The Concept of Peace in the Baha'i Faith

George Ronald Bahá’í Studies Series

The Concept of Peace in the Bahá’í Faith

Miguel Santesteban Gil

GEORGE RONALD OXFORD

George Ronald, Publisher Oxford www.grbooks.com

© Miguel Santesteban Gil 2022 All Rights Reserved A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-85398-650-8

Cover design: Steinergraphics.com

Contents Preface and Acknowledgements 1 Introduction

vii 1

PART I Bahá’u’lláh

2 3 4 5

Some Biographical Considerations The Kingdom of God and the Abrogation of jihád Bahá’u’lláh’s Pronouncements on Peace Conclusion

17 21 28 45

PART II ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on Peace

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

The Convening of a Peace Conference The ‘Promulgation’ of Universal Peace The Role of America Women and Peace The Tablet to The Hague Principled Action and the ‘Twelve Principles’ Overcoming Violence and the Use of Force Conclusion

54 62 69 74 77 86 96 99

PART III Shoghi Effendi: The Enlargement of the Peace Horizon

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

A New Sense of History Shoghi Effendi on Peace The Lesser Peace as a Process The League of Nations and the United Nations The Role of America Peace-makers or Pacifists?

Conclusion

108 114 119 124 130 134 137

PART IV The Nature of Man in the Bahá’í Writings

21 22

A Spiritual Anthropology Man’s Dignity and Perfectibility

143 159

the concept of peace in the bahá’í faith

vi

23

24

Violence and the Individual: The Power of Vain Imaginings and Idle Fancies 167 Conclusion 175 PART V A Framework for Peace

25 26 27 28 29 30

Bahá’í Morality Spiritual Behaviour: Action as Service to Humanity Divine Philosophy and Religious Unity The Organic Analogy: Organic Unity and Unity in Diversity Bahá’í Consultation Towards the Most Great Peace

184 190 199 209 216 227

* * *

31

Summary and Conclusions

Bibliography Notes and References About the Author

231 255 279 335

I Introduction Peace is a major defining theme in the writings of the Bahá’í Faith.1 As such it ranks second only to ‘unity’,2 of which it is said to be the outcome, and is often placed before justice, which in turn is conceived of as its true foundation.3 As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was to put it: The fundamental truth of the Manifestations is peace. This underlies all religion, all justice. The divine purpose is that men should live in unity, concord and agreement and should love one another.4

As a major theme, peace is foundational to any Bahá’í elaboration on social issues.

Doctrinal condensations by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, like the one that follows, have acted as more than just illustrations of a peace ideal: The divine religions were founded for the purpose of unifying humanity and establishing universal peace. Any movement which brings about peace and agreement in human society is truly a divine movement; any reform which causes people to come together under the shelter of the same tabernacle is surely animated by heavenly motives. At all times and in all ages of the world, religion has been a factor in cementing together the hearts of men and in uniting various and divergent creeds. It is the peace element in religion that blends mankind and makes for unity. Warfare has ever been the cause of separation, disunion and discord.5

In choosing the ‘peace element’ in the Bahá’í religion for this study my chief aim has been to highlight one element in the trilogy of unity, justice and peace that arguably sits at the core of Bahá’í beliefs. Taken as a whole, the trilogy has proven essential to an integrated understanding of other characteristic subsets of Bahá’í principles. How the three themes relate to each other, when they were first announced by any of the Bahá’í central figures, how they were theologically undergirded, under which circumstances or in response to which needs were formulated, and how these were articulated into a distinct framework remain largely matters for scholars to establish, yet worthy of attention in the light of the higher profile

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the Bahá’í religion is gaining worldwide. At any rate, the concepts of ‘divine philosophy’ and ‘unity of conscience’ mentioned by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the context of the meeting between East and West (wisdom and rationality) and universal peace respectively, suggest the presence of a theological and metaphysical substratum that invites further explorations. The present work pursues the study and characterization through the relevant texts of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi of just one aspect − that of peace – albeit one of the greatest significance.

