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3 January 1982
To an individual Bahá'í
Dear Bahá'í Friend,
[308.1] The Universal House of Justice has received your letter and
has asked us to assure you that you should feel no
diffidence in raising the sort of questions that you have
expressed. It seems clear from your letter that you have been
greatly attracted to the Message of Bahá'u'lláh and have
accepted His Faith before, as you say, becoming "fully
committed," and are, therefore, now having to face and resolve
problems that many believers overcome before they declare
their faith. The House of justice urges you not to let it
worry you. All through life Bahá'ís are faced with tests of
many kinds, and problems and doubts, but it is through facing
and overcoming them that we grow spiritually.
[308.2] On the particular issues that you raise, the House of
Justice has instructed us to send you the following comments.
Teaching vs. Proselytizing
[308.3] It is true that Bahá'u'lláh lays
on every Bahá'í the duty to teach His Faith. At the same
time, however, we are forbidden to proselytize, so it is
important for all believers to understand the difference
between teaching and proselytizing. It is a significant
difference and, in some countries where teaching a religion
is permitted, but proselytizing is forbidden, the distinction
is made in the law of the land. Proselytizing implies bringing
undue pressure to bear upon someone to change his Faith. It
is also usually understood to imply the making of threats or
the offering of material benefits as an inducement to
conversion. In some countries mission schools or hospitals,
for all the good they do, are regarded with suspicion and even
aversion by the local authorities because they are considered
to be material inducements to conversion and hence instruments
of proselytization.
[308.4] Bahá'u'lláh, in The Hidden Words, says,
"O Son of Dust! The wise are they that speak not unless
they obtain a hearing, even as the cup-bearer, who proffereth
not his cup till he findeth a seeker, and the lover who crieth
not out from the depths of his heart until he gazeth upon the
beauty of his beloved .... ", and on page 55 of The Advent
of Divine Justice, a letter which is primarily directed
towards exhorting the friends to fulfill their
responsibilities in teaching the Faith, Shoghi Effendi writes:
"Care, however, should, at all times, be exercised, lest in
their eagerness to further the international interests of the
Faith they frustrate their purpose, and turn away, through any
act that might be misconstrued as an attempt to proselytize
and bring undue
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pressure upon them, those whom they wish to win over to their
Cause." Some Bahá'ís sometimes overstep the proper bounds,
but this does not alter the clear principle.
[308.5] The
responsibility of the Bahá'ís to teach the Faith is very
great. The contraction of the world and the onward rush of
events require us to seize every chance open to us to touch
the hearts and minds of our fellowmen. The Message of
Bahá'u'lláh is God's guidance for mankind to overcome the
difficulties of this age of transition and move forward into
the next stage of its evolution, and human beings have the
right to hear it. Those who accept it incur the duty of
passing it on to their fellowman. The slowness of the response
of the world has caused and is causing great suffering; hence
the historical pressure upon Bahá'ís to exert every effort to
teach the Faith for the sake of their fellowmen. They should
teach with enthusiasm, conviction, wisdom and courtesy, but
without pressing their hearer, bearing in mind the words of
Bahá'u'lláh: "Beware lest ye contend with any one, nay, strive
to make him aware of the truth with kindly manner and most
convincing exhortation. If your hearer respond, he will have
responded to his own behoof, and if not, turn ye away from
him, and set your faces towards God's sacred Court, the seat
of resplendent holiness." (Gleanings CXXVIII)
Considerations in the Application of Bahá'í Social Teachings
[308.6] The
application and development of the social aspects of the
Teachings is dependent on the stage of growth of the Bahá'í
community in each area, and on worldwide priorities. We are
living in an age of transition, and as 'Abdu'l-Bahá explained,
we must, in order to succeed in our aims, sacrifice the
important for the most important. The House of Justice, for
example, had to turn down the request of certain believers to
establish Bahá'í schools in a Western country which already
had a functioning state educational system; those Bahá'í funds
which are available for educational projects must be spent on
the establishment and running of schools in areas where there
are large Bahá'í communities of poor people, with no adequate
system of education available to them. In its answer, the
House of Justice pointed out that if these friends, on their
own initiative, wished to establish their own school, run on
Bahá'í lines, and financially self-supporting, they were
entirely free to do so. This highlights an aspect of the
matter which is often overlooked. The social services of
Bahá'ís are not restricted to what they do as a community
Every Bahá'í has a duty to work and earn his living, and in
choosing a career a Bahá'í should consider not only its
earning capacity but also the benefit of the work to his
fellowmen. All over the world Bahá'ís are rendering
outstanding services in this way. 30S-i. ADJ, p. 66.
