5 December 1923: To the Baha’is of India and Burma

To the beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout India and Burma.  Care of the National Spiritual Assembly.

My dearest friends:

It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to renew the bonds of fellowship and affection that have always united our hearts in the service of our beloved Master.  I need not recall to your minds the warm and abiding place which that gifted Dominion has always occupied in our Beloved’s heart, and the high hopes He cherished for its future contribution towards the triumph of the Movement in those distant regions of the earth.

I am sure the hour has struck when those dearly-beloved pioneers of the Master’s Cause, scattered throughout the length and breadth of that vast and promising land, should unite, consolidate their forces, and effectively combine for the laying of a firm foundation for the future progress of their noble task.  It is my earnest hope and my most cherished desire that at the forthcoming convention the vigour and enlightened efforts of the Bahá’í youth of India, coupled with the generous support and devotion of the old beloved Parsee friends, and reinforced by the vast numbers of the ardent followers of the Faith in Burma, may, by imparting power and brilliancy to its proceedings, herald an era of unprecedented activity for the ultimate recognition of the Cause by the peoples of that country.

I shall welcome with genuine satisfaction every effort which that talented and untiring servant of Bahá’u’lláh, our highly esteemed sister Mrs Stannard, may exert in this connection, and would feel truly gratified to learn of her determination to play a conspicuous part in the presentation of the Cause in the eyes of the enlightened public.  May the sustaining grace of God, the power of Bahá’u’lláh, and the loving counsels of our beloved ‘Abdu’l-Bahá guide you and aid you in your mighty endeavours for the accomplishment of your task.

I shall eagerly await any particulars you might wish to send me regarding your various activities in the service of the Cause, and I trust that during the interval between now and Riḍván a complete and careful arrangement for the successful conduct of the coming Convention will have been drawn by all the friends and assemblies of India and Burma, and to which, I assure you, I shall be most pleased to contribute my humble share of cooperation and advice.

Hoping to hear from you, individually and collectively, and assuring you of my constant prayers on your behalf, I am your brother and fellow-worker,

Shoghi

Haifa, Palestine

(‘Messages of Shoghi Effendi to the Indian Subcontinent: 1923-1957’)

4 December 1923: To the Baha'is of Germany

To the dearly-beloved friends throughout Germany. Care of the National Spiritual Assembly

My well-beloved friends:

What a joy to correspond with you again, and express, after a long and unbroken silence, my warm sentiments of love and affection for those tried, yet steadfast, lovers of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá! Your trials and sufferings have been a constant source of anxiety and painful sorrow, not to me alone, but to the Ladies of the Household as well as to the friends at large.

True, humanity is to-day widely afflicted with unprecedented ills and calamities, but you, the chosen and favoured children of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, have, by some wisdom inscrutable to us all, received the fullest measure of this distress, and are carrying the burden of your cares with heroic fortitude, unflinching faith, and undaunted courage worthy of the admiration of even the most severely tried of your fellow-sufferers in far-away Persia.

Your only consolation lies in the ever-living words of our departed Master, who confidently declared that the days are not far distant when Germany, will shake off her present humiliation, and will emerge, mighty, united and glorious, not only to take her destined place in the councils of nations, but to raise high the triumphant banner of the Cause in the very heart of Europe.

Your ceaseless activities since His departure from our midst have been steadily extended as your tribulations and anxieties have multiplied, and I feel hopeful that ere long the true Faith of God will blaze worth in that land, and will herald publicly the Message of Salvation to that distracted continent.

2 December 1923: To the Baha’is of Australia and New Zealand

Fellow-labourers in the Divine Vineyard!

Upon my return, after a forced and prolonged absence, to the Holy Land, it is my first and most ardent wish to renew and strengthen those ties of brotherly love and fellowship that bind our hearts together in our common servitude to His Sacred Threshold

The two years that have elapsed since the passing of our beloved Master have been for the Cause, as well as for mankind, years of deep anxiety and strain. The momentous changes that are taking place in the history of both have proved so swift and far-reaching as to arouse in certain hearts a strange misgiving as to their stability and future.

On the one hand the remarkable revelations of the Beloved’s Will and Testament so amazing in all its aspects, so emphatic in its injunctions, have challenged and perplexed the keenest minds, whilst the ever-increasing confusion of the world, threatened as never before with disruptive forces, fierce rivalries, fresh commotions and grave disorder, have well-nigh overwhelmed the heart and damped the zeal of even the most enthusiastic believers in the destiny of mankind.

And yet, how often we seem to forget the clear and repeated warnings of our beloved Master, who in particular during the concluding years of his mission on earth, laid stress on the severe mental tests that would inevitably sweep over his loved ones of the West - tests that would purge, purify and prepare them for their noble mission in life.

And as to the world’s evil plight, we need but recall the writings and sayings of Bahá’u’lláh, who, more than fifty years ago, declared in terms prophetic the prime cause of the ills and sufferings of mankind, and set forth their true and divine remedy "Should the lamp of Religion be hidden", He declared, "chaos and confusion will ensue." How admirably fitting and applicable are these words to the present state of mankind!