Dearly loved friends,
The decline of religious and moral restraints has unleashed
a fury of chaos and confusion that already bears the signs of universal
anarchy. Engulfed in this maelstrom, the Bahá'í world community, pursuing with
indefeasible unity and spiritual force its redemptive mission, inevitably
suffers the disruption of economic, social and civil life which afflicts its
fellowmen throughout the planet. It must also bear particular tribulations. The
violent disturbances in Persia, coinciding with the gathering in of the
bountiful harvest of the Five Year Plan, have brought new and cruel hardships
to our long-suffering brethren in the Cradle of our Faith and confronted the
Bahá'í world community with critical challenges to its life and work. As the
Bahá'í world stood poised on the brink of victory, eagerly anticipating the
next stage in the unfoldment of the Master's Divine Plan, Bahá'u'lláh's heroic
compatriots, the custodians of the Holy Places of our Faith in the land of its
birth, were yet again called upon to endure the passions of brutal mobs, the
looting and burning of their homes, the destruction of their means of
livelihood, and physical violence and threats of death to force them to recant
their faith. They, like their immortal forebears, the Dawn-Breakers, are
standing steadfast in face of this new persecution and the ever-present threat
of organized extermination.
Remembering that during the Five Year Plan [1974-1979] the
Persian friends far surpassed any other national community in their outpouring
of pioneers and funds, we, in all those parts of the world where we are still
free to promote the Cause of God, have the responsibility to make good their
temporary inability to serve. Therefore, with uplifted hearts and radiant
faith, we must arise with redoubled energy to pursue our mighty task, confident
that the Lord of Hosts will continue to reward our efforts with the same
bountiful grace He vouchsafed to us in the Five Year Plan.
The teaching victories in that Plan have been truly
prodigious; the points of light, those localities where the Promised One is
recognized, have increased from sixty- nine thousand five hundred to over
ninety-six thousand; the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies has grown from
seventeen thousand to over twenty-five thousand; eighteen new National
Spiritual Assemblies have been formed. The final report will disclose in all
their manifold aspects the magnitude of the victories won.
In the world at large the Bahá'í community is now firmly
established. The Institution of the Hands of the Cause of God, the Chief
Stewards of Bahá'u'lláh's embryonic World Commonwealth, is bearing a precious
fruit in the development of the International Teaching Centre as a mighty institution
of the World Centre of the Faith; an institution blessed by the membership of
all the Hands of the Cause; an institution whose beneficent influence is
diffused to all parts of the Bahá'í community through the Continental Boards of
Counsellors, the members of the Auxiliary Boards and their assistants.
Advised, stimulated and supported by this vital arm of the
Administrative Order, 125 National Spiritual Assemblies are rapidly acquiring
experience and growing in wisdom as they administer the complex affairs of
their respective communities as organic parts of one world-wide fellowship.
More and more Local Spiritual Assemblies are becoming strong focal centres of
local Bahá'í communities and firm pillars of the National Spiritual Assembly in
each land. Even in those countries where the Bahá'í Administration cannot
operate or has had to be disbanded, countries to which have now been added
Afghanistan, the Congo Republic, Niger, Uganda and Vietnam, the believers,
while obedient to their governments, nevertheless staunchly keep alive the
flame of faith.
Beyond the expansion of the community, vital as it is, the
Five Year Plan [1974-1979] witnessed great progress in the spiritual
development of the friends, the growing maturity and wisdom of Local and National
Assemblies, and in the degree to which Bahá'í communities embody the
distinguishing characteristics of Bahá'í life and attract, by their unity,
their steadfastness, their radiance and good reputation, the interest and
eventual wholehearted support of their fellow citizens. This is the magnet
which will attract the masses to the Cause of God, and the leaven that will
transform human society.
