Join activities, celebrations, study groups, spiritual empowerment and education programs for young people, and more.
Baha’i beliefs address essential spiritual themes for humanity’s collective and individual advancement. Learn more about these and more.
Featured in: The Ascension of Abdu’l-Baha
Abdu’l-Baha was the eldest son of Baha’u’llah who referred to Him as “the Mystery of God” and “a shelter for all mankind”, however Abdu’l-Baha preferred to be called “Abdu’l-Baha” which means “the Servant of Baha” in reference to His servitude to Baha’u’llah. When Abdu’l-Baha passed away on 28 November 1921, He was eulogized as One who led humanity to the “Way of Truth,” as a “pillar of peace” and the embodiment of “glory and greatness.”
As we commemorate the centenary of the Ascension of Abdu’l-Baha, it is timely to recount the story of how He predicted with sublime accuracy the outbreak of World War I and also explained and developed a peace plan highly relevant to humanity today.
Abdu’l-Baha (1844-1921) spoke often about the plan which came from His father, Baha’u’llah (1817-1892), the prophetic figure Who founded the Baha’i Faith and Who laid out the path to peace in His letters to the kings and rulers of the world. (Proclamation of Baha’u’llah)
For example, during His journey throughout North America in 1912, Abdu’l-Baha emphasised the need for international peace, calling it “the most momentous question of the day.”
Newspapers gave Him such labels as the “Persian Peace Apostle” and “the Prophet of Peace”, and their journalists reported how He linked the concept of peace to the need for a world tribunal and collective security. Surprisingly for audiences at that time, He also connected peace to topics like the education and advancement of women. War will cease, He said, when women have full equality because “they will be the obstacle and hindrance to it.” (Source)
Although there was a growing international peace movement, the European nations were steadily stockpiling armaments in preparation for war.
Possessed of a keen insight into humanity, Abdu’l-Baha knew that the fledgling peace movement was impotent, and He openly predicted the horror ahead. To the Montreal Star newspaper He said:
These warlike preparations will necessarily culminate in a great war. The very armaments themselves are productive of war. This great arsenal must go ablaze.
Source
And on September 11th, a date that was to become significant for a warlike event 89 years later, the local newspaper in the city of Buffalo in the United States, reported Him1 “warning against a great European war and pleading that the people of this country do what they can to avert terrible bloodshed.”
“The continent of Europe,” the newspaper reported Him as saying, “is one vast arsenal which only requires one spark at its foundations and the whole of Europe will become a wasted wilderness. And what flimsy, what impudent pretext they use. Patriotism, say they; glory, say they; the upholding of the continent, say they. What a travesty on God’s truth.”
But anybody thinking that this peace advocate might be an impractical idealist like so many others, soon found they were severely mistaken because Abdu’l-Baha was the epitome of one who trod the spiritual path with practical feet. He did not advocate unilateral disarmament by a single power, an act He warned would lead to aggression, but referred instead to Baha’u’llah’s plan:
The peace of the world must be brought about by international agreement. All nations must agree to disarm simultaneously.
Source
In California in October 1912, He repeated the warnings of the war ahead, and specified when it would begin:
The time is two years hence, when only a spark will set aflame the whole of Europe.
Baha’u’llah and the New Era by John Esslemont, Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1980. P. 244
Nearly two years later on 3 August 1914, Abdu’l-Baha, back home in Haifa, announced what was about to happen, just as He had predicted two years previously in Canada and the United States.
A general melee of the civilized nations is in sight. A tremendous conflict is at hand. The world is at the threshold of a most tragic struggle…Vast armies—millions of men—are being mobilised and stationed at their frontiers. They are being prepared for the fearful contest. The slightest friction will bring them into a terrific crash, and there will be a conflagration, the like of which is not recorded in the past history of mankind.
The very next day, the greatest power on earth at the time, Great Britain, declared war on Germany. Three months later, Great Britain, France and Russia declared war on Turkey, and in response the Caliph, Sultan Muhammad V, the titular head of the Ottoman Empire, declared holy war against them.
With great foresight, Abdu’l-Baha made sure Baha’i farmers in the Galilee stored grain to guard against any future famine. Eventually the food kept in reserve saved many in the region from starving to death.
The British, who ejected the Turkish forces from the Holy Land in 1917, recognised the humanitarian activities of Abdu’l-Baha by knighting Him in 1920.
Abdu’l-Baha continued to communicate the teachings of Baha’u’llah. In 1920 there came from Him a Tablet2 of outstanding profundity.
He pointed out the horrors of the conflict that had concluded two years before, saying how “flourishing countries have been reduced to rubble, cities have been levelled with the ground, and many a once prosperous village hath been turned into ruin.”
He noted that 60 years previously, Baha’u’llah had warned the German Emperor and the Turkish sovereign of the terrible fate that now, as a result of the Great War, had befallen their realms.
Then Abdu’l-Baha issued a warning of a conflict that was yet to come:
The vanquished Powers will continue to agitate. They will resort to every measure that may rekindle the flame of war.
Ibid, p. 249-50.
But He did not leave mankind without hope. To the contrary, He once again outlined Baha’u’llah’s prescription for universal peace.
To bring this about, a Supreme Tribunal must be established, representative of all governments and peoples; questions both national and international must be referred thereto, and all must carry out the decrees of this Tribunal. Should any government or people disobey, let the whole world arise against that government or people.
But as it turned out, and as He had predicted, the arrangement at the end of the First World War carried the seeds of another conflict, and war reignited in 1939.
In 1985, drawing on the teachings of Baha’u’llah and the explanations of Abdu’l-Baha, the Universal House of Justice3 issued a statement called The Promise of World Peace, which contains a step-by-step guide to preventing war. It remains available for today’s leaders to seize and implement.
"*" indicates required fields
Join activities, celebrations, study groups, spiritual empowerment and education programs for young people, and more.
Horizons is an online magazine of news, stories and reflections from around individuals, communities
and Baha’i institutions around Australia
Baha’i beliefs address essential spiritual themes for humanity’s collective and individual advancement. Learn more about these and more.
We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their cultures; and to elders both past and present.
The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent authoritative views of the Baha’i Faith.
Visit the site of the
Australian Baha’i Community
and the Baha’i Faith Worldwide
It seems we are poised again at the edge of the cliff of another conflagration if we’re not careful! This is a most timely post and offers some measure of hope in a world that has gone mad! Thank you!
Carol F. Campbell (September 9, 2014 at 12:37 AM)
What a topical, well-researched and well-written article. Thank you, Michael! You show an example to the rest of us Bahá’í bloggers, writers and conversationalists on how to relate the Writings and Bahá’í history to the issues of the day. Indeed, another “conflagration” is bound to happen for mankind to “taste what their hands have wrought”, whether it be economical, political, natural or military.
Sam (September 9, 2014 at 7:33 AM)