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GENDER?

I H E . MAY, 1947 B A H A ' I M A G A Z | N E The Bahá’í Basis for Human Relations David S. Ruhe

The Poet Laureate Marzieh Gail

“They Understand Not,” Editorial

Bertha H. Kirkpatrick

The Song, Poem

Nancy Douglas Bowditch

Bahá’í View of UNESCO

Gertrude B. Fleur

The Quest, Poem

Gertrude W. Robinson

The Mature Man

Bahá’í Words for Meditation

With Our Readers

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(

W orld 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 prwent title of W orld Order, combining The Bahá’í Magazine and World Unity, which had been founded October, 1927. The present number represents Volume XXXVIII of the continuous Bahá’í publication.

WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmette, 111., by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. EDITORS: Eleanor S. Hutchens, William Kenneth Christian, Gertrude K. Henning, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.

Publication Office 110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, ILL.

C. R. Wood, Businesé Manager Printed in USA.

Editorial Office Mrs. Gertrude K. Henning, Secretary 69 ABBOTSFORD ROAD, WINNETKA, ILL.

MAY, 1947, VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 2

SUBSCRIPTIONS: $2.00 per year, for United States, its territories and possessions; for Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America. Single copies, 200. Foreign subscriptions, $2.25. Make checks and money orders payable to World Order Magazine, 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. Entered as second class matter April 1, 1940, at the post office at Wilmette, 111., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Content copyrighted 1947 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title registered at U. 5. Patent Office.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS SHOULD BE REPORTED ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE

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V'J DAY in Chicago—one

drop in the torrent of frantic joy that overflowed the world when War ended. But the end of War is not the beginning of Peace. The story of Peace is the story of the Bahá’í Revelation. Month by month that story is oflered'you in the pages of World Order Maga zine.

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WORLD ORDER

WWW‘

THE New World Order of Bahá ’u’lláh displays a uniquely universal power of appeal. It reaches ‘people of every class, of every degree of intelligence or culture . . . It appeals to the Occidental schola'r or business man, as well as to the untutored. peasants of

Asia.

THE Bahá’í Faith, like all great spiritual forces, shows the power of annihilating prejudice and of uniting members of different religions, different races, and different nations into one living brotherhood. This is the kind of miracle of which the Bahá’í Faith boasts. It bases its proofs, not upon miraculous births or miraculous deeds of its founders, but upon miracles in the transformation of human character, especially in the way of abolishing prejudices and emotional barriers. It is bringing together Jews, Zoroastrians, Moslems; Christians, Buddhists, Confucianists—welding them into an organic whole, a living breathing body of brotherhood and love.

Excerpts from

Security for a Failing World

By STANWOOD COBB

[Page 39]WOBLD GBDEB

The Bahá’í Magazine

VOLUME XIII

MAY, 1947

NUMBER 2

The Bahá’í Basis for Human Relations

DAVID S. RUHE, M.D.

N the bony skull case of man'

lives the soft brain stuff which alone has placed mankind today on the top of evolution’s biological heap. In this brain lies the emotional force of the soul, the power of the mind with its gift of reason, and the spiritual capacity to know and love God and His Prophets. From this intricate and amazing neuronic material has come the fullness of emotional life, the discoveries of nature’s laws, and the wit to live by the precepts of the Bibles of all Faiths. In, by, and from such a brain we each must seek to achieve a balanced personality, creative, tough, sensitive, attuned to eternal truths.

The Bahá’í teachings predicate three great factors for a balanced and whole human development: (1) sound emotional or soul development, for sound emotional life produces fullness of experience no matter what physical equipment We have been

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given; (2) sound intellectual or mental growth, for the intellect is our instrument to understand and bend nature; (3) sound spiritual development, for contact with the divine world is the vital element which makes the other two truly significant. None of the three are readily separable. Each closely interlocks with the other. Lack of development in one area is reflected in over—compensation or shrivelling in the others.

But the brain which rules each one of us is also our great sore spot. The enormous complexity of its mechanism makes each brain an incredible creative tool. But such complexity means also the possibility of every kind and degree of emotional, intellectual and spiritual difficulty. It has wisely been said that each one of us is a mite crazy. We each recogniZe peculiarities in other personalities. Especially we recognize the tragedy of insanity, that serious breakdown in personality

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structure which all of us know somewhere among our acquaintances. As infectious diseases fade upon the medical horizons, civilization’s g r e a t e s t threat looms: mental disease. We must concern ourselves also about the degenerative diseases of the old. But our great focus must be the mental disease which disorders those in the prime of their life activities. Mental diseaSe lives inside the skull case, in the lumpy and wrinkled brain mass. Here lives the peril of our times. But here, too, is the talisman which must be wakened to the life of the spirit and educated to intellectual maturity and emotional fullness.

Insanity cripples its afflicted ones. Such severe derangement of the mind places its victims in institutions, where they are a burden upon, but not a danger to society. The great hazard to mankind today lies not in its cripples, but in the apparently sound and healthy persons whose brain educations have been bent into psychopathologic trends. Most persons do not even recognize these forms of mental illness, although history has shown how virulent some of them are. Some who are themselVes victims of these dangerou s psychologic illnesses would of course strongly object to their being called by this

name. But it is nothing new that humans have difficulty achieving perspective upon themselves. The social scene is so complex that great variations from the norm are permissible and so often we are misled in what is true pathology. Let us examine a few of these mental problems which so concern us today, because they blight and obstruct society’s pathway.

Individuals whose emotional life has been disrupted in one way or another manifest all the vast conglomeration of efiects which crowd our psychiatric textbooks, which fill our clinics, and which vex our wisest physicians. These persons are the emotionally maladjusted, the compulsive, the impulsive, the homosexuals, the despairing, the fugitive—the whole torrent of those who suffer from the neuroses.

There are those who educate the intellect to the virtual exclusion of the other areas of the brain capacity for growth. Broadly speaking, these persons suffer from one or another of the forms of materialism. The scientist becomes a worshiper of material laws, although his altruism may frequently be very praiseworthy. The economist or business man worships the flow of material things, and may call himself a capitalist or a communist. The

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common man warships the skills and knowledges required to bring him physical comfort, pleasure and security. If he ever heard the word, he might call himself a hedonist. But how is this materialism an illness? We have only to look through the leaves of history books to discover that civilizations have fallen because of this “dreary bog of materialism.” This bog slowly sufiocates morality, ethics, religion, sucked under into an airless muck rich in organic resources, but fatally water-logged. The intellect is our weapon of survival. It is a poor fate for such a weapon to let it hack suicidally at itself without a guiding spiritual hand.

And those whose spiritual development has been stifled or re tarded or twisted have many curious psychologic complexes or disease. Some churchmen have a strange sickness called religious literalism; others have what is called secularism; perhaps these may be described as materialism in the sphere of religion. Some churchmen too have a mental aberration called monasticism, ‘which generally produces a simultaneous physical, mental and social sterility. Others own a brain arterio-sclerotic process which we might call dogmatism. Some church systems have that group mental pathology which in

Germany, Italy and Japan was called fascism, and which in this case is termed authoritarianism. And almost all churchmen suffer from that egocentricity which is unwilling to settle for the great similarities of faith as against the petty differences of interpretation; we can call this very simply sectarianism.

Laymen who have carried religion too far and too blindly have fallen, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, “into the slough of superstition.” Superstitions in our day of enlightened scientific observations certainly comprise a sympton-complex of at least a mild illness. Many have fallen into a blind idolatry of worship of form in the church against its substance. The golden calf is not in our past, but lives in our present. The technically trained person of today has generally fallen into the sceptical and cynical processes of agnosticism. And there are those who question the infinite and are atheists.

As we observe groups of people and their interrelationships, we can observe certain group aberrations. Possibly these are the most dangerous of all to mankind. We are all familiar with the concept of classes of society. It is far too easy to forget the ever-shifting nature and boundaries of so-called classes. The

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lines arbitrarily drawn by students of sociology for their observations are all too readily borrowed as flat realities by demagogues, or by organizers who put labor at management’s throat, or the poor to storming the gates of the rich. And those who believe in classism are living with a subtly dangerous mental disease. In some countries classism has a singular mold called casteism. But both are the same mirage of theorists and politicians.

Most dangerous of all, the dynamite in our civilization’s very foundation, is racism. Racism is a gnawing fungus psychopathy eating through all levels of our thoughts and personalities. It is the clear source of many wars. And in this day of fearful atomic energy release, we must look upon any obvious and blatant cause of war with great foreboding. Racism exists everywhere in the world in greater or less degree. It is found in every community in our land, and in every other land. Most ominous of all, it lies rooted in the brains of each of us, a little, or often a great deal.

