Bahá’í World/Volume 30/From the Universal House of Justice

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[Page 29]

From the Universal House of Justice

The Universal House of Justice, the world governing council of the Bahá’í International Community, is responsible for guiding and coordinating the activities of its 182 national affiliates and the Faith's five million adherents throughout the world. While it corresponds with individuals and organizations seeking its guidance, the Universal House of Justice also writes letters to National Spiritual Assemblies and to the Bahá’ís of the world containing major announcements, providing direction, and advising them of opportunities that lie before them. This article highlights major letters written by the Universal House of Justice between April 2001 and April 2002.

Ridván 158 BE message

Each year during the Bahá’í Festival of Ridván, between 21 April and 2 May, the Universal House of Justice addresses a message to the Bahá’ís of the world, reviewing the past year and looking forward to the next. The Ridván 2001 letter, released at the conclusion of a brief Twelve Month Plan, both reflects on it and relates its accomplishments to the foundations laid in the previous Four Year Plan (1996-2000). [Page 30]The letter begins by drawing attention to the community's "heightened awareness of the value of process, the necessity of planning and the virtue of systematic action" in "fostering growth" and in "developing the human resources" of the community. In reviewing the process that has led to this significant moment, the House of Justice notes the development of more than 300 training institutes during the Four Year Plan and the greater focus on the spiritual education of children and "junior" youth (aged 12-14) during the Twelve Month Plan. It remarks on the "freshness of vitality" that characterized the conference of the Continental Counsellors and Auxiliary Board members in January 2001, which sparked the announcement of the Faith's entrance into the Fifth Epoch of its Formative Age, and it urges reflection upon "the tumultuous forces that influenced the life of the planet and the processes of the Cause itself at a crucial time in humanity's social and spiritual evolution."

Reviewing external affairs activities during the Twelve Month Plan, the House of Justice mentions the prominent participation of Bahá’í representatives in the millennial events called for by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, noting that "the implications of so close and conspicuous an involvement of the Bahá’í International Community with the processes of the Lesser Peace will require the passage of time to be properly understood." The House of Justice also finds the colloquium on science, religion, and development in India, organized by the Bahá’í International Community's Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity, and the launch of the Bahá’í World News Service to be notable accomplishments during this period.

At the Bahá’í World Centre, achievements include the occupation by the International Teaching Centre of its permanent seat, the conference of the Continental Counsellors and Auxiliary Board members, the completion of the Mount Carmel projects in preparation for the official opening of the Terraces surrounding the Shrine of the Báb, the preparation of a new reception center for pilgrims in Haifa, and the construction of a new facility for visitors to the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh.

The final point highlighted by the Universal House of Justice in its review of the year is the restoration of the National Spiritual [Page 31]Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Indonesia, which had lapsed for almost three decades following a ban on Bahá’í activities in 1962.

Having looked back over the past year, the House of Justice then turns its gaze forward. "Two decades from now," it writes, "the Bahá’í world will celebrate the centenary of the inception of the Formative Age." The Five Year Plan, it points out, "constitutes the first of a series of campaigns that will be pursued during these twenty years" aimed at accomplishing "a significant advance in the process of entry by troops," which will require "continuity in systematic endeavor" by individuals, institutions, and communities. The aims of the Five Year Plan, in the words of the House of Justice, are "to effect a deeper penetration of the Faith into more and more regions within countries," using approaches such as intensive programs of growth and the "methodical opening of new areas" by individuals who move to settle in those areas as "home-front pioneers."

Looking towards the "enrichment of the devotional life of the community through the raising up of national Houses of Worship" throughout the Fifth Epoch, the House of Justice outlines in the Ridván letter the immediate task ahead: to erect "the Mother Temple of South America" in Santiago, Chile, thus completing Shoghi Effendi’s plan to build Houses of Worship on all continents.

At the Bahá’í World Centre the work of those institutions that have recently moved into the new buildings on the Arc will be guided to further development. Attention is to be given to the Centre for the Study of the Texts, particularly in regard to "enriching the translations into English from the Holy Texts," and measures will be taken to welcome larger numbers of pilgrims and visitors.

The Riḍván letter concludes by referring to the imminent arrival of Bahá’ís from all over the world for the events surrounding the official opening of the Terraces of the Shrine of the Báb in May 2001 and by characterizing the occasion as an important milestone that will allow both reflection on the progress made by the Bahá’í community throughout the preceding century and a look forward to the future."

See PP. 37-73 for an article on the Terraces’ official opening and for the full text of two letters of the Universal House of Justice written for that occasion. [Page 32]

Bahá’í Funds

The establishment of the World Centre Endowment Fund, "for the preservation, upkeep, and security of the edifices and precincts of the Spiritual and Administrative Centres of the Faith," was announced in a letter dated 12 November 2001, which urges Bahá’ís to contribute to this special fund so that the "splendor, befitting so sacred a place, be preserved undiminished in the decades and centuries ahead."

Martyrdoms in Tajikistan

A letter dated 27 February 2002 from the Secretariat of the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies conveys the sad news of the assassination of two Bahá’ís in Tajikistan. Rashid Gulov and Afshin Shokoufeh Mosadegh "were killed at the hands of fanatical elements in that country who wished to cause harm to followers of Bahá’u’lláh." Mr. Gulov was shot and killed on 23 October, and Mr. Mosadegh was shot on 3 December. The House of Justice notes, "The investigation by the Tajik authorities into the murders has shown that the two Bahá’ís were killed because of their Faith." The previous assassination of another Bahá’í, ‘Abdu’llah Mogharrabi, two years before, is recalled, and the House of Justice concludes, "A community so distinguished by the sacrifices of martyrs is bound to attract bountiful confirmations of its efforts from on high."

International Pioneering and Traveling Teaching

The subject of international pioneering and traveling teaching—"an indispensable feature of the Bahá’í community"—is addressed in a letter dated 10 January 2002 to the Bahá’ís of the world. Noting that "in the Twelve Month Plan alone, over 1,800 believers from nearly 90 countries set out to serve the Faith in the international field," the House of Justice underscores the importance of such efforts by stating, "Apart from the services such staunch

2 See pp. 304 and 308 for obituaries of Mr. Gulov and Mr. Mosadegh. [Page 33]souls are able to render the Cause of God, this intermingling of the peoples of the world is vital to the patterns of life that the followers of Bahá’u’lláh are striving to establish and which are destined to provide an example for the rest of humanity to emulate."

New Publications

Finally, the Universal House of Justice announced the release of several important publications during the year. The first is the Arabic edition of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá’u’lláh’s Most Holy Book and the "Charter of the future world civilization," in the words Shoghi Effendi, which was announced in a letter dated 27 April 2001. The second is The Four Year Plan and the Twelve Month Plan, 1996-2001: Summary of Achievements, on 30 January 2002, about which it states, "The volume chronicles the progress of the Faith worldwide during a period of important accomplishments in the Bahá’í community, and its careful reading will provide insights into the processes by which the Faith advances through systematic planning and action." The third is The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, which, as the House of Justice writes in a letter dated 8 April 2002, "brings together for the first time the authorized translations into English of the full texts of Bahá’u’lláh’s major Tablets to the kings and rulers of the World." The letter notes that these Tablets were revealed during Bahá’u’lláh’s exiles to Adrianople and Acre and that they "summon their recipients to recognize the Day of God and to arise to the challenges it imposes on them as the trustees of civil authority among the peoples of the world."