Transcript:Ali Nakhjavani/A flame within us
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[0:02]Alláh-u-Abhá friends. I would have loved to have the podium on the same level as my friend here so that I can be closer to you. Also, I wish we had just a little bit more light so that I can see your faces. Is this possible? Not the full beaming light, but just something. I think they are not putting all the lights in order to help with the temperature. But I think that would be fine because when I see your faces, I can speak with all my heart and this is all I plan to do tonight. I really have not prepared a speech. I have come in response to an invitation from your National Spiritual Assembly. I have come from the Holy Land, the heart of the planet, the spiritual heart, the administrative heart of our planet for the Baháʼí. And I bring you all the love of the World Center.
[1:37]As I talk to you tonight, to me, you are a cross-section of the Canadian Baháʼí community. You belong to a country whose rulers have been addressed in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas by Bahá’u’lláh himself and called upon by him to bind the broken, and to crush the oppressor. You belong to a country whose soil has been blessed by the footsteps of the beloved Master. A community whose members are partners with the United States Baháʼí community, partners in the reception of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, co-heirs of those Tablets, those immortal Tablets. You belong to a community and a country about whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote that he saw a bright future, a great future, a glorious, he says, future both spiritually and materially for Canada. Your National Spiritual Assembly, I believe, was the first in the entire Baháʼí world whose constitution was accepted by the parliament of the country.
[4:37]Your community has, moreover, produced distinguished hands of the Cause and great servants of this wonderful faith. And, a martyr who, although she did not shed her blood, but was ranked as a martyr by the beloved Guardian, a community that can pride itself in having produced for the beloved Guardian his consort, his one and beloved consort that he called his shield and protector. Your community has further produced the celebrated and illustrious architect for the superstructure of the Shrine of the Báb, and the architect for the Mother Temple of the West. Your community, through your National Spiritual Assembly, has been responsible in being not only among the first, but I can say with confidence, the first National Spiritual Assembly in the entire Baháʼí world, who during this period of persecution in Iran, succeeded in forging such close and cordial ties with the authorities in this country that enabled many of the persecuted and downtrodden Baháʼís of Iran to find refuge in this country.
[7:08]Furthermore, I don't know of any other national community in the world that can pride itself in having three international agencies serving the entire Baháʼí world: one for the Baháʼí studies, the other for health projects - the health agency that has been established here - and the third for development projects. Although they are at the beginning of their operation, but they definitely hold great promise for the future. These are the distinctions of your community. And from the vantage point, if you like, in Haifa, those of us who are privileged to be there and served there. We see these wonderful things in this country and in this community. We should all be grateful to Bahá’u’lláh that he has bestowed such blessings upon you all. May we all be deserving of these precious and wonderful blessings.
[8:45]The question that I have been asked so many times during this trip. And, of course, the pilgrims asked the same question. The question is: how long will the sufferings of Iran have to continue? You know, there is a prayer written by the beloved Guardian over 50 years ago that I know that my Persian friends here, most of them would probably know it by heart. // Robin over. Emma Lozano as a group. You know, // In this prayer, Shoghi Effendi asks two questions. One is, "Is there any refuge, any haven for us, say thee," addressing Bahá’u’lláh. And the second question is, "How long will this injustice, will this oppression continue? How long shall we endure this tyranny?" To the first question, he gives his answer in the prayer itself. He immediately says, "Nay, nay, we have no refuge, say thee. To the second question, he gives no answer. This is locked up in the knowledge, of God's knowledge, divine mysteries we cannot know. All we know is that we have to be forbearing. We have to be patient. We have to be confident that He is watching over us; He is watching over the Persian Baháʼí community. He knows. He sees. He has given us the promise, the guarantee of the victory of his faith in his native land. We have to be patient. Trouble is that our patience is just a little bit less than His.