Rabbi Lee Levinger and other Jewish leaders have pointed to the modern tragedy of the Jews. The Jew has virtually abandoned the religion of his fathers in favor of the materialism of his

times, but anti-Semitism keeps him in a perennial limbo of social unacceptability.

The true native Americans, the Indians, have been the victims’of racistic white aggressions which might be pardoned today, if the so-called democracy of our land gave him now his justifiable birthright as a full citizen. But pure red-skinned racism holds him from his franchise.

From Florida and the Southwest to the Straits of Magellan racism has made the LatinAmerican and his mestizo ofispring a racistic nightmare to “pure white folks,” and even to themselves.

Our Japanese-American fragment of population performed splendidly in the recent war, and demonstrated the fundamental errors of yellow-skinned racism .when applied to our own Nisei. And our ally China played so important a war role that it made more emphatic the social isolation of Chinese-Americans.

The opening battles of the Philippines and the guerilla fighting of four long years on the islands have been an honor to the brown Filipino, but a dilemma to the racist. And who has visited the melting-pot of Hawaii without vivid impressions of the success of one race experiment?

Nazi Germany died in ashes,

[Page 43]HUMAN RELATIONS 43 victim of her fatal absurdities of Aryan racism. Holland walks gingerly, and in retreat, upon the flowing lava of Indonesian brown racism, converted to nationalism. Britain sits in sombre study over its volcano of brown India. Russia sits psychologically serene in her structure of racially equalitarian soviet republics. South Africa has split its national personality by its well—concealed disfranchisement of its native . Africans.

And America-ah! America whom we would like to see as the moral leader of our worldAmerica sits in unbelievable indecision and even confusion upon the problems of her minorities. America permits democratic constitution, its laws and legal machinery to be systematically flouted by an anachronistic meng tal pathology which focuses on ten million unfortunate Negroes. In wonderful America a tenth of her population are half-citizens _ because of racism—racism in a great and honorable nation which prides itself upon “liberty and justice for all”.

The color line is the battle line of racism in America. That a color line is completely unreal may of course be observed by any child who sees the variety of complexions in our so-called white population. That there is

no sound reason for this variety of racism can be readily substantiated on anatomic, intellectual, social or moral grounds. That the racism nonetheless exists in poisonous forms is very obvious. And it is also obvious that this type of vicious racistic emotional sickness has grown in our regional and national personalities for observable reasons out of clear-cut physical and social circumstances. Lillian Smith, courageous liberal who dared to write Strange F ruit, distills the racism of Mr. White Man of the South into one sentence: “It is unfortunate that we white Southerners learn about God, sex and segregation at about the same time in our lives; and so we become confused.” '

We have recognized some of the mental sickness of our day. Let us outline a two-part program of treatment, for ourselves —for each of us has a little of these ailments—and for our land.

One: We must join and support the strong, determined and sound beginnings made toward curing our land’s mental diseases F ortunately, these United States are rich in men and women of vision. Some are awake, some drowsing, some still asleep.

In'the South, the Southern Con ference for Human Welfare car

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ties on its excellent and courageous work with a slim membership. It makes of racism a fundamentally economic rather than a human issue; this is sound strategy for those who cannot see that Negro-hating is a red herring of native fascists. The Southern Regional Council enlists the aid of another slim minority of liberals; but it always hovers delicately balanced on the problem of alienating its timorous membership by too enthusiastic advocacy of inter-racial amity. The Christian churches are making some of the necessary concessions, but have not yet opened their doors to inter-racial worship. The social agencies and the recreational ones are taking quiet steps forward, but forward. The labor organizations offer strong hopes of an ultimate clearing away of some of the debris of racism; here again it is the economic approach rather than the human one. The Bahá’í Faith and its contribution must not be overlooked. Perhaps America can conquer racism before it stunts our international growth, before we demonstrate abroad the perverse attitudes of the insecure man instead of the generous and considerate strength of a great power. The psychiatric and social retaining of our vast living and adult population is an enor WORLD ORDER

mous labor. But We have a beginning.

Two: We have recognized that the primary source of these illnesses is the human brain. We must therefore, like Father Flanagan of Boys Town, like the policemen sponsors of Boys Clubs far and near, or like the Dallas, Texas, businessmen and their Boys Ranch, start with that brain early, preferably about one minute after the child has been born. This brain stuff must be educated . in the three-fold manner we have analyzed. It must be given love and security. It must be given the vitality-imbuing tonic of spiritual education. The molding experiences of real human contacts must be freely encouraged, cut loose from the sterilities of segregations, and from the popular _folk myths concerning racial superiorities or inferiorities. The fundamental principle of sound human relations is now, as always, the equality and organic oneness of mankind. Our children must have this idea, even if We have been cheated of it.

In these children emotional education will fall to the lot of the parents, to you and me; but it will also be the function of the peaceful and well-ordered social structure of our communities. Material education of this precious brain tissue will fall to the

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parents again, but especially to the teachers; we must all be teachers, vigorous and clearminded ones. But much the most important education is that of the spirit. The public schools have barred instruction in the area of religion, because sectarians have naturally found the schools convenient battlegrounds for their differences. Elimination of religious instruction in the schools has also been part of the separation of church and state. And if truth were told, perhaps the educators might themselves not be enthusiastic about religious teachings so generally out of joint with modernity, so cluttered with man’s imaginations.

So out of joint with modernity. But you who have known of the Bahá’í Faith know of a religion which is of the essence of our Twentieth Century. You know of a religion which is built of the great law of evolutionary change which Einstein has mathematically proved. You have become acquainted with a community of believers each of whom has assumed the responsibility for religious learning, teaching, and living. You have seen the National Bahá’í House of Worship, that “Place of the Mention of God” built out of the spirit of men’s hopes for the Most Great Peace, at the behest of the new

great prophetic voice of our Age: Bahá’u’lláh. We who are Bahá’ís feel convinced that this religion V will be the basis for human relations, will give the blueprint for the education of the world in that most vital area—its own spirit.

Every Bahá’í community aids in preventing the neuroses of its followers by offering both community and individual love and guidance.

Every Bahá’í community aids in preventing materialism by broadening the base of our approach to life.

Every Bahá’í community has outgrown literalism, monasticism, secularism, sectarianism, authoritarianism. Every individual Bahá’í slowly outgrows his superstitions, has lost his uncon: scious idolatries, has grown far beyond agnosticism.

And the Administrative Order, with the great fundamental Bahá’í teaching of the oneness of mankind, has eliminated classism and that miserable situation called racism.

Within the bony skull of man is presented the problem and the solution of our day. A bony skull is stripped of skin, hair and muscles, of every tissue which makes it and us readily identified as of one race or another. Lay _J

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men must guess a racial identity, if anthropologists need not. There the great social obstacle has disappeared. It is plain that

illimitable ‘desires, thoughts, the same spiritual reality.

We can each have the solution at the price of one decision

for action. On the one hand lies mental disease and personal confusion; on the other, lies education of the soul, mind and spirit

with the Bahá’í Faith.

racism is only skin deep. And the brain beneath the bony sheath is the same warm human material. What lives there is the same for each of us—the same emotions,

The Revelation proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, His followers believe, is divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, broad in its outlook, scientific in its method, humanitarian in its principles and dynamic in the influence it exerts on the hearts and minds of men. The mission of the Founder of their Faith, theyw conceive it to be to proclaim that religious truth is not absolute hut relative, that Divine Revelation is continuous and progressive, that the F ounders of all past religions, though different in the non-essential aspects of their teachings, “abide in the same Tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated upon the same throne, utter the same ‘speech and proclaim the same Faith.” His Cause, they have already demonstrated, stands identified with, and revolves around, the principle of the organic unity of mankind as representing the consummation of the whole process of human evolution. This final stage in this stupendous evolution, they assert, is not only necessary but inevitable, that it is gradually approaching, and that nothing short of the celestial potency with which a divinely ordained Message can claim to be

endowed can succeed in establishing it. -—SHOGI—II EFFENDI

[Page 47]The Poet Laureate MARZIEH GAIL

ABfL was a shepherd. He

was born in the village of Zarand, July 29, 1831. Since his family could not supply him with teachers and books, he memorized verses from the Qur’án and chanted them, walking after his flacks. He liked to be alone in the night, and look at the stars. Ofi by himself in the desolate countryside, he turned his face toward Mecca and prayed for guidance.

