TWO HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX TERRITORIES NOW OPENED TO THE FAITH

The number of the virgin territories of the globe opened to the Faith has, since the inauguration, and in direct consequence of the vigorous prosecution, of this stupendous undertaking, been raised to one hundred and eight, swelling the number of the sovereign states and chief dependencies included within the pale of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh to two hundred and thirty-six, above two hundred of which have been enlisted under His banner since the ascension of the Center of His Covenant.

All the territories within the confines of the American, the European, the Asiatic and the African continents, assigned to ten Bahá’í National Assemblies, have, with the exception of Soviet-controlled territories, been opened. Of the seventy-two islands allocated to eleven Bahá’í National Assemblies no less than sixty-four have opened their doors to the vanguard of Bahá’í Crusaders, leaving Spitzbergen and Anticosti Island, situated respectively in the North Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, Nicobar Islands, Cocos Island and Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and Loyalty Islands, Sakhalin Island and Hainan Island in the Pacific Ocean—one of which is a native reserve, two of which are within the Soviet orbit, while four others are either privately owned or controlled by private companies—as yet unopened by the heroic band battling for the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.

The northern limits of the Faith in Europe have been pushed beyond the Arctic Circle as far as 70 degrees latitude, through the settlement of a Bahá’í pioneer in Reals Kolen, Batsfjord, Finnmark, only three degrees below Arctic Bay, Franklin, the northernmost Bahá’í Center established, in the course of the opening year of the Ten-Year Plan, in the North American Continent. Valiant pioneers have, moreover, volunteered and are busily engaged in devising plans, or have actually embarked on the necessary preparations, to cross the mountain frontiers of Tibet, to enter the Ukraine, beyond the Iron Curtain, to gain admission to the few remaining, hitherto inaccessible islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and to penetrate deep into the Arctic Ocean as far as the icebound island of Spitzbergen.

NUMBER OF RACES, LANGUAGES, INCORPORATED ASSEMBLIES AUGMENTED

No less than forty races are now represented in the world-wide Bahá’í Community, which has been recently enriched through the enrollment of representatives of the Greek, the Berber, the Pigmy, the Somali and Guanche races. The number of localities where Bahá’ís now reside is well over thirty-two hundred, of which fourteen hundred are located in the Great Republic of the West, over six hundred in the Cradle of the Faith, more than three hundred in the African Continent, and over one hundred each in the Dominion of Canada, in Australasia, Latin America and in the Indian Sub-Continent. In the African Continent alone the number of members of the Negro race has, within the space of four years, increased to over thirteen hundred; the number of territories opened to the Faith has reached fifty-eight, the number of local Spiritual Assemblies already established and functioning is now fifty, the number of tribes represented within the swiftly expanding Bahá’í Community is now over ninety, whilst the number of African languages into which Bahá’í literature has been and is being translated exceeds fifty.

The total number of the European, the African, the Asiatic and American-Indian languages into which Bahá’í literature has been and is being translated is one hundred and sixty-seven, of which fifty-five are among those included in the provisions of the Ten-Year Plan, and twenty-four are supplementary languages into which the translation of Bahá’í literature has been spontaneously undertaken by the indefatigable band of pioneers and new converts in Africa, in South East Asia, in the South Pacific Islands and in the Antipodes.

The number of incorporated Bahá’í national and local Spiritual Assemblies has now reached one hundred and forty, seventy-five of which are located in the United States of America, the latest additions to this steadily mounting list in other continents being the Assemblies of London and Manchester in the British Isles; of Ciudad Trujillo in the Dominican Republic; of Kuching in Sarawak; of Jakarta in Indonesia; of Helsinki in Finland and of San Juan in Puerto Rico.

ACTIVITIES AT THE WORLD CENTER

In the Holy Land, the Center and Pivot around which the institutions of a world-encompassing Administrative Order revolve, steps have been taken for the preparation of a Synopsis, and for the Codification of the Laws, of the Most Holy Book, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Mother-Book of the Bahá’í Revelation, as an essential prelude to the eventual translation and publication of its entire text.

