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WORLD
ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
March, 1944
• The First Bahá’í Century . . . . . . . . . . Shoghi Effendi 399
• Contemporary Peace Plans and the
Bahá’í Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Arthur Dahl 410
• The First World Holy Day, Editorial . Horace Holley 421
• Headlines Tomorrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marzieh Gail 423
• Bahá’í Holy Days:
Passing of Bahá’u’lláh, Martyrdom of the Báb,
Declaration of the Báb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
• With Our Readers . . . . 431 • Index . . . . 432
FIFTEEN CENTS
THE UTTERANCE OF GOD IS A LAMP, WHOSE LIGHT ARE THESE WORDS: YE ARE THE FRUITS OF ONE TREE, AND THE LEAVES OF ONE BRANCH. DEAL YE ONE WITH ANOTHER WITH THE UTMOST LOVE AND HARMONY, WITH FRIENDLINESS AND FELLOWSHIP. HE WHO IS THE DAY STAR OF TRUTH BEARETH ME WITNESS! SO POWERFUL IS THE LIGHT OF UNITY THAT IT CAN ILLUMINATE THE WHOLE EARTH.
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: Garreta Busey, Alice Simmons Cox, Gertrude K. Henning, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.
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MARCH, 1944, VOLUME IX, NUMBER 12
WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
VOLUME IX MARCH, 1944 NUMBER 12
The First Bahá’í Century
Shoghi Effendi
SURVEY OF BAHÁ’Í HISTORY SINCE 1844
ON THE 23rd of May of this auspicious year the Bahá’í world
will celebrate the centennial anniversary of the founding of
the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. It will commemorate at once the
hundredth anniversary of the inception of the Bábí Dispensation,
of the inauguration of the Bahá’í Era, of the commencement
of the Bahá’í Cycle, and of the birth of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
The weight of the potentialities with which this Faith, possessing
no peer or equal in the world’s spiritual history, and
marking the culmination of a universal prophetic cycle, has
been endowed, staggers our imagination. The brightness of
the millenial glory which it must shed in the fulness of time
dazzles our eyes. The magnitude of the shadow which its
Author will continue to cast on successive Prophets destined
to be raised up after Him eludes our calculation.
Already in the space of less than a century the operation of
the mysterious processes generated by its creative spirit has
provoked a tumult in human society such as no mind can
fathom. Itself undergoing a period of incubation during its
primitive age, it has, through the emergence of its slowly
[Page 400]
crystallizing system, induced a fermentation in the general life
of mankind designed to shake the very foundations of a disordered
society, to purify its lifeblood, to reorientate and
reconstruct its institutions, and shape its final destiny.
To what else can the observant eye or the unprejudiced
mind, acquainted with the signs and portents heralding the
birth, and accompanying the rise, of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
ascribe this dire, this planetary upheaval, with its attendant
destruction, misery and fear, if not to the emergence of His
embryonic World Order, which, as He Himself has unequivocally
proclaimed, has “deranged the equilibrium of
the world and revolutionized mankind’s ordered life”? To
what agency, if not to the irresistible diffusion of that world-shaking,
world-energizing, world-redeeming spirit, which the
Báb has affirmed is “vibrating in the innermost realities of all
created things” can the origins of this portentous crisis, incomprehensible
to man, and admittedly unprecedented in the
annals of the human race, be attributed? In the convulsions of
contemporary society, in the frenzied, world-wide ebullitions
of men’s thoughts, in the fierce antagonisms inflaming races,
creeds and classes, in the shipwreck of nations, in the downfall
of kings, in the dismemberment of empires, in the extinction
of dynasties, in the collapse of ecclesiastical hierarchies, in the
deterioration of time-honored institutions, in the dissolution
of ties, secular as well as religious, that had for so long held
together the members of the human race—all manifesting
themselves with ever-increasing gravity since the outbreak of
the first World War that immediately preceded the opening
years of the Formative Age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—
in these we can readily recognize the evidences of the travail
of an age that has sustained the impact of His Revelation,
that has ignored His summons, and is now laboring to be
delivered of its burden, as a direct consequence of the impulse
[Page 401]
communicated to it by the generative, the purifying, the transmuting
influence of His Spirit.
It is my purpose, on the occasion of an anniversary of
such profound significance, to attempt in the succeeding pages
a survey of the outstanding events of the century that has seen
this Spirit burst forth upon the world, as well as the initial
stages of its subsequent incarnation in a System that must
evolve into an Order designed to embrace the world of mankind,
and capable of fulfilling the high destiny that awaits
man on this planet. I shall endeavor to review, in their proper
perspective and despite the comparatively brief space of time
which separates us from them, the events which the revolution
of a hundred years, unique alike in glory and tribulation, has
unrolled before our eyes. I shall seek to represent and correlate,
in however cursory a manner, those momentous happenings
which have insensibly, relentlessly, and under the very
eyes of successive generations, perverse, indifferent or hostile,
transformed a heterodox and seemingly negligible offshoot of
the Shaykhí school of the Ithná-Asharíyyih sect of Shi’ah
Islám into a world religion whose unnumbered followers are
organically and indissolubly united; whose light has overspread
the earth as far as Iceland in the North and Magallanes
in the South; whose ramifications have spread to no less
than sixty countries of the world, whose literature has been
translated and disseminated in no less than forty languages;
whose endowments in the five continents of the globe, whether
local, national or international, already run into several million
dollars; whose incorporated elective bodies have secured
the official recognition of a number of governments in East and
West; whose adherents are recruited from the diversified races
and chief religions of mankind; whose representatives are to
be found in hundreds of cities in both Persia and the United
States of America; to whose verities royalty has publicly and
[Page 402]
repeatedly testified; whose independent status its enemies,
from the ranks of its parent religion and in the leading center
of both the Arab and Muslim worlds, have proclaimed and
demonstrated; and whose claims have been virtually recognized,
entitling it to rank as the fourth religion of a Land in
which its world spiritual center has been established, and
which is at once the heart of Christendom, the holiest shrine
of the Jewish people, and, save Mecca alone, the most sacred
spot in Islám.
It is not my purpose—nor does the occasion demand it,— to write a detailed history of the last hundred years of the Bahá’í Faith, nor do I intend to trace the origins of so tremendous a Movement, or to portray the conditions under which it was born, or to examine the character of the religion from which it has sprung, or to arrive at an estimate of the effects which its impact upon the fortunes of mankind has produced. I shall rather content myself with a review of the salient features of its birth and rise, as well as of the initial stages in the establishment of its administrative institutions—institutions which must be regarded as the nucleus and herald of that World Order that must incarnate the soul, execute the laws, and fulfill the purpose of the Faith of God in this day.
Nor will it be my intention to ignore, whilst surveying the
panorama which the revolution of a hundred years spreads
before our gaze, the swift interweaving of seeming reverses
with evident victories, out of which the hand of an inscrutable
Providence has chosen to form the pattern of the Faith from
its earliest days, or to minimize those disasters that have so
often proved themselves to be the prelude to fresh triumphs
which have, in turn, stimulated its growth and consolidated
its past achievements. Indeed, the history of the first hundred
years of its evolution resolves itself into a series of internal
and external crises, of varying severity, devastating in their
[Page 403]
immediate effects, but each mysteriously releasing a corresponding
measure of divine power, lending thereby a fresh
impulse to its unfoldment, this further unfoldment engendering
in its turn a still graver calamity, followed by a still more
liberal effusion of celestial grace enabling its upholders to
accelerate still further its march and win in its service still
more compelling victories.
