"In the fullness of time," He, in another pa.s.sage, referring to that same House, has prophesied, "the Lord shall, by the power of truth, exalt it in the eyes of all men. He shall cause it to become the Standard of His Kingdom, the Shrine round which will circle the concourse of the faithful."
To the bold onslaught made by the breakers of the Covenant of Baha"u"llah in their concerted efforts to secure the custodianship of His holy Tomb, to the arbitrary seizure of His holy House in Ba_gh_dad by the _Sh_i"ah community of "Iraq, was to be added, a few years later, yet another grievous a.s.sault launched by a still more powerful adversary, directed against the very fabric of the Administrative Order as established by two long-flourishing Baha"i communities of the East, culminating in the virtual disruption of these communities and the seizure of the first Ma_sh_riqu"l-A_dh_kar of the Baha"i world and of the few accessory inst.i.tutions already reared about it.
The courage, the fervor and the spiritual vitality evinced by these communities; the highly organized state of their administrative inst.i.tutions; the facilities provided for the religious education and training of their youth; the conversion of a number of broad-minded Russian citizens, imbued with ideas closely related to the tenets of the Faith; the growing realization of the implications of its principles, with their emphasis on religion, on the sanct.i.ty of family life, on the inst.i.tution of private property, and their repudiation of all discrimination between cla.s.ses and of the doctrine of the absolute equality of men-these combined to excite the suspicion, and later to arouse the fierce antagonism, of the ruling authorities, and to precipitate one of the gravest crises in the history of the first Baha"i century.
As the crisis developed and spread to even the outlying centers of both Turkistan and the Caucasus it resulted gradually in the imposition of restrictions limiting the freedom of these communities, in the interrogation and arrest of their elected representatives, in the dissolution of their local a.s.semblies and their respective committees in Moscow, in I_sh_qabad, in Baku and in other localities in the above-mentioned provinces and in the suspension of all Baha"i youth activities. It even led to the closing of Baha"i schools, kindergartens, libraries and public reading-rooms, to the interception of all communication with foreign Baha"i centers, to the confiscation of Baha"i printing presses, books and doc.u.ments, to the prohibition of all teaching activities, to the abrogation of the Baha"i const.i.tution, to the abolition of all national and local funds and to the ban placed on the attendance of non-believers at Baha"i meetings.
In the middle of 1928 the law expropriating religious edifices was applied to the Ma_sh_riqu"l-A_dh_kar of I_sh_qabad. The use of this edifice as a house of worship, however, was continued, under a five-year lease, which was renewed by the local authorities in 1933, for a similar period. In 1938 the situation in both Turkistan and the Caucasus rapidly deteriorated, leading to the imprisonment of over five hundred believers-many of whom died-as well as a number of women, and the confiscation of their property, followed by the exile of several prominent members of these communities to Siberia, the polar forests and other places in the vicinity of the Arctic Ocean, the subsequent deportation of most of the remnants of these communities to Persia, on account of their Persian nationality, and lastly, the complete expropriation of the Temple itself and its conversion into an art gallery.
In Germany, likewise, the rise and establishment of the Administrative Order of the Faith, to whose expansion and consolidation the German believers were distinctively and increasingly contributing, was soon followed by repressive measures, which, though less grievous than the afflictions suffered by the Baha"is of Turkistan and the Caucasus, amounted to the virtual cessation, in the years immediately preceding the present conflict, of all organized Baha"i activity throughout the length and breadth of that land. The public teaching of the Faith, with its unconcealed emphasis on peace and universality, and its repudiation of racialism, was officially forbidden; Baha"i a.s.semblies and their committees were dissolved; the holding of Baha"i conventions was interdicted; the Archives of the National Spiritual a.s.sembly were seized; the summer school was abolished and the publication of all Baha"i literature was suspended.
In Persia, moreover, apart from sporadic outbreaks of persecution in such places as _Sh_iraz, abadih, Ardibil, I?fahan, and in certain districts of a_dh_irbayjan and _Kh_urasan-outbreaks greatly reduced in number and violence, owing to the marked decline in the fortunes of the erstwhile powerful _Sh_i"ah ecclesiastics-the inst.i.tutions of a newly-established and as yet unconsolidated Administrative Order were subjected by the civil authorities, in both the capital and the provinces, to restrictions designed to circ.u.mscribe their scope, to fetter their freedom and undermine their foundations.
