 Now, friends, a few months ago, in 22nd May in Holy Land, Haifa, we were in really part, we participated and we witnessed a magnificent historical period of our faith. It was so touching and special. I really think, I think that it was worth it all life to just witness this day whether through direct being there or through media that you saw all over the world. And it was so overwhelming because you could see the crystallization of the vision of Bahá'u'lláh right in front of your eyes. This display of this, whether through direct being there or through real display of unity of mankind, because I have been present in, I mean, in building of the United Nations or in dining room where you go there, you will see all different nationalities and countries that they sit on different tables and they eat together. But you see the tension, you feel the strange look of the people together. People of Israel received such an amazing shock because they saw that people from every color, every race, pink and purple and blue and yellow and white and black, is really with faces that you only can see in National Geographic. They are all here and they are sitting here and they are together and they love each other and without knowing each other, without, they hug each other and kiss each other and they are so much in love with each other and you could see all of this. And in fact, media all over the world, they interviewed these people and we had magnificent coverage in BBC, you have seen in all, in CNN, in, I don't mention the national media in Israel, five times they repeated full form of inauguration in prime time of the television of Israel as per request of the public. And it was so amazing, this real interest of the whole world media, almost half a million of some literature in Hebrew was published and was distributed as an attachment to a national newspaper in Israel. And it was so much loved and appreciated by the people, by the public that for the first time they recognized the status of the shrine of the Ba'ab. Always they had seen it, it has been there, but they called it, we call it Golden Temple, the Golden Dawn. They didn't think, they didn't realize, they didn't appreciate that this is the shrine of a prophet of God and it's really a spiritual center for so many people of the world and for the world. It was really amazing, the feeling of people and I could, I've got so much response from the non-Bahais and from our friends and from everyone that even my personal friends or doctors or people that they know me, they called me to say that what they have seen and they were amazed to see this. In fact my secretary is a, one of my secretaries is a Jewish Orthodox and she was telling her husband and herself they were invited to the event. She said the other night my husband had so many guests, Israeli guests and they were talking and he was telling them that look really it seems the Ba'ais, their idea is working. While we two nations together we can't see to each other eyes and we don't, you know, they are all of these nationalities, all of these people, they are together and they love each other and they work and this, their message works. How is that? We cannot come together and we cannot understand this. This is an Orthodox Jew that was so touched by this event, really it was amazing. For me to recall almost 15 years ago we were walking with the dear members of the, I accompanied dear distinguished, our hand of the cause of God, Ahmad al-Bahar al-Yiqanum and Mr. Furoutan and members of the House of Justice to the shrine of the Ba'ab to say prayers for the commencement of the Mont Carmel Project with the first phase of our projects. That day my heart was full of anxiety and my brain. I was so concerned with millions of unanswered questions in my mind and the whole nightmare ahead of us. No money, no permissions, no sanctions, no all of these problems and these difficulties and then we were going to pray and I was explaining the ideas of the different stages of the projects and why we have put different stages based on different problems that is ahead of us, seven major problems that we had and we tried to put like walls that you put in front of the runners that the first one is shorter and then bigger and bigger. It's all of these till we witnessed just a few weeks ago this event, it's really amazing. Really, I cannot understand the whole, I can't really think that how all of these things went so fast, so quick and so really excitingly. I had a friend, I have an Israeli architect friend that is helping me as our associate architect with sanctioned plans and negotiations and government things, permissions. He participated in this inauguration event and one day he told me, Mr. Saba, all of these years I was helping you in all of these projects and I accompanied you to this meeting and that meeting and negotiation and government and ministers and prime ministers. He said, I want you to know not once I believed that what you are talking is going to happen. He said, I did it because you have employed me, I'm a consultant, I'm doing, but I thought these are very strange things. It's so complicated, so difficult, it's not going to happen. Now look at this, all is done and really it's amazing. This is really, it's impossible for them to understand because of course they can't understand it because they don't have the vision of Bahá'u'lláh that Bahá'u'lláh has given to us. We are blessed, only people on earth to have received this vision and I really think that Bahá'u'lláh gave us a vision. Such magnificent, brilliant, colorful vision, but in order that his own hand is very clearly visible in this whole event, he chose the most limited, resourceless people like us to do it and he chose the most difficult place on earth, the most complicated place and most difficult period of time of history so that everything becomes so special and so unique and at the same time we got everything flowing so fast. In fact I remember once the mayor of Haifa told me that the citizens of Haifa are amazed of the progress of your projects, how these things goes on and he said look at our projects, this is mayor of Haifa, he doesn't need, we need his permission for every single thing but he doesn't need anybody's permission but really he said look at these developers, amazing the way that it goes, so clear and so now we have had, you know that this situation of Israel and the problems of the country right now, the war situation, the tension of the country really we don't have any contractor that is 10 years old in Israel, they get bankrupt. The nightmare of any project, those of you who are in building industry, they know that the nightmare of any client, any owner or any architect or engineer is if a contractor goes bankrupt during the construction period. We had three of them bankrupt at the time of this construction because of the, not because of us, because of the situation of the country, because of the difficulties of the country and the economy and labor problem and all the problems that exist. It's very tense, it has never been so tense. He started with first excavation that we were doing and Gulf War has started. He said Bahá'u'lláh wanted to be visible, very clear, everywhere, so this has happened and all of you in this period, we had to become contractor, it's our no contractor is going to be able to do this job. We divided our personnel to part, we said you are contractor, we are supervisors and we have to team, this is the way that we could finish this job but all of this complexity of these buildings, you saw it in details, all of those details, complicated details of, those are not, you know, a plasticine that you move it and like that, those are all marble and details and carved, everything, this mountain is 45 degrees slope, sometimes 60 degrees slope, the rocks are fragile and earthquake zone and fault on the