When» his father took him to Qum he listened to the sermons of the great mujtahids. He disliked these men. He thought they were hypocrites. He longed for belief, but he could not have the teachers and books he needed to prove things for himself.

One day in the village mosque he overheard, quite by accident, a conversation between two men.

“The Siyyid-i-Báb is on His way to Ṭihrán,” said one.

The other did not understand. The first explained: a Man called the Báb had declared a mission, had won over disciples and done great deeds, been arrested, been condemned to death in Iṣfahán, and was now on His way under guard to the capital.

The shepherd boy’s life was decided from that moment. It

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was the 12th day of the New Year’s festival, 1847. All the wanderings, the suffering, the tests, the dangers, the missions, the collecting of the history, the setting it forth, and then that last anguish which was too much to bear, so that he could not live in the world any more—all those events to come were folded up in that hour.

He went home. He could not eat or sleep. His father wondered what was wrong. The boy said nothing, because he was afraid his father would keep him from this new thing that had come into his Iife—take it away somehow. He made friends with a newcomer to the village and since he had to speak, he confided in the friend. To his great joy, this man was himself a convert to the Báb.

“My cousin saw Him at Iṣfahán,” the man said. “It was at the High Priest’s. My cousin heard Him revealing a commentary on the Qur’án.”

This new friend had set out on foot, hurrying after the Báb, Who was then a captive, riding under escort to Tihran. Along, the way he met a believer stationed by the Báb, with a message for any friends who might

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be following; the message was, to go their way and serve the Cause, until some day His followers might worship their God in freedom.

After this, Nabil was more at peace. With his new friend, he read a work of the Báb. Nabil had been studying the Qur’án with a man who he began to see could not teach him; he wanted to learn more about the Cause, and‘ his friend advised him to visit Qum, where there would come a teacher, Siyyid Ismé‘il. Nabil induced his father to send him to Qum, ostensibly to improve his knowledge of Arabic; he was careful not to give his real reason for leaving, because the Muslim leaders in the village would have kept him from going.

The family visited him while he was at Qum—that is, his mother, sister and brother, and on this visit he taught both mother and sister of the Faith. Then at last Siyyid Ismé‘il arrived; Nabil questioned him closely and was completely won over. The Siyyid talked to Nabil at those faraway meetings in Qum, much as Bahá’í teachers do now; except that Bahá’ís of today know more of the story than was then dreamed of: the great Beings who were to come, were still, except for the First, undisclosed; Nabil’s own book

was then not imagined; most of the events he describes had not yet taken place.

Siyyid Ismé‘il told Nabil about the continuity of Divine Revelation, that it was never interrupted; but flowed on forever, from Prophet to Prophet—all of whom were fundamentally one, and closely bound up with the mission of the Báb. He also told Nabil about §hayk_h Ahmad and Siyyid Káẓim, forerunners of the Báb; the youth, who was later to spread their fame around the world, had never heard of them before. Then Nahil asked what he should do for the Cause. The answer was to go to Mazindaran, to the Fort in the forest, and join the believers who were starving and dying there, hemmed in by an army. First, he was to await a summons from Siyyid Isma‘il, himself on his way to the Fort, but destined elsewhere. It was this man who, in later years, would sweep the approaches to Bahá’u’lláh’s house in Baghdad with his own turban, and who at last, on the river bank, gave up his life as a sacrifice. If Nabil had accompanied him to the Fort, The Dawn-Breakers would probably never have been written.

The message did not come, and Nabil, impatient, went on to Ṭihrán. It was 1848 or soon

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after. The momentous Year 60 was four years past.

At last he received his summons, and was about to leave when news came that the defenders of the Fort had been tricked into ' surrender and butchered, and the F ort levelled with the ground. There was no more Shaylgl Tabarsi—except that it will always be with us, living in memory; our stronghold, and posterity’s after us, wherever we and they may he. Only the material pattern was annulled; for who can say that the Fort itself was battered down, or that its defenders lost the battle, or that they died?

Siyyid Isma‘il sent Nabil back to Zarand. He brought his brother into the Faith. He pled with his father, and got permission to go back to Ṭihrán, where he had a cell in the same madrisih, (school attached to a mosque), as ‘Abdu’l-Karim. F mm the beginning, he had wanted to meet this man, because of ‘Abdu’lKarim’s vision of the white dreani-bird that had prophesied the advent of the Báb. Placed in his charge by Siyyid Ismé‘il, Nabil became so attached to him that thirty-eight years later, he recalls in the Narrative the love of ‘Abdu’l-Karim, whom Bahá’u’lláh also called Mirzá Ahmad, and who worked all day as a

public scribe, and spent his

nights copying out the writings ’

of the Báb, which he then gave away as gifts.

Several times Nahil carried such copies to a young woman whose husband had left her. She had a baby named Rahmén, after one of the Names of God; I do not know what became of the child, or whether he lived to grow up, but time has preserved his memory; because the father had left both mother and child to go to the defense of Tabarsi.

'This is the man who appears suddenly in history, rising above the wall of the Fort. It was in the days when the besieged were boiling the grass and eating it; when they had made a flour from grinding up bones; when they ate saddle leather and the scabbards of their swords; when they had dug up their leaders’ horse, dead of its battle wounds, and shared it together. The man on the wall embodies all this. His sword was strapped on over his long white garment; around his head, he had a white band, and the Muslim who had come with a safeconduct to take him home was

frightened of his face: it was as '

flaming and unyielding as his sword. The Muslim tried to move this man: “Come back to your child,” he said; “your little Rahman, who longs to see you.”

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“Tell him,” said the man on the wall, “that the love of the true Rahman has filled my heart; it has left no place for any love but His.” When the Muslim saw that nothing could take this man from his post, he wept. “May God assist you,” he said. “He has indeed assisted me,” said the man on the wall. “How else could I have come to this exalted stronghold?” And then he vanished.

The young Nabil learned that Táhirih had been brought to Tihran and imprisoned in the mayor’s house. Now he was in the same city with Bahá’u’lláh, with the Master Who was then a Child of six, with the Navvéh, with the future Most Exalted Leaf, and with Táhirih.

Nabil had been suffering from an eye disease; the Master’s mother, the Navvéb, healed it, preparing an ointment which she sent him in care of ‘Abdu’lKarim. One day the latter took him to the house of Bahá’u’lláh, and the first one they met there was ‘Abdu-l-Baha. He stood at His Father’s door, and smiled at Nabil, who was led past that room, quite unaware of its Occupant’s station, or his own future relationship to Him. He was presented to Mirza Yaḥyá; seeing and listening to Yaḥyá, Nabil was astonished at the divergence

between the man and the exalted position claimed for him. Another time they asked him to take ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to school, as the servant had not yet returned from market. The Child was very beautiful; He came out of His Father’s room, dressed for the street in a lambskin cap and His overcoat, and walked down the steps. Nabil reached

down to pick Him up. Instead,

He took Nabil’s hand and said, “We shall walk.” They went out of the gate, hand in hand, chatting together, the young man and the Child.

Nabil also met the Báb’s uncle, who had been a second father to Him, and heard him say that he longed to die for the Faith—that he would not leave Tihran, no matter what the danger, but would go to martyrdom as a guest to a banquet. It was not long after this that the leading merchants of Ṭihrán begged this man to recent his faith, and offered to pay his ransom. He replied that whatever he knew of Moses and Jesus and Muhammad, and all the Prophets of the past, he had seen in the Báb; and that he therefore craved to be the first to die for his well-loved Kinsman.

This man became the first of the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán. As he Went to his death he called out

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and reminded the populace that they had longed for a thousand years to see the Qá’im, and that now He was come they had imprisoned Him on'a mountain in A(fliirbéyjén and were killing His people. Then he prayed for their forgiveness and the last thing he said was a verse from Rfimi: “Cut off my head that Love may give me a head”—-—and then the lips closed and were silent.

Our modems, and particularly Americans, do not care for martyrs. This is because they do not know what a martyr is. To them, a martyr is an individual who could be as happy as the next man, but who prefers to sufler, probably as a selfinflicted punishment for uninteresting sins, and to impose a feeling of guilt on his friends because he suffers. An individual, passively aggressive, who suffers for spite, because he chooses to.

This is a false conception. There are undoubtedly thousands of unhappy persons who make martyrs of themselves as a subtle means of self—chastisement and aggression. But the Dawn Breakers were not like this. They were normal people, going about their business, until the Bah came. Great numbers of them were successful, leaders in

their communities; their American equivalent would be college presidents, popular ministers of the Gospel, substantial men of affairs. They died because, after what they had seen in the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, nothing else in the world could hold their attention. They found what is most desirable, and took it. They wore their lives carelessly after that, and hardly knew whether it was their headgear or their heads that fell. The Master once said to a pilgrim that a martyr in relation to this world is like a man running away from a thief, who strips ofi his coat and flings it to him and runs on.

