A selection of readings, essays, and resource materials on the subject of the oneness of humanity.

Selected readings on the oneness of humanity

From the Writings and Talks of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

From Paris Talks

‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s talks in the French capital covered a wide range of themes including human nature, the soul, the Prophets of God, and racial and religious prejudice. This compilation includes His addresses in Paris as well as selected othermaterials.

From the Works of Shoghi Effendi

From The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh

In these three selections from The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, Shoghi Effendi explains some of the implications of the principle of the oneness of humanity, which “concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family.”

From the Guidance of the Universal House of Justice

The Promise of World Peace

In 1985, the Universal House of Justice addressed a message to the peoples of the world, inviting them to consider that a new social order can be fostered by all peoples’ seeing themselves as members of one universal family. This message
waspresented to world leaders and countless others during the United Nations International Year of Peace.

Letter to the World’s Religious Leaders

In April 2002, the Universal House of Justice invited the leaders of the world’s religious communities to reexamine the issues lying at the heart of interfaith activity.

Statements

From The Prosperity of Humankind

This statement on the concept of global prosperity in the context of the Bahá’í Teachings was commissioned by the Universal House of Justice.

Statement to the 2009 Durban Review Conference

In this statement submitted to the Durban Review Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, April 2009, the Bahá’í International Community stated, “The reality is that there is only one human race. Weare a single people, inhabiting one planet: one human family bound together in a common destiny and obligated to ‘be even as one soul’”.

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

This statement, presented on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 21 March 2001, explains that a world in which all nations, races, creeds, and classes are closely and permanently united is not a utopian visionbut an inevitable and vital necessity.

Two Wings of a Bird

Despite the widespread acceptance of gender equality in principle—and the advancement of political and civil rights for women in many countries—full equality has not yet been achieved. In this statement issued in 1997, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States emphasizes the full and equal participation of women in all spheres of life.

Essays

Altruism and Extensivity in the Bahá’í Religion

In this paper, first presented at an international conference held in Raziejowice, Poland, in 1989, Wendy M. Heller and Hoda Mahmoudi explore altruism as a major component of social change.

The Races of Men: Many or One

In this article, first published in The Bahá’í World, Volume III, 1928-1930, Louis Gregory explains that there is absolutely no proof to establish the superiority of one racial group over another.

Unity Through Diversity: A Bahá’í Principle

“What the contemporary mind stands greatly in need of is the divorce of the association of uniformity with the notion of the universal,” wrote the American philosopher Alain Locke, ‘Father of the Harlem Renaissance’, in this article, firstpublished in The Bahá’í World, Vol. IV, 1930-1932.

Further Reading

Bibliography of Recommended Reading

A list of further reading on this subject is available here.