World Unity (ctd 4)

Today we heard another disturbing news pointing to the on going threat of the rule of ignorance, fear and injustice in Egypt! Did anyone pay attention? The Baha’i children in Egypt curled up once again and pleaded for a refuge. They lifted their little hands up, once more in prayer, begging for God’s grace and their parents’ safety.

Here is the news:
Egypt Parliamentary Committees Support Bill Against Adopting Baha’ism GMP20090428950035 Cairo MENA Online in English 1322 GMT 28 Apr 09 Cairo, 28 April: The joint committees of defense, national security, Arab affairs and Waqfs at the People’s Assembly (PNA) have called for accelerating preparation of a draft law banning the adoption of the Baha’i faith which contradicts with the rulings of heavenly Shari’ah (religious laws), especially the Islamic religion.

The committees held a meeting Tuesday [28 April] under the chairmanship of Ahmad Umar Hashim, the head of the religious committee in the PNA. The lawmakers asserted that Baha’i believers deny some key pillars of Islam and they should be strictly punished because their thoughts threaten the society’s security and stability.
They also urged the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and the Ministry of Waqfs (religious endowments) to hold dialogue with such a group and convince them of rejecting such misconceptions about Islam.

[Description of Source: Cairo MENA Online in English — Government news agency ; URL:
A Persian proverb says; Whatever goes bad, let’s treat it with salt. Woe for the day when salt goes rotten?

Let me ask you; What choice any innocent person has today, when another intentionally and maliciously conspires and spreads false and harmful statements against them to injure and damage that person’s reputation, or to expose them to unreasonable personal embarrassment or danger such as putting them in prison, torturing, lynching, mob attack, burning, etc.?

You might say, well the good person should not waist their time with reasoning and appealing to the slanderer’s sense of justice or humanity, because there is none; instead they should take this defamation, slander and attack before the court of law and ask for justice through a civil liability case so the law can stop and punish the defamer and the malicious slanderer!!

My next question is, what do a group of innocent and defenseless people do when the judiciary, the ruling authorities of a country, the clergy, the leaders and the gate keepers of that society, feel threatened by the sheer existence of differences of religious belief and understanding. Then in order to safeguard their view and their own self interest, with absolute power in their hand, intentionally and deliberately spread false and harmful statements against the perceived enemy, pass laws to criminalize the Bahá’í communities very belief system and mobilize the ignorant and gullible masses to carry their inhumane agenda, to persecute, burn, lute, and destroy what they believe to be anti God, and to perpetuate and protect what they perceive to be of God!! What can the Bahá’í in Egypt or Iran do to defend their basic human rights? What recourse the innocent Bahá’í children have when they see no one can come to their aid and the whole world feels helpless to stand up for what the civilized world considers right and just?

Bahá’í community is a progressive religious community who has been taught to heed and obey the divine laws of God revealed to man by the divine Manifestations of God for that specific age. Bahá’ís are taught that religion like science reveals to man the ever unfolding laws of God. One of the reasons for the renewal of religion by God and the successive and progressive Revelations from God is to weed out the superstitious practices of the past and declare obsolete the outdated social laws such as men are superior over women, one man can take more than one wife and divorce any when he wishes, as he wishes, women must be kept restricted and controlled otherwise men will violate them, science is against religion, certain groups or races, classes, nationalities, religions are better and more human than others, or religion is in need of authoritarian gate keepers such as clergy and mullahs. Man and in particular leaders of religion has always attempted to adjust and remodel the religion of God as they saw needed. When religious leaders find it necessary to remodel and upgrade the old edifice of their religion and call it reformed, new, modern, etc. in reality, they play partners with God. The truth has always been one, but throughout the ages, the ignorant have multiplied it and caused great division, destruction, wars, and suffering in the name of every religion.

