Error in Ruhi Book VIII

Error in Pre-Publication version of Ruhi Book Eight

 

By John Taylor; 2011 Jan 31, Sultan 13, 167 BE

 

In Book Eight our Ruhi book tells of the Master's visit to America. At our study circle I suggested that the authors had made a minor mistake in their narrative. Here is the passage in question, from page 47 of the study text:

 

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"Among the many events associated with His visit to the community in the West, two are particularly noteworthy. While in Chicago, 'Abdu'l-Baha laid with His own hands the cornerstone of the House of Worship on the recently purchased property facing Lake Michigan. Earlier, in New York City, He had chosen to affirm the implications of the Covenant instituted by Baha'u'llah. Following the reading of the Tablet of the Branch, which had recently been translated into English, one of those present left a record of the words He uttered on that occasion: `... I am the Covenant, appointed by Baha'u'llah. And no one can refute His Word. This is the Testament of Baha'u'llah. You will find it in the Holy Book of Aqdas. Go forth and proclaim, "This is the Covenant of God in your midst."'"

 

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The reference that the Ruhi mavens give for this "I am the Covenant" quote is to Juliet Thompson's Diary, p. 313. I will include the entire passage from her diary at the end of this blog posting -- the entire text of her diary is included in the Ocean database. According to Juliet Thompson's dating, in July she wrote this recollection of the "crowning" of Lua as "Herald of the Covenant," recalling an event that had taken place right about the summer solstice, slightly over a week before.

 

In short, she does not mention here a reading of the Tablet of the Branch on that day. Mahmud Zarqani in his diary agrees with Juliet's account that on the 19th of June the Master spoke about the importance of the Tablet of the Branch to a small group, but he does not mention a reading of the Tablet. In any case, the Ruhi pundits should definitely have written "Later" instead of "Earlier in New York City ..." since the dedication of the Chicago Temple took place in early May during the first month of the Master's time in America.

 

As far as I have been able to determine, Abdu'l-Baha after arriving on 11 April spent only a few days in New York giving just 13 speeches, then on the 20th of April He left for Washington and then Chicago, where He laid the foundation stone of Wilmette Mashriq on the first of May.

 

It is always difficult to prove a negative, but I have found no evidence of a reading of the Tablet of the Branch before the dedication of the Mashriq in Wilmette on May first. For example, neither of the two main texts documenting His talks in America, Promulgation and Mahmud's Diary, mention the word "covenant" after this general statement of purpose in His first talk upon debarking the boat.

 

"As New York has made such progress in material civilization, I hope that it may also advance spiritually in the Kingdom and Covenant of God so that the friends here may become the cause of the illumination of America, that this city may become the city of love and that the fragrances of God may be spread from this place to all parts of the world. I have come for this. I pray that you may be manifestations of the love of Baha'u'llah ... This is my highest aspiration." (Promulgation, 3)

 

The next time the word "Covenant" is mentioned in either book is a month after the Temple dedication, on 2 June 1912 in an address given at the Church of the Ascension in New York. He said,

"In the terminology of the Holy Books the church has been called the house of the covenant for the reason that the church is a place where people of different thoughts and divergent tendencies -- where all races and nations -- may come together in ..." (Promulgation, 163)

The original notes for this talk were taken by Esther Foster. Evidently the text in Persian or Arabic is extant, since the above passage was re-translated in Mahmoud's Diary by,

 

"In the terminology of the Holy Books, the church is a symbol of the Covenant, in other words it is a gathering place for different peoples and races so that it may become a sign and token of the true Temple and the Divine Law." (Mahmud's Diary, entry for Sunday, June 2, 1912)

 

After Mahmud's Diary came out I wrote the English editor of that book, Shirley Macias, and asked if we should regard the more recent translations that are in the Diary as "official translations," but she could not help me on that. I find some parts of the new translation sound better in English than the old translation, but others sound worse. Not knowing Persian, I cannot vouch for their accuracy.

 

In any case, in view of this the text of this passage in Ruhi Book 8 should definitely be changed from "earlier" to "later." But it gets worse. When it says "on that occasion," it is talking about another occasion completely. The Ruhi luminaries confused and conflated two distinct events; one, the appointment of Lua as "Herald of the Covenant," which, as I said, took place sometime in June while the Master was sitting for the fifth time for Juliet Thompson's portrait, with, two, the public reading of the Tablet of the Branch, which took place five months later. Here is Juliet's description of that event.

 

 

 

"... As I said, this happened in the afternoon of 26 November. The morning had been a tremendous one. Knowing that my Lord would be at the Kinneys', I went directly there. On the way up in the bus a great wave of tears, like a tidal wave, rose from my heart (I didn't know why) and threatened at any moment to break over me.

"I found the Master on the upper floor of the Kinneys' house with the Persians, Carrie and Ned, Nellie Lloyd, and Mr Mills. The Tablet of the Branch was being translated under the supervision of the Master. Dr Baghdadi and Dr Farid were working on it, submitting it time after time to the Master before He was satisfied with their rendering. I shall never forget His sternness,

"His terrific majesty as He directed that translation. The wave of tears did break as I listened and watched. I was shaken beyond all control. Mirza Mahmud and Valiyu'llah Khan tenderly tried to calm me."

