The Bahá’í Teachings on Universal Peace/Text
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THE BAHA’I’ TEACHINGS ON UNIVERSAL PEACE
A statement Submitted by the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the
United States and Canada to the United
States Government in 1934 and to the
Government of the Dominion of Canada in 1935.
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1939 Bahá’í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE P. O..Box 348, Grand Central Annex
New York
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Copyright 1939
Printed in U.S.A.
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THE BAHA’l TEACHINGS ON
UNIVERSAL PEACE
1. THE Bahá’í FAITH IS AN INDEPENDENT RELIGION
UNDER the conStitutional guarantee of the freedom of religious worship in most western nations, which in praCtice has enabled a great number and wide variety of groups to incorporate as religious bodies under the statutes provided by the several States, the fundamental question what in reality constitutes a religion as distinct from an ethical, philosophical or humanitarian movement does not arise. We are aware of no criterion in law or custom by which this distinction can fairly be applied, though we recognize the weight of public opinion which more or less consciously limits the term religion to sects derived historically from Christianity or Judaism, while passively tolerating the legal rights asserted by communities descended from other racial faiths having continued life and vitality in the Orient. The public influence of faiths other than Christianity or Judaism has never become a religious issue in Canada or the United States on account of the effective restrictions imposed by the Immigration ACts.
Out petition involves the claim that the Bahá’í Faith is an independent religion, not an off-shoot or mere creedal or ritualistic variation of any former religion. It Stands upon the same spiritual foundation as Christianity, Judaism and all other recognized in dependent religions of history. This foundation is the life and teaching of a Prophet, divinely inspired, imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit and providentially come to re—establish the reality of divine law for His age and cycle.
An essential part of the mission of Bahá’u’lláh was to reveal the true nature of religion. His teachings identify religion with the gospel written or spoken by each successive Prophet, the effect of which has been to inspire faith and regenerate human beings, releasing the power necessary to create a new and higher civilization. In each cycle, the motive of true faith is gradually weakened, civilization becomes materialistic and the Prophet’s universal message is replaced by human creed and the formalities of human organization.
Bahá’u’lláh supplies the clue to the meaning of history in this teaching, which asserts that civilizations rise and fall according as a society lives by divine or materialistic standards of reality. In the Bahá’í gospel, the oneness of humanity—the end and aim of the spirit of this new age—is an ideal whose attainment is dependent upon recognition of the identity of all the Prophets as successive manifestations of the one God. Religious exclusiveness and intolerance in former,
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dark ages has made vaSt societies denounce the very source of the faith upheld by other societies and, in denying its divine origin, has sanctioned that bitter religious strife which in turn is the ultimate sanction of economic and political war.
”Today the religion and the law of God is this: the people of the world must not make the various creeds and different sects pretexts for hatred. Those strong and mighty principles, laws and pathways have appeared from the one Dawning-place, and have shone forth from the one refulgent Horizon; and their differences have been in accordance with the exigencies of times, epochs, centuries and ages. Gird up the loins of endeavor, so that perchance religious dissension and strife may, through your efforts, be reduced to nothingness among the inhabitants of the world. Arise for the love of God and man in this important Cause! Intolerance and religious hatred are a consuming fire, which cannot be extinguished without divine aid."1
This spiritual principle, which declares that Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and the other Prophets are bearers of the one same Light, is wholly new and organically different from any religious tenets of the past. None can attribute it to any previous Revelation. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: ”The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion.”2
In revealing the common, divine origin of all faith, Bahá’u’lláh Provides a true, spiritual bond uniting all human beings, irrespective of their
nation, race, class or creed. This constitutes the sound basis on which alone world peace can be raised, for this spiritual bond makes human brotherhood a divine law, and replaces the ancient sanctions of antipathy and strife by new sanctions of cooperation and amity.