[12:02]In another letter written about - in a letter from Shoghi Effendi written about the same time as that prayer I refer to, he gives us an indication of how things will be with the Persian friends. He says that - I am using my own words, not quoting - he says that the darker the horizon, the fiercer the onslaught, the more the friends are encircled from all six sides from every direction, the sooner will that day come. Therefore, he calls on the Persian friends not to be perturbed, to stand firm, to trust in him, so that these final stages may also pass by and the promised triumph may appear on the horizon. but when you think, when we think of what has happened in Iran during the past four years, you will immediately agree that the Baháʼís in Iran, the community in Iran has been purified, has been unified, has truly made great advances in spirituality, in detachment, in dedication. This is the condition of the friends in Iran today.
[14:23]I believe that every one of them, should the test come, should that hour of test come to them, I believe they will stand firm with their lives in their hands, hopeful that they, too, would win that crown of martyrdom in his love. As to the Baháʼís outside Iran, you know better than anybody else what has been achieved through the blood of the martyrs, through the sufferings, the sighs of the oppressed. In one of His Tablets, Bahá’u’lláh says that from every drop of blood, shed in his spot, God would raise up thousands of souls, countless souls to support his Faith. I was in South Carolina and there was a Baháʼí who had just come from Honduras, and she said that during the last two weeks they have had 5200 new Baháʼís in Honduras alone and she was a witness.
[16:39]Shoghi Effendi, in his writings, wanted that the national Assemblies of the world would forge such close ties with the media that the faith would be proclaimed everywhere, far and wide. This has been achieved, friends, thanks to the sufferings of the friends in Iran. He wanted the Faith to be explained in favorable terms to those in authority in the free world. Thanks to the blood of the martyrs, the doors were opened and representatives of national Assemblies have been able to effectively present the faith with emphasis on the right teachings, the true aims and purposes of the faith to government officials everywhere in the free world, also in the Third World. Shoghi Effendi also wanted the faith to be given and explained to the intellectuals, the leader of thought, what he called the "erudite". This, too, was achieved - maybe to a lesser extent, but great strides have been taken and it is hoped that greater and more glorious steps will be taken in the future.
[18:31]So you see, we have reaped a very rich harvest outside Iran. But as the Faith is becoming more known and better known in various quarters of the world, if you read the writings carefully, you will see that there is bound to be more opposition on a wider scale everywhere in the world, that the opposition will not be confined to Shia Islam in Iran, it will spread to other denominations within Islam. And then, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has clearly stated, throughout America, Europe, Africa - he refers to the strongholds of Hinduism, of Buddhism, and then, as if to sum it all up and to make sure he has not left anybody else, he says all the peoples and kindreds of the earth, one and all, will arise to attack the Faith, the faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Shoghi Effendi, confirming what ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said has told us that people's nations, religions will successively arise to oppose the Faith.
[21:14]We may be surprised that in a free world like North America, how could we have opposition? Of course, we will. We have had it already. I just referred to South Carolina. Already, there, the churches in the villages in South Carolina are telling these poor black Baháʼís, many of them illiterate - they don't know where Iran is exactly, maybe - "See, they are killing you. If you come back to the church, however, no one can touch you." Shoghi Effendi speaks about intellectual tests that will surround the Baháʼís of the west. He speaks about those who will arise to sap and destroy the unity of the Baháʼís, those who will misrepresent the aims and purposes of the Faith, those who would like to see the faith uprooted, root and branch. Such a day is ahead of us. Such a contest is ahead of us.
[22:52]I don't tell you this to frighten you. I tell you this so that we might be realistic in our deepening work, in our consolidation work, in our study of the writings so that we might be prepared for the days to come. In "God Passes By", in the last chapter "Retrospect and Prospect", He speaks about the process of crisis and victory that go hand-in-hand when we have opposition following it. Of course, we have a crisis of some kind, but this crisis leads to victory. The victory in turn, incites the enemies of the Faith to attack us in another time. This time again, such attacks will lead to a further triumph for the Faith. So this is the pattern of Baháʼí history. It has been so, and it will continue to be so. Until that promise of Bahá’u’lláh would be redeemed about the universal recognition of his Faith, and the universal triumph of his Faith.
