- In the beginning of every Revelation adversities have prevailed, which
later on have been turned into great prosperity.
(Bahá'u'lláh, cited in Shoghi Effendi, "The Advent of Divine Justice"
(Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1984), p. 82)
- Consider the former generations. Witness how every time the Day Star of
Divine bounty hath shed the light of His Revelation upon the world, the people
of His Day have arisen against Him, and repudiated His truth. They who were
regarded as the leaders of men have invariably striven to hinder their
followers from turning unto Him Who is the Ocean of God's limitless bounty.
Thou hast known how grievously the Prophets of God, His Messengers and
Chosen Ones, have been afflicted. Meditate a while on the motive and reason
which have been responsible for such a persecution. At no time, in no
Dispensation, have the Prophets of God escaped the blasphemy of their enemies,
the cruelty of their oppressors, the denunciation of the learned of their age,
who appeared in the guise of uprightness and piety. Day and night they passed
through such agonies as none can ever measure, except the knowledge of the one
true God, exalted be His glory.
("Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh", rev. ed.
(Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1983), sec. 23, pp. 56-58)
- Know ye that trials and tribulations have, from time immemorial, been the
lot of the chosen Ones of God and His beloved, and such of His servants as are
detached from all else but Him, they whom neither merchandise nor traffic
beguile from the remembrance of the Almighty, they that speak not till He hath
spoken, and act according to His commandment. Such is God's method carried
into effect of old, and such will it remain in the future....
("Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh", sec. 64, p.
129)
- By My life! Mine heart groaneth and mine eyes weep sore for the Cause of
God and for them that understand not what they say and imagine what they
cannot comprehend.
("Gleanings from the Writings of
Bahá'u'lláh", sec. 100, p. 203)
- And if a nightingale soar upward from the clay of self and dwell in the
rose bower of the heart, and in Arabian melodies and sweet Iranian songs
recount the mysteries of God — a single word of which quickeneth to fresh, new
life the bodies of the dead, and bestoweth the Holy Spirit upon the moldering
bones of this existence — thou wilt behold a thousand claws of envy, a myriad
beaks of rancor hunting after Him and with all their power intent upon His
death.
O My friend! Many a hound pursueth this gazelle of the desert of oneness;
many a talon claweth at this thrush of the eternal garden. Pitiless ravens do
lie in wait for this bird of the heavens of God, and the huntsman of envy
stalketh this deer of the meadow of love.
(Bahá'u'lláh, "The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys"
(Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1986), p. 20; p. 41)
- It is clear and evident that whenever the Manifestations of Holiness were
revealed, the divines of their day have hindered the people from attaining
unto the way of truth. To this testify the records of all the scriptures and
heavenly books. Not one Prophet of God was made manifest Who did not fall a
victim to the relentless hate, to the denunciation, denial, and execration of
the clerics of His day!...
We foresee that in every city people will arise to suppress the Blessed
Beauty, that the companions of that Lord of being and ultimate Desire of all
men will flee from the face of the oppressor and seek refuge from him in the
wilderness, whilst others will resign themselves and, with absolute
detachment, will sacrifice their lives in His path....
(Bahá'u'lláh, "Kitáb-i-Íqán", 2nd. ed. (Wilmette: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1983) pp. 165-166; p. 248)
Extracts From The Writings And Utterances Of
`Abdu'l-Bahá:
- The prestige of the Faith of God has immensely increased. Its greatness is
now manifest. The day is approaching when it will have cast a tremendous
tumult in men's hearts. Rejoice, therefore, O denizens of America, rejoice
with exceeding gladness!
(`Abdu'l-Bahá, cited in Shoghi
Effendi, "The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh: Selected Letters", rev. ed.
(Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1982), p. 79)
- In these days the Cause of God, the world over, is fast growing in power
and, day by day, is spreading further and further to the utmost bounds of the
earth. Its enemies, therefore, from all the kindreds and peoples of the world,
are growing aggressive, malevolent, envious and bitterly hostile. It is
incumbent upon the loved ones of God to exercise the greatest care and
prudence in all things, whether great or small, to take counsel together and
unitedly resist the onslaught of the stirrers up of strife and the movers of
mischief...
("Selections from the Writings of
`Abdu'l-Bahá" [rev. ed.] (Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre, 1982), sec. 194, p.
233)
- O thou exalted bough of the divine Lote-Tree!
When thou art disdained and rejected by the wicked doers be not cast down;
and at the power and stiff-neckedness of the presumptuous be neither vexed nor
sick at heart; for such is the way of heedless souls, from time out of mind.
"O the misery of men! No Messenger cometh unto them but they laugh Him to
scorn!"
Indeed, the attacks and the obstructiveness of the ignorant but cause the
Word of God to be exalted, and spread His signs and tokens far and wide. Were
it not for this opposition by the disdainful, this obduracy of the slanderers,
this shouting from the pulpits, this crying and wailing of great and small
alike, these accusations of unbelief levelled by the ignorant, this uproar
from the foolish — how could news of the advent of the Primal Point and the
bright dawning of the Day-star of Bahá ever have reached to east and west? How
else could the planet have been rocked from pole to pole? How else could
Persia have become the focal point of scattering splendours, and Asia Minor
the radiating heart of the beauty of the Lord? However else could the flame of
the Manifestation have spread into the south? By what means could the cries of
God have been heard in the far north? How else could His summons have been
heard in the continents of America and of Africa the dark? How else could the
cockcrow of Heaven have penetrated those ears? How else could the sweet
parrots of India have come upon this sugar, or nightingales have lifted up
their warblings out of the land of `Iraq? What else could set the east and
west to dancing, how else could this Consecrated Spot become the throne of the
Beauty of God? How else could Sinai behold this burning brightness, how could
the Advent's flame adorn that mount? How else could the Holy Land be made the
footstool of God's beauty, and the holy vale of Towa become the site of
excellence and grace, the sacred spot where Moses put off His shoes? How could
the breaths of heaven be carried across the Vale of Holiness, how could the
sweet-scented, airy streams that blow out of the Abhá gardens ever be
perceived by those that dwell on the Verdant Isle? How else could the pledges
of the Prophets, the joyous tidings of the holy Seers of old, the stirring
promises given unto this Sacred Place by the Manifestations of God, ever have
been fulfilled? All these blessings and bestowals, the very means of
proclaiming the Faith, have come about through the scorn of the ignorant, the
opposition of the foolish, the stubbornness of the dull-witted, the violence
of the aggressor. Had it not been for these things, the news of the Báb's
advent would not, to this day, have reached even into lands hard by. Wherefore
we should never grieve over the blindness of the unwitting, the attacks of the
foolish, the hostility of the low and base, the heedlessness of the divines,
the charges of infidelity brought against us by the empty of mind. Such too
was their way in ages past, nor would it be thus if they were of those who
know; but they are benighted, and they come not close to understanding what is
told them.
("Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá" sec. 195,
pp. 234-36)
- ...the friends in the West will unquestionably have their share of the
calamities befalling the friends in the East. It is inevitable that, walking
the pathway of Bahá'u'lláh, they too will become targets for persecution by
the oppressors.
Now ye, as well, must certainly become my partners to some slight degree,
and accept your share of tests and sorrows. But these episodes shall pass
away, while that abiding glory and eternal life shall remain unchanged
forever. Moreover, these afflictions shall be the cause of great advancement.
("Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá" sec. 196,
pp. 238-39)
- This day the powers of all the leaders of religion are directed towards
the dispersion of the congregation of the All-Merciful, and the shattering of
the Divine Edifice. The hosts of the world, whether material, cultural or
political are from every side launching their assault, for the Cause is great,
very great. Its greatness is, in this day, clear and manifest to men's eyes.
It is therefore incumbent upon all who have come within the shade of the
protecting wing of God's gracious providence to evince, by His divine and
merciful assistance, such conspicuous steadfastness and firmness as will
arrest the gaze and astound the minds of all.
At the time of the ascension of the Spirit (Jesus Christ), the company of
those who accepted the new Revelation numbered no more than a few souls. So
intense was the alarm and perturbation to which that event gave rise that, for
a time, these souls were quite overcome by their agitation and confusion.
Then, a few days later, a woman by the name of Mary Magdalene arose, and, by
her own example, instilled into them a constancy and firmness which enabled
them to arise for the propagation of the Word of God. Although to outward
seeming they were no more than fishermen and dyers, yet, through the holy
confirmations of the Cause of God, they carried the divine fragrances far and
wide, sweetening the breaths of all who inhaled their fragrance and bringing
new life to every understanding heart.
Take courage, then, O ye trusted friends of God, from the appearance of
this mighty and all-swaying power, which was like unto a spirit that permeated
the body of the world, making it vibrant with its pulse, and causing the
pillars of idolatry to shake and tremble.
(`Abdu'l-Bahá, the first three sentences are from Shoghi
Effendi's translation cited in "The Advent of Divine Justice", p. 6. The
remainder of the extract is newly translated.)
- ...a large multitude of people will arise against you, showing oppression,
expressing contumely and derision, shunning your society, and heaping upon you
ridicule. However, the Heavenly Father will illumine you to such an extent
that, like unto the rays of the sun, you shall scatter the dark clouds of
superstition, shine gloriously in the midst of Heaven and illumine the face of
the earth. You must make firm the feet at the time when these trials
transpire, and demonstrate forbearance and patience. You must withstand them
with the utmost love and kindness; consider their oppression and persecution
as the caprice of children, and do not give any importance to whatever they
do. For at the end the illumination of the Kingdom will overwhelm the darkness
of the world and the exaltation and grandeur of your station will become
apparent and manifest... Rest ye assured.
(`Abdu'l-Bahá,
cited in "Bahá'í News" ["Star of the West"], vol. 1, no. 10 (8 September
1910), pp. 1-2)
- Erelong the wicked-doers in that land will arise to heap denunciations
upon the true believers, and vent their spite upon the company of the
faithful. Each day they will inflict a galling wound, each hour a stunning
blow. Rebuking the friends for the love they bear Bahá'u'lláh and
`Abdu'l-Bahá, they will consider justified their denunciations, their scorn
and malice, and spare no effort to do the friends whatever injury it lieth
within their power to inflict. Such conduct is at one with the modes and
practices of the people aforetime: in bygone centuries, in the days of the
appearance of the holy Manifestations, the people acted in just this manner;
and now, in these days, it is inevitable that they will repeat such actions,
nay, act with greater perversity than before... Hence it is certain that thou
wilt be afflicted with adversities, tests and injuries for the sake of the
Blessed Beauty; yet these afflictions shall be the purest bounties and
bestowals, and a token of thy acceptance at the Divine Threshold.
(`Abdu'l-Bahá, from a Tablet — translated from the Persian)
- But after I leave, some people may arise in opposition, heaping
persecutions upon you in their bitterness, and in the newspapers there may be
articles published against the Cause. Rest ye in the assurance of firmness. Be
well poised and serene, remembering that this is only as the harmless
twittering of sparrows and that it will soon pass away....
Therefore, my purpose is to warn and strengthen you against accusations,
criticisms, revilings and derision in newspaper articles or other
publications. Be not disturbed by them. They are the very confirmation of the
Cause, the very source of upbuilding to the Movement. May God confirm the day
when a score of ministers of the churches may arise and with bared heads cry
at the top of their voices that the Bahá'ís are misguided. I would like to see
that day, for that is the time when the Cause of God will spread. Bahá'u'lláh
has pronounced such as these the couriers of the Cause. They will proclaim
from pulpits that the Bahá'ís are fools, that they are a wicked and
unrighteous people, but be ye steadfast and unwavering in the Cause of God.
They will spread the message of Bahá'u'lláh.
("The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by
`Abdu'l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912", 2nd
ed. (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1982), pp. 428-430)
Extracts From The Writings Of Shoghi
Effendi:
- I am however assured and sustained by the conviction, never dimmed in my
mind, that whatsoever comes to pass in the Cause of God, however disquieting,
in its immediate effects, is fraught with infinite Wisdom and tends ultimately
to promote its interests in the world. Indeed, our experiences of the distant
past, as well as of recent events, are too numerous and varied to permit of
any misgiving or doubt as to the truth of this basic principle — a principle
which throughout the vicissitudes of our sacred mission in this world we must
never disregard or forget.
