Mirrored from www.bahai-library.org
[page 17]
A TABLET ADRESSED BY 'ABDU'L-BAHÁ to an American believer in 1905contains a
statement that is as illuminating as it is touching. Referring toHis situation
following the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh,'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke of a letter He had
received from America at "atime when an ocean of trials and tribulations
was surging...":
Such was our state when a letter came to us from the Americanfriends. They had covenanted together, so they wrote, to remain at one inall things, and ... had pledged themselves to make sacrifices in the pathwayof the love of God, thus to achieve eternal life. At the very moment whenthis letter was read, together with the signatures at its close,'Abdu'l-Bahá experienced a joy so vehement that no pen can describeit...."[18]
An appreciation of the circumstances in which the expansion of the Cause inthe
West occurred is vital for present-day Bahá'ís, and formany reasons. It helps
us abstract ourselves from the culture of coarse andintrusive communication
that has become so commonplace in present-daysociety as to pass almost
unnoticed. It draws to our attention thegentleness with which the Master chose
to introduce to His Western audiencesthe
[page 18]
concepts of human nature andhuman society revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, concepts
revolutionaryin their implications and entirely outside His hearers'
experience. Itexplains the delicacy with which He used metaphors or relied on
historicalexamples, the frequent indirectness of His approach, the intimacy He
couldsummon up at will, and the apparently limitless patience with which
Heresponded to questions, many of whose assumptions about reality had longsince
lost whatever validity they might once have possessed.
Yet another insight that a detached examination of the historical situationto
which the Master addressed Himself in the West helps provide for ourgeneration
is an appreciation of the spiritual greatness of those whoresponded to Him.
These souls answered His summons in spite, not because, ofthe liberal and
economically advanced world they knew, a world they no doubtcherished and
valued, and in which they had necessarily to carry on theirdaily lives. Their
response arose from a level of consciousness thatrecognized, even if sometimes
only dimly, the desperate need of the humanrace for spiritual enlightenment. To
remain steadfast in their commitment tothis insight required of these early
believers on whose sacrifice of selfmuch of the foundation of the present-day
Bahá'í communitiesboth in the West and many other lands were laid — that they
resist notonly family and social pressures, but also the easy rationalizations
of theworld-view in which they had been raised and to which everything around
theminsistently exposed them. There was a heroism about the steadfastness
ofthese early Western Bahá'ís that is, in its own way, asaffecting as that of
their Persian co-religionists who, in these same years,were facing persecution
and death for the Faith they had embraced.
In the forefront of the Westerners who responded to the Master's summonswere
the little groups of intrepid believers whom Shoghi Effendi has hailedas
"God-intoxicated pilgrims" and who had the privilege of
visiting'Abdu'l-Bahá in the prison-city of 'Akká, of seeing forthemselves the
luminosity of His Person and of hearing from His own lipswords that had the
power to transform human life. The effect on thesebelievers has been expressed
by May Maxwell:
"Of that first meeting," ... "I can remember neither joy norpain, nor anything that I can name. I had been carried suddenly to too great
[page 19]
a height, my soul had come incontact with the Divine Spirit, and this force, so
pure, so holy, so mighty,had overwhelmed me...."[19]
Their return to their homes became, Shoghi Effendi explains, "the signal
foran outburst of systematic and sustained activity, which ... spread
itsramifications over Western Europe and the states and provinces of the NorthAmerican
continent...."[20]
Fuelling their endeavours andthose of their fellow believers, and drawing into
the Cause growing numbersof new adherents, was a flood of Tablets addressed by
the Master torecipients on both sides of the Atlantic, messages that threw open
theimagination to the concepts, principles and ideals of God's new
Revelation.The power of this creative force can be felt in the words with which
thefirst American believer, Thornton Chase, sought to describe what he wasseeing:
His [the Master's] own writings, spreading like white-wingeddoves from the Center of His Presence to the ends of the earth, are somany (hundreds pouring forth daily) that it is an impossibility forhim to have given time to them for searching thought or to haveapplied the mental processes of the scholar to them. They flow likestreams from a gushing fountain....[21]
These sentiments add their own perspective to the determination with whichthe
Master arose to undertake a venture so ambitious as to dismay many ofthose
immediately around Him. Setting aside concerns expressed about Hisadvanced age,
His ill health, and the physical disabilities left by decadesof imprisonment,
He set out on a series of journeys that would last somethree years, carrying
Him eventually to the Pacific coast of the NorthAmerican continent. The
stresses and risks of international travel in theearly years of the century
were the least of the obstacles to therealization of the objectives He had set
Himself. In the words of ShoghiEffendi:
He Who, in His own words, had entered prison as a youth and leftit an old man, Who never in His life had faced a public audience, hadattended no school, had never moved in Western circles, and was unfamiliarwith Western customs and language, had arisen not only to proclaim frompulpit and platform, in some of the chief capitals of
[page 20]
Europe and in theleading cities of the North American continent, the
distinctive veritiesenshrined in His Father's Faith, but to demonstrate as well
the Divineorigin of the Prophets gone before Him, and to disclose the nature of
thetie binding them to that Faith.[22]
No more brilliant a stage for the opening act of this great drama could
havebeen desired than London, capital city of the largest and most
cosmopolitanempire the world has ever known. In the eyes of the little groups
ofbelievers who had made the practical arrangements and who longed for thesight
of His face, the trip was a triumph far surpassing their brightesthopes. Public
officials, scholars, writers, editors, industrialists, leadersof reform
movements, members of the British aristocracy, and influentialclergymen of many
denominations eagerly sought Him out, invited Him to theirplatforms, classrooms,
homes and pulpits, and showered appreciation on theviews He expounded. On
Sunday, 10 September 1911, the Master spoke for thefirst time to a public
audience anywhere, from the pulpit of the CityTemple. His words evoked for His
hearers the vision of a new age in theevolution of civilization:
This is a new cycle of human power. All the horizons of
theworld are luminous, and the world will become indeed as a garden and
aparadise.... You are loosed from ancient superstitions which have kept menignorant,
destroying the foundation of true humanity.