In its broadest outline the first century of the Bahá’í Era may be said to comprise the Heroic, the Primitive, the Apostolic Age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, and also the initial stages of the Formative, the Transitional, the Iron Age which is to witness the crystallization and shaping of the creative energies released by His Revelation. The first eighty years of this century may roughly be said to have covered the entire period of the first age, while the last two decades may be regarded as having witnessed the beginnings of the second. The former commences with the Declaration of the Báb, includes the mission of Bahá’u’lláh, and terminates with the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The latter is ushered in by His Will and Testament, which defines its character and establishes its foundation.
The century under our review may therefore be considered
as falling into four distinct periods, of unequal duration,
each of specific import and of tremendous and indeed unappraisable
significance. These four periods are closely interrelated,
and constitute successive acts of one, indivisible, stupendous
and sublime drama, whose mystery no intellect can
fathom, whose climax no eye can even dimly perceive, whose
conclusion no mind can adequately foreshadow. Each of these
acts revolves around its own theme, boasts of its own heroes,
registers its own tragedies, records its own triumphs, and contributes
its own share to the execution of one common, immutable
Purpose. To isolate any one of them from the others,
to dissociate the later manifestations of one universal, all-embracing
[Page 404]
Revelation from the pristine purpose that animated
it in its earliest days, would be tantamount to a mutilation of
the structure on which it rests, and to a lamentable perversion
of its truth and of its history.
The first period (1844-1853), centers around the gentle,
the youthful and irresistible person of the Báb, matchless in
His meekness, imperturbable in His serenity, magnetic in
His utterance, unrivalled in the dramatic episodes of His
swift and tragic ministry. It begins with the Declaration
of His Mission, culminates in His martyrdom, and ends
in a veritable orgy of religious massacre revolting in its
hideousness. It is characterized by nine years of fierce
and relentless contest, whose theatre was the whole of Persia,
in which above ten thousand heroes laid down their lives, in
which two sovereigns of the Qájár dynasty and their wicked
ministers participated, and which was supported by the entire
Shi‘ah ecclesiastical hierarchy, by the military resources of the
state, and by the implacable hostility of the masses. The second
period (1853-1892) derives its inspiration from the august
figure of Bahá’u’lláh, preeminent in holiness, awesome in the
majesty of His strength and power, unapproachable in the
transcendent brightness of His glory. It opens with the first
stirrings, in the soul of Bahá’u’lláh while in the Síyáh-Chál
of Ṭihrán, of the Revelation anticipated by the Báb, attains
its plenitude in the proclamation of that Revelation to the
kings and ecclesiastical leaders of the earth, and terminates in
the ascension of its Author in the vicinity of the prison-town
of ‘Akká. It extends over thirty-nine years of continuous, of
unprecedented and overpowering Revelation, is marked by the
propagation of the Faith to the neighboring territories of
Turkey, of Russia, of ‘Iráq, of Syria, of Egypt and of India,
and is distinguished by a corresponding aggravation of hostility,
represented by the united attacks launched by the Sháh
[Page 405]
of Persia and the Sulṭán of Turkey, the two admittedly most
powerful potentates of the East, as well as by the opposition of
the twin sacerdotal orders of Shi‘ah and Sunní Islám. The
third period (1892-1921) revolves around the vibrant personality
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, mysterious in His essence, unique in
His station, astoundingly potent in both the charm and strength
of His character. It commences with the announcement of the
Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, a document without parallel in the
history of any earlier Dispensation, attains its climax in the
emphatic assertion by the Center of that Covenant, in the City
of the Covenant, of the unique character and far-reaching
implications of that Document, and closes with His passing
and the interment of His remains on Mt. Carmel. It will go
down in history as a period of almost thirty years’ duration, in
which tragedies and triumphs have been so intertwined as to
eclipse at one time the Orb of the Covenant, and at another
time to pour forth its light over the continent of Europe, and
as far as Australasia, the Far East and the North American
continent. The fourth period (1921-1944) is motivated by the
forces radiating from the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
that Charter of Bahá’u’lláh’s New World Order, the offspring
resulting from the mystic intercourse between Him Who is
the Source of the Law of God and the mind of the One Who
is the vehicle and interpreter of that Law. The inception of
this fourth, this last period of the first Bahá’í century synchronizes
with the birth of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í
Era, with the founding of the Administrative Order of the
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—a system which is at once the harbinger,
the nucleus and pattern of His World Order. The period,
covering the first twenty-three years of this Formative Age,
has already been distinguished by an outburst of further hostility,
of a different character, accelerating on the one hand the
diffusion of the Faith over a still wider area in each of the
[Page 406]
five continents of the globe, and resulting on the other in the
emancipation and the recognition of the independent status of
several communities within its pale.
These four periods are to be regarded not only as the component, the inseparable parts of one stupendous whole, but as progressive stages in a single evolutionary process, vast, steady and irresistible. For as we survey the entire range which the operation of a century-old Faith has unfolded before us, we cannot escape the conclusion that from whatever angle we view this colossal scene, the events associated with these periods present to us unmistakable evidences of a slowly maturing process, of an orderly development, of internal consolidation, of external expansion, of a gradual emancipation from the fetters of religious orthodoxy, and of a corresponding diminution of civil disabilities and restrictions.
Viewing these periods of Bahá’í history as the constituents
of a single entity, we note the chain of events proclaiming successively
the rise of a Forerunner, the Mission of One Whose
advent that Forerunner had promised, the establishment of a
Covenant generated through the direct authority of the
Promised One Himself, and lastly the birth of a System which
is the child sprung from both the Author of the Covenant and
its appointed Center. We observe how the Báb, the Forerunner,
announced the impending inception of a divinely-conceived
Order, how Bahá’u’lláh, the Promised One, formulated its
laws and ordinances, how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the appointed Center,
delineated its features, and how the present generation of their
followers have commenced to erect the framework of its institutions.
We watch, through these periods, the infant light of
the Faith diffuse itself from its cradle, eastward to India and
the Far East, westward to the neighboring territories of ‘Iráq,
of Turkey, of Russia, and of Egypt, travel as far as the North
American continent, illuminate subsequently the major countries
[Page 407]
of Europe, envelop with its radiance, at a later stage, the
Antipodes, brighten the fringes of the Arctic, and finally set
aglow the Central and South American horizons. We witness
a corresponding increase in the diversity of the elements within
its fellowship, which from being confined, in the first period
of its history, to an obscure body of followers, chiefly recruited
from the ranks of the masses in Shi‘ah Persia, has expanded
into a fraternity representative of the leading religious systems
of the world, of almost every caste and color, from the
humblest worker and peasant to royalty itself. We notice a
similar development in the extent of its literature—a literature
which, restricted at first to the narrow range of hurriedly transcribed,
often corrupted, secretly circulated, manuscripts, so
furtively perused, so frequently effaced, and at times even
eaten by the terrorized members of a proscribed sect, has,
within the space of a century, swelled into innumerable editions,
comprising tens of thousands of printed volumes, in diverse
scripts, and in no less than forty languages, some elaborately
reproduced, others profusely illustrated, all methodically and
vigorously disseminated through the agency of world-wide,
properly constituted and specially organized committees and
Assemblies. We perceive a no less apparent evolution in the
scope of its teachings, at first designedly rigid, complex and
severe, subsequently recast, expanded, and liberalized under
the succeeding Dispensation, later expounded, reaffirmed and
amplified by an appointed Interpreter, and lastly systematized
and universally applied to both individuals and institutions.
