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The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
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Pages 196-201
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A World Religion
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Ceasing to designate to itself a movement, a fellowship and the
like--designations that did grave injustice to its ever-unfolding system
--dissociating itself from such appellations as Bábí sect, Asiatic
cult, and offshoot of Shí'ih Islám, with which the ignorant and the
malicious were wont to describe it, refusing to be labeled as a mere
philosophy of life, or as an eclectic code of ethical conduct, or even
as a new religion, the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh is now visibly succeeding
in demonstrating its claim and title to be regarded as a World Religion,
destined to attain, in the fullness of time, the status of a
world-embracing Commonwealth, which would be at once the instrument
and the guardian of the Most Great Peace announced by its
Author. Far from wishing to add to the number of the religious
systems, whose conflicting loyalties have for so many generations
disturbed the peace of mankind, this Faith is instilling into each of
its adherents a new love for, and a genuine appreciation of the unity
underlying, the various religions represented within its pale.
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"It is like a wide embrace," such is the testimony of Royalty
to its claim and position, "gathering together all those who have
long searched for words of hope. It accepts all great Prophets gone
before it, destroys no other creeds, and leaves all doors open." "The
Bahá'í teaching," she has further written, "brings peace to the soul
and hope to the heart. To those in search of assurance the words of
the Father are as a fountain in the desert after long wandering."
"Their writings," she, in another statement referring to Bahá'u'lláh
and `Abdu'l-Bahá, has testified, "are a great cry toward peace, reaching
beyond all limits of frontiers, above all dissension about rites
and dogmas... It is a wondrous message that Bahá'u'lláh and
His son `Abdu'l-Bahá have given us. They have not set it up aggressively
knowing that the germ of eternal truth which lies at its
core cannot but take root and spread." "If ever the name of Bahá'u'lláh
or `Abdu'l-Bahá," is her concluding plea, "comes to your attention,
do not put their writings from you. Search out their Books,
and let their glorious, peace-bringing, love-creating words and lessons
sink into your hearts as they have into mine."
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The Faith of Bahá'u'lláh has assimilated, by virtue of its creative,
its regulative and ennobling energies, the varied races, nationalities,
creeds and classes that have sought its shadow, and have
pledged unswerving fealty to its cause. It has changed the hearts of
its adherents, burned away their prejudices, stilled their passions,
exalted their conceptions, ennobled their motives, cöordinated their
efforts, and transformed their outlook. While preserving their patriotism
and safeguarding their lesser loyalties, it has made them
lovers of mankind, and the determined upholders of its best and
truest interests. While maintaining intact their belief in the Divine
origin of their respective religions, it has enabled them to visualize
the underlying purpose of these religions, to discover their merits,
to recognize their sequence, their interdependence, their wholeness
and unity, and to acknowledge the bond that vitally links them to
itself. This universal, this transcending love which the followers of
the Bahá'í Faith feel for their fellow-men, of whatever race, creed,
class or nation, is neither mysterious nor can it be said to have been
artificially stimulated. It is both spontaneous and genuine. They
whose hearts are warmed by the energizing influence of God's creative
love cherish His creatures for His sake, and recognize in every
human face a sign of His reflected glory.
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Of such men and women it may be truly said that to them "every
foreign land is a fatherland, and every fatherland a foreign land."
For their citizenship, it must be remembered, is in the Kingdom of
Bahá'u'lláh. Though willing to share to the utmost the temporal
benefits and the fleeting joys which this earthly life can confer,
though eager to participate in whatever activity that conduces to the
richness, the happiness and peace of that life, they can, at no time,
forget that it constitutes no more than a transient, a very brief stage
of their existence, that they who live it are but pilgrims and wayfarers
whose goal is the Celestial City, and whose home the Country
of never-failing joy and brightness.
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Though loyal to their respective governments, though profoundly
interested in anything that affects their security and welfare, though
anxious to share in whatever promotes their best interests, the Faith
with which the followers of Bahá'u'lláh stand identified is one
which they firmly believe God has raised high above the storms, the
divisions, and controversies of the political arena. Their Faith they
conceive to be essentially non-political, supra-national in character,
rigidly non-partisan, and entirely dissociated from nationalistic ambitions,
pursuits, and purposes. Such a Faith knows no division of
class or of party. It subordinates, without hesitation or equivocation,
every particularistic interest, be it personal, regional, or national, to
the paramount interests of humanity, firmly convinced that in a
world of inter-dependent peoples and nations the advantage of the
part is best to be reached by the advantage of the whole, and that
no abiding benefit can be conferred upon the component parts if the
general interests of the entity itself are ignored or neglected.
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Small wonder if by the Pen of Bahá'u'lláh these pregnant words,
written in anticipation of the present state of mankind, should have
been revealed: "It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his
own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The
earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." And again,
"That one indeed is a man who today dedicateth himself to the
service of the entire human race." "Through the power released by
these exalted words," He explains, "He hath lent a fresh impulse,
and set a new direction, to the birds of men's hearts, and hath obliterated
every trace of restriction and limitation from God's Holy
Book."
