BAHIYYIH KHANUM
(World Centre, 1982)
FILENAME: BK.FN
FILEDATE: 08-06-94
v
He is the Eternal! This is My testimony for her who
hath heard My voice and drawn nigh unto Me. Verily,
she is a leaf that hath sprung from this preexistent Root.
She hath revealed herself in My name and tasted of the
sweet savours of My holy, My wondrous pleasure. At
one time We gave her to drink from My honeyed
Mouth, at another caused her to partake of My mighty,
My luminous Kawthar. Upon her rest the glory of My
name and the fragrance of My shining robe.
(Bahá'u'lláh's original Arabic of the above is inscribed
around the circular dome of the Greatest Holy Leaf's monument
on Mount Carmel. See illustration between pages 92 and
93.)
+P1
I
From the Writings of
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH
+P2
+P3
I
From the Writings of
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH
1. Let these exalted words be thy love-song on
the tree of Bahá, O thou most holy and resplendent
Leaf: `God, besides Whom is none other God, the
Lord of this world and the next!' Verily, We have
elevated thee to the rank of one of the most
distinguished among thy sex, and granted thee, in
My court, a station such as none other woman hath
surpassed. Thus have We preferred thee and raised
thee above the rest, as a sign of grace from Him Who
is the Lord of the throne on high and earth below.
We have created thine eyes to behold the light of My
countenance, thine ears to hearken unto the melody
of My words, thy body to pay homage before My
throne. Do thou render thanks unto God, thy Lord,
the Lord of all the world.
How high is the testimony of the Sadratu'l-Muntahá
for its leaf; how exalted the witness of the Tree
of Life unto its fruit! Through My remembrance of
her a fragrance laden with the perfume of musk hath
been diffused; well is it with him that hath inhaled it
and exclaimed: `All praise be to Thee, O God, my
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Lord the most glorious!' How sweet thy presence
before Me; how sweet to gaze upon thy face, to
bestow upon thee My loving-kindness, to favour
thee with My tender care, to make mention of thee
in this, My Tablet--a Tablet which I have ordained
as a token of My hidden and manifest grace unto
thee.
2. O My Leaf! Hearken thou unto My Voice:
Verily there is none other God but Me, the
Almighty, the All-Wise. I can well inhale from thee
the fragrance of My love and the sweet-smelling
savour wafting from the raiment of My Name, the
Most Holy, the Most Luminous. Be astir upon
God's Tree in conformity with thy pleasure and
unloose thy tongue in praise of thy Lord amidst all
mankind. Let not the things of the world grieve
thee. Cling fast unto this divine Lote-Tree from
which God hath graciously caused thee to spring
forth. I swear by My life! It behoveth the lover to be
closely joined to the loved one, and here indeed is the
Best-Beloved of the world.
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II
From the Writings of
`ABDU'L-BAHÁ
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II
From the Writings of
`ABDU'L-BAHÁ
1. O my well-beloved, deeply spiritual sister!
Day and night thou livest in my memory. Whenever
I remember thee my heart swelleth with sadness and
my regret groweth more intense. Grieve not, for I
am thy true, thy unfailing comforter. Let neither
despondency nor despair becloud the serenity of thy
life or restrain thy freedom. These days shall pass
away. We will, please God, in the Abhá Kingdom
and beneath the sheltering shadow of the Blessed
Beauty, forget all these our earthly cares and will
find each one of these base calumnies amply compensated
by His expressions of praise and favour.
From the beginning of time sorrow and anxiety,
regret and tribulation, have always been the lot of
every loyal servant of God. Ponder this in thine
heart and consider how very true it is. Wherefore,
set thine heart on the tender mercies of the Ancient
Beauty and be thou filled with abiding joy and
intense gladness....
2. O thou my affectionate sister! In the daytime
and in the night-season my thoughts ever turn
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to thee. Not for one moment do I cease to remember
thee. My sorrow and regret concern not myself;
they centre around thee. Whenever I recall thine
afflictions, tears that I cannot repress rain down
from mine eyes....
3. Dear and deeply spiritual sister! At morn and
eventide, with the utmost ardour and humility, I
supplicate at the Divine Threshold, and offer this,
my prayer:
`Grant, O Thou my God, the Compassionate,
that that pure and blessed Leaf may be comforted
by Thy sweet savours of holiness and sustained by
the reviving breeze of Thy loving care and mercy.
Reinforce her spirit with the signs of Thy Kingdom,
and gladden her soul with the testimonies of
Thy everlasting dominion. Comfort, O my God,
her sorrowful heart with the remembrance of Thy
face, initiate her into Thy hidden mysteries, and
inspire her with the revealed splendours of Thy
heavenly light. Manifold are her sorrows, and
infinitely grievous her distress. Bestow continually
upon her the favour of Thy sustaining
grace and, with every fleeting breath, grant her
the blessing of Thy bounty. Her hopes and
expectations are centred in Thee; open Thou to
her face the portals of Thy tender mercies and lead
her into the ways of Thy wondrous benevolence.
+P9
Thou art the Generous, the All-Loving, the
Sustainer, the All-Bountiful....'
4. Dear sister, beloved of my heart and soul!
The news of thy safe arrival and pleasant stay in the
land of Egypt has reached me and filled my heart
with exceeding gladness. I am thankful to
Bahá'u'lláh for the good health thou dost enjoy
and for the happiness He hath imparted to the hearts
of the loved ones in that land. Shouldst thou wish to
know of the condition of this servant of the
Threshold of the Abhá Beauty, praise be to Him
for having enabled me to inhale the fragrance of His
tender mercy and partake of the delights of His
loving-kindness and blessings. I am being continually
reinforced by the energizing rays of His
grace, and feel upheld by the uninterrupted aid of the
victorious hosts of His Kingdom. My physical
health is also improving. God be praised that from
every quarter I receive the glad-tidings of the
growing ascendancy of the Cause of God, and can
witness evidences of the increasing influence of its
spread....
5. O thou my loving, my deeply spiritual
sister! I trust that by the grace and loving-kindness
of the one true God thou art, and wilt be, kept safe
and secure beneath the sheltering shadow of the
Blessed Beauty. Night and day thy countenance
+P10
appeareth before mine eyes, and in my mind are
engraved the traits of thy character....
6. To my honoured and distinguished sister do
thou convey the expression of my heartfelt, my
intense longing. Day and night she liveth in my
remembrance. I dare make no mention of the
feelings which separation from her has aroused in
mine heart; for whatever I should attempt to
express in writing will assuredly be effaced by the
tears which such sentiments must bring to mine
eyes....
7. O Díyá!+F1 It is incumbent upon thee,
throughout the journey, to be a close, a constant
and cheerful companion to my honoured and distinguished
sister. Unceasingly, with the utmost
vigour and devotion, exert thyself, by day and
night, to gladden her blessed heart; for all her days
she was denied a moment of tranquillity. She was
astir and restless every hour of her life. Moth-like
she circled in adoration round the undying flame of
the Divine Candle, her spirit ablaze and her heart
consumed by the fire of His love....
8. O thou my affectionate sister!
God be praised, according to what we hear the
+F1 Daughter of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
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climate in that land hath proved not unfavourable. It
is to be hoped that out of the grace of the Blessed
Beauty thy illness will be completely cured and thou
wilt return in the best of health, so that once again I
may gaze upon that wondrous face of thine.
Write thou a full account of thy condition by
every post, for I am most anxious for news of thee.
Let me know if thou shouldst desire anyone from
here to come to thee, that I may send the person
along--even Munírih--so that thou wilt not be
homesick.
That thou shouldst spend a few days of peace and
rest, is my dearest wish.
We here, God be thanked, are all enjoying the best
of health. I have been better lately, and sleeping well
at night. Rest assured.
9. O my dear sister!
Praise be to God, within the sheltering grace of
the Blessed Beauty, here in the lands of the West a
breeze hath blown from over the rose-gardens of
His bestowals, and the hearts of many people have
been drawn as by a magnet to the Abhá Realm.
Whatever hath come to pass is from the confirmations
of the Beloved; for otherwise, what merit had
we, or what capacity? We are as a helpless babe, but
fed at the breast of heavenly grace. We are no more
than weak plants, but we flourish in the spring rain
of His bestowals.
+P12
Wherefore, as a thank-offering for these bounties,
on a certain day don thy garb to visit the Shrine, the
ka'bih of our heart's desire, turn thyself toward Him
on my behalf, lay down thy head on that sacred
Threshold, and say:
O divine Providence!
O Thou forgiving Lord!
Sinner though I be, I have no refuge save Thyself.
All praise be Thine, that in my wanderings over
mountains and plains, my toils and troubles on
the seas, Thou hast answered still my cries for
help, and confirmed me, and favoured me, and
honoured me with service at Thy Threshold.
To a feeble ant, Thou hast given Solomon's
might. Thou hast made of a gnat a lion in the
thicket of Thy Mercy. Thou hast bestowed on a
drop the swelling waves of the sea, Thou hast
carried up a mote to the pinnacles of grace.
Whatever was achieved, was made possible
through Thee. Otherwise, what strength did the
fragile dust possess, what power did this feeble
being have?
O divine Providence! Do not seize us in our
sins, but give us refuge. Do not look upon our evil
ways, but grant forgiveness. Consider not our
just deserts, but open wide Thy door of grace.
Thou art the Mighty, the Powerful! Thou art
the Seer, the Knower!
10. O my well-beloved sister, O Most Exalted
Leaf!
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Thou didst leave for `Akká to remain but two days
or so and then return, but now thou hast been gone
from us for quite a while. We have stayed behind in
Haifa, all alone, and it is very difficult to get along.
We hear that thou art a little indisposed; the Haifa air
would have been better for thee. We had everything
ready in Haifa to receive thee, but in fact, this caused
thee some difficulty. There is no way but to endure
the toil and trouble of God's path. If thou dost not
bear these hardships, who would ever bear them?
In any case, no matter how things are, come thou
here today, because my heart is longing for thee.
11. O thou my sister, my dear sister!
Divine wisdom hath decreed this temporary
separation, but I long more and more to be with thee
again. Patience is called for, and long-suffering, and
trust in God, and the seeking of His favour. Since
thou art there, my mind is completely at rest.
In recent days, I have made a plan to visit Egypt, if
this be God's will. Do thou, on my behalf, lay thy
head on the sacred Threshold, and perfume brow and
hair in the dust of that Door, and ask that I may be
confirmed in my work; that I may, in return for His
endless bounties, win, if He will, a drop out of the
ocean of servitude.
12. My sister and beloved of my soul!
Here on the slopes of Mount Carmel, by the cave
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of Elijah, we are thinking of that Most Exalted Leaf,
and the beloved and handmaids of the Lord.
We pass our days in writing and our nights now in
communion with God, now in bed to overcome
failing health. And although, to outward seeming,
we are absent from you all, and far away, still our
thoughts are with you always.
I can never, never forget thee. However great the
distance that separates us, we still feel as though we
were seated under the same roof, in one and the same
gathering, for are we not all under the shadow of the
Tabernacle of God and beneath the canopy of His
infinite grace and mercy?
13. My sister, for a considerable period, that is,
from the day of Bahá'u'lláh's ascension, had
grown so thin and feeble, and was in such a
weakened condition from the anguish of her mourning,
that she was close to breakdown.
Although, so far as she was concerned, it was her
dearest wish to drain her cup and wing her way to
the realms where the Divine Essence shineth in
glory, still this servant could not bear to behold her
in that state. Then it occurred to me that, God be
thanked, I have such an unfailing comforter as
Jináb-i-Hájí,+F1 and it would be well to make him
my partner in distress. I therefore determined to
+F1 Hájí Mírzá Hasan-i-Khurásání (see H. M. Balyuzi, `Abdu'l-Bahá, pp. 86, 124).
+P15
send her to Egypt, to provide her with a change of
air.
Although this will certainly cause thee trouble and
inconvenience, still, I trust that out of God's bounty,
it will also bring thee much joy and good cheer.
14. O my spiritual sister!
Thou didst go away to Haifa, supposedly for only
three or four days. Now it becometh apparent that
the spiritual power of the Shrine hath brought thee
joy and radiance, and even as a magnet is holding
thee fast. Thou surely wouldst remember us as well.
Truly the spiritual quality of the holy place, its
fresh skies and delicate air, its crystal waters and
sweet plains and charming seascape, and the holy
breathings from the Kingdom all do mingle in that
Sacred Fold. Thou art right to linger there...
Kiss the light of the eyes of the company of
spiritual souls, Shoghi Effendi...
15. O my spiritual sister!
God be praised, through the Ancient Beauty's
grace and bounty, we have set foot safe and sound
upon this shore, and arrived in this town+F1...
These coasts were once the place where the
breezes of God's loving kindness blew, and here in
this sacred Vale the Son of Spirit+F2 raised up His call
+F1 Tiberias.
+F2 Jesus.
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of `Here am I, O Thou My Lord! Here am I!' That is
why we here perceive, from every direction, the
sweet breathings of holiness.
My meaning is, rest thou assured, this servant is
suffering neither from any trouble, nor hardship,
nor fatigue. I am looking after myself, and keeping
away from all mental preoccupations; all, that is,
except for one thought, which doth indeed disquiet
the mind--and that is, God forbid, that thou
shouldst sorrow.
I hope that out of the bestowals and bounties of
the Ancient Beauty, He will in His grace bring
comfort to every heart.
16. O my affectionate sister!
God be praised, through His grace and favour,
my health and well-being are now restored, but it is
very hard for me to bear thine absence.
We think of thee at all times, here on the slopes of
this sacred, holy and blessed Mount Carmel, and we
are being happy on thy behalf...
17. O my dear sister!
It is quite a while now, since thou hast left us, and
gone away to Nazareth and Haifa. This journey hath
lasted too long. The weather in `Akká is fine and
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moderate. If thou comest back, it will rejoice our
hearts....
18. O my cherished sister!
Thou art never absent from my thoughts.
I speak of thee and call thee to mind at all times. It
is my hope that out of God's favour and grace thou
dost keep safe and well, and dost visit the two Sacred
Thresholds on my behalf.
19. O my sister in the spirit, and the companion
of my heart!
God willing, the climate of Haifa hath proved
favourable. I hope that out of the bounties of the
Ancient Beauty thou wilt gain a measure of peace
and health.
I bring thee to mind both night and day. Just
recently I had hoped to come to Haifa to visit thee,
but various problems and the pressure of work have
left me no time; for I want to see the travellers off,
and every one of them presented a long list of names.
God be thanked, I have written to them all.
Kiss the fresh flower of the garden of sweetness,
Shoghi Effendi.
20. O thou Greatest and Most Merciful Holy
Leaf!
I arrived in New York in the best of health, and I
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have been at all times thinking of thee, and supplicating
fervently at the threshold of the Blessed
Beauty that He may guard thee in the stronghold of
His protection. We are in the utmost fellowship and
joy. I hope that thou wilt be sheltered under His
bountiful care.
Write to me at once about Rúhá Khánum's and
Shoghi Effendi's condition, informing me fully and
hiding nothing; this is the best way.
Convey my utmost longing to all.
21. I do not know in what words I could
describe my longing for my honoured sister. Whatever
it may write, my pen falls short.
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III
From the Writings of SHOGHI EFFENDI
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III
From the Writings of SHOGHI EFFENDI
1. This servant, after that grievous event and
great calamity, the ascension of His Holiness
`Abdu'l-Bahá to the Abhá Kingdom, has been so
stricken with grief and pain and so entangled in the
troubles created by the enemies of the Cause of God,
that I consider that my presence here, at such a time
and in such an atmosphere, is not in accordance with
the fulfilment of my important and sacred duties.
For this reason, unable to do otherwise, I have left
for a time the affairs of the Cause both at home and
abroad, under the supervision of the Holy Family
and the headship of the Greatest Holy Leaf until, by
the Grace of God, having gained health, strength,
self-confidence and spiritual energy, and having
taken into my hands, in accordance with my aim and
desire, entirely and regularly the work of service I
shall attain to my utmost spiritual hope and aspiration.
2. And in this fervent plea, my voice is once
more reinforced by the passionate, and perhaps, the
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last, entreaty, of the Greatest Holy Leaf, whose
spirit, now hovering on the edge of the Great
Beyond, longs to carry on its flight to the Abhá
Kingdom, and into the presence of a Divine, an
almighty Father, an assurance of the joyous consummation
of an enterprise,+F1 the progress of which
has so greatly brightened the closing days of her
earthly life.
3. GREATEST HOLY LEAF'S IMMORTAL SPIRIT
WINGED ITS FLIGHT GREAT BEYOND. COUNTLESS LOVERS
HER SAINTLY LIFE IN EAST AND WEST SEIZED WITH
PANGS OF ANGUISH, PLUNGED IN UNUTTERABLE
SORROW. HUMANITY SHALL ERELONG RECOGNIZE ITS
IRREPARABLE LOSS. OUR BELOVED FAITH, WELL-NIGH
CRUSHED BY DEVASTATING BLOW OF `ABDU'L-BAHÁ'S
UNEXPECTED ASCENSION, NOW LAMENTS PASSING LAST
REMNANT OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH, ITS MOST EXALTED
MEMBER. HOLY FAMILY CRUELLY DIVESTED ITS MOST
PRECIOUS, MOST GREAT ADORNING. I, FOR MY PART,
BEWAIL SUDDEN REMOVAL MY SOLE EARTHLY SUSTAINER,
THE JOY AND SOLACE OF MY LIFE. HER SACRED
REMAINS WILL REPOSE VICINITY HOLY SHRINES. SO
GRIEVOUS A BEREAVEMENT NECESSITATES SUSPENSION
FOR NINE MONTHS THROUGHOUT BAHÁ'Í WORLD EVERY
MANNER RELIGIOUS FESTIVITY. INFORM LOCAL ASSEMBLIES
AND GROUPS HOLD BEFITTING MANNER MEMORIAL
GATHERINGS, EXTOL A LIFE SO LADEN SACRED EXPERIENCES,
SO RICH IMPERISHABLE MEMORIES... ADVISE
+F1 Construction of the House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.
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HOLDING ADDITIONAL COMMEMORATION SERVICE OF
STRICTLY DEVOTIONAL CHARACTER AUDITORIUM
MASHRIQU'L-ADHKÁR.
4. GREATEST HOLY LEAF ASCENDED ABHÁ KINGDOM.
OUR GRIEF IMMENSE, OUR LOSS IRREPARABLE.
INFORM LOCAL ASSEMBLIES COMMEMORATE BEFITTINGLY
SACRED EXPERIENCES SO RICH, SO SUBLIME, SO
EVENTFUL A LIFE. MAGNITUDE OF OUR SORROW
DEMANDS COMPLETE SUSPENSION FOR NINE MONTHS
THROUGHOUT BAHÁ'Í WORLD EVERY FORM RELIGIOUS
FESTIVITY. HER MORTAL REMAINS LAID VICINITY HOLY
SHRINE.
5. O ye who burn in the flames of bereavement!
By the Day-star of the World, my bereaved and
longing heart is afire with a grief that is beyond my
description. The sudden, the grievous and calamitous
news that the Most Exalted, the pure, the holy,
the immaculate, the brightly shining Leaf, the
Remnant of Bahá, and His trust, the eternal fruit
and the one last remembrance of the Holy Tree
--may my life be offered for the wrongs she
suffered--has ascended, reached me like live coals
cast into a frail and afflicted heart. The foundations
of my serenity were shattered, and tears of desolation
came like a flood that carries all away.
Alas, that I was prevented from being with her at
the close of her earthly days, at that moment when
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she ascended to her Lord, her Master, and when her
delicate body was placed in the tomb. Not mine that
honour, that high privilege, for I was far away,
deprived, bereft, excluded.
O brothers and sisters in the spirit! In this solemn
hour, from one direction we can hear the sounds of
loud weeping, and cries of mourning and woe,
rising out of the throats of the people of Bahá
throughout this nether world, because of their
separation from that rich mine of faithfulness, that
Orb of the heaven of eternal glory--because of her
setting below the horizon of this holy Spot. But
from another direction can be heard the songs of
praise and holy exultation from the Company on
High and the undying dwellers in Paradise, and
from beyond them all God's Prophets, coming forth
to welcome that fair being, and to place her in the
retreats of glory, and to seat her at the right hand of
Him Who is the Centre of God's Mighty Covenant.
The community of Bahá, whether in the East of
the world or the West, are lamenting like orphans
left destitute; fevered, tormented, unquiet, they are
voicing their grief. Out of the depths of their
sorrowing hearts, there rises to the Abhá Horizon
this continual piercing cry: `Where art thou gone,
O torch of tender love? Where art thou gone, O
source of grace and mercy? Where art thou gone, O
symbol of bounty and generosity? Where art thou
gone, O day-spring of detachment in this world of
being? Where art thou gone, O trust left by Bahá
among His people, O remnant left by Him among
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His servants, O sweet scent of His garment, shed
across all created things!'
O ye who loved that luminous face! The oil
within that shining lamp was used up in this world
and its light was extinguished; and yet, in the
lamp-niche of the Kingdom, the fingers of the Lord
of the heavenly throne have kindled it so bright, and
it has cast such a splendour on the maids of
Heaven--dwelling in chambers of red rubies and
circling about her--that they all called from out their
souls and hearts, `O joy upon joy!' and with shouts
of, `Well done! Well done! Upon thee be God's
blessings, O Most Exalted Leaf!' did they welcome
that quintessence of love and purity within the
towering pavilions of eternity.
At that time, as bidden by the Lord, the Protector,
the Self-Subsisting, did the heavenly Crier raise up
his voice and cry out: `O Most Exalted Leaf! Thou
art she who did endure with patience in God's way
from thine earliest childhood and throughout all thy
life, and did bear in His pathway what none other
hath borne, save only God in His own Self, the
Supreme Ruler over all created things, and before
Him, His noble Herald, and after Him, His holy
Branch, the One, the Inaccessible, the Most High.
The people of the Concourse on High seek the
fragrance of thy presence, and the dwellers in the
retreats of eternity circle about thee. To this bear
witness the souls of the cherubim within the
tabernacles of majesty and might, and beyond them
the tongue of God the One True Lord, the Pure, the
+P26
Most Wondrous. Blessedness be thine and a goodly
abode; glad tidings to thee and a happy ending!'
To one who was reared by the hands of her loving
kindness, the burden of this direst of calamities is
well nigh unbearable; and yet praised be the God of
glory that her fragile frame has escaped from the
prison of continual ordeals and afflictions which,
with an astonishing forbearance, and for more than
eighty years, she accepted and endured. Now is she
free; delivered from her chains of care and sorrow;
safe from all the suffering and pain, released from
the ills of this nether world. She rolled up and
packed away the years of longing for her mighty
Father, and for Him, her loving and well-favoured
Brother, and departed to her abode in the midmost
heart of the Heavens.
This heavenly being, during all the turmoil of her
days, did not rest for a moment, nor ever did she
seek quiet and peace. From the beginning of her life,
from her very childhood, she tasted sorrow's cup;
she drank down the afflictions and calamities of the
earliest years of the great Cause of God. In the
tumult of the Year of Hín,+F1 as a result of the sacking
and plundering of her glorious Father's wealth and
holdings, she learned the bitterness of destitution
and want. Then she shared the imprisonment, the
grief, the banishment of the Abhá Beauty, and in
the storm which broke out in `Iráq--because of the
plotting and the treachery of the prime mover of
+F1 The numerical value of the letters composing `Hín' indicates 1268 A.H. or 1851-52 A.D.
+P27
mischief, the focal centre of hate--she bore, with
complete resignation and acquiescence, uncounted
ordeals. She forgot herself, did without her kin,
turned aside from possessions, struck off at one
blow the bonds of every worldly concern; and
then, like a lovelorn moth, she circled day and
night about the flame of the matchless Beauty of
her Lord.
In the heaven of severance, she shone like the
Morning Star, fair and bright, and through her
character and all her ways, she shed upon kin and
stranger, upon the learned, and the lowly, the
radiance of Bahá'u'lláh's surpassing perfection.
Because of the intense and deep-seated sorrows and
the manifold oppressive trials that assailed her
--never failing spring of grace that she was, essence
of loving-kindness--in the Land of Mystery+F1 her
lovely form was worn away to a breath, to a
shadow; and during the Most Great Convulsion,
which in the years of `Stress' made every heart to
quake, she stood as a soaring pillar, immovable and
fixed; and from the blasts of desolation that rose
and blew, that Leaf of the eternal Lote-Tree did not
wither.
Rather did she redouble her efforts, urging
herself on the more, to servitude and sacrifice. In
captivating hearts and winning over souls, in
destroying doubts and misgivings, she led the field.
With the waters of her countless mercies, she
brought thorny hearts to a blossoming of love from
+F1 Adrianople.
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the All-Glorious, and with the influence of her pure
loving-kindness, transformed the implacable, the
unyielding, into impassioned lovers of the celestial
Beauty's peerless Cause.
Yet another wound was inflicted on her injured
heart by the aggressions and violations of the
evil-doers within the prison-fortress,+F1 yet another
blow was struck at her afflicted being. And then her
anguish was increased by the passing of the Abhá
Beauty, and the cruelty of the disloyal added more
fuel to the fires of her mourning. In the midst of that
storm of violation, the countenance of that rare
treasure of the Lord shone all the brighter, and
throughout the Bahá'í community, her value and
high rank became clearly perceived. By the vehement
onslaught of the chief of violators against the
sacred beliefs of the followers of the Faith, she was
neither frightened nor in despair.
In the days of the Commission of Investigation,
she was a staunch and trusted supporter of the
peerless Branch of Bahá'u'lláh, and a companion
to Him beyond compare. At the time of His absence
in the western world, she was His competent
deputy, His representative and vicegerent, with
none to equal her. In a Tablet from the pen of the
Centre of the Covenant, addressed to His consort,
are these words referring to His brilliant sister: `To
my honoured and distinguished sister do thou
convey the expression of my heartfelt, my intense
longing. Day and night she liveth in my remembrance.
+F1 `Akká.
+P29
I dare make no mention of the feelings
which separation from her has aroused in my heart,
for whatever I should attempt to express in writing
will assuredly be effaced by the tears which such
sentiments must bring to my eyes.'
After the ascension of `Abdu'l-Bahá to the realm
of the All-Glorious, that Light of the Concourse on
High enfolded me, helpless as I was, in the embrace
of her love, and with incomparable pity and tenderness,
persuaded, guided, and urged me on to the
requirements of servitude. The very elements of this
frail being were leavened with her love, refreshed by
her companionship, sustained by her eternal spirit.
Never for a moment will her kindnesses, her
favours, pass from my memory, and as the months
and the years go by, the effects of them on this
mourning heart will never be diminished.
O Liege Lady of the people of Bahá!
Broken is our circle by thy going--
Broken our circle, broken too, our hearts.
That my tongue, my pen could thank thee were a
hopeless task, nor can any praise of mine befit thine
excellence. Not even a droplet of all thine endless
love can I aspire to fathom, nor can I adequately
praise and tell of even the most trifling out of all the
events of thy precious life. In the courts of the
Almighty, for this frail being thy sacred spirit
intercedeth, and in this darksome world, the sweet
memory of thee is the succourer and friend of this
lowly one. Thy comely face is etched for ever on the
+P30
tablet of my grieving soul, those smiles that
refreshed my life are forever and safely imprinted in
the innermost recesses of my stricken heart. Let me
not be forgotten by thee in the glorious precincts on
high; leave me not despairing, nor excluded from
the never-ceasing reinforcements that come from
the living Lord; and in this world and the Kingdom,
help me to reach what thou knowest to be my
dearest hope.
O faithful friends! It is right and fitting that out of
honour to her most high station, in the gatherings of
the followers of Bahá'u'lláh, whether of the East
or the West, all Bahá'í festivals and celebrations
should be completely suspended for a period of nine
months, and that in every city and village, memorial
meetings should be held, with all solemnity, spirituality,
lowliness and consecration--where, in the
choicest of language, may be described at length the
shining attributes of that most resplendent Leaf, that
archetype of the people of Bahá. If it be possible for
the individual believers to postpone their personal
celebrations for a period of one year, let them
unhesitatingly do so thus to express their sorrow at
this agonizing misfortune. Let them read this letter,
this supplication, in their memorial gatherings, that
perchance the Almighty will lighten my burden,
and dispel the clouds of my bereavement; that He
will answer my prayers, and fulfil my hopes, out of
His bounty, His power, His grace.
+P31
6. Brethern and fellow-mourners in the Faith
of Bahá'u'lláh!
A sorrow, reminiscent in its poignancy, of the
devastating grief caused by `Abdu'l-Bahá's sudden
removal from our midst, has stirred the Bahá'í
world to its foundations. The Greatest Holy Leaf,
the well-beloved and treasured Remnant of
Bahá'u'lláh entrusted to our frail and unworthy
hands by our departed Master, has passed to the
Great Beyond, leaving a legacy that time can never
dim.
The Community of the Most Great Name, in its
entirety and to its very core, feels the sting of this
cruel loss. Inevitable though this calamitous event
appeared to us all, however acute our apprehensions
of its steady approach, the consciousness of its final
consummation at this terrible hour leaves us, we
whose souls have been impregnated by the energizing
influence of her love, prostrated and disconsolate.
How can my lonely pen, so utterly inadequate to
glorify so exalted a station, so impotent to portray
the experiences of so sublime a life, so disqualified to
recount the blessings she showered upon me since
my earliest childhood--how can such a pen repay
the great debt of gratitude and love that I owe her
whom I regarded as my chief sustainer, my most
affectionate comforter, the joy and inspiration of my
life? My grief is too immense, my remorse too
profound, to be able to give full vent at this moment
to the feelings that surge within me.
+P32
Only future generations and pens abler than mine
can, and will, pay a worthy tribute to the towering
grandeur of her spiritual life, to the unique part she
played throughout the tumultuous stages of
Bahá'í history, to the expressions of unqualified
praise that have streamed from the pen of both
Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá, the Centre of His
Covenant, though unrecorded, and in the main
unsuspected by the mass of her passionate admirers
in East and West, the share she has had in influencing
the course of some of the chief events in the annals of
the Faith, the sufferings she bore, the sacrifices she
made, the rare gifts of unfailing sympathy she so
strikingly displayed--these, and many others stand
so inextricably interwoven with the fabric of the
Cause itself that no future historian of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh can afford to ignore or minimize.
As far back as the concluding stages of the heroic
age of the Cause, which witnessed the imprisonment
of Bahá'u'lláh in the Síyáh-Chál of
Tihrán, the Greatest Holy Leaf, then still in her
infancy, was privileged to taste of the cup of woe
which the first believers of that Apostolic Age had
quaffed.
How well I remember her recall, at a time when
her faculties were still unimpaired, the gnawing
suspense that ate into the hearts of those who
watched by her side, at the threshold of her pillaged
house, expectant to hear at any moment the news of
Bahá'u'lláh's imminent execution! In those sinister
hours, she often recounted, her parents had so
+P33
suddenly lost their earthly possessions that within
the space of a single day from being the privileged
member of one of the wealthiest families of Tihrán
she had sunk to the state of a sufferer from unconcealed
poverty. Deprived of the means of subsistence
her illustrious mother, the famed Navváb,
was constrained to place in the palm of her daughter's
hand a handful of flour and to induce her to
accept it as a substitute for her daily bread.
And when at a later time this revered and precious
member of the Holy Family, then in her teens, came
to be entrusted by the guiding hand of her Father
with missions that no girl of her age could, or would
be willing to, perform, with what spontaneous joy
she seized her opportunity and acquitted herself of
the task with which she had been entrusted! The
delicacy and extreme gravity of such functions as
she, from time to time, was called upon to fulfil,
when the city of Baghdád was swept by the
hurricane which the heedlessness and perversity of
Mírzá Yahyá had unchained, as well as the tender
solicitude which, at so early an age, she evinced
during the period of Bahá'u'lláh's enforced retirement
to the mountains of Sulaymáníyyih, marked
her as one who was both capable of sharing the
burden, and willing to make the sacrifice, which her
high birth demanded.
How staunch was her faith, how calm her
demeanour, how forgiving her attitude, how severe
her trials, at a time when the forces of schism had
rent asunder the ties that united the little band of
+P34
exiles which had settled in Adrianople and whose
fortunes seemed then to have sunk to their lowest
ebb! It was in this period of extreme anxiety, when
the rigours of a winter of exceptional severity,
coupled with the privations entailed by unhealthy
housing accommodation and dire financial distress,
undermined once for all her health and sapped the
vitality which she had hitherto so thoroughly
enjoyed. The stress and storm of that period made
an abiding impression upon her mind, and she
retained till the time of her death on her beauteous
and angelic face evidences of its intense hardships.
Not until, however, she had been confined in the
company of Bahá'u'lláh within the walls of the
prison-city of `Akká did she display, in the plentitude
of her power and in the full abundance of her
love for Him, those gifts that single her out, next to
`Abdu'l-Bahá, among the members of the Holy
Family, as the brightest embodiment of that love
which is born of God and of that human sympathy
which few mortals are capable of evincing.
Banishing from her mind and heart every earthly
attachment, renouncing the very idea of matrimony,
she, standing resolutely by the side of a
Brother whom she was to aid and serve so well,
arose to dedicate her life to the service of her Father's
glorious Cause. Whether in the management of the
affairs of His Household in which she excelled, or in
the social relationships which she so assiduously
cultivated in order to shield both Bahá'u'lláh and
`Abdu'l-Bahá, whether in the unfailing attention
+P35
she paid to the everyday needs of her Father, or in
the traits of generosity, of affability and kindness,
which she manifested, the Greatest Holy Leaf had by
that time abundantly demonstrated her worthiness
to rank as one of the noblest figures intimately
associated with the life-long work of Bahá'u'lláh.
How grievous was the ingratitude, how blind the
fanaticism, how persistent the malignity of the
officials, their wives, and their subordinates, in
return for the manifold bounties which she, in close
association with her Brother, so profusely conferred
upon them! Her patience, her magnanimity, her
undiscriminating benevolence, far from disarming
the hostility of that perverse generation, served only
to inflame their rancour, to excite their jealousy, to
intensify their fears. The gloom that had settled
upon that little band of imprisoned believers, who
languished in the Fortress of `Akká contrasted with
the spirit of confident hope, of deep-rooted optimism
that beamed upon her serene countenance. No
calamity, however intense, could obscure the
brightness of her saintly face, and no agitation, no
matter how severe, could disturb the composure of
her gracious and dignified behaviour.
