FAST-AWAKENING CONTINENT OF AFRICA
In the Continent of Africa and in its neighboring islands, in both the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, the number of the avowed supporters of the Faith has passed the three thousand mark; over two thousand five hundred of whom belong to the Negro race. The number of territories opened to the Faith in that fast-awakening continent and its neighboring islands has risen to fifty-eight, while the number of localities where Bahá’ís reside is over four hundred. The number of tribes represented in the Bahá’í Community is now over one hundred and forty, the number of local Assemblies already established is over one hundred and twenty, and the number of languages into which Bahá’í literature has been and is being translated exceeds fifty.
FORTY-THREE NATIONAL HAZÍRATU’L-QUDS
The number of incorporated Assemblies, both local and national, in various continents of the globe, has been raised to one hundred and sixty-eight, the latest additions being the Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assembly and the Local Spiritual Assemblies of Brussels, Tokyo, Liverpool, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Quincy, Basel, Zürich, Geneva, Heidelberg, Buenos Aires, Saigon, Suva, Malacca and Addis Ababa. The number of National Hazíratu’l-Quds, the precursors of Bahá’í National Spiritual Assemblies, acquired in the capitals and leading cities of North, Central and South America, of the goal countries of Europe, of Africa, Asia and Australasia, and of several islands of the globe, has reached forty-three, involving the expenditure of over half a million dollars, amply compensating for the seizure and occupation of the National Administrative Headquarters of the Faith and the demolition of its dome by the military authorities in the Persian capital.
TEMPLE SITES AND ENDOWMENTS
Land for ten Temple sites has moreover been acquired at a cost of no less than one hundred thousand dollars, while negotiations are well advanced for the acquisition of the one remaining Temple site to be purchased in the Swedish capital. In no less than thirty of the fifty-one countries listed in the Ten-Year Plan, National Bahá’í endowments estimated as having a value of one hundred thousand dollars have been acquired, outstanding among them being the Maxwell Home honored by the presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá while in Montreal, which has been transferred by the Hand of the Cause Amatu’l-Bahá to the Canadian National Spiritual Assembly. Efforts are moreover being strenuously exerted for the establishment of similar endowments in the twenty-one remaining countries. Following the completion and adoption of the design for the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in the cradle of the Faith, steps have been taken for the preparation of no less than three additional designs, one for the Temple scheduled to be erected in the heart of the European Continent, another for the one to be erected in the near future in the African Continent, and the third for the one contemplated for Australasia, paving the way thereby in each of the remaining continents of the globe for the erection of a House to be consecrated to the worship of the one true God, and to the glory and honor of His Messenger for this Day.
DEVELOPMENT OF BAHÁ’Í WORLD CENTER
In the Holy Land, the center and pivot round which the divinely appointed, fast multiplying institutions of a world-encircling, resistlessly marching Faith revolve, the double process, so noticeable in recent years, involving a rapid decline in the fortunes of the breakers of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant and proclaiming the rise of the institutions of its World Administrative Center, in the shadow of His Shrine, has been accelerated on the one hand, through the death, in miserable circumstances, of the treacherous and malignant Majdi’d-Dín, the last survivor of the principal instigators of the rebellion against the Will of the Founder of our Faith, and, on the other, through the laying of the foundation, and the erection of some of the pillars, of the facade and of the northern side of the International Bahá’í Archives—the first of the major edifices destined to constitute the seat of the World Bahá’í Administrative Center to be established on Mt. Carmel. No less than thirty of the fifty-two pillars, each over seven meters high, of this imposing and strikingly beautiful edifice have already been raised, whilst half of the nine hundred tons of stone ordered in Italy for its construction have already been safely delivered at the Port of Haifa. A contract, moreover, for over fifteen thousand dollars has been placed with a tile factory in Utrecht for the manufacture of over seven thousand green tiles designed to cover the five hundred square meters of the roof of the building.
