The reason for the appearance of a Manifestation of God in a
given place is not to honor a particular people or nation. Shoghi Effendi
indicates a quite different reason in The Advent of Divine Justice and, more
concisely, in a letter to an individual written on his behalf on 23 January
1944:
“The ever-recurring miracle in the establishment of every
religion is that such poor instruments accomplish the work of God. It is to
demonstrate the fact that God is the power that overcomes every obstacle, and
that Revelations are divine in origin, that leads Him to always choose the
worst people among whom to manifest His Messenger and the most obscure and
helpless of the population -- relatively speaking -- to establish the
foundations of His Faith. The Baha'i Dispensation is no exception to this rule,
as you yourself have observed.”
Beyond these points is the fact that God, the Almighty
Creator, does not have to justify His choice of a race or nationality from
which to raise up a Manifestation. As all sacred scriptures tell us, He does as
He wills and shall not be asked of His doing, and we bow in humility before
Him. Besides, as you must know, conceptions of race, nation, oriental,
occidental, and the like reflect earthly limitations and are not qualifications
attached to the reality of the soul in the limitless realms of God.
- The Universal House of Justice (Excerpt
from a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an
individual Baha’I, dated 27, October, 1986; ‘Messages from the Universal House
of Justice 1986-2001)
