Bahai Faith -- North America; Shoghi, Effendi, 1897-1957 -- Correspondence
“A most wonderful and thrilling motion will appear in the world of
existence,” are ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s own words, predicting the release of
spiritual forces that must accompany the completion of this most hallowed
House of Worship. “From that point of light,” He, further glorifying that
edifice, has written, “the spirit of teaching ... will permeate to all
parts of the world.” And again: “Out of this Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kár,
without doubt, thousands of Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kárs will be born.” “It
marks the inception of the Kingdom of God on earth.”
Again I repeat—and I cannot overrate the vital, the unique importance of
the campaign now launched to insure the completion of such an edifice—the
immediate destiny of the American Bahá’í Community is intimately and
inescapably bound up with the outcome of this newly launched, this
severely trying, soul-purging, spiritually uplifting campaign. The
God-given mission, constituting the birthright, and proclaiming the
primacy of a community whose members the Founder of that community, the
Center of the Covenant Himself, has addressed as the “Apostles of
Bahá’u’lláh,” can only be fulfilled if they befittingly obey the specific
Mandate issued by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Tablets of the Divine Plan. The
execution of this Mandate is, in its turn, dependent upon the triumphant
conclusion of the Second Seven Year Plan, the second stage in the series
of specific plans formulated to insure the successful termination of the
opening phase in the execution of that Mandate. Indeed, the successive
plans, inaugurated since the birth of the second Bahá’í century, by the
British, the Indian, the Persian, the Australia-New Zealand, the Iráqí,
the German and the Egyptian National Assemblies, with the exception of the
plan undertaken by the Canadian National Assembly, which forms an integral
part of the Plan associated with the Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, are but
supplements to the vast enterprise whose features have been delineated in
those Tablets and are to be regarded, by their very nature, as regional in
scope, in contrast with the world-embracing character of the mission
entrusted to the community of the champion builders of the World Order of
Bahá’u’lláh, and the torch-bearers of the civilization which that Order
must eventually establish. As to the Second Seven Year Plan itself, its
eventual success must depend on the attainment of its second and most
vital objective. This objective, in its turn, cannot be achieved unless
the two-year campaign, now launched by the elected representatives of this
community, is successfully carried out. Nor can this campaign yield its
richest fruit unless and until the community, in its entirety,
participates in this nation-wide sacrificial effort. Nor can this
collective effort be blessed, to the fullest extent possible, unless the
contributions made by its members involve acts of self-abnegation, not
only on the part of those of modest means, but also by those endowed with
substantial resources.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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