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Citadel of Faith
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Pages 51-55
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My Appeal to This God-Chosen Community
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The response of the American Bahá'í Community to the urgent call
to arise and remedy a critical situation has been such as to excite my
highest admiration and exceed the hopes of all those who had waited
with anxious hearts for this dangerous corner to be turned at such an
important stage in the prosecution of the Second Seven Year Plan.
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The rapidity with which the challenge has been met, the strenuous
efforts which have been systematically exerted, the zeal and devotion
which have been so abundantly demonstrated, the resolution and self-sacrifice
which have been so strikingly displayed by the members of a
community, burdened with such mighty responsibilities and intent on
maintaining its lead among its sister communities in East and West,
confer great luster on this latest episode in the history of the prosecution
of the Divine Plan. I am moved to offer its high-minded and valiant
members my heartfelt congratulations on so conspicuous a victory, and
on the preservation of an unblemished record of achievements in the
service of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
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3 |
The formation of the Canadian National Assembly, the conclusion
of the preliminary steps for the completion of the interior ornamentation
of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, the rapid multiplication and consolidation
of the institutions of the Faith throughout Latin America, the
steady expansion of the activities aiming at the proclamation of the
Faith to the masses, the recognition secured, on behalf of the national
institutions of a world community, from the United Nations Organization,
above all the phenomenal success achieved through the constitution
of no less than eight spiritual assemblies in seven of the goal
countries selected as targets for the transatlantic operation of the Plan,
now crowned by the holding of the first teaching conference on the
continent of Europe--all these have served to immortalize the second
year of the Second Seven Year Plan and round out the mighty feat
accomplished throughout the states and provinces of the North American
continent--the base from which the operation of a divinely
impelled and constantly expanding Plan are being conducted.
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Emboldened by the enduring and momentous successes won, on so
many fronts, in such distant fields, among such a diversity of peoples,
and in the face of such formidable obstacles, by a community now
launched, in both hemispheres, on its world-encircling mission, I direct
my appeal to the entire membership of this God-chosen community, to
its associates and daughter communities in the Dominion of Canada, in
Central and South America, and in the continent of Europe, to
proclaim, in the course of this current year, to their sister communities
in East and West and by deeds no less resplendent than those of the
past, their inflexible resolve to prosecute unremittingly the Plan entrusted
to their care, and emblazon on their shields the emblems of new
victories in its service.
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The placing, with care and promptitude, of the successive contracts,
designed to ensure the uninterrupted progress of the interior
ornamentation of the Temple, at a time when the international
situation is fraught with so many complications and perils; the acceleration
of the twofold process designed to preserve the status of the
present assemblies throughout the states of the Union and multiply
their number; the constant broadening of the bases on which the
projected Latin American national assemblies are to be securely
founded; the steady expansion of the work initiated to give wider
publicity to the Faith in the North American continent and in circles
associated with the United Nations; and, last but not least, the
constitution of firmly established assemblies in each of the remaining
goal countries in Europe and the simultaneous initiation, in the
countries already provided with such assemblies, of measures aiming at
the formation of several nuclei calculated to reinforce the structural
basis of an infant Administrative Order--these stand out as the primary
and inescapable duties which the members of your Assembly--the
mainspring of the multitudinous activities carried on in your homeland,
in the Latin American field, and on the European front--must in
this third year of the Second Seven Year Plan, befittingly discharge.
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That the launching of one of these fundamental activities to be
conducted by your Assembly during the present year--the commencement
of the interior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the
West--should have so closely synchronized with the placing of the first
two contracts for the completion of the Sepulcher of the Báb, as
contemplated by `Abdu'l-Bahá, is indeed a phenomenon of singular
significance. This conjunction of two events of historic importance,
linking, in a peculiar degree, the most sacred House of Worship in the
American continent with the most hallowed Shrine on the slopes of
Mount Carmel, brings vividly to mind the no less remarkable coincidence
marking the simultaneous holding, on a Naw-Rúz Day, of the
first convention of the American Bahá'í Community and the entombment
by the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant of the remains of the Báb
in the newly constructed vault of His Shrine.
