The Promised Day Is Come.
by Shoghi Effendi.
PREFACE
The fundamental principle enunciated by Baha"u"llah ... is that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is a continuous and progressive process, that all the great religions of the world are divine in origin, that their basic principles are in complete harmony, that their aims and purposes are one and the same, that their teachings are but facets of one truth, that their functions are complementary, that they differ only in the nonessential aspects of their doctrines, and that their missions represent successive stages in the spiritual evolution of human society....
...His mission is to proclaim that the ages of the infancy and of the childhood of the human race are past, that the convulsions a.s.sociated with the present stage of its adolescence are slowly and painfully preparing it to attain the stage of manhood, and are heralding the approach of that Age of Ages when swords will be beaten into plowshares, when the Kingdom promised by Jesus Christ will have been established, and the peace of the planet definitely and permanently ensured. Nor does Baha"u"llah claim finality for His own Revelation, but rather stipulates that a fuller measure of the truth He has been commissioned by the Almighty to vouchsafe to humanity, at so critical a juncture in its fortunes, must needs be disclosed at future stages in the constant and limitless evolution of mankind.
The Baha"i Faith upholds the unity of G.o.d, recognizes the unity of His Prophets, and inculcates the principle of the oneness and wholeness of the entire human race. It proclaims the necessity and the inevitability of the unification of mankind, a.s.serts that it is gradually approaching, and claims that nothing short of the trans.m.u.ting spirit of G.o.d, working through His chosen Mouthpiece in this day, can ultimately succeed in bringing it about. It, moreover, enjoins upon its followers the primary duty of an unfettered search after truth, condemns all manner of prejudice and superst.i.tion, declares the purpose of religion to be the promotion of amity and concord, proclaims its essential harmony with science, and recognizes it as the foremost agency for the pacification and the orderly progress of human society....
Mirza ?usayn-"Ali, surnamed Baha"u"llah (the Glory of G.o.d), a native of Mazindaran, Whose advent the Bab [Herald and Forerunner of Baha"u"llah]
had foretold, ... was imprisoned in ?ihran, was banished, in 1852, from His native land to Ba_gh_dad, and thence to Constantinople and Adrianople, and finally to the prison city of Akka, where He remained incarcerated for no less than twenty-four years, and in whose neighborhood He pa.s.sed away in 1892. In the course of His banishment, and particularly in Adrianople and Akka, He formulated the laws and ordinances of His Dispensation, expounded, in over a hundred volumes, the principles of His Faith, proclaimed His Message to the kings and rulers of both the East and the West, both Christian and Muslim, addressed the Pope, the Caliph of Islam, the Chief Magistrates of the Republics of the American continent, the entire Christian sacerdotal order, the leaders of _Sh_i"ih and Sunni Islam, and the high priests of the Zoroastrian religion. In these writings He proclaimed His Revelation, summoned those whom He addressed to heed His call and espouse His Faith, warned them of the consequences of their refusal, and denounced, in some cases, their arrogance and tyranny....
The Faith which this order serves, safeguards and promotes is ...
essentially supernatural, supranational, entirely non-political, non-partisan, and diametrically opposed to any policy or school of thought that seeks to exalt any particular race, cla.s.s or nation. It is free from any form of ecclesiasticism, has neither priesthood nor rituals, and is supported exclusively by voluntary contributions made by its avowed adherents. Though loyal to their respective governments, though imbued with the love of their own country, and anxious to promote at all times, its best interests, the followers of the Baha"i Faith, nevertheless, viewing mankind as one ent.i.ty, and profoundly attached to its vital interests, will not hesitate to subordinate every particular interest, be it personal, regional or national, to the over-riding interests of the generality of mankind, knowing full well that in a world of interdependent peoples and nations the advantage of the part is best to be reached by the advantage of the whole, and that no lasting result can be achieved by any of the component parts if the general interests of the ent.i.ty itself are neglected....