[24:33]When Shoghi Effendi speaks about this opposition, he visualizes, he actually refers to the rising forces of nationalism, of racialism, of materialism, of secularism. In another letter, referring to secularism, he calls it "haughty intellectualism". And finally to the forces of ecclesiasticism that we now see in Iran and we will continue to see everywhere else because in most cases the opposition will be generated, however quietly, by the strongholds of religious orthodoxy and religious bigotry. Such is the picture that Shoghi Effendi has drawn, has painted for us, not only in the west but throughout the world. As I said earlier on, we have no choice but to prepare ourselves for that day. What we see today happening outside Iran is not at all that great tempest, that great storm that he has forecast. There are little winds, very much like the rain we had this afternoon. Those are not the real storms; those are yet ahead.
[27:06]In order to prepare ourselves, we go back to our own personal lives, each one of us personally, individually, because, without this individual effort, nothing can happen. Shoghi Effendi says even the Concourse on high are powerless to help if the individual does not arise. It is the individual in the last analysis that really counts. He is, Shoghi Effendi says, the brick on which the strength of the entire edifice depends, the stability of the entire edifice depends. How can we achieve this? We can achieve this through our daily efforts in teaching the Faith, in having reliance upon the promises of Bahá’u’lláh who tells us in no uncertain terms, that if we arise, then we will see with our own eye how Bahá’u’lláh will fulfil his promise. We have to be sure that he will fulfil his promise.
[28:45]Our faith can be either like someone standing far from where the fire is burning and seeing smoke and saying "where there is smoke, there must be a fire", and then signing the declaration card. This is maybe one form of faith. But is it enough? Surely not. What we should do is to fortify our faith. Individually, our belief in Bahá’u’lláh, this should be strengthened, fortified. It can be fortified through the study of the writings, through the exposure of our souls to the Holy Word, the creative word, through teaching the Faith, through sacrifice, either through contributions to the fund or through our daily efforts, through a self-assessment, a self-examination of "Where am I?", "Where am I going?", "What is this life all about?" This realization of where we are - this is absolutely essential so that faith can be transmuted, changed, developed into certitude. Otherwise, faith alone will wobble when the test comes up. It needs to be strengthened and fortified. It should be protected. Shoghi Effendi says it should be protected, fortified, and exemplified. He uses three verbs regarding our faith.
[31:14]Like a flame which is in our hearts, not down there in the valley somewhere or up the mountain, with some smoke rising in the sky - no, a flame within us, a flame which generates heat, a heat that you can feel, a heat that you can transmit: that kind of faith that you carry with you, you have to protect it. You put a glass around it. You protect your flame. But that's not enough. You have to increase that flame and then to allow it to reflect itself, exemplify itself in all our deeds, all our actions, all our words. This will touch the hearts. Otherwise, there will be nothing but empty words. And the world is full of words. The world actually is tired of words.
[32:52]When Shoghi Effendi speaks about the leaders of thought and the erudite, what do you think such people when they learn about the faith, will do? Would they not want to know what influence have the words of Bahá’u’lláh had on our lives, individually on collectively? Wouldn't any intelligent seeker want to do that? Wouldn't he want to know whether that blueprint on the shelf, however beautiful it is, however unique it is - wouldn't he want to know what we've done with that blueprint? Whether we have built something and if so, where is it? What is it? Does it agree with the original or is it something different that we may have wanted to build or possibly improve upon the original? This is what they want to see. You see what grave responsibility lies on the individual and the individual's friends, the individual. It is not his job to look at his neighbour, to see what his neighbour has done. If he has a reason, he will arise. If he hasn't, he might think, "Well, why should I do it? He hasn't done it." Our responsibility is to God.
