The taxi finally stopped. One hand on the door handle, I stretched out to pay, but the driver went a meter further and stopped again to be more precise. Oh for Pete’s sake, that was unnecessary! The clock is ticking. And for the love of God, why did he have to count my change twice? I grabbed the bills and dashed out the door.

“I’m here. Here’s my membership card..” There was an empty space in my purse where my wallet usually resided. My frantic fingers searched to find the familiar wad of leather. I wish I didn’t cram so many things into my purse! It was still not there. With a rising pulse, I whisked my purse away from the counter, found a chair, and dumped the entire contents onto a meditation cushion. It was then, I knew:  my wallet was in the taxi.

I did what any level-headed person would do first. No, not call the police to report a loss.

I cried.

All of my documents were in there: two American bank cards and my Taiwanese ones; my Taiwanese ARC residence card (aka “green card”); my health card; my drivers’ license. And, the wallet was a special gift from my husband, who had hoped to keep me more organized by replacing my ratty old one.  I felt how one feels if they lose something valuable, especially being in the extremely vulnerable position in a country in which I am a visitor, even if long-term. The dread and fear of being stranded with nothing took hold.

Once I was finished with that important deed, I called to report a loss. I then spent two hours of my Friday placing calls back home from abroad to cancel various cards. I was angry at myself mostly, but I could not help feeling angry at the driver just a little bit, and then feeling guilt from my anger at him. I shouldn’t blame him; he did nothing wrong.  But I just could not help it at the time.

I remember talking a bit to God in my own words. I could not bring myself to recite anything from holy texts because I feel I was in too low a state to be sincere. I simply asked God to help me with my troubles, and I told him I didn’t think it was fair for my wallet to be lost after my hellish weekend previously, that He was being too harsh with me, and could he please show forth a bit of His Mercy this time. I told Him also I felt guilty being so demanding of Him, but that I was in such pain and I could not forgive the driver, and so I asked His help in all these matters.

Afternoon came.

I took the elevator down to the bottom floor of my apartment and prepared to depart. In the lobby area were many men, one of which had salt-and-pepper hair and a black suit. He recognized me, but I did not recognize him.

“麥小姐Mai Shao-Jie!” My Chinese name.

“是我 That’s me.” I replied.

The man stretched forth his hand to reveal a familiar black object. It was then that I recognized the driver. He opened my wallet revealing all the contents inside, still intact. In Chinese he said,

“Everything is still inside, you see? Two American bank cards and two Taiwanese ones; your Taiwanese ARC residence card ; your health card; your drivers’ license.. and $2000 NT [about $60 US].” Everything was there.

He continued, “I tried to visit the place that I dropped you off, but you were in such a hurry to get out of my taxi that I did not see which door you went in. Luckily your home address is on your ARC card. Mai Shao-Jie, you should be very careful with your things. These things are very valuable. 小心, 小心! ”

I was in tears again. This time, it was feeling ashamed that I had blamed the driver, that I had misjudged him, that I had thought God was being “tough” with me, when, in fact, my entire reality had been conspiring to help me, and it was me doing the rejecting. I cried tears of joy that I had been reunited with my worldly object so important to me, that the taxi driver was indeed a man of virtue whose lesson to me today was more valuable than anything in my wallet.

I thanked the man, went upstairs to give him a gift of gratitude, but he refused it firmly. I even insisted, leaving the gift before him and tried to walk away, but he would not accept. He truly returned my wallet out of his desire to do what was right.

Everything came to full circle. I was finally inclined to turn to the Writings of my Faith. These words, from the “Long Obligatory Prayer” by Baha’u’llah, really reached my heart:

Praise be unto Thee, O our God, that Thou hast sent down unto us that which draweth us nigh unto Thee, and supplieth us with every good thing sent down by Thee in Thy Books and Thy Scriptures. Protect us, we beseech Thee, O my Lord, from the hosts of idle fancies and vain imaginations. Thou, in truth, art the Mighty, the All-Knowing.

Following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School late last year, a headline flashed across on the CNN ticker:

–“God has been removed from our classrooms” says Reverend–

This got me thinking.

Often we search for the shooter’s motive. Sometimes though, there may be no clear motive. What if the person responsible actually deemed his actions to be appropriate or “non-aberrant”? If that be the case, we should delve a little deeper into the trajectory that modern day society has been and is currently taking.

With unrelenting exposure to gratuitously violent video games such as Call of Duty, movies (too numerous to name) where a “hero” is lauded for single-handedly terminating the lives of hundreds of “enemies”, the line between fantasy and the individual’s perceived reality becomes finer and finer. Let me offer an example. Many years ago, I tried my hand at a video game called Grand Theft Auto, where one of the more “compelling” elements of the game was to try and run people over with a car. You earned money/points every time you did so. I recall how, after a few hours of playing this game, I had to get into a (real) car to drive somewhere.

