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Flora Teckie A Bahá’í Perspective
THERE is a longing desire for peace all over the world, despite many challenges facing humanity today. In the Bahá’í view, achievement of peace calls for fundamental changes in our mindset and acceptance that human beings have innate capacity for harmony and cooperation.
Unlike some religious dogma and tradition, the Bahá’í teachings do not consider human beings inherently sinful or immoral. Neither do they consider humans as inherently aggressive and wars and conflicts as a natural outcome of that.
The Bahá’í Writings clearly state that God crated us inherently noble, and filled with potential for goodness.
As stated in the Bahá’í Scriptures: “Man is a child of God, most noble, lofty and beloved by God, his Creator. Therefore, he must ever strive that the divine bounties and virtues bestowed upon him may prevail and control him.
“Just now the soil of human hearts seems like black earth, but in the innermost substance of this dark soil there are thousands of fragrant flowers latent. We must endeavour to cultivate and awaken these potentialities, discover the secret treasure in this very mine and depository of God, bring forth these resplendent powers long hidden in human hearts.”
There is need for education and guidance in order to develop the powers and capacities latent within us and to contribute our share to an ever-advancing civilization.
As such, education should lead to the discovery and perfection of our capabilities and instil a commitment to serve the best interests of one’s community and the world as a whole. To achieve this, we need moral empowerment as well as intellectual development.
We need to advance individually and also to contribute to the advancement of civilisation.
Such education should cultivate tolerance, love, brotherhood, equality, compassion, understanding, humility, and an active commitment to justice.
Furthermore, it should nurture in the individual an appreciation for the richness and importance of the world’s diverse cultural, religious and social systems and encourage unity in diversity.
Human nature has material and spiritual sides.
Although we exist on earth in physical bodies, but the essential identity of each individual is defined by an invisible, rational, and everlasting soul.
Our inherent spiritual capacities and qualities, being part of the immortal soul, will eternally endure, while the body and its capacities will not.
In nature there is the law of the survival of the fittest.
Without proper education one can follow such inclination. The purpose of education is to rescue us from the demands and defects of nature and to awaken our capability of controlling and appropriating nature’s bounties.
If we allow a developed land to return to its natural state, it would become a field of thorns and useless weeds, but by cultivation it will become fertile and yield a harvest.
“Therefore, it is not intended that the world of humanity should be left to its natural state. It is in need of the education divinely provided for it. The holy, heavenly Manifestations of God have been the Teachers. They are the divine Gardeners Who transform the jungles of human nature into fruitful orchards and make the thorny places blossom as the rose,” assert the Bahá’í Writings.
We need to acknowledge that we are all created noble.
However, to develop our inherent capacities and to build a just and peaceful society, material aspects of life and community development, whether environmental, economic, social or legal, must be driven by spiritual principles and priorities.
As the Bahá’í International Community states: “… communities that thrive and prosper today will do so because they acknowledge the spiritual dimension of human nature and make the moral, emotional and intellectual development of the individual a central priority.”
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Online Reporter
Tinaye Agere