Bahá'u'lláh found the world in a "strange sleep".
But what a disturbance His coming has unloosed! The peoples of the earth had
been separated, many parts of the human race socially and spiritually isolated.
But the world of humanity today bears little resemblance to that which Bahá'u'lláh
left a century ago. Unbeknownst to the great majority, His influence permeates
all living beings. Indeed, no domain of life remains unaffected. In the
burgeoning energy, the magnified perspectives, the heightened global
consciousness; in the social and political turbulence, the fall of kingdoms,
the emancipation of nations, the intermixture of cultures, the clamour for
development; in the agitation over the extremes of wealth and poverty, the
acute concern over the abuse of the environment, the leap of consciousness
regarding the rights of women; in the growing tendency towards ecumenism, the
increasing call for a new world order; in the astounding advances in the realms
of science, technology, literature and the arts -- in all this tumult, with its
paradoxical manifestations of chaos and order, integration and disintegration,
are the signs of His power as World Reformer, the proof of His claim as Divine
Physician, the truth of His Word as the All-Knowing Counsellor.
- The Universal
House of Justice (From a Tribute to Bahá’u’lláh on the Centenary of His
Passing, May 1992; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1986-2001)
