Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh

Bahá’u’lláh has called into being a constantly-growing body of followers in the five continents of the globe. These people come from differing racial and religious backgrounds. In the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh they become united in belief and action. While wars are waged and the moral fabric of modern civilization becomes more and more tattered, Bahá’ís continue to tell the story of Bahá’u’lláh’s life, of the reawakening of men to the call of God in our time. For, to Bahá’ís, quite literally, “This is the changeless faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future.” While the rot of modern materialism does its deadly work, Bahá’ís continue to patiently sacrifice and work to build the group consciousness and the social institutions which Bahá’u’lláh promised them would, in time, flower into a world civilization. To a Bahá’í, religion encompasses all of life—it is civilization itself. “All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.”

Editorial Note: Before his passing in 1957, Shoghi Effendi appointed twenty-seven Hands of the Cause of God charged with the propagation and protection of the Faith. Through their efforts the election of the first Universal House of Justice was called in April 1963. At that time this supreme governing and legislative body of the Bahá’í Faith was elected by the fifty-six existing national administrative bodies (National Spiritual Assemblies), in accordance with provisions in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. Through a series of global teaching plans, begun in 1953, the Faith has spread to 190 independent countries and 45 dependent territories and overseas departments, with some 179 National Spiritual Assemblies. [1999]