True, the Cause as every other movement has its own obstacles,
complications and unforeseen difficulties, but unlike any other human
organization it inspires a spirit of Faith and Devotion which can never fail
to induce us to make sincere and renewed efforts to face these difficulties
and smooth any differences that may and must arise.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 23 December 1922
to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, published
in "Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932" [rev. ed.], (Wilmette:
Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1980), pp. 27-28)
- On one hand the remarkable revelations of the Beloved's Will and
Testament, so amazing in all its aspects, so emphatic in its injunctions, have
challenged and perplexed the keenest minds, whilst the ever-increasing
confusion of the world, threatened as never before with disruptive forces,
fierce rivalries, fresh commotions and grave disorder, have wellnigh
overwhelmed the heart and damped the zeal of even the most enthusiastic
believer in the destiny of mankind.
And yet, how often we seem to forget the clear and repeated warnings of Our
beloved Master, Who, in particular during the concluding years of His mission
on earth, laid stress on the "severe mental tests" that would inevitably sweep
over His loved ones of the West — tests that would purge, purify and prepare
them for their noble mission in life.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 14 November 1923
to the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, published in "Bahá'í
Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932" p. 50)
- That the Cause of God should in the days to come witness many a
challenging hour and pass through critical stages in preparation for the
glories of its promised ascendancy in the New World has been time and again
undeniably affirmed by our departed Master, and is abundantly proved to us all
by its heroic past and turbulent history....
(In a letter
written by Shoghi Effendi, 23 February 1924 to the Bahá'ís of America,
published in "Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932", pp.
60-61)
- We cannot believe that as the Movement grows in strength, in authority and
in influence, the perplexities and the sufferings it has had to contend with
in the past will correspondingly decrease and vanish. Nay, as it grows from
strength to strength, the fanatical defendants of the strongholds of
Orthodoxy, whatever be their denomination, realizing the penetrating influence
of this growing Faith, will arise and strain every nerve to extinguish its
light and discredit its name....
(In a letter written by
Shoghi Effendi, 12 February 1927 to the Bahá'ís of the West, published in
"Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932", p. 123)
- For let every earnest upholder of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh realize that
the storms which this struggling Faith of God must needs encounter, as the
process of the disintegration of society advances, shall be fiercer than any
which it has already experienced. Let him be aware that so soon as the full
measure of the stupendous claim of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh comes to be
recognized by those time-honoured and powerful strongholds of orthodoxy, whose
deliberate aim is to maintain their stranglehold over the thoughts and
consciences of men, that this infant Faith will have to contend with enemies
more powerful and more insidious than the cruellest torture-mongers and the
most fanatical clerics who have afflicted it in the past. What foes may not in
the course of the convulsions that shall seize a dying civilization be brought
into existence, who will reinforce the indignities which have already been
heaped upon it!
We have only to refer to the warnings uttered by `Abdu'l-Bahá in order to
realize the extent and character of the forces that are destined to contest
with God's holy Faith. In the darkest moments of His life, under `Abdu'l
Hamíd's regime, when He stood ready to be deported to the most inhospitable
regions of Northern Africa, and at a time when the auspicious light of the
Bahá'í Revelation had only begun to break upon the West, He in His parting
message to the cousin of the Báb, uttered these prophetic and ominous words:
"HOW GREAT, HOW VERY GREAT IS THE CAUSE! HOW VERY FIERCE THE ONSLAUGHT OF ALL
THE PEOPLES AND KINDREDS OF THE EARTH! ERE LONG SHALL THE CLAMOUR OF THE
MULTITUDE THROUGHOUT AFRICA, THROUGHOUT AMERICA, THE CRY OF THE EUROPEAN AND
OF THE TURK, THE 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, ASSISTED BY HIS GRACE FROM ON HIGH, STRENGTHENED BY
FAITH, AIDED BY THE POWER OF UNDERSTANDING, AND REINFORCED BY THE LEGIONS OF
THE COVENANT, ARISE AND MAKE MANIFEST THE TRUTH OF THE VERSE: `BEHOLD THE
CONFUSION THAT HATH BEFALLEN THE TRIBES OF THE DEFEATED!'"
Stupendous as is the struggle which His words foreshadow, they also testify
to the complete victory which the upholders of the Greatest Name are destined
eventually to achieve. Peoples, nations, adherents of divers faiths, will
jointly and successively arise to shatter its unity, to sap its force, and to
degrade its holy name. They will assail not only the spirit which it
inculcates, but the administration which is the channel, the instrument, the
embodiment of that spirit. For as the authority with which Bahá'u'lláh has
invested the future Bahá'í Commonwealth becomes more and more apparent, the
fiercer shall be the challenge which from every quarter will be thrown at the
verities it enshrines.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 21 March 1930 to
the Bahá'ís of the West, published in "The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh:
Selected Letters", pp. 17-18)
- The separation that has set in between the institutions of the Bahá'í
Faith and the Islamic ecclesiastical organizations that oppose it — a movement
that has originated in Egypt and is now spreading steadily throughout the
Middle East, and will in time communicate its influence to the West — imposes
upon every loyal upholder of the Cause the obligation of refraining from any
word or action that might prejudice the position which our enemies have, in
recent years and of their own accord, proclaimed and established. This
historic development, the beginnings of which could neither be recognized nor
even anticipated in the years immediately preceding `Abdu'l-Bahá's passing,
may be said to have signalized the Formative Period of our Faith and to have
paved the way for the consolidation of its Administrative Order. As this
movement gains momentum, as it receives added impetus from the attitude and
future action of the civil authorities in Persia, it will inevitably manifest
its repercussions in the West and will rouse the leaders of the Church and
finally the civil authorities to challenge the claims and eventually to
recognize the independent status of the Religion of Bahá'u'lláh.... Our
adversaries in the East have initiated the struggle. Our future opponents in
the West will, in their turn, arise and carry it a stage further. Ours is the
duty, in anticipation of this inevitable contest, to uphold unequivocally and
with undivided loyalty the integrity of our Faith and demonstrate the
distinguishing features of its divinely appointed institutions.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 15 June 1935 to the National
Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, published in "Messages to
America: Selected Letters and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá'ís of North
America, 1932-1946" (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Committee, 1947), pp.
4-5)
- That the forces of irreligion, of a purely materialistic philosophy, of
unconcealed paganism have been unloosed, are now spreading, and, by
consolidating themselves, are beginning to invade some of the most powerful
Christian institutions of the western world, no unbiased observer can fail to
admit. That these institutions are becoming increasingly restive, that a few
among them are already dimly aware of the pervasive influence of the Cause of
Bahá'u'lláh, that they will, as their inherent strength deteriorates and their
discipline relaxes, regard with deepening dismay the rise of His New World
Order, and will gradually determine to assail it, that such an opposition will
in turn accelerate their decline, few, if any, among those who are attentively
watching the progress of His Faith would be inclined to question.
This menace of secularism that has attacked Islam and is undermining its
remaining institutions, that has invaded Persia, has penetrated into India,
and raised its triumphant head in Turkey, has already manifested itself in
both Europe and America, and is, in varying degrees, and under various forms
and designations, challenging the basis of every established religion...
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 11 March 1936 to
the Bahá'ís of the West, published in "The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh:
Selected Letters", pp. 180-81)
- Pregnant indeed are the years looming ahead of us all. The twin processes
of internal disintegration and external chaos are being accelerated every day
and are inexorably moving towards a climax.... The Community of the Most Great
Name, the leaven that must leaven the lump, the chosen remnant that must
survive the rolling up of the old, discredited, tottering Order and assist in
the unfoldment of a new one in its stead, is standing ready, alert,
clear-visioned, and resolute.... Fierce and manifold will be the assaults with
which governments, races, classes and religions, jealous of its rising
prestige and fearful of its consolidating strength, will seek to silence its
voice and sap its foundations. Unmoved by the relative obscurity that
surrounds it at the present time, and undaunted by the forces that will be
arrayed against it in the future, this community, I cannot but feel confident,
will, no matter how afflictive the agonies of a travailing age, pursue its
destiny, undeflected in its course, undimmed in its serenity, unyielding in
its resolve, unshaken in its convictions.
(In a letter
written by Shoghi Effendi, 5 July 1938 to the National Spiritual Assembly of
the United States and Canada, published in "Messages to America: Selected
Letters and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá'ís of North America, 1932-1946"),
pp. 13-14)
- How can the beginnings of a world upheaval, unleashing forces that are so
gravely deranging the social, the religious, the political, and the economic
equilibrium of organized society, throwing into chaos and confusion political
systems, racial doctrines, social conceptions, cultural standards, religious
associations, and trade relationships — how can such agitations, on a scale so
vast, so unprecedented, fail to produce any repercussions on the institutions
of a Faith of such tender age whose teachings have a direct and vital bearing
on each of these spheres of human life and conduct?
Little wonder, therefore, if they who are holding aloft the banner of so
pervasive a Faith, so challenging a Cause, find themselves affected by the
impact of these world-shaking forces. Little wonder if they find that in the
midst of this whirlpool of contending passions their freedom has been
curtailed, their tenets contemned, their institutions assaulted, their motives
maligned, their authority jeopardized, their claim rejected.
...
Nor should any of the manifold opportunities, of a totally different order,
be allowed to pass unnoticed which the evolution of the Faith itself, whether
at its world center, or in the North American continent, or even in the most
outlying regions of the earth, must create, calling once again upon the
American believers to play a part, no less conspicuous than the share they
have previously had in their collective contributions to the propagation of
the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh. I can only for the moment cite at random certain of
these opportunities which stand out preeminently, in any attempt to survey the
possibilities of the future: ...the deliverance of Bahá'í communities from the
fetters of religious orthodoxy in such Islamic countries as Persia, `Iraq, and
Egypt, and the consequent recognition, by the civil authorities in those
states, of the independent status and religious character of Bahá'í National
and Local Assemblies; the precautionary and defensive measures to be devised,
coordinated, and carried out to counteract the full force of the inescapable
attacks which organized efforts of ecclesiastical organizations of various
denominations will progressively launch and relentlessly pursue; and, last but
not least, the multitudinous issues that must be faced, the obstacles that
must be overcome, and the responsibilities that must be assumed, to enable a
sore-tried Faith to pass through the successive stages of unmitigated
obscurity, of active repression, and of complete emancipation, leading in turn
to its being acknowledged as an independent Faith, enjoying the status of full
equality with its sister religions, to be followed by its establishment and
recognition as a State religion, which in turn must give way to its assumption
of the rights and prerogatives associated with the Bahá'í state, functioning
in the plenitude of its powers, a stage which must ultimately culminate in the
emergence of the worldwide Bahá'í Commonwealth, animated wholly by the spirit,
and operating solely in direct conformity with the laws and principles of
Bahá'u'lláh.
...
In the conduct of this twofold crusade the valiant warriors struggling in
the name and for the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh must, of necessity, encounter stiff
resistance, and suffer many a setback. Their own instincts, no less than the
fury of conservative forces, the opposition of vested interests, and the
objections of a corrupt and pleasure-seeking generation, must be reckoned
with, resolutely resisted, and completely overcome. As their defensive
measures for the impending struggle are organized and extended, storms of
abuse and ridicule, and campaigns of condemnation and misrepresentation, may
be unloosed against them. Their Faith, they may soon find, has been assaulted,
their motives misconstrued, their aims defamed, their aspirations derided,
their institutions scorned, their influence belittled, their authority
undermined, and their Cause, at times, deserted by a few who will either be
incapable of appreciating the nature of their ideals, or unwilling to bear the
brunt of the mounting criticisms which such a contest is sure to involve.
"Because of `Abdu'l-Bahá," the beloved Master has prophesied, "many a test
will be visited upon you. Troubles will befall you, and suffering afflict
you."
Let not, however, the invincible army of Bahá'u'lláh, who in the West, and
at one of its potential storm-centers is to fight, in His name and for His
sake, one of its fiercest and most glorious battles, be afraid of any
criticism that might be directed against it. Let it not be deterred by any
condemnation with which the tongue of the slanderer may seek to debase its
motives. Let it not recoil before the threatening advance of the forces of
fanaticism, of orthodoxy, of corruption, and of prejudice that may be leagued
against it. The voice of criticism is a voice that indirectly reinforces the
proclamation of its Cause. Unpopularity but serves to throw into greater
relief the contrast between it and its adversaries, while ostracism is itself
the magnetic power that must eventually win over to its camp the most
vociferous and inveterate amongst its foes....
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 25 December 1938
to the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, published in "The Advent of
Divine Justice", pp. 2-3; pp. 14-15; pp. 41-42)
- 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....