The gradual and wholly unexpected emergence from obscurity of a firmly-welded national community, schooled in adversity and unbroken in spirit, with centers established in every province of that country, in spite of the successive waves of inhuman persecution which had, for three quarters of a century, swept over and had all but engulfed it; the determination of its members to diffuse the spirit and principles of their Faith, broadcast its literature, enforce its laws and ordinances, penalize those who would transgress them, maintain a steady intercourse with their fellow-believers in foreign lands, and erect the edifices and inst.i.tutions of its Administrative Order, could not but arouse the apprehensions and the hostility of those placed in authority, who either misunderstood the aims of that community, or were bent upon stifling its life. The insistence of its members, while obedient in all matters of a purely administrative character to the civil statutes of their country, on adhering to the fundamental spiritual principles, precepts and laws revealed by Baha"u"llah, requiring them, among other things, to hold fast to truthfulness, not to dissimulate their faith, observe the ordinances prescribed for marriage and divorce, and suspend all manner of work on the Holy Days ordained by Him, brought them, sooner or later, into conflict with a regime which, owing to its formal recognition of Islam as the state religion of Persia, refused to extend any recognition to those whom the official exponents of that religion had already condemned as heretics.
The closing of all schools belonging to the Baha"i community in that country, as a direct consequence of the refusal of the representatives of that community to permit official Baha"i inst.i.tutions, owned and entirely controlled by them, to transgress the clearly revealed law requiring the suspension of work on Baha"i Holy Days; the rejection of all Baha"i marriage certificates and the refusal to register them at government License Bureaus; the ban placed on the printing and circulation of all Baha"i literature, as well as on its entry into the country; the seizure in various centers of Baha"i doc.u.ments, books and relics; the closing, in some of the provinces of the Haziratu"l-Quds, and the confiscation in some localities of their furniture; the prohibition of all Baha"i demonstrations, conferences and conventions; the strict censorship imposed on, and often the non-delivery of, communications between Baha"i centers in Persia and between these centers and Baha"i communities in foreign lands; the withholding of good-record certificates from loyal and law-abiding citizens on the ground of their avowed adherence to the Baha"i Faith; the dismissal of Government employees, the demotion or discharge of army officers, the arrest, the interrogation, the imprisonment of, and the imposition of fines and other punishments upon, a number of believers who refused either to cast aside the moral obligation of adhering to the spiritual principles of their Faith, or to act in any manner that would conflict with its universal and non-political character-all these may be regarded as the initial attempts made in the country whose soil had already been imbued with the blood of countless Baha"i martyrs, to resist the rise, and frustrate the struggle for the emanc.i.p.ation, of a nascent Administrative Order, whose very roots have sucked their strength from such heroic sacrifice.
Chapter XXIV: Emanc.i.p.ation and Recognition of the Faith and Its Inst.i.tutions
While the initial steps aiming at the erection of the framework of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha"u"llah were being simultaneously undertaken by His followers in the East and in the West, a fierce attack was launched in an obscure village in Egypt on a handful of believers, who were trying to establish there one of the primary inst.i.tutions of that Order-an attack which, viewed in the perspective of history, will be acclaimed by future generations as a landmark not only in the Formative Period of the Faith but in the history of the first Baha"i century.
Indeed, the sequel to this a.s.sault may be said to have opened a new chapter in the evolution of the Faith itself, an evolution which, carrying it through the successive stages of repression, of emanc.i.p.ation, of recognition as an independent Revelation, and as a state religion, must lead to the establishment of the Baha"i state and culminate in the emergence of the Baha"i World Commonwealth.
Originating in a country which can rightly boast of being the acknowledged center of both the Arab and Muslim worlds; precipitated by the action, taken on their own initiative, by the ecclesiastical representatives of the largest communion in Islam; the direct outcome of a series of disturbances instigated by some of the members of that communion designed to suppress the activities of certain followers of the Faith who had held a clerical rank among them, this momentous development in the fortunes of a struggling community has directly contributed, to a considerable degree, to the consolidation and the enhancement of the prestige of the Administrative Order which that community had begun to erect. It will, moreover, as its repercussions are more widely spread to other Islamic countries, and its vast significance is more clearly apprehended by the adherents of both Christianity and Islam, hasten the termination of the period of transition through which the Faith, now in the formative stage of its growth, is pa.s.sing.
It was in the village of Kawmu"?-?a"ayidih, in the district of Beba, of the province of Beni Suef in Upper Egypt, that, as a result of the religious fanaticism which the formation of a Baha"i a.s.sembly had kindled in the breast of the headman of that village, and of the grave accusations made by him to both the District Police Officer and the Governor of the province-accusations which aroused the Mu?ammadans to such a pitch of excitement as to cause them to perpetrate shameful acts against their victims-that action was initiated by the notary of the village, in his capacity as a religious plaintiff authorized by the Ministry of Justice, against three Baha"i residents of that village, demanding that their Muslim wives be divorced from them on the grounds that their husbands had abandoned Islam after their legal marriage as Muslims.
The Opinion and Judgment of the Appellate religious court of Beba, delivered on May 10, 1925, subsequently sanctioned by the highest ecclesiastical authorities in Cairo and upheld by them as final, printed and circulated by the Muslim authorities themselves, annulled the marriages contracted by the three Baha"i defendants and condemned the ma.s.s heretics for having violated the laws and ordinances of Islam. It even went so far as to make the positive, the startling and indeed the historic a.s.sertion that the Faith embraced by these heretics is to be regarded as a distinct religion, wholly independent of the religious systems that have preceded it-an a.s.sertion which hitherto the enemies of the Faith, whether in the East or in the West, had either disputed or deliberately ignored.
