“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’)