(Shoghi Effendi, "God Passes
By", rev. ed. (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1987) p. 315)
- No matter how long the period that separates them from ultimate victory;
however arduous the task; however formidable the exertions demanded of them;
however dark the days which mankind, perplexed and sorely-tried, must, in its
hour of travail, traverse; however severe the tests with which they who are to
redeem its fortunes will be confronted; however afflictive the darts which
their present enemies, as well as those whom Providence, will, through His
mysterious dispensations raise up from within or from without, may rain upon
them, however grievous the ordeal of temporary separation from the heart and
nerve-center of their Faith which future unforeseeable disturbances may impose
upon them, I adjure them, by the precious blood that flowed in such great
profusion, by the lives of the unnumbered saints and heroes who were
immolated, by the supreme, the glorious sacrifice of the Prophet-Herald of our
Faith, by the tribulations which its Founder, Himself, willingly underwent, so
that His Cause might live, His Order might redeem a shattered world and its
glory might suffuse the entire planet — I adjure them, as this solemn hour
draws nigh, to resolve never to flinch, never to hesitate, never to relax,
until each and every objective in the Plans to be proclaimed, at a later date,
has been fully consummated.
(In a letter written by Shoghi
Effendi, 30 June 1952 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States,
published in "Messages to the Bahá'í World, 1950-1957" (Wilmette: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1971), pp. 38-39)
- ...undeterred by the clamor which the exponents of religious orthodoxy are
sure to raise, or by the restrictive measures which political leaders may
impose; undismayed by the smallness of their numbers and the multitude of
their potential adversaries; armed with the efficacious weapons their own
hands have slowly and laboriously forged in anticipation of this glorious and
inevitable encounter with the organized forces of superstition, of corruption
and of unbelief; placing their whole trust in the matchless potency of
Bahá'u'lláh's teachings, in the all-conquering power of His might and the
infallibility of His glorious and oft-repeated promises, let them press
forward...
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 25 June
1953 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, published in
"Citadel of Faith: Messages to America 1947-1957" (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing
Trust, 1980), p. 120)
- The administrative problems which face you are divers and complex. The
opposition which a nascent Faith must needs meet, particularly from the
leaders of religious orthodoxy in the Islamic countries of the North, will, as
the institutions of that Faith multiply, become more apparent and grow in
severity....
(In the handwriting of Shoghi Effendi,
appended to a letter dated 2 July 1956 written on his behalf to the National
Spiritual Assembly of North West Africa)
Extracts From Letters Written On Behalf Of Shoghi
Effendi:
- For the history of the Cause, particularly in Persia, is a clear
illustration of the truth that such persecutions invariably serve to
strengthen the believers in their faith, by stimulating the spiritual powers
latent in their hearts, and by awakening in them a new and deeper
consciousness of their duties and responsibilities towards the Faith. Indeed,
the mere progress of the Cause, by provoking the hatreds and jealousies of
peoples and nations, creates for itself such difficulties and obstacles as
only its divine spirit can overcome. `Abdu'l-Bahá has emphatically stated that
the enmity and opposition of the world will increase in direct proportion to
the extension and progress of the Faith. The greater the zeal of the believers
and the more striking the effect of their achievements, the fiercer will be
the opposition of the enemy.
(In a letter written on
behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 20 January 1935 to the National Spiritual Assembly
of India and Burma)
- He is, indeed, fully alive to the difficulties which the friends, not only
in your centre but all around the world, are daily encountering in their
attempt to establish and perfect the administrative machinery of the Faith.
These difficulties and obstacles, however, he considers to be inevitable,
inherent as they are in the very process through which the Cause of
Bahá'u'lláh is destined to develop and to eventually establish its ascendancy
in the world. Not only are such difficulties inevitable, but they should be
viewed, indeed, as constituting a God-given test whereby the friends can, and
will assuredly, enrich and perfect the spiritual and moral energies latent in
them, and in this way help in establishing that Divine civilization promised
to them by God.
Trials and sufferings, Bahá'u'lláh has repeatedly warned us in His Tablets,
are even as the oil that feeds the lamp. The Cause cannot reveal its full
splendour unless and until it encounters and successfully overcomes the very
obstacles that every now and then stand in its way, and for some time appear
to threaten its very foundations. Such obstacles, tests and trials are indeed
blessings in disguise, and as such are bound to help in promoting the Faith.
(In a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 31 July
1935 to an individual believer)
- ...though he has been made truly grieved to learn of the continued and
malignant opposition which the enemies of the Cause in ..., and particularly
the clerical element, are directing against the believers in that centre. He
wishes you, however, to urge the friends not to feel in the least disheartened
or discouraged, but to pursue with renewed determination, unity and vigour
their sacred task of spreading and establishing the Faith, confident in the
glorious future awaiting them. The greater the number of persecutions, and the
more intense they become in character, the deeper their faith should be in the
unique mission entrusted to them by Bahá'u'lláh, and the greater their zeal to
help in hastening is complete fulfilment.
This Cause, as every Divine Cause, cannot be effectively established unless
it encounters and valiantly triumphs over the forces of opposition with which
it is assailed. The history of the Faith is in itself a sufficient proof of
that. Trials and persecutions have always been, and will continue to be, the
lot of the chosen ones of God. But these they should consider as blessings in
disguise, as through them their faith will be quickened, purified and
strengthened. Bahá'u'lláh compares such afflictive trials to the oil which
feeds the lamp of the Cause of God.
The friends should, therefore, not assume an attitude of mere resignation
in the face of persecutions. They should rather welcome them, and utilize them
as [a] means for their own spiritual uplift and also for the promotion of the
Cause. As the Faith grows stronger and attracts the serious attention and
consideration of the world outside, the friends must expect a similar, if not
a greater, increase in the forces of opposition which from every direction,
both secular and religious, will be massed to undermine the very basis of its
existence. The final outcome of such a struggle, which will be surely
gigantic, is clear to us believers. A Faith born of God and guided by His
Divine and all-pervasive spirit cannot but finally triumph and firmly
establish itself, no matter how persistent and insidious the forces with which
it has to contend. The friends should be confident, and act with the utmost
wisdom and moderation, and should particularly abstain from any provocative
act. The future is surely theirs.
(In a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 24 June
1936 to an individual believer)
- His fears are rather for those friends who, due to their insufficient
realization of the divine power that mysteriously operates in the Faith, are
prone to look at such developments as constituting the death-knell of the
Cause. In his communications to the ... friends during the last few weeks he
has always stressed the fact, and he wishes you to do the same in all your
conversations and correspondence with them, that the Cause is bound sooner or
later to suffer from all kinds of attacks and persecutions, that these in fact
constitute the life-blood of its institutions, and as such constitute an
inseparable and intrinsic part of its development and growth. Trials and
tribulations, as Bahá'u'lláh says, are the oil that feed the lamp of the
Cause, and are indeed blessings in disguise. The friends should therefore be
confident that all these attacks to which the Cause is now subjected in ...
are a necessary part of the development of the Cause, and that their outcome
would be beneficial to its best interests.
(In a letter
written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 31 August 1937 to an individual
believer)
- Later on, when the very progress of the Cause on the one hand, and the
corresponding decline in ecclesiastical organizations on the other will
inevitably incite Christian ecclesiastical leaders to vehemently oppose and
undermine the Faith, the believers will then have a real chance to defend and
vindicate the Cause....
(In a letter written on behalf of
Shoghi Effendi, 25 May 1938 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United
States and Canada)
- It seems both strange and pitiful that the Church and clergy should
always, in every age, be the most bitter opponents of the very Truth they are
continually admonishing their followers to be prepared to receive! They have
become so violently attached to the form that the substance itself eludes
them!
However, such denunciations as those your minister made publicly against
you and the Bahá'í Faith can do no harm to the Cause at all; on the contrary
they only serve to spread its name abroad and mark it as an independent
religion.
(In a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 7
February 1945 to an individual believer)
- It is too bad that some of the Friends have left the Faith due to the
pressure of the Church leaders. Of course, it was inevitable that Church
leaders would oppose us. The Master has predicted that this would occur; and
likewise the very nature of events whereby the Faith grows and develops taking
members away from the Church will cause a reaction of the Church against us.
We must bear in mind that every attack from the religious leaders in the past
has been a means for the development of the Faith itself because those who
listen to the attacks can't help but be affected by the purity and sincerity
of the Faith.
(In a letter written on behalf of Shoghi
Effendi, 19 June 1957 to an individual believer)
Extracts From Letters Written By The Universal House Of
Justice:
- The marvellous victories won in the name of Bahá'u'lláh, ...and the
triumphs increasingly being achieved by His dedicated and ardent lovers in
every land, will no doubt serve to rouse the internal and external enemies of
the Faith to fresh attempts to attack the Faith and dampen the enthusiasm of
is supporters... the progressive unfoldment and onward march of the Faith of
God are bound to raise up adversaries, indubitably foreshadowing the
world-wide opposition which is to come, and unequivocally giving the assurance
of ultimate victory.
We feel strongly that ... the time has come for them [the friends] to
clearly grasp the inevitability of the critical contests which lie ahead, give
you their full support in repelling with confidence and determination "the
darts" which will be levelled against them by "their present enemies, as well
as those whom Providence will, through His mysterious dispensations raise up
from within or from without," and aid and enable the Faith of God to scale
loftier heights, win more signal triumphs, and traverse more vital stages in
is predestined course to complete victory and world-wide ascendancy.
(In a letter written by the Universal House of Justice, 26
November 1974 to all National Spiritual Assemblies)
Extracts From Letters Written On Behalf Of The Universal
House Of Justice:
- ...the Universal House of Justice instructs us to say that it is to be
expected that books will be written against the Faith attempting to distort is
teachings, to denigrate is accomplishments, to vilify is Founders and leaders
and to destroy is very foundations. The friends should not be unduly exercised
when these books appear and certainly no issue should be made of
them.
(In a letter written on behalf of the Universal
House of Justice, 30 March 1976 to the National Spiritual Assembly of Hong
Kong)
- As your teaching and proclamation work progresses there is bound to be
more and more confrontation with the older religious institutions in ..., and
it is the kind of staunchness evinced by ... which will bring respect to the
Cause and attract the confirmations of Bahá'u'lláh.
(In a
letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, 7 June 1981 to the
National Spiritual Assembly of Ireland)
- ...In these days Bahá'ís can expect the flame of fanaticism to be kindled
among the enemies of the Faith in Muslim countries. In meeting attacks the
friends should learn to combine the spirit of steadfastness and courage with
love and wisdom. They should avoid argument and conflict and conduct
themselves in such manner that they do not provoke retaliation. This includes
the use of discretion in their teaching activities.
(In a
letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, 22 August 1983 to
the National Spiritual Assembly of Bangladesh)
- Given the rise in most parts of the world of religious bigotry and
fundamentalism, it may be timely for your National Assembly to try to arm the
Bahá'ís against such attacks as appear in this book, which is so typical of
the approach of Christian churches. Sooner or later, as you know, these
churches will rise against the Cause.
You are therefore requested to consider asking a qualified person or group
of persons to prepare suitable materials, perhaps for a booklet, which the
friends may use in dealing with misrepresentations of the Bahá'í Teachings by
Christians.
(In a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of
Justice, 18 October 1984 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United
States)
II.
"The resistless march of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh"
(Shoghi Effendi, "Messages to America: Selected Letters
and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá'ís of North America", p. 51)
Extracts From The Writings Of
Bahá'u'lláh
- Say: Tribulation is a horizon unto My Revelation. The day star of grace
shineth above it, and sheddeth a light which neither the clouds of men's idle
fancy nor the vain imaginations of the aggressor can obscure.
Follow thou the footsteps of thy Lord, and remember His servants even as He
doth remember thee, undeterred by either the clamor of the heedless ones or
the sword of the enemy.... Spread abroad the sweet savors of thy Lord, and
hesitate not, though it be for less than a moment, in the service of His
Cause. The day is approaching when the victory of thy Lord, the
Ever-Forgiving, the Most Bountiful, will be proclaimed.
("Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh", sec. 17,
pp. 42-43)
- Behold how in this Dispensation the worthless and foolish have fondly
imagined that by such instruments as massacre, plunder and banishment they can
extinguish the Lamp which the Hand of Divine power hath lit, or eclipse the
Day Star of everlasting splendor. How utterly unaware they seem to be of the
truth that such adversity is the oil that feedeth the flame of this Lamp! Such
is God's transforming power. He changeth whatsoever He willeth; He verily hath
power over all things....
