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Updated: May 4, 2025
A major crisis, following swiftly upon the signal victories achieved in East and West, attributable to the monstrous intrigues of the Arch-breaker of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant and to the orders issued by the tyrannical ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd, had exposed, during more than seven years, the Heart and Center of the Faith to imminent peril, filled with anxiety and anguish its followers and postponed the execution of the enterprises conceived for its spread and consolidation. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s historic journeys in Europe and America, soon after the fall of that tyrant and the collapse of his régime, had dealt a staggering blow to the Covenant-breakers, had consolidated the colossal enterprise He had undertaken in the opening years of His ministry, had raised the prestige of His Father’s Faith to heights it had never before attained, had been instrumental in proclaiming its verities far and wide, and had paved the way for the diffusion of its light over the Far East and as far as the Antipodes.
He was calling them sinners and covenant-breakers, guilty of pride, covetousness, contention, lying, stealing, moral uncleanness and launching upon them the curse of Israel's God unless they should repent. "It has been told you again and again," he thundered, "that if you wish to be great in the Kingdom of God you must be good.
The Covenant-breakers, now dwindled to a mere handful, instigated by Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí, the Arch-rebel, whose dormant hopes had been awakened by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sudden ascension, and headed by the arrogant Mírzá Badí’u’lláh, seized forcibly the keys of the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh, expelled its keeper, the brave-souled Abu’l-Qásim-i-Khurásání, and demanded that their chief be recognized by the authorities as the legal custodian of that Shrine.
The interment of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself within a vault of the Báb’s mausoleum, enhancing still further the sacredness of that mountain; the installment of an electric plant, the first of its kind established in the city of Haifa, flooding with illumination the Grave of One Who, in His own words, had been denied even “a lighted lamp” in His fortress-prison in Ádhirbayján; the construction of three additional chambers adjoining His sepulcher, thereby completing ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s plan for the first unit of that Edifice; the vast extension, despite the machinations of the Covenant-breakers, of the properties surrounding that resting-place, sweeping from the ridge of Carmel down to the Templar colony nestling at its foot, and representing assets estimated at no less than four hundred thousand pounds, together with the acquisition of four tracts of land, dedicated to the Bahá’í Shrines, and situated in the plain of Akká to the north, in the district of Beersheba to the south, and in the valley of the Jordan to the east, amounting to approximately six hundred acres; the opening of a series of terraces which, as designed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, are to provide a direct approach to the Báb’s Tomb from the city lying under its shadow; the beautification of its precincts through the laying out of parks and gardens, open daily to the public, and attracting tourists and residents alike to its gates—these may be regarded as the initial evidences of the marvelous expansion of the international institutions and endowments of the Faith at its world center.
Through verbal messages, formal communications and by personal interviews the Covenant-breakers impressed upon these notables the necessity of immediate action, shrewdly adapting their arguments to the particular interests and prejudices of those whose aid they solicited.
And finally, the seizure of the keys of the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh by the Covenant-breakers, the forcible occupation of His House in Baghdád by the Shí’ah community, the outbreak of persecution in Russia and the expulsion of the Bahá’í community from Islám in Egypt had been succeeded by the public assertion of the independent religious status of the Faith by its followers in East and West, by the recognition of that status at its world center, by the pronouncement of the Council of the League of Nations testifying to the justice of its claims, by a remarkable expansion of its international teaching activities and its literature, by the testimonials of royalty to its Divine origin, and by the completion of the exterior ornamentation of its first House of Worship in the western world.
These things considered, it is no wonder our miseries are so great, but the wonder is that they are not greater. An use of examination. Days of humiliation ought to be days of self-examination. Let us therefore upon such a day as this, examine, whether we be not amongst the number of those that make the times perilous, whether we be not covenant-breakers? Here I will speak of three covenants; 1.
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