The Teachings of the Faith affirm that deep spiritual relationships can be developed between unmarried individuals that will endure in the next world. In responding to the question of whether souls will be conscious of one another in the next world, Bahá’u’lláh has stated, in a well-known Tablet found in Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, that “the souls of the people of Bahá, who have entered and been established within the Crimson Ark, shall associate and commune intimately one with another, and shall be so closely associated in their lives, their aspirations, their aims and strivings as to be even as one soul”, and He assures us that they “are united in the bonds of intimacy and fellowship.” Further, Shoghi Effendi, in a letter dated 4 December 1954 written on his behalf to an individual believer, describes the relationship “we should establish with our parents, our children, our brothers and sisters and friends” as “a deep spiritual bond which will be everlasting, and not merely physical bonds of human relationship”, and he likened these relationships to the “profound friendship of spirit” that should exist in a
Bahá’í marriage.