That her sensitive heart instantaneously reacted to
the slightest injury that befell the least significant of
creatures, whether friend or foe, no one who knew
her well could doubt. And yet such was the restraining
power of her will--a will which her spirit of
self-renunciation so often prompted her to suppress
--that a superficial observer might well be led
+P36
to question the intensity of her emotions or to
belittle the range of her sympathies. In the school of
adversity she, already endowed by Providence with
the virtues of meekness and fortitude, learned
through the example and exhortations of the Great
Sufferer, Who was her Father, the lesson she was
destined to teach the great mass of His followers for
so long after Him.
Armed with the powers with which an intimate
and long-standing companionship with
Bahá'u'lláh had already equipped her, and benefiting
by the magnificent example which the
steadily widening range of `Abdu'l-Bahá's activities
afforded her, she was prepared to face the storm
which the treacherous conduct of the Covenant-breakers
had aroused and to withstand its most
damaging onslaughts.
Great as had been her sufferings ever since her
infancy, the anguish of mind and heart which the
ascension of Bahá'u'lláh occasioned nerved her, as
never before, to a resolve which no upheaval could
bend and which her frail constitution belied. Amidst
the dust and heat of the commotion which that
faithless and rebellious company engendered she
found herself constrained to dissolve ties of family
relationship, to sever long-standing and intimate
friendships, to discard lesser loyalties for the sake of
her supreme allegiance to a Cause she had loved so
dearly and had served so well.
The disruption that ensued found her ranged by
the side of Him Whom her departed Father had
+P37
appointed as the Centre of His Covenant and the
authorized Expounder of His Word. Her venerated
mother, as well as her distinguished paternal uncle,
Aqáy-i-Kalím--the twin pillars who, all throughout
the various stages of Bahá'u'lláh's exile from
the Land of His Birth to the final place of His
confinement, had demonstrated, unlike most of the
members of His Family, the tenacity of their loyalty
--had already passed behind the Veil. Death, in the
most tragic circumstances, had also robbed her
of the Purest Branch, her only brother besides
`Abdu'l-Bahá, while still in the prime of youth. She
alone of the family of Bahá'u'lláh remained to
cheer the heart and reinforce the efforts of the Most
Great Branch, against Whom were solidly arrayed
the almost entire company of His faithless relatives.
In her arduous task she was seconded by the diligent
efforts of Munírih Khánum, the Holy Mother, and
those of her daughters whose age allowed them to
assist in the accomplishment of that stupendous
achievement with which the name of `Abdu'l-Bahá
will for ever remain associated.
With the passing of Bahá'u'lláh and the fierce
onslaught of the forces of disruption that followed in
its wake, the Greatest Holy Leaf, now in the hey-day
of her life, rose to the height of her great opportunity
and acquitted herself worthily of her task. It would
take me beyond the compass of the tribute I am
moved to pay to her memory were I to dwell upon the
incessant machinations to which Muhammad-`Alí,
the arch-breaker of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh,
+P38
and his despicable supporters basely resorted,
upon the agitation which their cleverly-directed
campaign of misrepresentation and calumny produced
in quarters directly connected with Sultán
`Abdu'l-Hamíd and his advisers, upon the trials and
investigations to which it gave rise, upon the
rigidity of the incarceration it reimposed, and upon
the perils it revived. Suffice it to say that but for her
sleepless vigilance, her tact, her courtesy, her
extreme patience and heroic fortitude, grave complications
might have ensued and the load of
`Abdu'l-Bahá's anxious care would have been considerably
increased.
And when the storm-cloud that had darkened the
horizon of the Holy Land had been finally dissipated
and the call raised by our beloved `Abdu'l-Bahá had
stirred to a new life certain cities of the American and
European continents, the Most Exalted Leaf became
the recipient of the unbounded affection and blessings
of One Who could best estimate her virtues
and appreciate her merits.
The decline of her precious life had by that time
set in, and the burden of advancing age was beginning
to becloud the radiance of her countenance.
Forgetful of her own self, disdaining rest and
comfort, and undeterred by the obstacles that still
stood in her path, she, acting as the honoured
hostess to a steadily increasing number of pilgrims
who thronged `Abdu'l-Bahá's residence from both
the East and the West, continued to display those
same attributes that had won her, in the preceding
+P39
phases of her career, so great a measure of admiration
and love.
And when, in pursuance of God's inscrutable
Wisdom, the ban on `Abdu'l-Bahá's confinement
was lifted and the Plan which He, in the darkest
hours of His confinement, had conceived materialized,
He with unhesitating confidence, invested His
trusted and honoured sister with the responsibility
of attending to the multitudinous details arising out
of His protracted absence from the Holy Land.
No sooner had `Abdu'l-Bahá stepped upon the
shores of the European and American continents
than our beloved Khánum found herself well-nigh
overwhelmed with thrilling messages, each
betokening the irresistible advance of the Cause in a
manner which, notwithstanding the vast range of
her experience, seemed to her almost incredible.
The years in which she basked in the sunshine of
`Abdu'l-Bahá's spiritual victories were, perhaps,
among the brightest and happiest of her life. Little
did she dream when, as a little girl, she was running
about, in the courtyard of her Father's house in
Tihrán, in the company of Him Whose destiny was
to be one day the chosen Centre of God's indestructible
Covenant, that such a Brother would be
capable of achieving, in realms so distant, and
among races so utterly remote, so great and memorable
a victory.
The enthusiasm and joy which swelled in her
breast as she greeted `Abdu'l-Bahá on His triumphant
return from the West, I will not venture to
+P40
describe. She was astounded at the vitality of which
He had, despite His unimaginable sufferings,
proved Himself capable. She was lost in admiration
at the magnitude of the forces which His utterances
had released. She was filled with thankfulness to
Bahá'u'lláh for having enabled her to witness the
evidences of such brilliant victory for His Cause no
less than for His Son.
The outbreak of the Great War gave her yet
another opportunity to reveal the true worth of her
character and to release the latent energies of her
heart. The residence of `Abdu'l-Bahá in Haifa was
besieged, all throughout that dreary conflict, by a
concourse of famished men, women and children
whom the maladministration, the cruelty and neglect
of the officials of the Ottoman Government had
driven to seek an alleviation to their woes. From the
hand of the Greatest Holy Leaf, and out of the
abundance of her heart, these hapless victims of a
contemptible tyranny, received day after day
unforgettable evidences of a love they had learned to
envy and admire. Her words of cheer and comfort,
the food, the money, the clothing she freely dispensed,
the remedies which, by a process of her
own, she herself prepared and diligently applied
--all these had their share in comforting the disconsolate,
in restoring sight to the blind, in sheltering
the orphan, in healing the sick, and in succouring the
homeless and the wanderer.
She had reached, amidst the darkness of the war
+P41
days the high water-mark of her spiritual attainments.
Few, if any, among the unnumbered
benefactors of society whose privilege has been to
allay, in various measures, the hardships and sufferings
entailed by that Fierce Conflict, gave as freely
and as disinterestedly as she did; few exercised that
undefinable influence upon the beneficiaries of their
gifts.
Age seemed to have accentuated the tenderness of
her loving heart, and to have widened still further
the range of her sympathies. The sight of appalling
suffering around her steeled her energies and
revealed such potentialities that her most intimate
associates had failed to suspect.
The ascension of `Abdu'l-Bahá, so tragic in its
suddenness, was to her a terrible blow from the
effects of which she never completely recovered. To
her He, Whom she called `Áqá', had been a refuge
in times of adversity. On Him she had been led to
place her sole reliance. In Him she had found ample
compensation for the bereavements she had suffered,
the desertions she had witnessed, the ingratitude
she had been shown by friends and kindred. No
one could ever dream that a woman of her age, so
frail in body, so sensitive of heart, so loaded with the
cares of almost eighty years of incessant tribulation,
could so long survive so shattering a blow. And yet,
history, no less than the annals of our immortal
Faith, shall record for her a share in the advancement
and consolidation of the world-wide Community
+P42
which the hand of `Abdu'l-Bahá had helped to
fashion, which no one among the remnants of His
Family can rival.
Which of the blessings am I to recount, which in
her unfailing solicitude she showered upon me, in
the most critical and agitated hours of my life? To
me, standing in so dire a need of the vitalizing grace
of God, she was the living symbol of many an
attribute I had learned to admire in `Abdu'l-Bahá.
She was to me a continual reminder of His inspiring
personality, of His calm resignation, of His munificence
and magnanimity. To me she was an incarnation
of His winsome graciousness, of His all-encompassing
tenderness and love.
It would take me too long to make even a brief
allusion to those incidents of her life, each of which
eloquently proclaims her as a daughter, worthy to
inherit that priceless heritage bequeathed to her by
Bahá'u'lláh. A purity of life that reflected itself in
even the minutest details of her daily occupations
and activities; a tenderness of heart that obliterated
every distinction of creed, class and colour; a
resignation and serenity that evoked to the mind the
calm and heroic fortitude of the Báb; a natural
fondness of flowers and children that was so characteristic
of Bahá'u'lláh; an unaffected simplicity of
manners; an extreme sociability which made her
accessible to all; a generosity, a love, at once
disinterested and undiscriminating, that reflected so
clearly the attributes of `Abdu'l-Bahá's character; a
sweetness of temper; a cheerfulness that no amount
+P43
of sorrow could becloud; a quiet and unassuming
disposition that served to enhance a thousandfold
the prestige of her exalted rank; a forgiving nature
that instantly disarmed the most unyielding enemy
--these rank among the outstanding attributes of a
saintly life which history will acknowledge as
having been endowed with a celestial potency that
few of the heroes of the past possessed.
No wonder that in Tablets, which stand as eternal
testimonies to the beauty of her character,
Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá have paid touching
tributes to those things that testify to her
exalted position among the members of their
Family, that proclaim her as an example to their
followers, and as an object worthy of the admiration
of all mankind.
I need only, at this juncture, quote the following
passage from a Tablet addressed by `Abdu'l-Bahá
to the Holy Mother, the tone of which reveals
unmistakably the character of those ties that bound
Him to so precious, so devoted a sister:
`To my honoured and distinguished sister do thou
convey the expression of my heartfelt, my intense longing.
Day and night she liveth in my remembrance. I dare make
no mention of the feelings which separation from her has
aroused in my heart, for whatever I should attempt to
express in writing will assuredly be effaced by the tears
which such sentiments must bring to my eyes.'
Dearly-beloved Greatest Holy Leaf! Through the
mist of tears that fill my eyes I can clearly see, as I pen
these lines, thy noble figure before me, and can
+P44
recognize the serenity of thy kindly face. I can still
gaze, though the shadows of the grave separate us,
into thy blue, love-deep eyes, and can feel in its calm
intensity, the immense love thou didst bear for the
Cause of thine Almighty Father, the attachment that
bound thee to the most lowly and insignificant
among its followers, the warm affection thou didst
cherish for me in thine heart. The memory of the
ineffable beauty of thy smile shall ever continue to
cheer and hearten me in the thorny path I am
destined to pursue. The remembrance of the touch
of thine hand shall spur me on to follow steadfastly
in thy way. The sweet magic of thy voice shall
remind me, when the hour of adversity is at its
darkest, to hold fast to the rope thou didst seize so
firmly all the days of thy life.
Bear thou this my message to `Abdu'l-Bahá,
thine exalted and divinely-appointed Brother: If the
Cause for which Bahá'u'lláh toiled and laboured,
for which Thou didst suffer years of agonizing
sorrow, for the sake of which streams of sacred
blood have flowed, should, in the days to come,
encounter storms more severe than those it has
already weathered, do Thou continue to overshadow,
with Thine all-encompassing care and
wisdom, Thy frail, Thy unworthy appointed child.
Intercede, O noble and well-favoured scion of a
heavenly Father, for me no less than for the toiling
masses of thy ardent lovers, who have sworn
undying allegiance to thy memory, whose souls
have been nourished by the energies of thy love,
+P45
whose conduct has been moulded by the inspiring
example of thy life, and whose imaginations are
fired by the imperishable evidences of thy lively
faith, thy unshakable constancy, thy invincible
heroism, thy great renunciation.
Whatever betide us, however distressing the
vicissitudes which the nascent Faith of God may
yet experience, we pledge ourselves, before the
mercy-seat of thy glorious Father, to hand on,
unimpaired and undivided, to generations yet
unborn, the glory of that tradition of which thou
hast been its most brilliant exemplar.
In the innermost recesses of our hearts, O thou
exalted Leaf of the Abhá Paradise, we have reared
for thee a shining mansion that the hand of time can
never undermine, a shrine which shall frame eternally
the matchless beauty of thy countenance, an
altar whereon the fire of thy consuming love shall
burn for ever.
7. ENTREAT SORROW STRICKEN AMERICAN BELIEVERS
NEVER ALLOW CONSCIOUSNESS THEIR AGONIZING
LOSS PARALYZE DETERMINATION PROSECUTE AN ENTERPRISE
ON WHICH ADORED OBJECT OUR MOURNING
CENTRED HER BRIGHTEST HOPES.
8. YOUR MESSAGE ALLEVIATED LOAD MY AGONIZING
SORROW. NOTHING LESS INFLEXIBLE RESOLVE
CARRY OUT HER DEAREST PARTING WISH HOLD FAST
CAUSE HER ALMIGHTY FATHER CAN LIFT ITS CRUSHING
BURDEN.
+P46
9. PRAY ASSURE AMERICAN BELIEVERS BEHALF HOLY
FAMILY MYSELF ABIDING APPRECIATION NUMEROUS
EVIDENCES THEIR VALUED SYMPATHY. OUR SORROW-LADEN
HEARTS MUCH RELIEVED FILLED WITH GRATITUDE.
OUT OF PANGS OF ANGUISH WHICH BEREAVED
AMERICA EXPERIENCED IN HER SUDDEN SEPARATION
FROM `ABDU'L-BAHÁ ADMINISTRATION GOD'S MIGHTY
FAITH WAS BORN. MIGHT NOT HER PRESENT GRIEF AT
LOSS BAHÁ'U'LLÁH'S PRECIOUS DAUGHTER RELEASE
SUCH FORCES AS WILL ENSURE SPEEDY COMPLETION
MASHRIQU'L-ADHKÁR THE ADMINISTRATION'S MIGHTY
BULWARK, SYMBOL OF ITS STRENGTH AND HARBINGER
ITS PROMISED GLORY.
10. Your valued message brought strength and
solace to my aching heart. I deeply appreciate the
sentiments of my invaluable fellow-workers, who
have by their eminent, their unforgettable and
unique services, contributed so powerfully in
brightening the closing days of her precious life. The
services each of you has rendered to our beloved
Cause brought much joy and hope to her in the
evening of her life, and are, therefore, highly
meritorious in the sight of the Almighty. May He
bless abundantly your work in the Divine Vineyard,
and enable you to render still greater services in the
days to come.
11. I deeply appreciate your sympathy. My loss
is tremendous and my sorrow so profound. I will
+P47
pray that you, who have felt the power of her spirit
at so advanced an age may be enabled to mirror forth
its splendour and reveal its beauty to the world. I
will continue to pray in your behalf. You are often in
my thoughts. Rest assured and persevere in your
devoted efforts.
12. I greatly value your sympathy in my cruel,
my irreparable loss. My only comfort is the assurance
of her devoted lovers to remain firm and
steadfast in the Cause and to strive to follow in her
footsteps. The example of her life is our solace, our
inspiration and strength. May the Beloved aid you
to follow in her way, and to perpetuate her glorious
memory.
13. Your sweet and touching message imparted
strength and solace to my heart. I value the sentiments
you express and am deeply grateful. My grief
is profound and my only comfort is the thought that
her many lovers, East and West, are straining every
nerve to promote those very ideals for which she
suffered and toiled all the days of her eventful and
sacred life. I will continue to pray for your welfare
and success from the depths of my heart. Rest
assured.
+P48
14. My great love for the Greatest Holy Leaf and
my attachment to each one of you prompt me to add
these few words in person and to express to you my
gratitude for the expression of your valued sympathy.
I greatly value your message, and will pray
that the Almighty may bless your efforts in the
service of a Cause for the sake of which our loved
Khánum sacrificed her precious life.
15. The many evidences of your increasing zeal
and activities in the service of our beloved Cause,
have to a great measure, relieved my sorrow-laden
heart. I will continue to pray for your unsparing
efforts, and wish you to persevere, whatever the
vicissitudes which this immortal Faith may encounter
in future. Rest assured, and never feel disconsolate...
The celebration of Bahá'í festive anniversaries,
I feel, should also be suspended during a period of
nine months.
16. Your highly impressive and touching message
brought much relief to my weary soul. I thank
you from the depths of my heart. I greatly value the
sentiments expressed on behalf of a local community,
the members of which have, by their services,
their devotion and loyalty, contributed, to so great
an extent, to the joy and satisfaction of the hearts of
both `Abdu'l-Bahá and the Greatest Holy Leaf. My
+P49
great attachment to each one of you, as well as my
immense love for our departed and beloved
Khánum, have prompted me to add these few
words in person. I will continue to pray for the
success of your efforts, as well as for your spiritual
advancement.
17. The passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf has
filled my heart with unutterable sorrow. My comfort
is the thought that the measure of success
achieved, under your wise and able leadership, by
the collective efforts of the American believers has
brightened considerably the last days of her precious
life. Would to God that the continued endeavours of
this little band of her devoted lovers who have
brought so great a joy to her blessed heart, may
bring further satisfaction to her soul, and realize, at
the appointed time, her dearest wish and fondest
hopes for the Cause in your land. To complete the
Temple, to clothe its naked dome, and terminate its
exterior elaborate ornamentation, is the best and
most effective way in which the American believers,
the recipients of her untold favours, can demonstrate
their fidelity to her memory and their gratitude
for the inestimable blessings she showered
upon them.
18. O well-loved friend,
The emotions that have possessed my grieving
+P50
heart are such that they cannot be put into words,
and tongue and pen are helpless to describe them.
The one consolation of this servant is the steadfastness
and the redoubled services of those dearly-loved
ones in Iran, and the good news of energetic
efforts being exerted by the friends in that land. This
is what dissipates the clouds of my grieving, and
dispels the darkness of my anguish, and quiets the
flames that consume my very being, and casts a ray
of joy across the darkened sky of my agonized and
stricken heart.
19. I wish to add a few words in person as a
token of my deepfelt appreciation of your loving
message of sympathy in the great loss the family of
`Abdu'l-Bahá and myself have sustained. My
prayer for each one of you is that the Almighty may
aid you to perpetuate her glorious memory, to walk
in her footsteps and to transmit to future generations
the tradition she has bequeathed to us all.
20. I am moved to add a few words with my
own pen, to what has been written on my behalf,
renewing my plea to you and through you, to each
member of your beloved community, to prosecute,
with undiminished vigour the enterprise which you
have so splendidly inaugurated. The Greatest Holy
Leaf, from her retreat of Glory, is watching over
you, is interceding for every one of you, and is
+P51
expecting you to play your part in the great task,
with which the prestige of her Father's glorious
Cause is so closely associated. You have, while she
lived amongst us, contributed to a remarkable
degree to the brightening of her earthly life. By your
persistent, your heroic endeavours you will, I am
sure, bring added joy to her soul, and will vindicate
afresh your undying loyalty to her memory.
21. The passing of the beloved Khánum has
plunged me in unspeakable sorrow. What a gap she
has left behind her! It is terrible to contemplate.
Your message, which I greatly value, lessened
considerably the burden of my grief as I am fully
conscious of the extent to which you have, in so
many different ways, contributed to her physical
well-being, and to the joy and satisfaction of her
soul. We are all indebted to you for the many
evidences of your loving and unfailing solicitude for
her welfare, and we can only pray at her grave that
her spirit may intercede for you before the throne of
her glorious Father, and aid you to accomplish still
greater things for a Cause, in the path of which she
toiled and suffered all the days of her precious life.
22. I greatly value the expression of your
loving sympathy and am greatly relieved by the
sentiments your message conveyed. I will pray that
you may be assisted, individually and collectively,
to follow her inspiring example, to bring happiness
+P52
to her soul, and to proclaim far and wide the purity
of her life, the immensity of her love, and the
supreme nobility of her character.
23. I wish to express to your distinguished
assembly my gratitude for the action they have
taken in reproducing in facsimile my humble tribute
to the Greatest Holy Leaf. The hundred copies you
sent me have been received and are splendid reproductions
of the original. The finest and most enduring
tribute which can be paid to her memory lies
within the grasp, and constitutes the supreme
opportunity, of the American believers. Her earthly
life, as it drew to a close, was much brightened by
the brilliant accomplishments of her devoted lovers
in the American continent. May her pure angelic
soul in the realms beyond derive added satisfaction
from the uninterrupted progress and the eventual
completion of an enterprise on which she had
centered the one remaining joy of her life.
24. O ye who share my anguish and are my
comforters in my distress and bereavement! In these
past few months, from the day of the passing of that
fairest fruit of the Undying Tree, of the setting of
that wondrous Star in the heavens of endless glory,
and of that bright Ray from the well spring of
pre-existent light, [`Abdu'l-Bahá], the Ancient
Beauty, the Most Great Name--may the spirits of
+P53
the Concourse on High be sacrificed for Him--has
witnessed what has come upon me, whom she had
surrounded at all times with her loving-kindness,
her unceasing favours, and what a wound this loss
has inflicted on my suffering heart. This parting
from her has left my whole being in turmoil,
burning with the fire of my love and longing for her.
When, in the morning and the evening, I call her
beloved face to mind, and let her smiles, that
nourished the spirit, pass again before my eyes, and I
think over all her bounty to me, all her unnumbered
kindnesses, and remember that astonishing meekness
she showed in her sufferings--then the flames
of yearning love are kindled yet again, and sighs
come out of my heart, and tears flow from my eyes,
so that all control is lost and I sink into a sea of
anguish without end.
Bearing witness to this, at this very moment, is
her own pure and radiant soul, her bright and sacred
spirit, that soars in the atmosphere of the invisible
realm, and gazes, from beyond the throne of the
Most High, upon me and upon those others on earth
who are enamoured of her well-beloved name.
O thou Scion of Bahá! I weep over thee in the
night season, as do the bereaved; and at break of day
I cry out unto thee with the tongue of my heart, my
limbs and members, and again and again I repeat thy
well-loved name, and I groan over the loss of thee,
over thy meekness and ordeals, and how thou didst
love me, over the sufferings thou didst bear, and the
terrible calamities, and the wretchedness and the
griefs, and the abasement, and the rejection--and all
+P54
this only and solely for the sake of thy Lord and
because of thy burning love for those, out of all of
creation, who shared in thine ardour.
Whensoever, in sleep, I call to mind and see thy
smiling face, whensoever, by day or night, I circumambulate
thine honoured tomb, then in the innermost
depths of my being are rekindled the fires of
yearning, and the cord of my patience is severed,
and again the tears come and all the world grows
dark before my eyes. And whensoever I remember
what blows were rained upon thee at the close of thy
days, the discomforts, trials and illnesses--and I
picture thy surroundings now, in the Sanctuary on
High, in the midmost heart of Heaven, beside the
pavilions of grandeur and might; and I behold thy
present glory, thy deliverance, the delights, the
bounties, the bestowals, the majesty and dominion
and power, the joy, thine exultation, and thy
triumph--then the burden of my grieving is lightened,
the cloud of sorrow is dispelled, the heat of my
torment abates. Then is my tongue loosed to praise
and thank thee, and thy Lord, Him Who did fashion
thee and did prefer thee to all other handmaidens,
and did give thee to drink from His sweet-scented
lips, Who withdrew the veil of concealment from
thy true being and made thee to be a true example for
all thy kin to follow, and caused thee to be the
fragrance of His garment for all of creation.
And at such times I strengthen my resolve to
follow in thy footsteps, and to continue onward in
the pathway of thy love; to take thee as my model,
+P55
and to acquire the qualities, and to make manifest
that which thou didst desire for the triumph of this
exalted and exacting, this most resplendent, sacred,
and wondrous Cause.
Then intercede thou for me before the throne of
the Almighty, O thou who, within the Company on
High, dost intercede for all of humankind. Deliver
me from the throes of my mourning, and confer
upon me and those who love thee in this nether
world what will remove our afflictions, and bring
assurance to our hearts, and quiet the winds of our
sorrows, and console our eyes, and fulfil our hopes
both in this world and the world to come--O thou
whom God hast singled out from amongst all the
countenances of the Abhá Paradise, and hast honoured
in both His earth and His Kingdom on high,
and of whom He has made mention in the Crimson
Book, in words which wafted the scent of musk and
scattered its fragrance over all the dwellers on earth!
O thou Greatest Holy Leaf! If I cry at every
moment out of a hundred mouths, and from each of
these mouths I speak with a hundred thousand
tongues, yet I could never describe nor celebrate thy
heavenly qualities, which are known to none save
only the Lord God; nor could I befittingly tell of
even the transient foam from out the ocean of thine
endless favour and grace.
Except for a very few, whose habitation is in the
highest retreats of holiness, and who circle, in the
furthermost Sanctuary, by day and by night about
the throne of God, and are fed at the hand of the
+P56
Abhá Beauty on purest milk--except for these, no
soul of this nether world has known or recognized
thine immaculate, thy most sacred essence, nor has
any befittingly perceived that ambergris fragrance
of thy noble qualities, which richly anoints thy
brow, and which issues from the divine wellspring
of mystic musk; nor has any caught its sweetness.
To this bear witness the Company on High, and
beyond them God Himself, the Supreme Lord of all
the heavens and the earths: that during all thy days,
from thine earliest years until the close of thy life,
thou didst personify the attributes of thy Father, the
Matchless, the Mighty. Thou wert the fruit of His
Tree, thou wert the lamp of His love, thou wert the
symbol of His serenity, and of His meekness, the
pathway of His guidance, the channel of His blessings,
the sweet scent of His robe, the refuge of His
loved ones and His handmaidens, the mantle of His
generosity and grace.
O thou Remnant of the divine light, O thou fruit
of the Cause of our All-Compelling Lord! From the
hour when thy days did set, on the horizon of this
Snow-White, this unique and Sacred Spot, our days
have turned to night, our joys to great consternation;
our eyes have grown blind with sorrow at thy
passing, for it has brought back that supreme
affliction yet again, that direst convulsion, the
departing of thy compassionate Brother, our Merciful
Master. And there is no refuge for us anywhere
except for the breathings of thy spirit, the spotless,
the excellently bright; no shelter for us anywhere,
+P57
but through thine intercession, that God may inspire
us with His own patience, and ordain for us in the
other life the reward of meeting thee again, of
attaining thy presence, of gazing on thy countenance,
and partaking of thy light.
O thou Maid of Bahá! The best and choicest of
praises, and the most excellent and most glorious of
salutations, rest upon thee, O thou solace of mine
eyes, and beloved of my soul! Thy grace to me was
plenteous, it can never be concealed; thy love for me
was great, it can never be forgotten. Blessed, a
thousand times blessed, is he who loves thee, and
partakes of thy splendours, and sings the praises of
thy qualities, and extols thy worth, and follows in
thy footsteps; who testifies to the wrongs thou didst
suffer, and visits thy resting-place, and circles
around thine exalted tomb, by day and by night.
Woe unto him, retribution be his, who disputes thy
rank and station, and denies thine excellence, and
turns himself aside from thy clear, thy luminous and
straight path.
O ye distracted lovers of that winsome countenance!
It is meet and fitting that in the gatherings of
the loved ones of God and the handmaids of the
Merciful in all the countries and lands of the East,
these shining words and clear tokens from the
Supreme Pen and His Interpreter's wonder-working
hand--verses which were revealed for
that priceless treasure of the Kingdom--should be
repeatedly recited, most movingly with devotion
and lowliness, and great attention and care, so as
+P58
to perpetuate her blessed memory, and extol her
station, and out of love also for her incomparable
beauty.
May the honoured members of the Central
Assembly of Iran circulate these Writings, immediately
and with great care, to the countries of the
East, through their Local Spiritual Assemblies; for
this task is a great bounty especially set apart for the
trustees of His devoted loved ones in that noble
homeland. May God reward them with excellent
rewards, in both this world of His, and in His
Kingdom.
25. Moved by an unalterable devotion to the
memory of the Greatest Holy Leaf, I feel prompted
to share with you, and through you with the
concourse of her steadfast lovers throughout the
West, these significant passages+F1 which I have
gleaned from various Tablets revealed in her honour
by Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá.
Impregnated with that love after which the soul of
a humanity in travail now hungers, these passages
disclose, to the extent that our finite minds can
comprehend, the nature of that mystic bond which,
on one hand, united her with the Spirit of her
almighty Father and, on the other, linked her so
closely with her glorious Brother, the perfect
Exemplar of that Spirit.
The memory of her who was a pattern of
+F1 Included in Sections I and II.
+P59
goodness, of a pure and holy life, who was the
embodiment of such heavenly virtues as only the
privileged inmates of the uppermost chambers in the
Abhá Paradise can fully appreciate, will long live
enshrined in these immortal words--a memory the
ennobling influence of which will remain an inspiration
and a solace amid the wreckage of a sadly
shaken world.
Conscious of the predominating share assumed,
in recent years, by the American believers in alleviating
the burden which that most exalted Leaf
bore so heroically in the evening of her life, I can do
no better than entrust into their hands these prized
testimonies of the Founder of our Faith and of the
Centre of His Covenant. I feel confident that their
elected representatives will take whatever measures
are required for their prompt and wide circulation
among their brethren throughout the West. They
will, thereby, be contributing still further to the
repayment of the great debt they owe her in the
prosecution of a mighty and divinely-appointed
task.
26. It was through the arrival of these pilgrims,+F1
and these alone, that the gloom which had
enveloped the disconsolate members of `Abdu'l-Bahá's
family was finally dispelled. Through the
agency of these successive visitors the Greatest Holy
Leaf, who alone with her Brother among the
+F1 From the West, after the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh.
+P60
members of her Father's household had to confront
the rebellion of almost the entire company of her
relatives and associates, found that consolation
which so powerfully sustained her till the very close
of her life.
27. With `Abdu'l-Bahá's ascension, and more
particularly with the passing of His well-beloved
and illustrious sister the Most Exalted Leaf--the last
survivor of a glorious and heroic age--there draws
to a close the first and most moving chapter of
Bahá'í history, marking the conclusion of the
Primitive, the Apostolic Age of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh.
28. The Fund associated with the beloved name
of the Greatest Holy Leaf has been launched. The
uninterrupted continuation to its very end of so
laudable an enterprise is now assured. The poignant
memories of one whose heart so greatly rejoiced at
the rearing of the superstructure of this sacred House
[the House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois] will so
energize the final exertions required to complete it as
to dissipate any doubt that may yet linger in any
mind as to the capacity of its builders to worthily
consummate their task.
29. BLESSED REMAINS PUREST BRANCH AND
MASTER'S MOTHER SAFELY TRANSFERRED HALLOWED
+P61
PRECINCTS SHRINES MOUNT CARMEL. LONG INFLICTED
HUMILIATION WIPED AWAY. MACHINATIONS COVENANT-BREAKERS
FRUSTRATE PLAN DEFEATED. CHERISHED
WISH GREATEST HOLY LEAF FULFILLED. SISTER
BROTHER MOTHER WIFE `ABDU'L-BAHÁ REUNITED ONE
SPOT DESIGNED CONSTITUTE FOCAL CENTRE BAHÁ'Í
ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONS AT FAITH'S WORLD
CENTRE. SHARE JOYFUL NEWS ENTIRE BODY AMERICAN
BELIEVERS.
30. O loved ones of God, These two precious
and most exalted treasures,+F1 these two keepsakes of
the sacred Beauty of Abhá, have now been joined
to the third trust from Him, that is, to the daughter
of Bahá and His remnant, the token of the Master's
Remembrance.
Their resting-places are in one area, on an
elevation close by the Spot round which do circle the
Concourse on High, and facing the Qiblih of the
people of Bahá--`Akká, the resplendent city, and
the sanctified, the luminous, the Most Holy Shrine.
Within the shadow of these honoured tombs has
also been laid the remains of the consort+F2 of Him
round Whom all names revolve.
For joy, the Hill of God is stirred at so high an
honour, and for this most great bestowal the
mountain of the Lord is in rapture and ecstasy.
+F1 The remains of the Purest Branch and those of Navváb.
+F2 Munírih Khánum.
+P62
31. His+F1 nine-year-old son, later surnamed the
`Most Great Branch', destined to become the Centre
of His Covenant and authorized Interpreter of His
teachings, together with His seven-year-old sister,
known in later years by the same title+F2 as that of her
illustrious mother, and whose services until the ripe
old age of four score years and six, no less than her
exalted parentage, entitle her to the distinction of
ranking as the outstanding heroine of the Bahá'í
Dispensation, were ... included among the exiles
who were now bidding their last farewell to their
native country.
32. ...as a further testimony to the majestic
unfoldment and progressive consolidation of the
stupendous undertaking launched by Bahá'u'lláh
on that holy mountain, may be mentioned the
selection of a portion of the school property situated
in the precincts of the Shrine of the Báb as a
permanent resting-place for the Greatest Holy Leaf,
the `well-beloved' sister of `Abdu'l-Bahá, the `Leaf
that hath sprung' from the `Pre-existent Root', the
`fragrance' of Bahá'u'lláh's `shining robe', elevated
by Him to a `station such as none other woman hath
surpassed', and comparable in rank to those immortal
heroines such as Sarah, Ásíyih, the Virgin Mary,
Fátimih and Táhirih, each of whom has outshone
every member of her sex in previous Dispensations.
+F1 Bahá'u'lláh's.
+F2 The Most Exalted Leaf.
+P63
33. The raising of this Edifice+F1 will in turn
herald the construction, in the course of successive
epochs of the Formative Age of the Faith, of several
other structures...
