World Order/Volume 10/Issue 1/Text
WORLD
ORDER
APRIL, 1944
THE BIRTH OF THE BÁBÍ REVELATION
Shoghi Effendi
DEDICATION TO THE WORLD’S PEACE
Editorial
Garreta Busey
WORLD DEMOCRACY AND THE RACES
Robert W. Kenney
NEW WORLD A-COMING
Book Review
Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick
FEAST OF RIḌVÁN
References
WITH OUR READERS
Editorial
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
World Order was founded March 21, 1910 as Bahá’í News, the first organ of the American Bahá’ís. In March, 1911, its title was changed to Star of the West. Beginning November, 1922 the magazine appeared under the name of The Bahá’í Magazine. The issue of April, 1935 carried the present title of World Order, combining The Bahá’í Magazine and World Unity, which had been founded October, 1927. The present number represents Volume XXXV of the continuous Bahá’í publication.
WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmette, Ill., by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. EDITORS: Garreta Busey, Alice Simmons Cox, Gertrude K. Henning, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.
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APRIL, 1944, VOLUME X, NUMBER 1
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WORLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME X APRIL, 1944 NUMBER 1
The Birth of the Bábi Revelation
SHOGHI EFFENDI
MAY 23, 1844, signalizes the
commencement of the most
turbulent period of the Heroic
Age of the Bahá’í Era, an age
which marks the opening of the
most glorious epoch in the greatest
cycle which the spiritual history
of mankind has yet witnessed.
No more than a span of
nine short years marks the duration
of this most spectacular, this
most tragic, this most eventful
period of the first Bahá’í century.
It was ushered in by the
birth of a Revelation whose
Bearer posterity will acclaim as
the “Point round Whom the realities
of the Prophets and
”Messengers revolve”, and terminated
with the first stirrings of a
still more potent Revelation,
“whose day”, Bahá’u’lláh Himself
affirms, “every Prophet hath
announced”, for which “the soul
of every Divine Messenger hath
thirsted”, and through which
“God hath proved the hearts of
the entire company of His Messengers
and Prophets”. Little
wonder that the immortal chronicler
of the events associated with
the birth and rise of the Bahá’í
Revelation has seen fit to devote
no less than half of his moving
narrative to the description of
those happenings that have during
such a brief space of time so
greatly enriched, through their
tragedy and heroism, the religious
annals of mankind. In sheer
dramatic power, in the rapidity
with which events of momentous
importance succeeded each other,
in the holocaust which baptized
its birth, in the miraculous circumstances
attending the martyrdom
of the One Who had ushered
it in, in the potentialities with
which it had been from the outset
so thoroughly impregnated,
in the forces to which it eventually
gave birth, this nine year
[Page 2]
period may well rank as unique
in the whole range of man’s religious
experience. We behold,
as we survey the episodes of this
first act of a sublime drama, the
figure of its Master Hero, the
Báb, arise meteor-like above the
horizon of Shíráz, traverse the
sombre sky of Persia from south
to north, decline with tragic
swiftness, and perish in a blaze
of glory. We see His satellites,
a galaxy of God-intoxicated
heroes, mount above that same
horizon, irradiate that same incandescent
light, burn themselves
out with that self-same swiftness,
and impart in their turn an
added impetus to the steadily
gathering momentum of God’s
nascent Faith.
He Who communicated the original
impulse to so incalculable
a Movement was none other than
the promised Qá’im (He who
ariseth), the Ṣáḥibu’z-Zamán
(the Lord of the Age), Who assumed
the exclusive right of annulling
the whole Qur’ánic Dispensation,
Who styled Himself
“the Primal Point from which
have been generated all created
things . . . the Countenance of
God Whose splendor can never
be obscured, the Light of God
Whose radiance can never fade.”
The people among whom He appeared
were the most decadent
race in the civilized world,
grossly ignorant, savage, cruel,
steeped in prejudice, servile in
their submission to an almost
deified hierarchy, recalling in
their abjectness the Israelites of
Egypt in the days of Moses, in
their fanaticism the Jews in the
days of Jesus, and in their perversity
the idolators of Arabia
in the days of Muḥammad. The
arch-enemy who repudiated His
claim, challenged His authority,
persecuted His Cause, succeeded
in almost quenching His light,
and who eventually became disintegrated
under the impact of
His Revelation was the Shí‘ih
priesthood. Fiercely fanatic, unspeakably
corrupt, enjoying unlimited
ascendancy over the
masses, jealous of their position,
and irreconcilably opposed to
all liberal ideas, the members of
this caste had for one thousand
years invoked the name of the
Hidden Imám, their breasts had
glowed with the expectation of
His advent, their pulpits had
rung with the praises of His
world-embracing dominion, their
lips were still devoutly and perpetually
murmuring prayers for
the hastening of His coming. The
willing tools who prostituted
their high office for the accomplishment
of the enemy’s designs
were no less than the sovereigns
[Page 3]
of the Qájár dynasty, first, the
bigoted, the sickly, the vacillating
Muḥammad Sháh, who at the
last moment cancelled the Báb’s
imminent visit to the capital, and,
second, the youthful and inexperienced
Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh,
who gave his ready assent to the
sentence of his Captive’s death.
The arch villains who joined
hands with the prime movers of
so wicked a conspiracy were the
two grand visirs, Hájí Mírzá
Áqásí, the idolized tutor of Muḥammad
Sháh, a vulgar, false-hearted
and fickle-minded
schemer, and the arbitrary,
bloodthirsty, reckless Amír-Niẓám,
Mírzá Taqí Khán, the
first of whom exiled the Báb to
the mountain fastnesses of Ádhirbáyján,
and the latter decreed
His death in Tabríz. Their accomplice
in these and other
heinous crimes was a government
bolstered up by a flock of
idle, parasitical princelings and
governors, corrupt, incompetent,
tenaciously holding to their ill-gotten
privileges, and utterly
subservient to a notoriously degraded
clerical order. The heroes
whose deeds shine upon the record
of this fierce spiritual contest,
involving at once people,
clergy, monarch and government,
were the Báb’s chosen disciples,
the Letters of the Living, and
their companions, the trail-breakers
of the New Day, who to so
much intrigue, ignorance, depravity,
cruelty, superstition and
cowardice opposed a spirit exalted,
unquenchable and awe-inspiring,
a knowledge surprisingly
profound, an eloquence
sweeping in its force, a piety
unexcelled in fervor, a courage
leonine in its fierceness, a self-abnegation
saintly in its purity,
a resolve granite-like in its firmness,
a vision stupendous in its
range, a veneration for the Prophets
and His Imáms disconcerting
to their adversaries, a power
of persuasion alarming to their
antagonists, a standard of faith
and a code of conduct that challenged
and revolutionized the
lives of their countrymen.
The opening scene of the
initial act of this great drama
was laid in the upper chamber
of the modest residence of the
son of a mercer of Shíráz, in an
obscure corner of that city. The
time was the hour before sunset,
on the 22nd day of May, 1844.
The participants were the Báb,
a twenty-five year old siyyid, of
pure and holy lineage, and the
young Mullá Husayn, the first to
believe in Him. Their meeting
immediately before that interview
seemed to be purely fortuitous.
The interview itself was
[Page 4]
protracted till the hour of dawn.
The Host remained closeted alone
with His guest, nor was the sleeping
city remotely aware of the
import of the conversation they
held with each other. No record
has passed to posterity of that
unique night save the fragmentary
but highly illuminating account
that fell from the lips of
Mullá Husayn.
“I sat spellbound by His utterance, oblivious of time and of those who awaited me,” he himself has testified, after describing the nature of the questions he had put to his Host and the conclusive replies he had received from Him, replies which had established beyond the shadow of a doubt the validity of His claim to be the promised Qá’im. “Suddenly the call of the Muadhdhin, summoning the faithful to their morning prayer, awakened me from the state of ecstasy into which I seemed to have fallen. All the delights, all the ineffable glories, which the Almighty has recounted in His Book as the priceless possessions of the people of Paradise—these I seemed to be experiencing that night. Methinks I was in a place of which it could be truly said: ‘Therein no toil shall reach us, and therein no weariness shall touch us’; ‘No vain discourse shall they bear therein, nor any falsehood, but only the cry, “Peace! Peace!”’; ‘Their cry therein shall be, “Glory to Thee, O God!” and their salutation therein, “Peace”, and the close of their cry, “Praise be to God, Lord of all creatures!”’ Sleep had departed from me that night. I was enthralled by the music of that voice which rose and fell as He chanted; now swelling forth as He revealed verses of the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’, again acquiring ethereal, subtle harmonies as He uttered the prayers He was revealing. At the end of each invocation, He would repeat this verse: ‘Far from the glory of thy Lord, the All-Glorious, be that which His creatures affirm of Him! And peace be upon His Messengers! And praise be to God, the Lord of all beings!’”
