“one of the most intriguing and mysterious episodes of contemporary history”

That for a period of almost three score years and ten, while still in the plenitude of its unquestioned authority, while reinforced by the endless machinations of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of a neighboring nation, and assured of the support of those of Bahá’u’lláh’s kindred who had rebelled against, and seceded from, His Cause, this despotism [the Sultán of Turkey] should have failed in the end to extirpate a mere handful of its condemned subjects must, to every unbelieving observer, remain one of the most intriguing and mysterious episodes of contemporary history. 

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

“a record which can hardly find a parallel in the history of any revealed religion”

• The orders which these foes issued,
• the banishments they decreed,
• the indignities they inflicted, the plans they devised,
• the investigations they conducted,
• the threats they pronounced,
• the atrocities they were prepared to commit,
• the intrigues and baseness to which they, their ministers, their governors, and military chieftains had stooped,

constitute a record which can hardly find a parallel in the history of any revealed religion. The mere recital of the most salient features of that sinister theme would suffice to fill a volume. They knew full well that the spiritual and administrative Center of the Cause they had striven to eradicate had now shifted to their dominion, that its leaders were Turkish citizens, and that whatever resources these could command were at their mercy. 

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

The shocking extent of Bahá’u’lláh’s suffering suffering: “Were I to recount to thee the tale of the things that have befallen Me, the souls and minds of men would be incapable of sustaining its weight.”

To these afflictive trials Bahá’u’lláh has repeatedly testified: “By the righteousness of the Almighty! Were I to recount to thee the tale of the things that have befallen Me, the souls and minds of men would be incapable of sustaining its weight. God Himself beareth Me witness.” “Twenty years have passed,” He, addressing the kings of Christendom, has written, “during which We have, each day, tasted the agony of a fresh tribulation. No one of them that were before Us hath endured the things We have endured. Would that ye could perceive it! They that rose up against us have put us to death, have shed our blood, have plundered our property, and violated our honor.” “Recall to mind My sorrows,” He, in another connection, has revealed, “My cares and anxieties, My woes and trials, the state of My captivity, the tears that I have shed, the bitterness of Mine anguish, and now Mine imprisonment in this far-off land… Couldst thou be told what hath befallen the Ancient Beauty, thou wouldst flee into the wilderness, and weep with a great weeping… Every morning I arose from my bed, I discovered the hosts of countless afflictions massed behind My door; and every night when I lay down, lo, My heart was torn with agony at what it had suffered from the fiendish cruelty of its foes.” 

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

“The overthrow of the Sultanate and the Caliphate, the twin pillars of Sunní Islám”: - “the inevitable consequence of the fierce, the sustained and deliberate persecution” that had been launched against Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Though Bahá’u’lláh had been banished from His native land, the tide of calamity which had swept with such fury over Him and over the followers of the Báb, was by no means receding. Under the jurisdiction of the Sultán of Turkey, the arch-enemy of His Cause, a new chapter in the history of His ever-recurring trials had opened. The overthrow of the Sultanate and the Caliphate, the twin pillars of Sunní Islám, can be regarded in no other light except as the inevitable consequence of the fierce, the sustained and deliberate persecution which the monarchs of the tottering House of Uthmán, the recognized successors of the Prophet Muhammad, had launched against it. From the city of Constantinople, the traditional seat of both the Sultanate and the Caliphate, the rulers of Turkey had, for a period covering almost three quarters of a century, striven, with unabated zeal, to stem the tide of a Faith they feared and abhorred. From the time Bahá’u’lláh set foot on Turkish soil and was made a virtual prisoner of the most powerful potentate of Islám to the year of the Holy Land’s liberation from Turkish yoke, successive Caliphs, and in particular the Sultáns ‘Abdu’l-’Aziz and ‘Abdu’l-Hamíd, had, in the full exercise of the spiritual and temporal authority which their exalted office had conferred upon them, afflicted both the Founder of our Faith and the Center of His Covenant with such pain and tribulation as no mind can fathom nor pen or tongue describe. They alone could have measured or borne them. 

