The Baha'i Studies Listserv
On 5 Jan 2009 at 9:46, Gary Selchert wrote:
> â"One of the great events," 'Abdu'l-Bahá has, in His "Some Answered
> Questions," affirmed, "which is to occur in the Day of the
> manifestation of that Incomparable Branch [Bahá'u'lláh] is the
> hoisting of the Standard of God among all nations. By this is meant
> that all nations and kindreds will be gathered together under the
> shadow of this Divine Banner, which is no other than the Lordly Branch
> itself, and will become a single nation. Religious and sectarian
> antagonism, the hostility of races and peoples, and differences among
> nations, will be eliminated. All men will adhere to one religion, will
> have one common faith, will be blended into one race, and become a
> single people. All will dwell in one common fatherland, which is the
> planet itself."
Well, if this was about what will happen in the western 20th century,
we do have a difficulty. All men adhere to one religion, are blended
in one race? I don't think so.
But this 'century' is defined by Abdu'l-baha in the same chapter of
SAQ:
"in this great century which is the cycle of Baha'u'llah"
[dar iin `asr-e `aziim keh qarn-e jamal-e mubaarek]
century = cycle = Day
`asr = qarn
"century" here is being used in the same way as 'day' is often used,
and is used in the same paragraph: it is that period of time that
belongs to Baha'u'llah, also called a dispensation, age or cycle.
> Surely, people may be forgiven for believing, after reading that, that
> Shoghi Effendi was promising very tangible changes to global society
> prior to year 2000.
It is natural for the believers to read the Bahai writings in terms
of their own prior frameworks. Western Bahais read them in western
and christian terms, Persian Bahais in Persian and Shiah terms, and
so on. It is still everyone's task and challenge to try to read the
Bahai writings in the terms that the Bahai writings themselves
define. Naturally this is not something that can be achieved in one
generation, or two or three. There is no question of blame or
forgiveness here, but the process does need to proceed towards an
ever-more Bahai understanding of what Bahai is and teaches.
> Generally It seems that Shoghi Effendi was
> very concerned with essences, realities and the truly valuable things;
> yet he still had responsibility for much that was concrete,
> predictable and measurable.
It is not Shoghi Effendi who has associated these words of Abdu'l-
Baha with the western 20th century - it is his western hearers.
I will have a blog on the meaning of "century" is Abdu'l-Baha's
writings and talks in a week or so. At the moment I have other fish
to fry (grant applications - yech! )
Sen
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--
Sen McGlinn
***
Let the friends recall and ever bear in mind
the repeated exhortations and glowing promises of our beloved
Master
with reference to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar,
the crowning institution in every Baha'i community.
(Shoghi Effendi, Baha'i Administration, page
108)
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