The Power of One Letter

دل گفت مرا علم لدنّی هوس است
تعليمم ده گر تو را دسترس است
گفتم که "الف" گفت دگر هيچ مگوی
در خانه اگر کس است يک حرف بس است

[my translation]

My heart hinted, "I desire eternal knowledge,
Teach me, if it's within your reach!"
No sooner than I said "A," did it say, "utter no more!"
In this abode, one letter shall suffice!

Imagine how one letter can be so powerful... I would like to share with you the Hidden Word by the Blessed Beauty that demonstrates the power of one letter, if it is uttered in the right context:

77. O SON OF JUSTICE!
In the night-season the beauty of the immortal Being hath repaired from the emerald height of fidelity unto the Sadratu'l-Muntahá, and wept with such a weeping that the concourse on high and the dwellers of the realms above wailed at His lamenting. Whereupon there was asked, Why the wailing and weeping? He made reply: As bidden I waited expectant upon the hill of faithfulness, yet inhaled not from them that dwell on earth the fragrance of fidelity. Then summoned to return I beheld, and lo! certain doves of holiness were sore tried within the claws of the dogs of earth. Thereupon the Maid of heaven hastened forth unveiled and resplendent from Her mystic mansion, and asked of their names, and all were told but one. And when urged, the first letter thereof was uttered, whereupon the dwellers of the celestial chambers rushed forth out of their habitation of glory. And whilst the second letter was pronounced they fell down, one and all, upon the dust. At that moment a voice was heard from the inmost shrine: "Thus far and no farther." Verily We bear witness to that which they have done and now are doing.

Cancun, Mexico

After much soul searching (and web searching) Shahrzad and I decided to spend our vacation in Cancun. We went to the Riu Palace Las Americas, which was quite a luxurious hotel with great views of the Caribbean Sea. The only problem: 20 MPH winds that kept us from sunbathing or enjoying the ocean. We shivered for many hours every day, because of the unremitting wind! On the plus side, the hotel was wonderful and the fine dining, the drinks, the one hour deep tissue massage, and the hot tub added much to the experience. So, Cancun gets one thumb up from us, just because of the weather!

Happy Birth of the Blessed Beauty

The Blessed Beauty wrote of the significance of this day as below:

"Verily I say, this is the Day in which mankind can behold the Face, and hear the Voice, of the Promised One."

This is the day that was promised in Isaiah 9:7-9:

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of [his] government and peace [there shall be] no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this."

Have a most glorious day! Above, is a picture of Bahji from Marco Abrar's bahaipictures.com website.

The Case Against Female Genital Mutilation

Today, a headline on CNN News caught my attention: "Dad guilty in first female circumcision trial in U.S." I read on to learn that an Ethiopian father had been on trial in Georgia, US, on charges of cruelty to a child, that is, his attempt at home to "circumcise" his two-year-old daughter with a pair of scissors at home. The daughter, now seven, recalls the painful experience.

This ancient African tradition of "female circumcision," more appropriately known as female genital mutilation (FGM), is widely practiced in Africa, and the World Health Organization has estimated that in 2003 alone 130,000,000 women and girls underwent the procedure, very often in non-sanitary settings. The procedure is hardly standardized and could range from removal of minimal tissue to complete mutilation of the female genitals.

Despite the headline's suggestion that this is the first FGM trial in the U.S., I would like to point out that in the mid 1990s, a 17 year-old Muslim woman from Togo who had fled her homeland in an attempt to escape her uncle's imposition to undergo FGM was imprisoned in Pennsylvania on immigration charges and baseless claims. She was awaiting deportation, when a Baha'i Lawyer and a personal friend, Layli Miller, took on her case on a pro bono basis and won on grounds of gender persecution. She was initially denied asylum, but combination of good legal work, the right connections and publicity led, first, to a parole for Ms. Kassindja, on 24 April 1996, and then, on 13 June 1996, to a complete reversal of the first judge's decision to deny asylum. Her name was Fauziya Kassindja and her story of courage and the sisterhood that ensued between Layli and Fauziya are described in a book by Layli Miller, "Do They Hear You When You Cry."

I believe that the attention this case brought to the American psyche in the past decade allowed the victory of the Ethiopian daughter against her father. This was not the first legal case involving FGM, and I am proud to say that Baha'i women are at the forefront of bringing attention to such injustices against women around the globe. Click http://www.atlantabahai.org/profile-miller-muro.php for more information about Layli Miller and her biography.