Dearly loved friends,
We announce with joyful and thankful hearts the completion
in overwhelming victory of the world-encircling Nine Year Plan. The Army of
Light has won its second global campaign; it has surpassed the goals set for
expansion and has achieved a truly impressive degree of universal
participation, the twin objectives of the Plan. With gratitude and love we
testify to the unceasing confirmations which Bahá'u'lláh has showered upon His
servants, enabling each and every one of us to offer Him some part of the
labour, the devotion, the sacrifice, the supplication which He has so
bountifully rewarded. At this Centenary of the Revelation of the Most Holy
Book, the Community of the Most Great Name lays its tribute of victory at His
feet, acknowledging that it is He Who has bestowed it.
The Cause of God at the end of the Nine Year Plan is
immensely more widespread, more firmly founded, and its own international
relations more closely knit than in 1964 when the Plan was launched.
Ninety-five new territories have been opened to the Faith; the 69 National
Spiritual Assemblies which shouldered the world community's task have become
113, 5 more than called for. These embryonic secondary Houses of Justice are
supported by more than 17,000 Local Spiritual Assemblies, 3,000 in excess of the
goal and 12,000 more than at the beginning of the Plan. Bahá'ís reside in
69,500 localities, 15,000 more than called for, and 54,000 more than in 1964.
Bahá'í literature has been translated into 225 more languages bringing the
total number to 571; 63 Temple sites, 56 National Haziratu'l-Quds, and 62
National Endowments have been acquired bringing the total numbers of these
properties to 98, 112 and 104 respectively; 50 Teaching Institutes and Summer
and Winter Schools are playing their part in Bahá'í education and 15 Publishing
Trusts produce Bahá'í literature in major languages of the world. The Mother
Temple of Latin America has been built and dedicated. Among those goals whose
achievement is dependent on favourable circumstances outside our control are the
incorporation of Assemblies and recognition of Bahá'í Holy Days. It is
gratifying to record that 90 National Spiritual Assemblies and 1,556 Local
Spiritual Assemblies -- 181 more than the total number called for -- are
incorporated, while Bahá'í Holy Days are recognized in 64 countries and Bahá'í
certification of marriage in 40.
This great expansion of the Faith required an army of international pioneers. Two major calls were raised, for 461 and 733, which together with others for particular posts made an overall total of 1,344. The Community of the Most Great Name responded with 3,553 who actually left their homes, 2,265 of whom are still at their posts.
At the World Centre of the Faith the collation and classification
of the Bahá'í Sacred Scriptures and of the writings of Shoghi Effendi have been
carried forward in ever increasing volume, a task supported and enriched by the
labours of a special committee appointed by the Persian National Spiritual Assembly.
The material at the World Centre, includes some 2,600 original Tablets by
Bahá'u'lláh, 6,000 by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and 2,300 letters of Shoghi Effendi. There
are in addition some 18,000 authenticated copies of other such Tablets and
letters. All these have been studied, important passages from them excerpted
and classified, and the subject matter indexed under 400 general headings.
A Synopsis and Codification of the Laws and Ordinances of
the Kitáb-i-Aqdas -- completing the considerable progress made by the beloved
Guardian in this task -- is being published on the Centenary of the Revelation
of the Most Holy Book, which, as already announced, is to be celebrated both in
the Holy Land and throughout the Bahá'í world during this Ridvan.
The Constitution of the Universal House of Justice, hailed
by Shoghi Effendi as the Most Great Law of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, has been
formulated and published.
The gardens in Bahji and on Mount Carmel have been
significantly extended and plans have been approved for the befitting
development and beautification of the entire area of Bahá'í property
surrounding the Holy Shrines in Bahji and Haifa.
The world-wide proclamation of the Faith, an intensive and
long-to-be-sustained process initiated during the third phase of the Plan,
opened in October 1967 with the commemoration of the Centenary of Bahá'u'lláh's
Proclamation to the kings and rulers which had centred around His revelation of
the Suriy-i-Mulúk in Adrianople. This historic event was commemorated at six
Intercontinental Conferences held simultaneously around the planet. A further
nine Oceanic and Continental Conferences held during the Plan gave great
impetus to this proclamation programme.
The outstanding development in the relationship of the
Bahá'í International Community to the United Nations was the accreditation of
that Community as a non- governmental organization with consultative status to
the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The Bahá'í International
Community now has a permanent representative at the United Nations and maintains
an office in New York.
The loved and revered Hands of the Cause have rendered
sacrificial and distinguished service throughout the Nine Year Plan. They have,
in all parts of the world, inspired the friends, assisted National Spiritual
Assemblies, promoted the teaching work and played a vital part in the success
of the Plan. The lagging fortunes of more than one national community have been
revolutionized by a visit of a Hand of the Cause; swift and energetic action,
inspired by the Hand, has been followed by astonishing results, completely
reversing that community's prospects. They have added distinguished works to
the literature of the Faith.
The goal of the Plan to develop "The institution of the
Hands of the Cause of God, in consultation with the body of the Hands of the
Cause, with a view to the extension into the future of its appointed functions
of protection and propagation," was accomplished in stages, leading to the
establishment of eleven Continental Boards of Counsellors, whose members were
appointed by the Universal House of Justice and who assumed responsibility for
the Auxiliary Boards for protection and propagation. The beloved Hands no
longer remained individually identified with any particular continent -- except
insofar as their residence was concerned -- but extended their sphere of action
to the whole planet. The Continental Boards of Counsellors, advised and guided
by the Hands of the Cause of God and working in close collaboration with them,
have already, in their brief period of office, performed outstanding and
distinguished services.