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

“the blackest acts for which posterity will hold this blood-stained dynasty responsible” - “The downfall of the Qájár Dynasty”

The downfall of the Qájár Dynasty, the avowed defender and the willing instrument of a decaying clergy, almost synchronized with the humiliation which the Shí‘ih ecclesiastical leaders had suffered. From Muhammad Sháh down to the last and feeble monarch of that dynasty, the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh was denied the impartial consideration, the disinterested and fair treatment which its cause had rightly demanded. It had, on the contrary, been atrociously harassed, consistently betrayed and prosecuted.

• The martyrdom of the Báb;
• the banishment of Bahá’u’lláh;
• the confiscation of His earthly possessions;
• His incarceration in Mázindarán;
• the reign of terror that confined Him in the most pestilential of dungeons;
• the intrigues, the protests, and calumnies which thrice renewed His exile and led to His ultimate imprisonment in the most desolate of cities;
• the shameful sentences passed, with the connivance of the judicial and ecclesiastical authorities, against the person, the property, and the honor of His innocent followers—

these stand out as among the blackest acts for which posterity will hold this blood-stained dynasty responsible. One more barrier that had sought to obstruct the forward march of the Faith was now removed. 

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

Bahá’u’lláh comments about the gradual decline of the followers of Shí‘ih Islám

“Behold,” writes Bahá’u’lláh, commenting on the decline of a fallen people, “how the sayings and doings of Shí‘ih Islám have dulled the joy and fervor of its early days, and tarnished the pristine brilliancy of its light. In its primitive days, whilst they still adhered to the precepts associated with the name of their Prophet, the Lord of mankind, their career was marked by an unbroken chain of victories and triumphs. As they gradually strayed from the path of their Ideal Leader and Master, as they turned away from the light of God and corrupted the principle of His Divine unity, and as they increasingly centered their attention upon them who were only the revealers of the potency of His Word, their power was turned into weakness, their glory into shame, their courage into fear. Thou dost witness to what a pass they have come.” 

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

“The collapse of the power of the Shí‘ih hierarchy”

The collapse of the power of the Shí‘ih hierarchy, in a land which had for centuries been one of the impregnable strongholds of Muslim fanaticism, was the inevitable consequence of that wave of secularization which, at a later time, was to invade some of the most powerful and conservative ecclesiastical institutions in both the European and American continents. Though not the direct outcome of the last war, this sudden trembling which had seized this hitherto immovable pillar of Islamic orthodoxy accentuated the problems and deepened the restlessness with which a war-weary world was being afflicted. Shí‘ih Islám had lost once for all, in Bahá’u’lláh’s native land and as the direct consequence of its implacable hostility to His Faith, its combative power, had forfeited its rights and privileges, had been degraded and demoralized, and was being condemned to hopeless obscurity and ultimate extinction. No less than twenty thousand martyrs, however, had to sacrifice their lives ere the Cause for which they had stood and died could register this initial victory over those who were the first to repudiate its claims and mow down its gallant warriors. “Vileness and poverty were stamped upon them, and they returned with wrath from God.” 

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

Bahá’u’lláh’s warning to King Wilhelm I of Prussia

To the Conqueror of Napoleon III, the Author of our Faith had, on the morrow of the King’s victory, addressed, in His Most Holy Book, this clear and ominous warning: “O King of Berlin! …Take heed lest pride debar thee from recognizing the Day-Spring of Divine Revelation, lest earthly desires shut thee out, as by a veil, from the Lord of the Throne above and of the earth below. Thus counseleth thee the Pen of the Most High. He, verily, is the Most Gracious, the All-Bountiful. Do thou remember the one whose power transcended thy power (Napoleon III), and whose station excelled thy station. Where is he? Whither are gone the things he possessed? Take warning, and be not of them that are fast asleep. He it was who cast the Tablet of God behind him, when We made known unto him what the hosts of tyranny had caused Us to suffer. Wherefore, disgrace assailed him from all sides, and he went down to dust in great loss. Think deeply, O King, concerning him, and concerning them who, like unto thee, have conquered cities and ruled over men. The All-Merciful brought them down from their palaces to their graves. Be warned, be of them who reflect.” 

“O banks of the Rhine!” Bahá’u’lláh, in another passage of that same Book, prophesies, “We have seen you covered with gore, inasmuch as the swords of retribution were drawn against you; and so you shall have another turn. And We hear the lamentations of Berlin, though she be today in conspicuous glory.”

