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”

July 10, 2025

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’)

From Ruhiyyih Khanum

In 1936 he wrote The Unfoldment of World Civilization; once again, as he so often did, Shoghi Effendi links this to the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. It was a further exposition of the state of the world, the rapid political, moral and spiritual decline evident in it, the weakening of both Christianity and Islam, the dangers humanity in its heedlessness was running, and the strong, divine, hopeful remedy the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh had to offer. Important and educative as these wonderful letters of the Guardian were they provided, in their wealth of apposite quotations from Bahá'u'lláh's own words which the Guardian had translated and lavishly cited, spiritual sustenance for the believers, for we know that the World of the Manifestation of God is the food of the soul. They also contained innumerable beautifully translated passages from the beloved Master's Tablets. All this bounty the Guardian spread for the believers in feast after feast, nourished them and raised up a new strong generation of servants in the Faith. His words fired their imagination, challenged them to rise to new heights, drove their roots deeper in the fertile soil of the Cause. (Ruhiyyih Khanum, ‘The Priceless Pearl’)