“evidences of the directing Hand of the departed Founder…Who, from the invisible Realm, was unloosing a flood of well-deserved calamities upon a rebellious religion and nation”

The Cause of which Bahá’u’lláh was still the visible leader had, despite the calculations of a short-sighted enemy, undeniably triumphed. No unbiased mind, penetrating the surface of conditions surrounding the Prisoner of ‘Akká, could any longer mistake or deny it. Though the tension which had been relaxed was, for a time, heightened after Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension and the perils of a still unsettled situation were revived, it was becoming increasingly evident that the insidious forces of decay, which for many a long year were eating into the vitals of a diseased nation, were now moving towards a climax. A series of internal convulsions, each more devastating than the previous one, had already been unchained, destined to bring in their wake one of the most catastrophic occurrences of modern times.

• The murder of that arrogant despot [Sultan 'Abdu'l-'Aziz] in the year 1876;
• the Russo-Turkish conflict that soon followed in its wake;
• the wars of liberation which succeeded it;
• the rise of the Young Turk movement;
• the Turkish Revolution of 1909 that precipitated the downfall of ‘Abdu’l-Hamíd;
• the Balkan wars with their calamitous consequences;
• the liberation of Palestine enshrining within its bosom the cities of ‘Akká and Haifa, the world center of an emancipated Faith;
• the further dismemberment decreed by the Treaty of Versailles;
• the abolition of the Sultanate and the downfall of the House of Uthmán;
• the extinction of the Caliphate;
• the disestablishment of the State Religion;
• the annulment of the Sharí’ah Law and the promulgation of a universal Civil Code;
• the suppression of various orders, beliefs, traditions and ceremonials believed to be inextricably interwoven with the fabric of the Muslim Faith—

these followed with an ease and swiftness that no man had dared envisage. In these devastating blows, administered by friend and foe alike, by Christian nations and professing Muslims, every follower of the persecuted Faith of Bahá’u’lláh recognized evidences of the directing Hand of the departed Founder of his religion, Who, from the invisible Realm, was unloosing a flood of well-deserved calamities upon a rebellious religion and nation. 

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