“As regards your teaching work; the Guardian has already advised you to stress in your talks the idea of a world super-state, and the concept of the Oneness of Mankind underlying it. In addition, he wishes you also to emphasise the fact that humanity, taken as a whole, has entered the most critical and momentous stage of its evolution, the stage of maturity. This idea of the coming of age of mankind constitutes the central core of the Bahá’í Teachings, and is the most distinguishing feature of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. A proper understanding of this concept gives the key to an adequate appreciation of the tremendous claim made by the Author of the Faith, both with regard to His own station, and to the incomparable greatness of His Dispensation.”

(Shoghi Effendi, 12 October 1936, quoted in “Peace”)

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not rise against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Isaiah, 2:2-4

“In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and hast revealed them unto babes: even so Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight.”

Luke, 10:21

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.”

John,16:12

“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”

Matthew, 5: 19,27,28 & 30

“Moreover when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which is in secret, shall reward thee openly.”

Matthew, 6:16-18

“Hell shall truly be the place of snares, the home of transgressors, to abide therein ages; no coolness shall they taste therein nor any drink, save boiling water and running sores; meet recompense!

But, for the God-fearing is a blissful abode, enclosed gardens and vineyards; and damsels with swelling breasts, their peers in age, and a full cup: there shall they hear no vain discourse nor any falsehood: a recompense from thy Lord - sufficing gift!”

The Qur’an, 78 (Naba’):21-35

“There are two natures in this world: the one is of heaven, the other of hell. Hear now of the evil of hell. Evil men know not what should be done or what should not be done. They say: ‘This world has no truth, no moral foundation, no God. There is no law of creation: what is the cause of birth but lust?’ Their highest aim is sensual enjoyment, and they firmly think that this is all. Led astray by many wrong thoughts, entangled in the net of delusion, enchained to the pleasures of their cravings, they fall down into a fowl hell. In the vast cycles of life and death I inexorably hurl them down to destruction: these the lowest of men, cruel and evil, whose soul is hate. Reborn in a lower life, in darkness birth after birth, they come not to me; but they go down in the path of hell.

Hear now of that Path which the seers of the Veda call the Eternal, and which is reached by those who, in peace from earthly passions, live a life of holiness and strive for perfection. Those who in the devotion of Yoga rest all their soul ever on Me, very soon come unto Me. And when those great spirits are in Me, the Abode of joy supreme, they never return again to this world of human sorrow. He who comes unto me goes no more from death to death.”

Lord Krishna, The Bhagavad-Gita, 16:6-21, and 8:11-16

“Worship thou God in such wise that if thy worship lead thee to the fire, no alteration in thine adoration would be produced, and so likewise if thy recompense should be paradise. Thus and thus alone should be the worship which befitteth the one True God. Shouldst thou worship Him because of fear, this would be unseemly in the sanctified Court of His presence, and could not be regarded as an act by thee dedicated to the Oneness of His Being. Or if thy gaze should be on paradise, and thou shouldst worship Him whilst cherishing such a hope, thou wouldst make God’s creation a partner with Him, notwithstanding the fact that paradise is desired by men.

Fire and paradise both bow down and prostrate themselves before God. That which is worthy of His Essence is to worship Him for His sake, without fear of fire, or hope of paradise.

Although when true worship is offered, the worshipper is delivered from the fire, and entereth the paradise of God’s good-pleasure, yet such should not be the motive of his act. However, God’s favour and grace ever flow in accordance with the exigencies of His inscrutable wisdom.”

The Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Báb, p.78

“The majority of the truly wise and learned have, throughout the ages, as it hath been recorded by the Pen of Glory in the Tablet of Wisdom, borne witness to the truth of that which the holy Writ of God hath revealed. Even the materialists have testified in their writings to the wisdom of these divinely-appointed Messengers, and have regarded the references made by the Prophets to Paradise, to hell fire, to future reward and punishment, to have been actuated by a desire to educate and uplift the souls of men. Consider, therefore, how the generality of mankind, whatever their beliefs or theories, have recognized the excellence, and admitted the superiority, of these Prophets of God.”

Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings no. 81(LXXXI)

“The tongue of My power hath, from the heaven of My omnipotent glory, addressed to My creation these words: ‘Observe My commandments, for the love of My beauty.’ Happy is the lover who hath inhaled the divine fragrance of his Best-Beloved from these words, laden with the perfume of a grace which no tongue can describe…

Think not that We have revealed to you a mere code of laws. Nay, rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and power. To this beareth witness that which the Pen of Revelation hath revealed. Meditate upon this, O men of insight!”

Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, K4 & 5

“O members of parliaments throughout the world! Select ye a single language for the use of all on earth, and adopt ye likewise a common script. God, verily, maketh plain for you that which shall profit you and enable you to be independent of others. He, of a truth, is the Most Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Informed. This will be the cause of unity, could ye but comprehend it, and the greatest instrument for promoting harmony and civilization, would that ye might understand! We have appointed two signs for the coming of age of the human race: the first, which is the most firm foundation, We have set down in other of Our Tablets, while the second hath been revealed in this wondrous Book.”

Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, paragraph 189

“All created things have their degree or stage of maturity. The period of maturity in the life of a tree is the time of its fruit-bearing.... The animal attains a stage of full growth and completeness, and in the human kingdom man reaches his maturity when the light of his intelligence attains its greatest power and development. ...Similarly there are periods and stages in the collective life of humanity. At one time it was passing through its stage of childhood, at another its period of youth, but now it has entered its long-predicted phase of maturity, the evidences of which are everywhere apparent.... That which was applicable to human needs during the early history of the race can neither meet nor satisfy the demands of this day, this period of newness and consummation. Humanity has emerged from its former state of limitation and preliminary training. Man must now become imbued with new virtues and powers, new moral standards, new capacities. New bounties, perfect bestowals, are awaiting and already descending upon him. The gifts and blessings of the period of youth, although timely and sufficient during the adolescence of mankind, are now incapable of meeting the requirements of its maturity.”

Abdu’l-Baha, Promised Day is Come, p.119

“The first sign of the coming of age of humanity referred to in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh is the emergence of a science which is described as that ‘divine philosophy’ which will include the discovery of a radical approach to the transmutation of the elements. This is an indication of the splendours of the future stupendous expansion of knowledge.

Concerning the ‘second’ sign which Bahá’u’lláh indicates to have been revealed in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, Shoghi Effendi states that Bahá’u’lláh, ‘… in His Most Holy Book, has enjoined the selection of a single language and the adoption of a common script for all on earth to use, an injunction which, when carried out, would, as He Himself affirms in that Book, be one of the signs of the ‘coming of age of the human race’.

Further insight into this process of mankind’s coming of age is provided by the following statement of Bahá’u’lláh:

“One of the signs of the maturity of the world is that no one will accept to bear the weight of kingship. Kingship will remain with none willing to bear alone its weight. That day will be the day whereon wisdom will be manifested among mankind.”

The coming of age of the human race has been associated by Shoghi Effendi with the unification of the whole of mankind, the establishment of a world commonwealth, and an unprecedented stimulus to ‘the intellectual, the moral and spiritual life of the entire human race’.”

The Universal House of Justice, Notes on The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 250

“That mystic, all-pervasive, yet indefinable change, which we associate with the stage of maturity inevitable in the life of the individual and the development of the fruit must, if we would correctly apprehend the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh, have its counterpart in the evolution of the organisation of human society. A similar stage must sooner or later be attained in the collective life of mankind, producing an even more striking phenomenon in world relations, and endowing the whole human race with such potentialities of well-being as shall provide, throughout the succeeding ages, the chief incentive required for the eventual fulfilment of its high destiny. Such a stage of maturity in the process of human government must, for all time, if we would faithfully recognise the tremendous claim advanced by Bahá’u’lláh, remain identified with the Revelation of which He was the Bearer.”

Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p 163

“The fundamental principle enunciated by Bahá’u’lláh, the followers of His Faith firmly believe, is that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is a continuous and progressive process, that all the great religions of the world are divine in origin, that their basic principles are in complete harmony, that their aims and purposes are one and the same, that their teachings are but facets of one truth, that their functions are complementary, that they differ only in the non-essential aspects of their doctrines, and that their spiritual missions represent successive stages in the spiritual evolution of human society.

The aim of Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet of this new and great age which humanity has entered … is not to destroy but to fulfil the Revelations of the past, to reconcile rather than accentuate the divergencies of the conflicting creeds which disrupt present-day society.

His purpose, far from belittling the station of the Prophets gone before Him or of whittling down their teachings, is to restate the basic truths which these teachings enshrine in a manner that would conform to the needs, and be in consonance with the capacity, and be applicable to the problems, the ills and perplexities, of the age in which we live. His mission is to proclaim that the ages of the infancy and childhood of the human race are past, that the convulsions associated with the present stage of its adolescence are slowly and painfully preparing it to attain the stage of manhood, and are heralding the approach of that Age of Ages when swords will be beaten into ploughshares, when the Kingdom promised by Jesus Christ will have been established, and the peace of the planet definitely and permanently ensured. Nor does Bahá’u’lláh claim finality for His own Revelation, but rather stipulates that a fuller measure of the truth He has been commissioned by the Almighty to vouchsafe to humanity, at so critical a juncture in its fortunes, must needs be disclosed at future stages in the constant and limitless evolution of mankind.”

