Call to the Nations
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Shoghi Effendi, Call to the Nations, bahai-library.com.
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CALL TO THE
NATIONS

Extracts from the writings of

SHOGHI EFFENDI

Well is it with him who fixeth
his gaze upon the Order
of Bahá’u’lláh … The Báb

BAHÁ’Í WORLD CENTRE
© Universal House of Justice 1977
Copyright under the Berne Convention

ISBN 0 85398 o68 3 (cased)
ISBN 0 85398 069 1 (paper)

Printed in Great Britain
by W & J Mackay Limited, Chatham
in 13 Pt Bembo type 1 Pt leaded
“It is towards this goal—the goal of a new World Order, Divine in
origin, all-embracing in scope, equitable in principle, challenging
in its features—that a harassed humanity must strive.
Foreword

Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, exercising his function
of interpreting the Bahá’í Revelation, dwelt at great length and with
considerable emphasis on the world order enshrined within that Revelation.
Early in his ministry, which initiated the Formative Age of the Faith, he
alluded to “those priceless elements of that Divine Civilization, the
establishment of which is the primary mission of the Bahá’í Faith”, and
over the years he indited a series of letters, generally referred to as his
World Order letters, unfolding this theme.

The vital necessity of world order is largely acknowledged today but
the means to achieve it baffle even its most passionate advocates.
Meanwhile the process of disintegration continues unchecked and
mankind’s condition approaches the stage of despair. At this critical
juncture the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of
the Bahá’í Faith, feels moved to proclaim again the meaning and
purpose of the Bahá’í message and its pertinence to our very existence on
earth. It has therefore selected the following passages from Shoghi
Effendi’s World Order letters, and offers them as a light and a guidance to
all mankind in this dark period of our history, a period, nevertheless, whose
distant horizon is brilliant with the promise of that most glorious day of all,
foretold and sung throughout the ages by prophets, seers and poets and now
actually dawning upon the harassed and desperate children of men.

viii
Contents
Foreword                            vii
Introduction                         xi
I     Humanity’s Ordeal                     1
II    The Oneness of Mankind              17
III   A Pattern for Future Society        36
IV    World Commonwealth                  45
V     The Destiny of Mankind              57
References                          67

ix
Introduction

The fundamental principle enunciated by Bahá’u’lláh, the followers of
His Faith firmly believe, is that religious truth is not absolute but relative,
that Divine Revelation is a continuous and progressive process, that all the
great religions of the world are divine in origin, that their basic principles
are in complete harmony, that their aims and purposes are one and the same,
that their teachings are but facets of one truth, that their functions are
complementary, that they differ only in the non-essential aspects of their
doctrines, and that their missions represent successive stages in the spiritual
evolution of human society.

The aim of Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet of this new and great age which
humanity has entered … is not to destroy but to fulfil the Revelations of the
past, to reconcile rather than accentuate the divergencies of the conflicting
creeds which disrupt present-day society.

His purpose, far from belittling the station of the
Prophets gone before Him or of whittling down their teachings, is to restate
the basic truths which these teachings enshrine in a manner that would
conform to the needs, and be in consonance with the capacity, and be
applicable to the problems, the ills and perplexities, of the age in which we
live. His mission is to proclaim that the ages of the infancy and of the
childhood of the human race are past, that the convulsions associated with
the present stage of its adolescence are slowly and painfully preparing it to
attain the stage of manhood, and are heralding the approach of that Age of
Ages when swords will be beaten into ploughshares, when the Kingdom
promised by Jesus Christ will have been established, and the peace of the
planet definitely and permanently ensured. Nor does Bahá’u’lláh claim
finality for His own Revelation, but rather stipulates that a fuller measure of
the truth He has been commissioned by the Almighty to vouchsafe to
humanity, at so critical a juncture in its fortunes, must needs be disclosed at
future stages in the constant and limitless evolution of mankind.

The Bahá’í Faith upholds the unity of God, recognizes the unity of His
Prophets, and inculcates the principle of the oneness and wholeness of the
entire human race. It proclaims the necessity and the inevitability of the
unification of mankind, asserts that it is gradually approaching, and claims
that nothing short of the transmuting spirit of God, working

xii
through His chosen Mouthpiece in this day, can ultimately succeed in
bringing it about. It, moreover, enjoins upon its followers the primary duty
of an unfettered search after truth, condemns all manner of prejudice and
superstition, declares the purpose of religion to be the promotion of amity
and concord, proclaims its essential harmony with science, and recognizes it
as the foremost agency for the pacification and the orderly progress of
human society. It unequivocally maintains the principle of equal rights,
opportunities and privileges for men and women, insists on compulsory
education, eliminates extremes of poverty and wealth, abolishes the
institution of priesthood, prohibits slavery, asceticism, mendicancy and
monasticism, prescribes monogamy, discourages divorce, emphasizes the
necessity of strict obedience to ones government, exalts any work
performed in the spirit of service to the level of worship, urges either the
creation or the selection of an auxiliary international language, and
delineates the outlines of those institutions that must establish and
perpetuate the general peace of mankind.

The Bahá’í Faith revolves around three central Figures, the first of
whom was a youth, a native of Shíráz, named Mírzá ‘Alí-Muḥammad,
known as the Báb (Gate), who in May 1844, at the age of twenty–five,
advanced the claim of being the Herald Who according to the sacred
Scriptures of previous Dis-

xiii
pensations, must needs announce and prepare the way for the advent of One
greater than Himself, Whose mission would be, according to those same
Scriptures, to inaugurate an era of righteousness and peace, an era that
would be hailed as the consummation of all previous Dispensations, and
initiate a new cycle in the religious history of mankind. Swift and severe
persecution, launched by the organized forces of Church and State in His
native land, precipitated successively His arrest, His exile to the mountains
of Ádhirbáyján, His imprisonment in the fortresses of Máh-Kú and Chihríq,
and His execution, in July 1850, by a firing squad in the public square of
Tabríz. No less than twenty thousand of his followers were put to death
with such barbarous cruelty as to evoke the warm sympathy and the
unqualified admiration of a number of Western writers, diplomats,
travellers and scholars, some of whom were witnesses of these abominable
outrages, and were moved to record them in their books and diaries.

Mírzá Ḥusayn-‘Alí, surnamed Bahá’u’lláh (the Glory of God), a native
of Mázindarán, Whose advent the Báb had foretold, was assailed by those
same forces of ignorance and fanaticism, was imprisoned in Ṭihrán, was
banished, in 1852, from His native land to Baghdád, and thence to
Constantinople and Adrianople, and finally to the prison city of ‘Akká,
where He remained incarcerated for no less than

xiv
twenty–four years, and in whose neighbourhood He passed away in 1892.
In the course of His banishment, and particularly in Adrianople and ‘Akká,
He formulated the laws and ordinances of His Dispensation, expounded, in
over a hundred volumes, the principles of His Faith, proclaimed His
Message to the kings and rulers of both the East and the West, both
Christian and Muslim, addressed the Pope, the Caliph of Islám, the Chief
Magistrates of the Republics of the American continent, the entire Christian
sacerdotal order, the leaders of Shí‘ih and Sunní Islám, and the high priests
of the Zoroastrian religion. In these writings He proclaimed His
Revelation, summoned those whom He addressed to heed His call and
espouse His Faith, warned them of the consequences of their refusal, and
denounced, in some cases, their arrogance and tyranny.

His eldest son, ‘Abbás Effendi, known as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (the Servant
of Bahá), appointed by Him as His lawful successor and the authorized
interpreter of His teachings, Who since early childhood had been closely
associated with His Father, and shared His exile and tribulations, remained
a prisoner until 1908, when, as a result of the Young Turk Revolution, He
was released from His confinement. Establishing His residence in Haifa,
He embarked soon after on His three-year journey to Egypt, Europe and
North America, in the course of which He expounded before vast

xv
audiences, the teachings of His Father and predicted the approach of that
catastrophe that was soon to befall mankind. He returned to His home on
the eve of the First World War, in the course of which He was exposed to
constant danger, until the liberation of Palestine by the forces under the
command of General Allenby, who extended the utmost consideration to
Him and to the small band of His fellow-exiles in ‘Akká and Haifa. In 1921
He passed away, and was buried in a vault in the mausoleum erected on
Mount Carmel, at the express instruction of Bahá’u’lláh, for the remains of
the Báb, which had previously been transferred from Tabríz to the Holy
Land after having been preserved and concealed for no less than sixty years.

The passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá marked the termination of the first and
Heroic Age of the Bahá’í Faith and signalized the opening of the Formative
Age destined to witness the gradual emergence of its Administrative Order,
whose establishment had been foretold by the Báb, whose laws were
revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, whose outlines were delineated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
in His Will and Testament, and whose foundations are now being laid by
the national and local councils which are elected by the professed adherents
of the Faith ….

This Administrative Order, unlike the systems evolved after the death
of the Founders of the various

xvi
religions, is divine in origin, rests securely on the laws, the precepts, the
ordinances and institutions which the Founder of the Faith has Himself
specifically laid down and unequivocally established, and functions in strict
accordance with the interpretations of the authorized Interpreters of its holy
scriptures. Though fiercely assailed, ever since its inception, it has, by
virtue of its character, unique in the annals of the world’s religious history,
succeeded in maintaining the unity of the diversified and far-flung body of
its supporters, and enabled them to launch, unitedly and systematically,
enterprises in both hemispheres, designed to extend its limits and
consolidate its administrative institutions.

