Like many, I’ve been numb with shock over the past week, since hearing about the tragic events in America.

It was like being told someone close to me had died – and yet I didn’t know anyone who would’ve been there at the time.

Of course I’m not alone in this feeling of grief and I’ve seen the world unite as never before, as people try to come to terms with the nightmare.

Many commentators have tried to describe the impact of all this, by saying that the attacks in America were like an attack on the entire body of humanity.

The idea of the human race being compared to a human body is echoed in the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, Founder of the Bahá'í Faith.

Bahá'u'lláh said that as members of the human race we should all see each other as closely connected as "the fingers of one hand and the limbs of one body."

Suffering felt in one part of the body affects the whole body.

Bahá'u'lláh wrote that until we accept that we are one, interconnected human race, living in one world, we will continue to suffer - just as any human body which doesn't accept its own interconnectedness would suffer.

The tragedy in America injured the whole body of humanity and showed us that we are all one, because the suffering felt in one part of the world hurt us all.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. This tragedy can be an urgent call for world leaders to sit together and agree that the human race is one.

Wouldn’t that make a difference in the way we approached our global problems?

Bahá’u’lláh certainly thought so. I recall His words, written over 100 years ago when He said: "The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established."

In this age of mass communications, I wonder long it will take for this simple message of unity to spread around the world.