Page
4
[This page intentionally blank.]
Page 5
Introduction
THE Revelation proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh, His followers believe,
is divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, broad in its outlook, scientific
in its method, humanitarian in its principles and dynamic in the influence it
exerts on the hearts and minds of men. The mission of the Founder of their
Faith, they conceive it to be to proclaim that religious truth is not absolute
but relative, that Divine Revelation is continuous and progressive, that the
Founders of all past religions, though different in the non-essential aspects
of their teachings, "abide in the same Tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are
seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech and proclaim the same
Faith." His Cause, they have already demonstrated, stands identified with, and
revolves around, the principle of the organic unity of mankind as representing
the consummation of the whole process of human evolution. This final stage in
this stupendous evolution, they assert, is not only necessary but inevitable,
that it is gradually approaching, and that nothing short of the celestial
potency with which a divinely ordained Message can claim to be endowed can
succeed in establishing it.
The Bahá'í Faith recognizes the unity of God and of His
Prophets, upholds the principle of an unfettered search after truth, condemns
all forms of superstition and prejudice, teaches that the fundamental purpose
of religion is to promote concord and harmony, that it must go hand-in-hand
with science, and that it constitutes the sole and ultimate basis of a
peaceful, an ordered and progressive society. It inculcates the principle of
equal opportunity, rights and privileges for both sexes, advocates compulsory
education, abolishes extremes of poverty and wealth, exalts work performed in
the spirit of service to the rank of worship, recommends the adoption of an
auxiliary international language, and provides the necessary agencies for the
establishment and safeguarding of a permanent and universal peace.
SHOGHI EFFENDI
Page 6
[This page intentionally blank.]
Page 7
Alphabetical List of Authors
| 1. Archduchess Anton of Austria |
30.
Mr. Renwick J. G. Millard |
| 2.
Charles Baudouin |
31.
Prof. Herbert A. Miller, Bryn Mawr College |
| 3.
President Eduard Benes |
32.
The Hon. Lilian Helen Montagu, J.P., D.H.L. |
| 4.
Prof. Norman Bentwich, Hebrew University, Jerusalem |
33.
Arthur Moore |
| 5.
Princess Marie Antoinette de Broglie Aussenac |
34.
Angela Morgan |
| 6.
Prof. E. G. Browse, M.A., M.B., Cambridge University |
35.
M. Nicholas |
| 7.
Luther Burbank |
36.
Prof. Yore Noguchi |
| 8.
Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter, D.Litt., Manchester College, Oxford |
37.
Rev. Frederick W. Oases |
| 9.
General Renato Piola Caselli |
38.
Princess Olga of Yugoslavia |
| 10.
Rev. T. K. Cheyne, D.Litt., D.D., Oxford University, Fellow of British Academy |
39.
Sir Flinders Petrie, archeologist |
| 11.
Sir Valentine Chirol |
40.
Prof. R. F. Piper |
| 12.
Rev. K. T. Clung |
41.
Prof. B. Popovitch |
| 13.
Right Hon. The Earl Curzon of Kedleston |
42.
Charles H. Prism |
| 14.
Prof. James Darmesteter, École Des Hautes Études, Paris |
43.
Dr. Edmund Privat, University of Geneva |
| 15.
Rev. J. Tyssul Davis, B.A. |
44.
Herbert Putnam, Congressional Library, Washington, D. C. |
| 16.
Dr. August Forel, University of Zurich |
45.
Eugene Relgis |
| 17.
Dr. Herbert Adams Gibbons |
46.
Ernest Renan |
| 18.
Arthur Henderson |
47.
Prof. Dr. J. Rypka |
| 19.
Dr. Henry H. Jessup, D.D. |
48.
Viscount Herbert Samuel, G.C.B., M.P. |
| 20.
President David Starr Jordan |
49.
Emil Schreiber, Publicist |
| 21.
Prof. Jowett, Oxford University |
50.
Prof. Hart Prasad Shastri, D.Litt. |
| 22.
Prof. Dimitry Kazarov, University of Sofia |
51.
Col. Baja Jai Prithvi Bahádur Singh, Raja of Bajang (Nepal) |
| 23.
Miss Helen Keller |
52.
Rev. Griffith J. Sparham |
| 24.
Prof. Dr. V. Lenny |
53.
Sir Ronald Storrs, N.V.C., M.G., C.B.E. |
| 25.
Harry Charles Lukach |
54.
Ex-Governor William Sulzer |
| 26.
Dowager Queen Marie of Rumania |
55.
Shri Purohit Swami |
| 27.
Alfred W. Martin, Society for Ethical Culture, New York |
56.
Leo Tolstoy |
| 28.
President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia |
57.
Prof. Arminius Vambery, Hungarian Academy of Pesth |
| 29.
Dr. Rokuichiro Masujima, Doyen of Jurisprudence of Japan |
58.
Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E |
Page 8
[This page intentionally blank.]
Page 9
APPRECIATIONS OF THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH
BY DOWAGER QUEEN MARIE OF RUMANIA
I.
I was deeply moved on reception of your letter.
Indeed a great light came to me with the message of Bahá'u'lláh
and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. It came as all great messages come at an hour of dire
grief and inner conflict and distress, so the seed sank deeply.
My youngest daughter finds also great strength and comfort in the teachings of
the beloved masters.
We pass on the message from month to month and all those we give it to see a
light suddenly lighting before them and much that was obscure and perplexing
becomes simple, luminous and full of hope as never before.
That my open letter was balm to those suffering for the cause is indeed a
great happiness to me, and I take it as a sign that God accepted my humble
tribute.
The occasion given me to be able to express myself publicly, was also His
Work-for indeed it was a chain of circumstances of which each link led me
unwittingly one step further, till suddenly all was clear before my eyes and I
understood why it had been.
Thus does He lead us finally to our ultimate destiny.
Some of those of my caste wonder at and disapprove my courage to step forward
pronouncing words not habitual for Crowned Heads to pronounce, but I advance by
an inner urge I cannot resist. With bowed head I recognize that I too am but an
instrument in greater Hands and rejoice in the knowledge.
Little by little the veil is lifting, grief tore it in two. And grief was also
a step leading me ever nearer truth, therefore do I not cry out against
grief!
May you and those beneath your guidance be blessed and upheld by the sacred
strength of those gone before you.
Page 10
2.
A woman brought me the other day a Book. I spell it with a
capital letter because it is a glorious Book of love and goodness, strength and
beauty.
She gave it to me because she had learned I was in grief and sadness and
wanted to help.... She put it into my hands saying: "You seem to live up to His
teachings." And when I opened the Book I saw it was the word of
'Abdu'l-Bahá, prophet of love and kindness, and of his father the great
teacher of international goodwill and understanding-of a religion which links
all creeds.
Their writings are a great cry toward peace, reaching beyond all limits of
frontiers, above all dissension about rites and dogmas. It is a religion based
upon the inner spirit of God, upon the great, not-to-be-overcome verity that
God is love, meaning just that. It teaches that all hatreds, intrigues,
suspicions, evil words, all aggressive patriotism even, are outside the one
essential law of God, and that special beliefs are but surface things whereas
the heart that beats with divine love knows no tribe nor race.
It is a wondrous Message that Bahá'u'lláh and his son
'Abdu'l-Bahá have given us. They have not set it up aggressively,
knowing that the germ of eternal truth which lies at its core cannot but take
root and spread.
There is only one great verity in it: Love, the mainspring of every energy,
tolerance toward each other, desire of understanding each other, knowing each
other, helping each other, forgiving each other.
It is Christ's Message taken up anew, in the same words almost, but adapted to
the thousand years and more difference that lies between the year one and
today. No man could fail to be better because of this Book.
I commend it to you all. If ever the name of Bahá'u'lláh or
'Abdu'l-Bahá comes to your attention, do not put their writings from
you. Search out their Books, and let their glorious, peace-bringing,
love-creating words and lessons sink into your hearts as they have into
mine.
One's busy day may seem too full for religion. Or one may have a religion that
satisfies. But the teachings of these gentle, wise and kindly men are
compatible with all religion, and with no religion.
Seek them, and be the happier.
(From the Toronto Daily Star, May 4, 1926.)
-------
Miss Martha L. Root-Editor
Page 11
Of course, if you take the stand that creation has no aim, it is easy to
dismiss life and death with a shrug and a "that ends it all; nothing comes
after."
But how difficult it is so to dismiss the universe, our world, the animal and
vegetable world, and man. How clearly one sees a plan in everything. How
unthinkable it is that the miraculous development that has brought man's body,
brain and spirit to what it is, should cease. Why should it cease? Why is it
not logical that it goes on? Not the body, which is only an instrument, but the
invisible spark or fire within the body which makes man one with the wider plan
of creation.
My words are lame, and why should I grope for meanings when I can quote from
one who has said it so much more plainly, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, whom I know
would sanction the use of his words:
"The whole physical creation is perishable. Material bodies are composed of
atoms. When these atoms begin to separate, decomposition sets in. Then comes
what we call death.
"This composition of atoms which constitutes the body or mortal element of any
created being, is temporary. When the power of attraction which holds these
atoms together is withdrawn, the body as such ceases to exist.
"With the soul it is different. The soul is not a combination of elements, is
not composed of many atoms, is of one indivisible substance and therefore
eternal.
"It is entirely out of the order of physical creation; it is immortal! The
soul, being an invisible, indivisible substance, can suffer neither
disintegration nor destruction. Therefore there is no reason for its coming to
an end.
"Consider the aim of creation: Is it possible that all is created to evolve
and develop through countless ages with merely this small goal in view-a few
years of man's life on earth? Is it not unthinkable that this should be the
final aim of existence? Does a man cease to exist when he leaves his body? If
his life comes to an end, then all previous evolution is useless. All has been
for nothing. All those eons of evolution for nothing! Can we imagine that
creation had no greater aim than this?
"The very existence of man's intelligence proves his immortality. His
intelligence is the intermediary between his body and his spirit. When man
allows his spirit, through his soul, to enlighten his understanding, then does
he contain all creation; because man being the culmination of all that went
before, and thus
Page 12
superior to all previous evolutions, contains all the lower already-evolved
world within himself. Illumined by the spirit through the instrumentality of
the soul, man's radiant intelligence makes him the crowning point of
creation!"
Thus does 'Abdu'l-Bahá explain to us the soul-the most convincing
elucidation I know.
(From the Toronto Daily Star, September 28, 1926.)
4.
At first we all conceive of God as something or somebody apart
from ourselves. We think He is something or somebody definite, outside of us,
whose quality, meaning and so-to-say "personality" we can grasp with our human,
finite minds, and express in mere words.
This is not so. We cannot, with our earthly faculties entirely grasp His
meaning-no more than we can really understand the meaning of Eternity.
God is certainly not the old Fatherly gentleman with the long beard that in
our childhood we saw pictured sitting amongst clouds on the throne of judgment,
holding the lightning of vengeance in His hand.
God is something simpler, happier, and yet infinitely more tremendous. God is
All, Everything. He is the power behind all beginnings. He is the inexhaustible
source of supply, of love, of good, of progress, of achievement. God is
therefore Happiness.
His is the voice within us that shows us good and evil.
But mostly we ignore or misunderstand this voice. Therefore did He choose his
Elect to come down amongst us upon earth to make clear His word, His real
meaning. Therefore the Prophets; therefore Christ, Muhammad,
Bahá'u'lláh, for man needs from time to time a voice upon earth
to bring God to him, to sharpen the realization of the existence of the true
God. Those voices sent to us had to become flesh, so that with our earthly ears
we should be able to hear and understand.
Those who read their Bible with "peeled eyes" will find in almost every line
some revelation. But it takes long life, suffering or some sudden event to tear
all at once the veil from our eyes, so that we can truly see....Sorrow and
suffering are the surest and also the most common instructors, the straightest
channel to God-that is to say, to that inner something within each of us which
is God.
Page 13
Happiness beyond all understanding comes with this revelation that God is
within us, if we will but listen to His voice. We need not seek Him in the
clouds. He is the All-Father whence we came and to whom we shall return when,
having done with this earthly body, we pass onward.
If I have repeated myself, forgive me. There are so many ways of saying
things, but what is important is the truth which lies in all the many ways of
expressing it. (From the Philadelphia "Evening Bulletin," Monday, September
27, 1926.)
5.
"Lately a great hope has come to me from one,
'Abdu'l-Bahá. I have found in His and His Father,
Bahá'u'lláh's Message of Faith all my yearning for real religion
satisfied. If you ever hear of Bahá'ís or of the Bahá'í Movement
which is known in America, you will know what that is. What I mean: these Books
have strengthened me beyond belief and I am now ready to die any day full of
hope. But I pray God not to take me away yet for I still have a lot of work to
do."
6.
"The Bahá'í teaching brings peace and
understanding.
"It is like a wide embrace gathering together all those who have long searched
for words of hope.
"It accepts all great prophets gone before, it destroys no other creeds and
leaves all doors open.
"Saddened by the continual strife amongst believers of many confessions and
wearied of their intolerance towards each other, I discovered in the
Bahá'í teaching the real spirit of Christ so often denied and
misunderstood:
"Unity instead of strife, hope instead of condemnation, love instead of hate,
and a great reassurance for all men."
7.
"The Bahá'í teaching brings peace to the soul
and hope to [sic]
"To those in search of assurance the words of the Father are as a fountain in
the desert after long wandering." 1934.
8.
"More than ever today when the world is facing such a crisis
of bewilderment and unrest, must we stand firm in Faith seeking that which
binds together instead of tearing asunder." 1936
Page 14
"To those searching for light, the Bahá'í Teachings offer a star
which will lead them to deeper understanding, to assurance, peace and good will
with all men."
---------------------
BY PROFESSOR E. G. BROWNE
I. Introduction to Myron H. Phelps' 'Abbas Effendi, pages
xi-xx
1903 rev. 1912
I have often heard wonder expressed by Christian ministers at
the extraordinary success of Bábí missionaries, as contrasted
with the almost complete failure of their own. "How is it," they say, "that the
Christian doctrines the highest and the noblest which the world has ever known,
though supported by all the resources of Western civilization, can only count
its converts in Muhammadan lands by twos and threes, while
Bábíism can reckon them by thousands?" The answer, to my mind, is
plain as the sun at midday. Western Christianity, save in the rarest cases, is
more Western than Christian, more racial than religious; and by dallying with
doctrines plainly incompatible with the obvious meaning of its Founder's words,
such as the theories of "racial supremacy," "imperial destiny," "survival of
the fittest," and the like, grows steadily more rather than less material. Did
Christ belong to a "dominant race," or even to a European or "white race"?
...
I am not arguing that the Christian religion is true [sic], but merely that it
is in manifest conflict with several other theories of life which practically
regulate the conduct of all States and most individuals in the Western world, a
world which on the whole, judges all things, including religions, mainly by
material, or to use the more popular term, "practical," standards....
There is, of course, another factor in the success of the Bábí
propagandist, as compared with the Christian missionary, in the conversion of
Muhammadans to his faith: namely, that the former admits, while the latter
rejects, the Divine inspiration of the Qur'an and the prophetic function of
Muhammad. The Christian missionary must begin by attacking, explicitly or by
implication, both these beliefs; too often forgetting that if (as happens but
rarely) he succeeds in destroying them, he destroys with them that recognitions
[sic] of former prophetic dispensations (including the Jewish and the
Christian) which Muhammad and the Qur'an proclaim, and converts his Muslim
antagonist not to Christianity, but to Skepticism or Atheism.
