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| VOL. 23 | FEBRUARY, 1933 | No. 11 |
HUSSEIN RABBANI
BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK
A. SAMIMI
CORALIE FRANKLIN COOK
ALFRED E. LUNT
HIS Holiness Baha'u'llah the Sun of Truth has dawned from the horizon of the Orient, flooding all regions with the light and life which will never pass away. His teachings which embody the divine spirit of the age and are applicable to this period of maturity in the life of the human world are—
- The oneness of the world of humanity.
- The protection and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
- The foundation of all religion is one.
- Religion must be the cause of unity.
- Religion must accord with science and reason.
- Independent investigation of truth.
- Equality between men and women.
- The abandoning of all prejudices among mankind.
- Universal peace.
- Universal education.
- A universal language.
- Solution of the economic problem.
- An international tribunal.
Every one who truly seeks and justly reflects will admit that the teachings of the present day emanating from mere human sources and authority are the cause of difficulty and disagreement amongst mankind, the very destroyers of humanity whereas the teachings of Baha'u'llah are the very healing of the sick world, the remedy for every need and condition. In them may be found the realization of every desire and aspiration, the cause of the happiness of the world of humanity, the stimulus and illumination of mentality, the impulse for advancement and uplift, the basis of unity for all nations, the fountain-source of love amongst mankind, the center of agreement, the means of peace and harmony, the one bond which will unite the east and the west.
| VOL. 23 | FEBRUARY, 1933 | NO. 11 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 327 |
The Bahá’i View of Authority and Organization, Hussein Rabbani | 330 |
A Biographer Presents a Great Character, Coralie Franklin Cook | 334 |
The Requirement of Meditation, Alfred E. Lunt | 337 |
The Bahá’i Movement in Paris, Edith L. W. Fenton | 340 |
Invocation, a Poem, Silvia Margolis | 342 |
The Challenge of Today, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick | 343 |
The Epic of the Black Ensigns, Florence E. Pinchon | 348 |
Women Astir in Persia, A. Samimi | 352 |
Servitude With Singleness of Heart, a Poem, Walter H. Bowman | 354 |
A Jewel from the Mine of God, Maye Harvey Gift | 356 |
STANWOOD COBB, MARIAM HANEY, BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK | Editors |
MARGARET B. MCDANIEL | Business Manager |
For the United States and Canada
International
|
For Foreign Countries
MRS. ANNIE B. Romer, Great Britain MR. A. SAMIMI, Persia MISS AGNES B. ALEXANDER, Japan and China MOHAMED MUSTAFA EFFENDI, Egypt |
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 Bahá'i
Magazine, 1000 Chandler 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.
--PHOTO--
President Thomas Masaryk, the “George Washington” of Czechoslovakia.
(See page 334)
| VOL. 23 | FEBRUARY, 1933 | NO. 11 |
the world, a cycle of radiance, an age of mercy dawns. Everything is renewed. Minds, hearts and all human forces are re-formed, perfections are quickened, sciences, discoveries and investigations are stimulated afresh and everything appertaining to the virtues of the human world is revitalized.”
IF I HAD to choose between the so-called pious life of restraint, and a life of creative expression I should feel obliged to choose the latter. For life that is not some form of expression is worse than death.
But fortunately real religion does not entail the sacrifice of creative expression. on the contrary, religion enhances expression and exalts it to high planes. It brings greater penetration of insight and lends a subtle vibrating charm to utterance. It enhances man’s emotional nature and focuses it upon useful and noble aims. It inspires aspiration and leads to the most glorious creations of which human beings are capable.
RELIGION is not an artificial compulsion,
an abnormal restraint upon
life, nor a passive unreasoning submission
to exigencies and events. It
is something dynamic, active. It
releases creative forces in the individual
and attracts to the individual
creative forces greater than
his own personal powers.
True spirituality means the full exercise of the creative intelligence in changing and ordering one’s life so as to make it harmonious and joyous. Through the aid of the scientific intellect and of guiding
and stimulating forces from a super-plane man becomes the ruler of his environment–organizing and administering the world about him so as to adapt it to his needs. Religion is in reality the cause of infinite progress.
IN RELIGION we find the chief origin
and the highest forms of expression
of all the arts. The art
of painting has reached its greatest
heights in the service of the church,
both in Christendom and in the culture
of the Buddhistic world. The
art of music is connected with the
dim past of temple worship and
of religious festivals, as is also the
art of the dance. The art of oratory
shares its development between
statecraft, law and the
church. Literature began in every
country as an expression of religious
thought and the noblest literature
which the world has produced
is that which forms the scriptures
of the various races. Architecture
began as an expression of the
spiritual aspiration of man and its
highest forms have been thus
created in the name and under the
inspiration of religion.
Thus religion causes man to produce not only the most powerful forms of art, but also those purest in conception and in design. For
the soul of the religiously inspired artist, being relatively free from the obstructing forces of egotism and vanity1, can become a true channel for those creative forces which flow, we know not whence, to the glory and beautification of this planet.
MORE IMPORTANT even than creating
forms of beauty and of art is
the task of creating character within
ourselves. This is a task which
is placed in man’s own hands. No
one can create another’s personality.
This is our individual responsibility
and it is the most important
task before us in life.
As we create our higher Self on the inner plane, so correspondingly will be the effects of all our efforts on the outer plane. Everything flows from this center. We must be in order to do. And what we do is always an expression of what we are.
Nothing can build character as religion can. It furnishes inspiration and motive power. It holds before every individual the perfect model. It inspires him with intense desire to attain to perfection. It gives him power and guidance to work constantly in the direction of his goals.
Psychologists, much as they deprecate emotional aberrations in the name of religion, recognize what a powerful motive religion is toward the reconstruction of the Self. No force has proved so efficacious in lifting men and women from depths of degradation and despair and helping them to recreate their lives.2
1 Cf. also the exquisite art forms of Europe during the Middle Ages, so much of it anonymous. The reverence and humility of the cathedral builders of this epoch wrought in stone the fairest and noblest of architectural forms.
2 William James in “Varieties of Religious Experience,” and Harold Begbie in "Twice Born Men,” give scientific testimony to this recreative power of religion in the life of man.
3 Robert Quillen.
Nor is religion of use only in cases of degradation. It is a normal force building up every life daily to more complete perfection. It can inspire superhuman enterprise, courage and wisdom.
Christ said, “I am come that ye might have life and have it more abundantly.” A religion which inspires and motivates action is indeed the cause of more abundant, more creative living. “Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.”
Every individual, in the process of lifting his own life up to nobler heights, finds himself inspired with a great zeal for helping to uplift humanity.
In the process of human evolution, from the savage satisfying only his animal wants to modern man with his multitudinous desires, there “at last came the selfless and compassionate man who pitied the hungry and the maimed and the heavily burdened, and dreamed a splendid dream—that he might collaborate with God in creating a world free of misery and wrong and injustice.“3
What enormous possibilities await this loftiest task—the building of a more perfect world! Humanity has only for a brief two centuries been conscious of itself as a struggling evolving society. It has only within this brief span of its existence come to envision and assume conscious goals of perfection toward which to strive.
Today the conscience of men the world over is being aroused as never before to the urgent need and
the glorious responsibility of creating a new world order which shall establish security and happiness for the individual. In this titanic effort where man’s ordinary intelligence stands baffled and halting, why not utilize all the creative power which religion has to give?
The mere force of the intellect will never suffice to remake the world. There is needed the heart of charity and the soul of vision.
WHAT AN inspiring goal to work
for—the goal of a New World
Order! For this lofty purpose
Bahá’is are working with all the
power and ability God gives them.
They realize their own limited
powers to be totally inadequate to
the task. But they work as part of
a concerted movement the plan of
which they believe to be perfect,
and the effectiveness of which is
clearly to be measured by the zeal
and unity of its adherents.
The formulation of principles of organization for humanity and the guidance of humanity into such a world order is too immense a task for any human personality. It requires a super-planetary power. It is, fortunately, a responsibility which God assumes and which He alone is capable of carrying out. The function of the individual is to become a channel for this Divine
* ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “Divine Art of Living.”
force which seeks to remake the planet into a better and happier home for man. In this great endeavor the Holy Spirit—that Light which guided the Prophets and shone forth from them—this Light must be our guide.
“When you breathe forth the breath of the Holy Spirit from your hearts into the world, commerce and politics will take care of themselves in perfect harmony. All arts and sciences will become revealed and the knowledge of God will be manifested. It is not your work but that of the Holy Spirit which you breathe forth through the Word. This is a fundamental truth.“*
SO HERE, in the working out of a modern world religion, is a creative task fit to call out all our powers.
No work to which man can dedicate himself is more noble, more inspiring, more worthy of the utmost consecration and concentration than that of helping to build a better world.
Within the vast scope of this superhuman task we may all be privileged to become quarriers, architects or builders—each one an artist in the true sense of the word, each one a creator working in the service of the Great Architect and for the service of humanity.
