From the outset Shoghi Effendi realized that there was a great cancer eating away at the vitals of men, a materialism reaching a state of development in the West unrivalled by the decadence it had invariably produced in past civilizations when their decline set in. As very many people do not know what materialism means it can do no harm to quote Webster who defines certain of its aspects as “the tendency to give undue importance to material interests; devotion to the material nature and its wants” and says another definition is the theory that human phenomena should be viewed and interpreted in terms of physical and material causes rather than spiritual and ethical causes. Shoghi Effendi’s attitude towards this subject, the evils that produce it and the evils it in turn gives rise to, is reflected in innumerable passages of his writings, beginning in 1923 and going on to 1957. In 1923 he refers to “the confusion and the gross materialism in which mankind is now sunk”. A few years later he writes of “the apathy, the gross materialism and superficiality of society today”. In 1927 he wrote to the American National Assembly: “in the heart of society itself, where the ominous signs of increasing extravagance and profligacy are but lending fresh impetus to the forces of revolt and reaction that are growing more distinct every day”. In 1933, in a general letter to the American Bahá’ís, he speaks of the “follies and furies, the shifts, shams and compromises that characterize the present age”. In 1934, in a general letter to the Bahá’ís throughout the West, he speaks of “the signs of an impending catastrophe, strongly reminiscent of the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West, which threatens to engulf the whole structure of present-day civilization”. In that same communication he says: “How disquieting the lawlessness, the corruption, the unbelief that are eating into the vitals of a tottering civilization!” In his general letter to the Bahá’ís of the West, in 1936, he says: “in whichever direction we turn our gaze…we cannot fail to be struck by the evidences of moral decadence which, in their individual lives no less than in their collective capacity, men and women around us exhibit”. In 1938 he warned of “the challenge of these times, so fraught with peril, so full of corruption” and speaks of the root-evil of all: “as the chill of irreligion creeps relentlessly over the limbs of mankind” and of “A world, dimmed by the steadily dying-out light of religion”, a world in which nationalism was blind and triumphant, in which racial and religious persecution was pitiless, a world in which false theories and doctrines threatened to supplant the worship of God, a world, in sum, “enervated by a rampant and brutal materialism; disintegrating through the corrosive influence of moral and spiritual decadence”.
In 1941 Shoghi Effendi castigated the prevalent trends of society in no uncertain terms: “The spread of lawlessness, of drunkenness, of gambling, and of crime; the inordinate love of pleasure, of riches, and other earthly vanities; the laxity in morals, revealing itself in the irresponsible attitude towards marriage, in the weakening of parental control, in the rising tide of divorce, in the deterioration in the standard of literature and of the press, and in the advocacy of theories that are the very negation of purity, of morality and chastity — these evidences of moral decadence, invading both the East and the West, permeating every stratum of society, and instilling their poison in its members of both sexes, young and old alike, blacken still further the scroll upon which are inscribed the manifold transgressions of an unrepentant humanity.” In 1948 he again stigmatizes modern society as being: “politically convulsed, economically disrupted, socially subverted, morally decadent and spiritually moribund”. By such oft-repeated words as these the Guardian sought to protect the Bahá’í communities and alert them to the dangers by which they were surrounded.
However it was towards the end of his life that Shoghi Effendi dwelt more openly and frequently on this subject, pointing out that although Europe was the cradle of a “godless”, a “highly-vaunted yet lamentably defective civilization”, the foremost protagonist of that civilization was now the United States and that in that country, at the present time, its manifestations had led to a degree of unbridled materialism which now presented a danger to the entire world. In 1954, in a letter to the Bahá’ís of the United States, couched in terms he had never used before, he recapitulated the extraordinary privileges this Community had enjoyed, the extraordinary victories it had won, but said it stood at a most critical juncture in its history, not only its own history but its nation’s history, a nation he had described as “the shell that enshrines so precious a member of the world community of the followers” of Bahá’u’lláh. In this letter he pointed out that the country of which the American Bahá’ís formed a part “is passing through a crisis which, in its spiritual, moral, social and political aspects, is of extreme seriousness — a seriousness which to a superficial observer is liable to be dangerously underestimated.
“The steady and alarming deterioration in the standard of morality as exemplified by the appalling increase of crime, by political corruption in ever-widening and ever-higher circles, by the loosening of the sacred ties of marriage, by the inordinate craving for pleasure and diversion, and by the marked and progressive slackening of parental control, is no doubt the most arresting and distressing aspect of the decline that has set in, and can be clearly perceived, in the fortunes of the entire nation.
“Parallel with this, and pervading all departments of life — an evil which the nation, and indeed all those within the capitalist system, though to a lesser degree, share with that state and its satellites regarded as the sworn enemies of that system — is the crass materialism, which lays excessive and ever-increasing emphasis on material well-being, forgetful of those things of the spirit on which alone a sure and stable foundation can be laid for human society. It is this same cancerous materialism, born originally in Europe, carried to excess in the North American continent, contaminating the Asiatic peoples and nations, spreading its ominous tentacles to the borders of Africa, and now invading its very heart, which Bahá’u’lláh in unequivocal and emphatic language denounced in His Writings, comparing it to a devouring flame and regarding it as the chief factor in precipitating the dire ordeals and world-shaking crises that must necessarily involve the burning of cities and the spread of terror and consternation in the hearts of men.”
Shoghi Effendi reminded us that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, during His visit to both Europe and America, had, from platform and pulpit, raised His voice “with pathetic persistence” against this “all-pervasive, pernicious materialism” and pointed out that as “this ominous laxity in morals, this progressive stress laid on man’s material pursuits and well-being” continued, the political horizon was also darkening “as witnessed by the widening of the gulf separating the protagonists of two antagonistic schools of thought which, however divergent in their ideologies, are to be commonly condemned by the upholders of the standard of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh for their materialistic philosophies and their neglect of those spiritual values and eternal verities on which alone a stable and flourishing civilization can be ultimately established.”
The Guardian constantly called to our attention that the objectives, standards and practices of the present-day world were, for the most part, in opposition to or a corrupt form of what the Bahá’ís believe and seek to establish. The guidance he gave us in such matters was not confined to issues as blatant and burning as those cited in the above quotations. He educated us as well — if we accept to be educated by him — in matters of good taste, sound judgment and good breeding. So often he would say: this is a religion of the golden mean, the middle of the way, neither this extreme nor that. What he meant by this was not compromise but the very essence of the thought conveyed in these words of Bahá’u’lláh Himself: “overstep not the bounds of moderation”; “whoso cleaveth to justice can, under no circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation.” We live in perhaps the most immoderate society the world has ever seen, shaking itself to pieces because it has turned its back on God and refused His Messenger.
Shoghi Effendi did not see this society with the eyes that we see it. Had he done so he would not have been our guide and our shield. Whereas the Manifestation of God appears from celestial realms and brings a new age with Him, the Guardian’s station and function was entirely different. He was very much a man of the twentieth century. Far from being alien to the world in which he lived one might say he represented the best of it in his clear and logical mind, his unembarrassed, uninhibited appraisal of it. His understanding of the weaknesses of others, however, produced in him no compromise, no acceptance of wrong trends as evils to be condoned because they were universal. Too much stress cannot be laid on this point. We are prone to think that because a thing is general it is the right thing; because our leaders and scholars hold a view, it is the right view; because experts assure us that this, that or the other thing is proper and enduring they speak with the voice of authority. No such complacence afflicted Shoghi Effendi. He saw everything in the world today — in the realm of politics, morality, art, music, literature, medicine, social science — against the framework of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings. Did it fit into the guiding lines laid down by Bahá’u’lláh? It was a sound trend. Did it not? It was on a wrong and dangerous track.
Shoghi Effendi gave us, over the years, what I like to call “guiding lines”, clarification of great principles, doctrines and thoughts in our religion. Only a few can be arbitrarily selected for a work of this scope, but they are ones which to me have a special significance in shaping our Bahá’í outlook in the world we live in today. One of the most fallacious modern doctrines, diametrically opposed to the teachings of all religions, is that man is not responsible for his acts but is excused his wrongdoing because it is brought about by conditioning factors. This is a contention with which Shoghi Effendi had no patience, for it was not in accordance with the words of Bahá’u’lláh: “That which traineth the world is justice, for it is upheld by two pillars, reward and punishment. These two pillars are the source of life to the world.” Individuals, nations, Bahá’í communities, the human race, are all held accountable for their acts. Though there are many factors involved in all our decisions, the essence of Bahá’í belief is that God gives us the chance, the help, and the strength, to make the right one and that for it we will be rewarded and failing it we will be punished. This concept is almost the opposite of the teachings of modern psychology. This principle was brought home very vividly to me in my personal life. When the beloved Guardian did me the great and unexpected honour of choosing me to be his wife, I had the idea that for me, at least, all my troubles of wondering what my spiritual end would be were over. I was going to be near him. It was like dying and going to heaven where nothing more could get at me. One day, in the course of conversation, Shoghi Effendi said to me words to this effect: “Your destiny lies in the palm of your own hand!” I was horrified! It had come back to me, the life-long struggle to do the right thing for the sake of my own soul.
The Guardian’s relationship with the entire Bahá’í world, as well as individuals, officials and non-Bahá’ís, was based on this principle. He was immensely patient, but in the end punishment was swift and just; his rewards were swift too, and to me seemed always greater than deserved by those who received them.
The highest standards of literature and language are reflected, whether in Persian, Arabic or English, in the writings of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi. No debased coin of words was used by any of them. I remember once when a pilgrim sincerely and modestly remonstrated with the Guardian about the difficulty ordinary people in America had in understanding his writings and suggested he make them a little bit easier. The Guardian pointed out, firmly, that this was not the answer; the answer was for people to raise their standard of English, adding, in his beautiful voice with its beautiful pronunciation — and a slight twinkle in his eye — that he himself wrote in English. The implication that a great deal of the writing on the other side of the Atlantic did not always fall in this category was quite clear! He urged Bahá’í magazines to use an “elevated and impressive style” and certainly set the example himself at all times.
When I was first married I was a little apprehensive of what the Guardian’s attitude might be towards modern art. Loving the great periods of art in our own and other cultures I wondered what I would do if I found he admired modern trends in painting, sculpture and architecture. I need have had no fears. Occasionally we were able to visit famous European museums and art galleries together. I soon discovered, to my great relief, that his love of symmetry and beauty, of a mature style and a noble expression of real values, was deep and true. The blind search for a new style, however sincere and logical it may be, which has followed upon the general crumbling of the old order of things in the world, Shoghi Effendi never mistook for the evidence of a new, evolved expression of art, least of all a Bahá’í expression of anything. He knew history too well to mistake the lowest point of decay, the reflection of a decadent and moribund society, for the birth of a new style inspired by Bahá’u’lláh’s World Order! He knew the fruit is the end product of the growth of the tree and not the first; he knew that a world system, drawing strength from world peace and unification, must come first and then be followed by the flowering, in the Golden Age, of a new, mature expression of art. Lest there be any doubt of this, look at the superstructure of the Shrine of the Bab and the International Archives building which he built; look at the four designs of the Temples for Mt Carmel, Tehran, Sydney and Kampala he himself chose. They were admittedly conservative, based on past experience; but they were also based on styles that had withstood the test of time and would continue to do so until a new and organically evolved style could be produced as the world evolved under the influence of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings. I wrote down one remark of his made when viewing a design that had been submitted for the Kampala Temple: “Poor Africans! They became Bahá’ís to gather under such monstrosities?” He came to the defence of his much-loved brothers and sisters in that continent through ordering for them a design created at the World Centre and which he himself liked and approved. One has only to turn to his own letters for confirmation. In letters he wrote in 1956 to two different National Assemblies about two different Temples his secretary stated his views as follows: “He feels that, as this is the Mother Temple…it has a very great importance; and must under all circumstances be dignified, and not represent an extremist point of view in architecture. No one knows how the styles of the present day may be judged two or three generations from now; but the Bahá’ís cannot afford to build a second Temple if the one they build at the present time should seem too extreme and unsuitable at a future date.” “He was sorry to have to disappoint Mr. F__ …However, there was no possible question of accepting something as extreme as this. The Guardian feels very strongly that, regardless of what the opinion of the latest school of architecture may be on the subject, the styles represented at present all over the world in architecture are not only very ugly, but completely lack the dignity and grace which must be at least partially present in a Bahá’í House of Worship. One must always bear in mind that the vast majority of human beings are not either very modern or very extreme in their tastes, and that what the advanced school may think is marvellous is often very distasteful indeed to just plain, simple people.”
The same thoughts that moved the Guardian as regards literature and art applied to his feelings about music, of which he had a great love.
What one gleans from the above is that the Guardian desired to safeguard the Cause, to maintain for it and its precious institutions a standard of dignity and beauty that would protect its Holy Name, the sacred nature of its institutions, its international character, its newness and promise, from the whims and caprices of an age in transition and from the undue influence of a corrupt, wholly western civilization. For it should be borne in mind that until the present time the majority of the followers of the Faith have been of Aryan extraction, whereas the majority of the human race is not. I remember watching the face of the first Japanese Bahá’í pilgrim when Shoghi Effendi, with those wonderfully expressive eyes of his fixed upon him, said that as the majority of the human race was not white there was no reason why the majority of Bahá’ís should be white. The emphasis and openness with which Shoghi Effendi stated this was clearly a revelation to this man from the Far East who was returning from a protracted stay in the United States.
How many Bahá’ís appreciate the fact that just as chastity, honesty and truthfulness are required of them, courtesy, dignity and reverence are qualities upheld in the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh? One of Shoghi Effendi’s early cables to America stresses this point: “Dignity of Cause requires restraint use Master’s voice record.” The sense of the holiness of things is one of the greatest benedictions for man. Many times the Guardian brought this to our attention in instructions such as these: “ensure no one photographs Báb’s portrait during display.” To gaze upon the reproduction of the face of the Manifestation of God, were it the Báb or Bahá’u’lláh, was a unique privilege, to be approached as such, not just as one more reproduction to be passed about from hand to hand.
