Activities supported by the International Funds of the Faith during 1963-1973

During the Nine Year Plan (1964-1973) “sixty percent of the international funds of the Faith is used to assist the work of National Spiritual Assemblies, to promote the teaching work and to defend the Cause against attacks in many parts of the world. Without such help from the Bahá'í world community many National Assemblies would be paralyzed in their efforts of expansion and deepening.” 

(The Universal House of Justice, from Ridvan 1973 message of the Universal House of Justice)

April 1973: Baha’is resided in 69,500 localities worldwide

The number of localities worldwide where Baha’is reside increased by 54,000 during the Nine Year Plan (April 1964 to April 1973). As of April 1973 Bahá'ís resided in 69,500 localities. 

(Adapted from the Ridvan 1973 message of the Universal House of Justice)

August 26-31, 1968: Commemoration of Baha’u’llah’s arrival to Holy Land

During the period of the Nine Year Plan a number of important and interesting events, not directly associated with it, have taken place. First and foremost was the commemoration, in the precincts of the Qiblih of the Bahá'í world, of the centenary of the arrival at the prison city of 'Akká, as foretold in former Scriptures, of the Promised One of all ages. 

(The Universal House of Justice, from Ridvan 1973 message; Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1968-1973)

The first Baha'i in England

Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper (The Baha'i World 1938-1940)

December 13, 1971: Erection of the obelisk on Mount Carmel

The obelisk, marking the site of the future Mashriqu'l-Adhkar on Mount Carmel, was raised. This project was initiated by the beloved Guardian. 

(Adapted from two messages of the Universal House of Justice dated 13 December 1971 and Ridvan 1973)

1925: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada

(Researched and prepared by Duane Troxel)

October 1941: Egypt's first Haziratu'l-Quds

Laying Foundation Stone of Haziratu'l-Quds at Cairo, Egpt, October, 1941. (The Baha'i World 1940-1944)

The great expansion of the Faith at the end of the Nine Year Plan – April 1964 to April 1973

(Based on a message from the Universal House of Justice dated Ridvan 1973)

• 113 National Spiritual Assemblies
• 17,000 Local Spiritual Assemblies
• 69,500 localities worldwide
• Bahá'í literature was translated to 571 languages – a gain of 225 from 1964
• The Faith acquired: 63 more Temple sites, 56 additional National Haziratu'l-Quds, and 62 more National Endowments bringing the total numbers of these properties to 98, 112 and 104 respectively.
• As of April 1973 there were 50 Teaching Institutes and Summer and Winter Schools and 15 Baha’i Publishing Trusts
• The Mother Temple of Latin America was built and dedicated during the Nine Year Plan
• 90 National Spiritual Assemblies and 1,556 Local Spiritual Assemblies were incorporated
• Bahá'í Holy Days were recognized in 64 countries
• Bahá'í marriage certification was recognized in 40 countries
• 3,553 pioneers left their homes during the Plan --2,265 of whom were still at their posts in April 1973. 

The Mansion of Mazra'ih was purchased during the Nine Year Plan (1964-1973)

The Mansion of Mazra'ih, often referred to by the beloved Guardian as one of the "twin mansions" in which the Blessed Beauty resided after nine years within the walled prison city of 'Akká, and dear to the hearts of the believers by reason of its associations with their Lord, has at last been purchased together with 24,000 square metres of land extending into the plain on its eastward side. 

(The Universal House of Justice, from Ridvan 1973 message; Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1968-1973)

17000 Local Spiritual Assemblies worldwide as of April 1973

The number of Local Spiritual Assemblies was increased from 5,000 at the beginning of the Nine Year Plan (1964) to 17,000 at the end of the Plan (April 1973) 

(Adapted from the Ridvan 1973 message of the Universal House of Justice)

1911: The Baha’is in Iran “founded the Tarbíyat School for Girls in Tihrán”

In 1911, nearly a century ago, you founded the Tarbíyat School for Girls in Tihrán, which provided girls of all backgrounds with an opportunity for education, encouraging, in this way, progressive thinking and making an indelible mark on society.  
(The Universal House of Justice, from a message dated 20 June 2008 addressed to the Baha’is in Iran) 

Philippines 1972: Three thousand people marched in the funeral procession of three Iranian Baha’i students and six hundred went to the burial site

Message from the Universal House of Justice:

19 September 1972

To the Bahá'ís of the world

With feelings of deep sorrow we relate to the Bahá'í world the distressing circumstances surrounding the murder of three Iranian Bahá'í students, pioneers to the Philippine Islands.

