .. Let not a man glory in that he loves his country; let hint rather glory in this, that he loves his kind."
Let there be no misgivings as to the animating purpose of the world-wide Law of Bahá’u’lláh. Far from aiming at the subversion of the existing foundations of society, it seeks to broaden its basis, to re-mould its institutions in a manner consonant with the needs of an ever-changing world. It can conflict with no legitimate allegiances, nor can it undermine essential loyalties. Its purpose is neither to stifle the flame of a sane and intelligent patriotism in men’s hearts, nor to abolish the system of national autonomy so essential if the evils of excessive centralization are to be avoided. It does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world. It repudiates excessive centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity such as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá'. Himself has explained:
“Consider the flowers of a garden. Though diflering in kind, colour, form and shape, yet, inasmuch as they are refreshed by the waters of one spring, revived by the breath of one wind, invigorated by the rays of one sun, this diversity increaseth their charm and addeth unto their beauty.‘ How unpleast’ng to the eye if all the flowers and plants, the leaves and blossoms, the fruit, the branches and the trees of that garden were all of the same shape and colour! Diversity of hues, form and shape enricheth and adorneth the garden, and heighteneth the effect thereof. In like manner, when divers shades of thought, temperament and character, are brought together under the power and influence of one central agency, the beauty and glory of human perfection will be revealed and made manifest. Naught but the celestial
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potency of the Word of God, which ruleth and transcendeth the realities of all things, is capable of harmonizing the divergent thoughts, sentiments, ideas and convictions of the children ofmen."
The call of Bahá’u’lláh is primarily directed against all forms of provincialism, all insularities and prejudices. If long-cherished ideals and time-honoured institutions, if certain social assumptions and religious formulae have ceased to promote the welfare of the generality of mankind, if they no longer minister to the needs ofa continually evolving humanity, let them be swept away and relegated to thelimbo of obsolescent and forgotten doctrines. Why should these, in a world subject to the immutable law of change and decay, be exempt from the deterioration that must needs overtake every human institution ? For legal standards, political and economic theories are solely designed to safeguard the interests of humanity as a whole, and not humanity to be crucified for the preservation of the integrity of any particular law or doctrine.
Let there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness of Mankind—the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolveis no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a re-awakening of the spirit of brotherhood and good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of harmonious cooperation among individual peoples and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family. It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands inseparably associated with an institution adequate to embody its truth, demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. It implies an organic change in the structure of presentday society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. It constitutes a challenge, at once bold and universal, to outworn shibboleths of national creeds—creeds that have had their day and which must, in the ordinary course of events as shaped and controlled by
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Providence, give way to a new gospel, fundamentally different from, and infinitely superior to, what the world has already conceived. It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.
It represents the consummation of human evolution—an evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal solidarity, leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into the institution of independent and sovereign nations.
The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it.
So marvellous a conception finds its earliest manifestations in the elTorts consciously exerted and the modest beginnings already achieved by the deciared adherents of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh who, conscious of the sublimity of their calling and initiated into the ennobling principles of His Administration, are forging ahead to establish His Kingdom on this earth. It has its indirect manifestations in the gradual dilTusion of the spirit of world solidarity which is spontaneously arising out of the welter of a disorganized society.
It would be stimulating to follow the history of the growth and development of this lofty conception which must increasingly engage the attention of the responsible custodians of the destinies of peoples and nations. To the states and principalities just emerging from the welter of the great Napoleonic upheaval, whose chief pre-occupation was either to recover their rights to an independent existence or to achieve their national unity, the conception of world solidarity seemed not only remote but inconceivable. It was not until the forces of nationalism had succeeded in overthrowing the foundations of the Holy Alliance
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that had sought to curb their rising power, that the possibility of a world order, transcending in its range the political institutions these nations had established, came to be seriously entertained. It was not until after the World War that these exponents of arrogant nationalism came to regard such an order as the object of a pernicious doctrine tending to sap that essential loyalty upon which the continued existence of their national life depended. With a vigour that recalled the energy with which the members of the Holy Alliance sought to stifle the spirit of a rising nationalism among the peoples liberated from the Napoleonic yoke, these champions of an unfettered national sovereignty, in their turn, have laboured and are still labouring to discredit principles upon which their own salvation must ultimately depend.
The fierce opposition which greeted the abortive scheme of the Geneva Protocol; the ridicule poured upon the proposal for a United States of Europe which was subsequently advanced, and the failure of the general scheme for the economic union of Europe, may appear as setbacks to the efforts which a handful of foresighted people are earnestly exerting to advance this noble ideal. And yet, are we not justified in deriving fresh encouragement when we observe that the very consideration of such proposals is in itself an evidence of their steady growth in the minds and hearts of men ? In the organised attempts that are being made to discredit so exalted a conception are we not witnessing the repetition, on a larger scale, of those stirring struggles and fierce controversies that preceded the birth, and assisted in the reconstruction, of the unified nations of the West?
