Insights from the field

 

In the latest podcast episode from the Bahá’í World News Service, Mina Yazdani—a professor of history at Eastern Kentucky University in the United States—explored the profound contribution of the Bahá’í community in Iran to their society. 

 Dr. Yazdani shared some accounts of these contributions in several areas, including health, agriculture, and education. 

 She explained how the Bahá’ís of Iran, despite relentless persecution, have embodied constructive resilience and have persisted in their endeavors to serve the needs of their society from its inception in the mid-nineteenth century.

True peace and tranquillity will only be realized

 

Say: O children of dust!
He Who is the Spirit of Purity saith: In this glorious Day whatsoever can purge you from defilement and ensure your peace and tranquillity, that indeed is the straight Path, the Path that leadeth unto Me. To be purged from defilement is to be cleansed of that which is injurious to man and detracteth from his high station – among which is to take undue pleasure in one’s own words and deeds, notwithstanding their unworthiness.
True peace and tranquillity will only be realized when every soul will have become the well-wisher of all mankind. He Who is the All-Knowing beareth Me witness: were the peoples of the world to grasp the true significance of the words of God, they would never be deprived of their portion of the ocean of His bounty. In the firmament of truth there hath never been, nor will there ever be, a brighter star than this.

Bahá'u'lláh
The Tabernacle of Unity, section 1.9

The power of reflection.

 

Arts, crafts and sciences uplift the world of being, and are conducive to its exaltation. Knowledge is as wings to man’s life, and a ladder for his ascent. Its acquisition is incumbent upon everyone. The knowledge of such sciences, however, should be acquired as can profit the peoples of the earth, and not those which begin with words and end with words. Great indeed is the claim of scientists and craftsmen on the peoples of the world.
O people of Bahá! The source of crafts, sciences and arts is the power of reflection. Make ye every effort that out of this ideal mine there may gleam forth such pearls of wisdom and utterance as will promote the well-being and harmony of all the kindreds of the earth.

 Bahá'u'lláh,
Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 72

To whatever place We may be banished,

 

To whatever place We may be banished, however great the tribulation We may suffer, they who are the people of God must, with fixed resolve and perfect confidence, keep their eyes directed towards the Dayspring of Glory, and be busied in whatever may be conducive to the betterment of the world and the education of its peoples.
All that hath befallen Us in the past hath advanced the interests of Our Revelation and blazoned its fame; and all that may befall Us in the future will have a like result. Cling ye, with your inmost hearts, to the Cause of God, a Cause that hath been sent down by Him Who is the Ordainer, the All-Wise. We have, with the utmost kindliness and mercy, summoned and directed all peoples and nations to that which shall truly profit them.

Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh
www.bahai.org/r/991389534

Truthfulness and goodwill

The Daystar of Truth that shineth in its meridian splendor beareth Us witness!
They who are the people of God have no ambition except to revive the world, to ennoble its life, and regenerate its peoples. Truthfulness and goodwill have, at all times, marked their relations with all men. Their outward conduct is but a reflection of their inward life, and their inward life a mirror of their outward conduct.
No veil hideth or obscureth the verities on which their Faith is established. Before the eyes of all men these verities have been laid bare, and can be unmistakably recognized. Their very acts attest the truth of these words.

Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh
 www.bahai.org/r/476869976

True seeker

 
O My brother!

When a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in the path leading unto the knowledge of the Ancient of Days, he must, before all else, cleanse his heart, which is the seat of the revelation of the inner mysteries of God, from the obscuring dust of all acquired knowledge, and the allusions of the embodiments of satanic fancy. He must purge his breast, which is the sanctuary of the abiding love of the Beloved, of every defilement, and sanctify his soul from all that pertaineth to water and clay, from all shadowy and ephemeral attachments. He must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth. Even as thou dost witness in this Day how most of the people, because of such love and hate, are bereft of the immortal Face, have strayed far from the Embodiments of the Divine mysteries, and, shepherdless, are roaming through the wilderness of oblivion and error.

 
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh
 www.bahai.org/r/186611355

Blessed is he who

It is seemly that the servant should, after each prayer, supplicate God to bestow mercy and forgiveness upon his parents. Thereupon God’s call will be raised: ‘Thousand upon thousand of what thou hast asked for thy parents shall be thy recompense!’ Blessed is he who remembereth his parents when communing with God. There is, verily, no God but Him, the Mighty, the Well-Beloved.

