Letter of 22 July 1949
22 July 1949
The work on the Shrine—now beginning to rise visibly at the corners—and the spread of the Faith which brings many communications from new places, and many problems too, keeps us all busy as never before, especially the Guardian. But to see the course going ahead so fast fills our hearts with gratitude and the work involved seems a small contribution to make to such a Holy Cause.
As regards to the question you asked me to put to the Guardian about the Aqdas and the House of Justice elections: as most of the laws of the Aqdas cannot at present be enforced anywhere he has not deemed it necessary or wise to translate and promulgate them. You can orally translate them for any of the believers anxious to know exactly what they are. The National Assemblies (or Houses of Justice) will elect directly the International House of Justice, but just what form this election will take must be decided in the future when the proper time comes. Neither the Master nor the Guardian have made any pronouncements about punishments stipulated in the Aqdas.
Letter of 25 July 1949
25 July 1949
There are no quotations from the Qur’án to support the Master’s statement that European thinkers acknowledge the influence of Islám in shaping the thought of Europe. In the “Gleanings”, page 95 (third printing Jan. 1943) Bahá’u’lláh says:—“Of old it has been revealed: Love of one’s country is an element of the Faith of God!” Here Bahá’u’lláh is quoting not the Qur’án but an Islámic tradition, and it is this statement which the Guardian has used as the basis of his argument in the “Promised Day” that nationhood grew out of the direct influence of Mu?ammad’s teachings, and was one of the great contributions to mankind’s evolution of Islám. The building up of nations came after Mu?ammad, and was a step forward in the direction of a unified world which the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh has provided for.