At some point during my journey I distinctly remember having to re-sensitise my thoughts away from “you have to run over those people on the sidewalk”. On a personal level, that was a scary moment. How could I, even for a solitary inconsequential second, believe it was OK to run someone over?! No doubt, overloaded exposure to such games do shape the way we think and will warp reality to varying extents. The task is ours, then, as Shoghi Effendi mentions, to exercise:

..daily vigilance in the control of.. carnal desires and corrupt inclinations.. [and] for the abandonment of a frivolous conduct, with its excessive attachment to trivial and often misdirected pleasures.

True, we are continually exposed to unseemly elements in today’s society. However, there are ways to counter balance the effect. The role of the two parents in a stable, healthy family unit is perhaps the primary instructional avenue for children. Parents are responsible for the discipline of their child–discipline which would do best to focus on attributes such as “moderation in all things”, love and unity.

What needs to be appreciated in this respect is the extent to which young minds are affected by the choices parents make for their own lives, when, no matter how unintentionally, no matter how innocently, such choices condone the passions of the world—its admiration for power, its adoration of status, its love of luxuries, its attachment to frivolous pursuits, its glorification of violence, and its obsession with self-gratification.

(Universal House of Justice, to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors, 28 Dec. 2010)

Another factor that is debated is how the shooter has been ill-treated by his peers and has usually led a solitary, isolated life:

It must be realized that the isolation and despair from which so many suffer are products of an environment ruled by an all-pervasive materialism. And in this the friends must understand the ramifications of Bahá’u’lláh’s statement that “the present-day order” must “be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead.”

(Universal House of Justice, to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors, 28 Dec. 2010)

Are we doing enough to calibrate the moral compasses of our young people at schools in order to address the rise of materialism, of bullying and of social isolation? Have we made the very basic spiritual concepts such as love and patience known to them or, as the Reverend on CNN said, have we removed God from our classrooms? And finally, what can we practically do to address this?

Similarly the variety of colour and culture enriches the world of humanity. According to the Baha’i Scriptures:

The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord.

And:

If you meet those of different race and colour from yourself, do not mistrust them and withdraw yourself into your shell of conventionality, but rather be glad and show them kindness. Think of them as different coloured roses growing in the beautiful garden of humanity, and rejoice to be among them.

Unity in Diversity

The unity of humanity, as Bahá’ís view it, is a unity in diversity rather than uniformity. It is not by suppression of differences that one will arrive at unity, but rather, by an increased awareness of and respect for the values of each culture, and indeed of each individual.

What is causing currently division, hatred, warfare and bloodshed in many parts of the world is prejudice. Prejudice comes from the belief that one group or a part of humanity is superior to another. In order to promote unity and mutual understanding among the various segments of the human family we need to confront and eliminate all forms of prejudice be it religious, racial, patriotic, tribal and so on.

With unity – a unity that embraces and honors the full diversity of humankind – our current problems, which face the humanity today, can be solved. Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith says:

The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.

He further proclaims:

So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.

Oneness of humanity

In the Bahá’í view the recognition of the fundamental oneness of the human race is the key to overcoming our prejudices. At the same time we are encouraged to value our diversity and the unique gifts of each individual and group identities.

Belief in the oneness of humanity provides both a unifying vision and the basis for a new system of values. It has the power to inspire the transformation of individual attitudes and behavior. It can, at the same time, help chart the structural changes necessary for the emergence of a peaceful, harmonious, and prosperous global society.

Acceptance of the concept of unity in diversity implies the development in the individual of a global consciousness and a love for humanity as a whole. Overcoming our prejudices require profound change of heart and a new mind-set. It is the power of the Word of God that can produce such a necessary transformation.

In the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings there was much speculation around who may have committed such a cruel and inhuman crime and why. For many, the notion of terrorism brought the thoughts straight to religious extremist groups long before it had been proven who the guilty parties were. Looking at the world today, it is not hard to understand how this has come to be. This tendency, however, says more about the state of the world and its people than it does about religion itself.

O ye that dwell on earth! The religion of God is for love and unity; make it not the cause of enmity or dissension.