Coincident with these building operations an extensive plot, adjoining the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf has, after protracted and difficult negotiations, been purchased for the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, for the purpose of extending and safeguarding, on the one hand, the area of the international Bahá’í endowments on Mt. Carmel, and of providing, on the other, the much needed space for the extension and completion of the far-flung arc around which the edifices of the World Bahá’í Administrative Order are to be built. The recently acquired area surrounding the holiest Shrine in the Bahá’í World and its appointed Qiblih in the plain of Akká has been further extended through the purchase from the Development Authority of the State of Israel of a dilapidated house, situated south of the Mansion and blessed by the presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and in which He was wont to receive His friends, amongst them the first party of western Bahá’í pilgrims to arrive in the Holy Land after the passing of Bahá’u’lláh. To these latest acquisitions must be added the purchase of another plot situated in the neighborhood of the Báb’s Sepulcher and adjoining the area surrounding the future seat of the World Bahá’í Administrative Order, raising thereby the total area of the international Bahá’í endowments in the Holy Land to over four hundred thousand square meters. Furthermore, the necessary formalities have been completed in connection with the purchase of the site of the future Mashriqu’l-Adhkár on Mt. Carmel, while the transfer of the title deeds of recently acquired plots to the name of the Israel branches of the United States, the British, the Persian, the Canadian and Australian Bahá’í National Spiritual Assemblies is being expeditiously carried out.
EVENTS IN THE UNITED STATES
In the United States of America, the home of the champion-builders of a fast-evolving Order, an official invitation was extended to the Bahá’í Community by the San Francisco Council of Churches to send representatives to attend a Service of Prayer for Peace and Divine Guidance to the United Nations, an invitation to which the Community warmly responded. At this inter-religious gathering, held in the Cow Palace in San Francisco, the birthplace of the Charter of the United Nations, which united nearly sixteen thousand people in worship and silent prayers, and at which government leaders, among them the United States Secretary of State, were present, the voice of the Bahá’í representative was the first to be raised, reciting a prayer revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, after whom a prayer was read by each of the representatives of the Christian, the Muslim, the Jewish, the Hindu, and the Buddhist Faiths, all of whom were similarly invited to participate in that immense and historic gathering. A prayer revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for America was presented by the elected national representatives of the United States Bahá’í Community to President Eisenhower, who acknowledged its receipt in warm terms and above his own signature.
OTHER VICTORIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Nor should mention be omitted in this brief survey of Bahá’í victories and achievements in the course of the closing year of the second phase of the Ten-Year Plan of the establishment of a Bahá’í Publishing Trust in India; of the establishment of over thirty new centers and fifteen Assemblies in India, Pákistán and Burma; of the purchase of some of the holy sites blessed by the footsteps of Bahá’u’lláh in Adrianople, the Land of Mystery and the scene of the proclamation of His Message; of the holding of the first Bahá’í Summer School in Central Africa, in Kobuka, Uganda, attended by about one hundred African and white believers and representatives of no less than twenty-eight Bahá’í local Assemblies; of the convocation of the first historic All-France Teaching Conference, the first fruit of the combined labors of the believers of about thirty centers already established throughout the length and breadth of that country; of the setting apart of a plot to serve as a burial-ground for the members of the Bahá’í community in Tripoli, Libya and in the capital of Tanganyika; of the purchase of land for the establishment of a Bahá’í Summer School in ‘Iráq; of the extension to the Bahá’í women in Egypt of the right to be elected to the Egyptian Bahá’í National Spiritual Assembly as well as to participate as delegates in the National Bahá’í Convention; of the purchase, in an island near Muara Siberut, Mentawei Islands, of a plot supplementing the Bahá’í endowment established in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital; of the pushing of the northern outpost of the Faith in Alaska to Point Barrow beyond the Arctic Circle; of the initiation of auxiliary plans for the promotion of the Faith in the Seychelles Islands and in the Sudan; and of the arrival of a pioneer in Praslin Island forming a part of the Seychelles group.
