Daily Frameworks for 31 March 2023

Istiqlál, 11 Bahá (Splendor), 180 B.E

The Promise of World Peace

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 ¹ 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. ²

Tablet to Dr. Auguste Forel

By nature is meant those inherent properties and necessary relations derived from the realities of things. And these realities of things, though in the utmost diversity, are yet intimately connected one with the other. For these diverse realities an all-unifying agency is needed that shall link them all one to the other. For instance, the various organs and members, the parts and elements, that constitute the body of man, though at variance, are yet all connected one with the other by that all-unifying agency known as the human soul, that causeth them to function in perfect harmony and with absolute regularity, thus making the continuation of life possible. The human body, however, is utterly unconscious of that all-unifying agency, and yet acteth with regularity and dischargeth its functions according to its will. ³

1. “This year, the 149th of the Bahá’í era, marks the Centenary of the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh, Bearer of the universal Revelation of God destined to lead humanity to its collective coming of age. That this occasion should be observed by a community of believers representing a cross-section of the entire human race and established, in the course of a century and a half, in the most remote corners of the globe, is a token of the forces of unity released by Bahá’u’lláh’s advent. A further testimony to the operation of these same forces can be seen in the extent to which Bahá’u’lláh’s vision has prefigured contemporary human experience in so many of its aspects. It is a propitious moment for the publication of this first authorized translation into English of the Mother Book of His Revelation, His “Most Holy Book,” the Book in which He sets forth the Laws of God for a Dispensation destined to endure for no less than a thousand years.”
   Bahá’u’lláh. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book. Haifa: Baháʾi World Centre, 1992, 1. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/kitab-i-aqdas/3#331207233. ↩
2. Universal House of Justice. “The Promise of World Peace.” Bahá’í Reference Library, October 1985. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/19851001_001/1#741456086. ↩
3. ’Abdu’l-Bahá. “Tablet to Dr. Auguste Henri Forel.” Translated by Shoghi Effendi. The Bahá’i World XV (1976): 39-40. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/tablet-august-forel/2#495128940. ↩