Your most welcome message, imparting the glad news of a successful Convention, has rejoiced my heart and fortified my hope in this year of active service, that has just unfolded itself before you.
I am certain that, as the newly elected representatives of the Baha"i Community throughout America, you are, one and all, well aware of your mighty responsibilities, and fully realize the tremendous need for a full understanding amongst the friends, and their active and sustained cooperation in spreading far and wide the Cause of Baha"u"llah throughout that vast continent.
I fervently hope that in collaboration with our wise, able and devoted brother, Jinab-i-Fadil, you will inaugurate a brilliant and vigorous campaign of Teaching, that shall by its very splendor banish the darkness of differences and contention that so impede the majestic and onward march of the Cause in every land.
Central Fund
That you may reinforce this Teaching Campaign-so vitally needed in these days-and conduct, properly and efficiently, the rest of your manifold activities, spiritual as well as humanitarian, it is urgently necessary to establish that Central Fund, which if generously supported and upheld by individual friends and local a.s.semblies, will soon enable you to execute your plans with promptness and vigor.
It is my earnest prayer, in the day-time and in the night season, that the ever-guiding Hand of our loved and departed Master may graciously aid you to surmount every obstacle, and will lead, through you,-His chosen ones in that land,-the Ark of His Cause, to its promised haven of glory and triumph.
With heartfelt congratulations and best wishes,
I am your brother and fellow-worker, SHOGHI.
Haifa, Palestine.
May 6th, 1923.
P.S. I enclose a copy of my translation(9) of Baha"u"llah"s Words of Wisdom, which you will feel at liberty to circulate amongst the friends.
Letter of November 14, 1923.
To the beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout America, care of the members of the American National Spiritual a.s.sembly.
Fellow-laborers in the Divine Vineyard:
Upon my return, after a forced and prolonged absence, to the Holy Land, it is my first and most ardent wish to renew and strengthen those ties of brotherly love and fellowship that bind our hearts together in our common servitude to His sacred Threshold.
The two years that have elapsed since the pa.s.sing of our beloved Master have been for the Cause, as well as for mankind, years of deep anxiety and pain. The momentous changes that are taking place in the history of both have proved so swift and far-reaching as to arouse in certain hearts a strange misgiving as to their stability and future.
On one hand the remarkable revelations of the Beloved"s Will and Testament, so amazing in all its aspects, so emphatic in its injunctions, have challenged and perplexed the keenest minds, whilst the ever-increasing confusion of the world, threatened as never before with disruptive forces, fierce rivalries, fresh commotions and grave disorder, has well-nigh overwhelmed the heart and damped the zeal of even the most enthusiastic believer in the destiny of mankind.
And yet, how often we seem to forget the clear and repeated warnings of our beloved Master, who, in particular during the concluding years of His mission on earth, laid stress on the "severe mental tests" that would inevitably sweep over His loved ones of the West-tests that would purge, purify and prepare them for their n.o.ble mission in life.
The Cause of Human Suffering
And as to the world"s evil plight, we need but recall the writings and sayings of Baha"u"llah, who, more than fifty years ago, declared in terms prophetic the prime cause of the ills and sufferings of mankind, and set forth their true and divine remedy. "Should the Lamp of Religion be hidden," He declares, "Chaos and confusion will ensue." How admirably fitting and applicable are these words to the present state of mankind!
Ours is then the duty and privilege to labor, by day and by night, amidst the storm and stress of these troublous days, that we may quicken the zeal of our fellow-men, rekindle their hopes, stimulate their interest, open their eyes to the true Faith of G.o.d and enlist their active support in the carrying out of our common task for the peace and regeneration of the world.
Let us take heart and be thankful to our beloved "Abdu"l-Baha, as we remember His manifold blessings and unfailing care and protection, ever since the hour of His departure from our midst. The flames of sedition, so maliciously kindled in the past by those who have dared to flout His will, are gone out for ever, and the fondest hopes of these evil plotters are now abandoned, doomed never to revive. He has indeed redeemed His promise!
It seemed not a long time ago that their agitation, so violently renewed immediately after the pa.s.sing of our Beloved, would for a time confuse the Divine Message of Baha"u"llah, obscure His Covenant, r.e.t.a.r.d the progress of His Cause, and shatter its unity; and yet how well we see them all today, not through our efforts, but by their own folly, and above all, by the intervention of the hidden hand of G.o.d, reduced to the vilest and most humiliating position.
