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WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
May, 1941
• The Universal and the Sectarian . . . National Bahá’í Assembly 41
• The Bahá’í Cause Today . . . . . . . . . . . . Marzieh Gail 46
• From a Panama Diary, III . . . Louise Caswell and Cora H. Oliver 64
• Applications of Spiritual Law . . . . . . . . . Compilation 69
• Universal Justice and Its Application . . . J. M. Haggard 75
• Book Review . . . . . . 79 • With Our Readers . . . 82
FIFTEEN CENTS
THAT WHICH THE LORD HATH ORDAINED AS THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY AND MIGHTIEST INSTRUMENT FOR THE HEALING OF ALL THE WORLD IS THE UNION OF ALL ITS PEOPLES IN ONE UNIVERSAL CAUSE, ONE COMMON FAITH. THIS CAN IN NO WISE BE ACHIEVED EXCEPT THROUGH THE POWER OF A SKILLED, AN ALL-POWERFUL AND INSPIRED PHYSICIAN . . . SOON WILL THE PRESENT-DAY ORDER BE ROLLED UP, AND A NEW ONE SPREAD OUT IN ITS STEAD.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS SHOULD BE REPORTED ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE
WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmette, Ill., by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. EDITORS: Stanwood Cobb, Alice Simmons Cox, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Marcia Steward Atwater, Hasan M. Balyusi, Dale S. Cole, Geneveive L. Coy, Shirin Fozdar, Marzieh Gail, Inez Greeven, Annamarie Honnold, G. A. Shook.
Editorial Office
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SUBSCRIPTIONS: $1.50 per year, for United States, its territories and possessions; for Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America. Single copies, 15c. Foreign subscriptions, $1.75. 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. Contents copyrighted 1941 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title registered at U. S. Patent Office.
MAY 1941, VOLUME VII, NUMBER 2
WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
VOLUME VII MAY, 1941 NUMBER 2
The Universal and the Sectarian
THE HIGHEST, MOST EXCELLENT GRACE IS ATTAINMENT UNTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD
RELIGIOUS controversy, it has been said, is not a quality of America. Here, for the first time in history, a great and varied population has been assured freedom of conscience and the individual right to worship God according to any practice not contravening the moral code or attacking the authority of the civil state. Here, likewise, such opportunity has, until recent years at least, been offered for material advancement that most of the social energy has spent itself in effort to achieve personal fulfilment. The climate of tolerance and the season of fruitfulness are not conducive to the rancor of theological struggle. The occasional public interchange of argument between so-called liberal and conservative branches of religious opinion has been like a contest between professionals —a spectator sport for the multitude, since the people themselves have not been vitally engaged.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, however, told the American believers in
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1912 that the time would come When Bahá’ís would be bitterly
assailed by ministers and priests. They would be denounced
as anti-Christ, anti-civilization, anti-moral. These denunciations,
He explained, would signalize great gains in the number
and public influence of the Bahá’í community. Later,
Shoghi Effendi re-emphasized this prediction in a passage
tracing the future development of the Faith. He stated that
among missionaries would arise the first animosity and attack,
and this would spread to some of the churches and later to
some of the politicians, eventually producing a public issue.
Every person knowing the history of faith realizes that each new Revelation encounters fierce resistance from the former religions. It seems to be an eternal and necessary spiritual law, this dramatic alignment of forces, the new spirit of devotion and sacrifice and conscious knowledge on the one hand, and the old theological formulas and social conventions on the other. The man of faith must welcome and cherish every opportunity given him to assert his spiritual experience in terms of heroism and conscious understanding, since this and naught else is the real life of the soul. Through the kindling of the flames of public feeling becomes ignited the quality of faith which is more than personal experience—the welding together of a new community in a common aim which later becomes the very purpose of civilization.
With this brief background we can approach with deeper insight the Bahá’í attitudes and teachings upheld by Marzieh Gail in her article The Bahá’í Faith Today appearing in this issue of World Order Magazine. The discussion precipitated by Mr. Miller is like the first sighing of the rising storm.
It will be well for Bahá’ís to keep to certain large principles
of truth with which their Faith is identified during the era of
religious controversy and refrain from attempting to deal with
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the minor details of criticism in which spiritual truth is so
frequently sacrificed for a fleeting public influence.
Why, we may ask, do Christians and Muslims and others leave behind their family sect in order to enter the Bahá’í community? Because no where else is the soul brought into relationship with the living God. The Bahá’í turns from the cold embers to the glowing flame. Because nowhere else can he share spiritual experience on terms of complete equality with men of every other race, class, nation and creed. Outside of this equality, which is a gift from God and not a virtue of human progress, the Bahá’í beholds a world utterly subjected to the principle of struggle and conflict. Because Bahá’u’lláh has not merely renewed religion: He has enlarged its beneficent area far beyond the boundaries traced by the Revelations of the past. Therefore the Bahá’í is not making effort, like so many members of the former faiths, to turn back to a spiritual phenomenon of the past, like the Sermon on the Mount, as if the race could return through the centuries to a former self.
In these three truths the Bahá’í stands unassailable by human power: the truth that God Himself sends His illumination and healing to man through a successive Manifestation age after age, and not through any one historical Person or completed event; the truth that Bahá’u’lláh reconciles and unifies those who hitherto have been alien and opposed; and the truth that Revelation means development in the order of spiritual reality corresponding to the human capacity to evolve from childhood to mature condition.
The Kitáb-i-Íqán (Book of Certitude) is Bahá’u’lláh’s gift of spiritual understanding to those who would leave sect and creed behind.
“Thou art surely aware of their idle contention, that all
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Revelation is ended, that the portals of Divine mercy are
closed, that from the day-springs of eternal holiness no sun
shall rise again, that the Ocean of everlasting bounty is forever
stilled, and that out of the Tabernacle of ancient glory
the Messengers of God have ceased to be made manifest. Such
is the measure of the understanding of these small-minded,
contemptible people.” (page 137) “The utter destitution into
which this people have fallen (i.e., Islám by its repudiation
of the Báb) doth surely suffice them, inasmuch as they have
been deprived of the recognition of the essential Purpose and
the knowledge of the Mystery and Substance of the Cause of
God. For the highest and most excelling grace bestowed upon
men is the grace of ‘attaining unto the Presence of God’ and
of His recognition, which has been promised unto all people.
This is the utmost degree of grace vouchsafed unto man by
the All-Bountiful, the Ancient of Days, and the fulness of
His absolute bounty upon His creatures.” (page 138)
“These Prophets and chosen Ones of God are the recipients
and revealers of all the unchangeable attributes and names of
God. They are the mirrors that truly and faithfully reflect
the light of God. Whatsoever is applicable to them is in
reality applicable to God, Himself, Who is both the Visible
and the Invisible. The knowledge of Him, Who is the Origin
of all things, and attainment unto Him, are impossible save
through knowledge of, and attainment unto, these luminous
Beings Who proceed from the Sun of Truth. By attaining,
therefore, to the presence of these Holy Luminaries, the
‘Presence of God’ Himself is attained.” (page 142) “Therefore,
whosoever, and in whatever Dispensation, hath recognized
and attained unto the presence of these glorious, these resplendent
and most excellent Luminaries, hath verily attained
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unto the ‘Presence of God’ Himself, and entered the city of
eternal and immortal life.” (page 143)
The word “Dispensation” is a clue to the mysterious process by which a Manifestation of God appears, reveals His measure of truth, founds a civilization and then gives way to another Revelation and a new cycle. There is but one Covenant, but it is renewed from age to age.
Another clue to the oneness of religion is the fact that every great civilization has been destroyed and with it have collapsed all man-made substitutes for true faith. Today we are beyond and above all mere theological argument and speculation in this decisive fact, that the very framework supporting the theological positions of the past is being disintegrated. The world is immersed in the sea of divine mystery. Speculation and abstract argument collapse. The only quality which can endure is that humility, seeking to serve the world aims which Bahá’u’lláh’s Dispensation promotes. By divine decree it is now too late to save any religious culture attached like a vine to the structure of the old civilization. The privileges of sectarianism are doomed.
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
The greatest bestowal of God in the world of humanity is religion; for assuredly the divine teachings of religion are above all other sources of instruction and development of man. Religion confers upon man eternal life and guides his footsteps in the world of morality. It opens the doors of unending happiness and bestows everlasting honor upon the human kingdom. It has been the basis of all civilization and progress in the history of mankind.—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
The Bahá’í Cause Today
Marzieh Gail
A FEW months ago (October, 1940) an article called “The Bahai (sic) Cause Today” by William McElwee Miller, appeared in The Moslem World. That it was not intended as an ordinary report is shown by this: a reprint was made and copies sent to a number of Bahá’ís, and doubtless to many other persons, throughout the country. Why the reprint was made and gratuitously circulated, and who supplied the mailing list, I do not know.