Shoghi Effendi’s exposition of the teachings on the role certain nations have been called upon to play in history at the inception of the Bahá’í Cycle was illuminating, thought-provoking and often at sharp variance with our own limited understanding. The reason Persia was the Cradle of the Faith and America the Cradle of its Administrative Order was based on the teaching that the greatest power in the world is the power of the Holy Spirit, a divine alchemy which can transmute the base material of copper into the precious metal of gold. In The Advent of Divine Justice the Guardian educated us in this fundamental truth: “To contend”, he wrote, “that the innate worthiness, the high moral standard, the political aptitude and social attainments of any race or nation is the reason for the appearance in its midst of any of these Divine Luminaries, would be an absolute perversion of historical facts, and would amount to a complete repudiation of the undoubted interpretation placed upon them, so clearly and emphatically, by both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.” He goes on to say that such races and nations as are chosen specially by God must unreservedly recognize and courageously testify to the fact that they have been so chosen because of their crying needs, their lamentable degeneracy, their irremediable perversity, and not because of any racial superiority, political capacity or spiritual virtue. For such reasons as these the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh had chosen Persia to be the Cradle of the Faith and America the Cradle of its World Order. Through the fulfilment of this great law the glory of God is manifest and man is made to realize that the source of his own powers and glory is God alone. That members of “one of the most backward, the most cowardly, and perverse of peoples” should, when they accepted the Divine Message, have been transformed into a race of heroes “fit to effect in turn a similar revolution in the life of mankind”, was proof of the regenerating spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation. The same principle applied, Shoghi Effendi stated, to America: “It is precisely by reason of the patent evils which, notwithstanding its other admittedly great characteristics and achievements, an excessive and binding materialism has unfortunately engendered within it” that it has been singled out to become the standard-bearer of the New World Order. “It is by means such as this”, he went on to say, “that Bahá’u’lláh can best demonstrate to a heedless generation His Almighty power to raise up from the very midst of a people immersed in a sea of materialism, a prey to one of the most virulent and long-standing forms of racial prejudice, and notorious for its political corruption, lawlessness and laxity in moral standards, men and women who, as time goes by, will increasingly exemplify those essential virtues of self-renunciation, of moral rectitude, of chastity, of undiscriminating fellowship, of holy discipline and spiritual insight” which will fit them to play a preponderating role in the establishment of Bahá’u’lláh’s World System.
When Shoghi Effendi was beginning to write The Advent of Divine Justice he was one day expatiating on this theme and suddenly stated that the United States was the most corrupt country politically in the world. I was simply stupefied by this remark as I had always taken it for granted that it was because of our system of democracy and our political prominence that God had chosen us to build His Administrative Order! I ventured to remonstrate and said surely Persia was more corrupt politically. He said no, America was the most corrupt politically. He must have seen in my face how hard and unbelievable this new idea was for me to accept for he suddenly pointed his finger at me and said: “Swallow it, it is good for you.” I swallowed it and kept silent and as he elaborated this theme, and when he wrote his memorable passages on it, and, indeed, in the course of years, I came to see clearly how he was enunciating, clarifying from the teachings, great spiritual laws and truths in which lie healing and strength for us if we but grasp them. We derive no advantage, as Bahá’ís, from having the wrong concepts, from colouring the teachings of the Divine Educator with our limited, prejudiced, environment-produced ideas. Nothing is improved or rendered more serviceable by distortion. That is why I think of these great themes, these statements of truth given us by the Guardian, as guiding lines of thought which enable us to see things as they are and obtain a correct understanding of our Faith.
This factual, realistic approach of the Guardian meant that he not only estimated the true force of the Cause but was also aware of its limitations at the present time. He never confused the two. In a letter to a non-Bahá’í youth leader in the United States, in 1926, he said: “We believe that the spirit of the Cause is gradually directing peoples and nations, and that all Bahá’ís are called upon to do is to persevere in their advocacy of the sublime principles revealed by Bahá’u’lláh. They will never hold aloof from the great humanitarian endeavours of the true leaders of public thought and always welcome every opportunity of raising their voice, in conjunction with other movements, on behalf of peace, truth and justice.” In spite of this he had no illusions as to how much power we could wield. In July 1939 he wrote to the American National Assembly (representing the freest and most powerful community of the Bahá’í world) that they could not impose their will upon those in whose hands the destiny of the Persian Bahá’ís lay; that they were not yet capable of launching a campaign of sufficient magnitude to capture the imagination and arouse the conscience of mankind and thereby ensure the redress of the wrongs their persecuted brethren were suffering; that they could wield no power at the present time in the councils of nations commensurate with the claims and greatness of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh; nor could they assume a position and exercise responsibilities that would enable them to “reverse the process which is urging so tragically the decline of human society and its institutions.”
It was, Shoghi Effendi wrote in 1948, “not ours to speculate, or dwell upon the immediate workings of an inscrutable Providence presiding alike over the falling fortunes of a dying Order and the rising glory of a Plan holding within it the seeds of the world’s spiritual revival and ultimate redemption.” Many times he spoke to the pilgrims about two plans: our own internal one — the workings of the Divine Plan, which lies in our hands to implement — and Almighty God’s over-all Plan for the entire planet, which He was implementing in His own way, through forces outside the Cause, to achieve and hasten His own ends. To the degree the Bahá’ís work within the framework of their own Plan and labour for its speedy fulfilment — the establishment of the Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts throughout the world — will Bahá’u’lláh’s blessings be rained upon them; to the degree to which the world ignores His Message and pursues its own perverse ends will the visitation of God descend on peoples and nations alike, pounding, crumbling, grinding them into one world because they have refused to create that world peaceably through the instructions given them by God’s Messenger in this day.
The sharp distinction between the coalescence of Bahá’u’lláh’s followers in a unified, spiritually motivated world system and the disintegration, side-taking and hatred decimating the races, religions and political parties of the world, was constantly pointed out by the Guardian and the dangers involved if the Bahá’ís did not hold themselves strictly aloof from these dissensions repeatedly emphasized. In September 1938, as humanity drifted towards the precipice of a second world war, Shoghi Effendi cabled a stern warning and unambiguous instruction to the believers on this policy of strict neutrality: “Loyalty World Order Bahá’u’lláh security its basic institutions both imperatively demand all its avowed supporters particularly its champion-builders American continent in these days when sinister uncontrollable forces are deepening cleavage sundering peoples nations creeds classes resolve despite pressure fast crystallizing public opinion abstain individually collectively in word action informally as well in all official utterances publications from assigning blame taking sides however indirectly in recurring political crises now agitating ultimately engulfing human society. Grave apprehension lest cumulative effect such compromises disintegrate fabric clog channel grace that sustains system God’s essentially supranational supernatural order so laboriously evolved so recently established.”
The patriotism of Bahá’ís is not manifest in an allegiance to national prejudices and political systems but rather in two ways: to serve one’s country by fostering its highest spiritual interests and by implicit obedience to government, whatever that government may be. The Guardian pointed out, in 1932, that the extension of Bahá’í activities throughout the world and “the variety of the communities which labour under divers forms of government, so essentially different in their standards, policies and methods, make it absolutely essential for all…members of any one of these communities to avoid any action that might, by arousing the suspicion or exciting the antagonism of any one government, involve their brethren in fresh persecutions…” and went on to say: “How else, might I ask, could such a far-flung Faith, which transcends political and social boundaries, which includes within its pale so great a variety of races and nations, which will have to rely increasingly, as it forges ahead, on the good-will and support of the diversified and contending governments of the earth — how else could such a Faith succeed in preserving its unity, in safeguarding its interests, and in ensuring the steady and peaceful development of its institutions?” On another occasion Shoghi Effendi wrote: “Let them proclaim that in whatever country they reside, and however advanced their institutions, or profound their desire to enforce the laws, and apply the principles enunciated by Bahá’u’lláh, they will, unhesitatingly, subordinate the operation of such laws and the application of such principles to the requirements of their respective governments. Theirs is not the purpose, while endeavouring to conduct and perfect the administrative affairs of their Faith, to violate, under any circumstances, the provisions of their country’s constitution, much less to allow the machinery of their Administration to supersede the government of their respective countries.” A telegram of the Guardian, sent in 1930 to one of the Near Eastern Assemblies, points very clearly to the correct Bahá’í attitude: “unless government objects formation Assembly essential”. The Bahá’ís, as Shoghi Effendi said so aptly, belong to no political party but to “God’s party”. They are the agents of His Divine Polity.
The freedom of a sovereign state to pursue its own policies — however detrimental they might be to Bahá’í interests — was upheld by Shoghi Effendi in 1929 when the Soviet Government expropriated the first Bahá’í Temple of the world. In spite of the sorrow this action caused the Guardian he wrote that because of the articles of its own constitution the authorities had acted “within their recognized and legitimate rights”. When every appeal had failed of its purpose, he instructed the Bahá’ís in that country to obey the decrees of their Government, trusting that in time, as he wrote, God would “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.”
It must not be thought that as this Faith grew in strength and passed from victory to victory there was a change in this fundamental policy enunciated by Shoghi Effendi only eight years after he became Guardian. Far from it. In 1955 he cabled a message to all National Assemblies, at a time when the number of countries enrolled under the banner of the Faith had almost doubled during two years, appealing to the believers who were engaged in the mightiest Crusade ever launched since the inception of the Faith “whether residing homelands overseas however repressive regimes under which they labour ponder anew full implications essential requirements their stewardship Cause Bahá’u’lláh…rise higher levels consecration vigilantly combat all forms misrepresentations eradicate suspicions dispel misgivings silence criticisms through still more compelling demonstration loyalty their respective governments win maintain strengthen confidence civil authorities their integrity sincerity reaffirm universality aims purposes Faith proclaim spiritual character its fundamental principles assert non-political character its Administrative institutions…”
There are three factors involved in this question of loyalty to government yet complete aloofness from politics: one is obedience, another is wisdom and the third is the use of approved legal channels. Too often the factor of wisdom is overlooked, and yet the Guardian made it abundantly clear that it should always be considered, not only in these words “the variety of the communities which labour under divers forms of government…make it absolutely essential for all…members of any one of these communities to avoid any action that might, by arousing suspicion or exciting the antagonism of any one government, involve their brethren in fresh persecutions…” but in his repeated instructions to different communities and individuals that they must exercise the greatest wisdom in serving the Faith. In a world where press and radio are hourly pouring out accusations, indictments and abuse upon the systems and policies of other nations, the Bahá’ís cannot be too wise. When one remembers the pride and joy of Shoghi Effendi when in the very heart of Islam the first Spiritual Assembly was formed, the lavish praise he bestowed upon the pioneer responsible — who was of Jewish background in addition to being a Bahá’í and thus endangered his life twice over — and recalls that for two years this man did not open his mouth to betray he was a Bahá’í, until the day when, in fear and trembling and with a prayer in his heart, he invited his first prospective believer into the back of his shop and began to broach the subject of the Faith, one gets an idea of what Shoghi Effendi meant by wisdom.
In various countries he forbade the Bahá’ís to seek publicity and told them to shun all contact with certain sects and nationalities who, if they heard of the Faith or accepted it, could place the entire work of the pioneers in jeopardy. This was the essence of wisdom and every time it was ignored it led to disaster.
On the other hand, in different countries at different times, the Guardian strongly urged the Assemblies and the pioneers, wherever the way was open to do so, to protect the interests of the Faith through legal channels and through securing for it legal recognition, as well as through ensuring the support of public opinion through the media of the press and radio.
In such matters of policy as these, however, which affect the international interests and well-being of the Faith, guidance and protection must come from the World Centre, which, by its very nature, is the sole authority in a position to use its judgment on such vital and delicate questions.
Another great guiding line of thought was the Guardian’s exposition of what unity means in the Bahá’í teachings. Shoghi Effendi wrote the “the principle of unification which” the Cause “advocates and with which it stands identified” the enemies of the Faith “have misconceived as a shallow attempt at uniformity”; “Let there be no misgivings as to the animating purpose of the world-wide Law of Bahá’u’lláh…it repudiates excessive centralization on the one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity…” The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, Shoghi Effendi stated, though it aimed at creating “a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life” was nevertheless to be a world “infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.” He wrote of “the highly diversified Bahá’í society of the future” and, urging the Bahá’ís to pay special attention to winning the adherence to the Faith of different races, said: “A blending of these highly differentiated elements of the human race, harmoniously interwoven into the fabric of an all-embracing Bahá’í fraternity and assimilated through the processes of a divinely-appointed Administrative Order, and contributing each its share to the enrichment and glory of Bahá’í community life, is surely an achievement the contemplation of which must warm and thrill every Bahá’í heart.” This Faith, Shoghi Effendi wrote, “does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world.”
In an age of proselytizing, when nations and blocks of nations, various societies and organizations are hammering away at people’s minds day and night, seeking to make them over in their own image, seeking to force their political systems, their clothes, their way of living, their housing, their medical systems, their philosophy and moral and social codes on each other, it is surely of the greatest importance for Bahá’ís to ponder their own teachings and the illuminating interpretation of them given by their Guardian. The Western World today has a passion for uniformity. As fast as it can it is trying to make everyone alike. The result is that while much good is undoubtedly being spread, and material benefits are reaching an ever larger number of people, many things diametrically opposed to the methods and objectives of Bahá’u’lláh are also taking place.
