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Bahá'í Administration
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Pages 180-187
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Letter of October 25, 1929.
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The beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout
the United States and Canada.
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My well-beloved friends:
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Ever since that remarkable manifestation of Bahá'í solidarity
and self-sacrifice which has signalized the proceedings of last year's
memorable Convention, I have been expectantly awaiting the news
of a steady and continuous support of the Plan which can alone
insure, ere the present year draws to its close, the resumption of
building operations on our beloved Temple.
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Moved by an impulse that I could not resist, I have felt impelled
to forego what may be regarded as the most valuable and sacred
possession in the Holy Land for the furthering of that noble enterprise
which you have set your hearts to achieve. With the hearty
concurrence of our dear Bahá'í brother, Zíáoulláh Asgarzadeh, who
years ago donated it to the Most Holy Shrine, this precious ornament
of the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh has been already shipped to your
shores, with our fondest hope that the proceeds from its sale may
at once ennoble and reinforce the unnumbered offerings of the
American believers already accumulated on the altar of Bahá'í
sacrifice. I have longed ever since to witness such evidences of
spontaneous and generous response on your part as would tend
to fortify within me a confidence that has never wavered in the
inexhaustible vitality of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in that land.
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I need not stress at this moment the high hopes which so startling
a display of unsparing devotion to our sacred Temple has already
aroused in the breasts of the multitude of our brethren throughout
the East. Nor is it I feel necessary to impress upon those who are
primarily concerned with its erection the gradual change of outlook
which the early prospect of the construction of the far-famed
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in America has unmistakably occasioned in high
places among the hitherto sceptical and indifferent towards the
merits and the practicability of the Faith proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh.
Neither do I need to expatiate upon the hopes and fears of the
Greatest Holy Leaf, now in the evening of her life, with deepening
shadows caused by failing eye-sight and declining strength swiftly
gathering about her, yearning to hear as the one remaining solace
in her swiftly ebbing life the news of the resumption of work on an
Edifice, the glories of which she has, from the lips of `Abdu'l-Bahá,
Himself, learned to admire. I cannot surely overrate at the present
juncture in the progress of our task the challenging character of
these remaining months of the year as a swiftly passing opportunity
which it is in our power to seize and utilize, ere it is too late, for
the edification of our expectant brethren throughout the East, for
the vindication in the eyes of the world at large of the realities of
our Faith, and last but not least for the realization of what is the
Greatest Holy Leaf's fondest desire.
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As I have already intimated in the course of my conversations
with visiting pilgrims, so vast and significant an enterprise as the
construction of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the West should be
supported, not by the munificence of a few but by the joint contributions
of the entire mass of the convinced followers of the Faith.
It cannot be denied that the emanations of spiritual power and
inspiration destined to radiate from the central Edifice of the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár will to a very large extent depend upon the
range and variety of the contributing believers, as well as upon the
nature and degree of self-abnegation which their unsolicited offerings
will entail. Moreover, we should, I feel, regard it as an axiom
and guiding principle of Bahá'í administration that in the conduct
of every specific Bahá'í activity, as different from undertakings of
a humanitarian, philanthropic or charitable character, which may in
future be conducted under Bahá'í auspices, only those who have
already identified themselves with the Faith and are regarded as its
avowed and unreserved supporters should be invited to join and
collaborate. For apart from the consideration of embarrassing complications
which the association of non-believers in the financing of
institutions of a strictly Bahá'í character may conceivably engender
in the administration of the Bahá'í community of the future, it
should be remembered that these specific Bahá'í institutions, which
should be viewed in the light of Bahá'u'lláh's gifts bestowed upon
the world, can best function and most powerfully exert their influence
in the world only if reared and maintained solely by the support
of those who are fully conscious of, and are unreservedly
submissive to, the claims inherent in the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh.
