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WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
JULY, 1948
The Real Challenge of Today
Mabel Hyde Paine
Where Nature Builds, Poem
Alice Josephine Wyatt
Why Pray?
N. M. Firoozi
Latin America and the Principle of Unity
Artemus Lamb
Acre: City of War and Peace, Editorial
Garreta Busey
The Literature of Tomorrow
Duart Vinson Brown
Lords of Creation
Floyd H. Munson
Quddús: Companion of the Báb
Harriet Pettibone
Spiritual Pioneers, Poem
Olga Finke
Meditations: Nearness to God
With Our Readers
20¢
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. Editor: Garreta Busey. Managing Editor: Eleanor S. Hutchens. Associate Editors: Victor de Araujo, Elsa Blakely, Robert Durr, Pearl Easterbrook, Gertrude Henning, Flora Emily Hottes, Mabel H. Paine.
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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 1948 by
Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title registered at U. S. Patent
Office.
ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE
THE frontispiece shows the home of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá while He was still a prisoner in ‘Akká (Acre). The long flight of steps leading to an upper courtyard and to the chamber of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were called by Carl Scheffler, after a visit to Him there, “the steps up to Heaven.” The atmosphere of the place was one of great simplicity and of great happiness. Thornton Chase, a member of the same party, tried to describe it, as have many others. “Nothing visible,” he wrote, “caused that happiness within those walls; it is simply and truly the presence there of the Holy Spirit of God in overwhelming power. This sweet aroma of the Spirit radiates from that fountain of love for humanity, which pours forth so freely, so impersonally, so universally for every soul that is wanting love. They come from every land, from every religion, from all kinds of training, each with his little cup or larger bowl, seeking answers to his quest . . . And, after a week, a day, or an hour, they return to their distant homes, all filled with love, most of their questions unasked and forgotten, curious no longer, but satisfied and overflowing with love to the human race and a great longing to bear the Word of Revelation to their friends, and to serve every creature of God without regard to family, race, or religion. The inexpressible happiness of the Spirit possesses each one of them, and he wants the whole world to have it.”
WORLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME XIV JULY, 1948 NUMBER 4
The Real Challenge of Today
MABEL HYDE PAINE
IN THE time of Jesus the Christ
some of those who disbelieved
in Him came and asked
Him to give them a sign. They
thought that if He would work
some miracle in the physical
realm they might believe in Him.
His answer was that they could
read the signs of weather in the
sky, “but”, He added, “can ye
not discern the signs of the
times?” He went on to say that
no sign should be given them, but
“the sign of the prophet”. Is it
possible that we have been given
“the sign of the prophet”? Are
we living in such times as those
to which Christ came? If we read
the signs of the times aright
shall we find they portend such
changes as only a great Prophet
can bring about?
The signs of the times are all around us. We cannot live, observe, listen to the radio, read current magazines, papers and books, without viewing the signs of the times.
One sign that stares us in the face is the tremendous prevalence of crime. A current magazine had, not long ago, an article on this subject showing from statistics and examples how crime is on the increase, particularly among the young, and even among the very young, the children. Such remedies were suggested as fining parents, better discipline in home and school. But, as if the writer had a presentiment that this might not be enough, he ended with “somebody ought to be putting what we call the fear of God into the children of America.” This author felt that the real cause of crime is lack of religion. And is it not true that religion alone can affect the whole nature of man? Laws, enforced by discipline, although they are important, apparently are not enough. The real thoroughgoing preventive must go deep into the heart, as only true religion can.
Is not another outstanding
sign of the times corruption in
[Page 112]
politics? The cause would seem
to be the extreme materialism
which is so characteristic of our
age. The horizons of men’s minds
are so bounded by greed for material
things that they willingly
sacrifice ideals, such as honesty,
fairness, and devotion to the public
good, for money and power.
What can restore these ideals except
a great revival of religion?
The Bahá’í message is that the
force to bring about such a revival
has already been released
by Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of
the Bahá’í Faith.
Another sign of the times is racial prejudice, evident now in various parts of the world. We in America are, alas, all too familiar with the devastating ferocity racial prejudice may release. The distinctive teaching of the Bahá’í Faith is the “unity of mankind”, which means that all human beings are to be thought of as children of God, with the capacity to know God and to love Him, and, through that knowledge and love of God, to develop to the extent of their capacity. According to this principle of the unity of mankind, we should not despise any race or any nation, or any man, on account of such superficial differences as color or nationality or even on account of lack of development. The underprivileged must be given more privileges, the uneducated must be educated, the morally undeveloped must be helped to develop. In America, one of the greatest challenges of our day is to rise above racial prejudice. The Bahá’í answer to this challenge is clear and insistent. The Bahá’í Faith numbers among its followers members of both the colored and the white race, in fact members of all races. No distinction is made among them. Among Bahá’ís that blessed feeling which unites those of kindred thoughts and aspirations is heightened through taking in different races. This is a very real and beautiful experience, to which Bahá’ís can testify.
Another sign of our times is
the prevalence of strikes. One of
the Bahá’í principles is the doing
away with extremes of poverty
and wealth. The ideal society, toward
which all mankind is striving,
will have no idle rich and
no idle poor. Already parts of the
world begin to approach this doing
away with extreme wealth
and extreme poverty through the
increased use of a graduated income
tax. Laws, according to the
Bahá’í Teachings, should prevent
a few people from amassing
large fortunes while many of the
people do not have the necessities
of life. This condition should
[Page 113]
be regulated, but absolute equality
should not be attempted as
this is incompatible with human
nature. Adequate wages and profit
sharing are endorsed in the
Bahá’í Teachings. But in this
economic phase of society the
Bahá’í Teachings, as always, go
below the surface. Good laws,
adequate wages and profit sharing,
these alone will not solve
the problem of strikes. The underlying
cause of strikes is the
rapacity of the capitalists and
the greed and ill will of the
working man. The real secret of
the economic problem is in the
world of the heart and the spirit.
The ideal must come to be not
warfare, but welfare. There must
be genuine connection between
hearts to the point that the rich
will be willing to give to the
poor and, on the other hand, the
worker will not strive for more
than his due share. So here again
the real challenge of today is in
the realm of character, the realm
of the heart and the spirit.
Moral laxity is an outstanding sign of our time. Standards of individual conduct are constantly being lowered in such matters as the relation between the sexes, the use of alcohol, and the lack of moderation in all that pertains to dress, language and amusements. For the great majority of Americans the restraints formerly exercised by religion are gone. What but a revival of true religion can bring them back?
These great corruptions of our modern life and society, the prevalence of crime, corruption in politics, racial prejudices, the spirit of warfare in our industrial life, moral laxity of the individual, are evident to every thoughtful person and many are seeing that the root cause of these corruptions is irreligion.
There are other more hidden failings which now affect many individual lives. There is evident at every turn an inability on the part of a great many people to meet the strains of daily living. Many who, in simpler times, maintained their morale, now, under contemporary complex conditions, go to pieces. It is commonly said that the difficulties brought on by the war cause this disintegration of character. Undoubtedly these difficulties are often the occasion which reveals the lack of character. But in reality is it not true that the difficulties of modern life simply reveal what existed all along, the shallowness of a character which never learned to draw strength from God? Inner strength comes from a consciousness of springs of spiritual succor too deep for earthly droughts to dry up.
Bahá’ís can testify to the deep
[Page 114]
springs of spiritual strength
which their Faith holds. It is a
Faith which gives the individual
renewed courage and hope, answering
that yearning for real
religion which many hearts now
feel. In every realm of the inner
life the Bahá’í teachings bring a
larger measure of understanding,
and with this understanding
comes an inestimable peace and
comfort. Someone has compared
the Bahá’í Faith to a “wide embrace
gathering together all those
who have long searched for
words of hope.” Here the Christian
finds a fresh expression of
the real spirit of Christ now so
rarely found. And followers of
other great religions find here the
essence of their faith told in accents
fitted to our modern needs.