Page 15
What, indeed, could be more illogical on the part of Christian missionaries to
Muhammadan lands than to devote much time and labor to the composition of
controversial works which endeavor to prove, in one and the same breath, first,
that the Qur'an is a lying imposture, and, secondly, that it bears witness to
the truth of Christ's mission, as though any value attached to the testimony of
one proved a liar! The Bábí (or Bahá'í)
propagandist, on the other hand, admits that Muhammad was the prophet of God
and that the Qur'an is the Word of God, denies nothing but their finality, and
does not discredit his own witness when he draws from that source arguments to
prove his faith. To the Western observer, however, it is the complete sincerity
of the Bábís, their fearless disregard of death and torture
undergone for the sake of their religion, their certain conviction as to the
truth of their faith, their generally admirable conduct towards mankind and
especially towards their fellow-believers, which constitutes their strongest
claim on his attention.
2.
Introduction to Myron H. Phelps' 'Abbas Effendi, pages xii-xiv
It was under the influence of this enthusiasm that I penned
the introduction to my translation of the Traveller's Narrative.... This
enthusiasm, condoned, if not shared, by many kindly critics and reviewers,
exposed me to a somewhat savage attack in the Oxford Magazine, an attack
concluding with the assertion that my Introduction displayed "a personal
attitude almost inconceivable in a rational European, and a style unpardonable
in a university teacher." (The review in question appeared in the Oxford
Magazine of May 25, 1892, page 394,..."the prominence given to the Báb
in this book is an absurd violation of historical perspective; and the
translations of the Traveller's Narrative a waste of the powers and
opportunities of a Persian Scholar.") Increasing age and experience (more's the
pity!) are apt enough, even without the assistance of the Oxford Magazine, to
modify our enthusiasm; but in this case, at least, time has so far vindicated
my judgment against that of my Oxford reviewer that he could scarcely now
maintain, as he formerly asserted, that the Bábí religion "had
affected the least important part of the Muslim World and that not deeply."
Everyone who is in the slightest degree conversant with the actual state of
things (September 27, 1903), in Persia now recognizes that the number and
influence of the Bábís in that country is immensely greater than
it was fifteen years ago.
Page 16
3.
A Traveller's Narrative, page 309
The appearance of such a woman as Qurratu'l-'Ayn is in any country and
any age a rare phenomenon, but in such a country as Persia it is a prodigy-nay,
almost a miracle. Alike in virtue of her marvelous beauty, her rare
intellectual gifts, her fervid eloquence, her fearless devotion and her
glorious martyrdom, she stands forth incomparable and immortal amidst her
country-women. Had the Bábí religion no other claim to greatness,
this were sufficient-that it produced a heroine like Qurratu'l-'Ayn.
4.
Introduction to A Traveller's Narrative, pages ix, x
Though I dimly suspected whither I was going and whom I was to behold
(for no distinct intimation had been given to me), a second or two elapsed ere,
with a throb of wonder and awe, I became definitely conscious that the room was
not untenanted. In the corner where the divan met the wall sat a wondrous and
venerable figure, crowned with a felt head-dress of the kind called taj by
dervishes, but of unusual height and make), round the base of which was wound a
small white turban. The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though
I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul; power
and authority sat on that ample brow; while the deep lines on the forehead and
face implied an age which the jet-black hair and beard flowing down in
indistinguishable luxuriance almost to the waist seemed to belie. No need to
ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object
of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain.
A mild, dignified voice bade me be seated, and then continued: "Praise be to
God, that thou host attained!...Thou host come to see a prisoner and an
exile.... We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations;
yet they deem us a stirrer-up of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and
banishment.... That all nations should become one in faith and all men as
brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should
be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of
race be annulled-what harm is there in this? ... Yet so it shall be; these
fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the 'Most Great
Peace' shall come.... Do not you in Europe need this also? Is not this that
which Christ foretold?...Yet do we see your kings and rulers lavishing their
treasures more freely on means for the destruction of the human race than on
that which would conduce to the happiness of mankind.... These strifes and this
bloodshed and discord must cease,
Page 17
and all men be as one kindred and one family.... Let not a man glory in this
that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this: that he loves his
kind...."
Such, so far as I can recall them, were the words which, besides many others,
I heard from Bahá. Let those who read them consider well with themselves
whether such doctrines merit death and bonds, and whether the world is more
likely to gain or lose by their diffusion.
5.
Introduction to A Traveller's Narrative, pages xxxv, xxxvi
Seldom have I seen one whose appearance impressed me more. A
tall, strongly built man holding himself straight as an arrow, with white
turban and raiment, long black locks reaching almost to the shoulder, broad
powerful forehead, indicating a strong intellect, combined with an unswerving
will, eyes keen as a hawk's, and strongly marked but pleasing features-such was
my first impression of 'Abbas Effendi, "The Master" ('Agha) as he par
excellence is called by the Bábís. Subsequent conversation with
him served only to heighten the respect with which his appearance had from the
first inspired me. One more eloquent of speech, more ready of argument, more
apt of illustration, more intimately acquainted with the sacred books of the
Jews, the Christians and the Muhammadans, could, I should think, be scarcely
found even amongst the eloquent, ready and subtle race to which he belongs.
These qualities, combined with a bearing at once majestic and genial, made me
cease to wonder at the influence and esteem which he enjoyed even beyond the
circle of his father's followers. About the greatness of this man and his power
no one who had seen him could entertain a doubt.
-------------------
BY DR. J. ESTLIN CARPENTER
Excerpts from Comparative Religions, page 70, 71
From that subtle race issues the most remarkable movement
which modern Muhammadanism has produced.... Disciples gathered round him, and
the movement was not checked by his arrest, his imprisonment for nearly six
years and his final execution in 1850. . . . It, too, claims to be a universal
teaching it has already its noble army of martyrs and its holy books; has
Persia, in the midst of her miseries, given birth to a religion which will go
round the world?
Page 18
BY THE REV. T. K. CHEYNE, D.LITT., D.D.
Excerpts from The Reconciliation of Races And Religions,
(1914)
There was living quite lately a human being of such consummate
excellence that many think it is both permissible and inevitable even to
identify him mystically with the invisible Godhead.... His combination of
mildness and power is so rare that we have to place him in a line with
super-normal men.... We learn that, at great points in his career after he had
been in an ecstasy, such radiance of might and majesty streamed from his
countenance that none could bear to look upon the effulgence of his glory and
beauty. Nor was it an uncommon occurrence for unbelievers involuntarily to bow
down in lowly obeisance on beholding His Holiness.
The gentle spirit of the Báb is surely high up in the cycles of
eternity. Who can fail, as Professor Browne says, to be attracted by him? "His
sorrowful and persecuted life his purity of conduct and youth; his courage and
uncomplaining patience under misfortune his complete self-negation; the dim
ideal of a better state of things which can be discerned through the obscure
mystic utterances of the Bayán; but most of all, his tragic death, all
serve to enlist our sympathies on behalf of the young prophet of Shiraz."
"Il sentait le besoin d'une reform profond à introduire dans les moeurs
publiques.... Il s'est sacrifié pour l'humanité; pour elle il a
donné son corps et son âme, pour elle il a subi les privations,
les affronts, les injures, la torture et le martyr." (Mons. Nicholas.)
If there has been any prophet in recent times, it is to
Bahá'u'lláh that we must go. Character is the final judge.
Bahá'u'lláh was a man of the highest class-that of prophets. But
he was free from the last infirmity of noble minds [sic], and would certainly
not have separated himself from others. He would have understood the saying:
"Would God all the Lord's people were prophets!" What he does say, however, is
just as fine: "I do not desire lordship over others; I desire all men to be
even as I am."
The day is not far off when the details of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's missionary
journeys will be admitted to be of historical importance. How gentle and wise
he was, hundreds could testify from personal knowledge, and I, too, could
perhaps say something.... I will only, however, glue here the outward framework
of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's life, and of his apostolic journeys, with the help of
my friend Lutfullah.
Page 19
During his stay in London he visited Oxford (where he and his party-of
Persians mainly-were the guests of Professor and Mrs. Cheyne), Edinburgh,
Clifton and Woking. It is fitting to notice here that the audience at Oxford,
though highly academic, seemed to be deeply interested, and that Dr. Carpenter
made an admirable speech....
---------------
BY PROFESSOR VAMBERY
Testimonial to the Religion of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
(Published in Egyptian Gazette, Sept. 24, 1913, by Mrs. J.
Standard.)
I forward this humble petition to the sanctified and holy presence of
'Abdu'l-Bahá 'Abbas, who is the center of knowledge, famous throughout
the world, and loved by all mankind. O thou noble friend who art conferring
guidance upon humanity-May my life be a ransom to thee!
The loving epistle which you have condescended to write to this servant, and
the rug which you have forwarded, came safely to hand. The time of the meeting
with your Excellency, and the memory of the benediction of your presence,
recurred to the memory of this servant, and I am longing for the time when I
shall meet you again. Although I have traveled through many countries and
cities of Islam, yet have I never met so lofty a character and so exalted a
personage as your Excellency, and I can bear witness that it is not possible to
find such another. On this account, I am hoping that the ideals and
accomplishments of your Excellency may be crowned with success and yield
results under all conditions; because behind these ideals and deeds I easily
discern the eternal welfare and prosperity of the world of humanity.
This servant, in order to gain first-hand information and experience, entered
into the ranks of various religions, that is, outwardly, I became a Jew,
Christian, Muhammadan and Zoroastrian. I discovered that the devotees of these
various religions do nothing else but hate and anathematize each other, that
all their religions have become the instruments of tyranny and oppression in
the hands of rulers and governors, and that they are the causes of the
destruction of the world of humanity.
Considering those evil results, every person is forced by necessity to enlist
himself on the side of your Excellency, and accept with joy the prospect of a
fundamental basis for a universal religion of God, being laid through your
efforts.
Page 20
I have seen the father of your Excellency from afar. I have realized the
self-sacrifice and noble courage of his son, and I am lost in admiration.
For the principles and aims of your Excellency, I express the utmost respect
and devotion, and if God, the Most High, confers long life, I will be able to
serve you under all conditions. I pray and supplicate this from the depths of
my heart.
Your servant,
(Mamhenyn.) VAMBERY.
----------------
BY HARRY CHARLES LUKACH
Quotation from The Fringe of the East, (Macmillan & Co.,
London, 1913.)
Bahá'ísm is now estimated to count more than two million adherents,
mostly composed of Persian and Indian Shi'ihs, but including also many Sunnis
from the Turkish Empire and North Africa, and not a few Brahmans, Buddhists,
Taoists, Shintoists and Jews. It possesses even European converts, and has made
some headway in the United States. Of all the religions which have been
encountered in the course of this journey - the stagnant pools of Oriental
Christianity, the strange survivals of sun-worship, and idolatry tinged with
Muhammadanism, the immutable relic of the Sumerians - it is the only one which
is alive, which is aggressive, which is extending its frontiers, instead of
secluding itself within its ancient haunts. It is a thing which may revivify
Islam, and make great changes on the face of the Asiatic world.
----------------
BY SIR VALENTINE CHIROL
Quotations from The Middle Eastern Question or Some Political
Problems of Indian Defense, chapter XI, page 116. (The Revival of Babiism.)
When one has been like Saudi, a great personage, and then a common
soldier, and then a prisoner of a Christian feudal chief when one has worked as
a navvy on the fortifications of the Count of Antioch, and wandered back afoot
to Shiraz after infinite pain and labor, he may well be disposed to think that
nothing that exists is real, or, at least, has any substantial reality worth
clinging to. Today the public peace of Persia is no longer subject to such
violent perturbations. At least, as far as we are concerned, the appearances of
peace prevail, and few of us care or have occasion to look beyond the
appearances. But for the Persians themselves, have the conditions very much
changed? Do they not witness one day the sudden rise of this or that favorite
of fortune and the next day his sudden fall?
Page 21
Have they not seen the Atabak-i-A'zam twice hold sway as the Shah's
all-powerful Vazir, and twice hurled down from that pinnacle by a bolt from the
blue? How many other ministers and governors have sat for a time on the seats
of the mighty and been swept away by some intrigue as sordid as that to which
they owed their own exaltation? And how many in humbler stations have been in
the meantime the recipients of their unworthy favors or the victims of their
arbitrary oppression? A village which but yesterday was fairly prosperous is
beggared today by some neighboring landlord higher up the valley, who, having
duly propitiated those in authority, diverts for the benefit of his own estates
the whole of its slender supply of water. The progress of a governor or royal
prince, with all his customary retinue of ravenous hangers-on, eats out the
countryside through which it passes more effectually than a flight of locusts.
The visitation is as ruinous and as unaccountable. Is it not the absence of all
visible moral correlation of cause and effect in these phenomena of daily life
that has gone far to produce the stolid fatalism of the masses, the scoffing
skepticism of the more educated classes, and from time to time the revolt of
some nobler minds? Of such the most recent and perhaps the noblest of all
became the founder of Babiism.
Chapter XI, page 120
The Báb was dead, but not Babiism. He was not the first,
and still less the last, of a long line of martyrs who have testified that even
in a country gangrene with corruption and atrophied with indifferentism like
Persia, the soul of a nation survives, inarticulate, perhaps, and in a way
helpless, but still capable of sudden spasms of vitality.
Chapter XI, page 124
Socially one of the most interesting features of Babiism is
the raising of woman to a much higher plane than she is usually admitted to in
the East. The Báb himself had no more devoted a disciple than the
beautiful and gifted lady, known as Qurratu'l-'Ayn, the "Consolation of the
Eyes," who, having shared all the dangers of the first apostolic missions in
the north, challenged and suffered death with virile fortitude, as one of the
Seven Martyrs of Tihran. No memory is more deeply venerated or kindles greater
enthusiasm than hers, and the influence which she wielded in her lifetime still
inures to her sex.
Page 22
BY PROFESSOR JOWETT OF OXFORD
Quotation from Heroic Lives, pages 305
Prof. Jowett of Oxford, Master of Balliol, the translator of
Plato, studied the movement and was so impressed thereby that he said: "The
Babite [Bahá'í] movement may not impossibly turn out to have the
promise of the future." Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter quotes Prof. Edward Caird,
Prof. Jowett's successor as Master of Balliol, as saying, "He thought Babiism
(as the Bahá'í movement was then called) might prove the most
important religious movement since the foundation of Christianity." Prof.
Carpenter himself gives a sketch of the Bahá'í movement in his
recent book on Comparative Religions and asks, "Has Persia, in the midst of her
miseries, given birth to a religion that will go around the world?"
----------------
BY ALFRED W. MARTIN
Excerpts from Comparative Religion and the Religion of the
Future,
pages 81-91
Inasmuch as a fellowship of faiths is at once the dearest hope
and ultimate goal of the Bahá'í movement, it behooves us to take
cognizance of it and its mission.... Today this religious movement has a
million and more adherents, including people from all parts of the globe and
representing a remarkable variety of race, color, class and creed. It has been
given literary expression in a veritable library of Asiatic, European, and
American works to which additions are annually made as the movement grows and
grapples with the great problems that grow out of its cardinal teachings. It
has a long roll of martyrs for the cause for which it stands, twenty thousand
in Persia alone, proving it to be a movement worth dying for as well as worth
living by.
