ON THE OCCASION OF THE

CENTENARY COMMEMORATION AT BAHJÍ

OF THE
ASCENSION OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

A TRIBUTE BY THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

W ITH SOUL-STIRRING emotion we gather in the hallowed environs of His

resting place to honour the memory of the Supreme Manifestation of
God, Bahá’u’lláh, on the solemn, historic occasion of the centenary of His
ascension.
We lift our voices at the prompting of our hearts’ desire to pay tribute to a
life infinitely beyond compare. But how shall we realize such a wish when it is
evident that no mind can attain the comprehension which would make possible
the vocabulary worthy of His celestial court? In very truth, our tongues falter in
their impotence to describe, let alone extol, the prodigies of a prophetic career
which was framed in superlatives. For here at Bahjí, one hundred years ago, was
drawn the last breath on earth of the world’s greatest Luminary, Founder of the
Dispensation marking the culmination of the six-thousand-year-old Adamic
Cycle, and Inaugurator of the five-thousand-century Bahá’í Cycle. He, the Most
Great Manifestation, appeared in the Most Great Name and endured the
greatest suffering in authoring the Most Great Revelation, which is the well-
spring of the Most Great Peace. In our attempt to appreciate these matchless
bounties, we recite the gem-like names of the Adored One, picked out as pearls
from the veritable ocean of His Revelation, bestrewing them throughout our
testimonial that they may lend an acceptable gleam to our expression of His
glory and majesty.
King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Supreme Mediator, Most Ancient Beauty:
He is the Well-Beloved of all worlds. We hail Him as the long-awaited Prom-
ised One, the Object of the adoration of the world. And we exclaim: “Hallowed
be the Lord in Whose hand is the source of dominion!”

HOW GRIEVOUSLY Bahá’u’lláh suffered to regenerate the world! Wrongly

accused, imprisoned, beaten, chained, banished from country to country,
betrayed, poisoned, stripped of material possessions, and “at every moment
tormented with a fresh torment”: such was the cruel reception that greeted the
Everlasting Father, Him Who is the Possessor of all Names and Attributes. For
two score years, until the end of His earthly days, He remained a prisoner and
exile — persecuted unceasingly by the rulers of Persia and the Ottoman
Empire, opposed relentlessly by a vicious and scheming clergy, neglected
abjectly by other sovereigns to whom He addressed potent letters imparting to
them that which, in His truth-bearing words, “is the cause of the well-being, the
unity, the harmony, and the reconstruction of the world, and of the tranquillity of the
nations”. “My grief”, He once lamented, “exceedeth all the woes to which Jacob gave
vent, and all the afflictions of Job are but a part of My sorrows.”
The voice halts for shame from continuing so deplorable a recitation, the
heart is torn by mere thought of the Divine Target of such grief — grief no
ordinary mortal could endure. But lest we give way to feelings of gloom and
distress, we take recourse in the tranquil calm He induces with such meaningful
words as these: “We have borne it all with the utmost willingness and resignation, so
that the souls of men may be edified, and the Word of God be exalted.” Thus, the
Wronged One, patient beyond measure, preserved a majestic composure,
revealing His true Self as the Merciful, the Loving, the Incomparable Friend.
Concentrating His energies on the pivotal purpose of His Revelation, He
transmuted His tribulations into instruments of redemption and summoned all
peoples to the banner of unity.
No worldly power could thwart the purpose of the Most Exalted Pen.
Through the copiousness of His writings, He poured upon the planet the
healing waters of the Word of God renewed. Descending upon Him like a
spring rain, His Revelation comprises some one hundred volumes — “volumes
replete with unnumbered exhortations, revolutionizing principles, world-shaping laws
and ordinances, dire warnings and portentous prophecies, with soul-uplifting prayers and
meditations, illuminating commentaries and interpretations, impassioned discourses and
homilies, all interspersed with either addresses or references to kings, to emperors and to
ministers, of both the East and the West, to ecclesiastics of divers denominations, and to
leaders in the intellectual, political, literary, mystical, commercial and humanitarian
spheres of human activity.” Foremost among His Books is His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the
charter of the future world civilization in which He has announced the Laws of
God for this age. Our hearts thrill to the prospect that during the course of this
centennial year, the annotated English translation of this Mother Book of
Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation is to be published. We acknowledge with astonished
joy the prolific legacy of this divine outpouring. And we exclaim: “Praised be
Thou, Who art the Desire of the world, and thanks be to Thee, O Well-Beloved of the
hearts of such as are devoted to Thee!”

TODAY, we bear witness to the further abundance of a peerless heritage. With

the setting of the Sun of Bahá, the Moon of His Covenant rose in reflected
glory, lifting the darkness of a night of despair, and lighting the path to the
unity of all humankind. In the fullness of its radiance stands the magnetic
Figure of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the beloved Son Whom Bahá’u’lláh designated as the
Interpreter of His Word and Executive of His authority, and Whom He
appointed the Centre of His Covenant, an office without parallel in all religious
history.
 We acknowledge the mysterious power of His wisdom, the illuminating
potency of His words, the immortal example and unific character of His deeds.
By His untiring exertions the fame of the infant Cause was spread abroad, the
design of its Administrative Order was completed, the World Centre of the
Faith emerged into clear visibility, and the splendours of the Mountain of God,
as alluded to in Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablet of Carmel, began to be manifested. With
profound gratitude for such evident blessings we reaffirm our loyalty to the
Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh. And we exclaim: “Glorified be the All-Merciful, the Lord
of Grace abounding!”
As a result of the phenomenal effects of His Covenant, a world community
has been raised up on an “unassailable foundation”. The entire system of the
Administrative Order originated by Bahá’u’lláh in His Most Holy Book has
been erected. A vigorous network of local, national, continental and interna-
tional institutions functions in exemplary harmony throughout the planet.
Vitalized and nurtured by His stupendous Revelation, watered by the precious
blood of countless martyrs, and tended by the loving care of unnumbered,
devoted servants, the Tree of the Cause has, in these hundred years, grown
mightily, has put forth its far-stretching branches and borne its first and
plentiful fruit.

