Baha'i Perspectives

shadi May 11th, 2008

It is now eight whole months that I have left the United States for Kenya and have not seen my parents — the longest separation we have experienced from one another thus far. As an only child, I tend to think this must be harder for our family in particular. Perhaps if I had a sister or brother, my parents would not miss me quite so much, and maybe I would not have received the incredible amount  of attention that I did growing up, and would find the separation not as painful… perhaps.

This time apart has caused much reflection on my part. Growing up in the States, there were many times that my parents and I did not see eye to eye. I, for instance, did not understand why the hour one came home on the weekends should matter or why one had to do certain household chores everyday. And being a strong-willed and opinionated teenager in my day, I made sure to voice my opposition and disappointment to my parents’ decrees quite often.

Going even further back into the past, I think about my parents’ decision to escape Iran in 1985 and how the main factor, as I was to learn in my adult years, was my father’s fear that I would be deprived of the educational opportunities given the restrictions placed on Baha’i children in Iran that exist to this day. My parents left their jobs, home, family, and every sense of familiarity and stability to leave Iran and seek a better environment to raise their daughter.

Abdu’l-Bahá, in His Tablets, not only calls attention to the responsibility of parents to educate all their children, but He also clearly specifies that the “training and culture of daughters is more necessary than that of sons”, for girls will one day be mothers, and mothers are the first educators of the new generation. If it is not possible, therefore, for a family to educate all the children, preference is to be accorded to daughters since, through educated mothers, the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively and rapidly diffused throughout society.

A decade has passed since my teenage years, and all I feel towards my parents is pure love and gratitude. Often I wonder whether I’ll be able to sufficiently thank them for all the sacrifice that they went through raising and nurturing me to become independent, confident, and instilling in me a great sense of self worth as a woman in the 21st century.

Also a father and mother endure the greatest troubles and hardships for their children… Therefore, the children, in return for this care and trouble, must show forth charity and beneficence…

(Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith, p. 329)

What a beautiful concept. To show forth ‘charity and beneficence’ in return for the service my parents have showered on me. The station of parents in the Baha’i Faith is incredibly lofty.

The fruits that best befit the tree of human life are trustworthiness and godliness, truthfulness and sincerity; but greater than all, after recognition of the unity of God, praised and glorified be He, is regard for the rights that are due to one’s parents. This teaching hath been mentioned in all the Books of God, and reaffirmed by the Most Exalted Pen. Consider that which the Merciful Lord hath revealed in the Qur’án, exalted are His words: “Worship ye God, join with Him no peer or likeness; and show forth kindliness and charity towards your parents…” Observe how loving-kindness to one’s parents hath been linked to recognition of the one true God!”

(Baha’u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 139)

And so, as I continue my work in Kenya, I strive daily to honor my parents through good work, compassion to others, and continuous self-reflection. I know that any fruits born from my efforts are a direct result and sign of the loving sacrifice and wisdom of my parents who, to this day, continue to guide and nurture me.

Tags: parents

• Baha'i Concepts , Events , Inspiration
• Comments(3)

negin May 7th, 2008

I have a plan: I want to buy a sewing-machine and earn my own living. I want to teach my brothers to read, and then I want to continue studying all the subjects we have studied here.

These are the words of a 25-year old woman from the village Siswala in India, as she is leaving the Barli Institute after completing a six-month program. Born and raised in one of the poorest areas of India, where education and training of women is almost inconceivable, her time at the Barli Institue has clearly changed the direction of her life.

Since 1985, the Barli Institute of Development for Rural Women, situated in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India, has changed the lives of thousands of women from poor villages by teaching them to read and write, handicrafts,  hygiene and personal development. Returning to their villages, they have been able to contribute to the economy of the household, take better care of the children and home and become supporting “pillars” in their families, as well as the whole village. This is where the name of the institute comes from; Barli means pillar.

The project is supported by the Baha’i Community in cooperation with the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). It was founded by Mrs. Janak McGilligan, who at the time was a young woman with a degree in social sciences from Punjab University. She has since then been running the Institute as its director together with her husband, Mr James McGilligan.

The vital question of education of women — far from being a matter of course in some parts of the world -– is indispensible for the advancement of civilization. Abdu’l-Bahá, in expounding the principle of equality of the sexes, tells us:

Daughters and sons must follow the same curriculum of study, thereby promoting unity of the sexes. When all mankind shall receive the same opportunity of education and the equality of men and women be realized, the foundations of war will be utterly destroyed. Without equality this will be impossible because all differences and distinction are conducive to discord and strife. Equality between men and women is conducive to the abolition of warfare for the reason that women will never be willing to sanction it… There is no doubt that when women obtain equality of rights, war will entirely cease among mankind.

Applying this universal principle to the poor villages of central India is the purpose of the Barli-institute. Supporting the economy, participating in the decision-making processes of their villages and passing on the knowledge gained to their children are some of the many ways that the participants contribute to development.

By giving women an education, they are given the key to independence and influence — they are given the possiblity to have a plan.