The above quote from Baha’u’llah, the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, makes clear to us that the purpose of religion is to be a cause of love and unity. It has been the purpose and the fundamental principal of all the great religions of the past, a goal that each religion has fulfilled at the time and in the context in which it appeared. Eternal spiritual teachings such as “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you” and “The betterment of the world can be accomplished through pure and goodly deeds”, taught by all religions, has united populations, tribes and people around the world and inspired to the advancement of culture and civilization for thousands of years. So essential is the principal of unity in religion that Abdu’l-Baha has said:

Religion should unite all hearts and cause wars and disputes to vanish from the face of the earth, give birth to spirituality, and bring life and light to each heart. If religion becomes a cause of dislike, hatred and division, it were better to be without it, and to withdraw from such a religion would be a truly religious act.

Acts of terrorism and violence in the name of religion are thus signs that people have turned away from the spiritual teachings of religion and are using it as a means of promoting their own selfish and corrupt interests. Holy Writings and spiritual tenets that were once able to create unity and harmony are being abused for the purpose of controlling people and causing disruption and chaos. Teachings that inspired the promotion of arts and sciences are today being distorted and misinterpreted to prevent education and intellectual advancement. The Baha’i Faith gives us a pragmatic perspective on this phenomenon, that mankind with time drifts away from the spiritual core of religion and tends to forget its true purpose. That is why religion needs to be renewed from time to time and its transformative power reestablished. Abdu’l-Baha tells us:

From the seed of reality, religion has grown into a tree which has put forth leaves and branches, blossoms and fruit. After a time this tree has fallen into a condition of decay. The leaves and blossoms have withered and perished; the tree has become stricken and fruitless. It is not reasonable that man should hold to the old tree, claiming that its life forces are undiminished, its fruit unequalled, its existence eternal. The seed of reality must be sown again in human hearts in order that a new tree may grow therefrom and new divine fruits refresh the world. By this means the nations and peoples now divergent in religion will be brought into unity, imitations will be forsaken and a universal brotherhood in the reality itself will be established.

Religion has thus always been and will continue to be a cause of unity and harmony as long as people turn to it and fulfill its true purpose. The world-embracing teachings of the Baha’i Faith were revealed for mankind in this day and are destined to unify people from all around the world through its teachings: “The world is but one country and mankind its citizens”.

The first was the Academy Awards, broadcast live to millions of people all over the world. I normally tape the ceremony and watch it the next day on fast-forward. It’s like double choc-chip ice-cream: you know you’ll regret it tomorrow, but you can’t stop.

The second, much less frivolous and a lot more heart-breaking, was the death of Reeva Steenkamp, the girlfriend of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius. When I got into work that Valentine’s Day, and my colleague told me of the shooting incident the night before, I was sure it was a hoax.

And along with my fellow South Africans, I went through a gamut of emotions: shock, horror, pity, anger, suspicion and despair. The media, both national and international, gave it so much coverage we all quickly “knew” all the “details” of the incident, of Oscar’s subsequent arrest and bail hearing. And we discussed them, ad nauseum. I don’t recall a single conversation, in the weeks afterwards, that didn’t at least touch on the Oscar case.

I tried to figure out why we were so interested – and more than that, invested – in the story of this particular fatal shooting, when there are so many other killings, every day, that are ignored. The most likely explanation, for me, is that Oscar was viewed by many as a role model, an icon and a symbol. He was the country’s favourite son. We had raised him to such heights that the fall seemed that much worse.

Which brought me back to thinking about the other Oscars. More than 40 million people watched a bunch of actors tell each other how great they are. I’m fairly certain that the Nobel prize ceremonies, or even the CNN Heroes broadcasts don’t get nearly the same viewership figures.

Our priorities are upside down: we should be celebrating servants of humanity, not manufactured celebrities. We should recognize the immense potential each human being has, and look to attain our own and help others reach theirs.

The Baha’i writings tell us to “regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value^[1]”. The process of mining and polishing these “gems” – spiritual values and qualities – must be our top priority in life. Not the acquisition of material possessions or earthly distinctions.

Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, makes it clear that our ability to attain world peace is dependent on our getting this priority right. He said^[2]: “This span of earth is but one homeland and one habitation. It behoveth you to abandon vainglory which causeth alienation and to set your hearts on whatever will ensure harmony. In the estimation of the people of Bahá man’s glory lieth in his knowledge, his upright conduct, his praiseworthy character, his wisdom, and not in his nationality or rank”.

Another central figure of the Baha’i Faith, Baha’u’llah’s son Abdul-Baha, clarifies this further:

“Consider carefully: all these highly varied phenomena, these concepts, this knowledge, these technical procedures and philosophical systems, these sciences, arts, industries and inventions—all are emanations of the human mind. Whatever people has ventured deeper into this shoreless sea, has come to excel the rest. The happiness and pride of a nation consist in this, that it should shine out like the sun in the high heaven of knowledge. …  And the honor and distinction of the individual consist in this, that he among all the world’s multitudes should become a source of social good.

