INDEX .............................................................. 559 [not included]
INTRODUCTION
Since the occasion when mention of the Bahá’í
Cause was first made in this country - at the Congress of Religions held in the
Columbian Exposition in 1893 - interest in the Bahá’í
principles and teachings has steadily increased. Sufficient foundation had been
laid by 1912, when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ came to America, to
prepare for His message a cordial, sympathetic and reverent reception in the
liberal synagogues, churches, new thought centers, universities and societies
organized for scientific, ethical, economic and political progress in numerous
cities.
The succeeding years - so fateful for the destiny of civilization, so
disturbing to every social institution and so challenging to the noblest and
most disinterested faculties of soul, mind and heart - have served to deepen and
extend that preliminary interest and build upon that foundation a permanent
spiritual structure in many lives. The years since 1912, in fact, have thrown
an ever-clearer light upon the need, in the world’s consciousness, for
precisely those principles and teachings so perfectly embodied in
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ and so definitely associated with His
life and work.
To one who has acquainted himself with the Bahá’í writings, evidences of the penetration of their fundamental influence are
revealed in increasing measure from day to day and throughout the world. The
leaders of religion, science and practical affairs are beginning to manifest an
attitude of universality and a spirit of unity which seems a direct reflection
of the light ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ cast upon the manifold
problems of living and the fundamental problem of life. Day by day, the
realization deepens in all conscious men and women that, in this age, new forces
are seeking expression - forces so mighty that the difference between
understanding and misunderstanding is the immediate crisis between the
alternatives of a new, worldwide and spiritualized civilization and a further,
even more disastrous undoing of the things that are.
It is upon the plane of understanding that the power of the
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Bahá’í writings operates, in that are of being
which lies beyond the personal desire, the personal thought, the personal will.
Their operation is to restore in the individual, whatever his race, class,
creed, profession or temperament, that eternal vision of the oneness of God
whose evolving expression is directly the development of the soul, and
indirectly the harmonious organization of mankind. Compared to other writings
of this age, the Bahá’í Scriptures are as light compared to
the reflection of light from surfaces more or less luminous or opaque. This
essential quality of illumination, as distinct from the subject illuminated, and
of vision, as distinct from the subject visioned, reveals anew the very sources
of man’s spiritual being, and discloses, also, the predominant forces
working to mold the character of the new day.
The purpose of the book is to bring together, in convenient form and
helpful arrangement, that portion of the Bahá’í writings
already available in various books, magazines and also manuscript translation,
selecting from them sufficient material to supply the reader and student a
larger perspective upon these principles and teachings than any single work has
yet accomplished in the English language. While it is inevitable that most, if
not all the Bahá’í writings will one day undergo
re-translation, and be presented in a worthier and more permanent form than is
possible at the present time, nevertheless the need of a suitable compilation
now urgently exists, and it is hoped that the present work will at least serve
as one link in the chain of effort whereby the Bahá’í
writings are carried from their source in the "most great prison" of
‘Akká to the mind and heart of the self-imprisoned
race.
In this country at least, the Bahá’í message of
the unity of religions, the reconciliation of science and religion, and the
promulgation of Universal Peace, is established upon a recognition of the fact
that in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’, a new spirit of universality had
manifested its vital, penetrative essence. Not so well understood is the fact
that the root and source of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s utterances,
the foundation of His being, attested on every possible occasion by Him, was
entire devotion to the utterances and the being of His father,
Bahá’u’lláh. This inner and spiritual relationship,
likened by Bahá’u’lláh to that of the root and the
"greatest branch" or trunk of a tree, is brought out in the present
volume through the method adopted to organize its contents, not only by chapters
Page vii
but also by parts or "books"; the first book containing the
words of Bahá’u’lláh - the Bahá’í
Scriptures in essence - the second book containing the words of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ - the authoritative interpretation of the
Bahá’í Scriptures and their direct application to the
fundamental problems of the age. By this method the utterances of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ are established in clearest relationship
to their source, and consequently their purpose; moreover the utterances of
Bahá’u’lláh are established in relationship to all the
Scriptures which have gone before: whose unfoldment, whose reinforcement they
are.
While for the purpose of the student acquainting himself with the
Bahá’í writings for the first time, an outline at least of
the historical conditions under which they were successively revealed would seem
highly desirable, even essential, to the fullest understanding of their
significance and most intimate sympathy for their application, nevertheless it
will be found that this need is met in the process of reading the
Bahá’í message itself. Chapter Seven contains an address by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ which had for its theme the history of
the Bahá’í Cause; and numerous references to that history
will also be found in other passages. Moreover, inspiring as the actual record
of those events are, the principal matter is not to realize the
Bahá’í Scriptures as a detail in history so much as a source
of light whereby history itself is illumined.
"How wonderful that the Well Beloved is manifest as the sun,
while strangers are in search of vanities and wealth! Yea, He is concealed by
the intensity of manifestation, and He is hidden by the ardor of
emanation!"
HORACE HOLLEY
New York City
February 12, 1923
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Page ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND SOURCES
The present compilation has not been made with any thought of
establishing a text, nor of even securing a polished and adequate English
translation. From the literary point of view, the text embodied in this volume
must be considered as a king in rags, since the Arabic and Persian originals are
declared by all who have had access to them to be of the most exalted beauty and
the most moving force.
On that sea, the editor has no power to sail. His effort has been
entirely confined to the intention of re-creating, as fully as possible through
the use of available texts, some sense of that organic unity from which all the
Bahá’í writings came, and to place in the student’s
hands a more fully organized Bahá’í work than has yet been
published. In its sequence alone does the present volume contain the results of
any particular study and accumulated labor.
For the most part, the contents have been taken from the publications
of the Bahá’í Publishing Society, to the efforts of which we
are indebted to the spread of these writings in America. As yet, few original
Bahá’í writings have reached the public through any other
channel, notable exceptions to which are Abbas Effendi, His Life and
Teachings by Myron Phelps, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, and A
Traveller’s Narrative, Written to Illustrate the Episode of the
Báb translated by Edward G. Browne, and published with the Persian
original by the University Press, Cambridge, England. It is in this
incomparable translation, in fact, that the English reader draws most closely to
the spirit and power of the original utterance. The Tablet to the
Sháh, contained in Chapter Two of the present compilation, shows
on comparison with Professor Browne’s translation to have been based in
part at least upon his exquisite rendering.
Tablets contained in Bahá’í Scriptures
hitherto unpublished (so far at least as the editor is aware) are found in
Chapters Two, Five and Eight, and for this material acknowledgment is made
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to the kindness of many friends who contributed manuscripts, especially
Mrs. I.D. Brittingham, Mary Hanford Ford, A.W. Randall, Miss Martha Root and
Miss Juliet Thompson.
For the omission of many fundamental teachings (or rather
interpretations) given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’ to American
audiences during 1912, explanation might well be called for were it not for the
fact that the complete text of those addresses has been published since this
compilation came into being.