tag name Calamities and catastrophes type: Miscellaneous; Science: natural, social, and applied web link bahai-library.com/tags/Calamities_and_catastrophes variations or mis-spellings calamity; disasters related tags Disintegration and integration; Root causes; State of the world (global issues) referring tags Disaster Relief Fund; Earthquakes; Equilibrium; Prayer of the Signs; Speculation; Tempest; Titanic (ship) Inventory subject Present and future calamities; war; universal convulsion notes See also:
– Covenant Library Unified Index
selected quotations
(authoritative sources)These quotations reflect common presentations of Bahá’í views; the materials below may show a wider range of interpretations and contexts:
"... The world’s equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind’s ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System—the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed..." – Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, ¶ 181 (c. 1873)
"... It is incumbent upon the ministers of the House of Justice to promote the Lesser Peace so that the people of the earth may be relieved from the burden of exorbitant expenditures. This matter is imperative and absolutely essential, inasmuch as hostilities and conflict lie at the root of affliction and calamity..."
– Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, Lawḥ-i-Dunyá (Tablet of the World), ¶19
"... This flow, moreover, will presage and hasten the advent of the day which, as prophesied by ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, will witness the entry by troops of peoples of divers nations and races into the Bahá’í world—a day which, viewed in its proper perspective, will be the prelude to that long-awaited hour when a mass conversion on the part of these same nations and races, and as a direct result of a chain of events, momentous and possibly catastrophic in nature, and which cannot as yet be even dimly visualized, will suddenly revolutionize the fortunes of the Faith, derange the equilibrium of the world, and reinforce a thousandfold the numerical strength as well as the material power and the spiritual authority of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh..."
– from a letter dated 25 June 1953 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, cited in Citadel of Faith: Messages to America, 1947–1957, p. 117
”... The violent derangement of the world’s equilibrium; the trembling that will seize the limbs of mankind; the radical transformation of human society; the rolling up of the present-day Order; the fundamental changes affecting the structure of government; the weakening of the pillars of religion; the rise of dictatorships; the spread of tyranny; the fall of monarchies; the decline of ecclesiastical institutions; the increase of anarchy and chaos; the extension and consolidation of the Movement of the Left; the fanning into flame of the smouldering fire of racial strife; the development of infernal engines of war; the burning of cities; the contamination of the atmosphere of the earth—these stand out as the signs and portents that must either herald or accompany the retributive calamity which, as decreed by Him Who is the Judge and Redeemer of mankind, must, sooner or later, afflict a society which, for the most part, and for over a century, has turned a deaf ear to the Voice of God’s Messenger in this day—a calamity which must purge the human race of the dross of its age-long corruptions, and weld its component parts into a firmly-knit world-embracing Fellowship—a Fellowship destined, in the fullness of time, to be incorporated in the framework, and to be galvanized by the spiritualizing influences, of a mysteriously expanding, divinely appointed Order, and to flower, in the course of future Dispensations, into a Civilization, the like of which mankind has, at no stage in its evolution, witnessed..."
– Shoghi Effendi, letter dated April 1956, in: Messages to the Bahá’í World 1950-1957, p. 103 [Note: see this page for the context of the term "movement of the left" at the time this letter was written]
"... Bahá’ís must be careful not to be swept up in a spiral of fear and darkness engendered by prevailing conditions but, rather, devote their energies to building up a new world and promoting an environment of serenity and courage. An avenue for thoughtful believers who, as well-wishers of humanity, desire to offer a different perspective on the changes affecting their societies is through participation in relevant discourses in the various social spaces in which they are involved. Of course, in so doing, it is important that the friends steer away from becoming entangled in the political dimensions of any particular issue and instead strive to uplift people’s vision by calling attention to the root causes of the issues at hand and the principles of the Faith that address them. In sharing insights from the Bahá’í teachings, the friends can indeed become a beacon of hope so that those who are experiencing the inevitable breakdown of the lamentably defective old world order can at the same time gain understanding and draw inspiration from the teachings for the building of a new world order..."
– Universal House of Justice, On the Calamitous State of World Affairs and the Material Sustainability of Communities, 3 December 2020
references en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaster; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catastrophe; bahai9.com/wiki/Trials; bahaiquotes.com/subject/calamity; www.bahaiquotes.com/subject/disaster; www.bahaiquotes.com/subject/disaster-planning; bahaiessentials.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/013-Warnings-and-Foreshadowing-Dangers-2.pdf; www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/search#q=Calamity; www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/search#q=Catastrophe; www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/search#q=Disaster
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