Star of the West/Volume 21/Issue 12/Text
| ←Issue 11 | Star of the West Volume 21 - Issue 12 |
Index→ |
 Proofread onceReturn to PDF view
|
We are working hard to have proofread and nicely formatted text for you to read. Here is our progress on this section:
|
| VOL. 21 | MARCH, 1931 | NO. 12 |
| Page | |
The Social Fabric, ’Abdu’l-Bahá | 354 |
The Coming of Spring, ’Abdu’l-Bahá | 370 |
| * * * * * * | |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 355 |
The Unbroken Spiritual Guidance, Howard R. Hurlbut | 358 |
Ordeals and Ideals—The Spiritual Education of Persian Children, Jalal Sahihi | 364 |
Contrasts—A Poem, Willard P. Hatch | 371 |
Treasures From The Land of Fars, Florence E. Pinchon | 372 |
| Cover Design by VICTORIA BIDIKIAN | |
STANWOOD COBB | Editor |
MARIAM HANEY | Associate Editor |
MARGARET B. MCDANIEL | Business Manager |
Subscriptions: $3.00 per year; 25 cents a copy. Two copies to same name and address, $5.00 per year. Please send change of address by the middle of the month and be sure to send OLD as well as NEW address. Kindly send all communications and make postoffice orders and checks payable to The Baha'i Magazine, 1112 Shoreham Bldg., Washington, D. C., U. S. A. Entered as second-class matter April 9, 1911, at the postoffice at Washington, D. C., under the Act of March 3, 1897. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103 Act of October 3, 1917, authorized September 1, 1922.
WHAT could be better before God than thinking of the poor? For the poor are beloved by our heavenly Father. Wllell His Holiness Christ came upon the earth those who believed in Him and followed Him were the poor and lowly, showing the poor were near to God. When a rich man believes and follows the Manifestation of God it is a proof that his wealth is not an obstacle and does not prevent him from attaining the pathway of salvation. After he has been tested and tried it will be seen whether his possessions are a hindrance in his religious life.
BUT the poor are especially beloved of God. Their lives are full of difficulties, their trials continual, their hopes are in God alone. Therefore you must assist the poor as much as possible, even by sacrifice of yourself. No deed of man is greater before God than helping the poor. Spiritual conditions are not dependent upon the possession of worldly treasures or the absence of them. When physically destitute, spiritual thoughts are more likely. Poverty is stimulus toward God. Each one of you must have great consideration for the poor and render them assistance. Organize in an effort to help them and prevent increase of poverty. The greatest means for prevention is that whereby the laws of the community will be so framed and enacted that it will not be possible for a few to be millionaires and many destitute.
ONE of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings is the adjustment of means of livelihood in human society. Under this adjustment there can be no extremes in human conditions as regards wealth and sustenance. For the community needs financier, farmer, merchant and laborer just as an army must be composed of commander, officers and privates. All cannot be commanders; all cannot be officers or privates. Each in his station in the social fabric must be competent; each in his function according to ability; but justness of opportunity for all.
| VOL. 21 | MARCH, 1931 | NO. 12 |
It is impossible for all to be alike, all to be equal, all to be wise. Bahá’u’lláh has revealed principles and laws which will accomplish the adjustment of varying human capacities.”
THE WORLDWIDE problem of unemployment, diminished markets for industry and commerce, and growing poverty of the masses, present an alarming phenomenon concerning which economists and statesmen find no optimistic solution to present. Unlike other business crises, this is worldwide; and there is no sign yet upon the horizon of its abating.
In Asia the fall in the value of silver has destroyed wealth of the people to the extent of several billions of dollars. Until the former value of silver is restored, the purchasing power of that vast continent containing one-half the population of the world is immensely reduced. Statesmen do not know exactly how to restore the value of silver. Even if they did, it does not seem likely that there could be sufficient unity in the banking and political interests of the world to bring any such step to pass.
South American countries, with the exception of Argentine, are in such a condition of hardship and poverty that they have become a prey of constant revolution, which does not help but merely hastens economic disintegration.
As for Europe, the prospect there
* Washington, D. C., Sunday Star, February 22, 1931.
is even more gloomy, if we may trust the reasoned comment of Frank H. Simonds, perhaps our leading newspaper correspondent there, who makes the following statement:
”. . . the impression I gather from Geneva and from the public men of all European countries here assembled is this: With the exception of France, the condition in all continental countries has become such that the familiar issues and problems of the post-war era, problems political and military, have become actually side issues. Disintegration within countries has become so general and gone so far that one of the most familiar judgments one meets is that capitalistic and democratic civilization is endangered, if not doomed, and that Europe is drifting toward a general catastrophe.”*
IT IS indeed time for all serious-minded men to inquire whether the economic and political institutions thus far prevailing among leading nations are either the best or the most feasible for humanity.
It must be admitted that this country has up to the present prospered under the regime of economic individualism. Both the capitalist and the laborer, leaders of wealth and the masses, have gained immensely through the efficient and scientific exploitation of this country’s enormous resources, and through the application of science,
inventiveness and efficiency to industry. Yet if these are all the factors necessary to prosperity, why the present crisis with its worldwide ramifications? Should the cycle of mass production and mass consumption again be restored to the success which prevailed during the last decade, there would be little inclination to critically scan the fundamental structure of our economic institutions, for this is a pragmatic country and what succeeds is considered ipso facto to be right.
It is, however, the fact that this cycle of mass production and mass consumption is not today successful, the fact that economic individualism seems helpless to stem the tide of unemployment and misery either here or elsewhere—these facts seen in the light of even more seriously impending catastrophes abroad, throw doubt upon the perfection of the human institutions so far established.
“WILL paternalism be ushered in
as a reaction to exploitation and to
competition that can have but one
outcome?” asks Dean Arland D.
Weeks, School of Education, North
Dakota Agricultural College, in a
very interesting article* in which
he queries as to what the future
organization of society must be to
adequately solve the political and
economic problems due to vast differences
in the mentality of humans
as discovered by the modern psychologists.
Over one-half our population,
that is to say, more than
sixty millions people are found by
the psychologist to be of low average
intelligence or less, that is, having
* The Scientific Monthly, February, 1931.
an intelligence quotient of less than one hundred. We cannot blame this lower intelligence group for stupidity, says the author, they cannot help themselves. It is a biological quality. In this connection the author states an amazing fact, just the opposite of our ordinary idea, namely that the increase of knowledge due to the education of today does not tend to level the intelligence but rather multiplies disproportionately the resources of the superior.
“Science means something directly to the lowly, but it gives unprecedented power to the gifted. As knowledge grows from more to more, a wedge progressively separates the social fates of persons at different levels of native ability . . . Two illiterates of contrasting abilities would upon learning to read be still more different.”
“Economic manipulation governed by relatively high intelligence can be more persistently and hopelessly oppressive . . . The bigness and inscrutability of manipulative processes leave the lower mentalities badly off for self-help.”
“With the ripening of institutions and the perfection of economic strategies, assuring steady increase of disproportionate benefits to the upper levels of intelligence, it can only be through policies determined at the seats of power that, for example, in the United States, a farmer is not made a peasant or exhaustively exploited and put on a dole.”
“We can only hope that the lower millions will have great leaders, and that the classes who have mental power by birth will conceive of the
state in terms inclusive of the welfare of the mass—for the inequality of brain cells is great.”
AT SUCH a time as this when the
whole world is perforce seriously
questioning the efficiency of its institutions—political,
social and economic—the
solutions to these grave
problems which the Bahá’i Movement
offers in its great World Design
revealed by Bahá’u’lláh merits
the earnest attention of every
thoughtful person.
As regards the institutions of government—we have in the Bahá’i World a perfect balance of democracy and aristocracy. By means of universal franchise employed without chicanery, or even electioneering (which in reality is a dangerous procedure tending to defeat the very purposes of democracy) the best and worthiest people are elected as leaders. In the Bahá’i election there is but one aim—the selection of the best people, as evidenced by character, by gifts, and by general efficiency and ability to serve. Once elected, this group constitutes a government by the best, using the word best in its larger significance; harmony of thought and absolute unity being essential. This governmental body has but one aim, to legislate honestly and wisely for the benefit of all; and as these aims and accomplishments are to be universal in their beneficence, so on the part of the electorate is found a loyalty that upholds the hands of government. Here we see the perfect
solution of the problem raised by the previously quoted writer–a vast problem due to the mental differences of society.