 

In this way, Juliet records from her own point of view a smattering of the reading of the Tablet of the Branch that she witnessed that day. Evidently, this was the first translation and public reading of this Tablet -- I speculate that the Master chose it because of something the Nakazin may have said, perhaps that Baha'u'llah had said nothing about the Master's station.

 

Anyway, it is beyond doubt that this took place during the last month of the Master's visit to America, a period when He was putting tremendous emphasis on the Covenant. He sponsored several meetings and at least two banquets celebrating the Covenant in both Washington and New York during this climactic month.

 

Baha'u'llah's Tablet of the Branch, by the way, had been revealed in Edirne during Baha'u'llah's most prolific period, around 1867-1868 -- for more details on the Suriye-Ghusn and its translations and publication history, as well as other data see: <http://bahai-library.com/wilmette_surih_ghusn_outline>). Amazingly, after all these years it has yet to be officially translated. The version I still use is the one in Baha'i World Faith; it is probably the one the Master helped translate.

 

Anyway, it is not completely surprising that our anonymous Ruhi pundits conflated these two crucial events during the Master's visit. The chapter on the visit to America in Hasan Balyuzi's biography, "Abdu'l-Baha," does not mention either covenant event at all, and He was a Hand of the Cause! Of course, we have to bear in mind that Juliet's Diary was not published until fifty years after these event, because (as it says in the introduction) its reviewers deemed it "too emotional" and forbade publication. For that reason, Balyuzi may not have seen Juliet's diary. The Guardian probably did, however, since his summary of the American travels of the Master in God Passes By includes this summary,

 

"... the dynamic affirmation by Him ['Abdu'l-Baha] of the implications of the Covenant instituted by Baha'u'llah, following the reading of the newly translated Tablet of the Branch, in a general assembly of His followers in New York, designated henceforth as the "City of the Covenant.'" (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 288)

 

It is clear what Juliet considered this "dynamic affirmation" was after the Master read the Tablet of the Branch -- it left her in tears, not knowing entirely why. As I said, the Master insisted that several commemorations take place throughout November in Washington as well as New York, but the Guardian makes it clear here that the reading of the Tablet of the Branch is what gave New York the appellation "city of the Covenant," and is exactly what we now celebrate as the Day of the Covenant, on or around the 26th of that month.

 

Interestingly, much later the Guardian in a letter to Dr. Muhlschlegel called this translation, personally supervised by the Master, "poor." He requested that it not be published, beyond the selections that he himself had translated in World Order (see Light of Divine Guidance v I, p. 65). A provisional translation is available on the net, at the above link.

 

There was another dramatic event in November other than the reading of the Tablet of the Branch. That was when the Master, in front of everybody, all but forced Howard MacNutt to eat crow and renounce his attempts to reconcile and associate with the Nakazin. That, evidently, had happened a few days before the 26th. Once MacNutt had disobeyed and repented, after that most of the Master's work seemed to go into persuading the Baha’is _not_ to shun MacNutt.

 

In any case, since these events are what we celebrate every year on the Day of the Covenant, we should all be clearer about this story than we are. Juliet, May and Lua, having such devoted and sensitive female hearts (what a heart it would be, the Master told them, if three such hearts could be combined into one), had intimations of the coming occasion of the Day of the Covenant during the summer, the climax of the Masters visit to America, but we should not confuse that with the actual event.

 

The Ruhi doyens may have taken this wrong turn because of a similar mistake made in Ramona Brown's book, "Memories of Abdu'l-Baha." Here Brown makes a second-hand, after-the-fact recollection that she says she heard from Lua, maybe in California, maybe not. She writes,

 

"Lua travelled with the group. She (Lua) told me that it was in New York City that Abdul-Baha first taught the Baha'is about the protecting power of obedience to the Covenant of Baha'u'llah. There, on June 19, 1912, when the friends were gathered in the basement of His house, the translation of the Tablet of the Branch was read for the first time in this country. It is for this reason that New York is called the City of the Covenant." (Memories of Abdul-Baha, Ramona Allen Brown, p. 15)

She is perfectly correct that Lua was laying great emphasis on the 19th of June. One month later, she had been sent to California to lay the groundwork for the Master's imminent visit there (although nobody was certain that He would go West, except Himself, probably). In a public address, Lua told a San Francisco audience,

 

 

"On the 19th of June, Abdu'l-Baha made this proclamation of being the Center of the Covenant of God to about one hundred and twenty-five people who were gathered at His house on West 78th Street. Those present will never forget that day, I am sure. Though He spoke the message very quietly and impressively, it went forth with such a power that I am sure the whole city of New York was affected by it, and I know, without any doubt, that every person present that day was touched with a spirit which in itself was recreative..." (Velda Piff Metelmann, "Lua Getsinger, Herald of the Covenant, p. 164)

 

Later on in this speech, Lua quotes the entire text of the speech that the Master had given on 19 June. She was clearly affected by that day, but there is no mention of a reading of the Tablet of the Branch. If I get the chance, I will scan in this talk by Lua, and include it here on the Badi' Blog.