Having expounded the fundamental tenets and ordinances of Islam, and given a detailed exposition of the Baha"i teachings, supported by various quotations from the Kitab-i-Aqdas, from the writings of "Abdu"l-Baha and of Mirza Abu"l-Fadl, with special reference to certain Baha"i laws, and demonstrated that the defendants had, in the light of these statements, actually abjured the Faith of Mu?ammad, his formal verdict declares in the most unequivocal terms: "The Baha"i Faith is a new religion, entirely independent, with beliefs, principles and laws of its own, which differ from, and are utterly in conflict with, the beliefs, principles and laws of Islam. No Baha"i, therefore, can be regarded a Muslim or vice-versa, even as no Buddhist, Brahmin, or Christian can be regarded a Muslim or vice-versa." Ordering the dissolution of the contracts of marriage of the parties on trial, and the "separation" of the husbands from their wives, this official and memorable p.r.o.nouncement concludes with the following words: "If any one of them (husbands) repents, believes in, and acknowledges whatsoever ... Mu?ammad, the Apostle of G.o.d ... has brought from G.o.d ... and returns to the august Faith of Islam ... and testifies that ... Mu?ammad ... is the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers, that no religion will succeed His religion, that no law will abrogate His law, that the Qur"an is the last of the Books of G.o.d and His last Revelation to His Prophets and His Messengers ... he shall be accepted and shall be ent.i.tled to renew his marriage contract..."
This declaration of portentous significance, which was supported by incontrovertible proofs adduced by the avowed enemies of the Faith of Baha"u"llah themselves, which was made in a country that aspires to the headship of Islam through the restoration of the Caliphate, and which has received the sanction of the highest ecclesiastical authorities in that country, this official testimony which the leaders of _Sh_i"ah Islam, in both Persia and "Iraq, have, through a century, sedulously avoided voicing, and which, once and for all, silences those detractors, including Christian ecclesiastics in the West, who have in the past stigmatized that Faith as a cult, as a Babi sect and as an offshoot of Islam or represented it as a synthesis of religions-such a declaration was acclaimed by all Baha"i communities in the East and in the West as the first Charter of the emanc.i.p.ation of the Cause of Baha"u"llah from the fetters of Islamic orthodoxy, the first historic step taken, not by its adherents as might have been expected, but by its adversaries on the road leading to its ultimate and world-wide recognition.
Such a verdict, fraught with incalculable possibilities, was immediately recognized as a powerful challenge which the builders of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha"u"llah were not slow to face and accept. It imposed upon them a sacred obligation which they felt ready to discharge. Designed by its authors to deprive their adversaries of access to Muslim courts, and thereby place them in a perplexing and embarra.s.sing situation, it became a lever which the Egyptian Baha"i community, followed later by its sister-communities, readily utilized for the purpose of a.s.serting the independence of its Faith and of seeking for it the recognition of its government. Translated into several languages, circulated among Baha"i communities in East and West, it gradually paved the way for the initiation of negotiations between the elected representatives of these communities and the civil authorities in Egypt, in the Holy Land, in Persia and even in the United States of America, for the purpose of securing the official recognition by these authorities of the Faith as an independent religion.
In Egypt it was the signal for the adoption of a series of measures which have in their c.u.mulative effect greatly facilitated the extension of such a recognition by a government which is still formally a.s.sociated with the religion of Islam, and which suffers its laws and regulations to be shaped in a great measure by the views and p.r.o.nouncements of its ecclesiastical leaders. The inflexible determination of the Egyptian believers not to deviate a hair"s breadth from the tenets of their Faith, by avoiding all dealings with any Muslim ecclesiastical court in that country and by refusing any ecclesiastical post which might be offered them; the codification and publication of the fundamental laws of the Kitab-i-Aqdas regarding matters of personal status, such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and burial, and the presentation of these laws to the Egyptian Cabinet; the issuance of marriage and divorce certificates by the Egyptian National Spiritual a.s.sembly; the a.s.sumption by that a.s.sembly of all the duties and responsibilities connected with the conduct of Baha"i marriages and divorces, as well as with the burial of the dead; the observance by all members of that community of the nine Holy Days on which work, as prescribed in the Baha"i teachings, must be completely suspended; the presentation of a pet.i.tion addressed by the national elected representatives of that community to the Egyptian Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice (supported by a similar communication addressed by the American National Spiritual a.s.sembly to the Egyptian Government), enclosing a copy of the judgment of the Court, and of their national Baha"i const.i.tution and by-laws, requesting them to recognize their a.s.sembly as a body qualified to exercise the functions of an independent court and empowered to apply, in all matters affecting their personal status, the laws and ordinances revealed by the Author of their Faith-these stand out as the initial consequences of a historic p.r.o.nouncement that must eventually lead to the establishment of that Faith on a basis of absolute equality with its sister religions in that land.
