IV
The source of the optimism we feel is
a vision transcending the cessation of war and the creation of agencies of international
cooperation. Permanent peace among nations is an essential stage, but not, Bahá'u'lláh 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 cooperation 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," Bahá'u'lláh 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 agelong martyrdom",
Shoghi Effendi further commented that: "Unification of the whole of mankind is the
hallmark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe,
of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World
unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come
to an end. The anarchy inherent in state 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 favorable
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 cooperation
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 Bahá'í 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 Bahá'í
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 gemlike reality of man; honored 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 unshakable faith that unity and peace are
the attainable goal towards which humanity is striving.
At this writing, the expectant voices of
Bahá'ís 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 Bahá'u'lláh'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 coreligionists 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 fervor of our hope and the depth of our confidence, we cite the emphatic promise
of Bahá'u'lláh: "These fruitless
strafes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the `Most Great Peace' shall come."
THE
UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE |
The Universal House of Justice is the
supreme governing and legislative body of the Bahá'í Faith. Elected quinquennially at an
international convention, the Universal House of Justice gives spiritual guidance to and
directs the administrative activities of the worldwide Bahá'í community that numbers
between three and four million members.
The Bahá'í Faith is an
independent world religion. " It proclaims the necessity and the inevitability of
the unification of mankind.... 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 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
one's government, exalts any work performed in the spirit of service to the level of
worship, urges either the creation or the selection of auxiliary international language,
and delineates the outlines of those institutions that must establish and perpetuate the
general peace of mankind." |
Bahá'u'lláh forbids:
