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Bahá'í Administration
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Pages 128-132
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Letter of April 12, 1927.
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1 |
To the members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
the United States and Canada:
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Dearly-beloved friends:
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Your recent communications, dated February 17 and March 2,
17 and 21, have been received, and their perusal has served to
heighten my admiration for the unflinching determination which
characterizes the concerted efforts which you are exerting for the
spread and consolidation of the Bahá'í Faith.
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4 |
I have also received and read with the keenest interest and appreciation
a copy of that splendid document formulated by the National
Committee on inter-racial amity and addressed to all the Spiritual
Assemblies throughout the United States and Canada. This moving
appeal, so admirable in its conception, so sound and sober in its
language, has struck a responsive chord in my heart. Sent forth
at a highly opportune moment in the evolution of our sacred Faith,
it has served as a potent reminder of these challenging issues which
still confront in a peculiar manner the American believers.
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5 |
As this problem, in the inevitable course of events, grows in
acuteness and complexity, and as the number of the faithful from
both races multiplies, it will become increasingly evident that the
future growth and prestige of the Cause are bound to be influenced
to a very considerable degree by the manner in which the adherents
of the Bahá'í Faith carry out, first among themselves and in their
relations with their fellow-men, those high standards of inter-racial
amity so widely proclaimed and so fearlessly exemplified to the
American people by our Master `Abdu'l-Bahá.
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6 |
I direct my appeal with all the earnestness and urgency that this
pressing problem calls for to every conscientious upholder of the
universal principles of Bahá'u'lláh to face this extremely delicate
situation with the boldness, the decisiveness and wisdom it demands.
I cannot believe that those whose hearts have been touched by the
regenerating influence of God's creative Faith in His day will find it
difficult to cleanse their souls from every lingering trace of racial
animosity so subversive of the Faith they profess. How can hearts
that throb with the love of God fail to respond to all the implications
of this supreme injunction of Bahá'u'lláh, the unreserved
acceptance of which, under the circumstances now prevailing in
America, constitutes the hall-mark of a true Bahá'í character?
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7 |
Let every believer, desirous to witness the swift and healthy
progress of the Cause of God, realize the twofold nature of his
task. Let him first turn his eyes inwardly and search his own
heart and satisfy himself that in his relations with his fellow-believers,
irrespective of color and class, he is proving himself
increasingly loyal to the spirit of his beloved Faith. Assured and
content that he is exerting his utmost in a conscious effort to
approach nearer every day the lofty station to which his gracious
Master summons him, let him turn to his second task, and, with
befitting confidence and vigor, assail the devastating power of those
forces which in his own heart he has already succeeded in subduing.
Fully alive to the unfailing efficacy of the power of Bahá'u'lláh, and
armed with the essential weapons of wise restraint and inflexible
resolve, let him wage a constant fight against the inherited tendencies,
the corruptive instincts, the fluctuating fashions, the false
pretences of the society in which he lives and moves.
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8 |
In their relations amongst themselves as fellow-believers, let
them not be content with the mere exchange of cold and empty
formalities often connected with the organizing of banquets, receptions,
consultative assemblies, and lecture-halls. Let them rather,
as equal co-sharers in the spiritual benefits conferred upon them
by Bahá'u'lláh, arise and, with the aid and counsel of their local
and national representatives, supplement these official functions with
those opportunities which only a close and intimate social intercourse
can adequately provide. In their homes, in their hours of
relaxation and leisure, in the daily contact of business transactions,
in the association of their children, whether in their study-classes,
their playgrounds, and club-rooms, in short under all possible
circumstances, however insignificant they appear, the community
of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh should satisfy themselves that in the
eyes of the world at large and in the sight of their vigilant Master
they are the living witnesses of those truths which He fondly cherished
and tirelessly championed to the very end of His days. If we
relax in our purpose, if we falter in our faith, if we neglect the
varied opportunities given us from time to time by an all-wise and
gracious Master, we are not merely failing in what is our most vital
and conspicuous obligation, but are thereby insensibly retarding the
flow of those quickening energies which can alone insure the
vigorous and speedy development of God's struggling Faith.
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9 |
I would particularly address my appeal to you, as the Trustees
of God's sacred Faith, to reaffirm by word and deed the spirit and
character of the insistent admonitions of `Abdu'l-Bahá, so solemnly
and so explicitly uttered in the course of His journeys through
your land--a trust which it is your privilege and function to preserve
and fortify.
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10 |
May the varied opportunities presented by the forthcoming
assembly of the friends at Green Acre this summer--a place so
admirably suited to the realization of such a noble ideal--be fully
utilized to further this noble end. May it, on one hand, serve to
banish once and for all every misgiving and mistrust as to the
attitude that should characterize the conduct of the members of
the Bahá'í family, and, on the other, serve to familiarize the invited
public with that aspect of our Faith which, owing to the pressure
of circumstances, a few have inclined to belittle or ignore.
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11 |
It is my earnest hope and prayer that the forthcoming gathering
at Green Acre, the program for which has been so carefully and
judiciously prepared, may serve as a testing ground for the application
of those ideals and standards that are the distinguishing
features of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. May the assembled believers--
now but a tiny nucleus of the Bahá'í Commonwealth of the
future--so exemplify that spirit of universal love and fellowship as
to evoke in the minds of their associates the vision of that future
City of God which the almighty arm of Bahá'u'lláh can alone
establish.
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12 |
Not by merely imitating the excesses and laxity of the extravagant
age they live in; not by the idle neglect of the sacred responsibilities
it is their privilege to shoulder; not by the silent compromise
of the principles dearly cherished by `Abdu'l-Bahá; not by their fear
or unpopularity or their dread of censure can they hope to rouse
society from its spiritual lethargy, and serve as a model to a civilization
the foundations of which the corrosion of prejudice has
well-nigh undermined. By the sublimity of their principles, the
warmth of their love, the spotless purity of their character, and
the depth of their devoutness and piety, let them demonstrate to
their fellow-countrymen the ennobling reality of a power that shall
weld a disrupted world.
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13 |
We can prove ourselves worthy of our Cause only if in our
individual conduct and corporate life we sedulously imitate the
example of our beloved Master, Whom the terrors of tyranny, the
storms of incessant abuse, the oppressiveness of humiliation, never
caused to deviate a hair's breadth from the revealed Law of
Bahá'u'lláh.
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Such is the path of servitude, such is the way of holiness He
chose to tread to the very end of His life. Nothing short of the
strictest adherence to His glorious example can safely steer our
course amid the pitfalls of this perilous age, and lead us on to fulfill
our high destiny.
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15 |
Your true brother,
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SHOGHI.
Haifa, Palestine,
April 12, 1927.
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