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THE
PROMISE
OF
WORLD PEACE
October 1985
To the Peoples of the World:
The Great Peace towards which people of good will throughout the centuries
have inclined their hearts, of which seers and poets for countless generations
have expressed their vision, and for which from age to age the sacred scriptures
of mankind have constantly held the promise, is now at long last within the reach
of the nations. For the first time in history it is possible for everyone to view
the entire planet, with all its myriad diversified peoples, in one perspective.
World peace is not only possible but inevitable. It is the next stage in the
evolution of this planet--in the words of one great thinker, "the planetization
of mankind".
Whether peace is to be reached only after unimaginable horrors precipitated
by humanity's stubborn clinging to old patterns of behaviour, or is to be embraced
now by an act of consultative will, is the choice before all who inhabit the
earth. At this critical juncture when the intractable problems confronting
nations have been fused into one common concern for the whole world, failure
to stem the tide of conflict and disorder would be unconscionably irresponsible.
Among the favourable signs are the steadily growing strength of the steps
towards world order taken initially near the beginning of this century in the
creation of the League of Nations, succeeded by the more broadly based United
Nations Organization; the achievement since the Second World War of independence
by the majority of all the nations on earth, indicating the completion of the
process of nation building, and the involvement of these fledgling nations
with older ones in matters of mutual concern; the consequent vast increase in
co-operation among hitherto isolated and antagonistic peoples and groups in
international undertakings in the scientific, educational, legal, economic and
cultural fields; the rise in recent decades of an unprecedented number of inter-
national humanitarian organizations; the spread of women's and youth movements
calling for an end to war; and the spontaneous spawning of widening networks of
ordinary people seeking understanding through personal communication.
The scientific and technological advances occurring in this unusually
blessed century portend a great surge forward in the social evolution of the
planet, and indicate the means by which the practical problems of humanity may
be solved. They provide, indeed, the very means for the administration of the
complex life of a united world. Yet barriers persist. Doubts, misconceptions,
prejudices, suspicions and narrow self-interest beset nations and peoples in
their relations one to another.
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It is out of a deep sense of spiritual and moral duty that we are impelled
at this opportune moment to invite your attention to the penetrating insights
first communicated to the rulers of mankind more than a century ago by
&Baha'u'llah, Founder of the &Baha'i Faith, of which we are the Trustees.
"The winds of despair", &Baha'u'llah wrote, "are, alas, blowing from every
direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily
increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned,
inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to be lamentably defective." This
prophetic judgement has been amply confirmed by the common experience of
humanity. Flaws in the prevailing order are conspicuous in the inability of
sovereign states organized as United Nations to exorcize the spectre of war,
the threatened collapse of the international economic order, the spread of
anarchy and terrorism, and the intense suffering which these and other afflictions
are causing to increasing millions. Indeed, so much have aggression and conflict
come to characterize our social, economic and religious systems, that many have
succumbed to the view that such behaviour is intrinsic to human nature and
therefore ineradicable.
With the entrenchment of this view, a paralyzing contradiction has developed
in human affairs. On the one hand, people of all nations proclaim not only their
readiness but their longing for peace and harmony, for an end to the harrowing
apprehensions tormenting their daily lives. On the other, uncritical assent is
given to the proposition that human beings are incorrigibly selfish and aggressive
and thus incapable of erecting a social system at once progressive and peaceful,
dynamic and harmonious, a system giving free play to individual creativity and
initiative but based on co-operation and reciprocity.
As the need for peace becomes more urgent, this fundamental contradiction,
which hinders its realization, demands a reassessment of the assumptions upon
which the commonly held view of mankind's historical predicament is based. Dis-
passionately examined, the evidence reveals that such conduct, far from expressing
man's true self, represents a distortion of the human spirit. Satisfaction on
this point will enable all people to set in motion constructive social forces
which, because they are consistent with human nature, will encourage harmony and
co-operation instead of war and conflict.
To choose such a course is not to deny humanity's past but to understand it.
The &Baha'i Faith regards the current world confusion and calamitous condition in
human affairs as a natural phase in an organic process leading ultimately and
irresistibly to the unification of the human race in a single social order whose
boundaries are those of the planet. The human race, as a distinct, organic unit,
has passed through evolutionary stages analogous to the stages of infancy and
childhood in the lives of its individual members, and is now in the culminating
period of its turbulent adolescence approaching its long-awaited coming of age.
