# 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Bahá'í Students

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> 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Bahá'í Students
> Reed M. Breneman
> Bahá'í World Centre, October 22, 2021
> 
> By 1914, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was well known in many parts of the globe for His
> life of service to humanity. In the Holy Land, where He had lived most of
> His adult life, He was revered for His service to the poor and needy in
> the community and for His engagement in the discourses of the day with local
> and regional dignitaries. His lengthy sojourns in Egypt before and after His
> historic visits to Europe and North America also attracted considerable
> attention, earning Him even more admirers from all walks of life. His travels in
> the West, from which He had only recently returned in early 1914, have been
> particularly well-documented; in both formal and informal settings and to
> diverse audiences, His explications of the Teachings of His Father, Bahá'u'lláh,
> in the context of the urgent promotion of global peace, made Him a unique
> Figure on the world stage. In the war years, He would win widespread acclaim
> for helping to avert a famine in His home region of Haifa and 'Akká. And for
> many around the world, the example of His life and His voluminous Writings
> were and continue to be sources of guidance and elucidation.
> 
> However, rather less well known today is 'Abdu'l-Bahá's sustained promotion of
> modern education in the Middle East. Perhaps most striking in this regard is
> how, over a period of several years, 'Abdu'l-Bahá encouraged and nurtured a
> group of Bahá'í students in Beirut to pursue higher education in a way that was
> coherent with the students' identities as Bahá'ís.
> 
> Among ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's many visitors in early 1914 was Howard Bliss, the
> president of the Syrian Protestant College (SPC), an institution with which
> ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had maintained a longstanding relationship and at which a group
> of Bahá'í students had become an established presence by the time of Bliss's
> visit that February. 1 Bliss, an American who had grown up on the campus of
> the college in Beirut (his father, Daniel Bliss, was the college's first president)
> and who spoke fluent Arabic, was visiting, in part, to arrange for the Bahá'í
> students to spend their upcoming spring break in Haifa in the vicinity of the
> Shrines of Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb, affording them an opportunity to meet and
> learn from ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. But the conversation between ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and Bliss
> extended to topics of pressing concern for the former. Much as He had done on
> numerous occasions during His travels, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá encouraged Bliss to foster
> in his students "principles" such as the "oneness of the world of humanity,"
> among others, so that their education could be directed toward "universal
> peace." 2
> 
> Bliss's receptivity to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's remarks and encouragement was evident in
> a speech Bliss gave just ten days later. On 25 February, in a meeting with a
> group of students that was representative of the school's rich diversity, Bliss
> urged it to include the "establishing of universal peace" as one of its
> "missions." 3 ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and Bliss's exchange, indeed, was emblematic of the
> larger conversation the Bahá'í community and the college had been having for
> several years, a conversation centering on the college's self-styled "experiment
> in religious association" to which the Bahá'í students had been striving to
> contribute.
> 
> ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and Modern Education
> The Syrian Protestant College was founded in 1866 and formally renamed the
> American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1920. Long before any Bahá'í students
> had enrolled there, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in an 1875 treatise known today as The Secret of
> Divine Civilization 4 encouraged the establishing of modern schools in His native
> Persia, advocating for the "extension of education, the development of useful
> arts and sciences, the promotion of industry and technology." 5 Education,
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá asserted, should uplift individuals for the ultimate purpose of
> benefiting society. Over the following decades, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was instrumental
> in the establishment of dozens of schools throughout His native land; notably,
> these schools, including many for girls, welcomed students of all faiths. 6
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá personally supervised such initiatives in His local community in
> 'Akká as well. In 1903, for example, about twenty children from the Bahá'í
> community were assembled for classes in English, Persian, math, and other
> subjects including practical instruction in trades like carpentry, shoemaking,
> and tailoring. 7 Many of these students continued their studies at local schools,
> such as a French one in Haifa. 8 ʻAbdu'l-Bahá encouraged students such as
> these, including His own grandchildren, to continue their education at colleges
> and universities, the closest of which was SPC; Shoghi Effendi, His eldest
> grandson and successor as Head of the Bahá'í Faith, graduated from SPC in 1917.
