The American Bahá’í/Volume 22/Issue 7/Text

The American Bahá’í
Volume 22, Issue 7

The Hand of the Cause of God John Robarts passes away

Dear Bahd't Friends:

Sadly we share the news with you of the passing of another of our beloved Chief Stewards of the Faith, John Robarts. He will be warmly remembered for his gentle, persistent urgings to immerse ourselves in prayer in order to access the potency of the grace of God and insure our complete and total victory.

We ask that you hold befitting memorial gatherings to pray for the progress of the noble soul of dearly loved Hand of the Cause of God John Robarts. As you do so, we hope that you

Following isthe cable of June 19 from the Universal House of Justice concerning Mr. Robarts’ passing:

WITH SADDENED HEARTS ANNOUNCE PASSING MUCH-LOVED

TAUNCH PROMO’ FAITH, L AH, na CAUSE GOD JOHN

3S IN HIS NATIVE DURING MINISJBSEQUENTLY

TRY BEL “OVED GUARDIAN AND ON WORLD SCALE THROUGH HIS IN1

IIS RELIANCE AND EMPHASIS ON PRAYER IN ALL ‘ORTS PROMOTION CAUSE AND HIS SUSTAINED -VICES PATH LOVE FOR BLESSED BEAUTY W! CHARACTERIZED BY SPIRIT CERTITUDE, ‘ FACEMENT AND VIGOR WHICH SET A STANDARD OF STEWARDSHIP THAT HAS ENRICHED ANNALS FAITH. HE HAS ASSUREDLY EARNED BOUNTIFUL REWARD ABHA KINGDOM. PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HIS RADIANT SOUL. ADVISE HOLD BEFITTING MEMORIAL GATHERINGS IN HIS HONOR

will be inspired by his reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit and will call upon the Mercy of God to aid you to become the conquerors of hearts.

IDS MANY LANDS

THROUGHOUT WORLD INCLUDING ALL HOUSES WORSHIP.

The American Baha

Volume 21, No. 7

Birthday greetings from the Hana of the Cau

Alláh'u'Abhd! Dear Friends,

For my 80th birthday, I got the surprise, I should say the surprises, of my life. Days before, cards, letters, flowers and presents started flowing in, and I do mean flowing. Just look at the river of cards and letters rolled out before me in the picture. More than 1,000 and counting!

Since I cannot respond to and thank each one of you personally, I asked to thank you all publicly for your thoughtfulness and express how deeply touched both Marguerite and I have been by the flood of love and prayers that have come.

I want especially to thank the sweet, wonderful children who remembered me, the noble thought of those who pledged virtues to commemorate my birthday, and the artists whose art gave us such joy. All of these will be preserved in the archives of our family.

There were so many individuals, groups and communities as well as many families who sent heartwarming messages and remembrances of times spent together that savored sweetly of fond memories. The love and prayers are still bringing their warmth and joy to our lives.

The flowers, as you can see, made our home a fragrant garden of delight. They came from Hawaii, Alaska, South Africa, and Canada as well as so many places here in the U.S.

Among the blessings was a generous outpouring of contributions to both the Arc and the National Fund. There have been gifts from communities, individuals and children, more than 55 already, and they are still coming.

Task your indulgence for not writing each one of you to tell your personally how blessed and humble your generous spirit made me feel. You are all, each and every one, remembered in prayer. I love each one of you and thank God for the blessing of so many friends.

Deepest Baha'i love, William Sears

Hand of the Cause of God

Contributions to National Fund increase 38 percent

“The real treasury of man is his knowledge.'--Bahd'u'lláh

July 1991

The total amount given to the National Baha’i Fund by the friends during the year just concluded was $10,751,668, up 38 percent from the previous year and nearly $600,000 more than had been projected at the time of the National Convention.

Overall, contributions to the four major Funds (International, Arc, National and Continental Funds) and through estate bequests amounted to $15,594,480, an increase of 37 percent over the previous year.

So far this year, contributions for the

District Convention Coming Soon

Training Sessions for Youth, Children

Baha'is set to elect National delegates

Goal is to establish

100 teaching institutes

3

Gregorian month of May are estimated at $1,037,000.

These figures reflect a new pace of giving based on active consultation at the local level and a more active communication between local friends and their communities and the National Spiritual Assembly. The sincere and candid expression of the friends’ thoughts and views has been extremely valuable to the National Assembly in formulating its plans for the coming year in all fields of service to the Faith.

N.C. Hosts

Symposium On Peace

Keynote speaker is Sarah Pereira

3

the world as a loving gesture to help Mr. Sears celebrate his 80th birthday.

The Hand of the Cause of God William Sears admires some of the cards, flowers and gifts that were sent by Bahd'is all over

Costa Rica Celebrates 50th Year

Baha'is mark Race Unity Day 1991

P| With variety

ua of observances from picnics to marches

Guest of honor Gayle Woolson helped form community

19

�[Page 2]Page 2 / The American Baha

July 1991

With the May issue of The American Baha’i, the National Teaching Committee began publishing a series of articles to encourage and facilitate homefront pioneering and traveling teaching to various Baha'i communities. Assemblies, Baha'i Groups, or District Teaching Committees that are interested in receiving traveling teachers or homefront pioneers may send tothe National Teaching Committee for its consideration such information as provided in the article below:

Homefront pioneers and traveling teachers are welcomed to Miami

Miami is an alluring mecca. We have miles of beaches with soft, sparkling white sand, dotted with benches, picnic tables

and palm trees, and a 10-mile-long boardwalk.

Miami is a city of culture. We have ballet, opera, concerts, plays and special events. There are nearly 100 art galleries. We have football, baseball and basketball.

Miami is a city of education. We have four major universities including the University of Miami and Miami-Dade Community College, one of the largest community colleges in the country.

Miami is a city of diversity. We have a large Hispanic population—mostly Cuban and Nicaraguan; a large black population— Americans, Haitians, Jamaicans and Bahamians; and an Asian population including Korean, Chinese and Japanese. And there are two Indian Reservations in the Miami area.

Miami is a city for you. We are in the “off-season” now—and that means “cheap.” Most tourists (affectionately known as “snow birds”) come to Miami from December 15 to April 15 (hotels then are full and prices are high).

In the “off-season,” beach-front hotels and motels are half-empty, and it is possible to rent a room with kitchenette for $10-$20 a day, or to negotiate a weekly or monthly rate. Apartments are relatively

inexpensive provided that a one-year lease is signed. Otherwise, they rent at the much higher monthly or seasonal rate.

A yearly rental on a waterfront, onebedroom apartment (with swimming pool, of course) can be as low as $500 a month. Watefront efficiencies are even less. Many apartments are fully furnished.

For a long stay in Miami, a car is necessary; but fora short stay, public transportation is quite good. There are buses, taxis and rental cars. We also have metro-rail trains formore distant city locations, metromover trains for the downtown area, and a commuter train from Miami north to West Palm Beach making stops in Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton.

Jobs are plentiful, but finding them takes some effort. We suggest getting a copy of the Sunday Miami Herald and looking through the classifieds. Also, looking through the yellow pages of a Miami phone book will give you an indication of the businesses there. Your phone company or university library should have a copy.

Now that we have your attention and have piqued your interest, a look at the Baha’is. What is called Miami is actually an area with a number of separate Groups

and Assemblies. Miami is an incorporated city in Dade County. South Dade, Central Dade, North Dade and North Miami are all separate Assemblies. Also, there are anumber of Groups including Miami Beach and North Miami Beach.

There are many ongoing Baha'i activities in which traveling teachers and homefront pioneers can take part including regular Feasts, firesides, deepening classes, children’s classes (South Dade even has a children’s choir) and various social events (dinners, picnics, beach parties), Holy Day events, and teaching events and proclamations. We expect this summer to be an especially active one for teaching and proclamation.

Traveling teachers and homefront pioneers are needed who are eager and able to become involved in expansion and consolidation. French- and Spanish-speaking Bahid’is are especially needed to visit Haitian and Hispanic believers and to help draw them into Baha’i community life.

For more information, please contact the Spiritual Assembly of Miami, P.O. Box 370152, Miami, FL 33137, or phone the Assembly chairman, Rosemary HugerDavis, 305-576-9327.

Ilinois family develops ‘plan of action’ for 13-year-old

Children can serve Cause of God by teaching their peers

Children, at this very moment, can effectively serve the Cause and help in the teaching work. Their parents can encourage and empower them to do so by helping them figure out how they may best promote the Faith and prepare an outline for a plan of action.

The family of a 13-year-old boy in Illinois provides us with an example of how this can be accomplished.

This child had been urged and assisted in considering how he could put his talents to

use in serving the Cause. One of his parents consulted with him to help him identify and evaluate his skills; his other parent discussed with him how those skills could be put to use to serve the community and further the Cause of Baha‘u'llah.

Together, they decided that one of his best skills, and something he enjoyed doing, was reading aloud. They also noted that at Feast, two younger children, who looked up to the older boy, enjoyed being in his presence and often sat near him.

On May 5, Bahd ian Sulphur, Alex— andria and Slidell, Louisiana, gathered in Pineville to welcome the Vongs, a family of Vietnamese Baha'i refugees who arrived in

the U.S. on March 22. The friends brought with them clothing, furniture and other items donated by Baha'is around the state.

possible. Please address all materials and World rights reserved, Printed in the U.S.A.

The American Bahá't is published monthly by the National Spiritual eee of the Bahs'is of the United States, 536 Sheridan Road, Wilmette, IL 60091. Management Information Systems, Baha'i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091. Executive editor Jack Bowers. Associate editor: Scot Cotrie. The American Bahd'l welcomes news, letters and other items of interest from individuals and the various institutions of the Baha’i Faith, Articles should be written cleatly and concisely; color or black-and-white glossy photographs should be included whenever

‘address changes to

to The Editor, The American Baha, Wilmette,

They decided, therefore, that once each month, the 13-year-old would invite the two nine-year-old boys (along with a 10year-old non-Baha’i child) to his home to read to them stories about Baha‘u'llah and thus help them learn more about the Faith and its Founder.

The Saturday afternoon sessions began about five months ago. In advance, the older child plans a meal and activities for the day. A week before the scheduled meeting, he calls to remind the younger boys about the upcoming event.

He begins their afternoons together by preparing lunch and serving it to them. Then, after reviewing with the younger

children what they learned during their previous meeting, he reads them a story about Baha‘u'llah.

Afterward, they discuss the story, then engage in an outside recreational activity such as frisbee or basketball. The afternoon is capped off by “Nintendo” or board games before the younger boys go home.

The parents of the younger believers are delighted that the older Baha'i child has become a role model who is helping the children grow in the Faith. They have noted that their children are happy to go to Feast because they know that their special older friend, their mentor, will be there.

Publishing Trust has highly successful exhibit at American Booksellers Association trade show

For the first time, the Baha'i Publishing Trust and Distribution Service has exhibited at the American Booksellers Association trade show.

More than 31,000 people attended the premier trade show for the publishing and retail book industry June 1-4 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center (site of the 1992 Baha'i World Congress) in New York City.

In 1990 the National Spiritual Assembly appointed a task force to develop astrategy for sales to commercial bookshops. The Publishing Trust's presence at the show is part of the National Assembly's strategy for marketing Baha’ literature to the general public.

The Trust's booth, to the staff's surprise, was busy immediately. Among the many comments were: “It's about time,” “I've been trying to get Baha'i books for years,” and “At long last.”

The most moving comment came froma young man from New York state. His eyes moist, he said to his father, “This is the greatest religion in the world. We have to have their books in our store.” On leaving, he said, “Thank you for coming.”

A salesman at the adjoining booth, run by Fortress/Augsburg Press, the Lutheran Church's publishing arm, asked for a copy of “The Vision of Race Unity” statement. The next morning he said he had read it five times the night before.

“All I can say,” he added, “is that I want it your way, not any other way.” He asked for something written by Baha'u'llah and was given a copy of The Hidden Words.

Also given out were about 900 copies of Bahd‘u'llah and the New Era; almost 600 copies of the new trade catalog; 440 copies of “The Vision of Race Unity”; 250 copies of the Wilmette House of Worship poster, and unnumbered copies of the perspective series The Bahai Faith, and pamphlet “The Baha'i Faith and Its World Community.”

Members of the Baha'i International Community office in New York including Counselor Wilma Ellis visited the exhibit as well as Baha'is from England, New York City and nearby communities.

Two radio talk show hosts asked Baha’is to take part in their programs, while several radio programmers asked for Baha'i titles to review on the air. Television and trade press also took away information.

Finally, a woman from Texas who had visited the booth returned to ask for more copies of “The Vision of Race Unity” for her community. It was pointed out to her that she was not a Baha’i. “Well, I wasn't,” she replied, “but Iam now!”

‘The more one can give, the better it is...” _ National Baha’i Funds: Wilmette, IL

�[Page 3]The American Baha'i / July 1991/ Page 3

NTC training sessions oriented to children, youth

One of the National Spiritual Assembly's teaching goals for the final year of the Six Year Plan is “to establish at least 100 teaching institutes comprised of youth and children and aimed at enrolling their peers as teachers and servants of the Cause of God.” To help these institutes form and mature, the National Teaching Committee has begun weekend teacher-training sessions that are specially oriented toward children and youth.

The program for the sessions is designed to empower children and youth to become better teachers of Baha’u'llah’s Cause. It involves prayer, memorization of passages from the Sacred Texts, and consultation among the young believers. These youth consult regarding the Station and Mission of Baha'u'llah, our love for Him and what this love means in our lives, and how we can prepare ourselves to teach the Faith, thereby expressing our love for Baha'u'llah.

The young believers practice what they would say in teaching situations, often engage in actual teaching during the session, and discuss how they will continue teaching beyond the weekend through the teaching institute process.

So far, 19 such sessions have taken place, from Roxbury, Connecticut, to Auburn, Oregon. The following are observations made by the facilitator of the teacher-training session that took place from June 7-9 in El Paso, Texas:

“The location of the El Paso session, a clubhouse with meeting and eating facilities at the apartment complex of one of the Baha’i community members, was perfect for the needs of the program. Just outside the clubhouse was a pool.

“Nine youth and pre-youth took part in this session. They were racially diverse, representing European, Persian, and Hispanic/black backgrounds. Five were girls and four were boys.

“As we introduced ourselves, it was clear from our diversity of experiences that we had much to learn from each other as we worked together. A few were apprehensive as to whether we would be sitting ‘in class’ the whole weekend, but their fears were quickly alleviated as we discussed the weekend's schedule.

“We discussed plans for a teaching activity on Saturday afternoon, as the plans for the evening's fireside were already in place. The youth discussed the possibility of handing out flyers for the Race Unity event taking place Sunday afternoon. They consulted on the best location, deciding that a large shopping mall on the east side

of town would be best. We determined that we would be able to secure transportation to go and set the time. We asked that some flyers be printed ina bright attractive color.

“Saturday morning we started with dawn prayers. We worked through the morning schedule with only a short break, allowing us more time for swimming during the lunch break.

“While playing in and around the pool, a resident of the apartment complex was attracted to the youth, describing them later as ‘different, healthy.’ His 17-yearoldson thought the youth were special, too, and joined in their activities, including going to the mall to hand out flyers.

“Saturday afternoon, in addition to handing out flyers, some of the Baha’i youth approached several black youth who were also at the mall. Rather than just handing them flyers, the young Baha’is talked with them, sharing information about the event and the importance of racial harmony. Several said they were interested and would bring their friends to the event.

“The fireside on Saturday evening was led by a 10-year-old anda 13-year-old who helped each other in presenting the Message of Baha'u'llah. The two presenters had decided to use some of the quotes from chapter six of The Significance of Bahd'ullah’s Revelation, in preparation for the Race Unity Day events.

“Both the man who had met the youth at the pool and his son, who had decided independently of his father to come, were there. The discussion opened to broader topics as more questions were asked and the youth answered each to the best of their ability with everyone participating.

“After we broke for refreshments, the father continued the discussion for another hour and a half, asking what one has to do to become a Baha’i. His son spoke with one of the youths and myself for about a half hour before joining the others for refreshments. We felt certain that both of them were sincerely attracted to the Faith.

“Sunday, as part of the program, the youth consulted on the activities of the weekend, their feelings about the program, and what they would like to do to continue their activities within the teaching institute framework.

“Most of the youth felt that they had learned a lot about Baha’ullah and asked for another training session so that all the youth from the area could experience some of the joys they had felt this weekend. One of the 13-year old youths decided to take on the responsibility of making the appropri

Special issue of Brilliant Star magazine prepared for use in Baha'i summer schools

The first goal of the National Spiritual Assembly’s teaching plan for this year is “to obtain a deeper appreciation of the station and purpose of Baha'u'llah and of the basic meaning of His mighty Covenant.”

In addition, the National Spiritual Assembly, throughout its goals of the plan, has placed great emphasis on the role of children and youth as teachers of the Cause of Baha'u'llah.

The editors of Brilliant Star magazine have provided an excellent tool for winning these goals. They have produced a special issue of Brilliant Star that will be used in children’s classes in Baha’i schools this summer.

The issue focuses on the station and

mission of Baha’u'llah and includes many stories of His life.

There are anumber of activities that help illustrate ideas suchas the benefits of prayer, why Baha'u'llah suffered, how He is God’s Treasure, and how teaching connects other's hearts with Baha'u'llah.

The many stories, activities, and quotations from His Writings that are included will help Baha’i children to deepen in their understanding of Baha’u'llah’s mission and Covenant.

This edition was printed especially for use insummer schools, and will be used not only in the United States but in Canada as well. It will become available to regular Brilliant Star subscribers and the general Baha'i community in September.

ate contacts and see that the plans are followed through.