The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness
ofmankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion. War shall cease
betweennations, and by the will of God the Most Great Peace shall come; the
worldwill be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers.[23]
After an additional two months' stay in Paris and a return to Alexandria fora
winter sojourn and the recuperation of His health, 'Abdu'l-Bahásailed on 25
March 1912 to New York City, arriving on 11 April of that
[page 21]
year. At even the simplestphysical level, a programme packed with hundreds of
public addresses,conferences and private talks in over forty cities across
North America andan additional nineteen in Europe, some of them visited more
than once, was afeat that may well have no parallel in modern history. On both
continents,but especially in North America, 'Abdu'l-Bahá received a
highlyappreciative welcome from distinguished audiences devoted to such
concernsas peace, women's rights, racial equality, social reform and
moraldevelopment. On an almost daily basis, His talks and interviews
receivedwide coverage in mass-circulation newspapers. He Himself was later to
writethat He had "observed all the doors open ... and the ideal power of
theKingdom of God removing every obstacle and obstruction."[24]
The openness with which He was met permitted 'Abdu'l-Bahá to
proclaimunambiguously the social principles of the new Revelation. Shoghi
Effendihas summed up the truths thus presented:
The independent search after truth, unfettered by superstitionor tradition; the oneness of the entire human race, the pivotal principleand fundamental doctrine of the Faith; the basic unity of all religions; thecondemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, class ornational; the harmony which must exist between religion and science; theequality of men and women, the two wings on which the bird of human kind isable to soar; the introduction of compulsory education; the adoption of auniversal auxiliary language; the abolition of the extremes of wealth andpoverty; the institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication ofdisputes between nations; the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit ofservice, to the rank of worship; the glorification of justice as the rulingprinciple in human society, and of religion as a bulwark for the protectionof all peoples and nations; and the establishment of a permanent anduniversal peace as the supreme goal of all mankind — these stand out asthe essential elements of that Divine polity which He proclaimed to leadersof public thought as well as to the masses at large in the course of thesemissionary journeys.[25]
At the heart of the Master's message was the announcement that thelong-promised
Day for the unification of humanity and the establish-
[page 22]
ment on earth of the Kingdom ofGod had come. That Kingdom, as unveiled in
'Abdu'l-Bahá's letters andtalks, owed nothing whatever to the other-worldly
assumptions familiar fromthe teachings of traditional religion. Rather, the
Master proclaimed thecoming of age of humankind and the emergence of a global
civilization inwhich the development of the whole range of human potentialities
will be thefruit of the interaction between universal spiritual values, on the
onehand, and, on the other, material advances that were even then
stillundreamed of.
The means to achieve the goal, He said, had already come into existence.What
was needed was the will to act and the faith to persist:
All of us know that international peace is good, that it is thecause of life, but volition and action are necessary. Inasmuch as thiscentury is the century of light, capacity for achieving peace has beenassured. It is certain that these ideas will be spread among men to such adegree that they will result in action.[26]
Although expressed with unfailing courtesy and consideration, the principlesof
the new Revelation were set out uncompromisingly in both private andpublic
encounters. Invariably, the Master's actions were as eloquent as thewords He
used. In the United States, for example, nothing could have moreclearly
communicated Bahá'í belief in the oneness of religionthan 'Abdu'l-Bahá's
readiness to include references to the ProphetMuhammad in addresses to
Christian audiences and His energetic vindicationof the divine origin of both
Christianity and Islam to the congregation atTemple Emanu-El in San Francisco.
His ability to inspire in women of allages confidence that they possessed
spiritual and intellectual capacitiesfully equal to those of men, His
unprovocative but clear demonstration ofthe meaning of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings
on racial oneness bywelcoming black as well as white guests at His own dinner
table and thetables of His prominent hostesses, and His insistence on the
overridingimportance of unity in all aspects of Bahá'í endeavour —such
demonstrations of the way in which the spiritual and practical aspectsof life
must interact threw open for the believers windows on a new world
ofpossibilities. The spirit of unconditional love in which these challengeswere
phrased succeeded in overcoming the fears and uncertainties of
[page 23]
those whom the Masteraddressed.