One of the things our western materialism is rapidly spreading — in addition to irreligion, immorality and the worship of money and possessions — is a wave of despair, unrest and a feeling of deep inferiority among the so-called backward peoples of the world. We might well pause to contrast the impact — so deadly — that this self-importance, self-satisfaction and wealth is having upon other peoples with where the Guardian placed the emphasis in his relation to such peoples. Why did Shoghi Effendi keep and publish such exhaustive lists of the “races” and the “tribes” enlisted under the banner of the Faith? Did he perhaps collect them, each as a separate pearl, to weave into precious adornments for the body of Bahá’u’lláh’s Cause? Why did he hang on the walls of the Mansion in Bahji a picture of the first Pygmy Bahá’í, and the first descendant of the Inca Indians to accept the Faith? Surely it was not as curiosities or trophies but rather because the beloved Josephs of the world were come home to the tent of their Father. So well I remember when Shoghi Effendi discovered that one of his pilgrims was a descendant of the old royal family of Hawaiian kings. He seemed to radiate with a joy and delight that was almost tangible and this glow enveloped a man whose portion in life had been mostly compounded of scorn for his native blood! It must not be thought that such things were personal peculiarities of Shoghi Effendi or matters of policy. Far, far from it. It was the reflection of the very essence of the teachings that each division of the human race is endowed with gifts of its own needed to make the new Order of Bahá’u’lláh diversified, rich and perfect.
Not only did Shoghi Effendi preach this, he actively pursued it, through announcements, appeals and instructions to Bahá’í Assemblies: “First all red Indian Assembly consolidated Macy Nebraska” he cabled triumphantly in 1949. Constantly remembering ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s words in the Tablets of the Divine Plan to “give great importance to teaching the Indians, i.e., the aborigines of America”, Shoghi Effendi pursued this objective until the last months of his life, when he wrote, in July 1957, to the Canadian National Assembly, that the “long overdue conversion” of the American Indians, the Eskimos and other minorities should receive such an impetus “as to astonish and stimulate the members of all Bahá’í communities throughout the length and breadth of the Western Hemisphere”.
A year before, in one of Shoghi Effendi’s letters to the United States National Assembly, his secretary had written: “The beloved Guardian feels that sufficient attention is not being paid to the matter of contacting minorities in the United States…He feels your Assembly should appoint a special committee to survey the possibilities of this kind of work, and then instruct local Assemblies accordingly, and in the meantime encourage the Bahá’ís to be active in this field, which is one open to everybody, as the minorities are invariably lonely, and often respond to kindness much more quickly than the well-established majority of the population.”
The natural outcome of this policy is the unique attitude the Bahá’í Faith has towards minorities, which was set forth so clearly by Shoghi Effendi in The Advent of Divine Justice: “To discriminate against any race, on the ground of its being socially backward, politically immature, and numerically in a minority, is a flagrant violation of the spirit that animates the Faith”. Once a person accepts this Faith “every differentiation of class, creed, or colour must automatically be obliterated, and never be allowed, under any pretext, and however great the pressure of events or public opinion, to reassert itself.” Shoghi Effendi then goes on to state a principle so at variance with the political thinking of the entire world that it deserves far more consideration than we usually give it: “If any discrimination is at all to be tolerated, it should be a discrimination not against, but rather in favour of the minority, be it racial or otherwise. Unlike the nations and peoples of the earth, be they of the East or of the West, democratic or authoritarian, communist or capitalist, whether belonging to the Old World or the New, who either ignore, trample upon, or extirpate, the racial, religious or political minorities within the sphere of their jurisdiction, every organized community, enlisted under the banner of Bahá’u’lláh should feel it to be its first and inescapable obligation to nurture, encourage, and safeguard every minority belonging to any faith, race, class, or nation within it. So great and vital is this principle that in such circumstances, as when an equal number of ballots has been cast in an election, or where the qualifications for any office are balanced as between the various races, faiths or nationalities within the community, priority should unhesitatingly be accorded the party representing the minority, and this for no other reason except to stimulate and encourage it, and afford it an opportunity to further the interests of the community.” Shoghi Effendi once expressed the workings of this principle so succinctly and brilliantly that I wrote it down in his own words: “the minority of a majority is more important than the majority of a minority.” In other words it is not the numerical strength or weakness in the nation that is the index of a minority, but its numerical strength or weakness inside the Bahá’í community holding the election — so great is the protection of any minority. The Guardian used to say that when the day came that a Bahá’í state existed the rights of non-Bahá’í religious minorities would be rigorously protected by the Bahá’ís.
The Bahá’í Faith not only safeguards society as a whole and protects the rights of minorities, it upholds the rights of the individual, internationally the individual nation, and within the community, the individual human being. “The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Bahá’u’lláh,” Shoghi Effendi wrote, “implies the establishment of a world commonwealth…in which the autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded.”
Staunchly as the Guardian upheld the authority of the Assemblies, he was also a stout defender of the individual believer and had a deep bond of love with the “rank and file” of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh. Scarcely an appeal was made to the Bahá’í world or to national communities that did not address the individual Bahá’í and not only encourage his initiative, but point out that without it all plans must fail. In a letter to the American National Assembly in 1927 he wrote: “In my hours of prayer at the Holy Shrines, I will supplicate that the light of Divine Guidance may illumine your path and enable you to utilize in the most effective manner that spirit of individual enterprise which, once kindled in the breasts of each and every believer and directed by the Majestic Law of Bahá’u’lláh, imposed upon us, will carry our beloved Cause forward to achieve its glorious destiny.” He pointed out, in The Advent of Divine Justice, that it was the duty of every believer “as the faithful trustee of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan…to initiate, promote, and consolidate” any activity he or she considered would assist in the fulfilment of that Plan, always providing this was done within the limits fixed by the administrative principles of the Faith. He told the American National Assembly that while retaining the guidance of Bahá’í affairs and the right of final decision in its own hands it should “foster the sense of interdependence and copartnership, of understanding and mutual confidence” between itself and the Assemblies and individual believers.
The humble have ever been singled out for unique blessings. In 1925 Shoghi Effendi wrote: “Not infrequently, nay oftentimes, the most lowly, untutored and inexperienced among the friends will, by sheer inspiring force of selfless and ardent devotion, contribute a distinct and memorable share to a highly involved discussion in any given Assembly.” The Guardian was a passionate admirer of the meek and pure in heart and disliked aggressive and, particularly, ambitious individuals. His appeals for pioneers made his attitude quite plain. During the Seven Year Plan he wrote: “no believer, however humble,” was to feel himself debarred from participation in the great pioneer movement taking place, and obstacles should not be put in the way of those who wished to go forth and serve, “whether young or old, rich or poor”. He went very much further, in The Advent of Divine Justice, when he wrote: “all must participate, however humble their origin, however limited their experience, however restricted their means, however deficient their education, however pressing their cares and preoccupations, however unfavourable the environment in which they live…How often…have the lowliest adherents of the Faith, unschooled and utterly inexperienced, and with no standing whatever, and in some cases devoid of intelligence, been capable of winning victories for their Cause, before which the most brilliant achievements of the learned, the wise, and the experienced have paled.” Shoghi Effendi then points out that if Christ, the Son, was able to infuse into Peter, who was so ignorant he divided his food into seven portions and rested when he came to the seventh, knowing it was the Sabbath, such spirit as to enable him to become His successor, then what must the power of Bahá’u’lláh, the Father, be to empower the puniest and most insignificant of His followers to achieve wonders that will dwarf the achievements of the first apostle of Jesus. Not satisfied with emphasizing the duties of the humble, the Guardian, in no uncertain terms, also admonished those of a different category: “It is therefore imperative for the individual American believer, and particularly for the affluent, the independent, the comfort-loving and those obsessed by material pursuits, to step forward, and dedicate their resources, their time, their very lives to a Cause of such transcendence that no human eye can even dimly perceive its glory.” He said, most touchingly, that “the heart of the Guardian cannot but leap with joy, and his mind derive fresh inspiration, at every evidence testifying to the response of the individual to his allotted task.”
The question of who is a believer and how he becomes one and is knit into the supple but well organized, world-wide Administrative Order of the Faith, was quite clear to Shoghi Effendi — though not always so clear to the Bahá’ís themselves. It must be understood that at all times the Guardian saw the Cause as a growing and living thing, expanding at different rates in difference places. There must be uniformity in essentials; there could be and needed to be diversity in other matters. A Ford car, for instance, being a machine, is the same car everywhere. But the members of a large family, not remotely being machines, are all different, each at a different age, at a different stage of growth. No one expects of the five-month-old grandson the same conduct and understanding as the university-professor-of-physics grandfather of the family. From the very beginning more was expected of the old, oriental communities, particularly in Persia, than of the younger, western Bahá’í communities such as those in America and Europe, and a great deal more was expected of these than, for instance, the still younger communities in Africa and the Pacific. We must always bear in mind that Islam, next to our own Faith, is the world’s youngest revealed religion. The Bahá’ís coming from this background are closer, so to speak, to the laws given us by Bahá’u’lláh because His law grew out of and at the same time abrogated, in many instances, the laws of Islam. It is therefore not surprising that the believers who came from this background should have been expected to conform to the Bahá’í pattern in matters of personal status and to follow from the outset those laws and ordinances of Bahá’u’lláh which could be applied in the society in which they lived, and that those who accepted the Faith and came from the background of either paganism or much older revealed religions should require more, gradual and patient education until they too could do so.
BUILDINGS ERECTED BY SHOGHI EFFENDI Left: International Archives building. Right: Shrine of the Báb. The curved path between the two is part of the arc around which other international buildings will be constructed
THE GUARDIAN IN 1957 A snapshot showing Shoghi Effendi standing in the garden gate of the Master’s house. He was directing the placing of the coffin of an old servant in the funeral cortege that was about to leave for the Bahá’í Cemetery
THE LAST MESSAGE OF THE GUARDIAN On the terrace of this mountain guest house Shoghi Effendi penned in its final form his momentous midway point of the World Crusade message
Before trying to understand what entitles a person to be a Bahá’í let us first try to see how the Guardian conceived of and managed the Cause of God. If we study the course of past religions we see that one of the main ills which has affected them was the strong tendency of their followers to want to get the mobile, expansive, inspiring power of the Faith into moulds, to crystallize it into forms. A religion is a growing thing. Shoghi Effendi himself gave the most beautiful and poetic description of this natural process of growth in his message to the Intercontinental Conference held in Chicago in 1953, in which he likened the history of religion to a tree, which grew for thousands of years, from the days of Adam until the days of the Báb, putting forth branches, leaves, buds, blossoms and finally producing a Holy seed which was the Manifestation and Revelation of the Báb. That Seed, ground in the mill of martyrdom after only six years of existence, had yielded an oil whose light had flickered upon Bahá’u’lláh in the Síyáh-Chál, whose fire had gathered brilliance in Baghdad and shone resplendently in Adrianople, whose rays had later been cast upon the fringes of the American, European and Australian continents, whose radiance was now overspreading the entire globe during this Formative Age and whose full splendour, he said, was destined in the course of future millenniums to suffuse the entire planet. How nascent then must be our present stage of development!
Little minds instinctively seek to circumscribe the things around them, to pull in the walls to the size of their own small existence, to get everything squared off to their own scale so they can feel safe and snug. This process invariably means that a lot of the material used in their walls is from the last house they lived in, is very much what they were accustomed to before they moved, so to speak. Big minds, on the contrary, push the horizons farther away, create new frontiers, leave room for growth. It is not difficult, when one reads over the letters to and from the Guardian, to see how he kept a perfect balance between what was wise and essential for the present stage of the Faith, and what would unduly circumscribe its unfoldment and crystallize its living teachings into a premature form, too small, too national or provincial, too sectarian or racial, to expand into a World Order, with its attendant world government and world society. I have often wondered in the course of my Bahá’í life why so many people who are eminently practical and sensible in their lives as business men, doctors, lawyers, ditch-diggers or whatever it may be, do not carry these faculties into their Bahá’í activity. It is almost as if to them Utopia was a film and all you had to do was project it on a screen and it would become reality.
LAST FAREWELLS
The funeral of Shoghi Effendi, London, England, 9 November 1957
Not so the Guardian. He went about his own tasks — building up the Administrative Order, implementing the Divine Plan of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, organizing his work and the work of the Bahá’í world — very much as the great Renaissance painters created their vast frescoes and canvases. First came the cartoon, the whole idea, scale, colour, proportion; then it was quartered, divided into a grid of squares; this was transferred to the permanent surface and the great guiding lines filled in, the outlines, the figures in shadow; then came the detail and colours, applied with infinite patience until perfection was achieved. Such was the method of Shoghi Effendi and he allowed no one to start painting in figures or details before the canvas was ready to take them. What does this mean in actual facts?
So many examples come to one’s mind. After the Master’s passing, we wanted the House of Justice the next day. It had to wait forty-two years, until a foundation to support it, tier on tier of local Assemblies and National Assemblies was built, on which it could firmly stand. We wanted the Aqdas in English. Slowly, much of it was translated and given us by Shoghi Effendi himself as he repeatedly quoted from it; the few laws and ordinances and details not already given were to come later; they required very careful work, part of which he undertook himself at the end of his life. Many times an enthusiastic individual or group wanted to start, now, at once, in some quiet country spot, a Bahá’í settlement where all the economic teachings could be put in practice — the Utopia projection on the flat not in the round — but the answer from Shoghi Effendi would come: now is not the time, concentrate on increasing the number of believers, groups, Assemblies. We wanted to build a school in the capital; no, not in the capital, where any failure would humiliate the Cause, with its limited funds and workers, but in the bush, a simple, humble beginning. We wanted a Bahá’í university — it never seemed to occur to the writer, who in his own life probably never got into debt or tried to pretend he was a millionaire, that such an undertaking would paralyse every other national activity and even require funds, already so limited, that were being used to open the whole world to the Faith! Every instinct prevented Shoghi Effendi from embarking on what is known in commerce as over-expansion. Risks he would take, but always reasonable ones and never foolish ones. His judgment was equal to his faith. Miracles he firmly believed in, but he never treated the Almighty as if He were a conjuror. If we study the life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá we see there too this wonderful balance between the practical, reasonable mind and the sublime assurance of faith.
A small, but no less indicative example comes to mind. What about Spiritualism? “The Guardian does not feel that this is the time for him to make any special statement on this subject,” his secretary wrote, “…there are more important things for the friends to concentrate their attention upon, namely the establishment of new assemblies and groups.” So often the answer was the same, not the right time, not yet. Plant the Banner of Bahá’u’lláh in the farthest corners of the earth, bring into His fold humanity, lay the foundations of the Kingdom, don’t start putting nicknacks about in a house not even built.