In the Bahá’í books lies the inspiration that will eventually unite the world’s warring elements and is already binding many hearts in heavenly love. Here, as Queen Marie of Roumania, who became one of its followers, said, one finds “unity instead of strife, hope instead of condemnation, love instead of hate, and a great reassurance for all men . . . To those in search of assurance it is as a fountain in the desert after long wandering.”
Greater and deeper than all the other challenges of our world today, and underlying them all is the lack of real, universal love. Here again the underlying cause is, doubtless, the extreme materialism of our age. As Wordsworth wrote,
- “The world is too much with us; late and soon,
- Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
- . . .
- We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”
The Bahá’í writings tell of this dearth of love and point out that some great Divine power is needed to quicken again the hearts of men so that they will feel love. Lack of love is the great modern disease of humanity. Nothing but the power of God can bring it back.
And what has been God’s
method in the past of bringing to
men’s hearts the love of all humanity?
Christ brought such a
love to mankind. The world to
which He came was callous to human
needs and human suffering,
but He aroused His disciples to
such a pitch of love for all mankind
that each of them went forth
to spread His gospel of universal
love, and each willingly laid
down his life in the path of
spreading that gospel. Through
their influence many hearts were
filled with universal love, and
this love spread to many more
and bore fruit finally in a
[Page 115]
changed world, a world united
through the love of Christ, a
world having merciful institutions
for the care of the sick, the
afflicted, the poor and the downtrodden.
And the influence of
Christ has not entirely passed
away. But who can view our
world of today, sick in every
phase of its civilization from the
effect of two wars of unparalleled
destructiveness, wars in which
Christian nation fought against
Christian nation, and not agree
that a fresh outpouring of Divine
love is needed?
The Bahá’í Message is that always when humanity’s need is greatest, God sends His Messenger to bring the teachings which are the remedy for the ills of the age, and the power to put these teachings into practice. Just as Christ brought the teachings and the power to unite the world to which He came and to inspire His followers with love for mankind, so Bahá’u’lláh has brought new teachings and new power to unite all the peoples of our globe.
In His own lifetime Bahá’u’lláh showed a superhuman power to unite people of different backgrounds of nationality and religion. He came to a very backward part of the world, to Persia, where religious fanaticism had reached such a high pitch that the followers of the various religions, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Muḥammadan and Christian, though they professed to follow the Divine Teachings of their Founders, to worship one God and live together in peace and unity, yet shunned and hated one another. Their hatred had become so intense that a follower of one religion would not touch one of another religion. If a Jew or Zoroastrian on a rainy day let his wet garment touch the garment of a Muḥammadan, the Muḥammadan was defiled and might even kill the one who had touched him. Christians and Jews showed the same intense hatred for those of another religion. Yet when these people came under the influence of Bahá’u’lláh, they saw one another as children of God and brothers. All differences were forgotten.
This new, divinely sent love was like a flame of fire, which spread from heart to heart until hundreds of thousands in Persia were kindled with universal love.
I had the privilege of seeing,
at first hand, the effects of this
wonderful power to unite souls
of different beliefs when I visited
the Headquarters of the Bahá’í
Faith at Haifa, Palestine, in
1920. At that time Bahá’u’lláh’s
eldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, associated
[Page 116]
all His life with His father,
imbued with Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings,
exemplifying them perfectly,
appointed by Bahá’u’lláh to
preserve the unity of the Faith
and interpret its teachings, was
still living, and I had the privilege
to receive the Bahá’í
Teachings from Him. Many pilgrims
came from the East and
the West to share in this bounty.
Every evening they would gather
at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s table. Among
them were representatives of all
the great religions of the world,
the Jewish, the Zorastrian, the
Buddhist, the Christian and the
Muḥammadan. But all ideas of
separateness had vanished. All
were united through this bond of
universal love. All had learned,
through the Bahá’í Faith and the
universal love it brings, to forget
their differences, to know that
there is but one religion, the religion
of love to God and for all
mankind. All were united
through this bond.
The Bahá’í Faith renews for us this fundamental of all religions, a profound and powerful force making for love of God and love of all mankind, a love that sweeps away barriers of race, religion, sectarianism, nationalism, class hatred, and prejudices of all kinds. It also gives us, through its administrative order, an education in cooperation.
If we go back to our original
thought of meeting the various
challenges which the world of
today offers, is not one of the
main difficulties an inability to
get along with other people?
Leaders in education are now
saying that the most important
task our public schools have is
to teach pupils how to live with
others harmoniously. The world
needs not only universal love,
but a technique for applying it.
This we find in the Bahá’í Faith
in its practice of the principle of
consultation. In each city or village
where there are nine Bahá’ís
or more, a Spiritual Assembly is
formed or elected. This Assembly
of nine persons has the direction
of Bahá’í activities in that
area. It decides, through consultation
and prayer, the problems
that arise. Each problem is discussed
fully and frankly by all
the members. The exact facts are
brought out, also the bearings of
the Bahá’í teachings on the question
under discussion. Divine
help is sought in prayer and a
vote taken. All then abide by
this decision. Even if the decision
is not perfect it is important,
for the sake of unity, the
main principle of the Bahá’í
Faith, to carry it out. If the spirit
of love and unity is maintained
any error can be rectified. This
method makes of the Bahá’í
[Page 117]
Cause an excellent school for
training people of different temperaments
and character to work
together. The aim is to attain
unity through seeking the will
of God.
These assemblies of consultation are the basis of the Bahá’í World Order, which is now spread in 91 countries of the world. In all of these countries the Bahá’í Teachings have demonstrated their power to draw together in sincere love people of all ranks of life and ideas and feelings. In nine of these countries National Assemblies exist, elected by all the Bahá’ís of the country.
We might go on listing the problems of contemporary life and showing the Bahá’í solution for the problems. But perhaps we have not really read the signs of the times until we face this question: Why have all these evil conditions come into the world? There seems little doubt that we are living in evil times and that humanity has brought this evil on itself through the disintegration of individual character.
As we turn to history we find that often, when humanity was sinking lower and lower in the depths of immorality and spiritual degradation, a great Prophet of God has appeared. When the Israelites had been sunk for many years under the debasing influence of tyranny and slavery, Moses appeared. Through the revelation God gave Him on Mt. Sinai he educated them in the laws of God, led them out of Egypt to Palestine, where, through obedience to the laws given them by Moses, they founded a great and noble civilization. A decline in this civilization had set in when Jesus Christ appeared and founded Christianity and our Western civilization. In the sixth and seventh centuries Muḥammad came to the cruel and immoral tribes of Arabia. He proclaimed Divine teachings which lifted His followers to such heights that they established a marvelous civilization. This Arabic civilization penetrated many of the countries around the Mediterranean and carried the torch of learning and civilization through the Middle Ages.
In brief, must we not conclude
that “man’s extremity is God’s
opportunity”? In the light of
these great turning points of history
it seems that the truly terrible
condition in which the
world now finds iself, indicates
that God, as always before at
such times, has sent a fresh Revelation
of truth with power to recreate
all things so that mankind
may not be deprived of God’s
mercy. The real challenge of today
[Page 118]
comes from the fact
that humanity has strayed from the
right path and become corrupt in
morals. History shows that such
moral degradation has in the
past brought help from God,
Who will not leave His children
without Divine guidance when
they most need it.
The Bahá’í Faith enables us to meet this challenge of today both because its teachings fortify us immeasurably in our daily lives and because it gives us a great hope for the future of mankind. The very depth of mankind’s degradation is providential, for it brings about a keener realization of the needs of humanity and forces us to see that those needs are, in reality, moral and spiritual. These spiritual and moral needs are so widespread that when a world faith appears with such substantial proofs as the Bahá’í Faith shows we must of necessity give it our earnest consideration. It was Helen Keller who said that the Bahá’í Faith “deserves the best thought we can give it.” If we realize its challenge we cannot rest until we have investigated openheartedly and thoroughly the claims of Bahá’u’lláh and His Revelation.
Bahá’u’lláh, like a great physician, brings teachings which are remedies for our individual ills and for the ills of the world. As we gain faith in Bahá’u’lláh, study His teachings, begin to practice them, we find we have tapped a great source of spiritual strength. We find, too, a great source of courage and hope for the future in the predictions which run through the Bahá’í writings, predictions of the Golden Age which is to follow the dark times in which humanity now dwells.