By bringing the texts into sharper focus, rather than privileging the sociological or even the historical, it is hoped that the various ideological components of the concept of peace in the Bahá’í religion will be brought to sharper relief under a different light. It is not my aim to arrive at a doctrinal re-formulation, so much as to explore the logical, anthropological and ethical extensions of a key idea (or theme) as it moved from one stage to another in the development of a young religion heavily invested in the world.

Framed as a contribution to intellectual history, the question this study ultimately addresses amounts to this: what kind of peace, human nature and general morality did the key authors envisage when they made some of their weightiest proclamations on peace? * * *

Over the last sixty years the Bahá’í Faith has been recognized as a world religious system6 with a strong irenic imprint7 and a cosmopolitan moral outlook in which peace, dialogue and non-confrontation act as buttresses of the core idea of unity.

Yet, while it has been commonly acknowledged that peace is a major Bahá’í theme, few academic studies have set out to explore its implications. Back in 1993, in his overview of relevant citations contained in academic journals, Seena Fazel lamented: Surprisingly there is not even one paper on the Bahá’í approach to peace issues or international relations. This, of course, is not the state of affairs in the Bahá’í community where there are many conferences, publications and books exploring the Bahá’í approach to current social problems.8

While Fazel’s contention was true, the overall explanations provided by Peter Smith in his earlier socio-historical analyses in The Bábí and Bahá’í Religions9 had already shed new perspectives on the evolution of the Bábí and Bahá’í religions.

Relying on the analytical category of ‘motifs’, Smith sought out to characterize the various stages in the historical sequence that both religions followed.10 Smith had previously clarified and sharpened his use of the concept of dominant motifs in an erudite discussion of its applications in Peter Berger’s doctoral dissertation and the two journal articles that followed in its trail, in which Berger expanded and refined his categories.11 Smith’s model furnished a different kind of periodization through

introduction

3

a series of synchronic snapshots of the Bábí and Bahá’í communities, taken from the particular perspectives afforded by the selected motifs in question. Intended as sociological markers, these allowed the author to move with the subject matter while striking a middle ground between a text-based analysis and a phenomenological or sociological account of the movements.

Two of the categories in Smith’s analysis are relevant with regard to purpose of the present study. One is the ‘holy war and martyrdom’ motif, especially significant for the Bábí phase, and the other is the ‘social reformism’ motif (modernization and the millennium), which would become relevant in the ensuing Bahá’í period (until 1921, and, arguably, until present). According to Smith the holy war motif, which in the Shí‘i tradition necessarily blends with that of martyrdom, appears as important in the early recruitment and mobilization of Bábí adherents; yet Smith’s account of this motif appears inconclusive, if not factually as well as doctrinally de-emphasized. The Bábí uprisings are in effect construed as instances of a defensive struggle (defensive jihád) and, by contrast, martyrdom is said to have remained even more important as evidence of the ultimate truth witnessed to by the Bábís. As for social reformism, according to Smith this motif was the second most dominant in the ensuing Bahá’í period. In it converged the millennial and alleged theocratic visions of the Báb, only now re-focused on the persons of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’lBahá, whose purpose was ‘the unification and pacification of the whole world’ through a programme of reforms on a universal scale – peace, arms reductions, one common language.12 Such a programme was for the rulers of the world to carry out, but it was incumbent on the Bahá’ís themselves to set an example and attract others to their Cause, never through coercion, but through dialogue and persuasion. Smith illustrates the integrative approach of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by referring to His critique of the East and the West. The efforts of the secular authorities and those of the Bahá’í community would lead, in their own way, to the attainment of the Lesser Peace and ultimately the Most Great Peace.