A corollary to this epoch-making declaration, and a direct consequence of the intermittent disturbances instigated in Port Said and Isma"iliyyih by a fanatical populace in connection with the burial of some of the members of the Baha"i community, was the official and no less remarkable fatva (judgment) issued, at the request of the Ministry of Justice, by the Grand Mufti of Egypt. This, soon after its p.r.o.nouncement, was published in the Egyptian press and contributed to fortify further the independent status of the Faith. It followed upon the riots which broke out with exceptional fury in Isma"iliyyih, when angry crowds surrounded the funeral cortege of Mu?ammad Sulayman, a prominent Baha"i resident of that town, creating such an uproar that the police had to intervene, and having rescued the body and brought it back to the home of the deceased, they were forced to carry it without escort, at night, to the edge of the desert and inter it in the wilderness.
This judgment was pa.s.sed as a result of the inquiry addressed in writing, on January 24, 1939, by the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice, enclosing a copy of the compilation of Baha"i laws related to matters of personal status published by the Egyptian Baha"i National Spiritual a.s.sembly, and asking for a p.r.o.nouncement by the Mufti regarding the pet.i.tion addressed by that a.s.sembly to the Egyptian Government for the allocation of four plots to serve as cemeteries for the Baha"i communities of Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Isma"iliyyih. "We are," wrote the Mufti in his reply of March 11, 1939, to the communication addressed to him by the Ministry of Justice, "in receipt of your letter ... dated February 21, 1939, with its enclosures ... inquiring whether or not it would be lawful to bury the Baha"i dead in Muslim cemeteries. We hereby declare that this Community is not to be regarded as Muslim, as shown by the beliefs which it professes. The perusal of what they term "The Baha"i Laws affecting Matters of Personal Status," accompanying the papers, is deemed sufficient evidence. Whoever among its members had formerly been a Muslim has, by virtue of his belief in the pretensions of this community, renounced Islam, and is regarded as beyond its pale, and is subject to the laws governing apostasy as established in the right Faith of Islam. This community not being Muslim, it would be unlawful to bury its dead in Muslim cemeteries, be they originally Muslims or otherwise..."
It was in consequence of this final, this clearly-worded and authoritative sentence by the highest exponent of Islamic Law in Egypt, and after prolonged negotiations, resulting at first in the allocation to the Cairo Baha"i community of a cemetery plot forming a part of that set aside for free thinkers, residing in that city, that the Egyptian government consented to grant to that community, as well as to the Baha"is of Isma"iliyyih, two tracts of land to serve as burial grounds for their dead-an act of historic significance which was greatly welcomed by the members of sore-pressed and long-suffering communities, and which has served to demonstrate still further the independent character of their Faith and enlarge the sphere of the jurisdiction of its representative inst.i.tutions.
It was to the first of these two officially designated Baha"i cemeteries, following the decision of the Egyptian Baha"i National a.s.sembly aided by its sister-a.s.sembly in Persia, that the remains of the ill.u.s.trious Mirza Abu"l-Fadl were transferred and accorded a sepulture worthy of his high position, thereby inaugurating, in a befitting manner, the first official Baha"i inst.i.tution of its kind established in the East. This achievement was, soon after, enhanced by the exhumation from a Christian cemetery in Cairo of the body of that far-famed mother teacher of the West, Mrs. E.
Getsinger, and its interment, through the a.s.sistance extended by the American Baha"i National a.s.sembly and the Department of State in Washington, in a spot in the heart of that cemetery and adjoining the resting-place of that distinguished author and champion of the Faith.
In the Holy Land, where a Baha"i cemetery had, before these p.r.o.nouncements, been established during "Abdu"l-Baha"s ministry, the historic decision to bury the Baha"i dead facing the Qiblih in Akka was taken-a measure whose significance was heightened by the resolution to cease having recourse, as had been previously the case, to any Mu?ammadan court in all matters affecting marriage and divorce, and to carry out, in their entirety and without any concealment whatever, the rites prescribed by Baha"u"llah for the preparation and burial of the dead. This was soon after followed by the presentation of a formal pet.i.tion addressed by the representatives of the local Baha"i community of Haifa, dated May 4, 1929, to the Palestine Authorities, requesting them that, pending the adoption of a uniform civil law of personal status applicable to all residents of the country irrespective of their religious beliefs, the community be officially recognized by them and be granted "full powers to administer its own affairs now enjoyed by other religious communities in Palestine."
The acceptance of this pet.i.tion-an act of tremendous significance and wholly unprecedented in the history of the Faith in any country-according official recognition by the civil authorities to marriage certificates issued by the representatives of the local community, the validity of which the official representative of the Persian Government in Palestine has tacitly recognized, was followed by a series of decisions exempting from government tax all properties and inst.i.tutions regarded by the Baha"i community as holy sites, or dedicated to the Tombs of its Founders at its world center. Moreover, through these decisions, all articles serving as ornaments or furniture for the Baha"i shrines were exempted from customs duties, and the branches of both the American and Indian Baha"i National Spiritual a.s.semblies were enabled to function as "religious societies," in accordance with the laws of the country, and to hold and administer property as agents of these a.s.semblies.