A Fund has been inaugurated in anticipation of the adoption of preliminary measures for the ultimate construction of Bahá’u’lláh’s Sepulcher in the heart of the Ḥaram-i-Aqdas recently established in the plain of Akká.

The international Bahá’í endowments on Mt. Carmel have been greatly enhanced by the signature of a contract with the Israeli Authorities for the acquisition of an area of thirty-six thousand square meters, situated on the promontory of Mt. Carmel, overlooking the Cave of Elijah, as well as the spot sanctified by the footsteps of Bahá’u’lláh and associated with the revelation of the Tablet of Carmel, for the price of one hundred and eight thousand dollars, to serve as the site for the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Holy Land, the entire sum having been donated by Amelia Collins, Hand of the Cause and outstanding benefactress of the Faith.

The vast area surrounding the Báb’s Sepulcher has been enlarged through the purchase from the Development Authority of the State of Israel, of five houses, adjoining the last terrace of His Shrine for a sum of approximately sixty thousand dollars, as well as through the acquisition of a six thousand dollar plot that has been registered in the name of the Israeli Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles; of a house, valued at ten thousand dollars, that has been registered in the name of the Israeli Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada; of a twenty-eight thousand dollar plot, to be registered in the name of the Israeli Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Persia; and of a five thousand dollar plot to be registered in the name of the Israeli Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, steps are now being taken for the purchase of several properties, valued at approximately one hundred and forty thousand dollars, the acquisition of which is essential for the safeguarding of the area in the close vicinity of the Báb’s Sepulcher, as well as for the future extension of the arc around which the edifices, destined to serve as the seat of the future Bahá’í World Commonwealth, are to be erected.

Following the expropriation by the Israeli Finance Minister, on the recommendation of the Mayor of the City of Haifa, of the plot adjoining the site of the future International Bahá’í Archives on Mt. Carmel, the fixing of the position of the far-flung arc, around which the edifices constituting the Seat of the World Bahá’í Administrative Order are to be built, the location of the site of the building and the preparations for the excavation of its foundations, an hundred and twelve thousand dollar contract has been signed in Rome for the quarrying, the dressing and carving of the stones and the fifty-two columns of the building which will amount in weight to over nine hundred tons and are to be shipped within less than two years to the Holy Land.

The landscaping of the extensive area stretching between the Báb’s Sepulcher and the resting-places of the Greatest Holy Leaf, the Purest Branch and their mother, and destined to encircle this Edifice, has been undertaken, adding greatly to the beauty of the surroundings of these consecrated Spots in the heart of God’s Holy Mountain.

ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE CRADLE OF THE FAITH

In the Cradle of the Faith, the site of the Síyáh-Chál, the scene of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission and the second holiest spot in His native land, purchased in the course of the first year of the Ten-Year Plan, has been transferred by the donor of this holy and historic place, Habíb Sábet, to the name of one of the Hands of the Cause acting as my official representative in that country.

A five-year Plan has been inaugurated for the purpose of raising twelve million túmans for the construction of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in that land. The design of this historic Edifice has been finally selected from among a number of designs submitted by Bahá’í Architects in both the East and the West, the choice falling upon the plan conceived by the Hand of the Cause and President of the International Bahá’í Council, Mason Remey—a design which incorporates a dome reminiscent of that of the Báb’s Holy Sepulcher.

A contract has moreover been signed as a preliminary step for the eventual purchase of the Fortress of Chihríq and its surroundings, for a sum of over two hundred thousand túmans.

GOALS ATTAINED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

In the United States of America a plot has been acquired in the precincts of the Mother Temple of the West to serve as the site for the construction of a Home for the Aged, and which will constitute the first of the Dependencies to be erected around that holiest Bahá’í House of Worship. Measures have been adopted, and the design authorized, for the completion of the landscaping of the area surrounding that same building. The National Bahá’í Publishing Committee has been converted into a Bahá’í Publishing Trust, functioning under the jurisdiction of the American National Spiritual Assembly. The total number of American Indian tribes with which contact has been established has now reached twenty-two, whilst members of the Apache, the Cherokee, the Omaha, the Oneida, and the Sioux tribes have been enrolled in the American Bahá’í Community. The number of territories, federal districts and states of the United States of America where official authorization for the conduct of Bahá’í marriages has been granted is now twenty-one, whilst the number of localities in that same country where the Bahá’í Holy Days are officially recognized is over twenty-five.

