That the launching of one of these fundamental activities to be conducted by your Assembly during the present year—the commencement of the interior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West—should have so closely synchronized with the placing of the first two contracts for the completion of the Sepulcher of the Báb, as contemplated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, is indeed a phenomenon of singular significance. This conjunction of two events of historic importance, linking, in a peculiar degree, the most sacred House of Worship in the American continent with the most hallowed Shrine on the slopes of Mount Carmel, brings vividly to mind the no less remarkable coincidence marking the simultaneous holding, on a Naw-Rúz Day, of the first convention of the American Bahá’í Community and the entombment by the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant of the remains of the Báb in the newly constructed vault of His Shrine.[1] The simultaneous arrival of those remains in the fortress city of Akká and of the first pilgrims from the continent of America;[2] the subsequent association of the founder of the American Bahá’í Community with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the laying of the cornerstone of the Báb’s Mausoleum on Mount Carmel; the holding of the Centenary of His Declaration beneath the dome of the recently constructed Mashriqu’l-Adhkár at Wilmette, on which solemn occasion His blessed portrait was unveiled, on western soil, to the eyes of His followers; and the unique distinction now conferred on a member[3] of the North American Bahá’í Community of designing the dome, envisaged by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as the final and essential embellishment of the Báb’s Sepulcher—all these have served to associate the Herald of our Faith and His resting-place with the fortunes of a community which has so nobly responded to His summons addressed to the “peoples of the West” in His Qayyúmu’l-Asmá.
“This Sublime Shrine has remained unbuilt ...,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, looking at the Shrine from the steps of His House on an August day in 1915, remarked to some of His companions, at a time when the Báb’s remains had already been placed by Him in the vault of one of the six chambers He had already constructed for that purpose. “God willing, it will be accomplished. We have carried its construction to this stage.”
The initiation in these days of extreme peril in the Holy Land of so great and holy an enterprise, founded by Bahá’u’lláh Himself whilst still a Prisoner in Akká and commenced by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during the darkest and most perilous days of His ministry, recalls to our minds, furthermore, the construction of the superstructure of the Temple in Wilmette during one of the severest financial crises that has afflicted the United States of America, and the completion of its exterior ornamentation during the dark days of the last World War. Indeed, the tragic and moving story of the transfer of the Báb’s mutilated body from place to place ever since His Martyrdom in Tabríz, its fifty-year concealment in Persia; its perilous and secret journey by way of Ṭihrán, Iṣfáhán, Kirmansháh, Baghdád, Damascus, Beirut and Akká to the Mountain of God, its ultimate resting place; its concealment for a further period of ten years in the Holy Land itself; the vexatious and long-drawn-out negotiations for the purchase of the site chosen by Bahá’u’lláh Himself for its entombment; the threats of ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd, the Turkish tyrant, the accusations levelled against its Trustee, the plots devised, and the inspection made, by the scheming members of the notorious Turkish Commission of Inquiry; the perils to which the bloodthirsty Jamál Páshá exposed it; the machinations of the arch-breaker of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, of His brother and of His son, respectively, aiming at the frustration of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s design, at the prevention of the sale of land within the precincts of the Shrine itself, and the multiplication of the measures taken for the preservation and consolidation of the properties purchased in its vicinity and dedicated to it—all these are to be regarded as successive stages in the history of the almost hundred year long process destined to culminate in the consummation of Bahá’u’lláh’s irresistible purpose of erecting a lasting and befitting memorial to His Divine Herald and Co-Founder of His Faith.
As the mission entrusted by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the followers of His Faith in the North American continent gathers momentum, unfolds its potentialities, and raises to new heights of heroism and renown its valiant prosecutors, events of still greater significance will, no doubt, transpire, which will serve to enhance the value of the work which the prosecutors of the Plan are carrying out, to widen their vision, to reinforce their exertions, to sustain their spirit, to ennoble their heritage, to noise abroad their fame, to facilitate their assumption of the unique functions distinguishing their stewardship to the Faith, and to hasten the advent of the day, which shall witness, in the Golden Age that is still unborn, their “elevation to the throne of an everlasting dominion,” the day whereon “the whole earth” will “resound with the praises” of their “majesty and greatness.”
[May 18, 1948]
Urge Special Attention to Goals
Welcome decisions made at recent Assembly meeting. Supplicating blessings for forthcoming conference with committees. Elated by magnificent success achieved at European Conference, development of affiliation with United Nations... Urge you devote special attention in current year to insure rapid progress of Temple construction, maintenance of assembly status and consolidation of newly formed assemblies.
[June 23, 1948]