For the Bahá’í Revelation gives the world not only a religion, but a world order. It not only contains spiritual food and inspiration for each one of us; it presents humanity with a blueprint for a unified world. I have already indicated how this unified world is taking shape in embryo in the Bahá’í communities scattered all over the world, communities in which we find cross sections of humanity, people of all races, nationalities and varying backgrounds of culture and upbringing, working together to bring about the Oneness of Mankind, the central Bahá’í principle. These miniature organisms Bahá’ís believe are the beginning of and the pattern for a unified world.
This principle of the Oneness
of Mankind is also appearing
spontaneously as people gradually
become aware that unity is
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the crying need of our disorganized
society. As the world sloughs
off, bit by bit, its prejudices and
comes to realize that a world religion
is the only permanent
binding force for humanity, there
will come about a new order, described
by the Guardian of the
Bahá’í Faith in these words: “A
World community in which all
economic barriers will have been
permanently demolished and the
interdependence of Capital and
Labor definitely recognized; in
which the flame of racial animosity
will have been finally extinguished;
. . . and finally a world
community in which . . . militant
nationalism will have been transmuted
into an abiding consciousness
of world citizenship.”
Where Nature Builds
ALICE JOSEPHINE WYATT
- The trees are shaking incense like a priest
- Who in a vaulted church protects his flock.
- The sunset throws an altar on the east
- Of gilded clouds above sun-burnished rock.
- There is no organ with the thunder still,
- But bird choirs fill the tree naves with a chant
- Of sacred hymns. The tumbling brooklets spill
- Their holy water on the leaning plant.
- I feel the breath of the Almighty near,
- Rhythmic and peaceful as a sleeping child.
- There is no sense of stress or human fear
- Where nature builds and everything grows wild.
- Eternity has made its temple strong
- In cloistered places filled with sacred song.
Why Pray?
N. M. FIROOZI
THERE can be no doubt that
all beings are moving towards
a destiny, an assigned
goal, a preordained purpose. A
seed moves towards germination,
a plant towards flowering and
fruition. The clouds are in action
until they become rain or
snow, falling upon the earth, watering
plants and animals. The
sun holds the solar system together,
shines upon the earth,
causes all that science has discovered
thereon and will discover.
In doing so, these are all
serving, serving a prescribed
purpose, or, we may say, they
are obeying certain laws of creation.
We could as well, in the language
of the poet and the spiritual
philosopher, say that in doing
so they are praying to their
Maker and are obedient to His
will.
In the Psalms we read, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day by day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge.” And a Persian poet writes,
- “The cloud, the wind, the moon, the sun, in short the universe is at work
- That you may live, but not in vain.
- Would it not be unfair, were you disobedient,
- While for you all things in action and obedience remain?”
All these movements in obedience to natural or God-created laws, however, are without any consciousness.
Man, on the other hand, has been favored with a supreme characteristic over and above the rest of creation: that is, consciousness. This characteristic or endowment is one of the necessary attributes of the Creator Himself. This is one of the meanings of “God created man in His own image.” God further created man, though to a limited degree, as is the case with consciousness, with still another endowment, which the Bestower of necessity possesses Himself, that is, freedom of choice. He becomes aware of his Creator and thus in him the conscious, willed activities of prayer and service replace the unconscious and instinctive activities of the rest of the universe.
Now, is it fitting for us, human
beings who are endowed
with consciousness and choice, to
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do less than the rest of creation:
to pray with laxity or not to pray
at all?
WHAT TO PRAY FOR
When a child in his early training murmurs, in unfinished words and sentences, “O God, bless my daddy. I want a red ball like Jimmy’s and a white pony—big like Johnny’s,” we, the parents, smile within ourselves and consider the prayer infantile. Yet we ourselves in our prayers sometimes demand similar things, though on a different scale, and are unconscious of the possibility that our prayers, too, seem selfish and materialistic in the eyes of more spiritual people. Could there not be other beings who on hearing our prayers smile within themselves and consider us immature?
The roots of a tree, fulfilling their functions with great labor and patience, find their way into the hard earth for two specific purposes that are not for the benefit of the roots themselves: to create stability and to manufacture food for the tree. These roots toil for themselves only to the extent of self-maintenance, the chief objective being to serve the tree. The tree in turn offers beauty, shade, flowers and fruit and if it does not, it is cut down for lesser purposes.
We, the human and superior beings, in the image of God, endowed with consciousness and choice, have begun to be relatively mature only when we realize that we are here mainly to provide stability and food for beings other than ourselves, and for ourselves only to the extent of being able to fulfill this purpose. This is the setup of the entire creation, if we look at it with the eyes of God. This has been the will of the Great Architect in building this “house.” Each and every piece, particle or molecule in this building is used with rhythm, balance and harmony and is planned to support, enhance and strengthen other structural parts. For this perfect and everlasting house worthy materials are chosen, prepared, and then used. Any material that is unworthy to be prepared for the planned purpose or that resists being processed and placed in His harmonious whole will be rejected and must perish.
Who can justly claim to be of himself and by himself worthy of the station prescribed for him? What else but recognition of one’s own station, perfect humility and submission, whole-hearted prayer and supplication will ever be able to support us, keep us firm and steadfast and prepare us for our destined purpose, the only goal worth praying for?
HOW TO PRAY
The history of man’s spiritual progress or evolution fully indicates that we do not all reach the abode of spiritual maturity in the twinkling of an eye. Consciousness and choice, the two invaluable gifts with which, in this contingent world, man and man alone is endowed, are prerequisite to two yet greater gifts if we only acquire them: namely, the knowledge and the love of God. Once this is fully recognized, we are at the beginning of a new world, the human world, the world of His own image.
Knowledge and love of worthwhile material things are not attained simply by wishing. After a choice is made we must embark on the craft of effort and guide it with patience. No knowledge or love worthy of mention is reached otherwise. In like manner, who but the daydreamer or the idle worshiper would expect to climb celestial heights or make spiritual gains with anything less than all the effort, all the zeal and energy of which he is possessed? Prayer is an attitude whose attainment means striving, and when that attitude is attained, every action for His pleasure is embraced with a prayer, and every prayer with an action.
O My servants! Were ye to discover the hidden, the shoreless oceans of My incorruptible wealth, ye would, of a certainty, esteem as nothing the world, nay, the entire creation. Let the flame of search burn with such fierceness within your hearts as to enable you to attain your supreme and most exalted goal—the station at which ye can draw nigh unto, and be united with, your Best-Beloved . . .
O Son of Being!
Love Me that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.
Latin America and the Principle of Unity
ARTEMUS LAMB
The great fundamental aim
of the Bahá’í Faith is to establish
the unity of mankind in a
union of all the races, nations,
classes, and creeds in one common
Faith, in one great World
Commonwealth. This ideal goal,
the dream of poets and prophets
of old, Bahá’u’lláh assures us
is now not only possible, but
also obligatory, because the exigencies
of the times and the Divine
Will now require this tremendous
step in the evolutionary
march of man on this planet.
The establishment of the unity of mankind, however, does not require that different segments of the human race conform their local ideas and customs so as to fit into one uniform mold, but rather that the races, nations, classes, creeds, and even individual give up those customs, policies and ideas that form barriers to peaceful and cooperative living, so that all can unite in a fundamental unity embracing all the aspects of human life, a unity which will be established upon basic and universal verities common to all people and groups. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has described it so beautifully in his famous simile of the flower garden, the different types of human beings should be regarded as one looks at the multi-colored and diverse flowers in a well-planned garden; not only is each flower beautiful in itself, but the very differences between them make their individual beauty stand out because of the contrast.
This is the principle of “unity in diversity,” the promulgation of which will bring about, writes Shoghi Effendi, “a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspirations, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.”
As one teaches in other lands
these principles revealed by
Bahá’u’lláh, the wisdom of them
forces itself upon the consciousness.