area and tremendous difficulty. Labor problem in Israel, we are working in the country that really everybody is so tough, you know, that Israelis are tough in general but Israeli contractors are most difficult one and this is the most difficult time, so really it's a nightmare. I told to some of our friends that really it's, you know, our negotiations and everything should be so, it's so delicate, so really sophisticated. We have to do it in a way that people, you know, that it should be a give and take, you can't just, it's with such kind of tension and we believe me when we finish the project, when we complete the construction of the building of International Teaching Center in a function that we had, contractors were just, we made a goodbye party for our contractors. One of our contractors said, this is a shock to me, this is the first time in my life we finish a project, we have no claim, there is no dispute, there is no litigation, he says it's amazing. In fact you will see in this tape that was prepared the movie video called Not Even a Lamp, this has interviewed with some of those contractors and you can see the feeling of that but this is, so one way we had all of this difficulty, I talked about difficulties but I want to talk more about the blessings of Baha'u'llah and the supports and I don't want to call it miracles of Baha'u'llah. Dear Mr. Sample today, very beautifully mentioned that these are not miracles, we are not talking about miracles, we don't, the Baha'is are not supposed to talk about miracles but these are very simple things that happens in everyday life of every Baha'i, everything that we are doing, everything that you are doing in your country, anything that we are doing for the Baha'i faith, we see these miracles every minute and I have had this blessing to work for 25 years for the House of Justice and every day I swear to Baha'u'llah every day we have witnessed these miracles and it's so many and I can talk for five continuous day and give you stories and mention all of those things and you will be surprised of all of these events. I'll give you just, I want to share a few of these stories with you. First of all in my opinion the greatest miracle that has happened throughout these projects and the greatest proof for all the Baha'is to realize what is the wisdom of the House of Justice and to recognize this infallible institution. It's to think about this idea, I've traveled a lot during these periods visiting friends and Baha'is all over the world and quite often I have faced this question that Baha'is they ask, they were thinking that you know now at this period difficulty economy and lack of money and all of those things and problem in Iran and cut of all of the resources of the Baha'is in Iran and contribution from Iran and all of this why we have to start all of these projects together maybe we could do it one at a time maybe we could build the terraces first or arc first and then terraces or one after another why we have to put it together universal house of justice decided that this should be done together we at that time we didn't know the reason for this but today it has become so obvious friends it would have been absolutely impossible to build the buildings of the arc if the buildings of the terraces had not come in together with it because the buildings of the arc are private buildings for the Baha'is why people of Israel why people of Haifa should disturb their life and go through all of that tension and difficulties and all of that because Baha'is they want to build some buildings for themselves and change the town planning change the roads of the city change the whole zoning of the city all of that why they should have done it they would have objected they would have resisted we would have had enemies of the faith directly attacking the faith and it would have not been built believe me I swear to Baha'u'llah we could have not yet as on today even today we could have not commenced one of them because I know what are the problems what are the problems on the way but because the terraces are a magnificent garden it's an open to all the people the people are welcome to to that and it's so visible and it's so much on the one turn and it's a green long for the city of Haifa it's a tourist attraction for the city of Haifa's people are interested they supported it they came after today every research we told them that look all of our this development one kilometer development is open to public you are welcome to come there it's all for you here meanwhile we have built some buildings for our personnel staffers and this was so clearly understood I received I went on behalf of the Baha'i World Center I went to the House of President to receive an award for for the from the award is called realizing dream of beautiful Israel this is the name of the award I was receiving president of Israel openly said in the meeting he said all of these years whenever I flow with helicopter over Haifa I was amazed I said my god what is happening the whole mountain is gone wait there because believe me when we did the excavation the mountain was all chalk white nothing white and suddenly all the green there is nothing you see all of this but then now I realize how beautiful I'm so happy we are so obliged I have to visit myself all of these things so really this was this is one for us to realize and appreciate the real wisdom of the universal house of justice that is the cause of all our victories now the miracles and and supports and blessings of Bahá'u'lláh he says so clearly to us that all the conquerors on high are standing on the queue waiting to support you to support us we sometimes we think that this is because he was pleasure maybe this is a tariff it's not it's a statement of fact believe me conquerors on high are waiting on the line to support us and I want to tell you a few stories for example when when we started the when we wanted to we were going on with the our town planning scheme the zoning the plan the plan of city of Haifa that has been proposed and approved by the British mandate before establishment of Israel I said today to our Persian friends that the file that was given to me is older than myself it was open then I was not born by beloved guardian since that time there has been so much negotiation discussion these plans streets and traffic everything has been planned and they want to cut the properties to few several pieces run new roads new this is the plan and from that time and it's approved and beloved guardian objected to the plans we have it in the file and they answered and they rejected the objection they said sorry as much as we appreciate and the recognize your situation and your position but these are requirements of the city should be done now house of justice decides without nothing has changed the files are the same money does not exist all of those things are not house of justice announced to the high world that the path of the kings and rulers of the world and the buildings of the ark is to commence as if as if the Baha'is are the only concern party in hold this affair what about all of these governments and departments and the people house of justice have announced to the world you didn't know any one of those problems and we went I went there and I said my god what we are going to do with all of these problems this is what we have to do now the minute we we propose that we have to change all of these things we want to cancel the main roads we want to lower the only road that exists by five meters all of those crazy ideas we put it on plan we gave it to them and now after going to nightmares of negotiation I can talk to you with 50 stories beautiful stories about these these negotiations but now after it was approved and it was finished they are you are supposed to publish it in Gazette and national newspaper for the public to object