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 international 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.
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 Bahá’ú’lláh,
Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, of which we are the
Trustees.
“The winds of despair”, Bahá’ú’lláh 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. Dispassionately 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 Bahá’í 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.
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 Bahá’í
community believes that humanity can confront this supreme trial
with confidence in its ultimate outcome. 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 indispensability
to social order has repeatedly been demonstrated by its direct
effect on laws and morality.
Writing of religion as a social force, Bahá’ú’lláh
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 corruption
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 Bahá’í 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 character 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 attitude, 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.
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
outbreak of religious fanaticism is the extent to which, in
each case, it is undermining 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 ascendancy
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. Underlying 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 extinction
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 cultural 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?
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 aggressive. 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 circumstance
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 obsolescent
and forgotten doctrines. Why should these, in a world subject
to the immutable 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 conflicts
or disagreements among nations. A genuine universal framework
must be adopted.
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 quarrelsomeness 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 establishing 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 relationships 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 conventions
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.
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 spectrum 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. Bahá’ú’lláh’s
statement is: “The earth is but one country, and mankind its
citizens.” 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 activities 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 practice? 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.
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 biological, 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 psychological 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 indisputably
the principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples and
the perpetuation 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
agencies 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 knowledge 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 principles involved and then
be guided by them.
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 cooperation 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 preparation for the organic change in the structure
of society which it implies.
In the Bahá’í 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 language, 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 Bahá’í
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 undermine 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 imperative 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”.
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 Bahá’ú’lláh
first advanced his proposals for the establishment of world
peace. The principle of collective security was propounded by
him in statements 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 armaments, 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
extinguished; in which a single code of international law—the
product of the considered 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 Bahá’ú’lláh,
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 Bahá’ú’lláh: “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.”
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. Bahá’ú’lláh 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-Bahá, the son of Bahá’ú’lláh
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.
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
cooperation Permanent peace among nations is an essential stage,
but not, Bahá’ú’lláh 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 reluctantly entered into by suspicious
rival nations, beyond pragmatic arrangements for security and
coexistence, beyond even the many experiments in cooperation
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,” Bahá’ú’lláh
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.”
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 cooperation 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 motivates 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-aggrandizement 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 Bahá’í 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 activities
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 consultative 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 Bahá’í 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.”
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 Bahá’ís
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 Bahá’ú’lláh’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
everywhere 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 principles 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 Bahá’ú’lláh: “These fruitless
strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great
Peace’ shall come.”
THE
UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
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