As for The Moslem World, it describes itself as “A Christian quarterly review of current events, literature and thought among Mohammedans.” Its editor is among other things a missionary, an ordained minister, and the author of such books as “Islam—A Challenge to Faith,” and “Mohammed or Christ.” Of ten associate editors, five bear the title of “Reverend,” a sixth having the degree of D.D.
The author of this article, himself a missionary, explains at the outset why he has written it. He says, “There are a number of centers in America where Bahais (sic) have been conducting meetings and working for their cause for a number of years, and it sometimes happens that people who come in touch with them wish to know more about the movement.” (A most encouraging remark, incidentally.) After recommending a study of our literature he says that the editors of The Moslem World have requested the writing of this article “to meet the need of those who wish to consider the movement from a different point of view.”
INACCURATE HISTORICAL SUMMARY
Under the circumstances, I should think one would hardly need to read the article to find out what this “different point of view” might be—surely anyone of average intelligence would know it beforehand. With no surprise, then, we find that the historical summary of our Faith as supplied by Mr. Miller repeats all the old misinformation as if it were Gospel truth. Such a figure as Azal is cordially espoused. (It is interesting, the popularity which that pitifully weak, warped man enjoys with those who seek to deny our Faith. How they like to insinuate that Bahá’u’lláh was opposed to Azal and attempted his life, whereas through all those years Bahá’u’lláh showed him nothing but kindness; and this was continued by the Family of Bahá’u’lláh; in 1924 I met Azal’s granddaughter, well cared-for as a guest in the Master’s Household. For an eye-witness account of Azal, and of his behavior in Baghdád, the reader is referred to Lady Blomfield’s The Chosen Highway. Even when Bahá’u’lláh went away into the wilderness for two years, and Azal was left entirely alone and free to seize any station he wished, he could do nothing but cower behind locked doors. Even in the Book of Aqdas, Bahá’u’lláh offers to forgive him, forgive the man who had worked only in darkness, whose methods were poison and treachery and safe hiding-places.) Mr. Miller complains that Azal is “ignored” in modern Bahá’í histories. Well, there is not much to say about him.
Mr. Miller also says, without giving his source, that Dr.
Cormick and “other doctors also” were of the opinion that
the mind of the Báb was “unbalanced.” We must remember
that the Báb, a lone Prisoner who had been bastinadoed, told
Dr. Cormick that in time all people would obey Him and embrace
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His teaching. I am sure the Dr. Cormicks of Jesus’
time would have expressed a similar opinion, when they heard
the poor Carpenter speak of Himself as King of the Jews.
Those who wish to judge for themselves of the Báb’s mind
have only to refer to His writings—writings to the translation
of which such a scholar as A. L. M. Nicolas devoted much
of his life.
I would suggest, for the benefit of those seekers for whom Mr. Miller says he has written this article, that they should be careful of terminological pitfalls along the way. After five or ten such expressions as “propaganda” for “teaching”; “busily engaged in” for “engaged in”; “secretly preparing to advance the claim” for “had not yet declared Himself”; “totalitarian” for “united”—the reader will be influenced in the direction the writer intends without even knowing it.
Mr. Miller fires off his cannon very quietly, as the Persians say. He gives it as a Bahá’í teaching that Bahá’u’lláh “will found a Church-State which will become dominant in the World, and this will be done, not by the sword, . . . but by peaceful means.” This is most misleading. For there is no such thing as a Bahá’í church, and the concept of state as we have known it heretofore does not express the World State of the Future, the World Federation; what Victor Hugo referred to as the “United States of the World” and H. G. Wells as a “comprehensive collectivization of human affairs.” We stand for the unity of the entire human race. There is no precedent for what we represent. Attempted labels from the past are mere anachronisms.
I shall not dwell here on Mr. Miller’s summary of the
Book of Aqdas, a summary obviously meant to be ridiculous.
I have studied the beautiful original of this Most Holy Book,
in Ṭihrán, with the well-known scholar Jináb-i-Fáḍil-i-Mázindarání,
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and therefore do not understand what Mr.
Miller means when he says that it is “almost as unintelligible
in Írán as it is in America.” Mr. Miller ought perhaps to
brush up on his Arabic.
Many excerpts from the Aqdas are already translated into English and available in the Gleanings. That the entire volume has not yet been introduced in the West is due to the fact that other Bahá’í works are an essential preliminary to its study; these are being supplied in rapid succession, and through the Guardian’s unremitting labor. They include such titles as the Íqán, The Dawn-Breakers, the Gleanings, the Prayers and Meditations; such writings as The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh and The Advent of Divine Justice.
DENIAL OF THE MANIFESTATION
Mr. Miller then makes the interesting statement that
Bahá’u’lláh owed much to the “reading of books and newspapers
published in Syria.” This, of course, is the old attempt
of man to explain away the Prophet. Whatever wonderful
publications may have been available in that remote country
in the 60’s and 70’s, the reading of books and newspapers
never produced a Prophet of God; you cannot acquire from
books and newspapers what they do not contain: the innate
power that characterizes the Manifestation. Mr. Miller also
says “there is little in his teachings that is original. . . . ” I
am glad that Mr. Miller goes so true to form; he satisfies
perfectly my sense of history; for this remark is invariably
made of the new Prophet by followers of previous ones. For
two thousand years the Jews have been saying it of Jesus;
see the idea as currently expressed by Ludwig Lewisohn (The
Island Within, 1928, p. 119) when he refers to “the ethical
or purely spiritual aspects of the teachings of Jesus, who said
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nothing of this kind which had not previously been said by
sage and prophet and duly embodied as law or Jewish aspiration
in some sacred book or accepted tradition.” For thirteen
hundred years the Christians have been saying that Muḥammad
collected bits of Jewish and Christian lore and so fabricated a
religion—whereas anyone can gather bits of religion together,
but that does not make him a Prophet, the animater of millions
of men. Just as anyone can collect poems into an anthology,
but that does not make him a poet.
Mr. Miller’s remarks on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who only yesterday was still on earth with us, Whom thousands now living carry always in their hearts, I find especially difficult to forgive: “Abdu’l-Bahá, who had been appointed by his father the leader of the movement, began to make claims for himself, which to many Bahais seemed blasphemous . . . he so associated himself with his father that he led the Bahais to give him the same honor which they gave the Manifestation. . . .” To mention only one man, my father was privileged to be with the Master in the prison city for almost a year and half. To mention only one man among thousands, my father can indignantly refute such a statement as this. The reader is referred to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s emphatic teachings on this subject, and to His name—“Servant of Bahá.”
Mr. Miller is obviously much annoyed that the Master sent someone to America to teach the Faith. He puts it in this way: “Not content with having the allegiance of the Bahais of the East, Abdul-Baha in 1893 sent a missionary . . . to America. . . .” This is an odd comment from one who was himself for twenty years a missionary in a foreign land.
On page 10 of the reprint Mr. Miller uses, unannounced,
a long quotation from himself. Wondering who his quoted
authority was, I realized that the passage was vaguely familiar;
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I then remembered and checked its source—another of Mr.
Miller’s own writings. A good way, this, to make one writer
sound like several. The purport of the section on page 10
is that in the Bahá’í plan, world unity, according to Mr.
Miller, “is to be achieved by complete submission on the part
of all men to the word and will of . . . one man.”
Well, the relationship of Bahá’ís to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and today to the Guardian, is not submission as Mr. Miller intends it. It is love. It is a spiritual bond involving no compulsion. It could not be established by force. It is like the concentration of members of a symphony orchestra on the conductor of the symphony; it grows out of our insistent desire for unity and our knowledge that without a focal point of concentration there can be no unity.
The passage from the Master’s Will: “To none is given the right to put forth his own opinion or express his particular convictions. All must seek guidance and turn unto the Center of the Cause and the House of Justice,” means simply this: no member of the orchestra can desert the pattern of the music. This passage does not refer to scientific research, philosophical exploration, creative activity; it simply expresses the plan of Bahá’u’lláh for world unity: the concentration of the hearts of His followers on an established and designated Point.
Mr. Miller next proceeds to wonder when our Faith will get out of its infancy and “grow up.” Christianity was some three hundred years becoming established, and the Bahá’í Cause synchronizes with a much greater change in human affairs than took place then. A wise observer would certainly take no stock in a World Cause which reached maturity, developed all its potentialities, in less than a hundred years. Incidentally, Tertullian (died ca. 230 A. D.) said in his time of Christianity, “We were only born yesterday. . . .”
