Human society is “approaching” its “hall mark”: the “unification of the whole of mankind”

Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end… A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life. (Shoghi Effendi, 11 March 1936, published in ‘The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh: Selected Letters’; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, Peace)