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

“the opening of the Age of Frustration”: - “into the outer fringes of whose darkest phase we are now beginning to enter”

To the catastrophic fall of mighty kingdoms and empires, on the eve of ‘Abdu’l Bahá’s departure, Whose passing may be said to have ushered in the opening phase of the Age of Transition in which we now live, I have, in a previous communication, briefly alluded. The dissolution of the German Empire, the humiliating defeat inflicted upon its ruler, the successor and lineal descendant of the Prussian King and Emperor to whom Bahá’u’lláh had addressed His solemn and historic warning, together with the extinction of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the remnant of the once-great Holy Roman Empire, were both precipitated by a war whose outbreak signalized the opening of the Age of Frustration destined to precede the establishment of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. Both of these momentous events may be viewed as the earliest occurrences of that turbulent Age, into the outer fringes of whose darkest phase we are now beginning to enter. 

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

“this Age of Transition… [and its] tribulations”

It is not my purpose to call to mind, much less to attempt a detailed analysis of, the spiritual struggles that have ensued, or to note the victories that have redounded to the glory of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh since the day of its foundation. My chief concern is not with the happenings that have distinguished the First, the Apostolic Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation, but rather with the outstanding events that are transpiring in, and the tendencies which characterize, the formative period of its development, this Age of Transition, whose tribulations are the precursors of that Era of blissful felicity which is to incarnate God’s ultimate purpose for all mankind. 

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

The interactions between the “Spirit that has incarnated itself in the institutions of a rising Faith” and the world at large

The Spirit that has incarnated itself in the institutions of a rising Faith has, in the course of its onward march for the redemption of the world, encountered and is now battling with such forces as are, in most instances, the very negation of that Spirit, and whose continued existence must inevitably hinder it from achieving its purpose. The hollow and outworn institutions, the obsolescent doctrines and beliefs, the effete and discredited traditions which these forces represent, it should be observed, have, in certain instances, been undermined by virtue of their senility, the loss of their cohesive power, and their own inherent corruption. A few have been swept away by the onrushing forces which the Bahá’í Faith has, at the hour of its birth, so mysteriously released. Others, as a direct result of a vain and feeble resistance to its rise in the initial stages of its development, have died out and been utterly discredited. Still others, fearful of the pervasive influence of the institutions in which that same Spirit had, at a later stage, been embodied, had mobilized their forces and launched their attack, destined to sustain, in their turn, after a brief and illusory success, an ignominious defeat. 

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

“A titanic, a spiritual struggle, unparalleled in its magnitude… is being waged”

A titanic, a spiritual struggle, unparalleled in its magnitude yet unspeakably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is being waged as a result of these opposing tendencies, in this age of transition through which the organized community of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh and mankind as a whole are passing. 

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

“A twofold process” bringing to “a climax the forces that are transforming the face of our planet”: – “an integrating” and a “fundamentally disruptive”

A twofold process, however, can be distinguished, each tending, in its own way and with an accelerated momentum, to bring to a climax the forces that are transforming the face of our planet. The first is essentially an integrating process, while the second is fundamentally disruptive. The former, as it steadily evolves, unfolds a System which may well serve as a pattern for that world polity towards which a strangely-disordered world is continually advancing; while the latter, as its disintegrating influence deepens, tends to tear down, with increasing violence, the antiquated barriers that seek to block humanity’s progress towards its destined goal. The constructive process stands associated with the nascent Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, and is the harbinger of the New World Order that Faith must erelong establish. The destructive forces that characterize the other should be identified with a civilization that has refused to answer to the expectation of a new age, and is consequently falling into chaos and decline. 

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

“universal fermentation”: - “purging and reshaping humanity”

As we view the world around us, we are compelled to observe the manifold evidences of that universal fermentation which, in every continent of the globe and in every department of human life, be it religious, social, economic or political, is purging and reshaping humanity in anticipation of the Day when the wholeness of the human race will have been recognized and its unity established. 