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As to Mr. Miller’s statistical figures on our Faith, quoted
from the United States Census of Religious Bodies (1936):
whatever their accuracy, our Faith has grown so much since
1936, with the development in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin,
and Southern California, to mention only some areas—and to
say nothing of its increasing spread throughout this hemisphere
by Bahá’í settlers and travelers from Alaska to Argentina
—that the membership and distribution as quoted are no
longer representative. Nevertheless our membership in the
United States is admittedly small, and this is one of the strongest
proofs of our spiritual confirmation: that a few thousand
people should have built the great House of Worship, established
four summer schools, brought out books which authorities
throughout the nation consider of the first rank, won the
respectful attention of educators and government officials, and
carried their Faith as far away as India and Australia and
Japan. And this has been accomplished with Bahá’í funds
only, since money is not accepted by us from non-Bahá’ís.
Speaking of numbers, it must be remembered that one cannot
become a Bahá’í by birth—the means by which most church
memberships are recruited; that our teachings conflict with
some of the public’s most cherished prejudices and desires;
that every Bahá’í is the result of a long selective process imposed
by the very nature of the Faith.
THE ONLY SAVIOUR
As for the figure quoted for charity gifts, this is of course inaccurate, since many keep no record of what they give. Nevertheless it is obvious that the Bahá’í gives first to his own Faith; for we believe that once the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are established in the world, the present ugly system of producing poverty and then nursing it along, will be no more.
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Mr. Miller then proceeds to write favorably of our literature
and tells where it may be purchased. He especially
praises a very fine presentation of the Bahá’í Teachings, Stanwood
Cobb’s “Security for a Failing World.” He agrees with
us that the world is unable to save itself, but adds that at this
point the Bahá’ís “part company with followers of Christ.”
Because, he says, the Christian believes that “Christ is the only
Saviour of the world,” and that “Christ’s spiritual presence
everywhere is better for the Church today than would be His
physical presence in Palestine or in America.” As a distinguished
namesake of Mr. Miller once said, when he urgently
announced to the Christians of his time the Return of Christ
on or about the year 1844, “To my astonishment I found very
few who listened with any interest. . . .” Those people, too,
were not anxious for the physical presence of Jesus. Apparently
Mr. Miller does not believe in such Christian doctrines as the
Word made Flesh—the physical presence of the Manifestation
—and His establishment of the Kingdom of God “on earth
as it is in heaven.”
On page 18 we find Mr. Miller misusing a statement of
Stanwood Cobb’s, regarding the “practice of collective turning
to the Divine Ruler of the universe for guidance”; Mr. Cobb
is speaking of Almighty God, whereas Mr. Miller comments:
“The Bahais feel the need of a Divine Ruler who sits on
Caesar’s throne, and that ruler they believe to be Shoghi
Effendi.” On page 25 he says again, “The Bahai dream is
of a totalitarian world order, in which the successor of
Baha’ullah rules supreme.” This strange “totalitarian order”
exists only in Mr. Miller’s mind, as any one may discover for
himself by referring to our books. Not for a moment would
free, twentieth-century adults labor away the best years of
their lives to further such a fantastic, such an impossible and
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indeed such an undesirable aim. For Bahá’u’lláh teaches that
the human race is achieving maturity, that its centuries of subjugation
and irresponsibility are forever vanished, that the
burden of the conduct of human affairs is now to be borne by
all human beings through their representatives, functioning in
world institutions and chosen indirectly by universal suffrage.
“The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Bahá’u’lláh,
implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which
all nations, creeds and classes are closely and permanently
united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and
the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that
compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded. . . .
This commonwealth must, as far as we can visualize it, consist
of a world legislature, whose members will, as the trustees
of the whole of mankind, ultimately control the entire resources
of all the component nations, and will enact such laws
as shall be required to regulate the life, satisfy the needs and
adjust the relationships of all races and peoples. A world
executive, backed by an international Force, will carry out the
decisions arrived at, and apply the laws enacted by, this world
legislature, and will safeguard the organic unity of the whole
commonwealth. A world tribunal will adjudicate and deliver
its compulsory and final verdict in all and any disputes that
may arise between the various elements constituting this universal
system. . . . A mechanism of world inter-communication
will be devised. . . . A world metropolis will act as the
nerve center of a world civilization. . . . A world language
will either be invented or chosen from the existing languages
and will be taught in the schools of all the federated nations
as an auxiliary to their mother tongue. A world script, a world
literature, a uniform and universal system of currency, of
weights and measures, will simplify and facilitate . . . understanding
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. . . . In such a world society, science and religion,
the two most potent forces in human life, will be reconciled,
will cooperate, and will harmoniously develop . . . such is the
goal towards which humanity, impelled by the unifying forces
of life, is moving.” (Shoghi Effendi, The Unfoldment of
World Civilization.)
As for the institution of the Guardianship, although writing on it at length, Mr. Miller seems to have accorded it only the most cursory attention. The Guardian of the Faith is its Interpreter. That is, he is the ultimate authority, the final court of appeal as to the meaning of a Bahá’í teaching; if there were no such authorized, ultimate authority, the teachings themselves would cease to have available meaning; they could no longer be used as a basis for legislation; for they would have one meaning for this man, another for that man, until hundreds and thousands of schools would spring up, a hodge-podge of hostile institutions would attack one another, and instead of world order we would have a world devastation, brought about by perverted religious zeal acting on a world scale, that could exterminate the human race.
Mr. Miller has also failed to understand that in the Bahá’í
plan the Guardian does not legislate “except in his capacity as
member of the Universal of Justice.” “. . . he can never
assume the right of exclusive legislation. He cannot
override the decision of the majority of his fellow-members,
but is bound to insist upon a reconsideration by them of any
enactment he conscientiously believes to conflict with the meaning
and to depart from the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s revealed
utterances. He interprets what has been specifically revealed.
. . . He is debarred from laying down independently the constitution
that must govern the organized activities of his
fellow-members, and from exercising his influence in a manner
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that would encroach upon the liberty of those whose sacred
right is to elect the body of his collaborators.” (Shoghi Effendi,
The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh.) Moreover it is the international
elected representatives who have, in this plan, “the
exclusive right of legislating on matters not expressly revealed
in the Bahá’í writings.” (Shoghi Effendi, ibid.)
This last should also alter Mr. Miller’s assumption that in our view the world is to be ruled for a thousand years by the laws of the Book of Aqdas and no others. Furthermore, this world institution, the Universal House of Justice, can abrogate “according to the exigencies of the time, its own enactments, as well as those of a preceding House of Justice.” (Shoghi Effendi, ibid.)
We Bahá’ís are not working to establish a new political set-up; we are simply carrying out the administrative plan of Bahá’u’lláh as to the conduct of our Faith. We believe that following this present war there will appear “The Lesser Peace,” which will mark the final abandonment of war—a hitherto valued human practice. But “The Most Great Peace,” the world commonwealth of the future, will not come until after we who are now living will have passed; our present generations will not see it. It will be a gradual development, this peace on peace of the future. The Universal House of Justice may be elected within a relatively short time; Bahá’ís now living may be elected to serve on it. But, like our other administrative institutions, it will be a non-political body, its aim the administration of the affairs of the Cause. It is our belief that gradually, for its excellence, the Bahá’í plan for coordinating human affairs will be voluntarily adopted by one country after another, and put to the service of all mankind.
As to the following statement of Mr. Miller: “If Shoghi
Effendi claims to be divine, as did Bahá’u’lláh, he might be
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justified in requiring such submission, and in that case, he
would be a new Manifestation. But if he is man, and not God,
how can he rightly demand absolute obedience and submission
from other men?” Leaving aside the fact that the Guardian
demands no obedience—that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá required of all His
followers obedience to Shoghi Effendi, just as Bahá’u’lláh
required of them all, obedience to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—we will
answer Mr. Miller with Shoghi Effendi’s own words, in The
Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh: “The Guardian of the Faith must
not under any circumstances . . . be exalted to the rank that
will make him a co-sharer with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the unique
position which the Center of the Covenant occupies—much
less to the station exclusively ordained for the Manifestation
of God. So grave a departure from the established tenets of
our Faith is nothing short of open blasphemy.”
Following precedent, Mr. Miller attempts to make out that our early history had its “full share of internal as well as external strife.” What he refers to are schemings, not within, but against our Faith, by those who had abandoned it. And what happens to those who desert the Cause, after once claiming allegiance? This, that they do not take with them that power to unite human beings, that dynamic power which lies only within the Faith and which characterizes every religion in its days of vigor. The humblest Bahá’í has time and again entered a city and, using the power of Bahá’u’lláh, established there a united community of human beings; of persons hitherto hostile to one another because of racial, religious, or class differences. The one who has left the Cause is unable to do this; not Azal, not Muḥammad-‘Alí, not any other of their kind has been able to create a group of united human beings. That a few persons have on occasion left the Faith is undeniable; this Cause is a living organism—it has its waste products.