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A candid acknowledgement that prejudice, war and exploitation have been the
expression of immature stages in a vast historical process and that the human
race is today experiencing the unavoidable tumult which marks its collective
coming of age is not a reason for despair but a prerequisite to undertaking the
stupendous enterprise of building a peaceful world. That such an enterprise is
possible, that the necessary constructive forces do exist, that unifying social
structures can be erected, is the theme we urge you to examine.
Whatever suffering and turmoil the years immediately ahead may hold,
however dark the immediate circumstances, the &Baha'i community believes that
humanity can confront this supreme trial with confidence in its ultimate out-
come. Far from signalizing the end of civilization, the convulsive changes
towards which humanity is being ever more rapidly impelled will serve to
release the "potentialities inherent in the station of man" and reveal "the
full measure of his destiny on earth, the innate excellence of his reality".
I
The endowments which distinguish the human race from all other forms of life
are summed up in what is known as the human spirit; the mind is its essential
quality. These endowments have enabled humanity to build civilizations and to
prosper materially. But such accomplishments alone have never satisfied the human
spirit, whose mysterious nature inclines it towards transcendence, a reaching
towards an invisible realm, towards the ultimate reality, that unknowable essence
of essences called God. The religions brought to mankind by a succession of
spiritual luminaries have been the primary link between humanity and that ultimate
reality, and have galvanized and refined mankind's capacity to achieve spiritual
success together with social progress.
No serious attempt to set human affairs aright, to achieve world peace, can
ignore religion. Man's perception and practice of it are largely the stuff of
history. An eminent historian described religion as a "faculty of human nature".
That the perversion of this faculty has contributed to much of the confusion in
society and the conflicts in and between individuals can hardly be denied. But
neither can any fair-minded observer discount the preponderating influence exerted
by religion on the vital expressions of civilization. Furthermore, its indispens-
ability to social order has repeatedly been demonstrated by its direct effect on
laws and morality.
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Writing of religion as a social force, &Baha'u'llah said: "Religion is the
greatest of all means for the establishment of order in the world and for the
peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein." Referring to the eclipse or cor-
ruption of religion, he wrote: "Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos
and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness, of justice, of tranquillity
and peace cease to shine." In an enumeration of such consequences the &Baha'i
writings point out that the "perversion of human nature, the degradation of human
conduct, the corruption and dissolution of human institutions, reveal themselves,
under such circumstances, in their worst and most revolting aspects. Human char-
acter is debased, confidence is shaken, the nerves of discipline are relaxed, the
voice of human conscience is stilled, the sense of decency and shame is obscured,
conceptions of duty, of solidarity, of reciprocity and loyalty are distorted, and
the very feeling of peacefulness, of joy and of hope is gradually extinguished."
If, therefore, humanity has come to a point of paralyzing conflict it must
look to itself, to its own negligence, to the siren voices to which it has
listened, for the source of the misunderstandings and confusion perpetrated
in the name of religion. Those who have held blindly and selfishly to their
particular orthodoxies, who have imposed on their votaries erroneous and
conflicting interpretations of the pronouncements of the Prophets of God, bear
heavy responsibility for this confusion--a confusion compounded by the artificial
barriers erected between faith and reason, science and religion. For from a
fair-minded examination of the actual utterances of the Founders of the great
religions, and of the social milieus in which they were obliged to carry out their
missions, there is nothing to support the contentions and prejudices deranging the
religious communities of mankind and therefore all human affairs.
The teaching that we should treat others as we ourselves would wish to be
treated, an ethic variously repeated in all the great religions, lends force to
this latter observation in two particular respects: it sums up the moral atti-
tude, the peace-inducing aspect, extending through these religions irrespective
of their place or time of origin; it also signifies an aspect of unity which is
their essential virtue, a virtue mankind in its disjointed view of history has
failed to appreciate.
Had humanity seen the Educators of its collective childhood in their true
character, as agents of one civilizing process, it would no doubt have reaped
incalculably greater benefits from the cumulative effects of their successive
missions. This, alas, it failed to do.
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The resurgence of fanatical religious fervour occurring in many lands cannot
be regarded as more than a dying convulsion. The very nature of the violent and
disruptive phenomena associated with it testifies to the spiritual bankruptcy it
represents. Indeed, one of the strangest and saddest features of the current out-
break of religious fanaticism is the extent to which, in each case, it is under-
mining not only the spiritual values which are conducive to the unity of mankind
but also those unique moral victories won by the particular religion it purports
to serve.