The Arabic and Persian word “shahid” means the same as the English “martyr”: it means “witness.” We have forgotten the meaning of our word. The martyr has witnessed; his death is a proof of what he has seen. He is not a wretched, whimpering creature, he is a lover going to his Beloved. The martyr always appears in ‘ the early days of a Faith; he is not the dregs of hu manity, he is the wine.

One day Nabil came back to his room and found a package and a letter. The letter was from ‘Abdu’l-Karim; it said that both

he and Nabil and others had been denounced as Bábis, that

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the package contained all the sacred writings in his possession, that if N abil ever got to his room alive he should deliver the package to a certain caravanserai and then, if he could, make his way through the city, now in tumult, and come to the mosque where ‘Abdu’l-Karim had taken sanctuary. Meanwhile Bahá’u’lláh, ever watchful, had sent word to the mosque that since the authorities were about to violate the sanctuary of the building and take the Bábis out, ‘Abdu’lKarim should leave in disguise for Qum, and Nabil should return to Zarand.

That year Nabil kept the NawRfiz—New Day—with his family. It was the New Year’s Day that coincided with the day the Bab had declared His mission, six years before. The Báb in His prison wrote of this Naw-Rúz that it was the last He would see on earth. '

The young Nabil could not be happy, or enjoy the thirteen days of feasting, the new clothes, the thin gold coins, the fruits, candies and safiron rice dishes that go with Naw-Rúz. His heart was with his friends, back in Tihran. When word finally came from them, his suspense changed to horror.

Fourteen of them had been imprisoned in the mayor’s house

WORLD ORDER

———all this time Táhirih was a captive on the upper floor—and beaten and tortured for information. None of them spoke out. One of them, MuhammadHusayn, would not utter even a syllable. His torturers questioned the man who had converted him to the Faith:

“Is he dumb?”

“He is mute, but not dumb,” was the answer; “he is fluent of speech.”

And indeed, he was eloquent the day they killed him—running forward and pleading so to die before the rest that he, the seventh of the Seven Martyrs of Tihran, was beheaded at the same moment with the fifth and sixth.

For three days, these seven had lain in the streets unburied. Thousands of devout Muslims during these days circled around their bodies, kicked them, spit on the dead faces, cursed them, stoned them, threw refuse on them, mutilated them in shameful ways. No one protested. At last what was left was gathered up and buried in one grave, out by the moat.

After this, Nabil left home, trying to find ‘Abdu’l-Karim. He went to Qum, having told his parents he was going to visit the

shrine there. Then he went to Késhén, because he heard of a

[Page 53]THE POET LAUREATE 53

man there who would know of ‘Abdu’l-Karim’s wh ereabo ut s. This man took him to another, and finally he was directed to Hamadén, where still another guide sent him to Kirmansiléh, and at last he found his friend, collecting and transcribing the

sacred writings of the Báb, as directed by Bahá’u’lláh.

‘Abdu’l-Karim had taught the Faith to a prince-governor, Ildirim Mirzá, who, was stationed in the mountains with an army. Now he wished to send the prince one of the Béh’s writings, the “Seven Proofs.” Nabil was elated to be chosen as the bearer of this gift. With a Kurdish guide, he went through forests and over mountains for six days and nights to the camp, delivered the trust and returned with a letter. He mentions this journey quite casually, yet judging by contemporary accounts of travels through Persia, it must have been dangerous and full of hardships. He was young and willing and tough, used to sleeping on bare ground or a bare floor, and his life was always in peril anyhow.

When he reached Kirmém-iiah, Bahá’u’lláh had arrived there; with ‘Abdu’l-Karim, Nabil was taken into His presence; they

found Him reading the Qur’án, since it was the month of the Ramadan fast. Of the prince’s apparently friendly letter, Bahá’u’lláh remarked that its writer was not sincere; that the prince sought to win over the Babis, because he believed that they would one day kill the Shah, and hoped that when that time should come, they would place him, Ildirim Mirza, on the throne of Persia. Not long afterward this, very prince tortured and killed a believer, the great, blind Siyyid of India, come to Persia to find the Perfect Man whose advent his ancestors had foretold.

Bahá’u’lláh then directed Nabil to conduct Mirza Yaḥyá from Tihran to a fort near Shahriid, and remain there with him. ‘Abdu’l-Karim was to stay at the capital; he was to carry with him a box of sweets to be forwarded to Mézindaran, where the Master and His mother were living.

But Mirzá Yaḥyá disobeyed, and forced Nabil to deliver some letters for him in Qazvin. .Then Nabil’s relatives again stepped in—they seem forever to have been interrupting his work for the Faith—and made him return home. Two months later he was back in Tihran again, living with ‘Abdu’l-Karim in a caravanserai outside the city gates. All winter

[Page 54]

54 WORLD ORDER

they were there, the older man occupied in transcribing the writings of the Báb.

By Nabil’s hand, ‘Abdu’lKarim then sent a copy of the “Seven Proofs” to an official, a siyyid; soon afterward this man denounced the Book at a gathering where the brother of Bahá’u’lláh was present. He said the teachings were “highly dangerous.” F rom his description of the youth who had brought the Book, Aqéy-i-Kalim knew at

at once that he meant Nabil. Im- '

mediately, he warned Nabil to leave for Zarand, and ‘Abdu’lKarim for Qum; before they left, Nabil was able to retrieve the Book from the siyyid, an achievement that must have required audacity and tact. The two friends now set out to the South, and when they reached the shrine of Shéh ‘Abdu’l‘Azim, they parted; they were never to meet again in this life.

The Bah had been martyred in Tabríz. The Prime Minister who had caused His death had himself been killed by the Shah, his veins opened in a public bath. Bahá’u’lláh had left Ṭihrán for Karhilé and had returned. Then two believers, ignorant, confused, in despair at all the blood they had seen, stood waiting one morning along the Shéh’s

line of march. When he rode past, they checked his horse and shot him. The pearl tassel around the horse’s neck was severed; the Shah, slightly wounded in the arm and side, was carried into, a garden; for an hour Persia was in chaos: trumpets, drums, fifes, called up troops; officers shouted commands; couriers galloped here and there; nobles crowded into the garden.

After that rivers of blood flowed in Persia. Two irresponsible youths had attempted a crime; therefore, every real or imagined follower of the Báb in Persia must be rooted out. The clergy saw their chance, and the Shah’s mother was insatiable of revenge: life after life was cut down, in exchange for her son’s slight wound, and still it was not enough and still she wanted more. Of the great massacre at Ṭihrán, Renan. was to write that it was a day perhaps without parallel in the history of the world. Clergy, nobles, high officials, killed the believers with their own hands.

Then Persia trembled, and for those who loved the B51) there was death, dungeons, the whip, the sword, the candles burning in jagged wounds, the red - hot screws, the cannon’s mouth. One of the two youths who attacked the Shah was murdered on the

[Page 55]THE POET LAUREATE 55

spot; they tore his body in two halves, and suspended them at the city gates. The other, with a third accomplice, was obscenely tortured, and at last died. It was then that Táhirih was killed, and Hájí Sulaymén Khan, and the amanuensis of the Báb, and a thousand others. Bahá’u’lláh’s palace in Tihrafi was despoiled; the lovely house at Takur was stripped and ruined, the village itself sacked and burned, the vi]lagers shot down. Bahá’u’lláh was Chained four months underground in the dark, criminals beside Him, on the earth filth and vermin. And still the mother of the shéh was not appeased, because the prize life, the One she wanted to destroy, the .One for whom all the rest were only substitutes—still lived; and at last, preserved from death, He was taken from the dungeon, exonerated from all blame, and banished forever.

