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One of the remarkable and extraordinary aspects of the pandemic and its response has been the degree to which we, as a human race, now rely on this amazing body of knowledge we call “science” to deal with the challenge. Human beings have been subject to plagues and epidemics for millennia. In the centuries prior to the 20^th century, an average couple could expect to lose nearly half of their children to infectious diseases before the age of 5.  It’s horrific and almost unimaginable. But the fact that it is unimaginable is because of the astonishing growth of human knowledge- our understanding of human disease and our increasing sophistication in being able to defeat it. The HIV epidemic, our most recent plague before this one, is now a very manageable chronic disease, and coronavirus will also one day in the not-too-distant future be subdued by the power of science.  Science has become our common international language and every society that has embraced its power has received benefits and blessings many times over.

For people of faith, science is sometimes seen as a threat. It is no such thing, because, at its root, science is not something that exists “out there”- some kind of cold-hearted monster that reveals stark truths and uses them to its advantage. Rather, it exists “in here”- within us. Science is the human race’s most successful expression of human rationality- a primary aspect of us that makes us different from the rest of creation. It is therefore an expression of our transcendent spirit.  This is a point that is made throughout the Baha’i writings, particularly those of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’, who praised science to a supreme degree.

The highest praise is due to men who devote their energies to science, and the noblest center is a center wherein the sciences and arts are taught and studied. Science ever tends to the illumination of the world of humanity. It is the cause of eternal honor to man, and its sovereignty is far greater than the sovereignty of kings. The dominion of kings has an ending; the king himself may be dethroned; but the sovereignty of science is everlasting and without end. 

Baha’u’llah united in His Faith both science and religion. The common element to both of them was our “abstractness”. Science relies on our ability to generalize from the concrete to the abstract and then induce theories to fit the facts, and deduce further conclusions from those original premises. All of that is an abstract exercise- not material in any way. Similarly, to worship God is to worship an abstract reality, and the qualities we associate with God- wisdom, justice, mercy, and compassion. Indeed, in Baha’u’llah’s announcement of His own Revelation, He proclaims that humanity would soon be seeing an explosion of human knowledge- “Erelong shall We bring into being through thee exponents of new and wondrous sciences, of potent and effective crafts, and shall make manifest through them that which the heart of none of Our servants hath yet conceived.”

Human consciousness, in all its forms of expression, would be awakened.

“In this day, the fertilizing winds of the grace of God have passed over all things. Every creature hath been endowed with all the potentialities it can carry. And yet the peoples of the world have denied this grace! Every tree hath been endowed with the choicest fruits, every ocean enriched with the most luminous gems. Man, himself, hath been invested with the gifts of understanding and knowledge…Thus have We created the whole earth anew in this day, yet most of the people have failed to perceive it.”

In the middle of the 19^th century, at the time of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation, European civilization had embraced scientific progress and was using it to its material advantage, subduing the vast reaches of the planet. As one can imagine, societies outside of Europe viewed this with great trepidation. While they admired what Europe was producing and achieving, they also viewed the “new sciences” with concern, aware that they would sweep away traditional structures. Baha’u’llah’s early followers were drawn from the lands encompassed by the great Islamic civilization, which was now in decline and falling behind Europe in nearly every respect. In response to these forces, Baha’u’llah instructed ‘Abdu’l-Baha’, then only 31 years old, to write a dissertation on the “advancement of civilization”. ‘Abdu’l-Baha’ chose to write this work anonymously and address it specifically to his home country of Persia.

Though 19^th century Persian society is the context, the work has evident universal implication for any society that is seeking to “modernize”, and how to do that while not abandoning those elements that held it together in the first place- namely religious faith. As such, it beautifully expresses what religion is in its essence, and how both religion and scientific achievement are the two bright lights to guide human civilization.  It has been published in English under the name “The Secret of Divine Civilization” and can be found here.  The first paragraph is a beautiful song of praise to science itself.

“Praise and thanksgiving be unto Providence that out of all the realities in existence He has chosen the reality of man and has honored it with intellect and wisdom, the two most luminous lights in either world. Through the agency of this great endowment, He has in every epoch cast on the mirror of creation new and wonderful configurations. If we look objectively upon the world of being, it will become apparent that from age to age, the temple of existence has continually been embellished with a fresh grace, and distinguished with an ever-varying splendor, deriving from wisdom and the power of thought…

O ye that have minds to know! Raise up your suppliant hands to the heaven of the one God, and humble yourselves and be lowly before Him, and thank Him for this supreme endowment, and implore Him to succor us until, in this present age, godlike impulses may radiate from the conscience of mankind, and this divinely kindled fire which has been entrusted to the human heart may never die away.

Consider carefully: all these highly varied phenomena, these concepts, this knowledge, these technical procedures and philosophical systems, these sciences, arts, industries and inventions—all are emanations of the human mind. Whatever people has ventured deeper into this shoreless sea, has come to excel the rest. The happiness and pride of a nation consist in this, that it should shine out like the sun in the high heaven of knowledge. “Shall they who have knowledge and they who have it not, be treated alike?”

 And the honor and distinction of the individual consist in this, that he among all the world’s multitudes should become a source of social good. Is any larger bounty conceivable than this, that an individual, looking within himself, should find that by the confirming grace of God he has become the cause of peace and well-being, of happiness and advantage to his fellow men? No, by the one true God, there is no greater bliss, no more complete delight.”

Image courtesy of the Center for Disease Control.

