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WORLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME X FEBRUARY, 1945 NUMBER 11
Divine Security
‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ
From a talk by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá given April 23rd, 1912, at the time of the Titanic disaster.
WITHIN the last few days a
terrible event has happened
in the world; an event saddening
to every heart and grieving every
spirit. I refer to the “Titanic”
disaster in which many of our
fellow human beings were
drowned, a number of beautiful
souls passed beyond this earthly
life. Although such an event is
indeed regrettable, we must realize
that everything which happens
is due to some wisdom and that
nothing happens without a reason.
Therein is a mystery; but
whatever the reason and mystery
it was a very sad occurrence, one
which brought tears to many eyes
and distress to many souls. I
was greatly affected by this disaster.
Some of those who were
lost voyaged on the “Cedric”
with us as far as Naples and
afterwards sailed upon the other
ship. When I think of them I
am very sad indeed. But when
I consider this calamity in another
aspect, I am consoled by
the realization that the worlds of
God are infinite; that though they
were deprived of this existence
they have other opportunities in
the life beyond, even as His Holiness
Christ has said, “In my
Father’s house are many mansions.”
They were called away
from the temporary and transferred
to the eternal; they abandoned
this material existence and
entered the portals of the spiritual
world. Foregoing the pleasures
and comforts of the earthly,
they now partake of a joy and
happiness far more abiding and
real; for they have hastened to
the kingdom of God. The mercy
of God is infinite and it is our
duty to remember these departed
souls in our prayers and supplications
that they may draw
nearer and nearer to the Source
Itself.
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These human conditions may
be likened to the matrix of the
mother from which a child is to
be born into the spacious outer
world. At first the infant finds
it very difficult to reconcile itself
to its new existence. It cries as
if not wishing to be separated
from its narrow abode and imagining
that life is restricted to
that limited space. It is reluctant
to leave its home but nature
forces it into this world. Having
come into its new conditions it
finds that it has passed from
darkness into a sphere of radiance;
from gloomy and restricted
surroundings it has been transferred
to an environment spacious
and delightful. Its nourishment
was the blood of the
mother; now it finds delicious
food to enjoy. Its new life is
filled with brightness and beauty;
it looks with wonder and delight
upon the mountains, meadows
and fields of green, the rivers
and fountains, the wonderful
stars; it breathes the life-quickening
atmosphere; and then it
praises God for its release from
the confinement of its former
condition and attainment to the
freedom of a new realm. This
analogy expresses the relation of
the temporal world to the life
hereafter; the transition of the
soul of man from darkness and
uncertainty to the light and reality
of the eternal kingdom. At
first it is very difficult to welcome
death, but after attaining its new
condition the soul is grateful for
it has been released from the
bondage of the limited, to enjoy
the liberties of the unlimited. It
has been freed from a world of
sorrow, grief and trials to live in
a world of unending bliss and
joy. The phenomenal and physical
have been abandoned in order
that it may attain the opportunities
of the ideal and spiritual.
Therefore the souls of those who
have passed from earth and completed
their span of mortal pilgrimage
in the “Titanic” disaster
have hastened to a world superior
to this. They have soared away
from these conditions of darkness
and dim vision into the
realm of light. These are the
only considerations which can
comfort and console those whom
they have left behind.
Furthermore, these events have
deeper reasons. Their object and
purpose is to teach man certain
lessons. We are living in a day
of reliance upon material conditions.
Men imagine that the great
size and strength of a ship, perfection
of machinery or the skill
of a navigator will insure safety,
but these disasters sometimes
take place that men may know
that God is the real protector.
If it be the will of God to protect
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man, a little ship may escape
destruction whereas the greatest
and most perfectly constructed
vessel with the best and most
skilful navigator may not survive
a danger such as was present
upon the ocean. The purpose is
that the people of the world may
turn to God the one protector;
that human souls may rely upon
His preservation and know that
He is the real safety. These
events happen in order that men’s
faith may be increased and
strengthened. Therefore, although
we feel sad and disheartened,
we must supplicate God to
turn our hearts to the Kingdom,
and pray for these departed souls
with faith in His infinite mercy,
so that although they may have
been deprived of this earthly life,
they may enjoy a new existence
in the supreme mansions of the
heavenly Father.
Let no one imagine that these words imply that man should not be thorough and careful in his undertakings. God has endowed man with intelligence so that he may safeguard and protect himself with all that scientific skill can produce. He must be deliberate, thoughtful and thorough in his purposes, build the best ship and provide the most experienced captain, yet withal let him rely upon God and consider God as the one keeper. If God protects, nothing can imperil man’s safety; and if it be not His will to safeguard, no amount of preparation and precaution will avail.
In the spiritual world, the divine bestowals are infinite, for in that realm there is neither separation nor disintegration which characterize the world of material existence. Spiritual existence is absolute immortality, completeness and unchangeable being. Therefore we must thank God that He has created for us both material blessings and spiritual bestowals. He has given us material gifts and spiritual graces, outer sight to view the lights of the sun and inner vision by which we may perceive the glory of God. He has designed the outer ear to enjoy the melodies of sound and the inner hearing wherewith we may hear the voice of our creator.
The Mission of Bahá’u’lláh
G. TOWNSHEND
From George Townshend’s introduction to God Passes By, by Shoghi Effendi.
NO PROPHET has ever come into
the world with greater proofs of
His identity than Bahá’u’lláh: nor in
the first century of its activity has
any older Faith achieved so much or
spread so far across the globe as this.
The mightiest proof of a Prophet has ever been found in Himself and in the efficacy of His word. Bahá’u’lláh rekindled the fires of faith and of happiness in the hearts of men. His knowledge was innate and spontaneous, not acquired in any school. None could gainsay or resist His wisdom and even His worst enemies admitted His greatness. All human perfections were embodied in Him. His strength was infinite. Trials and sufferings increased His firmness and power. As a divine physician He diagnosed the malady of the Age and prescribed the remedy. His teachings were universal and conferred illumination on all mankind. His power has been poured forth more abundantly since His death. In His prescience He stood alone and events have proved and are still proving its accuracy.
A second proof which every Prophet has brought with Him has been the witness of the past: the evidence of Ancient Prophecy.
The fulfillment in this Day of the prophecies contained in the Qur’án and in Muslim tradition has not prevented Islám from persecuting the Bahá’í Faith but it has been startling and notorious.
The fulfillment of the prophecies of Christ and of the Bible has been over a period of a hundred years or more matter of common knowledge and remark in the West. But the full extent of that fulfillment is only seen in Bahá’u’lláh. The proclamation of His Faith was made in 1844, the year when the strict exclusion of the Jews from their own land enforced by the Muslims for some twelve centuries was at last relaxed by the Edict of Toleration and “the times of the Gentiles” were “fulfilled.” The Advent has been long delayed and has fallen in a time of oppression and iniquity, of religious unreality and disbelief, when love for God and man had grown cold, when men were immersed in material business and pleasure. The Prophet came like a thief in the night and was here in our midst while people were wrapped in deep spiritual slumber. He tried and tested souls, separated the spiritual from the unspiritual, true from false believers, the sheep from the goats; and the people taken unawares were caught as in a snare and knew not their danger till the retributive justice of God closed in upon them. Yet the appearance of the Faith and the rapidity and direction of its extension was as the lightning which flashes from the East to the West. Christianity in contrast to the Revelation of Muḥammad had spread from the East to the West and has been predominantly a Western Faith. The Bahá’í Faith likewise has moved westward but with even greater speed and momentum than Christianity.
From the beginning of the Era,
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from the days of the Herald of the
Faith, the Báb, the chronicles show
a conscious sympathy of Christians
with the New Teaching, which was
in marked contrast with the attitude
of their Muslim neighbors. The earliest
instance of this perhaps is the
kindly tribute of Dr. Cormick, an
English Physician resident in Tihrán,
to the Báb whom he attended in
prison when suffering from the effects
of torture, and his record of
the prevalent opinion that the Teaching
of the Báb resembled Christianity.