when we did the first time the first the the Mac Gazette the official Gazette of the government came out today tomorrow I was informed that the municipality of Haifa received an official object objection from the main office main departments of the government of Israel in charge of the properties of Israel claiming that the main part the main parcel the may one of the main parcels that touches all nine terraces above the shrine of the Baha'is as well as the building of the center of the study of the text and archives extension belongs to the government and not to the Baha'is and now the reason is very complicated I don't want to go to detail because of the absentee properties because the owner of the land was a Persian Baha'i with Arabic name he left the Israel at the time of establishment of Israel because at that time Baha'is were asked by the beloved guardian to leave Israel so at that time he left and because of that he was considered absentee and the property was taken over by the government so they are the claim that they are the owner of this land when I got this letter my friend the same fellow that said I never believed in what you said he told me that you are in serious trouble because this is this government this when the government you have dispute with the government on ownership it's a matter that will go to court and it's a matter that will take 15 years so now relax you have 15 years time I said my god we have dates deadlines I cannot even talk about these things to the House of Justice how I can go there and say sorry your plan is he said we have to go and meet we decided I said we have to go and meet this department who is in charge they said there is a lady architect she is architect and she is representative of this the one the main town planner of the government and she will be so I called this lady office and I tried to get an appointment and one telephone two telephone today tomorrow they said she's not in she's not in she's not in then they told me she's out of the country she will come god no call me later on call me finally they said she will come in 10 days she will come back so I said please give me an appointment and I got an appointment now after after a few days that she had returned we went with our friend to the same architect friend that I said to their office to see to see them and in fact there was no she came to the meeting she came to the meeting with about four five lawyers they said all of them very serious gentlemen they sat there and I had gone with no one I knew that no lawyer can help me in this kind of case we don't have a case so we just when I went there to see my what I just wanted to measure the depth of the water see what what is our problem she came in and she said she sat and she said first she started she said I apologize I understand it's long time you are trying to get appointment from me I was out of the country and I was traveling and this and that then she said you know I just I was in India and she said you you have a beautiful temple there have you seen that temple she said oh I was really impressed and this and that she was I said yes yes I know that temple I was there for so many years I said I said I'm the architect of that temple she said what really I can't then she said or I showed her the book some books that I had in my bag and I she said oh really then she said well now she really got confused and she was then she said what can I do for you why you have come here I said you have we are building we are this we have designed such kind of project and this and that and you your office have objected to these plans and it is received I wanted to discuss with you and see what how I can do this how we can solve this problem she said are you going to build a beautiful building like that temple here I said it's going to be more beautiful I said she said you know if you are going to build such a building we should not stand on your way please wait I will go and talk to our chairman so she went for 15 days we sat there and we talked and we joked with these lawyers about the climate weather I said all of that she came back she came back and she said she said you know our chairman agreed that we will remain silent on this case I said is there anything I have to do you want me to she said no we will write a letter to municipality we draw our objection that's it next day municipality received this letter and all they were shocked they said what happened how this happened but friends you think about it who sent this lady to India among all of these places just really why why she should go to India why architect of this project and that project should be me I mean should have been one because why she should have visited the temple but all of these wise makes you crazy if you think too much about it but this isn't now another case exactly on this line I will tell you behind we wanted now after our plans are approved we want to do all of this nightmare we want to lower the main street of the city and you don't know you don't want to know what is under a street street is alive there are hundreds of thousands of telephone lines cable electronic fiber optics electrical lines sewer lines water lines I don't know you name it there are many many storm water drinking water and all of this should be changed and you can't disturb the life of the people you can't cut the water of half of the city and say it should be you have to build a new system and just switch over just one click you have to go to the new system this is what you have to do and it's so crazy there are so many beautiful stories about this particular project but I just I want to tell you about now when we had a consultant and in fact our electrical consultant and this project was our dear Mr. Banani that is here and he was a real source of inspiration and help and support to me all these years but we had a local electrical consultant that was helping us with this negotiation with about electrical things and telephone things he was with me he came to me and he said Mr. Sabah yesterday everybody knew that in Israel up to a few years ago maybe less than two years ago we had monopoly on telephone system this was only one government organization in charge of telephone so there is no competition if they say something you are stuck with it and everybody knew even the all of the municipality of Haifa and there is a government if they have a problem with the telephone department they know that they are stuck because there is no other option you have to just listen to what they say now this engineer told me that Mr. Sabah went there and I talked to him and this gentleman this fellow there was a manager in this department that everybody knew that he's a very tough guy and no nonsense you can't argue with him just he said something and that's it now he said I went there and this man started shouting at me and he said are you crazy what is this you want you want to lower change all of these lines in telephones this and forget about it we can't we don't have time to give the people to repair their system and all of that now you want me to change the entire city system and all of that we don't have time we can't do it so she stood up so I came on I don't know what to do there is no way I'm sorry this fellow is a very tough guy there is no bargaining with him whatever I tried to so he said I will not go back no use I said okay let's we go together I come with you we go together he said you are going to be just insulted and nothing is going to happen I said but I don't have any choice I have to go because we can't go to the house of justice and say sorry we cannot do it it's not possible you have to do it so he said okay you want to be insulted let's go we went to this office of this gentleman we entered to the office believe me first of all you have no appointment you have to go and queue wait