[1]
The simultaneous arrival
of those remains in the fortress city of Akká and of the first pilgrims
from the continent of America;
[2]
the subsequent association of the
founder of the American Bahá'í Community with `Abdu'l-Bahá in the
laying of the cornerstone of the Báb's Mausoleum on Mount Carmel;
the holding of the Centenary of His Declaration beneath the dome of
the recently constructed Mashriqu'l-Adhkár at Wilmette, on which
solemn occasion His blessed portrait was unveiled, on western soil, to
the eyes of His followers; and the unique distinction now conferred on
a member
[3]
of the North American Bahá'í Community of designing the
dome, envisaged by `Abdu'l-Bahá, as the final and essential embellishment
of the Báb's Sepulcher--all these have served to associate the
Herald of our Faith and His resting-place with the fortunes of a
community which has so nobly responded to His summons addressed to
the "peoples of the West" in His Qayyúmu'l-Asmá.
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"This Sublime Shrine has remained unbuilt ...," `Abdu'l-Bahá,
looking at the Shrine from the steps of His House on an August day in
1915, remarked to some of His companions, at a time when the Báb's
remains had already been placed by Him in the vault of one of the six
chambers He had already constructed for that purpose. "God willing, it
will be accomplished. We have carried its construction to this stage."
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8 |
The initiation in these days of extreme peril in the Holy Land of so
great and holy an enterprise, founded by Bahá'u'lláh Himself whilst
still a Prisoner in Akká and commenced by `Abdu'l-Bahá during the
darkest and most perilous days of His ministry, recalls to our minds,
furthermore, the construction of the superstructure of the Temple in
Wilmette during one of the severest financial crises that has afflicted
the United States of America, and the completion of its exterior
ornamentation during the dark days of the last World War. Indeed, the
tragic and moving story of the transfer of the Báb's mutilated body from
place to place ever since His Martyrdom in Tabríz, its fifty-year
concealment in Persia; its perilous and secret journey by way of Tihrán,
Isfahán, Kirmanshán, Baghdád, Damascus, Beirut and Akká to the
Mountain of God, its ultimate resting place; its concealment for a further
period of ten years in the Holy Land itself; the vexatious and long-drawn-out
negotiations for the purchase of the site chosen by
Bahá'u'lláh Himself for its entombment; the threats of `Abdu'l-Hamíd,
the Turkish tyrant, the accusations levelled against its Trustee, the
plots devised, and the inspection made, by the scheming members of
the notorious Turkish Commission of Inquiry; the perils to which the
bloodthirsty Jamál Páshá exposed it; the machinations of the arch-breaker
of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant, of His brother and of His son,
respectively, aiming at the frustration of `Abdu'l-Bahá's design, at the
prevention of the sale of land within the precincts of the Shrine itself,
and the multiplication of the measures taken for the preservation and
consolidation of the properties purchased in its vicinity and dedicated
to it--all these are to be regarded as successive stages in the history of
the almost hundred year long process destined to culminate in the
consummation of Bahá'u'lláh's irresistible purpose of erecting a lasting
and befitting memorial to His Divine Herald and Co-Founder of His
Faith.
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As the mission entrusted by `Abdu'l-Bahá to the followers of His
Faith in the North American continent gathers momentum, unfolds its
potentialities, and raises to new heights of heroism and renown its
valiant prosecutors, events of still greater significance will, no doubt,
transpire, which will serve to enhance the value of the work which the
prosecutors of the Plan are carrying out, to widen their vision, to
reinforce their exertions, to sustain their spirit, to ennoble their heritage,
to noise abroad their fame, to facilitate their assumption of the
unique functions distinguishing their stewardship to the Faith, and to
hasten the advent of the day, which shall witness, in the Golden Age
that is still unborn, their "elevation to the throne of an everlasting
dominion," the day whereon "the whole earth" will "resound with the
praises" of their "majesty and greatness."
[May 18, 1948]
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Notes
1. [See God Passes By, p. 276]
2. [See God Passes By, p. 257-8]
3. [William Sutherland Maxwell of Montreal]
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