AS TO the economic problem, we
find in the Bahá’i World of the future
a perfect solution of the present
impasse between capital and
labor, without destroying the individual
initiative of either group.
By means of a really effective
method of profit-sharing the interests
of labor and capital are amalgamated.
Furthermore the state,
local and general, guarantees employment
and livelihood. By these
provisions poverty is absolutely
eliminated.
Here we have the ideal co-operative state, an enormous step forward from the individualistic state of the past, yet retaining the opportunity for individual effort, inventiveness and reward. The different classes of society, the different classes of industry, the different classes of government, are so integrated as to perceive and feel an actual working unity. This is what one might call one hundred per cent co-operation. Mutuality of interest is both conceived and practiced by all, and with the great dynamic power which comes from an efficient working unity, humanity will be able to prevent all these economic crises and catastrophes which are at present the concern of governments and which are indeed threatening the very foundations of human society.
The principal cause of these difficulties [economic problems] lies in the laws of the present civilization; for they lead to a small number of individuals accumulating incomparable fortunes beyond their needs, whilst the greater number remains destitute, stripped and in the greatest misery. This is contrary to justice, to humanity, to equity; it is the height of iniquity, the opposite to what causes divine satisfaction.—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
“The marvelous bestowals of God are continuous. Should the outpouring of Light be suspended, we would be in darkness. But how could it be withheld? If the divine graces are suspended, then Divinity itself would be interrupted. Even men ask for continuity.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.
OVER sixty years ago, Bahá’u’llah wrote: “Verily, every drop contains an ocean and in every atom there is concealed a sun.” That sounds like the declaration of a dreamer, or some allegory, and not by any possibility applicable to a real condition. Many have doubtless read articles which of late have been appearing in periodicals and the daily press regarding scientific investigation of the atom. In one there appeared this statement: “Scientists have determined that in every atom there is contained in miniature a replica of our solar and planetary system; that each atom contains a sun with planetary electrons revolving about it and situated relatively to one another as are Saturn and Neptune of our own system.” And there are dreamers in the scientific world who insist on peopling these infinitesimal realms with beings infinitely more infinitesimal still, possessed of intellects with which they struggle with the problems confronting them, just as we with our advanced capacity wrestle with our greater problems.
By reason of the installation of the great 100-inch reflector in the telescope on Mount Wilson, in California, we have been introduced to that wonderful sun, Antares, in the constellation of Scorpio. Astronomers have succeeded in measuring its diameter and have
found it to be four hundred and twenty millions of miles—a distance so inconceivably vast that fully fifty thousand such bodies as this earth of ours could be strung along it and leave a great distance to spare. They have determined that what we have always considered this universe of ours is the merest of pigmies in its relation to untold millions of universes distributed through space. If the mind of man shall thus delve into the regions of the infinitely small, what intellect is there which shall give to the imagination wings of such power that he shall attain to the vistas of limitless grandeur enjoyed by those upon a plane beside which our own is only as a rose-leaf on a shoreless ocean!
Scientists the world over are agreed that one of the greatest problems confronting them is that of the atom: that with its solution, practically all of their troublous problems will be dissipated in thin air. If the secret of its stability shall be uncovered, the illimitable forces of nature will yield to the supremacy of intellect, and humanity will enter upon a plane of complete domination of all the material realms of the divine. It is the atom which constitutes the basis for the creation of the material universe, and which is the compelling argument, never changing, never ending, enduring as God its Creator,
and acted upon and developed in unbroken accord with the predestined plan for the execution and fulfillment of an irrefragable law.
Regarding the atom and its importance in the eternal plan of creation, we refer to ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s wonderfully clear treatise on evolution as given before the Theosophical Society in Paris;1 and to the address before the Metaphysical Society of Boston,2 and other published writings. These include a definition of the completeness of divine justice which compels that every individual atom in the universe of worlds shall have its coursings through all the kingdoms to its predestined station in its “paradise” which is its development to the station of service in being part of the highest contemplated physical creation of God—the human body—a divine temple devised by Deity to house a human soul capable of being a perfect mirror for the reflection of the beauties of the divine station. Having attained to this “paradise,” it reverts by regular and orderly processes to its original primal station, to begin again its interminable coursings.
And, because this is so, it follows that there can never by any possibility be a perfect world. Were it possible for a perfectly completed state to exist, then must creation cease to be, for the reason that the eternal law of God is progress, and there can be no progress after perfection has been attained. This applies not only in a limited sense to a limited portion of the created realms, it applies to the totality of
1 The Wisdom of ’Abdu’l-Baha. 2 Promulgation of Universal Peace, Vol. II. Baha’i Publishing Committee, New York.
all the realms. It applies to this distinctively human condition with which we are associated and in which it is the design of God that we shall be determining factors in the working out of our destiny.
How illimitably magnificent are the vistas of life when we come to full realization that less than a remote suggestion of a clock-tick in the eternal history of the soul is even the most extended experience it may enjoy as the measure of life as we know it upon the plane of human consciousness! That through eternities it is to uninterruptedly progress toward a goal which has no fixity, and along the pathway to which are scattered inconceivable beauties of augmenting attraction, to whose advancing splendors the soul is continually developed in its capacity to assimilate and understand!
There is no condition in the worlds of the unseen which has not its reflex in the material realm. Therefore, we can approach this subject of continued imperfection with a clearer definition of its meaning and intent. As matter, evolving through infinite æons of the past, has successively developed material forms which have been susceptible to cultivation and advancement to something higher and more refined and beautiful, so must it inevitably follow that in all the illimitable æons of futurity shall the atom have its coursings through all the kingdoms of matter, remaining continually in a condition of imperfection, destined to express in every age all of the weaknesses,
all of the crudities, all of the qualities of every description which matter in its progress in the past has ever expressed. That is why perfection in a human state cannot rationally be even dreamed of in the sense of a widespread attainment. It would controvert the established and inviolable law of evolution which God has fixed in his universe of worlds as an agency for bringing forth understanding of something of His beauty and of raising up in the human heart the desire to make an approach thereto.
Now, to revert to this matter of the divine spiritual influence working along other than directly spiritual lines. It will be readily conceded that a worship of divinity which is a matter of compulsion through the dominance of an established law could not in any real sense be considered as worship at all. It would be like a boughten friendship or a compulsory service. Therefore, God, in sending forth the emanation of His unfailing love from His source of being, raised in His human creation an independent will which He caused to have separated from His own and existent of itself by a voluntary evolution from the being of man. And this independent human will He made capable of opposing itself to the divine will in every realm of its activity except that of composition and decomposition; that is, it should have no control over life or death, but should be voluntarily the director of all its intervening action between the cradle and the grave.
In such a creation, designed and projected upon its predestined plane of being in a state of absolute
purity, there rested the capacity to differentiate between beauty and ugliness, between right and wrong, between sanctity and grossness, and with this capacity the authority to make an independent choice. Then Divinity upraised in a human temple a reflex of itself, mirroring in full perfection all of the glories of the divine attributes, and caused this unsullied human creation to endure all of the exigencies and vicissitudes of life which any human might be subject to and through all of this to demonstrate that a pure character may remain unsullied in a sea of wrong. Consequently, when a soul shall be attracted to this human expression of divine beauty and demonstrate sincerity in daily living, this constitutes the reality of sanctity and the apotheosis of worship of the Divine.
You have now had placed before you the upraising on the human plane of that which is called religion.
If from the beginning God failed to afford this opportunity to follow example: if He failed through any period of human need to supply a source of light and guidance to a wandering race, then would He fail in His established law of absolute justice which was designed to perpetuate the universe of worlds. Therefore, in every age has the Almighty lifted up these mighty human expressions of Himself as agencies for influencing the human will to a recognition of His beauty.
We perceive, therefore, the absolute failure of religionists to understand the character of divine justice when they will insist that there has been and is no other than a
single channel for the administration of God’s law, His bounty and His love.