sometimes they will if you're lucky you will have time you will go in so we went and waited and waited and finally our time we went in we went in and this gentleman we went in my friend started everything just I said good morning as I said hello and good morning I came in he started shouting at the loudest voice that one could hear you can imagine to my friend as I'm not existing he was talking to this to my friend in Hebrew and I could understand I can't speak Hebrew but I can understand I tell to my Israeli friends if you talk about me I can understand so it's because they were talking about me I could understand he said he said he was telling him that these foreigners they come to this country they make our life miserable they want to change all of these things and they don't have courtesy even to learn our language so why he speaks English now the situation was so tense my friend was black and white and red and was changing and he was you know he was playing with his glasses and he was looking at me telling me that I told you why you came here and he is shouting and shouting and shouting now I became so I was really lost I didn't know what to do I didn't have anything I was thinking and believe me I I didn't think I just I thought as if somebody put my hand in my pocket I the only thing that I had with me was my wallet and I took my wallet out I had small calendar that Baha'i calendar with picture of the temple of India in one side and it just daily I mean calendar Baha'i calendars I had there I took this believe me later on I'm explaining it the way that I I didn't know why I took it out I I didn't have any plan but I took because he was shouting and I was really nervous I'm not used to shout to be shouted at I shout I am so he I took this picture out and I just put it on the table like this very in a nervous way I put it on the table he just suddenly stopped stopped shouting he looked at that and he said what is it Mazat in Hebrew he said Mazat what is this I told him that I am architect I travel from one country to another country and I built buildings I was in India for eight years and I built this building I have been in this country that country now I am in Israel and I'm building a building if I wanted to learn language by now I was a professor in language but I had not built any building I just concentrate in what I'm doing I can't learn language wherever I go if I start learning language this building will take 10 more years so I have to do it I have to concentrate on this he all in English I said quick like this he understood very well he could understand English very well but he was just on bad mood especially he knew that what we want to ask him that's a nasty thing we wanted to ask him for changing all of these things now then suddenly he said do you have poster of this picture the situation changed completely he said I said of course yes yes I have posters book everything you want as soon as I go I go to my office I can send you he said yes I've seen this in television I was interested to see it's very complicated and this and that then he then he said to my friend in Hebrew that you go I will think about what you are asking and I will inform you we came out my friend said how you thought about this I said believe me I didn't think about it I didn't think I couldn't think it was just the only thing I had I said he said he said that was really very very clever of you you did this change the situation I couldn't believe it anyhow we never heard back from this gentleman he never called us but in a week time they started executing our request our plans the way that we have they moved and we had such wonderful relation with this organization and they support us and helped us throughout these years and once even mayor of Haifa told me that I've heard you have a very good influence in our telephone department and I didn't tell him which kind of influence we have yes yes I had we had another magnificent memory that I have is from when I show you these power points you will see the from the time of Abdul Bahá from the time of beloved guardian there was a property at the foot of our mountain that belonged to an Arab Israeli and in fact in an interview with television with a newspaper in Israel he said over my dead body Bahá'is will get this land I'm not going to give this land and it has been we have been century here and there all of those things and this building was the last wall that I was telling you about the running jumping over the walls this was our last phase phase seven we had built all the low terraces below the shrine of the Bab two two terraces terrace one and two remained because this building is sitting on it right now and the Bahá'is of the world are going to come at the end of the century sit there and sir and this building is standing there and all of our negotiation years of negotiation we have done we had nightmares with this negotiation and and really there was no use so I remember once at the end of this it was about just few years ago before passing of Ahmad al-Bahárui Khanum she was not she was her health was very weak but one evening we I was at his at her presence and we had dinner somewhere and I took the opportunity and I told Khanum I want to request your help and guidance and something I said this property this is the situation with this property and we have reached to the end of the line if we do not buy this land in three months and demolish it and do something about it we will never be able to finish our projects on time because the deadlines are closed and we need at least two three years for this construction and it's very complicated and now the deadline please pray for us Khanum was very interested and told me that I didn't notice this is very serious how you're going to do it and then she said from tonight I promise you every night before I go to bed I'm going to say a prayer for this problem to be resolved in a matter of a month from that day we the problem resolved and we bought that land we that that property and we we started immediately demolished the building and we demolished the building in all of these buildings in one day in fact in one day we demolished six buildings in once I remember I once mayor of Haifa told me in a meeting he said now we know if you want to demolish something who we should call because because we demolished them so so fast and this was really Khanum had such a really gracious attention to the projects and always whenever I met her she told me that you know from window of my bedroom I'm supervising your work I see this and she was so constantly I received so many beautiful notes encouraging notes loving notes from Khanum often through this project beautiful notes like for example the day that we planted two we had brought we cultivated two orange trees from the orange tree of the of the house of the Bob the one that was destroyed and it was my I wanted to to put it right at the at the foot at the first terrace below the shrine of the Bob we wanted to put two of these orange trees right in front of the shrine of the Bob and so we called lots of difficulties with problems and all of that we brought and we found and it took so so many years to develop it and finally it reached to the height of two of them beautifully reached to the height of a man and then we we moved it to the terrace number nine and we planted there now you can see if you come down the shrine of the Bob on both sides there are these two orange trees beautiful full of fruit and blossom and beautiful this way so I would send the note because Khanum was not well those days and I thought it's something that makes her happy so I sent her a note that Khanum today this happened and we brought this she replied immediately she replied that what could be more one might say romantic in true sense of the world of the world than this in true sense of the