Fourteen Tablets revealed by 'Abdu'l-Baha during the First
World War, addressed to the Baha'is in North America and received by them in
1919, which Shoghi Effendi has called the 'mandate' and 'the supreme charter
for teaching'. They are addressed either to the Baha'is of the United States
and Canada as one body or to one of five regional areas of North America.
The 'mandate' was to carry the 'fame of the Cause of God' to
the East and to the West and to spread the Glad Tidings of the coming of
Baha'u'llah throughout the five continents of the world. In all, 'Abdu'l-Baha
mentioned some 120 territories and islands to which the message of Baha'u'llah
was to be carried.
The first eight Tablets were revealed between 26 March and
22 April 1916, and the final six between 2 February and 8 March 1917. Of the
first group, five Tablets reached America and were published in the 8 September
1916 issue of Star of the West. After that, communication with the Holy Land was
cut off and the rest of the Tablets remained in the vault under the Shrine of
the Báb until the end of the war. They were dispatched to America and unveiled
in a ceremony during the 'Convention of the Covenant' held at the Hotel McAlpin
in New York in April 1919.
An immediate response to the Tablets was made by Martha Root
who began her world travels, and by Mr. and Mrs. Hyde Dunn, who arose to move
to Australia. However, it was not until 1837 when Shoghi Effendi gave the
American believers the First Seven Year Plan that the Divine Plan began to be
generally implemented.
- Wendi Momen ('A
Basic Baha’i Dictionary')