Greater yet than the effort expended on His public exposition of the Causewas
the time and energy the Master devoted to deepening the believers'understanding
of the spiritual truths of Bahá'u'lláh'sRevelation. In city after city, from
early morning to late at night, thehours that were not taken up by the public
demands of His mission were givenover to responding to the questions of the
friends, meeting their needs, andinfusing into them a spirit of confidence in
the contributions each couldmake to the promotion of the Cause they had
embraced. His visit to Chicagoprovided the opportunity for 'Abdu'l-Bahá to lay,
with His own hands,the cornerstone of the first Bahá'í House of Worship in
theWest, a project inspired by the one already under way in'Ishqábád and
likewise encouraged from the moment of itsconception by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The Mashriqu'l-Adhkár is one of the most vitalinstitutions in the world, and it hath many subsidiary branches. Although itis a House of Worship, it is also connected with a hospital, a drugdispensary, a traveler's hospice, a school for orphans, and a university foradvanced studies.... My hope is that the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár will nowbe established in America, and that gradually the hospital, the school, theuniversity, the dispensary and the hospice, all functioning according to themost efficient and orderly procedures, will follow.[27]
As with the process simultaneously unfolding in Persia, only futurehistorians
will be able to appreciate adequately the creative power of thisdimension of
the Western trips. Memoirs and letters have testified to theway in which even
brief encounters with the Master were to sustain countlessWestern Bahá'ís
through the years of effort and sacrifice thatfollowed, as they struggled to
expand and consolidate the Faith. Withoutsuch an intervention by the Centre of
the Covenant Himself, it is impossibleto imagine little groups of Western
believers — lacking entirely thespiritual heritage that their Persian
co-religionists derived from the longinvolvement of parents and grandparents in
the heroic events of Bábí andearly Bahá'í history — being able so quickly to
graspwhat the Cause required of them and to undertake the daunting
tasksinvolved.
[page 24]
His hearers were summoned to become the loving and confident agents of agreat
civilizing process, whose pivot is recognition of the oneness of thehuman race.
In arising to undertake their mission, He promised that theywould find unlocked
in both themselves and others entirely new capacitieswith which God has in this
Day endowed the human race:
Ye must become the very soul of the world, the living spiritin the body of the children of men. In this wondrous Age, at this timewhen the Ancient Beauty, the Most Great Name, bearing unnumberedgifts, hath risen above the horizon of the world, the Word of God hathinfused such awesome power into the inmost essence of humankind thatHe hath stripped men's human qualities of all effect, and hath, withHis all-conquering might, unified the peoples in a vast sea ofoneness.[28]
Nothing perhaps testifies so strikingly to the response the believers madeto
this appeal than the fact that the unity established among them did notinhibit
their vivid individual ways of expressing the truths of the Faith.The
relationship between the individual and the community has always beenone of the
most challenging issues in the development of society. One hasonly to read,
even cursorily, accounts of the lives of the earlyBahá'ís in the West to become
aware of the high degree ofindividuality that characterized many of them,
particularly the most activeand creative. Not infrequently, they had found the
Faith only afterintensive investigation of various spiritual and social
movements current atthe time, and this broad understanding of the concerns and
interests oftheir contemporaries no doubt helped make them such effective
teachers ofthe Faith. It is equally clear, however, that the wide range of
expressionand understanding among them did not prevent them or their fellow
believersfrom contributing to building a collective unity that was the
chiefattraction of the Cause. As the memoirs and historical accounts of
theperiod make clear, the secret of this balancing of individual and community
wasthe Master. In an important sense 'Abdu'l-Bahá was, for all of
them,the spiritual bond connecting all believers to the words and example ofthe
Bahá'í Cause.
[page
25]
No objective review of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's mission to the West can fail totake into
account the sobering fact that only a small number of those whohad accepted the
Faith — and infinitely fewer among the publicaudiences who had thronged to hear
His words — derived from thesepriceless opportunities more than a relatively
dim understanding of theimplications of His message. Appreciating these
limitations on the part ofHis hearers, 'Abdu'l-Bahá did not hesitate to
introduce into Hisrelations with Western believers actions that summoned them
to a level ofconsciousness far above mere social liberalism and tolerance. One
examplethat must stand for a range of such interventions was His gentle
butdramatic act in encouraging the marriage of Louis Gregory and Louise Mathew—
the one black, the other white. The initiative set a standard for theAmerican
Bahá'í community as to the real meaning of racialintegration, however timid and
slow its members were in responding to thecore implications of the challenge.
Even without a deep understanding of the Master's goals, those who embracedHis
message set out, often at great personal cost, to give practicalexpression to
the principles He taught. Commitment to the cause ofinternational peace; the
abolition of extremes of wealth and poverty thatwere undermining the unity of
society; the overcoming of national, racialand other prejudices; the
encouragement of equality in the education of boysand girls; the need to shake
off the shackles of ancient dogmas that wereinhibiting investigation of reality
— these principles for theadvancement of civilization had made a powerful
impression. What few, ifany, of the Master's hearers grasped — perhaps could
have grasped— was the revolutionary change in the very structure of society and
thewilling submission of human nature to Divine Law that, in the finalanalysis,
can alone produce the necessary changes in attitude andbehaviour.