But the validity of Prophethood has historic proofs simpler and more obvious than the profound significance of the new principles revealed in a sacred gospel. The independence of the Bahá’í Faith is firmly established upon the unparalleled suffering inflicted upon Bahá’u’lláh and His followers, as upon His Forerunner, the Bab. Two rulers, and the leaders of Muhammadanism, combined in effort to extinguish this Light. The course of this persecution, carried on in Persia and Turkey during the latter half of the nineteenth century, when those nations were each governed by one supreme and irresponsible monarch, restored the reality of the early days of Christianity, when faith stood steadfast againSt oppression and gave eventual victory to a new vision of God. As Jesus freely offered His spirit of new life to the religious representatives of the old order, but was arrogantly spurned, with the result that Christianity arose in complete integrity and independence, so Bahá’u’lláh sought to guide His community along the path of knowledge but was resisted by the combined forces of church and state.
Exiled from Tihran to Baghdad, from Baghdad to Constantinople, from Constantinople to Adrianople, and thence for the remainder of His life immured in the prison city of
l—Bahá’u’lláh, quoted on page 105, The Bahá’í World, Vol. IV. Z—From public address delivered at the City Temple, London, September 10, 1911.
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‘Akká, Bahá’u’lláh found no place in
the old order on Which to build His
teaching of peace and unity, and
therefore, like the Prophets before
Him, raised up a new community of
faith which bears His Name.
By this degree of Persecution a cause is marked and signalized as a true religion, distinct in character and ultimate influence from any other type of movement or organization. If Christianity is a religion, by the life of its Founder, by the faith and sacrifice of its believers, by the new life it released for the unity of a host of people previously disunited and in strife; so the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh is a religion, the return in our age of the providential spirit that inspired Jesus, Moses, Muhammad.
2. TTIE Bahá’í GOSPEL IS ’I‘I'IE SPIRIT OF PEACE
In view of the bloody history of Europe and of the Orient, and the participation of well nigh every religious sect in war and strife over a long period of time, the principle of peace can not tenably be held to be fundamental in any previous religion. The principle of love has been the spirit and motive of all religion, and peace can only rest soundly upon love; but the application of peace as a religious principle binding upon entire communities is, except for a few notable exceptions, a modern discovery and a reinterpretation of ancient doctrine in the light of a changed condition of the world. For in previous ages it was held that God’s love reached only the members of one or another exclusive sect.
The Bahá’í Faith, however, needs
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no reinterpretation or philosophical extension to lead to the principle of peace. World peace to Bahá’ís is no mere passive ideal, listed in a catalog of articles of faith, but the fundamental element of the teaching itself. It was to inaugurate the age of peace that Bahá’u’lláh came to humanity, and His Cause divides the centuries. of strife from the day of unity and reconciliation. Innumerable quotations from Bahá’í writings attest this truth.
”Victory neither has been or will ever be opposition to any one, nor strife with any person; but rather what is well—pleasing is that the cities of men‘s hearts, which are under the dominion of the hosts of selfishness and lust shall be subdued by the sword of the word of wisdom and of exhortation. Everyone, then, who desires vicrory, must first Subdue the city of his own heart with the sword of spiritual truth and of the Word, and must protect it from remembering aught beside God; afterwards let him turn his efforts toward the citadel of the hearts of others. This is what is intended by victory; sedition has never been not will ever be pleasing to God. . . . If you are slain for His good pleasure, verily, it is better for you than that you should slay.”3
"In this present cycle there will be an evolution in civilization unparalleled in the history of the world. The world of humanity has heretofore been in the stage of infancy; now it is approaching maturity. Just as the individual human organism, having attained the period of maturity reaches its fullest degree of physical strength, and ripened intellectual faculties, so
3—Bahá’u’lláh, Tablet of Victory, Bahá’í Prayers, pages 68-69.
that in one year of this ripened period there is witnessed an unprecedented measure of development, likewise the world of humanity in this cycle of its completeness and consummation will realize an immeasurable upward progress.”4
”The powers of earth cannot withstand the privileges and bestowals which God has ordained for this great and glorious century, Peace is a need and exigency of the time.”5
"The most important principle of divine philosophy is the oneness of' the world of humanity, the unity of mankind, the bond conjoining East and West, the tie of love which blends human hearts. . . . For thousands of years we have had bloodshed and strife. It is enough; it is sufficient. Now is the time to associate together in love and harmony.
