Old Covenant-breakers, untaught by the lessons of the past sixty years, the reverses suffered in connection with the restitution of keys to the Shrine, the evacuation and restoration of the Mansion, the devastating loss in rapid succession of outstanding leaders and spokesmen, backed by the support of the perfidious Sohrab, engaging the services of a clever, hostile lawyer, unitedly challenged the authority conferred by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Testament, and instituted legal proceedings against the Guardian of the Faith, questioned his right to demolish dilapidated house situated within the precincts and constituting an affront to the Most Holy Shrine of the Bahá’í World, were rebuffed through the intervention of the Israel government denying the competence of the civil court to adjudicate the matter, subsequently threatened to appeal the government decision to the Supreme Court, provoked the authorities who, in consequence of my representations to both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, issued authorization to demolish the ruins.
Short-sighted action prompted by blind, uncontrollable animosity, resulted in the irretrievable curtailment of long-standing privileges extended to the Covenant-breakers during the course of six decades on the occasion of the celebration of the Bahá’í Holy Days.
The signal success in the removal of the ruins was immediately followed by landscaping the approaches to the Shrine, the erection of a gate and the embellishment of the surroundings of the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh, long denied a befitting entrance through the deliberate obstruction by the enemies of the Faith. Public access to the heart of the Qiblih of the Bahá’í World is now made possible through traversing the sacred precincts leading successively to the Holy Court, the outer and inner sanctuaries, the Blessed Threshold and the Holy of Holies. Recent events prelude the acquisition and development of over thirty acres of property surrounding Bahá’u’lláh’s resting place and are paving the way for the erection in the course of future decades of a befitting Mausoleum destined to enshrine the Dust of the Founder of God’s Most Holy Faith.
—Shoghi
[Cablegram, June 11, 1952]
The Summons of the Lord of Hosts
The steady expansion of the activities conducted so devotedly and so efficiently, during the last twelve months, by the members of the valiant and exemplary American Bahá’í Community, under the aegis of their elected national representatives, is such as to evoke feelings of deep and sincere admiration in my heart, and will serve to heighten the esteem in which they are held by their brethren in every continent of the globe.
The completion of the interior ornamentation of the holiest House of Worship ever to be raised by the followers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, the initiation of the landscaping of the immediate approaches of this sacred and majestic Edifice, the actual launching of the highly promising, profoundly significant African Campaign, through the arrival and settlement of American pioneers in both East and West Africa; the energetic efforts exerted for the multiplication of Bahá’í administrative institutions and the stimulation and consolidation of the all-important teaching work throughout the States of the American Union; the generous, the unhesitating and effectual support extended to the newly fledged communities in Latin America in their efforts for the consolidation of the administrative structure so laboriously erected in recent years; the ready and enthusiastic response to the world-wide call for a befitting celebration by the entire Bahá’í world of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s prophetic Mission; the magnificent services already rendered by the recently elevated American Hands of the Cause of God, in diversified spheres of Bahá’í activity, at the World Center of the Faith, in the triple function of hastening the construction of the Báb’s Sepulcher, of consolidating the ties binding the International Bahá’í Council to the civil authorities of Israel, and of completing the design of the projected Mashriqu’l-Adhkár on Mt. Carmel, as well as in Latin America; the repeated contributions made for the erection of that Sepulcher, for the extension of Bahá’í international endowments and the institution of the Hazíratu’l-Quds in Kampala; the marvellous loyalty demonstrated in connection with the repeated defection of members of the Holy Family and the nefarious activities of Covenant-breakers, both old and new; as well as the share a number of these Hands have had in administering a stunning defeat to the enemies of the Faith who, so boldly and shamelessly sought, through legal action, to challenge the authority of the Guardian of the Faith, and to publicly humiliate, the institution created through the provisions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Testament; the further unfoldment of the European project through the initiation of the two historic Conferences held in the Low Countries and in the Iberian Peninsula, and the convocation of the fateful Conference in Rome, heralding the formation of the Italo-Swiss National Assembly—the fairest fruit of that mighty Project—these stand out as the distinctive, the unforgettable, the infinitely meritorious achievements which posterity will record as the noblest exploits immortalizing the concluding years of the Second Seven Year Plan, and conferring untold benefits on its executors throughout the length and breadth of the Great Republic of the West.