Arc Project: 1994 Open Letter
Exported from Holy-Writings.com on 2026-06-19 - 1 clipping

To all National Spiritual Assemblies

Dear Bahá'í Friends,

As construction work commences on the first of the monumental Edifices
which must be raised on Mount Carmel to complete the World Administrative
Centre of the Bahá'í Faith, it seems Appropriate to review the
significance of this vast project and to reflect on its basic purpose.

The projects under way on this mountain are of profound significance. They
represent much more than the erection of buildings to meet the expanding
needs of the Bahá'í World Centre. The call for contributions to the Arc
Projects Fund, far from being a diversion of resources which might
otherwise be used to help relieve the distress of mankind, offers the
followers of Bahá'u'lláh a providential opportunity to participate in an
endeavour which is central to the work of the Faith in eradicating the
causes of the appalling suffering now afflicting humanity.

The Bahá'í community encourages and supports the manifold efforts being
made by people of goodwill to better the condition of humankind and
promote unity and harmony among the peoples and nations of the earth. 
However, the believers should never, for even one moment, lose sight of
the fact that the crisis now engulfing every part of the planet is
essentially spiritual. "That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign
remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world",
Bahá'u'lláh emphatically states, "is the union of all its peoples in one
universal Cause, one common Faith." Our acute awareness of the magnitude
of the misery which so many groups and individuals are experiencing should
spur us on to ever-greater exertions, inspired and animated by an abiding
consciousness that only through the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh can the
multitudinous problems burdening humanity be resolved.

From the dawn of Bahá'í history, attention has been directed to the glory
of the World Order which the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh is destined to
unfold. The Bab Himself declared, "Well is it with him who fixeth his gaze
upon the order of Bahá'u'lláh and rendereth thanks unto his Lord!" while
Bahá'u'lláh affirmed, in the Mother Book of His Dispensation, that "the
world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of
this most great, this new World Order. It is abundantly evident that the
exalted aims of the Faith can be accomplished only through the
instrumentality of the World Order which Bahá'u'lláh has established for
that purpose. The spiritual transformation of humanity, the relief of the
diverse peoples of the earth from rampant suffering, the attainment and
preservation of true peace in the world, the birth of a world civilization
-- all such noble objectives of the Cause of God will remain unrealized
unless they are associated with that radical change in the structure and
functioning of human society inherent in the growth and fruition of His
divinely ordained Order. The institutions of the Bahá'í Administrative
Order, now being raised in all parts of the world through the endeavours
of the believers, are the precursor, the nucleus and the pattern of that
World Order which will, in the course of time, exert its full benevolent
influence on all the peoples of the earth.

To all National Spiritual Assemblies    4 January 1994
       Page 2

Shoghi Effendi explained that the revelation by Bahá'u'lláh of the
Kitab-i-Aqdas "preserves for posterity the basic laws and ordinances on
which the fabric of His future World Order must rest. And he referred to
"the triple impulse generated through the revelation of the Tablet of
Carmel by Bahá'u'lláh and the Will and Testament as well as the Tablets of
the Divine Plan bequeathed by the Centre of His Covenant -- the three
Charters which have set in motion three distinct processes, the first
operating in the Holy Land for the development of the institutions of the
Faith at its World Centre and the other two, throughout the rest of the
Bahá'í world, for its propagation and the establishment of its
Administrative Order." These three processes, although distinct, are
closely interrelated. Developments at the World Centre of the Faith, the
heart and nerve-centre of the Administrative Order, must necessarily exert
a pronounced influence on the organic body of the worldwide Bahá'í
community, and be affected by its vitality. The Administrative Order may
best be viewed as the chief instrument for the prosecution of the Divine
Plan, while that Plan has become recognized as the most potent agency for
the development of the administrative structure of the Faith. It follows
that, for the sound and balanced growth of the Faith and the speedy
attainment of world Order, due attention must be paid to all three
processes. 