APPEAL TO UNITED NATIONS
Nor can I in this survey allow to pass unnoticed the energetic and commendable efforts exerted by Bahá’í communities the world over for the support, protection and relief of the persecuted members of the Persian Bahá’í Community subjected to one of the severest ordeals experienced in recent years by the steadfast followers of the Faith in the land of its birth. Following this barbarous recrudescence of religious persecution and the transmission of over one thousand messages by Bahá’í communities, some in writing and others telegraphically, to His Majesty the Sháh, the Government, the Majlis and the Senate, and reinforcing the wide publicity given in the world’s leading newspapers and the numerous protests voiced by scholars, statesmen, government envoys and people of eminence such as Pandit Nehru, Eleanor Roosevelt, Professor Gilbert Murray and Professor A. Toynbee, a written communication accompanied by a memorandum listing the atrocities perpetrated throughout the Persian provinces, was submitted in Geneva to the Secretary General of the United Nations, who appointed a commission of United Nations officers, headed by the High Commissioner for Refugees, instructing its members to contact the Persian Foreign Minister and urge him to obtain from his government in Ṭihrán a formal assurance that the rights of the Bahá’í minority in that land would be protected. Copies of this communication addressed to the United Nations were delivered to the representatives of the member nations of the Social and Economic Council, to the Director of the Human Rights Division, and to certain specialized agencies of non-governmental organizations with consultative status. Furthermore, the American President was appealed to by the national representatives of the American Bahá’í Communities as well as by all local Assemblies and groups in the United States. A courteous and reassuring letter was subsequently received by the American Bahá’í National Spiritual Assembly from the State Department in Washington, acknowledging the receipt of the appeal, while the Director of the Division of Human Rights addressed in his turn a communication to the Secretary of the American National Spiritual Assembly, informing him that summaries of both the letter and petition forwarded to him would be furnished to the Commission of Human Rights, and copies sent to the Persian Government. Assurance was moreover given that summaries would also be sent to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. As a further measure to obtain redress a forty-thousand dollar publicity campaign was initiated by the American Bahá’í Community designed to lend an impetus to the proclamation of the fundamental verities of the Faith, the aims and purposes of its followers, and of the disabilities suffered by the overwhelming majority of its adherents in the land of its birth.
ENROLLMENTS IN VIRGIN TERRITORIES
Nor can I refrain from emphasizing in this rapid survey the highly significant fact that in over sixty territories, constituting more than a half of the total number of virgin territories opened to the Faith, since the inauguration of the World Spiritual Crusade, the number of those who have espoused the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh and enlisted under His banner has surpassed the number originally anticipated and regarded as a minimum for the opening of these territories; that in a considerable proportion of them the Bahá’í membership has far exceeded the number required for the formation of local Assemblies; that in Gambia as many as three hundred, and in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands as many as five hundred, have been and are being enrolled beneath His standard; and that in Uganda alone, which holds the palm of victory, the number of registered believers has exceeded one thousand.
NEXT PHASE OF WORLD CRUSADE
Such heart-warming, soul-stirring examples of Bahá’í initiative and enterprise; such splendid testimonies to Bahá’í solidarity, perseverance, courage, fortitude, and self-sacrifice, displayed in rapid succession, and over so immense an area of the globe’s surface, and in the face of mounting opposition on the part of those who envy the ever widening glory of the Faith or fear the influence of its all-pervasive power, have shed on the opening chapter of this Crusade a luster which the passing of time can never tarnish. The third phase of this momentous enterprise—the opening of which is, at this hour, being signalized by the emergence of no less than three additional Regional Bahá’í Assemblies in the African Continent—must cast on the annals of this prodigious Crusade an illumination of such brilliancy as will eclipse the splendor of this luster.
The glorious and stupendous work already accomplished, singly and collectively, in the course of three brief years, in five continents of the globe and the islands of the seas, both at home and abroad, in the teaching as well as the administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity must, as the army of Bahá’u’lláh’s crusaders marches forward into new and vaster fields to capture still greater heights, never be jeopardized or allowed to lag or suffer a setback. The prizes so arduously won should not only be jealously preserved but should be constantly enriched. Far from suffering the long and distinguished record of feats which have been achieved to be tarnished, assiduous efforts must be exerted to ennoble it with every passing day.
