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Bahá’í News

July 1979

Bahá’í Year 136

Bahíyyih Khanum: ‘The Greatest Holy Leaf’

[Page 0] The Shrine of Bahíyyih Khanum, The Greatest Holy Leaf, On Mt. Carmel in Haifa, Israel

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Contents

The Seven Year Plan
Message to the Bahá’í world from Universal House of Justice	2
The Greatest Holy Leaf
A tribute to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sister by the beloved Guardian	5
Around the world
News from Bahá’í communities in every corner of the globe	10

Cover

It was 47 years ago this month that Bahíyyih Khanum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, described by the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, as ‘one of the nobler figures intimately associated with the lifelong work of Bahá’u’lláh,’ ascended to the Abhá Kingdom. We present in this issue a touching tribute to this most remarkable woman penned by the Guardian himself shortly after her passing. It begins on Page 5.

Change of address should be reported directly to Office of Membership and Records, Bahá’í National Center, 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A. Please attach mailing label. Subscription rates: one year, U.S. $8; two years, U.S. $15. Second class postage paid at Wilmette, IL 60091.Copyright © 1979, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. World Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

Bahá’í News is published monthly for circulation among Bahá’ís only by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, as a news organ reporting current activities of the Bahá’í world community. Manuscripts submitted should be typewritten and double spaced throughout; any footnotes should appear at the end. The contributor should keep a carbon copy. Send materials to: Bahá’í News Editorial Office, 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A.

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The Seven Year Plan

The Universal House of Justice outlines first two-year phase

To the Bahá’ís of the World
Dearly-loved Friends,

The decline of religious and moral restraints has unleashed a fury of chaos and confusion that already bears the signs of universal anarchy. Engulfed in this maelstrom, the Bahá’í world community, pursuing with indefeasible unity and spiritual force its redemptive mission, inevitably suffers the disruption of economic, social and civil life which afflicts its fellow men throughout the planet. It must also bear particular tribulations. The violent disturbances in Persia, coinciding with the gathering in of the bountiful harvest of the Five Year Plan, have brought new and cruel hardships to our long-suffering brethren in the Cradle of our Faith and confronted the Bahá’í world community with critical challenges to its life and work. As the Bahá’í world stood poised on the brink of victory, eagerly anticipating the next stage in the unfoldment of the Master’s Divine Plan, Bahá’u’lláh’s heroic compatriots, the custodians of the Holy Places of our Faith in the land of its birth, were yet again called upon to endure the passions of brutal mobs, the looting and burning of their homes, the destruction of their means of livelihood, and physical violence and threats of death to force them to recant their faith. They, like their immortal forebears, the Dawn-Breakers, are standing steadfast in face of this new persecution and the ever-present threat of organized extermination.

Remembering that during the Five Year Plan the Persian friends far surpassed any other national community in their outpouring of pioneers and funds, we, in all those parts of the world where we are still free to promote the Cause of God, have the responsibility to make good their temporary inability to serve. Therefore, with uplifted hearts and radiant faith, we must arise with redoubled energy to pursue our mighty task, confident that the Lord of Hosts will continue to reward our efforts with the same bountiful grace He vouchsafed to us in the Five Year Plan.

The teaching victories in the Plan have been truly prodigious; the points of light, those localities where the Promised One is recognized, have increased from sixty-nine thousand five hundred to over ninety-six thousand; the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies has grown from over seventeen thousand to over twenty-five thousand; eighteen new National Spiritual Assemblies have been formed. The final report will disclose in all their manifold aspects the magnitude of the victories won.

In the world at large the Bahá’í community is now firmly established. The Institution of the Hands of the Cause of God, the Chief Stewards of Bahá’u’lláh’s embryonic World Commonwealth, is bearing a precious fruit in the development of the International Teaching Centre as a mighty institution of the World Centre of the Faith; an institution blessed by the membership of all the Hands of the Cause; an institution whose beneficent influence is diffused to all parts of the Bahá’í community through the Continental Boards of Counsellors, the members of the Auxiliary Boards and their assistants.

[Page 3] Advised, stimulated and supported by this vital arm of the Administrative Order, 125 National Spiritual Assemblies are rapidly acquiring experience and growing in wisdom as they administer the complex affairs of their respective communities as organic parts of one world-wide fellowship. More and more Local Spiritual Assemblies are becoming strong focal centres of local Bahá’í communities and firm pillars of the National Spiritual Assembly in each land. Even in those countries where the Bahá’í Administration cannot operate or has had to be disbanded, countries to which have now been added Afghanistan, the Congo Republic, Niger, Uganda and Vietnam, the believers, while obedient to their governments, nevertheless staunchly keep alive the flame of faith.

Beyond the expansion of the community, vital as it is, the Five Year Plan witnessed great progress in the spiritual development of the friends, the growing maturity and wisdom of Local and National Assemblies, and in the degree to which Bahá’í communities embody the distinguishing characteristics of Bahá’í life and attract, by their unity, their steadfastness, their radiance and good reputation, the interest and eventual wholehearted support of their fellow citizens. This is the magnet which will attract the masses to the Cause of God, and the leaven that will transform human society.

The conditions of the world present the followers of Bahá’u’lláh with both obstacles and opportunities. In an increasing number of countries we are witnessing the fulfillment of the warnings that the writings of our Faith contain. “Peoples, nations, adherents of divers faiths,” the beloved Guardian wrote, “will jointly and successively arise to shatter its unity, to sap its force, and to degrade its holy name. They will assail not only the spirit which it inculcates, but the administration which is the channel, the instrument, the embodiment of that spirit. For as the authority with which Bahá’u’lláh has invested the future Bahá’í Commonwealth becomes more and more apparent, the fiercer shall be the challenge which from every quarter will be thrown at the verities it enshrines.” In different countries, in varying degrees, the followers of Bahá’u’lláh at this very hour are undergoing such attacks, and are facing imprisonment and even martyrdom rather than deny the Truth for whose sake the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh drained the cup of sacrifice.