These Edifices will, in the shape of a far-flung arc,
and following a harmonizing style of architecture,
surround the resting-places of the Greatest Holy
Leaf, ranking as foremost among the members of
her sex in the Bahá'í Dispensation, of her Brother,
offered up as a ransom by Bahá'u'lláh for the
quickening of the world and its unification, and of
their Mother, proclaimed by Him to be His chosen
`consort in all the worlds of God'.
+F1 The International Archives Building.
+P64
+P65
IV
Passages from letters
written on behalf of
SHOGHI EFFENDI
+P66
+P67
IV
Passages from letters
written on behalf of
SHOGHI EFFENDI
1. Your touching words in connection with the
sudden removal of the Greatest Holy Leaf from
their+F1 midst have greatly alleviated the burden of
sorrow that weighs so heavily upon their hearts and
have demonstrated that in their great and irreparable
loss the friends are faithfully sharing their sorrow
and grief.
The passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf, so tragic in
its suddenness, has, indeed, divested the Holy
Family of its unique adornment and the Bahá'í
world at large of one of its noblest and most
precious members. She was to us all not only a true
friend but the real embodiment of those traits and
characteristics, of that genuine and profound love
that was born of God, and that we had learned to
admire in the Master...
In this great loss that the followers of the Faith
both in East and West have come to suffer our
Guardian's share is the greatest and perhaps the most
cruel. His sole comfort, in this great calamity, is to
+F1 Members of the Holy Family.
+P68
see the friends unitedly working for the spread of a
Cause for which our departed Khánum had given
up all her life, and for the triumph of which she
cherished the highest hopes. The expressions of
zealous enthusiasm and hope, of genuine self-abnegation
and love that the American believers and
especially our precious sister Mrs Agnes Parsons
demonstrated in their last Convention meeting have
greatly brightened the closing days of her life.+F1
Shoghi Effendi trusts that her memory will increasingly
serve to cheer and hearten the friends in their
ever-widening activities.
2. The passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf, so
cruel in the feelings of unalterable grief that it has
evoked, is, indeed, a tremendous loss to us all and
particularly to our Guardian. Her presence among
us was such a source of inspiration and joy that we
cannot too deeply grieve the immensity of our loss.
She was a real mother to every one of us, a comforter
in our pains and anxieties, and a friend in our
moments of utter loneliness and despair. But alas!
+F1 Refers to the Annual Convention held in April 1932, at which
the delegates and friends responded in an impressive manner
to the need of the Fund associated with the name of the
Greatest Holy Leaf, initiated in order to complete the exterior
ornamentation of the House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.
Mrs Parsons spontaneously removed a valuable pearl necklace
from her neck to assist in meeting the Fund's goal. See
Bahá'í News, No. 62, May 1932 for a report of that
Convention.
+P69
We failed to appreciate adequately what her
presence among us meant and it is only now, when
she has gone for ever, that we come to realize the
irreparable character of our loss.
And yet, however deep our consciousness of her
unexpected removal from our midst may be, we
cannot but feel certain that from her heavenly retreat
she is continually showering her blessings upon
everyone of us and is interceding on our behalf so
that we may recover our energies and unanimously
arise and dedicate our lives to the service of her
Father's glorious Cause.
Her memory will, assuredly, continue to inspire
us for many, many long years and will prove, when
the hour of adversity is at its darkest, to be our best
sustainer.
May her glorious spirit inspire us with faith and
hope, steel our energies and enable us to make every
sacrifice in the path lighted by her saintly and
eventful life.
3. The ascension of the Greatest Holy Leaf is,
indeed, an irreparable loss to us all and will continue
to be deeply felt for many, many long years. Her
presence among us was such a source of blessings
and inspiration! She was to every one of us not only a
friend but a real mother, through whose maternal
care and love we had learned to feel and experience
that consuming love which is born of God and
which alone can galvanize the souls of men.
+P70
Her departure from our midst, though cruel and
heart-rending in its immediate results cannot but
ultimately serve the very best interests of the Cause.
For this invincible Faith of God has, ever since its
inception in darkest Persia, grown and flourished
amidst all sorts of tribulations and sufferings and has
welcomed all these as providential forces destined to
ensure its unity, promote its interests and consolidate
its work.
Let us, therefore, not remain disconsolate and
hopeless and withstand in a heroic way the shock
occasioned by the passing of our beloved Khánum.
Her ascension is a challenge to us all, a challenge to
our faith, to our sincerity and to our love.
May her memory continue to strengthen and
deepen our spiritual insight and enable us to render
the Faith as many services as we can.
4. His grief is too immense and his loss too
heavy to be adequately expressed in words. But the
many letters of condolence he has already received,
and especially your message that indicated your
profound attachment to our departed Khánum,
greatly comforted his sorrow-stricken heart and
gave him the assurance that in this calamitous event
the friends are amply sharing his grief.
However irreparable and heart-rending our loss
may be, we cannot but thank God for having
released our beloved Holy Leaf from the oppression
and bondage of this world. For more than eighty
+P71
years this Exalted Leaf bore with a fortitude that
bewildered every one who had the privilege of
knowing her, sufferings and tribulations that few of
our present-day believers did experience. And yet,
what a joy and what a saintlike attitude she manifested
all through her life. Her angelic face was so
calm, so serene in the very midst of sufferings and
pains. Not that she lacked tenderness of heart and
sympathy. But she could overcome her feelings and
this because she had put all her trust in God.
And now that she has gone for ever we should
rejoice at the thought that she is still living in our
hearts and is animating our soul with a devotion, a
courage, and a hope of which we are in such a dire
need in these days of sufferings and hardships.
May the memory of her saintly life inspire you
with faith and hope, cheer and strengthen your heart
and make of you a servant worthy to promote and
consolidate the interests of the Faith!
5. The irreparable loss which the Faith has
suffered through the passing of the Greatest Holy
Leaf is too immense to be adequately expressed in
words, and we cannot fully realize its significance at
the present stage of the evolution of the Cause.
Future generations stand in a better position to
appreciate what her significance was during the
early days of the Revelation and especially after the
ascension of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
+P72
And now that she has gone for ever and is in
direct communion with God we should rejoice at
the thought that from the Realm Above she is
watching over us all and is sending us her blessings.
May the memory of her saintly life be our
comforter in our hours of sadness and despair, and
may we learn through her example how to live the
true life of the spirit, of self-abnegation and of
service.
6. In these days, when we are all mourning the
loss of our beloved Greatest Holy Leaf, Shoghi
Effendi's sole comfort is to see the friends as ever
devoted and active and striving day and night to
promote the teachings of the Cause.
However cruel our separation from Bahíyyih
Khánum may be, especially at a time when her
presence among us was such a source of inspiration
and strength, yet we feel confident that from her
Heavenly Retreat she is sending us her blessings
and is quickening our weary souls.
Concerning the suspension of festivities for a
period of nine months it should be made clear that
what is meant by this is that all gatherings, whether
outdoor or indoor, which are not of a strictly
devotional character should be abolished all
through the period of our mourning. However,
meetings and services that are wholly spiritual as
well as those that are necessary for the carrying on
+P73
of the administration should continue to be held as
usual.
7. Your message of condolence and sympathy,
dated July 22nd, 1932 which so fully conveyed your
profound grief at the loss occasioned by the unexpected
passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf was
received and read with great interest. The Guardian's
sorrow was much relieved and the burden of
his agonizing pain immensely alleviated. He sincerely
hopes that out of the pangs of this crushing
calamity the Faith will strengthen its foundations
and extend the sphere of its ever-widening influence.
Our loss is, indeed, immense and even irreparable.
But our joy should also be great, for the
Greatest Holy Leaf has at least been released from
the bondage of this world after more than eighty
years of continued suffering. It would take me too
long to relate in their fullness those incidents which
eloquently proclaim her as one of the greatest
sufferers the world has yet seen. And yet, with what
a fortitude she bore all these tribulations for she was
confident in the grace of God.
Though now gone for ever from our midst we
should be hopeful that from her Celestial Realm she
will send us her blessings and will extend to us her
help. Her memory will continue to cheer and
strengthen our souls, deepen our spiritual insight
and bring us to a strong determination to serve till
+P74
the very last breath of our life a Cause for which our
departed Khánum gave up her entire existence and
for the future of which she cherished the brightest
hopes.
8. ...The news of the Memorial Service you
had held for the Greatest Holy Leaf gave him the
assurance that the friends are faithfully sharing his
grief and are demonstrating in a befitting manner
their profound devotion to one whose very life was
an example of faithfulness and sincerity, of self-abnegation
and love.
The ascension of the Greatest Holy Leaf is,
indeed, both a calamity and a blessing. It is an
overwhelming calamity since it has deprived us of
the presence in our very midst of the last Remnant of
that Heroic age of the Cause that gave birth to so
many noble and faithful souls. The mere presence of
our beloved Khánum among us was a source of
inspiration and blessing. And now that she has gone
we cannot too deeply deplore the immensity of our
loss.
But thanks to God for having released her, after so
many long years of agonizing pain, of the bondage
of this world and given her the priceless privilege of
being in direct communion with God.
May her everlasting spirit continue to guide our
efforts and enable us to serve a Cause, for which she
suffered so much, with all our might, our enthusiasm
and hope.
+P75
9. The letter from that spiritual friend has
reached the beloved Guardian, and he is aware of
your bitter grieving over the calamitous news that a
most glorious fruit of the Holy Tree, the Most
Exalted Leaf, the Remnant of Bahá, has passed
away.
This disastrous event has had an effect on the
Guardian so terrible that no pen can describe it nor
paper bear the words; for that bright and surpassingly
fair presence, that quintessence of the perfections
and attributes of God, was his close companion,
and the consolation of his heart, so that his
separation from her whom the world wronged, and
the ascension of that loved one of the community of
love, was unspeakably hard for him to bear.
She was a divine trust, a treasure of the Kingdom,
and she spent all the days of her precious life as an
exile and a captive, and her every priceless hour was
passed under tests and afflictions and ordeals that she
endured at the hands of merciless foes. From early
childhood she had her share of the sufferings of
Bahá'u'lláh, subjected even as He was to hardships
and calamities, and she was as well the partner
in sorrows and tribulations of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
For her there was never a night of peaceful sleep,
for her no day when she found rest, and always, like
a moth, would her comely person circle about the
bright candle of the Faith. The words of her mouth
were ever to glorify the Abhá Beauty, her only
thought and her high purpose were to proclaim the
Cause of God and to protect His Law, while the
+P76
dearest wish of her glowing heart was to waft far and
wide the sweet breathings of the Lord.
Her heavenly ways were a model for the people of
Bahá, and those who dwell in the pavilions of
devotion and the denizens of the Abhá Paradise
found in her celestial attributes their prototype and
their guide. Glory be to God, Who created her,
fashioned her, called her into being, sent her forth
and revealed her, whose like the eye of the world had
never seen.
The Guardian sends his message of consolation to
your honoured self and all the friends, and he says
that it is fitting that the righteous should hold fast to
the cord of resignation and acquiescence, and adorn
themselves with the ornaments of faithfulness and
servitude, and take for their example that priceless
treasure of the Kingdom.
10. The letter dated 5 August 1932, from that
spiritual friend has been received by the Guardian of
the Cause of God, may our lives be sacrificed for
him, and he has been informed of your receiving his
telegram regarding the ascension of that matchless
fruit of the Tree of Glory, the Most Exalted Leaf.
There is no question but that the burden of grief
on his sorrowing heart, because of this terrible
ordeal, this great calamity, is heavier than minds can
conceive, or words can tell. That gem of immortality,
that precious and exalted being, was the one
consolation, the one companion of the Guardian in
+P77
his sorrow-filled life; and she, with her sweet
encouragement, her gentle words, her never-ceasing,
soothing care of him, her smiles that came like
fair winds from heavenly gardens, could always
gladden and refresh his spirit.
No one has understood the tender, spiritual and
celestial bond between the Guardian and her who
was the Remnant of Bahá, nor can any mind
conceive that plane of being, nor reckon its sublimity.
During her whole life span, that heavenly being
was subjected to ordeals and tribulations. She confronted
the attacks of the hostile, and she suffered
afflictions any one of which could well have shattered
a mountain of iron. And yet the sweet and
comely face of that spirit-like dove of holiness, was
wreathed till her very last hour in life-giving smiles,
nor did that patience and endurance, that greatness,
that majesty and dignity, ever desert her delicate and
fragile person.
She who was the trust left by Bahá'u'lláh had no
other aim nor goal but these: to proclaim the Cause
of God and exalt His Word; to praise and glorify the
Blessed Beauty's name; to bear `Abdu'l-Bahá in
mind and serve Him ever; to pity the sorely-troubled
and give them endless, loving care; to
cherish and comfort them, and bring them joy.
There is, then, good reason, that with the passing of
this peerless gem, this precious, matchless pearl, we
should rend our garments in mourning, and that our
eyes should stream with bitter tears.
+P78
The Guardian conveys his message of condolence,
and says that in this severest of afflictions, it
would befit the people of Bahá to hold fast to
resignation and acquiescence, and to rise up and
loyally serve the Faith, taking for their example that
priceless treasure of the Abhá Paradise.
11. What you had written concerning the
memorial gatherings of men and women believers
to mourn the Most Exalted Leaf, who was the
peerless fruit of the Holy Tree, and to commemorate
the ascension of her who was the most glorious
trust left on earth by the Lord--may the souls of
holy men and women be a sacrifice for her sacred
resting-place--has been received by the Guardian.
It cannot be imagined to what a degree this
terrible and calamitous event has saddened him,
and, more than words can tell, clouded the radiance
of his heart. For that holy being, that resplendent
person, with all her heart and soul and endless love,
had ever fostered and cherished him in the warm
embrace of her celestial tenderness. She was his
single, dear companion, she was his one and only
consolation in the world, and that is why he is so
burdened down with the passing of her high and
stately presence, and why the departure of that
comely spirit is so hard for him to bear.
She who was left in trust by Bahá'u'lláh was the
symbol of His infinite compassion, the day star in
the heaven of His bounty and grace. That sanctified
+P79
spirit revealed the loving-kindness of Him who was
the Beauty of the All-Glorious, and was the welling
spring of the favours and bestowals of Him Who was
the Lord, the Most High. She was the comforter of
anyone who grieved, the solace of any with a broken
heart. She, that Remnant of Bahá, was a loving
mother to the orphan, and for the hapless and bewildered
it was she who would find a way. Her holy life
lit up the world; her heavenly qualities and ways were
a standard for people all over the earth. Like a cloud of
grace, she showered down gifts, and her bestowals,
like the morning winds, refreshed the soul.
Stranger and friend alike were captured by her
loving-kindness, her spiritual nature, her unceasing
care for them and tender ways; enamoured of her
great indulgence toward them, and how she favoured
them and cherished them. The mind could only
marvel at that subtle and ethereal being, at the
majesty and greatness of her, and the heavenly
modesty, and the forbearance and long suffering.
Even in the thick of the worst ordeals, she would
smile like an opening rose, and no matter how dark
and calamitous the times, like a bright candle she
would shed her light.
The Guardian sends messages of heartfelt condolence
to all of you, and asks you to be submissive and
acquiescent and patient, and loyally to arise and
serve, and take for your model that precious treasure
of the Abhá Paradise.
You had asked the Guardian as to the nine months
of mourning, during which all Bahá'í festivities are
+P80
to be suspended. His answer is that this refers to nine
solar months. He says further that the blessed and
exalted Leaf ascended at one hour after midnight, on
the eve of Friday, July 15.
12. ...He is eagerly awaiting to see the friends
as ever burning with the desire to serve a Cause for
the sake of which our departed Holy Leaf gave up
her entire existence.
May her glorious spirit cheer your hearts, strengthen
your faith and inspire you with renewed
courage and hope.
13. His loss is too immense to be adequately
expressed in words. But his joy is also great. For
such calamitous events, though cruel in their
immediate effects, nevertheless, serve to stimulate
the friends and quicken their souls.
Ours, therefore, is the opportunity to arise and
serve the Cause and put all our trust in God. Surely,
He will guide our steps and will inspire us with the
necessary enthusiasm and strength.
May the immortal spirit of our departed
Khánum quicken our energies and give fresh lustre
to our endeavours for the greater extension of the
Cause.
+P81
14. The profound sorrow occasioned by the
sudden passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf, as well as
the unnumbered messages of sympathy received
from friends and believers in East and West, all of
which the Guardian acknowledged in person, have
caused the unavoidable delay in giving his immediate
attention to various matters referred to in your
communications to him. He deeply regrets the
obstacles which stood in his way and which by their
very nature he found them impossible to surmount.
15. The Guardian of the Cause of God has
received your letter of 21 July 1932, telling of your
and the other friends' profound distress on receiving
word of this calamity, this dire ordeal, that is, the
ascension of the Most Exalted Leaf, that brightest
fruit of the Eternal Tree.
It is certain that this anguish, this harrowing
event, has reached into the very depths of his being,
and oppressed and darkened his radiant heart more
than words can ever tell. For the subtle and spiritual
attachment that the Guardian felt for her, and the
heavenly tenderness and affection between that
lovely fruit of the divine Lote-Tree and himself, was
a bond so strong as to defy description, nor can the
mind encompass that exalted state. That secret is
a secret well-concealed, a treasured mystery unplumbed,
and to a plane such as this, the minds of
the believers can never find their way. On this
account the Guardian's anguish at being parted from
+P82
that bright and comely denizen of Heaven is beyond
our conceiving.
She who was a sparkling light of God, she who
was so full of grace--that widespread ray of
Heaven's splendour, that sign of God's mercy--was
made to appear with all perfections, all goodly
attributes, all blessed ways; and never had the
world's eye gazed upon such a welling spring of
tender love, of pity and compassion, and never will
it behold again such a gem of loving-kindness, such
a fount of God's munificence.
How many a night did she whom the world
wronged spend as a prisoner, worn with care,
tormented, banished from her home. How many a
day did she live through as an exile and a captive!
There was no venom of affliction, at the hands of
this Faith's foes, that was not given her to drink, no
arrow of cruelty but struck her holy breast. Yet in
spite of the endless tribulations and disasters, she
who was a spirit of holiness and a songster of
Heaven, would even in the midst of dire ordeals, her
face aglow, bloom like a rose.
The Guardian sends messages of consolation to
you and all the friends in this bereavement, and he
says that in this calamitous time all must bow down
their heads and be acquiescent, arise in faithful
service to His Cause, and model themselves upon
that most exalted, sacred and resplendent presence.
16. The Guardian's anguish, because of this
tragic occurrence, is such that it can neither be
+P83
plumbed nor described in words. That sublime and
gloried Leaf, that precious jewel of the Kingdom,
was the one great solace of his life; she was his
glorious companion, and her disappearance, and the
separation from her, and her ascending into the
heavenly presence and court of her Lord was the
direst ordeal to be visited upon the people of Bahá.
Alas for any future time that might produce such a
calamity, when the world's eye might see its like.
That sacred treasure, that jewel of Heaven, was
the very sign and token of spiritual attributes and
qualities and perfections, the very model of high
honour and nobility and heavenly ways. The sufferings
she bore in the pathway of God were the
cruellest ones, the afflictions that assailed her were
the severest of all. Fortitude was the rich dress she
wore, serenity and tranquil strength were her splendid
robe, virtue and detachment, purity and
chastity, were all her jewels, and tenderness, care
and love for humankind, her beauty's bright
adornings.
The Guardian conveys his message of consolation
and comfort, enjoining submission and acquiescence
in this calamity, and the need for arising to
serve and to be steadfast, and to take for our model
that gem of the Abhá Paradise.
17. Indeed, the Greatest Holy Leaf, the Trust of
Bahá'u'lláh amongst us, was the emblem of His
boundless grace, a luminary shining in the heaven of
+P84
tender mercy and gracious providence, the embodiment
of the manifold favours of the Abhá Beauty, a
repository of the bounty and loving-kindness so
characteristic of the Báb, the Exalted One. To
every disconsolate one she was an affectionate
comforter, to every heart-broken and grief-stricken
soul, a token of unfailing sympathy, of kindliness,
of cheer and comfort. Her blessed life was a source
of spiritual illumination for the whole world and her
noble traits and heavenly attributes served as a
shining example, an object of emulation for all
mankind. Like the showers of heavenly grace, her
generosity knew no bounds, and as the breeze of
celestial blessing and favour, she breathed a new life
into every soul. Both friends and strangers were
drawn by her sense of spirituality, her tenderness
and refinement, her unfailing solicitude, and were
attracted by the magic of her unbounded affection
and goodwill. That heavenly being displayed
throughout her life such evidence of glory and
dignity, such manifestations of majesty and greatness,
such a degree of patience and resignation as
bewildered the minds and souls. In the midst of trials
her radiant face bore the likeness of a sweet rose and
in moments of sore tribulation she was resplendent
as a brilliant candle.
18. The Guardian trusts that the explanation he
has given by wire regarding the suspension for a
period of nine months of Bahá'í religious festivity
+P85
has been made clear. The Nineteen Day Feast being
of a quasi-administrative character should continue
to be held, but should be conducted with the utmost
simplicity and should be devoid of any features
associated with feasts and entertainment. The
celebration of Naw-Rúz, the anniversary of the
birth of Bahá'u'lláh and of the Báb should be
altogether cancelled as a token of our deep mourning
for so distinguished and precious a member of
Bahá'u'lláh's family. The period of nine months
should be reckoned from the 15th of July to the 15th
of April.
19. The loss of the Greatest Holy Leaf will be
bitterly felt by all those friends who had the pleasure
and privilege to meet her. She always kept such a
wonderful atmosphere of joy and hope around her
that was bound to influence those that were present
and help them to go out into the world with added
zeal and determination to consecrate all in the path of
God.
The only consolation of Shoghi Effendi is in the
knowledge that she has been delivered from earthly
worries and physical weakness and that she is now in
the presence of Bahá'u'lláh, her Father and Lord,
enjoying the infinite blessings of His eternal Kingdom.
20. Even though during these last years she was
weak and most of the time confined to her room, yet
+P86
she was a source of constant joy and inspiration to
those that met her. The Guardian feels her loss
tremendously because the greatest part of his leisure
hours he used to spend in her company.
His only comfort is that she has been delivered
from the worries and weaknesses of a body that
could no more withhold her spirit and help her to
express all her desire in meeting the friends and
serving them.
At present, in the presence of her Father and Lord
we trust she is remembering us and asking for us His
divine grace and blessings.
21. The passing away of the Greatest Holy Leaf
was a loss every Bahá'í will feel deeply if only he
stops to think about it. She was such a precious soul
and so radiantly happy and hopeful even under most
adverse circumstances. Every believer that came in
contact with her left her presence with a more
determined spirit of service and self-sacrifice. Both
Shoghi Effendi and the rest of the Bahá'ís will
mourn her loss bitterly. Their only consolation can
be her own deliverance from a life of hardship and
difficulties, and her entrance into a realm which is
naught but eternal bliss and infinite divine grace.
22. Even though the Greatest Holy Leaf has left
us in body she is with us in spirit, inspiring us in our
work and beseeching for us God's loving mercy and
+P87
fatherly care. She will never forget her loving
friends nor leave them in their woes.
Shoghi Effendi was very sad to hear of your
difficulties, especially as they have encompassed you
at an age when you cannot confront them but must
have comfort and peace. You should, however, take
courage and resign to the will of God when you see
what the Greatest Holy Leaf had to face during her
life. All you may suffer is nothing compared to what
she had to endure; and yet how joyous and hopeful
she used always to be!
This is the way of the world. The greatest among
us seems to be the one who has suffered most and
withstood best the battles of life.
23. Shoghi Effendi wishes me to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter dated August 25th 1932 and
to extend his deep appreciation for your kind words
of sympathy. This loss is a thing that will be bitterly
felt by every Bahá'í throughout the world,
because she used to be a source of inspiration to
every one of them. The mere coming into her
presence and thinking of the trials and difficulties she
had to pass through in her life, was sufficient to
create in us new hope and arouse us to stronger
determination to promote the Cause she suffered
for.
24. You should be very happy to have had the
privilege of meeting her upon this physical plane of
+P88
existence, for the world has seen only very few such
souls who have suffered so much for the sake of God
and yet kept their cheer and uttered words of hope
and encouragement to those who were around
them. What a source of inspiration she was to the
pilgrims who came from the four corners of the
world to seek spirituality and attain a new birth by
visiting the Holy Shrines. They should surely
remember those blessed moments they spent in her
room or in her presence elsewhere, and remembering
her suffering, take courage in confronting the
problems of their life. May God help us all to follow
her example and like her be a blessing to others.
25. Surely there is nothing that will console the
Guardian more than the happy news that the Cause
for which the Greatest Holy Leaf lived and suffered
is gradually spreading and embracing the whole of
the people of the world.
She is undoubtedly conscious of our activities,
following our work and impatiently awaiting the
result of our battles. Let her passing, therefore, be a
source of added sacrifice and more energetic striving
on the part of her devoted friends and lovers.
26. These nine months during which the Guardian
has asked the friends to discard feast days, are
meant to be months of mourning for the passing
away of the Greatest Holy Leaf. The friends should
+P89
also use it as a period of redoubled energy in serving
the Cause in expression of our deep love for her as
well as for the Cause she so much suffered for.
27. Surely no matter what we say about her still
we have not done justice to the abounding love she
had and the services she rendered to Bahá'u'lláh
and the Master. Her life was full of events, full of
sacrifices in the path of God. Ever since her childhood
she had to endure hardships and share the exile
and persecution that Bahá'u'lláh had to suffer. In
her face one could easily read the history of the
Cause from its earliest days to the present moment.
Notwithstanding all this she never grumbled nor
lost her faith in the future. She kept cheerful and
tried to give cheer to others. She was a real source of
inspiration to every person that met her.
The only adequate way to show our love and
devotion to her is to arise and serve the Cause for
which she so earnestly laboured during all her
mortal life. Her deeds and sacrifices should act as
examples for us to follow.
28. Indeed it would have been for you such a joy
to meet the Greatest Holy Leaf during her earthly
life, but the Guardian does not wish you to feel
depressed about it; this beloved soul will from the
Heaven of her Almighty Father guide you to serve
the Cause which has been so dear to her. Shoghi
+P90
Effendi values your sincere sympathy in this irreparable
loss; he hopes that we all will follow the
example of her saintly life.
29. He fully appreciates the deep sorrow that
you, as well as the other friends, feel for the passing
away of the Greatest Holy Leaf. All those who met
her cannot feel but an emptiness in their hearts. She
was always such a source of courage and hope to
those pilgrims that came from all parts of the world
and had the pleasure of meeting her, that they left
her presence with added hope and greater determination
to serve the Cause and sacrifice their all in its
path. This was especially true of them after the
passing away of the Master when they felt that she
was the only worthy remnant of Bahá'u'lláh's
immediate kin.
May her passing stir the friends to greater measures
of sacrifice and direct their attention towards
the spiritual duties that have been laid upon their
shoulders.
30. He is sure that all the Bahá'ís throughout
the world share with him in this sorrow, for she was
a source of comfort and inspiration to them all. No
one left her presence without being deeply impressed
by her spirit. All the sufferings that she had
endured during her life and that had left their traces
upon her feeble form, had not in the least affected
+P91
her spirit of joy and hopefulness. She liked to see the
people happy, and exerted all her efforts to make it
easy for them to realize it.
How badly we need such souls in the world at
present when it seems so full of sorrows and discouragements!
Every one is suffering and no person to
give them courage and brighten their hearts.
Shoghi Effendi hopes that the friends will follow
her example and become a source of inspiration to the
world at large, giving hope to the depressed and joy
to the disconsolate. Moreover, he trusts that her
passing will operate as a great impetus in our services
to the Cause for which she suffered so long and so
hard.
31. He deeply appreciates your sincere, well-expressed
reference, to the tribute he has written to
the dearly beloved Greatest Holy Leaf. You cannot
imagine to what an extent our dear Guardian has, in
this loss, been deprived for ever of the sustaining
influence and kindness that this Most Exalted Leaf
used to shower daily upon him. In this beautiful
Tribute we can trace the life of this beautiful soul,
witness with anguish all the sufferings and deprivations
that she has endured. Now we should, all of us,
try in turn to follow her saintly path and direct all our
energy to serve the Cause, which has been so dear to
her.
32. ...He was deeply touched by the strong
attachment of the friends to one who, besides being
+P92
the beloved daughter of Bahá'u'lláh, exemplified
perhaps more than anyone the true spirit that
animates His teachings. His sincere hope is that your
love for our departed Greatest Holy Leaf will attain
such depth and intensity as to enable you to follow
on her footsteps and to carry out with increasing
devotion and vigour all that she cherished so much
during the entire course of her earthly life. The
memory of her saintly life will undoubtedly sustain
and feed your energies and will provide you with
that spiritual potency of which we are all in such a
great need.
33. The steps of her holy resting-place represent
Local Spiritual Assemblies, not individual believers.
The columns, that is the pillars, are like the National
Spiritual Assemblies, while the dome, which is
raised following the placing of the columns, symbolizes
the Universal House of Justice which, in
accordance with the Master's Will and Testament
must be elected by the secondary Houses of Justice,
that is, the National Spiritual Assemblies of East and
West.
+P93
V
Letters of
THE GREATEST HOLY LEAF
+P94
+P95
V
Letters of
THE GREATEST HOLY LEAF
1. O Leaf of Paradise!
Loose your tongue at all times in gratitude for the
blessings of the Beloved of the Worlds, for you are
always mentioned in His Glorious and Sanctified
Presence, and you are ever in the hearts of His
maidservants. The pen is unable to describe the
depths of our longing, nor can the tongue recount
the love concealed within our hearts. Should you
look into the mirror of your own heart, which is free
from the defilements of this world of dust, you
would clearly see the truth of what has been set
forth.
From the time of your departure no day passes
without mention being made of your name. Please
God you may in your days and nights hold fast to the
sure handle of detachment, and be occupied in the
remembrance of God, the Wondrous, the All-Glorious.
There is no blessing greater than attainment unto
His Holy Presence. Thank God you attained this
bounty.
+P96
May the spiritually-minded son, Mírzá
Badí'u'lláh, God willing, be always safe in the
stronghold of God's care and protection.
2. I feel prompted to offer my sincere best
wishes to you and to express the agony of separation
that has deeply affected me. First of all let me say that
I received with the hand of gratitude and thankfulness
your kind letter which bore the full abundance
of your love and amply portrayed the noble traits of
your nature, so richly adorned with laudable characteristics.
In truth, I always pay tribute to your
excellent qualities and eagerly yearn to set my eyes
upon your countenance. I often recall those days
when I had the delightful pleasure of your company
and indulged in the fruits of your brilliant sense of
humour. Perhaps the days of reunion shall come
again through the favour of the Lord of grace and
bounty. I fervently pray that God--glorified and
exalted be He--may endue your life with vigour and
happiness and enable you to achieve your heart's
desire. Moreover, I beseech Him--exalted is He--to
grant me the pleasure of meeting you again very
soon. Indeed, He is nigh and readily answers the
call. I hereby offer my best greetings and befitting
salutations to your revered person, and may God
perpetuate your life. Every one here enquires about
your distinguished self and sends high expressions
of praise and compliment to you. May God prolong
your life.
+P97
3. The letter in which that leaf had expressed the
ardent longing of her heart and revealed the depth of
her devotion has received my eager attention.
Indeed, the voice of lamentation that the loved
ones of God and His devoted servants have raised on
the occasion of this terrible adversity, this grievous
calamity, has caused the fire of His bereavement to
rage more fiercely than ever. In reality no pen can
depict the poignant feeling that surges in our hearts.
Every expression would prove utterly inadequate,
even less than the eye of a needle, inasmuch as words
and syllables are incapable of conveying the
intensity of this dire suffering. They are but a tiny
drop compared to an ocean. Even in the vast
immensity of inner significances and expositions
nothing can portray this calamitous event.
Moreover, the tale of how these prisoners have been
consumed by the fire of bereavement is interminable.
During this dark and dreadful calamity, and to
this God bears me witness, our souls melted and our
eyes unceasingly rained with tears.
Nevertheless, when faced with the irrevocable
decree of the Almighty, the vesture that best befits
us in this world is the vesture of patience and
submission, and the most meritorious of all deeds is
to commit our affairs into His hands and to surrender
ourselves to His Will. Therefore, it behoves that
leaf to take fast hold on the handle of resignation and
radiant acquiescence and to strictly adhere to the
cord of patience and long-suffering. God willing,
through His aid and heavenly confirmation you may
+P98
be enabled to exalt His Word and to render
exemplary service to His Cause, that perchance the
ears of all created things may be purged of the tales
of bygone ages and become endued with the capacity
to hearken to the holy verses that the Lord of all
men has proclaimed. Indeed, this is the underlying
purpose of man's existence during the brief period of
his earthly life. Please God, we may all be confirmed
and aided to achieve this.
Every manner of description that I use, and every
form of symbolic expression that I conceive will fail
to convey the extent of the ardent love and affection
that I cherish for you; however, it causes the fire of
love to glow more intensely and to burn more
brightly. Therefore, I had better confine myself to
these few lines.
At the court of the presence of the Most Mighty
Branch--may the lives of them that yearn after Him
and are wholly devoted to Him be sacrificed for His
holy presence--your name has been mentioned and
you became the recipient of His special favours.
4. Despite our overwhelming sorrows and
afflictions, our heart-burning and depth of woes,
you are always in our thoughts and we call to mind
your cheerful face. When we visit the Most Holy
Shrine, the Point round which revolve the people of
the world, we offer our prayers, and visit that Sacred
Spot on your behalf, and on behalf of all the friends,
particularly the well-assured, the faithful and loyal
+P99
handmaids of the Merciful. We have prayed and will
continue to pray at the Threshold of the Tomb of the
Blessed Beauty for your success, and that of your
relatives. Likewise in the presence of `Him Whom
God hath purposed' you are always remembered.
Several days ago He retired to the Cave of Khidr,+F1
and that verdant spot has been blessed by the steps of
our Master, `Him round Whom all names revolve'.
He intends to stay there for a while, so that He may
have some respite from His countless concerns and
cares.
For the most part your previous letters have been
answered, but you have not acknowledged receipt.
