The Covenant of Baha'u'llah
by Adib Taherzadeh
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chapter 28 | start page | single page | chapter 30 |  |
Chapter 29
Vital Developments at the World Centre
One of the most important developments in the period of Shoghi Effendi's ministry is the appointment in 1951 of the first contingent of the Hands of the Cause of God: twelve in all. This institution was created by Bahá'u'lláh towards the end of His Ministry when He appointed four Hands of the Cause[1] charged with the responsibility of teaching and promoting the interests of the Faith. Abdu'l-Bahá describes the duties of the Hands of the Cause in these words:[1 For details of these appointments see The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, vol. 4, p. 277.]
"The obligation of the Hands of the Cause of God are to diffuse the Divine Fragrances, to edify the souls of men, to promote learning, to improve the character of all men and to be, at all times and under all conditions, sanctified and detached from earthly things. They must manifest the fear of God by their conduct, their manners, their deeds and their words." [29-1]
The four Hands appointed by Bahá'u'lláh served during the ministry of Abdu'l-Bahá. Abdu'l-Bahá did not appoint any Hands; He only conferred this rank upon a few posthumously. However, He authorized Shoghi Effendi to appoint Hands during his ministry. Shoghi Effendi waited thirty years before he implemented the wishes of the Master, although he nominated some posthumously during this period. As we look back upon the early years of the Guardianship, we observe a lack of maturity on the part of the main body of the believers as they strove to build up the institutions of the Faith under the direction of the Guardian himself. But after thirty years of active participation in Bahá'à activities, the Bahá'Ãs around the world had acquired sufficient capacity to derive benefit from the institution of the Hands, who played a magnificent role in the acceleration of the development of the Administrative Order towards the end of the Guardian's ministry and beyond.
Three of the Hands were invited by Shoghi Effendi to serve at the World Centre while the remainder were to discharge their responsibilities on a continental basis. Later, from time to time, Shoghi Effendi elevated a number of individuals to the rank of Hand of the Cause. He appointed altogether thirty-one Hands, [29-2] twenty-seven of whom were still living at the time of his passing in 1957. The presence of the Hands of the Cause in the Holy Land serving the Guardian during the last six years of his life proved to be a significant development in the unfoldment of the Administrative Order, for it as a prelude to the time when the Hands had to take the responsibility of administering the affairs of the Faith for a short period after the passing of Shoghi Effendi.
Another significant development in the unfoldment of the Administrative Order was the establishment at the World Centre of the Faith of the International Bahá'à Council, whose members were appointed by Shoghi Effendi. It was established in 1951; its membership was increased to eight in 1952 and to nine in 1953. Of this institution Shoghi Effendi writes:
"Hail with thankful, joyous heart at long last the constitution of International Council which history will acclaim as the greatest event shedding lustre upon second Epoch of Formative Age of Bahá'à Dispensation potentially unsurpassed by an enterprise undertaken since inception of Administrative Order of Faith on morrow of Abdu'l-Bahá's ascension, ranking second only to glorious immortal events associated with Ministries of the Three Central Figures of Faith..." [29-3]
Concerning the functions of the International Council Shoghi Effendi writes:
"Nascent Institution now created is invested with threefold function: first, to forge link with authorities of newly emerged State; second, to assist me to discharge responsibilities involved in erection of mighty superstructure of the Bab's Holy Shrine; third, to conduct negotiations related to matters of personal status with civil authorities." [29-4]
The International Bahá'à Council, working under the direction of Shoghi Effendi, rendered him valuable services in carrying out some of the important tasks in the Holy Land. This resulted in the further strengthening of the World Centre of the Faith. The manner in which the International Bahá'à Council carried out its duties is described in The Priceless Pearl by Ruhiyyih Khanum:
"...In its functions the International Bahá'à Council acted as that Secretariat the Guardian, so many years earlier, had desired to establish; its members received their instructions from him individually, in the informal atmosphere of the dinners at the Pilgrim House table, and not formally as a body; its meetings were infrequent as all its members were kept constantly busy with the many tasks allotted to them by the Guardian himself. Skilfully Shoghi Effendi used this new institution to create in the minds of government and city officials the image of a body of an international character handling the administrative affairs at World Centre. It was no concern of the public how much or how little that body had authority; we who were on it knew Shoghi Effendi was everything; the public, however, began to see an image which could evolve later into the Universal House of Justice." [29-5]
In his writings Shoghi Effendi attached great importance to the International Council, which was to evolve by stages into the Universal House of Justice. The first stage was the Council in its initial form as an appointed body. The second stage was its becoming an elected body. This took place in 1961, during the Custodianship of the Hands of the Cause, when the National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the world elected a nine-member Council. The third stage was for the Council to be transformed into the International Bahá'à Court[1] in Israel, and the fourth stage was to be the election and the establishment of the Universal House of Justice. The third stage did not materialize because when the Hands of the Cause, after the passing of Shoghi Effendi, investigated the matter through legal channels they found that the prerogatives and privileges which could legally be granted to a Bahá'à Court were inadequate or unbefitting the prestige of the Faith. The International Council continued its service until 1963 when it ceased to exist with the election of the Universal House of Justice.
