Century of Light

ry opened, the luminous figure of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. The journey that had brought Him to this pivotal moment in the history of humankind had led thr

promised reign of universal peace and justice that had sustained human hope throughout the centuries. I

all the members of the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly interdependent.... Hence the

f this work entailed interaction with local and provincial officials who sought His advice on the problems confronting them. Not dissimilar needs presented themselves in the Master's homeland. As early as 1875, responding to Bahá'u'lláh's instructions, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed to the rulers and people of

s and inventions-all are emanations of the human mind. Whatever people has ventured deeper into this shoreless sea, has come to excel the rest. The happiness and pride of a

ance they needed, but leadership in finding their way through the turmoil that was undermining the established order of things in their land. These communications, reaching even the smallest villages across the country, responded to the appeals and questions of countless individual believers, bringing guidance, encouragement

ssociate with a foe as befitteth a friend, and deal with an oppressor as beseemeth a kind companion. They should

ed largely unaffected by the developments taking place elsewhere in social and intellectual life, are summoned by thi

of might and glory, as He hath brought the whole creation under the purview of His gracious utterance, and hath enjoined upo

cy and confidence of the language it employs can be felt the power that would produce the great achievements of the Persian believers

nd love ye the human race. Turn your eyes away from limitations, and free yourselves fr

respite nor a moment's repose. Surge ye even as the billows of a mi

ssing of centuries and cycles may not undermine, and rear an edifice which the rolling of ages and aeons cannot overthrow-an edific

a distant exile where He was endlessly harried by the host of enemies surrounding Him, 'Abdu'l-Bahá was able not only to stimulate the expansion of the Persian Bahá'í community, but to shape its consciousness and collective life. The result was the emergence of a culture, however localized, that was unlike anything

ciety were enrolled, including several influential members of the clergy, and the forerunners of administrative institutions emerged in the form of rudimentary consultative bodies. The importance of the latter development alone would be impossible to exaggerate. In a land and among a people accustomed for centuries to

erican and European Bahá'í helpers, clinics and other medical facilities followed. As early as 1925, communities in a number of cities had instituted classes in Esperanto, in response to their awareness of the Bahá'í teaching that some form of auxiliary international language must be adopted. A network of couriers, reaching across the land, provided the struggling Bahá'í community with t

há'ís-even in the eyes of those hostile to the Faith-as candidates for positions of trust. That such far-reaching changes could so quickly set one segment of the Persian population apart from the largely ant

w him and compelled the last of the Qájár kings, A?mad Sháh, to summon a third parliament was itself riven by competing factions and shamelessly manipulated by the Shí'ih clergy. Efforts by Bahá'ís to play a constructive role in this process of modernization were repeatedly frustrated by royalist and popular factions alike, both of which were inspired by the prevailing religious prejudice and saw in the Bahá'í co

friends, guiding their activities, and drawing them ever more deeply into an understanding of Bahá'u'lláh's purpose. Some of the greatest names in Persian Bahá'í history were among those who journeyed to 'Akká and returned to their homes prepared to give their lives if necessary for the achievement of the Master's vision. The immortal Varqá and his son Rú?u'lláh were among this privileged number, as were ?ájí Mírzá ?aydar 'Alí, Mírzá Abu'l Fa?l, Mírzá Mu?ammad-Taqí Afnán and four disti

communities had been established in India and Burma, and the Faith carried as far as China; and this work was now reinforced. A demonstration of the new powers released in the Cause was the erection in the Russian

romising opportunities which, as the new century opened, had already begun to unfold in the West. Not the least important feature of this base was its embrace of representatives of the Orient's great diversity of racial, religious an

d difficulty to the Holy Land. Shoghi Effendi has explained that whereas in past ages the blood of martyrs was the seed of personal faith, in this day it has constituted the seed of the administrative institutions of the Cause.13 Such an insight lends

o, on this visible plane, His sacred remains constitute the heart and center of what may be regarded as nine concentric circles,14 paralleling thereby, and adding further emphasis to the central posit

of the mission He had accomplished at such

cast aside His turban, removed His shoes and thrown off His cloak, bent low over the still open sarcophagus, His silver hair waving about His head and His face transfigured and luminous, rested His fo

ept Him confined to the prison-city of 'Akká and its immediate surroundings had fallen away, and the Master was in a position to proceed with an enterprise that Shoghi Effendi w

*

but was compelled by illness to remain in residence at Ramleh, a suburb of Alexandria, until August of the following year. As it turned out, the months that followed were a period of great productivity whose full effects on the fortunes of the Cause, in the African continent especially, w

s, administrators and aristocrats. Further, editors and journalists from influential Arabic-language newspapers, whose information about the Cause had been coloured by prejudiced reports emanating from Persia and Constantinople, now had an opportunity to learn the facts of the situation for themselves. Publications that had been openly hostile changed their tone. The editors of one such newspaper opened an article on the

ble to observe at first-hand the extraordinary success of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's interaction with leading figures in a region of the Near East that was