This letter is in reply to your recent missive, so that
you will be confident that we are, under all conditions,
thinking of you.
Should you enquire about these bereaved ones,
through the grace of the Lord and the bounties of
His divine Mystery, we are all well, but our grief
knows no bounds. We supplicate at the Threshold of
the Eternal and Almighty Beloved that He may
unlock before us the doors of delight, awaken the
heedless and those in deep slumber, and grant the
exponents of violation a sense of justice, so that its
dust may settle down, that this dissension be wiped
out, and once again we may taste the sweetness of
the days of bliss.
O Lord! Graciously enable this servant of Thine as
well as those who supplicate tearfully before Thy
face and have turned towards Thee in their affliction
+F1 Elijah.
+P100
to achieve unity, harmony, friendliness and fellowship,
that they may magnify Thy virtues in the
daytime and in the night season, may chant Thy holy
words, may recite verses from Thy heavenly Book,
may eagerly set their hearts toward the retreats of
Thy holiness, yearning to behold the vision of Thy
grandeur. O Lord! Fulfil their hearts' desires, gladden
their bosoms with the shining splendour of the
Centre of Thy Covenant, illumine their eyes and
rejoice their souls with the goodly gifts of the light of
harmony. Verily Thou art the Lord of the Day of
Judgement.
5. It is my earnest hope that you, His distinguished
leaf, together with the other maidservants of
the All-Merciful in that land, may be so enkindled by
the flame set ablaze by the hand of God as to illumine
the whole world through the quickening energy of
the love of God, and that through the eloquence of
your speech, the fluency of your tongue, and the
confirmations of the Holy Spirit you will be empowered
to expound divine wisdom in such manner
that men of eloquence, and the scholars and sages of
the world, will be lost in bewilderment. This indeed
would not be hard for Him.
6. O exalted leaf, O distinguished friend! May
the glory of God and His praise, His bounty and
+P101
blessing rest upon you inasmuch as you have
remained faithful to the Covenant of God and His
Testament.
Your letter so fine and ornate, a gift from the
Paradise of the love of God, and a dear token of the
celestial Garden of divine knowledge, has been
received, and perfumed with its spiritual and
ethereal fragrance the nostrils of this maidservant of
God, this yearning prisoner.
Praise be to God that He has enabled you, His
well-assured leaf, to magnify at all times the glory of
His gracious countenance, has sustained your life
through the remembrance of His Beauty, has suffered
you to rid yourself of all attachment to any one
save Him that you may continually commune with
His love. He has graciously assisted you to remain
faithful to His weighty and irrefutable Testament, to
cling tenaciously to the hem of the robe of the
Centre of the Covenant of God, the All-Bountiful,
and to fix your gaze entirely upon the luminous face
of `Him Whom God hath purposed', the One `Who
hath branched from the pre-existent Root'. In truth,
a myriad praises and thanksgiving should be offered
in appreciation of this outpouring of divine favours
and blessings. We implore the Kingdom of our
Lord, the All-Glorious, that He may continually
waft upon you His vitalizing breaths, may enrapture
you by the uplifting transports of His delight, may
quicken you through His Holy Spirit and may grant
you confirmation to serve His maidservants and His
leaves.
+P102
7. May my life be sacrificed for those leaves who
are steadfast in the Covenant of God--they whom
the slander of the slanderer hinders not from holding
fast to His divine Testament.
I yield praise to God and offer thanksgiving to the
Abhá Beloved--may my spirit be offered up for
every atom of the dust of His holy Threshold
--inasmuch as the animating breeze of holiness has
wafted from the rose-garden of your love and
fellowship. By this is meant that your letter--a letter
fraught with expressions of loving-kindness that
that loved one of my heart and soul penned with
such tender affection--has been received. It brought
immense happiness to the grief-stricken heart of this
yearning prisoner and by perusing its contents my
whole being has been flooded with ineffable gladness.
Indeed, the nostrils of my heart have been
perfumed by its sweet savours and the channel of my
soul has become redolent with its vitalizing perfume,
inasmuch as from its inner meaning the
fragrances of heavenly praise and adoration were
inhaled and from its words the sweet smell of
attraction to the love of God was perceived. In truth,
every letter which serves to magnify the glory of the
Ancient Beauty or to extol the virtues of the Most
Great Name is sweeter than honey, for it imparts
sweetness to the palate of the soul.
In brief, we all rejoice to know that you and the
other handmaids of God in that region are enjoying
good health, that they are all firm and steadfast in the
Cause of God, are shining brightly and are enraptured
+P103
by His love; for this token of grace we have
offered boundless praise at the Threshold of our
forgiving Lord. We are well acquainted with the
matters you have mentioned in your letter, and in
the luminous and holy presence of the peerless
Servant of His Threshold, our Master, `Abdu'l-Bahá
--may my life be sacrificed for Him--your name
and the names of all the handmaids of God and of
His enraptured leaves have been mentioned and
words of praise were expressed by Him in your
favour. Be well assured that you are always remembered
at the spiritual meetings and gatherings of the
friends.
8. From this hallowed and snow-white Spot,
this blessed, heavenly Garden, wherefrom the fragrance
of God is diffused to all regions, I hail you with
salutations, most tender, most wondrous, and most
glorious, and impart to you the most joyful tiding.
This tiding serves as the sweet-smelling savour of
His raiment to them that long to behold His face, it
represents the highest aspiration of His steadfast
leaves, it is the animating impulse for the happiness
of the world, it is the source of ineffable gladness to
the people of Bahá, a remedy to the afflicted, and a
refreshing draught for the thirsty. By the righteousness
of God, O beloved friend, through this glad-tiding
the ailing are cured and every mouldering
bone is quickened. This most joyful tiding is the
news of the good health and well-being of the
+P104
blessed, the exalted, the holy person of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
`He Whom God hath purposed'--may the
life of all created things be offered up for His
oneness.
9. A number of your spiritual sisters, namely
the handmaidens who have embraced His Cause,
have arrived here from Paris and the United States
on pilgrimage. They recently reached this blessed
and luminous Spot and have had the honour to
prostrate themselves at His Holy Threshold and to
behold the radiant face of `Abdu'l-Bahá, the Centre
of the Covenant of Almighty God--may my life be
offered up as a sacrifice for His sake. We have now
the pleasure of their company and commune with
them in a spirit of utmost love and fellowship. They
all send loving greetings and salutations to you
through the language of the heart.
10. May the Light of Union radiate with greater
clearness and brilliancy day by day among the
people in your great country--for to this country
God has given much and much is expected from it.
But without harmony and love existing among
those who call themselves Bahá'ís, nothing will
be seen from it whatsoever; for verily the Believers
+P105
are the pivots upon which the fate of nations hang;
and a difference among two believers is quite
sufficient to consume and destroy a whole country.
The one who works for harmony and union among
the hearts of the people in these days will receive the
greatest blessings and the most abundant bounties.
There is no greater work for one to do upon this
earth than to try and unite the hearts of the
people--and especially those who are calling upon
the Holy Name of God.
11. O my dear sister! I have read what you
wrote, and as I became aware of the content, I wept
bitter tears. Then I carried the letter itself to
`Abdu'l-Bahá and He read it from beginning to
end. These terrible events in Yazd call for cries and
lamentation, and the shedding of tears of fire.
Although `Alí's foes, on the plains of Karbilá,
came as a rushing torrent of affliction against the
Prince of Martyrs,+F1 and even as ravening wolves,
tore at the breasts of the favoured ones of the Court
of Holiness, and wreaked their hate upon them and
lifted their heads onto pikes--they leading out an
expedition against the hapless victims, and carrying
away all that these possessed--yet the span of that
agony at Karbilá was but from the morning until
noon, while the ordeal of the martyrs of Yazd lasted
one entire month. And further, the companions of
the Prince of Martyrs--may the souls of all those
+F1 The Imám Husayn.
+P106
killed on the holy Path be offered up for him!--made
to defend themselves, and each one of them felled a
number of those foes of `Alí's House, spilled out the
others' blood, before being martyred themselves.
But these innocent victims of Yazd looked on their
murderers with smiles, and gently welcomed them,
and in exchange for the swords' blows offered honey
and milk. Those set the blade to the victims' throats,
but the martyrs presented them with sweets; those
cursed and vilified them, while the martyrs implored
God to forgive their murderers.
Although the slain on God's path at Karbilá were
truly victims, helpless, innocent, so that the Concourse
on High wept fiery tears over what the tyrants
did in the desert there, still, we know that before
every one of those great martyrs, some who battled
against them fell down and died. But the martyrs of
Yazd, at the onslaught of the foe, and under the
tyrant's sword, uttered not even an unseemly
word...
Truly the harried survivors of these wronged ones
have been subjected to the severest of ordeals, nor can
any balm be found to soothe their wound, nor is there
any antidote against this lethal drink. For them, every
new morning is a new martyrdom.
Praise be to God, through the grace and favour of
the Abhá Beauty--may all souls be offered up for
those who are slain upon His path--the friends
everywhere have arisen to do what they can for these
survivors. But whatever we may do in such circumstances
and however much we may sacrifice, it is
+P107
still not enough, and they merit more. I hope that,
with the confirmations of the Abhá Kingdom, we
may be enabled to offer up our hearts and souls for
the children of the martyrs, and think of ourselves as
the servants of those noble ones.
12. Concerning the remnants of the martyrs'
families, you have mentioned how eager they are to
hear a word of commendation assuring them that
this act of self-sacrifice and martyrdom will be
acceptable in the sight of God. Therefore, I mentioned
this matter in His holy presence and I am glad
to say that, in compliance with His instructions, a
compilation containing most of the Tablets which
have been revealed in honour of the martyrs of Yazd
and elsewhere has been prepared. I am now sending
it to you together with this letter. You may peruse
these Tablets and then recite them in the presence of
the remnants of those who have offered up their
lives in the path of God, that they may be fully aware
that those martyrs are well-favoured at the exalted
threshold of the Almighty, and that the merciful
glances of `Abdu'l-Bahá--may our souls be His
sacrifice--are at all times directed towards them.
On behalf of this bereaved and eager prisoner,
convey loving greetings and salutations to all the
handmaids of God there, particularly the remnants
of the martyrs' families--and give them the joyful
tidings that the memory of those dear souls, who
have laid down their lives in the arena of sacrifice,
+P108
has always been and will continue to be remembered
at the fellowship meetings and in His holy presence.
13. O leaf that has been stirred by the breeze of
God! O victim of oppression in the path of the
Abhá Beauty!--may my soul and the souls of the
handmaids of God be offered up as a sacrifice for the
dust of His Holy Shrine.
I earnestly hope that you may ever abide in peace
and security within the shelter of the loving-kindness
of the One true God, may labour diligently in
those regions to serve His Cause and to diffuse the
fragrance of holiness, that you may be confirmed at
all times through His gracious assistance, and that,
at the gatherings of the handmaids of God, you may
shine forth as a bright candle, directing those loved
ones of the Beauty of the All-Merciful to the path of
divine guidance, exhorting them to be firm and
steadfast, to be sanctified and detached so that they
may, one and all, arise to fulfil that which is deemed
worthy of these days, and by manifesting a goodly
character and noble conduct cause that country to
vie with the blissful Paradise.
14. All praise be to the Abhá Beauty, the
Best-Beloved, the Desire of the world, for having
enabled His well-assured leaves to remain firm in the
Cause of God and steadfast in His love, even as
immovable mountains, particularly the ladies
+P109
belonging to the household of the Afnán--the
twigs of the celestial Tree, who are resident in the
land of Yá [Yazd]--upon them be the glory of the
Most Glorious. In these days when tempestuous
winds of tests are blowing and an ocean of trials has
risen high, they have rid themselves of all earthly
attachments, set their affection on the sacred beauty
of the True One and have turned their hearts to the
celestial kingdom.
The contents of your letter were highly appreciated.
Praise be to God that from the rose-garden of
its words and inner meanings the fragrance of
spiritual fellowship was inhaled, and from the
meadows of its pages the sweet melody of love, of
remembrance and glorification of God was heard. It
filled our hearts with immense joy, for it indicated
that you were enjoying good health, and so were the
saplings of the garden of God and the handmaids of
the Merciful, particularly the remnants of the families
of those who have offered up their lives in the
path of the Lord of Mercy.
15. At the exalted Threshold of our Lord, the
Best-Beloved of the world, I fervently beseech Him
to graciously keep that assured leaf and the other
handmaids of the Merciful safe and secure under the
shelter of His bounty and grace.
The love-laden letter penned by that dearly-loved
handmaid of God has reached this yearning prisoner
and its perusal has filled my heart with joy and
+P110
happiness, inasmuch as it indicates that you have
turned in prayer and supplication to the Kingdom of
God and been attracted to His divine fragrances. It
imparted exceeding gladness and radiance, and
thereby the hearts and spirits were inspired. Both at
the sublime meetings convened in His presence and
at the fellowship gatherings of the handmaids of the
merciful Lord your name and the names of the
beloved handmaids in India are often mentioned
with high praise.
Praised be God that after attaining the holy
Threshold of the Merciful in this hallowed land, this
luminous Spot, you were able to take back with you
the gift of the divine fragrance of holiness, to
perfume the nostrils of the handmaids of God, to
refresh and stimulate, nay rather revive and quicken
the lifeless bodies through the potency of His
wondrous exhortations, His sublime counsels and
teachings. To all the handmaids of God announce
the joyful tidings that both at the blessed and
luminous Shrine and in the holy presence of Him
Who is the Mystery of God we continually pray for
all of you, extol your noble virtues, call to mind the
memory of the radiant faces of those faithful leaves,
and from the exalted court of the Lord of Glory
implore for every one of you unbounded heavenly
assistance and confirmation.
16. On my return from Beyrouth I was sorry to
find out that you had left for Italy and I missed seeing
+P111
you before you left. Not only I but all the holy
household miss you very much. Though we miss
you we are glad to learn that our Lord has directed
you to go into the world and give the Glad Tidings
of the Kingdom to the people and awaken the
sleeping souls. How happy you must have been that
you left with this thought in your mind that with the
direction of our Lord you have gone. We hope that
we soon will hear of your wonderful services in the
Path of the Cause of God. Have no fear and be not
down-hearted. Trust in Him. Be sure you will be
successful at the end, for He has sent you and He will
surely be with you and help you always.
17. O my dear sister! Your excellent letter
brought me much joy, testifying as it did to your
ardour and pure intent, and to your being immersed
in the ocean of God's heavenly love, and also to the
harmony and concord among His handmaids
--which indeed is the greatest of God's bestowals:
for fellowship, closeness and love are glories of the
Kingdom, and richest gifts from the Lord of dominion
and might. We thank Him then for this great
bounty.
To the honoured handmaid of God, Miss Barney,
give my many and fond wishes. I implore God to
assist her and yourself to attain the greatest of all His
favours in His mighty Kingdom.
I conveyed the salutations from all of you, and
your expressions of devoted servitude, to Him
+P112
Whom God hath purposed, the Centre of His
ancient Covenant.
From this imprisoned handmaid.
18. The Festival of Ridván is come and the
splendour of the light of God is shining from the
invisible horizon of His mercy. The overflowing
grace of the Lord of oneness is pouring down
copiously from the unseen world and the glad-tidings
of the Kingdom are coming in from all
countries. The resplendent morn that betokens the
advancement of the Cause of God and heralds the
exaltation of His Word is dawning in every region.
Praise be to God that the fame of the Ancient
Beauty--may my life be offered up for His loved
ones--has been noised abroad in the world and the
glory of His Cause is spread far and wide throughout
the East and the West. These joyous developments
will indeed gladden the hearts of His loved
ones.
19. You should not think that the record of
those meetings can ever be blotted out from the
pages of history or that the memory of those
gatherings can fade from the face of the world. Nay
every single act, every deed or utterance is a seed
sown in the garden of life. Ere long it will grow and
develop, yielding an abundant harvest even as a
fruitful tree....
+P113
Those sufferings were endured for the sake of
God alone and for His love. They occurred during
this century in which the Manifestation of God has
appeared, and their underlying purpose was solely
to glorify the Cause of the Abhá Beloved, and to
exalt the Word of God. Indeed, a single deed
performed in this Day is equivalent to the deeds of a
thousand years.
20. Both in the Persian and Arabic Writings of
the Primal Point--may the life of all men be offered
up for Him--there are several, nay indeed numerous
passages in which He directs His plea to the exalted
court of Him Whom God shall make manifest,
requesting Him to graciously protect the leaves of
the Tree of the Bayán, that they may not fall away
but rather attain their paradise which is the recognition
of His Manifestation.
The detailed account you had given about the
services she+F1 has performed during the early days of
the Faith is entirely true, and sufficient witness unto
it is God. God willing, the services she has rendered
and the hardships she has endured may yield excellent
results. With the utmost humility and devotion
we will pray for her at the Holy Shrine, beseeching
divine confirmation and assistance. Likewise, in the
sublime presence of Him Whom God has purposed
we will beg earnestly for His tender solicitude and
the outpouring of His special favours.
+F1 Elsewhere in this letter reference is made to one of the female
relatives of the recipient.
+P114
21. HIS HOLINESS `ABDU'L-BAHÁ ASCENDED TO
ABHÁ KINGDOM INFORM FRIENDS. GREATEST HOLY
LEAF.
22. NOW IS A PERIOD OF GREAT TESTS. THE FRIENDS
SHOULD BE FIRM AND UNITED IN DEFENDING THE
CAUSE. NAKEZEENS+F1 STARTING ACTIVITIES THROUGH
PRESS AND OTHER CHANNELS ALL OVER THE WORLD.
SELECT COMMITTEE OF WISE COOL HEADS TO HANDLE
PRESS PROPAGANDA IN AMERICA. GREATEST HOLY LEAF.
23. MEMORIAL MEETING WORLD OVER JANUARY
SEVEN. MASTER LEFT FULL INSTRUCTIONS IN HIS WILL
AND TESTAMENT. TRANSLATION WILL BE SENT. INFORM
FRIENDS. GREATEST HOLY LEAF.
24. IN WILL SHOGHI EFFENDI APPOINTED GUARDIAN
OF CAUSE AND HEAD OF HOUSE OF JUSTICE.
INFORM AMERICAN FRIENDS. GREATEST HOLY LEAF.
25. The hearts of the people of Bahá are
intensely burning by reason of the great calamity,
and their longing cries are rising up to the Concourse
on High and the angelic dwellers in the
Abhá Paradise, yet, this day is the day of service,
and this time the time to spread the holy Teachings
+F1 Covenant-breakers.
+P115
far and wide; therefore must God's loved ones like
unto a shining flame, rise up to serve the Cause of
God with all their might and vie with one another in
service. Let them, even as shooting stars, drive the
disloyal out--so that in the Preserved Tablet of God,
they may be recorded with that company who ever
stood faithful to His Covenant and Testament.
Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Cause of
God, the Chosen Branch and leader of the people of
Bahá, as a result of intense and unceasing grief over
this great bereavement, this supreme affliction, has
determined to absent himself for a short period, in
an effort to rest, and to regain his health, after which
he will return to the Holy Land and resume his
services and obligations to the Cause of God.
During his absence, in accordance with his letter
herewith enclosed,+F1 this prisoner is appointed to
administer the affairs of the Faith, in consultation
with the members of the Holy Household.
For this reason I have temporarily made arrangements
so that the persons named by Shoghi Effendi
may meet and the affairs be conducted in consultation
with them. It is my hope that during the period
of his absence the beloved of the Lord and the
handmaids of the Merciful will exert their efforts to
advance the Cause and accelerate its growth. He is,
verily, compassionate and merciful to His servants.
26. We thank you most sincerely for your kind
letters of sympathy, and we appreciate your loving
+F1 See III, 1, page 21.
+P116
Messages, which are as comforting balm to our
wounded hearts.
It would be our wish to answer each letter
individually, but the shock of our bereavement
was so sudden, and the work to which we were
compelled to attend, was so overwhelming, that
time failed us. Now, we wish you to realize that
your words of steadfast faith and love were our
greatest solace throughout the days of our grief,
for we felt that you would each and all faithfully
and loyally strive to carry on the work for which
the life of our Beloved Master was spent.
We are more than thankful to God that He has
not left us without a leader, but that Shoghi
Effendi is appointed to guide the administration of
the Cause.
We hope that the friends of God, the beloved
and the handmaidens of the Merciful, will pray for
us, that we may be enabled to help Shoghi Effendi
in every way in our power to accomplish the Mission
entrusted to him.
27. REJOICED OVER CONVENTION NEWS. PRAYING
FOR CONFIRMATION. HOLY LEAF.
28. In this day, those holy souls are divinely
confirmed who stand firm in the most sacred Cause
of the Abhá Beauty, those who are steadfast, and
loyal to the Covenant and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
+P117
Praised be the undying glory of God that you and
all His friends have attained this greatest of gifts.
You stand fast-rooted in the divine Covenant, and
you turn to the appointed Centre, the explicitly
chosen Branch. In all the world, what conceivable
bounty could ever be greater than this?
29. It is not unknown to those who stand firm
in the Covenant and Testament of God that the
centre of violation and his associates, from the day of
the ascension of the Ancient Beauty, may His Great
Name be ever exalted, have been working night and
day and continually putting forth all their efforts, to
spread disorder and disrupt the Faith. At this time,
because of our terrible affliction, the ascension of
`Abdu'l-Bahá--may the quintessence of our souls
be sacrificed to His sacred resting-place--they are
busying themselves more than ever with the circulation
of false rumours and idle imaginings, their
purpose being, one way or another, to instil doubts
into the minds, and thus to achieve their vain and
futile ends.
Alas for them, however, there is no doubt at all
that they will achieve nothing but the failure of their
plans and the frustration of their hopes. Utter
disappointment and a bitter end is all they will ever
gain--just as `Abdu'l-Bahá--may our lives be sacrificed
for His meekness--has foretold in His Will
and Testament, where He clearly and unequivocally
sets forth the dissidence, the mischief-making and
+P118
the wicked designs of that abominable band. And it
is certain that through the never-ceasing confirmations
of God, the light diffused by the loyalty of the
true believers will scatter the darkness of the suspicions
which the malicious have been spreading, and
the brightness that streams from the believers' faces
will dispel the gloom of the people of doubt.
Briefly, for some time they had been applying to
the various government agencies, in the hope that
with the government's assistance they would be able
to obtain legal support for their empty claims.
However, God be praised, they were disappointed.
Then came a day, Tuesday, January 30--that is,
four months ago--when the disaffected gathered
together at the Mansion of Bahjí, invited in some of
the rabble of `Akká, and after joint consultation,
determined to go to the Holy Tomb, forcibly wrest
its key from the caretakers, and hand it over to the
arch Covenant-breaker, pivot of the violation. Such
was the plan, the disgraceful action, devised by the
prime mover of mischief and his lieutenant.
They then committed the brazen act. From the
caretaker of the Holy Tomb, Áqá Siyyid Abu'l-Qásim,
they took away the key by force, and
he, unable to withstand their attack, at once
dispatched his assistant, Áqá Khalíl, to Haifa, to
report to Shoghi Effendi what had taken place. The
news reached Haifa about two hours after sunset,
and the matter was instantly referred to the Governor.
On his stringent orders, the key was surrendered
that very night and placed in Government
+P119
custody until the matter could be fully investigated
to determine the question of rightful ownership.
Now, after the passage of four months, the
Government has rendered its verdict, to the effect
that the question should be put to the Bahá'í
community, and that whatever decision the
Bahá'ís arrive at will be conclusive. If the Bahá'í
community considers Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí to
be excommunicated, then he has no rights whatever
to the takeover. Therefore, wherever Bahá'ís
reside, they must, through the given city's Spiritual
Assembly, and bearing the signature of named
individuals who are members of the elected body,
inform the British authorities in Jerusalem, either by
cable or letter sent through His Majesty's ambassadors
or consuls, that the Bahá'í community, in
conformity with the explicit writings and the Will
and Testament of His Eminence `Abdu'l-Bahá, Sir
Abbás Effendi, texts well known and available in
His own hand--recognize His Eminence Shoghi
Effendi as the one to whom all Bahá'ís must turn,
and as the Guardian of the Cause of God, and that
they have no connection whatever, either material
or spiritual, with Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí, whom
they consider to be excommunicated from the
Bahá'í Faith, according to the explicit writings of
`Abdu'l-Bahá.
It should be the request, therefore, of Bahá'ís of
all countries, both men and women, in every
important centre, wherever they may reside
throughout the world, that the officials of His
+P120
Britannic Majesty's Government in Palestine, its
Headquarters being Jerusalem, issue a categorical
order that the key of the Holy Tomb--which is the
Point of Adoration and the sanctuary of all Bahá'ís
in the world--be restored to His Eminence Shoghi
Effendi, the Chosen Branch, and in this way to
render the Bahá'í community, whether of the East
or of the West, more appreciative than ever of
British justice. The text of both cable and letter,
together with the address, have been written on a
separate sheet, as enclosed. The message is to be
signed by the representatives and known followers
of the Bahá'í Faith in that city.
30. This dire calamity, this great affliction, the
passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá, may our lives be sacrificed
for His meekness, has shaken us to the very
depths. Our lives lie in ruins. In our hearts, the stars
of happiness have set, the lamps of joy have been put
out. No more, from the rose-garden of the All-Glorious,
does the nightingale warble those songs
that fed the spirit in days gone by. From over the
flower-beds of Heaven, the dove trills and coos no
more. Now is the bright morning dark, and blazing
noon is night, and the sea of woe has surged, and a
storm of sorrow has overwhelmed mankind.
Alas, alas, that luminous Moon, with His ravaged
breast a thicket of arrows--darts of the evil-doers'
taunts, their derision, their calumnies--and His
heart grieved by the malevolence of His foes and the
+P121
rebellion of the violators, is now hidden behind
heavy clouds, has departed from this world's horizons,
and has risen upward to the realm of transcendent
glory, to the all-highest Horizon.
And now, at such a time as this, a time of our
affliction and deep distress, the prime mover of
mischief, the centre of sedition, thinking to profit by
this eclipse of the Sun of the Covenant, the Moon of
spiritual concord, has taken advantage of what he
sees as a rare opportunity for himself, and has
mounted a violent revolt, and with the support of
their second chief, has begun to spread the most
far-fetched of malicious accusations, and is busy day
and night, stirring up trouble and carrying out plots
and stratagems the details of which would take too
long to enumerate here and which you will be
informed of later on.
Although they behold in every instance only
grievous abasement and disappointment, failures
and defeats, still their burning jealousy blazes up
within them all the more, and their haughtiness and
arrogance only increase. At this hour of turmoil and
deep anguish and sudden, unexpected calamity, our
only consolation lies in service to the Cause of God,
and steadfastness in His Faith, and the guarding of
His Law, and in the bonds of unity among the
friends, and their fervour and joy, and in deeds that
exemplify the holy Teachings of the Abhá Beauty,
may His name be exalted, and the counsels of
`Abdu'l-Bahá, may our souls be sacrificed for His
servitude. It is our hope that we all shall be helped to
+P122
achieve these things, which alone befit this sacred
day.
It appears from your letter that you had written
prior to the receipt of the Will and Testament of the
Centre of the Covenant. You have certainly perused
it by now. This Text is His decisive decree; it
constitutes the very life of those endued with
understanding. In it the Pen of Bounty has set forth
in the most powerful, comprehensive, clear and
detailed manner the obligations devolving on every
stratum of the Bahá'í community, and has hacked
out the tree of violation by its root, and has caused
the centre of it to be forlorn and disgraced. He has
specifically named the centre to whom all must turn,
thus solidly fixing and establishing the foundations of
the Covenant, and has clearly appointed the centre, to
whom all the people of Bahá must direct themselves,
the Chosen Branch, the Guardian of the Cause
of God. This great bestowal is one of the special
characteristics of this supreme Revelation, which of
all Dispensations is the noblest and most excellent.
Goodly be this to the steadfast, glad-tidings to the
staunch, blessings to those who win the day.
Praise be to God, you have arisen to serve Him, and
are actively teaching and spreading His Faith. Such a
bounty merits thanks a thousand times over, and
praises forever, in the hallowed sanctuary of the one
Beloved.
Convey my Bahá'í salutations to all the faithful.
+P123
31. Although that supreme calamity, that
great ordeal, the ascension of `Abdu'l-Bahá, put the
torch to the harvest of our hearts, and brought down
both our outer and inner beings, wedding us to grief
and ceaseless pain, yet praised be God, He Who is
the Dayspring of the Covenant has appointed in
writing a specific centre, and designated the
Guardian of the Cause, Shoghi Effendi, as the one
toward whom must turn all those who follow
Bahá'u'lláh--His purpose being that the Faith of
God and His Cause should remain secure and safe.
For this greatest of gifts it is fitting that we should
return a thousand thanks to the one Beloved, and
offer a thousand praises to His court of holiness.
Likewise, the hand of divine grace has reared
blessed souls who are shining today like lamps of
guidance in the assemblage of the Company on
High, and who like luminous stars are casting their
bright rays across the skies of faithfulness. How
often we heard the Master, the Centre of the
Covenant, say: `At the time when Christ rose out of
this mortal world and ascended into the Eternal
Kingdom, He had twelve disciples, and even of
these, one was cast off. But because that handful of
souls stood up, and with selflessness, devotion and
detachment, resolved to spread His holy Teachings
and to scatter abroad the sweet fragrances of God,
disregarding the world and all its peoples, and
because they utterly lost themselves in Christ--they
succeeded, by the power of the spirit, in capturing
the cities of men's hearts, so that the splendour of the
+P124
one true God pervaded all the earth, and put the
darkness of ignorance to flight.
`Now when I shall depart from this world, I shall
leave more than fifty thousand blessed individuals,
every one of whom is staunch and firm as the high
mountains, shining out over the earth like sparkling
stars. These are the quintessence of loyalty and
fellowship and love. They are the self-sacrificing
watchers over the Cause, and they are the guides to
all who seek after truth. Judge from this what the
future will be!'
It is certain that when we act in accordance with
the Teachings of the Abhá Beauty and the counsels
of `Abdu'l-Bahá, then will this world become the
Abhá Paradise, and its thorns and brambles of
cruelty will change into a blossoming garden of the
faithful.
May we all be enabled to achieve this end.
32. O faithful servant of the Best-Beloved, the
Most Glorious! O steadfast friend, flourishing in the
garden of His luminous Beauty! The brief but
informative letter you had written to Shoghi
Effendi, the Chosen Branch, the Guardian of the
Cause of God, has been received together with the
scrolls of doubt you had enclosed. Indeed, men
whose nostrils have been perfumed by the fragrance
of the Abhá Paradise, whose ears have been
exhilarated by the sweet melodies of the nightingale
warbling in the rose-garden of immortality, and
+P125
whose souls have been refreshed and quickened by
the reviving breaths of holiness, would surely be
saddened to hear the screech of the raven and the
croaking of the crow, and from them they would
certainly endeavour to flee. For the disgusting odour
of violation is like poisonous air, whose baneful
effects upon the body and soul are injurious and
harmful, nay rather it will eventually lead to terrible
loss and perdition. Thus the way you have dealt
with this matter is approved and acceptable.
Since Shoghi Effendi has gone on a journey for a
while, this lowly one was prompted to answer your
letter. Convey wondrous Abhá greetings to all the
lovers of the Blessed Beauty and the faithful friends
of `Abdu'l-Bahá. And upon you be His glory.
33. O God, my God!
Thou seest me immersed in the depths of grief,
drowned in my sorrow, my heart on fire with the
agony of parting, my inmost self aflame with
longing. Thou seest my tears streaming down,
hearest my sighs rising up like smoke, my never-ceasing
groans, my cries, my shouts that will not be
stilled, the useless wailing of my heart.
For the sun of joy has set, has sunk below the
horizon of this world, and in the hearts of the
righteous the lights of courage and consolation have
gone out. So grave this catastrophe, so dire this
disaster, that the inner being crumbles away to dust,
+P126
and the heart blazes up, and nothing remains save
only despair and anguish.
Thou seest, O my God, in the midmost of this
terrible event, this ultimate calamity, when the
devoted never put aside their mourning dress, and
the moaning and the tears never cease--how that
malevolent band have, with all their powers,
mounted an attack against Thy loved ones who are
loyal to the Covenant, even as the assault of wolves
upon the flock. They are striving, with all their
strength, to bring down the mighty structure of Thy
Covenant in ruins, and level Thy strong citadel to
the ground, and turn away from Thy straight and
clearly-marked path those Thou hast guided aright.
O my Lord, I voice my complaint before Thee, and
lay bare my griefs and sorrows, and supplicate at the
door of Thy oneness, and whisper unto Thee, and
weep and cry out.
O my kind Lord! Thou didst make a clear
compact and a Covenant explicit and firm, not in
veiled and allusive language, that all should turn
unto the Centre of Thy Covenant and the Protector
of Thy Cause--so that no doubts whatever would
remain for the hostile and the suspicious to exploit;
and then Thy lone Servant rose up to lift Thy banner
high, and carry the day for Thy Faith. For thirty
years He summoned the people unto Thee, publicly,
privately, and spread Thy Teachings and Thy
principles to every corner, every country of the
earth. Night and day, He fostered Thy loved ones in
the cradle of divine knowledge and wisdom, and
+P127
endowed them with the qualities of the spirit. And
all this time He bore, at the hands of that evil crew,
not once but over and over again, every kind of
outrage, and calumny, and oppression. For they
were forever lying in wait for Him, were spying on
Him at all times from their ambush, attacking Him
in whatever manner they chose, swelling with their
insolence and pride. And yet, through Thy strong
support, Thine overwhelming confirmations, they
were the losers in the end, and their strivings came to
nothing in this world's life, and all they gained was
their own ruin.
Then, O my Lord, Thou didst make Him to
ascend unto Thee, to place Him at Thy side, and by
this the pillars of joy were shaken to their base, and
the hearts of the devoted were terrified, and the
smoke of their sorrow overspread the earth. At such
a time that hate-filled band, seeing their advantage in
the dire event, came in from every highway and
byway, advancing on every side to topple over the
throne of Thy Covenant, and lead Thy loved ones to
perdition. They have laid their very being in ruins
and they know not. How far, how very far have
they gone in their ignorance!
