Forewords and Preface to Tablets of the Divine Plan
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Horace Holley, Forewords and Preface to Tablets of the Divine Plan, bahai-library.com.
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Preface to the 1974 Edition *

Revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during the period of the first World War, the Tablets of the
Divine Plan were not received until after the Armistice when communication with the Holy
Land was restored. Each Tablet, as indicated in the text, was addressed either to the Bahá’ís
of the United States and Canada as one body, or to five regional areas of North America. In
view of the fact that these Tablets designated the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada as
a teaching agency chosen for an international mission, later editions were published under the
title America’s Spiritual Mission.
The most notable responses made to these Tablets were the unique services of Martha
Root in Latin America, Europe and the Orient, by Mr and Mrs Hyde Dunn in Australia, and
by Mrs. H. Emogene Hoagg and Marion Jack in Alaska. The great services of Alma
Knobloch in Germany and Fanny Knobloch in South Africa were rendered before the Tablets
had been revealed.
From 1922 until 1936 the North American Bahá’ís were immersed in an effort to develop
the institutions of the Administrative Order. It was in 1937 that the Guardian conferred upon
America the mission of the first Seven-Year Plan, followed by the Second Seven-Year Plan
in 1946. The Ten-Year World Crusade inaugurated in 1953 established an intercontinental
teaching plan involving all the existing National Spiritual Assemblies of East and West. The
Guardian had also made it clear that the Tablets of the Divine Plan constituted the Charter
which conferred upon him the authority and obligation to establish these teaching plans.
While the American Bahá’ís have been endowed with primacy in the work of the World
Crusade, the restrictive title America’s Spiritual Mission is no longer appropriate for the
Master’s Tablets, and therefore beginning with this edition the original title is resumed.

—Horace Holley

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*   See details at bahai-library.com/marks_banani_divine_plan
Foreword to 1977 edition

In several letters and in God Passes By Shoghi Effendi has left us moving accounts of the
circumstances in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá revealed the Tablets of the Divine Plan as well as
profound insights into the continuously emerging significance of these Tablets which he has
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characterized as the “mandate” and the supreme “Charter for the teaching”. A perusal of
such passages from the writings of Shoghi Effendi leaves no doubt that the Tablets of the
Divine Plan were a direct consequence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit to America and a final link in
the chain of love and care which bound Him to the friends on this continent. It is entirely
appropriate and enormously helpful, therefore, to preface this edition of Tablets of the Divine
Plan with the words of the beloved Guardian:
The seeds which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ceaseless activities so lavishly scattered had endowed
the United States and Canada, nay the entire continent, with potentialities such as it had
never known in its history. On the small band of His trained and beloved disciples, and
through them on their descendants, He, through that visit, had bequeathed a priceless
heritage—a heritage which carried with it the sacred and primary obligation to arise and
carry on in that fertile field the work He had so gloriously initiated. We can dimly
picture to ourselves the wishes that must have welled from His eager heart as he bade
His last farewell to that promising country. An inscrutable Wisdom, we can well
imagine Him remark to His disciples on the eve of His departure, has, in His infinite
bounty singled out your native land for the execution of a mighty purpose. Through the
agency of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant I, as the ploughman, have been called upon since the
beginning of my ministry to turn up and break its ground. The mighty confirmations
that have, in the opening days of your career, rained upon you have prepared and
invigorated its soil. The tribulations you subsequently were made to suffer have driven
deep furrows into the field which my hands had prepared. The seeds with which I have
been entrusted I have now scattered far and wide before you. Under your loving care,
by your ceaseless exertions, every one of these seeds must germinate, every one must
yield its destined fruit. A winter of unprecedented severity will soon be upon you. Its
storm clouds are fast gathering on the horizon. Tempestuous winds will assail you
from every side. The Light of the Covenant will be obscured through my departure.
These mighty blasts, this wintry desolation, shall however pass away. The dormant
seed will burst into fresh activity. It shall put forth its buds, shall reveal, in mighty
institutions, its leaves and blossoms. The vernal showers which the tender mercies of
my heavenly Father will cause to descend upon you will enable this tender plant to
spread out its branches to regions far beyond the confines of your native land. And
finally the steadily mounting sun of His Revelation, shining in its meridian splendor,
will enable this mighty Tree of His Faith to yield, in the fullness of time and on your
soil, its golden fruit.

