Baha'i Perspectives

nadim September 1st, 2008

I find it fascinating how so many profound theological concepts are explained in the Baha’i Writings using simple metaphors.

Trawling through the Web one day, I came across this marvellous story that demonstrates, so lucidly, the nature and interconnectedness of justice in this world and the next. In it, Baha’u'llah explains to us that justice, and the manifestations thereof, exist on multiple realms beyond our own and take on countless different forms. This story, I find, resolves a number of questions that invariably come to the mind when examining world affairs, when witnessing inequity and injustice and wondering what, if any, are the consequences faced by perpetrators of these acts. And what, if any, are the reparations for the helpless victims?

Before carrying on, here is the story. It is a commentary on the original Tablet revealed by Baha’u'llah:

Let us imagine that in the springtime a powerful man robs a weak man of his provision of seeds and that he plants these seeds in his own garden. The seeds germinate and in summer produce plants, trees and ultimately fruits. Then, it befalls that a just king decides to redress the wrong that was done to the weak one. In what manner should this just king proceed? Should he require from the oppressor that he return the same quantity of seeds? At harvest-time the seeds are of no immediate utility. Or should he return to him the product of the seeds that were stolen from him? We understand immediately that justice requires that we return to the victim not the original seeds but that which they produced. The seeds changed in form, they were transformed into something else, the appearance and the qualities of which are only distantly related to their first appearance and qualities. The relationship between this world and the other world is of the same nature, and of the same nature also is the nature of justice that links the two. Here below things exist only in the state of seed. When they evolve in the divine worlds, they are completely transformed in form, appearance and qualities. Nevertheless, the qualities of the tree and of the fruit depend upon the qualities of the seed that produced them.

In this Tablet, Baha’u'llah proceeds with a digression of a moral rather than a metaphysical character. In this life, the material things that we might lose do not matter. In due course, these materials things show their true colors, becoming tests and of calamities in our spiritual evolution, while tests and calamities prove to be the source of true riches. At the final count, the fact that we have lost material goods for spiritual reasons, whether we have offered them to God in a spirit of detachment, or lost them because of the oppression of men, makes no difference… However he who has unjustly seized the goods of another in order to accumulate his own riches in fact has but accumulated obstacles to his own spiritual development. Without fail, the consequences of our actions follow us from one world to the next.

(Jean-Marc Lepain, An Introduction to the Lawh-i Haqqu’n-Nas, commentary on a provisional translation of this Tablet of Baha’u'llah)

There is indeed a lot to digest here. In considering Divine justice and it’s application, the picture that comes to mind is one of a weighing scale that tips from side-to-side during the course of one’s life, yet ultimately achieves perfect balance. In other words, imbalances that manifest themselves during the course of this life are always compensated, be it in this world or those to come. This is certainly reassuring for victims of injustice and, I would imagine, equally worrying for the perpetrators.

What I also find interesting is the assertion that accumulating material goods is, in a sense, a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is praiseworthy to earn an honest living and enjoy the benefits that may present themselves. But there also exists a paradox — that if we aren’t vigilant, we can easily find ourselves moving from a state of ownership to that of being owned by our possessions. I’m sure we’ve all witnessed cases of people wasting all their time and energy in the feverish pursuit of getting more “stuff”, often compromising their values along the way, while we sit and wonder when it will finally dawn on them — that in their pursuit of freedom through material means, they have, in reality, taken on a life of slavery. But it’s not just them. Avoiding the pitfalls of materialism is a mighty test for every one of us, for in the blink of an eye, we can completely lose sight of our ultimate spiritual purpose. As Christ said:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.

(Mark 10:25)

Finally, I believe the moral of this story can be applied beyond the realms of the powerful exploiting the weak. It can be applied to our own daily lives. Have we been kind and just towards those around us? Are we truly preferring others before ourselves? Do we avoid backbiting and slander? It seems fair to suggest that all human beings have a role to play in promoting a just society. Both individual and societal justice is required, and there exists a reciprocal relationship between the two. Indeed, to pay little attention to one’s own behaviour, while simultaneously expecting a perfect system of justice to be imposed from above, is surely counterproductive.

Do you have any additional thoughts to share on reading this story?

Tags: justice, materialism

• Baha'i Concepts , Inspiration , Society
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