“The youth also felt that they would like to get together during the summer. To this end, another youth volunteered to contact everyone and set up two sessions, when as many of them as possible could meet to deepen and carry out teaching activities.

“All the youth were excited that they would have the opportunity to be together again, sharing the same energy and enthu siasm that they felt during the weekend.”

An outline for the teacher-training sessions and further information is available from the National Teaching Committee office. The National Teaching Committee feels that a local Spiritual Assembly or District Teaching Committee, especially with the help of the Auxiliary Board, could easily implement a teacher-training session in areas where 10 to 25 children and youth are eager to help advance the Cause.

ea i On May 18, more than 60 people attended aPeace Symposium sponsored by the Baha'i Club at North Carolina Central University and the Baha'is of Durham County. The symposium, based on ‘The Promise of World Peace,’ included topics related to

cinvahigyet peace and a keynote address by Dr. Sarah Pereira (pictured at lectern), a Baha'i from Charlotte who is a retired educator and is widely known throughout the country for her many years of devoted service to the Cause of God.

1991 BanA'i Summer ScHooLs

July 15-19: Wisconsin Baha’i School, Brownsville, WI. Registrar: Jim Hannen,

(414) 392-3304 July 18-21: Nebraska Baha’i School, Halsey, NE. Registrar: Colin Taylor, NE 69101; (308) 534-4939 July 24-28: North Carolina Baha'i School. Contact Diane McKinley, _ } NC 27713; (919) 469-2783. August 2-4: Georgia Baha'i School. Contact Beatriz Ahangarzadeh, Powder Springs, GA 30073. August 2-5: Maryland Baha’i School, Frostburg, MD. Registrar: Pam Rodgers, Sterling, VA 22170;

(703) 444-1512 August 4-10: Montana Baha'i School, Livingston, MT. Registrar: Jahan Lohrasbi, Butte, MT 59701; (406) 494-6627 (full scholarships available for American Indians) August 9-13: Colorado East Baha’i School, Granby, CO. Registrar: John Bolz, Lafayette, CO 80026; (303) 666-9275 August 11-16: Washington West Baha'i School, McKenna, WA. Registrar: Peg Van Meer, Mt. Vernon, WA 98273; (206) 336-2588 August 14-18: Oregon East Baha’i School, Umatilla National Forest. Registrar: Jackie Barthel-Hines, Island City, OR 97850; (503) 963-8559 August 14-18: Oregon West Baha’i School, Roseburg, OR. Registrar: Mrs. Star Stone, Roseburg, OR 97470; (503) 673-3737 August 16-25: New York Baha’i School, Poughkeepsie, NY. Registrar: Jean Jaczko, Newburgh, NY 12550;

(914) 564-3813 August 17-20: Texas Baha'i School, Bridgeport Conference Center. Registrar: John Leonard, we ,Grand Prairie, TX 75052; (214) 641-6566 August 21-25: Minnesota Baha’i School, Onamia, MN. Registrar: Stephen Grams, Willmar, MN 56207; (612) 235-6530 August 30-Sept 2: Tennessee Baha'i School, Mt. Eagle, TN. For more information, contact: Linda Hendrickson, _ Chattanooga, TN 37421; (615) 855-1370 September 13-15: Green Lake Conference, Green Lake, WI. For more information phone Sue Schaut, _ Sun Prairie, WI 53590; (608) 837-8609

U.S. Baha'i Refugee Office seeks volunteer ‘helpers’ for S.E. Asian newcomers

For several years the U.S. Baha'i Refugee Office (USBRO) has been building a network of Southeast Asian “helpers,” Baha'is throughout the U.S. who help, professionally or as volunteers, the integration of Southeast Asian newcomers.

We invite interested Baha’is to enter this field of service and join the “helpers” network. Helpers receive the quarterly USBRO. publication “Southeast Asian Helpers Bulletin” and can gain the support and encouragement of other helpers through sharing experiences and strategies.

If you or someone in your area would like to become a “helper” for Southeast Asian Baha'i newcomers to the U.S., you may write to U.S. Baha'i Refugee Office, Baha'i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 708-869-9039, ext. 216.

�[Page 4]Page 4 / The American Baha’i / July 1991

CALENDAR

(submitted for June 1991)

Landegg Academy/June 1991-January 1992

July 8-August 3, Certificate Program World Order Studies, Year I; Certificate Program World Order Studies, Year II; Certificate Program World Order Studies, Year Ill; The Revelation of Baha'u'llah, French (open to the public)

August 5-8, The Challenges of Multiculturalism, English\German

August 12-18, Annual Course in the Arabic Language; Asking Questions (open course)

August 19-25, Preparation of Reading Materials for Children; Annual Course in the Spanish Language

August 26-September 1, Annual Course in the Persian Language

September 2-7, Persian Arts and Literature

September 13-15, Switzerland in the International Dialogue on a Global Society

October 17-20 (after lunch) Assemblies Facing Problems

October 18-20, Esperanto Semainfinio

October 31-November 3, The Role of Architecture in a Changing World; The Role of Agriculture in a Changing World; The Role of Music in a Changing World

December 27, 1991-January 2, 1992 Forum "91, Annual Event for Young Professionals

TRAVELING TEACHERS

Goal Filled 100 125

Area / Country

Ukraine Kazakhstan 7 USSR (Other Republics) ... Bulgaria ...

SHORT-TERM Open PIONEERS Goal Goals

Foe RS REET eRe

N

BNUNNA ONNNn=

Yl casn Npeda a =

Questions, answers about service overseas

SOME COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT PIONEERING AND SHORT-TERM TRAVEL ABROAD.

QUESTION: Where do the pioneering goals come from and who decides what countries are in need of pioneers?

ANSWER: The Universal House of Justice makes pioneer assignments based on its judgment about which countries need pioneers and which countries should send pioneers.

QUESTION: How many goals were given tothe U.S. at the beginning of the Six Year Plan?

ANSWER: 77 goals were given at Ridvan 1987 “which represents the minimum need for pioneers to settle within the next two years of the Six Year Plan.” On September 7, 1989, the Universal House of

Justice assigned to the U.S. community 708 months in short-term pioneer goals. At Ridvan 1990, a Two Year Supplementary Plan for the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries added 21 long-term goals and 32 short-term goals.

QUESTION: How many of these goals have been filled? How many are still open?

ANSWER: Please see the chart below.

QUESTION: If all the goals are filled for a particular area, does that mean that I would not be considered a pioneer if I should go there?

ANSWER: The House of Justice writes: “...the pioneer goals ...represent the mi mum needs of some younger communities. Settlement of pioneers above and beyond the goals assigned would be highly merito

rious.” Yes, you would be considered a pioneer.

QUESTION: Do I have to go to a goal country to be considered a pioneer?

ANSWER: Certainly not. Anyone who leaves his home to serve the Cause abroad is a pioneer. It may be that you will be able to fulfill a goal assigned to another national community. However, there are some countries that never appear on a goals list, such as Australia, Alaska, Canada, England, Hawaii or the U.S. which are not considered “pioneer” countries. If you relocate somewhere in one of these countries, you may simply ask the National Spiritual Assembly to transfer your membership to that country.

(to be continued)

Summer service opportunites abroad

Summer Teaching Projects

July and last two weeks of August, BELGIUM: “Teaching Heart to Heart.” Special program for families teaching with small children

July 10-24 or July 17 - 31, ROMANIA: Project Felix

July 11-14, MEXICO: International Youth Conference with teaching projects immediately following

July 14-20, NORWAY: Summer School

July 14-31, POLAND: Teaching teams in 5 goal cities

July 15-28, HUNGARY: Collis Featherstone Project II in Szekesfehervar

July 17-August 12, MEXICO: Special

Projects

July 29-August 4, ROMANIA: European Baha’i Youth Conference followed by teaching activities

August 1-10, ITALY: Acuto, Rome

August 3-10, YUGOSLAVIA: Summer School

August 10-14, NETHERLANDS: Art Forum °91,

August 10-17, YUGOSLAVIA: Martha Root Teaching Project

August 12-16, HUNGARY: Third Hungarian Summer School Project

August 15-19, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: Caribbean Youth Conference in Trinidad

There are teaching activities planned in the SOVIET UNION

Baha’i Association for the Arts (BAFA) Art Festival in Czechoslovakia this summer. Dates to be announced.

TRAVELING TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES Brazil: Ongoing

LONG-TERM Open PIONEERS Goal Goals BRR LIM PRA EEE EL, ANT! Bulgaria . Laistd Czechoslovakia .. 4c 20) DDR/East Germany... 2 0 Hungary . eh 10) Lert’ Laie

Burkina Faso: July/August

Burundi: Teaching/Proclamation/Consolidation

Canada: Native Teaching / Chinese Teaching, ongoing

Canary Islands: July/August/September

Cook Islands: Ongoing

East Caroline Islands: Ongoing

Fiji: Ongoing

Haiti: Teaching/Consolidation

Italy: Intensive teaching project, ongoing

Ivory Coast: September

Jamaica: Ongoing

Japan: Teaching/Consolidation.

Leeward Islands: “H. Amadiyyeh Youth Teaching” ongoing

M: ique: Teaching/Consolidation jus: Ongoing

Mexico: Several ongoing projects

New Zealand: Ongoing

Norway: Summer school, July 14-20

Panama: Ongoing

Singapore: Ongoing

South Africa: Follow up to spring Entry by Troops project

Taiwan: Ongoing

Tonga: Ongoing

Uganda: Ongoing

United Kingdom: Liverpool, ongoing teaching project;

organized teaching project throughout the British Isles

Venezuela: Regional projects

Yucatan: Teaching project

Sylvan Lake Baha’i Conference and Training Centre Summer Schedule 199]

July 1-6, Counselor/Leadership Training, Adults only

July 1-6, The Book of Certitude, Adults Only

Theme for all children’s sessions: “Our Response tothe Revelation of Baha'u'llah”

July 1-6, Children’s Session: Ages 9-14, one week

July 14-20, Ages 9-14, one week

July 21-August 2, Children’s Session, two weeks

August 3 -5, “A Family Weekend”

August 6-9, “Want to be a Better Teacher of the Faith?”

August 11-17, “Training for Overseas Pioneering”

August 19-23, “The Covenant in Our Daily Lives”

August 26-30, “Family Camp”

August 31, “Youth Day,” ages 16 - 24

Yugoslavia: Summer school teachers needed

For more information, contact: Office of Pioneering, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091 708-869-9039.

ORT-TERM PIONEER GOALS

Goals Months AFRICA (months) Completed sans Ciskei 24 0 Guinea-Bissau 12 0 Liberia 12 0 Nigeria 12 0 Tanzania 36 5 Uganda 24 0 Zambia 24, Rhy Totals 144 39 AMERICAS Argentina 24 0 Bahamas 12 4 Barbados 12 0 Brazil 24 0 British V.I. 12 0 Colombia 24 0 Dominica 12 0 Ecuador 12 12 Guyana 24 29 Honduras 24 13 Jamaica 24 3 Leeward Islands 12 é Martinique 12 0 Mexico 36 34 Nicaragua 24 1 Panama 36 12 Paraguay 24 0 Puerto Rico 12 3 Uruguay 24 0 Venezuela ae. 6 Bic Totals 396 127 ASIA ‘a India 24 8 Japan 24 0 Pakistan 12 oO Taiwan 36_ malYe Totals 96 24 AUSTRALASIA SRT Mariana Islands 24 0 Marshall Islands 12 0 W. Caroline Islands _12_ als Totals 48 4 EUROPE Portugal 24 0

�[Page 5]The American Baha'i / July 1991/ Page 5

At District Conventions in October

Baha'is to elect delegates to National Convention

Baha'is from around the country soon will gather at the District Convention in their area to elect a delegate to the 83rd Baha’j National Convention and to consult on local plans and progress toward fulfilling the remaining goals of the Six Year Plan. District Conventions are scheduled for the first weekend in October.

The District Convention is a fundamental part of the Baha'i administrative order and offers Baha’is the opportunity to take part indirectly in the election of the National Spiritual Assembly. District Convention also provides an opportunity to become acquainted with other Baha’is in the area.

To prepare yourself for the upcoming Convention, you may wish to read and meditate upon the following material which includes passages from letters of the beloved Guardian:

What is the purpose of the District Convention?

“It is expressly recorded in *Abdu’lBaha’s Writings that these National Assemblies must be indirectly elected by the friends; that is, the friends in every country must elect a certain number of delegates, who in their turn will elect from among all the friends in that country the members of the National Spiritual Assembly.” (From a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, March 12, 1923)

What is the responsibility of the believers toward the District Convention?

“He...wishes to stress the importance of, reminding the believers that they should make every possible effort to attend the meeting for the election of the State or Provincial delegates in order to stimulate a larger group consciousness which will greatly facilitate the process of the believers becoming acquainted with each other, and provide an intermediary stage—which will become increasingly valuable and necessary—between the local organization, represented by the group or Assembly, and national collective action, represented by the activities of the Convention and the

institution of the National Assembly.” (From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian, November 16, 1943)

In the following statement concerning the election of the Local Spiritual Assembly, Shoghi Effendi enunciates a principle that applies to all Baha’i elections:

“..every declared believer of 21 years and above, far from standing aloof and

assuming an indifferent or independent attitude, should regard it his sacred duty to take part conscientiously and diligently, in the election...” (Baha'i Administration, p. 39)

How does one prepare for District Convention?

“I feel that reference to personalities before the election would give rise to misunderstanding and differences. What the friends should do is to get thoroughly acquainted with one another, to exchange views, to mix freely and discuss among themselves the requirements and qualifications for such a membership without reference or application, however indirect, to particular individuals. We should refrain from influencing the opinion of others, of canvassing for any particular individual, but should stress the necessity of getting fully acquainted with the qualifications of membership referred to in our Beloved’s Tablets and of learning more about one another through direct, personal experience rather than through the reports and opinions of our friends.” (Froma letter written by Shoghi Effendi to a local Spiritual Assembly, May 14, 1927)

What should be the character of the District Convention?

“On the election day, the friends must wholeheartedly participate in the elections, in unity and amity, turning their hearts to God, detached from all things but Him, seeking His guidance and supplicating His aid and bounty.” (Translation from a letter of Shoghi Effendi to the friends in Persia, February 27, 1923)

“Let them exercise the utmost vigilance so that the elections are carried out freely, universally and by secret ballot. Any form of intrigue, deception, collusion and compulsion must be stopped and is forbidden.” (Translation froma letter of Shoghi Effendi to the friends in Persia, March 8, 1932)

What are the qualifications of a delegate? “...it is incumbent upon the chosen delegates to consider without the least trace of passion and prejudice, and irrespective of any material consideration, the names of only those who can best combine the necessary qualities of unquestioned loyalty, of selfless devotion, of a well-trained mind, of recognized ability and mature experience.” (Baha'i Administration, p. 88)

“In regard to your question about qualifications of delegates and Assembly mem

compilation

Racism,’ a

Richard W. Thomas

To assist with plans for distribution of the race unity position paper, ‘The Vision of Race Unity— America’s Most Challenging Issue,’ the National Baha’i Race Unity Committee urges the friends to take advantage of the following materials for personal and community deepening:

“The Power of Unity: Beyond Prejudice and Racism,” a

“Creating Patterns of Unity: Getting Beyond Prejudice and study guide and index to ‘‘The Power of Unity”’

“Celebrating Diversity”: An L.S.A. Development Module “Racial Unity: An Imperative for Social Progress,” by Dr.

All materials available through the Baha’ Distribution Service.

bers, the qualifications which he outlined are really applicable to anyone we elect to a Baha'i office, whatever its nature. But those are only an indication, they do not mean people who don’t fulfill them cannot be elected to office. We must aim as high as we can. He does not feel that the friends should attach so much importance to limitations—such as people perhaps not being able to attend Assembly or Convention meetings, because if they do, then the fundamental concept of everyone being willing to do Baha’ service on administrative bodies will be weakened, and the friends may be tempted to vote for those who, because of independent means or circumstances in their lives are freer to come and go but less qualified to serve.” (From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to a National Spiritual Assembly, October 24, 1947)

Any Baha’i in good standing, 21 years or older, who lives in the electoral unit is eligible to be elected as a delegate to National Convention, except the Hands of the Cause of God and members of the Continental Board of Counselors.

Members of the Auxiliary Boards are eligible for election, but if elected, must choose between serving as a delegate and continuing to serve on the Auxiliary Board.

Is it permissible at Convention to appoint, rather than elect, the Convention Chairman and Secretary?

“The Guardian believes that the right to elect the chairman and the secretary of the Convention should be vested in the assembled delegates, lest any objection be raised that the members of the outgoing National Assembly are seeking to direct the course of the discussions in a manner that would be conducive to their own personal interests.” (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, August, 12, 1933)

The above quote refers to National Convention; however, the Universal House of Justice later confirmed that this process also applies to District Convention:

“Each electoral Unit Convention will be called by a Convenor appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly, or by any committee it may appoint to organize the electoral Unit Convention, and as soon as the Unit Convention has come to order it will elect its own Chairman and Secretary.” (Principles of Bahd’i Administration, p. 98)

Howmay youth participate in District Convention?

Youth may take part in the planning of Convention, and in most of the tasks related to Convention, such as reading, registration and preparing refreshments. Youth are also encouraged to participate in the consultation during the Convention.

Inanelectronic mailgram dated September 15, 1987, the Universal House of Justice clarified the role of youth at District Convention: “Baha'is under 21 may not vote nor are they eligible as officers of Baha’i institutions such as Chairman or Secretary or other. However, there is no objection to youth serving as tellers at a Convention if they are so appointed.”