To some pilgrims visiting Him in the “Most Great Prison,” in ’Akká, ’Abdu’l-Bahá gave this teaching: “Jesus spoke everything in parables because the ideal sense is, in this way, revealed and understood. This contingent world is like the mirror of the spiritual kingdom, consequently it is better to explain each subject so that the real meaning can be understood. When anything has been renewed in this contingent world it is found to be in better condition, and if renewal did not take place from time to time, annihilation would be the result of all contingent beings. If the plants had no rotation they would soon cease to exist. This is the reason that God has ordained rotation and renewal. Even the sun itself revolves around another center. In appearance the sun is the center of the contingent world, but in reality it has a center around which it revolves. The earth revolves around the sun once in three hundred and sixty-five days, which causes the four seasons; and by these four seasons the contingent world is constantly revived and renewed. And this same renewal is seen in the Kingdom. The early days of every Manifestation are called the spring—when you see the seeds first sprouting and everything is young and tender. Then follows the summer season, when things have reached a state of perfection and the fruits are gathered. Then comes the autumn season, when everything begins to fall into
decay; after which speedily comes the winter, when all is dead, and without any apparent life. God is almost forgotten, and the hearts are turned to the world entirely. But when this state is reached, it is a sign that a new springtime is coming.
“For instance, in the beginning of the appearance of Moses, it was the springtime of His day. The summer time was when many people had accepted Him, believed in Him, promulgated His teachings—His fruit was gathered. Then came the autumn, when His commands first began to be neglected, and the true followers began to fall away, and the true teachings to sink into decay. Then came the winter, when the hearts ceased to turn unto God, were occupied with worldly things entirely, and spiritual death apparent. Then came the springtime of Christ. In the last days of winter, just before the spring, there is no sign of herbage, or anything that is green, but when the springtime comes once more the dreariness of winter is forgotten. Thus it is that in the different Manifestations the four seasons are made manifest.”
Bahá’u’lláh tells us that the Word of God is as a two-edged sword; it cuts at the heart of human institutions and character and it creates in the people of love a condition of pure holiness and sanctity, and in the people of hatred an attitude of denial, opposition and oppression. This does not mean that it injects the opposing attitude into the human condition. but that because of the purity of
the Word the impure tendency of the human will brings out its expression of denial. But the seed of the Word of God, wheresoever planted, cannot remain without effect, and therefore whether it be in the people of direct opposition or in those who wander from the paths of truth because of vain imaginings and false interpretations, the spirit of the Word continues as a compelling force. That is why in every religion, at certain stages of its history there may be found remarkable—sometimes wonderful—demonstrations of the workings of intellectual capacity in fields of scientific development when spiritual aims seem to be almost entirely lacking. That is why, although the glory of the Solomonic sovereignty was attainable by the Jewish people and they had become uplifted by the laws revealed through Moses, they were subject to the continued augmentation within themselves, as individuals and as a race, of characteristics which led to their sure destruction. That is why the followers of the Prophet Muhammad, even when they had departed from the pure spirituality of the allegorical teachings of the truth which He revealed, progressed by inconceivably rapid bounds to the highest degree of material civilization the world had known. That is why the Christian dispensation progressed to a full recognition by imperial Rome and became the dominant religion of Europe, only to pass to its decline in the blackest night of human experience—the Dark Ages of Christian Europe.
Every Founder of a prophetic dispensation brought to the world a
capacity in Himself for the complete reflection of the will of God. He did not manifest it in its fullness, but limited its expression to the capacity of understanding in the people He addressed. And the identifying quality in each dispensation over all other qualities was, after His passing, a characterizing influence in the development of those who professed religion under His banner.
Thus, the identifying characteristic of the teachings of Brahma was Sacrifice. And, resultant on this, even after these long centuries of idolatrous habit and practice of His followers, we see them engaging in the most extreme forms of sacrifice to accomplish soul-purification.
The outstanding teaching of Lao Tse was Reverence. And although nearly three thousand years have passed since his rise, the Chinese people remain today the most reverent of all the races of earth.
Zoroaster stressed Purity. And it is a matter of record in the presidencies of Bombay and Calcutta that the Parsees give the lowest percentage of trouble because of crime, prostitution, or other forms of vice, of any of the other Oriental subjects of the British Empire.
Buddha taught Renunciation. And it has been a leading characteristic of His followers—this renunciation of self, which obtains even to the extent that the Buddhists are today less in opposition to other religious teachings than are those of any other branch of religion, renouncing claim to an exclusive revelation and welcoming all worshippers beneath the canopy of God’s bounty.
The mission of Moses was directly attached to Righteousness—the establishment of which was the most desirable condition of His time, and His followers have ever persisted in adhering to His laws more consistently than have other religionists to their own. Beyond that, the laws which He revealed in that remote past constitute the bases of practically all of the laws existent in the world today.
The particular quality emphasized in the teachings of Jesus was Love, and although Christianity has often failed to develop and foster in its devotees the real Christ spirit of wide acceptance and recognition of God and His truth, this spirit of love and helpfulness is clearly and scientifically applied by Christian peoples.
Muhammad brought to His followers Submission. How marvelous was the influence of this teaching on the barbaric tribes who had formerly laughed in derision at every law, but who, in an incredibly brief period, became submissive to law! Today, even, we find everywhere amongst these religionists the almost absolute submission of their desires, their possessions and their lives to the requirements of their religion which involve a greater degree of simplicity and a less complicated system of theology than any other extant religion.
Oh, matchless pageantry of purpose in the promotion of qualities to constitute the structure of a perfect man! Sacrifice! Reverence! Purity! Renunciation! Righteousness! Love! Submission!
And now we come to another expression of these enduring parallels
in the scientific application of the unchanging law to the requirements of human well-being: All of the rivers of earth start from sources sparkling and pure and have their coursings through wide varieties of soils from which they gather and absorb the impurities and discolorations, to discharge them at last into the purifying body of the waiting sea. So, too, all of the streams of divine instruction have had their birth in pure and inspiring fountains, and down the centuries have flowed through the soil of human hearts and intellects and have become saturated more or less with their qualities until at last they must be plunged into the purifying ocean of God’s design.
It must readily be recognized that the predestined purpose compels an ultimate juncture of all these hitherto separated streams, and that when a Messenger of God shall finally arise, giving equal and full emphasis to every one of the divine qualities, He must be the Perfected Expression of the desire of the Creator.
So, do we reach the time of the coming of Bahá’u’lláh—the Glory of God—Whose Manifestation of all the power, the beauty, the compassion, the knowledges, which have had expression through the ages of the past, brings to a discordant and war-torn world the inspiring message of Unity as the healing balm for all its woes.
Under the clear definition of the divine purpose which He has brought we find a mandate for the unification of all the schools of religion under the one banner of a single God—a gathering together of
all His worshippers under the tent of Unity, recognizing as divine in its inception and origin every prophetic dispensation of the past, and that all were ordained by the Almighty for the expression of His will.
Bahá’u’lláh has declared that the soul that is alive in this day has attained to everlasting life, and the soul that remains dead in this day shall never attain to the desired station. That is, if one shall persist in blindness when the sun is shining in the fullness of its glorious effulgence, he cannot hope ever to attain to vision when the world is bathed in a lesser illumination.
The Bahá'i Faith aims to stir the dulled consciousness to a deeper
understanding and, precisely as the yeast leavens the lump and causes it to expand, so do the Bahá’i Teachings bring about an expanded concept of life and life’s relations and duties, and inspire in the sincerely seeking soul a greater degree of selflessness and simplicity in its approach to truth. In the coming of Bahá’u’lláh the walls which have been raised by man’s fallacies between the pillars of the temple of faith have been torn down, and today the entire world of humanity may offer its worship in service, bathed in the unquenchable Light shining from before the altar of the unapproachable Divinity.
The author of this article, written at the Editor's request is a Persian youth who is studying modern industry and engineering in Detroit at the some time that he is doing practical work in the Ford factory there, his aim being to take back to Persia a proficiency in these lines which may be of service to his native country. Mirza Jalal describes to us vividly the obstacles as well as the spiritual exaltation of his boyhood training in the Bahá’i religion. We consider this article a human document and a valuable chronicle of the past days of spiritual persecution. We hope to have further articles from his pen dealing with his life in Persia and also in this country.