The newly opened territories of the globe must, under no circumstances, be allowed to relapse into the state of spiritual deprivation from which they have so recently and laboriously been rescued. Nay, the highly edifying evidences proclaiming the expansion and the consolidation of the superb historic work achieved in so many of these territories must be rapidly multiplied. The local assemblies that have been so diligently and patiently established must under no circumstances be allowed to dissolve, or their foundations be in any way endangered. The mighty and steady process involving the increase in the number of the avowed supporters of the Faith, and the multiplication of isolated centers, groups and local assemblies must, throughout this newly opened phase of the Plan, be markedly accelerated. The incorporation of local assemblies must proceed with a rapidity that will throw into shade the progress achieved in this respect during the first two phases of the Plan. The remaining unopened territories of the globe outside the Soviet orbit, now confined to no more than four lonely islands, must with the least possible delay, be won over to the ever spreading dominion of Bahá’u’lláh, consummating thereby the most far-reaching and thrilling of all the enterprises launched through the concerted efforts of His valiant followers. The one remaining Temple site destined to be bought in the Swedish capital must be speedily acquired. The six remaining Hazíratu’l-Quds, some in Latin America, others in the European continent, must likewise be rapidly established. The Bahá’í endowments in the countries still deprived of the benefits of this divinely appointed institution must be forthwith purchased. The task of completing the translation of Bahá’í literature into the languages listed in the provisions of the Plan must be carried out with renewed determination and vigor. The Bahá’í Publishing Trusts that are as yet unestablished must be founded at the earliest possible opportunity. The sacred obligation of purchasing the remaining chief historic sites in the birthplace of the Faith, and particularly the scenes of the Báb’s incarceration and martyrdom, must be discharged as expeditiously as possible. The search now being conducted for the purpose of identifying the resting-places of the Father of Bahá’u’lláh, of the Mother and the Cousin of the Báb must be pursued with the utmost diligence and circumspection. The construction of the Mother Temple of Europe, so vital and yet so long overdue, must be speedily commenced, whilst a parallel effort must be exerted in Africa for the erection, without delay, of a similar institution which the phenomenal progress of the Faith in that continent has made imperative. The Construction of the Home for the Aged, marking the inauguration of the first of the Dependencies of the Holiest House of Worship in the Bahá’í world, must, now that the site in the proximity of the Temple has been acquired, be started and expeditiously carried forward. The process of incorporating the newly formed National Spiritual Assemblies, whether regional or independent, must be initiated soon after their formation, and should be continually stimulated with every increase in the number of these assemblies in all the continents of the globe. Above all, an effort unprecedented in its range and intensity, must be exerted for the speedy multiplication of local spiritual assemblies in all the territories where National Spiritual Assemblies, whether independent or regional, provisional or permanent, are to be established, for the purpose of broadening and strengthening the foundations on which these potent national institutions—the pillars of the future Universal House of Justice—must rest. Immediate attention should be focused on the multiplication of such institutions in areas where these National Spiritual Assemblies are to be established in the near future, such as South and Central America, the Arabian Peninsula, Southeast Asia, Pákistán, Alaska, Japan, New Zealand, Scandinavia and Finland, the Benelux countries, the Iberian Peninsula and France, as well as those territories in which national assemblies are to be established at a later stage in the course of the unfoldment of the present phase of the Plan, and the date of the formation of which will, to a large extent, depend on the rapidity with which these local assemblies are formed.
A MAJOR TURNING POINT
The Crusade, on which the army of the Lord of Hosts has so joyously and confidently embarked, now stands at a major turning point in the history of its marvelous unfoldment. Three years of magnificent exploits, achieved for the propagation of the light of an immortal and infinitely precious Faith and for the strengthening of the fabric of its Administrative Order, now lie behind it. A spirit of abnegation and self-sacrifice, so rare that only the spirit of the Dawn-breakers of a former age can be said to have surpassed it, has consistently animated, singly as well as collectively, its participants in every clime, of all classes, of either sex, and of every age. A treasure, immense in its range has been willingly and lovingly expended to insure its systematic and successful prosecution. Already a few heroic souls have either quaffed the cup of martyrdom, or laid down their lives, or been subjected to divers ordeals while combating for its Cause. Its repercussions have spread so far as to alarm a not inconsiderable element among the traditional and redoubtable adversaries of its courageous and consecrated prosecutors. Indeed as it has forged ahead, it has raised up new enemies intent on obstructing its forward march and on defeating its purpose. Premonitory signs can already be discerned in far-off regions heralding the approach of the day when troops will flock to its standard, fulfilling the predictions uttered long ago by the Supreme Captain of its forces.
Before the eyes of the warriors enlisting under its banner stretch fields of exploration and consolidation of such vastness as might well dazzle the eyes and strike awe into the heart of any soul less robust than those who have arisen to identify themselves with its Cause. The heights its champions must scale are indeed formidable. The pitfalls that bestrew their path are still numerous. The road leading to ultimate and total victory is tortuous, stony and narrow. Theirs, however, is the emphatic assurance, revealed by the Pen of the Most High—the Prime Mover of the forces unleashed by this world-girdling Crusade—that “Whosoever ariseth to aid our Cause God will render him victorious over ten times ten thousand souls, and, should he wax in his love for Me, him will We cause to triumph over all that is in heaven and all that is on earth.”