Is any larger bounty conceivable than this, that an individual, looking within himself, should find that by the confirming grace of God he has become the cause of peace and well-being, of happiness and advantage to his fellow men? No, by the one true God, there is no greater bliss, no more complete delight.”^[3]

Bahá’u'lláh, the Glory of God, that Supreme Personage whose appearance fulfilled the prophecies of all the world’s major faiths, declared His Status and Mission in the Garden of Ridván, on the outskirts of modern-day Baghdad.

Millions of Baha’is the world over celebrate this day, the Festival of Ridván, and consider it the King of Festivals, the full implications of which are slowly and unobtrusively unfolding in the world around us.

Historical view of Baghdad and the Tigris River.

His Declaration came at a time when Ottoman Empire officials, fearful of His revolutionizing  influence upon hearts and minds, exiled Bahá’u'lláh to Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) after a stay of ten years in Baghdad. As Bahá’u'lláh departed from the city, His believers’ initial feelings of grief and sadness as they came to terms with the departure were soon replaced by feelings of overwhelming joy, as the Mission which God had entrusted to Bahá’u'lláh ten years prior in a foul dungeon in Tehran was finally revealed to mankind.

The words below paint a picture of the stirring scenes accompanying His departure from Baghdad and His momentous Declaration in the Garden of Ridván:

The departure of Bahá’u'lláh from His house witnessed a commotion the like of which Baghdád had rarely seen. People of all walks of life, men and women, rich and poor, young and old, men of learning and culture, princes, government officials, tradesmen and workers, and above all His companions, thronged the approaches of His house and crowded the streets and roof-tops situated along His route to the river. They were lamenting and weeping the departure of One Who, for a decade, had imparted to them the warmth of His love and the radiance of His spirit, Who had been a refuge and guide for them all.

When Bahá’u'lláh appeared in the courtyard of His house His companions, grief-stricken and disconsolate, prostrated themselves at His feet. For some time He stood there, amid the weeping and lamentations of His loved ones, speaking words of comfort and promising to receive each of them in the garden later. Bahá’u'lláh in a Tablet mentions that when He had walked some way towards the gate, amidst the crowds, a child of only a few years ran forward and, clinging to His robes, wept aloud, begging Him in his tender young voice not to leave. In such an atmosphere, where emotions had been so deeply stirred, this action on the part of a small child moved the hearts and brought further grief to everyone.

The scenes of lamentation and weeping outside the house, of those who did not confess to be His followers, were no less spectacular and heart-rending. Everyone in the crowded street sought to approach Him. Some prostrated themselves at His feet, others waited to hear a few words, yet others were content with a touch of His hands, a glance at His face. A Persian lady of noble birth, who was not herself a believer, pushed her way into the crowd and with a gesture of sacrifice threw her child at the feet of Bahá’u'lláh. These demonstrations continued all the way to the bank of the river.

Before crossing the river, Bahá’u'lláh addressed His companions who had gathered around Him, saying:

“O My companions, I entrust to your keeping this city of Baghdád, in the state ye now behold it, when from the eyes of friends and strangers alike, crowding its housetops, its streets and markets, tears like the rain of spring are flowing down, and I depart. With you it now rests to watch lest your deeds and conduct dim the flame of love that gloweth within the breasts of its Inhabitants.”

Bahá’u'lláh was then ferried across the river accompanied by three of His sons: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Mírzá Mihdí (the Purest Branch) and Muhammad-’Alí, who were eighteen, fourteen and ten years of age, respectively. With them also was His amanuensis, Mírzá Áqá Ján. The identity of others who may have accompanied Him, or of those in the garden who had pitched His tent and were making preparations for His arrival, or of those who might have followed Him on that day, is not clearly known.

The call to afternoon prayer was raised from the mosque and the words ‘Alláh’u'-Akbar’ (God is the Greatest) chanted by the mu’adhdhin reverberated through the garden as the King of Glory entered it. There, Bahá’u'lláh appeared in the utmost joy, walking majestically in its avenues lined with flowers and trees. The fragrance of the roses and the singing of the nightingales created an atmosphere of beauty and enchantment.

The companions of Bahá’u'lláh had, for some time, known the Declaration of His station to be imminent. This realization came to them not only as a result of many remarks and allusions made by Him during the last few months of His sojourn in Baghdád, but also through a noticeable change in His demeanour. Another sign which unmistakably pointed to its approaching hour was the adoption, on the day of His departure from His house in Baghdád, of a different type of headdress known as táj (tall felt hat), which He wore throughout His ministry.

