Oneness of Humanity and Elimination of Prejudice

      

The Bahá’ís: An exploration of the 
history, beliefs, and practices
 of the Bahá’í Faith
A publication of the 
Bahá’í International Community

The conviction that every individual belongs to one human family is at the heart of the Bahá’í Faith. We are all citizens and co-stewards of one planet. A growing awareness of our common heritage and interdependence allows us to strive for unity in our diversity. 

The Bahá’í writings assert that we are “flowers of one garden, leaves of one tree” and share a common purpose— to carry forward an ever-advancing material and spiritual civilization. Bahá’u’lláh proclaimed the oneness of humanity and called for the removal of any cause of division that would lead people to see themselves as “us” and “them.”

“Humanity may be likened unto the vari-colored flowers of one garden. There is unity in diversity. Each sets off and enhances the other’s beauty.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Oneness of Humanity and Elimination of Prejudice

The principle of the oneness of humankind is the central teaching of the Bahá’í Faith. Recognition and acceptance of this principle necessitates the abandonment of prejudice of every kind—race, class, color, gender, creed, nationality, age, material wealth— everything that people have used to consider themselves superior or inferior to others. Indeed, Bahá’u’lláh’s vision for a new civilization inspires people to see themselves as citizens of one common homeland, which is the planet itself.  

Prejudice—false perception—blinds us to the fact that every person is essentially a spiritual being with unique talents and capacities, a “mine rich in gems of inestimable value.”

Bahá’u’lláh compared the world of humanity to the human body. Healthy functioning of the body depends on cooperation. Millions of cells, diverse in form and function, play their part in maintaining health. The body’s various parts do not compete for resources; rather, each cell plays its role in a continuous process of giving and receiving. So it is with individual humans in an intercon- nected world.

Genuine, universal fellowship is a requisite for realizing human unity. According to the Bahá’í writings, “So intense must be the spirit of love and loving kindness, that the stranger may find himself a friend, the enemy a true brother, no difference whatsoever existing between them.”

Truly putting into practice the principle of the oneness of humankind, however, goes beyond overcoming prejudice and awakening the spirit of brotherhood and goodwill. The Bahá’í writings state that “It implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. It calls for no less than the reconstruction and demilitarization” of the planet, for a “world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life” and yet infinite in its diversity. The writings affirm that attainment of this stage of human evolution “is not only necessary but inevitable.”

Excerpted from The Bahá’ís 
One Human Family

What's required to cast away the fallacious doctinre of racial superiorty?

Pathway to the Shrine of the Báb

 "A tremendous effort is required by both races if their outlook, their manners, and conduct are to reflect, in this darkened age, the spirit and teachings of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Casting away once and for all the fallacious doctrine of racial superiority, with all its attendant evils, confusion, and miseries, and welcoming and encouraging the intermixture of races, and tearing down the barriers that now divide them, they should each endeavor, day and night, to fulfill their particular responsibilities in the common task which so urgently faces them."

"... Let the white make a supreme effort in their resolve to contribute their share to the solution of this problem, to abandon once for all their usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority, to correct their tendency towards revealing a patronizing attitude towards the members of the other race, to persuade them through their intimate, spontaneous and informal association with them of the genuineness of their friendship and the sincerity of their intentions, and to master their impatience of any lack of responsiveness on the part of a people who have received, for so long a period, such grievous and slow-healing wounds. Let the Negroes, through a corresponding effort on their part, show by every means in their power the warmth of their response, their readiness to forget the past, and their ability to wipe out every trace of suspicion that may still linger in their hearts and minds." 

"Let neither think that the solution of so vast a problem is a matter that exclusively concerns the other. Let neither think that such a problem can either easily or immediately be resolved. Let neither think that they can wait confidently for the solution of this problem until the initiative has been taken, and the favorable circumstances created, by agencies that stand outside the orbit of their Faith."

"Let neither think that anything short of genuine love, extreme patience, true humility, consummate tact, sound initiative, mature wisdom, and deliberate, persistent, and prayerful effort, can succeed in blotting out the stain which this patent evil has left on the fair name of their common country."

Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice, 1938
www.bahai.org/r/351186116

Racial prejudice is the most vital and challenging issue confronting the [American] Bahá’í community at the present stage of its evolution.

