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WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
JULY, 1947
One Moral Order or Anarchy
G. A. Shook
A World Educator
Louise A. Groger
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Budapest
Rustem Vambery
A New Race of Men, Editorial
Gertrude K. Henning
Táhirih
Beatrice Ashton
The Song of Táhirih, Poem
Nancy Douglas Bowditch
The Advent of Divine Justice
Book Review
Charlotte M. Linfoot
The Mature Man
Bahá’í Words for Meditation
With Our Readers
20¢
World Order was founded March 21, 1910 as Bahá’í News, the first organ of the American Bahá’ís. In March, 1911, its title was changed to Star of the West. Beginning November, 1922 the magazine appeared under the name of The Bahá’í Magazine. The issue of April, 1935 carried the present title of World Order, combining The Bahá’í Magazine and World Unity, which had been founded October, 1927. The present number represents Volume XXXVIII of the continuous Bahá’í publication.
WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmette, Ill., by the Publishing
Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United
States and Canada. EDITORS: Eleanor S. Hutchens, William Kenneth Christian,
Gertrude K. Henning, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.
Publication Office
110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, ILL.
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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, Ill., under the Act of March
3, 1879. Content copyrighted 1947 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title
registered at U. S. Patent Office.
ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE
‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ
Interpreter of the Bahá’í Sacred Writings and Exemplar of the
spiritual life established for the new World Era. He created the necessary
link between the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh and the World
Community in which is being evolved the pattern of the future
society.
THROUGH faith in Bahá’u’lláh, the mediator of God for our time, his followers have faith in a supranational world commonwealth; a world parliament representing all the peoples of the world, a world tribunal with sufficient power to maintain peace, equitable distribution of the resources of the world, a world language, one currency, a world citizenship, and one common faith in one common God. This is the vision of a Prophet of God and His people, and as their number increases, the vision approaches reality. The human mind, with its doubts and hesitation, lacks faith in himself and his fellows, and is deprived of those creative powers essential for the remaking of the world. Faith, today, without a world plan is of little more avail than a plan without faith. We need both: a World Faith and a World Plan.
Excerpt from
This Earth One Country
By EMERIC SALA
WORLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME XIII JULY, 1947 NUMBER 4
One Moral Order or Anarchy
G. A. SHOOK
IN ONE of the critical moments
of the Federal Convention,
1787, the venerable Benjamin
Franklin interposed with a motion
that prayers, imploring the
assistance of Heaven, be held in
the assembly every morning.
There is a tradition that Hamilton
opposed the motion on the
ground that the convention was
in no need of “Foreign Aid.”
There may be no grounds for this story but there is one story that has the sanction of history, namely, that the delegates went to the convention just to amend the articles of Confederation, nothing more. But before they left they had created a new government.
With respect to world problems, we are in a similar condition today. We would like to revise the old civilization but we may have to build a new one.
THE NATURAL RIGHTS THEORY AND ITS LIMITATIONS
There are at least three theories on the origin of the state, but the natural law, or natural rights theory of the 17th century seems to be the most popular today. Historically the most effective source is, of course, revelation. We can dismiss the “force” or “might” theory here, but we will discuss the other two.
All the movements today which try to create a moral order, a world community, or world government, fall back upon the rights of man, or natural rights. All the institutions of the past which stood for freedom, equality and liberty, rested their claims upon natural rights. Consider, for example, the French Revolution, the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence.
We may accept these rights as fundamental axioms of political science but in view of historical facts, we should be certain that they have a firm foundation.
There are of course, many
sources for these assumptions but
[Page 112]
two or three names stand out in
history, such as Hobbes, Locke
and Rousseau. They used the social
contract or contract theory
to explain the origin of society
and the state.
Hobbes, the founder of modern political theory, imagines the state started about as follows. In the original state of nature all men are equal but they are also selfish. The system is pre-social and pre-political. Conflict is inevitable, so they need a common power to establish order. Every member, therefore, gives up to the chosen head the right to govern himself, on condition that every other member does the same.
Locke’s state of nature is pre-political but not pre-social. He is less materialistic and he assumes that if men are left to themselves, they will be rational and try to live in some kind of harmony. But, there must be laws, a common judge to interpret the laws and some power to carry them out. Out of this condition arises the state. Each agrees to give up certain rights to the community. They enter into a social contract whereby each yields to the whole, certain rights. Locke infers that men are naturally equal.
Rousseau need not concern us here although he exerted considerable influence and was the most popular.
The contract theory has no sanction in history; nevertheless, Locke was a great philosopher and his influence upon American and English culture cannot be overestimated. He did much for religious tolerance and certainly the germ of human equality was in his theory, but it is one thing to maintain, that it is logical to believe that all men are equal, and quite another to carry this out. The problem of race prejudice is involved here and Locke tells us nothing about eliminating race or class prejudice, nor did any 17th century philosopher. Moreover the problem was far simpler in Locke’s day.
Like all man-made theories, this theory of equality and natural rights worked because it served certain groups in crises. Consider, for example, the Revolution of 1688 and the American Revolution. Locke was the intellectual inspiration of the American Revolution, and we certainly see his influence in the Constitution.
Man-made theories are necessarily limited. History shows this plainly enough.
Let us see how the doctrine of
equal rights really worked. In
the Declaration of Independence
we read, “We hold these truths
to be self-evident . . .” And then
[Page 113]
it mentions some of the rights,
like life, liberty . . . These come
to us directly from Locke and
Rousseau but how universal are
these ideals? When the constitution
was framed, slavery was a
recognized institution and certainly
the framers were not ready
to abolish it. But some, on moral
grounds, did not want it recognized
in the constitution, so the
term “slave” was not used. In
Article I, Section 9, on the importation
of slaves we read, “The
migration or importation of such
persons as any state now existing
shall think proper to admit
shall not be prohibited by the
congress . . .”
Now it is interesting to observe here, that the Bahá’í Faith lays special emphasis upon this problem of discrimination. The oneness of mankind is stressed over and over again. It is very plain in all the teachings, everyone understands it, and all adhere to it. In all their social relations, Bahá’ís uphold this goal. Moreover, the Bahá’í plan for a new moral order starts with the assumption that man unaided by some superrational, supernatural power cannot extricate himself from a major catastrophe, such as we witness today. It assumes man is limited. A philosopher may maintain that all men are equal and all have equal rights, but people may do nothing about it. Nevertheless Locke and some of his contemporaries made real contributions to society and we can appreciate them only if we realize their limitations and the significance of their time. Let us consider three points.
ARE WE LIVING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY?
I. Locke represented a definite period in political history and scientific development.
We cannot put ourselves back into the 17th or 18th century. We cannot experience what they experienced. Society was expanding and it had to find some sanction for its laws outside the church. It turned to natural laws. The way of science was apparently the only way to a new order. We must remember this was the beginning of the so-called age of reason and that Locke was a forerunner of this age, and moreover he was a personal friend of Newton. Little wonder, that these intellectual refugees of the 17th century looked upon science as a door of hope. After all, they were strong advocates of tolerance, and although the state of nature and the contract theory were fictitious, still they did not start a war.
Newton’s mechanism was
highly successful in explaining
[Page 114]
the physical universe and,
therefore, it seemed plausible to
apply it to economic and social
problems. The philosophers did,
and what was the result?
Man was reduced to just a few material particles subject only to mechanical causes, devoid of moral responsibility. The state was reduced to a lifeless machine incapable of development. This result should have been anticipated for after all science is neither good, bad, just, or unjust.
There was opposition to natural law even in the 18th century, but society was still expanding. The new empire in the West, the industrial revolution, and the rise of science completely occupied men’s minds. They were too busy to think about fundamentals.
II. Remember also that the 17th century had not completely abandoned the idea of a superrational force in society. That is, they did not discard, completely, the idea that revelation might be a source of moral values.
Locke is impelled to write, “He that shall collect all the moral rules of the philosophers and compare them with those contained in the New Testament, will find them to come short of the morality delivered by our Savior.” In the 17th century God was back of natural law. Two centuries later the intelligentsia ruled out the concept of God as superfluous; the classical mechanics was deemed sufficient.