> 
> ʻAbdu'l-Bahá repeatedly qualified his support of such schools with the
> condition that they attend to the whole student and produce graduates who had
> progressed not only scientifically but also morally. During his visit to North
> America in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at Columbia and Stanford universities,
> praising the value of the scientific education they provided while also
> emphasizing the necessity of "spiritual development…the most important
> principle [of which] is the oneness of the world of humanity, the unity of
> mankind, the bond conjoining East and West, the tie of love which blends
> human hearts." 9
> 
> By this time, Bahá'í students from Haifa and 'Akká, as well as Persia, Egypt, and
> Beirut, had attended SPC for about a decade, in increasing numbers over the
> previous few years. There were no comparable institutions in their own
> countries, and attending universities in Europe or America was not yet
> practical for most. As SPC became a popular choice, the prospect of joining an
> existing group of Bahá'í students was an additional attraction. A sizable group
> of students as well attended the Université Saint-Joseph (USJ), also in Beirut.
> Together, they constituted a single coherent group, meeting together, visiting
> each other, and collaborating, for example, in the activities of the "Society of
> the Bahá'í Students of Beirut," which was formed in 1906. 10 'Abdu'l-Bahá
> Himself visited SPC during at least one of his visits to Beirut in 1880 and 1887. 11
> 
> The Bahá'í students' engagement with educational institutions like SPC was
> very much framed in the terms ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had been setting forth for many
> years, perspectives inspired by the Teachings of His Father, Bahá'u'lláh. One
> such Teaching was the harmony of science and religion; as noted, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá
> was calling for education to attend to the building of character as well as the
> shaping of intellects. This was a matter of intense interest at the college as well.
> While colleges in America had moved away from direct religious instruction, at
> SPC, there was still an effort to provide it. 12 Around the time of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's
> first visit, the faculty and missionaries associated with SPC had become sharply
> divided over just how to reconcile this religious education with the school's
> scientific training. This rift had only deepened over the decades even as the
> younger Bliss had taken the college in increasingly "secular," or liberal,
> directions. By 1908, the college's course catalogue framed its approach in
> decidedly liberal terms, asserting that the "primary aim" of the curriculum is to
> "to develop the reasoning faculties of the mind, to lay the foundations of a
> thorough intellectual training, to free the mind for independent thought." 13
> ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was supportive of the college's efforts in this regard. As He
> Himself recorded in conversation with other visitors a week after Bliss's visit:
> 
> The American College at Beirut is carrying on a sacred mission of education
> and enlightenment and every lover of higher culture and civilization must
> wish it a great success…Years ago I went to Beirut, and visited the College in
> its infancy. From that time on I have praised the liberalism of this
> institution whenever I found an opportunity. 14
> 
> Yet Bliss and others were intent on maintaining the Christian identity of the
> college. Heavily influenced by the Social Gospel and Progressive movements,
> Bliss's conception of religious education "melded religion, character, and social
> service" 15 and, in his words, sought to "set so high, so noble, so broad, so
> ecumenical a type of Christianity before our students" as to inspire their
> education and future services to society. 16
> 
> Howard Bliss presumably had this project in mind when, on 15 February 1914,
> he asked ʻAbdu'l-Bahá for His thoughts on "ideal" education. 17 'Abdu'l-Bahá's
> response set forth "three cardinal principles." These principles affirm the need
> for unfettered intellectual inquiry in education; however, they also call for the
> moral and ethical development of students and their reorientation toward a
> broadly conceived mission of service to humanity. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's comments
> were as follows:
> In this age the college which is dominated by a denominational spirit is an
> anomaly, and is engaged in a losing fight. It cannot long withstand the
> victorious forces of liberalism in education. The universities and colleges of
> the world must hold fast to three cardinal principles.
> 
> First: Whole-hearted service to the cause of education, the unfolding of the
> mysteries of nature, the extension of the boundaries of pure science, the
> elimination of the causes of ignorance and social evils, a standard universal
> system of instruction, and the diffusion of the lights of knowledge and
> reality.
> 
> Second: Service to the cause of morality, raising the moral tone of the
> students, inspiring them with the sublimest ideals of ethical refinement,
> teaching them altruism, inculcating in their lives the beauty of holiness and
> the excellency of virtue and animating them with the excellences and
> perfections of the religion of God.