From its inception it has been identified with Bahá'u'lláh, who
paid the price of prolonged exile, imprisonment, bodily suffering, and mental
anguish for the faith he cherished-a man of imposing personality as revealed in
his writings, characterized by intense moral earnestness and profound
spirituality, gifted with the self same power so conspicuous in the character
of Jesus, the power to appreciate people ideally, that is, to see them at the
level of their best and to make even the lowest types think well of themselves
because of potentialities within them to which he pointed, but of which they
were wholly unaware; a prophet whose greatest contribution was not any specific
doctrine he proclaimed, but an informing spiritual power breathed into the
world through the example of his life and thereby quickening souls into new
spiritual activity. Surely a movement of
Page 23
which all this can be said deserves-nay, compels-our respectful recognition and
sincere appreciation.
Taking precedence over all else in its gospel is the message of unity in
religion.... It is the crowning glory of the Bahá'í movement
that, while deprecating sectarianism in its preaching, it has faithfully
practiced what it preached by refraining from becoming itself a sect.... Its
representatives do not attempt to impose any beliefs upon others, whether by
argument or bribery; rather do they seek to put beliefs that have illumined
their own lives within the reach of those who feel they need illumination. No,
not a sect, not a part of humanity cut off from all the rest, living for itself
and aiming to convert all the rest into material for its own growth; no, not
that, but a leaven, causing spiritual fermentation in all religions quickening
them with the spirit of catholicity and fraternalism.
Who shall say but that just as the little company of the Mayflower, landing on
Plymouth Rock, proved to be the small beginning of a mighty nation, the ideal
germ of a democracy which, if true to its principles, shall yet overspread the
habitable globe, so the little company of Bahá'ís exiled from their Persian
home may yet prove to be the small beginning of the world-wide movement, the
ideal germ of democracy in religion, the Universal Church of Mankind?
----------------
BY PROF. JAMES DARMESTETER
Excerpt from Art in "Persia: A Historical and Literary Sketch"
(translated by G. K. Nariman), and incorporated in Persia And Parsis, Part 1,
edited by G. K. Nariman. Published under patronage of the Iran League, Bombay,
1925. (The Marker Literary Series for Persia, No. 2.)
The political reprieve brought about by the Sufis did not result in
the regeneration of thought. But the last century which marks the end of Persia
has had its revival and twofold revival, literary and religious. The funeral
ceremonies by which Persia celebrates every year for centuries-the fatal day of
the 10th of Muharram, when the son of 'Ali breathed his last at Karbila-have
developed a popular theater and produced a sincere poetry, dramatic and human,
which is worth all the rhetoric of the poets. During the same times an attempt
at religious renovation was made, the religion of Babiism. Demoralized for
centuries by ten foreign conquests,
Page 24
by the yoke of a composite religion in which she believed just enough to
persecute, by the enervating influence of a mystical philosophy which disabled
men for action and divested life of all aim and objects, Persia has been making
unexpected efforts for the last fifty five years to remake for herself a virile
ideal. Babiism has little of originality in its dogmas and mythology. Its
mystic doctrine takes its rise from Sufism and the old sects of the 'Aliides
formed around the dogma of divine incarnation. But the morality it inculcates
is a revolution. It has the ethics of the West. It suppresses lawful impurities
which are a great barrier dividing Islam from Christendom. It denounces
polygamy, the fruitful source of Oriental degeneration. It seeks to
reconstitute the family and it elevates man and in elevating him exalts woman
up to his level. Babiism which diffused itself in less than five years from one
end of Persia to another, which was bathed in 1852 in the blood of its martyrs,
has been silently progressing and propagating itself. If Persia is to be at all
regenerate it will be through this new faith.
----------------
BY CHARLES BAUDOUIN
Excerpts from Contemporary Studies, Part 111, page 131. (Allen
& Unwin, London, 1924.)
We Westerners are too apt to imagine that the huge continent of Asia
is sleeping as soundly as a mummy. We smile at the vanity of the ancient
Hebrews, who believed themselves to be the chosen people. We are amazed at the
intolerance of the Greeks and the Romans, who looked upon the members of all
races as barbarians. Nevertheless, we ourselves are like the Hebrews, the
Greeks and the Roman. As Europeans we believed Europe to be the only world that
matters, though from time to time we may turn a paternal eye towards America,
regarding our offspring in the New World with mingled feelings of condescension
and pride.
Nevertheless, the great cataclysm of 1914 is leading some of us to undertake a
critical examination of the inviolable dogma that the European nations are the
elect. Has there not been of late years a demonstration of the nullity of
modern civilization-the nullity which had already been proclaimed by Rousseau,
Carlyle, Ruskin, Tolstoy, and Nietzsche? We are now inclined to listen more
attentively to whispers from the East. Our self-complacency has been disturbed
by such utterances as that of Rabindranath Tagore, who,
Page 25
lecturing at the Imperial University of Tokio on June 18, 1916, foretold a
great future for Asia. The political civilization of Europe was "carnivorous
and cannibalistic in its tendencies." The East was patient, and could afford to
wait till the West, "hurry after the expedient," had to halt for want of
breath. "Europe, while busily speeding to her engagements, disdainfully casts
her glance from her carriage window at the reaper reaping his harvest in the
field, and in her intoxication of speed, cannot but think him as slow and ever
receding backwards. But the speed comes to its end, the engagement loses its
meaning, and the hungry heart clamors for food, till at last she comes to the
lonely reaper reaping his harvest in the sun. For if the office cannot wait, or
the buying and selling, or the craving for excitement-love waits, and beauty,
and the wisdom of suffering and the fruits of patient devotion and reverent
meekness of simple faith. And thus shall wait the East till her time comes."
Being thus led to turn our eyes towards Asia, we are astonished to find how
much we have misunderstood it; and we blush when we realize our previous
ignorance of the fact that, towards the middle of the nineteenth century, Asia
gave birth to a great religious movement-a movement signalized for its
spiritual purity, one which has had thousands of martyrs, one which Tolstoy has
described. H. Dreyfus, the French historian of this movement, says that it is
not "a new religion," but "religion renewed," and that it provides "the only
possible basis for a mutual understanding between religion and free thought."
Above all, we are impressed by the fact that, in our own time, such a
manifestation can occur, and that the new faith should have undergone a
development far more extensive than that undergone in the same space of time
nearly two thousand years ago, by budding Christianity.
.At the present time, the majority of the inhabitants of Persia have, to a
varying extent, accepted the Babist faith. In the great towns of Europe,
America, and Asia, there are active centers for the propaganda of the liberal
ideas and the doctrine of human community, which form the foundations of
Bahá'íst teaching.
We shall not grasp the full significance of this tendency until we pass from
the description of Bahá'ísm as a theory to that of Bahá'ísm as a practice, for
the core of religion is not metaphysics, but morality.
The Bahá'íst ethical code is dominated by the law of love taught by Jesus and
by all the prophets. In the thousand and one details of practical life, this
law is subject to manifold interpretations. That of Bahá'u'lláh
is unquestionably one of the most comprehensive of these, one of the most
exalted, one of the most satisfactory to the modern mind....
Page 26
That is why Bahá'u'lláh is a severe critic of the patriotism
which plays so large a part in the national life of our day. Love of our native
land is legitimate, but this love must not be exclusive. A man should love his
country more than he loves his house (this is the dogma held by every patriot);
but Bahá'u'lláh adds that he should love the divine world more
than he loves his country. From this standpoint, patriotism is seen to be an
intermediate stage on the road of renunciation, an incomplete and hybrid
religion, something we have to get beyond. Throughout his life
Bahá'u'lláh regarded the ideal universal peace as one of the most
important of his aims....
Bahá'u'lláh is in this respect enunciating a novel and fruitful
idea. There is a better way of dealing with social evils than by trying to cure
them after they have come to pass. We should try to prevent them by removing
their causes, which act on the individual, and especially on the child. Nothing
can be more plastic than the nature of the child. The government's first duty
must be to provide for the careful and efficient education of children,
remembering that education is something more than instruction. This will be an
enormous step towards the solution of the social problem, and to take such a
step will be the first task of the Baytu'l-'Ad'l (House of Justice). "It is
ordained upon every father to rear his son or his daughter by means of the
sciences, the arts, and all the commandments; and if any one should neglect to
do so, then the members of the council, should the offender be a wealthy man,
must levy from him the sum necessary for the education of his child. When the
neglectful parent is poor, the cost of the necessary education must be borne by
the council, which will provide a refuge for the unfortunate."
The Baytu'l-'Ad'l, likewise, must prepare the way for the establishment of
universal peace, doing this by organizing courts of arbitration and by
influencing the governments. Long before the Esperantists had begun their
campaign, and more than twenty years before Nicholas II had summoned the first
Hague congress, Bahá'u'lláh was insisting on the need for a
universal language and courts of arbitration. He returns to these matters again
and again: "Let all the nations become one in faith, and let all men be
brothers, in order that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of
men may be strengthened.... What harm can there be in that? ... It is going to
happen. There will be an end to sterile conflicts, to ruinous
Page 27
wars; and the Great Peace will come!" Such were the words of
Bahá'u'lláh in 1890, two years before his death.
While adopting and developing the Christian law of love,
Bahá'u'lláh rejected the Christian principle of asceticism. He
discountenanced the machinations which were a nightmare of the Middle Ages, and
whose evil effects persist even in our own days....
Bahá'ísm, then, is an ethical system, a system of social morality. But it
would be a mistake to regard Bahá'íst teaching as a collection of abstract
rules imposed from without. Bahá'ísm is permeated with a sane and noble
mysticism; nothing could be more firmly rooted in the inner life, more benignly
spiritual; nothing could speak more intimately to the soul, in low tones, and
as if from within....
Such is the new voice that sounds to us from Asia such is the new dawn in the
East. We should give them our close attention; we should abandon our customary
mood of disdainful superiority. Doubtless, Bahá'u'lláh's teaching
is not definitive. The Persian prophet does not offer it to us as such. Nor can
we Europeans assimilate all of it; for modern science leads us to make certain
claims in matters of thought-claims we cannot relinquish, claims we should not
try to forego. But even though Bahá'u'lláh's precepts (like those
of the Gospels) may not fully satisfy all these intellectual demands, they are
rarely in conflict with our scientific outlooks. If they are to become our own
spiritual food, they must be supplemented, they must be relived by the
religious spirits of Europe, must be rethought by minds schooled in the Western
mode of thought. But, in its existing form, Bahá'íst teaching may serve, amid
our present chaos, to open for us a road leading to solace and to comfort; may
restore our confidence in the spiritual destiny of man. It reveals to us how
the human mind is in travail; it gives us an inkling of the fact that the
greatest happenings of the day are not the ones we were inclined to regard as
the most momentous, not the ones which are making the loudest noise.
----------------
DR. HENRY H. JESSUP, D.D.
From the World Parliament of Religion; Volume II, 13th Day,
under Criticism and Discussion of Missionary Methods, page 1122. At the
Columbian Exposition of 1893, at Chicago. Edited by the Rev. John Henry
Barrows, D.D.(The Parliament Publishing Company, Chicago, 1893.)
This, then, is our mission: that we who are made in the image of God
should remember that all men are made in God's image. To this divine knowledge
we owe all we are, all we hope for. We are
Page 28
rising gradually toward that image, and we owe to our fellow men to aid them in
returning to it in the Glory of God and the Beauty of Holmes [sic]. It is a
celestial privilege and with it comes a high responsibility, from which there
is no escape.
In the Palace of Bahjí , or Delight, just outside the Fortress of
'Akká, on the Syrian coast, there died a few months since, a famous
Persian sage, the Bábí Saint, named Bahá'u'lláh-the
"Glory of God"-the head of that vast reform party of Persian Muslims, who
accept the New Testament as the Word of God and Christ as the Deliverer of men,
who regard all nations as one, and all men as brothers. Three years ago he was
visited by a Cambridge scholar and gave utterance to sentiments so noble, so
Christlike, that we repeat them as our closing words:
"That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the
bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened;
that diversity of religions should cease and differences of race be annulled.
What harm is there in this? Yet so it shall be. These fruitless strifes, these
ruinous wars shall pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come. Do not you
in Europe need this also? Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his
country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind."
----------------
BY THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL CURZON
Excerpts from Persia, Vol. 1, pages 496-594. (Written in
1892.)
Beauty and the female sex also lent their consecration to the new
creed and the heroism of the lovely but ill-fated Poetess of Qazvin, Zarrin-Taj
(Crown of Gold) or Qurratu'l-'Ayn (Solace of the Eyes), who, throwing off the
veil, carried the missionary torch far and wide, is one of the most affecting
episodes in modern history.
The lowest estimate places the present number of Bábís in Persia
at half a million. I am disposed to think, from conversations with persons well
qualified to judge, that the total is nearer one million. They are to be found
in every walk of life, from the ministers and nobles of the Court to the
scavenger or the groom, not the least arena of their activity being the
Mussulman priesthood itself. It will have been noticed that the movement was
initiated by Siyyids, Hajis and Mullas, i.e., persons who, either by descent,
from pious inclination, or by profession, were intimately concerned with the
Muhammadan creed; and it is among even the professed votaries of
Page 29
the faith that they continue to make their converts.... Quite recently the
Bábís have had great success in the camp of another enemy, having
secured many proselytes among the Jewish populations of the Persian towns. I
hear that during the past year (1891) they are reported to have made 150 Jewish
converts in Tihran, 100 in Hamadan, 50 in Kashan, and 75 per cent of the Jews
at Gulpayigan.... The two victims [sic], whose names were Haji Mirza Hasan and
Haji Mirza Husayn, have been renamed by the Bábís-
Sultanu'sh-Shuhada', or King of Martyrs, and Mahbubu'sh-Shuhada', or Beloved of
Martyrs-and their naked graves in the cemetery have become places of pilgrimage
where many a tear is shed over the fate of the "Martyrs of Isfahan."
It is these little incidents, protruding from time to time their ugly
features, that prove Persia to be not as yet quite redeemed, and that somewhat
staggers the tall talkers about Iranian civilization. If one conclusion more
than another has been forced upon our notice by the retrospect in which I have
indulged, it is that a sublime and unmurmuring devotion has been inculcated by
this new faith, whatever it be. There is, I believe, but one instance of a
Bábí having recanted under pressure of menace of suffering, and
he reverted to the faith and was executed within two years. Tales of
magnificent heroism illumine the bloodstained pages of Bábí
history. Ignorant and unlettered as many of its votaries are, and have been,
they are yet prepared to die for their religion, and fires of Smithfield did
not kindle a nobler courage than has met and defied the more refined
torture-mongers of Tihran. Of no small account, then, must be the tenets of a
creed that can awaken in its followers so rare and beautiful a spirit of
self-sacrifice. From the facts that Babiism in its earliest years found itself
in conflict with the civil powers and that an attempt was made by
Bábís upon the life of the Shah, it has been wrongly inferred
that the movement was political in origin and Nihilist in character. It does
not appear from a study of the writings either of the Báb or his
successors, that there is any foundation for such a suspicion.... The charge of
immorality seems to have arisen partly from the malignant inventions of
opponents, partly from the much greater freedom claimed for women by the
Báb, which in the oriental mind is scarcely dissociable from profligacy
of conduct.... if Babiism continues to grow at its present rate of progression,
a time may conceivably come when it will oust Muhammadanism from the field in
Persia.... Since its recruits are won from the best soldiers of the garrison
whom it is attacking, there is greater reason to believe that it may ultimately
Page 30
prevail.... The pure and suffering life of the Báb, his ignominious
death, the heroism and martyrdom of his followers, will appeal to many others
who can find no similar phenomena in the contemporaneous records of
Islam....