In Persia, where a far larger community, already numerically superior to the Christian, the Jewish and the Zoroastrian minorities living in that country, had, notwithstanding the traditionally hostile att.i.tude of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, succeeded in rearing the structure of its administrative inst.i.tutions, the reaction to so momentous a declaration was such as to inspire its members and induce them to exploit, in the fullest measure possible, the enormous advantages which this wholly unexpected testimonial had conferred upon them. Having survived the fiery ordeals to which the cruel, the arrogant and implacable leaders of an all-powerful priesthood, now grievously humiliated, had subjected it, a triumphant community, just emerging from obscurity, was determined, more than ever before, to press, within the limits prescribed for it by its Founders, its claim to be regarded as an independent religious ent.i.ty, and to safeguard, by all available means, its integrity, the solidarity of its members and the solidity of its elective inst.i.tutions. It could no longer, now that its declared adversaries had, in such a country, in such a language, and on so important an issue, made so emphatic and sweeping a p.r.o.nouncement, and torn asunder the veil that had for so long been drawn over some of the distinguishing verities lying at the core of its doctrine, keep silent or tolerate without any protest the imposition of restrictions calculated to circ.u.mscribe its powers, stifle its community life and deny it its right to be placed on a footing of unqualified equality with other religious communities in that land.
Inflexibly resolved to be cla.s.sified no longer as Muslim, Jew, Christian or Zoroastrian, the members of this community determined, as a first step, to adopt such measures as would vindicate beyond challenge the distinctive position claimed for their religion by its avowed enemies. Mindful of their clear, their sacred and inescapable duty to obey unreservedly, in all matters of a purely administrative character, the laws of their country, but firmly determined to a.s.sert and demonstrate, through every legitimate means at their disposal, the independent character of their Faith, they formulated a policy and embarked in undertakings designed to carry them a stage further towards the goal they had set themselves to attain.
The steadfast resolution not to dissemble their faith, whatever the sacrifices it might entail; the uncompromising position that they would not refer any matters affecting their personal status to any Muslim, Christian, Rabbinical or Zoroastrian court; the refusal to affiliate with any organization, or accept any ecclesiastical post a.s.sociated with any of the recognized religions in their country; the universal observance of the laws prescribed in the Kitab-i-Aqdas relating to obligatory prayers, fasting, marriage, divorce, inheritance, burial of the dead, and the use of opium and alcoholic beverages; the issue and circulation of certificates of birth, death, marriage and divorce, at the direction and under the seal of recognized Baha"i a.s.semblies; the translation into Persian of "The Baha"i Laws affecting Matters of Personal Status," first published by the Egyptian Baha"i National a.s.sembly; the cessation of work on all Baha"i Holy Days; the establishment of Baha"i cemeteries in the capital as well as in the provinces, designed to provide a common burial ground for all ranks of the faithful, whatever their religious extraction; the insistence that they no longer be registered as Muslim, Christian, Jew or Zoroastrian on ident.i.ty cards, marriage certificates, pa.s.sports and other official doc.u.ments; the emphasis placed on the inst.i.tution of the Nineteen Day Feast, as established by Baha"u"llah in His Most Holy Book; the imposition of sanctions by Baha"i elective a.s.semblies, now a.s.suming the duties and functions of religious courts, on recalcitrant members of the community by denying them the right to vote and of membership in these a.s.semblies and their committees-all these are to be a.s.sociated with the first stirrings of a community that had erected the fabric of its Administrative Order, and was now, under the propelling influence of the historic judicial sentence pa.s.sed in Egypt, intent upon obtaining, not by force but through persuasion, the recognition by the civil authorities of the status to which its ecclesiastical adversaries had so emphatically borne witness.
That its initial attempt should have met with partial success, that it should have aroused at times the suspicion of the ruling authorities, that it should have been grossly misrepresented by its vigilant enemies, is not a matter for surprise. It was successful in certain respects in its negotiations with the civil authorities, as in obtaining the government decree removing all references to religious affiliation in pa.s.sports issued to Persian subjects, and in the tacit permission granted in certain localities that its members should not fill in the religious columns in certain state doc.u.ments, but should register with their own a.s.semblies their marriage, their divorce, their birth and their death certificates, and should conduct their funerals according to their religious rites. In other respects, however, it has been subjected to grave disabilities: its schools, founded, owned and controlled exclusively by itself, were forcibly closed because they refused to remain open on Baha"i holy days; its members, both men and women, were prosecuted; those who held army or civil service appointments were in some cases dismissed; a ban was placed on the import, on the printing and circulation of its literature; and all Baha"i public gatherings were proscribed.