> 
> Third: Service to the oneness of the world of humanity; so that each student
> may consciously realize that he is a brother to all mankind, irrespective of
> religion or race. The thoughts of universal peace must be instilled into the
> minds of all scholars, in order that they may become the armies of peace,
> the real servants of the body politic – the world. God is the Father of all.
> Mankind are His children. This globe is one home. Nations are the members
> of one family. The mothers in their homes, the teachers in the schools, the
> professors in the college, the presidents in the universities, must teach these
> ideals to the young from the cradle up to the age of manhood. 18
> 
> ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's vision for education, as expressed above, included an implicit
> repudiation of social Darwinism, a theory which in the decades between His
> visit to SPC and His 1914 meeting with its college president had become
> increasingly popular. Ironically, while conservative thinkers initially rejected
> Darwin's scientific theory of evolution, they later embraced its implications for
> society, when they associated a certain conception of progress as connected
> with "dominant" races and civilizations, that is, white and European ones. 19
> The more liberal wing at the college also conflated its approach to Protestant
> education with "Americanism." 20 As one commentator has put it, the college
> was sending the message that only "America and Protestantism had the tools
> for this progressive future." 21
> 
> ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, however, urged Bliss to encourage his students to see themselves
> as serving the higher interests of humanity, not the particular ones of race or
> nation. In October of 1912, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had implored assembled students,
> faculty, and staff at Stanford University along much the same lines, explaining
> that "the law of the survival of the _ttest" did not apply to humanity. 22
> Acceding to such a law would be similar to allowing nature to remain
> uncultivated and unfruitful. Human progress, then, required education in the
> "ideal virtues of Divinity," for humanity is inherently "loGy and noble" and
> "specialized" to "render service in the cause of human uplift and
> betterment." 23
> Shoghi Effendi, standing in the second row (third from the leG) with his class at the Syrian
> 
> Responding to a Crisis at the College
> At the time of Bliss's visit, a major controversy was raging at the college: the
> question of mandatory attendance at the school's religious services. The
> college's religious requirements had relaxed over the years and, partly as a
> result, the school had begun to attract a more diverse student body, not only
> Christians from various denominations but also more Muslims, Jews, Druze,
> and Bahá'ís. Spurred on by the Young Turk revolution of 1908 which, among
> others, advocated for religious freedom and equality, in early 1909, the majority
> of the Muslim students refused to attend Christian religion services and Bible
> classes, presenting a petition to the faculty a few days later requesting that
> such attendance become voluntary. 24 In addition to widespread opposition
> from Jewish students as well, the college also faced opposition from the local
> Muslim community, the Ottoman authorities, and American diplomats. While
> making some concessions to the striking students, the college largely withstood
> the pressure, and the mandate remained until 1915, when an Ottoman law made
> attendance voluntary. Bliss's 1914 visit, in fact, was part of a tour of the region
> in which Bliss engaged with a number of civil and religious leaders in order to
> defend the college's approach to religious education.
> 
> It was in this particular context that 'Abdu'l-Bahá's comments to Bliss about the
> "cardinal principles" of education were made. While it was clear to many,
> including ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, that missionary institutions like SPC were in a "losing
> _ght" and the forces of liberalism were in the ascendant, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was
> unstinting in His support of religious education of a certain type, an education
> in "service to the cause of morality" and "animating [students] with the
> excellences and perfections of the religion of God." As He had explained a year
> and a half before at Stanford:
> Fifty years ago Bahá'u'lláh declared the necessity of peace among the
> nations and the reality of reconciliation between the religions of the world.
> He announced that the fundamental basis of all religion is one, that the
> essence of religion is human fellowship and that the differences in belief
> which exist are due to dogmatic interpretation and blind imitations which
> are at variance with the foundations established by the Prophets of God. 25
> 
> For ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, religion was one, and it was indispensable to the success of
> any educational enterprise if it encouraged love and unity. However, as He
> repeatedly made clear, "if religious belief proves to be the cause of discord and
> dissension, its absence would be preferable." 26 'Abdu'l-Bahá's vision for
> religious education, then, was unifying but also demanding; such education
> had to generate higher levels of unity than that previously attained.