----------------
BY SIR FRANCIS YOUNGHUSBAND
Excerpts from The Gleam. (1923.)
The story of the Báb, as Mirza 'Ali-Muhammad called
himself, was the story of spiritual heroism unsurpassed in Svabhava's
experience; and his own adventurous soul was fired by it. That a youth of no
social influence and no education should, by the simple power of insight, be
able to pierce into the heart of things and see the real truth, and then hold
on to it with such firmness of conviction and present it with such suasion that
he was able to convince men that he was the Messiah and get them to follow him
to death itself, was one of those splendid facts in human history that Svabhava
loved to meditate on. This was a true hero whom he would wish to emulate and
whose experiences he would profit by. The Báb's passionate sincerity
could not be doubted, for he had given his life for his faith. And that there
must be something in his message that appealed to men and satisfied their
souls, was witnessed to by the fact that thousands gave their lives in his
cause and millions now follow him.
If a young man could, in only six years of ministry, by the sincerity of his
purpose and the attraction of his personality, so inspire rich and poor,
cultured and illiterate, alike, with belief in himself and his doctrines that
they would remain staunch, though hunted down and without trial sentenced to
death, sawn asunder, strangled, shot, blown from guns and if men of high
position and culture in Persia, Turkey and Egypt in numbers to this day adhere
to his doctrines, his life must be one of those events in the last hundred
years which is really worth study. And that study fortunately has been made by
the Frenchman Gobineau and by Professor E. G. Browne, so that we are able to
have a faithful representation of its main features.... Thus, in only his
thirtieth year, in the year 1850, ended the heroic career of a true God-man. Of
the sincerity of his conviction that he was God-appointed, the manner of his
death is the amplest possible proof. In the belief that he would thereby save
others from the error of their present beliefs he willingly sacrificed
Page 31
his life. And of his power of attaching men to him, the passionate devotion of
hundreds and even thousands of men who gave their lives in his cause is
convincing testimony....
He himself was but "a letter out of that most mighty book, a dewdrop from that
limitless ocean." The One to come would reveal all mysteries and all riddles.
This was the humility of true insight. And it has had its effect. His movement
has grown and expanded, and it has yet a great future before it.
During his six years of ministry, four of which were spent in captivity, he
had permeated all Persia with his ideas. And since his death the movement has
spread to Turkey, Egypt, India and even into Europe and America. His adherents
are now numbered by millions. "The Spirit which pervades them," says Professor
Browne, "is such that it cannot fail to affect most powerfully all subject to
its influence."
2.
For many years I have been interested in the rise and progress
of the Bahá'í Movement. Its roots go deep down into the past and
yet it looks far forward into the future. It realizes and preaches the oneness
of mankind. And I have noticed how ardently its followers work for the
furtherance of peace and for the general welfare of mankind. God must be with
them and their success therefore assured. Excerpts from Modern Mystic. (1935,
p. 142.)
3.
This martyrdom of the Báb took place on July 9, 1850,
thirty-one years from the date of his birth.
His body was dead. His spirit lived on. Husayn had been slain in battle.
Quddus had been done to death in captivity. But Bahá'u'lláh
lived. The One who shall be made manifest was alive. And in him and in others
had been engendered such love for the Báb and what he stood for as, in
the words of the chronicler, no eye had ever beheld nor mortal heart conceived:
if branches of every tree were turned into pens, and all the seas into ink, and
Earth and Heaven rolled into one parchment, the immensity of that love would
still remain untold. This love for the Cause still survived. And it was
sufficient. Bahá'u'lláh was, indeed, despoiled of his
possessions, deserted by his friends, driven into exile from his native land
and, even in exile, confined to his house. But in him the Cause was still
alive- and more than alive, purified and ennobled by the fiery trials through
which it had passed.
Page 32
Under the wise control, and direction of Bahá'u'lláh from his
prison-house, first at Baghdad and then at 'Akká in Syria, there grew
what is now known as the Bahá'í Movement which, silently
propagating itself, has now spread to Europe and America as well as to India
and Egypt, while the bodily remains of the Báb, long secretly guarded,
now find a resting-place on Mount Carmel in a Tomb-shrine, which is a place of
pilgrimage to visitors from all over the world.
Excerpt from The Christian Commonwealth, January 22, 1913:
"'Abdu'l-Bahá at Oxford"
'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed a large and deeply interested
audience at Manchester College, Oxford, on December 31. The Persian leader
spoke in his native tongue, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab interpreting. Principal Estlin
Carpenter presided, and introduced the speaker by saying that they owed the
honor and pleasure of meeting 'Abdu'l-Bahá to their revered friend, Dr.
Cheyne, who was deeply interested in Bahá'í teaching. The
movement sprung up during the middle of the last century in Persia, with the
advent of a young Muhammadan who took to himself the title of the Báb
(meaning door or gate, through which men could arrive at the knowledge or truth
of God), and who commenced teaching in Persia in the year 1844. The purity of
his character, the nobility of his words, aroused great enthusiasm. He was,
however, subjected to great hostility by the authorities, who secured his
arrest and imprisonment, and he was finally executed in 1850. But the movement
went on, and the writings of the Báb, which had been copious, were
widely read. The movement has been brought into India, Europe, and the United
States. It does not seek to create a new sect, but to inspire all sects with a
deep fundamental love. The late Dr. Jowett once said to him that he had been so
deeply impressed with the teachings and character of the Báb that he
thought Babiism, as the present movement was then known, might become the
greatest religious movement since the birth of Christ.
----------------
BY REV. J. TYSSUL DAVIS, B.A.
Quotation from A League of Religions. Excerpts from Chapter X:
"Bahá'ísm-The Religion of Reconciliation."
(The Lindsey Press, London, England.)
The Bahá'í religion has made its way . . .
because it meets the needs of its day. It fits the larger outlook of our time
better than the rigid exclusive older faiths. A characteristic is its
unexpected
Page 33
liberality and toleration. It accepts all the great religions as true, and
their scriptures as inspired. The Bahá'ísts bid the followers of these faiths
disentangle from the windings of racial, particularist, local prejudices, the
vital, immortal thread, the pure gospel of eternal worth, and to apply this
essential element of life. Instances are quoted of people being recommended to
work within the older faiths, to remain, vitalizing them upon the principles of
the new faith. They cannot fear new facts, new truths as the Creed defenders
must. They believe in a progressive revelation. They admit the cogency of
modern criticism and allow that God is in His nature incomprehensible, but is
to be known through His Manifestations. Their ethical ideal is very high and is
of the type we Westerners have learnt to designate "Christlike." "What does he
do to his enemies that he makes them his friends?" was asked concerning the
late leader. What astonishes the student is not anything in the ethics or
philosophy of this movement, but the extraordinary response its ideal has
awakened in such numbers of people, the powerful influence this standard
actually exerts on conduct. It is due to four things: (I) It makes a call on
the Heroic Element in Man. It offers no bribe. It bids men endure, give up,
carry the cross. It calls them to sacrifice, to bear torture, to suffer
martyrdom, to brave death. (2) It offers liberty of thought. Even upon such a
vital question as immortality it will not bind opinion. Its atmosphere is one
of trust and hope, not of dogmatic chill. (3) It is a religion of love.
"Notwithstanding the interminable catalogue of extreme and almost incredible
sufferings and privations which this heroic band of men and women have
endured-more terrible than many martyrdoms-there is not a trace of resentment
or bitterness to be observed among them. One would suppose that they were the
most fortunate of the people among whom they live, as indeed they do certainly
consider themselves, in that they have been permitted to live near their
beloved Lord, beside which they count their sufferings as nothing" (Whelps).
Love for the Master, love for the brethren, love for the neighbors, love for
the alien, love for all humanity, love for all life, love for God-the old,
well-tried way trod once before in Syria, trodden again. (4) It is a religion
in harmony with science. It has here the advantage of being thirteen centuries
later than Islam. This new dispensation has been tried in the furnace, and has
not been found wanting. It has been proved valid by the lives of those who have
endured all things on its behalf. Here is something more appealing than its
logic and rational philosophy. "To the Western observer" (writes Prof. Browne),
"it is the complete sincerity of the
Page 34
Bábís, their fearless disregard of death and torture undergone
for the sake of their religion, their certain conviction as to the truth of
their faith, their generally admirable conduct toward mankind, especially
toward their fellow-believers, which constitute their strongest claim on his
attention."
"By their fruits shall ye know them! " We cannot but address to this youthful
religion an All Hail! of welcome. We cannot fail to see in its activity another
proof of the living witness in our own day of the working of the sleepless
spirit of God in the hearts of men, for He cannot rest, by the necessity of His
nature, until He heath made in conscious reality, as in power, the whole world
His own.
----------------
BY HERBERT PUTNAM Librarian of Congress
The dominant impression that survives in my memory of
'Abdu'l-Bahá is that of an extraordinary nobility: physically, in the
head so massive yet so finely poised, and the modeling of the features; but
spiritually, in the serenity of expression, and the suggestion of grave and
responsible meditation in the deeper lines of the face. But there was also, in
his complexion, carriage, and expression, an assurance of the complete health
which is a requisite of a sane judgment. And when, as in a lighter mood, his
features relaxed into the playful, the assurance was added of a sense of humor
without which there is no true sense of proportion. I have never met any one
concerned with the philosophies of life whose judgment might seem so reliable
in matters of practical conduct.
My regret is that my meetings with him were so few and that I could not
benefit by a lengthier contact with a personality combining a dignity so
impressive with human traits so engaging.
I wish that he could be multiplied!
----------------
BY LEO TOLSTOY
Translated from a letter to Mme. Isabel Grinevskaya, Oct. 22,
1903
I am very glad that Mr. V. V. Stassov has told you of the good
impression which your book has made on me, and I thank you for sending it.
I have known about the Bábís for a long time, and have always
been interested in their teachings. It seems to me that these teachings,
Page 35
as well as all the rationalistic social religious teachings that have arisen
lately out of the original teachings of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Judaism,
Christianity and Islam distorted by the priests, have a great future for this
very reason that these teachings, discarding all these distorting incrustations
that cause division, aspire to unite into one common religion of all
mankind.
Therefore, the teachings of the Bábís, inasmuch as they have
rejected the old Muhammadan superstitions and have not established new
superstitions which would divide them from other new superstitions
(unfortunately something of the kind is noticed in the exposition of the
Teachings of the Báb), and inasmuch as they keep to the principal
fundamental ideas of brotherhood, equality and love, have a great future before
them.
In the Muhammadan religion there has been lately going on an intensive
spiritual movement. I know that one such movement is centered in the French
colonies in Africa, and has its name (I do not remember it), and its prophet.
Another movement exists in India, Lahore, and also has its prophet and
publishes its paper "Review of Religions."
Both these religious teachings contain nothing new, neither do they have for
their principal object a changing of the outlook of the people and thus do not
change the relationship between the people, as is the case with Babiism, though
not so much in its theory (Teachings of the Báb) as in the practice of
life as far as I know it. I therefore sympathize with Babiism with all my heart
inasmuch as it teaches people brotherhood and equality and sacrifice of
material life for service to God.
Translated from a letter to Frid ul Khan Wadelbekow (This communication is
dated 1908 and is found among epistles written to Caucasian Muhammadans.)
In answer to your letter which questions how one should understand the term
God. I send you a collection of writings from my literary and reading club, in
which some thoughts upon the nature of God are included. In my opinion if we
were to free ourselves from all false conception of God we should, whether as
Christians or Muhammadans, free ourselves entirely from picturing God as a
personality. The conception which then seems to me to be the best for meeting
the requirements of reason and heart is found in 4th chap. St. John, 7-12-15
that means God is love. It therefore follows that God lives in us according to
the measure or
Page 36
capacity of each soul to express His nature. This thought is implicit more or
less clearly in all religions, and therefore in Muhammadanism.
Concerning your second question upon what awaits us after death I can only
reply that on dying we return to God from whose Life we came. God, however,
being Love we can on going over expect God only.
Concerning your third question, I answer that so far as I understand Islam,
like all other religions Brahmanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, etc., it contains
great basic truths but that these have become corrupted by superstitions, and
coarse interpretations and filled with unnecessary legendic descriptions. I
have had much help in my researches to get clear upon Muhammadanism by a
splendid little book "The sayings of Muhammad."
The teachings of the Bábís which come to us out of Islam have
through Bahá'u'lláh's teachings been gradually developed and now
present us with the highest and purest form of religious teaching.
----------------
BY DR. EDMUND PRIVAT
The practical and spiritual understanding between nations, the
realization of the unity of mankind above all barriers of language and
religion, the feeling of responsibility towards all who suffer from grief or
injustice, are only different branches of the same central teaching which gives
the Bahá'í Movement such a faithful and active family of workers
in so many countries. [The following passages in French may
contain scanning errors] La superstition l'intolérance et
l'alliance des prêtres avec la tyrannize sevit en Islam comme ailleurs.
La grande lumière s'assombrit dan la fume tenebreuse des forbes vises et
des passions fanatiques. Il y a plusieurs foss des revels et des retours a la
purée du message.
Chez nous, en Perse, le Báb recut en saint et mourut en martyr à
Tabriz, il y a près d'un siècle. Bahá'u'lláh lui
succéda, exile de Perse emprisonné par le sultan turc. Il
proclamait comme l'unité divine exclut les rivalités. La
soumission à Dieu doit rapprocher les Hommes. Si la religion les
sépare, c'est qu'elle a Perdu son principal sens.
Page 37
En plein milieu du dix-neuvième siècle, au temps des Lamartine
et des Victor Hugo, le grand saint musulman fixate au Bahá'í, ses
disciples, un programme et des principes plus actuels que jamais....
L'Islam a toujours proclamé ce dogme avec majesté, mais les
religions luttent en brandissant le nom d'un prophète où d'un
autre, au lieu d'insister sur leur enseignement, qui pourrait les rapprocher.
Bahá'u'lláh tachait de faire tombed les Paris, non pas
Mahometisme avant tout, mais vraiment Islam, c'est-a-dire soumission commune
à la volonté suprème.
On ne parlait alors ni d'un Wilson, ni d'un Zamenhof, mais l'exile de
Bahá'í montrait aux genérations futures le chemin qu'elles
devaient prendre. Son fils 'Abdu'l-Bahá repandit plus tard son message
en Europe et en Amérique. Meme un libre penseur comme Auguste Forel s'y
rallia de grand coeur. Le circle apical des Bahá'í s'étend
autour du mode.
En Perse, un million d'entre eux soutiennent des écoles fameuses den le
pays. (From La Sagelle de l'Orient, Chap. Ill)
----------------
BY DR. AUGUSTE FOREL
J'avais écrit les lingnes comme précèdent
en 1912. Comme dois-je ajouter aujourd'hui en aout 1921, après les
horribles guerres qui viennent de mettre l'humanité à feu et
à sang, tout en dévoilant plus que jamais la térrible
férocité de nos passions haineuses? Riven, si non que nous devon
demurer d'autant plus fermes, d'autant plus inébranables Dan notre lutte
pour le bien social. Nos enfants ne doivent pas se décourager ils
doivent au contraire profiter du chaos mondial actual pour aider à la
penile organization superieure et supranational de l'humanité, à
l'aide d'une fédération universelle des peuples.