 

 

 

Appointment of Lua as herald of the covenant

The following Juliet's diary entry for 5 July, where she describes the Master appointing Lua as "Herald of the Covenant." As she says, she is referring to an event that had already taken place a couple of weeks earlier, on 19 June, 1912. Note that the title "herald of the covenant" was a non-exclusive thing. The Guardian later named 21 heralds or apostles of Abdu'l-Baha, and in their eulogies called many believers, including Harold MacNutt, "herald of the Covenant."

 

5 July 1912

The Beloved Master's portrait is finished. He sat for me six times, but I really did it in the three half hours He had promised me; for the sixth time, when He posed in His own room on the top floor, I didn't put on a single stroke. I was looking at the portrait wondering what I could find to do, when He suddenly rose from his chair and said: "It is finished."

The fifth time He sat, Miss Souley-Campbell came in with a drawing she had done from a photograph to ask if He would sign it for her and if she might add a few touches from life. This meant that He had to change His pose, so of course I couldn't paint that day. And the fourth time (the nineteenth of June) -- who could have painted then?

I had just begun to work, Lua in the room sitting on a couch nearby, when the Master smiled at me; then turning to Lua said in Persian: "This makes me sleepy. What shall I do?"

[Photograph: Portrait of 'Abdu'l-Baha painted by Juliet Thompson, 1912.]

"Tell the Master, Lua, that if He would like to take a nap, I can work while He sleeps."

But I found that I could not. What I saw then was too sacred, too formidable. He sat still as a statue, His eyes closed, infinite peace on that chiselled face, a God-like calm and grandeur in His erect head.

Suddenly, with a great flash like lightning He opened His eyes and the room seemed to rock like a ship in a storm with the Power released. The Master was blazing. "The veils of glory", "the thousand veils", had shrivelled away in that Flame and we were exposed to the Glory itself.

Lua and I sat shaking and sobbing.

Then He spoke to Lua. I caught the words, "Munadiy-i-'Ahd." (Herald of the Covenant).

Lua started forward, her hand to her breast.

"Man?" (I?) she exclaimed.

"Call one of the Persians. You must understand this."

Never shall I forget that moment, the flashing eyes of 'Abdu'l-Baha the reverberations of His Voice, the Power that still rocked the room. God of lightning and thunder! I thought.

"I appoint you, Lua, the Herald of the Covenant. And I AM THE COVENANT, appointed by Baha'u'llah. And no one can refute His Word. This is the Testament of Baha'u'llah. You will find it in the Holy Book of Aqdas. Go forth and proclaim, 'This is THE COVENANT OF GOD in your midst.'"

A great joy had lifted Lua up. Her eyes were full of light. She looked like a winged angel. "Oh recreate me," she cried, "that I may do this work for Thee!"

By now I was sobbing uncontrollably.

"Julie too," said Lua, not even in such a moment forgetful of me, "wants to be recreated."

But the Master had shrouded Himself with His veils again, the "thousand veils". He sat before us now in His dear humanity: very, very human, very simple.

"Don't cry, Juliet," He said. "This is no time for tears. Through tears you cannot see to paint."

I tried hard to hold back my tears and to work, but painting that day was at an end for me.

The Master smiled lovingly.

"Juliet is one of My favourites because she speaks the truth to me. See how I love the truth, Juliet. You spoke one word of truth to Me and see how I have praised it!"

I looked up to smile in answer, and in gratitude, then was overwhelmed again by that awful convulsive sobbing.

At this the Master began to laugh and, as He laughed and laughed, the strangest thing happened. It was as if at each outburst He wrapped Himself in more veils, so that now He looked completely human, without a trace left of His superhuman majesty. Never had I seen Him like this before and I never did afterward.

"I am going to tell you something funny," He said, adding in English, "a joke".

"Oh tell it!" we begged; and now I was in a sort of hysteria, laughing and crying at the same time.

"No. Not now. Paint."

But of course I couldn't paint.

Later, walking up and down, He laughed again.

"I am thinking of My joke," He explained.

"Tell it!" we pleaded.

"No, I cannot, for every time I try to tell it I laugh so I cannot speak."

We got down on our knees, able at last to enter into His play, and begged Him, "Please, please tell us." We were laughing on our knees.

"No. Not now. After lunch."

But, alas, after lunch He went upstairs to His room, and we never heard the Master's joke.

Perhaps, there wasn't any joke. Perhaps He had just found it necessary, after that mighty Declaration, to bring us down to earth again. He had revealed to us "The Apex of Immortality." He had lifted us to a height from which we could see it. Now He, our loving Shepherd, had carried us in His own arms back to our little valley and put us where we belonged.

(from Diary of Juliet Thompson)

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Two UHJ's?

What defines our Baha'i-dom?

jet, Jan 28, 2011:

Here are three interesting quotes from the Master about the Covenant. They say that beginnings and ends are the most important, that you leave the best for last, and the Master certainly did that in America. In November, when He was preparing to leave for England, He spoke again and again about the Covenant. He held banquets in New York and Washington to celebrate what we now call the Day of the Covenant. Certainly, He put what He considered His most distinctive message at the end of that journey. The same is true of these citations. My first quote is in the Master's farewell address to the believers in California.