> 
> Responding to the well-documented protests of those in the Muslim
> community, including many reformers, who thought the religious services
> would have a negative effect on the students, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá remarked, "I am
> sure the morals of the students will not be corrupted. They will be informed
> with the contents of the Old and New Testament. What harm is there in this? A
> church is house of prayer. Let them enter therein and worship God. What
> wrong is there in this?" 27 Indeed, He viewed such attendance as a potential
> benefit to all concerned:
> 
> I have no doubt that much good will be accomplished, and many
> misunderstandings will be removed, if the [Muslims] attend the Churches of
> the Christians with reverence in their hearts and sincerity in their souls,
> and likewise the Christians may go [to] Mohammedan Mosques and
> magnify the Creator of the Universe. Is it not revealed in the Holy Scriptures
> that 'My House shall be called of all nations the House of Prayer? All the
> houses of different names, — Church, Mosque, Synagogue, Pagoda, Temple
> are no other than the House of Prayers. What is there in a name? Man must
> attach his heart to God and not to a building. He must love to hear the name
> of God, no matter from what lips… 28
> 
> To be clear, His support was not out of sympathy with the college's
> longstanding mission, however liberally construed, to convert students to
> Protestantism, but out of a conviction of the oneness of God and religion,
> stressing universality and commonality of worship. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's approach
> bore some commonalities with those of Muslim reformist thinkers and other
> liberals but differed in key respects. The well-known reformer Muhammad
> 'Abduh, whom 'Abdu'l-Bahá met with during His 1887 visit to Beirut, embraced
> the adoption of modern science for the benefit of Islamic societies; however, he
> advocated for the development of Muslim schools and criticized the effect on
> students of attending foreign ones, for it estranged them from their own
> culture and religion. 29 The modernizer Rashid Rida also pointed to the
> "corrupting" force of such schools, though conceding that those who had had
> adequate religious instruction could attend them without any danger of losing
> faith. Even so, while supportive of the education the college provided, he
> disapproved of participation in "Christian" services. 30 And though liberal
> _gures (such as Suleyman al-Bustani, Beirut's parliamentary representative in
> Istanbul) voiced support for the idea that the younger generation could
> transcend racial and religious differences and worship together, 31 'Abdu'l-
> Bahá's comments explicitly and seriously included the idea of Christians
> themselves going to mosques to worship as well, a possibility that others would
> have found difficult to imagine. His was a voice for a kind of radical equality
> that challenged liberals at the college and reformists in the wider society alike.
> 
> During those years, liberals at the college like Bliss had been moving SPC in
> directions that were increasingly consonant with 'Abdu'l-Bahá's bold vision.
> Giving up on converting students to Protestantism as the college's primary goal,
> Bliss identified the fostering of religious harmony as integral to the college's
> mission. As he put it, the "equal treatment for men of all religions" produces
> "an atmosphere of good will and moral sympathy among men of the most
> divergent religious belief." 32 In response to the 1909 crisis, Bliss had reminded
> his board of trustees:
> 
> We must put ourselves in the place of our non-Christian students,– our
> Moslems, our Tartars, our Jews, our Druses, our Bahais…We must not
> dishonor his sense of honor; and we must not feel that the work of the
> College has fulfilled the mission until these men and their fellow religionists
> who form a great majority of the Empire's population are touched and
> molded by the College influence. 33
> 
> In 1922 Laurens Hickok Seelye, a member of the AUB faculty, published in The
> Journal of Religion an article entitled "An Experiment in Religious Association"
> in which he presented the college's (now university's) religious policy as a
> "radical step" for a "Christian institution." 34 Howard Bliss, he wrote, had
> redefined the "faith of the missionary," which was not to "urge upon others
> conformity, but a gracious invitation…to learn together of the progressing
> revelation of God." 35 Bliss "put into actual missionary achievement the belief of
> every scientific student of religious experience." 36 Seelye highlighted as a
> concrete sign of Bliss's success the number of Muslims and other non-
> Christians the college had attracted. 37 In 1920-1921, they, in fact, outnumbered
> the Christians by 511 to 490, with 382 Muslims, 66 Jews, 41 Druze, and 22
> Bahá'ís. 38
> D.C. 20540 USA https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
> 
> of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://hdl.loc.gov/
> loc.pnp/pp.print
> 
> "An Experiment in Religious Association"
> In the 1910s, the college's religious instruction and "influence" increasingly
> involved interfaith dialogue, in which the Bahá'í students actively participated.