Putting on the armor of His love, firmly buckling on the shield of His mighty Covenant, mounted on the steed of steadfastness, holding aloft the lance of the Word of the Lord of Hosts, and with unquestioning reliance on His promises as the best provision for their journey, let them set their faces towards those fields that still remain unexplored and direct their steps to those goals that are as yet unattained, assured that He Who has led them to achieve such triumphs, and to store up such prizes in His Kingdom, will continue to assist them in enriching their spiritual birthright to a degree that no finite mind can imagine or human heart perceive.
—Shoghi
[April, 1956]
Evidences of the Resistless March of the World Crusade
At this auspicious hour, marking yet another milestone in the progress of the divinely-guided, world-embracing, steadily consolidating Community of the followers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, I feel once again impelled to share with the elected representatives of the vast majority of its avowed supporters, assembled on the occasion of the convocation of the twenty-four Bahá’í Conventions being held simultaneously in the American, the European, the Asiatic, the African, and the Australian continents, the latest evidences of its resistless march along the path traced for it by both its Founder and the appointed Center of His Covenant.
The year that has just expired, signalized, at the hour of its birth, by the emergence of three regional spiritual assemblies, on the northern fringes, in the heart, and at the southern extremity of the long dormant African continent, and ushering in the third phase of a decade-long, world-encompassing Spiritual Crusade, has, as we look back on the triumphs and trials that have marked its course, accelerated, to a notable extent, the two parallel processes of integration and disintegration associated respectively with the rising fortunes of God’s infant Faith and the sinking fortunes of the institutions of a declining civilization.
Indeed, as we gaze in retrospect beyond the immediate past, and survey, in however cursory a manner, the vicissitudes afflicting an increasingly tormented society, and recall the strains and stresses to which the fabric of a dying Order has been increasingly subjected, we cannot but marvel at the sharp contrast presented, on the one hand, by the accumulated evidences of the orderly unfoldment, and the uninterrupted multiplication of the agencies, of an Administrative Order designed to be the harbinger of a world civilization, and, on the other, by the ominous manifestations of acute political conflict, of social unrest, of racial animosity, of class antagonism, of immorality and of irreligion, proclaiming, in no uncertain terms, the corruption and obsolescence of the institutions of a bankrupt Order.
PORTENTOUS PROPHECIES
Against the background of these afflictive disturbances—the turmoil and tribulations of a travailing age—we may well ponder the portentous prophecies uttered well-nigh fourscore years ago, by the Author of our Faith, as well as the dire predictions made by Him Who is the unerring Interpreter of His teachings, all foreshadowing a universal commotion, of a scope and intensity unparalleled in the annals of mankind.
The violent derangement of the world’s equilibrium; the trembling that will seize the limbs of mankind; the radical transformation of human society; the rolling up of the present-day Order; the fundamental changes affecting the structure of government; the weakening of the pillars of religion; the rise of dictatorships; the spread of tyranny; the fall of monarchies; the decline of ecclesiastical institutions; the increase of anarchy and chaos; the extension and consolidation of the Movement of the Left; the fanning into flame of the smouldering fire of racial strife; the development of infernal engines of war; the burning of cities; the contamination of the atmosphere of the earth—these stand out as the signs and portents that must either herald or accompany the retributive calamity which, as decreed by Him Who is the Judge and Redeemer of mankind, must, sooner or later, afflict a society which, for the most part, and for over a century, has turned a deaf ear to the Voice of God’s Messenger in this day—a calamity which must purge the human race of the dross of its age-long corruptions, and weld its component parts into a firmly-knit world-embracing Fellowship—a Fellowship destined, in the fullness of time, to be incorporated in the framework, and to be galvanized by the spiritualizing influences, of a mysteriously expanding, divinely appointed Order, and to flower, in the course of future Dispensations, into a Civilization, the like of which mankind has, at no stage in its evolution, witnessed.