THE RETURN OF CHRIST
Mr. Miller goes on to say that a Christian accepting Bahá’u’lláh “must give up his allegiance to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.” Leaving names aside, I would ask every Christian where he would place his allegiance on the occasion of the return of Christ; would he add the new loyalty, the new allegiance, to the glorious, returned Saviour, or would he reject the returned Manifestation and maintain only his allegiance to the Christ of 2,000 years ago? Mr. Miller would not be troubled by this question because he apparently does not believe in the return of Christ; but those Christians who do believe in it, will listen to Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings that the Spirit has returned again, in the new Name.
Mr. Miller also maintains, in his own words, that Bahá’u’lláh “has not brought peace on earth any more than Christ did.” He asks where is the Most Great Peace. He has only to remember that Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá foretold terrible chaos which would precede the establishment of world peace. Here is the chaos, not yet at climax; and well before the end of this century, we await the peace.
Some of the other comments made by Mr. Miller seemed
to me amusing and deserve to be passed on. For example this
one, given as proof that our Faith is not “adequate to meet
the world’s need”; “Bahá’ísm Fails to Take Sin Seriously.”
No doubt Mr. Miller has read neither the Gleanings nor
Prayers and Meditations nor the Hidden Words. I will admit
that there is in our Faith no class of persons paid to use sin
as a weapon against us once a week; I will add that we do not
believe in the theory of original sin. Nevertheless every
Bahá’í is conscious of his human sinfulness, is constant in prayer
and keeps the yearly fast, and begs forgiveness at all times.
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Mr. Miller has only to refer to our writings to learn this; for
instance, to the daily prayer in Prayers and Meditations, p. 322:
“O God, my God! My back is bowed with the burden of my
sins, and my heedlessness hath destroyed me. Whenever I
ponder my evil doings and Thy benevolence, my heart melteth
within me. . . . By Thy Beauty . . . I blush to lift up my face
to Thee . . .”
He then says that our Cause “fails to provide a Saviour” and asks, “What would a Bahá’í preacher say in a downtown mission?” I will suggest that he read what ‘Abdu’l-Bahá did say in the Bowery Mission, and also to what He did—pressed money into the hand of each man. Mr. Miller forgets that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was knighted by the British Government for His services to the Palestine poor.
Incidentally, Mr. Miller’s economics seem to be on the old-fashioned side, because he speaks of poor people as “slaves of sin.” These are his words: “So far as I know, Bahá’ís have never opened a Mission for the down-and-outs, and the reason is clear—they have no Saviour to offer to the slaves of sin.” (Once the economic order is properly adjusted, these slums will vanish, Mr. Miller. But no singing of hymns on street corners and passing out of tracts will make the slightest change in them now.) As for the Saviour, the Saviour is the Manifestation of God.
Mr. Miller also complains that our Faith “Keeps Men in
Bondage to the Law,” saying further that “the Christian keeps
God’s laws, not in order to save himself, but because he has
been saved!” No Bahá’í knows whether he has been saved or
not; for we believe that our salvation depends on the operation
of the Will of God; our works are as nothing unless they
prove acceptable to Him. Nevertheless we are required to
demonstrate our belief in God by obedience to His commands;
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lawlessness, anarchy, would defeat our purpose, which is to
establish world order.
Mr. Miller also maintains that our Faith “Lacks the Power to Produce Fruit.” He admits that there is some fruit on our tree, but says it has been “artificially attached to the Bahá’í branches.” “To speak clearly, I find that the best things in Bahá’ísm are taken directly from Christianity, or are brought into the new faith by Christian converts.” This, of course, is exactly what, mutatis mutandis, Jews, Buddhists, etc., say of Christianity. Were the statement true, no one would become a Bahá’í.
He wonders why we do not go to Central Africa or Tibet (a Freudian wish, perhaps) forgetting that like the early disciples of Jesus, we must go first to the centers of population, then to the remote districts. (Paul went to Athens, to Corinth, to Rome.) He apparently does not know that Bahá’ís have already gone to such faraway places as Cochin-China, Ethiopia and Tahiti, and that the second century of the Bahá’í era will see us penetrating the darkest corners of the earth. He also wishes that the Bahá’ís had built a “medical mission in India or Tibet” rather than the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, forgetting that there are thousands of hospitals in the world, but no building where Negro and white, Muslim and Jew, Buddhist and Christian, can kneel together as one people before one God. Certainly it is the Kingdom of God which must be sought first; the worship of God which must be provided for first. Mr. Miller also forgets that the House of Worship is the heart of a great cultural institution, which will include not only hospitals, but colleges, laboratories, homes for the aged, and the like.
Mr. Miller also says that we Bahá’ís are not allowed freely
to investigate truth. He speaks of “books” which “disappeared
from Persia,” the implication being that we destroyed them.
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Incidentally, although Mr. Miller generously uses “books” in
the plural, he gives only one title, the Nuqtatu’l-Káf. Well,
the reason we do not use that book is that it is valueless as history,
and not because it sets forth the claims of Azal; proof of
which is this, that we use and list in our bibliographies the
Táríkh-i-Jadíd, which sets forth the claims of Azal. Indeed,
the edition available to me bears his photograph as frontispiece.
Does Mr. Miller really believe the Bahá’ís could have
hidden any facts in the case? Mr. Miller’s constantly-quoted
authority, E. G. Browne, spent a long visit with Azal. If Azal
had had any evidence to support any claims, he would surely
have given it to Browne, who would then have spread it broadcast.
Bahá’u’lláh is His own proof. The Manifestation of God needs no document. Just as a Shakespeare, a Beethoven, needs no testimonial . . . Even if Jesus had never existed, no one would follow Iscariot.
THE LIGHT OF UNFADING GLORY
Another charge, the last one Mr. Miller makes here, is that our Faith “Dishonors Jesus Christ.” He adds “. . . Bahá’ísm has attempted to push Him off the throne of the universe, and to put in His place in succession three others, all of whom, it is said, are greater than He.” Mr. Miller has apparently not studied the Bahá’í teaching of the oneness of the Prophets: that all are mirrors facing the one sun—the unknowable God. That none is essentially greater than another, because the sun is not greater than the sun; that the circumstances of their world mission vary, but that they are all one. “These Tabernacles of Holiness, these Primal Mirrors which reflect the light of unfading glory, are but expressions of Him Who is the Invisible of the Invisibles . . .” (Gleanings, p. 47)
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“That Bahá’u’lláh should, notwithstanding the overwhelming
intensity of His Revelation, be regarded as essentially one
of these Manifestations of God, never to be identified with that
invisible Reality, the Essence of Divinity itself, is one of the
major beliefs of our Faith . . .” (Shoghi Effendi, The Dispensation
of Bahá’u’lláh)
Mr. Miller continues: “The Christian cannot for a moment tolerate this disloyalty . . .” But what greater disloyalty could the Christian show to Christ than to reject the Spirit of Truth, Whose coming the Christ so clearly foretold:—
“Watch therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh . . . Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come . . . when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. . .”
(This certainly does not sound like that vague suffusion of feeling which Mr. Miller seems to understand by the Return of Christ.)
If Bahá’u’lláh is what He proclaims, His Cause will establish
the millennium. If on the other hand our Faith is not true,
it will pass and die and be forgotten. “Verily, falsehood is a
thing that vanisheth” (Qur’án, 17:83). If human beings desire
this Faith, they will adopt it in increasing numbers until it embraces
the whole world. If they do not desire it, they will reject
it, since they are free to choose. As you say yourself, we can use
no compulsion in our teaching; unlike Islam and Christianity,
our Faith can never be spread by force. We simply tell others
that Bahá’u’lláh has come; we simply show them His writings;
and as a result more and more people are becoming Bahá’ís,
our Faith has circled the globe, we already have international,
national and local institutions, two great Houses of Worship,
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and a wealth of books in many languages. People have been
urgently longing for this renewal of faith in the world, and
that is why they are accepting it.
I shall close by reminding you of Bahá’u’lláh’s promise of ultimate victory: “When the victory arriveth, every man shall profess himself as believer and shall hasten to the shelter of God’s faith. Happy are they who 1n the days of world-encompassing trials have stood fast in the cause and refused to swerve from its truth.” (Gleanings, p. 319)
And by way of postscript, I shall add that attacks on the Faith of God are among those things that perish. Who today remembers Celsus, who said of the early Christians that they were like quacks who warn men against the doctor; and of their Lord that He was the son of a soldier named Panthera, and His teachings were garbled quotations from Greek literature, and His miracles tricks learned in Egypt. Who remembers?