("Gleanings from the Writings of
Bahá'u'lláh", sec. 29, p. 72)
- Say: The fierce gales and whirlwinds of the world and its peoples can
never shake the foundation upon which the rocklike stability of My chosen ones
is based. Gracious God! What could have prompted these people to enslave and
imprison the loved ones of Him Who is the Eternal Truth? ... The day, however,
is approaching when the faithful will behold the Day Star of justice shining
in its full splendor from the Day Spring of glory. Thus instructeth thee the
Lord of all being in this, His grievous Prison.
("Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh", sec. 162, pp.
341-342)
- With every fresh tribulation He manifested a fuller measure of Thy Cause,
and exalted more highly Thy word.
("Prayers and
Meditations by Bahá'u'lláh" (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1987), sec.
31, p. 37)
- Should they attempt to conceal His light on the continent, He will
assuredly rear His head in the midmost heart of the ocean and, raising His
voice, proclaim: "I am the lifegiver of the world!" ... And if they cast Him
into a darksome pit, they will find Him seated on earth's loftiest heights
calling aloud to all mankind: "Lo, the Desire of the world is come in His
majesty, His sovereignty, His transcendent dominion!" And if He be buried
beneath the depths of the earth, His Spirit soaring to the apex of heaven
shall peal the summons: "Behold ye the coming of the Glory; witness ye the
Kingdom of God, the most Holy, the Gracious, the All-Powerful!..."
(Bahá'u'lláh, cited in Shoghi Effendi, "The World Order of
Bahá'u'lláh: Selected Letters", p. 108)
- At this moment We call to remembrance Our loved ones and bring them the
joyous tidings of God's unfailing grace and of the things that have been
provided for them in My lucid Book. Ye have tolerated the censure of the
enemies for the sake of My love and have steadfastly endured in My Path the
grievous cruelties which the ungodly have inflicted upon you. Unto this I
Myself bear witness, and I am the All-Knowing. How vast the number of places
that have been ennobled with your blood for the sake of God. How numerous the
cities wherein the voice of your lamentation hath been raised and the wailing
of your anguish uplifted. How many the prisons into which ye have been cast by
the hosts of tyranny. Know ye of a certainty that He will render you
victorious, will exalt you among the peoples of the world and will demonstrate
your high rank before the gaze of all nations. Surely He will not suffer the
reward of His favoured ones to be lost.
("Tablets of
Bahá'u'lláh Revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas", (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing
Trust, 1988), pp. 246-47)
- Verily God rendereth His Cause victorious at one time through the aid of
His enemies and at another by virtue of the assistance of His chosen ones.
Concerning those pure and blessed souls, Our Pen of Glory hath revealed that
which excelleth the whole world, its treasures and whatsoever existeth
therein. Erelong shall the heedless and the doers of wickedness be repaid for
that which their hands have wrought.
(Bahá'u'lláh, from a
Tablet — translated from the Persian)
- Whatsoever occurreth in the world of being is light for His loved ones and
fire for the people of sedition and strife. Even if all the losses of the
world were to be sustained by one of the friends of God, he would still profit
thereby, whereas true loss would be borne by such as are wayward, ignorant and
contemptuous. Although the author of the following saying had intended it
otherwise, yet We find it pertinent to the operation of God's immutable Will:
"Even or odd, thou shalt win the wager." The friends of God shall win and
profit under all conditions, and shall attain true wealth. In fire they remain
cold, and from water they emerge dry. Their affairs are at variance with the
affairs of men. Gain is their lot, whatever the deal. To this testifieth every
wise one with a discerning eye, and every fair-minded one with a hearing ear.
(Bahá'u'lláh, from a Table ・translated from the
Persian)
Extracts From The Writings And Utterances Of
`Abdu'l-Bahá
- The friends of God are supported by the Kingdom on high and they win their
victories through the massed armies of the most great guidance. Thus for them
every difficulty will be made smooth, every problem will most easily be
solved.
("Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá",
p. 279)
- Soon will the Western regions become as radiant as the horizons of the
East, and the Sun of Truth shine forth with a refulgence that will cause the
darkness of error to fade away and vanish. Great is the multitude who will
rise up to oppose you, who will oppress you, heap blame upon you, rejoice at
your misfortunes, account you people to be shunned, and visit injury upon you;
yet shall your heavenly Father confer upon you such spiritual illumination
that ye shall become even as the rays of the sun which, as they chase away the
sombre clouds, break forth to flood the surface of the earth with light. It is
incumbent upon you, whensoever these tests may overtake you, to stand firm,
and to be patient and enduring. Instead of repaying like with like, ye should
requite opposition with the utmost benevolence and loving-kindness, and on no
account attach importance to cruelties and injuries, but rather regard them as
the wanton acts of children. For ultimately the radiance of the Kingdom will
overwhelm the darkness of the world of being, and the holy, exalted character
of your aims will become unmistakably apparent. Nothing shall remain
concealed: the olive oil, though stored within the deepest vault, shall one
day burn in brightness from the lamp atop the beacon. The small shall be made
great, and the powerless shall be given strength; they that are of tender age
shall become the children of the Kingdom, and those that have gone astray
shall be guided to their heavenly home.
(`Abdu'l-Bahá,
from a Tablet- translated from the Persian)
- Thou hadst written concerning the growth in stature of the Cause of God in
thy country. There is no doubt that the Faith of God will progress from day to
day in that land, for it will be aided by the strengthening power of the Holy
Spirit and the confirmation of the Word of God. Nor is there any doubt that
members of the Christian clergy will rise up against it in implacable
hostility, wishing to injure and oppress you, and seeking to assail you with
doubts; for the spread of the Cause of God will lead to the waning of their
fortunes — as the fortunes of the Pharisees had waned before them — and entail
the loss of the dignity and standing that they now enjoy amongst men.
Reflect upon the time of Jesus and the deeds wrought by the Jewish divines
and Pharisees. Such deeds will, in this day, be repeated at the hands of these
Christian clergymen. Be not perturbed, however; be firm and constant, for it
is certain that a company of souls shall, with infinite love, arise to enter
into the Kingdom of God. These souls shall recompense you for the vexations,
the humiliations, and disdain to which you are subjected by the clergy: to the
injuries inflicted by these latter they shall respond with acts of kindness,
until eventually, as the experience of former times hath shown, the children
of the Kingdom shall gain the ascendancy, and victory shall be theirs. Rest ye
confident of this.
(`Abdu'l-Bahá, from a Tablet- translated from the
Persian)
- All who stand up in the cause of God will be persecuted and misunderstood.
It hath ever been so, and will ever be. Let neither enemy nor friend disturb
your composure, destroy your happiness, deter your accomplishment. Rely wholly
upon God. Then will persecution and slander make you the more radiant. The
designs of your enemies will rebound upon them. They, not you, will suffer.
Oppression is the wind that doth fan the fire of the Love of God. Welcome
persecution and bitterness. A soldier may bear arms, but until he hath faced
the enemy in battle he hath not earned his place in the king's army. Let
nothing defeat you. God is your helper. God is invincible. Be firm in the
Heavenly Covenant. Pray for strength. It will be given to you, no matter how
difficult the conditions.
(`Abdu'l-Bahá, in "Star of the West", vol. 4, no. 5 (5
June 1913), p. 88 ・revised translation)
- And now, if you act in accordance with the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, you
may rest assured that you will be aided and confirmed. You will be rendered
victorious in all that you undertake, and all the inhabitants of the earth
will be unable to withstand you. You are conquerors, because the power of the
Holy Spirit assisteth you. Above and beyond all physical and phenomenal
forces, the Holy Spirit itself shall aid you.
(`Abdu'l-Bahá, in "Star of the West", vol. 8. no. 8 (1 August 1917),
p. 103 ・revised translation)
Extracts From The Writings Of Shoghi
Effendi:
- If, in days to come, that land should be overtaken by diverse afflictions
and calamities; if, to the rigours of the present times there should be added
the outbreak of widespread civil upheavals; if the country's already dark
horizons should become still gloomier and more foreboding, you should neither
be filled with trepidation and despondency, nor allow yourselves to be
deflected, though it be to the extent of a hair's breadth, from that sound and
well-considered course that you have been following up till now — from
continuing, in other words, your persistent, tireless, and unremitting labours
to increase the number of the Bahá'í administrative institutions, to
strengthen their foundations, to enhance the fair name that they enjoy, and to
consolidate the respect and standing in which they are held. The release of
this innocent and wronged community from the bonds of captivity, and its
deliverance from the clutches of the enemy and oppressor, cannot but be
accompanied by general commotions and disturbances; likewise the attainment by
the people of Bahá to a position in which they will enjoy true honour, comfort
and tranquillity must inevitably encounter the hostility and resistance, the
clamorous opposition and tumultuous protests of all those who harbour enmity
and rancour towards them. If, therefore, the troubled waters of the sea of
adversity should grow yet more turbulent, if the storm of tribulation should
increase in vehemence and assail that sore-tried community from all six sides
with fresh disasters, then know unhesitatingly and with unwavering conviction,
that the hour of deliverance, the appointed time when the promises of old are
to reach their glorious fulfilment, has drawn nigh, and that the means for the
accomplishment of supreme and overwhelming victory by the hard-pressed
followers of the Greatest Name in that land have all been readied and
prepared. Fixity of purpose and unfaltering resolution are the qualities that
must needs be manifested by the people of Bahá if they are successfully to
traverse these last remaining stages, and witness, at the highest levels, and
in a manner that will fill them with astonishment, the realization of their
profoundest hopes and of their most deeply cherished desires. Such is the way
of God — "and no change canst thou find in the way of God".
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 11 January 1928 to the
National Spiritual Assembly of Persia — translated from the
Persian)
- ...it behooves us, while expectantly watching from a distance the moving
spectacle of the struggling Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, to seek abiding solace and
strength from the reflection that whatever befalls this Cause, however
grievous and humiliating the visitations that from time to time may seem to
afflict the organic life or interfere with the functions of the administrative
machinery of the Bahá'í Faith, such calamities cannot but each eventually
prove to be a blessing in disguise designed, by a Wisdom inscrutable to us
all, to establish and consolidate the sovereignty of Bahá'u'lláh on this
earth.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 1 January
1929 to the Bahá'ís of the West, published in "Bahá'í Administration: Selected
Messages 1922-1932", p. 164)
- Numerous and powerful have been the forces that have schemed, both from
within and from without, in lands both far and near, to quench its light and
abolish its holy name. Some have apostatized from its principles, and betrayed
ignominiously its cause. Others have hurled against it the fiercest anathemas
which the embittered leaders of any ecclesiastical institution are able to
pronounce. Still others have heaped upon it the afflictions and humiliations
which sovereign authority can alone, in the plentitude of its power, inflict.
The utmost its avowed and secret enemies could hope to achieve was to
retard its growth and obscure momentarily its purpose. What they actually
accomplished was to purge and purify its life, to stir it to still greater
depths, to galvanize its soul, to prune its institutions, and cement its
unity. A schism, a permanent cleavage in the vast body of its adherents, they
could never create.
They who betrayed its cause, its lukewarm and faint-hearted supporters,
withered away and dropped as dead leaves, powerless to cloud its radiance or
to imperil its structure. Its most implacable adversaries, they who assailed
it from without, were hurled from power, and, in the most astonishing fashion,
met their doom. Persia had been the first to repress and oppose it. Its
monarchs had miserably fallen, their dynasty had collapsed, their name was
execrated, the hierarchy that had been their ally and had propped their
declining state, had been utterly discredited. Turkey, which had thrice
banished its Founder and inflicted on Him cruel and lifelong imprisonment, had
passed through one of the severest ordeals and far-reaching revolutions that
its history has recorded, had shrunk from one of the most powerful empires to
a tiny Asiatic republic, its Sultanate obliterated, its dynasty overthrown,
its Caliphate, the mightiest institution of Islam, abolished.
Meanwhile the Faith that had been the object of such monstrous betrayals,
and the target for such woeful assaults, was going from strength to strength,
was forging ahead, undaunted and undivided by the injuries it had received. In
the midst of trials it had inspired its loyal followers with a resolution that
no obstacle, however formidable, could undermine. It had lighted in their
hearts a faith that no misfortune, however black, could quench. It had infused
into their hearts a hope that no force, however determined, could shatter.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 11 March 1936 to
the Bahá'ís of the West, published in "The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh:
Selected Letters" pp. 195-96)
- ...every apparent trial with which the unfathomable wisdom of the Almighty
deems it necessary to afflict His chosen community serves only to demonstrate
afresh its essential solidarity and to consolidate its inward strength...