III. By the end of the last century, however, science had discovered that it could not solve all the vital problems of the physical world much less those of the political and social world. Jeans reminds us that the classical mechanics has failed to give us a complete description of nature. Today, in this 20th century, a few at least, of our outstanding thinkers like Jeans and Eddington, realize that the world of value, the world of music, art, poetry, and religion, stands quite apart from the world of science. This change of attitude toward value is highly significant. Science has no solution for our most pressing problems. It cannot establish peace. Humanity has suffered too great a decline to be reconstructed by philosophers or statesmen.
We may be living in the 20th century, but we think in terms of the 18th century. Today, those who want to apply science to man and society are thinking in terms of the classical physics, classical mechanics, not modern physics. If they understood modern physics they would hesitate before applying it so generally.
[Page 115]
Our scientific world is not
the scientific world of Locke.
This we must not forget. Were
Locke living today he would not
be thinking in terms of the Newtonian
Mechanics and the mechanistic
concept of man and society.
He would most likely be influenced
by contemporary scientists.
It is highly probable that he
would be talking about the independence
of value and science
rather than the correlation between
the two, as some moderns
do. Locke would probably be telling
people that physics is concerned
with material particles
and not values.
THE DIVINE ELEMENT
Perhaps we wonder why a fiction like the so-called contract theory lived so long after it had been refuted by many able men. Hume denounced it in no uncertain terms, but as Pollock says, “Hume was a destroyer, not a builder. He had nothing to put in the place of the beloved fiction . . .”
When man rejects the idea of a divine power working in the universe, he also rejects a lot of history and the final result is usually a transparent fiction; but it is the best he can do and as we said above fictions like this sometimes work to the advantage of certain groups.
Perhaps this will explain why some modern thinkers fail to see the disparity between science and value; they have no real source of value. They have lost faith in the superrational, the divine, and so they turn to science as the one last hope. The real source of value, moral order, is revelation, but for the generality of mankind, it is ruled out by science. As a matter of fact, modern science cannot rule out revelation any more than it can rule out music or literature. These belong to the realm of value; and science, modern science, has nothing to say about value.
It is not unscientific to believe in the divine. The most science can say is, we do not know.
Finally the century that brought the distinction between science and value also brought a new source of moral order, a world religion.
A NEW MORAL ORDER
In contrast to the feeble efforts
of natural law, philosophers, or
indeed any group of thinkers that
has failed to establish harmony,
let us see how Bahá’u’lláh goes
about to establish a new moral
order. He does not hold out any
hope that we can revise the old
civilization. He makes a new
start. In one place He says,
“Soon will the present-day order
[Page 116]
be rolled up, and a new one
spread out in its stead.” In another
place He points out the real
weakness of our civilization.
“The civilization so often vaunted
by the learned exponents of
arts and sciences, will, if allowed
to overlap the bounds of moderation,
bring great evil upon men.
If carried to excess, civilization
will prove as prolific a source of
evil as it had been of goodness
when kept within the restraints
of moderation.” Our materialistic
civilization has been carried
to excess.
Finally, from the pen of Bahá’u’lláh, we have the real problem for this age. He says, “The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race. The well-being of mankind, its peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established. So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth. This goal excelleth every other goal, and this aspiration is the monarch of all aspirations.”
Now consider Bahá’u’lláh’s plan for peace. Over seventy years ago, anticipating the tentative plans that are now under consideration, He wrote, “The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá elaborates upon this theme in several places. In a letter written by Him to the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, The Hague, 1919, He speaks of the formation of the Supreme Tribunal by humanitarians well versed in international matters. The members of this Supreme Tribunal are to be chosen from a larger number of delegates who represent all the nations of the world.
Where would the world be today had it paid some attention to his warning? Well, we would have avoided two global wars if nothing more. Is it not significant that, after three-quarters of a century, we are finally getting around to this task? Speaking of the methods for averting atomic disaster the editors of One World or None, said this:
“The statesmen, the experts in
international affairs, in government,
in political economy, in all
the social sciences must speak
out, and their proposals must be
discussed and weighed in a great
public debate.” (Compare with
Bahá’u’lláh’s prediction, “The
time must come when the imperative
necessity for the holding of a
vast, an all-embracing assemblage
of men will be universally
realized.”) It will probably take
[Page 117]
another quarter of a century before
universal peace is declared,
and that is not the peace which
will establish a new order, but
only the beginning. After refusing
the Most Great Peace, which
is the basis of a new civilization,
Bahá’u’lláh told the rulers of the
world to hold fast to the Lesser
Peace which means the end of
war. That is, it will have taken
the rulers about one hundred
years to accomplish this most obvious
task.
Perhaps it occurs to someone that this warning did not, in the very nature of the case, appeal to a scientific age. This would indeed be amusing, if not so tragic. Today the atomic scientists are trying to tell the whole world that, “As long as causes for war exist, aggressor nations can challenge the international controls. Only in a unified world community can peace exist in the world.” (Compare with Bahá’u’lláh’s words, “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.”)
THE SCIENTISTS ASSUME SOME RESPONSIBILITY
For several centuries we have been turning to science for the solution of our major problems. The solutions have generally been very satisfactory. We usually get the kind of solution we want, even if it is not the real solution.
Today, however, the scientists, at least a few physicists, are assuming some social and moral responsibility for their discoveries. But they are telling us things we do not want to hear. When the atomic physicists told us there was no defense for the atomic bomb we just refused to believe it. Also they told us just what would happen when the armament race started but we still had hopes they were wrong. Ostensibly, anything would be preferable to the unification of mankind.
No, we are neither rational nor very scientific when it comes to personal desires. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said many years ago, “The disease which affects the body-politic is the lack of love and the absence of altruism.” This is becoming more evident day by day. All these movements for peace, and world brotherhood are moving in the right direction and should be encouraged, but they do not get at the heart of the problem. That wider loyalty which is so essential for a new moral order can only be established by a world religion, world faith.
A World Educator
LOUISE A. GROGER
WHEN we were in school, one
of the chief joys of promotion
time was the anticipation of
a new teacher, new subjects, perhaps
new classmates. And the
pleasurable excitement of change
lasted for a while even in
the face of more and harder work.
For some people the increased
demands were even an added
pleasure. But also in school there
were some who would have preferred
to stay in the old and familiar
classroom, working with
material which had become easy
for them.
Bahá’ís believe that the religions of the world are its classrooms; the prophets or Manifestations of God, are the teachers in each of these classrooms. They are likened to clear mirrors, each one in his turn reflecting a perfect image of the Sun of Truth to mankind. In each age man sees that truth according to the capacity he has attained at the time.
When this new teacher comes to carry us on a step further in our education there is a thrill of excitement felt through all the world. Events move in a quicker tempo. Minds are more active. Souls find themselves searching, often without knowing what the object of their search might be. At the same time there are some who hold back, who will have nothing to do with the new spirit which is moving over the face of the earth. They prefer the old and familiar. They say what was good enough for their fathers is good enough for them.
But it is not good enough. We have learned from science and scientific methods of investigation that nothing is stationary, perfect, or unchanging. The most concrete, immovable thing you can choose to represent permanence, a great boulder, mountains, the earth itself, the sun, the planets, are in a constant state of flux. Science has proved that the very substance of these permanent things is in an incessant and unthinkably rapid state of motion. It also undergoes continuous change, of growth and development or of deterioration. Everything in the world of creation has a period of strengthening and growth followed by a period of weakening and disintegration as its parts fall away to become reassembled in a new form of creation.
And this is as true of religions
as it is of any other phenomena
of the created world. The new
Faith comes as a fulfillment of
[Page 119]
the old. In fact each one was
promised by the Founder of the
previous Faith. For instance
Christ said, “I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye
cannot bear them now. Howbeit,
when He, the Spirit of Truth, is
come, He will guide you into all
Truth.” Each new World Religion
is the consummation of the
Faith which preceded it.
Religion follows the same law that every other part of creation follows. It changes, grows, develops, and improves through the ages. Not because the Teacher who brought it to us couldn’t have brought the finished product, but because we, the people for whose training it is intended, are part of the phenomenal world and subject to growth and development and must have spiritual training in the degree which fits our present attainments.
In the same way that we all continue to use the alphabet and numbers that were taught us in the first grade, even though we may have been graduated from a university, so the basic truth given us by each prophet is the same, the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, life after death, and the authority of the Prophet. But just as we learn to build more and more complicated structures with our simple letters and numbers as we pass from grade to grade of school, so the Divine Teacher in each new age bases an ever advancing social law on this primary foundation of spiritual principles.