In cases, however, when a friend or sympathizer of the Faith eagerly
insists on a monetary contribution for the promotion of the Faith,
such gifts should be accepted and duly acknowledged by the elected
representatives of the believers with the express understanding
that they would be utilized by them only to reinforce that section of
the Bahá'í Fund exclusively devoted to philanthropic or charitable
purposes. For, as the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh extends in scope and in
influence, and the resources of Bahá'í communities correspondingly
multiply, it will become increasingly desirable to differentiate between
such departments of the Bahá'í treasury as minister to the
needs of the world at large, and those that are specifically designed
to promote the direct interests of the Faith itself. From this apparent
divorce between Bahá'í and humanitarian activities it must
not, however, be inferred that the animating purpose of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh stands at variance with the aims and objects of the
humanitarian and philanthropic institutions of the day. Nay, it
should be realized by every judicious promoter of the Faith that at
such an early stage in the evolution and crystallization of the Cause
such discriminating and precautionary measures are inevitable and
even necessary if the nascent institutions of the Faith are to emerge
triumphant and unimpaired from the present welter of confused
and often conflicting interests with which they are surrounded.
This note of warning may not be thought inappropriate at a time
when, inflamed by a consuming passion to witness the early completion
of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, we may not only be apt to
acquiesce in the desire of those who, as yet uninitiated into the
Cause, are willing to lend financial assistance to its institutions,
but may even feel inclined to solicit from them such aid as it is in
their power to render. Ours surely is the paramount duty so to
acquit ourselves in the discharge of our most sacred task that in the
days to come neither the tongue of the slanderer nor the pen of the
malevolent may dare to insinuate that so beauteous, so significant
an Edifice has been reared by anything short of the unanimous, the
exclusive, and the self-sacrificing strivings of the small yet determined
body of the convinced supporters of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
How delicate our task, how pressing the responsibility that
weighs upon us, who are called upon on one hand to preserve inviolate
the integrity and the identity of the regenerating Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh, and to vindicate on the other its broad, its humanitarian,
its all-embracing principles!
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True, we cannot fail to realize at the present stage of our work
the extremely limited number of contributors qualified to lend
financial support to such a vast, such an elaborate and costly enterprise.
We are fully aware of the many issues and varied Bahá'í
activities that are unavoidably held in abeyance pending the successful
conclusion of the Plan of Unified Action. We are only too
conscious of the pressing need of some sort of befitting and concrete
embodiment of the spirit animating the Cause that would stand in
the heart of the American Continent both as a witness and as a
rallying center to the manifold activities of a fast growing Faith.
But spurred by those reflections may we not bestir ourselves and
resolve as we have never resolved before to hasten by every means
in our power the consummation of this all-absorbing yet so meritorious
a task? I beseech you, dear friends, not to allow considerations
of numbers, or the consciousness of the limitations of our resources,
or even the experience of inevitable setbacks which every mighty
undertaking is bound to encounter, to blur your vision, to dim
your hopes, or to paralyze your efforts in the prosecution of your
divinely appointed task. Neither, do I entreat you, to suffer the least
deviation into the paths of expediency and compromise to obstruct
those channels of vivifying grace that can alone provide the inspiration
and strength vital not only to the successful conduct of its
material construction, but to the fulfilment of its high destiny.
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And while we bend our efforts and strain our nerves in a feverish
pursuit to provide the necessary means for the speedy construction
of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, may we not pause for a moment to
examine those statements which set forth the purpose as well as the
functions of this symbolical yet so spiritually potent Edifice? It
will be readily admitted that at a time when the tenets of a Faith, not
yet fully emerged from the fires of repression, are as yet improperly
defined and imperfectly understood, the utmost caution should be
exercised in revealing the true nature of those institutions which are
indissolubly associated with its name.
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Without attempting an exhaustive survey of the distinguishing
features and purpose of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, I should feel content
at the present time to draw your attention to what I regard
certain misleading statements that have found currency in various
quarters, and which may lead gradually to a grave misapprehension
of the true purpose and essential character of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár.
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It should be borne in mind that the central Edifice of the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, round which in the fulness of time shall cluster
such institutions of social service as shall afford relief to the suffering,
sustenance to the poor, shelter to the wayfarer, solace to the
bereaved, and education to the ignorant, should be regarded apart
from these Dependencies, as a House solely designed and entirely
dedicated to the worship of God in accordance with the few yet
definitely prescribed principles established by Bahá'u'lláh in the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas. It should not be inferred, however, from this
general statement that the interior of the central Edifice itself will
be converted into a conglomeration of religious services conducted
along lines associated with the traditional procedure obtaining in
churches, mosques, synagogues, and other temples of worship. Its
various avenues of approach, all converging towards the central
Hall beneath its dome, will not serve as admittance to those sectarian
adherents of rigid formulae and man-made creeds, each bent, according
to his way, to observe his rites, recite his prayers, perform
his ablutions, and display the particular symbols of his faith, within
separately defined sections of Bahá'u'lláh's Universal House of Worship.
