The object of life to a Baha'i is to promote the oneness of
mankind; Our aim is to produce a world civilization which in turn will
react on the character of the individual.
- Shoghi Effendi (Remarks by Shoghi Effendi, recorded by
Ruhiyyih Khanum, ‘The Priceless Pearl’)
Ruhiyyih Khanum:
I remember in the course
of a conversation Shoghi Effendi had with a former teacher of his at the American University in Beirut,
how beautifully he answered this man's
question as to what was the purpose of life to a Bahá'í. The Guardian answered
that the object of life to a Bahá'í was to promote the oneness of mankind. He
then went on to point out that Bahá'u'lláh had appeared at a time when His
Message could and should be directed to the whole world and not merely to
individuals; that salvation today was through world salvation, world change,
world reform of society and that the world civilization resulting from this
would in turn reflect upon the individuals composing it and lead to their
redemption and reformation.
Over and over Shoghi Effendi made it clear in his writings
and talks that the two processes must go on together -- reform of society, reform
of personal character. There was never any doubt that individual regeneration,
as he wrote to a non-Bahá'í in 1926, was the "sure and enduring foundation
on which a reconstructed society" would develop and prosper. But how could
one create a pattern for future society,
even a tiny embryo of the future World Commonwealth of Bahá'u'lláh, if all
around its fringes it was still interwoven with the fabric of that society
which was dying out, must die out, to make way for the new?
- Ruhiyyih Khanum (‘The Guardian of the Baha'i Faith’)
