The Baha’i World Faith
Robert Z. Willson
This brief statement on what Baha’i has meant to me will begin with Dora’s last goodnight note to the three of us: “Before going off to sleep and since one never knows, I want to say that I love and give thanks for your love for me and for each other and that these weeks have been worth everything—and that you and I will go on loving and giving thanks whatever happens.” Just fourteen days later she entered her eternal sleep; there was no death, only a glorious transition.
I know not how, but this joyous conviction sustained me throughout the following month, until the evening after the memorial service at Pendle Hill. That evening, after returning home with our daughters Nancy and Gay, the bottom dropped out. The physical sensation was one of falling, and nothing I could do would stop the fall—from Sunday morning until Friday. As I was driving to the office Friday morning, I spoke out loud: “My God, when will this headlong plunge stop? When will I hit bottom so that I can get my breath, and start back up?”
The next thing I remember I was knocking on the door of a friend, Bula Mott Stewart. As the door opened, I was greeted with a radiant smile and a welcoming, “Hello, Bob, I knew you were coming. Come in and have a cup of coffee with me. I have it ready.” After a good visit, Bula gave me a copy of The Seven Valleys.1I took it home and read and re-read it. As Friends would say, it spoke to my condition. The Seven Valleys is a small book, which discusses the Kingdom which is not of this world, much like the Sermon on the Mount. It teaches that the way to attain the presence of God is to hearken to the message of the Manifestation of God for the age. Sometime Saturday morning I slept for the first time in 140 hours.
I awoke hungering and thirsting after the knowledge of God. There were more Baha’i books. They all sent me back to the Old and New Testaments as I had never studied them before. The next six months were spent reading, reading, reading. I attended two Baha’i firesides regularly for five months. With what results?
The Books of God were opened to me, even as prophesied by John in Revelations: “and the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” I knew that Dora Lived! I knew that I had been as one dead because I had lost all faith. But with the discovery that the promises of Jesus and his Father had been kept, my faith was renewed and with it a rebirth of energy, love, joy and hope.
Yes, the Books of God had been opened. I found in the writings and teachings of Baha’u’llah, Abdul’baha, and the Bab, all that seemed to be lacking in the teachings of Jesus. Here was the renewal of the religion of Jesus. Nothing was taken away from His glory but much had been added. Jesus said, “Seek and ye shall find.” It has been said, “When the pupil is ready, the teacher appears.” Both have proved true in my case. In John 14:3 Jesus promised: “and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am ye may be also …” In John, 14:18, “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.” In John 14:27-29, “Peace I leave with you … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid … I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father; for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it came to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.”
I must confess that none of this ever had any meaning for me until I was driven by Dora’s death. to fulfill the law of life common to all religions—“whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it: but whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”2 During that week, I lost everything, I knew nothing, I believed nothing, I had nothing, I was nothing, I was empty. The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys began the refilling, until now my cup runneth over.
To quote the last of the Seven Valleys, the Valley of true Poverty: “This station is the dying from self and the living in God, the being poor in self and rich in the Desired One.”3 The fourth valley “This is a bottomless sea which none shall ever fathom” … yet “it is the blackest of nights through which none can find his way.” “Love is a light that never dwelleth in a heart possessed of fear.” “And if he feareth not God, God will make him to fear all things; whereas all things fear him who feareth God.”4
“O friends! Be set aglow with the fire of the Love of God so that the hearts of the people will become enlightened by the light of Love.”5 I was guided to one such friend, who introduced me to the “Glory of God”—in Arabic, “Baha’u’llah.—“She had been set aglow with the fire of the love of God, reflected from the life and teachings of Baha’u’llah, even as Dora had been through her living with the teachings of Jesus.
Here I must quote from The World Order of Baha’u’llah, which expresses, in the words of Shogi Effendi, the relationship between Baha’u’llah and Jesus: “The Revelation, of which Baha’u’llah is the source and center, abrogates none of the religions that have preceded it, nor does it attempt, in the slightest degree, to distort their features or to belittle their value … It declares its primary purpose is to enable every adherent of these Faiths to obtain a fuller understanding of the religion with which he stands identified, and to acquire a clearer apprehension of its purpose. Its teachings revolve around the fundamental principle that religious truth is not absolute, but relative, that Divine revelation is progressive, not final … without reservation it proclaims all established religions to be of divine origin, identical in their aims, complementary in their functions, continuous in their purpose, indispensable in their value to mankind.”6
Jesus’ message was only for the individual. Baha’u’llah’s message is for society. Jesus said, “Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”7 Baha’u’llah said, “Come ye after me that we may make you become quickeners of mankind.” In John 16:7-14 Jesus is reported as saying: “It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you … He shall guide you into all the Truth … He shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and shall declare it unto you.”8
In the Baha’i World Faith there are no less than forty-one references to Jesus and his teachings. Abdul’baha states: “If you reflect upon the essential teachings of Jesus you will realize that they are the light of the world. Nobody can question their truth. They are the very source of life and the cause of happiness of the human race.”9 Baha’u’llah states: “This is that which the Son (Jesus) hath declared, and what soever hath proceeded out of his blameless, His truth-speaking, trustworthy mouth can never be altered.”10 “The Revelation of which I am the bearer,” Baha’u’llah further declares, “is adapted to humanity’s spiritual receptiveness and capacity; otherwise, the Light that shines within me can neither wax nor wane. Whatever I manifest is nothing more or less than the measure of the Divine glory which God has bidden me reveal.”11 My study and search has convinced me that we are living in the age of this fulfillment, and that Baha’u’llah is, without doubt, the Spirit of truth promised by Jesus.
Thus in this new, yet old, light, we go on loving and giving thanks, whatever happens.
1. available from The Baha’i Publishing Trust 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
2. Luke 17:33
3. The Seven Valleys by Baha’u’llah p. 36
4. The Four Valleys p. 55
5. Bah’ai World Faith by Baha’u’llah p. 359
6. The World Order of Baha’u’llah by Shoghi Effendi pp. 57-58
7. Matthew 4:19
8. John 16:7-14
9. BWF p. 250
10. BWF p. 60
11. World Order p. 60
Robert Z. Willson taught for four years in Cyprus, and while there traveled also in the Near East. His lifework has been in the Cooperative Movement, with which he is now working in Ferndale, Mich.