We can discover a no less distinct gradation in the character
of the opposition it has had to encounter—an opposition, at
first kindled in the bosom of Shi‘ah Islám, which, at a later
stage, gathered momentum with the banishment of Bahá’u’lláh
to the domains of the Turkish Sulṭán and the consequent hostility
of the more powerful Sunní hierarchy and its Caliph,
[Page 408]
the head of the vast majority of the followers of Muḥammad
—an opposition which, now, through the rise of a divinely
appointed Order in the Christian West, and its initial impact
on civil and ecclesiastical institutions, bids fair to include among
its supporters established governments and systems associated
with the most ancient, the most deeply entrenched sacerdotal
hierarchies in Christendom. We can, at the same time, recognize,
through the haze of an ever-widening hostility, the progress,
painful yet persistent, of certain communities within its
pale through the stages of obscurity, of proscription, of emancipation,
and of recognition—stages that must needs culminate in
the course of succeeding centuries, in the establishment of the
Faith, and the founding, in the plenitude of its power and
authority, of the world-embracing Bahá’í Commonwealth. We
can likewise discern a no less appreciable advance in the rise
of its institutions, whether as administrative centers or places
of worship—institutions, clandestine and subterrene in their
earliest beginnings, emerging imperceptibly into the broad
daylight of public recognition, legally protected, enriched by
pious endowments, ennobled at first by the erection of the
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of ‘Ishqábád, the first Bahá’í House of
Worship, and more recently immortalized, through the rise in
the heart of the North American continent of the Mother
Temple of the West, the forerunner of a divine, a slowly
maturing civilization. And finally, we can even bear witness to
the marked improvement in the conditions surrounding the
pilgrimages performed by its devoted adherents to its consecrated
shrines at its world center—pilgrimages originally
arduous, perilous, tediously long, often made on foot, at times
ending in disappointment, and confined to a handful of harassed
Oriental followers, gradually attracting, under steadily improving
circumstances of security and comfort, an ever swelling
number of new converts converging from the four corners of
[Page 409]
the globe, and culminating in the widely publicized yet sadly
frustrated visit of a noble Queen, who, at the very threshold
of the city of her heart’s desire, was compelled, according to
her own written testimony, to divert her steps, and forego the
privilege of so priceless a benefit.
Foreword of a book by Shoghi Effendi outlining the history of the first
Bahá’í Century, 1844-1944.
Thrones and governments are crumbling and falling. All conditions and requisites of the past unfitted and inadequate for the present time, are undergoing radical reform. It is evident therefore that counterfeit and spurious religious teaching, antiquated forms of belief and ancestral imitations which are at variance with the foundation of divine reality must also pass away and be reformed. They must be abandoned and new conditions be recognized. The morals of humanity must undergo change. New remedy and solution for human problems must be adopted. Human intellects themselves must change and be subject to the universal reformation. Just as the thoughts and hypotheses of past ages are fruitless today, likewise dogmas and codes of human invention are obsolete and barren of product in religion. Nay, it is true that they are the cause of enmity and conducive to strife in the world of humanity; war and bloodshed proceed from them and the oneness of mankind finds no recognition in their observance. Therefore it is our duty in this radiant century to investigate the essentials of divine religion, seek the realities underlying the oneness of the world of humanity and discover the source of fellowship and agreement which will unite mankind in the heavenly bond of love. This unity is the radiance of eternity, the divine spirituality, the effulgence of God and the bounty of the Kingdom. We must investigate the divine source of these heavenly bestowals and adhere unto them steadfastly.
Contemporary Peace Plans
and the Bahá’í Program
Arthur Dahl
MORE THAN seventy years ago Bahá’u’lláh gave to the world
a program for permanent peace. It was a broad, inclusive
program, based on the fundamental premise that the world
was a single organism and the peoples of the world were one
in brotherhood. It contained sweeping provisions for world
political, economic, and military institutions to govern spheres
of action which had gone beyond the scope and capacity of the
individual nations.
But the world at that time was not ready for such a new and far-reaching idea. Letters from Bahá’u’lláh to the great rulers of that age, to Pope Pius IX, Queen Victoria, Napoleon III, Czar Alexander II, Emperors William I and Francis Joseph, Sháh Náṣiri’d-Dín, Sultán ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz, exhorting them to adjust their policies to the new realities, were ignored. And as time passed, and one new scientific marvel after another brought the nations closer and closer together materially, still the people and their rulers failed to realize the spiritual implications behind such technical progress, and the inevitable necessity for a global approach to global problems. After the bitter lesson of the first World War a few far-sighted leaders discerned this truth, but even then there was not sufficient popular understanding or conviction throughout the world to give this approach an honest trial.
With the present cataclysmic conflict, however, pressure of
events has at last forced public opinion to catch up with the
times. The idea of world organization, for so long ridiculed
[Page 411]
as impractical and utopian, has finally caught hold and is
spreading like wildfire. Union Now proved to be the forerunner
of a veritable avalanche of plans, proposals, and prospectuses
for world political and economic organization. Most
of these are unofficial in source, but their proponents and many
other influential and perceptive observers are continually hammering
at the governments of the respective United Nations
to do more concrete post-war planning now, both as an assurance
that an effective peace will result from victory, and as a
direct aid to the war effort by giving an added incentive to
those taking part in the fight, particularly those in the occupied
countries.
The purpose of this article is to make a quick survey of some of this contemporary thought on the political and economic structure of world order, so that it may be related to the Bahá’í program and point of view. Only a brief outline of each plan can be given, and no attempt has been made to present a list of either the best or the most representative plans announced to date. In the aggregate, however, this survey should give some indication of the trend of current thinking on the subject.
I. PAN EUROPA
Organized as early as 1923 by Count R. Coudenhove-Kalergi, and continuously active through publication of the Review Pan-Europa, this movement urged a federation of the western European states, revised its program after the start of the war by admitting the necessity of including Great Britain within the federation.
II. UNION NOW
The first and most famous of the plans arising out of the
war period. The conception of Clarence Streit, for many years
Geneva correspondent of the New York Times, who garnered
[Page 412]
widespread publicity for his plan through several best-selling
books and numerous pamphlets, articles, and lectures. The
original plan calls for a Union of the democracies of the world,
similar to that of the original thirteen states, to provide:
- 1. Union citizenship.
- 2. A Union defense force.
- 3. Union customs-free economy.
- 4. Union money.
- 5. A Union postal and communications system.
In other fields independent national governments are to be maintained. As Axis invasion swallowed up or threatened most of the other democracies, Mr. Streit restricted his immediate program to Union of the United States with members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, with encouragement to the other democracies to join as soon as they are able. The plan has been criticized of late, in view of the importance of friendly relations with Russia, because of its restriction of membership in the Union to democracies.
III. CULBERTSON PLAN
One of the most complete plans from the standpoint of detail yet presented, this is the work of the famed bridge expert, Ely Culbertson, who has been spending the past four years working it out. It is intricate, carefully thought out, an attempt to achieve a delicate balance between governing units. Principal features:
1. Division of the world into eleven regional federations: the U. S. and Latin America; the United Kingdom and British Dominions; Latin Europe; Middle Europe; Northern Europe; Russia; the Middle East; China; India; Japan; and Malaysia.
2. Each federation would have its own constitution and government but no army—only a police force armed with nothing heavier than machine guns.
3. Over all will be a world government, with executive,
[Page 413]
legislative, and judicial branches, elected by the governments
of the federations. Its principal function will be to maintain
peace through the use of its army of some 2,000,000 men,
drawn from all the nations according to a careful mathematical
formula.