Here at the southern tip of
Chile, different from any other
place in the world, it is only
natural that the psychology, customs,
and reactions of the people
should be distinct, too. The very
isolation, cold, silence, storminess,
makes for a people hard,
strong, withdrawn, apathetic,
earthy. How would it be possible
to pour these people into the
[Page 124]
same mold with the warm-hearted,
easy-going, sensitive, and responsive
inhabitants of tropical
Guayaquil, Ecuador, for example?
According to our comprehension of the Bahá’í Teaching of “unity in diversity,” this is not only unnecessary but inadvisable. What is essential is to establish in the consciousness of all people basic concepts universal in application, such as the knowledge that all human beings belong to one organism, the different parts of which are so closely connected and interdependent, both materially and spiritually, that anything which affects one must affect the rest; that all inhabit one common home, which is the earth; that all were created by the same Supreme Being, regardless of what we call Him, and depend upon Him for life and light; that there exist certain spiritual and moral laws of conduct, certain standards, which are valid for all human beings everywhere and which are revealed to mankind through the “Prophets” or “Manifestations” sent by God for this purpose; that Bahá’u’lláh is the latest of these Manifestations of God and that He has brought us not only the laws and standards appropriate for this epoch, but also a Plan for the establishment of peace and order in the world. After knowledge of these concepts is obtained, then they must be put into action in daily life through the medium of the all-embracing Plan revealed by Bahá’u’lláh. The result of this procedure will be “a world-embracing Commonwealth, which would be at once the instrument and the guardian of the Most Great Peace . . .”
Beautiful but impossible, you say. But is it? Everywhere people are looking for the answer to something. Those who are acquainted with world affairs or who have had actual experience in the Great Wars know that some means must be evolved to establish world peace and world order or mankind will destroy itself, either all at once by an all-out world massacre, or bit by bit through physical and spiritual exhaustion such as is even now taking place in Europe and Asia. Others are looking for something, they know not what; something to console their aching hearts and fill the nameless void they feel in their souls.
In Latin America, for example,
the people are naturally
spiritually minded; they have
been accustomed for generations
to have a religious core to their
lives; they are natural “believers.”
For one reason or another
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present generations have strayed
away from formal religion, but
the feeling is still there and the
vacuum must be filled! In Chile
every one speaks of the spiritual
“inquietud” (unrest) which is
gnawing at the vitals of the people
and driving them to drink,
pleasure-seeking, and vice as a
means of assuaging it. The people
of Latin America are also
great lovers of mankind; almost
to a man they accept consciously
or unconsciously the idea of the
brotherhood of man, and they
possess an intuitive ability to
grasp immediately the truth and
the worth of the exalted Teachings
of Bahá’u’lláh, an ability
difficult for the analytical and
skeptical Anglo-Saxon to understand.
It is true that every one
does not become an active Bahá’í
immediately upon hearing of the
Teachings, but everywhere one
is given an open hearing and aid
in the promulgation of the Faith.
Never has the writer had the experience,
in over three years of
teaching in this great land, of
having a Latin American reject
or deny the truth of the Bahá’í
Revelation, and practically never
have we been refused the cooperation
of a radio station or newspaper.
No, the unity of mankind is not nearly so difficult to establish as at first it appears, and day by day it grows easier, as the suffering and disorder mounts, as the spiritual unrest increases, as the world becomes more and more united economically and industrially, as people travel more to other lands, read the literature of other people, and listen to their programs over the radio. Even here at the very frontier of civilization, the people are beginning to talk of the need for world peace and world order, because even here the international disorder is upsetting trade and commerce, and the radio and airplane now bring daily news of the rest of the world.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá has said that “man can withstand everything except that which is divinely intended and indicated for the age and its requirements,” and the establishment of the unity of mankind is the Divine Program for today.
How blessed are those who know this and take their part in its fulfillment.
Acre: City of War and Peace
Editorial
THIS spring a seventy-two-hour
battle was fought in
the streets of Acre, Palestine.
When the old walled city was
taken by the forces of Israel on
May 18th, few people who participated
in the fight or who
read the item in their daily papers
realized the significance of
Acre (known in the Bahá’í writings
as ‘Akká) or understood the
sharp ironic contrasts which exist
in that center of violence and of
peace.
Acre is old in warfare. It was the ancient city of Ptolemais and contains ruins dating from the conquest of Alexander. It was fought over by the Crusaders, being known at that time as St. Jean d’Acre. The Genoese captured it in 1104 and were driven out by Saladin, who was, in turn, overcome by Richard Coeur de Lion in 1191. Napoleon’s conquest of the Orient was halted at Acre, which was taken by Ibráhím Pasha in 1834 and again captured by British, Austrian, and Turkish allies in 1840. It became a Turkish penal colony and was filled with the worst class of criminals. In the ‘60’s it was, Shoghi Effendi writes, “devoid of any source of water within its walls; . . . flea-infested, damp and honey-combed with gloomy, filthy and tortuous lanes.” According to a popular proverb, the very birds dropped dead that flew over it.
Into that prison Bahá’u’lláh was thrown in 1868, with His family and a number of His followers. On the night of their arrival, He heard His loved ones beg for water and be refused. Later He saw them ravaged by hunger and disease. For two years He was immured in the prison barracks, cut off from those devoted pilgrims who came on foot from Persia and returned home after a mere glimpse of His face at a distant window. Later He was moved to one miserable dwelling after another, enduring bitter hardship and humiliation at the hands of His gaolers and a hostile population. In Acre and its immediate neighborhood, He remained a prisoner for twenty-four years. There He revealed a large portion of His Works, and there the majesty of His presence and the power of His wisdom began to transform the lives of His oppressors, even to purify the city itself.
In 1901 a party of travelers,
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including Thornton Chase, the
first American Bahá’í, drove into
Acre. Inside the walls they were
greeted by a shower of stones,
thrown by a rabble of youths and
boys, who followed them across
the city to the home of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
still a prisoner nine years
after His Father’s passing. The
house was built of stone, whitewashed
and plastered, with a
long flight of steps outside leading
to an upper court and the
room of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This
house, which was overlooked
suspiciously by the governor’s
palace and was guarded by soldiers,
was a prison like no other
prison in the world, for it was
filled with love. Elsewhere in this
magazine, Mabel Paine has written
of the unity between hostile
peoples which she found in
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s home in Haifa. In
Acre, at this earlier date, while
He was still closely guarded and
went in danger of His life, the
same unity prevailed. Meeting
pilgrims from many warring
sects, Thornton Chase wrote:
“The millenium in very truth
was in these gatherings. It has
arrived. It has drawn the people
of the earth together in the bonds
of love to God and Men. The differences
between peoples and religions
have not been argued
away, not changed by debate, not
removed by law nor by war, but
they have been dissolved in the
fire of love, and have disappeared
like mists before the
morning sun of Godly knowledge.”
Today the streets of Acre bear the scars of yet another war. The ancient prison looks down upon them, and, outside the walls, in the earth’s most sacred spot, rests the body of the Prince of Peace, while in over ninety countries of the world His followers are building a community of love.
Acre is the past. Its double ring of defensive walls, its tortuous streets and cramped houses, its cruel barracks—these are the symbols of violence, narrow bigotry, desperation, hate. But Acre is, before all else, the future. That filthy prison housed the Glory of God; among those crowded dwellings are the roofs which sheltered the Promise of All Ages; and in His Shrine nearby, passion becomes tranquillity and hatred is transformed to love. Acre is the “Door of Hope,” the fulfillment of ancient prophecy; and future generations will call her blessed.
The Literature of Tomorrow
DUART VINCENT BROWN
ONCE glaciers covered large
parts of the earth and vast
quantities of water were locked
up in the ice. There was much
more land than there is now and
cold winds blew nearly from pole
to pole. Life faced severe difficulties
as it struggled to survive,
and the breath of death came out
of the north.
Then came the great awakening, the increasing heat of the sun, the retreating ice, the streams roaring their waters to the sea. It too was a time of difficulties, of rumbling landslides, of tidal waves, of mighty changes in the landscape. But soon a mantle of green grew over the land abandoned by the ice, and the earth began to flower in the new warmth of the sun. Animals soaked up the joy of the new world and spread northward in glad myriads. Man was with them, and man, dour and somber and shaggy from the centuries of cold, lifted his face to the sweet spring breeze and suddenly laughed.
