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)
