Bahai Faith -- North America; Shoghi, Effendi, 1897-1957 -- Correspondence
The recognition of the sacred nature of the twin holy Shrines, situated in
the plain of Akká and on the slopes of Mount Carmel; the exemption from
state and civic taxes, granted to the mansion of Bahjí adjoining the Most
Holy Shrine, to the twin houses, that of Bahá’u’lláh in Akká, and
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa, to the twin archives, adjoining the Shrine of the
Báb and the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf, and the twin pilgrim
houses constructed in the neighborhood of that Shrine, and of the
residence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; the delivery of the mansion of Mazra’ih by the
authorities of that same state to the Bahá’í Community and its occupation
after a lapse of more than fifty years; the setting apart, through
government action, of the room occupied by Bahá’u’lláh in the barracks of
Akká, as a place of pilgrimage; the recognition of the Bahá’í marriage
certificate by the District Commissioner of Haifa; the recognition of the
Bahá’í holy days, in an official circular published by the Ministry of
Education and Culture; the exemption from duty accorded by the Customs
Department to all furniture received for Bahá’í holy places as well as for
all material imported for the construction of the Báb’s Sepulcher, the
exemption from taxes similarly extended to all international Bahá’í
endowments surrounding the holy tomb on Mount Carmel, stretching from the
ridge of the mountain to the Templar colony at its foot, as well as to the
holdings in the immediate vicinity of the resting-place of the Greatest
Holy Leaf and her kinsmen—all these establish, beyond the shadow of a
doubt, the high status enjoyed by the international institutions of a
world Faith, in the eyes of this newborn state.
The construction of the mausoleum of the Báb, synchronizing with the birth
of that state, and the progress of which has been accompanied by these
successive manifestations of the good will and support of the civil
authorities will, if steadily maintained, greatly reinforce, and lend a
tremendous impetus to this process of recognition which constitutes an
historic landmark in the evolution of the World Center of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh—a process which the newly formed Council, now established at
its very heart, is designed to foster, which will gather momentum, with
the emergence in the course of time of a properly recognized and
independently functioning Bahá’í court, which will attain its consummation
in the institution of the Universal House of Justice and the emergence of
the auxiliary administrative agencies, revolving around this highest
legislative body, and which will reveal the plenitude of its
potentialities with the sailing of the Divine Ark as promised in the
Tablet of Carmel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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