The first Western historian of the
Movement, Count Gobineau, a
French diplomat, wrote (1865) with
enthusiasm of the Báb’s saintliness,
of the loftiness of His ideals, of His
charm, His eloquence, and of the astonishing
power of His words over
both friend and foe: Ernest Renan
in “Les Apôtres” (1866), Lord Curzon
in “Persia,” Professor Browne
of Cambridge in several works, and
many Christian men of letters of
later date have written in a similar
strain.
But among the many instances of this instinctive sympathy, the most spectacular is that which marked the execution of the Báb in the market square of Tabríz on July 9th, 1850. The officer in charge of the firing party was a Christian. He approached the Báb and prayed Him that on this account and because he had no enmity towards Him in his heart he might be spared the guilt of perpetrating so heinous a crime. The Báb replied that if his prayer were sincere God was able to fulfill his desire. The remarkable miracle by which this prayer was granted, and the martyrdom of the Báb carried out by another regiment under a Muslim officer, is a part of history.
The Christian West, though far from the scene of the Prophet’s ministry, felt and responded practically to the divine World Impulse decades before the East. Poets, major and minor, Shelley and Wordsworth and many another, sang of a new Dawn. A new missionary effort spread the Christian Gospel through the earth: spiritual men and women sought to revive reality in religion; reformers arose to redress long standing evils; novelists used their art for a social purpose. How different all this from the action of the corrupt, fanatical, persecuting East!
The Báb Himself identified His Teaching in spirit and purpose with that of Christ which was a preparation for His own: and He quoted some of Christ’s Instructions to His disciples as part of His own Ordination Address to the “Letters of the Living.”
Bahá’u’lláh from the beginning
seems to have realized the special
capacity of the progressive and enterprising
West. He took the most
vigorous steps possible to bring the
Truth of the Age to the knowledge of
the West and its leaders. Debarred
from delivering His message to
Europe in person, He wrote from a
Turkish prison a general Tablet to
the Christians, and another Tablet
to the Sovereigns and leading men
of the world but especially to the
rulers of Christendom: and He also
addressed five personal Tablets, one
to the Czar, another to the Pope, another
to Queen Victoria and two to
Napoleon III. In these, in ringing
tones of power and majesty such as
would become the King of Kings imposing
commands upon His vassals,
He declared this Age the Supreme
Day of God and Himself the Lord of
Lords, the Father Who had come in
His most great glory. All that had
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been mentioned in the Gospel had
been fulfilled. Jesus had announced
this Light and His signs had been
spread in the West, that His followers
might in this Day set their
faces towards Bahá’u’lláh.
These letters are indeed pronouncements of a far-sighted Providence: and the catastrophe of the West which has occurred since they were written gives to them now a tragic and terrible interest. They are of some length but their drift may be generally indicated in a few paragraphs.
In His Tablet to Queen Victoria He commends Her Majesty for ending the slave trade and for “entrusting the reins of counsel into the hands of the representatives of the people.” But they who entered the Assembly should do so in a spirit of prayer to God and of trusteeship for the best interests of all mankind. The human race was one whole and should be regarded as the human body which though created perfect had become afflicted with grave disorders. It lay at the mercy of rulers so drunk with pride that they could not see their own best advantage, much less recognize this mighty Revelation. The one real remedy for the world’s ills was the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This could be brought to pass only through the Divine Physician. He called on the Queen to insure peace, to be just and considerate to her subjects, to avoid excessive taxation, to effect an international union for the reduction of armaments and the joint resistance of all nations to any aggressor Power.
His Tablet to the Pope contains an impassioned, loving appeal to Christians that they will recognize this, the Promised Day of God, that they will come forth into its light and acclaim their Lord, and enter the Kingdom in His name. They were created for the light and He likes not to see them in the darkness. Christ purified the world with Love and with the Spirit that in this Day it might be able to receive Life at the hands of the Merciful. This is the coming of the Father of whom Isaiah spoke: the teaching which He now reveals is that which Christ withheld when He said, “other things I have to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now.” He bids the Pontiff take the Cup of Life and drink therefrom and “offer it then to such as turn towards it amongst the peoples of all Faiths.”
The Tablet to Alexander II is in answer to a prayer addressed by the Czar to His Lord and in recognition of a kindness shown to Bahá’u’lláh when in prison and in chains by an ambassador of the Czar. He impresses on the Czar the supreme greatness of this Manifestation, tells him how the Prophet has subjected Himself to a thousand calamities for the salvation of the world and, having brought life to men, is threatened by them with death. He bids him expose this injustice, and in love for God and God’s Kingdom offer himself as a ransom in God’s path: no harm will come to him but a reward in this world and the next. Great, great the blessing in store for the king who gives his heart to his Lord.
In His two Tablets to Napoleon
III, Bahá’u’lláh impresses on the
Emperor the oneness of mankind
whose many maladies will not be
cured unless the nations, abandoning
the pursuit of their several interests,
agree together and unite in
common obedience to the plan of
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God. The human race should be as
one body and one soul. A far higher
degree of faith than the world has
ever reached before is demanded by
God of every man in this Era. All
are commanded to teach the truth
and to work for God’s cause: but no
one will produce good results in this
service unless he first purify and
ennoble his own character.
Bahá’u’lláh bids the clergy give up their seclusion, mingle in the life of the people and marry. God is calling men to Him in this Age and any theology which takes its own theses as a standard of truth and turns away from Him is deprived of value and efficacy.
He has come to regenerate and unite all mankind in every deed and truth and He will gather them at the one table of His bounty. Let the Emperor call on His name and declare His truth to the people.
Grave warnings and open or implicit threats if the kings do not acknowledge the Manifestation and obey His commands are contained in all these Tablets, especially in this to Napoleon III. The collective Tablet addressed to all the kings is however stern and minatory beyond the rest. Bahá’u’lláh warns the rulers that if they do not treat the poor amongst them as a trust from God; if they do not observe the strictest justice; if they do not compose their differences, heal the dissensions that estrange them and reduce their armaments, and follow the other counsels now given them by the Prophet, “Divine chastisement shall assail you from every direction and the sentence of His justice shall be pronounced against you. On that day ye shall have no power to resist Him and shall recognize your own impotence. Have mercy on yourselves and on those beneath you.”
Christ long centuries before had wept over the city whose children had ignored His visitation and refused His protection. Now at His second coming the same event recurred. But they who brought down the wrath of God on themselves were not the members of a nation but of an entire world.
Before He passed away Bahá’u’lláh proclaimed: “The hour is approaching when the most great convulsion will have appeared.” And again, “The time for the destruction of the world and its people hath arrived.”
More than forty years after the
dispatch of these Tablets ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
the son of the Prophet and the
appointed Exemplar of His Faith,
being freed at last from prison by
the Young Turks, made a three years’
tour of Europe and America. Saddened
by many things He saw, and
knowing the doom to which the
heedlessness of the nations was
hurrying them, He was sparing of
denunciation, reproach or criticism;
instead, with words of cheer and undiscriminating
love He summoned
His hearers to high, heroic action.
He spoke much of the spiritual and
social goal set by God for this enlightened
Age: “The Most Great
Peace.” He Himself in His joy, in
His serenity, in His love for all, in
His wisdom, His strength and resolution
and utter submissiveness to
God, seemed the incarnation of the
Spirit of that Peace. His very presence
brought receptive souls into
touch with a state of being of which
they might have heard but which
none of them had ever known.
Through many months of missionary
work He explained the moral and
spiritual conditions which would
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make possible the Most Great Peace,
and developed in many addresses the
practical means by which it could be
approached. In the United States, at
Wilmette On the shores of Lake Michigan,
He laid the foundation stone of
the first Bahá’í Temple of the West,
round which are to be grouped buildings
devoted to social, humanitarian,
educational and scientific purposes,
the whole to be dedicated as one
scheme to the glory of God and the
service of man. He also saw in
America the first beginnings of the
building of the Administrative Order
of Bahá’u’lláh.
But the general response of the public was not sufficient to stem the tides flowing towards war. Before He left the United States, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá foretold the outbreak of hostilities in two years’ time.
When at last peace was made, He declared that the League of Nations as constituted could not prevent war; and before He passed away in 1921 He announced to His followers the outbreak of another war fiercer than the last.
