The Covenant of Baha'u'llah

by Adib Taherzadeh

chapter 35

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chapter 37

Chapter 36

The Unfoldment of the Covenant

The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh is a growing organism, which has existed since the very beginning of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation. In one of His Tablets Abdu'l-Bahá states that the Sun of Truth [Bahá'u'lláh] shone forth and its effulgent rays illumined the world of being, and that the first ray that shed its light was that of the Covenant. [36-1] There are several passages revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in the Hidden Words in the early years of His Ministry which refer to the Covenant, a Covenant which was made explicit years later through the revelation of the Kitab-i-'Ahd. One such passage is the following:

"O My Friends!

"Call ye to mind that covenant ye have entered into with Me upon Mount Paran, situate within the hallowed precincts of Zaman. I have taken to witness the concourse on high and the dwellers in the city of eternity, yet now none do I find faithful unto the covenant. Of a certainty pride and rebellion have effaced it from the hearts, in such wise that no trace thereof remaineth. Yet knowing this, I waited and disclosed it not." [36-2]

Abdu'l-Bahá states in a Tablet [36-3] that the Covenant upon Mount Pa'ran refers to the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh written by the Exalted Pen in the Holy Land, and announced there after His ascension. Another passage which alludes to the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh is the following:

"O My Friends!

"Have ye forgotten that true and radiant morn, when in those hallowed and blessed surroundings ye were all gathered in My presence beneath the shade of the tree of life, which is planted in the all-glorious paradise? Awe-struck ye listened as I gave utterance to these three most holy words: O friends! Prefer not your will to Mine, never desire that which I have not desired for you, and approach Me not with lifeless hearts, defiled with worldly desires and cravings. Would ye but sanctify your souls, ye would at this present hour recall that place and those surroundings, and the truth of My utterance should be made evident unto all of you." [36-4]

In one of His Tablets Abdu'l-Bahá states:

"The Lord, the All-Glorified, hath, beneath the shade of the Tree of Anisa [tree of life] made a new Covenant and established a great Testament." [36-5]

From the above statements we may deduce that the unfoldment of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh was a continuing process during the forty years of Bahá'u'lláh's ministry. Abdu'l-Bahá, the Centre of the Covenant, was nurtured by the hand of Bahá'u'lláh who progressively bestowed upon Him the powers inherent within that Covenant. The exalted titles He conferred upon Abdu'l-Bahá while He was in His early teens, the Tablets in which He glorified His station, the clear allusions He made to Him in the ^Kitab-i-Aqdas as the Centre of His Covenant and the interpreter of His teachings, all indicate that during Bahá'u'lláh's lifetime His Covenant was progressively developing in its embryonic form; it was born when the Kitab-i-'Ahd was read and its contents became known.

As we have stated in previous chapters, the appointment of Abdu'l-Bahá as the Centre of the Covenant opened a new chapter in the history of the Faith and ushered in the third and last epoch of the Heroic or Apostolic Age of the dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh. This period witnessed the gradual unfoldment of the institution of the Covenant, despite the most relentless onslaught by a treacherous group of Covenant-breakers who did everything in their power to destroy that most precious heritage which Bahá'u'lláh had bequeathed to His followers.

After the passing of Abdu'l-Bahá, the Covenant-breakers continued their ruthless attacks against the Guardian of the Cause. But while he suffered immensely, the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh triumphed and gave birth to the institutions of the Administrative Order — channels through which the forces of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh flow to mankind, and a shell within whose core His most precious Faith will be for all times protected. Indeed, it has been through the rising institutions of the Administrative Order, acting as a shield safeguarding the unity of the Bahá'í community, that the fortunes of the Covenant-breakers since the establishment of the Universal House of Justice have steadily declined.

Gone the days when after the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh all ignoble band of faithless men and women, including most members of His family, headed by no less a person than Bahá'u'lláh's Son, Mirza Muhammad-'Ali, rose up against the Master with all their power and prestige and tried to wrest from Him the reins of the Cause of God which had been entrusted to Him by His heavenly Father.