-Shoghi Effendi
THE PROMISED DAY IS COME
Friends and fellow-heirs of the Kingdom of Baha"u"llah:
A tempest, unprecedented in its violence, unpredictable in its course, catastrophic in its immediate effects, unimaginably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is at present sweeping the face of the earth. Its driving power is remorselessly gaining in range and momentum. Its cleansing force, however much undetected, is increasing with every pa.s.sing day. Humanity, gripped in the clutches of its devastating power, is smitten by the evidences of its resistless fury. It can neither perceive its origin, nor probe its significance, nor discern its outcome.
Bewildered, agonized and helpless, it watches this great and mighty wind of G.o.d invading the remotest and fairest regions of the earth, rocking its foundations, deranging its equilibrium, sundering its nations, disrupting the homes of its peoples, wasting its cities, driving into exile its kings, pulling down its bulwarks, uprooting its inst.i.tutions, dimming its light, and harrowing up the souls of its inhabitants.
"The time for the destruction of the world and its people," Baha"u"llah"s prophetic pen has proclaimed, "hath arrived." "The hour is approaching,"
He specifically affirms, "when the most great convulsion will have appeared." "The promised day is come, the day when tormenting trials will have surged above your heads, and beneath your feet, saying: "Taste ye what your hands have wrought!"" "Soon shall the blasts of His chastis.e.m.e.nt beat upon you, and the dust of h.e.l.l enshroud you." And again: "And when the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to quake." "The day is approaching when its [civilization"s] flame will devour the cities, when the Tongue of Grandeur will proclaim: "The Kingdom is G.o.d"s, the Almighty, the All-Praised!""
"The day will soon come," He, referring to the foolish ones of the earth, has written, "whereon they will cry out for help and receive no answer."
"The day is approaching," He moreover has prophesied, "when the wrathful anger of the Almighty will have taken hold of them. He, verily, is the Omnipotent, the All-Subduing, the Most Powerful. He shall cleanse the earth from the defilement of their corruption, and shall give it for an heritage unto such of His servants as are nigh unto Him."
"As to those who deny Him Who is the Sublime Gate of G.o.d," the Bab, for His part, has affirmed in the Qayyum-i-Asma, "for them We have prepared, as justly decreed by G.o.d, a sore torment. And He, G.o.d, is the Mighty, the Wise." And further, "O peoples of the earth! I swear by your Lord! Ye shall act as former generations have acted. Warn ye, then, yourselves of the terrible, the most grievous vengeance of G.o.d. For G.o.d is, verily, potent over all things." And again: "By My glory! I will make the infidels to taste, with the hands of My power, retributions unknown of anyone except Me, and will waft over the faithful those musk-scented breaths which I have nursed in the midmost heart of My throne."
Dear friends! The powerful operations of this t.i.tanic upheaval are comprehensible to none except such as have recognized the claims of both Baha"u"llah and the Bab. Their followers know full well whence it comes, and what it will ultimately lead to. Though ignorant of how far it will reach, they clearly recognize its genesis, are aware of its direction, acknowledge its necessity, observe confidently its mysterious processes, ardently pray for the mitigation of its severity, intelligently labor to a.s.suage its fury, and antic.i.p.ate, with undimmed vision, the consummation of the fears and the hopes it must necessarily engender.
THIS JUDGMENT OF G.o.d
This judgment of G.o.d, as viewed by those who have recognized Baha"u"llah as His Mouthpiece and His greatest Messenger on earth, is both a retributory calamity and an act of holy and supreme discipline. It is at once a visitation from G.o.d and a cleansing process for all mankind. Its fires punish the perversity of the human race, and weld its component parts into one organic, indivisible, world-embracing community. Mankind, in these fateful years, which at once signalize the pa.s.sing of the first century of the Baha"i Era and proclaim the opening of a new one, is, as ordained by Him Who is both the Judge and the Redeemer of the human race, being simultaneously called upon to give account of its past actions, and is being purged and prepared for its future mission. It can neither escape the responsibilities of the past, nor shirk those of the future. G.o.d, the Vigilant, the Just, the Loving, the All-Wise Ordainer, can, in this supreme Dispensation, neither allow the sins of an unregenerate humanity, whether of omission or of commission, to go unpunished, nor will He be willing to abandon His children to their fate, and refuse them that culminating and blissful stage in their long, their slow and painful evolution throughout the ages, which is at once their inalienable right and their true destiny.