Please note that there is no provision in Baha'i administration for the election of “youth delegates.” Youth are encouraged to request seating to observe the National Convention proceedings.

You are encouraged to attend and also to take part in the planning of your area’s District Convention. If you wish to offer your assistance and do not know which Assembly in your area is hosting Convention, you may call the Office of the Secretary at 708/869-9039, ext. 209. Information on Convention sites and contact persons will appear in an upcoming issue of The American Baha'i.

Years of separation can't weaken bonds of friendship between Hmong, pioneer

The Hmong of Laos revere loyalty and friendship. These qualities have not been lost on those who were forced by severe hardships to flee for their lives and resettle in the United States.

Bijan Bayzaee, former pioneer in Laos who now worksat the U.S. Baha'i National Center, is well known to the Hmong. For several years, he nurtured the Cause of Baha’u’llah in the hearts of the peoples of Laos. He learned much about them and used this knowledge for the advancement of the Baha’i Faith in that country, which for the first time since Ridvan 1967 has elected a National Spiritual Assembly.

One of the Hmong friends of Mr. Bayzaee was Chong Khue Cha, whose keen devotion to the Cause was marked by his service as a traveling teacher for many years in Laos before coming as a refugee to the U.S. Prior to the Vietnam war, he also served on the National Teaching Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of Laos.

Mr. Cha settled with his family in Portland, Oregon. Though incapacitated by a stroke during the past two years, he longed to greet Mr. Bayzaee, whom he had met in October 1980 when the latter had gone to visit the Laotian Baha'is in Oregon.

The U.S. Baha'i Refugee Office recently received from Mr. Cha’s son, Khue Lee Cha, a letter that evinces the tender spirit of friendship so characteristic of the Hmong people:

“Dear Baha'i National Center

“Tam Khue Lee Cha, son of Chong Khue Cha from Laos. I am sure you know Bijan he used to live and travel with Chong Khue Cha in Laos Sayaboury.

“My father just pass away.

“Tell Bijan that my father was hoping that some day he might come see himagain before he die but he don’t so that’s no big deal that’s all.

“T hope we still love each other in this world and care each other like they do in the past.

“Thanks you very much.

“Khue Lee Cha

“BAhA ULLA

“God Bless all!”

How wonderful it is that the death of a beloved servant of Baha'u'llah only strengthens bonds of interracial friendship.

Peace Meetings net notice

For the past four years the Baha'is of Mercer County, New Jersey, have sponsored a series of Peace Meetings that have been well-publicized in local newspapers and on radio and television.

The series, initiated through the efforts of four individual Baha’is, is now carried out in cooperation with the Spiritual Assembly of Hamilton Township.

�[Page 6]Page 6 / The American Baha'i / July 1991

New Publications... For Stimulating Teaching...

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fendi that the eradication of racism is America’ challenging issue”—one that has become all the more pr attitudes and the deepening despair of minoritie: anding in the international communit piritual Assembly offers a vision of rai in the principle of the oneness of humankind. The National Spiritual Assembly also offers for examination the experience of the Baha'i community, which h: 1 models of unity. Individual Americans nd begin building a society in which people of diverse ared and distributed to accelerate teaching of the Faith. 5-//2” x 8-1/2” (G

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This curriculum was developed between 1988-1990 for the Glad Tidings Baha’{ School located in Minneapolis, Minnesota—one of the longest-running Baha'i children’s schools in the United States. It represents their efforts to develop an easy-to-use comprehensive curriculum for teachers of Baha'i children’s classes. Each lesson has a variety of activities including “Challenge” activities for the students who may have more deepening in the Faith, reading/memory verses, take-home sheets for parents to trace their child’s progress, etc. This work has been highly endorsed by the National Education Committee. 8-1/2” x 11", 94 pp. Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Golden Valley, Minnesota

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�[Page 7]The American Baha'i / July 1991/ Page 7

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5-3/4” x 8-1/2”, 550 pp., (Vol.1), 459 pp., (Vol.2)

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Al Buscador (To A Seeker)

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This workbook, designed for children ages 7-11, is an excellent tool for teaching the principles of the Baha’i Faith. The workbook is divided into twelve “Treasure Hunts,” which begin with an historical sketch of the life of Baha'u'llah and proceed to a variety of exer cises that deepen the understanding of tenets. Kids will enjoy games and activiti

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Sam Bald Eagle Augustine, a Micmac Indian, was a well-known and respected Elder in North America. On April 22, 1989, Sam Bald Eagle Augustine passed away, leaving a rich collection of tapes. This cassette contains Sam’s reading of The Spirit Way Booklet and Prayers. Also included: A Discussion on the Relationship of Traditional Native Ways and the Baha’ , The Sacred Pipe, The Impact of Contact with the Europeans Upon the Native People, and the Spiritual Destiny of the Native People. Each of the readings is beautifully accompanied by Indian drumming and flute.

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�[Page 8]Page 8 / The American Baha'i / July 1991

U.S. representative to UN completes busy May-June schedule

The May-June activities calendar of the National Spiritual Assembly's representative to the United Nations was a crowded season wind-up before summer recess for many UN bodies.

Inaddition to the regular Thursday moming briefings given for representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), usually by an Under-Secretary-General, there were four briefings at the US Mission.

The information received at these briefings is used by the NGOs to further their UN-related goals and to keep their sponsoring organizations aware of current trends and events.

Acting in accordance with priorities set by the Office of External Affairs, the U.S. Baha'i representative continues to maintain its long-standing relationship with the

U.S. Committee for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Two special meetings in May, one the annual general meeting, resulted in renewed commitment of Baha’i support for UNICEF programs that accord with the current goals of the National Spiritual Assembly.

As a member of the United Nations Association of the USA, the National Spiritual Assembly encourages close cooperation with that organization.

On June 6, the U.S. Baha’i representative to the UN was re-elected chairman of the executive committee of the Conference of UN Representatives and is on the Board of Governors of the organization.

‘The North American Environmental Sabbath Committee, on which the U.S. Baha'i representative serves, is chaired by Noel

f. Service/Employment opportunities at the Baha’i National Center

“The administration of the Cause in the United States is entering a

=

completely new phase, of high promise, challenging problems and golden opportunities. You are the cradle of the Administration, and in this development you can become a pattern for the entire Baha'i world.” (Excerpt from a letter by the Universal House of Justice addressed to “the Believers in the Cradle of the Baha’i Administrative Order,” December 29, 1970.)

The National Spiritual Assembly is calling for talented, qualified people toarise to serve the National Assembly at this time. There is a particularneed for the following:

Administrative Assistants

Essential to the efficient functioning and quality of service provided by

the Baha'i National Center

Must be skilled in word processing; type 50-60 wpm.

Must have strong self-management and organizational skills

Director, Management Information Systems

¢ Experience ina DEC environment preferred; knowledge and experience in Ingress data base a plus

General Manager, NSA Properties Inc.

Requires 3-4 years experience in property development and management

with emphasis on general business management

¢ Must be familiar with all phases of design and construction

Must have working knowledge of pertinent legal issues critical to the

work

¢ Prefer special skills in renovation of historic properties

Other opportunities include:

- House of Worship: Office Manager

- Media Services: Production Services Manager; Secretary

- National Teaching Committee: Secretary/Receptionist

~ Office of External Affairs: Secretary

- Office of Public Information: Public Information Specialist: Administrative Aide (part-time)

- WLGI Radio: On-Air Operator

- World Congress Logistics Office: Registration Processing Specialists.

If you are able to share your talents with the National Spiritual Assembly, please send your résumé to the Baha’i National Center, Department of Human Resources, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone Diana Harris at 708-8699039.

NS S

Brown, Special Representative to the Executive Director of the UN Environment Program.

On June 5, theNorth American Environmental Sabbath Committee, on which the U.S. Baha‘ representataive serves, sponsored a preview showing of Bill Moyers’ “Spirit and Nature” film . Mr. Moyers was present and explained his deep interest in bringing leaders of various religions together to ex-plore theological concepts on

UN TED NATIONS the preservation of the earth.

National Teaching Committee to hold Labor Day weekend Conference on Growth in Lincolnwood

A National Conference on Growth sponsored by the National Teaching Committee will be held August 30-September 2 (Labor Day weekend) at the Hyatt Lincolnwood Hotel in Lincolnwood, Illinois (north of Chicago).

The conference will focus on assessing the progress the American Baha'i community has made and must continue to make in the areas of individual teaching, community teaching, and large-scale growth. Emphasis will be on small group consultations/ discussions among participants rather than presentations by speakers.

An invitation is extended to all those who are interested in teaching the Faith. To register, please return the form below to: Reservations Department, Hyatt Lincolnwood, 4500 W. Touhy Avenue, Lincolnwood, IL 60646. Room rates are $62 per night, and can accommodate one to four people (in two double beds—rollaway beds are available for $10 per night). Conference participants are responsible for finding their own roommates. Registration deadline is August 21. Please note: There is no meal plan this year.

Those who plan to fly to Chicago for the conference may call Corporate Travel Consultants Group Services Division, 800-323-0088, for special rates on American or Delta Airlines. For more information about the conference, please phone the National Teaching Committee office, 708-869-9039.

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Dozen Baha'is take part in historic ‘reconciliation’

of two Baptist churches in Illinois that sp

In June, about a dozen Baha’is took part in two church services, a march and a picnic to end the separation of the First and Second Baptist Churches of Evanston, Ili nois, which split in 1870 because of racial differences.

The historic event was attended by about 600 people and was well covered by the local news media.

The reconciliation, which began with two friends from each of the congregations talking about the need to reach out and bridge the gap caused by their separation, led to a series of meetings at which the predominantly white First Baptist Church's Peace and Justice Committee invited African American members of the congregation to speak out about their experiences with racism.

in 1870

A resolution of reconciliation from First Baptist and a response from Second Baptist were shared at the two services in June, each of the ministers spoke at the other's church, and the audiences responded with great fervor and emotion.

One of the Baha’is, who has attended services at First Baptist for more than a year and has presented dance and drama using quotations from the Baha’i writings ‘on peace, racial unity and sexual equality at some of them, performed a liturgical dance with an African American on the theme of race unity.

Earlier this year, she had spoken from the pulpit at the minister's invitation on “What Jesus Means to Me from a Baha'i Perspective.”

�[Page 9]The American Baha'i / July 1991/ Page 9

Baha'u'llah

MAY 29, 1992, marks the centenary of the passing of Bahd’u'llah. His vision of humanity as one people and of the earth as a common homeland, dismissed out of hand by the world leaders to whom it was first enunciated over a hundred years ago, has today become the focus of human hope. Equally inescapable is the collapse of moral and social order, which this same declaration foresaw with awesome clarity.

The occasion has encouraged publication of this brief introduction to Bahd’u'llah’s life and work. Prepared at the request of the Universal House of Justice, trustee of the global undertaking which the events of a century ago set in motion, it offers a perspective on the feeling of confidence with which Bahda’is the world over contemplate the future of our planet and our race.

AS THE NEW MILLENNIUM APPROACHES, the crucial need of the human race is to find a unifying vision of the nature of man and society. For the past century humanity’s response to this impulse has driven a succession of ideological upheavals that have convulsed our world and that appear now to have exhausted themselves. The passion invested in the struggle, despite its disheartening results, testifies to the depth of the need. For, without a common conviction about the course and direction of human history, it is inconceivable that foundations can be laid for a global society to which the mass of humankind can commit themselves.

Such a vision unfolds in the writings of Baha’u’llah, the nineteenth-century prophetic figure whose growing influence is the most remarkable development of contemporary religious history. Born in Persia, November 12, 1817, Baha’u’llah' began at age twenty-seven an undertaking that has gradually captured the imagination and loyalty of several million people from virtually every race, culture, class, and nation on earth. The phenomenon is one that has no reference points in the contemporary world, but is associated rather with climactic changes of direction in the collective past of the human race. For Baha’u’llah claimed to be no less than the Messenger of God to the age of human maturity, the Bearer of a Divine Revelation that fulfills the promises made in earlier religions, and that will generate the spiritual nerves and sinews for the unification of the peoples of the world.

If they were to do nothing else, the effects which Baha’u’llah’s life and writings have already had should command the earnest attention of anyone who believes that human nature is fundamentally spiritual and that the coming organization of our planet must be informed by this aspect of reality. The documentation lies open to general scrutiny. For the first time in history humanity has available a detailed and verifiable record of the birth of an independent religious system and of the life of its Founder. Equally accessible is the record of the response that the new faith has evoked, through the emergence of a global community which can already justly claim to represent a microcosm of the human race.”

During the earlier decades of this century, this development was relatively obscure. Baha’u’llah’s writings forbid the aggressive proselytism through which many religious messages have been widely promulgated. Further, the priority which the Baha’i community gave to the establishment of groups at the local level throughout the entire planet militated against the early emergence of large concentrations of adherents in any one country or the mobilization of resources required for

large-scale programs of public information. Arnold Toynbee, intrigued by phenomena that might represent the emergence of a new universal religion, noted in the 1950s that the Baha’{ Faith was then about as familiar to the average educated Westerner as Christianity had been to the corresponding class in the Roman empire during the second century A.D.*

In more recent years, as the Baha’i community’s numbers have rapidly increased in many countries, the situation has changed dramatically. There is now virtually no area in the world where the pattern of life taught by Baha’u’ll4h is not taking root. The respect which the community’s social and economic development projects are beginning to win in governmental, academic, and United Nations circles further reinforces the argument for a detached and serious examination of the impulse behind a process of social transformation that is, in critical respects, unique in our world.

No uncertainty surrounds the nature of the generating impulse. Baha’u’llah’s writings cover an enormous range of subjects from social issues such as racial integration, the equality of the sexes, and disarmament, to those questions that affect the innermost life of the human soul. The original texts, many of them in His own hand, the others dictated and affirmed by their author, have been meticulously preserved. For several decades, a systematic program of translation and publication has made the central body of these writings accessible to people everywhere, in over eight hundred languages.

&

Birth of a New Revelation

Baha’u’Ilah’s mission began in a subterranean dungeon in Teheran in August 1852. Born into a noble family that could trace its ancestry back to the great dynasties of Persia’s imperial past, He declined the ministerial career open to Him in government, and chose instead to devote His energies to a range of philanthropies which had, by the early 1840s, earned Him widespread renown as “Father of the Poor.” This privileged existence swiftly eroded after 1844, when Baha’u’llah became one of the leading advocates of a movement that was to change the course of His country’s history.

The early nineteenth century was a period of messianic expectations in many lands. Deeply disturbed by the implications of scientific inquiry and industrialization, earnest believers from many religious backgrounds turned to the scriptures of their faiths for an understanding of the accelerating processes of change. In Europe and America groups like the Templers and the Millerites believed they had found in the Christian scriptures evidence supporting their conviction that history had ended and the return of Jesus Christ was at hand. A markedly similar ferment developed in the Middle East around the belief that the fulfillment of various prophecies in the Qur’dn and Islamic Traditions was imminent.

By far the most dramatic of these millennialist movements had been the one in Persia, which had focused on the person and teachings of a young merchant from the city of Shiraz, known to history as the Bab.‘ For nine years, from 1844 to 1853, Persians of all classes had been caught up in a storm of hope and excitement aroused by the Bab’s announcement that the Day of God was at hand and that He was himself the One promised in Islamic scripture. Humanity stood, He said, on the threshold of an era that would witness the restructuring of all aspects of life. New fields of learning, as yet inconceivable, would permit even the children of the new age to surpass the most erudite of contemporary scholars. The human race was called by God to embrace these changes through undertaking a transformation of its moral and spiritual life. His

�[Page 10]Page 10 / The American Baha'i / July 1991

own mission was to prepare humanity for the event that lay at the heart of these developments, the coming of that universal Messenger of God, “He Whom God will make manifest,” awaited by the followers of all religions.*

The claim had evoked violent hostility from the Muslim clergy, who taught that the process of Divine Revelation had ended with Muhammad, and that any assertion to the contrary represented apostasy, punishable by death. Their denunciation of the Bab had soon enlisted the support of the Persian authorities. Thousands of followers of the new faith had perished in a horrific series of massacres throughout the country, and the Bab had been publicly executed on July 9, 1850.° In an age of growing Western involvement in the Orient, these events had aroused interest and compassion in influential European circles. The nobility of the Bab’s life and teachings, the heroism of His followers, and the hope for fundamental reform that they had kindled in a darkened land had exerted a powerful attraction for personalities ranging from Ernest Renan and Leo Tolstoy to Sarah Bernhardt and the Comte de Gobineau.”

Because of His prominence in the defense of the Bab’s cause, Baha'u'llah was arrested and brought, in chains and on foot, to Teheran. Protected in some measure by an impressive personal reputation and the social position of His family, as well as by protests which the Babi pogroms had evoked from Western embassies, He was not sentenced to death, as influential figures at the royal court were urging. Instead, He was cast into the notorious Siyah-Chal, the “Black Pit,” a deep, vermininfested dungeon which had been created in one of the city’s abandoned reservoirs. No charges were laid but He and some thirty companions were, without appeal, kept immured in the darkness and filth of this pit, surrounded by hardened criminals, many of them under sentence of death. Around Baha’u’llah’s neck was clamped a heavy chain, so notorious in penal circles as to have been given its own name. When He did not quickly, perish, as.had been expected, an attempt was made to poison Him. The marks of the chain were to remain on His body for the rest of His life.

Central to Baha’u’llah’s writings is an exposition of the great themes which have preoccupied religious thinkers throughout the ages: God, the role of Revelation in history, the relationship of the world’s religious systems to one another, the meaning of faith, and the basis of moral authority in the organization of human society. Passages in these texts speak intimately of His own spiritual experience, of His response to the Divine summons, and of the dialogue with the “Spirit of God” which lay at the heart of His mission. Religious history has never before offered the inquirer the opportunity for so candid an encounter with the phenomenon of Divine Revelation.

