Messages to the Bahá’í World: 1950–1957

Soul stirred, heart uplifted by recollection of events signalizing the twelve month period preceding the fateful year destined to witness the consummation of series of plans formulated by Bahá’í National Assemblies of five continents, as well as the inauguration of the second, glorious Jubilee of the Bahá’í Dispensation. The irresistible march of the Faith marked simultaneously by the steady consolidation of its administrative institutions and the rapid enlargement of its limits. No less than eighteen countries have been enrolled, raising the total number within its orbit to one hundred 26 twenty-four. Languages in which Bahá’í literature is printed or is being translated are now ninety, including twelve African languages. The vast process of the rise and establishment of the World Center of the Faith has been accelerated. Contingents of Hands of the Cause have been successively appointed in every continent of the globe, five of whom are shouldering responsibilities in the Holy Land. The International Bahá’í Council has been enlarged and officers designated.

An interview was accorded by, and literature presented to the Israel Prime Minister in the course of his American visit by representatives of the American National Assembly. Eighteen plots, a twenty-two thousand square meter area, have been added to the International Bahá’í endowments on the slopes of Carmel. Government survey concluded paving the way for the acquisition of over one hundred forty thousand square meters of property in the precincts of the Most Holy Tomb at Bahjí. The design for the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár on Carmel, conceived by the President of the International Bahá’í Council, completed. Privileges, exemption already accorded Bahá’í Holy Places in Israel by Ministry of Finance extended to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Home, Eastern and Western Pilgrim Houses. Pilgrimages to World Center of the Faith resumed following decade of external hostilities and internal disturbances agitating the Holy Land. Eight piers, designed to support the thousand ton superstructure of the Báb’s Sepulcher constructed. Successive contracts, totalling approximately forty-seven thousand dollars, for the construction of the structural work and the erection of the Octagon signed, culminating in the completion of the first unit of the superstructure, and the raising of eight pinnacles, constituting the second crown of the Holy Edifice. Preparations to build the Drum, the foundation unit of the golden Dome of the Sepulcher, commenced.

Twin pillars of the future House of Justice erected in Central and South America, additional pillar projected for Europe uniting the heart and south of the continent.

Preliminary measures initiated for the convocation of four intercontinental conferences in the African, American, European and Asiatic continents, involving the participation of twelve National Spiritual Assemblies, designed alike to befittingly celebrate the Centenary of the Year Nine and to launch ten year crusade destined to culminate in the Most Great Jubilee.

Two year plan of the Bahá’í community of the British Isles formally launched on the African continent through the dispatch of pioneers to the virgin territories of Tanganyika, Uganda, and 27 the Gold Coast, has been reinforced by the assignment of Liberia to the American, Somaliland, Nyasaland and North Rhodesia to the Persian, Zanzibar and Madagascar to the Indian, and Libya and Algeria to the Egyptian, National Assemblies, raising the number of States and Dependencies already soon to be opened to the Faith to twenty-five.

First fruits garnered comprise purchase of seventeen thousand dollar Hazíratu’l-Quds in Kampala, settlement of Persian, American, British, Egyptian and Portuguese pioneers in Liberia, North Rhodesia, Angola, Libya, Spanish Morocco and Mozambique, inauguration of teaching classes, public meetings and firesides, enrollment of several native Africans belonging to the Teso, Yao, Buganda and Mutoco tribes, and the formation of Spiritual Assemblies in Kampala and Dar-es-Salaam.

European Teaching campaign, exceeding fondest hopes, stimulated successively by convocation of the fourth European Teaching Conference in Scheveningen, representative of twenty-one countries, the first Iberian Conference in Madrid, the third Swiss Conference in Bern, the first Italian Conference in Rome, the first Benelux Conference in Brussels and the establishment of headquarters in Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg-Ville, Bern and Lisbon.

The process of consolidation of the Faith stimulated by the recognition of Bahá’í Holy Days by the Superintendent of Public Schools in Kenosha, Superintendent School in Milwaukee, and Rhode Island State Department of Civil Service, and of the Bahá’í marriage certificate by civil authorities of Indianapolis; by the authorization by Adjutant General of Bahá’í identification for believers serving in U.S. Armed Forces.

Bahá’í administrative centers steadily multiplying in Ḥijáz, Yemen, Bahrayn, Ahsá, Koweit, Qatar, Dubai, Masqat, Aden, heralding convocation of historic Bahá’í Convention in the Arabian Peninsula, destined to culminate in the erection of a pillar of the Universal House of Justice in the midmost heart of the Islamic world.

The nineteen month plan, formulated by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Indian subcontinent and Burma, aiming among other things at the introduction and consolidation of the Faith in the capital cities of Nepal, Siam, Indo-China, Malaya, Indonesia and Sarawak.

Ties binding International Bahá’í Community to United Nations reinforced by official participation of Bahá’í delegates in regional Non-Governmental Conferences in Istanbul, Managua, Den 28 Passar, Paris and Lawrence, Kansas. Historic site of House occupied by Bahá’u’lláh in Istanbul has been partly purchased, and investigations conducted for the acquisition of similar sites associated with the exile of the Founder of the Faith in Adrianople.

Northern outposts of the Faith reinforced by the settlement of pioneers in Edgedes Minde, Greenland, and in Yellowknife, Canadian North Western Territories.

Last but not least, the internal ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West has been terminated, and design adopted, funds allocated by the Temple Trustees for the landscaping of its immediate surroundings, constituting the final step for its approaching Jubilee. Appeal American Bahá’í community standing on threshold of concluding year of second Seven Year Plan, traversing the last stage of the austerity period, confronted by the approaching centenary of the darkest, bloodiest episode in Bahá’í history, associated with the nation-wide holocaust of Táhirih’s martyrdom, and with Bahá’u’lláh’s imprisonment in the Síyáh-Chál in Ṭihrán, to arise and scale still loftier heights of self-sacrifice and efface the deficit in the National Fund. Address in particular fervent plea to brace itself to play a preponderating role in the impending world crusade, which a world community, utilizing the agencies of a divinely-appointed world administrative order, is preparing to launch, amidst the deepening shadows of a world crisis for the execution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s world-encircling plan and the subsequent unfoldment of a world civilization, and the ultimate attainment of the supreme objective, the illumination and redemption of a whole world.

Advise share message National Assemblies East and West.