“… His mandate embodied in the Tablets of the Divine Plan.” Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 255.
“… the Tablets of the Divine Plan … are the Charter for the teaching of the Faith.” From a letter written on
behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, 29 September 1977, Lights of Guidance,
no. 1628, p. 488 (1994).
The implications of such a parting message could not long remain unrevealed to
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s initiated disciples. No sooner had He concluded His long and arduous
journey across the American and European continents than the tremendous happenings
to which He had alluded began to be made manifest. A conflict, such as He had
predicted, severed for a time all means of communication with those on whom He had
come to place such implicit trust and from whom He was expecting so much in return.
The wintry desolation, with all its havoc and carnage, pursued during four years its
relentless course, while He, repairing to the quiet solitude of His residence in the close
neighborhood of Bahá’u’lláh’s hallowed shrine, continued to communicate His
thoughts and wishes to those whom He had left behind and on whom He had conferred
the unique tokens of His favor. In the immortal Tablets which, in the long hours of His
communion with His dearly beloved friends He was moved to reveal, He unfolded to
their eyes His conception of their spiritual destiny, His Plan for the mission He wished
them to undertake. The seeds His hands had sown He was now watering with that same
care, that same love and patience, which had characterized His previous endeavors
whilst He was laboring in their midst.
In God Passes By Shoghi Effendi tells us that during the Great War ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
felt acutely the virtual stoppage of all communication with most of [the] Bahá’í centers
throughout the world. Agony filled His soul at the spectacle of human slaughter
precipitated through humanity’s failure to respond to the summons He had issued, or to
heed the warnings He had given. Surely sorrow upon sorrow was added to the burden
of trials and vicissitudes which He, since His boyhood, had borne so heroically for the
sake, and in the service, of His Father’s Cause.
And yet during these somber days, the darkness of which was reminiscent of the
tribulations endured during the most dangerous period of His incarceration in the
prison-fortress of ‘Akká, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, whilst in the precincts of His Father’s Shrine,
or when dwelling in the House He occupied in ‘Akká, or under the shadow of the Báb’s
sepulcher on Mt. Carmel, was moved to confer once again, and for the last time in His
life, on the community of His American followers a signal mark of His special favor by
investing them, on the eve of the termination of His earthly ministry, through the
revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, with a world mission, whose full
implications even now, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, still remain
undisclosed, and whose unfoldment thus far, though as yet in its initial stages, has so
greatly enriched the spiritual as well as the administrative annals of the first Bahá’í
century.
The first eight of these Tablets were penned between March 26 and April 22, 1916.
History records this period as one of awesome bloodletting in Europe. It is truly breathtaking
to contemplate the devising of the Divine Strategy for the redemption of the planet in the
midst of the din and destruction of the old order. The transforming vision of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
spreads before us the plans for the spiritual conquest of the globe. The final six Tablets were
revealed between February 2 and March 8, 1917, barely a month before the entry of the

Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 86–7.
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 304–5.
United States into the war. Of the first group, five Tablets had actually reached America and
been published in the September 8, 1916, issue of Star of the West. After that all
communication with the Holy Land was severed, and the remainder of the Tablets were kept
in a vault under the Shrine of the Báb on Mt. Carmel for the duration of the war. They were
dispatched to America at the end of the war where they were unveiled in befitting ceremonies
during the “Convention of the Covenant” held at Hotel McAlpin in New York City on April
26–30, 1919.
Although exemplary individuals like the Dunns and Martha Root had given immediate
response to the call of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for “souls who will illumine this dark universe and
quicken to life this dead world”, the full implementation of the Plan began in 1937 when
Shoghi Effendi conferred on the North American Bahá’í community the mission of the First
Seven Year Plan—“The first stage of that enterprise, which had been held in abeyance, for
well-nigh twenty years, while the administrative institutions of the Faith were slowly taking
shape and were being perfected.”
The spiritual conquest of the Western Hemisphere—completed by 1944, the centennial of
the birth of our Faith—was not the only fruit of that First Seven Year Plan. It served as a
working model of the systematic process by which the beloved Guardian was guiding the
Bahá’í world toward the realization of the Master’s vision. Regional plans of pioneering
were entrusted to the friends in the East even before the end of the Second World War.
The Second Seven Year Plan spanning the years 1946–1953 gave the valiant North
American Bahá’í community the task of the spiritual revitalization of Europe, ravaged once
more by the devastation and desolation of war.
The grand stage in the unfolding realization of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan was ushered in
by the beloved Guardian in 1953, the eve of the hundredth anniversary of Bahá’u’lláh’s
prophetic revelations in the Síyáh-Chál of Ṭihrán, with the inception of the Ten Year
Crusade. Although several national Bahá’í communities had already undertaken pioneering
plans of their own before 1953, now for the first time the entire Bahá’í world was given a
share in the fulfillment of the goals of the Master’s Plan by being woven into one mighty
Crusade for planting the banner of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh on the entire planet.
The Nine and the Five Year Plans (1964–1973; 1974–1979) of the Universal House of
Justice may be seen as the successive steps in the inexorable and triumphant march of the
*
armies of Bahá’u’lláh to the call sounded in the Tablets of the Divine Plan. During all these
momentous accomplishments, and the epochs yet to come, the loving voice of the Master
heard so movingly in the prayers which accompany these Tablets, shall remain as our source
of inspiration and confirmation.