“This Revelation”, Mullá
Husayn has further testified, “so
suddenly and impetuously thrust
upon me, came as a thunderbolt
which, for a time, seemed to have
benumbed my faculties. I was
blinded by its dazzling splendor
and overwhelmed by its crushing
force. Excitement, joy, awe,
and wonder stirred the depths of
my soul. Predominant among
these emotions was a sense of
gladness and strength which
seemed to have transfigured me.
[Page 5]
How feeble and impotent, how
dejected and timid, I had felt
previously! Then I could neither
write nor walk, so tremulous
were my hands and feet. Now,
however, the knowledge of His
Revelation had galvanized my
being. I felt possessed of such
courage and power that were the
world, all its peoples and its
potentates, to rise against me, I
would, alone and undaunted,
withstand their onslaught. The
universe seemed but a handful of
dust in my grasp. I seemed to
be the voice of Gabriel personified,
calling unto all mankind:
‘Awake, for, lo! the morning
Light has broken. Arise, for His
Cause is made manifest. The
portal of His grace is open wide;
enter therein, O peoples of the
world! For He Who is your
promised One is come!’”
A more significant light, however, is shed on this episode, marking the Declaration of the Mission of the Báb, by the perusal of that “first, greatest and mightiest” of all books in the Bábí Dispensation, the celebrated commentary on the Súrih of Joseph, the first chapter of which, we are assured, proceeded, in its entirety, in the course of that night of nights from the pen of its divine Revealer. The description of this episode by Mullá Husayn, as well as the opening pages of that Book attest the magnitude and force of that weighty Declaration. A claim to be no less than the mouthpiece of God Himself, promised by the Prophets of bygone ages; the assertion that He was, at the same time, the Herald of One immeasurably greater than Himself; the summons which He trumpeted forth to the kings and princes of the earth; the dire warnings directed to the Chief Magistrate of the realm, Muḥammad Sháh; the counsel imparted to Hájí Mírzá Áqásí to fear God, and the peremptory command to abdicate his authority as grand vizir of the Sháh and submit to the One Who is the “Inheritor of the earth and all that is therein”; the challenge issued to the rulers of the world proclaiming the self-sufficiency of His Cause, denouncing the vanity of their ephemeral power, and calling upon them to “lay aside, one and all, their dominion”, and deliver His Message to “lands in both the East and the West”—these constitute the dominant features of that initial contact that marked the birth, and fixed the date, of the inception of the most glorious era in the spiritual life of mankind.
With this historic Declaration
[Page 6]
the dawn of an Age that signalizes
the consummation of all ages
had broken. The first impulse
of a momentous Revelation had
been communicated to the one
“but for whom”, according to
the testimony of the Kitáb-i-Íqán,
“God would not have been established
upon the seat of His
mercy, nor ascended the throne
of eternal glory.” Not until forty
days had elapsed, however, did
the enrollment of the seventeen
remaining Letters of the Living
commence. Gradually, spontaneously,
some in sleep, others
while awake, some through fasting
and prayer, others through
dreams and visions, they discovered
the Object of their quest,
and were enlisted under the banner
of the new-born Faith. The
last, but in rank the first, of these
Letters to be inscribed on the
Preserved Tablet was the erudite,
the twenty-two year old Quddús,
a direct descendant of the Imám
Hasan and the most esteemed
disciple of Siyyid Káẓim. Immediately
preceding him, a woman,
the only one of her sex, who,
unlike her fellow-disciples, never
attained the presence of the Báb,
was invested with the rank of
apostleship in the new Dispensation.
A poetess, little under thirty
years of age, of distinguished
birth, of bewitching charm, of
captivating eloquence, indomitable
in spirit, unorthodox in her
views, audacious in her acts, immortalized
as Ṭáhirih (the Pure
One) by the “Tongue of Glory”,
and surnamed Qurratu’l-‘Ayn
(Solace of the Eyes) by Siyyid
Káẓim, her teacher, she had, in
consequence of the appearance
of the Báb to her in a dream,
received the first intimation of
a Cause which was destined to
exalt her to the fairest heights
of fame, and on which she,
through her bold heroism, was
to shed such imperishable luster.
These “first Letters generated
from the Primal Point”, this
“company of angels arrayed before
God on the Day of His coming”,
these “Repositories of His
Mystery”, these “Springs that
have welled out from the Source
of His Revelation”, these first
companions who, in the words
of the Persian Bayán, “enjoy
nearest access to God”, these
“Luminaries that have, from
everlasting, bowed down, and
will everlastingly continue to
bow down, before the Celestial
Throne”, and lastly these
“elders” mentioned in the Book
of Revelation as “sitting before
God on their seats”, “clothed in
white raiment” and wearing on
their heads “crowns of gold”—
these were, ere their dispersal,
[Page 7]
summoned to the Báb’s presence,
Who addressed to them His parting
words, entrusted to each a
specific task, and assigned to
some of them as the proper field
of their activities their native
provinces. He enjoined them to
observe the utmost caution and
moderation in their behavior,
unveiled the loftiness of their
rank, and stressed the magnitude
of their responsibilities. He recalled
the words addressed by
Jesus to His disciples, and emphasized
the superlative greatness
of the New Day. He warned
them lest by turning back they
forfeit the Kingdom of God, and
assured them that if they did
God’s bidding, God would make
them His heirs and spiritual
leaders among men. He hinted at
the secret, and announced the
approach, of a still mightier Day,
and bade them prepare themselves
for its advent. He called
to remembrance the triumph of
Abraham over Nimrod, of Moses
over Pharoah, of Jesus over the
Jewish people, and of Muḥammad
over the tribes of Arabia,
and asserted the inevitability
and ultimate ascendancy of His
own Revelation. To the care of
Mullá Husayn He committed a
mission, more specific in character
and mightier in import. He
affirmed that His covenant with
him had been established, cautioned
him to be forbearing with
the divines he would encounter,
directed him to proceed to
Ṭihrán, and alluded, in the most
glowing terms, to the as yet unrevealed
Mystery enshrined in
that city—a Mystery that would,
He affirmed, transcend the light
shed by both Hijáz and Shíráz.
Galvanized into action by the mandate conferred upon them, launched on their perilous and revolutionizing mission, these lesser luminaries who, together with the Báb, constitute the first Vaḥíd (Unity) of the Dispensation of the Bayán, scattered far and wide through the provinces of their native land, where, with matchless heroism, they resisted the savage and concerted onslaught of the forces arrayed against them, and immortalized their Faith by their own exploits and those of their co-religionists, raising thereby a tumult that convulsed their country and sent its echoes reverberating as far as the capitals of Western Europe.
It was not until, however, the
Báb had received the eagerly
anticipated letter of Mullá
Husayn, His trusted and beloved
lieutenant, communicating the
joyful tidings of his interview
with Bahá’u’lláh, that He decided
to undertake His long and
[Page 8]
arduous pilgrimage to the Tombs
of His ancestors. In the month
of Sha‘bán, of the year 1260
A.H. (September, 1844) He
Who, both on His father’s and
mother’s side, was of the seed
of the illustrious Fáṭimih, and
Who was a descendant of the
Imám Husayn, the most eminent
among the lawful successors of
the Prophet of Islám, proceeded,
in fulfilment of Islamic traditions,
to visit the Kaaba. He
embarked from Búshihr on the
19th of Ramaḍán (October,
1844) on a sailing vessel, accompanied
by Quddús whom He
was assiduously preparing for
the assumption of his future office.