"Bestir yourselves, O people," is, on the one hand, the ominous warning sounded by Baha"u"llah Himself, "in antic.i.p.ation of the days of Divine Justice, for the promised hour is now come." "Abandon that which ye possess, and seize that which G.o.d, Who layeth low the necks of men, hath brought. Know ye of a certainty that if ye turn not back from that which ye have committed, chastis.e.m.e.nt will overtake you on every side, and ye shall behold things more grievous than that which ye beheld aforetime."
And again: "We have fixed a time for you, O people! If ye fail, at the appointed hour, to turn towards G.o.d, He, verily, will lay violent hold on you, and will cause grievous afflictions to a.s.sail you from every direction. How severe indeed is the chastis.e.m.e.nt with which your Lord will then chastise you!" And again: "G.o.d a.s.suredly dominateth the lives of them that wronged Us, and is well aware of their doings. He will most certainly lay hold on them for their sins. He, verily, is the fiercest of Avengers."
And finally: "O ye peoples of the world! Know verily that an unforeseen calamity is following you and that grievous retribution awaiteth you.
Think not the deeds ye have committed have been blotted from My sight. By My Beauty! All your doings hath My pen graven with open characters upon tablets of chrysolite."
"The whole earth," Baha"u"llah, on the other hand, forecasting the bright future in store for a world now wrapt in darkness, emphatically a.s.serts, "is now in a state of pregnancy. The day is approaching when it will have yielded its n.o.blest fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the loftiest trees, the most enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly blessings." "The time is approaching when every created thing will have cast its burden. Glorified be G.o.d Who hath vouchsafed this grace that encompa.s.seth all things, whether seen or unseen!" "These great oppressions," He, moreover, foreshadowing humanity"s golden age, has written, "are preparing it for the advent of the Most Great Justice." This Most Great Justice is indeed the Justice upon which the structure of the Most Great Peace can alone, and must eventually, rest, while the Most Great Peace will, in turn, usher in that Most Great, that World Civilization which shall remain forever a.s.sociated with Him Who beareth the Most Great Name.
Beloved friends! Well nigh a hundred years have elapsed since the Revelation of Baha"u"llah dawned upon the world-a Revelation, the nature of which, as affirmed by Himself, "none among the Manifestations of old, except to a prescribed degree, hath ever completely apprehended." For a whole century G.o.d has respited mankind, that it might acknowledge the Founder of such a Revelation, espouse His Cause, proclaim His greatness, and establish His Order. In a hundred volumes, the repositories of priceless precepts, mighty laws, unique principles, impa.s.sioned exhortations, reiterated warnings, amazing prophecies, sublime invocations, and weighty commentaries, the Bearer of such a Message has proclaimed, as no Prophet before Him has done, the Mission with which G.o.d had entrusted Him. To emperors, kings, princes and potentates, to rulers, governments, clergy and peoples, whether of the East or of the West, whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Zoroastrian, He addressed, for well-nigh fifty years, and in the most tragic circ.u.mstances, these priceless pearls of knowledge and wisdom that lay hid within the ocean of His matchless utterance. Forsaking fame and fortune, accepting imprisonment and exile, careless of ostracism and obloquy, submitting to physical indignities and cruel deprivations, He, the Vicegerent of G.o.d on earth, suffered Himself to be banished from place to place and from country to country, till at length He, in the Most Great Prison, offered up His martyred son as a ransom for the redemption and unification of all mankind. "We verily," He Himself has testified, "have not fallen short of Our duty to exhort men, and to deliver that whereunto I was bidden by G.o.d, the Almighty, the All-Praised. Had they hearkened unto Me, they would have beheld the earth another earth." And again: "Is there any excuse left for anyone in this Revelation? No, by G.o.d, the Lord of the Mighty Throne! My signs have encompa.s.sed the earth, and My power enveloped all mankind, and yet the people are wrapped in a strange sleep!"