PROPERTIES ACQUIRED AROUND THE WORLD

Land for no less than eight of eleven Temple sites to be acquired according to the provisions of the Ten-Year Plan, and involving an expenditure of eighty thousand dollars has been purchased in the following places: in the holy city of Baghdád, on the banks of the Tigris, blessed by the footsteps of Bahá’u’lláh, of an area of thirty thousand square meters; on the banks of the Nile in Cairo, the center of both the Arab and Islamic worlds, of an area of seventeen thousand square meters; in Frankfurt, the heart of the European continent, of an area of seventeen thousand square meters; in New Delhi, the capital of India, of an area of sixty-six thousand square meters; in Sydney, the oldest Bahá’í center in the Australian continent, of an area of eleven thousand square meters; in Kampala, in the heart of the African continent, of an area of twenty-four thousand square meters; in Johannesburg, the second largest city in the African continent, of an area of six thousand square meters; and in Panama City, the importance of which has been underlined by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, of an area of twenty thousand square meters.

No less than fourteen national Hazíratu’l-Quds, out of the forty-nine listed in the provisions of the Ten-Year Plan and which are to serve as seats of future Bahá’í National Spiritual Assemblies, have already been purchased, largely through the liberal contributions of the Hand of the Cause, Amelia Collins. These buildings, involving the expenditure of over two hundred thousand dollars, are situated in five continents of the globe; in London, Bern and Vienna in the European continent; in Anchorage, Lima and Panama City in the American continent; in Tokyo, Istanbul, Kábul, Bahrayn and Suva in the Asiatic continent; in Johannesburg and Tunis in the African continent; and in Auckland in the Antipodes. Negotiations for the purchase of three additional Hazíratu’l-Quds, in the cities of Rome, Jakarta and Colombo are moreover under way, while funds, totalling one hundred and thirty thousand dollars have been pledged for the purchase, in the immediate future, of twenty-seven other Hazíratu’l-Quds in Latin America and the European continent.

Furthermore, the sum of fifty thousand dollars has been contributed by the Hand of the Cause, Amelia Collins, as yet another evidence of her munificence, for the purpose of establishing Bahá’í national endowments in no less than fifty countries, situated in all five continents of the globe. A plot has, moreover, been purchased in South Africa, a property offered in the Aleutian Islands and a fund initiated for the same purpose in Alaska and Finland.

SIXTEEN NEW NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES BY RIDVAN, 1957

Such marvelous progress, involving such diversified activities, extending over so immense a field, within such a brief space of time, and notwithstanding the smallness of the numbers of the participants in this Global Crusade, the meagerness of their resources and the restrictions imposed upon them by those who are either unsympathetic to their Cause, or alarmed by their rising influence, or envious of the pervasive power of the Faith they champion, impels me to announce, in anticipation of the opening of the third phase of the Ten-Year Plan, the formation, during Ridván, 1957, in addition to the three Regional National Spiritual Assemblies to be elected in 1956 in the African continent, of thirteen National Spiritual Assemblies, some of which will be regional, others independent, some interim and others permanent.

These National Spiritual Assemblies, representing no less than forty-two territories will be established in four continents of the globe. Four will be in Asia: in Japan, in Pákistán, in the Arabian Peninsula and in South-East Asia. Three will be in Europe: in Scandinavia and Finland, in the Benelux countries and in the Iberian Peninsula. Five will be in America: the first, combining within its jurisdiction the Republics of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia; the second, comprising the Republics of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela; the third including Mexico and the Republics of Central America, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama; the fourth embracing the Islands of the Greater Antilles, Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and the fifth in Alaska. And lastly, one will be in the Antipodes, in the Dominion of New Zealand.