Landing at Jaddih after a
stormy voyage of over a month’s
duration, He donned the pilgrim’s
garb, mounted a camel,
and set out for Mecca, arriving
on the first of Dhi’l-Hajjih (December
12). Quddús, holding the
bridle in his hands, accompanied
his Master on foot to that holy
Shrine. On the day of ‘Arafih,
the Prophet-pilgrim of Shíráz,
His chronicler relates, devoted
His whole time to prayer. On
the day of Nahr He proceeded to
Muná, where He sacrificed according
to custom nineteen
lambs, nine in His own name,
seven in the name of Quddús,
and three in the name of the
Ethiopian servant who attended
Him. He afterwards, in company
with the other pilgrims,
encompassed the Kaaba and performed
the rites prescribed for
the pilgrimage.
His visit to Hijáz was marked
by two episodes of particular
importance. The first was the
declaration of His mission and
His open challenge to the
haughty Mírzá Muhít-i-Kirmáni,
one of the most outstanding exponents
of the Shaykhí school,
who at times went so far as to
assert his independence of the
leadership of that school assumed
after the death of Siyyid
Káẓim by Hájí Muḥammad
Karím Khán, a redoubtable
enemy of the Bábí Faith. The
second was the invitation, in the
form of an Epistle, conveyed by
Quddús, to the Sherif of Mecca,
in which the custodian of the
House of God was called upon
to embrace the truth of the new
Revelation. Absorbed in his own
pursuits the Sherif however
failed to respond. Seven years
later, when in the course of a
conversation with a certain Hájí
Níyáz-i-Baghdádi, this same
Sherif was informed of the circumstances
attending the mission
and martyrdom of the Prophet
of Shíráz, he listened attentively
to the description of those events
[Page 9]
and expressed his indignation at
the tragic fate that had overtaken
Him.
The Báb’s visit to Medina marked the conclusion of His pilgrimage. Regaining Jaddih, He returned to Búshihr, where one of His first acts was to bid His last farewell to His fellow-traveler and disciple, and to assure him that he would meet the Beloved of their hearts. He, moreover, announced to him that he would be crowned with a martyr’s death, and that He Himself would subsequently suffer a similar fate at the hands of their common foe.
The Báb’s return to His native land (Ṣafar 1261) (February-March, 1845) was the signal for a commotion that rocked the entire country. The fire which the declaration of His mission had lit was being fanned into flame through the dispersal and activities of His appointed disciples. Already within the space of less than two years it had kindled the passions of friend and foe alike. The outbreak of the conflagration did not even await the return to His native city of the One Who had generated it. The implications of a Revelation, thrust so dramatically upon a race so degenerate, so inflammable in temper, could indeed have had no other consequence than to excite within men’s bosoms the fiercest passions of fear, of hate, of rage and envy. A Faith Whose Founder did not content Himself with the claim to be the Gate of the Hidden Imám, Who assumed a rank that excelled even that of the Ṣáḥib’z-Zamán, Who regarded Himself as the precursor of one incomparably greater than Himself, Who peremptorily commanded not only the subjects of the Sháh, but the monarch himself, and even the kings and princes of the earth, to forsake their all and follow Him, Who claimed to be the inheritor of the earth and all that is therein—a Faith Whose religious doctrines, Whose ethical standards, social principles and religious laws challenged the whole structure of the society in which it was born, soon ranged, with startling unanimity, the mass of the people behind their priests, and behind their chief magistrate, with his ministers and his government, and welded them into an opposition sworn to destroy, root and branch, the movement initiated by One Whom they regarded as an impious and presumptuous pretender.
With the Báb’s return to
Shíráz the initial collision of
[Page 10]
irreconcilable forces may be said
to have commenced. Already the
energetic and audacious Mullá
‘Alíy-i-Basṭámí, one of the Letters
of the Living, “the first to
leave the House of God (Shíráz)
and the first to suffer for His
sake”, who, in the presence of
one of the leading exponents of
Shi‘ih Islám, the far-famed
Shaykh Muḥammad Hasan, had
audaciously asserted that from
the pen of his new-found Master
within the space of forty-eight
hours, verses had streamed that
equalled in number those of the
Qur’án, which it took its Author
twenty-three years to reveal, had
been excommunicated, chained,
disgraced, imprisoned, and, in
all probability, done to death.
Mullá Ṣádiq-i-Khurásání, impelled
by the injunction of the
Báb in the Khasá’il-i-Sab’ih to
alter the sacrosanct formula of
the Adhán, sounded it in its
amended form before a scandalized
congregation in Shíráz, and
was instantly arrested, reviled,
stripped of his garments, and
scourged with a thousand
lashes. The villanous Husayn
Khán, the Niẓámu’d-Dawlih, the
governor of Fárs, who had
read the challenge thrown out in
the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’, having
ordered that Mullá Ṣádiq together
with Quddús and another
believer be summarily and publicly
punished, caused their
beards to be burned, their noses
pierced, and threaded with halters;
then, having been led
through the streets in this disgraceful
condition, they were expelled
from the city.
The people of Shíráz were by
that time wild with excitement.
A violent controversy was raging
in the masjids, the madrisihs,
the bazaars, and other public
places. Peace and security were
gravely imperilled. Fearful, envious,
thoroughly angered, the
mullás were beginning to perceive
the seriousness of their
position. The governor, greatly
alarmed, ordered the Báb to be
arrested. He was brought to
Shíráz under escort, and, in the
presence of Husayn Khán, was
severely rebuked, and so violently
struck in the face that His
turban fell to the ground. Upon
the intervention of the Imám-Jum‘ih
He was released on
parole, and entrusted to the custody
of His maternal uncle Hájí
Mírzá Siyyid ‘Alí. A brief lull
ensued, enabling the captive
Youth to celebrate the Naw-Rúz
of that and the succeeding year
in an atmosphere of relative tranquillity
in the company of His
mother, His wife, and His uncle.
Meanwhile the fever that had
[Page 11]
seized His followers was communicating
itself to the members
of the clergy and to the merchant
classes, and was invading the
higher circles of society. Indeed,
a wave of passionate inquiry had
swept the whole country, and unnumbered
congregations were listening
with wonder to the testimonies
eloquently and fearlessly
related by the Báb’s itinerant
messengers.
The commotion had assumed such proportions that the Sháh, unable any longer to ignore the situation, delegated the trusted Siyyid Yaḥyáy-i-Dárábí, surnamed Vaḥíd, one of the most erudite, eloquent and influential of his subjects—a man who had committed to memory no less than thirty thousand traditions— to investigate and report to him the true situation. Broad-minded, highly imaginative, zealous by nature, intimately associated with the court, he, in the course of three interviews, was completely won over by the arguments and personality of the Báb. Their first interview centered around the metaphysical teachings of Islám, the most obscure passages of the Qur’án, and the traditions and prophecies of the Imáms. In the course of the second interview Vaḥíd was astounded to find that the questions which he had intended to submit for elucidation had been effaced from his retentive memory, and yet, to his utter amazement, he discovered that the Báb was answering the very questions he had forgotten. During the third interview the circumstances attending the revelation of the Báb’s commentary on the Súrih of Kawthar, comprising no less than two thousand verses, so overpowered the delegate of the Sháh that he, contenting himself with a mere written report to the Court Chamberlain, arose forthwith to dedicate his entire life and resources to the service of a Faith that was to requite him with the crown of martyrdom during the Nayríz upheaval. He who had firmly resolved to confute the arguments of an obscure siyyid of Shíráz, to induce Him to abandon His ideas, and to conduct Him to Ṭihrán as an evidence of the ascendancy he had achieved over Him, was made to feel, as he himself later acknowledged, as “lowly as the dust beneath His feet”. Even Husayn Khán, who had been Vaḥíd’s host during his stay in Shíráz, was compelled to write to the Sháh and express the conviction that his Majesty’s illustrious delegate had become a Bábí.
[Page 12]
Another famous advocate of
the Cause of the Báb, even fiercer
in zeal than Vaḥíd, and almost
as eminent in rank, was Mullá
Muḥammad-‘Alíy-i-Zanjání, surnamed
Hujjat. An Akhbárí, a
vehement controversalist, of a
bold and independent temper of
mind, impatient of restraint, a
man who had dared condemn
the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy
from the Abváb-i-Arba‘ih down
to the humblest mullá, he had
more than once, through his
superior talents and fervid eloquence,
publicly confounded his
orthodox Shí‘ih adversaries.
