The call of Bahá'u'lláh is primarily directed against all
forms of provincialism, all insularities and prejudices. 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 administer 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.
- Shoghi
Effendi (From a letter dated 28 November 1931; The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh:
Selected Letters; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. III, Cultural
Diversity in the Age of Maturity)
