Citadel Of Faith Part 18

Such a consummation will, in its turn, pave the way for the recognition of that Faith as an independent religion established on a basis of absolute equality with its sister religions, enjoying the unqualified protection of the civil authorities for its followers and its inst.i.tutions, and fully empowered, in all matters related to personal status, to apply without any reservations the laws and ordinances ordained in the Most Holy Book.

That the members of the American Baha'i Community-the outstanding protagonists of the Cause of G.o.d; the stout-hearted defenders of its integrity, its claims and its rights, the champion-builders of its Administrative Order; the standard-bearers of its crusading hosts; the torchbearers of its embryonic civilization; the chief succorers of the down-trodden, the needy and the fettered among its followers-that the members of such a community, may, whilst discharging, fully and unflinchingly, their specific tasks in accordance with the provisions of the Ten-Year Plan, seize the present G.o.d-sent opportunity, and hasten, through a proper discharge of this supplementary task, the consummation of such ardent hopes for so signal a victory, is a prayer constantly in my heart, and a wish which I treasure above all others.

[August 20, 1955]

REVITALIZE ENTIRE COMMUNITY

Urge intensification of efforts to revitalize entire community and expedite attainment of plans and objectives, particularly as related to purchase of Haziras and endowments in America and Europe; translation into remaining languages; incorporation of a.s.semblies; multiplication of centers and a.s.semblies on home front; opening of Iceland, Spitzbergen, Anticosti and remaining islands of Pacific and Atlantic. Fervently supplicating for immediate signal victories.

[January 5, 1956]

GREATER CONSECRATION TO PRESSING TASKS

Deplore situation on home front. Praying ardently for rededication of entire community for greater consecration to pressing tasks. Approve all suggestions in recent letter. Urge that you redouble efforts, supplicate for unprecedented blessings.

[February 2, 1956]

PRAYING FOR GREAT VICTORIES ON HOME FRONT

Fervently praying for great victories on the home front. Appeal to entire community to arise, partic.i.p.ate and insure attainment of goals.

[June 22, 1956]

INESTIMABLE PRIZES WITHIN OUR REACH

As I survey, after the lapse of a little over three years, the vast range of historic and unforgettable achievements with which the stout-hearted, high-minded and wholly consecrated followers of the Faith of Baha'u'llah have, in the course of the operations of a World Spiritual Crusade, enriched, in every continent of the globe and in so many islands of the seven seas, the annals of the Formative Age of His Dispensation, I cannot but acknowledge, with feelings of pride, of joy, and of grat.i.tude, the preponderating share which the American Baha'i Community, faithful to its traditions, and in keeping with its high standard of stewards.h.i.+p to the Cause of G.o.d, has had in the conduct of this world-encircling enterprise and the discharge of its manifold, its pressing and sacred responsibilities. With one or two exceptions, greatly to be deplored, this valiant community has, ever since the inception of this Spiritual Crusade, and in every sphere of Baha'i activities in which its partic.i.p.ators have both individually and collectively been a.s.siduously engaged, set an example of whole-hearted dedication, dogged perseverance, unstinting self-sacrifice and undeviating loyalty worthy of emulation by its sister, as well as its daughter, communities over the entire face of the globe.

The number, the character and the rapidity of the spiritual conquests achieved by its steadfast and intrepid members, in so many sovereign states of the globe, its chief dependencies and widely scattered islands, in the course of the one-year period, const.i.tuting the opening phase of a memorable Plan, will no doubt be universally acclaimed as a turning point of unimaginable consequence in Baha'i history. Such feats, in so many territories, during so short a time, will rank, in the eyes of posterity, as superb and outstanding exploits, immortalizing the fame of the American followers of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, and as epoch-making events unsurpa.s.sed since the closing of the Heroic Age of the Baha'i Dispensation.

AID ACCORDED TO THEIR OPPRESSED BRETHREN IN PERSIA

The reaction, so swift and so energetic, of the members of this same community, now deservedly recognized as the impregnable citadel of the Faith of G.o.d, and the cradle of the rising inst.i.tutions of its World Order, to the sudden onslaught made upon the inst.i.tutions, the lives and the livelihood of their oppressed brethren, members of the numerically leading and the most venerable national Baha'i community, by the traditional adversaries of a long-persecuted Faith, has been such as to deepen, to a marked extent, the feelings of genuine admiration and esteem, so strongly felt throughout the Baha'i world, for the enduring and magnificent services rendered in the course of more than six decades by the American believers to the Faith of Baha'u'llah and its embryonic World Order. The spontaneity with which the rank and file of this community as well as the body of its elected representatives, have contributed to the "Save the Persecuted Fund" established for the succor of the victims of these savage and periodically recurring barbarities; the measure of publicity accorded them in the American press, as well as over the radio; the timely and efficacious intervention of men of prominence, in various walks of life, on behalf of the oppressed and the down-trodden; the repeated and direct appeals addressed by them to the highest authorities in Persia, as well as to their representative in the United States; the immense number of written and cabled appeals, made by the local as well as the national elected representatives of the community, to the chief magistrate of Persia, his ministers and parliament; the numerous messages addressed by the same representatives to the chief executive of the United States, urging his personal intervention, the pleading of the cause of an hara.s.sed, sorely-tried community in the course of repeated representations made to the State Department in Was.h.i.+ngton; the part played in the presentation of the Baha'i case to the United Nations officials in both Geneva and New York; the allocation of a sizeable sum for the purpose of securing the a.s.sistance of an expert publicity agent, in order to reinforce the publicity already being received in the public press-these, as well as other measures which, by their very nature, must of necessity remain confidential-proclaim, in no uncertain terms, the dynamic and decisive nature of the aid accorded, in a hour of trial and emergency, by the champions of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, raised up in the great republic of the West, at such a crucial hour in the evolution of His Plan, for both His Faith and the world at large, to the vast body of the descendants of the dawn-breakers of the Apostolic Age of that same Faith in the land of its birth.