Toward the end of His life, Baha’u’llah’s writings on His early experiences included a brief description of the conditions in the SiyahChal:

We were consigned for four months to a place foul beyond comparison. . . . The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow-prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves, assassins and highwaymen. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on. God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!*

Each day the guards would descend the three steep flights of stairs of the pit, seize one or more of the prisoners, and drag them out to be executed. In the streets of Teheran, Western observers were appalled by scenes of Babi victims blown from cannon mouths, hacked to death by axes and swords, and led to their deaths with burning candles inserted

into open wounds in their bodies.’ It was in these circumstances, and faced with the prospect of His own imminent death, that Baha’u’Ilah received the first intimation of His mission:

One night, in a dream, these exalted words were heard on every side: “Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety. Erelong will God raise up the treasures of the earth—men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through Thy name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized Him.”!°

The experience of Divine Revelation, touched on only at secondhand in surviving accounts of the lives of the Buddha, Moses, Jesus Christ, and Muhammad, is described graphically in Baha’u’llah’s own words:

During the days I lay in the prison of Tihran, though the galling weight of the chains and the stench-filled air allowed Me but little sleep, still in those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of My body would, as a result, be set afire. At such moments My tongue recited what no man could bear to hear."

&

Exile

Dy Viv HO dood

Eventually, still without trial or recourse, Baha’u’llah was released from prison and immediately banished from His native land, His wealth and properties arbitrarily confiscated. The Russian diplomatic representative, who knew Him personally and who had followed the Babi persecutions with growing distress, offered Him his protection and refuge in lands under the control of his government. In the prevailing political climate, acceptance of such help would almost certainly have been misrepresented by others as having political implications.!* Perhaps for this reason, Baha’u’llah chose to accept banishment to the neighboring territory of Iraq, then under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. This expulsion was the beginning of forty years of exile, imprisonment, and bitter persecution.

In the years which immediately followed His departure from Persia, Baha’u’llah gave priority to the needs of the Babi community which had gathered in Baghdad, a task which had devolved on Him as the only effective Babi leader to have survived the massacres. The death of the Bab and the almost simultaneous loss of most of the young faith’s teachers and guides had left the body of the believers scattered and demoralized. When His efforts to rally those who had fled to Iraq aroused jealousy and dissension,'* He followed the path that had been taken by all of the Messengers of God gone before Him, and withdrew to the wilderness, choosing for the purpose the mountain region of Kurdistan. His withdrawal, as He later said, had “contemplated no return.” Its reason “was to avoid becoming a subject of discord among the faithful, a source of disturbance unto Our companions.” Although the two years spent in Kurdistan were a period of intense privation and physical hardship, Baha’u’llah describes them as a time of profound happiness during which He reflected deeply on the message entrusted to Him: “Alone, We communed with Our spirit, oblivious of the world and all that is therein.”!*

�[Page 11]The American Baha'i / July 1991/ Page 11

Only with great reluctance, believing it His responsibility to the cause of the Bab, did He eventually accede to urgent messages from the remnant of the desperate group of exiles in Baghdad who had discovered His whereabouts and appealed to Him to return and assume the leadership of their community.

Two of the most important volumes of Baha’u’llah’s writings date from this first period of exile, preceding the declaration of His mission in 1863. The first of these is a small book which He named The Hidden Words. Written in the form of a compilation of moral aphorisms, the volume represents the ethical heart of Baha’u’llah’s message. In verses which Baha’u’llah describes as a distillation of the spiritual guidance of all the Revelations of the past, the voice of God speaks directly to the human soul:

O Son of 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 of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My lovingkindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

O Son of Being! Love Me that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.

O Son of Man! Sorrow not save that thou art far from Us. Rejoice not save that thou art drawing near and returning unto Us... . olin

O Son of Being!

With the hands of power I made thee and with the fingers of strength I created thee; and within thee have I placed the essence of My light. Be thou content with it and seek naught else, for My work is perfect and My command is binding. Question it not, nor have a doubt thereof.'*

The second of the two major works composed by Baha’u’llah during this period is The Book of Certitude, a comprehensive exposition of the nature and purpose of religion. In passages that draw not only on the Qur’4n, but with equal facility and insight on the Old and New Testaments, the Messengers of God are depicted as agents of a single, unbroken process, the awakening of the human race to its spiritual and moral potentialities. A humanity which has come of age no longer needs the language of parable and allegory; faith is a matter not of blind belief, but of conscious knowledge. Nor is the guidance of an ecclesiastical elite any longer required: the gift of reason confers on each individual in this new age of enlightenment and education the capacity to respond to Divine guidance. The test is that of sincerity:

No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth... .. The essence of these words is this: they that tread the path of faith, they that thirst for the wine of certitude, must cleanse themselves of all that is earthly—their ears from idle talk, their minds from vain imaginings, their hearts from worldly affections, their eyes from that which perisheth. They should put their trust in God, and, holding fast unto Him, follow in His way. Then will they be made worthy of the effulgent glories of the sun of divine knowledge and understanding, .. .

inasmuch as man can never hope to attain unto the knowledge of the All-Glorious . . . unless and until he ceases to regard the words and deeds of mortal men as a standard for the true understanding and recognition of God and His Prophets.

Consider the past. How many, both high and low, have, at all times, yearningly awaited the advent of the Manifestations of God in the sanctified persons of His chosen Ones. . . And whensoever the portals of grace did open, and the clouds of divine bounty did rain upon mankind, and the light of the Unseen did shine above the horizon of celestial might, they all denied Him, and turned away from His face—the face of God Himself...

Only when the lamp of search, of earnest striving, of longing desire, of passionate devotion, of fervid love, of rapture, and ecstasy, is kindled within the seekers heart, and the breeze of His loving-kindness is wafted upon his soul, will the darkness of error be dispelled, the mists of doubts and misgivings be dissipated, and the lights of knowledge and certitude envelop his being. . . . Then will the manifold favors and outpouring grace of the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind. . . . Gazing with the eye of God, he will perceive within every atom a door that leadeth him to the stations of absolute certitude. He will discover in all things the . . . evidences of an everlasting Manifestation.

. . . When the channel of the human soul is cleansed of all worldly and impeding attachments, it will unfailingly perceive the breath of the Beloved across immeasurable distances, and will, led by its perfume, attain and enter the City of Certitude. . . . ,

... That city is none other than the Word of God revealed

SCG every age and di ‘All the guidance, the bléss:') ings, the learning, the understanding, thé faith, and certitude, © conferred upon all that is in heaven and on earth, are hidden and treasured within these Cities.'*

No overt reference is made to Baha’u’ll4h’s own as yet unannounced mission; rather, The Book of Certitude is organized around a vigorous exposition of the mission of the martyred Bab. Not the least of the reasons for the book’s powerful influence on the Babi community, which included a number of scholars and former seminarians, was the mastery of Islamic thought and teaching its author displays in demonstrating the Bab’s claim to have fulfilled the prophecies of Islam. Calling on the Babis to be worthy of the trust which the Bab had placed in them and of the sacrifice of so many heroic lives, Baha’u’llah held out before them the challenge not only of bringing their personal lives into conformity with the Divine teachings, but of making their community a model for the heterogeneous population of Baghdad, the Iraqi provincial capital.

Though living in very straitened material circumstances, the exiles were galvanized by this vision. One of their company, a man called Nabil, who was later to leave a detailed history of both the ministries of the Bab and Baha’u’llah, has described the spiritual intensity of those days:

Many a night no less than ten persons subsisted on no more than a pennyworth of dates. No one knew to whom actually belonged the shoes, the cloaks, or the robes that were to be found in their houses. Whoever went to the bazaar could claim that the shoes upon his feet were his own, and each one who entered the presence of Baha'u'llah could affirm that the cloak and robe he then wore belonged to him. . . . O, for the

�[Page 12]Page 12 / The American Baha'i / July 1991

joy of those days, and the gladness and wonder of those hours!'”

To the dismay of the Persian consular authorities who had believed the Babi “episode” to have run its course, the community of exiles gradually became a respected and influential element in Iraq’s provincial capital and the neighboring towns. Since several of the most important shrines of Shi‘ih Islam were located in the area, a steady stream of Persian pilgrims was also exposed, under the most favorable circumstances, to the renewal of Babi influence. Among dignitaries who called on Baha’u’llah in the simple house He occupied were princes of the royal family. So enchanted by the experience was one of them that he conceived the somewhat naive idea that by erecting a duplicate of the building in the gardens of his own estate, he might recapture something of the atmosphere of spiritual purity and detachment he had briefly encountered. Another, more deeply moved by the experience of his visit, expressed to friends the feeling that “were all the sorrows of the world to be crowded into my heart they would, I feel, all vanish, when in the presence of Baha’u’llah. It is as if I had entered Paradise . . .”'*

&

The Declaration in the Ridvan Garden

By 1863, Baha’u’llah concluded that the time had come to begin acquainting some of those around Him with the mission which had been. entrusted to Him in the darkness of the Siyah-Chal. This decision coincided with a new stage in the campaign of opposition to His work, which had been relentlessly pursued by the Shi‘ih Muslim clergy and representatives of the Persian government. Fearing that the acclaim which Baha'u'llah was beginning to enjoy among influential Persian visitors to Iraq would reignite popular enthusiasm in Persia, the Shah’s government pressed the Ottoman authorities to remove Him far from the borders and into the interior of the empire. Eventually, the Turkish government acceded to these pressures and invited the exile, as its guest, to make His residence in the capital, Constantinople. Despite the courteous terms in which the message was couched, the intention was clearly to require compliance.'?

By this time, the devotion of the little company of exiles had come to focus on Baha’u’llah’s person as well as on His exposition of the Bab’s teachings. A growing number of them had become convinced that He was speaking not only as the Bab’s advocate, but on behalf of the far greater cause which the latter had declared to be imminent. These beliefs became a certainty in late April 1863 when Baha’u’llah, on the eve of His departure for Constantinople, called together individuals among His companions, in a garden to which was later given the name Ridvan (“Paradise”), and confided the central fact of His mission. Over the next four years, although no open announcement was considered timely, the hearers gradually shared with trusted friends the news that the Bab’s promises had been fulfilled and that the “Day of God” had dawned.

The precise circumstances surrounding this private communication are, in the words of the Baha’i authority most intimately familiar with the records of the period, “shrouded in an obscurity which future historians will find it difficult to penetrate.”?° The nature of the declaration may be appreciated in various references which Baha’u’llah was to make to His mission in many of His subsequent writings:

The purpose underlying all creation is the revelation of this most sublime, this most holy Day, the Day known as the Day of God, in His Books and Scriptures—the Day which all

the Prophets, and the Chosen Ones, and the holy ones, have wished to witness.”!

. . . this is the Day in which mankind can behold the Face, and hear the Voice, of the Promised One. The Call of God hath been raised, and the light of His countenance hath been lifted up upon men. It behooveth every man to blot out the trace of every idle word from the tablet of his heart, and to gaze, with an open and unbiased mind, on the signs of His Revelation, the proofs of His Mission, and the tokens of His glory.”

As repeatedly emphasized in Baha’u’llah’s exposition of the Bab’s message, the primary purpose of God in revealing His Will is to effect a transformation in the character of humankind, to develop within those who respond the moral and spiritual qualities that are latent within human nature:

Beautify your tongues, O people, with truthfulness, and adorn your souls with the ornament of honesty. Beware, O people, that ye deal not treacherously with any one. Be ye the trustees of God amongst His creatures, and the emblems of His generosity amidst His people. . . .”

Illumine and hallow your hearts; let them not be profaned by the thorns of hate or the thistles of malice. Ye dwell in one world, and have been created through the operation of one Will. Blessed is he who mingleth with all men in a spirit of utmost kindliness and love.*4

"The aggressive proselytism that had characterized efforts in ages past to promote the cause of religion is declared to be unworthy of the Day of God. Each person who has recognized the Revelation has the obligation to share it with those who he believes are seeking, but to leave the response entirely to his hearers:

Show forbearance and benevolence and love to one another. Should any one among you be incapable of grasping a certain truth, or be striving to comprehend it, show forth, when conversing with him, a spirit of extreme kindliness and good-will. .. .”°

The whole duty of man in this Day is to attain that share of the flood of grace which God poureth forth for him. Let none, therefore, consider the largeness or smallness of the receptacle. .. .”°

Against the background of the bloody events in Persia, Baha’u’llah not only told His followers that “if ye be slain, it is better for you than to slay,” but urged them to set an example of obedience to civil authority: “In every country where any of this people reside, they must behave towards the government of that country with loyalty, honesty and truthfulness.”?”

The conditions surrounding Baha’u’llah’s departure from Baghdad provided a dramatic demonstration of the potency of these principles. In only a few years, a band of foreign exiles whose arrival in the area had aroused suspicion and aversion on the part of their neighbors had become one of the most respected and influential segments of the population. They supported themselves through flourishing businesses; as a group they were admired for their generosity and the integrity of their conduct; the lurid allegations of religious fanaticism and violence, sedulously spread by Persian consular officials and members of the

�[Page 13]The American Baha'i / July 1991/ Page 13

eA ESSEC ERE ESR RE STRESS SSS ECS SSE SS ES PES SSE ES RES ASUS SS TR Se

Shi‘ih Muslim clergy, had ceased to have an effect on the public mind. By May 3, 1863, when He rode out of Baghdad, accompanied by His family and those of His companions and servants who had been chosen to accompany Him to Constantinople, Baha’u’lláh had become an immensely popular and cherished figure. In the days immediately preceding the leave-taking a stream of notables, including the governor of the province himself, came to the garden where He had temporarily taken up residence, many of them from great distances, in order to pay their respects. Eyewitnesses to the departure have described in moving terms the acclaim that greeted Him, the tears of many of the onlookers, and the concern of the Ottoman authorities and civil officials to do their visitor honor.”*

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“The Changeless Faith of God...”

Following the declaration of His mission in 1863, Baha’u’llah began to elaborate a theme already introduced in The Book of Certitude, the relationship between the Will of God and the evolutionary process by which the spiritual and moral capacities latent in human nature find expression. This exposition would occupy a central place in His writings over the remaining thirty years of His life. The reality of God, He asserts, is and will always remain unknowable. Whatever words human thought may apply to the Divine nature relate only to human existence and are the products of human efforts to describe human experience:

Fear, far from Thy glory be what mortal man can affirm of Thee, or attribute unto Thee, or the praise with which he'can glorify Thee! Whatever duty Thou hast prescribed unto Thy servants of extolling to the utmost Thy majesty and glory is but a token of Thy grace unto them, that they may be enabled to ascend unto the station conferred upon their own inmost being, the station of the knowledge of their own selves.”

To every discerning and illumined heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His glory that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery. He is and hath ever been veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men. .. . *°

What humanity experiences in turning to the Creator of all existence are the attributes or qualities which are associated with God’s recurring Revelations: ;

The door of the knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the face of all beings, the Source of infinite grace, . . . hath caused those luminous Gems of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence. . . 3!

These sanctified Mirrors . . . are one and all the Exponents on earth of Him Who is the central Orb of the universe,

its Essence and ultimate Purpose. From Him proceed their knowledge and power; from Him is derived their sovereignty. The beauty of their countenance is but a reflection of His image, and their revelation a sign of His deathless glory. . .

The Revelations of God do not differ in any essential respect from one another, although the changing needs they serve from age to age have called out unique responses from each of them:

These attributes of God are not and have never been vouchsafed specially unto certain Prophets, and withheld from others. Nay, all the Prophets of God, His well-favored, His holy, and chosen Messengers, are, without exception, the bearers of His names, and the embodiments of His attributes. They only differ in the intensity of their revelation, and the comparative potency of their light. . .

Students of religion are cautioned not to permit theological dogmas or other preconceptions to lead them into discriminating among those whom God has used as channels of His light:

Beware, O believers in the Unity of God, lest ye be tempted to make any distinction between any of the Manifestations of His Cause, or to discriminate against the signs that have accompanied and proclaimed their Revelation. This indeed is the true meaning of Divine Unity, if ye be of them that apprehend and believe this truth. Be ye assured, moreover, that the works and acts of each and every one of these Manifestations of God, nay whatever pertaineth unto them, and whatsoever they may manifest in the future, are all ordained by God,

_and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose... ..

Baha’u’llah compares the interventions of the Divine Revelations to the return of spring. The Messengers of God are not merely teachers, although this is one of their primary functions. Rather, the spirit of their words, together with the example of their lives, has the capacity to tap the roots of human motivation and to induce fundamental and lasting change. Their influence opens new realms of understanding and achievement:

And since there can be no tie of direct intercourse to bind the one true God with His creation, and no resemblance whatever can exist between the transient and the Eternal, the contingent and the Absolute, He hath ordained that in every age and dispensation a pure and stainless Soul be made manifest in the kingdoms of earth and heaven. . . . Led by the light of unfailing guidance, and invested with supreme sovereignty, They [the Messengers of God] are commissioned to use the inspiration of Their words, the effusions of Their infallible grace and the sanctifying breeze of Their Revelation for the cleansing of every longing heart and receptive spirit from the dross and dust of earthly cares and limitations. Then, and only then, will the Trust of God, latent in the reality of man, emerge... and implant the ensign of its revealed glory upon the summits of men’s hearts.*°

Without this intervention from the world of God, human nature remains the captive of instinct, as well as of unconscious assumptions and patterns of behavior that have been culturally determined:

Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He [God] . . . chose to confer upon man the unique

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- distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him—a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation. . . . Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty.

