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me JULY, 1943 >
B A H A ' The Real Challenge of Today
M A G A z I N E Mabel Hyde Paine Where Nature Builds, Poem
Alice Josephine Wyatt
Why Pray? N. M. Firoozi
Latin America and the Principle of Unity
Artemu's Lamb
Acre: City of War and Peace, Editorial
Carrela Busey
The Literature of Tomorrow
Duar! 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
WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmetlr, 11]., by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís Of Ihe United States. Editor: Garrera Buscy. Managing Editor: Eleanor S. Hulchcns. Associate Editors: Victor dc Araujo, Elsa Blakcly, Robert Durr, Pearl Easterbrook, Gertrude Henning, Flora Emily Hones, Mabel H. Paine.
Publication Office 110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMET’I‘E, ILL.
C. R‘ Wood, Business Manager Printed in U.S.A.
Editorial Office Mrs. Eleanor S. Hutclmns,
307 SOUTH PRAIRIE, (iHAMP-ucN, ILLINOIS
JULY, 1948, VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 4
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $2.00 per year, for United States, its territories and possessions; for Canada. Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America. Single copies, 20c. Foreign snbscripfions, $2.25. Make checks and money orders payable to Wurld Order Maga. zinc, 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmclte, Illinois. Entered as second class matter April 1, 1940, at the post office at Wilmette, 11]., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Content cnpyrightrd 1948 by
Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title Registert‘d at U. S. Patent Office.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS SHOULD BE REPORTED ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE
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O 3 o 3 O ' 0 THE frontispiece shows the home of ‘Abdu’l- g Bahá while He . was still a prisoner in ‘Akká : (Acre). The longiflight of steps leading to an up- 3 per courtyard and to the chamber of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá : were called’by Carl Schefiler, after a visit to Him 3 there, “the steps up to Heaven.” The atmosphere E 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 3 the presence there of the Holy Spirit of God in z overwhelming power. This sweet aroma of the : Spirit radiates from that fountain of love for hu- : Imanity, which pours forth so freely, so imperson- : ally, 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.”
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The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME XIV
J ULY, 1948
NUMBER 4
The Real Challenge of Today
MABEL HYDE PAINE
N 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
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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
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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
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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 formerv
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1y exercised by religion are gone. What but a revival of true rev ligion 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 difliculies 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
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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
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them all is the lack of real, uni versal love. Here again the un derlying 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
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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
115 pitch that the followers of the various religions, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Muhammadan 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 Muhammadan, the Muhammadan 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. A11 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, associ
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ated 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 Muhammadan. 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.
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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
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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 Pro phet of God has appeared. When the Israelites had been sunk for
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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 Muhammad 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, indivates 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 to
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day 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
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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 Colden 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 Baha’ 1 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 Baha” 1 principle. These miniature organisms Baha’ is 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 hit, 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.
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Why Pray?
N. M. FIROOZI
HERE can he 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 Cod-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.” Cod 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
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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?
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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 at WORLD ORDER
tained 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.
0 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!
”!
BAHA U LLAH: CLEANINCS, p. 323
Love Me that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, 0 servant.
Bahá’u’lláh: HIDDEN WORDS
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Latin America and the Principle of Unity
ARTEMUS LAMB
HE great fundamental aim of the Bahá’í Faith is to es tablish 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 Chili, 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
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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 he put into action in daily life through the medium of the allembracing 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 hit 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, pIeasure-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, o£ having a Latin American reject or deny the truth of the Bahá’í Revelation, and practically never have we been refused the cooper ation of a radio station or newspaper.
No, the unity of mankind is not nearly so difficult t0 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
(£:1§foricl[9
THIS spring a seventy-twohour 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 Ibrahim 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. 1n the ‘60’s it was, Shoghi Effendi writes, “devoid of any source of water With in 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 hitter 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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ACRE 127
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 harracks—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.
G. B.
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The Literature of Tomorrow
DUART VINCENT BROWN
NCE 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, heartwarming 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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LITERATURE
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
129
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 be
. Al, -47
130 WORLD ORDER
fore. 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 aflluent 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.
—‘ABDU’L-BAHA
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Lords of Creation
FLOYD H. MUNSON
UR 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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132
be a repository of celestial perfections, divine attributes and qualities. The Holy Spirit descends upon them, a divine afl'latus 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, 3 foreordained revelation, diflering 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
WORLD ORDER
the beginning that hath no beginning” t0 “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 he a clod, a hall 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 hounties. 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 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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LORDS 0F CREATION 133
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 lifeforce 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
134 WORLD ORDER
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
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
the Light of unfading splendor 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 per sonage. —‘ABDU’L-BAHA
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Quddús: Companion of the 13511)
HARRIET PETTIBONE
HE WAS named Muḥammad ‘Alí. He was born in the town of Barfurush in the province of Mazindarén in Persia. His mother died when he was very young. Through her he was a direct descendant of the Imám Hasan, 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 Karbila, 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 Kazim 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, Muhammad-‘Ali, 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[Page 136]
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 Bah, 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, 21 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, Quddfis and another believer were tortured and expelled for openly and fearlessly proclaiming the birth of a New Day.
