Gilberto Simpson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 8/30/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> In a message dated 8/29/05 9:10:48 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
>
> >So I was trying to understand what the relation was between the
Bahai
> >faith and Zionism and found the following. I understand that pilgrim
> >notes aren't authoritative in the Bahai faith and so mainly I'm
asking
> >if there is anything in the authoritative writings to confirm or
deny
> >the content of the note.
> [snipped contents, for bandwidth]
>
> If we had something authoritative to back all that stuff up, then it
wouldn't
> be a pilgrim's note. ;-)
>
> --Sekhmet
>
: )
Yeah, I guess not. But perhaps the basic claims of the note might be
confirmed in different places in the writings. For example the note
says that Palestine will be the home of the Jews forever and that the
Arabs will be driven out and scattered. Is that claim found elsewhere
in the writings?
Peace
Gilberto
Abdu'l Baha has this to say in Some Answered Questions (which is not a
set of pilgrim's notes because Abdu'l Baha actually reviewed what was
written before authorizing the book):
"Now see: these events did not take place in the Christian cycle, for
the nations did not come under the One Standard which is the Divine
Branch. But in this cycle of the Lord of Hosts all the nations and peoples
will enter under the shadow of this Flag. In the same way, Israel,
scattered all over the world, was not reassembled in the Holy Land in the
Christian cycle; but in the beginning of the cycle of Bahá'u'lláh this
divine promise, as is clearly 66 stated in all the Books of the
Prophets, has begun to be manifest. You can see that from all the parts of
the world tribes of Jews are coming to the Holy Land; they live in
villages and lands which they make their own, and day by day they are
increasing to such an extent that all Palestine will become their home." 67
(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 65)
--------------------
As to the peril of the cities, ShoghiEffendi has ! to say (in an
authoritative source):
"The steady and alarming deterioration in the standard of morality as
exemplified by the appalling increase of crime, by political corruption
in ever widening and ever higher circles, by the loosening of the
sacred ties of marriage, by the inordinate craving for pleasure and
diversion, and by the marked and progressive slackening of parental control, is
no doubt the most arresting and distressing aspect of the decline that
has set in, and can be clearly perceived, in the fortunes of the entire
nation.
Parallel with this, and pervading all departments of life -- an evil
which the nation, and indeed all those within the capitalist system,
though to a lesser degree, share with that state and its satellites
regarded 125 as the sworn enemies of that system -- is the crass
materialism, which lays excessive and ever-increasing emphasis on material
well-being, forgetful of th! ose things of the spirit on which alone a sure and
stable foundation can be laid for human society. It is this same
cancerous materialism, born originally in Europe, carried to excess in the
North American continent, contaminating the Asiatic peoples and nations,
spreading its ominous tentacles to the borders of Africa, and now
invading its very heart, which Bahá'u'lláh in unequivocal and emphatic
language denounced in His Writings, comparing it to a devouring flame and
regarding it as the chief factor in precipitating the dire ordeals and
world-shaking crises that must necessarily involve the burning of ci!
ties and
the spread of terror and consternation in the hearts of men. Indeed a
foretaste of the devastation which this consuming fire will wreak upon
the world, and with which it will lay waste the cities of the nations
participating in this tragic world-engulfing contest, has been afforded
by the last World War, marki! ng the second stage in the global havoc
which humanity, forgetful of its God and heedless of the clear warnings
uttered by His appointed Messenger for this day, must, alas, inevitably
experience. It is this same all-pervasive, pernicious materialism
against which the voice of the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant was raised,
with pathetic persistence, from platform and pulpit, in His addresses to
the heedless multitudes, which, on the morrow of His fateful visit to
both Europe and America, found themselves suddenly swept into the vortex
of a tempest which in its range and severity was unsurpassed in the
world's history."
(Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 124)
------------
Shoghi Effendi also laid much emphasis on the believers in the large
cities - where the number of believers was concentrated - that moving out
of those major cities would be necessary for the growth of the faith:
"The mighty and laudable ! effort exerted, by a considerable number of
pioneers, in the course of the opening phase of this world-encircling
Crusade, in the virgin territories of the globe, must, if this primacy is
to remain unimpaired, be increased, doubled, nay trebled, and must
manifest itself not only in foreign fields where the prizes so laboriously
128 won during the last twelve months must, at whatever sacrifice, be
meticulously preserved, but throughout the entire length and breadth of
the American Union, and particularly in the goal cities, where hitherto
the work has stagnated, and which must, in the year now entered, become
the scene of the finest exploits which the home front has yet seen. A
veritable exodus from the large cities where a considerable number of
believers have, over a period of years, congregated, both on the Atlantic
and Pacific coasts, as well as in the heart of the country, and where,
owing to the tempo and the dis! tractions of city life, the pro!
gress of
the Faith has been retarded, must signalize the inauguration of this
most intensive and challenging phase of the Crusade on the home front.
Most certainly and emphatically must the lead be given by the two focal
centers of Bahá'í activity which rank among the oldest of and occupy
the most honored position among, the cities throughout the American
Union, the one as the mother city of the North American continent, the other
named by 'Abdu'l-Bahá the City of the Covenant. Indeed, so grave are
the exigencies of the present hour, and so critical the political
position of the country, that were a bare fifteen adult Bahá'ís to be left in
each of these cities, over which unsuspected dangers are hanging, it
would still be regarded as adequate for the maintenance of their local
spiritual assemblies."
(Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 127)
----------------------------
"The imp! ulse from which this historic world-embracing crusade, which,
alike in the character of its Founder and the nature of the tasks
committed to its participants, is unprecedented in religious history, derives
its creative power may be said to have in a sense originated with the
mandate issued by the Báb in His "Qayyúmu'l-Asmá," one of His earliest
and greatest works, as far back as the opening years of the first Bahá'í
century, and directed specifically to the "peoples of the West," to
"issue forth" from their "cities" and aid His Cause."
(Shoghi Effendi, Messages to America, p. 90)
Regards,
Scott
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