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Citadel of Faith
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Pages 67-71
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One Remaining Objective Hangs in the Balance
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The American Bahá'í Community, undefeated as yet in the performance
of any task undertaken collectively by its members, in the
course of its eventful history, is now entering a period of grave
emergency, that will try the mettle of every single one of its members.
Severe as the challenge will be, however prolonged the test, no matter
how distracting the condition of the world about them, the issues which
claim every ounce of their energy and call for their sustained, wholehearted,
concentrated attention are so weighty that none can evaluate at
present the influence they will exert on the course of the community's
future destiny.
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There can be no doubt that the Second Seven Year Plan, the vital
link binding the initial and concluding stages of the first epoch in the
progressive evolution of `Abdu'l-Bahá's long-term continually unfolding
Plan, has reached its crucial phase--a phase on which hinge the
fortunes not only of the Plan itself but of the community as a whole.
The fourth objective of the Plan, the transatlantic project, on which
its members have embarked, has, four years ahead of schedule, been,
to all intents and purposes, victoriously achieved. The third objective
has been partly attained, while its complete fulfillment, as a direct
consequence of the marvelous success that has attended the valiant labors
of the American pioneers and the newly enrolled native believers in
Latin America, appears to be now fully assured. The attainment of the
first objective has, as a result of the remarkable impetus given, during
the opening years of the Plan, to the multiplication of spiritual assemblies
and the proclamation of the Faith in North America, been greatly
facilitated, and will, with steady effort, involving not too great an
expenditure of energy, be insured in the course of the concluding phase
of the Plan. The completion of the Mother Temple of the West, the
sacredness of which neither the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í
world, nor any future House of Worship to be erected by the followers
of Bahá'u'lláh, in any country, at any future date, can rival, in time for
the celebration of its Jubilee, is the one remaining objective that now
hangs precariously in the balance. Owing to a combination of circumstances
wholly beyond the control of its builders, this task has assumed
a critical importance, and is of such vital urgency, that no prosecutor
of the Plan, eager to witness its consummation, can afford to ignore
for a moment.
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The sacrifice demanded is such as to have no parallel whatsoever in
the history of that community. The manifold issues inextricably interwoven
with the campaign audaciously launched for the achievement of
this high objective are of such a weighty character as to overshadow
every enterprise embarked upon through the organized efforts of its
members, in either the concluding years of the Heroic Age of the Faith
or the first epoch of the Age which succeeded it. The two years during
which this emergency will be most keenly felt coincide on the one hand
with a period of increasing distraction occasioned by the uncertainties,
the perils and fears of a steadily worsening international situation, and
on the other with the centenary of one of the most turbulent, afflictive
and glorious stages of Bahá'í history--a stage immortalized by an
effusion of blood, a self-abnegation, a heroism unsurpassed not only in
the annals of the Faith but in the world's spiritual history. How
meritorious, indeed, are the self-denying acts which this supremely
challenging hour now calls forth, amidst the perplexities and confusion
which present-day society is now experiencing! And yet, how trifling in
comparison with the self-immolation of the most distinguished, the
most precious heroes and saints of the Primitive Age of our glorious
Faith! An outpouring of treasure, no less copious than the blood shed so
lavishly in the Apostolic Age of the Faith by those who in the heart of
the Asiatic continent proclaimed its birth to the world, can befit their
spiritual descendants, who, in the present Formative Age of the
Bahá'í Dispensation, have championed the Cause, and assumed so
preponderating a share in the erection of its Administrative Order, and
are now engaged in the final stage of the building of the House that
incarnates the soul of that Faith in the American continent. No
sacrifice can be deemed too great to insure the completion of such an
edifice--the most holy House of Worship ever to be associated with the
Faith of the Most Great Name--an edifice whose inception has shed
such a luster on the closing years of the Heroic Age of the Bahá'í
Dispensation, which has assumed a concrete shape in the present
Formative stage in the evolution of our beloved Faith, whose dependencies
must spring into existence in the course of successive epochs of this
same Age, and whose fairest fruits will be garnered in the Age that is to
come, the last, the Golden Age of the initial and brightest Dispensation
of the five-thousand-century Bahá'í Cycle.