Amin Banani
October 1976
Star of the West, VII:10, pp. 87–91.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan, p. 80.
Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour, pp. 117–8.
*
The Seven Year Plan (1979–1986), the Six Year Plan (1986–1992), and the Three Year Plan (1993–1996)
continue the process.—Ed.
Foreword to 1993 edition

During the sixteen years since last impression of Tablets of the Divine Plan the Bahá’í
international community has undergone [a] dramatic transformation. Notable external
indices of growth include the completion of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice; the
dedication of Bahá’í Houses of Worship in India and Samoa; the inauguration of radio
stations in Ecuador, Peru, the United States, Bolivia, Panama, and Liberia; the rapid
expansion of the Faith in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union following the collapse of the
iron curtain; and the enrolment of large numbers of people, with some countries enlisting
many thousands and others hundreds of thousands, bringing the Faith’s worldwide
membership to at least five million in 1993.
Internally, the capacity of the Bahá’í community to implement the Bahá’í teachings in
daily life has enlarged substantially. Bahá’ís have increasingly become involved in the
promotion of world peace, environmental causes, literacy, the work of the United Nations and
its agencies, and projects designed to improve social and economic conditions. Bahá’í youth
in growing numbers have participated in periods of extended service, and Bahá’í scholarship
has emerged as a force contributing to a fuller understanding of the Bahá’í teachings. All
betoken a greater ability of Bahá’ís to apply their religious beliefs to the world around them.
As always in the advancement of the Cause of God, victory and crisis are locked in close
embrace. In 1979 the Islamic revolution in Írán engulfed the mother community of the
Bahá’í world in a firestorm of persecution. The execution of hundreds of Bahá’ís, many of
whom occupied key positions of service at both local and national levels; the demolition of
the House of the Báb in Shíráz; the seizure of holy places, properties, bank accounts, and
pension funds; the dismissal of many Bahá’ís from their jobs; and the banning of Bahá’í
administrative institutions were elements of a systematic campaign aimed at eradicating the
Bahá’í community. However, the pressure of world opinion, aroused by the efforts of
Bahá’ís throughout the world, induced a relaxation of overt persecution, although the Bahá’í
Faith in Írán continues to be outlawed and its members denied basic human rights.
Indeed, the crisis into which the Bahá’í community was thrown in 1979 proved an impetus
to the victories that have marked the last fifteen years of growth. While presenting the case
of the Iranian Bahá’ís to the United Nations, heads of state, parliaments, the media, and the
public, Bahá’ís rose to a higher plane of organization and dedication. Deeply moved by the
plight of their fellow believers, they widened the scope of their efforts and channelled their
energies into actions worthy of the sacrifices of the Iranian Bahá’í community.
Correspondingly, worldwide recognition of the Faith reached a new level.
From a broader vantage point the victories of the Bahá’í community over the past sixteen
years may be seen as further unfoldments of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan. Revealed to the
Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada in 1916 and 1917, these remarkable documents
elaborate on the call sounded by the Báb to the “‘peoples of the West’” to “‘issue forth’ from

