Century of Light

ing as it is touching. Referring to His situation following the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke

ings, and ... had pledged themselves to make sacrifices in the pathway of the love of God, thus to achieve eternal life. At the very moment wh

ed. It draws to our attention the gentleness with which the Master chose to introduce to His Western audiences the concepts of human nature and human society revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, concepts revolutionary in their implications and entirely outside His hearers' experience. It explains the delicacy with which He us

carry on their daily lives. Their response arose from a level of consciousness that recognized, even if sometimes only dimly, the desperate need of the human race for spiritual enlightenment. To remain steadfast in their commitment to this insight required of these early believers-on whose sacrifice of self much of the foundation of the present-day Bahá'í communities both in the West and many other lands were laid-that they res

God-intoxicated pilgrims" and who had the privilege of visiting 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the prison-city of 'Akká, of seeing for themselves the luminosity of His

name. I had been carried suddenly to too great a height, my soul had come in contact with

t...."20 Fuelling their endeavours and those of their fellow believers, and drawing into the Cause growing numbers of new adherents, was a flood of Tablets addressed by the Master to recipients on both sides of the Atlantic, messages that th

, are so many (hundreds pouring forth daily) that it is an impossibility for him to have given time to them for searching t

advanced age, His ill health, and the physical disabilities left by decades of imprisonment, He set out on a series of journeys that would last some three years, carrying Him eventually to the Pacific coast of the North

familiar with Western customs and language, had arisen not only to proclaim from pulpit and platform, in some of the chief capitals of Europe and in the leading cities of the North American continent,

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His face, the trip was a triumph far surpassing their brightest hopes. Public officials, scholars, writers, editors, industrialists, leaders of reform movements, members of the British aristocracy, and influential clergymen of many denominations eagerly sought Him out, invited Him to their platforms, cl

e world will become indeed as a garden and a paradise.... You are loosed from ancient

damental oneness of religion. War shall cease between nations, and by the will of God the Most Gr

in over forty cities across North America and an additional nineteen in Europe, some of them visited more than once, was a feat that may well have no parallel in modern history. On both continents, but especially in North America, 'Abdu'l-Bahá received a highly appreciative welcome from distinguished audiences devoted to such concerns as p

proclaim unambiguously the social principles of the new Revel

ings on which the bird of human kind is able to soar; the introduction of compulsory education; the adoption of a universal auxiliary language; the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty; the institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations; the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank of worship; the glorification of justice as

rs and talks, owed nothing whatever to the other-worldly assumptions familiar from the teachings of traditional religion. Rather, the Master proclaimed the coming of age of humankind and the emergence of a global civilization in

already come into existence. What was needed

necessary. Inasmuch as this century is the century of light, capacity for achieving peace has been assured.

n audiences and His energetic vindication of the divine origin of both Christianity and Islam to the congregation at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco. His ability to inspire in women of all ages confidence that they possessed spiritual and intellectual capacities fully equal to those of men, His unprovocative but clear demonstration of the meaning of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings on racial oneness by welcoming black as well as white guests at His own dinner table

at were not taken up by the public demands of His mission were given over to responding to the questions of the friends, meeting their needs, and infusing into them a spirit of confidence in the contributions each could make to the promotion of the Cause they had embraced. His visi

al, a drug dispensary, a traveler's hospice, a school for orphans, and a university for advanced studies.... My hope is that the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár will now be established in America

countless Western Bahá'ís through the years of effort and sacrifice that followed, as they struggled to expand and consolidate the Faith. Without such an intervention by the Centre of the Covenant Himself, it is impossible to imagine little groups of Western believers-lacking entire

cognition of the oneness of the human race. In arising to undertake their mission, He promised that they would find

e Most Great Name, bearing unnumbered gifts, hath risen above the horizon of the world, the Word of God hath infused such awesome power into the inmost essence

