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)