To many, at the opening of the second Bahá’í century, mankind seems to be drifting in a helmless barque upon a stormy and uncharted sea. But to the Bahá’ís another vision is revealed. The barriers by which men blocked their path to progress are torn down. Human pride is abased, human wisdom stultified. The anarchy of nationalism and the insufficiency of secularism are thoroughly exposed.
Slowly the veil lifts from the future. Along whatever road thoughtful men look out they see before them some guiding truth, some leading principle, which Bahá’u’lláh gave long ago and which men rejected. The sum and essence of the best hopes of the best minds today is garnered in such a simple statement as that of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s “Twelve Points.” 1. Unfettered search after truth. 2. The oneness of mankind. 3. Religion a cause of love and harmony. 4. Religion hand in hand with science. 5. Universal peace. 6. An international language. 7. Education for all. 8. Equal opportunities for both sexes. 9. Justice for all. 10. Work for all. 11. Abolition of extremes of poverty and wealth. 12. The Holy Spirit to be the prime motive power in life.
The immense, complex, baffling task of unifying all peoples is set forth in its complete and inmost simplicity by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in seven pregnant phrases. 1. Unity in the political realm. 2. Unity of thought in world undertakings. 3. Unity of freedom. 4. Unity in religion. 5. Unity of nations. 6. Unity of races. 7. Unity of language.
Already the Bahá’ís have begun in deed and in fact to build the instrument destined to be the model and the nucleus of the Most Great Peace. The Administrative Order is as simple as it is profoundly conceived, and it can only be conducted by those whose lives are animated by love and fear of God. It is a system in which such opposites as unity and universality, the practical and the spiritual, the rights of the individual and the rights of society, are perfectly balanced not through arranging a compromise but through the revelation of an inner harmony. Those who have the experience of operating the Order testify that it seems to them like a human body which is made to express the soul within.
On the lake shore at Wilmette
stands the completed Temple of
Praise, a sign of the Spirit of the
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Most Great Peace and of the Splendor
of God that has come down to
dwell among men. The walls of the
Temple are transparent, made of an
open tracery cut as in sculptured
stone, and lined with glass. All
imaginable symbols of light are
woven together into the pattern, the
lights of the sun and the moon and
the constellations, the lights of the
spiritual heavens unfolded by the
great Revealers of today and yesterday,
the Cross in various forms, the
Crescent and the nine pointed Star
(emblem of the Bahá’í Faith). No
darkness invades the Temple at any
time; by day it is lighted by the sun
whose rays flood in from every side
through the exquisitely perforated
walls, and by night it is artificially
illuminated and its ornamented shape
is etched with light against the dark.
From whatever side the visitor approaches,
the aspiring form of the
Temple appears as the spirit of
adoration; and seen from the air
above it has the likeness of a Nine-Pointed
Star come down from heaven
to find its resting place on the earth.
But for the leading of the peoples into the Promised Land, for the spiritualizing of mankind, for the attainment of the Most Great Peace the world awaits the arising of those whom the King of Kings has summoned to the task—the Christians and the Churches of the West.
“Verily Christ said ‘Come that I may make you fishers of men’ and today We say ‘Come, that We may make you quickeners of the world’ . . . Lo! This is the Day of Grace! Come ye that I may make you kings of the realm of My Kingdom. If ye obey Me you will see that which We have promised you, and I will make you the friends of My Soul in the realm of My Greatness and the Companions of My Beauty in the heaven of My Might for ever.”
The Bahá’í Faith recognizes the unity of God and of His Prophets, upholds the principle of an unfettered search after truth, condemns all forms of superstition and prejudice, teaches that the fundamental purpose of religion is to promote concord and harmony, that it must go hand-in-hand with science, and that it constitutes the sole and ultimate basis of a peaceful, an ordered and progressive society.
Islám
EMERIC SALA
Part One
THE Prophet of Arabia, the
founder of a great civilization,
emerges, if we will but
investigate, as one of our greatest
moral educators. The rapid
and phenomenal rise of the
Arabs to nationhood and the
efflorescence of civilization which
followed wherever the Voice of
Alláh was heard is now history,
but the force that was Islám still
baffles our historians.
ARABIA BEFORE MUḤAMMAD
Arabia was for the most part a waterless wilderness, too sparsely populated to send forth an overwhelming force to subdue and settle the more fertile surrounding countries. The Arabs of the 6th century were divided into innumerable tribes, each with its own god or fetish, and often at war amongst themselves. “And even where united by blood or by interest they were ever ready on some insignificant cause to separate and abandon themselves to an implacable hostility. Thus at the era of Islám the retrospect of Arabian history exhibits an ever varying state of combination and repulsion such as had hitherto rendered abortive any attempt at a general union.”
Traces have been preserved of human sacrifices and even cannibalism. There are records of women biting the liver or drinking out of the skull of a fallen foe. “To the taking of human life it is clear that no moral guilt was thought to attach; and between accidental homicide and intentional murder the Arabs seem to have been quite unable to distinguish.” It was common practice to bury superfluous daughters alive and to divide the wives amongst the sons at the death of a father. Pagan Arabia showed no respect for women, property, or honor.
LIFE OF MUḤAMMAD
At the mature age of forty
Muḥammad received His First
Call to arise and proclaim the
Will of God. We are told of His
inner conflicts, His doubts and
hopes, which alternately wrung
His heart and which almost drove
him to self-destruction, before He
had realized His duty to mankind.
His life was not that of
a mystic communing with God
in solitude. His was a continuous
struggle for the liberation of
man from bondage and ignorance.
Khadija, His wife, was His
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first follower. Within two years
Muḥammad decided to invite
forty of His kindred to a secret
meeting and told them of the
new Faith. Only ‘Alí, who was
then sixteen years old, responded.
To those present the sight of this
middle-aged, probably unlettered
man, supported by his wife and
this young lad, embarking on an
enterprise against the whole
world, must have appeared hopeless
if not ridiculous. And yet
the movement this unlearned man
initiated was to astound the
world.
Muḥammad’s third believer was Zaid, His slave, to whom He gave his freedom. Ever since it has been a spiritual virtue amongst Muslims to liberate slaves. More than a thousand years before the British Parliament, Islám dealt an effective blow at the age-old institution of slavery. Muḥammad ruled that slaves could purchase their liberty by the wages of their service, otherwise public funds were to provide the means; and that fugitives fleeing to the territory of Islám should at once become free. A slave could marry his master’s daughter, and many ruled kingdoms and founded dynasties. It is now history that when Lloyd Garrison launched his anti-slavery campaign in 1830 no religious institution of Boston allowed him to use its hall. Islám has never made a distinction between white, black and yellow races.
The twenty-three years of Muḥammad’s mission are usually divided into two almost equal periods, the first of which occurs in Mecca. The Mecca episode appeals to Christian historians, for here, not unlike Christ, we find a despised and persecuted Messenger of God, hiding in caves, homeless, preaching a simple faith and a good life at the continual risk of His own. The most bitter opposition came from those with vested interest in the old Kaaba and the idols. Muḥammad and His early followers were outlawed and their means of livelihood taken away. It is during the second period, after His flight to Medina, that we are to witness during the last ten years of Muḥammad’s life the creation of an integrated community. It is precisely in this period in Medina, when Muḥammad assumed temporal as well as spiritual power and approved defensive warfare for the protection of the new community, that Christian criticism has been heaped upon Him. In this same period the work of Muḥammad was most fruitful; for He united the Arabs into a nation and subordinated temporal to spiritual authority.
He proclaimed the law not
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only for the individual but also
for a new social unit, the nation,
composed of people of various
ethnical origins. The strict measures
He enforced for the preservation
of this new nation-state
were as foreign to the Christian
ideal as they were foreign to the
kindliness and love associated
with Muḥammad’s personal life.
“There must be a law” said
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “to prevent wolves
from destroying the lambs at
such a period of religious history.
That is why the Shepherd
sanctioned such vigorous protection
for the sheep. Behind such
laws of a Manifestation there is
always a supreme wisdom.” It
was to this new nation-state that
the believers had to offer their
allegiance as a part of their
obedience to God, and it was this
unifying force from within the
state which explains the almost
miraculous spread and sudden
flowering of Islám.
