22 June 2005
To the conference of Arabic-speaking believers, Chicago,
July 2005
Dear Bahá’í Friends,
With great joy we extend our loving greetings to you and to
the other Arabic-speaking followers of Bahá’u’lláh residing in North America.
You have come together at a moment laden with portents and possibilities of change in the Middle East—far-reaching, positive change. The forces animating the Major and Minor Plans of God have so accelerated the simultaneous processes of disintegration and of integration operating in the world as to prompt the people of the region to recognize new realities and strive to take their rightful place in an emerging world society. Unprecedented global attention is increasingly focused on them, obliging them to act in awareness of the inescapable transition to a new age. Indeed, in concert with the social, economic, and cultural disorder affecting the entire planet, an array of crises has engulfed the Arab world. Peoples who in a previous age brilliantly advanced culture and civilization, extending the transformative spirit released by Islám far beyond the confines of the land of its birth, which regenerated every society it touched, now find themselves critically impeded by their inability to cope with the exigencies of modernity.
The condition of the Arabian diaspora is not dissimilar. Emigration to Western countries has greatly intensified the inner conflict being experienced between tradition and the values of a changing world. Prevailing attitudes extend from a wholehearted embrace of the goals of Western materialism to a retreat into fundamentalism. Within this spectrum a substantial minority struggles to find an enlightened social order consistent with spiritual ideals, indicating a rise in receptivity among certain Muslim populations.
Concurrently, the Bahá’í community is developing the capacity to involve greater numbers in its spiritual life. Throughout the world, there has been a systematic advance in the process of entry by troops. Believers are learning, through experience, that their families, friends, neighbors, and coworkers welcome and value their participation in the devotional meetings, children’s classes, and study circles to which they are invited and through which they are, in ever-larger measure, finding their path to the Beloved of all hearts.
These developments led us to convey to National Spiritual Assemblies in August 2004 that the time had come for the believers to begin inviting trusted Muslims among their acquaintances to join in the core activities of the Five Year Plan, thereby opening to them these portals to the Cause. When applied in a natural manner, such initiatives have, without attracting undue attention from antagonistic elements, enabled those with receptive hearts to gradually move closer to the point of acceptance and formal declaration. This course of action is meeting with notable success in Arab countries, where the wise, dedicated efforts of your Bahá’í sisters and brothers are receiving constant divine confirmations.
We call upon the Arabic-speaking followers of Bahá’u’lláh residing in North America to sharply focus your services to His glorious Cause on attracting souls from amongst the Arab population within your clusters, in keeping with the prescribed approach of the current Plan. Your efforts will reinforce and support those being made in Arab countries, where seeds have been sown so painstakingly over the years. We appeal especially to youth and young adults, for their peers promise to be most receptive to the imperatives of the spiritual revolution ushered in by the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh.
Heroism and sacrifice have marked the progress of the Faith in the Arab world. The inhabitants of these lands have been close associates of the Manifestation of God Himself, have shown their spiritual capacity to recognize Him, have helped spread His Cause throughout the world, have assisted in establishing His Administrative Order, and have defended His Faith with courage and steadfastness. In a Tablet known as the Súriy-i-A’ráb, Bahá’u’lláh says, "Render praise unto God for having chosen you for His own Self, in such wise that after the Daystar of Eternity set in its own homeland, it dawned above the horizon of Iraq, your land. . . . The unveiled Countenance of God was in your midst, shining and resplendent, and over the months and years He continually recited unto you the verses of your Lord. The Ancient Beauty walked among you with a dignity and composure born of God, and at every moment He revealed Himself unto you with a new effulgence. Thus were the favor of God and His grace fulfilled unto you, that ye might be of those who are thankful."
Further, in poignant tones He describes the grace and the
responsibility that flows from this unique bounty: "This indeed is a token
of His gracious favor unto you, which naught in the heavens or on the earth can
equal. ...It behooveth you, therefore, to pride yourselves before all the
tribes of the earth, for none have attained that which ye have attained, could
ye but perceive it. It behooveth you, moreover, to distinguish yourselves with
the virtues of God, that from your hearts the fragrances of holiness may waft
upon all created things and that from you the signs of your Lord, the Merciful,
the Compassionate, may appear. Inasmuch as He hath singled you out from amongst
all mankind, make ye an effort to show forth that which none before you have
shown forth, that the distinction conferred upon you may be clearly
demonstrated unto all men.”
Our prayers at the Sacred Threshold are with you as you promote His Cause among those who share your distinguished heritage and bright destiny.
The Universal House of Justice
(Messages from the Universal House of Justice 2001-2022)