In other lands, such as those in Western Europe, the faithful believers have to struggle to convey the message in the face of widespread indifference, materialistic self-satisfaction, cynicism and moral degradation. These friends, however, still have freedom to teach the Faith in their homelands, and in spite of the discouraging meagreness of outward results they continue to proclaim the Message of Bahá’u’lláh to their fellow citizens, to raise high the reputation of the Cause in the public eye, to acquaint leaders of thought and those in authority with its true tenets, and to spare no effort to seek out those receptive souls in every town and village who will respond to the divine summons and devote their lives to its service.

In many lands, however, there is an eager receptivity for the teachings of the Faith. The challenge for the Bahá’ís is to provide these thousands of seeking souls, as swiftly as possible, with the spiritual food that they crave, to enlist them under the banner of Bahá’u’lláh, to nurture them in the way of life He has revealed, and to guide them to elect Local Spiritual Assemblies which as they begin to function strongly, will unite the friends in firmly consolidated Bahá’í communities and become beacons of guidance and havens of refuge to mankind.

Faced by such a combination of danger and opportunity, the Bahá’ís, confident in the ultimate triumph of God’s purpose for mankind, raise their eyes to the goals of a new Seven Year Plan.

In the Holy Land the strengthening of the World Centre and the augmentation of its worldwide influence must continue:

• The Seat of the Universal House of Justice will be completed and designs will be adopted for the remaining three buildings of the World Administrative Centre of the Faith.
• The Institution of the International Teaching Centre will be developed and its functions expanded. This will require an increase in its membership and the assumption by it and by the Continental Boards of Counsellors of wider functions in the stimulation on an international scale of the propagation and consolidation of the Faith, and in the promotion of the spiritual, intellectual and community aspects of Bahá’í life.
• The House of ‘Abdu’lláh Páshá in ‘Akká will be opened to pilgrimage.
• Work will be continued on the collation and classification of the Sacred Texts and a series of compilations gleaned and translated from the writings of the Faith will be sent out to the Bahá’í world to help in deepening the friends in their understanding of the fundamentals of the Faith, enriching their spiritual lives, and reinforcing their efforts to teach the Cause.
• The ties binding the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations will be further developed.
• Continued efforts will be made to protect the Faith from opposition and to emancipate it from the fetters of persecution.

Each National Spiritual Assembly has been given goals for these first two years of the Plan, designed to continue the process of expansion, to consolidate the victories won, and to attain, where circumstances permit, any goals that may have had to remain unaccomplished at the end of the Five Year Plan. During these first two years we shall be examining, with the Continental Boards of Counsellors and National Spiritual Assemblies, the conditions and possibilities in each country, and shall be considering in detail the capacities and needs of each of the rapidly differentiating national Bahá’í communities before formulating the further goals towards which each community is to work following the opening phase of the Plan.

[Page 4] Throughout the world the Seven Year Plan must witness the attainment of the following objectives:

• The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of Samoa is to be completed and progress will be made in the construction of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in India.
• Nineteen new National Spiritual Assemblies are to be brought into being: eight in Africa, those of Angola, Bophuthatswana, the Cape Verde Islands, Gabon, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia and Transkei; eight in the Americas, those of Bermuda, Dominica, French Guiana, Grenada, the Leeward Islands, Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vincent; and three in the Pacific, those of the Cook Islands, Tuvalu and the West Caroline Islands. Those National Spiritual Assemblies which have had to be dissolved will, circumstances permitting, be re-established.
• The Message of Bahá’u’lláh must be taken to territories and islands which are as yet unopened to His Faith.
• The teaching work, both that organized by institutions of the Faith and that which is the fruit of individual initiative, must be actively carried forward so that there will be growing numbers of believers, leading more countries to the stage of entry by troops and ultimately to mass conversion.
• This teaching work must include prompt, thorough and continuing consolidation so that all victories will be safeguarded, the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies will be increased and the foundations of the Cause reinforced.
• The interchange of pioneers and travelling teachers, which contributes so importantly to the unity of the Bahá’í world and to a true understanding of the oneness of mankind, must continue, especially between neighbouring lands. At the same time, each national Bahá’í community must aspire to a rapid achievement of self-sufficiency in carrying out its vital activities, thus acquiring the capacity to continue to function and grow even if outside help is cut off.
• Especially in finance is the attainment of independence by national Bahá’í communities urgent. Already the persecutions in Írán have deprived the believers in that country of the bounty of contributing to the international funds of the Faith, of which they have been a major source. Economic disruption in other countries threatens further diminution of financial resources. We therefore appeal to the friends everywhere to exercise the utmost economy in the use of funds and to make those sacrifices in their personal lives which will enable them to contribute their share, according to their means, to the local, national, continental and international funds of the Faith.
• For the prompt achievement of all the goals and the healthy growth of Bahá’í community life National Spiritual Assemblies must pay particular attention to the efficient functioning, in the true spirit of the Faith, of their national committees and other auxiliary institutions, and, in consultation with the Continental Boards of Counsellors, must conceive and implement programs that will guide and reinforce the efforts of the friends in the paths of service.
• National Spiritual Assemblies must promote wise and dignified approaches to people prominent in all areas of human endeavour, acquainting them with the nature of the Bahá’í community and the basic tenets of the Faith, and winning their esteem and friendship.
• At the heart of all activities, the spiritual, intellectual and community life of the believers must be developed and fostered, requiring: the prosecution with increased vigour of the development of Local Spiritual Assemblies so that they may exercise their beneficial influence and guidance on the life of Bahá’í communities; the nurturing of a deeper understanding of Bahá’í family life; the Bahá’í education of children, including the holding of regular Bahá’í classes and where necessary, the establishment of tutorial schools for the provision of elementary education; the encouragement of Bahá’í youth in study and service; and the encouragement of Bahá’í women to exercise to the full their privileges and responsibilities in the work of the community—may they befittingly bear witness to the memory of the Greatest Holy Leaf, the immortal heroine of the Bahá’í Dispensation, as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of her passing.