Nabil hastened after Him. When he reached Baghdad, he found that Bahá’u’lláh had gone away—for this was the period that He spent alone in the mountains of Kurdistan. The Faith seemed quenched. Mirza Yaḥyá, nominee of the Báb, cowered be hind locked doors. Nabil left for Karbilá and lived there. Bahá’u’lláh returned, the friends re vived, Nabil hurried to Him and wrote odes for Him, so that later an Englishman, writing of Nabil, was to describe him as the poet laureate of Bahá’u’lláh. Afterward Nabil went to Persia and was severely tested by association with Siyyid Muhammad, but he triumphed and returned to Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdad, and was sent ori a mission ‘ to Kirmanshéh and again returned. When the Manifestation was exiled to Constantinople, Nabil put on the dress of a dervish and followed on foot and caught up with the exiles. From Constantinople he was directed to return to Persia, teach the” Cause and inform the Friends of what had taken place. His mission fulfilled, he went to Adrianople where .the public declaration of Bahá’u’lláh was made. He taught widely and fervently all this time. Then Bahá’u’lláh was exiled again, and Nabil followed Him to the Most Great Prison; he came through the ‘Akká gate in disguise, dressed as a man of Bokhara, but the Covenant-breakers, always on the alert, found him out and betrayed him to the authorities and they banished him. Heart broken, he went to Safad; then he went over to Mount Carmel and lived alone in a cave, weeping and praying. At last the doors of

[Page 56]21:42:; ;; Al_i AWWmfifm-ikm’kmwrmuwm—m-WW —=_

56 WORLD ORDER

the prison were opened and Nabil hurried to the presence of Bahá’u’lláh and spent his time composing poems for his Beloved. Here are lines from one of

his odes, especially praised by the Master:

Though the Night of Parting endless seem as Thy night-black hair, Baha, Bahá,

Yet we meet at last, and the gloom is past in Thy lightning’s gglare, Baha, Bahá!

To my heart from Thee was a signal shown that I to all men should make known

That they y, as the ball to the goal doth fly, should to Thee repair, Baha, Baha!

At this my.oall from the quarters four men’s hearts and souls to Thy quarters pour:

What, forsooth, could attract them more than that region fair, Bahá, Bahá?

The World hath attained to Heaven’s worth, and a Paradise is the face of earth,

Since at length thereon a breeze hath blown from Thy nature rare, Bahá, Bahá’í! ‘

Bountiful art Thou, as all men know: at a glance two Worlds Thou

‘ e’en bestow

On the suppliant hands of Thy direst foe, if he makes his prayer, Bahá, Bahá!’

Nabil wrote The Dawn-Breakers for Bahá’u’lláh. He started

the chronicle in 1888 and finI’Ranking with the better English ren derings from Persian verse—excepting alway 3 Edward Fitzgerald’s—this by E. G. Browne is obviously not definitive.

ished it in about a year and half. Mirzá Mlisé helped him with it; some parts of the manuscript were reviewed by Bahá’u’lláh, and some by the Master.

He lived in ‘Akká then, and when he had brought his narrative down to the point where the story of the Seven Martyrs was ended, he submitted the finished portions to Bahá’u’lláh, Who sent for him on December 11, 1888, a date Nabil records as one he will never forget. On that occasion, his Lord gave hiin an account of various historical episodes, including the gathering at Badasht.

Nabil was very exact, always citing references, cautious in his appraisals, frank as to the degree of his information, hunting for eye-witnesses and survivors, eagerly questioning: “Many, I confess, are the gaps in this narrative, for which I beg the indulgence of my readers. It is my earnest hope that these gaps may be filled by those who will, after me, arise to compile an exhaustive and befitting account of these stirring events, the significance of which we can as yet but dimly discern.” He was not omniscient, rhetorical, boastful, as contemporary Eastern historians; and he offers precise detail rather than the rhyming generalizations so often preferred by them.

[Page 57]THE POET LAUREATE 57

It is amazing, the rapidity of his accomplishment, and the care; and too, the variety of his work—it takes a copious writing vocabulary to range from military campaigns to poetical expression; and then the skilful timing and pacing, the deploying of events, the massing of facts.

Especially, we notice the feeling and life in the work; authentic everywhere, he is particularly sensitive when recording tenderness and love, which he understood so well that in the end he could not live with the knowledge of it, could not contain it. There is, for instance, that passage where he explains the bonds between the Bah and Bahá’u’lláh, and shows how they matched agony for agony; then he says: “Such love no eye has ever heheld, nor has mortal heart conceived such mutual devotion. If the branches of every tree were turned into pens, and all the seas into ink, and earth and heaven rolled into one parchment, the immensity of that love would still remain unexplored, and the depths of that devotion unfathomed.”

These were not to him only Persian words His life story shows that he was not like the people who know all the words, none of the meanings. Nabil must have been acquainted with

the Persian story of the moths, for he typifies it. It seems that the moths held a meeting to learn about the flame; they sent out a messenger to investigate it; he circled around the candle and returned and explained it most eloquently, but they could not understand. They sent another moth and this one flew close to the flame, and when he came back they saw his wings were singed and they began, dimly, to know. But they were not yet clear in their minds as to the nature of the flame. They sent a third moth to the candle; this one flew straight into the center of the flame, and he never came back; and then they understood.

How happy he would he now, if he could see his book; the admirable English text, enriched with 'further sources, photographs, and explanatory data, presenting his story to the West. Never during life could Nabil have known that in a few short years leading public, university and privately-owned libraries in the faraway American continent would include his work. “He who is associated with a great Cause becomes great,” ‘Abdu-l-Baha once told a pilgrim. Here is the shepherd of Zarand, on the same shelves with at-Tabari and Ihn Iflialdfin and the others who will

never die.

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58 WORLD ORDER

And then Bahá’u’lláh fell ill. Once during this sickness, this last of all the suflerings that life inflicted on the Glory of God, Nabil was allowed to enter the room and be there alone with his Lord. He must have known when, with a lover’s keenness of sight and his own natural awareness, he looked on the face of Bahá’u’lláh, that this was the last time. He must have seen, when he came in the doorway and stood there by the bed, what no one in the Household would say, that this fever was not like another, and would not pass and be forgotten. Here was the only thing they had really been afraid of, during forty years of constant peril, and now it had come. There must have been a horror over Bahjí in those days. The plains and mountains, the trees and sky, must have looked fixed and strange, as if jutting out from a dream.

Nabil was inarticulate when he tried to tell it. “Methinks,” he wrote, “the spiritual commotion set up in the world of dust had caused all the worlds of God to tremble . . . .” Trying to explain, he looked from the Event to its effects, and shows us the villagers of ‘Akká and other towns, crowding around Bahjí and sobbing and beating their heads. Life arranges that there shall be

universal mourning when it is due.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, with His own anguish, and with the fate of the Cause in His hands, and everyone’s burden to carry, was mindful of Nabil. It must have been to console him that the Master gave him something to do for Bahá’u’lláh; he was chosen to select those passages which constitute the “Tablet of Visitation” now recited in the Most Holy Tomb.

Surely Nabil went over and over, in his mind, the wrongs that the world had inflicted on Bahá’u’lláh. The utter. rejection; ‘ the cruelty and mockery and scorn; the spittle and stones; the bastinado, the chaining in the Black Pit, the exile, the poison; the stopping of His lips and of His pen, the calumnies, the humiliations, the prison. He must have felt the wounds and seen the scars again, and seen how there was nothing he could ever do to make up for it or atone for it, or cause it not to have \been, or bring even some little joy to his Lord to mean that he was aware of it and that his heart was broken.

And then he must have gone back in his memory. to other days: perhaps to the times when, returned from a journey, he was permitted to see Bahá’u’lláh; or

[Page 59]THE POET LAUREATE 59

the evenings, carefully recorded in the Narrative, when he had come to Him. Or to the long-ago, happy days in Baghdad, when the self-exiled, impoverished believers were so drunk with the new Revelation that the outer world meant nothing any more; palaces looked like spider webs to them, and they held celebrations that kings never dreamt of. The days when Nabil and two others lived in a room with no furniture. He must, many a time, have seen Bahá’u’lláh entering that room again, and heard Him saying again,

“Its emptiness pleases Me . . . it is preferable to many a spacious palace, inasmuch as the beloved of God are occupied in it with the remembrance of the Incomparable Friend . . .” He must have remembered how Bahá’u’lláh Himself, in those days, had no change of linen, so that the one shirt He owned would be washed, dried and worn again.

He must have recalled, and the joy of it must have mocked him now, how “many a night no less than ten persons subsisted on no more than a pennyworth of dates. No one knew to whom actually belonged the shoes, the cloaks, or the robes that were to he found in their houses. Whoever Went to the bazaar could claim that the shoes upon his

feet were his own, and each one who entered the presence of Bahá’u’lláh could afl'irm that the cloak and robe he then wore belonged to him. Their own names they had forgotten, their hearts

.were emptied of aught else ex cept adoration for their Beloved . . . O, for the joy of those days, and the gladness and wonder of those hours!”