“Is not the object of every Revelation to effect a transformation in the whole character of mankind, a transformation that shall manifest itself, both outwardly and inwardly, that shall affect both its inner life and external conditions? For if the character of mankind he not changed, the futility of God’s universal Manifestation would be apparent.”
This is the second and concluding part of this article begun in the January issue. There the author pointed out how, by the instructions of Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’is regulate their national life in conformity with the requirements of their respective governments with absolute obedience and loyalty thereto. Herein the author dwells on the necessity of organization for the social regeneration of mankind.
THAT the world today is suffering from innumerable diseases no one can deny. And that the fundamental causes of such a state of unrest are due to the absence of a just and powerful authority no unprejudiced mind can refuse to accept. In His Tablet to Queen Victoria, Bahá’u’lláh compares mankind to an organism which has been subjected to many diseases and attributes these sufferings to the injustice and the incompetence of rulers and statesmen. Addressing the latter, He says: “Oh, members of the Assembly yonder and in other countries! If you desire advancement, reflect and deliberate upon that which will calm the world and its condition. Consider it as the body of a man, once sound and whole, which has succumbed to malady in various forms. This body cannot be cured in a day, but rather the sickness will be aggravated, because it has fallen into the hands of unskilled physicians. However, if a wise doctor, a seeker after God, the Lord of Worlds, takes charge, one of the members will become whole, and consequently the others. Thus you are notified by Him who knows. Today I see this body in the hands of those whom the wine of pride has intoxicated to a point
1 Bahá’u’lláh—“Epistle to the Son of the Wolf”, p. 48.
where they cannot prescribe a remedy. How then will they recognize this great and glorious Cause?”1
INDEED, we are living today in a
world of partial chaos and anarchy.
Whether in the national or in the
international sphere of activity,
we have been and are still witnessing
signs of an impending disorder.
The disastrous results of a fierce
and aggressive nationalism, with
its two natural concomitants, imperialism
and war, have harassed
humanity by directing its energies
into wasteful channels. The way
out of such a chaos, the Bahá’is
believe, is not through the overthrow
of the existing foundations
of society and the abolition of
every organized center of authority.
What the world is in dire
need of is not anarchy but organization.
As society develops and
social relationships increase in
complexity our need for organization
becomes more impelling.
Modern society, indeed, is a vast
organism and as such necessitates
a coordinating power to adjust its
different parts. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
has said: “The body-politic may be
likened to the human organism. As
long as the various members and
parts of that organism are coordinated
and cooperating in harmony we have as a result the expression of life in its fullest degree. When these members lack coordination and harmony we have the reverse which in the human organism is disease, dissolution, death. Similarly, in the body-politic of humanity, dissension, discord and warfare are always destructive and inevitably fatal.“1
And in another passage, He says: “All created beings are dependent upon peace and coordination, for every contingent and phenomenal being is a composition of distinct elements. As long as there is affinity and cohesion among these constituent elements strength and life are manifest but when dissension and repulsion arise among them, disintegration follows. This is proof that peace and amity which God has willed for His children are the saving factors of human society whereas war and strife which violate His ordinances are the cause of death and destruction. Therefore God has sent His Prophets to announce the message of good-will, peace and life to the world of mankind.”1
It is, therefore, evident that what the world needs today is just and equitable rulers. For authority, if exercised in the right way, can accomplish all that is conducive to the welfare and happiness of mankind and is thus but an expression of the Divine Will. In the Bahá’i view, all authority comes from God, unless it is enforced arbitrarily and against the interests of the governed. And this is why the Bahá’is have always been ordered
1 ’Abdu’l-Bahá–Cf. “The Bahá’i Magazine—February, 1932, p. 352.
2 Bahá’u’lláh—“Epistle to the Son of the Wolf”, p. 70
to respect the possessors of just authority whose sole aim is to further and develop the interests of their people. In one of His most important writings Bahá’ulláh has revealed the following: “Each nation must respect the position of its ruler, be humble toward him, obey him, and hold to his command. The sovereigns have been, and are the manifestations of divine might, nobility and grandeur. I have never been a sycophant, everyone can assert this, but respect for the rank of sovereigns comes from God, as is clearly shown in the words of the Prophets and Chosen. Some one asked Jesus: ‘Oh, spirit of God, is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not?’ He replied: ‘Yes, render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things which are God’s,’ He did not forbid it. And these two sayings, for those who know how to see, amount to the same thing, for if that which belonged to Caesar was not accorded by God, he would have forbidden it. And likewise in the sacred verse: ‘Obey God, and the Prophets, and the possessors of command among you.’ The possessors of command are primarily the Imams (may God bless them).”2
But if Bahá’u-lláh has recognized the divine origin of political authority, and commanded His followers to respect and obey those who are its custodians, He has also equally emphasized the duties of the rulers towards their subjects. If there has been any social evil which He held in contempt it was tyranny. Bahá’u-lláh forbids
tyranny in the most emphatic terms. In “The Hidden Words” He says: “O Oppressors on Earth! Withdraw your hands from tyranny, for I have pledged Myself not to forgive any man’s injustice. This is my covenant which I have irrevocably decreed in the preserved tablet and sealed with My seal of glory.”1
And in the Tablet to Emperor Napoleon III He again emphasizes the same point. “Know verily”, He declares, “that your subjects are God’s trust unto you; treat them as you treat yourself. Beware of making wolves shepherds to your flocks, and of being hindered by pride and vanity from turning toward the poor and miserable.”2
The duties of those who are in charge of the administration of the country are manifold. They should always act with justice and equity. “Justice and equity” says Bahá’ulláh “are two guardians for the protection of man: they have appeared arrayed in their mighty and sacred names, to maintain the world in rectitude, and to protect the nations.”3
And again he says: “No radiance can compare to that of justice; the organizations of the world, and the tranquillity of mankind depends upon it.”4
In another passage we read: “O Son of the Spirit! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes
1 Baha’u’llah, “The Hidden Words,” p. 46. 2 Baha’u’llah, “The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf”, p. 42.
3 Baha’u’llah, “The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf”, p. 10. 4 Baha’u’llah, Ibid, p. 23. 5 Baha’u’llah, “The Hidden Words”, p. 4.
of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behoveth thee to be. Verily, Justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.”5
All these words amply testify to the necessity of organization for the social regeneration of mankind. The individual, however well equipped with all the essential conditions of life, cannot live apart from society. He is born in a social environment and he is by nature bound up to live in the same ambium all through his earthly career. But, since social life is inevitable the necessity of some sort of organization becomes impelling. For social life carries with it, at least potentially, the germs of a possible friction between the individuals. Organization, therefore, is the ‘sine qua non’ of every social life. And this organization should have an authority to which every member should readily submit. For without an ultimate power of coordination and adjustment life will be a sheer impossibility. Instead of peace and tranquillity we shall find conflict and war. And such a state of affairs will be intolerable. But this authority should not be tyrannical and should under all circumstances be considered as a means rather than an end. In such wise, the individual rights are safeguarded without the possibility of any friction, and social life made possible without the individual being crushed under the weight of an all-powerful state.
IN the conduct of life man is actuated by two main motives—“the hope for reward,” and “the fear of punishment.” This hope and this fear must consequently be greatly taken into account by those in authority who have important posts under government. Their business in life it is to consult together for the framing of laws, and to provide for their just administration.
The tent of the order of the world is raised and established on the two pillars of reward and retribution.
In despotic governments carried on by men without divine faith, where no fear of spiritual retribution exists, the execution of the laws is tyrannical and unjust. There is no greater prevention of oppression than these two sentiments, hope and fear. They have both political and spiritual consequences. If administrators of the law would take into consideration the spiritual consequence of their decisions, and follow the guidance of religion, ‘They would be divine agents in the world of action, the representatives of God for those who are on earth, and they would defend, for the love of God, the interests of His servants as they would defend their own.’ If a governor realizes his responsibility, and fears to defy the divine law, his judgments will be just. Above all, if he believes that the consequences of his actions will follow him beyond his earthly life, and that ‘as he sows so must he reap,’ such a man will surely avoid injustice and tyranny.
Should an official, on the contrary, think that all responsibility for his actions must end with his earthly life, knowing and believing nothing of divine favors and a spiritual kingdom of joy, he will lack the incentive to just dealing and the inspiration to destroy oppression and unrighteousness.
When a ruler knows that his judgments will be weighed in a balance by the Divine Judge, and that, if he be not found wanting, he will come into the celestial kingdom and that the light of the heavenly bounty will shine upon him, then will he surely act with justice and equity. Behold how important it is that ministers of state should be enlightened by religion!
“Everything becomes yours by renunciation of everything.”
“No brotherhood appears in the world as lasting save that of the spiritual type.”