To all administrative regulations which the civil authorities have issued from time to time, or will issue in the future in that land, as in all other countries, the Baha"i community, faithful to its sacred obligations towards its government, and conscious of its civic duties, has yielded, and will continue to yield implicit obedience. Its immediate closing of its schools in Persia is a proof of this. To such orders, however, as are tantamount to a recantation of their faith by its members, or const.i.tute an act of disloyalty to its spiritual, its basic and G.o.d-given principles and precepts, it will stubbornly refuse to bow, preferring imprisonment, deportation and all manner of persecution, including death-as already suffered by the twenty thousand martyrs that have laid down their lives in the path of its Founders-rather than follow the dictates of a temporal authority requiring it to renounce its allegiance to its cause.
"If you cut us in pieces, men, women and children alike, in the entire district of abadih," was the memorable message sent by the fearless descendants of some of those martyrs in that turbulent center to the Governor of Fars, who had intended to coerce them into declaring themselves as Muslims, "we will never submit to your wishes"-a message which, as soon as it was delivered to that defiant governor, induced him to desist from pressing the matter any further.
In the United States of America, the Baha"i community, having already set an inspiring example, by erecting and perfecting the machinery of its Administrative Order, was alive to the far-reaching implications of the sentence pa.s.sed by the Muslim court in Egypt, and to the significance of the reaction it had produced in the Holy Land, and was stimulated by the courageous persistence demonstrated by its sister-community in Persia. It determined to supplement its notable achievements with further acts designed to throw into sharper relief the status achieved by the Faith of Baha"u"llah in the North American continent. It was numerically smaller than the community of the Persian believers. Owing to the multiplicity of laws governing the states within the Union, it was faced, in matters affecting the personal status of its members, with a situation radically different from that confronting the believers in the East, and much more complex. But conscious of its responsibility to lend, once again, a powerful impetus to the unfoldment of a divinely appointed Order, it boldly undertook to initiate such measures as would accentuate the independent character of a Revelation it had already so n.o.bly championed.
The recognition of its National Spiritual a.s.sembly by the Federal authorities as a religious body ent.i.tled to hold as trustees properties dedicated to the interests of the Faith; the establishment of Baha"i endowments and the exemption obtained for them from the civil authorities as properties owned by, and administered solely for the benefit of, a purely religious community, were now to be supplemented by decisions and measures designed to give further prominence to the nature of the ties uniting its members. The special stress laid on some of the fundamental laws contained in the Kitab-i-Aqdas regarding daily obligatory prayers; the observance of the fast, the consent of the parents as a prerequisite of marriage; the one-year separation between husband and wife as an indispensable condition of divorce; abstinence from all alcoholic drinks; the emphasis placed on the inst.i.tution of the Nineteen Day Feast as ordained by Baha"u"llah in that same Book; the discontinuation of membership in, and affiliation with, all ecclesiastical organizations, and the refusal to accept any ecclesiastical post-these have served to forcibly underline the distinctive character of the Baha"i Fellowship, and to dissociate it, in the eyes of the public, from the rituals, the ceremonials and man-made inst.i.tutions identified with the religious systems of the past.
Of particular and historic importance has been the application made by the Spiritual a.s.sembly of the Baha"is of Chicago-the first center established in the North American continent, the first to be incorporated among its sister-a.s.semblies and the first to take the initiative in paving the way for the erection of a Baha"i Temple in the West-to the civil authorities in the state of Illinois for civil recognition of the right to conduct legal marriages in accordance with the ordinances of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, and to file marriage certificates that have previously received the official sanction of that a.s.sembly. The acceptance of this pet.i.tion by the authorities, necessitating an amendment of the by-laws of all local a.s.semblies to enable them to conduct Baha"i legal marriages, and empowering the Chairman or secretary of the Chicago a.s.sembly to represent that body in the conduct of all Baha"i marriages; the issuance, on September 22, 1939, of the first Baha"i Marriage License by the State of Illinois, authorizing the aforementioned a.s.sembly to solemnize Baha"i marriages and issue Baha"i marriage certificates; the successful measures taken subsequently by a.s.semblies in other states of the Union, such as New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Ohio, to procure for themselves similar privileges, have, moreover, contributed their share in giving added prominence to the independent religious status of the Faith. To these must be added a similar and no less significant recognition extended, since the outbreak of the present conflict, by the United States War Department-as evidenced by the communication addressed to the American Baha"i National Spiritual a.s.sembly by the Quartermaster General of that Department, on August 14, 1942-approving the use of the symbol of the Greatest Name on stones marking the graves of Baha"is killed in the war and buried in military or private cemeteries, distinguishing thereby these graves from those bearing the Latin Cross or the Star of David a.s.signed to those belonging to the Christian and Jewish Faiths respectively.
Nor should mention be omitted of the equally successful application made by the American Baha"i National Spiritual a.s.sembly to the Office of Price Administration in Washington, D.C., asking that the chairmen and secretaries of Baha"i local a.s.semblies should, in their capacity as officers conducting religious meetings, and authorized, in certain states, to perform marriage services, be eligible for preferred mileage under the provisions of the Preferred Mileage Section of the Gasoline Regulations, for the purpose of meeting the religious needs of the localities they serve.