From the earliest days of his ministry Shoghi Effendi set about creating order in what was then a very small Bahá’í world, barely existing in some of the thirty-five countries which had received at least a ray of illumination from the Light of Bahá’u’lláh. The great, guiding lines were clear in his mind and as he grew older, and the community of believers grew and increased in experience, these lines became clearer and details were added. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself in His Will and Testament had foreshadowed this unfoldment when He said of the Guardian, “that day by day he may wax greater in happiness, in joy and spirituality, and may grow to become even as a fruitful tree.” Time and space do not permit of a chronological recapitulation of this evolution. We must try to catch the great vision he gave us and see how the details were gradually filled in. So often, as I listened to and observed Shoghi Effendi, I felt he was the only real Bahá’í in the world. Everyone else, claiming to be a Bahá’í, had a portion of the Faith, an angle on it, a concept, however large, tinctured by his own limitations, but the Guardian saw it as a whole, in all its greatness and perfect balance. He had not only the capacity to see but to analyse and express with brilliant clarity what he saw.
For instance take this epitome of what he felt the Bahá’í Faith is in the scheme of things: “…it should be stated that the Revelation identified with Bahá’u’lláh abrogates unconditionally all the Dispensations gone before it, upholds uncompromisingly the eternal verities they enshrine, recognizes firmly and absolutely the Divine origin of their Authors, preserves inviolate the sanctity of their authentic Scriptures, disclaims any intention of lowering the status of their Founders or of abating the spiritual ideals they inculcate, clarifies and correlates their functions, reaffirms their common, their unchangeable and fundamental purpose, reconciles their seemingly divergent claims and doctrines, readily and gratefully recognizes their respective contributions to the gradual unfoldment of one Divine Revelation, unhesitatingly acknowledges itself to be but one link in the chain of continually progressive Revelations, supplements their teachings with such laws and ordinances as conform to the imperative needs, and are dictated by the growing receptivity, of a fast evolving and constantly changing society, and proclaims its readiness and ability to fuse and incorporate the contending sects and factions into which they have fallen into a universal Fellowship, functioning within the framework, and in accordance with the precepts, of a divinely conceived, a world-unifying, a world-redeeming Order.” Immediately one sees where this “greatest religious Dispensation in the spiritual history of mankind” fits into the panorama of history.
This Faith, “at once the essence, the promise, the reconciler, and the unifier of all religions”, had, as its “primary mission”, the establishment of a Divine Civilization. I remember in the course of a conversation Shoghi Effendi had with a former teacher of his at the American University in Beirut, how beautifully he answered this man’s question as to what was the purpose of life to a Bahá’í. The Guardian answered that the object of life to a Bahá’í was to promote the oneness of mankind. He then went on to point out that Bahá’u’lláh had appeared at a time when His Message could and should be directed to the whole world and not merely to individuals; that salvation today was through world salvation, world change, world reform of society and that the world civilization resulting from this would in turn reflect upon the individuals composing it and lead to their redemption and reformation. Over and over Shoghi Effendi made it clear in his writings and talks that the two processes must go on together — reform of society, reform of personal character. There was never any doubt that individual regeneration, as he wrote to a non-Bahá’í in 1926, was the “sure and enduring foundation on which a reconstructed society” could develop and prosper. But how could one create a pattern for future society, even a tiny embryo of the future World Commonwealth of Bahá’u’lláh, if all around its fringes it was still interwoven with the fabric of that society which was dying out, must die out, to make way for the new?
Shoghi Effendi took up his scalpel — the interpretation of the writings of the Faith — and began to cut. Although the reading aright of our doctrines showed that there was only one religion, that of God Almighty, all down the ages, and the Prophets were its exponents at various times in history, the fact remained, Shoghi Effendi made us understand, that the duty of man in each new Dispensation was to adhere to it in all its forms and cut one’s self away from the outer forms and secondary laws of the previous religion. How could any honest Christian remain in the church and pray for the coming of the Father and His Kingdom while in his heart he very well knew Bahá’u’lláh was the Father and the Kingdom was beginning to emerge through the establishment of His laws and system as reflected and embodied in the Administrative Order? The Bahá’ís — East and West — had vaguely understood this to a greater or lesser degree in different places, but now, through the communications of the Guardian, they began to see a sharp line where shadow and light met, with no comfortable twilight zone of compromise with family feelings, community opinion, personal convenience left. You were expected to either get in or get out. This had a purifying and stiffening effect on the entire body of believers the world over and made them, as never before, conscious of the fact that they were a world body of people, the people of the new Day, of the new Dispensation. To use a homely simile: if Bahá’u’lláh had built the boat, it was the Master who had got up steam and Shoghi Effendi who cast off the hawsers and calmly set sail. As the years went by not only the non-Bahá’ís began to look at us with new eyes, but we began to look at ourselves with new eyes. We gradually came to realize we were not a new aspect of the society in which we lived, we were the new society, we were the future.
It is in the light of this process that we must see how the emphasis shifted, over the years, in relation to the acceptance of new Bahá’ís. During the first decade-and-a-half of Shoghi Effendi’s ministry Bahá’í bodies, in the West in particular, were encouraged to be sure that those who became Bahá’ís were well aware of the greatness of the step they took. A clear break with the past was required of them. “Otherwise”, Shoghi Effendi wrote in 1927, “those whose faith is still unripe may thereby remain indefinitely along the circumference and continue in their attitude of half-hearted allegiance to the teachings of the Cause in their entirety.” During those years the Faith rose in fame and stature, won in many western lands recognition as an independent religion with laws and a system of its own — greatly helped in this process by the ruling of a Muslim court in Egypt which stated we were not part of Islam but as distinct from it as Christianity or Judaism — and became increasingly acknowledged as a Faith in its own right. Shoghi Effendi, however, constantly vigilant and unnaturally sensitive to whatever affected the life of the Cause, detected a trend amongst the administrative institutions to carry his original instruction in such matters (given in 1933) that the Assemblies should be “slow to accept” new believers, too far. A new rigidity was in danger of frustrating the main animating purpose of all Bahá’í institutions — to convert mankind to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. The Bahá’ís, in their eagerness to obey Shoghi Effendi’s instructions, had gone to extremes and were so interested in screening applicants that it was getting difficult to become a Bahá’í at all. In 1938 Shoghi Effendi, therefore, found it necessary to instruct the American Assemblies “to desist from insisting too rigidly on the minor observations and beliefs, which might prove a stumbling block in the way of any sincere applicant” and pointed out the duty of Bahá’í communities was to nurse the new believers, subsequent to their acceptance of the Faith, into Bahá’í maturity.
As the Faith grew in inner cohesion and strength, as National Assembly after National Assembly was formed in East and West and began to function strongly and systematically, as the people of the world became increasingly aware of the existence of this new religion as an independent Revelation with a system of its own, the instructions of Shoghi Effendi changed. Particularly during the great Ten Year Plan of Teaching and Consolidation the whole emphasis in relation to the enrolment of new Bahá’ís was modified; now we were strong, now our foundations had been unassailably laid, now we could deal, at last, at last, with the masses of mankind in all the countries of the world. Fling open the doors and bring them into the ark of Bahá’u’lláh’s salvation! The time had come to obey ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s injunction: “Summon the people in these countries, capitals, islands, assemblies and churches to enter the Abhá Kingdom.” In other words having achieved his end Shoghi Effendi changed his tactic. He informed the American National Assembly that the fundamental and primary requisites a candidate should have were acceptance of the stations of the Báb, the Forerunner; Bahá’u’lláh, the Author; and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Exemplar of the Faith; submission to whatever They had revealed; loyal and steadfast adherence to the provisions of the Will of the Master; and close association with the spirit and form of the world-wide Bahá’í Administration. These were the “principal factors” and any attempt to analyse and elucidate further, he said, would only lead to barren discussion and controversy and be detrimental to the growth of the Cause. He ended up his exposition on this delicate subject by urging the friends, unless some particular circumstance made it absolutely necessary, to “refrain from drawing rigidly the line of demarcation”.
The Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi were the Great Teachers. Their ministries — each so different in character — were primarily devoted to the sublime aim of bringing all mankind under the tent of this healing, peace-giving, soul-regenerating Faith. Over and over again, insistently, for thirty-six years Shoghi Effendi rallied us to “the preeminent task of teaching the Faith to the multitudes…a task”, he assured us in his last Riḍván Message to the Bahá’í world, “…at once so sacred, so fundamental, and so urgent; primarily involving and challenging every single individual; the bed-rock on which the solidity and the stability of the multiplying institutions of a rising Order must rest — such a task must, in the course of this year, be accorded priority over every other Bahá’í activity”, a task to which Bahá’u’lláh Himself had accorded priority, as Shoghi Effendi repeatedly reminded us, supporting with quotations such as these: “Teach ye the Cause of God, O people of Bahá, for God hath prescribed unto every one the duty of proclaiming His Message, and regardeth it as the most meritorious of all deeds.” “Centre your energies in the propagation of the Faith of God.” “This is the day in which to speak. It is incumbent upon the people of Bahá to strive, with the utmost patience and forbearance, to guide the peoples of the world to the Most Great Horizon [Himself].” “Unloose your tongues, and proclaim unceasingly His Cause. This shall be better for you than all the treasures of the past and the future…” Bahá’u’lláh attached such importance to the teaching of His Cause that He firmly admonishes His followers that whoso is unable to go forth himself, “it is his duty to appoint him who will, in his stead, proclaim this Revelation”. Shoghi Effendi wrote in 1938 that this “Mandate of Teaching, so vitally binding upon all,” should become “the all-pervading concern” of every individual Bahá’í and that the Assemblies should, at each of their sessions, set aside time for the “earnest and prayerful consideration of such ways and means as may foster the campaign of teaching.”
The Guardian made it quite clear that the one who was teaching should “refrain, at the outset, from insisting on such laws and observances as might impose too severe a strain on the seeker’s newly-awakened faith…Let him not be content until he has infused into his spiritual child so deep a longing as to impel him to arise independently, in his turn, and devote his energies to the quickening of other souls, and the upholding of the laws and principles laid down by his newly-adopted Faith.”
If one compiled what the Guardian has written on the subject of teaching it would be a good-sized book. But one sees throughout that the objective was clear, the duty fixed, the methods adaptable and fluid. Shoghi Effendi used so many words in connection with new Bahá’ís and their acceptance of Bahá’u’lláh: he called them “converts”, “candidates”, “avowed adherents”, “new believers”, “unreserved” supporters of the Faith and many other descriptive and satisfying names; he said they were “enrolled”, “converted”, “declared their faith”, “embraced the Faith”, “enlisted” under Bahá’u’lláh’s banner, “espoused His Cause”, “joined the ranks” of the faithful and so on. In an age of banal, stereotyped clichés we might do well to remember this. I might add that I never heard him debase acceptance of the Supreme Manifestation of God into that horrible and meaningless phrase when applied to spiritual rebirth, “he signed his card.” Shoghi Effendi never gave up the correct use of the English language because certain words had developed an unpopular connotation. The Bahá’í Faith has neither priest nor missionary — but the Bahá’ís undertook “missionary journeys” for the avowed purpose of “conversion”.
Chapter 15
The Prosecution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan
In making any attempt to give a coherent picture of what Shoghi Effendi called the first epoch in the evolution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan — an epoch which he stated began in 1937 and would end in 1963, and comprised “three successive” crusades — one must go back and study his writings chronologically, for in them the clear reflection of his mind and the emergence of the scheduled pattern of his plans can be discerned. Ever since the passing of his beloved Master the whole object of the Guardian’s existence was to fulfil His wishes and complete His works. The Divine Plan, conceived by Him, in one of the darkest periods in human history was, Shoghi Effendi stated, “‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s unique and grand design,” embodied in His Tablets to the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada, with which the destinies of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh in the North American Continent would “for generations to come remain inextricably interwoven”; for twenty years it had been held in abeyance while the agencies of a slowly emerging Administrative Order were being created and perfected for “its efficient, systematic prosecution”. How much importance the Guardian attached to this fundamental concept, often stressed by him, we are prone to forget, so let us turn to his actual words. During the opening years of the first Seven Year Plan, in 1939, he wrote to the American community: “Through all the resources at their disposal, they are promoting the growth and consolidation of that pioneer movement for which the entire machinery of their Administrative Order has been primarily designed and erected.” Eighteen years later Shoghi Effendi’s view on this subject was the same, for he wrote to one of the European National Assemblies in August 1957, shortly before his passing: “Less substantial, however, has been the progress achieved in the all-important teaching field, and far inferior the acceleration in the vital process of individual conversion for which the entire machinery of the Administrative Order has been primarily and so laboriously erected.”
It was the Guardian who had “so laboriously erected” this “machinery”, with the help of willing and eager tools he found amongst the North American believers, who grasped his thought, obeyed his command and hastened to put into action his instructions. It was the Guardian alone who possessed the divine and indefeasible right to direct the battle of Bahá’u’lláh’s forces of light against the forces of darkness. “Soon”, He had written, “will the present day Order be rolled up and a new one spread out in its stead”. In was an Order which had upset the very equilibrium of the world as men knew it. Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had produced a scion not only capable of grasping Their vision, but of organizing both Their teachings and Their followers.
If we view aright what happened in 1937 at the beginning of the first Seven Year Plan, we see that Shoghi Effendi, now in his fortieth year, stepped out as the general leading an army — the North American Bahá’ís — and marched off to the spiritual conquest of the Western Hemisphere. While other generals, famous in the eyes of the world, were leading vast armies to destruction all over the planet, fighting battles of unprecedented horror in Europe, Asia and Africa, this unknown general, unrecognized and unsung, was devising and prosecuting a campaign more vital and far-reaching than anything they could ever do. Their battles were inspired by national hates and ambitions, his by love and self-sacrifice. They fought for the preservation of dying concepts and values, for the past order of things. He fought for the future, with its radiant age of peace and unity, a world society and the Kingdom of God on earth. Their names and battles are slowly being forgotten, but Shoghi Effendi’s name and fame is rising steadily, and his victories rise in greatness with him, never to be forgotten. The sun of his genius and achievements will shine for a thousand years as part of the light of the Bahá’í Dispensation.