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[306.7] When a Bahá'í community is very small, there is little that
it can do to implement the social teachings of the Faith
(beyond their impact on the behavior of individual believers),
because such a community with the resources in funds and
manpower at its disposal is but a drop in the ocean in
comparison with the many large agencies, governmental and
private, which are engaged in social improvement. When the Bahá'í community grows sufficiently
large, however, its activities can and must proliferate and
diversify. This development is already taking place in many
parts of the world. In India, for example, the New Era School
in Panchgani, which has been developing remarkably for a
number of years, is closely associated with a rural
development project in the villages close by that is having
dramatically favorable results in the life of the villagers.
In the province of Madhya Pradesh, where there are hundreds
of thousands of Bahá'ís, the Rabbani School in Gwalior is
educating children from the villages of the area in the
Teachings of the Faith, in academic subjects and in
agriculture, so that when they return to their home villages,
these pupils not only promote the Faith but will influence
their growth and development in every way. In Ecuador, as you
no doubt know, the size of the Bahá'í community, scattered
over inaccessible terrain in the high Andes, made it both
necessary and possible some years ago to establish a Bahá'í
radio station.2 "Radio Bahá'í," as it is known, broadcasts not
only about the Faith, but has programs concerning health,
agriculture, literacy and so on. It has now become so well
established and highly regarded that it has been able to apply
for and receive a Canadian Government grant through C.I.D.A.3
to finance the development of certain social service
activities. Thus it can be seen that once the Bahá'í community
attains a certain stature it is able to work in fruitful
collaboration with non-Bahá'í agencies in its social
activities.
[308.8] A further aspect of this kind of work is the
collaboration between the Bahá'í International Community
and the United Nations. Having consultative status with both
ECOSOC and UNICEF, and long association with the Department
of Public Information, the Bahá'í International Community is
able to take part in conferences and consultations on many
aspects of human development, both from the point of view of
the Bahá'í Teachings and with the background of its extensive
experience in meeting the problems of developing countries,
such as illiteracy, the status of women, tribalism, racial
prejudice, and so on.
[308.9] As you can see, all these developments
relate directly to the teaching work inasmuch as the
Bahá'í communities must reach a certain size before they can
begin to implement many of them. How, for example, can a
Bahá'í community demonstrate effectively the abolition of
prejudices which divide the
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inhabitants of a country until it has a cross-section of those
inhabitants within its ranks? A seed is the vital origin of
a tree and of a tremendous importance for that reason, but it
cannot produce fruit until it has grown into a tree and
flowered and fruited. So a Bahá'í community of nine believers is a vital step, since it can bring into being for
that locality the divine institution of the Local Spiritual
Assembly, but it is still only a seed, and needs to grow in
size and in the diversity of its members before it can produce
really convincing fruit for its fellow citizens.
[308.10] One
could say, however, that the Bahá'í communities could assist
in social development from a very early stage in their
development by supporting the activities of other groups who
are, at this point, more numerous and powerful. To some extent
this is true, provided that such involvement does not divert
the efforts of the friends from the more fundamentally
important teaching work or involve them in the disputes of
non-Bahá'í rival groups.