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"A most wonderful and thrilling motion will appear in the world of
existence," are `Abdu'l-Bahá's own words, predicting the release of
spiritual forces that must accompany the completion of this most
hallowed House of Worship. "From that point of light," He, further
glorifying that edifice, has written, "the spirit of teaching ... will
permeate to all parts of the world." And again: "Out of this
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, without doubt, thousands of Mashriqu'l-Adhkárs will be
born." "It marks the inception of the Kingdom of God on earth."
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Again I repeat--and I cannot overrate the vital, the unique importance
of the campaign now launched to insure the completion of such
an edifice--the immediate destiny of the American Bahá'í Community
is intimately and inescapably bound up with the outcome of this newly
launched, this severely trying, soul-purging, spiritually uplifting campaign.
The God-given mission, constituting the birthright, and proclaiming
the primacy of a community whose members the Founder of
that community, the Center of the Covenant Himself, has addressed as
the "Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh," can only be fulfilled if they befittingly
obey the specific Mandate issued by `Abdu'l-Bahá in His Tablets of the
Divine Plan. The execution of this Mandate is, in its turn, dependent
upon the triumphant conclusion of the Second Seven Year Plan, the
second stage in the series of specific plans formulated to insure the
successful termination of the opening phase in the execution of that
Mandate. Indeed, the successive plans, inaugurated since the birth of
the second Bahá'í century, by the British, the Indian, the Persian, the
Australia-New Zealand, the Iráqí, the German and the Egyptian
National Assemblies, with the exception of the plan undertaken by the
Canadian National Assembly, which forms an integral part of the Plan
associated with the Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bahá, are but supplements to the
vast enterprise whose features have been delineated in those Tablets
and are to be regarded, by their very nature, as regional in scope, in
contrast with the world-embracing character of the mission entrusted to
the community of the champion builders of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh,
and the torch-bearers of the civilization which that Order must
eventually establish. As to the Second Seven Year Plan itself, its
eventual success must depend on the attainment of its second and most
vital objective. This objective, in its turn, cannot be achieved unless the
two-year campaign, now launched by the elected representatives of this
community, is successfully carried out. Nor can this campaign yield its
richest fruit unless and until the community, in its entirety, participates
in this nation-wide sacrificial effort. Nor can this collective effort be
blessed, to the fullest extent possible, unless the contributions made by
its members involve acts of self-abnegation, not only on the part of
those of modest means, but also by those endowed with substantial
resources. Nor, indeed, can these self-denying acts, by both the rich
and the poor, be productive of the fullest possible benefit unless this
sacrificial effort is neither momentary nor haphazard, but rather systematic
and continuous throughout the period of the present emergency.
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Then and only then will this holy edifice, symbol and harbinger of
a world civilization as yet unborn, and the embodiment of the sacrifice
of a multitude of the upholders of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, release the
full measure of the regenerative power with which it has been endowed,
shed in all its plenitude the glory of the Most Holy Spirit
dwelling within it, and vindicate, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the
truth of every single promise recorded by the pen of `Abdu'l-Bahá
pertaining to its destiny.
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No more befitting consummation for this magnificent enterprise
can be envisaged than that this noble edifice, whose cornerstone has
been laid by `Abdu'l-Bahá's own hands, the preliminary measure for
whose construction synchronized with the formal interment of the
Báb's remains on Mt. Carmel, within whose walls the first Centenary
of the birth of His ministry has been celebrated, whose interior
ornamentation has coincided with the construction of the arcade of His
Sepulcher, should be vouchsafed the honor of having the Jubilee of its
inception coincide with, and celebrated on the occasion of, the Centenary
of the birth of Bahá'u'lláh's prophetic Mission in the Síyáh-Chál
of Tihrán.
[April 11, 1949]
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