No machinery falling short of the standard inculcated by the Bahá’í
Revelation, and at variance with the sublime pattern ordained in His
teachings, which the collective efforts of mankind may yet devise can ever
hope to achieve anything above or beyond that “Lesser Peace” to which the
Author of our Faith has Himself alluded in His writings. “Now that ye have
refused the Most Great Peace,” He, admonishing the kings and rulers of the
earth, has written, “hold ye fast unto this the Lesser Peace, that haply
ye may in some degree better your own condition and that of your
dependents.” Expatiating on this Lesser Peace, He thus addresses in that
same Tablet the rulers of the earth: “Be reconciled among yourselves, that
ye may need no more armaments save in a measure to safeguard your
territories and dominions... Be united, O kings of the earth, for thereby
will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you, and your peoples find
rest, if ye be of them that comprehend. Should any one among you take up
arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but
manifest justice.”
The Most Great Peace, on the other hand, as conceived by Bahá’u’lláh—a
peace that must inevitably follow as the practical consequence of the
spiritualization of the world and the fusion of all its races, creeds,
classes and nations—can rest on no other basis, and can be preserved
through no other agency, except the divinely appointed ordinances that are
implicit in the World Order that stands associated with His Holy Name. In
His Tablet, revealed almost seventy years ago to Queen Victoria,
Bahá’u’lláh, alluding to this Most Great Peace, has declared: “That which
the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument
for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one
universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except
through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician.
This, verily, is the truth, and all else naught but error... Consider
these days in which the Ancient Beauty, He Who is the Most Great Name,
hath been sent down to regenerate and unify mankind. Behold how with drawn
swords they rose against Him, and committed that which caused the Faithful
Spirit to tremble. And whenever We said unto them: ‘Lo, the World Reformer
is come,’ they made reply: ‘He, in truth, is one of the stirrers of
mischief.’” “It beseemeth all men in this Day,” He, in another Tablet,
asserts, “to take firm hold on the Most Great Name, and to establish the
unity of all mankind. There is no place to flee to, no refuge that any one
can seek, except Him.”
Humanity’s Coming of Age
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account