Gone the days that some of the most erudite and outstanding teachers of the Faith, together with a number of influential men who ranked foremost in the community, rebelled against Abdu'l-Bahá, most viciously attacked that newly born institution of the Covenant, and caused grievous convulsions within the community of the Most Great Name.

Gone the days when falsehoods and outrageous misrepresentations against the Centre of the Covenant by Mirza Muhammad-'Ali gained credibility among the people, both within and without this small and seemingly fragile community.

Gone the days when the Master was maliciously accused in public by His unfaithful brothers of the most heinous crimes, causing thereby alarm and apprehension within government circles in the Holy Land, and further afield in the heart and centre of the Ottoman Empire.

Gone the days that, through his persistent machinations and intrigues, the Arch-breaker of the Covenant succeeded at last in poisoning the mind of the Sultan of Turkey to such an extent that he ordered Abdu'l-Bahá's incarceration within the walls of the Prison City, an ordeal which He endured for eight years.

And gone the days when the youthful Guardian of the Cause was subjected to untold sufferings at the hands of the members of Abdu'l-Bahá's family and the old Covenant-breakers, who, assisted by a number of erstwhile outstanding teachers of the Faith — then violators of the Covenant — opposed him for over three decades.

Now, with the establishment of the Universal House of Justice, the situation is changed, and the precious institution of the Covenant bequeathed by Bahá'u'lláh to His followers has been greatly fortified. Although there may always be a few souls from among the followers who will, from time to time, rebel against the Cause of God and will arise to break the Covenant, yet they will never be able to divide the Faith into sects and break up the unity of its community. The truth of this may be evidenced in the history of the Faith. For almost one hundred years, desperate endeavours were made by various groups of Covenant-breakers who launched fierce onslaughts against the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh in order to bring about schism within its world-wide community, and yet their efforts were in vain and they miserably failed in their objectives. Bahá'u'lláh has thus clearly proven that 'this is a day that shall not be followed by night'.

Today, the activities of a small number of misguided individuals, mostly residing in North America, who follow in the footsteps of Mason Remey and who are trying to disrupt the unity of the Bahá'í community, have proved to be an utter failure and of no significance whatsoever. Their case is truly pathetic, their argument most feeble and their influence in the Bahá'í community almost non-existent. A major cause of their ineffectiveness is the progressive unfoldment of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh, and the organic growth and strengthening of its world-wide institutions culminating in the establishment of the Universal House of Justice.

Abdu'l-Bahá has likened the activities of the Covenant-breakers to the movements of a tiny ant, as compared with the irresistible onward march of the Faith motivated by the power of the Covenant, a power which has, as testified by Abdu'l-Bahá, encompassed the world. This Covenant has given birth to an Administrative Order which may be regarded as the embryo of the new world order to be established in the fullness of time when the generality of mankind will have recognized Bahá'u'lláh and, by turning to Him, will have achieved the unity of the human race on this planet.

The Administrative Order was conceived by the generating influence of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. It is growing at the present time in the womb of this turbulent age. The institutions of the Faith — the organs of this Administrative Order — are today embryonic in nature. Today the generality of mankind is unaware that human society is in a state of pregnancy, bearing this precious child of the new world order within its womb. Whenever the time comes that it is destined to lay down its burden, the institutions of the Faith will emerge from obscurity and a new era will begin, signalizing the birth of a new order.

Such a process will also bring in its wake the pangs of birth which humanity must sooner or later experience with all the sufferings they entail. In the following passage written in 1957, Shoghi Effendi foreshadows dire afflictions which will envelop humanity as it is led to its ultimate salvation:

"Against the background of these afflictive disturbances — the turmoil and tribulations of a travailing age — we may well ponder the portentous prophecies uttered well-nigh fourscore years ago, by the Author of our Faith, as well as the dire predictions made by Him Who is the unerring Interpreter of His teachings, all foreshadowing a universal commotion, of a scope and intensity unparalleled in the annals of mankind.

The violent derangement of the world's equilibrium; the trembling that will seize the limbs of mankind; the radical transformation of human society; the rolling up of the present-day Order; the fundamental changes affecting the structure of government; the weakening of the pillars of religion; the rise of dictatorships; the spread of tyranny; the fall of monarchies; the decline of ecclesiastical institutions; the increase of anarchy and chaos; the extension and consolidation of the Movement of the Left, the fanning into flame of the smouldering fire of racial strife; the development of infernal engines of war; the burning of cities; the contamination of the atmosphere of the earth — these stand out as the signs and portents that must either herald or accompany the retributive calamity which, as decreed by Him Who is the Judge and Redeemer of mankind, must, sooner or later, afflict a society which, for the most part, and for over a century, has turned a deaf ear to the Voice of God's Messenger in this day — a calamity which must purge the human race of the dross of its age-long corruptions, and weld its component parts into a firmly-knit world-embracing Fellowship — a Fellowship destined, in the fullness of time, to be incorporated in the framework, and to be galvanized by the spiritualizing influences, of a mysteriously expanding, divinely appointed Order, and to flower, in the course of future Dispensations, into a Civilization, the like of which mankind has, at no stage in its evolution, witnessed." [36-6]

At the present time the local and national institutions of the Faith — the organs of the embryonic new world order — are in obscurity. Although the Faith itself has been proclaimed in many countries, these institutions by virtue of their embryonic state are not yet known to the public, who are unaware of the major role these institutions will play in the future, and of their transformation in the fullness of time into Houses of Justice when they will direct the affairs of humanity in conformity with the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.

The Administrative Order of Bahá'u'lláh has been developing since the inception of the Formative Age in 1921. It has now acquired many of its organs, the local, national and international institutions widely spread throughout the world. Today, the embryonic nature of these institutions is reflected in the immaturity and weakness of the local and national Spiritual Assemblies. Although these have deficiencies and imperfections at the present time, they are pulsating with a new life and contain within them the promise of the future, when they will evolve into rising institutions of Bahá'u'lláh's new world order for mankind.

No one knows when this embryonic order may pass from the obscurity of the womb-world and emerge as a new-born instrument destined to grow and mature into a world order in that distant future when the unity of mankind will have been achieved and the Most Great Peace established. We note that in nature a child is born some time after all its limbs and organs are formed in the womb of its mother. If this principle is applicable to the development of the Administrative Order, we may deduce that its birth will take place when all the institutions of the Faith have been formed in their embryonic condition.

Today, in the Fourth Epoch of the Formative Age, almost all the necessary institutions of the Faith have been created. A vast network of local Spiritual Assemblies covers the surface of the planet. Likewise, National Spiritual Assemblies have also been formed in almost every country of the world, and in all continents of the globe. The international institutions of the Faith are also functioning effectively. But there is one remaining organ of the Administrative Order which is not yet fully established, namely, the world's administrative Centre of the Faith on Mount Carmel. Not until this vital agency of the Faith ordained by Bahá'u'lláh in the Tablet of Carmel comes into being can we say that all the component parts of the Administrative Order of Bahá'u'lláh have been created. Shoghi Effendi confirms this view in one of his most illuminating letters in which he portrays a few glimpses of the future glory of the world order of Bahá'u'lláh:

"The raising of this Edifice[1] 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'í 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." [36-7]
[1 A reference to the International Archives building which was being constructed by Shoghi Effendi. It is situated at one end of the Arc on Mount Carmel.]

The stage at which the culmination of the development of the Administrative Order, coinciding with the completion of the buildings on the Arc, takes place, resembles the stage at which a child in the womb of his mother has acquired all the limbs and organs he needs, and is ready to be born.