The key to this vision of the coming transformation of the individual andsocial
life of humankind was 'Abdu'l-Bahá's proclamation, shortlyafter His arrival in
North America, of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant
[page 26]
and of the central part HeHimself had been called on to play in it. In the
Master's own words:
As to the most great characteristic of the revelation ofBahá'u'lláh, a specific teaching not given by any of theProphets of the past: It is the ordination and appointment of the Center ofthe Covenant. By this appointment and provision He has safeguarded andprotected the religion of God against differences and schisms, making itimpossible for anyone to create a new sect or faction of belief.[29]
Choosing New York City for His purpose — and designating it "the Cityof
the Covenant" — 'Abdu'l-Bahá unveiled for Western believersthe devolution
of authority made by the Founder of their Faith for thedefinitive
interpretation of His Revelation. A highly regarded believer, LuaGetsinger, had
been called on by the Master to prepare the group ofBahá'ís who had gathered in
the house where He was temporarilyresiding for this historic announcement,
following which He Himself wentdownstairs and spoke in general terms about some
of the implications of theCovenant. Juliet Thompson, who, with one of the
Persian translators, hadbeen in the upstairs room at the time this mission had
been given to herfriend, has left an account of the circumstances. She quotes'Abdu'l-Bahá
as saying:
...I am the Covenant, appointed byBahá'u'lláh. And no one can refute His Word. This is theTestament of Bahá'u'lláh. You will find it in the Holy Book ofAqdas. Go forth and proclaim, "This is the Covenant of God in yourmidst."[30]
Conceived by Bahá'u'lláh as the Instrument which, in the wordsof Shoghi
Effendi, was "to perpetuate the influence of [the] Faith, insureits
integrity, safeguard it from schism, and stimulate its
world-wideexpansion,"[31]
theCovenant had been violated by members of Bahá'u'lláh's ownfamily almost
immediately after His ascension. Recognizing that theauthority invested in the
Master by the Kitáb-i-'Ahd, the Tablet ofthe Branch and related documents
frustrated their private hopes to turn theCause to their personal advantage,
these persons
[page27]
began a persistent campaign to undermine His position,first in the Holy Land
and then in Persia, where the bulk of theBahá'í community was concentrated.
When these schemes failed,they next sought to manipulate the fears of the
Ottoman government and theavarice of its representatives in Palestine. This
hope too collapsed whenthe "Young Turk Revolution" overthrew the
regime in Constantinople, hangingsome thirty-one of its leading officials,
including several who had beenimplicated in the plans of the Covenant-breakers.
In the West, during the early years of the Master's ministry,representatives
sent by Him had already successfully countered themachinations of Ibrahim
Khayru'lláh — ironically, the individualwho had introduced many of the American
believers to the Cause — whohad aimed at securing a position of leadership
through association with theCovenant-breakers in the Holy Family. Such
experiences had doubtlessprepared the Western believers for the Master's formal
proclamation of Hisstation and for the firmness with which He enjoined on
believers avoidanceof any involvement with such agents of division:
"Certain weak, capricious,malicious and ignorant souls...have striven to
efface the Divine Covenantand Testament, and render the clear water muddy so
that in it they might fish."[32]It
would be only gradually,however, as the new communities struggled to overcome
differences of opinionand resist the perennial human temptation to
factionalism, that theimplications of this great organizing law of the new
Dispensation wouldemerge.
While laying out in both public addresses and private discussions the visionof
a world of unity and peace that the Revelation of God for our day willbring
into being, the Master warned emphatically of the dangers that lay onthe
immediate horizon — both for the Faith and for the world. For both,'Abdu'l-Bahá
foresaw, in the words of Shoghi Effendi, a "winter ofunprecedented
severity".
For the Cause of God, that winter would entail heartbreaking betrayals ofthe
Covenant. In North America, the inconstancy of a small number ofindividuals,
frustrated in their aspirations for personal leadership,remained an ongoing
source of difficulty for the community, undermining thefaith of some and
causing others simply to drift away from participation inthe Faith. In Persia,
too, the faith of the friends was repeatedly tested bythe schemes of ambitious
individuals suddenly awakened to the possibilitiesfor self-aggrandizement they
believed they saw in
[page28]
the successes attending the Master's work in the West. Inboth cases, the
consequences of such defections were ultimately to deepenthe devotion of the
firm believers.
As for humanity in general, 'Abdu'l-Bahá warned in ominous terms ofthe
catastrophe that He saw approaching. While emphasizing the urgency ofefforts at
reconciliation that might alleviate in some measure the sufferingof the world's
people, He left His hearers in no doubt of the magnitude ofthe danger. In one
of the major newspapers in Montreal, where press coverageof the trip was
particularly comprehensive, it was reported:
"All Europe is an armed camp. These warlike preparations willnecessarily culminate in a great war. The very armaments themselves areproductive of war. This great arsenal must go ablaze. There is nothing ofthe nature of prophecy about such a view", said 'Abdu'l-Bahá; "it isbased on reasoning solely."[33]
On 5 December 1912, the Figure who had been hailed across North America
as"the Apostle of Peace" sailed from New York for Liverpool. After
relativelybrief stays in London and other British centres, He visited
severalcontinental cities, again devoting several weeks to Paris, where He
hadavailable the services of Hippolyte Dreyfus, whose written Arabic andPersian
met the Master's requirements. As the recognized cultural capital ofcontinental
Europe, Paris was a focal centre for visitors from many parts ofthe world,
including the Orient. While the talks delivered during His twoextended visits
to the city make frequent reference to the great socialissues discussed
elsewhere, they seem particularly distinguished by anintimate spirituality that
must have profoundly touched the hearts of thoseprivileged to meet Him:
Lift up your hearts above the present and look with eyes offaith into the future! Today the seed is sown, the grain falls upon theearth, but behold the day will come when it shall rise a glorious tree andthe branches thereof shall be laden with fruit. Rejoice and be glad thatthis day has dawned, try to realize its power, for it is indeed wonderful![34]
[page
29]
On the morning of 13 June 1913, 'Abdu'l-Bahá embarked at Marseilleson the
steamer S. S. Himalaya, arriving at Port Said in Egypt fourdays later.