To take but one instance. How confident were the assertions made in the days preceding the unification of the states of the North American continent regarding the insuperable barriers that stood in the way of their ultimate federation ! Was it not widely and emphatically declared that the conflicting interests, the mutual distrust, the differences of government and habit that divided the states were such as no force, whether spiritual or temporal, could ever hope to harmonize or control ? And yet how different were the conditions prevailing a hundred and fifty years ago from those that characterize present-day society! It would indeed be no exaggeration to say that the
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absence of those facilities which modern scientific progress has placed at the service of humanity in our time made of the problem of welding the American states into a single federation, similar though they were in certain traditions, a task infinitely more complex than that which confronts a divided humanity in its elTorts to achieve the unification of all mankind.
Who knows that for so exalted a conception to take shape a suffering more intense than any it has yet experienced will have to be inflicted upon humanity ? Could anything less than the fire of a civil war with all its violence and vicissitudes—a war that nearly rent the great American Republic—have welded the states, not only into a Union of independent units, but into a Nation, in spite of all the ethnic differences that characterized its component parts ? That so fundamental a revolution, involving such far-reaching changes in the structure of society, can be achieved through the ordinary processes of diplomacy and education seems highly improbable. We have but to turn our gaze to humanity’s bloodstained history to realize that nothing short of intense mental as well as physical agony has been able to precipitate those epoch-making changes that constitute the greatest landmarks in the history of human civilization.
Great and far-reaching as have been those changes in the past, they cannot appear, when viewed in their proper perspective, except as subsidiary adjustments preluding that transformation of unparalleled majesty and scope which humanity is in this age bound to undergo. That the forces of a world catastrophe can alone precipitate such a new phase of human thought is, alas, becoming increasingly apparent. That nothing short of the fire of a severe ordeal, unparalleled in its intensity, can fuse and weld the discordant entities that constitute the elements of present day civilization, into the integral components of the world commonwealth of the future, is a truth which future events will increasingly demonstrate.
The prophetic voice of Bahá’u’lláh warning, in the concluding passages of the Hidden Words, ”the peoples of the war] ” that ”an unforeseen calamity is following them and that grievous retribution awaiteth them,” throws indeed a lurid light upon the immediate fortunes of sorrowing humanity. Nothing but
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a fiery ordeal, out of which humanity will emerge, chastened and prepared, can succeed in implanting that sense of responsibility which the leaders of a newborn age must arise to shoulder.
I would again direct your attention to those ominous words of Bahá’u’lláh which I have already quoted: “And when the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to quake."
Has not ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself asserted in unequivocal language that “another war, fiercer than the last, will assuredly break out” .7
Upon the consummation of this colossal, this unspeakably glorious enterprise—an enterprise that baffled the resources of Roman statesmanship and which Napoleon’s desperate efforts failed to achieve—will depend the ultimate realization of that millennium of which poets of all ages have sung and seers have long dreamed. Upon it will depend the fulfilment of the prophecies uttered by the Prophets of old when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares and the lion and the lamb lie down together. It alone can usher in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father as anticipated by the Faith of Jesus Christ. It alone can lay the foundation for the New World Order visualized by Bahá’u’lláh—a World Order that shall reflect, however dimly upon this earthly plane, the ineffable splendours of the Abhá Kingdom.
One word more in conclusion. The proclamation of the Oneness of Mankind—the head corner-stone of Bahá’u’lláh’s alI-embracing dominion—can under no circumstances be compared with such expressions of pious hope as have been uttered in the past. His is not merely a call which He raised, alone and unaided, in the face of the relentless and combined opposition of two of the most powerful Oriental potentates of His daywhile Himself an exile and prisoner in their hands. It implies at once a warning and a promise—a warning that in it lies the sole means for the salvation of a greatly suffering world, a promise that its realization is at hand.
Uttered at a time when its possibility had not yet been seriously envisaged in any part of the world, it has, by virtue of that celestial potency which the Spirit of Bahá’u’lláh has breathed into it, come at last to be regarded, by an increasing number of thoughtful men, not only as an approaching possibility, but
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as the necessary outcome of the forces now operating in the world.