For such demonstrations of the interpositions of an ever-watchful
Providence they who stand identified with the Community of the Most Great Name
must feel eternally grateful. From every fresh token of His unfailing blessing
on the one hand, and of His visitation on the other, they cannot but derive
immense hope and courage....
...
Though small in numbers, and circumscribed as yet in your experiences,
powers, and resources, yet the Force which energizes your mission is limitless
in its range and incalculable in its potency. Though the enemies which every
acceleration in the progress of your mission must raise up be fierce,
numerous, and unrelenting, yet the invisible Hosts which, if you persevere,
must, as promised, rush forth to your aid, will, in the end, enable you to
vanquish their hopes and annihilate their forces. Though the ultimate
blessings that must crown the consummation of your mission be undoubted, and
the Divine promises given you firm and irrevocable, yet the measure of the
goodly reward which every one of you is to reap must depend on the extent to
which your daily exertions will have contributed to the expansion of that
mission and the hastening of its triumph.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 25 December 1938
to the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, published in "The Advent of
Divine Justice" p. 2; p. 16)
- Dear friends! Manifold, various, and at times extremely perilous, have
been the tragic crises which the blind hatred, the unbounded presumption, the
incredible folly, the abject perfidy, the vaulting ambition of the enemy have
intermittently engendered within the pale of the Faith. From some of its most
powerful and renowned votaries, at the hands of its once trusted and ablest
propagators, champions, and administrators, from the ranks of its most revered
and highly-placed trustees whether as companions, amanuenses, or appointed
lieutenants of the Herald of the Faith, of its Author, and of the Centre of
His Covenant, from even those who were numbered among the kindred of the
Manifestation, not excluding the brother, the sons and daughters of
Bahá'u'lláh, and the nominee of the Báb Himself, a Faith, of such tender age,
and enshrining so priceless a promise, has sustained blows as dire and
treacherous as any recorded in the world's religious history.
From the record of its tumultuous history, almost every page of which
portrays a fresh crisis, is laden with the description of a new calamity,
recounts the tale of a base betrayal, and is stained with the account of
unspeakable atrocities, there emerges, clear and incontrovertible, the supreme
truth that with every fresh outbreak of hostility to the Faith, whether from
within or from without, a corresponding measure of outpouring grace,
sustaining its defenders and confounding its adversaries, has been
providentially released, communicating a fresh impulse to the onward march of
the Faith, while this impetus, in its turn, would, through its manifestations,
provoke fresh hostility in quarters heretofore unaware of its challenging
implications — this increased hostility being accompanied by a still more
arresting revelation of Divine Power and a more abundant effusion of celestial
grace, which, by enabling the upholders of that Faith to register still more
brilliant victories, would thereby generate issues of still more vital import
and raise up still more formidable enemies against a Cause that cannot but in
the end resolve those issues and crush the resistance of those enemies,
through a still more glorious unfoldment of its inherent power.
The resistless march of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, viewed in this light, and
propelled by the stimulating influences which the unwisdom of its enemies and
the force latent within itself both engender, resolves itself into a series of
rhythmic pulsations, precipitated, on the one hand, through the explosive
outbursts of its foes, and the vibrations of Divine Power, on the other, which
speed it, with ever-increasing momentum, along that predestined course traced
for it by the Hand of the Almighty.
As opposition to the Faith, from whatever source it may spring, whatever
form it may assume, however violent its outbursts, is admittedly the
motive-power that galvanizes, on the one hand, the souls of its valiant
defenders, and taps for them, on the other, fresh springs of that Divine and
inexhaustible Energy, we who are called upon to represent, defend, and promote
its interests, should, far from regarding any manifestation of hostility as an
evidence of the weakening of the pillars of the Faith, acclaim it as both a
God-sent gift and a God-sent opportunity which, if we remain undaunted, we can
utilize for the furtherance of His Faith and the routing and complete
elimination of its adversaries.
The Heroic Age of the Faith, born in anguish, nursed in adversity, and
terminating in trials as woeful as those that greeted its birth, has been
succeeded by that Formative Period which is to witness the gradual
crystallization of those creative energies which the Faith has released, and
the consequent emergence of that World Order for which those forces were made
to operate.
Fierce and relentless will be the opposition which this crystallization and
emergence must provoke. The alarm it must and will awaken, the envy it will
certainly arouse, the misrepresentations to which it will remorselessly be
subjected, the set-backs it must, sooner or later, sustain, the commotions to
which it must eventually give rise, the fruits it must in the end garner, the
blessings it must inevitably bestow and the glorious, the Golden Age it must
irresistibly usher in, are just beginning to be faintly perceived, and will,
as the old Order crumbles beneath the weight of so stupendous a Revelation,
become increasingly apparent and arresting.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 12 August 1941 to
the Bahá'ís of America, published in "Messages to America: Selected Letters
and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá'ís of North America, 1932-1946, pp.
50-52)
- We can discover a no less distinct gradation in the character of the
opposition it has had to encounter ... an opposition which, now, through the
rise of a divinely appointed Order in the Christian West, and its initial
impact on civil and ecclesiastical institutions, bids fair to include among
its supporters established governments and systems associated with the most
ancient, the most deeply entrenched sacerdotal hierarchies in Christendom. We
can, at the same time, recognize, through the haze of an ever-widening
hostility, the progress, painful yet persistent, of certain communities within
its pale through the stages of obscurity, of proscription, of emancipation,
and of recognition — stages that must needs culminate in the course of
succeeding centuries, in the establishment of the Faith, and the founding, in
the plenitude of its power and authority, of the world-embracing Bahá'í
Commonwealth....
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 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.
...
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.
(Shoghi Effendi, "God Passes By", Foreword p. xvii; p.
409; p.410; p. 412)
- Such reflections, far from engendering in our minds and hearts the
slightest trace of perplexity, of discouragement or doubt, should reinforce
the basis of our convictions, demonstrate to us the incorruptibility, the
strange workings and the invincibility of a Faith which, despite the assaults
which malignant and redoubtable enemies from the ranks of kings, princes and
ecclesiastics have repeatedly launched against it, and the violent internal
tests that have shaken it for more than a century, and the relative obscurity
of its champions, and the unpropitiousness of the times and the perversity of
the generations contemporaneous with its rise and growth, has gone from
strength to strength, has preserved its unity and integrity, has diffused its
light over five continents, reared the institutions of its Administrative
Order and spread its ramifications to the four corners of the earth, and
launched its systematic campaigns in both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres.
For such benefits, for such an arresting and majestic vindication of the
undefeatable powers inherent in our precious Faith, we can but bow our heads
in humility, awe and thanksgiving, renew our pledge of fealty to it, and, each
covenanting in his own heart, resolve to prove faithful to that pledge, and
persevere to the very end, until our earthly share of servitude to so
transcendent and priceless a Cause has been totally and completely fulfilled.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 15 June 1946 to
the Bahá'ís of America, published "Messages to America: Selected Letters and
Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá'ís of North America, 1932-1946", p.
104)
- Indeed this fresh ordeal that has, in pursuance of the mysterious
dispensations of Providence, afflicted the Faith, at this unexpected hour, far
from dealing a fatal blow to its institutions or existence, should be regarded
as a blessing in disguise, not a "calamity" but a "providence" of God, not a
devastating flood but a "gentle rain" on a "green pasture," a "wick" and "oil"
unto the "lamp" of His Faith, a "nurture" for His Cause, "water for that which
has been planted in the hearts of men," a "crown set on the head" of His
Messenger for this Day.
Whatever its outcome, this sudden commotion that has seized the Bahá'í
world, that has revived the hopes and emboldened the host of the adversaries
of the Faith intent on quenching its light and obliterating it from the face
of the earth, has served as a trumpet call in the sounding of which the press
of the world, the cries of its vociferous enemies, the public remonstrances of
both men of good will and those in authority have joined, proclaiming far and
wide its existence, publicizing its history, defending its verities, unveiling
its truths, demonstrating the character of its institutions and advertising
its aims and purposes.
...
For though the newly launched World Spiritual Crusade — constituting at
best only the Minor Plan in the execution of the Almighty's design for the
redemption of mankind — has, as a result of this turmoil paralyzing
temporarily the vast majority of the organized followers of Bahá'u'lláh within
His birthplace, suffered a severe setback, yet the over-all Plan of God,
moving mysteriously and in contrast to the orderly and well-known processes of
a clearly devised Plan, has received an impetus the force of which only
posterity can adequately assess.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 20 August 1954 to
the Bahá'ís of the United States, published in "Citadel of Faith: Messages to
America 1947-1957", pp. 139-40)
- However severe their trials, and disheartening the present situation may
appear, they must remember that the Faith to which they owe allegiance has
weathered, not so very long ago, storms of a far greater severity that seemed,
at times, capable of engulfing and of obliterating its nascent institutions.
The newly planted sapling of a divinely conceived administrative order, having
driven deep its roots in German soil, bent momentarily under the hurricane
which so violently swept over it, and no sooner had the tempest spent its
force than it righted itself, and, growing with a fresh vigour, put forth
branches and offshoots that now overshadow the entire land, and even stretch
out as far as the heart of Austria.
The experience of so miraculous a recovery from so devastating an ordeal
should, alone, prove sufficient to infuse an invigorating spirit into those
who have been subjected to it, as well as into the new generation who are
still close enough to those events to appreciate its extreme violence, such as
will not only enable them to withstand onslaughts of still greater severity,
but impel them, both young and old, men and women alike, to struggle, with
redoubled vigour and deeper consecration, to meet the pressing and the
manifold requirements of the present hour.
(In the handwriting of Shoghi Effendi, appended to a
letter dated 14 August 1957 written on his behalf to a National Spiritual
Assembly, in "The Light of Divine Guidance", vol. 1 (Hofheim-Langenhain:
Bahá'í-Verlag GmbH, 1982), pp. 303-304)
Extracts From Letters Written On Behalf Of Shoghi
Effendi:
- There is always an important difference between friends and tested
friends. No matter how precious the first type may be, the future of the Cause
rests upon the latter. Up to the present the German friends were considered as
loving Bahá'ís, from now on they can be ranked as tested ones.
In every country where such difficulties arise, they generally end with
added energy and more intensive service of the Cause....
(In a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 4 April
1930 to an individual believer, published in "The Light of Divine Guidance",
vol. 1, pp. 34-35)
- The friends...should not feel bewildered, for they have the assurance of
Bahá'u'lláh that whatever the nature and character of the forces of opposition
facing His Cause, its eventual triumph is indubitably certain.
(In a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 30 August 1937 to an
individual believer)
- Let them know, however, for a certainty that the onslaught of both the
disbeliever and the oppressor will become a means of promulgating this Divine
Cause, of proclaiming the Word of God and of consolidating the foundations of
His holy Faith; and that its enemies will ultimately be completely
overwhelmed, that the Cause of God will emerge victorious, and that His Word
will reign supreme.
(In a letter written on behalf of
Shoghi Effendi, 21 October 1946 to an individual believe ・translated from the
Persian)
- He very deeply appreciates your Assembly's assurance of its abiding
loyalty to him and to the Master's Will and Testament. As you can well imagine
this disaffection of the Master's Family has been a very sad and heavy blow to
him; but, although for many years he shielded them with his silence, in the
end he was forced to speak out in order to protect the Faith. For a hundred
years our beloved Cause has suffered from these internal afflictions, and the
way the believers, generation after generation, have met this test with
steadfast faith, loyalty and devotion, is one of the signs that this is the
Cause of God, divinely protected through the Covenants of Bahá'u'lláh and the
Master.
(In a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi,
30 June 1949 to the National Spiritual Assembly of Germany and Austria,
published in "The Light of Divine Guidance", vol. 1, p. 149)
- He urges you not to be discouraged or depressed, but rest assured that
Bahá'u'lláh will assist you. Every set-back this Cause receives is invariably
a means of ensuring a future victory, for God will never permit His Faith to
be put out or uprooted.
(In a letter written on behalf of
Shoghi Effendi, 26 January 1950 to the Local Spiritual Assembly of
Panama)
- Although this may temporarily prove an embarrassment to your work, and a
set-back, there is no doubt that it signalizes a step forward in the advance
of the Faith; for we know that our beloved Faith must eventually clash with
the entrenched orthodoxies of the past; and that this conflict cannot but lead
to greater victories, and to ultimate emancipation, recognition and
ascendancy.