[1 In Islamic countries and in Israel there are religious courts legally recognized to administer legal matters in the context of religious law.]
The presence of the Hands of the Cause and members of the International Bahá'à Council in the Holy Land who were engaged in rendering various forms of service to Shoghi Effendi unfortunately did not reduce his work-load. On the contrary, it increased it. Towards the latter part of Shoghi Effendi's ministry the Bahá'à world had grown enormously, the institutions of the Faith, both local and national, had multiplied. The World Centre had also grown. The building of the Shrine of the Bab, the Terraces and the Archives, the work of the beautification of the Gardens in Haifa and Bahji, as well as the strengthening of ties with the government: all these developments brought in their wake heavier burdens to be borne by Shoghi Effendi during the later part of his ministry. One of his most momentous achievements was the construction of the superstructure of the Shrine of the Bab. This was the culmination of a historic process which, beginning with Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation of the Lawh-i-Karmil[1] (Tablet of Carmel) toward the end of His earthly life, was accelerated during the Master's ministry through the construction of the original building on Mount Carmel and the interment of the holy remains of the Bab in one of its chambers. It was fulfilled in 1953 through the building of a majestic mausoleum which enshrines the edifice built by the Master, in whose centre is deposited the sacred dust of the Martyr-Prophet of this Dispensation.
[1 See The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, vol. 4.]
In 1951, halfway through building the superstructure of the Shrine, Shoghi Effendi wrote an illuminating letter to the Bahá'Ãs of the world about the sacredness of that holy Spot. The following is an excerpt:
"I cannot at this juncture overemphasize the sacredness of that holy dust embosomed in the heart of the Vineyard of God, or overrate the unimaginable potencies of this mighty institution founded sixty years ago, through the operation of the Will of, and the definite selection made by, the Founder of our Faith, on the occasion of His historic visit to that holy mountain, nor can I lay too much stress on the role which this institution, to which the construction of the superstructure of this edifice is bound to lend an unprecedented impetus, is destined to play in the unfoldment of the World Administrative Centre of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and in the efflorescence of its highest institutions constituting the embryo of its future World Order.
"For, just as in the realm of the spirit, the reality of the Bab has been hailed by the Author of the Bahá'à Revelation as 'The Point round Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve', so, on this visible plane, His sacred remains constitute the heart and centre of what may be regarded as nine concentric circles, paralleling thereby, and adding further emphasis to the central position accorded by the Founder of our Faith to One 'from Whom God hath caused to proceed the knowledge of all that was and shall be', 'the Primal Point from which have been generated all created things'.
The outermost circle in this vast system, the visible counterpart of the pivotal position conferred on the Herald of our Faith, is none other than the entire planet. Within the heart of this planet lies the 'Most Holy Land', acclaimed by Abdu'l-Bahá as 'the Nest of the Prophets' and which must be regarded as the centre of the world and the Qiblih of the nations. Within this Most Holy Land rises the Mountain of God of immemorial sanctity, the Vineyard of the Lord, the Retreat of Elijah, Whose return the Bab Himself symbolizes. Reposing on the breast of this holy mountain are the extensive properties permanently dedicated to, and constituting the sacred precincts of, the Bab's holy Sepulchre. In the midst of these properties, recognized as the international endowments of the Faith, is situated the most holy court, an enclosure comprising gardens and terraces which at once embellish, and lend a peculiar charm to, these sacred precincts. Embosomed in these lovely and verdant surroundings stands in all its exquisite beauty the mausoleum of the Bab, the shell designed to preserve and adorn the original structure raised by Abdu'l-Bahá as the tomb of the Martyr-Herald of our Faith. Within it this shell is enshrined that Pearl of Great Price, the holy of holies, those chambers which constitute the tomb itself, and which were constructed by Abdu'l-Bahá. Within the heart of this holy of holies is the tabernacle the vault wherein reposes the most holy casket. Within the vault rests the alabaster sarcophagus in which is deposited that inestimable jewel, the Bab's holy dust. So precious is this dust that the very earth surrounding the edifice enshrining this dust has been extolled by the Centre of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant, in one of His Tablets in which He named the five doors belonging to the six chambers which He originally erected after five of the believers associated with the construction of the Shrine, as being endowed with such potency as to have inspired Him in bestowing these names, whilst the tomb itself housing this dust He acclaimed as the spot round which the Concourse on high circle in adoration." [29-6]