En 1920 seulement, j'ai appris à connâitre, a Karlsruhe, la
religion supraconfessionnelle et mondiale des Bahá'ís fondue en Orient par le
person Bahá'u'lláh, il y a 70 ans. C'est la vraie religion du
bien social human, sans dogmes, ni prêtres, reliant entre eux tous les
hommes sûr notre petit globe terrestre. Je suis devenu
Bahá'í. Comme cette religion vive et prosper pour le bien de
l'humanité c'est la mon voeux le plus ardent.... (Excerpt from Dr
Auguste Forel's Will)
Page 38
BY GENERAL RENATO PIOLA CASELLI
Having been engaged all of his life in the training of men, he
does this (i.e., write on the subject of religion) more as a "shepherd of a
flock" might do, in hope of persuading his friends and brothers to turn
spontaneously to the Illumined Path of the Great Revelation.
----------------
BY FREDERICK W. OAKES
The Enlightener of human minds in respect to their religious
foundations and privileges is of such vital importance that no one is safe who
does not stop and listen for its quiet meaning, and is to the mind of men, as
the cooling breeze that unseen passes its breath over the varying leaves of a
tree. Watch it! And see how uniformly, like an unseen hand passing caressingly
over all its leaves: Full of tender care and even in its gifts of love and
greater life: Caresses each leaf. Such it is to one who has seated himself amid
the flowers and fruit trees in the Garden Beautiful at 'Akká, just
within the circle of that Holy and Blessed shrine where rests the Mortal part
of the Great Enlightener. His handiwork is there, you touch the fruit and
flowers his hand gave new life's hopes to, and kneeling as I did beside Shoghi
Effendi, Guardian of the Marvelous Manifestation, felt the spirit's immortal
love of Him who rests there. While I could not speak the words of the Litany,
my soul knew the wondrous meaning, for every word was a word of the soul's
language that speaks of the Eternal love and care of the Eternal Father. So
softly and so living were the reflections from his beautiful personality, that
one needed not spoken words to be interpreted. And this Pilgrim came away
renewed and refreshed to such a degree, that the hard bands of formalism were
replaced by the freedom of love and light that will ever make that sojourn
there the prize memory and the Door of revelation never to be closed again, and
never becloud the glorious Truth of Universal Brotherhood. A calm, and glorious
influence that claims the heart and whispers to each of the pulsing leaves of
the great family in all experiences of life, "Be not afraid. It is I!"-And
makes us long to help all the world to know the meaning of those words spoken
by The Great Revealer, "Let us strive with heart and soul that unity may dwell
in the world." And to catch the greatness of the word "Strive," in quietness
and reflection.
Page 39
BY RENWICK J. G. MILLAR
Editor of John O'Groat Journal, Wick, Scotland
I was in Chicago for only some ten days, yet it would take a
hundred chapters to describe all the splendid sights and institutions I was
privileged to see. No doubt Chicago has more than its fair share of alien
gangsters and gunmen, and the despicable doings of this obnoxious class has
badly vitiated its civic life and reputation. But for all that it is a
magnificent city-in many respects probably the finest in America; a city of
which its residents have innumerable reasons to be proud....
Every day indeed was filled up with sightseeing and the enjoyment of lavish
hospitality. One day, for example, I was entertained to lunch at the Illinois
Athletic Club as the guest of Mr. Robert Black, a prosperous Scot belonging to
Wigtonshire, who is in the building trade. He is an ex-president of the St.
Andrew's Society. Mr. Falconer and other Scots friends were present, and they
were all exceedingly kind and complimentary. I could not, in short, have been
treated with more distinction if I had been a prominent Minister of State
instead of a humble Scottish journalist out on a mission of fraternity and good
will.
On the same day I met by appointment Mr. Albert R. Windust with whom I went
out to see the Bahá'í Temple which is in course of being erected
at Wilmette, a suburb of Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan. It is about an
hour's ride out on the elevated railway. Only the foundation and basement have
so far been constructed, and the work was meanwhile stopped, but, we understand
is now shortly to be resumed. I have no hesitation in saying that when
completed this Temple will be one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture
in the world. I had the privilege of an introduction to the architect, a
Frenchman, M. Bourgeois, who speaks English fluently. We spent a considerable
time with him in his beautiful studio overlooking the Lake, and he did me the
honour of showing me the plans of the Temple, drawings which cost him years of
toil, and they are far beyond anything I could have imagined in beauty and
spiritual significance. M. Bourgeois, who is well advanced in years, is a
genius and mystic-a gentleman of charming personality. In all that I had the
pleasure of seeing in his studio I had a privilege that is given to few. My
signature is in his personal book, which contains the names of some of the
great ones of the earth! Mr. Windust, who is a leading Bahá'í in
the city, is a quiet and humble man, but full of fine ideas and ideals. He
treated me with
Page 40
the utmost brotherly courtesy. How is it, I kept asking myself, that it should
be mine to have all this privilege and honour? There was no reason save that
they told me I had touched the chords of truth and sincerity in referring to
and reviewing the Bahá'í writings and principles in a few short
articles in this Journal. The Temple is designed to represent these
principles-universal religion, universal brotherhood, universal education, and
the union of science and religion. Meantime, the Chicagoans are seemingly
indifferent to all its spiritual significance; but some day they will wake up
to a realisation of the fact that its symbolism will mark the city as one of
destiny in the world.
----------------
BY CHARLES H. PRISK
Editor, Pasadena Star News
Humanity is the better, the nobler, for the
Bahá'í Faith. It is a Faith that enriches the soul; that takes
from life its dross.
I am prompted thus to express myself because of what I have seen, what I have
heard, what I have read of the results of the Movement founded by the Reverend
Bahá'u'lláh. Embodied within that Movement is the spirit of world
brotherhood; that brotherhood that makes for unity of thought and action.
Though not a member of the Bahá'í Faith, I sense its tremendous
potency for good. Ever is it helping to usher in the dawn of the day of "Peace
on Earth Good Will to Men." By the spread of its teachings, the
Bahá'í cause is slowly, yet steadily, making the Golden Rule a
practical reality.
With the high idealism of Bahá'u'lláh as its guide, the
Bahá'í Faith is as the shining light that shineth more and more
unto the perfect day. Countless are its good works. For example, to the
pressing economic problems it gives a new interpretation, a new solution. But
above all else it is causing peoples everywhere to realize they are as one, by
heart and spirit divinely united.
And so I find joy in paying this little tribute to a cause that is adding to
the sweetness, the happiness, the cleanness of life.
----------------
BY PROF. HARI PRASAD SHASTRI, D.LITT.
My contact with the Bahá'í Movement and my acquaintance
with its teachings, given by Hadrat-i-Bahá'u'lláh, have filled me
with real joy, as I see that this Movement, so cosmopolitan in its
Page 41
appeal, and so spiritual in its advocacy of Truth, is sure to bring peace and
joy to the hearts of millions.
Free from metaphysical subtleties, practical in its outlook, above all
sectarianism, and based on God, the substratum of the human soul and the
phenomenal world, the Bahá'í Movement carries peace and
illumination with it.
As long as it is kept free from orthodoxy and church-spirit, and above
personalities, it will continue to be a blessing to its followers.
----------------
BY SHRI PUROHIT SWAMI
I am in entire sympathy with all of the principles that the
Bahá'í Movement stands for; there is nothing which is contrary to
what I am preaching. I think at this stage of the world such teachings are
needed more than anything else. I find the keynote of the Teachings is the
spiritual regeneration of the world. The world is getting more and more
spiritually bankrupt every day, and if it requires anything it requires
spiritual life. The Bahá'í Movement stands above all caste, creed
and color and is based on pure spiritual unity.
----------------
BY PROF. HERBERT A. MILLER
In World Unity Magazine
The central drive of the Bahá'í Movement is for
human unity. It would secure this through unprejudiced search for truth, making
religion conform to scientific discovery and insisting that fundamentally all
religions are alike. For the coming of universal peace, there is great
foresight and wisdom as to details. Among other things there should be a
universal language, so the Bahá'ís take a great interest in Esperanto though
they do not insist on it as the ultimate language. No other religious movement
has put so much emphasis on the emancipation and education of women. Everyone
should work whether rich or poor and poverty should be abolished....What will
be the course of the Bahá'í Movement no one can prophesy, but I
think it is no exaggeration to claim that the program is the finest fruit of
the religious contribution of Asia.
Shoghi Effendi's statement cannot be improved upon. The Bahá'ís have had the
soundest position on the race question of any religion. They not only accept
the scientific conclusions but
Page 42
they also implement them with spiritual force. This latter is necessary because
there is no other way to overcome the emotional element which is basic in the
race problem....
I have not said enough perhaps in the first paragraph. Please add the
following: The task of learning to live together, though different, is the most
difficult and the most imperative that the world faces. The economic problem
will be relatively easy in comparison. There are differences in the qualities
of cultures but there are no differences in qualities of races that correspond.
This being recognized by minorities leads them to resist methods of force to
keep them in subordination. There is no solution except cooperation and the
granting of self-respect.
----------------
BY VISCOUNT SAMUEL, G.C.B., M.P.
In John O'Lonlon's Weekly, March 2sth, 1933.
It is possible indeed to pick out points of fundamental
agreement among all creeds. That is the essential purpose of the
Bahá'í Religion, the foundation and growth of which is one of the
most striking movements that have proceeded from the East in recent
generations.
If one were compelled to choose which of the many religious communities of the
world was closest to the aim and purpose of this Congress, I think one would be
obliged to say that it was the comparatively little known Bahá'í
Community. Other faiths and creeds have to consider, at a Congress like this,
in what way they can contribute to the idea of world fellowship. But the
Bahá'í Faith exists almost for the sole purpose of contributing
to the fellowship and the unity of mankind.
Other communities may consider how far a particular element of their
respective faith may be regarded as similar to those of other communities, but
the Bahá'í Faith exists for the purpose of combining in one
synthesis all those elements in the various faiths which are held in common.
And that is why I suggest that this Bahá'í community is really
more in agreement with the main idea which has led to the summoning of the
Congress than any particular one of the great religious communities of the
world.
Its origin was in Persia where a mystic prophet, who took the name of the
Báb, the "Gate," began a mission among the Persians
Page 43
in the earlier part of the nineteenth century. He collected a considerable
number of adherents. His activities were regarded with apprehension by the
Government of Persia of that day. Finally, he and his leading disciples were
seized by the forces of the Persian Government and were shot in the year 1850.
In spite of the persecution, the movement spread in Persia and in many
countries of Islam. He was followed as the head of the Community by the one who
has been its principal prophet and exponent, Bahá'u'lláh. He was
most active and despite persecution and imprisonment made it his life's mission
to spread the creed which he claimed to have received by direct divine
revelation. He died in 1892 and was succeeded as the head of the Community by
his son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who was born in 1844. He was living in Haifa, in
a simple house, when I went there as High Commissioner in 1920, and I had the
privilege of one or two most interesting conversations with him on the
principles and methods of the Bahá'í Faith. He died in 1921 and
his obsequies were attended by a great concourse of people. I had the honour of
representing His Majesty the King on that occasion.
Since that time, the Bahá'í Faith has secured the support of a
very large number of communities throughout the world. At the present time it
is estimated that there are about eight hundred Bahá'í
communities in various countries. In the United States, near Chicago, a great
Temple, now approaching completion, has been erected by American adherents of
the Faith, with assistance from elsewhere. Shoghi Effendi, the grandson of
'Abdu'l-Bahá, is now the head of the community. He came to England and
was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, but now lives in Haifa, and is the
center of a community which has spread throughout the world. (Introductory
address delivered at the Bahá'í session of the World Congress of
Faiths, held in London, July, 1936.)
3.
Letter from Lord Samuel of Carmel.-G.C.B., C.B.E.
In 1920 I was appointed as the first High Commissioner for
Palestine under the British Mandate, and took an early opportunity of paying a
visit to 'Abdu'l-Bahá Effendi at his home in Haifa.
I had for some time been interested in the Bahá'í Movement, and
felt privileged by the opportunity of making the acquaintance of its head. I
had also an official reason as well as a personal one. 'Abdu'l-Bahá had
been persecuted by the Turks.
A British regime had now been substituted in Palestine for the Turkish.
Toleration and respect for all religions had long been a
Page 44
principle of British rule wherever it extended; and the visit of the High
Commissioner was intended to be a sign to the population that the adherents of
every creed would be able to feel henceforth that they enjoyed the respect and
could count upon the good will of the new Government of the land.
I was impressed, as was every visitor, by 'Abdu'l-Bahá's dignity, grace
and charm. Of moderate stature, his strong features and lofty expression lent
to his personality an appearance of majesty. In our conversation he readily
explained and discussed the principal tenets of Bahá'í, answered
my inquiries and listened to my comments. I remember vividly that friendly
interview of sixteen years ago, in the simple room of the villa, surrounded by
gardens, on the sunny hillside of Mount Carmel.
I was glad I had paid my visit so soon, for in 1921 'Abdu'l-Bahá died.
I was only able to express my respect for his creed and my regard for his
person by coming from the capital to attend his funeral. A great throng had
gathered together, sorrowing for his death, but rejoicing also for his life.
----------------
BY REV. K. T. CHUNG
Last summer upon my return from a visit to Japan, I had the
pleasure of meeting Mrs. Keith Ransom-Kehler on the boat. It was learnt that
this lady is a teacher of the Bahá'í Cause, so we conversed upon
various subjects of human life very thoroughly. It was soon found that what the
lady imparted to me came from the source of Truth as I have felt inwardly all
along, so I at once realized that the Bahá'í Faith can offer
numerous and profound benefits to mankind.
My senior, Mr. Y. S. Tsao, is a well-read man. His mental capacity and deep
experience are far above the average man. He often said that during this period
of our country when old beliefs have lost their hold upon the people, it is
absolutely necessary to seek a religion of all-embracing Truth which may exert
its powerful influence in saving the situation. For the last ten years, he has
investigated indefatigably into the teachings of the Bahá'í
Cause. Recently, he has completed his translations of the book on the New Era
and showed me a copy of the proof. After carefully reading it, I came to the
full realization that the Truth as imparted to me by Mrs. Ransom-Kehler is
veritable and unshakeable. This Truth of great value to mankind has been
eminently translated by Mr. Tsao
Page 45
and now the Chinese people have the opportunity of reading it, and I cannot but
express my profound appreciation for the same.
Should the Truth of the Bahá'í Faith be widely disseminated
among the Chinese people, it will naturally lead to the coming of the Kingdom
of Heaven. Should everybody again exert his efforts towards the extension of
this beneficent influence throughout the world, it will then bring about world
peace and the general welfare of humanity. (From Rev. K. T. Chung's Preface to
the Chinese version of Dr. Esslemont's Book.)