MUḤAMMAD BUILDS A NATION OF MANY RACES
The first recorded charter for freedom of conscience reads: “In the name of the most merciful and compassionate God given by Muḥammad, the Prophet, to the Believers, and all these shall constitute one nation. . . . The Jews who attach themselves to our commonwealth shall be protected from all insults and vexations; they shall have an equal right with our own people, to our assistance and good offices; the Jews . . . shall form with the Moslems one composite nation; they shall practice their religion as freely as the Moslems.”
The Prophet of Mecca not only united the warring tribes of Arabia in a common faith in one God, but he also overthrew the old system of tribal rule by assuming spiritual as well as political authority. Hitherto disunited, Arabia discovers itself suddenly with a common faith and allegiance, swearing obedience to a common ruler, the Prophet.
Mediaeval Europe, in contrast,
still consisted of city-states
and self-sufficient manors. In Europe
“the fifteenth century was
still a time when nations were
forming rather than formed. The
mediaeval system of Europe was
not a system of States in our
sense or in the Greek sense. It
was a collection of groups held
together by ties of personal dependence
and allegiance, and
connected among themselves by
personal relations of the same
kind on a magnified scale. Lordship
and homage, from the Emperor
down to the humblest
feudal tenant, were the links in
the chain of steel which saved
the world from being dissolved
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into a chaos of jarring fragments.”
Many historians of Catholic Spain have admitted that their country was never as prosperous, its wealth never as equitably distributed, as during the seven hundred years of Muḥammadan rule. With irrigation and new agricultural methods the Moors transformed southern Spain into a garden. Large estates were divided amongst a prosperous class of small farmers. Trade flourished in the towns and their products were exchanged with those of Africa, Persia and India on highways which were safe for travel.
The first university of Europe was founded in Cordova. It had thousands of students from Asia, Africa and even Christian Europe. Many Catholic nobles were known to have come to the Muslims for medical treatment. Learning was encouraged. The people could read and write. Caliph Chakam collected a library of four hundred thousand manuscripts.
“In truth, the northern inhabitants of Europe, living as they did in gloomy city alleys or miserable village hovels clustered around the castles of rude, uncultured nobility, would have thought themselves in fairyland could they have been transported to this joyous, brilliant world. But that which would have especially surprised them, which would have brought a flush of shame to the cheeks of any one with a spark of Christian feeling in his heart, was the noble spirit of toleration and of intellectual freedom which breathed over the happy plains of Andalusia. They would have been forced to admit that the religion of love might receive from the followers of the hated Muḥammad instruction in that generous toleration of creeds with which the Founder of their faith had sought to inspire them by word and example. Herein lies the fascination which today impels us to look back with yearning and regret upon the too rapid flight of that happy period when Cordova and Toledo guarded the sacred fire of civilization upon European ground, a fascination which still throws its glamour around the halls of the Alcazar of Seville or the pinnacles of the Alhambra.”
It was not an accident that the
Jews enjoyed under the Moors
their greatest freedom in Europe,
when their mediaeval literature
reached its highest distinction.
Muslim jurists taught that the
fundamental rule of law is liberty
by recognizing that all are
equal before God and therefore
equal among themselves. Equality
before the law is a fundamental
principle of their political
[Page 342]
and civil system. “The white
is not above the black nor the
black above the yellow; all men
are equal before their Maker”
was read out of the Qur’án
throughout the Muslim world.
THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLÁM
Within one century Islám surpassed the Roman Empire and became the largest continuous domain in the world, stretching over three continents, from Spain to India.
Islám brought to the people it conquered a code based on equal rights and duties, limited taxation and equality before the law. The established custom of absolute rule and merciless exploitation was mitigated by the executive authority of a State which was subordinated to the Qur’án with its religious sanctions and moral obligations.
Muḥammad never claimed that His way was the only one. “Verily” says the Qur’án, “those who believe (the Muslims), and those who are Jews, Christians, or Sabaeans, whoever had faith in God and the last day, and worked that is right and good,—for them shall be the reward with their Lord; there will come no fear on them; neither shall they be grieved.”
Islám was not the only religion which had used force for the propagation of its faith. It seized the sword in self-defence, and once the sword is drawn it is not easy to distinguish defensive from aggressive action. In the second half of His ministry of twenty-three years, when He reached the mature age of fifty-two and saw His community threatened with extinction, Muḥammad declared: “Defend yourself against your enemies, but attack them not first. God hateth the aggressor.” Muḥammad did not draw the sword for His own defense nor for the safety of His followers. He approved the use of force in defense of the community, a law to which incidentally every Christian community had to adhere or perish. To fight for the spread of the faith is not once mentioned in the Qur’án. “Let there be no compulsion in religion,” and “What wilt thou force men to believe when belief can come only from God?” testify to Muḥammad’s tolerance. And this at a time when Christianity was not averse to a forcible extension of its faith. The massacres of Justinian and the frightful wars of Christian Clovis were in consonance with the spirit of those days.
Islám on the whole was generous
to the vanquished and unexpectedly
tolerant in an intolerant
world. Historians recognize
that Muslim treatment of conquered
[Page 343]
Christians and Jews compares
favorably with the general
habit of the time. Emperor Heraclius
massacred the Jews after
capturing Jerusalem, while, when
Omar took the city in 637, he
rode into Jerusalem at the side of
the Patriarch, and prayed on the
steps of the Church of Constantine.
He left shrines and churches
untouched in possession of the
Christians. But when the Christian
crusaders stormed Jerusalem
an eyewitness says that “in
the temple and porch of Solomon
the horses waded in blood up to
their knees” and according to another
historian: “the brains of
young children were dashed out
against the walls; Muslims were
roasted at fires; the Jews were
driven into their synagogue by
the Christians, and there burnt; a
massacre of nearly 70,000 persons
took place; and the pope’s
legate was seen partaking in the
triumph.” But when Saladin took
the city from the Crusaders he
shamed the Western world by
allowing the clergy to take away
their sacred vessels and treasure,
“rewarded with gifts the virtue
and piety of his enemies” and
left the Holy Sepulchre to the
Christians. The Muslims were, of
course, also guilty of unnecessary
bloodshed and fiendish
cruelties but to condemn Muḥammad
for their misdeeds
would be just as unfair as to
accuse Christ for the atrocities
committed by His followers.
The secret of the sudden spread and rise of Islamic civilization lies perhaps in the treatment of subject races, a lesson which the ruling powers of the twentieth century could, to their advantage, emulate. They accepted the vanquished, free or slave, as their equals, for very little in return. Muslims did not stand aloof as a superior race, nor was their empire colonial in purpose or intent. They assimilated their adopted comrades, black or white, Gentile or Jew.
Part two will conclude this article in the
March issue.
His Holiness Muḥammad declares Christ to be the Spirit of God. This is an explicit text of the Qur’án. He declares Christ to be the word of God. He has eulogized the disciples of Christ to the utmost. He has bestowed upon Her Grace Mary, the Mother of Christ, the highest praise. Likewise His Holiness Christ has extolled Moses . . . the prophets themselves have manifested the utmost love toward each other but the nations who believe and follow them are hostile and antagonistic among themselves.
Editorial
UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE
SOMEONE has asked: Do
Bahá’ís need the Bible? The
Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh is complete
in itself. It contains all the
beauty and assurance to attract
men’s hearts, all the precepts
and instructions to guide man’s
daily life, all the spiritual dynamic
to recreate man’s spiritual
life and the plan and instructions
needed to reconstruct our
broken down and dying civilization.
Both its history and its effects
show that the Revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh is indeed a new
and independent revelation from
God.
But the Bible is definitely linked with the Bahá’í Revelation. There are repeated references to the Bible in Bahá’í scriptures and a knowledge of the Bible helps to a fuller understanding of the Bahá’í Revelation. On the other hand the Bahá’í Revelation gives a deeper and fuller understanding of parts of the Bible than can be obtained in any other way. Just as Christ came not to destroy but to fulfill the Old Testament scriptures, so Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation fulfills and completes both Old and New Testament prophecies and writings. And just as we understand much of the Old Testament better in the light of the New Testament, so we understand the Bible better in the light of Bahá’í scriptures. Moreover just as the Gospel of Jesus Christ, wherever it went, carried with it the Jewish scriptures or Old Testament, so the Gospel of Christ is carried wherever the Bahá’í message is carried.