Of the exquisite beauty of this Shrine Shoghi Effendi writes:
"...The Queen of Carmel enthroned on God's Mountain, crowned in glowing gold, robed in shimmering white, girdled in emerald green, enchanting every eye from air, sea, plain and hill." [29-7]
The Shrine of the Bab, referred to in the Tablet of Carmel as the 'City of God' and the 'celestial Kaaba', is the spiritual Centre of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh on Mount Carmel. The administrative Centre is alluded to in the same Tablet as the sailing of 'His Ark'[1] upon that Mountain. This Ark has been described by the Guardian as the Ark of the Laws of God. The world administrative centre of the Faith was brought into being by Shoghi Effendi in stages. In 1932 the remains of the Greatest Holy Leaf were laid to rest in close proximity to the Shrine of the Bab on Mount Carmel. Later, in 1939 the remains of the Purest Branch and Navvab, his mother, were transferred to that same spot. This momentous event was a prelude to the establishment, around the resting places of these exalted souls, of a series of buildings comprising the world administrative headquarters of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. Concerning this Shoghi Effendi wrote:
[1 Not to be confused with the buildings of the Arc on Mount Carmel around which the edifices of the world administrative centre are to be built.]
"The transfer of the sacred remains of the brother and mother of our Lord and Master Abdu'l-Bahá to Mount Carmel and their final interment within the hallowed precincts of the Shrine of the Bab, and in the immediate neighbourhood of the resting place of the Greatest Holy Leaf, constitute, apart from their historic associations and the tender sentiments they arouse, events of such capital institutional significance as only future happenings, steadily and mysteriously unfolding at the world centre of our Faith, can adequately demonstrate." [29-8]
In the following passages Shoghi Effendi describes the nature, the significance and the future glory of the world administrative centre of the Faith. On the occasion of the successful termination of negotiations for the acquisition of a certain plot of property on Mount Carmel he writes:
"The ownership of this plot will now enable us to locate the site, excavate the foundations, and erect the structure, of the International Bahá'à Archives ... which will serve as the permanent and befitting repository for the priceless and numerous relics associated with the Twin Founders of the Faith, with the Perfect Exemplar of its teachings and with its heroes, saints and martyrs, and the building of which constitutes one of the foremost objectives of the Ten-Year Plan.
"The raising of this Edifice will in turn herald the construction, in the course of successive epochs of the Formative Age of the Faith, of several other structures, which will serve as the administrative seats of such divinely appointed institutions as the Guardianship, the Hands of the Cause, and the Universal House of Justice. These Edifices will, in the shape of a far-flung arc, and following a harmonizing style of architecture, surround the resting-places of the Greatest Holy Leaf, ranking as foremost among the members of her sex in the Bahá'à Dispensation, of her Brother, offered up as a ransom by Bahá'u'lláh for the quickening of the world and its unification, and of their Mother, proclaimed by Him to be His chosen 'consort in all the worlds of God'. The ultimate completion of this stupendous undertaking will mark the culmination of the development of a world-wide divinely-appointed Administrative Order whose beginnings may be traced as far back as the concluding years of the Heroic Age of the Faith.
"This vast and irresistible process, unexampled in the spiritual history of mankind, and which will synchronize with two no less significant developments — the establishment of the Lesser Peace and the evolution of Bahá'à national and local institutions — the one outside and the other within the Bahá'à world — will attain its final consummation, in the Golden Age of the Faith, through the raising of the standard of the Most Great Peace, and the emergence, in the plenitude of its power and glory, of the focal Centre of the agencies constituting the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. The final establishment of this seat of the future Bahá'à World Commonwealth will signalize at once the proclamation of the sovereignty of the Founder of our Faith and the advent of the Kingdom of the Father repeatedly lauded and promised by Jesus Christ." [29-9]
Shoghi Effendi began the building of the International Archives in 1954 and completed it by 1957. This was another remarkable accomplishment at the World Centre, a building majestically raised at the extreme end of the Arc on Mount Carmel, and enshrining within its walls the most precious relics of the Founders of the Faith as well as other historical materials of great value.