I often wonder why, Mr. Miller, if you and those like you really believe we are unimportant, you spend so much time trying to prove it.
We should also bear in mind that the distinguishing character of the Bahá’í Revelation does not solely consist in the completeness and unquestionable validity of the Dispensation which the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have established. Its excellence lies also in the fact that those elements which in past Dispensations have, without the least authority from their Founders, been a source of corruption and of incalculable harm to the Faith of God, have been strictly excluded by the clear text of Bahá’u’lláh’s writings.—Shoghi Effendi.
From a Panama Diary
Louise Caswell and Cora H. Oliver
III
WE FIND the Panamanians most generous when one respects them and treats them as friends. An example of this was shown when a gentleman at the business office of the Star and Herald gave us many copies of the papers containing Bahá’í publicity. Again it was shown when we spent a day in the interior and visited the native huts with thatched roofs and dirt floors (at least three generations old) where we were given the customary welcome “a sus ordenes” and made to feel at home. They gave us gifts of fruit from their garden and even carried the large package to the car. Every effort is being made by the Panama pioneers to take part in the life of the people. The Indian servant (at 19 Fourth of July Avenue) responded warmly to the Teachings and has taken with her to the interior several Spanish pamphlets so her people will know of the Faith. Her face was radiant and tears came to her eyes when we parted. Such simplicity, devotion and beauty is shown in her life as would inspire all who could know her as we did.
Another friend of ours who is familiar with Persian and Arabic literature has written to our Guardian remarking on the style of his writings and translations and referring especially to the Book of Certitude and the Advent of Divine Justice as representing a new and fresh literature. We could tell endlessly of these contacts.
We live relying upon Bahá’u’lláh to guide our every activity,
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asking only for that which will promote the growth and
establishment of the Faith. “He doeth whatsoever He
willeth.”
March 2, April 8, 1940. “The Book of God is wide open, and His Word is summoning all mankind unto Him. No more than a mere handful, however, hath been found to cleave to His Cause, or to become the instruments for its promotion. Those few have been endued with the Divine Elixir that can, alone, transform 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. . . . ” (Bahá’u’lláh, America’s Spiritual Mission, p. 4.)
The month of fasting, ‘Alá, unfolded an entirely unexpected plan for the establishment of the Faith on the Isthmus; Cora’s moving into quarters in the Zone because of economic conditions and Louise’s going to the other side of the Isthmus to start classes with the interested people there. In this way the pioneering has been extended to both sides of the Isthmus in the Zone and to the Republic of Panama as must be in accordance with the Master’s words in the Advent of Divine Justice, p. 5: “. . . the Republic of Panama, wherein the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans come together through the Panama Canal.” Because the Canal is in the Zone (United States territory), we believe that the Master refers in this passage to the geographical position of Panama, including United States territory with the Republic—and hence we feel that our work in the Zone is of equal importance with that carried on in the Republic.
With the exception of a few days with Lorol, when she greatly stimulated our students, activities have been obstructed, particularly during the month of ‘Alá, due, we believe, to the Easter season.
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On the second day of the fast we moved to the Hotel
Columbia in the very heart of the Spanish-speaking, Roman
Catholic city of Panama—for two reasons, first, to be with
Lorol, and second, to be where we could hear more Spanish
than in our former home at 19 Avenida Fourth of July. There
had been some objections to our many callers so we felt that
the time had come to go elsewhere in spite of the call of comfort
and coolness of two nice rooms and a private bath. Lorol
felt strongly that we should make the break and as we had
considered it for some time it was not a great surprise to find
ourselves in a large room with balcony facing the historic Plaza
de Bolivar. Through the palms surrounding the statue of the
great liberator we had a view of the Cathedral de San Francisco
de Veraguas; and adjoining it a girls’ Catholic school and
the La Salle school for boys, built on the site where Bolivar
met with a group of men in 1826 and visioned an Inter-America
University. This was the first Pan-American conference,
Great Britain was represented. America sent two
men—one died on the way, the other arrived too late. In
three directions we could see from our balcony the Bay of
Panama and from the “terraza,” roof garden, the entire city
of Panama, the bay with the islands in the distance and the
Ancon Hill to the West.
Several ministers showed interest in the Teachings at the meeting of the Isthmian Religious Workers’ Federation held at the Union Church of Pedro Miguel. One of them called at the hotel later to seek an answer to his many questions and is how reading “Security for a Failing World.” This minister stands alone in the Federation favoring admission of Negro ministers to membership and is particularly attracted to the Bahá’í principle of the oneness of mankind.
The first days of Bahá, Splendor, brought the light of the
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Faith to two new groups; at Pension Margot, New Cristobal,
where Louise is staying, Jewish refugees from Austria, Hungary
and Czechoslovakia have read the Bahá’í literature in
German in Volume V of The Bahá’í World and in a German
copy of Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era. English and Spanish
literature has been distributed under the same roof. We are
so thankful for the copies of Esslemont in French and German
as many languages are spoken and read in Panama. Only
generations to come will see the fruit of the seed which is now
being sown but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has promised us that every seed
sown in this glorious century will bear fruit.
On April 5th Louise and Cora were guests of the Imperial
Literary and Social Club at the Cristobal Club House
(colored), the most outstanding club or group on the Atlantic
side of the Isthmus. Both of us addressed the group of twelve
members and their friends. A refugee from Hungary accompanied
us and also spoke briefly and started the bombardment
of questions which the entire group kept up till after ten
o’clock. The rapidity of their questions which came faster
than we could possibly answer, was explained when they stated
that they were a debating club. They expressed their appreciation
and their wish for us to come again. Our chemist
friend from Hungary is on his way to Roosevelt Hospital
in New Jersey where he will continue his work with tuberculosis.
He is much interested in bringing a better understanding
among the races and stands ready to assist in a practical
way. He will address the club in the near future. We feel
that much credit is due Mr. Osborne, superintendent of Silver
Schools in the Zone as it was he who not only organized the
La Boca group which is an ever-increasing joy and inspiration
to us, but he also arranged for the meeting with the club on
the Atlantic side. The La Boca group is now studying Esslemont
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and each member is preparing and discussing a special
chapter with the group. They are also spreading the Teachings
among their friends, thus fulfilling ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s words:
“May this down-trodden race become glorious.” It has been
said that Panama will become a black republic and if this is
true these men will surely be worthy of high positions of trust
and ready to rise to great heights of service to humanity.
Cora’s work brings her into contact with many people every day and as world conditions become more tense and confusing she sees the importance of knowing all these people and standing ready to serve them. In accordance with the Guardian’s instruction on pages 42-43 of The Advent of Divine Justice we are trying to reach as many sections of the population as possible and through our friends in the consular service and in the Little Theater Group in Cristobal and Colon another field is opened. April 9, 1940, May 16, 1940 (Notes of C. H. O.) “The day will soon come when the light of Divine unity will have so permeated the East and the West that no man dare any longer ignore it.” (Bahá’u’lláh, World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 111.) The dry season which brought with it an abundance of fruit will soon be over and the daily rains of the nine months’ rainy season be here again. During this change of season the heat becomes intense with little or no breeze or rain to refresh the land and its people. All look forward to the cool of the evenings and make the least possible exertion during the day.
(To be continued)
The Divine Art of Living
A Compilation
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
APPLICATIONS OF SPIRITUAL LAW
SERVICE
THERE is no greater result than bonds of service in the Divine kingdom and attainment to the good-pleasure of the Lord. Therefore I desire that your hearts may be directed to the kingdom of God, . . . your purposes turned toward altruistic accomplishment unmindful of your own welfare; nay, rather, may all your intentions center in the welfare of humanity, and may you seek to sacrifice yourselves in the pathway of devotion to mankind. Even as His Holiness Jesus Christ forfeited his life, may you likewise offer yourselves in the threshold of sacrifice for the betterment of the world; and just as His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh suffered severe ordeals and calamities nearly fifty years for you, may you be willing to undergo difficulties and withstand catastrophes for humanity in general. (Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 51, 52)
There can be no true satisfaction or contentment apart from the general prosperity. (Mysterious Forces of Civilization, p. 29)
A man should be a constant source of well-being and a ready help to prosperity for multitudes of people. (Idem, p. 31)
Faith is the magnet which draws the confirmation of the
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Merciful One. service is the magnet which attracts the heavenly
strength. I hope thou wilt attain both. (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
p. 62)
The service of the friends belongs to God, not to them. Strive to become a source of harmony, spirituality, and joyfulness to the hearts of the friends. (Idem, pp. 61, 62)
Be not idle, but active, and fear not.
