Fellow-believers in the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh:
The inexorable march of
recent events has carried humanity so near to the goal foreshadowed by
Bahá'u'lláh that no responsible follower of His Faith, viewing on all sides the
distressing evidences of the world's travail, can remain unmoved at the thought
of its approaching deliverance.
It would not seem inappropriate, at a
time when we are commemorating the world over the termination of the first
decade since `Abdu'l-Bahá's sudden removal from our midst, to ponder, in the
light of the teachings bequeathed by Him to the world, such events as have
tended to hasten the gradual emergence of the World Order anticipated by
Bahá'u'lláh.
Ten years ago, this very day, there flashed upon the world
the news of the passing of Him Who alone, through the ennobling influence of His
love, strength and wisdom, could have proved its stay and solace in the many
afflictions it was destined to suffer.
How well we, the little band of
His avowed supporters who lay claim to have recognized the Light that shone
within Him, can still remember His repeated allusions, in the evening of His
earthly life, to the tribulation and turmoil with which an unregenerate humanity
was to be increasingly afflicted. How poignantly some of us can recall His
pregnant remarks, in the presence of the pilgrims and visitors who thronged His
doors on the morrow of the jubilant celebrations that greeted the termination of
the World War--a war, which by the horrors it evoked, the losses it entailed and
the complications it engendered, was destined to exert so far-reaching an
influence on the fortunes of mankind. How serenely, yet how powerfully, He
stressed the cruel deception which a Pact, hailed by peoples and nations as the
embodiment of triumphant justice and the unfailing instrument of an abiding
peace, held in store for an unrepented humanity. Peace, Peace, how often we
heard Him remark, the
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lips of potentates and peoples unceasingly proclaim, whereas the
fire of unquenched hatreds still smoulders in their hearts. How often we heard
Him raise His voice, whilst the tumult of triumphant enthusiasm was still at its
height and long before the faintest misgivings could have been felt or
expressed, confidently declaring that the Document, extolled as the Charter of a
liberated humanity, contained within itself seeds of such bitter deception as
would further enslave the world. How abundant are now the evidences that attest
the perspicacity of His unerring judgment!
Ten years of unceasing
turmoil, so laden with anguish, so fraught with incalculable consequences to the
future of civilization, have brought the world to the verge of a calamity too
awful to contemplate. Sád indeed is the contrast between the manifestations of
confident enthusiasm in which the Plenipotentiaries at Versailles so freely
indulged and the cry of unconcealed distress which victors and vanquished alike
are now raising in the hour of bitter delusion.
Neither the force which the framers and guarantors of the Peace Treaties have
mustered, nor the lofty ideals which originally animated the author of the
Covenant of the League of Nations, have proved a sufficient bulwark against the
forces of internal disruption with which a structure so laboriously contrived
had been consistently assailed. Neither the provisions of the so-called
Settlement which the victorious Powers have sought to impose, nor the machinery
of an institution which America's illustrious and far-seeing President had
conceived, have proved, either in conception or practice, adequate instruments
to ensure the integrity of the Order they had striven to establish. "The ills
from which the world now suffers," wrote `Abdu'l-Bahá in January, 1920, "will
multiply; the gloom which envelops it will deepen. The Balkans will remain
discontented. Its restlessness will increase. The vanquished Powers will
continue to agitate. They will resort to every measure that may rekindle the
flame of war. Movements, newly-born and world-wide in their range, will exert
their utmost effort for the advancement of their designs. The Movement of the
Left will acquire great importance. Its influence will spread."
Economic
distress, since those words were written, together with
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political confusion, financial upheavals, religious restlessness
and racial animosities, seem to have conspired to add immeasurably to the
burdens under which an impoverished, a war-weary world is groaning. Such has
been the cumulative effect of these successive crises, following one another
with such bewildering rapidity, that the very foundations of society are
trembling. The world, to whichever continent we turn our gaze, to however remote
a region our survey may extend, is everywhere assailed by forces it can neither
explain nor control.
