O thou beloved daughter!
Thy letter was received and I have written for thy sake this
Message. This article, in answer to thy question, is very important. Display ye
the utmost effort in its publication.
After the declaration of the constitutional regime in Turkey
in 1908, by the members of the Committee of the Union and Progress, this
prisoner of forty years, travelled and journeyed for three years from 1910 to
1913 throughout the countries of Europe and the vast continent of America.
Notwithstanding advancement in age with its natural consequences, with a
resonant voice I delivered detailed addresses before large conventions and in
historical churches. I enumerated all those principles contained in the Tablets
and Teachings of Baha/u’llah concerning War and Peace.
About fifty years ago, His Holiness Baha’u’llah proclaimed
certain Teachings and raised the Song of Universal Peace. In numerous Tablets
and sundry Epistles He foretold, in the most explicit language, the present
cataclysmal events stating that the world of humanity was facing the most
portentous danger and asserting categorically that the realization of Universal
War was unfortunately inevitable and unavoidable. For these combustible
materials which were stored in the infernal arsenals of Europe would explode by
contact with one spark.
Among other things, "the Balkans will become a volcano
and the map of Europe will be changed." For these and similar reasons He
(Baha’u’llah) invited the world of humanity to Universal Peace. He wrote a
number of Epistles to the kings and rulers and in those epistles He explained
the destructive evils of war and dwelt on the solid benefits and nobler
influences of Universal Peace.
War saps the foundation of humanity; killing is an
unpardonable crime against God, for man is an edifice built by the Hand of the
Almighty. Peace is life incarnate; war is death personified. Peace is the
divine spirit; war is satanic suggestion. Peace is the light of the world; war
is stygian darkness and cimmerian gloom. All the great prophets, ancient
philosophers and heavenly Books have been the harbingers of Peace and monitors
against war and discord. This is the Divine foundation; this is the Celestial
outpouring; this is the basis of all religions of God.
In short, before all the meetings in the West I cried out:
"O ye thinkers of the world! O ye philosophers of the
Occident! O ye scholars and sages of the earth! A threatening black cloud
overshadows, which ere long shall envelop the horizon of humanity; an impetuous
tempest is ahead, which shall shatter to splinters the ships of the lives of
mankind, and a turbulent, furious torrent shall soon drown the countries and
nations of Europe. Awaken ye! Awaken ye! Become ye mindful! Become ye mindful!
Thus in the spirit of cooperation we may all arise with the utmost magnanimity
and through the Favor and Providence of God hold aloft the flag of the Oneness
of Humanity, promote the essentials of Universal Peace and deliver the
inhabitants of the world from this Most Great Danger!”
While travelling in Europe and America I met altruistic and
sanctified souls who were my confidants and associates concerning the question
of Universal Peace and who agreed with me and joined their voices with mine
regarding the principle of the Oneness of the World of Humanity; but alas, they
were very few! The leaders of public opinion and the great statesmen believed
that the massing of huge armies and the annual increase of military forces
insured peace and friendship among nations. At that time I explained that this
theory was based on a false conception; for it is an inevitable certainty that
these serried ranks and disciplined armies will be rushed one clay into the
heat of the battlefield and these inflammable materials will unquestionably be
exploded and the explosion will be through one tiny spark; then a world
conflagration will be witnessed, the lurid flames of which shall redden all the
horizons. Because the sphere of their thoughts was contracted and their
intellectual eyes blind they could not acknowledge the above explanation.
From the beginning of the Balkan Confederation a number of
important personages inquired of me whether this Balkan war was the expected
universal war, but it was answered, "It will terminate in universal
war."
In brief, the point to make clear is this: His Holiness
Baha’u’llah nearly fifty years ago warned the nations against the occurrence of
this "Most Great Danger." Although the evils of war were evident and
manifest to the sages and scholars, they are now made clear and plain to all
the people. No sane person can at this time deny the fact that war is the most
dreadful calamity in the world of humanity, that war destroys the divine
foundation, that war is the cause of eternal death, that war is conducive to
the destruction of populous, progressive cities, that war is the world
consuming fire, and that war is the most ruinous catastrophe and the most
deplorable adversity.
The cries and lamentations are raised from every part to the
Supreme Apex; the moanings and shriekings have thrown a mighty reverberation
through the columns of the world; the civilized countries are being overthrown;
eyes are shedding tears, hearing the weeping of the fatherless children; the
hearts are burning and being consumed by uncontrollable sobbing and piercing
wailings of helpless, wandering women; the spirits of hopeless mothers are torn
by rayless grief and endless sorrows and the nerve racking sighs and the just
complaints of fathers ascend to the Throne of the Almighty.
Ah me! The world of creation is totally deprived of its
normal rest; the clash of arms and the sound of murderous guns and cannon are
being heard like the roaring of thunder across the heavenly tract, and the
explosive materials have changed the battlefields into yawning graveyards,
burying for eternity the corpus of thousands upon thousands of youths, the
flower of many countries who would have been evolving factors in the
civilization of the future.
The results of this crime committed against humanity are
worse than whatever I may say and can never be adequately described by pen or
by tongue
O ye governments of the world! Be ye pitiful towards
mankind! O ye nation is of the earth, behold ye the battlefields of slaughter
and carnage; O ye sages of humanity, investigate sympathetically the conditions
of the oppressed; ye philosophers of the West, study profoundly the causes that
led to this gigantic unparalleled struggle; O ye wise leaders of the globe,
reflect deeply so that ye may find an antidote for the suppression of this
chronic, devastating disease; O ye individuals of humanity, find ye means for
the stoppage of this wholesale murder and bloodshed. Now is the appointed time!
Now is the opportune time! Arise ye, shew ye an effort, put ye forward an
extraordinary power, and unfurl ye the Flag of Universal Peace and dam the
resistible fury of this raging torrent which is wreaking havoc and ruin
everywhere!
Although this captive has been in the prison of despotism
for forty years, yet he has never been so sad and stricken with regret and
grief as in these days. My spirit is aflame and burning; my heart is broken,
mournful, heavy and despondent; my eyes are weeping and my soul is on fire. Oh!
I am so bowed down and sorrowful.
O people! Weep and cry, lament and bemoan your fate. Then
hasten ye, hasten ye, perchance ye may become able to extinguish with the water
of the new born ideals of spiritual democracy and celestial freedom, this
many–flamed, world-consuming fire, and through your heaven inspired resolution
you may usher in the Golden Era of International Solidarity and World
Confederation.
O kind God! Hearken to the cry of these helpless nations! O
pure Lord, show Thy pity to these orphaned children! O incomparable Almighty,
stop this destructive torrent! O Creator of the world and the inhabitants
thereof, cause the extinction of this burning fire! O Listener to our cries,
come to the rescue of the orphans! O Ideal Comforter, console the mothers whose
hearts are torn and whose souls are filled with the blood of irremediable loss!
O Clement and Merciful, grant the blessing of Thy grace to the weeping eyes and
burning hearts of the fathers. Restore calmness to this surging tempest and
change this world encircling war into Peace and Conciliation.
Verily, Thou art the Omnipotent and the Powerful and,
verily, Thou art the Seer and the Hearer!
(Signed) ‘Abdu’l-Baha Abbas
(Star of the West, vol. 5, no. 16, December 31, 1914)