Zoroaster some twenty-five hundred years ago, in what is now Persia, taught that good was light and evil, darkness, or the lack of light, and symbolized the unknowable essence of God as the sun, the giver of all light.
Buddha, who lived perhaps a hundred or more years later than Zoroaster in India, taught that ignorance was the root of all evil. But He particularly stressed self-knowledge and meditation, a line of thought that so suited the people who received His message that they have never developed their educational processes along the lines of knowledge of the world of matter which is the general emphasis of education in the Western world.
Abraham, father of the Hebrew race, who lived four thousand years ago, left His home and country rather than stop teaching His belief in one God, a Supreme Being, to whom all must turn for light and knowledge.
Moses, descendant of Abraham, gave us the Ten Commandments which are the foundation of criminal law in the Christian World today.
[Page 120]
Jesus, another descendant of
Abraham, spoke to His followers
of those spiritual qualities which
the individual should strive to attain
and left us one of our most
treasured pieces of literature,
the Sermon on the Mount.
Through His teachings a gentler,
more civilizing influence was projected
in the world.
Muḥammad was a teacher sent to a cruel and untrained people with a message suited to their circumstances, which so influenced them that they became the progenitors of our modern civilization. It is only recently being recognized that the European Renaissance was not a spontaneous burst of energy and inspiration but the direct result of the impact of the Islámic civilization, then in its full flower, on the countries of Western Europe. Islám had produced the most famous universities of the time. Europeans who could, went to them for further instruction in the subjects they were pursuing, as, a few years ago, our students went to Europe for thorough postgraduate work. Arts and sciences both flourished under the Muḥammadan dispensation, but perhaps the greatest single contribution of Islám to the world was the system of Arabic numerals which we still use. Their simplicity made possible much more extended mathematical computations than the cumbrous Roman system previously used in the West or the abacus of the East. Perhaps our whole scientific development, which is so completely dependent upon mathematics, could be attributed to this gift of numbers.
To the Bahá’í, history is written in terms of the ever advancing cultures and civilizations that are built upon the messages of these pure mirrors, the Prophets and Messengers from God, the Founders of Religion, who are able to reflect the light of the Knowledge and Wisdom of God to us.
Though each of the former Teachers brought His message to all of mankind, the physical conditions of the world were such that his actual teaching and the religion growing out of it was generally confined to a comparatively small part of the globe. It was only with the passing of centuries that its influence spread and was absorbed by remote peoples, becoming a part of their culture also.
Today, however, we are at the
stage of entering the university.
Pupils from all the diverse preparatory
schools can now gather
under one roof. The physical
means to do this have come into
existence since the opening of
[Page 121]
this Bahá’í era in the early eighteen
hundreds. The world had
largely been discovered and explored.
The five continents had
each received a share of European
immigrants who were in
touch however sketchily with
their mother countries. The
threads of human interest encircled
the globe in every direction.
They were still very thin and
weak threads. But mechanical
means of travel and communication
were discovered, invented,
or developed. Since the beginning
of the nineteenth century the
threads have become strong ropes
woven into an all-enveloping net
of communication and interrelation
of supply and demand, of
commodities and peoples. Today,
even when war does not force our
interest outside of our immediate
neighborhood, we are quite
likely to be as much concerned
with the news of the world as it
comes to us from half way
around the globe as we are to be
interested in the news of our
home community.
Our world has shrunk to the size of a neighborhood. One sees air maps on which seas, continents, rivers and mountains are ignored. Routes crossing the Arctic circle cut thousands of miles off the distances between cities. The speed of the airplane cuts the remaining thousands of miles down to terms of days or hours, where, in terms of ships and trains, they are still weeks or months. To this world that has so shrunk in terms of distances that it becomes almost as small as it is in terms of communication, comes the message of Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, the latest of the great world Teachers of religion. He is the World Educator because His message can be broadcast to the whole world. He is the Father of Truth, because today mankind is entering its period of maturity. Men have achieved such a command over the physical resources of the planet that it is absolutely necessary that God should send a teacher to train them in an equal command over themselves before they completely destroy themselves.
The name Bahá’u’lláh is Persian meaning the “Glory of God” and is His spiritual title as Christ was the spiritual title given to Jesus. He was a Persian nobleman of the last century who spent most of His life in exile and imprisonment, often in chains, and under constant threat of death because He dared to say He had come to teach the oneness of all mankind and the oneness of religious truth. He said, “This handful of dust the earth, is one home, let it be in unity.”
[Page 122]
Since the founding of the Faith
in 1844 the Bahá’í principles of
equality between men and women,
lack of prejudice of race,
creed, class or nationality, universal
peace, universal education,
a universal auxiliary language,
a world federation and international
tribunal have been
spread more and more widely
over the earth. Bahá’ís believe
this advance in social consciousness
has come about both through
the efforts of the followers of
Bahá’u’lláh to teach these principles
and through the spiritual
effect of His Manifestation upon
sensitive souls the world over. It
becomes more and more common
for Bahá’ís Bahá’ís expounding the
Bahá’í principles to meet the answer,
“Why of course I believe
that. I have been thinking along
such lines for years.”
It is a most pleasing discovery to Bahá’ís to find Bahá’í principles advocated or practiced so generally by leaders of thought today. It is evidence, we believe, that soon the whole class will realize the promotion they have achieved and be glad to acknowledge the fact that they are now upper classmen, ready and able to take on the duties and responsibilities which that position entails.
Know thou assuredly that the essence of all the Prophets of God is one and the same. Their unity is absolute. God, the Creator, saith: There is no distinction whatsoever among the Bearers of My Message. They all have but one purpose; their secret is the same secret. To prefer one in honor to another, to exalt certain ones above the rest, is in no wise to be permitted. Every true Prophet hath regarded His Message as fundamentally the same as the Revelation of every other Prophet gone before Him. . . .
The measure of the revelation of the Prophets of God in this world, however, must differ. Each and every one of them hath been the Bearer of a distinct Message, and hath been commissioned to reveal Himself through specific acts. It is for this reason that they appear to vary in their greatness. Their Revelation may be likened unto the light of the moon that sheddeth its radiance upon the earth. Though every time it appeareth, it revealeth a fresh measure of its brightness, yet its inherent splendor can never diminish, nor can its light suffer extinction.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Budapest
Translated into English by Martha Root
RUSTEM VAMBERY
IT IS twenty years[1] since a visitor
was announced in the
home of my late father on the
Danube River. I was accustomed
to meet Turkish, Tartar, Persian
and Hindu pilgrims who used to
seek out this one-time dervish,
(my father), as they were on their
way from East to West. However
this visitor had an exceptional
appearance: He was of medium
height, slightly bent with age,
had a dove-white beard, eyes
full of fire, from the benevolent
light of which the convincing
power of faith and knowledge
radiated. I did not understand
His words, for He spoke with my
father in Persian, but I understood
His personality in the irresistible
magic of which was reflected
the consciousness of an
apostolic calling. After the lapse
of two decades I still see the dignified
appearance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
as a living reality! He was
the eldest Son of Bahá’u’lláh, the
Founder of this universal religion,
and He inherited from His
Father the prophetic inspiration
and mission to be the Expounder
of the unity of mankind, of
peace, and of social justice . . .
My late father, who in his book Story of My Struggles did not confess himself a follower of any of the positive religions, received the Bahá’í Faith and its Apostle, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, with a sincere and warm sympathy far beyond the interest which he had as an Orientalist for all spiritual creeds of the East. In his book, My Migrations and What I Saw in Persia (in 1867) my father devoted a chapter to the Bábí Movement, the forerunner of the Bahá’í Faith. . .
‘Abdu’l-Bahá reached Budapest
in April, 1913, after visits
in Germany and Austria. Here
He remained nine days. During
this time His room in the Dunapalota
Hotel became a veritable
Mecca for all those whom the
mysticism of the East and the
wisdom of its Master attracted
into its magic circle. Among His
visitors were Count Albert Apponyi;
Prelate Alexander Giesswein;
Professor Ignatius Goldziher,
the Orientalist of worldwide
renown; Professor Robert
A. Nadler, the famous Budapest
painter and leader of the Hungarian
Theosophical Society;
and Director Leopold Stark, the
[Page 124]
engineer. A visit was paid to
Him by Muḥammadan students,
most of whom were from Turkey,
led by Professor Julius Germanus.