One of the distinguishing features of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh is that unlike the Islamic or Christian Faiths, its spiritual and administrative centres are located in one area. The Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh and that of the Bab constitute the spiritual centre, and the various buildings around the Arc on Mount Carmel its administrative centre. These two are thus combined together in one spot. In Islam the two centres were separated: the spiritual centre was in Mecca, while the Islamic institutions invested with temporal power were removed from Arabia to other lands. The same was true of Christianity when its main churches, the centres for the administration of the community, were removed from the Holy Land, its spiritual centre.
During the thirty-six years of his ministry Shoghi Effendi created, from the very limited resources which were at his disposal, a befitting World Centre in which the Holy Shrines and other holy places were preserved and in some cases restored in the most dignified way. A special feature of Bahá'à holy places and other institutions at the World Centre is that most are surrounded by gardens, especially laid out to grace and embellish them. This practice takes its origin from Bahá'u'lláh, who was greatly attracted by the beauty of nature. In spite of their meagre resources, the believers of His days tried wherever possible to create simple yet beautiful surroundings for Him. They even brought flowering trees and shrubs from lands as far away as Persia and planted them in the Garden of Ridvan outside Akka, that Bahá'u'lláh loved to visit after so many years of incarceration within the walls of the City.
Abdu'l-Bahá during His Ministry laid out small gardens around the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh and the Bab. Shoghi Effendi enlarged these and made new and extensive gardens all over Mount Carmel and in Bahji. He himself designed and created these exquisite formal gardens around the Shrines and other Monuments which are so admired by the public. The Shrine of the Bab and the gardens around it were further enhanced when Shoghi Effendi built nine terraces on the hillside below the Shrine, as Abdu'l-Bahá had envisaged.
In spite of these successes in Haifa, Shoghi Effendi experienced great difficulties in his efforts to extend and beautify the gardens surrounding the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh. The Mansion of Bahji which 'God hath ordained as the most sublime vision of mankind' and where Bahá'u'lláh had spent the last twelve years of His life, had been occupied by the Covenant-breakers for almost forty years since the passing of Bahá'u'lláh. It had fallen into such a pitiful state of disrepair that the roof had caved in in many places and its rooms were largely abandoned. Mirza Muhammad-'Ali, who used it as his personal residence, had no choice but to ask Shoghi Effendi to repair the building. In 1929 the building was vacated and repair work began immediately. Shoghi Effendi restored the Mansion to its original state, furnished it with beautiful carpets, placed in its rooms various photographs and some original items associated with Bahá'u'lláh, as well as bookcases filled with Bahá'à literature in many languages. He then invited the British High Commissioner to view the Mansion with him. It was on the occasion of that visit that the High Commissioner decided that the Mansion was a holy site for the Bahá'Ãs and a place of pilgrimage for them. Thus the custody of this sacred place was transferred to Shoghi Effendi, and Mirza Muhammad-'Ali was not allowed in the Mansion again.
At the sides of the Mansion and near the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh there were several houses which had been built by the Covenant-breakers over the years. It was a disgrace to build such houses around such holy precincts, and it had been Shoghi Effendi's aim for many years to demolish and cleanse the area from the pollution of Covenant-breakers. This was achieved in two stages: one in 1952, the other in the last year of Shoghi Effendi's life. Ruhiyyih Khanum writes in The Priceless Pearl as follows:
"I remember how, in spite of the fact that Shoghi Effendi had possession of the Mansion, he was constantly irked, until the very end of his life, by the fact that Covenant-breakers still occupied the adjacent house. The night of the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh, when the Guardian, at the head of the Bahá'à men, would proceed to His Shrine after visiting the room in the Mansion in which He had passed away, he was obliged to pass in front of the room where the Covenant-breakers were keeping their own vigil and often they would make audible comments on him as he passed, adding to the distress of a night that was already distressing enough in its associations....
"From the time, in January 1923, when he had written to the eldest son of Bahá'u'lláh's daughter requesting him to make a definite pronouncement that whatever the legal rights of these Afnans might be the Shrine at Bahji because of its nature belonged to the Bahá'à Movement, until the end of his life, Shoghi Effendi struggled to place on an unshakeable foundation the legal position of this Sacred Spot, in spite of the opposition of that tainted band of relatives who resisted his every effort for over thirty years. It was due to the mysterious workings of Providence that after the War of Independence, through the mass exodus of the Arabs, including many enemies of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi was able to at last emerge triumphant from this long struggle. In 1952 the long-coveted lands surrounding the Tomb and Mansion of Bahá'u'lláh, amounting to over 145,000 square metres, were obtained. As early as 1931 Shoghi Effendi had endeavoured to get the Government to requisition part of this land — which had originally belonged to the Mansion property but had been usurped by the Muslim friends and supporters of Muhammad Ali — but it had refused to intervene and the asking price was over ten times the market value of the land. The Guardian had to wait over twenty years until the fortunes of war brought it back to its rightful owners. In addition to this both the Pilgrim House, which had been under the control of Abdu'l-Bahá since the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh, and a building known as the Tea House of the Master, where He often entertained the believers — including the first group of pilgrims from the West — were acquired by the Guardian during the last years of his life." [29-10]
One of the Covenant-breakers had built a blacksmith's shop next to the eastern wall of the Holy Tomb. There were also stables which had been built between the Mansion and the Shrine. Shoghi Effendi removed these unsightly buildings. He created an inner court between the block of buildings in which the Holy Tomb is situated, and the wall of the Mansion Garden. Toward the south of the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh, there was a small one-storey building with five rooms which was in ruins. It had been in Bahá'à possession during the days of Bahá'u'lláh and Abdu'l-Bahá. When Shoghi Effendi began to demolish this building, the Covenant-breakers served the custodian of the Shrine with a stay order from the Haifa Court on the grounds that they had a small share in the property.