We are still in the ice-age of literature in the world, and we are due for an awakening. We are also due for some laughter, but not the kind we hear nowadays, the empty, shallow laughter of comic books, but the great belly laughter that Shakespeare gave to England in his day, or the shy, heart-warming laughter of Omar Khayam.
So much of the literature of
today is full of emptiness like the
rattling of gourds. Even the
great books of social significance
like “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
and “Grapes of Wrath” leave
one with an empty feeling of
pointless lives. As the warming
influence of the Bahá’í Faith
spreads over the world, the literature
of the future will gradually
begin to reflect the glory of
the New Day. New writers will
slowly desert the recent craze for
the dissection of psychoneuroses
or the writing of historical novels
soaking in sex, and endeavor to
reflect the profound influence of
spiritual change in human beings.
They will show the ways to
fight evil instead of simply showing
evil and letting it go at that.
They will make from the brotherhood
of mankind a mighty
symphony of words to draw all
races together in common unity
and love. They will uncover in a
myriad ways the essential unity
of religion and laugh to scorn
the men who try by narrow sectionalism
and intolerance to split
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the world into warring sects.
“The Razor’s Edge” by Somerset Maugham is a weak reflection of the glory that is coming in the literature of tomorrow. It is a story of the moral uplifting of a man by faith, but it is weak because it shows him trying to live the life of Jesus without realizing the social significance of such a life. It shows him learning about the religions of the East without apparently understanding them, or knowing more than a formless outline of their reality.
The literature of the future will show heroes as mighty as Ulysses and Roland, but vastly more profound. The world is growing up, and in the great stories that are to come, mature men will stalk across their pages battling the problems of life and death that fill the world. Deep convolutions and writhings are at present manifest in the psychological nature of modern man. Awakenings are spreading in waves through Asia, through Africa, through Central and South America. Whole nations are coming alive that seemed dead for centuries. A terrible challenge is facing the world, and the challenge cannot be answered by outworn shibboleths. It is the task of the new writers to dig deeply into old evils, to show the way to remove the clinging hands of the past without at the same time destroying the good that has come down to us through the shades of history.
Most of our literature today deals with individual little islands of human beings, seemingly isolated from the rest of the world. The writers of these books are like the scientists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who began to specialize so much in their own small fields that they lost all contact with the rest of science. The scientists of today have learned that individuals must synthesize their work into the whole of science before they can advance beyond narrow and often wrongly twisted aims. When the writers who are to come begin to build their characters into the world scene, when you see them make the issue of the coolie’s independence and happiness in China as important as the same things in the life of John Jones in Poultney, Vermont, then you will know that the new renaissance of literature is on.
We should not be discouraged
by the apparent slowness of the
change in literature. It is true
that the flood of banal and shallow
books in the stores seems as
great or greater than ever before.
[Page 130]
It is true that escapist literature
is enjoying a great popularity,
and that even books of social
significance seem to be
bogged down in their author’s inability
to grasp the whole picture
of social change and world
crisis. Nevertheless there are
signs of hope.
For a time the philosophy of the extreme left enjoyed a great popularity among the more advanced writers. But the purely materialistic approach to world problems, with its sloughing of spiritual ideals, slowly turned the edges of their appetites. Consequently the new writers who are now coming on the scene are ripe for something of greater depth and spirituality. But, like the thawing of the ice after the last great ice age, the process of change will be slow. Like new swimmers, they will at first experiment with shallower waters, until, beginning to understand the power of the new thought and spirit that is flowing through the world, they will strike out confidently into the deep sea.
THE POINT OF DISTINCTION
I desire distinction for you. The Bahá’ís must be distinguished from others of humanity. But this distinction must not depend upon wealth—that they should become more affluent than other people. I do not desire for you financial distinction. It is not an ordinary distinction I desire; not scientific, commercial, industrial distinction. For you I desire spiritual distinction; that is, you must become eminent and distinguished in morals. In the love of God you must become distinguished from all else. You must become distinguished for loving humanity; for unity and accord; for love and justice. In brief, you must become distinguished in all the virtues of the human world; for faithfulness and sincerity; for justice and fidelity; for firmness and steadfastness; for philanthropic deeds and service to the human world; for love toward every human being; for unity and accord with all people; for removing prejudices and promoting international peace. Finally, you must become distinguished for heavenly illumination and acquiring the bestowals of God. I desire this distinction for you. This must be the point of distinction among you.
Lords of Creation
FLOYD H. MUNSON
OUR failure to penetrate the
mysteries of the Lords of
Creation is the failure and inadequacy
of the greatest minds,
the most profound scholars, in
all ages. Finite minds can never
comprehend that which is infinite.
The created can never encompass,
never understand, the
Creator. We were created to
know God the Unknowable and
this seeming paradox is made
possible by turning to those exalted
Beings, the Prophets or
Messengers of God. This is our
subject then—these mysterious
Beings, these Holy Ones, who
make their appearance in the
arena of existence every thousand
years more or less.
There are three worlds of existence. First, there is the world of God, the world of Cause. This is the world of the Pre-existent One, the Eternal; an unconditioned, abstract state; a pure Essence, superlative, absolute in degree and of unimaginable splendor. Whatever we conceive of God, that concept is only a product of imagination, for God, independent, alone, without counsel, has been and shall ever remain, wrapped in impenetrable mystery.
God, this Essence, if you will, is exalted above the limitations of this contingent world we live in. This Essence neither ascends nor descends, knows neither egress nor entering in, and cannot be limited by a form. Thus it is a grave error to state that God—and I am speaking of His Essence, His Divine Reality—is a part of any created being or thing. No! God cannot be limited. There is no direct relationship between God and man.
The second world is the world
of Manifestation. By Manifestations,
capital M, I mean those
illustrious figures who come from
the realm of immortality to educate
mankind, to guide them in
the way of successful living and
the acquiring of heavenly characteristics.
These great Beings
are human. They are born as you
and I. They hunger and feel
pain, grow old and pass away.
Still they are very unusual men.
At an early age they evince a
strange power and a wisdom not
of this world. Their power of
attraction is so great that many
who respond to their beauty become
so enraptured that they
offer up their all in the path of
sacrifice. These great Souls have
been chosen by the Sovereign
God to be a Sign among men, to
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be a repository of celestial perfections,
divine attributes and
qualities. The Holy Spirit descends
upon them, a divine afflatus
from the Heart of life, robing
them in a mantle of glory,
changing their very substance
into the substance of God, causing
them to become radiant Suns
of Truth, divine Love and Knowledge.
By the pervasive Will of
God these Gems of Purity are
invested with the robe of Prophethood,
made into perfect
instruments, hollowed reeds
through which is played the celestial
song of unity, of the oneness
of God and of His creatures.
Appearing, each One, with a prescribed mission, a foreordained revelation, differing only in the intensity of its light, these primal Mirrors reflect the same eternal fire of the Godhead, are all the same Spirit, and, in their Divine Reality, one Soul. Their face is the face of God; the words they speak, their commands and precepts, all are from the Supreme Being. Those who believe in them, believe in God; those who deny them, deny God; those who have turned away, have turned away from God and the Light which is their spiritual and eternal life.
The Reality of these spiritual Suns is from heaven, a Reality that had always existed “from the beginning that hath no beginning” to “the end that hath no end.” A glorious Ray from the Supreme Center chooses one lone soul in the darkness of a planet and makes Him to shine as a great lamp, makes Him to be the Mediator between God and man, makes Him to be the Fountainhead of the waters of life and heavenly bestowals.
The third world is the world of creation. Were there no physical sun this earth would be a clod, a ball of hard matter, lost in darkness, clasped in icy fingers of death. The sun in its effulgent glory is exalted above the earth, and the earth can never attain to that glory. The sun sends its life to the earth by the media of rays, rays of warmth and light that give life to the earth, clothing it in verdure, bringing fruits in season and infinite bounties. But the sun does not descend to do this; the sun in its essence remains independent, inviolate, separate. It gives of its glory through the media of rays. These rays are the mediator between the sun and earth, the conductor, and all existence responds to that radiance and has life.