I supplicate God to bestow upon thee penetrating power that thou mayest be a firm, faithful and successful servant . . . and a skillful laborer in the vineyard of God.
if thou seekest after a work which is brighter and more attractive, sweeter and more delightful than all the affairs, it is servitude to His Holiness the Lord of Might.
Ere long the word of God will display a wonderful influence and finally that region (America) will become the paradise of Abhá. Consequently, strive ye bravely that this aim may be accomplished in the near future. Striving means this: ye must live and move according to the Divine commands and behests, . . . engage continually in the service of the Cause of God. (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, pp. 162, 120, 658, 511)
O people of God! Be not occupied with yourselves. Be intent on the betterment of the world and the training of nations. The betterment of the world can be accomplished through pure and excellent deeds and well-approved and agreeable conduct. (Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 25)
Teach your children what hath been revealed through the Supreme Pen. Instruct them in what hath descended from the heaven of greatness and power. Let them memorize the Tablets of the Merciful . . . (Bahá’u’lláh, Star of the West, vol. 9, p. 81)
The beloved of God and the maidservants of the Merciful
must train their children with life and heart and teach them
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in the school of virtue and perfection. They must not be lax
in this matter, they must not be inefficient. . . .
The first trainer of the child is the mother. The babe, like unto a green and tender branch, will grow according to the way it is trained. If the training be right, it Will grow right, and conduct itself accordingly. (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, pp. 579, 580)
WORK AND WEALTH
It is made incumbent on every one of you to engage in some one occupation, such as arts, trades and the like. We have made this—your occupation—identical with the worship of God, the True One. Reflect, O people, upon the mercy of God and upon His favors, then thank Him in mornings and evenings.
To acquire knowledge is incumbent on all, but of those sciences which may profit the people of the earth, and not such sciences as begin in mere words, and end in mere words. The possessors of sciences and arts have a great right among the people of the world. . . . Indeed, the real treasury of man is his knowledge. Knowledge is the means of honor, prosperity, joy, gladness, happiness and exultation.
Man should know his own self, and know those things which lead to loftiness or to baseness, to shame or to honor, to affluence or to poverty. After man has realized his own being and become mature, then for him wealth (or competence) is needed. If this wealth is acquired through a craft or profession, it is approvable. (Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 89,_76, 5)
O My Servants! Ye are the trees of My garden; ye must
give forth goodly and wondrous fruits, that ye yourselves and
others may profit therefrom. Thus it is incumbent on every one
to engage in crafts and professions, for therein lies the secret
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of wealth, O men of understanding! For results depend upon
means, and the grace of God shall be all-sufficient unto you.
Trees that yield no fruit have been and will ever be for the fire.
O My Servant! The best of men are they that earn a livelihood by their calling and spend upon themselves and upon their kindred for the love of God, the Lord of all worlds.
O ye that pride yourselves on mortal riches! Know ye in truth that wealth is a mighty barrier between the seeker and his desire, the lover and his beloved. The rich, but for a few, shall in no wise attain the court of His presence nor enter the city of content and resignation. Well is it, then, with him, who, being rich, is not hindered by his riches from the eternal kingdom, nor deprived by them of imperishable dominion. By the Most Great Name! The splendor of such a wealthy man shall illuminate the dwellers of heaven, even as the sun enlightens the people of the earth!
GENEROSITY AND GIVING
O Ye Rich Ones on Earth! The poor in your midst are my trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease. (Hidden Words)
He (the true seeker) should succor the dispossessed, and never withhold his favor from the destitute. He should show kindness to animals, how much more unto his fellow-man, to him who is endowed with the power of utterance. (Íqán, p. 194)
The more the world aspires to civilization the more this
matter of cooperation and assistance becomes manifest, . . . so
much so, that the continuance of humanity depends entirely
upon this interrelation. The believers of God must especially
fortify this reality among themselves, so that all may help each
other under all circumstances, whether in the degree of truth
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and significances or in the stations of this world of matter and,
especially, in founding public institutions which shall benefit all
the people, and, still more, the founding of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár,
which is the greatest of the Divine foundations.
All the believers must contribute according to their means, no matter how small the sum may be. God does not ask from any soul except according to his ability . . .
In brief, O ye friends of God, rest assured that in place of of this contribution, your commerce, your agriculture, and industries shall be blessed many times. Whosoever comes with one good act, God will give him tenfold. There is no doubt that the living Lord shall assist and confirm the generous soul. (‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Tablet to the East and the West, Star of the West, vol. 6, p. 139)
STRENGTH AND BEAUTY OF CHARACTER
His Highness Christ has addressed the world, saying, “Except ye become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom”; that is, men must become pure in heart to know God. . . . The hearts of all children are of utmost purity. They are mirrors upon which no dust has fallen. But this purity is on account of weakness and innocence, not on account of any strength and testing. . . . They cannot display any great intelligence. They have neither hypocrisy nor deceit. This is on account of the child’s weakness whereas the man becomes pure through his strength. Through the power of intelligence he becomes simple; through the great power of reason and understanding and not through . . . . . weakness, he becomes sincere . . . . This is the difference between the perfect man and the child. Both have the underlying qualities of simplicity and sincerity. (Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 50)
Ask thou God that thou mayest attain to the age of maturity
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so that thou mayest recognize the beauty and ugliness of deeds
and actions. (Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’í Scriptures, par. 38)
Content thyself with but little of this world’s goods! Verily, economy is a great treasure. If one of thy relatives oppress thee, complain not against him before the magistrate; rather manifest magnificent patience during every calamity and hardship. Verily thy Master is the Lord of Faithfulness! Forgive and overlook the shortcomings which have appeared in that one, for the sake of love and affection. Know that nothing will benefit thee in this life save supplication . . . unto God, service in His vineyard, and, with a heart full of love, . . . constant servitude unto Him. (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 98)
O My Son! The company of the ungodly increaseth sorrow, whilst fellowship with the righteous cleaneth the rust from off the heart. He that seeketh to commune with God, let him betake himself to the companionship of His loved ones; and he that desireth to hearken unto the Word of God, let him give ear to the word of His chosen ones (Hidden Words).
I implore Thee by Thy Name through which the fragrance of the raiment of Thy presence was wafted, and the gentle winds of Thy bountiful grace passed over all created things, to graciously assist me, at all times and under all conditions, to serve Thy Cause, and to enable me to remember Thee and to extol Thy virtues. Let then Thine almighty arms enfold me, O my God, and ordain for me what beseemeth Thy bounty in every world of Thy worlds. (Prayers and Meditations, p. 227)
Universal Justice and Its Application
J. M. Haggard
FROM antiquity to the present age, the power of justice as a constructive force has been recognized and eulogized by the most capable writers.
All through the ages, man has been exhorted to be just. To quote from the Old Testament: “The path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
Poets and other writers, of ancient and modern times, have dipped their pens deeply into the well of inspiration, bringing out such scintillating gems as: “There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.” (Addison) “Justice is truth in action.” (Disraeli) “The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of government.” (Geo. Washington) “Justice, voiceless, unseen, seeth thee when thou sleepest and when thou goest forth, and when thou liest down.” (Aeschylus) “Whoever fights, whoever falls, justice conquers evermore. And he who battles on her side, God, though he were ten times slain, crowns him victor glorified, victor over death and pain.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Justice is an inner check on outer action. It is a standard
of conduct that cannot be compromised. It is divine law in
operation. Used properly, it is a power for good. Misused,
its effect is destructive. It is a force operating in the universe
through man as the medium. It is divine in origin, universal
in its application. It is a moral system of weights and measures.
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It weighs aspirations against actions, means against measures,
motivation against direction, intention against invention.
It governs the destinies, the rise and decline, progress or retrogression,
success or failure, of governments, rulers and the
people governed. It exacts strict and continued obedience to
divine law as a means of effective application and operation
of equity on a local, national or international scale.
The terrible condition of the present-day world is due primarily to widespread injustice, which remains uncurbed and continues to spread because of greed and materialism that envelops mankind. The advent of Divine Justice brings to an end these conditions and opens up new frontiers where no man can exist unless he is at the same time just to his fellowmen. Bahá’u’lláh’s Laws are applicable to nations, rulers and individuals, alike. These laws, inexorable in their functioning, will through the penalties exacted enforce obedience. These Laws will eventually govern the daily activities of all mankind.