GREAT things are not always great in appearance. Objects of real significance are often hidden in insignificant surroundings. The noblest hearts may be found in the humblest persons, and the dearest treasures in the cheapest lands.
Everybody can see in the Bahá’i Magazine, or in other Bahá’i publications, pictures of groups of Bahá’i children, mostly from the East; simple in appearance those
pictures are, and yet full of meaning, full of suggestion, full of instructive points. From them we may easily learn a great deal about some Bahá'i activities that for years have been silently going on in many Bahá’i centers, especially in the East.
Being recently surprised in finding his own picture in a Western publication, this writer wishes to take the opportunity to share with the friends some of the reminiscences
that the picture suggests to him.
Tihran’s present well-organized Bahá’i classes, wherein meet hundreds of Bahá’i children and young people every Friday* morning, started at a time when the friends in Persia still had the problem of safeguarding their lives and property in addition to all of the problems related to the spreading of the Cause in a world of bitter and violent opposition. Aside from all was the problem of rearing the lamb-like children in the midst of such a wolf-like people. How difficult the task, how necessary that it be done!
The friends already had the conviction that no wise gardener would devote all of his attention to the well-rooted trees to the neglect of the young ones. They realized the necessity of selecting a special body of far-sighted, whole-hearted teachers to take care of the children and young people so that in the light of the Bahá’i teachings they might grow to be souls in whom universal love and brotherhood would be things of heart rather than words of mouth. The seriousness of other problems, however, might have overshadowed this vital problem had not the rays of hope shone through a few noted young Bahá’ís who rose to organize the first Bahá’i class for children.
These young teachers noticed one day a few Bahá’i children in company with a number of religiously unpolished nonBahá’i lads. If our youth is going to grow like that of others, what hope then?—they thought. So with Bahá’i assurance and firmness they started the new activity in a city the soil of which
* Friday is the Sabbath day in Persia.
was still colored with the pure blood of its martyrs; the air of which was still filled with the cry of “Death to the Bahá’is”; its people still stalking for Bahá’i prey; and its government cooperating to crush the whole movement.
THE WRITER had seen but five
springs before his first contact
with a class which started about
one year previous. The following
is essentially the story of the first
class as given by several teachers:
There came that historic Friday morning. For the first time a dozen or so Bahá’i children found themselves where they could breathe, so to speak. They could mention the name of ’Abdu’l-Bahá or Bahá’u’lláh with no fear, but with no loud voice lest some unfriendly ear should hear and cause trouble. There were two or three adults, the organizers of the class, sitting on the carpeted floor like the rest, facing a number of adorable, peaceful children whom they addressed not as pupils but as brothers and friends. In a low tone a prayer was first chanted, silence and meditation followed, and then the joyful voice of a teacher said, “Friends,” and proceeded to tell the little friends why they were there.
Any one who has dealt with young children will understand what it means to talk to a number gathered together for the first time, but would he also thoroughly understand what it means to be in a room with every door tightly shut to avoid detection, and have to tell the children why they were there and why they could not have much freedom; why they were to assemble
--PHOTO--
A Bahá'i Sunday school class conducted by the author (front row, center). These boys are all most zealous students of their religion and active in helping to spread the Bahá’i Movement. A study of their faces reveals the earnestness and fine altitudes of character already attained. They represent most promising material for the new Persia.
in that way every Friday morning; why they were to enter without talking to or looking at any one outside so that nothing might be suspected; why they were not to scatter or expose any of their writings or lessons; why they were not to talk loudly while in their meeting; why they were to go out one by one at long intervals; and why they were not to complain if they should be stoned, neither to use the least unkind word if mistreated. Suppose now, dear reader, you put yourself in place of a six to eight year old child who was to mind all those admonitions, and yet be happy and contented. The little heroes, however, went on to their meetings very joyfully, and did what they were asked to do.
The lesson of the day consisted of a sentence containing six meaningful words in the original Persian, meaningful individually and collectively. It was a short quotation from the precious words of ’Abdu’l-Bahá to the effect that a Bahá’i is one who possesses all human perfections. This was the first lesson; this was the cornerstone; this was the first spiritual food served to the young Bahá'is, a food nutritious enough to last them forever. So far as this writer knows, this lesson has remained the first lesson ever since for all the children attending Friday morning Bahá’i classes.
A NUMBER of weeks passed; the
number of students increased; the
difficulties in meeting became greater
because the neighboring lads had
discovered the assembling of their
little Bahá’i acquaintances, and
were wickedly doing all they could
to torment the young students. But every thing has its advantages; the mischief of the lads helped us to practice what we were learning. The more they hurt us, the deeper they engraved sympathy in our hearts; the more they tried to agitate us, to excite us, to break up our meetings by shouting, cursing, throwing stones into the courtyard, the more we learned to understand and appreciate the value of calmness, peacefulness, harmlessness and quietness; and, what is more, our teachers, too, found many occasions to quote to us more and more of the beautiful, touching and penetrating words of our Master, ’Abdu’l-Bahá. As all these hardships came and passed, we learned to share with our parents the unescapable ordeals. We had some reason to pray to the Lord and ask Him to assist us to serve and teach those whom we could help.
Praise be to the Lord that a successful end came to the first year of our class, but not an end to the enthusiasm of the teachers or the students. The second year started; the lessons were a continuation of the first year, that is, short quotations. The first year lessons were taught to the younger ones.
Most of the Bahá’is of Tihran resided at that time in the southern part of the town where the meetings were being held. There were also a number of Bahá’i families scattered all over the town so that another problem for some of the youngsters was that of transportation. They had to walk very long distances and had to pass some dangerous zones; yet nothing prevented
the presence of all the little Bahá’is at their meetings. Will the writer ever forget the caressing touch and encouraging words that he received so many Friday mornings from his mother, who would prepare him to attend his classes, asking him to keep his lessons in his pocket and go with prayers; and she herself, then, would pray in her heart that her son might not return with a fractured head or a broken arm, for, if he did, there was no place to go for justice. Undoubtedly all Bahá’i mothers did so every Friday morning.
THE ABOVE description is not to
present the cruelty of the ill-bred
Muhammadan children, but just to
indicate the seriousness with which
the Bahá’is in Persia approached
the problem of spiritual training
for their children, and of making
them thoroughly acquainted with
the marvelous teachings of Bahá’u’lláh.
Three considerations of
equal importance have always been
chosen by them for spreading the
Cause: themselves, their children,
the outsiders.
Now we may look upon the enjoyable side of our Friday morning meetings. Not only were we having our regular tea twice at each session according to the Persian habit, and luncheon parties occasionally, but also our monthly feasts at which time the little friends themselves were the speakers. Yes, the gifted little Bahá’i speakers would quietly utter such words as “We must all unite and work for universal peace, for removal of prejudices of all kinds, for racial amity,” etc. Then there would come the prizes for the best
* Revealed by Baha’u’llah
speakers, the gifts from the parents for every one; and then sherbet, candies, and fruits would be served.
In later years, when there was more than one class, the students of different classes would have a general gathering in some one’s large garden, where hymns would be sung, prayers would be chanted, and speeches would be delivered. All these united forms of praying, chanting, and feasting were our general source of inspiration, happiness and encouragement. They kept us up and going. We always enjoyed them and looked forward to them. The greatest thrill we ever received came from one of ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s tablets blessing all the children who attended Bahá’i classes.
Unlike school education, our study in these newly organized Bahá’i classes was never to come to an end—that we knew from the beginning. We were taught that none of us would ever be graduated from the studies of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings. If a Bahá’i is to be the possessor of all human perfections, we were told, and one of the conditions for perfection is to have knowledge, a knowledge translated into practice, then who would claim that he knows all the Bahá’i teachings practically?