(In a letter written on behalf of Shoghi
Effendi, 8 April 1951 to two believers)
- The Faith is moving at a tremendous rate, and with tremendous force at the
present time. Certainly if it is suppressed in one place, the power of the
Cause is such that it must rise with greater strength in another place; and
thus the persecutions of the Persian Bahá'ís have caused the Faith to surge
ahead in Africa. This certainly must be a solace to the suffering of the
Bahá'ís of Persia.
(In a letter written on behalf of
Shoghi Effendi, 26 September 1955 to an individual believer)
Extracts From Letters Written By The Universal House Of
Justice:
- It should not be surmised that the events which have taken place in all
corners of the globe, including the sacred land of Iran, have occurred as
isolated incidents without any aim and purpose. According to the words of our
beloved Guardian, "The invisible hand is at work and the convulsions taking
place on earth are a prelude to the proclamation of the Cause of God". This is
but one of the mysterious forces of this supreme Revelation which is causing
the limbs of mankind to quake and those who are drunk with pride and
negligence to be thunderstruck and shaken....
In such an afflicted time, when mankind is bewildered and the wisest of men
are perplexed as to the remedy, the people of Bahá, who have confidence in His
unfailing grace and divine guidance, are assured that each of these tormenting
trials has a cause, a purpose, and a definite result, and all are essential
instruments for the establishment of the immutable Will of God on earth. In
other words, on the one hand humanity is struck by the scourge of His
chastisement which will inevitably bring together the scattered and vanquished
tribes of the earth; and on the other, the weak few whom He has nurtured under
the protection of His loving guidance are, in this Formative Age and period of
transition, continuing to build amidst these tumultuous waves an impregnable
stronghold which will be the sole remaining refuge for those lost multitudes.
Therefore, the dear friends of God who have such a broad and clear vision
before them are not perturbed by such events, nor are they panic-stricken by
such thundering sounds, nor will they face such convulsions with fear and
trepidation, nor will they be deterred, even for a moment, from fulfilling
their sacred responsibilities.
(In a letter written by the Universal House of Justice, 10
February 1980 to the Iranian believers resident in other countries throughout
the world)
- The inveterate enemies of the Faith imagine that their persecutions will
disrupt the foundations of the Faith and tarnish its glory. Alas! Alas for
their ignorance and folly! These acts of oppression, far from weakening the
resolve of the friends, have always served to inflame their zeal and galvanize
their beings. In the words of `Abdu'l-Bahá, "...they thought that violence and
interference would cause extinction and silence and lead to suppression and
oblivion; whereas interference in matters of conscience causes stability and
firmness and attracts the attention of men's sight and souls, which fact has
received experimental proof many times and often."
Every drop of blood shed by the valiant martyrs, every sigh heaved by the
silent victims of oppression, every supplication for divine assistance offered
by the faithful, has released, and will continue mysteriously to release,
forces over which no antagonist of the Faith has any control, and which, as
marshalled by an All-Watchful Providence, have served to noise abroad the name
and fame of the Faith to the masses of humanity in all continents, millions of
whom had previously been totally ignorant of the existence of the Faith or had
but a superficial, and oft-times erroneous, understanding of its teachings and
history.
The current persecution has resulted in bringing the name and character of
our beloved Faith to the attention of the world as never before in its
history. As a direct result of the protests sent by the world-wide community
of the Most Great Name to the rulers in Iran, of the representations made to
the media when those protests were ignored, of direct approach by Bahá'í
institutions at national and international level to governments, communities
of nations, international agencies and the United Nations itself, the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh has not only been given sympathetic attention in the world's
councils, but also its merits and violated rights have been discussed and
resolutions of protest sent to the Iranian authorities by sovereign
governments, singly and in unison. The world's leading newspapers, followed by
the local press, have presented sympathetic accounts of the Faith to millions
of readers, while television and radio stations are increasingly making the
persecutions in Iran the subject of their programmes. Commercial publishing
houses are beginning to commission books about the Faith.
...
Indeed, this new wave of persecution sweeping the Cradle of the Faith may
well be seen as a blessing in disguise, a "providence" whose "calamity" is, as
always, borne heroically by the beloved Persian community. It may be regarded
as the latest move in God's Major Plan, another trumpet blast to awaken the
heedless from their slumber and a golden opportunity offered to the Bahá'ís to
demonstrate once again their unity and fellowship before the eyes of a
declining and skeptical world, to proclaim with full force the Message of
Bahá'u'lláh to high and low alike, to establish the reverence of our Faith for
Islam and its Prophet, to assert the principles of non-interference in
political activities and obedience to government which stand at the very core
of our Faith, and to provide comfort and solace to the breasts of the serene
sufferers and steadfast heroes in the forefront of a persecuted community....
(In a letter written by the Universal House of Justice, 26
January 1982 to the Bahá'ís of the World)
- Shoghi Effendi perceived in the organic life of the Cause a dialectic of
victory and crisis. The unprecedented triumphs, generated by the adamantine
steadfastness of the Iranian friends, will inevitably provoke opposition to
test and increase our strength. Let every Bahá'í in the world be assured that
whatever may befall this growing Faith of God is but incontrovertible evidence
of the loving care with which the King of Glory and His martyred Herald,
through the incomparable Centre of His Covenant and our beloved Guardian, are
preparing His humble followers for ultimate and magnificent
triumph....
(In a letter written by the Universal House of
Justice, 2 January 1986 to the Bahá'ís of the World)
- The opening of that Plan coincided with the recrudescence of savage
persecution of the Bahá'í community in Iran, a deliberate effort to eliminate
the Cause of God from the land of its birth. The heroic steadfastness of the
Persian friends has been the mainspring of tremendous international attention
focussed on the Cause, eventually bringing it to the agenda of the General
Assembly of the United Nations, and, together with world-wide publicity in all
the media, accomplishing its emergence from the obscurity which characterized
and sheltered the first period of its life. This dramatic process impelled the
Universal House of Justice to address a Statement on Peace to the Peoples of
the World and arrange for its delivery to Heads of State and the generality of
the rulers.
(In a letter written by the Universal House of
Justice, Ridvan 1986 to the Bahá'ís of the World)
III.
"The security of our precious Faith"...
(Shoghi Effendi, "Messages to the Bahá'í World 1950-1957",
p. 123)
Extracts From The Writings Of
Bahá'u'lláh:
- ..."Say: O people of God! Beware lest the powers of the earth alarm you,
or the might of the nations weaken you, or the tumult of the people of discord
deter you, or the exponents of earthly glory sadden you. Be ye as a mountain
in the Cause of your Lord, the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the Unconstrained."
"Say: Beware, O people of Bahá, lest the strong ones of the earth rob you of
your strength, or they who rule the world fill you with fear. Put your trust
in God, and commit your affairs to His keeping. He, verily, will, through the
power of truth, render you victorious, and He, verily, is powerful to do what
He willeth, and in His grasp are the reins of omnipotent might."
(Bahá'u'lláh, cited in Shoghi Effendi "The Advent of Divine Justice",
p. 82)
- It is incumbent upon all men, each according to his ability, to refute the
arguments of those that have attacked the Faith of God. Thus hath it been
decreed by Him Who is the All-Powerful, the Almighty. He that wisheth to
promote the Cause of the one true God, let him promote it through his pen and
tongue, rather than have recourse to sword or violence.... If any man were to
arise to defend, in his writings, the Cause of God against its assailants,
such a man, however inconsiderable his share, shall be so honored in the world
to come that the Concourse on high would envy his glory. No pen can depict the
loftiness of his station, neither can any tongue describe its splendor. For
whosoever standeth firm and steadfast in this holy, this glorious, and exalted
Revelation, such power shall be given him as to enable him to face and
withstand all that is in heaven and on earth. Of this God is Himself a
witness.
("Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh"
sec. 154, pp.329-30)
- We exhort the men of the House of Justice and command them to ensure the
protection and safeguarding of men, women and children. It is incumbent upon
them to have the utmost regard for the interests of the people at all times
and under all conditions. Blessed is the ruler who succoureth the captive, and
the rich one who careth for the poor, and the just one who secureth from the
wrong doer the rights of the downtrodden, and happy the trustee who observeth
that which the Ordainer, the Ancient of Days hath prescribed unto
him.
("Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed after the
Kitab-i-Aqdas" pp. 69-70)
- And likewise, He saith: "Say to them that are of a fearful heart: be
strong, fear not, behold your God." This blessed verse is a proof of the
greatness of the Revelation, and of the greatness of the Cause, inasmuch as
the blast of the trumpet must needs spread confusion throughout the world, and
fear and trembling amongst all men. Well is it with him who hath been
illumined with the light of trust and detachment. The tribulations of that Day
will not hinder or alarm him. Thus hath the Tongue of Utterance spoken, as
bidden by Him Who is the All-Merciful. He, verily, is the Strong, the
All-Powerful, the All-Subduing, the Almighty....
(Bahá'u'lláh, "Epistle to the Son of the Wolf", p. 147)
- You should exhort all the friends to patience, to acquiescence, and to
tranquillity, saying: O ye loved ones of God in that land! Ye are glorified in
all the worlds of God because of your relationship to Him Who is the Eternal
Truth, but in your lives on this earthly plane, which pass away as a fleeting
moment, ye are afflicted with abasement. For the sake of the one true God, ye
have been reviled and persecuted, ye have been imprisoned, and surrendered
your lives in His path. Ye should not, however, by reason of the tyrannical
acts of some heedless souls, transgress the limits of God's commandments by
contending with anyone.
Whatever hath befallen you, hath been for the sake of God. This is the
truth, and in this there is no doubt. You should, therefore, leave all your
affairs in His Hands, place your trust in Him, and rely upon Him. He will
assuredly not forsake you. In this, likewise, there is no doubt. No father
will surrender his sons to devouring beasts; no shepherd will leave his flock
to ravening wolves. He will most certainly do his utmost to protect his own.
If, however, for a few days, in compliance with God's all-encompassing
wisdom, outward affairs should run their course contrary to one's cherished
desire, this is of no consequence and should not matter. Our intent is that
all the friends should fix their gaze on the Supreme Horizon, and cling to
that which hath been revealed in the Tablets. They should strictly avoid
sedition, and refrain from treading the path of dissension and strife. They
should champion their one true God, exalted be He, through the hosts of
forbearance, of submission, of an upright character, of goodly deeds, and of
the choicest and most refined words.
(Bahá'u'lláh, "The Bahá'í World" vol. XVIII (Haifa: Bahá'í
World Centre, 1986) pp. 10-11)
Extracts From The Writings Of
`Abdu'l-Bahá:
- O army of God! When calamity striketh, be ye patient and composed. However
afflictive your sufferings may be, stay ye undisturbed, and with perfect
confidence in the abounding grace of God, brave ye the tempest of tribulations
and fiery ordeals.
("Selections from the Writings of
`Abdu'l-Bahá", p. 74)
- Wherefore must the loved ones of God, laboriously, with the waters of
their striving, tend and nourish and foster this tree of hope. In whatsoever
land they dwell, let them with a whole heart befriend and be companions to
those who are either close to them, or far removed. Let them, with qualities
like unto those of heaven, promote the institutions and the religion of God.
Let them never lose heart, never be despondent, never feel afflicted. The more
antagonism they meet, the more let them show their own good faith; the more
torments and calamities they have to face, the more generously let them pass
round the bounteous cup. Such is the spirit which will become the life of the
world, such is the spreading light at its heart: and he who may be and do
other than this is not worthy to serve at the Holy Threshold of the
Lord.
("Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá", p.
258)
- O ye beloved of the Lord! The greatest of all things is the protection of
the True Faith of God, the preservation of His Law, the safeguarding of His
Cause and service unto His Word....
My supreme obligation, however, of necessity, prompteth me to guard and
preserve the Cause of God. Thus, with the greatest regret, I counsel you
saying: Guard ye the Cause of God, protect His law and have the utmost fear of
discord. This is the foundation of the belief of the people of Bahá (may my
life be offered up for them)...
("Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá", (Wilmette: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1971), p. 4; p. 19)
Extracts From The Writings Of Shoghi
Effendi:
- It is incumbent upon them to be vigilant and cautious, discreet and
watchful, and protect at all times the Temple of the Cause from the dart of
the mischief-maker and the onslaught of the enemy.
(In a
letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 12 March 1923 to the Bahá'ís of America,
Great Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and Australasia,
published in "Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932", p.