Such a person could not remain
indifferent to a Cause that was
producing so grave a cleavage
among his countrymen. The disciple
he sent to Shíráz to investigate
the matter fell immediately
under the spell of the Báb. The
perusal of but a page of the
Qay-yúmu’l-Asmá, brought by
that messenger to Hujjat, sufficed
to effect such a transformation
within him that he declared, before
the assembled ‘ulamás of his
native city that should the Author
of that work pronounce day to
be night and the sun to be a
shadow he would unhesitatingly
uphold his verdict.
Yet another recruit to the ever-swelling army of the new Faith was the eminent scholar, Mírzá Aḥmad-i-Azghandí, the most learned, the wisest and the most outstanding among the ulamás of Khurásán, who, in anticipation of the advent of the promised Qá‘im, had compiled above twelve thousand traditions and prophecies concerning the time and character of the expected Revelation, had circulated them among His fellow-disciples, and had encouraged them to quote them extensively to all congregations and in all meetings.
While the situation was steadily
deteriorating in the provinces,
the bitter hostility of the people
of Shíráz was rapidly moving
towards a climax. Husayn Khán,
vindictive, relentless, exasperated,
by the reports of his sleepless
agents that his Captive’s
power and fame were hourly
growing, decided to take immediate
action. It is even reported
that his accomplice, Hájí Mírzá
Áqásí, had ordered him to kill
secretly the would-be disrupter
of the state and the wrecker of its
established religion. By order
of the governor the chief constable,
‘Abdu’l-Hamíd Khán,
scaled, in the dead of night, the
wall and entered the house of
Hájí Mírzá Siyyid ‘Alí, where
the Báb was confined, arrested
Him, and confiscated all His
books and documents. That very
[Page 13]
night, however, took place an
event which, in its dramatic suddenness,
was no doubt providentially
designed to confound the
schemes of the plotters, and enable
the Object of their hatred
to prolong His ministry and
consummate His Revelation. An
outbreak of cholera, devastating
in its virulence, had, since midnight,
already smitten above a
hundred people. The dread of
the plague had entered every
heart, and the inhabitants of the
stricken city were, amid shrieks
of pain and grief, fleeing in confusion.
Three of the governor’s
domestics had already died.
Members of his family were
lying dangerously ill. In his
despair he, leaving the dead unburied,
had fled to a garden in
the outskirts of the city. ‘Abdu’l-Hamíd
Khán, confronted by this
unexpected development, decided
to conduct the Báb to His own
home. He was appalled, upon
his arrival, to learn that his son
lay in the death-throes of the
plague. In his despair he threw
himself at the feet of the Báb,
begged to be forgiven, adjured
Him not to visit upon the son
the sins of the father, and
pledged his word to resign his
post, and never again to accept
such a position. Finding that
his prayer had been answered, he
addressed a plea to the governor
begging him to release his Captive,
and thereby deflect the fatal
course of this dire visitation.
Husayn Khán acceded to his request,
and released his Prisoner
on condition of His quitting the
city.
Miraculously preserved by an
almighty and watchful Providence,
the Báb proceeded to
Iṣfáhán (September, 1846), accompanied
by Siyyid Kaẓim-Zanjání. Another lull ensued,
a brief period of comparative
tranquillity during which the
Divine processes which had been
set in motion gathered further
momentum, precipitating a series
of events leading to the imprisonment
of the Báb in the fortresses
of Máh-kú and Chihríq, and culminating
in His martyrdom in
the barrack-square of Tabríz.
Well aware of the impending
trials that were to afflict Him,
the Báb had, ere His final separation
from His family, bequeathed
to His mother and His wife all
His possessions, had confided to
the latter the secret of what was
to befall Him, and revealed for
her a special prayer the reading
of which, He assured her, would
resolve her perplexities and allay
her sorrows. The first forty days
of His sojourn in Iṣfáhán were
spent as the guest of Mírzá
[Page 14]
Siyyid Muḥammad, the Sulṭanu’l-‘Ulamá,
the Imám-Jum‘ih,
one of the principal ecclesiastical
dignitaries of the realm, in accordance
with the instructions of
the governor of the city,
Manuchihr Khán, the Mu‘tamidu’d-Dawlih,
who had received
from the Báb a letter requesting
him to appoint the place where
He should dwell. He was ceremoniously
received, and such
was the spell He cast over the
people of that city that, on one
occasion, after His return from
the public bath, an eager multitude
clamored for the water that
had been used for His ablutions.
So magic was His charm that His
host, forgetful of the dignity of
his high rank, was wont to wait
personally upon Him. It was at
the request of this same prelate
that the Báb, one night, after
supper, revealed His well-known
commentary on the Súrih of
Va’l-‘Aṣr. Writing with astonishing
rapidity, He, in a few
hours, had devoted to the exposition
of the significance of only
the first letter of that Súrih—a
letter which Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá’í
had stressed, and which
Bahá’u’lláh refers to in the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas—verses that
equalled in number a third of the
Qur’án, a feat that called forth
such an outburst of reverent
astonishment from those who witnessed
it that they arose and
kissed the hem of His robe.
The tumultuous enthusiasm of
the people of Iṣfáhán was meanwhile
visibly increasing. Crowds
of people, some impelled by
curiosity, others eager to discover
the truth, still others
anxious to be healed of their
infirmities, flocked from every
quarter of the city to the house
of the Imám-Jum‘ih. The wise
and judicious Manuchihr Khán
could not resist the temptation
of visiting so strange, so intriguing
a Personage. Before a
brilliant assemblage of the most
accomplished divines He, a Georgian
by origin and a Christian by
birth, requested the Báb to expound
and demonstrate the truth
of Muḥammad’s specific mission.
To this request, which those present
had felt compelled to decline,
the Báb readily responded. In
less than two hours, and in the
space of fifty pages, He had not
only revealed a minute, a vigorous
and original dissertation on
this noble theme, but had also
linked it with both the coming
of the Qá‘im and the return of
the Imám Husayn—an exposition
that prompted Manuchihr
Khán to declare before that
gathering his faith in the Prophet
of Islám, as well as his recognition
[Page 15]
of the supernatural gifts
with which the Author of so convincing
a treatise was endowed.
These evidences of the growing ascendancy exercised by an unlearned Youth on the governor and the people of a city rightly regarded as one of the strongholds of Shí‘ah Islám, alarmed the ecclesiastical authorities. Refraining from any act of open hostility which they knew full well would defeat their purpose, they sought, by encouraging the circulation of the wildest rumors, to induce the Grand Vizir of the Sháh to save a situation that was growing hourly more acute and menacing. The popularity enjoyed by the Báb, His personal prestige, and the honors accorded Him by His countrymen had now reached their high watermark. The shadows of an impending doom began to fast gather about Him. A series of tragedies from then on followed in rapid sequence destined to culminate in His own death and the apparent extinction of the influence of His Faith.
The overbearing and crafty
Hájí Mírzá Áqásí, fearful lest
the sway of the Báb encompass
his sovereign and thus seal his
own doom, was aroused as never
before. Prompted by a suspicion
that the Báb possessed the secret
sympathies of the Mu‘tamid, and
well aware of the confidence reposed
in him by the Sháh, he
severely upbraided the Imám-Jum‘ih
for the neglect of his
sacred duty. He, at the same
time, lavished, in several letters,
his favors upon the ‘ulamás of
Iṣfáhán, whom he had hitherto
ignored. From the pulpits of that
city an incited clergy began to
hurl vituperation and calumny
upon the Author of what was to
them a hateful and much to be
feared heresy. The Sháh himself
was induced to summon the
Báb to his capital. Manuchihr
Khán, bidden to arrange for His
departure, decided to transfer
His residence temporarily to his
own home. Meanwhile the mujtahids
and ‘ulamás, dismayed at
the signs of so pervasive an influence,
summoned a gathering
which issued an abusive document
signed and sealed by the
ecclesiastical leaders of the city,
denouncing the Báb as a heretic
and condemning Him to death.
Even the Imám-Jum‘ih was constrained
to add his written testimony
that the Accused was devoid
of reason and judgment.