Based on this kind of reasoning, we were invited to attend the third year class to study the “Hidden Words”* together with a number of tablets in Arabic; the fourth year to study the history of the Cause in detail; the fifth and the sixth year to study, as thoroughly as possible, the “Book of Iqán”; the seventh year to learn “Some
Answered Questions”; the eighth year to study the writings of the well-known teacher, Mirza Abu’l-Fadl. Thereafter it was suggested to us that we join the classes of the grown-up friends, to study further the different phases of the teachings in more detail, to speak, to learn how to present the teachings to different types of seekers, and, in short, to be a Bahái in practice.
MANY OF the students of the early
years who went to all those classes
wholeheartedly are Persia’s
young, capable, energetic, trained
Bahá’i teachers of today. Together
with every year’s new
product, so to speak, they constantly
reflect the divine light to
the world, and help all the true
seekers to find their path toward
Truth.
Friends in other Persian towns started long ago to follow the steps of the Tihrán friends. In a similar manner they have gradually organized their own Friday morning Bahá’i classes. The lessons they teach are the same as those taught in Tihrán. Members of each local committee for children’s classes are chosen annually by the respective local Assemblies just as Tihrán’s is elected by the Assembly. Through regular monthly reports all the committees keep in touch with each other, and all with Tihrán, thus making the whole of
Persia a Bahá’i unit in that respect. So we see that when Friday morning dawns in Persia, our little brothers and sisters rise not only to get illumination from the glorious sun, but also to receive divine light from The Most Glorious Sun of Truth.
Friends of other lands, too, have gradually organized their classes for Bahá’i children. Their reports flow to all corners of the earth, and accomplish their part in making a unit of the world. Many times in our classes Dr. Susan I. Moody, one of the few American friends who have sacrificed a part of their lives in assisting and inspiring the Persian friends in their endeavor to serve, has spoken of “The Rose Gardens” of America as our dearest friends in the West, and also as the hands that are soon to be extended to grasp those of the East; then, united, to raise the standard of human relationship to ever higher planes.
“O God, permit us to partake of the perfection which belongs to Thee and of whatsoever Thou hast ordained for Thine elect. Make us to desire that which Thou dost desire, namely, Thy command. Help us to fly upward by Thy grace, sheltered by Thy presence, assisted by Thy nearness, and tranquilized by Thy love, in such wise that we may look only to Thee, speak of naught but Thy love, and turn to none save Thee.”
Editor’s Note–Happily for the Bahá’i communities of Persia, the situation there today contrasts most dramatically with the little less than tragic conditions which the author describes as prevailing during his youth. Today, thanks to the liberal vision and efficient administration of His Imperial Majesty Shahanshah Pahlevi, Bahá’is are everywhere protected in all rights of religious liberty and can congregate publicly in large numbers with perfect safety. Religious martyrdom in Persia is now a thing of the past.
It is subject of thought to consider how deeply indebted the whole world is and will always be to these pioneers of the Bahá’i Movement in Persia who, at the constant risk of property and life, carried the Bahá’i Cause through this dark period of bitter persecution and martyrdom.
HUMAN tastes differ; thoughts, nationalities, races and tongues are many. The need of a Collective Center by which these differences may be counterbalanced and the people of the world unified is obvious.
“Consider how nothing but a spiritual power can bring about this unification, for material conditions and mental aspects are so widely different that agreement and unity are not possible through outer means. It is possible, however, for all to become unified through one spirit, just as all may receive light from one sun. Therefore, assisted by the Collective and Divine Center which is the law of God and the reality of His Manifestation, we can overcome these conditions until they pass away entirely and the races advance.
“The Collective Center has always appeared in the East. His Holiness Abraham, His Holiness Moses, His Holiness Jesus Christ, His Holiness Muhammad, were Collective Centers of their day and time and all arose in the East.
“Today His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh is the Collective Center of unity for all mankind and the splendor of His light has likewise dawned from the East. He founded the oneness of mankind in Persia. He established harmony and agreement among the various peoples of religious beliefs, denominations, sects and cults by freeing them from the fetters of past imitations and superstitions; leading them to the very foundation of the divine religions. From this foundation shines forth the radiance of spirituality which is unity, the love of God, the knowledge of God, praiseworthy morals, and the virtues of the human world. Bahá’u’lláh renewed these principles, just as the coming of spring refreshes the earth and confers new life upon all phenomenal beings. . . . His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh came to renew the life of the world with this new and divine springtime. . . . ”
“Because man has stopped his ears unto the Voice of Truth and shut his eyes unto the Sacred Light, neglecting the Law of God, for this reason hath the darkness of war and tumult, unrest and misery, desolated the earth.” . . . Talks by ’Abdu’l-Bahá.
- O hear the battle rolling ’midst the far peaks of the hills,
- The roaring and the thunder from the clash of different wills!
- O see the wounded falling, and the blood that stains the ground—
- The dear, red blood that’s flowing, while the death-clouds gather ’round!
- To block this path to glory, and to still this dreadful fame,
- The world doth pray, imploring that true Love be set aflame—
- That tyrants cease to flourish, and oppression to prevail—
- That this, the end of aeons, shall another earth unveil.
“With power and might will the proclamation of the Kingdom of El Abhá found a new civilization, transforming humanity; dead bodies will become alive . . . blind eyes will see . . . the indifferent will be decorated with the flowers of divine civilization.” . . . ’Abdu’l-Bahá.
- O hear the Báb, the Herald that the Dawn of Truth appears,
- With Light of Love and Righteousness, allaying all the fears!
- O see the banners flying, where the tents of princes gleam—
- The passes in the mountains, whence oncoming cohorts stream!
- Bahá’u’lláh is calling, and the drum-heads roll and beat—
- The shaken earth is trembling ’neath the march of peaceful feet:
- The pillared skies are fallen, and the clouds are blown away,
- The while the martyrs’ glory is the token of the Day.
“They are not greedy after comfort, nor do they seek flitting pleasures. They are not longing for honour, neither pursue the phantasmal imaginations of glory and wealth. They are the devotees, the tried soldiers of Bahá’u’lláh . . . ” Bahá’i Scriptures.
- His servants here shall suffer from the world they would retrieve,
- Although their hands are gentle and their tongues shall not deceive-
- Opposing thoughts shall sweep them as the rain-drops from the sky,
- Until they hear Him calling as their death is drawing nigh;
- Bahá’u’lláh is calling, but the seeds of peace are sown,
- The seeds of human fellowship, whence bitter hate is flown;
- His battle is with evil, and His weapons Truth and Love,
- To fill the fields of Godliness with plowshares from above.
“Like unto the candle they are aflame with all the virtues of the world of humanity. This is everlasting glory. This is eternal life. This is true attainment. This is the divine sublimity of the creation of God.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.
- How could a world of darkness know and welcome them and Thee,
- When Thou art Light, and night doth ever from the morning flee?
- O see these birds of heaven rise in ever higher flight,
- Until they're lost in distances far past the range of sight—
- In realms of God of Glory, of the Kingdom that’s Divine,
- Where virtues are supernal, and Thy Spirit’s Love is wine:
- In death of all unworthy things they draw Thy Presence near,
- Whose brows the angels marked with Light—whose names Thou callest dear.
THE past” wrote Bahá’ulláh to the Persian Zoroastrians, “is the mirror of the future. Look and perceive!”
And it is in this spirit—not one of mere curiosity—but of sincere desire to understand something of the past of an ancient and once mighty land, whose history, literature and culture naturally possess an absorbing interest for all Bahá’is, that one approaches the great International Persian Art Exhibition now being held at Burlington House, London.
To one able to perceive beneath the surface of apparently chance happenings, deeper issues, it would appear of peculiar significance that the world of Islam should have, in this way, made so definite a rapprochement to the Christian, extending hands of mutual interest and friendship, and pouring into the lap of an astonished West of its hitherto most jealously guarded, sacred and dazzling treasures. And that we should be privileged to see them is, as Sir Arnold Wilson, Chairman of the Committee has observed, “more astonishing than any event in the history of the progress of modern civilization to date.”