Responsibility for the convocation of the eight Bahá’í Conventions, whose delegates are to elect eight National Spiritual Assemblies in North, Central and South America and in Europe, and which are to be held in Anchorage, in Panama City, in Port-au-Prince, in Buenos Aires, in Lima, in Stockholm, in Brussels and in Madrid, will devolve upon the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America; for the convocation of the four conventions whose delegates are to elect four National Spiritual Assemblies in Asia, and which are to be held in Tokyo, in Karachi, in Bahrayn and in Jakarta, upon the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America, of Persia, and of India, Pákistán and Burma; and for the convocation of the convention whose delegates are to elect the National Spiritual Assembly of New Zealand, which is to be held in Auckland, upon the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia and New Zealand.

HANDS OF THE CAUSE TO ATTEND HISTORIC CONVENTIONS

I call upon the following Hands of the Cause to act as my representatives at these thirteen historic conventions, that are to pave the way for the erection, in four continents of the globe, of the pillars destined to support, in varying measure, the Universal House of Justice, the final unit in the construction of the edifice of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh: Valíyu’lláh Varqá and Horace Holley at the South American Conventions to be held in Buenos Aires and Lima respectively; Corinne True at the Greater Antilles Convention to be held in Port-au-Prince; Dhikru’lláh Khádem at the Central American Convention to be held in Panama City; Paul Haney at the Alaska Convention, to be held in Anchorage; Hermann Grossmann and Adelbert Mühlschlegel at the Scandinavian-Finnish Convention to be held in Stockholm; George Townshend at the Benelux Convention to be held in Brussels; Ugo Giachery at the Iberian Convention to be held in Madrid; Tarazu’lláh Samandarí at the Arabian Convention to be held in Bahrayn; ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan at the Southeast Asian Convention, to be held in Jakarta; Shu‘á’u’lláh ‘Alá’í at the Pákistání Convention to be held in Karachi; Jalál Kházeh at the Japanese Convention to be held in Tokyo; Clara Dunn at the New Zealand Convention to be held in Auckland.

I urge, moreover, as many members as feasible of the Auxiliary Boards appointed by the aforementioned Hands of the Cause, in the American, the European, the Asiatic and the Australian continents, to attend these momentous gatherings, at which the representatives of as many as forty-two Bahá’í Communities will assemble, and, through their active participation, reinforce and widen the scope of the deliberations of the elected delegates.

Furthermore, I cannot too strongly emphasize the vital necessity for all the Bahá’í groups, scattered throughout these forty-two countries, to brace themselves, and make a supreme effort, during these intervening two years, to achieve assembly status, ensuring thereby their participation in the election of the delegates to these fate-laden conventions, and contributing, through this act, to the broadening and strengthening of the foundations of these projected pivotal institutions, destined to play so prominent and vital a part in ushering in the last phase in the gradual establishment of the structure of an Administrative Order that must needs slowly evolve into the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, and which in turn will give birth, in the fullness of time, to a world spiritual civilization, which posterity will hail as the fairest fruit of His Revelation.

GUARDIAN’S APPEAL TO UPHOLDERS OF THE FAITH

Finally, I direct my appeal, through the assembled delegates, to the entire body of the believers whom they represent, and indeed, on this occasion, to all the upholders of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh wherever they reside in all the continents of the globe, to arise, at so auspicious an hour in the fortunes of the Faith, synchronizing with so fateful and perilous an hour in the fortunes of mankind, and consecrate themselves afresh, throughout this last, fast-fleeting year of the present phase of this momentous, world-girdling Plan, to the furtherance of the immediate objectives enumerated in my last year’s Convention Message, ensuring thereby a befitting conclusion to a stage in its resistless unfoldment destined to usher in its third and most brilliant phase—a phase on which the triumphant consummation of the Plan itself must so largely depend.