Parviz Sadiqi, Faramarz Vujdani and Parviz Furughi were among a number of Iranian Bahá'í youth who answered the call for pioneers. With eleven others they registered at the Universities in Mindanao with the intention of completing their studies and proclaiming the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. These three had conceived the plan of making teaching trips to a rural area inhabited by Muslims. When on 31 July the authorities of Mindanao State University were notified that they had left the campus the previous day and had not yet returned, search parties were immediately formed and the assistance of the police and local authorities obtained. After inquiries and search, led entirely by President Tamano of Mindanao State University, the bodies of the three young men were found in a shallow grave. They had been shot, grievously mutilated and two had been decapitated. The bodies were removed and given Bahá'í burial in a beautiful plot donated for the purpose.

The unveiling of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, New York, April 1919

They were dispatched to America and unveiled in a ceremony during the ‘Convention of the Covenant’ held at the Hotel McAlpin in New York in April 1919. Mary Maxwell (seated, center) and Elizabeth Coristine (seated, right), unveiled the Tablets addressed to Canada. Seated to the left of Mary is Bahiyyih Randall.

March 1909: The interment by 'Abdu'l-Baha of the sacred remains of the Báb in their permanent resting place on God's holy mountain

On the 28th of the month of Safar 1327 A.H., the day of the first Naw-Ruz (1909), which He celebrated after His release from His confinement, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had the marble sarcophagus transported with great labor to the vault prepared for it, and in the evening, by the light of a single lamp, He laid within it, with His own hands -- in the presence of believers from the East and from the West and in circumstances at once solemn and moving -- the wooden casket containing the sacred remains of the Bab and His companion.

When all was finished, and the earthly remains of the Martyr-Prophet of Shiraz were, at long last, safely deposited for their everlasting rest in the bosom of God's holy mountain, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who had cast aside His turban, removed His shoes and thrown off His cloak, bent low over the still open sarcophagus, His silver hair waving about His head and His face transfigured and luminous, rested His forehead on the border of the wooden casket, and, sobbing aloud, wept with such a weeping that all those who were present wept with Him. That night He could not sleep, so overwhelmed was He with emotion.

"The most joyful tidings is this," He wrote later in a Tablet announcing to His followers the news of this glorious victory, "that the holy, the luminous body of the Báb ... after having for sixty years been transferred from place to place, by reason of the ascendancy of the enemy, and from fear of the malevolent, and having known neither rest nor tranquillity has, through the mercy of the Abha Beauty, been ceremoniously deposited, on the day of Naw-Ruz, within the sacred casket, in the exalted Shrine on Mt. Carmel..." 

(Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By)

1942: First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Tegucigalpa, Honduras

First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 1942. (The Baha'i World 1940-1944)

A group of early Persian Baha'is imprisoned for their Faith

On the left: Jinab-i-Varqa and his son Ruhu'llah who were later martyred. On the extreme right: Haji Iman-i-Zanjani, a survivor of the Zanjan upheaval. Second from right: Mirza Husayn-i-Zanjani. (The Baha'i World 1940-1944)

1912: ‘Abdu’l-Baha comments on the growth of the Baha’i community from Tehran to San Francisco

When they exiled us from Persia, from Tehran to Baghdad, the journey was made in thirty stages and in these thirty stages we did not find one Baha’i. Now in every one of these places there are great numbers of Baha’i friends.

Notwithstanding that the ruler of Persia and the Sultan of Turkey opposed the Cause so violently exercising tyranny and oppression thinking to extinguish the Lamp of God yet this Lamp day by day grew in radiance, its power increased and its illumination became greater, until it reached such a degree that now its lights are spread throughout the world even as far as San Francisco, which is very far from Persia. See what this will mean in the future! 

(‘Abdu’l-Baha, from a talk, San Francisco, October 5, 1912; Star of the West, vol. 10, no. 13, November 4, 1919) 

(To read the entire talk please visit: Talks of ‘Abdu’l-Baha)

Táhirih “advocated the emancipation of women in 1848”

Táhirih, that peerless heroine of Iranian history, courageously advocated the emancipation of women in 1848, at a time when efforts to improve the status of women were only beginning to gather momentum in a few parts of the world. 