And now, with the Cause purified and inwardly victorious, its principles vindicated, its enemies silenced and sunk in unspeakable misery, may we not, henceforth, direct all our efforts to collective action and constructive achievement, and, in utter disregard of the flickerings of their fast-fading light, arise to carry out those urgent measures that will secure the outward and complete triumph of the Cause.
I, for my part, as I look back to the unfortunate circ.u.mstances of ill-health and physical exhaustion that have attended the opening years of my career of service to the Cause, feel hardly gratified, and would be truly despondent but for the sustaining memory and inspiring example of the diligent and ceaseless efforts which my fellow-workers the world over have displayed during these two trying years in the service of the Cause.
I cherish the hope that, from now on, the Beloved may bestow upon me all the strength and vigor that will enable me to pursue over a long and unbroken period of strenuous labor the supreme task of achieving, in collaboration with the friends in every land, the speedy triumph of the Cause of Baha"u"llah. This is the prayer I earnestly request all my fellow-brethren and sisters in the Faith to offer on my behalf.
Let us pray to G.o.d that in these days of world-encircling gloom, when the dark forces of nature, of hate, rebellion, anarchy and reaction are threatening the very stability of human society, when the most precious fruits of civilization are undergoing severe and unparalleled tests, we may all realize, more profoundly than ever, that though but a mere handful amidst the seething ma.s.ses of the world, we are in this day the chosen instruments of G.o.d"s grace, that our mission is most urgent and vital to the fate of humanity, and, fortified by these sentiments, arise to achieve G.o.d"s holy purpose for mankind.
Your brother in His Service, SHOGHI.
Haifa, Palestine.
November 14, 1923.
Letter of November 26, 1923.
To the members of the American National Spiritual a.s.sembly.
Friends and fellow-workers in the Vineyard of G.o.d!
After a long and unbroken silence, it gives me the greatest joy to be enabled to correspond again with my dearly-beloved co-workers of the National Spiritual a.s.sembly.
Your three letters, dated June 8th, July 10th and October 12th, have been safely received, and to each I have given my earnest and fullest attention. Their perusal which reflects only a certain amount of your activities together with the study of the enclosed communications and circulars and of the detailed and admirable report of the proceedings of the Annual Convention have all served to heighten my admiration for the thoroughness, the ability, and the devotion with which you are conducting the affairs of the Cause of G.o.d in that land.
How often I have wished and yearned to be nearer to the field of your activities and thus be able to keep in a more constant and closer touch with every detail of the manifold and all-important services you render. I cherish the hope that erelong the facilities in the means of communication and transport will serve to draw us still nearer to one another, and fulfill, though partially, this long-desired wish.
The Annual Convention
I have been made happy and grateful to learn from your first letter that "throughout the sessions (of the last Convention) the atmosphere was one of great detachment and spirituality combined with practical vision and purpose." I am deeply convinced that if the Annual Convention of the friends in America, as well as the National Spiritual a.s.sembly, desire to become potent instruments for the speedy realization of the Beloved"s fondest hopes for the future of that country, they should endeavor, first and foremost, to exemplify, in an increasing degree, to all Baha"is and to the world at large the high ideals of fellowship and service which Baha"u"llah and the beloved Master repeatedly set before them. They can claim the admiration, the support and eventually the allegiance of their fellow-countrymen only by their strict regard for the dignity, the welfare, and the unity of the Cause of G.o.d, by their zeal, their disinterestedness, and constancy in the service of mankind, and by demonstrating, through their words and deeds, the need and practicability of the lofty principles which the Movement has proclaimed to the world.
The efforts you have displayed, and the considerable success you have achieved in consolidating the forces of the Movement in the United States and Canada have been a source of inspiration to every one of us, and, I am certain, will spur the friends throughout the East to combined and sympathetic activity for the promotion of the Cause.
My fervent prayer at the three Holy Shrines is that the bountiful Lord may bless His American friends who const.i.tute the vanguard of His host in the Western world, and prosper them in their material affairs and pursuits, that the Cause which stands today in sore need of material help and a.s.sistance may advance, rapidly and unhindered, towards the fulfillment of its destiny.