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The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
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Pages 139-157
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The Administrative Order
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1 |
Dearly-beloved brethren in `Abdu'l-Bahá! With the ascension
of Bahá'u'lláh the Day-Star of Divine guidance which, as foretold
by Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kázim, had risen in Shíráz, and,
while pursuing its westward course, had mounted its zenith in
Adrianople, had finally sunk below the horizon of Akká, never to
rise again ere the complete revolution of one thousand years. The
setting of so effulgent an Orb brought to a definite termination the
period of Divine Revelation--the initial and most vitalizing stage
in the Bahá'í era. Inaugurated by the Báb, culminating in
Bahá'u'lláh, anticipated and extolled by the entire company of the
Prophets of this great prophetic cycle, this period has, except for
the short interval between the Báb's martyrdom and Bahá'u'lláh's
shaking experiences in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán, been characterized
by almost fifty years of continuous and progressive Revelation--a
period which by its duration and fecundity must be regarded as
unparalleled in the entire field of the world's spiritual history.
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The passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá, on the other hand, marks the
closing of the Heroic and Apostolic Age of this same Dispensation
--that primitive period of our Faith the splendors of which can
never be rivaled, much less be eclipsed, by the magnificence that
must needs distinguish the future victories of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation.
For neither the achievements of the champion-builders of the
present-day institutions of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, nor the tumultuous
triumphs which the heroes of its Golden Age will in the
coming days succeed in winning, can measure with, or be included
within the same category as, the wondrous works associated with
the names of those who have generated its very life and laid its
pristine foundations. That first and creative age of the Bahá'í era
must, by its very nature, stand above and apart from the formative
period into which we have entered and the golden age destined to
succeed it.
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3 |
`Abdu'l-Bahá, Who incarnates an institution for which we can
find no parallel whatsoever in any of the world's recognized religious
systems, may be said to have closed the Age to which He Himself
belonged and opened the one in which we are now laboring. His
Will and Testament should thus be regarded as the perpetual, the
indissoluble link which the mind of Him Who is the Mystery of
God has conceived in order to insure the continuity of the three
ages that constitute the component parts of the Bahá'í Dispensation.
The period in which the seed of the Faith had been slowly germinating
is thus intertwined both with the one which must witness its
efflorescence and the subsequent age in which that seed will have
finally yielded its golden fruit.
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4 |
The creative energies released by the Law of Bahá'u'lláh, permeating
and evolving within the mind of `Abdu'l-Bahá, have, by
their very impact and close interaction, given birth to an Instrument
which may be viewed as the Charter of the New World Order
which is at once the glory and the promise of this most great Dispensation.
The Will may thus be acclaimed as the inevitable offspring
resulting from that mystic intercourse between Him Who communicated
the generating influence of His divine Purpose and the
One Who was its vehicle and chosen recipient. Being the Child of
the Covenant--the Heir of both the Originator and the Interpreter
of the Law of God--the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá can
no more be divorced from Him Who supplied the original and
motivating impulse than from the One Who ultimately conceived
it. Bahá'u'lláh's inscrutable purpose, we must ever bear in mind,
has been so thoroughly infused into the conduct of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
and their motives have been so closely wedded together, that the
mere attempt to dissociate the teachings of the former from any
system which the ideal Exemplar of those same teachings has established
would amount to a repudiation of one of the most sacred
and basic truths of the Faith.
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5 |
The Administrative Order, which ever since `Abdu'l-Bahá's
ascension has evolved and is taking shape under our very eyes in no
fewer than forty countries of the world, may be considered as the
framework of the Will itself, the inviolable stronghold wherein this
new-born child is being nurtured and developed. This Administrative
Order, as it expands and consolidates itself, will no doubt manifest
the potentialities and reveal the full implications of this momentous
Document--this most remarkable expression of the Will of
One of the most remarkable Figures of the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh.
It will, as its component parts, its organic institutions, begin
to function with efficiency and vigor, assert its claim and demonstrate
its capacity to be regarded not only as the nucleus but the very
pattern of the New World Order destined to embrace in the fullness
of time the whole of mankind.
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It should be noted in this connection that this Administrative
Order is fundamentally different from anything that any Prophet
has previously established, inasmuch as Bahá'u'lláh has Himself
revealed its principles, established its institutions, appointed the
person to interpret His Word and conferred the necessary authority
on the body designed to supplement and apply His legislative ordinances.