Surely the world, contracted and transformed into a single highly complex organism by the marvellous progress achieved in the realm of physical science, by the world-wide expansion of commerce and industry, and struggling, under the pressure of world economic forces, amidst the pitfalls of a materialistic civilization, stands in dire need of a restatement of the Truth underlying all the Revelation of the past in a language suited to its essential requirements. And what voice other than that of Bahá’u’lláh—the Mouthpiece of God for this age—is capable of effecting a transformation of society as radical as that which He has already accomplished in the hearts of those men and women, so diversified and seemingly irreconcilable, who constitute the body of His declared followers throughout the world?
That such a mighty conception is fast budding out in the minds of men, that voices are being raised in its support, that its salient features must fast crystallize in the consciousness of those who are in authority, few indeed can doubt. That its modest beginnings have already taken shape in the world—wide Administration with which the adherents of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh stand associated only those whose hearts are tainted by prejudice can fail to perceive.
Ours, dearly—beloved co-workers, is the paramount duty to continue, with undimrned vision and unabated zeal, to assist in the final erection of that Edifice the foundations of which Bahá’u’lláh has laid in our hearts, to derive added hope and strength from the general trend of recent events, however dark their immediate effects, and to pray with unremitting fervour that He may hasten the approach of the realization of that Wondrous Vision which constitutes the brightest emanation of His Mind and the fairest fruit of the fairest civilization the world has yet seen.
Might not the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration* of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh mark the inauguration of so vast an era in human history?
Haifa, Palestine, November 28, 1931
“ 1863.
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THE DECLARATION OF Bahá’u’lláh’S MISSION AND HIS JOURNEY TO CONSTANTINOPLE
The following essay is Chapter IX of Shoghi Effendi’s book, God Passes By.
THE arrival of Bahá’u’lláh in the Najibiyyih Garden, subsequently designated by His followers the Garden of Riḍván, signalizes the commencement of what has come to be recognized as the holiest and most significant of all Bahá’í festivals, the festival commemorating the Declaration of His Mission to His companions. So momentous a Declaration may well be regarded both as the logical consummation of that revolutionizing process which was initiated by Himself upon His return from Sulaymaniyyih, and as a prelude to the final proclamation of that same Mission to the world and its rulers from Adrianople.
Through that solemn act, the “delay," of no less than a decade, divinely interposed between the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation in the Siyah-Qal and its announcement to the Báb’s disciples, was at long last terminated. The “set time of concealment,” during which as He Himself has borne witness, the “szgns and tokens of a divinely—appointed Revelation” were being showered upon Him, was fulfilled. The "myriad veils of light," within which His glory had been wrapped, were, at that historic hour, partially lifted, vouchsafing to mankind “an infinitesimalglimmer” of the elTulgence of His “ eerless, His most sacred and exalted C omztenance.” The ”thousand two hundred and ninety days,” fixed by Daniel in the last chapter of His Book, as the duration of the “abomination that maketh desolate” had now elapsed. The ”hundred lunar years,” destined to immediately precede that blissful consummation (1335 days), announced by Daniel in that same chapter, had commenced. The nineteen years, constituting the first “Vzihid,” preordained in the Persian Bayan by the pen of the Báb, had been completed. The Lord of the Kingdom, Jesus Christ returned in the glory of the Father, was about to ascend His throne, and assume the sceptre of a worldembracing, indestructible sovereignty. The community of the Most Great Name, the ”companions of the Crimson Colored Ark,” lauded in glowing terms in the Qayyumu’lAsma’, had visibly emerged. The Báb’s own
prophecy regarding the "Riḍván," the scene of the unveiling of Bahá’u’lláh’s transcendent glory, had been literally fulfilled.
Undaunted by the prospect of the appalling adversities which, as predicted by Himself, were soon to overtake Him; on the eve of a second banishment which would be fraught with many hazards and perils, and would bring Him still farther from His native land, the cradle of His Faith, to a country alien in race, in language and in culture; acutely conscious of the extension of the circle of His adversaries,‘ among whom were soon to be numbered 3. monarch more despotic than Nésiri’d-Din Shah, and ministers no less unyielding in their hostility than either Haji Mirza Aqasi or the Amir-Nizam; undeterred by the perpetual interruptions occasioned by the influx of a host of visitors who thronged His tent, Bahá’u’lláh chose in that critical and seemingly unpropitious hour to advance so challenging a claim, to lay bare the mystery surrounding His person, and to assume, in their plenitude, the power and the authority which were the exclusive privileges of the One Whose advent the Báb had prophesied.
Already the shadow of that great oncoming
event had fallen upon the colony of exiles,
who awaited expectantly its consummation.