Parallel with this process of progressive deterioration in human affairs, now visibly gathering momentum outside the pale of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, and recalling the convulsions which, on a far more restricted scale, seized a declining empire in the opening centuries of the Christian era, far less spectacular in its manifestation, has been the process of integration, as demonstrated by the increasing cohesion, the multiplication, and the reinforcement of the foundations, of the institutions of the embryonic Bahá’í World Order, which, now, under the impact of the forces released by a World Spiritual Crusade, deriving its authority from the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and launched for the express purpose of executing the Divine Plan bequeathed by Him to His followers in the evening of His life, is contributing, unnoticed by a generation forgetful of its God, and already in the shadow of His Visitation, to the building up, slowly but irresistibly, of that Ark of human salvation, ordained as the ultimate haven of a society destined, for the most part, to be submerged by the tidal wave of the abuses and evils which its own perversity has engendered.
VICTORY OVER ECCLESIASTICAL FORCES
The fourth year of this Ten-Year Crusade, endowed with such tremendous potentialities, has witnessed, in the Cradle of the Faith, and in direct consequence of the strenuous, the concerted and persistent efforts exerted by the champion-builders of this embryonic World Order, holding aloft the standard of an unconquerable Faith in the American and European continents, and reinforced by the voice of men of eminence in both the East and the West, and, particularly, by responsible officials, occupying high positions in various agencies of the United Nations, a victory over the ecclesiastical forces leagued against it and a fanatical population determined to extirpate it root and branch—a victory which must rank as one of the most striking among those won in the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation. The numerous properties, serving, for the most part, as the administrative headquarters of the Faith, and scattered throughout the provinces of that sorely tried land, outstanding among which is the House of the Báb in Shíráz—the holiest spot in that country, the scene of the birth of His Revelation, and the ordained Center of Pilgrimage—have, pursuant to orders issued by the central authorities in Ṭihrán, been returned to their owners, despite the protests of a relentless and powerful clergy, the agitation of a hostile population, and the importunate demands made by prominent members of the Legislature to outlaw and disendow the Faith, confiscate its literature, raze to the ground its principal edifices, deport its chief supporters, and root it out of the provinces. A firm and categorical assurance has, moreover, been given by the Chief Magistrate and the head of his Cabinet to the national representatives of the Persian Bahá’í Community that their national administrative headquarters in Ṭihrán, together with all its furnishings, books and documents, which have thus far been kept intact in that edifice, will be restored.
Whilst so conspicuous a victory was being registered by a persecuted Faith in the land of its birth over the combined forces of its traditional adversaries, its stalwart standard-bearers, in both hemispheres, have, in accordance with their solemn pledges, given at the time of the inception of the Ten-Year Crusade, been pursuing their historic task of enlarging the orbit, and of consolidating the institutions, of a rapidly maturing Administrative Order.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF WORLD CRUSADE
The number of territories included within the pale of the Faith, embracing all the sovereign states and chief dependencies of the planet, has now, in consequence of this prodigious effort, been raised to two hundred and fifty-one, as a result of the opening of the island of Anticosti, in the North Atlantic Ocean, by the Knight of Bahá’u’lláh, Mary Zabolotny, of the arrival of a pioneer in Mafia Island, off the coast of Tanganyika, and of the news received recently of the presence of a few followers of the Faith in the Soviet Republics of Tádzhíkistán and of Kirgizia, almost doubling, within the space of four years, the total number of territories opened in the course of eleven decades of Bahá’í history. Of the hundred and thirty-one territories listed in the Ten-Year Plan, only Spitzbergen, Nicobar Islands and the Chagos Archipelago, as well as eleven territories, which are either incorporated in the Soviet Union or are included within its orbit, remain to be opened by the band of intrepid warriors intent upon enlarging the limits, and spreading far and wide the fame, of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Every single territory of the hundred and twenty, mentioned by the Author of the Divine Plan in His memorable Tablets, is now opened to His Father’s Faith, proclaiming the exemplary fidelity of His followers to the dearest wishes expressed by the Center of the Covenant in those Tablets.
The total number of localities where the followers of the Most Great Name now reside has, as a result of their unprecedented scattering over the surface of the globe, exceeded the forty-two hundred mark, representing an increase of no less than a thousand centers in the course of the last two years. Of these localities—foci of the warming and healing light of an all-conquering Revelation—over a hundred are now established in Australasia, over a hundred and ten in the British Isles, over a hundred and ten in the Goal Countries of Europe, over a hundred and ten in the Dominion of Canada, over a hundred and thirty in Latin America, over a hundred and thirty in Germany and Austria, over a hundred and forty in the Indian subcontinent, over two hundred and ten in the Pacific area, over five hundred and fifty in the African continent, over nine hundred and eighty in Persia, over fourteen hundred and sixty in the United States of America.