Our newspapers discussed with great interest the humanitarian mission of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. During His stay in Budapest, He delivered two lectures in Persian, one under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, the Esperantists and the feminists organizations, in the Hall of the old Parliament; the other in the meeting room of the National Museum. His addresses were translated into Hungarian and English without losing much of their power by these translations. An audience of many hundred people most attentively followed His words by which, with the inspiration of a Prophet, He showed that only the synthesis of Eastern and Western culture could cure the mortally sick mankind.
During His Budapest visit, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá repeatedly met my late father (Professor Arminius Vambery) with whom He afterwards continued to correspond. These letters appeared in English and Arabic newspapers and magazines and it would not be without interest to the Hungarians if I publish the lines my late father wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Persian:
“This submissive petition I deliver to the Holy and Blessed Presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of the Covenant of all knowledge, renowned in the whole world and loved by all humanity.
“O Thou noble Friend, Who endows humanity with guidance, may my life be a sacrifice for Thee!
“The beloved letter Thou hast condescended to write this servant, as well as the rug which Thou hast sent, came safely into my possession. The time in which I was permitted to be in the presence of Thy Highness and the blessing of Thy presence will always remain a memory of this servant and I yearn for the time in which I may be together with Thee.
“Although I have traveled
through many countries and cities
of Islám, I have not yet met
anywhere else with such a lofty
character and such a noble personality,
and I testify that it is
impossible to find such a one
anywhere else. By these means I
hope that Thy ideals and realizations
will be crowned with
success and will show under all
conditions good results, because
underneath these ideals and
deeds, I readily can discover the
[Page 125]
eternal welfare and well-being of
humanity.
“That I might obtain, at first hand, information, and might gain experiences, this servant put himself into centers of different religions: outwardly, I became a Jew, a Christian, a Muḥammadan and a Zoroastrian. Through this experience I made the discovery, that the confessors of the different religions know nothing better to do than to hate one another and to damn one another; furthermore, I realized that all these religions, in the hands of the worldly rulers, have become the means of tyranny and suppression, that they therefore have become the cause of destruction for humanity.
“Should we consider these malicious results, we shall find that necessarily everyone is obliged to put himself on the side of Thy noble Personality, and the essential foundation of a universal religion, as laid down by Thy efforts, should be accepted joyfully.
“I have seen in the distance the Father of Thy Eminence, I have seen for myself the Person of the Son and am filled with admiration.
“I bring to expression the greatest esteem and loyalty to the principles and aims of Thy Excellency and should God, the All-Highest, grant me long life, I shall serve Thee under all conditions.
“For this I supplicate and pray from the depths of my Heart!
“Thy servant,
(signed) VAMBERY”.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s mission, as the “Ambassador of mankind” in preaching the Bahá’í Faith, was successful, not because of church organization or the mystic effect of ceremonies, but because of the spiritual content of the religion itself. All over the world, in Persia, Burma, India, Egypt and the western states of Europe, and in the United States Bahá’í communities have come into existence, everywhere gathering increasing strength. From California to Japan, from Scotland to the Cape, everywhere this modern social religion has taken root because it expresses the unquenchable desire to unite mankind, torn in pieces, into a spiritual, social, economic synthesis of a higher order.
Never was the desire stronger and its fulfillment more difficult than in the critical period after the world war. However, the faith that moves mountains does not know helplessness and the wish always includes the bud of its reality. . .
The social tendencies of most
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recent times are assuming, in
many ways, the form of a religious
faith. In Europe where
the scientific outlook in the last
century has shaken the foundations
of religious belief, there is
an unquenchable thirst for a new
spiritual awakening. The Theosophical
Movement, Bergson’s
philosophy, as well as the moral
systems of rationalism which assume
a religious form are all
witnesses to the same need.
Therefore the Bahá’í Faith, which aims to reconcile the social evolution of man with his spiritual needs on a higher plane, may justly attract the attention and interest of cultured mankind.
All social ideas can be approached from two sides; from the side of faith and from the side of knowledge. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s comparison that mankind can reach the higher realm of justice and love only with the combined wings of religion and science has therefore a most deep significance. With one wing you cannot fly. If man uses only the wing of religion he will perish in the mire of superstition; if he rises only on the wing of science he will sink in the marshes of materialism. Therefore, the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are based on the reconciliation of religion and science, and the idea of God is identical with the Infinite and Unknowable. Or as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá expressed it: “One truth cannot contradict another truth. Light is good in whatsoever lamp it is burning. A rose is beautiful in whatsoever garden it is blooming. A star has the same radiance whether it shines from the East or from the West. Be free from prejudice.” Thus in the Bahá’í teachings we see united the unknowable transcendent ideas of Eternal Truth with a higher social human justice.
The sometimes highflown style in which its apostles and followers express their Eastern faith in the ideas of Western thought may impress the Hungarian as rather strange. Yet their knowledge is the same as we know from the Bible, the Qur’án and the Vedas. All the more fascinating is the visionary purport of the sentences containing the promise for a happier future of mankind. I find, in this combination, why my late father who, in the lectures and writings of a long life, was always striving for the practical enforcement of scientific thought against prejudice, took such keen interest in the Bahá’í Faith, the latest growth on the tree of Oriental wisdom, and why he felt such a warm sympathy with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the inspired Expounder of the Bahá’í Teaching.
- ↑ This was written in 1933 and is part of an introduction to the Hungarian translation of Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, by J. E. Esslemont.
A New Race of Men
Editorial
THE believers in the world
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh are
building the beginnings of universal
peace and justice all over
the world by the formation of
Bahá’í Assemblies based on the
tenets that religion is one and
that mankind is one. These people
are bound by one common
faith, a Faith which explains the
evolution of religion by the principle
that divine Revelation has
been and will be progressively
revealed according to the capacity
of man at the time of each
Revelation. Such a logical explanation
of moral teaching
safeguarded by community laws
governing the conduct of its
members guarantees an assemblage
of men free from religious,
racial and national prejudice. It
is a pattern for a future society
in which spiritual teachings are
joined to community laws to form
local, national and international
assemblies into one great commonwealth
“whose life is sustained
by its universal recognition
of one God and by its allegiance
to one common Revelation.”
Prejudice whether it be religious, racial or political has been the cause of many wars. Peace both at home and abroad cannot be assured until these prejudices are outgrown. They can only become outgrown by joining spiritual teachings and scientific knowledge to show the true fact of their interdependence.
In the wake of a great war nations are now striving to make a lasting peace. But peace is not a condition created by political groups who tolerate and compromise, or by nations who agree to adhere to good principles. It is true that such a state of peace has great appeal to the people now living in a world made up of many diverse nations. The Bahá’í Faith has a name for this peace, “The Lesser Peace.” It is the peace that the representatives of the governments of the world are so sincerely endeavoring to set up through an organization like the United Nations. This union of nations will work to the extent that more peoples than ever before in the history of civilization will be relieved of gross fear and want. These are noble efforts, but they do not change the hearts of people where the desire for peace really lies.
To a Bahá’í, world peace must
be based on a way of living according
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to the good behavior men
are capable of possessing. It is a
blending of the material and
spiritual benefits that man should
enjoy in such a way that understanding
and peaceful relations
are the result. Man must balance
one with the other so that a just
and fair share may be enjoyed
by all. The creative words of
Bahá’u’lláh change the hearts of
men from different races, creeds,
classes and nations, and instill in
them a love and regard for each
other. “They whose hearts are
warmed by the energizing influence
of God’s creative love cherish
His creatures for His sake,
and recognize in every human
face a sign of His reflected
glory.”
Man’s love for his fellow-man as expressed by Bahá’í individuals and carried into Bahá’í assemblies throughout the world, marks the beginning of that new race of men whom Bahá’u’lláh speaks of in His divine writings. These Bahá’ís are laying the groundwork for universal brotherhood and world peace which when realized will produce the Golden Age promised by all religions in the past and now again restated in the Bahá’í Revelation. Wasteful wars will have ceased by that time, and human efforts will be bent only on those things that will benefit man’s life.