Europe, hitherto regarded as the cradle of a
highly-vaunted civilization, as the torch-bearer of liberty and the mainspring
of the forces of world industry and commerce, stands bewildered and paralyzed at
the sight of so tremendous an upheaval. Long-cherished ideals in the political
no less than in the economic sphere of human activity are being severely tested
under the pressure of reactionary forces on one hand and of an insidious and
persistent radicalism on the other. From the heart of Asia distant rumblings,
ominous and insistent, portend the steady onslaught of a creed which, by its
negation of God, His Laws and Principles, threatens to disrupt the foundations
of human society. The clamor of a nascent nationalism, coupled with a
recrudescence of skepticism and unbelief, come as added misfortunes to a
continent hitherto regarded as the symbol of age-long stability and undisturbed
resignation. From darkest Africa the first stirrings of a conscious and
determined revolt against the aims and methods of political and economic
imperialism can be increasingly discerned, adding their share to the growing
vicissitudes of a troubled age. Not even America, which until very recently
prided itself on its traditional policy of aloofness and the self-contained
character of its economy, the invulnerability of its institutions and the
evidences of its growing prosperity and prestige, has been able to resist the
impelling forces that have swept her into the vortex of an economic hurricane
that now threatens to impair the basis of her own industrial and economic life.
Even far-away Australia, which, owing to its remoteness from the storm-centers
of Europe, would have been expected to be immune from the trials and torments of
an ailing continent, has been caught in this whirlpool of passion and strife,
impotent to extricate herself from their ensnaring influence.
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Never indeed have there been such widespread and basic upheavals, whether in
the social, economic or political spheres of human activity as those now going
on in different parts of the world. Never have there been so many and varied
sources of danger as those that now threaten the structure of society. The
following words of Bahá'u'lláh are indeed significant as we pause to reflect
upon the present state of a strangely disordered world: "How long will humanity
persist in its waywardness? How long will injustice continue? How long is chaos
and confusion to reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate the face of
society? The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the
strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily increasing. The signs
of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the
prevailing order appears to be lamentably defective."
The disquieting
influence of over thirty million souls living under minority conditions
throughout the continent of Europe; the vast and ever-swelling army of the
unemployed with its crushing burden and demoralizing influence on governments
and peoples; the wicked, unbridled race of armaments swallowing an
ever-increasing share of the substance of already impoverished nations; the
utter demoralization from which the international financial markets are now
increasingly suffering; the onslaught of secularism invading what has hitherto
been regarded as the impregnable strongholds of Christian and Muslim
orthodoxy--these stand out as the gravest symptoms that bode ill for the future
stability of the structure of modern civilization. Little wonder if one of
Europe's preeminent thinkers, honored for his wisdom and restraint, should have
been forced to make so bold an assertion: "The world is passing through the
gravest crisis in the history of civilization." "We stand," writes another,
"before either a world catastrophe, or perhaps before the dawn of a greater era
of truth and wisdom." "It is in such times," he adds, "that religions have
perished and are born."
Might we not already discern, as we scan the
political horizon, the alignment of those forces that are dividing afresh the
continent of Europe into camps of potential combatants, determined upon a
contest that may mark, unlike the last war, the end of an epoch, a
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vast epoch, in the history of human evolution? Are we, the
privileged custodians of a priceless Faith, called upon to witness a
cataclysmical change, politically as fundamental and spiritually as beneficent
as that which precipitated the fall of the Roman Empire in the West? Might it
not happen--every vigilant adherent of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh might well pause
to reflect--that out of this world eruption there may stream forces of such
spiritual energy as shall recall, nay eclipse, the splendor of those signs and
wonders that accompanied the establishment of the Faith of Jesus Christ? Might
there not emerge out of the agony of a shaken world a religious revival of such
scope and power as to even transcend the potency of those world-directing forces
with which the Religions of the Past have, at fixed intervals and according to
an inscrutable Wisdom, revived the fortunes of declining ages and peoples? Might
not the bankruptcy of this present, this highly-vaunted materialistic
civilization, in itself clear away the choking weeds that now hinder the
unfoldment and future efflorescence of God's struggling Faith?
Let
Bahá'u'lláh Himself shed the illumination of His words upon our path as we steer
our course amid the pitfalls and miseries of this troubled age. More than fifty
years ago, in a world far removed from the ills and trials that now torment it,
there flowed from His Pen these prophetic words: "The world is in travail and
its agitation waxeth day by day. Its face is turned towards waywardness and
unbelief. Such shall be its plight that to disclose it now would not be meet and
seemly. Its perversity will long continue. And when the appointed hour is come,
there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to
quake. Then and only then will the Divine Standard be unfurled and the
Nightingale of Paradise warble its melody."