SELDOM has biographer presented a more significant and inspiring figure than the central one in C. J. C. Street’s President Masaryk.*
Flashing through the pages of this remarkable book one follows the career of a man who, from early childhood to advanced age, challenges breath-taking attention, evoking at the same time wonder and admiration. A child, a man! Teacher, reformer! Politician, statesman! Philosopher, idealist! Such is Mr. Masaryk’s unparalleled career as he is depicted,—and because of it all—he is a maker of history.
About four-score years ago, in an obscure village of far away Moravia, a boy was born. No special record was made of his natal day. Perhaps to the mother who bore him there came some secret presage of what was to be the future of this man-child, but no such illumination touched the mind of his coachman-father, and to all who have watched his development and achievement, it has never ceased to be a wonder how this child apparently destined to live and die one of a laboring class, shorn of opportunity and lacking ambition, should soar so far above his apparent status as “to become
* Published by Geoffrey Bles, Suffolk St., Pall Mall, London.
the acknowledged leader of his fellow countrymen and finally the President of a State—the creation of his own brain—as prosperous and well conducted as any in Europe.”
Reading Mr. Street’s description of President Masaryk’s mother, one is strongly reminded of the black freed-woman of the United States who in the first decade of emancipation devoted herself body and soul to the education of her offspring. Like her this Bohemian woman, witnessing the ignorance and degradation about her, determined that her son, Thomas, should be given an education. In education alone she was wise to see the open door to opportunity. It was through her sacrifice and determination that the lad was engineered through the various steps of preparation until he reached his goal-the university. From then on his own toil and his own will power became the stepping stones leading to the heights of life.
No more noble a character has ever embellished the pages of history than that which laid the foundation of Mr. Masaryk’s conduct. Of peculiar significance is his religious life. His mind was ever in search of Truth and open to its teachings. No man’s faith
was of import to him if such a one failed to apply its precepts to his daily life, and in his own actions his religious convictions were his constant guide.
Always an independent thinker, Thomas Masaryk was never controlled by what he had been taught. He was a discoverer of Truth on his own initiative and the glory of his work as teacher lay in his habit of freely giving his own opinions, but inviting his pupils to work out their own conclusions.
Mr. Masaryk himself is a brilliant linguist. German, French, English were soon mastered by him, and it was through his influence that foreign books of worth were in any considerable number translated into the mother tongue, Czech. As he became acquainted with the habit and thought of other nations through a knowledge of their literature, his own attitude toward life broadened and the good he found, he became wise and generous in imparting. Under the “pure logic” of his teaching his pupils were given priceless spiritual values, witness the following upon two topics, so speciously glossed over or prudently (?) ignored by many college professors:
“When one speaks of alcoholism, what is in question is not the object—wine, beer or spirits—but the subject who drinks them, the mental state of the drunkard, his development under the effects of drink, the results upon himself and upon his children; what is in question is the entire physical being of the drinker, his character, and his outlook on life, not alcohol, the thing in itself.”
And again upon another subject:
“It is true that the sexual instinct is very powerful; but we have, besides, various other instincts, and with respect to these we endeavor to place them under the control of our reasoning powers; the more powerful the instinct, the more urgently it requires mastering.”
IT WAS inevitable that President
Masaryk’s devotion to his country
and passion for service to his
countrymen should lead him into
politics, and just as certain that
the politician should very soon assume
the role of Statesman. Always
before him were freedom and
self-determination for his countrymen,
but freedom for all and self-determination
mapped out and controlled
by the sane and the unselfish.
Opposition never deterred
him, carping criticism he took for
helpfulness “in another dress”.
Fearless, he over and over again
put his life in jeopardy, his very
lack of any sense of danger seeming
to preserve him from harm.
His applied philosophy should be put into a text-book for the benefit of students of all races for, although formulated for the needs of the Czech people, it is so sane and comprehensive that it might easily be adapted to the needs of any underprivileged and handicapped group anywhere.
President Masaryk has been the author of many books. Knowing this one longs to have access to them. His biographer says: “In consequence of the extraordinary range of his studies, the President is without question the best informed man in Europe.”
One cannot help thinking what a rare privilege it would be to meet this man eighty years young. Whether in the presidential apartments in the castle at Prague among his many books of all languages most of which he reads in the original, or at his country estate where he walks, rides horseback and entertains numerous guests, one would indeed be honored to touch the hand of this man
who championed a bloodless revolution and who presides over the republic of the Slavs on whose shield is the motto Truth Will Prevail and whose constitution provides for no other leader while the noble Thomas Masaryk lives.
Ye who cannot meet President Masaryk at Prague or in the fields of his estate, may seek him in the pages of Mr. Street’s book. Long will you look ere you again find his like.
If love and agreement are manifest in a single family, that family will advance, become illumined and spiritual; but if enmity and hatred exist within it destruction and dispersion are inevitable. This is likewise true of a city. If those who dwell within it manifest a spirit of accord and fellowship it will progress steadily and human conditions become brighter, whereas through enmity and strife it will be degraded and its inhabitants scattered. In the same way the people of a nation develop and advance toward civilization and enlightenment through love and accord, and are disintegrated by war and strife. Finally, this is true of humanity itself in the aggregate.
When love is realized and the ideal spiritual bonds unite the hearts of men, the whole human race will be uplifted, the world will continually grow more spiritual and radiant and the happiness and tranquillity of mankind be immeasurably increased. Warfare and strife will be uprooted, disagreement and dissension pass away and Universal Peace unite the nations and peoples of the world.”
Mr. Lunt, an attorney by profession, is well known to the readers of this magazine as a long time member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'is of the United States and Canada, and as author of many widely circulated and illuminating articles which have appeared in The Bahá’i Magazine. Among them his noteworthy contributions under the titles, “World Peace and the World Court”1 and, “The Supreme Affliction—A Study in Bahá’i Economics”.2
“You cannot apply the name of ‘man’ to any being devoid of the faculty of meditation. Without it, he would be a mere animal.”
HUMANITY, today, occupies an arena in which are locked, in a life and death struggle, the gladiators of sectarianism and universal truth. On the one hand are arrayed human dogma and prejudice; on the other the champions of the divine law, itself. The strongholds of the one are superstition, division and tradition; of the other—reality, oneness and individual verification.
The principal distinguishing mark that reveals the sectarian attitude is its unfailing personal evaluation of religious truth and its almost sole emphasis upon the literal or outward interpretations of the revealed Word. Its point of view is, therefore, one of attachment to the outer, personal phase of life, and its appeal is to the outer man in the realm of mental imagery and of sense impression.
We are speaking, here, in a purely general way of a type of religious faith in which we, also, and our ancestors, over many centuries, have played a prominent part. No thought of individual criticism or condemnation is implied,
1 November, 1925, Vol. 16, No. 8. 2 July, 1932, Vol. 23, No. 4.
since this is a century of true education which is destined to emancipate every sincere soul from the torturing confines of the sectarian concept. Consorting with the people of every religion, without exception, is a mandate of Bahá’i faith; and this is to be done with joy and fragrance, i. e., with real love. How frequently ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called the attention of the Bahá’i friends to the divine duty of educating every “uninformed one,” and gently leading the children to maturity. Within each dwells the capacity to know the divine foundation.
BUT SINCE this is the age of
reality, it becomes necessary to
know the distinguishing characteristics
of every type of religious belief.
And behind these lie profound
issues of human psychology which
must be penetrated.
Yet we should not regard the problem as too complex and baffling. And here we touch the real issue. What, after all, marks out universal religion from sectarianism? Is it not the awakening of the slumbering reality in every soul? Is it anything less than the deepening of consciousness to a point wherein one takes “from the hands of the Divine Cup-bearer the chalice of immortal life, that all
wisdom may be thine, and that thou mayst hearken unto the mystic voice calling from the realm of the invisible.“*
If sectarianism is a form of attachment to the world, universal faith is its prime opposite—detachment. Nevertheless, consider that the sectarian possesses faith, and may be quite sincere in his adherence to the form he has chosen. But faith in the sense of belief, is not enough. There are two other essentials for the one who truly desires detachment. Conscious knowledge is one, and motion toward the Beloved of the Worlds is the other. Otherwise, though we call ourselves Bahá’is, Christians, Muhammadans or Jews, we have remained in the sectarian precincts, and are subject to those limitations.
For this reason, Bahá’u’lláh has opened to the true lovers of God that pathway that some call mystic, but which is in truth the search-way to God. This is the way of meditation and communion, the greatest bounty of this Day of God. Without this divine nourishment, the reality that has been stirred to believe cannot unfold its powers, nor bring forth its sovereignty over the outer life. In such a case, the tremendous forces of the world and its attachment, cannot be put to rout. This is the true explanation of that attachment, which throughout the the ages has weakened and laid low the religious stirring that sprang up at the dawn of every Advent. Out of this, sectarianism and denominationalism, faded flowers on the tree of life, found their origin. Of this condition
* Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words (Persian), v. 62. ** Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words (Persian), v. 13.
