|
<<previous |
next>> |
|
|
Bahá'í Administration
|
Pages 159-165
|
|
Letter of January 1, 1929.
| |
1 |
The beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout
the West.
| |
2 |
Dearly-beloved co-workers:
| |
3 |
Whilst the Bahá'ís of Persia, constituting the overwhelming
majority of the adherents of the Bahá'í Faith in eastern lands, are
tasting the first-fruits of their long-dreamed emancipation, a not
inconsiderable section of Bahá'u'lláh's following in the East, inhabiting
the provinces of Caucasus and Turkistan, are being subjected
to trials and tribulations not very dissimilar, though inferior
in intensity, to the afflictions borne so long and so heroically by their
Persian brethren.
| |
4 |
In my last communication to you I have attempted to depict the
nature and swiftness of those liberating forces which today are being
released in Persia by an enlightened regime determined to shake off
with unconcealed contempt the odious fetters of a long standing
tyranny. And I feel that a description of the very perplexing
situation with which our brethren in Russia find themselves confronted
at present will serve to complete the picture which responsible
believers in the West must bear in mind of the critical and swiftly
moving changes that are transforming the face of the East.
| |
5 |
Ever since the counter-revolution that proclaimed throughout
the length and breadth of Czarist Russia the dictatorship of the
Proletariat, and the subsequent incorporation of the semi-independent
territories of Caucasus and Turkistan within the orbit of Soviet
rule, the varied and numerous Bahá'í institutions established in the
past by heroic pioneers of the Faith have been brought into direct
and sudden contact with the internal convulsions necessitated by the
establishment and maintenance of an order so fundamentally at variance
with Russia's previous regime. The avowed purpose and action
of the responsible heads of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
who, within their recognized and legitimate rights, have emphatically
proclaimed and vigorously pursued their policy of uncompromising
opposition to all forms of organized religious propaganda, have by
their very nature created for those whose primary obligation is to
labor unremittingly for the spread of the Bahá'í Faith a state of
affairs that is highly unfortunate and perplexing. For ten years,
however, ever since the promulgation of that policy, by some miraculous
interposition of Providence, the Bahá'ís of Soviet Russia have
been spared the strict application to their institutions of the central
principle that directs and animates the policy of the Soviet state.
Although subjected, as all Russian citizens have been, even since the
outbreak of the Revolution, to the unfortunate consequences of civil
strife and external war, and particularly to the internal commotions
that must necessarily accompany far-reaching changes in the structure
of society, such as partial expropriation of private property,
excessive taxation and the curtailment of the right of personal
initiative and enterprise; yet in matters of worship and in the conduct
of their administrative and purely non-political activities they
have, thanks to the benevolent attitude of their rulers, enjoyed an
almost unrestricted freedom in the exercise of their public duties.
| |
6 |
Lately, however, due to circumstances wholly beyond their control
and without being in the least implicated in political or subversive
activity, our Bahá'í brethren in those provinces have had
to endure the rigid application of the principles already enunciated
by the state authorities and universally enforced with regard to all
other religious communities under their sway. Faithful to their
policy of expropriating in the interests of the State all edifices and
monuments of a religious character, they have a few months ago
approached the Bahá'í representatives in Turkistan, and after protracted
negotiations with them, decided to claim and enforce their
right of ownership and control of that most cherished and universally
prized Bahá'í possession, the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of Ishqábád.
The insistent and repeated representations made by the Bahá'ís,
dutifully submitted and stressed by their local and national representatives,
and duly reinforced by the action of the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia, emphasizing the international
character and spiritual significance of the Edifice and its
close material as well as spiritual connection with the divers Bahá'í
communities throughout the East and West, have alas! proved of
no avail. The beloved Temple which had been seized and expropriated
and for three months closed under the seal of the Municipal
authorities was reopened and meetings were allowed to be conducted
within its walls only after the acceptance and signature by the
Bahá'í Spiritual Assembly of Ishqábád of an elaborate contract
drawn by the Soviet authorities and recognizing the right of undisputed
ownership by the State of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár and its
dependencies. According to this contract, the Temple is rented by
the State for a period of five years to the local Bahá'í community
of that town, and in it are stipulated a number of obligations, financial
and otherwise, expressly providing for fines and penalties in the
event of the evasion or infringement of its provisions.