The construction work now in progress on Mount Carmel should be seen as a
major historic thrust in the development of the first of these three
mighty processes -- a process which was launched more than one hundred
years ago by Bahá'u'lláh Himself when He pitched His tent on this Holy
Mountain and revealed the Tablet described by the Guardian as "the Charter
of the World Spiritual and Administrative Centres of the Faith". The
unfoldment of this process has been distinguished by the interment of the
sacred remains of the Bab in the bosom of this mountain within a sanctuary
built by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, followed subsequently by the erection of the
superstructure of the Shrine of the Bab by Shoghi Effendi. When, in 1939,
the Guardian transferred the bodily remains of the brother and mother of
the Master to their final resting-place in the immediate vicinity of that
of the Greatest Holy Leaf, he described his action as one which
"incalculably reinforces the spiritual potencies of that consecrated Spot
which, under the wings of the Bab's overshadowing Sepulchre", is
designated to be the focal centre of these world-shaking, world-embracing,
world-directing administrative institutions which the followers of
Bahá'u'lláh are raising for the salvation of humanity and the fulfilment
of its glorious destiny.

Shortly before his passing, the Guardian completed the structure of the
International Bahá'í Archives, "the first stately Edifice destined to
usher in the establishment of the World Administrative Centre of the Faith
on Mount Carmel -- the Ark referred to by Bahá'u'lláh in the closing
passages of His Tablet of Carmel".

In more recent years the contributions of the believers around the world
permitted construction of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, the
second of the Edifices which Shoghi Effendi had envisaged as being located
on a far-flung arc, surrounding the resting-places of the members of the
Holy Family. This achievement opened the way for the announcement in 1987
of the project for erection of the remaining buildings of the World
Administrative Centre of the Faith and for the construction of the
eighteen monumental terraces contemplated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, below and above
the Shrine of the Bab. It signalled a major step toward the consummation
of the vision expressed

To all National Spiritual Assemblies    4 January
1994        Page 3

by the Guardian as "the splendour of the institutions which that
triumphant Faith must erect on the slopes of a mountain, destined to be so
linked with the city of 'Akka that a single grand metropolis will be
formed to enshrine the spiritual as well as the administrative seats of
the future Bahá'í Commonwealth". 

The Edifices and Terraces now under construction are a manifest expression
of the emergence from obscurity of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and of the
determining role it is ordained to play in the affairs of humankind. When
the buildings are completed, they will stand as the visible seat of mighty
institutions whose purpose is no other than the spiritualization of
humanity and the preservation of justice and unity throughout the world. 
The future significance of the Terraces is evident from their
characterization by Shoghi Effendi as "the Pathway of the Kings and Rulers
of the World". The beauty and magnificence of the Gardens and Terraces now
under development are symbolic of the nature of the transformation which
is destined to occur both within the hearts of the world's peoples and in
the physical environment of the planet.

The establishment of the World Administrative Centre of the Faith on Mount
Carmel at this juncture in the fortunes of mankind is essential to hasten
the accomplishment of God's purpose for humanity through the operation of
the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. The believers are called upon to sustain
this vast collective enterprise upon which the community of the Most Great
Name is now embarked, through a sacrificial outpouring of material
resources and through their dedication to the work of the Cause at this
time of unprecedented need and opportunity.

Mount Carmel was extolled by the prophet Isaiah almost three thousand
years ago, when he announced that "it shall come to pass in the last days,
that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of
the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall
flow unto it. Now, with the coming of the Lord of Hosts, His devoted
servants throughout the world have been summoned to the momentous
undertaking with which the fulfilment of this ancient promise is
associated. As they dedicate themselves to this mighty task, let them draw
inspiration from these Words of Bahá'u'lláh: "Carmel, in the Book of God,
hath been designated as the Hill of God, and His Vineyard. It is here
that, by the grace of the Lord of Revelation, the Tabernacle of Glory hath
been raised. Happy are they that attain thereunto; happy they that set
their faces towards it."

	With loving Bahá'í greetings,

cc: The Hands of the Cause of God
      International Teaching Centre
      Counsellors
-- Arc Project: 1994 Open Letter (Used by permission of the curator)