The Impotence of
Statesmanship
Dearly-beloved friends! Humanity, whether viewed in the light of man's
individual conduct or in the existing relationships between organized
communities and nations, has, alas, strayed too far and suffered too great a
decline to be redeemed through the unaided efforts of the best among its
recognized rulers and statesmen-- however disinterested their motives, however
concerted their action,
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however unsparing in their zeal and devotion to its cause. No
scheme which the calculations of the highest statesmanship may yet devise; no
doctrine which the most distinguished exponents of economic theory may hope to
advance; no principle which the most ardent of moralists may strive to
inculcate, can provide, in the last resort, adequate foundations upon which the
future of a distracted world can be built. No appeal for mutual tolerance which
the worldly-wise might raise, however compelling and insistent, can calm its
passions or help restore its vigor. Nor would any general scheme of mere
organized international cöoperation, in whatever sphere of human activity,
however ingenious in conception, or extensive in scope, succeed in removing the
root cause of the evil that has so rudely upset the equilibrium of present-day
society. Not even, I venture to assert, would the very act of devising the
machinery required for the political and economic unification of the world--a
principle that has been increasingly advocated in recent times--provide in
itself the antidote against the poison that is steadily undermining the vigor of
organized peoples and nations. What else, might we not confidently affirm, but
the unreserved acceptance of the Divine Program enunciated, with such simplicity
and force as far back as sixty years ago, by Bahá'u'lláh, embodying in its
essentials God's divinely appointed scheme for the unification of mankind in
this age, coupled with an indomitable conviction in the unfailing efficacy of
each and all of its provisions, is eventually capable of withstanding the forces
of internal disintegration which, if unchecked, must needs continue to eat into
the vitals of a despairing society. It is towards this goal--the goal of a new
World Order, Divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, equitable in principle,
challenging in its features--that a harassed humanity must strive.
To
claim to have grasped all the implications of Bahá'u'lláh's prodigious scheme
for world-wide human solidarity, or to have fathomed its import, would be
presumptuous on the part of even the declared supporters of His Faith. To
attempt to visualize it in all its possibilities, to estimate its future
benefits, to picture its glory, would be premature at even so advanced a stage
in the evolution of mankind.
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The Guiding Principles of World Order
All we can reasonably venture to attempt is to strive to obtain a glimpse of
the first streaks of the promised Dawn that must, in the fullness of time, chase
away the gloom that has encircled humanity. All we can do is to point out, in
their broadest outlines, what appear to us to be the guiding principles
underlying the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, as amplified and enunciated by
`Abdu'l-Bahá, the Center of His Covenant with all mankind and the appointed
Interpreter and Expounder of His Word.
That the unrest and suffering
afflicting the mass of mankind are in no small measure the direct consequences
of the World War and are attributable to the unwisdom and shortsightedness of
the framers of the Peace Treaties only a biased mind can refuse to admit. That
the financial obligations contracted in the course of the war, as well as the
imposition of a staggering burden of reparations upon the vanquished, have, to a
very great extent, been responsible for the maldistribution and consequent
shortage of the world's monetary gold supply, which in turn has, to a very great
measure, accentuated the phenomenal fall in prices and thereby relentlessly
increased the burdens of impoverished countries, no impartial mind would
question. That inter-governmental debts have imposed a severe strain on the
masses of the people in Europe, have upset the equilibrium of national budgets,
have crippled national industries, and led to an increase in the number of the
unemployed, is no less apparent to an unprejudiced observer. That the spirit of
vindictiveness, of suspicion, of fear and rivalry, engendered by the war, and
which the provisions of the Peace Treaties have served to perpetuate and foster,
has led to an enormous increase of national competitive armaments, involving
during the last year the aggregate expenditure of no less than a thousand
million pounds, which in turn has accentuated the effects of the world-wide
depression, is a truth that even the most superficial observer will readily
admit. That a narrow and brutal nationalism, which the post-war theory of
self-determination has served to reinforce, has been chiefly responsible for the
policy of high and prohibitive tariffs, so injurious to the healthy flow of
international trade and to the mechanism of international finance, is a fact
which few would venture to dispute.
