blind following of the bigots, this senseless imitation which is the
principal reason why men fall away into paths of ignorance and
degradation. See the true state of things. Rise up; seize hold of such
means as will bring you life and happiness and greatness and glory among
all the nations of the world.
The winds of the true springtide are passing over you; adorn yourselves
with blossoms like trees in the scented garden. Spring clouds are
streaming; then turn you fresh and verdant like the sweet eternal fields.
The dawn star is shining, set your feet on the true path. The sea of might
is swelling, hasten to the shores of high resolve and fortune. The pure
water of life is welling up, why wear away your days in a desert of
thirst? Aim high, choose noble ends; how long this lethargy, how long this
negligence! Despair, both here and hereafter, is all you will gain from
self-indulgence; abomination and misery are all you will harvest from
fanaticism, from believing the foolish and the mindless. The confirmations
of God are supporting you, the succor of God is at hand: why do you not
cry out and exult with all your heart, and strive with all your soul!
Among those matters which require thorough revision and reform is the
method of studying the various branches of knowledge and the organization
of the academic curriculum. From lack of organization, education has
become haphazard and confused. Trifling subjects which should not call for
elaboration receive undue attention, to such an extent that students, over
long periods of time, waste their minds and their energies on material
that is pure supposition, in no way susceptible of proof, such study
consisting in going deep into statements and concepts which careful
examination would establish as not even unlikely, but rather as unalloyed
superstition, and representing the investigation of useless conceits and
the chasing of absurdities. There can be no doubt that to concern oneself
with such illusions, to examine into and lengthily debate such idle
propositions, is nothing but a waste of time and a marring of the days of
one's life. Not only this, but it also prevents the individual from
undertaking the study of those arts and sciences of which society stands
in dire need. The individual should, prior to engaging in the study of any
subject, ask himself what its uses are and what fruit and result will
derive from it. If it is a useful branch of knowledge, that is, if society
will gain important benefits from it, then he should certainly pursue it
with all his heart. If not, if it consists in empty, profitless debates
and in a vain concatenation of imaginings that lead to no result except
acrimony, why devote one's life to such useless hairsplittings and
disputes.
Because this matter requires further elucidation and a thorough hearing,
so that it can be fully established that some of the subjects which today
are neglected are extremely valuable, while the nation has no need
whatever of various other, superfluous studies, the point will, God
willing, be developed in a second volume. Our hope is that a reading of
this first volume will produce fundamental changes in the thinking and the
behavior of society, for We have undertaken the work with a sincere intent
and purely for the sake of God. Although in this world individuals who are
able to distinguish between sincere intentions and false words are as rare
as the philosopher's stone, yet We fix Our hopes on the measureless
bounties of the Lord.
To resume: As for that group who maintains that in effecting these
necessary reforms we must proceed with deliberation, exercise patience and
gain the objectives one at a time, just what do they mean by this? If by
deliberation they are referring to that circumspection which the science
of government requires, their thought is timely and appropriate. It is
certain that momentous undertakings cannot be brought to a successful
conclusion in haste; that in such cases haste would only make waste.
The world of politics is like the world of man; he is seed at first, and
then passes by degrees to the condition of embryo and foetus, acquiring a
bone structure, being clothed with flesh, taking on his own special form,
until at last he reaches the plane where he can befittingly fulfill the
words: "the most excellent of Makers."(71) Just as this is a requirement
of creation and is based on the universal Wisdom, the political world in
the same way cannot instantaneously evolve from the nadir of defectiveness
to the zenith of rightness and perfection. Rather, qualified individuals
must strive by day and by night, using all those means which will conduce
to progress, until the government and the people develop along every line
from day to day and even from moment to moment.
When, through the Divine bestowals, three things appear on earth, this
world of dust will come alive, and stand forth wondrously adorned and full
of grace. These are first, the fruitful winds of spring; second, the
welling plenty of spring clouds; and third, the heat of the bright sun.