As lawlessness spreads in the world, as governments rise and fall, as rival groups and feuding peoples struggle, each for its own advantage, the plight of the oppressed and the deprived wrings the heart of every true Bahá’í, tempting him to cry out in protest or to arise in wrath at the perpetrators of injustice. For this is a time of testing which calls to mind Bahá’u’lláh’s words “O concourse of the heedless! I swear by God! The promised day is come, the day when tormenting trials will have surged above your heads, and beneath your feet, saying: ‘Taste ye what your hands have wrought!’ ”

Now is the time when every follower of Bahá’u’lláh must cling fast to the Covenent of God, resist every temptation to become embroiled in the conflicts of the world, and remember that he is the holder of a precious trust, the Message of God which, alone, can banish injustice from the world and cure the ills afflicting the body and spirit of man. We are the bearers of the Word of God in this day and, however dark the immediate horizons, we must go forward rejoicing in the knowledge that the work we are privileged to perform is God’s work and will bring to birth a world whose splendour will outshine our brightest visions and surpass our highest hopes.

The Universal House of Justice

Naw-Rúz 1979

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The Greatest Holy Leaf

(This month marks the 47th anniversary of the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s illustrious sister, Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, described by the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, as “next to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, among members of the Holy Family...the brightest embodiment of that love which is born of God and of that human sympathy which few mortals are capable of evincing.” The soul-stirring tribute to the Greatest Holy Leaf that begins on the following page was written by the Guardian himself shortly after her passing and is reprinted from The Bahá’í World, Vol. V [1932-34] -Ed.)

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‘How staunch was her faith,

how calm her demeanor,

how forgiving her attitude,

how severe her trials...’

Brethren and Fellow-Mourners in the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh:

A sorrow, reminiscent in its poignancy, of the devastating grief caused by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sudden removal from our midst, has stirred the Bahá’í world to its foundations. The Greatest Holy Leaf, the well-beloved and treasured Remnant of Bahá’u’lláh entrusted to our frail and unworthy hands by our departed Master, has passed to the Great Beyond, leaving a legacy that time can never dim.

The Community of the Most Great Name, in its entirety and to its very core, feels the sting of this cruel loss. Inevitable though this calamitous event appeared to us all, however acute our apprehension of its steady approach, the consciousness of its final consummation at this terrible hour leaves us, we whose souls have been impregnated by the energizing influence of her love, prostrated and disconsolate.

How can my lonely pen, so utterly inadequate to glorify so exalted a station, so impotent to portray the experiences of so sublime a life, so disqualified to recount the blessings she showered upon me since my earliest childhood—how can such a pen repay the great debt of gratitude and love that I owe her whom I regarded as my chief sustainer, my most affectionate comforter, the joy and inspiration of my life? My grief is too immense, my remorse too profound, to be able to give full vent at this moment to the feelings that surge within me.

Only future generations and pens abler than mine can, and will, pay a worthy tribute to the towering grandeur of her spiritual life, to the unique part she played throughout the tumultuous stages of Bahá’í history, to the expressions of unqualified praise that have streamed from the pen of both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of His Covenant, though unrecorded, and in the main unsuspected by the mass of her passionate admirers in the East and West, the share she has had in influencing the course of some of the chief events in the annals of the Faith, the sufferings she bore, the sacrifices she made, the rare gifts of unfailing sympathy she so strikingly displayed—these, and many others, stand so inextricably interwoven with the fabric of the Cause itself that no future historian of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh can afford to ignore or minimize.

As far back as the concluding stages of the heroic age of the Cause, which witnessed the imprisonment of Bahá’u’lláh in the Síyáh-Chál of Ṭihrán, the Greatest Holy Leaf, then still in her infancy, was privileged to taste of the cup of woe which the first believers of that Apostolic Age had quaffed.

How well I remember her recall, at a time when her faculties were still unimpaired, the gnawing suspense that ate into the hearts of those who watched by her side, at the threshold of her pillaged house, expectant to hear at any moment the news of Bahá’u’lláh’s imminent execution! In those sinister hours, she often recounted, her parents had so suddenly lost their earthly possessions that within the space of a single day from being the privileged member of one of the wealthiest families of Ṭihrán she had sunk to the state of a sufferer from unconcealed poverty. Deprived of the means of subsistence, her illustrious mother, the famed Navváb, was constrained to place in the palm of her daughter’s hand a handful of flour and to induce her to accept it as a substitute for her daily bread.

