The generality of mankind, blind and enslaved, is wholly
unaware of the healing power with which this community [the Community of the
Most Great Name ] has been endowed, nor can it as yet suspect the role which
this same community is destined to play in its redemption. Fierce and manifold
will be the assaults with which governments, races, classes and religions,
jealous of its rising prestige and fearful of its consolidating strength, will
seek to silence its voice and sap its foundations. Unmoved by the relative
obscurity that surrounds it at the present time, and undaunted by the forces
that will be arrayed against it in the future, this community, I cannot but
feel confident, will, no matter how afflictive the agonies of a travailing age,
pursue its destiny, undeflected in its course, undimmed in its serenity,
unyielding in its resolve, unshaken in its convictions.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a
letter dated July 5, 1938; ‘Messages to America’)