What Shoghi Effendi has called "His historic journeys" endedwith His
return to Haifa on 5 December 1913.
Two years, almost to the day, after 'Abdu'l-Bahá's statement to theeditor of
the Montreal Daily Star, the world that had enjoyed sointoxicating a
sense of self-confidence and whose foundations had appearedimpregnable,
collapsed abruptly. The catastrophe is popularly associatedwith the murder in
Sarajevo of the heir to the throne of theAustro-Hungarian empire, and certainly
the train of blunders, recklessthreats and mindless appeals to
"honour" that led directly to World War Iwas ignited by this
relatively minor event. In reality, however, as theMaster had pointed out,
preliminary "rumblings" during the entire firstdecade of the century
should have alerted European leaders to the fragilityof the existing order.
In the years 1904-1905, the Japanese and Russian empires had gone to warwith a
violence that led to the destruction of virtually the entire navalforces of the
latter power and its surrender of territories it regarded asvital to its
interests, a humiliation that was to have long-lasting domesticand
international repercussions. On two occasions during these opening yearsof the
century, war between France and Germany over imperialist designs inNorth Africa
was narrowly averted only through the self-interestedintervention of other
powers. In 1911 Italian ambitions similarly provoked adangerous threat to
international peace by the seizure from the Ottomanempire of what is now Libya.
International instability had been furtherdeepened — as the Master had also
warned — when Germany, feelingconstrained by a growing web of hostile
alliances, embarked on a massivenaval building programme aimed at eliminating
the previously acceptedBritish lead.
Exacerbating these conflicts were tensions among the subject peoples of
theRomanov, Hapsburg and Ottoman empires. Waiting only for some turn of
eventsthat would break the grip of the ramshackle systems that
[page
30]
suppressed them, Balts,Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Greeks, Albanians, Bulgars,
Romanians, Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, and a host of other nationalities looked
forward eagerly to their day ofliberation. Tirelessly exploiting this network
of fissures in the existingorder were a multitude of conspiracies, resistance
groups and separatistorganizations. Inspired by ideologies ranging from an
almost incoherentanarchism at one extreme to sharply honed racist and
nationalist obsessionsat the other, these underground forces shared one naďve
conviction: if theparticular part of the prevailing order that had become their
target couldsomehow be brought down, the inherent nobility of the segment of
humankindthat supported their aims — or the assumed nobility of humankind
ingeneral — would by itself ensure a new era of freedom andjustice.
Alone among these would-be agents of violent change one broadly basedmovement
was proceeding systematically and with ruthless clarity of purposetowards the
goal of world revolution. The Communist Party, deriving both itsintellectual
thrust and an unshakeable confidence in its ultimate triumphfrom the writings
of the nineteenth century ideologue Karl Marx, hadsucceeded in establishing
groups of committed supporters throughout Europeand various other countries.
Convinced that the genius of its master haddemonstrated beyond question the
essentially material nature of the forcesthat had given rise to both human
consciousness and social organization, theCommunist movement dismissed the
validity of both religion and "bourgeois"moral standards. In its
view, faith in God was a neurotic weakness indulgedin by the human race, a
weakness that had merely permitted successive rulingclasses to manipulate
superstition as an instrument for enslaving themasses.
To the leaders of the world, blindly edging their way towards the
universalconflagration which pride and folly had prepared, the great strides
beingmade by science and technology represented chiefly a means of
gainingmilitary advantage over their rivals. The European opponents of the
nationsconcerned, however, were not the poverty-stricken and largely
uneducatedcolonial populations whom they had been able to subject. The
falseconfidence that military hardware thus inspired led inexorably to a race
toequip armies and navies with the most advanced of modern weaponry, and to
doso on as massive a scale as possible.
[page31]
Machine guns, long-range cannon, "dreadnoughts",submarines,
landmines, poison gas and the possibility of equipping airplanesfor bombing
attacks emerged as features of what one commentator has termedthe
"technology of death".[35] All of
these instruments ofannihilation would, as 'Abdu'l-Bahá had warned, be deployed
andrefined during the course of the coming conflict.
Science and technology were also exerting other, more subtle pressures onthe
prevailing order. Large-scale industrial production, fuelled by the armsrace,
had accelerated the movement of populations into urban centres. By theend of
the preceding century, this process was already undermining inheritedstandards
and loyalties, exposing growing numbers of people to novel ideasfor the
bringing about of social change, and exciting mass appetites formaterial
benefits previously available only to elite segments of society.Even under
relatively autocratic systems, the public was beginning toperceive the extent
to which civil authority was dependent for itseffectiveness on its ability to
win broad popular support. These socialdevelopments would have unforeseen and
far-reaching consequences. As warwould drag endlessly on and unthinking faith
in its simplicities come intoquestion, millions of men in conscript armies on
both sides would begin tosee their sufferings as meaningless in themselves and
fruitless in terms oftheir own and their families' well-being.
Beyond these implications of technological and economic change,
scientificadvancement seemed to encourage easy assumptions about human nature,
thealmost unnoticed overlay that Bahá'u'lláh has termed "theobscuring dust
of all acquired knowledge".[36] These
unexamined viewscommunicated themselves to ever-widening audiences.