No major revisitation of Bahá’í historical accounts occurred for a number of years until 1998, five years after Fazel’s lamentation. Juan Ricardo Cole’s study Modernity and the Millenium supplied a number of significant connections between Bahá’í doctrine and its historical milieu, demonstrating the relevance of Bahá’u’lláh’s position in that context.13 Conceived as a series of five case studies, the work offered a number of insights into an area of academic endeavour (modernity, globalization, and religion) which, as pointed out by Warburg, had been neglected considerably by scholars of religion.14 The novelty in Cole’s approach lies not so much in the fact that he locates the appearance of the Bahá’í religion in its own historical setting, an aspect that Amanat in his Resurrection and Renewal (published in 1989), and from a faith-based perspective Balyuzi in his Bahá’u’lláh, the King of Glory (first published in 1980) had already mapped, but rather in his use of the case study approach to illustrate the complex relationships between various emerging paradigms of modernity. As a result, political, social and cultural trends in the Ottoman and European spheres become alive and relevant to an

bahá’u’lláh

15

Praise be to God that thou hast attained! . . . Thou hast come to see a prisoner and an exile . . . We desire but the good of the world and happiness of the nations; yet they deem us a stirrer up of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and banishment . . . That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled − what harm is there in this? . . . Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come . . . Do not you in Europe need this also? Is not this that which Christ foretold? . . . Yet do we see your kings and rulers lavishing their treasures more freely on means for the destruction of the human race than on that which would conduce to the happiness of mankind . . . These strifes and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one family . . . Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind.1

Part I offers a cursory sketch of Bahá’u’lláh’s life, then briefly conceptualizes His abrogation of the law of jihád, which sets the negative basis for His positive conception of peace, and finally discusses the principle of collective security in the context of the distinction between the Lesser and Most Great Peace. This latter distinction opened the possibility for a new chronology in the fulfilment of eschatological events and reflected a transitioning process from present conditions to a stage largely characterized by an increasing spiritualization of mankind and a parallel cosmopolitanism or, to be more precise, monoanthropism.

Bahá’u’lláh’s conception of peace was the expected outcome of a world progressively freed from religiously or secularly-driven violence, moving – or rather maturing – by degrees towards unification (‘one kindred and one “family”’).

Peace was associated by Bahá’u’lláh with the dawning of God’s Kingdom (‘Is not this that which Christ foretold?’), whose promise and guarantees were all contained in the provisions of God’s renewed covenant with mankind. Peace, in other words, was not a mere corollary of the new aeon, but, together with unity and justice, one of the pre-eminent hallmarks of Bahá’u’lláh’s vision.

The outline of peace provided by Bahá’u’lláh was to find more elaborate details in the writings and allocutions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (see Part II). Similarly, it was Shoghi Effendi’s role to resituate the theme of peace in a properly historical and sociological perspective, thus furnishing Bahá’ís with much needed clarity as to the functions of the Bahá’í community vis-à-vis the world (see Part III). The combined pattern resulting from the piecing together of these elements, rather than the privileging of a single aspect, is what confers upon the Bahá’í view of peace some of its comprehensiveness and characteristic elusiveness. In Parts IV and V I will supplement this view by adding further insights into the Bahá’í concept of

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peace through a thematic appraisal of the place of the individual and the Bahá’í ethos in the general scheme of things, with special attention to their relevance to a Bahá’í conception of peace.

The texts used in Part I come from different sources, including, as in the quotation above, some reported statements regarded as particularly weighty and reliable. Excerpts from the writings and reported sayings of Bahá’u’lláh with direct relevancy to the matter of peace are brief and often appear to have been deliberately couched in terms of their special eschatological, prophetic and symbolic import. This stylistic feature confers on them a degree of solemnity but also renders them pregnant with allusions that transpositions into lay categories may easily neglect. Cole has a point when he remarks: ‘Bahá’u’lláh’s views were not expressed in reasoned treatises but in prophetic utterances and apocalyptic visions of a millenarian character.’2 One is reminded of what S. Radhakrishnan had to say regarding the philosophy of Tagore: ‘Rabindranath writes poetry, while this book [Radhakhrisnan’s] is in prose.’3 Even considering the important advances already noted in the introduction and conspicuously illustrated by the works of Cole, Saiedi and others, restoring a sense of context to some of these statements is not always possible except in general and tentative ways. Much of their imputed significance may depend on theological analyses or assumptions rather than on purely empirical evidence, which at times may be scanty, despite micro-forensic efforts to magnify it. Conversely, the use of ideal-type constructs and their key categories may easily slip the researcher into a false sense of security in thinking that the dotted lines being followed have uncovered the true picture of ‘what is going on here’. Moreover, the fact that biographical details about Bahá’u’lláh’s life have to be reconstructed through fragmentary testimonies or recollections written down in chronicles well after the events, as is the case of Nabíl’s Narrative or the spoken chronicles of relatives and followers,4 needs to be taken with some caution. For the purposes of this book, most of the references to well-known episodes in Bahá’u’lláh’s life such as His childhood experiences described in Chapter 2 can also be found in standard presentations of the same theme by Balyuzi, Buck, Cole, MacEoin or Saiedi.

2 Some Biographical Considerations Bahá’u’lláh was born in Tehran in November 1817. His early years and youth were marked by the kind of education which was common to the offspring of the nobility. Although very little is known about His formative years, an episode Bahá’u’lláh witnessed in His childhood may constitute the first sign of His disaffection towards politics and power.5 The story, as recounted by Bahá’u’lláh in the Lawḥ-i-Ra’ís, depicts the main scenes of the Sulṭán Salím puppet play – first a royal parade surrounded by pomp and majesty, followed by the lurid punishment inflicted on a thief, and, soon thereafter, by the monarch’s review of his troops in readiness to quell a rebellion. Once the display was over, the inquisitive child asked about the contents of the box where the puppets had been put away. The impression left on Him is conveyed in these words: Ever since that day, all the trappings of the world have seemed in the eyes of this Youth akin to that same spectacle . . . How greatly I marvelled that men should pride themselves upon such vanities, whilst those possessed of insight, ere they witness any evidence of human glory, perceive with certainty the inevitability of its waning.6

Another event in Bahá’u’lláh’s childhood illustrates even more forcefully His natural repulsion towards armed violence. The episode, as recounted by Bahá’u’lláh, shows Him deeply distressed in his youth while reading the story of the punishment meted out by the Prophet Muhammad to the Banú Qurayzah.7 The episode can be regarded as all the more remarkable since it would again distance Bahá’u’lláh from the powerful undercurrents of anti-Jewish sentiment that historically have clustered around some of the foundational events in Islamic history such as this one.8 Furthermore, Bahá’u’lláh’s meekness of character would appear confirmed by His reported care for the poor and His refusal to follow in His father’s footsteps when offered a high post in government.9 In her recollections, Bahíyyih Khánum, Bahá’u’lláh’s daughter, further refers to her parents’ voluntary distancing from ‘State functions, social ceremonies, and the luxurious habits of ordinary highly-placed and wealthy families’.10 His father, Mírzá Buzurg, a respected high-ranking officer (vazír) of noble

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lineage and a master calligrapher, served the Crown in several capacities. In 1835 the vazír suffered a spate of severe losses, including his dismissal from the governorship of Luristan and the legal misappropriation of most of his wealth.11 Bahá’u’lláh’s resulting dissatisfaction with the extreme volatility of Court politics would have been further confirmed by His personal experience when, as a follower of the Báb, He was not only a witness to the persecution of His coreligionists, but also suffered a crippling four-month incarceration in the notorious dungeon of Síyáh-Chál (the Black Pit) under charges of instigating a failed attempt on the life of the Shah.

Bahá’u’lláh had joined the ranks of the Bábí community at a very early stage, when He was barely 27 years of age. Although externally devoid of rank, His notable position within the Bábí community can be gauged retrospectively by the fact that the destinies of Babism were to be decided ultimately between Him and his half-brother.