Ok, so this is not going to be a “happy” essay. This is going to be an essay about reality, and reality is not always happy.  We are not living through happy times right now. That’s the reality. Religion is sometimes framed by its detractors as a way that humans can escape the uncomfortable reality of their lives, but that perspective is poorly informed.  The Revealers of the great religions of humankind were not escaping reality, they were fully embracing it, and then transcending it, and it is in that transcendence that we find the true Reality.

Baha’u’llah was born into a comfortable life. He was one of the older sons of a privileged family, and brilliant in every way.  He was “set”, born with a “silver spoon in his mouth”, destined to be a man who could live almost any life He chose.  He chose one that nobody would have expected, one of persecution and deprivation.

Thou seest me sitting under a sword hanging on a thread, and art well aware that in such a state I have not fallen short of my duty towards Thy Cause, nor failed to shed abroad Thy praise, and declare Thy virtues, and deliver all Thou hadst prescribed unto me in Thy Tablets. Though the sword be ready to fall on my head, I call Thy loved ones with such a calling that the hearts are carried away towards the horizon of Thy majesty and grandeur…

The Ancient Beauty hath consented to be bound with chains that mankind may be released from its bondage, and hath accepted to be made a prisoner within this most mighty Stronghold that the whole world may attain unto true liberty. He hath drained to its dregs the cup of sorrow, that all the peoples of the earth may attain unto abiding joy, and be filled with gladness. 

Baha’u’llah spoke frequently about His plight, acknowledged how painful it was, how His family had suffered as a result of His decisions, mourned the children He had lost. He had the added burden of taking thousands of followers down the same treacherous path of abuse and persecution.  For those of us not used to the challenges of life, or when life is going ok, reading the Words of Baha’u’llah when He reflects on these realities can be a “downer”.  But when you are challenged by reality, when death and disease are rampant, His words steel you for dealing with it.

The generations that have gone on before you—whither are they fled? And those round whom in life circled the fairest and the loveliest of the land, where now are they? Profit by their example, O people, and be not of them that are gone astray. Others ere long will lay hands on what ye possess, and enter into your habitations. Incline your ears to My words, and be not numbered among the foolish.

For every one of you his paramount duty is to choose for himself that on which no other may infringe and none usurp from him. Such a thing—and to this the Almighty is My witness—is the love of God, could ye but perceive it.

Build ye for yourselves such houses as the rain and floods can never destroy, which shall protect you from the changes and chances of this life. This is the instruction of Him Whom the world hath wronged and forsaken.

One fundamental idea of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation is that, through faith in a Transcendent Reality, humans are able to find transcendence within themselves. That takes you above the problems of life so that you are protected from them. The more you gain trust in that Reality, the more powerful and independent you are- the less fearful, less anxious, less troubled.

Thou art My dominion and My dominion perisheth not; wherefore fearest thou thy perishing? Thou art My light and My light shall never be extinguished; why dost thou dread extinction? Thou art My glory and My glory fadeth not; thou art My robe and My robe shall never be outworn. Abide then in thy love for Me, that thou mayest find Me in the realm of glory.

Pleasant is the realm of being, wert thou to attain thereto; glorious is the domain of eternity, shouldst thou pass beyond the world of mortality; sweet is the holy ecstasy if thou drinkest of the mystic chalice from the hands of the celestial Youth. Shouldst thou attain this station, thou wouldst be freed from destruction and death, from toil and sin.

Difficulties and challenges become an opportunity to make more progress along this path, to rely more heavily on your own inner resources.

The true lover yearneth for tribulation even as doth the rebel for forgiveness and the sinful for mercy.

There is no single book in the history of the human race that probes more deeply into the existential fear we all face on a daily basis than the Hidden Words, from whose pages the above quotes were taken. It is a veritable roadmap for spiritual success.  It will come to be one of the most influential, if not the most influential work, ever read by humans.  In the Hidden Words, the Reality behind all existence speaks directly to the human soul, with all its attachments and fears, and challenges it, educates it, inspires it, to see the world from a spiritual perspective.

O Fleeting Shadow! Pass beyond the baser stages of doubt and rise to the exalted heights of certainty. Open the eye of truth, that thou mayest behold the veilless Beauty and exclaim: Hallowed be the Lord, the most excellent of all creators!

Such a perspective does not require us to abandon good science, or think in irrational ways. As Baha’u’llah Himself stated- “If ye fail to recognize the Eternal Truth, at least cling to reason and justice”.  Reason leads us to look at data, track an epidemic, protect a population of people from getting infected, and develop therapies and strategies to help those who do. Justice gives us the moral framework to ensure we distribute resources fairly, so no one group is unequally shouldered with the burden of the problem- something our world is still a long way from achieving.  But “recognition of the Eternal Truth” is a station above “reason” and “justice”- a place of transcendence. It is that exalted place that Baha’u’llah continuously calls us to find within ourselves.

If the beloved of God were to recognize what hath been ordained for them in a transcendent paradise of nearness, at all times would they lay down their lives and cast aside their earthly possessions. They are shut out as by a veil from this reality, however, for they have set their affections on the things of this world; thus do they find tribulations ordained in the path of their Creator difficult to bare, but this is a token of their heedlessness. Wherefore, O my God, do Thou nourish them with the wine of Thy grace and heavenly favors, in such wise that they be busied in naught else but Thee and desire naught else beside Thee; indeed, this is a plenteous bounty!

Last quote from the “Tablet of Tribulations”, provisionally translated by Joshua Hall at joshuahalltranslations.com.  Photo of a street in Turkey, by Ali Arif Soydaş on Unsplash

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