world than this this is just the sort of things that should happen this was on July 1998 it was really I have so many we don't have time otherwise I would have read some other notes of Khanum which is really beautiful and in any case we could see the hand of Bahá'u'lláh in the protection that was all of these years with us on the shrine on this whole mountain excavation that we did on these buildings and the mountain it was so dangerous several time our contractor wrote to us official letters that I am doing this work but I don't accept responsibility because it's so dangerous and we were really you know all of this mountain you are if one stone rolls down we come right to the street and hit the cars because you have and we have so many trucks you can see in this film that is made trucks rolling down the bulldozers really the huge monster excavators rolling down because losing their control over the mountain it was so difficult and excavating right two meters to the archives building you know you are excavating rock this building is so fragile so sensitive you have to work so carefully all of these things but all of these years we received real all of our contractors talk about it that we are protected by the shrine because nothing always we were protected so many accidents of course we had tremendous measures safety measures that we have taken and constantly we were watching and supervising and trying to avoid but whatever we did still there were accidents but always protected and no serious injury occurred and our contractors were openly talking that this is protection that we have received from Bahá'u'llh from the shrine of the Bob in fact one accident that happened which was amazing and really it's a miracle if I explain to you there is a video record of that in fact I don't have time to tell you but when I reached to the scene of accident I saw our own contractor Israeli contractor a Jewish engineer was telling the same engineer that is interviewed in this film was telling to our to his friend to his the police man and other Israelis that they were there he said only the man that could stand in front of 750 bullets and don't get hurt only he could protect such an accident this is what he was telling it's amazing really we had also the very beautiful thing that we had was this feeling of the the spiritual atmosphere of the shrine the spirit of the work the spirit of the Baha'is and non-Baha'is that they work here their devotion and their sincerity toward the project touch the heart of the contractors you can see again in this movie in the interviews that they're doing what kind of feeling the contractors were talking whether Jew or Arab they're interviewed in these different people like that and they were really always touched and they mentioned these things I remember as one example maybe if you have been pilgrims I have told these stories to pilgrims I apologize if you you hear it for the second time but it's beautiful it's a we had one for in one of the Baha'i holidays it was on Saturday Saturday is Shabbat in Israel and nobody works so we I had planned to finish one phase of our project and open it to the Baha'i staff because you know and during the Baha'i holidays Amatul Bahar Uyghano members of the House of Justice and the staff they and pilgrims that they are there they come they walked down from the seat of the House of Justice the circumambulated shrine so I thought during this event we open one phase of the project and it will be exciting for this for everybody and to see something new so we work this was used also as a deadline for our team and the staff to work harder so they we put this deadline and everybody worked very hard to this Friday afternoon we finished we wrap up everything and went home so for Saturday we are prepared Saturday morning very early morning I decided to go to see if everything is all right and we have not left some bits and pieces or details and as I entered to the area of the shrine I saw our Jewish contractor that was the head of the workers there is standing there and the shrine level and so I was surprised what he's doing during Shabbat nobody nobody's sleeping this time early morning why he's here I went to him and I said hello what are you doing here surprised what are you doing during Shabbat he said all these days when we were working here I felt extraordinary power he said I thought that maybe this is because the power because of the force that is created by the work you know that when everybody's running and moving and shouting and serious there is a force that is created he said I thought maybe this is the force that I feel maybe so I decided to come here when nobody is here to see if I can feel the power and then he said do you feel it but so beautiful because really this is a contractor that doesn't know these kind of things they don't have they're working just for under tough condition for for work for money they don't care if you built a casino or we built anything else but really it was not that case they all felt that way now during the day that we were and this during the events and program when beautiful tablet of Carmel was being with music and was played and you could see also then this magnificent tablet of beloved guardian upon the oh queen of Carmel be the purest the most tender salutation you know that he was so excited when the shrine was completed and he wrote this message to the Baha'is of the world so inspiring and it was set in music and all of that it was mentioned it was so really inspiring I thought that they looking sitting there and looking at all of these people masses of humanity faces of humanity that are sitting there and all the televisions of the world focusing on them and watching them at the foot of the shrine of the Bob and the lights and the play of light display of light that suddenly you know that small like an arrow that hit the shrine and then shrine became bright and then the light moved from the shrine to all the terraces and came down to the people at that moment I was really thinking and remembering the day of the martyrdom of the pub in barracks of Tabriz and I was thinking that you know all of those thousands of people sitting and standing on the roof of the barrack watching this view and the time that beloved Bob stood there and it said to them you know that just only an east standing in front of him protecting his body with his body of the Bob with his own body and at that time Bob told them that had you believed in me every one of you would have followed the example of this youth who stood in rank above most of you and would have willingly sacrificed himself in my path then he said the day will come when you will you will have recognized me but that day I shall have seized to be with you I thought this is that day people are sitting the whole humanity is begging the forgiveness of the Bob and such magnificent really display of this this is for the first time people of the world they play the homage that they should have played all of these all of these years and that day you know when the the bullets were shot and in Tabriz and the smoke cleared that day the tremendous dust and the whole the storm started and the whole city was black for so many years the light really left this world in a way and really I thought this day with all the lights that comes on this mountain and the flood of lights the way that Bahá'u'lláh said the way that Abdul-Bahá said terraces of lights lights upon lights Tab'gá'u'lláh and Men'an Nur Nur and Ala'unour really all of this light I felt that the light is now returning to this world because the world recognizes that day I remember that day all this quotation this piece of in fact I shared it with our friends during that the same event I said that I remember this magnificent message of the of the beloved guardian that he wrote with very heavy heart at the certainly