Never before, had he been lost; his Lord had been there always, waiting for him. Now there was the unanswering grave. Always before, he had known he would come back to Him somehow; during all those separations he had patiently waited —-“Though the night of parting endless seem as Thy night-black hair, Bahá, Bahá!”

It is not for us to take our own life. If Nahil longed for death, and could have stopped to think, he might have gone away to a

savage country and taught the Faith and been killed for it. Any one who thinks about it can throw himself into some battle and either die or get beyond the need for death, so that it is no longer a matter of any concern and may come when it wishes. It is not for us to interrupt time, impede the general rhythm, disrupt the infinite interrelated events of the planet, open the

[Page 60]60 WORLD ORDER

way for others to follow us into illicit death; or to leave our hodies as a reproach, an accusation against our fellows and an extra burden which they will carry

around with them as long as they

live.

But look at his face, flaming and longing; he could not weigh or calculate. This time it was not something to write in a history, it was not an extra syllable in a verse, it was his life. He only knew that he must hurry into the sea and find Bahá’u’lláh. When he was sure of this he wrote out the date of his death in a single Arabic word. The number-value of the letters totaled the year

1310. The wordwas: “Drowned.”*

How it was, there, when he came to meet his Beloved, I do not know. Whether the sea lay ivory and shell-colored then, as it is twilights and dawns, with the sunset wind or the dawn wind blowing, and the harp in the pines; or whether the soft night waited for him. However it was, we of the future who read his book and know and love him were there. It was a moment that

time will always keep, when he came to his Lord.

‘Ghan’q. The year 1310 A. H. began $9? July 26, 1892, and ended July 14,

This is the first in a series of articles on early heroes of the Bahá’í Faith.

The Bahá’í Faith recognizes the unity of God and of His Prophets, up

holds 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. It inculcates the principle of equal opportunity, rights and privileges for both sexes, advocates compulsory education, abolishes extremes of poverty and wealth, exalts work performed in the spirit of service to the rank of worship, recommends the adoption of an auxiliary international language, and provides the necessary agencies for the establishment and safeguarding of a permanent and universal peace.

—-SHOGHI EFFENDI

[Page 61]“They Understand Not”

——£clit¢m'a/

TODAY religion is reborn.

More than once in His meditations Bahá’u’lláh interpolates, “yet they understand not.” And at one time we find Him exclaiming, “0, would that the world could believe Me!” That religion must be renewed, reborn from age to age, that it always has

been and always will be, and‘

that today it is again reborn, this the people do not understand. Many people in the world, probably most, believe in God and many believe that somehow an all-merciful and all-powerful God will rebuild the civilization that is decaying before our eyes. Some believe, rather, as a recent writer has it, that even if civilization as we know it is destroyed the “indestructible vision” of the human spirit will as in the past guide in building the new. There are those, too, who believe that a revival of religion will come. If such ones are Christians they hold it must be a revival of Christianity; if Moslems, that it must be a revival of Islam that will save the world. But how many cherish the hope that God will speak again through His chosen Prophet, His

Manifestation in human form, as

61

He spoke through Christ? That His words will give rise to a new religion, pure and powerful, and with a new Name, a religion that will revivify humanity and bring a new civilization? Of. such a miracle we find little expectancy, little understanding.

Bahá’ís declare that the .miracle has already occurred. In Persia a hundred odd years ago there was, among a certain group of Moslems, great expectancy. A study of prophecies told them that the time had come for the return of God’s Messenger. And these faithful ones were not disappointed. It was on May 23rd, 103 years ago that a young man seemingly like other young men, announced quietly in His own home to Mullá Husayn, another young man, that He was God’s chosen Mouthpiece, that He was the Báb, the Gate to the New Age. Mullá Husayn, spiritually alive, believed. Soon all Persia was aflame with the Clad Tidings. But the burning rage of those who disbelieved and denied became, outwardly, a greater fire. ‘

Does it not signify something to those who do not understand that in spite of the greatest effort

[Page 62]62 WORLD ORDER

to stamp out this “heresy”, in

spite of the fact that they killed the Báb and thousands of His followers, the Flame He lighted could not be extinguished?

Shoghi Effendi compares the mission of the Báb to that of Jesus Christ. He says: _“The passion of Jesus Christ, and indeed His whole public ministry, alone offer a parallel to the mission and death of the Báb, a parallel Which no student of comparative religion can fail to perceive or ignore.”

People should know too, that just as the Báb declared, Bahá’u’lláh arose to carry forward the work the Báb had inaugurated. The enemies, still on the alert, exiled Bahá’u’lláh from place to place and finally made Him a prisoner for life in ‘Akká, in the

Holy Land. But wherever He was ,

sent the Flame grew brighter, so that Bahá’u’lláh exclaimed: “The flame of every fire hath been extinguished except the F lame which the hands of Thine omnipotence hath kindled, and whose radiance thou hast, by the power of Thy Name, shed abroad before all that are in Thy heaven and all that are on Thy earth. As the tribulations deepen, it waxeth hotter and hotter.”

Bahá’u’lláh’s long life and

ministry came to a close in 1892. On‘ the 29th of May Bahá’ís observe the anniversary of His ascension. Almost fifty years elapsed between the Declaration of the Báb and The Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh. These years were, Shoghi Effendi declares, “except for a short interval of three years, a half century of continuous and progressive Revelation . a period which in many ways is unparalleled in religious history . . . God’s newborn Faith had been fully and unreservedly proclaimed . . . The promise of the unification of the Whole human race, of the inauguration of the Most Great Peace, of the unfoldment of world civilization, had been incontestibly given.”

As one reflects upon these stupendous statements, upon the claims of the Báb and of Bahá’u’lláh, it comes to one that the reason people do not understand and believe may be because such claims are too overwhelming, too great, to be believed. One must approach this matter gradually, investigate, and pray for spiritual insight. This is an age of great understanding in science and invention. Let us pray that our spiritual understanding may be equally quickened lest the greatest event in history find us unaware. ——B. H. K.

[Page 63]THE SONG Dedicated to the Báb

NANCY DOUGLAS BOWDITCH

Many a sweet song has been heard

F rom human voice and singing bird

On sequestered mountain-side

In primal wood where wild things hide; In the summer evening hush

I have heard the hermit thrush

His silvery liquid notes outpour

For those who listen to adore;

But no music have I heard Like the white Shírázi bird!

At the ebon instrument

With a face of grave intent

The musician sat at ease,

Pale white hands on ivory keys,

And the glimmering candle flare

Lighted roses in her hair;

She, interpreting a song

That the world had loved so long. Still no music have I heard Like the white Shírázi bird!

When the songs of children rise Under summer sunset skies F ram young hearts so free and gay And youthful joy has claimed the day, Dancing down the flower-strewn lane Free from all old grief and pain, This seems only a small part To still the tumult of the heart, Such a calming song is heard From the white Shírázi bird.

Be still! What wondrous thing is here?

The instruments are tuned to ear;

The leader, mounting on his stand,

Takes lightly his baton in hand,

When 10! a mighty praise in notes

Through the lofty chamber floats;

The hearts are calmed, the minds are stilled,

The souls with heavenly rapture filled. And yet—above this joyful throng I hear the glad Smézi Song!

63

Hflww ‘ MWNM». .7 .m

[Page 64]Bahá’í View of UNESCO

GERTRUDE B. FLEUR In Collaboration with Bertha H. Kirkpatrick

N PARIS, not far from the Arc de Triomphe, in the beauti ful Majestic Hotel is now establi she d the headquarters of UNESCO, an arm of the United Nations, whose purpose as expressed in its constitution “is to contribute to peace and security by p r o m o t in g collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirme‘d for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.”

If we weigh some of the phrases and sentences of the preamble to the constitution of UNESCO it will help us to understand how‘supremely important it is that this organization be successful in carrying out its stated aims. We read in this preamble:

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.”

“Ignorance of each other’s ways and lives has been a com 64

mon cause, throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war.”

A peace “based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements of the governments” is not sufficient but must “be founded, if it is not» to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.”

At the first general session of UNESCO held last November at its headquarters Dr. Julian Huxley, eminent biologist and scientific scholar, was elected director general.

In looking for a working philosophy on which to approach UNESCO’s problems it is interesting to note that Dr. Huxley finds that such a. philosophy can be based on none of the religions of the world such as Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islém, and others since they are divisive rather than unifying. So it is with political and economic theories such as socialism, democracy, capitalism, communism, and others. Dr. Huxley therefore accepts humanism in its broadest and best sense as the working

[Page 65]UNESCO 65

philosophy of UNESCO. Such a humanism, he says, must be scientific, evolutionary and global.