Interest in the study and reading
of the Bible has waned during
the last fifty or more years
here in America. The causes are
without doubt many. During the
early and middle parts of the
nineteenth century there was a
good deal of interest in Bible
study. Bible classes were largely
attended and revival meetings
were popular. Today there is
evidence of real ignorance of
the Bible. The twentieth century
has seen many attempts to revive
interest in and knowledge of the
Bible and to make the Bible
understandable. Several new
translations rendering the Bible
into modern English have been
made. Editions have been printed
with modern paragraphing and
headings to emphasize the Bible
[Page 345]
as great literature. Several
shorter Bibles have been published.
All these are in addition
to innumerable commentaries and
other helps which have long been
available for Bible study. And
yet in spite of these valuable
helps and scholarly treatises evidence
such as that obtained in
Bible tests in schools and colleges
indicates an appalling ignorance
of the Bible.
The root of this condition surely lies deep and cannot be remedied by new translations of the Bible alone. The great wave of materialism that has engulfed America has wiped out desire for spiritual truth or for the development of the inner life. A recent poll on religious questions revealed that the vast majority of people in America believe in God and in a life after death. But this is quite different from a desire to understand spiritual truth and develop the spiritual nature of man. Such a desire is the real incentive for Bible study. People today are in a similar state to that in which Christ found the people of His time. The Jews of His time were religious in the outer sense. They observed forms of worship, sacrifice and tithing. But Christ found only a handful who in the least understood the spiritual truths which it was His mission to teach. Even one of the greatest teachers of the Jews did not understand what Christ meant when He spoke of spiritual rebirth. To most of those to whom Jesus spoke the Bread of Heaven and Water of Life had no meaning beyond a literal one. Christ accused those people of being spiritually dead. Is it not similarly true that the people today, in the large, have no understanding of and no desire for spiritual truth? Is not this the deep reason for lack of interest in the Bible? And is not the real remedy a resurgence of spiritual life?
And this is what Bahá’u’lláh has brought. He recreates man’s spiritual life. His mission to this modern world is in this sense the same as Christ’s mission for the world of His day—worlds in both cases given over to materialism. The followers of Bahá’u’lláh find new life and beauty and meaning in the Bible.
Besides giving spiritual comprehension, both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá give definite interpretation to passages and chapters in the Bible which were formerly obscure—passages found in the prophecies, in the words of Jesus and in the Book of Revelation. And since for the most part the Bible is not to be taken literally certain symbolisms are explained.
It is partly because of this
too literal interpretation of the
[Page 346]
Bible and partly through indifference
to spiritual matters that
the mass of Christians fail to
understand that the Bible very
definitely points to further and
fuller revelation from God. The
truth in the Bible is eternal but
because God has now sent a
fuller revelation through Bahá’u’lláh
the Bible is not the great
source of spiritual regeneration
for the world today. It contains
no pattern for organic world
civilization. “The vitality of
men’s belief in God is dying
out in every land; nothing short
of His wholesome medicine can
ever restore it. The corrosion
of ungodliness is eating into the
vitals of human society; what
else but the elixir of His potent
Revelation can cleanse and revive
it?” We think that those
who truly understand the Bible
know that “His wholesome medicine”
and “potent Revelation” is
none other than the Revelation
which has come through Bahá’u’lláh.
DREAMERS WE WANT
Silvia Margolis
- Dreamers we want, dreamers with soaring desire!
- Dreamers we want, dreamers with breasts afire—
- Who halt not for logic and wait not on reason,
- But burst thru all trammels of time and season,
- Take loathing, if need be, take censure, take scorn,
- Yet dream for the dreary and dare for the lorn!
- Dreamers we want, dreamers with dreams for our time!
- Dreamers we want, dreamers with daring sublime!
- Who stand where the bars of the world interpose
- And legions are ready to slay and oppose—
- Take rancor, if need be, take malice, take slight
- But plead on for Justice and strive on for Right!
- Dreamers we want, dreamers, defiers of bars!
- Dreamers we want, dreamers, outsoarers of stars!
- Who bend not for glory and bow not for gain,
- But break thru all ranges and reaches a-main—
- Take burning, take branding, take blame evermore
- But lead forth the nations from bondage of war!
Introductions to the Bahá’í Faith
ELIZABETH HACKLEY
WE ARE fortunate in having
in the Bahá’í literature several
books which are especially
helpful to people who know little
of the Bahá’í teachings. These
books are good introductions to
the Bahá’í Faith. Each one has
a different approach to the teachings
and so each can appeal to a
different type of mind.
The one volume from which we can gain the most comprehensive understanding of the Bahá’í teachings is “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era” by J. E. Esslemont. This book is remarkable because it gives all the basic Bahá’í teachings and also many of those “inner spiritual significances” which every sincere seeker longs to grasp, and yet accomplishes this objective in a small volume. Dr. Esslemont has a genius for putting great spiritual truths into simple clear language without losing any of the depth of thought. Many of the spiritual problems which some of us spend a great deal of time explaining, Dr. Esslemont covers adequately in a few brief sentences. And we realize as we read one of his explanations that he has given us the heart of the problem. The chapters entitled, “What is a Bahá’í?”, “Prayer”, “Religious Unity” and “Science and Religion,” are outstanding presentations of the subjects discussed. The chapter on “What is a Bahá’í?” has become a classic in Bahá’í literature. And the discussion of science and religion is considered by many people to be the best summary of that subject which has been written by a Bahá’í up to date. “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era” might be called our best Bahá’í text book; yet one hesitates to call it a text book because it is easy to read and has much popular appeal. Every person who wishes to become a Bahá’í should read this book.
Since “Bahá’u’lláh and the
New Era” is a kind of summary
or compendium of the teachings,
it is well to supplement it with a
book which gives the history of
the Faith and also some human
interest stories. Such a supplement
is to be found in Lady
Blomfield’s delightful and moving
book, “The Chosen Highway”.
Here Lady Blomfield gives
much historical material but
gives it through the medium of
stories and incidents told to her
largely by the members of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s family while she
was visiting in Haifa. Two beautiful
[Page 348]
chapters are devoted to her
experiences with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
when He was in London and
Paris. This book is written in an
easy popular style, and has considerable
emotional appeal. One
of the most precious things to be
found in “The Chosen Highway”
is the material about Bahá’u’lláh.
Here for the first time we are
given a glimpse of Bahá’u’lláh
as a person, a divinely attractive
human being. Some of this material
can not be found in any other
book.
A very different approach to the Bahá’í Faith is given by Stanwood Cobb in his book, “Security for a Failing World.” The author starts out by discussing certain social problems which most people are talking about today, and then goes on to show how these problems can be solved by religion. Because Mr. Cobb is a student of history, he is able to make it very clear that religion has always been the most efficient means for solving the great social problems of the past. He reviews the history of all great revealed religions and especially the history of Christianity and Islám. His chapter on Islám is of especial interest to the sociologist and to the student of religion, for he points out that Muḥammadanism is a striking example of the way in which religion lays the foundations of civilization. He also gives us a new understanding of the beauty and spiritual efficacy of the teachings of Muḥammad. After showing the practical results of religion from a historical point of view, Mr. Cobb makes us realize the need of a spiritual renaissance today. This new birth of religion is to be found in the Bahá’í Faith because it solves the problems of our age. The author discusses the Bahá’í program at length. Many people following his logical presentation through to the end have been helped by this book to accept the Bahá’í Faith.
For the liberal religious thinker,
“Portals to Freedom” by
Howard Colby Ives is an excellent
introduction. Mr. Ives was
a Unitarian minister when he
met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in New York
in 1912. He describes the powerful
impact of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s personality,
spirit, and ideas upon
the mind and soul of a liberal
clergyman who had never before
realized the meaning of the love
of God. We see the author’s religious
philosophy gradually
changing under the Master’s
spiritual influence and a new
humility taking possession of
him. This is the story of a man’s
struggle for assurance and spiritual
freedom, and since most of
us are going through the same
struggle it is very helpful to us.
