The heart of a Bahá’i cannot but be distressed when contemplating the wretched conditions of the world which affect so many of its peoples. The challenges now facing humanity reflect the disintegrative process at play in a world that has yet to respond meaningfully to the healing message of Bahá’u’llah. In a letter dated 8 December 1935 written on his behalf to an individual believer, Shoghi Effendi stated: "The universal crisis affecting mankind is... essentially spiritual in its causes." More recently, the House of Justice has observed: "The Bahá’i community encourages and supports the manifold efforts being made by people of goodwill to better the condition of humankind and promote unity and harmony among the peoples and nations of the earth. However, the believers should never, for even one moment, lose sight of the fact that the crisis now engulfing every part of the planet is essentially spiritual." If the crisis afflicting humanity is spiritual can there be any question that its solution must also be spiritual? As the House of Justice has highlighted in its Ridván 2015 message to the Bahá’is of the world, "ultimately, it is systematic, determined, and selfless action undertaken within the wide embrace of the Plan’s framework that is the most constructive response of every concerned believer to the multiplying ills of a disordered society." In such a context the friends can gradually address the problems that face them and their surrounding communities.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 26 February 2021 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer; US Baha’i National Administrative website)