The Bahá’í world community is united in its consolidated activities. It is governed by a world Administrative Order divinely ordained by Bahá’u’lláh Himself. As yet few in number but completely dedicated to serve God’s Cause and Purpose, these Bahá’ís venture to all parts of the world to spread the Word of God and to demonstrate the Bahá’í way of life. They are reaching the hearts of men and helping to develop that race of men who will usher in a civilization worthy of their creation. Then will Christ’s promise expressed in the Lord’s Prayer come true, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Bahá’u’lláh tells us that this is the Day of Fulfillment and that “the potentialities inherent in the station of man, the full measure of his destiny on earth, the innate excellence of his reality, must all be manifested in this promised Day of God.”
“The day is approaching when God will have, by an act of His Will, raised up a race of men the nature of which is inscrutable to all save God, the All-Powerful, the Self-Subsisting.”
Táhirih
BEATRICE ASHTON
There lived in Persia at the
time of the Báb a young
woman of great beauty. She was
already, at the age of twenty
years, known in all Persia for
her poetry, and her fame was
spreading as far as the capitals
of Europe because of her brilliant
mind and her courage. She
was a deep student of the Qur’án
and talked often with learned
men concerning its meanings. Always
when she did so, according
to the custom of her country, she
remained hidden behind a screen
or curtain, so that they knew the
beauty of her mind but not the
beauty of her face.
In the Orient, you know, in those days women were not permitted to go and come as they pleased. They were expected to stay in their own homes. And whenever a woman did have to go out on the street, she had to wear a thick veil that covered all her face except her two eyes.
This beautiful young woman was the daughter of a very wealthy nobleman and priest. She lived in a palace in the city of Qazvín, a city where the priests, or mullás, had great power and influence with the government. Her father gave her many costly presents. One time he gave her as a gift a village outside the city.
But this young woman was not interested in the usual life of a woman of that time, even of a woman of wealth. She was not interested in the gifts or riches of this world. She read in the Qur’án and studied with some teachers about the coming of the Promised One. That was what she was interested in! To see Him, to find Him, absorbed every fiber of her mind and spirit. She realized the ignorance in which the women of her country were kept. They were not supposed to know what was going on in the world outside their own homes. But this unusual woman refused to be confined. She prevailed upon her father to let her travel.
Finally she and her sister were permitted to go to Karbilá, where is located the shrine of Imám Ḥusayn. It was a place of pilgrimage and was about five hundred miles distant from Qazvín. They traveled in a howdah, a small covered wagon, accompanied by many servants and guards.
When they arrived in Karbilá,
she found that the teacher with
whom she had been corresponding
had passed from this world
ten days before. At the invitation
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of his family, however, she
stayed in his home and eagerly
studied his many writings about
the Qá’im, or Promised One, and
she talked often with his students
(always seated behind a curtain).
It was this teacher who had called her Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, which means “consolation of the eyes,” but Bahá’u’lláh later gave her the title of Țáhirih, or “pure one,” which is the name we call her.
These were days of great inner excitement. All these students were eagerly praying, fasting and meditating, hoping to receive in their hearts the message of how to find the Promised One. Their teacher had told them that the time of His coming was very near. In fact, he said, “Would you not wish me to die, that the Promised One may be revealed?”
The beautiful young woman from Qazvín could not join them in prayer and fasting at the Mosque of Kúfih, but she prayed earnestly and kept the fast at the home where she was staying.
While in the city of Karbilá she had a dream. “A youth, a Siyyid, wearing a black cloak and a green turban, appeared to her in the heavens, who with upraised hands was reciting certain verses, one of which she noted down in her book. She awoke from her dream greatly impressed by her strange experience.”
About this time Mullá Ḥusayn, who had set out after the forty days of prayer in search of His Beloved, found Him in the city of Shíráz in the person of Báb. In talking with Mullá Ḥusayn the Báb revealed to him a Commentary on a verse in the Qur’án. This Commentary was so beautifully and brilliantly written and told such a thrillingly prophetic story that Mullá Ḥusayn sent a copy of it to his friends in Karbilá.
When Țáhirih read these vibrant words she found in their midst the very verse which she had heard in her dream! You can imagine her delight! That discovery assured her of the truth of the Message proclaimed by the Báb. Her heart was filled with joy and a determination to tell everyone of His Message. She translated the Commentary (which was revealed in Arabic) into Persian so that many others were able to read it. People flocked to her house in Karbilá. Soon the government became alarmed and stationed guards there to keep her from associating with the people.
The Báb meanwhile sent out
an appeal that all who could do
so should journey to Khurásán,
[Page 131]
in the north-eastern part of Persia.
Ṭáhirih gloriously responded
and started out with many followers
of the Báb and their families.
She was absolutely fearless
and had ready and brilliant answers
to the arguments put forward
by those who tried to dissuade
her from making such a
long journey across Persia and
from associating with the friends
who believed in the Báb’s Message.
But everywhere she went
she was treated with great respect
and many receptions were
given for her in the homes of influential
people. Whole villages
turned out to greet her as she
passed through. What made her
most happy, however, was to tell
the ladies who crowded around
her everywhere in the homes
where she was a guest, of the
coming of the Promised One and
to read from His verses. She kindled
many a fire of love in their
hearts for the Báb and brought
them hope that women would
soon take their part in matters
of education and progress.
Nabíl relates: “A few sought privily to provoke the people and undermine her prestige; others were moved to extol openly her virtues and applaud her courage. ‘It behooves us,’ these friends declared from their pulpits, ‘to follow her noble example and reverently ask her to unravel for us the mysteries of the Qur’án and to resolve the intricacies of the holy Book. For our highest attainments are but a drop compared to the immensity of her knowledge.’”
Finally, her father, greatly disturbed, sent word urging her to visit her native town, Qasvín. Her husband, “the haughty and false-hearted Mullá Muḥammad,” denounced her as a heretic and strove day and night to undermine her fame. A state of excitement pervaded Qazvin which rose to such a pitch that when Țáhirih arrived she was kept a prisoner in her father’s house, even confined to one room, and many people were put to death.
Word of these events reached
Bahá’u’lláh in Țihrán. The Báb,
meanwhile, had been put in the
far-off prison of Máh-Kú. Bahá’u’lláh
determined to establish
the truth of what Țáhirih had
been telling the people and to
frustrate the schemes of her enemies.
He succeeded in getting a
message to her and in having her
safely conducted to His house in
Țihrán. She was well aware of
the significance of this move, for
she had already perceived,
through her pure heart, the future
glory of Bahá’u’lláh, just as
she had recognized the truth of
the Báb’s Message. One of her
[Page 132]
own verses bore eloquent testimony
to this faith. She wrote:
“The effulgence of the Abhá Beauty hath pierced the veil of night; behold the souls of His lovers, dancing, mote-like, in the light that has flashed from His face!”
Bahá’u’lláh Himself arranged for the departure of Țáhirih from Țihrán to Khurásán, and not long afterward also set out in that direction. Meanwhile Quddús and Mullá Ḥusayn had been traveling in obedience to the Báb’s command. They all met at the hamlet of Badasht. It was then the beginning of summer. On His arrival Bahá’u’lláh had rented three gardens, one for the use of Quddús, another for Țáhirih and her attendant, and the third for Himself. There were eighty-one persons gathered in Badasht that summer, and all were guests of Bahá’u’lláh. It was at this time that He conferred upon her the title of Țáhirih. And surely she was a pure channel through which flowed the clear waters of recognition of the mission of the Báb and of Bahá’u’lláh.
At Badasht Țáhirih one day, “quietly, silently and with the utmost dignity” appeared before the eyes of the assembled companions without the veil over her face. Consternation immediately seized the entire gathering. Some felt that she had taken leave of her senses. Others, shocked at seeing a woman’s face and no doubt also overcome by the great beauty of Țáhirih, fled away shrieking. All realized that some tremendous event was taking place.
Nabíl relates that she began to speak, in a clear, ringing voice, as a feeling of joy and triumph illumined her face. She quoted this verse from the Qur’án: “Verily, amid gardens and rivers shall the pious dwell in the seat of truth, in the presence of the potent King.” Then she declared: “I am the Word which the Qá’im is to utter, the Word which shall put to flight the chiefs and nobles of the earth!”
Everyone present knew that this referred to a tradition of great significance and that when this Word was uttered a new Revelation had appeared. Many until this time had considered the Message of the Báb as a continuation of Islám. Ṭáhirih was saying that it was a new Revelation!
“The clarion-call of the new Order had been sounded.”