From Writings and Utterances of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í Publishing Trust, New Delhi, India. 2000.
their ‘cities’ and aid His Cause” and on intimations made by Bahá’u’lláh to the glorious
destiny America would attain in the future and to the “‘signs of His dominion’” that would
appear in the West. In the Tablets of the Divine Plan ‘Abdu’l-Bahá fashions in broad outline
a master plan for the spiritual regeneration of the world and entrusts its execution to the
Bahá’ís of North America, whom He urges to arise to propagate the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh
throughout the planet and thereby set in motion the redemptive forces released by
Bahá’u’lláh’s revelation.
The task of implementing the Divine Plan fell to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s grandson, Shoghi
Effendi, whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá appointed Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith in His Will and
Testament. Shoghi Effendi envisioned the Divine Plan as a “laborious and tremendously
long process” involving the establishment of the Bahá’í Administrative Order “in all the
newly opened sovereign states, dependencies and islands of the planet, as well as in all the
remaining territories of the globe ….”        The process began in 1921 with a “period of
incubation” during which Shoghi Effendi introduced principles of Bahá’í administration
and established an initial contingent of local and national spiritual assemblies. In 1937 he
formally launched the Divine Plan with the first in a series of plans designed to carry out its
provisions to progressively fuller degrees, a pattern the Universal House of Justice continues
today.
Shoghi Effendi saw the Divine Plan as consisting of epochs and stages. The first stage of
its first epoch began with a Seven Year Plan (1937–1944) assigned to the Bahá’ís of North
America. The second stage comprised another Seven Year Plan (1946–1953) undertaken by
Bahá’ís of the United States and plans of varying duration pursued by the Bahá’ís of the
British Isles; of Canada; of Central America; of South America; of Australia and New
Zealand; of India, Pakistani, and Burma; of Germany and Austria; of Írán; of ‘Iráq; and of
Egypt and the Sudan. The third and final stage of the first epoch was the Ten Year Crusade
(1953–1963), which Bahá’ís throughout the world pursued in a common undertaking. The
second epoch of the Divine Plan began in 1964 under the guidance of the Universal House of
Justice and consists of stages marked by the Nine year Plan (1964–1973), the Five Year Plan
(1974–1979), the Seven Year Plan (1979–1986), the Six Year Plan (1986–1992), and the
Three Year Plan (1993–1996).
The Divine Plan will continue to evolve throughout the Formative Age and into what
Shoghi Effendi called the "vast reaches of time stretching into the Golden … Age …", the
third and crowning age of the Bahá’í Dispensation. The Golden Age will witness the
flowering of a world civilization that is “the offspring and primary purpose” of the Most
Great Peace—the Kingdom of God on earth—the establishment of which is the object of
Bahá’u’lláh’s revelation.

Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour, p. 116.
ibid.
Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Bahá’í World: 1950–1957, p. 153.
Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour, p. 73.
Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith: Messages to America 1947–1957, p. 114.
Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith: Messages to America 1947–1957, p. 7.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets of the Divine Plan, together with His Will and Testament,
constitute the greatest legacy He left to posterity and thus occupy a pre-eminent position
among Bahá’í sacred scriptures. As we move farther and further away from their date of
revelation, we witness with amazement the transforming effects that these documents exert in
the world and return with fresh and eager eyes to glean from their lines the manifold
meanings that hold the key to the world’s salvation.

Geoffrey W. Marks
Publisher’s foreword to 1993 edition

Five of the fourteen Tablets in Tablets of the Divine Plan were published in Star of the
West on September 8, 1916, before World War I severed communications between the United
States and Palestine. After World War I all fourteen Tablets, which were translated by
Ahmad Sohrab, were shared with the Bahá’í convention in New York City and published in a
small volume together with comments made on the occasion by Ahmad Sohrab. The cover
bore the title Unveiling of the Divine Plan, and the title page, the words Tablets, Instructions
and Words of Explanation Revealed by Abdul Baha Abbas for the Assemblies and Meetings
of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada.
In 1936 the Bahá’í Publishing Committee brought out a small volume containing only the
Tablets of the Divine Plan and bearing the title America’s Spiritual Mission. It was reprinted
in 1948.
In 1959 the Tablets were reissued under the title Tablets of the Divine Plan and were
subsequently reprinted seven times, with corrections being made to the prayers in 1971 at the
request of the Universal House of Justice.
In 1977 a new edition was published, printing the Tablets in chronological order and
including information from the Tablets on when and where they were revealed. Many
passages translated by Shoghi Effendi replaced earlier translations.
The 1993 edition, the first one to be made available in a pocket-size format, is designed to
make the book available to more readers. At the request of the Universal House of Justice, a
number of changes have been made to ensure accuracy and consistency: Several passages
translated by Shoghi Effendi replace earlier translations; one passage and a few words have
been retranslated to correct errors; direct quotations and paraphrases from the Qur’án and the
Bible have been clarified; punctuation, capitalization, and lowercasing have been made
consistent; several typographical errors have been eliminated; and footnotes are provided for
verses from and allusions to the Qur’án and the Bible.
To facilitate references to any edition of Tablets of the Divine Plan, the Tablets and all the
paragraphs in the Tablets have been given numbers. This numbering system, first adopted by
Bahá’í Verlag in its 1987 edition of Tablets of the Divine Plan, will, as it is adopted by
publishers world-wide, enable readers to locate and refer to passages in virtually any edition.
The paragraph numbers in Tablets 6 and 8 differ by one number from those used in the
German edition of Tablets of the Divine Plan, for the word “Supplication”, which is part of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s text, is given a separate paragraph number in the U.S. edition.
-- Forewords and Preface to Tablets of the Divine Plan (Used by permission of the curator)