The northernmost outpost of the Faith has now been pushed far beyond the Arctic Circle, as far as 76 degrees latitude, in consequence of the arrival of William Carr, a Canadian believer, in Thule, Greenland, a settlement situated three degrees above Arctic Bay, Franklin, the most northerly center hitherto established in the Bahá’í world.
The number of local spiritual assemblies organized in all the continents of the globe, constituting the broad and indestructible foundation of the edifice of a rising Order, now exceeds one thousand, an increase of more than a hundred in the space of a single year.
The number of islands now within the pale of the Faith, situated in the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Oceans as well as in the Mediterranean and the North Sea, is now over a hundred, seventy-four of which have been opened since the inauguration of the World Spiritual Crusade, including five islands, situated in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and not listed as objectives of the Ten-Year Plan.
The number of languages into which the continually expanding literature of the Faith has been and is being translated has risen to two hundred and thirty, representing an increase of forty in the course of one year. Seventy-five of these languages are included in the ninety-one named in the Ten-Year Plan, while sixty-six have been added to those originally specified in the provisions of that same Plan. Of this widely disseminated literature seven books have been lately presented by an adherent of the Faith residing in Christchurch, New Zealand, to the officer in charge of the American Antarctic Expedition for its library, while others have been dispatched, beyond the Antarctic Circle, as far south as the Expedition’s base, at McMurdo Sound, 77 degrees latitude, on the shores of the Ross Sea.
The number of incorporated spiritual assemblies, whether local or national, in all the continents of the globe, has now swelled to one hundred and ninety-five, more than ninety of which are situated in the United States of America. Outstanding among those that have been recently registered are the assemblies of Bern, Switzerland; Frankfurt, Germany; Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Brisbane, Australia; Scarborough, Canada; Aligarh, India; Mastung, Pakistan; Huncayo, Peru; Cochabamba, Bolivia; Colombo, Ceylon; Kuala Lumpur, Malaya; Asmara, Eritrea; Monrovia and Bomi Hills, Liberia; Tuarabu, Gilbert and Ellice Islands; Baro-bai-Amantai, Indonesia; and Simatalu Saibi, Simatalu Ulu, Sipipajet, Mentawai Islands.
Of the forty-nine National Hazíratu’l-Quds enumerated in the Ten-Year Plan all but three have already been established, involving the expenditure of over five hundred and seventy thousand dollars, raising thereby the value of all the edifices, serving as the national administrative headquarters of the Faith in all the continents of the globe, to over two and a half million dollars.
Of the fifty-one countries in which, in accordance with that same Plan, national Bahá’í endowments are to be purchased within the space of a decade, as many as forty-nine have achieved their goals, through the expenditure of a sum estimated at more than one hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
The number of sovereign states, dependencies, as well as territories, federal districts and states of the United States of America, where the Bahá’í Marriage Certificate is recognized is now over thirty, the latest additions being Vietnam, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Indonesia and Liberia. The number of countries, states as well as cities of the United States, where the Educational Authorities have recognized the Bahá’í Holy Days now exceeds forty-five, among which are included Israel, the British Isles, Samoa, Liberia, Tanganyika, the states of Victoria and of South Australia. Mention in this connection, moreover, should be made of the recognition officially extended by the authorities of H. M. Kitalya Farm Prison in Uganda to its recently converted Bahá’í inmates to observe these same Holy Days.
THE QIBLIH OF A WORLD COMMUNITY
In the Holy Land—the Qiblih of a world community, the heart from which the energizing influences of a vivifying Faith continually stream, and the seat and center around which the diversified activities of a divinely appointed Administrative Order revolve—following upon the termination of the construction of the Báb’s holy Sepulcher, marking the closing of the first chapter in the history of the evolution of the central institutions of a world Faith, a marked progress in the rise and establishment of these institutions has been clearly noticeable. The remaining twenty-two pillars of the International Bahá’í Archives—the initial Edifice heralding the establishment of the Bahá’í World Administrative Center on Mt. Carmel—have been erected. The last half of the nine hundred tons of stone, ordered in Italy for its construction, have reached their destination, enabling the exterior of the building to be completed, while the forty-four tons of glazed green tiles, manufactured in Utrecht, to cover the five hundred square meters of roof, have been placed in position, the whole contributing, to an unprecedented degree, through its colorfulness, its classic style and graceful proportions, and in conjunction with the stately, golden-crowned Mausoleum rising beyond it, to the unfolding glory of the central institutions of a World Faith nestling in the heart of God’s holy mountain.
