Baha’is all over the world are about to celebrate one of the most auspicious days of their cherished Faith. October 2017 signalizes the 200th year anniversary of the birth of the Founder of their precious Faith, Baha’u’llah. He announced, roughly 150 years ago, that the Divine-will for today is the oneness of humanity and unity of all religions, races, and people. If the world’s religious leaders and kings, such as Pope Pius IX, Napoleon III, and Naser al-Din Shah, had listened to Baha’u’llah’s counsels He gave in scores upon scores of letters, then bigotry, racism, and utter hatred among people today would have ceased to exist.
Baha’u’llah repeatedly exclaimed to one of His subjects and which still applies to this day that:
The incident that took place just a few days ago in downtown Charlottesville, is a mere remnant of humanity’s lack of response to the call of the Divine-will for this age. We are seeing the birth pang of humanity transitioning from adolescence to maturity. The current violence that is still happening today, is a manifestation of the fact that humanity is growing tired of stagnating and is confused about what kind of action is worthy for its high destiny.
The Baha’is who are trying to live up to the high standards of chastity, purity, and clean-mindedness, are not immune to the ills of society. They too are analyzing every day through constant vigilance and conscious concerted effort, with the help of the verses from their sacred Scripture, what kind of life to lead in order to elevate society beyond its current state.
Although the forces of unity that began as a direct result of Baha’u’llah’s animating influence in the world are very subtle, let no one underestimate what such a force can achieve in due time. As the world continues to filter out the archaic ways and habits that have no place for global and united humanity, the Baha’is are preparing for the celebration of Baha’u’llah’s 200th-year birth. Such enthusiasm as evinced by this small community for such an occasion worldwide is evidence of how much progress their precious Faith has thus far achieved and what it’s capable of in the near future.
Baha’u’llah remarked about the condition and future of the world due to His coming that:
Therefore, how long humanity has to suffer the consequences of not giving full and serious attention to what the Divine-will requires of it and to take responsibility towards its realization for the betterment of the world, is hard to say.
Nevertheless, humanity will one day experience the long lasting and inevitable change where cooperation, reciprocity, generosity, compassion, and oneness of humanity replacing competition, estrangement, greed, hatred, and otherness. Aren’t such qualities and attributes the fruits of the tree of mature humanity that we are all working for or will?