These energies with which the . . . Source of heavenly guidance hath endowed the reality of man lie, however, latent within him, even as the flame is hidden within the candle and the rays of light are potentially present in the lamp. The radiance of these energies may be obscured by worldly desires even as the light of the sun can be concealed beneath the dust and dross which cover the mirror. Neither the candle nor the lamp can be lighted through their own unaided efforts, nor can it ever be possible for the mirror to free itself from its dross. It is clear and evident that until a fire is kindled the lamp will never be ignited, and unless the dross is blotted out from the face of the mirror it can never represent the image of the sun nor reflect its light and glory.*°

The time has come, Baha'u'llah said, when humanity has both the capacity and the opportunity to see the entire panorama of its spiritual development as a single process: “Peerless is this Day, for it is as the eye to past ages and centuries, and as a light unto the darkness of the times.”*” In this perspective, the followers of differing religious traditions must strive to understand what He called “the changeless Faith of God”** and to distinguish its central spiritual impulse from the changing laws and concepts that were revealed to meet the requirements of an everevolving human society:

The Prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity. . . . Little wonder, then, if the treatment prescribed by the physician in this day should not be found to be identical with that which he prescribed before. How could it be otherwise when the ills affecting the sufferer necessitate at every stage of his sickness a special remedy? In like manner, every time the Prophets of God have illumined the world with the resplendent radiance of the Day Star of Divine knowledge, they have invariably summoned its peoples to embrace the light of God through such means as best befitted the exigencies of the age in which they appeared. . . .°

It is not only the heart, but the mind, which must devote itself to this process of discovery. Reason, Baha’u'llah asserts, is God’s greatest gift to the soul, “a sign of the revelation of . . . the sovereign Lord.” Only by freeing itself from inherited dogma, whether religious or materialistic, can the mind take up an independent exploration of the relationship between the Word of God and the experience of humankind. In such a search, a major obstacle is prejudice: “Warn . . . the beloved of the one true God, not to view with too critical an eye the sayings and writings of men. Let them rather approach such sayings and writings in a spirit of open-mindedness and loving sympathy.”*'

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The Manifestation of God

What is common to all who are devoted to one or another of the world’s religious systems is the conviction that it is through the Divine Revelation that the soul comes in touch with the world of God, and that it is this relationship which gives real meaning to life. Some of the most important passages in Baha’u’llah’s writings are those which discuss at length the nature and role of those who are the channels of this Revelation, the Messengers or “Manifestations of God.” A recurrent analogy found in these passages is that of the physical sun. While the latter shares certain characteristics of the other bodies in the solar system, it differs from them in that it is, in itself, the source of the system’s light. The planets and moons reflect light whereas the sun emits it as an attribute inseparable from its nature. The system revolves around this focal point, each of its members influenced not only by its particular composition, but by its relationship to the source of the system’s light.

In the same way, Baha’u’llah asserts, the human personality which the Manifestation of God shares with the rest of the race is differentiated from others in a way that fits it to serve as the channel or vehicle for the Revelation of God. Apparently contradictory references to this dual station, attributed, for example, to Christ,“? have been among the many sources of religious confusion and dissension throughout history. Baha’u’llah says on the subject:

Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth is a direct evidence of the revelation within it of the attributes and names of God .. . To a supreme degree is this true of man, who, among all created things, . . . hath been singled out for the glory of such distinction. For in him are potentially revealed all the attributes and names of God to.a degree that no other created being hath excelled or surpassed. . .. And of all men, the most accomplished, the most distinguished, and the most excellent are the Manifestations of the Sun of Truth. Nay, all else besides these Manifestations, live by the operation of their Will, and move and have their being through the outpourings of their grace.

Throughout history, the conviction of believers that the Founder of their own religion occupied a unique station has had the effect of stimulating intense speculation on the nature of the Manifestation of God. Since such speculation has been, in every case, severely limited by the fact that it could draw on only fragmentary and allegorical allusions to the subject in the few authenticated sayings of the Founder Himself, the attempt to crystallize opinion in the form of religious dogma has been a divisive rather than unifying force in history. Indeed, despite the enormous energy devoted to theological pursuits—or perhaps because of it— there are today profound differences among Muslims as to the precise station of Muhammad, among Christians as to that of Jesus, and among Buddhists with respect to the Founder of their own religion. As is all too apparent, the controversies created by these and other differences within any one given tradition have proven at least as acute as those separating that tradition from its sister faiths.

Particularly important to an understanding of Baha’u’llah’s teachings on the unity of religions, therefore, are His statements about the station of the successive Messengers of God and the functions performed by them in the spiritual history of humankind:

[The] Manifestations of God have each a twofold station. One is the station of pure abstraction and essential unity. In this respect, if thou callest them all by one name, and dost ascribe to them the same attributes, thou hast not erred from the Hid ees

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|S a LESS SESE EE SE ST ESE MR ESTE SEE SER SE

The other station is the station of distinction, and pertaineth to the world of creation, and to the limitations thereof. In this respect, each Manifestation of God hath a distinct individuality, a definitely prescribed mission, a predestined revelation, and specially designated limitations. Each one of them is known by a different name, is characterized by a special attribute, fulfills a definite mission. . . .

Viewed in the light of their second station . . . they manifest absolute servitude, utter destitution, and complete self-effacement. Even as He saith: “I am the servant of God. I am but a man like you.” ...

Were any of the all-embracing Manifestations of God to declare: “I am God,” He, verily, speaketh the truth, and no doubt attacheth thereto. For... through their Revelation, their attributes and names, the Revelation of God, His names and His attributes, are made manifest in the world. . .. And were any of them to voice the utterance, “I am the Messenger of God,” He, also, speaketh the truth, the indubitable truth. . . . Viewed in this light, they are all but Messengers of that ideal King, that unchangeable Essence. . . . And were they to say, “We are the Servants of God,” this also is a manifest and indisputable fact. For they have been made manifest in the uttermost state of servitude, a servitude the like of which no man can possibly attain... .°

Thus it is that whatsoever be their utterance, whether it pertain to the realm of Divinity, Lordship, Prophethood, Messengership, Guardianship, Apostleship, or Servitude, all is true, beyond the shadow of a doubt. Therefore these sayings . . . must be attentively considered, that the divergent utterances of the Manifestations of the Unseen and Day Springs of Holiness may cease to agitate the soul and perplex the mind.”

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“An Ever-Advancing Civilization . . .”

Implicit in these paragraphs is a perspective which represents the most challenging feature of Baha’u’llah’s exposition of the function of the Manifestation of God. Divine Revelation is, He says, the motive power of civilization. When it occurs, its transforming effect on the minds and souls of those who respond to it is replicated in the new society that slowly takes shape around their experience. A new center of loyalty emerges that can win the commitment of peoples from the widest range of cultures; music and the arts seize on symbols that mediate far richer and more mature inspirations; a radical redefinition of concepts of right and wrong makes possible the formulation of new codes of civil law and conduct; new institutions are conceived in order to give expression to impulses of moral responsibility previously ignored or unknown: “He was in the world, and the world was made by him. . . ”4” As the new culture evolves into a civilization, it assimilates achievements and insights of past eras in a multitude of fresh permutations. Features of past cultures that cannot be incorporated atrophy or are taken up by marginal elements among the population. The Word of God creates new possibilities within both the individual consciousness and human relationships:

Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God is endowed with such potency as can instill new life into every human frame . . . All the wondrous works ye behold in this

world have been manifested through the operation of His supreme and most exalted Will, His wondrous and inflexible Purpose. ... No sooner is this resplendent word uttered, than its animating energies, stirring within all created things, give birth to the means and instruments whereby such arts can be produced and perfected. . . . In the days to come, ye will, verily, behold things of which ye have never heard before. . . . Every single letter proceeding out of the mouth of God is indeed a mother letter, and every word uttered by Him Who is the Well Spring of Divine Revelation is a mother word... .®

The sequence of the Divine Revelations, Baha’u’llah asserts, is “a process that hath had no beginning and will have no end.”” Although the mission of each of the Manifestations is limited in time and in the functions it performs, it is an integral part of an ongoing and progressive unfoldment of God’s power and will:

Contemplate with thine inward eye the chain of successive Revelations that hath linked the Manifestation of Adam with that of the Bab. I testify before God that each one of these Manifestations hath been sent down through the operation of the Divine Will and Purpose, that each hath been the bearer of a specific Message, that each hath been entrusted with a divinely revealed Book... The measure of the Revelation with which every one of them hath been identified had been definitely foreordained. .. °°

Eventually, as an ever-evolving civilization exhausts its spiritual sources, a process of disintegration sets in, as it does throughout the phenomenal world. Turning again to analogies offered by nature, Baha’u’llah compares this hiatus in the development of civilization to the onset of winter. Moral vitality diminishes, as does social cohesion. Challenges which would have been overcome at an earlier age, or been turned into opportunities for exploration and achievement, become insuperable barriers. Religion loses its relevance, and experimentation becomes increasingly fragmented, further deepening social divisions. Increasingly, uncertainty about the meaning and value of life generates anxiety and confusion. Speaking about this condition in our own age Baha’u’llah says:

We can well perceive how the whole human race is encompassed with great, with incalculable afflictions. We see it languishing on its bed of sickness, sore-tried and disillusioned. They that are intoxicated by self-conceit have interposed themselves between it and the Divine and infallible Physician. Witness how they have entangled all men, themselves included, in the mesh of their devices. They can neither discover the cause of the disease, nor have they any knowledge of the remedy. They have conceived the straight to be crooked, and have imagined their friend an enemy.*!

When each of the Divine impulses has fulfilled itself, the process recurs. A new Manifestation of God appears with the fuller measure of Divine inspiration for the next stage in the awakening and civilizing of humankind:

Consider the hour at which the supreme Manifestation of God revealeth Himself unto men. Ere that hour cometh, the Ancient Being, Who is still unknown of men and hath not as yet given utterance to the Word of God, is Himself the AllKnower in a world devoid of any man that hath known Him. He is indeed the Creator without a creation. . . . This is indeed

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the Day of which it hath been written: “Whose shall be the Kingdom this Day?” And none can be found ready to answer!?

Until a section of humanity begins to respond to the new Revelation, and a new spiritual and social paradigm begins to take shape, people subsist spiritually and morally on the last traces of earlier Divine endowments. The routine tasks of society may or may not be done; laws may be obeyed or flouted; social and political experimentation may flame up or fail; but the roots of faith—without which no society can indefinitely endure—have been exhausted. At the “end of the age,” at the “end of the world,” the spiritually minded begin to turn again to the Creative source. However clumsy or disturbing the process may be, however inelegant or unfortunate some of the options considered, such searching is an instinctive response to the awareness that an immense chasm has opened in the ordered life of humankind.* The effects of the new Revelation, Baha’u’llah says, are universal, and not limited to the life and teachings of the Manifestation of God Who is the Revelation’s focal point. Though not understood, these effects increasingly permeate human affairs, revealing the contradictions in popular assumptions and in society, and intensifying the search for understanding.

The succession of the Manifestations is an inseparable dimension of existence, Baha’u’llah declares, and will continue throughout the life of the world: “God hath sent down His Messengers to succeed to Moses and Jesus, and He will continue to do so till ‘the end that hath no end’ .. .”**

The Day of God

What does Baha’u’llah hold to be the goal of the evolution of human consciousness? In the perspective of eternity, its purpose is that God should see, ever more clearly, the reflection of His perfections in the mirror of His creation, and that, in the words of Baha’u’Ilah:

... every man may testify, in himself, by himself, in the station of the Manifestation of his Lord, that verily there is no God save Him, and that every man may thereby win his way to the summit of realities, until none shall contemplate anything whatsoever but that he shall see God therein.**

Within the context of the history of civilization, the objective of the succession of Divine Manifestations has been to prepare human consciousness for the race’s unification as a single species, indeed as a single organism capable of taking up the responsibility for its collective future: “He Who is your Lord, the All-Merciful,” Baha’u’llah says, “cherisheth in His heart the desire of beholding the entire human race as one soul and one body.”** Not until humanity has accepted its organic oneness can it meet even its immediate challenges, let alone those that lie ahead: “The well-being of mankind,” Baha’u’llah insists, “its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.”*’” Only a unified global society can provide its children with the sense of inner assurance implied in one of Baha’u’llah’s prayers to God: “Whatever duty Thou hast prescribed unto Thy servants of extolling to the utmost Thy majesty and glory is but a token of Thy grace unto them, that they may be enabled to ascend unto the station conferred upon their own inmost being, the station of the knowledge of their own selves.”** Paradoxically, it is only by achieving true unity that humanity can fully cultivate its diversity and individuality. This is the goal which the missions of

all of the Manifestations of God known to history have served, the Day of “one fold and one shepherd.”® Its attainment, Baha’u’llah says, is the stage of civilization upon which the human race is now entering.

One of the most suggestive analogies to be found in the writings not only of Baha’u’ll4h, but of the Bab before Him, is the comparison between the evolution of the human race and the life of the individual human being. Humanity has moved through stages in its collective development which are reminiscent of the periods of infancy, childhood, and adolescence in the maturation of its individual members. We are now experiencing the beginnings of our collective maturity, endowed with new capacities and opportunities of which we as yet have only the dimmest awareness.

Against this background, it is not difficult to understand the primacy given in Baha’u’llah’s teachings to the principle of unity. The oneness of humanity is the leitmotif of the age now opening, the standard against which must be tested all proposals for the betterment of humanity. There is, Bahd’u’llah insists, but one human race; inherited notions that a particular racial or ethnic group is in some way superior to the rest of humanity are without foundation. Similarly, since all of the Messengers of God have served as agents of the one Divine Will, their Revelations are the collective legacy of the entire human race; each person on earth is a legitimate heir of the whole of that spiritual tradition. Persistence in prejudices of any kind is both damaging to the interests of society and a violation of the Will of God for our age:

O contending peoples and kindreds of the earth! Set your faces towards unity, and let the radiance of its light shine upon you. Gather ye together, and for the sake of God resolve to root out whatever is the source of contention amongst you. . . . There can be no doubt whatever that the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source, and are the subjects of one God. The difference between the ordinances under which they abide should be attributed to the varying requirements and exigencies of the age in which they were revealed. All of them, except a few which are the outcome of human perversity, were ordained of God, and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose. Arise and, armed with the power of faith, shatter to pieces the gods of your vain imaginings, the sowers of dissension amongst WYO 1.00

The theme of unity runs throughout Baha’u’llah’s writings: “The tabernacle of unity hath been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers.” “Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship.” “Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch.”

The process of humanity’s coming-of-age has occurred within the evolution of social organization. Beginning from the family unit and its various extensions, the human race has developed, with varying degrees of success, societies based on the clan, the tribe, the city-state, and most recently the nation. This progressively broader and more complex social milieu provides human potential with both stimulation and scope for development, and this development, in turn, has induced ever-new modifications of the social fabric. Humanity’s coming-of-age, therefore, must entail a total transformation of the social order, one capable of embracing the entire diversity of the race and of benefiting from the full range of talents and insights which many thousands of years of cultural experience have refined:

This is the Day in which God's most excellent favors have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things. It is incumbent upon all the peoples of the world to reconcile their differences,

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and, with perfect unity and peace, abide beneath the shadow of the Tree of His care and loving-kindness . . . Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord speaketh the truth, and is the Knower of things unseen.©

The chief instrument for the transformation of society and the achievement of world unity, Baha’u’llah asserts, is the establishment of justice in the affairs of humankind. The subject has a central place in His teachings:

The light of men is Justice. Quench it not with the contrary winds of oppression and tyranny. The purpose of justice is the appearance of unity among men. The ocean of divine wisdom surgeth within this exalted word, while the books of the world cannot contain its inner significance. .. .

In His later writings Baha’u’llah made explicit the implications of this principle for the age of humanity’s maturity. “Women and men have been and will always be equal in the sight of God,”®’ He asserts, and the advancement of civilization requires that society so organize its affairs as to give full expression to this fact. The earth’s resources are the property of all humanity, not of any one people. Different contributions to the common economic welfare deserve and should receive different measures of reward and recognition, but the extremes of wealth and poverty which afflict most nations on earth, regardless of the socioeconomic philosophies they profess, must be abolished.

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Announcement to the Kings

The writings which have been quoted in the foregoing were revealed, for the most part, in conditions of renewed persecution. Soon after the exiles’ arrival in Constantinople, it became apparent that the honors showered upon Baha’u’llah during His journey from Baghdad had represented only a brief interlude. The Ottoman authorities’ decision to move the “Babi” leader and His companions to the capital of the empire rather than to some remote province deepened the alarm among the representatives of the Persian government.® Fearing that the developments in Baghdad would be repeated, and might attract this time not only the sympathy but perhaps even the allegiance of influential figures in the Turkish government, the Persian ambassador pressed insistently for the dispatch of the exiles to some more distant part of the empire. His argument was that the spread of a new religious message in the capital could produce political as well as religious repercussions.

Initially, the Ottoman government strongly resisted. The chief minister, ‘Ali Pasha, had indicated to Western diplomats his belief that Baha’u’llah was “a man of great distinction, exemplary conduct, great moderation, and a most dignified figure.” His teachings were, in the minister’s opinion, “worthy of high esteem” because they counteracted the religious animosities dividing the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim subjects of the empire.”

Gradually, however, a degree of resentment and suspicion developed. In the Ottoman capital, political and economic power was in the hands of court functionaries who, with but few exceptions, were persons of little or no competence. Venality was the oil on which the machinery of government operated, and the capital was a magnet for a horde of people who flocked there from every part of the empire and beyond, seeking

favors and influence. It was expected that any prominent figure from another country or from one of the tribute territories would, immediately upon arrival in Constantinople, join the throngs of patronage-seekers in the reception rooms of the pashas and ministers of the imperial court. No element had a worse reputation than the competing groups of Persian political exiles who were known for both their sophistication and their lack of scruple.