Three highly portentous developments have taken place during
the Nine Year Plan, namely, the advance of youth to the forefront of the
teaching work, a great increase in the financial resources of the Faith, and an
astonishing proliferation of inter-National Assembly assistance projects.
The first, the heart-warming upsurge of Bahá'í youth, has
changed the face of the teaching work; impenetrable barriers have been broken
or over-passed by eager teams of young Bahá'ís, dedicated and prayerful,
presenting the Divine Message in ways acceptable to their own generation from
which it has spread and is spreading throughout the social structure. The
entire Bahá'í world has been thrilled by this development. Having rejected the
values and standards of the old world, Bahá'í youth are eager to learn and
adapt themselves to the standards of Bahá'u'lláh and so to offer the Divine
Programme to fill the gap left by the abandonment of the old order.
The vast increase in the financial resources of the Faith
called for under the Plan has evoked a heart-warming response from the entire
Bahá'í community. Not only the Bahá'í International Fund but the local,
national and continental Funds of the Faith have been sacrificially supported.
This practical proof of the love which the friends bear for the Faith has
enabled all the work to go forward -- the support of pioneers and travelling
teachers, the raising of Mashriqu'l-Adhkars and acquisition of Bahá'í
properties, the purchase of Holy Places in the Cradle of the Faith and at the
World Centre, the development of educational institutions and all the
multifarious activities of a vigorous, onward-marching, constructive world
community. It is of interest that sixty percent of the international funds of
the Faith is used to assist the work of National Spiritual Assemblies, to
promote the teaching work and to defend the Cause against attacks in many parts
of the world. Without such help from the Bahá'í world community many National
Assemblies would be paralyzed in their efforts of expansion and deepening. The
administration of Huququ'lláh has been strengthened in preparation for its
extension to other parts of the World. An International Deputization Fund was
established at the World Centre to assist pioneers and travelling teachers who
were ready to serve but unable to provide their own expenses, and this Fund was
later extended to the support of projects on national home-fronts. Contribution
to the Fund is a service which will never cease to be open to all believers;
the growth of the Faith and the rise of its Administrative Order require an
ever-increasing outpouring of our substance, commensurate in however small a
measure with the bounty and liberality of the outpouring confirmations of
Bahá'u'lláh.
When the Plan was launched 219 assistance projects were
specified whereby national communities would render financial, pioneering or
teaching aid to others, generally remote from them geographically. The
intention was to strengthen the bonds of unity between distant parts of the
Bahá'í world with different social, cultural and historical backgrounds. At the
end of the Plan more than 600 such projects had been carried out. Inter-community
co-operation has been further developed in the field of publishing Bahá'í
literature, notably in Spanish and French and the languages of Africa. A vast
field of fruitful endeavour lies open in this respect.
In some countries due to lack of freedom, to actual
repression in others, to legal and physical obstacles in yet others, certain
particular goals -- mainly those requiring incorporation or recognition --
could not be won. Foreseeing this, the Universal House of Justice called upon
national communities in lands where there is freedom to practice and promote
the Faith, to exceed their own goals and thus ensure that the overall goals
would be won. It has proved still impossible to begin work on the erection of
the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Tihran, but contracts have been signed for the
preparation of detailed drawings, geological surveys are being made, and everything
made ready for immediate action whenever the situation in Persia becomes
propitious.
During the period of the Nine Year Plan a number of
important and interesting events, not directly associated with it, have taken
place. First and foremost was the commemoration, in the precincts of the Qiblih
of the Bahá'í world, of the centenary of the arrival at the prison city of
'Akká, as foretold in former Scriptures, of the Promised One of all ages.
The Mansion of Mazra'ih, often referred to by the beloved
Guardian as one of the "twin mansions" in which the Blessed Beauty
resided after nine years within the walled prison city of 'Akká, and dear to
the hearts of the believers by reason of its associations with their Lord, has
at last been purchased together with 24,000 square metres of land extending
into the plain on its eastward side.
The raising of the obelisk, marking the site of the future
Mashriqu'l-Adhkar on Mount Carmel, completes a project initiated by the beloved
Guardian.
The decision has been made and announced to the Bahá'í
world, and the initial steps have been taken for the erection on Mount Carmel,
at a site on the Arc as purposed by Shoghi Effendi, of the building which shall
serve as the Seat of the Universal House of Justice.
The progress of the Cause of God gathers increasing momentum
and we may with confidence look forward to the day when this Community, in
God's good time, shall have traversed the stages predicated for it by its
Guardian, and shall have raised on this tormented planet the fair mansions of
God's Own Kingdom wherein humanity may find surcease from its self-induced
confusion and chaos and ruin, and the hatreds and violence of this time shall
be transmuted into an abiding sense of world brotherhood and peace. All this
shall be accomplished within the Covenant of the everlasting Father, the Covenant
of Bahá'u'lláh.
The Universal House of Justice
(Messages from the Universal
House of Justice 1963 to 1986)