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It would be idle, however, to contend that the war, with all the
losses it involved, the passions it aroused and the grievances it left behind,
has solely been responsible for the unprecedented confusion into which almost
every section of the civilized world is plunged at present. Is it not a
fact--and this is the central idea I desire to emphasize--that the fundamental
cause of this world unrest is attributable, not so much to the consequences of
what must sooner or later come to be regarded as a transitory dislocation in the
affairs of a continually changing world, but rather to the failure of those into
whose hands the immediate destinies of peoples and nations have been committed,
to adjust their system of economic and political institutions to the imperative
needs of a rapidly evolving age? Are not these intermittent crises that convulse
present-day society due primarily to the lamentable inability of the world's
recognized leaders to read aright the signs of the times, to rid themselves once
for all of their preconceived ideas and fettering creeds, and to reshape the
machinery of their respective governments according to those standards that are
implicit in Bahá'u'lláh's supreme declaration of the Oneness of Mankind--the
chief and distinguishing feature of the Faith He proclaimed? For the principle
of the Oneness of Mankind, the cornerstone of Bahá'u'lláh's world-embracing
dominion, implies nothing more nor less than the enforcement of His scheme for
the unification of the world--the scheme to which we have already referred. "In
every Dispensation," writes `Abdu'l-Bahá, "the light of Divine Guidance has been
focussed upon one central theme.... In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious
century, the foundation of the Faith of God and the distinguishing feature of
His Law is the consciousness of the Oneness of Mankind."
How pathetic
indeed are the efforts of those leaders of human institutions who, in utter
disregard of the spirit of the age, are striving to adjust national processes,
suited to the ancient days of self-contained nations, to an age which must
either achieve the unity of the world, as adumbrated by Bahá'u'lláh, or perish.
At so critical an hour in the history of civilization it behooves the leaders of
all the nations of the world, great and small, whether in the East or in the
West, whether victors or vanquished, to give heed to the clarion call of
Bahá'u'lláh and, thoroughly imbued with a sense of
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world solidarity, the sine quà non of loyalty to His Cause, arise
manfully to carry out in its entirety the one remedial scheme He, the Divine
Physician, has prescribed for an ailing humanity. Let them discard, once for
all, every preconceived idea, every national prejudice, and give heed to the
sublime counsel of `Abdu'l-Bahá, the authorized Expounder of His teachings. You
can best serve your country, was `Abdu'l-Bahá's rejoinder to a high official in
the service of the federal government of the United States of America, who had
questioned Him as to the best manner in which he could promote the interests of
his government and people, if you strive, in your capacity as a citizen of the
world, to assist in the eventual application of the principle of federalism
underlying the government of your own country to the relationships now existing
between the peoples and nations of the world.
In The Secret of Divine
Civilization (The Mysterious Forces of Civilization), `Abdu'l-Bahá's outstanding
contribution to the future reorganization of the world, we read the
following:
"True civilization will unfurl its banner in the midmost heart
of the world whenever a certain number of its distinguished and high-minded
sovereigns--the shining exemplars of devotion and determination--shall, for the
good and happiness of all mankind, arise, with firm resolve and clear vision, to
establish the Cause of Universal Peace. They must make the Cause of Peace the
object of general consultation, and seek by every means in their power to
establish a Union of the nations of the world. They must conclude a binding
treaty and establish a covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound,
inviolable and definite. They must proclaim it to all the world and obtain for
it the sanction of all the human race. This supreme and noble undertaking--the
real source of the peace and well-being of all the world--should be regarded as
sacred by all that dwell on earth. All the forces of humanity must be mobilized
to ensure the stability and permanence of this Most Great Covenant. In this
all-embracing Pact the limits and frontiers of each and every nation should be
clearly fixed, the principles underlying the relations of governments towards
one another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and
obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of the armaments of every
government should be
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strictly limited, for if the preparations for war and the military
forces of any nation should be allowed to increase, they will arouse the
suspicion of others. The fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact
should be so fixed that if any government later violate any one of its
provisions, all the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter
submission, nay the human race as a whole should resolve, with every power at
its disposal, to destroy that government. Should this greatest of all remedies
be applied to the sick body of the world, it will assuredly recover from its
ills and will remain eternally safe and secure."