Therein lies the secret of its strength, its fundamental distinction,
and the guarantee against disintegration and schism.
Nowhere in the sacred scriptures of any of the world's religious
systems, nor even in the writings of the Inaugurator of the Bábí
Dispensation, do we find any provisions establishing a covenant
or providing for an administrative order that can compare in scope
and authority with those that lie at the very basis of the Bahá'í
Dispensation. Has either Christianity or Islám, to take as an instance
two of the most widely diffused and outstanding among the world's
recognized religions, anything to offer that can measure with, or be
regarded as equivalent to, either the Book of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant
or to the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá? Does the text of
either the Gospel or the Qur'án confer sufficient authority upon
those leaders and councils that have claimed the right and assumed
the function of interpreting the provisions of their sacred scriptures
and of administering the affairs of their respective communities?
Could Peter, the admitted chief of the Apostles, or the Imám `Alí,
the cousin and legitimate successor of the Prophet, produce in
support of the primacy with which both had been invested written
and explicit affirmations from Christ and Muhammad that could
have silenced those who either among their contemporaries or in a
later age have repudiated their authority and, by their action, precipitated
the schisms that persist until the present day? Where, we
may confidently ask, in the recorded sayings of Jesus Christ, whether
in the matter of succession or in the provision of a set of specific
laws and clearly defined administrative ordinances, as distinguished
from purely spiritual principles, can we find anything approaching
the detailed injunctions, laws and warnings that abound in the
authenticated utterances of both Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá? Can
any passage of the Qur'án, which in respect to its legal code, its
administrative and devotional ordinances marks already a notable
advance over previous and more corrupted Revelations, be construed
as placing upon an unassailable basis the undoubted authority
with which Muhammad had, verbally and on several occasions,
invested His successor? Can the Author of the Bábí Dispensation
however much He may have succeeded through the provisions of
the Persian Bayán in averting a schism as permanent and catastrophic
as those that afflicted Christianity and Islám--can He be said
to have produced instruments for the safeguarding of His Faith as
definite and efficacious as those which must for all time preserve
the unity of the organized followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh?
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Alone of all the Revelations gone before it this Faith has,
through the explicit directions, the repeated warnings, the authenticated
safeguards incorporated and elaborated in its teachings, succeeded
in raising a structure which the bewildered followers of
bankrupt and broken creeds might well approach and critically
examine, and seek, ere it is too late, the invulnerable security of its
world-embracing shelter.
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No wonder that He Who through the operation of His Will has
inaugurated so vast and unique an Order and Who is the Center of
so mighty a Covenant should have written these words: "So firm
and mighty is this Covenant that from the beginning of time until
the present day no religious Dispensation hath produced its like."
"Whatsoever is latent in the innermost of this holy cycle," He wrote
during the darkest and most dangerous days of His ministry, "shall
gradually appear and be made manifest, for now is but the beginning
of its growth and the dayspring of the revelation of its signs."
"Fear not," are His reassuring words foreshadowing the rise of
the Administrative Order established by His Will, "fear not if this
Branch be severed from this material world and cast aside its leaves;
nay, the leaves thereof shall flourish, for this Branch will grow after
it is cut off from this world below, it shall reach the loftiest pinnacles
of glory, and it shall bear such fruits as will perfume the world with
their fragrance."
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To what else if not to the power and majesty which this Administrative
Order--the rudiments of the future all-enfolding Bahá'í
Commonwealth--is destined to manifest, can these utterances of
Bahá'u'lláh allude: "The world's equilibrium hath been upset
through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World
Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized through the
agency of this unique, this wondrous System--the like of which
mortal eyes have never witnessed."
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The Báb Himself, in the course of His references to "Him
Whom God will make manifest" anticipates the System and glorifies
the World Order which the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh is destined
to unfold. "Well is it with him," is His remarkable statement in the
third chapter of the Persian Bayán, "who fixeth his gaze upon the
Order of Bahá'u'lláh and rendereth thanks unto his Lord! For He
will assuredly be made manifest. God hath indeed irrevocably
ordained it in the Bayán."