Sadness and grief vanished and the believers were filled with delight at this announcement. Although Bahá’u'lláh was being exiled to far-off lands and knew the sufferings and tribulations which were in store for Him and His followers, yet through this historic Declaration He changed all sorrow into blissful joy and spent the most delightful time of His ministry in the Garden of Ridván. Indeed, in one of His Tablets, He has referred to the first day of Ridván as the ‘Day of supreme felicity’, and has called on His followers to ‘rejoice, with exceeding gladness’ in remembrance of that day.

The manner of the Declaration of Bahá’u'lláh’s Mission is not clear, neither is the identity of all who heard Him. One thing, however, is clear. During His ten-years’ sojourn in ‘Iráq, although Bahá’u'lláh had alluded to His station, and identified Himself with the utterances of God revealed in His Tablets, He had never designated Himself as ‘Him Whom God shall make manifest’. It was in the Garden of Ridván that, in the course of His Declaration, He unequivocally did so, announcing Himself as the One Whose advent the Báb had proclaimed, for Whose sake He had sacrificed Himself and for Whom He had established a covenant with His followers. That day was one of the most eventful in the life of Bahá’u'lláh. The whole day He was occupied with important affairs, which culminated in the Declaration of His Mission–the most momentous event of His ministry.

(Adib Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u'lláh Vol. 1, p260-262)

Wishing everyone a joyful and invigorating Ridván celebration!

Trust in the capacity of this generation to disentangle itself from the embroilments of a divided society. To discharge your responsibilities, you will have to show forth courage, the courage of those who cling to standards of rectitude, whose lives are characterized by purity of thought and action, and whose purpose is directed by love and indomitable faith. As you dedicate yourselves to healing the wounds with which your peoples have been afflicted, you will become invincible champions of justice.

(The Universal House of Justice, message to the Paraguay Youth Congress, 2000)

Dr. Susan Moody, with Baha’i women and girls in Iran.

When I was in high school, I read a book that left an indelible impression upon my heart.  It was The Diary of Juliet Thompson, an early American Baha’i living in New York City who had the good fortune to have spent time with ‘Abdu’l-Baha in the Holy Land, Europe, and New York.  Juliet was loved dearly by ‘Abdu’l-Baha — He said that she would become the envy of future queens — but she was by no means perfect, and I think that’s why she appealed so much to me.

I read the book again this year, as summer turned to autumn: before going to sleep, my eyelids growing heavy as I tried to catch another chapter; on the city bus, almost missing my stop; at lunch breaks from work, sitting in a garden tucked behind high-rises and not wanting my hour to be up.  One evening, lying on the couch with dinner in one hand and my book in the other, I gazed out the window at the sunset, watching a plane descend at the distance.  I had the great feeling of wanting to sacrifice very much to help bring about a new civilization that Baha’u'llah taught of, borne out of the great love for ‘Abdu’l-Baha that Juliet transmitted through these pages.

And it occurred to me that I had had that very same feeling when reading it as a high schooler.  I wondered what I had sacrificed — it didn’t feel like very much, and it always felt like I had some excuse; that “it’ll come later.”  But later was now, and what could I show of it?

Juliet’s diary did something to me, for as the autumn progressed, I picked books up and couldn’t put them down.  Books of great heroes, who sacrificed and had faith in a cause that would bring a new world long after they had passed away.  One book became two which became four, and before I knew it, I had devoured ten such books, as the fiery leaves that lined my street shriveled to dust, and D.C.’s first silent snow turned to blizzards.

These were stories of women and men in far-flung places (Persia, Bulgaria, Libya, Australia) and those closer to home (New York, Washington, D.C., Berkeley). They were stories of men who risked their very lives by, openly and stealthily, sharing with others Baha’u'llah’s message; and of women sacrificed material comforts to travel, alone, to distant lands, at advanced ages.

There are my favorites: the Western women who, although single — some never married, others widowed — traversed the globe and performed great acts of heroism.

There was Ella Bailey who, at eighty-eight years old, did not let a bad fall and a recent hospitalization prevent her from alighting upon her pioneering post in Tripoli, equipped with an oxygen mask, only to pass away a month after her arrival.  Martha Root, the “archetype of Bahá’í itinerant teachers,” who circled the world twice.  Keith Ransom-Kehler, twice widowed, with her endless trunks packed with couture, sludged through the mud of East Asia.  Susan Moody, who, at the age of fifty-eight, traveled alone to Iran at ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s request to provide healthcare for women, likewise starting the country’s first school for girls.  Marion Jack, sixty-five years old, moved from Canada to Bulgaria, living in a small hotel room through ill-health, freezing temperatures, and the Second World War.

These names — Ella, Keith, Marion, Susan, Martha — echoed in the memory of my formative years, and growing up, I associated those names with, “Well, I could never do what they did.”

