Second Reflection

Nineteen Reflections on Nineteen Sacred Words Nader Saiedi The Second Reflection: Spiritual Democracy as the Precondition of Political Democracy

Baha’u’llah writes: “ From two ranks amongst men power hath been seized: kings and ecclesiastics .”

In 1868, Baha’u’llah declared his mission to the leaders of the world. Through this universal and global declaration, he announced to the world that humanity has arrived at a new stage of its historical development, and that in this new stage humanity must understand the organic character of the new emerging world, and move towards a culture of unity in diversity, a culture that is characterized by justice, consultation, and peace. However, this new culture requires a new spiritual culture, a culture that is resurrected in the revelation of Baha’u’llah. In late 1860s, shortly after writing these letters to the political and religious leaders of the world, Baha’u’llah wrote the above statement, warning against the tyranny of the kings and the clerics. This statement is simultaneously a reaffirmation of the message of Baha’u’llah to the leaders of the world, and at the same time a response to the neglect of his message by the heedless and proud monarchs and clerics. However, the sociological significance of these words of Baha’u’llah is limitless. Baha’u’llah’s statement is capturing the entirety of his revelation, emphasizes the future destiny of humanity, offers a path of liberation to Iran and the Middle eastern societies, and proclaims the birth of human being out of the bondage of a beastly culture. Liberty and Democratization as Requirement of the Age Baha’u’llah sees the future of humanity a future of progressive movement towards liberty and democracy. He is announcing to the world that in the emerging new word there is no longer any room for despotism and tyranny. In his words “ power hath been seized ” from two groups: kings and clerics. The word translated here as “power” is ‘izzat, which implies two meanings. One is power and force, the other is exaltation, praise and prestige. What Baha’u’llah is emphasizing here is what Max Weber means by legitimate power (Herrschaft), namely a power that is rooted in the consent of the people and their voluntary submission to authority. The future of humanity is a future of rejection of despotism because the future is the future of a culture of liberty, equality, and empowerment of individuals and groups in society. Tyranny would disappear because the culture of people will move towards maturity, rationality, and appreciation of the dignity and nobility of all human beings. It is noteworthy that this statement of Baha’u’llah does not imply a rejection of constitutional monarchy. Kingship as despotism and autocracy is rejected, but constitutional monarchy in which actual political decisions is invested in the parliament while monarchy serves as a symbol of the unity of the people is accepted and even praised by Baha’u’llah. Baha’u’llah’s statement is in fact an affirmation of the requirement of the age. He writes: Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which the subsequent age may require. Be

anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements. (Gleanings 213) His worldview emphasized a historical consciousness, the awareness that humans and societies are dynamic, alive, and ever-advancing. No aspect of culture and society can remain static. That is why even the word of God, the realm of religion, is also dynamic and progressive. This historical consciousness rejects the worship of traditions and cult of traditionalism, and emphasizes that each age has its own requirement. For Baha’u’llah, the new stage of human development requires the end of human bondage and oppression. Consequently, he sees the trend of history towards a culture of the maturation of humanity and the emergence of social and political institutions which embody, reflect and realize that culture. Tyranny is contrary to the requirement of the age. This same principle is clearly emphasized by the next leader of the Baha’i religion, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, who during the constitutional Revolution of Iran (1906-1911) defined constitutionalism and democracy as the irresistible requirement of the age. In April 1909, when through restoration of despotism, parliament had been dissolved, ‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote these words: According to the divine wisdom, each age has its own requirement and its binding necessity. Everything can be resisted except the requirement of the age, resistance to which is impossible, for denying the necessity of time and defeating its requirement is outside of the realm of possibility. “That is the Decree of the Almighty, the Omniscient.” At this time and age, autocratic government is impossible, for it causes a myriad of problems for the people and it utterly precludes the tranquility of the soul and the health of consciousness. Likewise, it is contrary to the peace of the government as well as the wellbeing and welfare of the people. (Provisional translation by the author, Abdu’l-Baha, INBA 17: 233-5) Spiritual Democracy as the Precondition of the Political Democracy Although the statement of Baha’u’llah negates political despotism, it is not a simple affirmation of political democracy. Baha’u’llah’s word defines two forms of tyranny as contradictory to the requirement of the age. Political tyranny is one and clerical despotism is the other. In fact, the statement of Baha’u’llah goes beyond affirming the necessity of both political democracy and spiritual democracy. The heart of the word uttered by Baha’u’llah is the organic relation between these two phenomena. In other words, spiritual and cultural democracy is the necessary condition for the realization and sucess of political democracy. Authority of the clerics has usually been the institutionalization of cultural or spiritual tyranny. Clerical authority means that individuals renounce their own reason and blindly follow the dictates and judgments of the clerics. The clerical cast legitimizes traditionalism and renounces reason. Individuals must obey the judgements of the clerics and let the clerics think for them. In a society that people refuse to think for themselves because they voluntarily depend on the judgment of the clerics, there is no possibility of emergence of a culture of rationalism, equality, and dignity of all human beings. Furthermore, the clerics and their traditionalism oppose the requirement of the age and the empowerment of the people. Their medieval outlook divides people in terms of various categories and institutionalize various forms of inequality and oppression in society. Writing in the mid-19 th century, therefore, Baha’u’llah is affirming the sociological fact that without a culture of empowerment of individuals and their independent thinking no real political democracy is possible in society. In a sense the history of the West European societies is an affirmation of the principle enshrined in the word of Baha’u’llah. Both the religious reformation through Protestantism (16 th century), and the

emergence of the philosophical forms of rationalism (17 th and 18 th century) paved the way for the emergence of political democracy between 18 th and 20 th centuries. Furthermore, it was the extension of the culture of individual rights to various underrepresented segments of society that led to increasing maturation of democracy. At the same time, Baha’u’llah’s statement warns against development of a political culture in which party politics leads to individual’s enslavement to party discourse, party conformity, hatred of the supporters of the other party, and the degradation of political discourse to demonization of the other party. If party politics turn into group conformity, we will witness the emergence of a secular clerical authority, when the politicians, celebrities, and party intellectuals become the new clerics. When individual’s judgment on an issue is dependent on the judgment of the party, and not one’s own independent thinking, we have reduced ourselves to bondage to a secular culture of clerical despotism. In such situation no real political democracy, namely no real collective consultation, is ever possible. On the contrary, such political culture implies a pathological turn towards the logic of mass conformity. Tyranny of intellectual discourse, when certain ideas are systematically excluded from public and intellectual discourse, represents the tyranny of the left or the tyranny of the right. In both cases when suppression of freedom of thought is institutionalized in our universities and media, we are replacing the culture of ideological tyranny in place of dignity of consultative democracy. Writings of Baha’u’llah on Democracy: 1850s and 1860s The statement of Baha’u’llah can partly be seen as the affirmation of his message to the political and religious leaders of the world in 1868. The first of these messages, written in the last days of Baha’u’llah in Adrianople and before his exile to Akka, is addressed to the king of Iran, Nasir al-Din Shah. It is interesting that the main discourse of Baha’u’llah in this work is a critique of clerical despotism, when he identifies the root cause of the problems of Iran in the clerical autocracy and intolerance. Similar sentiments are expressed in addressing the Pope and the emperors of France and Russia. The emphasis on political democracy is found in the letter to the Queen Victoria, where she is praised for both outlawing slave traffic and extending political democracy. But in another sense, the statement of Baha’u’llah is a summary of his revelation up to that point. At the time of the statement of Baha’u’llah in late 1860s, the writings of Baha’u’llah range from 1853 to 1869. It is important to recognize that Baha’u’llah’s writings during 1850s do not directly address the question of political democracy. Instead, these writings are all directed against clerical despotism. It is then in the context of his previous emphasis on cultural and spiritual democracy that Baha’u’llah begins to emphasize political democracy during 1860s in the context of his call for a holistic transformation of all institutions of the world in the direction of global unity and universal peace. This order is not accidental. Baha’u’llah first emphasizes the need for cultural and spiritual democracy as the precondition of the emergence of political democracy and then focuses on social reform including political democracy. The main works of Baha’u’llah during 1850s and early 1860s all emphasize the imperative of independent investigation of truth. These writings begin with a number of mystical writings of Baha’u’llah –like The Seven Valleys, The Four Valleys, and the Hidden Words- and end with a number of theological works which emphasize historical consciousness, works which include The Gems of Divine Mysteries and the Book of Certitude. The common point in these two types of the writings of Baha’u’llah is rejection of all prejudices, critique of clerical authority, and affirmation of the imperative of independent thinking for understanding the truth. These works emphasize the method of investigation of truth, and attribute the source of the persecution of all prophets of God to people’s blind reliance on

