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Bahá’í Administration

  • Author:
  • Shoghi Effendi

  • Source:
  • US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1974 edition
  • Pages:
  • 196
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Pages 99-100

Shrine of Baghdád

We can but dimly discern the signs of that day of priceless victory—the day when the mission of this sublime and holy Faith will have been unfolded in all its power and glory to the eyes of an unbelieving world. We have only to refer to the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh in order to realize for ourselves God’s invincible power to turn every fleeting abasement, every transient sorrow, into abiding joy and glory. For amid the gloom of humiliation that has now beset Bahá’u’lláh’s holy habitation in Baghdád, these prophetic words of His regarding His house shine forth resplendent in their assurance of a future victory: “In truth, I declare, it shall be so abased in the days to come as to cause tears to flow from every discerning eye…. And in the fulness of time, shall the Lord by the power of truth exalt it in the eyes of all the world, cause it to 100 become the mighty standard of His domination, the shrine round which shall circle the concourse of the faithful.” How startling in His prediction, how reassuring His promise!
The thoroughness of your methods in handling this grave and highly delicate situation, the promptness of your response, the spirit of unabated confidence, of unrelaxing determination and admirable courage which you have abundantly displayed have, I am certain, endeared you to us all, justified our hopes in you, and ennobled the already lofty position you deservedly occupy among the staunch supporters of God’s immortal Cause. Whatever the outcome of your memorable endeavors, the immediate consequences of your strenuous efforts cannot but be a growing realization on the part of those placed in authority that the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, despite the calumny and slander showered upon it in the past, has linked the East with the West as no other human agency can possibly link and is capable of demonstrating the reality of that celestial potency which no man can today safely belittle or ignore.
Furthermore, the spontaneous and generous response of the American believers in connection with the land situation on Mount Carmel has, in conjunction with the donations of the friends in other parts of the world, safeguarded such lands as lie in close proximity to the holy Shrines. This highly meritorious effort, blest and sanctified by the bountiful grace of Bahá’u’lláh, has in like manner served to reveal to every discerning eye the friends’ unquenchable enthusiasm and unrivalled devotion—the dominant characteristic of a Faith that is still in its stage of tender growth, and now standing on the threshold of undreamt-of achievements.