Transcript of: Speaking on the Significance of History
Firuz Kazemzadeh
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Tonight, I would like to talk to you about the significance of history. Many people have a real dislike for the study of history, perhaps because of the way that history was taught them in school. Frequently in school, history is thought as nothing more son names and dates and people who are exposed early in life tow this kind off history tend to dislike it forever After then there are those who do not believe that history has any relevance today, they would say, Well, why should I bother to learn about Napoleon or people that great? What do I care about Julius Caesar? Indeed, some people even don't want to know about the most recent history. Some of them don't want even to know about the Second World War. Perhaps the most succinct statement off a negative attitude toward history was pronounced by Henry Ford, who is reported to have said that history is bunk. And yet history is one of the basic elements off the intellectual and spiritual life of mankind. Indeed, history pervades our entire existence. All we have to do is walk up and down the streets of our cities, and everywhere we will see evidence is off history. There are statues and monuments to famous men off the past. There are architectural styles that we cannot miss. There are memorial buildings, but even beyond, even in our own homes there are evidences of history. For instance, our family picture albums are in evidence of history. These are historical documents. In fact, the keeping of old letters, the keeping off souvenirs again is ah, engaging in history not to speak of books, which the moment that they are written become part of our historical record. History can also be termed the collective memory of mankind. Just imagine an individual, a human being who lost his memory. We say that he has amnesia and the person with amnesia, of course, is in grave trouble. Suppose a man leaves his home in the morning on his way to work and after he walks two or three blocks, he gets total amnesia. Obviously he will not reach his place of work if he forgets his past, if he forgets who he Waas, he will also forget where he worked. So he will never get to his place of work. Nor will he be able to return to his home. Something of the same thing occurs with a society that forgets it's history. Moreover, without a sense of the past, the present is totally meaningless. Contrary, tow the opinion of some people. The present we now on Lee becomes meaningful in terms of the past and also in terms of the future. And the future could be called in verse history. In fact, the now the present moment does not really exist at all. The moment you have become aware of now that now that moment has become past has become history. Now all the great religions of mankind all the great religions of the past have had a very strong and a very vivid sense of history. Way back in primitive times. In ancient times, history and religion were one. Take a look, for instance, at the Old Testament. Now in the Old Testament, there is on indiscriminate mixing, um, history, poetry and divine commandments. It's very difficult to say where history ends and the law begins. But it would not be an exaggeration to say that most of the Old Testament is history. In fact, the genesis begins with a story of creation, and that is it kind of universal history, not just the history of mankind but the history off heaven on Earth, the history off the universe as such. And then, of course, with Adam, human history begins, and God himself, as you can clearly see, participates continuously in this history of mankind. So one can say that before history, there really is nothing before history. There is no humanity. And the people that is not aware of its history is not fully human. As far as I know, there is no society. Nor ever was a society on the face of the earth that did not have a concern, a very deep concern for its past. Now to the Jews, all history was sacred because Jehovah, because God himself acted in history because the will of God was historically revealed. God was the author of history and God was a constant participant in history. Again, look at the Old Testament. The creation of Adam, the expulsion of Adam from paradise, the appearance or the voice of God speaking to Abraham, the appearance of God in the burning bush at the time of Moses and all the events, all the various events in the history of Israel manifest God manifest divine presence in the history of the Jewish people. Therefore, the relationship of man and God, the covenant between man and God could only be understood in a proper historical context. Now Christianity was a religion which stemmed from Judaism, and it inherited from Judaism many of its essential attitudes. Christianity again shared with Judaism this feeling for the importance for the paramount importance of history. Indeed, if Jesus was the Messiah, the Messiah promised tow the chosen people. His claim that is the claim of Jesus tow the Messiah ship had to be validated by the past. The promise was a part of history. The life of Jesus also was a part of history. The life of Jesus was extremely important to the Christians, as important or even perhaps more important than his teachings. The Christians felt that Jesus Waas manifesting the qualities of God, and sometimes later they even confused him with God. But still, because the life of Jesus was so important, because the person of Jesus was so important to the Christians that life had to be remembered, recorded and transmitted. And so the Christians very early began to write their own history again. The four canonical Gospels are essentially history. There's more history there than there is reporting off the teachings