Bahá’u’lláh spoke, saying, “O My children! I fear lest, bereft of the melody of the dove of heaven, ye will sink back to the shades of utter loss, and never having gazed upon the beauty of the rose, return to water and clay.“**
THE KEYNOTE of this age is unity. The law of the celestial spheres, deposited also within every cell that we call matter, is to reveal its glory of oneness in man. How strange and mysterious it is that man, the pivot of the creation, the highest order dwelling upon the earth, should only now have begun to recognize that law of unity which resides even in the heart of the mineral kingdom far below him. Bahá’u’lláh has revealed this law to all human-kind, and commanded its observance. What a divine gift from the Manifestation of God! What greater evidence than this could be demanded as proof of His Truth and Station?
But unity and sectarianism are polar opposites. Unity is the voice and also the action of the reality of man, not of his attached personality. Unity is detachment from every form of prejudice, and knows no separation of man from man. While sectarianism clings to its self-imposed barriers, and nourishes itself on dogmas that the twin elements of science and religion cannot accept.
We would repeat that attachment to beliefs alone, without the illumination of the Sun of Reality gained through meditation and communion, dwarfs the growth of the soul, and produces a static condition. Whosoever
accepts this retarded state finds himself unable to show forth that love and that wisdom and, above all, that guidance that is the very quintessence of the Bahá’i Cause. The form, rather than the substance, becomes to him of the greater importance. All of us,
without exception, need to seek the hidden treasures of divine knowledge, within, more earnestly and with greater ardor. With the blossoming of these fruits, the Bahá’i Cause in America will assume its true stature.
(To be Continued)
“Mankind receives the bounties of material civilization as well as divine civilization from the heavenly Prophets. The capacity for achieving extraordinary and praiseworthy progress is bestowed by them through the breaths of the Holy Spirit, and heavenly civilization is not possible of attainment or accomplishment otherwise. This evidences the need of humanity for heavenly bestowals, and until these heavenly bestowals are received, eternal happiness cannot be realized.”
“The purpose of the creation of man is the attainment of the supreme virtues of humanity through descent of the heavenly bestowals. The purpose of man’s creation is therefore unity and harmony, not discord and separateness. . . . When the souls become separated and selfish the divine bounties do not descend and the Lights of the Supreme Concourse are no longer reflected even though the bodies meet together.”
“The greatest and the strongest proof for showing the abundance of the Spirit to the bodies is the very appearance of It’s power and influence in these bodies.”
“The test of the Truth (of God) lies in the influence the conception has on our lives. If it makes us kind and loving in our relationship with our fellowman, we know it is a true one. In other words it must produce in our hearts a love of God which must be transmitted into love for man.”
The author of this article has only just recently come into contact with the Bahá'i Cause, but although her allegiance to the Bahá’i group in Paris is only of a few months standing, she has already become an ardent adherent of the Faith.
“Beware of prejudice; light is good in whatsoever lamp it is burning.
A rose is beautiful in whatsoever garden it may bloom.”
AS I walk up the little old street tucked away in a corner of Montparnasse, these words from the teachings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá return to my memory, their wisdom quite in keeping with, and perhaps evoked by the silent old houses around me, the atmosphere of peace enfolding all. Turning at last into a large but somewhat dilapidated garden surrounded by ateliers built mostly of wood and glass, I climb a steep stair, and ring the bell at a small door on the second floor. It is opened almost immediately by a sweetfaced woman, the gracious lady of the house, and entering I find myself at once in a lofty spacious studio. On either side high uncurtained windows flood the room with radiance; the blue sky and waving tree tops so close at hand that the old studio seems but an antechamber . . . a stepping off place . . . These living things outside, this old furniture and multitudinous canvasses lining the walls appear to have been knit together in some bygone age into the present ethereal and wistful pattern. It is a tapestry woven of the past and present, of things spiritual and material and creates the right atmosphere for
contemplation, heartsearching and endeavor.
A few weeks before, a friend had asked me whether I knew anything of the Bahá’i religion, and had suggested that I study it.
What I gathered from his few remarks, fired my imagination, and my enthusiasm, so that I eagerly accepted the invitation I received later to attend a meeting of the Bahá’i Society or, rather, Group.
So here I am in the temple (though anything less resembling a temple, or more fitting to be one cannot be imagined) of the Universal Religion, the essence of all religions.
I look curiously round the room. I am evidently late, for already here and there small groups of people are talking. I make out some Persians, several French, and a sprinkling of English and Americans. Presently tea is dispensed by the smiling lady of the house, and then quite naturally, and not at all abandoning mundane topics, the men and women here present begin to talk of the Cause.
WHAT HAS then brought these
people of different nationalities together?
A new cult? A fashionable
craze? Some popular medium
or magnetic fakir? No. It is clearly
manifest that here there is no research
for a new sensation or morbid
excitement.
I am just asking myself the exact
nature of the force animating and welding together all these dissimilar natures when I hear a voice raised. Someone is reading aloud: “. . . No man should blindly follow his ancestors and forefathers. Nay, each must see with his own eyes, hear with his own ears and investigate the truth himself in order that he may follow the truth instead of blind acquiescence and imitation of ancestral beliefs.“1
An Englishman across the room makes a suggestion which is taken up and I hear a discussion on the relations between the Creator and the created, which savors somewhat of Spinoza. Someone says “But in attributing this or that quality or virtue to the Godhead you are trying to define the indefinable, you are limiting the illimitable.”
During a lull a young Persian stands up and chants a prayer in his native tongue. The sacred music, so much a prayer in itself, gently echoes through the room.
A lady sitting near me no doubt sensing in me a stranger within the gates, kindly volunteers some information:
“It was in 1844 that the Bahá’i revelation declared itself in Persia. At the present day, it has spread all over the world. The initiator of this great movement for social and spiritual reconstruction was the Báb of pure heart and radiant personality. He was martyred in 1850, and His mantle fell on Bahá’u’lláh, a Persian nobleman Who announced the dawn of a new era of fraternity and world peace.
1 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—Promulgation of Universal Peace”, p. 450. 2 From Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings.
He was imprisoned and exiled by the reactionary leaders in Persia. . . .”
Again the reader’s voice:
Are ye not all leaves and fruit of the same tree? . . . “O children of men! Do ye know why we have created you from one clay? That no-one should exalt himself over the other. . . . Close your eyes to racial differences, and welcome all with the light of oneness. This handful of dust, the world, is one home: let it be in unity. . . .”2
I lean towards the lady on my right and beg her to continue. She tells me that after the ascension of Baha’u’lláh, His Son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, carried on His work, and how, little by little, slowly but persistently, this religion of love and harmony and reason spread through Asia and permeated other religions, so that Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muhammadans, Zoroastrians, and many others,—all find their highest aims in this cause, for its teachings have the same basic principles.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá taught that religion should be in perfect accord with science, so that science shall sanction religion, and religion science. He preached a living faith, one that progresses, marches with the spirit of the age, meets present-day needs.
Though the Bahá’i religion directly touches and influences all branches of human activity, such as the economic question, the equality of man and woman, education for all, it also assuredly emphasizes the crying need of arbitration, an international Court of
Justice, where questions of frontiers, and national honor are concerned.
These precepts for disarmament, for a “Most Great Peace” were given more than half a century ago, when no-one yet spoke of such possibilities.
I LOOK UP at the racing clouds, the green treetops, and then at all the earnest faces about me. Life outside, and inside, the material and the spiritual welded together into an imperishable oneness to will and to do for human betterment.
It seems easy, with the simple alchemy of this religion of love, here close at hand, to transform
our minds, disarm our hearts. That first,—the rest will follow in natural sequence.
I murmur a few goodbyes, and find myself again in that little silent street.
What were those words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that I had just heard?—“Let us do away with all prejudices of race, of patriotism, of religion, of politics. We must become the lever for the union of the human race.”
As I turn the corner, I look back once more at the spiritual oasis I have just left, and wonder how long before suffering humanity will have drunk of its lifegiving waters, and been healed.
- Trouble our spirit, Lord,
- Nor let us rest.
- Terribly, terribly trouble
- Our human breast,
- Lest we wax stolid, Lord,
- As the jostling crowd;
- Or from sheer hollowness
- Wax vulgar, proud.
- Trouble our spirit, Lord,
- And rock and quake.
- Terribly, terribly trouble
- Our soul awake,
- Lest we wax blind, O Lord,
- To Thine ancient Self;
- Or lose our soul in the glitter
- Of empty pelf!
- Trouble our spirit, Lord,
- Nor let us be.
- Terribly, terribly trouble
- Our infinity;
- Touch our lips with love, Lord,
- Our tongue with Fire—
- That we may be a Flaming Sword
- For Thy desire!