at the event and the heart of the difficulties that was at that time in the Bahá'u'lláh world and then he wrote to the people of the world said oh people of the earth you know you with absolute certainty oh people of the earth know you with absolute certainty and let every wavering and hesitant soul be apprised and take warning that whatsoever has explicitly been revealed by the all glorious men will eventually become clear and evident even as the sun in its non-tide glory in this snow-white spot and in other lands the immutable wheel of him who has stretched out the earth and raised up the heavens shall be fulfilled the cherished desire of longing hearts will emerge from behind a myriad wail into the realm of existence and the highest aspiration of the people of Bahá'u'lláh will be fully perfectly and conclusively realized this is that which our lord has promised us both openly and privately and indeed this is a promise that will not prove untrue therefore it besiems you to arise and exclaim oh conquerors of the earth die in your wrath earlong will the stand standard of his fate be hoisted in every city shedding radiance upon all regions in persian i would love to read this because it's so strong i think our persian friends should understand it and feel it that way now i want to show you i check my time yes i want to show you these power points things and i want to talk to you about dear mr. Amanat spoke in detail about the concept of the design of the ark and everything and construction of that is too technical i don't want to talk about the construction and problems of that i just talked in principle about the spirit of those problems but we should not talk about problems because Bahá'u'lláh has supported us so much we should not mention so i don't want to talk about it but i will i want to talk to you about concepts of detail and design of the whole terraces as well as show you the whole complex of the terraces and the ark together so that you see the harmony of that i have been asked by many of our friends during these periods that what is this inspiration of the design what is the concept of the design how you have what you have talked about that i would say my the first really let us start these slides the remembrance of god and his praise and the glory of god and his splendor rest upon the odáu who are his beauty i bear witness that the eye of creation had never gazed upon one wrong like the dáu was immersed all the days of thy life beneath an ocean of tribulation really the most inspiring concept of in spirit i requested all the lights be as dim as possible even if the light on me could be dim because we can from now we focus on this this is the prison of maku you see how how look at this you can see this is the this is the fort and you see how it is in this really this part of the mountain is deep into the mountain carved in everywhere it's surrounded by rocks beloved bob himself in a in a prayer he wrote he said dáu has watched over me in the heart of this mountain where i am compassed by mountains on all sides one hanged above me other stand on my right and my left and yet another rise it in front of me glory beyond to the no god is there but the how often have i seen rocks from the mountain heartling down upon me see this is the place so you can now see the rocks how the rocks would come down from the top and then he says i swear by the glory by thy glory to me the prison had proved to be not but the most delightful garden of paradise and had served as the noblest spot in the realm above so this is really the concept of this mountain turning to a heavenly paradise this is really the essence of this design this is the inspiration of the design that's why i have this picture in my room in my office and whenever i look at this if for every for one million time it touches your heart so dearly you look at this dark and black and white prison the fortress when bob said i didn't have even one lamp this is from inside the prison outside everywhere rocks and bahá'u'lláh on the way to this prison prison of akká when he you know that he visited during that period he visited three occasions visited Haifa and then in that he really revealed his vision of of month carmel and what we have now this is funeral of abdulbahá abdulbahá himself is buried in that shrine and people of Haifa many of the Arabs they can they call um shrine of the Bab Qubbat al-Abbas they think this is the shrine of the of the abdulbahá and because of that and then the shrine developed gradually you can see how this is the shrine of the Bab built by abdulbahá on this mountain look at this mountain now it doesn't look like pat of the kings of the rulers of the world this was vision of abdulbahá that day looking at this mountain he spoke about the the pat of the kings and rulers of the world and bahá'u'lláh looking at this mountain look at you can see those cypress trees behind the shrine you can see these cypress trees this is where Bahá'u'lláh sat and between those cypress trees and he um spoke about the his this vision that he had about this mountain and then gradually changed you see here it's time of it's 1950s where beloved guardian started the construction of the um shrine you can see this one now is in 1960s when the and then later on this is where you can see this building here oh i didn't show you the previous one this is the building i'm talking about it right at the foot of the shrine now this is the pat of the kings of the rulers of the world it's really and believe me friends i have been blessed i have accompanied rulers of the world already we had just in an event recently we a few it's maybe about a year ago we had almost 250 of the rulers of the world together they visited these shrines and they were so impressed they were so moved they said this should be the garden of paradise many of the ministers from the arabian countries participated many of the ministers of the muslim countries participated and i talked to them about these projects and i showed them and i we accompanied them on these terraces and hundred of our volunteers youth bahais from all over the world beautiful faces beautiful dresses with their badges showing from which country they come they were there to come to welcome these people and they were all amazed that these are so many countries of the world bahais are there i mentioned today that one of the ministers of africa among our volunteers found one of his own relatives now this is the vision of bahá'u'lláh the way that these are those same trees and this is german colony now restored and you can see the shrine from the centerline here and i mentioned that how with the help of the government we were able to establish continue because the pat of the kings starts from the sea to the shaman and not just from the bahá'u'lláh and from beginning of the bahá'u'lláh property to end of the bahá'u'lláh property the way that abdul bahá said and now with really blessings of bahá'u'lláh with the help of the government with the money of the government the entire german colony have been restored to exactly the way that beloved abdul bahá told us now the concepts of the design the most another major inspiration of the design is the architecture of the shrine of the bahá'u'lláh itself the it's such a unique building it's such a magnificent building it's a boldest combination of the modern and classic architecture it's the boldest combination of the architecture of east and the west certainly heaven i mean really divinely inspired and directed by beloved guardian by mr maxwell and certainly very very special and very unique i've seen so many buildings on in the world and believe me friends i talk as an architect hardly any building can touch your heart that much it's so bold it's so it's you can see that certainly you can see the arches and windows that they are all very much maybe indian architecture