‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Secret of Divine Civilization

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praises acquisition of wealth provided that two conditions are met. First, it should be gained through individual’s own productive activities in commerce, agriculture, art, and industry. Secondly it must be accompanied by a sense of moral responsibility towards other humans and used in philanthropic ways. While ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in this text does not explicitly raise the question of capitalism or socialism, His position is already clear. He calls for equitable income distribution in society, which means that He neither supports total income equality and elimination of competition in civil society, nor that He accepts unlimited competitive capitalist liberalism and excessive inequality. In His other writings, however, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá deals with this question directly and explicitly. It is clear that for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá both ideological extremes are unacceptable. He calls for elimination of poverty and excess of wealth, but accepts moderate economic competition in the context of a new approach to the meaning of work, commitment to moral and spiritual principles of oneness of humankind and community solidarity, emphasis on agriculture, decentralized fiscal, economic, and administrative structures, welfare measures for the poor, and harmony and cooperation of the public and private sectors. It is interesting that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asks Iranians to note the economic and technological changes happening in Japan as one of the examples of economic reform. 30 The significance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ideas on economic questions will be further discussed in the next section. However, the moral framework of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s concept of wealth is evident in The Secret . He writes: Wealth is most commendable, provided the entire population is wealthy. If, however, a few have inordinate riches while the rest are impoverished, and no fruit or benefit accrues from that wealth, then it is only a liability to its possessor. If, on the other hand, it is expended for the promotion of knowledge, the founding of elementary and other schools, the encouragement of art and industry, the training of orphans and the poor—in brief, if it is dedicated to the welfare of society—its possessor will stand out before God and man as most excellent of all who live on earth and will be accounted as one of the people of paradise. 31 Another important area discussed by The Secret is educational rationalization. He even mentions the possibility of His writing a second volume on the question of educational reform. 32 Elements of this reform include universal education, concentration on beneficial and scientific disciplines, and avoidance of scholastic controversies which are harmful to social harmony and scientific productivity. He argues that effective attainment of social justice in society is dependent on the presence of an enlightened and educated population. 33 It must be noted, however, that ‘Abdu’l- Bahá’s call for scientific education and His warning against scholastic controversies should not be interpreted as a rejection of the need for moral education. On the contrary, for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá what is crucial is the harmony and cooperation of both moral and technical education. Finally, I should refer to the question of religious rationalization in The Secret . The focus of the text is in fact an affirmation of the need for religious reform in Iran. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá mentions Protestant Reformation and calls on the Muslim clergy to learn from the lessons of that historical experience. 34 However, the longest part of The Secret is devoted to the refutation of the traditionalist claims of the conservative ‘ulama who argued that Islam is opposed to learning modern science and institutional norms. The Muslim ‘ulama have usually rejected the adoption of Western practices as heretical innovations contrary to Islam. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá provides forceful

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