The Faith which this order serves, safeguards and promotes, is, it
should be noted in this connection, essentially supernatural, supranational,
entirely non-political, non-partisan, and diametrically opposed to any policy
or school of thought that seeks to exalt any particular race, class or nation.
It is free from any form of ecclesiasticism, has neither priesthood nor
rituals, and is supported exclusively by voluntary contributions made by its
avowed adherents. Though loyal to their respective governments, though
imbued with the love of their own country, and anxious to promote, at all
times, its best interests, the followers of the Bahá’í Faith, nevertheless,
viewing mankind as one entity, and profoundly attached to its vital
interests,

xvii
will not hesitate to subordinate every particular interest, be it personal,
regional or national, to the overriding interests of the generality of mankind,
knowing full well that in a world of interdependent peoples and nations the
advantage of the part is best to be reached by the advantage of the whole,
and that no lasting result can be achieved by any of the component parts if
the general interests of the entity itself are neglected ….

xviii
I
Humanity’s Ordeal

A tempest, unprecedented in its violence, unpredictable in its course,
catastrophic in its immediate effects, unimaginably glorious in its ultimate
consequences, is at present sweeping the face of the earth.1 Its driving
power is remorselessly gaining in range and momentum. Its cleansing
force, however much undetected, is increasing with every passing day.
Humanity, gripped in the clutches of its devastating power, is smitten by the
evidences of its resistless fury. It can neither perceive its origin, nor probe
its significance, nor discern its outcome. Bewildered, agonized and
helpless, it watches this great and mighty wind of God invading the
remotest and fairest regions of the earth, rocking its foundations, deranging
its equilibrium, sundering its nations, disrupting the homes of its peoples,
wasting its cities, driving into exile its kings, pulling down its bulwarks,
uprooting its institutions, dimming its light, and harrowing up the souls

Written in March 1941.
of its inhabitants. …

The powerful operations of this titanic upheaval are comprehensible to
none except such as have recognized the claims of both Bahá’u’lláh and the
Báb. Their followers know full well whence it comes, and what it will
ultimately lead to. Though ignorant of how far it will reach, they clearly
recognize its genesis, are aware of its direction, acknowledge its necessity,
observe confidently its mysterious processes, ardently pray for the
mitigation of its severity, intelligently labour to assuage its fury, and
anticipate, with undimmed vision, the consummation of the fears and the
hopes it must necessarily engender.

This judgement of God, as viewed by those who have recognized
Bahá’u’lláh as His Mouthpiece and His greatest Messenger on earth, is both
a retributory calamity and an act of holy and supreme discipline. It is at
once a visitation from God and a cleansing process for all mankind. Its
fires punish the perversity of the human race, and weld its component parts
into one organic, indivisible, world-embracing community. …

“Bestir yourselves, O people,” is, on the one hand, the ominous
warning sounded by Bahá’u’lláh Himself, “in anticipation of the days of
Divine Justice, for the promised hour is now come.” “Abandon that which
ye possess, and seize that which God, Who layeth low the necks of men,
hath brought. Know ye of a certainty that if ye turn not back from that
which ye have committed, chastise-

ment will overtake you on every side, and ye shall behold things more
grievous than that which ye beheld aforetime.” And again: “We have fixed
a time for you, O people! If ye fail, at the appointed hour, to turn towards
God, He, verily, will lay violent hold on you, and will cause grievous
afflictions to assail you from every direction.” …

“The whole earth,” Bahá’u’lláh, on the other hand, forecasting the
bright future in store for a world now wrapped in darkness, emphatically
asserts, “is now in a state of pregnancy. The day is approaching when it
will have yielded its noblest fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the
loftiest trees, the most enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly blessings.”
“The time is approaching when every created thing will have cast its
burden.      Glorified be God Who hath vouchsafed this grace that
encompasseth all things, whether seen or unseen!”              “These great
oppressions,” He, moreover, foreshadowing humanity’s golden age, has
written, “are preparing it for the advent of the Most Great Justice.” This
Most Great Justice is indeed the Justice upon which the structure of the
Most Great Peace can alone, and must eventually, rest, while the Most
Great Peace will, in turn usher in that Most Great, that World Civilization
which shall remain for ever associated with Him Who beareth the Most
Great Name. …

Well nigh a hundred years have elapsed since the Revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh dawned upon the world—a Revelation, the nature of which, as
affirmed by Him-

self, “none among the Manifestations of old, except to a prescribed degree,
hath ever completely apprehended.” For a whole century God has respited
mankind, that it might acknowledge the Founder of such a Revelation,
espouse His Cause, proclaim His greatness, and establish His Order. In a
hundred volumes, the repositories of priceless precepts, mighty laws,
unique principles, impassioned exhortations, reiterated warnings, amazing
prophecies, sublime invocations, and weighty commentaries, the Bearer of
such a Message has proclaimed, as no Prophet before Him has done, the
Mission with which God had entrusted Him. To emperors, kings, princes
and potentates, to rulers, governments, clergy and peoples, whether of the
East or of the West, whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Zoroastrian, He
addressed, for well-nigh fifty years, and in the most tragic circumstances,
these priceless pearls of knowledge and wisdom that lay hid within the
ocean of His matchless utterance. Forsaking fame and fortune, accepting
imprisonment and exile, careless of ostracism and obloquy, submitting to
physical indignities and cruel deprivations, He, the Vicegerent of God on
earth, suffered Himself to be banished from place to place and from country
to country …. “We verily,” He Himself has testified, “have not fallen short
of Our duty to exhort men, and to deliver that whereunto I was bidden by
God, the Almighty, the All-Praised. Had they hearkened unto Me, they
would have beheld the earth

another earth.” And again: “Is there any excuse left for any one in this
Revelation? No, by God, the Lord of the Mighty Throne! My signs have
encompassed the earth, and My power enveloped all mankind, and yet the
people are wrapped in a strange sleep!”

How—we may well ask ourselves—has the world, the object of such
Divine solicitude, repaid Him Who sacrificed His all for its sake? What
manner of welcome did it accord Him, and what response did His call
evoke? A clamour, unparalleled in the history of Shí’ih Islám, greeted, in
the land of its birth, the infant light of the Faith …. A persecution, kindling
a courage which, as attested by no less eminent an authority than the late
Lord Curzon of Kedleston, has been unsurpassed by that which the fires of
Smithfield evoked, mowed down, with tragic swiftness, no less than twenty
thousand of its heroic adherents, who refused to barter their newly-born
faith for the fleeting honours and security of a mortal life. …

Unmitigated indifference on the part of men of eminence and rank;
unrelenting hatred shown by the ecclesiastical dignitaries of the Faith from
which it had sprung; the scornful derision of the people among whom it was
born; the utter contempt which most of those kings and rulers who had been
addressed by its Author manifested towards it; the condemnations
pronounced, the threats hurled, and the banishments decreed by those under
whose sway it arose and first

spread; the distortion to which its principles and laws were subjected by the
envious and the malicious, in lands and among peoples far beyond the
country of its origin—all these are but the evidences of the treatment meted
out by a generation sunk in self-content, careless of its God, and oblivious
of the omens, prophecies, warnings and admonitions revealed by His
Messengers ….

What, then—might we not consider—has, in the face of so complete
and ignominious a rejection, happened, and is still happening, in the course,
and particularly in the closing years, of this, the first Bahá’í century, a
century fraught with such tumultuous sufferings and violent outrages for the
persecuted Faith of Bahá’u’lláh? Empires fallen in dust, kingdoms
subverted, dynasties extinguished, royalty besmirched, kings assassinated,
poisoned, driven into exile, subjugated in their own realms, whilst the few
remaining thrones are trembling with the repercussions of the fall of their
fellows. …       Surely, no man, contemplating dispassionately the
manifestations of this relentless revolutionizing process, within
comparatively so short a time, can escape the conclusion that the last
hundred years may well be regarded, in so far as the fortunes of royalty are
concerned, as one of the most cataclysmic periods in the annals of mankind.
…

The decline in the fortunes of the crowned wielders of temporal power
has been paralleled by a no less

startling deterioration in the influence exercised by the world’s spiritual
leaders. The colossal events that have heralded the dissolution of so many
kingdoms and empires have almost synchronized with the crumbling of the
seemingly inviolable strongholds of religious orthodoxy. That same
process which, swiftly and tragically, sealed the doom of kings and
emperors, and extinguished their dynasties, has operated in the case of the
ecclesiastical leaders of both Christianity and Islám, damaging their
prestige, and, in some cases, overthrowing their highest institutions.
“Power hath been seized” indeed, from both “kings and ecclesiastics”.
The glory of the former has been eclipsed, the power of the latter
irretrievably lost. …

That the solidarity of some of these institutions has been irretrievably
shattered is too apparent for any intelligent observer to mistake or deny.
The cleavage between the fundamentalists and the liberals among their
adherents is continually widening. Their creeds and dogmas have been
watered down, and in certain instances ignored and discarded. Their hold
upon human conduct is loosening, and the personnel of their ministries is
dwindling in number and in influence. The timidity and insincerity of their
preachers are, in several instances, being exposed. Their endowments have,
in some countries, disappeared, and the

force of their religious training has declined. Their temples have been
partly deserted and destroyed, and an oblivion of God, of His teachings and
of His Purpose, has enfeebled and heaped humiliation upon them. …

The signs of moral downfall, as distinct from the evidences of decay in
religious institutions, would appear to be no less noticeable and significant.
… In whichever direction we turn our gaze, no matter how cursory our
observation of the doings and sayings of the present generation, we cannot
fail to be struck by the evidences of moral decadence which, in their
individual lives no less than in their collective capacity, men and women
around us exhibit.

There can be no doubt that the decline of religion as a social force, of
which the deterioration of religious institutions is but an external
phenomenon, is chiefly responsible for so grave, so conspicuous an evil.
“Religion,” writes Bahá’u’lláh, “is the greatest of all means for the
establishment of order in the world and for the peaceful contentment of all
that dwell therein. The weakening of the pillars of religion hath
strengthened the hands of the ignorant and made them bold and arrogant.
Verily I say, whatsoever hath lowered the lofty station of religion hath
increased the waywardness of the wicked, and the result cannot be but
anarchy.” “Religion,” He, in another Tablet, has stated, “is a radiant light
and an impregnable stronghold for the protection and welfare of the
peoples of

the world, for the fear of God impelleth man to hold fast to that which is
good, and shun all evil. Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and
confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness, of justice, of tranquillity and
peace cease to shine.” …

Such, we might well admit, is the state which individuals and
institutions alike are approaching. “No two men,” Bahá’u’lláh, lamenting
the plight of an erring humanity, has written, “can be found who may be
said to be outwardly and inwardly united. The evidences of discord and
malice are apparent everywhere, though all were made for harmony and
union.” “How long,” He, in the same Tablet, exclaims, “will humanity
persist in its waywardness? How long will injustice continue? How long is
chaos and confusion to reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate
the face of society? The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every
direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily
increasing.”

The recrudescence of religious intolerance, of racial animosity, and of
patriotic arrogance; the increasing evidences of selfishness, of suspicion, of
fear and of fraud; the spread of terrorism, of lawlessness, of drunkenness
and of crime; the unquenchable thirst for, and the feverish pursuit after,
earthly vanities, riches and pleasures; the weakening of family solidarity;
the laxity in parental control; the lapse into luxurious indulgence; the
irresponsible attitude towards marriage and the consequent rising tide of

divorce; the degeneracy of art and music, the infection of literature, and the
corruption of the press; the extension of the influence and activities of those
“prophets of decadence” who advocate companionate marriage, who preach
the philosophy of nudism, who call modesty an intellectual fiction, who
refuse to regard the procreation of children as the sacred and primary
purpose of marriage, who denounce religion as an opiate of the people, who
would, if given free rein, lead back the human race to barbarism, chaos, and
ultimate extinction—these appear as the outstanding characteristics of a
decadent society, a society that must be either reborn or perish. …

Let none, however, mistake my purpose, or misrepresent this cardinal
truth which is of the essence of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. The divine origin
of all the Prophets of God … is unreservedly and unshakeably upheld by
each and every follower of the Bahá’í religion. The fundamental unity of
these Messengers of God is clearly recognized, the continuity of their
Revelations is affirmed, the God-given authority and correlative character
of their Books is admitted, the singleness of their aims and purposes is
proclaimed, the uniqueness of their influence emphasized, the ultimate
reconciliation of their teachings and followers taught and anticipated.
“They all,” according to

Bahá’u’lláh’s testimony, “abide in the same tabernacle, soar in the same
heaven, are seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech, and
proclaim the same Faith.”

The Faith standing identified with the name of Bahá’u’lláh disclaims
any intention to belittle any of the Prophets gone before Him, to whittle
down any of their teachings, to obscure, however slightly, the radiance of
their Revelations, to oust them from the hearts of their followers, to
abrogate the fundamentals of their doctrines, to discard any of their revealed
Books, or to suppress the legitimate aspirations of their adherents.
Repudiating the claim of any religion to be the final revelation of God to
man, disclaiming finality for His own Revelation, Bahá’u’lláh inculcates
the basic principle of the relativity of religious truth, the continuity of
Divine Revelation, the progressiveness of religious experience. His aim is
to widen the basis of all revealed religions and to unravel the mysteries of
their scriptures. He insists on the unqualified recognition of the unity of
their purpose, restates the eternal verities they enshrine, co-ordinates their
functions, distinguishes the essential and the authentic from the non-
essential and spurious in their teachings, separates the God-given truths
from the priest-prompted superstitions, and on this as a basis proclaims the
possibility, and even prophesies the inevitability, of their unification, and
the consummation of their highest hopes. …

Nor should it be thought for a moment that the followers of
Bahá’u’lláh either seek to degrade or even belittle the rank of the world’s
religious leaders, whether Christian, Muslim, or of any other denomination,
should their conduct conform to their professions, and be worthy of the
position they occupy. “Those divines,” Bahá’u’lláh has affirmed, “… who
are truly adorned with the ornament of knowledge and of a goodly
character are, verily, as a head to the body of the world, and as eyes to the
nations. The guidance of men hath, at all times, been and is dependent
upon these blessed souls.” …

Bahá’u’lláh, referring to the transformation effected by every
Revelation in the ways, thoughts and manners of the people, reveals these
words: “Is not the object of every Revelation to effect a transformation in
the whole character of mankind, a transformation that shall manifest itself,
both outwardly and inwardly, that shall affect both its inner life and
external conditions? For if the character of mankind be not changed, the
futility of God’s universal Manifestation would be apparent.”

Did not Christ Himself, addressing His disciples, utter these words: “I
have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all
truth”?

From the … words of Christ, as attested by the Gospel, every
unprejudiced observer will readily apprehend the magnitude of the Faith
which Bahá’u’lláh has revealed, and recognize the staggering weight of the
claim He has advanced. …

The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh should indeed be regarded, if we wish to be
faithful to the tremendous implications of its message, as the culmination of
a cycle, the final stage in a series of successive, of preliminary and
progressive revelations. These, beginning with Adam and ending with the
Báb, have paved the way and anticipated with an ever-increasing emphasis
the advent of that Day of Days in which He Who is the Promise of All Ages
should be made manifest. …

The weight of the potentialities with which this Faith, possessing no
peer or equal in the world’s spiritual history, and marking the culmination
of a universal prophetic cycle, has been endowed, staggers our imagination.
The brightness of the millennial glory which it must shed in the fullness of
time dazzles our eyes. The magnitude of the shadow which its Author will
continue to cast on successive Prophets destined to be raised up after Him
eludes our calculation.

Already in the space of less than a century1 the operation of the
mysterious processes generated by its creative spirit has provoked a tumult
in human society such as no mind can fathom. Itself undergoing a period of
incubation during its primitive age, it has, through the emergence of its
slowly-crystallizing system, induced a fermentation in the general life of
mankind designed to shake the very foundations of a disordered society, to
purify its life-blood, to re-orientate and reconstruct its institutions, and
shape its final destiny.

To what else can the observant eye or the unprejudiced mind,
acquainted with the signs and portents heralding the birth, and
accompanying the rise, of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh ascribe this dire, this
planetary upheaval, with its attendant destruction, misery and fear, if not to
the emergence of His embryonic World Order, which, as He Himself has
unequivocally proclaimed, has “deranged the equilibrium of the world and
revolutionized mankind’s ordered life”? To what agency, if not to the
irresistible diffusion of that world-shaking, world-energizing, world-
redeeming spirit, which the Báb has affirmed is “vibrating in the innermost
realities of all created things” can the origins of this portentous crisis,
incomprehensible to man, and admittedly unprecedented in the annals of the
human race, be attributed? In the convulsions of contemporary society, in
the frenzied, world-wide ebullitions of

Written in 1944.
men’s thoughts, in the fierce antagonisms inflaming races, creeds and
classes, in the shipwreck of nations, in the downfall of kings, in the
dismemberment of empires, in the extinction of dynasties, in the collapse of
ecclesiastical hierarchies, in the deterioration of time-honoured institutions,
in the dissolution of ties, secular as well as religious, that had for so long
held together the members of the human race—all manifesting themselves
with ever-increasing gravity since the outbreak of the First World War that
immediately preceded the opening years of the Formative Age of the Faith
of Bahá’u’lláh—in these we can readily recognize the evidences of the
travail of an age that has sustained the impact of His Revelation, that has
ignored His summons, and is now labouring to be delivered of its burden, as
a direct consequence of the impulse communicated to it by the generative,
the purifying, the transmuting influence of His Spirit. …

Mysteriously, slowly, and resistlessly God accomplishes His design,
though the sight that meets our eyes in this day be the spectacle of a world
hopelessly entangled in its own meshes, utterly careless of the Voice which,
for a century, has been calling it to God, and miserably subservient to the
siren voices which are attempting to lure it into the vast abyss.

God’s purpose is none other than to usher in, in

ways He alone can bring about, and the full significance of which He alone
can fathom, the Great, the Golden Age of a long-divided, a long-afflicted
humanity. Its present state, indeed even its immediate future, is dark,
distressingly dark. Its distant future, however, is radiant, gloriously
radiant—so radiant that no eye can visualize it.

II
The Oneness of Mankind

Humanity, whether viewed in the light of man’s individual conduct or
in the existing relationships between organized communities and nations,
has, alas, strayed too far and suffered too great a decline to be redeemed
through the unaided efforts of the best among its recognized rulers and
statesmen—however disinterested their motives, however concerted their
action, however unsparing in their zeal and devotion to its cause. No
scheme which the calculations of the highest statesmanship may yet devise;
no doctrine which the most distinguished exponents of economic theory
may hope to advance; no principle which the most ardent of moralists may
strive to inculcate, can provide, in the last resort, adequate foundations upon
which the future of a distracted world can be built.

No appeal for mutual tolerance which the worldly-wise might raise,
however compelling and insistent, can calm its passions or help restore its
vigour. Nor would any general scheme of mere organized inter-

national co-operation, in whatever sphere of human activity, however
ingenious in conception, or extensive in scope, succeed in removing the
root cause of the evil that has so rudely upset the equilibrium of present-day
society. Not even, I venture to assert, would the very act of devising the
machinery required for the political and economic unification of the
world—a principle that has been increasingly advocated in recent times—
provide in itself the antidote against the poison that is steadily undermining
the vigour of organized peoples and nations.

What else, might we not confidently affirm, but the unreserved
acceptance of the Divine Programme enunciated, with such simplicity and
force as far back as sixty years ago,1 by Bahá’u’lláh, embodying in its
essentials God’s divinely appointed scheme for the unification of mankind
in this age, coupled with an indomitable conviction in the unfailing efficacy
of each and all of its provisions, is eventually capable of withstanding the
forces of internal disintegration which, if unchecked, must needs continue
to eat into the vitals of a despairing society. It is towards this goal—the
goal of a new World Order, Divine in origin, all-embracing in scope,
equitable in principle, challenging in its features—that a harassed humanity
must strive.

To claim to have grasped all the implications of

Written in 1931.
Bahá’u’lláh’s prodigious scheme for world-wide human solidarity, or to
have fathomed its import, would be presumptuous on the part of even the
declared supporters of His Faith. To attempt to visualize it in all its
possibilities, to estimate its future benefits, to picture its glory, would be
premature at even so advanced a stage in the evolution of mankind,

All we can reasonably venture to attempt is to strive to obtain a
glimpse of the first streaks of the promised Dawn that must, in the fullness
of time, chase away the gloom that has encircled humanity. All we can do
is to point out, in their broadest outlines, what appears to us to be the
guiding principles underlying the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh ….

That the unrest and suffering afflicting the mass of mankind are in no
small measure the direct consequences of the World War1 and are
attributable to the unwisdom and short-sightedness of the framers of the
Peace Treaties only a biased mind can refuse to admit. … It would be idle,
however, to contend that the war, with all the losses it involved, the
passions it aroused and the grievances it left behind, has solely been
responsible for the unprecedented confusion into which almost every
section of the civilized world is plunged at present. Is it not a fact—and this
is the central idea I desire to emphasize—that the fundamental cause of this
world unrest is attributable, not

Written in 1931I and refers to the First World War.
so much to the consequences of what must sooner or later come to be
regarded as a transitory dislocation in the affairs of a continually changing
world, but rather to the failure of those into whose hands the immediate
destinies of peoples and nations have been committed, to adjust their
systems of economic and political institutions to the imperative needs of a
rapidly evolving age? Are not these intermittent crises that convulse
present-day society due primarily to the lamentable inability of the world’s
recognized leaders to read aright the signs of the times, to rid themselves
once for all of their preconceived ideas and fettering creeds, and to reshape
the machinery of their respective governments according to those standards
that are implicit in Bahá’u’lláh’s supreme declaration of the Oneness of
Mankind—the chief and distinguishing feature of the Faith He proclaimed?
For the principle of the Oneness of Mankind, the corner-stone of
Bahá’u’lláh’s world-embracing dominion, implies nothing more nor less
than the enforcement of His scheme for the unification of the world—the
scheme to which we have already referred. “In every Dispensation,” writes
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “the light of Divine Guidance has been focussed upon one
central theme. … In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious century, the
foundation of the Faith of God and the distinguishing feature of His Law is
the consciousness of the Oneness of Mankind.”

How pathetic indeed are the efforts of those leaders

of human institutions who, in utter disregard of the spirit of the age, are
striving to adjust national processes, suited to the ancient days of self-
contained nations, to an age which must either achieve the unity of the
world, as adumbrated by Bahá’u’lláh, or perish. At so critical an hour in the
history of civilization it behoves the leaders of all the nations of the world,
great and small, whether in the East or in the West, whether victors or
vanquished, to give heed to the clarion call of Bahá’u’lláh and, thoroughly
imbued with a sense of world solidarity, the sine qua non of loyalty to His
Cause, arise manfully to carry out in its entirety the one remedial scheme
He, the Divine Physician, has prescribed for an ailing humanity. Let them
discard, once for all, every preconceived idea, every national prejudice, and
give heed to the sublime counsel of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the authorized
Expounder of His teachings. “You can best serve your country”, was
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s rejoinder to a high official in the service of the federal
government of the United States of America, who had questioned Him as to
the best manner in which he could promote the interests of his government
and people, “if you strive, in your capacity as a citizen of the world, to
assist in the eventual application of the principle of federalism underlying
the government of your own country to the relationships now existing
between the peoples and nations of the world.”

In The Secret of Divine Civilization, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s

outstanding contribution to the future reorganization of the world, we read
the following:

“True civilization will unfurl its banner in the midmost heart of the
world whenever a certain number of its distinguished and high-minded
sovereigns—the shining exemplars of devotion and determination—
shall, for the good and happiness of all mankind, arise, with firm
resolve and clear vision, to establish the Cause of Universal Peace.
They must make the Cause of Peace the object of general consultation,
and seek by every means in their power to establish a Union of the
nations of the world. They must conclude a binding treaty and
establish a covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound,
inviolable and definite. They must proclaim it to all the world and
obtain for it the sanction of all the human race. This supreme and
noble undertaking—the real source of the peace and well-being of all
the world—should be regarded as sacred by all that dwell on earth.
All the forces of humanity must be mobilized to ensure the stability and
permanence of this Most Great Covenant. In this all-embracing Pact
the limits and frontiers of each and every nation should be clearly
fixed, the principles underlying the relations of governments towards
one another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and
obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of the armaments of
every government should be strictly limited, for if the preparations for
war and the military forces of any nation should be allowed to
increase, they will arouse the suspicion of others. The fundamental

principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed that if any
government later violate any one of its provisions, all the governments
on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the human
race as a whole should resolve, with every power at its disposal, to
destroy that government. Should this greatest of all remedies be
applied to the sick body of the world, it will assuredly recover from its
ills and will remain eternally safe and secure.”

“A few,” He further adds, “unaware of the power latent in human
endeavour, consider this matter as highly impracticable, nay even
beyond the scope of man’s utmost efforts. Such is not the case,
however. On the contrary, thanks to the unfailing grace of God, the
loving-kindness of His favoured ones, the unrivalled endeavours of
wise and capable souls, and the thoughts and ideas of the peerless
leaders of this age, nothing whatsoever can be regarded as
unattainable. Endeavour, ceaseless endeavour, is required. Nothing
short of an indomitable determination can possibly achieve it. Many a
cause which past ages have regarded as purely visionary, yet in this
day has become most easy and practicable. Why should this most
great and lofty cause—the day-star of the firmament of true
civilization and the cause of the glory, the advancement, the well-
being and the success of all humanity—be regarded as impossible of
achievement? Surely the day will come when its beauteous light shall
shed illumination upon the assemblage of man.”

In one of His Tablets ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, elucidating further His noble
theme, reveals the following:

“In cycles gone by, though harmony was established, yet, owing to the
absence of means, the unity of all mankind could not have been
achieved. Continents remained widely divided, nay even among the
peoples of one and the same continent association and interchange of
thought were well nigh impossible.         Consequently intercourse,
understanding and unity amongst all the peoples and kindreds of the
earth were unattainable.        In this day, however, means of
communication have multiplied, and the five continents of the earth
have virtually merged into one. … In like manner all the members of
the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages,
have become increasingly interdependent. For none is self-sufficiency
any longer possible, inasmuch as political ties unite all peoples and
nations, and the bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and
education, are being strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all
mankind can in this day be achieved. Verily this is none other but one
of the wonders of this wondrous age, this glorious century. Of this
past ages have been deprived, for this century—the century of light—
has been endowed with unique and unprecedented glory, power and
illumination. Hence the miraculous unfolding of afresh marvel every
day. Eventually it will be seen how bright its candles will burn in the
assemblage of man.

“Behold how its light is now dawning upon the world’s darkened
horizon. The first candle is unity in the political realm, the early
glimmerings of which can now be discerned. The second candle is
unity of thought in world undertakings,

the consummation of which will ere long be witnessed. The third
candle is unity in freedom which will surely come to pass. The fourth
candle is unity in religion which is the corner-stone of the foundation
itself, and which, by the power of God, will be revealed in all its
splendour. The fifth candle is the unity of nations—a unity which in
this century will be securely established, causing all the peoples of the
world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland. The
sixth candle is unity of races, making of all that dwell on earth peoples
and kindreds of one race. The seventh candle is unity of language,
i.e., the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples will be
instructed and converse. Each and every one of these will inevitably
come to pass, inasmuch as the power of the Kingdom of God will aid
and assist in their realization.”

Over sixty years ago,1 in His Tablet to Queen Victoria, Bahá’u’lláh,
addressing “the concourse of the rulers of the earth”, revealed the
following:

“Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which
profiteth mankind and bettereth the condition thereof …. Regard the
world as the human body which, though created whole and perfect,
has been afflicted, through divers causes, with grave ills and maladies.
Not for one day did it rest, nay its sicknesses waxed more severe, as it
fell under the treatment of unskilled physicians who have spurred on
the steed of their worldly desires and have erred

Now over a century; the Tablet to Queen Victoria was written about 1870.
grievously. And if at one time, through the care of an able physician,
a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afflicted as
before.” …

In a further passage Bahá’u’lláh adds these words:

“We see you adding every year unto your expenditures and laying the
burden thereof on the people whom ye rule; this verily is naught but
grievous injustice. Fear the sighs and tears of this Wronged One, and
burden not your peoples beyond that which they can endure. … Be
reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need armaments no more
save in a measure to safeguard your territories and dominions. Be
united, O concourse of the sovereigns of the world, for thereby will the
tempest of discord be stilled amongst you and your peoples find rest.
Should any one among you take up arms against another, rise ye all
against him, for this is naught but manifest justice.”

What else could these weighty words signify if they did not point to
the inevitable curtailment of unfettered national sovereignty as an
indispensable preliminary to the formation of the future Commonwealth of
all the nations of the world? Some form of a world super-state must needs
be evolved, in whose favour all the nations of the world will have willingly
ceded every claim to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all
rights to maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal
order within their respective dominions. Such a state will have to include
within its orbit an International

Executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on
every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a World Parliament
whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries
and whose election shall be confirmed by their respective governments; and
a Supreme Tribunal whose judgement will have a binding effect even in
such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit
their case to its consideration. A world community in which all economic
barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of
Capital and Labour definitely recognized; in which the clamour of religious
fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of
racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code
of international law—the product of the considered judgement of the
world’s federated representatives—shall have as its sanction the instant and
coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units; and
finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant
nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of
world citizenship—such indeed appears, in its broadest outline, the Order
anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the
fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.

“The Tabernacle of Unity,” Bahá’u’lláh proclaims in His message to
all mankind, “has been raised; regard ye

not one another as strangers. … Of one tree are all ye the fruit and of one
bough the leaves. … The world is but one country, and mankind its citizens.
… Let not a man glory in that he loves his country; let him rather glory in
this, that he loves his kind.”

Let there be no misgivings as to the animating purpose of the world-
wide Law of Bahá’u’lláh. Far from aiming at the subversion of the existing
foundations of society, it seeks to broaden its basis, to remould its
institutions in a manner consonant with the needs of an ever-changing
world. It can conflict with no legitimate allegiances, nor can it undermine
essential loyalties. Its purpose is neither to stifle the flame of a sane and
intelligent patriotism in men’s hearts, nor to abolish the system of national
autonomy so essential if the evils of excessive centralization are to be
avoided. It does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of
ethnical origins, of climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought
and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for
a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human
race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests to
the imperative claims of a unified world. It repudiates excessive
centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the
other. Its watchword is unity in diversity such as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself has
explained:

“Consider the flowers of a garden. Though differing in kind, colour,
form and shape, yet, inasmuch as they are refreshed by the waters of
one spring, revived by the breath of one wind, invigorated by the rays
of one sun, this diversity increaseth their charm and addeth unto their
beauty. How unpleasing to the eye if all the flowers and plants, the
leaves and blossoms, the fruit, the branches and the trees of that
garden were all of the same shape and colour! Diversity of hues, form
and shape enricheth and adorneth the garden, and heighteneth the
effect thereof. In like manner, when divers shades of thought,
temperament and character are brought together under the power and
influence of one central agency, the beauty and glory of human
perfection will be revealed and made manifest. Naught but the
celestial potency of the Word of God, which ruleth and transcendeth
the realities of all things, is capable of harmonizing the divergent
thoughts, sentiments, ideas and convictions of the children of men.”

The call of Bahá’u’lláh is primarily directed against all forms of
provincialism, all insularities and prejudices. If long-cherished ideals and
time-honoured institutions, if certain social assumptions and religious
formulae have ceased to promote the welfare of the generality of mankind,
if they no longer minister to the needs of a continually evolving humanity,
let them be swept away and relegated to the limbo of obsolescent and
forgotten doctrines. Why should these, in a world subject to the immutable
law of change and

decay, be exempt from the deterioration that must needs overtake every
human institution? For legal standards, political and economic theories are
solely designed to safeguard the interests of humanity as a whole, and not
humanity to be crucified for the preservation of the integrity of any
particular law or doctrine.

Let there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness of Mankind—
the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve—is no mere
outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious
hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a reawakening of the
spirit of brotherhood and good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at
the fostering of harmonious co-operation among individual peoples and
nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the
Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only
to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those
essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members
of one human family. It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an
ideal, but stands inseparably associated with an institution adequate to
embody its truth, demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. It
implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change
such as the world has not yet experienced. It constitutes a

challenge, at once bold and universal, to outworn shibboleths of national
creeds—creeds that have had their day and which must, in the ordinary
course of events as shaped and controlled by Providence, give way to a new
gospel, fundamentally different from, and infinitely superior to, what the
world has already conceived. It calls for no less than the reconstruction and
the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically
unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its
spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet
infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.

It represents the consummation of human evolution—an evolution that
has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family life, its subsequent
development in the achievement of tribal solidarity, leading in turn to the
constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into the institution of
independent and sovereign nations.

The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by
Bahá’u’lláh, carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that
attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only
necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that
nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it.
…

Who knows that for so exalted a conception to

take shape a suffering more intense than any it has yet experienced will
have to be inflicted upon humanity? Could anything less than the fire of a
civil war with all its violence and vicissitudes—a war that nearly rent the
great American Republic—have welded the states, not only into a Union of
independent units, but into a Nation, in spite of all the ethnic differences
that characterized its component parts? That so fundamental a revolution,
involving such far-reaching changes in the structure of society, can be
achieved through the ordinary processes of diplomacy and education seems
highly improbable. We have but to turn our gaze to humanity’s blood-
stained history to realize that nothing short of intense mental as well as
physical agony has been able to precipitate those epoch-making changes
that constitute the greatest landmarks in the history of human civilization.

Great and far-reaching as have been those changes in the past, they
cannot appear, when viewed in their proper perspective, except as
subsidiary adjustments preluding that transformation of unparalleled
majesty and scope which humanity is in this age bound to undergo. That
the forces of a world catastrophe can alone precipitate such a new phase of
human thought is, alas, becoming increasingly apparent. That nothing short
of the fire of a severe ordeal, unparalleled in its intensity, can fuse and weld
the discordant entities that constitute the elements of present-day
civilization,

into the integral components of the world commonwealth of the future, is a
truth which future events will increasingly demonstrate.

The prophetic voice of Bahá’u’lláh warning, in the concluding
passages of The Hidden Words, the peoples of the world that an unforeseen
calamity is following them and that grievous retribution awaiteth them
throws indeed a lurid light upon the immediate fortunes of sorrowing
humanity. Nothing but a fiery ordeal, out of which humanity will emerge,
chastened and prepared, can succeed in implanting that sense of
responsibility which the leaders of a new-born age must arise to shoulder.

I would again direct your attention to those ominous words of
Bahá’u’lláh which I have already quoted: “And when the appointed hour is
come, there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of
mankind to quake.” …

One word more in conclusion. The proclamation of the Oneness of
Mankind—the head corner-stone of Bahá’u’lláh’s all-embracing
dominion—can under no circumstances be compared with such expressions
of pious hope as have been uttered in the past. His is not merely a call
which He raised, alone and unaided, in the face of the relentless and
combined opposition of two of the most powerful Oriental potentates of His
day—while Himself an exile and prisoner in their hands. It implies at once
a warning and a promise—a

warning that in it lies the sole means for the salvation of a greatly suffering
world, a promise that its realization is at hand.

Uttered at a time when its possibility had not yet been seriously
envisaged in any part of the world, it has, by virtue of that celestial potency
which the Spirit of Bahá’u’lláh has breathed into it, come at last to be
regarded, by an increasing number of thoughtful men, not only as an
approaching possibility, but as the necessary outcome of the forces now
operating in the world.

Surely the world, contracted and transformed into a single highly
complex organism by the marvellous progress achieved in the realm of
physical science, by the world-wide expansion of commerce and industry,
and struggling, under the pressure of world economic forces, amidst the
pitfalls of a materialistic civilization, stands in dire need of a restatement of
the Truth underlying all the Revelations of the past in a language suited to
its essential requirements. And what voice other than that of Bahá’u’lláh—
the Mouthpiece of God for this age—is capable of effecting a
transformation of society as radical as that which He has already
accomplished in the hearts of those men and women, so diversified and
seemingly irreconcilable, who constitute the body of His declared followers
throughout the world?

That such a mighty conception is fast budding out

in the minds of men, that voices are being raised in its support, that its
salient features must fast crystallize in the consciousness of those who are
in authority, few indeed can doubt. That its modest beginnings have
already taken shape in the world-wide Administration with which the
adherents of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh stand associated only those whose
hearts are tainted by prejudice can fail to perceive. …

III
A Pattern for Future Society

Few will fail to recognize that the Spirit breathed by Bahá’u’lláh upon
the world, and which is manifesting itself with varying degrees of intensity
through the efforts consciously displayed by His avowed supporters and
indirectly through certain humanitarian organizations, can never permeate
and exercise an abiding influence upon mankind unless and until it
incarnates itself in a visible Order, which would bear His name, wholly
identify itself with His principles, and function in conformity with His laws.
That Bahá’u’lláh in His Book of Aqdas, and later ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His
Will—a document which confirms, supplements, and correlates the
provisions of the Aqdas—have set forth in their entirety those essential
elements for the constitution of the world Bahá’í Commonwealth, no one
who has read them will deny. According to these divinely-ordained
administrative principles, the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh—the Ark of
human salvation—must needs be modelled. From
them, all future blessings must flow, and upon them its inviolable authority
must ultimately rest.

For Bahá’u’lláh, we should readily recognize, has not only imbued
mankind with a new and regenerating Spirit. He has not merely enunciated
certain universal principles, or propounded a particular philosophy,
however potent, sound and universal these may be. In addition to these He,
as well as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá after Him, has, unlike the Dispensations of the
past, clearly and specifically laid down a set of Laws, established definite
institutions, and provided for the essentials of a Divine Economy. These
are destined to be a pattern for future society, a supreme instrument for the
establishment of the Most Great Peace, and the one agency for the
unification of the world, and the proclamation of the reign of righteousness
and justice upon the earth. …

Leaders of religion, exponents of political theories, governors of
human institutions, who at present are witnessing with perplexity and
dismay the bankruptcy of their ideas, and the disintegration of their
handiwork, would do well to turn their gaze to the Revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh, and to meditate upon the World Order which, lying enshrined
in His teachings, is slowly and imperceptibly rising amid the welter and
chaos of present-day civilization. They need have no doubt or anxiety
regarding the nature, the origin or validity of the institutions which the
adherents of the

Faith are building up throughout the world. For these lie embedded in the
teachings themselves, unadulterated and unobscured by unwarrantable
inferences, or unauthorized interpretations of His Word. …

The onrushing forces so miraculously released through the agency of
two independent and swiftly successive Manifestations are now under our
very eyes and through the care of the chosen stewards of a far-flung Faith
being gradually mustered and disciplined. They are slowly crystallizing
into institutions that will come to be regarded as the hall-mark and glory of
the age we are called upon to establish and by our deeds immortalize. …

It would be utterly misleading to attempt a comparison between this
unique, this divinely-conceived Order and any of the diverse systems which
the minds of men, at various periods of their history, have contrived for the
government of human institutions. Such an attempt would in itself betray a
lack of complete appreciation of the excellence of the handiwork of its great
Author. How could it be otherwise when we remember that this Order
constitutes the very pattern of that divine civilization which the almighty
Law of Bahá’u’lláh is designed to establish upon earth? The divers and
ever-shifting systems of human

polity, whether past or present, whether originating in the East or in the
West, offer no adequate criterion wherewith to estimate the potency of its
hidden virtues or to appraise the solidity of its foundations.

The Bahá’í Commonwealth of the future, of which this vast
Administrative Order is the sole framework, is, both in theory and practice,
not only unique in the entire history of political institutions, but can find no
parallel in the annals of any of the world’s recognized religious systems.
No form of democratic government; no system of autocracy or of
dictatorship, whether monarchical or republican; no intermediary scheme of
a purely aristocratic order; nor even any of the recognized types of
theocracy, whether it be the Hebrew Commonwealth, or the various
Christian ecclesiastical organizations, or the Imamate or the Caliphate in
Islám—none of these can be identified or be said to conform with the
Administrative Order which the master-hand of its perfect Architect has
fashioned.

This new-born Administrative Order incorporates within its structure
certain elements which are to be found in each of the three recognized
forms of secular government, without being in any sense a mere replica of
any one of them, and without introducing within its machinery any of the
objectionable features which they inherently possess. It blends and
harmonizes, as no government fashioned by mortal hands

has as yet accomplished, the salutary truths which each of these systems
undoubtedly contains without vitiating the integrity of those God-given
verities on which it is ultimately founded.

The Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh must in no wise
be regarded as purely democratic in character inasmuch as the basic
assumption which requires all democracies to depend fundamentally upon
getting their mandate from the people is altogether lacking in this
Dispensation. In the conduct of the administrative affairs of the Faith, in
the enactment of the legislation necessary to supplement the laws of the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the members of the Universal House of Justice, it should be
borne in mind, are not, as Bahá’u’lláh’s utterances clearly imply,
responsible to those whom they represent, nor are they allowed to be
governed by the feelings, the general opinion, and even the convictions of
the mass of the faithful, or of those who directly elect them. They are to
follow, in a prayerful attitude, the dictates and promptings of their
conscience. They may, indeed they must, acquaint themselves with the
conditions prevailing among the community, must weigh dispassionately in
their minds the merits of any case presented for their consideration, but
must reserve for themselves the right of an unfettered decision. “God will
verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth,” is Bahá’u’lláh’s
incontrovertible assurance. They, and

not the body of those who either directly or indirectly elect them, have thus
been made the recipients of the divine guidance which is at once the life-
blood and ultimate safeguard of this Revelation. …

Nor can the Bahá’í Administrative Order be dismissed as a hard and
rigid system of unmitigated autocracy or as an idle imitation of any form of
absolutistic ecclesiastical government, whether it be the Papacy, the
Imamate or any other similar institution, for the obvious reason that upon
the international elected representatives of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh has
been conferred the exclusive right of legislating on matters not expressly
revealed in the Bahá’í writings. Neither the Guardian of the Faith nor any
institution apart from the International House of Justice can ever usurp this
vital and essential power or encroach upon that sacred right. The abolition
of professional priesthood with its accompanying sacraments of baptism, of
communion and of confession of sins, the laws requiring the election by
universal suffrage of all local, national, and international Houses of Justice,
the total absence of episcopal authority with its attendant privileges,
corruptions and bureaucratic tendencies, are further evidences of the non-
autocratic character of the Bahá’í Administrative Order and of its
inclination to democratic methods in the administration of its affairs.

Nor is this Order identified with the name of

Bahá’u’lláh to be confused with any system of purely aristocratic
government in view of the fact that it upholds, on the one hand, the
hereditary principle and entrusts the Guardian of the Faith with the
obligation of interpreting its teachings, and provides, on the other, for the
free and direct election from among the mass of the faithful of the body that
constitutes its highest legislative organ.

Whereas this Administrative Order cannot be said to have been
modelled after any of these recognized systems of government, it
nevertheless embodies, reconciles and assimilates within its framework
such wholesome elements as are to be found in each one of them. The
hereditary authority which the Guardian is called upon to exercise, the vital
and essential functions which the Universal House of Justice discharges, the
specific provisions requiring its democratic election by the representatives
of the faithful—these combine to demonstrate the truth that this divinely
revealed Order, which can never be identified with any of the standard types
of government referred to by Aristotle in his works, embodies and blends
with the spiritual verities on which it is based the beneficent elements which
are to be found in each one of them. The admitted evils inherent in each of
these systems being rigidly and permanently excluded, this unique Order,
however long it may endure and however extensive its ramifications, cannot
ever dege-

nerate into any form of despotism, of oligarchy, or of demagogy which
must sooner or later corrupt the machinery of all man-made and essentially
defective political institutions. …

Significant as are the origins of this mighty administrative structure,
and however unique its features, the happenings that may be said to have
heralded its birth and signalized the initial stage of its evolution seem no
less remarkable. How striking, how edifying the contrast between the
process of slow and steady consolidation that characterizes the growth of its
infant strength and the devastating onrush of the forces of disintegration
that are assailing the outworn institutions, both religious and secular, of
present-day society!

The vitality which the organic institutions of this great, this ever-
expanding Order so strongly exhibit; the obstacles which the high courage,
the undaunted resolution of its administrators have already surmounted; the
fire of an unquenchable enthusiasm that glows with undiminished fervour in
the hearts of its itinerant teachers; the heights of self-sacrifice which its
champion-builders are now attaining; the breadth of vision, the confident
hope, the creative joy, the inward peace, the uncompromising integrity, the
exemplary discipline, the unyielding unity and solidarity which its stalwart
defenders manifest; the degree to which its moving Spirit has shown itself

capable of assimilating the diversified elements within its pale, of cleansing
them of all forms of prejudice and of fusing them with its own structure—
these are evidences of a power which a disillusioned and sadly shaken
society can ill afford to ignore.

Compare these splendid manifestations of the spirit animating this
vibrant body of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh with the cries and agony, the follies
and vanities, the bitterness and prejudices, the wickedness and divisions of
an ailing and chaotic world. Witness the fear that torments its leaders and
paralyzes the action of its blind and bewildered statesmen. How fierce the
hatreds, how false the ambitions, how petty the pursuits, how deep-rooted
the suspicions of its peoples! How disquieting the lawlessness, the
corruption, the unbelief that are eating into the vitals of a tottering
civilization!

Might not this process of steady deterioration which is insidiously
invading so many departments of human activity and thought be regarded
as a necessary accompaniment to the rise of this almighty Arm of
Bahá’u’lláh? Might we not look upon the momentous happenings which …
have so deeply agitated every continent of the earth, as ominous signs
simultaneously proclaiming the agonies of a disintegrating civilization and
the birthpangs of that World Order—that Ark of human salvation—that
must needs arise upon its ruins?

IV
World Commonwealth

The contrast between the accumulating evidences of steady
consolidation that accompany the rise of the Administrative Order of the
Faith of God, and the forces of disintegration which batter at the fabric of a
travailing society, is as clear as it is arresting. Both within and outside the
Bahá’í world the signs and tokens which, in a mysterious manner, are
heralding the birth of that World Order, the establishment of which must
signalize the Golden Age of the Cause of God, are growing and multiplying
day by day. No fair-minded observer can any longer fail to discern them.
He cannot be misled by the painful slowness characterizing the unfoldment
of the civilization which the followers of Bahá’u’lláh are labouring to
establish. Nor can he be deluded by the ephemeral manifestations of
returning prosperity which at times appear to be capable of checking the
disruptive influence of the chronic ills afflicting the institutions of a
decaying age. The signs of the times are too numerous
and compelling to allow him to mistake their character or to belittle their
significance. He can, if he be fair in his judgement, recognize in the chain
of events which proclaim on the one hand the irresistible march of the
institutions directly associated with the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh and
foreshadow on the other the downfall of those powers and principalities that
have either ignored or opposed it—he can recognize in them all evidences
of the operation of God’s all-pervasive Will, the shaping of His perfectly
ordered and world-embracing Plan.

“Soon,” Bahá’u’lláh’s own words proclaim it, “will the present day
Order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord
speaketh the truth and is the Knower of things unseen.” “By Myself,” He
solemnly asserts, “the day is approaching when We will have rolled up the
world and all that is therein, and spread out a new Order in its stead. He,
verily, is powerful over all things.” “The world’s equilibrium,” He
explains, “hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this Most
Great, this new World Order. Mankind’s ordered life hath been
revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System, the
like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed.” “The signs of impending
convulsions and chaos,” He warns the peoples of the world, “can now be
discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing Order appeareth to be lamentably
defective.” …

No machinery falling short of the standard incul-

cated by the Bahá’í Revelation, and at variance with the sublime pattern
ordained in His teachings, which the collective efforts of mankind may yet
devise can ever hope to achieve anything above or beyond that “Lesser
Peace” to which the Author of our Faith has Himself alluded in His
writings. “Now that ye have refused the Most Great Peace,” He,
admonishing the kings and rulers of the earth, has written, “hold ye fast
unto this the Lesser Peace, that haply ye may in some degree better your
own condition and that of your dependents.” Expatiating on this Lesser
Peace, He thus addresses in that same Tablet the rulers of the earth: “Be
reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need no more armaments save in
a measure to safeguard your territories and dominions. … Be united, O
kings of the earth, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst
you, and your peoples find rest, if ye be of them that comprehend. Should
any one among you take up arms against another, rise ye all against him,
for this is naught but manifest justice.”

The Most Great Peace, on the other hand, as conceived by
Bahá’u’lláh—a peace that must inevitably follow as the practical
consequence of the spiritualization of the world and the fusion of all its
races, creeds, classes and nations—can rest on no other basis, and can be
preserved through no other agency, except the divinely appointed
ordinances that are implicit in the World Order that stands associated with
His holy

name. In His Tablet, revealed almost seventy1 years ago to Queen Victoria,
Bahá’u’lláh, alluding to this Most Great Peace, has declared: “That which
the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument
for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one
universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved
except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired
Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and all else naught but error.” … “It
beseemeth all men in this Day,” He, in another Tablet, asserts, “to take firm
hold on the Most Great Name, and to establish the unity of all mankind.
There is no place to flee to, no refuge that any one can seek, except Him.”

The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, whose supreme mission is none other
but the achievement of this organic and spiritual unity of the whole body of
nations, should, if we be faithful to its implications, be regarded as
signalizing through its advent the coming of age of the entire human race.
It should be viewed not merely as yet another spiritual revival in the ever-
changing fortunes of mankind, not only as a further stage in a chain of
progressive Revelations, nor even as the culmination of one of a series of
recurrent prophetic cycles, but rather as marking the last and highest stage
in the stupendous evolution of man’s collective life on this planet. The
emergence of a world community, the consciousness of world citizen-

Now more than a hundred.
ship, the founding of a world civilization and culture—all of which must
synchronize with the initial stages in the unfoldment of the Golden Age of
the Bahá’í Era—should, by their very nature, be regarded, as far as this
planetary life is concerned, as the furthermost limits in the organization of
human society, though man, as an individual, will, nay must indeed as a
result of such a consummation, continue indefinitely to progress and
develop.

That mystic, all-pervasive, yet indefinable change, which we associate
with the stage of maturity inevitable in the life of the individual and the
development of the fruit must, if we would correctly apprehend the
utterances of Bahá’u’lláh, have its counterpart in the evolution of the
organization of human society. A similar stage must sooner or later be
attained in the collective life of mankind, producing an even more striking
phenomenon in world relations, and endowing the whole human race with
such potentialities of well-being as shall provide, throughout the succeeding
ages, the chief incentive required for the eventual fulfilment of its high
destiny. …

Only those who are willing to associate the Revelation proclaimed by
Bahá’u’lláh with the consummation of so stupendous an evolution in the
collective life of the whole human race can grasp the significance of the
words which He, while alluding to the glories of this promised Day and to
the duration of

the Bahá’í Era, has deemed fit to utter. “This is the King of Days, He
exclaims, the Day that hath seen the coming of the Best-Beloved, Him Who,
through all eternity, hath been acclaimed the Desire of the World.” “The
Scriptures of past Dispensations,” He further asserts, “celebrate the great
jubilee that must needs greet this most great Day of God. Well is it with
him that hath lived to see this Day and hath recognized its station.” …

Though the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh has been delivered, the World
Order which such a Revelation must needs beget is as yet unborn. Though
the Heroic Age of His Faith is passed, the creative energies which that Age
has released have not as yet crystallized into that world society which, in
the fullness of time, is to mirror forth the brightness of His glory. Though
the framework of His Administrative Order has been erected, and the
Formative Period of the Bahá’í Era has begun, yet the promised Kingdom
into which the seed of His institutions must ripen remains as yet
uninaugurated. Though His Voice has been raised, and the ensigns of His
Faith have been lifted up in no less than forty countries1 of both the East
and the West, yet the wholeness of the human race is as yet unrecognized,
its unity unproclaimed, and the standard of its Most Great Peace unhoisted.
…

For the revelation of so great a favour a period of

Written in 1936, since when the number has increased to 335, comprising 152
independent states and 183 territories.
intense turmoil and widespread suffering would seem to be indispensable.
Resplendent as has been the Age that has witnessed the inception of the
Mission with which Bahá’u’lláh has been entrusted, the interval which must
elapse ere that Age yields its choicest fruit must, it is becoming increasingly
apparent, be overshadowed by such moral and social gloom as can alone
prepare an unrepentant humanity for the prize she is destined to inherit.