> The college chapter of the Young Men's Christian Association, or YMCA,
> attracted a diverse group of students eager to discuss religious subjects,
> according to Bayard Dodge, Bliss's son-in-law and successor as college
> president. Dodge joined the faculty in 1913 and was also executive secretary of
> the YMCA chapter. In his 1914 annual report for the YMCA, he wrote:
> 
> This winter about Fifteen men used to gather every Sunday morning to
> discuss the five different types of religion which they represented. They took
> a keen interest, but never were intolerant or even hot-headed, so that they
> showed what an easy matter it is to talk over differences and reforms,
> without any fear of unpleasant feeling. 39
> 
> It is evident that the "_ve diaerent types of religion" included Bahá'ís, along
> with Christians, Muslims, Druze, and Jews. The Bahá'í students had already
> received the college's unorcial consent to hold their own meetings on campus,
> though many at the college and in the missionary community opposed the
> practice. On Sunday aGernoons, the members of the Society of the Bahá'í
> Students of Beirut would "gather under the trees in the university [SPC] or in
> their private rooms, chanting prayers and talking over matters of religious
> concern." 40
> 
> Dodge had written: "On Sunday morning I meet a group of Moslems and
> Bahá'ís, who discuss all sorts of religious questions in a most broadminded way
> and are intensely interesting." 41 In one of Dodge's earliest letters from the
> College, dated 26 November 1913, he singled out the Bahá'ís for their interest in
> such activities: "they try to take the best out of all religions." 42 While such
> interfaith activities were encouraged, they were seen to take place under the
> umbrella of the college's Christianity. A very small number (12 out of 177) of
> YMCA members were not Christians, perhaps because as non-Christians, they
> could join only as associate members. By Dodge's own admission, many other
> such students attended "most of the meetings, but feared to have the name
> 'Christian' in any way associated with them." 43 Despite the disinclination felt
> by many students toward being part of a Christian association, however, Dodge
> did not yet perceive any conflict with the fact that the YMCA was the only
> formal organization for these kinds of activities. Ottoman pressure ultimately
> succeeded in forcing the college to disband all student societies, including the
> YMCA, in May 1916.
> 
> During the war, the college's religious regulations underwent dramatic
> changes. The subsequent, and in part consequent, upsurge in enrollment of
> Muslim students to the college who would now be exempt from mandatory
> religious exercises had caused deep anxiety in Bliss, Dodge, and others. West
> Hall, constructed in 1914 for student activities, became a refuge for the students
> from the increasingly harsh wartime conditions outside the college walls. It
> was also a venue for the college's experiment in religious association to break
> new ground. The closing of the YMCA, along with the other student societies, in
> 1916; the continuation of the informal interfaith discussion groups started
> before the war during which time "the association in worship became freer
> than ever" 44 ; and the much-vaunted sense of solidarity that the war seemed to
> intensify – all of these had paved the way for the formal creation of a new
> organization, a "Brotherhood," envisioned by Bliss in a speech at the building's
> opening. In a sermon given on 8 February 1914 titled "God's Plan for West Hall,"
> Bliss had identified as the new building's "supreme purpose the awakening in
> the men who make use of West Hall of the spirit of service, of 'the struggle for
> the life of others'"; instrumental for such a purpose, Bliss proposed, was "a West
> Hall Brotherhood." 45
> 
> It was not until 1920, however, that the West Hall Brotherhood properly got on
> its feet, when Laurens Seelye arrived to become the director of West Hall. Two
> years later, in his aforementioned article "An Experiment in Religious
> Association," he explained the emergence of the West Hall Brotherhood.