And when at a later time this revered and precious member of the Holy Family, then in her teens, came to be entrusted by the guiding hand of her Father with missions that no girl of her age could, or would be willing to, perform, with what spontaneous joy she seized her opportunity and acquitted herself of the task with which she had been entrusted! The delicacy and extreme gravity of such functions as she, from time to time, was called upon to fulfill, when the city of Baghdád was swept by the hurricane which the heedlessness and perversity of Mírzá Yaḥyá had unchained, as well as the tender solicitude which, at so early an age, she evinced during the period of Bahá’u’lláh’s enforced retirement to the mountains of Sulaymáníyyih, marked her as one who was both capable of sharing the burden, and willing to make the sacrifice, which her high birth demanded.

How staunch was her faith, how calm her demeanor, how forgiving her attitude, how severe her trials, at a time when the forces of schism had rent asunder the ties that united the little band of exiles which had settled in Adrianople and whose fortunes seemed then to have sunk to their lowest ebb! It was in this period of extreme anxiety, when the rigours of a winter of exceptional severity, coupled with the privations entailed by unhealthy housing accommodation and dire financial distress, undermined once for all her health and sapped the vitality which she had hitherto so thoroughly enjoyed. The stress and storm of that period made an abiding impression upon her mind, and she retained till the time of her death on her beauteous and angelic face the evidences of its intense hardships.

Not until, however, she had been confined to the company of Bahá’u’lláh within the walls of the prison-city of ‘Akká did she display, in the plenitude of her power and in the full abundance of her love for Him, those gifts that single her out, next to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, among the members of the Holy Family, as the brightest embodiment of that love which is born of God and of that human sympathy which few mortals are capable of evincing.

Banishing from her mind and heart every earthly attachment, renouncing the very idea of matrimony, she, standing reso-

[Page 7] lutely by the side of a Brother whom she was to aid and serve so well, arose to dedicate her life to the service of her Father’s glorious Cause. Whether in the management of the affairs of His household in which she excelled, or in the social relationships which she so assiduously cultivated in order to shield both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, whether in the unfailing attention she paid to the every day needs of her Father, or in the traits of generosity, of affability and kindness, which she manifested, the Greatest Holy Leaf had by that time abundantly demonstrated her worthiness to rank as one of the nobler figures intimately associated with the life-long work of Bahá’u’lláh.

How grievous the ingratitude, how blind the fanaticism, how persistent the malignity of the officials, their wives, and their subordinates, in return for the manifold bounties which she, in close association with her Brother, so profusely conferred upon them! Her patience, her magnanimity, her undiscriminating benevolence, far from disarming the hostility of that perverse generation, served only to inflame their rancour, to excite their jealousy, to intensify their fears. The gloom that had settled upon that little band of imprisoned believers, who languished in the Fortress of ‘Akká contrasted with the spirit of confident hope, of deep-rooted optimism that beamed upon her serene countenance. No calamity, however intense, could obscure the brightness of her saintly face, and no agitation, no matter how severe, could disturb the composure of her gracious and dignified behaviour.

That her sensitive heart instantaneously reacted to the slightest injury that befell the least significant of creatures, whether friend or foe, no one who knew her well could doubt. And yet such was the restraining power of her will—a will which her spirit of self-renunciation so often prompted her to suppress —that a superficial observer might well be led to question the intensity of her emotions or to belittle the range of her sympathies. In the school of adversity she, already endowed by Providence with the virtues of meekness and fortitude, learned through the example and exhortations of the Great Sufferer, who was her Father, the lesson she was destined to teach the great mass of His followers for so long after Him.

Armed with the powers with which an intimate and long-standing companionship with Bahá’u’lláh had already equipped her, and benefitting by the magnificent example which the steadily widening range of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s activities afforded her, she was prepared to face the storm which the treacherous conduct of the covenant-breakers had aroused and to withstand its most damaging onslaughts.

Great as had been her suffering ever since her infancy, the anguish of mind and heart which the ascension of Bahá’u’lláh occasioned nerved her, as never before, to a resolve which no upheaval could bend and which her frail constitution belied. Amidst the dust and heat of the commotion which that faithless and rebellious company engendered she found herself constrained to dissolve ties of family relationship, to sever long-standing and intimate friendships, to discard lesser loyalties for the sake of her supreme allegiance to a cause she had loved so dearly and had served so well.

The disruption that ensued found her ranged by the side of Him Whom her departed Father had appointed as the Center of His Covenant and the authorized Expounder of His Word. Her venerated mother, as well as her distinguished paternal uncle, ‘Áqay-i-Kalím—the twin pillars who, all throughout the various stages of Bahá’u’lláh’s exile from the land of His birth to final place of His confinement, had demonstrated, unlike most of the members of His Family, the tenacity of their loyalty—had already passed behind the Veil. Death, in the most tragic circumstances, had also robbed her of the Purest Branch, her only brother besides ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, while still in the prime of youth. She alone of the family of Bahá’u’lláh remained to cheer the heart and reinforce the efforts of the Most Great Branch, against Whom were solidly arrayed the almost entire company of His faithless relatives. In her arduous task she was seconded by the diligent efforts of Munírih Khánum, the Holy Mother, and those of her daughters whose age allowed them to assist in the accomplishment of that stupendous achievement with which the name of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá will forever remain associated.

With the passing of Bahá’u’lláh and the fierce onslaught of the forces of disruption that followed in its wake, the Greatest Holy Leaf, now in the hey-day of her life, rose to the height of her great opportunity and acquitted herself worthily of her task. It would take me beyond the compass of the tribute I am moved to pay to her memory were I to dwell upon the incessant machinations to which Muḥammad-‘Alí, the arch-breaker of the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, and his despicable supporters basely resorted, upon the agitation which their cleverly-directed campaign of misrepresentation and calumny produced

‘The years in which she basked in the sunshine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s spiritual victories were, perhaps, among the brightest and happiest of her life.’

in quarters directly connected with Sultan ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd and his advisers, upon the trials and investigations to which it gave rise, upon the rigidity of the incarceration it reimposed, and upon the perils it revived. Suffice it to say that but for her sleepless vigilance, her tact, her courtesy, her extreme patience and heroic fortitude, grave complications might have ensued and the load of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s anxious care would have been considerably increased.

