CHAPTER VIII
Bahá'u'lláh's Banishment to `Iráq
(Continued)
The return of Bahá'u'lláh from Sulamáníyyih to Baghdád marks
a turning point of the utmost significance in the history of the first
Bahá'í century. The tide of the fortunes of the Faith, having reached
its lowest ebb, was now beginning to surge back, and was destined
to roll on, steadily and mightily, to a new high water-mark, associated
this time with the Declaration of His Mission, on the eve of
His banishment to Constantinople. With His return to Baghdád a
firm anchorage was now being established, an anchorage such as the
Faith had never known in its history. Never before, except during
the first three years of its life, could that Faith claim to have possessed
a fixed and accessible center to which its adherents could turn for
guidance, and from which they could derive continuous and unobstructed
inspiration. No less than half of the Báb's short-lived
ministry was spent on the remotest border of His native country,
where He was concealed and virtually cut off from the vast majority
of His disciples. The period immediately after His martyrdom was
marked by a confusion that was even more deplorable than the isolation
caused by His enforced captivity. Nor when the Revelation
which He had foretold made its appearance was it succeeded by an
immediate declaration that could enable the members of a distracted
community to rally round the person of their expected Deliverer.
The prolonged self-concealment of Mírzá Yahyá, the center provisionally
appointed pending the manifestation of the Promised One;
the nine months' absence of Bahá'u'lláh from His native land, while
on a visit to Karbilá, followed swiftly by His imprisonment in the
Síyáh-Chál, by His banishment to `Iráq, and afterwards by His
retirement to Kurdistán--all combined to prolong the phase of instability
and suspense through which the Bábí community had to pass.
Now at last, in spite of Bahá'u'lláh's reluctance to unravel the
mystery surrounding His own position, the Bábís found themselves
able to center both their hopes and their movements round One Whom
they believed (whatever their views as to His station) capable of
insuring the stability and integrity of their Faith. The orientation
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which the Faith had thus acquired and the fixity of the center towards
which it now gravitated continued, in one form or another, to be its
outstanding features, of which it was never again to be deprived.
The Faith of the Báb, as already observed, had, in consequence of
the successive and formidable blows it had received, reached the
verge of extinction. Nor was the momentous Revelation vouchsafed
to Bahá'u'lláh in the Síyáh-Chál productive at once of any tangible
results of a nature that would exercise a stabilizing influence on a
well-nigh disrupted community. Bahá'u'lláh's unexpected banishment
had been a further blow to its members, who had learned to
place their reliance upon Him. Mírzá Yahyá's seclusion and inactivity
further accelerated the process of disintegration that had set in.
Bahá'u'lláh's prolonged retirement to Kurdistán seemed to have set
the seal on its complete dissolution.
Now, however, the tide that had ebbed in so alarming a measure
was turning, bearing with it, as it rose to flood point, those inestimable
benefits that were to herald the announcement of the Revelation
already secretly disclosed to Bahá'u'lláh.
During the seven years that elapsed between the resumption of
His labors and the declaration of His prophetic mission--years to
which we now direct our attention--it would be no exaggeration to
say that the Bahá'í community, under the name and in the shape of a
re-arisen Bábí community was born and was slowly taking shape,
though its Creator still appeared in the guise of, and continued to
labor as, one of the foremost disciples of the Báb. It was a period
during which the prestige of the community's nominal head steadily
faded from the scene, paling before the rising splendor of Him Who
was its actual Leader and Deliverer. It was a period in the course
of which the first fruits of an exile, endowed with incalculable
potentialities, ripened and were garnered. It was a period that will
go down in history as one during which the prestige of a recreated
community was immensely enhanced, its morals entirely reformed,
its recognition of Him who rehabilitated its fortunes enthusiastically
affirmed, its literature enormously enriched, and its victories over its
new adversaries universally acknowledged.
The prestige of the community, and particularly that of Bahá'u'lláh,
now began from its first inception in Kurdistán to mount in a
steadily rising crescendo. Bahá'u'lláh had scarcely gathered up again the
reins of the authority he had relinquished when the devout admirers
He had left behind in Sulamáníyyih started to flock to Baghdád,
with the name of "Darvísh Muhammad" on their lips, and the "house
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of Mírzá Músá the Bábí" as their goal. Astonished at the sight of
so many `ulamás and Súfís of Kurdish origin, of both the Qádiríyyih
and Khalídíyyih Orders, thronging the house of Bahá'u'lláh, and
impelled by racial and sectarian rivalry, the religious leaders of the
city, such as the renowned Ibn-i-Álúsí, the Muftí of Baghdád, together
with Shaykh `Abdu's-Salám, Shaykh `Abdu'l-Qádir and Siyyid
Dáwúdí, began to seek His presence, and, having obtained completely
satisfying answers to their several queries, enrolled themselves among
the band of His earliest admirers. The unqualified recognition by
these outstanding leaders of those traits that distinguished the character
and conduct of Bahá'u'lláh stimulated the curiosity, and later
evoked the unstinted praise, of a great many observers of less conspicuous
position, among whom figured poets, mystics and notables,
who either resided in, or visited, the city. Government officials, foremost
among whom were `Abdu'lláh Páshá and his lieutenant Mahmúd
Áqá, and Mullá `Alí Mardán, a Kurd well-known in those circles,
were gradually brought into contact with Him, and lent their share
in noising abroad His fast-spreading fame. Nor could those distinguished
Persians, who either lived in Baghdád and its environs or
visited as pilgrims the holy places, remain impervious to the spell of
His charm. Princes of the royal blood, amongst whom were such
personages as the Ná'ibú'l-Íyálih, the Shuja'u'd-Dawlih, the Sayfu'd-Dawlih,
and Zaynu'l-'Ábidín Khán, the Fakhru'd-Dawlih, were,
likewise, irresistibly drawn into the ever-widening circle of His associates
and acquaintances.
Those who, during Bahá'u'lláh's two years' absence from Baghdád,
had so persistently reviled and loudly derided His companions and
kindred were, by now, for the most part, silenced. Not an inconsiderable
number among them feigned respect and esteem for Him,
a few claimed to be His defenders and supporters, while others professed
to share His beliefs, and actually joined the ranks of the
community to which He belonged. Such was the extent of the
reaction that had set in that one of them was even heard to boast
that, as far back as the year 1250 A.H.--a decade before the Báb's
Declaration--he had already perceived and embraced the truth of
His Faith!
Within a few years after Bahá'u'lláh's return from Sulamáníyyih
the situation had been completely reversed. The house of Sulaymán-i-Ghannam,
on which the official designation of the Bayt-i-A'zam
(the Most Great House) was later conferred, known, at that time,
as the house of Mírzá Músá, the Bábí, an extremely modest residence,
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situated in the Karkh quarter, in the neighborhood of the western
bank of the river, to which Bahá'u'lláh's family had moved prior to
His return from Kurdistán, had now become the focal center of a
great number of seekers, visitors and pilgrims, including Kurds,
Persians, Arabs and Turks, and derived from the Muslim, the Jewish
and Christian Faiths. It had, moreover, become a veritable sanctuary
to which the victims of the injustice of the official representative of
the Persian government were wont to flee, in the hope of securing
redress for the wrongs they had suffered.
At the same time an influx of Persian Bábís, whose sole object
was to attain the presence of Bahá'u'lláh, swelled the stream of
visitors that poured through His hospitable doors. Carrying back, on
their return to their native country, innumerable testimonies, both
oral and written, to His steadily rising power and glory, they could
not fail to contribute, in a vast measure, to the expansion and
progress of a newly-reborn Faith. Four of the Báb's cousins and
His maternal uncle, Hájí Mírzá Siyyid Muhammad; a grand-daughter
of Fath-`Alí Sháh and fervent admirer of Táhirih, surnamed
Varáqatu'r-Ridván; the erudite Mullá Muhammad-i-Qá'iní, surnamed
Nabíl-i-Akbar; the already famous Mullá Sádiq-i-Khurasaní,
surnamed Ismu'lláhu'l-Asdaq, who with Quddús had been ignominiously
persecuted in Shíráz; Mullá Báqir, one of the Letters of the
Living; Siyyid Asadu'lláh, surnamed Dayyán; the revered Siyyid
Javád-i-Karbilá'í; Mírzá Muhammad-Hasan and Mírzá Muhammad-Husayn,
later immortalized by the titles of Sultánu'sh-Shuhadá and
Mahbúbu'sh-Shuhadá (King of Martyrs and Beloved of Martyrs)
respectively; Mírzá Muhammad-`Alíy-i-Nahrí, whose daughter, at
a later date, was joined in wedlock to `Abdu'l-Bahá; the immortal
Siyyid Ismá'íl-i-Zavari'í; Hájí Shaykh Muhammad, surnamed Nabíl
by the Báb; the accomplished Mírzá Aqáy-i-Munír, surnamed
Ismu'lláhu'l-Múníb; the long-suffering Hájí Muhammad-Taqí, surnamed
Ayyúb; Mullá Zaynu'l-'Ábidín, surnamed Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín, who
had ranked as a highly esteemed mujtahid--all these were numbered
among the visitors and fellow-disciples who crossed His threshold,
caught a glimpse of the splendor of His majesty, and communicated
far and wide the creative influences instilled into them through their
contact with His spirit. Mullá Muhammad-i-Zarandí, surnamed
Nabíl-i-A'zam, who may well rank as His Poet-Laureate, His chronicler
and His indefatigable disciple, had already joined the exiles,
and had launched out on his long and arduous series of journeys to
Persia in furtherance of the Cause of his Beloved.
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Even those who, in their folly and temerity had, in Baghdád, in
Karbilá, in Qum, in Káshán, in Tabríz and in Tihrán, arrogated to
themselves the rights, and assumed the title of "Him Whom God
shall make manifest" were for the most part instinctively led to seek
His presence, confess their error and supplicate His forgiveness. As
time went on, fugitives, driven by the ever-present fear of persecution,
sought, with their wives and children, the relative security
afforded them by close proximity to One who had already become the
rallying point for the members of a sorely-vexed community.
Persians of high eminence, living in exile, rejecting, in the face of
the mounting prestige of Bahá'u'lláh, the dictates of moderation and
prudence, sat, forgetful of their pride, at His feet, and imbibed,
each according to his capacity, a measure of His spirit and wisdom.
Some of the more ambitious among them, such as Abbás Mírzá,
a son of Muhammad Sháh, the Vazír-Nizám, and Mírzá Malkam
Khán, as well as certain functionaries of foreign governments, attempted,
in their short-sightedness, to secure His support and
assistance for the furtherance of the designs they cherished, designs
which He unhesitatingly and severely condemned. Nor was the then
representative of the British government, Colonel Sir Arnold Burrows
Kemball, consul-general in Baghdád, insensible of the position which
Bahá'u'lláh now occupied. Entering into friendly correspondence
with Him, he, as testified by Bahá'u'lláh Himself, offered Him the
protection of British citizenship, called on Him in person, and
undertook to transmit to Queen Victoria any communication He
might wish to forward to her. He even expressed his readiness to
arrange for the transfer of His residence to India, or to any place
agreeable to Him. This suggestion Bahá'u'lláh declined, choosing to
abide in the dominions of the Sultán of Turkey. And finally, during
the last year of His sojourn in Baghdád the governor Námiq-Pashá,
impressed by the many signs of esteem and veneration in which He
was held, called upon Him to pay his personal tribute to One Who
had already achieved so conspicuous a victory over the hearts and
souls of those who had met Him. So profound was the respect the
governor entertained for Him, Whom he regarded as one of the
Lights of the Age, that it was not until the end of three months,
during which he had received five successive commands from `Alí
Páshá, that he could bring himself to inform Bahá'u'lláh that it was
the wish of the Turkish government that He should proceed to the
capital. On one occasion, when `Abdu'l-Bahá and Aqáy-i-Kalím
had been delegated by Bahá'u'lláh to visit him, he entertained them
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with such elaborate ceremonial that the Deputy-Governor stated that
so far as he knew no notable of the city had ever been accorded by
any governor so warm and courteous a reception. So struck, indeed,
had the Sultán `Abdu'l-Majíd been by the favorable reports received
about Bahá'u'lláh from successive governors of Baghdád (this is the
personal testimony given by the Governor's deputy to Bahá'u'lláh
himself) that he consistently refused to countenance the requests of
the Persian government either to deliver Him to their representative
or to order His expulsion from Turkish territory.
On no previous occasion, since the inception of the Faith, not
even during the days when the Báb in Isfahán, in Tabríz and in
Chihríq was acclaimed by the ovations of an enthusiastic populace,
had any of its exponents risen to such high eminence in the public
mind, or exercised over so diversified a circle of admirers an influence
so far reaching and so potent. Yet unprecedented as was the sway
which Bahá'u'lláh held while, in that primitive age of the Faith, He
was dwelling in Baghdád, its range at that time was modest when
compared with the magnitude of the fame which, at the close of that
same age, and through the immediate inspiration of the Center of
His Covenant, the Faith acquired in both the European and American
continents.
The ascendancy achieved by Bahá'u'lláh was nowhere better
demonstrated than in His ability to broaden the outlook and transform
the character of the community to which He belonged. Though
Himself nominally a Bábí, though the provisions of the Bayán were
still regarded as binding and inviolable, He was able to inculcate a
standard which, while not incompatible with its tenets, was ethically
superior to the loftiest principles which the Bábí Dispensation had
established. The salutary and fundamental truths advocated by the
Báb, that had either been obscured, neglected or misrepresented, were
moreover elucidated by Bahá'u'lláh, reaffirmed and instilled afresh
into the corporate life of the community, and into the souls of the
individuals who comprised it. The dissociation of the Bábí Faith
from every form of political activity and from all secret associations
and factions; the emphasis placed on the principle of non-violence;
the necessity of strict obedience to established authority; the ban
imposed on all forms of sedition, on back-biting, retaliation, and
dispute; the stress laid on godliness, kindliness, humility and piety,
on honesty and truthfulness, chastity and fidelity, on justice, toleration,
sociability, amity and concord, on the acquisition of arts and
sciences, on self-sacrifice and detachment, on patience, steadfastness
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and resignation to the will of God--all these constitute the salient
features of a code of ethical conduct to which the books, treatises
and epistles, revealed during those years, by the indefatigable pen of
Bahá'u'lláh, unmistakably bear witness.
"By the aid of God and His divine grace and mercy," He Himself
has written with reference to the character and consequences of His
own labors during that period, "We revealed, as a copious rain, Our
verses, and sent them to various parts of the world. We exhorted all
men, and particularly this people, through Our wise counsels and
loving admonitions, and forbade them to engage in sedition, quarrels,
disputes or conflict. As a result of this, and by the grace of God,
waywardness and folly were changed into piety and understanding,
and weapons of war converted into instruments of peace." "Bahá'u'lláh,"
`Abdu'l-Bahá affirmed, "after His return (from Sulamáníyyih)
made such strenuous efforts in educating and training this
community, in reforming its manners, in regulating its affairs and in
rehabilitating its fortunes, that in a short while all these troubles and
mischiefs were quenched, and the utmost peace and tranquillity
reigned in men's hearts." And again: "When these fundamentals were
established in the hearts of this people, they everywhere acted in such
wise that, in the estimation of those in authority, they became famous
for the integrity of their character, the steadfastness of their hearts,
the purity of their motives, the praiseworthiness of their deeds, and
the excellence of their conduct."
The exalted character of the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh propounded
during that period is perhaps best illustrated by the following statement
made by Him in those days to an official who had reported to
Him that, because of the devotion to His person which an evildoer
had professed, he had hesitated to inflict upon that criminal the
punishment he deserved: "Tell him, no one in this world can claim
any relationship to Me except those who, in all their deeds and in
their conduct, follow My example, in such wise that all the peoples
of the earth would be powerless to prevent them from doing and
saying that which is meet and seemly." "This brother of Mine," He
further declared to that official, "this Mírzá Músá, who is from the
same mother and father as Myself, and who from his earliest childhood
has kept Me company, should he perpetrate an act contrary to
the interests of either the state or religion, and his guilt be established
in your sight, I would be pleased and appreciate your action were
you to bind his hands and cast him into the river to drown, and refuse
to consider the intercession of any one on his behalf." In another
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connection He, wishing to stress His strong condemnation of all acts
of violence, had written: "It would be more acceptable in My sight
for a person to harm one of My own sons or relatives rather than
inflict injury upon any soul."
"Most of those who surrounded Bahá'u'lláh," wrote Nabíl, describing
the spirit that animated the reformed Bábí community in
Baghdád, "exercised such care in sanctifying and purifying their souls,
that they would suffer no word to cross their lips that might not conform
to the will of God, nor would they take a single step that might
be contrary to His good-pleasure." "Each one," he relates, "had
entered into a pact with one of his fellow-disciples, in which they
agreed to admonish one another, and, if necessary, chastise one another
with a number of blows on the soles of the feet, proportioning the
number of strokes to the gravity of the offense against the lofty
standards they had sworn to observe." Describing the fervor of their
zeal, he states that "not until the offender had suffered the punishment
he had solicited, would he consent to either eat or drink."
The complete transformation which the written and spoken
word of Bahá'u'lláh had effected in the outlook and character of
His companions was equalled by the burning devotion which His
love had kindled in their souls. A passionate zeal and fervor, that
rivalled the enthusiasm that had glowed so fiercely in the breasts of
the Báb's disciples in their moments of greatest exaltation, had now
seized the hearts of the exiles of Baghdád and galvanized their entire
beings. "So inebriated," Nabíl, describing the fecundity of this tremendously
dynamic spiritual revival, has written, "so carried away
was every one by the sweet savors of the Morn of Divine Revelation
that, methinks, out of every thorn sprang forth heaps of blossoms,
and every seed yielded innumerable harvests." "The room of the
Most Great House," that same chronicler has recorded, "set apart for
the reception of Bahá'u'lláh's visitors, though dilapidated, and having
long since outgrown its usefulness, vied, through having been trodden
by the blessed footsteps of the Well Beloved, with the Most Exalted
Paradise. Low-roofed, it yet seemed to reach to the stars, and though
it boasted but a single couch, fashioned from the branches of palms,
whereon He Who is the King of Names was wont to sit, it drew to
itself, even as a loadstone, the hearts of the princes."
It was this same reception room which, in spite of its rude simplicity,
had so charmed the Shuja'u'd-Dawlih that he had expressed to
his fellow-princes his intention of building a duplicate of it in his
home in Kázimayn. "He may well succeed," Bahá'u'lláh is reported
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to have smilingly remarked when apprized of this intention, "in
reproducing outwardly the exact counterpart of this low-roofed room
made of mud and straw with its diminutive garden. What of his
ability to open onto it the spiritual doors leading to the hidden worlds
of God?" "I know not how to explain it," another prince, Zaynu'l-'Ábidín
Khán, the Fakhru'd-Dawlih, describing the atmosphere which
pervaded that reception-room, had affirmed, "were all the sorrows of
the world to be crowded into my heart they would, I feel, all vanish,
when in the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. It is as if I had entered Paradise
itself."
The joyous feasts which these companions, despite their extremely
modest earnings, continually offered in honor of their Beloved; the
gatherings, lasting far into the night, in which they loudly celebrated,
with prayers, poetry and song, the praises of the Báb, of Quddús
and of Bahá'u'lláh; the fasts they observed; the vigils they kept; the
dreams and visions which fired their souls, and which they recounted
to each other with feelings of unbounded enthusiasm; the eagerness
with which those who served Bahá'u'lláh performed His errands,
waited upon His needs, and carried heavy skins of water for His
ablutions and other domestic purposes; the acts of imprudence which,
in moments of rapture, they occasionally committed; the expressions
of wonder and admiration which their words and acts evoked in a
populace that had seldom witnessed such demonstrations of religious
transport and personal devotion--these, and many others, will forever
remain associated with the history of that immortal period, intervening
between the birth hour of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation and its
announcement on the eve of His departure from `Iráq.
Numerous and striking are the anecdotes which have been recounted
by those whom duty, accident, or inclination had, in the
course of these poignant years, brought into direct contact with
Bahá'u'lláh. Many and moving are the testimonies of bystanders who
were privileged to gaze on His countenance, observe His gait, or
overhear His remarks, as He moved through the lanes and streets of
the city, or paced the banks of the river; of the worshippers who
watched Him pray in their mosques; of the mendicant, the sick, the
aged, and the unfortunate whom He succored, healed, supported and
comforted; of the visitors, from the haughtiest prince to the meanest
beggar, who crossed His threshold and sat at His feet; of the merchant,
the artisan, and the shopkeeper who waited upon Him and
supplied His daily needs; of His devotees who had perceived the
signs of His hidden glory; of His adversaries who were confounded
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or disarmed by the power of His utterance and the warmth of His
love; of the priests and laymen, the noble and learned, who besought
Him with the intention of either challenging His authority, or testing
His knowledge, or investigating His claims, or confessing their
shortcomings, or declaring their conversion to the Cause He had
espoused.
From such a treasury of precious memories it will suffice my
purpose to cite but a single instance, that of one of His ardent lovers,
a native of Zavárih, Siyyid Ismá'íl by name, surnamed Dhabíh
(the Sacrifice), formerly a noted divine, taciturn, meditative and
wholly severed from every earthly tie, whose self-appointed task, on
which he prided himself, was to sweep the approaches of the house
in which Bahá'u'lláh was dwelling. Unwinding his green turban, the
ensign of his holy lineage, from his head, he would, at the hour of
dawn, gather up, with infinite patience, the rubble which the footsteps
of his Beloved had trodden, would blow the dust from the
crannies of the wall adjacent to the door of that house, would collect
the sweepings in the folds of his own cloak, and, scorning to cast
his burden for the feet of others to tread upon, would carry it as far
as the banks of the river and throw it into its waters. Unable, at
length, to contain the ocean of love that surged within his soul, he,
after having denied himself for forty days both sleep and sustenance,
and rendering for the last time the service so dear to his heart,
betook himself, one day, to the banks of the river, on the road to
Kázimayn, performed his ablutions, lay down on his back, with his
face turned towards Baghdád, severed his throat with a razor, laid
the razor upon his breast, and expired. (1275 A.H.)
Nor was he the only one who had meditated such an act and
was determined to carry it out. Others were ready to follow suit,
had not Bahá'u'lláh promptly intervened, and ordered the refugees
living in Baghdád to return immediately to their native land. Nor
could the authorities, when it was definitely established that Dhabíh
had died by his own hand, remain indifferent to a Cause whose Leader
could inspire so rare a devotion in, and hold such absolute sway
over, the hearts of His lovers. Apprized of the apprehensions that
episode had evoked in certain quarters in Baghdád, Bahá'u'lláh is
reported to have remarked: "Siyyid Ismá'íl was possessed of such
power and might that were he to be confronted by all the peoples
of the earth, he would, without doubt, be able to establish his
ascendancy over them." "No blood," He is reported to have said
with reference to this same Dhabíh, whom He extolled as "King and
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Beloved of Martyrs," "has, till now, been poured upon the earth as
pure as the blood he shed."
"So intoxicated were those who had quaffed from the cup of
Bahá'u'lláh's presence," is yet another testimony from the pen of
Nabíl, who was himself an eye-witness of most of these stirring
episodes, "that in their eyes the palaces of kings appeared more
ephemeral than a spider's web.... The celebrations and festivities
that were theirs were such as the kings of the earth had never dreamt
of." "I, myself with two others," he relates, "lived in a room which
was devoid of furniture. Bahá'u'lláh entered it one day, and, looking
about Him, remarked: `Its emptiness pleases Me. In My estimation
it is preferable to many a spacious palace, inasmuch as the beloved
of God are occupied in it with the remembrance of the Incomparable
Friend, with hearts that are wholly emptied of the dross of this
world.'" His own life was characterized by that same austerity,
and evinced that same simplicity which marked the lives of His
beloved companions. "There was a time in `Iráq," He Himself affirms,
in one of His Tablets, "when the Ancient Beauty ... had no change
of linen. The one shirt He possessed would be washed, dried and
worn again."
"Many a night," continues Nabíl, depicting the lives of those
self-oblivious companions, "no less than ten persons subsisted on no
more than a pennyworth of dates. No one knew to whom actually
belonged the shoes, the cloaks, or the robes that were to be found in
their houses. Whoever went to the bazaar could claim that the shoes
upon his feet were his own, and each one who entered the presence
of Bahá'u'lláh could affirm that the cloak and robe he then wore
belonged to him. Their own names they had forgotten, their hearts
were emptied of aught else except adoration for their Beloved....
O, for the joy of those days, and the gladness and wonder of those
hours!"
The enormous expansion in the scope and volume of Bahá'u'lláh's
writings, after His return from Sulamáníyyih, is yet another distinguishing
feature of the period under review. The verses that
streamed during those years from His pen, described as "a copious
rain" by Himself, whether in the form of epistles, exhortations, commentaries,
apologies, dissertations, prophecies, prayers, odes or specific
Tablets, contributed, to a marked degree, to the reformation and
progressive unfoldment of the Bábí community, to the broadening
of its outlook, to the expansion of its activities and to the enlightenment
of the minds of its members. So prolific was this period, that
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during the first two years after His return from His retirement,
according to the testimony of Nabíl, who was at that time living in
Baghdád, the unrecorded verses that streamed from His lips averaged,
in a single day and night, the equivalent of the Qur'án! As to those
verses which He either dictated or wrote Himself, their number was
no less remarkable than either the wealth of material they contained,
or the diversity of subjects to which they referred. A vast, and
indeed the greater, proportion of these writings were, alas, lost irretrievably
to posterity. No less an authority than Mírzá Áqá Ján,
Bahá'u'lláh's amanuensis, affirms, as reported by Nabíl, that by the
express order of Bahá'u'lláh, hundreds of thousands of verses, mostly
written by His own hand, were obliterated and cast into the river.
"Finding me reluctant to execute His orders," Mírzá Áqá Ján has
related to Nabíl, "Bahá'u'lláh would reassure me saying: `None is
to be found at this time worthy to hear these melodies.' ...Not
once, or twice, but innumerable times, was I commanded to repeat
this act." A certain Muhammad Karím, a native of Shíráz, who
had been a witness to the rapidity and the manner in which the
Báb had penned the verses with which He was inspired, has left the
following testimony to posterity, after attaining, during those days,
the presence of Bahá'u'lláh, and beholding with his own eyes what
he himself had considered to be the only proof of the mission of the
Promised One: "I bear witness that the verses revealed by Bahá'u'lláh
were superior, in the rapidity with which they were penned, in the
ease with which they flowed, in their lucidity, their profundity and
sweetness to those which I, myself saw pour from the pen of the
Báb when in His presence. Had Bahá'u'lláh no other claim to greatness,
this were sufficient, in the eyes of the world and its people, that
He produced such verses as have streamed this day from His pen."
Foremost among the priceless treasures cast forth from the billowing
ocean of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation ranks the Kitáb-i-Iqán
(Book of Certitude), revealed within the space of two days and two
nights, in the closing years of that period (1278 A.H.--1862 A.D.).
It was written in fulfillment of the prophecy of the Báb, Who had
specifically stated that the Promised One would complete the text
of the unfinished Persian Bayán, and in reply to the questions addressed
to Bahá'u'lláh by the as yet unconverted maternal uncle of
the Báb, Hájí Mírzá Siyyid Muhammad, while on a visit, with his
brother, Hájí Mírzá Hasan-'Ali, to Karbilá. A model of Persian
prose, of a style at once original, chaste and vigorous, and remarkably
lucid, both cogent in argument and matchless in its irresistible eloquence,
+P139
this Book, setting forth in outline the Grand Redemptive
Scheme of God, occupies a position unequalled by any work in the entire
range of Bahá'í literature, except the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá'u'lláh's
Most Holy Book. Revealed on the eve of the declaration of His
Mission, it proffered to mankind the "Choice Sealed Wine," whose
seal is of "musk," and broke the "seals" of the "Book" referred to by
Daniel, and disclosed the meaning of the "words" destined to remain
"closed up" till the "time of the end."
Within a compass of two hundred pages it proclaims unequivocally
the existence and oneness of a personal God, unknowable,
inaccessible, the source of all Revelation, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent
and almighty; asserts the relativity of religious truth and the
continuity of Divine Revelation; affirms the unity of the Prophets,
the universality of their Message, the identity of their fundamental
teachings, the sanctity of their scriptures, and the twofold character
of their stations; denounces the blindness and perversity of the divines
and doctors of every age; cites and elucidates the allegorical passages
of the New Testament, the abstruse verses of the Qur'án, and the
cryptic Muhammadan traditions which have bred those age-long
misunderstandings, doubts and animosities that have sundered and
kept apart the followers of the world's leading religious systems;
enumerates the essential prerequisites for the attainment by every
true seeker of the object of his quest; demonstrates the validity, the
sublimity and significance of the Báb's Revelation; acclaims the
heroism and detachment of His disciples; foreshadows, and prophesies
the world-wide triumph of the Revelation promised to the people
of the Bayán; upholds the purity and innocence of the Virgin Mary;
glorifies the Imáms of the Faith of Muhammad; celebrates the
martyrdom, and lauds the spiritual sovereignty, of the Imám Husayn;
unfolds the meaning of such symbolic terms as "Return," "Resurrection,"
"Seal of the Prophets" and "Day of Judgment"; adumbrates
and distinguishes between the three stages of Divine Revelation; and
expatiates, in glowing terms, upon the glories and wonders of the
"City of God," renewed, at fixed intervals, by the dispensation of
Providence, for the guidance, the benefit and salvation of all mankind.
Well may it be claimed that of all the books revealed by the
Author of the Bahá'í Revelation, this Book alone, by sweeping away
the age-long barriers that have so insurmountably separated the great
religions of the world, has laid down a broad and unassailable foundation
for the complete and permanent reconciliation of their followers.
Next to this unique repository of inestimable treasures must rank
+P140
that marvelous collection of gem-like utterances, the "Hidden
Words" with which Bahá'u'lláh was inspired, as He paced, wrapped in
His meditations, the banks of the Tigris. Revealed in the year
1274 A.H., partly in Persian, partly in Arabic, it was originally
designated the "Hidden Book of Fátimih," and was identified by its
Author with the Book of that same name, believed by Shí'ah Islám
to be in the possession of the promised Qá'im, and to consist of words
of consolation addressed by the angel Gabriel, at God's command,
to Fátimih, and dictated to the Imám `Alí, for the sole purpose of
comforting her in her hour of bitter anguish after the death of her
illustrious Father. The significance of this dynamic spiritual leaven
cast into the life of the world for the reorientation of the minds of
men, the edification of their souls and the rectification of their conduct
can best be judged by the description of its character given in
the opening passage by its Author: "This is that which hath descended
from the Realm of Glory, uttered by the tongue of power and might,
and revealed unto the Prophets of old. We have taken the inner
essence thereof and clothed it in the garment of brevity, as a token
of grace unto the righteous, that they may stand faithful unto the
Covenant of God, may fulfill in their lives His trust, and in the realm
of spirit obtain the gem of Divine virtue."
To these two outstanding contributions to the world's religious
literature, occupying respectively, positions of unsurpassed preeminence
among the doctrinal and ethical writings of the Author of the
Bahá'í Dispensation, was added, during that same period, a treatise
that may well be regarded as His greatest mystical composition, designated
as the "Seven Valleys," which He wrote in answer to the questions
of Shaykh Muhyi'd-Dín, the Qádí of Khániqayn, in which He
describes the seven stages which the soul of the seeker must needs
traverse ere it can attain the object of its existence.
The "Four Valleys," an epistle addressed to the learned Shaykh
`Abdu'r-Rahmán-i-Kárkútí; the "Tablet of the Holy Mariner," in
which Bahá'u'lláh prophesies the severe afflictions that are to befall
Him; the "Lawh-i-Huríyyih" (Tablet of the Maiden), in which
events of a far remoter future are foreshadowed; the "Súriy-i-Sabr"
(Súrih of Patience), revealed on the first day of Ridván which
extols Vahíd and his fellow-sufferers in Nayríz; the commentary on
the Letters prefixed to the Súrihs of the Qur'án; His interpretation
of the letter Váv, mentioned in the writings of Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsá'í,
and of other abstruse passages in the works of Siyyid
Kázim-i-Rashtí; the "Lawh-i-Madínatu't-Tawhíd" (Tablet of the
+P141
City of Unity); the "Sahífiy-i-Shattíyyih"; the
"Musibat-i-Hurúfat-i-`Alíyat"; the "Tafsír-i-Hú"; the "Javáhiru'l-`Asrár" and
a host of other writings, in the form of epistles, odes, homilies, specific
Tablets, commentaries and prayers, contributed, each in its own way, to swell
the "rivers of everlasting life" which poured forth from the "Abode
of Peace" and lent a mighty impetus to the expansion of the Báb's
Faith in both Persia and `Iráq, quickening the souls and transforming
the character of its adherents.
The undeniable evidences of the range and magnificence of
Bahá'u'lláh's rising power; His rapidly waxing prestige; the miraculous
transformation which, by precept and example, He had effected
in the outlook and character of His companions from Baghdád to
the remotest towns and hamlets in Persia; the consuming love for
Him that glowed in their bosoms; the prodigious volume of writings
that streamed day and night from His pen, could not fail to fan
into flame the animosity which smouldered in the breasts of His
Shí'ah and Sunní enemies. Now that His residence was transferred
to the vicinity of the strongholds of Shí'ah Islám, and He Himself
brought into direct and almost daily contact with the fanatical
pilgrims who thronged the holy places of Najaf, Karbilá and Kázimayn,
a trial of strength between the growing brilliance of His glory
and the dark and embattled forces of religious fanaticism could no
longer be delayed. A spark was all that was required to ignite this
combustible material of all the accumulated hatreds, fears and jealousies
which the revived activities of the Bábís had inspired. This
was provided by a certain Shaykh `Abdu'l-Husayn, a crafty and
obstinate priest, whose consuming jealousy of Bahá'u'lláh was surpassed
only by his capacity to stir up mischief both among those of
high degree and also amongst the lowest of the low, Arab or Persian,
who thronged the streets and markets of Kázimayn, Karbilá and
Baghdád. He it was whom Bahá'u'lláh had stigmatized in His Tablets
by such epithets as the "scoundrel," the "schemer," the "wicked one,"
who "drew the sword of his self against the face of God," "in whose
soul Satan hath whispered," and "from whose impiety Satan flies,"
the "depraved one," "from whom originated and to whom will return
all infidelity, cruelty and crime." Largely through the efforts of the
Grand Vizir, who wished to get rid of him, this troublesome mujtahid
had been commissioned by the Sháh to proceed to Karbilá to repair
the holy sites in that city. Watching for his opportunity, he allied
himself with Mírzá Buzurg Khán, a newly-appointed Persian consul-general,
who being of the same iniquitous turn of mind as himself,
+P142
a man of mean intelligence, insincere, without foresight or honor,
and a confirmed drunkard, soon fell a prey to the influence of that
vicious plotter, and became the willing instrument of his designs.
Their first concerted endeavor was to obtain from the governor
of Baghdád, Mustafá Páshá, through a gross distortion of the truth,
an order for the extradition of Bahá'u'lláh and His companions, an
effort which miserably failed. Recognizing the futility of any
attempt to achieve his purpose through the intervention of the local
authorities, Shaykh `Abdu'l-Husayn began, through the sedulous circulation
of dreams which he first invented and then interpreted, to
excite the passions of a superstitious and highly inflammable population.
The resentment engendered by the lack of response he met with
was aggravated by his ignominious failure to meet the challenge of
an interview pre-arranged between himself and Bahá'u'lláh. Mírzá
Buzurg Khán, on his part, used his influence in order to arouse the
animosity of the lower elements of the population against the common
Adversary, by inciting them to affront Him in public, in the
hope of provoking some rash retaliatory act that could be used as
a ground for false charges through which the desired order for
Bahá'u'lláh's extradition might be procured. This attempt too proved
abortive, as the presence of Bahá'u'lláh, Who, despite the warnings
and pleadings of His friends, continued to walk unescorted, both by
day and by night, through the streets of the city, was enough to
plunge His would-be molesters into consternation and shame. Well
aware of their motives, He would approach them, rally them on their
intentions, joke with them, and leave them covered with confusion
and firmly resolved to abandon whatever schemes they had in mind.
The consul-general had even gone so far as to hire a ruffian, a Turk,
named Ridá, for the sum of one hundred túmans, provide him with
a horse and with two pistols, and order him to seek out and kill
Bahá'u'lláh, promising him that his own protection would be fully
assured. Ridá, learning one day that his would-be-victim was attending
the public bath, eluded the vigilance of the Bábís in attendance,
entered the bath with a pistol concealed in his cloak, and confronted
Bahá'u'lláh in the inner chamber, only to discover that he lacked
the courage to accomplish his task. He himself, years later, related
that on another occasion he was lying in wait for Bahá'u'lláh, pistol
in hand, when, on Bahá'u'lláh's approach, he was so overcome with
fear that the pistol dropped from his hand; whereupon Bahá'u'lláh
bade Aqáy-i-Kalím, who accompanied Him, to hand it back to him,
and show him the way to his home.
+P143
Balked in his repeated attempts to achieve his malevolent purpose,
Shaykh `Abdu'l-Husayn now diverted his energies into a new
channel. He promised his accomplice he would raise him to the rank
of a minister of the crown, if he succeeded in inducing the government
to recall Bahá'u'lláh to Tihrán, and cast Him again into prison.
He despatched lengthy and almost daily reports to the immediate
entourage of the Sháh. He painted extravagant pictures of the
ascendancy enjoyed by Bahá'u'lláh by representing Him as having
won the allegiance of the nomadic tribes of `Iráq. He claimed that
He was in a position to muster, in a day, fully one hundred thousand
men ready to take up arms at His bidding. He accused Him of
meditating, in conjunction with various leaders in Persia, an insurrection
against the sovereign. By such means as these he succeeded in
bringing sufficient pressure on the authorities in Tihrán to induce
the Sháh to grant him a mandate, bestowing on him full powers,
and enjoining the Persian `ulamás and functionaries to render him
every assistance. This mandate the Shaykh instantly forwarded to
the ecclesiastics of Najaf and Karbilá, asking them to convene a
gathering in Kázimayn, the place of his residence. A concourse of
shaykhs, mullás and mujtahids, eager to curry favor with the sovereign,
promptly responded. Upon being informed of the purpose
for which they had been summoned, they determined to declare a
holy war against the colony of exiles, and by launching a sudden
and general assault on it to destroy the Faith at its heart. To their
amazement and disappointment, however, they found that the leading
mujtahid amongst them, the celebrated Shaykh Murtadáy-i-Ansárí,
a man renowned for his tolerance, his wisdom, his undeviating
justice, his piety and nobility of character, refused, when apprized
of their designs, to pronounce the necessary sentence against the
Bábís. He it was whom Bahá'u'lláh later extolled in the "Lawh-i-Sultán,"
and numbered among "those doctors who have indeed drunk
of the cup of renunciation," and "never interfered with Him," and
to whom `Abdu'l-Bahá referred as "the illustrious and erudite doctor,
the noble and celebrated scholar, the seal of seekers after truth."
Pleading insufficient knowledge of the tenets of this community, and
claiming to have witnessed no act on the part of its members at
variance with the Qur'án, he, disregarding the remonstrances of his
colleagues, abruptly left the gathering, and returned to Najaf, after
having expressed, through a messenger, his regret to Bahá'u'lláh for
what had happened, and his devout wish for His protection.
Frustrated in their designs, but unrelenting in their hostility, the
+P144
assembled divines delegated the learned and devout Hájí Mullá
Hasan-i-`Ammú, recognized for his integrity and wisdom, to submit
various questions to Bahá'u'lláh for elucidation. When these were
submitted, and answers completely satisfactory to the messenger were
given, Hájí Mullá Hasan, affirming the recognition by the `ulamás
of the vastness of the knowledge of Bahá'u'lláh, asked, as an evidence
of the truth of His mission, for a miracle that would satisfy completely
all concerned. "Although you have no right to ask this,"
Bahá'u'lláh replied, "for God should test His creatures, and they
should not test God, still I allow and accept this request.... The
`ulamás must assemble, and, with one accord, choose one miracle, and
write that, after the performance of this miracle they will no longer
entertain doubts about Me, and that all will acknowledge and confess
the truth of My Cause. Let them seal this paper, and bring it
to Me. This must be the accepted criterion: if the miracle is performed,
no doubt will remain for them; and if not, We shall be
convicted of imposture." This clear, challenging and courageous
reply, unexampled in the annals of any religion, and addressed to
the most illustrious Shí'ah divines, assembled in their time-honored
stronghold, was so satisfactory to their envoy that he instantly arose,
kissed the knee of Bahá'u'lláh, and departed to deliver His message.
Three days later he sent word that that august assemblage had failed
to arrive at a decision, and had chosen to drop the matter, a decision
to which he himself later gave wide publicity, in the course of his visit
to Persia, and even communicated it in person to the then Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Mírzá Sa'íd Khán. "We have," Bahá'u'lláh is
reported to have commented, when informed of their reaction to
this challenge, "through this all-satisfying, all-embracing message
which We sent, revealed and vindicated the miracles of all the
Prophets, inasmuch as We left the choice to the `ulamás themselves,
undertaking to reveal whatever they would decide upon." "If we
carefully examine the text of the Bible," `Abdu'l-Bahá has written
concerning a similar challenge made later by Bahá'u'lláh in the
"Lawh-i-Sultán," "we see that the Divine Manifestation never said
to those who denied Him, `whatever miracle you desire, I am ready
to perform, and I will submit to whatever test you propose.' But
in the Epistle to the Sháh Bahá'u'lláh said clearly, `Gather the `ulamás
and summon Me, that the evidences and proofs may be established.'"
Seven years of uninterrupted, of patient and eminently successful
consolidation were now drawing to a close. A shepherdless community,
subjected to a prolonged and tremendous strain, from both
+P145
within and without, and threatened with obliteration, had been
resuscitated, and risen to an ascendancy without example in the
course of its twenty years' history. Its foundations reinforced, its
spirit exalted, its outlook transformed, its leadership safeguarded, its
fundamentals restated, its prestige enhanced, its enemies discomfited,
the Hand of Destiny was gradually preparing to launch it on a new
phase in its checkered career, in which weal and woe alike were to
carry it through yet another stage in its evolution. The Deliverer,
the sole hope, and the virtually recognized leader of this community,
Who had consistently overawed the authors of so many plots to
assassinate Him, Who had scornfully rejected all the timid advice
that He should flee from the scene of danger, Who had firmly declined
repeated and generous offers made by friends and supporters
to insure His personal safety, Who had won so conspicuous a victory
over His antagonists--He was, at this auspicious hour, being impelled
by the resistless processes of His unfolding Mission, to transfer His
residence to the center of still greater preeminence, the capital city
of the Ottoman Empire, the seat of the Caliphate, the administrative
center of Sunní Islám, the abode of the most powerful potentate in
the Islamic world.
He had already flung a daring challenge to the sacerdotal order
represented by the eminent ecclesiastics residing in Najaf, Karbilá
and Kázimayn. He was now, while in the vicinity of the court of
His royal adversary, to offer a similar challenge to the recognized
head of Sunní Islám, as well as to the sovereign of Persia, the trustee
of the hidden Imám. The entire company of the kings of the earth,
and in particular the Sultán and his ministers, were, moreover, to
be addressed by Him, appealed to and warned, while the kings of
Christendom and the Sunní hierarchy were to be severely admonished.
Little wonder that the exiled Bearer of a newly-announced
Revelation should have, in anticipation of the future splendor of
the Lamp of His Faith, after its removal from `Iráq, uttered these
prophetic words: "It will shine resplendently within another globe,
as predestined by Him who is the Omnipotent, the Ancient of Days.
...That the Spirit should depart out of the body of `Iráq is indeed
a wondrous sign unto all who are in heaven and all who are on earth.
Erelong will ye behold this Divine Youth riding upon the steed of
victory. Then will the hearts of the envious be seized with
trembling."
The predestined hour of Bahá'u'lláh's departure from `Iráq having
now struck, the process whereby it could be accomplished was set
+P146
in motion. The nine months of unremitting endeavor exerted by
His enemies, and particularly by Shaykh `Abdu'l-Husayn and his
confederate Mírzá Buzurg Khán, were about to yield their fruit.
Násiri'd-Dín Sháh and his ministers, on the one hand, and the Persian
Ambassador in Constantinople, on the other, were incessantly urged
to take immediate action to insure Bahá'u'lláh's removal from
Baghdád. Through gross misrepresentation of the true situation and
the dissemination of alarming reports a malignant and energetic
enemy finally succeeded in persuading the Sháh to instruct his foreign
minister, Mírzá Sa'íd Khán, to direct the Persian Ambassador at the
Sublime Porte, Mírzá Husayn Khán, a close friend of `Alí Páshá,
the Grand Vizir of the Sultán, and of Fu'ád Páshá, the Minister of
foreign affairs, to induce Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz to order the immediate
transfer of Bahá'u'lláh to a place remote from Baghdád, on the
ground that His continued residence in that city, adjacent to Persian
territory and close to so important a center of Shí'ah pilgrimage, constituted
a direct menace to the security of Persia and its government.
Mírzá Sa'íd Khán, in his communication to the Ambassador,
stigmatized the Faith as a "misguided and detestable sect," deplored
Bahá'u'lláh's release from the Síyáh-Chál, and denounced Him as
one who did not cease from "secretly corrupting and misleading
foolish persons and ignorant weaklings." "In accordance with the
royal command," he wrote, "I, your faithful friend, have been ordered
... to instruct you to seek, without delay, an appointment
with their Excellencies, the Sadr-i-A'zam and the Minister of Foreign
Affairs ... to request ... the removal of this source of mischief from
a center like Baghdád, which is the meeting-place of many different
peoples, and is situated near the frontiers of the provinces of Persia."
In that same letter, quoting a celebrated verse, he writes: "`I see
beneath the ashes the glow of fire, and it wants but little to burst
into a blaze,'" thus betraying his fears and seeking to instill them
into his correspondent.
Encouraged by the presence on the throne of a monarch who
had delegated much of his powers to his ministers, and aided by certain
foreign ambassadors and ministers in Constantinople, Mírzá
Husayn Khán, by dint of much persuasion and the friendly pressure
he brought to bear on these ministers, succeeded in securing the sanction
of the Sultán for the transfer of Bahá'u'lláh and His companions
(who had in the meantime been forced by circumstances to change
their citizenship) to Constantinople. It is even reported that the
first request the Persian authorities made of a friendly Power, after
+P147
the accession of the new Sultán to the throne, was for its active and
prompt intervention in this matter.
It was on the fifth of Naw-Rúz (1863), while Bahá'u'lláh was
celebrating that festival in the Mazrá'iy-i-Vashshásh, in the outskirts
of Baghdád, and had just revealed the "Tablet of the Holy Mariner,"
whose gloomy prognostications had aroused the grave apprehensions
of His Companions, that an emissary of Námiq Páshá arrived and
delivered into His hands a communication requesting an interview
between Him and the governor.
Already, as Nabíl has pointed out in his narrative, Bahá'u'lláh
had, in the course of His discourses, during the last years of His
sojourn in Baghdád, alluded to the period of trial and turmoil that
was inexorably approaching, exhibiting a sadness and heaviness of
heart which greatly perturbed those around Him. A dream which
He had at that time, the ominous character of which could not be
mistaken, served to confirm the fears and misgivings that had assailed
His companions. "I saw," He wrote in a Tablet, "the Prophets and
the Messengers gather and seat themselves around Me, moaning, weeping
and loudly lamenting. Amazed, I inquired of them the reason,
whereupon their lamentation and weeping waxed greater, and they
said unto me: `We weep for Thee, O Most Great Mystery, O Tabernacle
of Immortality!' They wept with such a weeping that I too
wept with them. Thereupon the Concourse on high addressed Me
saying: `...Erelong shalt Thou behold with Thine own eyes what
no Prophet hath beheld.... Be patient, be patient.'... They continued
addressing Me the whole night until the approach of dawn."
"Oceans of sorrow," Nabíl affirms, "surged in the hearts of the listeners
when the Tablet of the Holy Mariner was read aloud to them....
It was evident to every one that the chapter of Baghdád was about
to be closed, and a new one opened, in its stead. No sooner had that
Tablet been chanted than Bahá'u'lláh ordered that the tents which
had been pitched should be folded up, and that all His companions
should return to the city. While the tents were being removed He
observed: `These tents may be likened to the trappings of this world,
which no sooner are they spread out than the time cometh for them
to be rolled up.' From these words of His they who heard them
perceived that these tents would never again be pitched on that spot.
They had not yet been taken away when the messenger arrived
from Baghdád to deliver the afore-mentioned communication from
the governor."
By the following day the Deputy-Governor had delivered to
+P148
Bahá'u'lláh in a mosque, in the neighborhood of the governor's house,
`Alí Páshá's letter, addressed to Námiq Páshá, couched in courteous
language, inviting Bahá'u'lláh to proceed, as a guest of the Ottoman
government, to Constantinople, placing a sum of money at His
disposal, and ordering a mounted escort to accompany Him for His
protection. To this request Bahá'u'lláh gave His ready assent, but
declined to accept the sum offered Him. On the urgent representations
of the Deputy that such a refusal would offend the authorities,
He reluctantly consented to receive the generous allowance set aside
for His use, and distributed it, that same day, among the poor.
The effect upon the colony of exiles of this sudden intelligence
was instantaneous and overwhelming. "That day," wrote an eyewitness,
describing the reaction of the community to the news of
Bahá'u'lláh's approaching departure, "witnessed a commotion associated
with the turmoil of the Day of Resurrection. Methinks, the
very gates and walls of the city wept aloud at their imminent separation
from the Abhá Beloved. The first night mention was made of
His intended departure His loved ones, one and all, renounced both
sleep and food.... Not a soul amongst them could be tranquillized.
Many had resolved that in the event of their being deprived of the
bounty of accompanying Him, they would, without hesitation, kill
themselves.... Gradually, however, through the words which He addressed
them, and through His exhortations and His loving-kindness,
they were calmed and resigned themselves to His good-pleasure."
For every one of them, whether Arab or Persian, man or woman,
child or adult, who lived in Baghdád, He revealed during those days,
in His own hand, a separate Tablet. In most of these Tablets He
predicted the appearance of the "Calf" and of the "Birds of the
Night," allusions to those who, as anticipated in the Tablet of the
Holy Mariner, and foreshadowed in the dream quoted above, were
to raise the standard of rebellion and precipitate the gravest crisis in
the history of the Faith.
Twenty-seven days after that mournful Tablet had been so unexpectedly
revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, and the fateful communication,
presaging His departure to Constantinople had been delivered into
His hands, on a Wednesday afternoon (April 22, 1863), thirty-one
days after Naw-Rúz, on the third of Dhi'l-Qádih, 1279 A.H., He
set forth on the first stage of His four months' journey to the capital
of the Ottoman Empire. That historic day, forever after designated
as the first day of the Ridván Festival, the culmination of innumerable
farewell visits which friends and acquaintances of every class
+P149
and denomination, had been paying him, was one the like of which
the inhabitants of Baghdád had rarely beheld. A concourse of people
of both sexes and of every age, comprising friends and strangers
Arabs, Kurds and Persians, notables and clerics, officials and merchants,
as well as many of the lower classes, the poor, the orphaned,
the outcast, some surprised, others heartbroken, many tearful and
apprehensive, a few impelled by curiosity or secret satisfaction,
thronged the approaches of His house, eager to catch a final glimpse
of One Who, for a decade, had, through precept and example, exercised
so potent an influence on so large a number of the heterogeneous
inhabitants of their city.
Leaving for the last time, amidst weeping and lamentation, His
"Most Holy Habitation," out of which had "gone forth the breath
of the All-Glorious," and from which had poured forth, in "ceaseless
strains," the "melody of the All-Merciful," and dispensing on His
way with a lavish hand a last alms to the poor He had so faithfully
befriended, and uttering words of comfort to the disconsolate who
besought Him on every side, He, at length, reached the banks of the
river, and was ferried across, accompanied by His sons and amanuensis,
to the Najíbíyyih Garden, situated on the opposite shore.
"O My companions," He thus addressed the faithful band that surrounded
Him before He embarked, "I entrust to your keeping this
city of Baghdád, in the state ye now behold it, when from the eyes
of friends and strangers alike, crowding its housetops, its streets and
markets, tears like the rain of spring are flowing down, and I depart.
With you it now rests to watch lest your deeds and conduct dim the
flame of love that gloweth within the breasts of its inhabitants."
The muezzin had just raised the afternoon call to prayer when
Bahá'u'lláh entered the Najíbíyyih Garden, where He tarried twelve
days before His final departure from the city. There His friends
and companions, arriving in successive waves, attained His presence
and bade Him, with feelings of profound sorrow, their last farewell.
Outstanding among them was the renowned Álúsí, the Muftí of
Baghdád, who, with eyes dimmed with tears, execrated the name of
Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, whom he deemed to be primarily responsible for
so unmerited a banishment. "I have ceased to regard him," he openly
asserted, "as Násiri'd-Dín (the helper of the Faith), but consider
him rather to be its wrecker." Another distinguished visitor was the
governor himself, Námiq Páshá, who, after expressing in the most
respectful terms his regret at the developments which had precipitated
Bahá'u'lláh's departure, and assuring Him of his readiness to
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aid Him in any way he could, handed to the officer appointed to
accompany Him a written order, commanding the governors of the
provinces through which the exiles would be passing to extend to
them the utmost consideration. "Whatever you require," he, after
profuse apologies, informed Bahá'u'lláh, "you have but to command.
We are ready to carry it out." "Extend thy consideration to Our
loved ones," was the reply to his insistent and reiterated offers, "and
deal with them with kindness"--a request to which he gave his
warm and unhesitating assent.
Small wonder that, in the face of so many evidences of deep-seated
devotion, sympathy and esteem, so strikingly manifested by
high and low alike, from the time Bahá'u'lláh announced His contemplated
journey to the day of His departure from the Najíbíyyih
Garden--small wonder that those who had so tirelessly sought to
secure the order for His banishment, and had rejoiced at the success
of their efforts, should now have bitterly regretted their act. "Such
hath been the interposition of God," `Abdu'l-Bahá, in a letter written
by Him from that garden, with reference to these enemies, affirms,
"that the joy evinced by them hath been turned to chagrin and sorrow,
so much so that the Persian consul-general in Baghdád regrets
exceedingly the plans and plots the schemers had devised. Námiq
Páshá himself, on the day he called on Him (Bahá'u'lláh) stated:
`Formerly they insisted upon your departure. Now, however, they
are even more insistent that you should remain.'"
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CHAPTER IX
The Declaration of Bahá'u'lláh's Mission and His
Journey to Constantinople
The arrival of Bahá'u'lláh in the Najíbíyyih Garden, subsequently
designated by His followers the Garden of Ridván, signalizes
the commencement of what has come to be recognized as the holiest
and most significant of all Bahá'í festivals, the festival commemorating
the Declaration of His Mission to His companions. So momentous
a Declaration may well be regarded both as the logical consummation
of that revolutionizing process which was initiated by Himself upon
His return from Sulamáníyyih, and as a prelude to the final proclamation
of that same Mission to the world and its rulers from Adrianople.
Through that solemn act the "delay," of no less than a decade,
divinely interposed between the birth of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation in
the Síyáh-Chál and its announcement to the Báb's disciples, was at
long last terminated. The "set time of concealment," during which
as He Himself has borne witness, the "signs and tokens of a divinely-appointed
Revelation" were being showered upon Him, was fulfilled.
The "myriad veils of light," within which His glory had been wrapped,
were, at that historic hour, partially lifted, vouchsafing to mankind
"an infinitesimal glimmer" of the effulgence of His "peerless, His
most sacred and exalted Countenance." The "thousand two hundred
and ninety days," fixed by Daniel in the last chapter of His Book, as
the duration of the "abomination that maketh desolate" had now
elapsed. The "hundred lunar years," destined to immediately precede
that blissful consummation (1335 days), announced by Daniel in
that same chapter, had commenced. The nineteen years, constituting
the first "Vahíd," preordained in the Persian Bayán by the pen of
the Báb, had been completed. The Lord of the Kingdom, Jesus Christ
returned in the glory of the Father, was about to ascend His throne,
and assume the sceptre of a world-embracing, indestructible sovereignty.
The community of the Most Great Name, the "companions
of the Crimson Colored Ark," lauded in glowing terms in the
Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', had visibly emerged. The Báb's own prophecy
regarding the "Ridván," the scene of the unveiling of Bahá'u'lláh's
transcendent glory, had been literally fulfilled.
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Undaunted by the prospect of the appalling adversities which, as
predicted by Himself, were soon to overtake Him; on the eve of a
second banishment which would be fraught with many hazards and
perils, and would bring Him still farther from His native land, the
cradle of His Faith, to a country alien in race, in language and in
culture; acutely conscious of the extension of the circle of His
adversaries, among whom were soon to be numbered a monarch more
despotic than Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, and ministers no less unyielding in
their hostility than either Hájí Mírzá Aqásí or the Amír-Nizám;
undeterred by the perpetual interruptions occasioned by the influx
of a host of visitors who thronged His tent, Bahá'u'lláh chose in that
critical and seemingly unpropitious hour to advance so challenging a
claim, to lay bare the mystery surrounding His person, and to
assume, in their plenitude, the power and the authority which were
the exclusive privileges of the One Whose advent the Báb had
prophesied.
Already the shadow of that great oncoming event had fallen
upon the colony of exiles, who awaited expectantly its consummation.
As the year "eighty" steadily and inexorably approached, He
Who had become the real leader of that community increasingly
experienced, and progressively communicated to His future followers,
the onrushing influences of its informing force. The festive, the
soul-entrancing odes which He revealed almost every day; the Tablets,
replete with hints, which streamed from His pen; the allusions which,
in private converse and public discourse, He made to the approaching
hour; the exaltation which in moments of joy and sadness alike flooded
His soul; the ecstasy which filled His lovers, already enraptured by
the multiplying evidences of His rising greatness and glory; the
perceptible change noted in His demeanor; and finally, His adoption
of the táj (tall felt head-dress), on the day of His departure from
His Most Holy House--all proclaimed unmistakably His imminent
assumption of the prophetic office and of His open leadership of the
community of the Báb's followers.
"Many a night," writes Nabíl, depicting the tumult that had
seized the hearts of Bahá'u'lláh's companions, in the days prior to the
declaration of His mission, "would Mírzá Áqá Ján gather them
together in his room, close the door, light numerous camphorated
candles, and chant aloud to them the newly revealed odes and Tablets
in his possession. Wholly oblivious of this contingent world,
completely immersed in the realms of the spirit, forgetful of the
necessity for food, sleep or drink, they would suddenly discover
+P153
that night had become day, and that the sun was approaching its
zenith."
Of the exact circumstances attending that epoch-making Declaration
we, alas, are but scantily informed. The words Bahá'u'lláh actually
uttered on that occasion, the manner of His Declaration, the
reaction it produced, its impact on Mírzá Yahyá, the identity of those
who were privileged to hear Him, are shrouded in an obscurity which
future historians will find it difficult to penetrate. The fragmentary
description left to posterity by His chronicler Nabíl is one of the
very few authentic records we possess of the memorable days He
spent in that garden. "Every day," Nabíl has related, "ere the hour
of dawn, the gardeners would pick the roses which lined the four
avenues of the garden, and would pile them in the center of the floor
of His blessed tent. So great would be the heap that when His companions
gathered to drink their morning tea in His presence, they
would be unable to see each other across it. All these roses Bahá'u'lláh
would, with His own hands, entrust to those whom He dismissed
from His presence every morning to be delivered, on His behalf, to
His Arab and Persian friends in the city." "One night," he continues,
"the ninth night of the waxing moon, I happened to be one of
those who watched beside His blessed tent. As the hour of midnight
approached, I saw Him issue from His tent, pass by the places where
some of His companions were sleeping, and begin to pace up and
down the moonlit, flower-bordered avenues of the garden. So loud
was the singing of the nightingales on every side that only those who
were near Him could hear distinctly His voice. He continued to
walk until, pausing in the midst of one of these avenues, He observed:
`Consider these nightingales. So great is their love for these roses, that
sleepless from dusk till dawn, they warble their melodies and commune
with burning passion with the object of their adoration. How
then can those who claim to be afire with the rose-like beauty of the
Beloved choose to sleep?' For three successive nights I watched and
circled round His blessed tent. Every time I passed by the couch
whereon He lay, I would find Him wakeful, and every day, from
morn till eventide, I would see Him ceaselessly engaged in conversing
with the stream of visitors who kept flowing in from Baghdád. Not
once could I discover in the words He spoke any trace of dissimulation."
As to the significance of that Declaration let Bahá'u'lláh Himself
reveal to us its import. Acclaiming that historic occasion as the
"Most Great Festival," the "King of Festivals," the "Festival of God,"
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He has, in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, characterized it as the Day whereon
"all created things were immersed in the sea of purification," whilst
in one of His specific Tablets, He has referred to it as the Day whereon
"the breezes of forgiveness were wafted over the entire creation."
"Rejoice, with exceeding gladness, O people of Bahá!", He, in another
Tablet, has written, "as ye call to remembrance the Day of supreme
felicity, the Day whereon the Tongue of the Ancient of Days hath
spoken, as He departed from His House proceeding to the Spot from
which He shed upon the whole of creation the splendors of His Name,
the All-Merciful... Were We to reveal the hidden secrets of that
Day, all that dwell on earth and in the heavens would swoon away
and die, except such as will be preserved by God, the Almighty, the
All-Knowing, the All-Wise. Such is the inebriating effect of the
words of God upon the Revealer of His undoubted proofs that His
pen can move no longer." And again: "The Divine Springtime is
come, O Most Exalted Pen, for the Festival of the All-Merciful is
fast approaching.... The Day-Star of Blissfulness shineth above the
horizon of Our Name, the Blissful, inasmuch as the Kingdom of the
Name of God hath been adorned with the ornament of the Name of
Thy Lord, the Creator of the heavens.... Take heed lest anything
deter Thee from extolling the greatness of this Day--the Day whereon
the Finger of Majesty and Power hath opened the seal of the Wine of
Reunion, and called all who are in the heavens and all who are on
earth.... This is the Day whereon the unseen world crieth out:
`Great is thy blessedness, O earth, for thou hast been made the footstool
of thy God, and been chosen as the seat of His mighty throne'
...Say ... He it is Who hath laid bare before you the hidden and
treasured Gem, were ye to seek it. He it is who is the One Beloved of
all things, whether of the past or of the future." And yet again:
"Arise, and proclaim unto the entire creation the tidings that He who
is the All-Merciful hath directed His steps towards the Ridván and
entered it. Guide, then, the people unto the Garden of Delight which
God hath made the Throne of His Paradise... Within this Paradise,
and from the heights of its loftiest chambers, the Maids of Heaven
have cried out and shouted: `Rejoice, ye dwellers of the realms above,
for the fingers of Him Who is the Ancient of Days are ringing, in the
name of the All-Glorious, the Most Great Bell, in the midmost heart
of the heavens. The hands of bounty have borne round the cups of
everlasting life. Approach, and quaff your fill.'" And finally:
"Forget the world of creation, O Pen, and turn Thou towards the
face of Thy Lord, the Lord of all names. Adorn, then, the world
+P155
with the ornament of the favors of Thy Lord, the King of everlasting
days. For We perceive the fragrance of the Day whereon He Who is
the Desire of all nations hath shed upon the kingdoms of the unseen
and of the seen the splendors of the light of His most excellent names,
and enveloped them with the radiance of the luminaries of His most
gracious favors, favors which none can reckon except Him Who is
the Omnipotent Protector of the entire creation."
The departure of Bahá'u'lláh from the Garden of Ridván, at
noon, on the 14th of Dhi'l-Qádih 1279 A.H. (May 3, 1863), witnessed
scenes of tumultuous enthusiasm no less spectacular, and even
more touching, than those which greeted Him when leaving His
Most Great House in Baghdád. "The great tumult," wrote an eyewitness,
"associated in our minds with the Day of Gathering, the Day
of Judgment, we beheld on that occasion. Believers and unbelievers
alike sobbed and lamented. The chiefs and notables who had congregated
were struck with wonder. Emotions were stirred to such
depths as no tongue can describe, nor could any observer escape
their contagion."
Mounted on His steed, a red roan stallion of the finest breed,
the best His lovers could purchase for Him, and leaving behind Him a
bowing multitude of fervent admirers, He rode forth on the first
stage of a journey that was to carry Him to the city of Constantinople.
"Numerous were the heads," Nabíl himself a witness of that memorable
scene, recounts, "which, on every side, bowed to the dust at
the feet of His horse, and kissed its hoofs, and countless were those
who pressed forward to embrace His stirrups." "How great the
number of those embodiments of fidelity," testifies a fellow-traveler,
"who, casting themselves before that charger, preferred death to
separation from their Beloved! Methinks, that blessed steed trod upon
the bodies of those pure-hearted souls." "He (God) it was," Bahá'u'lláh
Himself declares, "Who enabled Me to depart out of the city
(Baghdád), clothed with such majesty as none, except the denier and
the malicious, can fail to acknowledge." These marks of homage and
devotion continued to surround Him until He was installed in
Constantinople. Mírzá Yahyá, while hurrying on foot, by his own
choice, behind Bahá'u'lláh's carriage, on the day of His arrival in
that city, was overheard by Nabíl to remark to Siyyid Muhammad:
"Had I not chosen to hide myself, had I revealed my identity, the
honor accorded Him (Bahá'u'lláh) on this day would have been
mine too."
The same tokens of devotion shown Bahá'u'lláh at the time of
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His departure from His House, and later from the Garden of Ridván,
were repeated when, on the 20th of Dhi'l-Qádih (May 9, 1863),
accompanied by members of His family and twenty-six of His
disciples, He left Firayját, His first stopping-place in the course of
that journey. A caravan, consisting of fifty mules, a mounted guard
of ten soldiers with their officer, and seven pairs of howdahs, each
pair surmounted by four parasols, was formed, and wended its way,
by easy stages, and in the space of no less than a hundred and ten
days, across the uplands, and through the defiles, the woods, valleys
and pastures, comprising the picturesque scenery of eastern Anatolia,
to the port of Sámsun, on the Black Sea. At times on horseback, at
times resting in the howdah reserved for His use, and which was
oftentimes surrounded by His companions, most of whom were on
foot, He, by virtue of the written order of Námiq Páshá, was accorded,
as He traveled northward, in the path of spring, an enthusiastic
reception by the valís, the mutisárrifs, the qá'im-maqáms, the mudírs,
the shaykhs, the muftís and qádís, the government officials and
notables belonging to the districts through which He passed. In
Kárkúk, in Irbíl, in Mosul, where He tarried three days, in Nisíbín,
in Mardín, in Díyár-Bakr, where a halt of a couple of days was
made, in Khárpút, in Sívas, as well as in other villages and hamlets,
He would be met by a delegation immediately before His arrival,
and would be accompanied, for some distance, by a similar delegation
upon His departure. The festivities which, at some stations,
were held in His honor, the food the villagers prepared and brought
for His acceptance, the eagerness which time and again they exhibited
in providing the means for His comfort, recalled the reverence which
the people of Baghdád had shown Him on so many occasions.
"As we passed that morning through the town of Mardín," that
same fellow-traveler relates, "we were preceded by a mounted escort
of government soldiers, carrying their banners, and beating their
drums in welcome. The mutisárrif, together with officials and notables,
accompanied us, while men, women and children, crowding the housetops
and filling the streets, awaited our arrival. With dignity and
pomp we traversed that town, and resumed our journey, the mutisárrif
and those with him escorting us for a considerable distance."
"According to the unanimous testimony of those we met in the course
of that journey," Nabíl has recorded in his narrative, "never before
had they witnessed along this route, over which governors and
mushírs continually passed back and forth between Constantinople
and Baghdád, any one travel in such state, dispense such hospitality
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to all, and accord to each so great a share of his bounty." Sighting
from His howdah the Black Sea, as He approached the port of Sámsun,
Bahá'u'lláh, at the request of Mírzá Áqá Ján, revealed a Tablet,
designated Lawh-i-Hawdaj (Tablet of the Howdah), which by such
allusions as the "Divine Touchstone," "the grievous and tormenting
Mischief," reaffirmed and supplemented the dire predictions recorded
in the recently revealed Tablet of the Holy Mariner.
In Sámsun the Chief Inspector of the entire province, extending
from Baghdád to Constantinople, accompanied by several páshás,
called on Him, showed Him the utmost respect, and was entertained
by Him at luncheon. But seven days after His arrival, He, as foreshadowed
in the Tablet of the Holy Mariner, was put on board a
Turkish steamer and three days later was disembarked, at noon,
together with His fellow-exiles, at the port of Constantinople, on
the first of Rabí'u'l-Avval 1280 A.H. (August 16, 1863). In two
special carriages, which awaited Him at the landing-stage He and
His family drove to the house of Shamsí Big, the official who had
been appointed by the government to entertain its guests, and who
lived in the vicinity of the Khirqiy-i-Sharíf mosque. Later they
were transferred to the more commodious house of Vísí Páshá, in
the neighborhood of the mosque of Sultán Muhammad.
With the arrival of Bahá'u'lláh at Constantinople, the capital of
the Ottoman Empire and seat of the Caliphate (acclaimed by the
Muhammadans as "the Dome of Islam," but stigmatized by Him as
the spot whereon the "throne of tyranny" had been established) the
grimmest and most calamitous and yet the most glorious chapter in
the history of the first Bahá'í century may be said to have opened.
A period in which untold privations and unprecedented trials were
mingled with the noblest spiritual triumphs was now commencing.
The day-star of Bahá'u'lláh's ministry was about to reach its zenith.
The most momentous years of the Heroic Age of His Dispensation
were at hand. The catastrophic process, foreshadowed as far back
as the year sixty by His Forerunner in the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', was
beginning to be set in motion.
Exactly two decades earlier the Bábí Revelation had been born in
darkest Persia, in the city of Shíráz. Despite the cruel captivity to
which its Author had been subjected, the stupendous claims He had
voiced had been proclaimed by Him before a distinguished assemblage
in Tabríz, the capital of Ádhirbayján. In the hamlet of
Badasht the Dispensation which His Faith had ushered in had been
fearlessly inaugurated by the champions of His Cause. In the midst
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of the hopelessness and agony of the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán, nine
years later, that Revelation had, swiftly and mysteriously been
brought to sudden fruition. The process of rapid deterioration in
the fortunes of that Faith, which had gradually set in, and was
alarmingly accelerated during the years of Bahá'u'lláh's withdrawal
to Kurdistán, had, in a masterly fashion after His return from
Sulamáníyyih, been arrested and reversed. The ethical, the moral
and doctrinal foundations of a nascent community had been subsequently,
in the course of His sojourn in Baghdád, unassailably
established. And finally, in the Garden of Ridván, on the eve of
His banishment to Constantinople, the ten-year delay, ordained by
an inscrutable Providence, had been terminated through the Declaration
of His Mission and the visible emergence of what was to become
the nucleus of a world-embracing Fellowship. What now remained
to be achieved was the proclamation, in the city of Adrianople, of
that same Mission to the world's secular and ecclesiastical leaders, to
be followed, in successive decades, by a further unfoldment, in the
prison-fortress of `Akká, of the principles and precepts constituting
the bedrock of that Faith, by the formulation of the laws and
ordinances designed to safeguard its integrity, by the establishment,
immediately after His ascension, of the Covenant designed to preserve
its unity and perpetuate its influence, by the prodigious and
world-wide extension of its activities, under the guidance of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
the Center of that Covenant, and lastly, by the rise, in the
Formative Age of that Faith, of its Administrative Order, the
harbinger of its Golden Age and future glory.
This historic Proclamation was made at a time when the Faith
was in the throes of a crisis of extreme violence, and it was in the
main addressed to the kings of the earth, and to the Christian and
Muslim ecclesiastical leaders who, by virtue of their immense prestige,
ascendancy and authority, assumed an appalling and inescapable responsibility
for the immediate destinies of their subjects and followers.
The initial phase of that Proclamation may be said to have opened
in Constantinople with the communication (the text of which we,
alas, do not possess) addressed by Bahá'u'lláh to Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz
himself, the self-styled vicar of the Prophet of Islám and the absolute
ruler of a mighty empire. So potent, so august a personage was the
first among the sovereigns of the world to receive the Divine Summons,
and the first among Oriental monarchs to sustain the impact of
God's retributive justice. The occasion for this communication was
provided by the infamous edict the Sultán had promulgated, less than
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four months after the arrival of the exiles in his capital, banishing
them, suddenly and without any justification whatsoever, in the
depth of winter, and in the most humiliating circumstances, to
Adrianople, situated on the extremities of his empire.
That fateful and ignominious decision, arrived at by the Sultán
and his chief ministers, `Alí Páshá and Fu'ád Páshá, was in no small
degree attributable to the persistent intrigues of the Mushíru'd-Dawlih,
Mírzá Husayn Khán, the Persian Ambassador to the Sublime
Porte, denounced by Bahá'u'lláh as His "calumniator," who awaited
the first opportunity to strike at Him and the Cause of which He
was now the avowed and recognized leader. This Ambassador was
pressed continually by his government to persist in the policy of
arousing against Bahá'u'lláh the hostility of the Turkish authorities.
He was encouraged by the refusal of Bahá'u'lláh to follow the invariable
practice of government guests, however highly placed, of calling
in person, upon their arrival at the capital, on the Shaykhu'l-Islám,
on the Sadr-i-A'zam, and on the Foreign Minister--Bahá'u'lláh did
not even return the calls paid Him by several ministers, by Kamál
Páshá and by a former Turkish envoy to the court of Persia. He
was not deterred by Bahá'u'lláh's upright and independent attitude
which contrasted so sharply with the mercenariness of the Persian
princes who were wont, on their arrival, to "solicit at every door such
allowances and gifts as they might obtain." He resented Bahá'u'lláh's
unwillingness to present Himself at the Persian Embassy, and to
repay the visit of its representative; and, being seconded, in his efforts,
by his accomplice, Hájí Mírzá Hasan-i-Safá, whom he instructed to
circulate unfounded reports about Him, he succeeded through his
official influence, as well as through his private intercourse with
ecclesiastics, notables and government officials, in representing Bahá'u'lláh
as a proud and arrogant person, Who regarded Himself as
subject to no law, Who entertained designs inimical to all established
authority, and Whose forwardness had precipitated the grave differences
that had arisen between Himself and the Persian Government.
Nor was he the only one who indulged in these nefarious schemes.
Others, according to `Abdu'l-Bahá, "condemned and vilified" the
exiles, as "a mischief to all the world," as "destructive of treaties and
covenants," as "baleful to all lands" and as "deserving of every
chastisement and punishment."
No less a personage than the highly-respected brother-in-law of
the Sadr-i-A'zam was commissioned to apprize the Captive of the
edict pronounced against Him--an edict which evinced a virtual
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coalition of the Turkish and Persian imperial governments against a
common adversary, and which in the end brought such tragic consequences
upon the Sultanate, the Caliphate and the Qájár dynasty.
Refused an audience by Bahá'u'lláh that envoy had to content himself
with a presentation of his puerile observations and trivial arguments
to `Abdu'l-Bahá and Aqáy-i-Kalím, who were delegated to see him,
and whom he informed that, after three days, he would return to
receive the answer to the order he had been bidden to transmit.
That same day a Tablet, severely condemnatory in tone, was
revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, was entrusted by Him, in a sealed envelope,
on the following morning, to Shamsí Big, who was instructed to
deliver it into the hands of `Alí Páshá, and to say that it was sent
down from God. "I know not what that letter contained," Shamsí
Big subsequently informed Aqáy-i-Kalím, "for no sooner had the
Grand Vizir perused it than he turned the color of a corpse, and
remarked: `It is as if the King of Kings were issuing his behest to
his humblest vassal king and regulating his conduct.' So grievous was
his condition that I backed out of his presence." "Whatever action,"
Bahá'u'lláh, commenting on the effect that Tablet had produced, is
reported to have stated, "the ministers of the Sultán took against Us,
after having become acquainted with its contents, cannot be regarded
as unjustifiable. The acts they committed before its perusal, however,
can have no justification."
