PRELUDE TO PRODIGIOUS EXPANSION
So glorious a record of accomplishments in the service of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, whether local, national or international, in both the teaching and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity, can be regarded in no other light than as a prelude to a period of prodigious expansion and consolidation to be inaugurated by the launching of a global spiritual crusade, on the threshold of which the Bahá’í world now stands. This crusade extending through ten years will involve the simultaneous prosecution of twelve national plans, will necessitate the active and sustained participation of each of the twelve existing national spiritual assemblies representing no less than thirty-six nations and will demand the utmost exertion, consecration and heroism. It aims at the broadening and the reinforcement of the foundations of the Faith in each of the twelve areas that are to serve as operational bases for the prosecution of these twelve national plans; the opening of one hundred and thirty-one territories to the Faith; the consolidation of one hundred and eighteen territories; the translation and printing of literature in ninety-one languages; the construction of two Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs; the acquisition of sites for the future construction of eleven Temples; the formation of forty-eight national spiritual assemblies; the founding of forty-seven national Hazíratu’l-Quds; the incorporation of fifty national spiritual assemblies; the framing of Bahá’í national constitutions and the establishment of Bahá’í national endowments by each of these national assemblies; the adoption of preliminary measures for the construction of Bahá’u’lláh’s Sepulcher; the erection of the first dependency of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the western world; the development of the institution of the Hands of the Cause; the transformation of the International Bahá’í Council into an international Bahá’í court; the codification of the laws and ordinances of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas; the establishment of six national Bahá’í Courts in the chief cities of the Islamic East; the extension of international Bahá’í endowments in the Plain of Akká and on the slopes of Mt. Carmel; the construction of the International Bahá’í Archives in the neighborhood of the Báb’s Sepulcher; the construction of the tomb of the Báb’s wife in Shíráz; the identification of the resting-places of Bahá’u’lláh’s father, of the Báb’s mother and of His cousin and their reburial in the neighborhood of the Most Great House; the acquisition of the Garden of Ridván in Baghdád, and of the sites of the Síyáh-Chál in Ṭihrán, of the Báb’s martyrdom in Tabríz and of His incarceration in Chihríq; the establishment of six Bahá’í national publishing trusts; the formation of seven Israel branches of Bahá’í national spiritual assemblies; the participation of women in the membership of Bahá’í local and national spiritual assemblies in Persia; the establishment of a Bahá’í national printing-press in Ṭihrán; the reinforcement of the ties binding the Bahá’í World Community with the United Nations; the opening to the Faith, circumstances permitting, of eleven republics comprised in the Soviet Union, as well as two Soviet-controlled European states—all, please God, culminating in the convocation of a World Bahá’í Congress, in the vicinity of the Garden of Ridván, in the third holiest city of the Bahá’í world, on the occasion of the world-wide celebrations commemorating the centenary of the formal assumption by Bahá’u’lláh of His prophetic office.
A PLANETARY SPIRITUAL CRUSADE
Let there be no mistake. The avowed, the primary aim of this Spiritual Crusade is none other than the conquest of the citadels of men’s hearts. The theater of its operations is the entire planet. Its duration a whole decade. Its commencement synchronizes with the centenary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission. Its culmination will coincide with the centenary of the declaration of that same Mission. The agencies assisting in its conduct are the nascent administrative institutions of a steadily evolving divinely appointed order. Its driving force is the energizing influence generated by the Revelation heralded by the Báb and proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh. Its Marshal is none other than the Author of the Divine Plan. Its standard-bearers are the Hands of the Cause of God appointed in every continent of the globe. Its generals are the twelve national spiritual assemblies participating in the execution of its design. Its vanguard is the chief executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s master plan, their allies and associates. Its legions are the rank and file of believers standing behind these same twelve national assemblies and sharing in the global task embracing the American, the European, the African, the Asiatic and Australian fronts. The charter directing its course is the immortal Tablets that have flowed from the pen of the Center of the Covenant Himself. The armor with which its onrushing hosts have been invested is the glad tidings of God’s own message in this day, the principles underlying the order proclaimed by His Messenger, and the laws and ordinances governing His Dispensation. The battle cry animating its heroes and heroines is the cry of Yá-Bahá’u’l-Abhá, Yá ‘Alíyyu’l-A‘lá.
So vast, so momentous and challenging a crusade that will, God willing, illuminate the annals of the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, and immortalize the second decade of the second Bahá’í century, and the termination of which will mark the closing of the first epoch in the evolution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan, will, in itself, pave the way for, and constitute the prelude to, the initiation of the laborious and tremendously long process of establishing in the course of subsequent crusades in all the newly opened sovereign states, dependencies and islands of the planet, as well as in all the remaining territories of the globe, the framework of the Administrative Order of the Faith, with all its attendant agencies, and of eventually erecting in these territories still more pillars to share in sustaining the weight and in broadening the foundation of the Universal House of Justice.