As the year ”eighty" steadily and inexorably
approached, He Who had become the real
leader of that community increasingly experienced, and progressively communicated
to His future followers, the onrushing influences of its informing force. The festive,
the soul-entrancing odes which He revealed
almost every day; the Tablets, replete with
hints, which streamed from His pen; the
allusions which, in private converse and public
discourse, He made to the approaching hour;
the exaltation which in moments of joy and
sadness alike flooded His soul; the ecstasy
which filled His lovers, already enraptured by
the multiplying evidences of His rising greatness and glory; the perceptible change noted in
His demeanor; and finally, His adoption
of the taj (tall felt head-dress), on the day of
His departure from His Most Holy House
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all proclaimed unmistakably His imminent assumption of the prophetic office and of His open leadership of the community of the Báb’s followers.
“Many a night,” writes Nabil, depicting the tumult that had seized the hearts of Bahá’ul llah’s companions, in the days prior to the declaration of His mission, “would Mirza Aqé Jan gather them together in his room, close the door, light numerous camphorated candles, and chant aloud to them the newly revealed odes and Tablets in his possession. Wholly oblivious of this contingent world, completely immersed in the realms of the spirit, forgetful of the necessity for food, sleep or drink, they would suddenly discover that night had become day, and that the sun was approaching its zenith.”
Of the exact circumstances attending that epoch-making Declaration we, alas, are but scantily informed. The words Bahá’u’lláh actually uttered on that occasion, the manner of His Declaration, the reaction it produced, its impact on Mirza Yaḥyá, the identity of those who were privileged to hear Him, are shrouded in an obscurity which future historians will find it difficult to penetrate. The fragmentary description left to posterity by His chronicler Nabil is one of the very few authentic records we possess of the memorable days He spent in that garden. “Every day," Nabil has related, “ere the hour of dawn, the gardeners would pick the roses which lined the four avenues of the garden, and would pile them in the center of the floor of His blessed tent. So great would be the heap that when His companions gathered to drink their morning tea in His presence, they would be unable to see each other across it. All these roses Bahá’u’lláh would, with His own hands, entrust to those whom He dismissed from His presence every morning to be delivered, on His behalf, to His Arab and Persian friends in the city.” “One night,” he continues, “the ninth night of the waxing moon, I happened to be one of those who watched beside His blessed tent. As the hour of midnight approached, I saw Him issue from His tent, pass by the places where some of His companions were sleeping, and begin to pace up and down the moonlit, flower—bordered avenues of the garden. So loud was the singing of the nightingales on every side that only those who were near Him could hear distinctly
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His voice. He continued to walk until, pausing in the midst of one of these avenues, He observed: ‘Consider these nightingales. So great is their love for these roses, that sleepless from dusk till dawn, they warble their melodies and commune with burning passion with the object of their adoration. How then can those who claim to be afire with the rose-like beauty of the Beloved choose to sleep ?’ For three successive nights I watched and circled round His blessed tent. Every time I passed by the couch whereon He lay, I would find Him wakeful, and every day, from morn till eventide, I would see Him ceaselessly engaged in conversing with the stream of visitors who kept flowing in from Baghdad. Not once could I discover in the words He spoke any trace of dissimulation.”
As to the significance of that Declaration let Bahá’u’lláh Himself reveal to us its import. Acclaiming that historic occasion as the “Most Great Festival,” the “King ofFestivals,” the “Festival of God," He has, in His Kitab-iAqdas, characterized it as the Day whereon “all created things were immersed in the sea of purification,” whilst in one of His specific Tablets, He has referred to it as the Day whereon “the breezes of forgiveness were wafted over the entire creation.” ”Rejoice, with exceeding gladness, O people of Bahdl”, He, in another Tablet, has written, “as ye call to remembrance the Day of supreme felicity, the Day whereon the Tongue Of the Ancient of Days hatlz spoken, as He departed from His House proceeding to the Spot from which He shed upon the whole of creation the splendors of His Name, the All-Merciful. . . Were We to reveal the hidden secrets of that Day, all that dwell on earth and in the heavens would swoon away and die, except such as will be preserved by Goa’, the Almighty, the AllKnowing, the All—Wise. Such is the inebriating efleet Of the words of God upon the Revealer oins undoubted proofs that His pen can move no longer.” And again: “The Divine Springtime is came, 0 Most Exalted Pen, for the Festival of the All-Merciful is fast approaching. . . The Day—Star of Blissfulness shineth above the horizon of Our Name, the Blissful, inasmuch as the Kingdom of the Name of God hath been adorned with the ornament of the Name of Thy Lord, the Creator of the heavens . . . Take heed lest anything deter Thee from extolling the greatness of this Day—the Day whereon