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

The effects of the “Call of God” on “the whole creation”

“The Call of God,” ‘Abdu’l Bahá has written, “when raised, breathed a new life into the body of mankind, and infused a new spirit into the whole creation. It is for this reason that the world hath been moved to its depths, and the hearts and consciences of men been quickened. Erelong the evidences of this regeneration will be revealed, and the fast asleep will be awakened.” 

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

The awesome effects of the “onrushing winds of the grace of God” that Bahá’u’llah’s Revelation has brought to the world

“The onrushing winds of the grace of God,” He, in the Súratu’l-Haykal, proclaims, “have passed over all things. Every creature hath been endowed with all the potentialities it can carry. And yet the peoples of the world have denied this grace! Every tree hath been endowed with the choicest fruits, every ocean enriched with the most luminous gems. Man, himself, hath been invested with the gifts of understanding and knowledge. The whole creation hath been made the recipient of the revelation of the All-Merciful, and the earth the repository of things inscrutable to all except God, the Truth, the Knower of things unseen. The time is approaching when every created thing will have cast its burden. Glorified be God Who hath vouchsafed this grace that encompasseth all things, whether seen or unseen!” 

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

“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’)

Humanity “has entered its long-predicted phase of maturity”: - “Man must now become imbued with new virtues and powers, new moral standards, new capacities.”

'Abdu’l Bahá, elucidating this fundamental verity, has written:

“All created things have their degree or stage of maturity. The period of maturity in the life of a tree is the time of its fruit-bearing… The animal attains a stage of full growth and completeness, and in the human kingdom man reaches his maturity when the light of his intelligence attains its greatest power and development… Similarly there are periods and stages in the collective life of humanity. At one time it was passing through its stage of childhood, at another its period of youth, but now it has entered its long-predicted phase of maturity, the evidences of which are everywhere apparent… That which was applicable to human needs during the early history of the race can neither meet nor satisfy the demands of this day, this period of newness and consummation. Humanity has emerged from its former state of limitation and preliminary training. Man must now become imbued with new virtues and powers, new moral standards, new capacities. New bounties, perfect bestowals, are awaiting and already descending upon him. The gifts and blessings of the period of youth, although timely and sufficient during the adolescence of mankind, are now incapable of meeting the requirements of its maturity.” 

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

The maturation process of humanity reached the stage of receiving the Message of the Báb in 1844

Consider that which hath been sent down unto Muhammad, the Apostle of God. The measure of the Revelation of which He was the Bearer had been clearly foreordained by Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Powerful. They that heard Him, however, could apprehend His purpose only to the extent of their station and spiritual capacity. He, in like manner, uncovered the Face of Wisdom in proportion to their ability to sustain the burden of His Message. No sooner had mankind attained the stage of maturity, than the Word revealed to men’s eyes the latent energies with which it had been endowed—energies which manifested themselves in the plenitude of their glory when the Ancient Beauty appeared, in the year sixty, in the person of ‘Alí-Muhammad, the Báb.” 

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

Humanity’s maturation process and the gradual manifestation of the power latent in the Word of God in each dispensation

In one of the most characteristic passages He Himself has revealed, He testifies in a language that none can mistake to the truth of this distinguishing principle of Bahá’í belief: “It hath been decreed by Us that the Word of God and all the potentialities thereof shall be manifested unto men in strict conformity with such conditions as have been foreordained by Him Who is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise… Should the Word be allowed to release suddenly all the energies latent within it, no man could sustain the weight of so mighty a revelation…

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

The “maturity” “stage…in the collective life of mankind”

That mystic, all-pervasive, yet indefinable change, which we associate with the stage of maturity inevitable in the life of the individual and the development of the fruit must, if we would correctly apprehend the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh, have its counterpart in the evolution of the organization of human society. A similar stage must sooner or later be attained in the collective life of mankind, producing an even more striking phenomenon in world relations, and endowing the whole human race with such potentialities of well-being as shall provide, throughout the succeeding ages, the chief incentive required for the eventual fulfillment of its high destiny. Such a stage of maturity in the process of human government must, for all time, if we would faithfully recognize the tremendous claim advanced by Bahá’u’lláh, remain identified with the Revelation of which He was the Bearer. 

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

“the initial stages in the unfoldment of the Golden Age of the Bahá’í Era”: - “the furthermost limits in the organization of human society”

• 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 Bahá’í 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. 

