The Secret of Divine Civilization is a book written in 1875 by `Abdu'l-Bahá, addressed to the rulers and the people of Persia. It is considered to be part of the authoritative religious text of the Bahá'í Faith.

The original text was written under an anonymous author, and the first English translation was published in London in 1910, and Chicago in 1918, under the title Mysterious Forces of Civilization written by "an Eminent Bahai Philosopher."blank">http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SDC/sdc-1.html#fn6. The currently used translation was completed by Marzieh Gail and published in 1957, with an introduction by _Horace Holley.

The book was widely known in its time as an attempt to improve the degraded condition of Persia. The author frequently references current issues that were being debated, such as whether to modernize and accept Western technology, or to reject Western culture and rely on technology developed in Persia and the Islamic world.

See the full online text here.