Days of unceasing turmoil followed,
as the realization spread
over all Persia that the Message
of the Báb foretold a new World
Order, one that would not permit
dishonesty and bribery, one that
[Page 133]
would bring with it the education
of daughters as well as sons, one
that taught that all mankind,
women as well as men, Christian
as well as Muḥammadan, poor
man as well as rich, were as one
before God and should work together
to bring peace to the
world, the Kingdom of God on
earth.
The women of Persia felt that a new hope had dawned, not only for them but for the women of the world. The women of Europe, the women of India also caught the spirit of this message and cherished it in their hearts.
When Țáhirih was brought back to Țihrán she was besieged by her admirers. Women thronged to see her and to hear her speak. Among those who especially showed her desire to be of service was her hostess, the wife of the mayor of the city, in whose home Țáhirih was confined as a prisoner. This gracious lady brought to Țáhirih’s presence the flower of womanhood in Țihrán. They felt the warmth of her love and the truth of all that she told them.
The story is related that there was a festival in the mayor’s home to celebrate the betrothal of his son. Entertainment was offered for the guests, many of whom belonged to the nobility. But the guests were all listening to Țáhirih converse about the new Teachings and almost forgot about the entertainment.
It is believed that Țáhirih was thus “imprisoned” in the home of the kalantar (or mayor) for about three years. One night the kalantar’s wife was summoned by Țáhirih. She found Țáhirih dressed in a gown of snow-white silk. The room was fragrant with the choicest perfume. Țáhirih said to her: “I am preparing to meet my Beloved, and wish to free you from the cares and anxieties of my imprisonment.”
Her hostess started to weep at the thought of separation from her. But Țáhirih told her gently that the time was fast approaching and gave her certain instructions to be carried out. Nabíl describes the last scenes between these two women very beautifully.
The next day an officer was
sent to take Ṭáhirih from the kalantar’s
home to a garden which
was to be the scene of her martyrdom.
She calmly mounted the
horse provided for her and with
attendants on either side she rode
to the garden of Ilkhání outside
the city, where a captain and
others commissioned to kill her
were waiting. Ṭáhirih herself
provided the silken handkerchief
with which she was strangled and
[Page 134]
her body was placed in an unfinished
well and covered with
rocks.
And so it was that in August 1852 the loving and courageous spirit of Țáhirih was released from confinement in this world.
The garden of Ilkhání has long since disappeared in the expansion of the city, and buildings now occupy that spot. But the spirit of Țáhirih has pervaded the world and inspired poets, statesmen and authors in many countries. Martha Root, the Bahá’í teacher who traveled around the world, met some of these persons in different countries. She wrote of her: “The finest trait in Țáhirih, or at least the one that helped the world the most, was her fidelity in searching for the truth!”
Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, has called her “the first woman suffrage martyr” and recalls that at her death she turned to the one in whose custody she had been placed and boldly declared: “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”
This is the second in a series of articles
on early heroes of the Bahá’í Faith.
God has given man the eye of investigation by which he may see and recognize truth. He has endowed man with ears that he may hear the message of reality and conferred upon him the gift of reason by which he may discover things for himself. This is his endowment and equipment for the investigation of reality. Man is not intended to see through the eyes of another, hear through another’s ears nor comprehend with another’s brain. Each human creature has individual endowment, power and responsibility in the creative plan of God. Therefore depend upon your own reason and judgment and adhere to the outcome of your own investigation; otherwise you will be utterly submerged in the sea of ignorance and deprived of all the bounties of God.
THE SONG OF TAHIRIH
NANCY DOUGLAS BOWDITCH
- Țáhirih, flower of Persia’s women,
- Pure white rose of love!
- I see thy petals falling in the mirrored fountain
- And the dark cypress pointing to the stars above;
- Hear the nightingale, his full throat singing
- Music in thy praise, fair follower of the dove.
- When the Shírázi Youth, with his great story,
- Opened wide the realms of light,
- Announcing the Immortal Glory,
- Became the “gate” and took the flight,
- His radiance flooded every city,
- Harsh voices called to new alarms,
- Shouting “Down! for we have no pity!”
- Evil and darkness sprang to arms!
- His pen had moved, Glad Tidings given,
- His destiny fulfilled and passed;
- The youthful Báb’s great heart had striven;
- He met His martyrdom at last.
- Fearless and filled with firm devotion,
- Dauntless you stood for freedom’s goal;
- From the wellspring of your deep emotion
- You surrendered your immortal soul!
- You gave your life without a tremor
- To make the old traditions fall,
- Called the world’s sisterhood together
- To batter down the ancient wall.
- How wise men came to hear your wisdom
- From behind the curtained door;
- And the monarch tried to save you,—
- For your hand he did implore!
- Your brave deeds rang around the world, Țáhirih,
- And a wave of justice swept
- For your many unseen sisters
- Who in bondage long had wept;
- And the wonder of it all, Țáhirih,
- That from out the land of Țá
- You sent your silver bugle notes
- To the Western world afar!
- Țáhirih, flower of Persia’s women,
- Pure white rose of love!
- I see thy petals falling in the mirrored fountain
- And the dark cypress pointing to the stars above;
- Hear the nightingale, his full throat singing
- Music in thy praise, fair follower of the dove.
The disciples of Christ forgot themselves and all earthly things, forsook all their cares and belongings, purged themselves of self and passion and with absolute detachment scattered far and wide and engaged in calling the peoples of the world to the Divine Guidance, till at last they made the world another world, illumined the surface of the earth and even to their last hour proved self-sacrificing in the pathway of that Beloved One of God. Finally in various lands they suffered glorious martyrdom. Let them that are men of action follow in their footsteps!
In these days, the most important of all things is the guidance of the nations and peoples of the world. Teaching the Cause is of utmost importance for it is the head cornerstone of the foundation itself. This wronged servant has spent his days and nights in promoting the Cause and urging the peoples to service. He rested not a moment, till the fame of the Cause of God was noised abroad in the world and the celestial strains from the Abhá Kingdom roused the East and the West. The beloved of God must also follow the same example. This is the secret of faithfulness, this is the requirement of servitude to the Threshold of Bahá!
THE ADVENT OF DIVINE JUSTICE
Book Review
CHARLOTTE M. LINFOOT
The Advent of Divine Justice, by Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’í Publishing Committee, Wilmette, Illinois, 1940.
THIS book, written by Shoghi
Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’í
Faith, is in reality a 76-page letter
addressed to the Bahá’ís of the United
States and Canada. Written on
December 25, 1938, three years before
Pearl Harbor, it contained not only
a warning that the world-shaking ordeal
prophesied by Bahá’u’lláh three
quarters of a century ago was about
to sweep America into its vortex, but
also the assurance that “molded and
purified in the crucible of a common
war . . . and disciplined by its lessons,”
this nation “will be in a position
to raise its voice in the councils
of the nations, itself lay the cornerstone
of a universal and enduring
peace, proclaim the solidarity, the
unity, and maturity of mankind, and
assist in the establishment of the
promised reign of righteousness on
earth.”
Delays and setbacks would be suffered, wrote the Guardian, in the course of this country’s evolution towards its ultimate destiny, but “such an evolution must persist until such time when that nation will, through the active and decisive part it will have played in the organization and the peaceful settlement of mankind, have attained the plenitude of its powers and functions as an outstanding member, and component part, of a federated world.”
In support of his confidence that the North American continent possesses the powers and capacities to achieve this destiny, Shoghi Effendi quoted such significant statements as the following from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Son of Bahá’u’lláh, who toured this country in 1912:
“The continent of America is, in the eyes of the one true God, the land wherein the splendors of His light shall be revealed, where the mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled, where the righteous will abide, and the free assemble.”
“The American nation is equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world, and be blest in both the East and the West for the triumph of its people . . . . It will lead all nations spiritually.”
Anticipating the question as to
how so great a distinction could be
conferred upon a people so steeped
in materialism, so notorious for political
corruption, racial prejudice,
lawlessness and moral laxity, Shoghi
Effendi explains that it is precisely
because of these evils that America
has been singled out by the Prophet
of God to become the standard-bearer
of the New World Order envisaged
in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh
and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. It is by
such means as this, he says that
Bahá’u’lláh can best demonstrate to
a heedless generation His almighty
power to raise up from the very
[Page 138]
midst of corruption and immorality
a new race of men and women who
“will increasingly exemplify those
essential virtues of self-renunciation,
of moral rectitude, of chastity, of
indiscriminating fellowship, of holy
discipline, and of spiritual insight
that will fit them for the preponderating
share they will have in calling
into being that World Order and
that World Civilization of which
their country, no less than the entire
human race, stands in desperate
need.”