But the Centre of Thy complete and flawless
Covenant, He Who occupies the seat of servitude to
Thee in Thine exalted and all-glorious Cause, had
written by Thy will and Thy power a Book that
shall never be lost nor ever forgotten. Within it by
Thy predestinating knowledge and might, He had
set forth all that is essential and obligatory for the
+P128
upraising of Thy Cause in this world below. It is a
book in which all things are explained in minute
detail, in such wise that no matters whether small
or great have been left out. And by Thy will and
pleasure He designated therein, in place of His own
Person, a Branch grown out from the Tree of Thy
holiness, one fresh and tender, verdant and
flourishing, arising to serve Thee, dwelling in the
groves of Thine eternity, and Thine immortal
gardens. And he, after turning to Thy gracious
countenance and through Thine ancient succour, is
inviting the people unto Thee and unto Thy Covenant,
sound and firmly-established, and is spreading
Thy commandments and Thy doctrines throughout
Thy land, and guiding Thy servants to the path that
leads aright.
O my God, I beg of Thee by all the days which
Thy Light, the Centre of Thy Covenant, did spend
in scattering Thy sweet scents abroad, and by all the
nights when that delicate and fragile Being rested
not, but kept the long vigils, crying out unto Thee,
expending His efforts to guard Thy Cause and Thy
dear ones, exerting His utmost to spread out Thy
bounties and bestowals--while the malevolent,
comfortable against their pillows, rested in their
beds--I entreat Thee, by the ordeals He endured, for
the sake of exalting Thy Word, at the hands of those
who join partners to God, and the deniers, and the
deserters, to keep Thy loved ones safe from the
arrows of the calumniators, and the doubts of those
who mislead and betray. Hold them fast, then, in the
+P129
gardens and groves of Thy Covenant and Testament,
and make them to enter the pavilions of Thy
good pleasure, and shelter them in the refuge of Thy
protection, and cast upon them the glance of Thy
mercy's eye, and guard them from deviation and
schism. Make them to live in unity and harmony,
one with the others, and aid them to serve Thy Faith
and to spread Thy Teachings far and wide.
Verily Thou art the Living, the Eternal, the
Watchful, the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing, the
All-Wise.
O you true servants of the Holy Threshold, you
faithful friends of `Abdu'l-Bahá!
Our hearts are burning away with the intense
emotions aroused by this most dreaded of calamities,
and our souls are suffering the torments of this
separation causing delay in correspondence with
you, yet God be praised, you are all among the
well-favoured at the divine Threshold, and are
drinking from the winecup of the Eternal Covenant.
To the holy summons, you have all replied `Yea!';
you have seized the chalice of His Testament and
held it high. You are enamoured of that world-adorning
Face, your hearts are tightly bound to
those curling locks, that waft the fragrance of the
musk-deer's scent; you are held spellbound by that
magic nature, and by the teachings like nectar on the
tongue, refreshing the spirit; and all continually
receiving divine bounties from the One alone
beloved, and ministering at His Threshold, and
sincere and pure of heart.
+P130
The glories of that Sun are shining now from out
the high, immortal realms, and His glance is resting
on His loved ones. The portals of everlasting
blessings are opened wide. The succouring armies
are standing ready, waiting to behold what efforts
the loved ones will exert as they carry out the holy
Will, as they boil up and roar like waves of the sea.
Let them rest not for a moment, nor wish for quiet
and repose; let them carry out all His behests and
thus prove their loyal gratitude for all His endless
grace.
Over a span of thirty years the Centre of God's
Covenant rested not, nor was His human temple
ever tranquil and at peace. By day, by night, He
would be teaching and guiding stranger and friend
alike, and protecting the Cause, and seeing to its
progress, and for these things He sacrificed His life.
Now does loyalty to Him require that the beloved
should rise up in obedience to His instructions, and
devote their efforts to teaching the Faith, and to
passing around from one to the next this winecup
tempered at the camphor fountain,+F1 and to protecting
God's Cause from the evil suggestions and
the mischief of the adversary, and to guarding the
structure of the holy Covenant from disruption at
the hands of the Covenant-breakers. Now is the
time to stand as an impregnable rampart around the
city of the Cause of God, to defend it from the
+F1 The word camphor derives from Arabic káfúr, as in Qur'án
76:5. Camphor has been used as a refreshing tonic in Eastern
medicine.
+P131
assaults of alienation and violation, that come
against it like Gog and Magog.+F1
Praised be God, those of His friends who have
been cradled and fostered for many a year within His
wisdom and His teachings, and have drunk deep
from the soft-flowing waters of true and mystic
knowledge, and whose eyes have been opened,
whose ears are attentive, whose hearts are wise
--these, in all that concerns faith and certitude and
the abiding by His instructions, stand fixed and firm
as the high mountains. They are even as the
towering palm, the goodly tree `its root firmly
fixed, and its branches in the heavens.'+F2 Their roots
run deep, and the fruits they yield are sweet. They
know a mirage for what it is; they know, too, what
will endure--for `As to the foam, it is quickly gone:
and as to what is useful to man, it remaineth on the
earth.'+F3 They have heard and read of how the
Covenant met with opposition and violation in the
Dispensations of the past, and have both heard of
and seen for themselves the storms of mischief and
the tests that appeared in the early days of this Cause.
They know how these trials are designed to sift and
purify, and how the dense clouds of revolt and
violation would gradually pass from its skies; for the
errors and falsehoods of the violators can never
+F1 cf. Qur'án 18:93: `Verily, Gog and Magog waste this land
...' The rampart here described was of iron and molten brass,
so that Gog and Magog could neither scale it nor dig under it.
+F2 Qur'án 14:29.
+F3 Qur'án 13:18.
+P132
withstand the overwhelming power of the Covenant,
nor can the mountains of diabolical suggestions
ever stand under the rod of God's majesty and
might.
O faithful loved ones of `Abdu'l-Bahá! The
centre of sedition, the focus of rebellion--whose evil
character and passions, even in the days of the
Ancient Beauty, made him known for his stubborn
perversity and his ambition to lead--began to put
forward certain claims, gathered about him a pitiful
band, raised up the ensign of self-glorification and
self-love, and considered himself to be a partner in
authority with none other than Him Who was the
True One, until in the end the hand of the Lord's
omnipotence struck down his plans and hopes.
For a period of thirty years, he opposed the Centre
of the Covenant and, to bring down His structure in
ruins, did everything that lay in his power. This in
spite of the fact that the divine Beauty had made His
Covenant so strong, and appointed its Centre so
explicitly, in writing, unmistakably, that He had left
no room for any questions or doubts. In the Most
Holy Book of Aqdas, which in this most excellent of
all ages is the Mother Book, and embraces all, and
again in the Kitáb-i-`Ahdí,+F1 the last revealed
Tablet by the Tongue of knowledge and wisdom,
which contains the final wishes of God--the people
of Bahá are directed with perfect clarity to turn
their faces toward Him Whom God has purposed,
and He is designated as the Interpreter of the Book,
+F1 The Book of My Covenant.
+P133
the Resolver of all complex and difficult questions,
and the Centre of the Faith. Therein as well are the
other Branches, the Afnán and the rest of the
believers bidden to direct themselves unto that One
so that all might face one and the same Centre, and
all be bound thereto. Thus would the basic foundation
of God's Cause, which is unity, remain
unassailable. Thus the root of heresy and rebellion
would wither away, and just as in the days when He
Who is the Truth was made manifest, so too in the
day of His Covenant the light of unity would
pervade all things, and put to flight the murk of
disbelief and dualism and rebellion and opposition
--and thus the tree of His holy Cause would grow
and flourish, and the rich fruits borne by the holy
Teachings would satisfy all needs and be sweet in the
mouth of all mankind.
This fact of there being only one Centre and of
turning unto a single holy Being is, in the Kingdom
of His Cause, as the shaft or spindle of a millstone,
and all the other laws and ordinances must needs
revolve around this one. In the temple of God's
religion the Centre of the Cause can be likened to the
heart, for upon it depends the life of the human body
as one entity, as well as the relationships of its organs
and their essential growth and vitality. In human
society the Centre of the Cause can be compared to
the sun, whose magnetic force controls the movements
and orbits of the planets. The Centre of the
Cause is also like the spine of a book, for by it the
pages are all banded together into one book, and
+P134
without the spine the papers would become loose
and scattered.
Now each separate member of the community
who is within the shelter of that blessed unity is,
according to his rank and station, the recipient of
grace; and that rank is respected and protected, in
conformity with the verse: `Not one of us but hath
his clearly designated station.'+F1 Thus, in the body of
man, the eye has a preordained station, one not
belonging to some lesser members; and yet, should
it once depart from the whole, and its connection
with the centre be broken, then its membership in
the body, and its very life, are ended, let alone its
previous station and degree. Or should the eye be
plucked from its place, torn out of the body, it
would be deprived of life itself, how much less
would it continue to enjoy the station that rightly
belongs to the eye.
How strange! With reference to one who smokes
opium, the Ancient Beauty, the Most Great Name,
has said: `He is not of Me', making no distinction
here between one enjoying God's special favour, and
some other. If the smoking of opium, which is one
of the secondary and lesser prohibitions, completely
severs the smoker from membership in the community
and from relationship to the Person of the
Manifestation, then what must be the condition of
him who refuses to acknowledge the Centre of the
holy Covenant? In the words of Christ, `If thine eye
+F1 Qur'án 37:164.
+P135
cause thee to stumble, pluck it out ... if thy hand
offend thee, cut it off...'+F1
O would that they had contented themselves
with their refusal to recognize that shining Being
--with their failure to obey Him and to be lowly
before Him. But no, they beat upon rebellion's
drum, and hoisted the flag of contumacy and
spite, and blew the trumpet of calumnies across
the world. In the hearts of the credulous they
sowed seeds of disaffection, and inconstancy and
opposition. They made common cause with the
hostile, the biased, the mockers, who were
arrayed against the Faith of the Blessed Beauty,
flattering them and paying them bribes and holding
out promises and hopes; they worked hand in
glove with those occupying the seats of the judiciary,
and those authorized to interpret the law and
pronounce judgment, and those who sat on
despots' thrones, and with still others who were
engaged in affairs remote from God's; and by all
manner of deceits and stratagems incited them to
utterly extirpate the Covenant of Almighty God
and the Centre of it. They even, with a liberal
distribution of funds, hired assassins to shed the
sacred blood of that Vicegerent of the Glorious
Lord.
Could any just person imagine that such as these
have any relationship or spiritual connection
whatever with the Beauty of the One true God, or
that they could be accounted as members of the
+F1 cf. Matthew 18:8-9; Mark 9:43-7.
+P136
Bahá'í community? Would not such as these be
only plucked-out eyes and palsied hands?
Look at the treatise that their second chief wrote,
regarding their first chief and his associates--in
which he described, with his own pen, in minute
detail, their shameful purposes and actions relative
to the Centre of the divine Covenant--aims and acts
that no perverse and godless tyrant would consider
permissible treatment for anyone. Their second
chief tells how, to a despotic and oppressive government,
they brought false and malicious accusations
against `Abdu'l-Bahá; how they undertook to
uproot the holy Tree; how they forged Tablets, in
Bahá'u'lláh's name, that denounced the Centre of
His Covenant; how they altered and corrupted the
holy Texts to such a degree that he said his
confidence in the reliability of the holy Tablets was
virtually shattered.+F1 These and their other shameless
activities are all set forth; and strangest of all is this,
+F1 On p. 14 of `An Epistle to the Bahai World' written by
Mírzá Badí'u'lláh, translated by Dr Amínu'lláh
Faríd, and published by the Bahá'í Publishing Society in
Chicago in 1907, there is the following passage concerning
the falsification by Muhammad-`Alí of a Tablet in which
Bahá'u'lláh relates the misdeeds of Mírzá Yahyá, to
whom He refers as `My brother'. Mírzá Badí'u'lláh
writes: `A few moments passed and I saw him [Muhammad-`Alí]
take up the Tablet, erase "My brother" and replace it
with "My Greatest Branch". Having seen this, I immediately
said: "This deed is a great sin and a breach of trust. If you
show this Tablet, this servant will divulge the whole account,
will point out the interpolation, and this will cause all the
writings in your possession to be considered unreliable.
Hereafter whatsoever of the writings traced by the Supreme
Pen you may show me, I will not accept as authentic until I
have carefully compared the manuscript with the original
handwriting which is elsewhere preserved and have examined
the same with a magnifying glass."'
+P137
that he, their second chief--the very one who wrote
the confession so full of the abominable acts of their
first chief and his associates--now cleaves to the first
one like flesh to bone.
They are setting the axe to the root of the Cause of
God; nor are they in the least ashamed, nor put to the
blush, before the Lord God and His watchful and
perceptive servants. There even exists a paper in the
hand of Shu'á', son of their first chief, in which he
tells of a person who was commissioned and was
ready and waiting to martyr the Centre of the
Covenant.
If I my tale could tell,
No bounds my pen would know;
My work would swell,
My book will grow,
For tons of scroll
Would bear my woe.
For over a period of thirty years, always increasing
their efforts, they inflicted extreme anguish on
`Abdu'l-Bahá; and they did not, in all this span,
ever take one step nor draw a single breath to help
the Faith. They spent their entire time in attempts to
wean to beloved of God away from obedience to
the Centre of the Covenant, and to undermine their
+P138
convictions, making them waver in their faith, and
turning them cold; and because of what they did,
thousands of souls were veiled from the holy Cause,
and prevented from embracing it.
Such then is a glimpse of their aims and actions,
which made them to be cut off from the Holy Tree,
and excluded them from glory and joy everlasting.
They lost out, both here and hereafter, and `this
verily is utter perdition'.+F1
O you men who stand fast and firm, you women
who are steadfast and firm in you faith! Whensoever
I visit the Holy Shrines, I think of you, and in
all lowliness at His Threshold, I entreat the
Almighty to send down upon you all His invisible
confirmations, and to let His endless bounties
enwrap each one of you--so that through the efforts
of those chosen ones of God, the lights of loyalty and
sincerity and truth, and staunchness in the divine
Covenant, will be shed upon that town;+F2 that it may
be delivered from the consequences of ill-omened
disaffection and violation, and that instead, a fortunate
star may rise there out of the concealing depths
and mount upward to the heavens; that no scrolls of
doubt, and of calumnies against the divine Covenant,
may remain therein; and that every name there
may be written down in the heavenly register of
those who have kept the faith.
O Lord, set their feet firm in Thy Covenant; let
them hold fast to the cord of steadfastness in Thy
+F1 Qur'án 22:11.
+F2 Khusif.
+P139
Cause. Protect them from the hosts of discord and
calumny, and cause them to come under the sheltering
banner of Thy Testament, that is raised high on
the summits of the earth.
Light up then in their hearts the flame of severance
from everything except Thy love, and help them by
Thine overwhelming might to labour for Thy
Teachings.
Verily Thou art the Generous. Verily Thou art He
Whose bounty embraceth all things.
May the lights and the splendours be shed upon all
of you.
34. To the doves of faithfulness, ever since
that most grievous of disasters, the passing of
`Abdu'l-Bahá, this world of dust has become a
cage, and a place of torment; and to the unrestrained
nightingales it is only a prison, narrow and dark.
Certainly, a pure soul will not bind his heart to
this passing show, and the gems of spiritual love will
yearn only to be let go, out of this world. Nevertheless,
the all-compelling will of God and His all-encompassing
and irresistible purpose has desired
that this dark earth should become as the Abhá
Kingdom, and this heap of dust be changed until it
becomes the envy of the rose gardens of Heaven.
This is why the Manifestations of God, the
Day-springs of that all-glorious Sun, have willingly
accepted to bear, and take upon Their own sacred
and immaculate Selves, every trial and tribulation
+P140
and calamity and hurt. And They have established
laws and ordinances, that assure the flourishing and
freedom and joy and salvation of all the human race.
In this way that primal purpose will be revealed, and
that subtle mystery divulged.
Thus too, have They trained certain souls, and
reared them with the hands of loving-kindness, that
these should arise to perform the noble and exalted
task, and should devote their efforts toward carrying
out this duty, watering the Tree of life and
serving all mankind.
Praise be to God, you are confirmed and
flourishing in the Faith, and partaking of your
portion from that heavenly table, and are receiving
your benefits in both worlds.
35. The passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá, may our lives
be a sacrifice for His meekness, was the ultimate
calamity, the most great disaster. The light has fled
our hearts, and our souls are wedded to sorrow, and
no power in all the world can furnish any consolation,
save only the power that comes from the
steadfastness of the believers and their deep-rooted
faith, and their unity, and their love for one another.
Only these can lessen the pain and quiet the
anguish.
Although to outward seeming the Sun of the
Covenant has hidden Himself behind the clouds,
and the Orb of the Testament is concealed, and on
the holy horizon of glory, He has now set, and is lost
+P141
to view--still His rays are shining from out His
hidden place, and forever will His light shed down
its splendours.
For ever and ever will He, with all that invisible
grace, and those bestowals of the spirit, lead the
seeker onward, and guide the yearning, and ravish
the hearts of the lovers.
The Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá is His
decisive decree; it gathers the believers together; it
preserves their unity; it ensures the protection of the
Faith of God. It designates a specific Centre, irrefutably
and in writing establishing Shoghi Effendi as
Guardian of the Faith and Chosen Branch, so that his
name is recorded in the Preserved Tablet, by the
fingers of grace and bounty. How grateful should
we be that such a bounty was bestowed, and such a
favour granted.
Now is the time to arise to serve the Faith with all
our might, that our loyalty may be clearly proven,
and that we may perfectly, to the fullest extent and
in minutest detail, carry out the requirements of
self-sacrifice. It is my hope that one and all, we shall
succeed in this.
36. The ascension of Him Who was the Temple
of the Covenant, the setting of Him Who was the
Orb of harmony, `Abdu'l-Bahá, may our lives be
sacrificed for the wrongs He suffered, was the most
dire calamity, and the most dread of ordeals. It
dissolved our very hearts, it laid low the very pillars
+P142
of our being. It made our eyes to shed tears of blood,
and our sighs and the sound of our weeping reached
upward to the Concourse on High. Then did a sea of
anguish roll up great waves of grief, and a whirlwind
of sorrow swept over the peoples of the earth.
That blessed soul, following the ascension of the
sacred Abhá Beauty, may our lives be sacrificed for
the dust of His sacred threshold, and until the hour
when His own luminous spirit rose up to the realms
on high, for a period of thirty years had neither a
peaceful day nor a night of quiet rest. Singly and
alone, He set about to reform the world, and to
educate and refine its peoples. He invited all manner
of beings to enter the Kingdom of God; He watered
the Tree of the Faith; He guarded the celestial
Lote-Tree from the tempest; He defeated the foes of
the Faith, and He frustrated the hopes of the
malevolent; and always vigilant, He protected
God's Cause and defended His Law.
That subtle and mysterious Being, that Essence of
eternal glory, underwent trials and sorrows all the
days of His life. He was made the target of every
calumny and malicious accusation, by foes both
without and within. His lot, in all His life, was to be
wronged, and be subjected to toil, to pain and grief.
Under these conditions, the one and only solace of
His sacred heart was to hear good news of the
progress of the Faith, and the proclaiming of God's
Word, and the spreading of the holy Teachings, and
the unity and fervour of the friends, and the
staunchness of His loved ones. This news would
+P143
bring smiles to His countenance; this was the joy of
His precious heart.
Meanwhile He trained a number of the faithful
and reared them with the hands of His grace, and
rectified their character and behaviour, and adorned
them with the excellence of the favoured angels of
Heaven--that they might arise today with a new
spirit, and stand forth with wondrous power, and
confront the forces of idle fancy, and scatter the
troops upon troops of darkness with the blazing
light of long endurance and high resolve; that they
might shine out even as lighted candles, and moth-like,
flutter so close about the lamp of the Faith as to
scorch their wings.
The Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá, may
our souls be sacrificed for His meekness, is our
guiding light upon the path, it is the very bounty of
the Abhá Kingdom. This Text is the decisive
decree, the way that leads aright, the highest hope of
all who stand firm in the Covenant of the Lord of
Lords. It is tidings of great joy; it is the ultimate
bestowal.
37. We rejoiced greatly to learn of the unity
among the friends, their staunchness, their ardour,
and the fact that they have established a Spiritual
Assembly. It is clear that the stronger grow the
bonds of yearning love among the believers, and the
fiercer its fire, the more will they find themselves
embraced by the bounties of the Ancient of Days,
+P144
and receiving the continuous confirmations of the
Greatest Name. Thus will the Assemblies of the
friends become reflections of the gardens of the
Concourse on High, mirroring forth the radiance of
the Abhá Kingdom.
From Their supernal realms and Their immortal
heights, He the exalted Báb, and He Who is the
Beauty of the All-Glorious, and the wondrous
presence of `Abdu'l-Bahá, all These are gazing
down upon Their faithful loved ones, beholding
what they do under all conditions, their behaviour
and conduct, and all their words and ways, waiting
to cry `Well done!' when They see the Teachings
carried out, and `Blessed art thou!' to whoso may
excel in doing the bidding of his Lord.
Those divine, those sacred and exalted Beings
bore every grief, and They accepted tyranny from
every traitor, to make an Abhá Paradise out of this
dust heap of the world, and change this place of
thorns and sorrows into blossoming bowers of love.
They trained Their loved ones, and fostered them
with the hands of grace, and sent them forth, with
countless treasures, with goodly gifts, and with the
forces of Heaven massed behind them--that they
might become guides, and holy cup-bearers, of the
living, soft-flowing waters of divine bestowals.
God be thanked, the believers in that country are
confirmed and blessed, and have arisen to serve the
Cause, and are straining every nerve to spread the
heavenly Teachings far and wide. They are faithful
ministers at the Holy Shrine of the Blessed Beauty,
+P145
and true lovers at the sacred Threshold of
`Abdu'l-Bahá.
38. That supreme affliction, the passing of
`Abdu'l-Bahá, was the direst of ordeals; it was an
anguish of mourning. The parting with mankind's
Beloved set fire to the hearts of all His lovers, and the
souls of the believers dissolved in its burning. Even
the beauteous dwellers in the Abhá Paradise cried
out and wept, and in their empyrean abode the
Maids of Heaven moaned and lamented. The gems
of holiness fell a prey to crushing grief, the essences
of sanctity bowed down in sorrow.
That One whom the world has wronged could
rest neither day nor night. From moment to
moment, at the hands of every betrayer, yet another
cruel arrow was shot into His heart, and ever and
again, from one or another assailant, He was
calumny's target. In the dark of the night, out of the
depths of His bosom, could be heard His burning
sighs, and when the day broke, the wondrous music
of His prayers would rise up to the denizens of the
realm on high.
That Prisoner, grievously wronged, would hide
His pain, and keep His wounds from view. In the
depths of calamity He would smile, and even
when enduring the direst of afflictions He would
comfort the hearts. Although He was hemmed
about with disasters, and living at the whirlwind's
core of grief, He would still proclaim the Cause of
+P146
God, and protect the Holy Faith, and He brought
God's Word to the ears of those in East and West. He
trained and nurtured friends of such a kind that
whensoever their names were on His lips or spoken
in His presence, His blessed face would glow and
His whole being would radiate with joy. Many and
many a time He would express His trust and
confidence. In the gatherings held toward the close
of His days, He would repeatedly tell of the apostles
of Jesus. Among other things He would say that
when the Spirit+F1 left this nether world and hastened
away to the glorious Kingdom, He had but twelve
disciples, and even of these, one was cast off; and
that this small number, because they sacrificed all
they had for Jesus, and immersed themselves in the
radiance of that sweet and comely Being, and lost
themselves in Christ, they lit the world. `Now when
I depart,' He would say, `I have loyal loved ones that
number 50,000 or more, and each one of these is a
mighty fortress to guard the edifice of God, each
one, for the Ark of the Faith, is strong as armour-plate.
They are rooted firm as the high mountains,
they are bright and rising stars, they are jewels, they
are pearls.' Today, God be thanked, these qualities
are radiating from the faces of the righteous, and
shining upon their brows.
That blessed Being perfected His bounties for the
people of Bahá, and His grace and favour were
extended to those of all degrees. In the best of ways,
he manifested at the end what had been shown forth
+F1 Jesus.
+P147
at the beginning, crowning all His gifts with His
Will and Testament, in which He clearly made
known the obligations devolving upon every stratum
of the believers, in language most consummate,
comprehensive and sound, setting down with His
own pen the name of Shoghi Effendi, as Guardian of
the Cause and interpreter of the Holy Writ. The first
of His bounties was the light He shed, the last of His
gifts was that He unravelled the secrets by lifting the
veil.
God be praised, all the beloved of God's Beauty
are immersed in an ocean of bounty and grace, all are
receiving abundant bestowals from the lights that
radiate from that Countenance of glory.
39. The good news that the Word of God is
being raised up, and His Cause glorified, and that
His friends, on fire with love for Him, are arising to
spread His sweet savours abroad--is coming in
steadily from every quarter of the globe.
All are firmly rooted in the Faith, steadfast,
turning with complete devotion to him who is the
appointed and designated Centre, the Guardian of
the Cause of God, the Chosen Branch, His Eminence
Shoghi Effendi; are founding Assemblies,
conducting meetings, teaching most eloquently and
with all their energies, presenting proofs, disseminating
the doctrines of the Divine Beauty and the
counsels of `Abdu'l-Bahá. It is certain that ere long
+P148
the light of these Teachings will illumine the earth
and gladden the hearts of the people of Bahá.
40. All the virtues of humankind are summed
up in the one word `steadfastness', if we but act
according to its laws. It draws to us as by a magnet
the blessings and bestowals of Heaven, if we but rise
up according to the obligations it implies.
God be praised, the house of the heart is lit by the
light of unswerving constancy, and the soul's lodging
is bedecked with the ornament of faithfulness.
Steadfastness is a treasure that makes a man so rich
as to have no need of the world or any person or any
thing that is therein. Constancy is a special joy, that
leads us mortals on to lofty heights, great progress,
and the winning of the perfections of Heaven. All
praise be to the Beloved's holy court, for granting
this most wondrous grace to His faithful people, and
to His favoured ones, this best of gifts.
41. It is clear how that most dire of calamities,
that most great disaster which was the ascension of
`Abdu'l-Bahá, may our souls be sacrificed for His
meekness, has set our hearts on fire and dissolved
our very limbs and members in grief. Darkness
settled on our souls, of blood were our tears. Even
the essences of sanctity cried out in fear, and the
gems of holiness moaned and lamented, while our
+P149
own inner selves fell to ashes, and there was no peace
left in the soul, no patience in the heart.
No more does the ardent nightingale carol its
joyous songs, and the sweet and holy melodies of the
immortal dove are hushed. That gleaming Moon is
hidden now behind the clouds of everlasting life, that
Orb of the high heavens sank down at the setting
point of glory and rose into the skies of the world that
we see not, and above the realm of the placeless He is
casting forth His rays.
With His departure, these afflicted ones were
plunged into a sea of pain, and beaten and blown
about in a whirlwind of anguish more violent than the
spoken or the written word can tell. Our days wear
away in tears, our nights in sighing, and it is this
storm of grief and regret and yearning that has kept us
from writing before now, even to send you our love.
It is certain that the people of Bahá, who are the
dwellers of the Crimson Ark and breast the seas of the
Lord, and who have attained to the bounties of the
Abhá realm, and who are steadfast in the Covenant
--they, men and women alike, young and old alike,
share with these homeless ones the anguish of our
bereavement and this direst of ordeals. We could
hear, with the ear of the spirit, the wailing of those
lovers of Him Who was the Ravisher of hearts, those
like us scorched by the fires of separation, and from
our own sad hearts we would lift our cries of sorrow
to the heavens, and weeping would send up our
entreaties in such words as these, to the threshold of
the luminous Beauty of God:
+P150
O kind Lord! O Comforter of anguished hearts!
Send down Thy mercy upon us, and Thy grace,
bestow upon us patience, give us the strength to
endure. With Thy generous hand, lay Thou a balm
upon our sores, grant us a medicine for this never-healing
woe. Console Thou Thy loved ones, comfort
Thy friends and handmaids, heal Thou our
wounded breasts, and with Thy bounty's remedy,
restore our festering hearts.
With the gentle breeze of Thy compassion, make
fresh and green again these boughs, withered by
autumn blasts; restore Thou to flourishing life these
flowers, shrivelled by the blight of bereavement.
With tidings of the Abhá Paradise, wed Thou
our souls to joy, and rejoice Thou our spirits with
heartening voices from the dwellers in the realm of
glory.
Thou art the Bounteous, Thou art the Clement;
Thou art the Bestower, the Loving.
From the first dawning of the new light, that
noble land shone with the rays of the Great
Announcement, and was lit by the sunbeams of the
Ancient Beauty. Like heavy rains, the bounties beat
upon that sacred place, and out of clouds of mercy,
grace showered down upon that region of resplendence,
bringing freshness and new greenery, and the
trees of being then turned verdant, and there burst
forth blossoms of the spirit, and wind-flowers of
true knowledge blew, and mystic myrtles grew and
flourished. And from out of that land came musk-laden
gales, scenting with their perfume the other
+P151
lands as well, and scattering far and wide the
musk-deer sweetness of heavenly mysteries.
So it was that Khurásán became the grove of the
lions of God, and a nesting-place for the birds of the
Ridván Paradise. The Ancient Beauty singled out
that blessed land for special favour, extending to it
uncounted blessings and gifts. Now in wondrous
and most sweet voice, again with the tracings of His
exalted pen, and on the head of each one of the
beloved in that bright region, He set a crown of
imperishable glory, and He robed each one with His
bestowals and grace, and wrapped each one in a
mantle of spiritual perfections. Of them all He spoke
the highest praise, and to all He gave abundant
blessings, as is proved by the text of His scrolls and
Tablets. And whenever that sacred King of all the
world would speak of Khurásán, His being would
stir for joy, and His luminous face would grow still
brighter with exceeding gladness. His bounties
never ceased, and from clouds of grace His favours
continually showered down upon that land.
Then came the era of the Covenant, and that full
cup was passed from hand to hand, and the Sun of
the Covenant rose up, shedding abroad on the
horizon of unity the rays of servitude and thraldom,
and lighting up the hearts of humankind. New life
was breathed into the body of the world, and into
the human soul came a fresh measure of delight. The
hearts of the people of Bahá rejoiced to hear the
glad-tidings from the Abhá Kingdom, and the
minds of those who had sought shelter under the
+P152
Tree of holiness were illumined with beams of
fidelity and faith. Once again, the loved ones in that
region were inebriated with the wine of the Primal
Covenant, and in their firmness and steadfastness
and loyalty they led the field. They showed forth
such constancy as to astonish the mind, and they
manifested such power and endurance as to raze the
piled-up doubts of the doubters to the ground. Of
the poisoned winds of violation there was no trace
left in all that land. The hopes of the disaffected were
blighted, and the centre of violation clearly witnessed
the defeat of all his aims and plans.
It is certain that those who have caught the
fragrance blowing from the Abhá Paradise, those
who have heard the nightingale singing from the
immortal gardens and taken delight therein, those
who have trembled for joy, and whose souls have
been renewed when the breezes of holiness out of the
bowers of the All-Merciful were wafted over them
--will find the raven's croaking and cawing a
wearisome thing, and can only turn from it and flee
away.
For thirty long years, from the hour of
Bahá'u'lláh's ascension until His own immaculate
spirit passed into the light of the all-highest realm,
`Abdu'l-Bahá rested neither night nor day. Single
and alone, a prisoner, a victim of tyranny, He rose
up to reform the world--to refine and train and
educate the human race. He watered the tree of the
Faith, He sheltered it from the whirlwind and the
lightning bolt, He protected God's holy Cause, He
+P153
guarded the divine law, He defeated its adversaries,
He frustrated the hopes of those who wished it ill.
All His life long, that quintessence of eternal
glory, that subtle and mysterious Being, was subjected
to trials and ordeals. He was the target of
every calumny, of every false accusation, from
enemies both without and within. To be a victim of
oppression was His lot in this world's life, and all He
knew of it was toil and pain. In the dark of the night,
He would sigh out His grief, and as He chanted His
prayers at the hour of dawn, that wondrous voice of
His would rise up to the inmates of Heaven.
Under such conditions, He trained and with His
own hand fostered a number of souls who would
stand as a mighty fortress protecting the Cause, and
as armour-plate for the Ark of the Covenant. With
awesome power, these would scatter the forces of
illusion, and with heavy blows, strike down the false
rumours of the people of doubt. God be praised, that
labour bore fruit, and the meaning of those toilsome
efforts became plain. Those blessed souls rose up in
all their loyalty, and with their steadfastness and
long-suffering they served as shining examples for
the children of salvation.
His bounties, His favours to the people of Bahá
were made perfect, and extended to every class and
kind. And as at the beginning, so at the end: His final
bestowal of all, a crowning adornment, was His
Will and Testament. Here, to Bahá'ís of every
degree, in the clearest, most complete, most unmistakable
of utterances, He described the obligation of
+P154
each one, explicitly appointed, irrefutably and in
writing, the Centre of the Faith, designating the
Guardian of the Cause and the interpreter of the
Holy Book, His Eminence Shoghi Effendi, appointing
him, the Chosen Branch, as the one toward
whom all must turn. Thus He closed for all time the
doors of contention and strife, and in the best of
ways and in a most perfect method He pointed out
the path that leads aright.
Thus by its very roots He pulled out the tree of
mischief and dissension. He razed the structure of
violation to the ground. He left no margin for error,
no room for doubts. And thus He crowned the first
of all His loving-kindnesses with this last of them.
Let us praise and thank God for this supreme gift,
this great bounty.
Following that disaster of His passing, that dire
ordeal, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Cause,
was overwhelmed by such never-ending grief and
by his now heavy burden and supreme responsibility,
that his sensitive heart could bear it no more.
And so, after making the necessary arrangements,
he sent out a letter expressing his wish to be alone for
a time, in a quiet and secluded place, away from the
noise and turmoil of everyday life--there to pray
and supplicate and urgently beg for help from the
realm of the All-Glorious.