“All the divine Manifestations (Prophets) have proclaimed the oneness of God and the unity of mankind. They have taught that men should love and mutually help each other in order that they might progress. Now if this conception of religion be true, its essential principle is the oneness of humanity. The fundamental truth of the Manifestations is peace. This underlies all religion, all justice. The divine purpose is that men should live in unity, concord and agreement and should love one another. Consider the virtues of the human world and realize that the oneness of humanity is the primary foundation of them all.”6
These few excerpts from Bahá’í sacred literature make it clear, we trust, that this Faith is more than a movement upholding peace as one of many objects some of which may, in
actual operation, nullify the attainment of world peace for the sake of partisan victory, Rather do we understand and whole—heartedly accept the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh as the true spiritual expression of universal peace, the “MOSt Great Peace" foreseen by Bahá’u’lláh as the turning-point of human evolution, which means not only peace between armed states but also peace between religions, races and classes.
The Light shed by Bahá’u’lláh upon the modern world has been, we are convinced, the source of the new, widespread human hope that peace can be attained. Any sincere student of His utterance will freely admit that their fundamental tenets, such as the equality of men and women, the establishment of a universal auxiliary language, the harmony of science and religion, the spiritual solution of the economic problem, and the organization of a world order, revealed by Bahá’u’lláh as elements of His gospel to mankind, have been taken up by great numbers of people wholly unconscious of their source and made the predominant ideals of this generation.
3. CONTROL OF MEMBERSHIP IN THE BAHA’I FAITH
Successful operation of the Act under which this petition is made requires, we fully realize, some degree of administrative control within the petitioning religious body sufficient to identify its members and prevent the rise of claims for status as members of the body on the part of persons insincerely or unjustifiably seeking to enjoy some result of that status.
4—‘Abdu’l-Bahá, from public address delivered at Washington, D.C., April 21, 1912. 5—‘Abdu’l-Bahá, from public address delivered at meeting of the New York Peace Society, May 13, 1912‘. 6—‘Abdu’l-Bahá, from public address delivered at Columbia University, April 19, 1912.
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The National Spiritual Assembly therefore deems it advisable to point out that the accompanying Declaration of Trust and By-Laws7 provide this administrative control to an unusual degree. .
Membership in the Bahá’í body of America is secured by persons meeting a definite standard of faith applied by the local elective body of nine persons known as the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of that town or city. Each local Spiritual Assembly is charged with the responsibility of admitting only such applicants as after due examination it finds have made adequate study of the Bahá’í teachings, possess thorough knowledge of their meaning and are sincerely desirous of uniting with the Bahá’í community. A11 memberships are then contingent upon approval by the National Spiritual Assembly of the actions taken by the local bodies. Members duly enrolled may at any time, for just causes, have their names stricken from the local and national list.
This procedure, which clearly makes for the utmost sincerity and also understanding on the part of Bahá’ís, tests'upon the significant fact that the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh has no clergy or priests. Its aim is to produce communities among people deemed spiritually equal, not to divide the religious society into professional and lay elements.
Bahá’í worship thus has no ritualism and formality, for Bahá’u’lláh has made the aim of religion identical with the beSt and highest living of life. It has been on account of this simplicity and lack of those material
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and visible marks so long identified with religious practice and worship that certain people have refused to consider the Bahá’í Faith a true religion, overlooking the significant fact that in the early days of Christianity the same simplicity obtained. Another ground on which recognition has been withheld by occasional critics of the Faith is its rise in a Muhammadan civilization. By terming the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh ”an oE-shoot of Islam” they would reduce it not merely to insignificance but stigmatize it as a potential enemy of Christendom. How a Faith which Islam has sought for more than fifty years to destroy can be identified with Islam this attitude does not explain; nor does it explain how the gospel of Christ can be made to justify a deliberate and official hostility to any religious community upon earth. We emphasize again, as a most vital matter, the Bahá’í teachin g that world Peace must be established upon "unity of conscience” before any formal, political measures can have real effect.
This teaching was presented by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in a letter addressed to the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, The Hague, dated December 17, 1919, from which we quote the following excerpt:
”At present Universal Peace is a matter of great importance, but unity of conscience is essential, so that the foundation of this matter may become secure, its establishment firm and its edifice strong. . . . Although the League of Nations has been brought into existence, yet it is incapable of establishing Universal Peace. But the Supreme Tribunal which His Holiness
7—The text is reproduced in the successive volumes of The Bahá’í World.