The Guardian then points out that the Prophets of God have always chosen to appear and deliver Their message in countries and in times and among peoples that were either fast declining or had already sunk into the depths of spiritual degradation, and that those who responded to the call in each age have become the lever by means of which the entire human race has been lifted to a higher and nobler plane of life and conduct.
In the first half of The Advent of Divine Justice Shoghi Effendi presents a set of principles for those who would rise above the habits and tendencies which they have inherited from their environment, and by means of which they may cultivate and exemplify the spiritual prerequisites essential to the redemptive work of the Faith. Racial prejudice, “the most challenging issue” confronting the whole structure of American society receives special attention. Discrimination against any race, the consciousness of any division or cleavage in its ranks, says Shoghi Effendi, is a flagrant violation of the spirit that animates the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, and the Bahá’ís are called upon to demonstrate in all their behavior and activities the universality of their Faith and their freedom from “the taint of those prejudices that have already wrought such havoc in the domestic affairs, as well as the foreign relationships of nations.”
The practice of justice, rectitude of conduct, and the living of a chaste and holy life, are also set forth as crowning distinctions of the “new race” that will become the nucleus of the new civilization. “The companions of God are, in this day, the lump that must leaven the peoples of the world. They must show forth such deeds and character that all men may profit by their example.” “Whoso ariseth, in this Day to aid Our Cause, and summoneth to his assistance the hosts of a praiseworthy character and upright conduct, the influence of such action will most certainly be diffused throughout the whole world.”
Thus admonishing the Bahá’ís to “purify their characters, correct their manners, and improve their conduct,” Shoghi Effendi then devotes the second half of The Advent of Divine Justice to a program of united action to be accomplished within a given period of time. This task, known as the Seven Year Plan, is, he says, “a mere beginning,” “a trial of strength,” “a stepping stone to a crusade of still greater magnitude” to be undertaken in the opening years of the second Bahá’í century.
Besides the completion of the exterior
ornamentation of the Bahá’í
House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois,
the program involved the establishment
of centers of Bahá’í influence
and activity in every state
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and province of North America and
every country in Central and South
America by May 23, 1944,[1] that
from these points of spiritual focus
the healing effects of the spirit and
teachings of Bahá’u’lláh would permeate
“a world dimmed by the steadily
dying-out of religion.”
The achievement of that goal, wrote Shoghi Effendi, was not to be the responsibility of a few specially chosen leaders or teachers, but that “all must participate, however humble their origin, however limited their experience, however restricted their means.” To the Bahá’í youth he made a particular appeal to become distinguished by their behavior and to dedicate their vigor, alertness and natural optimism to this great enterprise. Pointing out that teaching the Cause of God is “the most meritorious of all deeds,” and outlining the methods to be employed in preparation for this service as well as for establishing the structural basis for the future Bahá’í Administrative Order, the Guardian referred briefly to the still larger and more challenging task awaiting the Bahá’ís of the Americas at the threshold of the second century of the Bahá’í era, namely, the propagation of the Faith “throughout the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and of Australasia, and as far as the islands of the Pacific.”
With this program as their guide, supplemented and reinforced from time to time with messages of encouragement from the Guardian, pioneers, settlers, itinerant teachers, stay-at-home Bahá’ís, veterans and neophytes, young and old both in years and experience, arose as one body and, within the allotted space of seven years, implanted the banner of Bahá’u’lláh in hundreds of cities in the western world that heretofore had not known His Name. Those were the difficult years of World War II, and the Bahá’ís shared alike with their fellowmen the set-backs of strife, confusion, ordeals and tribulations, the results of cataclysmic upheavals in all fields of human endeavor. But in spite of obstacles that at times seemed almost overwhelming, they kept their minds fixed upon their goals firmly believing that “the synchronization of such world-shaking crises with the progressive unfoldment and fruition of their divinely appointed task is itself the work of Providence, the design of an inscrutable Wisdom, and the purpose of an all-compelling Will.”
As they now take up their larger and more difficult task of carrying the healing message of Bahá’u’lláh to the suffering continent of Europe, the American Bahá’ís hail with grateful hearts every evidence of the orientation of their fellow citizens to their world mission as proclaimed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “No matter how ignorant of the Source from which those directing energies proceed, and however slow and laborious the process,” wrote the Guardian in The Advent of Divine Justice, “it is becoming increasingly evident that the nation as a whole whether through the agency of its government or otherwise, is gravitating, under the influence of forces that it can neither comprehend nor control, towards such associations and policies wherein, as indicated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, her true destiny must lie.”
- ↑ The hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Bahá’í Faith.
The Mature Man[edit]
BAHÁ’Í WORDS FOR MEDITATION[edit]
Deprive not yourselves of that which is created for you.
Joy unto him who, in this Day, casts away that which is possessed by the people, and holds fast to that which is commanded on the part of God, the King of Names and the Creator of things.
We beg of God to make thee a banner for assistance of His Cause, and to draw thee nearer unto Him under all circumstances.
Through Him the standard of knowledge is planted in the world, and the banner of unity is hoisted among nations.
Faith in God, and the knowledge of Him cannot be fully realized except through believing in all that hath proceeded from Him, and by practicing all that He hath commanded and all that is revealed in the Book from the Supreme Pen.
His commandments are the greatest fortress for the protection of the world and for the preservation of mankind.
Knowledge is the means of honor, prosperity, joy, gladness, happiness and exultation.
Indeed, the real treasury of man is his knowledge.
To study sciences and arts of all descriptions is allowable; but such sciences as are profitable, which lead and conduce to the elevation of mankind.
It is sanctioned that all the nations of the world consort with each other with joy and fragrance.
Consort ye, 0 people, with all religions with joy and fragrance!
Joy unto whosoever adhereth thereto and practices that whereunto he is commanded on the part of God, the knower, the wise!
It is not allowable to declare one's sins and transgressions before any man, inasmuch as this has not been, nor is, conducive to securing God's for-
These selections are from Bahá’í World Faith.
[Page 141]
giveness and pardon . . . such confession before the creatures leads to one’s humiliation and abasement, and God-exalted in His glory!—does not wish for the humiliation of His servants. (p. 194)
The trainer of the world is justice, for it consists of two pillars: Reward and retribution. (p. 195)
It is hoped that ye may be trained under the shadow of the Tree of divine providence, and act in that which is desired by God. (p. 196)
Defile not the tongue with cursing or execrating any one and guard your eyes against that which is not worthy. (p. 196)
Ye are all leaves of one tree and drops of one sea. (p. 196)
Happy are those who practice! (p. 196)
But the tyranny of the whole world can never withhold the Supreme Pen. (p. 197)
Religion is a manifest light and a strong fortress for the protection and tranquility of the people of the world. (p. 198)
If the lamp of Religion remain concealed agitation and anarchy would prevail, and the orb of justice and equity and the sun of peace and tranquility would be withheld from giving light. (p. 198)
For the fear of God commands people to do that which is just and forbids them that which is evil. (p. 198)
The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined and shining with two orbs, consultation and kindness. (p. 198)
In this manifestation, victorious hosts are worthy deeds and morals, and the leader and commander of these hosts is godlike piety. (p. 198)
The Supreme Pen enjoins upon all to instruct and educate the children . . . He who educates his son, or any other's children, it is as though he hath educated one of My children. (p. 200)
Glory is not his who loves his own country, but glory is his who loves his kind. (p. 199)
Blessed are those who attain! Blessed are those who practice! (p. 199)
[Page 142]
WITH OUR READERS[edit]
Glenn Shook, whose "One Moral Order or Anarchy" takes the leading place in this issue of World Order, needs no introduction to our constant readers. Going through back numbers of our magazine we find Professor Shook's first contribution was a series of three articles published in 1930 entitled "Some Aspects of Modern Science" in which he treated of certain spiritual phases of modern scientific thought. Since then hardly a year has passed without something from his pen which links science and religion and which has helped us to understand better the Bahá’í principle that science and religion cannot be antagonistic. Professor Shook is head of the department of Physics at Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts. His last previous contribution was a series of articles with the general title "Youth and the Modern World" which ran through five numbers of World Order in 1946.