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the Finger of Majesty and Power hath opened the seal of the Wine of Reunion, and called all who are in the heavens and all who are on earth . . . This is the Day whereon the unseen world crieth out: ‘Great is thy blessedness, 0 earth, for thou hast been made the footstool of thy God, and been chosen as the seat of His mighty throne’ . . . Say . . .He it is Who hath laid bare before you the hidden and treasured Gem, were ye to seek it. He it is who is the One Beloved of all things, whether of the past or of the future.” And yet again: “Arise, and proclaim unto the entire creation the tidings that He who is the All-Mereifnl hath directed His steps towards the Ria’va'n and entered it. Guide, then, the people unto the Garden of Delight which God hath made the Throne of HIS Paradise . .. Within this Paradise, and from the heights of its loftiest chambers, the Maids of Heaven have cried out and shouted: ‘Rejoice, ye dwellers of the realms above, for the fingers of Him Who is the Ancient of Days are ringing, in the name of the All—Glorious, the Most Great Bell, in the midmost heart of the heavens. The hands of bounty have borne round the cups of everlasting life. Approach, and qnafl your fill.”’ And finally: “Forget the world of creation, 0 Pen, and turn Thou towards the face of Thy Lord, the Lord of all names. Adorn, then, the world with the ornament of the favors of Thy Lord, the King of everlasting days. For We perceive thefragranee of the Day whereon He Who is the Desire of all nations hath shed upon the kingdoms of the unseen and of the seen the splendors of the light of His most excellent names, and enveloped them with the radiance of the luminaries of His most gracioasfavors, favors which none can reckon except Him Who is the Omnipotent Protector of the entire creation."
The departure of Bahá’u’lláh from the Garden of Riḍván, at noon, on the 14th of mi’l-Qa‘dih 1279 A.H. (May 3, 1863), witnessed scenes of tumultuous enthusiasm no less spectacular, and even more touching, than those which greeted Him when leaving His Most Great House in Baghdad. “The great tumult,” wrote an eye-witness, “associated in our minds with the Day of Gathering, the Day of Judgment, we beheld on that occasion. Believers and unbelievers alike sobbed and lamented. The chiefs and notables who had congregated were struck with wonder. Emotions were stirred to such depths as
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no tongue can describe, nor could any observer escape their contagion.”
Mounted on His steed, a red roan stallion of the finest breed, the best His lovers could purchase for Him, and leaving behind Him a bowing multitude of fervent admirers, He rode forth on the first stage of a journey that was to carry Him to the city of Constantinople. “Numerous were the heads,” Nabil, himself a witness of that memorable scene, recounts, “which, on every side, bowed to the dust at the feet of His horse, and kissed its hoofs, and countless were those who pressed forward to embrace His stirrups.” “How great the number of those embodiments of fidelity,” testifies a fellow—traveler, “who, casting themselves before that charger, preferred death to separation from their Beloved! Methinks, that blessed steed trod upon the bodies of those pure—hearted souls.” ”He (God) it was," Bahá’u’lláh Himself declares, “Who enabled Me to depart out of the city (Baghdad), clothed with such majesty as none, except the denier and the malicious, can fail to acknowledge.” These marks of homage and devotion continued to surround Him until He was installed in Constantinople. Mirza Yaḥyá, while hurrying on foot, by his own choice, behind Bahá’u’lláh’s carriage, on the day of His arrival in that city, was overheard by Nabil to remark to Siyyid Muhammad: “Had I not chosen to hide myself, had I revealed my identity, the honor accorded Him (Bahá’u’lláh) on this day would have been mine too.”
The same tokens of devotion shown Bahá’u’lláh at the time of His departure from His House, and later from the Garden of Riḍván, were repeated when, on the 20th of mi’l-Qa‘dih (May 9, 1863), accompanied by members of His family and twenty-six of His disciples, He left Firayjét, His first stopping-place in the course of that journey. A caravan, consisting of fifty mules, a mounted guard of ten soldiers with their officer, and seven pairs of howdahs, each pair surmounted by four parasols, was formed, and wended its way, by easy stages, and in the space of no less than a hundred and ten days, across the uplands, and through the defiles, the woods, valleys and pastures, comprising the picturesque scenery of eastern Anatolia, to the port of Sémsn’m, on the Black Sea. At times on horseback, at times resting in the howdah reserved for His use, and which was oftentimes
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surrounded by His companions, most of whom were on foot, He, by virtue of the written order of Namiq Pam, was accorded, as He traveled northward, in the path of spring, an enthusiastic reception by the vélis, the mutisarrifs, the qa’im-maqams, the mudirs, the flayfls, the muftis and qadis, the government officials and notables belonging to the districts through which He passed. In Karkfik, in Irbil, in Mosul, where He tarried three days, in Nisibin, in Mardin, in Diyar-Bakr, where a halt of a couple of days was made, in flarpt'it, in Slvas, as well as in other villages and hamlets, He would be met by a delegation immediately before His arrival, and would be accompanied, for some distance, by a similar delegation upon His departure. The festivities which, at some stations, were held in His honor, the food the villagers prepared and brought for His acceptance, the eagerness which time and again they exhibited in providing the means for His comfort, recalled the reverence which the people of Baghdad had shown Him on so many occasions.