| |
7 |
To these measures which the State, in the free exercise of its
legitimate rights, has chosen to enforce, and with which the Bahá'ís,
as befits their position as loyal and law-abiding citizens, have complied,
others have followed which though of a different character
are none the less grievously affecting our beloved Cause. In Baku,
the seat of the Soviet Republic of Caucasus, as well as in Ganjih and
other neighboring towns, state orders, orally and in writing, have
been officially communicated to the Bahá'í Assemblies and individual
believers, suspending all meetings, commemoration gatherings and
festivals, suppressing the committees of all Bahá'í local and national
Spiritual Assemblies, prohibiting the raising of funds and the transmission
of financial contributions to any center within or without
Soviet jurisdiction, requiring the right of full and frequent inspection
of the deliberations, decisions, plans and action of the Bahá'í
Assemblies, dissolving young men's clubs and children's organizations,
imposing a strict censorship on all correspondence to and from
Bahá'í Assemblies, directing a minute investigation of Assemblies'
papers and documents, suspending all Bahá'í periodicals, bulletins
and magazines, and requiring the deportation of leading personalities
in the Cause whether as public teachers and speakers or officers
of Bahá'í Assemblies.
| |
8 |
To all these the followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh have with
feelings of burning agony and heroic fortitude unanimously and unreservedly
submitted, ever mindful of the guiding principles of
Bahá'í conduct that in connection with their administrative activities,
no matter how grievously interference with them might affect the
course of the extension of the Movement, and the suspension of
which does not constitute in itself a departure from the principle
of loyalty to their Faith, the considered judgment and authoritative
decrees issued by their responsible rulers must, if they be faithful to
Bahá'u'lláh's and `Abdu'l-Bahá's express injunctions, be thoroughly
respected and loyally obeyed. In matters, however, that vitally affect
the integrity and honor of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and are tantamount
to a recantation of their faith and repudiation of their innermost
belief, they are convinced, and are unhesitatingly prepared
to vindicate by their life-blood the sincerity of their conviction, that
no power on earth, neither the arts of the most insidious adversary
nor the bloody weapons of the most tyrannical oppressor, can ever
succeed in extorting from them a word or deed that might tend to
stifle the voice of their conscience or tarnish the purity of their
faith. Clinging with immovable resolution to the inviolable verities
of their cherished Faith, our sorely-tried brethren in Caucasus and
Turkistan have none the less, as befits law-abiding Bahá'í citizens
resolved, after having exhausted every legitimate means for the
alleviation of the restrictions imposed upon them, to definitely uphold
and conscientiously carry out the considered judgment of their
recognized government. They have with a hope that no earthly
power can dim, and a resignation that is truly sublime, committed
the interests of their Cause to the keeping of that vigilant, that all-powerful
Divine Deliverer, who, they feel confident, will in time lift
the veil that now obscures the vision of their rulers, and reveal the
nobility of aim, the innocence of purpose, the rectitude of conduct,
and the humanitarian ideals that characterize the as yet small yet
potentially powerful Bahá'í communities in every land and under any
government.