To the distress of friends who urged Him to make use of the prevailing hostility toward the Persian government and of the sympathy which His own sufferings had aroused, Baha’u’llah made it clear that He had no requests to make. Although several government ministers made social calls at the residence assigned to Him, He did not take advantage of these openings. He was in Constantinople, He said, as the guest of the Sultan, at his invitation, and His interest lay in spiritual and moral concerns. ’

Many years later, the Persian ambassador, Mirza Husayn Khan, reflecting on his tour of duty in the Ottoman capital, and complaining about the damage which the greed and untrustworthiness of his countrymen had done to Persia’s reputation in Constanti-nople, paid a surprisingly candid tribute to the example which Baha’u’llah’s conduct had been able briefly to set.” At the time, however, he and his colleagues made use of the situation to represent it as an astute way on the exile’s part of concealing secret conspiracies against public security and the religion of the State. Under pressure of these influences, the Ottoman authorities finally took the decision to transfer Baha’u’llah and His family to the provincial city of Adrianople. The move was made hastily, in the depth of an extremely severe winter. Housed there in inadequate buildings, lacking suitable clothing and other provisions, the exiles endured a year of great suffering. It was clear that, though charged with no crime and given no opportunity to defend themselves, they had arbitrarily been made state prisoners.

From the point of view of religious history, the successive banishments of Baha’u’llah to Constantinople and Adrianople have a striking symbolism. For the first time, a Manifestation of God, Founder of an independent religious system which was soon to spread throughout the planet, had crossed the narrow neck of water separating Asia from Europe, and had set foot in “the West.” All of the other great religions had arisen in Asia, and the ministries of their Founders had been confined to that continent. Referring to the fact that the dispensations of the past, and particularly those of Abraham, Christ, and Muhammad, had produced their most important effects on the development of civilization during the course of their westward expansion, Baha’u’llah predicted that the same thing would occur in this new age, but on a vastly larger scale: “In the East the Light of His Revelation hath broken; in the West the signs of His dominion have appeared. Ponder this in your hearts, O people . . .””'

It is then perhaps not surprising that Baha’u’llah chose this moment to make public the mission which had been slowly enlisting the allegiance of the followers of the Bab throughout the Middle East. His announcement took the form of a series of statements which are among the most remarkable documents in religious history. In them, the Manifestation of God addresses the “Kings and Rulers of the world,” announcing to them the dawning of the Day of God, alluding to the as yet inconceivable changes which were gathering momentum throughout the world, and calling on them as the trustees of God and of their fellow human beings to arise and serve the process of the unification of the human race. Because of the veneration in which they were held by the mass of their subjects, and because of the absolute nature of the rule which most of them exercised, it lay in their power, He said, to assist in bringing about what He called the “Most Great Peace,” a world order characterized by unity and animated by Divine justice.

Only with the greatest difficulty can the modern reader envision the moral and intellectual world in which these monarchs of a century

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ago lived. From their biographies and private correspondence, it is apparent that, with few exceptions, they were personally devout, taking a leading part in the spiritual life of their respective nations, often as the heads of the state religions, and convinced of the unerring truths of the Bible or the Qur’an. The power which most of them wielded they attributed directly to the Divine authority of passages in these same scriptures, an authority about which they were vigorously articulate. They were the anointed of God. Prophecies of “the Latter Days” and “the Kingdom of God” were not for them myth or allegory, but certainties upon which all moral order rested and in which they would themselves be called on by God to give an account of their stewardship.

The letters of Baha’u’llah address themselves to this mental world:

O Kings of the earth! He Who is the sovereign Lord of all is come. The Kingdom is God's, the omnipotent Protector, the Self-Subsisting. . . . This is a Revelation to which whatever ye possess can never be compared, could ye but know it. . . .

. .. Take heed lest pride deter you from recognizing the Source of Revelation, lest the things of this world shut you out as by a veil from Him Who is the Creator of heaven. . . .

By the righteousness of God! It is not Our wish to lay hands on your kingdoms. Our mission is to seize and possess the hearts of men... .”

Know ye that the poor are the trust of God in your midst. Watch that ye betray not His trust, that ye deal not unjustly with them and that ye walk not in the ways of the treacherous. Ye will most certainly be called upon to answer for His trust on the day when the Balance of Justice shall be set, the day when unto every one shall be rendered his due, when the doings of all men, be they rich or poor, shall be weighed. . . .

Examine Our Cause, inquire into the things that have befallen Us, and decide justly between Us and Our enemies, and be ye of them that act equitably towards their neighbor. If ye stay not the hand of the oppressor, if ye fail to safeguard the rights of the downtrodden, what right have ye then to vaunt yourselves among men?. . .”9

If ye pay no heed unto the counsels which . . . We have revealed in this Tablet, Divine chastisement shall assail you from every direction, and the sentence of His justice shall be pronounced against you. On that day ye shall have no power to resist Him, and shall recognize your own impotence. . . .”

The vision of the “Most Great Peace” evoked no response from the rulers of the nineteenth century. Nationalistic aggrandizement and imperial expansion recruited not only kings but parliamentarians, academics, artists, newspapers, and the major religious establishments as eager propagandists of Western triumphalism. Proposals for social change, however disinterested and idealistic, quickly fell captive to a swarm of new ideologies thrown up by the rising tide of dogmatic materialism. In the Orient, mesmerized by its own claims to represent all that humanity ever could or would know of God and truth, the Islamic world sank steadily deeper into ignorance, lethargy, and a sullen hostility to a human race which failed to acknowledge this spiritual preeminence.

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Arrival in the Holy Land

Given the earlier events in Baghdad, it seems surprising that the Ottoman authorities did not anticipate what would result from the establishment of Baha’u’lláh in another major provincial capital. Within a year of His arrival in Adrianople, their prisoner had attracted first the interest and then the fervent admiration of figures prominent in both the intellectual and administrative life of the region. To the dismay of the Persian consular representatives, two of the most devoted of these admirers were Khurshid Pasha, the governor of the province, and the Shaykhu’|-Islam, the leading Sunni religious dignitary. In the eyes of His hosts and the public generally, the exile was a moral philosopher and saint the validity of whose teachings was reflected not only in the example of His own life but in the changes they effected among the flood of Persian pilgrims who flocked to this remote center of the Ottoman Empire in order to visit Him.”

These unanticipated developments convinced the Persian ambassador and his colleagues that it was only a matter of time before the Baha’i movement, which was continuing to spread in Persia, would have established itself as a major influence in Persia’s neighboring and rival empire. Throughout this period of its history, the ramshackle Ottoman Empire was struggling against repeated incursions by Tsarist Russia, uprisings among its subject peoples, and persistent attempts by the ostensibly sympathetic British and Austrian governments to detach various Turkish territories and incorporate them into their own empires. These unstable political conditions in Turkey’s European provinces offered new and urgent arguments supporting the ambassador’s appeal that the exiles be sent to a distant colony where Baha’u’llah would have no further contact with influential circles, whether Turkish or Western.

‘When the Turkish foreign minister, Fu’dd Pasha, returned from a visit to Adrianople, his astonished reports of the reputation which Baha’u’ll4h had come to enjoy throughout the region appeared to lend credibility to the Persian embassy’s suggestions. In this climate of opinion, the government abruptly decided to subject its guest to strict confinement. Without warning, early one day, Baha’u’llah’s house was surrounded by soldiers, and the exiles were ordered to prepare for departure to an unknown destination.

The place chosen for this final banishment was the grim fortress-town of ‘Akka (Acre) on the coast of the Holy Land. Notorious throughout the empire for the foulness of its climate and the prevalence of many diseases, ‘Akka was a penal colony used by the Ottoman State for the incarceration of dangerous criminals who could be expected not to survive too long their imprisonment there. Arriving in August 1868, Baha’u’llah, the members of His family, and a company of His followers who had been exiled with Him were to experience two years of suffering and abuse within the fortress itself, and then be confined under house arrest to a nearby building owned by a local merchant. For a long time the exiles were shunned by the superstitious local populace who had been warned in public sermons against “the God of the Persians,” who was depicted as an enemy of public order and the purveyor of blasphemous and immoral ideas. Several members of the small group of exiles died of the privations and other conditions to which they were subjected.”

It seems, in retrospect, the keenest irony that the selection of the Holy Land as the place of Baha’u’llah’s forced confinement should have been the result of pressure from ecclesiastical and civil enemies whose aim was to extinguish His religious influence. Palestine, revered by three of the great monotheistic religions as the point where the worlds of God and of man intersect, held then, as it had for thousands of years, a unique place in human expectation. Only a few

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weeks before Baha’u’llah’s arrival, the leaders of the German Protestant Templer movement sailed from Europe to establish at the foot of Mount Carmel a colony that would welcome Christ, whose advent they believed to be imminent. Over the lintels of several of the small houses they erected, facing across the bay to Baha’u’llah’s prison at ‘Akka, can still be seen such carved inscriptions as Der Herr ist nahe (“The Lord is near”).’”

In ‘Akka, Baha’u’llah continued the dictation of a series of letters to individual rulers, which He had begun in Adrianople. Several contained warnings of the judgment of God on their negligence and misrule, warnings whose dramatic fulfillment aroused intense public discussion throughout the Near East. Less than two months after the exiles arrived in the prison-city, for example, Fu’éd Pasha, the Ottoman foreign minister, whose misrepresentations had helped precipitate the banishment, was abruptly dismissed from his post and died in France of a heart attack. The event was marked by a statement which predicted the early dismissal of his colleague, Prime Minister ‘Alf Pasha, the overthrow and death of the Sultan, and the loss of Turkish territories in Europe, a series of disasters which followed on the heels of one another.”*

A letter to Emperor Napoleon III warned that, because of his in sincerity and the misuse of his power: “. . . thy kingdom shall be thrown into confusion, and thine empire shall pass from thine hands, as a punishment for that which thou has wrought. . . . Hath thy pomp made thee

proud? By My life! It shall not endure . . .”” Of the disastrous FrancoPrussian War and the resulting overthrow of Napoleon III, which occurred less than a year after this statement, Alistair Horne, a modern scholar of nineteenth-century French political history, has written:

History knows of perhaps no more startling instance of what the Greeks called peripeteia, the terrible fall from prideful heights. Certainly no nation in modern times, so replete with. apparent grandeur and opulent in material achievement, has ever been subjected to a worse humiliation in so short a time.

Only a few months before the unexpected series of events in Europe that led to the invasion of the Papal States and the annexation of Rome by the forces of the new Kingdom of Italy, a statement addressing Pope Pius IX had urged the Pontiff, “Abandon thy kingdom unto the kings, and emerge from thy habitation, with thy face set towards the Kingdom . . . Be as thy Lord hath been. . . . Verily, the day of ingathering is come, and all things have been separated from each other. He hath stored away that which He chose in the vessels of justice, and cast into the fire that which befitteth it... .”*!

Particularly ominous was a passage in the writings of this same period, envisioning more distant events in Germany. The Prussian king, Wilhelm I, whose government had deliberately provoked the war that had led to the crushing defeat of France and to the creation of a new “German Empire,” was warned:

O banks of the Rhine! We have seen you covered with gore, inasmuch as the swords of retribution were drawn against you; and you shall have another turn. And We hear the lamentations of Berlin, though she be today in conspicuous glory.”

A strikingly different note characterizes two of the major pronouncements—that addressed to Queen Victoria** and another to the “Rulers of America and the Presidents of the Republics therein.” The former praises the pioneering achievement represented by the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire, and commends the principle of representative government. The latter, which opens with the announcement of the Day of God, concludes with a summons, a virtual mandate, that has no parallel in any of the other messages: “Bind ye the broken with the hands of justice, and crush the oppressor who flourisheth with

the rod of the commandments of your Lord, the Ordainer, the AllWise.”*

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Religion as Light and Darkness

Baha’u’llah’s severest condemnation is reserved for the barriers which, throughout history, organized religion has erected between humanity and the Revelations of God. Dogmas, inspired by popular superstition and perfected by misspent intelligence, have repeatedly been imposed on a Divine process whose purpose has at all times been spiritual and moral. Laws of social interaction, revealed for the purpose of consolidating community life, have been made the basis for structures of arcane doctrine and practice which have burdened the masses whose benefit they were supposed to serve. Even the exercise of intellect, the chief tool possessed by the human race, has been deliberately hampered, producing an eventual breakdown in the dialogue between faith and science upon which civilized life depends.

The consequence of this sorry record is the worldwide disrepute into which religion has fallen. Worse, organized religion has become itself a most virulent cause of hatred and warfare among the peoples of the world. “Religious fanaticism and hatred,” Baha’u’llah warned over a century ago, “are a world-devouring fire, whose violence none can quench. The Hand of Divine power can, alone, deliver mankind from this desolating affliction.”*>

Those whom God will hold responsible for this tragedy, Baha’u'llah says, are humanity’s religious leaders, who have presumed to speak for Him throughout history. Their attempts to make the Word of God a private preserve, and its exposition a means for personal aggrandizement, have been the greatest single handicap against which the advancement of civilization has struggled. In the pursuit of their ends, many of them have not hesitated to raise their hands against the Messengers of God themselves, at their advent:

Leaders of religion, in every age, have hindered their people from attaining the shores of eternal salvation, inasmuch as they held the reins of authority in their mighty grasp. Some for the lust of leadership, others through want of knowledge and understanding, have been the cause of the deprivation of the people. By their sanction and authority, every Prophet of God hath drunk from the chalice of sacrifice . . .°

In an address to the clergy of all faiths, Baha’u’Ilah warns of the responsibility which they have so carelessly assumed in history:

Ye are even as a spring. If it be changed, so will the streams that branch out from it be changed. Fear God, and be numbered with the godly. In like manner, if the heart of man be corrupted, his limbs will also be corrupted. And similarly, if the root of a tree be corrupted, its branches, and its offshoots, and its leaves, and its fruits, will be corrupted.*’

These same statements, revealed at a time when religious orthodoxy was one of the major powers throughout the world, declared that this power had effectively ended, and that the ecclesiastical caste has no further social role in world history: “O concourse of divines! Ye shall not henceforward behold yourselves possessed of any power . . .”** To a particularly vindictive opponent among the Muslim clergy, Baha’u’llah

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said: “Thou art even as the last trace of sunlight upon the mountaintop. Soon will it fade away as decreed by God, the All-Possessing, the Most High. Thy glory and the glory of such as are like thee have been taken AWAY

It is not the organization of religious activity which these statements address, but the misuse of such resources. Baha’u’Ilah’s writings are generous in their appreciation not only of the great contribution which organized religion has brought to civilization, but also of the benefits which the world has derived from the self-sacrifice and love of humanity that have characterized clergymen and religious orders of all faiths:

Those divines . .. who are truly adorned with the ornament of knowledge and of a goodly character are, verily, as a head to the body of the world, and as eyes to the nations. . . .

Rather, the challenge to all people, believers and unbelievers, clergy and laymen alike, is to recognize the consequences now being visited upon the world as the result of the universal corruption of the religious impulse. In the prevailing alienation of humanity from God over the past century, a relationship on which the fabric of moral life itself depends has broken down. Natural faculties of the rational soul, vital to the development and maintenance of human values, have become universally discounted:

The vitality of men’s belief in God is dying out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it. The corrosion of ungodliness is eating into the vitals of human society; what else but the Elixir of His potent Revelation can cleanse and revive it? . .. The Word of God, alone, can claim the distinction of being endowed with the capacity

» required for so great and far-reaching a change.°!

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World Peace

In the light of subsequent events, the warnings and appeals of Baha’u'Ilah’s writings during this period take on a terrible poignancy:

O ye the elected representatives of the people in every land!... Regard the world as the human body which, though at its creation whole and perfect, hath been afflicted, through various causes, with grave disorders and maladies. Not for one day did it gain ease, nay its sickness waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of ignorant physicians, who gave full rein to their personal desires. . .

We behold it, in this day, at the mercy of rulers so drunk with pride that they cannot discern clearly their own best advantage, much less recognize a Revelation so bewildering and challenging as this... .°

This is the Day whereon the earth shall tell out her tidings. The workers of iniquity are her burdens, could ye but perceive it... .”

All men have been created to carry forward an ever-adyancing civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and

loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth... .% .

A new life is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth; and yet none hath discovered its cause or perceived its motive. Consider the peoples of the West. Witness how, in their pursuit of that which is vain and trivial, they have sacrificed, and are still sacrificing, countless lives for the sake of its establishment and promotion. . . .*°

In all matters moderation is desirable. If a thing is carried to excess, it will prove a source of evil... . Strange and astonishing things exist in the earth but they are hidden from the minds and the understanding of men. These things are capable of changing the whole atmosphere of the earth and their contamination would prove lethal. . . .*

In later writings, including those addressed to humanity collectively, Baha’u’llah urged the adoption of steps toward what He called the “Great Peace.” These, He said, would mitigate the sufferings and dislocation which He saw lying ahead of the human race until the world’s peoples embrace the Revelation of God and through it bring about the Most Great Peace:

The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the worlds Great Peace amongst men. Such a peace ‘demandeth that the'Great Powers should resolve, for the sake of the tranquillity of the peoples of the earth, to be fully reconciled among themselves. Should any king take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him. If this be done, the nations of the world will no longer require any armaments, except for the purpose of preserving the security of their realms and of maintaining internal order within their territories. .. . The day is approaching when all the peoples of the world will have adopted one universal language and one common script. When this is achieved, to whatsoever city a man may journey, it shall be as if he were entering his own home. . . . That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. . . . It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”

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“Not of Mine Own Volition”

In His letter to Nasiri’d-Din Shah, the ruler of Persia, which refrains from any rebuke concerning His imprisonment in the Siyah-Chal and the other injustices He had experienced at the king’s hand, Baha’u’llah speaks of His own role in the Divine Plan:

I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is

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not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing. And He bade Me lift up My voice between earth and heaven, and for this there befell Me what hath caused the tears of every man of understanding to flow. The learning current amongst men I studied not; their schools I entered not. Ask of the city wherein I dwelt, that thou mayest be well assured that Iam not of them who speak falsely.*

The mission to which He had devoted His entire life, which had cost Him the life of a cherished younger son,” as well as all of His matetial possessions, which had undermined His health, and brought imprisonment, exile, and abuse, was not one that He had initiated. “Not of Mine own volition,” He said, had He entered on such a course:

Think ye, O people, that I hold within My grasp the control of Gods ultimate Will and Purpose? . .. Had the ultimate destiny of God's Faith been in Mine hands, I would have never consented, even though for one moment, to manifest Myself unto you, nor would I have allowed one word to fall from My lips. Of this God Himself is, verily, a witness.