When, out of the endless bounty of God, these three have been vouchsafed,
then slowly, by His leave, dry trees and branches turn fresh and green
again, and array themselves with many kinds of blossoms and fruits. It is
the same when the pure intentions and the justice of the ruler, the wisdom
and consummate skill and statecraft of the governing authorities, and the
determination and unstinted efforts of the people, are all combined; then
day by day the effects of the advancement, of the far-reaching reforms, of
the pride and prosperity of government and people alike, will become
clearly manifest.
If, however, by delay and postponement they mean this, that in each
generation only one minute section of the necessary reforms should be
attended to, this is nothing but lethargy and inertia, and no results
would be forthcoming from such a procedure, except the endless repetition
of idle words. If haste is harmful, inertness and indolence are a thousand
times worse. A middle course is best, as it is written: "It is incumbent
upon you to do good between the two evils," this referring to the mean
between the two extremes. "And let not thy hand be tied up to thy neck;
nor yet open it with all openness ... but between these follow a middle
way."(72)
The primary, the most urgent requirement is the promotion of education. It
is inconceivable that any nation should achieve prosperity and success
unless this paramount, this fundamental concern is carried forward. The
principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples is ignorance. Today
the mass of the people are uninformed even as to ordinary affairs, how
much less do they grasp the core of the important problems and complex
needs of the time.
It is therefore urgent that beneficial articles and books be written,
clearly and definitely establishing what the present-day requirements of
the people are, and what will conduce to the happiness and advancement of
society. These should be published and spread throughout the nation, so
that at least the leaders among the people should become, to some degree,
awakened, and arise to exert themselves along those lines which will lead
to their abiding honor. The publication of high thoughts is the dynamic
power in the arteries of life; it is the very soul of the world. Thoughts
are a boundless sea, and the effects and varying conditions of existence
are as the separate forms and individual limits of the waves; not until
the sea boils up will the waves rise and scatter their pearls of knowledge
on the shore of life.
Thou, Brother, art thy thought alone,
The rest is only thew and bone.(73)
Public opinion must be directed toward whatever is worthy of this day, and
this is impossible except through the use of adequate arguments and the
adducing of clear, comprehensive and conclusive proofs. For the helpless
masses know nothing of the world, and while there is no doubt that they
seek and long for their own happiness, yet ignorance like a heavy veil
shuts them away from it.
Observe to what a degree the lack of education will weaken and degrade a
people. Today [1875] from the standpoint of population the greatest nation
in the world is China, which has something over four hundred million
inhabitants. On this account, its government should be the most
distinguished on earth, its people the most acclaimed. And yet on the
contrary, because of its lack of education in cultural and material
civilization, it is the feeblest and the most helpless of all weak
nations. Not long ago, a small contingent of English and French troops
went to war with China and defeated that country so decisively that they
took over its capital Peking. Had the Chinese government and people been
abreast of the advanced sciences of the day, had they been skilled in the
arts of civilization, then if all the nations on earth had marched against
them the attack would still have failed, and the attackers would have
returned defeated whence they had come.
Stranger even than this episode is the fact that the government of Japan
was in the beginning subject to and under the protection of China, and
that now for some years, Japan has opened its eyes and adopted the
techniques of contemporary progress and civilization, promoting sciences
and industries of use to the public, and striving to the utmost of their
power and competence until public opinion was focused on reform. This
government has currently advanced to such a point that, although its
population is only one-sixth, or even one-tenth, that of China, it has
recently challenged the latter government, and China has finally been
forced to come to terms. Observe carefully how education and the arts of
civilization bring honor, prosperity, independence and freedom to a
government and its people.
It is, furthermore, a vital necessity to establish schools throughout
Persia, even in the smallest country towns and villages, and to encourage
the people in every possible way to have their children learn to read and
write. If necessary, education should even be made compulsory. Until the
nerves and arteries of the nation stir into life, every measure that is
attempted will prove vain; for the people are as the human body, and
determination and the will to struggle are as the soul, and a soulless
body does not move. This dynamic power is present to a superlative degree
in the very nature of the Persian people, and the spread of education will
release it.
As to that element who believe that it is neither necessary nor
appropriate to borrow the principles of civilization, the fundamentals of
progress toward high levels of social happiness in the material world, the
laws which effect thorough reforms, the methods which extend the scope of
culture--and that it is far more suitable that Persia and the Persians
reflect over the situation and then create their own techniques of
progress.