Humanity's Most Urgent Need
308.11 The teaching work is of primary importance for this reason:
the most urgent need of human beings is to recognize the
Manifestation of God and thereby to learn how to collaborate
constructively. All over the world tremendous efforts are
being made to improve the lot of mankind or of parts of
mankind, but most of these efforts are frustrated by the
conflicts of aims, by corruption of the morals of those
involved, by mistrust, or by fear. There is no lack of
material resources in the world if they are properly used. The
problem is the education of human beings in the ultimate and
most important purpose of life and in how to weld the
differences of opinion and outlook into a united constructive
effort. Bahá'ís believe that God has revealed the purpose of
life, has shown us how to attain it, has provided the ways
in which we can work together and, beyond that, has given
mankind the assurance both of continuing divine guidance and
of divine assistance. As people learn and follow these
teachings their efforts will produce durable results. In the
absence of these teachings, a lifetime of effort only too
often ends in disillusionment and the collapse of all that has
been built.
[308.12] It is not easy for people to learn the
Bahá'í way, to overcome their inherited prejudices or to
resist their personal temptations. This way takes time, is
subject to checks and backsliding, but one can see, looking
at the past 138 years, that there is an overall advance that
is astonishing in the light of the obstacles to be overcome,
and is accelerating with every passing decade.
Obstacle to Progress: Getting Sucked Into Prevailing Attitudes
[308.13] One
of the great obstacles to progress is the tendency of Bahá'ís
to be sucked into the general attitudes and disputes that
surround them, to be influenced, for example, as you yourself
pointed out, by the prevailing attitude to marriage so that
the divorce rate becomes a problem within the Bahá'í
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community itself which should be an example to the rest of
society in such matters. Involvement in politics and
controversial questions is another aspect of the same
phenomenon. In one of His Tablets Bahá'u'lláh warns the
Bahá'ís: "Dispute not with any one concerning the things of
this world and its affairs, for God hath abandoned them to
such as have set their affection upon them. Out of the whole
world He hath chosen for Himself the hearts of men -- hearts
which the hosts of revelation and of utterance can subdue."
(Gleanings CXXVIII) As you realize, this cannot mean that
Bahá'ís must not be controversial since, in many societies,
being a Bahá'í is itself a controversial matter. The central
importance of this principle of avoidance of politics and
controversial matters is that Bahá'ís should not allow
themselves to be drawn into the disputes of the many
conflicting elements of the society around them. The aim of
the Bahá'ís is to reconcile, to heal divisions, to bring about
tolerance and mutual respect among men, and this aim is
undermined if we allow ourselves to be swept along by the
ephemeral passions of others. This does not mean that Bahá'ís
cannot collaborate with any non-Bahá'í movement; it does mean
that good judgment is required to distinguish those
activities and associations which are beneficial and
constructive from those which are divisive.
The Uniqueness of the Bahá'í Covenant
[308.14] The House of Justice hopes that these explanations
will help you to understand some of the aspects
of the Faith that have been troubling you. The crux of the
matter, as you realize, is the acceptance of spiritual
authority and what this implies. You express the fear that the
authority conferred upon 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Guardian and the
Universal House of Justice could lead to a progressive
reduction in the "available scope for personal
interpretation," and that 11 the actual writings of the
Manifestation will have less and less import," and you
instance what has happened in previous Dispensations. The
House of Justice suggests that, in thinking about this, you
contemplate the way the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh has actually
worked, and you will be able to see how very different its
processes are from those of, say, the development of the law
in Rabbinical Judaism or the functioning of the Papacy in
Christianity. The practice in the past in these two religions,
and also to a great extent in Islam, has been to assume that
the Revelation given by the Founder was the final, perfect
revelation of God's Will to mankind, and all subsequent
elucidation and legislation has been interpretative in the
sense that it aimed at applying this basic Revelation to the
new problems and situations that have arisen. The Bahá'í
premises are quite different. Although the Revelation of
Bahá'u'lláh is accepted as the Word of God and His Law as the
Law of God, it is understood from the outset that Revelation
is progressive, and that the Law, although the Will of God for
this Age, will undoubtedly be changed by the next
Manifestation of God. Secondly, only the written text of the
Revelation is regarded as authoritative. There is no Oral Law
as in Judaism, no Tradition
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of the Church as in Christianity, no Hadith as in Islam.