That Tablet, according to Nabíl, was of considerable length,
opened with words directed to the sovereign himself, severely censured
his ministers, exposed their immaturity and incompetence, and
included passages in which the ministers themselves were addressed, in
which they were boldly challenged, and sternly admonished not to
pride themselves on their worldly possessions, nor foolishly seek the
riches of which time would inexorably rob them.
Bahá'u'lláh was on the eve of His departure, which followed
almost immediately upon the promulgation of the edict of His banishment,
when, in a last and memorable interview with the aforementioned
Hájí Mírzá Hasan-i-Safá, He sent the following message
to the Persian Ambassador: "What did it profit thee, and such as
are like thee, to slay, year after year, so many of the oppressed, and
to inflict upon them manifold afflictions, when they have increased
a hundredfold, and ye find yourselves in complete bewilderment,
knowing not how to relieve your minds of this oppressive thought.
...His Cause transcends any and every plan ye devise. Know this
much: Were all the governments on earth to unite and take My life
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and the lives of all who bear this Name, this Divine Fire would never
be quenched. His Cause will rather encompass all the kings of the
earth, nay all that hath been created from water and clay.... Whatever
may yet befall Us, great shall be our gain, and manifest the loss
wherewith they shall be afflicted."
Pursuant to the peremptory orders issued for the immediate departure
of the already twice banished exiles, Bahá'u'lláh, His family,
and His companions, some riding in wagons, others mounted on pack
animals, with their belongings piled in carts drawn by oxen, set out,
accompanied by Turkish officers, on a cold December morning,
amidst the weeping of the friends they were leaving behind, on their
twelve-day journey, across a bleak and windswept country, to a city
characterized by Bahá'u'lláh as "the place which none entereth
except such as have rebelled against the authority of the sovereign."
"They expelled Us," is His own testimony in the Súriy-i-Mulúk,
"from thy city (Constantinople) with an abasement with which no
abasement on earth can compare." "Neither My family, nor those who
accompanied Me," He further states, "had the necessary raiment to
protect them from the cold in that freezing weather." And again:
"The eyes of Our enemies wept over Us, and beyond them those of
every discerning person." "A banishment," laments Nabíl, "endured
with such meekness that the pen sheddeth tears when recounting it,
and the page is ashamed to bear its description." "A cold of such
intensity," that same chronicler records, "prevailed that year, that
nonagenarians could not recall its like. In some regions, in both
Turkey and Persia, animals succumbed to its severity and perished
in the snows. The upper reaches of the Euphrates, in Ma'dan-Nuqrih,
were covered with ice for several days--an unprecedented phenomenon--
while in Díyár-Bakr the river froze over for no less than forty
days." "To obtain water from the springs," one of the exiles of
Adrianople recounts, "a great fire had to be lighted in their immediate
neighborhood, and kept burning for a couple of hours before
they thawed out."
Traveling through rain and storm, at times even making night
marches, the weary travelers, after brief halts at Kúchík-Chakmáchih,
Búyúk-Chakmachih, Salvárí, Birkás, and Bábá-Iskí, arrived at their
destination, on the first of Rajab 1280 A.H. (December 12, 1863),
and were lodged in the Khán-i-`Arab, a two-story caravanserai, near
the house of `Izzat-Áqá. Three days later, Bahá'u'lláh and His family
were consigned to a house suitable only for summer habitation, in
the Murádíyyih quarter, near the Takyíy-i-Mawlaví, and were moved
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again, after a week, to another house, in the vicinity of a mosque
in that same neighborhood. About six months later they transferred
to more commodious quarters, known as the house of Amru'lláh
(House of God's command) situated on the northern side of the
mosque of Sultán Salím.
Thus closes the opening scene of one of the most dramatic episodes
in the ministry of Bahá'u'lláh. The curtain now rises on what is
admittedly the most turbulent and critical period of the first Bahá'í
century--a period that was destined to precede the most glorious
phase of that ministry, the proclamation of His Message to the world
and its rulers.
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CHAPTER X
The Rebellion of Mírzá Yahyá and the Proclamation
of Bahá'u'lláh's Mission in Adrianople
A twenty-year-old Faith had just begun to recover from a series
of successive blows when a crisis of the first magnitude overtook it
and shook it to its roots. Neither the tragic martyrdom of the Báb
nor the ignominious attempt on the life of the sovereign, nor its
bloody aftermath, nor Bahá'u'lláh's humiliating banishment from
His native land, nor even His two-year withdrawal to Kurdistán,
devastating though they were in their consequences, could compare
in gravity with this first major internal convulsion which seized a
newly rearisen community, and which threatened to cause an irreparable
breach in the ranks of its members. More odious than the
unrelenting hostility which Abú-Jahl, the uncle of Muhammad, had
exhibited, more shameful than the betrayal of Jesus Christ by His
disciple, Judas Iscariot, more perfidious than the conduct of the sons
of Jacob towards Joseph their brother, more abhorrent than the deed
committed by one of the sons of Noah, more infamous than even
the criminal act perpetrated by Cain against Abel, the monstrous
behavior of Mírzá Yahyá, one of the half-brothers of Bahá'u'lláh, the
nominee of the Báb, and recognized chief of the Bábí community,
brought in its wake a period of travail which left its mark on the
fortunes of the Faith for no less than half a century. This
supreme crisis Bahá'u'lláh Himself designated as the AyyÁM-i-Shidád
(Days of Stress), during which "the most grievous veil" was torn
asunder, and the "most great separation" was irrevocably effected. It
immensely gratified and emboldened its external enemies, both civil
and ecclesiastical, played into their hands, and evoked their unconcealed
derision. It perplexed and confused the friends and supporters
of Bahá'u'lláh, and seriously damaged the prestige of the Faith in the
eyes of its western admirers. It had been brewing ever since the
early days of Bahá'u'lláh's sojourn in Baghdád, was temporarily suppressed
by the creative forces which, under His as yet unproclaimed
leadership, reanimated a disintegrating community, and finally broke
out, in all its violence, in the years immediately preceding the proclamation
of His Message. It brought incalculable sorrow to Bahá'u'lláh,
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visibly aged Him, and inflicted, through its repercussions, the heaviest
blow ever sustained by Him in His lifetime. It was engineered
throughout by the tortuous intrigues and incessant machinations of
that same diabolical Siyyid Muhammad, that vile whisperer who, disregarding
Bahá'u'lláh's advice, had insisted on accompanying Him
to Constantinople and Adrianople, and was now redoubling his
efforts, with unrelaxing vigilance, to bring it to a head.
Mírzá Yahyá had, ever since the return of Bahá'u'lláh from
Sulamáníyyih, either chosen to maintain himself in an inglorious
seclusion in his own house, or had withdrawn, whenever danger
threatened, to such places of safety as Hillih and Basra. To the
latter town he had fled, disguised as a Baghdád Jew, and become a
shoe merchant. So great was his terror that he is reported to have
said on one occasion: "Whoever claims to have seen me, or to have
heard my voice, I pronounce an infidel." On being informed of
Bahá'u'lláh's impending departure for Constantinople, he at first hid
himself in the garden of Huvaydar, in the vicinity of Baghdád,
meditating meanwhile on the advisability of fleeing either to Abyssinia,
India or some other country. Refusing to heed Bahá'u'lláh's
advice to proceed to Persia, and there disseminate the writings of
the Báb, he sent a certain Hájí Muhammad Kázim, who resembled
him, to the government-house to procure for him a passport in the
name of Mírzá Alíy-i-Kirmánsháhí, and left Baghdád, abandoning
the writings there, and proceeded in disguise, accompanied by an
Arab Bábí, named Záhir, to Mosul, where he joined the exiles who
were on their way to Constantinople.
A constant witness of the ever deepening attachment of the exiles
to Bahá'u'lláh and of their amazing veneration for Him; fully aware
of the heights to which his Brother's popularity had risen in Baghdád,
in the course of His journey to Constantinople, and later through
His association with the notables and governors of Adrianople; incensed
by the manifold evidences of the courage, the dignity, and
independence which that Brother had demonstrated in His dealings
with the authorities in the capital; provoked by the numerous Tablets
which the Author of a newly-established Dispensation had been
ceaselessly revealing; allowing himself to be duped by the enticing
prospects of unfettered leadership held out to him by Siyyid Muhammad,
the Antichrist of the Bahá'í Revelation, even as Muhammad
Sháh had been misled by the Antichrist of the Bábí Revelation, Hájí
Mírzá Aqásí; refusing to be admonished by prominent members of
the community who advised him, in writing, to exercise wisdom and
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restraint; forgetful of the kindness and counsels of Bahá'u'lláh, who,
thirteen years his senior, had watched over his early youth and manhood;
emboldened by the sin-covering eye of his Brother, Who, on
so many occasions, had drawn a veil over his many crimes and follies,
this arch-breaker of the Covenant of the Báb, spurred on by his
mounting jealousy and impelled by his passionate love of leadership,
was driven to perpetrate such acts as defied either concealment or
toleration.
Irremediably corrupted through his constant association with Siyyid
Muhammad, that living embodiment of wickedness, cupidity
and deceit, he had already in the absence of Bahá'u'lláh from Baghdád,
and even after His return from Sulamáníyyih, stained the annals
of the Faith with acts of indelible infamy. His corruption, in scores
of instances, of the text of the Báb's writings; the blasphemous addition
he made to the formula of the adhán by the introduction of a
passage in which he identified himself with the Godhead; his insertion
of references in those writings to a succession in which he nominated
himself and his descendants as heirs of the Báb; the vacillation and
apathy he had betrayed when informed of the tragic death which his
Master had suffered; his condemnation to death of all the Mirrors
of the Bábí Dispensation, though he himself was one of those Mirrors;
his dastardly act in causing the murder of Dayyán, whom he feared
and envied; his foul deed in bringing about, during the absence of
Bahá'u'lláh from Baghdád, the assassination of Mírzá `Alí-Akbar,
the Báb's cousin; and, most heinous of all, his unspeakably repugnant
violation, during that same period, of the honor of the Báb Himself--
all these, as attested by Aqáy-i-Kalím, and reported by Nabíl in his
Narrative, were to be thrown into a yet more lurid light by further
acts the perpetration of which were to seal irretrievably his doom.
Desperate designs to poison Bahá'u'lláh and His companions, and
thereby reanimate his own defunct leadership, began, approximately
a year after their arrival in Adrianople, to agitate his mind. Well
aware of the erudition of his half-brother, Aqáy-i-Kalím, in matters
pertaining to medicine, he, under various pretexts, sought enlightenment
from him regarding the effects of certain herbs and poisons,
and then began, contrary to his wont, to invite Bahá'u'lláh to his
home, where, one day, having smeared His tea-cup with a substance
he had concocted, he succeeded in poisoning Him sufficiently to
produce a serious illness which lasted no less than a month, and which
was accompanied by severe pains and high fever, the aftermath of
which left Bahá'u'lláh with a shaking hand till the end of His life.
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So grave was His condition that a foreign doctor, named Shíshmán,
was called in to attend Him. The doctor was so appalled by His livid
hue that he deemed His case hopeless, and, after having fallen at
His feet, retired from His presence without prescribing a remedy.
A few days later that doctor fell ill and died. Prior to his death
Bahá'u'lláh had intimated that doctor Shíshmán had sacrificed his
life for Him. To Mírzá Áqá Ján, sent by Bahá'u'lláh to visit him,
the doctor had stated that God had answered his prayers, and that
after his death a certain Dr. Chupán, whom he knew to be reliable,
should, whenever necessary, be called in his stead.
On another occasion this same Mírzá Yahyá had, according to
the testimony of one of his wives, who had temporarily deserted him
and revealed the details of the above-mentioned act, poisoned the well
which provided water for the family and companions of Bahá'u'lláh,
in consequence of which the exiles manifested strange symptoms of
illness. He even had, gradually and with great circumspection, disclosed
to one of the companions, Ustád Muhammad-`Alíy-i-Salmání,
the barber, on whom he had lavished great marks of favor, his wish
that he, on some propitious occasion, when attending Bahá'u'lláh in
His bath, should assassinate Him. "So enraged was Ustád Muhammad-`Alí,"
Aqáy-i-Kalím, recounting this episode to Nabíl in Adrianople,
has stated, "when apprized of this proposition, that he felt a strong
desire to kill Mírzá Yahyá on the spot, and would have done so but
for his fear of Bahá'u'lláh's displeasure. I happened to be the first
person he encountered as he came out of the bath weeping.... I
eventually succeeded, after much persuasion, in inducing him to
return to the bath and complete his unfinished task." Though ordered
subsequently by Bahá'u'lláh not to divulge this occurrence to
any one, the barber was unable to hold his peace and betrayed the
secret, plunging thereby the community into great consternation.
"When the secret nursed in his (Mírzá Yahyá) bosom was revealed
by God," Bahá'u'lláh Himself affirms, "he disclaimed such an intention,
and imputed it to that same servant (Ustád Muhammad-`Alí)."
The moment had now arrived for Him Who had so recently,
both verbally and in numerous Tablets, revealed the implications of
the claims He had advanced, to acquaint formally the one who was
the nominee of the Báb with the character of His Mission. Mírzá
Áqá Ján was accordingly commissioned to bear to Mírzá Yahyá the
newly revealed Súriy-i-`Amr, which unmistakably affirmed those
claims, to read aloud to him its contents, and demand an unequivocal
and conclusive reply. Mírzá Yahyá's request for a one day respite,
+P167
during which he could meditate his answer, was granted. The only
reply, however, that was forthcoming was a counter-declaration,
specifying the hour and the minute in which he had been made the
recipient of an independent Revelation, necessitating the unqualified
submission to him of the peoples of the earth in both the East and
the West.
So presumptuous an assertion, made by so perfidious an adversary
to the envoy of the Bearer of so momentous a Revelation was the
signal for the open and final rupture between Bahá'u'lláh and Mírzá
Yahyá--a rupture that marks one of the darkest dates in Bahá'í
history. Wishing to allay the fierce animosity that blazed in the
bosom of His enemies, and to assure to each one of the exiles a complete
freedom to choose between Him and them, Bahá'u'lláh withdrew
with His family to the house of Ridá Big (Shavval 22, 1282
A.H.), which was rented by His order, and refused, for two months,
to associate with either friend or stranger, including His own companions.
He instructed Aqáy-i-Kalím to divide all the furniture,
bedding, clothing and utensils that were to be found in His home,
and send half to the house of Mírzá Yahyá; to deliver to him certain
relics he had long coveted, such as the seals, rings, and manuscripts
in the handwriting of the Báb; and to insure that he received his
full share of the allowance fixed by the government for the maintenance
of the exiles and their families. He, moreover, directed Aqáy-i-Kalím
to order to attend to Mírzá Yahyá's shopping, for several hours
a day, any one of the companions whom he himself might select, and
to assure him that whatever would henceforth be received in his name
from Persia would be delivered into his own hands.
"That day," Aqáy-i-Kalím is reported to have informed Nabíl,
"witnessed a most great commotion. All the companions lamented
in their separation from the Blessed Beauty." "Those days," is the
written testimony of one of those companions, "were marked by
tumult and confusion. We were sore-perplexed, and greatly feared
lest we be permanently deprived of the bounty of His presence."
This grief and perplexity were, however, destined to be of short
duration. The calumnies with which both Mírzá Yahyá and Siyyid
Muhammad now loaded their letters, which they disseminated in
Persia and `Iráq, as well as the petitions, couched in obsequious language,
which the former had addressed to Khurshíd Páshá, the
governor of Adrianople, and to his assistant Azíz Páshá, impelled
Bahá'u'lláh to emerge from His retirement. He was soon after informed
that this same brother had despatched one of his wives to the
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government house to complain that her husband had been cheated
of his rights, and that her children were on the verge of starvation--
an accusation that spread far and wide and, reaching Constantinople,
became, to Bahá'u'lláh's profound distress, the subject of excited discussion
and injurious comment in circles that had previously been
greatly impressed by the high standard which His noble and dignified
behavior had set in that city. Siyyid Muhammad journeyed to the
capital, begged the Persian Ambassador, the Mushíru'd-Dawlih, to
allot Mírzá Yahyá and himself a stipend, accused Bahá'u'lláh of sending
an agent to assassinate Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, and spared no effort
to heap abuse and calumny on One Who had, for so long and so
patiently, forborne with him, and endured in silence the enormities
of which he had been guilty.
After a stay of about one year in the house of Ridá Big Bahá'u'lláh
returned to the house He had occupied before His withdrawal
from His companions, and thence, after three months, He transferred
His residence to the house of `Izzat Áqá, in which He continued
to live until His departure from Adrianople. It was in this
house, in the month of Jamádiyu'l-Avval 1284 A.H. (Sept. 1867)
that an event of the utmost significance occurred, which completely
discomfited Mírzá Yahyá and his supporters, and proclaimed to friend
and foe alike Bahá'u'lláh's triumph over them. A certain Mír Muhammad,
a Bábí of Shíráz, greatly resenting alike the claims and
the cowardly seclusion of Mírzá Yahyá, succeeded in forcing Siyyid
Muhammad to induce him to meet Bahá'u'lláh face to face, so that
a discrimination might be publicly effected between the true and the
false. Foolishly assuming that his illustrious Brother would never
countenance such a proposition, Mírzá Yahyá appointed the mosque
of Sultán Salím as the place for their encounter. No sooner had
Bahá'u'lláh been informed of this arrangement than He set forth, on
foot, in the heat of midday, and accompanied by this same Mír
Muhammad, for the afore-mentioned mosque, which was situated in
a distant part of the city, reciting, as He walked, through the streets
and markets, verses, in a voice and in a manner that greatly astonished
those who saw and heard Him.
"O Muhammad!", are some of the words He uttered on that
memorable occasion, as testified by Himself in a Tablet, "He Who
is the Spirit hath, verily, issued from His habitation, and with Him
have come forth the souls of God's chosen ones and the realities of
His Messengers. Behold, then, the dwellers of the realms on high
above Mine head, and all the testimonies of the Prophets in My grasp.
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Say: Were all the divines, all the wise men, all the kings and rulers
on earth to gather together, I, in very truth, would confront them,
and would proclaim the verses of God, the Sovereign, the Almighty,
the All-Wise. I am He Who feareth no one, though all who are in
heaven and all who are on earth rise up against me.... This is Mine
hand which God hath turned white for all the worlds to behold.
This is My staff; were We to cast it down, it would, of a truth,
swallow up all created things." Mír Muhammad, who had been sent
ahead to announce Bahá'u'lláh's arrival, soon returned, and informed
Him that he who had challenged His authority wished, owing to unforeseen
circumstances, to postpone for a day or two the interview.
Upon His return to His house Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet, wherein
He recounted what had happened, fixed the time for the postponed
interview, sealed the Tablet with His seal, entrusted it to Nabíl, and
instructed him to deliver it to one of the new believers, Mullá
Muhammad-i-Tabrízí, for the information of Siyyid Muhammad,
who was in the habit of frequenting that believer's shop. It was
arranged to demand from Siyyid Muhammad, ere the delivery of that
Tablet, a sealed note pledging Mírzá Yahyá, in the event of failing
to appear at the trysting-place, to affirm in writing that his claims
were false. Siyyid Muhammad promised that he would produce the
next day the document required, and though Nabíl, for three successive
days, waited in that shop for the reply, neither did the Siyyid
appear, nor was such a note sent by him. That undelivered Tablet,
Nabíl, recording twenty-three years later this historic episode in
his chronicle, affirms was still in his possession, "as fresh as the day
on which the Most Great Branch had penned it, and the seal of the
Ancient Beauty had sealed and adorned it," a tangible and irrefutable
testimony to Bahá'u'lláh's established ascendancy over a routed
opponent.
Bahá'u'lláh's reaction to this most distressful episode in His ministry
was, as already observed, characterized by acute anguish. "He
who for months and years," He laments, "I reared with the hand of
loving-kindness hath risen to take My life." "The cruelties inflicted
by My oppressors," He wrote, in allusion to these perfidious enemies,
"have bowed Me down, and turned My hair white. Shouldst thou
present thyself before My throne, thou wouldst fail to recognize the
Ancient Beauty, for the freshness of His countenance is altered, and
its brightness hath faded, by reason of the oppression of the infidels."
"By God!" He cries out, "No spot is left on My body that hath not
been touched by the spears of thy machinations." And again: "Thou
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hast perpetrated against thy Brother what no man hath perpetrated
against another." "What hath proceeded from thy pen," He, furthermore,
has affirmed, "hath caused the Countenances of Glory to be
prostrated upon the dust, hath rent in twain the Veil of Grandeur
in the Sublime Paradise, and lacerated the hearts of the favored ones
established upon the loftiest seats." And yet, in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
a forgiving Lord assures this same brother, this "source of perversion,"
"from whose own soul the winds of passion had risen and
blown upon him," to "fear not because of thy deeds," bids him "return
unto God, humble, submissive and lowly," and affirms that "He will
put away from thee thy sins," and that "thy Lord is the Forgiving,
the Mighty, the All-Merciful."
The "Most Great Idol" had at the bidding and through the power
of Him Who is the Fountain-head of the Most Great Justice been cast
out of the community of the Most Great Name, confounded,
abhorred and broken. Cleansed from this pollution, delivered from
this horrible possession, God's infant Faith could now forge ahead,
and, despite the turmoil that had convulsed it, demonstrate its
capacity to fight further battles, capture loftier heights, and win
mightier victories.
A temporary breach had admittedly been made in the ranks of
its supporters. Its glory had been eclipsed, and its annals stained forever.
Its name, however, could not be obliterated, its spirit was far
from broken, nor could this so-called schism tear its fabric asunder.
The Covenant of the Báb, to which reference has already been made,
with its immutable truths, incontrovertible prophecies, and repeated
warnings, stood guard over that Faith, insuring its integrity, demonstrating
its incorruptibility, and perpetuating its influence.
Though He Himself was bent with sorrow, and still suffered from
the effects of the attempt on His life, and though He was well aware
a further banishment was probably impending, yet, undaunted by
the blow which His Cause had sustained, and the perils with which
it was encompassed, Bahá'u'lláh arose with matchless power, even
before the ordeal was overpast, to proclaim the Mission with which
He had been entrusted to those who, in East and West, had the reins
of supreme temporal authority in their grasp. The day-star of His
Revelation was, through this very Proclamation, destined to shine in
its meridian glory, and His Faith manifest the plenitude of its divine
power.
A period of prodigious activity ensued which, in its repercussions,
outshone the vernal years of Bahá'u'lláh's ministry. "Day and night,"
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an eye-witness has written, "the Divine verses were raining down in
such number that it was impossible to record them. Mírzá Áqá Ján
wrote them as they were dictated, while the Most Great Branch was
continually occupied in transcribing them. There was not a moment
to spare." "A number of secretaries," Nabíl has testified, "were busy
day and night and yet they were unable to cope with the task.
Among them was Mírzá Báqir-i-Shirází.... He alone transcribed
no less than two thousand verses every day. He labored during six
or seven months. Every month the equivalent of several volumes
would be transcribed by him and sent to Persia. About twenty
volumes, in his fine penmanship, he left behind as a remembrance
for Mírzá Áqá Ján." Bahá'u'lláh, Himself, referring to the verses
revealed by Him, has written: "Such are the outpourings ... from
the clouds of Divine Bounty that within the space of an hour the
equivalent of a thousand verses hath been revealed." "So great is
the grace vouchsafed in this day that in a single day and night, were
an amanuensis capable of accomplishing it to be found, the equivalent
of the Persian Bayán would be sent down from the heaven of
Divine holiness." "I swear by God!" He, in another connection has
affirmed, "In those days the equivalent of all that hath been sent down
aforetime unto the Prophets hath been revealed." "That which hath
already been revealed in this land (Adrianople)," He, furthermore,
referring to the copiousness of His writings, has declared, "secretaries
are incapable of transcribing. It has, therefore, remained for the most
part untranscribed."
Already in the very midst of that grievous crisis, and even before
it came to a head, Tablets unnumbered were streaming from the pen
of Bahá'u'lláh, in which the implications of His newly-asserted claims
were fully expounded. The Súriy-i-`Amr, the Lawh-i-Nuqtih, the
Lawh-i-Ahmad, the Súriy-i-Ashab, the Lawh-i-Sáyyah, the Súriy-i-Damm,
the Súriy-i-Hájj, the Lawhu'r-Rúh, the Lawhu'r-Ridván,
the Lawhu't-Tuqá were among the Tablets which His pen had already
set down when He transferred His residence to the house of `Izzat
Áqá. Almost immediately after the "Most Great Separation" had
been effected, the weightiest Tablets associated with His sojourn in
Adrianople were revealed. The Súriy-i-Mulúk, the most momentous
Tablet revealed by Bahá'u'lláh (Súrih of Kings) in which He, for
the first time, directs His words collectively to the entire company
of the monarchs of East and West, and in which the Sultán of
Turkey, and his ministers, the kings of Christendom, the French and
Persian Ambassadors accredited to the Sublime Porte, the Muslim
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ecclesiastical leaders in Constantinople, its wise men and inhabitants,
the people of Persia and the philosophers of the world are separately
addressed; the Kitáb-i-Badí', His apologia, written to refute the
accusations levelled against Him by Mírzá Mihdíy-i-Rashtí, corresponding
to the Kitáb-i-Iqán, revealed in defense of the Bábí Revelation;
the Munájátháy-i-Síyám (Prayers for Fasting), written in
anticipation of the Book of His Laws; the first Tablet to Napoleon
III, in which the Emperor of the French is addressed and the sincerity
of his professions put to the test; the Lawh-i-Sultán, His detailed
epistle to Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, in which the aims, purposes and principles
of His Faith are expounded and the validity of His Mission
demonstrated; the Súriy-i-Ra'ís, begun in the village of Káshánih
on His way to Gallipoli, and completed shortly after at Gyawur-Kyuy
--these may be regarded not only as the most outstanding
among the innumerable Tablets revealed in Adrianople, but as
occupying a foremost position among all the writings of the Author
of the Bahá'í Revelation.
In His message to the kings of the earth, Bahá'u'lláh, in the
Súriy-i-Mulúk, discloses the character of His Mission; exhorts them to
embrace His Message; affirms the validity of the Báb's Revelation;
reproves them for their indifference to His Cause; enjoins them to
be just and vigilant, to compose their differences and reduce their
armaments; expatiates on His afflictions; commends the poor to their
care; warns them that "Divine chastisement" will "assail" them "from
every direction," if they refuse to heed His counsels, and prophesies
His "triumph upon earth" though no king be found who would turn
his face towards Him.
The kings of Christendom, more specifically, Bahá'u'lláh, in that
same Tablet, censures for having failed to "welcome" and "draw
nigh" unto Him Who is the "Spirit of Truth," and for having persisted
in "disporting" themselves with their "pastimes and fancies,"
and declares to them that they "shall be called to account" for their
doings, "in the presence of Him Who shall gather together the entire
creation."
He bids Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz "hearken to the speech ... of Him
Who unerringly treadeth the Straight Path"; exhorts him to direct
in person the affairs of his people, and not to repose confidence in
unworthy ministers; admonishes him not to rely on his treasures, nor
to "overstep the bounds of moderation" but to deal with his subjects
with "undeviating justice"; and acquaints him with the overwhelming
burden of His own tribulations. In that same Tablet He asserts
+P173
His innocence and His loyalty to the Sultán and his ministers;
describes the circumstances of His banishment from the capital; and
assures him of His prayers to God on his behalf.
To this same Sultán He, moreover, as attested by the Súriy-i-Ra'ís,
transmitted, while in Gallipoli, a verbal message through a Turkish
officer named Umar, requesting the sovereign to grant Him a ten
minute interview, "so that he may demand whatsoever he would
deem to be a sufficient testimony and would regard as proof of the
veracity of Him Who is the Truth," adding that "should God enable
Him to produce it, let him, then, release these wronged ones and
leave them to themselves."
To Napoleon III Bahá'u'lláh addressed a specific Tablet, which was
forwarded through one of the French ministers to the Emperor, in
which He dwelt on the sufferings endured by Himself and His followers;
avowed their innocence; reminded him of his two pronouncements
on behalf of the oppressed and the helpless; and, desiring to
test the sincerity of his motives, called upon him to "inquire into
the condition of such as have been wronged," and "extend his care
to the weak," and look upon Him and His fellow-exiles "with the eye
of loving-kindness."
To Násiri'd-Dín Sháh He revealed a Tablet, the lengthiest epistle
to any single sovereign, in which He testified to the unparalleled
severity of the troubles that had touched Him; recalled the sovereign's
recognition of His innocence on the eve of His departure for
`Iráq; adjured him to rule with justice; described God's summons to
Himself to arise and proclaim His Message; affirmed the disinterestedness
of His counsels; proclaimed His belief in the unity of God and
in His Prophets; uttered several prayers on the Sháh's behalf; justified
His own conduct in `Iráq; stressed the beneficent influence of His
teachings; and laid special emphasis on His condemnation of all forms
of violence and mischief. He, moreover, in that same Tablet, demonstrated
the validity of His Mission; expressed the wish to be "brought
face to face with the divines of the age, and produce proofs and
testimonies in the presence of His Majesty," which would establish the
truth of His Cause; exposed the perversity of the ecclesiastical leaders
in His own days, as well as in the days of Jesus Christ and of
Muhammad; prophesied that His sufferings will be followed by the
"outpourings of a supreme mercy" and by an "overflowing prosperity";
drew a parallel between the afflictions that had befallen His
kindred and those endured by the relatives of the Prophet Muhammad;
expatiated on the instability of human affairs; depicted the
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city to which He was about to be banished; foreshadowed the future
abasement of the `ulamás; and concluded with yet another expression
of hope that the sovereign might be assisted by God to "aid His
Faith and turn towards His justice."
To `Alí Páshá, the Grand Vizir, Bahá'u'lláh addressed the
Súriy-i-Ra'ís. In this He bids him "hearken to the voice of God"; declares
that neither his "grunting," nor the "barking" of those around him,
nor "the hosts of the world" can withhold the Almighty from achieving
His purpose; accuses him of having perpetrated that which has
caused "the Apostle of God to lament in the most sublime Paradise,"
and of having conspired with the Persian Ambassador to harm Him;
forecasts "the manifest loss" in which he would soon find himself;
glorifies the Day of His own Revelation; prophesies that this Revelation
will "erelong encompass the earth and all that dwell therein,"
and that the "Land of Mystery (Adrianople) and what is beside
it ... shall pass out of the hands of the King, and commotions shall
appear, and the voice of lamentation shall be raised, and the evidences
of mischief shall be revealed on all sides"; identifies that same Revelation
with the Revelations of Moses and of Jesus; recalls the "arrogance"
of the Persian Emperor in the days of Muhammad, the
"transgression" of Pharaoh in the days of Moses, and of the "impiety"
of Nimrod in the days of Abraham; and proclaims His purpose to
"quicken the world and unite all its peoples."
The ministers of the Sultán, He, in the Súriy-i-Mulúk, reprimands
for their conduct, in passages in which He challenges the
soundness of their principles, predicts that they will be punished for
their acts, denounces their pride and injustice, asserts His integrity
and detachment from the vanities of the world, and proclaims His
innocence.
The French Ambassador accredited to the Sublime Porte, He, in
that same Súrih, rebukes for having combined with the Persian Ambassador
against Him; reminds him of the counsels of Jesus Christ,
as recorded in the Gospel of St. John; warns him that he will be held
answerable for the things his hands have wrought; and counsels him,
together with those like him, not to deal with any one as he has
dealt with Him.
To the Persian Ambassador in Constantinople, He, in that same
Tablet, addresses lengthy passages in which He exposes his delusions
and calumnies, denounces his injustice and the injustice of his
countrymen, assures him that He harbors no ill-will against him,
declares that, should he realize the enormity of his deed, he would
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mourn all the days of his life, affirms that he will persist till his death
in his heedlessness, justifies His own conduct in Tihrán and in `Iráq,
and bears witness to the corruption of the Persian minister in
Baghdád and to his collusion with this minister.
To the entire company of the ecclesiastical leaders of Sunní Islám
in Constantinople He addresses a specific message in the same Súriy-i-Mulúk
in which He denounces them as heedless and spiritually dead;
reproaches them for their pride and for failing to seek His presence;
unveils to them the full glory and significance of His Mission;
affirms that their leaders, had they been alive, would have "circled
around Him"; condemns them as "worshippers of names" and lovers
of leadership; and avows that God will find naught acceptable from
them unless they "be made new" in His estimation.
To the wise men of the City of Constantinople and the philosophers
of the world He devotes the concluding passages of the Súriy-i-Mulúk,
in which He cautions them not to wax proud before God;
reveals to them the essence of true wisdom; stresses the importance
of faith and upright conduct; rebukes them for having failed to
seek enlightenment from Him; and counsels them not to "overstep
the bounds of God," nor turn their gaze towards the "ways of men
and their habits."
To the inhabitants of Constantinople He, in that same Tablet,
declares that He "feareth no one except God," that He speaks
"naught except at His (God) bidding," that He follows naught save
God's truth, that He found the governors and elders of the city as
"children gathered about and disporting themselves with clay," and
that He perceived no one sufficiently mature to acquire the truths
which God had taught Him. He bids them take firm hold on the
precepts of God; warns them not to wax proud before God and His
loved ones; recalls the tribulations, and extols the virtues, of the
Imám Husayn; prays that He Himself may suffer similar afflictions;
prophesies that erelong God will raise up a people who will recount
His troubles and demand the restitution of His rights from His
oppressors; and calls upon them to give ear to His words, and return
unto God and repent.
And finally, addressing the people of Persia, He, in that same
Tablet, affirms that were they to put Him to death God will assuredly
raise up One in His stead, and asserts that the Almighty will "perfect
His light" though they, in their secret hearts, abhor it.
So weighty a proclamation, at so critical a period, by the Bearer
of so sublime a Message, to the kings of the earth, Muslim and Christian
+P176
alike, to ministers and ambassadors, to the ecclesiastical heads
of Sunní Islám, to the wise men and inhabitants of Constantinople--
the seat of both the Sultanate and the Caliphate--to the philosophers
of the world and the people of Persia, is not to be regarded as the
only outstanding event associated with Bahá'u'lláh's sojourn in
Adrianople. Other developments and happenings of great, though
lesser, significance must be noted in these pages, if we would justly
esteem the importance of this agitated and most momentous phase of
Bahá'u'lláh's ministry.
It was at this period, and as a direct consequence of the rebellion
and appalling downfall of Mírzá Yahyá, that certain disciples of
Bahá'u'lláh (who may well rank among the "treasures" promised Him
by God when bowed down with chains in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán),
including among them one of the Letters of the Living, some survivors
of the struggle of Tabarsí, and the erudite Mírzá Ahmad-i-Azghandí,
arose to defend the newborn Faith, to refute, in numerous
and detailed apologies, as their Master had done in the Kitáb-i-Badí',
the arguments of His opponents, and to expose their odious deeds.
It was at this period that the limits of the Faith were enlarged, when
its banner was permanently planted in the Caucasus by the hand of
Mullá Abú-Talíb and others whom Nabíl had converted, when its
first Egyptian center was established at the time when Siyyid
Husayn-i-Káshání and Hájí Báqir-i-Káshání took up their residence
in that country, and when to the lands already warmed and illuminated
by the early rays of God's Revelation--`Iráq, Turkey and
Persia--Syria was added. It was in this period that the greeting of
"Alláh-u-Abhá" superseded the old salutation of "Alláh-u-Akbar,"
and was simultaneously adopted in Persia and Adrianople, the first
to use it in the former country, at the suggestion of Nabíl, being
Mullá Muhammad-i-Furúghí, one of the defenders of the Fort of
Shaykh Tabarsí. It was in this period that the phrase "the people of
the Bayán," now denoting the followers of Mírzá Yahyá, was discarded,
and was supplanted by the term "the people of Bahá." It
was during those days that Nabíl, recently honored with the title
of Nabíl-i-A'zam, in a Tablet specifically addressed to him, in which
he was bidden to "deliver the Message" of his Lord "to East and
West," arose, despite intermittent persecutions, to tear asunder the
"most grievous veil," to implant the love of an adored Master in the
hearts of His countrymen, and to champion the Cause which his
Beloved had, under such tragic conditions, proclaimed. It was during
those same days that Bahá'u'lláh instructed this same Nabíl to recite
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on His behalf the two newly revealed Tablets of the Pilgrimage,
and to perform, in His stead, the rites prescribed in them, when
visiting the Báb's House in Shíráz and the Most Great House in
Baghdád--an act that marks the inception of one of the holiest
observances, which, in a later period, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas was to
formally establish. It was during this period that the "Prayers of
Fasting" were revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, in anticipation of the Law
which that same Book was soon to promulgate. It was, too, during
the days of Bahá'u'lláh's banishment to Adrianople that a Tablet was
addressed by Him to Mullá `Alí-Akbar-i-Sháhmírzádí and Jamál-i-Burújirdí,
two of His well-known followers in Tihrán, instructing
them to transfer, with the utmost secrecy, the remains of the Báb
from the Imám-Zádih Ma'súm, where they were concealed, to some
other place of safety--an act which was subsequently proved to have
been providential, and which may be regarded as marking another
stage in the long and laborious transfer of those remains to the heart
of Mt. Carmel, and to the spot which He, in His instructions to
`Abdu'l-Bahá, was later to designate. It was during that period that
the Súriy-i-Ghusn (Súrih of the Branch) was revealed, in which
`Abdu'l-Bahá's future station is foreshadowed, and in which He is
eulogized as the "Branch of Holiness," the "Limb of the Law of God,"
the "Trust of God," "sent down in the form of a human temple"--
a Tablet which may well be regarded as the harbinger of the rank
which was to be bestowed upon Him, in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and
which was to be later elucidated and confirmed in the Book of His
Covenant. And finally, it was during that period that the first
pilgrimages were made to the residence of One Who was now the
visible Center of a newly-established Faith--pilgrimages which by
reason of their number and nature, an alarmed government in Persia
was first impelled to restrict, and later to prohibit, but which were
the precursors of the converging streams of Pilgrims who, from East
and West, at first under perilous and arduous circumstances, were
to direct their steps towards the prison-fortress of `Akká--pilgrimages
which were to culminate in the historic arrival of a royal convert
at the foot of Mt. Carmel, who, at the very threshold of a longed-for
and much advertised pilgrimage, was so cruelly thwarted from
achieving her purpose.
These notable developments, some synchronizing with, and others
flowing from, the proclamation of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and
from the internal convulsion which the Cause had undergone, could
not escape the attention of the external enemies of the Movement,
+P178
who were bent on exploiting to the utmost every crisis which the
folly of its friends or the perfidy of renegades might at any time
precipitate. The thick clouds had hardly been dissipated by the
sudden outburst of the rays of a Sun, now shining from its meridian,
when the darkness of another catastrophe--the last the Author of
that Faith was destined to suffer--fell upon it, blackening its firmament
and subjecting it to one of the severest trials it had as yet
experienced.
Emboldened by the recent ordeals with which Bahá'u'lláh had
been so cruelly afflicted, these enemies, who had been momentarily
quiescent, began to demonstrate afresh, and in a number of ways,
the latent animosity they nursed in their hearts. A persecution,
varying in the degree of its severity, began once more to break out in
various countries. In Ádhirbayján and Zanján, in Nishápúr and
Tihrán, the adherents of the Faith were either imprisoned, vilified,
penalized, tortured or put to death. Among the sufferers may be
singled out the intrepid Najaf-`Alíy-i-Zanjání, a survivor of the
struggle of Zanján, and immortalized in the "Epistle to the Son of
the Wolf," who, bequeathing the gold in his possession to his executioner,
was heard to shout aloud "Yá Rabbíya'l-Abhá" before he was
beheaded. In Egypt, a greedy and vicious consul-general extorted no
less than a hundred thousand túmans from a wealthy Persian convert,
named Hájí Abu'l-Qásim-i-Shírází; arrested Hájí Mírzá Haydar-`Alí
and six of his fellow-believers, and instigated their condemnation
to a nine year exile in Khártúm, confiscating all the writings in their
possession, and then threw into prison Nabíl, whom Bahá'u'lláh had
sent to appeal to the Khedive on their behalf. In Baghdád and
Kázimayn indefatigable enemies, watching their opportunity, subjected
Bahá'u'lláh's faithful supporters to harsh and ignominious
treatment; savagely disemboweled `Abdu'r-Rasúl-i-Qumí, as he was
carrying water in a skin, at the hour of dawn, from the river to the
Most Great House, and banished, amidst scenes of public derision,
about seventy companions to Mosul, including women and children.
No less active were Mírzá Husayn-Khán, the Mushíru'd-Dawlih,
and his associates, who, determined to take full advantage of the
troubles that had recently visited Bahá'u'lláh, arose to encompass His
destruction. The authorities in the capital were incensed by the
esteem shown Him by the governor Muhammad Pásháy-i-Qibrisi, a
former Grand Vizir, and his successors Sulaymán Páshá, of the
Qádiríyyih Order, and particularly Khurshíd Páshá, who, openly and
on many occasions, frequented the house of Bahá'u'lláh, entertained
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Him in the days of Ramadán, and evinced a fervent admiration for
`Abdu'l-Bahá. They were well aware of the challenging tone Bahá'u'lláh
had assumed in some of His newly revealed Tablets, and
conscious of the instability prevailing in their own country. They
were disturbed by the constant comings and goings of pilgrims in
Adrianople, and by the exaggerated reports of Fu'ád Páshá, who had
recently passed through on a tour of inspection. The petitions of
Mírzá Yahyá which reached them through Siyyid Muhammad, his
agent, had provoked them. Anonymous letters (written by this same
Siyyid and by an accomplice, Áqá Ján, serving in the Turkish artillery)
which perverted the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, and which accused
Him of having conspired with Bulgarian leaders and certain ministers
of European powers to achieve, with the help of some thousands
of His followers, the conquest of Constantinople, had filled their
breasts with alarm. And now, encouraged by the internal dissensions
which had shaken the Faith, and irritated by the evident esteem in
which Bahá'u'lláh was held by the consuls of foreign powers stationed
in Adrianople, they determined to take drastic and immediate action
which would extirpate that Faith, isolate its Author and reduce Him
to powerlessness. The indiscretions committed by some of its over-zealous
followers, who had arrived in Constantinople, no doubt,
aggravated an already acute situation.
The fateful decision was eventually arrived at to banish Bahá'u'lláh
to the penal colony of `Akká, and Mírzá Yahyá to Famagusta
in Cyprus. This decision was embodied in a strongly worded Farmán,
issued by Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz. The companions of Bahá'u'lláh, who
had arrived in the capital, together with a few who later joined them,
as well as Áqá Ján, the notorious mischief-maker, were arrested,
interrogated, deprived of their papers and flung into prison. The
members of the community in Adrianople were, several times, summoned
to the governorate to ascertain their number, while rumors
were set afloat that they were to be dispersed and banished to different
places or secretly put to death.
Suddenly, one morning, the house of Bahá'u'lláh was surrounded
by soldiers, sentinels were posted at its gates, His followers were again
summoned by the authorities, interrogated, and ordered to make
ready for their departure. "The loved ones of God and His kindred,"
is Bahá'u'lláh's testimony in the Súriy-i-Ra'ís, "were left on the first
night without food... The people surrounded the house, and Muslims
and Christians wept over Us... We perceived that the weeping of
the people of the Son (Christians) exceeded the weeping of others--
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a sign for such as ponder." "A great tumult seized the people," writes
Áqá Ridá, one of the stoutest supporters of Bahá'u'lláh, exiled with
him all the way from Baghdád to `Akká, "All were perplexed and
full of regret... Some expressed their sympathy, others consoled us,
and wept over us... Most of our possessions were auctioned at half
their value." Some of the consuls of foreign powers called on
Bahá'u'lláh, and expressed their readiness to intervene with their
respective governments on His behalf--suggestions for which He
expressed appreciation, but which He firmly declined. "The consuls
of that city (Adrianople) gathered in the presence of this Youth at
the hour of His departure," He Himself has written, "and expressed
their desire to aid Him. They, verily, evinced towards Us manifest
affection."
The Persian Ambassador promptly informed the Persian consuls
in `Iráq and Egypt that the Turkish government had withdrawn its
protection from the Bábís, and that they were free to treat them as
they pleased. Several pilgrims, among whom was Hájí Muhammad
Ismá'íl-i-Kashaní, surnamed Anís in the Lawh-i-Ra'ís, had, in the
meantime, arrived in Adrianople, and had to depart to Gallipoli,
without even beholding the face of their Master. Two of the companions
were forced to divorce their wives, as their relatives refused
to allow them to go into exile. Khurshíd Páshá, who had already
several times categorically denied the written accusations sent him
by the authorities in Constantinople, and had interceded vigorously
on behalf of Bahá'u'lláh, was so embarrassed by the action of his
government that he decided to absent himself when informed of His
immediate departure from the city, and instructed the Registrar to
convey to Him the purport of the Sultán's edict. Hájí Ja'far-i-Tabrízí,
one of the believers, finding that his name had been omitted
from the list of the exiles who might accompany Bahá'u'lláh, cut his
throat with a razor, but was prevented in time from ending his life--
an act which Bahá'u'lláh, in the Súriy-i-Ra'ís, characterizes as
"unheard of in bygone centuries," and which "God hath set apart for
this Revelation, as an evidence of the power of His might."
On the twenty-second of the month of Rabí'u'th-Thání 1285
A.H. (August 12, 1868) Bahá'u'lláh and His family, escorted by a
Turkish captain, Hasan Effendi by name, and other soldiers appointed
by the local government, set out on their four-day journey to
Gallipoli, riding in carriages and stopping on their way at Üzün-Küprü
and Káshánih, at which latter place the Súriy-i-Ra'ís was
revealed. "The inhabitants of the quarter in which Bahá'u'lláh had
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been living, and the neighbors who had gathered to bid Him farewell,
came one after the other," writes an eye-witness, "with the utmost
sadness and regret to kiss His hands and the hem of His robe, expressing
meanwhile their sorrow at His departure. That day, too,
was a strange day. Methinks the city, its walls and its gates bemoaned
their imminent separation from Him." "On that day," writes another
eye-witness, "there was a wonderful concourse of Muslims and
Christians at the door of our Master's house. The hour of departure
was a memorable one. Most of those present were weeping and wailing,
especially the Christians." "Say," Bahá'u'lláh Himself declares in
the Súriy-i-Ra'ís, "this Youth hath departed out of this country and
deposited beneath every tree and every stone a trust, which God will
erelong bring forth through the power of truth."
Several of the companions who had been brought from Constantinople
were awaiting them in Gallipoli. On his arrival Bahá'u'lláh
made the following pronouncement to Hasan Effendi, who, his duty
discharged, was taking his leave: "Tell the king that this territory
will pass out of his hands, and his affairs will be thrown into confusion."
"To this," Áqá Ridá, the recorder of that scene has written,
"Bahá'u'lláh furthermore added: `Not I speak these words, but God
speaketh them.' In those moments He was uttering verses which we,
who were downstairs, could overhear. They were spoken with such
vehemence and power that, methinks, the foundations of the house
itself trembled."
Even in Gallipoli, where three nights were spent, no one knew
what Bahá'u'lláh's destination would be. Some believed that He and
His brothers would be banished to one place, and the remainder dispersed,
and sent into exile. Others thought that His companions
would be sent back to Persia, while still others expected their immediate
extermination. The government's original order was to banish
Bahá'u'lláh, Aqáy-i-Kalím and Mírzá Muhammad-Qulí, with a
servant to `Akká, while the rest were to proceed to Constantinople.
This order, which provoked scenes of indescribable distress, was,
however, at the insistence of Bahá'u'lláh, and by the instrumentality
of Umar Effendi, a major appointed to accompany the exiles, revoked.
It was eventually decided that all the exiles, numbering about
seventy, should be banished to `Akká. Instructions were, moreover,
issued that a certain number of the adherents of Mírzá Yahyá,
among whom were Siyyid Muhammad and Áqá Ján, should accompany
these exiles, whilst four of the companions of Bahá'u'lláh were
ordered to depart with the Azalís for Cyprus.
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So grievous were the dangers and trials confronting Bahá'u'lláh
at the hour of His departure from Gallipoli that He warned His
companions that "this journey will be unlike any of the previous
journeys," and that whoever did not feel himself "man enough to
face the future" had best "depart to whatever place he pleaseth, and
be preserved from tests, for hereafter he will find himself unable to
leave"--a warning which His companions unanimously chose to
disregard.
On the morning of the 2nd of Jamádiyu'l-Avval 1285 A.H.
(August 21, 1868) they all embarked in an Austrian-Lloyd steamer
for Alexandria, touching at Madellí, and stopping for two days at
Smyrna, where Jináb-i-Munír, surnamed Ismu'lláhu'l-Múníb, became
gravely ill, and had, to his great distress, to be left behind in a hospital
where he soon after died. In Alexandria they transhipped into a
steamer of the same company, bound for Haifa, where, after brief
stops at Port Said and Jaffa, they landed, setting out, a few hours
later, in a sailing vessel, for `Akká, where they disembarked, in the
course of the afternoon of the 12th of Jamádiyu'l-Avval 1285 A.H.
(August 31, 1868). It was at the moment when Bahá'u'lláh had
stepped into the boat which was to carry Him to the landing-stage in
Haifa that `Abdu'l-Ghaffar, one of the four companions condemned
to share the exile of Mírzá Yahyá, and whose "detachment, love and
trust in God" Bahá'u'lláh had greatly praised, cast himself, in his
despair, into the sea, shouting "Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá," and was subsequently
rescued and resuscitated with the greatest difficulty, only to
be forced by adamant officials to continue his voyage, with Mírzá
Yahyá's party, to the destination originally appointed for him.
+P183
CHAPTER XI
Bahá'u'lláh's Incarceration in `Akká
The arrival of Bahá'u'lláh in `Akká marks the opening of the
last phase of His forty-year long ministry, the final stage, and indeed
the climax, of the banishment in which the whole of that ministry
was spent. A banishment that had, at first, brought Him to the
immediate vicinity of the strongholds of Shí'ah orthodoxy and into
contact with its outstanding exponents, and which, at a later period,
had carried Him to the capital of the Ottoman empire, and led Him
to address His epoch-making pronouncements to the Sultán, to his
ministers and to the ecclesiastical leaders of Sunní Islám, had now
been instrumental in landing Him upon the shores of the Holy Land
--the Land promised by God to Abraham, sanctified by the Revelation
of Moses, honored by the lives and labors of the Hebrew
patriarchs, judges, kings and prophets, revered as the cradle of
Christianity, and as the place where Zoroaster, according to `Abdu'l-Bahá's
testimony, had "held converse with some of the Prophets of
Israel," and associated by Islám with the Apostle's night-journey,
through the seven heavens, to the throne of the Almighty. Within
the confines of this holy and enviable country, "the nest of all the
Prophets of God," "the Vale of God's unsearchable Decree, the snow-white
Spot, the Land of unfading splendor" was the Exile of Baghdád,
of Constantinople and Adrianople condemned to spend no less than a
third of the allotted span of His life, and over half of the total
period of His Mission. "It is difficult," declares `Abdu'l-Bahá, "to
understand how Bahá'u'lláh could have been obliged to leave Persia,
and to pitch His tent in this Holy Land, but for the persecution of
His enemies, His banishment and exile."
Indeed such a consummation, He assures us, had been actually
prophesied "through the tongue of the Prophets two or three thousand
years before." God, "faithful to His promise," had, "to some of the
Prophets" "revealed and given the good news that the `Lord of Hosts
should be manifested in the Holy Land.'" Isaiah had, in this connection,
announced in his Book: "Get thee up into the high mountain,
O Zion that bringest good tidings; lift up thy voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings. Lift it up, be not afraid;
+P184
say unto the cities of Judah: `Behold your God! Behold the Lord
God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him.'"
David, in his Psalms, had predicted: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall
come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the
King of Glory." "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath
shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence." Amos had,
likewise, foretold His coming: "The Lord will roar from Zion, and
utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds
shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither."
`Akká, itself, flanked by the "glory of Lebanon," and lying in
full view of the "splendor of Carmel," at the foot of the hills which
enclose the home of Jesus Christ Himself, had been described by
David as "the Strong City," designated by Hosea as "a door of hope,"
and alluded to by Ezekiel as "the gate that looketh towards the East,"
whereunto "the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of
the East," His voice "like a noise of many waters." To it the Arabian
Prophet had referred as "a city in Syria to which God hath shown His
special mercy," situated "betwixt two mountains ... in the middle
of a meadow," "by the shore of the sea ... suspended beneath the
Throne," "white, whose whiteness is pleasing unto God." "Blessed
the man," He, moreover, as confirmed by Bahá'u'lláh, had declared,
"that hath visited `Akká, and blessed he that hath visited the visitor
of `Akká." Furthermore, "He that raiseth therein the call to prayer,
his voice will be lifted up unto Paradise." And again: "The poor of
`Akká are the kings of Paradise and the princes thereof. A month in
`Akká is better than a thousand years elsewhere." Moreover, in a
remarkable tradition, which is contained in Shaykh Ibnu'l-`Arabí's
work, entitled "Futúhát-i-Makkíyyih," and which is recognized as an
authentic utterance of Muhammad, and is quoted by Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl
in his "Fará'íd," this significant prediction has been made:
"All of them (the companions of the Qá'im) shall be slain except One
Who shall reach the plain of `Akká, the Banquet-Hall of God."
Bahá'u'lláh Himself, as attested by Nabíl in his narrative, had,
as far back as the first years of His banishment to Adrianople, alluded
to that same city in His Lawh-i-Sáyyah, designating it as the "Vale of
Nabíl," the word Nabíl being equal in numerical value to that of
`Akká. "Upon Our arrival," that Tablet had predicted, "We were
welcomed with banners of light, whereupon the Voice of the Spirit
cried out saying: `Soon will all that dwell on earth be enlisted under
these banners.'"
+P185
The banishment, lasting no less than twenty-four years, to which
two Oriental despots had, in their implacable enmity and shortsightedness,
combined to condemn Bahá'u'lláh, will go down in history
as a period which witnessed a miraculous and truly revolutionizing
change in the circumstances attending the life and activities of the
Exile Himself, will be chiefly remembered for the widespread recrudescence
of persecution, intermittent but singularly cruel, throughout
His native country and the simultaneous increase in the number of
His followers, and, lastly, for an enormous extension in the range
and volume of His writings.
His arrival at the penal colony of `Akká, far from proving the
end of His afflictions, was but the beginning of a major crisis, characterized
by bitter suffering, severe restrictions, and intense turmoil,
which, in its gravity, surpassed even the agonies of the Síyáh-Chál of
Tihrán, and to which no other event, in the history of the entire
century can compare, except the internal convulsion that rocked the
Faith in Adrianople. "Know thou," Bahá'u'lláh, wishing to emphasize
the criticalness of the first nine years of His banishment to that
prison-city, has written, "that upon Our arrival at this Spot, We
chose to designate it as the `Most Great Prison.' Though previously
subjected in another land (Tihrán) to chains and fetters, We yet
refused to call it by that name. Say: Ponder thereon, O ye endued
with understanding!"
The ordeal He endured, as a direct consequence of the attempt
on the life of Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, was one which had been inflicted
upon Him solely by the external enemies of the Faith. The travail in
Adrianople, the effects of which all but sundered the community of
the Báb's followers, was, on the other hand, purely internal in character.
This fresh crisis which, during almost a decade, agitated Him
and His companions, was, however, marked throughout not only by
the assaults of His adversaries from without, but by the machinations
of enemies from within, as well as by the grievous misdeeds of those
who, though bearing His name, perpetrated what made His heart
and His pen alike to lament.
`Akká, the ancient Ptolemais, the St. Jean d'Acre of the Crusaders,
that had successfully defied the siege of Napoleon, had sunk, under
the Turks, to the level of a penal colony to which murderers, highway
robbers and political agitators were consigned from all parts of the
Turkish empire. It was girt about by a double system of ramparts;
was inhabited by a people whom Bahá'u'lláh stigmatized as "the generation
of vipers"; was devoid of any source of water within its gates;
+P186
was flea-infested, damp and honey-combed with gloomy, filthy and
tortuous lanes. "According to what they say," the Supreme Pen has
recorded in the Lawh-i-Sultán, "it is the most desolate of the cities
of the world, the most unsightly of them in appearance, the most
detestable in climate, and the foulest in water. It is as though it were
the metropolis of the owl." So putrid was its air that, according to a
proverb, a bird when flying over it would drop dead.
Explicit orders had been issued by the Sultán and his ministers to
subject the exiles, who were accused of having grievously erred and
led others far astray, to the strictest confinement. Hopes were confidently
expressed that the sentence of life-long imprisonment pronounced
against them would lead to their eventual extermination.
The farmán of Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz, dated the fifth of Rabí'u'th-Thání
1285 A.H. (July 26, 1868), not only condemned them to
perpetual banishment, but stipulated their strict incarceration, and
forbade them to associate either with each other or with the local inhabitants.
The text of the farmán itself was read publicly, soon after
the arrival of the exiles, in the principal mosque of the city as a
warning to the population. The Persian Ambassador, accredited to
the Sublime Porte, had thus assured his government, in a letter,
written a little over a year after their banishment to `Akká: "I have
issued telegraphic and written instructions, forbidding that He
(Bahá'u'lláh) associate with any one except His wives and children,
or leave under any circumstances, the house wherein He is imprisoned.
Abbás-Qulí Khán, the Consul-General in Damascus ... I have, three
days ago, sent back, instructing him to proceed direct to `Akká ...
confer with its governor regarding all necessary measures for the
strict maintenance of their imprisonment ... and appoint, before
his return to Damascus, a representative on the spot to insure that the
orders issued by the Sublime Porte will, in no wise, be disobeyed. I
have, likewise, instructed him that once every three months he should
proceed from Damascus to `Akká, and personally watch over them,
and submit his report to the Legation." Such was the isolation imposed
upon them that the Bahá'ís of Persia, perturbed by the rumors
set afloat by the Azalís of Isfahán that Bahá'u'lláh had been drowned,
induced the British Telegraph office in Julfá to ascertain on their
behalf the truth of the matter.
Having, after a miserable voyage, disembarked at `Akká, all the
exiles, men, women and children, were, under the eyes of a curious
and callous population that had assembled at the port to behold the
"God of the Persians," conducted to the army barracks, where they
+P187
were locked in, and sentinels detailed to guard them. "The first night,"
Bahá'u'lláh testifies in the Lawh-i-Ra'ís, "all were deprived of either
food or drink... They even begged for water, and were refused."
So filthy and brackish was the water in the pool of the courtyard that
no one could drink it. Three loaves of black and salty bread were
assigned to each, which they were later permitted to exchange, when
escorted by guards to the market, for two of better quality. Subsequently
they were allowed a mere pittance as substitute for the
allotted dole of bread. All fell sick, except two, shortly after their
arrival. Malaria, dysentery, combined with the sultry heat, added to
their miseries. Three succumbed, among them two brothers, who died
the same night, "locked," as testified by Bahá'u'lláh, "in each other's
arms." The carpet used by Him He gave to be sold in order to
provide for their winding-sheets and burial. The paltry sum obtained
after it had been auctioned was delivered to the guards, who had
refused to bury them without first being paid the necessary expenses.
Later, it was learned that, unwashed and unshrouded, they had buried
them, without coffins, in the clothes they wore, though, as affirmed by
Bahá'u'lláh, they were given twice the amount required for their
burial. "None," He Himself has written, "knoweth what befell Us,
except God, the Almighty, the All-Knowing... From the foundation
of the world until the present day a cruelty such as this hath
neither been seen nor heard of." "He hath, during the greater part
of His life," He, referring to Himself, has, moreover, recorded, "been
sore-tried in the clutches of His enemies. His sufferings have now
reached their culmination in this afflictive Prison, into which His
oppressors have so unjustly thrown Him."
The few pilgrims who, despite the ban that had been so rigidly
imposed, managed to reach the gates of the Prison--some of whom
had journeyed the entire distance from Persia on foot--had to content
themselves with a fleeting glimpse of the face of the Prisoner, as they
stood, beyond the second moat, facing the window of His Prison.
The very few who succeeded in penetrating into the city had, to their
great distress, to retrace their steps without even beholding His
countenance. The first among them, the self-denying Hájí
Abu'l-Hasan-i-Ardikání, surnamed Amín-i-Iláhí (Trusted of God), to
enter His presence was only able to do so in a public bath, where it
had been arranged that he should see Bahá'u'lláh without approaching
Him or giving any sign of recognition. Another pilgrim, Ustád
Ismá'íl-i-Kashí, arriving from Mosul, posted himself on the far side
of the moat, and, gazing for hours, in rapt adoration, at the window
+P188
of his Beloved, failed in the end, owing to the feebleness of his sight,
to discern His face, and had to turn back to the cave which served as
his dwelling-place on Mt. Carmel--an episode that moved to tears
the Holy Family who had been anxiously watching from afar the
frustration of his hopes. Nabíl himself had to precipitately flee the
city, where he had been recognized, had to satisfy himself with a
brief glimpse of Bahá'u'lláh from across that same moat, and continued
to roam the countryside around Nazareth, Haifa, Jerusalem
and Hebron, until the gradual relaxation of restrictions enabled him
to join the exiles.
To the galling weight of these tribulations was now added the
bitter grief of a sudden tragedy--the premature loss of the noble, the
pious Mírzá Mihdí, the Purest Branch, `Abdu'l-Bahá's twenty-two
year old brother, an amanuensis of Bahá'u'lláh and a companion of
His exile from the days when, as a child, he was brought from Tihrán
to Baghdád to join his Father after His return from Sulamáníyyih.
He was pacing the roof of the barracks in the twilight, one evening,
wrapped in his customary devotions, when he fell through the unguarded
skylight onto a wooden crate, standing on the floor beneath,
which pierced his ribs, and caused, twenty-two hours later, his death,
on the 23rd of Rabí'u'l-Avval 1287 A.H. (June 23, 1870). His
dying supplication to a grieving Father was that his life might be
accepted as a ransom for those who were prevented from attaining the
presence of their Beloved.
In a highly significant prayer, revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in memory
of His son--a prayer that exalts his death to the rank of those great
acts of atonement associated with Abraham's intended sacrifice of
His son, with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the martyrdom of
the Imám Husayn--we read the following: "I have, O my Lord,
offered up that which Thou hast given Me, that Thy servants may be
quickened, and all that dwell on earth be united." And, likewise,
these prophetic words, addressed to His martyred son: "Thou art the
Trust of God and His Treasure in this Land. Erelong will God reveal
through thee that which He hath desired."
After he had been washed in the presence of Bahá'u'lláh, he "that
was created of the light of Bahá," to whose "meekness" the Supreme
Pen had testified, and of the "mysteries" of whose ascension that same
Pen had made mention, was borne forth, escorted by the fortress
guards, and laid to rest, beyond the city walls, in a spot adjacent to
the shrine of Nabí Salíh, from whence, seventy years later, his remains,
simultaneously with those of his illustrious mother, were to be
+P189
translated to the slopes of Mt. Carmel, in the precincts of the grave
of his sister, and under the shadow of the Báb's holy sepulcher.
Nor was this the full measure of the afflictions endured by the
Prisoner of `Akká and His fellow-exiles. Four months after this tragic
event a mobilization of Turkish troops necessitated the removal of
Bahá'u'lláh and all who bore Him company from the barracks. He
and His family were accordingly assigned the house of Malik, in the
western quarter of the city, whence, after a brief stay of three
months, they were moved by the authorities to the house of Khavvám
which faced it, and from which, after a few months, they were again
obliged to take up new quarters in the house of Rabí'ih, being finally
transferred, four months later, to the house of Údí Khammár, which
was so insufficient to their needs that in one of its rooms no less than
thirteen persons of both sexes had to accommodate themselves. Some
of the companions had to take up their residence in other houses,
while the remainder were consigned to a caravanserai named the
Khán-i-`Avámid.
Their strict confinement had hardly been mitigated, and the
guards who had kept watch over them been dismissed, when an
internal crisis, which had been brewing in the midst of the community,
was brought to a sudden and catastrophic climax. Such had
been the conduct of two of the exiles, who had been included in the
party that accompanied Bahá'u'lláh to `Akká, that He was eventually
forced to expel them, an act of which Siyyid Muhammad did not
hesitate to take the fullest advantage. Reinforced by these recruits,
he, together with his old associates, acting as spies, embarked on a
campaign of abuse, calumny and intrigue, even more pernicious than
that which had been launched by him in Constantinople, calculated
to arouse an already prejudiced and suspicious populace to a new pitch
of animosity and excitement. A fresh danger now clearly threatened
the life of Bahá'u'lláh. Though He Himself had stringently forbidden
His followers, on several occasions, both verbally and in writing, any
retaliatory acts against their tormentors, and had even sent back to
Beirut an irresponsible Arab convert, who had meditated avenging
the wrongs suffered by his beloved Leader, seven of the companions
clandestinely sought out and slew three of their persecutors, among
whom were Siyyid Muhammad and Áqá Ján.
The consternation that seized an already oppressed community
was indescribable. Bahá'u'lláh's indignation knew no bounds. "Were
We," He thus voices His emotions, in a Tablet revealed shortly after
this act had been committed, "to make mention of what befell Us,
+P190
the heavens would be rent asunder and the mountains would
crumble." "My captivity," He wrote on another occasion, "cannot
harm Me. That which can harm Me is the conduct of those who
love Me, who claim to be related to Me, and yet perpetrate what
causeth My heart and My pen to groan." And again: "My captivity
can bring on Me no shame. Nay, by My life, it conferreth on Me glory.
That which can make Me ashamed is the conduct of such of My
followers as profess to love Me, yet in fact follow the Evil One."
He was dictating His Tablets to His amanuensis when the governor,
at the head of his troops, with drawn swords, surrounded His
house. The entire populace, as well as the military authorities, were
in a state of great agitation. The shouts and clamor of the people
could be heard on all sides. Bahá'u'lláh was peremptorily summoned
to the Governorate, interrogated, kept in custody the first night,
with one of His sons, in a chamber in the Khán-i-Shavirdí, transferred
for the following two nights to better quarters in that neighborhood,
and allowed only after the lapse of seventy hours to regain
His home. `Abdu'l-Bahá was thrown into prison and chained during
the first night, after which He was permitted to join His Father.
Twenty-five of the companions were cast into another prison and
shackled, all of whom, except those responsible for that odious deed,
whose imprisonment lasted several years, were, after six days, moved
to the Khán-i-Shavirdí, and there placed, for six months, under
confinement.
"Is it proper," the Commandant of the city, turning to Bahá'u'lláh,
after He had arrived at the Governorate, boldly inquired,
"that some of your followers should act in such a manner?" "If one
of your soldiers," was the swift rejoinder, "were to commit a reprehensible
act, would you be held responsible, and be punished in his
place?" When interrogated, He was asked to state His name and
that of the country from which He came. "It is more manifest than
the sun," He answered. The same question was put to Him again, to
which He gave the following reply: "I deem it not proper to mention
it. Refer to the farmán of the government which is in your possession."
Once again they, with marked deference, reiterated their
request, whereupon Bahá'u'lláh spoke with majesty and power these
words: "My name is Bahá'u'lláh (Light of God), and My country is
Núr (Light). Be ye apprized of it." Turning then, to the Muftí,
He addressed him words of veiled rebuke, after which He spoke to the
entire gathering, in such vehement and exalted language that none
made bold to answer Him. Having quoted verses from the Súriy-i-Mulúk,
+P191
He, afterwards, arose and left the gathering. The Governor,
soon after, sent word that He was at liberty to return to His home,
and apologized for what had occurred.
A population, already ill-disposed towards the exiles, was, after
such an incident, fired with uncontrollable animosity for all those
who bore the name of the Faith which those exiles professed. The
charges of impiety, atheism, terrorism and heresy were openly and
without restraint flung into their faces. Abbúd, who lived next door
to Bahá'u'lláh, reinforced the partition that separated his house from
the dwelling of his now much-feared and suspected Neighbor. Even
the children of the imprisoned exiles, whenever they ventured to
show themselves in the streets during those days, would be pursued,
vilified and pelted with stones.
The cup of Bahá'u'lláh's tribulations was now filled to overflowing.
A situation, greatly humiliating, full of anxieties and even
perilous, continued to face the exiles, until the time, set by an inscrutable
Will, at which the tide of misery and abasement began to
ebb, signalizing a transformation in the fortunes of the Faith even
more conspicuous than the revolutionary change effected during the
latter years of Bahá'u'lláh's sojourn in Baghdád.
The gradual recognition by all elements of the population of
Bahá'u'lláh's complete innocence; the slow penetration of the true
spirit of His teachings through the hard crust of their indifference
and bigotry; the substitution of the sagacious and humane governor,
Ahmad Big Tawfíq, for one whose mind had been hopelessly poisoned
against the Faith and its followers; the unremitting labors of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
now in the full flower of His manhood, Who, through His
contacts with the rank and file of the population, was increasingly
demonstrating His capacity to act as the shield of His Father; the
providential dismissal of the officials who had been instrumental in
prolonging the confinement of the innocent companions--all paved
the way for the reaction that was now setting in, a reaction with
which the period of Bahá'u'lláh's banishment to `Akká will ever
remain indissolubly associated.
Such was the devotion gradually kindled in the heart of that
governor, through his association with `Abdu'l-Bahá, and later
through his perusal of the literature of the Faith, which mischief-makers,
in the hope of angering him, had submitted for his consideration,
that he invariably refused to enter His presence without
first removing his shoes, as a token of his respect for Him. It was
even bruited about that his favored counselors were those very exiles
+P192
who were the followers of the Prisoner in his custody. His own son
he was wont to send to `Abdu'l-Bahá for instruction and enlightenment.
It was on the occasion of a long-sought audience with
Bahá'u'lláh that, in response to a request for permission to render Him
some service, the suggestion was made to him to restore the aqueduct
which for thirty years had been allowed to fall into disuse--a suggestion
which he immediately arose to carry out. To the inflow of
pilgrims, among whom were numbered the devout and venerable
Mullá Sádiq-i-Khurasaní and the father of Badí, both survivors of
the struggle of Tabarsí, he offered scarcely any opposition, though
the text of the imperial farmán forbade their admission into the
city. Mustafá Díyá Páshá, who became governor a few years later,
had even gone so far as to intimate that his Prisoner was free to pass
through its gates whenever He pleased, a suggestion which Bahá'u'lláh
declined. Even the Muftí of `Akká, Shaykh Mahmúd, a man
notorious for his bigotry, had been converted to the Faith, and, fired
by his newborn enthusiasm, made a compilation of the Muhammadan
traditions related to `Akká. Nor were the occasionally unsympathetic
governors, despatched to that city, able, despite the arbitrary
power they wielded, to check the forces which were carrying the
Author of the Faith towards His virtual emancipation and the ultimate
accomplishment of His purpose. Men of letters, and even
`ulamás residing in Syria, were moved, as the years rolled by, to
voice their recognition of Bahá'u'lláh's rising greatness and power.
Azíz Páshá, who, in Adrianople, had evinced a profound attachment
to `Abdu'l-Bahá, and had in the meantime been promoted to
the rank of Valí, twice visited `Akká for the express purpose of
paying his respects to Bahá'u'lláh, and to renew his friendship with
One Whom he had learned to admire and revere.
Though Bahá'u'lláh Himself practically never granted personal
interviews, as He had been used to do in Baghdád, yet such was the
influence He now wielded that the inhabitants openly asserted that
the noticeable improvement in the climate and water of their city
was directly attributable to His continued presence in their midst.
The very designations by which they chose to refer to him, such as
the "august leader," and "his highness" bespoke the reverence with
which He inspired them. On one occasion, a European general who,
together with the governor, was granted an audience by Him, was
so impressed that he "remained kneeling on the ground near the
door." Shaykh Alíy-i-Mírí, the Muftí of `Akká, had even, at the
suggestion of `Abdu'l-Bahá, to plead insistently that He might permit
+P193
the termination of His nine-year confinement within the walls
of the prison-city, before He would consent to leave its gates. The
garden of Na'mayn, a small island, situated in the middle of a river
to the east of the city, honored with the appellation of Ridván, and
designated by Him the "New Jerusalem" and "Our Verdant Isle,"
had, together with the residence of `Abdu'lláh Páshá,--rented and
prepared for Him by `Abdu'l-Bahá, and situated a few miles north
of `Akká--become by now the favorite retreats of One Who, for
almost a decade, had not set foot beyond the city walls, and Whose
sole exercise had been to pace, in monotonous repetition, the floor of
His bed-chamber.
Two years later the palace of Údí Khammár, on the construction
of which so much wealth had been lavished, while Bahá'u'lláh lay
imprisoned in the barracks, and which its owner had precipitately
abandoned with his family owing to the outbreak of an epidemic
disease, was rented and later purchased for Him--a dwelling-place
which He characterized as the "lofty mansion," the spot which "God
hath ordained as the most sublime vision of mankind." `Abdu'l-Bahá's
visit to Beirut, at the invitation of Midhát Páshá, a former Grand
Vizir of Turkey, occurring about this time; His association with the
civil and ecclesiastical leaders of that city; His several interviews
with the well-known Shaykh Muhammad `Abdu served to enhance
immensely the growing prestige of the community and spread abroad
the fame of its most distinguished member. The splendid welcome
accorded him by the learned and highly esteemed Shaykh Yúsúf, the
Muftí of Nazareth, who acted as host to the valís of Beirut, and who
had despatched all the notables of the community several miles on the
road to meet Him as He approached the town, accompanied by His
brother and the Muftí of `Akká, as well as the magnificent reception
given by `Abdu'l-Bahá to that same Shaykh Yúsúf when the latter
visited Him in `Akká, were such as to arouse the envy of those who,
only a few years before, had treated Him and His fellow-exiles with
feelings compounded of condescension and scorn.
The drastic farmán of Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz, though officially
unrepealed, had by now become a dead letter. Though "Bahá'u'lláh
was still nominally a prisoner, "the doors of majesty and true sovereignty
were," in the words of `Abdu'l-Bahá, "flung wide open." "The
rulers of Palestine," He moreover has written, "envied His influence
and power. Governors and mutisárrifs, generals and local officials,
would humbly request the honor of attaining His presence--a request
to which He seldom acceded."
+P194
It was in that same mansion that the distinguished Orientalist,
Prof. E. G. Browne of Cambridge, was granted his four successive
interviews with Bahá'u'lláh, during the five days he was His guest
at Bahjí (April 15-20, 1890), interviews immortalized by the Exile's
historic declaration that "these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars
shall pass away and the `Most Great Peace' shall come." "The face of
Him on Whom I gazed," is the interviewer's memorable testimony
for posterity, "I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those
piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul; power and authority
sat on that ample brow.... No need to ask in whose presence I
stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion
and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain."
"Here," the visitor himself has testified, "did I spend five most
memorable days, during which I enjoyed unparalleled and unhoped-for
opportunities of holding intercourse with those who are the
fountain-heads of that mighty and wondrous spirit, which works
with invisible but ever-increasing force for the transformation and
quickening of a people who slumber in a sleep like unto death. It
was, in truth, a strange and moving experience, but one whereof
I despair of conveying any save the feeblest impression."
In that same year Bahá'u'lláh's tent, the "Tabernacle of Glory,"
was raised on Mt. Carmel, "the Hill of God and His Vineyard," the
home of Elijah, extolled by Isaiah as the "mountain of the Lord," to
which "all nations shall flow." Four times He visited Haifa, His last
visit being no less than three months long. In the course of one of
these visits, when His tent was pitched in the vicinity of the Carmelite
Monastery, He, the "Lord of the Vineyard," revealed the Tablet of
Carmel, remarkable for its allusions and prophecies. On another occasion
He pointed out Himself to `Abdu'l-Bahá, as He stood on the
slopes of that mountain, the site which was to serve as the permanent
resting-place of the Báb, and on which a befitting mausoleum was
later to be erected.