Nor have the Baha"i communities in other countries such as India, "Iraq, Great Britain and Australia, been slow to either appreciate the advantages derived from the publication of this historic verdict, or to exploit, each according to its capacity and within the limits imposed upon it by prevailing circ.u.mstances, the opportunities afforded by such public testimonial for a further demonstration on their part of the independent character of the Faith whose administrative structure they had already erected. Through the enforcement, to whatever extent deemed practicable, of the laws ordained in their Most Holy Book; through the severance of all ties of affiliation with, and membership in, ecclesiastical inst.i.tutions of whatever denomination; through the formulation of a policy initiated for the sole purpose of giving further publicity to this mighty issue, marking a great turning-point in the evolution of the Faith, and of facilitating its ultimate settlement, these communities, and indeed all organized Baha"i bodies, whether in the East or in the West, however isolated their position or immature their state of development, have, conscious of their solidarity and well aware of the glorious prospects opening before them, arisen to proclaim with one voice the independent character of the religion of Baha"u"llah and to pave the way for its emanc.i.p.ation from whatever fetters, be they ecclesiastical or otherwise, might hinder or delay its ultimate and world-wide recognition.
To the status already achieved by their Faith, largely through their own unaided efforts and accomplishments, tributes have been paid by observers in various walks of life, whose testimony they welcome and regard as added incentive to action in their steep and laborious ascent towards the heights which they must eventually capture.
"Palestine," is the testimony of Prof. Norman Bentwitch, a former Attorney-General of the Palestine Government, "may indeed be now regarded as the land not of three but of four Faiths, because the Baha"i creed, which has its center of faith and pilgrimage in Akka and Haifa, is attaining to the character of a world religion. So far as its influence goes in the land, it is a factor making for international and inter-religious understanding." "In 1920," is the declaration made in his testament by the distinguished Swiss scientist and psychiatrist, Dr.
Auguste Forel, "I learned at Karlsruhe of the supraconfessional world religion of the Baha"is, founded in the Orient seventy years ago by a Persian, Baha"u"llah. This is the real religion of "Social Welfare"
without dogmas or priests, binding together all men of this small terrestrial globe of ours. I have become a Baha"i. May this religion live and prosper for the good of humanity! This is my most ardent desire."
"There is bound to be a world state, a universal language, and a universal religion," he, moreover has stated, "The Baha"i Movement for the oneness of mankind is, in my estimation, the greatest movement today working for universal peace and brotherhood." "A religion," is yet another testimony, from the pen of the late Queen Marie of Rumania, "which links all creeds ... a religion based upon the inner spirit of G.o.d... It teaches that all hatreds, intrigues, suspicions, evil words, all aggressive patriotism even, are outside the one essential law of G.o.d, and that special beliefs are but surface things whereas the heart that beats with Divine love knows no tribe nor race."
Chapter XXV: International Expansion of Teaching Activities
While the fabric of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha"u"llah gradually arose, and while through the influence of unforeseen forces the independence of the Faith was more and more definitely acknowledged by its enemies and demonstrated by its friends, another development, no less pregnant with consequences, was at the same time being set in motion. The purpose of this was to extend the borders of the Faith, increasing the number of its declared supporters and of its administrative centers, and to give a new and ever growing impetus to the enriching, the expanding, the diversifying of its literature, and to the task of disseminating it farther and farther afield. Experience indeed proved that the very pattern of the Administrative Order, apart from other distinctive features, definitely encouraged efficiency and expedition in this work of teaching, and its builders found their zeal continually quickened and their missionary ardor heightened as the Faith moved forward to an ever fuller emanc.i.p.ation.
Nor were they unmindful of the exhortations, the appeals and the promises of the Founders of their Faith, Who, for three quarters of a century, had, each in His own way and within the limits circ.u.mscribing His activities, labored so heroically to noise abroad the fame of the Cause Whose destiny an almighty Providence had commissioned them to shape.