In reviewing the overwhelming volume of material on the subject of the Guardian’s Plans, we must never forget that although the first organized implementation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Spiritual Mandate to the American believers (and let us note that this term does not refer to the Bahá’ís of the United States alone but to the believers of North America) took place with the initiation of the first Seven Year Plan, a body of devoted American followers of the Faith, the majority of whom Shoghi Effendi pointed out were “women pioneers”, had already arisen, in immediate response to the Tablets of the Divine Plan presented to the Eleventh Annual Bahá’í Convention in New York in 1919, and had proceeded to Australia, the northernmost capitals of Europe, most of its Central States, the Balkan Peninsula, the fringes of Africa and Latin America, some countries in Asia and the island of Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean. During thirty-six years Shoghi Effendi never forgot the services of these souls or ceased to name them. He made it clear, however, that such overseas teaching enterprises of the American Bahá’ís had been “tentative” and “intermittent”. With the inauguration of the first Seven Year Plan a new epoch had begun.
When the Divine Plan will come to an end we do not know. The legend goes that where the rainbow touches earth there is a pot of gold, so the end of our glorious rainbow may well rest in the Golden Age of our Faith. The significance of the Divine Plan has been elaborated by the Guardian in innumerable passages. It was, he wrote, “the weightiest spiritual enterprise launched in recorded history”; “the most potent agency for the development of the World Administrative System”; “a primary factor in the birth and efflorescence of the World Order itself in both the East and the West.” The American believers, “the privileged recipients of these epoch-making Tablets”, “the vanguard of the dawn-breakers of Bahá’u’lláh’s Order”, were the ones in whose hands Providence had placed a key, the promulgation of the Divine Plan, with which they would unlock the door leading them to the fulfilment of their unimaginably glorious destiny. This Plan of the Master, as they faithfully prosecuted it through its unfolding phases, would, Shoghi Effendi assured them, lead, in the Golden Age of our Faith, to the fulfilment of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s own promise to them: their elevation to the “throne of an everlasting dominion”, when “the whole earth” would “resound with the praises” of their “majesty and greatness.”
With Shoghi Effendi everything was clear: there was The Plan, and then there were plans and plans! There were, after the inauguration of the first Seven Year Plan, in the course of many years, and in various parts of the world, a Nineteen Month, Two Year, Three Year, Forty-five Month, Four-and-a-Half Year, Five Year, Six Year and other plans; but whether given by him, or spontaneously initiated by the Bahá’ís themselves, he knew where to place them in the scheme of things. There was a God-given Mission, enshrined in a God-given Mandate, entrusted to the American believers; this Mission was their birthright, but they could only fulfil it by obeying the instructions given them in the Master’s Tablets of the Divine Plan and winning every crusade they undertook: the other plans, Shoghi Effendi wrote in 1949, “are but supplements to the vast enterprise whose features have been delineated in those same 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.”
If Shoghi Effendi was the general, undoubtedly his chief of staff was the American Assembly; it got its orders direct from him and the rapport was intimate and complete. But he never forgot that the glory of an army is its soldiers, the “rank and file”, as he forthrightly called them. He never ceased to appeal to them, to inspire them, to love them and to inform them that every North American believer shared a direct responsibility for the success of the Plan. Knowing how prone human nature is to be diverted from any purpose, he constantly reiterated the tasks undertaken, the responsibility assumed, the immediate need. When the different crusades approached their end and the success of various aspects of the work seemed to hang in the balance, his appeals rose in a veritable crescendo and swept the Bahá’ís to victory. In reading over thirty-six years of his communications to the American believers it almost seems as if he had lived amongst them. Certainly they lived with him, did they but know it, in his life, his thoughts, his prayers, his plans — and his worries. But let them be comforted, they brought him much joy, gave him much hope and never caused him to despair. May their record be unblemished.
Shoghi Effendi, very much like a volcano before it erupts, had a way of giving premonitory rumbles. In 1933 he cabled the American Convention that all eyes were on it, it had a great opportunity to release forces which would usher in an era whose splendour “must outshine Heroic Age our beloved Cause…Supreme Concourse waiting for them to seize it.” He became more specific in his message to the Bahá’ís gathered at the Temple in 1935 to celebrate the completion of its dome: “New hour struck…calling for nation-wide systematic, sustained efforts teaching field…” Ten weeks later he is even more categoric, and indeed prophetic, for one seems to feel the first cold shadow of the coming war: “This new stage in the gradual unfoldment of the Formative Period of our Faith into which we have just entered — the phase of concentrated teaching activity — synchronizes with a period of deepening gloom, of universal impotence, of ever-increasing destitution and wide-spread disillusionment in the fortunes of a declining age.” To the 1936 Convention he cabled that the opportunities of the present hour were unimaginably precious and urged them to ponder the “historic appeal voiced by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Tablets Divine Plan”, and consult on how to ensure its “complete fulfillment”, at a moment when humanity was “entering outer fringes most perilous stage its existence.” At the end he gives up the pearl that has been growing in his own heart: “Would to God every state within American Republic every Republic American continent might ere termination this glorious century embrace light Faith Bahá’u’lláh establish structural basis His World Order.” We were off! It was the opening salute of the Divine Plan!
The first Seven Year Plan had a “triple task”: one, to complete the exterior ornamentation of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in the Western World; two, to establish one local Spiritual Assembly in every state of the United States and every province in Canada; three, to create one centre in each Latin American Republic “for whose entry into the fellowship of Bahá’u’lláh” Shoghi Effendi wrote “the Plan was primarily formulated.” Every nation in the Western Hemisphere was to be “woven into the fabric of Bahá’u’lláh’s triumphant Order” and he pointed out to us that there were twenty independent Latin American Republics “constituting approximately one-third of the entire number of the world’s sovereign states” and that the Plan was no less than an “arduous twofold campaign undertaken simultaneously in the homeland and in Latin America.”
A little over two years after the initiation of this historic teaching drive Europe went to war; another two years passed and the United States — and practically the whole planet — was at war. Its seven-year activity took place in the face of the greatest suffering and darkest threat the New Word had ever experienced. The degree to which Shoghi Effendi watched over, encouraged and guided this first great Plan of the Divine Plan is unbelievable. Messages streamed from him to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. In 1937 he informed them that to carry out the dual enterprises of this Plan would shed a “lustre no less brilliant” on the closing years of the first Bahá’í Century, “than the immortal deeds which have signalized its birth, in the Heroic Age of our Faith.” In 1938 he told them the “deepening gloom” of the Old World invested their labours with a “significance and urgency” that could not be overestimated. The Latin American campaign was “one of the most glorious chapters in the international history of the Faith”, and upon its success depended future Plans. It marked, he cabled them the “inauguration long-deferred world mission constituting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s distinctive legacy Bahá’í Community North America.” It was the “opening scene of the First Act of that superb Drama whose theme is no less than the spiritual conquest of both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.” With all this it was still to be viewed as “a mere beginning, as a trial of strength, a stepping-stone to a crusade of still greater magnitude…”
After two years of the Plan had run their course, when the exterior ornamentation of the Temple was satisfactorily progressing and a series of ardent appeals from him (as well as a contribution of nine hundred pounds which he had felt “irresistibly urged” and “proud” to contribute toward the permanent pioneer settlement of the nine still unsettled states and provinces in North America) had ensured that all the preliminary steps had been taken on the home front — Shoghi Effendi waved his arm and directed the march of his forces down the coasts and over the islands of Central America, following, as he cabled, in a “methodical advance along line traced pen ‘Abdu’l-Bahá”. In spite of his own ever-growing burdens and anxieties he informed the friends he wished to keep personally in contact with pioneers in North, Central and South America. What those letters of his meant to the pioneers “holding”, as he said, “their lonely posts in widely scattered areas throughout the Americas”, only those who received them can truly judge, but I myself wonder if this, or later crusades would ever have been won without this communion he had with the believers. His love, encouragement and understanding kept them anchored to their posts. Not a few are still where they are because of letters signed “Your true brother, Shoghi”.
A year after the outbreak of the “world-encircling conflagration”, whose fires, Shoghi Effendi wrote, had first been lit in the Far East, ravaged Europe, enveloped Africa and now threatened not only the World Centre but America — the “chief remaining Citadel” of the Faith as he termed it — there were only two Latin American Republics still to receive pioneers. The inhabitants of the “remaining citadel” had certainly discharged their duty of “carrying the sacred Fire to all the Republics of the Western Hemisphere” in a most notable manner. The believers in Persia were being persecuted; the Faith was dissolved in Russia and its confiscated Temple was in danger; in Western, Southeastern and Central Europe the Bahá’ís were repressed, and in Germany banned; in North Africa they were the object of fanatical religious attacks; the progress of the war had placed the World Centre itself in great danger. No wonder Shoghi Effendi wrote to the American believers that “The hopes and aspirations of a multitude of believers, in both the East and the West, young and old, whether free or suppressed,” hung on the “triumphant consummation” of their labours! No wonder he appealed to them to “dare greatly, toil unremittingly, sacrifice worthily, endure radiantly, unflinchingly till very end.” No wonder he assured them that: “The grandeur of their task is indeed commensurate with the mortal perils by which their generation is hemmed in. As the dusk creeps over a steadily sinking society the radiant outlines of their redemptive mission become sharper every day. The present world unrest, symptom of a world-wide malady, their world religion has already affirmed must needs culminate in that world catastrophe out of which the consciousness of world citizenship will be born, a consciousness that can alone provide an adequate basis for the organization of world unity, on which a lasting world peace must necessarily depend, the peace itself inaugurating in turn that world civilization which will mark the coming of age of the entire human race.” They had been, he said: “galvanized into action at the sight of a slowly disrupting civilization”. Had he not pointed out to them, in words that fired their imagination, the nature of their responsibilities in relation to the state of the world, they would never have been galvanized at all.
In looking back on those glorious and terrible years of the last war the success of the first Seven Year Plan seems truly miraculous. While humanity was being decimated in Europe and Asia, while the World Centre of the Faith was being threatened with unprecedented danger on four sides, while the United States and Canada were engaged in a world conflict, with its attendant anxieties, restrictions and furor, a handful of people, lacking in resources but rich in faith, lacking in prestige but rich in determination, succeeded in not only doubling the number of Bahá’í Assemblies in North America and ensuring the existence of at least one in every state of the Union and every province of Canada, but in completing the extremely costly exterior ornamentation of their Mother Temple sixteen months ahead of the scheduled time, and establishing not only a strong Bahá’í group in each of the twenty Latin Republics, but in addition fifteen Spiritual Assemblies throughout the entire area. In the last months of the Plan Shoghi Effendi fairly stormed the remaining unfinished tasks, with his valiant little army, too excited to feel the exhaustion of seven years’ constant struggle, hard at his heels. When the sun of the second Bahá’í Century rose, it rose on triumph. To his cohorts Shoghi Effendi said that he and the entire Bahá’í world owed them a debt of gratitude no one could “measure or describe”. Small wonder he wrote that such a community had “abundantly demonstrated its worthiness to shoulder the superhuman tasks with which it had been entrusted.”
For twenty years, under the guidance of Shoghi Effendi, to a design he provided, the Bahá’ís wove the tapestry of the three great Crusades of his ministry. Amidst the busy, multi-coloured scenes, depicting so much work in so many places, could be discerned three sumptuous golden wheels — the three great Centenaries, historic landmarks into which he drew the threads of his plans and out of which they emerged to form still more beautiful and powerful patterns. The first of these Centenaries took place on 23 May 1944. Providentially the vast majority of Bahá’í communities throughout the world had not been cut off from communication with the Guardian at the World Centre, nor, in spite of the dangers of an encroaching theatre of war, been swallowed up in its battles. Persia, Iraq, Egypt, India, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the Western Hemisphere had been miraculously spared. These communities, each to the degree possible under the circumstances prevailing in its own land, proceeded to celebrate the glorious occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of the Bab, which was at once the inception of the Bahá’í cycle as well as the birthday of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
In spite of the fact that the Persian believers were not free to hold befitting nation-wide celebrations on the occasion of the first Centenary of the Faith which had dawned in their native land, this does not mean that worthy homage was not paid to the memory of the blessed Bab. The Guardian himself, full of tenderness for a community so perpetually afflicted, instructed its national body in detail regarding the manner in which this glorious event was to be commemorated; his special representative, Jenabi Valíyu’lláh Varqá, Trustee of the Ḥuqúq, was to place in the room where the Báb had declared His Mission in His home in Shiraz, a precious silk carpet, the offering of Shoghi Effendi himself; at two hours and eleven minutes after sunset, one hundred years since the Báb had revealed His Station to Mullá Ḥusayn in that very room, the members of the National Assembly and the delegates to the Annual Convention were to assemble; the National Assembly members were requested to prostrate themselves, at the threshold of that sacred spot, on Shoghi Effendi’s behalf; the first surih of the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’ was then to be chanted. Following this, passages of the Guardian’s Centennial Message to the Bahá’ís of the East were read, in which he eulogized the Báb and the significance of the events which had taken place in that holy spot a century before.
For the North American Bahá’í Community a second anniversary occurred at the same time, as it was fifty years since the establishment of the Faith in the Western World. Shoghi Effendi, with his usual foresight and method, made quite clear to the American Bahá’ís in a series of messages during 1943 how he expected them to appropriately commemorate such an occasion and why he wanted them to do it on such a scale: in “its scope and magnificence” it was to “fully compensate for the disabilities which hinder so many communities in Europe and elsewhere, and even in Bahá’u’lláh’s native land, from paying a befitting tribute to their beloved Faith at so glorious an hour in its history.” The celebrations the Americans would hold, he said, would not only crown their own labours but those of the entire body of their fellow-workers in both the East and the West.