Properties, bordering on the Lake associated with the ministry
of Jesus Christ, were, moreover, purchased at Bahá'u'lláh's bidding,
designed to be consecrated to the glory of His Faith, and to be the
forerunners of those "noble and imposing structures" which He, in
His Tablets, had anticipated would be raised "throughout the length
and breadth" of the Holy Land, as well as of the "rich and sacred territories
adjoining the Jordan and its vicinity," which, in those Tablets,
He had permitted to be dedicated "to the worship and service of the
one true God."
+P195
The enormous expansion in the volume of Bahá'u'lláh's correspondence;
the establishment of a Bahá'í agency in Alexandria for
its despatch and distribution; the facilities provided by His staunch
follower, Muhammad Mustafá, now established in Beirut to safeguard
the interests of the pilgrims who passed through that city; the
comparative ease with which a titular Prisoner communicated with
the multiplying centers in Persia, `Iráq, Caucasus, Turkistán, and
Egypt; the mission entrusted by Him to Sulaymán Khán-i-Tanakábúní,
known as Jamál Effendi, to initiate a systematic campaign of
teaching in India and Burma; the appointment of a few of His followers
as "Hands of the Cause of God"; the restoration of the Holy
House in Shíráz, whose custodianship was now formally entrusted
by Him to the Báb's wife and her sister; the conversion of a considerable
number of the adherents of the Jewish, Zoroastrian and
Buddhist Faiths, the first fruits of the zeal and the perseverance which
itinerant teachers in Persia, India and Burma were so strikingly displaying
--conversions that automatically resulted in a firm recognition
by them of the Divine origin of both Christianity and Islám--
all these attested the vitality of a leadership that neither kings nor
ecclesiastics, however powerful or antagonistic, could either destroy
or undermine.
Nor should reference be omitted to the emergence of a prosperous
community in the newly laid out city of Ishqábád, in Russian Turkistán,
assured of the good will of a sympathetic government, enabling
it to establish a Bahá'í cemetery and to purchase property and erect
thereon structures that were to prove the precursors of the first
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world; or to the establishment of
new outposts of the Faith in far-off Samarqand and Bukhárá, in the
heart of the Asiatic continent, in consequence of the discourses and
writings of the erudite Fádil-i-Qa'iní and the learned apologist
Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl; or to the publication in India of five volumes of
the writings of the Author of the Faith, including His "Most Holy
Book"--publications which were to herald the vast multiplication of
its literature, in various scripts and languages, and its dissemination,
in later decades, throughout both the East and the West.
"Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz," Bahá'u'lláh is reported by one of His
fellow-exiles to have stated, "banished Us to this country in the greatest
abasement, and since his object was to destroy Us and humble
Us, whenever the means of glory and ease presented themselves, We
did not reject them." "Now, praise be to God," He, moreover, as
reported by Nabíl in his narrative, once remarked, "it has reached
+P196
the point when all the people of these regions are manifesting their
submissiveness unto Us." And again, as recorded in that same narrative:
"The Ottoman Sultán, without any justification, or reason,
arose to oppress Us, and sent Us to the fortress of `Akká. His imperial
farmán decreed that none should associate with Us, and that We
should become the object of the hatred of every one. The Hand of
Divine power, therefore, swiftly avenged Us. It first loosed the winds
of destruction upon his two irreplaceable ministers and confidants,
`Alí and Fu'ád, after which that Hand was stretched out to roll up
the panoply of Azíz himself, and to seize him, as He only can seize,
Who is the Mighty, the Strong."
"His enemies," `Abdu'l-Bahá, referring to this same theme, has
written, "intended that His imprisonment should completely destroy
and annihilate the blessed Cause, but this prison was, in reality, of
the greatest assistance, and became the means of its development."
"...This illustrious Being," He, moreover has affirmed, "uplifted His
Cause in the Most Great Prison. From this Prison His light was shed
abroad; His fame conquered the world, and the proclamation of His
glory reached the East and the West." "His light at first had been
a star; now it became a mighty sun." "Until our time," He, moreover
has affirmed, "no such thing has ever occurred."
Little wonder that, in view of so remarkable a reversal in the
circumstances attending the twenty-four years of His banishment to
`Akká, Bahá'u'lláh Himself should have penned these weighty words:
"The Almighty ... hath transformed this Prison-House into the Most
Exalted Paradise, the Heaven of Heavens."
+P197
CHAPTER XII
Bahá'u'lláh's Incarceration in `Akká
(Continued)
While Bahá'u'lláh and the little band that bore Him company
were being subjected to the severe hardships of a banishment intended
to blot them from the face of the earth, the steadily expanding community
of His followers in the land of His birth were undergoing a
persecution more violent and of longer duration than the trials with
which He and His companions were being afflicted. Though on a far
smaller scale than the blood baths which had baptized the birth of
the Faith, when in the course of a single year, as attested by `Abdu'l-Bahá,
"more than four thousand souls were slain, and a great multitude
of women and children left without protector and helper," the murderous
and horrible acts subsequently perpetrated by an insatiable
and unyielding enemy covered as wide a range and were marked by an
even greater degree of ferocity.
Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, stigmatized by Bahá'u'lláh as the "Prince of
Oppressors," as one who had "perpetrated what hath caused the
denizens of the cities of justice and equity to lament," was, during
the period under review, in the full tide of his manhood and had
reached the plenitude of his despotic power. The sole arbiter of the
fortunes of a country "firmly stereotyped in the immemorial traditions
of the East"; surrounded by "venal, artful and false" ministers
whom he could elevate or abase at his pleasure; the head of an administration
in which "every actor was, in different aspects, both the
briber and the bribed"; allied, in his opposition to the Faith, with a
sacerdotal order which constituted a veritable "church-state"; supported
by a people preeminent in atrocity, notorious for its fanaticism,
its servility, cupidity and corrupt practices, this capricious
monarch, no longer able to lay hands upon the person of Bahá'u'lláh,
had to content himself with the task of attempting to stamp out in
his own dominions the remnants of a much-feared and newly resuscitated
community. Next to him in rank and power were his three
eldest sons, to whom, for purposes of internal administration, he had
practically delegated his authority, and in whom he had invested the
governorship of all the provinces of his kingdom. The province of
+P198
Ádhirbayján he had entrusted to the weak and timid Muzaffari'd-Dín
Mírzá, the heir to his throne, who had fallen under the influence of
the Shaykhí sect, and was showing a marked respect to the mullás.
To the stern and savage rule of the astute Mas'úd Mírzá, commonly
known as Zillu's-Sultán, his eldest surviving son, whose mother had
been of plebeian origin, he had committed over two-fifths of his
kingdom, including the provinces of Yazd and Isfahán, whilst upon
Kámrán Mírzá, his favorite son, commonly called by his title the
Náyibu's-Saltanih, he had bestowed the rulership of Gílán and
Mazindarán, and made him governor of Tihrán, his minister of war
and the commander-in-chief of his army. Such was the rivalry
between the last two princes, who vied with each other in courting
the favor of their father, that each endeavored, with the support of
the leading mujtahids within his jurisdiction, to outshine the other
in the meritorious task of hunting, plundering and exterminating
the members of a defenseless community, who, at the bidding of
Bahá'u'lláh, had ceased to offer armed resistance even in self-defense,
and were carrying out His injunction that "it is better to be killed
than kill." Nor were the clerical firebrands, Hájí Mullá Alíy-i-Kání
and Siyyid Sádiq-i-Tabátabá'í, the two leading mujtahids of Tihrán,
together with Shaykh Muhammad-Báqir, their colleague in Isfahán,
and Mír Muhammad-Husayn, the Imám-Jum'ih of that city, willing
to allow the slightest opportunity to pass without striking, with all
the force and authority they wielded, at an adversary whose liberalizing
influences they had even more reason to fear than the sovereign
himself.
Little wonder that, confronted by a situation so full of peril, the
Faith should have been driven underground, and that arrests, interrogations,
imprisonment, vituperation, spoliation, tortures and executions
should constitute the outstanding features of this convulsive
period in its development. The pilgrimages that had been initiated
in Adrianople, and which later assumed in `Akká impressive proportions,
together with the dissemination of the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh
and the circulation of enthusiastic reports through the medium of
those who had attained His presence served, moreover, to inflame the
animosity of clergy and laity alike, who had foolishly imagined that
the breach which had occurred in the ranks of the followers of the
Faith in Adrianople and the sentence of life banishment pronounced
subsequently against its Leader, would seal irretrievably its fate.
In Ábádih a certain Ustád `Alí-Akbar was, at the instigation of
a local Siyyid, apprehended and so ruthlessly thrashed that he was
+P199
covered from head to foot with his own blood. In the village of
Tákúr, at the bidding of the Sháh, the property of the inhabitants
was pillaged, Hájí Mírzá Ridá-Qulí, a half-brother of Bahá'u'lláh,
was arrested, conducted to the capital and thrown into the Síyáh-Chál,
where he remained for a month, whilst the brother-in-law of Mírzá
Hasan, another half-brother of Bahá'u'lláh, was seized and branded
with red-hot irons, after which the neighboring village of Dar-Kalá
was delivered to the flames.
Áqá Buzurg of Khurásán, the illustrious "Badí'" (Wonderful);
converted to the Faith by Nabíl; surnamed the "Pride of Martyrs";
the seventeen-year old bearer of the Tablet addressed to Násiri'd-Dín
Sháh; in whom, as affirmed by Bahá'u'lláh, "the spirit of might
and power was breathed," was arrested, branded for three successive
days, his head beaten to a pulp with the butt of a rifle, after which
his body was thrown into a pit and earth and stones heaped upon it.
After visiting Bahá'u'lláh in the barracks, during the second year of
His confinement, he had arisen with amazing alacrity to carry that
Tablet, alone and on foot, to Tihrán and deliver it into the hands of
the sovereign. A four months' journey had taken him to that city,
and, after passing three days in fasting and vigilance, he had met the
Sháh proceeding on a hunting expedition to Shimírán. He had calmly
and respectfully approached His Majesty, calling out, "O King! I
have come to thee from Sheba with a weighty message"; whereupon
at the Sovereign's order, the Tablet was taken from him and delivered
to the mujtahids of Tihrán who were commanded to reply to that
Epistle--a command which they evaded, recommending instead that
the messenger should be put to death. That Tablet was subsequently
forwarded by the Sháh to the Persian Ambassador in Constantinople,
in the hope that its perusal by the Sultán's ministers might serve to
further inflame their animosity. For a space of three years Bahá'u'lláh
continued to extol in His writings the heroism of that youth, characterizing
the references made by Him to that sublime sacrifice as
the "salt of My Tablets."
`Abá-Básir and Siyyid Ashraf, whose fathers had been slain in the
struggle of Zanján, were decapitated on the same day in that city,
the former going so far as to instruct, while kneeling in prayer, his
executioner as to how best to deal his blow, while the latter, after
having been so brutally beaten that blood flowed from under his
nails, was beheaded, as he held in his arms the body of his martyred
companion. It was the mother of this same Ashraf who, when sent
to the prison in the hope that she would persuade her only son to
+P200
recant, had warned him that she would disown him were he to denounce
his faith, had bidden him follow the example of `Abá-Básir, and had
even watched him expire with eyes undimmed with tears. The wealthy
and prominent Muhammad-Hasan Khán-i-Káshí was so mercilessly
bastinadoed in Burújird that he succumbed to his ordeal. In Shíráz
Mírzá Aqáy-i-Rikáb-Sáz, together with Mírzá Rafí-i-Khayyát and
Mashhadí Nabí, were by order of the local mujtahid simultaneously
strangled in the dead of night, their graves being later desecrated
by a mob who heaped refuse upon them. Shaykh Abu'l-Qásim-i-Mazkání
in Káshán, who had declined a drink of water that was
offered him before his death, affirming that he thirsted for the cup
of martyrdom, was dealt a fatal blow on the nape of his neck, whilst
he was prostrating himself in prayer.
Mírzá Báqir-i-Shirází, who had transcribed the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh
in Adrianople with such unsparing devotion, was slain in
Kirmán, while in Ardikán the aged and infirm Gul-Muhammad was
set upon by a furious mob, thrown to the ground, and so trampled
upon by the hob-nailed boots of two siyyids that his ribs were
crushed in and his teeth broken, after which his body was taken to
the outskirts of the town and buried in a pit, only to be dug up the
next day, dragged through the streets, and finally abandoned in the
wilderness. In the city of Mashhad, notorious for its unbridled
fanaticism, Hájí `Abdu'l-Majíd, who was the eighty-five year old
father of the afore-mentioned Badí' and a survivor of the struggle of
Tabarsí, and who, after the martyrdom of his son, had visited Bahá'u'lláh
and returned afire with zeal to Khurásán, was ripped open
from waist to throat, and his head exposed on a marble slab to the
gaze of a multitude of insulting onlookers, who, after dragging his
body ignominiously through the bazaars, left it at the morgue to be
claimed by his relatives.
In Isfahán Mullá Kázim was beheaded by order of Shaykh
Muhammad-Báqir, and a horse made to gallop over his corpse, which
was then delivered to the flames, while Siyyid Áqá Ján had his ears
cut off, and was led by a halter through the streets and bazaars. A
month later occurred in that same city the tragedy of the two famous
brothers Mírzá Muhammad-Hasan and Mírzá Muhammad-Husayn,
the "twin shining lights," respectively surnamed "Sultánu'sh-Shuhadá"
(King of Martyrs) and "Mahbúbu'sh-Shuhadá" (Beloved of Martyrs),
who were celebrated for their generosity, trustworthiness, kindliness
and piety. Their martyrdom was instigated by the wicked and dishonest
Mír Muhammad-Husayn, the Imám-Jum'ih, stigmatized by
+P201
Bahá'u'lláh as the "she-serpent," who, in view of a large debt he had
incurred in his transactions with them, schemed to nullify his obligations
by denouncing them as Bábís, and thereby encompassing their
death. Their richly-furnished houses were plundered, even to the
trees and flowers in their gardens, all their remaining possessions were
confiscated; Shaykh Muhammad-Báqir, denounced by Bahá'u'lláh as
the "wolf," pronounced their death-sentence; the Zillu's-Sultán ratified
the decision, after which they were put in chains, decapitated,
dragged to the Maydán-i-Sháh, and there exposed to the indignities
heaped upon them by a degraded and rapacious populace. "In such
wise," `Abdu'l-Bahá has written, "was the blood of these two brothers
shed that the Christian priest of Julfá cried out, lamented and wept
on that day." For several years Bahá'u'lláh in His Tablets continued
to make mention of them, to voice His grief over their passing and to
extol their virtues.
Mullá `Alí Ján was conducted on foot from Mazindarán to Tihrán,
the hardships of that journey being so severe that his neck was
wounded and his body swollen from the waist to the feet. On the
day of his martyrdom he asked for water, performed his ablutions,
recited his prayers, bestowed a considerable gift of money on his
executioner, and was still in the act of prayer when his throat was
slit by a dagger, after which his corpse was spat upon, covered with
mud, left exposed for three days, and finally hewn to pieces. In
Námiq Mullá `Alí, converted to the Faith in the days of the Báb,
was so severely attacked and his ribs so badly broken with a pick-axe
that he died immediately. Mírzá Ashraf was slain in Isfahán, his
corpse trampled under foot by Shaykh Muhammad Taqíy-i-Najafí,
the "son of the wolf," and his pupils, savagely mutilated, and
delivered to the mob to be burnt, after which his charred bones were
buried beneath the ruins of a wall that was pulled down to cover
them.
In Yazd, at the instigation of the mujtahid of that city, and by
order of the callous Mahmúd Mírzá, the Jalúlu'l-Dawlih, the governor,
a son of Zillu's-Sultán, seven were done to death in a single day in
horrible circumstances. The first of these, a twenty-seven year old
youth, `Alí-Asghar, was strangled, his body delivered into the hands
of some Jews who, forcing the dead man's six companions to come
with them, dragged the corpse through the streets, surrounded by a
mob of people and soldiers beating drums and blowing trumpets,
after which, arriving near the Telegraph Office, they beheaded the
eighty-five year old Mullá Mihdí and dragged him in the same manner
+P202
to another quarter of the city, where, in view of a great throng of
onlookers, frenzied by the throbbing strains of the music, they
executed Áqá `Alí in like manner. Proceeding thence to the house
of the local mujtahid, and carrying with them the four remaining
companions, they cut the throat of Mullá Alíy-i-Sabzívarí, who had
been addressing the crowd and glorying in his imminent martyrdom,
hacked his body to pieces with a spade, while he was still alive, and
pounded his skull to a pulp with stones. In another quarter, near
the Mihríz gate, they slew Muhammad-Báqir, and afterwards, in the
Maydán-i-Khán, as the music grew wilder and drowned the yells of
the people, they beheaded the survivors who remained, two brothers
in their early twenties, `Alí-Asghar and Muhammad-Hasan. The
stomach of the latter was ripped open and his heart and liver plucked
out, after which his head was impaled on a spear, carried aloft, to the
accompaniment of music, through the streets of the city, and suspended
on a mulberry tree, and stoned by a great concourse of people.
His body was cast before the door of his mother's house, into which
women deliberately entered to dance and make merry. Even pieces
of their flesh were carried away to be used as a medicament. Finally,
the head of Muhammad-Hasan was attached to the lower part of his
body and, together with those of the other martyrs, was borne to the
outskirts of the city and so viciously pelted with stones that the
skulls were broken, whereupon they compelled the Jews to carry
the remains and throw them into a pit in the plain of Salsabíl. A
holiday was declared by the governor for the people, all the shops
were closed by his order, the city was illuminated at night, and festivities
proclaimed the consummation of one of the most barbarous acts
perpetrated in modern times.
Nor were the Jews and the Parsis who had been newly converted
to the Faith, and were living, the former in Hamadán, and the latter
in Yazd, immune to the assaults of enemies whose fury was exasperated
by the evidences of the penetration of the light of the Faith
in quarters they had fondly imagined to be beyond its reach. Even
in the city of Ishqábád the newly established Shí'ah community,
envious of the rising prestige of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh who
were living in their midst, instigated two ruffians to assault the
seventy-year old Hájí Muhammad-Ridáy-i-Isfahání, whom, in broad
day and in the midst of the bazaar, they stabbed in no less than
thirty-two places, exposing his liver, lacerating his stomach and tearing
open his breast. A military court dispatched by the Czar to
Ishqábád established, after prolonged investigation, the guilt of the
+P203
Shí'ahs, sentencing two to death and banishing six others--a sentence
which neither Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, nor the `ulamás of Tihrán, of
Mashhad and of Tabríz, who were appealed to, could mitigate, but
which the representatives of the aggrieved community, through their
magnanimous intercession which greatly surprised the Russian authorities,
succeeded in having commuted to a lighter punishment.
Such are some typical examples of the treatment meted out by
the adversaries of the Faith to the newly resurgent community of its
followers during the period of Bahá'u'lláh's banishment to `Akká--a
treatment which it may be truly said testified alternately to "the
callousness of the brute and the ingenuity of the fiend."
The "inquisition and appalling tortures," following the attempt
on the life of Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, had already, in the words of no less
eminent an observer than Lord Curzon of Kedleston, imparted to the
Faith "a vitality which no other impulse could have secured." This
recrudescence of persecution, this fresh outpouring of the blood of
martyrs, served to further enliven the roots which that holy Sapling
had already struck in its native soil. Careless of the policy of fire and
blood which aimed at their annihilation, undismayed by the tragic
blows rained upon a Leader so far removed from their midst, uncorrupted
by the foul and seditious acts perpetrated by the Arch-Breaker
of the Báb's Covenant, the followers of Bahá'u'lláh were multiplying
in number and silently gathering the necessary strength that was to
enable them, at a later stage, to lift their heads in freedom, and rear
the fabric of their institutions.
Soon after his visit to Persia in the autumn of 1889 Lord Curzon
of Kedleston wrote, in the course of references designed to dispel
the "great confusion" and "error" prevailing "among European and
specially English writers" regarding the Faith, that "the Bahá'ís are
now believed to comprise nineteen-twentieths of the Bábí persuasion."
Count Gobineau, writing as far back as the year 1865, testified
as follows: "L'opinion genérale est que les Bábís sont répandus dans
toutes les classes de la population et parmi tous les religionnaires de la
Perse, sauf les Núsayrís et les Chrètiens; mais ce sont surtout les
classes éclairées, les hommes pratiquant les sciences du pays, qui sont
donnés comme très suspects. On pense, et avec raison, ce semble,
que beaucoup de mullás, et parmi eux des mujtahids considèrables,
des magistrats d'un rang élève, des hommes qui occupent à la cour
des fonctions importantes et qui approchent de près la personne du
Roi, sont des Bábís. D'après un calcul fait rècemment, il y aurait a
Tihrán cinq milles de ces religionnaires sur une population de quatre-vingt
+P204
milles âmes a peu près." Furthermore: "...Le Bábísme a
pris une action considèrable sur l'intelligence de la nation persane, et,
se rependant même au délà des limites du territoire, il a débordé dans
le pachalik de Baghdád, et passé aussi dans l'Inde." And again:
"...Un mouvement religieux tout particulier dont l'Asie Centrale,
c'est-à-dire la Perse, quelques points de l'Inde et une partie de la
Turquie d'Asie, aux environs de Baghdád, est aujourd'hui vivement
préoccupée, mouvement remarquable et digne d'être étudié à tous
les titres. Il permet d'assister à des développements de faits, à des
manifestations, à des catastrophes telles que l'on n'est pas habitué à les
imaginer ailleurs que dans les temps réculés où se sont produites les
grandes religions."
"These changes, however," Lord Curzon, alluding to the Declaration
of the Mission of Bahá'u'lláh and the rebellion of Mírzá Yahyá,
has, moreover written, "have in no wise impaired, but appear on the
contrary, to have stimulated its propaganda, which has advanced
with a rapidity inexplicable to those who can only see therein a crude
form of political or even of metaphysical fermentation. The lowest
estimate places the present number of Bábís in Persia at half a
million. I am disposed to think, from conversations with persons
well qualified to judge, that the total is nearer one million." "They
are to be found," he adds, "in every walk of life, from the ministers
and nobles of the Court to the scavenger or the groom, not the least
arena of their activity being the Musulmán priesthood itself." "From
the facts," is another testimony of his, "that Bábísm in its earliest
years found itself in conflict with the civil powers, and that an
attempt was made by Bábís upon the life of the Sháh, it has been
wrongly inferred that the movement was political in origin and
Nihilist in character... At the present time the Bábís are equally
loyal with any other subjects of the Crown. Nor does there appear
to be any greater justice in the charges of socialism, communism and
immorality that have so freely been levelled at the youthful persuasion
...The only communism known to and recommended by Him
(the Báb) was that of the New Testament and the early Christian
Church, viz., the sharing of goods in common by members of the
Faith, and the exercise of alms-giving, and an ample charity. The
charge of immorality seems to have arisen partly from the malignant
inventions of opponents, partly from the much greater freedom
claimed for women by the Báb, which in the oriental mind is scarcely
dissociable from profligacy of conduct." And, finally, the following
prognostication from his pen: "If Bábísm continues to grow at its
+P205
present rate of progression, a time may conceivably come when it will
oust Muhammadanism from the field in Persia. This, I think, it
would be unlikely to do, did it appear upon the ground under the
flag of a hostile faith. But since its recruits are won from the best
soldiers of the garrison whom it is attacking, there is greater reason
to believe that it may ultimately prevail."
Bahá'u'lláh's incarceration in the prison-fortress of `Akká, the
manifold tribulations He endured, the prolonged ordeal to which
the community of His followers in Persia was being subjected, did not
arrest, nor could they even impede, to the slightest degree, the mighty
stream of Divine Revelation, which, without interruption, had been
flowing from His pen, and on which the future orientation, the
integrity, the expansion and the consolidation of His Faith directly
depended. Indeed, in their scope and volume, His writings, during the
years of His confinement in the Most Great Prison, surpassed the outpourings
of His pen in either Adrianople or Baghdád. More remarkable
than the radical transformation in the circumstances of His own life
in `Akká, more far-reaching in its spiritual consequences than the
campaign of repression pursued so relentlessly by the enemies of His
Faith in the land of His birth, this unprecedented extension in the
range of His writings, during His exile in that Prison, must rank
as one of the most vitalizing and fruitful stages in the evolution of
His Faith.
The tempestuous winds that swept the Faith at the inception of
His ministry and the wintry desolation that marked the beginnings
of His prophetic career, soon after His banishment from Tihrán,
were followed during the latter part of His sojourn in Baghdád, by
what may be described as the vernal years of His Mission--years
which witnessed the bursting into visible activity of the forces inherent
in that Divine Seed that had lain dormant since the tragic
removal of His Forerunner. With His arrival in Adrianople and the
proclamation of His Mission the Orb of His Revelation climbed as it
were to its zenith, and shone, as witnessed by the style and tone of
His writings, in the plenitude of its summer glory. The period of
His incarceration in `Akká brought with it the ripening of a slowly
maturing process, and was a period during which the choicest fruits
of that mission were ultimately garnered.
The writings of Bahá'u'lláh during this period, as we survey the
vast field which they embrace, seem to fall into three distinct categories.
The first comprises those writings which constitute the sequel
to the proclamation of His Mission in Adrianople. The second
+P206
includes the laws and ordinances of His Dispensation, which, for the
most part, have been recorded in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, His Most Holy
Book. To the third must be assigned those Tablets which partly
enunciate and partly reaffirm the fundamental tenets and principles
underlying that Dispensation.
The Proclamation of His Mission had been, as already observed,
directed particularly to the kings of the earth, who, by virtue of the
power and authority they wielded, were invested with a peculiar and
inescapable responsibility for the destinies of their subjects. It was to
these kings, as well as to the world's religious leaders, who exercised a
no less pervasive influence on the mass of their followers, that the
Prisoner of `Akká directed His appeals, warnings, and exhortations
during the first years of His incarceration in that city. "Upon Our
arrival at this Prison," He Himself affirms, "We purposed to transmit
to the kings the messages of their Lord, the Mighty, the All-Praised.
Though We have transmitted to them, in several Tablets, that which
We were commanded, yet We do it once again, as a token of God's
grace."
To the kings of the earth, both in the East and in the West, both
Christian and Muslim, who had already been collectively admonished
and warned in the Súriy-i-Mulúk revealed in Adrianople, and
had been so vehemently summoned by the Báb, in the opening chapter
of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', on the very night of the Declaration of His
Mission, Bahá'u'lláh, during the darkest days of His confinement in
`Akká, addressed some of the noblest passages of His Most Holy Book.
In these passages He called upon them to take fast hold of the "Most
Great Law"; proclaimed Himself to be "the King of Kings" and "the
Desire of all Nations"; declared them to be His "vassals" and "emblems
of His sovereignty"; disclaimed any intention of laying hands on
their kingdoms; bade them forsake their palaces, and hasten to gain
admittance into His Kingdom; extolled the king who would arise
to aid His Cause as "the very eye of mankind"; and finally arraigned
them for the things which had befallen Him at their hands.
In His Tablet to Queen Victoria He, moreover, invites these kings
to hold fast to "the Lesser Peace," since they had refused "the Most
Great Peace"; exhorts them to be reconciled among themselves, to
unite and to reduce their armaments; bids them refrain from laying
excessive burdens on their subjects, who, He informs them, are their
"wards" and "treasures"; enunciates the principle that should any one
among them take up arms against another, all should rise against him;
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and warns them not to deal with Him as the "King of Islám" and
his ministers had dealt.
To the Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, the most prominent
and influential monarch of his day in the West, designated by Him
as the "Chief of Sovereigns," and who, to quote His words, had "cast
behind his back" the Tablet revealed for him in Adrianople, He,
while a prisoner in the army barracks, addressed a second Tablet and
transmitted it through the French agent in `Akká. In this He announces
the coming of "Him Who is the Unconstrained," whose
purpose is to "quicken the world" and unite its peoples; unequivocally
asserts that Jesus Christ was the Herald of His Mission; proclaims
the fall of "the stars of the firmament of knowledge," who have
turned aside from Him; exposes that monarch's insincerity; and
clearly prophesies that his kingdom shall be "thrown into confusion,"
that his "empire shall pass" from his hands, and that "commotions
shall seize all the people in that land," unless he arises to help the
Cause of God and follow Him Who is His Spirit.
In memorable passages addressed to "the Rulers of America and
the Presidents of the Republics therein" He, in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
calls upon them to "adorn the temple of dominion with the ornament
of justice and of the fear of God, and its head with the crown of
remembrance" of their Lord; declares that "the Promised One" has
been made manifest; counsels them to avail themselves of the "Day of
God"; and bids them "bind with the hands of justice the broken" and
"crush" the "oppressor" with "the rod of the commandments of their
Lord, the Ordainer, the All-Wise."
To Nicolaevitch Alexander II, the all-powerful Czar of Russia,
He addressed, as He lay a prisoner in the barracks, an Epistle wherein
He announces the advent of the promised Father, Whom "the tongue
of Isaiah hath extolled," and "with Whose name both the Torah and
the Evangel were adorned"; commands him to "arise ... and summon
the nations unto God"; warns him to beware lest his sovereignty
withhold him from "Him Who is the Supreme Sovereign"; acknowledges
the aid extended by his Ambassador in Tihrán; and cautions him
not to forfeit the station ordained for him by God.
To Queen Victoria He, during that same period, addressed an
Epistle in which He calls upon her to incline her ear to the voice of
her Lord, the Lord of all mankind; bids her "cast away all that is on
earth," and set her heart towards her Lord, the Ancient of Days;
asserts that "all that hath been mentioned in the Gospel hath been
fulfilled"; assures her that God would reward her for having "forbidden
+P208
the trading in slaves," were she to follow what has been sent
unto her by Him; commends her for having "entrusted the reins of
counsel into the hands of the representatives of the people"; and
exhorts them to "regard themselves as the representatives of all that
dwell on earth," and to judge between men with "pure justice."
In a celebrated passage addressed to William I, King of Prussia
and newly-acclaimed emperor of a unified Germany, He, in His
Kitáb-i-Aqdas, bids the sovereign hearken to His Voice, the Voice
of God Himself; warns him to take heed lest his pride debar him from
recognizing "the Day-Spring of Divine Revelation," and admonishes
him to "remember the one (Napoleon III) whose power transcended"
his power, and who "went down to dust in great loss." Furthermore,
in that same Book, apostrophizing the "banks of the Rhine," He predicts
that "the swords of retribution" would be drawn against them,
and that "the lamentations of Berlin" would be raised, though at that
time she was "in conspicuous glory."
In another notable passage of that same Book, addressed to Francis-Joseph,
the Austrian Emperor and heir of the Holy Roman Empire,
Bahá'u'lláh reproves the sovereign for having neglected to inquire
about Him in the course of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; takes God to
witness that He had found him "clinging unto the Branch and heedless
of the Root"; grieves to observe his waywardness; and bids him
open his eyes and gaze on "the Light that shineth above this luminous
Horizon."
To `Alí Páshá, the Grand Vizir of the Sultán of Turkey He
addressed, shortly after His arrival in `Akká, a second Tablet, in
which He reprimands him for his cruelty "that hath made hell to
blaze and the Spirit to lament"; recounts his acts of oppression; condemns
him as one of those who, from time immemorial, have denounced
the Prophets as stirrers of mischief; prophesies his downfall;
expatiates on His own sufferings and those of His fellow-exiles;
extolls their fortitude and detachment; predicts that God's "wrathful
anger" will seize him and his government, that "sedition will be
stirred up" in their midst, and that their "dominions will be disrupted";
and affirms that were he to awake, he would abandon all his
possessions, and would "choose to abide in one of the dilapidated
rooms of this Most Great Prison." In the Lawh-i-Fu'ád, in the course
of His reference to the premature death of the Sultán's Foreign Minister,
Fu'ád Páshá, He thus confirms His above-mentioned prediction:
"Soon will We dismiss the one (`Alí Páshá) who was like unto him
+P209
and will lay hold on their Chief (Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz) who ruleth
the land, and I, verily, am the Almighty, the All-Compelling."
No less outspoken and emphatic are the messages, some embodied
in specific Tablets, others interspersed through His writings, which
Bahá'u'lláh addressed to the world's ecclesiastical leaders of all
denominations--messages in which He discloses, clearly and unreservedly,
the claims of His Revelation, summons them to heed His call, and
denounces, in certain specific cases, their perversity, their extreme
arrogance and tyranny.
In immortal passages of His Kitáb-i-Aqdas and other Tablets He
bids the entire company of these ecclesiastical leaders to "fear God,"
to "rein in" their pens, "fling away idle fancies and imaginings, and
turn then towards the Horizon of Certitude"; warns them to "weigh
not the Book of God (Kitáb-i-Aqdas) with such standards and sciences
as are current" amongst them; designates that same Book as the
"Unerring Balance established amongst men"; laments over their
blindness and waywardness; asserts His superiority in vision, insight,
utterance and wisdom; proclaims His innate and God-given knowledge;
cautions them not to "shut out the people by yet another veil,"
after He Himself had "rent the veils asunder"; accuses them of having
been "the cause of the repudiation of the Faith in its early days"; and
adjures them to "peruse with fairness and justice that which hath been
sent down" by Him, and to "nullify not the Truth" with the things
they possess.
To Pope Pius IX, the undisputed head of the most powerful
Church in Christendom, possessor of both temporal and spiritual
authority, He, a Prisoner in the army barracks of the penal-colony of
`Akká, addressed a most weighty Epistle, in which He announces that
"He Who is the Lord of Lords is come overshadowed with clouds,"
and that "the Word which the Son concealed is made manifest." He,
moreover, warns him not to dispute with Him even as the Pharisees
of old disputed with Jesus Christ; bids him leave his palaces unto such
as desire them, "sell all the embellished ornaments" in his possession,
"expend them in the path of God," abandon his kingdom unto the
kings, "arise ... amidst the peoples of the earth," and summon them
to His Faith. Regarding him as one of the suns of the heaven of God's
names, He cautions him to guard himself lest "darkness spread its veils"
over him; calls upon him to "exhort the kings" to "deal equitably with
men"; and counsels him to walk in the footsteps of his Lord, and
follow His example.
To the patriarchs of the Christian Church He issued a specific
+P210
summons in which He proclaims the coming of the Promised One;
exhorts them to "fear God" and not to follow "the vain imaginings of
the superstitious"; and directs them to lay aside the things they possess
and "take fast hold of the Tablet of God by His sovereign power." To
the archbishops of that Church He similarly declares that "He Who
is the Lord of all men hath appeared," that they are "numbered with
the dead," and that great is the blessedness of him who is "stirred by
the breeze of God, and hath arisen from amongst the dead in this
perspicuous Name." In passages addressed to its bishops He proclaims
that "the Everlasting Father calleth aloud between earth and heaven,"
pronounces them to be the fallen stars of the heaven of His knowledge,
and affirms that His body "yearneth for the cross" and His head is
"eager for the spear in the path of the All-Merciful." The concourse
of Christian priests He bids "leave the bells," and come forth from
their churches; exhorts them to "proclaim aloud the Most Great Name
among the nations"; assures them that whoever will summon men in
His Name will "show forth that which is beyond the power of all that
are on earth"; warns them that the "Day of Reckoning hath appeared";
and counsels them to turn with their hearts to their "Lord,
the Forgiving, the Generous." In numerous passages addressed to the
"concourse of monks" He bids them not to seclude themselves in
churches and cloisters, but to occupy themselves with that which will
profit their souls and the souls of men; enjoins them to enter into
wedlock; and affirms that if they choose to follow Him He will make
them heirs of His Kingdom, and that if they transgress against Him,
He will, in His long-suffering, endure it patiently.
And finally, in several passages addressed to the entire body of
the followers of Jesus Christ He identifies Himself with the "Father"
spoken of by Isaiah, with the "Comforter" Whose Covenant He Who
is the Spirit (Jesus) had Himself established, and with the "Spirit of
Truth" Who will guide them "into all truth"; proclaims His Day to be
the Day of God; announces the conjunction of the river Jordan with
the "Most Great Ocean"; asserts their heedlessness as well as His own
claim to have opened unto them "the gates of the kingdom"; affirms
that the promised "Temple" has been built "with the hands of the
will" of their Lord, the Mighty, the Bounteous; bids them "rend the
veils asunder," and enter in His name His Kingdom; recalls the saying
of Jesus to Peter; and assures them that, if they choose to follow Him,
He will make them to become "quickeners of mankind."
To the entire body of Muslim ecclesiastics Bahá'u'lláh specifically
devoted innumerable passages in His Books and Tablets, wherein He,
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in vehement language, denounces their cruelty; condemns their pride
and arrogance; calls upon them to lay aside the things they possess,
to hold their peace, and give ear to the words He has spoken; and
asserts that, by reason of their deeds, "the exalted station of the people
hath been abased, the standard of Islám hath been reversed, and its
mighty throne hath fallen." To the "concourse of Persian divines"
He more particularly addressed His condemnatory words in which
He stigmatizes their deeds, and prophesies that their "glory will be
turned into the most wretched abasement," and that they shall behold
the punishment which will be inflicted upon them, "as decreed by
God, the Ordainer, the All-Wise."
To the Jewish people, He, moreover, announced that the Most
Great Law has come, that "the Ancient Beauty ruleth upon the throne
of David," Who cries aloud and invokes His Name, that "from Zion
hath appeared that which was hidden," and that "from Jerusalem is
heard the Voice of God, the One, the Incomparable, the Omniscient."
To the "high priests" of the Zoroastrian Faith He, furthermore,
proclaimed that "the Incomparable Friend" is manifest, that He "speaketh
that wherein lieth salvation," that "the Hand of Omnipotence is
stretched forth from behind the clouds," that the tokens of His
majesty and greatness are unveiled; and declared that "no man's acts
shall be acceptable in this day unless he forsaketh mankind and all
that men possess, and setteth his face towards the Omnipotent One."
Some of the weightiest passages of His Epistle to Queen Victoria
are addressed to the members of the British Legislature, the Mother of
Parliaments, as well as to the elected representatives of the peoples in
other lands. In these He asserts that His purpose is to quicken the
world and unite its peoples; refers to the treatment meted out to Him
by His enemies; exhorts the legislators to "take counsel together," and
to concern themselves only "with that which profiteth mankind"; and
affirms that the "sovereign remedy" for the "healing of all the world"
is the "union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common
Faith," which can "in no wise be achieved except through the power
of a skilled and all-powerful and inspired Physician." He, moreover,
in His Most Holy Book, has enjoined the selection of a single language
and the adoption of a common script for all on earth to use, an injunction
which, when carried out, would, as He Himself affirms in that
Book, be one of the signs of the "coming of age of the human race."
No less significant are the words addressed separately by Him to
the "people of the Bayán," to the wise men of the world, to its poets,
to its men of letters, to its mystics and even to its tradesmen, in which
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He exhorts them to be attentive to His voice, to recognize His Day,
and to follow His bidding.
Such in sum are the salient features of the concluding utterances
of that historic Proclamation, the opening notes of which were sounded
during the latter part of Bahá'u'lláh's banishment to Adrianople, and
which closed during the early years of His incarceration in the prison-fortress
of `Akká. Kings and emperors, severally and collectively; the
chief magistrates of the Republics of the American continent; ministers
and ambassadors; the Sovereign Pontiff himself; the Vicar of the
Prophet of Islám; the royal Trustee of the Kingdom of the Hidden
Imám; the monarchs of Christendom, its patriarchs, archbishops,
bishops, priests and monks; the recognized leaders of both the Sunní
and Shí'ah sacerdotal orders; the high priests of the Zoroastrian religion;
the philosophers, the ecclesiastical leaders, the wise men and the inhabitants
of Constantinople--that proud seat of both the Sultanate
and the Caliphate; the entire company of the professed adherents of
the Zoroastrian, the Jewish, the Christian and Muslim Faiths; the
people of the Bayán; the wise men of the world, its men of letters,
its poets, its mystics, its tradesmen, the elected representatives of its
peoples; His own countrymen--all have, at one time or another, in
books, Epistles, and Tablets, been brought directly within the purview
of the exhortations, the warnings, the appeals, the declarations and
the prophecies which constitute the theme of His momentous summons
to the leaders of mankind--a summons which stands unparalleled
in the annals of any previous religion, and to which the messages
directed by the Prophet of Islám to some of the rulers among His
contemporaries alone offer a faint resemblance.
"Never since the beginning of the world," Bahá'u'lláh Himself
affirms, "hath the Message been so openly proclaimed." "Each one of
them," He, specifically referring to the Tablets addressed by Him to
the sovereigns of the earth--Tablets acclaimed by `Abdu'l-Bahá as a
"miracle"--has written, "hath been designated by a special name. The
first hath been named `The Rumbling,' the second `The Blow,' the
third `The Inevitable,' the fourth `The Plain,' the fifth `The Catastrophe,'
and the others `The Stunning Trumpet-Blast,' `The Near
Event,' `The Great Terror,' `The Trumpet,' `The Bugle,' and the like,
so that all the peoples of the earth may know, of a certainty, and may
witness, with outward and inner eyes, that He Who is the Lord of
Names hath prevailed, and will continue to prevail, under all conditions,
over all men." The most important of these Tablets, together
with the celebrated Súriy-i-Haykal (the Súrih of the Temple), He,
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moreover, ordered to be written in the shape of a pentacle, symbolizing
the temple of man, and which He identified, when addressing the
followers of the Gospel in one of His Tablets, with the "Temple" mentioned
by the Prophet Zechariah, and designated as "the resplendent
dawning-place of the All-Merciful," and which "the hands of the
power of Him Who is the Causer of Causes" had built.
Unique and stupendous as was this Proclamation, it proved to
be but a prelude to a still mightier revelation of the creative power
of its Author, and to what may well rank as the most signal act of
His ministry--the promulgation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Alluded to in
the Kitáb-i-Iqán; the principal repository of that Law which the
Prophet Isaiah had anticipated, and which the writer of the Apocalypse
had described as the "new heaven" and the "new earth," as
"the Tabernacle of God," as the "Holy City," as the "Bride," the
"New Jerusalem coming down from God," this "Most Holy Book,"
whose provisions must remain inviolate for no less than a thousand
years, and whose system will embrace the entire planet, may well be
regarded as the brightest emanation of the mind of Bahá'u'lláh, as the
Mother Book of His Dispensation, and the Charter of His New
World Order.
Revealed soon after Bahá'u'lláh had been transferred to the house
of Údí Khammár (circa 1873), at a time when He was still encompassed
by the tribulations that had afflicted Him, through the acts
committed by His enemies and the professed adherents of His Faith,
this Book, this treasury enshrining the priceless gems of His Revelation,
stands out, by virtue of the principles it inculcates, the administrative
institutions it ordains and the function with which it
invests the appointed Successor of its Author, unique and incomparable
among the world's sacred Scriptures. For, unlike the Old
Testament and the Holy Books which preceded it, in which the
actual precepts uttered by the Prophet Himself are non-existent;
unlike the Gospels, in which the few sayings attributed to Jesus
Christ afford no clear guidance regarding the future administration
of the affairs of His Faith; unlike even the Qur'án which, though
explicit in the laws and ordinances formulated by the Apostle of
God, is silent on the all-important subject of the succession, the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas, revealed from first to last by the Author of the
Dispensation Himself, not only preserves for posterity the basic laws
and ordinances on which the fabric of His future World Order must
rest, but ordains, in addition to the function of interpretation which
it confers upon His Successor, the necessary institutions through
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which the integrity and unity of His Faith can alone be safeguarded.
In this Charter of the future world civilization its Author--at
once the Judge, the Lawgiver, the Unifier and Redeemer of mankind
--announces to the kings of the earth the promulgation of the "Most
Great Law"; pronounces them to be His vassals; proclaims Himself
the "King of Kings"; disclaims any intention of laying hands on their
kingdoms; reserves for Himself the right to "seize and possess the
hearts of men"; warns the world's ecclesiastical leaders not to weigh
the "Book of God" with such standards as are current amongst them;
and affirms that the Book itself is the "Unerring Balance" established
amongst men. In it He formally ordains the institution of the "House
of Justice," defines its functions, fixes its revenues, and designates its
members as the "Men of Justice," the "Deputies of God," the "Trustees
of the All-Merciful," alludes to the future Center of His Covenant,
and invests Him with the right of interpreting His holy Writ;
anticipates by implication the institution of Guardianship; bears witness
to the revolutionizing effect of His World Order; enunciates the
doctrine of the "Most Great Infallibility" of the Manifestation of
God; asserts this infallibility to be the inherent and exclusive right of
the Prophet; and rules out the possibility of the appearance of another
Manifestation ere the lapse of at least one thousand years.
In this Book He, moreover, prescribes the obligatory prayers;
designates the time and period of fasting; prohibits congregational
prayer except for the dead; fixes the Qiblih; institutes the Huqúqu'lláh
(Right of God); formulates the law of inheritance; ordains the
institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár; establishes the Nineteen Day
Feasts, the Bahá'í festivals and the Intercalary Days; abolishes the
institution of priesthood; prohibits slavery, asceticism, mendicancy,
monasticism, penance, the use of pulpits and the kissing of hands;
prescribes monogamy; condemns cruelty to animals, idleness and
sloth, backbiting and calumny; censures divorce; interdicts gambling,
the use of opium, wine and other intoxicating drinks; specifies the
punishments for murder, arson, adultery and theft; stresses the importance
of marriage and lays down its essential conditions; imposes
the obligation of engaging in some trade or profession, exalting such
occupation to the rank of worship; emphasizes the necessity of providing
the means for the education of children; and lays upon every
person the duty of writing a testament and of strict obedience to
one's government.
Apart from these provisions Bahá'u'lláh exhorts His followers to
consort, with amity and concord and without discrimination, with
+P215
the adherents of all religions; warns them to guard against fanaticism,
sedition, pride, dispute and contention; inculcates upon them immaculate
cleanliness, strict truthfulness, spotless chastity, trustworthiness;
hospitality, fidelity, courtesy, forbearance, justice and fairness; counsels
them to be "even as the fingers of one hand and the limbs of one
body"; calls upon them to arise and serve His Cause; and assures
them of His undoubted aid. He, furthermore, dwells upon the instability
of human affairs; declares that true liberty consists in man's
submission to His commandments; cautions them not to be indulgent
in carrying out His statutes; prescribes the twin inseparable duties of
recognizing the "Dayspring of God's Revelation" and of observing
all the ordinances revealed by Him, neither of which, He affirms, is
acceptable without the other.
The significant summons issued to the Presidents of the Republics
of the American continent to seize their opportunity in the Day of
God and to champion the cause of justice; the injunction to the
members of parliaments throughout the world, urging the adoption of
a universal script and language; His warnings to William I, the conqueror
of Napoleon III; the reproof He administers to Francis Joseph,
the Emperor of Austria; His reference to "the lamentations of Berlin"
in His apostrophe to "the banks of the Rhine"; His condemnation of
"the throne of tyranny" established in Constantinople, and His prediction
of the extinction of its "outward splendor" and of the tribulations
destined to overtake its inhabitants; the words of cheer and
comfort He addresses to His native city, assuring her that God had
chosen her to be "the source of the joy of all mankind"; His prophecy
that "the voice of the heroes of Khurásán" will be raised in glorification
of their Lord; His assertion that men "endued with mighty
valor" will be raised up in Kirmán who will make mention of Him;
and finally, His magnanimous assurance to a perfidious brother who
had afflicted Him with such anguish, that an "ever-forgiving, all-bounteous"
God would forgive him his iniquities were he only to
repent--all these further enrich the contents of a Book designated by
its Author as "the source of true felicity," as the "Unerring Balance,"
as the "Straight Path" and as the "quickener of mankind."
The laws and ordinances that constitute the major theme of this
Book, Bahá'u'lláh, moreover, has specifically characterized as "the
breath of life unto all created things," as "the mightiest stronghold,"
as the "fruits" of His "Tree," as "the highest means for the maintenance
of order in the world and the security of its peoples," as "the lamps of
His wisdom and loving-providence," as "the sweet smelling savor of
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His garment," as the "keys" of His "mercy" to His creatures. "This
Book," He Himself testifies, "is a heaven which We have adorned
with the stars of Our commandments and prohibitions." "Blessed
the man," He, moreover, has stated, "who will read it, and ponder the
verses sent down in it by God, the Lord of Power, the Almighty.
Say, O men! Take hold of it with the hand of resignation... By
My life! It hath been sent down in a manner that amazeth the minds
of men. Verily, it is My weightiest testimony unto all people, and
the proof of the All-Merciful unto all who are in heaven and all who
are on earth." And again: "Blessed the palate that savoreth its sweetness,
and the perceiving eye that recognizeth that which is treasured
therein, and the understanding heart that comprehendeth its allusions
and mysteries. By God! Such is the majesty of what hath been revealed
therein, and so tremendous the revelation of its veiled allusions
that the loins of utterance shake when attempting their description."
And finally: "In such a manner hath the Kitáb-i-Aqdas been revealed
that it attracteth and embraceth all the divinely appointed Dispensations.
Blessed those who peruse it! Blessed those who apprehend it!
Blessed those who meditate upon it! Blessed those who ponder its
meaning! So vast is its range that it hath encompassed all men ere
their recognition of it. Erelong will its sovereign power, its pervasive
influence and the greatness of its might be manifested on earth."
The formulation by Bahá'u'lláh, in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, of the
fundamental laws of His Dispensation was followed, as His Mission
drew to a close, by the enunciation of certain precepts and principles
which lie at the very core of His Faith, by the reaffirmation of truths
He had previously proclaimed, by the elaboration and elucidation of
some of the laws He had already laid down, by the revelation of
further prophecies and warnings, and by the establishment of subsidiary
ordinances designed to supplement the provisions of His Most
Holy Book. These were recorded in unnumbered Tablets, which He
continued to reveal until the last days of His earthly life, among
which the "Ishráqát" (Splendors), the "Bishárát" (Glad Tidings),
the "Tarázát" (Ornaments), the "Tajallíyyát" (Effulgences), the
"Kalímát-i-Firdawsíyyih" (Words of Paradise), the "Lawh-i-Aqdas"
(Most Holy Tablet), the "Lawh-i-Dunyá" (Tablet of the World),
the "Lawh-i-Maqsúd" (Tablet of Maqsúd), are the most noteworthy.
These Tablets--mighty and final effusions of His indefatigable pen--
must rank among the choicest fruits which His mind has yielded,
and mark the consummation of His forty-year-long ministry.
Of the principles enshrined in these Tablets the most vital of
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them all is the principle of the oneness and wholeness of the human
race, which may well be regarded as the hall-mark of Bahá'u'lláh's
Revelation and the pivot of His teachings. Of such cardinal importance
is this principle of unity that it is expressly referred to in
the Book of His Covenant, and He unreservedly proclaims it as the
central purpose of His Faith. "We, verily," He declares, "have come
to unite and weld together all that dwell on earth." "So potent is the
light of unity," He further states, "that it can illuminate the whole
earth." "At one time," He has written with reference to this central
theme of His Revelation, "We spoke in the language of the lawgiver;
at another in that of the truth seeker and the mystic, and yet Our
supreme purpose and highest wish hath always been to disclose the
glory and sublimity of this station." Unity, He states, is the goal
that "excelleth every goal" and an aspiration which is "the monarch
of all aspirations." "The world," He proclaims, "is but one country,
and mankind its citizens." He further affirms that the unification of
mankind, the last stage in the evolution of humanity towards maturity
is inevitable, that "soon will the present day order be rolled up, and a
new one spread out in its stead," that "the whole earth is now in a
state of pregnancy," that "the day is approaching when it will have
yielded its noblest fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the
loftiest trees, the most enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly blessings."
He deplores the defectiveness of the prevailing order, exposes
the inadequacy of patriotism as a directing and controlling force in
human society, and regards the "love of mankind" and service to its
interests as the worthiest and most laudable objects of human endeavor.
He, moreover, laments that "the vitality of men's belief in
God is dying out in every land," that the "face of the world" is
turned towards "waywardness and unbelief"; proclaims religion to be
"a radiant light and an impregnable stronghold for the protection
and welfare of the peoples of the world" and "the chief instrument
for the establishment of order in the world"; affirms its fundamental
purpose to be the promotion of union and concord amongst men;
warns lest it be made "a source of dissension, of discord and hatred";
commands that its principles be taught to children in the schools of
the world, in a manner that would not be productive of either
prejudice or fanaticism; attributes "the waywardness of the ungodly"
to the "decline of religion"; and predicts "convulsions" of such severity
as to "cause the limbs of mankind to quake."
The principle of collective security He unreservedly urges; recommends
the reduction in national armaments; and proclaims as necessary
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and inevitable the convening of a world gathering at which the
kings and rulers of the world will deliberate for the establishment of
peace among the nations.
Justice He extols as "the light of men" and their "guardian," as
"the revealer of the secrets of the world of being, and the standard-bearer
of love and bounty"; declares its radiance to be incomparable;
affirms that upon it must depend "the organization of the world and
the tranquillity of mankind." He characterizes its "two pillars"--
"reward and punishment"--as "the sources of life" to the human race;
warns the peoples of the world to bestir themselves in anticipation of
its advent; and prophesies that, after an interval of great turmoil and
grievous injustice, its day-star will shine in its full splendor and glory.
He, furthermore, inculcates the principle of "moderation in all
things"; declares that whatsoever, be it "Liberty, civilization and the
like," "passeth beyond the limits of moderation" must "exercise a
pernicious influence upon men"; observes that western civilization has
gravely perturbed and alarmed the peoples of the world; and predicts
that the day is approaching when the "flame" of a civilization "carried
to excess" "will devour the cities."
Consultation He establishes as one of the fundamental principles
of His Faith; describes it as "the lamp of guidance," as "the bestower
of understanding," and as one of the two "luminaries" of the "heaven
of Divine wisdom." Knowledge, He states, is "as wings to man's life
and a ladder for his ascent"; its acquisition He regards as "incumbent
upon every one"; considers "arts, crafts and sciences" to be conducive
to the exaltation of the world of being; commends the wealth acquired
through crafts and professions; acknowledges the indebtedness of the
peoples of the world to scientists and craftsmen; and discourages the
study of such sciences as are unprofitable to men, and "begin with
words and end with words."
The injunction to "consort with all men in a spirit of friendliness
and fellowship" He further emphasizes, and recognizes such association
to be conducive to "union and concord," which, He affirms, are
the establishers of order in the world and the quickeners of nations.
The necessity of adopting a universal tongue and script He repeatedly
stresses; deplores the waste of time involved in the study of divers
languages; affirms that with the adoption of such a language and
script the whole earth will be considered as "one city and one land";
and claims to be possessed of the knowledge of both, and ready to
impart it to any one who might seek it from Him.
To the trustees of the House of Justice He assigns the duty of
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legislating on matters not expressly provided in His writings, and
promises that God will "inspire them with whatsoever He willeth."
The establishment of a constitutional form of government, in which
the ideals of republicanism and the majesty of kingship, characterized
by Him as "one of the signs of God," are combined, He recommends
as a meritorious achievement; urges that special regard be paid to the
interests of agriculture; and makes specific reference to "the swiftly
appearing newspapers," describes them as "the mirror of the world"
and as "an amazing and potent phenomenon," and prescribes to all
who are responsible for their production the duty to be sanctified from
malice, passion and prejudice, to be just and fair-minded, to be painstaking
in their inquiries, and ascertain all the facts in every situation.
The doctrine of the Most Great Infallibility He further elaborates;
the obligation laid on His followers to "behave towards the government
of the country in which they reside with loyalty, honesty and
truthfulness," He reaffirms; the ban imposed upon the waging of holy
war and the destruction of books He reemphasizes; and He singles
out for special praise men of learning and wisdom, whom He extols
as "eyes" to the body of mankind, and as the "greatest gifts" conferred
upon the world.
Nor should a review of the outstanding features of Bahá'u'lláh's
writings during the latter part of His banishment to `Akká fail to
include a reference to the Lawh-i-Hikmat (Tablet of Wisdom), in
which He sets forth the fundamentals of true philosophy, or to the
Tablet of Visitation revealed in honor of the Imám Husayn, whose
praises He celebrates in glowing language; or to the "Questions and
Answers" which elucidates the laws and ordinances of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas;
or to the "Lawh-i-Burhán" (Tablet of the Proof) in which
the acts perpetrated by Shaykh Muhammad-Báqir, surnamed "Dhi'b"
(Wolf), and Mír Muhammad-Husayn, the Imám-Jum'ih of Isfahán,
surnamed "Raqshá" (She-Serpent), are severely condemned; or to the
Lawh-i-Kármil (Tablet of Carmel) in which the Author significantly
makes mention of "the City of God that hath descended from heaven,"
and prophesies that "erelong will God sail His Ark" upon that mountain,
and "will manifest the people of Bahá." Finally, mention must
be made of His Epistle to Shaykh Muhammad-Taqí, surnamed "Ibn-i-Dhi'b"
(Son of the Wolf), the last outstanding Tablet revealed by
the pen of Bahá'u'lláh, in which He calls upon that rapacious priest
to repent of his acts, quotes some of the most characteristic and
celebrated passages of His own writings, and adduces proofs establishing
the validity of His Cause.
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With this book, revealed about one year prior to His ascension,
the prodigious achievement as author of a hundred volumes, repositories
of the priceless pearls of His Revelation, may be said to have
practically terminated--volumes replete with unnumbered exhortations,
revolutionizing principles, world-shaping laws and ordinances,
dire warnings and portentous prophecies, with soul-uplifting prayers
and meditations, illuminating commentaries and interpretations, impassioned
discourses and homilies, all interspersed with either addresses
or references to kings, to emperors and to ministers, of both the East
and the West, to ecclesiastics of divers denominations, and to leaders
in the intellectual, political, literary, mystical, commercial and humanitarian
spheres of human activity.
"We, verily," wrote Bahá'u'lláh, surveying, in the evening of His
life, from His Most Great Prison, the entire range of this vast and
weighty Revelation, "have not fallen short of Our duty to exhort
men, and to deliver that whereunto I was bidden by God, the Almighty,
the All-Praised." "Is there any excuse," He further has
stated, "left for any one in this Revelation? No, by God, the Lord
of the Mighty Throne! My signs have encompassed the earth, and
my power enveloped all mankind."
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CHAPTER XIII
Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh
Well nigh half a century had passed since the inception of the
Faith. Cradled in adversity, deprived in its infancy of its Herald
and Leader, it had been raised from the dust, in which a hostile
despot had thrown it, by its second and greatest Luminary Who,
despite successive banishments, had, in less than half a century, succeeded
in rehabilitating its fortunes, in proclaiming its Message, in
enacting its laws and ordinances, in formulating its principles and
in ordaining its institutions, and it had just begun to enjoy the
sunshine of a prosperity never previously experienced, when suddenly
it was robbed of its Author by the Hand of Destiny, its followers
were plunged into sorrow and consternation, its repudiators
found their declining hopes revive, and its adversaries, political as
well as ecclesiastical, began to take heart again.
Already nine months before His ascension Bahá'u'lláh, as attested
by `Abdu'l-Bahá, had voiced His desire to depart from this world.
From that time onward it became increasingly evident, from the
tone of His remarks to those who attained His presence, that the
close of His earthly life was approaching, though He refrained from
mentioning it openly to any one. On the night preceding the eleventh
of Shavval 1309 A.H. (May 8, 1892) He contracted a slight fever
which, though it mounted the following day, soon after subsided.
He continued to grant interviews to certain of the friends and pilgrims,
but it soon became evident that He was not well. His fever
returned in a more acute form than before, His general condition
grew steadily worse, complications ensued which at last culminated
in His ascension, at the hour of dawn, on the 2nd of Dhi'l-Qádih
1309 A.H. (May 29, 1892), eight hours after sunset, in the 75th
year of His age. His spirit, at long last released from the toils of a
life crowded with tribulations, had winged its flight to His "other
dominions," dominions "whereon the eyes of the people of names have
never fallen," and to which the "Luminous Maid," "clad in white," had
bidden Him hasten, as described by Himself in the Lawh-i-Ru'yá
(Tablet of the Vision), revealed nineteen years previously, on the
anniversary of the birth of His Forerunner.
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Six days before He passed away He summoned to His presence,
as He lay in bed leaning against one of His sons, the entire company
of believers, including several pilgrims, who had assembled in the
Mansion, for what proved to be their last audience with Him. "I am
well pleased with you all," He gently and affectionately addressed
the weeping crowd that gathered about Him. "Ye have rendered
many services, and been very assiduous in your labors. Ye have come
here every morning and every evening. May God assist you to remain
united. May He aid you to exalt the Cause of the Lord of being."
To the women, including members of His own family, gathered at
His bedside, He addressed similar words of encouragement, definitely
assuring them that in a document entrusted by Him to the Most
Great Branch He had commended them all to His care.
The news of His ascension was instantly communicated to Sultán
`Abdu'l-Hamíd in a telegram which began with the words "the Sun
of Bahá has set" and in which the monarch was advised of the intention
of interring the sacred remains within the precincts of the
Mansion, an arrangement to which he readily assented. Bahá'u'lláh
was accordingly laid to rest in the northernmost room of the house
which served as a dwelling-place for His son-in-law, the most
northerly of the three houses lying to the west of, and adjacent to,
the Mansion. His interment took place shortly after sunset, on the
very day of His ascension.
The inconsolable Nabíl, who had had the privilege of a private
audience with Bahá'u'lláh during the days of His illness; whom
`Abdu'l-Bahá had chosen to select those passages which constitute the
text of the Tablet of Visitation now recited in the Most Holy Tomb;
and who, in his uncontrollable grief, drowned himself in the sea
shortly after the passing of his Beloved, thus describes the agony of
those days: "Methinks, the spiritual commotion set up in the world
of dust had caused all the worlds of God to tremble.... My inner
and outer tongue are powerless to portray the condition we were
in.... In the midst of the prevailing confusion a multitude of the
inhabitants of `Akká and of the neighboring villages, that had
thronged the fields surrounding the Mansion, could be seen weeping,
beating upon their heads, and crying aloud their grief."
For a full week a vast number of mourners, rich and poor alike,
tarried to grieve with the bereaved family, partaking day and night
of the food that was lavishly dispensed by its members. Notables,
among whom were numbered Shí'ahs, Sunnís, Christians, Jews and
Druzes, as well as poets, `ulamás and government officials, all joined
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in lamenting the loss, and in magnifying the virtues and greatness of
Bahá'u'lláh, many of them paying to Him their written tributes, in
verse and in prose, in both Arabic and Turkish. From cities as far
afield as Damascus, Aleppo, Beirut and Cairo similar tributes were
received. These glowing testimonials were, without exception, submitted
to `Abdu'l-Bahá, Who now represented the Cause of the
departed Leader, and Whose praises were often mingled in these
eulogies with the homage paid to His Father.
And yet these effusive manifestations of sorrow and expressions
of praise and of admiration, which the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh had
spontaneously evoked among the unbelievers in the Holy Land and
the adjoining countries, were but a drop when compared with the
ocean of grief and the innumerable evidences of unbounded devotion
which, at the hour of the setting of the Sun of Truth, poured forth
from the hearts of the countless thousands who had espoused His
Cause, and were determined to carry aloft its banner in Persia, India,
Russia, `Iráq, Turkey, Palestine, Egypt and Syria.
With the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh draws to a close a period which,
in many ways, is unparalleled in the world's religious history. The
first century of the Bahá'í Era had by now run half its course. An
epoch, unsurpassed in its sublimity, its fecundity and duration by
any previous Dispensation, and characterized, except for a short
interval of three years, by half a century of continuous and progressive
Revelation, had terminated. The Message proclaimed by the Báb
had yielded its golden fruit. The most momentous, though not the
most spectacular phase of the Heroic Age had ended. The Sun of
Truth, the world's greatest Luminary, had risen in the Síyáh-Chál
of Tihrán, had broken through the clouds which enveloped it in
Baghdád, had suffered a momentary eclipse whilst mounting to its
zenith in Adrianople and had set finally in `Akká, never to reappear
ere the lapse of a full millenium. God's newborn Faith, the cynosure
of all past Dispensations, had been fully and unreservedly proclaimed.
The prophecies announcing its advent had been remarkably fulfilled.
Its fundamental laws and cardinal principles, the warp and woof of
the fabric of its future World Order, had been clearly enunciated.
Its organic relation to, and its attitude towards, the religious systems
which preceded it had been unmistakably defined. The primary institutions,
within which an embryonic World Order was destined to
mature, had been unassailably established. The Covenant designed
to safeguard the unity and integrity of its world-embracing system
had been irrevocably bequeathed to posterity. The promise of the
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unification of the whole human race, of the inauguration of the Most
Great Peace, of the unfoldment of a world civilization, had been
incontestably given. The dire warnings, foreshadowing catastrophes
destined to befall kings, ecclesiastics, governments and peoples, as a
prelude to so glorious a consummation, had been repeatedly uttered.
The significant summons to the Chief Magistrates of the New World,
forerunner of the Mission with which the North American continent
was to be later invested, had been issued. The initial contact with
a nation, a descendant of whose royal house was to espouse its Cause
ere the expiry of the first Bahá'í century, had been established. The
original impulse which, in the course of successive decades, has conferred,
and will continue to confer, in the years to come, inestimable
benefits of both spiritual and institutional significance upon God's
holy mountain, overlooking the Most Great Prison, had been imparted.
And finally, the first banners of a spiritual conquest which,
ere the termination of that century, was to embrace no less than sixty
countries in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres had been
triumphantly planted.
In the vastness and diversity of its Holy Writ; in the number of
its martyrs; in the valor of its champions; in the example set by its
followers; in the condign punishment suffered by its adversaries; in
the pervasiveness of its influence; in the incomparable heroism of
its Herald; in the dazzling greatness of its Author; in the mysterious
operation of its irresistible spirit; the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, now standing
at the threshold of the sixth decade of its existence, had amply
demonstrated its capacity to forge ahead, indivisible and incorruptible,
along the course traced for it by its Founder, and to display,
before the gaze of successive generations, the signs and tokens of that
celestial potency with which He Himself had so richly endowed it.
To the fate that has overtaken those kings, ministers and ecclesiastics,
in the East as well as in the West, who have, at various stages
of Bahá'u'lláh's ministry, either deliberately persecuted His Cause,
or have neglected to heed the warnings He had uttered, or have failed
in their manifest duty to respond to His summons or to accord Him
and His message the treatment they deserved, particular attention,
I feel, should at this juncture be directed. Bahá'u'lláh Himself, referring
to those who had actively arisen to destroy or harm His
Faith, had declared that "God hath not blinked, nor will He ever
blink His eyes at the tyranny of the oppressor. More particularly
in this Revelation hath He visited each and every tyrant with His
vengeance." Vast and awful is, indeed, the spectacle which meets our
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eyes, as we survey the field over which the retributory winds of God
have, since the inception of the ministry of Bahá'u'lláh, furiously
swept, dethroning monarchs, extinguishing dynasties, uprooting
ecclesiastical hierarchies, precipitating wars and revolutions, driving
from office princes and ministers, dispossessing the usurper, casting
down the tyrant, and chastising the wicked and the rebellious.
Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz, who with Násiri'd-Dín Sháh was the
author of the calamities heaped upon Bahá'u'lláh, and was himself
responsible for three decrees of banishment against the Prophet; who
had been stigmatized, in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, as occupying the "throne
of tyranny," and whose fall had been prophesied in the Lawh-i-Fu'ád,
was deposed in consequence of a palace revolution, was condemned
by a fatvá (sentence) of the Muftí in his own capital, was four days
later assassinated (1876), and was succeeded by a nephew who was
declared to be an imbecile. The war of 1877-78 emancipated eleven million
people from the Turkish yoke; Adrianople was occupied by the
Russian forces; the empire itself was dissolved as a result of the war
of 1914-18; the Sultanate was abolished; a republic was proclaimed;
and a rulership that had endured above six centuries was ended.
The vain and despotic Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, denounced by Bahá'u'lláh
as the "Prince of Oppressors"; of whom He had written that
he would soon be made "an object-lesson for the world"; whose reign
was stained by the execution of the Báb and the imprisonment of
Bahá'u'lláh; who had persistently instigated his subsequent banishments
to Constantinople, Adrianople and `Akká; who, in collusion
with a vicious sacerdotal order, had vowed to strangle the Faith in
its cradle, was dramatically assassinated, in the shrine of Sháh
`Abdu'l-`Azím, on the very eve of his jubilee, which, as ushering in a new
era, was to have been celebrated with the most elaborate magnificence,
and was to go down in history as the greatest day in the annals of
the Persian nation. The fortunes of his house thereafter steadily
declined, and finally through the scandalous misconduct of the dissipated
and irresponsible Ahmad Sháh, led to the eclipse and disappearance
of the Qájár dynasty.
Napoleon III, the foremost monarch of his day in the West, excessively
ambitious, inordinately proud, tricky and superficial, who is
reported to have contemptuously flung down the Tablet sent to him
by Bahá'u'lláh, who was tested by Him and found wanting, and
whose downfall was explicitly predicted in a subsequent Tablet, was
ignominiously defeated in the Battle of Sedan (1870), marking the
greatest military capitulation recorded in modern history; lost his
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kingdom and spent the remaining years of his life in exile. His hopes
were utterly blasted, his only son, the Prince Imperial, was killed in
the Zulu War, his much vaunted empire collapsed, a civil war ensued
more ferocious than the Franco-German war itself, and William I,
the Prussian king, was hailed emperor of a unified Germany in the
Palace of Versailles.
William I, the pride-intoxicated newly-acclaimed conqueror of
Napoleon III, admonished in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and bidden to ponder
the fate that had overtaken "one whose power transcended" his own,
warned in that same Book, that the "lamentations of Berlin" would
be raised and that the banks of the Rhine would be "covered with
gore," sustained two attempts on his life, and was succeeded by a
son who died of a mortal disease, three months after his accession to
the throne, bequeathing the throne to the arrogant, the headstrong
and short-sighted William II. The pride of the new monarch precipitated
his downfall. Revolution, swiftly and suddenly, broke out in
his capital, communism reared its head in a number of cities; the
princes of the German states abdicated, and he himself, fleeing ignominiously
to Holland, was compelled to relinquish his right to the
throne. The constitution of Weimar sealed the fate of the empire,
whose birth had been so loudly proclaimed by his grandfather, and
the terms of an oppressively severe treaty provoked "the lamentations"
which, half a century before, had been ominously prophesied.
The arbitrary and unyielding Francis Joseph, emperor of Austria
and king of Hungary, who had been reproved in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
for having neglected his manifest duty to inquire about Bahá'u'lláh
during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, was so engulfed by misfortunes
and tragedies that his reign came to be regarded as one unsurpassed
by any other reign in the calamities it inflicted upon the nation.
His brother, Maximilian, was put to death in Mexico; the Crown
Prince Rudolph perished in ignominious circumstances; the Empress
was assassinated; Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife were
murdered in Serajevo; the "ramshackle empire" itself disintegrated,
was carved up, and a shrunken republic was set up on the ruins of
a vanished Holy Roman Empire--a republic which, after a brief and
precarious existence, was blotted out from the political map of
Europe.
Nicolaevitch Alexander II, the all-powerful Czar of Russia, who,
in a Tablet addressed to him by name had been thrice warned by
Bahá'u'lláh, had been bidden to "summon the nations unto God,"
and had been cautioned not to allow his sovereignty to prevent him
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from recognizing "the Supreme Sovereign," suffered several attempts
on his life, and at last died at the hand of an assassin. A harsh policy
of repression, initiated by himself and followed by his successor, Alexander
III, paved the way for a revolution which, in the reign of
Nicholas II, swept away on a bloody tide the empire of the Czars,
brought in its wake war, disease and famine, and established a militant
proletariat which massacred the nobility, persecuted the clergy, drove
away the intellectuals, disendowed the state religion, executed the
Czar with his consort and his family, and extinguished the dynasty
of the Romanoffs.
Pope Pius IX, the undisputed head of the most powerful Church
in Christendom, who had been commanded, in an Epistle addressed
to him by Bahá'u'lláh, to leave his "palaces unto such as desire them,"
to "sell all the embellished ornaments" in his possession, to "expend
them in the path of God," and hasten towards "the Kingdom,"
was compelled to surrender, in distressing circumstances, to the besieging
forces of King Victor Emmanuel, and to submit himself to be
depossessed of the Papal States and of Rome itself. The loss of "the
Eternal City," over which the Papal flag had flown for one thousand
years, and the humiliation of the religious orders under his jurisdiction,
added mental anguish to his physical infirmities and embittered
the last years of his life. The formal recognition of the Kingdom of
Italy subsequently exacted from one of his successors in the Vatican,
confirmed the virtual extinction of the Pope's temporal sovereignty.
But the rapid dissolution of the Ottoman, the Napoleonic, the
German, the Austrian and the Russian empires, the demise of the
Qájár dynasty and the virtual extinction of the temporal sovereignty
of the Roman Pontiff do not exhaust the story of the catastrophes
that befell the monarchies of the world through the neglect of
Bahá'u'lláh's warnings conveyed in the opening passages of His Súriy-i-Mulúk.
The conversion of the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies,
as well as the Chinese empire, into republics; the strange fate that
has, more recently, been pursuing the sovereigns of Holland, of
Norway, of Greece, of Yugoslavia and of Albania now living in exile;
the virtual abdication of the authority exercised by the kings of
Denmark, of Belgium, of Bulgaria, of Rumania and of Italy; the
apprehension with which their fellow sovereigns must be viewing the
convulsions that have seized so many thrones; the shame and acts of
violence which, in some instances, have darkened the annals of the
reigns of certain monarchs in both the East and the West, and still
more recently the sudden downfall of the Founder of the newly
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established dynasty in Persia--these are yet further instances of the
infliction of the "Divine Chastisement" foreshadowed by Bahá'u'lláh
in that immortal Súrih, and show forth the divine reality of the
arraignment pronounced by Him against the rulers of the earth in
His Most Holy Book.
No less arresting has been the extinction of the all-pervasive
influence exerted by the Muslim ecclesiastical leaders, both Sunní and
Shí'ah, in the two countries in which the mightiest institutions of
Islám had been reared, and which have been directly associated with
the tribulations heaped upon the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh.
The Caliph, the self-styled vicar of the Prophet of Islám, known
also as the "Commander of the Faithful," the protector of the holy
cities of Mecca and Medina, whose spiritual jurisdiction extended over
more than two hundred million Muhammadans, was by the abolition
of the Sultanate in Turkey, divested of his temporal authority,
hitherto regarded as inseparable from his high office. The Caliph
himself, after having occupied for a brief period, an anomalous and
precarious position, fled to Europe; the Caliphate, the most august and
powerful institution of Islám, was, without consultation with any
community in the Sunní world, summarily abolished; the unity of
the most powerful branch of the Islamic Faith was thereby shattered;
a formal, a complete and permanent separation of the Turkish state
from the Sunní faith was proclaimed; the Sharí'ah canonical Law was
annulled; ecclesiastical institutions were disendowed; a civil code was
promulgated; religious orders were suppressed; the Sunní hierarchy
was dissolved; the Arabic tongue, the language of the Prophet of
Islám, fell into disuse, and its script was superseded by the Latin
alphabet; the Qur'án itself was translated into Turkish; Constantinople,
the "Dome of Islám," sank to the level of a provincial city,
and its peerless jewel, the Mosque of St. Sophia, was converted into a
museum--a series of degradations recalling the fate which, in the
first century of the Christian Era, befell the Jewish people, the city of
Jerusalem, the Temple of Solomon, the Holy of Holies, and an
ecclesiastical hierarchy, whose members were the avowed persecutors
of the religion of Jesus Christ.