Simultaneous with this striking development, the plan designed to insure the extension and completion of the arc serving as a base for the erection of future edifices constituting the World Bahá’í Administrative Center, has been successfully carried out. The dilapidated house, situated in the close neighborhood of Bahá’u’lláh’s Shrine, recently acquired from the Development Authority of the State of Israel, because of its historic associations, has been restored. Negotiations, moreover, have been initiated with that same Authority for the acquisition of two plots to the north and south of the Shrine, for the purpose of safeguarding its precincts from a further extension of the new settlements springing up rapidly in the plain of Akká. Steps have also been taken to register the title-deeds of a centrally located plot, originally owned by a Covenant-breaker, and abutting on the International Archives, in the name of the Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles. A further blow has been struck at the remnants of the implacable enemies of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the breakers of His Father’s Covenant, still living in the immediate vicinity of the holiest shrine of the Bahá’í world, through the destruction of a row of ruinous sheds which had been under their control, through orders issued by the Municipal Authorities of Akká. And, lastly, an expropriation order has been published in the Israel Official Gazette by the Treasury Department of Israel related to buildings enclosed within the Ḥaram-i-Aqdas, aiming at the eviction of these same enemies from the outer Sanctuary of Bahá’u’lláh’s Sepulcher, following upon the evacuation by them of the Mansion at Bahjí after two score years of occupancy, and which, when carried out, will mark the final cleansing, after more than sixty-five years, of the immediate surroundings of the holiest Spot in the Bahá’í world.
Nor can I dismiss this subject related to the progress achieved in the development of Bahá’í international institutions in the Holy Land without a special reference to the continual extension and embellishment of the international endowments of the Faith in the plain of Akká and on the slopes of Mt. Carmel, the value of which now exceeds five million two hundred thousand dollars, as well as to the ever-swelling crowds of visitors flocking to the Bahá’í Shrines in both of these places, and particularly to the number of those entering the Tomb of the Báb which, during a single day, in a three-hour period, has exceeded a thousand.
THE TEN-YEAR PLAN IN THE UNITED STATES
In the United States of America, the cradle and citadel of the embryonic World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, the elected national representatives of the American Bahá’í Community, acting as the representatives of the International Bahá’í Community, charged with the defense of the cause of their persecuted brethren in the cradle of the Faith, have energetically pursued their efforts, through representations made to the United Nations officials and agencies in New York and Geneva, through their contact with high-ranking officials of the American State Department and through measures of publicity in the American Press, all culminating in the victory won over the adversaries of the Faith, to which reference has been made earlier in these pages.
The landscaping of the Temple area, including the operation of the nine fountains, as envisaged by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, has been completed at a cost of two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The number of visitors who, since public guiding has been instituted, have flocked to the doors of this Mother Temple of the West, now standing amidst such attractive surroundings, has exceeded seven hundred thousand, whilst more than three thousand have entered its doors in the course of a single day. Authorization has moreover been recently given by the Wilmette Village Board for the construction of the Home for the Aged, the first Dependency of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár. The value of national and local endowments owned by, and under the control of, that community, whose members have so spontaneously and effectively championed the cause of the persecuted and the down-trodden, and so generously contributed to their relief in the past, is now four and a half million dollars. The number of American Indian tribes with which contact has been established in the Western Hemisphere—an achievement in which the members of this Community have played a leading role—is now over forty-five. No less than eighteen American Indian tribes are now represented in the Bahá’í communities of that same hemisphere, mainly as a result of the assiduous endeavors exerted by the members of this Community. The number of territories, federal districts and states where official authorization for the conduct of Bahá’í marriages has been obtained is now twenty-eight, whilst the number of localities, in that same country, where the Bahá’í Holy Days are officially recognized is one short of forty.