Eleventh Reflection

of this Ultimate Objective for which have ever yearned all such as have drawn nigh unto God. Say: The very life of all deeds is My good pleasure, and all things depend upon Mine acceptance.” 3. Beyond Utilitarianism The inseparable connection between spiritual journey and moral development is one of the distinguishing features of Baha’u’llah’s approach to ethics. The sanctity and beauty of all beings and all people as reflections of God becomes the basis of the Baha’i ethics. A materialistic philosophy which reduces humans to nature and identifies nature as regulated by struggle for existence, is trapped with many obstacles in defending a universal morality. Baha’u’llah’s ethics not only has affinity with Kantian theory, it has affinity with the rival of Kantian theory namely, utilitarianism. In this philosophy, happiness and pleasure are defined as the only thing which are intrinsically good. Therefore, moral action is an action that leads to maximization of utility, happiness, pleasure. This theory in its immediate form is nothing but a crude forms of hedonism. However, most utilitarian authors go beyond their immediate assumption and argue that a moral action is what leads to maximum happiness of the maximum number of the people in society. Although Baha’u’llah’s approach has affinity with the idea of maximization of happiness for maximum number of people, it departs from it in some ways. As noted by John Rawls, in a prejudiced society where the majority have hatred towards a minority, discrimination against that minority may lead to maximization of happiness in that society. But of course this is not an ethical act. While happiness and pleasure of people are important, the most important task of ethical education is to transform humans so that they actualize their spiritual potentiality, see everyone and everything as noble, identify themselves and their happiness with the interests of the entire human race, and move towards a society in which contentment and happiness of people is accompanied by both assurance, tranquility, and peace of the heart (good will), as well as exalting the station of human being, realizing their spiritual nobility, and their progressive development. In an astonishing statement Baha’u’llah discusses all these three elements (assurance of heart, contentment of people, and exaltation of human station) as the necessary conditions of an acceptable and moral act: “ Whatsoever instilleth assurance into the hearts of men, whatsoever exalteth their station or promoteth their contentment, is acceptable in the sight of God. How lofty is the station which man, if he but choose to fulfill his high destiny, can attain!” (Gleanings)