A similar convulsion shook the foundations of the entire sacerdotal
order in Persia, though its formal divorce from the Persian
state is as yet unproclaimed. A "church-state," that had been firmly
rooted in the life of the nation and had extended its ramifications to
every sphere of life in that country, was virtually disrupted. A
sacerdotal order, the rock wall of Shí'ah Islám in that land, was
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paralyzed and discredited; its mujtahids, the favorite ministers of the
hidden Imám, were reduced to an insignificant number; all its beturbaned
officers, except for a handful, were ruthlessly forced to
exchange their traditional head-dress and robes for the European
clothes they themselves anathematized; the pomp and pageantry that
marked their ceremonials vanished; their fatvás (sentences) were
nullified; their endowments were handed over to a civil administration;
their mosques and seminaries were deserted; the right of sanctuary
accorded to their shrines ceased to be recognized; their religious
plays were banned; their takyihs were closed and even their pilgrimages
to Najaf and Karbilá were discouraged and curtailed. The
disuse of the veil; the recognition of the equality of sexes; the establishment
of civil tribunals; the abolition of concubinage; the disparagement
of the use of the Arabic tongue, the language of Islám
and of the Qur'án, and the efforts exerted to divorce it from Persian
--all these further proclaim the degradation, and foreshadow the
final extinction, of that infamous crew, whose leaders had dared style
themselves "servants of the Lord of Saintship" (Imám `Alí), who
had so often received the homage of the pious kings of the Safaví
dynasty, and whose anathemas, ever since the birth of the Faith of the
Báb, had been chiefly responsible for the torrents of blood which had
been shed, and whose acts have blackened the annals of both their
religion and nation.
A crisis, not indeed as severe as that which shook the Islamic
sacerdotal orders--the inveterate adversaries of the Faith--has, moreover,
afflicted the ecclesiastical institutions of Christendom, whose
influence, ever since Bahá'u'lláh's summons was issued and His warning
was sounded, has visibly deteriorated, whose prestige has been
gravely damaged, whose authority has steadily declined, and whose
power, rights and prerogatives have been increasingly circumscribed.
The virtual extinction of the temporal sovereignty of the Roman
Pontiff, to which reference has already been made; the wave of anti-clericalism
that brought in its wake the separation of the Catholic
Church from the French Republic; the organized assault launched
by a triumphant Communist state upon the Greek Orthodox Church
in Russia, and the consequent disestablishment, disendowment and
persecution of the state religion; the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy which owed its allegiance to the Church of
Rome and powerfully supported its institutions; the ordeal to which
that same Church has been subjected in Spain and in Mexico; the
wave of secularization which, at present, is engulfing the Catholic, the
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Anglican and the Presbyterian Missions in non-Christian lands; the
forces of an aggressive paganism which are assailing the ancient
citadels of the Catholic, the Greek Orthodox and the Lutheran
Churches in Western, in Central and Eastern Europe, in the Balkans
and in the Baltic and Scandinavian states--these stand out as the
most conspicuous manifestations of the decline in the fortunes of the
ecclesiastical leaders of Christendom, leaders who, heedless of the
voice of Bahá'u'lláh, have interposed themselves between the
Christ returned in the glory of the Father and their respective
congregations.
Nor can we fail to note the progressive deterioration in the
authority, wielded by the ecclesiastical leaders of the Jewish and
Zoroastrian Faiths, ever since the voice of Bahá'u'lláh was raised,
announcing, in no uncertain terms, that the "Most Great Law is
come," that the Ancient Beauty "ruleth upon the throne of David,"
and that "whatsoever hath been announced in the Books (Zoroastrian
Holy Writ) hath been revealed and made clear." The evidences of
increasing revolt against clerical authority; the disrespect and indifference
shown to time-honored observances, rituals and ceremonials;
the repeated inroads made by the forces of an aggressive and often
hostile nationalism into the spheres of clerical jurisdiction; and the
general apathy with which, particularly in the case of the professed
adherents of the Zoroastrian Faith, these encroachments are regarded
--all provide, beyond the shadow of a doubt, further justification of
the warnings and predictions uttered by Bahá'u'lláh in His historic
addresses to the world's ecclesiastical leaders.
Such in sum are the awful evidences of God's retributive justice
that have afflicted kings as well as ecclesiastics, in both the East and
the West, as a direct consequence of either their active opposition to
the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, or of their lamentable failure to respond to
His call, to inquire into His Message, to avert the sufferings He
endured, or to heed the marvelous signs and prodigies which, during a
hundred years, have accompanied the birth and rise of His Revelation.
"From two ranks amongst men," is His terse and prophetic utterance,
"power hath been seized: kings and ecclesiastics." "If ye pay no
heed," He thus warned the kings of the earth, "unto the counsels
which ... We have revealed in this Tablet, Divine chastisement will
assail you from every direction... On that day ye shall ... recognize
your own impotence." And again: "Though aware of most of
Our afflictions, ye, nevertheless, have failed to stay the hand of the
aggressor." And, furthermore, this arraignment: "...We ... will
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be patient, as We have been patient in that which hath befallen Us at
your hands, O concourse of kings!"
Condemning specifically the world's ecclesiastical leaders, He has
written: "The source and origin of tyranny have been the divines...
God, verily, is clear of them, and We, too, are clear of them."
"When We observed carefully," He openly affirms, "We discovered
that Our enemies are, for the most part, the divines." "O concourse
of divines!" He thus addresses them, "Ye shall not henceforth behold
yourselves possessed of any power, inasmuch as We have seized it
from you..." "Had ye believed in God when He revealed Himself,"
He explains, "the people would not have turned aside from Him,
nor would the things ye witness today have befallen Us." "They,"
referring more specifically to Muslim ecclesiastics, He asserts, "rose up
against Us with such cruelty as hath sapped the strength of Islám..."
"The divines of Persia," He affirms, "committed that which no people
amongst the peoples of the world hath committed." And again:
"...The divines of Persia ... have perpetrated what the Jews have
not perpetrated during the Revelation of Him Who is the Spirit
(Jesus)." And finally, these portentous prophecies: "Because of you
the people were abased, and the banner of Islám was hauled down,
and its mighty throne subverted." "Erelong will all that ye possess
perish, and your glory be turned into the most wretched abasement,
and ye shall behold the punishment for what ye have wrought..."
"Erelong," the Báb Himself, even more openly prophesies, "We will,
in very truth, torment such as waged war against Husayn (Imám
Husayn) ... with the most afflictive torment..." "Erelong will
God wreak His vengeance upon them, at the time of Our return, and
He hath, in very truth, prepared for them, in the world to come, a
severe torment."
Nor should, in a review of this nature, reference be omitted to
those princes, ministers and ecclesiastics who have individually been
responsible for the afflictive trials which Bahá'u'lláh and His followers
have suffered. Fu'ád Páshá, the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs,
denounced by Him as the "instigator" of His banishment to the Most
Great Prison, who had so assiduously striven with his colleague `Alí
Páshá, to excite the fears and suspicions of a despot already predisposed
against the Faith and its Leader, was, about a year after he
had succeeded in executing his design, struck down, while on a trip
to Paris, by the avenging rod of God, and died at Nice (1869).
`Alí Páshá, the Sadr-i-A'zam (Prime Minister), denounced in such
forceful language in the Lawh-i-Ra'ís, whose downfall the Lawh-i-Fu'ád
+P232
had unmistakably predicted, was, a few years after Bahá'u'lláh's
banishment to `Akká, dismissed from office, was shorn of all power,
and sank into complete oblivion. The tyrannical Prince Mas'úd Mírzá,
the Zillu's-Sultán, Násiri'd-Dín Sháh's eldest son and ruler over more
than two-fifths of his kingdom, stigmatized by Bahá'u'lláh as "the
Infernal Tree," fell into disgrace, was deprived of all his governorships,
except that of Isfahán, and lost all chances of future eminence
or promotion. The rapacious Prince Jalálu'd-Dawlih, branded by
the Supreme Pen as "the tyrant of Yazd," was, about a year after the
iniquities he had perpetrated, deprived of his post, recalled to Tihrán,
and forced to return a part of the property he had stolen from
his victims.
The scheming, the ambitious and profligate Mírzá Buzurg Khán,
the Persian Consul General in Baghdád, was eventually dismissed from
office, "overwhelmed with disaster, filled with remorse and plunged
into confusion." The notorious Mujtahid Siyyid Sádiq-i-Tabátabá'í,
denounced by Bahá'u'lláh as "the Liar of Tihrán," the author of the
monstrous decree condemning every male member of the Bahá'í community
in Persia, young or old, high or low, to be put to death, and
all its women to be deported, was suddenly taken ill, fell a prey to a
disease that ravaged his heart, his brain and his limbs, and precipitated
eventually his death. The high-handed Subhí Páshá, who had peremptorily
summoned Bahá'u'lláh to the government house in `Akká, lost
the position he occupied, and was recalled under circumstances highly
detrimental to his reputation. Nor were the other governors of the
city, who had dealt unjustly with the exalted Prisoner in their charge
and His fellow-exiles, spared a like fate. "Every páshá," testifies
Nabíl in his narrative, "whose conduct in `Akká was commendable
enjoyed a long term of office, and was bountifully favored by God,
whereas every hostile Mutisárrif (governor) was speedily deposed by
the Hand of Divine power, even as `Abdu'r-Rahmán Páshá and
Muhammad-Yúsúf Páshá who, on the morrow of the very night
they had resolved to lay hands on the loved ones of Bahá'u'lláh, were
telegraphically advised of their dismissal. Such was their fate that
they were never again given a position."
Shaykh Muhammad-Báqir, surnamed the "Wolf," who, in the
strongly condemnatory Lawh-i-Burhán addressed to him by Bahá'u'lláh,
had been compared to "the last trace of sunlight upon the
mountain-top," witnessed the steady decline of his prestige, and died
in a miserable state of acute remorse. His accomplice, Mír Muhammad-Husayn,
surnamed the "She-Serpent," whom Bahá'u'lláh described
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as one "infinitely more wicked than the oppressor of Karbilá,"
was, about that same time, expelled from Isfahán, wandered from
village to village, contracted a disease that engendered so foul an odor
that even his wife and daughter could not bear to approach him, and
died in such ill-favor with the local authorities that no one dared to
attend his funeral, his corpse being ignominiously interred by a
few porters.
Mention should, moreover, be made of the devastating famine
which, about a year after the illustrious Badí' had been tortured to
death, ravaged Persia and reduced the population to such extremities
that even the rich went hungry, and hundreds of mothers ghoulishly
devoured their own children.
Nor can this subject be dismissed without special reference being
made to the Arch-Breaker of the Covenant of the Báb, Mírzá Yahyá,
who lived long enough to witness, while eking out a miserable existence
in Cyprus, termed by the Turks "the Island of Satan," every
hope he had so maliciously conceived reduced to naught. A pensioner
first of the Turkish and later of the British Government, he was
subjected to the further humiliation of having his application for
British citizenship refused. Eleven of the eighteen "Witnesses" he
had appointed forsook him and turned in repentance to Bahá'u'lláh.
He himself became involved in a scandal which besmirched his reputation
and that of his eldest son, deprived that son and his descendants
of the successorship with which he had previously invested him,
and appointed, in his stead, the perfidious Mírzá Hádíy-i-Dawlat-Ábádí,
a notorious Azalí, who, on the occasion of the martyrdom of
the aforementioned Mírzá Ashraf, was seized with such fear that
during four consecutive days he proclaimed from the pulpit-top, and
in a most vituperative language, his complete repudiation of the
Bábí Faith, as well as of Mírzá Yahyá, his benefactor, who had
reposed in him such implicit confidence. It was this same eldest son
who, through the workings of a strange destiny, sought years after,
together with his nephew and niece, the presence of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
the appointed Successor of Bahá'u'lláh and Center of His Covenant,
expressed repentance, prayed for forgiveness, was graciously accepted
by Him, and remained, till the hour of his death, a loyal follower
of the Faith which his father had so foolishly, so shamelessly and
so pitifully striven to extinguish.
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+P235
THIRD PERIOD
THE MINISTRY OF `ABDU'L-BAHÁ
1892-1921
+P236
+P237
CHAPTER XIV
The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh
I have in the preceding chapters endeavored to trace the rise and
progress of the Faith associated with the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh during
the first fifty years of its existence. If I have dwelt too long on the
events connected with the life and mission of these twin Luminaries
of the Bahá'í Revelation, if I have at times indulged in too circumstantial
a narrative of certain episodes related to their ministries, it
is solely because these happenings proclaim the birth, and signalize
the establishment, of an epoch which future historians will acclaim
as the most heroic, the most tragic and the most momentous period
in the Apostolic Age of the Bahá'í Dispensation. Indeed the tale
which the subsequent decades of the century under review unfold
to our eyes is but the record of the manifold evidences of the resistless
operation of those creative forces which the revolution of fifty years
of almost uninterrupted Revelation had released.
A dynamic process, divinely propelled, possessed of undreamt-of
potentialities, world-embracing in scope, world-transforming in its
ultimate consequences, had been set in motion on that memorable
night when the Báb communicated the purpose of His mission to
Mullá Husayn in an obscure corner of Shíráz. It acquired a tremendous
momentum with the first intimations of Bahá'u'lláh's dawning
Revelation amidst the darkness of the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán. It was
further accelerated by the Declaration of His mission on the eve of
His banishment from Baghdád. It moved to a climax with the proclamation
of that same mission during the tempestuous years of His
exile in Adrianople. Its full significance was disclosed when the
Author of that Mission issued His historic summonses, appeals and
warnings to the kings of the earth and the world's ecclesiastical
leaders. It was finally consummated by the laws and ordinances which
He formulated, by the principles which He enunciated and by the
institutions which He ordained during the concluding years of His
ministry in the prison-city of `Akká.
To direct and canalize these forces let loose by this Heaven-sent
process, and to insure their harmonious and continuous operation
after His ascension, an instrument divinely ordained, invested with
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indisputable authority, organically linked with the Author of the
Revelation Himself, was clearly indispensable. That instrument
Bahá'u'lláh had expressly provided through the institution of the
Covenant, an institution which He had firmly established prior to
His ascension. This same Covenant He had anticipated in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
had alluded to it as He bade His last farewell to the members
of His family, who had been summoned to His bed-side, in the
days immediately preceding His ascension, and had incorporated it
in a special document which He designated as "the Book of My
Covenant," and which He entrusted, during His last illness, to His
eldest son `Abdu'l-Bahá.
Written entirely in His own hand; unsealed, on the ninth day
after His ascension in the presence of nine witnesses chosen from
amongst His companions and members of His Family; read subsequently,
on the afternoon of that same day, before a large company
assembled in His Most Holy Tomb, including His sons, some of the
Báb's kinsmen, pilgrims and resident believers, this unique and epoch-making
Document, designated by Bahá'u'lláh as His "Most Great
Tablet," and alluded to by Him as the "Crimson Book" in His
"Epistle to the Son of the Wolf," can find no parallel in the Scriptures
of any previous Dispensation, not excluding that of the Báb Himself.
For nowhere in the books pertaining to any of the world's religious
systems, not even among the writings of the Author of the Bábí
Revelation, do we find any single document establishing a Covenant
endowed with an authority comparable to the Covenant which
Bahá'u'lláh had Himself instituted.
"So firm and mighty is this Covenant," He Who is its appointed
Center has affirmed, "that from the beginning of time until the present
day no religious Dispensation hath produced its like." "It is indubitably
clear," He, furthermore, has stated, "that the pivot of the
oneness of mankind is nothing else but the power of the Covenant."
"Know thou," He has written, "that the `Sure Handle' mentioned
from the foundation of the world in the Books, the Tablets and the
Scriptures of old is naught else but the Covenant and the Testament."
And again: "The lamp of the Covenant is the light of the world, and
the words traced by the Pen of the Most High a limitless ocean."
"The Lord, the All-Glorified," He has moreover declared, "hath, beneath
the shade of the Tree of Anísá (Tree of Life), made a new
Covenant and established a great Testament... Hath such a Covenant
been established in any previous Dispensation, age, period or
century? Hath such a Testament, set down by the Pen of the Most
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High, ever been witnessed? No, by God!" And finally: "The power
of the Covenant is as the heat of the sun which quickeneth and promoteth
the development of all created things on earth. The light of
the Covenant, in like manner, is the educator of the minds, the
spirits, the hearts and souls of men." To this same Covenant He has
in His writings referred as the "Conclusive Testimony," the "Universal
Balance," the "Magnet of God's grace," the "Upraised Standard," the
"Irrefutable Testament," "the all-mighty Covenant, the like of which
the sacred Dispensations of the past have never witnessed" and "one
of the distinctive features of this most mighty cycle."
Extolled by the writer of the Apocalypse as "the Ark of His
(God) Testament"; associated with the gathering beneath the "Tree
of Anísá" (Tree of Life) mentioned by Bahá'u'lláh in the Hidden
Words; glorified by Him, in other passages of His writings, as the
"Ark of Salvation" and as "the Cord stretched betwixt the earth and
the Abhá Kingdom," this Covenant has been bequeathed to posterity
in a Will and Testament which, together with the Kitáb-i-Aqdas
and several Tablets, in which the rank and station of `Abdu'l-Bahá
are unequivocally disclosed, constitute the chief buttresses designed
by the Lord of the Covenant Himself to shield and support, after
His ascension, the appointed Center of His Faith and the Delineator
of its future institutions.
In this weighty and incomparable Document its Author discloses
the character of that "excellent and priceless heritage" bequeathed by
Him to His "heirs"; proclaims afresh the fundamental purpose of His
Revelation; enjoins the "peoples of the world" to hold fast to that
which will "elevate" their "station"; announces to them that "God
hath forgiven what is past"; stresses the sublimity of man's station;
discloses the primary aim of the Faith of God; directs the faithful to
pray for the welfare of the kings of the earth, "the manifestations of
the power, and the daysprings of the might and riches, of God";
invests them with the rulership of the earth; singles out as His special
domain the hearts of men; forbids categorically strife and contention;
commands His followers to aid those rulers who are "adorned with
the ornament of equity and justice"; and directs, in particular, the
Aghsán (His sons) to ponder the "mighty force and the consummate
power that lieth concealed in the world of being." He bids them,
moreover, together with the Afnán (the Báb's kindred) and His own
relatives, to "turn, one and all, unto the Most Great Branch (`Abdu'l-Bahá)";
identifies Him with "the One Whom God hath purposed,"
"Who hath branched from this pre-existent Root," referred to in the
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Kitáb-i-Aqdas; ordains the station of the "Greater Branch" (Mírzá
Muhammad-`Alí) to be beneath that of the "Most Great Branch"
(`Abdu'l-Bahá); exhorts the believers to treat the Aghsán with consideration
and affection; counsels them to respect His family and
relatives, as well as the kindred of the Báb; denies His sons "any
right to the property of others"; enjoins on them, on His kindred
and on that of the Báb to "fear God, to do that which is meet and
seemly" and to follow the things that will "exalt" their station; warns
all men not to allow "the means of order to be made the cause of
confusion, and the instrument of union an occasion for discord";
and concludes with an exhortation calling upon the faithful to "serve
all nations," and to strive for the "betterment of the world."
That such a unique and sublime station should have been conferred
upon `Abdu'l-Bahá did not, and indeed could not, surprise
those exiled companions who had for so long been privileged to
observe His life and conduct, nor the pilgrims who had been brought,
however fleetingly, into personal contact with Him, nor indeed the
vast concourse of the faithful who, in distant lands, had grown to
revere His name and to appreciate His labors, nor even the wide
circle of His friends and acquaintances who, in the Holy Land and
the adjoining countries, were already well familiar with the position
He had occupied during the lifetime of His Father.
He it was Whose auspicious birth occurred on that never-to-be-forgotten
night when the Báb laid bare the transcendental character
of His Mission to His first disciple Mullá Husayn. He it was Who,
as a mere child, seated on the lap of Táhirih, had registered the
thrilling significance of the stirring challenge which that indomitable
heroine had addressed to her fellow-disciple, the erudite and far-famed
Vahíd. He it was Whose tender soul had been seared with the
ineffaceable vision of a Father, haggard, dishevelled, freighted with
chains, on the occasion of a visit, as a boy of nine, to the Síyáh-Chál
of Tihrán. Against Him, in His early childhood, whilst His Father
lay a prisoner in that dungeon, had been directed the malice of a
mob of street urchins who pelted Him with stones, vilified Him and
overwhelmed Him with ridicule. His had been the lot to share with
His Father, soon after His release from imprisonment, the rigors and
miseries of a cruel banishment from His native land, and the trials
which culminated in His enforced withdrawal to the mountains of
Kurdistán. He it was Who, in His inconsolable grief at His separation
from an adored Father, had confided to Nabíl, as attested by him in
his narrative, that He felt Himself to have grown old though still
+P241
but a child of tender years. His had been the unique distinction of
recognizing, while still in His childhood, the full glory of His Father's
as yet unrevealed station, a recognition which had impelled Him to
throw Himself at His feet and to spontaneously implore the privilege
of laying down His life for His sake. From His pen, while still in
His adolescence in Baghdád, had issued that superb commentary on a
well-known Muhammadan tradition, written at the suggestion of
Bahá'u'lláh, in answer to a request made by `Alí-Shawkat Páshá,
which was so illuminating as to excite the unbounded admiration of
its recipient. It was His discussions and discourses with the learned
doctors with whom He came in contact in Baghdád that first aroused
that general admiration for Him and for His knowledge which was
steadily to increase as the circle of His acquaintances was widened,
at a later date, first in Adrianople and then in `Akká. It was to Him
that the highly accomplished Khurshíd Páshá, the governor of Adrianople,
had been moved to pay a public and glowing tribute when,
in the presence of a number of distinguished divines of that city, his
youthful Guest had, briefly and amazingly, resolved the intricacies
of a problem that had baffled the minds of the assembled company--
an achievement that affected so deeply the Páshá that from that time
onwards he could hardly reconcile himself to that Youth's absence
from such gatherings.
On Him Bahá'u'lláh, as the scope and influence of His Mission
extended, had been led to place an ever greater degree of reliance, by
appointing Him, on numerous occasions, as His deputy, by enabling
Him to plead His Cause before the public, by assigning Him the task
of transcribing His Tablets, by allowing Him to assume the responsibility
of shielding Him from His enemies, and by investing Him with
the function of watching over and promoting the interests of His
fellow-exiles and companions. He it was Who had been commissioned
to undertake, as soon as circumstances might permit, the delicate and
all-important task of purchasing the site that was to serve as the
permanent resting-place of the Báb, of insuring the safe transfer of
His remains to the Holy Land, and of erecting for Him a befitting
sepulcher on Mt. Carmel. He it was Who had been chiefly instrumental
in providing the necessary means for Bahá'u'lláh's release from
His nine-year confinement within the city walls of `Akká, and in
enabling Him to enjoy, in the evening of His life, a measure of that
peace and security from which He had so long been debarred. It was
through His unremitting efforts that the illustrious Badí' had been
granted his memorable interviews with Bahá'u'lláh, that the hostility
+P242
evinced by several governors of `Akká towards the exiled community
had been transmuted into esteem and admiration, that the purchase of
properties adjoining the Sea of Galilee and the River Jordan had been
effected, and that the ablest and most valuable presentation of the
early history of the Faith and of its tenets had been transmitted to
posterity. It was through the extraordinarily warm reception accorded
Him during His visit to Beirut, through His contact with Midhát
Páshá, a former Grand Vizir of Turkey, through His friendship with
Azíz Páshá, whom He had previously known in Adrianople, and
who had subsequently been promoted to the rank of Valí, and
through His constant association with officials, notables and leading
ecclesiastics who, in increasing number had besought His presence,
during the final years of His Father's ministry, that He had succeeded
in raising the prestige of the Cause He had championed to a level it
had never previously attained.
He alone had been accorded the privilege of being called "the
Master," an honor from which His Father had strictly excluded all
His other sons. Upon Him that loving and unerring Father had
chosen to confer the unique title of "Sirru'lláh" (the Mystery of God),
a designation so appropriate to One Who, though essentially human
and holding a station radically and fundamentally different from
that occupied by Bahá'u'lláh and His Forerunner, could still claim
to be the perfect Exemplar of His Faith, to be endowed with super-human
knowledge, and to be regarded as the stainless mirror reflecting
His light. To Him, whilst in Adrianople, that same Father had,
in the Súriy-i-Ghusn (Tablet of the Branch), referred as "this sacred
and glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness," as "the Limb of the
Law of God," as His "most great favor" unto men, as His "most
perfect bounty" conferred upon them, as One through Whom "every
mouldering bone is quickened," declaring that "whoso turneth towards
Him hath turned towards God," and that "they who deprive themselves
of the shadow of the Branch are lost in the wilderness of error."
To Him He, whilst still in that city, had alluded (in a Tablet addressed
to Hájí Muhammad Ibráhím-i-Khalíl) as the one amongst His sons
"from Whose tongue God will cause the signs of His power to stream
forth," and as the one Whom "God hath specially chosen for His
Cause." On Him, at a later period, the Author of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
in a celebrated passage, subsequently elucidated in the "Book of My
Covenant," had bestowed the function of interpreting His Holy
Writ, proclaiming Him, at the same time, to be the One "Whom
God hath purposed, Who hath branched from this Ancient Root."
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To Him in a Tablet, revealed during that same period and addressed
to Mírzá Muhammad Qulíy-i-Sabzívarí, He had referred as "the
Gulf that hath branched out of this Ocean that hath encompassed
all created things," and bidden His followers to turn their faces
towards it. To Him, on the occasion of His visit to Beirut, His
Father had, furthermore, in a communication which He dictated to
His amanuensis, paid a glowing tribute, glorifying Him as the One
"round Whom all names revolve," as "the Most Mighty Branch of
God," and as "His ancient and immutable Mystery." He it was Who,
in several Tablets which Bahá'u'lláh Himself had penned, had been
personally addressed as "the Apple of Mine eye," and been referred to
as "a shield unto all who are in heaven and on earth," as "a shelter for
all mankind" and "a stronghold for whosoever hath believed in God."
It was on His behalf that His Father, in a prayer revealed in His
honor, had supplicated God to "render Him victorious," and to "ordain
... for Him, as well as for them that love Him," the things destined
by the Almighty for His "Messengers" and the "Trustees" of His
Revelation. And finally in yet another Tablet these weighty words
had been recorded: "The glory of God rest upon Thee, and upon
whosoever serveth Thee and circleth around Thee. Woe, great woe,
betide him that opposeth and injureth Thee. Well is it with him that
sweareth fealty to Thee; the fire of hell torment him who is Thy
enemy."
And now to crown the inestimable honors, privileges and benefits
showered upon Him, in ever increasing abundance, throughout the
forty years of His Father's ministry in Baghdád, in Adrianople and in
`Akká, He had been elevated to the high office of Center of Bahá'u'lláh's
Covenant, and been made the successor of the Manifestation
of God Himself--a position that was to empower Him to impart an
extraordinary impetus to the international expansion of His Father's
Faith, to amplify its doctrine, to beat down every barrier that would
obstruct its march, and to call into being, and delineate the features
of, its Administrative Order, the Child of the Covenant, and the
Harbinger of that World Order whose establishment must needs
signalize the advent of the Golden Age of the Bahá'í Dispensation.
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CHAPTER XV
The Rebellion of Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí
The immediate effect of the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh had been, as
already observed, to spread grief and bewilderment among his followers
and companions, and to inspire its vigilant and redoubtable
adversaries with fresh hope and renewed determination. At a time
when a grievously traduced Faith had triumphantly emerged from
the two severest crises it had ever known, one the work of enemies
without, the other the work of enemies within, when its prestige had
risen to a height unequalled in any period during its fifty-year
existence, the unerring Hand which had shaped its destiny ever since
its inception was suddenly removed, leaving a gap which friend and
foe alike believed could never again be filled.
Yet, as the appointed Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant and the
authorized Interpreter of His teaching had Himself later explained,
the dissolution of the tabernacle wherein the soul of the Manifestation
of God had chosen temporarily to abide signalized its release from
the restrictions which an earthly life had, of necessity, imposed upon
it. Its influence no longer circumscribed by any physical limitations,
its radiance no longer beclouded by its human temple, that soul could
henceforth energize the whole world to a degree unapproached at
any stage in the course of its existence on this planet.
Bahá'u'lláh's stupendous task on this earthly plane had, moreover,
at the time of His passing, been brought to its final consummation.
His mission, far from being in any way inconclusive, had, in every
respect, been carried through to a full end. The Message with which
He had been entrusted had been disclosed to the gaze of all mankind.
The summons He had been commissioned to issue to its leaders and
rulers had been fearlessly voiced. The fundamentals of the doctrine
destined to recreate its life, heal its sicknesses and redeem it from
bondage and degradation had been impregnably established. The
tide of calamity that was to purge and fortify the sinews of His
Faith had swept on with unstemmed fury. The blood which was to
fertilize the soil out of which the institutions of His World Order
were destined to spring had been profusely shed. Above all the
Covenant that was to perpetuate the influence of that Faith, insure
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its integrity, safeguard it from schism, and stimulate its world-wide
expansion, had been fixed on an inviolable basis.
His Cause, precious beyond the dreams and hopes of men; enshrining
within its shell that pearl of great price to which the world,
since its foundation, had been looking forward; confronted with
colossal tasks of unimaginable complexity and urgency, was beyond
a peradventure in safe keeping. His own beloved Son, the apple of
His eye, His vicegerent on earth, the Executive of His authority, the
Pivot of His Covenant, the Shepherd of His flock, the Exemplar of
His faith, the Image of His perfections, the Mystery of His Revelation,
the Interpreter of His mind, the Architect of His World Order,
the Ensign of His Most Great Peace, the Focal Point of His unerring
guidance--in a word, the occupant of an office without peer or equal
in the entire field of religious history--stood guard over it, alert,
fearless and determined to enlarge its limits, blazon abroad its fame,
champion its interests and consummate its purpose.
The stirring proclamation `Abdu'l-Bahá had penned, addressed to
the rank and file of the followers of His Father, on the morrow of
His ascension, as well as the prophecies He Himself had uttered in
His Tablets, breathed a resolve and a confidence which the fruits
garnered and the triumphs achieved in the course of a thirty-year
ministry have abundantly justified.
The cloud of despondency that had momentarily settled on the
disconsolate lovers of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh was lifted. The continuity
of that unerring guidance vouchsafed to it since its birth was
now assured. The significance of the solemn affirmation that this is
"the Day which shall not be followed by night" was now clearly
apprehended. An orphan community had recognized in `Abdu'l-Bahá,
in its hour of desperate need, its Solace, its Guide, its Mainstay and
Champion. The Light that had glowed with such dazzling brightness
in the heart of Asia, and had, in the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh, spread to
the Near East, and illuminated the fringes of both the European and
African continents, was to travel, through the impelling influence
of the newly proclaimed Covenant, and almost immediately after the
death of its Author, as far West as the North American continent,
and from thence diffuse itself to the countries of Europe, and subsequently
shed its radiance over both the Far East and Australasia.
Before the Faith, however, could plant its banner in the midmost
heart of the North American continent, and from thence establish
its outposts over so vast a portion of the Western world, the newly
born Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh had, as had been the case with the
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Faith that had given it birth, to be baptized with a fire which was to
demonstrate its solidity and proclaim its indestructibility to an unbelieving
world. A crisis, almost as severe as that which had assailed
the Faith in its earliest infancy in Baghdád, was to shake that Covenant
to its foundations at the very moment of its inception, and subject
afresh the Cause of which it was the noblest fruit to one of the most
grievous ordeals experienced in the course of an entire century.
This crisis, misconceived as a schism, which political as well as
ecclesiastical adversaries, no less than the fast dwindling remnant of
the followers of Mírzá Yahyá hailed as a signal for the immediate
disruption and final dissolution of the system established by Bahá'u'lláh,
was precipitated at the very heart and center of His Faith,
and was provoked by no one less than a member of His own family,
a half-brother of `Abdu'l-Bahá, specifically named in the book of
the Covenant, and holding a rank second to none except Him Who
had been appointed as the Center of that Covenant. For no less than
four years that emergency fiercely agitated the minds and hearts of a
vast proportion of the faithful throughout the East, eclipsed, for a
time, the Orb of the Covenant, created an irreparable breach within
the ranks of Bahá'u'lláh's own kindred, sealed ultimately the fate of
the great majority of the members of His family, and gravely damaged
the prestige, though it never succeeded in causing a permanent
cleavage in the structure, of the Faith itself. The true ground of this
crisis was the burning, the uncontrollable, the soul-festering jealousy
which the admitted preeminence of `Abdu'l-Bahá in rank, power,
ability, knowledge and virtue, above all the other members of His
Father's family, had aroused not only in Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí, the
archbreaker of the Covenant, but in some of his closest relatives as
well. An envy as blind as that which had possessed the soul of Mírzá
Yahyá, as deadly as that which the superior excellence of Joseph had
kindled in the hearts of his brothers, as deep-seated as that which had
blazed in the bosom of Cain and prompted him to slay his brother
Abel, had, for several years, prior to Bahá'u'lláh's ascension, been
smouldering in the recesses of Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí's heart and
had been secretly inflamed by those unnumbered marks of distinction,
of admiration and favor accorded to `Abdu'l-Bahá not only by
Bahá'u'lláh Himself, His companions and His followers, but by the
vast number of unbelievers who had come to recognize that innate
greatness which `Abdu'l-Bahá had manifested from childhood.
Far from being allayed by the provisions of a Will which had
elevated him to the second-highest position within the ranks of the
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faithful, the fire of unquenchable animosity that glowed in the breast
of Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí burned even more fiercely as soon as he
came to realize the full implications of that Document. All that
`Abdu'l-Bahá could do, during a period of four distressful years, His
incessant exhortations, His earnest pleadings, the favors and kindnesses
He showered upon him, the admonitions and warnings He
uttered, even His voluntary withdrawal in the hope of averting the
threatening storm, proved to be of no avail. Gradually and with
unyielding persistence, through lies, half-truths, calumnies and gross
exaggerations, this "Prime Mover of sedition" succeeded in ranging
on his side almost the entire family of Bahá'u'lláh, as well as a considerable
number of those who had formed his immediate entourage.
Bahá'u'lláh's two surviving wives, His two sons, the vacillating Mírzá
Díya'u'lláh and the treacherous Mírzá Badí'u'lláh, with their sister
and half-sister and their husbands, one of them the infamous Siyyid
`Alí, a kinsman of the Báb, the other the crafty Mírzá Majdi'd-Dín,
together with his sister and half-brothers--the children of the
noble, the faithful and now deceased Aqáy-i-Kalím--all united in a
determined effort to subvert the foundations of the Covenant which
the newly proclaimed Will had laid. Even Mírzá Áqá Ján, who for
forty years had labored as Bahá'u'lláh's amanuensis, as well as
Muhammad-Javád-i-Qasvíní, who ever since the days of Adrianople, had
been engaged in transcribing the innumerable Tablets revealed by
the Supreme Pen, together with his entire family, threw in their lot
with the Covenant-breakers, and allowed themselves to be ensnared
by their machinations.
Forsaken, betrayed, assaulted by almost the entire body of His
relatives, now congregated in the Mansion and the neighboring houses
clustering around the most Holy Tomb, `Abdu'l-Bahá, already bereft
of both His mother and His sons, and without any support at all
save that of an unmarried sister, His four unmarried daughters, His
wife and His uncle (a half-brother of Bahá'u'lláh), was left alone to
bear, in the face of a multitude of enemies arrayed against Him from
within and from without, the full brunt of the terrific responsibilities
which His exalted office had laid upon Him.
Closely-knit by one common wish and purpose; indefatigable in
their efforts; assured of the backing of the powerful and perfidious
Jamál-i-Burújirdí and his henchmen, Hájí Husayn-i-Káshí, Khalíl-i-Khú'í
and Jalíl-i-Tabrízí who had espoused their cause; linked
by a vast system of correspondence with every center and individual
they could reach; seconded in their labors by emissaries whom they
+P248
dispatched to Persia, `Iráq, India and Egypt; emboldened in their
designs by the attitude of officials whom they bribed or seduced, these
repudiators of a divinely-established Covenant arose, as one man, to
launch a campaign of abuse and vilification which compared in
virulence with the infamous accusations which Mírzá Yahyá and
Siyyid Muhammad had jointly levelled at Bahá'u'lláh. To friend
and stranger, believer and unbeliever alike, to officials both high and
low, openly and by insinuation, verbally as well as in writing, they
represented `Abdu'l-Bahá as an ambitious, a self-willed, an unprincipled
and pitiless usurper, Who had deliberately disregarded the
testamentary instructions of His Father; Who had, in language intentionally
veiled and ambiguous, assumed a rank co-equal with the
Manifestation Himself; Who in His communications with the West
was beginning to claim to be the return of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, who had come "in the glory of the Father"; Who, in His letters
to the Indian believers, was proclaiming Himself as the promised
Sháh Bahrám, and arrogating to Himself the right to interpret the
writing of His Father, to inaugurate a new Dispensation, and to
share with Him the Most Great Infallibility, the exclusive prerogative
of the holders of the prophetic office. They, furthermore, affirmed
that He had, for His private ends, fomented discord, fostered enmity
and brandished the weapon of excommunication; that He had
perverted the purpose of a Testament which they alleged to be primarily
concerned with the private interests of Bahá'u'lláh's family
by acclaiming it as a Covenant of world importance, pré-existent,
peerless and unique in the history of all religions; that He had
deprived His brothers and sisters of their lawful allowance, and
expended it on officials for His personal advancement; that He had
declined all the repeated invitations made to Him to discuss the issues
that had arisen and to compose the differences which prevailed; that
He had actually corrupted the Holy Text, interpolated passages
written by Himself, and perverted the purpose and meaning of some
of the weightiest Tablets revealed by the pen of His Father; and
finally, that the standard of rebellion had, as a result of such conduct,
been raised by the Oriental believers, that the community of the
faithful had been rent asunder, was rapidly declining and was doomed
to extinction.
And yet it was this same Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí who, regarding
himself as the exponent of fidelity, the standard-bearer of the
"Unitarians," the "Finger who points to his Master," the champion of
the Holy Family, the spokesman of the Aghsán, the upholder of the
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Holy Writ, had, in the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh, so openly and shamelessly
advanced in a written statement, signed and sealed by him, the
very claim now falsely imputed by him to `Abdu'l-Bahá, that his
Father had, with His own hand, chastised him. He it was who, when
sent on a mission to India, had tampered with the text of the holy
writings entrusted to his care for publication. He it was who had the
impudence and temerity to tell `Abdu'l-Bahá to His face that just as
Umar had succeeded in usurping the successorship of the Prophet
Muhammad, he, too, felt himself able to do the same. He it was who,
obsessed by the fear that he might not survive `Abdu'l-Bahá, had,
the moment he had been assured by Him that all the honor he coveted
would, in the course of time, be his, swiftly rejoined that he had no
guarantee that he would outlive Him. He it was who, as testified by
Mírzá Badí'u'lláh in his confession, written and published on the occasion
of his repentance and his short-lived reconciliation with `Abdu'l-Bahá,
had, while Bahá'u'lláh's body was still awaiting interment, carried
off, by a ruse, the two satchels containing his Father's most precious
documents, entrusted by Him, prior to His ascension, to `Abdu'l-Bahá.
He it was who, by an exceedingly adroit and simple forgery of a
word recurring in some of the denunciatory passages addressed by the
Supreme Pen to Mírzá Yahyá, and by other devices such as mutilation
and interpolation, had succeeded in making them directly applicable
to a Brother Whom he hated with such consuming passion. And
lastly, it was this same Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí who, as attested by
`Abdu'l-Bahá in His Will, had, with circumspection and guile, conspired
to take His life, an intention indicated by the allusions made
in a letter written by Shu'á'u'lláh (Son of Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí),
the original of which was enclosed in that same Document by `Abdu'l-Bahá.
The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh had, by acts such as these, and others
too numerous to recount, been manifestly violated. Another blow,
stunning in its first effects, had been administered to the Faith and had
caused its structure momentarily to tremble. The storm foreshadowed
by the writer of the Apocalypse had broken. The "lightnings," the
"thunders," the "earthquake" which must needs accompany the revelation
of the "Ark of His Testament," had all come to pass.
`Abdu'l-Bahá's grief over so tragic a development, following so
swiftly upon His Father's ascension, was such that, despite the
triumphs witnessed in the course of His ministry, it left its traces
upon Him till the end of His days. The intensity of the emotions
which this somber episode aroused within Him were reminiscent of
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the effect produced upon Bahá'u'lláh by the dire happenings precipitated
by the rebellion of Mírzá Yahyá. "I swear by the Ancient
Beauty!," He wrote in one of His Tablets, "So great is My sorrow and
regret that My pen is paralyzed between My fingers." "Thou seest
Me," He, in a prayer recorded in His Will, thus laments, "submerged
in an ocean of calamities that overwhelm the soul, of afflictions that
oppress the heart... Sore trials have compassed Me round, and perils
have from all sides beset Me. Thou seest Me immersed in a sea of
unsurpassed tribulation, sunk into a fathomless abyss, afflicted by
Mine enemies and consumed with the flame of hatred kindled by My
kinsmen with whom Thou didst make Thy strong Covenant and
Thy firm Testament..." And again in that same Will: "Lord!
Thou seest all things weeping over Me, and My kindred rejoicing in
My woes. By Thy glory, O my God! Even amongst Mine enemies
some have lamented My troubles and My distress, and of the envious
ones a number have shed tears because of My cares, My exile and My
afflictions." "O Thou the Glory of Glories!," He, in one of His last
Tablets, had cried out, "I have renounced the world and its people, and
am heart-broken and sorely afflicted because of the unfaithful. In the
cage of this world I flutter even as a frightened bird, and yearn every
day to take My flight unto Thy Kingdom."
Bahá'u'lláh Himself had significantly revealed in one of His
Tablets--a Tablet that sheds an illuminating light on the entire
episode: "By God, O people! Mine eye weepeth, and the eye of `Alí
(the Báb) weepeth amongst the Concourse on high, and Mine heart
crieth out, and the heart of Muhammad crieth out within the Most
Glorious Tabernacle, and My soul shouteth and the souls of the
Prophets shout before them that are endued with understanding...
My sorrow is not for Myself, but for Him Who shall come after Me,
in the shadow of My Cause, with manifest and undoubted sovereignty,
inasmuch as they will not welcome His appearance, will repudiate
His signs, will dispute His sovereignty, will contend with Him, and
will betray His Cause..." "Can it be possible," He, in a no less
significant Tablet, had observed, "that after the dawning of the day-star
of Thy Testament above the horizon of Thy Most Great Tablet,
the feet of any one shall slip in Thy Straight Path? Unto this We
answered: `O My most exalted Pen! It behoveth Thee to occupy
Thyself with that whereunto Thou hast been bidden by God, the
Exalted, the Great. Ask not of that which will consume Thine heart
and the hearts of the denizens of Paradise, who have circled round My
wondrous Cause. It behoveth Thee not to be acquainted with that
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which We have veiled from Thee. Thy Lord is, verily, the Concealer,
the All-Knowing!'" More specifically Bahá'u'lláh had, referring to
Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí in clear and unequivocal language, affirmed:
"He, verily, is but one of My servants... Should he for a moment pass
out from under the shadow of the Cause, he surely shall be brought
to naught." Furthermore, in a no less emphatic language, He, again
in connection with Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí had stated: "By God, the
True One! Were We, for a single instant, to withhold from him
the outpourings of Our Cause, he would wither, and would fall upon
the dust." `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself had, moreover, testified: "There is
no doubt that in a thousand passages in the sacred writings of
Bahá'u'lláh the breakers of the Covenant have been execrated." Some
of these passages He Himself compiled, ere His departure from this
world, and incorporated them in one of His last Tablets, as a warning
and safeguard against those who, throughout His ministry, had
manifested so implacable a hatred against Him, and had come so near
to subverting the foundations of a Covenant on which not only His
own authority but the integrity of the Faith itself depended.
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CHAPTER XVI
The Rise and Establishment of the Faith in the West
Though the rebellion of Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí precipitated many
sombre and distressing events, and though its dire consequences continued
for several years to obscure the light of the Covenant, to
endanger the life of its appointed Center, and to distract the thoughts
and retard the progress of the activities of its supporters in both the
East and the West, yet the entire episode, viewed in its proper perspective,
proved to be neither more nor less than one of those periodic
crises which, since the inception of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and
throughout a whole century, have been instrumental in weeding out
its harmful elements, in fortifying its foundations, in demonstrating
its resilience, and in releasing a further measure of its latent powers.
Now that the provisions of a divinely appointed Covenant had been
indubitably proclaimed; now that the purpose of the Covenant was
clearly apprehended and its fundamentals had become immovably
established in the hearts of the overwhelming majority of the adherents
of the Faith; and now that the first assaults launched by its would-be
subverters had been successfully repulsed, the Cause for which that
Covenant had been designed could forge ahead along the course traced
for it by the finger of its Author. Shining exploits and unforgettable
victories had already signalized the birth of that Cause and accompanied
its rise in several countries of the Asiatic continent, and
particularly in the homeland of its Founder. The mission of its
newly-appointed Leader, the steward of its glory and the diffuser of
its light, was, as conceived by Himself, to enrich and extend the
bounds of the incorruptible patrimony entrusted to His hands by
shedding the illumination of His Father's Faith upon the West, by
expounding the fundamental precepts of that Faith and its cardinal
principles, by consolidating the activities which had already been
initiated for the promotion of its interests, and, finally, by ushering
in, through the provisions of His own Will, the Formative Age in
its evolution.
A year after the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh, `Abdu'l-Bahá had, in a
verse which He had revealed, and which had evoked the derision of the
Covenant-breakers, already foreshadowed an auspicious event which
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posterity would recognize as one of the greatest triumphs of His
ministry, which in the end would confer an inestimable blessing upon
the western world, and which erelong was to dispel the grief and the
apprehensions that had surrounded the community of His fellow-exiles
in `Akká. The Great Republic of the West, above all the other
countries of the Occident, was singled out to be the first recipient
of God's inestimable blessing, and to become the chief agent in its
transmission to so many of her sister nations throughout the five
continents of the earth.
The importance of so momentous a development in the evolution
of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh--the establishment of His Cause in the
North American continent--at a time when `Abdu'l-Bahá had just
inaugurated His Mission, and was still in the throes of the most
grievous crisis with which He was ever confronted, can in no wise
be overestimated. As far back as the year which witnessed the birth
of the Faith in Shíráz the Báb had, in the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', after
having warned in a memorable passage the peoples of both the Orient
and the Occident, directly addressed the "peoples of the West," and
significantly bidden them "issue forth" from their "cities" to aid God,
and "become as brethren" in His "one and indivisible religion."
"In the East," Bahá'u'lláh Himself had, in anticipation of this development,
written, "the light of His Revelation hath broken; in the West
the signs of His dominion have appeared." "Should they attempt,"
He, moreover, had predicted, "to conceal its light on the continent,
it will assuredly rear its head in the midmost heart of the ocean,
and, raising its voice, proclaim: `I am the lifegiver of the world!'"
"Had this Cause been revealed in the West," He, shortly before His
ascension, is reported by Nabíl in his narrative to have stated, "had
Our verses been sent from the West to Persia and other countries
of the East, it would have become evident how the people of the
Occident would have embraced Our Cause. The people of Persia,
however, have failed to appreciate it." "From the beginning of time
until the present day," is `Abdu'l-Bahá's own testimony, "the light of
Divine Revelation hath risen in the East and shed its radiance upon
the West. The illumination thus shed hath, however, acquired in the
West an extraordinary brilliancy. Consider the Faith proclaimed by
Jesus. Though it first appeared in the East, yet not until its light had
been shed upon the West did the full measure of its potentialities
become manifest." "The day is approaching," He has affirmed, "when
ye shall witness how, through the splendor of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh,
the West will have replaced the East, radiating the light of Divine
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guidance." And again: "The West hath acquired illumination from
the East, but, in some respects, the reflection of the light hath been
greater in the Occident." Furthermore, "The East hath, verily, been
illumined with the light of the Kingdom. Erelong will this same light
shed a still greater illumination upon the West."
More specifically has the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation Himself
chosen to confer upon the rulers of the American continent the unique
honor of addressing them collectively in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, His most
Holy Book, significantly exhorting them to "adorn the temple of
dominion with the ornament of justice and of the fear of God, and
its head with the crown of the remembrance" of their Lord, and
bidding them "bind with the hands of justice the broken," and "crush
the oppressor" with the "rod of the commandments" of their "Lord,
the Ordainer, the All-Wise." "The continent of America," wrote
`Abdu'l-Bahá, "is, in the eyes of the one true God, the land wherein
the splendors of His light shall be revealed, where the mysteries of
His Faith shall be unveiled, where the righteous will abide and the
free assemble." "The American continent," He has furthermore predicted,
"giveth signs and evidences of very great advancement. Its
future is even more promising, for its influence and illumination are
far reaching. It will lead all nations spiritually."
"The American people," `Abdu'l-Bahá, even more distinctly, singling
out for His special favor the Great Republic of the West, the
leading nation of the American continent, has revealed, "are indeed
worthy of being the first to build the Tabernacle of the Most Great
Peace, and proclaim the oneness of mankind." And again: "This
American nation is equipped and empowered to accomplish that which
will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world, and
be blest in both the East and the West for the triumph of its people."
Furthermore: "May this American democracy be the first nation to
establish the foundation of international agreement. May it be the
first nation to proclaim the unity of mankind. May it be the first
to unfurl the standard of the Most Great Peace." "May the inhabitants
of this country," He, moreover has written, "...rise from their
present material attainment to such heights that heavenly illumination
may stream from this center to all the peoples of the world."
"O ye apostles of Bahá'u'lláh!," `Abdu'l-Bahá has thus addressed
the believers of the North American continent, "...consider how
exalted and lofty is the station you are destined to attain... The full
measure of your success is as yet unrevealed, its significance still
unapprehended." And again: "Your mission is unspeakably glorious.
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Should success crown your enterprise, America will assuredly evolve
into a center from which waves of spiritual power will emanate, and
the throne of the Kingdom of God, will in the plenitude of its
majesty and glory, be firmly established." And finally, this stirring
affirmation: "The moment this Divine Message is carried forward by
the American believers from the shores of America, and is propagated
through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australasia,
and as far as the islands of the Pacific, this community will find itself
securely established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion...
Then will the whole earth resound with the praises of its majesty and
greatness."
Little wonder that a community belonging to a nation so abundantly
blessed, a nation occupying so eminent a position in a continent so
richly endowed, should have been able to add, during the fifty years
of its existence, many a page rich with victories to the annals of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. This is the community, it should be remembered,
which, ever since it was called into being through the creative
energies released by the proclamation of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh,
was nursed in the lap of `Abdu'l-Bahá's unfailing solicitude, and was
trained by Him to discharge its unique mission through the revelation
of innumerable Tablets, through the instructions issued to returning
pilgrims, through the despatch of special messengers, through His own
travels at a later date, across the North American continent, through
the emphasis laid by Him on the institution of the Covenant in the
course of those travels, and finally through His mandate embodied in
the Tablets of the Divine Plan. This is the community which, from
its earliest infancy until the present day, has unremittingly labored
and succeeded, through its own unaided efforts, in implanting the
banner of Bahá'u'lláh in the vast majority of the sixty countries which,
in both the East and the West, can now claim the honor of being
included within the pale of His Faith. To this community belongs the
distinction of having evolved the pattern, and of having been the first
to erect the framework, of the administrative institutions that herald
the advent of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. Through the efforts of
its members the Mother Temple of the West, the Harbinger of that
Order, one of the noblest institutions ordained in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
and the most stately edifice reared in the entire Bahá'í world, has been
erected in the very heart of the North American continent. Through
the assiduous labors of its pioneers, its teachers and its administrators,
the literature of the Faith has been enormously expanded, its aims
and purposes fearlessly defended, and its nascent institutions solidly
+P256
established. In direct consequence of the unsupported and indefatigable
endeavors of the most distinguished of its itinerant teachers the
spontaneous allegiance of Royalty to the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh has been
secured and unmistakably proclaimed in several testimonies transmitted
to posterity by the pen of the royal convert herself. And
finally, to the members of this community, the spiritual descendants
of the dawn-breakers of the Heroic Age of the Bahá'í Dispensation,
must be ascribed the eternal honor of having arisen, on numerous
occasions, with marvelous alacrity, zeal and determination, to champion
the cause of the oppressed, to relieve the needy, and to defend
the interests of the edifices and institutions reared by their brethren in
countries such as Persia, Russia, Egypt, `Iráq and Germany, countries
where the adherents of the Faith have had to sustain, in varying
measure, the rigors of racial and religious persecution.
Strange, indeed, that in a country, invested with such a unique
function among its sister-nations throughout the West, the first public
reference to the Author of so glorious a Faith should have been made
through the mouth of one of the members of that ecclesiastical order
with which that Faith has had so long to contend, and from which it
has frequently suffered. Stranger still that he who first established it in
the city of Chicago, fifty years after the Báb had declared His
Mission in Shíráz, should himself have forsaken, a few years later,
the standard which he, single-handed, had implanted in that city.
It was on September 23, 1893, a little over a year after Bahá'u'lláh's
ascension, that, in a paper written by Rev. Henry H. Jessup, D.D.,
Director of Presbyterian Missionary Operations in North Syria, and
read by Rev. George A. Ford of Syria, at the World Parliament of
Religions, held in Chicago, in connection with the Columbian Exposition,
commemorating the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery
of America, it was announced that "a famous Persian Sage," "the Bábí
Saint," had died recently in `Akká, and that two years previous to His
ascension "a Cambridge scholar" had visited Him, to whom He had
expressed "sentiments so noble, so Christ-like" that the author of the
paper, in his "closing words," wished to share them with his audience.
Less than a year later, in February 1894, a Syrian doctor, named
Ibráhím Khayru'lláh, who, while residing in Cairo, had been converted
by Hájí `Abdu'l-Karím-i-Tihrání to the Faith, had received a Tablet
from Bahá'u'lláh, had communicated with `Abdu'l-Bahá, and
reached New York in December 1892, established his residence in
Chicago, and began to teach actively and systematically the Cause
he had espoused. Within the space of two years he had communicated
+P257
his impressions to `Abdu'l-Bahá, and reported on the remarkable
success that had attended his efforts. In 1895 an opening was
vouchsafed to him in Kenosha, which he continued to visit once a
week, in the course of his teaching activities. By the following year the
believers in these two cities, it was reported, were counted by hundreds.
In 1897 he published his book, entitled the Bábu'd-Dín, and visited
Kansas City, New York City, Ithaca and Philadelphia, where he was
able to win for the Faith a considerable number of supporters. The
stout-hearted Thornton Chase, surnamed Thábit (Steadfast) by
`Abdu'l-Bahá and designated by Him "the first American believer,"
who became a convert to the Faith in 1894, the immortal Louisa A.
Moore, the mother teacher of the West, surnamed Livá (Banner) by
`Abdu'l-Bahá, Dr. Edward Getsinger, to whom she was later married,
Howard MacNutt, Arthur P. Dodge, Isabella D. Brittingham, Lillian
F. Kappes, Paul K. Dealy, Chester I. Thacher and Helen S. Goodall,
whose names will ever remain associated with the first stirrings of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the North American continent, stand out as
the most prominent among those who, in those early years, awakened
to the call of the New Day, and consecrated their lives to the service
of the newly proclaimed Covenant.
By 1898 Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, the well-known philanthropist (wife
of Senator George F. Hearst), whom Mrs. Getsinger had, while on a
visit to California, attracted to the Faith, had expressed her intention
of visiting `Abdu'l-Bahá in the Holy Land, had invited several
believers, among them Dr. and Mrs. Getsinger, Dr. Khayru'lláh and
his wife, to join her, and had completed the necessary arrangements
for their historic pilgrimage to `Akká. In Paris several resident
Americans, among whom were May Ellis Bolles, whom Mrs. Getsinger
had won over to the Faith, Miss Pearson, and Ann Apperson, both
nieces of Mrs. Hearst, with Mrs. Thornburgh and her daughter, were
added to the party, the number of which was later swelled in Egypt
by the addition of Dr. Khayru'lláh's daughters and their grand-mother
whom he had recently converted.
The arrival of fifteen pilgrims, in three successive parties, the first
of which, including Dr. and Mrs. Getsinger, reached the prison-city of
`Akká on December 10, 1898; the intimate personal contact established
between the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant and the newly
arisen heralds of His Revelation in the West; the moving circumstances
attending their visit to His Tomb and the great honor bestowed upon
them of being conducted by `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself into its innermost
chamber; the spirit which, through precept and example, despite the
+P258
briefness of their stay, a loving and bountiful Host so powerfully
infused into them; and the passionate zeal and unyielding resolve
which His inspiring exhortations, His illuminating instructions and
the multiple evidences of His divine love kindled in their hearts--all
these marked the opening of a new epoch in the development of the
Faith in the West, an epoch whose significance the acts subsequently
performed by some of these same pilgrims and their fellow-disciples
have amply demonstrated.
"Of that first meeting," one of these pilgrims, recording her
impressions, has written, "I can remember neither joy nor pain, nor
anything that I can name. I had been carried suddenly to too great a
height, my soul had come in contact with the Divine Spirit, and
this force, so pure, so holy, so mighty, had overwhelmed me... We
could not remove our eyes from His glorious face; we heard all that
He said; we drank tea with Him at His bidding; but existence
seemed suspended; and when He arose and suddenly left us, we came
back with a start to life; but never again, oh! never again, thank God,
the same life on this earth." "In the might and majesty of His
presence," that same pilgrim, recalling the last interview accorded the
party of which she was a member, has testified, "our fear was turned
to perfect faith, our weakness into strength, our sorrow into hope,
and ourselves forgotten in our love for Him. As we all sat before
Him, waiting to hear His words, some of the believers wept bitterly.
He bade them dry their tears, but they could not for a moment. So
again He asked them for His sake not to weep, nor would He talk to
us and teach us until all tears were banished..."
..."Those three days," Mrs. Hearst herself has, in one of her
letters, testified, "were the most memorable days of my life... The
Master I will not attempt to describe: I will only state that I believe
with all my heart that He is the Master, and my greatest blessing in
this world is that I have been privileged to be in His presence, and
look upon His sanctified face... Without a doubt Abbás Effendi is
the Messiah of this day and generation, and we need not look for
another." "I must say," she, moreover, has in another letter written,
"He is the most wonderful Being I have ever met or ever expect to
meet in this world... The spiritual atmosphere which surrounds Him
and most powerfully affects all those who are blest by being near
Him, is indescribable... I believe in Him with all my heart and soul,
and I hope all who call themselves believers will concede to Him all
the greatness, all the glory, and all the praise, for surely He is the Son
of God--and `the spirit of the Father abideth in Him.'"
+P259
Even Mrs. Hearst's butler, a negro named Robert Turner, the
first member of his race to embrace the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh in the
West, had been transported by the influence exerted by `Abdu'l-Bahá
in the course of that epoch-making pilgrimage. Such was the tenacity
of his faith that even the subsequent estrangement of his beloved
mistress from the Cause she had spontaneously embraced failed to
becloud its radiance, or to lessen the intensity of the emotions which the
loving-kindness showered by `Abdu'l-Bahá upon him had excited
in his breast.
The return of these God-intoxicated pilgrims, some to France,
others to the United States, was the signal for an outburst of
systematic and sustained activity, which, as it gathered momentum,
and spread its ramifications over Western Europe and the states and
provinces of the North American continent, grew to so great a scale
that `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself resolved that, as soon as He should be
released from His prolonged confinement in `Akká, He would undertake
a personal mission to the West. Undeflected in its course by the
devastating crisis which the ambition of Dr. Khayru'lláh had, upon his
return from the Holy Land (December, 1899) precipitated; undismayed
by the agitation which he, working in collaboration with the
arch-breaker of the Covenant and his messengers, had provoked;
disdainful of the attacks launched by him and his fellow-seceders, as
well as by Christian ecclesiastics increasingly jealous of the rising
power and extending influence of the Faith; nourished by a continual
flow of pilgrims who transmitted the verbal messages and
special instructions of a vigilant Master; invigorated by the effusions
of His pen recorded in innumerable Tablets; instructed by the successive
messengers and teachers dispatched at His behest for its guidance,
edification and consolidation, the community of the American
believers arose to initiate a series of enterprises which, blessed and
stimulated a decade later by `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself, were to be but
a prelude to the unparalleled services destined to be rendered by its
members during the Formative Age of His Father's Dispensation.
No sooner had one of these pilgrims, the afore-mentioned May
Bolles, returned to Paris than she succeeded, in compliance with
`Abdu'l-Bahá's emphatic instructions, in establishing in that city the
first Bahá'í center to be formed on the European continent. This
center was, shortly after her arrival, reinforced by the conversion of
the illumined Thomas Breakwell, the first English believer, immortalized
by `Abdu'l-Bahá's fervent eulogy revealed in his memory; of
Hippolyte Dreyfus, the first Frenchman to embrace the Faith, who,
+P260
through his writings, translations, travels and other pioneer services,
was able to consolidate, as the years went by, the work which had
been initiated in his country; and of Laura Barney, whose imperishable
service was to collect and transmit to posterity in the form of a book,
entitled "Some Answered Questions," `Abdu'l-Bahá's priceless explanations,
covering a wide variety of subjects, given to her in the course
of an extended pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Three years later, in
1902, May Bolles, now married to a Canadian, transferred her residence
to Montreal, and succeeded in laying the foundations of the Cause
in that Dominion.
In London Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper, as a consequence of the
creative influences released by that never-to-be-forgotten pilgrimage,
was able to initiate activities which, stimulated and expanded through
the efforts of the first English believers, and particularly of Ethel J.
Rosenberg, converted in 1899, enabled them to erect, in later years, the
structure of their administrative institutions in the British Isles. In
the North American continent, the defection and the denunciatory
publications of Dr. Khayru'lláh (encouraged as he was by Mírzá
Muhammad-`Alí and his son Shu'á'u'lláh, whom he had despatched
to America) tested to the utmost the loyalty of the newly fledged community;
but successive messengers despatched by `Abdu'l-Bahá
(such as Hájí `Abdu'l-Karím-i-Tihrání, Hájí Mírzá Hasan-i-Khurásání,
Mírzá Asadu'lláh and Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl) succeeded
in rapidly dispelling the doubts, and in deepening the understanding,
of the believers, in holding the community together, and in forming
the nucleus of those administrative institutions which, two decades
later, were to be formally inaugurated through the explicit provisions
of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament. As far back as the
year 1899 a council board of seven officers, the forerunner of a
series of Assemblies which, ere the close of the first Bahá'í Century,
were to cover the North American Continent from coast to
coast, was established in the city of Kenosha. In 1902 a Bahá'í
Publishing Society, designed to propagate the literature of a gradually
expanding community, was formed in Chicago. A Bahá'í
Bulletin, for the purpose of disseminating the teachings of the Faith
was inaugurated in New York. The "Bahá'í News," another
periodical, subsequently appeared in Chicago, and soon developed
into a magazine entitled "Star of the West." The translation of some
of the most important writings of Bahá'u'lláh, such as the "Hidden
Words," the "Kitáb-i-Iqán," the "Tablets to the Kings," and the
"Seven Valleys," together with the Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bahá, as well
+P261
as several treatises and pamphlets written by Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl and
others, was energetically undertaken. A considerable correspondence
with various centers throughout the Orient was initiated, and grew
steadily in scope and importance. Brief histories of the Faith, books
and pamphlets written in its defence, articles for the press, accounts
of travels and pilgrimages, eulogies and poems, were likewise published
and widely disseminated.
Simultaneously, travellers and teachers, emerging triumphantly
from the storms of tests and trials which had threatened to engulf
their beloved Cause, arose, of their own accord, to reinforce and
multiply the strongholds of the Faith already established. Centers
were opened in the cities of Washington, Boston, San Francisco,
Los Angeles, Cleveland, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Rochester,
Pittsburgh, Seattle, St. Paul and in other places. Audacious pioneers,
whether as visitors or settlers, eager to spread the new born Evangel
beyond the confines of their native country, undertook journeys,
and embarked on enterprises which carried its light to the heart of
Europe, to the Far East, and as far as the islands of the Pacific.
Mason Remey voyaged to Russia and Persia, and later, with Howard
Struven, circled, for the first time in Bahá'í history, the globe, visiting
on his way the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, China, India and Burma.
Hooper Harris and Harlan Ober traveled, during no less than seven
months, in India and Burma, visiting Bombay, Poona, Lahore, Calcutta,
Rangoon and Mandalay. Alma Knobloch, following on the
heels of Dr. K. E. Fisher, hoisted the standard of the Faith in
Germany, and carried its light to Austria. Dr. Susan I. Moody,
Sydney Sprague, Lillian F. Kappes, Dr. Sarah Clock, and Elizabeth
Stewart transferred their residence to Tihrán for the purpose of
furthering the manifold interests of the Faith, in collaboration with
the Bahá'ís of that city. Sarah Farmer, who had already initiated
in 1894, at Green Acre, in the State of Maine, summer conferences
and established a center for the promotion of unity and fellowship
between races and religions, placed, after her pilgrimage to `Akká in
1900, the facilities these conferences provided at the disposal of the
followers of the Faith which she had herself recently embraced.
And last but not least, inspired by the example set by their
fellow-disciples in Ishqábád, who had already commenced the construction
of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world, and afire with
the desire to demonstrate, in a tangible and befitting manner, the
quality of their faith and devotion, the Bahá'ís of Chicago, having
petitioned `Abdu'l-Bahá for permission to erect a House of Worship,
+P262
and secured, in a Tablet revealed in June 1903, His ready and
enthusiastic approval, arose, despite the smallness of their numbers
and their limited resources, to initiate an enterprise which must rank
as the greatest single contribution which the Bahá'ís of America,
and indeed of the West, have as yet made to the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.
The subsequent encouragement given them by `Abdu'l-Bahá,
and the contributions raised by various Assemblies decided the
members of this Assembly to invite representatives of their fellow-believers
in various parts of the country to meet in Chicago for the
initiation of the stupendous undertaking they had conceived. On
November 26, 1907, the assembled representatives, convened for that
purpose, appointed a committee of nine to locate a suitable site for
the proposed Temple. By April 9, 1908, the sum of two thousand
dollars had been paid for the purchase of two building lots, situated
near the shore of Lake Michigan. In March 1909, a convention representative
of various Bahá'í centers was called, in pursuance of
instructions received from `Abdu'l-Bahá. The thirty-nine delegates,
representing thirty-six cities, who had assembled in Chicago, on the
very day the remains of the Báb were laid to rest by `Abdu'l-Bahá in
the specially erected mausoleum on Mt. Carmel, established a permanent
national organization, known as the Bahá'í Temple Unity, which
was incorporated as a religious corporation, functioning under the
laws of the State of Illinois, and invested with full authority to hold
title to the property of the Temple and to provide ways and means
for its construction. At this same convention a constitution was
framed, the Executive Board of the Bahá'í Temple Unity was elected,
and was authorized by the delegates to complete the purchase of the
land recommended by the previous Convention. Contributions for
this historic enterprise, from India, Persia, Turkey, Syria, Palestine,
Russia, Egypt, Germany, France, England, Canada, Mexico, the
Hawaiian Islands, and even Mauritius, and from no less than sixty
American cities, amounted by 1910, two years previous to `Abdu'l-Bahá's
arrival in America, to no less than twenty thousand dollars, a
remarkable testimony alike to the solidarity of the followers of
Bahá'u'lláh in both the East and the West, and to the self-sacrificing
efforts exerted by the American believers who, as the work progressed,
assumed a preponderating share in providing the sum of over a
million dollars required for the erection of the structure of the Temple
and its external ornamentation.
+P263
CHAPTER XVII
Renewal of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Incarceration
The outstanding accomplishments of a valiant and sorely-tested
community, the first fruits of Bahá'u'lláh's newly established Covenant
in the Western world, had laid a foundation sufficiently imposing
to invite the presence of the appointed Center of that Covenant,
Who had called that Community into being and watched, with such
infinite care and foresight, over its budding destinies. Not until,
however, `Abdu'l-Bahá had emerged from the severe crisis which
had already for several years been holding Him in its toils could He
undertake His memorable voyage to the shores of a continent where
the rise and establishment of His Father's Faith had been signalized
by such magnificent and enduring achievements.
This second major crisis of His ministry, external in nature and
hardly less severe than the one precipitated by the rebellion of Mírzá
Muhammad-`Alí, gravely imperiled His life, deprived Him, for a
number of years, of the relative freedom He had enjoyed, plunged
into anguish His family and the followers of the Faith in East and
West, and exposed as never before, the degradation and infamy of
His relentless adversaries. It originated two years after the departure
of the first American pilgrims from the Holy Land. It persisted, with
varying degrees of intensity, during more than seven years, and was
directly attributable to the incessant intrigues and monstrous
misrepresentations of the Arch-Breaker of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant and
his supporters.
Embittered by his abject failure to create a schism on which he
had fondly pinned his hopes; stung by the conspicuous success which
the standard-bearers of the Covenant had, despite his machinations,
achieved in the North American continent; encouraged by the existence
of a régime that throve in an atmosphere of intrigue and suspicion,
and which was presided over by a cunning and cruel potentate;
determined to exploit to the full the opportunities for mischief
afforded him by the arrival of Western pilgrims at the prison-fortress
of `Akká, as well as by the commencement of the construction of
the Báb's sepulcher on Mt. Carmel, Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí, seconded
by his brother, Mírzá Badí'u'lláh, and aided by his brother-in-law,
+P264
Mírzá Majdi'd-Dín, succeeded through strenuous and persistent
endeavors in exciting the suspicion of the Turkish government and
its officials, and in inducing them to reimpose on `Abdu'l-Bahá the
confinement from which, in the days of Bahá'u'lláh, He had so
grievously suffered.
This very brother, Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí's chief accomplice, in
a written confession signed, sealed and published by him, on the
occasion of his reconciliation with `Abdu'l-Bahá, has borne testimony
to the wicked plots that had been devised. "What I have heard from
others," wrote Mírzá Badí'u'lláh, "I will ignore. I will only recount
what I have seen with my own eyes, and heard from his (Mírzá
Muhammad-`Alí) lips." "It was arranged by him (Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí),"
he, then, proceeds to relate, "to dispatch Mírzá Majdi'd-Dín
with a gift and a letter written in Persian to Nazím Páshá, the Valí
(governor) of Damascus, and to seek his assistance.... As he
(Mírzá Majdi'd-Dín) himself informed me in Haifa he did all he
could to acquaint him (governor) fully with the construction work
on Mt. Carmel, with the comings and goings of the American believers,
and with the gatherings held in `Akká. The Páshá, in his
desire to know all the facts, was extremely kind to him, and assured
him of his aid. A few days after Mírzá Majdi'd-Dín's return a cipher
telegram was received from the Sublime Porte, transmitting the
Sultán's orders to incarcerate `Abdu'l-Bahá, myself and the others."
"In those days," he, furthermore, in that same document, testifies,
"a man who came to `Akká from Damascus stated to outsiders that
Nazím Páshá had been the cause of the incarceration of Abbás
Effendi. The strangest thing of all is this that Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí,
after he had been incarcerated, wrote a letter to Nazím Páshá
for the purpose of achieving his own deliverance.... The Páshá,
however, did not write even a word in answer to either the first or
the second letter."
It was in 1901, on the fifth day of the month of Jamádiyu'l-Avval
1319 A.H. (August 20) that `Abdu'l-Bahá, upon His return
from Bahjí where He had participated in the celebration of the anniversary
of the Báb's Declaration, was informed, in the course of an
interview with the governor of `Akká, of Sultán `Abdu'l-Hamíd's
instructions ordering that the restrictions which had been gradually
relaxed should be reimposed, and that He and His brothers should
be strictly confined within the walls of that city. The Sultán's edict
was at first rigidly enforced, the freedom of the exiled community
was severely curtailed, while `Abdu'l-Bahá had to submit, alone and
+P265
unaided, to the prolonged interrogation of judges and officials, who
required His presence for several consecutive days at government
headquarters for the purpose of their investigations. One of His
first acts was to intercede on behalf of His brothers, who had been
peremptorily summoned and informed by the governor of the orders
of the sovereign, an act which failed to soften their hostility or lessen
their malevolent activities. Subsequently, through His intervention
with the civil and military authorities, He succeeded in obtaining the
freedom of His followers who resided in `Akká, and in enabling them
to continue to earn, without interference, the means of livelihood.
The Covenant-breakers were unappeased by the measures taken
by the authorities against One Who had so magnanimously intervened
on their behalf. Aided by the notorious Yahyá Bey, the chief
of police, and other officials, civil as well as military, who, in consequence
of their representations, had replaced those who had been
friendly to `Abdu'l-Bahá, and by secret agents who traveled back and
forth between `Akká and Constantinople, and who even kept a vigilant
watch over everything that went on in His household, they arose
to encompass His ruin. They lavished on officials gifts which included
possessions sacred to the memory of Bahá'u'lláh, and shamelessly
proffered to high and low alike bribes drawn, in some instances, from
the sale of properties associated with Him or bestowed upon some of
them by `Abdu'l-Bahá. Relaxing nothing of their efforts they pursued
relentlessly the course of their nefarious activities, determined
to leave no stone unturned until they had either brought about His
execution or ensured His deportation to a place remote enough to
enable them to wrest the Cause from His grasp. The Valí of Damascus,
the Muftí of Beirut, members of the Protestant missions established
in Syria and `Akká, even the influential Shaykh Abu'l-Hudá,
in Constantinople, whom the Sultán held in as profound an esteem
as that in which Muhammad Sháh had held his Grand Vizir, Hájí
Mírzá Aqásí, were, on various occasions, approached, appealed to,
and urged to lend their assistance for the prosecution of their odious
designs.
Through verbal messages, formal communications and by personal
interviews the Covenant-breakers impressed upon these notables
the necessity of immediate action, shrewdly adapting their arguments
to the particular interests and prejudices of those whose aid they
solicited. To some they represented `Abdu'l-Bahá as a callous usurper
Who had trampled upon their rights, robbed them of their heritage,
reduced them to poverty, made their friends in Persia their enemies,
+P266
accumulated for Himself a vast fortune, and acquired no less than
two-thirds of the land in Haifa. To others they declared that `Abdu'l-Bahá
contemplated making of `Akká and Haifa a new Mecca and
Medina. To still others they affirmed that Bahá'u'lláh was no more
than a retired dervish, who professed and promoted the Faith of
Islám, Whom Abbás Effendi, His son, had, for the purpose of
self-glorification, exalted to the rank of God-head, whilst claiming Himself
to be the Son of God and the return of Jesus Christ. They further
accused Him of harboring designs inimical to the interests of the
state, of meditating a rebellion against the Sultán, of having already
hoisted the banner of Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá, the ensign of revolt, in
distant villages in Palestine and Syria, of having raised surreptitiously
an army of thirty thousand men, of being engaged in the construction
of a fortress and a vast ammunition depot on Mt. Carmel, of
having secured the moral and material support of a host of English
and American friends, amongst whom were officers of foreign powers,
who were arriving, in large numbers and in disguise, to pay Him
their homage, and of having already, in conjunction with them,
drawn up His plans for the subjugation of the neighboring provinces,
for the expulsion of the ruling authorities, and for the ultimate
seizure of the power wielded by the Sultán himself. Through misrepresentation
and bribery they succeeded in inducing certain people
to affix their signatures as witnesses to the documents which they had
drawn up, and which they despatched, through their agents, to the
Sublime Porte.