[34:54]Bahá’u’lláh, in the Tablet of Wisdom, says, "Regard not the children of God and their deeds and doings; fix your gaze on God's never-ending sovereignty." In another tablet, Bahá’u’lláh says that those souls who are steadfast, those souls who are the true believers will consider themselves to be the sole helpers of the Cause. Each of them will so think. It means that I should not think that there is another Baháʼí anywhere in the world. This should not give me a sense of pride. God forbid, I hope it won't. But what Bahá’u’lláh is saying is not to make our deeds conditional upon the deeds of others or their lack of these. We should think we are alone. We should think we are Mullá Husayn. Imagine Mullá Husayn as he left that room in the House of the Báb and as he walked the streets of Shiraz, he was alone - the Báb in his house in that upper room and he alone, facing the entire world. Such should be our faith: not to make it conditional upon anything, upon anybody but to realize the preciousness of our sacred tie to Bahá’u’lláh and to try to live in accordance with what would be his good pleasure. Because without his good pleasure, whatever the service we render, whatever form it is has no value at all, because service has a form. It also has a spirit, just like we have a body and a soul.
[38:16]Service has a form and has a spirit. My understanding, friends, of the writings is that the form is of no value. What counts is the spirit. There may be nine chairs in Haifa, and I may be sitting on one of them, but if I'm not serving Bahá’u’lláh in that spirit that would win his good pleasure, that chair is of no use to me or to anybody. That chair becomes my test. It becomes my calamity. That chair could be not in Haifa. It could be in Toronto. It could be in any of these localities anywhere in the world. The chair is only important as an instrument. Maybe that through that chair, through that position, through that function, we might be given another opportunity to serve Him. But even if we have no chair, we can serve Him. The spirit counts.
[39:59]Now there is a prayer in the prayer book, revealed by Bahá’u’lláh on the occasion of Nowruz. In this prayer - now I'm putting it in my own words. I'm not quoting because my head is like a sieve, I can't remember anything these days - forgive me - but I'll give you the essence of it. And then you check with the exact words of the blessed beauty. I want to explain it; this is why I'm using this type of language. He envisages two souls in that tablet, one who has fasted all the 19 days - because you know no rules comes at the end of the fasting period so he's commenting about the fast - but for some reason, it's not acceptable in His sight. His motive was not pure, whatever. Bahá’u’lláh says that in the sight of God, in the presence of the Almighty, such a person has not fasted, although the poor man fasted and got up every morning and so on and so forth. He has not fasted. Not only that, he has committed every iniquity in the eyes of God. Then he envisages another. So who has not fasted? But he has that purity of motive, that goodly radiant heart, that detachment I don't know, that thing which has won him the good pleasure of his Lord. In the eyes of God, he says, that man has indeed fasted all the 19 days. Not only that, but he has performed every goodly deed from eternity to eternity. And then he goes on to say that every deed depends upon His acceptance. So it is not the form. It is not how active I appear to be, how much I run about, how many files I have at home, how many committees I am on or assemblies I'm on, or any of these things. None of these things count.
[43:23]You know, there is a little story - you may have heard this - of a man who was in Arabia and he was having his long, obligatory prayer next to a path where the tourists normally would pass, so he chose that special spot to have his obligatory prayer there. And so, as he was praying and the tourists were passing by and they looked at this man and the heat of the sun on the desert and the sand and performing this wonderful prayer, they said to themselves, "Oh, how wonderful. What great adoration! What great worship and devotion!" Our worshipper heard this and he liked it, so he stopped his prayer and turned to the tourists and he said, "And you don't know, I'm also fasting?" Now if, God forbid, we serve the Cause instead of for the sake of God, we serve the Cause for the sake of man, we have wasted our lives, this life that has been given to us. We don't know its duration. No one knows. To some, maybe given eight years or more; to others, less; to still others, very much less. As I'm speaking to you tonight, I might drop dead right here, now. Doesn't Bahá’u’lláh say that death shall come to the unheralded unannounced? Who knows? How can I afford - how can we ever afford to postpone the service to some other time and then carry on with our lives exactly as we have been doing and go, God forbid, to the next world, not as we should go? Not as much as we would like to go, with our hands not quite so full and perhaps rather empty.