However vital a force religion has been in the history of mankind, and
however dramatic the current resurgence of militant religious fanaticism,
religion and religious institutions have, for many decades, been viewed by
increasing numbers of people as irrelevant to the major concerns of the modern
world. In its place they have turned either to the hedonistic pursuit of material
satisfactions or to the following of man-made ideologies designed to rescue
society from the evident evils under which it groans. All too many of these
ideologies, alas, instead of embracing the concept of the oneness of mankind and
promoting the increase of concord among different peoples, have tended to deify
the state, to subordinate the rest of mankind to one nation, race or class, to
attempt to suppress all discussion and interchange of ideas, or to callously
abandon starving millions to the operations of a market system that all too
clearly is aggravating the plight of the majority of mankind, while enabling
small sections to live in a condition of affluence scarcely dreamed of by our
forebears.
How tragic is the record of the substitute faiths that the worldly-wise of
our age have created. In the massive disillusionment of entire populations who
have been taught to worship at their altars can be read history's irreversible
verdict on their value. The fruits these doctrines have produced, after decades
of an increasingly unrestrained exercise of power by those who owe their ascen-
dancy in human affairs to them, are the social and economic ills that blight
every region of our world in the closing years of the twentieth century. Under-
lying all these outward afflictions is the spiritual damage reflected in the
apathy that has gripped the mass of the peoples of all nations and by the extinc-
tion of hope in the hearts of deprived and anguished millions.
The time has come when those who preach the dogmas of materialism, whether
of the east or the west, whether of capitalism or socialism, must give account of
the moral stewardship they have presumed to exercise. Where is the "new world"
promised by these ideologies? Where is the international peace to whose ideals
they proclaim their devotion? Where are the breakthroughs into new realms of cul-
tural achievement produced by the aggrandizement of this race, of that nation or
of a particular class? Why is the vast majority of the world's peoples sinking
ever deeper into hunger and wretchedness when wealth on a scale undreamed of by
the Pharaohs, the Caesars, or even the imperialist powers of the nineteenth
century is at the disposal of the present arbiters of human affairs?
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Most particularly, it is in the glorification of material pursuits, at once
the progenitor and common feature of all such ideologies, that we find the roots
which nourish the falsehood that human beings are incorrigibly selfish and aggres-
sive. It is here that the ground must be cleared for the building of a new world
fit for our descendants.
That materialistic ideals have, in the light of experience, failed to satisfy
the needs of mankind calls for an honest acknowledgement that a fresh effort must
now be made to find the solutions to the agonizing problems of the planet. The
intolerable conditions pervading society bespeak a common failure of all, a cir-
cumstance which tends to incite rather than relieve the entrenchment on every
side. Clearly, a common remedial effort is urgently required. It is primarily a
matter of attitude. Will humanity continue in its waywardness, holding to outworn
concepts and unworkable assumptions? Or will its leaders, regardless of ideology,
step forth and, with a resolute will, consult together in a united search for
appropriate solutions?
Those who care for the future of the human race may well ponder this advice.
"If long-cherished ideals and time-honoured institutions, if certain social
assumptions and religious formulae have ceased to promote the welfare of the
generality of mankind, if they no longer minister to the needs of a continually
evolving humanity, let them be swept away and relegated to the limbo of obsoles-
cent and forgotten doctrines. Why should these, in a world subject to the immu-
table law of change and decay, be exempt from the deterioration that must needs
overtake every human institution? For legal standards, political and economic
theories are solely designed to safeguard the interests of humanity as a whole,
and not humanity to be crucified for the preservation of the integrity of any
particular law or doctrine."
II
Banning nuclear weapons, prohibiting the use of poison gases, or outlawing
germ warfare will not remove the root causes of war. However important such
practical measures obviously are as elements of the peace process, they are in
themselves too superficial to exert enduring influence. Peoples are ingenious
enough to invent yet other forms of warfare, and to use food, raw materials,
finance, industrial power, ideology, and terrorism to subvert one another in an
endless quest for supremacy and dominion. Nor can the present massive dislocation
in the affairs of humanity be resolved through the settlement of specific con-
flicts or disagreements among nations. A genuine universal framework must be
adopted.
