From Enayat and Iran Sohaili, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe:

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Unit 7

Thematic Question 2: What were the factors that led to the emergence of the Baha’i Faith from obscurity?

In the midst of the upheavals that was going around the world and the chaotic state of affairs that was being witnessed by humankind resulting in the steady, but surely the disintegration of the old order, the integrating forces for the coming out of the Faith from obscurity and step by step unfolding of the World Order of Baha’u’llah was gaining momentum. Under the leadership of our beloved Guardian, the year from 1946 to 1063 the Baha’i World witnessed great strides in one victory after another. The following are events that took place in the gradual but spectacular spread of the World Order of Baha’u’llah:

1. Guardian’s launching of the Second Seven Year Plan to the National Spiritual Assembly of US & Canada. This Plan benefited from the new receptivity to the message of Baha’u’llah as a result of the shift of consciousness produced by the second world war.

2. As the international hostilities came to an end several other Baha’i, communities participated in the Plans of their own.

a. In 1938 the NSA of India, Pakistan & Burma inaugurated the Plan of their own.

b. So did the national communities of Persia; British Isles; Australia and New Zealand; Germany and Austria; Egypt and Sudan; and Iraq.

3. By 1953 all the above national Plans had come to a successful end with formation of 3 National Spiritual Assemblies, formation of number of new Local Spiritual Assemblies in Europe.

4. As a result of the co-operation of five national communities working in coordination with the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles, pioneers were settled in East and West Africa.

5. The Mother Temple of the West was completed.

6. In October 1952 announced to the entire Baha’i world the inauguration of the Ten Year “Spiritual Crusade” in Ridvan 1853, with the appeal to the Baha’is around the world “….I adjure them, as this solemn hours draws nigh, to resolve never to flinch, never to hesitate, never to relax, until each and every objective in the Plan to be proclaimed , at a later date, has been fully consummated”.

7. Great achievements of the objectives of the Ten Year Crusade by October 1957, with the establishment of the Faith in over 250 countries and territories .

8. The Guardian announced the purchase of 10 new Temple sites and the commencement of the works on the Houses of Worship in Kampala, Sydney and Frankfurt; the acquisition of properties 46 of the required national Haziratu’l-Quds; vast increased in the production of Baha’i literature, additional Assembly incorporated being raised to a total number of 195; growing recognition of Baha’i marriage and Baha’i Holy Days; and the advancing work on the International Baha'i archives on the slope of Mount Carmel

9. The Guardian, who with great parental care ensured the achievements of these magnificent results as he painstakingly listed by name in his April 1957 message, each one of 63 regional conferences and institutes held during that year around the Baha’i world.

10. During these years under the unerring guidance of Shoghi Effendi there were parallel developments of the Administrative Order at the International level. These steps, not only helped just winning the goals of the Crusade, but to protect and consolidate the future of the Cause. Along with the authority delved on the elective institutions of the Faith, the parallel function of the Administrative Order is to exert a spiritual, moral and intellectual influence on these institutions and lives of the individual members of the Baha’i community.

11. Baha’u’llah, Who conceived the responsibility “to defuse the Divine Fragrances, to edify the souls of men, to promote learning, to improve the character of all men…” vested by the Master’s Will and Testament particularly in the Hands of the Cause of God.

12. In December 1951 Shoghi Effendi appointed 12 Hands of the Cause of God allocated equally to the work in the Holy Land, Asia, Europe and America. Shortly he increased the number from 12 to 19. In October 1952 he called on the Hands of the Cause of God to create 5 auxiliary boards, one for each of the 5 continents. Subsequently he created a separate boards to assist the Hands with the protection of the Faith.

13. In June 1957 the Israeli Government’s court of appeal ordered the total eviction of the remnant of the Covenant-breakers from the Haram-i-Aqdas, surrounding the focal Centre of the Baha’i World in Bahji

14. In October 1957 the Guardian announced the appointment of more Hands of the Cause of God, raising their number from 19 to 27, designating them “Chief Stewards of Baha’u’llah’s embryonic World Commonwealth”.

15. The sudden and unexpected passing away of the beloved Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian greatly shocked the Baha’is around the world, specially at the half way point of the 10 Year Spiritual Crusade. But it lend a great significance to the triumph of the Plan, which the Guardian himself had conceived and organised.

16. The crowning triumph of the work of the Guardian at the end of the 10 year Spiritual Crusade was the election of the first Universal House of Justice in April 1963, the Supreme Governing Body of the Cause conceived by Baha’u’llah assured by Him unequivocally of Divine guidance in the exercise of its functions:

“It is incumbent upon the Trustee of the House of Justice to take counsel together regarding those things which have not outwardly been revealed in the Book, and to enforce that which is agreeable to them. God will verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth, and He, verily, is the provider, the omniscient”.

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