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Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and
center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.
Bahá'u'lláh
A wider horizon is opening before us, illumined by a growing and
universal manifestation of the inherent potentialities of the Cause
for ordering human affairs. In this light can be discerned not only
our immediate tasks but, more dimly, new pursuits and undertakings
upon which we must shortly become engaged.
The Universal House of Justice, Ridván 1983
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Contents
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Preface vii
Part I: Selected Messages 1
Ridván 140 B.E. (Ridván 1983) 3
October 20, 1983: Social and Economic Development 6
January 2, 1984: Opportunities and the Fund 11
January 3, 1984: International Year of Youth 14
Ridván 1984 17
Ridván 1984: To the United States 23
January 3, 1985: Opportunities and the Fund 29
January 23, 1985: International Year of Peace 31
Ridván 1985 34
May 8, 1985: To Bahá'í Youth 37
January 2, 1986: The Fourth Epoch 39
Ridván 1986 42
Ridván 1987 45
August 31, 1987: Completing the Arc 50
Ridván 1988 54
Ridván 1989 60
August 27, 1989: The Feast 66
February 8, 1990: The Two Year Plan 70
Ridván 1990 73
May 24, 1990: Initiation of Work on the Arc 83
Ridván 1991 84
November 18, 1991: Opportunities and the Fund 92
Ridván 1992 95
Part II: Major Themes 111
Persecution of the Bahá'ís in Iran 113
Emergence from Obscurity 119
The Processes of Integration and Disintegration 127
Social and Economic Development 138
Involvement in the Life of Society 145
Participation of Youth 153
Opportunities for Progress and the Fund 161
Huququ'llah 170
Fourth Epoch of the Formative Age 175
The Six Year Plan 181
Maturation of the Institutions 188
Maturation and Urgency of the Teaching Work 196
New Opportunities for Expansion 208
Challenges of the American Bahá'í Community 215
The Arc on Mount Carmel 221
The Holy Year 226
The Person and Mission of Bahá'u'lláh 233
Appendix: Suggestions for Organized Study 243
Preparation 245
Activities 245
Questions 246
Index 253
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page vii
Preface
Each year the Bahá'í world receives a wonderful gift at
Ridván. That gift is a message from the Universal House of
Justice, the Supreme Body of Bahá'u'lláh's new World Order,
the "source of all good" that is "freed from all error."
Upon receiving this gift we admire its beauty and hungrily
take our portion from the spiritual sustenance it contains.
We find within the letter pearls of wisdom and guidance that
we can apply to the challenges and opportunities facing us in
our various arenas of service. The guidance of the Universal
House of Justice offers us encouragement in our successes,
advice for improving our weaknesses, and directives for
undertaking what lies ahead. We study the letter for such
advice, and strive the best we can to implement its guidance.
There is another level from which we might view any
letter we receive from the Universal House of Justice. Rather
than seeing the letter as an isolated message, we can consider
it a part of a continuous flow of guidance that comes from the
Supreme Body. In this light, a letter provides an orientation
to the Bahá'í world of its challenges and opportunities in
relation to the accomplishments of the past and with a vision
of the future. Major themes raised in a previous letter are
explored anew, examined in more detail, and eventually
summarized and concluded. The reader begins to see the
sweep of history in which the Faith overcomes obstacles and
achieves new levels in its organic growth. The seed planted
by the Universal House of Justice in one message is carefully
watered by guidance in subsequent messages until it finally
bears fruit. The world community is able to see how its efforts
to follow the instructions of the House of Justice provide the
victories of future years often in ways that could not be
envisioned at the start.
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The central purpose of this book is to help the reader
acquire this sense of continuity when reading and studying
the messages of the Universal House of Justice. It is also
hoped that the reader will acquire a specific understanding of
the significance of the past decade in the evolution of the
Faith and of the major challenges that the Faith is facing today
in order to be able to more effectively serve its needs. For it is
clear in the messages that follow that the Cause of God,
pursuing its inherent nature of organic growth and development,
is quite a different entity than it was in 1983. It has
radically changed in its stature in the eyes of the world; it has
grown dramatically; it has brought to a close tasks of expansion
pursued since 1954; and it has had to grapple with new
demands for maturity in the operation of its institutions, in its
involvement in the life of society, and in its fundamental
processes of expansion and consolidation.
This book might be considered a cross between a standard
book of messages, a compilation, and a study guide.
Part I offers 23 messages, including all of the Ridván messages
from 1983-1992 and selected letters that explore in more
detail some of the themes raised in the Ridván messages. This
section does not replace the need for the production, in the
future, of a more exhaustive compilation of letters to cover
this time period, for many important messages are not included
because of the specific nature of this book. Among the
most obvious are the 1985 statement on peace and the December
29, 1988 letter to the American Bahá'ís, written to assist
them, as individuals and institutions, to achieve a greater
understanding of individual rights and freedom of expression
in the Bahá'í community. Part II of this book provides a
compilation based on major themes raised in the letters in
Part I. It thus replicates thematically the content of the messages,
although a number of extracts of other letters written
page ix
by the Universal House of Justice or on its behalf have been
used to further develop the themes. Finally, an appendix is
included with questions and activities that could be used for
individual or group study of the letters.
In its Ridván 1983 message the Universal House of Justice
noted that "a wider horizon is opening before us" in which
"can be discerned not only our immediate tasks but, more
dimly, new pursuits and undertakings upon which we must
shortly become engaged." Thus the stage was set for the
dramatic changes that altered the condition of the world and
the Bahá'í community in the short span of nine years. The
start of such changes, however, might more accurately be
traced to a point just a few months earlier, which together
with the sacrifices of the believers in Iran, surely upset the
spiritual equilibrium of the entire creation. On February 1,
1983 the Universal House of Justice announced to the Bahá'í
world that the Supreme Body had occupied its newly-constructed
seat on Mt. Carmel. "This auspicious event," the
House of Justice informed us, "signalizes another phase" in
the process of the fulfillment of "sailing God's Ark" on the
"mountain of the Lord" as anticipated by Bahá'u'lláh in the
Tablet of Carmel.
The Supreme Body continued: "LET ALL REJOICE. LET
PRAISES ANCIENT BEAUTY RESOUND. MAY UNRELENTING
EFFORTS FRIENDS EVERYWHERE HASTEN
ADVENT THAT DAY WHEN WONDROUS POTENTIALITIES
ENSHRINED IN TABLET CARMEL WILL BE FULLY
REVEALED AND WHEN FROM GOD'S HOLY MOUNTAIN,
AS ENVISAGED BY BELOVED GUARDIAN, WILL
STREAM FORTH RIVERS OF LAWS AND ORDINANCES
WITH ALL-CONQUERING POWER AND MAJESTY." Just
four years later the Universal House of Justice noted that
"already we see the effect of the spiritual energies which the
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completion of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice has
released, and the new impulse this has given to the advancement
of the Faith." This book offers a record of those changes,
and a prelude to the future "transformations" that "will be
effected as a result of the completion of each successive stage
of this great enterprise."
By the time you read this book, new messages that extend
the vision of the Universal House of Justice will have appeared.
It is hoped that, as a result of the study of this book,
such messages will be viewed with a new eye and a new
understanding.
Paul Lample