But as I read on, what became increasingly apparent was their great heroism despite their human frailties: impatience, feelings of inadequacy, struggling to work in unity with others.  A line I read from the foreward of one of these books summed it up:

As we read about these early Baha’is, we realize that they were in many ways very much like ourselves, for they too had human weaknesses and shortcomings.  Their greatness lay in the quality of their faith in Baha’u'llah and His Message. This was the secret of their victory– despite their shortcomings.

(Gloria Faizi, Fire on the Mountain-top)

I realized any of us could be like them, and that there were a lot more of such people around me — whose lives are yet to be recorded in books — than I had imagined.

As I leave this city which I have occupied intermittently for the past five and half years, for warmer climes — leaving the comfort of plentiful friendships, organic markets, rapid public transportation, and clean sidewalks — off to an unknown destination to follow in their footsteps; in moments of fear of what may lie ahead, I remember these individuals who, ever human, were champions of justice:

Though they themselves would not live to see that day, they were prepared to sacrifice all they had if by doing so they could raise the call to unity, and prove to an unbelieving world that the wolf and the lamb could truly drink from the same stream..

(Gloria Faizi, Fire on the Mountain-top)

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is just around the corner, hosted in a country where the disparity between rich and poor is striking.  The paradox of hosting a multi-billion dollar global entertainment event amongst an economically lopsided population brings to light society’s seemingly tunnel-vision attitude towards pleasure-seeking, coupled with an indifferent oversight of attempting to meet the community’s basic needs:

We see amongst us men who are overburdened with riches on the one hand, and on the other those unfortunate ones who starve with nothing; those who possess several stately palaces, and those who have no where to lay their head.

Abdu’l-Bahá : Paris Talks

One could mention that an event such as the 2010 FIFA World Cup provides employment for thousands.  This may be true, but of a certainty there exist more genuine approaches of sustainable empowerment and community building; approaches that are not the mere by-products of a once-off event.

One could also argue that this camaraderie and entertainment promote personal as well as community well-being. This may be true, but where do our boundaries lie?

One of the signs of a decadent society, a sign which is very evident in the world today, is an almost frenetic devotion to pleasure and diversion, an insatiable thirst for amusement, a fanatical devotion to games and sport, a reluctance to treat any matter seriously, and a scornful, derisory attitude towards virtue and solid worth.. Frivolity palls and eventually leads to boredom and emptiness, but true happiness and joy and humour that are parts of a balanced life that includes serious thought, compassion and humble servitude to God, are characteristics that enrich life and add to its radiance.

(From a letter dated 8 May 1979 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)

Presently, the global sports industry is worth billions.  The question is what should it be worth?  Are the salaries that individual players earn just and acceptable?  Is the importance attached to one’s fanatical devotion to largely commercial entities justified?  Importantly, what qualitative value can be attached to sports, as far as the rank of professions and service to society is concerned?

The arrangements of the circumstances of the people must be such that poverty shall disappear, that everyone, as far as possible, according to his rank and position, shall share in comfort and well-being.. Now the remedy must be carefully undertaken. It cannot be done by bringing to pass absolute equality between men.. Equality is a chimera! It is entirely impracticable! Even if equality could be achieved it could not continue — and if its existence were possible, the whole order of the world would be destroyed. The law of order must always obtain in the world of humanity. Heaven has so decreed in the creation of man.

Some are full of intelligence, others have an ordinary amount of it, and others again are devoid of intellect. In these three classes of men there is order but not equality.

Certainly, some being enormously rich and others lamentably poor, an organization is necessary to control and improve this state of affairs. It is important to limit riches, as it is also of importance to limit poverty. Either extreme is not good. To be seated in the mean [1] is most desirable.

[1 'Give me neither poverty nor riches.' -- Prov. 30: 8]

Abdu’l-Bahá goes on further to outline the basic requirements of preserving the ‘law of order’:

There must be special laws made, dealing with these extremes of riches and of want. The members of the Government should consider the laws of God when they are framing plans for the ruling of the people. The general rights of mankind must be guarded and preserved.

The government of the countries should conform to the Divine Law which gives equal justice to all. This is the only way in which the deplorable superfluity of great wealth and miserable, demoralizing, degrading poverty can be abolished. Not until this is done will the Law of God be obeyed.

• 33% prefer socialism over capitalism
• 37% prefer capitalism
• 30% are undecided

These statistics, from a 2009 Rasmussen telephone survey, were cited in Michael Moore’s latest documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story“.