----------------
BY PROF. DIMITRY KAZAROV
University, Sofia Bulgaria
[The following passages in French may contain scanning
errors] Une des causes principales de la situation actuelle du
monde c'est que l'humanité est trop en arrière encore dans son
développement spirituel. Voilà pourquoi tout enseignement qui a
pour but à éveiller et fortifier la conscience morale et
religieuse des hommes est d'une importance capitale pour l'avenir de notre
race. Le Bahá'ísme est un de ces enseignements. Il a ce mérite qu'en
portant des principes qui sont communs de toutes les grandes religions (et
spécialement du christianisme) cherche à les adapter aux
conditions de la vie actuelle et à la psychologie de l'homme moderne. En
outre il travail pour l'union des hommes de toute nationalité et race
dans une conscience morale et religieuse commune. Il n'a pas la
prétention d'être autant une religion nouvelle qu'un trait d'union
entre les grandes religions existantes: ce sur quoi il insiste surtout ce n'est
pas d'abandoner la religion à laquelle nous appartenons déja pour
en chercher une autre, mais à faire un effort pour trouver dans cette
même religion l'element qui nous unit aux autres et d'en faire la force
déterminante de notre conduite toute entière. Cet element (commun
à toutes les grandes religions) c'est la conscience que nous sommes
avant tout des êtres spirituels, unis dans une même entité
spirituelle dont nous ne sommes que des parties-unies entre elles par
l'attribut fondamental de cette entitê spirituelle-à savoir
l'amour. Manifester, realiser, developper chez nous et chez les autres (surtout
chez les enfants) cette conscience de notre nature spirituelle et l'amour comme
son attribut fondamental c'est la chose principale que nous devons poursuivre
avant tout et par toutes les manifestations de notre activité. C'est en
même temps le seul moyen par lequel nous pouvons esperer de realiser une
union tourjours grandissant parmi les hommes.
Page 46
Le Bahá'ísme est un des enseignements qui cherche à éveiller
chez nous n'importe à quelle religion nous appartenons justement cette
conscience de notre nature spirituelle.
Il y a plus de 20 ans un groupe d'hommes et femmes de différentes
nationalités et religions, animés par le désir de
travailler pour l'union des peuples, ont commencé a publier un journal
en esperanto sous le tître "Universala Unigo." Le premier article du
premier numéro de ce journal était consacré au Bahá'ísme
et a son fondateur. Il me semble que ce fait est une preuve éclatante de
ce que je viens de dire sur le Bahá'ísme.
----------------
BY REV. GRIFFITH J. SPARHAM
Highgate Hill Unitarian Christian Church, London, England
In his book "A League of Religions," the Rev. J. Tyssul Davis
formerly minister of the Theistic Church in London, and at present minister of
a Unitarian Church in Bristol, England, the writer sets out to demonstrate that
each great religious movement in the world has contributed something of
peculiar importance to the spiritual life of man. Thus, he says, the great
contribution of Zoroastrianism has been the thought of Purity; of Brahmanism
that of Justice; of Muhammadanism that of Submission; of Christianity that of
Service; and so on. In each instance he lays his finger on the one thing par
excellence for which the particular religious culture seemed to him to stand,
and tries to catch its special contribution in an epigrammatic phrase. Coming,
in this way, to Bahá'ísm, he names it "the Religion of Reconciliation." In his
chapter on Bahá'ísm he says:
"The Bahá'í religion has made its way because it meets the need
of the day. It fits the larger outlook of our time, better than the rigid older
faiths. A characteristic is its unexpected liberality and toleration. It
accepts all the great religions as true and their scriptures as inspired."
These, then, as he sees Bahá'ísm, are its essential features: liberality,
toleration, the spirit of reconciliation; and that, not in the sense, as Mr. H.
G. Wells has it in his "Soul of a Bishop," of making a "collection" of approved
portions of the world's varied and differing creeds, but in the sense, as he
also puts it in the same book, of achieving a great "simplification."
"Bahá'ísts," says Dr. Davis, "bid the followers of these (that is, the
world's) faiths disentangle from the windings of racial, particularist,
Page 47
local prejudices, the vital, immortal thread of the pure gospel of eternal
worth, and to apply this essential element to life."
That is Dr. Davis's interpretation of the genius of Bahá'ísm, and that it is a
true one, no one who has studied Bahá'ísm, even superficially, can question,
least of all the outsider. Indeed one may go further and assert that no one who
has studied Bahá'ísm, whether superficially or otherwise, would wish to
question it; particularly if he approaches the subject from a liberal and
unprejudiced point of view. In the last act of his "Wandering Jew," Mr. Temple
Thurston puts into the mouth of Matteos, the Wandering Jew himself, the
splendid line, "All men are Christians-all are Jews." He might equally well
have written, "All men are Christians-all are Bahá'ís." For, if the sense of
the Unity of Truth is a predominant characteristic of liberally-minded people,
whatever may be their religious tradition, it is predominantly a characteristic
of Bahá'ísm; since here is a religious system based, fundamentally, on the one,
simple, profound, comprehensive doctrine of the unity of God, which carries
with it, as its necessary corollary and consequence, the parallel doctrine of
the unity of Man.
This, at all events, is the conviction of the present writer; and it is why,
as a Unitarian, building his own faith on the same basic principles of divine
and human unity, he has long felt sympathy with and good will toward a
religious culture which stands on a foundation identical with that of the faith
he holds. And a religion that affirms the unity of things must of necessity be
a religion of reconciliation; the truth of which in the case of Bahá'ísm is
clear.
----------------
BY ERNEST RENAN
Passage tiré de Renan "Les Apôtres, P." Edition
Levy, Paris, 1866
[The following passages in French may contain
scanning errors] Notre siècle a vu des mouvements
religieux tout aussi extraordinaires que ceux d'autrefois, mouvements qui ont
provoqué autant d'enthousiasme, qui ont eu deja, proportion
gardée, plus de martyrs, et dont l'avenir est encore incertain.
Je ne parle pas des Mormons, secte à quelques égards si sotte et
si abjecte que l'on hesite à la prendre au sérieux.
Il est instructif, cependant, de voir en plein 19ième siècle des
milliers d'hommes de notre race vivant dans le miracle, croyant avec une foi
aveugle des merveilles qu'ils disent avoir vues et touchées. Il y a
déja toute une littérature pour montrer l'accord du mormonisme et
de la science; ce qui vaut mieux, cette religion, fondée sur de niaises
impostures, a su accomplir des prodiges de
Page 48
patience et d'abnegation; dans cinq cents ans des docteurs prouveront sa
divinité par les merveilles de son etablissement.
Le Babisme, en Perse, a été un phénomene autrement
considerable. Un homme doux et sans aucune, prétention, une sorte de
Spinoza modeste et pieux, s'est vu, presque malgré lui,
élève au rang de thaumaturge d'incarnation divine, et est devenu
le chef d'une secte nombreuse, ardente et fanatique, qui a failli amener une
revolution comparable à celle de l'Islam. Des milliers de martyrs sont
accourus pour lui avec l'allegresse audevant de la mort. Un jour sans pareil
peut-etre dans l'histoire du monde fut celui de la grande boucherie qui se fit
des Bábís, a Teheran. "On vit ce jourla dans les rues et les
bazars de Teheran," dit un narrateur qui a tout su d'original, "un spectacle
que la population semble devoir n'oublier jamais. Quand la conversation encore
aujourd'hui se met sur cette matière, on peut juger l'admiration
melée d'horreur que la foule éprouve et que les années
n'ont pas diminuée. On voit s'avancer entre les bourreaux des enfants et
des femmes les chairs ouvertes sur tout le corps, avec des meches allumees,
flambantes, fichees dans les blessures. On trainait les victimes par des cordes
et on les faisait marcher à coups de fouet. Enfants et femmes
s'avancaient en chantant un verset qui dit: En verite nous venons de Dieu et
nous retournons à Lui. Leurs voix s'élèvaient,
éclatantes, au-dessus du silence profond de la foule. Quand un des
supplicies tombait et qu'on le faisait relever a coups de fouet ou de
baionnette, pour peu que la perte de son sang qui ruisselait sur tous ses
membres lui laissat encore un peu de force, il se mettait a danser et criait
avec un surcrol d'enthousiasme: "En verite nous sommes à Dieu et nous
retournons à Lui." Quelques-uns des enfants expirerent pendant le
trajet; les bourreaux jeterent leurs corps sous les pieds de leurs peres et de
leurs soeurs, qui marcherent fièrement dessus et ne leur donnerent pas
deux regards. Quand on arriva au lieu d'execution, on proposa encore aux
victimes la vie pour leur abjuration. Un bourreau imagina de dire à un
pere que, s'il ne cedait pas, il couperait la gorge à ses deux fils sur
sa poitrine. C'etaient deux petits garcons dont l'ainé avait 14 ans et
qui, rouges de leur sang, les chairs calcinées, écoutaient
froidement le dialogue; le pere repondit, en se couchant par terre, qu'il etait
pret et l'ainé des enfants, reclamant avec emportement son droit
d'ainesse, demanda à être égorgé le premier.[1]
Enfin tout fut acheve. La nuit tomba sur un amas
Page 49
de chairs informés; les têtes étaient attachées en
paquets au poteau justicier et les chiens des faubourgs se dirigeaient par
troupes de ce côté.
Cela se passait en 1852. Le secte de Mozdak sous Chosroes Nousch fut
etouffée dans un pareil bain de sang. Le devouement absolu est pour les
nations naives la plus exquise des jouissances et une sorte de besoin. Dans
l'affaire des Bábís, on vit des gens qui étaient à
peine de la secte, venir se denoncer eux-memes afin qu'on les adjoignit aux
patients. Il est si doux a l'homme de souffrir pour quelque chose, que dans
bien des cas l'appat du martyre suffit pour faire croire.
Un disciple qui fut le campagnon de supplice du Báb, suspendu à
côté de lui aux remparts de Tabriz et attendant le mort, n'avait
qu'un mot à la bouche: "Es-tu content de moi, maître?"
----------------
BY HON. LILIAN HELEN MONTAGUE, J.P., D.H.L.
As a Jewess I am interested in the Bahá'í
Community. The teaching lays particular stress on the Unity of God and the
Unity of Man, and incorporates the doctrine of the Hebrew Prophets that the
Unity of God is revealed in the Unity of men. Also, we seem to share the
conception of God's messengers as being those people who in their deep
reverence for the attributes of God, His beauty, His truth, His righteousness
and His justice, seek to imitate Him in their imperfect human way. The light of
God is reflected in the soul of him who seeks to be receptive. Like the members
of the Bahá'í community, we Jews are scattered all over the
world, but united in a spiritual brotherhood. The Peace ideal enumerated by the
Hebrew Prophets is founded on faith in the ultimate triumph of God's justice
and righteousness.
----------------
BY NORMAN BENTWICH
"Palestine may indeed be now regarded as the land not of three
but of four faiths, because the Bahá'í creed, which has its
center of faith and pilgrimage in Acre and Haifa, is attaining to the character
of a world-religion. So far as its influence goes in the land, it is a factor
making for international and interreligious understanding."
(From "Palestine," by Norman Bentwich, p. 235.)
Page 50
BY EMILE SCHREIBER
I.
Trois prophètes
[The following passages in French may contain
scanning errors] Alors que le marxisme sovietique proclame le
materialisme historique, alors que les jeunes generations sionistes sont
également de plus en plus indifferentes aux croyances établies,
une nouvelle religion est née en Orient, et sa doctrine prend, dans les
circonstances actuelles, un intérêt d'autant plus grand que,
s'écartant du domaine purement philosophique, elle préconise en
economie politique des solutions qui co-incident curieusement avec les
preoccupations de notre époque.
Cette religion, de plus, est par essence antiraciste. Elle est née en
Perse, vers 1840, et les trois prophètes successifs qui l'ont
prechée sont des Persans, c'est-à-dire des musulmans de
naissance.
Le premier, le createur, s'appelait le Báb. Il-precha vers 1850, et
préconisa, outre la reconciliation des differents cultes qui divisent
l'humanité, la liberation de la femme, réduite aujourd'hui encore
à un quasi esclavage dans tout l'Islam.
Une Persane d'une rare beauté, et qui, chose rare chez les musulmanes,
était douée d'un grand talent oratoire, repondant au nom
difficile à prononcer de Qourratou-'l-'Ayn, l'accompagna dans ses
réunions, n'hesitant pas, en donnant elle-meme l'exemple, à
preconiser la suppression du voile pour les femmes.
Le Báb et elle reussirent à convaincre, à
l'époque, des dizaines de milliers de Persans et le shah de Perse les
emprisonna l'un et l'autre, ainsi que la plupart de leurs partisans. Le
Báb fut pendu. Sa belle collaboratrice fut etranglée dans sa
prison. Leurs disciples furent exilés à Saint-Jean-d'Acre,
devenue temple du "Bahá'ísme." C'est ainsi que j'ai visite la maison du
successeur du Báb, Bahá'u'lláh, transformée
aujourd'hui en temple du "Bahá'ísme." C'est ainsi que s'intitule cette
religion, qui est plutot une doctrine philosophique, car elle ne comporte ni
culte defini, ni surtout de clergé. Les prêtres, disent les
Bahá'ístes, sont tentés de fausser, dans un but de lucre, l'idealisme
désinteressé des createurs de religions.
Bahá'u'lláh, le principal des trois prophetes, répandit
sa doctrine non seulement en Orient, mais dans beaucoup de pays d'Europe, et
surtout aux Etats-Unis ou son influence fut telle que le nombre des Bahá'ístes
attient aujourd'hui plusieurs millions. Il fut persecuté par les Perses
et mourut en exil.
Son fils, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, lui succeda et formula, d'apres les
Page 51
principes de son pere, la doctrine économique du Bahá'ísme; elle indique
une prescience étonnante des évenements qui se sont
deroulés depuis: la guerre d'abord, la crise ensuite. Il mourut peu
après la guerre, ayant vu la réalisation de la première
partie de ses propheties.
L'originalité du Bahá'ísme est de chercher à faire passer dans
le domaine pratique, et plus particulièrement dans le domaine social,
les principes essentiels du juda-isme, du catholicisme et de l'islamisme, en
les combinant et en les adaptant aux besoins de notre époque.
Le Bahá'ísme proclame que les rapports sociaux deviennent fatalement
impossibles dans une societé ou l'idealisme individuel ne donne pas une
base certaine aux engagements qui lient les hommes entre eux.
L'individu se sent de plus en plus isolé au milieu d'une jungle sociale
qui ménace, à beaucoup d'égards, son bien-etre et sa
sécurité. La bonne volonté et l'honnêteté, ne
produisant plus dans sa vie et dans son travail le resultat qu'il attend,
tendent à perdre pour lui toute valeur pratique. De la naissent, selon
les caractères, l'indifférence et le découragement, ou
l'audace, le manque de scrupules qui tendent à se procurer par tous les
moyens, même les plus repréhensibles, les benefices materiels
necessaires à l'existence.
La societé, n'étant plus soumise à aucun controle, ni
politique ni moral, devient un vaisseau sans gouvernail ou personne ne peut
plus rien prevoir et qui est sujet à des crises de plus en plus
fréquentes et de plus en plus violentes. L'époque actuelle,
déclarent les prophètes persans, marque la fin d'une civilisation
qui ne sert plus les intérêts de l'humanité.
Elle aboutit a la faillité complete des institutions morales et
materielles destinées à assurer le bien-etre et la
sécurité des hommes, c'est-à-dire l'État,
l'Église, le Commerce et l'Industrie. Le principe fondamental d'ou peut
venir le salut de la civilisation engagé dans des voies qui conduisent
à sa déstruction est la solidarité des nations et des
races. Car l'interpenetration des peuples est devenue telle qu'il leur est
impossible de trouver isolement la voie de la prospente.
Ces propheties, qui pouvaient paraître excessives et quelque peu
pessimistes à l'époque ou elles ont été faites,
vers 1890, ne sont pas, les évenements l'ont prouvé, de simples
jeremiades. Il reste à examiner comment, partant de ces données,
qui ne sont que trop exactes, le Bahá'ísme, concu dans la Perse lointaine et si
arrièrée a
Page 52
l'époque, aboutit aux mêmes conclusions que la plupart des
économistes modernes qui, dans les différents pays de
civilisation occidentale, proclament qu'en dehors d'une collaboration
internationale il n'y a pas d'issue possible à la crise actuelle
entrainant tous les peuples à une misére toujours plus grande.
