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House of Worship in Kenya under construction , June 2020
(Baha'i World News Service) |
…however inspiring the conception of Bahá'í worship, as
witnessed in the central Edifice of this exalted Temple, it cannot be regarded
as the sole, nor even the essential, factor in the part which the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, as designed by Bahá'u'lláh, is destined to play in the
organic life of the Bahá'í community. Divorced from the social, humanitarian,
educational and scientific pursuits centering around the Dependencies of the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, Bahá'í worship, however exalted in its conception, however
passionate in fervor, can never hope to achieve beyond the meagre and often
transitory results produced by the contemplations of the ascetic or the
communion of the passive worshiper. It cannot afford lasting satisfaction and
benefit to the worshiper himself, much less to humanity in general, unless and
until translated and transfused into that dynamic and disinterested service to
the cause of humanity which it is the supreme privilege of the Dependencies of
the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar to facilitate and promote. Nor will the exertions, no
matter how disinterested and strenuous, of those who within the precincts of
the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar will be engaged in administering the affairs of the
future Bahá'í Commonwealth, fructify and prosper unless they are brought into
close and daily communion with those spiritual agencies centering in and
radiating from the central Shrine of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
Nothing short of direct and constant interaction between the
spiritual forces emanating from this House of Worship centering in the heart of
the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, and the energies consciously displayed by those who
administer its affairs in their service to humanity can possibly provide the
necessary agency capable of removing the ills that have so long and so
grievously afflicted humanity. For it is assuredly upon the consciousness of
the efficacy of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, reinforced on one hand by
spiritual communion with His Spirit, and on the other by the intelligent
application and the faithful execution of the principles and laws He revealed,
that the salvation of a world in travail must ultimately depend. And of all the
institutions that stand associated with His Holy Name, surely none save the
institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar can most adequately provide the essentials
of Bahá'í worship and service, both so vital to the regeneration of the world.
Therein lies the secret of the loftiness, of the potency, of the unique
position of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar as one of the outstanding institutions
conceived by Bahá'u'lláh.
- Shoghi
Effendi (Star of the West, [The Baha’i Magazine], vol. 21, no. 1, April 1930;
‘Baha'i Administration’)