“As we passed that morning through the town of Mardin,” that same fellow-traveler relates, “we were preceded by a mounted escort of government soldiers, carrying their banners, and beating their drums in welcome. The mutisarrif, together with officials and notables, accompanied us, while men, women and children, crowding the housetops and filling the streets, awaited our arrival. With dignity and pomp we traversed that town, and resumed our journey, the mutisarrif and those with him escorting us for a considerable distance.” “According to the unanimous testimony of those we met in the course of that journey,” Nabil has recorded in his narrative, “never before had they witnessed along this route, over which governors and mufir’rs continually passed back and forth between Constantinople and Baghdad, any one travel in such state, dispense such hospitality to all, and accord to each so great a share of his bounty.” Sighting from His howdah the Black Sea, as He approached the port of samst’m, Bahá’u’lláh, at the request of Mirza Aqa Jan, revealed a Tablet, designated Lawh—i-Hawdaj (Tablet of the Howdah), which by such allusions as the "Divine T ouchstone,” ”the grievous and tormenting Mischief," reaffirmed and supple THE BAHA’I WORLD
mented the dire predictions recorded in the recently revealed Tablet of the Holy Mariner.
In Sémsfln the Chief Inspector of the entire province, extending from Baghdad to Constantinople, accompanied by several paflés, called on Him, showed Him the utmost respect, and was entertained by Him at luncheon. But seven days after His arrival, He, as foreshadowed in the Tablet of the Holy Mariner, was put on board a Turkish steamer and three days later was disembarked, at noon, together with His fellow-exiles, at the port of Constantinople, on the first of Rabi‘u’lAvval 1280 A.H. (August 16, 1863). In two special carriages, which awaited Him at the landing-stage He and His family drove to the house of §hamsi Big, the official who had been appointed by the government to entertain its guests, and who lived in the vicinity of the @irqiy-i-fiarlf mosque. Later they were transferred to the more commodious house of Vlsi Pam, in the neighborhood of the mosque of Sultan Muhammad.
With the arrival of Bahá’u’lláh at Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire and seat of the Caliphate (acclaimed by the Muhammadans as “the Dome of Islam,” but stigmatized by Him as the spot whereon the ”throne of tyranny” had been established) the grimmest and most calamitous and yet the most glorious chapter in the history of the first Bahá’í century may be said to have opened. A period in which untold privations and unprecedented trials were mingled with the noblest spiritual triumphs was now commencing. The day-star of Bahá’u’lláh’s ministry was about to reach its zenith. The most momentous years of the Heroic Age of His Dispensalion were at hand. The catastrophic process, foreshadowed as far back as the year sixty by His Forerunner in the Qayyt’tmu’l—Asma’, was beginning to be set in motion.
Exactly two decades earlier the Bábi Revelation had been born in darkest Persia, in the city of Shíráz. Despite the cruel captivity to which its Author had been subjected, the stupendous claims He had voiced had been proclaimed by Him before a distinguished assemblage in Tabríz, the capital of Ad_hirbayjan. In the hamlet of Badaflt the Dispensation which His Faith had ushered in had been fearlessly inaugurated by the champions of His Cause. In the midst of the hopelessness
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and agony of the Siyah-Qal of Tihran, nine years later, that Revelation had, swiftly and mysteriously been brought to sudden fruition. The process of rapid deterioration in the fortunes of that Faith, which had gradually set in, and was alarmingly accelerated during the years of Bahá’u’lláh’s withdrawal to Kurdistan, had, in a masterly fashion after His return from Sulayméniyyih, been arrested and reversed. The ethical, the moral and doctrinal foundations of a nascent community had been subsequently, in the course of His sojourn in Baghdad, unassailably established. And finally, in the Garden of Riḍván, on the eve of His banishment to Constantinople, the ten-year delay, ordained by an inscrutable Providence, had been terminated through the Declaration of His Mission and the visible emergence of what was to become the nucleus of a world-embracing Fellowship. What now remained to be achieved was the proclamation, in the city of Adrianople, of that same Mission to the world’s secular and ecclesiastical leaders, to be followed, in successive decades, by a further unfoldment, in the prison-fortress of ‘Akkátof the principles and precepts constituting the bedrock of that Faith, by the formulation of the laws and ordinances designed to safeguard its integrity, by the establishment, immediately after His ascension, of the Covenant designed to preserve its unity and perpetuate its influence, by the prodigious and world-wide extension of its activities, under the guidance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of that Covenant, and lastly, by the rise, in the Formative Age of that Faith, of its Administrative Order, the harbinger of its Golden Age and future glory.