Having described the relationship between the completion of the buildings of the World Administrative Centre on Mount Carmel and the development of the Administrative Order, Shoghi Effendi in this same letter further links this process with the evolution of local and national institutions of the Faith. He continues:

"This vast and irresistible process, unexampled in the spiritual history of mankind ... will synchronize with two no less significant developments — the establishment of the Lesser Peace+F2 and the evolution of Bahá'í national and local institutions — the one outside and the other within the Bahá'í world..." [36-8]

Could this evolution mentioned by Shoghi Effendi be the same process, referred to in the preceding pages, as the stage at which the institutions of the Faith will emerge from obscurity and progressively assume greater involvement in human society? It is of great significance that he associates this stage of evolution with the founding of the Lesser Peace, which Abdu'l-Bahá states will be established in the twentieth century. The evolution of the institutions of the Faith and their greater involvement in human affairs, a process which is destined to take place in the near future, must not be confused with the establishment of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh in the distant future. This process, Shoghi Effendi explains, 'will attain its full 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'. [36-9]

The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh vouchsafed by the Almighty to the human race is preserved within the sanctuary of His Covenant. This mighty instrument, acting as a shield, protects the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh and all its institutions, enabling them to grow and develop. It is the begetter of the unity of the Faith, the upholder of its integrity, the promoter of its teachings, and the guarantor of its incorruptibility.

Shoghi Effendi, in the masterly style of his writings, describes the potentialities of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh and the unique nature of the Administrative Order in these words:

"The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh had been instituted solely through the direct operation of Hiss Will and purpose. The Will and Testament of Abdu'l-Bahá, on the other hand, may be regarded as the offspring resulting from that mystic intercourse between Him Who had been made its sole Interpreter and was recognized as its perfect Exemplar. The creative energies unleashed by the Originator of the Law of God in this age gave birth, through their impact upon the mind of Him Who had been chosen as its unerring Expounder, to that Instrument, the vast implications of which present generation, even after the lapse of twenty-three years, is still incapable of fully apprehending. This Instrument can, if we would correctly appraise it, no more be divorced from the One Who provided the motivating impulse for its creation than from Him Who directly conceived it. The purpose of the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation had, as already observed, been so thoroughly infused into the mind of Abdu'l-Bahá, and His Spirit had so profoundly impregnated His being, and their aims and motives been so completely blended, that to dissociate the doctrine laid down by the former from the supreme act associated with the mission and the latter would be tantamount to a repudiation of one of the most fundamental verities of the Faith.

"The Administrative Order which this historic Document has established, it should be noted, is, by virtue of its origin and character, unique in the annals of the world's religious systems. No Prophet before Bahá'u'lláh, it can be confidently asserted, not even Muhammad Whose Book clearly lays down the laws and ordinances of the Islamic Dispensation, has established, authoritatively and in writing, anything comparable to the Administrative Order which the authorized Interpreter of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings has instituted, an Order which, by virtue of the administrative principles which its Author has formulated, the institutions He has established, and the right of interpretation with which He has invested its Guardian, must and will, in a manner unparalleled in any previous religion, safeguard from schism the Faith from which it has sprung. Nor is the principle governing its operation similar to that which underlies any system, whether theocratic or otherwise, which the minds of men have devised for the government of human institutions. Neither in theory nor in practice can the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh be said to conform to any type of democratic government, to any system of autocracy, to any purely aristocratic order, or to any of the various theocracies, whether Jewish, Christian or Islamic which mankind has witnessed in the past. It incorporates within its structure certain elements which are to be found in each of the three recognized forms of secular government, is devoid of the defects which each of them inherently possesses, and blends the salutary truths which each undoubtedly contains without vitiating in any way the integrity of the Divine verities on which it is essentially founded. The hereditary authority which the Guardian of the Administrative Order is called upon to exercise, and the right of the interpretation of the Holy Writ solely conferred upon him; the powers and prerogatives of the Universal House of Justice, possessing the exclusive right to legislate on matters not explicitly revealed in the Most Holy Book; the ordinance exempting its members from any responsibility to those who they represent, and from the obligation to conform to their views, convictions or sentiments; the specific provisions requiring the free and democratic election by the mass of the faithful of the Body that constitutes the sole legislative organ in the world-wide Bahá'í community — these are among the features which combine to set apart the Order identified with the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh from any of the existing systems of human government." [36-10]

chapter 35

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chapter 37