The decline of her precious life had by that time set in, and the burden of advancing age was beginning to becloud the radiance of her countenance. Forgetful of her own self, disdaining rest and comfort, and undeterred by the obstacles that still stood in her path, she, acting as the honoured hostess to a steadily increasing number of pilgrims who thronged ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s residence from both the East and the West, continued to display those same attributes that had won her, in the preceding phases of her career, so great a measure of admiration and love.

And when, in pursuance of God’s inscrutable wisdom, the ban on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s confinement was lifted and the Plan which He, in the darkest hours of His confinement, had conceived materialized, He with unhesitating confidence, invested His trusted and honoured sister with the responsibility of attending to the multitudinous details arising out of His protracted absence from the Holy Land.

No sooner had ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stepped upon the shores of the European and American continents than our beloved Khánum found herself wellnigh overwhelmed with thrilling messages, each betokening the irresistible advance of the Cause in a man-

[Page 8] ner which, notwithstanding the vast range of her experiences, seemed to her almost incredible. The years in which she basked in the sunshine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s spiritual victories were, perhaps, among the brightest and happiest of her life. Little did she dream when, as a little girl, she was running about, in the courtyard of her Father’s house in Ṭihrán, in the company of Him Whose destiny was to be one day the chosen Center of God’s indestructible Covenant, that such a Brother would be capable of achieving in realms so distant, and among races so utterly remote, so great and memorable a victory.

The enthusiasm and joy which swelled in her breast as she greeted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on His return from the West, I will not venture to describe. She was astounded at the vitality of which He had, despite His unimaginable sufferings, proved Himself capable. She was lost in admiration at the magnitude of the forces which His utterances had released. She was filled with thankfulness to Bahá’u’lláh for having enabled her to witness the evidences of such brilliant victory for His Cause no less than for His Son.

The outbreak of the Great War gave her yet another opportunity to reveal the true worth of her character and to release the latent energies of her heart. The residence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa was besieged, all throughout the dreary conflict, by a concourse of famished men, women and children whom the maladministration, the cruelty and neglect of the officials of the Ottoman Government had driven to seek an alleviation to their woes. From the hand of the Greatest Holy Leaf, and out of the abundance of her heart, these hapless victims of a contemptible tyranny, received day after day unforgettable evidence of a love they had learned to envy and admire. Her words of cheer and comfort, the food, the money, the clothing she freely dispensed, the remedies which, by a process of her own, she herself prepared and diligently applied—all these had their share in comforting the disconsolate, in restoring sight to the blind, in sheltering the orphan, in healing the sick, and in succoring the homeless and the wanderer.

She had reached, amidst the darkness of the war days, the high water-mark of her spiritual attainments. Few, if any, among the unnumbered benefactors of society whose privilege has been to allay, in various measures, the hardships and sufferings entailed by that fierce conflict, gave as freely and as disinterestedly as she did; few exercised that undefinable influence upon the beneficiaries of their gifts.

Age seemed to have accentuated the tenderness of her loving heart, and to have widened still further the range of her sympathies. The sight of appalling suffering around her steeled her energies and revealed such potentialities that her most intimate associates had failed to suspect.

The ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, so tragic in its suddenness, was to her a terrible blow from the effects of which she never completely recovered. To her He, Whom she called “Aqá,” had been a refuge in time of adversity. On Him she had been led to place her sole reliance. In Him she had found ample compensation for the bereavements she had suffered, the desertions she had witnessed, the ingratitude she had been shown by friends and kindreds. No one could ever dream that a woman of her age, so frail in body, so sensitive of heart, so loaded with the cares of almost eighty years of incessant tribulation, could so long survive so shattering a blow. And yet, history, no less than the annals of our immortal Faith, shall record for her a share in the advancement and consolidation of the world-wide community which the hand of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had helped to fashion, which no one among the remnants of His Family can rival.

Which of the blessings am I to recount, which in her unfailing solicitude she showered upon me, in the most critical and agitated hours of my life? To me, standing in so dire a need of the vitalizing grace of God, she was the living symbol of many an attribute I had learned to admire in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. She was to me a continual reminder of His calm resignation, of His munificence and magnanimity. To me she was an incarnation of His winsome graciousness, of His all-encompassing tenderness and love.

It would take me too long to make even a brief allusion to those incidents of her life, each of which eloquently proclaim her as a daughter, worthy to inherit that priceless heritage bequeathed to her by Bahá’u’lláh. A purity of life that reflected itself in even the minutest details of her daily occupations and activities; a tenderness of heart that obliterated every distinction of creed, clan and colour; a resignation and serenity that evoked to mind the calm and heroic fortitude of the Báb; a natural fondness of flowers and children that was so characteristic of Bahá’u’lláh; an unaffected simplicity of manners; an extreme sociability which made her accessible to all; a generosity, a love, at once disinterested and undiscriminating, that reflected so clearly the attributes of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s character; a sweetness of temper; a cheerfulness that no amount of sorrow could becloud; a quiet and unassuming disposition that served to enhance a thousandfold the prestige of her exalted rank; a forgiving nature that instantly disarmed her most unyielding enemy—these rank among the outstanding attributes of a saintly life which history will acknowledge as having been endowed with a celestial potency that few of the heroes of the past possessed.