IV. INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Inter-American Juridical Committee is a committee formed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics in the fall of 1939 to study various problems affecting their respective countries. In January, 1942, the committee was charged with the task of preparing “specific recommendations relative to the international organization in the juridical and political fields, and in the field of international security.” The Preliminary Recommendation, which on November 2, 1942 was submitted to the governments of the American Republics by the Governing Board of the Pan American Union, is one of the most enlightened statements of principles relating to this field yet presented by a secular body. That this statement comes from a semi-official source is particularly significant. Unfortunately it is possible only to list the fourteen conclusions here, but the complete document should be studied by anyone interested in the trend of post-war planning (see the February, 1943 issue of International Conciliation, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 405 West 117th St., New York City).
1. The moral law has priority in relations between nations as well as between individuals, and the fundamental principles of international law are derived from it.
2. Repudiation of the use of force.
3. Unqualified obligation to settle disputes by peaceful methods.
[Page 414]
4. Solidarity in the presence of aggression.
5. The sovereignty of the individual state is secondary to the unity and security of the international community.
6. Necessity of a more effective international organization.
7. Cooperative character of the new association of nations.
8. A more effective system of collective security needed.
9. Abandonment of the system of balance of power, limitation of armaments.
10. Abandonment of political imperialism.
11. Elimination of political nationalism.
12. Elimination of economic imperialism.
13. Elimination of economic nationalism.
14. Elimination of the social factors of war.
V. PROGRAM OF THE CHURCHES: EUROPEAN
On December 21, 1940 a letter appeared in the London Times over the signatures of the Archbishops of Canterbury, Westminster, and York, and the Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council, presenting ten peace points which had been approved by the Convocation of York. Five were political principles originally promulgated by Pope Pius XII; the other five were economic and social principles added by the English churchmen. As a peace program they have received wide publicity on both sides of the Atlantic.
Five Points of Pope Pius XII (Summarized):
- 1. Assurance for all nations, great or small, powerful or weak, of the right to life and independence.
- 2. Mutually agreed, organic, and progressive disarmament, spiritual as well as material.
- 3. An international juridical institution.
- 4. Revision of existing treaties in accord with the real needs and just demands of nations and populations, and of racial minorities.
- 5. International agreements must be entered into and enforced with the true Christian spirit.
Five Economic Proposals of the English Churches:
- 1. Extreme inequality of wealth and possessions should be abolished.
- 2. Every child, regardless of race or class, should have equal opportunities for education suitable for the development of his peculiar capacities.
- 3. The family as a social unit must be safeguarded.
- 4. The sense of a Divine vocation must be restored to a man’s daily work.
- 5. The resources of the earth should be used as God’s gifts to the whole human race, and used with due consideration for the needs of present and future generations.
VI. PROGRAM OF THE CHURCHES: AMERICAN
More than two years ago the Federal Council of Churches appointed a Commission to Study the Bases of a Just and Durable Peace, under the chairmanship of John Foster Dulles. After extensive study and discussion, including the famous conference at Delaware, Ohio, in 1942, the Commission announced its basic program on March 18, 1943, as embodied in the “Six Pillars of Peace.” The Protestant churches are now engaged in an intensive effort to popularize this program through widespread publications, lectures, meetings, and study groups. The six points are:
1. The peace must provide the political framework for a continuing collaboration of the United Nations and, in due course, of neutral and enemy nations.
2. The peace must make provision for bringing within the scope of international agreement those economic and financial acts of national governments which have widespread international repercussions.
3. The peace must make provision for an organization to
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adapt the treaty structure of the world to changing underlying
conditions.
4.. The peace must proclaim the goal of autonomy for subject peoples, and it must establish international organization to assure and to supervise the realization of that end.
5. The peace must establish procedures for controlling military establishments everywhere.
6. The peace must establish in principle, and seek to achieve in practice, the right of individuals everywhere to religious and intellectual liberty.
VII. Fortune’s PROGRAM
An interesting journalistic attempt to work out an integrated and relatively detailed program for meeting the broad problems to be faced after the war is that of the editors of Time, Life, and Fortune, presented as pamphlet supplements to Fortune under the general title “The United States in a New World.” So far five have been issued: “Relations With Britain” (May, 1942); “Pacific Relations” (August, 1942); “The Domestic Economy” (December, 1942); “Relations With Europe” (April, 1943); and “Our Form of Government” (November, 1943). Though space does not permit covering the many recommendations, a few of the most pertinent can be noted.
- 1. Relations with Britain. U. S. and Great Britain, in cooperation with other United Nations, should:
- a. Disarm the Axis powers, and keep them under temporary supervision.
- b. Continue through the Reconstruction period the Unified Commands and Combined Staff Committees.
- c. Station military units under Unified Command in leading strategic areas of the world to maintain law and order and carry out decisions of United Nations.
- d. Work out a general system of international security to take effect at end of Reconstruction period, making possible a general reduction of armaments.
- e. Create a free market area between Britain and America as a step toward a larger area embracing other nations (including the Dominions) willing to join.
- f. Create a joint committee to work out common demobilization policies.
- g. Creation by U. S. of a Reconstruction Fund out of its gold reserves, making it possible for its allies to return quickly to the free market area.
- 2. Pacific relations.
- a. America and Britain should surrender all their exclusive rights and preferential positions in Asia after the war.
- b. Creation of a Pacific Council, composed of all members of United Nations whose interests directly touch the Pacific Ocean, ultimately including Japan. This will be the final judicial authority on Pacific affairs, though it would lack executive authority. Subsidiary organizations would handle specific problems.
- c. Creation of several regional states, which will work toward independent government, in the meantime being subject to international authority.
- 3. Relations with Europe.
- a. Minimum conditions for Europe as a whole:
- 1. A common military security, so that no one nation can menace its neighbors.
- 2. A common recognition of human and individual rights.
- 3. A common (though not necessarily a uniform) [Page 418]
economic life.
- b. Institutional arrangements to bring these about:
- 1. A European Council of Nations, composed of all continental members plus, during the transitional period, Russia, Britain, and the U. S.
- 2. A European Court, patterned after the World Court. To become a member of the Council, a nation must forswear the use of force in foreign relations, and accept jurisdiction of the European Court.
- 3. Every member nation must accept a European Bill of Rights, guaranteeing essential human freedoms to its citizens, to be applied equally throughout Europe by the Court.
- 4. European police force, with a European General Staff, with soldiers from all members. Won’t supersede national armies, but will have continental monopoly of more aggressive weapons, such as bombers, heavy guns, and tanks. Will take orders from Council, and automatically enforce orders of Court.
- 5. Semi-autonomous committees and technical agencies will knit Europe into an economic whole in such fields as tariff, banking, transport, development.
- 6. Thorough reorganization of Germany’s industrial, agricultural, social, and political structure, with Nazi-held property being possibly turned over to cooperatives.
- a. Minimum conditions for Europe as a whole:
* * *
In addition to these more comprehensive plans and statements
of principles there have been many more limited plans
confined to specific objectives, such as the Beveridge Plan and
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the National Resources Planning Board program on security
measures, and the White and Keynes proposals for varying
types of international monetary authorities. Many of these
conform to single principles in the Bahá’í program, though
varying in detailed application.
In many cases, the unofficial plans of comprehensive type are far ahead of the official pronouncements and policies made public to date in being more concrete, specific, and inclusive on basic issues. Right or wrong, the unofficial plans at least take a position. In spite of popular pressure, the governments of the United Nations have been slow in departing from the usual diplomatic platitudes. Congress, for example, has spent several months of bitter struggle to reach the point of agreeing in principle on participation in a vaguely defined international authority. The Moscow conference is the most notable achievement thus far in getting down to cases, and it is to be hoped that it will prove indicative of a new trend.
* * *
Though we have been able to summarize only a few of the scores of proposals that have been offered, certain definite patterns are discernible even in these few.