[47:10]This is the point, I think, that if we, as individual Baháʼís, come to realize who we are, we are not believers only in the Baháʼí Faith. If you read the writings, you'll see that he expects us to be lovers, not only believers. Indeed he expects us to be intoxicated lovers. In the Faith, there is always a minimum and a maximum. The minimum is just passable. Is this what we really want to do with our life? The rock bottom minimum, when He stands there and He invites us to scale loftier heights, to reach the summits, to reach His good pleasure? That's what he wants us to be. He produces ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He tells us, follow Him. That is the standard. His teachings are the standard. It is to the maximum that he is inviting us, not to the minimum. The minimum is if someone would accept Bahá’u’lláh, let us say after having seen the smoke and that's it. He is not required absolutely to contribute to the fund, for example. No one is going to come to his house to check if he has performed his obligatory prayers, or whether he has fasted, or whether he's studying the Faith. No one is going to take him to task individually because he's not teaching. He lives his life. And then one day, he dies. The Baháʼís get together and have a prayer and bury him. Now is this sort of life we want to live as Baháʼís? Surely not. What He wants is something else. Why did He bring His Cause? Why did He Himself suffer? Why does He pride Himself over the martyrs and heroes of Iran? Why does He have all those exhortations in His writings? You can go on naming them, but that is the purpose of our lives.
[50:47]We should plod on, confident that if we arise to serve His Cause, He will assist us. He has told us over and over again, in the teaching work for Himself. Someone wrote Shoghi Effendi about wanting to teach and wanting to pray about the teaching work. Pray, he says, that Bahá’u’lláh may send you receptive souls because he will send them. This is a promise. He will send them. But who will he send them to if the door of my heart is closed and locked up? If the door of my home is closed and locked up? If I really have no time for Bahá’u’lláh in my life? Do you think that Bahá’u’lláh will send his waiting souls to me in this condition as I am? Surely not. He will want to see who is ready to receive such a guest. Because they are children of God who are seeking him. He will send them to those who are ready to receive them, who long to receive them, who supplicate and implore him that he sent such souls to him. He will send them to such souls.
[52:47]So this is the thing to do, to arise, to put our trust in him because he will send us his waiting souls. And it will be very easy to attract such souls to the Cause to convert them, to help them to accept the station of Bahá’u’lláh. It'll be very easy. This is our duty, friends. Shoghi Effendi, speaking about the hosts of the kingdom, says, "let the doubter arise" and ascertain for himself the truth of Bahá’u’lláh's promise. In other words, Shoghi Effendi even accepts the doubting Thomas. He doesn't tell him, "Get away from here. Why are you doubting? He says, "Come, my boy. Come, my girl." All right. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, it's not man's right to test God, for it is God's right and privilege to test man. But nevertheless okay, you doubt. All I tell you is, "Arise." And if you're not convinced, you will be convinced that the hosts of the kingdom will rush forth to aid you, to assist you, to confirm you, to inspire you in what you should do and what you should say when talking about your love for Bahá’u’lláh to that contact. We belong, friends, to a religion, God's religion for man today. We don't belong to a club. This is a living, pulsating religion. We should have trust. We should have confidence in the words of Bahá’u’lláh and we should carry on with our work with full confidence that not only will he redeem this promise, but he will redeem all his promises. Yes, the opposition will come and as it is coming from this society around us, that society will continue to disintegrate. While these processes are going on, you see the faith of God advancing. You see it gaining strength and going from strength to strength, expanding, consolidating its roots, thrusting out its branches not only in one country or one continent, but believe me everywhere until, as Shoghi Effendi says, through a mysterious operation of his will, suddenly - suddenly, he uses the word suddenly - and plausibly through or after the calamities, which are ahead, the convulsions and commotions, which are yet ahead. There will be, he says, a sudden thousand-fold increase in the numerical strength of the Baháʼí community. This, he wrote, not in reply to a question, he wrote this because he was impelled by whatever divine forces impelled him to write over his own signature for Baháʼís and nonBaháʼís to read. And with confidence, he says, there will be the sudden - at its appointed time - the sudden thousand-fold increase in the numerical strength of the Baháʼí community. And he goes on to say in that same letter that there will also be a corresponding increase in the material power and the spiritual authority of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Why did he have to write these things? If he was not sure, if he did not see almost with his physical eye what was ahead? He wrote these so that we wavering human mortals will be assured that victory is guaranteed by him, that all we have to do is to arise. We can delay the victories, but we can also speed them up. But the victories will come.
