“The whole earth is now in a state of pregnancy.”

“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. Immeasurably exalted is the breeze that wafteth from the garment of thy Lord, the Glorified! For lo, it hath breathed its fragrance and made all things new! Well is it with them that comprehend.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Bahá’u’lláh in ‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“this New World Order may be said to have been conceived…in the womb of a travailing age”

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 yield its fairest fruit. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“the afflictive ordeals which that world is to suffer are still in preparation”

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. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“the operation of the dark forces destined to unloose a flood of agonizing afflictions”

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. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

The “generation of the half-light”

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. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“indispensable period of intense turmoil and wide-spread suffering”; “moral and social gloom”

For the revelation of so great a favor a period of intense turmoil and wide-spread 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. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

The growing “capacity” of the “world of being” for the Faith

“The heights,” Bahá’u’lláh Himself testifies, “which, through the most gracious favor of God, mortal man can attain in this Day are as yet unrevealed to his sight. The world of being hath never had, nor doth it yet possess, the capacity for such a revelation. The day, however, is approaching when the potentialities of so great a favor will, by virtue of His behest, be manifested unto men.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Bahá’u’lláh in ‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

Bahá’u’lláh’s “World Order”; Future “world society” “to mirror forth the brightness of His glory”; “the promised Kingdom into which the seed of His institutions must ripen”; “the wholeness of the human race” and “its unity”; “the standard of its Most Great Peace”

Dearly-beloved friends:

• 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 countries 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.

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“the Sun of Truth shining from its most exalted station”

“This holy Dispensation,” He [‘Abdu’l-Baha], alluding to the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, explains, “is illumined with the light of the Sun of Truth shining from its most exalted station, and in the plenitude of its resplendency, its heat and glory.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting ‘Abdu’l-Baha in ‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

Future Manifestations of God “are under the shadow of the Ancient Beauty”

“Concerning the Manifestations that will come down in the future ‘in the shadows of the clouds,’” He [‘Abdu’l-Baha], in a still more definite language, affirms, “know, verily, that in so far as their relation to the Source of their inspiration is concerned, they are under the shadow of the Ancient Beauty. In their relation, however, to the age in which they appear, each and every one of them ‘doeth whatsoever He willeth.’” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting ‘Abdu’l-Baha in ‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

The effect of Bahá’u’lláh’s Dispensation on “the saints of bygone ages”

“The mere contemplation of the Dispensation inaugurated by the Blessed Beauty would have sufficed to overwhelm the saints of bygone ages—saints who longed to partake, for one moment, of its great glory.” 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha  (Quoted by Shoghi Effendi in ‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“the unexampled vastness of the Bahá’í Dispensation”

‘Abdu’l Bahá’s authentic pronouncements should, likewise, be recalled as confirming, in no less emphatic manner, the unexampled vastness of the Bahá’í Dispensation. “Centuries,” He affirms in one of His Tablets, “nay, countless ages, must pass away ere the Day-Star of Truth shineth again in its mid-summer splendor, or appeareth once more in the radiance of its vernal glory…

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

The “consummation of so stupendous an evolution in the collective life of the whole human race”: - “unparalleled in the annals of the past, nor will future ages witness its like.”

“In this most mighty Revelation,” He[Bahá’u’lláh], in categorical language, declares, “all the Dispensations of the past have attained their highest, their final consummation. That which hath been made manifest in this preëminent, this most exalted Revelation, standeth unparalleled in the annals of the past, nor will future ages witness its like.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Bahá’u’lláh in ‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

The “consummation of so stupendous an evolution in the collective life of the whole human race”: - “The Prophetic Cycle hath verily ended. The Eternal Truth is now come.”

