Dimensions of Baha'i Law

Bahá’í Publishing 401 Greenleaf Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091 Copyright © 2019 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States All rights reserved. Published 2019 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper ∞ 22 21 20 19 4 3 2 1 ISBN 978-1-61851-151-5

Cover design by Jamie Hanrahan Book design by Patrick Falso

Contents Acknowledgments............................................................................ xi Foreword........................................................................................ xiii Introduction.................................................................................. xvii Part 1: Foundations for Understanding Bahá’í Law.......................1 1 / Some Reflections on the Concept of Law in the Bahá’í Faith.................................................................................3 Bahá’u’lláh’s Break with the Islamic Legal Imagination....5 Bahá’u’lláh’s Legal Language.......................................... 12 Bahá’u’lláh’s Rationale for Obedience to the Law........... 17 Bahá’í Legal Imagination...............................................23 Part 2: Reading the Kitáb-i-Aqdas..............................................25 2 / Some Reflections on the Structure of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.......27 The Arcs of Ascent and Descent...................................29 The Centrality of Paragraph 19..................................... 32 Conclusion.................................................................... 41 3 / The Politics of Delay—Social Meanings and the Historical Treatment of Bahá’í Law...........................................................43 Dealing with Delay.......................................................44 Social and Political Dimensions of Bahá’í Law..............48 The Political Dimensions of Bahá’í Law..................49 The Social Dimensions of Bahá’í Law..................... 51 Conclusion.................................................................... 55

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Part 4: Bahá’í Law, Political Structures, and World Order..........57 4 / Hegemony and Revelation: A Bahá’í Perspective on World Order........................................................................................59 Introduction..................................................................60 Dimensions of Bahá’u’lláh’s New World Order..............62 The Principle of Oneness and a New Form of Politics...70 A Hegemonic Bahá’í World Commonwealth in the New World Order?................................................................73 Conclusion....................................................................77 5 / Church and State in the Bahá’í Faith: An Epistemic Approach..................................................................................79 The Current Secondary Literature on Church and State in the Bahá’í Faith............................................................. 82 Questioning Essentialisms: An Epistemic Approach to the Question of Church and State......................................87 Temporal Legitimacy and Divine Sovereignty.........88 Interaction of Religion and Politics.........................97 Maturation and Unity........................................... 109 An Open Vision of Church and State......................... 122 6 / Internationalism and Divine Law: A Bahá’í Perspective..... 125 A Brief Introduction to Bahá’í Law............................. 127 Divine Law and Human Law-Making......................... 135 Unity and Positive Law............................................... 143 Fragmentation, Integration, and World Order............ 149 Disintegration....................................................... 149 Integration............................................................ 154 Conclusion.................................................................. 160

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Part 5: Bahá’í Law and Social Change........................................ 161 7 / Some Reflections on Bahá’í Approaches to Social Change (coauthor Lex Musta).............................................................. 163 Elements of a Bahá’í Approach to Social Change........... 166 Conclusion..................................................................... 187 Part 6: Discourses and the Study of Bahá’í Law......................... 193 8 / Imagining Bahá’í Law........................................................ 195 Schaefer’s Text-Centric Construction of Bahá’í Law.... 197 Questioning a Text-Centric Approach.........................200 Law as Text / Law in Practice......................................206 9 / Themes in the Study of Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i-Aqdas: Emerging Approaches to Scholarship on Bahá’í Law...............................209 Introduction................................................................209 Themes in the Study of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas...................210 Conclusion..................................................................227 Notes............................................................................................229 Works Cited.................................................................................. 271 Index.............................................................................................279

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Introduction In 1993, at the age of twenty-one and having completed studies in film at McGill University, I somehow ended up beginning law school in Victoria on Canada’s Pacific coast. Why I moved from the study of film to the study of law is a transition for which I have yet to find a reasonable explanation.

However, from my earliest days at law school, it became increasingly clear to me what my focus would be. Ultimately, my goal was to gain knowledge that would be helpful in thinking and learning about Bahá’í law, as well as the central Bahá’í legal text, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.

Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i-Aqdas occupies a distinct place within the corpus of Bahá’í literature. As the “Most Holy Book,” the “Mother Book,” as well as His book of laws, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas is the central scriptural text of the Bahá’í revelation, and it is a work of unparalleled importance and standing (Universal House of Justice, Introduction to the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, 1). Shoghi Effendi describes the Kitáb-i-Aqdas as being “unique and incomparable among the world’s sacred Scriptures” (Shoghi Effendi, “A Description of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas by Shoghi Effendi” in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, 14). The Universal House of Justice emphasizes its pivotal importance to the coming of age of humanity as the repository of laws “designed to carry humanity forward into a world civilization the splendors of which can as yet be scarcely imagined” (Universal House of Justice, Introduction to the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, 2). In 1992, the first authorized English translation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas was published.