Such grave accusations, embodied in numerous reports, could
not fail to perturb profoundly the mind of a despot already obsessed
by the fear of impending rebellion among his subjects. A commission
was accordingly appointed to inquire into the matter, and report
the result of its investigations. Each of the charges brought against
`Abdu'l-Bahá, when summoned to the court, on several occasions,
He carefully and fearlessly refuted. He exposed the absurdity of
these accusations, acquainted the members of the Commission, in
support of His argument, with the provisions of Bahá'u'lláh's Testament,
expressed His readiness to submit to any sentence the court
might decide to pass upon Him, and eloquently affirmed that if they
should chain Him, drag Him through the streets, execrate and ridicule
Him, stone and spit upon Him, suspend Him in the public
square, and riddle Him with bullets, He would regard it as a signal
honor, inasmuch as He would thereby be following in the footsteps,
and sharing the sufferings, of His beloved Leader, the Báb.
+P267
The gravity of the situation confronting `Abdu'l-Bahá; the rumors
that were being set afloat by a population that anticipated
the gravest developments; the hints and allusions to the dangers threatening
Him contained in newspapers published in Egypt and Syria;
the aggressive attitude which His enemies increasingly assumed; the
provocative behavior of some of the inhabitants of `Akká and Haifa
who had been emboldened by the predictions and fabrications of these
enemies regarding the fate awaiting a suspected community and its
Leader, led Him to reduce the number of pilgrims, and even to suspend,
for a time, their visits, and to issue special instructions that His
mail be handled through an agent in Egypt rather than in Haifa;
for a time He ordered that it should be held there pending further
advice from Him. He, moreover, directed the believers, as well as
His own secretaries, to collect and remove to a place of safety all the
Bahá'í writings in their possession, and, urging them to transfer
their residence to Egypt, went so far as to forbid their gathering, as
was their wont, in His house. Even His numerous friends and admirers
refrained, during the most turbulent days of this period, from
calling upon Him, for fear of being implicated and of incurring the
suspicion of the authorities. On certain days and nights, when the
outlook was at its darkest, the house in which He was living, and
which had for many years been a focus of activity, was completely
deserted. Spies, secretly and openly, kept watch around it, observing
His every movement and restricting the freedom of His family.
The construction of the Báb's sepulcher, whose foundation-stone
had been laid by Him on the site blessed and selected by Bahá'u'lláh,
He, however, refused to suspend, or even interrupt, for however brief
a period. Nor would He allow any obstacle, however formidable, to
interfere with the daily flow of Tablets which poured forth, with
prodigious rapidity and ever increasing volume, from His indefatigable
pen, in answer to the vast number of letters, reports, inquiries,
prayers, confessions of faith, apologies and eulogies received from
countless followers and admirers in both the East and the West.
Eye-witnesses have testified that, during that agitated and perilous
period of His life, they had known Him to pen, with His own Hand,
no less than ninety Tablets in a single day, and to pass many a night,
from dusk to dawn, alone in His bed-chamber engaged in a correspondence
which the pressure of His manifold responsibilities had
prevented Him from attending to in the day-time.
It was during these troublous times, the most dramatic period of
His ministry, when, in the hey-day of His life and in the full tide of
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His power, He, with inexhaustible energy, marvelous serenity and
unshakable confidence, initiated and resistlessly prosecuted the varied
enterprises associated with that ministry. It was during these times
that the plan of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world was
conceived by Him, and its construction undertaken by His followers
in the city of Ishqábád in Turkistán. It was during these times,
despite the disturbances that agitated His native country, that instructions
were issued by Him for the restoration of the holy and
historic House of the Báb in Shíráz. It was during these times that
the initial measures, chiefly through His constant encouragement,
were taken which paved the way for the laying of the dedication
stone, which He, in later years, placed with His own hands when
visiting the site of the Mother Temple of the West on the shore of
Lake Michigan. It was at this juncture that that celebrated compilation
of His table talks, published under the title "Some Answered Questions,"
was made, talks given during the brief time He was able to
spare, in the course of which certain fundamental aspects of His
Father's Faith were elucidated, traditional and rational proofs of its
validity adduced, and a great variety of subjects regarding the Christian
Dispensation, the Prophets of God, Biblical prophecies, the origin
and condition of man and other kindred themes authoritatively
explained.
It was during the darkest hours of this period that, in a communication
addressed to the Báb's cousin, the venerable Hájí Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí,
the chief builder of the Temple of Ishqábád, `Abdu'l-Bahá,
in stirring terms, proclaimed the immeasurable greatness of the
Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, sounded the warnings foreshadowing the
turmoil which its enemies, both far and near, would let loose upon
the world, and prophesied, in moving language, the ascendancy
which the torchbearers of the Covenant would ultimately achieve
over them. It was at an hour of grave suspense, during that same period,
that He penned His Will and Testament, that immortal Document
wherein He delineated the features of the Administrative Order
which would arise after His passing, and would herald the establishment
of that World Order, the advent of which the Báb had announced,
and the laws and principles of which Bahá'u'lláh had already
formulated. It was in the course of these tumultuous years that,
through the instrumentality of the heralds and champions of a firmly
instituted Covenant, He reared the embryonic institutions, administrative,
spiritual, and educational, of a steadily expanding Faith in
Persia, the cradle of that Faith, in the Great Republic of the West,
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the cradle of its Administrative Order, in the Dominion of Canada,
in France, in England, in Germany, in Egypt, in `Iráq, in Russia, in
India, in Burma, in Japan, and even in the remote Pacific Islands.
It was during these stirring times that a tremendous impetus was lent
by Him to the translation, the publication and dissemination of
Bahá'í literature, whose scope now included a variety of books and
treatises, written in the Persian, the Arabic, the English, the Turkish,
the French, the German, the Russian and Burmese languages. At His
table, in those days, whenever there was a lull in the storm raging
about Him, there would gather pilgrims, friends and inquirers from
most of the afore-mentioned countries, representative of the Christian,
the Muslim, the Jewish, the Zoroastrian, the Hindu and Buddhist
Faiths. To the needy thronging His doors and filling the courtyard
of His house every Friday morning, in spite of the perils that
environed Him, He would distribute alms with His own hands, with
a regularity and generosity that won Him the title of "Father of the
Poor." Nothing in those tempestuous days could shake His confidence,
nothing would be allowed to interfere with His ministrations to the
destitute, the orphan, the sick, and the down-trodden, nothing could
prevent Him from calling in person upon those who were either incapacitated
or ashamed to solicit His aid. Adamant in His determination
to follow the example of both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh, nothing
would induce Him to flee from His enemies, or escape from imprisonment,
neither the advice tendered Him by the leading members of the
exiled community in `Akká, nor the insistent pleas of the Spanish
Consul--a kinsman of the agent of an Italian steamship company--
who, in his love for `Abdu'l-Bahá and his anxiety to avert the threatening
danger, had gone so far as to place at His disposal an Italian
freighter, ready to provide Him a safe passage to any foreign port He
might name.
So imperturbable was `Abdu'l-Bahá's equanimity that, while rumors
were being bruited about that He might be cast into the sea,
or exiled to Fizán in Tripolitania, or hanged on the gallows, He, to
the amazement of His friends and the amusement of His enemies, was
to be seen planting trees and vines in the garden of His house, whose
fruits when the storm had blown over, He would bid His faithful
gardener, Ismá'íl Áqá, pluck and present to those same friends and
enemies on the occasion of their visits to Him.
In the early part of the winter of 1907 another Commission of
four officers, headed by Árif Bey, and invested with plenary powers,
was suddenly dispatched to `Akká by order of the Sultán. A few days
+P270
before its arrival `Abdu'l-Bahá had a dream, which He recounted to
the believers, in which He saw a ship cast anchor off `Akká, from
which flew a few birds, resembling sticks of dynamite, and which,
circling about His head, as He stood in the midst of a multitude of the
frightened inhabitants of the city, returned without exploding to the
ship.
No sooner had the members of the Commission landed than they
placed under their direct and exclusive control both the Telegraph
and Postal services in `Akká; arbitrarily dismissed officials suspected
of being friendly to `Abdu'l-Bahá, including the governor of the city;
established direct and secret contact with the government in Constantinople;
took up their residence in the home of the neighbors and
intimate associates of the Covenant-breakers; set guards over the
house of `Abdu'l-Bahá to prevent any one from seeing Him; and
started the strange procedure of calling up as witnesses the very
people, among whom were Christians and Moslems, orientals and
westerners, who had previously signed the documents forwarded to
Constantinople, and which they had brought with them for the purpose
of their investigations.
The activities of the Covenant-breakers, and particularly of
Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí, now jubilant and full of hope, rose in this
hour of extreme crisis, to the highest pitch. Visits, interviews and
entertainments multiplied, in an atmosphere of fervid expectation,
now that the victory was seen to be at hand. Not a few among the
lower elements of the population were led to believe that their acquisition
of the property which would be left behind by the deported
exiles was imminent. Insults and calumnies markedly increased.
Even some of the poor, so long and so bountifully succored by
`Abdu'l-Bahá, forsook Him for fear of reprisals.
`Abdu'l-Bahá, while the members of the Commission were carrying
on their so-called investigations, and throughout their stay of about
one month in `Akká, consistently refused to meet or have any dealings
with any of them, in spite of the veiled threats and warnings
conveyed by them to Him through a messenger, an attitude which
greatly surprised them and served to inflame their animosity and
reinforce their determination to execute their evil designs. Though
the perils and tribulations which had encompassed Him were now at
their thickest, though the ship on which He was supposed to embark
with the members of the Commission was waiting in readiness, at
times in `Akká, at times in Haifa, and the wildest rumors were being
spread about Him, the serenity He had invariably maintained, ever
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since His incarceration had been reimposed, remained unclouded, and
His confidence unshaken. "The meaning of the dream I dreamt,"
He, at that time, told the believers who still remained in `Akká, "is
now clear and evident. Please God this dynamite will not explode."
Meanwhile the members of the Commission had, on a certain
Friday, gone to Haifa and inspected the Báb's sepulcher, the construction
of which had been proceeding without any interruption on Mt.
Carmel. Impressed by its solidity and dimensions, they had inquired
of one of the attendants as to the number of vaults that had been
built beneath that massive structure.
Shortly after the inspection had been made it was suddenly observed,
one day at about sunset, that the ship, which had been lying
off Haifa, had weighed anchor, and was heading towards `Akká. The
news spread rapidly among an excited population that the members
of the Commission had embarked upon it. It was anticipated that it
would stop long enough at `Akká to take `Abdu'l-Bahá on board, and
then proceed to its destination. Consternation and anguish seized the
members of His family when informed of the approach of the ship.
The few believers who were left wept with grief at their impending
separation from their Master. `Abdu'l-Bahá could be seen, at that
tragic hour, pacing, alone and silent, the courtyard of His house.
As dusk fell, however, it was suddenly noticed that the lights of
the ship had swung round, and the vessel had changed her course. It
now became evident that she was sailing direct for Constantinople.
The intelligence was instantly communicated to `Abdu'l-Bahá, Who,
in the gathering darkness, was still pacing His courtyard. Some of the
believers who had posted themselves at different points to watch the
progress of the ship hurried to confirm the joyful tidings. One of the
direst perils that had ever threatened `Abdu'l-Bahá's precious life was,
on that historic day, suddenly, providentially and definitely averted.
Soon after the precipitate and wholly unexpected sailing of that
ship news was received that a bomb had exploded in the path of the
Sultán while he was returning to his palace from the mosque where he
had been offering his Friday prayers.
A few days after this attempt on his life the Commission submitted
its report to him; but he and his government were too preoccupied
to consider the matter. The case was laid aside, and when,
some months later, it was again brought forward it was abruptly
closed forever by an event which, once and for all, placed the Prisoner
of `Akká beyond the power of His royal enemy. The "Young
Turk" Revolution, breaking out swiftly and decisively in 1908, forced
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a reluctant despot to promulgate the constitution which he had suspended,
and to release all religious and political prisoners held under
the old régime. Even then a telegram had to be sent to Constantinople
to inquire specifically whether `Abdu'l-Bahá was included in the
category of these prisoners, to which an affirmative reply was promptly
received.
Within a few months, in 1909, the Young Turks obtained from
the Shaykhu'l-Islám the condemnation of the Sultán himself who, as a
result of further attempts to overthrow the constitution, was finally
and ignominiously deposed, deported and made a prisoner of state.
On one single day of that same year there were executed no less than
thirty-one leading ministers, páshás and officials, among whom were
numbered notorious enemies of the Faith. Tripolitania itself, the
scene of `Abdu'l-Bahá's intended exile was subsequently wrested from
the Turks by Italy. Thus ended the reign of the "Great Assassin,"
"the most mean, cunning, untrustworthy and cruel intriguer of the
long dynasty of Uthmán," a reign "more disastrous in its immediate
losses of territory and in the certainty of others to follow, and more
conspicuous for the deterioration of the condition of his subjects,
than that of any other of his twenty-three degenerate predecessors
since the death of Sulaymán the Magnificent."
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CHAPTER XVIII
Entombment of the Báb's Remains on Mt. Carmel
`Abdu'l-Bahá's unexpected and dramatic release from His forty-year
confinement dealt a blow to the ambitions cherished by the
Covenant-breakers as devastating as that which, a decade before, had
shattered their hopes of undermining His authority and of ousting
Him from His God-given position. Now, on the very morrow of His
triumphant liberation a third blow befell them as stunning as those
which preceded it and hardly less spectacular than they. Within a
few months of the historic decree which set Him free, in the very
year that witnessed the downfall of Sultán `Abdu'l-Hamíd, that
same power from on high which had enabled `Abdu'l-Bahá to preserve
inviolate the rights divinely conferred on Him, to establish His
Father's Faith in the North American continent, and to triumph over
His royal oppressor, enabled Him to achieve one of the most signal
acts of His ministry: the removal of the Báb's remains from their
place of concealment in Tihrán to Mt. Carmel. He Himself testified,
on more than one occasion, that the safe transfer of these remains,
the construction of a befitting mausoleum to receive them, and their
final interment with His own hands in their permanent resting-place
constituted one of the three principal objectives which, ever since the
inception of His mission, He had conceived it His paramount duty
to achieve. This act indeed deserves to rank as one of the outstanding
events in the first Bahá'í century.
As observed in a previous chapter the mangled bodies of the
Báb and His fellow-martyr, Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí, were removed,
in the middle of the second night following their execution, through
the pious intervention of Hájí Sulaymán Khán, from the edge of the
moat where they had been cast to a silk factory owned by one of the
believers of Milán, and were laid the next day in a wooden casket,
and thence carried to a place of safety. Subsequently, according to
Bahá'u'lláh's instructions, they were transported to Tihrán and placed
in the shrine of Imám-Zádih Hasan. They were later removed to the
residence of Hájí Sulaymán Khán himself in the Sar-Chashmih
quarter of the city, and from his house were taken to the shrine of
Imám-Zádih Ma'súm, where they remained concealed until the year
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1284 A.H. (1867-1868), when a Tablet, revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in
Adrianople, directed Mullá `Alí-Akbar-i-Sháhmírzádí and Jamál-i-Burújirdí
to transfer them without delay to some other spot, an
instruction which, in view of the subsequent reconstruction of that
shrine, proved to have been providential.
Unable to find a suitable place in the suburb of Sháh `Abdu'l-`Azím,
Mullá `Alí-Akbar and his companion continued their search
until, on the road leading to Chashmih-`Alí, they came upon the
abandoned and dilapidated Masjid-i-Mashá'u'lláh, where they deposited,
within one of its walls, after dark, their precious burden,
having first re-wrapt the remains in a silken shroud brought by them
for that purpose. Finding the next day to their consternation that
the hiding-place had been discovered, they clandestinely carried the
casket through the gate of the capital direct to the house of Mírzá
Hasan-i-Vazír, a believer and son-in-law of Hájí Mírzá Siyyid
Alíy-i-Tafríshí, the Majdu'l-Ashraf, where it remained for no less than
fourteen months. The long-guarded secret of its whereabouts becoming
known to the believers, they began to visit the house in such
numbers that a communication had to be addressed by Mullá `Alí-Akbar
to Bahá'u'lláh, begging for guidance in the matter. Hájí Sháh
Muhammad-i-Manshadí, surnamed Amínu'l-Bayán, was accordingly
commissioned to receive the Trust from him, and bidden to exercise
the utmost secrecy as to its disposal.
Assisted by another believer, Hájí Sháh Muhammad buried the
casket beneath the floor of the inner sanctuary of the shrine of Imám-Zádih
Zayd, where it lay undetected until Mírzá Asadu'lláh-i-Isfahání
was informed of its exact location through a chart forwarded
to him by Bahá'u'lláh. Instructed by Bahá'u'lláh to conceal it elsewhere,
he first removed the remains to his own house in Tihrán, after
which they were deposited in several other localities such as the house
of Husayn-`Alíy-i-Isfahání and that of Muhammad-Karím-i-`Attár,
where they remained hidden until the year 1316 (1899) A.H., when,
in pursuance of directions issued by `Abdu'l-Bahá, this same Mírzá
Asadu'lláh, together with a number of other believers, transported
them by way of Isfahán, Kirmánsháh, Baghdád and Damascus, to
Beirut and thence by sea to `Akká, arriving at their destination on
the 19th of the month of Ramadán 1316 A.H. (January 31, 1899),
fifty lunar years after the Báb's execution in Tabríz.
In the same year that this precious Trust reached the shores of
the Holy Land and was delivered into the hands of `Abdu'l-Bahá, He,
accompanied by Dr. Ibráhím Khayru'lláh, whom He had already
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honored with the titles of "Bahá's Peter," "The Second Columbus"
and "Conqueror of America," drove to the recently purchased site
which had been blessed and selected by Bahá'u'lláh on Mt. Carmel,
and there laid, with His own hands, the foundation-stone of the
edifice, the construction of which He, a few months later, was to
commence. About that same time, the marble sarcophagus, designed
to receive the body of the Báb, an offering of love from the Bahá'ís of
Rangoon, had, at `Abdu'l-Bahá's suggestion, been completed and
shipped to Haifa.
No need to dwell on the manifold problems and preoccupations
which, for almost a decade, continued to beset `Abdu'l-Bahá until the
victorious hour when He was able to bring to a final consummation
the historic task entrusted to Him by His Father. The risks and
perils with which Bahá'u'lláh and later His Son had been confronted
in their efforts to insure, during half a century, the protection of those
remains were but a prelude to the grave dangers which, at a later
period, the Center of the Covenant Himself had to face in the course
of the construction of the edifice designed to receive them, and indeed
until the hour of His final release from His incarceration.
The long-drawn out negotiations with the shrewd and calculating
owner of the building-site of the holy Edifice, who, under the influence
of the Covenant-breakers, refused for a long time to sell; the exorbitant
price at first demanded for the opening of a road leading to that
site and indispensable to the work of construction; the interminable
objections raised by officials, high and low, whose easily aroused suspicions
had to be allayed by repeated explanations and assurances
given by `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself; the dangerous situation created by
the monstrous accusations brought by Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí and his
associates regarding the character and purpose of that building; the
delays and complications caused by `Abdu'l-Bahá's prolonged and
enforced absence from Haifa, and His consequent inability to supervise
in person the vast undertaking He had initiated--all these were
among the principal obstacles which He, at so critical a period in His
ministry, had to face and surmount ere He could execute in its entirety
the Plan, the outline of which Bahá'u'lláh had communicated to Him
on the occasion of one of His visits to Mt. Carmel.
"Every stone of that building, every stone of the road leading to
it," He, many a time was heard to remark, "I have with infinite tears
and at tremendous cost, raised and placed in position." "One night,"
He, according to an eye-witness, once observed, "I was so hemmed
in by My anxieties that I had no other recourse than to recite and
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repeat over and over again a prayer of the Báb which I had in My
possession, the recital of which greatly calmed Me. The next morning
the owner of the plot himself came to Me, apologized and begged Me
to purchase his property."
Finally, in the very year His royal adversary lost his throne, and
at the time of the opening of the first American Bahá'í Convention,
convened in Chicago for the purpose of creating a permanent national
organization for the construction of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, `Abdu'l-Bahá
brought His undertaking to a successful conclusion, in spite of
the incessant machinations of enemies both within and without. On
the 28th of the month of Safar 1327 A.H., the day of the first Naw-Rúz
(1909), which He celebrated after His release from His confinement,
`Abdu'l-Bahá had the marble sarcophagus transported with
great labor to the vault prepared for it, and in the evening, by the
light of a single lamp, He laid within it, with His own hands--in the
presence of believers from the East and from the West and in circumstances
at once solemn and moving--the wooden casket containing
the sacred remains of the Báb and His companion.
When all was finished, and the earthly remains of the Martyr-Prophet
of Shíráz were, at long last, safely deposited for their everlasting
rest in the bosom of God's holy mountain, `Abdu'l-Bahá, Who
had cast aside His turban, removed His shoes and thrown off His
cloak, bent low over the still open sarcophagus, His silver hair waving
about His head and His face transfigured and luminous, rested His
forehead on the border of the wooden casket, and, sobbing aloud, wept
with such a weeping that all those who were present wept with Him.
That night He could not sleep, so overwhelmed was He with emotion.
"The most joyful tidings is this," He wrote later in a Tablet
announcing to His followers the news of this glorious victory, "that
the holy, the luminous body of the Báb ... after having for sixty years
been transferred from place to place, by reason of the ascendancy of
the enemy, and from fear of the malevolent, and having known neither
rest nor tranquillity has, through the mercy of the Abhá Beauty, been
ceremoniously deposited, on the day of Naw-Rúz, within the sacred
casket, in the exalted Shrine on Mt. Carmel... By a strange coincidence,
on that same day of Naw-Rúz, a cablegram was received from
Chicago, announcing that the believers in each of the American centers
had elected a delegate and sent to that city ... and definitely decided
on the site and construction of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár."
With the transference of the remains of the Báb--Whose advent
marks the return of the Prophet Elijah--to Mt. Carmel, and their
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interment in that holy mountain, not far from the cave of that
Prophet Himself, the Plan so gloriously envisaged by Bahá'u'lláh, in
the evening of His life, had been at last executed, and the arduous
labors associated with the early and tumultuous years of the ministry
of the appointed Center of His Covenant crowned with immortal
success. A focal center of Divine illumination and power, the very
dust of which `Abdu'l-Bahá averred had inspired Him, yielding in
sacredness to no other shrine throughout the Bahá'í world except the
Sepulcher of the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation Himself, had been
permanently established on that mountain, regarded from time immemorial
as sacred. A structure, at once massive, simple and imposing;
nestling in the heart of Carmel, the "Vineyard of God"; flanked by
the Cave of Elijah on the west, and by the hills of Galilee on the east;
backed by the plain of Sharon, and facing the silver-city of `Akká,
and beyond it the Most Holy Tomb, the Heart and Qiblih of the
Bahá'í world; overshadowing the colony of German Templars who,
in anticipation of the "coming of the Lord," had forsaken their homes
and foregathered at the foot of that mountain, in the very year of
Bahá'u'lláh's Declaration in Baghdád (1863), the mausoleum of the
Báb had now, with heroic effort and in impregnable strength been
established as "the Spot round which the Concourse on high circle in
adoration." Events have already demonstrated through the extension
of the Edifice itself, through the embellishment of its surroundings,
through the acquisition of extensive endowments in its neighborhood,
and through its proximity to the resting-places of the wife, the son
and daughter of Bahá'u'lláh Himself, that it was destined to acquire
with the passing of the years a measure of fame and glory commensurate
with the high purpose that had prompted its founding.
Nor will it, as the years go by, and the institutions revolving around
the World Administrative Center of the future Bahá'í Commonwealth
are gradually established, cease to manifest the latent potentialities
with which that same immutable purpose has endowed it.
Resistlessly will this Divine institution flourish and expand, however
fierce the animosity which its future enemies may evince, until the
full measure of its splendor will have been disclosed before the eyes
of all mankind.
"Haste thee, O Carmel!" Bahá'u'lláh, significantly addressing that
holy mountain, has written, "for lo, the light of the Countenance of
God ... hath been lifted upon thee... Rejoice, for God hath, in
this Day, established upon thee His throne, hath made thee the
dawning-place of His signs and the dayspring of the evidences of His
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Revelation. Well is it with him that circleth around thee, that proclaimeth
the revelation of thy glory, and recounteth that which the
bounty of the Lord thy God hath showered upon thee." "Call out to
Zion, O Carmel!" He, furthermore, has revealed in that same Tablet,
"and announce the joyful tidings: He that was hidden from mortal
eyes is come! His all-conquering sovereignty is manifest; His all-encompassing
splendor is revealed. Beware lest thou hesitate or halt.
Hasten forth and circumambulate the City of God that hath descended
from heaven, the celestial Kaaba round which have circled in
adoration the favored of God, the pure in heart, and the company of
the most exalted angels."
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CHAPTER XIX
`Abdu'l-Bahá's Travels in Europe and America
The establishment of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the Western
Hemisphere--the most outstanding achievement that will forever
be associated with `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry--had, as observed in the
preceding pages, set in motion such tremendous forces, and been
productive of such far-reaching results, as to warrant the active and
personal participation of the Center of the Covenant Himself in those
epoch-making activities which His Western disciples had, through
the propelling power of that Covenant, boldly initiated and were
vigorously prosecuting.
The crisis which the blindness and perversity of the Covenant-breakers
had precipitated, and which, for several years, had so
tragically interfered with the execution of `Abdu'l-Bahá's purpose,
was now providentially resolved. An unsurmountable barrier had
been suddenly lifted from His path, His fetters were unlocked, and
God's avenging wrath had taken the chains from His neck and
placed them upon that of `Abdu'l-Hamíd, His royal adversary and
the dupe of His most implacable enemy. The sacred remains of the
Báb, entrusted to His hands by His departed Father, had, moreover,
with immense difficulty been transferred from their hiding-place in
far-off Tihrán to the Holy Land, and deposited ceremoniously and
reverently by Him in the bosom of Mt. Carmel.
`Abdu'l-Bahá was at this time broken in health. He suffered from
several maladies brought on by the strains and stresses of a tragic
life spent almost wholly in exile and imprisonment. He was on the
threshold of three-score years and ten. Yet as soon as He was released
from His forty-year long captivity, as soon as He had laid the Báb's
body in a safe and permanent resting-place, and His mind was free
of grievous anxieties connected with the execution of that priceless
Trust, He arose with sublime courage, confidence and resolution to
consecrate what little strength remained to Him, in the evening of
His life, to a service of such heroic proportions that no parallel to it
is to be found in the annals of the first Bahá'í century.
Indeed His three years of travel, first to Egypt, then to Europe
and later to America, mark, if we would correctly appraise their
historic importance, a turning point of the utmost significance in
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the history of the century. For the first time since the inception of
the Faith, sixty-six years previously, its Head and supreme Representative
burst asunder the shackles which had throughout the ministries
of both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh so grievously fettered its
freedom. Though repressive measures still continued to circumscribe
the activities of the vast majority of its adherents in the land of its
birth, its recognized Leader was now vouchsafed a freedom of action
which, with the exception of a brief interval in the course of the War
of 1914-18, He was to continue to enjoy to the end of His life,
and which has never since been withdrawn from its institutions at
its world center.
So momentous a change in the fortunes of the Faith was the
signal for such an outburst of activity on His part as to dumbfound
His followers in East and West with admiration and wonder, and
exercise an imperishable influence on the course of its future history.
He Who, in His own words, had entered prison as a youth and left it
an old man, Who never in His life had faced a public audience, had
attended no school, had never moved in Western circles, and was
unfamiliar with Western customs and language, had arisen not only
to proclaim from pulpit and platform, in some of the chief capitals
of Europe and in the leading cities of the North American continent,
the distinctive verities enshrined in His Father's Faith, but to demonstrate
as well the Divine origin of the Prophets gone before Him, and
to disclose the nature of the tie binding them to that Faith.
Inflexibly resolved to undertake this arduous voyage, at whatever
cost to His strength, at whatever risk to His life, He, quietly and
without any previous warning, on a September afternoon, of the
year 1910, the year following that which witnessed the downfall of
Sultán `Abdu'l-Hamíd and the formal entombment of the Báb's
remains on Mt. Carmel, sailed for Egypt, sojourned for about a
month in Port Said, and from thence embarked with the intention
of proceeding to Europe, only to discover that the condition of His
health necessitated His landing again at Alexandria and postponing
His voyage. Fixing His residence in Ramleh, a suburb of Alexandria,
and later visiting Zaytún and Cairo, He, on August 11 of the ensuing
year, sailed with a party of four, on the S.S. Corsica, for Marseilles,
and proceeded, after a brief stop at Thonon-les-Bains, to London,
where He arrived on September 4, 1911. After a visit of about a
month, He went to Paris, where He stayed for a period of nine weeks,
returning to Egypt in December, 1911. Again taking up His residence
in Ramleh, where He passed the winter, He embarked, on
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His second journey to the West, on the steamship Cedric, on
March 25, 1912, sailing via Naples direct to New York where He
arrived on April 11. After a prolonged tour of eight months' duration,
which carried Him from coast to coast, and in the course of
which He visited Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh,
Montclair, Boston, Worcester, Brooklyn, Fanwood, Milford, Philadelphia,
West Englewood, Jersey City, Cambridge, Medford, Morristown,
Dublin, Green Acre, Montreal, Malden, Buffalo, Kenosha,
Minneapolis, St. Paul, Omaha, Lincoln, Denver, Glenwood Springs,
Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Oakland, Palo Alto, Berkeley, Pasadena,
Los Angeles, Sacramento, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, He sailed,
on the S.S. Celtic, on December 5, from New York for Liverpool;
and landing there He proceeded by train to London. Later He
visited Oxford, Edinburgh and Bristol, and thence returning to
London, left for Paris on January 21, 1913. On March 30 He
traveled to Stuttgart, and from there proceeded, on April 9, to Budapest,
visited Vienna nine days later, returned to Stuttgart on April 25,
and to Paris on May first, where He remained until June 12, sailing
the following day, on the S.S. Himalaya from Marseilles bound for
Egypt, arriving in Port Said four days later, where after short visits
to Ismá'ílíyyih and Abúqir, and a prolonged stay in Ramleh, He
returned to Haifa, concluding His historic journeys on December
5, 1913.
It was in the course of these epoch-making journeys and before
large and representative audiences, at times exceeding a thousand
people, that `Abdu'l-Bahá expounded, with brilliant simplicity, with
persuasiveness and force, and for the first time in His ministry, those
basic and distinguishing principles of His Father's Faith, which together
with the laws and ordinances revealed in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas
constitute the bed-rock of God's latest Revelation to mankind. The
independent search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition;
the oneness of the entire human race, the pivotal principle and
fundamental doctrine of the Faith; the basic unity of all religions;
the condemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial,
class or national; the harmony which must exist between religion and
science; the equality of men and women, the two wings on which
the bird of human kind is able to soar; the introduction of compulsory
education; the adoption of a universal auxiliary language;
the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty; the institution
of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations;
the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank
+P282
of worship; the glorification of justice as the ruling principle in
human society, and of religion as a bulwark for the protection of all
peoples and nations; and the establishment of a permanent and universal
peace as the supreme goal of all mankind--these stand out as
the essential elements of that Divine polity which He proclaimed to
leaders of public thought as well as to the masses at large in the course
of these missionary journeys. The exposition of these vitalizing truths
of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, which He characterized as the "spirit of
the age," He supplemented with grave and reiterated warnings of an
impending conflagration which, if the statesmen of the world should
fail to avert, would set ablaze the entire continent of Europe. He,
moreover, predicted, in the course of these travels, the radical changes
which would take place in that continent, foreshadowed the movement
of the decentralization of political power which would inevitably
be set in motion, alluded to the troubles that would overtake
Turkey, anticipated the persecution of the Jews on the European
continent, and categorically asserted that the "banner of the unity of
mankind would be hoisted, that the tabernacle of universal peace
would be raised and the world become another world."
During these travels `Abdu'l-Bahá displayed a vitality, a courage,
a single-mindedness, a consecration to the task He had set Himself to
achieve that excited the wonder and admiration of those who had the
privilege of observing at close hand His daily acts. Indifferent to the
sights and curiosities which habitually invite the attention of travelers
and which the members of His entourage often wished Him to visit;
careless alike of His comfort and His health; expending every ounce
of His energy day after day from dawn till late at night; consistently
refusing any gifts or contributions towards the expenses of His
travels; unfailing in His solicitude for the sick, the sorrowful and
the down-trodden; uncompromising in His championship of the
underprivileged races and classes; bountiful as the rain in His generosity
to the poor; contemptuous of the attacks launched against
Him by vigilant and fanatical exponents of orthodoxy and sectarianism;
marvelous in His frankness while demonstrating, from
platform and pulpit, the prophetic Mission of Jesus Christ to the
Jews, of the Divine origin of Islám in churches and synagogues, or
the truth of Divine Revelation and the necessity of religion to
materialists, atheists or agnostics; unequivocal in His glorification of
Bahá'u'lláh at all times and within the sanctuaries of divers sects and
denominations; adamant in His refusal, on several occasions, to curry
the favor of people of title and wealth both in England and in the
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United States; and last but not least incomparable in the spontaneity,
the genuineness and warmth of His sympathy and loving-kindness
shown to friend and stranger alike, believer and unbeliever, rich
and poor, high and low, whom He met, either intimately or casually,
whether on board ship, or whilst pacing the streets, in parks or public
squares, at receptions or banquets, in slums or mansions, in the
gatherings of His followers or the assemblage of the learned, He,
the incarnation of every Bahá'í virtue and the embodiment of every
Bahá'í ideal, continued for three crowded years to trumpet to a world
sunk in materialism and already in the shadow of war, the healing, the
God-given truths enshrined in His Father's Revelation.
In the course of His several visits to Egypt He had more than
one interview with the Khedive, Abbás Hilmí Páshá II, was introduced
to Lord Kitchener, met the Muftí, Shaykh Muhammad Bakhit,
as well as the Khedive's Imám, Shaykh Muhammad Rashíd, and associated
with several `ulamás, páshás, Persian notables, members of the
Turkish Parliament, editors of leading newspapers in Cairo and
Alexandria, and other leaders and representatives of well-known
institutions, both religious and secular.
Whilst He sojourned in England the house placed at His disposal
in Cadogan Gardens became a veritable mecca to all sorts and conditions
of men, thronging to visit the Prisoner of `Akká Who had
chosen their great city as the first scene of His labors in the West.
"O, these pilgrims, these guests, these visitors!" thus bears witness
His devoted hostess during the time He spent in London, "Remembering
those days, our ears are filled with the sound of their footsteps
--as they came from every country in the world. Every day, all day
long, a constant stream, an interminable procession! Ministers and
missionaries, oriental scholars and occult students, practical men of
affairs and mystics, Anglicans, Catholics, and Non-conformists,
Theosophists and Hindus, Christian Scientists and doctors of medicine,
Muslims, Buddhists and Zoroastrians. There also called: politicians,
Salvation Army soldiers, and other workers for human good,
women suffragists, journalists, writers, poets and healers, dressmakers
and great ladies, artists and artisans, poor workless people and
prosperous merchants, members of the dramatic and musical world,
these all came; and none were too lowly, nor too great, to receive the
sympathetic consideration of this holy Messenger, Who was ever
giving His life for others' good."
`Abdu'l-Bahá's first public appearance before a western audience
significantly enough took place in a Christian house of worship, when,
+P284
on September 10, 1911, He addressed an overflowing congregation
from the pulpit of the City Temple. Introduced by the Pastor, the
Reverend R. J. Campbell, He, in simple and moving language, and
with vibrant voice, proclaimed the unity of God, affirmed the fundamental
oneness of religion, and announced that the hour of the unity
of the sons of men, of all races, religions and classes had struck. On
another occasion, on September 17, at the request of the Venerable
Archdeacon Wilberforce, He addressed the congregation of St. John
the Divine, at Westminster, after evening service, choosing as His
theme the transcendental greatness of the Godhead, as affirmed and
elucidated by Bahá'u'lláh in the Kitáb-i-Iqán. "The Archdeacon,"
wrote a contemporary of that event, "had the Bishop's chair placed
for his Guest on the chancel steps, and, standing beside Him, read
the translation of `Abdu'l-Bahá's address himself. The congregation
was profoundly moved, and, following the Archdeacon's example,
knelt to receive the blessing of the Servant of God--Who stood with
extended arms--His wonderful voice rising and falling in the silence
with the power of His invocation."
At the invitation of the Lord Mayor of London He breakfasted
with him at the Mansion House; addressed the Theosophical Society
at their headquarters, at the express request of their President, and
also a Meeting of the Higher Thought center in London; was invited
by a deputation from the Bramo-Somaj Society to deliver a lecture
under their auspices; visited and delivered an address on world unity
at the Mosque at Woking, at the invitation of the Muslim Community
of Great Britain, and was entertained by Persian princes,
noblemen, ex-ministers and members of the Persian Legation in London.
He stayed as a guest in Dr. T. K. Cheyne's home in Oxford, and
He delivered an address to "a large and deeply interested audience,"
highly academic in character, gathered at Manchester College in that
city, and presided over by Dr. Estlin Carpenter. He also spoke from
the pulpit of a Congregational Church in the East End of London,
in response to the request of its Pastor; addressed gatherings in Caxton
Hall and Westminster Hall, the latter under the chairmanship of Sir
Thomas Berkeley, and witnessed a performance of "Eager Heart,"
a Christmas mystery play at the Church House, Westminster, the first
dramatic performance He had ever beheld, and which in its graphic
depiction of the life and sufferings of Jesus Christ moved Him to
tears. In the Hall of the Passmore Edwards' Settlement, in Tavistock
Place, he spoke to an audience of about four hundred and sixty
representative people, presided over by Prof. Michael Sadler, called on
+P285
a number of working women of that Settlement, who were on holiday
at Vanners', in Byfleet, some twenty miles out of London, and paid
a second visit there, meeting on that occasion people of every condition
who had specially gathered to see Him, among whom were "the
clergy of several denominations, a headmaster of a boys' public school,
a member of Parliament, a doctor, a famous political writer, the
vice-chancellor of a university, several journalists, a well-known poet,
and a magistrate from London." "He will long be remembered,"
wrote a chronicler of His visit to England, describing that occasion,
"as He sat in the bow window in the afternoon sunshine, His arm
round a very ragged but very happy little boy who had come to ask
`Abdu'l-Bahá for sixpence for his money box and for his invalid
mother, whilst round Him in the room were gathered men and
women discussing Education, Socialism, the first Reform Bill, and the
relation of submarines and wireless telegraphy to the new era on
which man is entering."
Among those who called on Him during the memorable days He
spent in England and Scotland were the Reverend Archdeacon Wilberforce,
the Reverend R. J. Campbell, the Reverend Rhonddha
Williams, the Reverend Roland Corbet, Lord Lamington, Sir Richard
and Lady Stapley, Sir Michael Sadler, the Jalálu'd-Dawlih, son of the
Zillu's-Sultán, Sir Ameer Ali, the late Maharaja of Jalawar, who paid
Him many visits and gave an elaborate dinner and reception in His
honor, the Maharaja of Rajputana, the Ranee of Sarawak, Princess
Karadja, Baroness Barnekov, Lady Wemyss and her sister, Lady Glencomer,
Lady Agnew, Miss Constance Maud, Prof. E. G. Browne,
Prof. Patrick Geddes, Mr. Albert Dawson, editor of the Christian
Commonwealth, Mr. David Graham Pole, Mrs. Annie Besant, Mrs.
Pankhurst, and Mr. Stead, who had long and earnest conversations
with Him. "Very numerous," His hostess, describing the impression
produced on those who were accorded by Him the privilege of a
private audience, has written, "were these applicants for so unique an
experience, how unique only those knew when in the presence of the
Master, and we could partly divine, as we saw the look on their faces
as they emerged--a look as though blended of awe, of marveling,
and of a certain calm joy. Sometimes we were conscious of reluctance
in them to come forth into the outer world, as though they would
hold fast to their beatitude, lest the return of things of earth should
wrest it from them." "A profound impression," the aforementioned
chronicler has recorded, summing up the results produced by that
memorable visit, "remained in the minds and memories of all sorts
+P286
and conditions of men and women.... Very greatly was `Abdu'l-Bahá's
sojourn in London appreciated; very greatly His departure
regretted. He left behind Him many, many friends. His love had
kindled love. His heart had opened to the West, and the Western
heart had closed around this patriarchal presence from the East. His
words had in them something that appealed not only to their immediate
hearers, but to men and women generally."
His visits to Paris, where for a time He occupied an apartment
in the Avenue de Camoens, were marked by a warmth of welcome
no less remarkable than the reception accorded Him by His friends
and followers in London. "During the Paris visit," that same devoted
English hostess, Lady Blomfield, who had followed Him to that city,
has testified, "as it had been in London, daily happenings took on
the atmosphere of spiritual events.... Every morning, according to
His custom, the Master expounded the principles of the teaching of
Bahá'u'lláh to those who gathered round Him, the learned and the
unlearned, eager and respectful. They were of all nationalities and
creeds, from the East and from the West, including Theosophists,
agnostics, materialists, spiritualists, Christian Scientists, social reformers,
Hindus, Sufis, Muslims, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and many
others." And again: "Interview followed interview. Church dignitaries
of various branches of the Christian Tree came, some earnestly
desirous of finding new aspects of the Truth.... Others there were
who stopped their ears, lest they should hear and understand."
Persian princes, noblemen and ex-ministers, among them the
Zillu's-Sultán, the Persian Minister, the Turkish Ambassador in Paris,
Rashíd Páshá, an ex-valí of Beirut, Turkish páshás and ex-ministers,
and Viscount Arawaka, Japanese Ambassador to the Court of Spain,
were among those who had the privilege of attaining His presence.
Gatherings of Esperantists and Theosophists, students of the Faculty
of Theology and large audiences at l'Alliance Spiritualiste were addressed
by Him; at a Mission Hall, in a very poor quarter of the city,
He addressed a congregation at the invitation of the Pastor, whilst
in numerous meetings of His followers those already familiar with
His teachings were privileged to hear from His lips detailed and
frequent expositions of certain aspects of His Father's Faith.
In Stuttgart, where He made a brief but never-to-be-forgotten
stay, and to which He traveled in spite of ill-health in order to establish
personal contact with the members of the community of His
enthusiastic and dearly beloved German friends, He, apart from
attending the gatherings of His devoted followers, bestowed His
+P287
abundant blessings on the members of the Youth group, gathered at
Esslingen, and addressed, at the invitation of Professor Christale,
President of the Esperantists of Europe, a large meeting of Esperantists
at their club. He, moreover, visited Bad Mergentheim, in
Württemberg, where a few years later (1915) a monument was
erected in memory of His visit by one of His grateful disciples. "The
humility, love and devotion of the German believers," wrote an eyewitness,
"rejoiced the heart of `Abdu'l-Bahá, and they received His
blessings and His words of encouraging counsel in complete submissiveness.
...Friends came from far and near to see the Master. There
was a constant flow of visitors at the Hotel Marquart. There `Abdu'l-Bahá
received them with such love and graciousness that they became
radiant with joy and happiness."
In Vienna, where He stayed a few days, `Abdu'l-Bahá addressed
a gathering of Theosophists in that city, whilst in Budapest He
granted an interview to the President of the University, met on a
number of occasions the famous Orientalist Prof. Arminius Vambery,
addressed the Theosophical Society, and was visited by the
President of the Turanian, and representatives of the Turkish Societies,
army officers, several members of Parliament, and a deputation
of Young Turks, led by Prof. Julius Germanus, who accorded Him
a hearty welcome to the city. "During this time," is the written
testimony of Dr. Rusztem Vambery, "His (`Abdu'l-Bahá) room in
the Dunapalota Hotel became a veritable mecca for all those whom
the mysticism of the East and the wisdom of its Master attracted into
its magic circle. Among His visitors were Count Albert Apponyi,
Prelate Alexander Giesswein, Professor Ignatius Goldziher, the Orientalist
of world-wide renown, Professor Robert A. Nadler, the famous
Budapest painter, and leader of the Hungarian Theosophical Society."
It was reserved, however, for the North American continent to
witness the most astonishing manifestation of the boundless vitality
`Abdu'l-Bahá exhibited in the course of these journeys. The remarkable
progress achieved by the organized community of His followers
in the United States and Canada, the marked receptivity of the American
public to His Message, as well as His consciousness of the high
destiny awaiting the people of that continent, fully warranted the
expenditure of time and energy which he devoted to this most important
phase of His travels. A visit which entailed a journey of
over five thousand miles, which lasted from April to December, which
carried Him from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast and back, which
elicited discourses of such number as to fill no less than three volumes,
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was to mark the climax of those journeys, and was fully justified
by the far-reaching results which He well knew such labors on His
part would produce. "This long voyage," He told His assembled followers
on the occasion of His first meeting with them in New York,
"will prove how great is My love for you. There were many troubles
and vicissitudes, but in the thought of meeting you, all these things
vanished and were forgotten."
The character of the acts He performed fully demonstrated the
importance He attached to that visit. The laying, with His own
hands, of the dedication stone of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, by the
shore of Lake Michigan, in the vicinity of Chicago, on the recently
purchased property, and in the presence of a representative gathering
of Bahá'ís from East and West; the dynamic affirmation by Him
of the implications of the Covenant instituted by Bahá'u'lláh, following
the reading of the newly translated Tablet of the Branch, in
a general assembly of His followers in New York, designated henceforth
as the "City of the Covenant"; the moving ceremony in Inglewood,
California, marking His special pilgrimage to the grave of
Thornton Chase, the "first American believer," and indeed the first
to embrace the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh in the Western world; the
symbolic Feast He Himself offered to a large gathering of His disciples
assembled in the open air, and in the green setting of a June day at
West Englewood, in New Jersey; the blessing He bestowed on the
Open Forum at Green Acre, in Maine, on the banks of the Piscataqua
River, where many of His followers had gathered, and which was to
evolve into one of the first Bahá'í summer schools of the Western
Hemisphere and be recognized as one of the earliest endowments
established in the American continent; His address to an audience
of several hundred attending the last session of the newly-founded
Bahá'í Temple Unity held in Chicago; and, last but not least, the
exemplary act He performed by uniting in wedlock two of His followers
of different nationalities, one of the white, the other of the
Negro race--these must rank among the outstanding functions associated
with His visit to the community of the American believers,
functions designed to pave the way for the erection of their central
House of Worship, to fortify them against the tests they were soon
to endure, to cement their unity, and to bless the beginnings of that
Administrative Order which they were soon to initiate and champion.
No less remarkable were `Abdu'l-Bahá's public activities in the
course of His association with the multitude of people with whom
He came in contact during His tour across a continent. A full account
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of these diversified activities which crowded His days during
no less than eight months, would be beyond the scope of this survey.
Suffice it to say that in the city of New York alone He delivered
public addresses in, and made formal visits to, no less than fifty-five
different places. Peace societies, Christian and Jewish congregations,
colleges and universities, welfare and charitable organizations, members
of ethical cults, New Thought centers, metaphysical groups,
Women's clubs, scientific associations, gatherings of Esperantists,
Theosophists, Mormons, and agnostics, institutions for the advancement
of the colored people, representatives of the Syrian, the Armenian,
the Greek, the Chinese, and Japanese communities--all were
brought into contact with His dynamic presence, and were privileged
to hear from His lips His Father's Message. Nor was the press either
in its editorial comment or in the publication of reports of His lectures,
slow to appreciate the breadth of His vision or the character
of His summons.
His discourse at the Peace Conferences at Lake Mohonk; His addresses
to large gatherings at Columbia, Howard and New York
Universities; His participation in the fourth annual conference of
the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored
People; His fearless assertion of the truth of the prophetic Missions
of both Jesus Christ and Muhammad in Temple Emmanu-El, a
Jewish synagogue in San Francisco, where no less than two thousand
people were gathered; His illuminating discourse before an audience
of eighteen hundred students and one hundred and eighty teachers
and professors at Leland Stanford University; His memorable visit
to the Bowery Mission in the slums of New York; the brilliant reception
given in His honor in Washington, at which many outstanding
figures in the social life of the capital were presented to Him--these
stand out as the highlights of the unforgettable Mission He undertook
in the service of His Father's Cause. Secretaries of State, Ambassadors,
Congressmen, distinguished rabbis and churchmen, and
other people of eminence attained His presence, among whom were
such figures as Dr. D. S. Jordan, President of Leland Stanford University,
Prof. Jackson of Columbia University, Prof. Jack of Oxford
University, Rabbi Stephen Wise of New York, Dr. Martin A. Meyer,
Rabbi Joseph L. Levy, Rabbi Abram Simon, Alexander Graham Bell,
Rabindranath Tagore, Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Mrs. William Jennings
Bryan, Andrew Carnegie, Hon. Franklin MacVeagh, Secretary
of the United States Treasury, Lee McClung, Mr. Roosevelt, Admiral
Wain Wright, Admiral Peary, the British, Dutch and Swiss Ministers
+P290
in Washington, Yúsúf Díyá Páshá, the Turkish Ambassador in that
city, Thomas Seaton, Hon. William Sulzer and Prince Muhammad-`Alí
of Egypt, the Khedive's brother.
"When `Abdu'l-Bahá visited this country for the first time in
1912," a commentator on His American travels has written, "He
found a large and sympathetic audience waiting to greet Him personally
and to receive from His own lips His loving and spiritual message.
...Beyond the words spoken there was something indescribable
in His personality that impressed profoundly all who came into His
presence. The dome-like head, the patriarchal beard, the eyes that
seemed to have looked beyond the reach of time and sense, the soft
yet clearly penetrating voice, the translucent humility, the never
failing love,--but above all, the sense of power mingled with gentleness
that invested His whole being with a rare majesty of spiritual
exaltation that both set Him apart, and yet that brought Him near
to the lowliest soul,--it was all this, and much more that can never
be defined, that have left with His many ... friends, memories that
are ineffaceable and unspeakably precious."
A survey, however inadequate of the varied and immense activities
of `Abdu'l-Bahá in His tour of Europe and America cannot leave
without mention some of the strange incidents that would often
accompany personal contact with Him. The bold determination of
a certain indomitable youth who, fearing `Abdu'l-Bahá would not be
able to visit the Western states, and unable himself to pay for a train
journey to New England, had traveled all the way from Minneapolis
to Maine lying on the rods between the wheels of a train; the transformation
effected in the life of the son of a country rector in England,
who, in his misery and poverty, had resolved, whilst walking
along the banks of the Thames, to put an end to his existence, and
who, at the sight of `Abdu'l-Bahá's photograph displayed in a shop
window, had inquired about Him, hurried to His residence, and been
so revived by His words of cheer and comfort as to abandon all
thought of self-destruction; the extraordinary experience of a woman
whose little girl, as the result of a dream she had had, insisted that
Jesus Christ was in the world, and who, at the sight of `Abdu'l-Bahá's
picture exposed in the window of a magazine store, had instantly
identified it as that of the Jesus Christ of her dream--an act which
impelled her mother, after reading that `Abdu'l-Bahá was in Paris,
to take the next boat for Europe and hasten to attain His presence;
the decision of the editor of a journal printed in Japan to break his
journey to Tokyo at Constantinople, and travel to London for "the
+P291
joy of spending one evening in His presence"; the touching scene
when `Abdu'l-Bahá, receiving from the hands of a Persian friend,
recently arrived in London from Ishqábád, a cotton handkerchief
containing a piece of dry black bread and a shrivelled apple--the
offering of a poor Bahá'í workman in that city--opened it before His
assembled guests, and, leaving His luncheon untouched, broke pieces
off that bread, and partaking Himself of it shared it with those who
were present--these are but a few of a host of incidents that shed
a revealing light on some personal aspects of His memorable journeys.
Nor can certain scenes revolving around that majestic and patriarchal
Figure, as He moved through the cities of Europe and America,
be ever effaced from memory. The remarkable interview at which
`Abdu'l-Bahá, while placing lovingly His hand on the head of Archdeacon
Wilberforce, answered his many questions, whilst that distinguished
churchman sat on a low chair by His side; the still more
remarkable scene when that same Archdeacon, after having knelt
with his entire congregation to receive His benediction at St. John's
the Divine, passed down the aisle to the vestry hand in hand with
his Guest, whilst a hymn was being sung by the entire assembly
standing; the sight of Jalálu'd-Dawlih, fallen prostrate at His feet,
profuse in his apologies and imploring His forgiveness for his past
iniquities; the enthusiastic reception accorded Him at Leland Stanford
University when, before the gaze of well nigh two thousand
professors and students, He discoursed on some of the noblest truths
underlying His message to the West; the touching spectacle at Bowery
Mission when four hundred of the poor of New York filed past Him,
each receiving a piece of silver from His blessed hands; the acclamation
of a Syrian woman in Boston who, pushing aside the crowd that
had gathered around Him, flung herself at His feet, exclaiming,
"I confess that in Thee I have recognized the Spirit of God and Jesus
Christ Himself"; the no less fervent tribute paid Him by two admiring
Arabs who, as He was leaving that city for Dublin, N. H., cast
themselves before Him, and, sobbing aloud, avowed that He was
God's own Messenger to mankind; the vast congregation of two
thousand Jews assembled in a synagogue in San Francisco, intently
listening to His discourse as He demonstrated the validity of the
claims advanced by both Jesus Christ and Muhammad; the gathering
He addressed one night in Montreal, at which, in the course of His
speech, His turban fell from His head, so carried away was He by
the theme He was expounding; the boisterous crowd in a very poor
quarter of Paris, who, awed by His presence, reverently and silently
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made way for Him as He passed through their midst, while returning
from a Mission Hall whose congregation He had been addressing;
the characteristic gesture of a Zoroastrian physician who, arriving in
breathless haste on the morning of `Abdu'l-Bahá's departure from
London to bid Him farewell, anointed with fragrant oil first His
head and His breast, and then, touching the hands of all present,
placed round His neck and shoulders a garland of rosebuds and lilies;
the crowd of visitors arriving soon after dawn, patiently waiting on
the doorsteps of His house in Cadogan Gardens until the door would
be opened for their admittance; His majestic figure as He paced with
a vigorous step the platform, or stood with hands upraised to pronounce
the benediction, in church and synagogue alike, and before
vast audiences of reverent listeners; the unsolicited mark of respect
shown Him by distinguished society women in London, who would
spontaneously curtsy when ushered into His presence; the poignant
sight when He stooped low to the grave of His beloved disciple,
Thornton Chase, in Inglewood Cemetery, and kissed his tombstone,
an example which all those present hastened to follow; the distinguished
gathering of Christians, Jews and Muslims, men and women
and representative of both the East and the West, assembled to hear
His discourse on world unity in the mosque at Woking--such scenes
as these, even in the cold record of the printed page, must still have
much of their original impressiveness and power.
Who knows what thoughts flooded the heart of `Abdu'l-Bahá as
He found Himself the central figure of such memorable scenes as
these? Who knows what thoughts were uppermost in His mind as
He sat at breakfast beside the Lord Mayor of London, or was received
with extraordinary deference by the Khedive himself in his palace,
or as He listened to the cries of "Alláh-u-Abhá" and to the hymns of
thanksgiving and praise that would herald His approach to the
numerous and brilliant assemblages of His enthusiastic followers and
friends organized in so many cities of the American continent? Who
knows what memories stirred within Him as He stood before the
thundering waters of Niagara, breathing the free air of a far distant
land, or gazed, in the course of a brief and much-needed rest, upon
the green woods and countryside in Glenwood Springs, or moved
with a retinue of Oriental believers along the paths of the Trocadero
gardens in Paris, or walked alone in the evening beside the majestic
Hudson on Riverside Drive in New York, or as He paced the terrace
of the Hotel du Parc at Thonon-les-Bains, overlooking the Lake of
Geneva, or as He watched from Serpentine Bridge in London the
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pearly chain of lights beneath the trees stretching as far as the eye
could see? Memories of the sorrows, the poverty, the overhanging
doom of His earlier years; memories of His mother who sold her gold
buttons to provide Him, His brother and His sister with sustenance,
and who was forced, in her darkest hours, to place a handful of dry
flour in the palm of His hand to appease His hunger; of His own
childhood when pursued and derided by a mob of ruffians in the
streets of Tihrán; of the damp and gloomy room, formerly a morgue,
which He occupied in the barracks of `Akká and of His imprisonment
in the dungeon of that city--memories such as these must surely
have thronged His mind. Thoughts, too, must have visited Him of
the Báb's captivity in the mountain fastnesses of Ádhirbayján, when
at night time He was refused even a lamp, and of His cruel and
tragic execution when hundreds of bullets riddled His youthful
breast. Above all His thoughts must have centered on Bahá'u'lláh,
Whom He loved so passionately and Whose trials He had witnessed
and had shared from His boyhood. The vermin-infested Síyáh-Chál
of Tihrán; the bastinado inflicted upon Him in Ámul; the humble
fare which filled His kashkúl while He lived for two years the life
of a dervish in the mountains of Kurdistán; the days in Baghdád
when He did not even possess a change of linen, and when His followers
subsisted on a handful of dates; His confinement behind the
prison-walls of `Akká, when for nine years even the sight of verdure
was denied Him; and the public humiliation to which He was subjected
at government headquarters in that city--pictures from the
tragic past such as these must have many a time overpowered Him
with feelings of mingled gratitude and sorrow, as He witnessed the
many marks of respect, of esteem, and honor now shown Him and
the Faith which He represented. "O Bahá'u'lláh! What hast Thou
done?" He, as reported by the chronicler of His travels, was heard
to exclaim one evening as He was being swiftly driven to fulfil His
third engagement of the day in Washington, "O Bahá'u'lláh! May
my life be sacrificed for Thee! O Bahá'u'lláh! May my soul be
offered up for Thy sake! How full were Thy days with trials and
tribulations! How severe the ordeals Thou didst endure! How solid
the foundation Thou hast finally laid, and how glorious the banner
Thou didst hoist!" "One day, as He was strolling," that same chronicler
has testified, "He called to remembrance the days of the Blessed
Beauty, referring with sadness to His sojourn in Sulamáníyyih, to
His loneliness and to the wrongs inflicted upon Him. Though He
had often recounted that episode, that day He was so overcome with
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emotion that He sobbed aloud in His grief.... All His attendants
wept with Him, and were plunged into sorrow as they heard the tale
of the woeful trials endured by the Ancient Beauty, and witnessed
the tenderness of heart manifested by His Son."
A most significant scene in a century-old drama had been enacted.
A glorious chapter in the history of the first Bahá'í century had been
written. Seeds of undreamt-of potentialities had, with the hand of
the Center of the Covenant Himself, been sown in some of the
fertile fields of the Western world. Never in the entire range of
religious history had any Figure of comparable stature arisen to perform
a labor of such magnitude and imperishable worth. Forces were
unleashed through those fateful journeys which even now, at a distance
of well nigh thirty-five years, we are unable to measure or
comprehend. Already a Queen, inspired by the powerful arguments
adduced by `Abdu'l-Bahá in the course of His addresses in support
of the Divinity of Muhammad, has proclaimed her faith, and borne
public testimony to the Divine origin of the Prophet of Islám.
Already a President of the United States, imbibing some of the principles
so clearly enunciated by Him in His discourses, has incorporated
them in a Peace Program which stands out as the boldest and noblest
proposal yet made for the well-being and security of mankind. And
already, alas! a world which proved deaf to His warnings and refused
to heed His summons has plunged itself into two global wars of
unprecedented severity, the repercussions of which none as yet can
even dimly visualize.
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CHAPTER XX
Growth and Expansion of the Faith in East and West
`Abdu'l-Bahá's historic journeys to the West, and in particular
His eight-month tour of the United States of America, may be said
to have marked the culmination of His ministry, a ministry whose
untold blessings and stupendous achievements only future generations
can adequately estimate. As the day-star of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation
had shone forth in its meridian splendor at the hour of the proclamation
of His Message to the rulers of the earth in the city of Adrianople,
so did the Orb of His Covenant mount its zenith and shed its brightest
rays when He Who was its appointed Center arose to blazon
the glory and greatness of His Father's Faith among the peoples of
the West.
That divinely instituted Covenant had, shortly after its inception,
demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt its invincible
strength through its decisive triumph over the dark forces which its
Arch-Breaker had with such determination arrayed against it. Its
energizing power had soon after been proclaimed through the signal
victories which its torch-bearers had so rapidly and courageously won
in the far-off cities of Western Europe and the United States of
America. Its high claims had, moreover, been fully vindicated
through its ability to safeguard the unity and integrity of the Faith
in both the East and the West. It had subsequently given further
proof of its indomitable strength by the memorable victory it registered
through the downfall of Sultán `Abdu'l-Hamíd, and the consequent
release of its appointed Center from a forty-year captivity.
It had provided for those still inclined to doubt its Divine origin
yet another indisputable testimony to its solidity by enabling `Abdu'l-Bahá,
in the face of formidable obstacles, to effect the transfer and
the final entombment of the Báb's remains in a mausoleum on Mt.
Carmel. It had manifested also before all mankind, with a force and
in a measure hitherto unapproached, its vast potentialities when it
empowered Him in Whom its spirit and its purpose were enshrined
to embark on a three-year-long mission to the Western world--a
mission so momentous that it deserves to rank as the greatest exploit
ever to be associated with His ministry.
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Nor were these, preeminent though they were, the sole fruits
garnered through the indefatigable efforts exerted so heroically by the
Center of that Covenant. The progress and extension of His Father's
Faith in the East; the initiation of activities and enterprises which
may be said to signalize the beginnings of a future Administrative
Order; the erection of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í
world in the city of Ishqábád in Russian Turkistán; the expansion
of Bahá'í literature; the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan;
and the introduction of the Faith in the Australian continent--these
may be regarded as the outstanding achievements that have embellished
the brilliant record of `Abdu'l-Bahá's unique ministry.
In Persia, the cradle of the Faith, despite the persecutions which,
throughout the years of that ministry, persisted with unabated violence,
a noticeable change, marking the gradual emergence of a proscribed
community from its hitherto underground existence, could
be clearly discerned. Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, four years after Bahá'u'lláh's
ascension, had, on the eve of his jubilee, designed to mark a turning-point
in the history of his country, met his death at the hands of an
assassin, named Mírzá Ridá, a follower of the notorious Siyyid
Jamálu'd-Dín-i-Afghání, an enemy of the Faith and one of the originators
of the constitutional movement which, as it gathered momentum,
during the reign of the Sháh's son and successor, Muzaffari'd-Dín,
was destined to involve in further difficulties an already hounded
and persecuted community. Even the Sháh's assassination had at first
been laid at the door of that community, as evidenced by the cruel
death suffered, immediately after the murder of the sovereign, by
the renowned teacher and poet, Mírzá `Alí-Muhammad, surnamed
"Varqá" (Dove) by Bahá'u'lláh, who, together with his twelve-year-old
son, Rúhu'lláh, was inhumanly put to death in the prison of
Tihrán, by the brutal Hájíbu'd-Dawlih, who, after thrusting his
dagger into the belly of the father and cutting him into pieces, before
the eyes of his son, adjured the boy to recant, and, meeting with a
blunt refusal, strangled him with a rope.
Three years previously a youth, named Muhammad-Ridáy-i-Yazdí,
was shot in Yazd, on the night of his wedding while proceeding
from the public bath to his home, the first to suffer martyrdom
during `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry. In Turbát-i-Haydaríyyih, in consequence
of the Sháh's assassination, five persons, known as the Shuhadáy-i-Khamsíh
(Five Martyrs), were put to death. In Mashhad a
well-known merchant, Hájí Muhammad-i-Tabrízí, was murdered
and his corpse set on fire. An interview was granted by the new
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sovereign and his Grand Vizir, the unprincipled and reactionary
Mírzá `Alí-Asghar Khán, the Atábík-i-A'zam, to two representative
followers of the Faith in Paris (1902), but it produced no real results
whatever. On the contrary, a fresh storm of persecutions broke out
a few years later, persecutions which, as the constitutional movement
developed in that country, grew ever fiercer as reactionaries brought
groundless accusations against the Bahá'ís, and publicly denounced
them as supporters and inspirers of the nationalist cause.
A certain Muhammad-Javád was stripped naked in Isfahán, and
was severely beaten with a whip of braided wires, while in Káshán
the adherents of the Faith of Jewish extraction were fined, beaten
and chained at the instigation of both the Muhammadan clergy and
the Jewish doctors. It was, however, in Yazd and its environs that
the most bloody outrages committed during `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry
occurred. In that city Hájí Mirzáy-i-Halabi-Sáz was so mercilessly
flogged that his wife flung herself upon his body, and was in her turn
severely beaten, after which his skull was lacerated by the cleaver
of a butcher. His eleven-year-old son was pitilessly thrashed, stabbed
with penknives and tortured to death. Within the space of half a
day nine people met their death. A crowd of about six thousand
people, of both sexes, vented their fury upon the helpless victims, a
few going so far as to drink their blood. In some instances, as was
the case with a man named Mírzá Asadu'lláh-i-Sabbágh, they plundered
their property and fought over its possession. They evinced
such cruelty that some of the government officials were moved to
tears at the sight of the harrowing scenes in which the women of that
city played a conspicuously shameful part.
In Taft several people were put to death, some of whom were
shot and their bodies dragged through the streets. A newly converted
eighteen-year-old youth, named Husayn, was denounced by
his own father, and torn to pieces before the eyes of his mother,
whilst Muhammad-Kamál was hacked into bits with knife, spade
and pickaxe. In Manshad, where the persecutions lasted nineteen
days, similar atrocities were perpetrated. An eighty-year-old man,
named Siyyid Mírzá, was instantly killed in his sleep by two huge
stones which were thrown on him; a Mírzá Sádiq, who asked for
water, had a knife plunged into his breast, his executioner afterwards
licking the blood from the blade, while Shátir-Hasan, one of the
victims, was seen before his death distributing some candy in his
possession among the executioners and dividing among them his
clothing. A sixty-five year old woman, Khadíjih-Sultán, was hurled
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from the roof of a house; a believer named Mírzá Muhammad was
tied to a tree, made a target for hundreds of bullets and his body set
on fire, whilst another, named Ustád Ridáy-i-Saffár, was seen to kiss
the hand of his murderer, after which he was shot and his corpse
heaped with insults.
In Banáduk, in Dih-Bálá, in Farásháh, in Abbás-Ábád, in
Hanzá, in Ardikán, in Dawlat-Ábád and in Hamadán crimes of similar
nature were committed, an outstanding case being that of a
highly respected and courageous woman, named Fátimih-Bagum,
who was ignominiously dragged from her house, her veil was torn
from her head, her throat cut across, her belly ripped open; and
having been beaten by the savage crowd with every weapon they
could lay hands on, she was finally suspended from a tree and delivered
to the flames.
In Sárí, in the days when the agitation for the constitution was
moving towards a climax, five believers of recognized standing,
known later as the Shuhadáy-i-Khamsíh (Five Martyrs), were done
to death, whilst in Nayríz a ferocious assault, recalling that of Yazd,
was launched by the enemy, in which nineteen lost their lives, among
them the sixty-five year old Mullá `Abdu'l-Hamíd, a blind man who
was shot and his body foully abused, and in the course of which a
considerable amount of property was plundered, and numerous
women and children had to flee for their lives, or seek refuge in
mosques, or live in the ruins of their houses, or remain shelterless by
the wayside.
In Sirján, in Dúgh-Ábád, in Tabríz, in Ávih, in Qum, in Najaf-Ábád,
in Sangsar, in Sháhmírzád, in Isfahán, and in Jahrum redoubtable
and remorseless enemies, both religious and political, continued,
under various pretexts, and even after the signing of the Constitution
by the Sháh in 1906, and during the reign of his successors,
Muhammad-`Alí Sháh and Ahmad Sháh, to slay, torture, plunder
and abuse the members of a community who resolutely refused to
either recant or deviate a hair's breadth from the path laid down for
them by their Leaders. Even during `Abdu'l-Bahá's journeys to the
West, and after His return to the Holy Land, and indeed till the
end of His life, He continued to receive distressing news of the
martyrdom of His followers, and of the outrages perpetrated against
them by an insatiable enemy. In Dawlat-Ábád, a prince of the
royal blood, Habíbu'lláh Mírzá by name, a convert to the Faith who
had consecrated his life to its service, was slain with a hatchet and
his corpse set on fire. In Mashhad the learned and pious Shaykh
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`Alí-Akbar-i-Quchání was shot to death. In Sultán-Ábád, Mírzá
`Alí-Akbar and seven members of his family including a forty day
old infant were barbarously massacred. Persecutions of varying
degrees of severity broke out in Ná'in, in Sháhmírzád, in Bandar-i-Jaz
and in Qamsar. In Kirmánsháh, the martyr Mírzá Ya'qúb-i-Muttáhidih,
the ardent twenty-five year old Jewish convert to the
Faith, was the last to lay down his life during `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry;
and his mother, according to his own instructions, celebrated
his martyrdom in Hamadán with exemplary fortitude. In every
instance the conduct of the believers testified to the indomitable
spirit and unyielding tenacity that continued to distinguish the lives
and services of the Persian followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
Despite these intermittent severe persecutions the Faith that had
evoked in its heroes so rare a spirit of self-sacrifice was steadily and
silently growing. Engulfed for a time and almost extinguished in
the sombre days following the martyrdom of the Báb, driven underground
throughout the period of Bahá'u'lláh's ministry, it began,
after His ascension, under the unerring guidance, and as a result of
the unfailing solicitude, of a wise, a vigilant and loving Master, to
gather its forces, and gradually to erect the embryonic institutions
which were to pave the way for the establishment, at a later period,
of its Administrative Order. It was during this period that the number
of its adherents rapidly multiplied, that its range, now embracing
every province of that kingdom, steadily widened, and the rudimentary
forms of its future Assemblies were inaugurated. It was
during this period, at a time when state schools and colleges were
practically non-existent in that country, and when the education
given in existing religious institutions was lamentably defective, that
its earliest schools were established, beginning with the Tarbíyat,
schools in Tihrán for both boys and girls, and followed by the Ta'yíd
and Mawhibat schools in Hamadán, the Vahdat-i-Bashar school in
Káshán and other similar educational institutions in Barfurúsh and
Qazvín. It was during these years that concrete and effectual assistance,
both spiritual and material, in the form of visiting teachers
from both Europe and America, of nurses, instructors, and physicians,
was first extended to the Bahá'í community in that land, these
workers constituting the vanguard of that host of helpers which
`Abdu'l-Bahá promised would arise in time to further the interests of
the Faith as well as those of the country in which it was born. It
was in the course of these years that the term Bábí, as an appellation,
designating the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in that country, was universally
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discarded by the masses in favor of the word Bahá'í, the
former henceforth being exclusively applied to the fast dwindling
number of the followers of Mírzá Yahyá. During this period, moreover,
the first systematic attempts were made to organize and stimulate
the teaching work undertaken by the Persian believers, attempts
which, apart from reinforcing the foundations of the community,
were instrumental in attracting to its cause several outstanding figures
in the public life of that country, not excluding certain prominent
members of the Shí'ah sacerdotal order, and even descendants of some
of the worst persecutors of the Faith. It was during the years of that
ministry that the House of the Báb in Shíráz, ordained by Bahá'u'lláh
as a center of pilgrimage for His followers, and now so recognized,
was by order of `Abdu'l-Bahá and through His assistance, restored,
and that it became increasingly a focus of Bahá'í life and activity for
those who were deprived by circumstances of visiting either the Most
Great House in Baghdád or the Most Holy Tomb in `Akká.
More conspicuous than any of these undertakings, however, was
the erection of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world in the
city of Ishqábád, a center founded in the days of Bahá'u'lláh, where
the initial steps preparatory to its construction, had been already
undertaken during His lifetime. Initiated at about the close of the
first decade of `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry (1902); fostered by Him at
every stage in its development; personally supervised by the venerable
Hájí Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí, the Vakílu'd-Dawlih, a cousin of the
Báb, who dedicated his entire resources to its establishment, and
whose dust now reposes at the foot of Mt. Carmel under the shadow
of the Tomb of his beloved Kinsman; carried out according to the
directions laid down by the Center of the Covenant Himself; a lasting
witness to the fervor and the self-sacrifice of the Oriental believers
who were resolved to execute the bidding of Bahá'u'lláh as revealed
in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, this enterprise must rank not only as the first
major undertaking launched through the concerted efforts of His
followers in the Heroic Age of His Faith, but as one of the most
brilliant and enduring achievements in the history of the first
Bahá'í century.
The edifice itself, the foundation stone of which was laid in the
presence of General Krupatkin, the governor-general of Turkistán,
who had been delegated by the Czar to represent him at the ceremony,
has thus been minutely described by a Bahá'í visitor from the West:
"The Mashriqu'l-Adhkár stands in the heart of the city; its high
dome standing out above the trees and house tops being visible for
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miles to the travelers as they approach the town. It is in the center
of a garden bounded by four streets. In the four corners of this
enclosure are four buildings: one is the Bahá'í school; one is the
traveler's house, where pilgrims and wayfarers are lodged; one is for
the keepers, while the fourth one is to be used as a hospital. Nine
radial avenues approach the Temple from the several parts of the
grounds, one of which, the principal approach to the building, leads
from the main gateway of the grounds to the principal portal of the
Temple." "In plan," he further adds, "the building is composed of
three sections; namely, the central rotunda, the aisle or ambulatory
which surrounds it, and the loggia which surrounds the entire building.
It is built on the plan of a regular polygon of nine sides. One
side is occupied by the monumental main entrance, flanked by
minarets--a high arched portico extending two stories in height
recalling in arrangement the architecture of the world famous Taj
Mahal at Agra in India, the delight of the world to travelers, many
of whom pronounce it to be the most beautiful temple in the world.
Thus the principal doorway opens toward the direction of the Holy
land. The entire building is surrounded by two series of loggias--
one upper and one lower--which opens out upon the garden giving a
very beautiful architectural effect in harmony with the luxuriant
semi-tropical vegetation which fills the garden... The interior
walls of the rotunda are treated in five distinct stories. First, a series
of nine arches and piers which separate the rotunda from the ambulatory.
Second, a similar treatment with balustrades which separate
the triforium gallery (which is above the ambulatory and is reached
by two staircases in the loggias placed one on either side of the main
entrance) from the well of the rotunda. Third, a series of nine blank
arches filled with fretwork, between which are escutcheons bearing
the Greatest Name. Fourth, a series of nine large arched windows.
Fifth, a series of eighteen bull's eye windows. Above and resting on a
cornice surmounting this last story rises the inner hemispherical shell
of the dome. The interior is elaborately decorated in plaster relief
work... The whole structure impresses one by its mass and strength."
Nor should mention be omitted of the two schools for boys and
girls which were established in that city, of the pilgrim house instituted
in the close vicinity of the Temple, of the Spiritual Assembly
and its auxiliary bodies formed to administer the affairs of a growing
community, and of the new centers of activity inaugurated in various
towns and cities in the province of Turkistán--all testifying to the
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vitality which the Faith had displayed ever since its inception in
that land.
A parallel if less spectacular development could be observed in
the Caucasus. After the establishment of the first center and the
formation of an Assembly in Bákú, a city which Bahá'í pilgrims,
traveling in increasing numbers from Persia to the Holy Land via
Turkey, invariably visited, new groups began to be organized, and,
evolving later into well-established communities, cooperated in increasing
measure with their brethren both in Turkistán and Persia.
In Egypt a steady increase in the number of the adherents of the
Faith was accompanied by a general expansion in its activities. The
establishments of new centers; the consolidation of the chief center
established in Cairo; the conversion, largely through the indefatigable
efforts of the learned Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl, of several prominent students
and teachers of the Azhar University--premonitory symptoms foreshadowing
the advent of the promised day on which, according to
`Abdu'l-Bahá, the standard and emblem of the Faith would be implanted
in the heart of that time-honored Islamic seat of learning; the
translation into Arabic and the dissemination of some of the most
important writings of Bahá'u'lláh revealed in Persian, together with
other Bahá'í literature; the printing of books, treatises and pamphlets
by Bahá'í authors and scholars; the publication of articles in the Press
written in defense of the Faith and for the purpose of broadcasting
its message; the formation of rudimentary administrative institutions
in the capital as well as in nearby centers; the enrichment of the life
of the community through the addition of converts of Kurdish,
Coptic, and Armenian origin--these may be regarded as the first
fruits garnered in a country which, blessed by the footsteps of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
was, in later years, to play a historic part in the emancipation of
the Faith, and which, by virtue of its unique position as the intellectual
center of both the Arab and Islamic worlds, must inevitably
assume a notable and decisive share of responsibility in the final
establishment of that Faith throughout the East.