[Page 349]
A very valuable part of the book
is the panorama of events in the
life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America
presented here. We value it because
we see how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
met all kinds of experiences in
our western world. Mr. Ives depicts
‘Abdu’l-Bahá as the personification
of divine love—the perfect
example of the Bahá’í life.
These pictures of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
are so beautiful that the reader is
filled with the deep desire to rise
to the heights where the Master
dwells and to which He beckons
us. This book gives us some
knowledge of the Bahá’í teachings,
but it does much more, for
it gives the deep spiritual significance
of many of those teachings,
and above all, it touches the
heart.
THE DAY OF GOD
Beatrice Irwin
“In that day, the limbs of the five continents shall tremble.”
—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH
- There is a Power that rules the tide of stars,
- And guides their foam across the deep of space.
- There is a Power that breaks man’s puny bars
- Of time and hate, and turns a planet’s face
- Into a mirror for the Sun of Truth!
- But when that Light selects its chosen ray
- The people tremble at the dawning day!
- There is a Power brings nations to their knees
- And scatters men like sand, before a breeze
- Of everlasting Justice, that repeals
- Mercy, whose outraged form lies prone on earth.—
- Our planet stands at this transcendent hour
- Stemming the whirlwind, to bring forth love’s flower.
THE PREDICAMENT OF MODERN MAN
Book Review
ARTHUR DAHL
The Predicament of Modern Man, by D. Elton Trueblood. Harper & Bros., 1944.
THIS little book has an importance
all out of proportion to its size.
It is one of the most eloquent and
closely reasoned defenses of divine
revelation to be published in recent
years. And it comes at a time when
widespread circulation for such a
defense is urgently needed.
Dr. Trueblood, who is professor of Philosophy and Religion and Chaplain at Stanford University, and is prominent in the activities of the friends, opens his argument by comparing the present age to the time of the fall of Rome in 410 A.D. The war today, he says, is merely an outward manifestation of a profound spiritual disintegration, just as the sacking of Rome by Alaric and his Goths was the symptom, not the cause, of the decay of Roman culture.
Though Dr. Trueblood thinks this spiritual crisis originates in Christian civilization, in actual practice it affects the entire world, both because the world is now technically unified and integrated, and because “Christian culture has penetrated other cultures much more than they have penetrated ours,” and therefore the whole world is involved in our predicament.
This decay has been understood and described by observers with various points of view, such as Henry Adams, Oswald Spengler, theologians Albert Schweitzer and Nikolai Berdyaev, and even by Adolph Hitler. Yet only since the present war have people at large finally begun to realize the vast discrepancy between the promise of our age and its accomplishments. And they still do not realize that the problem is fundamentally a spiritual one, requiring a sound moral base for using the universalizing techniques that science has given us. They do not understand that this is not a problem that will take care of itself if the economic and political questions are solved. It must be attacked directly and positively, and be given first priority.
People still think they are living in the Christian era, but Dr. Trueblood is not at all sure. “We do not really know whether it is the twentieth century or the first.”
The trouble is that while we still follow, or think we follow, the ethics of the Christian religion, we have cut ourselves off from their source, the words of Jesus and the organized vehicles of applied Christianity, the churches. The present large church memberships are deceptive. Many, if not most, of these members merely give lip service to the principles and practices of the church, their inner spiritual selves remaining untouched. So long as this condition continues, we will be living in a “cut-flower” civilization, with the flower separated from its roots and source of strength, and doomed ultimately to die.
And so, thinks Dr. Trueblood, just
as we cannot expect a progressive
civilization from the cult of brute
power espoused by the fascist countries
today, so we cannot expect
[Page 351]
much more from an ethical standard
detached from its divinely revealed
source. He analyzes the position of
several of the outstanding humanists
and quite convincingly exposes their
insufficiencies. Today, as a people
with an ethic but no religion, we are
just as lost as the millions who
oppose us who have a religion but
no ethic.
Dr. Truehlood then faces squarely the weaknesses of organized Christianity today, and offers a key to the correction of the problem. The weakness lies in the tendency for most people to absorb in a negative way the benefits of Christian teachings without accepting any of the positive responsibility of maintaining organized Christianity in the face of its enemies. The steadying influence of active and regular participation in church activities and contact with the word of God, which used to be passed from one generation to the next, has been lost, and is becoming progressively weaker with each succeeding generation. The problem is to reverse this trend.
Dr. Trueblood frankly admits the faults and frailties of the Christian churches, which have largely led to their loss of influence today. But he feels that the following important elements of strength still make them the best alternative facing the people of the world today: 1. The Church at all times has taught equality before God; 2. The Church has always testified for peace, in the sense that it regards war “as a necessary evil, and never something in which to glory;” 3. Fundamentally the Church has tended toward universality, since “it has never lost sight of the fact that it is a body, namely, the body of Christ;” 4. The gospel has consistently renounced worldly pride, and although the churches have failed to be true to Christ’s teachings in this respect, the gospel continues to be the chief antidote to the cult of power in the world today.
The problem is to redraw the church lines, eliminating the weaknesses, and then inculcating a new spirit which will turn favor toward the Church. To do this Dr. Trueblood openly draws a leaf from Hitler’s book. A movement is spread first by a relatively small group of people who wholeheartedly, passionately believe in the principles of the movement, and who can count on one another. Propaganda carried on by this group wins new people for the organization which in turn uses its growing strength to continue and increase the propaganda. These principles, thinks Dr. Trueblood, can be used to form and develop a new Church and a new spirit, which he does not describe in detail, but which will bring into its fold all the religiously minded people of the world, whether they are presently church members or not. He cites the initial success of many new religions and cults, such as the Franciscans, Children of Light, and Quakers in the past, the Oxford Group and Jehovah’s Witnesses contemporaneously. Yet such unorthodox groups ultimately have become conventional, or have failed of their highest purpose because of insufficiently rigorous thought.
To this point Bahá’ís will be in
general agreement with Dr. Trueblood,
will feel that he has given a
splendid exposition of their own
views. With one statement in his
concluding section, however, they
will take issue: “The kind of organized
movement that the need of
the hour suggests does not at present
[Page 352]
exist.” Bahá’ís believe that their
community, their membership, meets
all the qualifications laid down by
Dr. Trueblood, and goes far beyond
them. For while he is urging men
to unite, to create among themselves
a new organization and a new spirit,
resurrecting ties with the original
Christianity that has weakened, in
effect joining the cut flower to its
roots, Bahá’ís believe their Faith was
actually founded by a new Prophet
of God, who implanted directly within
the Faith the same spirit which
Christ gave to Christianity and Muḥammad
to Islám, at the time of their
founding and their greatest glory.
Surely, if this be true, the Bahá’í
Faith has a more dynamic impetus
and a greater chance to bring the
world back to religion than any new
variation of a weakened Christian
Church. All of the spiritual principles,
and of the basic virtues of
Christianity are to be found in the
teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, but in addition,
through Him the Lord has
spoken to our own day, showing us
how to solve the vast and intricate
problems peculiar to this age, in a
way not found in any past dispensation.
The Bahá’í Faith, a dynamic,
active, vital organization, is looked
upon by Bahá’ís as the most direct
road to world order through religion,
and they are working toward that
end with a fervor and devotion appropriate
for such a goal.
Dr. Trueblood’s book should be read and pondered by all Bahá’ís. It will give us an added sense of the seriousness and urgency of the need the Bahá’í Faith has set itself to fill, and will strengthen our conviction that the Faith will ultimately succeed in its challenging task.
The revelation, of which Bahá’u’lláh is the source and center, abrogates none of the religions which have preceded it, nor does it attempt, in the slightest degree, to distort their features or to belittle their value. It disclaims any intention of dwarfing any of the Prophets of the past, or of whittling down the eternal verity of Their teachings. It can, in no wise, conflict with the spirit that animates Their claims, nor does it seek to undermine the basis of any man’s allegiance to Their cause. Its declared, its primary purpose, is to enable every adherent of these Faiths to obtain a fuller understanding of the religion with which he stands identified, and to acquire a clearer apprehension of its purpose. It is neither eclectic in the presentation of its truths, nor arrogant in the affirmation of its claims. lts teachings revolve around the fundamental principle that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is progressive, not final. Unequivocally and without the least reservation it proclaims all established religions to be divine in origin, identical in their aims, complementary in their functions, continuous in their purpose, indispensable in their value to mankind. . . .