"A few," He further
adds, "unaware of the power latent in human endeavor, consider this matter as
highly impracticable, nay even beyond the scope of man's utmost efforts. Such is
not the case, however. On the contrary, thanks to the unfailing grace of God,
the loving-kindness of His favored ones, the unrivaled endeavors of wise and
capable souls, and the thoughts and ideas of the peerless leaders of this age,
nothing whatsoever can be regarded as unattainable. Endeavor, ceaseless
endeavor, is required. Nothing short of an indomitable determination can
possibly achieve it. Many a cause which past ages have regarded as purely
visionary, yet in this day has become most easy and practicable. Why should this
most great and lofty Cause--the day-star of the firmament of true civilization
and the cause of the glory, the advancement, the well-being and the success of
all humanity--be regarded as impossible of achievement? Surely the day will come
when its beauteous light shall shed illumination upon the assemblage of
man."
In one of His Tablets `Abdu'l-Bahá, elucidating further His noble theme,
reveals the following:
"In cycles gone by, though harmony was
established, yet, owing to the absence of means, the unity of all mankind could
not have been achieved. Continents remained widely divided, nay even among the
peoples of one and the same continent association and interchange of thought
were well nigh impossible. Consequently intercourse, understanding and unity
amongst all the peoples and kindreds of the earth were unattainable. In this
day, however, means of communication have multiplied, and the five continents of
the earth have
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virtually merged into one.... In like manner all the members of the
human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become
increasingly interdependent. For none is self-sufficiency any longer possible,
inasmuch as political ties unite all peoples and nations, and the bonds of trade
and industry, of agriculture and education, are being strengthened every day.
Hence the unity of all mankind can in this day be achieved. Verily this is none
other but one of the wonders of this wondrous age, this glorious century. Of
this past ages have been deprived, for this century--the century of light--has
been endowed with unique and unprecedented glory, power and illumination. Hence
the miraculous unfolding of a fresh marvel every day. Eventually it will be seen
how bright its candles will burn in the assemblage of man.
"Behold how
its light is now dawning upon the world's darkened horizon. The first candle is
unity in the political realm, the early glimmerings of which can now be
discerned. The second candle is unity of thought in world undertakings, the
consummation of which will ere long be witnessed. The third candle is unity in
freedom which will surely come to pass. The fourth candle is unity in religion
which is the corner-stone of the foundation itself, and which, by the power of
God, will be revealed in all its splendor. The fifth candle is the unity of
nations--a unity which in this century will be securely established, causing all
the peoples of the world to regard themselves as citizens of one common
fatherland. The sixth candle is unity of races, making of all that dwell on
earth peoples and kindreds of one race. The seventh candle is unity of language,
i.e., the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples will be instructed
and converse. Each and every one of these will inevitably come to pass, inasmuch
as the power of the Kingdom of God will aid and assist in their
realization."
Over sixty years ago, in His Tablet to Queen Victoria, Bahá'u'lláh,
addressing "the concourse of the rulers of the earth," revealed the
following:
"Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for
that which profiteth mankind and bettereth the condition thereof.... Regard the
world as the human body which, though created whole
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and perfect, has been afflicted, through divers causes, with grave
ills and maladies. Not for one day did it rest, nay its sicknesses waxed more
severe, as it fell under the treatment of unskilled physicians who have spurred
on the steed of their worldly desires and have erred grievously. And if at one
time, through the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed,
the rest remained afflicted as before. Thus informeth you the All-Knowing, the
All-Wise.... That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and
mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its
peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be
achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired
Physician. This verily is the truth, and all else naught but error."
In a
further passage Bahá'u'lláh adds these words: "We see you adding every year unto
your expenditures and laying the burden thereof on the people whom ye rule; this
verily is naught but grievous injustice. Fear the sighs and tears of this
Wronged One, and burden not your peoples beyond that which they can endure....
Be reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need armaments no more save in a
measure to safeguard your territories and dominions. Be united, O concourse of
the sovereigns of the world, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled
amongst you and your peoples find rest. Should any one among you take up arms
against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest
justice."
