The Story of the Divine Plan Taking place during and immediately following World War I by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab The New History Foundation 132 East 65th street, New York 21, N. Y., U. S. A. [Title page] Date of publication August, 1947 Copyright, 1947 By New History Foundation All Rights Reserved [Inside Title page] By the same author Heart Phantasies The New Humanity Poems on Hollywood Bow (illustrated) Abdul Baha in Egypt Renaissance (a booklet) Message to the Youth of Europe (a booklet) The Song of the Caravan Living Pictures (co-author, Julie Chanler) Silver Sun (co-author, Julie Chanler) The Bible of Mankind Broken Silence Abdul Baha's Grandson The Will and Testament of Abdul Baha The Human Charter (edited from the writings of Baha-O-Llah and Abdul Baha) [Vanity page] CONTENTS Foreword………………………………………………………………….i Chapter I The Farmer of Galilee………………………………………………1 Chapter II The Tablets to the United States ………………………………..…7 The North-Eastern States………………………………………..9 The Southern States ……………………………………………11 The Central States………………………………………………12 The Western States……………………………………………..13 Chapter III The Tablets to Canada……………………………………………..18 Chapter IV Tablets to the United States and Canada…………………………22 Chapter V The Last Tablet……………………………………………………..32 Chapter VI Accident Insurance………………………………………….………40 Chapter VII American Bahais Carry On……………………………….………..44 Chapter VIII Bahai Committee of Investigation………………………………….57 Chapter IX The Doors Open…………………………………………………….67 Chapter X My SteePle-Chase…………………………………………………..75 Chapter XI The Tube and the Book……………………………………………82 Chapter XII PreParations for the Convention……………………….…………93 Chapter XIII The Convention of Reconciliation……………………………….102 Prayers in the Divine Plan………………………………………..117 [Contents page] To the teachers who will arise in the casts of the earth and in the wests thereof to carry the message of Abdul Baha this book is dedicated “Formerly they were as moths, but they will become as royal falcons. Formerly, they were as bubbles, but they will become the sea.” [Dedication page] FOREWARD Nearly two thousand years ago, after his earthly mission had been completed, the inspired hero of Israel addressed his disciples: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (St. Mark, chapter 16, verse 15). To all intents and purposes, the voice of Jesus had been silenced on Mount Calvary, yet his spirit, so vital that it surmounted the very tomb, appeared to his humble disciples, commanding them to carry on his work beyond the confines of their native land and to the limits of the earth. It was an incredible assignment. I am ignorant of the phrasing of this sentence in Aramaic, the language supposedly used by Jesus, but the English translation consists of thirteen words and I wonder if any other thirteen words have had such a profound influence on the destiny of mankind. As a result of this injunction, the men who heard it set aside the limitations of birth, upbringing and character, and arose to peaks of valor and accomplishment; after which thousands upon thousands renounced the security and comfort of home to travel in their footsteps. Missionary bands were organized and sent to the five continents and the islands of the seas; libraries, schools, universities and hospitals were built; the New Testament was translated, in whole or in part, into a thousand languages, all to bring the message of the Man of far-away Galilee into the hearts and lives of the people, everywhere. No more brilliant records can be found than are those of the staunch and selfless teachers who marched the length and breadth of pagan Europe, scaled the snow-capped mountains of Asia, ventured into the jungles of Africa and faced untold hardships in the lands of the Americas. These men and women were indeed the disciples of Christ, for with their spiritual ears they had clearly distinguished his voice as it receded over the centuries, and obeyed it with the awe and devotion of the eleven who had heard it first. During our times, tile command has sounded again: Go ye into all the world — a smaller world, it in true, yet, today as before it is not the glaciers and jungles of nature that obstruct and delay progress, but the glaciers and jungles in the human heart. Frontiers as obtuse as ever on the fair surface of the globe and in the minds of men, with traditions, superstitions and customs grown weightier with the years. It was the name ungainly [i] world that Abdul Baha took into his protective arms in the pages of the Divine Plan and upon which be conferred the teachings of his Prophet-father; it was the same rank and file of humanity that he called upon to teach the same message, in an hour of acute need. Some years earlier, when Baha-O-Llah had