WHAT RESPONSE TO HIS CALL?
How-we may well ask ourselves-has the world, the object of such Divine solicitude, repaid Him Who sacrificed His all for its sake? What manner of welcome did it accord Him, and what response did His call evoke? A clamor, unparalleled in the history of _Sh_i"ih Islam, greeted, in the land of its birth, the infant light of the Faith, in the midst of a people notorious for its cra.s.s ignorance, its fierce fanaticism, its barbaric cruelty, its ingrained prejudices, and the unlimited sway held over the ma.s.ses by a firmly entrenched ecclesiastical hierarchy. A persecution, kindling a courage which, as attested by no less eminent an authority than the late Lord Curzon of Kedleston, has been unsurpa.s.sed by that which the fires of Smithfield evoked, mowed down, with tragic swiftness, no less than twenty thousand of its heroic adherents, who refused to barter their newly born faith for the fleeting honors and security of a mortal life.
To the bodily agonies inflicted upon these sufferers, the charges, so unmerited, of Nihilism, occultism, anarchism, eclecticism, immorality, sectarianism, heresy, political partisanship-each conclusively disproved by the tenets of the Faith itself and by the conduct of its followers-were added, swelling thereby the number of those who, unwittingly or maliciously, were injuring its cause.
Unmitigated indifference on the part of men of eminence and rank; unrelenting hatred shown by the ecclesiastical dignitaries of the Faith from which it had sprung; the scornful derision of the people among whom it was born; the utter contempt which most of those kings and rulers who had been addressed by its Author manifested towards it; the condemnations p.r.o.nounced, the threats hurled, and the banishments decreed by those under whose sway it arose and first spread; the distortion to which its principles and laws were subjected by the envious and the malicious, in lands and among peoples far beyond the country of its origin-all these are but the evidences of the treatment meted out by a generation sunk in self-content, careless of its G.o.d, and oblivious of the omens, prophecies, warnings and admonitions revealed by His Messengers.
The blows so heavily dealt the followers of so precious, so glorious, so potent a Faith failed, however, to a.s.suage the animosity that inflamed its persecutors. Nor did the deliberate and mischievous misrepresentations of its fundamental teachings, its aims and purposes, its hopes and aspirations, its inst.i.tutions and activities, suffice to stay the hand of the oppressor and the calumniator, who sought by every means in their power to abolish its name and extirpate its system. The hand which had struck down so vast a number of its blameless and humble lovers and servants was now raised to deal its Founders the heaviest and cruelest blows.
The Bab-"the Point," as affirmed by Baha"u"llah, "round Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve"-was the One first swept into the maelstrom which engulfed His supporters. Sudden arrest and confinement in the very first year of His short and spectacular career; public affront deliberately inflicted in the presence of the ecclesiastical dignitaries of _Sh_iraz; strict and prolonged incarceration in the bleak fastnesses of the mountains of a_dh_irbayjan; a contemptuous disregard and a cowardly jealousy evinced respectively by the Chief Magistrate of the realm and the foremost minister of his government; the carefully staged and farcical interrogatory sustained in the presence of the heir to the Throne and the distinguished divines of Tabriz; the shameful infliction of the bastinado in the prayer house, and at the hands of the _Sh_ay_kh_u"l-Islam of that city; and finally suspension in the barrack-square of Tabriz and the discharge of a volley of above seven hundred bullets at His youthful breast under the eyes of a callous mult.i.tude of about ten thousand people, culminating in the ignominious exposure of His mangled remains on the edge of the moat without the city gate-these were the progressive stages in the tumultuous and tragic ministry of One Whose age inaugurated the consummation of all ages, and Whose Revelation fulfilled the promise of all Revelations.