No wonder that in Tablets, which stand as eternal testimonies to the beauty of her character, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have paid touching tributes to those things that testify to her exalted position among the members of their Family, that proclaim her as an example to their followers, and as an object worthy of the admiration of all mankind.

I need only, at this juncture, quote the following passage from a Tablet addressed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the Holy Mother, the tone of which reveals unmistakably the character of those ties that bound Him to so precious, so devoted a sister.

“To my honoured and distinguished sister do thou convey the expression of my heartfelt, my intense longing. Day and night she liveth in my remembrance. I dare make no mention of the feelings which separation from her has aroused in my heart, for whatever I should attempt to express in writing will assuredly be effaced by the tears which such sentiments must bring to my eyes.”

Dearly-beloved Greatest Holy Leaf! Through the mist of tears that fill my eyes I can clearly see, as I pen these lines, thy noble figure before me, and can recognize the serenity of thy kindly face. I can still gaze, though the shadow of the grave separates us, into thy blue, love-deep eyes, and can feel in its calm intensity, the immense love thou did’st bear for the Cause of thine Almighty Father, the attachment that bound thee to the most lowly and insignificant among its followers, the warm affection thou didst cherish for me in thine heart. The memory of the ineffable beauty of thy smile shall ever continue to cheer and hearten me in the thorny path I am destined to pursue. The remembrance of the touch of thine hand shall spur me on to follow steadfastly in thy way, the sweet magic of thy voice shall remind me, when the hour of adversity is at its darkest, to hold fast to the rope thou did’st seize so firmly all the days of thy life.

[Page 9] Bear thou this my message to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, thine exalted and divinely-appointed Brother: If the Cause for which Bahá’u’lláh toiled and laboured, for which thou did’st suffer years of agonizing sorrow, for the sake of which streams of sacred blood have flown, should, in the days to come, encounter storms more severe than those it has already weathered, do thou continue to overshadow, with thine all-encompassing care and wisdom, thy frail, thy unworthy appointed child.

Intercede, O noble and well-favored scion of a heavenly Father, for me no less than for the toiling masses of thy ardent lovers, who have sworn undying allegiance to thy memory, whose souls have been nourished by the energies of thy love, whose conduct has been moulded by the inspiring example of thy life, and whose imaginations are fired by the imperishable evidences of thy lively faith, thy unshakable constancy, thy invincible heroism, thy great renunciation.

Whatever betide us, however distressing the vicissitudes which the nascent Faith of God may yet experience, we pledge ourselves, before the mercy-seat of thy glorious Father, to hand on, unimpaired and undivided, to generations yet unborn, the glory of that tradition of which thou has been its most brilliant exemplar.

In the innermost recesses of our hearts, O thou exalted Leaf of the Abhá Paradise, we have reared for thee a shining mansion that the hand of time can never undermine, a shrine which shall frame eternally the matchless beauty of thy countenance, an altar whereon the fire of thy consuming love shall burn forever.

SHOGHI

To the beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the merciful throughout the West. July 17, 1932

[Page 10]

Around the World

Pakistan

More than 350 Bahá’ís from all over Pakistan attended the National Bahá’í Winter School held last December 25-29 at Hyderabad. Among the faculty members was Dr. Manúchihr Salmánpúr, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors in Western Asia. Four 90-minute classes each day covered a multitude of Bahá’í topics, while an evening public meeting held during the school session celebrated United Nations Human Rights Day.

More than 350 Bahá’ís from all over Pakistan attended the National Winter School held last December 25-29 in Hyderabad. Four 90-minute classes per day covered many Bahá’í topics.

Heading the faculty of the school was Dr. Manúchihr Salmánpúr, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors in Western Asia. He delivered an inaugural address that outlined the purpose of Bahá’í schools, and also led classes and workshops on the Administrative Order. Other speakers included Auxiliary Board members and members of the National Spiritual Assembly, plus six other distinguished Bahá’í teachers.

During the school, on the evening of December 27, a public meeting was held to mark United Nations Human Rights Day. A guest speaker was M.A. Kaka, an official of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education in Hyderabad.

Other UN Human Rights Day observances were held during December in Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Karachi. Several hundred guests attended the various meetings, and all heard Bahá’í speakers explain the Bahá’í principle of the equality of human opportunity.

French Antilles

Barbara Joyce and Roy Massey, pioneers to St. Martin, French Antilles, are beginning their fourth year of weekly Bahá’í television programs. Theirs was the first regularly scheduled Bahá’í TV series to be broadcast in the West Indies. A year ago, the beginning of the series’ third year was celebrated with the first telecast in color. Videotapes of the programs are shared with Bahá’í communities as far away as Samoa. Copies for broadcasting may be obtained by contacting Barbara Joyce, Media Committee, Box 189, Philipsburg, St. Martin, N.A.

[Page 11]

Liberia/Guinea

Forty-three women attended a Women’s Tea last February 25 sponsored by the National Bahá’í Women and Children’s Committee of Liberia and Guinea.

The tea, commemorating the International Year of the Child, brought together women from various religious groups, service clubs and government ministries to share ideas and plans for IYC. It was held at the Bahá’í National Center in Monrovia, Liberia.

Eugene Ugbomah, the local United Nations public information representative, spoke about the needs of children around the world, and explained how UN agencies are taking steps to meet those needs.

Rose Mends-Cole, assistant minister of Health and Social Welfare in Liberia, discussed several projects sponsored by the ministry, ranging from “well baby” contests and clinics to training of “zos” and “darzos” (the teachers of the Sande and Poro Secret Society bush schools) in basic health care.