Man belongs to this world and
partakes of this beneficence, but
man is spiritual as well as physical
and has other needs. Man is
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intelligent, possessing faculties
such as reason and imagination
that no other created “signs”
possess. These faculties need
nourishment, they require the
light of knowledge in order to
progress; the heart requires the
warmth of love that the fruits of
innate capacities may appear.
Were man to be deprived of these
rays he would be in the darkness
of ignorance, become bestial,
retrogress and destroy himself.
This radiance which his
spiritual nature requires, since
the spiritual nature is his reality,
rather than the physical form,
which is an instrument and a
means, is the radiance of the
Holy Spirit.
Here we return to the second world, the world of Manifestation. The Holy Spirit is an emanation from God reflected by the Manifestation. It is the warmth of love, the light of knowledge from the central Sun, the spiritual and luminous Orb of Divine Life and Perfections. The Manifestation reflecting the Holy Spirit is the Conductor of eternal, spiritual life, for God, the Central Sun of Truth, does not descend, but remains remote, independent, inviolate and exalted above all His creation.
The Manifestation or Prophet of God, during His dispensation of a thousand years more or less, has always been the life-force of advancing civilizations. When He makes His appearance as the mighty Sign of God, all of humanity is enjoined to turn to Him and partake of this life, to eat of this “bread from heaven,” for in this eating they find eternal progress in all the worlds of God. These Beings “impart virtue; and whatever virtues men at any time possess are not original but derivative, being bestowed by the grace of God’s High-Prophets.”
The call of the Prophet is insistent and recurrent. Down through the ages these Lords of Creation make the same plea: that men believe in them if they believe in God, and so believing, heed the laws the Prophet is appointed to deliver. For in this way, and this way only, can man advance to the realm of Divine Presence and to the plane of immortality. Thus the Lords of Creation stand between the world of man and the worlds of God.
The whole creative process,
from the point in time when
Spirit imposed Its will upon primordial
substance, has had for
its crowning glory one preordained
event. This object of divine
purpose, the apex of eons
of evolutionary change, is man
in the image and likeness of his
Maker. As God said in olden
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times, “But for thee, I would
not have created the spheres,”
man, in the final expression of
that which was engraved within
him from the beginning, shall
reflect in this last great cycle the
light of Oneness and the beauty
of the Love of God.
The labor of the “Lords of Creation” of the ancient past shall have in this Day borne fruit: but these mysterious Beings, these Manifestations of the Eternal, continue to shine with the Light of unfading splendor and, in this time of the Supreme Manifestation of God, “abide in the same tabernacle and soar in the same heaven” of Spirit and of the Revelation of God.
Each in his dispensation has been as a sun to the soul of man, giving to these souls measured bounty that they may attain to their high destiny. Were it not for their appearance all would waste away and the very earth itself would darken and swing out into a vast and empty void.
THE REAL EDUCATORS
What then is the mission of the divine prophets? Their mission is the education and advancement of the world of humanity. They are the real teachers and educators, the universal instructors of mankind. If we wish to discover whether any one of these great souls or messengers was in reality a prophet of God we must investigate the facts surrounding His life and history; and the first point of our investigation will be the education He bestowed upon mankind. If He has been an educator, if He has really trained a nation or people, causing it to rise from the lowest depths of ignorance to the highest station of knowledge, then we are sure that He was a prophet. This is a plain and clear method of procedure, proof that is irrefutable. We do not need to seek after other proofs. We do not need to mention miracles, saying that out of rock water gushed forth, for such miracles and statements may be denied and refused by those who hear them. If a man be fair, unbiased and willing to investigate reality he will undoubtedly testify to the fact that Moses was verily a man of God and a great personage.
Quddús: Companion of the Báb
HARRIET PETTIBONE
HE WAS named Muḥammad-‘Alí.
He was born in the
town of Bárfurúsh in the province
of Mázindarán in Persia.
His mother died when he was
very young. Through her he was
a direct descendant of the Imám
Ḥasan, the grandson of the
Prophet Muḥammad. His stepmother
loved him devotedly, as
did everyone who knew him.
When quite young he was sent to
school in Mashhad and at eighteen,
he had travelled all the
way to Karbilá, in ‘Iráq, where
he attended the classes of the
great religious teacher Siyyid
Káẓim.
Siyyid Káẓim’s teachings were original and revolutionary. He was preparing his students for a Great One who was to come. In Siyyid Káẓim’s classes Muḥammad-‘Alí appeared to be very young and very humble but Siyyid Káẓim recognized his great spiritual potentialities and considered him one of his ablest pupils. At the end of his life Siyyid Káẓim advised all of his followers to “quit their homes, scatter far and wide, purge their hearts of every idle desire and dedicate themselves to the quest of Him to whose advent he had so often alluded.” He told them that the object of their quest was now revealed. “The veils that intervene between you and Him are such as only you can remove by your devoted search. Nothing short of prayerful endeavour, of purity of motive, of singleness of mind, will enable you to tear them asunder. Has not God revealed in His Book: ‘Whoso maketh efforts for Us, in Our ways will We guide them?’”
In the latter part of May,
1844, Muḥammad-‘Alí, or Quddús
as he was also called, was
the eighteenth to find the Great
One, the Object of his quest. One
evening, in the city of Shíráz, he
appeared disheveled and travel-stained.
He approached a former
friend who was with a companion
and asked him if he had attained
his goal—upon being told to rest
for the moment he said, gazing at
his Companion; “Why seek you
to hide Him from me? I can recognize
Him by His gait. I confidently
testify that none besides
Him, whether in the East or in
the West, can claim to be the
Truth. None other can manifest
the power and majesty that radiate
from His holy person.” His
Friend was told to “marvel not
at his strange behaviour. We
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have in the world of the spirit
been communing with this youth.
We know him already. We indeed
awaited his coming. Go to
him and summon him forthwith
to Our presence.”
From that time—over a period of fourteen months—Quddús was with his Beloved. Nine of these months were spent in a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. On this historical voyage, “every night from eventide until the break of day, sacrificing comfort and sleep, he would continue with unrelaxing vigilance to watch beside his Beloved, Who was known as the Báb, ready to provide for His wants and to ensure the means of His protection and safety.” He refused all comforts preferring to walk every step of the pilgrimage. Upon their return to the port of Bushihr, in Persia, Quddús was summoned to the presence of the Báb, Who with the utmost kindness bade him depart for Shíráz. “The days of your companionship with Me”, He told him, “are drawing to a close. The hour of separation has struck, a separation which no reunion will follow except in the Kingdom of God, in the Presence of the King of Glory . . . The hand of destiny will ere long plunge you into an ocean of tribulation for His sake . . . The hosts of the unseen will hasten forth to assist you and will proclaim to all the world your heroism and glory. . . .”
In Shíráz, Quddús was hospitably received by the Báb’s uncle, who recognized, through Quddús, the station of his young Kinsman. “So steadfast became his faith and so profound grew his love . . . that he consecrated his whole life to His service.” In this city, the first step of his journey dedicated to the services of his faith, Quddús and another believer were tortured and expelled for openly and fearlessly proclaiming the birth of a New Day.
In the course of his journey
Quddús passed through many
cities, “In each of these cities,
notwithstanding the obstacles
that beset his path, he succeeded
in instilling into the understanding
of his hearers the principles
which he had so bravely risen to
advocate. A friend describes him
as follows: ‘The charm of his
person, his extreme affability,
combined with a dignity of bearing,
appealed to even the most
careless observer. Whoever was
intimately associated with him
was seized with an insatiable admiration
for the charm of that
youth. We watched him one day
perform his ablutions, and were
struck by the gracefulness which
distinguished him from the rest
of the worshipers in the performance
[Page 137]
of so ordinary a rite.
He seemed, in our eyes, to be
the very incarnation of purity
and grace.’”
For two years Quddús resided in the home of his father in his native town of Bárfarúsh in the province of Mázindarán. At this time he was surrounded by the loving devotion of his family and kindred. “He freely associated with all classes of people and by the gentleness of his character and the wide range of his learning had won the affection and unqualified admiration of the inhabitants of the town.”