[[Transcript:Ali_Nakhjavani/A_flame_within_us#time{{{1}}}|[{{{1}}}]]]Before I finish, I would like to say just a few words to the youth. There was a special message from the House of Justice to the youth of the world, and I'm sure that you must have all read it. It was published in the Canadian Baháʼí news and of course, in all other newsletters throughout the world. I suggest that the youth look up the references in that message. I understand there is some form of a conference or seminar for the youth very soon. In preparation for that, I suggest that the youth committee or its helpers try to find the references that you will see in that message - there is a reference to the immortal, youthful heroes of the heroic age, who were they? - to try and find them, list them, talk about them. Then there is a reference to the first wave of persecution during the Bábí dispensation in the city of Shiraz. What were the circumstances? To study this, to find it out. Then there is a reference to Bahá’u’lláh's statement about the youth. What is that statement? Where was it published? What is the full text? Or one made by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá about youth. Likewise, where is that reference? And then there is a list of qualities that Shoghi Effendi saw in the youth, loved to see in the youth, the praises that he showers upon the youth, on the qualities and virtues of the youthful members of the Baháʼí community. There is a list of all those things that Shoghi Effendi has said, not all but some. To find the references. This is how we learn. And then there is, at the end of the message, a reference to the role that the youth have in attracting the attention and respect of their own peers and of assisting in the final triumph of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. The youth of this generation have a special mission that the youth of my generation did not have and the youth of A future generation, I think will also not have in the same way. We are approaching the end of the century.
[1:03:35]We're approaching a time when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has clearly - and Shoghi Effendi has confirmed this in his writings - anticipated the establishment of universal peace, of the lesser peace. At that time, myself and people of my age will probably not be there. The administrators of the Faith, the leaders of the Faith, the representatives of the Faith will undoubtedly be those of you who are now passing through your youthful years. So you see, you have been selected by the hand of destiny from all the generations of youth from time immemorial to be living at a time when humanity will come of age, when humanity is ready for this great step in its collective life when there will be far greater receptivity in the world, you will be living at that time. So you see how important it is for the youth of today to prepare themselves and not waste a single day, a single hour without studying and preparing themselves for that wonderful day ahead. Thank you very much.
[1:05:46]Being persecuted in Iran, aware of the events of progress being achieved outside of Iran by their Baháʼí brothers and sisters, you know that contact with the Baháʼís in Iran is very difficult. But whenever there is a new opportunity, when someone is travelling, for example, or other opportunities present themselves, messages are sent and news about the achievements of the friends outside Iran are sent to the National Spiritual Assembly, which in turn conveys it in a wise and safe way to the friends. And invariably these reports of victories won or steps taken on their behalf caused them great joy and pride and gratitude.
[question]There are two questions here, friend; one in Persian and the other one in English, but both of them really refer to the same topic. The questioners asked that in the message of the House of Justice to the Baháʼí world this last Riḍván, the Universal House of Justice refer to point to the fact that the Baháʼí communities must turn their attentions to the economic and social events in the nonBaháʼí world. Is it possible to have a further explanation to this?