Sue Tilewoa of the Lutheran Church Women’s Organization explained that the group’s emphasis is on easing child labor problems in Liberia.

Formal invitations were printed for the occasion, and a Bahá’í woman was interviewed about the event on the national radio program, “Talking Point.”

Bangladesh

More than 150 persons participated in the first Bahá’í National Teaching Conference for Bangladesh held February 23-25 at Rajshahi. The conference theme was ‘The Oneness of Mankind.’ The opening address was delivered by Emran Ali Sarkar, a member of the national Parliament and chairman of Rajshahi Municipality, who warmly welcomed the Bahá’ís and wished them success in their spiritual undertaking.

Finland

About 35 Bahá’ís from Finland and Sweden gathered for a teaching conference last January 20-21 hosted by the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Mariehamn and the Åland Islands (situated between Finland and Sweden).

The conference theme was “The Precious Gift,” and all sessions dealt with teaching the Faith.

At the final session, entitled “Great News,” many of the friends shared happy news of victories won for the Faith in other countries.

A Unity Feast held during the conference attracted five seekers. A special gift of the conference was a declaration of belief in Bahá’u’lláh by Eija Mäkitalo, a resident of Mariehamn.

Prior to this conference, two members of the Spiritual Assembly met with the newly-elected Speaker of Parliament (who also is the mayor of Mariehamn and the representative from Åland to the Nordic Council), presenting him with a copy of the book, Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era.

The 40-minute visit was cordial, and the Speaker asked many questions about the Faith.

[Page 12]

India

Above left, children present a dramatic skit during an Intercalary Days celebration last February at the New Era Bahá’í School in Panchgani, India. Above, some of the more than 500 children from seven villages who attended the gala children’s party. Left, tea and snacks are served for children and school staff members at the party. Songs, games and other entertainment were among the highlights of the four-day celebration.

The first Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Imphal, Manipur State, India was formed in March 1979. Shown with Assembly members is Auxiliary Board member Gautam Das (back row, middle). To his left is Ganesh Shenoy, an Auxiliary Board member from Sikkim. One member of the Imphal Assembly was not present when the picture was taken.

A teaching campaign in eastern India’s Manipur State has resulted in the formation of two Local Spiritual Assemblies. Manipur State was mentioned in India’s Five Year Plan goals.

The campaign, initiated by Auxiliary Board member Gautam Das, focused at first only on the English-speaking population, as the Bahá’í teachers could not speak the Manipuri language.

Soon after it began, the first Spiritual Assembly of Imphal, the capital of Manipur State, was formed. Afterward, the localities of Lamsang and Moirang were opened to the Faith, and an Assembly was formed in Moirang.

[Page 13]

Sierra Leone

More than 20 believers attended Sierra Leone’s Bahá’í Summer School last December 19-23 at the Bo Teachers’ College. Among those who participated in the four-day school was Auxiliary Board member Charles Bullock (second from left in the back row).

Grenada

The Rev. Michael Chandoo of the Grenada Presbyterian Church, a good friend of the Bahá’í Faith for more than three years, invited a Bahá’í, Graeme Stratton, to give a presentation on the Faith last March 4 at the church.

Mr. Stratton accepted the invitation, spoke about progressive revelation, the oneness of religion and mankind, Bahá’í education, the Fast, and the Bahá’í calendar. He also summarized briefly the history of the Faith.

Throughout the program, the Rev. Chandoo emphasized the unity of mankind and of religion. After the talk he told the congregation that they should now be “better Christians, or converts to the Bahá’í Faith.”

Portugal

A public meeting was held January 20 in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, which recently elected its first Local Spiritual Assembly. Some 30 Bahá’ís and townspeople heard a talk by Auxiliary Board member Fedross Imani and saw a slide program about the Faith. The public was invited to the meeting through a display in the town’s main square.

Nearly 50 people attended a three-day Bahá’í school last December 1-3 of the Island of Faro, six kilometers (3.7 miles) from Faro, Algarve’s provincial capital on the southern coast of Portugal.

Among those participating in the school were Counsellor Anneliese Bopp and Auxiliary Board members Ana Costa and Fedross Imani. Its main theme was “The World Transformation.”

Friends came from towns as far away as Viseu, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) distant. Several residents of the Island of Faro, along with three members of the hotel staff where the school was held, attended some of the sessions.

Pancho, a Chilean pioneer to Spain and well-known singer, performed; the children, aided by the National Youth Committee, presented sketches; and a fund-raising auction was held one evening.

[Page 14]

Cameroon Republic

Auxiliary Board member Napoleon Ojong, accompanied by pioneer Joseph Shepard, recently visited the village of Ebam, Cameroon Republic, to help with construction of its Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds. When they started at dawn to clear the ground, the friends from Ebame joined them and the building was started. Mr. Ojong is standing at the far left in this photo, wearing a white shirt.

An international team of traveling Bahá’í teachers hosted a teacher training institute April 13 at Mamfe, Cameroon Republic. In the front row (left to right) are Dorothy Hansen from Ghana, Auxiliary Board member Napoleon Ojong, and Sophie Lanya. Back row (left to right) are Peter Nsoh, Ralph Akale, Offiong Ekpe from Nigeria, Emmanuel Ayang, Gert Bindseil from Canada, Stephen Oku, Jacob Lange, and Bonnie Ojong.

Alaska

Forty adults, two youth and 30 children attended a Winter Conference, “Communicating the Faith,” January 24-28 in Petersburg, Alaska.