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Certainly, there is no lack of recognition by national leaders of the
world-wide character of the problem, which is self-evident in the mounting issues
that confront them daily. And there are the accumulating studies and solutions
proposed by many concerned and enlightened groups as well as by agencies of the
United Nations, to remove any possibility of ignorance as to the challenging
requirements to be met. There is, however, a paralysis of will; and it is this
that must be carefully examined and resolutely dealt with. This paralysis is
rooted, as we have stated, in a deep-seated conviction of the inevitable quarrel-
someness of mankind, which has led to the reluctance to entertain the possibility
of subordinating national self-interest to the requirements of world order, and
in an unwillingness to face courageously the far-reaching implications of estab-
lishing a united world authority. It is also traceable to the incapacity of
largely ignorant and subjugated masses to articulate their desire for a new
order in which they can live in peace, harmony and prosperity with all humanity.
The tentative steps towards world order, especially since World War II, give
hopeful signs. The increasing tendency of groups of nations to formalize rela-
tionships which enable them to co-operate in matters of mutual interest suggests
that eventually all nations could overcome this paralysis. The Association of
South East Asian Nations, the Caribbean Community and Common Market, the Central
American Common Market, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the European
Communities, the League of Arab States, the Organization of African Unity, the
Organization of American States, the South Pacific Forum--all the joint endeavours
represented by such organizations prepare the path to world order.
The increasing attention being focused on some of the most deep-rooted
problems of the planet is yet another hopeful sign. Despite the obvious short-
comings of the United Nations, the more than two score declarations and conven-
tions adopted by that organization, even where governments have not been
enthusiastic in their commitment, have given ordinary people a sense of a new
lease on life. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the similar measures
concerned with eliminating all forms of discrimination based on race, sex or
religious belief; upholding the rights of the child; protecting all persons
against being subjected to torture; eradicating hunger and malnutrition; using
scientific and technological progress in the interest of peace and the benefit
of mankind--all such measures, if courageously enforced and expanded, will advance
the day when the spectre of war will have lost its power to dominate international
relations. There is no need to stress the significance of the issues addressed by
these declarations and conventions. However, a few such issues, because of their
immediate relevance to establishing world peace, deserve additional comment.
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Racism, one of the most baneful and persistent evils, is a major barrier to
peace. Its practice perpetrates too outrageous a violation of the dignity of
human beings to be countenanced under any pretext. Racism retards the unfoldment
of the boundless potentialities of its victims, corrupts its perpetrators, and
blights human progress. Recognition of the oneness of mankind, implemented by
appropriate legal measures, must be universally upheld if this problem is to be
overcome.
The inordinate disparity between rich and poor, a source of acute suffering,
keeps the world in a state of instability, virtually on the brink of war. Few
societies have dealt effectively with this situation. The solution calls for the
combined application of spiritual, moral and practical approaches. A fresh look
at the problem is required, entailing consultation with experts from a wide spec-
trum of disciplines, devoid of economic and ideological polemics, and involving
the people directly affected in the decisions that must urgently be made. It is
an issue that is bound up not only with the necessity for eliminating extremes of
wealth and poverty but also with those spiritual verities the understanding of
which can produce a new universal attitude. Fostering such an attitude is itself
a major part of the solution.
Unbridled nationalism, as distinguished from a sane and legitimate
patriotism, must give way to a wider loyalty, to the love of humanity as a whole.
&Baha'u'llah's statement is: "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citi-
zens." The concept of world citizenship is a direct result of the contraction
of the world into a single neighbourhood through scientific advances and of the
indisputable interdependence of nations. Love of all the world's peoples does not
exclude love of one's country. The advantage of the part in a world society is
best served by promoting the advantage of the whole. Current international activi-
ties in various fields which nurture mutual affection and a sense of solidarity
among peoples need greatly to be increased.
Religious strife, throughout history, has been the cause of innumerable wars
and conflicts, a major blight to progress, and is increasingly abhorrent to the
people of all faiths and no faith. Followers of all religions must be willing to
face the basic questions which this strife raises, and to arrive at clear answers.
How are the differences between them to be resolved, both in theory and in prac-
tice? The challenge facing the religious leaders of mankind is to contemplate,
with hearts filled with the spirit of compassion and a desire for truth, the
plight of humanity, and to ask themselves whether they cannot, in humility before
their Almighty Creator, submerge their theological differences in a great spirit
of mutual forbearance that will enable them to work together for the advancement
of human understanding and peace.