of Christ like the jewels. Christians believed that the story of man that is to say, human history had begun with Adam and would result inlay Kingdom of God on Earth. You see here once again, jazz doesn't the case of Judaism that God was manifesting himself in history. God was revealing himself through the time process, like it's great predecessors. Islam was also a deeply historical religion. Mohammed spoke clearly off the entrance Covenant of God with man and of himself as the latest of a long succession of profits. The past was important to the Muslims, just as important as the future, since Adam, Abraham, Moses and Jesus belonged to the past and, of course, so bold Mohammed for the generations, which would come after him after Mohammed's death, stories of his life and his sayings were compiled and trust transmitted as traditions from generation to generation, and these also carried a great weight because the life of the prophet and his actions were considered to be a guide, which would help the Muslims toe achieve a better, more just and more holy life, like Judaism and Christianity. Islam was concerned with the future as well as the past. And for 1000 years, Muslims, especially the Shiite Muslims, expected the coming off the pot m him who arises and the culmination off religion. But this messianic expectation was only possible on the basis off a sense off, a very vivid, very real sense off the historical process trust buys. History is just as important as it was for the Jews, the Christians or the Muslims. Perhaps even more important, the biblical record was very imperfectly. We know so little about Moses and only a little bit more about Jesus. Even Islam, which is 1300 years old, lost much of its record over the years. The behind faith is literally the only world religion which was born in the full glare of history, while the Bob and Baha'i ola we're still living. Historians were recording the events associate ID with their ministry, not only behind historians, but none Baha'i eyes as well. For instance, there was the Frenchman count, the Gobi No, who was in Persia in the 18 fifties, shortly after the martyrdom of the Bob. He talked to many people who had participated in the events that transpired in the brief period from 18 44 when the Bob declared his mission and 18 50 when he was martyred. Moreover, Persian court historians who, of course, we're not sympathetic to the faith, who were in a certain sense, since its enemies still recorded many of these events. But even more significant, Baha'i Allah himself has indicated the importance off preserving the history of the faith. And in fact he was himself to some degree and historian. Look, for instance, at the epistle to the Son of the Roof, one of the very important writings off Baha'i Allah. This book is significant for many, many reasons, but let me now point out only a few in the first place. This was the last major work from the pen of Baha'i Ola. It was written in 18 90 only two years before his ascension. The epistle to the Son of the Wolf is Baha'i La's own summary off the behind faith, innit? Baha'i Allah sums up brings together that which he himself considered to be the most important elements off the faith of which he was the author. As you read this book, you can help noticing how much of it is historical Baha'i hotels about episodes in his own life. He dwells upon his own imprisonment and exile on his own sufferings and the sufferings of his disciples. Now, because he was a manifestation of God, his arrests, his exile, his sufferings and the sufferings of his disciples were invested with supreme significance. He was the manifestation of God on Earth and the disciples, where the witnesses such events obviously cannot be forgotten. They obviously mean a great deal toe all mankind. You can also see how important behind history is when you remember that Abdu'l-Baha himself devoted some time so the writing of history. In fact, he produced a little book called The Travelers Narrative. Which is it? Brief, lucid, quintessential History of the faith. This work was given by Abdu'l-Baha Toe professor Edward G. Brown off Cambridge University during Brown's visit Toe Akka in 18 90. Brown. When he received the manuscript, I was not told who the author waas. He translated the book into English and published it at the Cambridge University Breath, both in the original person and in translation. But the very fact that Abdu'l-Baha whose life was so full, whose duties were so varied, who certainly did not have time for trivialities, did produce a book of history did dedicate himself to the writing of history and later shrug Effendi, busy as he waas directing the cause, interpreting the sacred writings administering the world center of the faith. Forgive, 22 found it necessary to devote a major portion of his precious time. Tow the production of history. Just think how deep and how constant his enter his interest in history. Waas. He always encouraged the friend's to study his the history of the faith individually and in classes in their own homes on dat summer schools. But that wasn't all sugi. Efendi not only encouraged us behind to study history, he became a historian himself. First of all, he translated and annotated the first volume off Nabil's history. The don't breakers take this magnificent book off the shelf and leave through it. Look at the footnotes, read the preface and you will very quickly realize what effort show you fnd invested in in this book so that the English speaking Baha'i eyes may have access to the heroic age of our faith. In 18 44 the 100th anniversary off the cause Sugi Effendi gave us his own history of the faith. God passes by. So the person buys. In the same year, he sent another work dealing with with history low a barn or the tablet of