The gathering at ANB Hall and elementary school covered topics ranging from “Knowledge, Volition and Action” to “Happiness,” “Listening as Teaching,” and “Teaching by Living the Life.”

Also presented were classes on “conversational teaching,” Muḥammad and the Quran, the importance of the love of God and of prayer, and music as a way of teaching the Faith.

A concert by the music group “Windflower” on the second night of the conference was attended by 11 seekers and more than 60 Bahá’ís.

On the final evening, the Bahá’ís presented their own talent show.

[Page 15]

Sénégal

More than 150 Bahá’ís from 15 communities in Sénégal and three villages in The Gambia attended a deepening conference held last December 25 in Faranding, in the Casamance region of Sénégal. It was the first conference ever held in the area, and was highly successful.

A day after the conference, villagers from a nearby locality that was not yet opened to the Faith requested that the Bahá’ís come to their village to teach them about the Faith. As a result, all of the inhabitants of the village embraced the Cause.

Besides representing a new ethnic group, the Local Spiritual Assembly established in the village was the 35th for Sénégal, thus fulfilling that goal of the Five Year Plan.

Guatemala

The Regional Teaching Committee of the Department of Guatemala sponsors a regular Sunday afternoon Bahá’í children’s class at the home of Mrs. Rosita Flowers, a Bahá’í pioneer from Belize, in Colonia San Francisco, Guatemala. Shown here with the children are three pioneers, one member of the National Spiritual Assembly, a member of the Regional Teaching Committee, and Mrs. Flowers.

After many prayers and much diligent searching, the Bahá’í community of Guatemala rejoiced last February in its ability to purchase a spacious new National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in Guatemala City. The acquisition was made possible with help from the Universal House of Justice and many personal loans.

The happiness of the friends was truly felt in the 14-room building last May when it served as the site for the annual National Convention. It had been two years since the friends were able to hold the Convention at a Bahá’í Center. An earlier center, badly damaged in a severe earthquake in February 1976, later was sold.

Hawaii

Mayor Frank Fasi of Honolulu (second from left) proclaimed January 21 ‘World Religion Day’ in Honolulu and presented a copy of the proclamation to Bahá’ís from the Waianae community (left to right) Nancy Johnson, Edna Johnson, and Brice Taylor.

[Page 16]

Papua New Guinea

Above, a proclamation booklet prepared by the National Spiritual Assembly of Papua New Guinea containing a history of the Faith in that country is presented along with other Bahá’í books to His Excellency Sir Tore Lokoloko, the Governor General of Papua New Guinea, by Bahá’í representatives Mrs. Margaret Kila (left) and Mrs. Mitra Naraqi. Below, the Right Honorable Michael Somare, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, receives similar materials from Mrs. Naraqi and Mrs. Janet Kunik. So far six other ministers have been presented with the proclamation materials. All have received the Bahá’í warmly and shown an interest in the Faith.

Iceland

Iceland enjoyed a visit February 23-25 by Continental Counsellor Adib Taherzadeh.

Addressing the Icelandic Bahá’í community, Mr. Taherzadeh discussed comparisons between the soul and the unborn child. He dwelt also on the present state of society and its immediate future.

We feed our love for Bahá’u’lláh, he said, by reading the Writings, and develop it further by serving the Cause.

On the final day of his visit, Mr. Taherzadeh called for pioneers to arise to fill Iceland’s remaining locality goals, and 10 people responded.

[Page 17]

Dominican Republic

More than 80 believers including Continental Counsellor Alfred Osborne and every member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Dominican Republic attended that country’s fourth annual Bahá’í Winter School held last December 25-31 at San Cristobal.

In addition to a varied program of classes for adults, there were parallel programs for youth and children. During the evening sessions, the children presented skits and short original plays...

Bahá’ís from about 10 local communities attended the third National Women’s Conference in the Dominican Republic held January 26-28 at Barahona.

After two full days of classes and consultation, the participants enjoyed a picnic at the beach before the close of the conference...

A National Children’s Conference was held February 24-25 in Moca, Dominican Republic.

Since the conference was held just before Intercalary Days, planned activities included visits to a home for the aged and to a ward for indigent children at a public hospital. The residents at each place were delighted to receive the Bahá’ís, and asked them to come back often.

New Hebrides

Nearly 30 youth from four communities in New Hebrides participated last January 13-19 in the first Bahá’í National Youth Conference at the Bahá’í National Center in Port Vila.

The Bahá’ís of New Hebrides held Summer Schools on December 23-26 in Santo and Tanna. Both schools attracted participants from many areas and were described as “tremendous successes” in reports of the gatherings.

In Santo, approximately 30 Bahá’ís and 10 children crowded into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Phil Beattie for the weekend. Participants came from Tasmalum, Big Bay, Santo, Palekula, Norsup, Fila Island, Erakor, and Port Vila.

The program included talks on the Manifestations of God, the Covenant, the Divine Plan, the role of women, the Bahá’í Fund, and Bahá’í laws. Quizzes and question-and-answer sessions were featured. A public slide program attracted 15 non-Bahá’ís.

The Tanna school was held at Nazareth village in Siwi, in a leaf hut hurriedly constructed on the opening day. Despite heavy rains and treacherous roads, 25 Bahá’ís from Lenakel, Imlao, Whitesands, and Siwi attended.

After the school had been in session for a few hours, three persons from Nazareth were enrolled, bringing the number of adult believers there to 10.

When the program called for a presentation on the formation and work of the Local Spiritual Assembly, the teacher brought together the Bahá’ís of the village and helped them to elect their Assembly.