What else could these weighty words signify if they did not
point to the inevitable curtailment of unfettered national sovereignty as an
indispensable preliminary to the formation of the future Commonwealth of all the
nations of the world? Some form of a world super-state must needs be evolved, in
whose favor all the nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim
to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain
armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their
respective dominions. Such a state will have to include within its orbit an
international executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable
authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a world parliament
whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and
whose election shall be
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confirmed by their respective governments; and a supreme tribunal
whose judgment will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties
concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration. A
world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently
demolished and the interdependence of Capital and Labor definitely recognized;
in which the clamor of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever
stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally
extinguished; in which a single code of international law--the product of the
considered judgment of the world's federated representatives-- shall have as its
sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the
federated units; and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious
and militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness
of world citizenship--such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order
anticipated by Bahá'u'lláh, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the
fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.
"The Tabernacle of Unity,"
Bahá'u'lláh proclaims in His message to all mankind, "has been raised; regard ye
not one another as strangers.... Of one tree are all ye the fruit and of one
bough the leaves.... The world is but one country and mankind its citizens....
Let not a man glory in that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this,
that he loves his kind."
Let there be no misgivings as to the animating purpose of the world-wide Law
of Bahá'u'lláh. Far from aiming at the subversion of the existing foundations of
society, it seeks to broaden its basis, to remold its institutions in a manner
consonant with the needs of an ever-changing world. It can conflict with no
legitimate allegiances, nor can it undermine essential loyalties. Its purpose is
neither to stifle the flame of a sane and intelligent patriotism in men's
hearts, nor to abolish the system of national autonomy so essential if the evils
of excessive centralization are to be avoided. It does not ignore, nor does it
attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate, of history,
of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples
and nations of the world. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration
than any that has animated
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the human race. It insists upon the subordination of national
impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world. It
repudiates excessive centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at
uniformity on the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity such as
`Abdu'l-Bahá Himself has explained:
"Consider the flowers of a garden.
Though differing in kind, color, form and shape, yet, inasmuch as they are
refreshed by the waters of one spring, revived by the breath of one wind,
invigorated by the rays of one sun, this diversity increaseth their charm and
addeth unto their beauty. How unpleasing to the eye if all the flowers and
plants, the leaves and blossoms, the fruit, the branches and the trees of that
garden were all of the same shape and color! Diversity of hues, form and shape
enricheth and adorneth the garden, and heighteneth the effect thereof. In like
manner, when divers shades of thought, temperament and character, are brought
together under the power and influence of one central agency, the beauty and
glory of human perfection will be revealed and made manifest. Naught but the
celestial potency of the Word of God, which ruleth and transcendeth the
realities of all things, is capable of harmonizing the divergent thoughts,
sentiments, ideas and convictions of the children of men."
The call of
Bahá'u'lláh is primarily directed against all forms of provincialism, all
insularities and prejudices. If long-cherished ideals and time-honored
institutions, if certain social assumptions and religious formulae have ceased
to promote the welfare of the generality of mankind, if they no longer minister
to the needs of a continually evolving humanity, let them be swept away and
relegated to the limbo of obsolescent and forgotten doctrines. Why should these,
in a world subject to the immutable law of change and decay, be exempt from the
deterioration that must needs overtake every human institution? For legal
standards, political and economic theories are solely designed to safeguard the
interests of humanity as a whole, and not humanity to be crucified for the
preservation of the integrity of any particular law or doctrine.
Let there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness of Mankind-- the pivot
round which all the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh revolve
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--is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of
vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a
reawakening of the spirit of brotherhood and good-will among men, nor does it
aim solely at the fostering of harmonious cöoperation among individual peoples
and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the
Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to
the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential
relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human
family. It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands
inseparably associated with an institution adequate to embody its truth,
demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. It implies an organic
change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has
not yet experienced. It constitutes a challenge, at once bold and universal, to
outworn shibboleths of national creeds--creeds that have had their day and which
must, in the ordinary course of events as shaped and controlled by Providence,
give way to a new gospel, fundamentally different from, and infinitely superior
to, what the world has already conceived. It calls for no less than the
reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world--a world
organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political
machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and
language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of
its federated units.