The Herald of their Faith had commanded the sovereigns of the earth themselves to arise and teach His Cause, writing in the Qayyumu"l-Asma: "O concourse of kings! Deliver with truth and in all haste the verses sent down by Us to the peoples of Turkey and of India, and beyond them ... to lands in both the East and the West." "Issue forth from your cities, O peoples of the West," He, in that same Book, had moreover written, "to aid G.o.d." "We behold you from Our Most Glorious Horizon," Baha"u"llah had thus addressed His followers in His Kitab-i-Aqdas, "and will a.s.sist whosoever will arise to aid My Cause with the hosts of the Concourse on high, and a cohort of the angels, who are nigh unto Me." "...Teach ye the Cause of G.o.d, O people of Baha!" He, furthermore, had written, "for G.o.d hath prescribed unto every one the duty of proclaiming His message, and regardeth it as the most meritorious of all deeds." "Should a man all alone," He had clearly affirmed, "arise in the name of Baha and put on the armor of His love, him will the Almighty cause to be victorious, though the forces of earth and heaven be arrayed against him." "Should any one arise for the triumph of Our Cause," He moreover had declared, "him will G.o.d render victorious though tens of thousands of enemies be leagued against him." And again: "Center your energies in the propagation of the Faith of G.o.d. Whoso is worthy of so high a calling, let him arise and promote it. Whoso is unable, it is his duty to appoint him who will, in his stead, proclaim this Revelation..." "They that have forsaken their country," is His own promise, "for the purpose of teaching Our Cause-these shall the Faithful Spirit strengthen through its power... Such a service is indeed the prince of all goodly deeds, and the ornament of every goodly act." "In these days," "Abdu"l-Baha had written in His Will, "the most important of all things is the guidance of the nations and peoples of the world. Teaching the Cause is of the utmost importance, for it is the head corner-stone of the foundation itself." "The disciples of Christ," He had declared in that same Doc.u.ment, "forgot themselves and all earthly things, forsook all their cares and belongings, purged themselves of self and pa.s.sion, and, with absolute detachment, scattered far and wide, and engaged in guiding aright the peoples of the world, till at last they made the world another world, illumined the earth, and to their last hour proved self-sacrificing in the path of that Beloved One of G.o.d. Finally, in various lands they suffered martyrdom. Let men of action follow in their footsteps." "When the hour cometh," He had solemnly stated in that same Will, "that this wronged and broken-winged bird will have taken its flight unto the celestial concourse ... it is inc.u.mbent upon ... the friends and loved ones, one and all, to bestir themselves and arise, with heart and soul, and in one accord ... to teach His Cause and promote His Faith. It behoveth them not to rest for a moment... They must disperse themselves in every land ... and travel throughout all regions. Bestirred, without rest, and steadfast to the end, they must raise in every land the cry of Ya Baha"u"l-Abha (O Thou the Glory of Glories) ... that throughout the East and the West a vast concourse may gather under the shadow of the Word of G.o.d, that the sweet savors of holiness may be wafted, that men"s faces may be illumined, that their hearts may be filled with the Divine Spirit and their souls become heavenly."
Obedient to these repeated injunctions, mindful of these glowing promises, conscious of the sublimity of their calling, spurred on by the example which "Abdu"l-Baha Himself had set, undismayed by His sudden removal from their midst, undaunted by the attacks launched by their adversaries from within and from without, His followers in both the East and in the West arose, in the full strength of their solidarity, to promote, more vigorously than ever before, the international expansion of their Faith, an expansion which was now to a.s.sume such proportions as to deserve to be recognized as one of the most significant developments in the history of the first Baha"i century.
Launched in every continent of the globe, at first intermittent, haphazard, and unorganized, and later, as a result of the emergence of a slowly developing Administrative Order, systematically conducted, centrally directed and efficiently prosecuted, the teaching enterprises which were undertaken by the followers of Baha"u"llah in many lands, but conspicuously in America, and which were pursued by members of all ages and of both s.e.xes, by neophytes and by veterans, by itinerant teachers and by settlers, const.i.tute, by virtue of their range and the blessings which have flowed from them, a shining episode that yields place to none except those a.s.sociated with the exploits which have immortalized the early years of the primitive age of the Baha"i Dispensation.
The light of the Faith which during the nine years of the Babi Dispensation had irradiated Persia, and been reflected on the adjoining territory of "Iraq; which in the course of Baha"u"llah"s thirty-nine-year ministry had shed its splendor upon India, Egypt, Turkey, the Caucasus, Turkistan, the Sudan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Burma, and which had subsequently, through the impulse of a divinely-inst.i.tuted Covenant, traveled to the United States of America, Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Switzerland, Arabia, Tunisia, China, j.a.pan, the Hawaiian Islands, South Africa, Brazil and Australia, was now to be carried to, and illuminate, ere the termination of the first Baha"i century, no less than thirty-four independent nations, as well as several dependencies situated in the American, the Asiatic and African continents, in the Persian Gulf, and in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. In Norway, in Sweden, in Denmark, in Belgium, in Finland, in Ireland, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia, in Rumania, in Yugoslavia, in Bulgaria, in Albania, in Afghanistan, in Abyssinia, in New Zealand and in nineteen Latin American Republics ensigns of the Revelation of Baha"u"llah have been raised since "Abdu"l-Baha"s pa.s.sing, and the structural basis of the Administrative Order of His Faith, in many of them, already established. In several dependencies, moreover, in both the East and the West, including Alaska, Iceland, Jamaica, Porto Rico, the island of Solano in the Philippines, Java, Tasmania, the islands of Bahrayn and of Tahiti, Baluchistan, South Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo, the bearers of the new born Gospel have established their residence, and are bending every effort to lay an impregnable basis for its inst.i.tutions.