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In the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh where the institutions of the
International and Local Houses of Justice are specifically designated
and formally established; in the institution of the Hands of the
Cause of God which first Bahá'u'lláh and then `Abdu'l-Bahá brought
into being; in the institution of both local and national Assemblies
which in their embryonic stage were already functioning in the
days preceding `Abdu'l-Bahá's ascension; in the authority with
which the Author of our Faith and the Center of His Covenant
have in their Tablets chosen to confer upon them; in the institution
of the Local Fund which operated according to `Abdu'l-Bahá's
specific injunctions addressed to certain Assemblies in Persia; in the
verses of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas the implications of which clearly anticipate
the institution of the Guardianship; in the explanation which
`Abdu'l-Bahá, in one of His Tablets, has given to, and the emphasis
He has placed upon, the hereditary principle and the law of primogeniture
as having been upheld by the Prophets of the past--in these
we can discern the faint glimmerings and discover the earliest intimation
of the nature and working of the Administrative Order
which the Will of `Abdu'l-Bahá was at a later time destined to
proclaim and formally establish.
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An attempt, I feel, should at the present juncture be made to
explain the character and functions of the twin pillars that support
this mighty Administrative Structure--the institutions of the Guardianship
and of the Universal House of Justice. To describe in their
entirety the diverse elements that function in conjunction with these
institutions is beyond the scope and purpose of this general exposition
of the fundamental verities of the Faith. To define with
accuracy and minuteness the features, and to analyze exhaustively
the nature of the relationships which, on the one hand, bind together
these two fundamental organs of the Will of `Abdu'l-Bahá and
connect, on the other, each of them to the Author of the Faith and
the Center of His Covenant is a task which future generations will
no doubt adequately fulfill. My present intention is to elaborate
certain salient features of this scheme which, however close we may
stand to its colossal structure, are already so clearly defined that we
find it inexcusable to either misconceive or ignore.
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It should be stated, at the very outset, in clear and unambiguous
language, that these twin institutions of the Administrative Order
of Bahá'u'lláh should be regarded as divine in origin, essential in
their functions and complementary in their aim and purpose. Their
common, their fundamental object is to insure the continuity of
that divinely-appointed authority which flows from the Source of
our Faith, to safeguard the unity of its followers and to maintain
the integrity and flexibility of its teachings. Acting in conjunction
with each other these two inseparable institutions administer its
affairs, cöordinate its activities, promote its interests, execute its
laws and defend its subsidiary institutions. Severally, each operates
within a clearly defined sphere of jurisdiction; each is equipped
with its own attendant institutions--instruments designed for the
effective discharge of its particular responsibilities and duties. Each
exercises, within the limitations imposed upon it, its powers, its authority,
its rights and prerogatives. These are neither contradictory,
nor detract in the slightest degree from the position which each of
these institutions occupies. Far from being incompatible or mutually
destructive, they supplement each other's authority and functions,
and are permanently and fundamentally united in their aims.
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Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World
Order of Bahá'u'lláh would be mutilated and permanently deprived
of that hereditary principle which, as `Abdu'l-Bahá has written, has
been invariably upheld by the Law of God. "In all the Divine Dispensations,"
He states, in a Tablet addressed to a follower of the
Faith in Persia, "the eldest son hath been given extraordinary distinctions.
Even the station of prophethood hath been his birthright."
Without such an institution the integrity of the Faith would be
imperiled, and the stability of the entire fabric would be gravely
endangered. Its prestige would suffer, the means required to enable
it to take a long, an uninterrupted view over a series of generations
would be completely lacking, and the necessary guidance to define
the sphere of the legislative action of its elected representatives
would be totally withdrawn.
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Severed from the no less essential institution of the Universal
House of Justice this same System of the Will of `Abdu'l-Bahá
would be paralyzed in its action and would be powerless to fill in
those gaps which the Author of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas has deliberately
left in the body of His legislative and administrative ordinances.
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"He is the Interpreter of the Word of God," `Abdu'l-Bahá, referring
to the functions of the Guardian of the Faith, asserts, using
in His Will the very term which He Himself had chosen when
refuting the argument of the Covenant-breakers who had challenged
His right to interpret the utterances of Bahá'u'lláh. "After
him," He adds, "will succeed the first-born of his lineal descendants."
"The mighty stronghold," He further explains, "shall remain impregnable
and safe through obedience to him who is the Guardian
of the Cause of God." "It is incumbent upon the members of the
House of Justice, upon all the Aghsán, the Afnán, the Hands of
the Cause of God, to show their obedience, submissiveness and
subordination unto the Guardian of the Cause of God."