 The Báb

Global Prosperity

 

These words of Bahá’u’lláh are of particular relevance to any Bahá’í youth being questioned about their own response to the suffering caused by conflicts in the world. The House of Justice has often celebrated the extraordinary commitment being shown by Bahá’í youth across the world who are proffering the divine remedy that, ultimately, is humanity’s only hope. In its Riḍván message this year, the House of Justice testifies to “how much vibrancy and strength is generated in any society by its youth being awakened to the vision of Bahá’u’lláh and becoming protagonists of the Plan”. And it calls for “a sustained, rapid rise in the number of those committing their time, their energy, their concentration to the success of this work.” The efforts of today’s young believers, undertaken in the company of many like-minded friends, are of course a continuation of the efforts that have been made through the decades by the followers of the Blessed Beauty, youth and adults alike, who have been inspired by His vision of a united world. These are efforts which have required courage, as well as sacrifice.
In His second Tablet to the Hague, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá describes the supreme sacrifices made by so many Bahá’ís for the cause of universal peace: “As ye have no doubt heard, in Persia thousands of souls have offered up their lives in this path, and thousands of homes have been laid waste. Despite this, we have in no wise relented, but have continued to endeavour unto this very moment and are increasing our efforts as day followeth day, because our desire for peace is not derived merely from the intellect: It is a matter of religious belief and one of the eternal foundations of the Faith of God.”

26 May 2024
To the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity www.bahai.org/r/630049981

Global Prosperity

 

This, then, is what it means for Bahá’ís to take a stand against conflict—to act, in the words of the House of Justice, as “true practitioners of peace”. In the message it addressed to the Bahá’ís of Iran at Naw-Rúz this year, the House of Justice stated that “in purifying the heart and cleansing its mirror from prejudice on the one hand, and in creating the social conditions for peace and unity on the other, every individual has agency and the capacity to play a part.” The theme of working for peace was explored at length in the 18 January 2019 message of the House of Justice to the Bahá’ís of the world:

 The establishment of peace is a duty to which the entire human race is called. The responsibility that Bahá’ís bear to aid that process will evolve over time, but they have never been mere spectators—they lend their share of assistance to the operation of those forces leading humanity towards unity. They are summoned to be as leaven to the world. Consider Bahá’u’lláh’s words:

 Address yourselves to the promotion of the well-being and tranquillity of the children of men. Bend your minds and wills to the education of the peoples and kindreds of the earth, that haply the dissensions that divide it may, through the power of the Most Great Name, be blotted out from its face, and all mankind become the upholders of one Order, and the inhabitants of one City. 

26 May 2024
 To the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity
 www.bahai.org/r/573566317

Global Prosperity

 

Resolving deep-rooted differences in society requires the patience to bring about profound social change through the application of moral and spiritual principles. It calls for sustained and sacrificial exertion. The Nine Year Plan in which the Bahá’í world is now engaged is designed to meet this need. In this year’s Riḍván message, the House of Justice refers to the prosecution of the Plan as “the means by which long-term, constructive processes, unfolding over generations, are being set in motion in every society.” Notwithstanding the scale of the challenge involved in realizing this aim, Bahá’ís would be failing in their duty before Bahá’u’lláh to attempt anything less. As the House of Justice stated in its Riḍván 2015 message, “it is systematic, determined, and selfless action undertaken within the wide embrace of the Plan’s framework that is the most constructive response of every concerned believer to the multiplying ills of a disordered society.”

26 May 2024
To the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity
www.bahai.org/r/665427047

Global Prosperity

 

The suffering and bloodshed that are the outcome of conflicts are deeply distressing. Surely, every conscientious soul is pained by such events. As Bahá’í youth will be aware, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá repeatedly stressed humanity’s need for universal peace, and on an occasion referred to war as “the greatest catastrophe in the world of humanity”. In its Riḍván 2022 message, the House of Justice described its sorrow “at seeing the persistence of conditions and conflicts in the world that create misery and desperate suffering—in particular, at observing the recrudescence of destructive forces that have disordered international affairs while visiting horrors upon populations.” The House of Justice referred again in its most recent Riḍván message to the “desperate” condition of the world, before stating that “this demands from every conscientious soul a response.”
The question, then, is what kind of response is appropriate. This question merits deep reflection. Reports indicate that, just in the last few years, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed as a direct result of armed struggle across the world—not only in the wars that fill news bulletins and dominate social media, but also in conflicts that unfold in relative obscurity, yet are similarly horrific for human society. What kind of response can be considered adequate in the face of such destruction of human life?

26 May 2024
 To the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity www.bahai.org/r/613467387