One night a friend arrived at his home—a friend who had just returned from the Báb and who had been told by Him to find “God’s hidden treasure.” After an evening shared with a group of friends, Quddús asked Mullá Ḥusayn, the new arrival, of news of the Báb. Mullá Ḥusayn told him all he knew and added that there was nothing in writing to pass on. At this moment Quddús “presented him with the pages of a manuscript which he had in his hands and requested him to read certain of its passages.” With rare spiritual insight Mullá Ḥusayn recognized from this creative writing “God’s hidden treasure” and when he realized that Quddús was its author he reverently declared; “The hidden treasure of which the Báb has spoken, now lies unveiled before my eyes. Its light has dispelled the gloom of perplexity and doubt. Though my Master be now hidden amid the mountain fastnesses of Ádhirbáyján, the sign of His splendour and the revelation of His might stand manifest before me. I have found in Mázindarán the reflection of His glory.” Almost immediately he was instructed to go to the city of Mashhad to build a house which was to serve as a private residence for them both. “To it you shall invite every receptive soul who, we hope, may be guided to the river of everlasting life.” Together these two friends converted the house into a “rallying center for a multitude of devotees who were fired with an inflexible resolve to demonstrate, by every means in their power, the great inherent energies of their Faith.”
What was this Faith that had
caused such a transformation in
their own lives and in the lives
of many whom they met? It was
their recognition of the Promised
One, for whom Siyyid Káẓim
had prepared them, and the acceptance
of His laws and precepts.
This Great Soul known as
the Báb claimed not only that
He was the Promised One foretold
in all the Holy Books of God
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but that He was also the Forerunner
of One, greater than Himself,
Who was to come. From the
moment Quddús saw Him, he
recognized Him, accepted Him
and until his death was His devoted
follower.
While in Mashhad, Quddús, along with all the other sincere believers of the Báb throughout Persia and ‘Iráq, determined to answer a call given by the Báb. There had been “revealed from the pen of the Báb a Tablet addressed to all the believers of Persia, in which every loyal adherent of the Faith was enjoined to hasten to the land of Khá.”
In the hamlet of Badasht on the border of the province of Mázindarán a conference was held. Three gardens were rented; Quddús occupied one. Eighty-one disciples attended for twenty-two days. On each of these twenty-two days a new Tablet was revealed and each disciple received a new name. It was here that Muḥammad-’Alí received the name of Quddús. The primary purpose of this conference was to implement the Bayán, a book revealed by the Báb, which provided the laws for the new day which He had announced. “Quddús, regarded as the exponent of the conservative element within it, affected, in pursuance of a pre-conceived plan designed to mitigate the alarm and consternation which such a conference was sure to arouse, to oppose the seemingly extremist views advocated by the impetuous Ṭáhirih.” Through these two amazing, enlightened souls a scene was enacted which channelized a startling “departure from the time-honoured traditions of Islám, witnessed a veritable revolution in the outlook, habits, ceremonials and manner of worship of these hitherto zealous and devout upholders of the Muḥammadan Law.” This was the event “when the trumpet-blast announcing the formal extinction of the old, and the inauguration of the New Dispensation was sounded.”
Quddús, with a number of the friends who had attended the conference decided to go to Mázindarán; on their way they were attacked by the people of the neighborhood in the village of Níyálá, Quddús fell into the hands of his opponents and was confined in Sárí.
Throughout all Persia the followers
of the Báb were, at this
time, in great danger. The leaders
of Islám and of the state
were aroused and alarmed at the
influence the Báb and His disciples
had upon the people. Were
this influence to predominate,
their own positions might be jeopardized;
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their fear of this
caused them to persecute the
Bábís. Owing to this condition,
measures were taken in self-defense.
“On three occasions a
number of Bábís driven to desperation
withdrew in concert
from their houses to a chosen retreat
and, erecting defensive
works about them, defied in arms
further pursuit.” In the East of
Persia at Shaykh-Ṭabarsí a contest
took place which lasted
eleven months. Its heroes were
the flower of the Báb’s disciples
—their leader was Quddús. He
had been rescued from his confinement
in Sárí and immediately
assumed the leadership at
Ṭabarsí. Day after day he guided
them through the trials of battle
and of privation of every kind.
“He dispelled,” one testified,
“whatever doubts lingered in our
minds and such were the evidences
of his perspicacity that
we came to believe that to him
had been given the power to read
our profoundest thoughts and to
calm the fiercest tumults in our
hearts.”
Quddús had the great gift of creative writing and in spite of inconceivable hardships he continued to write. “The rapidity and copiousness of his composition, the inestimable treasures which his writings revealed, filled his companions with wonder and justified his leadership in their eyes.”
During one of the battles Quddús was injured in the mouth and throat. At the sight of the grief of the companions he wrote an appeal; “We should submit,” he exhorted them, “to whatever is the will of God. We should stand firm and steadfast in the hour of trial. The stone of the infidel broke the teeth of the Prophet of God; mine have fallen as a result of the bullet of the enemy. Though my body be afflicted, my soul is immersed in gladness. My gratitude to God knows no bounds. If you love me, suffer not that this joy be obscured by the sight of your lamentations.” The outcome of this contest, “was a heinous betrayal ending in an orgy of slaughter, staining with everlasting infamy its perpetrators, investing its victims with a halo of imperishable glory, and generating the very seeds which, in a later age, were to blossom into world-wide administrative institutions, and which must, in the fulness of time yield their golden fruit in the shape of a world-redeeming, globe-encircling Order.”
At the age of twenty-seven,
Quddús, “the last, but in rank
the first” of the Letters of the
Living, was martyred. He has
been referred to by Bahá’u’lláh
[Page 140]
as holding a rank second to none
except that of the Báb Himself.
“Amidst his torments,” writes Nabíl, “Quddús was heard whispering forgiveness to his foes. ‘Forgive, O my God,’ he cried, ‘the trespasses of these people. Deal with them in Thy mercy, for they know not what we already have discovered and cherish. I have striven to show them the path that leads to their salvation; behold how they have risen to overwhelm and kill me! Show them, O God, the way of Truth, and turn their ignorance into faith.’”
“He exemplified by his life and glorious martyrdom,” says Nabíl in another place, “the truth of this tradition: ‘Whoso seeketh Me, shall find Me. Whoso findeth Me shall be drawn towards Me. Whoso draweth nigh unto Me, shall love Me. Whoso loveth Me, shall I also love. Him who is beloved of Me, him shall I slay. He who is slain by Me, I myself shall be his ransom.’”
The date of his martyrdom is May 16, 1849.
Spiritual Pioneers
OLGA FINKE
- On, on they push, to new frontiers;
- Through jungles, wastes and prairie lands.
- They rest not during day or night.
- With Lamp in hand through darkest gloom
- They search for those who love the Light.
- They see the wayward scamper off
- When beams of Light are sent their way.
- The wiles of despots come to naught,
- The sloven mend their ways, when rays
- Of Light begin to penetrate.
- Great trees they fell, dislodge their roots.
- They cut the thickets, pull the weeds.
- They plow the land and sow the seeds!
- And seek no help but God alone
- Who gives them strength to carry on!
Meditations: Nearness to God
O Moving Form of Dust!
I desire communion with thee, but thou wouldst put no trust in Me.
The sword of thy rebellion hath felled the tree of thy hope. At all
times I am near unto thee, but thou art ever far from Me. Imperishable
glory have I chosen for Thee, yet boundless shame thou hast
chosen for thyself. While there is yet time, return, and lose not thy
chance.
The Book of God is wide open, and His Word is summoning
mankind to Him. No more than a mere handful, however, hath been
found willing to cleave to His Cause, or to become the instruments
for its promotion. These few have been endued with the Divine
Elixir that can, alone, transmute into purest gold the dross of the
world, and have been empowered to administer the infallible remedy
for all the ills that afflict the children of men. No man can obtain
everlasting life, unless he embraceth the truth of this inestimable,
this wondrous, and sublime Revelation.