Even more remarkable was the expansion of Bahá'í activity in
India and Burma, where a steadily growing community, now including
among its members representatives of the Zoroastrian, the Islamic,
the Hindu and the Buddhist Faiths, as well as members of the Sikh
community, succeeded in establishing its outposts, as far as Mandalay
and the village of Daidanaw Kalazoo, in the Hanthawaddy district of
Burma, at which latter place no less than eight hundred Bahá'ís
resided, possessing a school, a court, and a hospital of their own, as
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well as land for community cultivation, the proceeds of which they
devoted to the furtherance of the interests of their Faith.
In `Iráq, where the House occupied by Bahá'u'lláh was entirely
restored and renovated, and where a small yet intrepid community
struggled in the face of constant opposition to regulate and administer
its affairs; in Constantinople, where a Bahá'í center was established;
in Tunis where the foundations of a local community were
firmly laid; in Japan, in China, and in Honolulu to which Bahá'í
teachers traveled, and where they settled and taught--in all of these
places the manifold evidences of the guiding hand of `Abdu'l-Bahá
and the tangible effects of His sleepless vigilance and unfailing care
could be clearly perceived.
Nor did the nascent communities established in France, England,
Germany and the United States cease to receive, after His memorable
visits to those countries, further tokens of His special interest in, and
solicitude for, their welfare and spiritual advancement. It was in
consequence of His directions and the unceasing flow of His Tablets,
addressed to the members of these communities, as well as His constant
encouragement of the efforts they were exerting, that Bahá'í
centers steadily multiplied, that public meetings were organized, that
new periodicals were published, that translations of some of the best
known works of Bahá'u'lláh and of the Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bahá were
printed and circulated in the English, the French, and German languages,
and that the initial attempts to organize the affairs, and consolidate
the foundations, of these newly established communities
were undertaken.
In the North American continent, more particularly, the members
of a flourishing community, inspired by the blessings bestowed by
`Abdu'l-Bahá, as well as by His example and the acts He performed in
the course of His prolonged visit to their country, gave an earnest
of the magnificent enterprise they were to carry through in later
years. They purchased the twelve remaining lots forming part of the
site of their projected Temple, selected, during the sessions of their
1920 Convention, the design of the French Canadian Bahá'í architect,
Louis Bourgeois, placed the contract for the excavation and the laying
of its foundations, and succeeded soon after in completing the necessary
arrangements for the construction of its basement: measures
which heralded the stupendous efforts which, after `Abdu'l-Bahá's
ascension, culminated in the erection of its superstructure and the
completion of its exterior ornamentation.
The war of 1914-18, repeatedly foreshadowed by `Abdu'l-Bahá in
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the dark warnings He uttered in the course of His western travels,
and which broke out eight months after His return to the Holy Land,
once more cast a shadow of danger over His life, the last that was to
darken the years of His agitated yet glorious ministry.
The late entry of the United States of America in that world-convulsing
conflict, the neutrality of Persia, the remoteness of India
and of the Far East from the theater of operations, insured the protection
of the overwhelming majority of His followers, who, though
for the most part entirely cut off for a number of years from the
spiritual center of their Faith, were still able to conduct their affairs
and safeguard the fruits of their recent achievements in comparative
safety and freedom.
In the Holy Land, however, though the outcome of that tremendous
struggle was to liberate once and for all the Heart and
Center of the Faith from the Turkish yoke, a yoke which had imposed
for so long upon its Founder and His Successor such oppressive and
humiliating restrictions, yet severe privations and grave dangers continued
to surround its inhabitants during the major part of that
conflict, and renewed, for a time, the perils which had confronted
`Abdu'l-Bahá during the years of His incarceration in `Akká. The
privations inflicted on the inhabitants by the gross incompetence, the
shameful neglect, the cruelty and callous indifference of both the
civil and military authorities, though greatly alleviated through the
bountiful generosity, the foresight and the tender care of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
were aggravated by the rigors of a strict blockade. A bombardment
of Haifa by the Allies was a constant threat, at one time so real
that it necessitated the temporary removal of `Abdu'l-Bahá, His
family and members of the local community to the village of Abú-Sínán
at the foot of the hills east of `Akká. The Turkish Commander-in-Chief,
the brutal, the all-powerful and unscrupulous Jamál Páshá,
an inveterate enemy of the Faith, through his own ill-founded suspicions
and the instigation of its enemies, had already grievously
afflicted `Abdu'l-Bahá, and even expressed his intention of crucifying
Him and of razing to the ground the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh. `Abdu'l-Bahá
Himself still suffered from the ill-health and exhaustion brought
on by the fatigues of His three-year journeys. He felt acutely the
virtual stoppage of all communication with most of the Bahá'í
centers throughout the world. Agony filled His soul at the spectacle
of human slaughter precipitated through humanity's failure to respond
to the summons He had issued, or to heed the warnings He had given.
Surely sorrow upon sorrow was added to the burden of trials and
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vicissitudes which He, since His boyhood, had borne so heroically for
the sake, and in the service, of His Father's Cause.
And yet during these somber days, the darkness of which was
reminiscent of the tribulations endured during the most dangerous
period of His incarceration in the prison-fortress of `Akká, `Abdu'l-Bahá,
whilst in the precincts of His Father's Shrine, or when dwelling
in the House He occupied in `Akká, or under the shadow of the
Báb's sepulcher on Mt. Carmel, was moved to confer once again, and
for the last time in His life, on the community of His American
followers a signal mark of His special favor by investing them, on
the eve of the termination of His earthly ministry, through the
revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, with a world mission,
whose full implications even now, after the lapse of a quarter
of a century, still remain undisclosed, and whose unfoldment thus
far, though as yet in its initial stages, has so greatly enriched the
spiritual as well as the administrative annals of the first Bahá'í
century.
The conclusion of this terrible conflict, the first stage in a titanic
convulsion long predicted by Bahá'u'lláh, not only marked the
extinction of Turkish rule in the Holy Land and sealed the doom of
that military despot who had vowed to destroy `Abdu'l-Bahá, but
also shattered once and for all the last hopes still entertained by the
remnant of Covenant-breakers who, untaught by the severe retribution
that had already overtaken them, still aspired to witness the
extinction of the light of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant. Furthermore, it
produced those revolutionary changes which, on the one hand,
fulfilled the ominous predictions made by Bahá'u'lláh in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
and enabled, according to Scriptural prophecy, so large an
element of the "outcasts of Israel," the "remnant" of the "flock," to
"assemble" in the Holy Land, and to be brought back to "their folds"
and "their own border," beneath the shadow of the "Incomparable
Branch," referred to by `Abdu'l-Bahá in His "Some Answered
Questions," and which, on the other hand, gave birth to the institution
of the League of Nations, the precursor of that World Tribunal
which, as prophesied by that same "Incomparable Branch," the
peoples and nations of the earth must needs unitedly establish.
No need to dwell on the energetic steps which the English
believers as soon as they had been apprized of the dire peril threatening
the life of `Abdu'l-Bahá undertook to insure His security; on the
measures independently taken whereby Lord Curzon and others in
the British Cabinet were advised as to the critical situation at Haifa;
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on the prompt intervention of Lord Lamington, who immediately
wrote to the Foreign Office to "explain the importance of `Abdu'l-Bahá's
position;" on the despatch which the Foreign Secretary, Lord
Balfour, on the day of the receipt of this letter, sent to General
Allenby, instructing him to "extend every protection and consideration
to `Abdu'l-Bahá, His family and His friends;" on the cablegram
subsequently sent by the General, after the capture of Haifa, to
London, requesting the authorities to "notify the world that `Abdu'l-Bahá
is safe;" on the orders which that same General issued to the
General Commanding Officer in command of the Haifa operations to
insure `Abdu'l-Bahá's safety, thus frustrating the express intention of
the Turkish Commander-in-Chief (according to information which
had reached the British Intelligence Service) to "crucify `Abdu'l-Bahá
and His family on Mt. Carmel" in the event of the Turkish
army being compelled to evacuate Haifa and retreat northwards.
The three years which elapsed between the liberation of Palestine
by the British forces and the passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá were marked by
a further enhancement of the prestige which the Faith, despite the
persecutions to which it had been subjected, had acquired at its world
center, and by a still greater extension in the range of its teaching
activities in various parts of the world. The danger which, for no
less than three score years and five, had threatened the lives of the
Founders of the Faith and of the Center of His Covenant, was
now at long last through the instrumentality of that war completely
and definitely lifted. The Head of the Faith, and its twin holy
Shrines, in the plain of `Akká and on the slopes of Mt. Carmel, were
henceforth to enjoy for the first time, through the substitution of a
new and liberal régime for the corrupt administration of the past, a
freedom from restrictions which was later expanded into a clearer
recognition of the institutions of the Cause. Nor were the British
authorities slow to express their appreciation of the rôle which
`Abdu'l-Bahá had played in allaying the burden of suffering that had
oppressed the inhabitants of the Holy Land during the dark days of
that distressing conflict. The conferment of a knighthood upon Him
at a ceremony specially held for His sake in Haifa, at the residence
of the British Governor, at which notables of various communities
had assembled; the visit paid Him by General and Lady Allenby,
who were His guests at luncheon in Bahjí, and whom He conducted
to the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh; the interview at His Haifa residence
between Him and King Feisal who shortly after became the ruler of
`Iráq; the several calls paid Him by Sir Herbert Samuel (later
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Viscount Samuel of Carmel) both before and after his appointment
as High Commissioner for Palestine; His meeting with Lord Lamington
who, likewise, called upon Him in Haifa, as well as with the then
Governor of Jerusalem, Sir Ronald Storrs; the multiplying evidences
of the recognition of His high and unique position by all religious
communities, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish; the influx of
pilgrims who, from East and West, flocked to the Holy Land in
comparative ease and safety to visit the Holy Tombs in `Akká
and Haifa, to pay their share of homage to Him, to celebrate the
signal protection vouchsafed by Providence to the Faith and its
followers, and to give thanks for the final emancipation of its Head
and world Center from Turkish yoke--these contributed, each in its
own way, to heighten the prestige which the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh had
been steadily and gradually acquiring through the inspired leadership
of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
As the ministry of `Abdu'l-Bahá drew to a close signs multiplied
of the resistless and manifold unfoldment of the Faith both in the
East and in the West, both in the shaping and consolidation of its
institutions and in the widening range of its activities and its
influence. In the city of Ishqábád the construction of the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, which He Himself had initiated, was successfully
consummated. In Wilmette the excavations for the Mother Temple of the
West were carried out and the contract placed for the construction
of the basement of the building. In Baghdád the initial steps were
taken, according to His special instructions, to reinforce the foundations
and restore the Most Great House associated with the memory
of His Father. In the Holy Land an extensive property east of the
Báb's Sepulcher was purchased through the initiative of the Holy
Mother with the support of contributions from Bahá'ís in both the
East and the West to serve as a site for the future erection of the first
Bahá'í school at the world Administrative Center of the Faith. The
site for a Western Pilgrim House was acquired in the neighborhood
of `Abdu'l-Bahá's residence, and the building was erected soon after
His passing by American believers. The Oriental Pilgrim House,
erected on Mt. Carmel by a believer from Ishqábád, soon after the
entombment of the Báb's remains, for the convenience of visiting
pilgrims, was granted tax exemption by the civil authorities (the
first time such a privilege had been conceded since the establishment
of the Faith in the Holy Land). The famous scientist and entomologist,
Dr. Auguste Forel, was converted to the Faith through the
influence of a Tablet sent him by `Abdu'l-Bahá--one of the most
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weighty the Master ever wrote. Another Tablet of far-reaching
importance was His reply to a communication addressed to Him by
the Executive Committee of the "Central Organization for a Durable
Peace," which He dispatched to them at The Hague by the hands of
a special delegation. A new continent was opened to the Cause when,
in response to the Tablets of the Divine Plan unveiled at the first
Convention after the war, the great-hearted and heroic Hyde Dunn,
at the advanced age of sixty-two, promptly forsook his home in
California, and, seconded and accompanied by his wife, settled as a
pioneer in Australia, where he was able to carry the Message to no
less than seven hundred towns throughout that Commonwealth. A
new episode began when, in quick response to those same Tablets and
their summons, that star-servant of Bahá'u'lláh, the indomitable
and immortal Martha Root, designated by her Master "herald of the
Kingdom" and "harbinger of the Covenant," embarked on the first
of her historic journeys which were to extend over a period of twenty
years, and to carry her several times around the globe, and which
ended only with her death far from home and in the active service
of the Cause she loved so greatly. These events mark the closing stage
of a ministry which sealed the triumph of the Heroic Age of the
Bahá'í Dispensation, and which will go down in history as one of the
most glorious and fruitful periods of the first Bahá'í century.
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CHAPTER XXI
The Passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá
`Abdu'l-Bahá's great work was now ended. The historic Mission
with which His Father had, twenty-nine years previously, invested
Him had been gloriously consummated. A memorable chapter in the
history of the first Bahá'í century had been written. The Heroic Age
of the Bahá'í Dispensation, in which He had participated since its
inception, and played so unique a rôle, had drawn to a close. He had
suffered as no disciple of the Faith, who had drained the cup of
martyrdom, had suffered, He had labored as none of its greatest
heroes had labored. He had witnessed triumphs such as neither the
Herald of the Faith nor its Author had ever witnessed.
At the close of His strenuous Western tours, which had called
forth the last ounce of His ebbing strength, He had written: "Friends,
the time is coming when I shall be no longer with you. I have done
all that could be done. I have served the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh to the
utmost of My ability. I have labored night and day all the years of
My life. O how I long to see the believers shouldering the responsibilities
of the Cause!... My days are numbered, and save this
there remains none other joy for me." Several years before He had thus
alluded to His passing: "O ye My faithful loved ones! Should at any
time afflicting events come to pass in the Holy Land, never feel disturbed
or agitated. Fear not, neither grieve. For whatsoever thing happeneth
will cause the Word of God to be exalted, and His Divine fragrances
to be diffused." And again: "Remember, whether or not I be on earth,
My presence will be with you always." "Regard not the person of
`Abdu'l-Bahá," He thus counselled His friends in one of His last
Tablets, "for He will eventually take His leave of you all; nay, fix
your gaze upon the Word of God... The loved ones of God must
arise with such steadfastness that should, in one moment, hundreds
of souls even as `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself be made a target for the darts
of woe, nothing whatsoever shall affect or lessen their ... service to
the Cause of God."
In a Tablet addressed to the American believers, a few days before
He passed away, He thus vented His pent-up longing to depart from
this world: "I have renounced the world and the people thereof...
In the cage of this world I flutter even as a frightened bird, and
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yearn every day to take My flight unto Thy Kingdom. Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá!
Make Me drink of the cup of sacrifice, and set Me free."
He revealed a prayer less than six months before His ascension in
honor of a kinsman of the Báb, and in it wrote: "`O Lord! My bones
are weakened, and the hoar hairs glisten on My head ... and I have
now reached old age, failing in My powers.'... No strength is there
left in Me wherewith to arise and serve Thy loved ones... O Lord,
My Lord! Hasten My ascension unto Thy sublime Threshold ...
and My arrival at the Door of Thy grace beneath the shadow of Thy
most great mercy..."
Through the dreams He dreamed, through the conversations He
held, through the Tablets He revealed, it became increasingly evident
that His end was fast approaching. Two months before His passing
He told His family of a dream He had had. "I seemed," He said,
"to be standing within a great mosque, in the inmost shrine, facing
the Qiblih, in the place of the Imám himself. I became aware that a
large number of people were flocking into the mosque. More and
yet more crowded in, taking their places in rows behind Me, until
there was a vast multitude. As I stood I raised loudly the call to
prayer. Suddenly the thought came to Me to go forth from the
mosque. When I found Myself outside I said within Myself: `For
what reason came I forth, not having led the prayer? But it matters
not; now that I have uttered the Call to prayer, the vast multitude will
of themselves chant the prayer.'" A few weeks later, whilst occupying
a solitary room in the garden of His house, He recounted another
dream to those around Him. "I dreamed a dream," He said, "and
behold, the Blessed Beauty (Bahá'u'lláh) came and said to Me:
`Destroy this room.'" None of those present comprehended the significance
of this dream until He Himself had soon after passed away,
when it became clear to them all that by the "room" was meant the
temple of His body.
A month before His death (which occurred in the 78th year of
His age, in the early hours of the 28th of November, 1921) He had
referred expressly to it in some words of cheer and comfort that He
addressed to a believer who was mourning the loss of his brother.
And about two weeks before His passing He had spoken to His
faithful gardener in a manner that clearly indicated He knew His
end to be nigh. "I am so fatigued," He observed to him, "the hour is
come when I must leave everything and take My flight. I am too
weary to walk." He added: "It was during the closing days of the
Blessed Beauty, when I was engaged in gathering together His papers
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which were strewn over the sofa in His writing chamber in Bahjí,
that He turned to Me and said: `It is of no use to gather them, I
must leave them and flee away.' I also have finished My work. I can
do nothing more. Therefore must I leave it, and take My departure."
Till the very last day of His earthly life `Abdu'l-Bahá continued
to shower that same love upon high and low alike, to extend that same
assistance to the poor and the down-trodden, and to carry out those
same duties in the service of His Father's Faith, as had been His wont
from the days of His boyhood. On the Friday before His passing,
despite great fatigue, He attended the noonday prayer at the mosque,
and distributed afterwards alms, as was His custom, among the poor;
dictated some Tablets--the last ones He revealed--; blessed the marriage
of a trusted servant, which He had insisted should take place
that day; attended the usual meeting of the friends in His home; felt
feverish the next day, and being unable to leave the house on the
following Sunday, sent all the believers to the Tomb of the Báb to
attend a feast which a Pársí pilgrim was offering on the occasion of
the anniversary of the Declaration of the Covenant; received with
His unfailing courtesy and kindness that same afternoon, and despite
growing weariness, the Muftí of Haifa, the Mayor and the Head of
the Police; and inquired that night--the last of His life--before He
retired after the health of every member of His household, of the
pilgrims and of the friends in Haifa.
At 1:15 A.M. He arose, and, walking to a table in His room,
drank some water, and returned to bed. Later on, He asked one of
His two daughters who had remained awake to care for Him, to
lift up the net curtains, complaining that He had difficulty in
breathing. Some rose-water was brought to Him, of which He drank,
after which He again lay down, and when offered food, distinctly
remarked: "You wish Me to take some food, and I am going?" A
minute later His spirit had winged its flight to its eternal abode, to
be gathered, at long last, to the glory of His beloved Father, and
taste the joy of everlasting reunion with Him.
The news of His passing, so sudden, so unexpected, spread like
wildfire throughout the town, and was flashed instantly over the
wires to distant parts of the globe, stunning with grief the community
of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in East and West. Messages from far
and near, from high and low alike, through cablegrams and letters,
poured in conveying to the members of a sorrow-stricken and disconsolate
family expressions of praise, of devotion, of anguish and of
sympathy.
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The British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. Winston
Churchill, telegraphed immediately to the High Commissioner for
Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel, instructing him to "convey to the
Bahá'í Community, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, their
sympathy and condolence." Viscount Allenby, the High Commissioner
for Egypt, wired the High Commissioner for Palestine asking
him to "convey to the relatives of the late Sir `Abdu'l-Bahá Abbás
Effendi and to the Bahá'í Community" his "sincere sympathy in the
loss of their revered leader." The Council of Ministers in Baghdád
instructed the Prime Minister Siyyid `Abdu'r-Rahmán to extend their
"sympathy to the family of His Holiness `Abdu'l-Bahá in their bereavement."
The Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary
Force, General Congreve, addressed to the High Commissioner
for Palestine a message requesting him to "convey his deepest sympathy
to the family of the late Sir Abbás Bahá'í." General Sir Arthur
Money, former Chief Administrator of Palestine, wrote expressing
his sadness, his profound respect and his admiration for Him as well
as his sympathy in the loss which His family had sustained. One of the
distinguished figures in the academic life of the University of Oxford,
a famous professor and scholar, wrote on behalf of himself and his
wife: "The passing beyond the veil into fuller life must be specially
wonderful and blessed for One Who has always fixed His thoughts
on high, and striven to lead an exalted life here below."
Many and divers newspapers, such as the London "Times," the
"Morning Post," the "Daily Mail," the "New York World," "Le
Temps," the "Times of India" and others, in different languages and
countries, paid their tribute to One Who had rendered the Cause of
human brotherhood and peace such signal and imperishable services.
The High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, sent immediately a
message conveying his desire to attend the funeral in person, in order
as he himself later wrote, to "express my respect for His creed and
my regard for His person." As to the funeral itself, which took place
on Tuesday morning--a funeral the like of which Palestine had never
seen--no less than ten thousand people participated representing every
class, religion and race in that country. "A great throng," bore witness
at a later date, the High Commissioner himself, "had gathered
together, sorrowing for His death, but rejoicing also for His life."
Sir Ronald Storrs, Governor of Jerusalem at the time, also wrote in
describing the funeral: "I have never known a more united expression
of regret and respect than was called forth by the utter simplicity
of the ceremony."
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The coffin containing the remains of `Abdu'l-Bahá was borne to
its last resting-place on the shoulders of His loved ones. The cortège
which preceded it was led by the City Constabulary Force, acting as a
Guard of Honor, behind which followed in order the Boy Scouts of
the Muslim and Christian communities holding aloft their banners, a
company of Muslim choristers chanting their verses from the Qur'án,
the chiefs of the Muslim community headed by the Muftí, and a
number of Christian priests, Latin, Greek and Anglican. Behind the
coffin walked the members of His family, the British High Commissioner,
Sir Herbert Samuel, the Governor of Jerusalem, Sir Ronald
Storrs, the Governor of Phoenicia, Sir Stewart Symes, officials of the
government, consuls of various countries resident in Haifa, notables
of Palestine, Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Druze, Egyptians, Greeks,
Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Europeans and Americans, men, women and
children. The long train of mourners, amid the sobs and moans of
many a grief-stricken heart, wended its slow way up the slopes of
Mt. Carmel to the Mausoleum of the Báb.
Close to the eastern entrance of the Shrine, the sacred casket was
placed upon a plain table, and, in the presence of that vast concourse,
nine speakers, who represented the Muslim, the Jewish and Christian
Faiths, and who included the Muftí of Haifa, delivered their several
funeral orations. These concluded, the High Commissioner drew
close to the casket, and, with bowed head fronting the Shrine, paid
his last homage of farewell to `Abdu'l-Bahá: the other officials of the
Government followed his example. The coffin was then removed to
one of the chambers of the Shrine, and there lowered, sadly and
reverently, to its last resting-place in a vault adjoining that in which
were laid the remains of the Báb.
During the week following His passing, from fifty to a hundred
of the poor of Haifa were daily fed at His house, whilst on the
seventh day corn was distributed in His memory to about a thousand
of them irrespective of creed or race. On the fortieth day an impressive
memorial feast was held in His memory, to which over six
hundred of the people of Haifa, `Akká and the surrounding parts of
Palestine and Syria, including officials and notables of various religions
and races, were invited. More than one hundred of the poor were
also fed on that day.
One of the assembled guests, the Governor of Phoenicia, paid a
last tribute to the memory of `Abdu'l-Bahá in the following words:
"Most of us here have, I think, a clear picture of Sir `Abdu'l-Bahá
Abbás, of His dignified figure walking thoughtfully in our streets,
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of His courteous and gracious manner, of His kindness, of His love
for little children and flowers, of His generosity and care for the poor
and suffering. So gentle was He, and so simple, that in His presence
one almost forgot that He was also a great teacher, and that His
writings and His conversations have been a solace and an inspiration
to hundreds and thousands of people in the East and in the West."
Thus was brought to a close the ministry of One Who was the
incarnation, by virtue of the rank bestowed upon Him by His Father,
of an institution that has no parallel in the entire field of religious
history, a ministry that marks the final stage in the Apostolic, the
Heroic and most glorious Age of the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh.
Through Him the Covenant, that "excellent and priceless Heritage"
bequeathed by the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation, had been
proclaimed, championed and vindicated. Through the power which
that Divine Instrument had conferred upon Him the light of God's
infant Faith had penetrated the West, had diffused itself as far as the
Islands of the Pacific, and illumined the fringes of the Australian continent.
Through His personal intervention the Message, Whose Bearer
had tasted the bitterness of a life-long captivity, had been noised
abroad, and its character and purpose disclosed, for the first time in
its history, before enthusiastic and representative audiences in the
chief cities of Europe and of the North American continent. Through
His unrelaxing vigilance the holy remains of the Báb, brought forth
at long last from their fifty-year concealment, had been safely transported
to the Holy Land and permanently and befittingly enshrined
in the very spot which Bahá'u'lláh Himself had designated for them
and had blessed with His presence. Through His bold initiative the
first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world had been reared in
Central Asia, in Russian Turkistán, whilst through His unfailing
encouragement a similar enterprise, of still vaster proportions, had
been undertaken, and its land dedicated by Himself in the heart of
the North American continent. Through the sustaining grace overshadowing
Him since the inception of His ministry His royal adversary
had been humbled to the dust, the arch-breaker of His Father's
Covenant had been utterly routed, and the danger which, ever since
Bahá'u'lláh had been banished to Turkish soil, had been threatening
the heart of the Faith, definitely removed. In pursuance of His instructions,
and in conformity with the principles enunciated and the
laws ordained by His Father, the rudimentary institutions, heralding
the formal inauguration of the Administrative Order to be founded
after His passing, had taken shape and been established. Through His
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unremitting labors, as reflected in the treatises He composed, the
thousands of Tablets He revealed, the discourses He delivered, the
prayers, poems and commentaries He left to posterity, mostly in
Persian, some in Arabic and a few in Turkish, the laws and principles,
constituting the warp and woof of His Father's Revelation, had been
elucidated, its fundamentals restated and interpreted, its tenets given
detailed application and the validity and indispensability of its verities
fully and publicly demonstrated. Through the warnings He sounded,
an unheeding humanity, steeped in materialism and forgetful of its
God, had been apprized of the perils threatening to disrupt its ordered
life, and made, in consequence of its persistent perversity, to sustain
the initial shocks of that world upheaval which continues, until the
present day, to rock the foundations of human society. And lastly,
through the mandate He had issued to a valiant community, the concerted
achievements of whose members had shed so great a lustre on
the annals of His own ministry, He had set in motion a Plan which,
soon after its formal inauguration, achieved the opening of the
Australian continent, which, in a later period, was to be instrumental
in winning over the heart of a royal convert to His Father's Cause,
and which, today, through the irresistible unfoldment of its potentialities,
is so marvellously quickening the spiritual life of all the
Republics of Latin America as to constitute a befitting conclusion to
the records of an entire century.
Nor should a survey of the outstanding features of so blessed and
fruitful a ministry omit mention of the prophecies which the unerring
pen of the appointed Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant has recorded.
These foreshadow the fierceness of the onslaught that the resistless
march of the Faith must provoke in the West, in India and in the Far
East when it meets the time-honored sacerdotal orders of the Christian,
the Buddhist and Hindu religions. They foreshadow the turmoil
which its emancipation from the fetters of religious orthodoxy will
cast in the American, the European, the Asiatic and African continents.
They foreshadow the gathering of the children of Israel in their
ancient homeland; the erection of the banner of Bahá'u'lláh in the
Egyptian citadel of Sunní Islám; the extinction of the powerful influence
wielded by the Shí'ah ecclesiastics in Persia; the load of misery
which must needs oppress the pitiful remnants of the breakers of
Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant at the world center of His Faith; the splendor
of the institutions which that triumphant Faith must erect on the
slopes of a mountain, destined to be so linked with the city of `Akká
that a single grand metropolis will be formed to enshrine the spiritual
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as well as the administrative seats of the future Bahá'í Commonwealth;
the conspicuous honor which the inhabitants of Bahá'u'lláh's
native land in general, and its government in particular, must enjoy
in a distant future; the unique and enviable position which the community
of the Most Great Name in the North American continent
must occupy, as a direct consequence of the execution of the world
mission which He entrusted to them: finally they foreshadow, as the
sum and summit of all, the "hoisting of the standard of God among all
nations" and the unification of the entire human race, when "all men
will adhere to one religion ... will be blended into one race, and
become a single people."
Nor can the revolutionary changes in the great world which that
ministry has witnessed be allowed to pass unnoticed--most of them
flowing directly from the warnings which were uttered by the Báb, in
the first chapter of His Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', on the very night of the
Declaration of His Mission in Shíráz, and which were later reinforced
by the pregnant passages addressed by Bahá'u'lláh to the kings of
the earth and the world's religious leaders, in both the Súriy-i-Mulúk
and the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. The conversion of the Portuguese
monarchy and the Chinese empire into republics; the collapse of the
Russian, the German and Austrian empires, and the ignominious fate
which befell their rulers; the assassination of Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, the
fall of Sultán `Abdu'l-Hamíd--these may be said to have marked
further stages in the operation of that catastrophic process the inception
of which was signalized in the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh by the
murder of Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz, by the dramatic downfall of Napoleon
III, and the extinction of the Third Empire, and by the self-imposed
imprisonment and virtual termination of the temporal
sovereignty of the Pope himself. Later, after `Abdu'l-Bahá's passing,
the same process was to be accelerated by the demise of the Qájár
dynasty in Persia, by the overthrow of the Spanish monarchy, by the
collapse of both the Sultanate and the Caliphate in Turkey, by a swift
decline in the fortunes of Shí'ah Islám and of the Christian Missions
in the East, and by the cruel fate that is now overtaking so many of
the crowned heads of Europe.
Nor can this subject be dismissed without special reference to the
names of those men of eminence and learning who were moved, at
various stages of `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry, to pay tribute not only to
`Abdu'l-Bahá Himself but also to the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. Such names
as Count Leo Tolstoy, Prof. Arminius Vambery, Prof. Auguste Forel,
Dr. David Starr Jordan, the Venerable Archdeacon Wilberforce, Prof.
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Jowett of Balliol, Dr. T. K. Cheyne, Dr. Estlin Carpenter of Oxford
University, Viscount Samuel of Carmel, Lord Lamington, Sir Valentine
Chirol, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Prince Muhammad-`Alí of Egypt,
Shaykh Muhammad `Abdu, Midhat Páshá, and Khurshíd Páshá attest,
by virtue of the tributes associated with them, the great progress
made by the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh under the brilliant leadership of
His exalted Son--tributes whose impressiveness was, in later years,
to be heightened by the historic, the repeated and written testimonies
which a famous Queen, a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, was
impelled to bequeath to posterity as a witness of her recognition of
the prophetic mission of Bahá'u'lláh.
As for those enemies who have sedulously sought to extinguish
the light of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant, the condign punishment they have
been made to suffer is no less conspicuous than the doom which overtook
those who, in an earlier period, had so basely endeavored to crush
the hopes of a rising Faith and destroy its foundations.
To the assassination of the tyrannical Násiri'd-Dín Sháh and the
subsequent extinction of the Qájár dynasty reference has already
been made. Sultán `Abdu'l-Hamíd, after his deposition, was made a
prisoner of state and condemned to a life of complete obscurity and
humiliation, scorned by his fellow-rulers and vilified by his subjects.
The bloodthirsty Jamál Páshá, who had resolved to crucify `Abdu'l-Bahá
and raze to the ground Bahá'u'lláh's holy Tomb, had to flee for
his life and was slain, while a refugee in the Caucasus, by the hand of
an Armenian whose fellow-compatriots he had so pitilessly persecuted.
The scheming Jamálu'd-Dín Afghání, whose relentless hostility and
powerful influence had been so gravely detrimental to the progress
of the Faith in Near Eastern countries, was, after a checkered career
filled with vicissitudes, stricken with cancer, and having had a major
part of his tongue cut away in an unsuccessful operation perished in
misery. The four members of the ill-fated Commission of Inquiry,
despatched from Constantinople to seal the fate of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
suffered, each in his turn, a humiliation hardly less drastic than that
which they had planned for Him. Árif Bey, the head of the Commission,
seeking stealthily at midnight to flee from the wrath of the
Young Turks, was shot dead by a sentry. Adham Bey succeeded in
escaping to Egypt, but was robbed of his possessions by his servant on
the way, and was in the end compelled to seek financial assistance
from the Bahá'ís of Cairo, a request which was not refused. Later he
sought help from `Abdu'l-Bahá, Who immediately directed the
believers to present him with a sum on His behalf, an instruction
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which they were unable to carry out owing to his sudden disappearance.
Of the other two members, one was exiled to a remote place,
and the other died soon after in abject poverty. The notorious Yahyá
Bey, the Chief of the Police in `Akká, a willing and powerful tool in
the hand of Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí, the arch-breaker of Bahá'u'lláh's
Covenant, witnessed the frustration of all the hopes he had cherished,
lost his position, and had eventually to beg for pecuniary assistance
from `Abdu'l-Bahá. In Constantinople, in the year which witnessed
the downfall of `Abdu'l-Hamíd, no less than thirty-one dignitaries
of the state, including ministers and other high officers of the government,
among whom numbered redoubtable enemies of the Faith,
were, in a single day, arrested and condemned to the gallows, a spectacular
retribution for the part they had played in upholding a
tyrannical régime and in endeavoring to extirpate the Faith and its
institutions.
In Persia, apart from the sovereign who had, in the full tide of
his hopes and the plenitude of his power, been removed from the scene
in so startling a manner, a number of princes, ministers and mujtahids,
who had actively participated in the suppression of a persecuted community,
including Kámrán Mírzá, the Ná'ibu's-Saltanih, the Jalálu'd-Dawlih
and Mírzá `Alí-Asghar Khán, the Atábík-i-A'zam, and
Shaykh Muhammad-Taqíy-i-Najafí, the "Son of the Wolf," lost,
one by one, their prestige and authority, sank into obscurity, abandoned
all hope of achieving their malevolent purpose, and lived, some
of them, long enough to behold the initial evidences of the ascendancy
of a Cause they had so greatly feared and so vehemently hated.
When we note that in the Holy Land, in Persia, and in the United
States of America certain exponents of Christian ecclesiasticism such as
Vatralsky, Wilson, Richardson or Easton, observing, and in some
cases fearing, the vigorous advances made by the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh
in Christian lands, arose to stem its progress; and when we watch the
recent and steady deterioration of their influence, the decline of their
power, the confusion in their ranks and the dissolution of some
of their old standing missions and institutions, in Europe, in the
Middle East and in Eastern Asia--may we not attribute this weakening
to the opposition which members of various Christian sacerdotal
orders began, in the course of `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry, to evince
towards the followers and institutions of a Faith which claims to
be no less than the fulfilment of the Promise given by Jesus Christ,
and the establisher of the Kingdom He Himself had prayed for
and foretold?
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And finally, he who, from the moment the Divine Covenant was
born until the end of his life, showed a hatred more unrelenting than
that which animated the afore-mentioned adversaries of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
who plotted more energetically than any one of them against Him,
and afflicted his Father's Faith with a shame more grievous than any
which its external enemies had inflicted upon it--such a man, together
with the infamous crew of Covenant-breakers whom he had misled
and instigated, was condemned to witness, in a growing measure, as
had been the case with Mírzá Yahyá and his henchmen, the frustration
of his evil designs, the evaporation of all his hopes, the exposition
of his true motives and the complete extinction of his erstwhile honor
and glory. His brother, Mírzá Díya'u'lláh, died prematurely;
Mírzá Áqá Ján, his dupe, followed that same brother, three years
later, to the grave; and Mírzá Badí'u'lláh, his chief accomplice, betrayed
his cause, published a signed denunciation of his evil acts, but
rejoined him again, only to be alienated from him in consequence of
the scandalous behavior of his own daughter. Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí's
half-sister, Furúghíyyih, died of cancer, whilst her husband, Siyyid
`Alí, passed away from a heart attack before his sons could reach him,
the eldest being subsequently stricken in the prime of life, by the same
malady. Muhammad-Javád-i-Qazvíní, a notorious Covenant-breaker,
perished miserably. Shu'á'u'lláh who, as witnessed by `Abdu'l-Bahá
in His Will, had counted on the murder of the Center of the Covenant,
and who had been despatched to the United States by his
father to join forces with Ibráhím Khayru'lláh, returned crestfallen
and empty-handed from his inglorious mission. Jamál-i-Burújirdí,
Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí's ablest lieutenant in Persia, fell a prey to a
fatal and loathsome disease; Siyyid Mihdíy-i-Dahají, who, betraying
`Abdu'l-Bahá, joined the Covenant-breakers, died in obscurity and
poverty, followed by his wife and his two sons; Mírzá Husayn-`Alíy-i-Jahrúmí,
Mírzá Husayn-i-Shírázíy-i- and Hájí Muhammad-Husayn-i-Káshání,
who represented the arch-breaker of the
Covenant in Persia, India and Egypt, failed utterly in their missions;
whilst the greedy and conceited Ibráhím-i-Khayru'lláh, who had
chosen to uphold the banner of his rebellion in America for no less
than twenty years, and who had the temerity to denounce, in writing,
`Abdu'l-Bahá, His "false teachings, His misrepresentations of Bahaism,
His dissimulation," and to stigmatize His visit to America as "a death-blow"
to the "Cause of God," met his death soon after he had uttered
these denunciations, utterly abandoned and despised by the entire
body of the members of a community, whose founders he himself
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had converted to the Faith, and in the very land that bore witness to
the multiplying evidences of the established ascendancy of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
Whose authority he had, in his later years, vowed to uproot.
As to those who had openly espoused the cause of this arch-breaker
of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant, or who had secretly sympathized with him,
whilst outwardly supporting `Abdu'l-Bahá, some eventually repented
and were forgiven; others became disillusioned and lost their faith
entirely; a few apostatized, whilst the rest dwindled away, leaving him
in the end, except for a handful of his relatives, alone and unsupported.
Surviving `Abdu'l-Bahá by almost twenty years, he who had
so audaciously affirmed to His face that he had no assurance he might
outlive Him, lived long enough to witness the utter bankruptcy of
his cause, leading meanwhile a wretched existence within the walls
of a Mansion that had once housed a crowd of his supporters; was
denied by the civil authorities, as a result of the crisis he had after
`Abdu'l-Bahá's passing foolishly precipitated, the official custody of
his Father's Tomb; was compelled, a few years later, to vacate that
same Mansion, which, through his flagrant neglect, had fallen into a
dilapidated condition; was stricken with paralysis which crippled half
his body; lay bedridden in pain for months before he died; and was
buried according to Muslim rites, in the immediate vicinity of a local
Muslim shrine, his grave remaining until the present day devoid of
even a tombstone--a pitiful reminder of the hollowness of the claims
he had advanced, of the depths of infamy to which he had sunk, and
of the severity of the retribution his acts had so richly merited.
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FOURTH PERIOD
THE INCEPTION OF THE FORMATIVE AGE OF THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH
1921-1944
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+P323
CHAPTER XXII
The Rise and Establishment of the Administrative Order
With the passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá the first century of the Bahá'í
era, whose inception had synchronized with His birth, had run more
than three quarters of its course. Seventy-seven years previously the
light of the Faith proclaimed by the Báb had risen above the horizon
of Shíráz and flashed across the firmament of Persia, dispelling the age-long
gloom which had enveloped its people. A blood bath of unusual
ferocity, in which government, clergy and people, heedless of the significance
of that light and blind to its splendor, had jointly participated,
had all but extinguished the radiance of its glory in the land of
its birth. Bahá'u'lláh had at the darkest hour in the fortunes of that
Faith been summoned, while Himself a prisoner in Tihrán, to reinvigorate
its life, and been commissioned to fulfil its ultimate purpose.
In Baghdád, upon the termination of the ten-year delay interposed
between the first intimation of that Mission and its Declaration, He
had revealed the Mystery enshrined in the Báb's embryonic Faith, and
disclosed the fruit which it had yielded. In Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh's
Message, the promise of the Bábí as well as of all previous Dispensations,
had been proclaimed to mankind, and its challenge voiced to
the rulers of the earth in both the East and the West. Behind the walls
of the prison-fortress of `Akká the Bearer of God's newborn Revelation
had ordained the laws and formulated the principles that were to
constitute the warp and woof of His World Order. He had, moreover,
prior to His ascension, instituted the Covenant that was to guide and
assist in the laying of its foundations and to safeguard the unity of
its builders. Armed with that peerless and potent Instrument, `Abdu'l-Bahá,
His eldest Son and Center of His Covenant, had erected the
standard of His Father's Faith in the North American continent, and
established an impregnable basis for its institutions in Western Europe,
in the Far East and in Australia. He had, in His works, Tablets and
addresses, elucidated its principles, interpreted its laws, amplified its
doctrine, and erected the rudimentary institutions of its future Administrative
Order. In Russia He had raised its first House of Worship,
whilst on the slopes of Mt. Carmel He had reared a befitting mausoleum
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for its Herald, and deposited His remains therein with His Own hands.
Through His visits to several cities in Europe and the North American
continent He had broadcast Bahá'u'lláh's Message to the peoples
of the West, and heightened the prestige of the Cause of God to a
degree it had never previously experienced. And lastly, in the evening
of His life, He had through the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine
Plan issued His mandate to the community which He Himself had
raised up, trained and nurtured, a Plan that must in the years to come
enable its members to diffuse the light, and erect the administrative
fabric, of the Faith throughout the five continents of the globe.
The moment had now arrived for that undying, that world-vitalizing
Spirit that was born in Shíráz, that had been rekindled in
Tihrán, that had been fanned into flame in Baghdád and Adrianople,
that had been carried to the West, and was now illuminating the
fringes of five continents, to incarnate itself in institutions designed to
canalize its outspreading energies and stimulate its growth. The Age
that had witnessed the birth and rise of the Faith had now closed. The
Heroic, the Apostolic Age of the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh, that
primitive period in which its Founders had lived, in which its life had
been generated, in which its greatest heroes had struggled and quaffed
the cup of martyrdom, and its pristine foundations been established--
a period whose splendors no victories in this or any future age, however
brilliant, can rival--had now terminated with the passing of One
Whose mission may be regarded as the link binding the Age in which
the seed of the newborn Message had been incubating and those which
are destined to witness its efflorescence and ultimate fruition.
The Formative Period, the Iron Age, of that Dispensation was now
beginning, the Age in which the institutions, local, national and
international, of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh were to take shape, develop
and become fully consolidated, in anticipation of the third, the last,
the Golden Age destined to witness the emergence of a world-embracing
Order enshrining the ultimate fruit of God's latest Revelation to
mankind, a fruit whose maturity must signalize the establishment of a
world civilization and the formal inauguration of the Kingdom of the
Father upon earth as promised by Jesus Christ Himself.
To this World Order the Báb Himself had, whilst a prisoner in the
mountain fastnesses of Ádhirbayján, explicitly referred in His Persian
Bayán, the Mother-Book of the Bábí Dispensation, had announced its
advent, and associated it with the name of Bahá'u'lláh, Whose Mission
He Himself had heralded. "Well is it with Him," is His remarkable
statement in the sixteenth chapter of the third Vahíd, "who fixeth his
+P325
gaze upon the Order of Bahá'u'lláh, and rendereth thanks unto his
Lord! For He will assuredly be made manifest..." To this same
Order Bahá'u'lláh Who, in a later period, revealed the laws and principles
that must govern the operation of that Order, had thus referred
in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Mother-Book of His Dispensation: "The
world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of
this Most Great Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized
through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System, the
like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed." Its features `Abdu'l-Bahá,
its great Architect, delineated in His Will and Testament, whilst
the foundations of its rudimentary institutions are now being laid after
Him by His followers in the East and in the West in this, the Formative
Age of the Bahá'í Dispensation.
The last twenty-three years of the first Bahá'í century may thus
be regarded as the initial stage of the Formative Period of the Faith, an
Age of Transition to be identified with the rise and establishment of
the Administrative Order, upon which the institutions of the future
Bahá'í World Commonwealth must needs be ultimately erected in the
Golden Age that must witness the consummation of the Bahá'í Dispensation.
The Charter which called into being, outlined the features
and set in motion the processes of, this Administrative Order is none
other than the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá, His greatest
legacy to posterity, the brightest emanation of His mind and the mightiest
instrument forged to insure the continuity of the three ages which
constitute the component parts of His Father's Dispensation.
The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh had been instituted solely through the
direct operation of His 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 generated
the forces of a God-given Faith and the One 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 the 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
+P326
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 of 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 whom 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
+P327
combine to set apart the Order identified with the Revelation of
Bahá'u'lláh from any of the existing systems of human government.
Nor have the enemies who, at the hour of the inception of this
Administrative Order, and in the course of its twenty-three year
existence, both in the East and in the West, from within and from
without, misrepresented its character, or derided and vilified it, or
striven to arrest its march, or contrived to create a breach in the ranks
of its supporters, succeeded in achieving their malevolent purpose.
The strenuous exertions of an ambitious Armenian, who, in the course
of the first years of its establishment in Egypt, endeavored to supplant
it by the "Scientific Society" which in his short-sightedness he had conceived
and was sponsoring, failed utterly in its purpose. The agitation
provoked by a deluded woman who strove diligently both in the
United States and in England to demonstrate the unauthenticity of
the Charter responsible for its creation, and even to induce the civil
authorities of Palestine to take legal action in the matter--a request
which to her great chagrin was curtly refused--as well as the defection
of one of the earliest pioneers and founders of the Faith in Germany,
whom that same woman had so tragically misled, produced no effect
whatsoever. The volumes which a shameless apostate composed and
disseminated, during that same period in Persia, in his brazen efforts
not only to disrupt that Order but to undermine the very Faith which
had conceived it, proved similarly abortive. The schemes devised by
the remnants of the Covenant-breakers, who immediately the aims
and purposes of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Will became known arose, headed by
Mírzá Badí'u'lláh, to wrest the custodianship of the holiest shrine in
the Bahá'í world from its appointed Guardian, likewise came to naught
and brought further discredit upon them. The subsequent attacks
launched by certain exponents of Christian orthodoxy, in both
Christian and non-Christian lands, with the object of subverting the
foundations, and distorting the features, of this same Order were
powerless to sap the loyalty of its upholders or to deflect them from
their high purpose. Not even the infamous and insidious machinations
of a former secretary of `Abdu'l-Bahá, who, untaught by the
retribution that befell Bahá'u'lláh's amanuensis, as well as by the fate
that overtook several other secretaries and interpreters of His Master,
in both the East and the West, has arisen, and is still exerting himself,
to pervert the purpose and nullify the essential provisions of the immortal
Document from which that Order derives its authority, have
been able to stay even momentarily the march of its institutions along
the course set for it by its Author, or to create anything that might,
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however remotely, resemble a breach in the ranks of its assured, its
wide-awake and stalwart supporters.
The Document establishing that Order, the Charter of a future
world civilization, which may be regarded in some of its features as
supplementary to no less weighty a Book than the Kitáb-i-Aqdas;
signed and sealed by `Abdu'l-Bahá; entirely written with His own
hand; its first section composed during one of the darkest periods of
His incarceration in the prison-fortress of `Akká, proclaims, categorically
and unequivocally, the fundamental beliefs of the followers
of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh; reveals, in unmistakable language, the twofold
character of the Mission of the Báb; discloses the full station of the
Author of the Bahá'í Revelation; asserts that "all others are servants
unto Him and do His bidding"; stresses the importance of the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas; establishes the institution of the Guardianship as a
hereditary office and outlines its essential functions; provides the
measures for the election of the International House of Justice, defines
its scope and sets forth its relationship to that Institution; prescribes
the obligations, and emphasizes the responsibilities, of the Hands of the
Cause of God; and extolls the virtues of the indestructible Covenant
established by Bahá'u'lláh. That Document, furthermore, lauds the
courage and constancy of the supporters of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant;
expatiates on the sufferings endured by its appointed Center; recalls
the infamous conduct of Mírzá Yahyá and his failure to heed the
warnings of the Báb; exposes, in a series of indictments, the perfidy
and rebellion of Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí, and the complicity of his
son Shu'á'u'lláh and of his brother Mírzá Badí'u'lláh; reaffirms their
excommunication, and predicts the frustration of all their hopes;
summons the Afnán (the Báb's kindred), the Hands of the Cause
and the entire company of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh to arise
unitedly to propagate His Faith, to disperse far and wide, to labor
tirelessly and to follow the heroic example of the Apostles of Jesus
Christ; warns them against the dangers of association with the
Covenant-breakers, and bids them shield the Cause from the assaults
of the insincere and the hypocrite; and counsels them to demonstrate
by their conduct the universality of the Faith they have espoused, and
vindicate its high principles. In that same Document its Author
reveals the significance and purpose of the Huqúqu'lláh (Right of
God), already instituted in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas; enjoins submission and
fidelity towards all monarchs who are just; expresses His longing for
martyrdom, and voices His prayers for the repentance as well as the
forgiveness of His enemies.
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Obedient to the summons issued by the Author of so momentous
a Document; conscious of their high calling; galvanized into action by
the shock sustained through the unexpected and sudden removal of
`Abdu'l-Bahá; guided by the Plan which He, the Architect of the
Administrative Order, had entrusted to their hands; undeterred by the
attacks directed against it by betrayers and enemies, jealous of its
gathering strength and blind to its unique significance, the members
of the widely-scattered Bahá'í communities, in both the East and the
West, arose with clear vision and inflexible determination to inaugurate
the Formative Period of their Faith by laying the foundations
of that world-embracing Administrative system designed to evolve
into a World Order which posterity must acclaim as the promise and
crowning glory of all the Dispensations of the past. Not content with
the erection and consolidation of the administrative machinery provided
for the preservation of the unity and the efficient conduct of the
affairs of a steadily expanding community, the followers of the Faith
of Bahá'u'lláh resolved, in the course of the two decades following
`Abdu'l-Bahá's passing, to assert and demonstrate by their acts the
independent character of that Faith, to enlarge still further its limits
and swell the number of its avowed supporters.
In this triple world-wide effort, it should be noted, the rôle played
by the American Bahá'í community, since the passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá
until the termination of the first Bahá'í century, has been
such as to lend a tremendous impetus to the development of the Faith
throughout the world, to vindicate the confidence placed in its members
by `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself, and to justify the high praise He
bestowed upon them and the fond hopes He entertained for their
future. Indeed so preponderating has been the influence of its members
in both the initiation and the consolidation of Bahá'í administrative
institutions that their country may well deserve to be recognized
as the cradle of the Administrative Order which Bahá'u'lláh
Himself had envisaged and which the Will of the Center of His
Covenant had called into being.
It should be borne in mind in this connection that the preliminary
steps aiming at the disclosure of the scope and working of this Administrative
Order, which was now to be formally established after
`Abdu'l-Bahá's passing, had already been taken by Him, and even by
Bahá'u'lláh in the years preceding His ascension. The appointment by
Him of certain outstanding believers in Persia as "Hands of the Cause";
the initiation of local Assemblies and boards of consultation by
`Abdu'l-Bahá in leading Bahá'í centers in both the East and the West;
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the formation of the Bahá'í Temple Unity in the United States of
America; the establishment of local funds for the promotion of Bahá'í
activities; the purchase of property dedicated to the Faith and its
future institutions; the founding of publishing societies for the dissemination
of Bahá'í literature; the erection of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár
of the Bahá'í world; the construction of the Báb's mausoleum
on Mt. Carmel; the institution of hostels for the accommodation of
itinerant teachers and pilgrims--these may be regarded as the precursors
of the institutions which, immediately after the closing of the
Heroic Age of the Faith, were to be permanently and systematically
established throughout the Bahá'í world.
No sooner had the provisions of that Divine Charter, delineating
the features of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh
been disclosed to His followers than they set about erecting, upon the
foundations which the lives of the heroes, the saints and martyrs of
that Faith had laid, the first stage of the framework of its administrative
institutions. Conscious of the necessity of constructing, as a
first step, a broad and solid base upon which the pillars of that mighty
structure could subsequently be raised; fully aware that upon these
pillars, when firmly established, the dome, the final unit crowning the
entire edifice, must eventually rest; undeflected in their course by the
crisis which the Covenant-breakers had precipitated in the Holy Land,
or the agitation which the stirrers of mischief had provoked in Egypt,
or the disturbances resulting from the seizure by the Shí'ah community
of the House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád, or the growing dangers
confronting the Faith in Russia, or the scorn and ridicule which
had greeted the initial activities of the American Bahá'í community
from certain quarters that had completely misapprehended their purpose,
the pioneer builders of a divinely-conceived Order undertook, in
complete unison, and despite the great diversity in their outlook, customs
and languages, the double task of establishing and of consolidating
their local councils, elected by the rank and file of the believers,
and designed to direct, coordinate and extend the activities of the followers
of a far-flung Faith. In Persia, in the United States of America,
in the Dominion of Canada, in the British Isles, in France, in Germany,
in Austria, in India, in Burma, in Egypt, in `Iráq, in Russian Turkistán,
in the Caucasus, in Australia, in New Zealand, in South Africa, in
Turkey, in Syria, in Palestine, in Bulgaria, in Mexico, in the Philippine
Islands, in Jamaica, in Costa Rica, in Guatemala, in Honduras, in San
Salvador, in Argentina, in Uruguay, in Chile, in Brazil, in Ecuador, in
Colombia, in Paraguay, in Peru, in Alaska, in Cuba, in Haiti, in
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Japan, in the Hawaiian Islands, in Tunisia, in Puerto Rico, in
Balúchistán, in Russia, in Transjordan, in Lebanon, and in
Abyssinia such councils, constituting the basis of the rising
Order of a long-persecuted Faith, were gradually established. Designated
as "Spiritual Assemblies"--an appellation that must in the
course of time be replaced by their permanent and more descriptive title
of "Houses of Justice," bestowed upon them by the Author of the Bahá'í
Revelation; instituted, without any exception, in every city, town and
village where nine or more adult believers are resident; annually and
directly elected, on the first day of the greatest Bahá'í Festival by all
adult believers, men and women alike; invested with an authority
rendering them unanswerable for their acts and decisions to those
who elect them; solemnly pledged to follow, under all conditions, the
dictates of the "Most Great Justice" that can alone usher in the reign
of the "Most Great Peace" which Bahá'u'lláh has proclaimed and must
ultimately establish; charged with the responsibility of promoting at all
times the best interests of the communities within their jurisdiction, of
familiarizing them with their plans and activities and of inviting them
to offer any recommendations they might wish to make; cognizant of
their no less vital task of demonstrating, through association with all
liberal and humanitarian movements, the universality and comprehensiveness
of their Faith; dissociated entirely from all sectarian organizations,
whether religious or secular; assisted by committees annually
appointed by, and directly responsible to, them, to each of which a
particular branch of Bahá'í activity is assigned for study and action;
supported by local funds to which all believers voluntarily contribute;
these Assemblies, the representatives and custodians of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh, numbering, at the present time, several hundred, and
whose membership is drawn from the diversified races, creeds and
classes constituting the world-wide Bahá'í community, have, in the
course of the last two decades, abundantly demonstrated, by virtue
of their achievements, their right to be regarded as the chief sinews of
Bahá'í society, as well as the ultimate foundation of its administrative
structure.
"The Lord hath ordained," is Bahá'u'lláh's injunction in His
Kitáb-i-Aqdas, "that in every city a House of Justice be established,
wherein shall gather counsellors to the number of Bahá (9), and
should it exceed this number, it doth not matter. It behoveth them
to be the trusted ones of the Merciful among men, and to regard themselves
as the guardians appointed of God for all that dwell on earth. It
is incumbent upon them to take counsel together, and to have regard
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for the interests of the servants of God, for His sake, even as they
regard their own interests, and to choose that which is meet and
seemly." "These Spiritual Assemblies," is `Abdu'l-Bahá's testimony, in
a Tablet addressed to an American believer, "are aided by the Spirit of
God. Their defender is `Abdu'l-Bahá. Over them He spreadeth His
Wings. What bounty is there greater than this?" "These Spiritual
Assemblies," He, in that same Tablet has declared, "are shining lamps
and heavenly gardens, from which the fragrances of holiness are diffused
over all regions, and the lights of knowledge are shed abroad
over all created things. From them the spirit of life streameth in every
direction. They, indeed, are the potent sources of the progress of man,
at all times and under all conditions." Establishing beyond any doubt
their God-given authority, He has written: "It is incumbent upon
every one not to take any step without consulting the Spiritual Assembly,
and all must assuredly obey with heart and soul its bidding, and
be submissive unto it, that things may be properly ordered and well
arranged." "If after discussion," He, furthermore has written, "a decision
be carried unanimously, well and good; but if, the Lord forbid,
differences of opinion should arise, a majority of voices must prevail."
Having established the structure of their local Assemblies--the base
of the edifice which the Architect of the Administrative Order of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh had directed them to erect--His disciples, in both
the East and the West, unhesitatingly embarked on the next and more
difficult stage, of their high enterprise. In countries where the local
Bahá'í communities had sufficiently advanced in number and in
influence measures were taken for the initiation of National Assemblies,
the pivots round which all national undertakings must revolve.
Designated by `Abdu'l-Bahá in His Will as the "Secondary Houses of
Justice," they constitute the electoral bodies in the formation of the
International House of Justice, and are empowered to direct, unify,
coordinate and stimulate the activities of individuals as well as local
Assemblies within their jurisdiction. Resting on the broad base of
organized local communities, themselves pillars sustaining the institution
which must be regarded as the apex of the Bahá'í Administrative
Order, these Assemblies are elected, according to the principle of proportional
representation, by delegates representative of Bahá'í local
communities assembled at Convention during the period of the Ridván
Festival; are possessed of the necessary authority to enable them to
insure the harmonious and efficient development of Bahá'í activity
within their respective spheres; are freed from all direct responsibility
for their policies and decisions to their electorates; are charged with the
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sacred duty of consulting the views, of inviting the recommendations
and of securing the confidence and cooperation of the delegates and of
acquainting them with their plans, problems and actions; and are supported
by the resources of national funds to which all ranks of the
faithful are urged to contribute. Instituted in the United States of
America (1925) (the National Assembly superseding in that country
the institution of Bahá'í Temple Unity formed during `Abdu'l-Bahá's
ministry), in the British Isles (1923), in Germany (1923), in Egypt
(1924), in `Iráq (1931), in India (1923), in Persia (1934) and in
Australia (1934); their election renewed annually by delegates whose
number has been fixed, according to national requirements, at 9, 19,
95, or 171 (9 times 19), these national bodies have through their
emergence signalized the birth of a new epoch in the Formative Age
of the Faith, and marked a further stage in the evolution, the unification
and consolidation of a continually expanding community. Aided
by national committees responsible to and chosen by them, without
discrimination, from among the entire body of the believers within their
jurisdiction, and to each of which a particular sphere of Bahá'í service
is allocated, these Bahá'í National Assemblies have, as the scope of their
activities steadily enlarged, proved themselves, through the spirit of
discipline which they have inculcated and through their uncompromising
adherence to principles which have enabled them to rise above
all prejudices of race, nation, class and color, capable of administering,
in a remarkable fashion, the multiplying activities of a newly-consolidated
Faith.
Nor have the national committees themselves been less energetic
and devoted in the discharge of their respective functions. In the
defense of the Faith's vital interests, in the exposition of its doctrine;
in the dissemination of its literature; in the consolidation of its
finances; in the organization of its teaching force; in the furtherance
of the solidarity of its component parts; in the purchase of its historic
sites; in the preservation of its sacred records, treasures and relics; in
its contacts with the various institutions of the society of which it
forms a part; in the education of its youth; in the training of its
children; in the improvement of the status of its women adherents
in the East; the members of these diversified agencies, operating under
the aegis of the elected national representatives of the Bahá'í community,
have amply demonstrated their capacity to promote effectively
its vital and manifold interests. The mere enumeration of the
national committees which, originating mostly in the West and functioning
with exemplary efficiency in the United States and Canada,
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now carry on their activities with a vigor and a unity of purpose
which sharply contrast with the effete institutions of a moribund
civilization, would suffice to reveal the scope of these auxiliary institutions
which an evolving Administrative Order, still in the secondary
stage of its development, has set in motion: The Teaching Committee,
the Regional Teaching Committees; the Inter-America Committee;
the Publishing Committee; the Race Unity Committee; the
Youth Committee; the Reviewing Committee; The Temple Maintenance
Committee; the Temple Program Committee; the Temple
Guides Committee; the Temple Librarian and Sales Committee; the
Boys' and Girls' Service Committees; the Child Education Committee;
the Women's Progress, Teaching, and Program Committees; the
Legal Committee; the Archives and History Committee; the Census
Committee; the Bahá'í Exhibits Committee; the Bahá'í News Committee;
the Bahá'í News Service Committee; the Braille Transcriptions
Committee; the Contacts Committee; the Service Committee; the Editorial
Committee; the Index Committee; the Library Committee; the
Radio Committee; the Accountant Committee; the Annual Souvenir
Committee; the Bahá'í World Editorial Committee; the Study Outline
Committee; the International Auxiliary Language Committee;
the Institute of Bahá'í Education Committee; the World Order Magazine
Committee; the Bahá'í Public Relations Committee; the Bahá'í
Schools Committee; the Summer Schools Committee; the International
School Committee; the Pamphlet Literature Committee; the
Bahá'í Cemetery Committee; the Hazíratu'l-Quds Committee; the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár Committee; the Assembly Development Committee;
the National History Committee; the Miscellaneous Materials
Committee; the Free Literature Committee; the Translation Committee;
the Cataloguing Tablets Committee; the Editing Tablets
Committee; the Properties Committee; the Adjustments Committee;
the Publicity Committee; the East and West Committee; the Welfare
Committee; the Transcription of Tablets Committee; the Traveling
Teachers Committee; the Bahá'í Education Committee; the Holy
Sites Committee; the Children's Savings Bank Committee.
The establishment of local and national Assemblies and the subsequent
formation of local and national committees, acting as necessary
adjuncts to the elected representatives of Bahá'í communities in both
the East and the West, however remarkable in themselves, were but a
prelude to a series of undertakings on the part of the newly formed
National Assemblies, which have contributed in no small measure to
the unification of the Bahá'í world community and the consolidation
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of its Administrative Order. The initial step taken in that direction
was the drafting and adoption of a Bahá'í National constitution, first
framed and promulgated by the elected representatives of the American
Bahá'í Community in 1927, the text of which has since, with
slight variations suited to national requirements, been translated into
Arabic, German and Persian, and constitutes, at the present time, the
charter of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá'ís of the
United States and Canada, of the British Isles, of Germany, of Persia,
of `Iráq, of India and Burma, of Egypt and the Sudan and of Australia
and New Zealand. Heralding the formulation of the constitution of
the future Bahá'í World Community; submitted for the consideration
of all local Assemblies and ratified by the entire body of the recognized
believers in countries possessing national Assemblies, this national
constitution has been supplemented by a similar document, containing the
by-laws of Bahá'í local assemblies, first drafted by the New York
Bahá'í community in November, 1931, and accepted as a pattern for
all local Bahá'í constitutions. The text of this national constitution
comprises a Declaration of Trust, whose articles set forth the character
and objects of the national Bahá'í community, establish the functions,
designate the central office, and describe the official seal, of the body of
its elected representatives, as well as a set of by-laws which define the
status, the mode of election, the powers and duties of both local and
national Assemblies, describe the relation of the National Assembly
to the International House of Justice as well as to local Assemblies and
individual believers, outline the rights and obligations of the National
Convention and its relation to the National Assembly, disclose the
character of Bahá'í elections, and lay down the requirements of voting
membership in all Bahá'í communities.
The framing of these constitutions, both local and national, identical
to all intents and purposes in their provisions, provided the necessary
foundation for the legal incorporation of these administrative
institutions in accordance with civil statutes controlling religious or
commercial bodies. Giving these Assemblies a legal standing, this
incorporation greatly consolidated their power and enlarged their capacity,
and in this regard the achievement of the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada and the Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of New York again set an example worthy
of emulation by their sister Assemblies in both the East and the
West. The incorporation of the American National Spiritual Assembly
as a voluntary Trust, a species of corporation recognized under
the common law, enabling it to enter into contract, hold property and
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receive bequests by virtue of a certificate issued in May, 1929, under
the seal of the Department of State in Washington and bearing the
signature of the Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson, was followed
by the adoption of similar legal measures resulting in the successive
incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
India and Burma, in January, 1933, in Lahore, in the state of Punjab,
according to the provisions of the Societies Registration Act of 1860;
of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and the
Sudan, in December, 1934, as certified by the Mixed Court in Cairo;
of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia and
New Zealand, in January, 1938, as witnessed by the Deputy Registrar
at the General Registry Office for the state of South Australia; and
more recently of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the
British Isles, in August, 1939, as an unlimited non-profit company,
under the Companies Act, 1929, and certified by the Assistant Registrar
of Companies in the City of London.
Parallel with the legal incorporation of these National Assemblies
a far larger number of Bahá'í local Assemblies were similarly incorporated,
following the example set by the Chicago Bahá'í Assembly in
February, 1932, in countries as far apart as the United States of
America, India, Mexico, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Burma, Costa Rica, Balúchistán and the Hawaiian Islands. The
Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá'ís of Esslingen in Germany, of
Mexico City in Mexico, of San José in Costa Rica, of Sydney and
Adelaide in Australia, of Auckland in New Zealand, of Delhi,
Bombay, Karachi, Poona, Calcutta, Secunderabad, Bangalore, Vellore,
Ahmedabad, Serampore, Andheri and Baroda in India, of Tuetta
in Balúchistán, of Rangoon, Mandalay and Daidanow-Kalazoo in
Burma, of Montreal and Vancouver in Canada, of Honolulu in the
Hawaiian Islands, and of Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C.,
Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Kenosha, Teaneck, Racine,
Detroit, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Cincinnati,
Winnetka, Phoenix, Columbus, Lima, Portland, Jersey City,
Wilmette, Peoria, Seattle, Binghamton, Helena, Richmond Highlands,
Miami, Pasadena, Oakland, Indianapolis, St. Paul, Berkeley,
Urbana, Springfield and Flint in the United States of America--
all these succeeded, gradually and after submitting the text of almost
identical Bahá'í local constitutions to the civil authorities in their
respective states or provinces, in constituting themselves into societies
and corporations recognized by law, and protected by the civil
statutes operating in their respective countries.
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Just as the formulation of Bahá'í constitutions had provided the
foundation for the incorporation of Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies, so
did the recognition accorded by local and national authorities to the
elected representatives of Bahá'í communities pave the way for the
establishment of national and local Bahá'í endowments--a historic
undertaking which, as had been the case with previous achievements
of far-reaching importance, the American Bahá'í Community was
the first to initiate. In most cases these endowments, owing to their
religious character, have been exempted from both government and
municipal taxes, as a result of representations made by the incorporated
Bahá'í bodies to the civil authorities, though the value of the
properties thus exempted has, in more than one country, amounted
to a considerable sum.
In the United States of America the national endowments of the
Faith, already representing one and three-quarter million dollars of
assets, and established through a series of Indentures of Trust, created
in 1928, 1929, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1941 and 1942 by the National
Spiritual Assembly in that country, acting as Trustees of the American
Bahá'í Community, now include the land and structure of the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, and the caretaker's cottage in Wilmette, Ill.; the
adjoining Hazíratu'l-Quds (Bahá'í National Headquarters) and its
supplementary administrative office; the Inn, the Fellowship House,
the Bahá'í Hall, the Arts and Crafts Studio, a farm, a number of
cottages, several parcels of land, including the holding on Monsalvat,
blessed by the footsteps of `Abdu'l-Bahá, in Green Acre, in the state
of Maine; Bosch House, the Bahá'í Hall, a fruit orchard, the Redwood
Grove, a dormitory and Ranch Buildings in Geyserville, Calif.; Wilhelm
House, Evergreen Cabin, a pine grove and seven lots with buildings
at West Englewood, N.J., the scene of the memorable Unity
Feast given by `Abdu'l-Bahá, in June, 1912, to the Bahá'ís of the
New York Metropolitan district; Wilson House, blessed by His presence,
and land in Malden, Mass.; Mathews House and Ranch Buildings
in Pine Valley, Colo.; land in Muskegon, Mich., and a cemetery lot
in Portsmouth, N.H.
Of even greater importance, and in their aggregate far surpassing
in value the national endowments of the American Bahá'í community,
though their title-deeds are, owing to the inability of the Persian Bahá'í
community to incorporate its national and local assemblies, held in
trust by individuals, are the assets which the Faith now possesses in
the land of its origin. To the House of the Báb in Shíráz and the
ancestral Home of Bahá'u'lláh in Tákúr, Mazindarán, already in the
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possession of the community in the days of `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry,
have, since His ascension, been added extensive properties, in the outskirts
of the capital, situated on the slopes of Mt. Alburz, overlooking
the native city of Bahá'u'lláh, including a farm, a garden and vineyard,
comprising an area of over three million and a half square
meters, preserved as the future site of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in
Persia. Other acquisitions that have greatly extended the range of
Bahá'í endowments in that country include the House in which
Bahá'u'lláh was born in Tihrán; several buildings adjoining the House
of the Báb in Shíráz, including the house owned by His maternal
uncle; the Hazíratu'l-Quds in Tihrán; the shop occupied by the Báb
during the years He was a merchant in Búshihr; a quarter of the village
of Chihríq, where He was confined; the house of Hájí Mírzá
Jání, where He tarried on His way to Tabríz; the public bath used by
Him in Shíráz and some adjacent houses; half of the house owned by
Vahíd in Nayríz and part of the house owned by Hujjat in Zanján;
the three gardens rented by Bahá'u'lláh in the hamlet of Badasht;
the burial-place of Quddús in Barfurúsh; the house of Kalantar in
Tihrán, the scene of Táhirih's confinement; the public bath visited by
the Báb when in Urúmíyyih, Ádhirbayján; the house owned by
Mírzá Husayn-`Alíy-i-Núr, where the Báb's remains had been concealed;
the Bábíyyih and the house owned by Mullá Husayn in Mashhad;
the residence of the Sultánu'sh-Shuhadá (King of Martyrs) and
of the Mahbúbu'sh-Shuhadá (Beloved of Martyrs) in Isfahán, as well
as a considerable number of sites and houses, including burial-places,
associated with the heroes and martyrs of the Faith. These holdings
which, with very few exceptions, have been recently acquired in
Persia, are now being preserved and yearly augmented, and, whenever
necessary, carefully restored, through the assiduous efforts of a specially
appointed national committee, acting under the constant and
general supervision of the elected representatives of the Persian
believers.
Nor should mention be omitted of the varied and multiplying
national assets which, ever since the inception of the Administrative
Order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, have been steadily acquired in other
countries such as India, Burma, the British Isles, Germany, `Iráq,
Egypt, Australia, Transjordan and Syria. Among these may be specially
mentioned the Hazíratu'l-Quds of the Bahá'ís of `Iráq, the
Hazíratu'l-Quds of the Bahá'ís of Egypt, the Hazíratu'l-Quds of the
Bahá'ís of India, the Hazíratu'l-Quds of the Bahá'ís of Australia, the
Bahá'í Home in Esslingen, the Publishing Trust of the Bahá'ís of the
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British Isles, the Bahá'í Pilgrim House in Baghdád, and the Bahá'í
Cemeteries established in the capitals of Persia, Egypt and Turkistán.
Whether in the form of land, schools, administrative headquarters,
secretariats, libraries, cemeteries, hostels or publishing companies, these
widely scattered assets, partly registered in the name of incorporated
National Assemblies, and partly held in trust by individual recognized
believers, have contributed their share to the uninterrupted expansion
of national Bahá'í endowments in recent years as well as to the consolidation
of their foundations. Of vital importance, though less
notable in significance, have been, moreover, the local endowments
which have supplemented the national assets of the Faith and which,
in consequence of the incorporation of Bahá'í local Assemblies, have
been legally established and safeguarded in various countries in both
the East and the West. Particularly in Persia these holdings, whether
in the form of land, administrative buildings, schools or other institutions,
have greatly enriched and widened the scope of the local
endowments of the world-wide Bahá'í community.
Simultaneous with the establishment and incorporation of local
and national Bahá'í Assemblies, with the formation of their respective
committees, the formulation of national and local Bahá'í constitutions
and the founding of Bahá'í endowments, undertakings of great institutional
significance were initiated by these newly founded Assemblies,
among which the institution of the Hazíratu'l-Quds--the seat of the
Bahá'í National Assembly and pivot of all Bahá'í administrative
activity in future--must rank as one of the most important. Originating
first in Persia, now universally known by its official and distinctive
title signifying "the Sacred Fold," marking a notable advance
in the evolution of a process whose beginnings may be traced to the
clandestine gatherings held at times underground and in the dead of
night, by the persecuted followers of the Faith in that country, this
institution, still in the early stages of its development, has already lent
its share to the consolidation of the internal functions of the organic
Bahá'í community, and provided a further visible evidence of its
steady growth and rising power. Complementary in its functions to
those of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár--an edifice exclusively reserved for
Bahá'í worship--this institution, whether local or national, will, as its
component parts, such as the Secretariat, the Treasury, the Archives,
the Library, the Publishing Office, the Assembly Hall, the Council
Chamber, the Pilgrims' Hostel, are brought together and made jointly
to operate in one spot, be increasingly regarded as the focus of all
Bahá'í administrative activity, and symbolize, in a befitting manner,
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the ideal of service animating the Bahá'í community in its relation alike
to the Faith and to mankind in general.
From the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, ordained as a house of worship by
Bahá'u'lláh in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the representatives of Bahá'í communities,
both local and national, together with the members of their
respective committees, will, as they gather daily within its walls at the
hour of dawn, derive the necessary inspiration that will enable them
to discharge, in the course of their day-to-day exertions in the
Hazíratu'l-Quds--the scene of their administrative activities--their
duties and responsibilities as befits the chosen stewards of His Faith.
Already on the shores of Lake Michigan, in the outskirts of the
first Bahá'í center established in the American continent and under
the shadow of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the West; in the capital
city of Persia, the cradle of the Faith; in the vicinity of the Most Great
House in Baghdád; in the city of Ishqábád, adjoining the first
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world; in the capital of Egypt, the foremost
center of both the Arab and Islamic worlds; in Delhi, the capital city
of India and even in Sydney in far-off Australia, initial steps have been
taken which must eventually culminate in the establishment, in all
their splendor and power, of the national administrative seats of the
Bahá'í communities established in these countries.
Locally, moreover, in the above-mentioned countries, as well as in
several others, the preliminary measures for the establishment of this
institution, in the form of a house, either owned or rented by the
local Bahá'í community, have been taken, foremost among them
being the numerous administrative buildings which, in various provinces
of Persia, the believers have, despite the disabilities from which
they suffer, succeeded in either purchasing or constructing.
Equally important as a factor in the evolution of the Administrative
Order has been the remarkable progress achieved, particularly in
the United States of America, by the institution of the summer schools
designed to foster the spirit of fellowship in a distinctly Bahá'í atmosphere,
to afford the necessary training for Bahá'í teachers, and to provide
facilities for the study of the history and teachings of the Faith,
and for a better understanding of its relation to other religions and to
human society in general.