Sensationalism in thepopular press, fiery debates between scientists or
scholars, on the onehand, and theologians or influential clergymen, on the
other, along with therapid spread of public education, continued to undermine
the authority ofaccepted religious doctrines, as well as of prevailing
moralstandards.
These seismic forces of the new century combined to make the situationfacing
the Western world in 1914 intensely volatile. When the greatconflagration did
break out, therefore, the nightmare far surpassed theworst fears of thoughtful
minds. It would serve no purpose here to review
[page 32]
the exhaustively analyzedcataclysm of World War I. The statistics themselves
remain almost beyond theability of the human mind to encompass: an estimated
sixty million meneventually being thrown into the most horrific inferno that
history had everknown, eight million of them perishing in the course of the war
and anadditional ten million or more being permanently disabled by
cripplinginjuries, burned-out lungs and appalling disfigurements.[37]
Historians have suggested thatthe total financial cost may have reached thirty
billion dollars, wiping outa substantial portion of the total capital wealth of
Europe.
Even such massive losses do not begin to suggest the full scope of the ruin.One
of the considerations that long held back President Woodrow Wilson
fromproposing to the United States Congress the declaration of war that had
bythen become virtually inescapable was his awareness of the moral damage
thatwould ensue. Not the least of the distinctions that characterized thisextraordinary
man — a statesman whose vision both 'Abdu'l-Baháand Shoghi Effendi have praised
— was his understanding of thebrutalization of human nature that would be the
worst legacy of the tragedythat was by then engulfing Europe, a legacy beyond
human capacity toreverse.[38]
Reflection on the magnitude of the suffering experienced by humankind in
thewar's four years — and the resulting setback to the long, painfulprocess of
the civilizing of human nature — lends tragic force to wordsthe Master had
addressed only two or three years earlier to audiences insuch European cities
as London, Paris, Vienna, Budapest and Stuttgart, aswell as in North America.
Speaking one evening in the home of Mr. and Mrs.Sutherland Maxwell in Montreal,
He had said:
Today the world of humanity is walking in darkness because it isout of touch with the world of God. That is why we do not see the signs ofGod in the hearts of men. The power of the Holy Spirit has no influence.When a divine spiritual illumination becomes manifest in the world ofhumanity, when divine instruction and guidance appear, then enlightenmentfollows, a new spirit is realized within, a new power descends, and a newlife is given. It is like the birth from the animal kingdom into the kingdomof man.... I will pray, and you
[page33]
must pray, likewise, that such heavenly bounty may berealized; that strife and
enmity may be banished, warfare and bloodshedtaken away; that hearts may attain
ideal communication and that all peoplemay drink from the same fountain.[39]
The vindictive peace treaty, imposed by the Allied powers on their
defeatedenemies, succeeded only, as both 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi
havepointed out, in planting the seeds of another, far more terrible
conflict.The ruinous reparations demanded of the vanquished — and the
injusticethat required them to accept the full guilt for a war for which all
partieshad been, to one degree or another, responsible — were among thefactors
that would prepare demoralized peoples in Europe to embracetotalitarian
promises of relief which they might not otherwise havecontemplated.
Ironically, no matter how harsh were the reparations required of thedefeated,
the supposed victors awoke to the appalled realization that theirtriumph — and
the demand for unconditional surrender that had driven it— had come at an
equally crippling price. Staggering war debts endedforever the economic
dominance which these European nations had acquiredthrough three centuries of
imperialist exploitation of the rest of theplanet. The deaths of millions of
young men who would have been urgentlyneeded to meet the challenges of the
coming decades was a loss that couldnever be recovered. Indeed, Europe itself —
which only four brief yearsearlier had represented the apparent summit of
civilization and worldinfluence — lost at one stroke this pre-eminence, and
began theinexorable slide during the following decades toward the status of
anauxiliary to a rising new centre of power in North America.
Initially, it seemed that the vision of the future conceived by WoodrowWilson
would now be realized. In part, this proved to be the case as subjectpeoples
throughout Europe gained the freedom to work out their own destiniesthrough the
emergence from the ruin of the former empires of a series of newnation-states.
Further, the president's "Fourteen Points" briefly endowedhis public
statements with so great a moral authority in the minds ofmillions of Europeans
that not even the most recalcitrant of his fellowleaders among the Allied
powers could
[page34]
entirely disregard his wishes. Despite months ofwrangling over colonies,
borders, and clauses in the text of the peacetreaty, the Versailles settlement
eventually incorporated an attenuated formof the proposed League of Nations, an
institution which it was hoped couldadjust future disputes between nations and
harmonize internationalaffairs.
