…the paramount purpose of all Bahá’í activity is teaching. All that has been done or will be done revolves around this central activity, the “head corner-stone of the foundation itself,” to which all progress in the Cause is due. The present challenge calls for teaching on a scale and of a quality, a variety, and intensity outstripping all current efforts. The time is now, lest opportunity be lost in the swiftly changing moods of a frenetic world. Let it not be imagined that expedience is the essential motive arousing this sense of urgency. There is an overarching reason: it is the pitiful plight of masses of humanity, suffering and in turmoil, hungering after righteousness, but “bereft of discernment to see God with their own eyes, or hear His Melody with their own ears.” They must be fed. Vision must be restored where hope is lost, confidence built where doubt and confusion are rife. In these and other respects, The Promise of World Peace is designed to open the way. Its delivery to national governmental leaders having been virtually completed, its contents must now be conveyed, by all possible means, to peoples everywhere from all walks of life. This is a necessary part of the teaching work in our time and must be pursued with unabated vigor.
- The Universal House of Justice (Ridvan 1988 Message to the Bahá’ís of the World; Online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)