38)
- As the Movement grows in prestige, fame and influence, as the ambitions,
malice and ill-will of strangers and enemies correspondingly wax greater, it
becomes increasingly important for every individual and Spiritual Assembly to
be on their guard lest they fall innocent victims of the evil designs of the
malevolent, the self-seeking and greedy.
Touching the publication of articles and pamphlets bearing on the
controversial and political issues of the day, I desire to remind my
dearly-beloved fellow-workers that at the present stage when the Cause is
still in its infancy, any minute and detailed analysis by the friends of
subjects that are in the forefront of general discussion would often be
misconstrued in certain quarters and give rise to suspicions and
misunderstandings that would react unfavorably on the Cause. They would tend
to create a misconception of the real object, the true mission, and the
fundamental character of the Bahá'í Faith. We should, while endeavoring to
uphold loyally and expound conscientiously our social and moral principles in
all their essence and purity, in all their bearings upon the divers phases of
human society, insure that no direct reference or particular criticism in our
exposition of the fundamentals of the Faith would tend to antagonize any
existing institution, or help to identify a purely spiritual movement with the
base clamorings and contentions of warring sects, factions and nations. We
should strive in all our utterances to combine the discretion and noble
reticence of the wise with the frankness and passionate loyalty of the ardent
advocate of an inspiring Faith. While refusing to utter the word that would
needlessly alienate or estrange any individual, government or people, we
should fearlessly and unhesitatingly uphold and assert in their entirety such
truths the knowledge of which we believe is vitally and urgently needed for
the good and betterment of mankind.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 10 January 1926 to
the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, published in
"Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932", p. 102)
- We can prove ourselves worthy of our Cause only if in our individual
conduct and corporate life we sedulously imitate the example of our beloved
Master, Whom the terrors of tyranny, the storms of incessant abuse, the
oppressiveness of humiliation, never caused to deviate a hair's breadth from
the revealed Law of Bahá'u'lláh.
(In a letter written by
Shoghi Effendi, 12 April 1927 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United
States and Canada, published in "Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages
1922-1932", p. 132)
- Be moreover assured beyond all shadow of doubt that no matter how
strenuously the enemies of God's Faith may exert themselves to extinguish its
fire, they will but cause its flame to burn the more fiercely, its light to
shine the more brightly, and its heat to grow the more intense. People of
wisdom and discernment, who are closely but unobtrusively surveying the
progress of the Faith, and are resolved to subject it to the most careful
examination and research, will be neither shaken nor swayed by these absurd
and baseless claims, these scurrilous publications and self-contradictory
pronouncements. So far from being blinded by such propaganda to the verities
of the Cause, they will rather be moved by it to pursue their investigations
and inquiries with greater meticulousness and enthusiasm than before; to make
themselves thoroughly familiar with the teachings, principles and aspirations
of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh; and even, through the grace and guidance of
an Almighty and Omniscient Lord, to arise in time of need for the defence and
protection of the Cause; to put to rout the hosts of suspicion, doubt and
misconception; to raze to its foundations the edifice of calumny and
falsehood; and to demonstrate and establish, before the eyes of all the world,
the sacred, exalted and indomitable reality of the resistless Faith of God.
These various distressful occurrences, contrived and instigated by the enemies
and ill-wishers of the Cause — their insidious rumours, their defamatory
reports, their flagrant and unprincipled attacks — should be viewed as
dispositions and instrumentalities of Providence, designed to hasten the
advent of that promised day, that mighty and compelling victory, and that
perspicuous triumph, which have been so clearly foretold in the scriptures,
and so explicitly and emphatically set forth by the Pen of the Most
High.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, August 1927
to the National Spiritual Assembly of Persia — translated from the
Persian)
- The permanence and stability achieved by any association, group or nation
is a result of — and dependent upon — the soundness and worth of the
principles upon which it bases the running of its affairs and the direction of
its activities. The guiding principles of the Bahá'ís are: honesty, love,
charity and trustworthiness; the setting of the common good above private
interest; and the practice of godliness, virtue and moderation. Ultimately,
then, their preservation and happiness are assured. Whatever misfortunes they
may encounter, wrought by the wiles of the schemer and ill-wisher, shall all
pass away like waves, and hardship shall be succeeded by joy. The friends are
under the protection of the resistless power and inscrutable providence of
God. There is no doubt that every blessed soul who brings his life into
harmony with this all-swaying power shall give lustre to his works and win an
ample recompense. The actions of those who choose to set themselves against it
should provoke not antipathy on our part, but prayers for their guidance. Such
was the way of the Bahá'ís in days gone by, and so must it be, now and for
always.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 18
December 1928 to the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran — translated from the
Persian)
- Let them refrain from associating themselves, whether by word or by deed,
with the political pursuits of their respective nations, with the policies of
their governments and the schemes and programs of parties and factions. In
such controversies they should assign no blame, take no side, further no
design, and identify themselves with no system prejudicial to the best
interests of that world-wide Fellowship which it is their aim to guard and
foster. Let them beware lest they allow themselves to become the tools of
unscrupulous politicians, or to be entrapped by the treacherous devices of the
plotters and the perfidious among their countrymen. Let them so shape their
lives and regulate their conduct that no charge of secrecy, of fraud, of
bribery or of intimidation may, however ill-founded, be brought against them.
Let them rise above all particularism and partisanship, above the vain
disputes, the petty calculations, the transient passions that agitate the
face, and engage the attention, of a changing world. It is their duty to
strive to distinguish, as clearly as they possibly can, and if needed with the
aid of their elected representatives, such posts and functions as are either
diplomatic or political from those that are purely administrative in
character, and which under no circumstances are affected by the changes and
chances that political activities and party government, in every land, must
necessarily involve. Let them affirm their unyielding determination to stand,
firmly and unreservedly, for the way of Bahá'u'lláh, to avoid the
entanglements and bickerings inseparable from the pursuits of the politician,
and to become worthy agencies of that Divine Polity which incarnates God's
immutable Purpose for all men.
As the number of the Bahá'í communities in various parts of the world
multiplies and their power, as a social force, becomes increasingly apparent,
they will no doubt find themselves increasingly subjected to the pressure
which men of authority and influence, in the political domain, will exercise
in the hope of obtaining the support they require for the advancement of their
aims. These communities will, moreover, feel a growing need of the good-will
and the assistance of their respective governments in their efforts to widen
the scope, and to consolidate the foundations, of the institutions committed
to their charge. Let them beware lest, in their eagerness to further the aims
of their beloved Cause, they should be led unwittingly to bargain with their
Faith, to compromise with their essential principles, or to sacrifice, in
return for any material advantage which their institutions may derive, the
integrity of their spiritual ideals. Let them proclaim that in whatever
country they reside, and however advanced their institutions, or profound
their desire to enforce the laws, and apply the principles, enunciated by
Bahá'u'lláh, they will, unhesitatingly, subordinate the operation of such laws
and the application of such principles to the requirements and legal
enactments of their respective governments. Theirs is not the purpose, while
endeavoring to conduct and perfect the administrative affairs of their Faith,
to violate, under any circumstances, the provisions of their country's
constitution, much less to allow the machinery of their administration to
supersede the government of their respective countries.
It should also be borne in mind that the very extension of the activities
in which we are engaged, and the variety of the communities which labor under
divers forms of government, so essentially different in their standards,
policies, and methods, make it absolutely essential for all those who are the
declared members of any one of these communities to avoid any action that
might, by arousing the suspicion or exciting the antagonism of any one
government, involve their brethren in fresh persecutions or complicate the
nature of their task. How else, might I ask, could such a far-flung Faith,
which transcends political and social boundaries, which includes within its
pale so great a variety of races and nations, which will have to rely
increasingly, as it forges ahead, on the good-will and support of the
diversified and contending governments of the earth — how else could such a
Faith succeed in preserving its unity, in safeguarding its interests, and in
ensuring the steady and peaceful development of its institutions?
Such an attitude, however, is not dictated by considerations of selfish
expediency, but is actuated, first and foremost, by the broad principle that
the followers of Bahá'u'lláh will, under no circumstances, suffer themselves
to be involved, whether as individuals or in their collective capacities, in
matters that would entail the slightest departure from the fundamental
verities and ideals of their Faith. Neither the charges which the uninformed
and the malicious may be led to bring against them, nor the allurements of
honors and rewards, will ever induce them to surrender their trust or to
deviate from their path. Let their words proclaim, and their conduct testify,
that they who follow Bahá'u'lláh, in whatever land they reside, are actuated
by no selfish ambition, that they neither thirst for power, nor mind any wave
of unpopularity, of distrust or criticism, which a strict adherence to their
standards might provoke.
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 21 March 1932 to
the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, published in
"The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh: Selected Letters", pp. 6467)
- Such a rectitude of conduct must manifest itself, with ever-increasing
potency, in every verdict which the elected representatives of the Bahá'í
community, in whatever capacity they may find themselves, may be called upon
to pronounce. It must be constantly reflected in the business dealings of all
its members, in their domestic lives, in all manner of employment, and in any
service they may, in the future, render their government or people. It must be
exemplified in the conduct of all Bahá'í electors, when exercising their
sacred rights and functions. It must characterize the attitude of every loyal
believer towards nonacceptance of political posts, nonidentification with
political parties, nonparticipation in political controversies, and
nonmembership in political organizations and ecclesiastical institutions....
It must be demonstrated in the impartiality of every defender of the Faith
against its enemies, in his fair-mindedness in recognizing any merits that
enemy may possess, and in his honesty in discharging any obligations he may
have towards him....
No greater demonstration can be given to the peoples of both continents of
the youthful vitality and the vibrant power animating the life, and the
institutions of the nascent Faith of Bahá'u'lláh than an intelligent,
persistent, and effective participation of the Bahá'í youth, of every race,
nationality, and class, in both the teaching and administrative spheres of
Bahá'í activity. Through such a participation the critics and enemies of the
Faith, watching with varying degrees of skepticism and resentment, the
evolutionary processes of the Cause of God and its institutions, can best be
convinced of the indubitable truth that such a Cause is intensely alive, is
sound to its very core, and its destinies in safe keeping....
(In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi, 25 December 1938
to the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, published in "The Advent of
Divine Justice", pp. 26-27;pp. 69-70)
- Obstacles, varied and numerous, will no doubt arise to impede the onward
march of this community [Australia]. Reverses may temporarily dim the radiance
of its mission. The forces of religious orthodoxy may well, at a future date,
be leagued against it. The exponents of theories and doctrines fundamentally
opposed to its religious tenets and social principles may challenge its infant
strength with persistence and severity. The Administrative Order — the Ark
destined to preserve its integrity and carry it to safety — must without
delay, without exception, claim the attention of the members of this
community, its ideals must be continually cherished in their hearts, its
purposes studied and kept constantly before their eyes, its requirements
wholeheartedly met, its laws scrupulously upheld, its institutions
unstintingly supported, its glorious mission noised abroad, and its spirit
made the sole motivating purpose of their lives.
(In the
handwriting of Shoghi Effendi, appended to a letter dated 22 August 1949 to
the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia and New Zealand, published in
"Letters from the Guardian to Australia and New Zealand, 1923-1957" (Sydney:
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia, 1970), p.
80-81)
- The strife and bloodshed, with their attendant misery, sorrow and
confusion, that have afflicted the entire subcontinent of India, in recent
months, have caused me the gravest concern. The disorders, following in the
wake of this great crisis in the life of its people, constitute a challenge,
which the community of the steadfast followers of Bahá'u'lláh in that land
must resolutely face, and demonstrate in meeting it the quality of their
faith, the depth of their devotion, the strength of their unity, the solidity
of their institutions and the heroic character of their resolve. They must
neither feel alarmed, nor falter or hesitate in the execution of their Plan.
Shielded by the institutions which their hands have reared, abiding securely
in the strong-hold of their love for Bahá'u'lláh and their devotion to His
Faith, pursuing with unrelaxing vigilance and singleness of purpose the course
set by the Plan they themselves have inaugurated, heartened by the initial
success already achieved since that Plan was set in motion, they, however much
buffeted by present circumstances, and no matter how perilous the path they
now tread, must press forward, unafraid of persecution, scorn or calumny,
towards the shining goals they have set themselves to attain.
