Mulk

The Dominion of Mulk


By John Taylor; 2009 Jan 27, 09 Sultan, 165 BE

Thoughts about Next Month's Feast Virtue

Several years ago I wrote a series of essays on the 19 virtues in the Badi' Calendar -- probably the main reason I called this the "Badi' Blog." Since then, a book on the calendar has been published by George Ronald, and a study of the Writings of the Bab has come out as well. The mistakes I made back then are clearer. Still, some still stands, and I want to go over it and re-post the best of them over the next year or two. So let us start with the virtue for the next feast: Mulk, or Dominion.

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The Dominion of Mulk


In the early 1860's the safety and sovereignty of Canadians were gravely threatened by the great power to the south, which had split into a bloody Civil War among its states. Young men walking the streets of Canadian cities, including my home town of Hamilton, were regularly shanghaied by army recruiters with urgent quotas to fill. Some were persuaded, others seduced by prostitutes, plied with free alcohol only to wake up the next day as canon fodder. One day a boy or young man might walk free and two weeks later die a foot-soldier, overtaken by a violent, obscure death in the front lines of a foreign war. Nobody knows precisely how many disappeared there were. Most fought for the Northern Union but others, willingly or not, somehow turned up in the dead lists of the Confederate Army.

After hostilities stopped there came threats and saber rattling by hawkish elements pressuring a victorious American government to invade Canada. This persuaded a reluctant Canadian government, in spite of reservations about how ready we were for independence, that there was no choice but to join in confederation. In 1867, the provinces merged into a single country they called the "Dominion of Canada." The Fathers of Confederation chose the word "Dominion" carefully. They wished to have the rights due an independent nation, but not to follow the rebellious ways of their neighbor to the south and arrogate to themselves absolute sovereignty. Canadian leaders, backed by large numbers of "United Empire Loyalists" who had immigrated from America, held fiercely to the British Empire. They wished to leave all final decisions to the English parliament in London. Canada persisted in its reluctance to take the reigns completely for many decades afterward.

Only in 1983 was the Constitution repatriated and Canada ceased technically to be a dominion and became a fully federated nation. Still, that did not mean that we had to get rid of the name. Partly out of a misguided fear of offending anti-royalist sensibilities in Quebec, we got away from using this wonderfully distinctive appellation. Dominion Day has been changed to Canada Day, and the Dominion Government is now called the Federal Government. As the Faith becomes better known, I hope that Canadians will return to using this wonderful attribute of God in our name.

It was therefore with a thrill of nostalgia that I read the recent letter of the Universal House of Justice addressing us thus,

"With exultant hearts we hail the followers of Baha'u'llah assembled at the conferences convened in the Dominion of Canada." (Letter, 10 Jan, 2009)

What is past is prophesy. May the day come soon when Canada is a dominion again, only this time not of an empire but a world government whose dominion extends wherever humans abide.

Anyway, the delegates gathered at Canada's Confederation convention in 1867 considered for a while calling the new nation the "Kingdom of Canada." However our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, thought the name would "wound the sensibilities of the Yankees." The Canadian Fathers of Confederation were not ignorant of the Bible. As a result, Sir Samuel Tilley suggested the name, "Dominion of Canada;" his inspiration was from the Psalm,

"He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." (72:8)

Because of this, the Coat of Arms for Canada has the Latin inscription "Ad mari usque ad mare," from sea to sea. Baha'is believe that this is a prophesy of the banishment of Baha'u'llah from the Caspian to the Mediterranean seas. As we shall see later on, 'Abdu'l-Baha made much of the fact that we are (or were) the only nation in the world to call itself a dominion.

The word "Dominion" is a Biblical term with a long history and far reaching millennial implications. The Psalm speaks of the power of God reaching out everywhere, without limit, as a dominion from sea to sea,

"He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth. Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. His enemies shall lick the dust." (Ps 72:8-9, WEB)

This reminded Canadians of our borders, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. In fact, now that the Arctic Ocean is melting, soon we may be a land extending from sea to sea to sea. The river going to the "ends of the earth" was in their view our largest river, the St. Lawrence. The mention of "wilderness" struck a chord, since we were a nation of pioneers, many subsistence farmers lost in the endless forests of the north. Canadians living a hardscrabble life looked with longing eyes at the permanence and compassion, the absolute over-lordship of God's kingdom.

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures throughout all generations." (Ps 145:13, WEB)

Having been tossed in the wake of the terrible Civil War so close to home, the word dominion in the 19th Century also offered a promise of peace.

"...the battle bow will be cut off; And he will speak peace to the nations: And his dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth." (Zech 9:10, WEB)

At the same time, as a scriptural term dominion implies moral rule, placing the Word and teachings of God first, and putting them into action in our lives.

"Establish my footsteps in your word. Do not let any iniquity have dominion over me." (Ps 119:133, WEB)

This moral nuance shows up in the prophesies of Amos, who predicted the desolation of materialism that now grips the world, from sea to sea.

"Behold, the days come," says the Lord Yahweh, "That I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Yahweh. They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of Yahweh, and will not find it." (Amos 8:11-12, WEB)

During this month of Mulk we living here might well reflect: How can we escape the ravages of materialism? Might it not be our destiny, handed to us by Sir Samuel Tilley, to be the first nation to submit to the material dominion of a world government, or even to the spiritual dominion of the Lord of Hosts? Could it be that the many blessings showered upon our nation, both material and spiritual, are meant as steps to that high calling?

Next time we will look in detail at the link Abdu'l-Baha made to Canadian Dominion in the Tablets of the Divine Plan.
Revised from 1995, and Apr 05, 2006


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John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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