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Their Faith, Bahá'ís firmly believe, is moreover undenominational,
non-sectarian, and wholly divorced from every ecclesiastical
system, whatever its form, origin, or activities. No ecclesiastical
organization, with its creeds, its traditions, its limitations, and exclusive
outlook, can be said (as is the case with all existing political factions,
parties, systems and programs) to conform, in all its aspects,
to the cardinal tenets of Bahá'í belief. To some of the principles
and ideals animating political and ecclesiastical institutions every
conscientious follower of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh can, no doubt,
readily subscribe. With none of these institutions, however, can he
identify himself, nor can he unreservedly endorse the creeds, the
principles and programs on which they are based.
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How can a Faith, it should moreover be borne in mind, whose
divinely-ordained institutions have been established within the jurisdiction
of no less than forty different countries, the policies and
interests of whose governments are continually clashing and growing
more complex and confused every day--how can such a Faith,
by allowing its adherents, whether individually or through its organized
councils, to meddle in political activities, succeed in preserving
the integrity of its teachings and in safeguarding the unity of
its followers? How can it insure the vigorous, the uninterrupted
and peaceful development of its expanding institutions? How can
a Faith, whose ramifications have brought it into contact with mutually
incompatible religious systems, sects and confessions, be in a
position, if it permits its adherents to subscribe to obsolescent observances
and doctrines, to claim the unconditional allegiance of
those whom it is striving to incorporate into its divinely-appointed
system? How can it avoid the constant friction, the misunderstandings
and controversies which formal affiliation, as distinct from
association, must inevitably engender?
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These directing and regulating principles of Bahá'í belief the upholders
of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh feel bound, as their Administrative
Order expands and consolidates itself, to assert and vigilantly
apply. The exigencies of a slowly crystallizing Faith impose upon
them a duty which they cannot shirk, a responsibility they cannot
evade.
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Nor are they unmindful of the imperative necessity of upholding
and of executing the laws, as distinguished from the principles,
ordained by Bahá'u'lláh, both of which constitute the warp and
woof of the institutions upon which the structure of His World
Order must ultimately rest. To demonstrate their usefulness and
efficacy, to carry out and apply them, to safeguard their integrity,
to grasp their implications, and to facilitate their propagation Bahá'í
communities in the East, and recently in the West, are displaying
the utmost effort and are willing, if necessary, to make whatever
sacrifices may be demanded. The day may not be far distant when
in certain countries of the East, in which religious communities
exercise jurisdiction in matters of personal status, Bahá'í Assemblies
may be called upon to assume the duties and responsibilities
devolving upon officially constituted Bahá'í courts. They will be empowered,
in such matters as marriage, divorce, and inheritance, to
execute and apply, within their respective jurisdictions, and with the
sanction of civil authorities, such laws and ordinances as have been
expressly provided in their Most Holy Book.
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The Faith of Bahá'u'lláh has, in addition to these tendencies and
activities which its evolution is now revealing, demonstrated, in
other spheres, and wherever the illumination of its light has penetrated,
the force of its cohesive strength, of its integrating power,
of its invincible spirit. In the erection and consecration of its House
of Worship in the heart of the North American continent; in the
construction and multiplication of its administrative headquarters
in the land of its birth and in neighboring countries; in the fashioning
of the legal instruments designed to safeguard and regulate the
corporate life of its institutions; in the accumulation of adequate
resources, material as well as cultural, in every continent of the
globe; in the endowments which it has created for itself in the immediate
surroundings of its Shrines at its world center; in the
efforts that are being made for the collection, the verification, and
the systematization of the writings of its Founders; in the measures
that are being taken for the acquisition of such historical sites as
are associated with the lives of its Forerunner and its Author, its
heroes and martyrs; in the foundations that are being laid for the
gradual formation and establishment of its educational, its cultural
and humanitarian institutions; in the vigorous efforts that are being
exerted to safeguard the character, stimulate the initiative and coordinate
the world-wide activities of its youth; in the extraordinary
vitality with which its valiant defenders, its elected representatives,
its itinerant teachers and pioneer administrators are pleading its
cause, extending its boundaries, enriching its literature, and
strengthening the basis of its spiritual conquests and triumphs; in
the recognition which civil authorities have, in certain instances,
been induced to grant to the body of its local and national representatives,
enabling them to incorporate their councils, establish
their subsidiary institutions, and safeguard their endowments; in
the facilities which these same authorities have consented to accord
to its shrines, its consecrated edifices, and educational institutions;
in the enthusiasm and determination with which certain communities
that had been severely tested and harassed are resuming their
activities; in the spontaneous tributes paid by royalty, princes,
statesmen and scholars to the sublimity of its cause and the station
of its Founders--in these, as in many others, the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh
is proving beyond doubt its virility and capacity to counteract
the disintegrating influences to which religious systems, moral
standards, and political and social institutions are being subjected.
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From Iceland to Tasmania, from Vancouver to the China Sea
spreads the radiance and extend the ramifications of this world-enfolding
System, this many-hued and firmly-knit Fraternity, infusing
into every man and woman it has won to its cause a faith, a
hope, and a vigor that a wayward generation has long lost, and is
powerless to recover. They who preside over the immediate destinies
of this troubled world, they who are responsible for its chaotic
state, its fears, its doubts, its miseries will do well, in their bewilderment,
to fix their gaze and ponder in their hearts upon the evidences
of this saving grace of the Almighty that lies within their reach--
a grace that can ease their burden, resolve their perplexities, and
illuminate their path.
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