Thirdly, a clear distinction is drawn between interpretation
and legislation. Authoritative interpretation is the exclusive
prerogative of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Guardian, while infallible
legislation is the function of the Universal House of Justice.
[308.15] If you study the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and of the
Guardian, you will see how tremendously they differ from the
interpretations of the Rabbis and the Church. They are not a
progressive fossilization of the Revelation, they are for the
most part expositions which throw a clear light upon passages
which may have been considered obscure, they point up the
intimate interrelationship between various teachings, they
expound the implications of scriptural allusions, and they
educate the Bahá'ís in the tremendous significances of the
Words of Bahá'u'lláh. Rather than in any way supplanting the
Words of the Manifestation, they lead us back to them time and
again.
Authoritative vs. Individual interpretation
[308.16] There is also an important distinction made in the Faith
between authoritative interpretation, as described above, and
the interpretation which every believer is fully entitled to
voice. Believers are free, indeed are encouraged, to study the
Writings for themselves and to express their understanding of
them. Such personal interpretations can be most illuminating,
but all Bahá'ís, including the one expressing the view,
however learned he may be, should realize that it is only a
personal view and can never be upheld as a standard for others
to accept, nor should disputes ever be permitted to arise over
differences in such opinions.
Interpretation and Legislation
[308.17] The legislation enacted by the Universal House of
Justice is different from interpretation. Authoritative
interpretation, as uttered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Guardian,
is a divinely guided statement of what the Word of God means.
The divinely inspired legislation of the Universal House of
Justice does not attempt to say what the revealed Word
means-it states what must be done in cases where the revealed
Text or its authoritative interpretation is not explicit. It
is, therefore, on quite a different level from the Sacred
Text, and the Universal House of justice is empowered to
abrogate or amend its own legislation whenever it judges the
conditions make this desirable. Moreover, the attitude to
legislation is different in the Bahá'í Faith. The human
tendency in past Dispensations has been to want every question
answered and to arrive at a binding decision affecting every
small detail of belief or practice. The tendency in the Bahá'í
Dispensation, from the time of Bahá'u'lláh Himself, has been
to clarify the governing principles, to make binding
pronouncements on details which are considered essential, but
to leave a wide area to the conscience of the individual. The
same tendency appears also in administrative matters. The
Guardian used to state that the working of National Spiritual
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Assemblies should be uniform in essentials but that diversity
in secondary matters was not only permissible but desirable.
For this reason a number of points are not expressed in the,
National Bahá'í Constitution (the Declaration of Trust and
By-Laws of National Assemblies); these are left to each
National Spiritual Assembly to decide for itself.4
The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh
[308.18] The Covenant is the
"axis of the oneness of the world of humanity' because it
preserves the unity and integrity of the Faith itself and
protects it from being disrupted by individuals who are convinced
that only their understanding of the Teachings is the right one-a
fate that has overcome all past Revelations. The Covenant is,
moreover, embedded in the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh Himself. Thus, as you
clearly see, to accept Bahá'u'lláh is to accept His Covenant;
to reject His Covenant is to reject Him.
[308.19] The House of Justice asks us to assure you of its
loving prayers at the Sacred Threshold for your guidance
in your efforts to arrive at a greater understanding of this
wonderful Revelation.
With loving greetings,
THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
NOTES
308-4. The Declaration of Trust and By-Laws of the National Spiritual Assembly are published in each volume of The Bahá'í World beginning with volume 3.