“It is not necessary to lower Abraham to raise Jesus. It is not necessary to lower Jesus to proclaim Bahá’u’lláh. We must welcome the Truth of God wherever we behold it. The essence of the question is that all these great Messengers came to raise the Divine Standard of Perfections. All of them shine as orbs in the same heaven of the Divine Will. All of them give Light to the world.”
ABDU’L-BAHA once spoke these words to a group of people: “I wish to awaken you out of your deep slumbers. Do you know in what day you are living? Do you realize in what Dispensation you exist?”
And then He added this statement: “This century is the fulfillment of the promised century, the dawn of the appearances of the glorious visions of past prophets and sages.”
These are not idle words. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was no emotional sensationalist. He was recognized throughout the world as a great spiritual teacher. His advice was also sought by many in high government and military positions because experience taught them that He gave wise and practicable advice. But He much preferred to talk about spiritual things, to teach that the spiritual is the basis for the practical. Those who listened and heeded what He said became refreshed and gladdened in spirit.
We are asleep spiritually and it is with our spiritual insight that we must read the signs of the times. We hear constant reference to a new age but, because He spoke in
* Matthew 24:15.
1 How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?
And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Daniel 8:13, 14.
“Briefly the purport of this Passage is that he appoints two thousand three hundred years, for in the text of the Bible each day is a year. Then from the date of the edict of Artaxarxes to rebuild Jerusalem until the day of the birth of Christ there are 456 years, and from the birth of Christ until the manifestation of the Báb there are 1844 years. When you add 456 years to this number it makes 2300 years. That is to say, the fulfillment of the vision of Daniel took place in the year 1844 A. D., and this is the year of the Báb’s Manifestation according to the actual text of the book of Daniel.”—Some Answered Questions, p. 50.
such startling terms, it is evident that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá meant something different from the new age in science and invention or even in social and economic justice.
Can we not pause long enough to try to find out what ‘Abdu’l-Bahá did mean when He asked these questions and made this statement? Such a consideration will take us into the field of prophecy.
TO ATTEMPT to interpret prophecy
is always dangerous, but
when we consider prophecy in the
light of history we are at least on
firmer ground. A prophecy that
has challenged and puzzled students
of our Bible very much is in
Daniel. Christ refers to it in answer
to the question of His disciples,
“What shall be the sign of
Thy coming and of the end of the
world?” Part of His answer was,
“When ye therefore shall see the
abomination of desolation spoken
of by Daniel the prophet, stand in
the holy place.”*
Referring to Daniel we find that he gives dates of the “time of the end”.1 It is these dates which have puzzled people. Since Daniel gives other dates which were fulfilled in
the coming of Christ, Bible students felt justified in believing that these dates referred to the second coming of Christ. They believed that our Lord Jesus Christ would come literally in clouds of glory in 1843 or 1844. We learn1 that there were independent groups of earnest Bible students in different countries and localities all of whom were looking for Christ’s coming. In England, Scotland, Germany, India, Australia, America, were groups of such believers. These were all disappointed and so far as we know never learned how near they were to the truth.
God’s ways are inscrutable. We still need to heed Christ’s warning, “Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come;” and the words of Paul, “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night”.
LET US see what really did happen in 1844. The drama took place in far away and benighted Persia. The truly wise men who saw the star and went to worship were trained not in Christian but in Muhammadan scriptures, for these latter have prophecies too which point to the appearance of a Mighty One in the early decades of the nineteenth century.
Almost fifty years before the appearance of the Promised One a certain Shaykh Ahmad “inspired by the light that shown within him”, “aglow with zeal and conscious of the sublimity of his calling” arose to “prepare the way for Him who must needs be made manifest
1 We are indebted to Mr. Touty of Shanghai, China, for the results of his efforts to obtain documentary evidence on this matter. In response to an inquiry of his published in the North-China Daily News he received replies giving quotations and references to books and pamphlets corroborating in detail the above statement. Lack of space prevents the printing of these.
2 Chapter 1 in “The Dawn-Breakers—translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi. Bahá’í Publishing Committee, New York.
in the fullness of time”. If you would know this story in the beauty of its detail read it in “The Dawn-Breakers.“2
Shaykh Ahmad passed into the next world before the coming of the Promised One, but he did not lose his faith and had prepared his disciple Siyyid Kázim to carry on his work. Before the hour had struck for the world to know, Siyyid Kázim attained the presence of the Promised One and knew in his heart that it was He. It was given to the young man Husayn to be the one to whom these revealing words were uttered: “O thou who art the first to believe in Me! Verily I say, I am the Báb, the Gate of God, and thou art the Bábu’l-Báb, the gate of that Gate.” This event took place May 23, 1844. It took nearly fifty years for the news of it to travel to the Western World.
THE “COMING” indeed took
place, not such a one as those
searchers of the scriptures anticipated,
not a literal coming in the
clouds, but one still mightier and
yet in accord with the laws of nature.
The “Coming” is not for
the Christians alone, but for the
whole world. This is a universal
age, the Message is universal, proclaiming
world unity, and the Messenger
is the great Unifier.
Was this event, then, taking place in little known and unimportant Persia, really of significance to the western world and the world at large? What connection does it have with the prophecies in the
Christian Bible? The burden of the Báb’s message was this, that His advent marked the beginning of a new dispensation, that by His coming “The Day of God” was inaugurated and that furthermore a Mightier One than He would soon appear to teach erring humanity the way to establish the Kingdom of God in all the world. Like Christ He came not to destroy but to fulfill, not to repudiate any religion but to purify and to show men that in their purity all religions are one.
Did He appear, this Mightier One? Yes, nineteen years after in Baghdad, Bahá’u’lláh, the Glory of God, Who an exile from His native Persia, had been engaged these nineteen years in teaching the followers of the Báb, stunned and bewildered by the execution of their beloved Master and by the unheard-of persecutions and martyrdoms of their friends, announced that He Himself was the One whom the Báb had foretold, “He Whom God should manifest”. He it was, Who, some years later, from the prison city of ‘Akká proclaimed to the whole world that the age of universal peace and justice had dawned and laid down the universal principles upon which peace must be based, namely the oneness of religions and the oneness of humanity. If we investigate carefully, sincerely and without prejudice we shall find that Bahá’u’lláh brought not only the message of a New Age to earth but also the power to establish it, the power of the Spirit. The foundations are already laid. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has told us:
1 Daniel 12:9. 2 See “Some Answered Questions”, chapters 10-12. The Kitáb-i-Iqán also gives new meaning to many of Christ's teachings. See especially pp. 20-30, 66-76, 113-120, 132-136.
“The Kingdom of Peace, Uprightness and Reconciliation is established in the insensible world and will by degrees become manifest and apparent through the power of the Word of God.”
IN THE light of history it appears that those earnest Bible students of the early nineteenth century erred in making too literal interpretation of prophecy. The end of the world is the end of the old dispensation. It seems apparent that God does not intend that we should understand prophecy until after its fulfillment. For when Daniel said that he did not understand the things that he saw and heard, the answer was, “Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.”1 Each dispensation ends when a new Messenger of God comes and this Messenger, this Manifestation of God, whose coming marks the end of the old and the beginning of the new, is able to unseal the Books—to explain what has been obscure. Thus Bahá’u’lláh makes clear many things in Jewish, Muhammadan and Christian scriptures.2
It is evident to any student of prophecy that many prophecies, such as the return of the Jews to Palestine, are being fulfilled in these days but we think that those who are studying scripture in the light of the Bahá’i revelation get a vision of the glory and reality of the New Day that others only glimpse. Many believe that the prophecies of terror, of “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time” so terrible that “except those days should be shortened,
there should no flesh be saved” are now being fulfilled and that in passing through the world war and this aftermath of economic distress we are experiencing the “great and very terrible” day of the Lord spoken of by the prophet Joel. Following this will come the day when peace and righteousness shall reign when “the earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord.”
But at present the world at large is in a period of skepticism and doubt; and to many, proofs based on the fulfillment of prophecy make small appeal. Let such study carefully and with unprejudiced mind the historical facts which have followed the “Coming”. Let them discover for themselves the tremendous spiritual forces which became active in the world with the advent of the Báb. So mighty were these spiritual forces that two of the most powerful Oriental potentates backed by the most fiendish persecutions which fanatical Muhammadan religionists could devise were powerless to stop the spread of this universal message of love or to halt its power to unify.
For true spiritual power never remains mystic, hidden, mysterious. It always gives evidence of itself in the realm of being, translates itself into deeds which cause progress and are of benefit to mankind. So ever since the coming of the Báb and Bahá’u’llah great changes have been rapidly taking place in the world, great scientific discoveries and inventions. Great struggles too have been and are going on: the struggle of woman for her just position in the world, the struggle of the masses in the laboring world for justice, the
struggle of the oppressed races for equal opportunities, the struggle of minority groups and nations for political justice, the struggle between the forces of peace and war. All of these struggles are the efforts of the forces of the “Kingdom of Peace, Uprightness and Reconciliation which is established in the invisible world” to become manifest in this world. Foolish man opposes them, but they must inevitably prevail for the power of the Word of God is irresistible.