"A World Educator" is Louise Groger's second contribution to this magazine. Our readers will recall her "Religion, too, Evolves" in our September, 1946 issue. In that issue we gave her interesting account of how a visit to the Bahá’í Temple at Wilmette resulted in her acceptance of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Mrs. Groger belongs to the San Francisco Bahá’í community.
The account "‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Budapest" seems particularly timely just now when Bahá’ís in America are renewing contacts with Bahá’ís in Europe. This account is a part of the foreword by Rustem Vambery to the Hungarian translation of Dr. Esslemont's Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era. Professor Arminius Vambery, whose letter to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is included in the account, was a distinguished scholar, orientalist and anthropologist, greatly revered by European and Oriental scholars. In volume IV of the Star of the West Mrs. J. Stannard says of him: "To many Vambery was perhaps known only as a brilliant and indefatigable anthropologist and researcher into hidden origin; to others, who know the infinite complexities of life and thought in the Near East, he meant a great deal more. His strenuously active life comprised more knowledge based on experience than is generally to be found in the career of three ordinary diplomatists. His linguistic attainments were remarkable, for he spoke and wrote over fifteen languages Concerning religious philosophy he could enter into discussions with the best and especially on Islamic theology, whether Persian or Arabian, he spoke with immediate and intimate knowledge that inspired great respect among the learned mullás."
The translation of this foreword into English was made by Martha Root who, in her traveling and teaching throughout Europe, spent some time in spreading the Bahá’í teachings in Budapest. Of her Dr. Rustem Vambery, in a letter granting us permission to print this foreword, writes: "Your letter recalled
[Page 143]
WITH OUR READERS[edit]
the memory of our dear friend, Miss Martha Root, whose frail body was in strange contrast to the power of her apostolic mission." Dr. Rustem Vambery, himself distinguished as a scholar, writer and internationalist, is now living in Kew Gardens, Long Island.
Gertrude K. Henning's editorial, "A New Race of Men" helps us to understand that the changes in the hearts and minds of men which are necessary for a sane and peaceful world, are, through the grace and power of God, now gradually taking place.
"Țáhirih", by Beatrice Ashton, continues our Bahá’í Heroes Series. This series is concerned with heroes in the early years of the Bahá’í Faith and the stories are taken largely from The Dawn-Breakers. Since this book is now out of print we believe our readers will find the stories in this series of especial interest and value. Mrs. Mrs. Ashton served the Bahá’í Faith in Cleveland and in Evanston for a number of years. This is her first contribution to World Order. Her home in in Winnetka, Illinois.
The poem "The Song of Țáhirih" which so fittingly accompanies Mrs. Ashton's article is by Nancy Douglas Bowditch whose identification may be found in the May number of this magazine.
We continue our Bahá’í Literature series with Charlotte Linfoot's review of The Advent of Divine Justice. Miss Linfoot was for several years secretary of the National Bahá’í Teaching Committee and, while active in Bahá’í service in many ways, this is her first contribution to World Order. Her home is in Piedmont, California.
We continue the new features of our magazine. The illustration with its caption on page one and the quoted words on page two will introduce new readers each month to some phase of Bahá’í teachings. Words for Meditation will supply the "food of the spirit" of which we all stand in need.
Letters and the spoken word show that our readers like these new features in World Order. One reader writes: "I like the April number very much. The picture of the Temple section with the caption above it would make any thoughtful person want to read the magazine. And I am glad you are using quotations from modern authors (on page 2) on the subject of the Faith . . . Also the Bahá’í words for meditation answer a distinct need. I feel sure we shall use many of them for our weekly quotation in our daily local newspaper."
This same letter speaks especially of Duart Brown's "The Wind of Spring" and May Harvey Gift's "Modern Man Is Obsolete" as appealing to many, perhaps most, readers, because the authors have used modern phraseology.
Others are enthusiastic about the new cover. One letter says: "My new World Order in its new dress came today and I must tell you it is beautiful. The color scheme is startlingly lovely and yet simple."
Letters from our Bahá’í friends in Europe tell us of spiritual [Page 144]
hunger there and dearth of books and printed matter. One friend in Germany writes to a friend here: "I was surprised by a nice gift from you. It was the Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh and I was so happy and rejoiced to get it, so may I offer many thousand thanks for your kindness and love. It is a precious possession to have such a book, especially here in Germany, as you know we lost most of our books. Though my family has two copies (in German) what are two copies for five persons?”
Another letter is in gratitude for a copy of The Promised Day Is Come, and says: "I thank you with my whole heart for all your love and for thinking of us all in sending such a wonderfully precious book for us all. As you surely know the call for literature with us is almost unbearable. Paper is so scarce that we can receive no permit for printing. Now we are copying the Esslemont book chapter by chapter on the typewriter, so as to have something to give those who are interested, for the small pamphlets are no longer sufficient. But typewriting paper is also coming to an end, and then there we are, and what to do next?" Then the writer adds, "We are not complaining in spite of our need and difficulties, for 'Where the need is greatest, God is nearest.' "
A letter from another German city says: "If only we had books! We have here one German Esslemont which is always in circulation. We could win many new friends if we had even two Esslemonts or similar introductory books."
These bits from letters help us to see the big problems our European Teaching Committee has to meet in sending not only teachers to Europe but books and literature in many languages. We understand that some printing paper has been sent to Germany.
As a sequel to her article on UNESCO in our May issue Gertrude B. Fleur of Seattle sends us more news about the plans and progress of this important subsidiary of UN. At its April meeting, she tells us, the Executive-Board of UNESCO discussed such live topics as: freedom of information, education through mass media, the re-education of enemy countries. To promote interest in these ideas several conferences are planned in cooperation with other branches of UN. In his opening speech Director General Dr. Julian Huxley urged the adoption of a universal auxiliary language such as Basic English, Basic Russian, or Esperanto. No definite action was taken in regard to this suggestion.
One of the major steps this year, we are told in United Nations World, is the establishment of three test areas in Haiti, China and British West Africa where experiments to fight illiteracy will be carried on. The fields of health and agriculture will be emphasized.
Those who are working in and for UN are not discouraged by repeated seeming failure in efforts to solve the very tough problems confronting the world, the editor of Changing World affirms. The encouraging thing, he says, is that UN is "eternally keeping at" the work of solving seemingly insoluble problems.
-THE EDITORS
[Page 145]
Bahá’í Literature[edit]
Books About the Faith Distributed by Bahá’í Publishing Committee 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
BAHÁ’U’LLÁH AND THE NEW ERA[edit]
This work by the late J. E. Esslemont of Aberdeen, Scotland, has for more than twenty years been the most useful introductory book on the Bahá’í Revelation. Its successive chapters outline the history and teachings of the Faith, and show the significance of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the New Era. Many translations have appeared in languages other than English.
THE PROMISE OF ALL AGES[edit]
Dr. George Townshend of the Church of England has become known as one of the most scholarly and appealing authors working on Bahá’í material. This work has particular interest for seekers with Christian background. It develops the theme of Bahá’u’lláh as the "King of Glory" foretold by all the Prophets.
SECURITY FOR A FAILING WORLD[edit]
Prof. Stanwood Cobb, American educator, has successfully set himself to answer the question as to whether the intelligence of man is capable of creating a stable civilization—without a spiritual renaissance the present social order is doomed. It features the role of religion in the formation of civilization.
THIS EARTH ONE COUNTRY[edit]
The author, Emeric Sala of Montreal, is a business man with international experience. He approaches religion in terms of its new function as source of justice and describes clearly and forcefully the unique contribution being made by the Bahá’í Faith to the solution of the existing world problem.
THE RENEWAL OF CIVILIZAŢION[edit]
A new and very useful introductory work of less than one hundred pages. The author, David Hofman of London, England, is concerned with the questions oppressing men today: what the future holds, what purpose there is in life, what value in striving, what good in civilization. His book of nine chapters will interest any person who has the courage to seek the true answer to the issues of our time.
[Page 146]
Words of Bahá’u’lláh Inscribed Over the Nine Entrances of the House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois[edit]
1. The earth is but one country; and mankind its citizens.
2. The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me.
3. My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure.
4. Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner.
5. Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent.
6. I have made death a messenger of joy to thee; wherefore dost thou grieve?
7. Make mention of Me on My earth that in My heaven I may remember thee.
8. O rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust.
9. The source of all learnings is the knowledge of God, exalted be His glory.