come aware of the high degree of individuality that characterized many of them, particularly the most active and creative. Not infrequently, they had found the Faith only after intensive investigation of various spiritual and social movements current at the time, and this broad understanding of the concerns and interests of their contemporaries no doubt helped make them such effective teachers of the Faith. It is equally clear, however, that the wide range of

the implications of His message. Appreciating these limitations on the part of His hearers, 'Abdu'l-Bahá did not hesitate to introduce into His relations with Western believers actions that summoned them to a level of consciousness far above mere social liberalism and tolerance. One example that must stand for a range of such intervent

unity of society; the overcoming of national, racial and other prejudices; the encouragement of equality in the education of boys and girls; the need to shake off the shackles of ancient dogmas that were inhibiting investigation of reality-these principles for the advancement of civilization had made a pow

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was 'Abdu'l-Bahá's proclamation, shortly after His arrival in North America, of Bahá'u'lláh's Coven

t: It is the ordination and appointment of the Center of the Covenant. By this appointment and provision He has safeguarded and prote

believer, Lua Getsinger, had been called on by the Master to prepare the group of Bahá'ís who had gathered in the house where He was temporarily residing for this historic announcement, following which He Himself went downstairs and spoke in general terms about

d. This is the Testament of Bahá'u'lláh. You will find it in the Holy Book of

rity invested in the Master by the Kitáb-i-'Ahd, the Tablet of the Branch and related documents frustrated their private hopes to turn the Cause to their personal advantage, these persons began a persistent campaign to undermine His position, first in the Holy Land and then in Persia, where the bulk of the Bahá'í community was concentrated. When these sche

eakers in the Holy Family. Such experiences had doubtless prepared the Western believers for the Master's formal proclamation of His station and for the firmness with which He enjoined on believers avoidance of any involvement with such agents of division: "Certain weak, capricious, malicious and ignorant souls ... have striven to efface the Di

God for our day will bring into being, the Master warned emphatically of the dangers that lay on the immediate horizon-both for

fficulty for the community, undermining the faith of some and causing others simply to drift away from participation in the Faith. In Persia, too, the faith of the friends was repeatedly tested by the schemes of ambitious individuals suddenly aw

fforts at reconciliation that might alleviate in some measure the suffering of the world's people, He left His hearers in no doubt of the magni

e very armaments themselves are productive of war. This great arsenal must go ablaze. There is nothing

where He had available the services of Hippolyte Dreyfus, whose written Arabic and Persian met the Master's requirements. As the recognized cultural capital of continental Europe, Paris was a focal centre for visitors from many parts of the world, including the Orient. While

alls upon the earth, but behold the day will come when it shall rise a glorious tree and the branches thereof shall be

. S. Himalaya, arriving at Port Said in Egypt four days later. What Shoghi Effendi h

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e catastrophe is popularly associated with the murder in Sarajevo of the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and certainly the train of blunders, reckless threats and mindless appeals to "honour" that led directly to World War I

percussions. On two occasions during these opening years of the century, war between France and Germany over imperialist designs in North Africa was narrowly averted only through the self-interested intervention of other powers. In 1911 Italian ambitions similarly provoked a dangerous threat to international peace by

ities looked forward eagerly to their day of liberation. Tirelessly exploiting this network of fissures in the existing order were a multitude of conspiracies, resistance groups and separatist organizations. Inspired by ideologies ranging from an almost incoherent anarchism at one extreme to sharply honed racist and nationalist obsessions at the

ineteenth century ideologue Karl Marx, had succeeded in establishing groups of committed supporters throughout Europe and various other countries. Convinced that the genius of its master had demonstrated beyond question the essentially material nature of the forces that had given rise to both human consciousness and socia

erty-stricken and largely uneducated colonial populations whom they had been able to subject. The false confidence that military hardware thus inspired led inexorably to a race to equip armies and navies with the most advanced of modern weaponry, and to do so on as massive a scale as possible. Machine guns, long-range cannon, "dre