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

“The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh”: “marking the last and highest stage in the stupendous evolution of man’s collective life on this planet”

The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, 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. 

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

“The Most Great Peace…conceived by Bahá’u’lláh”: “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”

The Most Great Peace, on the other hand, as conceived by Bahá’u’lláh—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. In His Tablet, revealed almost seventy years ago to Queen Victoria, Bahá’u’lláh, alluding to this Most Great Peace, has declared: “That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and all else naught but error… Consider these days in which the Ancient Beauty, He Who is the Most Great Name, hath been sent down to regenerate and unify mankind. Behold how with drawn swords they rose against Him, and committed that which caused the Faithful Spirit to tremble. And whenever We said unto them: ‘Lo, the World Reformer is come,’ they made reply: ‘He, in truth, is one of the stirrers of mischief.’” “It beseemeth all men in this Day,” He, in another Tablet, asserts, “to take firm hold on the Most Great Name, and to establish the unity of all mankind. There is no place to flee to, no refuge that any one can seek, except Him.” 

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

The “Lesser Peace” to be achieved by “the rulers of the earth”

No machinery falling short of the standard inculcated by the Bahá’í 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.”  

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

The Baha’i “New World Order… involves…the complete unification of the entire human race” and conformity to “principles…and the laws that govern the operation of the institutions” of the Faith

Dearly-beloved friends! This New World Order, whose promise is enshrined in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, whose fundamental principles have been enunciated in the writings of the Center of His Covenant, involves no less than the complete unification of the entire human race. This unification should conform to such principles as would directly harmonize with the spirit that animates, and the laws that govern the operation of, the institutions that already constitute the structural basis of the Administrative Order of His Faith. 

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

Bahá’u’lláh’s words concerning changes that the world will go through

“Soon,” proclaim it, “will the present day Order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord speaketh the truth and is the Knower of things unseen.” “By Myself,” He solemnly asserts, “the day is approaching when We will have rolled up the world and all that is therein, and spread out a new Order in its stead. He, verily, is powerful over all things.” “The world’s equilibrium,” He explains, “hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this Most Great, this new World Order. Mankind’s ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System, the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed.” “The signs of impending convulsions and chaos,” He warns the peoples of the world, “can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing Order appeareth to be lamentably defective.” 

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

“the signs and tokens which, in a mysterious manner, are heralding the birth of that World Order, the establishment of which must signalize the Golden Age of the Cause of God, are growing and multiplying day by day.”

Both within and outside the Bahá’í world the signs and tokens which, in a mysterious manner, are heralding the birth of that World Order, the establishment of which must signalize the Golden Age of the Cause of God, are growing and multiplying day by day. No fair-minded observer can any longer fail to discern them. He cannot be misled by the painful slowness characterizing the unfoldment of the civilization which the followers of Bahá’u’lláh are laboring to establish. Nor can he be deluded by the ephemeral manifestations of returning prosperity which at times appear to be capable of checking the disruptive influence of the chronic ills afflicting the institutions of a decaying age. The signs of the times are too numerous and compelling to allow him to mistake their character or to belittle their significance. He can, if he be fair in his judgment, recognize in the chain of events which proclaim on the one hand the irresistible march of the institutions directly associated with the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh and foreshadow on the other the downfall of those powers and principalities that have either ignored or opposed it—he can recognize in them all evidences of the operation of God’s all-pervasive Will, the shaping of His perfectly ordered and world-embracing Plan. 

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

“The contrast”: “steady consolidation” vs. “the forces of disintegration”

The contrast between the accumulating evidences of steady consolidation that accompany the rise of the Administrative Order of the Faith of God, and the forces of disintegration which batter at the fabric of a travailing society, is as clear as it is arresting.

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

“the New World Order”: - “the mind of Bahá’u’lláh has visioned”; “‘Abdu’l Bahá its perfect Architect”

As your co-sharer in the building up of the New World Order which the mind of Bahá’u’lláh has visioned, and whose features the pen of ‘Abdu’l Bahá, its perfect Architect, has delineated, I pause to contemplate with you the scene which the revolution of well-nigh fifteen years after His passing unfolds before us.

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