Some plans primarily emphasize principles upon which the new world order should be built. Others are more concerned with the economic and political structure and the details of operation. The former consider that we should have a clearcut idea of just what kind of a world we want before we start designing the blueprints to build it. They also recognize the necessity for general agreement upon these principles before there is much chance for successfully carrying out a detailed plan.
Many of the conditions included in the Bahá’í program
for the Lesser Peace are included in various combinations in
one or another of the current plans. A few, such as abolition
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of race and class prejudice and the adoption of an international
language, have been rather neglected.
Two of the basic prerequisites of the Most Great Peace, recognition of the priority of the moral law in all human endeavors, and acceptance of the Brotherhood of Man, are approached in only the two most spiritually advanced of the current plans reviewed, those of the Inter-American Juridical Committee and the European churches. The fact that they have been presented at all for public consideration at this time is exceedingly significant.
A study of the present-day plans demonstrates that the world is fast accepting many of the specific teachings of the Bahá’í Faith. And yet plans of this type, enlightened and commendable as many of them are, cannot of themselves bring into being the ideal conditions desired by their proponents and by all of mankind. For they fail to attack in a positive fashion the root cause of the current deterioration throughout the world: the decline of individual, national, and international morality, the lack of interest in and influence of spiritual principles as taught by the great religions. It is one thing to publicize principles in which some of us believe, and something entirely different to bring people throughout the world to accept them. Yet until these basic spiritual principles are accepted the difficulties facing any detailed plan for world order over the longer term, no matter how technically perfect the plan may be, seem unsurmountable.
Bahá’ís are confident of the ultimate adoption of their program because its political and economic principles are only part of a broad and far-reaching body of teaching which, divinely inspired, carries within itself the power to bring about the condition of spirituality in the world upon which a world government and international economy could truly flourish and grow strong.
The First World Holy Day
WHEN ‘Alí-Muḥammad declared His Mission in the city of Shíráz,
Persia, on May 23, 1844, He created the first occasion in all known
history which can be observed by the peoples of the entire world with
equal right, for one purpose, and in the same spirit. For He whom
we now know as the Báb came as one of the Prophets of God, but His
mission was not a preliminary but a culmination of the great cycle
of the past. Through Him shone forth the Dawn-Light of the day
of the creation of mankind. When He revealed the divine Word,
the separation of the peoples was annulled, their division transcended,
their hostility overcome. Man as the highest kingdom of reality under
the Prophets received the inspiration to arise as one organic and mysterious
being and enter into his true heritage as the sign of God and
the expression of His will. The Báb summoned the races and peoples
to respond to their glorious destiny by uniting in obedience to the
divine decree.
There is no distinction between the Manifestations of God. Human beings can not say that their Prophet is superior to others, revealed a more sublime Word, or endowed them with special authority over the people of other Faiths. What is distinctive is the stage of development in men at the time the Prophet comes to them to re-illumine the one true path. The Báb is the first World Prophet, and His Declaration the first World Holy Day, because in our own time the process of spiritual and social evolution had completed the preliminary stages in the unfoldment of human attributes and attained to the condition of universal civilization.
Not all humanity has yet become conscious of what happened on May 23, 1844. Those who have this realization, and prepare to observe its Centenary this very year, demonstrate their conviction of the oneness of God by meeting certain tests which infallibly determine both their knowledge and their sincerity.
The first condition of universality is recognition of the unique station of the Manifestation of God, the Prophet, as the sole connection between mankind and the Creator. One may have all rational knowledge, but lacking this recognition he lingers outside the precincts of spiritual truth.
[Page 422]
The second condition is the acceptance of the equality of all the
Manifestations, the founders of revealed religion. To reject one,
whether He be Christ, Moses or Muḥammad, is to reject all the Messengers
by substituting one’s own limited conception for the reality
itself. For if we reject one portion of the Path, we are not on the
Path. The identifying landmarks are lost; we must try and recover
the way.
The third condition is understanding of the principle or method by which the guiding truth is brought to this world, by recurrence of revelation, and in accordance with a progressive enlargement of the scope of truth. Thus it is not enough to say that one believes in all the Prophets because they all brought the same message. Such a view is one’s own limitation arbitrarily imposed upon the successive statements of truth as revealed and accessible in the Sacred Scriptures of all Faiths. Were religion only that scheme of recurrent repetition which some philosophers teach, the very essence of progress and development would be removed from human life.
The fourth condition is acceptance of mankind itself; the willingness to discard the old formulas of separation which sought to justify pride of race, creed or class, and reduced true ethical principles to the realm of convention and convenience. These myriad barriers which divide humanity are nothing more than expressions of prejudice. True faith impels one to help banish these shadows from the world.
The fifth condition is confident realization that the day of spiritual victory has dawned; that the promise of ancient faiths is being swiftly fulfilled; that the world is being inspired to conquer superstition, overcome ignorance and surmount inertia; that the nations will attain peace; that world civilization has already been created as the pattern of reality for the new age.
To observe with reverence and gratitude the date of May 23, 1944 as the Centenary of the Báb’s Declaration of His mission, far from belittling or ignoring the Holy Days of the past, in reality exalts each of them by connecting it with its essential aim and fulfillment. For in Him have returned Jesus, Muḥammad, Moses and all the Prophets. There is no other way in which the peoples of today can honor their ancestral traditions than by honoring Him in whom faith is life and not memory nor imagination.
Headlines Tomorrow
Marzieh Gail
A COLUMNIST once said that the biggest scoop of all time would
be the news of the return of Christ. He was mistaken. The
return of Christ would never make the front page. The reason
is this:
When a man appears calling himself the Messiah, he does not look as people expect him to look. There is no light around his head—the light is added by painters, long after he has died. He eats, walks, talks. He comes from a community where he has been known for years. And when he suddenly announces himself as a prophet, as one with a new message from God, his community laughs at him. Everybody knows, people say, that the Messiah will come seated on a throne, or riding on a cloud, and will preach the same religion that the priests are already preaching in the temples.
They laugh. The man continues to say he is the agent of a spirit that he cannot resist. The laughter grows to anger. Why is he so obstinate in his claim, this man they have known since he was a child? A few listen to him, and bear the hatred of the rest. The laughter stops. The hatred rises. The prophet is shut away—chained—perhaps killed.
But his voice goes on. People far away listen to it. Then painters draw the circle of light back of the head that is now earth, and men and women in countries across the world build temples in the name of the man whose own people put him to death.
This drama is played all over again, every once in a while in human history. It has been played again, almost in our time. It did not make the headlines.
1.
Shíráz is in southern Írán. It is a city of mosque domes and flower gardens, of nightingales and singers, of streams slipping over blue tiles into blue pools.
On a May evening in 1844, two men, one a merchant of Shíráz and the other a traveler, were talking together in a white-washed room above a courtyard. The words spoken by the young merchant to his guest are now a hundred years old. They have already changed the course of the world’s life.
He said that He was the Báb, the Gate. That he was the Prophet of God, and the Herald of “Him Whom God Shall Manifest—the Well-Beloved One”. For six years, following that evening, the Báb spread His teachings throughout the East. By then, thousands were waiting for “Him Whom God Shall Manifest”. Terrified, the priests and nobles conspired against the Báb. He was arrested. He was tortured. On July 9, 1850, He was bound and publicly shot. The Persians have never forgotten that the first volley of shots, from seven hundred and fifty rifles, did not touch Him.
2.
There is a garden in Baghdád where the trees grow tall and hundreds of doves flutter in the branches, so that all day the place is clamorous with the noise of the doves. In this garden, on April 21, 1863, a Persian nobleman gathered His followers around Him. He had come to Baghdád as an exile of the Persian Government. His crime had been that He was a follower of the Báb; His punishment, that He was chained underground in the Black Pit of Ṭihrán, that His home and lands were seized, that He and His wife and young children were finally sent out of the country, over the desert in midwinter, here to Baghdád. Now He was to be exiled still farther away, no one knew where.