you can see the dome is european and the very much maybe christian and you can see the the combination of every same bold combination of the east and west has been used in the the design of the terraces and you can see here how really these things i will discuss it when we come to the main subject but every design every element all of these balustra these columns these motifs have been designed in a way in harmony with the shrine of the barb in a way it repeats some of the symbols and motifs and ornaments of the shrine of the barb but the terraces are supposed to enhance the shrine provide a setting for the shrine like a beautiful ring that provides a magnificent setting for a jewel for a diamond shrine is a diamond and unless a diamond is set if they give me a piece of diamond we i'm not an expert i will not recognize the difference between a diamond and a gold and and a piece of glass but if you set it in a beautiful setting of a beautiful ring then put it on on a magnificent box and well-wet cloth and crystal lights on that then the value of this diamond will become obvious and visible this is what we try to do for the shrine because of that the terraces and the everything designed here in this mountain is in a way is attracting you directly you toward the shrine inspiring uh uh following the same same patterns look at the way that the trees and the buildings are really you know they're they are nature and the architecture are working together these terraces are mixture of gardens of east and west as you walk on these terraces the fragrance of orange blossom and cypress trees reminds you of the of the beautiful gardens of Shiraz the birthplace of the bob and the gardens of iran the geometry and symmetry of the gardens of ancient gardens of kashmir mughal gardens of kashmir and uh some of these are computer drawings that now I just want to show you how the design and the the design and actual buildings are you know combined they repeat each other so between my slides you will find many computer images that was prepared to show the spirit of that to the house of justice or to those that they would the government departments gardens of the west again you will see this is a computer and um uh you can see the geometry patterns ornaments colors remind you of many of them of english gardens of european gardens the whole um spirit and colors all of these is supposed to pay tribute to the shrine of the bob uh and and in a way prepare you for prepare a pilgrim for this spiritual encounter for going to the presence of the bob this is from the tablet of visitation waft then unto me oh my god and my beloved from the right hand of thy mercy and thy loving kindness the holy breath of thy favors that die that they may draw me away from myself and from the world unto the courts of thy nearness and thy presence this the function of these terraces is also the same thing to to to take you out of yourself to take the visit the pilgrim out of himself but and really open that spiritual feeling that spiritual spirit that is needed for reaching to the shrine of the bob the whole the whole concept is concept of patterns and geometry and and uh the lights and everything that i'm going to show you all together they're going to remind to bring us to this spiritual everything is supposed to focus your attention toward the shrine the terraces are like brackets that they they really embrace the shrine they direct you your eyes to the shrine all the geometry and patterns are in a way in in harmony with in a way they're in agreement with the pilgrim that is going up the shrine there is no argument you have to you you you feel that these lines are coming with you even the water is you can count both side the water that follows you is counting your steps toward the shrine and then prepares you for reaching to this magnificent spot of the shrine lights during the day and the night are major factor of the design the light during the day here is really emphasized and measured by emerald green alive surfaces parallel and geometrical surfaces of emerald green like mirrors that they reflect the lights during the day and in contrast with cold dark green of cypress trees and silver gray green of olive trees really you see the magnificent display of green that is the color of the bob and the display of colors this is major to see the really the value of colors and brilliance of lights the architecture everywhere is in in a way is framing your your eyes the lights and emphasize an importance of the light everywhere you see this i was talking about those parallel surfaces that they like mirror they reflect the green emerald green light like a and at night the same spirit is reflected with the lights again and lights is supposed to to give you that the same feeling same rhythm same geometry that is direction toward the shrine see everything is just like a arrow toward the shrine you don't have any choice but to go to the shrine here water is another important element of this the behavior of water the color the crystal peaceful song of of the the music of water attracts the birds and the birds singing and together with water completely camouflage the the the traffic of the city the noise of the city this is again a computer design and this is itself there are enormous number of fountains all around and very complex complicated geometry of the water as you go everywhere you go water follows you and comes with you like a river of life coming from the place of lamb as mentioned in the bible computer images as you see the channel of water that follows everywhere you see it's starting from here have a fountain you go then water comes down with you it goes not counts all the steps and comes to this fountain and then it goes and continue all around although the water is recycled constantly because we have been very concerned about the water consumption how to use how to work on this it's a beautiful the most sophisticated ways of water consumption conservation right now as you know israel is in a very major water problem and this was a subject of lots of discussion in press and in fact one of the most important israeli newspapers newspapers because they wanted the government they wanted to cut the water from all the parks and gardens and one of the newspapers printed the beautiful aerial photograph of the whole terraces and with computer graphic they dried half of it so that it was and then they said do you want this to happen it was we didn't do a word you know this was just the public the people like this was so very beautiful that computer drawing of just to see this complex of details and corners of ornaments that you see here it's very complicated again is computer this is the central the main entrance plaza fountain this is the computer drawing the concept is that the green grass goes into the green water that this is a granite from india green granite deep green and so the water the green grass goes to green water and then becomes like a mirror reflects the shrine you can see the shrine in this water and then this water at the center it's really like the the famous gardens of you can see this crystal clear water of fountains that it creates the water creates when it's so clear and crystal and peaceful it really adds to that spirit colors are major of course the color is display of light so we talked about lights but still in image the gardens are designed to have colors every season a special color we have purple season where we have purple and convolveless with purple jacaranda trees and then you have see the display of purple and matching colors with purple yellow season red season stone stone is a major item huge kilometers three almost three kilometers of only a stone for a staircase is have been carved worked almost over a period of really 12 years this stone have been carved worked constantly tremendous number of details