The bitterness of the Covenant-breakers was motivated by Majdu'd-Din, then a few years short of a hundred and paralyzed, who was living in one of the houses in close proximity to the Mansion. A struggle ensued led by the notorious Sadijih,[1] a daughter of Badi'u'llah. This lasted for a long time, the legal action initiated by the Covenant-breakers took its course, until they had the temerity to summon the Head of the Faith himself as a witness in court. It was at this point that as a result of Shoghi Effendi's appeal to the Government stating that the matter was a religious issue, the case was lifted from the civil court, and orders were issued in 1952 directly from the Government in favour of Shoghi Effendi.
[1 See below, p. 365.]
Within forty-eight hours of the receipt of the official order, the half-demolished building was razed to the ground. The following statement by the International Bahá'à Council in Haifa describes the amazing transformation which took place in the vicinity of the Shrines:
"...Servants, Arab labourers and Bahá'à pilgrims had scattered the stones of the building in a blast of joy.
"One week later the Guardian of the Cause, who went over to Bahji himself to supervise the work, had created, in time for the night of the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh a beautiful entrance, into what is now called the Holy Court leading to the Shrine. In front of the Mansion, and in the very spot where the ruined house had stood, a wide expanse of garden sprung from the dust, marble vases, carved white Carrara marble ornaments, lamp posts, cypress trees, borders, pebbled walks — lo! like a dream they spread before the eyes of the Bahá'Ãs. Indeed the Arab labourers would quote to each other the old saying: 'The ring of Solomon has been found!', which stems from a tradition that the king lost his ring, and that whoever found it and turned it on his finger — whatever he wished for would materialize instantly.
"Without the innocent remark thrown out by the Guardian one day as he left Bahji after visiting the Holy Tomb to the keeper: 'Bring labourers and destroy these ruins,' and which he made because he could no longer tolerate this dilapidation so near the Holy Shrine, and because he desired to build a befitting entrance at the end of the Garden adjacent to the Shrine, which had never had, for sixty years, any entrance, befitting or otherwise, the Covenant-breakers would not have once again been routed, suffered defeat and lost many of the privileges they enjoyed for sixty years in respect to visiting the Holy Shrine."
The final stage in securing the government order for the demolition of the rest of the houses situated in close proximity to the Mansion and occupied by the few remaining Covenant-breakers took place in 1957. This will be described later in this book.
Outside Akka stands the Mansion of Mazra'ih, which served as Bahá'u'lláh's residence after His release from the Prison City. This building was a religious endowment, and after much effort Shoghi Effendi secured, in 1950, the sanction of the highest government authority to lease[1] it to the Bahá'à Community as a Holy Place. Shoghi Effendi furnished the Mansion befittingly, beautified the gardens around it and opened it for pilgrims to visit. The work of restoration and furnishing of the Holy Places and other institutions, as well as the extension and beautification of gardens in Haifa and Bahji, occupied a great part of Shoghi Effendi's time and effort, and is one of his most outstanding achievements during the thirty-six years of his Guardianship. To describe all these labours in detail is beyond the scope of this book. Ruhiyyih Khanum writes:
[1 The Mansion is now owned by the Bahá'à World Centre.]
"The development of the World Centre of the Faith under the aegis of the Guardian represents one of the major achievements of his life and can only be compared in importance to the spread and consolidation of the Cause itself throughout the entire globe. Of the unique significance of this Centre Shoghi Effendi wrote that it was: '...the Holy Land — the Qiblih of a world community, the heart from which the energizing influences of a vivifying Faith continually stream, and the seat and centre around which the diversified activities of a divinely appointed Administrative Order revolve'." [29-11]
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