THE HONEST and unprejudiced
investigator will find too many
things already accomplished in establishing
the Bahá’i Faith. In a
recent letter to American Bahá’is
Shoghi Effendi sums up some of
these accomplished facts:
“Born in an environment of appalling degradation, springing from a soil steeped in age-long corruptions, hatreds and prejudice, inculcating principles irreconcilable with the accepted standards of the times, and faced from the beginning with the relentless enmity of the government, church and people, this nascent faith of God has, by virtue of the celestial potency with which it has been endowed, succeeded, in less than four-score years and ten, in emancipating itself from the galling chains of Islamic domination, in proclaiming the self-sufficiency of its ideals and the independent integrity of its laws, in planting its banner in no less than forty of the most advanced countries of the world, in establishing its outposts in lands beyond the farthest seas, in consecrating its religious edifices in the midmost heart of the Asiatic and American continents, in inducing two of the most powerful governments of the West to ratify the instruments essential to its administrative activities, in obtaining from royalty befitting tributes to the excellency of its teachings, and, finally, in forcing its grievances upon the attention of the representatives of the highest tribunal in the civilized world, and in securing from its members written affirmations that are tantamount to a tacit recognition of its religious status and to an express declaration of the justice of its cause.”
Can we doubt then as we view prophecy in the light of history that in the coming of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh Biblical prophecies have been fulfilled and are still being fulfilled, that this is “the day in which the Lord of Hosts has come on the clouds of Glory . . . This is the day in which the East and the West shall embrace each other like unto lovers, war and contention shall be forgotten, nations and governments will enter into an eternal bond of amity and conciliation.“
WHAT SHALL we say of the future?
Many of the Bible prophecies
are still unfulfilled. We must
always observe caution against
their literal interpretation. Do the
Bahá’i writings give us a picture
of a perfected world suddenly
emerging from the chaos and destruction
of greed, ignorance and
war, a world so perfect that no
growth or progress is possible? Or
will changes take place in accordance
with laws of progress and
evolution? The answer to this
question will be found in investigating
the basic principles which
Bahá’u’lláh has shown are the
foundation upon which the new world order must be built and in studying the laws and instructions He has given in conformity with which Bahá’i communities are gradually growing up all over the world. These principles, laws and instructions are sane, reasonable, workable, recognizing both the limitations of humanity and its ability for infinite progress. Let the reader investigate for himself.
Weighing carefully Biblical prophecy in relation to what has already happened are we not justified in believing that these prophecies will continue to be fulfilled? Can we not share with Shoghi Effendi the belief that:
“ . . . . great and marvelous as have been the achievements of the past, the glory of the golden age of the Cause, whose promise lies embedded within the shell of Bahá’u-llàh’s immortal utterances, is yet to be revealed.” And further that—
“ . . . . the welding of the communities of the East and West into the world-wide Brotherhood of which poets and dreamers have sung, and the promise of which lies at the very core of the Revelation conceived by Bahá’u-llàh; the recognition of His law as the indissoluble bond uniting the peoples and nations of the earth; and the proclamation of the reign of the Most Great Peace, are but a few among the chapters of glorious tale which the consummation of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh will unfold.”
Give thanks to God that thou hast put thy feet into the world of existence in such a great century, and that thou hast heard the divine gladtidings. Try that thou mayst comprehend the mysteries as they must and should be comprehended, and that thou mayst understand the mysteries of the Holy Books.”
The Black Standard, “was the same standard of which Muhammad, the Prophet of God, had thus spoken: ‘Should your eyes behold the Black Standards proceeding from Khurásán, hasten ye towards them, even though ye should have to crawl over the snow, inasmuch as they proclaim the advent of the promised Mihdi [Title of the Manifestation expected by Islam]. . . .’ That Standard was unfurled at the command of the Báb, in the name of Quddus, and by the hands of Mulla Husayn. It was carried aloft all the way from the city of Mashhad to the Shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi. For eleven months . . . that earthly emblem of an unearthly sovereignty waved continually over the heads of that small and valiant band, summoning the multitude who gazed upon it to renounce the world and to espouse the Cause of God.”*
“Mount your steeds, O heroes of God! Charge—in the Name of the Lord of the Age! Holy, holy, holy, the Lord our God, Lord of the Angels and the Spirit!”
THE strange exultant cry rings out from grey caravanserai, ere the morning star has paled its brightness before the rising sun. It resounds across the desert plains, and re-echoes from bare, brown hills; the dank forests of Mazindaran know its unearthly chanting; it challenges great armies from crumbling ramparts and the precincts of saintly shrines; and those who hear it thrill with a holy joy, or tremble with unaccountable dismay, according to their understanding of its mystic meaning. At the call, a mere handful of youths and unaccustomed scholars put to ignominious flight the hosts of their assailants. Chanted in solemn unison, it strikes terror into the midnight revels of the besiegers, like a veritable rebuke of God, and they fling down their wine-cups and flee in panic as from some invisible avenging angel. The guns could not silence its potent harmonies,
* Nabil’s Narrative of the Early History of the Bahá’i Cause, published under the title “The Dawn-Breakers.” Bahá’í Publishing Committee, New York.
nor could prison, starvation, bribes, treachery, and unspeakable tortures.
For through the land of Persia the voice of God is sounding, and the call of His Herald must be answered, His commands obeyed, His love awaken passionate response, and all the prophecies of the Qur’án concerning the Promised One must needs find fulfillment.
OUT OF Khurásán comes the little
procession. Its leader, frail but
dauntless, wears the green turban
of a Siyyid, and a sword that could
fall, like that of Michael himself,
upon the evil-doer. A black banner,
gold-embroidered, flutters in
the breeze. Beneath it marches
the inspired company of those who,
severed from the world, are engaged
in summoning their fellow-countrymen
to purify their lives,
arise from their lethargy, and give
welcome to a new and heavenly
message brought by the long-expected
Imam Mihdi,—the youthful
Prophet of Shiráz—alas! already
shut away from their longing sight
in the grim fortress of Chihriq.
For this land of the Lion and
the Sun was, in the nineteenth century, like some dark and noisome jungle, full of tangled growths of fanaticism, ignorance and vice, across which falls the baneful shadow of a corrupt Moslem priesthood. On every hand lurks danger, opposition, and death. “Make a way through this jungle,” cry the followers of the Báb, “a highway for our God!”
Only utter detachment from all that the worldly prize, can bear witness to sincerity. At a word from their leader, the Mulla Husayn, all possessions are flung away—even to precious turquoise from the rich mines of Nishapur!
Such evidences of devotion, backed by irrefutable argument and passionate eloquence, attract souls all along the way. Mothers bring their sons, and sisters their brothers, pleading for their enrollment in the Legion of Light. For does not this gallant Husayn vividly recall the Imam whose martyrdom they have for centuries commemorated at Muharram? Yet few can be accepted. Only those who are of the true spiritual aristocracy of the Prophets may hope to attain so exalted a station of sacrifice. “This is the road to our Karbilá,” cries their leader, “and he who is faint-hearted, and unprepared to suffer to the uttermost, let him return to his home!”
AT BARFURUSH, an angry mob, incited
by the lies and misrepresentations
of their mujtahid, and
armed with all kinds of murderous
weapons bar the way and start to
attack them. Thereupon the Mulla
Husayn, whose hands as a scholar
were wont to tremble so that he
could scarcely write, becomes transformed, by the power of the Spirit, into a mighty warrior. The rabble flee before his flashing sword, as it performs prodigies of skill unknown since the legendary days of Rustem. Yet the mercy they now implore is never denied; and ere nightfall, the caravanserai, where the exhausted little company have taken refuge, is thrown open to the generous entertainment of their enemies.
But before the deluded crowds, that fill the city with uproar, witness must be borne that they are no infidels, but true lovers of God and His Prophets. So at the hour of evening prayer, a young volunteer ascends the roof, and begins to chant aloud the familiar invocation. ”Allah’u’Akbar—Mighty is the Lord!” A bullet cuts him short. Courageously, another volunteers to continue the sentence,-“I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of God.” He likewise falls. “There is no God, but God!” cries, with his last breath, the undaunted third.
Entering the confines of the forest, cruel treachery again awaits them, and many are required to lay down their lives. White indeed, with the bones of the slain, is this road to the new Kingdom of Abha!
AT LAST, driven to defend them-
selves from the ceaseless attacks
made by the priestly castes, now
reinforced by the state, they seek
refuge amid the woods and swamps
that surround the shrine of the
Shaykh Tabarsi. Day and night
they labor, with amazing ingenuity
and energy, to construct ramparts
and dig ditches. No light tasks for
erstwhile gently-nurtured youth and elderly divines! Here, on the threshold, as it were, of the celestial world, and with its light and power filling their souls and animating their every action, they take their final stand. Like some noble deer that, long pursued by the wolves, turns at last at bay, resolving to make a worthy end.