With this in mind, he has gone on a journey,
leaving us to loneliness and grief. Our hope is that
very soon, the good results of this journey will
become apparent, and that the friends will rejoice to
+P155
see the important benefits that it will yield; that he
will soon come home, and that once again correspondence
with him can be resumed, and the doors of
access will be opened wide.
42. All praise to the omnipotent Lord, that in
this auspicious day He Who is the Sun of bounty has
shone out so fair and bright as to light up the world
of the hearts. He has burned away the veils of
waywardness and ignorance. He has struck off the
fetters of baseless myths and ignoble concepts that
chained the people hand and foot. He has cleansed
and burnished the mirrors of men's souls, sullied by
the dust and rust of this dark world. He has opened
wide the door to that Celestial Tavern of matchless
wine, and He is freely pouring out the immortal
draught of knowledge and perception and love. He
has hoisted the banner of oneness, and destroyed the
foundations of estrangement. Under the sway of
His unity, the many-coloured races and diverse
religions have tasted the rose-red wine of His love,
and are aliens no more. Those pure in spirit who
have set eyes upon Him, and approached the place
He dwells in, reflecting Him have shone out like
mirrors, and cleaving to Him alone, they have
detached their hearts from all else but Him. They
have heard, with their inner ears, His words, and
they have noted His ways, and forgotten all else.
They are ever soaring upward, out of the lower
+P156
world to the world above, and they are fit to be told
the mysteries, and they understand them.
Such a day, then, is a day for praise and thanks, a
time of benedictions and blessings, a time to wash
away the stains of earth's defilement.
Let us turn our hearts to the world aloft, and cup
our hands and supplicate our matchless Loved One,
and urgently entreat Him, saying:
O Thou Kind Bestower, O Nourisher of our
souls and hearts!
We have no aim, except to walk Thy path; we
have no wish, except to bring Thee joy. Our souls
are united, and our hearts are welded, each to each.
In offering Thee our thanks and praise, in following
Thy ways and soaring in Thy skies, we are all one.
We are helpless, stand Thou by us, and give us
strength.
Thou art the Protector, the Provider, the Kind.
43. Indeed, you have adorned yourself with the
qualifications of faithfulness and are striving to fulfil
the requirements of servitude to the Abhá
Threshold. You have been inebriated with the wine
of the love of God, have quaffed your fill at the
banquet of loyalty to His Faith and have caused the
seekers of truth, those that are sore athirst for the
life-giving waters of His grace, to drink from the
heavenly stream of true understanding. This was
indeed most fitting and appropriate. For in this
grievous calamity, this distressing bereavement, the
+P157
best consolation and solace that the spiritual souls
could offer is to dedicate themselves to the service of
the Cause, to diffuse widely the sweet savours of
holiness, to become wanderers in the path of that
heavenly Best-Beloved, to let their whole beings
burn and melt, and be enkindled with the fire of His
love. Such indeed is the effective remedy, the most
potent cure for this irreparable agony, for this
aching of the heart and soul. There is no other
remedy.
Praise be to God that the effusions of celestial aid
from the Abhá Kingdom are unceasing and the
outpourings of heavenly grace from the Concourse
on High uninterrupted. You should not think that
your memory may ever, even for a moment, be
removed from the minds of these oppressed ones, or
that your remembrance may fade from the hearts of
these exiled servants. The Abhá Beauty bears me
witness and `Abdu'l-Bahá is my testimony that no
word can possibly express how indissoluble are the
ties of spiritual communion and fellowship that bind
us to the loved ones of God and to the handmaids of
the Merciful.
44. The deep heart's love and the longing of the
soul of this wronged one for those spiritual beloved
ones, and in particular for those who are kin to the
peerless Holy Tree of sanctity and oneness, cannot
be told in words, and my most ardent wish is that I
might correspond with each one of you, but our
alarm and grief over this momentous happening,
+P158
this terrible affliction and ill-omened agony, this inexorable
divine decree, the passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá
--may our souls be offered up for all the
wrongs He bore!--has left us wretched, desolate,
to such a degree that there is no peace in the
spirit, no will to endure in the heart.
This is an earthquake which shook the foundations
of our lives, this is a wailing and an uproar
within the Company on High. The lightning bolt of
this departure has set the very world aflame, and the
fires of this leave-taking have scorched the whole
earth.
The grieving dwellers in the courts of holiness
have rent their garments of long-suffering, and the
household of the Most High have put on mourning
dress. Truly the people of Bahá and those who are
kin to the divine Lote-Tree are sharing with us the
pangs of this bereavement, this direst of torments,
and are partners in anguish of those who suffer here.
Now that this dread event has come upon us all, it
is to be hoped that new stirrings and wondrous new
vibrations will be felt; that a renewed staunchness
and fidelity, an ever more vigorous firmness and
loyalty, will take over and astound the world. Thus
all will clearly understand that even though that
sacred and mysterious Being has laid aside the
garment of His mortal life, even though that Bird of
eternity has abandoned the cage of this earth, still is
His spirit in our midst, still is He watching over us
all from the realm of the All-Glorious, ever is He
gladdening the hearts of the beloved, and to the
+P159
souls of those who are fast-rooted in the Covenant,
ever is He bringing tidings of great joy.
45. The good news has come that the Will and
Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá, may our lives be
sacrificed for His meekness, has been read at the
meetings of the friends, and we here are rejoiced to
learn of their unity and their steadfastness and
loyalty, and of their directing themselves toward the
designated Centre, the named and specified Guardian
of the Cause of God, the interpreter of the Book
of God, the protector of His Faith, the keeper of His
Law, Shoghi Effendi. This news brought extreme
joy.
It is certain that enlightened and sensitive minds
and spiritual hearts will continually obtain illumination
from the Centre of Mysteries, and beg for
bounties in abundance from Him Who is the Celestial
Beauty Unconstrained. The ear of their intellect
is hearkening to the divine call from the Company
on High, and they drink the draught of faithfulness
from bounty's cup. To them, all that is not the
Beloved is nothing at all, and from whatever is not
the good-pleasure of God, they veil their eyes. They
worship truth, they seek reality, and they are
intoxicated with the wine of His love.
God be praised, you have attained these bestowals.
Now is the time for zeal and ardour, the season
of fervour and joy. Thoughts must be focused on
one Centre, opinions united on a single point, to
publish abroad the Teachings of God and to act in
+P160
accord with the counsels of `Abdu'l-Bahá, so that
the light of divine confirmations may wax ever
brighter, and the bounties of divine favour and
success appear on every side, and that in a brief
period, great progress will be made, and secrets now
hidden will be divulged, and joy and radiance will
appear.
It is to be hoped that out of the concealed and
manifest favour of the Abhá Beauty, He will
generate a new spirit in His loyal loved ones, and
make them to radiate a new and wondrous joy. This
indeed does not seem far from the outpourings of
His bounties and bestowals.
46. In this noblest of all ages the Sun of grace
and loving-kindness has shone out from the divine
day-spring with such resplendent glory and is casting
His beams so bright and far, that He has lit up all the
earth and made the hearts and minds of men to be as
sanctified mirrors and reflectors of holiness--this to
such a degree that from turning their faces unto that
bright Orb, that Star of the loftiest heaven, those
illumined beings have received abundant grace and
have been enabled to understand the secret of God's
oneness, and the mystery of His unity, and to
become alert to subtle realities.
Praised be God the Beloved that He has disclosed,
through His invisible bounties and visible grace,
such secrets, and drawn such veils aside. Words have
taken on new meaning, and meaning itself has been
adorned with the divine. A clear Covenant makes
+P161
our duty plain; an explicit and lucid Text explains
the revealed Book; a specifically named Centre has
been designated, toward whom all must turn, and
the pronouncement of him who is the Guardian of
the Cause and the interpreter of the Book has been
made the decisive decree. All this is out of the grace
and favour of our Beloved, the All-Glorious, and
the loving-kindness of Him from the splendours of
Whose servitude earth and heaven were illumined.
`Abdu'l-Bahá, may our lives be sacrificed for His
meekness, has filled to overflowing the cup of
bounty for the people of Bahá, and encompassed
with His grace persons of every degree. He has
destroyed the very basis of disunity, ruined any
attempts at dissension and mischief, and clearly
pointed out to all the highway of guidance, now and
for evermore.
The hope is that we may arise with a new spirit
and be confirmed with bountiful blessings, and urge
on our steeds in the field of service, of purity and
sincerity, and of high endeavour--nor is this much
to ask of the loving-kindness and grace of our
exalted Lord.
47. The purport of your letter is highly indicative
of your steadfastness in His Cause, of your
unswerving constancy in the Covenant, of having
set your face toward Shoghi Effendi, the authorized
Point to whom all must turn, the Centre of the Cause,
the Chosen Branch, the bough that has branched out
from the twin heavenly Trees. Indeed, this is the
+P162
essential thing, this is the meaning of true devotion,
this is the unshakable, the indubitable truth whereby
the people of Bahá, the dwellers of the Crimson
Ark, are distinguished.
The loved ones of the All-Merciful are those that
have truly served the Most Exalted One,+F1 have been
nurtured by the hand of the Abhá Beauty, have
received training under the care of `Abdu'l-Bahá
--may our life be sacrificed for the wrongs suffered
by Them. Such souls have drunk from the soft-flowing
river of true understanding, have quaffed
their fill from the living waters of assurance, have set
their affection on the one true God, and have rid
themselves of all attachment to aught except Him.
They tread the straight path of truth and stride along
His undeviating way. They incline their attentive
ears to the Call of the Concourse on High and are
attracted to the Celestial Voice ringing from the
realms of glory. Great indeed is their blessedness, and
may they meet with a good ending.
We earnestly hope that through the bounty of the
Lord of eternity a fresh measure of His confirmations
may soon appear and you may be encompassed by
His pervasive aid and assistance.
48. At this hour while yet the heart burns with
the anguish of sorrow, and the gloom of bereavement
still hangs low, my thoughts turn in loving
remembrance to my sincere beloved sisters and
brothers in the Cause.
+F1 The Báb.
+P163
The news of your firmness in the Covenant, of
your endeavour to work in unity and harmony, and
of your untiring zeal and devotion in the Path of
Service, has been a source of untold joy to me. For
now my sole comfort lies in the loyalty and faithfulness
of the friends, and my one joy in the progress of
the Cause.
Dear friends! At this critical time through which
the Cause is passing the responsibility that has fallen
on every individual Bahá'í is great, and his duties
are pressing and manifold. Now that the Sun of the
Covenant has set on the horizon of the world, the
eyes of all the people are turned expectant upon us.
Now the time has come for the faithful friends of
`Abdu'l-Bahá, who have been the recipients of the
Glorious Light, to shine forth even as brilliant stars.
The radiance of our Faith must be such as to dispel
the clouds of doubt and guide the world to the
Day-spring of Truth.
Our firmness must be such as to cause him who
wavers and errs to turn back penitent unto the fold;
our unity and love must be such as to cause the
peoples of the world to join hands in amity and
brotherhood; and our activity in service must be
such as to have all parts of the world resound with
the echoes of `YÁ-BAHÁ'U'L-ABHÁ!'.
For inspiration and guidance let us turn unto His
life-imparting exhortations: `O friends, show forth
your fidelity! O my loved ones, manifest your steadfastness
and your constancy! O ye who invoke His Name,
turn ye and hold fast unto Him! O ye who lift up your
+P164
hearts and implore His aid, cling to Him and walk in His
ways! It is incumbent upon every one of us to encourage
each other, to exert our utmost endeavour to diffuse His
divine fragrances and engage in exalting His Word. We
must, at all times, be stirred by the breeze that bloweth
from the rose-garden of His loving-kindness, and be
perfumed with the fragrances of the mystic flowers of His
grace.'
Thus does `Abdu'l-Bahá still call to us from His
realm of effulgent glory. Will not each of us hearken
unto His voice, and exert the utmost endeavour to
fulfil His hopes?
Dear friends, this is the day of faithfulness; this is
the day of unity; this is the day of service. Let us not
wait, nor ponder, but, detached from the world and
its concerns, clad in the armour of faith, filled with
the divine spirit of love, and quickened by His
life-giving exhortations, let us arise in utmost love
and harmony, hasten to the field of service, and
subdue the domain of hearts with the arms of the
love of God and the sword of peace and brotherhood.
For all inspiration and assurance let us turn unto
Bahá'u'lláh's promise: `Be not dismayed, O peoples
of the world, when the day-star of My beauty is set, and
the heaven of My tabernacle is concealed from your eyes.
Arise to further My Cause, and to exalt My Word
amongst men. We are with you at all times, and shall
strengthen you through the power of truth. We are truly
almighty.'
Dear friends! A great obligation of every Bahá'í
+P165
is vigilance to protect and shield the stronghold of the
Faith from the onslaught of the enemies. In these days
their activity has waxed strong. They are constantly
on the alert, and exert the utmost endeavour to cause
such harm as would impede the onward march of the
Cause.
Association with such people will cause discord
and unrest among the friends and will be detrimental
to the progress of the Cause. Therefore it is urgent
that the friends exercise great wisdom and vigilance
lest through the evil schemes of the enemies a breach
be made in the Faith. The few people whom
`Abdu'l-Bahá pronounced as injurious to the Cause
must be shunned by all the friends, as Shoghi Effendi
himself tells us to do in his second letter to the
American believers.
49. O steadfast ones, gathered beneath the
Abhá Beauty's standard of oneness, O faithful
lovers of `Abdu'l-Bahá! Sad news has come to us out
of Iran in recent days, and it has intensely grieved the
entire Bahá'í world: they have, in most parts of that
land, set bonfires of envy and malevolence, and
hoisted the banner of aggression against this
much-wronged community; they have left no means
untried, no plot or strategy neglected, and have arisen
with extreme hostility and spite to pull out by their
very roots the trees of this garden of God.
From every side, they are aiming their arrows at
hearts that rejoice in the knowledge of God and are
+P166
filled with the love of Him. From every ambush,
they are hunting down gazelles that pasture in the
meadows of His unity. They are taking the men and
women believers captive, and making orphans of
the children. They are plundering the believers'
property, sacking their hearths and homes.
Those, however, who have been trained and
educated in the school of God, even when coming to
such a pass, are resignation itself, and to the brutal
aggressor they are as the living waters of Heaven.
They are rivers of pure mercy and peace. Though
powerful and well able to defend themselves, they
never raise a hand to strike, nor do they open their
lips to protest. They confront the others' taunts and
curses with prayers that God will forgive them, and
their reply to the wounds of bullet and sword is to
offer milk and honey. They kiss the murderer's
hand; as intoxicated lovers, they drain the martyr's
cup.
Such is the way of those who are attracted to His
Kingdom, and that other is the behaviour of the
foolish, the heedless of God. So has it been, at the
time when the Manifestations of God appeared: the
heedless and the ignorant turned upon their
heavenly Teachers, and the diseased harried and
tortured their loving Physicians in the spirit, idly
thinking that they were acquiring merit thereby.
Thus have their imaginings always been, at the
outset of every Faith: that by such cruel acts they
could destroy that seed, the Word of God; or that by
blowing against it, they could put out the lamp that
+P167
He has lit; or that by directing a storm of denial
against them, they could bring down His trees, so
flourishing, so firmly rooted in His Kingdom, or lay
His fair gardens in ruins.
But as, time and again, experience has shown, in
every age they have only seen verified the Blessed
Beauty's assurance that calamity's rushing rain is the
greening of His planted field, and afflictions are the oil
that feeds and adds to the radiance of the lamp of God.
And then, as the days go by, and they see with their
own eyes the Day-Star in its noonday splendour,
witness the bewildering richness of the fields that
God has sown, behold His great and all-pervading
Cause--then the fires of hatred and envy flame out of
the hell of their natures; they can contain themselves
no longer, and the truth of the holy words is proved,
that God will not bring down a people from their
station unless they have corrupted their good qualities
themselves, and it becomes clearly shown that
God brings on the downfall of the heedless little by
little and in ways that they know not.
During occurrences of this kind, it is incumbent
upon the believers in other countries to immediately
adopt prudent and reasonable measures, that through
wise methods such fires may be put out. Let them not
allow the claws of ravening wolves to be reddened
with their brothers' blood; let them defend God's
lambs from the hungry leopard's knife-sharp teeth;
let them guard the members of the one and single
Bahá'í family from the poisoned sting of scorpions
and snakes.
+P168
This is the unique obligation of the Bahá'ís of
the world. Addressing the believers, Baha'u'llah
says: `Be ye as the fingers of one hand, the members
of one body.' This means that just as each member
safeguards the rest, warding off any threatened
harm, so too must the individual Bahá'ís do,
whether in the East or the West. At this time it is
urgently needful, and it is the request of this grieving
servant, that the assembly of the believers in that
area act at once, and take the case to the ambassador
of the Iranian government. Let them tell him, `The
holy Cause of Bahá'u'lláh has so unified us who are
His world-wide followers, and has brought us so
close together, that we have become like a single
body. If the foot of a Bahá'í, in the farthest Eastern
land, is so much as scratched by a thorn, it is even as
if we Bahá'ís here in the West had suffered the
same. We have now received word from Írán that
in Shíráz, in Sultánábád, in Hamadán, in
Káshán, even in Tihrán, and in other places as
well, the fanaticism of the ignorant and heedless has
been fanned into flame, and that agitators are stirring
up the populace--with the result that our brothers
and sisters, who are but well-wishers of all humankind
and are indeed the world's only hope for peace,
and are obedient and helpful citizens of Iran and her
government, find themselves under attack and
pushed into the heart of the fire.
`We therefore request the representative of Iran
to ask his government to safeguard our brothers in
Iran from the aggressions of their enemies, and to
deliver that flock of God's lovers from the claws of
+P169
the wolf, and provide for their security and well-being.
By bringing us word of this outcome, Írán
will earn the deep and heartfelt gratitude of
thousands of Bahá'ís who reside in these countries,
and widespread appreciation will be voiced by
us in our many gatherings, of her government's
good offices on our behalf.'
And further, if it be possible, you should make
this same representation through your own ambassador
in Tihrán, so that he may direct the attention
of the Iranian authorities to these persecutions, and
awaken that government to the possibility of divine
retribution and to the shameful stigma occasioned
by such actions directed against this innocent community
by the heedless and ignorant amongst the
mass of the people.
Let him make them aware that there are thousands
of adherents of this Faith of the love of God around
the world, who are gazing in astonishment and
disbelief at the savage acts now being perpetrated
against their brothers, and are eagerly waiting to
hear that the government has come to the rescue of
this unique, this law-abiding people, who are the
well-wishers of mankind, from the attacks of the
ravening wolves.
I pray for you continually at the Holy Threshold,
and call upon Him on behalf of each one of you, and
beg that He will bestow on you the blessings of the
Kingdom.
Upon you, men and women alike, be the Glory of
the All-Glorious.
+P170
50. A physician treats every illness with a
certain remedy and to every painful sore he applies
a specially prepared compound. The more severe
the illness, the more potent must be the remedy, so
that the treatment may prove effective and the
illness cured. Now consider, when the divine Physician+F1
determined to conceal His countenance
from the gaze of men and take His flight to the
Abhá Kingdom, He knew in advance what a
violent shock, what a tremendous impact, the
effect of this devastating blow would have upon
His beloved friends and devoted lovers. Therefore
He prepared a highly potent remedy and compounded
a unique and incomparable cure--a cure
most exquisite, most glorious, most excellent,
most powerful, most perfect, and most consummate.
And through the movement of His Pen of
eternal bounty He recorded in His weighty and
inviolable Testament the name of Shoghi Effendi
--the bough that has grown from the two offshoots
of the celestial glory, the branch that has
branched from the two hallowed and sacred
Lote-Trees. Then He winged His flight to the
Concourse on High and to the luminous horizon.
Now it devolves upon every well-assured and
devoted friend, every firm and enkindled believer
enraptured by His love, to drink this healing
remedy at one draught, so that the agony of
bereavement may be somewhat alleviated and the
bitter anguish of separation dissipated. This calls
+F1 `Abdu'l-Bahá.
+P171
for efforts to serve the Cause, to diffuse the sweet
savours of God, to manifest selflessness, consecration
and self-sacrifice in our labours in His Path.
51. I was very glad to know of your meeting
with the Chinese students, and I am sure your effect
and influence shall be great upon them because their
fresh and receptive minds are ready to grasp the
importance of this Manifestation; and when you go
to China, which you may if you think it wise, your
influence and success, I hope, will be still more.
I pray God that He should confirm you in your
teaching, and when you go to China, He should
make you a pioneer in carrying the Message of this
Dispensation to the farthermost countries of the
world and to the most obscure.
The members of the Holy Family join me in
extending to you their love and Bahá'í greetings,
and may the spirit of `Abdu'l-Bahá guide you and
keep you.
52. We were delighted to receive your excellent
letter ... and read it with joy. It gladdens our hearts
to witness from its contents the evidences of loyalty
and sincerity and perfect steadfastness in the Cause
of God, and unshakeable constancy in His Covenant.
I offered praise to my Lord, the All-Glorious, for
His abundant blessings, the prodigality of His
+P172
bestowals, and His wondrous grace; for He has
created such spiritual beings, such illumined essences,
who attract bounty from the Sun of Truth, and
are lit by its heavenly light, which unravels the
mysteries, parts the curtains, and tears aside the veils.
He has sent forth pure and holy souls whom the
blame of the blamer cannot shut out from the Faith of
God, nor frighten away from establishing the truth of
His Teachings. These are they whose thirst is
quenched, whose ills are healed, whose hearts are
gladdened, whose minds are set at rest, whose souls
are stirred, whose spirits rejoice, whose eyes find
consolation by beholding the splendours of the
beauty, and the graces of perfection, that come
down, one following after another, from the firmament
of glory. Well is it with them for such wondrous
gifts, and bliss be to them for such blessings!
As for me, acquainted with great grief as I am,
subjected as I am to calamities, I have no solace in this
dire ordeal that has suddenly come upon me to darken
my days, save only to see happiness in the hearts of the
believers; to breathe in the sweet scents of loving-kindness
from the gardens of their hearts, and to
behold the sparkling lights of unity amongst God's
chosen ones, and to note how widespread are the
breaths of fellow-feeling and love amongst the
righteous, and how His teachings and the Will and
Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá are being disseminated
throughout those lands--always in accord with
wisdom, as enjoined by the Almighty and set forth in
the Writings.
+P173
I beg of God, even as a pauper, and I implore Him
with all lowliness, feebleness and contrition, to
assist you all with His unseen favours, and open
before your eyes the portals of His bounty and
grace, and make ready for you whatsoever you
desire out of His everlasting bestowals, and make all
things easy for you, and fulfil your hopes--so that in
serving the Faith of your Lord, the Glory of the
All-Glorious, you will reach your furthermost
goals. Verily is He the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving.
I beg of Him too, that He will cause every
difficulty to vanish away, and will dispel every
cloud, until it becomes possible for you to present
yourselves at this blessed, this luminous and fragrant
Spot, and bow down your foreheads in the dust
of this bright Threshold, and attain this ultimate
goal, for the friends long to behold you.
Again, I supplicate the Eternal Glory to send
down His herald of holiness with the garment in his
hands,+F1 that all eyes may be solaced and all hearts
rejoiced by the return to this country of the Chosen
Branch, the Guardian of the Cause of God, Shoghi
Effendi, in the briefest of times. This indeed is well
within the reach of the bounties of our Almighty and
All-Generous Lord.
53. Following the ascension of `Abdu'l-Bahá
to the Abhá Kingdom the only thing that can afford
+F1 See Qur'án 12:93.
+P174
consolation to the heart of this grief-stricken and
wronged maidservant is to see the lovers of that
luminous Countenance happy, joyful and radiant
and to behold the diffusion of the sweet savours of
God, the exaltation of His Word, and the growth of
His Faith. Nothing else matters.
The duty of the concourse of the faithful in this
day should be but one duty, their purpose but one
purpose, their aim but one aim, and the object of
their endeavour but one object, and this is none
other than to foster the spirit of unity and harmony,
to serve and teach His Cause and to promote His
Word. Such is the meaning of true faithfulness; and
in this lies the good-pleasure of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
54. The letter that you wrote in your burning
grief, on the passing of the world's Beloved, the Orb
of the Covenant--wrote with weeping eyes and a
heart afire, has come. Once again, it brings back the
full force of this calamity, and renews our mourning.
This was the most ruinous of disasters, the
most dreaded of ordeals, the most hurtful of misfortunes.
It was an earthquake that shook the pillars of
the world; it caused a tumult and an uproar among
the dwellers of earth and heaven. This terrible
separation came upon us as an inescapable trial and a
dismal decree. It destroyed all hopes of happiness,
and all joy perished. By this departure, the sparkling
stars were dimmed, and the heavens of mystic
meaning split apart. It set the skies on fire, it
+P175
scorched the seven spheres. From this departure,
sorrow enveloped all mankind, it brought pain and
tears to all the peoples of the earth. The lightning
bolt of it consumed the world and struck the hearts
of its inhabitants, so that they put on sackcloth and
poured ashes on their heads. This disaster, coming
all unawares, made the morning dark, and turned
bright noon to night. From our breasts rose burning
sighs, and from our eyes streamed our life blood.
Even the Concourse on High moaned and lamented,
and their clamour rose to the highest Heaven, and
the weeping denizens of the pavilions of glory,
striking at their faces, raised their plaintive cries.
Mourning, shedding tears, their garments rent,
their heads uncovered, their feet bare, the Maids of
Heaven hastened out of their lofty, immaculate
chambers, and groaned and cried out.
`Abdu'l-Bahá, may our lives be sacrificed for His
sacred dust, that peerless Beloved of the world,
from the day that Bahá'u'lláh ascended until the
hour of His own spotless soul's departure to the
kingdom of light and the realm beyond, had neither
a quiet night's rest nor a peaceful day, for thirty
years. At all times His heart wept and sorrowed, and
in the dark of the night from His anguished breast
rose burning sighs, sorely wounded as He was by
the arrows of the opposers and the rebellious. Then
at first light, He would lift up His wondrous,
melodious voice and commune with the dwellers in
the high mansions of Heaven.
He would face the storms of tribulation with a
+P176
heart full of fervour and love; He would breast the
waves of calamities and oncoming ordeals with
overflowing joy. With the balm of His loving-kindness,
He would remedy unhealing wounds, and
the medicine of His unending grace was a cure for
mortal ills. Through His tenderness and care the
sorrowful found comfort, and through His Words
the despairing received the blissful consolation of
their incomparable Lord. He would hearten the
despised and the rejected with outpourings of grace.
In the pathway of Bahá'u'lláh, He made His
holy breast a shield to bear adversities, made His
beauteous face a target for the blows that rained
upon Him from all sides. He, the Wronged One of
the world, was compassed about by rebel hosts; the
armies of treachery assailed Him from every direction.
The disaffected were not remiss in their cruelty
and aggression; never once did that arrogant crew
fail to spread a calumny or to show their opposition
and their malice. At every moment, they inflicted
wounds upon Him, injured Him, brought fresh
grief to His heart. Their sole aim was to bring down
the structure of the Holy Faith and to destroy its
very base and foundation. They did all in their
power to split the Bahá'í community, and in their
strivings to shatter the union of the believers, they
neglected nothing. They joined hands with every
enemy of the Faith, became boon companions of all
who betrayed it. There was no mischief, no plot, no
slander, no aspersion, that they would not allow
+P177
themselves, no individual so vile that they would
not cleave to him.
And thus, with all His own ordeals and cares, and
banished from His home, He Whom the world
wronged devoted Himself to counselling and nurturing
the people with the utmost loving-kindness,
divinely admonishing them, leading and guiding
them at all times to complete and utter steadfastness
in the Cause of God.
From one direction He would ward off the
assaults of the nations, from another He would hold
back the people of hatred from tormenting the
believers. Now He would scatter the waverers'
clouds of doubt, again He would demonstrate the
truth of the clear and manifest Verses, and at all
times and seasons He would guard the Cause of God
with His very life, and protect its Law.
His fundamental purpose in enduring that continual
toil and pain, and bearing those calamities,
was to safeguard the divine and all-embracing
Word, to shelter the tree of unity, to educate persons
of capacity, to refine those who were pure in heart,
and to transform the hearts of the receptive, to
expound the mysteries of God and illumine the
minds of the spiritual.
All praise be to Bahá'u'lláh! The meaning of
those bounties became apparent and the splendour
of those bestowals was made manifest: that conclusive
Text, the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
was given us, and what had been hidden at the
+P178
beginning was made known at the end. His infinite
grace became clearly manifest, and with His own
mighty pen He made a perfect Covenant, naming
Shoghi Effendi the Chosen Branch and Guardian
of the Faith. Thus, by God's bounty, what had been
a concealed mystery and a well-guarded secret, was
at last made plain.
This greatest of bestowals came as a lightning-flash
of glory to the righteous, but to those evil ones
who broke the Covenant, it was the thunderbolt of
God's avenging wrath.
55. Although the ascension of the beloved
Centre of the Covenant was the ultimate calamity,
the severest of ordeals, and the fire of that bereavement
consumed our hearts and souls, and there were
no eyes but wept their tears of blood to mourn Him,
no breast but uttered fiery sighs--still, God be
praised, the Will and Testament of that Wellspring
of bounty and grace, and the designation by Him of
the Centre of the Faith and the Covenant, quieted
our burning grief and stilled our sighing, and came
as balm to our sorely-wounded hearts.
The power of the Faith prevailed, the awesome
majesty of the Word of God flashed out, and day by
day reveals in increasing measure its overpowering
might.
And now, to offer gratitude befitting such a
bounty, we must prepare ourselves, gird ourselves
for service, and rise up and live in accordance with
the instructions of the Blessed Beauty and the
+P179
counsels of `Abdu'l-Bahá, for these are the life of
the world and the salvation of its peoples. Thus,
from every direction, will the portals of happiness
and spirituality open before us all.
The Chosen Branch, the Guardian of the Cause of
God, Shoghi Effendi, because of the intense grief
and suffering and pain inflicted by this terrible event,
has desired to spend a period alone, in a quiet spot,
where he can devote his time to prayer and supplication,
and communion with God. He, therefore, left
us sometime ago, but our hopes are high that in a
very short time he will come home to the Holy
Land. For the moment, then, this wronged and sad
one has answered, however briefly, the letter from
your distinguished Assembly.
56. You have offered up thanks to the Lord for
appointing the Centre of His Cause and the Guardian
of His Covenant, and have voiced your gratitude
and expressed your spiritual sentiments, for
this favour and grace.
It is true, in all the world there could be no mercy
greater than this, no bounty more abundant.
`Abdu'l-Bahá, may our lives be sacrificed for His
sacred dust, has bestowed on us a wondrous gift, a
most great favour. He has clearly shown us the
highway of guidance and explicitly designated the
Centre toward whom all the people of Bahá must
turn, and with His own bounteous pen has written
+P180
down for us what will ensure prosperity and progress,
and salvation and bliss, for evermore.
Now is the time to arise and serve with all our
powers, that we may grow happier day by day, and
fill our hearts with warmth and joy.
57. The Ancient Beauty, the Most Great Name,
has, through the splendours of His grace in this most
glorious of all ages, made this world of dust to
radiate light. The loving counsels of `Abdu'l-Bahá
have turned the beloved of the Lord into signs and
tokens of humility and lowliness. He has taught
them selflessness, and freedom from material
things, and detachment from the world, and has
enabled them to understand the verities of Heaven.
In that supernal realm we are all but motes; in the
court of the Lord God's majesty we are but helpless
shadows. He is the Shelter for all; He is the Protector
of all; He is the Helper of all; He is the Preserver of
all. Whensoever we look upon ourselves, we, one
and all, despair; but He, with all His grace, His
bestowals, His bounties, is the close Companion of
each one.
It is certain that tests and trials are inseparable
from this life and a vital requirement thereof,
especially for the human race and above all for those
who claim to have faith and love. Only through
trials can the genuine be known from the worthless,
and purity from pollution, and the real from the
false. The meaning of the sacred verse: `Do men
+P181
think when they say `We believe' they shall be let
alone and not be put to proof?'+F1 prevails at all times
and is applicable at every breath, and fire will only
bring out the brightness of the gold.
So it is my hope that with lowliness and a contrite
heart, with supplications and prayers, with good
intentions and faithfulness, with purity of heart and
adherence to the truth, with rising up to serve and
with the blessings and confirmations of the Lord, we
may come into a realm, and arrive at a condition,
where we shall live under His overshadowing
mercy, and His helping hand shall come to our aid
and succour.
58. After the construction of the Báb's Shrine
on Mount Carmel, it was the wish and intention of
`Abdu'l-Bahá--may our lives be sacrificed for His
holy dust--to open a path that would lead directly
from the Shrine to the German Avenue. Time and
again He referred to this project and explained how
it should be built. You are no doubt familiar with
this matter. However, in those days many obstacles
stood in the way, preventing the execution of this
important project. Among them was a house
located at the beginning of this path at the foot of the
mountain, which belonged to one of the German
settlers. This house had become a serious barrier,
inasmuch as the owner had turned down every offer
for the purchase of the property. The German
+F1 Qur'án 29:2.
+P182
community had adopted a policy in the administration
of the real estate within the boundary of their
settlement which required them not to sell any tract
of land or any house within that area to outsiders, no
matter how lucrative the payment might be. This
ruling was strictly observed by them and had
developed into an insurmountable barrier. Another
obstacle was that the projected path would pass
through tracts of land which belonged to different
people, and some of them were unable to sell their
property due to legal problems, while others deliberately
would not sell since they had perceived that
this path was exclusively intended for access to the
Bahá'í Shrine and that the Bahá'ís would eventually
be compelled, no matter when, to pay an
enormous sum for the acquisition of this land. Thus
immersed in the sea of visionary hopes and dreams
they categorically refused to sell. So days and nights,
and months and years passed by until the hand of
divine power wrought a change in the whole
situation, and the truth of the words: `He shall
establish His ascendancy over His dominion as He
pleaseth' was fulfilled; for not long afterwards this
territory was occupied by the equitable Government
of Great Britain, and the local authorities, acting
according to their own judgement, decided that the
existence of the above house in that locality was
undesirable. Therefore they demolished the house,
cleared the site and carried away the stones. Then the
Municipal Engineer prepared a design for the path,
emphasizing that the opening of that path to the
+P183
Bahá'í Shrine was imperative. This design
received the blessed attention of `Abdu'l-Bahá Who
graciously approved it and expressed His satisfaction
and appreciation to the Municipal Engineer.