Given the traditional differences between the religious establishment and the Iranian civil authorities, and the way these were played out in the form of mutual attempts at increasing or retaining their respective areas of influence, the Bábí challenge to the power wielded by the Muslim clergy may not have been received as an unwelcome event by the Court, provided it was kept within limits. Moreover, at those initial stages differences between the Báb and the Muslim community could still be construed principally as a further internal division amongst Shaykhí factions, Shaykhism remaining to all intents and purposes a somewhat controversial branch (school or maktab) within the confines of Twelver Shí‘ism.12 The gradual overtures and disclosures made by the Báb concerning His own status seem to have been measured to maintain and broaden this ‘window of opportunity’. Difficulties in obtaining reliable reports from the provinces as well as some attraction to mysticism on the part of Muhammad Shah might have also played an important role in defusing harsher punitive action against the Bábís during the early period. In any case, it was not until the Conference at Badasht (1848) that the Bábí breakaway from Islam was broadcast publicly so as to reach a point of no return.

The attempt on the Shah’s life in 1852, two years after the execution of the Báb, afforded what was probably the best opportunity for the Crown to dispose of Bahá’u’lláh and the last significant remnants of the Bábí community. A successful mediation by the Russian legation, however, and lack of incriminating evidence against Bahá’u’lláh allowed Him to move into exile,13 thus putting behind Him the ordeal of his four-month incarceration in the awesome conditions of the SíyáhChál, the scars of which, including a failed attempt against His life by poisoning, would remain forever with Him. More importantly, if Bahá’u’lláh’s account is to be taken as an indication, the imprisonment at the Síyáh-Chál was fundamental in bringing about a new prophetic awareness. Certainly, it proved decisive in creating a fresh opening for the expectant Bábí community which, following the execution of the Báb was if anything more receptive to the coming of the Man Yuẓhirúhu’lláh (Him Whom

bahá’u’lláh

19

God Shall Make Manifest), the much awaited figure whose appearance in the near future was promised by the Báb.14 Bahá’u’lláh’s role during the ensuing years in Iraq can be seen in retrospect as one of preparing the Bábí community for His own proclamation.15 Just as the Banú Qurayzah episode was to influence his approach to other religious traditions, the experience of the Síyáh-Chál, in Bahá’u’lláh’s own words, was to convince Him of the need for regenerating Babism from within: No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on. God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!

Day and night, while confined in that dungeon, We meditated upon the deeds, the condition, and the conduct of the Bábís, wondering what could have led a people so high-minded, so noble, and of such intelligence, to perpetrate such an audacious and outrageous act against the person of His Majesty. This Wronged One, thereupon, decided to arise, after His release from prison, and undertake, with the utmost vigour, the task of regenerating this people.

One night, in a dream, these exalted words were heard on every side: ‘Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen . . .’16

In Bahá’u’lláh’s view the attempt on the Shah’s life made by some recalcitrant Bábís was also a sign of the internal state of decomposition already eating away much of what was left of the Bábí community, hence His declared intention of reviving Babism. Yet, such regeneration was not to take place by relying on violent means, but rather on the strength of Bahá’u’lláh’s own person and, most importantly, His pen.17 This reliance on the power of the word, as against that of brute force, was to become a constant leitmotif in Bahá’u’lláh’s writings for the rest of His prophetic ministry.

After the execution of the Báb and other outstanding Bábí personalities, no publicly recognized leaders were left in the Bábí community ready to assume unchallenged authority.18 Mírzá Yaḥyá, Bahá’u’lláh’s young half-brother, was the nominal figurehead, but according to most accounts unable to exert any effectual leadership.19 Although Mírzá Yaḥyá followed His brother into exile to Baghdad,20 at some early stage he made an attempt at asserting his own independent authority.

Bahá’u’lláh’s two-year retreat to the Kurdistan mountains (April 1854−March 1856) seems to have been motivated by His decision to avoid a direct confrontation and leave things to run their natural course. The account given by Bahíyyih Khánum, His daughter, of the attitude that prompted her father to abandon His family in Baghdad, again illustrates the peaceful inclination in Bahá’u’lláh’s character: At length this state of affairs became very distasteful to my father, he being by nature a man of peace. Strife of any kind seemed to hurt him; more, however,

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