[Page 425]
He called His followers to Him here in the garden, and
told them that He was the Promised One of the Báb, that He
was “Him Whom God Shall Manifest.”
Almost thirty years more of exile and prison lay ahead for Bahá’u’lláh, as He stood under the trees that day with His disciples. Years of humiliation and anguish. The martyrdom of His followers; the treachery of His half-brother. The thick walls of the prison at ‘Akká, Palestine,— with Napoleon’s cannon balls still embedded in them—were to close around Him and those He loved. But before He was to leave the world, in 1892, He was to establish His Faith. He was to address the then custodians of society—the Pope, Queen Victoria, the Kaiser, The French Emperor,—the Sháh, the Czar and the rest—calling them to world peace, and proclaiming His mission as the Manifestation of God for our day. He, Bahá’u’lláh, the Glory of God, the Well-Beloved One.
3.
If you pass through Wilmette, Illinois, along the shore of Lake Michigan, you will come to a great House of Worship that has been built there. There are no priests in this House, and the nine entrances are open to followers of all religions and of no religion, to black and white, to well-dressed and shabby alike. It looks like a white rainbow, curving over the town, and you remember that the rainbow is the sign of the Covenant that God made with man, long ago.
In 1912, a man who had come out of a prison in Palestine
laid the cornerstone of this Temple. This man was the center
of the Covenant that Bahá’u’lláh made with His followers.
He was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Son of Bahá’u’lláh, appointed by His
Father as the interpreter of the Bahá’í Faith, and as the
Exemplar of the Bahá’í way of life. Some Americans who
later became Bahá’ís, remember having seen ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as
[Page 426]
He walked in His white turban and shining robe, through
the streets of American cities.
We think we are alone in the universe, that we are born to live a few years in the daylight, and disappear. But the Prophet of God says no. He says that there is love in store for us, and everlasting life. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was the living sign of these things.
4.
Mt. Carmel stands over Haifa, and juts into the Mediterranean Sea. There are cypresses down its slopes, and pomegranate and olive trees. Here, in the landscaped terraces, are Bahá’í Holy Places: the tomb-shrines of the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; of Bahá’u’lláh’s wife; of His son who died in prison; of His daughter, Bahíyyih. The tomb-shrine of Bahá’u’lláh Himself lies across the bay, near ‘Akká.
It was an autumn day in 1921 when they carried the body of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá up the mountain and laid it to rest in the shrine of the Báb. They wept, both for Him Who was gone, and for the fate of His Cause. How could they, left alone in the world, establish the World Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. How could they form the Assemblies, build the Houses of Worship, spread the teachings around the earth.
Perhaps, they thought, the Báb faced the firing squad in vain; perhaps the body of Bahá’u’lláh was scarred by chains to no purpose, the blood of the martyrs spilt for nothing, the life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá lived only for memory. Perhaps this Faith, too, would scatter into sects, like the Faiths before it, and its power run out and be lost.
Then they opened the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and read: “O my loving friends! After the passing away of this wronged one . . . turn unto Shoghi Effendi . . . as he is the sign of God, the chosen branch, the guardian of the Cause of God . . . ”
[Page 427]
And under the guidance of Shoghi Effendi, great-grandson
of Bahá’u’lláh, the Bahá’í Faith has circled the planet. It
has won to itself Jew and Buddhist; Christian and Muslim;
occidental and oriental; black and white; rich and poor; old
and young; academic and unlettered.
These Bahá’í communities are a way of saying that the past, with its local hatreds, its regional prejudices, its distrust of peoples from across a line, is gone. Today we live in a new world, the world of airplanes and radio, the world of the good neighbor, the world that is on its way to becoming one commonwealth. Bahá’í communities are a way of repeating, now and forever, the words of Bahá’u’lláh: “O children of men! Regard ye not one another as strangers. . . . The earth is but one country, and all mankind its citizens.”
These things have not made the front page today. But they will be in the headlines tomorrow.
In this day the mysteries of this earth are unfolded and visible before the eyes, and the pages of swiftly appearing newspapers are indeed the mirror of the world; they display the doings and actions of the different nations; they both illustrate them and cause them to be heard. Newspapers are as a mirror which is endowed with hearing, sight and speech; they are a wonderful phenomenon and a great matter. But it behoveth the writers thereof to be sanctified from the prejudice of egotism and desire and to be adorned with the ornament of equity and justice; they must inquire into matters as much as possible, in order that they may be informed of the real facts, and commit the same to writing.
Bahá’í Holy Days
COMMEMORATION OF THE PASSING OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH
- Compilation of Incidents from Life of Bahá’u’lláh—
- “Star of West”—Vol. VIII, No. 13.
- Station of Bahá’u’lláh—"Gleanings,” pp. 102, 211; “Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh,” pp. 12, 13, 17, 21; “Epistle to Son of Wolf,” pp. 1-2, 41, 43, 155-156.
- Description of Bahá’u’lláh
- (a), “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era,” pp. 49-50.
- (b) “Nabíl’s Narrative,” pp. 32-33, 105-106.
- Life of Bahá’u’lláh—“Bahá’u’lláh and New Era”—Chapter III.
- Stories and experiences of Bahá’u’lláh—“Nabíl’s Narrative”
- His first teaching trip—Chap. V, pp. 109-120.
- He helps Táhirih escape—pp. 284-287.
- His life is saved—pp. 299-300.
- He visits Ft. Tabarsi—pp. 348-349.
- He attempts to visit Tabarsi again—pp. 368-376.
- His “Via Dolorosa” from Shimiran to Ṭihrán—pp. 606-608.
- His imprisonment in Ṭihrán—pp. 608-609, 631-633, 635.
- Bahá’u’lláh promises to be with His followers after His ascension: “Gleanings”—pp. 137, 139.
- Devotion to Bahá’u’lláh——“Gleanings,” p. 321; “Epistle to Son of Wolf,” p. 48.
- The night of May 28 in the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh”—Bahá’í Magazine—Vol. 16, No. 2.
- Account of passing of Bahá’u’lláh—“Chosen Highway,” by Lady Blomfield
- (a) Part II, Chap. IV—pp. 105-111.
- Bahá’u’lláh suffered for our sakes:
- “Gleanings”—p. 99; “Star of West”—Vol. VII, p. 32.
- “Epistle: to the Son of the Wolf”—pp. 52-53.
- “Chosen Highway,” by Lady Blomfield—p. 259.
- Tablet of Visitation—“Prayers and Meditations”—p. 310.
- State and condition of Bahá’u’lláh.
- (a) “Star of West”—Vol. VIII, p. 171 (1st col.).
- (b) “Gleanings”—pp. 239, 126.
- (c) “Promised Day Is Come”—pp. 42-43.
- (d) “Epistle to Son of Wolf”—pp. 52, 85.
- “Bahá’u’lláh,” by Balyuzi—“Bahá’í World,” Vol. VIII; also in pamphlet form.
- Tablet by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Mírzá Abu’l Faḍl written soon after the ascension of Bahá’u’lláh—“Star of West”—Vol. XIII, p. 107.
COMMEMORATION OF MARTYRDOM OF THE BÁB
- Bahá’u’lláh tells of the world’s rejection of the Báb—“Gleanings”—pp. 145-147.
- Station of the Báb—“Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh—pp. 31, 33, 34, 35; “Prayers and Meditations”—pp. 128, 300, 84.