A nation-wide publicity campaign, aimed at the proclamation of the Message of Bahá’u’lláh, was to precede the Centenary through which the public, by means of the press, radio and publications, was to be acquainted with the aims and purposes of the Faith as well as the achievements of its heroes, martyrs, teachers, pioneers and administrators, and the nature of its institutions was to be explained. Locally as well as on a national scale the believers were to celebrate and proclaim the joyous nature of this Festival, through lectures, conferences, banquets and contact with eminent leaders.
The climax of so much rejoicing would take place through the holding of an All-America Centennial Convention at which not only the delegates from the United States and Canada would gather, having for the first time in their history been elected at State and Provincial Conventions by votes cast by all believers rather than by communities which had local Assemblies, but also at least one representative from each of the Latin American countries. At the exact hour of the Bab’s declaration a solemn thanksgiving dedication ceremony would be held in the Temple auditorium at which the only copy of the miniature portrait of the Báb ever to have left Shoghi Effendi’s hands, and his special gift to this victorious and dearly-loved Community, would be viewed by that greatly blest gathering, and was to be followed by a public meeting consecrated to the memory of both the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Nothing, as he had foretold, had clouded the “triumphant termination of the first, most shining century of the Bahá’í Era”. Similar, though less ostentatious, gatherings were being held in other countries. The close of these international festivities, Shoghi Effendi said, would mark the end of the first epoch of the Formative Age of the Faith which had lasted from 1921 to 1944.
The close of one century and the opening of another is a propitious moment to take stock of the Bahá’í world. Such a torrent of material presents itself to anyone trying to evaluate the labours of the Guardian that it is difficult indeed to know how to deal with his various achievements. He was not only a great creator of facts but an able and interested statistician and there was very little that he could not dramatize. But is not that the very essence of living — to derive interest from what superficially seems perfunctory, obligatory and therefore boring?
In 1944 Shoghi Effendi published, in Haifa, a small pamphlet, twenty-six pages long, which bore the title The Bahá’í Faith, 1844-1944, and under this, modestly, “Information Statistical and Comparative”; in 1950, with much more exhaustive material provided by him, the Bahá’í Publishing Committee in the United States published a similar, larger pamphlet, thirty-five pages long, with a map; on it they put: “Compiled by Shoghi Effendi Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith”. In 1952, again with material provided by him and at his instigation, both the British and American National Assemblies published the same pamphlet, with the same heading, only this time twice as long and covering the period 1844-1952. Shoghi Effendi had now added a new sub-title: “Ten Year International Teaching and Consolidation Plan”.
It is impossible to go into details on a subject as vast as this one. On the other hand to ignore it completely would be unjust to a field of work that absorbed, for over thirteen years, a great deal of Shoghi Effendi’s attention and time. The fallibility and inefficiency of most people being what they are, the tale of these statistics alone represents an almost superhuman effort on Shoghi Effendi’s part to obtain them. What must then have been the effort he exerted to produce the facts many of them represent? He constantly kept his statistics up to date; at the time of his passing he had the usual small notebook in his bedroom in which he kept the latest additions. I remember once his smilingly holding such a notebook up and telling me “Do you realize the whole Bahá’í world is in this?”
To understand the statistics better one must understand what was in Shoghi Effendi’s mind behind the statistics. One cannot argue with facts; one can disagree with ideas, pooh-pooh claims, belittle historic happenings, but when one is shown in cold print that such and such a thing is worth five-and-a-half-million dollars, or that seven National Bahá’í Assemblies have been incorporated, or that the Bahá’í Marriage Ceremony is entirely legal in fifteen states, or one reads that names of the African tribes who are represented in the Faith, the languages in which its teachings have been translated, one is forced to accept that this Faith exists in a very concrete way. Facts were part of Shoghi Effendi’s ammunition with which he could defend the Faith against its enemies and through which he could not only encourage the Bahá’ís but stimulate them to greater effort.
One of his most cherished lists, the first and foremost, was that which reflected the spread of this glorious Cause entrusted to his care by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1921. Under “Countries opened to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh” he had placed for the period of the Báb’s Ministry: 2; Bahá’u’lláh’s Ministry: 13; ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Ministry: 20. It is interesting to note how methodical his mind was, because in the 1944 pamphlet Bahá’u’lláh’s Ministry had only 10. Then why, in the 1952 pamphlet, did Shoghi Effendi put 13? Pakistan had become a nation and two of the original Russian territories had been split into 4 republics of the Soviet Union — an addition of 3, so they went up to Bahá’u’lláh’s period. Where else could they go? These statistics reflect in a most fascinating way the expansion of our Faith. I will continue the statistics, in so far as the material is available, up to the time of the Guardian’s passing. From 1844-1921, 35 countries (for Bahá’í purposes this includes Sovereign States, Mandated Territories, Dependencies and Colonies) had been opened to the Faith. From 1921-32, 5 were added in 11 years; 1932-44, 38 were added in 12 years; 1944-50, 22 were added in 6 years; 1950-1, 6 were added in one year; 1951-2, 22 were added in one year; 1952-3, no increase in numbers; 1953-4, 100 were added in one year, an accomplishment, Shoghi Effendi wrote, which signified that “the most vital and spectacular objective of the Ten Year Plan” had “been virtually attained ere the termination of the first year of this decade-long stupendous enterprise.” At this point, for Bahá’í purposes, the world began to run out of countries! Nevertheless from 1954-7, 26 more were added. When Shoghi Effendi became Guardian there were 35 countries, but when he passed away he had raised this number to 254 — 219 added by his vision, drive and determination working through and with a dedicated, spiritually inflamed world-wide group of believers.
Although no exact statistics are available for the number of centres where Bahá’ís resided throughout the world, “foci of the warming and healing light of an all-conquering Revelation”, as Shoghi Effendi called them, it seems unlikely that during the first century of the Faith they numbered a thousand. A rough calculation indicates that by 1952 there were about 2,400. Shoghi Effendi himself announced the following numbers: 1953, 2,500; 1954, almost 2,900; 1955, well over 3,200; 1956, well nigh 3,700; 1957, 4,500, in less than a five-year period an addition of over 2,000.
The over-all picture this conveys is both clear and impressive. But which parts of the Bahá’í tree were growing the fastest? That is also reflected in the published statistics of the Guardian. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá made his historic visit to the United States and Canada there were probably about 40 places in the Western Hemisphere where Bahá’ís were to be found. By 1937 there were 300, an increase of 260 in 25 years. By 1944 this had swelled to 1,300 centres in North America, an increase of over 1,000 during the first Seven Year Plan. The last figure received from Shoghi Effendi in October 1957 was 1,570. In the thirty-six years of his ministry Shoghi Effendi, through his unceasing messages of inspiration and encouragement and through the operation of his successive plans, had added at least 1,500 centres in the United States and Canada alone. The list of local Spiritual Assemblies in North America was no less impressive: in 1931 there were 47; in 1944 there were 131, an increase of 84 in 13 years — most of them added during the great drive associated with the first Seven Year Plan. By 1952 there were 184 and in April 1957 the total had reached 204.
In 1944 Shoghi Effendi published the first statistics for Latin America, listing 57 centres and 15 Assemblies; by 1950 there were 70 centres and 35 Assemblies. At the time of his passing the centres had increased to 137 and the Assemblies to about 52. In the 1921-44 pamphlet he gave the figures for India (which included what was later Pakistan) and Burma as 66 centres and 31 Assemblies; by 1957 the figure was 140 centres and about 50 Assemblies. It had always been difficult to obtain proper statistics from Persia because of the constant recrudescence of persecution, but in 1952 Shoghi Effendi published the figures of 621 centres and 260 Assemblies. The Antipodes, particularly watched over by Shoghi Effendi, made remarkable progress throughout his ministry, in spite of its isolation from the rest of the Bahá’í world: in 1934 there were about 8 centres in Australia and New Zealand and 3 Assemblies; by 1950 there were 59 centres — an increase of about 50 in 16 years — and 10 Assemblies; by 1957 there were over 100 centres and 12 or 13 Assemblies. The British Isles had likewise shown a remarkable increase: in 1944 there were a few centres and 5 Assemblies; in 1957 over 110 centres and 20 Assemblies. The figures for Germany and Austria, listed by Shoghi Effendi for the first time in 1950, show 34 centres and 14 Assemblies (whereas before the war they were likely to have been in the neighbourhood of 15 and 5 respectively); in 1957 there were over 130 centres and 25 Assemblies.
With the second Seven Year Plan there appears a new list in the 1950 pamphlet, the Ten European Goal Countries with 34 centres and 14 Assemblies; by 1957 these had swelled to over 110 centres and 27 or 28 Assemblies. Cautiously the Guardian inserted a figure (unchanged from 1950-7) for Arabia: 10 centres — perhaps the most difficult to maintain in the entire Bahá’í world. Egypt and Sudan, long struggling against Muslim prejudice, were listed in 1952 as having 38 centres and 10 Assemblies. In 1956 Shoghi Effendi announced there were over 900 local Bahá’í Assemblies throughout the world. By 1957 he was able to inform the Bahá’ís this number had risen to over 1,000. It is very unlikely that at the time of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing in 1921 there were more than a handful throughout the East and the West. It was Shoghi Effendi who created them, on the pattern laid down by the Master Himself.
The Guardian devoted particular attention, in addition to creating the structural basis of the Administrative Order and assuring the rapid spread of the Faith, to ensuring that Bahá’í literature be made available, in different languages, to the people of the world. Many of the translations and publications were paid for by him; most frequently, if the years preceding her death in 1939, Martha Root was his agent in this all-important work. In 1944 there were Bahá’í publications available in 41 languages; by 1950, 19 had been added; by 1952 there were 71, 11 added in 2 years; in 1955 there were 167, no less than 96 added in 3 years; by 1957 there were 237, an increase of over 70 in 2 years. It is interesting to note that right after the list of published languages there invariably followed a second list of “Languages in which Bahá’í literature is being translated”.
He was not only eager to welcome as many different ethnic groups into the Faith as possible but constantly urged the Bahá’ís to reach people of different races so that within the communities that cardinal principle of unity in diversity might be exemplified. This was reflected in two of his statistics, the second one significantly emphasizing the great importance he attached to this aspect of our teachings; the headings of these statistics speak for themselves: “Races Represented in the Bahá’í World Community”, which were listed by name. In 1944 there were 31 races; in 1955 there were about 40 races. “Minority Groups and Races with which contact has been established by Bahá’ís”, likewise listed by name: in 1944 these were 9, but in 1952 they had risen to 15 — 12 of which were American Eskimo and Indian tribes. In 1952 a new caption was added, in spite of the insignificance of the figures involved: “African Tribes Represented in the Bahá’í Faith”; the names of 12 tribes were given — proudly. Periodically he continued to announce the increase in these figures: 1955, 90; 1956, 140; 1957, 197 — an addition of 185 in 5 years. In 1954 he informed the Bahá’í world there were over 500 African believers in Uganda alone (out of perhaps 800 Negro adherents of the Faith throughout the entire continent) and in 1957 said the number of African believers was now over 3,000. His keen interest in the racial questions of our day, his strong sense of the value of the different qualities with which God has endowed different peoples, made him eager to share what he considered to be substantial triumphs. In 1956 he announced there were 170 Bahá’í centres in the Pacific area and in 1957 informed us these had increased to 210 and that there were more than 2,000 believers of the brown race throughout that region.
The growth of the institutions and endowments of the Faith, a strong wall to protect its maturing Administrative Order, was another of the things to which Shoghi Effendi devoted particular attention. It is not a dream Bahá’u’lláh has come to the world to help us dream, but a reality He has given us the design to build. Incorporated bodies can hold property legally. It was and is essential that a growing Faith should own its own Temples, national and local headquarters, institutions, lands, schools and so on. The figures in this regard speak eloquently of the progress made throughout the Guardian’s ministry: in 1944 there were 5 incorporated National Assemblies and 63 locally incorporated ones in various countries; in 1952 the figures were 9 and 105 respectively; by 1957 there were over 200 incorportions of local Bahá’í Assemblies — 137 being added in 13 years. Whereas in 1944, at the beginning of the second Bahá’í Century, the legal right to perform a Bahá’í marriage existed in a very few places, by 1957 this right was enjoyed by Bahá’ís in over 30 places and Bahá’í Holy Days were acknowledged as grounds for the suspension of work or school attendance in 45 places, the definition of a place being either a country, a state or a district. In 1952 the Bahá’ís owned only 8 national headquarters, but by 1957 they owned 48; national endowments had likewise multiplied to an unprecedented degree and that same year there were 50 of them in various capital cities of the world.
The financial assets of a growing Faith were likewise rapidly increasing. Its now multitudinous properties in different countries were reflected in a swelling roll of figures which Shoghi Effendi kept announcing as the years went by: the United States, in 1944, had holdings estimated at $1,768,339; in 1950 $1,783,958; in 1952 $3,070,958, and by October 1957 the sum was nearing $5,000,000. Persia, in 1952, had endowments estimated at $500,000 whilst in 1957 the sum had increased to $5,000,000. In 1947 Shoghi Effendi gave the figures for the Holy Land, at the World Centre of the Faith, as £35,000 Sterling ($140,000); in 1952 $500,000; in 1957 $5,500,000. The estimated figure for other countries he gave as, in 1952 $500,000 and in 1957 $850,000. The totals of these various figures, at best conservative, were: 1952 $4,500,000 and in 1957 over $16,350,000.