(The Universal House of Justice, from a message dated 20 June 2008 addressed to the Baha’is in Iran)

May 2001: Official Opening of the Terraces of the Shrine of the Báb -- Devotions by Congo Baha'i Youth Choir

1948: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran

Members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran, 1948

While besieged within the fort of Shaykh Tabarsi Quddus completed a commentary about Baha’u’llah comprising five hundred thousand verses

Though distant in body, these heroic souls are engaged in daily communion with their Beloved, partake of the bounty of His utterance, and share the supreme privilege of His companionship. Otherwise how could Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim have known of the Bab? How could they have perceived the significance of the secret which lay hidden in Him? How could the Báb Himself, how could Quddus, His beloved disciple, have written in such terms, had not the mystic bond of the spirit linked their souls together? Did not the Báb, in the earliest days of His Mission, allude, in the opening passages of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', His commentary on the Surih of Joseph, to the glory and significance of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh? Was it not His purpose, by dwelling upon the ingratitude and malice which characterised the treatment of Joseph by his brethren, to predict what Bahá'u'lláh was destined to suffer at the hands of His brother and kindred? Was not Quddus, although besieged within the fort of Shaykh Tabarsi by the battalions and fire of a relentless enemy, engaged, both in the daytime and in the night-season, in the completion of his eulogy of Bahá'u'lláh -- that immortal commentary on the Sad of Samad which had already assumed the dimensions of five hundred thousand verses? Every verse of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', every word of the aforementioned commentary of Quddus, will, if dispassionately examined, bear eloquent testimony to this truth. 

(Shoghi Effendi, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)

Baha'u'llah's ancestral home in Takur

Two views of Baha'u'llah's ancestral home in Takur, in the district of Nur, where He usually spent His summers as a boy.

The Author of "the most colossal religious work written by the pen of a single Man" – 29 May 1992: “the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies met in solemn session to pay tribute to” Baha’u’llah

Iran's crisis of civilization will be resolved neither by blind imitation of an obviously defective Western culture nor by retreat into medieval ignorance. The answer to the dilemma was enunciated on the very threshold of the crisis, in the clearest and most compelling language, by a distinguished Son of lran Who is today honoured in every continent of the world, but sadly not in the land of His birth. Persia's poetic genius captures the irony: "I searched the wide world over for my Beloved, while my Beloved was waiting for me in my own home." The world's appreciation of Baha'u'llah came perhaps most explicitly into focus on 29 May 1992, the centenary of His death, when the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies met in solemn session to pay tribute to Him, to His teachings and to the services rendered to humanity by the community He founded. On that occasion, the Speaker of the Chamber and spokespersons from every party rose, successively, to express their profound admiration of One who was described in their addresses as the Author of "the most colossal religious work written by the pen of a single Man", a message that "reaches out to humanity as a whole, without petty differences of nationality, race, limits or belief”.  

(The Universal House of Justice, from a message dated 26 November 2003 to the ‘Followers of Baha’u’llah in the Cradle of the Faith)

April 2003: The first time the International Baha'i Convention was cancelled and the election of the Universal House of Justice was conducted through mailed ballots

The Universal House of Justice

4 April 2003

To all National Spiritual Assemblies 

Dear Baha'i Friends,  

We have been following closely developments in the world as they affect the Middle East, in the hope that the passage of events would make it possible for the International Baha'i Convention to be held as planned. However, for the sake of all concerned we can wait no   longer. To our regret, current conditions are such that we feel compelled to cancel the holding of the International Convention, and we write to so inform you.  

This is the first time we have had to implement the provision of the Constitution of the Universal House of Justice that states: "If at the time of an election the Universal House of Justice shall consider that it is impracticable or unwise to hold the International Convention it shall determine how the election shall take place." The ballots of the members of all National   Spiritual Assemblies are arriving daily, and we are arranging for the nineteen delegates chosen to be tellers to come to the Holy Land to count the votes on the Ninth Day of Ridvan. Should circumstances make it impossible for these friends to come, we shall adopt another means for the discharge of this task.  

National Conventions should continue to be held in May, around the Anniversary of the Declaration of the Báb, as currently planned.  

We are confident that the friends, surrounded by the confirmations of Baha'u'llah, will pursue the aim of the Five Year Plan with undimmed zeal.  

With loving Baha'i greetings,

The Universal House of Justice      

1929: Certification of Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada

Certification of Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada, 1929. (The Baha'i World 1940-1944)