- Accounts of the Báb’s martyrdom:
- (a) “The Chosen Highway,” by Lady Blomfield—pp. 28-30.
- (b) “Nabíl’s Narrative”—pp. 504-517.
- The Báb sends His manuscripts to Bahá’u’lláh—pp. 504-505.
- The arrival of the Báb at Tabríz—p. 506.
- The night before the Báb’s martyrdom.—p. 508.
- His interrupted conversation with Siyyid Husayn—p. 509.
- His miraculous escape from first regiment’s fire—p. 513.
- The attitude of Sam Khan—pp. 514, 510, 512.
- Báb gives Himself up—p. 513.
- Final attempt on Báb’s life—p. 514.
- Dust storm darkened the city—pp. 515-516.
- Punishment meted out to those who conspired against the Báb’s life—pp. 524-525.
- Recovery of body of the Báb—“The Chosen Highway,” by Lady Blomfield, pp. 30-32; “Nabíl”—pp. 519-521.
- Final burial of the Báb on Mt. Carmel—“Star of West”—Vol. 11, p. 316.
- The Báb’s farewell address to Letters of the Living—“Nabíl’s Narrative—pp. 92-94.
- Bahá’u’lláh’s appreciation of and devotion to the Báb—“Prayers and Meditations”—pp. 84-86.
COMMEMORATION OF DECLARATION OF THE BÁB
- Talk by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá given for Feast for Declaration of the Báb—“Star of West”—Vol. 1, No. 8.
- Talk on Declaration of the Báb by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Paris—“Divine Philosophy”—pp. 13-17.
- Revelation of the Báb—“Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh”—pp. 25, 32, 35; “Gleanings”—p. 77; “Star of West”—Vol. 14, p. 201.
- Account of the Declaration of the Báb: “Nabíl’s Narrative”—pp. 52-65.
- Báb’s farewell address to the Letters of the Living: “Nabíl’s Narrative”—pp. 92-94.
- Station of the Báb—“Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh”—pp. 31, 33, 34, 35; “Prayers and Meditations”—pp. 84, 128, 300.
- Mission of the Báb in foretelling the coming of Bahá’u’lláh: “Prayers and Meditations”—pp. 85, 180-181, 276.
This is the Day, O my Lord, which Thou didst announce unto all mankind as the Day whereon Thou wouldst reveal Thy Self, and shed Thy radiance, and shine brightly over all Thy creatures. Thou hast, moreover, entered into a covenant with them, in Thy Books, and Thy Scriptures, and Thy Scrolls, and Thy Tablets, concerning Him Who is the Day-Spring of Thy Revelation, and hast appointed the Bayán to be the Herald of this Most Great and all-glorious Manifestation, and this most resplendent and most sublime Appearance.
And when the world’s horizon was illumined, and He Who is the Most Great Name was manifested, all disbelieved in Him and in His signs, except such as have been carried away by the sweetness of Thy glorification and praise. There befell Him what must remain inscrutable to everyone except Thee, Whose knowledge transcendeth all who are in Thy heaven and all who are on Thy earth.
WITH OUR READERS
World Order readers have the
great privilege this month of reading
the foreword to Shoghi
Effendi’s forthcoming book on the
first Bahá’í Century, a survey of
Bahá’í history since 1844. For
many weeks Bahá’ís have been
looking forward to receiving this
great contribution of our Guardian
to Bahá’í literature. The first
and second chapters of this book
will appear in our April and
May issues and it is hoped that
the entire manuscript will be received
in time to publish the book
before the Centenary date, May
23, 1944.
In his article entitled “Contemporary Peace Plans and the Bahá’í Program” Arthur Dahl has selected a few of the most important of the many peace plans which are before the public today for comparison with the Bahá’í Peace Plan. This article, he tells us, is based on a series of talks which he gave last summer at Geyserville Bahá’í School. Mr. Dahl’s concise statements and clear analysis will be especially helpful to those who are using the peace approach in presenting the Cause to others.
Marzieh Gail, in her pen pictures, portrays for us four most important events of the Bahá’í century just closing. While the world has not yet put these great events into the headlines yet the tests, persecutions and indifference of a materialistic world has not prevented this startling news from becoming known throughout the world. More potent than headlines is the power of the Spirit. Mrs. Gail, whose home is now in New York City, has been an occasional contributor to these pages for some years. Our readers will recall “Where’er You Walk” which appeared in our February, 1943, number.
With this number we conclude references which may be helpful in arranging programs for Bahá’í Holy Days. We are indebted to Miss Elizabeth Hackley of Urbana, Illinois, for this series which began in our October, 1943 issue. We shall be glad to receive additional references which any have found suitable and helpful.
INDEX
WORLD ORDER
VOLUME NINE, APRIL, 1943-MARCH, 1944
TITLES
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, by Frances Mitchell, 246
Awakening, by Kathleen M. Runnell, 176
Bahá’u’lláh: Our Heritage from, by William Kenneth Christian, 145; The Prayers of, by Ruḥiyyih Khanum, 253
Bahá’í Lessons, ed. by Alice S. Cox, 32, 68, 104
Barbarism, The Frontiers of, by Garreta Busey, 247
Carver’s, Dr., Tribute, by Louis G. Gregory, 202
Century, The First Bahá’í, by Shoghi Effendi, 399
Child, in a Catholic World, The, by Olga Finke, 1
Children: Bahá’í, in War Time, by Amy Brady Dwelly, 274; Training of, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 281
Civilization, The Bahá’í Principle of, by Horace Holley, 181
Cornerstone Itself, The, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, 30
Day, The Re-Newed, by Kathrine S. Baldwin, 89
Dawn, The New, Poem, by Ruby Dunn MacCurdy, 382
Deeds, Good, and Religion, Editorial, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, 121
Defense, Spiritual, in Time of War, by Garreta Busey, 131
Door, O Blessed, Poem, by Sydney Sprague, 128
Equality, Greater Than, Editorial, by Horace Holley, 156
Feast, The Bahá’í, by Ella C. Quant, 212
Friendship, If You Desire, by Annamarie Kunz Honnold, 311
God: My Adored, by Bahá’u’lláh, 88; The Path to, by Dorothy Baker, 217
Gift, His, of Mystery, Poem, by Horace Holley, 171
Greatness, A Call to, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, 92
Headlines Tomorrow, by Marzieh Gail, 423
Hearts, A Solace to Their, by Bahá’u’lláh, 300
Holy Days, Bahá’í, ed. by Elizabeth Hackley, 249, 282, 323, 357, 428
Horizons, Wider, by Helen Bishop, 208
Isolation, Away from, Book Review, by Arthur Dahl, 355
Jew, Security for the, Editorial, by Horace Holley, 102
King’s Name, In the, Editorial, by Garreta Busey, 197
Latin America, A Bahá’í Shrine in, by Amelia E. Collins, 301
Life, In Search of a New Way of, by Janet B. Whitenack, 383
Love, In the Ocean of Thy, Poem, by Mary McClennen, 168
Love and Friendship, by Kitty B. Carpenter, 44
Marriage, A Bahá’í, by Horace Holley, 244
Maxwell, May Ellis, Memorial to, Frontispiece, 289
Men of the Promised Day, by Alta M. Gaines, 73