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The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the
sexes, is one of the most important, though less acknowledged prerequisites of
peace. The denial of such equality perpetrates an injustice against one half
of the world's population and promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits that
are carried from the family to the workplace, to political life, and ultimately
to international relations. There are no grounds, moral, practical, or biologi-
cal, upon which such denial can be justified. Only as women are welcomed into
full partnership in all fields of human endeavour will the moral and psychologi-
cal climate be created in which international peace can emerge.
The cause of universal education, which has already enlisted in its service
an army of dedicated people from every faith and nation, deserves the utmost
support that the governments of the world can lend it. For ignorance is indis-
putably the principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples and the perpetua-
tion of prejudice. No nation can achieve success unless education is accorded all
its citizens. Lack of resources limits the ability of many nations to fulfil this
necessity, imposing a certain ordering of priorities. The decision-making agen-
cies involved would do well to consider giving first priority to the education of
women and girls, since it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowl-
edge can be most effectively and rapidly diffused throughout society. In keeping
with the requirements of the times, consideration should also be given to teaching
the concept of world citizenship as part of the standard education of every child.
A fundamental lack of communication between peoples seriously undermines
efforts towards world peace. Adopting an international auxiliary language would
go far to resolving this problem and necessitates the most urgent attention.
Two points bear emphasizing in all these issues. One is that the abolition
of war is not simply a matter of signing treaties and protocols; it is a complex
task requiring a new level of commitment to resolving issues not customarily
associated with the pursuit of peace. Based on political agreements alone, the
idea of collective security is a chimera. The other point is that the primary
challenge in dealing with issues of peace is to raise the context to the level of
principle, as distinct from pure pragmatism. For, in essence, peace stems from
an inner state supported by a spiritual or moral attitude, and it is chiefly in
evoking this attitude that the possibility of enduring solutions can be found.
There are spiritual principles, or what some call human values, by which
solutions can be found for every social problem. Any well-intentioned group can
in a general sense devise practical solutions to its problems, but good intentions
and practical knowledge are usually not enough. The essential merit of spiritual
principle is that it not only presents a perspective which harmonizes with that
which is immanent in human nature, it also induces an attitude, a dynamic, a will,
an aspiration, which facilitate the discovery and implementation of practical
measures. Leaders of governments and all in authority would be well served in
their efforts to solve problems if they would first seek to identify the princi-
ples involved and then be guided by them.
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III
The primary question to be resolved is how the present world, with its
entrenched pattern of conflict, can change to a world in which harmony and
co-operation will prevail.
World order can be founded only on an unshakeable consciousness of the
oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences confirm.
Anthropology, physiology, psychology, recognize only one human species, albeit
infinitely varied in the secondary aspects of life. Recognition of this truth
requires abandonment of prejudice--prejudice of every kind--race, class, colour,
creed, nation, sex, degree of material civilization, everything which enables
people to consider themselves superior to others.
Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental prerequisite
for reorganization and administration of the world as one country, the home of
humankind. Universal acceptance of this spiritual principle is essential to any
successful attempt to establish world peace. It should therefore be universally
proclaimed, taught in schools, and constantly asserted in every nation as prepa-
ration for the organic change in the structure of society which it implies.
In the &Baha'i view, recognition of the oneness of mankind "calls for no less
than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world--a
world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political
machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and lan-
guage, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its
federated units."
Elaborating the implications of this pivotal principle, Shoghi Effendi, the
Guardian of the &Baha'i Faith, commented in 1931 that: "Far from aiming at the
subversion of the existing foundations of society, it seeks to broaden its basis,
to remold its institutions in a manner consonant with the needs of an ever-
changing world. It can conflict with no legitimate allegiances, nor can it under-
mine essential loyalties. Its purpose is neither to stifle the flame of a sane
and intelligent patriotism in men's hearts, nor to abolish the system of national
autonomy so essential if the evils of excessive centralization are to be avoided.
It does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical
origins, of climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit,
that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider
loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. It
insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests to the impera-
tive claims of a unified world. It repudiates excessive centralization on one
hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the other. Its watchword is
unity in diversity".