It is certain that if the vigorous intelligence and superior skill of the
nation's great, and the energy and resolve of the most eminent men at the
imperial court, and the determined efforts of those who have knowledge and
capacity, and are well versed in the great laws of political life, should
all be combined, and all should exert every effort and examine and reflect
over every detail as well as on the main currents of affairs, there is
every likelihood that because of the effective plans they would evolve,
some situations would be thoroughly reformed. In the majority of cases,
however, they would still be obliged to borrow; because, throughout the
many-centuried past, hundreds of thousands of persons have devoted their
entire lives to putting these things to the test until they were able to
bring about these substantial developments. If all that is to be ignored
and an effort is made to re-create those agencies in our own country and
in our own way, and thus effect the hoped-for advancement, many
generations would pass by and still the goal would not be reached. Observe
for instance that in other countries they persevered over a long period
until finally they discovered the power of steam and by means of it were
enabled easily to perform the heavy tasks which were once beyond human
strength. How many centuries it would take if we were to abandon the use
of this power and instead strain every nerve to invent a substitute. It is
therefore preferable to keep on with the use of steam and at the same time
continuously to examine into the possibility of there being a far greater
force available. One should regard the other technological advances,
sciences, arts and political formulae of proven usefulness in the same
light--i.e., those procedures which, down the ages, have time and again
been put to the test and whose many uses and advantages have demonstrably
resulted in the glory and greatness of the state, and the well-being and
progress of the people. Should all these be abandoned, for no valid
reason, and other methods of reform be attempted, by the time such reforms
might eventuate, and their advantages might be put to proof, many years
would go by, and many lives. Meanwhile, "we are still at the first bend in
the road."(74)
The superiority of the present in relation to the past consists in this,
that the present can take over and adopt as a model many things which have
been tried and tested and the great benefits of which have been
demonstrated in the past, and that it can make its own new discoveries and
by these augment its valuable inheritance. It is clear, then, that the
accomplishment and experience of the past are known and available to the
present, while the discoveries peculiar to the present were unknown to the
past. This presupposes that the later generation is made up of persons of
ability; otherwise, how many a later generation has lacked even so much as
a drop out of the boundless ocean of knowledge that was its forbears'.
Reflect a little: let us suppose that, through the power of God, certain
individuals are placed on earth; these obviously stand in need of many
things, to provide for their human dignity, their happiness and ease. Now
is it more practicable for them to acquire these things from their
contemporaries, or should they, in each successive generation, borrow
nothing, but instead independently create one or another of the
instrumentalities which are necessary to human existence?
Should some maintain that those laws, principles and fundamentals of
progress on the highest levels of a fully developed society, which are
current in other countries, are not suited to the condition and the
traditional needs of Persia's people, and that on this account it is
necessary that within Iran, the nations' planners should exert their
utmost efforts to bring about reforms appropriate to Persia--let them first
explain what harm could come from such foreign importations.
If the country were built up, the roads repaired, the lot of the helpless
improved by various means, the poor rehabilitated, the masses set on the
path to progress, the avenues of public wealth increased, the scope of
education widened, the government properly organized, and the free
exercise of the individual's rights, and the security of his person and
property, his dignity and good name, assured--would all this be at odds
with the character of the Persian people? Whatever is in conflict with
these measures has already been proved injurious, in every country, and
does not concern one locality more than another.
These superstitions result in their entirety from lack of wisdom and
understanding, and insufficient observation and analysis. Indeed, the
majority of the reactionaries and the procrastinators are only concealing
their own selfish interests under a barrage of idle words, and confusing
the minds of the helpless masses with public statements which bear no
relation to their well-concealed objectives.
O people of Persia! The heart is a divine trust; cleanse it from the stain
of self-love, adorn it with the coronal of pure intent, until the sacred
honor, the abiding greatness of this illustrious nation may shine out like
the true morning in an auspicious heaven. This handful of days on earth
will slip away like shadows and be over. Strive then that God may shed His
grace upon you, that you may leave a favorable remembrance in the hearts
and on the lips of those to come. "And grant that I be spoken of with
honor by posterity."(75)
Happy the soul that shall forget his own good, and like the chosen ones of
God, vie with his fellows in service to the good of all; until,
strengthened by the blessings and perpetual confirmations of God, he shall
be empowered to raise this mighty nation up to its ancient pinnacles of
glory, and restore this withered land to sweet new life, and as a
spiritual springtime, array those trees which are the lives of men with
the fresh leaves, the blossoms and fruits of consecrated joy.
FOOTNOTES
1 Qur'an 39:69.
2 Qur'an 55:1-3.
3 Qur'an 39:12.
4 Qur'an 41:53.
5 Qur'an 7:178; 8:22.
6 The original Persian text written in 1875 carried no author's name,
and the first English translation published in 1910 under the title
The Mysterious Forces of Civilization states only "Written in
Persian by an Eminent Bahai Philosopher."
7 Qur'an 76:9.
8 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:2; Esther 1:1; 8:9; Isaiah 45:1, 14;
49:12.
9 Qur'an 6:90; 11:31.
10 Qur'an 14:23; 35:18.
11 Qur'an 95:4.
12 The Imam 'Ali.
13 Qur'an 5:85.
14 Qur'an 29:2.
15 Jahiliyyih: the period of paganism in Arabia, prior to the advent of
Muhammad.
16 The pagan Arabs observed one separate and three consecutive months
of truce, during which period pilgrimages were made to Mecca, and
fairs, poetry contests and similar events took place.
17 Qur'an 16:124.
18 Qur'an 4:45; 5:16.
19 Cf. Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 86.
20 "If by the word algebra we mean that branch of mathematics by which
we learn how to solve the equation x2+5x=14, written in this way,
the science begins in the 17th century. If we allow the equation to
be written with other and less convenient symbols, it may be
considered as beginning at least as early as the 3rd century. If we
permit it to be stated in words and solved, for simple cases of
positive roots, by the aid of geometric figures, the science was
known to Euclid and others of the Alexandrian school as early as 300
B.C. If we permit of more or less scientific guessing in achieving a
solution, algebra may be said to have been known nearly 2000 years
B.C., and it had probably attracted the attention of the
intellectual class much earlier... The name 'algebra' is quite
fortuitous. When Mohammed ibn Musa al-_Kh_owarizmi ... wrote in
Baghdad (c. 825) he gave to one of his works the name Al-jebr
w'al-muqabalah. The title is sometimes translated as 'restoration
and equation,' but the meaning was not clear even to the later Arab
writers." Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952, s.v. Algebra.
21 Qur'an 39:12; 13:17.
22 Rumi, The Ma_th_navi, I, 1906-1907.
23 'Ulama, from the Arabic alima, to know, may be translated learned
men, scientists, religious authorities.
24 The Resh Galuta, a prince or ruler of the exiles in Babylon, to whom
Jews, wherever they were, paid tribute.
25 A measure of weight, in Tihran equivalent to six and two-thirds
pounds.
26 Qur'an 9:33; 48:28; 61:9.
27 Qur'an 54:55.
28 Qur'an 7:171: Yawm-i-Alast, the Day when God, addressing Adam's
posterity-to-be, said to them, "Am I not your Lord?" (a-lastu bi
Rabbikum) and they replied: "Yea, we bear witness."
29 Qur'an 9:33.
30 Cf. Qur'an 27:12, referring to Moses: "Put now thy hand into thy
bosom: it shall come forth white ... one of nine signs to Pharaoh
and his people...." Also Qur'an 7:105; 20:23; 26:32; 32. Also Exodus
4:6. See too Edward Fitzgerald's The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough
Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.
The metaphors here refer to white blossoms and the perfumes of
spring.
31 Qur'an 16:126.
32 Qur'an 24:35.
_ 33 Dh_u'l-Awtad is variously rendered by translators of the Qur'an as
The Impaler, The Contriver of the Stakes, The Lord of a Strong
Dominion, The One Surrounded by Ministers, etc. Awtad means pegs or
tent stakes. See Qur'an 38:11 and 89:9.