Nations, He Calleth the, Editorial, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, 389
Organism, The Bahá’í Social, by Robert L. Gulick, Jr., 109
Panama—, the Crossroads, by C. E. Hamilton, 83
Peace: Evolution of, by Horace Holley, 20; For an Enduring, Olga Finke, 206; Plans, Contemporary, and the Bahá’í Program, by Arthur Dahl, 410
Peru, El, by Eve B. Nicklin, 62
Pilgrimage, Selections from an Early, by May Ellis Maxwell, 231
Pioneer Journey, by Virginia Orbison, 7
[Page 433]
Prayer: Common, by G. A. Shook, 163;
The Power of, by Marguerite True,
319
Prayers, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 123, 158, 199
Purpose, Poem, by William Kenneth Christian, 144
Road, The, We Are Traveling, Book Review, by Margaret Kunz Ruhe, 137
Science and Society, by G. A. Shook, 391
Society, The Destroyer of, Editorial, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, 238
Sons of Spirit, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 17
Soul, Evolution of the, by Ida Judith Baum, 94
Spiritual Potencies of That Sacred Spot, The, by Shoghi Effendi, 51
Suffering, The Purpose of, by Alta M. Gaines, 240
Suppliant, The, Poem, by Sylvia Margolis, 288
Temple, The Bahá’í, and Spiritual Evolution, by Carl Scheffler, 22
Thou Hast Taught Thy Servants, by Bahá’u’lláh, 271
Time, There Is a, Poem, by Martha M. Boutwell, 67
Unity: Among Individuals, by Elizabeth P. Hackley, 172; The Divine, by Chester F. Barnett, 37; Religious, Editorial, by Garreta Busey, 272
Virtuoso, Poem, by Reginald King, 201
War, After the, One World, by Margaret K. Ruhe, 351
Way to the Gate, The, Editorial, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, 60
West, Reflected in the, by Garetta Busey, 327
Wholeness, Ways to, by Raymond Frank Piper, Part One, 291; Part Two, 339
With Our Readers, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, 34, 70, 106, 141, 178, 215, 251, 285, 325, 360, 397, 431
World Government: A Study, by Horace Holley, 129
World Holy Day, The First, Editorial, by Horace Holley, 421
World Order, This New, by Shoghi Effendi, 169
World Organization, Book Review, by Florence M. Zmeskal, 317
World Religion, Bahá’í Teachings for a, by Horace Holley, 363
World, The, Signs of Hope for, by Ruhaniyyih Ruth Moffett, 49
World Society, The Creation of a, Editorial, by Horace Holley, 309
World, This, a Mirage, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 59
World Unity, Editorial, by Gertrude K. Henning, 337
AUTHORS
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Sons of Spirit, 17; This World a Mirage, 59; Prayers, 123, 158, 199; Training of Children, 281
Baker, Dorothy, The Path of God, 217
Bahá’u’lláh, My God, My Adored, 88; Thou Hast Taught Thy Servants, 271; A Solace to Their Hearts, 300
Baldwin, Kathrine S., The Re-Newed Day, 89
Barnett, F. Chester, The Divine Unity, 37
Baum, Ida Judith, Evolution of the Soul, 94
Bishop, Helen, Wider Horizons, 208
Boutwell, Martha M., There Is a Time, Poem, 67
Busey, Garreta, Spiritual Defense in Time of War, 131; In the King’s Name, 197; The Frontiers of Barbarism, 247, Religious Unity, 272; Reflected in the West, 327
Carpenter, Kitty B., Love and Friendship, 44
Christian, William Kenneth, Purpose, Poem, 144; Our Heritage from Bahá’u’lláh, 145
Collins, Amelia E., A Bahá’í Shrine in Latin America, 301
Dahl, Arthur, Away from Isolation, 355; Contemporary Peace Plans and the Bahá’í Program, 410
[Page 434]
Dwelly, Amy Brady, Bahá’í Children in
War Time, 274
Finke, Olga, The Child in a Chaotic World, 1; For an Enduring Peace, 206
Gail, Marzieh, Headlines Tomorrow, 423
Gaines, Alta M., Men of the Promised Day, 73; The Purpose of Suffering, 240
Gregory, Louis G., Dr. Carver’s Tribute, 202
Gulick, Robert L., Jr., The Bahá’í Social Organism, 109
Hackley, Elizabeth P., Unity Among Individuals, 172
Hamilton, C. E., Panama—The Crossroads, 83
Henning, Gertrude K., World Unity, 337
Holley, Horace, The Evolution of Peace, 20; Security for the Jew, 102; World Government: a Study, 129; Greater Than Equality, 156; His Gift of Mystery, Poem, 171; The Bahá’í Principle of Civilization, 181; A Bahá’í Marriage, 244; The Creation of a World Society, 309; Bahá’í Teachings for a World Religion, 363; The First World Holy Day, 421
Honnold, Annamarie Kunz, If You Desire Friendship, 311
King, Reginald, Virtuoso, Poem, 201
Kirkpatrick, Bertha Hyde, The Cornerstone Itself, 30; The Way to the Gate, 60; A Call to Greatness, 92; Good Deeds and Religion, 121; The Destroyer of Society, 238; He Calleth the Nations, 389; With Our Readers, 34, 70, 106, 141, 178, 215, 251, 285, 325, 360, 397, 431
MacCurdy, Ruby Dunn, The New Dawn, Poem, 382
Margolis, Silvia, The Suppliant, Poem, 288
Maxwell, May Ellis, Selections from an Early Pilgrimage, 231; Frontispiece, 289
McClennen, Mary, In the Ocean of Thy Love, Poem, 168; O Thou Awakened One, Poem, 359
Mitchell, Frances, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 246
Moffett, Ruhaniyyih Ruth, Signs of Hope for the World, 49
Nicklin, Eve B., El Peru, 62
Orbison, Virginia, Pioneer Journey, 7
Piper, Raymond Frank, Ways to Wholeness, Part One, 291; Part Two, 339
Quant, Ella C., The Bahá’í Feast, 212
Ruhe, Margaret Kunz, The Road We Are Traveling, 137; After the War: One World, 351
Rúḥíyyih Khánum, The Prayers of Bahá’u’lláh, 253
Runnell, Kathleen M., Awakening, 176
Scheffler, Carl, The Bahá’í Temple and Spiritual Evolution, 22
Shoghi Effendi, The Spiritual Potencies of That Sacred Spot, 51; This New World Order, 169; The First Bahá’í Century, 399
Shook, G. A., Common Prayer, 163; Science and Society, 391
Sprague, Sydney, O Blessed Door, Poem, 128
True, Marguerite, The Power of Prayer, 319
Whitenack, Janet B., In Search of a New Way of Life, 383
Zmeskal, Florence M., World Organization, 317
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.
The Kitáb-i-Íqán, translated by Shoghi Effendi. This work (The Book of Certitude) unifies and coordinates the revealed Religions of the past, demonstrating their oneness in fulfillment of the purposes of Revelation. Bound in cloth. 262 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.
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Words of Bahá’u’lláh
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- THE EARTH IS BUT ONE COUNTRY; AND MANKIND ITS CITIZENS.
- THE BEST BELOVED OF ALL THINGS IN MY SIGHT IS JUSTICE; TURN NOT AWAY THEREFROM IF THOU DESIREST ME.
- MY LOVE IS MY STRONGHOLD; HE THAT ENTERETH THEREIN IS SAFE AND SECURE.
- BREATHE NOT THE SINS OF OTHERS SO LONG AS THOU ART THYSELF A SINNER.
- THY HEART IS MY HOME; SANCTIFY IT FOR MY DESCENT.
- I HAVE MADE DEATH A MESSENGER OF JOY TO THEE; WHEREFORE DOST THOU GRIEVE?
- MAKE MENTION OF ME ON MY EARTH THAT IN MY HEAVEN I MAY REMEMBER THEE.
- O RICH ONES ON EARTH! THE POOR IN YOUR MIDST ARE MY TRUST; GUARD YE MY TRUST.
- THE SOURCE OF ALL LEARNING IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, EXALTED BE H1S GLORY.