BAHÁ’U’LLÁH found the world in a “strange sleep”. But what a disturbance His
coming has unloosed! The peoples of the earth had been separated, many parts
of the human race socially and spiritually isolated. But the world of humanity
today bears little resemblance to that which Bahá’u’lláh left a century ago.
Unbeknownst to the great majority, His influence permeates all living beings.
Indeed, no domain of life remains unaffected. In the burgeoning energy, the
magnified perspectives, the heightened global consciousness; in the social and
political turbulence, the fall of kingdoms, the emancipation of nations, the
intermixture of cultures, the clamour for development; in the agitation over the
extremes of wealth and poverty, the acute concern over the abuse of the
environment, the leap of consciousness regarding the rights of women; in the
growing tendency towards ecumenism, the increasing call for a new world
order; in the astounding advances in the realms of science, technology, litera-
ture and the arts — in all this tumult, with its paradoxical manifestations of
chaos and order, integration and disintegration, are the signs of His power as
World Reformer, the proof of His claim as Divine Physician, the truth of His
Word as the All-Knowing Counsellor.
Bahá’u’lláh wrote voluminously about the purpose of this mysterious force
and its transformative effects, but the essence can be drawn from these few
perspicuous words: “Through the movement of Our Pen of Glory We have, at the
bidding of the Omnipotent Ordainer, breathed a new life into every human frame, and
instilled into every word a fresh potency. All created things proclaim the evidences of this
worldwide regeneration.” And again: “A new life is, in this age, stirring within all the
peoples of the earth; and yet none hath discovered its cause or perceived its motive.” And
yet again: “He Who is the Unconditioned is come, in the clouds of light, that He may
quicken all created things with the breezes of His Name, the Most Merciful, and unify
the world, and gather all men around this Table which hath been sent down from
heaven.”
Let the denizens of the earth wake from their slumber at the resonances of
His Name and arise from their confused dreams to embrace the clarity of the
new Day: For “This is the King of Days, the Day that hath seen the coming of the Best-
beloved, Him Who through all eternity hath been acclaimed the Desire of the World.”

OUR THOUGHTS turn back to the mourning time in 1892 when a vast number
of residents from the surrounding area came to join His bereaved followers in
lamenting the departure of the immortal Beloved. These were not adherents of
His Cause and had no real understanding of His station, but the effect of His
presence among them was such as to fill them with a grave sense of loss. Today,
a century later, it is we, who identify ourselves with His community, who have
come in multitudinous array from the far corners of the earth to pay homage to
the King of Glory. With us in spirit are the millions of His lovers scattered
among tens of thousands of villages, towns and cities, themselves observing in
their own localities this solemn anniversary, their hearts focussed on the Primal
Spot here at Bahjí.
And among us at this Point of Adoration are a number of the heroic souls
from the celebrated company who earned the accolade Knight of Bahá’u’lláh
conferred upon them by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Cause — this to
signify their acts of daring and devotion as teachers of the Faith. It is they who
were in the vanguard during the triumphant Ten Year World Crusade. Their
exploits, built upon the dramatic feats of the Heroic Age and the sacrifices of
countless martyrs and heroes of the past, and following the trail blazed by
earlier teachers of the Faith, realized the actual establishment of the Cause of
Bahá’u’lláh as a world religion.
Now, on this commemorative occasion, the Roll of Honour on which the
names of the Knights have been inscribed is being deposited by Amatu’l-Bahá
Rúhíyyih
. Khánum at the entrance door of the Most Holy Shrine in the spot
designated by our beloved Guardian. This is both a symbol and a promise — a
symbol registering the reality of a clear response, at a critical time, to the duty
laid upon us by the Lord of Hosts to diffuse His teachings among all peoples; a
promise that the commitment so dazzlingly displayed by these intrepid pioneers
will be reaffirmed by generations of their successors, ensuring that the light of
Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation, “shining in all its power and glory, will have suffused and
enveloped the entire planet”.
This is also a mark of recognition of the power of the Hand of Omnipo-
tence to turn gnats into eagles. His bounties embolden us. Broken-winged birds
are we; yet, with His assurances resounding in our souls, we soar to ever greater
heights in His service. “I am the royal Falcon on the arm of the Almighty!” He
declares, benevolently adding: “I unfold the drooping wings of every broken bird and
start it on its flight.” How then can we fail?
We here make this vow: With a stirring history of divine support behind
us and a clear vision of unfolding destiny before us, we move onward, renewed,
reconsecrated, resolute, until the consciousness of every human being has been
touched by the knowledge of God’s triumphant Faith. And, intoning the
expectant words of His Martyr-Herald, we exclaim: “Exalted be His glory, and
magnified be His might, and sanctified be His holiness, and glorified be His grandeur,
and lauded be His ways!”

THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

[29 May 1992]