In an interview Dr. Huxley stated: “Humanity will only be saved if it acts now, and promptly, to overcome insecurity, frustration and despair, everywhere in the world. Man must find a new belief in himself, and the only basis for such a belief lies in his vision of world society as an organic whole, in which rights and duties of men are balanced deliberately, as they are among the cells of the body. Economic values must yield in importance to social values, because the latter are the ones that are most important. By working together, we must lay a conscious basis for' a new world order, the next step in our human evolution.”

This “conscious basis for a new world order” must come about in the minds of the masses of the peoples of the world. Governments may set up machinery to bring about a political unity of the world, but unless there is a consciousness of unity in the hearts and minds of the people of the world, such a political unity is built upon a foundation of sand and cannot endure.

To build this consciousness of unity in minds and hearts a free flow of communications is neces sary. There must be no barriers to obstruct the free flow of books, scientific reports, news reports, radio broadcasts, constructive motion pictures and other ave nues which are man’s access to _

the truth of world events and facts in regard to the religious, scientific and cultural progress of all peoples, so that the entire world may have the opportunity of knowing and cultivating the potentialities lying within the minds and hearts of men.

What some of the leaders in UNESCO have said about its scope indicates b 0 th their breadth of vision and also the immense task ahead. Dr. Kuo-yuShow, the famous Chinese scholar who heads the education program says that one-half of the world’s population can neither read nor write. On his agenda we find: the elimination of illiteracy in adults, and the education of children; the revision of textbooks to eliminate dangerously nationalistic influences; the adjustment of education to present day needs, according to various areas and by vocational guidance

‘ to make the utmost of their lives

and talents.

Dr. Joseph Needham, noted British bio-chemist, who heads the department of science says: “Our consciences demand that the 'power of science be hence [Page 66]66 WORLD ORDER

forth released in constructive enterprises, those that contribute to the well-being of men, women and children throughout the world.”

Dr. Mohamed Bey Awad, an Egyptian educated in the schools of Cairo and Alexandria, the University of London and the London School of Economics

looks forward to UNESCO HOUSE becoming the center of cultural institutions where young people may come to get professional experience in the interna tional aspects of their chosen fields.

H. Howard Arnason, the A m e r i c a 11 representative to UNESCO says: “UNESCO is the most important adventure in the world today, the United States is backing it to the hilt! It difiers from the Security Organization in that it is designed actively to promote peace, by finding the common relationships between peoples and nations. If the nations get behind it, it can be the greatest single factor in promoting understanding. It must not for a moment be allowed to be simply an organization of scholars dealing in rarified specialties. It must deal not only in professional hut mass interests, with education for democracy in its widest sense, on the state of ha sic education throughout the world.”

At its first meeting UNESCO made these tentative plans: for the review of textbooks in as many nations as possible in order to eliminate what would cause hatred between nations, races and religions; for developing education on a world-wide basis; for' promoting the exchange of such books as make for understanding of other peoples; for a worldwide conference to insure just international copyright laws. One hope for UNESCO is that in the not too distant future a world-wide radio network may be established. In order to carry out plans UNESCO must have abundant funds supplied by the various member nations and there must be special organizations in nations to cooperate in carrying out projects.

Bahá’ís watch the progress of UNESCO with great interest for we recall ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s assertion that “the unity of mankind can in this day be achieved.” Surely UNESCO can be one means of increasing the light of some of those candles which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says must burn with great brightness ere this unity is assured. In its plans we see a brightening of the candle which is “unity of thought in world undertakings,” and of the

[Page 67]UNESCO 67

candle which is “unity in freedom.” But the most important candle which is “unity in religion” and which is “the comerstone of the foundation itself” UNESCO cannot light. Only

those who carry the Message of

Bahá’u’lláh can light this candle. But the success of UNESCO will open doors for this Message. Is it not also true that where the Bahá’í Message takes root the doors are already open for

UNESCO?

THE QUEST

GER'I‘RUDE W. ROBINSON

Oh, Master, tell me, where is the Sun of Truth, The ancient desire of the seeking heart of youth?

The Sun of Truth is in every clime, my son, Pervading all life, though its human course be run.

But, Master, after the sunset, what of the night, Of the dark, dark shadows that creep in the wake of light?

The darkness of night is past. The Sun this hour Is flooding creation with limitless oceans of power.

But, Master, so many are blind; they cannot see The splendor that shines from a vast Eternity.

I shall pray, my son, for the healing of their eyes That they may behold the dawn of new world skies.

There are others, too; the deaf who cannot hear The praise of this radiant Truth that seekers revere.

For these I shall pray, and for hearts in every land That grace may be given to all to understand.

But, Master, leaders of men have charmed my thought With noble dreams; yet I found not what I sought.

Beloved, turn to the Spirit to guide thy course To Truth. No dark can be found at light’s own source.

[Page 68]

The Mature Man

Bahá’í WORDS ~FOR MEDITATION

My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishahle and everlasting. (p. 155)

The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away

therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. (p. 156 )

Verily justice is Myg ift to thee and the sig n of My loving- kindness: Set it then before thine eyes. ( p 156 )

Thou art My stronghold; enter therein that thou mayest abide in safety. My love is in thee, know it, that thou mayest find Me near unto thee.

(p. 15?) Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? (p. 157)

Thou are My dominion and My dominion perisheth not, wherefore fearest thou thy perishing? (p. 157) I

Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner. (p. 159)

Bring thyself to account each day ere thou art summoned to a reckoning;

for death, unheralded, shall come upon thee and thou shalt be called to give account for thy deeds. (p. 160)

, I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve? (p. 160)

My calamity is My providence, outwardly it is fire and vengeance, but inwardly it is light and mercy. (p. 162)

Should prosperity befall thee, rejoice not, and should abasement come upon thee, grieve not, for both shall pass away and he no more. (p. 162)

My eternity is My creation, I have ereated it for thee. (p. 164) Gaze toward justice and equity under all circumstances. (p. 169)

The best of all to Me is Justice. (p. 169)

These selections are from Bahá’í World Faith. 68

[Page 69]MATURE MAN 69

Knowledge is one of the greatest benefits of God. To acquire knowledge is incumbent on all. (p. 171)

Be not occupied with yourselves. Be intent on the betterment of the world . . . (p. 174)

Glory is not his who loves his native land; but glory is his who loves his kind. ‘ (p.175)

He who is endowed with courtesy is endowed with a great station.

(p. 175)

Truly, I say, the fear of God hath ever been the perspicuous protection and solid fortress for the whole community of the world. (p. 180)

If thou lookest toward mercy, regard not that which benefits thee, and hold to that which will benefit the servants. (p. 180)

This span-wide world is but one native land and one locality. (p. 182)

Abandon that glory which is the cause of discord, and turn unto that which promotes harmony. (p. 182)

_ To the people of Bahá glory is in knowledge, good deeds, good morals and wisdom—not in native land, or station. (p. 182)

Moderation is desirable in every affair, and when it is exceeded it leads to detriment. (p. 183)

As long as the' ego is subject to carnal desires, sin and error continue. (p. 184)

Charity is beloved and acceptable before God, and is accounted the chief among all good deeds. (p. 184)

Knowledge is the means of honor, prosperity, joy, gladness, happiness and exultation. (p. 189)

Waste not your time in idleness and indolence, and occupy yourselves with that which will profit yourselves and others beside yourself. (p. 195)

The most despised of men before God is he who sits and begs. (p. 195)

Every soul who occupies himself in an art or trade—~this will be accounted

an act of worship before God. Verily this is from no othe!‘ than His great and abundant favor! (p. 195 )

[Page 70]

WITH OUR READERS

“The Bahá’í basis for Human Relations” by David Ruhe was first presented as a public address at the Bahá’í House of Worship, Sunday, December 8, 1946, at the time of the Bahá’í conference on Race Relations. Dr. Ruhe received his bachelor and master degrees from Michigan State College and his degree of Doctor of Medicine from Temple University, Philadelphia. His work since 1942 has been in the United States Public Health Service and covers a variety of experience, especially in the field of preventive medicine. “It is my intention,” he says, “to stay from this time forward in the field of medical education. Incidentally, at odd moments for the past nineteen years I have been developing skill in art; this has stood me in good stead in the area of visual aids; motion pictures, film strips, exhibits, etc. require a fundamental artistic sensitivity.” Dr. Ruhe’s official title is Senior Assistant Surgeon, Regular Corps, U. S. Public Health Service. His home is in Atlanta where he and Mrs. Ruhe are active in Bahá’í servIce.