The Laws of Bahá’u’lláh will correct intolerable conditions. These laws are applicable to present-day needs. They have inherent power that permeates man’s activities. They are being fused into the minds of all, whether Bahá’ís or non-Bahá’ís. These Laws lift men into a higher plane of spiritual consciousness, instilling in the mind of man higher ideals of justice and fairplay. These Divine Laws, inevitable and invincible, cannot be averted by any power or force. They have been ordained for the government of God’s Kingdom on earth. They are not man’s laws. They are God’s laws, and man must conform to them or perish. These Laws establish, “A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently abolished and the interdependence of Capital and Labor definitely recognized.” (Shoghi Effendi)
Divine Justice, based upon Bahá’u’lláh’s Laws for this
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Day, is the unfailing standard by which man may gauge the
wisdom of his activities. A new law is to be put into effect.
Is it just? A new system of weights and measures, a new
currency system, a working plan for world-wide or local use—
is it just? Scarcely a thing in one’s daily activities that is not
intimately connected with and affected by justice.
Exhorting rulers to deal justly with their subjects, Bahá’u’lláh wrote: “Lay not aside the fear of God, and be of them that act uprightly.” “Know thou for a certainty that who disbelieveth in God is neither trustworthy nor truthful.” “Shouldst thou cause rivers of justice to spread their waters amongst thy subjects, God would surely aid thee with the hosts of the unseen and of the seen.” “Overstep not the bounds of moderation and deal justly with them that serve thee.”
“Lay not aside the fear of God, O kings of earth. . . . Be vigilant, that ye may not do injustice to anyone, be it to the extent of a grain of mustard seed. Tread ye the path of justice, for this, verily, is the straight path.”
And to the world, at large, Bahá’u’lláh issues His counsel and warning: “Bestir yourselves, O people, in anticipation of the days of Divine Justice, for the promised hour is now come.” “Justice is, in this day, bewailing its plight, and Equity groaneth beneath the yoke of oppression.” “ . . . We exhort you with justice, and warn you with truth, lest perchance ye be awakened.”
For rulers as well as governed, there is a definite standard
of justice, as indicated by these words of Bahá’u’lláh: “Know
verily that the essence of justice and the source thereof are
both embodied in the ordinances prescribed by Him Who is
the Manifestation of the Self of God amongst men, if ye
be of them that recognize this truth. He doth verily incarnate
the highest, the infallible standard of justice unto all creation.
[Page 78]
Were His law to be such as to strike terror into the hearts of
all that are in heaven and on earth, that law is naught but
manifest justice.”
With the application of Bahá’u’lláh’s laws of Divine Justice, for all nations and peoples, the establishment of justice now reaches its consummation. Throughout His Writings, justice is frequently dwelt upon. Among His many utterances on this vital subject is this concluding quotation:
“There is no force on earth that can equal in its conquering power the force of justice and wisdom. . . . Blessed is the king who marcheth with the ensign of wisdom unfurled before him, and the battalions of justice massed in his rear. He verily is the ornament that adorneth the brow of peace and the countenance of security. There can be no doubt whatever that if the day star of justice, which the clouds of tyranny have obscured, were to shed its light upon men, the face of the earth would be completely transformed.”
Few will fail to recognize that the Spirit breathed by Bahá’u’lláh upon the world, and which is manifesting itself with varying degrees of intensity through the efforts consciously displayed by His avowed supporters and indirectly through certain humanitarian organizations, can never permeate and exercise an abiding influence upon mankind unless and until it incarnates itself in a visible Order, which would bear His name, wholly identify itself With His principles, and function in conformity with His laws. That Bahá’u’lláh in His Book of Aqdas, and later ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Will—a document which confirms, supplements, and correlates the provisions of the Aqdas—have set forth in their entirety those essential elements for the constitution of the world Bahá’í Commonwealth, no one who has read them will deny.—Shoghi Effendi.
Sufferance Is the Badge
BOOK REVIEW
Garreta Busey
OF THAT great wave of anti-semitism which has risen to inundate a large part of the world, most of us have only a fragmentary knowledge, gained from isolated newspaper stories, from the accounts of travelers, from desperate letters appealing for help. Few of us have been able to fit the pieces together in order to see the situation of the Hebrew people as a whole. Dr. Sachar has done this for us in his brilliant survey of the Jew in the contemporary world.1 Bit by bit, nation by nation, he has pieced the puzzle together, building for us (up to 1939) a finished picture of the wide-spread desolation afflicting one branch of the human family today. He shows us peaceful, productive, well-established Jewish communities on the Continent of Europe literally wiped out by one kind of persecution following another until the reader comes to the point where the horror is almost more than he can bear.
Yet the book is not hysterical. The coolness with which political and economic causes of the trouble are set forth and the care with which counteracting influences are assessed remind us that this book is written by an historian who takes the long view, by a Jew who feels pride in the courageous endurance of his race. Courage is the keynote of the book. A clear presentation of terrible facts, it is, nevertheless lighted by wit and humor—a grim humor like that of soldiers at war, which is a mark, nevertheless, of vitality and courage.
After reading Sufferance Is the Badge one is forced to the conclusion that anti-semitism is not a disease in itself, but a symptom of a more deep-seated illness afflicting mankind. None of the evils which beset us today exists separately. Hatred and violence are the byproducts
1 Sufferance Is the Badge, by Abram Leon Sachar, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1939.
[Page 80]
of misery and injustice, and anti-semitism can be a convenient
tool made use of by the unscrupulous to distract attention from
other forms of oppression.
What action, then, can be taken by those Jews who are still in a position for action? Dr. Sachar bases his concluding chapter, “A Credo for Survival,” on a story from the Haggadic literature of the Jewish Talmud, which tells of the Hebrews trapped between the Red Sea and the armies of Pharaoh. One group of the fugitives was ready to surrender and return to slavery; a second group wished to draw closer together, to do nothing, throwing all responsibility on the Almighty; a third group became hysterical and was ready to cast itself upon the spears of the enemy; but the fourth group cried: “Let us move forward, confidently, into the Red Sea. A way will surely open, if we show intrepid hearts, a way to the Promised Land.”
So today, Dr. Sachar points out, there are those among the Jews who would surrender and submit to the extinction of their Faith. There are those who would retire into mysticism, cutting themselves away from Christendom and forming an isolated world of their own. Others rush into hysterical action—assassination or suicide. But the wise, he maintains, will not lose hope. They will move confidently forward in defense of liberalism and democracy. “Here, then,” he writes, “is a credo for survival to serve the Jew who is tied to his people by more than the historic accident of birth. He must be pledged to the democratic way and be prepared to make every practical sacrifice to strengthen and sustain it; he must militantly fight back against the enemies who use the existence of minority groups as a springboard for their unscrupulous ambitions; he must steep himself in his tradition so that he may understand its survival value.” The Jews, Dr. Sachar reminds us, have been martyred before and they have survived. They can wait, once more, for the return of sanity.
Well, are we not all standing today between the armies of
Pharaoh and the Red Sea? Are not the Jews an integral part of that
organic body, the human race, and is not the impasse in which they
find themselves an impasse for us all? Must we not all move confidently
forward, putting our trust in the Almighty and in ourselves
as His instruments, accepting if necessary the martyrdom which has
[Page 81]
always been the price of integrity and progress, secure in the knowledge
that the Promised Land, the New World Order of Bahá’u’lláh,
is on the other side of the Red Sea? We, as Bahá’ís, are also pledged
to a form of society in which minority groups will be protected. We
are pledged to participation in the deepest spiritual traditions of all
the great religions, for they are one. That long stream of Truth
which came through Abraham and Moses, through Christ and
Muḥammad, through the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, that, and that alone,
has survival value for us all—for the human race itself. Men must
be united in a common Faith if they would be united in a common
Order. Until the Promised Land is disclosed, how can we be sure
we move forward and not back?
When a movement fundamentally religious makes a weak nation strong, changes a nondescript tribal people into a mighty and powerful civilization, rescues them from captivity and elevates them to sovereignty, transforms their ignorance into knowledge and endows them with an impetus of advancement in all degrees of development (this is not theory, but historical fact) it becomes evident that religion is the cause of man’s attainment to honor and sublimity.
But when we speak of religion we mean the essential foundation or reality of religion, not the dogmas and blind imitations which have gradually encrusted it and which are the cause of the decline and effacement of a nation. These are inevitably destructive and a menace and hindrance to a nation’s life,—even as it is recorded in the Torah and confirmed in history that when the Jews became fettered by empty forms and imitations the wrath of God became manifest—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
WITH OUR READERS
MORE than we can say the editors value the replies that have come in response to the recent letter sent out by us asking for suggestions and continued cooperation. The helpful suggestions, the reports of various uses made of the magazine and the expressed enthusiasm all show that World Order is both a teacher of the Bahá’í Faith and one of the bonds which help to link all Bahá’ís into one body. One very important reminder comes from the Bahá’í group at Moncton, New Brunswick. The correspondent writes: “I was especially grateful to receive the February issue this week with the symposium on ‘Youth and the New World Order’ to help with the teaching of young men of the Canadian Air Force.” This reminds us of the new opportunities some Bahá’ís are already finding to spread the Teachings among the men and boys in all the government training camps. Some of these young men are really seeking spiritual understanding of world conditions. All the camps are crying for reading matter. Why not World Order?