(In the handwriting of Shoghi Effendi, appended to a letter dated 24
October 1947 written on his behalf to the National Spiritual Assembly of
India, Pakistan and Burma, published in "Dawn of a New Day" (New Delhi: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1970), p.127)
- RECENT EVENTS TRIUMPHANT CONSUMMATION SERIES HISTORIC ENTERPRISES SUCH AS
CONSTRUCTION SUPERSTRUCTURE BÁB'S SEPULCHRE DEDICATION MOTHER TEMPLE WEST
WORLD-WIDE CELEBRATIONS HOLY YEAR CONVOCATION FOUR INTERCONTINENTAL TEACHING
CONFERENCES LAUNCHING TEN YEAR CRUSADE UNPRECEDENTED DISPERSAL ITS VALIANT
PROSECUTORS FACE GLOBE EXTRAORDINARY PROGRESS AFRICAN PACIFIC CAMPAIGNS RISE
ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER ARABIAN PENINSULA HEART ISLAMIC WORLD DISCOMFITURE
POWERFUL ANTAGONISTS CRADLE FAITH ERECTION INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES HERALDING
ESTABLISHMENT SEAT WORLD ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER HOLY LAND SERVED INFLAME
UNQUENCHABLE ANIMOSITY MUSLIM OPPONENTS RAISED UP NEW SET ADVERSARIES
CHRISTIAN FOLD ROUSED INTERNAL ENEMIES OLD NEW COVENANT-BREAKERS FRESH
ATTEMPTS ARREST MARCH CAUSE GOD MISREPRESENT ITS PURPOSE DISRUPT ITS
ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONS DAMPEN ZEAL SAP LOYALTY ITS SUPPORTERS. EVIDENCES
INCREASING HOSTILITY WITHOUT PERSISTENT MACHINATIONS WITHIN FORESHADOWING DIRE
CONTEST DESTINED RANGE ARMY LIGHT FORCES DARKNESS BOTH SECULAR RELIGIOUS
PREDICTED UNEQUIVOCAL LANGUAGE `ABDU'L-BAHÁ NECESSITATE THIS CRUCIAL HOUR
CLOSER ASSOCIATION HANDS FIVE CONTINENTS BODIES ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES
NATIONAL BAHÁ'Í COMMUNITIES WORLD OVER JOINT INVESTIGATION NEFARIOUS
ACTIVITIES INTERNAL ENEMIES ADOPTION WISE EFFECTIVE MEASURES COUNTERACT THEIR
TREACHEROUS SCHEMES PROTECT MASS BELIEVERS ARREST SPREAD EVIL INFLUENCE. CALL
UPON HANDS
NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES EACH CONTINENT SEPARATELY ESTABLISH HENCEFORTH DIRECT
CONTACT DELIBERATE WHENEVER FEASIBLE AS FREQUENTLY POSSIBLE EXCHANGE REPORTS
TO BE SUBMITTED TO THEIR RESPECTIVE AUXILIARY BOARDS NATIONAL COMMITTEES
EXERCISE UNRELAXING VIGILANCE CARRY OUT UNFLINCHINGLY SACRED INESCAPABLE
DUTIES. SECURITY PRECIOUS FAITH PRESERVATION SPIRITUAL HEALTH BAHÁ'Í
COMMUNITIES VITALITY FAITH ITS INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS PROPER FUNCTIONING ITS
LABORIOUSLY ERECTED INSTITUTIONS FRUITION ITS WORLD-WIDE ENTERPRISES
FULFILMENT ITS ULTIMATE DESTINY ALL DIRECTLY DEPENDENT BEFITTING DISCHARGE
WEIGHTY RESPONSIBILITIES NOW RESTING MEMBERS THESE TWO INSTITUTIONS OCCUPYING
WITH UNIVERSAL HOUSE JUSTICE NEXT INSTITUTION GUARDIANSHIP FOREMOST RANK
DIVINELY ORDAINED ADMINISTRATIVE HIERARCHY WORLD ORDER BAHÁ'U'LLÁH.
(Cablegram written by Shoghi Effendi, 4 June 1957 to the
National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, published in "Messages to
the Bahá'í World 1950-1957" (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1971), pp.
122-23)
Extract's From Letters Written On Behalf Of Shoghi
Effendi:
- Undoubtedly, as the influence of God's Faith becomes more pervasive, the
number of those who wish to obstruct its progress will also grow; new and
increasingly formidable adversaries will come to the fore; and
mischief-makers, appearing under various extraordinary guises, will seek
surreptitiously to goad to action all those who harbour resentment or bear ill
will towards this Cause, and will raise aloft the standards of sedition. Under
these circumstances it is essential for the friends on the one hand to be
alert and watchful, and on the other to arouse the vigilance and strengthen
the allegiance of their fellow-believers, to guard the integrity of the Word
of God, and to maintain harmony and unity amongst His loved ones. Herein lies
the supreme duty of the friends of God, and the highest means by which they
can render service to His Cause.
(In a letter written on
behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 24 May 1927 to an individual believer ・translated
from the Persian)
- In the face of such distressing conditions you should realize, more keenly
than ever, your supreme obligation of protecting the body of the Cause from
any further injuries and attacks, and of adhering scrupulously and
intelligently to the spirit and the principles of the
Administration....
(In a letter written on behalf of
Shoghi Effendi, 12 July 1937 to an individual believer)
- The matter of refuting attacks and criticisms directed against the Cause
through the press is, he feels, one which devolves on the National Spiritual
Assembly to consider. This body, whether directly or through the agency of its
committees, should decide as to the advisability of answering any such
attacks, and also should carefully examine and pass upon any statements which
the friends wish to send to the press to this effect. Only through such
supervision and control of all Bahá'í press activities can the friends hope to
avoid confusion and misunderstanding in their own minds and in the mind of the
general public whom they can reach through the press.
(In
a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 28 September 1928 to an
individual believer)
- It is incumbent upon the friends to confront these difficulties with
constancy and firmness, thankfulness and patience, unity and solidarity; to
endure with fortitude these consecutive disasters; to traverse successfully
these last remaining stages in their destined course; and to become neither
restive nor disheartened on account of the hardships and exertions, the
injustice and oppression that they are constrained to undergo. Let them at all
times keep in mind the following clear and solemn warning recorded by the pen
of the Centre of the Covenant and, with a tranquil heart, a radiant spirit, a
steadfast purpose and a high resolve, watchfully anticipate the unfoldment and
fulfilment of the Master's utterance:
Beware the weeping of the wronged and orphaned children and the sighing of
the victims of oppression, lest their tears should turn to floods and their
breaths should turn to fire.
The violent disturbances, the afflictive trials and overwhelming dangers
which now beset the froward band of ill-wishers, mischief-makers and
oppressors from every stratum of society, whether in your own or neighbouring
countries, and which have assailed their peoples, kings and subjects,
governments and citizens alike on every hand, are the results of those
grievous trespasses and violations wrought in that land by the hand of the
tyrant and the aggressor. Now, after the passage of a century, the baleful
outcome of those deeds has become apparent and their evil consequences
revealed for all to see. The day is fast approaching when the hosts of hatred
and iniquity will be called to answer for their deeds: erelong shall they be
seized by the agents of the retributive anger of an All-Powerful and
All-Compelling God.
In counselling the friends, and conveying condolences to the victims of
this latest outrage, your Assembly should urge them to cleave now as never
before to the firm cord of God's holy ordinances and teachings, never to
deviate by so much as a hair's breadth from the Straight Path; and to bide the
advent of that day when it shall please Him to accomplish His foreordained
decree. He, verily, is the Protector of the wronged ones, and He, verily, is
the Succourer of all those who stand fast and firm.
(In a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 2 July
1942 to the National Spiritual Assembly of Persian — translated from the
Persian)
- The Cause of God must be protected from the enemies of the Faith, and from
those who sow seeds of doubt in the hearts of the believers, and the greatest
of all protections is knowledge...
(In a letter written on
behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 11 May 1948 to the National Spiritual Assembly of
Germany and Austria, published in "The Light of Divine Guidance", vol. 1, p.
134)
- ...the believers need to be deepened in their knowledge and appreciation
of the Covenants of both Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá. This is the stronghold
of the Faith of every Bahá'í, and that which enables him to withstand every
test and the attacks of the enemies outside the Faith, and the far more
dangerous, insidious, lukewarm people inside the Faith who have no real
attachment to the Covenant, and consequently uphold the intellectual aspect of
the teachings while at the same time undermining the spiritual foundation upon
which the whole Cause of God rests.
(In a letter written
on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 15 April 1949 to an individual believer,
published in "The Light of Divine Guidance", vol. 2, p. 84)
- Attacks by missionaries, and others, such as that by Elder, should most
certainly be vigorously defended publicly by your Assembly and Local
Assemblies as well.
(In a letter written on behalf of
Shoghi Effendi, 18 August 1949 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the
United States)
Extract From A Letter Written By The Universal House Of
Justice:
- The need to protect the Faith from the attacks of its enemies is not
generally appreciated by the friends because such attacks, particularly in the
West, have so far been intermittent. However, we know that these attacks will
increase and will become concerted and universal. The writings of our Faith
clearly foreshadow not only an intensification of the machinations of internal
enemies, but a rise in the hostility and opposition of its external enemies,
whether religious or secular, as our beloved Faith pursues its onward march
towards ultimate victory. Therefore, in the light of the warnings of Shoghi
Effendi, the Auxiliary Boards for Protection should keep "constantly" a
"watchful eye" on those "who are known to be enemies or to have been put out
of the Faith", discreetly "investigate" their activities, warn intelligently
the friends of the opposition inevitably to come, explain how each crisis in
God's Faith has always proved to be a blessing in disguise, prepare them for
the "dire contests" which are "destined to range the Army of Light against the
forces of darkness", and, when the influence of the enemies spreads and
reaches their fold, the members of these Auxiliary Boards should be alert to
their schemes to "dampen the zeal and sap the loyalty" of the believers and,
by adopting "wise and effective measures", counteract these schemes and arrest
the spread of their influence. Above all, the members of the Protection Boards
should concentrate on deepening the friends' knowledge of the Covenant and
increasing their love and loyalty to it, on clearly and frankly answering, in
conformity with the teachings, whatever questions may trouble any of the
believers, on fostering the spiritual profundity and strength of their faith
and certitude, and on promoting whatever will increase the spirit of loving
unity in Bahá'í communities.
The primary tasks of the Propagation Boards, however, are to direct the
believers' attention to the goals of whatever plans have been placed before
them, to stimulate and assist them to promote the teaching work in the fields
of proclamation, expansion, consolidation and pioneering, to encourage
contributions to the funds, and to act as standard-bearers of the teachers of
the Faith, leading them to new achievements in the diffusion of God's Message
to their fellow human beings....
It should, furthermore, be remembered that these self-same functions are
being carried out by the Assemblies, national and local, and their committees,
which have at this time the great responsibility for actually executing the
teaching plans and for administering, consolidating and protecting the Bahá'í
communities. The Auxiliary Board members should thus watch carefully that
their work reinforces and complements that of the administrative institutions.
(In a letter written by the Universal House of Justice, 10
October 1976 to the International Teaching Centre)
Extracts From Letters Written On Behalf Of The Universal
House Of Justice:
- One of the vital functions of the Protection Boards is the deepening of
the friends' knowledge of the Covenant and increasing their love and loyalty
to it, and fostering the spirit of love and unity within the Bahá'í community.
It is the duty of Local and National Spiritual Assemblies to refer to the
Auxiliary Board members for protection matters which may involve not only
possible Covenant-breaking, but also problems of disunity within the
community, the removal of voting rights or any other matters in which you feel
the guidance and advice of the Protection Boards may be helpful to the
institutions of the Faith. The Auxiliary Board members of course keep the
Continental Board of Counsellors informed and the Counsellors then take
whatever steps they feel are called for.
You are free at any time to refer to the Continental Board of Counsellors
and the Auxiliary Board members for protection any matters about which you are
not clear involving the security of the Faith in your area and you will always
find them willing to assist you in dealing with such problems.
(In a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of
Justice, 1 October 1979 to the National Spiritual Assembly of
Venezuela)
- Hostility to the Faith is something all Bahá'ís can expect; how we react
to it is of great importance. You are urged to avoid confrontation and
dissension; these would tend to increase the antagonism. Maintain a dignified
and friendly attitude and, in order to put forward well-founded reasoning
where indicated, make a point of becoming better informed about issues
affecting Christianity and the Bahá'í Faith.
(In a letter
written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, 12 September 1985 to the
National Spiritual Assembly of St. Vincent)
- ...as the Faith becomes known, we can expect opposition and persecution.
Nevertheless, in our presentations and relationships we should always try to
build bridges so that our beautiful Teachings can be understood and accepted,
and the power which they have to establish unity amongst men will be
exemplified.