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The achievement of such ends requires several stages in the adjustment of
national political attitudes, which now verge on anarchy in the absence of clearly
defined laws or universally accepted and enforceable principles regulating the
relationships between nations. The League of Nations, the United Nations, and
the many organizations and agreements produced by them have unquestionably been
helpful in attenuating some of the negative effects of international conflicts,
but they have shown themselves incapable of preventing war. Indeed, there have
been scores of wars since the end of the Second World War; many are yet raging.
The predominant aspects of this problem had already emerged in the nineteenth
century when &Baha'u'llah first advanced his proposals for the establishment of
world peace. The principle of collective security was propounded by him in state-
ments addressed to the rulers of the world. Shoghi Effendi commented on his
meaning: "What else could these weighty words signify," he wrote, "if they did
not point to the inevitable curtailment of unfettered national sovereignty as an
indispensable preliminary to the formation of the future Commonwealth of all the
nations of the world? Some form of a world super-state must needs be evolved,
in whose favour all the nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim
to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain arma-
ments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective
dominions. Such a state will have to include within its orbit an International
Executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every
recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a World Parliament whose members shall
be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be
confirmed by their respective governments; and a Supreme Tribunal whose judgement
will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not
voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration.
"A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently
demolished and the interdependence of capital and labour definitely recognized;
in which the clamour of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever
stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extin-
guished; in which a single code of international law--the product of the con-
sidered judgement of the world's federated representatives--shall have as its
sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the
federated units; and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious
and militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness
of world citizenship--such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order
anticipated by &Baha'u'llah, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest
fruit of a slowly maturing age."
The implementation of these far-reaching measures was indicated by
&Baha'u'llah: "The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding
of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized.
The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in
its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations
of the world's Great Peace amongst men."
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The courage, the resolution, the pure motive, the selfless love of one
people for another--all the spiritual and moral qualities required for effecting
this momentous step towards peace are focused on the will to act. And it is
towards arousing the necessary volition that earnest consideration must be given
to the reality of man, namely, his thought. To understand the relevance of this
potent reality is also to appreciate the social necessity of actualizing its
unique value through candid, dispassionate and cordial consultation, and of
acting upon the results of this process. &Baha'u'llah insistently drew attention
to the virtues and indispensability of consultation for ordering human affairs.
He said: "Consultation bestows greater awareness and transmutes conjecture into
certitude. It is a shining light which, in a dark world, leads the way and
guides. For everything there is and will continue to be a station of perfection
and maturity. The maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through
consultation." The very attempt to achieve peace through the consultative action
he proposed can release such a salutary spirit among the peoples of the earth that
no power could resist the final, triumphal outcome.
Concerning the proceedings for this world gathering, &Abdu'l-Baha, the son of
&Baha'u'llah and authorized interpreter of his teachings, offered these insights:
"They must make the Cause of Peace the object of general consultation, and seek by
every means in their power to establish a Union of the nations of the world. They
must conclude a binding treaty and establish a covenant, the provisions of which
shall be sound, inviolable and definite. They must proclaim it to all the world
and obtain for it the sanction of all the human race. This supreme and noble
undertaking--the real source of the peace and well-being of all the world--should
be regarded as sacred by all that dwell on earth. All the forces of humanity must
be mobilized to ensure the stability and permanence of this Most Great Covenant.
In this all-embracing Pact the limits and frontiers of each and every nation
should be clearly fixed, the principles underlying the relations of governments
towards one another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and
obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of the armaments of every
government should be strictly limited, for if the preparations for war and the
military forces of any nation should be allowed to increase, they will arouse the
suspicion of others. The fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact should
be so fixed that if any government later violate any one of its provisions, all
the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the
human race as a whole should resolve, with every power at its disposal, to destroy
that government. Should this greatest of all remedies be applied to the sick body
of the world, it will assuredly recover from its ills and will remain eternally
safe and secure."
The holding of this mighty convocation is long overdue.
With all the ardour of our hearts, we appeal to the leaders of all nations to
seize this opportune moment and take irreversible steps to convoke this world
meeting. All the forces of history impel the human race towards this act which
will mark for all time the dawn of its long-awaited maturity.
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Will not the United Nations, with the full support of its membership, rise
to the high purposes of such a crowning event?
Let men and women, youth and children everywhere recognize the eternal merit
of this imperative action for all peoples and lift up their voices in willing
assent. Indeed, let it be this generation that inaugurates this glorious stage in
the evolution of social life on the planet.