Into such a period we are now steadily and irresistibly moving.
Amidst the shadows which are increasingly gathering about us we can
faintly discern the glimmerings of Bahá’u’lláh’s unearthly sovereignty
appearing fitfully on the horizon of history. To us, the “generation of the
half-light,” living at a time which may be designated as the period of the
incubation of the World Commonwealth envisaged by Bahá’u’lláh, has
been assigned a task whose high privilege we can never sufficiently
appreciate, and the arduousness of which we can as yet but dimly recognize.
We may well believe, we who are called upon to experience the operation
of the dark forces destined to unloose a flood of agonizing afflictions, that
the darkest hour that must precede the dawn of the Golden Age of our Faith
has not yet struck. Deep as is the gloom that already encircles the world,
the afflictive ordeals which that world is to suffer are still in preparation,
nor can their blackness be as yet imagined. We stand on the

threshold of an age whose convulsions proclaim alike the death-pangs of
the old order and the birth-pangs of the new. Through the generating
influence of the Faith announced by Bahá’u’lláh this New World Order may
be said to have been conceived. We can, at the present moment, experience
its stirrings in the womb of a travailing age—an age waiting for the
appointed hour at which it can cast its burden and its fairest fruit.

“The whole earth,” writes Bahá’u’lláh, “is now in a state of
pregnancy. The day is approaching when it will have yielded its noblest
fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the loftiest trees, the most
enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly blessings.”

“The Call of God,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has written, “when raised, breathed
a new life into the body of mankind, and infused a new spirit into the whole
creation. It is for this reason that the world hath been moved to its depths,
and the hearts and consciences of men been quickened. Ere long the
evidences of this regeneration will be revealed, and the fast asleep will be
awakened.” …

Unification of the whole of mankind is the hallmark of the stage which
human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state,
and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World
unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-
building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sov-

ereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must
abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human
relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best
incarnate this fundamental principle of its life.

“A new life,” Bahá’u’lláh proclaims, “is, in this age, stirring within all
the peoples of the earth; and yet none hath discovered its cause, or
perceived its motive.” “O ye children of men,” He thus addresses His
generation, “the fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His
Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human
race …. This is the straight path, the fixed and immovable foundation.
Whatsoever is raised on this foundation, the changes and chances of the
world can never impair its strength, nor will the revolution of countless
centuries undermine its structure.” “The well-being of mankind,” He
declares, “its peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity
is firmly established.” “So powerful is the light of unity,” is His further
testimony, “that it can illuminate the whole earth. The one true God, He
Who knoweth all things, Himself testifieth to the truth of these words. …
This goal excelleth every other goal, and this aspiration is the monarch of
all aspirations.” “He Who is your Lord, the All-Merciful,” He, moreover,
has written, “cherisheth in His heart the desire of beholding the entire
human race as one soul and one body. Haste ye to win your share of God’s
good grace and mercy in this Day that eclipseth all other created days.”

The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Bahá’u’lláh, implies the
establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds
and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy
of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the
individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded.
This commonwealth must, as far as we can visualize it, consist of a world
legislature, whose members will, as the trustees of the whole of mankind,
ultimately control the entire resources of all the component nations, and will
enact such laws as shall be required to regulate the life, satisfy the needs
and adjust the relationships of all races and peoples. A world executive,
backed by an international Force, will carry out the decisions arrived at, and
apply the laws enacted by, this world legislature, and will safeguard the
organic unity of the whole commonwealth. A world tribunal will adjudicate
and deliver its compulsory and final verdict in all and any disputes that may
arise between the various elements constituting this universal system. A
mechanism of world intercommunication will be devised, embracing the
whole planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and
functioning with marvellous swiftness and perfect regularity. A world
metropolis will act as the nerve centre of a world civilization, the focus
towards which the unifying forces of life will converge and

from which its energizing influences will radiate. A world language will
either be invented or chosen from among the existing languages and will be
taught in the schools of all the federated nations as an auxiliary to their in
other tongue. A world script, a world literature, a uniform and universal
system of currency, of weights and measures, will simplify and facilitate
intercourse and understanding among the nations and races of mankind. In
such a world society, science and religion, the two most potent forces in
human life, will be reconciled, will co-operate, and will harmoniously
develop. The press will, under such a system, while giving full scope to the
expression of the diversified views and convictions of mankind, cease to be
mischievously manipulated by vested interests, whether private or public,
and will be liberated from the influence of contending governments and
peoples. The economic resources of the world will be organized, its sources
of raw materials will be tapped and fully utilized, its markets will be
coordinated and developed, and the distribution of its products will be
equitably regulated.

National rivalries, hatreds, and intrigues will cease, and racial
animosity and prejudice will be replaced by racial amity, understanding and
co-operation. The causes of religious strife will be permanently removed,
economic barriers and restrictions will be completely abolished, and the
inordinate distinction between

classes will be obliterated. Destitution on the one hand, and gross
accumulation of ownership on the other, will disappear. The enormous
energy dissipated and wasted on war, whether economic or political, will be
consecrated to such ends as will extend the range of human inventions and
technical development, to the increase of the productivity of mankind, to the
extermination of disease, to the extension of scientific research, to the
raising of the standard of physical health, to the sharpening and refinement
of the human brain, to the exploitation of the unused and unsuspected
resources of the planet, to the prolongation of human life, and to the
furtherance of any other agency that can stimulate the intellectual, the
moral, and spiritual life of the entire human race.

A world federal system, ruling the whole earth and exercising
unchallengeable authority over its unimaginably vast resources, blending
and embodying the ideals of both the East and the West, liberated from the
curse of war and its miseries, and bent on the exploitation of all the
available sources of energy on the surface of the planet, a system in which
Force is made the servant of Justice, whose life is sustained by its universal
recognition of one God and by its allegiance to one common Revelation—
such is the goal towards which humanity, impelled by the unifying forces of
life, is moving.

V
The Destiny of Mankind

As we gaze in retrospect beyond the immediate past, and survey, in
however cursory a manner, the vicissitudes afflicting an increasingly
tormented society, and recall the strains and stresses to which the fabric of a
dying Order has been increasingly subjected, we cannot but marvel at the
sharp contrast presented, on the one hand, by the accumulated evidences of
the orderly unfoldment, and the uninterrupted multiplication of the
agencies, of an Administrative Order designed to be the harbinger of a
world civilization, and, on the other, by the ominous manifestations of acute
political conflict, of social unrest, of racial animosity, of class antagonism,
of immorality and of irreligion, proclaiming, in no uncertain terms, the
corruption and obsolescence of the institutions of a bankrupt Order. …

“The winds of despair,” writes Bahá’u’lláh, as He
surveys the immediate destinies of mankind, “are, alas, blowing from every
direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily
increasing.” “Such shall be its plight,” He, in another connection, has
declared, “that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly.” “These
fruitless strifes,” He, on the other hand, contemplating the future of
mankind, has emphatically prophesied, in the course of His memorable
interview with the Persian Orientalist, Edward G. Browne, “these ruinous
wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come. … These
strifes and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one
kindred and one family.” …

“All nations and kindreds,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá likewise has written, “…
will become a single nation. Religious and sectarian antagonism, the
hostility of races and peoples, and differences among nations, will be
eliminated. All men will adhere to one religion, will have one common
faith, will be blended into one race, and become a single people. All will
dwell in one common fatherland, which is the planet itself.”

What we witness at the present time, during “this gravest crisis in the
history of civilization,” recalling such times in which “religions have
perished and are born,” is the adolescent stage in the slow and painful
evolution of humanity, preparatory to the attainment of the stage of
manhood, the stage of maturity, the promise of which is embedded in the
teachings, and enshrined in the prophecies, of Bahá’u’lláh. The

tumult of this age of transition is characteristic of the impetuosity and
irrational instincts of youth, its follies, its prodigality, its pride, its self-
assurance, its rebelliousness, and contempt of discipline.

The ages of its infancy and childhood are past, never again to return,
while the Great Age, the consummation of all ages, which must signalize
the coming of age of the entire human race, is yet to come. The convulsions
of this transitional and most turbulent period in the annals of humanity are
the essential prerequisites, and herald the inevitable approach, of that Age
of Ages, “the time of the end,” in which the folly and tumult of strife that
has, since the dawn of history, blackened the annals of mankind, will have
been finally transmuted into the wisdom and the tranquillity of an
undisturbed, a universal, and lasting peace, in which the discord and
separation of the children of men will have given way to the worldwide
reconciliation, and the complete unification of the divers elements that
constitute human society.

This will indeed be the fitting climax of that process of integration
which, starting with the family, the smallest unit in the scale of human
organization, must, after having called successively into being the tribe, the
city-state and the nation, continue to operate until it culminates in the
unification of the whole world, the final object and the crowning glory of
human evolution on this planet. It is this stage which

humanity, willingly or unwillingly, is resistlessly approaching. It is for this
stage that this vast, this fiery ordeal which humanity is experiencing is
mysteriously paving the way. It is with this stage that the fortunes and the
purpose of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh are indissolubly linked. It is the
creative energies which His Revelation has released … that have instilled
into humanity the capacity to attain this final stage in its organic and
collective evolution. It is with the Golden Age of His Dispensation that the
consummation of this process will be for ever associated. It is the structure
of His New World Order, now stirring in the womb of the administrative
institutions He Himself has created, that will serve both as a pattern and a
nucleus of that world commonwealth which is the sure, the inevitable
destiny of the peoples and nations of the earth.

Just as the organic evolution of mankind has been slow and gradual,
and involved successively the unification of the family, the tribe, the city-
state, and the nation, so has the light vouchsafed by the Revelation of God,
at various stages in the evolution of religion, and reflected in the successive
Dispensations of the past, been slow and progressive. Indeed the measure
of Divine Revelation, in every age, has been adapted to, and commensurate
with, the degree of social progress achieved in that age by a constantly-
evolving humanity.