The three statistical pamphlets published by Shoghi Effendi are not only very informative, but provide an insight into his mind because they reflect to what he attached importance. There are lists of dates of historical significance which, aside from the cardinal dates of Bahá’í history, give dates associated with such events as the construction of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West and the Shrine of the Báb, the verdict of the Muḥammadan court in Egypt pronouncing the Faith to be an independent religion, Martha Root’s first interview with Queen Marie of Rumania, the Resolution of the Council of the League of Nations upholding the claim of the Bahá’í Community to the House of Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdad, the inception of various Plans, and so on. There are no dates to indicate the Bahá’í Faith had a Guardian. The man who informed us we were never to commemorate any anniversary associated with himself does not appear on his own list. The best-known Writings of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh are enumerated; the Bahá’í Calendar is reproduced; the names of the cities visited by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His three-year travels are given; a list of centres in Greenland to which Bahá’í literature had been sent is printed; the names of personages who have paid tribute to the Bahá’í Faith are listed, as well as other information; and a very strange little list indeed reappeared regularly in every new pamphlet: “Comparative Measurements of Famous Domed Structures” — St. Peter’s in Rome, St Paul’s in London, St Sophia in Constantinople, the Pantheon in Rome — all by themselves. A very thought-provoking list. Did he envisage the day when the Bahá’ís would build temples far surpassing these dimensions, to the glory of the Father?
With each release of statistical data the tally of National Spiritual Assemblies grew. To bring these “Pillars” of the future Universal House of Justice into existence was a task Shoghi Effendi conceived as one of his primary duties. Few of the Bahá’ís may remember the nine names enumerated in 1930: the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’ís of the Caucasus, of Egypt, of Great Britain, of Germany, of India and Burma, of Iraq, of Persia, of Turkistan and of the United States and Canada. Although the two in Russia and the one in Persia were of a transitional nature — a central Assembly assuming the functions of a future national body as we now know it, pending the time when a properly grounded election by national delegates could take place — they were nevertheless fulfilling the functions of National Assemblies. Owing to the suppression of all Bahá’í activity in Russia, the National Assemblies of the Caucasus and Turkistan completely disappeared. Therefore at the end of the first Bahá’í Century there were only eight national bodies, that of Australia and New Zealand having been added 1934.
The oldest National Assembly in the Bahá’í world, that of the United States and Canada, had existed at the time of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing under the name “Bahá’í Temple Unity”; in 1909 it was incorporated and in that same year its “Executive Board” was formed. When the Guardian took the helm in 1921 he immediately set out to create uniformity in fundamental principles and from then on these future “Secondary Houses of Justice” were styled “National Spiritual Assemblies”. By 1923 the National Assemblies for the British, the German, the Indian and Burmese believers were already functioning and those of the Bahá’ís of Egypt and the Sudan, Persia, Iraq and Australia and New Zealand soon followed. Much as the Guardian longed to see new “Pillars” erected he had to be sure a sufficiently strong community — and especially a sufficiently strong base of local Assemblies — existed before he could permit a national body to be elected. In 1948 he launched Canada on her independent administrative destiny, followed in 1951 by two other National Assemblies, one for Central and one for South America. There was in Shoghi Effendi’s mind a very clear reason for this grouping of two or more countries under a single National Assembly, which he explained to an Indian Bahá’í pilgrim in 1929, who wrote down his words at the time: “He is against separation of Burma and India for he says we have very few workers and separation will dissipate our forces and energy while what we most need at the present time is consolidation of all our resources and forces…”
With the formation of these two giant Central and South American bodies, whose title was National Assembly but whose composition and function were regional in nature, a new phase in the administrative development of the Faith began. Shoghi Effendi was never intimidated by the magnitude or difficulty of a task, nor was he any respecter of current views or methods. For nine years he was to constitute nothing but these vast National “Regional” Assemblies — except in the case of the National Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Italy and Switzerland, elected in 1953 — which were truly immense in scope. The two Latin American ones comprised 20 countries and the four Africans ones, formed in 1956, represented 57 territories. This meant that nine people, often residing in countries over a thousand miles apart, had to consult and administer the affairs of scattered, mostly young and inexperienced Assemblies and communities, spread over hundreds of thousands of square miles. No doubt had Shoghi Effendi called in as advisers his fellow Bahá’ís the wisdom of such undertakings might have been questioned and they would have recommended either purely National or at least much smaller Regional Assemblies. Fortunately the Guardian consulted no one and with his clear and incisive mind sized up the relative advantages and disadvantages of the two policies and chose what appeared, superficially, to be the more unwieldy method. There were many factors involved in this choice: the main one was that in all these countries the need for a more centralized direction of the work was now urgent; it could no longer be efficiently administered from bases across oceans under the aegis of other National Assemblies prosecuting a later stage of the Divine Plan through their committees, however able and devoted these were. Also the primary object of teaching the Faith in new fields was to fit its newly won converts to assume responsibility for the work in their own areas. There was now a choice corps of experienced Bahá’í pioneers, administrators and teachers in Latin America and in Africa, but they were not sufficient in number for the work of 20 independent administrative bodies in Central and South America and far, far from sufficient to provide experienced Bahá’ís for 57 territories in Africa. The answer was these interim National Assemblies which were to be broken down into ever smaller units pending the day when each nation had a sufficiently strong network of local Assemblies, of more mature believers, deepened in the teachings they had so recently embraced, who could assume responsibility for the administration and advancement of the Cause in their own territories. The remarkable feats achieved by these Regional Assemblies, constantly urged on and encouraged by Shoghi Effendi in the discharge of their historic tasks, fully justified his method.
In his selection of the countries he associated under one national body the Guardian amply demonstrated the fact that the Bahá’ís are far more than international, they are supra-national — above nation — in their beliefs and policy. No consideration of national prejudices, political animosities or religious differences influenced his choice of those who were to work together under one Assembly. For him such worldly considerations were not allowed to weigh, albeit he was a keen student of current affairs and never blind to facts. It was those Divine forces within the Faith that he utilized — a Faith which, as he so beautifully expressed it, “feeds itself upon…hidden springs of celestial strength” and “propagates itself by ways mysterious and utterly at variance with the standards accepted by the generality of mankind.”
It was not until 1957 that he resumed the formation of purely National Assemblies; in April of that year Alaska, Pakistan and New Zealand elected their own permanent Bahá’í bodies. It was an historic occasion in the evolution of the Administrative Order for no less than eleven new National Assemblies came into existence that year at one time, the others being Regional Assemblies for North East Asia, South East Asia, the Benelux Countries, Arabia, the Iberian Peninsula, Scandinavia and Finland, the Antilles, and the northern countries of South America which formed a new body. What had hitherto been one National Assembly for South America and one for Central America now became two smaller Regional ones in South America while Central America was partially pared away and its island republics joined in electing an Assembly of their own. Ere Shoghi Effendi’s last great Crusade drew to a close every republic of Latin America had its own independent national body, as he himself had planned when, in his statistical pamphlet published on the eve of the Centenary of 1953, he had included within the “Ten Year International Bahá’í Teaching and Consolidation Plan” as one of its most thrilling and challenging provisions the task of more than quadrupling the existing National Assemblies through raising their number to over fifty.
It is not possible, in an appraisal of the work achieved by Shoghi Effendi as brief as the present one, to describe in detail the progress made in individual countries during his ministry. That will require a full-length history and much research into sources gradually being assembled at the World Centre. As he himself always saw his work in its broadest outlines, so we must here strive to follow the comet’s path across the skies. The spiritual conquest of this Planet — the avowed purpose of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings — is primarily bound up with the prosecution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan. As the American believers pursued, in the course of successive crusades, the destiny with which this Plan had endowed them, a tremendous force was released, ever-increasingly, throughout the Bahá’í world. If the North American Community is viewed as the Himalayas — the great watershed of the forces of expansion in the Cause of God — other communities must be seen as streams and rills that flow into the mighty rivers they produce and swell their power to irrigate all the lands of the earth.
The example set through the achievements of the first Seven Year Plan inspired other communities to dare greatly. The increasing awareness of the glorious possibilities of service opening before the Bahá’í world in the second century of its own era was constantly fanned into flame by the Guardian’s messages to various National Assemblies. He frequently quoted Bahá’u’lláh’s admonition “Vie ye with each other in the service of God and of His Cause” and openly encouraged a competitive spirit in its noblest form. His use of statistics was one example of the way he did this, his own words another: “Spiritual competition”, he cabled America in 1941, “galvanizing organized followers Bahá’u’lláh East West waxes keener as first Bahá’í Century speeds to its close.” Still more illuminating was what followed for he acclaimed this as a sign of Bahá’í solidarity in the five continents of the globe — like the horses of a Roman chariot, each trying to get its neck forward but all pulling together. It would be lacking in respect to say he called for bids — but he never hesitated to tell his warriors there was a golden fleece to be won; who would get to it first? No doubt it was all divinely inspired, but it was also warm and human, vibrant and stimulating!
The news of the victories being won during the first Seven Year Plan, passed on by the Guardian in a steady flow of inspiring messages to the believers of Persia, was, Shoghi Effendi cabled in 1943, “thrilling Eastern communities Bahá’í world with delight admiration and wonder…Ninety-five Persian families emulating example American trail-blazers Faith” had left their homes and were on their way to hoist its banner in Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Sulaimaniya, Hejaz and Bahrein. India and Egypt were stirring and the Iraqi Bahá’ís were hastening their own plans to crown the end of the first century with local victories. The Bahá’ís of both the East and the West were writing the last glorious pages in their own chapters of the first century of their Faith.
Three months after the May 1944 celebrations were ended, the Guardian informed the North American Community: “A memorable chapter in the history of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in the West has been closed. A new chapter is now opening, a chapter which, ere its termination, must eclipse the most shining victories won so heroically by those who have so fearlessly launched the first stage of the Great Plan conceived by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for the American believers.” They stood at the threshold of “yet another phase in a series of crusades which must carry…the privileged recipients of those epoch-making Tablets beyond the Western Hemisphere to the uttermost ends of the earth, to implant the banner, and lay an unassailable basis for the administrative structure of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.” There are not so many ways of doing things on this planet. Right methods are right when applied to different fields. Shoghi Effendi was a spiritual general leading a spiritual army to win spiritual prizes — but the campaign method was immemorial: organize your forces, conceive your strategy, attack your goal, occupy the position, keep your communications open to your base, bring up reinforcements, establish garrisons in the conquered territory, muster your forces and start the next campaign. As the armies of brilliant leaders get more and more experience the lull between campaigns diminishes. This was equally true of Shoghi Effendi’s Plans.
Having won his first great campaign he immediately turned to consolidating his victories: he informed the American National Assembly that the laboriously won local Assemblies must be preserved, groups raised to Assembly status, centres multiplied, the Faith proclaimed to the masses and the new believers deepened in their understanding of it. In addition, more translations of Bahá’í literature should be made and published for the benefit of the Latin American work; above all, in every republic where an Assembly had not yet been established one must now be formed.
Between the opening phase of the American believers’ World Mission, which ended with the first Seven Year Plan, and the second stage of that Mission, there occurred what Shoghi Effendi called, on the occasion of the launching of the second Seven Year Plan, a “two year respite”. It is unlikely that the American Community had realized that their arduous labours between 1944 and 1946 — which stretched from Anchorage in the north to Magallanes in the south of the Western Hemisphere — had been a “respite” until the Guardian called it that. When a “war-ravaged, disillusioned and bankrupt society” paused in its bloody battles after six years and began, with the cessation of European hostilities in the summer of 1945, to lick its wounds, Shoghi Effendi told the American Bahá’ís that the prosecutors of the Divine Plan must “gird up their loins, muster their resources” and prepare themselves for the next step in their destiny. The appeals he made, during the months that preceded the launching of the second Seven Year Plan, to the minds and the feelings of the American believers were profound. He told these “ambassadors of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh” that the “sorrow-stricken, war-lacerated, sorely bewildered nations and peoples” of Europe were waiting in their turn for the healing influence of the Faith to be extended to them as it had been extended to the peoples throughout the Americas. News he received of the plight of the believers in Germany and Burma — two old and tried communities — greatly touched him and was so distressing that he hastened to appeal to “their fellow workers in lands which have providentially been spared the horrors of invasion and all the evils and miseries attendant upon it” to take immediate and collective action to mitigate their plight. He appealed particularly to the American Community, which “of all its sister communities in East and West, enjoyed the greatest immunity” during the war and had in addition been privileged to successfully prosecute so great a Plan, to do all in its power to help financially and by any other means at its disposal.
The official inception of the second Seven Year Plan, the “second collective enterprise undertaken in American Bahá’í history,” took place at the 1946 Convention. It would seem as if all the work so successfully undertaken since 1921, the building up of strong administrative institutions of the Faith, the expansion of the North American Community during seven years to include every state within the United States and every province in Canada — an expansion which raised the number of centres from 300 to 1,000 — the triumphant spiritual campaign in Latin America, had been designed to create in the Western Hemisphere a vast home front from which the New World could now launch a well-organized attack on the Old World — on Europe, its parent continent. Once again Shoghi Effendi mustered a small army; “Bahá’u’lláh’s spiritual battalions are moving into position,” he informed the friends. America, the child of the Old World, now a fully-grown young giant, was ready to return, vital and fresh, destined, as Shoghi Effendi wrote “through successive decades, to achieve the spiritual conquest of the continent unconquered by Islam, rightly regarded as the mother of Christendom, the fountain head of American culture, the mainspring of Western civilization…”
Again we see the design in Shoghi Effendi’s great tapestry drawn into another blazing wheel of glory — this time the second great Centenary of the Faith in 1953 which would, he informed us, commemorate the Year Nine marking the mystic birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s prophetic mission as He lay in the Síyáh-Chál of Tehran.
The objectives of this new Plan, of which Europe was the “preeminent” goal, and which came to be known as the European Campaign, were as follows: consolidation of work throughout the Americas; completion of the interior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West in time for the celebration of its fiftieth anniversary in 1953; erection of three pillars of the future Universal House of Justice through the election of the Canadian, the Central and the South American National Assemblies; a systematic teaching campaign in Europe aimed at the establishment of Spiritual Assemblies in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), the Low Countries (Holland and Belgium), and Scandinavian states (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) and Italy. He ended his message by saying that he himself was pledging ten thousand dollars as his initial contribution for the “manifold purposes glorious Crusade surpassing every enterprise undertaken by followers Faith Bahá’u’lláh course first Bahá’í Century.”