At a glance these figures are surprising, coming as they do from the country that has historically prided itself in being the champion of free market capitalism. They reflect just how badly the financial crises of the last 2 years has shaken young people’s confidence in the once impregnable fortresses symbolised by New York’s Wall Street and the Square Mile in London. With jobs in short supply and a startlingly high ratio of unemployed university graduates, the sense of disillusionment is palpable.  And it hasn’t just been the youth. World leaders have been forced to sit up and scrutinise elements of a system that has lead to senseless exploitation of the masses, gross disparities between the rich and poor and blatantly unjust practices by individuals and corporations alike.

Just last week, President Sarkozy of France reiterated the plea in front of students at Columbia University:

The world economic regulations cannot go on as they are. We can’t accept a capitalist system without rules any more.. Lack of rules will be the death of capitalism.

“Capitalism: A Love Story” begins with a sequence of flashing images, juxtaposing elements that precipitated the fall of the Ancient Roman Empire with correlating scenes from modern-day society. This impactful intro calls to mind the words of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, who once asked rhetorically:

Are we, the privileged custodians of a priceless Faith, called upon to witness a cataclysmical change, politically as fundamental and spiritually as beneficent as that which precipitated the fall of the Roman Empire in the West?

Dr. Peter Khan, in his reflections on the 2009 Ridvan Message, examines the phrase in the message that calls on the Baha’i community to be conscious participants in “rebuilding a broken world”. Again, the metaphor of Ancient Rome is used. Civilizations don’t just come and go he reminds us — they exhibit cracks over time, often hundreds of years in the making, until eventually they crumble and collapse. Much has been written by various authors in an attempt to identify the fissures in the Roman Empire, some of which have been represented by Moore’s sequence of images..

• The disparity between rich and poor
• Too few jobs
• Games and spectacles “to keep idle citizens entertained”
• Rule by decree
• Irresponsible behaviour of public officials

Critics of Moore’s documentary-making style state that it is too black-and-white — everything is categorised as either right or wrong, focus is placed on extreme cases and subjects are often treated superficially. Some have taken issue with the subject matter directly, challenging his premise that the capitalist system is the main cause of the problems. One critic concludes with the following statement:

What he doesn’t tackle are the individual Americans who have made their own avaricious or unwise economic decisions.. Perhaps what Moore should have condemned are greed and corruption. They are the human vices at the root of the issue and unfortunately, they can surface in any economic system.

Fair point. But one might then contend with this critic that, actually, many people were duped into the unwise decisions by unscrupulous bankers or mortgage lenders — that these individuals were merely naive — and the finger-pointing debate would cycle round again.

The Baha’i position accepts elements of both viewpoints. Neither should the capitalist system and the associated practices of corporations and big business be accepted as the hallmark of planetary organization — far from it — nor should the root causes of greedy and short-sighted behaviour be left unexamined. Pure capitalism, like socialism and other man-made systems preceding it, is a flawed system based on certain false assumptions about human nature and well-being (nevermind total disregard of the environment based on an antiquated assumption of inexhaustible natural resources), and is slowly unravelling before our eyes. Individuals too, while affected by the system in place, are certainly culpable for the unwise and harmful actions carried out under the pretext of personal rights and “getting ahead of the pack”.  Ultimately, the relationship between society and the individual is so intertwined and mutually affective that ignoring one at the expense of the other has to be viewed as simplistic.

With all of this as the backdrop, how are Baha’is, as re-builders of a broken world, as individuals ”anxiously concerned with the needs of the age”, going about their task? How is unity of focus and effort achieved in an environment where opinions on where to begin are so varied that one could quite easily spend a life fighting cause after endless cause.. and still end up worse off? Do we tackle societal problems first and then look at individual behaviours next, or vice versa? Or do we take the visionary step of replacing the damaged shell of our present civilization with the foundations of an entirely new one?

Peter Khan neatly breaks down the immediate requirements..

How do you make a civilization?

A civilization involves a foundation of behavioral change through spiritual transformation. We can agree on that. A civilization depends upon certain moral and ethical, spiritual characteristics, but what else? What is the framework of the new civilization we are conceptualizing in this hypothetical example of given a blank sheet of paper and asked “please, set out a framework for a civilization”?

We would want to have certain things:

- We’d want an institutionalized practice of individual and community worship, for a variety of reasons

- We would want individuals comprising that civilization to engage in an exploration and application of divine teachings to daily life, so that we can build up a civilization in a reasonable and productive manner

- We would want civilized society to be imbued with a sense of altruism to the service of humanity. We don’t want selfish greedy people, but people who are altruistic, who think of the larger good.

- And essentially we would want them to transmit civilized values to the new generation of children and youth.

If you were to agree that those are the elements of the framework of a civilization then I must tell you, you have fallen into my trap, because what I have described are the elements of the core activities of the Five Year Plan. What I have referred to are things such as the devotional meetings, the institute process, study of the Ruhi Books, the focus on service to humanity, children’s classes, youth classes, the junior youth activities.