Bahá’u’lláh has described will fulfill this sacred task with the utmost might and power. And His plan is this: that the national Assemblies of each country and nation—that is to say patliaments—should elect two or three persons who are the choicest men of that nation, and are well informed concerning international laws and the relations between governments, and are aware of the essential needs of the world of humanity in this day. The number of these representatives should be in proportion to the number of inhabitants of that country. The election of these souls who are chosen by the national Assembly, that is, the parliament, musc be confirmed by the upper house, the congress and the cabinet and also by the president or monarch, so that these persons may be the elected ones of all the nation and the government. From among these people the members of the Supreme Tribunal will be elected, and all mankind will thus have a share therein, for every one of these delegates is fully representative of his nation. When the Supreme Tribunal gives a ruling on any international question, either unanimously or by majority rule, there will no longer be any pretext for the plaintiff or ground of objection for the defendant. In case any of the governments or nations, in the execution of the irrefutable decision of the Supreme Tribunal, be negligent or dilatory, the rest of the nations will rise up against it, because all the governments and nations of the world are the Supporters of this Supreme Tribunal. Consider what a firm foundation this is! But by a limited and restricted League the purpose
will not be realized as it ought and should.”
4. THE BASIS OF THE BAHA’I PETITION
In submitting this petition the National Spiritual Assembly wishes to avoid giving the impression that the followers of Bahá’u’lláh have religious juStification for any rigid and narrow anti—social attitude or for any negative program of non-cooperation. On the contrary, the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, while renewing and confirming the fundamental religious doctrine of love, has enlarged this doctrine from the realm of individual action to the realm of social principle. Bahá’ís desire and pray for exemption from military duty not because they would stand aloof from the movement of society as a whole but because they would serve the supreme good of humanity, the attainment of universal peace. No mere self—righteousness, but intention of rendering full and complete obedience to the will of God, is the basis of our present petition. We feel profoundly that the active spirit of peace is a morive higher and more useful to out fellowmen than the attitude recently identified by the term pacifism.
Permit us to point out that since the birth of the Bahá’í Faith, the institution of war has broken all social bounds and become uncontrollable, a scourge afflicting all peoples alike and removing real diStinction between victor and vanquished. It can not be confined to the achievement of the aims set up by any public policy, but when unloosed is a destructive flood which can overrun the entire civilized world. This is the clear lesson of the
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recent European War, and we encounter everywhere the conviction
that any future war would be far more
uncontrollable and far more destructive. Therefore, in upholding an active doctrine and policy of peace the
Bahá’ís stand not against any clue and
legitimate action of their civil government but stand resolutely against that
all-encompassing anarchy and social
chaos which war now is. In view of
the worldwide desttuCtiveness latent
in war at this time, that resolute
Stand, we are convinced, exemplifies
the highesr and most useful form of
loyalty any religious community can
achieve both for its fellow-citizens
and for mankind. For the uncontrollability of modern war transforms it
from a function of public policy into
the supreme enemy of the human
race. What urgent need, then, for a
new and fresh assertion of religion
capable of removing the veils of tradition, overcoming superstition in both
its obvious and subtle forms, and giving humanity a reality on which the
Structure of peace Can be raised.
The inmost heart of the Bahá’í
teaching on the Most Great Peace, as
we conceive it, is that Bahá’u’lláh has
made the preservation of peace a divine command incumbent upon kings,
rulers and parliaments for the protection of humanity, while the Prophets
of ancient times, the world being then
unprepared for public peace, made
peace a command addressed to the individual conscience. Thus, until this
blessed age of fuller Revelation, the
people of religion have been bitterly
tormented by the obligation to make
choice between individual conscience
and public policy—a decision mm
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merely difficult on the plane of reason, but necessarily compelling the community of the faithful to decide between subserviency to brutal materialism on the one hand and outlawry on the other. We hail the adoption of the Kellogg-Briand paCt as the first step on the part of civil governments to recognize the principle that public policy must: be established upon an ethical basis. The existence of this Pact, indeed, now makes it possible for the Bahá’í community to assert its doctrine of universal peace in a petition to its government, and not merely repeat the claim of individual conscience advanced by communities descended from Prophets of former times.