Shoghi Effendi's commentary on the significance of this historic
initiativecommands reflection on the part of every Bahá'í who seeks
tounderstand the events of this turbulent century. Describing two
closelyinterrelated developments that are associated with the dawn of world
peace,he lays emphasis on the fact that they are "destined to culminate,
in thefullness of time, in a single glorious consummation".[40] The
first, the Guardian describesas associated with the mission of the Bahá'í
community in theNorth American continent; the second, with the destiny of the
United Statesas a nation. Speaking of this latter phenomenon, which dated back
to theoutbreak of the first world war, Shoghi Effendi writes:
It received its initial impetus through the formulation ofPresident Wilson's Fourteen Points, closely associating for the first timethat republic with the fortunes of the Old World. It suffered its firstset-back through the dissociation of that republic from the newly bornLeague of Nations which that president had labored to create.... It must,however long and tortuous the way, lead, through a series of victories andreverses, to the political unification of the Eastern and WesternHemispheres, to the emergence of a world government and the establishment ofthe Lesser Peace, as foretold by Bahá'u'lláh and foreshadowedby the Prophet Isaiah. It must, in the end, culminate in the unfurling ofthe banner of the Most Great Peace, in the Golden Age of the Dispensation ofBahá'u'lláh.[41]
How tragic, therefore, was the fate of the conception that had inspired
theefforts of the American president. As soon became apparent, the League
hadbeen stillborn. Although it included such features as a legislature,
ajudiciary, an executive, and a supporting bureaucracy, it had been deniedthe
authority vital to the work it was ostensibly intended to perform.Locked into
the nineteenth century's conception of untrammelled nationalsovereignty, it
could take decisions only with the
[page35]
unanimous assent of the member states, a requirementlargely ruling out
effective action.[42] The hollowness of the
system wasexposed, as well, by its failure to include some of the world's
mostpowerful states: Germany had been rejected as a defeated nation
heldresponsible for the war, Russia was initially denied entrance because of
itsBolshevik regime, and the United States itself refused — as a result
ofnarrow political partisanship in Congress — either to join the Leagueor to
ratify the treaty. Ironically, even the half-hearted efforts made toprotect
ethnic minorities living in the newly created nation-states provedeventually to
be little more than weapons to be used in Europe's continuingfratricidal
conflicts.
In sum, at precisely the moment in human history when an unprecedentedoutbreak
of violence had undermined the inherited bulwarks of civilizedbehaviour, the
political leadership of the Western world had emasculated theone alternative
system of international order to which experience of thiscatastrophe had given
birth and which alone could have alleviated the fargreater suffering that lay
ahead. In the prophetic words of'Abdu'l-Bahá: "Peace, Peace ... the lips
of potentates and peoplesunceasingly proclaim, whereas the fire of unquenched
hatreds still smouldersin their hearts." "The ills from which the
world now suffers," He added in1920, "will multiply; the gloom which
envelops it will deepen.... Thevanquished Powers will continue to agitate. They
will resort to everymeasure that may rekindle the flame of war."[43]
As war's inferno was engulfing the world, 'Abdu'l-Bahá turned Hisattention to
the one great task remaining in His ministry, that of ensuringthe proclamation
to the remotest corners of the Earth of the message whichhad been neglected —
or opposed — in Islamic and Western societyalike. The instrument He devised for
this purpose was the Divine Plan laidout in fourteen great Tablets, four of
them addressed to theBahá'í community of North America and ten subsidiary
onesaddressed to five specific segments of that community. Together
withBahá'u'lláh's Tablet
[page36]
of Carmel and the Master's Will and Testament, theTablets of the Divine Plan
were described by Shoghi Effendi as three of the"Charters" of the
Cause. Revealed during the darkest days of the war, in1916 and 1917, the Divine
Plan summoned the small body of American andCanadian believers to assume the
role of leadership in establishing theCause of God throughout the planet. The
implications of the trust wereawe-inspiring. In the words of the Master:
The hope which 'Abdu'l-Bahá cherishes for you is that thesame success which has attended your efforts in America may crown yourendeavors in other parts of the world, that through you the fame of theCause of God may be diffused throughout the East and the West, and theadvent of the Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts be proclaimed in all the fivecontinents of the globe. The moment this Divine Message is carried forwardby the American believers from the shores of America, and is propagatedthrough the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australia, andas far as the islands of the Pacific, this community will find itselfsecurely established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion. Then willall the peoples of the world witness that this community is spirituallyillumined and divinely guided. Then will the whole earth resound with thepraises of its majesty and greatness....[44]
Shoghi Effendi reminds us that this historic mission, described by him
as"the birthright of the North American Bahá'í Community",[45] is
rooted in the wordsof the Twin Manifestations of God to humanity's age of
maturity. It appearedfirst in the words of the Báb, who called on the
"peoples of theWest" to "issue forth from your cities", to
"aid God ere the Day when theLord of mercy shall come down unto you in the
shadow of the clouds...", andto become "as true brethren in the one
and indivisible religion of God, freefrom distinction,... so that ye find
yourselves reflected in them, and theyin you".[46] In
Hissummons to the "Rulers of America and the Presidents of the
Republicstherein", Bahá'u'lláh Himself delivered a mandate that has
noparallel in any of His other addresses to world leaders: "Bind ye the
brokenwith the hands of
[page 37]
justice, andcrush the oppressor who flourisheth with the rod of the
commandments of yourLord, the Ordainer, the All-Wise."[47] It was
Bahá'u'lláh,too, who enunciated one of the most profound truths about the
process bywhich civilization has evolved: "In the East the light of His
Revelationhath broken; in the West have appeared the signs of His dominion.
Ponderthis in your hearts, O people...."[48]
Although the Divine Plan would, as the Guardian was later to say, "be
heldin abeyance" until the system necessary to its execution had been
broughtinto being, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had selected, empowered and mandated acompany
of believers who would take the lead in launching the enterprise.His own life
was now swiftly moving to its end, but the three years left toHim after the
conclusion of the world war seemed, in retrospect, to providea foretaste of the
victories that the Cause itself would know as the centuryunfolded. The changed
conditions in the Holy Land freed the Master to pursueHis work unhampered and
created the conditions in which the brilliance ofHis mind and spirit could
exercise their influence on government officials,visiting dignitaries of every
kind, and the various communities making upthe population of the Holy Land. The
Mandate Power itself sought to expressits appreciation of the unifying effect
of His example and the philanthropicwork He did by conferring on Him a
knighthood.[49] More importantly, a
renewed flowof pilgrims and of Tablets to Bahá'í communities of both Eastand
West stimulated an expansion in the teaching work and a deepening of
thefriends' understanding of the implications of the Faith's message.