In the course of his journey
Quddfis 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 hearing,
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
per[Page 137]
formance
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 Bárfurush 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 Bill) and who
had been told by Him to find “God’s hidden treasure.” After an evening shared with a group of friends, Quddús asked Mulla Husayn, the new arrival, of neWS of the Rail). 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 Husayn recognized from this creative writing “God’s hidden treasure” and when he realized that Quddfis was its author he reverently declared; “The hid 137
den 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 he now hidden amid the mountain fastnesses of A(fliirbayjan, the sign of His splendour and the revelation of His might stand manifest before me. I have found in Mazindarén 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 law: and precepts. This Great Soul known as
the Báb claimed not only that
He was the Promised One fore
told in all the Holy Books of
God[Page 138]
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 K116i.”
In the hamlet of Badasht on the border of the province of Mazindaran a conference was held. Three gardens were rented; Quddlis occupied one. Eighty-one disciples attended for twenty-two days. On each of these twentytwo days a new Tablet was revealed and each disciple received a new name. It was here that Muhammad-‘Ali received the name of Quddús. The primary purpose of this conference was to implement the Bayan, a book revealed by the Bath, which provided the laws for the new day which He had announced. “Quddfis, 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 Táhirih.” 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 Muhammadan 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 Mazindarén; on their way they were attacked by the people of the neighborhood in the village of Niyala, Quddús fell into the hands of his opponents and was confined in Séri.
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 3611) and His disciples
had upon the people. Were
this influence to predominate,
their own positions might be
jeo[Page 139]
pardized;
their fear of this
caused them to persecute the
Babis. Owing to this condition,
measures were taken in self-defense.
“On three occasions a
number of Babis 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-Tabarsi 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
Séri and immediately assumed the leadership at
Tabarsi. 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 won 139
der and justified his leadership in their eyes.”
During one of the battles Quddfis 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 Nabil, “ 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 Nahil 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!
[Page 141]
Meditations: Nearness to God
0 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, hut 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. HIDDEN WORDS
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.
GLEANINGS, p. 183
Meditate on what the poet hath written: “Wonder not, if my BestBeloved 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. GLEANINGS, p. 185
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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142 WORLD ORDER
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. . . GLEANINGS p. 186
. . . . 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, 10, 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. GLEANINGS, p. 63
The purpose of God in creating man hath been, and ever will he, 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.
GLEANINGS, p. 70
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. GLEANINGS, p. 236
[Page 143]
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 teaehing 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 W orld 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 Muhammad and Islém 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, Quddlis.
One of W orld 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.
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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 ofl—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
WORLD ORDER
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 Dtstnbute ' Bahá’í Publishing Committee 110 Llnden A hue, Wilmette, Lllinois
Bahá’u’lláh AND THE NEW ERA '
K \\l This work by the late J. E. Esslemont of Aber n, Scotland has for moreythan twenty years been the most useful intro tory bool: on the Baha 1 Revelation. Its successive chapters outline the historv and teachin s of the Faith, and show the significance of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh'qd 'Abdu’gl Bahá in the New Era. Many translations have a . p d ' than English. r , 11 eere 1n languages other
THE PROMISE OF ALL AGES 5 ~ \ Dr. George Townshend of the Churgh hglanu has
as one of the most scholarly and appealing a ors working 0
material. This work has particular interest for seeke ‘ with Christian back ground. It develops the theme of Bahá’u’lláh as the “ of Glory” fore told by all the Prophets.
SECURITY FOR A FAILING WORLD ’ ”=3
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 O'NE COUNTRY
The author, Emeric Sale 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.
[Page 146]
Words of Bahá’í’llé‘;
Inscribed Over the Nine Entrances of 15w
3. My love is Mv
House of Worshin W ilmette,_lllir<rés
' ‘ 9 y.“ ‘11The earth 15 but one counf), and m“
kind its Citizcns. // / The best 130 "i ‘ 1H“? ' My sight - r
1 , urn uot awu’" ' erefrom if thou karest Me. "
ongfold; h»;- that entereth
therein is e and secure.
4. BRPaLh‘é not the sins of others so long as
5.
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 heaveri I may remember thee.
. O ridl ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust.
. The source of all learning is the knowl edge of God, exalted be His glory.