Later on, with the aid of divine confirmations,
enough land was purchased from the remaining
tracts through which the path passed.
59. At the Threshold of the Lord of Mercy we
supplicate Him to grant perception and understanding
to the ignorant, to awaken and bestow awareness
upon those who are fast asleep and to give the
eye of insight to the men of authority who conduct
the affairs of the people, so that they may clearly
distinguish the peace-maker from the mischief-maker,
the faithful from the traitor, and the well-wisher
from the ill-wisher.
60. The adherents of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh
have, under all circumstances throughout the past
sixty years or more, clearly proved themselves to be
the well-wishers of all governments and peoples and
have demonstrated that they are lovers of peace, are
sincere, trustworthy and devoted. However, they
often become the object of calumny and slander
uttered by some foolish people. Indeed, such has
ever been the way of God.
From time immemorial even to this day the
chosen ones of God have always been exposed to the
+P184
woes and sufferings that the disdainful have
inflicted upon them. They have been made the
targets of the darts and spears of hatred and
enmity that the heedless have unloosed upon
them. Yet it is clear and evident that the loved
ones of God will always, with the whole affection
of their hearts and souls, welcome every tribulation
in the path of the peerless Beloved and will,
with utmost joy and love, accept the pain of every
grievous wound for the sake of the incomparable
One. Far from grieving or complaining, they offer
praise and thanksgiving to Him Who is the
Sovereign Lord of all. They commit their affairs
to the care of the Lord of all mankind and surrender
everything to Him Whose power is irresistible.
He is the Potent, the Powerful, the Avenger,
the All-Compelling.
61. Regarding the Centre of Sedition+F1 and his
scrolls of doubt, this individual, for a period of
thirty years, both within and without the Cause,
was busy with his mischief-making, and planting
his seeds of contention and dissension. He had in
mind but one concern, one single thought: to
create discord in the Faith. All this is well known
to everyone, it is clear as the noonday sun, and is
set forth in the Writings of the Centre of the
Covenant, including His Will and Testament,
+F1 Muhammad-`Alí.
+P185
where this person's evil intentions, satanic plots and
diabolic acts are a matter of record, and there is no
need to elaborate on them here.
So things were until recent times, when we were
subjected to this direst of all ordeals. Once again, the
Centre of Sedition, believing that the field was his,
and seizing the occasion, rose up and began to spread
abroad his scrolls of doubt, heedless of the fact that
the instructions and commandments of the Blessed
Beauty, may His Name be glorified, and the counsels
of `Abdu'l-Bahá, may our souls be sacrificed
for His meekness, had reinforced the base of the
Cause, and firmly established the edifice of the
Word of God, and They had, through God's favour
and grace, drawn Their faithful loved ones into a
realm where no power in all the world, nor the
awesome majesty nor the onslaughts of the world's
embattled armies, could so much as disturb the faith
of a single Bahá'í child, nor make him to stray
from the path that leads aright. How much less
could such as he affect those noble personages every
one of whom is rooted firm in the love of God, and
stands immovable as the high mountains!
God be praised, during all these long years, all
this individual ever achieved was injury to himself,
and the defeat of his plans, and the disappointment
of his hopes. Nor will he ever have anything
more.
In recent times, especially, from whatever direction
he mounted his attack, he discovered a solid
barrier that proved impossible to assail, and found
+P186
his slings and arrows of doubt turned back against
himself. Thus were fulfilled the words of
`Abdu'l-Bahá in His Will and Testament, that `The
Centre of Sedition was ... confounded in his
craftiness...' To whatsoever place this person
addressed his evil treatises of doubt, these same
treatises were sent straight back to him, some with a
reply, some without, and thus he found it hopeless
to make a breach in the Cause of God.
62. Your letter has come, and I myself and the
Holy Family were infinitely grieved to learn of the
sufferings you have undergone, being made as you
were the targets of such injustice, malevolence and
aggression.
Since, however, you stood firm and steadfast and
unchanging, as the arrows of tyranny came against
you, and since this happened for the sake of the
Blessed Beauty, and in the pathway of the One
Beloved, it behoves you to thank God and praise
Him, for having singled you out for this great
bounty.
For this clamour and uproar, the blows, the
abuse, the taunts, the curses, when borne for love of
the All-Bounteous Lord, are but festive days and
times for jubilee.
God be praised, you have been given a drop out of
that ocean of tribulations that swept across the
Exalted One and the Beauty of the All-Glorious,
+P187
you were granted a droplet out of the seas of
calamity that engulfed `Abdu'l-Bahá.
The evil ones did not destroy the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár,
nor will they ever; it was their
own house that they brought down in ruins and
gave to the winds. They did not burn down the
school, they put the flame to their own roots.
Lofty is the structure of the House of Worship; it
is certain that you will build a new and greater one.
Be you confident of the bestowals of the Blessed
Beauty and the gifts and blessings of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
63. The sad news about the death of your
husband has just reached us; we fully sympathize
with you. When one meditates over the general
trend of affairs and drinks deep from the fountain of
the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá he
is bound to come to the conclusion that this world is
no world of attachment; nay rather it constantly
gives us the lesson of keeping aloof as far as possible
from it. This point becomes clearer now that the
physical body of the Master is taken away from us.
We should really congratulate the departing ones
because they leave this world of pains and troubles
and enter the eternal bliss of being with holy spirits
which have been working to detach humanity from
the ephemeral world.
64. The letter you have written was received
with the utmost joy for it was to us not only a
+P188
message of love and unity but a message of humble
devotion and servitude at the divine Threshold. It
was not only the cause of comfort to our broken
hearts but also a divine balm to our souls and we are
sure that the spirit which that letter bore is the one
which reigns in the heart of each single member of
that united assembly.
You have written that your number is small; but it
is decidedly true that it is not numbers that count, it
is, rather, the sincerity and devotion of the hearts. It
is the heart that, subduing within itself all earthly
cares, shines forth resplendent in the realm of love
and selflessness, attracting to itself the souls of the
weary and depressed, soothing their wounds with
the balm of this Message. This new Revelation has
in reality been the water of life unto the thirsty, a sea
of knowledge unto the searcher, a message of
condolence to the weary and a new spirit and life to
the whole world. And now it remains that we, the
humble servants of our Lord should be confirmed,
through our own effort and through His bounty to
diffuse this light everywhere and to carry this Glad
Tidings to every cottage and princely home.
We ask God to make each one of that assembly a
herald of love wherever he may go and that he may
be accepted as a humble servant of His Lord.
65. All praise be unto the Court of Holiness,
that God has drawn certain blessed souls, entities
+P189
delicate and pure, unto a realm where they have no
desire save the good-pleasure of the Beloved;
where, in the pathway of the Ancient Beauty and
their devotion to `Abdu'l-Bahá, they yearn for
naught and have no other aim but to offer themselves
up, to serve, to guide humankind, and to
wander, homeless and portionless, over the earth.
Such promptings derive from the blessings and
confirmations of the Abhá Kingdom. Such
impulses come when a soul is cleaving fast to the
eternal world.... As to your not being present in
the Holy Land on the occasion of the anniversary of
His Passing, nor able to take part with these
bereaved ones in our mourning for the setting of the
Sun of the Covenant: be assured that in that dread
hour, that calamitous time, the souls of the people of
Bahá were, one and all, circumambulating His
resplendent resting-place, and the lamentation and
wailing of this faithful band were continually rising
up to the heavenly Throne. And that immaculate
Spirit must have gazed down upon them from the
realms on high, and bestowed upon them all His
grace, and grieved over the grieving of them all, and
consoled and soothed them all, and supplicated,
even as He now supplicates, His Supreme Companion
to grant unto every one of them fervour and
joy, and ardour and bliss, and detachment from the
world, and steadfast faith.
It is our hope that we all shall be blessed and
confirmed in whatever befits this day.
+P190
66. It has been demonstrated time and time
again that whatever comes to pass only enhances the
glory of God's Faith, and further proclaims His
Word. This time it will be the same.
However savage this tempest of trials, however
battered by surging waves the Ark of the Faith may
be, still, the Divine Mariner has taken into His own
two powerful hands the helm of this Ark--and He,
steady, calm and able, and endowed with all authority
and might, is steering its course, and will bring it
at last safe and secure to its glorious haven. Of this
there can be no question.
You have sent us the good news that the believers
are arising to serve the Faith and are loyal and
devoted to the Chosen Branch, the Guardian of the
Cause of God. This news rejoiced our hearts.
We pray for you most humbly at the Holy
Thresholds, and beg of God to grant His ever-increasing
confirmations and blessings to all of you.
67. The cheque for the amount of two hundred
pounds that you had sent as your contribution to the
Temple Fund has been received and duly forwarded
to Chicago. Behold what a pervasive power this
evidence of co-operation and support, this spirit of
selfless consecration is bound to release in the realm
of the heart and spirit. Consider to what extent the
world of human virtues will be enriched and
+P191
adorned by this munificent act, and how glorious
the light that this manifestation of unity and solidarity
is likely to shed upon all regions. Indeed, this
mighty endeavour has been accomplished despite
the adverse economic situation in Persia, where the
evidences of hardship, privation and depression are
clearly apparent. But since the object of this noble
enterprise and praiseworthy effort is to enhance the
glory of the Cause of God, therefore it will unfailingly
attract divine blessings and bounty.
68. It is clear and evident that the body of
mankind in this day stands in dire need of such
members and organs as are capable, useful and
active, so that their movements and activities, their
bearing and behaviour, their tender feelings, lofty
sentiments and noble intentions may at all times
reflect heavenly virtues and perfections and become
the expressions of divine attributes and saintly
characteristics, thus breathing a new life and spirit
into all the dwellers of the world and causing the
inner ties and spiritual relationships to be fostered
and fortified in all fields of human endeavour.
69. We beseech God--exalted be His glory--to
grant awareness and insight to the men of wisdom as
well as to those who hold in their grasp the reins of
+P192
power in Persia, that they may be able to distinguish
the right way from the crooked and devious path
and may clearly discern the well-wisher from the
ill-wisher with a true and genuine sense of discrimination.
As regards the amelioration of your own affairs,
let us entrust the whole matter to the Blessed
Beauty. He is the best Benefactor, unsurpassed in
His bounty.
70. Your letter of 12th October 1922 is just
received and refreshed in our memory the many
beautiful days that you spent here when the Beloved
Lord, `Abdu'l-Bahá, was still on this earth. Those
are days that many events of history could never
efface from the hearts, nay rather the further we go
in the scale of life the deeper become the impressions
thereof within the meshes of our inner life.
I read your letter with full attention and in the
course of the reading the words of the Master were
ringing in my ear; words that have descended like
showers on all souls and hearts that could understand.
Now is the time when we should forget
everything and concentrate our thoughts upon the
advancement of the Cause of God and strive day and
night that the principles and teachings of His
Holiness Bahá'u'lláh and the words of the Master
may find full expression in the hearts of the true
friends.
+P193
When I think over the history of the Cause and the
many difficulties that all its promoters have undergone
I unhesitatingly am convinced that the sincere
friends who have watched the events will not lose a
moment but will with all their hearts and souls
sacrifice everything of worth in order to realize that
for which the Divine plan has been working.
Have all your thoughts directed to the Master and
heed not what you hear from here or there. We hope
that soon beloved Shoghi Effendi will come back to
Haifa and things will resume their natural course.
What we need today is complete unity amongst the
friends and this will attract the Divine assistance
from the Abhá Kingdom.
All the members of the Holy family remember
you and pray for you at the Holy Shrines. We hope
to hear much good news from you; this will be
the Cause of the Master's happiness as He always
wished to hear from you good news. Convey my
Abhá greetings to all the brothers and sisters there.
71. All praise to the beloved Abhá Beauty,
that those nightingales of the gardens of knowledge,
those doves of the fragrant bowers of certitude, are
singing the holy verses on the boughs of grace and
bounty, celebrating the praise and glory of the Lord
of the worlds, chanting His holy words, carolling to
Him hymns of love, and extolling and lauding His
blessed name.
+P194
God be thanked, the spirits rejoice, the hearts are
full of fervour, the souls are held spellbound by that
shining Face. The Blessed Beauty's sea of bounty is
rolling up great waves; He is casting the rays of His
grace over the world and all its peoples; the clouds of
His liberal bestowals are showering down, the sun
of His generosity is shining bright.
In its every aspect, this noblest of Dispensations
and greatest of eras is something set apart, for it is
most exalted, most glorious, and distinguished
from the past. In no wise is it to be compared with
the ages gone before. So plainly, in this mighty day,
have the mysteries been laid bare, that to the
perceptive and the initiated and those who have
attained the knowledge of divine secrets, they
appear as tangible realities. In this new Day the stars
of allusions and hints have fallen, for the Sun of
explicit texts has risen, and the Moon of expositions
and interpretations has shone above all horizons.
As expressly stated in the Holy Text, a specific
Centre has been give us. With His own pen has
`Abdu'l-Bahá, the Centre of the Covenant, selected
and appointed Shoghi Effendi, the Chosen Branch,
the Guardian of the Cause of God, the interpreter of
the Book of God, so that the highway of divine
guidance has been clearly marked out and lighted up
for all the ages to come. This bounty is one of the
distinguishing features of this mightiest of Dispensations,
a special grace allotted to this age.
It is my hope that we all shall arise, thus to prove
our gratitude for all these rich bestowals and gifts,
+P195
and serve the Cause of God and spread the holy
Teachings and speedily carry out the instructions of
`Abdu'l-Bahá--so that day by day the limits of the
Faith will be extended, and the seekers will find their
goal, and the lovers reach the beauty of the Beloved,
and the thirsty come to crystal waters, and spiritual
joys embrace mankind, and every heart be gladdened.
72. Your kind and loving letter written with an
unbounded love and a sincere devotion for our
beloved `Abdu'l-Bahá and His Cause has been duly
received. It spoke of that painful story where earthly
cares and physical illnesses have prevented blessed
souls, so overflowing with love, to shine in this dark
and dismal world. Nevertheless, dear sister, rest
assured and never be sorrowful. It is in one of the
foremost Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh that He says:
`Verily God hath made adversity as a morning dew
upon His green pasture, and a wick for His lamp
which lighteth earth and heaven.' Meaning thereby
that physical illnesses and misfortunes certainly
make a person nearer and nearer to his Lord. Why
then should we sorrow over earthly hindrances
when we have done what we possibly could, and
when we are sure that this, our little service, will
certainly be acceptable in His Sight?
I was very glad to know that even with all these
hindrances you could give the Message to certain
souls and I eagerly hope that they in turn will acquire
+P196
the love with which you taught them and will never
stop giving this Glad Tidings to every soul they
meet.
73. Praise be to God that through the gracious
assistance of the Abhá Kingdom those devoted
friends have been enabled to achieve that which
befits the glory of the Cause of God and the
protection of the community of the followers of
Bahá'u'lláh. This is none other than to foster unity
and fellowship under all conditions, to strengthen
the bonds of harmony and concord in all things, and
to avoid political matters. It is particularly important
to refrain from making unfavourable remarks
or statements concerning the friends and the loved
ones of God, inasmuch as any expression of grievance,
of complaint or backbiting is incompatible
with the requirements of unity and harmony and
would dampen the spirit of love, fellowship and
nobility. Therefore it is incumbent upon the members
of the exalted Spiritual Assembly to exercise the
utmost care with firm determination and not to
allow the doors of complaint and grievance to be
opened, or permit any of the friends to indulge in
censure and backbiting. Whoever sets himself to do
so, even though he be the very embodiment of the
Holy Spirit, should realize that such behaviour
would create disruption among the people of Bahá
and would cause the standard of sedition to be
raised.
+P197
In these days when the peoples of the world are
thirsting for the teachings of the Abhá Beauty
--teachings that provide the incomparable, life-giving
waters of immortality--when we Bahá'ís
have pledged ourselves to proffer these living waters
to all mankind and are known to be prepared to
endure every suffering and tribulation, how pitiful it
would be if, despite all this, we were to neglect our
binding obligations and responsibilities and to
occupy ourselves with disagreeable discussions that
provoke irritation and distress and to turn our
attention to matters that lead to ill-feeling, to
despondency and unhappiness and reduce the penetrating
influence of the Word of God.
74. Your letter was received and its contents
were perused. The scrolls you had enclosed were
clearly understood. They are of no consequence
whatsoever, nor are they worthy of any attention.
The letter you have written in reply, although brief,
is adequate and conclusive. What you have written,
even as the tablet of your heart, is illumined with the
light of constancy and steadfastness, and indicates
your firmness and determination in upholding His
Covenant. In truth this is the essential thing.
Following the ascension of `Abdu'l-Bahá--may
our lives be offered up for His holy Dust--the
Covenant-breakers, using every means in their
power, busied themselves in spreading false reports.
No calumny, no slander did they spare. Likewise,
+P198
after the ascension of the Ancient Beauty, the Most
Great Name--may the life of all created things be
sacrificed for His holy dust--the people of doubt
and hesitation seized upon every means and arose to
destroy the edifice of the Cause, to profane the
honour of the Lord and to violate His Covenant.
Yet, during all this time and under all conditions
these bereaved and oppressed ones, with faces set
towards His luminous Threshold, held fast to the
cord of patience and resignation, engaged themselves
in offering fervent prayers and supplications
and committed all their affairs to the care of the
Blessed Beauty. For in truth He is the Refuge of the
oppressed and the unfailing Comforter of the
anguished, whereas the Centre of Sedition and his
following have gathered no fruit from their rebellious
acts save despondency and utter loss.
75. It was sometime ago that I received your
kind and encouraging letter through your honourable
secretary. And although in a joyless world, the
love and unity of the friends in Yonkers imparted
the utmost joy to this bereaved family. Great indeed
as was my desire to reciprocate those kind sentiments
so beautifully expressed in your letter, it is
truly unfortunate that I should have delayed the
answer so long.
For the last few weeks we have all been happy
over Shoghi Effendi's safe arrival and we really miss
all our beloved brethren and sisters in this little town
+P199
of Haifa. Last night's sad and solemn occasion was
passed in prayer and meditation. The loved ones of
that dear Master had all gathered from the countries
near by to join His family in commemorating the
anniversary of His passing. In a night of utter silence
with the rich moonlight flooding the precincts of
His Shrine, the humble devotees of `Abdu'l-Bahá
had gathered in a little group just near His Tomb;
and in prayerful supplications they outpoured with
their tears the woe of their hearts refilling them again
with faith in His loving-kindness and high hopes for
the future.
On such an occasion, dear friends, what better can
we do than to realize one and all that our dear Master
has for ever gone from our midst, and yet with the
surest faith in His tender Spirit we should arise with
one accord, aided and guided by our beloved
Guardian, to dedicate our lives to the Cause for
which He was a living sacrifice. Deep and painful as
that thought may be, it should fill our hearts with
faith in the Lord. Then and only then can we lead His
Cause into a glorious victory.
76. You quite well realize, I presume, that
Shoghi Effendi has always cherished the fondest
hopes for your services to the Cause of
`Abdu'l-Bahá, and I am sure that your achievements
will be great, shining brilliantly as a star. The
field is world-wide and with but a noble spirit and
+P200
faith in the Lord we can carry to every home this
Message of peace and brotherhood.
77. The Pen of the divine Ordainer has so
decreed that this house of sorrows should be encompassed
by unending calamity and pain. Even before
the dark clouds of one disaster are scattered, the
lowering storm of yet a new grief takes over, casting
its darkness across the inner skies of the heart. Such
has been the lot of this broken-hearted one and the
other leaves of the Holy Tree, from earliest childhood
until this hour; such has been the fruit we have
plucked from the tree of our lives.
We can see before us the Holy Shrine where lies
the blessed, riddled body of the Primal Point, and
memory of the delicate and tender remains of other
martyrs passes before our eyes. The remembrance
of the Ancient Beauty's dungeon in Tihrán, and
that most noble Being's exile from city to city,
culminating in the murk of the `Akká prison, is
engraved upon our minds. The calamities, the
massive afflictions, endured by `Abdu'l-Bahá
throughout His entire life, and His wailing at the
break of dawn are recorded for all time upon the
tablets of the soul, and those cries that rose out of His
luminous heart will linger on in the mind's ear.
It is clear, too, how the most dire of all ordeals, the
ascension of the divine Beauty, made the structure
of our existence to topple down; how being
deprived of Him consumed the very limbs of our
+P201
bodies. And when our fiery tears brought on by this
were not yet dried, and the heart's wound had not
healed over, then the bearer of God's decree called us
to yet another anguish, that dire calamity, that
terrible disaster, the passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Then
were we, the sorrow-stricken, thrust again into the
fires of separation, and the pitch darkness of deep
mourning enshrouded this family.
Beloved friends of the Blessed Beauty: what could
have been the purpose of those holy Beings in
enduring such agonies? Why did those precious and
luminous souls accept all that hardship and pain?
Any just observer will acknowledge that They had
no other end in view but to better the human race,
and cleanse it from the imperfections of this contingent
world, and see to its advancement, and endow
all peoples with the wondrous virtues of humankind.
Thanks be to God's bounties, the signs of such
perfections, the lights of such bestowals, have
become clearly manifest throughout the world. The
tree of His Cause grows ever more massive, day by
day, and heavier with fruit, and from moment to
moment taller, and it shall cast its wondrous shade
over all who seek its shelter.
The fruit of these boughs is plain to see: this Tree
will bear sincere love and true friendship, traits of
Heaven and qualities of God. This immortal Tree
will yield kindness and humbleness, learning and
wisdom, and the divine virtues.
The aim of those blessed Ones, then, those
Temples of holiness, in enduring, over a whole
+P202
century, all Their trials and tribulations, was to
firmly establish a way of life whereby human
character in general and that of God's loved ones in
particular would be rectified. To such a degree must
this come to pass that from their very breathing and
walking, their rising up, sitting still, moving about,
their every act--it can clearly be seen that they are
different from those others who are neglectful of
God and veiled away from Him: that they can be
distinguished from the others as easily as you can tell
the day-star from the dark.
Although through the mighty influence of the
Word of God the inner self of each of the friends and
of those who are steadfast in His perfect Covenant is
held fast by the magnet of His love, and they are
known in every land by this distinguishing characteristic
and are everywhere illumined by this light
--still the thing to remember is this: until the
accidental events which arise from the world of the
trivial and the personal are completely lost in the
world of the universal, that is, in the bounties and
attributes of the Merciful--that true and primal
glory can never be revealed as it merits, nor ever
show forth the beauty with which it is endowed. Let
every steadfast soul ever bear in mind the anguish of
those holy Beings and the trials They endured, and
because of the wrongs They suffered, and the blood
of the martyrs in His path, out of pity for what has
befallen God's Cause and His Law, put the good of
the Cause before any other good, and its honour
before any other. Let him face every problem,
+P203
whether minor or major, with goodwill and purity
of motive. Let him not make of God's Law, created
as it was to bring about unity and love, a means of
discord. `Abdu'l-Bahá says: `If religion be the cause
of disunity, then irreligion is surely to be preferred.'
Today as well, the Chosen Branch, the Guardian
of the Cause of God, is at all times waiting expectantly
--and indeed, it is the most cherished desire of
his heart--to see this reality, this proof of serious
effort, this feature that distinguishes the Bahá'ís
from all others, clearly and unmistakably revealed in
the life of every single Bahá'í.
As is well known, at the time when the Day-Star
of the Covenant did set, the Chosen Branch was
absent from this luminous Spot, and when he
received the terrifying news of that direst of ordeals,
he was overcome by a grief such as no words can
describe. Broken in health, his heart brimful of
sorrows, he returned to this blessed place. At that
time the unfaithful, with extreme perversity and at a
high point of rebellion, were openly and secretly
spreading their calumnies, and this behaviour of
theirs added still more to the Guardian's burden of
grief. He left, therefore, and spent some time in
seclusion, carrying on the affairs of the Faith, seeing
to its interests and its institutions, communing with
God, and imploring His help.
The Lord be praised, because of the divine
bounties, during his absence there were such evidences
of staunchness and loyalty and high resolve
and unity and love and fervour among all the
+P204
friends, men and women alike, both of East and
West, and in the Holy Land--that on the one hand
the Centre of Sedition, and the arrogant and the
malevolent, found themselves utterly defeated, their
hopes of making a breach in the Faith bitterly
disappointed, while on the other, the exemplary
quality and sound condition of the believers, as
referred to, was a comfort to the Guardian's heart.
Thus he was able, happy now and in perfect health,
to return to this Spot, and to carry out his sacred
obligations.
By this time a great many matters of the utmost
importance had accumulated, and letters were
coming in continuously from individuals and communities,
which for lack of time could not be dealt
with individually. The Guardian therefore dispensed
with replies to individuals and sent out
general letters to the Spiritual Assemblies, in which
in the clearest terms he set forth the obligations
devolving upon all, and gave the friends his instructions.
These basic spiritual guidelines were received
by the believers with great delight and the utmost
joy; they immediately put them into practice, and
thus the preliminary steps were taken, and in every
area progress was being made to an ever-increasing
degree.
Now, however, as the letters continually
streamed in, the contents of one or two of them
showed that among some of the believers a certain
ill-feeling had arisen, and further, that some did not,
as they should, respect and duly defer to their
+P205
Spiritual Assembly. It is obvious what an effect this
kind of news, whether implied or clearly stated, had
on the Guardian's heart, and what an unfavourable
reaction it produced. The result was that for the
second time his health failed, and then, at the
importunity of this evanescent soul and the urgent
entreaties of the Holy Household and the repeated
appeals of those in close association with him--he
went away last summer.
This proved of the greatest benefit to him, and his
health was completely restored. And then, one
following the next, there came in good reports from
Spiritual Assemblies everywhere, and other gatherings
and groups, and also individuals, and this
brought him great joy; so much so that following
that summer's journey, out of his intense love for
the believers, he began to correspond even with
individuals; and continually, in the various meetings,
he would express his satisfaction with and
praise of all the servants of the Blessed Beauty's
Threshold and the loyal friends of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
Alas, however, once again in some communities,
he noted from certain letters an absence of spirituality
and good-fellowship among some of the friends,
and a lack of respect among some for their Assemblies.
Once more, as a result of this, his heart was
filled with sorrow and once again he decided on
departure. This lowly maidservant and the other
members of the Household and all the Holy Leaves
did all we could to blot away this grief from his
radiant spirit. When in his presence, we would bring
+P206
up all the good news that by the grace of God
continued to pour in, and to speak of the staunchness,
the loyalty, the love, the sacrifices of the
believers both of East and West. We begged him to
reconsider his decision--but to no avail.
He told us: `My heart is sensitive. Just as I feel the
ill-feeling that exists between individuals, and am
injured by it, so too do I treasure the excellent
qualities of the believers; indeed, I hold these dearer
than words can tell. After that most dread ordeal,
the one and only solace of my heart was the loyalty,
the staunchness, the love of the friends for the
Blessed Beauty and for `Abdu'l-Bahá. Nothing can
ever detract from the value of such excellent qualities,
and I am deeply grateful to all the friends, men
and women alike, for this. And yet, this love of
theirs, with all its fervour, can never, by itself, bring
the Ark of the Faith to the longed-for shore. It can
never prove the claims of the people of Bahá to the
people of the world. To safeguard the religion of
God and reinforce its power, the friends must make
use of effective means: their love must be so great
that they worship one another, and shut any mutual
ill-feeling out of their hearts.
`If, for example, the non-Bahá'ís should ask the
friends, "What differentiates you from all the rest?",
and if, to this, the friends answer, "In the pathway of
our love for the Centre of our Faith, we would
sacrifice our lives and possessions," those of the
civilized world would never be content with such a
+P207
reply. They would merely say: "Your love, your
sacrifice for a single individual cannot possibly serve
as a remedy for the chronic ills which plague society
today." If the friends then answer: "Our religion
provides principles and moral teachings whose
value the wisest of the day cannot deny," this will be
the response: "Noble principles and teachings will
produce an effect on human character, and heal the
mortal sicknesses which afflict society, only at such
time when those who claim to believe in and support
them are themselves the first to act upon them, and
to demonstrate and incorporate the value and the
benefits of them in their own everyday transactions
and lives." Unless this comes about, there is nothing
to distinguish the Bahá'ís from the rest.'
He also told us: `The people of the world are
carefully watching the Bahá'ís today, and
minutely observing them. The believers must make
every effort, and take the utmost care to ward off
and remove any feelings of estrangement, and
consider themselves duty-bound to comply with the
decisions of their Spiritual Assemblies. To the same
degree that ill-feeling among some of the believers
has cast its shadow on my heart, to that same degree
will my heart reflect their mutual agreement, understanding
and loving affection, and their deference to
the authority of their Spiritual Assemblies.
And whenever I shall feel such lights reflected,
I will at once return to the Holy Land and engage
in the fulfilment of my sacred obligations.
+P208
Convey this message of mine to all the friends.'
It is now two weeks since he made this touching
statement and left the Holy Land.
O dearly-loved ones of `Abdu'l-Bahá! We know
from His sacred Will that we must `Take the greatest
care of Shoghi Effendi ... that no dust of despondency
and sorrow may stain his radiant nature' and
that the tree of his spiritual being may bear fruit. We
must ever keep this in mind, and from hour to hour
we must develop our heedfulness, our love and
affection, our sagacity and magnanimity.
It is the hope of this writer that the friends of God
will put forth such efforts, and will so radiate their
love for Him, as to light up the world; a love that
will make the heart of the Guardian leap for joy,
and then, God willing, he will soon come back
again, so that before I close my eyes upon this life,
the separation I endure will be over, and I can bid
you all farewell with a happy heart.
My only joy, in these my numbered days, and the
joy of the Master's consort, rests in the hands of
those well-loved friends of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
Upon you be the glory of the All-Glorious.
78. `O God, My God! Thou hast lighted the lamp of
Thy Cause with the oil of wisdom; protect it from contrary
winds. The lamp is Thine and the glass is Thine, and all
things in the heavens and on earth are in the grasp of Thy
power.'+F1
+F1 Bahá'u'lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 104.
+P209
O servants of the Abhá Beauty's sacred
Threshold, O beloved friends of `Abdu'l-Bahá!
It is well known that from the earliest dawning of
the Sun of Revelation, until the setting of the holy
Covenant's Orb, the Ark of the Faith has continuously
been battered by great waves of affliction,
and beaten by calamity's storms. Tempest and
whirlwind have ever assailed this holy Tree.
Still, the exalted Star has continued on its destined
journey, and despite the piled-up clouds of hate and
error, its rays of grace have illumined the whole
earth.
The Ark of Salvation was made the safe refuge of
the righteous, and the holy Tree was hung with
bright, immortal fruit, so that the honeyed yield of
the love of God is sweet on the lips of His people.
Out of the grace of the Blessed Beauty, eyes began
to see, and ears to hear, and through the bounty of
`Abdu'l-Bahá the spirits turned vigilant, and souls
awoke, and to the hearts were divine mysteries
confided, and individuals became day-springs of
light.
And for ever and ever, time without end, the
glance of God's bounty and bestowal is, from the
hidden world above, unceasingly cast down, and He
watches over us with favour and grace. It behoves
us, then, to offer up thanks with every breath, and to
be blissful at all times.
Although the towering citadel of God's Cause is
upraised on foundations of iron, and His Word is
founded on authority and power, and the loyal and
+P210
firm in His Covenant, through the blessings of the
Abhá Paradise, stand immovable as the mountains,
and are fast-rooted in their love--still, the hurricanes
of tests are mighty as well, and from every side
comes the thundering roar of violent commotions
and bitter trials. From these, at every moment each
one of us should beg of God to defend and protect
us.
Let us call to mind the clear statements and the
warnings revealed by the Blessed Beauty, and the
explanations and commentaries of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
particularly as found in His Will and Testament.
This Testament was the last song of that Dove of the
Rose-garden of Eternity, and He sang it on the
branch of the Tree of bestowal and grace. It was His
principal gift, indeed the greatest of all splendours
that radiated forth from that Day-Star of bounty,
out of the firmament of His bestowals. This Testament
was the strong barricade built by the blessed
hands of that wronged, that peerless One, to protect
the garden of God's Faith. It was the mighty
stronghold circling the edifice of the Law of God.
This was an overflowing treasure which the Beloved
freely gave, a goodly and precious legacy, left by
Him to the people of Bahá. In all the world, no gift
could equal this; no dazzling gem could rival such a
precious pearl.
With His own pen, He designated as Guardian of
the Cause of God, Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, the
Chosen Branch, and made him the `blest and sacred
bough that hath branched out from the Twin Holy
+P211
Trees,' to be the one to whom all must turn, the
centre and focus of all on earth.
In unmistakable terms did He set forth the
obligations and elucidated the nature of the institutions
of God's Holy Faith. He laid hold of discord's
tree and brought it down. He for ever shut the door
on conflicting interpretations and views. With every
breath ought we to offer praise and thanks to the
God of Grace for this bestowal. It is incumbent upon
us to read and meditate on the contents of the Will
and Testament at all times, and implore God at His
Holy Threshold that He will aid us to carry out
whatsoever it ordains.
A few days ago I sent out a general letter. A
detailed, and recent, letter from the Guardian to all
the people of Bahá was likewise sent out, and it is
certain that you will be reading it; it is essential to
circulate it among all the friends. What I mean is,
that because of my great and spiritual love for you,
the steadfast lovers of God and His Covenant, I have
now set about writing this present letter as well.
I would like to remind the friends of these words
from `Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament, as written
down by His pen of bounty: `No doubt every
vainglorious one that purposeth dissension and
discord will not openly declare his evil purposes,
nay rather, even as impure gold, would he seize
upon divers measures and various pretexts that he
may separate the gathering of the people of Bahá.'
In another Tablet He calls on us to understand the
intent of every individual by the course of his
+P212
speech, and to see through his purpose. And from
the Blessed Beauty: `Place not your trust in every
new arrival, and believe not every speaker.'