It is indeed my fervent and constant prayer that the members of this firmly-knit, intensely alive, world-embracing Community, spurred on by the triple impulse generated through the revelation of the Tablet of Carmel by Bahá’u’lláh and the Will and Testament as well as the Tablets of the Divine Plan bequeathed by the Center of His Covenant—the three Charters which have set in motion three distinct processes, the first operating in the Holy Land for the development of the institutions of the Faith at its World Center and the other two, throughout the rest of the Bahá’í world, for its propagation and the establishment of its Administrative Order—may advance from strength to strength and victory to victory. May they hasten, by their present exertions, the advent of that blissful consummation when the shackles hampering the growth of their beloved Faith will have been finally burst asunder, when its independent status will have been officially and universally recognized, when it will have ascended the throne and wielded the scepter of spiritual and temporal authority, when the brightness of its glory will have illuminated the whole earth, and its dominion will have been established over the entire planet.

—Shoghi

[April, 1955]

Achievements—Supplementary Report

Share National Assemblies following announcement supplementing message recently addressed to delegates of the Bahá’í Conventions.

Annual elections of the second year, second decade, of the second Bahá’í century, were signalized by the formation of the first historic local Assemblies in communities as diversified and far apart as Mecca, Qiblih of Islamic world, Muscat and Riaz, situated on the shore and in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula; in the Bahamas, British West Indies; in Diu Island, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Sargodha, Saigon, in Southeast Asia; Monte Carlo, Basel, Mongat, Orleans, Marseilles, Bergen, Cologne, in Europe; in Reunion Island, Zanzibar, Seychelles, Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean; in the holy cities of Kazímayn and Najaf, strongholds of Shí’ih orthodoxy in ‘Iráq, in addition to the group already established in Karbilá; Teneriffe and Las Palmas, in the Atlantic Ocean.

Africa alone boasts the establishment of above seventy new Assemblies, raising the total number established since the launching of the systematic simultaneous teaching campaigns on the African continent four years ago to well above one hundred. Uganda in particular achieved the unique, memorable feat of the formation of seventeen new Assemblies, swelling number of Assemblies to forty-one, localities to over hundred, total believers to almost nine hundred.

The sacred dust of the Báb’s infant son, extolled in the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá was respectfully and ceremoniously transferred on the anniversary of his Father’s martyrdom, in the presence of pilgrims and resident believers to the Bahá’í cemetery in Shíráz, the prelude to the translation to the same spot of the remains of the Báb’s beloved and long-suffering consort.

Five additional incorporations of local Assemblies, including Suva, Fiji.

A pioneer has embarked for Loyalty Island, the last remaining unopened island in the Pacific Ocean outside the Soviet orbit.

Negotiations for the purchase of national Hazírás in Colombo and Jakarta are nearing completion.

Preliminary steps have been undertaken for the establishment of a Bahá’í Publishing Trust in Ṭihrán.

The design for the Mother Temple in the cradle of the Faith was unveiled in the presence of pilgrims and resident believers assembled within the Ḥaram-i-Aqdas on the first day of Ridván.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, April 30, 1955]

Prayers for Faith in Persia

Call upon all believers to join me in special, fervent prayers for Divine protection of the vital interests and complete emancipation from shackles of the beloved Faith in Bahá’u’lláh’s native land.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, April 30, 1955]

Appointment to International Bahá’í Council

Announce to National Assemblies the number of the members of the International Council has been raised to nine through appointment of Sylvia Ioas.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, May 4, 1955]

Implications and Requirements

Impelled at this grave hour in the chequered history of the over century-old, world-encompassing, repeatedly-persecuted yet undefeatable Faith, to summon the entire body of the valorous upholders of its institutions who, severally and collectively, stand pledged to the prosecution of the mightiest crusade launched since its inception, whether residing in homelands or overseas, however repressive the regimes under which they labor, to ponder anew the full implications and essential requirements of their stewardship of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.