“It is evident,” He[Bahá’u’lláh], in another passage explains, “that every age in which a Manifestation of God hath lived is divinely-ordained, and may, in a sense, be characterized as God’s appointed Day. This Day, however, is unique, and is to be distinguished from those that have preceded it. The designation ‘Seal of the Prophets’ fully revealeth its high station. The Prophetic Cycle hath verily ended. The Eternal Truth is now come. He hath lifted up the ensign of power, and is now shedding upon the world the unclouded splendor of His Revelation.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Bahá’u’lláh in ‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

The “consummation of so stupendous an evolution in the collective life of the whole human race”: - “this most great Day of God”

“The Scriptures of past Dispensations,” He [Bahá’u’lláh] 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.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Bahá’u’lláh in ‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

The “consummation of so stupendous an evolution in the collective life of the whole human race”: - “This is the King of Days”

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.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“the unalterable foundation and central tenet of Bahá’í belief”: - “That all the Messengers of God should be regarded as ‘abiding in the same Tabernacle, soaring in the same Heaven, seated upon the same Throne, uttering the same Speech, and proclaiming the same Faith’”

Incontrovertible as is this truth, its challenging character should never be allowed to obscure the purpose, or distort the principle, underlying the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh—utterances that have established for all time the absolute oneness of all the Prophets, Himself included, whether belonging to the past or to the future. Though the mission of the Prophets preceding Bahá’u’lláh may be viewed in that light, though the measure of Divine Revelation with which each has been entrusted must, as a result of this process of evolution, necessarily differ, their common origin, their essential unity, their identity of purpose, should at no time and under no circumstances be misapprehended or denied. That all the Messengers of God should be regarded as “abiding in the same Tabernacle, soaring in the same Heaven, seated upon the same Throne, uttering the same Speech, and proclaiming the same Faith” must, however much we may extol the measure of Divine Revelation vouchsafed to mankind at this crowning stage of its evolution, remain the unalterable foundation and central tenet of Bahá’í belief. Any variations in the splendor which each of these Manifestations of the Light of God has shed upon the world should be ascribed not to any inherent superiority involved in the essential character of any one of them, but rather to the progressive capacity, the ever-increasing spiritual receptiveness, which mankind, in its progress towards maturity, has invariably manifested. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“The successive Founders of all past Religions… paving the way for the advent of that Day of Days”

The successive Founders of all past Religions Who, from time immemorial, have shed, with ever-increasing intensity, the splendor of one common Revelation at the various stages which have marked the advance of mankind towards maturity may thus, in a sense, be regarded as preliminary Manifestations, anticipating and paving the way for the advent of that Day of Days when the whole earth will have fructified and the tree of humanity will have yielded its destined fruit. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

The “culminating stage in the political evolution of the great American Republic” may be likened to “the stage to which an evolving humanity is collectively approaching”

Such a unique and momentous crisis in the life of organized mankind may, moreover, be likened to the culminating stage in the political evolution of the great American Republic—the stage which marked the emergence of a unified community of federated states. The stirring of a new national consciousness, and the birth of a new type of civilization, infinitely richer and nobler than any which its component parts could have severally hoped to achieve, may be said to have proclaimed the coming of age of the American people. Within the territorial limits of this nation, this consummation may be viewed as the culmination of the process of human government. The diversified and loosely related elements of a divided community were brought together, unified and incorporated into one coherent system. Though this entity may continue gaining in cohesive power, though the unity already achieved may be further consolidated, though the civilization to which that unity could alone have given birth may expand and flourish, yet the machinery essential to such an unfoldment may be said to have been, in its essential structure, erected, and the impulse required to guide and sustain it may be regarded as having been fundamentally imparted. No stage above and beyond this consummation of national unity can, within the geographical limits of that nation, be imagined, though the highest destiny of its people, as a constituent element in a still larger entity that will embrace the whole of mankind, may still remain unfulfilled. Considered as an isolated unit, however, this process of integration may be said to have reached its highest and final consummation.

Such is the stage to which an evolving humanity is collectively approaching. The Revelation entrusted by the Almighty Ordainer to Bahá’u’lláh, His followers firmly believe, has been endowed with such potentialities as are commensurate with the maturity of the human race—the crowning and most momentous stage in its evolution from infancy to manhood. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)