Nothing perhaps illustrated so dramatically the spiritual triumph the Masterhad
won at the World Centre of the Faith than the events in Haifa thatoccurred
immediately after His ascension in the early hours of 28 November1921. The
following day a vast concourse of thousands of people,representing the
variegated races and sects of the region, followed thefuneral cortčge up the
slopes of Mount Carmel in a state of unaffected griefsuch as the city had never
before witnessed. It was led by representativesof the British government,
members of the diplomatic community, and theheads of all of the religious
bodies in the area, several of whomparticipated in the service at the Shrine of
the Báb. So unrestrainedand unified an outburst of mourning reflected a sudden
[page
38]
awareness of the loss of aFigure whose example had served as a focal centre of
unity in an angry anddivided land. In itself, it served for all with eyes to
see as a compellingvindication of the truth of the oneness of humankind which
the Master hadtirelessly proclaimed.
NOTES
[18] Selections
from the Writings of'Abdu'l-Bahá, op. cit., pp. 254-255, (section 200.3).
[19]
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, op.cit., p. 258.
[20] ibid.,
p. 259.
[21] The
Bahá'í Centenary,1844-1944, compiled by the National Spiritual Assembly of
theBahá'ís of the United States and Canada (Wilmette:Bahá'í Publishing
Committee, 1944), pp. 140-141.
[22]
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, op. cit., p. 280.
[23] 'Abdu'l-Bahá
in London: Addressesand Notes of Conversations (London: Bahá'í
PublishingTrust, 1982), pp. 19-20.
[24]
'Abdu'l-Bahá, Tablets of the DivinePlan (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing
Trust, 1993), p. 94.
[25]
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, op.cit., pp. 281-282.
[26]
'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation ofUniversal Peace (Wilmette: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1995),p. 121, provisional re-translation.
[27] Selections
From the Writings of'Abdu'l-Bahá, op. cit., p. 106, (section 64.1).
[28] ibid.,
p. 23, (section 7.2).
[29]
'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation ofUniversal Peace, op. cit., pp. 455-456.
[30]
Juliet Thompson, The Diary of JulietThompson (Los Angeles: Kalimát
Press, 1983), p. 313.
[31]
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, op. cit., pp. 244-245.
[32] Bahá'í
World Faith (Wilmette:Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1976) p.149.
[33] 'Abdu'l-Bahá
in Canada (Forest:National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, 1962), p. 51.
[34]
'Abdu'l-Bahá, Paris Talks, 12thed. (London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust,
1995), p. 64.
[35] Eric
Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes: The ShortTwentieth Century, 1914-1991, op. cit.,
p. 23.
[36] Gleanings
from the Writings ofBahá'u'lláh (Wilmette: Bahá'í PublishingTrust, 1983),
p. 264, (section CXXV).
[37]
Edward R. Kantowicz, The Rage ofNations (Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1999), p.138. Kantowicz adds that the total population loss
for Europe was 48million, including 15 million "swept away" because
their run down healthmade them vulnerable to the post-war influenza epidemic,
and because of thereduction caused by the steep drop in the birth rate
consequent on thesedisasters. Hobsbawm estimates that France lost almost twenty
percent of itsmen of military age, Britain lost one quarter of its Oxford and
Cambridgegraduates who served in the army during the war, while German losses
reached1.8 million or thirteen percent of their military age population. (See
EricHobsbawm, Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991,
op.cit., p. 26).
[38]
President Wilson has been the subject of manybiographies over the years since
his death. Three relatively recentbiographies are Louis Auchincloss, Woodrow
Wilson (New York: VikingPenguin, 2000); A. Clements Kendrick, Woodrow
Wilson: World Statesman(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1987); Thomas
J. Knock, To End AllWars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order
(Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1992).
[39]
'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation ofUniversal Peace, op. cit., p. 305.
[40]
Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, op.cit., p. 32.
[41] ibid.,
pp. 32-33.
[42] As
finally adopted, Article X of the Covenantof the League did not require
collective military intervention in cases ofaggression but merely stated that
"...the Council shall advise upon themeans by which this obligation shall
be fulfilled."
[43]
Shoghi Effendi, The World Order ofBahá'u'lláh, op. cit., pp. 29-30.
[44]
Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, op.cit., pp. 28-29.
[45] ibid.,
p. 7.
[46] Selections
from the Writings of theBáb (Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre, 1978), p.56.
[47]
Bahá'u'lláh, TheKitáb-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book (Wilmette:
Bahá'íPublishing Trust, 1993), paragraph 88.
[48] Tablets
of Bahá'u'lláhrevealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (Wilmette: Bahá'íPublishing
Trust, 1988), p. 13.
[49] The
citation made reference to the value ofthe Master's "advice" to the
British military authorities who wereattempting to restore civil life following
the overthrow of the Turkishregime in the area, adding that "all his
influence has been for good". SeeMoojan Momen, ed., The Bábí and
Bahá'íReligions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts (Oxford:
GeorgeRonald, 1981), p. 344.