The group at Duluth, Wisconsin, reports that they find World Order “very good to give to people who are becoming interested in the Faith. We also keep it in the Public Library.”
One of the friends in East Orange lends her copies of World Order to friends outside the Cause because “they will read them when they will not take time to read a book”; and the Red Bank, New Jersey, group reports that previously they had been giving the library a copy of World Order but “now we circulate it among the Red Bank and Fair Haven group.” And many can reiterate these words from Madison, Wisconsin: “The magazine means more to me than I can tell you. The Bahá’í Faith is helping me back to health after great illness.”
• • •
That the “good news spreads”
and that the Bahá’í Cause has
understanding friends and staunch
defenders who have not yet declared
themselves believers is
[Page 83]
evidenced by the following incident
sent us from Mexico City
by Mrs. Helen Bishop:
“Last evening we were in the Bahá’í study class regularly conducted by Rubèn Angel in his law office. Present was an Arab friend of the Cause, Senor Bichara, editor of the Arabic newspaper here. He had fetched along an open letter on our Faith printed by the Arabic newspaper in New York. (“Al-Bayan,” 216 West 18th Street, New York, January 16, 1941, vol. xxx 4826.)
“Our friend translated this into Spanish for the benefit of our small company, which included my Mexican cousins attending their first meeting. After that, it was paraphrased into English for Charles Bishop.
“This open letter was a vigorous reply to an argument about the Cause carried on in two newspapers with at least one of the parties knowing little and perhaps nothing of the subject. A reference had been made to the late Lord Lothian, former British ambassador to Washington, and to his professed faith in the Bahá’í Plan for a New World Order.
“The easy-going statement that ‘Bahá’u’lláh signified the Almighty Lord and Creator’ was definitely corrected with the suggestion that the writer must have derived such a notion from the popular misconception of the Christian Trinity of three persons as one God. And, the critic pointed out, such confusion over the Bahá’í concepts of God the Essence and His Prophet Bahá’u’lláh as the most recent Manifestation of the divine attributes need not have crept into the writer’s mind and into print if he had first troubled himself to consult one of the many capable and cultivated Bahá’ís to be found in New York and its neighborhood. Astonishment was expressed that any educated person still remained uninformed of the meaning of the title Bahá’u’lláh and the universal aims thus represented.”
• • •
Our leading article this month
by Mrs. Marzieh Gail is a direct
answer to a recent article containing
misleading statements
about the Bahá’í Faith. This
article was written at the request
of the National Bahá’í Assembly
and is published in accordance
with their wish. The article answered,
also entitled “The Bahá’í
[Page 84]
Faith Today,” was written by the
Rev. William M. Miller, sometime
missionary in Persia, was
originally published in The
Moslem World, later rather widely
circulated as a reprint in pamphlet
form and again reprinted in
a magazine promoting interchurch
fellowship. Many of our readers
will remember Mrs. Gail’s
article “Will and Testament”
(World Order, April, 1940),
in which she told of her Muslim
paternal grandfather and her
Christian maternal grandfather.
This background and her own
thorough study of Bahá’í writings
makes her an able defender of
our Faith. In the Gleanings we
have Bahá’u’lláh’s words: “It is
incumbent on all men, each according
to his ability, to refute
the arguments of those that have
attacked the Faith of God. Thus
hath it been decreed by Him Who
is the All-Powerful, the Almighty.
He that wisheth to promote
the Cause of the One true
God, let him promote it through
his pen and tongue, rather than
have recourse to sword or violence.”
The brief statement by the National Spiritual Assembly preceding Mrs. Gail’s article recognizes it as the approved reply to the Miller article, and at the same time provides a general approach to the entire subject of religious controversy.
Mr. J. M. Haggard whose article entitled Justice appears in this number is a member of the Wilmette Bahá’í community and often acts as Temple guide. This is his first contribution to World Order. The compilation from Bahá’í writings entitled The Divine Art of Living is continued in this month. Mrs. Mabel Paine of Urbana, Illinois, is the compiler. Those who have undertaken such work know that it involves much patient and exhaustive study of the Bahá’í writings. Many are finding Bahá’í Lessons compiled by Mrs. Alice Simmons Cox of Peoria, Illinois, helpful in planning talks or weekly meeting programs. They, too, involve much study and familiarity With Bahá’í writings. We suggest that you keep them for reference as they form an invaluable index for certain subjects. The usual Bahá’í Answers to World Questions is crowded out of this issue, as well as Bahá’í Lessons.—THE EDITORS.
BAHÁ’Í LITERATURE
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, selected and translated by Shoghi Effendi. The Bahá’í teachings on the nature of religion, the soul, the basis of civilization and the oneness of mankind. Bound in fabrikoid. 360 pages. $2.00.
Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, translated by Shoghi Effendi. Revealed by Bahá’u’lláh toward the end of His earthly mission, this text is a majestic and deeply-moving exposition of His fundamental principles and laws and of the sufferings endured by the Manifestation for the sake of mankind. Bound in cloth. 186 pages. $1.50.
Kitáb-i-Íqán, Translated by Shoghi Effendi. This work (Book of Certitude) unifies and coordinates the revealed Religions of the past, demonstrating their oneness in fulfillment of the purpose of Revelation. Bound in cloth. 198 pages. $2.50.
Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh, selected and translated by Shoghi Effendi. The supreme expression of devotion to God; a spiritual flame which enkindles the heart and illumines the mind. 348 pages. Bound in fabrikoid. $2.00.
Some Answered Questions. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanation of questions concerning the relation of man to God, the nature of the Manifestation, human capacities, fulfillment of prophecy, etc. Bound in cloth. 350 pages. $1.50.
The Promulgation of Universal Peace. In this collection of His American talks, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid the basis for a firm understanding of the attitudes, principles and spiritual laws which enter into the establishment of true Peace. 492 pages. Bound in cloth. $2.50.
Bahá’í Prayers, a selection of Prayers revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, each Prayer translated by Shoghi Effendi. 72 pages. Bound in fabrikoid, $0.75. Paper cover, $0.35.
The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, by Shoghi Effendi. On the nature of the new social pattern revealed by Bahá’u’lláh for the attainment of divine justice in civilization. Bound in fabrikoid. 234 pages. $1.50.
BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE
110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, ILLINOIS
THE REVELATION PROCLAIMED BY BAHÁ’U’LLÁH, HIS FOLLOWERS BELIEVE, IS DIVINE IN ORIGIN, ALL-EMBRACING IN SCOPE, BROAD IN ITS OUTLOOK, SCIENTIFIC IN ITS METHOD, HUMANITARIAN IN ITS PRINCIPLES AND DYNAMIC IN THE INFLUENCE IT EXERTS ON THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF MEN. THE MISSION OF THE FOUNDER OF THEIR FAITH, THEY CONCEIVE IT TO BE TO PROCLAIM THAT RELIGIOUS TRUTH IS NOT ABSOLUTE BUT RELATIVE, THAT DIVINE REVELATION 1s CONTINUOUS AND PROGRESSIVE, THAT THE FOUNDERS OF ALL PAST RELIGIONS, THOUGH DIFFERENT IN THE NON-ESSENTIAL ASPECTS OF THEIR TEACHINGS, “ABIDE IN THE SAME TABERNACLE, SOAR IN THE SAME HEAVEN, ARE SEATED UPON THE SAME THRONE, UTTER THE SAME SPEECH AND PROCLAIM THE SAME FAITH.” HIS CAUSE, THEY HAVE ALREADY DEMONSTRATED, STANDS IDENTIFIED WITH, AND REVOLVES AROUND, THE PRINCIPLE OF THE ORGANIC UNITY OF MANKIND AS REPRESENTING THE CONSUMMATION OF THE WHOLE PROCESS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION. THIS FINAL STAGE IN THIS STUPENDOUS EVOLUTION, THEY ASSERT, IS NOT ONLY NECESSARY BUT INEVITABLE, THAT IT IS GRADUALLY APPROACHING, AND THAT NOTHING SHORT OF THE CELESTIAL POTENCY WITH WHICH A DIVINELY ORDAINED MESSAGE CAN CLAIM TO BE ENDOWED CAN SUCCEED IN ESTABLISHING IT.—SHOGHI EFFENDI.