Established in three regional centers, for the three major divisions
of the North American continent, in Geyserville, in the Californian
hills (1927), at Green Acre, situated on the banks of the Piscataqua in
the state of Maine (1929), and at Louhelen Ranch near Davison,
Michigan (1931), and recently supplemented by the International
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School founded at Pine Valley, Colorado Springs, dedicated to the
training of Bahá'í teachers wishing to serve in other lands and especially
in Latin America, these three embryonic Bahá'í educational
institutions have, through a steady expansion of their programs, set an
example worthy of emulation by other Bahá'í communities in both
the East and the West. Through the intensive study of Bahá'í Scriptures
and of the early history of the Faith; through the organization of
courses on the teachings and history of Islám; through conferences for
the promotion of inter-racial amity; through laboratory courses designed
to familiarize the participants with the processes of the Bahá'í
Administrative Order; through special sessions devoted to Youth and
child training; through classes in public speaking; through lectures on
Comparative Religion; through group discussion on the manifold
aspects of the Faith; through the establishment of libraries; through
teaching classes; through courses on Bahá'í ethics and on Latin
America; through the introduction of winter school sessions; through
forums and devotional gatherings; through plays and pageants;
through picnics and other recreational activities, these schools, open
to Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís alike, have set so noble an example as to
inspire other Bahá'í communities in Persia, in the British Isles, in Germany,
in Australia, in New Zealand, in India, in `Iráq and in Egypt
to undertake the initial measures designed to enable them to build
along the same lines institutions that bid fair to evolve into the Bahá'í
universities of the future.
Among other factors contributing to the expansion and establishment
of the Administrative Order may be mentioned the organized
activities of the Bahá'í Youth, already much advanced in Persia and in
the United States of America, and launched more recently in India,
in the British Isles, in Germany, in `Iráq, in Egypt, in Australia, in
Bulgaria, in the Hawaiian Islands, in Hungary and in Havana. These
activities comprise annual world-wide Bahá'í Youth Symposiums,
Youth sessions at Bahá'í summer schools, youth bulletins and magazines,
an international correspondence Bureau, facilities for the registration
of young people desiring to join the Faith, the publication of
outlines and references for the study of the teachings and the organization
of a Bahá'í study group as an official university activity in a
leading American university. They include, moreover, "study days"
held in Bahá'í homes and centers, classes for the study of Esperanto and
other languages, the organization of Bahá'í libraries, the opening of
reading rooms, the production of Bahá'í plays and pageants, the holding
of oratorical contests, the education of orphans, the organization of
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classes in public speaking, the holding of gatherings to perpetuate the
memory of historical Bahá'í personalities, inter-group regional conferences
and youth sessions held in connection with Bahá'í annual conventions.
Still other factors promoting the development of that Order and
contributing to its consolidation have been the systematic institution
of the Nineteen Day Feast, functioning in most Bahá'í communities
in East and West, with its threefold emphasis on the devotional, the
administrative and the social aspects of Bahá'í community life; the
initiation of activities designed to prepare a census of Bahá'í children,
and provide for them laboratory courses, prayer books and elementary
literature, and the formulation and publication of a body of authoritative
statements on the non-political character of the Faith, on membership
in non-Bahá'í religious organizations, on methods of teaching,
on the Bahá'í attitude towards war, on the institutions of the Annual
Convention, of the Bahá'í Spiritual Assembly, of the Nineteen Day
Feast and of the National Fund. Reference should, moreover, be made
to the establishment of National Archives for the authentication, the
collection, the translation, the cataloguing and the preservation of the
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh and of `Abdu'l-Bahá and for the preservation
of sacred relics and historical documents; to the verification and
transcription of the original Tablets of the Báb, of Bahá'u'lláh and of
`Abdu'l-Bahá in the possession of Oriental believers; to the compilation
of a detailed history of the Faith since its inception until the
present day; to the opening of a Bahá'í International Bureau in
Geneva; to the holding of Bahá'í district conventions; to the purchase
of historic sites; to the establishment of Bahá'í memorial libraries, and
to the initiation of a flourishing children's Savings Bank in Persia.
Nor should mention be omitted of the participation, whether
official or non-official, of representatives of these newly founded
national Bahá'í communities in the activities and proceedings of a
great variety of congresses, associations, conventions and conferences,
held in various countries of Europe, Asia and America for the promotion
of religious unity, peace, education, international cooperation,
inter-racial amity and other humanitarian purposes. With organizations
such as the Conference of some Living Religions within the
British Empire, held in London in 1924 and the World Fellowship of
Faiths held in that same city in 1936; with the Universal Esperanto
Congresses held annually in various capitals of Europe; with the Institute
of Intellectual Cooperation; with the Century of Progress Exhibition
held in Chicago in 1933; with the World's Fair held in New
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York in 1938 and 1939; with the Golden Gate International Exposition
held in San Francisco in 1939; with the First Convention of the
Religious Congress held in Calcutta; with the Second All-India Cultural
Conference convened in that same city; with the All-Faiths'
League Convention in Indore; with the Arya Samaj and the Brahmo
Samaj Conferences as well as those of the Theosophical Society and the
All-Asian Women's Conference, held in various cities of India; with
the World Council of Youth; with the Eastern Women's Congress in
Tihrán; with the Pan-Pacific Women's Conference in Honolulu; with
the Women's International League for Peace and with the Peoples Conference
at Buenos Aires in Argentina--with these and others, relationships
have, in one form or another, been cultivated which have
served the twofold purpose of demonstrating the universality and
comprehensiveness of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and of forging vital and
enduring links between them and the far-flung agencies of its
Administrative Order.
Nor should we ignore or underestimate the contacts established
between these same agencies and some of the highest governmental
authorities, in both the East and the West, as well as with the heads
of Islám in Persia, and with the League of Nations, and with even
royalty itself for the purpose of defending the rights, or of presenting
the literature, or of setting forth the aims and purposes of the followers
of the Faith in their unremitting efforts to champion the cause
of an infant Administrative Order. The communications addressed
by the members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
the United States and Canada--the champion builders of that Order--
to the Palestine High Commissioner for the restitution of the keys of
the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh to its custodian; to the Sháh of Persia, on four
occasions, pleading for justice on behalf of their persecuted brethren
within his domains; to the Persian Prime Minister on that same subject;
to Queen Marie of Rumania, expressing gratitude for her historic
tributes to the Bahá'í Faith; to the Heads of Islám in Persia, appealing
for harmony and peace among religions; to King Feisal of `Iráq for the
purpose of insuring the security of the Most Great House in Baghdád;
to the Soviet Authorities on behalf of the Bahá'í communities in
Russia; to the German authorities regarding the disabilities suffered by
their German brethren; to the Egyptian Government concerning the
emancipation of their co-religionists from the yoke of Islamic orthodoxy;
to the Persian Cabinet in connection with the closing of Persian
Bahá'í educational institutions; to the State Department of the United
States Government and the Turkish Ambassador in Washington and
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the Turkish Cabinet in Ankara, in defense of the interests of the
Faith in Turkey; to that same State Department in order to facilitate
the transfer of the remains of Lua Getsinger from the Protestant
Cemetery in Cairo to the first Bahá'í burial-ground established in
Egypt; to the Persian Minister in Washington regarding the mission
of Keith Ransom-Kehler; to the King of Egypt with accompanying
Bahá'í literature; to the Government of the United States and the
Canadian Government, setting forth the Bahá'í teachings on Universal
Peace; to the Rumanian Minister in Washington on behalf of the
American Bahá'ís, on the occasion of the death of Queen Marie of
Rumania; and to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, acquainting him
with Bahá'u'lláh's summons issued in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas to the Presidents
of the American Republics and with certain prayers revealed by
`Abdu'l-Bahá--such communications constitute in themselves a notable
and illuminating chapter in the history of the unfoldment of the
Bahá'í Administrative Order.
To these must be added the communications addressed from the
world center of the Faith as well as by Bahá'í national and local assemblies,
whether telegraphically or in writing, to the Palestine High Commissioner,
pleading for the delivery of the keys of the Tomb of
Bahá'u'lláh to its original keeper; the appeals made by Bahá'í centers
in East and West to the `Iráqí authorities for the restoration of the
House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád; the subsequent appeal made to the
British Secretary of State for the Colonies, following the verdict of the
Baghdád Court of Appeals in that connection; the messages despatched
to the League of Nations on behalf of Bahá'í communities in the East
and in the West, in appreciation of the official pronouncement of the
Council of the League in favor of the claims presented by the Bahá'í
petitioners, as well as several letters exchanged between the International
Center of the Faith, on the one hand, and that archetype of
Bahá'í teachers, Martha Root, on the other, with Queen Marie of Rumania,
following the publication of her historic appreciations of the
Faith, and the messages of sympathy addressed to Queen Marie of
Yugoslavia, on behalf of the world-wide Bahá'í Community, on the
occasion of the passing of her mother, and to the Duchess of Kent following
the tragic death of her husband.
Nor should we fail to make special mention of the petition forwarded
by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of `Iráq to
the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, as a result of the
seizure of Bahá'u'lláh's house in Baghdád, or of the written messages
sent to King Ghází I of `Iráq by that same Assembly, after the death
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of his father and on the occasion of his marriage, or of its condolences
conveyed in writing to the present Regent of `Iráq at the time of the
sudden death of that King, or of the communications of the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt submitted to the Egyptian
Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior, and the Minister of
Justice, following the verdict of the Muslim ecclesiastical court in
Egypt, or of the letters addressed by the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Bahá'ís of Persia to the Sháh and to the Persian Cabinet in connection
with the closing of Bahá'í schools and the ban imposed on
Bahá'í literature in that country. Mention should, moreover, be made
of the written messages despatched by the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Bahá'ís of Persia to the King of Rumania and the Royal Family
on the occasion of the death of his mother, Queen Marie, as well as to
the Turkish Ambassador in Tihrán enclosing the contribution of the
Persian believers for the sufferers of the earthquake in Turkey; of
Martha Root's letters to the late President Von Hindenburg and to
Dr. Streseman, the German Foreign Minister, accompanying the presentation
to them of Bahá'í literature; of Keith Ransom-Kehler's seven
successive petitions addressed to the Sháh of Persia, and of her numerous
communications to various ministers and high dignitaries of the
realm, during her memorable visit to that land.
Collateral with these first stirrings of the Bahá'í Administrative
Order, and synchronizing with the emergence of National Bahá'í
communities and with the institution of their administrative, educational,
and teaching agencies, the mighty process set in motion in the
Holy Land, the heart and nerve-center of that Administrative Order,
on the memorable occasions when Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Tablet of
Carmel and visited the future site of the Báb's sepulcher, was irresistibly
unfolding. That process had received a tremendous impetus
through the purchase of that site, shortly after Bahá'u'lláh's ascension,
through the subsequent transfer of the Báb's remains from Tihrán to
`Akká, through the construction of that sepulcher during the most
distressful years of `Abdu'l-Bahá's incarceration, and lastly through
the permanent interment of those remains in the heart of Mt. Carmel,
through the establishment of a pilgrim house in the immediate vicinity
of that sepulcher, and the selection of the future site of the first Bahá'í
educational institution on that mountain.
Profiting from the freedom accorded the world center of the Faith
of Bahá'u'lláh, ever since the ignominious defeat of the decrepit Ottoman
empire during the war of 1914-18, the forces released through
the inception of the stupendous Plan conceived by Him could now flow
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unchecked, under the beneficent influence of a sympathetic régime,
into channels designed to disclose to the world at large the potencies
with which that Plan had been endowed. The interment of `Abdu'l-Bahá
Himself within a vault of the Báb's mausoleum, enhancing still
further the sacredness of that mountain; the installment of an electric
plant, the first of its kind established in the city of Haifa, flooding
with illumination the Grave of One Who, in His own words, had
been denied even "a lighted lamp" in His fortress-prison in Ádhirbayján;
the construction of three additional chambers adjoining His sepulcher,
thereby completing `Abdu'l-Bahá's plan for the first unit of that
Edifice; the vast extension, despite the machinations of the Covenant-breakers,
of the properties surrounding that resting-place, sweeping
from the ridge of Carmel down to the Templar colony nestling at its
foot, and representing assets estimated at no less than four hundred
thousand pounds, together with the acquisition of four tracts of land,
dedicated to the Bahá'í Shrines, and situated in the plain of `Akká to
the north, in the district of Beersheba to the south, and in the valley of
the Jordan to the east, amounting to approximately six hundred
acres; the opening of a series of terraces which, as designed by
`Abdu'l-Bahá, are to provide a direct approach to the Báb's Tomb
from the city lying under its shadow; the beautification of its precincts
through the laying out of parks and gardens, open daily to the public,
and attracting tourists and residents alike to its gates--these may be
regarded as the initial evidences of the marvelous expansion of the
international institutions and endowments of the Faith at its world
center. Of particular significance, moreover, has been the exemption
granted by the Palestine High Commissioner to the entire area of
land surrounding and dedicated to the Shrine of the Báb, to the school
property and the archives in its vicinity, to the Western pilgrim-house
situated in its neighborhood, and to such historic sites as the Mansion
in Bahjí, the House of Bahá'u'lláh in `Akká, and the garden of Ridván
to the east of that city; the establishment, as a result of two formal
applications submitted to the civil authorities, of the Palestine Branches
of the American and Indian National Spiritual Assemblies, as recognized
religious societies in Palestine (to be followed, for purposes of
internal consolidation, by a similar incorporation of the branches of
other National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the Bahá'í world);
and the transfer to the Branch of the American National Spiritual
Assembly, through a series of no less than thirty transactions, of properties
dedicated to the Tomb of the Báb, and approximating in their
aggregate fifty thousand square meters, the majority of the title-deeds
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of which bear the signature of the son of the Arch-breaker of
Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant in his capacity as Registrar of lands in Haifa.
Equally significant has been the founding on Mt. Carmel of two
international Archives, the one adjoining the shrine of the Báb, the
other in the immediate vicinity of the resting-place of the Greatest
Holy Leaf, where, for the first time in Bahá'í history, priceless
treasures, hitherto scattered and often hidden for safekeeping, have
been collected and are now displayed to visiting pilgrims. These
treasures include portraits of both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh; personal
relics such as the hair, the dust and garments of the Báb; the locks and
blood of Bahá'u'lláh and such articles as His pen-case, His garments,
His brocaded tájes (head dresses), the kashkúl of His Sulamáníyyih
days, His watch and His Qur'án; manuscripts and Tablets of
inestimable value, some of them illuminated, such as part of the Hidden
Words written in Bahá'u'lláh's own hand, the Persian Bayán, in the
handwriting of Siyyid Husayn, the Báb's amanuensis, the original
Tablets to the Letters of the Living penned by the Báb, and the manuscript
of "Some Answered Questions." This precious collection, moreover,
includes objects and effects associated with `Abdu'l-Bahá; the
blood-stained garment of the Purest Branch, the ring of Quddús, the
sword of Mullá Husayn, the seals of the Vazír, the father of Bahá'u'lláh,
the brooch presented by the Queen of Rumania to Martha Root,
the originals of the Queen's letters to her and to others, and of her
tributes to the Faith, as well as no less than twenty volumes of prayers
and Tablets revealed by the Founders of the Faith, authenticated and
transcribed by Bahá'í Assemblies throughout the Orient, and supplementing
the vast collection of their published writings.
Moreover, as a further testimony to the majestic unfoldment and
progressive consolidation of the stupendous undertaking launched by
Bahá'u'lláh on that holy mountain, may be mentioned the selection of
a portion of the school property situated in the precincts of the Shrine
of the Báb as a permanent resting-place for the Greatest Holy Leaf,
the "well-beloved" sister of `Abdu'l-Bahá, the "Leaf that hath sprung"
from the "Pre-existent Root," the "fragrance" of Bahá'u'lláh's "shining
robe," elevated by Him to a "station such as none other woman hath
surpassed," and comparable in rank to those immortal heroines such as
Sarah, Ásíyih, the Virgin Mary, Fátimih and Táhirih, each of whom
has outshone every member of her sex in previous Dispensations. And
lastly, there should be mentioned, as a further evidence of the blessings
flowing from the Divine Plan, the transfer, a few years later, to
that same hallowed spot, after a separation in death of above half a
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century, and notwithstanding the protests voiced by the brother and
lieutenant of the arch-breaker of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant, of the remains
of the Purest Branch, the martyred son of Bahá'u'lláh, "created
of the light of Bahá," the "Trust of God" and His "Treasure" in the
Holy Land, and offered up by his Father as a "ransom" for the regeneration
of the world and the unification of its peoples. To this same
burial-ground, and on the same day the remains of the Purest Branch
were interred, was transferred the body of his mother, the saintly
Navváb, she to whose dire afflictions, as attested by `Abdu'l-Bahá in a
Tablet, the 54th chapter of the Book of Isaiah has, in its entirety, borne
witness, whose "Husband," in the words of that Prophet, is "the Lord
of Hosts," whose "seed shall inherit the Gentiles," and whom Bahá'u'lláh
in His Tablet, has destined to be "His consort in every one of
His worlds."
The conjunction of these three resting-places, under the shadow
of the Báb's own Tomb, embosomed in the heart of Carmel, facing
the snow-white city across the bay of `Akká, the Qiblih of the Bahá'í
world, set in a garden of exquisite beauty, reinforces, if we would correctly
estimate its significance, the spiritual potencies of a spot, designated
by Bahá'u'lláh Himself the seat of God's throne. It marks, too,
a further milestone in the road leading eventually to the establishment
of that permanent world Administrative Center of the future Bahá'í
Commonwealth, destined never to be separated from, and to function
in the proximity of, the Spiritual Center of that Faith, in a land already
revered and held sacred alike by the adherents of three of the world's
outstanding religious systems.
Scarcely less significant has been the erection of the superstructure
and the completion of the exterior ornamentation of the first
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the West, the noblest of the exploits which have
immortalized the services of the American Bahá'í community to the
Cause of Bahá'u'lláh. Consummated through the agency of an efficiently
functioning and newly established Administrative Order, this
enterprise has itself immensely enhanced the prestige, consolidated the
strength and expanded the subsidiary institutions of the community
that made its building possible.
Conceived forty-one years ago; originating with the petition spontaneously
addressed, in March 1903 to `Abdu'l-Bahá by the "House
of Spirituality" of the Bahá'ís of Chicago--the first Bahá'í center
established in the Western world--the members of which, inspired by
the example set by the builders of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of Ishqábád,
had appealed for permission to construct a similar Temple in
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America; blessed by His approval and high commendation in a Tablet
revealed by Him in June of that same year; launched by the delegates
of various American Assemblies, assembled in Chicago in November,
1907, for the purpose of choosing the site of the Temple; established
on a national basis through a religious corporation known as the "Bahá'í
Temple Unity," which was incorporated shortly after the first American
Bahá'í Convention held in that same city in March, 1909; honored
through the dedication ceremony presided over by `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself
when visiting that site in May, 1912, this enterprise--the crowning
achievement of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh
in the first Bahá'í century--had, ever since that memorable
occasion, been progressing intermittently until the time when the
foundations of that Order having been firmly laid in the North American
continent the American Bahá'í community was in a position to
utilize the instruments which it had forged for the efficient prosecution
of its task.
At the 1914 American Bahá'í Convention the purchase of the
Temple property was completed. The 1920 Convention, held in New
York, having been previously directed by `Abdu'l-Bahá to select the
design of that Temple, chose from among a number of designs competitively
submitted to it that of Louis J. Bourgeois, a French-Canadian
architect, a selection that was later confirmed by `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself.
The contracts for the sinking of the nine great caissons supporting
the central portion of the building, extending to rock at a depth
of 120 feet below the ground level, and for the construction of the
basement structure, were successively awarded in December, 1920 and
August, 1921. In August, 1930, in spite of the prevailing economic
crisis, and during a period of unemployment unparalleled in American
history, another contract, with twenty-four additional sub-contracts,
for the erection of the superstructure was placed, and the work completed
by May 1, 1931, on which day the first devotional service in the
new structure was celebrated, coinciding with the 19th anniversary of
the dedication of the grounds by `Abdu'l-Bahá. The ornamentation of
the dome was started in June, 1932 and finished in January, 1934. The
ornamentation of the clerestory was completed in July, 1935, and that
of the gallery unit below it in November, 1938. The mainstory ornamentation
was, despite the outbreak of the present war, undertaken in
April, 1940, and completed in July, 1942; whilst the eighteen circular
steps were placed in position by December, 1942, seventeen months in
advance of the centenary celebration of the Faith, by which time the
exterior of the Temple was scheduled to be finished, and forty years
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after the petition of the Chicago believers had been submitted to and
granted by `Abdu'l-Bahá.
This unique edifice, the first fruit of a slowly maturing Administrative
Order, the noblest structure reared in the first Bahá'í century,
and the symbol and precursor of a future world civilization, is situated
in the heart of the North American continent, on the western shore
of Lake Michigan, and is surrounded by its own grounds comprising
a little less than seven acres. It has been financed, at cost of over a
million dollars, by the American Bahá'í community, assisted at times
by voluntary contributions of recognized believers in East and West, of
Christian, of Muslim, of Jewish, of Zoroastrian, of Hindu and Buddhist
extraction. It has been associated, in its initial phase, with `Abdu'l-Bahá,
and in the concluding stages of its construction with the memory of
the Greatest Holy Leaf, the Purest Branch, and their mother. The structure
itself is a pure white nonagonal building, of original and unique
design, rising from a flight of white stairs encircling its base; and
surmounted by a majestic and beautifully proportioned dome, bearing
nine tapering symmetrically placed ribs of decorative as well as structural
significance, which soar to its apex and finally merge into a common
unit pointing skyward. Its framework is constructed of structural
steel enclosed in concrete, the material of its ornamentation consisting
of a combination of crystalline quartz, opaque quartz and white
Portland cement, producing a composition clear in texture, hard and
enduring as stone, impervious to the elements, and cast into a design
as delicate as lace. It soars 191 feet from the floor of its basement to
the culmination of the ribs, clasping the hemispherical dome which is
forty-nine feet high, with an external diameter of ninety feet, and one-third
of the surface of which is perforated to admit light during the
day and emit light at night. It is buttressed by pylons forty-five feet
in height, and bears above its nine entrances, one of which faces
`Akká, nine selected quotations from the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, as
well as the Greatest Name in the center of each of the arches over its
doors. It is consecrated exclusively to worship, devoid of all ceremony
and ritual, is provided with an auditorium which can seat 1600 people,
and is to be supplemented by accessory institutions of social service
to be established in its vicinity, such as an orphanage, a hospital, a
dispensary for the poor, a home for the incapacitated, a hostel for
travelers and a college for the study of arts and sciences. It had already,
long before its construction, evoked, and is now increasingly evoking,
though its interior ornamentation is as yet unbegun, such interest and
comment, in the public press, in technical journals and in magazines,
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of both the United States and other countries, as to justify the hopes
and expectations entertained for it by `Abdu'l-Bahá. Its model exhibited
at Art centers, galleries, state fairs and national expositions--
among which may be mentioned the Century of Progress Exhibition,
held in Chicago in 1933, where no less than ten thousand people, passing
through the Hall of Religions, must have viewed it every day--its
replica forming a part of the permanent exhibit of the Museum of
Science and Industry in Chicago; its doors now thronged by visitors
from far and near, whose number, during the period from June, 1932
to October, 1941 has exceeded 130,000 people, representing almost
every country in the world, this great "Silent Teacher" of the Faith
of Bahá'u'lláh, it may be confidently asserted, has contributed to the
diffusion of the knowledge of His Faith and teachings in a measure
which no other single agency, operating within the framework of its
Administrative Order, has ever remotely approached.
"When the foundation of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár is laid in America,"
`Abdu'l-Bahá Himself has predicted, "and that Divine Edifice is completed,
a most wonderful and thrilling motion will appear in the world
of existence... From that point of light the spirit of teaching,
spreading the Cause of God and promoting the teachings of God, will
permeate to all parts of the world." "Out of this Mashriqu'l-Adhkár,"
He has affirmed in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, "without doubt,
thousands of Mashriqu'l-Adhkárs will be born." "It marks," He, furthermore,
has written, "the inception of the Kingdom of God on earth."
And again: "It is the manifest Standard waving in the center of that
great continent." "Thousands of Mashriqu'l-Adhkárs," He, when
dedicating the grounds of the Temple, declared, "...will be built
in the East and in the West, but this, being the first erected in the
Occident, has great importance." "This organization of the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár," He, referring to that edifice, has moreover stated, "will
be a model for the coming centuries, and will hold the station of the
mother."
"Its inception," the architect of the Temple has himself testified,
"was not from man, for, as musicians, artists, poets receive their inspiration
from another realm, so the Temple's architect, through all
his years of labor, was ever conscious that Bahá'u'lláh was the creator
of this building to be erected to His glory." "Into this new design,"
he, furthermore, has written, "...is woven, in symbolic form, the
great Bahá'í teaching of unity--the unity of all religions and of all
mankind. There are combinations of mathematical lines, symbolizing
those of the universe, and in their intricate merging of circle into circle,
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and circle within circle, we visualize the merging of all the religions
into one." And again: "A circle of steps, eighteen in all, will surround
the structure on the outside, and lead to the auditorium floor.
These eighteen steps represent the eighteen first disciples of the Báb,
and the door to which they lead stands for the Báb Himself." "As the
essence of the pure original teachings of the historic religions was the
same ... in the Bahá'í Temple is used a composite architecture, expressing
the essence in the line of each of the great architectural styles,
harmonizing them into one whole."
"It is the first new idea in architecture since the 13th century,"
declared a distinguished architect, H. Van Buren Magonigle, President
of the Architectural League, after gazing upon a plaster model of the
Temple on exhibition in the Engineering Societies Building in New
York, in June 1920. "The Architect," he, moreover, has stated, "has
conceived a Temple of Light in which structure, as usually understood,
is to be concealed, visible support eliminated as far as possible, and the
whole fabric to take on the airy substance of a dream. It is a lacy
envelope enshrining an idea, the idea of light, a shelter of cobweb
interposed between earth and sky, struck through and through with
light--light which shall partly consume the forms and make of it
a thing of faery."
"In the geometric forms of the ornamentation," a writer in the
well-known publication "Architectural Record" has written, "covering
the columns and surrounding windows and doors of the Temple,
one deciphers all the religious symbols of the world. Here are the
swastika, the circle, the cross, the triangle, the double triangle or six
pointed star (Solomon's seal)--but more than this--the noble symbol
of the spiritual orb ... the five pointed star; the Greek Cross, the
Roman cross, and supreme above all, the wonderful nine pointed star,
figured in the structure of the Temple itself, and appearing again
and again in its ornamentation as significant of the spiritual glory
in the world today."
"The greatest creation since the Gothic period," is the testimony of
George Grey Barnard, one of the most widely-known sculptors in the
United States of America, "and the most beautiful I have ever seen."
"This is a new creation," Prof. Luigi Quaglino, ex-professor of
Architecture from Turin declared, after viewing the model, "which will
revolutionize architecture in the world, and it is the most beautiful I
have ever seen. Without doubt it will have a lasting page in history.
It is a revelation from another world."
"Americans," wrote Sherwin Cody, in the magazine section of the
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New York Times, of the model of the Temple, when exhibited in the
Kevorkian Gallery in New York, "will have to pause long enough to
find that an artist has wrought into this building the conception of a
Religious League of Nations." And lastly, this tribute paid to the
features of, and the ideals embodied in, this Temple--the most sacred
House of Worship in the Bahá'í world, whether of the present or of
the future--by Dr. Rexford Newcomb, Dean of the College of Fine
and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois: "This 'Temple of
Light' opens upon the terrain of human experience nine great doorways
which beckon men and women of every race and clime, of every
faith and conviction, of every condition of freedom or servitude to
enter here into a recognition of that kinship and brotherhood without
which the modern world will be able to make little further progress
...The dome, pointed in form, aiming as assuredly as did the aspiring
lines of the medieval cathedrals toward higher and better things,
achieves not only through its symbolism but also through its structural
propriety and sheer loveliness of form, a beauty not matched by any
domical structure since the construction of Michelangelo's dome on
the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome."
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CHAPTER XXIII
Attacks on Bahá'í Institutions
The institutions signalizing the rise and establishment of the
Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh did not (as the
history of their unfoldment abundantly demonstrates) remain immune
against the assaults and persecutions to which the Faith itself,
the progenitor of that Order, had, for over seventy years, been subjected,
and from which it is still suffering. The emergence of a firmly
knit community, advancing the claims of a world religion, with
ramifications spread over five continents representing a great variety
of races, languages, classes and religious traditions; provided with a
literature scattered over the surface of the earth, and expounding in
several languages its doctrine; clear-visioned, unafraid, alert and
determined to achieve at whatever sacrifice its goal; organically united
through the machinery of a divinely appointed Administrative Order;
non-sectarian, non-political, faithful to its civil obligations yet
supranational in character; tenacious in its adherence to the laws and
ordinances regulating its community life--the emergence of such a
community, in a world steeped in prejudice, worshipping false gods,
torn by intestine divisions, and blindly clinging to obsolescent
doctrines and defective standards, could not but precipitate, sooner
or later, crises no less grave, though less spectacular, than the persecutions
which, in an earlier age, had raged around the Founders of that
community and their early disciples. Assailed by enemies within, who
have either rebelled against its God-given authority or wholly renounced
their faith, or by adversaries from without, whether political
or ecclesiastical, the infant Order identified with this community has,
since its inception, and throughout every stage in its evolution, felt
severely the impact of the forces which have sought in vain to strangle
its budding life or to obscure its purpose.
To these attacks, destined to grow in scope and severity, and to
arouse a tumult that will reverberate throughout the world, `Abdu'l-Bahá
Himself had already, at the time the outlines of that Divine
order were being delineated by Him in His Will, significantly alluded:
"Erelong shall the clamor of the multitude throughout Africa,
throughout America, the cry of the European and of the Turk, the
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groaning of India and China, be heard from far and near. One and
all, they shall arise with all their power to resist His Cause. Then
shall the knights of the Lord ... reinforced by the legions of the
Covenant, arise and manifest the truth of the verse: `Behold the
confusion that hath befallen the tribes of the defeated!'"
Already in more than one country the trustees and elected representatives
of this indestructible world-embracing Order have been
summoned by civil authorities or ecclesiastical courts, ignorant of its
claims, or hostile to its principles or fearful of its rising strength, to
defend its cause, or to renounce their allegiance to it, or to curtail
the range of its operation. Already an aggressive hand, unmindful of
God's avenging wrath, has been stretched out against its sanctuaries
and edifices. Already its defenders and champions have, in some
countries, been declared heretics, or stigmatized as subverters of law
and order, or branded as visionaries, unpatriotic and careless of their
civic duties and responsibilities, or peremptorily ordered to suspend
their activities and dissolve their institutions.
In the Holy Land, the world seat of this System, where its heart
pulsates, where the dust of its Founders reposes, where the processes
disclosing its purposes, energizing its life and shaping its destiny all
originate, there fell, at the very hour of its inception, the first blow
which served to proclaim to high and low alike the solidity of the
foundations on which it has been established. The Covenant-breakers,
now dwindled to a mere handful, instigated by Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí,
the Arch-rebel, whose dormant hopes had been awakened by
`Abdu'l-Bahá's sudden ascension, and headed by the arrogant Mírzá
Badí'u'lláh, seized forcibly the keys of the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh,
expelled its keeper, the brave-souled Abu'l-Qásim-i-Khurásání, and
demanded that their chief be recognized by the authorities as the
legal custodian of that Shrine. Unadmonished by their abject failure,
as witnessed by the firm action of the Palestine authorities, who, after
prolonged investigations, instructed the British officer in `Akká to
deliver the keys into the hands of that same keeper, they resorted to
other methods in the hope of creating a cleavage in the ranks of the
bereaved yet resolute disciples of `Abdu'l-Bahá and of ultimately
undermining the foundations of the institutions His followers were
laboring to erect. Through their mischievous misrepresentations of
the ideals animating the builders of the Bahá'í Administrative Order;
through the maintenance, though not on its original scale, of a
subversive correspondence with individuals whose loyalty they hoped
they could sap; through deliberate distortions of the truth in their
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contact with officials and notables whom they could approach;
through attempts, made through bribery and intimidation, to purchase
a part of the Mansion of Bahá'u'lláh; through efforts directed
at preventing the acquisition by the Bahá'í community of certain
properties situated in the vicinity of the Tomb of the Báb, and at
frustrating the design to consolidate the foundation of some of these
properties by transferring their title-deeds to incorporated Bahá'í
assemblies, they continued to labor intermittently for several years
until the extinction of the life of the Arch-breaker of the Covenant
himself virtually sealed their doom.
The evacuation of the Mansion of Bahá'u'lláh by these Covenant-breakers,
after their unchallenged occupancy of it since His ascension,
a Mansion which, through their gross neglect, had fallen into a
sad state of disrepair; its subsequent complete restoration, fulfilling a
long cherished desire of `Abdu'l-Bahá; its illumination through an
electric plant installed by an American believer for that purpose;
the refurnishing of all its rooms after it had been completely denuded
by its former occupants of all the precious relics it contained, with
the exception of a single candlestick in the room where Bahá'u'lláh
had ascended; the collection within its walls of Bahá'í historic documents,
of relics and of over five thousand volumes of Bahá'í literature,
in no less than forty languages; the extension to it of the exemption
from government taxes, already granted to other Bahá'í institutions
and properties in `Akká and on Mt. Carmel; and finally, its conversion
from a private residence to a center of pilgrimage visited by
Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís alike--these served to further dash the hopes
of those who were still desperately striving to extinguish the light of
the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh. Furthermore, the success later achieved
in purchasing and safeguarding the area forming the precincts of
the resting-place of the Báb on Mt. Carmel, and the transfer of the
title-deeds of some of these properties to the legally constituted
Palestine Branch of the American Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly,
no less than the circumstances attending the death of the one who
had been the prime mover of mischief throughout `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry,
demonstrated to these enemies the futility of their efforts and
the hopelessness of their cause.
Of a more serious nature, and productive of still greater repercussions,
was the unlawful seizure by the Shí'ahs of `Iráq, at about the
same time that the keys of the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh were wrested by
the Covenant-breakers from its keeper, of yet another Bahá'í Shrine,
the House occupied by Bahá'u'lláh for well nigh the whole period of
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His exile in `Iráq, which had been acquired by Him, and later had been
ordained as a center of pilgrimage, and had continued in the unbroken
and undisputed possession of His followers ever since His departure
from Baghdád. This crisis, originating about a year prior to `Abdu'l-Bahá's
ascension, and precipitated by the measures which, after the
change of régime in `Iráq, had, according to His instructions, been
taken for the reconstruction of that House, acquired as it developed
a steadily widening measure of publicity. It became the object of the
consideration of successive tribunals, first of the local Shí'ah Ja'faríyyih
court in Baghdád, second of the Peace court, then the court of
First Instance, then of the court of Appeal in `Iráq, and finally of
the League of Nations, the greatest international body yet come into
existence, and empowered to exercise supervision and control over all
Mandated Territories. Though as yet unresolved through a combination
of causes, religious as well as political, it has already remarkably
fulfilled Bahá'u'lláh's own prediction, and will, in its own appointed
time, as the means for its solution are providentially created, fulfill the
high destiny ordained for it by Him in His Tablets. Long before its
seizure by fanatical enemies, who had no conceivable claim to it
whatever, He had prophesied that "it shall be so abased in the days
to come as to cause tears to flow from every discerning eye."
The Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Baghdád, deprived of the
use of that sacred property through an adverse decision by a majority
of the court of Appeal, which had reversed the verdict of the lower
court and awarded the property to the Shí'ahs, and aroused by subsequent
action of the Shí'ahs, soon after the execution of the judgment
of that court, in converting the building into waqf property
(pious foundation), designating it "Husayníyyih," with the purpose
of consolidating their gain, realized the futility of the three
years of negotiations they had been conducting with the civil authorities
in Baghdád for the righting of the wrong inflicted upon them.
In their capacity as the national representatives of the Bahá'ís of
`Iráq, they, therefore, on September 11, 1928, through the High
Commissioner for `Iráq and in conformity with the provisions of
Art. 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, approached the
League's Permanent Mandates Commission, charged with the supervision
of the administration of all Mandated Territories, and presented
a petition that was accepted and approved by that body in
November, 1928. A memorandum submitted, in connection with
that petition, to that same Commission, by the Mandatory Power
unequivocally stated that the Shí'ahs had "no conceivable claim
+P358
whatever" to the House, that the decision of the judge of the Ja'faríyyih
court was "obviously wrong," "unjust" and "undoubtedly actuated
by religious prejudice," that the subsequent ejectment of the Bahá'ís
was "illegal," that the action of the authorities had been "highly
irregular," and that the verdict of the Court of Appeal was suspected
of not being "uninfluenced by political consideration."
"The Commission," states the Report submitted by it to the Council
of the League, and published in the Minutes of the 14th session of
the Permanent Mandates Commission, held in Geneva in the fall of
1928, and subsequently translated into Arabic and published in `Iráq,
"draws the Council's attention to the considerations and conclusions
suggested to it by an examination of the petition... It recommends
that the Council should ask the British Government to make representations
to the `Iráq Government with a view to the immediate
redress of the denial of justice from which the petitioners have
suffered."
The British accredited representative present at the sessions of the
Commission, furthermore, stated that "the Mandatory Power had
recognized that the Bahá'ís had suffered an injustice," whilst allusion
was made, in the course of that session, to the fact that the action of
the Shí'ahs constituted a breach of the constitution and the Organic
Law of `Iráq. The Finnish representative, moreover, in his report to
the Council, declared that this "injustice must be attributed solely to
religious passion," and asked that "the petitioner's wrongs should
be redressed."
The Council of the League, on its part, having considered this
report as well as the joint observations and conclusions of the Commission,
unanimously adopted, on March 4, 1929, a resolution, subsequently
translated and published in the newspapers of Baghdád,
directing the Mandatory Power "to make representations to the
Government of `Iráq with a view to the immediate redress of the
injustice suffered by the Petitioners." It instructed, accordingly, the
Secretary General to bring to the notice of the Mandatory Power, as
well as to the petitioners concerned, the conclusions arrived at by the
Commission, an instruction which was duly transmitted by the British
Government through its High Commissioner to the `Iráq Government.
A letter dated January 12, 1931, written on behalf of the British
Foreign Minister, Mr. Arthur Henderson, addressed to the League
Secretariat, stated that the conclusions reached by the Council had
"received the most careful consideration by the Government of `Iráq,"
who had "finally decided to set up a special committee ... to consider
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the views expressed by the Bahá'í community in respect of
certain houses in Baghdád, and to formulate recommendations for an
equitable settlement of this question." That letter, moreover, pointed
out that the committee had submitted its report in August, 1930,
that it had been accepted by the government, that the Bahá'í community
had "accepted in principle" its recommendations, and that
the authorities in Baghdád had directed that "detailed plans and estimates
shall be prepared with a view to carrying these recommendations
into effect during the coming financial year."
No need to dwell on the subsequent history of this momentous
case, on the long-drawn out negotiations, the delays and complications
that ensued; on the consultations, "over a hundred" in number, in
which the king, his ministers and advisers took part; on the expressions
of "regret," of "surprise" and of "anxiety" placed on record at
successive sessions of the Mandates Commission held in Geneva in
1929, 1930, 1931, 1932 and 1933; on the condemnation by its
members of the "spirit of intolerance" animating the Shí'ah community,
of the "partiality" of the `Iráqí courts, of the "weakness" of
the civil authorities and of the "religious passion at the bottom of this
injustice"; on their testimony to the "extremely conciliatory disposition"
of the petitioners, on their "doubt" regarding the adequacy
of the proposals, and on their recognition of the "serious" character
of the situation that had been created, of the "flagrant denial of
justice" which the Bahá'ís had suffered, and of the "moral debt"
which the `Iráq Government had contracted, a debt which, whatever
the changes in her status as a nation, it was her bounden duty to
discharge.
Nor does it seem necessary to expatiate on the unfortunate consequences
of the untimely death of both the British High Commissioner
and the `Iráqí Prime Minister; on the admission of `Iráq as a member
of the League, and the consequent termination of the mandate held
by Great Britain; on the tragic and unexpected death of the King
himself; on the difficulties raised owing to the existence of a town
planning scheme; on the written assurance conveyed to the High
Commissioner by the acting Premier in his letter of January, 1932;
on the pledge given by the King, prior to his death, in the presence of
the foreign minister, in February, 1933, that the House would be
expropriated, and the necessary sum would be appropriated in the
spring of the ensuing year; on the categorical statement made by
that same foreign minister that the Prime Minister had given the
necessary assurances that the promise already made by the acting
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Premier would be redeemed; or on the positive statements made by
that same Foreign Minister and his colleague, the Minister of Finance,
when representing their country during the sessions of the League
Assembly held in Geneva, that the promise given by their late King
would be fully honored.
Suffice it to say that, despite these interminable delays, protests
and evasions, and the manifest failure of the Authorities concerned
to implement the recommendations made by both the Council of the
League and the Permanent Mandates Commission, the publicity
achieved for the Faith by this memorable litigation, and the defense
of its cause--the cause of truth and justice--by the world's highest
tribunal, have been such as to excite the wonder of its friends and to
fill with consternation its enemies. Few episodes, if any, since the
birth of the Formative Age of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, have given
rise to repercussions in high places comparable to the effect produced
on governments and chancelleries by this violent and unprovoked
assault directed by its inveterate enemies against one of its holiest
sanctuaries.
"Grieve not, O House of God," Bahá'u'lláh Himself has significantly
written, "if the veil of thy sanctity be rent asunder by the
infidels. God hath, in the world of creation, adorned thee with the
jewel of His remembrance. Such an ornament no man can, at any
time, profane. Towards thee the eyes of thy Lord shall, under all
conditions, remain directed." "In the fullness of time," He, in another
passage, referring to that same House, has prophesied, "the Lord shall,
by the power of truth, exalt it in the eyes of all men. He shall cause
it to become the Standard of His Kingdom, the Shrine round which
will circle the concourse of the faithful."
To the bold onslaught made by the breakers of the Covenant of
Bahá'u'lláh in their concerted efforts to secure the custodianship of
His holy Tomb, to the arbitrary seizure of His holy House in Baghdád
by the Shí'ah community of `Iráq, was to be added, a few years later,
yet another grievous assault launched by a still more powerful
adversary, directed against the very fabric of the Administrative
Order as established by two long-flourishing Bahá'í communities of
the East, culminating in the virtual disruption of these communities
and the seizure of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world
and of the few accessory institutions already reared about it.
The courage, the fervor and the spiritual vitality evinced by these
communities; the highly organized state of their administrative institutions;
the facilities provided for the religious education and training
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of their youth; the conversion of a number of broad-minded
Russian citizens, imbued with ideas closely related to the tenets of the
Faith; the growing realization of the implications of its principles,
with their emphasis on religion, on the sanctity of family life, on the
institution of private property, and their repudiation of all discrimination
between classes and of the doctrine of the absolute equality of
men--these combined to excite the suspicion, and later to arouse the
fierce antagonism, of the ruling authorities, and to precipitate one of
the gravest crises in the history of the first Bahá'í century.
As the crisis developed and spread to even the outlying centers of
both Turkistán and the Caucasus it resulted gradually in the imposition
of restrictions limiting the freedom of these communities, in the
interrogation and arrest of their elected representatives, in the dissolution
of their local Assemblies and their respective committees in
Moscow, in Ishqábád, in Bákú and in other localities in the above-mentioned
provinces and in the suspension of all Bahá'í youth activities.
It even led to the closing of Bahá'í schools, kindergartens,
libraries and public reading-rooms, to the interception of all communication
with foreign Bahá'í centers, to the confiscation of
Bahá'í printing presses, books and documents, to the prohibition of
all teaching activities, to the abrogation of the Bahá'í constitution, to
the abolition of all national and local funds and to the ban placed
on the attendance of non-believers at Bahá'í meetings.
In the middle of 1928 the law expropriating religious edifices was
applied to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of Ishqábád. The use of this edifice
as a house of worship, however, was continued, under a five-year
lease, which was renewed by the local authorities in 1933, for a
similar period. In 1938 the situation in both Turkistán and the
Caucasus rapidly deteriorated, leading to the imprisonment of over
five hundred believers--many of whom died--as well as a number of
women, and the confiscation of their property, followed by the exile
of several prominent members of these communities to Siberia, the
polar forests and other places in the vicinity of the Arctic Ocean, the
subsequent deportation of most of the remnants of these communities
to Persia, on account of their Persian nationality, and lastly, the
complete expropriation of the Temple itself and its conversion into
an art gallery.
In Germany, likewise, the rise and establishment of the Administrative
Order of the Faith, to whose expansion and consolidation the
German believers were distinctively and increasingly contributing,
was soon followed by repressive measures, which, though less grievous
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than the afflictions suffered by the Bahá'ís of Turkistán and the
Caucasus, amounted to the virtual cessation, in the years immediately
preceding the present conflict, of all organized Bahá'í activity throughout
the length and breadth of that land. The public teaching of the
Faith, with its unconcealed emphasis on peace and universality, and
its repudiation of racialism, was officially forbidden; Bahá'í Assemblies
and their committees were dissolved; the holding of Bahá'í
conventions was interdicted; the Archives of the National Spiritual
Assembly were seized; the summer school was abolished and the
publication of all Bahá'í literature was suspended.
In Persia, moreover, apart from sporadic outbreaks of persecution
in such places as Shíráz, Ábádih, Ardibíl, Isfahán, and in certain
districts of Ádhirbayján and Khurásán--outbreaks greatly reduced
in number and violence, owing to the marked decline in the fortunes
of the erstwhile powerful Shí'ah ecclesiastics--the institutions of a
newly-established and as yet unconsolidated Administrative Order
were subjected by the civil authorities, in both the capital and the
provinces, to restrictions designed to circumscribe their scope, to
fetter their freedom and undermine their foundations.
The gradual and wholly unexpected emergence from obscurity of
a firmly-welded national community, schooled in adversity and unbroken
in spirit, with centers established in every province of that
country, in spite of the successive waves of inhuman persecution
which had, for three quarters of a century, swept over and had all
but engulfed it; the determination of its members to diffuse the spirit
and principles of their Faith, broadcast its literature, enforce its laws
and ordinances, penalize those who would transgress them, maintain
a steady intercourse with their fellow-believers in foreign lands, and
erect the edifices and institutions of its Administrative Order, could
not but arouse the apprehensions and the hostility of those placed in
authority, who either misunderstood the aims of that community,
or were bent upon stifling its life. The insistence of its members,
while obedient in all matters of a purely administrative character to
the civil statutes of their country, on adhering to the fundamental
spiritual principles, precepts and laws revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, requiring
them, among other things, to hold fast to truthfulness, not to
dissimulate their faith, observe the ordinances prescribed for marriage
and divorce, and suspend all manner of work on the Holy Days
ordained by Him, brought them, sooner or later, into conflict with a
régime which, owing to its formal recognition of Islám as the state
religion of Persia, refused to extend any recognition to those whom
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the official exponents of that religion had already condemned as
heretics.
The closing of all schools belonging to the Bahá'í community in
that country, as a direct consequence of the refusal of the representatives
of that community to permit official Bahá'í institutions, owned
and entirely controlled by them, to transgress the clearly revealed law
requiring the suspension of work on Bahá'í Holy Days; the rejection
of all Bahá'í marriage certificates and the refusal to register them at
government License Bureaus; the ban placed on the printing and
circulation of all Bahá'í literature, as well as on its entry into the
country; the seizure in various centers of Bahá'í documents, books
and relics; the closing, in some of the provinces of the Hazíratu'l-Quds,
and the confiscation in some localities of their furniture; the
prohibition of all Bahá'í demonstrations, conferences and conventions;
the strict censorship imposed on, and often the non-delivery of, communications
between Bahá'í centers in Persia and between these
centers and Bahá'í communities in foreign lands; the withholding of
good-record certificates from loyal and law-abiding citizens on the
ground of their avowed adherence to the Bahá'í Faith; the dismissal
of Government employees, the demotion or discharge of army officers,
the arrest, the interrogation, the imprisonment of, and the imposition
of fines and other punishments upon, a number of believers who
refused either to cast aside the moral obligation of adhering to the
spiritual principles of their Faith, or to act in any manner that would
conflict with its universal and non-political character--all these may
be regarded as the initial attempts made in the country whose soil
had already been imbued with the blood of countless Bahá'í martyrs,
to resist the rise, and frustrate the struggle for the emancipation, of a
nascent Administrative Order, whose very roots have sucked their
strength from such heroic sacrifice.
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CHAPTER XXIV
Emancipation and Recognition of the Faith and Its Institutions
While the initial steps aiming at the erection of the framework of
the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh were being simultaneously
undertaken by His followers in the East and in the West, a
fierce attack was launched in an obscure village in Egypt on a handful
of believers, who were trying to establish there one of the primary
institutions of that Order--an attack which, viewed in the perspective
of history, will be acclaimed by future generations as a landmark not
only in the Formative Period of the Faith but in the history of the
first Bahá'í century. Indeed, the sequel to this assault may be said to
have opened a new chapter in the evolution of the Faith itself, an
evolution which, carrying it through the successive stages of repression,
of emancipation, of recognition as an independent Revelation, and as a
state religion, must lead to the establishment of the Bahá'í state and
culminate in the emergence of the Bahá'í World Commonwealth.
Originating in a country which can rightly boast of being the
acknowledged center of both the Arab and Muslim worlds; precipitated
by the action, taken on their own initiative, by the ecclesiastical
representatives of the largest communion in Islám; the direct outcome
of a series of disturbances instigated by some of the members of that
communion designed to suppress the activities of certain followers of
the Faith who had held a clerical rank among them, this momentous
development in the fortunes of a struggling community has directly
contributed, to a considerable degree, to the consolidation and the
enhancement of the prestige of the Administrative Order which that
community had begun to erect. It will, moreover, as its repercussions
are more widely spread to other Islamic countries, and its vast significance
is more clearly apprehended by the adherents of both Christianity
and Islám, hasten the termination of the period of transition
through which the Faith, now in the formative stage of its growth,
is passing.
It was in the village of Kawmú's-Sa'áyidih, in the district of Beba,
of the province of Beni Suef in Upper Egypt, that, as a result of the
religious fanaticism which the formation of a Bahá'í assembly had
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kindled in the breast of the headman of that village, and of the grave
accusations made by him to both the District Police Officer and the
Governor of the province--accusations which aroused the Muhammadans
to such a pitch of excitement as to cause them to perpetrate
shameful acts against their victims--that action was initiated by the
notary of the village, in his capacity as a religious plaintiff authorized
by the Ministry of Justice, against three Bahá'í residents of that village,
demanding that their Muslim wives be divorced from them on the
grounds that their husbands had abandoned Islám after their legal
marriage as Muslims.
The Opinion and Judgment of the Appellate religious court of
Beba, delivered on May 10, 1925, subsequently sanctioned by the
highest ecclesiastical authorities in Cairo and upheld by them as final,
printed and circulated by the Muslim authorities themselves, annulled
the marriages contracted by the three Bahá'í defendants and condemned
the mass heretics for having violated the laws and ordinances
of Islám. It even went so far as to make the positive, the startling and
indeed the historic assertion that the Faith embraced by these heretics
is to be regarded as a distinct religion, wholly independent of the religious
systems that have preceded it--an assertion which hitherto the
enemies of the Faith, whether in the East or in the West, had either
disputed or deliberately ignored.
Having expounded the fundamental tenets and ordinances of
Islám, and given a detailed exposition of the Bahá'í teachings, supported
by various quotations from the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, from the writings
of `Abdu'l-Bahá and of Mírzá Zurich Zürich, with special reference
to certain Bahá'í laws, and demonstrated that the defendants had, in
the light of these statements, actually abjured the Faith of Muhammad,
his formal verdict declares in the most unequivocal terms: "The Bahá'í
Faith is a new religion, entirely independent, with beliefs, principles
and laws of its own, which differ from, and are utterly in conflict with,
the beliefs, principles and laws of Islám. No Bahá'í, therefore, can be
regarded a Muslim or vice-versa, even as no Buddhist, Brahmin, or
Christian can be regarded a Muslim or vice-versa." Ordering the dissolution
of the contracts of marriage of the parties on trial, and the
"separation" of the husbands from their wives, this official and memorable
pronouncement concludes with the following words: "If any
one of them (husbands) repents, believes in, and acknowledges whatsoever
... Muhammad, the Apostle of God ... has brought from
God ... and returns to the august Faith of Islám ... and testifies
that ... Muhammad ... is the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers,
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that no religion will succeed His religion, that no law will
abrogate His law, that the Qur'án is the last of the Books of God and
His last Revelation to His Prophets and His Messengers ... he shall
be accepted and shall be entitled to renew his marriage contract..."
This declaration of portentous significance, which was supported
by incontrovertible proofs adduced by the avowed enemies of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh themselves, which was made in a country that
aspires to the headship of Islám through the restoration of the
Caliphate, and which has received the sanction of the highest ecclesiastical
authorities in that country, this official testimony which the
leaders of Shí'ah Islám, in both Persia and `Iráq, have, through a
century, sedulously avoided voicing, and which, once and for all,
silences those detractors, including Christian ecclesiastics in the West,
who have in the past stigmatized that Faith as a cult, as a Bábí sect and
as an offshoot of Islám or represented it as a synthesis of religions--
such a declaration was acclaimed by all Bahá'í communities in the East
and in the West as the first Charter of the emancipation of the Cause
of Bahá'u'lláh from the fetters of Islamic orthodoxy, the first historic
step taken, not by its adherents as might have been expected, but by its
adversaries on the road leading to its ultimate and world-wide
recognition.
Such a verdict, fraught with incalculable possibilities, was immediately
recognized as a powerful challenge which the builders of the
Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh were not slow to
face and accept. It imposed upon them a sacred obligation which
they felt ready to discharge. Designed by its authors to deprive their
adversaries of access to Muslim courts, and thereby place them in a
perplexing and embarrassing situation, it became a lever which the
Egyptian Bahá'í community, followed later by its sister-communities,
readily utilized for the purpose of asserting the independence of its
Faith and of seeking for it the recognition of its government. Translated
into several languages, circulated among Bahá'í communities in
East and West, it gradually paved the way for the initiation of negotiations
between the elected representatives of these communities and the
civil authorities in Egypt, in the Holy Land, in Persia and even in the
United States of America, for the purpose of securing the official recognition
by these authorities of the Faith as an independent religion.
In Egypt it was the signal for the adoption of a series of measures
which have in their cumulative effect greatly facilitated the extension
of such a recognition by a government which is still formally associated
with the religion of Islám, and which suffers its laws and regulations
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to be shaped in a great measure by the views and pronouncements
of its ecclesiastical leaders. The inflexible determination of the
Egyptian believers not to deviate a hair's breadth from the tenets of
their Faith, by avoiding all dealings with any Muslim ecclesiastical
court in that country and by refusing any ecclesiastical post which
might be offered them; the codification and publication of the fundamental
laws of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas regarding matters of personal status,
such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and burial, and the presentation
of these laws to the Egyptian Cabinet; the issuance of marriage
and divorce certificates by the Egyptian National Spiritual Assembly;
the assumption by that Assembly of all the duties and responsibilities
connected with the conduct of Bahá'í marriages and divorces, as well
as with the burial of the dead; the observance by all members of that
community of the nine Holy Days on which work, as prescribed in the
Bahá'í teachings, must be completely suspended; the presentation of
a petition addressed by the national elected representatives of that community
to the Egyptian Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior
and the Minister of Justice (supported by a similar communication
addressed by the American National Spiritual Assembly to the
Egyptian Government), enclosing a copy of the judgment of the
Court, and of their national Bahá'í constitution and by-laws, requesting
them to recognize their Assembly as a body qualified to exercise
the functions of an independent court and empowered to apply, in all
matters affecting their personal status, the laws and ordinances revealed
by the Author of their Faith--these stand out as the initial consequences
of a historic pronouncement that must eventually lead to the
establishment of that Faith on a basis of absolute equality with its sister
religions in that land.
A corollary to this epoch-making declaration, and a direct consequence
of the intermittent disturbances instigated in Port Said and
Ismá'ílíyyih by a fanatical populace in connection with the burial of
some of the members of the Bahá'í community, was the official and no
less remarkable fatvá (judgment) issued, at the request of the Ministry
of Justice, by the Grand Muftí of Egypt. This, soon after its
pronouncement, was published in the Egyptian press and contributed to
fortify further the independent status of the Faith. It followed upon the
riots which broke out with exceptional fury in Ismá'ílíyyih, when
angry crowds surrounded the funeral cortège of Muhammad Sulaymán,
a prominent Bahá'í resident of that town, creating such an
uproar that the police had to intervene, and having rescued the body
and brought it back to the home of the deceased, they were forced to
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carry it without escort, at night, to the edge of the desert and inter
it in the wilderness.
This judgment was passed as a result of the inquiry addressed in
writing, on January 24, 1939, by the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior
to the Ministry of Justice, enclosing a copy of the compilation of
Bahá'í laws related to matters of personal status published by the
Egyptian Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly, and asking for a pronouncement
by the Muftí regarding the petition addressed by that
Assembly to the Egyptian Government for the allocation of four plots
to serve as cemeteries for the Bahá'í communities of Cairo, Alexandria,
Port Said and Ismá'ílíyyih. "We are," wrote the Muftí in his reply of
March 11, 1939, to the communication addressed to him by the Ministry
of Justice, "in receipt of your letter ... dated February 21,
1939, with its enclosures ... inquiring whether or not it would be
lawful to bury the Bahá'í dead in Muslim cemeteries. We hereby declare
that this Community is not to be regarded as Muslim, as shown
by the beliefs which it professes. The perusal of what they term `The
Bahá'í Laws affecting Matters of Personal Status,' accompanying the
papers, is deemed sufficient evidence. Whoever among its members had
formerly been a Muslim has, by virtue of his belief in the pretensions
of this community, renounced Islám, and is regarded as beyond its
pale, and is subject to the laws governing apostasy as established in the
right Faith of Islám. This community not being Muslim, it would be
unlawful to bury its dead in Muslim cemeteries, be they originally
Muslims or otherwise..."
It was in consequence of this final, this clearly-worded and authoritative
sentence by the highest exponent of Islamic Law in Egypt, and
after prolonged negotiations, resulting at first in the allocation to the
Cairo Bahá'í community of a cemetery plot forming a part of that set
aside for free thinkers, residing in that city, that the Egyptian government
consented to grant to that community, as well as to the Bahá'ís of
Ismá'ílíyyih, two tracts of land to serve as burial grounds for their
dead--an act of historic significance which was greatly welcomed by
the members of sore-pressed and long-suffering communities, and
which has served to demonstrate still further the independent character
of their Faith and enlarge the sphere of the jurisdiction of its
representative institutions.
It was to the first of these two officially designated Bahá'í cemeteries,
following the decision of the Egyptian Bahá'í National
Assembly aided by its sister-Assembly in Persia, that the remains
of the illustrious Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl were transferred and accorded
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a sepulture worthy of his high position, thereby inaugurating,
in a befitting manner, the first official Bahá'í institution of its kind
established in the East. This achievement was, soon after, enhanced by
the exhumation from a Christian cemetery in Cairo of the body of
that far-famed mother teacher of the West, Mrs. E. Getsinger, and its
interment, through the assistance extended by the American Bahá'í
National Assembly and the Department of State in Washington, in a
spot in the heart of that cemetery and adjoining the resting-place of
that distinguished author and champion of the Faith.
In the Holy Land, where a Bahá'í cemetery had, before these
pronouncements, been established during `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry, the historic
decision to bury the Bahá'í dead facing the Qiblih in `Akká was
taken--a measure whose significance was heightened by the resolution
to cease having recourse, as had been previously the case, to any
Muhammadan court in all matters affecting marriage and divorce, and
to carry out, in their entirety and without any concealment whatever,
the rites prescribed by Bahá'u'lláh for the preparation and burial of
the dead. This was soon after followed by the presentation of a formal
petition addressed by the representatives of the local Bahá'í community
of Haifa, dated May 4, 1929, to the Palestine Authorities, requesting
them that, pending the adoption of a uniform civil law of personal
status applicable to all residents of the country irrespective of their
religious beliefs, the community be officially recognized by them and
be granted "full powers to administer its own affairs now enjoyed by
other religious communities in Palestine."
The acceptance of this petition--an act of tremendous significance
and wholly unprecedented in the history of the Faith in any country--
according official recognition by the civil authorities to marriage
certificates issued by the representatives of the local community, the
validity of which the official representative of the Persian Government
in Palestine has tacitly recognized, was followed by a series of decisions
exempting from government tax all properties and institutions regarded
by the Bahá'í community as holy sites, or dedicated to the
Tombs of its Founders at its world center. Moreover, through these
decisions, all articles serving as ornaments or furniture for the Bahá'í
shrines were exempted from customs duties, and the branches of both
the American and Indian Bahá'í National Spiritual Assemblies were
enabled to function as "religious societies," in accordance with the laws
of the country, and to hold and administer property as agents of these
Assemblies.
In Persia, where a far larger community, already numerically
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superior to the Christian, the Jewish and the Zoroastrian minorities
living in that country, had, notwithstanding the traditionally hostile
attitude of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, succeeded in rearing
the structure of its administrative institutions, the reaction to so momentous
a declaration was such as to inspire its members and induce
them to exploit, in the fullest measure possible, the enormous advantages
which this wholly unexpected testimonial had conferred upon
them. Having survived the fiery ordeals to which the cruel, the arrogant
and implacable leaders of an all-powerful priesthood, now grievously
humiliated, had subjected it, a triumphant community, just
emerging from obscurity, was determined, more than ever before, to
press, within the limits prescribed for it by its Founders, its claim to
be regarded as an independent religious entity, and to safeguard, by all
available means, its integrity, the solidarity of its members and the
solidity of its elective institutions. It could no longer, now that its
declared adversaries had, in such a country, in such a language, and on
so important an issue, made so emphatic and sweeping a pronouncement,
and torn asunder the veil that had for so long been drawn over
some of the distinguishing verities lying at the core of its doctrine,
keep silent or tolerate without any protest the imposition of restrictions
calculated to circumscribe its powers, stifle its community life and
deny it its right to be placed on a footing of unqualified equality with
other religious communities in that land.
Inflexibly resolved to be classified no longer as Muslim, Jew,
Christian or Zoroastrian, the members of this community determined,
as a first step, to adopt such measures as would vindicate
beyond challenge the distinctive position claimed for their religion
by its avowed enemies. Mindful of their clear, their sacred and
inescapable duty to obey unreservedly, in all matters of a purely
administrative character, the laws of their country, but firmly determined
to assert and demonstrate, through every legitimate means at
their disposal, the independent character of their Faith, they formulated
a policy and embarked in undertakings designed to carry them a
stage further towards the goal they had set themselves to attain.
The steadfast resolution not to dissemble their faith, whatever the
sacrifices it might entail; the uncompromising position that they would
not refer any matters affecting their personal status to any Muslim,
Christian, Rabbinical or Zoroastrian court; the refusal to affiliate with
any organization, or accept any ecclesiastical post associated with any
of the recognized religions in their country; the universal observance
of the laws prescribed in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas relating to obligatory
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prayers, fasting, marriage, divorce, inheritance, burial of the dead, and
the use of opium and alcoholic beverages; the issue and circulation of
certificates of birth, death, marriage and divorce, at the direction and
under the seal of recognized Bahá'í Assemblies; the translation into
Persian of "The Bahá'í Laws affecting Matters of Personal Status,"
first published by the Egyptian Bahá'í National Assembly; the cessation
of work on all Bahá'í Holy Days; the establishment of Bahá'í
cemeteries in the capital as well as in the provinces, designed to provide
a common burial ground for all ranks of the faithful, whatever their
religious extraction; the insistence that they no longer be registered as
Muslim, Christian, Jew or Zoroastrian on identity cards, marriage certificates,
passports and other official documents; the emphasis placed
on the institution of the Nineteen Day Feast, as established by Bahá'u'lláh
in His Most Holy Book; the imposition of sanctions by Bahá'í
elective Assemblies, now assuming the duties and functions of religious
courts, on recalcitrant members of the community by denying them
the right to vote and of membership in these Assemblies and their
committees--all these are to be associated with the first stirrings of a
community that had erected the fabric of its Administrative Order,
and was now, under the propelling influence of the historic judicial
sentence passed in Egypt, intent upon obtaining, not by force but
through persuasion, the recognition by the civil authorities of the
status to which its ecclesiastical adversaries had so emphatically borne
witness.
That its initial attempt should have met with partial success, that
it should have aroused at times the suspicion of the ruling authorities,
that it should have been grossly misrepresented by its vigilant enemies,
is not a matter for surprise. It was successful in certain respects in its
negotiations with the civil authorities, as in obtaining the government
decree removing all references to religious affiliation in passports issued
to Persian subjects, and in the tacit permission granted in certain localities
that its members should not fill in the religious columns in certain
state documents, but should register with their own Assemblies their
marriage, their divorce, their birth and their death certificates, and
should conduct their funerals according to their religious rites. In
other respects, however, it has been subjected to grave disabilities: its
schools, founded, owned and controlled exclusively by itself, were
forcibly closed because they refused to remain open on Bahá'í holy
days; its members, both men and women, were prosecuted; those who
held army or civil service appointments were in some cases dismissed; a
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ban was placed on the import, on the printing and circulation of its
literature; and all Bahá'í public gatherings were proscribed.
To all administrative regulations which the civil authorities have
issued from time to time, or will issue in the future in that land, as in
all other countries, the Bahá'í community, faithful to its sacred obligations
towards its government, and conscious of its civic duties, has
yielded, and will continue to yield implicit obedience. Its immediate
closing of its schools in Persia is a proof of this. To such orders, however,
as are tantamount to a recantation of their faith by its members,
or constitute an act of disloyalty to its spiritual, its basic and God-given
principles and precepts, it will stubbornly refuse to bow, preferring
imprisonment, deportation and all manner of persecution, including
death--as already suffered by the twenty thousand martyrs
that have laid down their lives in the path of its Founders--rather than
follow the dictates of a temporal authority requiring it to renounce its
allegiance to its cause.
"If you cut us in pieces, men, women and children alike, in the
entire district of Ábádih," was the memorable message sent by the fearless
descendants of some of those martyrs in that turbulent center to
the Governor of Fárs, who had intended to coerce them into declaring
themselves as Muslims, "we will never submit to your wishes"--a message
which, as soon as it was delivered to that defiant governor, induced
him to desist from pressing the matter any further.
In the United States of America, the Bahá'í community, having
already set an inspiring example, by erecting and perfecting the machinery
of its Administrative Order, was alive to the far-reaching
implications of the sentence passed by the Muslim court in Egypt, and
to the significance of the reaction it had produced in the Holy Land,
and was stimulated by the courageous persistence demonstrated by its
sister-community in Persia. It determined to supplement its notable
achievements with further acts designed to throw into sharper relief
the status achieved by the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the North American
continent. It was numerically smaller than the community of the
Persian believers. Owing to the multiplicity of laws governing the
states within the Union, it was faced, in matters affecting the personal
status of its members, with a situation radically different from that
confronting the believers in the East, and much more complex. But
conscious of its responsibility to lend, once again, a powerful impetus
to the unfoldment of a divinely appointed Order, it boldly undertook
to initiate such measures as would accentuate the independent character
of a Revelation it had already so nobly championed.
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The recognition of its National Spiritual Assembly by the Federal
authorities as a religious body entitled to hold as trustees properties
dedicated to the interests of the Faith; the establishment of Bahá'í
endowments and the exemption obtained for them from the civil
authorities as properties owned by, and administered solely for the
benefit of, a purely religious community, were now to be supplemented
by decisions and measures designed to give further prominence to the
nature of the ties uniting its members. The special stress laid on some
of the fundamental laws contained in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas regarding
daily obligatory prayers; the observance of the fast, the consent of the
parents as a prerequisite of marriage; the one-year separation between
husband and wife as an indispensable condition of divorce; abstinence
from all alcoholic drinks; the emphasis placed on the institution of the
Nineteen Day Feast as ordained by Bahá'u'lláh in that same Book; the
discontinuation of membership in, and affiliation with, all ecclesiastical
organizations, and the refusal to accept any ecclesiastical post--these
have served to forcibly underline the distinctive character of the
Bahá'í Fellowship, and to dissociate it, in the eyes of the public, from
the rituals, the ceremonials and man-made institutions identified with
the religious systems of the past.
Of particular and historic importance has been the application
made by the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Chicago--the first
center established in the North American continent, the first to be
incorporated among its sister-Assemblies and the first to take the initiative
in paving the way for the erection of a Bahá'í Temple in the
West--to the civil authorities in the state of Illinois for civil recognition
of the right to conduct legal marriages in accordance with the
ordinances of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and to file marriage certificates that
have previously received the official sanction of that Assembly. The
acceptance of this petition by the authorities, necessitating an amendment
of the by-laws of all local Assemblies to enable them to conduct
Bahá'í legal marriages, and empowering the Chairman or secretary of
the Chicago Assembly to represent that body in the conduct of all
Bahá'í marriages; the issuance, on September 22, 1939, of the first
Bahá'í Marriage License by the State of Illinois, authorizing the
aforementioned Assembly to solemnize Bahá'í marriages and issue Bahá'í
marriage certificates; the successful measures taken subsequently by
Assemblies in other states of the Union, such as New York, New
Jersey, Wisconsin and Ohio, to procure for themselves similar privileges,
have, moreover, contributed their share in giving added prominence
to the independent religious status of the Faith. To these must
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be added a similar and no less significant recognition extended, since
the outbreak of the present conflict, by the United States War Department
--as evidenced by the communication addressed to the American
Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly by the Quartermaster General of
that Department, on August 14, 1942--approving the use of the
symbol of the Greatest Name on stones marking the graves of Bahá'ís
killed in the war and buried in military or private cemeteries, distinguishing
thereby these graves from those bearing the Latin Cross or
the Star of David assigned to those belonging to the Christian and
Jewish Faiths respectively.
Nor should mention be omitted of the equally successful application
made by the American Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly to
the Office of Price Administration in Washington, D.C., asking that
the chairmen and secretaries of Bahá'í local Assemblies should, in their
capacity as officers conducting religious meetings, and authorized, in
certain states, to perform marriage services, be eligible for preferred
mileage under the provisions of the Preferred Mileage Section of the
Gasoline Regulations, for the purpose of meeting the religious needs of
the localities they serve.
Nor have the Bahá'í communities in other countries such as India,
`Iráq, Great Britain and Australia, been slow to either appreciate the
advantages derived from the publication of this historic verdict, or to
exploit, each according to its capacity and within the limits imposed
upon it by prevailing circumstances, the opportunities afforded by such
public testimonial for a further demonstration on their part of the
independent character of the Faith whose administrative structure they
had already erected. Through the enforcement, to whatever extent
deemed practicable, of the laws ordained in their Most Holy Book;
through the severance of all ties of affiliation with, and membership in,
ecclesiastical institutions of whatever denomination; through the
formulation of a policy initiated for the sole purpose of giving further
publicity to this mighty issue, marking a great turning-point in the
evolution of the Faith, and of facilitating its ultimate settlement, these
communities, and indeed all organized Bahá'í bodies, whether in the
East or in the West, however isolated their position or immature their
state of development, have, conscious of their solidarity and well aware
of the glorious prospects opening before them, arisen to proclaim with
one voice the independent character of the religion of Bahá'u'lláh and
to pave the way for its emancipation from whatever fetters, be they
ecclesiastical or otherwise, might hinder or delay its ultimate and
world-wide recognition.
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To the status already achieved by their Faith, largely through
their own unaided efforts and accomplishments, tributes have been
paid by observers in various walks of life, whose testimony they welcome
and regard as added incentive to action in their steep and laborious
ascent towards the heights which they must eventually capture.
"Palestine," is the testimony of Prof. Norman Bentwitch, a
former Attorney-General of the Palestine Government, "may indeed
be now regarded as the land not of three but of four Faiths, because
the Bahá'í creed, which has its center of faith and pilgrimage in
`Akká and Haifa, is attaining to the character of a world religion. So
far as its influence goes in the land, it is a factor making for international
and inter-religious understanding." "In 1920," is the declaration
made in his testament by the distinguished Swiss scientist and
psychiatrist, Dr. Auguste Forel, "I learned at Karlsruhe of the
supraconfessional world religion of the Bahá'ís, founded in the Orient seventy
years ago by a Persian, Bahá'u'lláh. This is the real religion of
`Social Welfare' without dogmas or priests, binding together all men of
this small terrestrial globe of ours. I have become a Bahá'í. May this
religion live and prosper for the good of humanity! This is my most
ardent desire." "There is bound to be a world state, a universal language,
and a universal religion," he, moreover has stated, "The Bahá'í
Movement for the oneness of mankind is, in my estimation, the greatest
movement today working for universal peace and brotherhood." "A
religion," is yet another testimony, from the pen of the late Queen
Marie of Rumania, "which links all creeds ... a religion based upon
the inner spirit of God... It teaches that all hatreds, intrigues, suspicions,
evil words, all aggressive patriotism even, are outside the one
essential law of God, and that special beliefs are but surface things
whereas the heart that beats with Divine love knows no tribe nor race."
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CHAPTER XXV
International Expansion of Teaching Activities
While the fabric of the Administrative Order of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh gradually arose, and while through the influence of unforeseen
forces the independence of the Faith was more and more definitely
acknowledged by its enemies and demonstrated by its friends, another
development, no less pregnant with consequences, was at the same time
being set in motion. The purpose of this was to extend the borders of
the Faith, increasing the number of its declared supporters and of its
administrative centers, and to give a new and ever growing impetus to
the enriching, the expanding, the diversifying of its literature, and to
the task of disseminating it farther and farther afield. Experience
indeed proved that the very pattern of the Administrative Order, apart
from other distinctive features, definitely encouraged efficiency and
expedition in this work of teaching, and its builders found their zeal
continually quickened and their missionary ardor heightened as the
Faith moved forward to an ever fuller emancipation.
Nor were they unmindful of the exhortations, the appeals and the
promises of the Founders of their Faith, Who, for three quarters of a
century, had, each in His own way and within the limits circumscribing
His activities, labored so heroically to noise abroad the fame
of the Cause Whose destiny an almighty Providence had commissioned
them to shape.
The Herald of their Faith had commanded the sovereigns of the
earth themselves to arise and teach His Cause, writing in the
Qayyúmu'l-Asmá': "O concourse of kings! Deliver with truth and in
all haste the verses sent down by Us to the peoples of Turkey and of
India, and beyond them ... to lands in both the East and the West."
"Issue forth from your cities, O peoples of the West," He, in that same
Book, had moreover written, "to aid God." "We behold you from Our
Most Glorious Horizon," Bahá'u'lláh had thus addressed His followers
in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, "and will assist whosoever will arise to aid My
Cause with the hosts of the Concourse on high, and a cohort of the
angels, who are nigh unto Me." "...Teach ye the Cause of God, O
people of Bahá!" He, furthermore, had written, "for God hath prescribed
unto every one the duty of proclaiming His message, and
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regardeth it as the most meritorious of all deeds." "Should a man all
alone," He had clearly affirmed, "arise in the name of Bahá and put on the
armor of His love, him will the Almighty cause to be victorious,
though the forces of earth and heaven be arrayed against him."
"Should any one arise for the triumph of Our Cause," He moreover
had declared, "him will God render victorious though tens of thousands
of enemies be leagued against him." And again: "Center your energies
in the propagation of the Faith of God. Whoso is worthy of so high a
calling, let him arise and promote it. Whoso is unable, it is his duty to
appoint him who will, in his stead, proclaim this Revelation..."
"They that have forsaken their country," is His own promise, "for the
purpose of teaching Our Cause--these shall the Faithful Spirit
strengthen through its power... Such a service is indeed the prince
of all goodly deeds, and the ornament of every goodly act." "In these
days," `Abdu'l-Bahá had written in His Will, "the most important of
all things is the guidance of the nations and peoples of the world.
Teaching the Cause is of the utmost importance, for it is the head
corner-stone of the foundation itself." "The disciples of Christ," He
had declared in that same Document, "forgot themselves and all earthly
things, forsook all their cares and belongings, purged themselves of self
and passion, and, with absolute detachment, scattered far and wide, and
engaged in guiding aright the peoples of the world, till at last they
made the world another world, illumined the earth, and to their last
hour proved self-sacrificing in the path of that Beloved One of God.