of the stone you can see here display of this is the whole this is the entrance that you see this is a promenade belonging to the government and then from here you enter you go to a tunnel and you come out from here so you cross the street without noticing it and then you come here and then you come down and you go one kilometer to the terraces and this this promenade is about one kilometer then you go to the terraces one kilometer and then you go to german colony one kilometer three kilometer this walking for visitors and for for people already we have tremendous planning and work on bringing welcoming the public because it was a major issue the public are now coming with organized tours non-bahai volunteer sorry the part-time students that they work and they are employed by the Bahá'í World Center are trained to brief the people in Hebrew they welcome them they brief them they give them beautiful description of what is the shrine all of this they come and they visit in a very organized disciplined way and then they go you can see the detail of ornaments and magnificent views of the terraces to the to the arc that we never had before this is archives you have this is a new perspective that we have this is the entrance to our public information we have made a beautiful information center under terrace 11 for the VIPs and non-visitors to come details of a stone ornaments are another magnificent if you have display ornaments and gates and time as I hear my wife is my has been my main my right hand and my main partner in designing these ornaments and working together on all of these we have been all of these years it is enormous thousands of drawings it's the amount of drawings and the details are in a way but you know attention to detail and perfection in everything is something that touches the heart of the visitors because they want to know why so much attention to these details and I talk to our non-Bahá'í friends often I've said to them that you know although this people this place are attraction to all of the tourists and I'm so we are so happy that millions of people and thousands of people come in fact in one day we had 15 days 15 000 visitors but we tell them I tell them that even if not one would have visited the shrine Baha'is of the world would have done same amount of work and same sacrifices to have this because we do this as a matter of respect to the shrine not for a tourist attraction so many gates and ornaments and details now you look at the uh in attention to details I said really it's magnificent because attention for us it shows our respect and I I tell them that no matter what we have done we are not at all satisfied we don't think that we think we should have done 10 times more 100 times more even if you would have done 100 times more Baha'is were not satisfied we should have done more for this shrine and this magnificent spot on earth it should be the most beautiful spot on earth harmony with the city is a major factor because you are building such a dramatic work at the center of the city you should respect the city you have to look at the way this is the road this road is the one that was lowered you know it was almost at the level of this bridge at this bridge and now it has gone down and you see the way that gardens are continuing when you are in the garden you don't at all feel that you are crossing the street and all of that look at the the way that the the same red pattern of the tiles of the roof of the buildings of german colony comes to the terraces and comes to the level of the shrine these are computer geometry drawings that shows how the the main concept of the terraces is that terraces are concave they are inside the mountain if we would have come we wanted to build the terraces above the mountain we would have covered the whole mountain with huge retaining walls and big walls and it would have taken from beauty beauty of the shrine this is a computer drawing of the of the bridge over above the street and this is the bridge of the construction this is that see how the street is crossed people go from here to the shrine and they don't at all feel harmony with the mountain is another important thing this is the fact this is the way i said you see look at the minimum walls that are are built if you wanted to if you would have built it above the mountain all of these would have been walls heavy walls this is the way that everything you see it's concave and the steep slopes think about the maintenance of these we have them we have trained a magnificent team of maintenance during construction and all of these to so that they can continue with the work and there will be continuity all of these then together is supposed to create this that spiritual gardens because the house of justice clearly said in that message that the future significant 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 are symbolic of the nature of the transformation which is destined to occur both within the hearts of the world's people and in the physical environment of the planet this was uh the message of the house of justice in 1994 it's not something new this is the spirit that this so really this spirit should be conveyed to the people i told our in our interviews with television to israeli i told them that in my if the people that they come to these gardens after they visit the gardens they feel the world is a better place they feel more hopeful they feel more they feel this beauty the way that when you hear a beautiful piece of music you feel better it's get excited you want to tell to your mother that i love you because your exterior your feeling your your excitements have been they want me to speak to the microphone but i want to see the pictures that's why so this is the these are really the main essence is the to have the spiritual gardens that's why it's important now here is when in tablet of visitation bahá'u'lláh is talking about how blessed are those that they circumambulated the shrine and come to pay homage to the shrine this is where you see the homage to the shrine and people of the world really this is where house of justice talks about the edifices and the terraces are a magnificent manifest expression of the emergence from obscurity of the fate of bahá'u'lláh and of the determined role it is ordained to play in the affair of humankind now look at the whole project together together with the buildings of the ark and look at the the dimension of the work that we have done here at the time of construction i remember the project manager of the sears tower of chicago visited of our projects he's jiu and he came and to visit israel and he came there after visiting everything he said i don't know it looks to me illogical to start all of these things together such tense area no logistic i mean with difficulty in logistic and access and everything i don't know how he said i don't know how you dare to commence all of these together like this work i didn't tell him that nothing that bahá'u'lláh is are doing is logical think about it really what is more illogical than the unity of mankind but bahá'u'lláh is are working on it they are killing themselves and they are they are demonstrating right now to the eyes of these people that it is possible seat of the house of justice here now look at the quality of the work done in the buildings that we have built here is by comment of most of the visitors that they have seen all of them it's the real the highest quality that one could achieve you don't know how many times i have asked our gardeners to remove all the flowers if they were not all in one line with the same distances and measured if all of them are not same distance and and in order and they show the love of the gardener to who planted we have removed it now that's why you see this order this this is really the bahá'u'lláh order anyhow thank you so much that was all