Also, to a Bahá’i, it is not without import that, during this year of world-wide anxiety and depression, attention should thus have been focussed upon the land of Bahá’u’lláh; that by means of the radio and newspapers, journals and books, this long isolated and little known country should be, as it were, flung open to the understanding and appreciation
of the Occident, and of England in particular. That around this nucleus and shrine of Persia’s past splendors have been gathered offerings from Paris and Poland, Russia and Egypt, Denmark and Germany, Austria and America, and indeed from most of the leading countries of the world. And, by such an act, bringing yet a little nearer that happy Day when mankind will have come to realize their essential oneness and interdependence, and seek shelter beneath the Tent of Unity and the Canopy of Glory. Reminding us, too, of that other Treasure House, at whose holy Threshold we have been commanded “to endeavor to present every priceless and valuable thing.”
Even to recall the way in which these rare and wonderful objects were collected, with its strange mingling of most primitive, modern and ultra modern modes of transport, stirs the imagination. Across great tawny deserts they were borne—costly bales of merchandise—on the backs of slow-swaying camels, even as in the days of Cyrus and Darius, or of the Magi who journeyed from Saba, purposing their long pilgrimage to an overcrowded inn at Bethlehem. While overhead, across other stretches of wilderness, magic carpets and jewelled riches literally floated on the throbbing wings of aeroplanes. They were whirled by automobiles into city depots; hidden among the dates of a tramp steamer in Sindbad’s port; till, from the perilous seas once more the twentieth century
received them into the grey mists of a London dock.
“Tis but a step between the desert and the sown” sings a Persian poet. Only a door in a wall may separate arid wastes from a green garden. So, on crossing the threshold of this Home of the Arts, one passes from the gloom of an English winter into another world; a world of glowing color, vibrant with the intangible atmosphere and romance of the East. Scarcely anyone so poor that he may not behold, and in that way share, some of the world’s priceless possessions; none so unimaginative that they may not wander awhile in a region of poetic fantasy and become enlarged thereby.
IT WOULD neither be possible, nor advisable, to attempt to trace the history of Persia’s artistic developments, nor to describe in detail this amazing and unique exposition, the Press in many countries having, no doubt, afforded opportunities to grasp it in more or less detail. Sufficient perhaps to say that, for the serious student here, beneath one roof, is provided a complete survey ranging from 3500 B. C. to the reign of Nasir-ed-din Shah of Bábi days. So, gentle Reader, all that one can ask is, that you will walk for a brief hour through this bazaar of beauty, with a Bahá’i visitor, and share with her a few of the thoughts, and perhaps a little of the emotion, aroused by this intensive visit to a land steeped in the great poetry and mysticism of the past, and now so closely linked with all we hold most dear. This land that cradled the arts, and heard the immortal songs of Hafiz and Sa’adi; that staged
the marvelous and mythical feats of Rustem—the Persian Hercules; that worshipped with Zoroaster the great spirits of Light and Darkness; the land that saw the vast ambitions and failure of the youthful Alexander, who, thus early, tried to unite the East and West into a single empire, and to achieve, by force of arms, that which was destined only to be accomplished, in these latter days, by the power of mutual understanding; the land that knew the might and tyranny of Mahmud—
- “’Neath the hoofs of whose Turkish squadrons
- The glory of India lay,
- While his elephants proudly trampled
- The deserts of far Cathay.”
But, above all, the land that offered so sombre and yet sensitive a background for the heroic epic of the Báb, and beneath whose turquoise skies has sprung to birth, in God’s hour of final consummation, its last and greatest Spiritual Genius,—the peerless Manifestation of the Glory of God to men.
Perhaps the first fact to impress us in our brief survey is, that the art we call Persian is, in a sense, the most ubiquitous of arts. It has never been a strictly national product, but rather an elusive influence that has penetrated and permeated the whole of the civilized world, offering a striking illustration of the truth that to real art, as to great music, there can be set no geographical boundaries.
For eight centuries Persia was a subject country, and the Arabian Caliphs, and also their Mongol and Turkish rulers, recognizing the artistic sensibility of the peoples they
had conquered, sent artists from Fars to every part of the Saracen domains, from India to Spain, from the Caspian to Africa, thereby oreating an art that became, in process of time, truly international.
Is it not easy to perceive an analogy between this and that which is taking place to-day in the realm of religion? The new religious genius of the Persian race, born and nurtured, with so much suffering, among its receptive people, is now being disseminated far and wide. Like these flowing arabesques, exquisite flower-patterns, and lovely colorings, the ideas, ideals and principles of the Bahá’i Faith are gradually permeating the mental and emotional life of all nations, and weaving on the cosmic loom the woof and warp of a divine civilization and art of living, in which Truth and Goodness, Science and Religion, blend to create that plan and pattern whose realization is joy, and whose perfection is beauty.
THROUGH a doorway of Yesterday
then, let us pass into the Archaemenian
and Sassanian periods, of
the third to the seventh centuries.
Beneath these winged bulls and
mighty lions in wonderfully enamelled
tiles, Cyrus may have stood to
receive deputations from his subject
kingdoms. And a frieze depicting
the scene would have been admired
by Darius as he mounted the
great staircase of his new palace
at Persepolis. Xerxes probably ordered
this presentation, in stone, of
a sacrificial lamb, offered at one of
his own royal banquets. While upon
“pavements” that is, glazed bricks,
like these, “in red and blue and
white and black” we are told in the
Bible that the people feasted, when Esther reigned as queen at Sushan. In that same palace where Daniel saw those far visions of the Angel Michael and the things that were to be.
Although no work of art or monument, save a ruined arch by the Tigris, survived the conquering hosts of Islam, it is known that art reached a high state of development during this period; while these particular rulers and their deeds seem to have dominated the memory and imagination of the Persians all down the centuries. It is, therefore, highly probable that it was this brilliant dynasty Bahá’u’lláh made reference to in His letter to the Shah:
“They have become such that thou seest naught but their empty places; their gaping roofs, their uprooted beams, their new things waxed old . . . They have descended to the abyss and become companions to the pebbles; to-day no mention is heard nor any sound; nothing is known of them or any hint . . . . Verily the decree of God hath rendered them as scattered dust.”
Possibly no country in the world has, by reason of its repeated ruthless invasions, devastations and subjections, had more vividly impressed upon the national consciousness the transitoriness of all earthly things. Such a people would not find it so hard to realize, as we do, that, as the Sufis taught, and Bahá’u’lláh emphasized—”Verily this mundane world is as a mirage of the desert.”
Yet, through it all Persia has contrived to retain her sense of nationality, and in some subtle way to
--PHOTO--
Group of rare Persian textiles, embroideries and weaves. From the collection of Mirza Ali Kuli Khan, Persian Art Center, Hollywood, Calif.
”lead captivity captive,” by imposing on her conquerors her own cultures, while absorbing the best in theirs, thereby on a truly grand scale, “distilling sugar and honey
from the bitter poison of suffering.”
CARPETS: Perhaps for most visitors the main interest of the Exhibition
centres in the carpets; carpets, which sweeping from ceiling to floor scintillate with superb harmonies of blue and green, fawn and crimson, deep rose, silver and gold. Yet, amid their myriad complexities of pattern and decoration, it is easy to discern their ritualistic origin and the ancient symbolism typified in the designs employed. For here, on every side, we can trace the countless illustrations with which we are accustomed to meet in Bahá’i literature. Here the cypresses—those “trees of immortality” spread wide their branches, and the “doves of eternity” sing upon the delicate twigs of the “divine lote tree,” or their bleeding hearts are transfixed by the “arrows of misfortune.” Here, too, the partridge and gazelle flee from the pursuing hunter, and the “nightingale of holiness” utters his melody to the listening heart of a rose.
The symbol, which has been described as “the clothing which the spiritual borrows from the material plane,” is essentially a form of artistic expression. It suggests. And this symbol of the Tree and its branches is one of the oldest in human history. God, or the Manifestation of His creative power, was from earliest religious history typified as the Tree of Life. The design of a branched tree, on either side of which stood two figures, is to be found inscribed on many ancient Indo-Iranian stones, on antique Assyrian and Babylonian gems, and on sacred amulets. The long oval shape of the amulet forming a centre pattern in many of the carpets.