(From Les Echos, Paris, France, September 27, 1933.)
2.
Une religion "economique"
Les principes du Bahá'ísme, formules par son principal
prophete, Bahá'u'lláh, peuvent paraître sérieusement
compromis en un temps ou la frenesie nationaliste, recemment aggravée de
racisme, semble en eloigner de plus en plus l'application.
Toute la question est de savoir si ceux qui sont en faveur aujourd'hui, dans
tant de pays, sont susceptibles de resoudre le probleme non pas de la
prosperité, mais simplement du logement et de la faim, dans les
différentes nations qui nient par leurs théories et tous leurs
actes la solidarité des peuples et des races.
Une nouvelle guerre mondiale sera sans doute necessaire pour que
l'humanité, qui n'a pas encore compris la leçon de 1914, se rende
enfin compte que les solutions de violence et de conquête ne peuvent
engendrer que la ruine generale, sans profit pour aucun des
bélligerants.
Quoi qu'il en soit, les principales pensées economiques de
Bahá'u'lláh, telles qu'elles ont été
formulées il y a un demisiecle, prouvent que la sagesse et le simple bon
sens ont cela de commun avec les écrevisses, c'est qu'il leur arrive
fréquemment de marcher a reculons.
Voici les principaux préceptes de ce moderne Marc-Aurele:
"L'evolution humaine se divise en cycles organiques, correspondant à la
durée d'une religion, laquelle est d'environ un millier d'années.
Un cycle social nouveau commence toutes les fois qu'apparaît un prophete
dont l'influence et les enseignements renouvellent la vie interieure de l'homme
et font deferler à travers le monde une nouvelle vague de progres.
"Chaque nouveau cycle détruit les croyances et les institutions
usées du cycle précedent et fondé sur d'autres croyances,
en étroite conformité, celles-la, avec les besoins actuels de
l'humanité, une civilisation nouvelle.
"L'influence de chaque prophete s'est, dans le passé, limitée
à une race ou a une religion, en raison de l'isolement
géographique
Page 53
des regions et des races, mais le siècle dans lequel nous entrons
necessite la création d'un ordre organique s'etendant au monde entier.
Si le vieil ésprit de tribu persiste, la science detruira le monde, ses
forces destructrices ne pouvant être controlées que par une
humanité unie travaillant pour la prosperité et le bien
commun.
"La loi de la lutte pour la vie n'existe plus pour l'homme des qu'il devient
conscient de ses pouvoirs spirituels et moraux. Elle est alors remplacée
par la loi plus haute de la cooperation. Sous cette loi, l'individu jouira d'un
statut beaucoup plus large que celui qui est accorde aux citoyens passifs du
corps politique actuel. L'administration publique passera des mains de
partisans politiques qui trahissent la cause du peuple aux mains d'hommes
capables de considerer une charge publique comme une mission sacrée.
"La stabilité economique ne depend pas de l'application de tel plan
socialiste ou communiste plus ou moins théorique, mais du sentiment de
la solidarité morale qui unit tous les hommes et de cette conception que
les richesses ne sont pas la fin de la vie, mais seulement un moyen de
vivre.
"L'important n'est pas en une aveugle soumission generale à tel systeme
politique, à tel reglement, qui ont pour effet de supprimer chez
l'individu tout sentiment de responsabilité morale, mais en un esprit
d'entr'aide et de cooperation. Ni le principe democratique, ni le principe
aristocratique ne peuvent fournir séparement a la societé une
base solide. La démocratie est impuissante contre les querelles
intestines et l'aristocratie ne subsiste que par la guerre. Une combinaison des
deux principes est donc necessaire.
"En cette periode de transition entre le vieil âge de la concurrence et
l'ere nouvelle de la cooperation, la vie même de l'humanité est en
péril. Les ambitions nationalistes, la lutte des classes, la peur et les
convoitises économiques sont autant de forces qui poussent a une
nouvelle guerre internationale. Tous les Gouvernements du monde doivent
soutenir et organiser une assemblée dont les membres soient élus
par l'élite des nations. Ceux-ci devront mettre au point, au-dessus des
égoismes particuliers, le nouveau statut économique du monde en
dehors duquel tous les pays, mais surtout l'Europe, seront conduits aux pires
catastrophes."
'Abdu'l-Bahá, son successeur, reprenant la doctrine de son père,
concluait dans un discours prononcé a New-York en 1912
"La civilisation materielle à atteint, en Occident, le plus haut
degré de son développement. Mais c'est en Orient qu'a pris
naissance et que s'est developpée la civilisation spirituelle. Un lien
s'etablira
Page 54
entre ces deux forces, et leur union est la condition de l'immense progres qui
doit être accompli.
"Hors de la, la securité et la confiance feront de plus en plus defaut,
les luttes et les dissensions s'accroltront de jour en jour et les divergences
entre nations s'accentueront davantage. Les pays augmenteront constamment leurs
armements; la guerre, puis la certitude d'une autre guerre mondiale
angoisseront de plus en plus les esprits. L'unité du genre humain est le
premier fondement de toutes les vertus."
Ainsi parla 'Abdu'l-Bahá en 1912, et tout se passa comme il l'avait
predit.
Mais ces paroles n'ont pas vieilli; elles pourraient, sans le moindre
changement, être repetées en 1933. Aujourd'hui, comme il y a vingt
ans, la menace de la guerre est de nouveau suspendue audessus de nos
têtes et les causes de haines et de conflits s'accumulent à tel
point que, s'il existe vraiment un flux et un reflux des idées, on peut
presque conclure, avec une certaine dose d'optimisme, que nous n'avons jamais
été si près de venir aux idées de cooperation qui,
seules, peuvent nous sauver.
(From Les Echos, Paris, France, September 28, 1933.)
Malgré les tristesses de notre époque et peut-etre même
â cause d'elles, je reste convaincue que les idées â la fois
divines et humaines qui sont l'essence du Bahá'ísme finiront par triompher,
pourvu que chacun de ceux qui en comprennent l'immense intérêt
continue quoi qu'il advienne â les defendre et a les propager. (Excerpt
from a letter dated October 29, 1934.)
----------------
BY DR. ROKUICHIRO MASUJIMA
"The Japanese race is of rational mind. No superstition can
play with it. Japan is the only country in the world where religious tolerance
has always existed. The Japanese Emperor is the patron of all religious
teachings. The Bahá'í publications now form part of His Majesty's
Library as accepted by the Imperial House....
"The search for truth and universal education inculcated by the
Bahá'í Teachings, if soundly conducted, cannot fail to interest
the Japanese mind. Bahá'ísm is bound to permeate the Japanese race in a short
time."
Page 55
BY MISS HELEN KELLER
The philosophy of Bahá'u'lláh deserves the best
thought we can give it. I am returning the book so that other blind people who
have more leisure than myself may be "shown a ray of Divinity" and their hearts
be "bathed in an inundation of eternal love."
I take this opportunity to thank you for your kind thought of me, and for the
inspiration which even the most cursory reading of Bahá'u'lláh's
life cannot fail to impart. What nobler theme than the "good of the world and
the happiness of the nations" can occupy our lives? The message of universal
peace will surely prevail. It is useless to combine or conspire against an idea
which has in it potency to create a new earth and a new heaven and to quicken
human beings with a holy passion of service. (In a personal letter written to
an American Bahá'í after having read something from the Braille
edition of "Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era.")
----------------
BY SIR FLINDERS PETRIE
The Bahá'í Movement of Persia should be a welcome
adjunct to true Christianity; we must always remember how artificial the growth
of Latin Christian ideas has been as compared with the wide and less defined
beliefs native to early Christian faith. (In a letter to the "Daily Sketch,"
London, England, December 16, 1932.)
----------------
BY FORMER PRESIDENT MASARYK OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Continue to do what you are doing, spread these principles of
humanity and do not wait for the diplomats. Diplomats alone cannot bring the
peace, but it is a great thing that official people begin to speak about these
universal peace principles. Take these principles to the diplomats, to the
universities and colleges and other schools, and also write about them. It is
the people who will bring the universal peace. (In an audience with an American
Bahá'í journalist in Praha, in 1928.)
----------------
BY ARCHDUCHESS ANTON OF AUSTRIA
Archduchess Anton of Austria, who before her marriage was Her
Royal Highness Princess Ileana of Rumania, in an audience with Martha L. Root,
June 19, 1934, in Vienna, gave the following statement for The Bahá'ís World,
Vol. V: "I like the Bahá'í Movement,
Page 56
because it reconciles all Faiths, and teaches that science is from God as well
as religion, and its ideal is peace."
----------------
BY DR. HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS - American Historian
I have had on my desk, and have read several times, the three
extracts from 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Message of Social Regeneration. Taken
together, they form an unanswerable argument and plea for the only way that the
world can be made over. If we could put into effect this program, we should
indeed have a new world order.
"The morals of humanity must undergo change. New remedy and solution for human
problems must be adopted. Human intellects themselves must change and be
subject to the universal reformation." In these three sentences we really have
it all. (Excerpt from personal letter dated May 18, 1934.)
----------------
BY H. R. H. PRINCESS OLGA OF YUGOSLAVIA
H. R. H. Princess Olga, wife of H. R. H. Prince Regent Paul of
Yugoslavia, daughter of H. R. H. Prince Nicholas of Greece and cousin of His
Majesty George II of Greece, is deeply interested in religion and in education,
and her wonderful kindnesses to every one have been commented upon beautifully
in several English books and magazines as well as by the Balkan press.
"I like the Bahá'í Teachings for universal education and
universal peace," said this gracious Princess in her charming villa on the Hill
of Topcidor, Belgrade, on January 16, 1936, "I like the Bahá'í
Movement and the Young Men's Christian Association, for both are programs to
unite religions. Without unity no man can live in happiness." Princess though
she is, she stressed the important truth that every man must do his job! "We
are all sent into this world for a purpose and people are too apt to forget the
Presence of God and true religion. I wish the Bahá'í Movement
every success in the accomplishment of its high ideals."
----------------
BY EUGEN RELGIS
Excerpt from Cosmometapolis, 1935, pp. 108-109.
Nous avons tracé ces pages seulement la signification
du Bahá'ísme, sans examiner tous ses principes et son programme pratique dans
lequel sont harmonisées avec l'idéal religieux "les aspirations
Page 57
et les objectifs de la science sociale." Mais on doit attirer l'attention de
tous les esprits libres sur ce mouvement, dont les promoteurs ont le
mérite d'avoir contribué à la clarification de l'ancienne
controverse entre la religion et la science-et d'avoir donné 'a maint
homme un peu de leur tolerance et de leur optimisme: "L'humanité
était jusqu'ici restée dans le stade de l'enfance; elle approche
maintenant de la maturité" ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Washington, 1912).
Qui osera repeter aujourd'hui, dans la melée des haines nationales et
sociales, cette sentence de progres? C'est un Oriental qui nous a dit cela,
à nous, orgueilleux ou sceptiques Occidentaux. Nous voudrions voir
adjourd'hui, dans l'Allemagne hitleriste, dans les pays terrorisés par
le fascisme, paralysés par la dictature politique, -un spectacle
décrit par le suisse Auguste Forel d'après l'anglais Sprague qui
a vue en Birmanie et en Inde, des bouddhistes, des mahometans, des
Chrètiens et des juifs, qui allaient bras-dessus brasdessous, comme des
frères, "au grand étonnement de la population qui n'a jamais vu
une chose pareille!"
----------------
BY ARTHUR HENDERSON
Excerpt from a letter dated January 26, 1935
I have read the pamphlet on the "New World Order" by Shoghi Effendi.
It is an eloquent expression of the doctrines which I have always associated
with the Bahá'í Movement and I would like to express my greatest
sympathy with the aspirations towards world unity which underlie his
teaching.
----------------
BY PROF. DR. V. LESNY
The conditions are so changed now, since the technique of the
present time has destroyed the barriers between nations, that the world needs a
uniting force, a kind of super-religion. I think Bahá'ísm could develop to such
a kind of religion. I am quite convinced of it, so far as I know the Teachings
of Bahá'u'lláh.... There are modern saviors and
Bahá'u'lláh is a Savior of the twentieth century. Everything must
be done on a democratic basis, there must be international brotherhood. We must
learn to have confidence in ourselves and then in others. One way to learn this
is through inner spiritual education, and a way to attain such an education may
be through Bahá'ísm.
Page
58
I am still of the opinion that I had four years ago that the
Bahá'í Movement can form the best basis for international
goodwill, and that Bahá'u'lláh Himself is the Creator of an
eternal bond between the East and the West.... The Bahá'í
Teaching is a living religion, a living philosophy....
I do not blame Christianity, it has done a good work for culture in Europe,
but there are too many dogmas in Christianity at the present time.... Buddhism
was very good for India from the sixth century B.C. and the Teachings of Christ
have been good for the whole world; but as there is a progress of mind there
must be no stopping and in the Bahá'í Faith one sees the
continued progress of religion.
----------------
BY PRINCESS MARIE ANTOINETTE DE BROGLIE AUSSENAC
À cette époque où l'humanité semble
sortie d'un long sommeil pour revivre à l'Esprit, consciemment ou
inconsciemment, l'homme cherche et s'élance à la poursuite de
l'invisible et de sciences qui nous y conduisent.
L'angoisse religieuse aussi n'a jamais été plus intense.
Par sa grande evolution l'homme actuel est prêt à recevoir le
grand message de Bahá'u'lláh dans son mouvement synthetique qui
nous fait passer de l'ancienne comprehension des divisions à la
comprehension moderne où nous cherchons à suivre les ondes qui se
propagent traversant toute limitation humaine et de la création.
Chaque combat que nous livrons à nos penchants nous dégage des
voiles qui séparent le monde visible du monde invisible et augmente en
nous cette capacité de perception et de s'accorder aux longueurs d'ondes
les plus variées, de vibrer au contact des rythmes les plus divers de la
création.
Tout ce qui nous vient directement de la nature est toujours harmonie absolue.
Le tout est de capter l'équilibre de toute chose et lui donner la voix
au moyen d'un instrument capable d'émettre les mêmes harmonies que
notre âme, ce qui nous fait vibrer et devenir le lien entre le
passé et l'avenir en attaignant une nouvelle étape correspondant
à l'évolution du monde.
En religion, la Cause de Bahá'u'lláh, qui est la grande
revelation de notre époque, est la même que celle du Christ, son
temple et son fondement les mêmes mis en harmonie avec le degré de
maturité moderne.
Page 59
BY DAVID STARR JORDAN
Late President of Stanford University
'Abdu'l-Bahá will surely unite the East and the West: for He
treads the mystic way with practical feet.
----------------
BY PROF. BOGDAN POPOVITCH
The Bahá'í Teaching carries in its Message a fine
optimism-we must always in spite of everything be optimists; we must be
optimists even when events seem to prove the contrary! And
Bahá'ís can be hopeful, for there is a power in these Teachings
to bring to humanity tranquillity, peace and a higher spirituality.