In conclusion we would refer briefly to the service already rendered by the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh to this structure of peace.
In addition to the local Bahá’í communities existing in Canada and the United States, similar communities exiSt in many countries of Europe and the Orient. In their relations one with another, these communities already manifest universal peace in practice as well as principle. The original diversity of the members of this Cause represented all the extremes of diversity found in the world today—Chtistian, Jewish, Muslim, Zoroastrian and Hindu; white, brown, yellow and black; American, English, French, German, Swiss, Egyptian, Persian, Indian, Burmese, Chinese, Japanese and other nationalities; rich and poor, scholar and illiterate.
Despite such diversity, which carried within it all the potency of longesrablished suspicion, antagonism and
strife, the Bahá’í community finds itself united in a common faith which prevails over every artificial distinction and acquired difference. On a small scale, in fact, the secret of universal peace has already been learned, and the art of cooperation made to replace the inStinct of strife. A world become gravely anxious in the face of so many evidences of revolution and war may well seek of this humble community the reasons for its unshatterable amity and accord.
It is of more than historical significance that Bahá’u’lláh directed His doctrines of peace in the first instance not merely to the original small group of devoted followers but to the kings and rulers of mankind. During the years 1868, 1869 and 1870, Bahá’u’lláh addressed letters to the heads of governments proclaiming the rise of the era of peace and calling upon the rulers to assemble and take measures to eliminate the possibilities of future war. Thus, in the communication sent to Queen Victoria, Bahá’u’lláh wrote:
”Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind and bettereth the condition thereof ..... Regard ye the world as the human body which, though created whole and perfect, has been afflicted, through divers causes, with grave ills and maladies. Net for one day did it rest, nay its sickness waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of unskilled physicians who have spurred on the steed of their worldly desires and have erred gtievously. . . . That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of the world is the union of all its
people in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in nowise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all—powerful and inspired Physician.”
We can not conclude this statement without calling attention to the high and indeed unique mission attributed in Bahá’í writings to North America as the deStined instrument through which universal peace is to be established upon this stricken earth. Thus, in a letter written to American Bahá’ís during the European War, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá declared that “The continent of America is in the eyes of the one true God the land wherein the splendors of His light shall be revealed, where the mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled, where the righteous will abide and the free assemble.” Again, speaking at a meeting held at New York on April 16, 1912: “May America become the distributing center of spiritual enlightenment and all the world receive this heavenly blessing. For America has developed powers and capacities greater and more wonderful than other nations. While it is true that its people have attained a marvelous material civilization, I hope that spiritual forces will animate this great body and a corresponding spiritual civilization be established.” Even more specifically in the course of an address delivered before the New York Peace Society, on May 13, 1912, “Praise be to God, in all countries of the world peace lovers are to be found and these principles are being spread among mankind, especially in this country. Praise be to God, this thought is prevailing and souls are continually arising as defenders of the
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oneness of humanity, endeavoring to
assist and establish universal peace.
There is no doubt that this wonderful democracy will be able to realize
it and the banner of international
agreement will be unfurled here to
spread onward and outward among
all the nations of the world.”
Indeed, the essential aims of the Bahá’í Faith were stated in these words uttered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the congregation of the Church of the Messiah, Montreal, on September 1, 1912: “The world is in greatest need of international peace. Until it is established, mankind Will not attain composure and tranquillity. . . . I pray God that these western peoples may become the means of establishing international peace and spreading the oneness of the world of humanity.
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May you become the cause of unity and agreement among the nations. May a lamp be lighted here which will illumine the Whole universe with the oneness of the world of humanity, with love between the hearts of the children of men, and the unity of all mankind. I hope that you may become assisted in this supreme accomplishment; that you may raise the flag of international peace and reconciliation upon this continent; that this government and people may be the means of spreading these lofty ideals.
That this mission, surely the greateSt ever offered to any nation or people in the hiStory of the world, may be fulfilled before war can again break out and overthrow the very pillars of civilization, is out heart-felt prayer.