Bahá’u’lláh frequently refers to Himself as the “Parent Stem” and
“Root” of the New Revelation, and also establishes ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s station and degree when giving Him the title of the “Greatest Branch.” The latter, explaining the symbol of the Cross—which design can be traced throughout all nature—says:
“There is nothing more beautiful than this tree united with the cross. Verily, this tree is a type of the Tree of Life in conjunction with the cross; in this, the mystery of sacrifice.”
In this handsome crimson rug, the maker has wrought, with the fingers of infinite patience, many hundreds of knots to the square inch, and among them his own humble name. Now across the centuries we greet his handiwork. Time and skill and patience have combined to transform the wool of a sheep into this thing of joy, as it has the mulberry leaf into yonder gorgeous satin brocade. What a lesson for those of us who are so apt to feel discouraged when, of the spiritual seed sown to-day, we fail to reap a harvest to-morrow! Yet are we not working for to-morrow rather than today? And may it not be that future generations will see of the labor of our hands and the travail of our souls in the threads we are weaving in this new and glorious carpet of a divine civilization.
Here hang the silk carpets of Joshagen, with their circles of dark green cypress trees upon a pale blue background—like a picture caught at early dawn. Indeed more like pictures they seem, than rugs upon which to tread; or symphonic poems in rich bass chords, with overtones of silvery arabesques. And in the centre of them all shimmers a huge
--PHOTO--
Miniature painting Indo-Persian School 16th–17th Century: From the collection of Mirza Ali Kali Khan, Persian Art Center, Hollywood, Calif.
patch of gold. It is a twelve-sided silk carpet—one for each of the Imams—brought from the tomb of a Safavean king, in a golden-domed mosque which stands in the heart of a little blue city on the road to Tihrán. Here it was Mullah Abdul Karim lived—that most trusted servant of the Báb. Box shrubs screen this unique and sacred carpet, whose centre is an ivory oval surrounded by broad glowing bands of orange and crimson and again ivory, splashed with blue palmettes and red stems, and cypresses in green and yellow, the whole bounded by a patterned combination of all the colors used. The exquisite
* Lawh-el-Akdas, Baha'u’llah.
fantasy of a consummate artist, and a wonder of the world!
Surely no one, and certainly not a Bahá’i, could stand unmoved before this wondrous emblem of Persian Islam! For to us it appears not only as a gesture of friendship from its newly awakened people and tolerant, broad-minded Shah, but as a veritable sign and token that age-long prejudices are, at last being broken down, and the longed—for cycle of religious unity and reconciliation already at hand. “Verily He hath shone forth from the direction of the Orient, and His Signs have appeared in the Occident!”*
We do not know the names of the Imams here memorialized; it is enough that we know the greatest of them all, He who is the new Manifestation of that most ancient Glory.
- “O last of the Prophets.
- I know thy nearness to Allah.
- Thou hast come late—because thou hast come
- From a great distance.”
The representations in mosaics of the mihrab or praying corner to be found in every mosque, and the small crimson mats in which the design is repeated, remind us of the fact that, in the Moslem religion,
the value and necessity of prayer is enjoined, as it is today in a far greater measure in the Bahá’i. And, as we are told, “in the estimation of a wise man, a mat in the Kingdom of God is preferable to the throne of the government of the world.”
Turning away from this section we remember the admonition to “rest on the carpet of ‘All is from God: there is no power or might but through God alone’.” A firm truth upon which to stay our weary feet during these days of acute personal and national distress—in this great and terrible Day of the Lord, wherein the “mountains shall be made like unto carpets.”
POTTERY: Then we find ourselves standing, like Omar Khayyam, “one evening at the close of Ramazan . . . in that old Potter’s shop, with the clay population round in rows.”
But, no! the hand of the Potter did not shake when these beautiful works of art were made. Indeed, it seems difficult to realize that these lustrous dishes and platters, these jars and bowls painted in green and blue and gold were really formed from mother earth, and formed too so many hundreds of years ago. Some of them were, no doubt, destined to adorn the banquet tables of kings, but others, less ornate, but none the less pleasing, were made to serve the common usages of life,—to hold the freshly-made mast, or water from the spring.
With what new force there comes to us many a Bahá’i analogy:
“From the clay of Love I have kneaded thee: why seekest thou another? . . .
--PHOTO--
Polychrome mosaic tile, 16th Century. From the collection of R. Y. Mottahedeh, New York.
Below. Polychrome plate, 13th Century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
By the hand of Power I have made thee and by the fingers of Strength have I created thee. Do ye know why we have created ye from one clay? That no one should glorify himself over the other. Be ye ever mindful of how you were created.”
In the Qur’an is written: “Thou shalt see no difference in the creatures of God.” From the ideal standpoint there is no variation between the creatures of God, because
they are all created by Him. Yet, we know, that so individual is the work of the Supreme Potter that no two human beings were ever exactly alike; no, not even two grains of wheat.
The artist soul in the Persian craftsman loves to retain this flexible individualistic touch. He takes a joy in allowing some subtle difference to appear in every object made, however humble; feeling instinctively, as one of their own critics has said, that it is rather by his “works” than by his “work” he should be known.
Yet is the informing Spirit ever one and the same. And the great Teachers have always striven to arouse in men that keen sense of their spiritual identity in variety. “Be,” said Abdul-Bahá, “as one soul in many bodies.” And as a Persian Mystic has expressed the idea.
- “Beaker and flagon and bowl and jar—
- Of earth or crystal, coarse or fine,
- However the Potter may make or mar,
- Still may serve to contain the Wine;
- Should we this one seek, or that one shun,
- When the Wine which lends them their worth, is one.”
In the East, art has never been divorced from the ordinary purposes of daily living, but designed to serve the ends both of usefulness and beauty. A lesson that we of the West might well take to heart. And it is not difficult to believe that if here, in our more recent and mechanized civilization, once the dread of poverty and destitution could be
--PHOTO--
Royal Mosque of Masjed Shah at Isfáhán, 16th Century.
eradicated, which—were the Bahá’i principles practically applied should be quite possible–a love of Beauty would soon become a quickening force among all men, instead of being, as now, more or less the culture of minorities.
THE MOSQUE OF ISFAHAN: Through a small reproduction, decorated with mosaic faience, of the entrance to the Royal Mosque at Isfáhán, we reverently enter. Shall we remove our shoes? Or is it only a reflection in the pool of water that stands before it? We pass beneath its glittering facets, thinking of the youthful Báb Who, during the year He spent in this ancient
capital of the Safavi kings, must often have crossed the broad sunlit expanse of the Meidan-i-Shah and entered here to worship. Here, where the angry Ulemas refused to meet Him in conclave, fearful of their own confounding.
In imagination we see, in the spacious courtyard, lined with shrubs and flower beds, a number of black-robed figures, bowing towards the Kibla, with foreheads to the ground. Or upon the wide-spread carpet beneath the dome they stand, making response to the voice of the Mullah. The name of Allah in deep sonorous chords fills the air. Rich colors of turquoise blue and green and crimson streams over the assembled worshippers. But now, clear through the silence that has fallen, one hears the warning voice of God’s new Messenger to men.
“Rend asunder the veils. Beware lest celebration preventeth you from the Celebrated, and worship from the Worshipped!” Or its echo comes to us in the words of ’Abdu’l-Bahá:
“O, army of Life! East and West have joined to worship stars of faded splendor, and have turned in prayer unto darkened horizons . . . In this holy dispensation, the crowning glory of bygone ages and cycles, faith is no mere acknowledgment of the unity of God, but rather the living of a life that manifests the virtues and perfections implied in such belief.”
Over our heads hang a pair of lacquered doors enriched with gold, believed to have come from the “Hall of Forty Columns,” the beantiful open audience chamber of Shah Abbas, and little garden palace, wherein Minuchihr Khan so
--PHOTO--
Qur'an stand, signed Hasan son of Soleiman of Isfáhán.
successfully concealed the Báb from His enemies.