people to novel ideas for the bringing about of social change, and exciting mass appetites for material benefits previously available only to elite segments of society. Even under relatively autocratic systems, the public was beginning to perceive the extent to which civil authority was dependent for its effectiveness on its ability to win broad popular su

g dust of all acquired knowledge".36 These unexamined views communicated themselves to ever-widening audiences. Sensationalism in the popular press, fiery debates between scientists or scholars, on the one hand, an

analyzed cataclysm of World War I. The statistics themselves remain almost beyond the ability of the human mind to encompass: an estimated sixty million men eventually being thrown into the most horrific inferno that history had ever known, eight million of them perishing in the course of the war an

hat had by then become virtually inescapable was his awareness of the moral damage that would ensue. Not the least of the distinctions that characterized this extraordinary man-a statesman whose vision both 'Abdu'l-Ba

ilizing of human nature-lends tragic force to words the Master had addressed only two or three years earlier to audiences in such European cities as London, Pa

manifest in the world of humanity, when divine instruction and guidance appear, then enlightenment follows, a new spirit is realized within, a new power descends, and a new life is given. It is like the birth from the animal kingdom into the kingdom of man..

far more terrible conflict. The ruinous reparations demanded of the vanquished -and the injustice that required them to accept the full guilt for a war for which all parties had been, to one de

c dominance which these European nations had acquired through three centuries of imperialist exploitation of the rest of the planet. The deaths of millions of young men who would have been urgently needed to meet the challenges of the coming decades was a loss that could never be recovered. Indeed, E

w nation-states. Further, the president's "Fourteen Points" briefly endowed his public statements with so great a moral authority in the minds of millions of Europeans that not even the most recalcitrant of his fellow leaders among the Allied powers could entirely disregard his wishes. Despite months

t are associated with the dawn of world peace, he lays emphasis on the fact that they are "destined to culminate, in the fullness of time, in a single glorious consummation".40 The first, the Guardian describes as associated with the miss

newly born League of Nations which that president had labored to create.... It must, however long and tortuous the way, lead, through a series of victories and reverses, to the political unification of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, to the emergence of a worl

onception of untrammelled national sovereignty, it could take decisions only with the unanimous assent of the member states, a requirement largely ruling out effective action.42 The hollowness of the system was exposed, as well, by its failure to include some of the world's most powerful states: Germany had been rejected as a defeated nation held responsible for the war, Russia was initially denied ent

perience of this catastrophe had given birth and which alone could have alleviated the far greater suffering that lay ahead. In the prophetic words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá: "Peace, Peace ... the lips of potentates and peoples unceasingly proclaim, whereas the fire of unquenched hatred

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ine Plan laid out in fourteen great Tablets, four of them addressed to the Bahá'í community of North America and ten subsidiary ones addressed to five specific segments of that community. Together with Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet of Carmel and the Master's Will and Testament, the Tablets of the Divine Plan were described by Shoghi Effendi as th

Lord of Hosts be proclaimed in all the five continents of the globe. The moment this Divine Message is carried forward by the American believers from the shores of America, and is propagated through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australia, and as far as the islands of the Paci

e shadow of the clouds...", and to become "as true brethren in the one and indivisible religion of God, free from distinction,... so that ye find yourselves reflected in them, and they in you".46 In His summons to the "Rulers of America and the Presidents of the Republics therein", Bahá'u'lláh Himself delivered a mandate that has no parallel in any of His other addresses to world leaders: "Bind ye the broken with

rospect, to provide a foretaste of the victories that the Cause itself would know as the century unfolded. The changed conditions in the Holy Land freed the Master to pursue His work unhampered and created the conditions in which the brilliance of His mind and spirit could exercise their influence on government officials, visiting dignitaries of every kind, and the various communities making up the population of the

llowed the funeral cortège up the slopes of Mount Carmel in a state of unaffected grief such as the city had never before witnessed. It was led by representatives of the British government, members of the diplomatic community, and the heads of all of the religious bodies in the area, several of whom participated in the service at the Shrine of the