The Mu‘tamid, in his great embarrassment,
and in order to
appease the rising tumult, conceived
a plan whereby an increasingly
restive populace were made
[Page 16]
to believe that the Báb had left
for Ṭihrán, while he succeeded
in ensuring for Him a brief respite
of four months in the
privacy of the ‘Imárat-i-Khurshíd,
the governor’s private residence
in Iṣfáhán. It was in those
days that the host expressed the
desire to consecrate all his possessions,
evaluated by his contemporaries
at no less than forty
million francs, to the furtherance
of the interests of the new
Faith, declared his intention of
converting Muḥammad Sháh, of
inducing him to rid himself of
a shameful and profligate minister,
and of obtaining his royal
assent to the marriage of one of
his sisters with the Báb. The sudden
death of the Mu‘tamid, however,
foretold by the Báb Himself,
accelerated the course of
the approaching crisis. The ruthless
and rapacious Gurgín Khán,
the deputy governor, induced the
Sháh to issue a second summons
ordering that the captive Youth
be sent in disguise to Ṭihrán,
accompanied by a mounted
escort. To this written mandate
of the sovereign the vile Gurgín
Khán, who had previously discovered
and destroyed the will of
his uncle, the Mu‘tamid, and
seized his property, unhesitatingly
responded. At the distance
of less than thirty miles from the
capital, however, in the fortress
of Kinár-Gird, a messenger delivered
to Muḥammad Big, who
headed the escort, a written order
from Hájí Mírzá Áqásí instructing
him to proceed to Kulayn,
and there await further instructions.
This was, shortly after,
followed by a letter which the
Sháh had himself addressed to
the Báb, dated Rabi‘u‘th-Thání
1263 (March 19-April 17,
1847), and which, though
couched in courteous terms,
clearly indicated the extent of
the baneful influence exercised
by the Grand Vizir on his
sovereign. The plans so fondly
cherished by Manuchihr Khán
were now utterly undone. The
fortress of Máh-Kú, not far from
the village of that same name,
whose inhabitants had long enjoyed
the patronage of the Grand
Vizir, situated in the remotest
northwestern corner of Ádhirbáyján,
was the place of incarceration
assigned by Muḥammad
Sháh, on the advice of his perfidious
minister, for the Báb. No
more than one companion and
one attendant from among His
followers were allowed to keep
Him company in those bleak and
inhospitable surroundings. All-powerful
and crafty, that minister
had, on the pretext of the
necessity of his master’s concentrating
[Page 17]
his immediate attention
on a recent rebellion in
Khurásán and a revolt in Kirmán,
succeeded in foiling a plan,
which, had it materialized, would
have had the most serious repercussions
on his own fortunes, as
well as on the immediate destinies
of his government, its ruler
and its people.
The Word of God hath set the heart of the world afire; how regrettable if ye fail to be enkindled with its flame! Please God, ye will regard this blessed night as the night of unity, will knit your souls together, and resolve to adorn yourselves with the ornament of a goodly and praiseworthy character. Let your principal concern be to rescue the fallen from the slough of impending extinction, and to help him embrace the ancient Faith of God. Your behavior towards your neighbor should be such as to manifest clearly the signs of the one true God, for ye are the first among men to be re-created by His Spirit, the first to adore and bow the knee before Him, the first to circle round His throne of glory. I swear by Him Who hath caused Me to reveal whatever hath pleased Him! Ye are better known to the inmates of the Kingdom on high than ye are known to your own selves. Think ye these words to be vain and empty? Would that ye had the power to perceive the things your Lord, the All-Merciful, doth see—things that attest the excellence of your rank, that bear witness to the greatness of your worth, that proclaim the sublimity of your station! God grant that your desires and unmortified passions may not hinder you from that which hath been ordained for you.
Editorial
DEDICATION TO THE WORLD’S PEACE
FOR the past seven years, we,
the Bahá’ís of North America,
have been devoted to the
task of establishing, in the growing
catastrophe, a series of centers,
outposts of the Most Great
Peace, in every state of the
Union, in every province of Canada,
and in every republic of
Central and South America. In
order to finish this work before
the appointed time, the end of
the first Bahá’í century, a stream
of pioneers and settlers have
gone forth to earn by the sacrifice
of their homes, their comfort,
and even their lives, the
recompense so gloriously described
by Bahá’u’lláh: “Whoso
hath attained their presence will
glory in their meeting, and all
that dwell in every land will be
illumined by their memory.”
But this work was given to the whole Bahá’í community; and the whole community, as the vanguard of a new and peaceful civilization, will be blessed if it is well done.
Let no one, however, misunderstand the nature of this blessing. Let no one delude himself with the belief that, after any great spiritual effort, he may sit back and luxuriate in the refreshing breezes of Divine Bounty while the Cause of God goes on automatically as a result of his past exertions. The blessings earned by serving God are not material. They are not rest and ease and freedom from the troubles of the age in which we live. They are entirely spiritual: a wider opportunity for service, and those qualities which will enable us to serve. They are energy, courage, love, steadfastness, severance, dedication. They are the equipment for a great effort, and they are given to us because our very striving will have increased our capacity to strive.
Some favored beings seem to
spring full-grown into that spiritual
maturity which we call the
Bahá’í life, but the great majority
of us reach a state of
dedication only by a long process
of training. We contemplate detachment
as a beautiful state
which we may achieve sometime
in the future, as we timidly, even
reluctantly, repeat the prayers
enjoined by Bahá’u’lláh. “Behold
me standing ready to do Thy
[Page 19]
will and Thy desire, and wishing
naught else except Thy good
pleasure,” we say, and slowly or
swiftly, according to our destiny,
that powerful assertion takes
possession of us and becomes for
us the truth. One personal desire
after another vanishes, as
one duty after another becomes
the answer to our prayer, and
gradually we begin to feel the
meaning of dedication.
In these last months of the seven years, with their inescapable labors so necessary to the salvation of human society—in these months when, in the midst of increasing difficulties, a final surge of spirit was demanded, personal happiness has lost much of its savor, for we have come to know in some measure the blessing of dedication to Reality.
Thus re-created, shall we expect to rest? The Guardian has already prepared us for the tremendous work which lies ahead. In a letter to the young Bahá’ís at Louhelen School last summer, he exhorted them to study deeply that they may be ready to heal the sick souls of men. Such work we will find at our very doors, but there will be pioneering as well. The teaching plan of these past seven years has erected only a rudimentary foundation for a peaceful world order in South America and in much of the northern continent as well. Nothing stands still, and if we are to keep the foundation firm, it must not be abandoned for a single instant. Shoghi Effendi has outlined for us in “The Advent of Divine Justice” the task of “the rising generation of American believers.” They must extend and reinforce those foundations and help to erect on them the framework of the Administrative Order of their Faith, that pattern for harmonious living “in conformity with the spiritual and administrative principles governing the life and activities of every established Bahá’í community throughout the world.”
Not only has the Guardian thus set before us a new object, but he has outlined the steps by which it is to be accomplished: the sending out of pioneers and settlers, the increase of the material resources at their disposal, the translation and publication of much more Bahá’í literature, and the careful study of the possibilities of all the countries of the hemisphere and of the obstacles to be overcome in each.
But not even then, when the
Administrative Order has been
firmly established in the western
[Page 20]
hemisphere, may we pause, for
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets carry us
still farther afield. “The moment,”
wrote ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “this
Divine Message is carried forward
by the American believers
from the shores of America, and
is propagated throughout the
continents of Europe, of Asia, of
Africa, and of Australasia, and
as far as the islands of the
Pacific, this community will find
itself securely established upon
the throne of an everlasting
dominion. Then will all the
peoples of the world witness that
this community is spiritually
illumined and divinely guided.
Then will the whole earth resound
with the praises of its
majesty and greatness.”
We have only begun our labors. Ours it must be to establish unity in the love of God throughout the world.
Praise be to God! the mediaeval ages of darkness have passed away and this century of radiance has dawned,—this century wherein the reality of things is becoming evident,—wherein science is penetrating the mysteries of the universe, the oneness of the world of humanity is being established and service to mankind is the paramount motive of all existence. Shall we remain steeped in our fanaticisms and cling to our prejudices? Is it fitting that we should still be bound and restricted by ancient fables and superstitions of the past; be handicapped by superannuated beliefs and the ignorances of dark ages, waging religious wars, fighting and shedding blood, shunning and anathematizing each other? Is this becoming? Is it not better for us to be loving and considerate toward each other? Is it not preferable to enjoy fellowship and unity; join in anthems of praise to the most high God and extol all His prophets in the spirit of acceptance and true vision? Then indeed this world will become a paradise and the promised Day of God will dawn.
