…increase in the diversity of the elements within its
fellowship, which from being confined, in the first period of its history, to
an obscure body of followers chiefly recruited from the ranks of the masses in
Shí’ah Persia, has expanded into a fraternity representative of the leading
religious systems of the world, of almost every caste and color, from the
humblest worker and peasant to royalty itself.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes
By’)