Finally, in various lands they suffered martyrdom. Let men of action
follow in their footsteps." "When the hour cometh," He had solemnly
stated in that same Will, "that this wronged and broken-winged bird
will have taken its flight unto the celestial concourse ... it is incumbent
upon ... the friends and loved ones, one and all, to bestir themselves
and arise, with heart and soul, and in one accord ... to teach
His Cause and promote His Faith. It behoveth them not to rest for a
moment... They must disperse themselves in every land ... and
travel throughout all regions. Bestirred, without rest, and steadfast to
the end, they must raise in every land the cry of Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá
(O Thou the Glory of Glories) ... that throughout the East and the
West a vast concourse may gather under the shadow of the Word of
God, that the sweet savors of holiness may be wafted, that men's faces
may be illumined, that their hearts may be filled with the Divine Spirit
and their souls become heavenly."
Obedient to these repeated injunctions, mindful of these glowing
promises, conscious of the sublimity of their calling, spurred on by the
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example which `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself had set, undismayed by His sudden
removal from their midst, undaunted by the attacks launched by
their adversaries from within and from without, His followers in both
the East and in the West arose, in the full strength of their solidarity,
to promote, more vigorously than ever before, the international expansion
of their Faith, an expansion which was now to assume such proportions
as to deserve to be recognized as one of the most significant
developments in the history of the first Bahá'í century.
Launched in every continent of the globe, at first intermittent,
haphazard, and unorganized, and later, as a result of the emergence of
a slowly developing Administrative Order, systematically conducted,
centrally directed and efficiently prosecuted, the teaching enterprises
which were undertaken by the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in many lands,
but conspicuously in America, and which were pursued by members
of all ages and of both sexes, by neophytes and by veterans, by itinerant
teachers and by settlers, constitute, by virtue of their range and the
blessings which have flowed from them, a shining episode that yields
place to none except those associated with the exploits which have immortalized
the early years of the primitive age of the Bahá'í Dispensation.
The light of the Faith which during the nine years of the Bábí
Dispensation had irradiated Persia, and been reflected on the adjoining
territory of `Iráq; which in the course of Bahá'u'lláh's thirty-nine-year
ministry had shed its splendor upon India, Egypt, Turkey, the
Caucasus, Turkistán, the Súdán, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Burma,
and which had subsequently, through the impulse of a divinely-instituted
Covenant, traveled to the United States of America, Canada,
France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, Holland,
Hungary, Switzerland, Arabia, Tunisia, China, Japan, the Hawaiian
Islands, South Africa, Brazil and Australia, was now to be carried to,
and illuminate, ere the termination of the first Bahá'í century, no less
than thirty-four independent nations, as well as several dependencies
situated in the American, the Asiatic and African continents, in the
Persian Gulf, and in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. In Norway,
in Sweden, in Denmark, in Belgium, in Finland, in Ireland, in Poland,
in Czechoslovakia, in Rumania, in Yugoslavia, in Bulgaria, in Albania,
in Afghanistan, in Abyssinia, in New Zealand and in nineteen Latin
American Republics ensigns of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh have been
raised since `Abdu'l-Bahá's passing, and the structural basis of the
Administrative Order of His Faith, in many of them, already established.
In several dependencies, moreover, in both the East and the
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West, including Alaska, Iceland, Jamaica, Porto Rico, the island of
Solano in the Philippines, Java, Tasmania, the islands of Bahrayn and
of Tahiti, Baluchistan, South Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo,
the bearers of the new born Gospel have established their residence,
and are bending every effort to lay an impregnable basis for its
institutions.
Through lectures and conferences, through the press and radio,
through the organization of study classes and fire-side gatherings,
through participation in the activities of societies, institutes and clubs
animated by ideals akin to the principles of the Faith, through the
dissemination of Bahá'í literature, through various exhibits, through
the establishment of teacher training classes, through contact with
statesmen, scholars, publicists, philanthropists and other leaders of public
thought--most of which have been carried out through the resourcefulness
of the members of the American Bahá'í community,
who have assumed direct responsibility for the spiritual conquest of
the vast majority of these countries and dependencies--above all
through the inflexible resolution and unswerving fidelity of pioneers
who, whether as visiting teachers or as residents, have participated in
these crusades, have these signal victories been achieved during the
closing decades of the first Bahá'í century.
Nor should reference be omitted to the international teaching
activities of the western followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and
particularly the members of the stalwart American Bahá'í community,
who, seizing every opportunity that presented itself to them, have
either through example, precept or the circulation of literature carried
the Faith to virgin fields, scattering the seeds which must eventually
germinate and yield a harvest as notable as those already garnered in
the aforementioned countries. Through such efforts as these the
breezes of God's vitalizing Revelation have been blown upon the uttermost
corners of the earth, bearing the germ of a new spiritual life to
such distant climes and inhospitable regions as Lapland; the Island of
Spitzbergen, the northernmost settlement in the world; Hammerfest,
in Norway, and Magellanes, in the extremity of Chile--the most
northerly and southerly cities of the globe respectively; Pago Pago
and Fiji, in the Pacific Ocean; Chichen Itza, in the province of Yucatan;
the Bahama Islands, Trinidad and Barbados in the West Indies;
the Island of Bali and British North Borneo in the East Indies; Patagonia;
British Guiana; Seychelles Islands; New Guinea and Ceylon.
Nor can we fail to notice the special endeavors that have been
exerted by individuals as well as Assemblies for the purpose of establishing
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contact with minority groups and races in various parts of the
world, such as the Jews and Negroes in the United States of America,
the Eskimos in Alaska, the Patagonian Indians in Argentina, the Mexican
Indians in Mexico, the Inca Indians in Peru, the Cherokee Indians
in North Carolina, the Oneida Indians in Wisconsin, the Mayans in
Yucatan, the Lapps in Northern Scandinavia, and the Maoris in Rotorua,
New Zealand.
Of special and valuable assistance has been the institution of an
international Bahá'í Bureau in Geneva, a center designed primarily to
facilitate the expansion of the teaching activities of the Faith in the
European continent, which, as an auxiliary to the world administrative
center in the Holy Land, has maintained contact with Bahá'í communities
in the East and in the West. Serving as a bureau of information
on the Faith, as well as a distributing center for its literature, it
has, through its free reading room and lending library, through the
hospitality extended to itinerant teachers and visiting believers, and
through its contact with various societies, contributed, in no small
measure, to the consolidation of the teaching enterprises undertaken by
individuals as well as Bahá'í National Assemblies.
Through these teaching activities, some initiated by individual
believers, others conducted through plans launched by organized
Assemblies, the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh which, in His lifetime, had included
within its ranks Persians, Arabs, Turks, Russians, Kurds,
Indians, Burmese and Negroes, and was later, in the days of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
reinforced by the inclusion of American, British, German,
French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and Armenian converts, could now
boast of having enrolled amongst its avowed supporters representatives
of such widely dispersed ethnic groups and nationalities as Hungarians,
Netherlanders, Irishmen, Scandinavians, Sudanese, Czechs, Bulgarians,
Finns, Ethiopians, Albanians, Poles, Eskimos, American Indians, Yugoslavians,
Latin Americans and Maoris.
So notable an enlargement of the limits of the Faith, so striking
an increase in the diversity of the elements included within its pale,
was accompanied by an enormous extension in the volume and the
circulation of its literature, an extension that sharply contrasted with
those initial measures undertaken for the publication of the few editions
of Bahá'u'lláh's writing issued during the concluding years of His
ministry. The range of Bahá'í literature, confined during half a
century, in the days of the Báb and of Bahá'u'lláh, to the two languages
in which their teachings were originally revealed, and subsequently
extended, in the lifetime of `Abdu'l-Bahá, to include editions
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published in the English, the French, the German, the Turkish, the
Russian and Burmese languages, was steadily enlarged after His passing,
through a vast multiplication in the number of books, treatises,
pamphlets and leaflets, printed and circulated in no less than twenty-nine
additional languages. In Spanish and in Portuguese; in the three
Scandinavian languages, in Finnish and in Icelandic; in Dutch, Italian,
Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Rumanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Greek and
Albanian; in Hebrew and in Esperanto, in Armenian, in Kurdish and
in Amharic; in Chinese and in Japanese; as well as in five Indian languages,
namely Urdu, Gujrati, Bengali, Hindi, and Sindhi, books,
mostly through the initiative of individual Bahá'ís, and partly through
the intermediary of Bahá'í assemblies, were published, widely distributed,
and placed in private as well as public libraries in both the East
and the West. The literature of the Faith, moreover, is being translated
at present into Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Tamil, Mahratti,
Pushtoo, Telegu, Kinarese, Singhalese, Malyalan, Oriya, Punjabi and
Rajasthani.
No less remarkable has been the range of the literature produced
and placed at the disposal of the general public in every continent of
the globe, and carried by resolute and indefatigable pioneers to the
furthermost ends of the earth, an enterprise in which the members of
the American Bahá'í community have again distinguished themselves.
The publication of an English edition comprising selected passages
from the more important and hitherto untranslated writings of
Bahá'u'lláh, as well as of an English version of His "Epistle to the Son
of the Wolf," and of a compilation, in the same language, of Prayers
and Meditations revealed by His pen; the translation and publication
of His "Hidden Words" in eight, of His "Kitáb-i-Iqán" in seven, and
of `Abdu'l-Bahá's "Some Answered Questions" in six, languages; the
compilation of the third volume of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Tablets translated
into English; the publication of books and treatises related to the principles
of Bahá'í belief and to the origin and development of the Administrative
Order of the Faith; of an English translation of the
Narrative of the early days of the Bahá'í Revelation, written by the
chronicler and poet, Nabíl-i-Zarandí, subsequently published in Arabic
and translated into German and Esperanto; of commentaries and of
expositions of the Bahá'í teachings, of administrative institutions and
of kindred subjects, such as world federation, race unity and comparative
religion by western authors and by former ministers of the Church
--all these attest the diversified character of Bahá'í publications, so
closely paralleled by their extensive dissemination over the surface of
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the globe. Moreover, the printing of documents related to the laws of
the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, of books and pamphlets dealing with Biblical
prophecies, of revised editions of some of the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, of
`Abdu'l-Bahá and of several Bahá'í authors, of guides and study outlines
for a wide variety of Bahá'í books and subjects, of lessons in
Bahá'í Administration, of indexes to Bahá'í books and periodicals, of
anniversary cards and of calendars, of poems, songs, plays and pageants,
of study outlines and a prayer-book for the training of Bahá'í children,
and of news letters, bulletins and periodicals issued in English, Persian,
German, Esperanto, Arabic, French, Urdu, Burmese and Portuguese
has contributed to swell the output and increase the diversity of Bahá'í
publications.
Of particular value and significance has been the production, over
a period of many years, of successive volumes of biennial international
record of Bahá'í activity, profusely illustrated, fully documented, and
comprising among other things a statement on the aims and purposes
of the Faith and its Administrative Order, selections from its scriptures,
a survey of its activities, a list of its centers in five continents, a
bibliography of its literature, tributes paid to its ideals and achievements
by prominent men and women in East and West, and articles
dealing with its relation to present-day problems.
Nor would any survey of the Bahá'í literature produced during the
concluding decades of the first Bahá'í century be complete without
special reference being made to the publication of, and the far-reaching
influence exerted by, that splendid, authoritative and comprehensive
introduction to Bahá'í history and teachings, penned by that pure-hearted
and immortal promoter of the Faith, J. E. Esslemont, which
has already been printed in no less than thirty-seven languages, and is
being translated into thirteen additional languages, whose English
version has already run into tens of thousands, which has been reprinted
no less than nine times in the United States of America, whose
Esperanto, Japanese and English versions have been transcribed into
Braille, and to which royalty has paid its tribute, characterizing it as
"a glorious book of love and goodness, strength and beauty," commending
it to all, and affirming that "no man could fail to be better
because of this Book."
Deserving special mention, moreover, is the establishment by the
British National Spiritual Assembly of a Publishing Trust, registered
as "The Bahá'í Publishing Co." and acting as a publisher and wholesale
distributor of Bahá'í literature throughout the British Isles; the compilation
by various Bahá'í Assemblies throughout the East of no less
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than forty volumes in manuscript of the authenticated and unpublished
writings of the Báb, of Bahá'u'lláh and of `Abdu'l-Bahá; the
translation into English of the Appendix to the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, entitled
"Questions and Answers," as well as the publication in Arabic and
Persian by the Egyptian and Indian Bahá'í National Spiritual Assemblies
respectively of the Outline of Bahá'í Laws on Matters of Personal
Status, and of a brief outline by the latter Assembly of the laws
relating to the burial of the dead; and the translation of a pamphlet
into Maori undertaken by a Maori Bahá'í in New Zealand. Reference
should also be made to the collection and publication by the Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Tihrán of a considerable number of the
addresses delivered by `Abdu'l-Bahá in the course of His Western tours;
to the preparation of a detailed history of the Faith in Persian; to the
printing of Bahá'í certificates of marriage and divorce, in both Persian
and Arabic, by a number of National Spiritual Assemblies in the East;
to the issuance of birth and death certificates by the Persian Bahá'í
National Spiritual Assembly; to the preparation of forms of bequest
available to believers wishing to make a legacy to the Faith; to the
compilation of a considerable number of the unpublished Tablets of
`Abdu'l-Bahá by the American Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly; to
the translation into Esperanto, undertaken by the daughter of the
famous Zamenhof, herself a convert to the Faith, of several Bahá'í
books, including some of the more important writings of Bahá'u'lláh
and of `Abdu'l-Bahá; to the translation of a Bahá'í booklet into Serbian
by Prof. Bogdan Popovitch, one of the most eminent scholars attached
to the University of Belgrade, and to the offer spontaneously made by
Princess Ileana of Rumania (now Arch-Duchess Anton of Austria) to
render into her own native language a Bahá'í pamphlet written in English,
and subsequently distributed in her native country.
The progress made in connection with the transcription of the
Bahá'í writings into Braille, should also be noted--a transcription
which already includes such works as the English versions of the
"Kitáb-i-Iqán," of the "Hidden Words," of the "Seven Valleys," of the
"Ishráqát," of the "Súriy-i-Haykal," of the "Words of Wisdom," of the
"Prayers and Meditations of Bahá'u'lláh," of `Abdu'l-Bahá's "Some
Answered Questions," of the "Promulgation of Universal Peace," of
the "Wisdom of `Abdu'l-Bahá," of "The Goal of a New World Order,"
as well as of the English (two editions), the Esperanto and the Japanese
versions of "Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era" and of pamphlets
written in English, in French and in Esperanto.
Nor have those who have been primarily responsible for the enrichment
+P384
of the literature of the Faith and its translation into so many
languages, been slow to disseminate it, by every means in their power,
in their daily intercourse with individuals as well as in their official
contacts with organizations whom they have been seeking to acquaint
with the aims and principles of their Faith. The energy, the vigilance,
the steadfastness displayed by these heralds of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh and their elected representatives, under whose auspices the
circulation of Bahá'í literature has, of late years, assumed tremendous
dimensions, merit the highest praise. From the reports prepared and
circulated by the chief agencies entrusted with the task of the publication
and distribution of this literature in the United States and Canada
the remarkable facts emerge that, within the space of the eleven
months ending February 28, 1943, over 19,000 books, 100,000 pamphlets,
3,000 study outlines, 4,000 sets of selected writings, and 1800
anniversary and Temple cards and folders had been either sold or distributed;
that, in the course of two years, 376,000 pamphlets, outlining
the character and purpose of the House of Worship, erected in the
United States of America, had been printed; that over 300,000 pieces
of literature had been distributed at the two World Fairs held in San
Francisco and New York; that, in a period of twelve months, 1089
books had been donated to various libraries, and that, through the
National Contacts Committee, during one year, more than 2,300 letters,
with over 4,500 pamphlets, had reached authors, radio speakers,
and representatives of the Jewish and Negro minorities, as well as various
organizations interested in international affairs.
In the presentation of this vast literature to men of eminence and
rank the elected representatives, as well as the traveling teachers, of the
American Bahá'í community, aided by Assemblies in other lands, have,
likewise, exhibited an energy and determination as laudable as the
efforts exerted for its production. To the King of England, to Queen
Marie of Rumania, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to the Emperor
of Japan, to the late President von Hindenburg, to the King of Denmark,
to the Queen of Sweden, to King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, to the
Emperor of Abyssinia, to the King of Egypt, to the late King Feisal of
`Iráq, to King Zog of Albania, to the late President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia,
to the Presidents of Mexico, of Honduras, of Panama, of El-Salvador,
of Guatemala, and of Porto Rico, to General Chiang Kaishek,
to the Ex-Khedive of Egypt, to the Crown Prince of Sweden, to
the Duke of Windsor, to the Duchess of Kent, to the Arch-Duchess
Anton of Austria, to Princess Olga of Yugoslavia, to Princess Kadria of
Egypt, to Princess Estelle Bernadotte of Wisborg, to Mahatma Gandhi,
+P385
to several ruling princes of India and to the Prime Ministers of all
the states of the Australian Commonwealth--to these, as well as to
other personages of lesser rank, Bahá'í literature, touching various
aspects of the Faith, has been presented, to some personally, to others
through suitable intermediaries, either by individual believers or by the
elected representatives of Bahá'í communities.
Nor have these individual teachers and Assemblies been neglectful
of their duty to place this literature at the disposal of the public in
state, university and public libraries, thereby extending the opportunity
to the great mass of the reading public of familiarizing itself
with the history and precepts of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. A mere
enumeration of a number of the more important of these libraries
would suffice to reveal the scope of these activities extending over five
continents: the British Museum in London, the Bodleian Library at
Oxford, the Library of Congress in Washington, the Peace Palace
Library at the Hague, the Nobel Peace Foundation and Nansen Foundation
Libraries at Oslo, the Royal Library in Copenhagen, the League
of Nations Library in Geneva, the Hoover Peace Library, the Amsterdam
University Library, the Library of Parliament in Ottawa, the
Allahabad University Library, the Aligarh University Library, the
University of Madras Library, the Shantineketan International University
Library in Bolepur, the Uthmáníyyih University Library in
Hyderabad, the Imperial Library in Calcutta, the Jamia Milli Library
in Delhi, the Mysore University Library, the Bernard Library in Rangoon,
the Jerabia Wadia Library in Poona, the Lahore Public Library,
the Lucknow and Delhi University Libraries, the Johannesburg Public
Library, the Rio de Janeiro Circulating libraries, the Manila National
Library, the Hong Kong University Library, the Reykjavik public
libraries, the Carnegie Library in the Seychelles Islands, the Cuban National
Library, the San Juan Public Library, the Ciudad Trujillo University
Library, the University and Carnegie Public libraries in Porto
Rico, the Library of Parliament in Canberra, the Wellington Parliamentary
Library. In all these, as well as in all the chief libraries of
Australia and New Zealand, nine libraries in Mexico, several libraries
in Mukden, Manchukuo, and more than a thousand public libraries, a
hundred service libraries and two hundred university and college
libraries, including Indian colleges, in the United States and Canada,
authoritative books on the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh have been placed.
State prisons and, since the outbreak of the war, army libraries have
been included in the comprehensive scheme which the American
Bahá'í community has, through a special committee, devised for the
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diffusion of the literature of the Faith. The interests of the blind, too,
have not been neglected by that alert and enterprising community,
as is shown by the placing of Bahá'í books, transcribed by its members
in Braille, in thirty libraries and institutes, in eighteen states of
the United States of America, in Honolulu (Hawaii), in Regina
(Saskatchewan), and in the Tokyo and Geneva Libraries for the Blind,
as well as in a large number of circulating libraries connected with
public libraries in various large cities of the North American
continent.
Nor can I dismiss this subject without singling out for special
reference her who, not only through her preponderating share in
initiating measures for the translation and dissemination of Bahá'í
literature, but above all through her prodigious and indeed unique exertions
in the international teaching field, has covered herself with a
glory that has not only eclipsed the achievements of the teachers of
the Faith among her contemporaries the globe around, but has outshone
the feats accomplished by any of its propagators in the course of
an entire century. To Martha Root, that archetype of Bahá'í itinerant
teachers and the foremost Hand raised by Bahá'u'lláh since `Abdu'l-Bahá's
passing, must be awarded, if her manifold services and the
supreme act of her life are to be correctly appraised, the title of Leading
Ambassadress of His Faith and Pride of Bahá'í teachers, whether
men or women, in both the East and the West.
The first to arise, in the very year the Tablets of the Divine Plan
were unveiled in the United States of America, in response to the epoch-making
summons voiced in them by `Abdu'l-Bahá; embarking, with
unswerving resolve and a spirit of sublime detachment, on her world
journeys, covering an almost uninterrupted period of twenty years
and carrying her four times round the globe, in the course of which
she traveled four times to China and Japan and three times to India,
visited every important city in South America, transmitted the message
of the New Day to kings, queens, princes and princesses, presidents
of republics, ministers and statesmen, publicists, professors,
clergymen and poets, as well as a vast number of people in various
walks of life, and contacted, both officially and informally, religious
congresses, peace societies, Esperanto associations, socialist congresses,
Theosophical societies, women's clubs and other kindred organizations,
this indomitable soul has, by virtue of the character of her exertions
and the quality of the victories she has won, established a record that
constitutes the nearest approach to the example set by `Abdu'l-Bahá
+P387
Himself to His disciples in the course of His journeys throughout the
West.
Her eight successive audiences with Queen Marie of Rumania, the
first of which took place in January, 1926 in Controceni Palace in
Bucharest, the second in 1927 in Pelisor Palace in Sinaia, followed by
a visit in January of the ensuing year to her Majesty and her daughter
Princess Ileana, at the royal palace in Belgrade, where they were staying
as guests of the King and Queen of Yugoslavia, and later, in
October, 1929, at the Queen's summer palace "Tehna Yuva," at Balcic,
on the Black Sea, and again, in August, 1932 and February, 1933, at
the home of Princess Ileana (now Arch-Duchess Anton of Austria) at
Mödling, near Vienna, followed a year later, in February, by another
audience at Controceni Palace, and lastly, in February, 1936, in that
same palace--these audiences stand out, by reason of the profound
influence exerted by the visitor on her royal hostess, as witnessed by
the successive encomiums from the Queen's own pen, as the most outstanding
feature of those memorable journeys. The three invitations
which that indefatigable champion of the Faith received to call on
Prince Paul and Princess Olga of Yugoslavia at the Royal Palace in
Belgrade; the lectures which she delivered in over four hundred universities
and colleges in both the East and the West; her twice repeated
visits to all German universities with the exception of two, as well as
to nearly a hundred universities, colleges and schools in China; the
innumerable articles which she published in newspapers and magazines
in practically every country she visited; the numerous broadcasts
which she delivered and the unnumbered books she placed in private
and state libraries; her personal meetings with the statesmen of more
than fifty countries, during her three-months stay in Geneva, in 1932,
at the time of the Disarmament Conference; the painstaking efforts she
exerted, while on her arduous journeys, in supervising the translation
and production of a large number of versions of Dr. Esslemont's
"Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era"; the correspondence exchanged with,
and the presentation of Bahá'í books to, men of eminence and learning;
her pilgrimage to Persia, and the touching homage paid by her to
the memory of the heroes of the Faith when visiting the Bahá'í historic
sites in that country; her visit to Adrianople, where, in her overflowing
love for Bahá'u'lláh, she searched out the houses where He had
dwelt and the people whom He had met during His exile to that city,
and where she was entertained by its governor and mayor; the ready
and unfailing assistance extended by her to the administrators of the
Faith in all countries where its institutions had been erected or were being
+P388
established--these may be regarded as the highlights of a service
which, in many of its aspects, is without parallel in the entire history of
the first Bahá'í century.
No less impressive is the list of the names of those whom she interviewed
in the course of the execution of her mission, including, in
addition to those already mentioned, such royal personages and distinguished
figures as King Haakon of Norway; King Feisal of `Iráq;
King Zog of Albania and members of his family; Princess Marina of
Greece (now the Duchess of Kent); Princess Elizabeth of Greece;
President Thomas G. Masaryk and President Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia;
the President of Austria; Dr. Sun Yat Sen; Dr. Nicholas Murray
Butler, President of Columbia University; Prof. Bogdan Popovitch
of Belgrade University; the Foreign Minister of Turkey, Tawfíq
Rushdí Bey; the Chinese Foreign Minister and Minister of Education;
the Lithuanian Foreign Minister; Prince Muhammad-`Alí of Egypt;
Stephen Raditch; the Maharajas of Patiala, of Benares, and of Travancore;
the Governor and the Grand Muftí of Jerusalem; Dr. Erling
Eidem, Archbishop of Sweden; Sarojini Naidu; Sir Rabindranath
Tagore; Madame Huda Sha'raví, the Egyptian feminist leader; Dr. K.
Ichiki, minister of the Japanese Imperial Household; Prof. Tetrujiro
Inouye, Prof. Emeritus of the Imperial University of Tokyo; Baron
Yoshiro Sakatani, member of the House of Peers of Japan and Mehmed
Fuad, Doyen of the Faculty of Letters and President of the Institute
of Turkish history.
Neither age nor ill-health, neither the paucity of literature which
hampered her early efforts, nor the meager resources which imposed
an added burden on her labors, neither the extremities of the climates
to which she was exposed, nor the political disturbances which she
encountered in the course of her journeys, could damp the zeal or
deflect the purpose of this spiritually dynamic and saintly woman.
Single-handed and, on more than one occasion, in extremely perilous
circumstances, she continued to call, in clarion tones, men of diverse
creeds, color and classes to the Message of Bahá'u'lláh, until, while in
spite of a deadly and painful disease, the onslaught of which she endured
with heroic fortitude, she hastened homeward to help in the
recently launched Seven Year Plan, she was stricken down on her way,
in far off Honolulu. There in that symbolic spot between the Eastern
and Western Hemispheres, in both of which she had labored so mightily,
she died, on September 28, 1939, and brought to its close a life which
may well be regarded as the fairest fruit as yet yielded by the Formative
Age of the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh.
+P389
To the injunction of `Abdu'l-Bahá bequeathed in His Will to follow
in the footsteps of the disciples of Jesus Christ, "not to rest for a
moment," to "travel throughout all regions" and to raise, "without rest
and steadfast to the end," "in every land, the cry of `Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá,'"
this immortal heroine yielded an obedience of which the present
as well as future generations may well be proud, and which they
may emulate.
"Unrestrained as the wind," putting her "whole trust" in God, as
"the best provision" for her journey, she fulfilled almost to the letter
the wish so poignantly expressed by `Abdu'l-Bahá in the Tablets, whose
summons she had instantly arisen to carry out: "O that I could travel,
even though on foot and in the utmost poverty, to these regions, and,
raising the call of `Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá' in cities, villages, mountains,
deserts and oceans, promote the Divine teachings! This, alas, I cannot
do. How intensely I deplore it! Please God, ye may achieve it."
"I am deeply distressed to hear of the death of good Miss Martha
Root," is the royal tribute paid to her memory by Princess Olga of
Yugoslavia, on being informed of her death, "as I had no idea of it. We
always enjoyed her visits in the past. She was so kind and gentle, and
a real worker for peace. I am sure she will be sadly missed in her work."
"Thou art, in truth, a herald of the Kingdom and a harbinger of
the Covenant," is the testimony from the unerring pen of the Center
of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant Himself, "Thou art truly self-sacrificing.
Thou showest kindness unto all nations. Thou art sowing a seed that
shall, in due time, give rise to thousands of harvests. Thou art planting
a tree that shall eternally put forth leaves and blossoms and yield fruits,
and whose shadow shall day by day grow in magnitude."
Of all the services rendered the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh by this star
servant of His Faith, the most superb and by far the most momentous
has been the almost instantaneous response evoked in Queen Marie of
Rumania to the Message which that ardent and audacious pioneer had
carried to her during one of the darkest moments of her life, an hour
of bitter need, perplexity and sorrow. "It came," she herself in a letter
had testified, "as all great messages come, at an hour of dire grief and
inner conflict and distress, so the seed sank deeply."
Eldest daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh, who was the second
son of that Queen to whom Bahá'u'lláh had, in a significant Tablet,
addressed words of commendation; granddaughter of Czar Alexander
II to whom an Epistle had been revealed by that same Pen; related by
both birth and marriage to Europe's most prominent families; born in
the Anglican Faith; closely associated through her marriage with the
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Greek Orthodox Church, the state religion of her adopted country;
herself an accomplished authoress; possessed of a charming and radiant
personality; highly talented, clear-visioned, daring and ardent by
nature; keenly devoted to all enterprises of a humanitarian character,
she, alone among her sister-queens, alone among all those of royal birth
or station, was moved to spontaneously acclaim the greatness of the
Message of Bahá'u'lláh, to proclaim His Fatherhood, as well as the
Prophethood of Muhammad, to commend the Bahá'í teachings to all
men and women, and to extol their potency, sublimity and beauty.
Through the fearless acknowledgment of her belief to her own kith
and kin, and particularly to her youngest daughter; through three
successive encomiums that constitute her greatest and abiding legacy
to posterity; through three additional appreciations penned by her as
her contribution to Bahá'í publications; through several letters written
to friends and associates, as well as those addressed to her guide and
spiritual mother; through various tokens expressive of faith and gratitude
for the glad-tidings that had been brought to her through the
orders for Bahá'í books placed by her and her youngest daughter; and
lastly through her frustrated pilgrimage to the Holy Land for the express
purpose of paying homage at the graves of the Founders of the
Faith--through such acts as these this illustrious queen may well deserve
to rank as the first of those royal supporters of the Cause of God
who are to arise in the future, and each of whom, in the words of
Bahá'u'lláh Himself, is to be acclaimed as "the very eye of mankind,
the luminous ornament on the brow of creation, the fountainhead
of blessings unto the whole world."
"Some of those of my caste," she, in a personal letter, has significantly
testified, "wonder at and disapprove my courage to step forward
pronouncing words not habitual for crowned heads to pronounce, but
I advance by an inner urge I cannot resist. With bowed head I recognize
that I too am but an instrument in greater Hands, and I rejoice
in the knowledge."
A note which Martha Root, upon her arrival in Bucharest, sent to
her Majesty and a copy of "Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era," which
accompanied the note, and which so absorbed the Queen's attention
that she continued reading it into the small hours of the morning, led,
two days later, to the Queen's granting Martha Root an audience, on
January 30, 1926, in Controceni Palace in Bucharest, in the course of
which her Majesty avowed her belief that "these teachings are the solution
for the world's problems"; and from these followed her publication,
that same year on her own initiative, of those three epoch-making
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testimonies which appeared in nearly two hundred newspapers of the
United States and Canada, and which were subsequently translated
and published in Europe, China, Japan, Australia, the Near East and
the Islands of the seas.
In the first of these testimonies she affirmed that the writings of
Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá are "a great cry toward peace, reaching
beyond all limits of frontiers, above all dissensions about rites and
dogmas... It is a wondrous message that Bahá'u'lláh and His Son
`Abdu'l-Bahá have given us! They have not set it up aggressively,
knowing that the germ of eternal truth which lies at its core cannot
but take root and spread... It is Christ's message taken up anew,
in the same words almost, but adapted to the thousand years and more
difference that lies between the year one and today." She added a remarkable
admonition, reminiscent of the telling words of Dr. Benjamin
Jowett, who had hailed the Faith, in his conversation with his
pupil, Prof. Lewis Campbell, as "the greatest light that has come into
the world since the time of Jesus Christ," and cautioned him to
"watch it" and never let it out of his sight. "If ever," wrote the Queen,
"the name of Bahá'u'lláh or `Abdu'l-Bahá comes to your attention, do
not put their writings from you. Search out their books, and let their
glorious, peace-bringing, love-creating words and lessons sink into your
hearts as they have into mine... Seek them and be the happier."
In another of these testimonies, wherein she makes a significant
comment on the station of the Arabian Prophet, she declared: "God is
all. Everything. He is the power behind all beings... His is the
voice within us that shows us good and evil. But mostly we ignore or
misunderstand this voice. Therefore, did He choose His Elect to come
down amongst us upon earth to make clear His Word, His real meaning.
Therefore the Prophets; therefore Christ, Muhammad, Bahá'u'lláh,
for man needs from time to time a voice upon earth to bring God
to him, to sharpen the realization of the existence of the true God.
Those voices sent to us had to become flesh, so that with our earthly
ears we should be able to hear and understand."
In appreciation of these testimonies a communication was addressed
to her, in the name of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in East and
West, and in the course of the deeply touching letter which she sent
in reply she wrote: "Indeed a great light came to me with the Message of
Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá... My youngest daughter finds also
great strength and comfort in the teachings of the beloved Masters.
We pass on the Message from mouth to mouth, and all those we give
it to see a light suddenly lighting before them, and much that was
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obscure and perplexing becomes simple, luminous and full of hope as
never before. That my open letter was a balm to those suffering for
the Cause, is indeed a great happiness to me, and I take it as a sign
that God accepted my humble tribute. The occasion given me to be
able to express myself publicly was also His work, for indeed it was a
chain of circumstances of which each link led me unwittingly one step
further, till suddenly all was clear before my eyes and I understood
why it had been. Thus does He lead us finally to our ultimate destiny
...Little by little the veil is lifting, grief tore it in two. And grief
was also a step leading me ever nearer truth; therefore do I not cry
out against grief!"
In a significant and moving letter to an intimate American friend
of hers, residing in Paris, she wrote: "Lately a great hope has come to
me from one `Abdu'l-Bahá. I have found in His and His Father,
Bahá'u'lláh's Message of faith, all my yearning for real religion satisfied
...What I mean: these Books have strengthened me beyond
belief, and I am now ready to die any day full of hope. But I pray
God not to take me away yet, for I still have a lot of work to do."
And again in one of her later appreciations of the Faith: "The Bahá'í
teaching brings peace and understanding. It is like a wide embrace
gathering all those who have long searched for words of hope...
Saddened by the continual strife amongst believers of many confessions
and wearied of their intolerance towards each other, I discovered in
the Bahá'í teaching the real spirit of Christ so often denied and
misunderstood." And again, this wonderful confession: "The Bahá'í
teaching brings peace to the soul and hope to the heart. To those in
search of assurance the words of the Father are as a fountain in the
desert after long wandering."
"The beautiful truth of Bahá'u'lláh," she wrote to Martha Root,
"is with me always, a help and an inspiration. What I wrote was because
my heart overflowed with gratitude for the reflection you
brought me. I am happy if you think I helped. I thought it might
bring truth nearer because my words are read by so many."
In the course of a visit to the Near East she expressed her intention
of visiting the Bahá'í Shrines, and, accompanied by her youngest
daughter, actually passed through Haifa, and was within sight of her
goal, when she was denied the right to make the pilgrimage she had
planned--to the keen disappointment of the aged Greatest Holy Leaf
who had eagerly expected her arrival. A few months later, in June,
1931, she wrote in the course of a letter to Martha Root: "Both Ileana
and I were cruelly disappointed at having been prevented going to the
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holy Shrines ... but at that time we were going through a cruel
crisis, and every movement I made was being turned against me and
being politically exploited in an unkind way. It caused me a good
deal of suffering and curtailed my liberty most unkindly... But
the beauty of truth remains, and I cling to it through all the vicissitudes
of a life become rather sad... I am glad to hear that your
traveling has been so fruitful, and I wish you continual success
knowing what a beautiful Message you are carrying from land
to land."
After this sad disappointment she wrote to a friend of her childhood
who dwelt near `Akká, in a house formerly occupied by Bahá'u'lláh:
"It was indeed nice to hear from you, and to think that you are
of all things living near Haifa and are, as I am, a follower of the Bahá'í
teachings. It interests me that you are living in that special house...
I was so intensely interested and studied each photo intently. It must
be a lovely place ... and the house you live in, so incredibly attractive
and made precious by its associations with the Man we all
venerate..."
Her last public tribute to the Faith she had dearly loved was made
two years before her death. "More than ever today," she wrote, "when
the world is facing such a crisis of bewilderment and unrest, must we
stand firm in Faith seeking that which binds together instead of tearing
asunder. To those searching for light, the Bahá'í teachings offer a
star which will lead them to deeper understanding, to assurance, peace
and goodwill with all men."
Martha Root's own illuminating record is given in one of her
articles as follows: "For ten years Her Majesty and her daughter,
H.R.H. Princess Ileana (now Arch-Duchess Anton) have read with
interest each new book about the Bahá'í Movement, as soon as it came
from the press... Received in audience by Her Majesty in Pelisor
Palace, Sinaia, in 1927, after the passing of His Majesty King Ferdinand,
her husband, she graciously gave me an interview, speaking of
the Bahá'í teachings about immortality. She had on her table and on
the divan a number of Bahá'í books, for she had just been reading in
each of them the Teachings about life after death. She asked the writer
to give her greeting to ... the friends in Írán and to the many
American Bahá'ís, who she said had been so remarkably kind to her
during her trip through the United States the year before... Meeting
the Queen again on January 19, 1928, in the Royal Palace in Belgrade,
where she and H.R.H. Princess Ileana were guests of the Queen
of Yugoslavia--and they had brought some of their Bahá'í books with
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them--the words that I shall remember longest of all that her dear
Majesty said were these: `The ultimate dream which we shall realize is
that the Bahá'í channel of thought has such strength, it will serve
little by little to become a light to all those searching for the real
expression of Truth'... Then in the audience in Controceni Palace, on
February 16, 1934, when her Majesty was told that the Rumanian
translation of `Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era' had just been published
in Bucharest, she said she was so happy that her people were to have
the blessing of reading this precious teaching... And now today,
February 4, 1936, I have just had another audience with Her Majesty
in Controceni Palace, in Bucharest... Again Queen Marie of Rumania
received me cordially in her softly lighted library, for the hour
was six o'clock... What a memorable visit it was!... She also
told me that when she was in London she had met a Bahá'í, Lady
Blomfield, who had shown her the original Message that Bahá'u'lláh
had sent to her grand-mother, Queen Victoria, in London. She asked
the writer about the progress of the Bahá'í Movement, especially in the
Balkan countries... She spoke too of several Bahá'í books, the
depths of "Íqán," and especially of "Gleanings from the Writings of
Bahá'u'lláh," which she said was a wonderful book! To quote her own
words: `Even doubters would find a powerful strength in it, if they
would read it alone, and would give their souls time to expand.'
...I asked her if I could perhaps speak of the brooch which historically
is precious to Bahá'ís, and she replied, `Yes, you may.' Once,
and it was in 1928, Her dear Majesty had given the writer a gift, a
lovely and rare brooch which had been a gift to the Queen from her
royal relatives in Russia some years ago. It was two little wings of
wrought gold and silver, set with tiny diamond chips, and joined
together with one large pearl. `Always you are giving gifts to others,
and I am going to give you a gift from me,' said the Queen smiling, and
she herself clasped it onto my dress. The wings and the pearl made it
seem `Light-bearing' Bahá'í! It was sent the same week to Chicago as
a gift to the Bahá'í Temple ... and at the National Bahá'í Convention
which was in session that spring, a demur was made--should a
gift from the Queen be sold? Should it not be kept as a souvenir of the
first Queen who arose to promote the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh? However,
it was sold immediately and the money given to the Temple, for all
Bahá'ís were giving to the utmost to forward this mighty structure,
the first of its kind in the United States of America. Mr. Willard
Hatch, a Bahá'í of Los Angeles, Calif., who bought the exquisite
brooch, took it to Haifa, Palestine, in 1931, and placed it in the
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Archives on Mt. Carmel, where down the ages it will rest with the
Bahá'í treasures..."
In July, 1938, Queen Marie of Rumania passed away. A message
of condolence was communicated, in the name of all Bahá'í communities
in East and West, to her daughter, the Queen of Yugoslavia, to
which she replied expressing "sincere thanks to all of Bahá'u'lláh's
followers." The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia
addressed, on behalf of the followers of the Faith in Bahá'u'lláh's native
land, a letter expressive of grief and sympathy to her son, the King of
Rumania and the Rumanian Royal Family, the text of which was in
both Persian and English. An expression of profound and loving
sympathy was sent by Martha Root to Princess Ileana, and was gratefully
acknowledged by her. Memorial gatherings were held in the
Queen's memory, at which a meed of honor was paid to her bold and
epochal confession of faith in the Fatherhood of Bahá'u'lláh, to her
recognition of the station of the Prophet of Islám and to the several
encomiums from her pen. On the first anniversary of her death the
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and
Canada demonstrated its grateful admiration and affection for the
deceased Queen by associating itself, through an imposing floral offering,
with the impressive memorial service, held in her honor, and
arranged by the Rumanian Minister, in Bethlehem Chapel, at the
Cathedral of Washington, D.C., at which the American delegation,
headed by the Secretary of State and including government officials
and representatives of the Army and Navy, the British, French and
Italian Ambassadors, and representatives of other European embassies
and legations joined in a common tribute to one who, apart from the
imperishable renown achieved by her in the Kingdom of Bahá'u'lláh,
had earned, in this earthly life, the esteem and love of many a soul
living beyond the confines of her own country.
Queen Marie's acknowledgment of the Divine Message stands as
the first fruits of the vision which Bahá'u'lláh had seen long before in
His captivity, and had announced in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas. "How great,"
He wrote, "the blessedness that awaits the King who will arise to aid
My Cause in My Kingdom, who will detach himself from all else but
Me!... All must glorify his name, must reverence his station, and
aid him to unlock the cities with the keys of My Name, the Omnipotent
Protector of all that inhabit the visible and invisible kingdoms.
Such a king is the very eye of mankind, the luminous ornament on the
brow of creation, the fountain-head of blessings unto the whole world.
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Offer up, O people of Bahá, your substance, nay your very lives for
his assistance."
The American Bahá'í community, crowned with imperishable
glory by these signal international services of Martha Root, was destined,
as the first Bahá'í century drew to a close, to distinguish itself,
through the concerted efforts of its members, both at home and abroad,
by further achievements of such scope and quality that no survey of
the teaching activities of the Faith in the course of that century can
afford to ignore them. It would be no exaggeration to say that these
colossal achievements, with the amazing results which flowed from
them, could only have been effected through the harnessing of all the
agencies of a newly established Administrative Order, operating in
conformity with a carefully conceived Plan, and that they constitute
a befitting conclusion to the record of a hundred years of sublime
endeavor in the service of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.
That the community of His followers in the United States and
Canada should have carried off the palm of victory in the concluding
years of such a glorious century is not a matter for surprise. Its
accomplishments during the last two decades of the Heroic, and throughout
the first fifteen years of the Formative Age of the Bahá'í Dispensation,
had already augured well for its future, and had paved the way for
its final victory ere the expiration of the first century of the Bahá'í
Era.
The Báb had in His Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', almost a hundred years
previously, sounded His specific summons to the "peoples of the West"
to "issue forth" from their "cities" and aid His Cause. Bahá'u'lláh, in
His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, had collectively addressed the Presidents of the
Republics of the entire Americas, bidding them arise and "bind with
the hands of justice the broken," and "crush the oppressor" with the
"rod of the commandments" of their Lord, and had, moreover, anticipated
in His writings the appearance "in the West" of the "signs of His
Dominion." `Abdu'l-Bahá had, on His part, declared that the "illumination"
shed by His Father's Revelation upon the West would acquire
an "extraordinary brilliancy," and that the "light of the Kingdom"
would "shed a still greater illumination upon the West" than upon the
East. He had extolled the American continent in particular as "the
land wherein the splendors of His Light shall be revealed, where the
mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled," and affirmed that "it will lead
all nations spiritually." More specifically still, He had singled out the
Great Republic of the West, the leading nation of that continent,
declaring that its people were "indeed worthy of being the first to
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build the Tabernacle of the Most Great Peace and proclaim the oneness
of mankind," that it was "equipped and empowered to accomplish
that which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the
world, and be blest in both the East and the West."
The first act of His ministry had been to unfurl the standard of
Bahá'u'lláh in the very heart of that Republic. This was followed by
His own prolonged visit to its shores, by His dedication of the first
House of Worship to be built by the community of His disciples in
that land, and finally by the revelation, in the evening of His life,
of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, investing His disciples with a mandate
to plant the banner of His Father's Faith, as He had planted it in
their own land, in all the continents, the countries and islands of the
globe. He had, furthermore, acclaimed one of their most celebrated
presidents as one who, through the ideals he had expounded and the
institutions he had inaugurated, had caused the "dawn" of the Peace
anticipated by Bahá'u'lláh to break; had voiced the hope that from
their country "heavenly illumination" may "stream to all the peoples
of the world"; had designated them in those Tablets as "Apostles of
Bahá'u'lláh"; had assured them that, "should success crown" their
"enterprise," "the throne of the Kingdom of God will, in the plenitude
of its majesty and glory, be firmly established"; and had made the
stirring announcement that "the moment this Divine Message is propagated"
by them "through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa
and of Australasia, and as far as the islands of the Pacific, this community
will find itself securely established upon the throne of an everlasting
dominion," and that "the whole earth" would "resound with the
praises of its majesty and greatness."
That Community had already, in the lifetime of Him Who had
created it, tenderly nursed and repeatedly blessed it, and had at last
conferred upon it so distinctive a mission, arisen to launch the enterprise
of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár through the purchase of its land and
the laying of its foundations. It had despatched its teachers to the
East and to the West to propagate the Cause it had espoused, had established
the basis of its community life, and had, since His passing,
erected the superstructure and commenced the external ornamentation
of its Temple. It had, moreover, assumed a preponderating share
in the task of erecting the framework of the Administrative Order of
the Faith, of championing its cause, of demonstrating its independent
character, of enriching and disseminating its literature, of lending
moral and material assistance to its persecuted followers, of repelling
the assaults of its adversaries and of winning the allegiance of royalty
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to its Founder. Such a splendid record was to culminate, as the century
approached its end, in the initiation of a Plan--the first stage in the
execution of the Mission entrusted to it by `Abdu'l-Bahá--which,
within the space of seven brief years, was to bring to a successful completion
the exterior ornamentation of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, to
almost double the number of Spiritual Assemblies functioning in the
North American continent, to bring the total number of localities in
which Bahá'ís reside to no less than thirteen hundred and twenty-two
in that same continent, to establish the structural basis of the Administrative
Order in every state of the United States and every province
of Canada, and by laying a firm anchorage in each of the twenty
Republics of Central and South America, to swell to sixty the number
of the sovereign states included within its orbit.
Many and diverse forces combined now to urge the American
Bahá'í community to strong action: the glowing exhortations and
promises of Bahá'u'lláh and His behest to erect in His name Houses of
Worship; the directions issued by `Abdu'l-Bahá in fourteen Tablets
addressed to the believers residing in the Western, the Central, the
North Eastern and Southern States of the North American Republic
and in the Dominion of Canada; His prophetic utterances regarding
the future of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in America; the influence of the
new Administrative Order in fostering and rendering effective an eager
spirit of cooperation; the example of Martha Root who, though
equipped with no more than a handful of inadequately translated
leaflets, had traveled to South America and visited every important city
in that continent; the tenacity and self-sacrifice of the fearless and
brilliant Keith Ransom-Kehler, the first American martyr, who, journeying
to Persia had pleaded in numerous interviews with ministers,
ecclesiastics and government officials the cause of her down-trodden
brethren in that land, had addressed no less than seven petitions to the
Sháh, and, heedless of the warnings of age and ill-health, had at last
succumbed in Isfahán. Other factors which spurred the members of
that community to fresh sacrifices and adventure were their eagerness
to reinforce the work intermittently undertaken through the settlement
and travels of a number of pioneers, who had established the
first center of the Faith in Brazil, circumnavigated the South American
continent and visited the West Indies and distributed literature
in various countries of Central and South America; the consciousness
of their pressing responsibilities in the face of a rapidly deteriorating
international situation; the realization that the first Bahá'í century was
fast speeding to a close and their anxiety to bring to a befitting conclusion
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an enterprise that had been launched thirty years previously.
Undeterred by the immensity of the field, the power wielded by firmly
entrenched ecclesiastical organizations, the political instability of some
of the countries in which they were to settle, the climatic conditions
they were to encounter, and the difference in language and custom of
the people amongst whom they were to reside, and keenly aware of the
crying needs of the Faith in the North American continent, the members
of the American Bahá'í community arose, as one man, to inaugurate
a threefold campaign, carefully planned and systematically conducted,
designed to establish a Spiritual Assembly in every virgin state
and province in North America, to form a nucleus of resident believers
in each of the Republics of Central and South America, and to consummate
the exterior ornamentation of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár.
A hundred activities, administrative and educational, were devised
and pursued for the prosecution of this noble Plan. Through the
liberal contribution of funds; through the establishment of an Inter-America
Committee and the formation of auxiliary Regional Teaching
Committees; through the founding of an International School to
provide training for Bahá'í teachers; through the settlement of
pioneers in virgin areas and the visits of itinerant teachers; through
the dissemination of literature in Spanish and Portuguese; through the
initiation of teacher training courses and extension work by groups and
local Assemblies; through newspaper and radio publicity; through the
exhibition of Temple slides and models; through inter-community
conferences and lectures delivered in universities and colleges; through
the intensification of teaching courses and Latin American studies at
summer schools--through these and other activities the prosecutors of
this Seven-Year Plan have succeeded in sealing the triumph of what
must be regarded as the greatest collective enterprise ever launched by
the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in the entire history of the first Bahá'í
century.
Indeed, ere the expiry of that century not only had the work on
the Temple been completed sixteen months before the appointed time,
but instead of one tiny nucleus in every Latin Republic, Spiritual Assemblies
had already been established in Mexico City and Puebla
(Mexico), in Buenos Aires (Argentina), in Guatemala City (Guatemala),
in Santiago (Chile), in Montevideo (Uruguay), in Quito
(Ecuador), in Bogotá (Colombia), in Lima (Peru), in Asuncion
(Paraguay), in Tegucigalpa (Honduras), in San Salvador (El-Salvador),
in San José and Puntarenas (Costa Rica), in Havana (Cuba)
and in Port-au-Prince (Haiti). Extension work, in which newly
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fledged Latin American believers were participating, had, moreover,
been initiated, and was being vigorously carried out, in the Republics
of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Panama and Costa Rica;
believers had established their residence not only in the capital
cities of all the Latin American Republics, but also in such centers as
Veracruz, Cananea and Tacubaya (Mexico), in Balboa and Christobal
(Panama), in Recife (Brazil), in Guayaquil and Ambato (Ecuador),
and in Temuco and Magellanes (Chile); the Spiritual Assemblies of the
Bahá'ís of Mexico City and of San José had been incorporated; in the
former city a Bahá'í center, comprising a library, a reading room and a
lecture room, had been founded; Bahá'í Youth Symposiums had been
observed in Havana, Buenos Aires and Santiago, whilst a distributing
center of Bahá'í literature for Latin America had been established in
Buenos Aires.
Nor was this gigantic enterprise destined to be deprived, in its
initial stage, of a blessing that was to cement the spiritual union of the
Americas--a blessing flowing from the sacrifice of one who, at the
very dawn of the Day of the Covenant, had been responsible for the
establishment of the first Bahá'í centers in both Europe and the
Dominion of Canada, and who, though seventy years of age and suffering
from ill-health, undertook a six thousand mile voyage to the
capital of Argentina, where, while still on the threshold of her pioneer
service, she suddenly passed away, imparting through such a death to
the work initiated in that Republic an impetus which has already
enabled it, through the establishment of a distributing center of
Bahá'í literature for Latin America and through other activities, to
assume the foremost position among its sister Republics.
To May Maxwell, laid to rest in the soil of Argentina; to Hyde
Dunn, whose dust reposes in the Antipodes, in the city of Sydney; to
Keith Ransom-Kehler, entombed in distant Isfahán; to Susan Moody
and Lillian Kappes and their valiant associates who lie buried in Tihrán;
to Lua Getsinger, reposing forever in the capital of Egypt, and last
but not least to Martha Root, interred in an island in the bosom of the
Pacific, belong the matchless honor of having conferred, through their
services and sacrifice, a lustre upon the American Bahá'í community
for which its representatives, while celebrating at their historic, their
first All-American Convention, their hard-won victories, may well feel
eternally grateful.
Gathered within the walls of its national Shrine--the most sacred
Temple ever to be reared to the glory of Bahá'u'lláh; commemorating
at once the centenary of the birth of the Bábí Dispensation, of the
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inauguration of the Bahá'í era, of the inception of the Bahá'í Cycle
and of the birth of `Abdu'l-Bahá, as well as the fiftieth anniversary of
the establishment of the Faith in the Western Hemisphere; associated
in its celebration with the representatives of American Republics, foregathered
in the close vicinity of a city that may well pride itself on
being the first Bahá'í center established in the Western world, this
community may indeed feel, on this solemn occasion, that it has, in its
turn, through the triumphal conclusion of the first stage of the Plan
traced for it by `Abdu'l-Bahá, shed a lasting glory upon its sister communities
in East and West, and written, in golden letters, the concluding
pages in the annals of the first Bahá'í century.
+P402
Retrospect and Prospect
Thus drew to a close the first century of the Bahá'í era--an
epoch which, in its sublimity and fecundity, is without parallel in the
entire field of religious history, and indeed in the annals of mankind.
A process, God-impelled, endowed with measureless potentialities,
mysterious in its workings, awful in the retribution meted out to
every one seeking to resist its operation, infinitely rich in its promise
for the regeneration and redemption of human kind, had been set in
motion in Shíráz, had gained momentum successively in Tihrán,
Baghdád, Adrianople and `Akká, had projected itself across the seas,
poured its generative influences into the West, and manifested the
initial evidences of its marvelous, world-energizing force in the midst
of the North American continent.
It had sprung from the heart of Asia, and pressing westward had
gathered speed in its resistless course, until it had encircled the earth
with a girdle of glory. It had been generated by the son of a mercer
in the province of Fárs, had been reshaped by a nobleman of Núr,
had been reinforced through the exertions of One Who had spent the
fairest years of His youth and manhood in exile and imprisonment,
and had achieved its most conspicuous triumphs in a country and
amidst a people living half the circumference of the globe distant from
the land of its origin. It had repulsed every onslaught directed against
it, torn down every barrier opposing its advance, abased every proud
antagonist who had sought to sap its strength, and had exalted to
heights of incredible courage the weakest and humblest among those
who had arisen and become willing instruments of its revolutionizing
power. Heroic struggles and matchless victories, interwoven with
appalling tragedies and condign punishments, have formed the pattern
of its hundred year old history.
A handful of students, belonging to the Shaykhí school, sprung
from the Ithná-`Ash'áríyyih sect of Shí'ah Islám, had, in consequence
of the operation of this process, been expanded and transformed into
a world community, closely knit, clear of vision, alive, consecrated
by the sacrifice of no less than twenty thousand martyrs; supranational;
non-sectarian; non-political; claiming the status, and assuming
the functions, of a world religion; spread over five continents and
the islands of the seas; with ramifications extending over sixty sovereign
+P403
states and seventeen dependencies; equipped with a literature
translated and broadcast in forty languages; exercising control over
endowments representing several million dollars; recognized by a
number of governments in both the East and the West; integral in
aim and outlook; possessing no professional clergy; professing a
single belief; following a single law; animated by a single purpose;
organically united through an Administrative Order, divinely ordained
and unique in its features; including within its orbit representatives
of all the leading religions of the world, of various classes and
races; faithful to its civil obligations; conscious of its civic
responsibilities, as well as of the perils confronting the society of which it
forms a part; sharing the sufferings of that society and confident of
its own high destiny.
The nucleus of this community had been formed by the Báb, soon
after the night of the Declaration of His Mission to Mullá Husayn in
Shíráz. A clamor in which the Sháh, his government, his people and
the entire ecclesiastical hierarchy of his country unanimously joined
had greeted its birth. Captivity, swift and cruel, in the mountains
of Ádhirbayján, had been the lot of its youthful Founder, almost immediately
after His return from His pilgrimage to Mecca. Amidst the
solitude of Máh-Kú and Chihríq, He had instituted His Covenant,
formulated His laws, and transmitted to posterity the overwhelming
majority of His writings. A conference of His disciples, headed by
Bahá'u'lláh, had, in the hamlet of Badasht, abrogated in dramatic
circumstances the laws of the Islamic, and ushered in the new, Dispensation.
In Tabríz He had, in the presence of the Heir to the Throne
and the leading ecclesiastical dignitaries of Ádhirbayján, publicly and
unreservedly voiced His claim to be none other than the promised,
the long-awaited Qá'im. Tempests of devastating violence in Mazindarán,
Nayríz, Zanján and Tihrán had decimated the ranks of His
followers and robbed Him of the noblest and most valuable of His
supporters. He Himself had to witness the virtual annihilation of
His Faith and the loss of most of the Letters of the Living, and, after
experiencing, in His own person, a series of bitter humiliations, He
had been executed by a firing squad in the barrack-square of Tabríz.
A blood bath of unusual ferocity had engulfed the greatest heroine
of His Faith, had further denuded it of its adherents, had extinguished
the life of His trusted amanuensis and repository of His last wishes, and
swept Bahá'u'lláh into the depths of the foulest dungeon of Tihrán.
In the pestilential atmosphere of the Síyáh-Chál, nine years after
that historic Declaration, the Message proclaimed by the Báb had
+P404
yielded its fruit, His promise had been redeemed, and the most glorious,
the most momentous period of the Heroic Age of the Bahá'í era had
dawned. A momentary eclipse of the newly risen Sun of Truth, the
world's greatest Luminary, had ensued, as a result of Bahá'u'lláh's
precipitate banishment to `Iráq by order of Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, of His
sudden withdrawal to the mountains of Kurdistán, and of the degradation
and confusion that afflicted the remnant of the persecuted
community of His fellow-disciples in Baghdád. A reversal in the
fortunes of a fast declining community, following His return from
His two-year retirement, had set in, bringing in its wake the recreation
of that community, the reformation of its morals, the enhancement
of its prestige, the enrichment of its doctrine, and culminating
in the Declaration of His Mission in the garden of Najíbíyyih to His
immediate companions on the eve of His banishment to Constantinople.
Another crisis--the severest a struggling Faith was destined
to experience in the course of its history--precipitated by the rebellion
of the Báb's nominee and the iniquities perpetrated by him and by
the evil genius that had seduced him, had, in Adrianople, well nigh
disrupted the newly consolidated forces of the Faith and all but
destroyed in a baptism of fire the community of the Most Great Name
which Bahá'u'lláh had called into being. Cleansed of the pollution of
this "Most Great Idol," undeterred by the convulsion that had seized
it, an indestructible Faith had, in the strength of the Covenant instituted
by the Báb, now surmounted the most formidable obstacles it
was ever to meet; and in this very hour it reached its meridian glory
through the proclamation of the Mission of Bahá'u'lláh to the kings,
the rulers and ecclesiastical leaders of the world in both the East and
the West. Close on the heels of this unprecedented victory had followed
the climax of His sufferings, a banishment to the penal colony
of `Akká, decreed by Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz. This had been hailed by
vigilant enemies as the signal for the final extermination of a much
feared and hated adversary, and it had heaped upon that Faith in this
fortress-town, designated by Bahá'u'lláh as His "Most Great Prison,"
calamities from both within and without, such as it had never before
experienced. The formulation of the laws and ordinances of a new-born
Dispensation and the enunciation and reaffirmation of its fundamental
principles--the warp and woof of a future Administrative
Order--had, however, enabled a slowly maturing Revelation, in spite
of this tide of tribulations, to advance a stage further and yield its
fairest fruit.
The ascension of Bahá'u'lláh had plunged into grief and bewilderment
+P405
His loyal supporters, quickened the hopes of the betrayers of
His Cause, who had rebelled against His God-given authority, and
rejoiced and encouraged His political as well as ecclesiastical adversaries.
The Instrument He had forged, the Covenant He had
Himself instituted, had canalized, after His passing, the forces released
by Him in the course of a forty-year ministry, had preserved the unity
of His Faith and provided the impulse required to propel it forward
to achieve its destiny. The proclamation of this new Covenant had
been followed by yet another crisis, precipitated by one of His own
sons on whom, according to the provisions of that Instrument, had
been conferred a rank second to none except the Center of that
Covenant Himself. Impelled by the forces engendered by the revelation
of that immortal and unique Document, an unbreachable Faith
(having registered its initial victory over the Covenant-breakers),
had, under the leadership of `Abdu'l-Bahá, irradiated the West, illuminated
the Western fringes of Europe, hoisted its banner in the
heart of the North American continent, and set in motion the processes
that were to culminate in the transfer of the mortal remains of its
Herald to the Holy Land and their entombment in a mausoleum on
Mt. Carmel, as well as in the erection of its first House of Worship in
Russian Turkistán. A major crisis, following swiftly upon the signal
victories achieved in East and West, attributable to the monstrous
intrigues of the Arch-breaker of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant and to the
orders issued by the tyrannical `Abdu'l-Hamíd, had exposed, during
more than seven years, the Heart and Center of the Faith to imminent
peril, filled with anxiety and anguish its followers and postponed the
execution of the enterprises conceived for its spread and consolidation.
`Abdu'l-Bahá's historic journeys in Europe and America, soon after
the fall of that tyrant and the collapse of his régime, had dealt a staggering
blow to the Covenant-breakers, had consolidated the colossal
enterprise He had undertaken in the opening years of His ministry,
had raised the prestige of His Father's Faith to heights it had never
before attained, had been instrumental in proclaiming its verities far
and wide, and had paved the way for the diffusion of its light over
the Far East and as far as the Antipodes. Another major crisis--the
last the Faith was to undergo at its world center--provoked by the
cruel Jamál Páshá, and accentuated by the anxieties of a devastating
world war, by the privations it entailed and the rupture of communications
it brought about, had threatened with still graver peril the
Head of the Faith Himself, as well as the holiest sanctuaries enshrining
the remains of its twin Founders. The revelation of the Tablets of the
+P406
Divine Plan, during the somber days of that tragic conflict, had, in
the concluding years of `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry, invested the members
of the leading Bahá'í community in the West--the champions of
a future Administrative Order--with a world mission which, in the
concluding years of the first Bahá'í century, was to shed deathless
glory upon the Faith and its administrative institutions. The conclusion
of that long and distressing conflict had frustrated the hopes
of that military despot and inflicted an ignominious defeat on him,
had removed, once and for all, the danger that had overshadowed for
sixty-five years the Founder of the Faith and the Center of His Covenant,
fulfilled the prophecies recorded by Him in His writings, enhanced
still further the prestige of His Faith and its Leader, and been
signalized by the spread of His Message to the continent of Australia.
The sudden passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá, marking the close of the
Primitive Age of the Faith, had, as had been the case with the ascension
of His Father, submerged in sorrow and consternation His faithful
disciples, imparted fresh hopes to the dwindling followers of both
Mírzá Yahyá and Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí, and stirred to feverish
activity political as well as ecclesiastical adversaries, all of whom
anticipated the impending dismemberment of the communities which
the Center of the Covenant had so greatly inspired and ably led. The
promulgation of His Will and Testament, inaugurating the Formative
Age of the Bahá'í era, the Charter delineating the features of an
Order which the Báb had announced, which Bahá'u'lláh had envisioned,
and whose laws and principles He had enunciated, had
galvanized these communities in Europe, Asia, Africa and America
into concerted action, enabling them to erect and consolidate the
framework of this Order, by establishing its local and national Assemblies,
by framing the constitutions of these Assemblies, by securing
the recognition on the part of the civil authorities in various countries
of these institutions, by founding administrative headquarters,
by raising the superstructure of the first House of Worship in the
West, by establishing and extending the scope of the endowments of
the Faith and by obtaining the full recognition by the civil authorities
of the religious character of these endowments at its world center as
well as in the North American continent.
A severe, a historic censure pronounced by a Muslim ecclesiastical
court in Egypt had, whilst this mighty process--the laying of the
structural basis of the Bahá'í world Administrative Order--was being
initiated, officially expelled all adherents of the Faith of Muslim extraction
from Islám, had condemned them as heretics and brought
+P407
the members of a proscribed community face to face with tests and
perils of a character they had never known before. The unjust decision
of a civil court in Baghdád, instigated by Shí'ah enemies, in `Iráq,
and the decree issued by a still more redoubtable adversary in Russia
had, moreover, robbed the Faith, on the one hand, of one of its holiest
centers of pilgrimage, and denied it, on the other, the use of its first
House of Worship, initiated by `Abdu'l-Bahá and erected in the
course of His ministry. And finally, inspired by this unexpected
declaration made by an age-long enemy--marking the first step in
the march of their Faith towards total emancipation--and undaunted
by this double blow struck at its institutions, the followers of Bahá'u'lláh,
already united and fully equipped through the agencies of a
firmly established Administrative Order, had arisen to crown the
immortal records of the first Bahá'í century by vindicating the independent
character of their Faith, by enforcing the fundamental laws
ordained in their Most Holy Book, by demanding and in some cases
obtaining, the recognition by the ruling authorities of their right to be
classified as followers of an independent religion, by securing from
the world's highest Tribunal its condemnation of the injustice they
had suffered at the hands of their persecutors, by establishing their
residence in no less than thirty-four additional countries, as well as in
thirteen dependencies, by disseminating their literature in twenty-nine
additional languages, by enrolling a Queen in the ranks of the supporters
of their Cause, and lastly by launching an enterprise which,
as that century approached its end, enabled them to complete the
exterior ornamentation of their second House of Worship, and to
bring to a successful conclusion the first stage of the Plan which
`Abdu'l-Bahá had conceived for the world-wide and systematic
propagation of their Faith.
Kings, emperors, princes, whether of the East or of the West,
had, as we look back upon the tumultuous record of an entire century,
either ignored the summons of its Founders, or derided their Message,
or decreed their exile and banishment, or barbarously persecuted their
followers, or sedulously striven to discredit their teachings. They
were visited by the wrath of the Almighty, many losing their thrones,
some witnessing the extinction of their dynasties, a few being assassinated
or covered with shame, others finding themselves powerless to
avert the cataclysmic dissolution of their kingdoms, still others being
degraded to positions of subservience in their own realms. The
Caliphate, its arch-enemy, had unsheathed the sword against its
Author and thrice pronounced His banishment. It was humbled to
+P408
dust, and, in its ignominious collapse, suffered the same fate as the
Jewish hierarchy, the chief persecutor of Jesus Christ, had suffered at
the hands of its Roman masters, in the first century of the Christian
Era, almost two thousand years before. Members of various sacerdotal
orders, Shí'ah, Sunní, Zoroastrian and Christian, had fiercely assailed
the Faith, branded as heretic its supporters, and labored unremittingly
to disrupt its fabric and subvert its foundations. The most redoubtable
and hostile amongst these orders were either overthrown or virtually
dismembered, others rapidly declined in prestige and influence, all
were made to sustain the impact of a secular power, aggressive and
determined to curtail their privileges and assert its own authority.
Apostates, rebels, betrayers, heretics, had exerted their utmost endeavors,
privily or openly, to sap the loyalty of the followers of
that Faith, to split their ranks or assault their institutions. These
enemies were, one by one, some gradually, others with dramatic swiftness,
confounded, dispersed, swept away and forgotten. Not a few
among its leading figures, its earliest disciples, its foremost champions,
the companions and fellow-exiles of its Founders, trusted amanuenses
and secretaries of its Author and of the Center of His Covenant, even
some of those who were numbered among the kindred of the Manifestation
Himself, not excluding the nominee of the Báb and the
son of Bahá'u'lláh, named by Him in the Book of His Covenant, had
allowed themselves to pass out from under its shadow, to bring shame
upon it, through acts of indelible infamy, and to provoke crises of
such dimensions as have never been experienced by any previous religion.
All were precipitated, without exception, from the enviable
positions they occupied, many of them lived to behold the frustration
of their designs, others were plunged into degradation and misery,
utterly impotent to impair the unity, or stay the march, of the Faith
they had so shamelessly forsaken. Ministers, ambassadors and other
state dignitaries had plotted assiduously to pervert its purpose, had
instigated the successive banishments of its Founders, and maliciously
striven to undermine its foundations. They had, through such plottings,
unwittingly brought about their own downfall, forfeited the
confidence of their sovereigns, drunk the cup of disgrace to its dregs,
and irrevocably sealed their own doom. Humanity itself, perverse
and utterly heedless, had refused to lend a hearing ear to the insistent
appeals and warnings sounded by the twin Founders of the
Faith, and later voiced by the Center of the Covenant in His public
discourses in the West. It had plunged into two desolating wars of
unprecedented magnitude, which have deranged its equilibrium, mown
+P409
down its youth, and shaken it to its roots. The weak, the obscure, the
down-trodden had, on the other hand, through their allegiance to so
mighty a Cause and their response to its summons, been enabled to
accomplish such feats of valor and heroism as to equal, and in some
cases to dwarf, the exploits of those men and women of undying fame
whose names and deeds adorn the spiritual annals of mankind.
Despite the blows leveled at its nascent strength, whether by the
wielders of temporal and spiritual authority from without, or by
black-hearted foes from within, the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh had, far from
breaking or bending, gone from strength to strength, from victory
to victory. Indeed its history, if read aright, may be said to resolve
itself into a series of pulsations, of alternating crises and triumphs,
leading it ever nearer to its divinely appointed destiny. The outburst
of savage fanaticism that greeted the birth of the Revelation proclaimed
by the Báb, His subsequent arrest and captivity, had been followed
by the formulation of the laws of His Dispensation, by the
institution of His Covenant, by the inauguration of that Dispensation
in Badasht, and by the public assertion of His station in Tabríz.
Widespread and still more violent uprisings in the provinces, His own
execution, the blood bath which followed it and Bahá'u'lláh's imprisonment
in the Síyáh-Chál had been succeeded by the breaking of the
dawn of the Bahá'í Revelation in that dungeon. Bahá'u'lláh's banishment
to `Iráq, His withdrawal to Kurdistán and the confusion and
distress that afflicted His fellow-disciples in Baghdád had, in turn,
been followed by the resurgence of the Bábí community, culminating
in the Declaration of His Mission in the Najíbíyyih Garden. Sultán
`Abdu'l-`Azíz's decree summoning Him to Constantinople and the
crisis precipitated by Mírzá Yahyá had been succeeded by the
proclamation of that Mission to the crowned heads of the world and
its ecclesiastical leaders. Bahá'u'lláh's banishment to the penal colony
of `Akká, with all its attendant troubles and miseries, had, in its turn,
led to the promulgation of the laws and ordinances of His Revelation
and to the institution of His Covenant, the last act of His life. The
fiery tests engendered by the rebellion of Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí and
his associates had been succeeded by the introduction of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh in the West and the transfer of the Báb's remains to the
Holy Land. The renewal of `Abdu'l-Bahá's incarceration and the
perils and anxieties consequent upon it had resulted in the downfall
of `Abdu'l-Hamíd, in `Abdu'l-Bahá's release from His confinement, in
the entombment of the Báb's remains on Mt. Carmel, and in the
triumphal journeys undertaken by the Center of the Covenant Himself
+P410
in Europe and America. The outbreak of a devastating world war
and the deepening of the dangers to which Jamál Páshá and the
Covenant-breakers had exposed Him had led to the revelation of the
Tablets of the Divine Plan, to the flight of that overbearing Commander,
to the liberation of the Holy Land, to the enhancement of
the prestige of the Faith at its world center, and to a marked expansion
of its activities in East and West. `Abdu'l-Bahá's passing and the
agitation which His removal had provoked had been followed by the
promulgation of His Will and Testament, by the inauguration of the
Formative Age of the Bahá'í era and by the laying of the foundations
of a world-embracing Administrative Order. And finally, the seizure
of the keys of the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh by the Covenant-breakers,
the forcible occupation of His House in Baghdád by the Shí'ah community,
the outbreak of persecution in Russia and the expulsion of the
Bahá'í community from Islám in Egypt had been succeeded by the
public assertion of the independent religious status of the Faith by its
followers in East and West, by the recognition of that status at its
world center, by the pronouncement of the Council of the League of
Nations testifying to the justice of its claims, by a remarkable expansion
of its international teaching activities and its literature, by the
testimonials of royalty to its Divine origin, and by the completion of
the exterior ornamentation of its first House of Worship in the
western world.
The tribulations attending the progressive unfoldment of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh have indeed been such as to exceed in gravity
those from which the religions of the past have suffered. Unlike
those religions, however, these tribulations have failed utterly to
impair its unity, or to create, even temporarily, a breach in the ranks
of its adherents. It has not only survived these ordeals, but has
emerged, purified and inviolate, endowed with greater capacity to face
and surmount any crisis which its resistless march may engender in
the future.
Mighty indeed have been the tasks accomplished and the victories
achieved by this sorely-tried yet undefeatable Faith within the space
of a century! Its unfinished tasks, its future victories, as it stands on
the threshold of the second Bahá'í century, are greater still. In the
brief space of the first hundred years of its existence it has succeeded
in diffusing its light over five continents, in erecting its outposts in
the furthermost corners of the earth, in establishing, on an impregnable
basis its Covenant with all mankind, in rearing the fabric of its
world-encompassing Administrative Order, in casting off many of the
+P411
shackles hindering its total emancipation and world-wide recognition,
in registering its initial victories over royal, political and ecclesiastical
adversaries, and in launching the first of its systematic crusades for
the spiritual conquest of the whole planet.
The institution, however, which is to constitute the last stage in
the erection of the framework of its world Administrative Order,
functioning in close proximity to its world spiritual center, is as yet
unestablished. The full emancipation of the Faith itself from the
fetters of religious orthodoxy, the essential prerequisite of its universal
recognition and of the emergence of its World Order, is still unachieved.
The successive campaigns, designed to extend the beneficent
influence of its System, according to `Abdu'l-Bahá's Plan, to every
country and island where the structural basis of its Administrative
Order has not been erected, still remain to be launched. The banner
of Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá which, as foretold by Him, must float from
the pinnacles of the foremost seat of learning in the Islamic world is
still unhoisted. The Most Great House, ordained as a center of pilgrimage
by Bahá'u'lláh in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, is as yet unliberated.
The third Mashriqu'l-Adhkár to be raised to His glory, the site of
which has recently been acquired, as well as the Dependencies of the
two Houses of Worship already erected in East and West, are as yet
unbuilt. The dome, the final unit which, as anticipated by `Abdu'l-Bahá,
is to crown the Sepulcher of the Báb is as yet unreared. The
codification of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Mother-Book of the Bahá'í
Revelation, and the systematic promulgation of its laws and ordinances,
are as yet unbegun. The preliminary measures for the institution
of Bahá'í courts, invested with the legal right to apply and
execute those laws and ordinances, still remain to be undertaken.
The restitution of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world
and the recreation of the community that so devotedly reared it, have
yet to be accomplished. The sovereign who, as foreshadowed in
Bahá'u'lláh's Most Holy Book, must adorn the throne of His native
land, and cast the shadow of royal protection over His long-persecuted
followers, is as yet undiscovered. The contest that must ensue as a
result of the concerted onslaughts which, as prophesied by `Abdu'l-Bahá,
are to be delivered by the leaders of religions as yet indifferent
to the advance of the Faith, is as yet unfought. The Golden Age of the
Faith itself that must witness the unification of all the peoples and
nations of the world, the establishment of the Most Great Peace, the
inauguration of the Kingdom of the Father upon earth, the coming
of age of the entire human race and the birth of a world civilization,
+P412
inspired and directed by the creative energies released by Bahá'u'lláh's
World Order, shining in its meridian splendor, is still unborn and
its glories unsuspected.
Whatever may befall this infant Faith of God in future decades
or in succeeding centuries, whatever the sorrows, dangers and tribulations
which the next stage in its world-wide development may engender,
from whatever quarter the assaults to be launched by its
present or future adversaries may be unleashed against it, however
great the reverses and setbacks it may suffer, we, who have been
privileged to apprehend, to the degree our finite minds can fathom,
the significance of these marvelous phenomena associated with its rise
and establishment, can harbor no doubt that what it has already
achieved in the first hundred years of its life provides sufficient guarantee
that it will continue to forge ahead, capturing loftier heights,
tearing down every obstacle, opening up new horizons and winning
still mightier victories until its glorious mission, stretching into the
dim ranges of time that lie ahead, is totally fulfilled.
[END]