> Deriding the patronizing policy of associate membership for non-Christians in
> the YMCA, Seelye discussed the delicate balance he and others tried to achieve
> in making the Brotherhood "non-Christian" even while the University
> remained a "Christian missionary institution." 46 Important to membership in
> the Brotherhood was the belief that, as stated in its Preamble, "a thoughtful,
> sincere man, whether Moslem, Bahai, Jew or Christian can join this
> Brotherhood without feeling that he has compromised his standing in relation
> to his own religion." 47 A few Bahá'ís would have been among the twelve non-
> Christian members of the YMCA in 1913-14, as these twelve were "very equally
> divided amongst men of the diaerent sects." 48 Yet, as with the other non-
> Christians, joining the Brotherhood would have been a far more acceptable
> alternative for the Bahá'ís. The Brotherhood's "Pledge" did not name any single
> religion but only "this united movement for righteousness and human
> brotherhood." 49 In 1921, Dr. Philip Hitti, the renowned Princeton scholar who
> was then a young faculty member at his alma mater AUB, wrote that the
> Brotherhood's "watchword shall be 'unity through diversity.'" 50
> 
> seen standing in the second row, fourth from the right. Credit: AUB Library
> Archives
> 
> The Bahá'í Students' Contribution
> The Bahá'í students' participation in such intercommunal spaces was
> complemented by similar experiences they had gained within their own
> community, both in Beirut as well as in Haifa and Egypt. Part of the reason for
> Bliss's 1914 visit was to arrange for the April visits of the Bahá'í students in
> Beirut, 27 of whom would make the trip (out of around 30-35 total students) 51 ;
> 20 students, in two groups, visited ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Egypt in September 1913. 52
> ʻAbdu'l-Bahá met with these students oGen during their visits (sometimes
> twice a day), encouraging them in their studies and asking them if their
> teachers "took pains to instruct the students." 53 He urged them to "strive
> always to be at the head of [their] classes through hard study and true merit"
> and to "entertain high ideals and stimulate [their] intellectual and constructive
> forces." 54 He prioritized the study of agriculture and directly encouraged
> students to study medicine, in addition to subjects that would lead to careers in
> commerce and industry. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá also encouraged postgraduate studies, at
> Stanford, for example. 55
> Beyond their academic pursuits, however, the Bahá'í students received an
> education in the kind of united world ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was so interested in
> cultivating. He urged them to "strive to beautify the moral aspect of [their]
> lives" through the "divine ideals [of] humility, submissiveness, annihilation of
> self, perfect evanescence, charity, and loving kindness." they must, He added,
> "Love and serve mankind just for the sake of God and not for anything else. The
> foundation of [their] love toward humanity must be spiritual faith and divine
> assurance." 56 Not only did ʻAbdu'l-Bahá spend time with them and address
> them on various subjects, but the students also read copies of His talks from His
> 1912 trip to America.
> 
> The effect of these visits on the students was immense. As Badi Bushrui, who
> was among the students that visited ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in both Egypt and Haifa,
> later reflected, "Here is an interesting scene: the Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the
> Jew, the Moslem, and the atheist start singing songs of joy, praising
> BAHA'O'LLAH that, through His Grace, they were enabled to meet on the
> common-ground of Unity…" 57 Bushrui here is identifying people by their
> source communities, emphasizing the unifying effect of their attraction to the
> Bahá'í teachings. Indeed, the Bahá'í students were themselves a diverse group;
> though most were from Persia, they came from Muslim, Jewish, and
> Zoroastrian backgrounds. In addition, on all their visits, the students
> interacted with Bahá'ís from Western countries, Americans especially.
> 
> The Bahá'í students' experience visiting ʻAbdu'l-Bahá reinforced their efforts to
> contribute to the life of the college, and they actively sought out spaces in
> which they could put into practice their spiritual education. It was through this
> lens that Bahá'í students participated in religious services at SPC. They were
> not simply tolerating the Protestant services but viewing them in this far more
> unifying spirit. They also took advantage of opportunities to participate in the
> intercommunal spaces that opened up when the services became optional for
> non-Christians.
