April 24

Further to our letter to you of 2 December 1974, and with reference to your question on the world language, the Universal House of Justice has asked us to draw your attention to the statement of Bahá’u’lláh in the Eighth Leaf of the Exalted Paradise (see Bahá’í World Faith, p. 182): “We have formerly declared that speech was decreed to be in two languages, and that there should be an effort to reduce it into one.”

When the beloved Guardian was asked by an individual believer about the meaning of this passage, his secretary gave the following reply on his behalf:

What Bahá’u’lláh is referring to in the Eighth Leaf of the Exalted Paradise is a far distant time, when the world is really one country, and one language would be a sensible possibility. It does not contradict His instructions as to the need immediately for an auxiliary language. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a letter dated 29 December 1974 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly; compilation: The Principles of an International Auxiliary Language’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice’, 2002)