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"It is incumbent upon the members of the House of Justice,"
Bahá'u'lláh, on the other hand, declares in the Eighth Leaf of the
Exalted Paradise, "to take counsel together regarding those things
which have not outwardly been revealed in the Book, and to enforce
that which is agreeable to them. God will verily inspire them with
whatsoever He willeth, and He verily is the Provider, the Omniscient."
"Unto the Most Holy Book" (the Kitáb-i-Aqdas), `Abdu'l-Bahá
states in His Will, "every one must turn, and all that is not
expressly recorded therein must be referred to the Universal House
of Justice. That which this body, whether unanimously or by a
majority doth carry, that is verily the truth and the purpose of
God Himself. Whoso doth deviate therefrom is verily of them that
love discord, hath shown forth malice, and turned away from the
Lord of the Covenant."
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Not only does `Abdu'l-Bahá confirm in His Will Bahá'u'lláh's
above-quoted statement, but invests this body with the additional
right and power to abrogate, according to the exigencies of time, its
own enactments, as well as those of a preceding House of Justice.
"Inasmuch as the House of Justice," is His explicit statement in His
Will, "hath power to enact laws that are not expressly recorded in
the Book and bear upon daily transactions, so also it hath power to
repeal the same... This it can do because these laws form no part
of the divine explicit text."
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Referring to both the Guardian and the Universal House of
Justice we read these emphatic words: "The sacred and youthful
Branch, the Guardian of the Cause of God, as well as the Universal
House of Justice to be universally elected and established, are both
under the care and protection of the Abhá Beauty, under the shelter
and unerring guidance of the Exalted One (the Báb) (may my life
be offered up for them both). Whatsoever they decide is of God."
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From these statements it is made indubitably clear and evident
that the Guardian of the Faith has been made the Interpreter of the
Word and that the Universal House of Justice has been invested
with the function of legislating on matters not expressly revealed
in the teachings. The interpretation of the Guardian, functioning
within his own sphere, is as authoritative and binding as the enactments
of the International House of Justice, whose exclusive right
and prerogative is to pronounce upon and deliver the final judgment
on such laws and ordinances as Bahá'u'lláh has not expressly revealed.
Neither can, nor will ever, infringe upon the sacred and
prescribed domain of the other. Neither will seek to curtail the
specific and undoubted authority with which both have been divinely
invested.
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Though the Guardian of the Faith has been made the permanent
head of so august a body he can never, even temporarily, assume the
right of exclusive legislation. He cannot override the decision of the
majority of his fellow-members, but is bound to insist upon a
reconsideration by them of any enactment he conscientiously believes
to conflict with the meaning and to depart from the spirit of
Bahá'u'lláh's revealed utterances. He interprets what has been specifically
revealed, and cannot legislate except in his capacity as
member of the Universal House of Justice. He is debarred from
laying down independently the constitution that must govern the
organized activities of his fellow-members, and from exercising
his influence in a manner that would encroach upon the liberty of
those whose sacred right is to elect the body of his collaborators.
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It should be borne in mind that the institution of the Guardianship
has been anticipated by `Abdu'l-Bahá in an allusion He made in
a Tablet addressed, long before His own ascension, to three of
His friends in Persia. To their question as to whether there would
be any person to whom all the Bahá'ís would be called upon to turn
after His ascension He made the following reply: "As to the question
ye have asked me, know verily that this is a well-guarded secret.
It is even as a gem concealed within its shell. That it will be revealed
is predestined. The time will come when its light will appear, when
its evidences will be made manifest, and its secrets unraveled."
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Dearly-beloved friends! Exalted as is the position and vital
as is the function of the institution of the Guardianship in the
Administrative Order of Bahá'u'lláh, and staggering as must be
the weight of responsibility which it carries, its importance must,
whatever be the language of the Will, be in no wise over-emphasized.
The Guardian of the Faith must not under any circumstances, and
whatever his merits or his achievements, be exalted to the rank
that will make him a co-sharer with `Abdu'l-Bahá in the unique
position which the Center of the Covenant occupies--much less
to the station exclusively ordained for the Manifestation of God.
So grave a departure from the established tenets of our Faith is
nothing short of open blasphemy. As I have already stated, in the
course of my references to `Abdu'l-Bahá's station, however great
the gulf that separates Him from the Author of a Divine Revelation
it can never measure with the distance that stands between
Him Who is the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant and the Guardians
who are its chosen ministers. There is a far, far greater distance
separating the Guardian from the Center of the Covenant
than there is between the Center of the Covenant and its Author.
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No Guardian of the Faith, I feel it my solemn duty to place on
record, can ever claim to be the perfect exemplar of the teachings of
Bahá'u'lláh or the stainless mirror that reflects His light. Though
overshadowed by the unfailing, the unerring protection of
Bahá'u'lláh and of the Báb, and however much he may share with
`Abdu'l-Bahá the right and obligation to interpret the Bahá'í teachings,
he remains essentially human and cannot, if he wishes to remain
faithful to his trust, arrogate to himself, under any pretense whatsoever,
the rights, the privileges and prerogatives which Bahá'u'lláh
has chosen to confer upon His Son. In the light of this truth to pray
to the Guardian of the Faith, to address him as lord and master,
to designate him as his holiness, to seek his benediction, to celebrate
his birthday, or to commemorate any event associated with his life
would be tantamount to a departure from those established truths
that are enshrined within our beloved Faith. The fact that the
Guardian has been specifically endowed with such power as he may
need to reveal the purport and disclose the implications of the
utterances of Bahá'u'lláh and of `Abdu'l-Bahá does not necessarily
confer upon him a station co-equal with those Whose words he is
called upon to interpret. He can exercise that right and discharge
this obligation and yet remain infinitely inferior to both of them
in rank and different in nature.
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To the integrity of this cardinal principle of our Faith the
words, the deeds of its present and future Guardians must abundantly
testify. By their conduct and example they must needs establish
its truth upon an unassailable foundation and transmit to
future generations unimpeachable evidences of its reality.
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For my own part to hesitate in recognizing so vital a truth
or to vacillate in proclaiming so firm a conviction must constitute
a shameless betrayal of the confidence reposed in me by `Abdu'l-Bahá
and an unpardonable usurpation of the authority with which He
Himself has been invested.
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A word should now be said regarding the theory on which this
Administrative Order is based and the principle that must govern
the operation of its chief institutions. It would be utterly misleading
to attempt a comparison between this unique, this divinely-conceived
Order and any of the diverse systems which the minds of men, at
various periods of their history, have contrived for the government
of human institutions. Such an attempt would in itself betray a
lack of complete appreciation of the excellence of the handiwork
of its great Author. How could it be otherwise when we remember
that this Order constitutes the very pattern of that divine civilization
which the almighty Law of Bahá'u'lláh is designed to establish
upon earth? The divers and ever-shifting systems of human polity,
whether past or present, whether originating in the East or in the
West, offer no adequate criterion wherewith to estimate the potency
of its hidden virtues or to appraise the solidity of its foundations.
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The Bahá'í Commonwealth of the future, of which this vast
Administrative Order is the sole framework, is, both in theory and
practice, not only unique in the entire history of political institutions,
but can find no parallel in the annals of any of the world's
recognized religious systems. No form of democratic government;
no system of autocracy or of dictatorship, whether monarchical or
republican; no intermediary scheme of a purely aristocratic order;
nor even any of the recognized types of theocracy, whether it be
the Hebrew Commonwealth, or the various Christian ecclesiastical
organizations, or the Imamate or the Caliphate in Islám--none of
these can be identified or be said to conform with the Administrative
Order which the master-hand of its perfect Architect has fashioned.
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This new-born Administrative Order incorporates within its
structure certain elements which are to be found in each of the
three recognized forms of secular government, without being in
any sense a mere replica of any one of them, and without introducing
within its machinery any of the objectionable features
which they inherently possess. It blends and harmonizes, as no
government fashioned by mortal hands has as yet accomplished,
the salutary truths which each of these systems undoubtedly contains
without vitiating the integrity of those God-given verities on which
it is ultimately founded.
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The Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh must in
no wise be regarded as purely democratic in character inasmuch as
the basic assumption which requires all democracies to depend fundamentally
upon getting their mandate from the people is altogether
lacking in this Dispensation. In the conduct of the administrative
affairs of the Faith, in the enactment of the legislation necessary
to supplement the laws of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the members of the
Universal House of Justice, it should be borne in mind, are not,
as Bahá'u'lláh's utterances clearly imply, responsible to those whom
they represent, nor are they allowed to be governed by the feelings,
the general opinion, and even the convictions of the mass of the
faithful, or of those who directly elect them. They are to follow,
in a prayerful attitude, the dictates and promptings of their conscience.
They may, indeed they must, acquaint themselves with the
conditions prevailing among the community, must weigh dispassionately
in their minds the merits of any case presented for their
consideration, but must reserve for themselves the right of an
unfettered decision. "God will verily inspire them with whatsoever
He willeth," is Bahá'u'lláh's incontrovertible assurance. They, and
not the body of those who either directly or indirectly elect them,
have thus been made the recipients of the divine guidance which is
at once the life-blood and ultimate safeguard of this Revelation.
Moreover, he who symbolizes the hereditary principle in this Dispensation
has been made the interpreter of the words of its Author,
and ceases consequently, by virtue of the actual authority vested
in him, to be the figurehead invariably associated with the prevailing
systems of constitutional monarchies.
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Nor can the Bahá'í Administrative Order be dismissed as a
hard and rigid system of unmitigated autocracy or as an idle imitation
of any form of absolutistic ecclesiastical government, whether
it be the Papacy, the Imamate or any other similar institution, for
the obvious reason that upon the international elected representatives
of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh has been conferred the exclusive
right of legislating on matters not expressly revealed in the
Bahá'í writings. Neither the Guardian of the Faith nor any institution
apart from the International House of Justice can ever usurp
this vital and essential power or encroach upon that sacred right.
The abolition of professional priesthood with its accompanying
sacraments of baptism, of communion and of confession of sins,
the laws requiring the election by universal suffrage of all local,
national, and international Houses of Justice, the total absence of
episcopal authority with its attendant privileges, corruptions and
bureaucratic tendencies, are further evidences of the non-autocratic
character of the Bahá'í Administrative Order and of its inclination
to democratic methods in the administration of its affairs.
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Nor is this Order identified with the name of Bahá'u'lláh to
be confused with any system of purely aristocratic government in
view of the fact that it upholds, on the one hand, the hereditary
principle and entrusts the Guardian of the Faith with the obligation
of interpreting its teachings, and provides, on the other, for
the free and direct election from among the mass of the faithful
of the body that constitutes its highest legislative organ.
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Whereas this Administrative Order cannot be said to have been
modeled after any of these recognized systems of government, it
nevertheless embodies, reconciles and assimilates within its framework
such wholesome elements as are to be found in each one of
them. The hereditary authority which the Guardian is called upon
to exercise, the vital and essential functions which the Universal
House of Justice discharges, the specific provisions requiring its
democratic election by the representatives of the faithful--these
combine to demonstrate the truth that this divinely revealed Order,
which can never be identified with any of the standard types of
government referred to by Aristotle in his works, embodies and
blends with the spiritual verities on which it is based the beneficent
elements which are to be found in each one of them. The admitted
evils inherent in each of these systems being rigidly and permanently
excluded, this unique Order, however long it may endure
and however extensive its ramifications, cannot ever degenerate into
any form of despotism, of oligarchy, or of demagogy which must
sooner or later corrupt the machinery of all man-made and essentially
defective political institutions.
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Dearly-beloved friends! Significant as are the origins of this
mighty administrative structure, and however unique its features,
the happenings that may be said to have heralded its birth and
signalized the initial stage of its evolution seem no less remarkable.
How striking, how edifying the contrast between the process of
slow and steady consolidation that characterizes the growth of its
infant strength and the devastating onrush of the forces of disintegration
that are assailing the outworn institutions, both religious
and secular, of present-day society!
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The vitality which the organic institutions of this great, this
ever-expanding Order so strongly exhibit; the obstacles which the
high courage, the undaunted resolution of its administrators have
already surmounted; the fire of an unquenchable enthusiasm that
glows with undiminished fervor in the hearts of its itinerant
teachers; the heights of self-sacrifice which its champion-builders
are now attaining; the breadth of vision, the confident hope, the
creative joy, the inward peace, the uncompromising integrity, the
exemplary discipline, the unyielding unity and solidarity which its
stalwart defenders manifest; the degree to which its moving Spirit
has shown itself capable of assimilating the diversified elements
within its pale, of cleansing them of all forms of prejudice and
of fusing them with its own structure--these are evidences of a
power which a disillusioned and sadly shaken society can ill afford
to ignore.
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Compare these splendid manifestations of the spirit animating
this vibrant body of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh with the cries and
agony, the follies and vanities, the bitterness and prejudices, the
wickedness and divisions of an ailing and chaotic world. Witness
the fear that torments its leaders and paralyzes the action of its
blind and bewildered statesmen. How fierce the hatreds, how false
the ambitions, how petty the pursuits, how deep-rooted the suspicions
of its peoples! How disquieting the lawlessness, the corruption,
the unbelief that are eating into the vitals of a tottering civilization!
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Might not this process of steady deterioration which is insidiously
invading so many departments of human activity and thought be
regarded as a necessary accompaniment to the rise of this almighty
Arm of Bahá'u'lláh? Might we not look upon the momentous happenings
which, in the course of the past twenty years, have so deeply
agitated every continent of the earth, as ominous signs simultaneously
proclaiming the agonies of a disintegrating civilization and
the birthpangs of that World Order--that Ark of human salvation
--that must needs arise upon its ruins?
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The catastrophic fall of mighty monarchies and empires in the
European continent, allusions to some of which may be found in
the prophecies of Bahá'u'lláh; the decline that has set in, and is still
continuing, in the fortunes of the Shí'ih hierarchy in His own
native land; the fall of the Qájár dynasty, the traditional enemy
of His Faith; the overthrow of the Sultanate and the Caliphate,
the sustaining pillars of Sunní Islám, to which the destruction of
Jerusalem in the latter part of the first century of the Christian era
offers a striking parallel; the wave of secularization which is
invading the Muhammadan ecclesiastical institutions in Egypt and
sapping the loyalty of its staunchest supporters; the humiliating
blows that have afflicted some of the most powerful Churches of
Christendom in Russia, in Western Europe and Central America; the
dissemination of those subversive doctrines that are undermining the
foundations and overthrowing the structure of seemingly impregnable
strongholds in the political and social spheres of human
activity; the signs of an impending catastrophe, strangely reminiscent
of the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West, which threatens
to engulf the whole structure of present-day civilization--all witness
to the tumult which the birth of this mighty Organ of the Religion
of Bahá'u'lláh has cast into the world--a tumult which will grow
in scope and in intensity as the implications of this constantly
evolving Scheme are more fully understood and its ramifications
more widely extended over the surface of the globe.
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A word more in conclusion. The rise and establishment of this
Administrative Order--the shell that shields and enshrines so precious
a gem--constitutes the hall-mark of this second and formative
age of the Bahá'í era. It will come to be regarded, as it recedes
farther and farther from our eyes, as the chief agency empowered
to usher in the concluding phase, the consummation of this glorious
Dispensation.
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Let no one, while this System is still in its infancy, misconceive
its character, belittle its significance or misrepresent its purpose.
The bedrock on which this Administrative Order is founded is God's
immutable Purpose for mankind in this day. The Source from
which it derives its inspiration is no one less than Bahá'u'lláh
Himself. Its shield and defender are the embattled hosts of the
Abhá Kingdom. Its seed is the blood of no less than twenty thousand
martyrs who have offered up their lives that it may be born
and flourish. The axis round which its institutions revolve are the
authentic provisions of the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
Its guiding principles are the truths which He Who is the unerring
Interpreter of the teachings of our Faith has so clearly enunciated
in His public addresses throughout the West. The laws that govern
its operation and limit its functions are those which have been
expressly ordained in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. The seat round which its
spiritual, its humanitarian and administrative activities will cluster
are the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár and its Dependencies. The pillars that
sustain its authority and buttress its structure are the twin institutions
of the Guardianship and of the Universal House of Justice.
The central, the underlying aim which animates it is the establishment
of the New World Order as adumbrated by Bahá'u'lláh. The
methods it employs, the standard it inculcates, incline it to neither
East nor West, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither rich nor poor,
neither white nor colored. Its watchword is the unification of the
human race; its standard the "Most Great Peace"; its consummation
the advent of that golden millennium--the Day when the kingdoms
of this world shall have become the Kingdom of God Himself,
the Kingdom of Bahá'u'lláh.
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SHOGHI.
Haifa, Palestine,
February 8, 1934.
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