Six weeks later a cable from Shoghi Effendi informed the American National Assembly that “nine competent pioneers” should be promptly dispatched to Europe to as many countries as feasible, that the Duchy of Luxembourg should be added to the Low Countries and Switzerland also included. With these two and the previous eight, the “Ten Goal Countries” came into existence in our Bahá’í vocabulary. Some time later, in view of the marked progress being made in the north of Europe, Finland was also added to the scope of the Plan. Although, in addition to Britain and Germany, there were still Bahá’ís living in France, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and perhaps other places, they were for the most part too isolated or too suppressed to undertake large-scale teaching activities. The opening of this systematic well-organized Plan in “war-torn, spiritually famished” Europe meant that the American Community now found itself “launched in both hemispheres on a second, incomparably more glorious stage, of the systematic Crusade designed to culminate, in the fullness of time, in the spiritual conquest of the entire planet.” It meant that the American Community was to be engaged in strenuous work in thirty countries, in addition to ensuring that proper foundations were laid for the election, in 1948, of the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, whose essential local Assemblies in various provinces were in most cases new and weak.
THE COFFIN OF THE GUARDIAN LAID TO REST IN A FLOWER-LINED GRAVE
AN OCEAN OF FLOWERS LAPPED THE NEW-MADE GRAVE OF THE GUARDIAN AFTER THE FUNERAL SERVICE WAS OVER
SHOGHI EFFENDI’S GRAVE IN LONDON White Carrara marble, a Corinthian column, a globe showing the map of Africa, and his own Japanese eagle
As this home front of believers, at best numbering a few thousand Bahá’ís, heroically struggled with the various leviathans they now had by their tails, the Guardian’s love and admiration for them steadily increased. Although he occasionally used the rhetorical form “we”, in one of his most touching messages at the very beginning of this new Plan his use of “we” seems a clear indication of how profoundly he had become identified with the band of his followers in America who had followed him so faithfully from the first instant they heard he was their Guardian: “We stand too close to the noble edifice our hands are rearing…for us to be in a position to evaluate the contribution which we, as the executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Mandate, as the champion-builders of Bahá’u’lláh’s Order, as the torch-bearers of a civilization of which that Order is the mainspring and precursor, are now being led…to make to the world triumph of our Faith…” Truly they were become his sisters and brothers!
It was no use, Shoghi Effendi said, trying to envisage, at so early a stage, where this new Plan would lead; the duty of the hour was sufficient; the future depended on present efforts. No opportunity must be missed, no obligation evaded, no task half-heartedly performed, no decision procrastinated. All resources, spiritual and material, must be concentrated on the tasks that lay ahead; all must participate, however modest, restricted or inconspicuous their share might be, until every ounce of energy had been spent and, “tired but blissful”, the promised harvest was brought in. The continent of Europe was “turbulent, politically convulsed, economically disrupted and spiritually depleted.” But it was the arena where the American Community must now carry out the “first stage of its transatlantic missionary enterprise”, “amidst a people so disillusioned, so varied in race, language, and outlook, so impoverished spiritually, so paralyzed with fear, so confused in thought, so abased in their moral standards, so rent by internal schisms…”
When these “trail-blazers” of the second Seven Year Plan began their mission there were only two European Bahá’í communities worthy of the name, those of the British Isles and Germany, both long-standing and both of which had had active National Assemblies before the war; the first had never ceased to function; the second, dissolved by the Nazi authorities in 1937 when all Bahá’í activity was officially suspended, was now reconstituted and heroically gathering its war-torn flock about it. With these the European Teaching Committee of the American National Assembly and the ever-swelling group of pioneers in the Ten Goal Countries closely co-operated. The progress was so rapid that by the second year of the new Plan there were already eight new local Assemblies functioning in these countries and, as the work continued to rapidly spread, the Guardian extended its objectives to include Finland.
THE GILDED EAGLE SURMOUNTING SHOGHI EFFENDI’S GRAVE
With the same degree of burning interest with which he had guided the exploits of the first Seven Year Plan he now followed the course of the second one. In 1948 he informed the friends that the “primacy” of the American Bahá’í Community was “reasserted, fully vindicated, completely safeguarded”; that “intent on maintaining its lead among its sister communities” it had excited “feelings of admiration and envy in several communities, East and West”. The victories won in Europe were all the more meritorious, Shoghi Effendi pointed out, because the environment and circumstances were more adverse and challenging than had been the case in Latin America. Though the aftermath of the war, from the standpoint of physical misery, gradually wore off, the fundamental difficulty of teaching the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh to the European people did not change. A few months before his passing, in a letter to one of the National Assemblies, Shoghi Effendi was as emphatic and clear regarding this problem as he had been in 1946: “In their constant concern to illuminate the hearts of their countrymen with the radiance of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, and in their daily contact with peoples intensely conservative by nature, steeped in tradition, bound, for the most part, by the ties of religious orthodoxy, sunk in materialism, and fully content with the standard they have achieved,” the Bahá’ís must “of necessity find the work painfully slow, extremely arduous, and often highly discouraging… the seeds, however, they are now sowing…will,” he assured them, “under the watchful care of Providence, and in consequence of the tribulations which a heedless generation is bound sooner or later to experience, germinate, at the appointed time, and yield a harvest of such importance as will fill them with astonishment.”
In the middle of this great European undertaking, which had truly fired the imagination of the Bahá’ís all over the world, including the new communities of Latin America — who were even able to send some of their own pioneers to assist in this new Crusade — the hard-pressed American Bahá’ís found themselves faced by a serious crisis. Owing to a sudden increase in costs the expense of completing their beloved Temple, through clothing its interior with designs little less elaborate than its exterior and of the same material, had risen heavily. Shoghi Effendi’s army was in difficulties. He investigated the situation carefully and then immediately decided on the action necessary to save it. It is illuminating to see what he considered could be safely jettisoned and what was essential: the budgets allocated to the all-important European work, to the spread and maintenance of the precious Assemblies and centres created in Latin and North America, must not be curtailed; the holding of the American National Convention and the publication of Bahá’í News he considered imperative; but all other activities, such as proclamation, publications and summer schools, should either be “drastically curtailed or suspended during two years” (1949 and 1950). Like any great general conducting a campaign he safeguarded three things: his front lines of battle, his “essential base” (as he called it) of operations and his lines of communication. Other considerations, however, were to persuade the Guardian, in 1951, to not only prolong this period of intense economy in America but to enlarge it to embrace the whole Bahá’í world. The construction of the Shrine of the Báb — for the entire stonework of which he had recently signed a contract — as well as the formation of the International Bahá’í Council and the general expansion of the work in the Holy Land, led him to appeal to all National Spiritual Assemblies, local Assemblies and individual believers to curtail their budgets and through a great effort and sacrifice rally to the support of the World Centre. “Austerity period”, he cabled, “previously affecting fortunes American Bahá’í Community unavoidably prolonged now extended entire Bahá’í world in recognition pressing needs paramount importance glorious international task.” The American Bahá’ís had already, by 1950, raised half-a-million dollars for the interior ornamentation of their Temple, thus breaking the back of particularly heavy commitment.
During these difficult years the numerically much smaller Canadian Community — co-partner with the American Community in the execution of the Divine Plan — was so preoccupied with the Five Year Plan the Guardian had instructed it to initiate when the independent stage of its development was reached in 1948, that it was in no position to offer much assistance to the main body of believers in the United States, and the formation in 1951 of two more National Assemblies, one in Central and one in South America, made further demands on their tenacity, resources and courage. Yet with all their burdens their triumphs during the last years of the second Seven Year Plan continued to multiply. So pleased was Shoghi Effendi with the spirit of this truly heroic Community, every year justifying more clearly the great hopes for and trust in it ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had had, that in the summer of 1950 the Guardian suggested that, at a time when the Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Báb “with all its poignant memories is upon us” it would be suitable for such a community to resolve that on the occasion of the Centenary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission — coinciding with the end of its second Seven Year Plan — it would place a “worthy, befitting, five-fold offering…on the altar of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh” through reinforcing the foundations of the institutions established in North America; rearing the two Pillars of the future Universal House of Justice in Latin America; maintaining the strength achieved in the Ten Goal Countries of Europe; completing the interior ornamentation of the Temple; and assisting in the erection of the superstructure of a still holier edifice at the World Centre of the Faith. Although it was only a “hard-pressed, adolescent community” Shoghi Effendi reminded it that the “untapped sources of celestial strength from which it can draw are measureless in their potencies, and will unhesitatingly pour forth their energizing influences if the necessary daily effort be made and the required sacrifices be willingly accepted.”
The winning of so many victories by the Bahá’ís of the United States as well as Canada — to which had been added in the closing years of this Crusade services in the African Continent never contemplated in the original Plan — far exceeding in substance the misty prizes which had loomed, beckoning but vague, in the fog surrounding the world at the end of the war, now encouraged the Guardian to add a sixth offering of the altar of Bahá’u’lláh, one he termed the “fairest fruit” of the mighty European project. In 1952 he cabled that “ere termination American Community’s second Seven Year Plan” the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Italy and Switzerland should be formed, and added: “Advise European Teaching Committee upon consummation glorious enterprise issue formal invitation their spiritual offspring newly emerged National Assembly participate together with sister National Assemblies United States, British Isles, Germany Intercontinental Conference August same year capital city Sweden”. He explained he was planning to entrust this youngest Assembly of the Bahá’í world with a specific plan of its own as part of the Global Crusade to be embarked upon between the second and third Century celebrations. It had become an established procedure of the Guardian for these new National Bahá’í babies to be born with a plan in their mouths!
It may well be imagined how excited, how heartened, all the followers of Bahá’u’lláh were by news so thrilling as this. They saw what seemed to them little short of miracles taking place, and their loving “true brother”, in his humility, his praises and kindness, led them to believe such miracles were all theirs. That Italy should have, from a vacuum, succeeded in one decade in building up a foundation of local Assemblies strong enough, with its Swiss companion, to bear the weight of an independent National Assembly was a feat far beyond anyone’s fairest dreams.
In order to grasp, in however dim a way, why the third Seven Year Plan — which the Guardian had repeatedly referred to since the end of the first Bahá’í Century — became a Ten Year Plan instead, we must understand a fundamental teaching of our Faith. A just and loving God does not require of any soul what He will not give it the strength to accomplish. Privileges involve responsibilities, for peoples, nations, individuals. To the degree to which they arise to meet their responsibilities they are blessed and sustained; to the degree they fail they are automatically deprived and punished. Shoghi Effendi had written at the beginning of the first Seven Year Plan that “failure to exploit these golden opportunities would… signify the loss of the rarest privilege conferred by Providence upon the American Bahá’í Community.” “The Kingdom of God”, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had said, “is possessed of limitless potency. Audacious must be the army of life if the confirming aid of that Kingdom is to be repeatedly vouchsafed to it…” It was in pursuance of the operation of this great law that the followers of Bahá’u’lláh who had been entrusted with the Divine Plan, rising to meet their challenge, pulling down from on high through their services an ever-greater measure of celestial aid, discharging their sacred responsibility in so noble a fashion, found destiny hastening to meet them, a step in advance. A victorious army, having swept all barriers before it, is often so exhilarated by its exploits it needs no respite. It is ready to march on, fired by its victories. This was the mood of the Bahá’í world as 1953 approached and it was about to enter the Holy Year. Their Commander-in-Chief was a general who needed very little encouragement to induce him to go on and who never rested. So it was inevitable that given the hour, the mood and the man the Bahá’ís should find themselves with no “three year respite” but rather twelve completely evolved plans — one for each National Assembly — ready to be put into operation the moment the trumpet sounded the reveille in Riḍván 1953.
Wonderful as had been the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the inception of the Bahá’í Faith, in 1944, by Bahá’í communities living in the shadow of the worst war the world had ever known, it was dwarfed by the events associated with the hundredth anniversary of the revelation Bahá’u’lláh received in the Síyáh-Chál of Tehran. Poignantly, in the months preceding the commemoration of that event, the Guardian recalled to the Bahá’í world the tidal wave of persecution and martyrdom which had swept so many disciples of the Báb, so many heroes, so many innocent women and even children, from the scene a century before and had culminated in casting the Supreme Manifestation of God into a loathsome subterranean dungeon immediately following the abortive attempt on the life of Náṣiri’d-Dín Shah on 15 August 1852. The Guardian chose as the commencement of the Holy Year — the celebration of the Anniversary of the “Year Nine” — the middle of October 1952. A veritable fever of anticipation swept over the believers East and West, now free in every part of the globe to give their hearts to unreserved rejoicing. Perhaps for the first time in their history the Bahá’ís had a throbbing sense of their true oneness as a world community. What had always been a matter of doctrine, taught and firmly believed in, was now sensed by every individual as a great and glorious reality. The plans for the future, set in motion by a series of dynamic messages from Shoghi Effendi, served to inflame this new awareness.
At the end of November 1951, in a cable addressing all National Assemblies of the Bahá’í world, Shoghi Effendi informed us that the long anticipated intercontinental stage in the administrative evolution of our Faith was now at hand. We had, he pointed out, passed through the phases of local, regional, national and international activity and were emerging, at such an auspicious moment, into a new kind of Bahá’í world, one in which we began to think in terms of the entire planet with its continents in relation to our teaching strategy. Shoghi Effendi took the Centenary — this great golden wheel in his tapestry — and fashioned it in such in a way that two entirely different things were made to react on each other and at the same time blend into each other in one great creative centre of force. One was the past, the commemoration of such soul-shaking events as the martyrdoms, the imprisonment of Bahá’u’lláh, His mystic experience of His own station in the Síyáh-Chál His exile and all that these events signified for the progress of man in his journey towards his Creator; the other was the marshalling, this time of all the organized Bahá’í communities of the planet, in a vast Plan, the next step in the unfoldment of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan.