Baha’i Perspectives

nooshin March 12th, 2008

Once in a while a news story will break that will cut through the miasma and shock a seemingly unshockable readership. In South Africa, we have gotten used to a diet of bad news about crime, violence and poverty. But the recent headlines about racist videos on the UFS campus have caused a furore both in the media and civil society.

The “new” South Africa is 14 years old now. I just assumed that blatant and institutionalised racism was thing of the apartheid past. But it seems I have been naive. Just the other day, I was taken aback to listen to a conversation, between a highly-educated, well-meaning, culturally diverse group, about how they have recently come to realize that all humans are affected by the same emotions, regardless of their colour. Having been brought up as a Bahá’í, the oneness of humanity seems to me to be a perfectly obvious truth, one I have known since my earliest days.

Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship. He Who is the Day Star of Truth beareth Me witness! So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.

(Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 288)

Perhaps, then, the answer is spiritual and moral education for children. It is not enough to hope that our children will somehow figure out right from wrong, or that it is okay to abdicate our rights as parents and family and leave it all to schools. The formative years of life can be the most crucial in forming an upright character. A compilation on Bahá’í Education includes the following exhortations from Bahá’u'lláh:

Man is even as steel, the essence of which is hidden: through admonition and explanation, good counsel and education, that essence will be brought to light. If, however, he be allowed to remain in his original condition, the corrosion of lusts and appetites will effectively destroy him.

As to the children: We have directed that in the beginning they should be trained in the observances and laws of religion; and thereafter, in such branches of knowledge as are of benefit, and in commercial pursuits that are distinguished for integrity, and in deeds that will further the victory of God’s Cause or will attract some outcome which will draw the believer closer to his Lord.

We beg of God to assist the children of His loved ones and adorn them with wisdom, good conduct, integrity and righteousness.

Tags: education, prejudice, unity

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