Tests
REGINALD KING
ONE of the most common
things in school are the recurrent
examinations or tests.
These tests are devised in order
that the students’ knowledge of a
given subject may be proven.
Who has not heard a young person
of school age exclaim many
times, “We had a test today and
I passed!” or has seen the silent
unhappiness of that one who
failed. All the joy of successful
mastery of a difficult problem is
with the one who passed, and
equally all the woe or failure
shows in the face of the one
who has not passed. How apt the
latter is to blame the failure on
aught but his lack of knowledge.
These tests or examinations are
not given once or twice a year
during the schooling of the child
and youth; true, there are major
ones that mark the passing from
from one grade to another, yet
it is the little tests that come as
a surprise every day or so that
try the mettle of the student and
keep him on his toes. If all these
tests are passed, one happy day
the student emerges into the
world of adult endeavor. With
a whoop of joy he bids exultant
goodbye to school days and to
tests! How short lived is that
joy for he soon finds that all of
living is made up of tests. Not
only of his knowledge and array
of facts, but tests of his physical
endurance and ability.
Muḥammad said in the Qur’án: “Do men think when they say ‘We believe’ they shall be let alone and not put to the proof?” Indeed, all material tests can be traced to the spiritual source. “Blessed is the soul who is firm in the path!” Of what value is lip service to a faith, a service that is paraded on suitable occasions, and in the time of testing goes unheeded before the darkness of egotism.
It is an indisputable fact that
men have fallen from the high
place ordained for them by God
and on every hand fail His tests
and have failed them before, else
the world would not have come
to such a pass. To such desperate
straits has mankind brought
himself that on every side we
see the twin pillars of righteousness
and justice toppling into the
dust of self and unawareness.
Yet in the midst of that very
chaos the majestic standard of
the Glory of God calls all to live
within the tent of unity and
awareness. “Many are called
but few are chosen” said Jesus,
“How severe, therefore,” says
[Page 354]
Bahá’u’lláh, “the test to which
they who join partners with God
must needs be subjected!”
This is the day of the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth and we live in the formative stage of that glorious day; the school days during which we learn the great God-given lessons of the unity of mankind and of God and the new subject, justice. The Divine Teacher bids us first accept Him then His teachings, bids us then to be of those who are aware. That is the first great test but only the first. Each day brings new evident and hidden trials to test the faith of the believer and his steadfastness in the Cause of God. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, “The necessity and the particularity of the assured and believing ones is to be firm in the Cause of God and withstand the hidden and evident tests.” Only those who have met tests and have triumphed through the knowledge of the Cause can testify to the matchless joy of the conquest of self. To be happy in the time of trouble, says ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, is the proof of nobility. “To the sincere ones, tests are as a gift from God,” they remove “the rust of egotism from the mirror of the heart until the Sun of Truth may shine therein.” To the believers tests should be a constant reminder that the Glory of God is with them, making them ready and worthy for the right of citizenship in the Kingdom of God.
SEVERANCE
Gretchen Westervelt
- Let me be
- As a clear pool,
- Free from all
- Stagnant veils,
- Unblurred by
- Transient breeze.
- So may there be
- Within my inmost heart
- A mirror clear
- Reflecting Thee.
The Beginnings of Bahá’í Activity in America
MARIAM HANEY
THE first time the Name of
Bahá’u’lláh was mentioned
on this Continent was during the
Parliament of Religions held at
the time of the Columbian Exposition
in Chicago in 1893. The
history of the proceedings of this
gathering records the fact that a
missionary of the Christian Faith,
Dr. Henry H. Jessup, mentioned
the Bahá’í religion in his address
before the Parliament. Commenting
on his very brief statement,
Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the
Bahá’í Faith, writes that “He
(the missionary) did not suspect
the magnitude of the forces which
so cursory a mention was destined
to release.” The fact that
he mentioned the Faith at all is
one of the miracles of God.
A year passed before the Bahá’í Message was brought directly to the attention of an American who later became a Bahá’í. This gentleman who wished to find a teacher of Sanskrit so that he might further pursue his study of ancient religious teachings, just by accident (or was it one of those unusual happenings in the Bahá’í Cause) met a Syrian who had recently arrived in Chicago from Egypt and who told him about the Bahá’í Faith. The gentleman who heard the Bahá’í Teachings that day was Thornton Chase and many years later he was pronounced by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to be the first Bahá’í in America. He had been a Bible student for years, and his great joy in life was constantly to add to his knowledge of religious systems. Thus he was well informed on the Word of God in the Holy Books of the ages, and as soon as he heard the Bahá’í Message he felt the statements agreed with the prophecies he had so often studied. Therefore he was thrilled with the prospect of added knowledge and told other seekers for Truth about what he had heard, with the result that he and four other persons accepted the Bahá’í Message during the year 1894. Soon there was expansion. Classes were formed and in 1895 many became believers. From this small and amazing beginning the Bahá’í Teachings were spread from Chicago—from what we may call the heart of the Cause in this country.
Day after day it became more evident that a Mysterious Power was working; a new Revelation from God had come down out of heaven to revivify the souls of men.
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Those who called themselves
Bahá’ís were anxious to share
the New Light, their new found
spiritual joy with others. They
did not call themselves teachers,
however; they simply had an intense
urge to offer the Water of
Life to thirsty souls everywhere,
so it happened that these earnest
souls went forth as heralds of the
New Age. Classes were started
in Kenosha and Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
and in suburban towns
near Chicago. And, again, in unusual
ways, individuals from
New York, Cincinnati, Columbus,
O., Washington, D. C., Baltimore,
and elsewhere, heard the
Message in Chicago, and returned
to their respective homes
full of enthusiasm to share, always
share, with others the great
glad-tidings. In 1898 classes
were organized in New York
and nearby Eastern cities which
attracted earnest seekers. Especially
was the Message spread
from New York City to Brooklyn,
and then to towns in New
Jersey until soon there were little
groups in Newark, Orange, Morristown,
Hoboken, Montclair and
other centers.
The most important teaching at this time was accomplished through personal contacts, by word of mouth one to another, as seekers were found, though there were, as indicated, a few small classes. The Bahá’ís were not, in the usual sense, seeking to propagandize the Cause nor to proselytize or convert; indeed they were taught not to force their views on others, but when they came in contact with a real seeker, to offer the Message to that person as if “offering a gift to a king.” And that was the way teaching was accomplished very successfully even if at that time the Bahá’ís themselves had only a limited knowledge of the Faith, that is, outer historical data; however, the gift of the Holy Spirit had given them an inner conviction which was strong, and deep, and real. To pass on as much as they could of the Message to others was certainly felt by all to be the first obligation, and those who lived through that period will never forget how intense was the longing to find seekers.
One of the most precious memories of those first years of pioneering was the longing of the few Bahá’ís themselves to gather together in little groups and discuss the mercy and bounty of God and the Glory of the New Day. Spiritual happiness was intense, and the difference between spiritual happiness and material happiness was so fully demonstrated that this joyous spirit was felt by attracted souls.
The friends believed so devoutly,
so implicitly in God’s
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Revealed Word that they felt
every one in the world who heard
the Message should instantly accept
the glorious teachings for
they were as clear to them as the
sun shining at midday. It never
occurred to any one to question
anything about the Manifestation;
and it is not recorded either
that any one ever thought it was
a strange idea for God to send an
authoritative Divine Prophet to
the world again; He had done so
many times through the ages;
why should He not do so again,
especially when the world so
sorely needed a renewal of Faith,
when humanity needed revivification?
To quote ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:
“The Prophets of God have ever
appeared in the ages of the past
and will continue to appear
throughout the ages of the future.
. . . If we limit the number of
His Appearances through His
Prophets, then it is equal to
limiting God Himself.”
One thing was certain: these heroic pioneers knew that many of the prophecies in all the Holy Books were fulfilled, and it was just as certain to them that many more prophecies would be fulfilled from time to time as the Cause progressed.