Over this fortified retreat in the wilderness waves, for eleven tragically eventful months, the black ensign—earthly emblem of an unearthly sovereignty, summoning the multitudes who gaze upon it to embrace the Cause of the Prophet of God.
Within, the valiant band of three hundred and thirteen pass the calamitous days and nights in prayer and chanting, and in studying the illuminating Tablets penned by the Báb, and others of His inspired followers. Trials unite them; until they appear like one soul in many bodies, a pure chalice and focal point of supernatural power.
But when the pitiless cannonade of the besieging armies reaches its height, then—“Mount your steeds, O heroes of God!” rings through the fort; led by the intrepid Husayn the little band sallies forth, through the snow and mud, and to the exultant shout of “Ya Sahibu’z-Zaman”—Lord of the Age! Time and again they charge the enemy, silence the guns, overthrow the barricades, and spread utter rout and panic among the trained regiments of the Shah.
FROM THE few survivors of the
struggle, and also from their assailants—whose
amazed admiration
they repeatedly won—certain records have been obtained.
We may see Quddus, the beloved friend and confidant of the Báb, hazarding the forest at midnight to join the besieged. A small company, bearing lighted torches and chanting hymns of praise, like those who at a wedding welcome the bridegroom, go out to meet him. Quddus, whose soul is knit to Husayn’s as Jonathan to David, the charm of whose personality, understanding, and inspired utterances make him a natural spiritual leader of men. No bombardment, however severe, can disturb his serenity; smiling he stands amid the explosions, chanting verses of spontaneous joy.
We can hear the voice of Husayn, as he comes forth boldly before the enemy, clad in flowing white robes and green turban, and leaning upon his lance. “O people, we wish not to fight,” he cries, “we only desire to proclaim to you the fulfillment of our sacred traditions in the advent of the promised Qá’im. Has not Muhammad commanded: Should you behold the black standards proceeding from Khurásán, hasten ye towards them, even though ye should have to crawl over the snow, inasmuch as they proclaim the advent of the Mihdi? Shed not innocent blood.”
To the soldiers he appears like some bright shade of their Imam of Karbilá. They are moved, even to tears. But their Commanding Officer, alarmed, orders the guns to silence his pleading. Then Husayn, raising his face towards heaven and unsheathing his sword cries: “O God, I have completed the
proof to this host, and it availeth not!” Charge—in the Name of the Lord of the Age! And the utterly demoralized troops again flee before him.
But at daybreak he is borne back to the fort and laid at the feet of the anguished Quddus. Yet even the Angel of Israfel pauses, while the two friends partake of hallowed mysteries and ineffable joys revealed only to spirits transcended.
Then the final scenes: the agonies of decimation and starvation, honorable surrender, infamous betrayal, wholesale martyrdoms. And Quddus, the beloved, torn to pieces in the market-place, praying, as
Christ, forgiveness for his murderers.
OVER EIGHTY years have passed,
and the night wind sighs over the
lone ruins of Tabarsi, and the moon
kisses with silent reverence the
shrine of these heroic hearts. But
the beacon fires of faith they kindled
amid the dark forests of
Mázindarán have never been extinguished.
History has emblazoned
their names in imperishable
glory; while that Cause, of which
they were the chosen vanguard,
goes marching on, beneath the sunlit
banners of Bahá’u-lláh, towards
world-wide spiritual victory.
“Not by the material resources which the members of this infant community can now summon to their aid; not by the numerical strength of its present-day supporters; nor by any direct tangible benefits its votaries can as yet confer upon the multitude of the needy and the disconsolate among their countrymen, should its potentialities be tested or its worth determined. Nowhere but in the purity of its precepts, the sublimity of its standards, the integrity of its laws, the reasonableness of its claims, the comprehensiveness of its scope, the universality of its program, the flexibility of its institutions, the lives of its founders, the heroism of its martyrs, and the transforming power of its influence, should the unprejudiced observer seek to obtain the true criterion that can enable him to fathom its mysteries or to estimate its virtue.”
THE Western World hardly realizes how much awakened certain groups and classes in the Orient are. A letter from Mr. A. Samimi gives us a first hand picture direct from Persia of a recent congress of women in Tihrán. This was the first occasion on which Persian women as a community ever entertained representatives from their sisters in the eastern countries and the event was therefore of importance in the history of the progress of women in Persia.
“Early in November,” Mr. Samimi Writes, “a number of women representing the Congress of Eastern Women came to Tihrán. They were headed by a lady from Lebanon (Syria) named Madame Nour Hemadeh, of the Druse Faith, finely trained and educated. She has done much for the progress and emancipation of the women of the East and has a most sympathetic view of the Bahá’i Cause Whose teachings and principles she admires. A warm reception was given to her by the women of Persia.
A WOMEN’S Congress was held
in Tihrán on November 27th,
(1932) where delegates from the
Council of Women of Egypt, Syria,
Hejaz and some other countries
were present. They propose to get
the Persian government to recognize
a larger scope of rights for
* The Tarbiat Schools for both boys and girls are Bahá’i schools which have been in operation for many years in Tihrán, the capital of Persia. Ghodsia Ashraf (a Bahá’i) was the first Persian girl to complete her education in this country. Arriving here in 1911, she attended schools in Washington, D. C., for over four years, thereafter returning to Tihrán to assist in the Tarbiat School for Girls.
the women here and to place them on the same standing with men as far as their social rights are concerned.
The delegates were entertained by various classes of women, the Bahá’is of Tihrán doing their share in giving these ladies a warm reception.
One such meeting, composed of about a hundred notable Bahá’is, both men and women, was held at the house of Aghai Kazemoff as a reception to the women delegates. The meeting was opened by chanting a prayer of ‘Abdul-Bahá's in Arabic which deeply impressed the visiting delegates. Addresses were given by Mirza Azizullah Khan Mesbah, principle of the Tarbiat* School for Boys, and Rouhangiz Khanum, assistant principle of the Tarbiat School for Girls, in which it was pointed out that the emancipation of women is one of the principles revealed in the Bahá’i Faith over eighty years ago and has therefore been familiar to Bahá’is for a long time.
“Another meeting for Madame Nour Hemadeh and her companions was arranged for December 4th, at the house of one of the Bahá’i friends, Habibullah Khan Sabet. A number of members of the Muhammadan Progressive Women’s Society headed by Mastoureh Afshar were also invited. Among those who lectured at the
meeting was Mrs. Keith Ransom-Kehler, a distinguished Bahá’i sister from America who is now back from her trip to the provinces of Khurasán, Mazindarán and Gilán, Persia. She gave a stirring and thoughtful talk regarding the conditions of women in Persia before and after the appearance of the Bahá’i Cause and gave an outline of the life of the famous Bahá’i poetess and martyr, Tahirih.”
IN THE address by Rouhangiz
Khanum Fath Azam referred to
above, she too emphasized that the
equality of men and women is not
a new idea to those women of the
Orient who have been trained in
the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. In
Bahá’i communities the emancipation
of women has been gradually
going on for eighty years. “The
first ray of light,” she says, “came
from the Persian lady Tahirih
Qurratu’l-‘Ayn who removed the
veil of superstition and denounced
the old school of thought which
gave to woman a place subordinate
to man in her will, her mind, and
her capacities. She was a woman
of great accomplishments, an eloquent
speaker and a gifted poet.
For some Years she was a teacher
of religious doctrine to a group of
students in Iráq. She reached the
height of her station under the
guidance of Bahá’i teachings and
with a number of men and women
whom she had attracted to the
Bahá’i Faith traveled through
Persia. After suffering imprisonment
and persecution she was martyred
in Tihrán. Following in her
footsteps a large number of Bahá’i
women arose in service to the cause
of women. Especially in recent
years with the revival of prosperity in Persia under its great King the difficulties of the past have vanished and a wider field of activity is open to women.”
In speaking of the present position of women in Bahá’i communities in Persia (and this would be true of Bahá’i communities everywhere) she says: “The Bahá’i women vote at the elections for Spiritual Assemblies,—the Bahá’i consultative boards—whereas the question of women’s suffrage has not yet been successfully established in the world. The Spiritual Assemblies make the same facilities for the education and culture of girls as they do for boys. There are the same institutions, meetings and conferences for both; and in fact women receive a greater share of general attention since the following teaching was given by His Holiness ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: ‘Looking with a truth-seeking eye we see that the education of girls is more necessary than that of boys, for a time comes when girls become mothers and have to bring up children . . . . It is evident that an uneducated and uncultured girl becoming a mother causes the ignorance and deprivation of a number of children.’”