The point I make is that we are engaged, obviously in the spread of the Faith, in pursuit of the endeavors of the Five Year Plan and beyond, but far more than that we are establishing the roots of new civilization in our day-to-day activities of the present plan. This doesn’t mean that civilization will magically spring into being like the goddess Athena, rather it will come gradually, slowly, generation upon generation, decade upon decade, and century upon century, to realize its fruit in the Golden Age, but its roots are to be found in the activities of the present day at this time in history.

Bahá’u'lláh revealed His directions, teachings and laws, so that souls might know God..

Such knowledge of His teachings, however, is not an ends in itself, but a means to its translation into action; for therein lies its fruition, or else it is as a man who claims he is handsome, but is really otherwise. As Bahá’u’lláh says:

It is incumbent upon every man of insight and understanding to strive to translate that which hath been written into reality and action.

Through this knowledge and action, the true meaning of the saying that man was created in God’s image becomes apparent. Bahá’u’lláh’s Writings exhort man to mirror forth the qualities and attributes of God such as justice, love, mercy, forgiveness and the like through their actions. In doing so, one becomes the spiritual reflection of the attributes of this spiritual image of God.

Therefore, because human beings inherently mirror the attributes of God, although to varying degrees, another way one can understand the attributes of God is through the mirror-like soul of a human being. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, for example, reflected with utmost clarity the qualities of wisdom and knowledge through his writings and utterances, whilst also demonstrating love, kindness and tolerance through his behavior towards all he met. However, like the mirror, one soul can acquire defects which obscure the image within, such as racism, prejudice, selfishness and the like, and one must be careful not to attribute these defects to God Himself. Bahá’u’lláh explains, whilst quoting the Qur’an:

A pure heart is as a mirror; cleanse it with the burnish of love and severance from all save God, that the true sun may shine within it and the eternal morning dawn.

The most pure and clear reflection of the attributes of God is in the being of the Manifestation of God. Their lives, therefore, provide a most perfect knowledge into the attributes of God. Bahá’u’lláh says:

If it be your wish, O people, to know God and to discover the greatness of His might, look, then, upon Me with Mine own eyes, and not with the eyes of anyone besides Me.

So, let us consider the attributes of God that were manifested in the life of Bahá’u’lláh. His well-documented life demonstrates the virtues, qualities and attributes of God, even in the midst of the extreme persecution He suffered.

Like the birth of previous religions, Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings of love and unity were met with fierce opposition, this time from both a fanatical clergy in Iran and a corrupt Ottoman Empire; as a result He was exiled four times with His family and imprisoned for 40 years in dreadful conditions on account of the quick spread of His influence and the jealousy it provoked amongst a malicious clergy. For four months in 1852, Bahá’u’lláh and His companions were imprisoned in a dark, cold, underground dungeon known as the Síyáh-Chál, or ‘Black Pit’, in appalling circumstances. Many of Bahá’u’lláh’s companions were executed and the scars on His neck from the cumbersome 50kg chains stayed with Him until the end of His life some 40 years later. His son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, has recounted how, at the age of 9, he saw the heart-rending sight of his malnourished Father in tattered clothes with chains during His imprisonment.

Notwithstanding the persecution and slaughter of the thousands of early Bahá’ís and Bábís, Bahá’u’lláh showed the utmost love to all those He met, diffused teachings of love and harmony, promulgated the equality of men and woman at a time when this was unheard of, enunciated the principle of the harmony of science and religion, emphasized the necessity of independent investigation of truth and ceaselessly taught the oneness of humanity all throughout His harsh life.

Regarding His experiences He writes:

The Ancient Beauty [Bahá’u’lláh] hath consented to be bound with chains that mankind may be released from its bondage, and hath accepted to be made a prisoner within this most mighty Stronghold that the whole world may attain unto true liberty. He hath drained to its dregs the cup of sorrow, that all the peoples of the earth may attain unto abiding joy, and be filled with gladness. This is of the mercy of your Lord, the Compassionate, the Most Merciful. We have accepted to be abased, O believers in the Unity of God, that ye may be exalted, and have suffered manifold afflictions, that ye might prosper and flourish. He Who hath come to build anew the whole world, behold, how they that have joined partners with God have forced Him to dwell within the most desolate of cities!

The process of knowing God is one of loving God and taking pleasure in His beauty by gaining a deeper knowledge of His attributes through the person of the Manifestation and, to a much lesser extent, through its reflection in other human beings. This process ultimately leads to the greater reflection of His qualities – love, justice, truth, compassion and so on — in the human heart, which is the crying need of an agitated and afflicted humanity.