|
A severe, a historic censure pronounced by a Muslim ecclesiastical court in Egypt had, whilst this mighty process-- the laying of the structural basis of the Baha'i world Administrative Order-- was being initiated, officially expelled all adherents of the Faith of Muslim extraction from Islam, had condemned them as heretics and brought the members of a proscribed community face to face with tests and perils of a character they had never known before. The unjust decision of a civil court in Baghdad, instigated by Shi'ah enemies, in Iraq, and the decree issued by a still more redoubtable adversary in Russia had, moreover, robbed the Faith, on the one hand, of one of its holiest centers of pilgrimage, and denied it, on the other, the use of its first House of Worship, initiated by Abdu'l- Baha and erected in the course of His ministry. And finally, inspired by this unexpected declaration made by an age- long enemy-- marking the first step in the march of their Faith towards total emancipation-- and undaunted by this double blow struck at its institutions, the followers of Baha'u'llah, already united and fully equipped through the agencies of a firmly established Administrative Order, had arisen to crown the immortal records of the first Baha'i century by vindicating the independent character of their Faith, by enforcing the fundamental laws ordained in their Most Holy Book, by demanding and in some cases obtaining, the recognition by the ruling authorities of their right to be classified as followers of an independent religion, by securing from the world's highest Tribunal its condemnation of the injustice they had suffered at the hands of their persecutors, by establishing their residence in no less than thirty- four additional countries, as well as in thirteen dependencies, by disseminating their literature in twenty- nine additional languages, by enrolling a Queen in the ranks of the supporters of their Cause, and lastly by launching an enterprise which, as that century approached its end, enabled them to complete the exterior ornamentation of their second House of Worship, and to bring to a successful conclusion the first stage of the Plan which Abdu'l- Baha had conceived for the world- wide and systematic propagation of their Faith.
(406:2)
|