----------------
BY EX-GOVERNOR WILLIAM SULZER
While sectarians squabble over creeds, the Bahá'í
Movement goes on apace. It is growing by leaps and bounds. It is hope and
progress. It is a world movement-and it is destined to spread its effulgent
rays of enlightenment throughout the earth until every mind is free and every
fear is banished. The friends of the Bahá'í Cause believe they
see the dawn of the new day-the better day-the day of Truth; of Justice, of
Liberty, of Magnanimity, of Universal Peace, and of International Brotherhood,
the day when one shall work for all, and all shall work for one.
(Excerpt from the Roycroft Magazine)
----------------
BY LUTHER BURBANK
I am heartily in accord with the Bahá'í Movement,
in which I have been interested for several years. The religion of peace is the
religion we need and always have needed, and in this Bahá'í is
more truly the religion of peace than any other.
----------------
BY PROF. YONE NOGUCHI
I have heard so much about 'Abdu'l-Bahá, whom people
call an idealist, but I should like to call Him a realist, because no idealism,
when it is strong and true, exists without the endorsement of
Page 60
realism. There is nothing more real than His words on truth. His words are as
simple as the sunlight; again like the sunlight, they are universal.... No
Teacher, I think, is more important today than 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
----------------
BY PROFESSOR RAYMOND FRANK PIPER
These writings (Bahá'í) are a stirring fusion of
poetic beauty and religious insight. I, like another, have been "struck by
their comprehensiveness." I find they have extraordinary power to pull aside
the veils that darken my mind and to open new visions of verity and life.
----------------
BY ANGELA MORGAN
One reason I hail with thanksgiving the interpretation of
religion known as the Bahá'í Faith and feel so deep a kinship
with its followers is that I recognize in its Revelation an outreach of the
Divine to stumbling humanity; a veritable thrust from the radiant Center of
Life.
Every follower of this faith that I have ever met impressed me as a living
witness to the glory at the heart of this universe. Each one seemed filled with
a splendor of spirit so great that it overflowed all boundaries and poured
itself out upon the world here in this moment of time, by some concentrated act
of love toward another human being.
----------------
BY ARTHUR MOORE
The lovely peace of Carmel, which still attracts mystics of
different faiths, dominates Haifa. On its summit are the Druses in their two
villages; at its feet the German Templars, whose avenue leads up to the now
large and beautiful terraced property of the Persian Bahá'ís on the
mountainside. Here the tombs of the Báb and of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, set
in a fair garden, are a place of international pilgrimage. On Sundays and
holidays the citizens of Haifa of all faiths come for rest and recreation where
lie the bones of that young prophet of Shiraz who nearly a hundred years ago
preached that all men are one and all the great religions true, and foretold
the coming equality of men and women and the birth of the first League of
Nations.
Page
61
BY PROF. DR. JAN RYPKA
The Bahá'ís of Iran are resolutely firm in their religion.
Their firmness does not have its roots in ignorance. The Iranian inborn
character causes them to see things somewhat too great, slightly exaggerated,
and their dissensions with the ruling Islam make them a little bitter towards
it. Everything else in their characters is accounted for as due to their
Teachings; they are wonderfully ready to help and happy to sacrifice.
Faithfully they fulfill their office and professional duties. Long ago they
already solved the problem of the Eastern woman; their children are carefully
educated. They are sometimes reproached for their lack of patriotism.
Certainly, as specifically Iranian as the Shi'ih Faith, the
Bahá'í Faith can never become; but the Bahá'í
Religion like Christianity does not preclude the love of one's fatherland....
Are the Europeans not sufficiently patriotic! According to my experiences, the
Bahá'ís in that respect, are very unjustly criticized by their Muhammadan
brothers. During the centuries the Shi'ih Religion has developed a deep
national tradition; with this the universal Bahá'í Faith will
have a hard battle. Nevertheless, the lack of so great numbers is richly
recompensed by the fervor and the inner spirit of the Iranian
Bahá'í Community. The Bahá'í world community will
educate characters which will appear well worthy of emulation by people of
other Faiths, yes, even by the world of those now enemies of the
Bahá'í Cause.
The experience acquired in the West, for me was fully verified also in the
Iranian Orient. The Bahá'í Faith is undoubtedly an immense
cultural value. Could all those men whose high morality I admired and still
admire have reached the same heights only in another way, without it? No,
never! Is it based only on the novelty of the Teachings, and in the freshness
of its closest followers?
----------------
BY A. L. M. NICOLAS
Je ne sais comment vous remercier ni comment vous exprimer la
joie qui inonde mon coeur. Ainsi donc, il faut non seulement admettre mais
aimer et admirer le Báb. Pauvre grand Prophete né au fin fond de
la Perse sans aucun moyen d'instruction et qui seul au monde, entoure
d'ennemis, arrive par la force de son genie à creer une religion
universelle et sage. Que Bahá'u'lláh lui ait, par la suite,
succedé, soit, mais je veux qu'on admire la sublimité du
Báb, qui à d'ailleurs paye de sa vie, de son sang la reforme
qu'il a
Page 62
prechée. Citez-moi un autre exemple, semblable. Enfin, je puis mourir
tranquille. Gloire à Shoghi Effendi qui a calmé mon tourment et
mes inquietudes, gloire a lui qui reconnais la valeur de Siyyid 'Ali-Muhammad
dit le Báb.
Je suis si content que je baise vos mains qui ont tracé mon adresse sur
l'enveloppe qui m'apporte le message de Shoghi. Merci, Mademoiselle. Merci du
fond du coeur.
----------------
BY PRESIDENT EDUARD BENES
I have followed it (the Bahá'í Cause) with deep
interest ever since my trip to London to the First Races Congress in July,
1911, when I heard for the first time of the Bahá'í Movement and
its summary of the principles for peace. I followed it during the war and after
the war. The Bahá'í Teaching is one of the spiritual forces now
absolutely necessary to put the spirit first in this battle against material
forces.... The Bahá'í Teaching is one of the great instruments
for the final victory of the spirit and of humanity.
2.
The Bahá'í Cause is one of the great moral and
social forces in all the world today. I am more convinced than ever, with the
increasing moral and political crises in the world, we must have greater
international co-ordination. Such a movement as the Bahá'í Cause
which paves the way for universal organization of peace is necessary.
----------------
BY SIR RONALD STORRS, V.C., M.G., C.B.E.
I met 'Abdu'l-Bahá first in 1900, on my way out from
England and Constantinople through Syria to succeed Harry Boyle as Oriental
Secretary to the British Agency in Cairo. (The episode is fully treated in my
"Orientations" published by Ivor Nicholson and Watson.) I drove along the beach
in a cab from Haifa to 'Akká and spent a very pleasant hour with the
patient but unsubdued prisoner and exile.
When, a few years later, he was released and visited Egypt I had the honour of
looking after Him and of presenting Him to Lord Kitchener who was deeply
impressed by His personality, as who could fail to be? The war separated us
again until Lord Allenby,
Page 63
after his triumphant drive through Syria, sent me to establish the government
at Haifa and throughout that district. I called upon 'Abbas Effendi on the day
I arrived and was delighted to find Him unchanged.
I never failed to visit Him whenever I went to Haifa. His conversation was
indeed a remarkable planning, like that of an ancient prophet, far above the
perplexities and pettiness of Palestine politics, and elevating all problems
into first principles.
He was kind enough to give me one or two beautiful specimens of His own
handwriting, together with that of Mishkin-Qalam, all of which, together with
His large signed photograph, were unfortunately burned in the Cyprus fire.
I rendered my last sad tribute of affectionate homage when in 1921 I
accompanied Sir Herbert Samuel to the funeral of 'Abbas Effendi. We walked at
the head of a train of all religions up the slope of Mount Carmel, and I have
never known a more united expression of regret and respect than was called
forth by the utter simplicity of the ceremony.
----------------
BY COL. RAJA JAI PRITHVI BAHADUR SINGH,
Raja Of Bajang (Nepal)
Even as early as 1929 or perhaps even a little earlier, I used
to hear the names of Bahá'u'lláh and Bahá'ísm; and in 1929, when
I undertook a lecturing tour in Europe on the humanistic methods of promoting
peace and unity among races, nations and individuals my attention was once
again drawn to Bahá'u'lláh and his teachings by my friend Lady
Blomfield, who gave me some books too on the subject. But my eyes were then too
weak to permit any reading, and the need and urgency of some expert treatment
for my eyes was in fact an additional reason for my leaving for Europe.
Besides, I was then too full of my own philosophy of "Humanism," and was too
busy with my own programme of lectures for Europe, and did not acquaint myself
with any full details about the Bahá'ís and their tenets and principles.
Perhaps I imagined that the Bahá'ís were some sort of religious or
philosophical mystics, and I was not particularly interested in any mere
mysticism or in any merely theoretical creed, however much its conclusions
might be logical and satisfying to the intellect.
Page 64
When afterwards, in 1933, the Second Parliament of Religions or the World
Fellowship of Faiths was held in Chicago, a conference inspired by the high
ideals of mutual understanding, good-will, co-operation and peace and progress,
and I went there to attend and participate in the conference, my attention was
again drawn to the Bahá'í Faith by some of its followers there,
who took me to their temple at Wilmette, Illinois, which was then under
construction but was nearly finished, and showed me the nine gates and chambers
of worship for the nine principal religions of the world. Naturally enough, I
took it that Bahá'ísm was something like theosophy, which is interested in
studying and comparing the respective merits of religions and in recognising
their respective greatness, and which can therefore appeal only to the
intellectual section of mankind and hardly appeal to the masses.
Later, in 1936, however, while I was in Rangoon, I had an opportunity-rather,
the opportunity was thrust upon me-to acquaint myself more fully with the
tenets and teachings of Bahá'ísm. Mr. S. Schopflocher, a Bahá'í
from Canada, who was on a lecturing tour, was then in Rangoon, and I was asked
to introduce him to the public and to preside over a lecture of his. Therefore
I secured a few books on the subject, and on reading them, I was struck with
the remarkable fact that Bahá'ísm is a faith, which not merely recognises the
respective merits of the world religions, but goes a step further and teaches
that all religions are One, all the religious seers, saints and prophets are
the religious seers, saints and prophets of One religion only, that all mankind
is One, and that we must think and feel and act in terms of brotherhood. "We
must realise," as a Bahá'í very beautifully puts it, "that, as
the aeroplane, radio and other instruments have crossed the frontiers drawn
upon the map, so our sympathy and spirit of one-ness should rise above the
influences that have separated race from race, class from class, nation from
nation and creed from creed. One destiny now controls all human affairs. The
fact of world-unity stands out above all other interests and
considerations."
Sometime back, in this year, Mr. N. R. Vakil, a Bahá'í gentleman
of Surat, gave me a copy of the book, "The Bahá'í World:
1936-1938. Though I have not been able to read the whole book through, I find
it is a mine of information, a regular cyclopaedia on the subject. It is
interesting to read that the origin of the faith was in Persia, where a mystic
prophet who took the name of "Báb" (which means "gate") began the
mission among the Persians in the
Page 65
early part of the nineteenth century, that he and his disciples were persecuted
by the Persian Government and were finally shot in 1850 that, notwithstanding
the persecution, the movement spread under the able and inspiring leadership of
Bahá'u'lláh, its principal prophet and exponent, that on his
death in 1892 he was succeeded by his son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who continued
the work till 1921, when, on his death his grandson, Shoghi Effendi, became the
head of the community-a community now numbering nearly a million and spread in
all the five continents of the world.
Though the traditionally orthodox Hindus, Muslims, Christians, etc., may not
agree to call themselves Bahá'ís or even to subscribe to its main tenet, viz.,
that all religions are One, I think that the really enlightened among them can
have no conscientious objection and will indeed wholeheartedly subscribe to
it.
Another important aspect of the Bahá'í Faith is its absolutely
non-political nature. In the "Golden Age of the Cause of
Bahá'u'lláh" Shoghi Effendi categorically rules out any
participation by adherents of the Faith, either individually or collectively,
in any form of activity which might be interpreted as an interference in the
political affairs of any particular government. So that, no government need
apprehend any sort of danger or trouble from Bahá'ísm.
On the whole, the perusal of the book, "The Bahá'í World:
1936-1938, has deeply impressed me with the belief that the principles of
Bahá'ísm, laying stress as they do on the One-ness of mankind, and being
directed as they are towards the maintenance of peace, unity and co-operation
among the different classes, creeds and races of people, will go a long way in
producing a healthy atmosphere in the world for the growth of Fellowship and
Brotherhood of Man. Further, I see no harm in the followers of other faiths
accepting these main principles of Bahá'ísm, wherein, I think, they can find
nothing against the teachings of their own prophets, saints and seers. I rather
think that by accepting these main principles of Bahá'ísm they will help in
hastening the establishment of a New World Order, an idea perhaps first clearly
conceived by Bahá'u'lláh and which every thinking man will now
endorse as a "consummation to be devoutly wished for."
An article in the January (1922) number of the Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
The death of 'Abbas Effendi, better known since he succeeded
his father, Bahá'u'lláh, thirty years ago as 'Abdu'l-Bahá,
deprives
Page 66
Persia of one of the most notable of her children and the East of a remarkable
personality, who has probably exercised a greater influence not only in the
Orient but in the Occident, than any Asiatic thinker and teacher of recent
times. The best account of him in English is that published in 1903 by G. P.
Putnam's Sons under the title of the "Life and Teachings of 'Abbas Effendi"
compiled by Myron H. Phelps chiefly from information by Bahiyyih Khanum. She
states that her brother's birth almost coincided with the "manifestation" of
Mirza 'Ali Muhammad the Báb (24th May, 1844), and that she was his
junior by three years. Both dates are put three years earlier by another
reputable authority, but in any case both brother and sister were mere children
when, after the great persecution of the Bábís in 1852 their
father Bahá'u'lláh and his family were exiled from Persia first
to Baghdad (1852-63) then to Adrianople (1863-8), and lastly to 'Akká
(St. Jean d'Acre) in Syria, where Bahá'u'lláh died on 28th May,
1892, and which his son 'Abdu'l-Bahá was only permitted to leave at will
after the Turkish Revolution in 1908. Subsequently to that date he undertook
several extensive journeys in Europe and America, visiting London and Paris in
1911, America in 1912, Budapest in 1913, and Paris, Stuttgart, Vienna, and
Budapest in the early summer of 1914. In all these countries he had followers,
but chiefly in America, where an active propaganda had been carried on since
1893 with very considerable success, resulting in the formation of important
Bahá'í Centers in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and other
cities. One of the most notable practical results of the Bahá'í
ethical teaching in the United States has been, according to the recent
testimony of an impartial and qualified observer, the establishment in
Bahá'í circles in New York of a real fraternity between black and
white, and an unprecedented lifting of the "color bar," described by the said
observer as "almost miraculous."
Ample materials exist even in English for the study of the remarkable
personality who has now passed from our midst and of the doctrines he taught;
and especially authoritative are the works of M. Hippolyte Dreyfus and his wife
(formerly Miss Laura Clifford Barney), who combine intimacy and sympathy with
their hero with sound knowledge and wide experience. In their works and in that
of Mr. Myron H. Phelps must be sought those particulars which it is impossible
to include in this brief obituary notice.
[The following passage may
contain scanning errors]
[1] Un autre détail que je tiens de
source première est celui-ci. Quelques sectaires, qu'on voulait amener i
retractation, furent attachés à la gueule de canons amorcea d'une
mêche longue et brulant lentement. On leur proposait de couper la
mêche, s'ils reniaient le Báb. Eux, les bras tendus n le f~u, lé
suppliaient de hater et de venir bien vité consommer leur bonheur.
|