Entreat them to refuse to allow any vicissitudes, present or future, to dampen their ardor and enthusiasm, impair their solidarity, weaken their resolution, or deflect them from their high purpose. Unbowed by adversity, disdainful of the clamors, undeterred by the machinations of the inveterate, artful, traditional enemies who are alarmed by their own declining fortunes, contrasting with the evidence of the dynamic force, impelling power, rising prestige, indivisible unity, accumulating resources, multiplying institutions and inextinguishable spirit of God’s infant Faith, it behoveth them to bend their energies, rise to higher levels of consecration, vigilantly combat all forms of misrepresentations, eradicate suspicions, dispel misgivings, silence criticisms, through still more compelling demonstration of loyalty to their respective governments, win, maintain and strengthen the confidence of the civil authorities in their integrity and sincerity, reaffirm the universality of the aims and purposes of the Faith, proclaim the spiritual character of its fundamental principles, and assert the non-political character of its administrative institutions.

Appeal to members of communities untrammeled by the disabilities and shackles imposed on their less privileged brethren, particularly those established in the North American continent, recognized stronghold of the administrative order of the Faith, and those residing in the British Commonwealth and Empire, situated in the heart, the East and West of the African continent, scattered throughout the Antipodes and Pacific area, to arise promptly and accelerate the tempo of their activities, multiply exploits which will more than offset the transient setbacks which a steadily-advancing and as yet not fully-emancipated Faith may suffer. Theirs is the sublime opportunity so to act as to thoroughly dishearten and confound any schemes which envious, fanatical and embittered adversaries, tottering to their fall, may devise.

Share message with National Assemblies.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, May 26, 1955]

Archbreaker of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant

Announce to National Assemblies that Majdi’d-Dín, the most redoubtable adversary of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, denounced by Him as the incarnation of Satan and who played a predominant part in kindling the hostility of ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd and Jamál Páshá, and who was the chief instigator of Covenant-breaking and archbreaker of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, and who above sixty years labored with fiendish ingenuity and guile to undermine its foundations, miserably perished struck with paralysis affecting his limbs and tongue. Dispensation of Providence prolonged the span of his infamous life to a hundred years, enabling him to witness the extinction of his cherished hopes and the disintegration with dramatic rapidity of the infernal crew he unceasingly incited and zealously directed, and the triumphant progress and glorious termination of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s thirty-year ministry as well as evidences of the rise and establishment in all continents of the globe of the administrative order, child of the divinely-appointed Covenant and harbinger of the world-encircling order.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, June 3, 1955]

World-Wide Reverberations

Mysterious dispensations of ever-watchful Providence, hastening, through turmoil and trial, the triumph of His undefeatable Faith, dictating at this critical hour the sudden deterioration of the situation confronting the largest community of the Bahá’í world, as evidenced by the violent recrudescence of the persecution afflicting intermittently, for over a century, its members residing in Bahá’u’lláh’s native land.

Following the seizure and the destruction of the dome of the community’s national administrative headquarters, the occupation of similar institutions in all provinces, the government declaration to the Majlis outlawing the Faith and a virulent press and radio campaign, distorting its history, calumniating its Founders, misrepresenting its tenets and obscuring its aims and purposes, a series of atrocities has been perpetrated in rapid succession throughout the length and breadth of the land against members of a sorely-tried community.

The House of the Báb, the foremost Shrine in Írán, has been twice desecrated and severely damaged; Bahá’u’lláh’s ancestral Home at Takur occupied; the house of the Báb’s uncle razed to the ground; shops, farms plundered; crops burned, livestock destroyed; bodies disinterred in the cemeteries and mutilated; private houses broken into, damaged and looted; adults execrated and beaten; young women abducted and forced to marry Muslims; children mocked, reviled, beaten and expelled from the schools; boycott by butchers and bakers imposed; fifteen-year-old girl raped; eleven-month-old baby trampled underfoot; and pressure brought to bear upon believers to recant their Faith.

More recently a family of seven, the oldest eighty, the youngest nineteen, residing in Hurmuzak of the Province of Yazd, were set upon by a mob two thousand strong, accompanied by music of drums and trumpets, which hacked them to pieces with spades and axes. Meanwhile an official circular has been issued by the Prime Minister, addressed to Government Departments ordering the expulsion of all Bahá’í employes refusing to recant.