Soon new accessions to the Faith were almost a daily occurrence until the believers in and around Chicago were numbered by hundreds. Later many of these left the Faith, for when they found that the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh was a purely spiritual Cause, free from superstitions, imaginations and interpretations, they were disappointed. Some had imagined that they could retain their preconceived ideas, or perhaps they had a few fanciful thoughts, rather than factual and true spiritual interest; however, they soon found out that one must walk in the way of the Lord and that it was impossible to attain a spiritual victory in any other way.
Number one in a series of notations on
Bahá’í activity in North America from
1893 to 1921.
O Son of Spirit!
With the joyful tidings of light I hail Thee: rejoice! To the court of holiness I summon thee; abide therein that thou Mayest live in peace for evermore.
WITH OUR READERS
WE ARE always glad to receive
letters from our readers with
favorable or unfavorable reactions
to articles in World Order or with
suggestions for improvement in the
magazine. Several letters have come
to us in regard to statements which
seem confusing in the article by
Artemus Lamb in our November
issue entitled, “Fulfillment of Mormon
Prophecy,” and which have
given some a wrong impression in
regard to Prophethood as understood
by Bahá’ís. Since Mr. Lamb is now
in South America and correspondence
with him would be long delayed
we take this means of making more
clear the Bahá’í belief in regard to
Prophethood and the mission of the
Báb which we feel sure Mr. Lamb
understands and accepts.
According to the Bahá’í teaching there are three spiritual realms or degrees of being: God, the Manifestations of Universal Prophethood, and man. The Manifestations of God appear approximately once in a thousand years and are the founders of the great revealed religions such as Judaism and Christianity.
The Báb was the Forerunner Who announced the coming of Bahá’u’lláh but He was also an independent Prophet or Manifestation of God. The words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá printed at the end of the article in question make this clear: “The Manifestations of Universal Prophethood Who appeared independently are, for example, Abraham, Moses, Christ, Muḥammad, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh.” In the limitations of his brief article the Báb’s station as Forerunner was emphasized by the author rather than this greater station of independent Prophethood.
It would seem plain that Joseph Smith made no claim to the station of Universal Prophethood and nothing in Mr. Lamb’s article should be taken as indicating that Bahá’ís believe that Joseph Smith ranked with the Báb either as independent Prophet or as Forerunner. The purpose of Joseph Smith, as Mr. Lamb points out in the first part of his article, was, it would seem, to warn people that the Christian Dispensation was drawing to a close, that the prophecies of the Old Testament and some in the New Testament were about to be fulfilled, and the intention of Mr. Lamb, we think, was to remind Mormons of these warnings and to ask them to investigate the Revelation of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh as fulfillment of these prophecies.
During the first part of the nineteenth
century there were others in
the Christian world who were looking
for events of great religious significance.
William Miller, looking
earnestly for the miraculous return
of Christ, had thousands of followers
and there were groups of like faith
in England and other places. The
light of the early dawn of the rising
suns of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh was
illuminating the horizon at that time.
Is it strange that spiritually sensitive
souls caught some of the rays of light
and were inspired to speak, to tell
others and to warn them? Because
the events which these seers foresaw
did not happen in just the manner or
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at the place expected their followers
have ceased to look for the fulfillment
of their prophecies. Mr. Lamb
and all Bahá’ís would arouse the
followers of Joseph Smith and all
others to find in the lives and teachings
of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh the
fulfillment of their highest hopes and
the answer to the crying needs of all
humanity today.
* * *
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s words concerning the meaning of Divine Security revealed on the occasion of the Titanic disaster come to us with renewed meaning in these days when all other security fails. This talk was given in Washington, D.C., and may be found in the book entitled Promulgation of Universal Peace.
George Townshend whose article, “The Mission of Bahá’u’lláh,” appears in this issue is Canon of St. Patrick’s Cathedral of the Church of England in Dublin and Archdeacon of Clonfert. This article was written as an introduction to Shoghi Effendi’s recent book, God Passes By and emphasizes especially the appeal of Bahá’u’lláh and His Message to the Western mind and tells of the reception of His Message in the Christian world. Archdeacon Townshend has made other outstanding contributions to Bahá’í literature, notably two books, The Promise of All Ages and The Heart of the Gospel, besides short treatises and appreciations which have appeared in World Order, in several volumes of The Bahá’í World and in pamphlet form.
There is so much misinformation in the Christian world in regard to Muḥammad and the teachings of Islám, the religion which He founded, that we are glad to print the article entitled, Islám. This is made up of selections from the chapter on Islám in a book which Emeric Sala has written. This article will be continued in our March issue. Mr. Sala has been active in Bahá’í work for a number of years and a few years ago visited Shoghi Effendi at the Bahá’í headquarters in Haifa, Palestine, and traveled in Europe. His article, “Transition in World Economy,” appeared in our May, 1939, issue, and an article on Venezuela in March, 1941. Mr. Sala’s home is in Montreal, Canada.
In her editorial Mrs. Kirkpatrick shows that study of the Bahá’í Revelation is necessary for a true understanding of the Christian Bible.
We are planning to print from time to time articles which will make the reader familiar with many of our Bahá’í books which present different aspects of the Bahá’í Faith. This will help those who are new in the Bahá’í Faith to choose which books to read and buy. The first in this series is “Introductions to the Bahá’í Faith” by Elizabeth Hackley who briefly surveys books Which are valuable as introduction to the Bahá’í teachings. Our readers will remember Miss Hackley as an occasional and always interesting contributor to these pages. Many have found her compilation of references suitable for Bahá’í Holy Days which ran through several numbers of volume IX helpful in arranging programs for these days. Her most recent article was “Unity Among Individuals” in the August, 1943 number. Miss Hackley is a member of the Urbana, Illinois, Spiritual Assembly.
Beatrice Irwin who contributes the
poem, “Day of God,” has traveled
and lectured widely on various subjects
as well as on Bahá’í subjects.
Her contributions to World Order include
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both prose and poetry. In our
February, 1943, issue appeared her
article, “Brazil in Renaissance.” Miss
Irwin is now in California.
Arthur Dahl reviews the book, The Predicament of Modern Man, whose author, he points out, finds that mankind needs exactly what Bahá’u’lláh has brought to the world. Mr. Dahl has contributed several book reviews to our magazine and in our recent January number we printed an article by him entitled, “Steps Toward Post-War Cooperation,” the first in a series called, “Formation of a World Society.” Mr. Dahl is active in the Bahá’í Cause in Palo Alto, California.
We are beginning in this issue a series of sketches or notations by Mariam Haney which tell of the teaching of the Bahá’í Faith in the pioneer days of the Cause in the United States. Mrs. Haney wrote this story as one long article whose purpose was, she writes “to review briefly a few historic facts about teaching the Bahá’í Faith in the pioneer days of the Cause in America, rather than to resort to exhaustive research.” The editors have separated this into thirteen brief stories which seem to be units in themselves. Mrs. Haney was herself among these pioneer teachers and one of the early pilgrims to ‘Akká and was one who worked indefatigably in copying and distributing Bahá’í tablets and news items. For many years she was one of the editors of the Bahá’í Magazine. Her home is in Washington, D. C.
In his article on tests Reginald King helps us to understand that our greatest development may often be a result of seeming calamity. Mr. King is known in the radio world as “The Vagabond Poet” and his poems have appeared in various magazines. One entitled “Virtuoso” appeared in World Order. He is a member of the Bahá’í National Radio Committee. Recently Mr. King has taken up his residence at Louhelen Ranch, Davison, Michigan.
* * *
Rounded Hours is a book of poems by Gertrude W. Robinson, a sometime contributor to World Order, which has recently come to the desk. The originality, freshness of expression and delicate appreciation of nature found in these poems will make their appeal to all lovers of poetry. Some, such as “Wind,” “To a Friend,” “This Land of Ours,” “Out of the Self,” have an especial appeal to Bahá’ís, suggesting, as they do, the meaning of world conditions or the hope of their remedy. Others, such as “The Seeker” and “Search,” touch on the needs of the individual soul. Some of Mrs. Robinson’s contributions to World Order are to be found in this collection, but other of her poems which the magazine has printed are not in this collection.