It represents the consummation of human
evolution--an evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of
family life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal solidarity,
leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into
the institution of independent and sovereign nations.
The principle of
the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh, carries with it no more
and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this
stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization
is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can
succeed in establishing it.
So marvellous a conception finds its earliest
manifestations in the efforts consciously exerted and the modest beginnings
already
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achieved by the declared adherents of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh who,
conscious of the sublimity of their calling and initiated into the ennobling
principles of His Administration, are forging ahead to establish His Kingdom on
this earth. It has its indirect manifestations in the gradual diffusion of the
spirit of world solidarity which is spontaneously arising out of the welter of a
disorganized society.
It would be stimulating to follow the history of
the growth and development of this lofty conception which must increasingly
engage the attention of the responsible custodians of the destinies of peoples
and nations. To the states and principalities just emerging from the welter of
the great Napoleonic upheaval, whose chief preoccupation was either to recover
their rights to an independent existence or to achieve their national unity, the
conception of world solidarity seemed not only remote but inconceivable. It was
not until the forces of nationalism had succeeded in overthrowing the
foundations of the Holy Alliance that had sought to curb their rising power,
that the possibility of a world order, transcending in its range the political
institutions these nations had established, came to be seriously entertained. It
was not until after the World War that these exponents of arrogant nationalism
came to regard such an order as the object of a pernicious doctrine tending to
sap that essential loyalty upon which the continued existence of their national
life depended. With a vigor that recalled the energy with which the members of
the Holy Alliance sought to stifle the spirit of a rising nationalism among the
peoples liberated from the Napoleonic yoke, these champions of an unfettered
national sovereignty, in their turn, have labored and are still laboring to
discredit principles upon which their own salvation must ultimately
depend.
The fierce opposition which greeted the abortive scheme of the
Geneva Protocol; the ridicule poured upon the proposal for a United States of
Europe which was subsequently advanced, and the failure of the general scheme
for the economic union of Europe, may appear as setbacks to the efforts which a
handful of foresighted people are earnestly exerting to advance this noble
ideal. And yet, are we not justified in deriving fresh encouragement when we
observe that the very consideration of such proposals is in itself an evidence
of their steady growth in the minds and hearts of men? In the organized attempts
that are being made to discredit so exalted a conception are
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we not witnessing the repetition, on a larger scale, of those
stirring struggles and fierce controversies that preceded the birth, and
assisted in the reconstruction, of the unified nations of the West?
To take but one instance. How confident were the assertions made in the days
preceding the unification of the states of the North American continent
regarding the insuperable barriers that stood in the way of their ultimate
federation! Was it not widely and emphatically declared that the conflicting
interests, the mutual distrust, the differences of government and habit that
divided the states were such as no force, whether spiritual or temporal, could
ever hope to harmonize or control? And yet how different were the conditions
prevailing a hundred and fifty years ago from those that characterize
present-day society! It would indeed be no exaggeration to say that the absence
of those facilities which modern scientific progress has placed at the service
of humanity in our time made of the problem of welding the American states into
a single federation, similar though they were in certain traditions, a task
infinitely more complex than that which confronts a divided humanity in its
efforts to achieve the unification of all mankind.
Who knows that for so
exalted a conception to take shape a suffering more intense than any it has yet
experienced will have to be inflicted upon humanity? Could anything less than
the fire of a civil war with all its violence and vicissitudes--a war that
nearly rent the great American Republic--have welded the states, not only into a
Union of independent units, but into a Nation, in spite of all the ethnic
differences that characterized its component parts? That so fundamental a
revolution, involving such far-reaching changes in the structure of society, can
be achieved through the ordinary processes of diplomacy and education seems
highly improbable. We have but to turn our gaze to humanity's blood-stained
history to realize that nothing short of intense mental as well as physical
agony has been able to precipitate those epoch-making changes that constitute
the greatest landmarks in the history of human civilization.