> 
> But the main venue for the Bahá'í students' contribution to the college was the
> Students' Union, which put on plays and organized a Social Service Institute
> and a Research Club, besides holding meetings. The most important ones were
> its weekly Saturday night meetings at which various topics were discussed and
> debated and the business meetings at which "parliamentary rules [were]
> observed and practiced." 58 There were also speaking contest meetings, election
> meetings, and reception meetings. The twin aims of the Union were "to
> cultivate and develop public speaking and parliamentary discipline in its
> members." 59 Published every two months was the Students' Union Gazette, the
> student magazine that had the longest run during this period. 60 The Union
> operated "exclusively" in English 61 , and indeed in his history of AUB, Bayard
> Dodge refers to the Union as an "English society." 62 ʻAbdu'l-Bahá encouraged
> the Bahá'í students to perfect their English and to give talks in the language,
> something they practiced while visiting Him in Egypt and Haifa. 63
> 
> By 1912 at least, this group was playing an active role in campus life. From the
> time the Bahá'í students began to form a recognizable group on campus, they
> became dynamic members of the Union, being elected to the Union's Cabinet,
> contributing to the Gazette, participating in and winning prizes in debate
> contests, and also proposing subjects for debate at the Saturday night meetings.
> From 1912 until 1916, when all student societies were closed down, Bahá'í
> students were almost continuously represented in the Students' Union Cabinet,
> elections for which were held twice a year. Twice Bahá'í students were elected
> its president; twice its vice president; at least once its secretary; once its
> associate secretary; twice the editor of the Students' Union Gazette; once the
> president of its Scientific Department; and several times as members-at-large.
> 
> Their contributions to the Union – through the topics they suggested for debate,
> the talks they gave, and the articles they wrote – reveal the focus of their
> interests: promoting greater unity among the diverse groups of students in the
> service of universal peace, all the while including a dynamic role for religion. In
> April 1914, one student proposed that a "universal religion is possible" while
> another, 'Abdu'l-Husayn Isfahani, put forth that "Universal Reformation in all
> the diaerent phases of life can never be effected except through religion" 64 ;
> Isfahani in a January 1913 speaking contest on "Is reputation an index of true
> greatness?" had elaborated on this conception of a "universal religion," basing
> his argument on the transcendent universality of the founders of major
> religions – their "creative and inspiring power." 65 Jesus Christ, Muhammad,
> and Buddha, he argued, through their "brilliant commanding genius"
> accomplished what they did in the face of societal opposition. Thus, their
> reputations do indicate true greatness. Isfahani also proposed that month that
> "racial differences do not exist." 66
> 
> The Bahá'ís continued their involvement with the Students' Union in the
> following decades. In 1929, for example, Hasan Balyuzi gave a talk for a
> speaking contest on the "religion of the future," which would be characterized
> by "plasticity, absence of hypocrisy, and spirit of universal brotherhood." 67
> 
> At a time when issues of war and peace were very much of the moment, the
> Bahá'í students sought to promote universal peace. In the years immediately
> before World War I, Bahá'í students proposed antiwar debate topics, such as
> "war must inevitably stop," and wrote articles such as "Towards International
> Peace." One such student, Aflatun Mirza, proposed that "a universal language is
> essential to the progress of the world." 68 ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in His talks in America
> and Europe had supported the establishing of a secondary, auxiliary language
> to facilitate greater unity and lead to peace. 69 In the 1920s, in fact, many
> Bahá'ís became active members of the worldwide Esperanto movement. One
> Bahá'í student, Zeine N. Zeine, was an enthusiastic promoter of the language on
> campus, giving talks on it, including, on at least one occasion, a short one in
> Esperanto itself. 70
> 
> However, even more revealing of the way the Bahá'í students understood their
> contribution to this discourse was a speech given by Zeine in 1929, a talk that
> won a prestigious speaking contest. In "Mental Disarmament," he claimed that
> such disarmament was more "necessary to peace and happiness of the world
> than the disarmament of the sword." Attitudes, he continued, such as
> "intolerance, ignorance, hatred, prejudice" and so on "play more havoc than the
> cannon, and bring about strife and war." 71 (Appropriately, Zeine, upon his
> graduation that year, was hired as assistant director of West Hall and an