Having surrendered unreservedly to God’s summons, He was in no doubt about the role which He had been called upon to play in human history. As the Manifestation of God to the age of fulfillment, He is the one promised in all the scriptures of the past, the “Desire of nations,” the “King of Glory.” To Judaism He is “Lord of Hosts”; to Christianity, the Return of Christ in the glory of the Father; to Islam, the “Great Announcement”; to Buddhism, the “Maitreya Buddha”; to Hinduism, the new incarnation of Krishna; to Zoroastrianism, the advent of “ShahBahram.”!°!

Like the Manifestations of God gone before Him, He is both the Voice of God and its human channel: “When I contemplate, O my God, the relationship that bindeth me to Thee, I am moved to proclaim to all created things ‘verily I am God!’; and when I consider my own self, lo, I find it coarser than clay!”!*

“Certain ones among you,” He declared, “have said: ‘He it is Who hath laid claim to be God.’ By God! This is a gross calumny. I am but a servant of God Who hath believed in Him and in His signs . .. My tongue, and My heart, and My inner and My outer being testify that there is no God but Him, that all others have been created by His behest, and been fashioned through the operation of His Will. . . . 1 am He that telleth abroad the favors with which God hath, through His bounty, favored Me. If this be My transgression, then I am truly the first of the transgressors. . . .”!°

Baha’u’llah’s writings seize upon a host of metaphors in their attempt to express the paradox that lies at the heart of the phenomenon of God’s Revelation of His Will:

Tam the royal Falcon on the arm of the Almighty. I unfold the drooping wings of every broken bird and start it on its flight.!°*

This is but a leaf which the winds of the will of thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-Praised, have stirred. Can it be still when the tempestuous winds are blowing? Nay, by Him Who is the Lord of all Names and Attributes! They move it as they list. . . .'°

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The Covenant of God with Humankind

In June 1877, Baha’u’llah at last emerged from the strict confinement of the prison-city of ‘Akk4, and moved with His family to “Mazra’ih,” a small estate a few miles north of the city.' As had been predicted in His statement to the Turkish government, Sullén ‘Abdu’l“Aziz had been overthrown and assassinated in a palace coup, and gusts from the winds of political change sweeping the world were beginning to invade even the shuttered precincts of the Ottoman imperial system. After a brief two-year stay at Mazra’ih, Baha’u’llah moved to “Bahji,” a large mansion surrounded by gardens, which His son ‘Abdu’l-Baha had rented for Him and the members of His extended family.'’ The remaining twelve years of His life were devoted to His writings on a wide range of spiritual and social issues, and to receiving a stream of Baha’i pilgtims who made their way, with great difficulty, from Persia and other lands.

Throughout the Near and Middle East the nucleus of a community life was beginning to take shape among those who had accepted His message. For its guidance, Baha’u’llah had revealed a system of laws and institutions designed to give practical effect to the principles in His writings.'® Authority was vested in councils democratically elected by the whole community, provisions were made to exclude the possibility of a clerical elite arising, and principles of consultation and group decision making were established.

At the heart of this system was what Baha’u’llah termed a new Covenant between God and humankind. The distinguishing feature of humanity’s coming of age is that, for the first time in its history, the entire human race is consciously involved, however dimly, in the awareness of its own oneness and of the earth as a single homeland. This awakening opens the way to a new relationship between God and humankind. As the peoples of the world embrace the spiritual authority inherent in the guidance of the Revelation of God for this age, Baha’u’Ilah said, they will find in themselves a moral empowerment which human effort alone has proven incapable of generating. “A new race of men”! will emerge as the result of this relationship, and the work of building a global civilization will begin. The mission of the Baha’i community is to demonstrate the efficacy of this Covenant in healing the ills that divide the human race.

Baha’u’llah died at Bahji on May 29, 1892, in His seventy-fifth year. At the time of His passing, the cause entrusted to Him forty years earlier in the darkness of Teheran’s Black Pit was poised to break free of the Islamic lands where it had taken shape, and to establish itself first across America and Europe and then throughout the world. In doing so, it would itself become a vindication of the promise of the new Covenant between God and humankind. For alone of all the world’s independent religions, the Baha’i Faith and its community of believers were to pass successfully through the critical first century of their existence with their unity firmly intact, undamaged by the age-old blight of schism and faction. Their experience offers compelling evidence for Baha’u’llah’s assurance that the human race, in all its diversity, can learn to live and work as one people, in a common global homeland.

Just two years before His death, Baha’u’llah received at Bahji one of the few Westerners to meet Him, and the only one to leave a written account of the experience. The visitor was Edward Granville Browne, a rising young orientalist from Cambridge University, whose attention had originally been attracted by the dramatic history of the Bab and His heroic band of followers. Of his meeting with Baha’u’llah, Browne wrote:

Though I dimly suspected whither I was going and whom I was to behold (for no distinct intimation had been given to me), a second or two elapsed ere, with a throb of wonder and

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awe, I became definitely conscious that the room was not untenanted. In the corner where the divan met the wall sat a wondrous and venerable figure... The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one’s very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow... No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain! A mild dignified voice bade me be seated, and then continued:— “Praise be to God that thou hast attained! ... Thou hast come to see a prisoner and an exile . . . We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations; yet they deem us a stirrer up of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and banishment . . . That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled—what harm is there in this? .. . Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come .. .”"°

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Notes

1. Baha’w'llah (“Glory of God”) was born Husayn-‘Ali. The authoritative work on the missions ‘of the’ Bab’ and Baha'u'llah is Shoghi Effendi’s God Passes By (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1987). For a biographical study see Hasan Balyuzi’s Bahd’u'lláh: The King of Glory (Oxford: George Ronald, 1980). Baha’u'llah’s writings are extensively reviewed in Adib Taherzadeh’s The Revelation of Baha'u'llah (Oxford: George Ronald, 1975), four volumes.

2. Britannica Yearbook, 1988, indicates that, although the Baha’i community numbers only about five’ million members, the Faith has already become the most widely diffused religion on earth, after Christianity. There are today 155 Baha’{ National Assemblies in independent countries and major territories of the globe, and more than 17,000 elected Assemblies functioning at the local level. It is estimated that 2,112 nationalities and tribes are represented.

3. Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History, Vol. VIII (London: Oxford, 1954), p. 117.

4. The Bab (“Gate” or “Door”) was born Siyyid ‘AliMuhammad in Shiraz, October 20, 1819.

5. Passages in the Bab’s writings which refer to the advent of “Him Whom God will make manifest” include cryptic references to “the year Nine” and “the year Nineteen” (ie., roughly 1852 and 1863, ca!culating in lunar years from the year of the Bab’s inauguration of His mission, 1844). On several occasions the Bab also indicated to certain of His followers that they would themselves come to recognize and serve “Him Whom God will make manifest.”

6. The proclamation of the Bab’s message had been carried out in mosques and public places by enthusiastic bands

of followers, many of them young seminarians. The Muslim clergy had replied by inciting mob violence. Unfortunately, these events coincided with a political crisis created by the death of Muhammad Shah and a struggle over the succession. It was the leaders of the successful political faction, behind the boy-king Nasiri’d-Din Shah, who then turned the royal army against the Babi enthusiasts. The latter, raised in a Muslim frame of reference, and believing that they had a moral right to self-defense, barricaded themselves in makeshift shelters and withstood long, bloody sieges. When they had eventually been overcome and slaughtered, and the Bab had been executed, two deranged Babi youths stopped the Shah in a public road and fired birdshot at him in an ill-conceived attempt at assassination. It was this incident which provided the excuse for the worst of the massacres of Babis which evoked protests from Western embassies. For an account of the period see W. Hatcher and D. Martin, The Bahd’i Faith: The Emerging Global Religion (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985), pp. 6-32.

7. For an account of these events see God Passes By, chapters I-V. Western interest in the Babi movement was aroused, particularly, by the publication in 1865 of Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau’s Les religions et les philosophies dans l’Asie centrale (Paris: Didier, 1865).

8. Baha’u’llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1979), pp. 20-21.

9. A number of Western diplomatic and military observers have left harrowing accounts of what they witnessed. Several formal protests were registered with the Persian authorities. See Moojan Momen, The Baébi.and Bahd’i Religions, 1844-1944 (Oxford: George Ronald, 198 ee

10. Epistle, p. 21. 11. Epistle, p. 22.

12. There was, understandably, great suspicion in Persia about the intentions of the British and Russian governments, both of which had long interfered in Persian affairs.

13. The focal point of these problems was one Mirza Yahya, a younger half-brother of Baha’u’llah. While still a youth and under the guidance of Baha’u’llah Yahya had been appointed by the Bab as nominal head of the Babi community, pending the imminent advent of “Him Whom God will make manifest.” Falling under the influence of a former Muslim theologian, Siyyid Muhammad Isfahani, however, Yahya gradually became estranged from his brother. Rather than being expressed openly, this resentment found its outlet in clandestine agitation, which had a disastrous effect on the exiles’ already low morale. Yahya eventually refused to accept Baha’u'llah’s declaration, and played no role in the development of the Bahd’i Faith which this declaration initiated.

14, Baha’u'lláh, The Book of Certitude (Wilmette, IIL: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1985), p. 251.

15. Baha’u’llah, The Hidden Words (Wilmette, Ill: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1985), Arabic 2 on pp. 3-4, Arabic 5 on p. 4, Arabic 35 on p. 12, Arabic 12 on p. 6. Except where the context makes it obvious, the conventional use of the English word “man” translates the concept of “humanity.”

16. Certitude, pp. 3-4, 195-96, 197, 199-200.

�[Page 23]17. Cited in God Passes By, p. 137.

18. Quotation from Prince Zaynu’l-‘Abidin Khan, God Passes By, p. 135.

19. See Note 68 below.

20. God Passes By, p. 153. Increasingly, after 1863, the word “Baha’i” replaced “Babi” as the designation for the new faith, marking the fact that an entirely new religion had emerged.

21. Cited in Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha’{ Publishing Trust, 1984), p. 77.

22. Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahd’u’lláh (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1983), pp. 10-11.

23. Gleanings, p. 297. 24. Gleanings, p. 334. 25. Gleanings, p. 8. 26. Gleanings, p. 8.

27. The two statements quoted may be found cited by ‘Abdu’l-Baha in J. E. Esslemont, Bahd’u'lláh and the New Era (Wilmette, Ill: Baha’i Publishing Trust 1987), p. 70, and Tablets of Bahd’u'llah revealed after the Kitdb-i-Aqdas (Haifa: Baha’i World Centre, 1982), pp. 22-23, respectively.

28. God Passes By, pp. 127-57, gives an account of these events.

29. Gleanings, pp. 4-5. ys 30. Certitude, p. 98.

31. Certitude, p. 99.

32. Certitude, pp. 99-100.

33. Certitude, pp. 103-4.

34. Gleanings, p. 59.

35. Gleanings, pp. 66-67.

36. Gleanings, pp. 65-66.

37. Cited in Advent of Divine Justice, p. 79. 38. Gleanings, p. 136.

39. Gleanings, p. 80.

40. Gleanings, p. 164.

41. Gleanings, p. 329.

42. For a detailed exposition of this subject see ‘Abdu’ lBaha, Some Answered Questions (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1970), pp. 163-201.

43. Examples, in the words of Jesus, are “Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God . . .” (Matthew 19:17); “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).

44. Gleanings, pp. 177-79.

45. Gleanings, pp. 50-51, 52, 53-55. 46. Gleanings, p. 56.

47. New Testament, John 1:10.

48. Gleanings, pp. 141-42.

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49. Cited in Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah: Selected Letters (Wilmette, Il: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1982), p. 117.

50. Gleanings, p. 74. In the Baha’i writings the term “Adam” is used symbolically in two different senses. The one refers to the emergence of the human race, while the other designates the first of the Manifestations of God.

51. Gleanings, p. 213. 52. Gleanings, p. 151.

53. See Baha’u’llah, The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1986), pp. 67: “Yea, although to the wise it be shameful to seek the Lord of Lords in the dust, yet this betokeneth intense ardor in searching.”

54. Cited in World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 116. 55. Seven Valleys, pp. 1-2.

56. Gleanings, p. 214.

57. Gleanings, p. 286.

58. Gleanings, pp. 4-5.

59. New Testament, John 10:16.

60. For elaboration on the subject of Baha’u’llah’s teachings on the process of the maturation of the human race, see World Order of Baha'u'llah, pp. 162-63, 202.

61. Gleanings, p. 217. CassTalacsl\ Less, 63. Gleanings, p. 95. 64. Tablets, p. 164.

65. Gleanings, pp. 6-7. 66. Tablets, pp. 66-67.

67. Women: Extracts from the Writings of Bahd’u'lláh, Abdu’l-Bahd, Shoghi Effendi and the the Universal House of Justice (Thornhill, Ontario: Baha’{ Publications Canada, 1986), p. 26.

68. A combination of unusual circumstances had made the central authorities in Constantinople especially sympathetic to Baha’u’Ilah, and resistant to pressure from the Persian government. The governor of Baghdad, Namiq Pasha, had written enthusiastically to the capital about both the character and influence of the distinguished Persian exile. Sultan ‘Abdu’l-‘Aziz found the reports intriguing because, although he was Caliph of Sunni Islam, he considered himself a mystical seeker. Equally important, in another way, was the reaction of his chief minister, ‘Ali Pasha. To the latter, who was an accomplished student of Persian language and literature as well as a would-be modernizer of the Turkish administration, Baha’u’llah seemed a highly sympathetic figure. It was no doubt this combination of sympathy and interest which led the Ottoman government to invite Baha’u’llah to the capital rather than send Him to a mote remote center or deliver Him to the Persian authorities, as the latter were urging.

69. For the full text of the report of the Austrian ambassador, Count von Prokesch-Osten, in a letter to the

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Comte de Gobineau, January 10, 1886, see Babi and Bahd’i Religions, pp. 186-87.

70. Revelation, Vol. 2, p. 399. 71. Tablets, p. 13.

72. Gleanings, pp. 210, 211, 212. 73. Gleanings, p. 250.

74. Gleanings, pp. 251, 252.

75. For a description of these events see Revelation, Vol. 3, especially pp. 296, 331.

76. For a description of this experience see God Passes By, pp. 180-89.

77. In the 1850s two German religious leaders, Christoph Hoffmann and Georg David Hardegg, collaborated in the development of the “Society of Templers,” devoted to creating in the Holy Land a colony or colonies which would prepare the way for Christ, on His return. Leaving Germany on August 6, 1868, the founding group arrived in Haifa on October 30, 1868, two months after Baha’u’Ilah’s own arrival.

78. For a description of the disasters which befell European Turkey in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 see Addendum III in Baha'u'llah: The King of Glory, pp. 460-62.

79. Epistle, p. 51.

80. Alistair Horne, The Fall of Paris (London: Macmillan, 1965), p. 34.

81. Cited in Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day Is Come (Wilmette, fll: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1980), pp. 32-33.

82. Cited in Promised Day, p. 37. 83. Cited in Promised Day, p. 35.

84. Cited in Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith: Messages to America 1947-1957 (Wilmette, IIl.: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1980), pp. 18-19.

85. Epistle, p. 14.

86. Certitude, p. 15.

87. Cited in Promised Day, p. 83. 88. Cited in Promised Day, p. 81. 89. Epistle, p. 99.

90. Cited in Promised Day, pp. 110-11. 91. Gleanings, p. 200.

92. Gleanings, p. 254-55.

93. Gleanings, p. 40.

94. Gleanings, p. 215.

95. Gleanings, p. 196.

96. Tablets, p. 69.

97. Tablets, pp. 165-67.

98. Epistle, p. 11. The phrase “Not of Mine own volition” appears in the same paragraph immediately above the excerpt cited.

99. Baha’u’llah’s son, Mirza Mihdi, a youth of twenty

two, died in 1870, in an accidental fall resulting from the conditions in which the family was imprisoned.

100. Gleanings, p. 91.

101. God Passes By, p. 94.

102. Cited in World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 113. 103. Gleanings, p. 228.

104. Tablets, p. 169.

105. Epistle, pp. 11-12.

106. Although Sultan ‘Abdu’l-‘Aziz’ order of banishment was never formally revoked, the responsible political authorities came to regard it as null and void. They, therefore, indicated that Baha’u’lláh could establish His residence outside the city walls, should He choose to do so.