This historic Proclamation was made at a time when the Faith was in the throes of a crisis of extreme violence, and it was in the main addressed to the kings of the earth, and to the Christian and Muslim ecclesiastical leaders who, by virtue of their immense prestige, ascendancy and authority, assumed an appalling and inescapable responsibility for the immediate destinies of their subjects and followers.
The initial phase of that Proclamation may be said to have opened in Constantinople with the communication (the text of which we, alas, do not possess) addressed by Bahá’u’lláh to Sultan ‘Abdu’l-‘Aziz himself, the self—styled vicar of the Prophet of Islam and the absolute
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ruler of a mighty empire. So potent, so august a personage was the first among the sovereigns of the world to receive the Divine Summons, and the first among Oriental monarchs to sustain the impact of God’s retributive justice. The occasion for this communication was provided by the infamous edict the Sultan had promulgated, less than four months after the arrival of the exiles in his capital, banishing them, suddenly and without any justification whatsoever, in the depth of winter, and in the most humiliating circumstances, to Adrianople, situated on the extremities of his empires
That fateful and ignominious decision, arrived at by the Sultan and his chief ministers, ‘Ali Pam and Fu’ad Pa$é, was in no small degree attributable to the persistent intrigues of the Mushiru’d-Dawlih, Mirzá Husayn flan, the Persian Ambassador to the Sublime Porte, denounced by Bahá’u’lláh as His ”calumniator,” who awaited the first opportunity to strike at Him and the Cause of which He was now the avowed and recognized leader. This Ambassador was pressed continually by his government to persist in the policy of arousing against Bahá’u’lláh the hostility of the Turkish authorities. He was encouraged by the refusal of Bahá’u’lláh to follow the invariable practice of government guests, however highly placed, of calling in person, upon their arrival at the capital, on the flayflu’lIslam, on the Sadr-i-A‘zam, and on the Foreign Minister—Bahá’u’lláh did not even return the calls paid Him by several ministers, by Kamal Pam and by a former Turkish envoy to the court of Persia. He was not deterred by Bahá’u’lláh’s upright and independent attitude which contrasted so sharply with the mercenariness Of the Persian princes who were wont, on their arrival, to “solicit at every door such allowances and gifts as they might obtain." He resented Bahá’u’lláh’s unwillingness to present Himself at the Persian Embassy, and to repay the visit of its representative; and, being seconded, in his efforts, by his accomplice, Haji Mirza Hasan-i-Safa, whom he instructed to circulate unfounded reports about Him, he succeeded through his official influence, as well as through his private intercourse with ecclesiastics, notables and government officials, in representing Bahá’u’lláh as a proud and arrogant person, Who regarded Himself as subject to no law, Who entertained designs inimical to all established
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authority, and Whose forwardness had precipitated the grave dilTerences that had arisen between Himself and the Persian Government. Nor was he the only one who indulged in these nefarious schemes. Others, according to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “condemned and vilified" the exiles, as “a mischief to all the world,” as "destructive of treaties and covenants,” as “baleful to all lands” and as "deserving of every chastisement and punishment.”
No less a personage than the highlyrespected brother-in-law of the Sadr-i-A‘zam was commissioned to apprize the Captive of the edict pronounced against Him—an edict which evinced a virtual coalition of the Turkish and Persian imperial governments against a common adversary, and which in the end brought such tragic consequences upon the Sultanate, the Caliphate and the Qajar dynasty. Refused an audience by Bahá’u’lláh that envoy had to content himself with a presentation of his puerile observations and trivial arguments to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Aqay-iKalim, who were delegated to see him, and whom he informed that, after three days, he would return to receive the answer to the order he had been hidden to transmit.
That same day a Tablet, severely condemnatory in tone, was revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, was entrusted by Him, in a sealed envelope, on the following morning, to flamsi Big, who was instructed to deliver it into the hands of ‘Ali Pam, and to say that it was sent down from God. “I know not what that letter contained,” flamsi Big subsequently informed Aqéy-i-Kalim, “for no sooner had the Grand Vizir perused it than he turned the color of a corpse, and remarked: ‘It is as if the King of Kings were issuing his behest to his humblest vassal king and regulating his conduct.’ So grievous was his condition that I backed out of his presence.” ”Whatever action,” Bahá’u’lláh, commenting on the effect that Tablet had produced, is reported to have stated, “the ministers of the Sultan took against Us, after having become acquainted with its contents, cannot be regarded as unjustifiable. The acts they committed before its perusal, however, can have no justification.”
