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soul of Amatu'l-Baha Ruhiyyih _Kh_anum, beloved consort of Shoghi Effendi and the Baha'i world's last remaining link with the family of 'Abdu'l-Baha, was released from the limitations of this earthly existence.... Her twenty years of intimate association with Shoghi Effendi evoked from his pen such accolades as "my helpmate', 'my shield', 'my tireless collaborator in the arduous tasks I shoulder'.... As the initial shock of grief began to lift, appreciation of yet another of the inexhaustible bounties of Baha'u'llah gradually took its place. To a figure whose long lifetime had spanned most of the century--and whose indomitable spirit had sustained Baha'i struggles and sacrifices throughout its latter half--it had been given to live and celebrate the magnificent victories to which she had so magnificently contributed. * * * * * In calling on those who have recognized Him to share the message of the Day of God with others, Baha'u'llah turns again to the language of creation itself: "Every body calleth aloud for a soul. Heavenly souls must needs quicken, with the breath of the Word of God, the dead bodies with a fresh spirit."(159) The principle is as true of the collective life of humankind, 'Abdu'l-Baha points out, as it is of the lives of its individual members: "Material civilization is like the body. No matter how infinitely graceful, elegant and beautiful it may be, it is dead. Divine civilization is like the spirit, and the body gets its life from the spirit...."(160) In this compelling analogy is summed up the relationship between the two historical developments that the Will of God propelled forward along converging tracks during the century of light. Only a person blind to the intellectual and social capacities latent in the human race, and insensitive to humanity's desperate needs, could fail to take deep satisfaction from the advances that society has made during the past hundred years, and particularly from the processes knitting together the earth's peoples and nations. How much more are such achievements cherished by Baha'is, who see in them the very Purpose of God. But this Body of humanity's material civilization calls aloud, yearns more desperately with each passing day, for its Soul. As with every great civilization in history, until it is so animated, and its spiritual faculties awakened, it will find neither peace, nor justice, nor a unity that rises above the le
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