A Book Update

I am still reading Muhammad and the Course of Islam, but since it is such dense material I am taking my time.

I finished Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Tipping Point and I just finished reading Blink, Gladwell’s more recent book on the power of snap judgements. It is fascinating.

I borrowed Years of Silence: Baha’is in the USSR 1938-1946 last week, and finished it over the weekend.

Years of Silence presents the dramatic and harrowing story of the imprisonment, torture, and exile to Siberia of Russian Baha’is during the Second World War who refused to leave their pioneering posts regardless of the consequences.

“Indeed, when the human heart is bereft of the fear of God, it changes into a frightening and dangerous monster; for one who believes in the might and omniscience of the God who watches over us all and is aware of all of our doings, would never perpetrate such brutality and inequity towards other human beings and would never subject the servants of God, all of whom are the signs of divinity, to tyranny or maltreatment.”

My great-grandfather likely knew some of those Baha’is, since most of them were from Iran, and he had a import-export business. It was a very difficult book to read because it was so heart-rending, but I think it is important to read and understand these things about the history of the Faith, the things that normal human beings suffered.

Last night I started reading The World Order of Baha’u’llah, which are letters from Shoghi Effendi. Some people have a hard time reading Shoghi Effendi’s writing because he manages to put so much information in, but it is really great so far.