The
world is encircled with calamities. Even if at times some good may be evident,
it is inevitable that a great calamity followeth — and yet no one on earth hath
perceived its origin.... The world is in travail and its agitation waxeth day
by day. Its face is turned towards waywardness and unbelief. Such shall be its
plight that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly. Its perversity
will long continue. And when the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly
appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to quake. Then and only then
will the Divine Standard be unfurled and the Nightingale of Paradise warble its
melody.
- Baha’u’llah (Quoted by the Universal House of Justice in a message
dated 10 February 1980 addressed to the Iranian believers resident in other
countries throughout the world)