34 Qur'an 20:46.
35 Qur'an 33:63: "Men will ask Thee of 'the Hour.' Say: The knowledge
of it is with God alone." Cf. also 22:1, "the earthquake of the
Hour," etc. See also Matthew 24:36, 42, etc. To Baha'is, this refers
to the Advent of the Bab and Baha'u'llah.
36 Cf. the Islamic confession of faith, sometimes called the two
testimonies: "I testify that there is no God but God and Muhammad is
the Prophet of God."
37 Cf. Qur'an 27:20 ff.
38 Qur'an 12:44; 21:5.
39 Qur'an 24:39.
40 1875 A.D.
41 The foregoing paragraph, together with the later paragraph beginning
"A few, unaware of the power latent in human endeavor," was
translated by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. Cf. The
World Order of Baha'u'llah, pp. 37-38.
42 Sasaniyan king who reigned 531-578 A.D.
43 i.e., the whole world.
44 Sa'di, The Gulistan, On the Conduct of Kings.
45 Qur'an 17:84.
46 The poet Sana'i.
47 Rumi, The Ma_th_navi, III, 4229-4231.
48 Qur'an 2:24.
49 Qur'an 8:64.
50 See Rumi, The Ma_th_navi, II, 185 and 189. Also the Hadi_th_: "God
created the creatures in darkness, then He sprinkled some of His
Light upon them. Those whom some of that Light reached took the
right way, while those whom it missed wandered from the straight
road." Cf. R. A. Nicholson's "The Ma_th_nawi of Jalalu'ddin Rumi" in
the E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series.
51 Qur'an 24:35.
52 Qur'an 2:58.
53 Qur'an 17:4 ff.
54 The King James Bible reads: "Ye have heard that it hath been said,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy." Scholars
object to this reading because it is contrary to the known Law as
set forth in Leviticus 19:18, Exodus 23:4-5, Proverbs 25:21, the
Talmud, etc.
55 Cf. 'Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, ch. LXXXIV, and
Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 385. See also Galen on Jews and
Christians by Richard Walzer, Oxford University Press, 1949, p. 15.
The author states that Galen's summary here referred to is lost,
being preserved only in Arabic quotations.
56 From Qur'an 4:114; 2:207, etc
57 Qur'an 39:69.
58 The Persian text transliterates this author's name as "Draybar" and
titles his work The Progress of Peoples. The reference is apparently
to John William Draper, 1811-1882, celebrated chemist and
widely-translated historian. Detailed material on Muslim
contributions to the West, and on Gerbert (Pope Sylvester II)
appears in the second volume of the work cited. Of some of Europe's
systematically unacknowledged obligations to Islam the author
writes: "Injustice founded on religious rancour and national conceit
cannot be perpetuated for ever." (Vol. II, p. 42, Rev. ed.) The
Dictionary of American Biography states that Draper's father was a
Roman Catholic who assumed the name John Christopher Draper when
disowned by his family for becoming a Methodist, and that his real
name is unknown. The translator is indebted to Mr. Paul North Rice,
Chief of the New York Public Library's Reference Department, for the
information that available data on Draper's family history and
nationality are in conflict; The Drapers in America by Thomas
Waln-Morgan (1892) states that Draper's father was born in London,
while Albert E. Henschel in "Centenary of John William Draper" (New
York University "Colonnade," June, 1911) has the following: "If
there be among us any who trace their lineage to the sunny fields of
Italy, they may feel a just pride in John William Draper, for his
father, John C. Draper, was an Italian by birth..."
The translator's thanks are also due to Madame Laura Dreyfus-Barney
for investigations in connection with this passage at the Library of
Congress and the Bibliotheque Nationale.
59 Qur'an 3:110.
60 Qur'an 3:100.
61 Qur'an 16:92.
62 Qur'an 7:198.
63 Qur'an 3:128.
64 Qur'an 2:172.
65 Qur'an 59:9.
66 Qur'an 2:203.
67 Qur'an 42:36.
68 Qur'an 3:153.
69 Qur'an 17:14.
70 Qur'an 59:9.