World Democracy and the Races
ROBERT W. KENNEY
ONE of the lessons which the
world is coming to learn is
that justice and expediency often
come to the same thing. Good
people have known that for centuries.
The cynics are beginning
to understand it. Expediency,
to be really effective, to
last any length of time, must be
just.
This lesson is worth remembering today when America is one of the great forces in determining the future of the world. Unless we are just in our treatment of nations, we shall not have a peace but a temporary armistice.
There are many political parties today, at home and abroad. And I suppose there are even more schools of political thought concerning the treatment of the races. But to my way of thinking each of these parties and schools of thought belongs to one of two groups. Either it believes the races are equal and deserves equal treatment,—or it does not. Other differences in its thinking are of comparatively small consequence. One group may explain its belief in superiority on grounds of blood or of geography or on historical or religious grounds. I do not think this is important. The reasons given may involve dangerous concepts, and it has proved difficult and disastrous to overcome some of them. But the importance so far as the future of the world is concerned lies not in the reasons given for a nation’s superiority, but in the belief itself.
I do not belong to such a
group. I am one of those who
believe in the essential equality,
in the tribunal of international
law, of all races. I will not here
argue the justice of such a belief.
I do not think this audience
needs a discussion of the
fact that anthropologists not only
disagree with political concepts
of race but deny that any one
race is by nature superior to another.
Nor do I think it worth
the time of this audience to deal
with the fact,—which is clear to
anyone’s eyes,—that differences
between the so-called races are
not as great as differences which
may be found between different
members of the same races. I
do not believe this audience
[Page 22]
needs such an argument or discussion.
What I shall say on
this subject must be understood
to be based on the tenet that,
whatever physical differences
may exist, the races are entitled
to equality in the tribunal of international
law.
In discussing this subject there is a strong temptation to deal with injustices of the past. The treatment by the great industrial powers of the world of those whom they choose to call the “backward nations” has been enough to deserve the erection of wailing walls wherever thinking peoples congregate. Superiority in the development of mechanized munitions has been the practical ground for distinguishing the so-called “civilized” from the “backward” people. This distinction is, to say the least, an exceedingly doubtful basis for superiority. But I do not think it will serve any great purpose to recount the injustices. That has been done. It is even now being done by those who were present and who know. For our part we must recognize the evils, and we must recognize attitudes which evil treatment has produced. These are conditions which we must deal with. But I turn my talk to the future in the belief that its direction will be different from the past.
If there is one hope which is in the heart of every human being today, it is the hope for a durable peace. The great hope is that this war will justify itself by being the last war. We can accomplish this, I firmly believe, not by mere military victory, not even by settling economic and geographic differences, but by recognizing and enforcing the principle of racial and national equality throughout the entire world. This is the point at which justice and expediency meet and are identical. I do not think we will have a lasting peace unless we deal justly with the peoples of the world,—unless justice means the same thing in every tongue, and unless the justice accorded the black, the brown and the yellow peoples of our planet is not one whit inferior to the justice we give to the white peoples.
This is the truth which we are learning by means of a tragedy so great that all the wars of history shrink to insignificance by comparison. This is the lesson which is being cut into the hearts of the cynics, the self-centered, and the innocently misguided.
I believe that expediency and
justice and the hope for a lasting
peace all point to a world democracy
[Page 23]
of all the nations. This
democracy does not necessarily
mean the same thing as a national
democracy. But it does
imply certain fundamental likenesses.
Equality before the law is the rock on which any truly democratic nation is founded. Without this principle there is no democracy. Where the powers of the state operate differently on different persons, justice is mere rhetoric. So it must he in international law.
We must start with the principle of equality before international law. Each nation fairly and honestly recognized as such by its own people must be allowed to stand in the international tribunal on an exact equality with every other such nation.
There is a simple statement, but the principle is profound. Its implications are far-reaching. First, it hypothecates the existence of an international law. This is planetary revolution—or better still, evolution—from chaos to order, because the fact is, notwithstanding we have all read and heard about international law since the time of Grotius in the Seventeenth Century, —there is now no international law in a true sense.
Law implies the recognition of a force superior to its subjects. In the old days when nations were beginning to develop as political entities, that force was the brute strength of the powerful, the feudal lord and his band of followers. It was the strength of the governing group as opposed to the people who were governed. In modern times, in democracies, that force which is superior to those who must obey the law is the collective strength of the whole citizenry. The force which today makes law effective in our country is the society which enacts it, the mass of citizens, as distinct from the individual to whom the law is applied. On a national scale we have arrived at a point where there is in one sense an identity between the rulers and the governed. The same people who enact the laws are those who must obey them. But the force of the law exists in the collective strength of the society which desires its enforcement. The man who violates the law transgresses against his fellows, against society, and he invokes a force superior to his will, because it is the will and strength of society as a whole.
Now, in the realm of international
law there is no such
[Page 24]
superior collective force. At
least there is no recognized
superior force. One of the fundamental
tenets of present day international
law is the doctrine
of national sovereignty, one
aspect of which is that nothing
is superior to the nation. The
doctrine is wholly autonomous
and need not yield to any order,
rule or decree. It can enter into
treaties and thus bind itself if
it wishes to. But it need not.
If it does enter into a treaty and
violates it, there is no tribunal
to mete out justice. Of course
there is the military strength of
other nations, but this is not
founded on law; this is based on
steel and gun powder, and it may
be,—and it has been,—called
into action without any transgression.
The nations now stand in the position of a group of men on a desert planet. They recognize no law. Not one of them recognizes any force other than brute force. The one who is well armed can be arrogant and aggressive. The smaller man must cower and live on the leavings of the others. The result is,— well, it is modern history. It is imperialism,—it is enslavement, —it is coalition for power, —it is spheres of influence,— and above all it is war and rumors of war so constant that wives shudder and the new mother looks at her infant son with fear that the world may not know peace soon enough.
The establishment of International Law,—a collective force superior to the will of the individual nations,—is the first step toward a lasting peace. And that law must embody the principle of equality. If it does not do so, both in principle and in practice, we shall build not a peace but merely a series of dams to shut off the flood of protest. That may secure quiet for a time; the dams, built of high-sounding words and deadly munitions, may hold off the floods for a while. But no injustice is ever dissipated. It drops quietly into the accumulation. Each adds its power to that already there, and little by little the force of human protest against injustice grows and grows,—until the inevitable explosion, until the dams are burst and once again the world is at war.
Equality before the international tribunal will give the injured a place to air its protest and an impartial hearing, and will deal fairly with the controversy presented.
I would not purport to state
[Page 25]
all of the things which equality
should bring to the nations. It
may even not be wise to try to
say them all, but instead to announce
the principle and to deal
with specific things as they arise.
However that may be, all of the
wisdom of our times could not
be better spent than in dealing
with this problem of equality
among the nations. It is a problem
for an age, not for a man.
Economic equality, equal opportunity for access to raw materials, free choice of government, the Four Freedoms of the Atlantic Charter—all of these are but a part of the profound meaning to be given, in International Law—to the word equality.
But all of these things are as naught compared to the elimination of racial differences as barriers, as grounds for giving or denying privileges. The reason is simple.
It is true that a race is not a nation, but those terms are so closely identified in the popular mind that they are often confused, and the confusion is enhanced by the vague and varying meanings given to each of those terms. Are the British a race? The Japanese? No. Each has national peculiarities of a physical nature, but each is probably a mixture of several distinct human types, or, if you wish, races. Still we often speak of the Japanese and the British as if they were races of people.
This is a natural confusion. Similar types of people tend to congregate in the same areas, and often political entities, which we call nations, arise. Particularly in Asia and to a lesser degree in Europe, fairly distinct types of human beings have developed within the political boundaries of ancient countries. Only in comparatively recent times have there grown up countries like our own and the Union of South African Republics which are melting pots of many races. These are exceptions.
By and large we tend to think of nations in terms of specific types of people. There are distinctions in our minds between the Parisian and, say, the Basque or the Alsatian. There are larger distinctions between all of these, the Gallic peoples and, say, the Danes or Bulgarians. But these distinctions disappear when we consider the French and the Malayans. When differences in color appear, political boundaries and national concepts dwindle into the background.