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Prior to 1992, the book was not broadly accessible outside of its original Arabic language. One effect of this delay—which is wholly consistent with Bahá’u’lláh’s own vision and intent regarding the nature and use of the sacred texts and the development of Bahá’í community life—was that the relationship of the worldwide Bahá’í community to the text was at once intimate and distant. Even before its publication in 1992, the standing of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas was well understood, and certain passages from the Most Holy Book were used in Bahá’í communities for study and dialogue. Bahá’ís always treated the study of such passages with the same reverence one finds toward sacred texts in other religious systems. However, passages from the Kitáb-i-Aqdas were not the only source of study for Bahá’í communities, and at various times, other scriptural sources and areas of focus were more pivotal at shaping individual and community life.

The release of the authorized translation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas was a source of anticipation and excitement for Bahá’ís. In 1992, prior to my decision to attend law school, my small Bahá’í community in a Montreal neighborhood—like Bahá’í communities around the world— began a focused study in preparation for the release of the authorized translation. I also recall that in 1993, at the annual conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, a special symposium was held at McGill University on the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and this symposium helped launch a new era of English-language scholarship on this sacred text, at a time when it would be more widely accessible.

Some of these experiences prior to the release of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas also spurred significant questions and inquiry on my part. I remember attending, prior to the release of the book, a multiday course on the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, at the De Poort Bahá’í School. While the course was rich in many aspects, I remember being puzzled by the strictly doctrinal and rules-oriented mode of discourse throughout the session. I also doubted whether comparing the rules in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas to those that might be found in canon law or the Qur’án would be particularly useful to

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understanding the role and relevance of Bahá’u’lláh’s laws in the contemporary world. I had questions for which I sought answers.

Of course, law school itself had nothing to say to me about Bahá’í law specifically, and I doubted there was any other person in the law school building who had ever even come across such a term. Indeed, at the time, there was little if any interest in discussing the relationship between law and religion within Canadian law schools (something that has changed only marginally in the last two decades).

Even though I was uncertain at first whether I had chosen wisely to attend law school, a few positive signs began to appear. One day while I was perusing books in the library, I stumbled across a small, beaten-up copy of Harold J. Berman’s The Interaction of Law and Religion. Often credited with reinvigorating the study of law and religion in the United States, Berman’s short work raised questions about the spiritual foundations of law, the revolutionary dynamics of legal history, the relationship between religion and the legitimacy of legal systems, and the pressures on global legal systems resulting from a rapidly changing and increasingly integrated humanity. For me, the book was a first glimpse at how the study of law, social change, and humanity’s religious and spiritual heritage were inextricably intertwined.

A far more important development, however, in my study of religion and law was the guidance and mentorship of Professor John McLaren.

A former dean and prominent legal historian, Professor McLaren was keenly interested in the relationship between law and religion, both historically and in today’s world, and he had brought his vast intellect to researching and writing on how small religious communities interacted with State legal orders.

Professor McLaren’s encouragement that I begin exploring the dimensions of Bahá’í law was the beginning of a journey. From Victoria, with various detours, I moved on to Harvard Law School and began five years of master’s and doctoral studies—all with the express purpose of studying Bahá’í law. In addition to specifically studying the

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Bahá’í Faith, my research included the study of Islamic law and legal systems, the historical relationship between law and religion in Europe and North America, and treatment of religion in contemporary constitutional orders.

The decision to approach the study of Bahá’í law, as well as the Kitábi-Aqdas, through advanced studies in law, as distinct from religious studies or Islamic or Middle Eastern studies, was a purposeful one. My particular interest was and remains, understanding the relevance of the legal dimensions of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings for the processes of social change and the advancement of social justice. In searching for a deeper understanding of these topics, I studied the dynamic role law plays in society and how Bahá’u’lláh foresees a role for law in general, as well as laws He revealed, for achieving a better world. During my research, I also looked at the operation of Bahá’í law in practice—both how it operates and how it is experienced by individuals and communities.

This approach differs from primarily focusing on the relationship between Bahá’í law and theology, categorizing or delineating Bahá’í laws, comparing Bahá’í law and other scriptural laws, or writing an exegesis of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Indeed, a predominant tendency in the study of Bahá’í law—which is unsurprising given the early stage we are in—is to focus on the categorization, delineation, and description of what are understood to be the laws or rules Bahá’u’lláh promulgated.

Quite consciously, I have sought to pursue a different approach to the subject matter.

All of the articles in this volume reflect this focus on the application and use of Bahá’u’lláh’s laws and legal teachings in the world and the life of humanity. They explore four main areas of focus.

The first area is Bahá’u’lláh’s conception of law itself, which is presented as being a radical break from both the Bahá’í Faith’s Islamic legal heritage as well as predominant conventional understandings of law.

In this way, understanding Bahá’í law challenges us to question, and ultimately abandon, our taken-for-granted ways of thinking, talking about, and using law. xx