Ridván 1972
1 The
opening of the final year of the Nine Year Plan sees the Bahá'í
world community poised for overwhelming victory. With grateful hearts we
acknowledge the continuing confirmations which have attended its efforts and
the Divine bounties which have never ceased to rain down upon this blessed,
this ever-developing embryonic world order.
2 The
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of Panama, the Mother
Temple of Latin America, will be dedicated this Ri.dván.
Three beloved Hands of the Cause, Amatu'l-Bahá Rú.híyyih Khánum representing the
Universal House of Justice, Ugo Giachery and Dhikru'lláh Khádem will attend
this historic ceremony. The imaginative and inspiring concept of the architect,
Peter Tillotson, has been wonderfully realized and we
extend to the National Spiritual Assembly of Panama on behalf of the entire Bahá'í world, loving congratulations on their achievement.
3 Although
the dissolution of the National Spiritual Assembly of `Iráq
has, unhappily, resulted from the persecution of the Faith in that land, the thirteen
new National Spiritual Assemblies which will come into being this Ri.dván will bring the total number of these pillars of the
Universal House of Justice to 113.
4 The
goals requiring acquisition of properties and establishment of Teaching
Institutes are well in hand and, in those countries where legal circumstances
permit, incorporation of Assemblies and recognition of Bahá'í
marriage and Holy Days are making good progress.
5 It
is the teaching goals which must engage our attention and effort. Although more
than 260 territories have achieved their assigned goals of localities where
Bahá'ís reside, and in some cases have exceeded them, enabling the Bahá'í world community to rejoice in having outstripped on
a world scale the total number of localities envisaged in the Plan, there are
still some 60 territories where this goal is yet to be won and where its
attainment must be given absolute priority between now and Ri.dván
1973. It is expected that a large number of new Local Spiritual Assemblies will
be established at Ri.dván and immediately the
position of this goal is ascertained a detailed listing of all territories
throughout the world which have not yet won their goals for localities and
Local Spiritual Assemblies will be sent to every National Spiritual Assembly
for urgent release to the friends.
6 It
is hoped that during this last year of the Plan the principle of collaboration
between National Spiritual Assemblies will be extended far beyond the special
tasks set in the Nine Year Plan. Those communities which have already attained
their goals or are in clear sight of them should consider the world picture as
disclosed by the listing mentioned above and do everything they can, without
jeopardizing their own success, to assist their fellow communities with
pioneers and travelling teachers, or in any other way possible. Such a process
will greatly consolidate the unity and brotherhood of the Bahá'í
world community.
7 In
the meantime we call on all believers everywhere to prayerfully consider their
personal circumstances, and to arise while there is yet time, to fill the
international pioneer goals of the Plan. There are 267 pioneer needs still to
be answered---75 in Africa, 57 in the Americas, 40 in Asia, 30 in Australasia
and 65 in Europe.
8 The
extraordinary advances made since that Ri.dván of
1964 when the Nine Year Plan was begun, continuing the organized and purposeful
process of teaching on a world scale instituted by our beloved Guardian when he
launched the Ten Year Crusade, force upon our attention new requirements of
this ever-growing world order both for its own organic life and in relation to
the disintegrating world society in which it is set. The divergence between the
ways of the world and of the Cause of God becomes ever wider. And yet the two
must come together. The Bahá'í community must
demonstrate in ever-increasing measure its ability to redeem the
disorderliness, the lack of cohesion, the permissiveness, the godlessness of
modern society; the laws, the religious obligations, the observances of Bahá'í life, Bahá'í moral
principles and standards of dignity, decency and reverence, must become deeply
implanted in Bahá'í consciousness and increasingly
inform and characterize this community. Such a process will require a great
development in the maturity and effectiveness of Local Spiritual Assemblies.
The purposes and standards of the Cause must be more and more understood and
courageously upheld. The influence of the Continental Boards of Counsellors and
the work of their Auxiliary Boards must develop and spread through the entire
fabric of the Bahá'í community. A vast systematic programme for the production of Bahá'í
literature must be promoted.
9 Our
immediate and inescapable task, however, is to ensure that every attainable
goal of the Nine Year Plan is achieved. This must be done at all costs. No
sacrifice, no deferment of cherished plans must be refused in order to
discharge this "most important" of the many "important"
duties facing us. Who can doubt that one last supreme effort will be crowned
with success? Even now the national community to bear the laurels of first
achieving every task assigned to it, Fiji, leads the procession of rejoicing
and victorious communities within the Army of Light. We may well emulate Bahá'í youth whose recent surge forward into the van of
proclamation and teaching is one of the most encouraging and significant trends
in the Faith, and who storm the gates of heaven for support in their
enterprises by long-sustained, precedent and continuing prayer. We are all able
to call upon Bahá'u'lláh for His Divine, all-powerful
aid, and He will surely help us. For He is the Hearer of prayers, the Answerer.
The Universal House of Justice