Bahá’í Faith introduces the new and refreshing Divine Springtime with all its new laws and vigor. It captivates not just the mind but the hearts of those who are seeking the renewal of spiritual life and a new spiritual understanding. Today the Bahá’í Faith is only 166 years old!! In 1844 when it was first revealed, humanity was desperate for its Teachings even though some perceived it as outrageous or idealistic. those who were attached to the decaying structure of tradition rose to resist its progressive teachings of oneness of God, oneness of all religions, oneness of all humanity, equality of men and women, the need for an auxiliary world language, harmony of science and religion, world peace, independent investigation of truth, universal access to religious scriptures, use of consultation as a means of decision making and consensus building, or universal education for all!! Now after 160 years the civilized world’s understanding of what is right and what is necessary and vital for advancing human civilization has drastically shifted in the direction of conformity with the teachings of Baha’u’llah. The very foundation of the superstitious hold of the religious leaders who do not wish to let go of their control is shaking and out of sheer fear they are grabbing unto every mean no matter how inhumane and unjust, to protect their hold on innocent and ignorant masses. For those who have the apparent power and control in their hand, slandering and defaming the Bahá’í community and its defenseless believers seems a very easy task.

The believers of Bahá’u’lláh and His Teachings like all early believers in the religion of God, understand the rough and rocky road they have chosen. But they also are committed to the belief that, God’s plan is not about the destruction of humanity but an ever advancing civilization which would be spiritual in its excellence and nature. Bahá’ís believe the oneness of humanity will ultimately be realized, world peace will be established and people of the world ultimately recognize the oneness of the religion of God. Men and women will be like two wings of the bird of human civilization and participate equally in its progress. Children will be reared in the bosom of divine love not its wrath and vengeance, and education will integrate spiritual development in its process. The nobility, integrity, honesty, justice, equality, chastity for men as well as women, happiness, consensus building, compassion, uprightness, selflessness and all other signs of the spiritual progress will be taught and nurtured and all the forces of darkness and injustice will ultimately vanish and be forgotten.

“How pathetic;” asserts Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith; “indeed are the efforts of those leaders of human institutions who, in utter disregard of the spirit of the age, are striving to adjust national processes, suited to the ancient days of self-contained nations to an age which must either achieve the unity of the world, as adumbrated by Bahá’u’lláh, or perish.”

“Let there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness of Mankind — the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve — is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a reawakening of the spirit of brotherhood and good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of harmonious cooperation among individual peoples and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family. It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands inseparably associated with an institution adequate to embody its truth, demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. It implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. It constitutes a challenge, at once bold and universal, to outworn shibboleths of national creeds — creeds that have had their day and which must, in the ordinary course of events as shaped and controlled by Providence, give way to a new gospel, fundamentally different from, and infinitely superior to, what the world has already conceived. It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world — a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.

It represents the consummation of human evolution — an evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal solidarity, leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into the institution of independent and sovereign nations.

The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it.”

~ Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u'llah, p. 41

This uplifting and ennobling vision, is the promise of the Cause of God entrusted to humanity by Bahá’u’lláh. Bahá’ís are committed to live it, teach it, spread it, defend it, pray for it, pay for it, educate the future generation about it, even offer their lives for it, until all humanity is free to live in peace and unity as cells of one body waves of one sea, flowers of one garden, leaves of one tree.
Keyvan, www.kidsidebyside.org April 29th, 2009


Justice and equity are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are revealed such blessed and perspicuous words as are the cause of the well-being of the world and the protection of the nations.
These words have streamed from the pen of this Wronged One in one of His Tablets: "The purpose of the one true God, exalted be His glory, hath been to bring forth the Mystic Gems out of the mine of man -- they Who are the Dawning-Places of His Cause and the Repositories of the pearls of His knowledge; for, God Himself, glorified be He, is the Unseen, the One concealed and hidden from the eyes of men. Consider what the Merciful hath revealed in the Qur'án: No vision taketh in Him, but He taketh in all vision, and He is the Subtile, the All-Informed!"

~ Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 12