"I swear by G.o.d!" the Bab Himself in His Tablet to Mu?ammad _Sh_ah has written, "Shouldst thou know the things which in the s.p.a.ce of these four years have befallen Me at the hands of thy people and thine army, thou wouldst hold thy breath from fear of G.o.d.... Alas, alas, for the things which have touched Me!... I swear by the Most Great Lord! Wert thou to be told in what place I dwell, the first person to have mercy on Me would be thyself. In the heart of a mountain is a fortress [Maku] ... the inmates of which are confined to two guards and four dogs. Picture, then, My plight.... In this mountain I have remained alone, and have come to such a pa.s.s that none of those gone before Me have suffered what I have suffered, nor any transgressor endured what I have endured!"
"How veiled are ye, O My creatures," He, speaking with the voice of G.o.d, has revealed in the Bayan, "...who, without any right, have consigned Him unto a mountain [Maku], not one of whose inhabitants is worthy of mention.... With Him, which is with Me, there is no one except him who is one of the Letters of the Living of My Book. In His presence, which is My Presence, there is not at night even a lighted lamp! And yet, in places [of worship] which in varying degrees reach out unto Him, unnumbered lamps are shining! All that is on earth hath been created for Him, and all partake with delight of His benefits, and yet they are so veiled from Him as to refuse Him even a lamp!"
What of Baha"u"llah, the germ of Whose Revelation, as attested by the Bab, is endowed with a potency superior to the combined forces of the Babi Dispensation? Was He not-He for Whom the Bab had suffered and died in such tragic and miraculous circ.u.mstances-made, for nearly half a century and under the domination of the two most powerful potentates of the East, the object of a systematic and concerted conspiracy which, in its effects and duration, is scarcely paralleled in the annals of previous religions?
"The cruelties inflicted by My oppressors," He Himself in His anguish has cried out, "have bowed Me down, and turned My hair white. Shouldst thou present thyself before My throne, thou wouldst fail to recognize the Ancient Beauty, for the freshness of His countenance is altered and its brightness hath faded, by reason of the oppression of the infidels. I swear by G.o.d! His heart, His soul, and His vitals are melted!" "Wert thou to hear with Mine ear," He also declares, "thou wouldst hear how "Ali [the Bab] bewaileth Me in the presence of the Glorious Companion, and how Mu?ammad weepeth over Me in the all-highest Horizon, and how the Spirit [Jesus] beateth Himself upon the head in the heaven of My decree, by reason of what hath befallen this Wronged One at the hands of every impious sinner." "Before Me," He elsewhere has written, "riseth up the Serpent of wrath with jaws stretched to engulf Me, and behind Me stalketh the lion of anger intent on tearing Me in pieces, and above Me, O My Well-Beloved, are the clouds of Thy decree, raining upon Me the showers of tribulations, whilst beneath Me are fixed the spears of misfortune, ready to wound My limbs and My body." "Couldst thou be told," He further affirms, "what hath befallen the Ancient Beauty, thou wouldst flee into the wilderness, and weep with a great weeping. In thy grief, thou wouldst smite thyself on the head, and cry out as one stung by the sting of the adder.... By the righteousness of G.o.d! Every morning I arose from My bed I discovered the hosts of countless afflictions ma.s.sed behind My door, and every night when I lay down, lo! My heart was torn with agony at what it had suffered from the fiendish cruelty of its foes. With every piece of bread the Ancient Beauty breaketh is coupled the a.s.sault of a fresh affliction, and with every drop He drinketh is mixed the bitterness of the most woeful of trials. He is preceded in every step He taketh by an army of unforeseen calamities, while in His rear follow legions of agonizing sorrows."