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Great and far-reaching as have been those changes in the past, they cannot
appear, when viewed in their proper perspective, except as subsidiary
adjustments preluding that transformation of unparalleled majesty and scope
which humanity is in this age bound to undergo. That the forces of a world
catastrophe can alone precipitate such a new phase of human thought is, alas,
becoming increasingly apparent. That nothing short of the fire of a severe
ordeal, unparalleled in its intensity, can fuse and weld the discordant entities
that constitute the elements of present-day civilization, into the integral
components of the world commonwealth of the future, is a truth which future
events will increasingly demonstrate.
The prophetic voice of Bahá'u'lláh
warning, in the concluding passages of the Hidden Words, "the peoples of the
world" that "an unforeseen calamity is following them and that grievous
retribution awaiteth them" throws indeed a lurid light upon the immediate
fortunes of sorrowing humanity. Nothing but a fiery ordeal, out of which
humanity will emerge, chastened and prepared, can succeed in implanting that
sense of responsibility which the leaders of a new-born age must arise to
shoulder.
I would again direct your attention to those ominous words of
Bahá'u'lláh which I have already quoted: "And when the appointed hour is come,
there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to
quake."
Has not `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself asserted in unequivocal language
that "another war, fiercer than the last, will assuredly break out"?
Upon
the consummation of this colossal, this unspeakably glorious enterprise--an
enterprise that baffled the resources of Roman statesmanship and which
Napoleon's desperate efforts failed to achieve--will depend the ultimate
realization of that millennium of which poets of all ages have sung and seers
have long dreamed. Upon it will depend the fulfillment of the prophecies uttered
by the Prophets of old when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares and the
lion and the lamb lie down together. It alone can usher in the Kingdom of the
Heavenly Father as anticipated by the Faith of Jesus Christ. It alone can lay
the foundation for the New World Order visualized by Bahá'u'lláh--a World Order
that shall reflect,
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however dimly, upon this earthly plane, the ineffable splendors of
the Abhá Kingdom.
One word more in conclusion. The proclamation of the
Oneness of Mankind--the head corner-stone of Bahá'u'lláh's all-embracing
dominion--can under no circumstances be compared with such expressions of pious
hope as have been uttered in the past. His is not merely a call which He raised,
alone and unaided, in the face of the relentless and combined opposition of two
of the most powerful Oriental potentates of His day--while Himself an exile and
prisoner in their hands. It implies at once a warning and a promise--a warning
that in it lies the sole means for the salvation of a greatly suffering world, a
promise that its realization is at hand.
Uttered at a time when its
possibility had not yet been seriously envisaged in any part of the world, it
has, by virtue of that celestial potency which the Spirit of Bahá'u'lláh has
breathed into it, come at last to be regarded, by an increasing number of
thoughtful men, not only as an approaching possibility, but as the necessary
outcome of the forces now operating in the world.
Surely the world, contracted and transformed into a single highly complex
organism by the marvellous progress achieved in the realm of physical science,
by the world-wide expansion of commerce and industry, and struggling, under the
pressure of world economic forces, amidst the pitfalls of a materialistic
civilization, stands in dire need of a restatement of the Truth underlying all
the Revelations of the past in a language suited to its essential requirements.
And what voice other than that of Bahá'u'lláh--the Mouthpiece of God for this
age--is capable of effecting a transformation of society as radical as that
which He has already accomplished in the hearts of those men and women, so
diversified and seemingly irreconcilable, who constitute the body of His
declared followers throughout the world?
That such a mighty conception is
fast budding out in the minds of men, that voices are being raised in its
support, that its salient features must fast crystallize in the consciousness of
those who are in authority, few indeed can doubt. That its modest beginnings
have already taken shape in the world-wide Administration with
which
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the adherents of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh stand associated only
those whose hearts are tainted by prejudice can fail to perceive.
Ours,
dearly-beloved co-workers, is the paramount duty to continue, with undimmed
vision and unabated zeal, to assist in the final erection of that Edifice the
foundations of which Bahá'u'lláh has laid in our hearts, to derive added hope
and strength from the general trend of recent events, however dark their
immediate effects, and to pray with unremitting fervor that He may hasten the
approach of the realization of that Wondrous Vision which constitutes the
brightest emanation of His Mind and the fairest fruit of the fairest
civilization the world has yet seen.
Might not the hundredth anniversary
of the Declaration of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh mark the inauguration of so vast
an era in human history?
Your true brother,
SHOGHI
Haifa, Palestine,
November 28, 1931