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"The friends in Los Angeles and San Francisco are very firm in the Covenant. If they sense the least violation on the part of anyone, they shun him entirely; for they know that such a person is engaged in extinguishing the lamps of faith ignited by the light of the Covenant, thereby producing weakness and indifference in the divine Cause.

For instance, the firm ones teach a person. Then the violators go to him and instill suspicion until he becomes lukewarm. There have been violators here in Chicago for twenty years. What have they done? Nothing. Have they been able to teach anybody? Have they been able to speak in churches or address audiences elsewhere? Have they been able to make anybody firm in the Cause?

They are doing nothing except extinguishing the lamps we ignite. The friends in San Francisco are exceedingly firm. They do not receive violators in their homes. Recently a violator went to that city. The Baha'i friends turned him away, saying, "You are not with us; why do you try to come among us?" Today the most important principle of faith is firmness in the Covenant, because firmness in the Covenant wards off differences. Therefore, you must be firm as mountains." (Promulgation, 381)

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The second quote comes at the end of a talk He gave in Chicago a few weeks before, on 16 September, 1912, at the home of Corinne True. Again, He was about to leave town.

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"Therefore, you must read the Tablets of Baha'u'llah. You must read the Tablet of the Branch and regard that which He has so clearly stated. Beware! Beware! lest anyone should speak from the authority of his own thoughts or create a new thing out of himself. Beware! Beware! According to the explicit Covenant of Baha'u'llah you should care nothing at all for such a person. Baha'u'llah shuns such souls. I have expounded these things for you, for the conservation and protection of the teachings of Baha'u'llah, in order that you may be informed, lest any souls shall deceive you and lest any souls shall cause suspicion among you. You must love all people, and yet if any souls put you in doubt, you must know that Baha'u'llah is severed from them. Whosoever works for unity and fellowship is a servant of Baha'u'llah, and Baha'u'llah is his assistant and helper. I ask God that He may cause you to be the very means of agreement and unity, that He may make you radiant, merciful, heavenly children of the divine Kingdom; that you may advance day by day; that you may become as bright as these lamps, bestowing light upon all humanity. Salutations and farewell!" (Promulgation, 323-324)

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My third quote I blogged several years ago on my Badi' blog. It was called:

Two Universal Houses of Justice?, or, The Covenant defines Baha'i-dom

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At one point, Mahmud's Diary recounts, the Master even discusses the possibility of there being one day two Universal Houses of Justice. Sure, several centuries ago there were as many as three Popes at the same time, so why not two Universal Houses of Justice? Such an eventuality is, to say the least, utterly inconceivable for Baha'is. Here is Mahmud-i-Zarqani's summary of what the Master said,

"...He spoke about differences that arise within religions after the ascension of their Founders, the Manifestations, to the heavenly abode. But the Blessed Beauty has shut the door on such differences so that whatever the House of Justice commands, all must obey and submit to it. He said that if the Baha'is should become divided into two branches, each establishing a House of Justice of its own in opposition to the other, both would be false. Baha'u'llah wrote His Covenant with His own Pen..." (Mahmud, 127-8)

So ... the very second that there was disagreement on that issue, both sides would cease to be Baha'is, for a Baha'i is defined as someone who agrees with the Covenant.

(from “Tell the socialists; The Covenant Clause in our Heritage," blogged Nov 05, 2004)

Jim offered the following comment on this post:

Hi John,

 

Yes, the Baha'i principle of non-association with Covenant-breakers is probably the most serious one of our Faith.  Also in Mahmud's Diary - http://bahai-library.com/books/mahmud/index.html#section179

 

Mahmud records how Mr. Howard MacNutt foolishly associated with a declared Covenant-breaker and then showed up at a couple of Baha'i meeting where Abdu'l-Baha was speaking:

 

"Today He (Abdu'l-Baha) called on Mr MacNutt and spoke to him in strong terms about his relationship with the Covenant-breakers and showed him a letter Mr MacNutt had written to Chicago offering help to and praising Dr Nutt, a friend of Kheiralla. The Master asked, `Is this your writing?' Mr MacNutt replied, `Yes, but my intention was something else.' He tried to give a different angle to his purpose but could not. The Master was saddened about Mr MacNutt but His purpose was to admonish and warn him against his own conduct."

(Mahmud's Diary, page 393)

 

and

 

"As Mr MacNutt's apparent equivocation and lack of firmness seemed to be causing his degradation in the eyes of the friends, he came to the Master and implored Him to recommend him to them. The Master replied, `The remedy depends upon your sincere repentance and your open denouncement of the violators in the meetings of the friends.' In compliance, Mr MacNutt rose and gave an account of his journey to Chicago and his meeting with Kheiralla. Some felt that he spoke ambiguously. 

The Master asked him to explain his actions in plain words so that the friends might be satisfied and this blemish on his character be removed. Again he testified in clear terms of his faith in the Covenant and his rejection of the Covenant-breakers. The Master went to the podium and expressed His pleasure at Mr Harris's talk and for Mr MacNutt's words of repentance. The Master then went upstairs and called Mr Hoar, Mr Harris, Mr Dodge and other friends to Him and asked them to embrace Mr MacNutt and exhorted them to have the utmost love and unity among themselves. He encouraged and inspired them to spread the divine word and to diffuse the fragrances of God. He told them that they must sacrifice all other affairs for the accomplishment of this great affair.
 