Tags: development, education, women

• General Interest , Principles in Action
• Comments(1)

leila May 4th, 2008

“If you want to preserve heritage, you must keep poverty.”

This was the claim of Laurent A. Rampon, director of the cultural preservation in Luang Prabang, Laos, in response to the city’s cultural erosion at the hands of tourist influx.

In my last post, I touched on the debate surrounding modernization. I presented both sides: that globalization’s opponents are wary of “development” because of its effects on culture, while its advocates maintain that it’s the price to be paid to bring nations out of poverty.

But, is there a middle ground? Can’t we argue that poverty, along with certain harmful traditions (among which are those that degrade women, such as the ever-contentious practice of female genital mutilation) are what prevent human advancement? Can we not argue that such traditions as slavery are likewise “cultural heritages” that needed to be abolished? Bahá’u'lláh counsels, in His Hidden Words:

Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself?

And similarly, would it be wrong to suggest that modernization need not equal the “Westoxification” that many see as stripping nations of their culture? That prosperity can result sans McDonald’s, The Gap, and Wal-Mart on every street corner, without the blossoming of mini-malls and homogenized suburbia? Are capitalism and socialism mutually exclusive, or can the “invisible hand,” as suggested by Adam Smith, be guided to lessen the wealth-poverty gap?

Bahá’u'lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, has revealed that the unification of humankind is a necessary and inevitable end to which we are working, whether we realize it or not. This vision, in turn, necessitates, and works toward, economic equality—for how are communities steeped in poverty able to effectively and equitably participate in the global arena?

This process of modernization and development is a slow and painful one, to be sure. But if we examine the history of humankind, we realize that out of disintegration comes integration. The growth pains are a painful but necessary part of humanity’s evolution. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá clarifies this concept another work, Some Answered Questions:

All beings, whether large or small, were created perfect and complete from the first, but their perfections appear in them by degrees. The organization of God is one; the evolution of existence is one; the divine system is one. … When you consider this universal system, you see that there is not one of the beings which at its coming into existence has reached the limit of perfection. No, they gradually grow and develop, and then attain the degree of perfection.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, page 199)

Just as the messages of Prophets past were divinely ordained to unify family, tribe, and state, at the crux of Bahá’u’lláh’s message is the oneness of humankind. These processes were gradual, tumultuous, and often violent. If we look at today’s world, can we not argue that we are undertaking a similar, and far grander, project?

In this light, modernization, however flawed and sometimes harmful it may be in its present shape, is but a manifestation of this move toward oneness. As the world awakens and learns to cope with this reality, so too will the phenomenon of modernization and globalization begin to take on a more mature and culturally conscious form.

Tags: culture, modernization

• Arts & Culture , Baha'i Concepts , General Interest , Society
• Comments(3)

iman May 2nd, 2008

It seems that whenever the name of the Tigris River is mentioned in the news nowadays, it is connected to another sad incident in the ongoing Iraqi conflict. Just last week I came across this Reuters FACTBOX article mentioning the killing of a fisherman as he was fishing on the Tigris, in Mosul. This was just one of some fifteen deadly incidents reported in this article, all on a single day of this conflict — a depressing statistic for a land that is mentioned with such regularity in the Holy Scriptures of the world’s major Faiths.

Baha’i history, too, is interwoven with this land. One hundred and forty-five years ago, in 1863, the banks of the Tigris River witnessed the Festival of Ridvan at which Bahá’u'lláh fulfilled the prophecies of earlier religions. It was here that Bahá’u'lláh, the Promised One of all ages, declared Himself to mankind.

Prior to this, around the year 1857, this same river set the scene for the revelation of The Hidden Words, described by Shoghi Effendi as a “marvelous collection of gem-like utterances…with which Bahá’u'lláh was inspired, as He paced, wrapped in His meditations, the banks of the Tigris. Revealed in the year 1274 A.H., partly in Persian, partly in Arabic…the significance of this dynamic spiritual leaven cast into the life of the world for the reorientation of the minds of men, the edification of their souls and the rectification of their conduct can best be judged by the description of its character given in the opening passage by its Author:

This is that which hath descended from the Realm of Glory, uttered by the tongue of power and might, and revealed unto the Prophets of old. We have taken the inner essence thereof and clothed it in the garment of brevity, as a token of grace unto the righteous, that they may stand faithful unto the Covenant of God, may fulfill in their lives His trust, and in the realm of spirit obtain the gem of Divine virtue.

Today, Baha’is celebrate the last day of the Festival of Ridvan. They reflect on the momentous happenings that occurred on the banks of that famous river, and eagerly try to inform friends and colleagues of their world-changing significance.

I will conclude this piece with some passages from The Hidden Words:

1. O SON OF SPIRIT!
My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.

9. O SON OF BEING!
My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure, and he that turneth away shall surely stray and perish.

28. O SON OF SPIRIT!
Know thou of a truth: He that biddeth men be just and himself committeth iniquity is not of Me, even though he bear My name.

(Baha’u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)

Tags: Iraq

• Events , News & Current Affairs
• Comments(0)