the judgment of their clerics and their refusal to think for themselves. In systematic ways, Baha’u’llah talks of the need for doubting all ideas, ignoring the judgments of clerics, purification of heart and mind from all vestiges of traditionalism, and recognizing their own power of thinking as the greatest bounty of God to them. I quote here statements of Baha’u’llah from three of his major works: From the Hidden Words: O Son of Spirit! My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting. From the Seven Valleys: The first is the Valley of Search. The steed of this valley is patience… It is incumbent upon these servants to cleanse the heart, which is the wellspring of divine treasures, of every marking; turn away from imitation, which is following the traces of their forefathers; and shut the door of friendship and enmity upon all the people of the earth. From the Book of Certitude: No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth. Sanctify your souls, O ye peoples of the world, that haply ye may attain that station which God hath destined for you … It is in this context that Baha’u’llah discusses in his subsequent writings throughout 1860s and afterwards of the necessity of transforming social institutions, political democracy, and movement towards a democratic and consultative collective security. Addressing Queen Victoria, he writes: We have been informed that thou hast forbidden the trading in slaves, both men and women. This, verily, is what God hath enjoined in this wondrous Revelation… We have also heard that thou hast entrusted the reins of counsel into the hands of the representatives of the people. Thou, indeed, hast done well, for thereby the foundations of the edifice of thine affairs will be strengthened, and the hearts of all that are beneath thy shadow, whether high or low, will be tranquillized. Baha’u’llah and the Emancipation of Iran and the Middle East The writings of Baha’u’llah, encapsulated in his statement on kings and ecclesiastics, offered the path to reform and development of Iran and other Middle Eastern societies in the middle of 19 th century. Unfortunately, Iranians failed to listen to the wisdom of Baha’u’llah and therefore their approach to social reform and democracy became the opposite of the path suggested by Baha’u’llah. The root cause of the failure of reform movements in Iran is precisely the rejection of the message of Baha’u’llah. As we noted, for Baha’u’llah no true political democracy is possible unless a critique of spiritual and cultural tyranny has already taken place. Although 20 th century Iranian social movements have struggled to realize political democracy in Iran (both constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911 and the Islamic Revolution of 1979), the dominant method of striving for political democracy has been glorification and institutionalization of clerical despotism. In both Constitutional and Islamic revolutions, the clerics were defined as the leaders of revolution and agents of modernization, democratization, and emancipation. In other words, from Baha’u’llah’s point of view, the precondition of realization of political democracy and social prosperity is the institutional separation of church and state. The Iranian path to democratization has been one of the institutionalization of clerical political authority, a path that defined democratization as Islamization. That is why, the Islamic Revolution not only did not result in political democracy, it led to the unity of two forms of despotism, clerical and political. Baha’u’llah warned against the spiritual tyranny of the clerics and the political tyranny of the rulers. One can see

that for Baha’u’llah the ultimate form of tyranny is the unity of these two forms of despotism, namely the clerical theocracy. For the last 160 years, Iranians have persecuted the Baha’is for their belief in the words of Baha’u’llah. It is only now that most of the Iranians intellectuals are realizing the need for both spiritual and political democracy, unaware of the fact that this glorious sociological insight was first offered by Baha’u’llah for the emancipation and development of Iran.