Shoghi Effendi, Call to the Nations, introduction

“The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, whose supreme mission is none other but the achievement of this organic and spiritual unity of the whole body of nations, should, if we be faithful to its implications, be regarded as signalising through its advent the coming of age of the entire human race.”

Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p.163

“And He said: Whereunto shall we liken the Kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.”

Jesus Christ, Mark 4:30-33

“Its watchword is the unification of the human race; its standard the ‘Most Great Peace’; its consummation the advent of that golden millennium - the Day when the kingdoms of this world shall have become the Kingdom of God Himself, the Kingdom of Bahá’u’lláh.”

Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p.157

“O ye that dwell on earth! The distinguishing feature that marketh the pre-eminent character of this Supreme Revelation consisteth in that We have, on the one hand, blotted out from the pages of God’s holy Book whatsoever hath been the cause of strife, of malice and mischief amongst the children of men, and have, on the other, laid down the essential prerequisites of concord, of understanding, of complete and enduring unity. Well is it with them that keep My statutes.”

Bahá’u’lláh, Lawh-i-Dunya

“What we witness at the present time, during ‘this gravest crisis in the history of civilisation’, recalling such times in which ‘religions have perished and are born’, is the adolescent stage in the slow and painful evolution of humanity, preparatory to the attainment of the stage of manhood, the stage of maturity, the promise of which is embedded in the teachings, and enshrined in the prophecies, of Bahá’u’lláh. The tumult of this age of transition is characteristic of the impetuosity and irrational instincts of youth, its follies, its prodigality, its pride, its self-assurance, its rebelliousness, and contempt of discipline.”

Shoghi Effendi, Call to the Nations, p.59

“This present Crusade, on the threshold of which we now stand, will, moreover, by virtue of the dynamic forces it will release and its wide repercussions over the entire surface of the globe, contribute effectually to the acceleration of yet another process of tremendous significance which will carry the steadily evolving Faith of Bahá’u’lláh through its present stages of obscurity, of repression, of emancipation and of recognition--stages one or another of which Baha’i national communities in various parts of the world now find themselves in--to the stage of establishment, the stage at which the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh will be recognized by the civil authorities as the state religion, similar to that which Christianity entered in the years following the death of the Emperor Constantine, a stage which must later be followed by the emergence of the Baha’i state itself, functioning, in all religious and civil matters, in strict accordance with the laws and ordinances of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy, the Mother-Book of the Baha’i Revelation, a stage which, in the fullness of time, will culminate in the establishment of the World Baha’i Commonwealth, functioning in the plenitude of its powers, and which will signalize the long-awaited advent of the Christ-promised Kingdom of God on earth--the Kingdom of Baha’u’llah--mirroring however faintly upon this humble handful of dust the glories of the Abha Kingdom.

This final and crowning stage in the evolution of the plan wrought by God Himself for humanity will, in turn, prove to be the signal for the birth of a world civilization, incomparable in its range, its character and potency, in the history of mankind--a civilization which posterity will, with one voice, acclaim as the fairest fruit of the Golden Age of the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh, and whose rich harvest will be garnered during future dispensations destined to succeed one another in the course of the five thousand century Baha’i Cycle.”

Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Bahá’í World, p155

1. Explain from your reading of the passages quoted above why you think the concept of the coming of age of the human race should be so central to the Bahá’í Teachings.
2. If you look at history, you will find that every religion was in the beginning non-violent and tolerant and as it gradually gained power it was transformed into a corrupt, conquering and imperialistic one. How can one be sure that a degenerate evolution would not take place in the Bahá’í system?
3. Using this concept, explain why so much symbolic language has been used in the previous religions such as heaven and hell? Could you bring a few other examples of similar language used in the Holy Scriptures of the past?
4. What do you understand by the concept of reincarnation in view of the sayings of Lord Krishna?
5. Why was the institution of priesthood abolished in the Bahá’í Faith? And what has replaced it?
6. Bahá’u’lláh says that women and men have always been equal in the sight of God. So why was this equality not established in the past?
7. Bahá’u’lláh says that He has removed whatever has been the cause of disunity and established the prerequisites of a lasting peace and harmony. How has He done this?
8. What is the nature of evolution? Explain your answer using two similes.
9. What does the concept of relativity mean? Bring at least two examples with regard to religious truth and scientific truth.
10. What are the characteristics of adolescence? Illustrate your answers with examples from the present age.
11. What are the signs of the coming-of-age of humanity?
12. Many Christians expect the coming of the Kingdom of God and the transformation of the earth to be a cataclysmic, sudden event. How would you answer this?
13. Which stages will the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh go through before it reaches its zenith? Which stage are we at now?