The conditions of the world present the followers of
Bahá'u'lláh with both obstacles and opportunities. In an increasing number of
countries we are witnessing the fulfilment of the warnings that the writings of
our Faith contain. "Peoples, nations, adherents of divers faiths,"
the beloved Guardian wrote, "will jointly and successively arise to shatter
its unity, to sap its force, and to degrade its holy name. They will assail not
only the spirit which it inculcates, but the administration which is the
channel, the instrument, the embodiment of that spirit. For as the authority
with which Bahá'u'lláh has invested the future Bahá'í Commonwealth becomes more
and more apparent, the fiercer shall be the challenge which from every quarter
will be thrown at the verities it enshrines." In different countries, in
varying degrees, the followers of Bahá'u'lláh at this very hour are undergoing
such attacks, and are facing imprisonment and even martyrdom rather than deny
the Truth for whose sake the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh drained the cup of sacrifice.
In other lands, such as those in Western Europe, the
faithful believers have to struggle to convey the message in the face of
widespread indifference, materialistic self- satisfaction, cynicism and moral
degradation. These friends, however, still have freedom to teach the Faith in
their homelands, and in spite of the discouraging meagreness of outward results
they continue to proclaim the Message of Bahá'u'lláh to their fellow- citizens,
to raise high the reputation of the Cause in the public eye, to acquaint
leaders of thought and those in authority with its true tenets, and to spare no
effort to seek out those receptive souls in every town and village who will
respond to the divine summons and devote their lives to its service.
In many lands, however, there is an eager receptivity for
the teachings of the Faith. The challenge for the Bahá'ís is to provide these
thousands of seeking souls, as swiftly as possible, with the spiritual food
that they crave, to enlist them under the banner of Bahá'u'lláh, to nurture
them in the way of life He has revealed, and to guide them to elect Local Spiritual
Assemblies which, as they begin to function strongly, will unite the friends in
firmly consolidated Bahá'í communities and become beacons of guidance and
havens of refuge to mankind.
Faced by such a combination of danger and opportunity, the Bahá'ís,
confident in the ultimate triumph of God's purpose for mankind, raise their
eyes to the goals of a new Seven Year Plan.
In the Holy Land the strengthening of the World Centre and
the augmentation of its world-wide influence must continue:
- The Seat of the Universal House of Justice will be completed and designs will be adopted for the remaining three buildings of the World Administrative Centre of the Faith.
- The Institution of the International Teaching Centre will be developed and its functions expanded. This will require an increase in its membership and the assumption by it and by the Continental Boards of Counsellors of wider functions in the stimulation on an international scale of the propagation and consolidation of the Faith, and in the promotion of the spiritual, intellectual and community aspects of Bahá'í life.
- The House of 'Abdu'llah Pasha in 'Akká will be opened to pilgrimage.
- Work will be continued on the collation and classification of the Sacred Texts and a series of compilations gleaned and translated from the writings of the Faith will be sent out to the Bahá'í world to help in deepening the friends in their understanding of the fundamentals of the Faith, enriching their spiritual lives, and reinforcing their efforts to teach the Cause.+F469
- The ties binding the Bahá'í International Community to the United Nations will be further developed.
- Continued efforts will be made to protect the Faith from opposition and to emancipate it from the fetters of persecution.
Each National Spiritual Assembly has been given goals for
these first two years of the Plan, designed to continue the process of
expansion, to consolidate the victories won, and to attain, where circumstances
permit, any goals that may have had to remain unaccomplished at the end of the
Five Year Plan. During these first two years we shall be examining, with the
Continental Boards of Counsellors and National Spiritual Assemblies, the
conditions and possibilities in each country, and shall be considering in
detail the capacities and needs of each of the rapidly differentiating national
Bahá'í communities before formulating the further goals towards which each
community is to work following the opening phase of the Plan.
Throughout the world the Seven Year Plan must witness the
attainment of the following objectives:
- The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of Samoa is to be completed and progress will be made in the construction of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in India.