Yet this is exactly what we
must not let happen. This habit
of thought, this unfounded, evil,
[Page 26]
and disastrous tradition of racial
superiority has too often led us
to deal with nations on the basis
of color and race. And this must
end. In the international tribunal
Thailand must be entitled to
stand as proudly and as confidently
as Britain, Liberia must
be heard as fully and as fairly
as the United States.
Those nations little and big whose people have skins different from ours must be won to confidence. This will not be easy. We have made it difficult, next to impossible, and it will require skill and patience to help the colored nations forget coolie-ism, extra-territorial courts, absentee-ownership, the lash and the gallows, and the other ugly attributes of white superiority. We cannot erase these things by words alone or by beautiful gestures, though forthright words will help and tact will be necessary. More important than these will be the things we do.
No nation will suffer its destiny to be shaped by another. But no nation today can demand that it alone shall be the master of its own fate. Ours is a contracting planet. The great spaces that isolated primitive countries have disappeared, and the seas and skies are filled with swift traffic. Today no nation stands alone, no nation lives by itself, and no nation faces the future in isolation. The voices of all nations must be heard in fashioning the future of each.
Yesterday’s history records the settling of mandates of islands of brown and black peoples. White people met at polished tables and sealed crisp documents. Were the inhabitants consulted?
When the great industrialized powers admit to their treaties and conferences equal spokesmen from interested and affected colored races, then we will have done the deed, we will have taken the step to earn their confidence. Not until then. When questions and problems which are the concern of the entire world—such as a lasting peace —are discussed and determined by delegates from all nations, then we will be on the road to deserved confidence. When the arms of the entire world are at the call of the voice of the colored nations against a so-called “civilized” aggressor—that is to say, when justice is enforced without discrimination for color —then we will have the right to hope for a lasting peace.
I have only this to add: the
white peoples have distinguished
themselves by the development
[Page 27]
of power. But this is not the
same as wisdom. Power without
wisdom has given us centuries
of wars which have grown in
size and devastation as our
power has grown. We fair
skinned peoples have not yet
mastered the art of living peaceably
with our neighbors. We
cannot be proud of that tradition
of wars. We have much to
learn and we cannot, even for
the most selfish reasons, ignore
the counsel and wisdom of the
colored races.
I began by talking about justice and expediency, and I end on that note. That group of nations which today sets, directly or indirectly, its own color as masters of this planet may tomorrow find power in the hands of another, a more numerous, or more powerful race or color. To make a lasting peace and a harmonious way of international life, it is the expedient, the only way—to give equal voice to nations regardless of race or color. And Justice to all peoples has always pointed the same way.
Address delivered in symposium on Race Unity held by the Bahá’í Assembly of San Francisco in the Palace Hotel Ballroom, September 24, 1943.
The virtues and attributes pertaining unto God are all evident and manifest, and have been mentioned and described in all the heavenly Books. Among them are trustworthiness, truthfulness, purity of heart while communing with God, forbearance, resignation to whatever the Almighty hath decreed, contentment with the things His Will hath provided, patience, nay thankfulness in the midst of tribulation, and complete reliance, in all circumstances, upon Him. These rank, according to the estimate of God, among the highest and most laudable of all acts. All other acts are, and will ever remain, secondary and subordinate unto them.
NEW WORLD A-COMING
Book Review
BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK
THIS book[1] is one of the Life-in-America
Prize Books and Mr.
Ottley sub-titles it “Inside Black
America”. It is, as he says, an intimately
detailed story of Negro life
in America. Much, but by no means
all, of the book deals with life in
Harlem for, the author says, “To
grasp the inner meaning of life in
Black America one must put his finger
on the pulse of Harlem.” And
it is because the author does show
us the inner meaning of life in Black
America that the book should be read
by all who would have an understanding
of the race, of its upsurging
demands for recognition of its
achievements, and above all, for
justice. Indeed such an understanding
is necessary if one would understand
America.
The author, a journalist writing of his own race, has packed the book with facts—historic, economic, social. These are not just dull facts, but events and experiences in the lives of real people, outstanding members of the race, sometimes in the political field, sometimes in the professional, sometimes as labor leaders, as champion fighters or as musicians and authors. The achievements recounted refute all the arguments constantly brought forth by the prejudiced many who cling determinedly to the false belief that the black race is an inferior one.
Mr. Ottley warns us that the race is no longer a patient race. He sees a “great dark mass of people of unknown potentialities—loudly assertive of its aspirations.” There is tremendous race consciousness born of injustice and enforced segregation. These people are united “on the question of their rights—moral, economic, political—which to them mean the right to integration in American life.”
Yet in some ways the race is not
united, for just as in white America,
there are marked classes in Black
America, though the depression, Mr.
Ottley says, tended to make these
lines less marked. One cannot read
this book, in fact, without knowing,
if he did not before, that color of
skin is not what determines characteristics.
Individuals of any and all
races and peoples may develop fine
characteristics under right environment
and may sink to the lowest animal
levels under adverse influences.
In Harlem there is the extreme of
the moneyed aristocracy of Sugar
Hill on the one hand; and on the
other, the sick, degraded, often criminal,
human outcasts living in
wretched hovels and overcrowded
tenements. Mr. Ottley describes
these as the “slum-shocked”. There
are the churches and the gambling
dens. There are the cultured, educated
groups and those eager and
struggling for education. And so it
is logical that there should be varied
types of leadership. The author finds
significance and worth in the extraordinary
plans and achievements of
Father Divine in that some of the
[Page 29]
deeply impoverished have seen a
possibility of something better than
they have ever known economically.
Even J. A. Rogers with his “100
Amazing Facts About the Negro,”
however erroneous some of his facts,
has helped to arouse sluggish minds
and discouraged souls. Dr. W. E. B.
DuBois has had great influence in
his work for the social and economic
betterment of his race but now there
is a tendency to follow more radical
leadership such as that of Philip
Randolph of the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters. The great
achievements of artists such as
Marian Anderson stir racial pride
in all Negroes and belief in themselves
as members of the same race.
Joe Louis is admired for his achievements
and loved for his genuine
humility and sincere devotion for
the betterment of his race.
While Mr. Ottley’s book deals primarily with Black America he is aware that the “color problem has become a world-wide issue to settle here and now.” He reports some American Negroes as saying that victory of the United Nations would provide only a brief peace unless the white world acts unreservedly to make true the words of Sumner Welles, that “Our victory must bring in its train the liberation of all peoples. Discrimination between peoples because of race, creed, or color must be abolished.”
Aware as he is of almost certain dangerous outbreaks Mr. Ottley believes in America and that the freedom for which the nation stands will prevail. “The Negro’s cause will rise or fall with America. He knows well that his destiny is intimately bound to that of the nation. America stands today as a symbol of freedom! The loss of this symbol will mean the loss of hope for white and black alike. This war, undeniably belongs to the Negro as well as to the white man. To this extent it may he called a ‘People’s War’— for in spite of selfish interests a new world is a-coming with the sweep and fury of the Resurrection.”
Can this new world come peacefully, the reader asks himself as he reads these closing words expressing Mr. Ottley’s faith in the true ideals of America, or must it come with fury, with race riots and bloodshed? All those familiar with the Bahá’í teachings know that it is coming in America and in the world, but cannot forget the warning words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá written some thirty years ago:
“The most important teaching of His Highness Bahá’u’lláh is to leave behind racial, political, religious and patriotic prejudices. Until these prejudices are entirely removed from the people of the world, the realm of humanity will find no rest. Nay, rather discord and bloodshed will be increased day by day, and the foundation of the prosperity of the world of man will be destroyed.”
And writing especially of America ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: “This enmity and hatred which exist between the white and the colored races is very dangerous and there is no doubt it will end in bloodshed unless the penetration of the word of God, the breaths of the Holy Spirit and the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are diffused amongst them and love instead of hatred is established between the races.”
- ↑ New World A-Coming, by Roi Ottley, Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
Feast of Riḍván
References.
- Compilation: “Bahá’u’lláh is the Promised One expected by all Nations”—“Star of West”, Vol. 9, No. 1.
