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Call to Hands of Cause and National Assemblies |
Divinely appointed Institution of the Hands of the Cause,
invested by virtue of the authority conferred by the Testament of
the Center of the Covenant with the twin functions of protecting
and propagating the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, now entering new phase
in the process of the unfoldment of its sacred mission. To its newly
assured responsibility to assist National Spiritual Assemblies of the
Bahá’í world in the specific purpose of effectively prosecuting the
World Spiritual Crusade, the primary obligation to watch over and
insure protection to the Bahá’í world community, in close collaboration
with these same National Assemblies, is now added.
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Recent events, the triumphant consummation of a series of historic
enterprises, such as the construction of the superstructure of
the Báb’s Sepulcher, the dedication of the Mother Temple of the
West, the world-wide celebrations of the Holy Year, the convocation
of four Intercontinental Teaching Conferences launching the
Ten Year Crusade, the unprecedented dispersal of its valiant prosecutors
over the face of the globe, the extraordinary progress of
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the African and Pacific campaigns, the rise of the administrative
order in the Arabian Peninsula in the heart of the Islámic world,
the discomfiture of the powerful antagonists in the Cradle of the
Faith, the erection of the International Archives, heralding the
establishment of the seat of the World Administrative Order in the
Holy Land, served to inflame the unquenchable animosity of its
Muslim opponents and raised up a new set of adversaries in the
Christian fold and roused internal enemies, old and new Covenant-breakers,
to fresh attempts to arrest the march of the Cause of God,
misrepresent its purpose, disrupt its administrative institutions,
dampen the zeal and sap the loyalty of its supporters.
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Evidences of increasing hostility without, persistent machinations
within, foreshadowing dire contests destined to range the
Army of Light against the forces of darkness, both secular and
religious, predicted in unequivocal language by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
necessitate in this crucial hour closer association of the Hands of
the five continents and the bodies of the elected representatives of
the national Bahá’í communities the world over for joint investigation
of the nefarious activities of internal enemies and the adoption
of wise, effective measures to counteract their treacherous schemes,
protect the mass of the believers, and arrest the spread of their evil
influence.
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Call upon Hands and National Assemblies, each continent separately,
to establish henceforth direct contact and deliberate, whenever
feasible, as frequently as possible, to exchange reports to be
submitted by their respective Auxiliary Boards and national committees,
to exercise unrelaxing vigilance and carry out unflinchingly
their sacred, inescapable duties. The security of our precious Faith,
the preservation of the spiritual health of the Bahá’í communities,
the vitality of the faith of its individual members, the proper functioning
of its laboriously erected institutions, the fruition of its
worldwide enterprises, the fulfilment of its ultimate destiny, all are
directly dependent upon the befitting discharge of the weighty
responsibilities now resting upon the members of these two institutions,
occupying, with the Universal House of Justice, next to the
Institution of the Guardianship, foremost rank in the divinely
ordained administrative hierarchy of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.
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