That Tablet, according to Nabil, was of considerable length, opened with words directed to the sovereign himself, severely censured his ministers, exposed their immaturity and incompetence, and included passages in
THE Bahá’í WORLD
which the ministers themselves were addressed, in which they were boldly challenged, and sternly admonished not to pride themselves on their worldly possessions, nor foolishly seek the riches of which time would inexorably rob them.
Bahá’u’lláh was on the eve of His departure, which followed almost immediately upon the promulgation of the edict of His banishment, when, in a last and memorable interview with the afore-mentioned Hájí’ Mirza Hasan-i-Safa, He sent the following message to the Persian Ambassador: ”What did it profit thee, and such as are like thee, to slay, year after year, so many of the oppressed, and to inflict upon them manifold afflictions, when they have increased a hundredfold, and ye find yourselves in complete bewilderment, knowingr not how to relieve your minds of this oppressive thought. . . . His Cause transcends any and every plan ye devise. Know this much: Were all the governments on earth to unite and take My li e and the lives of all who bear this Name, this Divine Fire would never be quenched. His Cause will rather encompass all the kings of the earth, nay all that hath been created from water and clay. . . . Whatever may yet befall Us, great shall be our gain, and manifest the loss wherewith they shall be afi‘licted.”
Pursuant to the peremptory orders issued for the immediate departure of the already twice banished exiles, Bahá’u’lláh, His family, and His companions, some riding in wagons, others mounted on pack animals, with their belongings piled in carts drawn by oxen, set out, accompanied by Turkish officers, on a cold December morning, amidst the weeping of the friends they were leaving behind, on their twelve—day journey, across a bleak and windswept country, to a city characterized by Bahá’u’lláh as “the place which none entereth except such as have rebelled against the authority of the sovereign.” “They expelled Us,” is His own testimony in the SL’lriy—iML'IlL'ik, “from thy city (Constantinople) with an abasement with which no abasement on earth can compare.” ”Neither My family, nor those who accompanied Me,” He further states, “had the necessary raiment to protect them from the cold in that freezing weather.” And again: "The eyes of Our enemies wept over Us, and beyond them those of every discerning person." “A banishment," laments Nabil, “endured with such meekness that the pen
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WRITINGS OF SHOGHI EFFENDI
sheddeth tears when recounting it, and the page is ashamed to bear its description.” “A cold of such intensity,” that same chronicler records, “prevailed that year, that nonagenarians could not recall its like. In some regions, in both Turkey and Persia, animals succumbed to its severity and perished in the snows. The upper reaches of the Euphrates, in Ma‘dan-Nuqrih, were covered with ice for several days—an unprecedented phenomenon —while in Diyar-Bakr the river froze over for no less than forty days." “To obtain water from the springs,” one of the exiles of Adrianople recounts, “a great fire had to be lighted in their immediate neighborhood, and kept burning for a couple of hours before they thawed out.”
Traveling through rain and storm, at times even making night marches, the weary travelers, after brief halts at Kt’ighik—Qbakmaghih, Bayak-Qakmagbih, Salvari, Birkas, and Babaiski, arrived at their destination, on the first
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of Rajab 1280 A.H. (December 12, 1863), and were lodged in the _K_h2'tn-i-‘Arab, a twostory caravanserai, near the house of ‘IzzatAqa. Three days later, Bahá’u’lláh and His family were consigned to a house suitable only for summer habitation, in the Murédiyyih quarter, near the Takyiy-i-Mawlavi, and were moved again, after a week, to another house. in the vicinity of a mosque in that same neighborhood. About six months later they transferred to more commodious quarters, known as the house of Amru’llah (House of God’s command) situated on the northern side of the mosque of Sultan Salim.
Thus closes the opening scene of one of the most dramatic episodes in the ministry of Bahá’u’lláh. The curtain now rises on what is admittedly the most turbulent and critical period of the first Bahá’í century—a period that was destined to precede the most glorious phase of that ministry, the proclamation of His Message to the world and its rulers.
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BAHA’I SHRINE
The Maxwell Home (the building on the left), where
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. was a guest in 1912, was presented to the
Canadian Bahá’ís in 1953. Hands of the Cause, Amelia Collins (left) and Amatu’I-Bahá Rúḥíyyih
Khánum (right) are shown in front of the building.