A n.o.bLE RECORD OF SERVICE

No less remarkable has been the share of this community, chiefly responsible, on the morrow of 'Abdu'l-Baha's pa.s.sing, for the fixing of the pattern, the elaboration of the national const.i.tution, and the erection of the basic inst.i.tutions, of a divinely conceived Administrative Order, in the acquisition and establishment, in the course of two brief years, const.i.tuting the second phase of the Ten-Year Plan, of practically all of the future national administrative headquarters-numbering over thirty-of Baha'i national a.s.semblies in four continents of the globe, involving the expenditure from the National Fund of over a hundred thousand dollars.

An effort, hardly less meritorious and equally efficacious and astonis.h.i.+ng, has been exerted by the members of this alert, forward-looking, ceaselessly laboring community, in the course of the same two-year period, for the establishment of national Baha'i endowments in more than twenty countries of both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, entailing the expenditure of over twenty thousand dollars.

In other spheres of Baha'i activity, related to the prosecution of the Ten-Year Plan, all of vital importance to the teaching work initiated under that same Plan, and to the enlargement and consolidation of the administrative structure of the inst.i.tutions to be erected in the future, the accomplishments of the members of this community, during the first two phases of this world Crusade, have been no less significant. The establishment of the Baha'i Publis.h.i.+ng Trust; the translation of Baha'i literature into more than fifteen languages, both within the scope of the Ten-Year Plan and outside it, spoken in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the North American continent; the purchase of the site of the first dependency of the Mother Temple of the West; the practical completion of the landscaping of its gardens; the provision of a considerable part of the material resources required for the purchase of the sites of future Baha'i Temples in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, as well as for the construction of the two projected Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kars in the European and African continents; the guidance given and the aid extended to newly elected national a.s.semblies, for the efficient conduct of Baha'i administrative activities and the prosecution of Baha'i national plans; the initial visits made by Baha'i teachers to countries within the Soviet orbit, foreshadowing the launching of systematic teaching enterprises in both Europe and Asia; the a.s.sistance given, through financial help as well as through the dispatch of Baha'i pioneers, to various Baha'i communities for the enlargement of the limits of the Faith and the consolidation of its inst.i.tutions; and, last but not least, the purchase of the sacred site of the Siyah-_Ch_al of ?ihran, the scene of the birth of Baha'u'llah's Prophetic Mission, by a member of that community of Persian descent-these stand out as further evidences of the enormous share the firmly knit, highly organized, swiftly advancing, fully dedicated American Baha'i Community has had in the prosecution and triumphant progress of the three year old Ten-Year Plan, and augur well for a no less splendid contribution to be made, in the years immediately ahead, for the attainment of its remaining objectives.

FRUITFUL EFFORTS OF HANDS OF THE CAUSE

Supplementing this n.o.ble record of service have been the constant and fruitful efforts exerted by the Hands of the Cause, nominated from among the members of that community, in both the United States and the Holy Land, efforts that have lent a considerable impetus to the expansion and consolidation of the far-reaching enterprises initiated at the World Center of the Faith, and which have, particularly through the instrumentality of the recently appointed American Auxiliary Board, stimulated, to a noticeable extent the progress of the teaching work and the advancement of the Plan itself.

STUPENDOUS WORK ACHIEVED BY MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL BAHa'i COUNCIL

Particular tribute should, I feel, at this juncture, be paid to the stupendous work achieved, since the launching of the World Crusade, by the representatives of this highly privileged community, in their capacity as members of the International Baha'i Council, in connection with the prosecution of a variety of enterprises embarked upon in recent years, aiming at the expansion and consolidation of the international inst.i.tutions of the Faith, the enhancement of its prestige, the embellishment of the surroundings of its Shrines, the efficient conduct of its internal affairs, and the forging of fresh links binding it still more closely to the civil authorities in the Holy Land. The erection of the International Archives in the close neighborhood of the Bab's holy Sepulcher; the extension of the international Baha'i endowments on the slopes of Mt. Carmel; the formation of several Israel Branches of Baha'i National Spiritual a.s.semblies; the embellishment of the precincts of the resting-place of both the Bab and Baha'u'llah; the purchase of the site of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Holy Land; the preparation of the designs for the International Baha'i Archives on Mt. Carmel; and of the Mother Temples of Persia and of Africa; the inauguration of the preliminary steps for the eventual construction of Baha'u'llah's holy Sepulcher; the measures adopted, with the a.s.sistance of various officials of the State of Israel, for the eviction of the covenant-breakers from the immediate precincts of the Shrine of Baha'u'llah and the elimination of any influence they still exercise, after the lapse of over sixty years, in the close vicinity of that Most Holy Spot-in these, as well as in other various subsidiary activities, constantly increasing in number as well as in diversity at the spiritual and administrative center of the Baha'i world, have the members of the little band, a.s.siduously laboring under the shadow of the Holy Shrines, and befittingly representing the American Baha'i Community, conspicuously partic.i.p.ated, and through their dedicated services, added fresh l.u.s.ter to the annals of the community to which they belong.

REVITALIZATION OF THE HOME FRONT

So splendid a record of service, rendered within the brief span of a little over three years, extending over so vast an area of the globe, so highly diversified, so pregnant with promise, in the face of such formidable obstacles, and by so limited a number of partic.i.p.ants, has, much to my deepest regret, been marred by a progressive devitalization of the home front, const.i.tuting so momentous an aspect of the Ten-Year Plan, and upon which its continued and effective prosecution by the American Baha'i Community, in the course of the present and third phase of the World Spiritual Crusade, so largely depends.