arisen to the realms beyond, he had left behind him a plan for the union of all races and nations — a detailed, practical plan to be put into execution by the maturing men and women of modern times. It was a blueprint for the ending of all wars and the establishment of a world civilization. Baha-O-Llah had left this priceless legacy in the care of his great son, Abdul Baha, and it was during World War I, while he was living in Palestine, that Abdul Baha transferred this trust to the Bahais throughout the world. The Divine Plan was dictated to me by Abdul Baha in fourteen Tablets and was carried to the United States. Here he considered the needs of fill nations and, as a spiritual geographer, took into account the resources of the countries of the earth and the islands of the seas, calling most of them by name. These Tablets with their wealth of knowledge, instruction and inspiration constitute the Magna Charts of a new civilization. It is according to its name, a Divine Plan. In these Tablets, the teachers of the New Day are summoned so specifically, so personally, that each reader must feel himself addressed and chosen. Then, even as the cautious fishermen were transformed into saints and martyrs, so will posterity, in the actual words of Abdul Baha, evaluate the station of individuals as yet unknown: “Formerly they were as moths, but they will become as royal falcons. Formerly they were as bubbles, but they will become the sea.” Two thousand years ago, Christ in the most general way commanded his disciples: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Today, Abdul Baha, calling the countries and islands by name, repeats the same injunction in a more precise manner. We are in a position to estimate the miracles which were accomplished as a result of the command of Jesus given to eleven men, but ran we faintly imagine the nature of our world when the Divine Plan is a story fulfilled? It is the beginning of a new pilgrimage, launched simultaneously in the Fast and in the West, in the North and in the South: Go ye into all the world. [ii] [photo of 'Abdu'l-Baha omitted] [iii] THE STORY OF THE DIVINE PLAN by MIRZA AHMAD SOHRAB CHAPTER I THE FARMER OF GALILEE A sphere is the most complete thing in the Universe: the world itself, the round notes of a lark, the full life that faces all horizons. To Abdul Baha's searching spirit, every aspect of existence was familiar. He knew the literature of the religions which have dominated the great sections of humanity. He knew the histories of the countries. their customs, manners, aspirations. He knew politics as it should be — an art: he knew it as it was — a tangled web of intrigue and group-interest. He knew the heart of man very well, and he knew the plan of God. He was familiar with all these things and with others of a quite different nature, for he had been tested in the crucible of experience. He knew the luxury of his father's mansion in Teheran where he bid spent his early childhood — the eldest son of a noble and honored house. He knew the lightning change to destitution, the breaking of familiar ties, the long road into exile. He knew the anguish of prison life, the monotony of endless decades of confinement; and then a second lightning change to complete freedom — the touring of two continents, the meeting with thousands of all nations, classes, professions. He knew hew to meet men on their own ground, whatever that ground might be. So, both spiritually and practically, Abdul Baha was fitted to deal with life. In whatsoever circumstances he was the man of God and the man of the world. When in 1912 he had completed his epoch-making journey through Europe and throughout the United States rind Canada, during which he had warned the people and the governments that nothing but a complete reversal of attitude could prevent a world cataclysm, he returned to Palestine as the center of an international movement. There, while the storm clouds gathered in the countries where he, had so lately spoken on file practical ways to peace, he took up his patriarchal life in the quiet town of Haifa. 1 After the war had broken and words were of no more avail, he immediately turned his attention to the safe-guarding of the populace of the region in which he lived and those adjoining. He set out for the Sea of Galilee and spent months at Tiberias and Adassieh laying extensive agricultural plans and supervising the planting of corn, wheat and other food stuffs. The latter village especially, inhabited altogether by Zoroastrians became the headquarters of a vast farming project. Thus, through his foresight and resourcefulness, the Bahai community and the poor living on the curve of the Bay of Acca were to a large extent ensured against the calamity that was to follow.