- Nineteen new National Spiritual Assemblies are to be brought into being: eight in Africa, those of Angola, Bophuthatswana, the Cape Verde Islands, Gabon, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia and Transkei; eight in the Americas, those of Bermuda, Dominica, French Guiana, Grenada, the Leeward Islands, Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vincent; and three in the Pacific, those of the Cook Islands, Tuvalu and the West Caroline Islands. Those National Spiritual Assemblies which have had to be dissolved will, circumstances permitting, be re-established.
- The Message of Bahá'u'lláh must be taken to territories and islands which are as yet unopened to His Faith.
- The teaching work, both that organized by institutions of the Faith and that which is the fruit of individual initiative, must be actively carried forward so that there will be growing numbers of believers, leading more countries to the stage of entry by troops and ultimately to mass conversion.
- This teaching work must include prompt, thorough and continuing consolidation so that all victories will be safeguarded, the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies will be increased and the foundations of the Cause reinforced.
- The interchange of pioneers and travelling teachers, which contributes so importantly to the unity of the Bahá'í world and to a true understanding of the oneness of mankind, must continue, especially between neighbouring lands. At the same time, each national Bahá'í community must aspire to a rapid achievement of self-sufficiency in carrying out its vital activities, thus acquiring the capacity to continue to function and grow even if outside help is cut off.
- Especially in finance is the attainment of independence by national Bahá'í communities urgent. Already the persecutions in Iran have deprived the believers in that country of the bounty of contributing to the international funds of the Faith, of which they have been a major source. Economic disruption in other countries threatens further diminution of financial resources. We therefore appeal to the friends everywhere to exercise the utmost economy in the use of funds and to make those sacrifices in their personal lives which will enable them to contribute their share, according to their means, to the local, national, continental and international funds of the Faith.
- For the prompt achievement of all the goals and the healthy growth of Bahá'í community life National Spiritual Assemblies must pay particular attention to the efficient functioning, in the true spirit of the Faith, of their national committees and other auxiliary institutions, and, in consultation with the Continental Boards of Counsellors, must conceive and implement programmes that will guide and reinforce the efforts of the friends in the path of service.
- National Spiritual Assemblies must promote wise and dignified approaches to people prominent in all areas of human endeavour, acquainting them with the nature of the Bahá'í community and the basic tenets of the Faith, and winning their esteem and friendship.
- At the heart of all activities, the spiritual, intellectual and community life of the believers must be developed and fostered, requiring: the prosecution with increased vigour of the development of Local Spiritual Assemblies so that they may exercise their beneficial influence and guidance on the life of Bahá'í communities; the nurturing of a deeper understanding of Bahá'í family life; the Bahá'í education of children, including the holding of regular Bahá'í classes and, where necessary, the establishment of tutorial schools for the provision of elementary education; the encouragement of Bahá'í youth in study and service; and the encouragement of Bahá'í women to exercise to the full their privileges and responsibilities in the work of the community -- may they befittingly bear witness to the memory of the Greatest Holy Leaf, the immortal heroine of the Bahá'í Dispensation, as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of her passing.
As lawlessness spreads in the world, as governments rise and
fall, as rival groups and feuding peoples struggle, each for its own advantage,
the plight of the oppressed and the deprived wrings the heart of every true
Bahá'í, tempting him to cry out in protest or to arise in wrath at the
perpetrators of injustice. For this is a time of testing which calls to mind
Bahá'u'lláh's words, "O concourse of the heedless! I swear by God! The promised
day is come, the day when tormenting trials will have surged above your heads,
and beneath your feet, saying: 'Taste ye what your hands have wrought!'"
Now is the time when every follower of Bahá'u'lláh must
cling fast to the Covenant of God, resist every temptation to become embroiled
in the conflicts of the world, and remember that he is the holder of a precious
trust, the Message of God which, alone, can banish injustice from the world and
cure the ills afflicting the body and spirit of man. We are the bearers of the
Word of God in this day and, however dark the immediate horizons, we must go
forward rejoicing in the knowledge that the work we are privileged to perform
is God's work and will bring to birth a world whose splendour will outshine our
brightest visions and surpass our highest hopes.
The Universal House of Justice
(Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963 to 1986)
