The source of the optimism we feel is a vision transcending the cessation
of war and the creation of agencies of international co-operation.
Permanent peace among nations is an essential stage, but not, Baha'u'llah
asserts, the ultimate goal of the social development of humanity. Beyond
the initial armistice forced upon the world by the fear of nuclear
holocaust, beyond the political peace reluctantly entered into by
suspicious rival nations, beyond pragmatic arrangements for security and
coexistence, beyond even the many experiments in co-operation which these
steps will make possible lies the crowning goal: the unification of all
the peoples of the world in one universal family.
Disunity is a danger that the nations and peoples of the earth can no
longer endure; the consequences are too terrible to contemplate, too
obvious to require any demonstration. "The well-being of mankind,"
Baha'u'llah wrote more than a century ago, "its peace and security, are
unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established." In
observing that "mankind is groaning, is dying to be led to unity, and to
terminate its age-long martyrdom", Shoghi Effendi further commented that:
"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."
All contemporary forces of change validate this view. The proofs can be
discerned in the many examples already cited of the favourable signs
towards world peace in current international movements and developments.
The army of men and women, drawn from virtually every culture, race and
nation on earth, who serve the multifarious agencies of the United
Nations, represent a planetary "civil service" whose impressive
accomplishments are indicative of the degree of co-operation that can be
attained even under discouraging conditions. An urge towards unity, like a
spiritual springtime, struggles to express itself through countless
international congresses that bring together people from a vast array of
disciplines. It motivates appeals for international projects involving
children and youth. Indeed, it is the real source of the remarkable
movement towards ecumenism by which members of historically antagonistic
religions and sects seem irresistibly drawn towards one another. Together
with the opposing tendency to warfare and self-aggrandizement against
which it ceaselessly struggles, the drive towards world unity is one of
the dominant, pervasive features of life on the planet during the closing
years of the twentieth century.
The experience of the Baha'i community may be seen as an example of this
enlarging unity. It is a community of some three to four million people
drawn from many nations, cultures, classes and creeds, engaged in a wide
range of activities serving the spiritual, social and economic needs of
the peoples of many lands. It is a single social organism, representative
of the diversity of the human family, conducting its affairs through a
system of commonly accepted consultative principles, and cherishing
equally all the great outpourings of divine guidance in human history. Its
existence is yet another convincing proof of the practicality of its
Founder's vision of a united world, another evidence that humanity can
live as one global society, equal to whatever challenges its coming of age
may entail. If the Baha'i experience can contribute in whatever measure to
reinforcing hope in the unity of the human race, we are happy to offer it
as a model for study.
In contemplating the supreme importance of the task now challenging the
entire world, we bow our heads in humility before the awesome majesty of
the divine Creator, Who out of His infinite love has created all humanity
from the same stock; exalted the gem-like reality of man; honoured it with
intellect and wisdom, nobility and immortality; and conferred upon man the
"unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him", a capacity
that "must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary
purpose underlying the whole of creation."
We hold firmly the conviction that all human beings have been created "to
carry forward an ever-advancing civilization"; that "to act like the
beasts of the field is unworthy of man"; that the virtues that befit human
dignity are trustworthiness, forbearance, mercy, compassion and
loving-kindness towards all peoples. We reaffirm the belief that the
"potentialities inherent in the station of man, the full measure of his
destiny on earth, the innate excellence of his reality, must all be
manifested in this promised Day of God." These are the motivations for our
unshakeable faith that unity and peace are the attainable goal towards
which humanity is striving.
At this writing, the expectant voices of Baha'is can be heard despite the
persecution they still endure in the land in which their Faith was born.
By their example of steadfast hope, they bear witness to the belief that
the imminent realization of this age-old dream of peace is now, by virtue
of the transforming effects of Baha'u'llah's revelation, invested with the
force of divine authority. Thus we convey to you not only a vision in
words: we summon the power of deeds of faith and sacrifice; we convey the
anxious plea of our co-religionists everywhere for peace and unity. We
join with all who are the victims of aggression, all who yearn for an end
to conflict and contention, all whose devotion to principles of peace and
world order promotes the ennobling purposes for which humanity was called
into being by an all-loving Creator.
In the earnestness of our desire to impart to you the fervour of our hope
and the depth of our confidence, we cite the emphatic promise of
Baha'u'llah: "These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away,
and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come."