IV
The source of the optimism we feel is a vision transcending the cessation of
war and the creation of agencies of international co-operation. Permanent peace
among nations is an essential stage, but not, &Baha'u'llah asserts, the ultimate
goal of the social development of humanity. Beyond the initial armistice forced
upon the world by the fear of nuclear holocaust, beyond the political peace reluc-
tantly entered into by suspicious rival nations, beyond pragmatic arrangements for
security and coexistence, beyond even the many experiments in co-operation which
these steps will make possible lies the crowning goal: the unification of all the
peoples of the world in one universal family.
Disunity is a danger that the nations and peoples of the earth can no longer
endure; the consequences are too terrible to contemplate, too obvious to require
any demonstration. "The well-being of mankind," &Baha'u'llah wrote more than a
century ago, "its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity
is firmly established." In observing that "mankind is groaning, is dying to be
led to unity, and to terminate its age-long martyrdom", Shoghi Effendi further
commented that: "Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the
stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-
state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World
unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building
has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards
a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the
oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the
machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life."
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All contemporary forces of change validate this view. The proofs can be
discerned in the many examples already cited of the favourable signs towards world
peace in current international movements and developments. The army of men and
women, drawn from virtually every culture, race and nation on earth, who serve the
multifarious agencies of the United Nations, represent a planetary "civil service"
whose impressive accomplishments are indicative of the degree of co-operation that
can be attained even under discouraging conditions. An urge towards unity, like a
spiritual springtime, struggles to express itself through countless international
congresses that bring together people from a vast array of disciplines. It moti-
vates appeals for international projects involving children and youth. Indeed, it
is the real source of the remarkable movement towards ecumenism by which members
of historically antagonistic religions and sects seem irresistibly drawn towards
one another. Together with the opposing tendency to warfare and self-aggrandize-
ment against which it ceaselessly struggles, the drive towards world unity is one
of the dominant, pervasive features of life on the planet during the closing years
of the twentieth century.
The experience of the &Baha'i community may be seen as an example of this
enlarging unity. It is a community of some three to four million people drawn
from many nations, cultures, classes and creeds, engaged in a wide range of activ-
ities serving the spiritual, social and economic needs of the peoples of many
lands. It is a single social organism, representative of the diversity of the
human family, conducting its affairs through a system of commonly accepted consul-
tative principles, and cherishing equally all the great outpourings of divine
guidance in human history. Its existence is yet another convincing proof of the
practicality of its Founder's vision of a united world, another evidence that
humanity can live as one global society, equal to whatever challenges its coming
of age may entail. If the &Baha'i experience can contribute in whatever measure
to reinforcing hope in the unity of the human race, we are happy to offer it as a
model for study.
In contemplating the supreme importance of the task now challenging the
entire world, we bow our heads in humility before the awesome majesty of the
divine Creator, Who out of His infinite love has created all humanity from the
same stock; exalted the gem-like reality of man; honoured it with intellect and
wisdom, nobility and immortality; and conferred upon man the "unique distinction
and capacity to know Him and to love Him", a capacity that "must needs be regarded
as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of
creation."
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We hold firmly the conviction that all human beings have been created "to
carry forward an ever-advancing civilization"; that "to act like the beasts of
the field is unworthy of man"; that the virtues that befit human dignity are
trustworthiness, forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all
peoples. We reaffirm the belief that the "potentialities inherent in the station
of man, the full measure of his destiny on earth, the innate excellence of his
reality, must all be manifested in this promised Day of God." These are the
motivations for our unshakeable faith that unity and peace are the attainable
goal towards which humanity is striving.
At this writing, the expectant voices of &Baha'is can be heard despite the
persecution they still endure in the land in which their Faith was born. By
their example of steadfast hope, they bear witness to the belief that the imminent
realization of this age-old dream of peace is now, by virtue of the transforming
effects of &Baha'u'llah's revelation, invested with the force of divine authority.
Thus we convey to you not only a vision in words: we summon the power of deeds
of faith and sacrifice; we convey the anxious plea of our co-religionists every-
where for peace and unity. We join with all who are the victims of aggression,
all who yearn for an end to conflict and contention, all whose devotion to prin-
ciples of peace and world order promotes the ennobling purposes for which humanity
was called into being by an all-loving Creator.
In the earnestness of our desire to impart to you the fervour of our hope and
the depth of our confidence, we cite the emphatic promise of &Baha'u'llah: "These
fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the `Most Great Peace'
shall come."
THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE