47: Dearly-beloved friends! Humanity, whether viewed in the light of
man's...
Dearly-beloved friends! 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
international 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, by Baha'u'llah, 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 Baha'u'llah'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 outline, to what appear to us to be the
guiding principles underlying the World Order of Baha'u'llah, as amplified
and enunciated by 'Abdu'l-Baha, the Centre of His Covenant with all
mankind and the appointed Interpreter and Expounder of His Word.
That the unrest and suffering afflicting the mass of mankind are in no
small measure the direct consequences of the World War 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 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 fast
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 Baha'u'llah's supreme declaration of
the Oneness of Mankind--the chief and distinguishing feature of the Faith
He proclaimed?....
How pathetic indeed are the efforts of those leaders of human institutions
who, in utter disregard of the spirit of the age, are striving to adjust
national processes, suited to the ancient days of self-contained nations
to an age which must either achieve the unity of the world, as adumbrated
by Baha'u'llah, 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 Baha'u'llah 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-Baha,
the authorized Expounder of His teachings. You can best serve your
country, was 'Abdu'l-Baha'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.
...
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 for ever 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 Baha'u'llah, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the
fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.
...
Let there be no misgivings as to the animating purpose of the world-wide
Law of Baha'u'llah. 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-Baha
Himself has explained.
...
Its [the principle of the Oneness of Mankind] 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 that 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.
...
To take but one instance. How confident were the assertions made in the
days preceding the unification of the states of the North American
continent regarding the insuperable barriers that stood in the way of
their ultimate federation! Was it not widely and emphatically declared
that the conflicting interests, the mutual distrust, the differences of
government and habit that divided the states were such as no force,
whether spiritual or temporal, could ever hope to harmonize or control?
And yet how different were the conditions prevailing a hundred and fifty
years ago from those that characterize present-day society! It would
indeed be no exaggeration to say that the absence of those facilities
which modern scientific progress has placed at the service of humanity in
our time made of the problem of welding the American states into a single
federation, similar though they were in certain traditions, a task
infinitely more complex than that which confronts a divided humanity in
its efforts to achieve the unification of all mankind.
Who knows that for so exalted a conception to take shape a suffering more
intense that any it has yet experienced will have to be inflicted upon
humanity? Could anything less than the fire of a civil war with all its
violence and vicissitudes--a war that nearly rent the great American
Republic--have welded the states, not only into a Union of independent
units, but into a Nation, in spite of all the ethnic differences that
characterized its component parts? That so fundamental a revolution,
involving such far-reaching changes in the structure of society, can be
achieved through the ordinary processes of diplomacy and education seems
highly improbable. We have but to turn our gaze to humanity's
blood-stained history to realize that nothing short of intense mental as
well as physical agony has been able to precipitate those epoch-making
changes that constitute the greatest landmarks in the history of human
civilization.
Great and far-reaching as have been those changes in the past, they cannot
but 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 Baha'u'llah 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 Baha'u'llah
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."
Has not 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself asserted in unequivocal language that
"another war, fiercer than the last, will assuredly break out"?
Upon the consummation of this colossal, this unspeakably glorious
enterprise--an enterprise that baffled the resources of Roman statesmanship
and which Napoleon's desperate efforts failed to achieve--will depend the
ultimate realization of that millenium of which poets of all ages have
sung and seers have long dreamed. Upon it will depend the fulfilment of
the prophecies uttered by the Prophets of old when swords shall be beaten
into ploughshares and the lion and the lamb lie down together. It alone
can usher in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father as anticipated by the
Faith of Jesus Christ. It alone can lay the foundation for the New World
Order visualized by Baha'u'llah--a World Order that shall reflect, however
dimly, upon this earthly plane, the ineffable splendours of the Abha
Kingdom.
One word more in conclusion. The proclamation of the Oneness of
Mankind--the head corner-stone of Baha'u'llah'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 Baha'u'llah 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 Revelation, of the past in a
language suited to its essential requirements. And what voice other than
that of Baha'u'llah--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
Baha'u'llah stand associated only those whose hearts are tainted by
prejudice can fail to perceive.
(28 November 1931 to the Baha'is of the West, published in "The World
Order of Baha'u'llah: Selected Letters", pp. 33-37, 40-43, 45-48) [47]
48: No machinery falling short of the standard inculcated by the Baha'i...
No machinery falling short of the standard inculcated by the Baha'i
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 Baha'u'llah--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....
...
The Revelation of Baha'u'llah, whose supreme mission is none other but the
achievement of this organic and spiritual unity of the whole body of
nations, should, if we be faithful to its implications, be regarded as
signalizing through its advent the coming of age of the entire human race.
It should be viewed not merely as yet another spiritual revival in the
ever-changing fortunes of mankind, not only as a further stage in a chain
of progressive Revelations, nor even as the culmination of one of a series
of recurrent prophetic cycles, but rather as marking the last and highest
stage in the stupendous evolution of man's collective life on this planet.
The emergence of a world community, the consciousness of world
citizenship, 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 Baha'i 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.
...
The whole of mankind is groaning, is dying to be led to unity, and to
terminate its age-long martyrdom. And yet it stubbornly refuses to embrace
the light and acknowledge the sovereign authority of the one Power that
can extricate it from its entanglements, and avert the woeful calamity
that threatens to engulf it.
Ominous indeed is the voice of Baha'u'llah that rings through these
prophetic words: "O ye peoples of the world! Know, verily, that an
unforeseen calamity followeth you, and grievous retribution awaiteth you.
Think not that which ye have committed hath been effaced in My sight." And
again: "We have a fixed time for you, O peoples. 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. How severe, indeed, is the chastisement with which your Lord
will then chastise you!"
Must humanity, tormented as she now is, be afflicted with still severer
tribulations ere their purifying influence can prepare her to enter the
heavenly Kingdom destined to be established upon earth? Must the
inauguration of so vast, so unique, so illumined an era in human history
be ushered in by so great a catastrophe in human affairs as to recall, nay
surpass, the appalling collapse of Roman civilization in the first
centuries of the Christian Era? Must a series of profound convulsions stir
and rock the human race ere Baha'u'llah can be enthroned in the hearts and
consciences of the masses, ere His undisputed ascendancy is universally
recognized, and the noble edifice of His World Order is reared and
established?
The long ages of infancy and childhood, through which the human race had
to pass, have receded into the background. Humanity is now experiencing
the commotions invariably associated with the most turbulent stage of its
evolution, the stage of adolescence, when the impetuosity of youth and its
vehemence reach their climax, and must gradually be superseded by the
calmness, the wisdom, and the maturity that characterize the stage of
manhood. Then will the human race reach that stature of ripeness which
will enable it to acquire all the powers and capacities upon which its
ultimate development must depend.
...
Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall mark of the stage which
human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of
city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully
established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is
striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in
state sovereignty 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.
...
The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Baha'u'llah, 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
inter-communication 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 mother 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 co-ordinated 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.
(11 March 1936, published in "The World Order of Baha'u'llah: Selected
Letters", pp. 162-63, 201-4) [48]
49: The world-shaking ordeal which Baha'u'llah, as quoted in the foregoing
pages,...
The world-shaking ordeal which Baha'u'llah, as quoted in the foregoing
pages, has so graphically prophesied, may find it [the American nation]
swept, to an unprecedented degree, into its vortex. Out of it it will
probably emerge, unlike its reactions to the last world conflict,
consciously determined to seize its opportunity, to bring the full weight
of its influence to bear upon the gigantic problems that such an ordeal
must leave in its wake, and to exorcise forever, in conjunction with its
sister nations of both the East and the West, the greatest curse which,
from time immemorial, has afflicted and degraded the human race.
Then, and only then, will the American nation, moulded and purified in the
crucible of a common war, inured to its rigours, and disciplined by its
lessons, be in a position to raise its voice in the councils of the
nations, itself lay the corner-stone of a universal and enduring peace,
proclaim the solidarity, the unity, and maturity of mankind, and assist in
the establishment of the promised reign of righteousness on earth. Then,
and only then, will the American nation, while the community of the
American believers within its heart is consummating its divinely appointed
mission, be able to fulfill the unspeakably glorious destiny ordained for
it by the Almighty, and immortally enshrined in the writings of
'Abdu'l-Baha. Then, and only then, will the American nation accomplish
"that which will adorn the pages of history," "become the envy of the
world and be blest in both the East and the West."
(25 December 1938, published in "The Advent of Divine Justice" (Wilmette:
Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1984), pp. 90-91) [49]
50: The world is, in truth, moving on towards its destiny. The...
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 Baha'u'llah
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 Baha'u'llah
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 acknowledgement of the claims, of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah--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 world wide
sovereignty of Baha'u'llah--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 Baha'u'llah,
shining in the plenitude of its splendour in the Abha 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.
(28 March 1941, published in "The Promised Day Is Come", pp. 122-124) [50]
51: The principle of collective security He [Baha'u'llah] unreservedly
urges;...
The principle of collective security He [Baha'u'llah] unreservedly urges;
recommends the reduction in national armaments; and proclaims as necessary
and inevitable the convening of a world gathering at which the kings and
rulers of the world will deliberate for the establishment of peace among
the nations.
("God Passes By", rev. ed. (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1987), pp.
217-218) [51]
52: During this Formative Age of the Faith, and in the course of the
present...
During this Formative Age of the Faith, and in the course of the present
and succeeding epochs, the last and crowning stage in the erection of the
framework of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha'u'llah--the
election of the Universal House of Justice--will have been completed, the
"Kitab-i-Aqdas", the Mother-Book of His Revelation, will have been
codified and its laws promulgated, the Lesser Peace will have been
established, the unity of mankind will have been achieved and its maturity
attained, the Plan conceived by 'Abdu'l-Baha will have been executed, the
emancipation of the Faith from the fetters of religious orthodoxy will
have been effected, and its independent religious status will have been
universally recognized...
...
...we cannot fail to perceive the workings of two simultaneous processes,
generated as far back as the concluding years of the Heroic Age of our
Faith, each clearly defined, each distinctly separate, yet closely related
and destined to culminate, in the fullness of time, in a single glorious
consummation.
One of these processes is associated with the mission of the American
Baha'i community, the other with the destiny of the American nation. The
one serves directly the interests of the Administrative Order of the Faith
of Baha'u'llah...
The other process dates back to the outbreak of the First World War that
threw the Great Republic of the West into the vortex of the first stage of
a world upheaval. It received its initial impetus through the formulation
of President Wilson's Fourteen Points, closely associating for the first
time that Republic with the fortunes of the Old World. It suffered its
first set-back through the dissociation of that Republic from the
newly-born League of Nations which that President had laboured to create.
It acquired added momentum through the outbreak of the Second World War,
inflicting unprecedented suffering on that Republic, and involving it
still further in the affairs of all the continents of the globe. It was
further reinforced through the declaration embodied in the Atlantic
Charter, as voiced by one of its chief progenitors, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
It assumed a definite outline through the birth of the United Nations at
the San Francisco Conference. It acquired added significance through the
choice of the City of the Covenant itself as the seat of the newly-born
organization, through the declaration recently made by the American
President related to his country's commitments in Greece and Turkey, as
well as through the submission to the General Assembly of the United
Nations of the thorny and challenging problem of the Holy Land, the
spiritual as well as the administrative centre of the World Faith of
Baha'u'llah. It must, however long and tortuous the way, lead, through a
series of victories and reverses, to the political unification of the
Eastern and Western Hemispheres, to the emergence of a world government,
and the establishment of the Lesser Peace, as foretold by Baha'u'llah and
foreshadowed by the Prophet Isaiah. It must, in the end, culminate in the
unfurling of the banner of the Most Great Peace, in the Golden Age of the
Dispensation of Baha'u'llah.
(5 June 1947 to the Baha'is of West, published in "Citadel of Faith:
Messages to America 1947-1957" (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1980),
p. 6, pp. 32-33) [52]
53: The raising of this Edifice will in turn herald the construction, in
the...
The raising of this Edifice will in turn herald the construction, in the
course of successive epochs of the Formative Age of the Faith, of several
other structures, which will serve as the administrative seats of such
divinely appointed institutions as the Guardianship, the Hands of the
Cause, and the Universal House of Justice. These Edifices will, in the
shape of a far-flung arc, and following a harmonizing style of
architecture, surround the resting-places of the Greatest Holy Leaf,
ranking as foremost among the members of her sex in the Baha'i
Dispensation, of her Brother, offered up as a ransom by Baha'u'llah for
the quickening of the world and its unification, and of their Mother,
proclaimed by Him to be His chosen "consort in all the worlds of God". The
ultimate completion of this stupendous undertaking will mark the
culmination of the development of a world-wide divinely-appointed
Administrative Order whose beginnings may be traced as far back as the
concluding years of the Heroic Age of the Faith.
This vast and irresistible process, unexampled in the spiritual history of
mankind, and which will synchronize with two no less significant
developments--the establishment of the Lesser Peace and the evolution of
Baha'i national and local institutions--the one outside and the other
within the Baha'i world--will attain its final consummation, in the Golden
Age of the Faith, through the raising of the standard of the Most Great
Peace, and the emergence, in the plenitude of its power and glory, of the
focal Centre of the agencies constituting the World Order of Baha'u'llah.
The final establishment of this seat of the future Baha'i World
Commonwealth will signalize at once the proclamation of the sovereignty of
the Founder of our Faith and the advent of the Kingdom of the Father
repeatedly lauded and promised by Jesus Christ.
This World Order will, in turn, in the course of successive Dispensations
of the Baha'i Cycle, yield its fairest fruit through the birth and
flowering of a civilization, divinely inspired, unique in its features,
world-embracing in its scope, and fundamentally spiritual in its
character--a civilization destined as it unfolds to derive its initial
impulse from the spirit animating the very institutions which, in their
embryonic state, are now stirring in the womb of the present Formative Age
of the Faith.
(27 November 1954 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States,
published in "Messages to the Baha'i World, 1950-1957" (Wilmette: Baha'i
Publishing Trust, 1971), pp. 74-75) [53]