Over and over, in countless Tablets, do we find
the like of these precepts. It is obvious that the
purpose behind them is to awaken and warn the
people of Bahá, so that the mighty citadel of the
Cause will remain safe and secure from the plottings
of those with evil intent, and the bright lamp of His
Word will be shielded from the contrary winds
unloosed by those who follow their evil passions
and corrupt desires.
It is irrevocably decreed that whatsoever has been
revealed and written down by the Supreme Pen and
the holy hand of `Abdu'l-Bahá will come to pass
and be fully realized in this world, wherefore does it
behove the people of Bahá, the souls attracted to
His Splendour, to become all eyes and ears, and to be
in body and soul and limbs and members all sagacity
and prudence. Addressing the believers, Christ tells
them: `Be ye harmless as the submissive dove, and
wise as the serpent.'+F1
In this momentous matter there must be no laxity,
no inattention, for a whisper might become an axe
laid to the root of the Tree of the Faith--a word from
an ambitious soul could be a spark tossed into the
harvest of the people of Bahá. We take refuge with
God! May He guard us ever, from the recklessness
of the insistent self.
For the harbouring of an evil purpose is a disease
+F1 cf. Matthew 10:16.
+P213
which shuts out the individual from all the blessings
of Heaven, and casts him deep into the pit of
perdition, of utter ruin. The point to make is that
anyone, high or low, rich or poor, learned or
unlettered, although to all appearances he may be
a jewel among men, and the fine flower of all that
is best--if he gives utterance to some pronouncement
or speaks some word from which can be
detected the scent of self-worship, or a malicious
and evil purpose, his aim is to disintegrate the
Word of God and disperse the gathering of the
people of Bahá. From such individuals it is a
solemn obligation to turn away; it is an inescapable
duty to pay no heed whatever to their claims.
The clear promises of God, both His tidings of
joy and His warnings, are being fulfilled, and it is
inevitable that just as the sweet musk-laden winds
of the Abhá Paradise are beginning to blow, and
the flames of God's love to spread, so too must
wintry blasts and icy breaths begin to fill the air.
You must therefore exert superhuman powers to
guard the Cause of God, and beg humbly and
with a contrite heart for help from the Kingdom
on High.
Although up to now, because of the dictates of
wisdom, the Will and Testament has not been in
general circulation, and has been entrusted only to
the Spiritual Assemblies of the various countries,
at this time a photocopy has been made from the
Master's original Text, which is in His own hand,
and it will soon be sent out, to increase the spiritual
+P214
joy of you who are essences of loyalty and trust,
that every individual believer, every steadfast one in
the Covenant who so desires, may read it and make a
copy of it. Upon you be the Glory of the All-Glorious.
79. The tongue of this lowly and grief-stricken
maidservant is powerless to praise those loved ones
of God, and the words uttered by her are wholly
inadequate to pay a worthy tribute to the staunch
firmness and constancy, to the spirit of love, enthusiasm
and devotion that those servants of the
Kingdom of God are now manifesting.
Praise be to God that through the unfailing grace
of the Beauty of the All-Glorious and the manifold
blessings of `Abdu'l-Bahá each one of them is
radiant as a star and shining like the moon in the
plenitude of its splendour. That glorious Being, the
incomparable Best-Beloved, graciously caused
every one of His true servants to become as a
brilliant lamp; while `Abdu'l-Bahá, that matchless
Beloved, transmuted the hearts of all those who
stand unswervingly firm in His Covenant and
Testament into a garden of roses--a garden embellished
with the flowers of true knowledge, faith and
assurance. Such evidences of divine bounty call for
thanksgiving, and in appreciation for this heavenly
grace and mercy it is essential to yield praise and
adoration to the Peerless Lord.
+P215
Although the leaflets prepared by that faithless
person,+F1 teeming with falsehood, slander and
calumny, proved to be a tempest of trials that swept
over those regions, yet it was powerless to do any
harm to trees that are deep-rooted, firm, and fixed,
nor could it inflict damage on structures that are
solid, mighty and strong. The blessed, the potent
spirit of `Abdu'l-Bahá will always protect and
shield the holy and sanctified beings, will assist
them, watch over them, and empower them to
remain firm as immovable mountains.
Truly that which you have done is appropriate
and the way you have reacted is highly fitting and
proper, because in the Will and Testament primary
emphasis has been laid on guarding and protecting
the Cause of God. Thus it has been revealed: `O ye
beloved of the Lord! The greatest of all things is the
protection of the true Faith of God, the preservation
of His Law, the safeguarding of His Cause and
service unto His Word.' Praise be to God that those
blessed and enraptured souls who are enkindled
with the fire of His love have been graciously
assisted to preserve and shield the Faith of God.
You must have glanced at the idle words of that
faithless person--words that are wholly motivated
by selfish and personal interests. They are so futile,
senseless and absurd that even the babes of this
glorious Dispensation, rocked in their cradles,
would recognize how vain and preposterous, how
+F1 `Abdu'l-Husayn Avárih (see Bahá'í Administration, Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, Wilmette, pp. 137-139).
+P216
impregnated with subtle machinations they are.
How much keener then must be the discernment
of those distinguished beings whose substance of
life has been moulded by the gracious and bountiful
fingers of the Blessed Beauty and whose tree of
existence has been watered and fed by the
heavenly stream of His favour and providence.
Surely those luminous gems whose nostrils are
perfumed by the imperishable fragrance of holiness
and are endued with a keen sense of perception
will readily distinguish a loathsome odour, no
matter how slight it may be, from the sweet-scented
breeze blowing from the rose-garden of
His Oneness. They will easily recognize the words
of a conceited and malevolent one, though his
words be wrapped up in delicate terms and
phrases or take the guise of fellow-feeling, sympathy
and kindly wishes, from the genuine
expressions of truth and sincerity, of devotion,
piety and faithfulness.
Indeed, it is true to say that malice will cause
one's intelligence and understanding to fade, and
the king of reason to become subservient to the
satanic self and its promptings. Time and again
has this matter been put to proof and the following
blessed passage from the Will and Testament
amply demonstrates this significant truth and
serves to heighten the sense of alertness and vigilance.
How wondrous is His Word: `No doubt
every vainglorious one that purposeth dissension
and discord will not openly declare his evil purposes,
+P217
nay rather, even as impure gold, would he
seize upon divers measures and various pretexts that
he may separate the gathering of the people of
Bahá.'
The essential point is this: praise be to God, the
way of His holy Faith is laid straight, the Edifice of
the Law of God is well-founded and strong. He to
whom the people of Bahá must turn, the Centre on
which the concourse of the faithful must fix their
gaze, the Expounder of the Holy Writings, the
Guardian of the Cause of God, the Chosen Branch,
Shoghi Effendi, has been clearly appointed in conformity
with explicit, conclusive and unmistakable
terms. The Religion of God, the laws and ordinances
of God, the blessed teachings, the obligations
that are binding on everyone--all stand clear and
manifest even as the sun in its meridian glory. There
is no hidden mystery, no secret that remains concealed.
There is no room for interpretation or
argument, no occasion for doubt or hesitation. The
hour for teaching and service is come. It is the time
for unity, harmony, solidarity and high endeavour.
At the blessed Holy Shrines we earnestly pray that
divine assistance and confirmation be vouchsafed to
all of us. We continually receive joyous news of the
health and well-being of the Guardian of the Cause
of God and eagerly hope that the night of separation
may come to an end, that the period of bereavement
may soon expire and his blessed person may return
to this hallowed Spot with utmost joy and radiance.
All the blessed leaves join this lowly maidservant in
+P218
sending wondrous expressions of greeting to those
loved ones of God and the handmaids of the
Merciful. May the glory of the All-Glorious rest
upon you!
80. The question of Avárih has surely come to
your attention. In spite of the fact that last year, the
first time that he visited this sacred Spot, he was
shown the greatest kindness and love, and he was
the object of every consideration and care, and
everything was done to help him in every way; that
when he left for Europe, as the reason for his visit
was to teach the Faith, and he was favoured and
praised by the Guardian, the friends in England
showed him reverence to what was really an exaggerated
degree, and received him with the warmest
hospitality--that is, no one failed in showing him
the utmost regard--still, when he returned to Cairo
and busied himself with publishing his book, as it
became apparent later on, he put the Assembly and
the friends at odds, stirred up the mischief himself
and then secretly wrote here and there that there was
trouble in Cairo, and presented the situation so as to
further his own ends.
The beloved Guardian at once laid hold of every
possible means to quiet the dissension in Cairo, but
it proved impossible because Avárih, using all
kinds of devices, prevented the reconciliation of the
Assembly and the friends in that city. When the
Guardian could endure this no longer and there was
+P219
nothing more that he could do, with deep regret he
left the Holy Land. His letter clearly shows how
heavy was his heart.
Later, Avárih left Egypt and came again to the
Holy Land, and the interesting thing is that the
moment he left, the misunderstandings among the
friends in Cairo disappeared, and Bahá'í affairs
went forward again in proper fashion, so that it
became perfectly clear that he had been the cause of
the disruption.
From here, too, he began to send out letters, and it
would only grieve you to tell of the falsehoods and
calumnies they contained. In Beirut, too, his talks
and his actions were the same, and he spread the
word that, God forbid, there is dissension everywhere.
Accordingly, in order to protect the Cause of
God, a telegram was sent to Baghdád, citing these
words of the Ancient Beauty--exalted be His glory:
`Place not your trust in every new arrival, and
believe not every speaker.' As a result, when he
reached Baghdád, and wished to stir up mischief
there, the friends, with great dignity and firmness,
restrained him, and avoided his company.
The point is that although such talk and such
behaviour have no effect and no importance whatsoever,
and do not merit our attention, still this
disloyalty of his in these days of trial and sorrow is
such that, unable to bear the situation any longer,
this grieved and helpless one has felt obliged to set
down a brief account of what actually took place.
+P220
81. Praise be to God that through His gracious
bounty you were enabled to visit His exalted, His
sacred and luminous Threshold, to refresh and
perfume your nostrils with the sweet-scented fragrances
of God diffused from these imperishable, holy
Places. This wondrous gift calls for thanksgiving,
and this heavenly bestowal warrants praise and
glorification. And such praise is best expressed
when one's pilgrimage, one's honour at attaining
His holy Court and becoming the recipient of His
favours and loving-kindness produce a profound
effect and influence upon every aspect of one's life,
upon one's bearing and demeanour, and one's
activities. There is no doubt that it will be so.
82. It is a very long time since we have had any
news from you and we are quite longing to have one
of your interesting and beautiful letters, that brings
us always comfort because of your sincerity, your
love for the Cause and your constant energy in the
work for the Cause. You have ever been one of the
Master's best friends, you are one of the oldest
American believers, one of the firm and enthusiastic
workers, and we are always happy to hear from you.
The joy of our hearts is to hear that the friends are
active and sincere in the spreading of the teachings.
We always long to hear about the friends, to know
that in America they are arising with sincere energy
to assist our beloved Guardian, to make his heart
happy so that he may return to the Holy Land and
+P221
again take up, with renewed vigour, the burdens
that are too great when he feels that the friends are
not uniting with him to carry out the instructions of
the Beloved. We know that these instructions and
teachings are the balm for the wounds and ills of the
world, and if the friends are not firm, sincere and
united in the principles as given by Bahá'u'lláh,
explained and amplified by `Abdu'l-Bahá, and do
not teach them clearly and keep them pure and
unadulterated, then how can the ills of mankind be
alleviated? All other teachings have failed to eliminate
the existing prejudices between peoples and
religions and unite them upon the basis of pure
truth, and now that we have this blessed remedy
which is a divine solvent, let us not be blind or
neglectful, but energetically and courageously stand
forth as true heralds of this Divine Remedy.
83. Your short and loving note of June 25th has
been received. Its contents, though short, gave me
and the ladies of the Household great joy, because
they indicate that the dear friends have, with willing
efforts, arisen to strengthen the foundation of love
and harmony in their hearts. This will surely release
our beloved Shoghi Effendi from his grief, fill his
dear heart with joy and bring him to us again.
Since my last affectionate appeal to the beloved of
God and `Abdu'l-Bahá's spiritual children, the dear
friends in every land have indeed shown a wonderful
spirit which has inspired us all with joy and gratitude.
+P222
For their confirmation and success we ardently
pray at the Holy Shrines. I hope and pray that your
National Spiritual Assembly will this year be
favoured with divine support and unprecedented
prosperity.
84. Your charming letter of June 20th has
arrived and with it the spiritual waves of your love
and devotion to the welfare of the Cause of God and
to the prosperity of the dear friends throughout
America.
I pray at the Holy Shrine of our beloved Lord,
`Abdu'l-Bahá, to favour you with the realization of
the desire of your heart which contributes to the joy
and happiness of the beloved Guardian of the Cause,
that is, service towards the unity of the dear friends
and the promulgation of the divine Teachings which
alone can redeem this lifeless world.
I am glad to tell you that the Guardian of the
Cause of God is in good health. The splendid
attitude of the beloved friends in the East and the
West and their wonderfully sacrificial efforts in the
service of the Cause have greatly lightened the
burden of grief upon his loving heart and so, he may
return to the Holy Land towards the end of summer
when his entire grief, we hope, will be replaced with
joy and fragrances which are being wafted to his
dear heart.
+P223
85. Your numerous letters written to the
beloved Guardian and myself have all arrived and
brought with them the sweet perfume of your
devotion, sincerity, strong faith and active and
beautiful services you are inexhaustibly rendering to
the Cause of God. You should be happy, dear
Bahá'í sister in being so wonderfully confirmed in
your spiritual life.
The beloved Guardian of the Cause is nowadays
in good health and through the magnificent efforts
the friends are exerting in every country to strengthen
and augment their bond of unity and love for
one another, his grief has been lightened and so we
have great hope that he will return to the Holy Land
before long. Here he will resume his personal touch
with the friends the world over and will inspire them
with his guidance to still greater activity.
The Ladies of the Holy Family and I are always
remembering you dear friends of `Abdu'l-Bahá and
praying for your confirmation and happiness. I am
thankful to all the dear friends who so faithfully and
lovingly responded with their excellent deeds to my
affectionate appeal for greater unity and love. May
the Blessed Beauty and `Abdu'l-Bahá reward them
richly and crown their sincere services with great
results.
86. From this hallowed Spot I send heavenly
greetings to those two faithful servants of the holy
Threshold of the Abhá Beauty. Indeed, no word of
+P224
compliment could be compared to this expression of
praise and commendation, whereby, thanks be to
God, you both have distinguished yourselves as the
devoted servants of His divine Threshold and as the
sincere, the self-sacrificing bond-slaves serving at
the door of His mercifulness. You have always
proved yourselves untiring in your noble efforts and
are continually striving with utmost endeavour to
discharge your important and glorious duties. This
can be attributed to naught save to the unfailing
bounties of the Abhá Beauty and to the invisible aid
that `Abdu'l-Bahá has graciously accorded you.
87. In this Day nothing is so important as service.
Did not `Abdu'l-Bahá voluntarily call Himself
the `Servant' of Bahá, manifesting also in His life the
perfections of servitude to God and man?
We, wishing to follow the commands left by
Bahá'u'lláh, spread and lived by `Abdu'l-Bahá,
we can take no greater step toward the Heavenly
Kingdom--can give no greater joy to the present
beloved Guardian of the Cause, Shoghi Effendi--
than that of loving service to all mankind.
88. It always cheers my heart to hear from the
dear friends whose hearts are so full of love and
devotion, and desire to serve this Blessed Cause
which has been proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh to all
the world, so that all national, racial, and religious
+P225
prejudices will be abolished, and the world of
humanity recognized as one home, and all men as
brothers.
I certainly shall pray specially for you that you
may be richly blessed in your work and service to
the Blessed Cause. One soul who becomes entirely
selfless and devoted and filled to overflowing with
the spirit of love and service will do much for the
progress of the Cause in whatever locality he is. Be
assured, if you arise to serve, the Beloved Master
says Nothing shall be impossible to you if you have faith.
As ye have faith so shall your powers and blessings be. I
convey to you the warm love and Bahá'í greetings
of Shoghi Effendi, and all the family, and again
assure you of our earnest prayers that you will be
enabled to render much service to the Kingdom.
89. My heart is always cheered when I meet or
hear from the dear friends in America, for the
Beloved Master spoke so much to us about His visit
to your land, and we feel confident that the teachings
of the Blessed Perfection which He heralded forth
have not fallen on barren soil and the day is not far
distant when a rich harvest will be garnered therefrom.
90. At the holy Threshold of the Abhá Beauty
we fervently pray at all times for outstanding success
to attend that exalted body.+F1 Indeed, by virtue of the
+F1 The Local Spiritual Assembly of Tihrán.
+P226
brilliant achievements won and the distinguished
services rendered by those blessed souls, the heart of
this lowly one is filled with utmost joy and assurance,
and there is no doubt that through the
loving-kindness of God this measure of joy and
happiness will be multiplied day by day.
You have asked me about my own knowledge
and recollections concerning the holy Houses in
Tihrán. Unfortunately, due to my tender age at
that time, those blessed places and quarters have
faded from my memory.
Upon you be His glory and praise.
91. O dear sisters, ardent lovers of Bahá'u'lláh,
may my soul be offered up for your devotion,
your staunchness, and your steadfastness!
The letter from the honoured members of that
spiritual assemblage, telling of the women of that
land, their fervour, their fiery love for God, their
services to His Cause, their unity and mutual
kindness and loving fellowship, their grieving over
the departure of the world's Day-Star--has reached
this afflicted one. Reading it, I begged most humbly
of our Living and Eternal Lord, to aid and bless
those handmaids at all times and under all conditions.
He is verily the One Who is near to us all, and
answers our prayers.
To us who sorrow here, there is truly no joy in life
save only the good news that the lovers of God and
of `Abdu'l-Bahá, may my life be sacrificed for the
+P227
Spot which enshrines His holy Dust, are steadfast
and firm, and that those loyal handmaids have
girded themselves to serve the Faith, and casting
aside on the pathway of God their ease and comfort,
are proclaiming the Teachings, calling souls to life,
and making sure that the sacred blood of the Primal
Point, the afflictions and the captivity of the Abhá
Beauty, the anguish of `Abdu'l-Bahá shall through
you, men and women alike, through your steadfastness
today, yield goodly fruit for all on earth to see.
I presented your letter to the Chosen Branch, the
Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, and upon
reading it he expressed great joy and satisfaction. He
expressed gratitude to the Lord that men and
women have been raised up and are gathered
beneath the banner of the Covenant, every one of
whom, in the field of divine knowledge, can put
armies of error to flight. Through souls such as these
is God's promise fulfilled: `We shall aid whosoever will
arise for the triumph of our Cause with the hosts of the
Concourse on high and a company of Our favoured angels.'
92. Your letter, laden with many a graceful
phrase, many a wondrous inner meaning, has been
received. Its perusal brought composure and tranquillity
to my soul and gladness to my heart,
inasmuch as from between its lines I could discern
the tokens of your unswerving constancy in God's
Mighty Cause and of your intense devotion to the
+P228
almighty Lord. I beseech God to illumine your heart
with the light of His love, to unloose your tongue in
magnifying His praise and in extolling His glory, to
strengthen you with so mighty a power that you
may vindicate the truth of His Faith by expounding
infallible proofs and conclusive testimonies.
You have told me about your taking part in
special gatherings for the training of Persian and
American Bahá'í children. Excellent indeed is
what you have done. Rest well assured, O handmaid
of God, in the gracious favour of your Lord. Verily
He will sustain you in your efforts for the advancement
of His Cause and in rendering service to the
world of humanity. Exert your utmost endeavour,
and expend whatever is dear to you in this glorious
path that you may earn the crown of righteousness,
imperishable and everlasting.
Indeed the peoples of the world spend their days
in idle imaginings, wholly oblivious to the Truth.
Know of a certainty that the ornament of life is to be
arrayed with the vesture of praiseworthy conduct
and be attired with the crown of goodly deeds.
All the members of the family and myself are
enjoying excellent health and we send our loving
greetings and best wishes to you and to all the
beloved friends there. I earnestly beseech from His
holy Threshold that He may purge you from every
affliction, grant you perfect health and may aid you
to serve His sublime Cause in this glorious Day.
+P229
VI
DOCUMENTATION
+P230
+P231
VI
DOCUMENTATION
LIST OF SOURCES
I.From the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh
Dedicatory Passage. From a Tablet addressed to
the Greatest Holy Leaf, inscribed in the original
Arabic on her Monument. (See The Bahá'í World,
vol. V, p. 171)
1. From a Tablet addressed to the Greatest Holy
Leaf. (See The Bahá'í World, vol. V, p. 171)
2. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
II. From the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá
1. From a Tablet addressed to the Greatest Holy
Leaf. (See The Bahá'í World, vol. V, pp. 171-172)
2. From a Tablet addressed to the Greatest Holy
Leaf. (See The Bahá'í World, vol. V, p. 172)
3. From a Tablet addressed to the Greatest Holy
Leaf. (See The Bahá'í World, vol. V, p. 172)
+P232
4. From a Tablet addressed to the Greatest Holy Leaf.
(See The Bahá'í World, vol. V, p. 172)
5. From a Tablet addressed to the Greatest Holy
Leaf. (See The Bahá'í World, vol. V, p. 172)
6. From a Tablet addressed to Munírih Khánum, the
wife of `Abdu'l-Bahá. (See The Bahá'í World, vol.
V, p. 172)
7. From a Tablet addressed to Diyá'íyyih Khánum,
eldest daughter of `Abdu'l-Bahá. (See The Bahá'í
World, vol. V, p. 172)
8. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
9. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
10. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
11. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
12. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
13. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to Hájí
Mírzá Hasan-i-Khurásání
14. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
15. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
16. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
17. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
18. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
19. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
+P233
20. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to the
Greatest Holy Leaf
21. From an unpublished Tablet addressed to Munírih
Khánum
III. From the Writings of Shoghi Effendi
Unless otherwise specified the following excerpts are
from letters addressed to individual believers.
1. April 1922, announcement to the Bahá'ís in the
west. (Translated from the Persian) (See Star of the
West, vol. 13, pp. 81-82, and Bahá'í Administration,
p. 25)
2. 21 March 1932, to the Bahá'ís of the United States
and Canada. (See The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh,
pp. 67-68)
3. 15 July 1932, to the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada. (See
Messages to America, p. 1)
4. 15 July 1932, to the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá'ís of the British Isles
5. 3 Kalímát 89 (15 July 1932 A.D.), to the Bahá'ís of
the East. (Translated from the Persian)
6. 17 July 1932, to the Bahá'ís of the West. (See
Bahá'í Administration, 1974 edn., pp. 187-196)
7. 18 July 1932, to the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada
8. 18 July 1932
9. 1 August 1932, to the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada
10. 15 August 1932
11. 23 August 1932
+P234
12. 23 August 1932, to the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Yonkers, N.Y.
13. 25 August 1932
14. 30 August 1932, to the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Berkeley, California
15. 30 August 1932, to the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Racine, Wisconsin
16. 1 September 1932, to the Bahá'ís of Washington,
D.C.
17. 1 September 1932, to the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and
Canada
18. 5 September 1932. (Translated from the Persian)
19. 10 September 1932, to the Bahá'ís of Glendale,
California
20. 10 September 1932, to the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and
Canada
21. 10 September 1932
22. 11 October 1932, to the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Teaneck, New Jersey
23. 27 October 1932, to the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and
Canada
24. 2 Masá'il 89 (13 December 1932 A.D.), to the
Bahá'ís of Iran. (Translated from the Persian)
25. 14 January 1933, to the Bahá'ís of the United
States and Canada
26. 21 April 1933, to the Bahá'ís of the United States
and Canada. (See The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh,
pp. 81-82)
27. 8 February 1934, to the Bahá'ís of the West. (See
The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 98)
28. 25 December 1938, to the Bahá'ís of the United
+P235
States and Canada. (See The Advent of Divine
Justice, p. 37)
29. 5 December 1939, to the Bahá'ís of the United
States and Canada
30. 25 December 1939, to the Bahá'ís of the East.
(Translated from the Persian)
31. 1944, God Passes By, p. 108
32. 1944, God Passes By, p. 347
33. 27 November 1954, to the Bahá'ís of the World.
(See Messages to the Bahá'í World, p. 74)
IV. From Letters written in English on behalf of Shoghi
Effendi by his Persian secretaries
Unless otherwise specified the following excerpts are
from letters addressed to individual believers.
1. 15 August 1932
2. 23 August 1932
3. 23 August 1932, to the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Yonkers, N.Y.
4. 25 August 1932
5. 30 August 1932, to the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Berkeley, California
6. 30 August 1932, to the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Racine, Wisconsin
7. 30 August 1932
8. 1 September 1932, to the Bahá'ís of Washington,
D.C.
9. 5 September 1932. (Translated from the Persian)
+P236
10. 9 September 1932. (Translated from the Persian)
11. 9 September 1932. (Translated from the Persian)
12. 10 September 1932, to the Bahá'ís of Jacksonville,
Florida
13. 10 September 1932, to the Bahá'ís of Monroe,
Washington
14. 10 September 1932, to the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and
Canada
15. 15 September 1932. (Translated from the Persian)
16. 15 September 1932. (Translated from the Persian)
17. 15 September 1932, to the Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá'ís of Shíráz. (Translated from the
Persian)
18. 15 September 1932, to the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and
Canada
19. 4 October 1932, to the Bahá'ís of Australia
20. 4 October 1932, to the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Phoenix, Arizona
21. 6 October 1932
22. 7 October 1932
23. 8 October 1932, to the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Adelaide, Australia
24. 10 October 1932
25. 11 October 1932, to the Bahá'ís of Teaneck, New
Jersey
26. 18 October 1932
27. 29 October 1932
28. 9 November 1932
29. 9 November 1932
30. 30 November 1932
31. 15 March 1933
32. 29 May 1933, to the Bahá'ís of Bournemouth,
England
33. 6 March 1945. (Translated from the Persian)
+P237
V. From Letters of the Greatest Holy Leaf
Unless otherwise specified the following excerpts are
from letters addressed to individual believers.
1. See facsimile of original, facing page 157
2. 12 Muharram 1307 A.H. (8 September 1889 A.D.)
3. 14 Shavval 1310 A.H. (1 May 1893 A.D.)
4. Dhi'l-Qádih 1314 A.H. (3 April-2 May 1897 A.D.)
5. 9 Muharram 1315 A.H. (10 June 1897 A.D.)
6. Dhi'l-Hijjih 1316 A.H. (12 April-11 May 1899
A.D.)
7. Dhi'l-Hijjih 1316 A.H. (12 April-11 May 1899
A.D.)
8. 7 Muharram 1317 A.H. (18 May 1899 A.D.)
9. Dhi'l-Qádih 1318 A.H. (20 February-21 March
1901 A.D.)
10. Undated, postmarked 9 April 1901
11. Dhi'l-Qádih 1321 A.H. (19 January-17 February
1904 A.D.), to a believer in Tihrán
12. Jamádiyu'th-Thání 1322 A.H. (13 August-10
September 1904 A.D.), to a Bahá'í family
13. Safar 1323 A.H. (7 April-5 May 1905 A.D.)
14. Dhi'l-Qádih 1323 A.H. (28 December 1905-26
January 1906 A.D.), to a believer in Yazd
15. Safar 1325 A.H. (16 March-13 April 1907 A.D.)
16. 1 January 1921
17. Undated, to the President of the Bahá'í Women's
Society in Chicago
18. Undated
19. Undated
20. Undated
21. 28 November 1921, to the Executive Board of
Bahá'í Temple Unity
22. 14 December 1921 (date received), to the Executive
Board of Bahá'í Temple Unity
+P238
23. 22 December 1921 (date received), to the Executive
Board of Bahá'í Temple Unity
24. 17 January 1922 (date received), to the Executive
Board of Bahá'í Temple Unity
25. Sha'bán 1340 A.H. (30 March-28 April 1922 A.D.),
to the Servants of the Blessed Beauty and the dear
friends of `Abdu'l-Bahá. (See Star of the West, vol.
13, pp. 82-83)
26. Feast of Ridván 1922 (21 April-2 May 1922 A.D.),
to the friends in America. (See Star of the West, vol.
13, pp. 88)
27. 1 May 1922 (date received), to the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United
States and Canada
28. Ramadán 1340 A.H. (28 April-27 May 1922 A.D.),
to a believer in Tihrán
29. Ramadán 1340 A.H. (28 April-27 May 1922 A.D.),
to the Bahá'ís in Iran
30. Ramadán 1340 A.H. (28 April-27 May 1922 A.D.),
to a believer in Tabríz
31. Ramadán 1340 A.H. (28 April-27 May 1922 A.D.),
to a Bahá'í family in Tabríz
32. Ramadán 1340 A.H. (28 April-27 May 1922 A.D.),
to a believer in Qazvín
33. Ramadán 1340 A.H. (28 April-27 May 1922 A.D.),
to the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Tabríz
34. Shavval 1340 A.H. (28 May-25 June 1922 A.D.), to
the Bahá'ís in &Khusif
35. Shavval 1340 A.H. (28 May-25 June 1922 A.D.)
36. Shavval 1340 A.H. (28 May-25 June 1922 A.D.), to
a believer in Tabríz
37. Shavval 1340 A.H. (28 May-25 June 1922 A.D.), to
the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Ardikán
38. Shavval 1340 A.H. (28 May-25 June 1922 A.D.), to
a believer in Karachi
+P239
39. 26 Shavval 1340 A.H. (22 June 1922 A.D.), to a
believer in Qazvín
40. Dhi'l-Qádih 1340 A.H. (26 June-25 July 1922
A.D.), to a believer in &Miyanaj
41. Dhi'l-Qádih 1340 A.H. (26 June-25 July 1922
A.D.), to a believer in Shíráz
42. Dhi'l-Qádih 1340 A.H. (26 June-25 July 1922
A.D.), to the Bahá'ís in Khurásán
43. Dhi'l-Qádih 1340 A.H. (26 June-25 July 1922
A.D.), to the Friends of God
44. Dhi'l-Qádih 1340 A.H. (26 June-25 July 1922
A.D.), to a believer in Khurásán
45. 12 Dhi'l-Qádih 1340 A.H. (7 July 1922 A.D.), to a
believer in Tákúr, Núr
46. 15 Dhi'l-Qádih 1340 A.H. (10 July 1922 A.D.), to
the Bahá'ís of Husayn-Ábád, Yazd
47. 19 Dhi'l-Qádih 1340 A.H. (14 July 1922 A.D.), to
the Bahá'ís of &Miyanaj
48. 22 Dhi'l-Qádih 1340 A.H. (17 July 1922 A.D.), to a
believer in Ishqábád, Turkistán
49. 20 July 1922, to the Bahá'ís in America
50. 4 August 1922, to the Bahá'ís in the West
51. 15 Dhi'l-Hijjih 1340 A.H. (8 August 1922 A.D.), to
a believer in Tihrán
52. 9 August 1922
53. 10 August 1922, to a believer in Alexandria,
Egypt
54. 20 Muharram 1341 A.H. (12 September 1922 A.D.)
55. 22 Muharram 1341 A.H. (14 September 1922 A.D.),
to a believer in Khurásán
56. 22 Muharram 1341 A.H. (14 September 1922 A.D.),
to the members of the Spiritual Assembly of
&Shishavan, a village in Ádhirbayján
57. 24 Muharram 1341 A.H. (16 September 1922 A.D.),
to the Bahá'ís of &Gav-Gan, a village near Tabríz
+P240
58. 1 Safar 1341 A.H. (23 September 1922 A.D.), to a
believer in Tihrán
59. 22 Safar 1341 A.H. (14 October 1922 A.D.), to a
believer in Tihrán
60. 2 Rabí'u'l-Avval 1341 A.H. (23 October 1922 A.D.)
61. 2 Rabí'u'l-Avval 1341 A.H. (23 October 1922
A.D.), to the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
Tihrán
62. 5 Rabí'u'l-Avval 1341 A.H. (26 October 1922
A.D.), to a believer in Isfahán
63. 5 Rabí'u'l-Avval 1341 A.H. (26 October 1922
A.D.), to the Maidservants of the Blessed Beauty in
Sang-i-Sar
64. 25 November 1922
65. Undated, to the friends in Yonkers, New York.
(See Star of the West, vol. 13, p. 220, of November
1922)
66. 2 December 1922, to a believer in Egypt
67. 15 Rabí'u'th-Thání 1341 A.H. (5 December 1922
A.D.), to a believer in Tihrán
68. 15 Rabí'u'th-Thání 1341 A.H. (5 December 1922
A.D.), to the members of the Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá'ís of Tihrán
69. 15 Rabí'u'th-Thání 1341 A.H. (5 December 1922
A.D.), to the members of the Chicago Temple
Fund Committee in Tihrán
70. 25 Rabí'u'th-Thání 1341 A.H. (15 December 1922
A.D.)
71. 11 December 1922
72. 23 July 1923
73. 9 Safar 1342 A.H. (21 September 1923 A.D.), to the
members of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís
of Shíráz
+P241
74. 4 Rabí'u'th-Thání 1342 A.H. (14 November 1923
A.D.), to a believer in Tihrán
75. 28 November 1923, to the Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá'ís of Yonkers, New York
76. 3 December 1923
77. 21 Sha'bán 1342 A.H. (28 March 1924 A.D.), to the
members of the Spiritual Assemblies and all the
Friends of God in the East
78. 3 Shavval 1342 A.H. (8 May 1924 A.D.), to the
Friends of God and the Maidservants of the
Merciful
79. 27 May 1924, to the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Hamadán
80. 24 Shavval 1342 A.H. (29 May 1924 A.D.), to a
believer in Tihrán
81. 14 August 1924
82. 28 June 1924
83. 19 July 1924
84. 19 July 1924
85. 18 August 1924
86. 15 June 1925, to a Bahá'í couple in Stuttgart,
Germany
87. 8 October 1924
88. 13 May 1928
89. 12 March 1929
90. 4 Jamádiyu'l-Avval 1348 A.H. (8 October 1929
A.D.), to the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
Tihrán
91. Undated, to the Maidservants of the Merciful in
Ábádih
92. Undated