- Station of Bahá’u’lláh—“Gleanings”, 211, 102; “Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh”, pp. 12, 13, 17, 21; “Epistle to the Son of the Wolf”, pp. 1, 41, 43, 155-156.
- Accounts of the first Riḍván:
- (a) “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era”—p. 38.
- (b) “Star of West”—Vol. 8, No. 13, p. 169 (2nd. Col.)
- (c) “Abbas Effendi, His Life and Teachings” by Myron Phelps—pp. 28-31.
- (d) “The Chosen Highway” by Lady Blomfield—pp. 57-58.
- (e) “Bahá’u’lláh” by H. M. Balyuzi—p. 15.
- Devotion to Bahá’u’lláh—“Gleanings”—p. 321; “Epistle to Son of Wolf”—p. 48.
- State and condition of Bahá’u’lláh—“Star of West”, Vol. 8, p. 171 (1st col.)
- “Gleanings”—pp. 126, 239; “Promised Day Is Come”—pp. 42-43.
- “Epistle to the Son of Wolf”—p. 52.
- His mission was made known to Bahá’u’lláh—“Gleanings”—pp. 90, 103; “Epistle to the Son of Wolf”—pp. 11, 21, 22.
- The Purpose of the Coming of Bahá’u’lláh—“Gleanings”—pp. 79-81-99, 108, 287; “Epistle to the Son of Wolf”—pp. 33-34.
- Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh—“Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh”—pp. 8, 9, 11, 14.
- Great opportunity of this day—“Gleanings”, pp. 320-322; “Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh”—pp. 14, 15, 18.
- Greatest gift to man—“Gleanings”—p. 195; “Promised Day” p. 24.
- Gradually unfolding—“Gleanings”—pp. 76, 87.
- Only means of unity—“Gleanings”—p. 286.
- Influence of—“Gleanings”—pp. 189-190.
- Power of—“Gleanings”—pp. 142, 183, 219-220; “Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh” p. 15.
- Progressive—"Gleanings”—pp. 68, 73-74.
- Proof of—“Gleanings”—p. 105.
- Purpose of—“Gleanings”—pp. 206, 215.
- Universality of—“Gleanings”—pp. 92-98.
- Victory of—“Gleanings”—p. 341; “Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh”—pp. 14, 19.
- Tablet of Visitation: “Prayers and Meditations”—p. 310.
- “Epistle to the Son of the Wolf,” pp. 1-2, 46-49.
- Call of the Divine Beloved: “Gleanings,” pp. 319-322; 323-325.
- Messages to the Kings: “Promised Day is Come,” pp. 24, 28, 29, 30-35, 40.
- Prayers for Riḍván: “Prayers and Meditations,” pp. 4, 273, 277, 200-202.
WITH OUR READERS
THIS April issue of WORLD ORDER
begins volume ten of our magazine.
This also is the first issue
of WORLD ORDER in the second century
of the Bahá’í Faith, for officially
the second century began March
twenty-first of the old calendar which
is the first day of Bahá in the year
101 of the Bahá’í Faith. Bahá’ís
speak of the first day of the New
Year as Naw-Rúz. The new cover
design and new type form of the
magazine is one way of marking the
beginning of the new century.
* * *
In our March issue appeared the introduction to the new book in which Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, surveys the important events of the Cause in the first century of the Faith. This month we print the first chapter, “The Birth of the Bábí Revelation”. Our readers are most fortunate to have this introduction and the first few chapters available before the complete book, whose value in understanding and spreading our Faith can hardly be over-estimated, is off the press.
Last September the Bahá’ís of San Francisco sponsored a public meeting on the theme of racial unity and understanding. This meeting was well publicized, largely attended and well reported. Rabbi Rudolph Coffee of that city acted as chairman. The speakers were Mrs. Dorothy Baker, well known Bahá’í speaker, and the Honorable Robert W. Kenney, Attorney General of the State of California. We print this month the paper given by Attorney General Kenney under the title “World Democracy and the Races”.
“New World A-Coming”, book review by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick of our staff, gives the editors one more opportunity to emphasize the principle of race unity which lies at the very heart of the Bahá’í teachings. The magazine acclaims the new and inspired voices arising to cry aloud for the justice, the fellowship and the equality of human values which God has made His gift to the peoples of this age. It is our hope that this review of Mr. Ottley’s book will assist in arousing interest in his courageous and determined effort to reflect light on human relations too long conducted outside the area of the responsible agencies of civilization.
Miss Busey’s editorial, “Dedication to the World’s Peace”, addressed especially to Bahá’ís will cause us all to seriously ask ourselves, individually and collectively,—are we ready for the second century?
We reprint this month in which we observe the Feast of Riḍván a list of references which will be helpful in arranging programs for celebrating these joyful days.
* * *
WORLD ORDER has many friends
and we like to hear from them. We
wonder if there are other subscription
copies which like the one belonging
to a Pennsylvania subscriber
become worn out from much lending
[Page 32]
and much reading. Our friend
writes: “Can you spare me an extra
copy of the January (1944) issue?
So many have been interested in the
first article about the Congress of
Religions entitled ‘Reflected in the
West’ that my copy will not be fit
for filing. The whole issue was
particularly pleasing to me.”
Isolated believers are particularly warm friends. One such writes: “No one knows what a heart warming greeting and inspiration WORLD ORDER is to an isolated believer. It is my prayer that world chaos will never prevent its reaching me.”
And one of our friends in the army writes: “Many thanks for the WORLD ORDER magazine which reaches me regularly. It certainly is maintaining its high degree of newsiness combined with a wealth of spiritual food and aptly selected portions from His Creative Word.”
Another of our readers asks for several extra copies of the February number in order to pass on to her friends the comprehensive article in which Horace Holley so clearly set worth the history of the Bahá’í Faith and its tremendous significance in the world today.
And here is a heart warming letter from Minnesota: “I hope the day will come when all the peoples of the world will read this little magazine. Although it is small in size it is large in contents. It reminds me of ‘The best gifts come in the smallest packages.’ Truly this magazine is the loveliest gift anyone could receive.”
The above reminds us of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s prophecy about the Bahá’í Magazine (then called Star of the West). His last message to the Star was: “Do not look now at the small influence of The Star of the West. A day will come when this will be the greatest paper in the world. It will be spread in the East and in the West.”
The editors ask that our contributors and all our friends will continue to help us maintain the present standard and gain the higher one set by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi. We are constantly in need of and looking for new contributors.
Our readers are asked to note the brief reference to the history of the magazine now made at the top of the inside front cover. The present number, as is pointed out, actually might be issued as No. 1, Vol. XXXV. There is behind us a long and ardent history, not merely the history of a periodical but the history of a religious community which has employed a magazine as one of the instruments of its own development.
The back numbers of the Bahá’í magazine are generally regarded as one of the most precious possessions a believer may have—his entrance into vivid association with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His journey through America in 1912, his association with the evolving thought of the believers, and now since 1921 with the Guardian whose guidance carries us forward to the fulfilment of our destiny.
Bahá’í World Faith
This book contains a representative selection of the Writings of
Bahá’u’lláh and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and is the largest collection of Bahá’í
literature in English translation now available in one volume.
A detailed Table of Contents and an Index make the Bahá’í teachings readily accessible for study as well as reading and meditation.
The plan of the book arranges the contents in nine chapters, as follows:—
- Part One—Writings of Bahá’u’lláh
- Chapter One—The Great Announcement
- Chapter Two—The Promised One
- Chapter Three—The Life of the Soul
- Chapter Four—Laws of the New Age
- Chapter Five—The Mystery of God
- Part Two—Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
- Chapter Six—The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
- Chapter Seven—Soul, Mind and Spirit
- Chapter Eight—The Loom of Reality
- Chapter Nine—The Divine Plan
Each of these chapters has been treated as a unit of significance, and the sequence of the nine chapters conveys a sense of the unfoldment of the Bahá’í Dispensation in the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, His Will and Testament, the Tablets and Addresses of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and in His Testament and Plan for the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.
The passages selected have been taken from fifteen different publications as well as from the National Archives.
Printed on thin light paper and bound in green fabrikoid. 465 pages. Per copy, $1.50.
BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE
110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
It is towards this goal—the goal of
a new world order, divine in origin,
all-embracing in scope, equitable in
principle, challenging in its features
—that a harassed humanity must
strive.—Shoghi Effendi.