“It hath been decreed by Us,” explains Bahá’u’lláh, “that the Word of
God, and all the potentialities thereof, shall be manifested unto men in strict
conformity with such conditions as have been foreordained by Him Who is
the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. … Should the Word be allowed to release
suddenly all the energies latent within it, no man could sustain the weight of
so mighty a Revelation.” “All created things,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá elucidating
this truth, has affirmed, “have their degree or stage of maturity. The period
of maturity in the life of a tree is the time of its fruit-bearing. … The animal
attains a stage of full growth and completeness, and in the human kingdom
man reaches his maturity when the light of his intelligence attains its
greatest power and development. … Similarly there are periods and stages
in the collective life of humanity. At one time it was passing through its
stage of childhood, at another its period of youth, but now it has entered its
long-predicted phase of maturity, the evidences of which are everywhere
apparent. … That which was applicable to human needs during the early
history of the race can neither meet nor satisfy the demands of this day, this
period of newness and consummation. Humanity has emerged from its
former state of imitation and preliminary training. Man must now become
imbued with new virtues and powers, new moral standards, new capacities.
New bounties, perfect bestowals, are awaiting and already descending upon
him. The gifts and blessings of the period of youth, although timely and
sufficient during the adolescence of mankind, are

now incapable of meeting the requirements of its maturity.” …

This is the stage which the world is now approaching, the stage of
world unity, which, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá assures us, will, in this century, be
securely established. “The Tongue of Grandeur,” Bahá’u’lláh Himself
affirms, “hath … in the Day of His Manifestation proclaimed: ‘It is not his
to boast who loveth his country, but it is his who loveth the world.’”
“Through the power,” He adds, “released by these exalted words He hath
lent a fresh impulse, and set a new direction, to the birds of men’s hearts,
and hath obliterated every trace of restriction and limitation from God’s
Holy Book.”

A word of warning should, however, be uttered in this connection.
The love of one’s country, instilled and stressed by the teaching of Islám, as
“an element of the Faith of God” has not, through this declaration, this
clarion-call of Bahá’u’lláh, been either condemned or disparaged. It should
not, indeed it cannot, be construed as a repudiation, or regarded in the light
of a censure pronounced against, a sane and intelligent patriotism, nor does
it seek to undermine the allegiance and loyalty of any individual to his
country, nor does it conflict with the legitimate aspirations, rights, and
duties of any individual state or nation. All it does imply and proclaim is
the insufficiency of patriotism, in view of the fundamental changes effected
in the economic life of society and the interdependence of

the nations, and as the consequence of the contraction of the world, through
the revolution in the means of transportation and communication—
conditions that did not and could not exist either in the days of Jesus Christ
or of Muḥammad. It calls for a wider loyalty, which should not, and indeed
does not, conflict with lesser loyalties. It instils a love which, in view of its
scope, must include and not exclude the love of one’s own country. It lays,
through this loyalty which it inspires, and this love which it infuses, the
only foundation on which the concept of world citizenship can thrive, and
the structure of world unification can rest. It does insist, however, on the
subordination of national considerations and particularistic interests to the
imperative and paramount claims of humanity as a whole, inasmuch as in a
world of interdependent nations and peoples the advantage of the part is
best to be reached by the advantage of the whole.

The world is, in truth, moving on towards its destiny. The
interdependence of the peoples and nations of the earth, whatever the
leaders of the divisive forces of the world may say or do, is already an
accomplished fact. Its unity in the economic sphere is now understood and
recognized. The welfare of the part means the welfare of the whole, and the
distress of the part brings distress to the whole. The Revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh has, in His own words, “lent a fresh impulse and set a new
direction” to this vast process

now operating in the world. The fires lit by this great ordeal are the
consequences of men’s failure to recognize it. They are, moreover,
hastening its consummation. Adversity, prolonged, world-wide, afflictive,
allied to chaos and universal destruction, must needs convulse the nations,
stir the conscience of the world, disillusion the masses, precipitate a radical
change in the very conception of society, and coalesce ultimately the
disjointed, the bleeding limbs of mankind into one body, single, organically
united, and indivisible.

To the general character, the implications and features of this world
commonwealth, destined to emerge, sooner or later, out of the carnage,
agony, and havoc of this great world convulsion, I have already referred in
my previous communications. Suffice it to say that this consummation will,
by its very nature, be a gradual process, and must, as Bahá’u’lláh has
Himself anticipated, lead at first to the establishment of that Lesser Peace
which the nations of the earth, as yet unconscious of His Revelation and yet
unwittingly enforcing the general principles which He has enunciated, will
themselves establish. This momentous and historic step, involving the
reconstruction of mankind, as the result of the universal recognition of its
oneness and wholeness, will bring in its wake the spiritualization of the
masses, consequent to the recognition of the character, and the

acknowledgment of the claims, of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—the essential
condition to that ultimate fusion of all races, creeds, classes, and nations
which must signalize the emergence of His New World Order.

Then will the coming of age of the entire human race be proclaimed
and celebrated by all the peoples and nations of the earth. Then will the
banner of the Most Great Peace be hoisted. Then will the worldwide
sovereignty of Bahá’u’lláh—the Establisher of the Kingdom of the Father
foretold by the Son, and anticipated by the Prophets of God before Him and
after Him—be recognized, acclaimed, and firmly established. Then will a
world civilization be born, flourish, and perpetuate itself, a civilization with
a fullness of life such as the world has never seen nor can as yet conceive.
Then will the Everlasting Covenant be fulfilled in its completeness. Then
will the promise enshrined in all the Books of God be redeemed, and all the
prophecies uttered by the Prophets of old come to pass, and the vision of
seers and poets be realized. Then will the planet, galvanized through the
universal belief of its dwellers in one God, and their allegiance to one
common Revelation, mirror, within the limitations imposed upon it, the
effulgent glories of the sovereignty of Bahá’u’lláh, shining in the plenitude
of its splendour in the Abhá Paradise, and be made the footstool of His
Throne on high, and acclaimed as the earthly heaven, capable of

fulfilling that ineffable destiny fixed for it, from time immemorial, by the
love and wisdom of its Creator.

Not ours, puny mortals that we are, to attempt, at so critical a stage in
the long and chequered history of mankind, to arrive at a precise and
satisfactory understanding of the steps which must successively lead a
bleeding humanity, wretchedly oblivious of its God, and careless of
Bahá’u’lláh, from its Calvary to its ultimate resurrection. Not ours, the
living witnesses of the all-subduing potency of His Faith, to question, for a
moment, and however dark the misery that enshrouds the world, the ability
of Bahá’u’lláh to forge, with the hammer of His will, and through the fire of
tribulation, upon the anvil of this travailing age, and in the particular shape
His mind has envisioned, these scattered and mutually destructive
fragments into which a perverse world has fallen, into one single unit, solid
and indivisible, able to execute His design for the children of men.

Ours rather the duty, however confused the scene, however dismal the
present outlook, however circumscribed the resources we dispose of, to
labour serenely, confidently and unremittingly to lend our share of
assistance, in whichever way circumstances may enable us, to the operation
of the forces which, as marshalled and directed by Bahá’u’lláh, are leading
humanity out of the valley of misery and shame to the loftiest summits of
power and glory.

References
The published works of Shoghi Effendi, from which the extracts in this book
have been selected, are:

Reference
The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh—Further Considerations
(March, 1930)                                                         WOB-FC
The Goal of a New World Order (November, 1931)                             GNWO
The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh (February, 1934)                           DB
The Unfoldment of World Civilization (March, 1936)                         UWC
The Promised Day is Come (March, 1941)                                     PDC
God Passes By (1944)                                                       GPB
Messages to the Bahá’í World 1950–1957 (1958)                              MBW

The first four titles, although published separately, were, in 1938, included in a
compilation of Shoghi Effendi’s writings published under the title, The World Order
of Bahá’u’lláh. Since this volume is now the more generally available source of
these four letters, extracts from them have been referred to that volume, e.g.
GNWO-WOB, 33–48. The remaining works quoted are published individually.

The references given are to the editions of the Bahá’í Publishing Trust of the
United States.

page    line
1        1      The Introduction consists of extracts from a statement
prepared by Shoghi Effendi for the United Nations
Special Committee on Palestine, July 1947.
page   line
1       1   “A tempest, unprecedented …” to “admonitions re-
vealed by His Messengers.” (PDC, 1–6)
6      9    “What, then might we not” to “annals of mankind.”
(PDC, 49–50)
6     27    “The decline in the fortunes” to “latter irretrievably
lost.” (PDC, 76)
7     15    “That the solidarity of some” to “heaped humiliation
upon them. (UWC-WOB, 183–184)
8      6    “The signs of moral downfall” to “must be either reborn
or perish.” (UWG-WOB, 186–188)
10     14    “Let none, however,” to “their highest hopes.” (PDC,
111–112)
12      1    “Nor should it be thought” to “‘these blessed souls.’”
(PDC, 114–115)
12     13    “Bahá’u’lláh, referring to” to “claim He has advanced.”
(WOB-FC–WOB, 25)
13      6    “The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh” to “should be made manifest.”
(DB-WOB, 103)
13     15    “The weight of the potentialities” to “influence of His
Spirit.” (GPB, xi–xii)
15     19    “Mysteriously, slowly, and resistlessly” to “no eye can
visualize it.” (PDC, 120)
17      1    Section II is taken entirely from “The Goal of a New
World Order”. (WOB, 33–48)
36      1    “Few will fail to recognize” to “justice upon the earth.”
(WOB-FC—WOB, 19)
37     18    “Leaders of religion,” to “unauthorized interpretations of
His Word.” (WOB-FC—WOB, 24)
38      6    “The onrushing forces” to “by our deeds immortalize.”
(DB-WOB, 98)
38     15    “It would be utterly misleading” to “safeguard of this
Revelation.” (DB-WOB, 152–153)
41      5    “Nor can the Bahá’í Administrative Order” to “must
needs arise upon its ruins?” (DB-WOB, 153–155)

page   line
45       1   “The contrast between” to “‘appeareth to be lamentably
defective.’” (UWC-WOB, 161–162)
46     28    “No machinery falling short” to “fulfilment of its high
destiny.” (UWG-WOB, 162–164)
49     23    “Only those who are willing” to “‘recognized its station.’”
(UWC-WOB, 166–167)
50      9    “Though the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh” to “Most Great
Peace unhoisted.” (UWC-WOB, 168)
50     26    “For the revelation” to “‘most heavenly blessings.’”
(UWC-WOB, 168–169)
52     15    “The Call of God,” to “‘fast asleep will be awakened.’”
(UWC-WOB, 169)
52     22    “Unification of the whole of mankind” to “unifying
forces of life, is moving.” (UWC-WOB, 202–204)
57      1    “As we gaze” to “institutions of a bankrupt Order.”
(MBW, 102–103)
57     17    “‘The winds of despair,’” to “‘requirements of its maturity.’”
(PDC, 121–123)
62      3    “This is the stage which the world” to “summits of
power and glory.” (PDC, 126–429)
-- Call to the Nations (Used by permission of the curator)