Passing of the Hand of the Cause of God ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan

27 November 2003

To the Bahá’ís of the World

With profound feelings of loss, we announce the passing, yesterday evening, on the Day of the Covenant, of the dearly loved Hand of the Cause of God ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan. Having addressed the assembled pilgrims as was his practice, he paused to exchange a few words with some of the Russian-speaking friends; then, as he was leaving the room, his heart failed. He had fulfilled his longing to serve the Cause to his last breath.

Born in Sabzivár, Iran, on 29 April 1905, ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan moved with his family to ‘Ishqábád in what was then Russian Turkestan, and, through his years of school and university, he took an active part in the work of the Bahá’í communities of ‘Ishqábád, Baku, Moscow and other parts of Russia. In 1930 he was expelled from the Soviet Union for his involvement in Bahá’í activities and, from that time on, played an ever more significant role in the work and administration of the Iranian Bahá’í community. In December 1951 he was among the first to be appointed by Shoghi Effendi as Hands of the Cause of God. Following the passing of the Guardian, he was one of the nine Hands of the Cause selected, at their first Conclave, to serve as Custodians in the Holy Land. For the remaining forty-six years of his life he laboured strenuously at the World Centre, undertaking journeys throughout the world, assisting, advising and enthusing the friends and their national and local institutions. These journeys culminated in 1990 and 1991 with visits to the newly re-emerging Bahá’í communities of the countries of the Soviet Union.

‘Alí-Akbar Furútan’s single-minded devotion to the Faith and its Guardian, the vital role he played in the establishment of the Administrative Order in Iran, his contribution to the spiritual and material education of children, his services as a Hand of the Cause of God, and his unswerving support of the Universal House of Justice together constitute an imperishable record of service in the annals of the Cause. His penetrating mind, his loving concern and his sparkling humour are ineffaceable memories in the hearts of the thousands of believers with whom he spoke.

While praying in the Holy Shrines for the progress of ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan’s illumined soul in the Abhá Kingdom, we supplicate Bahá’u’lláh to bless likewise the fruition of the seeds he sowed in this world.

We extend our loving sympathy to his daughters, Írán Muhájir and Parvín Furútan, to his granddaughters and to all other members of his family. We advise friends in all lands to commemorate his passing and to hold memorial services in his honour in all Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs.

The Universal House of Justice

(Messages from the Universal House of Justice 2002-2022)

The challenge of Abdudu'l-Baha's 'The Secret of Divine Civilization' for Iran today'

26 November 2003 

To the Followers of Bahá’u’lláh in the Cradle of the Faith

Dearly loved Friends,

It is now a little over 125 years since ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá addressed His open letter to the people of your country. Because of His vital role in a religious community that had been made the object of intense prejudice, the Author necessarily refrained from attaching His name to the document. His message, however, could not have been more clear. Speaking out of a profound love for a native land that He had not seen during the long years of exile since His childhood, the Master appealed in passionate language for its people to call to mind those days when Iran “was as the heart of the world”, “the source and centre of sciences and arts, the wellspring of great inventions and discoveries, the rich mine of human virtues and perfections”. The time had come, He insisted, when the heirs of so great a civilization could—and must—arise and reclaim their heritage.

What the letter prophetically laid out was the challenge of modernity. Today, that challenge has become the inescapable preoccupation of populations throughout the planet, not least the peoples of the Islamic world. The meaning of modernity and the features of that rising flood of cultural revolution were explicitly identified in the Master’s message: constitutional and democratic government, the rule of law, universal education, the protection of human rights, economic development, religious tolerance, the promotion of useful sciences and technologies and programmes of public welfare. In praising the achievements of what He termed this “temporal and material apparatus of civilization”, the Master made it clear that He was not proposing simply a credulous imitation of the West. On the contrary. In uncompromising language, He portrayed European society as drowning “in the sea of passion and desire”, trapped in a materialistic perception of reality that could bring in its wake nothing but disillusionment:

Be just: can this nominal civilization, unsupported by a genuine civilization of character, bring about the peace and well-being of the people or win the good pleasure of God? Does it not, rather, connote the destruction of man’s estate and pull down the pillars of happiness and peace?

Readers were urged to look below surface phenomena. As a lengthy exposition of historical processes would have burdened what was intended as an urgent appeal for reflection and action, ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá confined Himself to a few salient examples of the points He was making. Their common theme was the transformative power that has been responsible for all of humanity’s development over the ages and that would later lend the published edition of the letter its familiar title The Secret of Divine Civilization. Whether in reviewing events of Persian history or touching on passages in the Holy Qur’án, the letter called on its readers to reflect deeply about the unique endowment that promotes the advancement of all human well-being: