Compilation on Peace Part 7

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 cla.s.ses will be obliterated.

Dest.i.tution on the one hand, and gross acc.u.mulation of owners.h.i.+p 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 G.o.d 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. 16263, 2014) [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 a.s.sist 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 Publis.h.i.+ng Trust, 1984), pp. 9091) [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 ma.s.ses, 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 antic.i.p.ated, 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 ma.s.ses, 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, cla.s.ses, 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 antic.i.p.ated by the Prophets of G.o.d 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 G.o.d be redeemed, and all the prophecies uttered by the Prophets of old come to pa.s.s, and the vision of seers and poets be realized. Then will the planet, galvanized through the universal belief of its dwellers in one G.o.d, and their allegiance to one common Revelation, mirror, within the limitations imposed upon it, the effulgent glories of the sovereignty of Baha'u'llah, s.h.i.+ning 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. 122124) [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.

("G.o.d Pa.s.ses By", rev. ed. (Wilmette: Baha'i Publis.h.i.+ng Trust, 1987), pp.

217218) [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 emanc.i.p.ation 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 a.s.sociated 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 a.s.sociating 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 a.s.sumed 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 a.s.sembly of the United Nations of the th.o.r.n.y 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 19471957" (Wilmette: Baha'i Publis.h.i.+ng Trust, 1980), p. 6, pp. 3233) [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 inst.i.tutions as the Guardians.h.i.+p, 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 s.e.x 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 G.o.d". 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 inst.i.tutions-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 const.i.tuting 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 inst.i.tutions 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 a.s.sembly of the United States, published in "Messages to the Baha'i World, 19501957" (Wilmette: Baha'i Publis.h.i.+ng Trust, 1971), pp. 7475) [53]

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS WRITTEN ON BEHALF OF SHOGHI EFFENDI

54: The world is in great turmoil, and what is most pathetic is that it has learned...

The world is in great turmoil, and what is most pathetic is that it has learned to keep away from G.o.d, Who alone can save it and alleviate its sufferings. It is our duty, we who have been trusted with the task of applying the divine remedy given by Baha'u'llah, to concentrate our attention upon the consummation of this task, and not rest until the peace foretold by the Prophets of G.o.d is permanently established....

(9 December 1931 to the Baha'is of Tokyo) [54]