One Tree :: Baha'i Perspectives

One Tree

nooshin February 10th, 2009

Watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama, I was struck by how multi-racial his family is, and I am sure I was not the only one who was. African American, English, Indonesian, Irish, and Kenyan…it’s a very global bunch.

My own family does pretty well in the global stakes too. We have Singaporian, Ukranian, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Japanese, American (white and black), as well as a good dose of Iranian. And all this in just one generation. When my parents were growing up in Iran, I doubt that they could have imagined that in their lifetime our extended family would start to look like the United Nations.

But it was probably inevitable, given that as Baha’is, almost the first thing that we are taught as children is that the “Earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens”.

Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, explained the fundamental importance of the unity of the human race:

O ye children of men! The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity.

The most glorious fruit of the tree of knowledge is this exalted word: Of one tree are all ye the fruit, and of one bough the leaves. Let not man glory in this that he loveth his country, let him rather glory in this that he loveth his kind.