Far from the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár offering such a spectacle
of incoherent and confused sectarian observances and rites, a condition
wholly incompatible with the provisions of the Aqdas and
irreconcilable with the spirit it inculcates, the central House of
Bahá'í worship, enshrined within the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, will gather
within its chastened walls, in a serenely spiritual atmosphere, only
those who, discarding forever the trappings of elaborate and ostentatious
ceremony, are willing worshipers of the one true God, as
manifested in this age in the Person of Bahá'u'lláh. To them will
the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár symbolize the fundamental verity underlying
the Bahá'í Faith, that religious truth is not absolute but relative,
that Divine Revelation is not final but progressive. Theirs will be
the conviction that an all-loving and ever-watchful Father Who, in
the past, and at various stages in the evolution of mankind, has sent
forth His Prophets as the Bearers of His Message and the Manifestations
of His Light to mankind, cannot at this critical period of
their civilization withhold from His children the Guidance which
they sorely need amid the darkness which has beset them, and
which neither the light of science nor that of human intellect and
wisdom can succeed in dissipating. And thus having recognized in
Bahá'u'lláh the source whence this celestial light proceeds, they will
irresistibly feel attracted to seek the shelter of His House, and congregate
therein, unhampered by ceremonials and unfettered by creed,
to render homage to the one true God, the Essence and Orb of
eternal Truth, and to exalt and magnify the name of His Messengers
and Prophets Who, from time immemorial even unto our day, have,
under divers circumstances and in varying measure, mirrored forth
to a dark and wayward world the light of heavenly Guidance.
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But however inspiring the conception of Bahá'í worship, as witnessed
in the central Edifice of this exalted Temple, it cannot be
regarded as the sole, nor even the essential, factor in the part which
the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, as designed by Bahá'u'lláh, is destined to
play in the organic life of the Bahá'í community. Divorced from the
social, humanitarian, educational and scientific pursuits centering
around the Dependencies of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, Bahá'í worship,
however exalted in its conception, however passionate in fervor,
can never hope to achieve beyond the meagre and often transitory
results produced by the contemplations of the ascetic or the communion
of the passive worshiper. It cannot afford lasting satisfaction
and benefit to the worshiper himself, much less to humanity
in general, unless and until translated and transfused into that
dynamic and disinterested service to the cause of humanity which
it is the supreme privilege of the Dependencies of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár
to facilitate and promote. Nor will the exertions, no matter
how disinterested and strenuous, of those who within the precincts
of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár will be engaged in administering the
affairs of the future Bahá'í Commonwealth, fructify and prosper
unless they are brought into close and daily communion with those
spiritual agencies centering in and radiating from the central Shrine
of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár. Nothing short of direct and constant
interaction between the spiritual forces emanating from this House
of Worship centering in the heart of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, and
the energies consciously displayed by those who administer its
affairs in their service to humanity can possibly provide the necessary
agency capable of removing the ills that have so long and so
grievously afflicted humanity. For it is assuredly upon the consciousness
of the efficacy of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, reinforced
on one hand by spiritual communion with His Spirit, and on the
other by the intelligent application and the faithful execution of the
principles and laws He revealed, that the salvation of a world in
travail must ultimately depend. And of all the institutions that
stand associated with His Holy Name, surely none save the institution
of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár can most adequately provide the
essentials of Bahá'í worship and service, both so vital to the regeneration
of the world. Therein lies the secret of the loftiness, of the
potency, of the unique position of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár as one of
the outstanding institutions conceived by Bahá'u'lláh.
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Dearly-beloved friends! May we not as the trustees of so
priceless a heritage, arise to fulfill our high destiny?
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Your true brother,
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SHOGHI.
Haifa, Palestine,
October 25, 1929.
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