the century. But even that was not all Shrug Effendi wanted the Baha'i eyes tow place the history of the faith in its broadest context. We must know not only what happened within the Baha'i community, we also must know what happened to the world. As a result of the appearance off the new manifestation, we must know how mankind at large and the leaders of mankind interacted with the manifestation and with the community which followed him. This was precisely the task that should give Fendi performed in another remarkable book. The Promised Day is come. I hope to discuss that book on another occasion. But let me now only say this that in this book you will find an analysis of the past, an interpretation off the writings and a vision off the future. Indeed, the promise days come demonstrates the past, present and future are inseparable and that they must be you together. If we are to understand ourselves and our place in the universe, let us think a little bit further about the importance off Baha'i history. Undoubtedly, the first and foremost thing about behind history is that that history includes the record off the life and times off the manifestation himself. Now, with a few loss of her with an artist with a musician with a novelist, it is possible toe separate the product from the producer. It is possible to separate Michelangelo from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It is possible to separate told story from war and peace. It is possible indeed, it is extremely easy to separate bed Hovan from his symphonies, but it is impossible to separate the manifestation of God from his teachings. As I mentioned earlier, it is impossible to separate the person off Jesus from his teachings because the person itself carried in it. The person itself was part of the religion of God. And the same, of course, is true of Moses, whose leadership and the inspiration which he provided were just as important to the jewels as the commandments that he brought and the same was true Love's or Astor. The same was true off Buddha, who, by their example, did just as much for their people as they did by their teachings. Second, the history of the faith is a record of man's response to the manifestation. We are very much concerned with man's response to the manifestation, because this is the point at which we as individuals come in. We must know about the faith and the devotion off the believers of the disciples who followed the Bob and Baha'i lot. We must no about the sacrifices that these early Baha'i eyes so willingly made for the cause. But he also must know about the scorn of the powerful for the Baha'i fate. We must know about the hatred that the clergy had for the Bob and for Baha'i Ola. We also learned a lesson from our knowledge of the indifference off the mass of mankind. It was during the first century, the heroic century off the Baha'i faith that the first behind lives were shaped the first effects off this new faith of God. The first effects that the manifestation had it had on the people off that very first century, and it was our first century that produced the greatest number off saints and heroes. Again, we simply must know their lives. We must be familiar with their stories because each one of these lives and each one of the stories contains elements that can inspire us that can lead and guide us. Take, for instance, our heroes. Take Mullah Hussein Bush, we, the bobble bob, the gate of the gate, the first to believe in the Bob. Now what could be more inspiring than the story off? Melo said, both free the story of his search for the bomb and of how he finally found the bob in Shiraz and then was immediately sent by the Bob on another mission. Off Search. The mission, which took him to the Iran, and finally, to the presence off Baha'i. Or the story off Tahirih or a Tulane, the Baha'i or the Bobby Portis, who had played such an important role in teaching the faith promulgating and spreading the faith and became the great the greatest woman heroin off this dispensation. Or take someone like what Deuce, who was still a teenager when he met the bob and became his disciple and who behaved with such great heroism, selflessness and devotion, or ha jet off Zanjan, the great divine who not only became a disciple of the Bob himself, but lead perhaps 1\/4 of the population of his town into the Babi faith and then became the rallying point, the Center for the Bobby Movement in northern Persia. Or think of the martyrs of Tehran. Or think of the king of the martyrs and the beloved of the martyrs in Isfahan about their bravery, about the purity of their motives. Or think off. See the sheriff and his mother think of, Ah, body, the young boy who sacrificed his life in order to deliver a message of Baha'i, Allah, tow the shop. Each one of these individuals manifested. Certain qualities are pressures tow us. Each one of these men or women manifested a devotion and dedication, which explains actually the success off the progress of the faith. Without these men, without their sacrifices, without the blood of the martyrs, the faith would not have spread to all the corners of the earth. Today, when many of our problems are similar, when we still carry on the spreading of the faith we can derive a great deal of inspiration. Important lessons indeed, from this glorious past. At the end of the heroic age of the Baha'i faith stands the majestic, the beautiful figure of Abdu'l-Baha, the center of the covenant. The perfect example. Er off Baha'i lost teachings no other man has or ever will and body so completely The essence of the Baha'i faith. Knowledge of his life is indispensable for the development of proper behi attitudes. In the building off truly Baha'i character, Abdu'l-Baha can serve as a yardstick for the behavior off any Baha'i.