This address has an interesting paragraph too on the method these Bahá’i women use in working for progress: “It is a special characteristic of the activities of Bahá’i women that they move with cautious feet and use moderation, tact and discretion in their work. They avoid outward display, violent means, and above all interference in politics and seek equality with men in acquiring knowledge of efficiency
and capacity for doing service. They work in unison with men and their methods are by no means directed towards an upheaval for demanding social rights. The Bahá’i men have themselves a perfect understanding of the scope and extent of this great work as taught by the Bahá’i Cause and they render every assistance to the women; this understanding makes the work of women quiet but deep. The general public and the government are also satisfied and thus our success is insured.”
In closing this Bahá’i speaker said, “I hope that the visit and the
work of these ladies who have come to our country prompted by their desire for the unity of women in the East will have significant results among women’s communities in Persia and other eastern countries and will inspire them anew to proceed along the path of advancement.”
And we would add that in the news of these awakened women of the Orient we see a step toward the fulfillment of the hope of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that “women of the East, as well as their Western sisters, will progress rapidly until humanity shall reach perfection.”
- Martha is careful and troubled about many things,
- While Mary humbly to her loved Lord clings,
- For Mary has chosen that good part—
- She has that singleness of heart
- Which seeks to do the Will of God,
- Though it mean the path the martyrs trod;
- And Mary has a hundredfold reward
- From the bounty of her well-pleased, loving Lord.
IN THE universal competition for survival and increase, what chance has good will? in the long run it has every chance. Good will, like all ethical action, is best in the light of its total consequences.
A man may sometimes profit by selfishness and greed, but if his neighbors have the same policy, internal dissensions will weaken that social group. It will lose ground before a society made up of men of good will who give their united strength to the common good. The men of ill will ultimately will fail, along with the society they have weakened. A community is strongest only when men of good will greatly predominate, and thereupon they will undertake the complete elimination of ill will and greed as a needless social waste.
This picture, while greatly over-simplified, is true and representative for the long run. Good will toward men is not a quixotic dream. It is the rule of economy, effectiveness, and power, and fate fights for it.
THE old law of growth, expansion, and competition will not be annulled. Energy of increasing life forever seeks expression. But the nature of the contest will change. With increasing wisdom, men will more clearly distinguish friend from foe.
Men will fight against ignorance, disease, and poverty, and not against each other. They will combat selfishness, privilege, greed, and hate. They will free themselves from the constant pressure of blind increase of population. They will war against crime, feeble-mindedness, and insanity. They will attack every blight of inheritance and environment. Superstition, prejudice, and credulity will be overcome.
Men of the future will look back at the present as a time of civil strife, when brother fought brother, while both were vulnerable to the common enemy; but also as a beginning of rebellion against this stupidity, and as a period of transition from the old age to the new.—Arthur E. Morgan, President of Antioch College—”Antioch Notes”.
In the history of the Bahá’i Movement, Shaykh Ahmad is as it were the dawn star—the first one to catch the rays of the spiritual Sun about to rise upon Persia and, indeed, the whole world. He felt, in fact he spiritually knew, the speedy coming of the great Messenger, though who it would be he knew not. This is the potent secret which he shares with Haji ‘Abdu’l Vahhab, as told by Nabil in “The Dawn-Breakers.”
- “If for this day thou dost thank God
- Throughout eternity,
- It were but poor, inadequate return
- For the great bounty He bestows on thee
- In these glad-tidings that I give
- On this great day to thee.
- “If through all time, thou dost thank God
- For bringing thee unto this day—
- A day of splendor which the saints of old
- Yearned and implored to see—
- It were but poor return.
- “Thine eyes grow large with wonder;
- Marvel not that language fails to bear
- The greatness and the import of my
- thought.
- Come thou with me upon the wings of
- prayer
- Unto that realm where soul communes
- with soul
- Without the veil of words.
- “It is enough! Thine eyes reveal to me
- That thou hast risen to those heights
- That guard the gate to knowledge of our
- God
- And His great destiny for man.
- “The secret that within my breast has
- burned,
- Like a consuming fire these many years,
- That myst’ry I have yearned and yearned
- to share,
- But man’s perversity and arrogance
- Held my tongue dumb—
- “That sacred message, you are worthy to
- receive.
- Again I say to thee, thank God,
- Though it be but inadequate return.
- “Have I not trained thee day by day
- For this most holy hour?
- When you, the first of all men on this
- earth,
- Might share the burden and the ecstacy
- Of God’s most high command to me.
- “My heart is overflowing with such joy,
- It seems the universe itself
- Must burst asunder with its might!
- And thine own soul doth glow with joy
- supreme,
- That thou art ready, even waiting for His
- call.
- “I see thee cast aside the last of earth’s
- dark bonds–
- I see thee severed from all that the world
- holds dear;
- I see thee standing firm before man’s scorn,
- Ready to sacrifice a thousand lives
- In the red path of the Beloved One.
- “And so I say to thee—mark well my
- words—
- The voice of God is now resounding through
- all space
- With the glad-tidings of His great new
- day;
- I am His humble messenger,
- Sent to arouse men to His call.
- Arise with me and spread the tidings of
- the day of God,
- And thank thou God throughout eternity!”
THE PROMULGATION OF UNIVERSAL PEACE, being The Addresses of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in America, in two volumes. Price, each, $2.50.
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH AND THE NEW ERA, by Dr. J. E. Esslemont, a gifted scientific scholar of England. This is the most comprehensive summary and explanation of the Bahá'í Teachings as yet given in a single volume. Price, $1.00; paper cover, 50 cents.
THE WISDOM TALKS OF 'ABDU'L-BAHÁ in Paris. This series of talks covers a wide range of subjects, and is perhaps the best single volume at a low price in which 'Abdu'l-Bahá explains in His own words the Bahá'í Teaching. Price, paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.
BAHÁ'Í SCRIPTURES. This book, compiled by Horace Holley, is a remarkable compendium of the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. It contains a vast amount of material and is indexed. This Paper Edition (only ¾-inch thick) Price, $2.50.
THE BAHÁ'Í WORLD, a Biennial International Record (formerly Bahá'í Year Book). Prepared under the auspices of the Bahá'í National Assembly of America with the approval of Shoghi Effendi. Price, cloth, $2.50.
All books may be secured from The Bahá'í Publishing Committee, Post office Box 348, Grand Central Station, New York City.
FIVE MONTHS' subscription to a new subscriber, $1.00; yearly subscription, $3.00. Two subscriptions to one address, $5.00. Three subscriptions to one address, $7.50. Ten new subscriptions to one address, $25.00 (in United States and Canada). If requested, the subscriber may receive one or more copies and have the remaining copies sent to other addresses.
Two subscriptions, one to come each month, and one to be sent in a volume bound in half-leather, at the end of the year, $5.75 of the two subscriptions; postage for bound volume additional.
Single copies, 25 cents each; ten copies to one address, $2.00. Address The Bahá'í Magazine, 1000 Chandler Bldg., Washington, D. C.
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Bound volumes Nos. 15 and 16, covering the years 1924 to 1925 and 1925 to 1926, contain many of the most valuable and instructive Bahá'í teachings compiled from the writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, on such subjects as Education, Peace, The Solution of the Economic Problem, Cooperation and Unity, Proof of the Existence of God, and others equally as important. They also contain articles on various phases of the Bahá'i Cause and its teachings contributed by Bahá'í writers and presented with clearness and accuracy, reports of conferences and conventions, Bahá'í News and Travel Notes and other interesting information. Volumes 17, 18 and 19 contain valuable material and information for students of religion, sociology, science, etc., both Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís.
All volumes carry illustrations of great historical value.
Bound in half leather, each volume $3.50; if two volumes are bound together, for $6.00; postage additional.
All of the bound volumes of earlier years are filled with such remarkable spiritual teachings of the New Age that they constitute a priceless library. Volumes 2, 3, 4 and 5 contain many sublime records of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's teachings, addresses and interviews in Europe and America. (Volumes 2 and 3 are now exhausted and Volume 4 cannot be supplied in a complete form as several numbers of this volume are exhausted.)
Volumes 7 and 8, which are, also, often bound together, contain the wonderful compilations on the Divine Art of Living and the New Covenant.
Volume 9 contains varied records from the Holy Land and 'Abdu'l-Bahá's words on the material, intellectual and spiritual education of children; and both volumes 9 and 10 filled with Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá written after the Great War.
Volumes 11 and 12 contain many Tablets and pictures and inspiring accounts of visits with 'Abdu'l-Bahá at Haifa, where members of all religions and races gathered in unity at the table of the Master. Volume 12 also gives the immortal narrative of His last days on earth and His ascension into the Kingdom.
Volume 13 contains priceless letters of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá'i Cause, articles of universal interest and other valuable material.
Volume 14 contains letters of Shoghi Effendi, also his translations of the divine writings of Bahá'ulláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá as well as a brilliant series of articles and historical accounts.
Bound in half leather, single volumes $3.50; if two volumes are bound together, for $6.00. Postage additional.