This highly distressing situation threatens to worsen during Muharram and Safar.

Reacting to these barbarous acts, over a thousand groups and local Assemblies of the Bahá’í world appealed telegraphically to the authorities, and all National Assemblies addressed written communications to the Sháh, the government and parliament, pleading for justice and protection.

Finding written pleas unanswered, an appeal has been lodged with United Nations by representatives of the International Bahá’í Community at Geneva. Copies of the appeal were delivered to representatives of member nations of the Social and Economic Council, the Director of the Human Rights Division and certain specialized agencies of nongovernmental organizations with consultative status. Furthermore, President Eisenhower who, according to the newspapers, first mentioned the persecutions at a Press Conference in Washington, has been appealed to by the National representatives of the American Bahá’í Community and all Assemblies and groups in the United States to intervene on behalf of their oppressed sister community.

Whatever the outcome of the present heart-rending events, one fact emerges clear and indisputable. God’s infant Faith, provided, through the operation of a quarter-century-long process associated with the first epoch of the formative age of the Faith, with the machinery of a divinely appointed Administrative Order, and utilizing in the course of the succeeding epoch, through the formulation of a series of national plans, culminating in the launching of the World Crusade, the newly-born administrative agencies for the systematic propagation of the Faith, is now gradually emerging from obscurity in the wake of the ordeal convulsing the overwhelming majority of the followers of the Faith.

The world-wide reverberations of this nation-wide commotion will be hailed by posterity as the mighty blast of God’s trumpet designed to awaken, through the instrumentality of its oldest, most redoubtable, most vicious, most fanatical adversaries, countless multitudes, and the Chancelleries and Chief Magistrates of the East and of the West, to the existence and implications of the Faith proclaimed by His Messenger in this Day. This long-desired, ardently-hoped-for emergence, itself a long-drawn-out process, is bound to pave the way for the emancipation of this same Faith from the fetters of orthodoxy in Islamic countries, as well as the ultimate recognition of the independent character of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh in His homeland.

Owing to the grievous losses sustained, and the necessity to demonstrate world-wide Bahá’í solidarity, an “Aid the Persecuted” Fund has been inaugurated for the purpose of bringing immediate relief to the despoiled and homeless victims. Myself contributing the equivalent of eighteen thousand dollars for this noble purpose. However conscious I am of the manifold demands on the adherents of the Faith, I am impelled to invite them to participate through contributions to be transmitted through their respective National Assemblies.

Moreover, undeterred by the obstacles placed in the path of the crusaders of Bahá’u’lláh, the historic decision has been arrived at to raise the Mother Temple of Africa in the City of Kampala, situated in its heart and constituting a supreme consolation to the masses of oppressed valiant brethren in the Cradle of the Faith. Every continent of the globe except Australasia will thereby pride itself on and derive direct spiritual benefits from its own Mashriqu’l-Adhkár. Befitting recognition will, moreover, have been accorded the marvelous expansion of the Faith and the amazing multiplications of its administrative institutions throughout this continent, a continent fully deserving of a House of Worship, complementing the four national Hazíratu’l-Quds already established, wherein the spirit of an unconquerable Faith can dwell, within whose walls the African adherents of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh can congregate, and from which anthems of praise glorifying the Most Great Name can ascend to the Concourse of the Abhá Kingdom.

Transmit message to Hands of the Cause and National Assemblies.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, August 23, 1955]

Hand of Cause Appointment

Inform Hands and National Assemblies that Varqá’s son, ‘Alí Muḥammad has been appointed to succeed his father now gathered into the concourse on high in the Abhá Kingdom, as Trustee of Ḥuqúq and elevated to rank of Hand of the Cause.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, November 15, 1955]

So Significant a Victory

The triumphant termination of the second phase of the decade-long global Spiritual Crusade on which the followers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh have so auspiciously embarked impels me to share with the delegates assembled at the Annual Bahá’í Conventions convened in all the continents of the globe the feelings of joy, of pride and of thankfulness which so significant a victory has evoked in my heart.

