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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 75-76

History of the Cause

With reference to the need, so often expressed, for an authentic and comprehensive history of the Cause, I am glad to inform you of the action contemplated by the National Spiritual Assembly of Persia in instructing and urging the local Assemblies throughout the country to take immediate steps for the formation in every locality of a special committee which will seek the assistance and the testimony of the remnants of the earliest believers and pioneers of the Cause in Persia in collecting most carefully all available evidence and data for the compilation of a comprehensive, reliable and representative history of the Movement from its earliest dawn to the present day. I have communicated with the National Assembly of Persia, regarding this urgent and vital necessity, and I feel the time is not far distant when a free rendering into English of this stirring 76 narrative as well as an abridged form of it will be made available for both the Bahá’ís and the general public in the West.
The efforts recently displayed by the Publishing Committee so clearly reflected in the minutes of their meeting of November 2, 1924, a copy of which I have read with the closest attention, indicate the efficiency, the zeal and the determination with which they are conducting this vital branch of Bahá’í activity. The scope of their effective work is expanding rapidly, and I wish to assure them one and all of my prayers for the fruition of their labors and the further development and consolidation of their work.
There have been of late no fresh developments in the situation of the House of Baghdád. The case, which is now before the court of First Instance, has been postponed for some time and we still await anxiously the decision of the court. Any hope of an immediate and final solution of this intricate problem seems for the present remote. In the event of our success the case may still be referred by our powerful opponents to the Court of Appeal—the highest in the land—and should its decision be in our favor the government may at any time—as it does not seem unlikely—decide, by retaining the keys in its custody, to postpone indefinitely the execution of such a verdict in order to allay the fierce hostility of the clerical element as well as the Shi’ite population of ‘Iráq.
Should a crisis occur, I will immediately inform you and endeavor to define more clearly any measure that I feel should be taken by the American Assemblies to insure the security of the House of Bahá’u’lláh.