Was it not He Who, at the early age of twenty-seven, spontaneously arose to champion, in the capacity of a mere follower, the nascent Cause of the Bab? Was He not the One Who by a.s.suming the actual leadership of a proscribed and harra.s.sed sect exposed Himself, and His kindred, and His possessions, and His rank, and His reputation to the grave perils, the b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.saults, the general spoliation and furious defamations of both government and people? Was it not He-the Bearer of a Revelation, Whose day "every Prophet hath announced," for which "the soul of every Divine Messenger hath thirsted," and in which "G.o.d hath proved the hearts of the entire company of His Messengers and Prophets"-was not the Bearer of such a Revelation, at the instigation of _Sh_i"ih ecclesiastics and by order of the _Sh_ah himself forced, for no less than four months, to breathe, in utter darkness, whilst in the company of the vilest criminals and freighted down with galling chains, the pestilential air of the vermin-infested subterranean dungeon of ?ihran-a place which, as He Himself subsequently declared, was mysteriously converted into the very scene of the annunciation made to Him by G.o.d of His Prophethood?
"We were consigned," He wrote in His "Epistle to the Son of the Wolf,"
"for four months to a place foul beyond comparison. As to the dungeon in which this Wronged One and others similarly wronged were confined, a dark and narrow pit were preferable.... The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves, a.s.sa.s.sins, and highwaymen. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the pa.s.sage by which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on. G.o.d alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!" ""Abdu"l-Baha," writes Dr. J.E.
Esslemont, "tells how one day He was allowed to enter the prison-yard to see His beloved Father when He came out for His daily exercise.
Baha"u"llah was terribly altered, so ill He could hardly walk. His hair and beard unkempt, His neck galled and swollen from the pressure of a heavy steel collar, His body bent by the weight of His chains." "For three days and three nights," Nabil has recorded in his chronicle, "no manner of food or drink was given to Baha"u"llah. Rest and sleep were both impossible to Him. The place was infested with vermin, and the stench of that gloomy abode was enough to crush the very spirits of those who were condemned to suffer its horrors." "Such was the intensity of His suffering that the marks of that cruelty remained imprinted upon His body all the days of His life."
And what of the other tribulations which, before and immediately after this dreadful episode, touched Him? What of His confinement in the home of one of the kad-_kh_udas of ?ihran? What of the savage violence with which He was stoned by the angry people in the neighborhood of the village of Niyala? What of His incarceration by the emissaries of the army of the _Sh_ah in Mazindaran, and His receiving the bastinado by order, and in the presence, of the a.s.sembled siyyids and mujtahids into whose hands He had been delivered by the civil authorities of amul? What of the howls of derision and abuse with which a crowd of ruffians subsequently pursued Him? What of the monstrous accusation brought against Him by the Imperial household, the Court and the people, when the attempt was made on the life of Na?iri"d-Din _Sh_ah? What of the infamous outrages, the abuse and ridicule heaped on Him when He was arrested by responsible officers of the government, and conducted from Niyavaran "on foot and in chains, with bared head and bare feet," and exposed to the fierce rays of the midsummer sun, to the Siyah-_Ch_al of ?ihran? What of the avidity with which corrupt officials sacked His house and carried away all His possessions and disposed of His fortune? What of the cruel edict that tore Him from the small band of the Bab"s bewildered, hounded, and shepherdless followers, separated Him from His kinsmen and friends, and banished Him, in the depth of winter, despoiled and defamed, to "Iraq?
Severe as were these tribulations which succeeded one another with bewildering rapidity as a result of the premeditated attacks and the systematic machinations of the court, the clergy, the government and the people, they were but the prelude to a harrowing and extensive captivity which that edict had formally initiated. Extending over a period of more than forty years, and carrying Him successively to "Iraq, Sulaymaniyyih, Constantinople, Adrianople and finally to the penal colony of Akka, this long banishment was at last ended by His death, at the age of over three score years and ten, terminating a captivity which, in its range, its duration and the diversity and severity of its afflictions, is unexampled in the history of previous Dispensations.
No need to expatiate on the particular episodes which cast a lurid light on the moving annals of those years. No need to dwell on the character and actions of the peoples, rulers and divines who have partic.i.p.ated in, and contributed to heighten the poignancy of the scenes of this, the greatest drama in the world"s spiritual history.