Under the title “The Poet Laureate” Marzieh Gail gives us the story of the life of Nabil, known to Bahá’ís and to those familiar with the early history of the Bahá’í Faith as the faithful chronicler of the stirring events of those years in the middle of the last century. We plan to follow this story with others in a series which will acquaint our readers with many of the Bábi heroes whom

70

nothing could prevent the giving of their lives, their all, for the Cause of God. We believe many will be glad of these retold stories since Nabil’s Narrative, The Dawn-Breakers, is now out of print. Understand; ing of the Bahá’í Faith is incomplete without knowledge of its early history, its miraculously swift spread

throughout Persia, the land of its birth. The Dawn-Breakers is the book

of which Shoghi Effendi has written: “It has its thrilling passages, and the splendor of its central theme gives to the chronicle not only great historical value but high moral power. Its lights are strong; and this effect is more intense because they seem like a sunburst at midnight. The tale is one of struggle and martyrdom; its poignant scenes, its tragic incidents are many . . . The main features of the narrative (the saintly heroic figure of the B511), a leader so mild and serene, yet eager, resolute and dominant; the devotion of His followers facing opposition with unbroken courage and often with ecstasy; the rage of the jealous priesthood inflaming for its own purpose the passions of a bloodthirsty populace)——these speak a language which all may understand.”

Mrs. Gail contributes frequently to this magazine. “The Coming of the Beloved” was in our recent

March issue. Among her other con tributions are: “The White Silk Dress,” “Dawn OVer Mt. Hira,” “Headlines Tomorrow,” “Event in

Hamadén,” “The Peace in San Fran [Page 71]1 ton. She writes:

WITH OUR READERS '. 7] cisco.” Mrs. Gail now lives in San F rancisco.

Gertrude B. Fleur, who in collaboration with Bertha Kirkpatrick, contributes “A Bahá’í View of UNESCO” is a registered nurse whose home is in Seattle, Washing“I am one of the executive nurses and organizers but not a writer. However, am so vitally interested in the spiritual progress of humanity that the development of UNESCO inspired me greatly, and I could see how the door to better understanding could be opened through

such a lofty avenue thereby enabling UNESCO to spread the Mes sage throughout the world.” She also says: “Since sending the article to you I have had the opportunity of hearing Dr. Julian Huxley broadcast from Paris on UNESCO. He informed us of two very important UNESCO meetings, the first in Paris,

February 13, the second in Philadelphia in the early spring.”

Two important Bahá’í anniversaries occur in the month of May. Hundreds of thousands of Bahá’ís all over the world feel a great unity in observing these anniversaries, yet we do not forget the great number who,

as pointed out in the editorial by B. H. K., “understand not.”

Nancy Douglas Bowditch who contributes the poem, “The Song,” is an artist, and writer and producer of pageants as well as a p.oet She is the daughter of the well known American portrait painter George De Forest Brush and has been commissioned by Shoghi Effendi to paint portraits of the outstanding early American Bahá’ís for preser vation in the Haifa, archives. Mrs.

Bowditch’s home is in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Gertrude W. Robinson’s poem entitled “The Quest” is her first contribution to W orld Order. Mrs. Robin son’s home is in Circleville, Ohio.

Special features which the editors hope to continue are: the illustration and comment on page one; the quotation elucidating the Bahá’í Faith on page 2; the two pages of short selections for meditation and study.

The inside back cover which has listed the Bahá’í literature will continue to do so but with another plan for presenting the books. In April the works of Bahá’u’lláh were listed, this month the works of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in June those of Sho ghi Effendi, and in July books by gBaltzi’i authors. These four listings will appear in rotation through the year. We hope the mentionings will be help ful to our readers in knowing

the pBaha’ 1 sacred writings and other Baha” 1 books.

l Q Q

' One of our readers tells of his experience before he became firm in the Bahá’í Faith. He compared the Bahá’í Faith with some of the modern cults which place great emphasis on health and became critical of the Bahá’í Faith. Then he was influenced to re-examine the Bah"i Teachings. “I quickly saw,” he says, “that it was I who had been at fault for not reading the Writings enough. A very puerile mistake. I found the teachings on health, healing and positive thinking were all there and much more sanely handled and more

‘J

[Page 72]72 . . - WORLD ORDER

completely than elsewhere.” He recommends a study of Dr. Esslemont’s chapter on “Health and Healing” in Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era. One might add the chapters on “Healing” in Some Answered Questions by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the healing prayers of Bahá’u’lláh. And one could hardly stop there. Since physical health is so closely connected with spiritual health, do We not need all of the Bahá’í teachings?

I C G i

A subscriber renewing for W 0er

Order writes: “The positive and Iffirmative character of the magazine matches the exalted character of the Faith—never a negative note anywhere, perhaps the only publication in human history of which this might be said.” Is this, as someone suggests, too sweeping a statement? At any rate it gives our magazine a high goal for its aim.

Another subscriber emphasizes the friendly feeling she receives from the magazine when she writes:

“W orld Order magazine is a most helpful and enjoyable means of contact with the many friends who contribute to its pages as well as the source of fresh inspiration each

month. It comes like a welcome friend.” F rom Brazil comes these words:

“We find the World Order a great help in teaching and wonderful in spreading the Cause. The September, 1946, issue is laden with excellent material. We look forward here in Bahia to our copies.”

One subscriber asks for articles which give a keener analysis of the Faith’s principles. And several ask for more articles which show the Faith in action and which give inspiration for daily living. _

This department welcomes letters giving personal experiences which would be helpful to others in teaching or daily living. We should like to hear more from pioneers both in this country and abroad. We realize that Bahá’ís, for the most part, are too busy doing things to find time to write about them, but writing may be a service, too. We need short incidents of one or two hundred words for this department and longer ones for the main pages of the magazine.

Several have suggested that W orld Order have a question and answer page. This department welcomes questions in regard to the Bahá’í Faith. We ask for and appreciate the help of our readers and contributors.

—THE EDITORS.

[Page 73]Bahá’í Sacred Writings Works of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Distributed by Bahá’í Publishing Committee 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois

A TRAVELER’S NARRATIVE

The late Prof. Edward G. Browne received this work in manuscript from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at ‘Akká while investigating the developments in the Faith since the Martyrdom of the Báb. Its authorship was not known by Prof. Browne. Translated and edited by him, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanation of the meaning of the Báb’s Revelation and the Declaration of Bahá’u’lláh was first; published by Cambridge University but the rights have

been acquired by the Publishing Committee. This text was written by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at some date prior to 1892.

SOME ANSWERED QUESTIONS

This text is based on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s oral replies to questions addressed to Him by Laura Clifford Barney at Haifa in 1907. Her notes were later approved by Him. The work is divided into sections, dealing with the Prophets, the nature of man, interpretation of prophecy and religious symbol, and some social )questions.

THE PROMULGATION 0F UNIVERSAL PEACE

Prepared from stenographic [records of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s public addresses in the United States and Canada from April to December, 1912, and His intimate talks delivered to Bahá’í groups during that period. Here is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá confronting the West on the eve of the collapse of its civil, cultural and religious civilization signalized by the outbreak of the first World War, warning the leaders and masses of their peril, summoning them to heed the Advent of the Promised One of all nations, and establishing in America the principles and ideals which have since become the program of the liberal and progressive spirit. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the same time clearly explained the nature of the new spiritual com munity which alone can apply this program to society and produce a new world order.

TABLETS 0F ‘ABDU’L-BAHA

F or many years ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His outer life restricted by the conditions of exile and imprisonment inflicted upon Him by the Turkish church-state under Islém, shared His spirit and His beneficient wisdom with Bahá’ís of many countries who addressed communications to Him, some as individuals, others as members of Bahá’í' bodies. Three volumes were'eompiled in America based on Tablets dated prior to 19. These pages invited one to enter an inner place, as it were, glowing with the fire of a

love sustained by God. (Some other Tablets are found in Chapters VIII and IX of Bahá’í W orld Faith

[Page 74]TRUTHS FOR A NEW DAY

promulgated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá throughout North America in 1912

These teachings were given by Bahá’u’lláh over seventy years ago and are to be

found in His published

writings of that time.

The oneness of mankind. Independent investigation of truth. The foundation of all religions is one. Religion must be the cause of unity.

Religion must be in accord with science and reason.

Equality between men and women. Prejudice of all kinds must be forgotten. Universal peace.

Universal education.

Spiritual solution of the economic problem. Universal language.

An international tribunal.