Online Reporter
Flora Teckie
Bahá’í Perspective
We anticipate beginning 2026 with renewed hopes and dreams, and a deeper resolve to build a better future, grounded in our shared commitment to work for peace.
At a time when war and conflict dominate our global concerns, the preservation of peace is one of humanity’s greatest needs.
It is the Bahá’í view that, “The unification of the human race… is the overriding challenge of the present stage of history and the basic prerequisite for the solution of most social problems”.
Considering that humanity has now reached a new level of maturity, it is possible to create societies founded upon cooperation, trust, and genuine concern for others. For the emerging global order to lead us to peace, it must be founded on the principle of the oneness of humankind.
Belief in the oneness of the human family provides both a unifying vision, and the basis for a new system of values. It has the power to inspire the transformation of individual attitudes and behaviour, and the building of a peaceful global order.
The Universal House of Justice, the international governing council of the Bahá’í Faith, states that “World order can be founded only on an unshakeable consciousness of the oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences confirm. . . Recognition of this truth requires abandonment of prejudice — prejudice of every kind—race, class, colour, creed, nation, sex, degree of material civilisation, everything which enables people to consider themselves superior to others”.
Belief in the oneness of humankind, in the Bahá’í view, is not to undermine national autonomy or suppress cultural diversity. It is rather to broaden the basis of the existing foundations of society by calling for a wider loyalty, a loyalty to the human race, and its watchword is “unity in diversity”.
Only when we, as individuals, see ourselves as members of one human family, sharing one common homeland, will we be able to commit ourselves to the far-reaching changes, on the individual and collective levels, which an increasingly interdependent world requires.
Current challenges facing humanity are complex and interdependent, and none of them can be fully addressed without cooperation and coordination at all levels of society. Although not commonly discussed in relation to our challenges in the world, certain trends, including the widespread lack of moral discipline, the glorification of greed and material accumulation, racism and prejudice, destroy confidence and trust, which are the foundations of collaboration.
Such destructive trends have to be reversed, if peace on our planet is to become a reality.
Furthermore, it is the Bahá’í view that: “The emergence of a global civilisation prosperous in both its material and spiritual dimensions implies that the spiritual and practical aspects of life are to advance together”.
Finding a positive connection and balance between the material and spiritual aspects of life would lead to individual and social advancement, and would provide the energy for building a better world.
According to the Bahá’í Writings, “only if material progress goes hand in hand with spirituality can any real progress come about, and the Most Great Peace reign in the world. If men followed the Holy Counsels and the Teachings of the Prophets, if Divine Light shone in all hearts and men were really religious, we should soon see peace on earth and the Kingdom of God among men.
“The laws of God may be likened unto the soul and material progress unto the body. If the body was not animated by the soul, it would cease to exist”.
The universal spiritual principles which lie at the heart of religion—tolerance, love, compassion, justice, humility, sacrifice, trustworthiness, dedication to the wellbeing of others, and unity—are the basis of a peaceful and progressive civilisation.
Thus, building a unified and just global society will only be possible by touching the human spirit, by appealing to universal values that can empower us to act in accordance with the long-term interests of humanity.
We often associate a new year with resolution on how to improve our material lives. Should it not also be a time for new and noble resolutions on how to transform our spiritual lives and the communities we live in?
The Bahá’í Writings state: “In this new year new fruits must be forthcoming, for that is the provision and intention of spiritual reformation. . . of what avail is the reformation of physical conditions unless they are concomitant with spiritual reformations?
“For the essential reality is the spirit; the foundation is the spirit; the life of man is due to the spirit; the happiness, the animus, the radiance, the glory of man— all are due to the spirit; and if in the spirit no reformation takes place, there will be no result to human existence”.
Thus, the realisation of our hopes and dreams for peace in the new year will require belief in the oneness of the human family, and moving beyond adolescent patterns of competition, toward more mature forms of collective responsibility. It will require balancing the material and spiritual aspects of our lives, while allowing the spiritual aspect to take control.
Feedback: [email protected] or [email protected]
