Third Reflection

Third Reflection: Human Nobility Baha’u’llah writes: O SON OF SPIRIT! I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? Out of the essence of knowledge I gave thee being, why seekest thou enlightenment from anyone beside Me? Out of the clay of love I molded thee, how dost thou busy thyself with another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting. This statement of Baha’u’llah in his Hidden Words, written in 1857, presents a dialectical discourse on the primordial nobility of human beings, their actual debasement and self-alienation through forgetting their authentic spiritual nobility, and the overcoming of that self-estrangement by remembering one’s spiritual identity. Human nobility is first emphasized by the fact that God is addressing human beings as “Son of Spirit”, affirming the spiritual identity of all humans. Each part of the statement first talks of the primordial glory of humans, and then it describes how humans have degraded themselves by forgetting their true spiritual identity. This way they see society as a jungle and thus reduce the regulating principle of life to struggle for existence. At the end of the statement, he offers the solution. Humans must look at themselves through the eyes of the heart and attain self -consciousness of their spiritual reality, finding God within themselves and within all others. This way they would live not as beasts but as loving spirits with peace, mutual dignity and unity. All writings of Baha’u’llah emphasize the same point, defining discord and violence as befitting animals and not human beings, defining human being as one who dedicates himself to the service of the entire human race. In an untranslated statement Baha’u’llah forbids any human being to become debased and degraded before another one. Thus he forbids kissing of hands, kneeling and prostration before the feet of any one, including even Baha’u’llah himself. He states that it is only the invisible God who is worthy of kneeling and prostration. The statement of Baha’u’llah in the Hidden Words affirms first richness, then nobility, then knowledge, and finally the loving character of humans. Each of these categories needs reflection and discussion in the light of his writings. For example, he states that God created human being rich. But this richness is not material wealth. It is richness in spiritual perfections and potentialities. Thus we need education to actualize these potentialities. A culture which applies the rule of jungle to society prevents realization of human development and is condemned by Baha’u’llah. A culture which applies the glory of human spirit to the realm of social relations brings about that richness. Thus he defines man as a rich mine with hidden jewels. Through education this richness would be realized. From Rousseau to Baha’u’llah In order to understand Baha’u’llah’s complex statement, it may be useful to discuss a famous statement by the creative philosopher Rousseau. His influential book, The Social Contract, begins by this famous word: “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chain.” Here he is contrasting human freedom, when he lived in jungle, with human bondage, when he lives under social institutions, culture, and private property. Despite the creativity of his work, Rousseau’s statement suffers major inadequacies for at least three reasons: to be human, namely to think, requires language and thus culture and social interaction. There can be no human being in jungle. While in his other work on inequality, Rousseau defines the cause of human bondage as private property, the solution he offers in The Social Contract does not question private property. Rather he asks for direct political democracy or the unrestrained rule of the general will. But the

unrestrained rule of general will is itself a major cause of totalitarianism and destruction of human freedom. One may say that unconsciously Rousseau was ahead of Marx. According to Marx, realization of freedom requires abolishing private property and rejection of all forms of economic inequality. He believes that such communism brings about the “withering” of state. For Marx, there can be no communist state because communism necessarily eliminates state. Perhaps, Rousseau understands that communism and forced equalization of economic outcomes can only happen under an interventionist state that would regulate all detailed aspects of human life. Otherwise, in the absence of such control all kinds of inequality would emerge. Rousseau’s general will represents a totalitarian state in which society has the right to regulate all aspects of individual’s life. But that is precisely the ultimate unfreedom and bondage. But Rousseau’s words are important because he asks a most important question. Baha’u’llah’s word in The Hidden Words also make a contrast between the way God created man, and the way man has debased himself. His solution, however, affirms the imperative of overcoming human self-alienation from his or her spiritual truth. But such spiritual consciousness must become the occasion for a reconstruction of the world in accordance with this inherent dignity and nobility of all human beings. Human Being in Pre-Modern, Modern, and Postmodern Worldviews We can distinguish between the pre-modern and modern views on human dignity. Both groups have supported the thesis of human nobility. The traditional, Eastern, and pre-modern view believes that humans are noble and sacred because of their belief in God and religion. Humans are defined as the image of God and therefore as sacred and noble. This view is present in various religions. In the view of Iranian prophet Zartosht (Zarathustra), humans are the highest and last creation of God Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom. The same idea is found in Judaism where humans are the image of God. Christianity and Islam have said the same thing. In Hindu scriptures like Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads, the ultimate spiritual truth is the identity of human soul, atman, with God. In Buddhism the highest mystical knowledge is discovery of the Buddha nature in all being particularly the human soul. Despite these lofty praise of humans, the traditional praise of humans was not extended to concrete and living human beings. On the contrary humans were treated in the most abased manner. Caste system, burning of widowed women, ritual impurity of unbelievers, hostility against women, use of violence and jihad against unbelievers, support of slavery, political despotism, and spiritual despotism namely obedience to clerics are examples of this treatment. As a reaction to this actual degradation of human beings in traditional logic, modernity tried to defend human nobility. But this time the basis of human nobility is rejection of religion and God. The background is of course the Christian misunderstanding of the Bible which assumed that through the original sin, all humans by blood are wicked and evil. Thus the philosophers of the 18 th century Enlightenment thought that by rejecting religion and God they can bring dignity to humans. They were successful in extending human dignity at the level of some social institutions for example they defended political democracy. But their rejection of spiritual truth of human beings led them to increasingly degrade humans to the level of animals and objects. First as opposed to Pascal’s word who said men are born tyrants and thus they pursue their self- interest, Voltaire said that the cause of human civilization, prosperity and harmony is the fact that humans are selfish and follow their interests, the same thing that was mentioned by Adam Smith. Thus this philosophy turned what was perceived to be wicked and made it moral and noble. Other philosophers went further and said that God is a mirror image of despotic kings, and therefore,

democracy and freedom requires rejection of God. Later Feuerbach said that the reason for human misery is that humans have alienated their perfections from themselves and have projected it in the clouds calling it God. Thus the only way that humans can become noble is to reject God. Nietzsche said that as long as God exists humans cannot be free. Thus he declared the death of God. The final stage was asocial interpretations of Darwinism in which humans became purely an animal who should be living on the basis of the law of jungle namely struggle for existence. It was due to the failures of pre-modern and modern views that postmodern culture emerged in contemporary world. This time it rejected the idea of human nobility as meaningless. It argued that there is no such a thing as human being, nor there is any objective value. Therefore there is no sense to talk of human rights or human dignity. What was left was cultural relativism. The result was that our contemporary world believes in everything and nothing. Conclusion Baha’u’llah’s writings combine the positive aspects of the pre-modern, modern, and postmodern viewpoints while rejecting their negative aspects. Like the pre-modern worldview, Baha’i Faith affirms the dignity of human beings as a spiritual being. But unlike the pre-modern traditionalism, Baha’u’llah affirms, like modern discourse, the need to reconstruct the world so that the world becomes a mirror of the spiritual truth of all human beings. Unlike the pre-modern and modern worldviews, and like postmodern discourse, Baha’u’llah extols diversity of human reality, and argues for his unique concept of unity in diversity. That is why Baha’u’llah defines political democracy, social justice, independent investigation of truth, a culture of communication and friendship with all humans being, elimination of international anarchy, unity of all religions, and rejection of all prejudices as the logical implications of a spiritual consciousness, and the essential requirements for realization of peace, justice and unity in the world.