# 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.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> 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 nonessential 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, worldredeeming 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 selfcontained 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 wellbeing 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 worldwide 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 bloodstained 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 lifeblood 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 nonautocratic 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 everexpanding 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 everchanging 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. Nationbuilding 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 selfassurance, 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 citystate, 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 constantlyevolving 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 revealed 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)*