JEWELS: Now let us pause for a few minutes before the blazing jeweled appurtenances of the Persian Crown. The cases are aglitter with objets d’art which bear eloquent witness to the lavish extravagance of the country’s rulers, especially of the Safavean kings, when Persia knew unusual prosperity
and the Court touched a height of unprecedented splendor. The walls above are draped with rugs woven of silk and gold lit for royal gifts. And we remember that Bahá’u’lláh, brought up in the precincts of the Court, must often have seen such sights as these–quite possibly these very objects—bowls and vases of gold inlaid with exquisite enamels, gem encrusted rosewater ewers, huge emeralds, glistening pearls, diamonds and pink tourmalines, richly embroidered garments and priceless ornaments–and in after years drawn numerous analogies therefrom.
“O children of the Spirit! Ye are My treasures, for in ye I have treasured the pearls of My mysteries, and the gems of My knowledge.”
“Look at the Pearl! Verily its lustre is in itself, but if thou coverest it with silk it assuredly veileth the beauty and qualities thereof. Such is man—his nobility is in his virtues not in that which covereth him.”
Just such a finely wrought damascend sword as this might the great Teacher have had in mind when He wrote:
“O my Servant! Thou art like unto a well-tempered sword that lieth concealed in the darkness of its sheath and the value thereof is unknown to the expert eye . . . . ”
And as all fair things may thus serve to remind us of diviner, this gold necklet sparkling with old diamonds, rubies and pearls will flash to us its spiritual message—“Your ornament is the love of God.”
Again we catch the same note in Bahá’u’lláh’s stirring appeal to the Pope:
“Sell that which thou hadst of
decked ornaments and expend it in a sovereignty to the King . . . . Should anyone come unto thee with the treasures of the earth, turn not thy sight towards them; but be as thy Lord hath been.”
Or in His passionate appeal to Nasir-ud-din Shah: “ . . . . Where are their hidden treasures and their apparent gauds, their bejeweled thrones and their ample couches? . . . . Emptied is what they treasured up, dissipated is what they collected, and dispersed is what they concealed . . . . ”
And then there comes to us those words of gracious promise and profound yearning:
“To gather jewels have I come to this world. If one speck of a jewel lie hid in a stone, and that stone is beyond the seven seas, until I have found and secured that jewel my hand shall not stay from its search.”
THE ART OF THE BOOK: To those for whom the literature of Persia—its poetry, philosophy, legends and religions—possess the dominating interest, a world of wonder and delight lies open among the Manuscripts and Miniature Paintings.
Sometimes we have questioned why it was that this new Message of God should have been clothed in the tongue and revealed through the characters of such ancient languages as Arabic and Persian, languages so hard for us to learn and so far removed from the usages of the Western, and particularly the Anglo-Saxon world. But beholding these masterpieces of calligraphy one ceases to wonder. The very
forms of the letters, their graceful curves and flowing outlines inscribed in crimson and black, blue and gold, convey a vivid impression of combined beauty and dignity. Suras from the Qur-an appear on thick golden-leaved parchment, intertwined with arabesques and richly colored mosaics. And one realizes that here is a language and a penmanship more worthy than any other could be to bear the traces of the Supreme Pen—“from the treasury of which the gems of wisdom and utterance, and the arts of the whole world have appeared and become manifest.”
And with what keen freshness of understanding we remember our Lord’s injunction:
“Write that which we have revealed unto thee with the ink of Light upon the tablet of the spirit . . . and if thou canst not do this, then write with that crimson ink that hath been shed in my path . . .”
It is with a sense of profound deprivation that one admiringly contemplates, but cannot read, these brilliant quatrains from some of the world’s supreme Poets, from the Diwan of Hafiz, the mystical Jami and Jalal-ud-din Rumi—author of those famous lines quoted by Persian Bahá’is:
- “It needs an eye which is king discerning
- To recognize the King under every disguise.”
Here too are beautiful specimens of lacquered calamdans, or long pencases,—looking as though they might have come out of an old Italian studio,—used by a Persian scribe, and in which he carried the Indian ink, reeds, scissors, etc., so essential to his art. And one calls
to mind the remarkable calligraphy displayed by both the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, and which, to the Oriental mind constituted so sure a sign of inspiration. It was at Kum that Mullah Abdul Karim received in trust the pencase and seals bequeathed by the Báb to His Successor; when, at the urgent request of those present was revealed a pentacle in the form of a man, penned by the Báb with such fineness and delicacy that it appeared like a single wash of ink on the paper, and containing 360 derivatives from the root word Baha. After examining some of these extraordinary pen drawings, one can better appreciate this form of art. But probably only a Persian, and a calligraphist, could fully understand the skill and spiritual significance of such a creation.
For any real appreciation of the beauty of Persian paintings one finds it necessary to make practical application of the Bahá’i principle of discarding prejudices and preconceived ideas, and trying, by means of a sympathetic imagination, to enter into a different realm of thought and perception. A most fascinating and profitable exercise!
To our Western minds, accustomed for centuries to a form of art so much more localized and representative, with its decided anthropomorphic tendencies, these paintings seem to possess a curiously impersonal atmosphere. We begin to realize that the outlook of an Oriental artist is far more universal and abstract than ours—of the mind rather than of matter. It is essentially decorative in character. No attempt is made to render light and shade. Everything glows in brilliant hues, distinct and hard like a
--PHOTO--
Persian mirror cases, lacquered pen cases and book covers painted and lacquered by famous artists of the Court of Shah Abbas and later such as Ali Gholi, Agha Zaman. (From the collection of Mirza Ali Kuli Khan, Persian, Art Center, Hollywood, Calif.).
jewel. Yet are these miniatures fragile marvels of minute detail. Strange that a country of such empty spaciousness and magnitudes should produce an art so microscopic! As though the mind thereby sought for and found a necessary reaction and relief.
It is also interesting to note that Persia paid less honor to her painters than to her poets. This is in part due, no doubt, to the fact that the priests of Islam inferred, from a restriction given in the Qur’an regarding images in the mosques, that Muhammad prohibited painting and
sculpture. Which only goes to show that religious zealots in all ages are especially prone to “magnify His strictness with a zeal He would not own.” At any rate, the Moslem has always lacked the inspiration afforded by religion to the Christian, Hindu or Chinese. Painting too was essentially an affair of Courts for the materials used cost money and so could not be executed without the patronage of the wealthy. The painter, therefore, was less happily situated than the poet, who could paint his word-pictures, and weave his “metrical chaplet of coral and pearls and gold” more independently.
To a Bahá’i student, in this connection, two figures make an outstanding appeal. One is the Prophet-Artist Mani, who, about three hundred years after Christ, sought to reconcile his own Zoroastrianism with the new teachings from Galilee. It was Zoroaster who founded the Messianic idea, and prophesied the ultimate coming of Shah Bahram to establish a reign of righteousness and peace, weaving for his followers the three-fold cord of good thoughts, good words, good deeds. With clear inward vision Mani perceived that these two great Teachers were in the realms of Spirit one. To this fusion of religions he tried to unite art, holding that painting was a sacred rite and duty. He had an immense following; St. Augustine being, at one time, among his adherents. Like many another pioneer idealist he perished for his beliefs. But the influence he exerted on his country’s art still lives.
And here, among many small but
lovely paintings illustrating Persia’s poetic legends, hangs a picture by Bihzad illustrating the story of Laila and Majnun, to whose power of yearning love Bahá’u’lláh refers in the “Seven Valleys.” Bihzad is the second figure to claim our interest, for he was Persia’s supreme artist. Born at a time when Sufi Mysticism had permeated the very marrow of the nation’s life, he has introduced into his work this element of spiritual love. As a painter he caught the same vision that inspired the poets Jami and Jalal-ud-din Rumi and many others of that particular period; and under the spell of this ideal of the realization of the divine, he created his country’s masterpieces.
Before such beauty one can only stand in quiet contemplation; not seeking to define it, but rather letting it define us, lending the time necessary for its radiant colors and inner meanings to awake within us a responsive echo of joy. So that we may not merely look, but perceive; not only admire but understand.
“THE PAST is a mirror of the future.”
Great as have been the
achievements of Persia in bygone
ages, widespread as her influence
has been on the art and literature
of the world, it is by a far more
wonderful contribution that she is
destined to shine for future generations;
and by exemplifying in her
national life the principles laid
down by Bahá’u’lláh, to create a
new and brilliant social order such
as no country in the world has ever
yet known.
“Glory be upon the people of the Glory!”