107. The mansion, which was built by a wealthy Christian Arab merchant of ‘Akka, had been abandoned by him when an outbreak of plague began to spread. The property was first rented and, some years after Baha’u'llah’s passing, purchased by the Baha’i community. Baha’u’llah’s grave is located in a Shrine in the gardens of Bahji, and is now the focal point of pilgrimage for the Baha’i world.

108. For a summary of this body of teaching see World Order of Bahá’u'lláh, pp. 143-57, and Shoghi Effendi’s Principles of Baha'i Administration (London: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1973), throughout. A fully annotated English translation of the central document in this body of writings, the Kitdb-i-Aqdas (“The Most Holy Book”), is being published to coincide with the centenary of Baha’u’llah’s passing, 1992.

109. Advent of Divine Justice, p. 16.

110. Edward G. Browne, A Traveller's Narrative (New York: Baha’i Publishing Company, 1930), pp. xxxix-xl.

�[Page 25]The American Baha’i / July 1991/ Page 25

National Assembly

to continue to set goals for Fund contributions from local Assemblies

The Office of the Treasurer is in the process of sending suggested goal amounts for the year to 276 Local Spiritual Assemblies who did not receive such goals last year.

Together with those Assemblies already participating, and who have been asked to take their committed level of last year as their new objective, the expanded program should now include all Assemblies in the United States.

The Assembly goal program was indispensable to last year’s achievement in regard to the Funds of the Faith. It was moving and encouraging to the National Spiritual Assembly and a source of real astonishment to those non-Baha’is who follow the community’s progress. It is hoped that the goal program, as it becomes part of the “landscape” of Baha’i life, will provide solid continuity for the work of the Faith, and serve to unify ever more closely those active at all levels of the adminstration.

The National Spiritual Assembly has indicated that all Assemblies should review their goals and set them at the level they feel appropriate in light of their own circumstances. The Office of the Treasurer looks forward to continuing the consultation begun last year with Assemblies who had questions and observations to make about the program and their suggested levels of participation.

New book on careers

George Ronald Publishers is preparing to publish a book aimed primarily at young people to help them choose a career. Anyone with expertise in a particular calling or occupationis asked tosend an essay to George Ronald Publishers, 46 High St., Kidlington, 0X5 2DN, Oxford, Engand, providing information about how to enter the field, the opportunities that will further the progress of a Baha’i on the path of service to the Cause, and the implications for that career with the establishment of the Lesser Peace.

1991-92 budget set at $13.5 million

Following lengthy review of its proposed budget and consultation with the delegates to the National Convention, the National Spiritual Assembly at its May meeting adopted a budget of $13.5 million for the year. This represents an increase of 8%, primarily because vital restoration work on the House of Worship is expected to accelerate during the coming year.

Another important budget item is the pledge of the National Assembly of $2 million to the Baha’i International Fund.

This year's goal of $25 million was set bearing in mind the needs of the international work of the Faith, and especially of the Arc projects, as well as urgent national priorities. All gifts over and above the $13.5 million base, and all contributions earmarked for the international Funds of the Faith, will be forwarded to the Universal House of Justice, in the hopes of reaching the $25 million target for the American Baha’i Community.

During the last year, some of the friends

had expressed certain misgivings about the size of the national goal. It is interesting to note that the pace of giving by individuals and institutions accelerated dramatically following the introduction in October of the Local Assembly Goal Program. Indeed, if the rate of giving that became the norm in the latter half of the year had been in effect for the full year, contributions to the major Funds would have approached some $20-21 million--not far off the year’s unprecedented goal!

BITS AND PIECES ON VARIOUS TOPICS FROM OFFICE OF THE TREASURER

The Honor Roll. The Office of the Treasurer has begun to receive letters and calls from communities who feel they should have appeared on the Honor Roll for 1990-91. Each of these questions will be researched as quickly as possible, and an amended list will be published in late summer or early fall. Thank you for your inquiries!

Counselors in Europe seek 300 free ABS memberships

The Continental Board of Counselors in Europe is recommending that at least 300 free memberships in the Association for Baha'i Studies be made available for the Eastern Bloc countries.

To sponsor a membership, write to the Association for Baha'i Studies, 34 Copernicus St., Ottawa, Ontario KIN 7K4, Canada.

The Counselors suggest that these memberships could be sponsored by the ABS, its members or other Baha’is.

Ina letter to the Association, Counselor Sohrab Youssefian said: “...the prominent people in these countries are eager to establish bonds of friendship and cultural relationships with Western academic circles. They are anxious and thirsty for knowledge and understanding, desirous to exchange views and to communicate with the Western world.”

Membership in the ABS, he added,

“would mean that they would receive materials, articles, magazine publications, invitations to conferences, and so on, and be asked to collaborate by undertaking specific research. ...how vital it is that now, instead of turning to obsolete thoughts and ideas, they have the possibility to exchange thoughts with Baha’is, thus being able to grow and develop with these new ideas.

“Perhaps more than anything else, this would mean the possibility to teach, proclaim and create good friends for the Faith among these people. ...”

| Payments for Huqiiqu'llah should be | made to “The Baha'i Huquiqu’ll4h Trust” and sent to one of the Trustees: __ Dr. Elsie Austin, P.O. Box 927, Silver Spring MD 20910 (Tel. 301-589-8481). Dr. Amin Banani, _ Santa Monica, CA 90402 (Tel. 213De SAA Dr.Daryush Haghighi, _ _ Rocky River, OH 44116 (Tel.

— HUQUQU’LLAH —

_ “Huququ’llah, Extracts from the Writ

_ Baha‘{ Distribution Service at 85 cents.

Rocky River, OH 44116.

Video tapes of talks by the Hand of the Cause of God and Trustee of Hugqtiqu'llah Dr. Ali-Muhammad Varga, and by Ali Nakhjavan{, a member of the Universal House of Justice, are available from the Office of the Secretariat for $6 each (postage included).

Copies of the compilation

ings of Baha'u'llah, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice” can be obtained from the

OP Yee

Fund Receipts. Due to some difficulties in conversion to the new system, there were delays in sending contributions receipts, sometimes for a considerable period. We understand that most of those difficulties have been resolved, and receipts are once again being sent. Please excuse the inconvenience!

Earmarking Article. Some may be wondering where the fourth installment in the four-part series on earmarking may be. Well, reviewing the experience of last year, as it developed, and certain other factors, the Office of the Treasurer has recommended to the National Assembly certain changes in contribution reporting. These would affect contributions to all the Funds, and should simplify matters of procedure, tax accounting, etc. The Treasurer's Office felt it would be important to wait for full consultation on these matters before publishing the last installment in the series.

Hilda Strauss, 89, Baha'i who met ‘Abdu’l-Baha

Hilda Strauss, a Baha'i who met *Abdu’lBaha during His visit to Colorado in 1912, died April 4 ata nursing home in Loveland. She was 89 years old.

Miss Strauss, who wasa child of 10 when she met the Master, later established Botanic Publishing Company, a firm specializing in botanical themes, in Loveland.

The company’s most popular title, Learn the Trees from Leaf Prints, was marketed from 1938 to 1970 and was used by Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and other students of nature.

Miss Strauss collaborated with a friend, writer David Marx, to produce The American Book of the Woods, Studies in Nature and Fragrant Herbs.

When she met ‘Abdu’l-Baha in 1912, He gave her some pecans and an apple, which she kept for 75 years, although the apple had shrunk to the size of a golf ball. She later donated the shrunken apple to the

Can you present the Faith confidently to people of capacity

Apply the teachings “intelligently and enticingly” to your seeker's world and you can teach anyone

IN 1860s Persia, the 12

New Publications

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The Association for Bahdi Studies can help, with new publications that explore (and report on the results of) spiritual approaches to the problems of humanity.

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problems of humanity and details of Baha'i social and economic development successes around the world. Membership includes conference and special publication discounts, and is a superb value for just $40 per year / $50 for couples / $20 for seniors and students.

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�[Page 26]Page 26/ The American Baha'i / July 1991

eed

HELP WANTED

Experienced, intelligent person, energetic, good language skills, computer experience helpful but

Classified notices inThe American Baha’i are published free of charge asa service to the Baha'i community. Because of this, notices are limited to items relating to the Faith; no personal or commercial ads can be accepted for publication. The opportunities referred to have not been approved by the National Spiritual Assembly; the friends should exercise their own judgment and care in responding to them.

°

VICE OPPORTUNITIE

THE GREEN ACRE Baha’i School is accepting applications for summer employment. Positions available include children’s teachers, kitchen and housekeeping help, maintenance, office help, and program assistant. Applicants should be available from mid-June through the end of August. Room and board are provided with a small stipend. Please send a brief résumé to the Green Acre Baha'i School, 188 Main St., Eliot, ME 03903, or phone 207-439-7200 Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (ET) for more information.

CHILDREN’S program teaching staff sought at the Louhelen Baha'i School: child education coordinators, master teachers, teachers” assistants for weekend conferences through the summer months. For details or to apply, contact the Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or telephone 313-653-5033.

THE LOUHELEN Baha ‘i School is accepting applications for summer positions. These include children’s education director, adult program director, registrar, recreation director, dishwashet/food service assistant (two positions), housekeeper, assistant librarian/book sales, and groundskeeper. Room and board and a stipend are provided. Applicants should be able to serve from the middle or end of June through August 22. Please send a brief résumé listing applicable experience and position desired to: Louhelen Bahai School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or phone 313-653-5033

THE MAXWELL International Baha’i School is expanding its program to full capacity in September 1991 by adding grade 12, thereby requiring additional staff in several areas. To better meet the needs of its international student body, the school isinterested in receiving résumés from qualified applicants who have experience with students of diverse racial and ethnic heritage from all socio-economic levels. Positions are anticipated in the following areas: Academic—curriculum/staff developer; teachers in all disciplines who can be certified by the British Columbia Ministry of Education. Service percustodial, groundskeeping, housekeeping. Residential—dorm parents, couples who can make a ful commitment in a demanding and uniquely rewarding environment. Administrative—clerical staff with word processing and receptionist skills. Those who wish to provide a Year of Service are also encouraged to apply for any of the above positions. Please send a résumé outlining your experience and qualificat to: Principal, Maxwell International Baha’i School, Bag 1000, Shawnigan Lake, BC ‘VOR 2W0, Canada.

‘THE BOSCH Baha ‘i School is accepting applications for summer 1991 employment. Positions available include children’s teachers (3), assistant cook, recreation director, lifeguard, music director, kitchen assistants (2) and maintenance assistants (2). All positions require a willingness to serve and interact with children, youth and adults. Those chosen will serve from July through August (9-10 weeks) and receive a small stipend plus room and board. To apply,

senda brief résumé of your experience or request an application form for employment from the Bosch Baha *i School, 500 Comstock Lane, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (phone 408-423-3387).

PIONE

ING (OVERSE

AFRICA: Gambia: Manager for nationwide nutrition program.Kenya: Behavioral Advisor, Financial Systems Analyst. S

Caretaker couple for the National Baha*i Center. Transkei: Caretaker couple for Center, Physicians. Uganda: Agribusiness Development Spe

the Amelia Collins Institute. Honduras: tary School Teachers (2). Turks & Caicos: Urgent need for Assistant Manager for a Honda motoreycle/bicycle and small engine repair and maintenance business. ASIA: Taiwan: Architects. AUSTRALASIA: Marshall Islands: Cl cal Nurse Specialist, Dentist, Physicians, Water Production Plant Operator, Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator. Micronesia: Attorneys. The Baha’i Medical Project encourages Baha’i physicians to give a minimum of two weeks’ voluntary medical service in Guyana, The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Ireland is seeking someone experienced in public ns to help the Irish Baha’i community in its public relations work and to train one or more individuals to continue the work. The Baha’i Office of the Environment for Taiwan is seeking volunteers and/or employees to help extend its range of environmental service projects. For more information on any of the above, please contact the Office of Pioneering, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or telephone (708) 869-9039.

THE NATIONAL Spiritual Assembly of Alaska appeals to our community for Fi traveling teachers to help teach in targeted sizeable Filipino communities. For more information please contact the Office of Pioneering, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL (phone 708-869-9039).

PIONEERING (HOMEFRONT)

ARKANSAS, land of opportunity, the Natural State, has something for everyone. Conway has one state university and two colleges; 30 minutes to Little Rock or the Ozark mountains, a small city (30,000) with excellent educational facilities and a strong industrial base as well as anactive Baha'i Group. Russellville, a university town and food processing center, is only 15 tes from the Ozark National Forest. Seven i women call Russellville home. West Memphis isa crossroads of the mid-South, while Jonesboro is a city of 50,000 with only two Baha’is, one of whom will soon be leaving. The ining could use help at the university. Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas, has an Assembly but it is in danger of being lost. Please come and help the Baha’is in Fayetteville teach the people to worship the one true God. If teaching isn’t your strong suit, Arkadelphia has an Assembly whose members need some experienced Baha'is to help deepen them in the Faith. An excellent project for a retired couple. There are two universities here in the foothills of the Ouachita mountains. College tition is lower in Arkansas than in many other states, and one can become a resident in 60 days. Arkansas has the four seasons (although winters are short), a low crime rate, low cost of living, low taxes, inexpensive real estate and a slower pace of life. The friends here love traveling teachers. For a free vacation planning kit, phone 1-800-NATURAL. Health care professionals of all kinds are greatly needed. Arkansas can also offer some real pioneering challenges to those who wish to take them on. You can help battle racism, poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, high infant mortality and inadequate health care. For tore information, please contact the District Teaching Committee, c/o Lyndell Cooper, recording secretary, P.O. Box 901, Conway, AR 72032, ot Perla Talebi, corresponding secretary,

phone 50 631-2797 or leave a message on the Baha‘ Electronic Bulletin Board.

NORTH FLORIDA, an area with abundant water, Spanish moss-draped oak trees, lush farm lands ‘and woods, needs homefront pioneers

Land is cheap; homes start at $47,000. Employment is marginal, but cultural activities are splendid and nearby rivers ate lovely. Self-employed or retired people are invited to write for details to Hans Valk, Lake City, FL. 32055 (phone 904-755-3675).

MOVING? Put your shoulder to the wheel in one of many localities in Northern California which need Baha’is to ret regain or attain Assembly status. Area has small to large colleges, ethnic diversity, mountain solitude or westem “foothill” towns, agriculture, or closeto-capital city excitement. For information, please write to the District Teaching Committee of Northern California No. 1, c/o Grace Shahrokh,

secretary, : Fair Oaks,

CA 95628, or phone 916-966-7490. HOMEFRONT pioneersneeded forthe rural

North Carolina communities of Roxboro (pop.

12,000) and Person County (pop. 18,000) about 30 miles north of Durham with easy access to major universities and employment opportunities. Inexpensive land and housing available; one isolated Baha’i presently lives in the area. For information, please contact Terri Hamrick,

Roxboro, NC 27573, or phone 919-597-4687 (home) or 919-599-8366 (work).

FORT LEWIS College in Durango, Colorado, has re-established a Baha’i Club after the lapse of 10 years and warmly welcomes any students who could come and help reinforce its efforts. Fort Lewis is a four-year liberal arts college in the Rockies that provides free tuition for American Indian students. For information, write to the Office of Admissions, Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO 81301, or contact the Baha'is of Durango, P.O. Box 256, Durango, CO 81302 (phone 303-247-8072).

WANTED

MEDIA SERVICES at the Baha’i National Center seeks professional-quality slides and photographs of Baha'i events for possible use. Especially needed are formal and informal shots of Spiritual Assemblies, teaching events, children’s activities, and diverse groups of people meeting, working, and enjoying recreational activities together. Please send slides or photos with a letter specifying whether they should be returned to; Baha'i Media Services, Baha'i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.

THE NATIONAL Spiritual Assembly of Alaska appeals to our community for Filipino traveling teachers to help teach in targeted sizeable Filipino communities. For more information please contact the Office of Pioneering, Bahai National Center, Wilmette, IL (phone 708-869-9039).

THE BAHA'I Club at Dartmouth College is looking for Baha'is who are Dartmouth alumni. We would like to keep them updated on the

"i Club. Please write to the Baha’i Club of Dartmouth, Tucker Foundation, . Hanover, NH 03755.

ESSAYS needed about American youth who. have professed their faith in Baha’u'Ilah to be compiled ina chronicle entitled 99 Lights Across America. Essays should explain how the individual came to recognize Baha*u'llah and how this transformed his/her life. The book will be an inspiration for teaching the Faith, and will attest to the fact that everyone is potentially a Baha’i regardless of race, religion, social or economic background. Publication of the identity of the author of each essay is optional. Please send essays as soon as possible to Jennifer Redson,

Washington, DC 20012 (phone 202-726-5909).

THE SPIRITUAL Assembly of Carroll County, Maryland, requests any plays or dramas suitable for children, either Baha’i-related or on moral topics.Send to: Joan Murphy, .

Westminster, MD 21157.

AN EXCITING feature of the Baha’i World Congress in New York City in November 1992 willbeaspecially-created World Congress Choir, isting of singers from all parts of the world. who plan to attend the World Congress are invited to audition for the choir. Singers from any part of the world cantry out by mail provided they are able to record their voices on cassette tape. Information about how to do this is avail

able from the World Congress Program Committee. In addition to the main choir, singers are needed for special choirs in various parts of the world including Africa, South America, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, Iran, India, Europe and the Far East. The World Congress is not able to pay for transportation or housing of singers. Baha'is who feel they may be capable of taking part in this project are warmly encouraged to send for an application form and audition procedures. Write to: Baha’i World Congress Choir Audition, P.O. Box 789, Wilmette, IL 60091 USA.

DISTRIBUTORS: individuals, groups or Assemblies are sought to serve as distributors of the “Mankind Is One” sweatshirts and T-shirts. Distributors will receive consignment discounts. Write to “Reflections,” Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423.