Meditate on what the poet hath written: “Wonder not, if my Best-Beloved
be closer to me than mine own self; wonder at this, that I,
despite such nearness, should still be so far from Him.” . . . Considering
what God hath revealed, that “We are closer to man than his
life-vein”, the poet hath, in allusion to this verse stated that, though
the revelation of my Best-Beloved hath so permeated my being that
He is closer to me than my life-vein, yet, notwithstanding my certitude
of its reality and my recognition of my station, I am still so far
removed from Him. By this he meaneth that his heart, which is the
seat of the All-Merciful and the throne wherein abideth the splendor
of His revelation, is forgetful of its Creator, hath strayed from His
path, hath shut out itself from His Glory, and is stained with the
defilement of earthly desires.
Consider, moreover, how frequently doth man become forgetful of
his own self, whilst God remaineth, through His all-encompassing
knowledge, aware of His creature, and continueth to shed upon him
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the manifest radiance of his glory. It is evident, therefore, that,
in such circumstances, He is closer to him than his own self. He will
indeed, so remain forever, for, whereas the one true God knoweth
all things, perceiveth all things, and comprehendeth all things, mortal
man is prone to err, and is ignorant of the mysteries that lie enfolded
within him . . .
. . . How can mine eye, which hath no faculty to perceive itself,
claim to have discerned Thine Essence, and how can my heart, already
powerless to apprehend the significance of its own potentialities,
pretend to have comprehended Thy nature? How can I claim to
have known Thee, when the entire creation is bewildered by Thy
mystery, and how can I confess not to have known Thee, when, lo,
the whole universe proclaimeth Thy Presence and testifieth to Thy
truth? The portals of Thy grace have throughout eternity been open,
and the means of access unto Thy Presence made available, unto all
created things, and the revelations of Thy matchless Beauty have at
all times been imprinted upon the realities of all beings, visible and
invisible.
The purpose of God in creating man hath been, and ever will be,
to enable him to know his Creator and to attain His presence. To
this most excellent aim, this supreme objective, all the heavenly
Books and the divinely-revealed and weighty Scriptures unequivocally
bear witness. Whoso hath recognized the Day Spring of Divine
guidance and entered His holy court hath drawn nigh unto God and
attained His Presence, a Presence which is the real Paradise, and of
which the loftiest mansions of heaven are but a symbol.
Set before thine eyes God’s unerring balance and, as one standing
in His Presence, weigh in that Balance thine actions every day,
every moment of thy life. Bring thyself to account ere thou art summoned
to a reckoning, on the day whereon no man shall have the
strength to stand for fear of God, the Day when the hearts of the
heedless ones shall be made to tremble.
WITH OUR READERS
“THE Real Challenge of Today”
was Mrs. Paine’s presentation of
the Bahá’í Faith when she spoke at
the House of Worship in Wilmette
recently. The wife of a retired professor
of electrical engineering, Mrs.
Paine lives in Urbana and is one
of the editors of World Order magazine.
She has been a member of the
staffs of Bahá’í News and Bahá’í
World also. Her other contributions
to the magazine include, besides recent
editorials, the series of compilations,
“The Divine Art of Living,” a
review of Peace of Mind, and articles,
“The Promised Day Is Come”
and “Religion and the Church”. She
compiled the book of meditations
called The Divine Art of Living.
When Artemus Lamb attended the National Bahá’í convention in Wilmette this year, he was enthusiastic about the Bahá’í Congress in Santiago, Chile, for the South American delegates. There the thirty-five Bahá’ís were allowed to rent a large and beautiful home, complete with silverware, furniture and two servants. They called it “La Colonia Bahá’í”. When Artemus returned the keys to the owner, she said, “My family and I have noticed how the Bahá’ís have behaved during the month that they have used our house. We are interested and would like to study your Faith.” Artemus Lamb, formerly of Salt Lake City, has been pioneer teaching in Chile, especially in Punta Arenas, the southernmost Bahá’í community in the world. He has been made the secretary of the year-old South American Teaching Committee. His trip to this country was not only for the purpose of attending the Convention, but in order to marry Janice Ewing, an Oak Park girl he had met in Santiago. Besides his “Latin America and the Principle of Unity”, which appears in the current issue of World Order, Artemus wrote “The Fulfillment of Mormon Prophecy”, which appeared in November, 1944.
N. M. Firoozi, author of “Why Pray?” is a Persian Bahá’í living near Geneva, New York. He is an interior decorator. He has taught courses on Muḥammad and Islám at the Bahá’í summer schools at Green Acre and Louhelen. In January, 1947, his “The Price of Peace” was printed.
Those of you who have been following the Bahá’í heroes series will welcome the article by Harriet Pettibone about the famous follower of the Báb, Quddús.
One of World Order’s most versatile young writers is the naturalist, Duart Vinson Brown, who considers for us this month, “The Literature of Tomorrow.” He lives in California and is a frequent contributor.
Floyd Munson’s “Lords of Creation” also appears this month. Recent issues of World Order have included his “Perilous Peace” in November, 1947, his “Spirit of Faith” in January, 1948, and his “Light” in June of 1946. Mr. Munson is a portrait painter living in Detroit.
[Page 144]
Garreta Busey’s editorial for this
month and the frontispiece are both
descriptive of ‘Akká, Palestine, and
its relation to the Bahá’í Faith.
“Spiritual Pioneers” was written by Olga Finke, an Atlanta, Georgia, Bahá’í. Originally from New York, Miss Finke is a nursery school teacher with experience teaching in New York, in Piney Woods, Mississippi, and in Atlanta. She was greatly influenced by Leo Tolstoi’s War and Peace, and by her visit to the League of Nations headquarters in Switzerland. She became a Bahá’í in 1932, after several summers at Green Acre. She came to Atlanta as a Bahá’í pioneer in 1937 and has lived there since, serving as principal of the Pryor Street Nursery School. Her “Child in a Chaotic World”, was printed in the magazine for April, 1943, her “As the Days of Noah Were,” in July 1942, and her “For an Enduring Peace,” in September, 1943.
Alice Josephine Wyatt is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles who has done graduate work at the University of Southern California. She has had poems published in magazines, newspapers, and poetry journals.
Alice Bacon writes, “I also wish to say that I simply loved Marzieh’s “Conversations in Whispers” and wish World Order had a lot more of just such articles. I read it over twice right off—then I read it to a couple of isolated believers who showed up one Saturday afternoon from the naval station at Newport just to talk and talk and fill up on Bahá’í conversation because they feel so alone, (I told them, incidentally, they had better subscribe right off for World Order because it was getting better all the time!)”
One of our friends, Gertrude Robinson, experimented with writing these words to the old song, “Oh Zion, Haste Thy Mission High Fulfilling.” She gave us permsson to use them here:
- Oh, Nations, hear! Once more thy God hath spoken,
- That same great God who spoke on Sinai.
- The Bread of Life has once again been broken,
- That men may live in love that cannot die.
- Refrain
- Darkness is over! Light shall increase!
- Earth shall be one country and Mankind shall live in peace!
- Come every heart! And bring thy seeking neighbor;
- One Master calls, through ages still the same.
- For unity He asks thy earnest labor;
- One is Mankind, and one our God’s great name.
Amie Wright of East Orange, New Jersey, writes, “I also want to say how much I enjoy World Order, for while it seems it can’t get better, it does! Your editorial this month (Garreta Busey’s ‘What Are the Bahá’ís Doing’) answers the questions I am asked so often and never could explain so clearly. I so enjoy ‘With Our Readers’, for to read of all the new and old friends gives that precious feeling of belonging to a large and wonderful family.”
Bahá’í Literature
Books About the Faith
Distributed by Bahá’í Publishing Committee
110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
BAHÁ’U’LLÁH AND THE NEW ERA
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
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
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
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 CIVILIZATION
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.
Words of Bahá’u’lláh
Inscribed Over the Nine Entrances of the
House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois
- The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.
- The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me.
- My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure.
- Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner.
- Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent.
- I have made death a messenger of joy to thee; wherefore dost thou grieve?
- Make mention of Me on My earth that in My heaven I may remember thee.
- O rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust.
- The source of all learnings is the knowledge of God, exalted be His glory.