| |
9 |
Should the present restrictions increase in number and stringency,
should a situation arise that would so endanger the position
of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in Ishqábád as to necessitate the intervention
of the Bahá'í world, I will call upon the National and Local
Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies in the East and the West to arise with
one accord and lend their moral support to those of their brethren
whose particular mission and privilege is to keep watch over that
consecrated ground on which already has been erected the central
Structure of Bahá'u'lláh's First Universal House of Worship. I
will urge them to take whatever action is deemed advisable in order
to demonstrate the solidarity of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh, to
dispel whatever doubts and apprehensions may yet linger in the
minds of the State officials in that land, and to restore their suspected
brethren to the esteem and confidence of their governors. I will
specially request them to proclaim in their written representations to
the authorities concerned their absolute repudiation of whatever
ulterior motive or political design may be imputed to them by their
malignant adversaries, and to reaffirm in unmistakable terms the
purely humanitarian and spiritual nature of the work in which
Bahá'ís in every land and of every race are unitedly engaged. I will
moreover ask them to assert the international character of the
Bahá'í Edifice in Ishqábád and to stress the close bonds of material
interest and spiritual fellowship that bind Bahá'í communities the
world over to an Edifice that can rightly claim the distinction of
being Bahá'u'lláh's First Universal House of Worship, of being
conceived in its design by `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself, constructed and
completed in His days and under His direction, and supported by
the collective contributions of the believers throughout the world.
The hour for such a world-wide and concentrated appeal is not yet
come, but it behooves us, while expectantly watching from a distance
the moving spectacle of the struggling Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, to seek
abiding solace and strength from the reflection that whatever befalls
this Cause, however grievous and humiliating the visitations that
from time to time may seem to afflict the organic life or interfere
with the functions of the administrative machinery of the Bahá'í
Faith, such calamities cannot but each eventually prove to be a blessing
in disguise designed, by a Wisdom inscrutable to us all, to
establish and consolidate the sovereignty of Bahá'u'lláh on this earth.
| |
10 |
What we have already witnessed in connection with the latest
developments regarding the case of Bahá'u'lláh's House in Baghdád
affords abundant evidence of the truth of the observation that has
just been made. In its initial stages appearing to the superficial
observer as a petty dispute submitted to an obscure and antiquated
Shiite court, the case has gradually evolved into a paramount issue
engaging the attention of the highest tribunal of `Iráq. In its latest
stages, it has gathered such strength, secured such publicity, and
received such support from the chancelleries of Europe, as to become
a subject fit for the consideration not only of the specific international
Commission ultimately responsible for the administration
of Mandated Territories but of the leading Signatories of the Covenant
of the League of Nations that are represented in the Council
of the League itself.
| |
11 |
Few if any among those closely associated with the case did at
first imagine or expect that dwellings which to outward seeming
appeared only as a cluster of humble and decrepit buildings lost amid
the obscure and tortuous lanes of old Baghdád could ever obtain
such prominence as to become the object of the deliberations of the
highest international Tribunal that the hand of man has thus far
reared for the amicable settlement of his affairs. Whatever the
decision of the world's highest Tribunal regarding the petition submitted
to it by the Bahá'ís of `Iráq--and none can deny that should
its verdict be in our favor, a triumph unparalleled in its magnitude
will have been achieved for our beloved Faith--the work already
accomplished is in itself an abundant proof of the sustaining confirmations
that are being showered upon the upholders of the case
from the realm on high.
| |
12 |
I cannot refrain from giving expression in this connection to
my feelings of profound appreciation of the ceaseless vigilance and
marked distinction with which our precious brother and fellow-worker,
Mr. Mountfort Mills, has undertaken and is still shouldering
this sacred and historic mission committed to his charge. His
unremitting labors, despite ill-health and domestic anxieties and
cares, are worthy of the highest praise and will be gratefully
recorded in the annals of an immortal Cause.
| |
13 |
Surely, if we read the history of this case aright, we cannot but
discern the direction which the forces, released by these prophetic
utterances of Bahá'u'lláh sixty years ago, are destined to take in the
eventual solution of this mighty issue:--
| |
14 |
"In truth I declare, it shall be so abased in the days to come as to
cause tears to flow from every discerning eye.... And in the
fullness of time shall the Lord, by the power of truth, exalt it in the
eyes of all the world, cause it to become the mighty standard of His
Dominion, the Shrine round which shall circle the concourse of the
faithful."
| |
15 |
Your true brother,
| |
16 |
SHOGHI.
Haifa, Palestine,
January 1, 1929.
| |
|
|
|