Pathway descending from The Universal House of Justice

 "As to racial prejudice, the corrosion of which, for well-nigh a century, has bitten into the fiber, and attacked the whole social structure of American society, it should be regarded as constituting the most vital and challenging issue confronting the Bahá’í community at the present stage of its evolution. The ceaseless exertions which this issue of paramount importance calls for, the sacrifices it must impose, the care and vigilance it demands, the moral courage and fortitude it requires, the tact and sympathy it necessitates, invest this problem, which the American believers are still far from having satisfactorily resolved, with an urgency and importance that cannot be overestimated. White and Negro, high and low, young and old, whether newly converted to the Faith or not, all who stand identified with it must participate in, and lend their assistance, each according to his or her capacity, experience, and opportunities, to the common task of fulfilling the instructions, realizing the hopes, and following the example, of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Whether colored or noncolored, neither race has the right, or can conscientiously claim, to be regarded as absolved from such an obligation, as having realized such hopes, or having faithfully followed such an example. A long and thorny road, beset with pitfalls, still remains untraveled, both by the white and the Negro exponents of the redeeming Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. On the distance they cover, and the manner in which they travel that road, must depend, to an extent which few among them can imagine, the operation of those intangible influences which are indispensable to the spiritual triumph of the American believers and the material success of their newly launched enterprise."

Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice
Letter written to the Bahá’ís of North America,1938

www.bahai.org/r/720204804

“All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.”

Delegates to the 11th International Convention, Haifa, 2013

Humanity, the Bahá’í writings explain, has passed through the stage of childhood and now stands at the threshold of its collective maturity. The revolutionary and far-reaching changes occurring today are characteristic of this period of transition—a time which can be likened to adolescence. In this period, thoughts, attitudes, and habits from humanity’s earlier stages of development are being swept away and new patterns of thought and action which reflect its approaching maturity are gradually taking root. 

‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains: “That which was applicable to human needs during the early history of the race can neither meet nor satisfy the demands of this day, this period of newness and consummation.” He continues: “Man must now become imbued with new virtues and powers, new moral standards, new capacities…The gifts and blessings of the period of youth, although timely and sufficient during the adolescence of mankind, are now incapable of meeting the requirements of its maturity.”

The hallmark of this approaching age of maturity is the unification of the human race. 

Shoghi Effendi writes that, while unity “of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established” world-encompassing unity is “the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving.” In another passage, he refers to “the inauguration of a world civilization such as no mortal eye hath ever beheld or human mind conceived.” He asks: “Who is it that can imagine the lofty standard which such a civilization, as it unfolds itself, is destined to attain? Who can measure the heights to which human intelligence, liberated from its shackles, will soar? Who can visualize the realms which the human spirit, vitalized by the outpouring light of Bahá’u’lláh, shining in the plenitude of its glory, will discover?”

The emergence of a global civilization prosperous in both its material and spiritual dimensions implies that the spiritual and practical aspects of life are to advance together. Through faith and reason, it becomes possible to discover the powers and capacities latent in individuals and in humanity as a whole, and to work for the realization of these potentialities. Recognition of the fundamental harmony of science and religion also allows for the generation, application, and diffusion of spiritual and material knowledge among all the world’s inhabitants.

Bahá’u’lláh affirms: “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.”

www.Bahai.org

‘Abdu’l-Bahá The Promulgation of Universal Peace
Shoghi Effendi The Promised Day Is Come
Bahá’u’lláh Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh

"A world, growing to maturity,... must...recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships..."

The Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith
Shoghi Effendi

"The long ages of infancy and childhood, through which the human race had to pass, have receded into the background. Humanity is now experiencing the commotions invariably associated with the most turbulent stage of its evolution, the stage of adolescence, when the impetuosity of youth and its vehemence reach their climax, and must gradually be superseded by the calmness, the wisdom, and the maturity that characterize the stage of manhood. Then will the human race reach that stature of ripeness which will enable it to acquire all the powers and capacities upon which its ultimate development must depend."

"Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life."

Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh

www.bahai.org/r/166959448

"The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve...implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society..."

Inner Courtyard of the House of ‘Abdu’lláh Páshá

"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 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."

Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh
www.bahai.org/r/596242626