[1:07:56]This is a very good question. It is impossible Tow give a full explanation to you at this time, but briefly, development projects, so to speak, particularly in the educational field are not a new thing for the Baháʼí community as a whole. First of all, you must remember that when creating the Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, Bahá’u’lláh envisaged central edifice for worship and dependencies around which devote themselves to humanitarian, scientific, educational pursuits of man. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as soon as he felt that the conditions were ripe, immediately instructed the friends in Iran to have educational schools. As you know, the Tarbiyat on other schools were established throughout the whole country and then later, of course, had to be closed. But you see, this is the pattern of the development of the Baháʼí community. Now the House of Justice, looking at the present situation, the general goodwill that has been generated throughout the world for the Faith, felt that it was important now for National Spiritual Assemblies to the extent that it is possible to engage in such development projects. In other words, first, in countries of the third world. Second, if the maturity of the Baháʼís of that particular national community will permit such a development. And third, if their sources allow. Within these limits, the House of Justice would like to see such projects being initiated by the Baháʼís, under the control of the Baháʼís in order to assist the Baháʼís on nonBaháʼís alike in countries where such need is indeed required. Now, this is not something that we have to do or we can do between now and Riḍván and accomplish everything. This is a long-term project and your community will be receiving instructions from the Universal House of Justice about how to go about these development projects.
[1:11:52]And while I am on this point, I would like to pay tribute to the pioneers who have arisen from this country and have gone to foreign fields, particularly in the third world. They have been brilliant. They are a pride to the World Center, to the House of Justice. They are not only a source of pride to you as a community, but they are a source of pride to the House of Justice. Although in number, they come after the Persian Baháʼí community and the U. S. Baháʼí community, but I dare say that in quality, they almost surpassed everybody. They have shown a sense of responsibility, a sense of sacrifice, of perseverance. Of course, there have been quite a few who have come back. Of course, there are many now in the field who are having problems. But they welcome these problems, I think, with a spirit which is exemplary. And what's more, Canada has been able to produce both English-speaking and friends-speaking pioneers, youthful pioneers who have been extremely useful in the past. And I think you will find that in the future, the House of Justice will be calling upon the Canadian Baháʼí community to engage to the extent possible in such development projects in the third world.
[question] Where is the greatest priority in the world for pioneering? Are all countries open to the Faith?
[1:13:57]All countries except those in the eastern block where travelling or settlement is difficult. As to priorities in the pioneering field, this changes from year to year, depending upon the needs of the cause. I suggest that this matter be presented to the National Spiritual Assembly and I'm sure they have the information. They are in contact with the House of Justice, and they will be able to guide the pioneers to places where pioneers and particularly Canadian pioneers are needed. And I know I'm speaking on behalf of the National Assembly when I say they need devoted, knowledgeable pioneers preferably youthful pioneers, to go out into the field. And, if possible, self-supporting because the demands on the national fund these days are very great.
[question] This question asked. They would be grateful if you could speak about the requirements of Local Spiritual Assembly development, particularly so far as North America is concerned.
[1:15:42]This will require a whole talk on the subject of Local Spiritual Assemblies and I think it's impossible for me to enter into the subject this evening. I request the questioner to refer to the institutions of the Faith for adequate answers. In fact, I urge that, dear friends: to study the writings because it's all there. All you have to do is to pick up the right book. And if you don't know which book to pick, you ask a knowledgeable Baháʼí and they will show you the book, and you read it and study it and it's all there. God bless you.
[question] Now, this is going to put me in a very difficult situation. One more question. I've got a handful of them. How do we know that we have obtained the Lord's pleasure?
[1:17:02]I wish I knew the answer to that. The answer is we do not know. We will never know. We may guess; our guess may be wrong. All we can do is try. That's all. We can try. We have mentioned the name of Amatu'l-Bahá here more than once. I would like to mention also her name as I close my comments today. In a humorous mood, I think, she once said - I don't think she wanted us or anyone to take her literally. She said that "When I die, I want you to engrave on my tombstone only two words: she tried." And I have thought to myself, I said, "Can I truthfully say I have really tried? Of course, what Rúhíyyih Khánum meant was something else. What she meant in other words, "I don't know whether it's acceptable or what, I've tried". But she tried. She is correct. She did try. She is trying all the time. And I asked myself: have I really tried? Have I tried enough? How many times have I tried only halfheartedly? How many times have I not even tried? How blissful that Rúhíyyih Khánum can say - and we can all agree with that - that she tried, and she is trying. God bless you all.