A REMARKABLE VICTORY

The year that has just ended—a year which posterity cannot fail to regard as one of the most eventful and challenging in the annals of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation—has been overshadowed, in the course of its opening months, by a sudden and highly menacing crisis in the fortunes of this Faith, a crisis which, though as yet not fully resolved, has already led to a remarkable victory over the combined forces of its traditional adversaries in the land of its birth, who, for more than a century, have plotted assiduously to disrupt its foundations, tarnish its glory and extinguish its light. A long-abused, down-trodden, sorely tried community, constituting the overwhelming majority of Bahá’u’lláh’s followers, subjected recently to the strain and stress of a violent recrudescence of persecution, which was marked throughout by intense vilification, intimidation, spoliation, expulsion, arson, rape, and murder, has emerged triumphant from yet another gruelling experience—a testing period of exceptional severity—its unity unbroken, its confidence reinforced, its prestige considerably enhanced, its fame noised abroad to an unprecedented degree, its administrative agencies unshaken, its endowments unimpaired, and the grim, boastful and reiterated threats of its sworn enemies to outlaw it through formal legislative action, confiscate its property, demolish its edifices, imprison and deport its members, and extirpate it, root and branch, in the native land of its Founder unenforced.

PROGRESSIVE UNFOLDMENT OF THE TEN-YEAR CRUSADE

Simultaneous with this marvelous, awe-inspiring interposition of Providence, at this critical stage in the mysterious evolution and the resistless progress of God’s infant Faith in the land of its birth, towards the two shining goals of complete emancipation from the shackles of religious orthodoxy and of state recognition, an equally significant development can be noted, during the last twelve-month, in the progressive unfoldment, beyond the confines of this storm-tossed land, and stretching to the farthest corners of the earth, of the Ten-Year Plan, now entering upon the third, and what promises to be the most brilliant, phase in its execution.

This world-encompassing enterprise, embarked upon, three years ago, on the occasion of the world-wide celebrations commemorating the centenary of the birth of the Mission of the Founder of our Faith, has, in all phases of its operation, throughout five continents, as well as the islands of the seas, gathered swift momentum, and is demonstrating, in both its territorial and institutional aspects, a vitality, and has registered successes, that have far exceeded the expectations of even the most sanguine among its promoters.

The number of localities into which the light of this unconquerable Faith, now radiating the splendor of its glory over the face of the planet, has penetrated, has swelled to well nigh thirty-seven hundred, marking an increase of almost five hundred in the course of a single year. The number of Sovereign States and Chief Dependencies included within its pale, which multiplied with such amazing swiftness during the opening year of this World-Crusade, has now risen to two hundred and forty-seven through the arrival of the Knights of Bahá’u’lláh Udai Narain Singh, Frank Wyss and Daniel Haumont, in Tibet, in Cocos Island and Loyalty Islands, respectively, as well as through the opening of Laos and Cambodia and of the Islands of Pemba, Fernando Po, Trinidad and Corisco—territories not included in the provisions of the Ten-Year Plan,—and as a result of information recently received indicating the presence of a few believers in the Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The number of local Spiritual Assemblies now functioning throughout the length and breadth of the Bahá’í World exceeds nine hundred. Every single country listed in the Plan within the confines of every continent of the globe, with the exception of those within the Soviet Orbit, are now opened to the Faith. All islands figuring in that Plan, over seventy in number, situated in the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Indian Oceans, in the Mediterranean and the North Sea, have, likewise been opened except Nicobar Islands, Chagos Archipelago, Hainan Island, Sakhalin Island, Spitzbergen and Anticosti Island. The number of the islands of the globe to which the Message of Bahá’u’lláh has been carried since its inception now totals ninety-eight. In the Pacific Ocean alone the number of opened territories is now over forty, while the number of localities where Bahá’ís reside exceeds one hundred and seventy. The number of languages into which Bahá’í literature has been and is being translated has now reached one hundred and ninety, no less than thirty-four of which are to be regarded as supplementary to those included in the provisions of the Plan.