Despite this, the Master and the friends, in their inmost hearts, were saddened by Mr MacNutt's earlier actions. Some felt that he was not trying hard enough to show his humility and firmness in the Covenant. After the Master's departure from America, Mr MacNutt went to California and other regions of America. The believers stayed away from him. He wrote many letters of repentance to `Abdu'l-Bahá, who sent him many encouraging and kind words.

Wednesday, November 20, 1912 [New York]  

The Master again called some of the friends and asked them to show kindness and love to Mr MacNutt and to be patient with him. Some of His words were these:

"You must all arise in unison to serve the Cause of God. You must work hand in hand to teach the Cause and know that the confirmations of Bahá'u'lláh will descend upon you. My hope is that New York will excel all other cities because at the beginning it had precedence over them. God willing, it shall be so again. The favors of the Kingdom of God are great, the attention and bounties of the Blessed Beauty are fixed upon you and His hidden hosts are assisting you. Arise in this arena and you shall see what will transpire. 
 

I am but one of His servants. After the ascension of the Blessed Beauty, the Ottoman people and government arose against me as did enemies of the area from different nations and religions. In such a state everyone was attacking me from outside and even my brothers from inside opposed me. But in a short time the enemies were frustrated and brought low so that some of them cried, `Would to God that Bahá'u'lláh had not ascended because this Cause has become even greater, its fame has spread to more places, and its support has become stronger.' Therefore, we must arise in servitude so that His confirmations may surround us from all sides. Undoubtedly whenever you arise to serve and proclaim the Cause you shall be assisted and shall attain success. Rest assured." "

(Mahmud's Diary, page 400-402)

 

Although Abdu'l-Baha publicly asked the friends "to show kindness and love to Mr. MacNutt and to be patient with him", Mr. MacNutt wasn't able to re-establish the friends trust in him apparently.  

 

 

Hi Jim,

Yes, Howard MacNutt did have a tough time for a while there. Mahmud was not around for it, but in the end the Master did affect a reconciliation, and had MacNutt handle the job of compiling, translating and editing Promulgation; he even had him write the intro "so that thy name will be remembered forever." MacNutt is an example of a believer who had to be fired in the oven before he became firm.

Ruhi Book 8 Photo and Comment

Here are some members of our Ruhi Book 8 institute, Aghdas Javid, Larry, Joe, Mohammad, Colleen, Beth and Ninaz.


Tangential Comment

Last time our Ruhi Book 8 session discussed the question, “What does one say to those who might whisper insinuations attacking the covenant?” I happened to come across this account of the Master doing same while His party were shipboard, on the way to New York.


“The Master spent the morning writing Tablets until noon and then went to the dining room table. He was asked for guidance about food. He said, 'We shall not interfere with their bodily food. Our concern is with spiritual food.'

“In the afternoon He invited the Western friends to His presence and related a history of the Cause and the difficulties and persecutions of the early days. One the Tablets revealed today was a long prayer, a Tablet of visitation in honor of Hájí Muhammad-Taqi, the Afnán, and another was a Tablet in His own hand. Regarding this Tablet He summoned us, saying:

“Come here and consider this important question. A person from Tihran has written that the Universal Will is always manifest; that is to say, God is always manifest in human form. I have sent him an emphatic reply and urge you also to remember that between two Manifestations there are days of concealment. There is no doubt that for the Sun of Reality there is no rising or setting in its own sanctified center but, owing to the exigencies of the contingent world, it rises and sets. Those persons who say in the days of concealment and interval that God is manifest in human form and that 'He always shows Himself in different forms like an artful beloved' are the sources of difference in the Cause and create discord among the people. All these evasive statements of theirs are mere pretensions. Their only object is to get themselves known as persons in whom divine signs are centered. We must, therefore, adhere to the explicit text, to the literal meaning of what is written in the Tablets, and must not deviate from this even to a hair's breadth.” (Mahmud's Diary, p. 31)


::

Explosive Reference to Putative Baha'is

In the 1987 book "Secret Armies, The Explosive Inside Story of the World's Most Elite Warriers," by James Adams, there is a reference to the Baha'i Faith that, if true, would be, as the title says, pretty explosive. A non-Baha'i, a distant friend of an acquaintance of local believers, came across it and had some questions about whether it is true. Our LSA secretary wrote the National Assembly of Canada about it but they had heard nothing about it. I am the source of last resort here. I know nothing about it, but I am sharing the reference on this blog in hopes that maybe one of my readers may be able to supply more details.

I expect that this is either the usual calumny coming from these quarters, or that the "Baha'is" mentioned here were covenant breakers, since it is common knowledge that among them was the physical granddaughter of Baha'u'llah, who was (many years before this) jailed for terrorist activities. I cannot imagine a Baha'i in good standing doing what this describes. Any help you could offer would be appreciated by all of us here.

from: pp. 252-253, SECRET ARMIES, Chapter Twenty, Congress Bites the Bullet,  


"The deaths of the Marines once again brought Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North to the fore. He and National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane were so shocked at the tragedy and at America's apparent inability to do anything about it that they decided to respond themselves. They found out that responsibility for the bombing lay with Hezbollah, a shadowy Iranian-supported terrorist organization with bases in Lebanon. North encouraged the Lebanese Deuxieme Bureau to find and arm some Lebanese Baha'is who on 8 March 1985 planted a bomb intended to kill one of Hezbollah's leaders. The bomb missed its target, however, and killed eighty innocent civilians."

A footnote points to an unnamed article of 5 December, 1986 in the Washington post as substantiation. Since this book, very sloppily, does not even give a page number, the only way to find this article would be to read the whole paper for that day. I live in the sticks and do not have access to a university library, so that is as far as I can go.

from:  APRIL 03, 2009

Car Bombing

Dear Friends,

My thanks to Jean and Andrew for their kind, prompt and efficient response to my research query about the Beirut car bombing of twenty years ago. I am sending their answer out as a separate post today but will combine them with yesterday's blog post on the Badi' blog itself. This is an important protection issue and I do not want people reading the question without the answer.

Dear John,

Regarding your question in your recent post in the Badi Blog:

The article in question from the December 5, 1986 Washington Post is by Jim Hoagland. It is called "The Marine Connection", on page A2 and contains 750 words. It starts like this:

"BERLIN Inevitably, Robert McFarlane and Oliver North fade into one-dimensional symbols as revelation tumbles after revelation in the damaging scandal now gripping Washington. Rambo to some, incompetent and perhaps evil bunglers to many more, the two men have become blank screens onto which we all project our feelings about six years of Ronald Reagan's leadership."

This much I was able to get out of the Washington Post archive, as it was the only article that comes up when searching using the given date and the keyword Hezbollah.

Without a subscription I cannot read the whole article BUT I did manage to figure out one more thing: the article does seem to mention Baha'is but does not seem to mention Lebanon or Lebanese.  I figured this out by re-searching for the same article variously with the keywords Lebanon, Lebanese, Baha'i or Baha'is instead of Hezbollah.

… using this method and some good logical deduction regarding what keywords to choose we could probably reconstruct the article substantially after about a hundred searches. But I leave that for another day. The page the article is on can also be purchased as a "page print".

I hope this helps.

Kind wishes,
Andrew

Oh one more thing.  There is a short (235 word) article in the Washington Post of a week later, on December 12, page A22, by FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH, Vice Chairman, National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States New Haven, Conn., entitled, "'Malicious Gossip' about the Baha'is". Presumably this is a letter responding to the Jim Hoagland article.

Cheers,
Andrew

Hi John,

I think "out-7.pdf" is the article you want, on page 2 of the December 5 1986 Post.

Not much of a reference if you ask me.

Here are some online references to the March 8 1985 bombing. All of them attribute the bombing to other organizations or do not include any attribution.

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/27/world/casey-reported-behind-85-lebanon-bombing.html

http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/civil_war_in_lebanon.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Beirut_car_bombing

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/8/newsid_2516000/2516407.stm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/target/etc/cron.html (see entry for 20 Sept 1984)

See the out-8 document, a letter to the editor from Firuz Kazemzadeh condemning Hoagland's article. The next reference to Baha'is in the Post was on 22 Dec, in an opinion piece on political prisoners.

I also searched the historical NYT, WSJ and Post from 12/01/1986 to 12/31/1988 to see if any other articles appeared, perhaps a followup or a retraction by Hoagland in another of his weekly columns (every Friday, page a2 of the Post)  The only result that turned up was Kazemzadeh's letter to the editor. (not the original column by Hoagland, which leads me to believe that other search terms might work)

Search terms used:  Jim Hoagland :AND: Baha'i, Baha'i :AND: Lebanon, Baha'i :AND: lebanese.  Not sure what else might work.

I think you (and Dr. Kazemzadeh) are correct about someone identifying an opportunity for calumny, whether it was the anonymous intelligence operative or someone else who passed along the story to him.

Best,
Jean

JET: A final note on spies. I am a fan of spy fiction, but in the real world spying will surely be one of the first things eliminated by a world government. And thank God for that. This calumny against the totally non-political Baha'is given by a wholly untraceable source is an example of the gossip and backbiting that passes for information in the so-called intelligence community. 

The Twin Guardians

Justice and Equity, Guardian Twins

"Justice and equity are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are revealed such blessed and perspicuous words as are the cause of the well-being of the world and the protection of the nations." (Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 12)

I stumbled across this saying of Baha'u'llah a few weeks ago and it has been goading me ever since. I can well imagine that justice is a guardian watching over mankind, but what is this about its twin, equity? How does equity guard the world? Do I even know what equity is? And if so, how do you distinguish between equity and justice? Or, as "twins," are they all but identical? And what is this linguistic angle about the two of them "revealing" words which promote well-being and protect the nations?

One difference would seem to be that equity is more about balance inside, whereas justice is concerned with outer action. Justice, Baha'u'llah implies here, is "blessed" and equity is "perspicuous," or clear. Equity's limpid quality comes from an inner inclination to perceive and internalize truth, whereas the holy quality of justice is carrying right out in relation to others.

Both guardians keep us from making mistakes. The guardian that Baha'u'llah calls justice rights wrongs in the world and erases gross violations of law. Equity, on the other hand, seems more concerned with prevention, with countering systemic imbalances and curing chronic illnesses.

Be that as it may, somebody referred me to a humorous essay called "The Laziest Man on Earth's Guide to Green Living," which is to be found at:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/laziest-man-on-earth-guide-to-green-living.php

This is the kind of joking that evokes nervous laughter and disquieting second thoughts. The author writes,

"Anyone who thinks it's tough to be an environmentalist has got it all wrong. That's why I've gone to the considerable trouble of assembling a guide that even the laziest man on earth, who may or may not be yours truly, can follow to live according to ecologically friendly principles."

The lazy author then concocts rules like "borrow stuff," "never throw anything away," "do not wash your hair" and "do not flush your toilet." These reduce energy costs to manufacture new things and conserve fresh water. In other words, instead of showing forth what we normally think of as virtues, like neatness and cleanliness, the way things are right now we can take on vices like laziness and slovenliness and call it environmental friendliness.

The disturbing thing is that he is perfectly correct.

Upon long reflection I came to the conclusion that this is a systemic failing. If housing and the infrastructure that supports it were intelligently designed we would not harm the environment, for example, when we flush the toilet or wash our hair. That, I think, is failure mostly of our guardian of equity. This is not a gross wrong that would concern the guardian of justice, it is a long term imbalance whose subtle effects are impossible to detect in the short term. The inner balance of equity makes us concerned with such things before it is too late. With it we will see to it that doing the right and natural thing always has right and natural effects. If there is no concern with harmonious balance of daily living then the result, eventually, is an inefficient setup where order and cleanliness do more harm to the environment than vices.

An example is the mountain of trash we create whenever we purchase anything new. It started with the decision to stop reusing pop bottles and it worsened until suddenly there became an unspoken rule that everything in the store has to be covered in a thick layer (or two or three) of packaging, or it is somehow unsafe, unclean, not genuine. Nobody would plan such a situation intentionally, but that is what happens when we put the guardian of equity into the unemployment lines.

It is significant that Baha'u'llah in that quote personifies justice and equity; they are not abstractions but people. This, Plato did too. He envisioned an entire class of guardians protecting the general interest. I always imagined that as meaning the protective professions like police and the legal profession, but now that I am reading Comenius I am not so sure. Comenius envisioned specially trained guardians in all three estates of society, science, religion and politics, who would protect us against all sorts of disintegration and decay.

"To dispose of the danger confronting us (that Universal Affairs, which affect the order and security of mankind, may perchance fall apart and disintegrate) I say that the most effective remedy available is the appointment of regular guardians as soon as our sacred constitution is established, who shall have permanent responsibility for certifying that schools enlighten men's minds, churches inspire their hearts, and parliaments maintain national peace and for preventing errors from creeping in or developing." (Panorthosia, Ch. 15, para 7, p. 217)

That is, as soon as the three wings of a world government are formed and a constitution devised for them, there would not only be teachers sent out to "grow" their goals, but also there would be guardians to protect these provisions and to prevent situations like the one we are in, where vice is has a smaller footprint than virtue. This Comenius calls "keeping within the bounds of salvation."

"Every school, every church, and every state will have its guardians of law and order (I mean Scholarchs, Elders' and Senators). But as continuous progression is needed in each case towards the highest office of its kind, we must not leave any gaps especially here and now, when everlasting foundations for general salvation must be laid.

For example, just as people living together make up the family, families the state, states the province, provinces the kingdom, and, in fact, the entire community of kingdoms makes up one common state of mankind, so every home, state, province, and kingdom, and finally the whole world, should have its own Tribunal. Similarly there must be respective grades supervising the order and proficiency of schools and churches up to the highest level, and these must be vested with power to gather all men and all things together and to keep them within the bounds of salvation." (Panorthosia, Ch. 15, para 8, p. 218)

--

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

::

Corporal Mnemonics

JANUARY 15, 2009

Corporal Mnemonics

The Changing Times Blog offers an essay that starts off like this,

"Kitab-i-Hearsay

`"I hear a lot of things from a lot of people who are absolutely sure they know what they're talking about. "Shoghi Effendi said 2/3 of the world's population would be wiped out before the lesser peace is established." Mmm. "'Abdu'l-Bahá used to smack people." Really. "You can have your pets with you in the next world." Aha. "There could be women on the House of Justice someday." Is that so? Where did you read that? "Umm… I think it's in, like, God Passes By." Are you sure? "No, I haven't read it…maybe it was in pilgrim's notes…" Pilgrim's notes. "Or a talk or something. I remember someone saying that." Someone.'

(http://blog.changing-times.org/tag/kitab-i-hearsay/)

I could not resist offering the following comment on this confident statement on that blog:

John Says:

January 14th, 2009 at 11:52 am

As for your comment: "'Abdu'l-Bahá used to smack people.' Really.", I would answer, really.

I do not want to repeat the references, but go on Ocean and use the keyword "slap." On at least two occasions just that happened, both done not out of anger but to protect the Cause from folly. Both references are documented and legitimate. And don't get me started on the wallop He gave a young Shoghi Effendi who had been late for prayers, as mentioned in Priceless Pearl.

For a whole book full of hearsay, see Piff's "Baha'i Lore." I found it amusing to go around memorizing parts of it and quoting passages to staid older believers as if it were an authority.

I would add right now that the fact that the purpose of politics is peace does not mean that there cannot be a just war; similarly, the fact that a teacher is most effective most of the time using what Baha'u'llah calls "words of milk" does not mean that there are not times when "words of fire," and even blows, are necessary. Sometimes, as one of these incidents implies, it is necessary to hit someone who is endangering everybody. 

And it is not unknown to use blows in teaching.

I often mention an anecdote about a teacher whose memoire I once read who taught in a school in remote, rural Iran. His students would not respect their teacher without fear, because they were used to being hit routinely at home. So he had to adapt. He found that this worked: on the first day of school he would suddenly hit a kid (one that he knew could take it) in front of everybody for no good reason. For the rest of the year they would treat him with the utmost respect. They were model students and no further violence was necessary.

As another example, some Ancient Greek philosophers would haul off and smack one of their students just after making an important point in order to be sure that the student would remember it forever, and for sure. Call it corporal mnemonics. Corporal punishment is bad, but corporal mnemonics is legit.

Anyway, here are the full quotes that I mentioned indirectly in that response:

"Many years before, in the days of Bahá'u'lláh, 'Akká had had an official, in charge of the secretariat, named Mustafa Effendi, who constantly incited the Governor to make life unbearable for the Bahá'ís. And the Governor was not averse to using the occasion for personal gain. To his various stratagems 'Abdu'l-Bahá paid no attention. The Governor hit upon the idea of forcing the Bahá'í shopkeepers to close down. 'Abdu'l-Bahá forestalled him and advised them to stop trading. Baulked, the Governor called a meeting in his residence of the notables and the divines who were hostile towards the Bahá'ís. It was intended to concert a plan of action. In the meantime, Sa'da'd-Din Ramadan, the chief of the merchants, hurried to see 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He begged for money. Only money, he pleaded, would make the Governor give up his machinations; there was no time to lose. 'Abdu'l-Bahá kept him waiting, while he thought that 'Abdu'l-Bahá was filling a purse with gold that he might take it to the Governor. For his pains he had only a hard slap in the face from 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and was told not to tarry there, as money had already been sent to the Governor. But what the Governor of 'Akká received was a telegram from the Vali in Beirut, dismissing him and other officials. Three months later this ex-Governor was further humiliated and banished to Damascus. He had to leave his family behind in 'Akká. 'Abdu'l-Bahá provided both for him and his family; and in due time, meeting all the expenses, He arranged to reunite them. Thus did 'Abdu'l-Bahá treat the fallen adversary."  (H.M. Balyuzi, Abdu'l-Baha - The Centre of the Covenant, p. 115-116)

'The first night of our arrival we suffered because of lack of water The water in the pool had become malodorous. We wanted to go out and procure fresh water, but they would not permit us. From the house of 'Abdu'l-Hadi Pasha, the Mutasarrif of 'Akká, they brought some cooked rice, but it was not enough. The next day, officials came to see what was happening to us. They went into the presence of the Blessed Perfection, and to them He spoke such words of knowledge and wisdom that, in that very first meeting, they realized that here were people endowed with erudition, wisdom and rare understanding One of them had said, there and then, that never before had such pure and sanctified souls set foot in 'Akká. Some days later they brought Haji Ja'far and his brother, Haji Taqi.' 

The ration for each person, according to Aqa Rida and Aqa Husayn-i-Ashchi, was three loaves of black bread, salty and inedible. So revolting was this ration that Aqa Husayn, young and headstrong as he was, made rude and insulting remarks about it in Turkish, directed to the Mutasarrif. This earned him a sharp slap in the face from the Most Great Branch. But it also caused the Mutasarrif, Aqa Husayn says, to take note of the situation. Soon the officials discontinued this ration; instead they gave the exiles a sum of money each day, which was shared by all the companions." (H.M. Balyuzi, Baha'u'llah - The King of Glory, p. 275-277)

This is the reference to the "chastisement" given to the Guardian:

"In those days of Shoghi Effendi's childhood it was the custom to rise about dawn and spend the first hour of the day in the Master's room, where prayers were said and the family all had breakfast with Him. The children sat on the floor, their legs folded under them, they would chant for 'Abdu'l-Bahá; there was no shouting or unseemly conduct. Breakfast consisted of tea, brewed on the bubbling Russian brass samovar and served in little crystal glasses, very hot and very sweet, pure wheat bread and goat's milk cheese. Dr Zia Baghdadi, an intimate of the family, in his recollections of these days records that Shoghi Effendi was always the first to get up and be on time - after receiving one good chastisement from no other hand than that of his grandfather!" (Ruhiyyih Khanum, The Priceless Pearl, p. 7)

--
John Taylor

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