> instructor of Sociology.) In a similar vein, the president of the Students' Union,
> not a Bahá'í, at the Brotherhood's year-opening reception in October 1926,
> remarked, "the Druze, the Moslem, the Jew, the Bahai, the Christian all unite
> together to oppose others of the same religion for the welfare of the Union." 72
> Back in June 1914, Badi Bushrui, who was the outgoing president of the Union,
> offered a succinct summary of the way Bahá'ís sought to contribute not only in
> their words but also in their deeds:
> 
> Let the Union, as oUen suggested by President Bliss, stand for universal
> peace and the oneness of the world of humanity. I am glad that the spirit
> which the college tries to infuse into her students is finding expression in the
> life of the Union. Racial and religious differences play no part there. The
> President for the First term this year was a Christian, the last President was
> a Bahai and the new President is a Moslem. I believe this is the biggest
> stride the Union has taken to be able to choose the best man without regard
> to religious or racial aknity. 73
> 
> Furthermore, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's guidance addressed the practical outcomes of
> their education. In Egypt in 1913, for example, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá told the students
> that it was "his hope that they would make extraordinary progress along
> spiritual lines as well as in science and art; so that each one might become a
> brilliant lamp in the world of modern civilization, and upon their return to
> Persia that country might profit from their acquired knowledge and
> experience." 74 Out of 24 Master's theses written before 1918, _ve were written
> by Bahá'í students. 75 Two theses, both written in 1918, exemplify this focus on
> serving the best interests of their nation. "Social Evils or Hindrances to Persia's
> Progress" and "Persia in Transformation," both written by Bahá'í students,
> identified elements of Persia's religious, social, and political life needing
> attention and articulated a progressive vision for the country, assigning
> prominent places to education and the rights of women. 76
> 
> In a letter to his father dated 22 June 1914, Dodge commented on this mission of
> the Bahá'í students. "Most of these students travel to the College from three to
> four weeks away," he related, and "speak in a most serious way of getting an
> education here and then returning to help their unfortunate land." 77 Dodge's
> initial encounters with the Bahá'í students in 1913 led him to state that "they
> uphold all sorts of good reform movements." 78
> 
> The Bahá'í students also contributed to the college-wide efforts to render
> service to the local community, efforts which greatly accelerated during the
> war, including medical relief activities, among others. Not long after the war
> broke out, most of the Bahá'ís in Haifa and 'Akká, including Badi Bushrui and
> another recent SPC graduate Habiballah Khudabakhsh, later known as Dr.
> Mu'ayyad, were received as guests in the Druze/Christian village of Abu-
> Sinan. 79 'Abdu'l-Bahá's warm relationship with the village leaders had made
> this arrangement possible. In an article titled "A New Experience," published in
> a fall 1915 number of the Students' Union Gazette, Bushrui relates how Dr.
> Mu'ayyad started a medical clinic in the village, performing many operations
> and treating a variety of conditions over a period of eight months. 80 Bushrui
> and an American Bahá'í woman, Lua Getsinger, acted as nurses and assistants;
> Bushrui also taught some of the children. Such an experience of social service
> would have resonated deeply with the emerging ethos of the college, to be sure.
> 
> The Bahá'í students' contributions became a recognized fact of life at the college
> over the coming decades. In an article titled "Education as a Source of Good
> Will" published in the 1930-32 volume of The Bahá'í World, President Bayard
> Dodge outlined the university's mission, confirming AUB's strong relationship
> with the Bahá'ís and its view of them as a like-minded group. From Dodge's
> perspective, the university's "interpretation of the gospel of Jesus and the
> teachings of the prophets" was "similar to that proclaimed by the great Bahá'í
> leaders," and so there had "naturally been a bond of sympathy" between the
> university and the Bahá'ís. 81 As previously noted, the Bahá'ís' active
> involvement before and during the war in the interfaith discussion groups
> made quite a deep impression on Dodge. Writing in 1930, when there were
> three Bahá'ís on the university staff and twenty-six students, Dodge listed the
> twenty-eight graduates of the university (there were in fact thirty 82 ) up to that
> point, adding that they had "become a great credit to their Alma Mater." 83 The
> list included two women trained as nurses and midwives (women were first
> admitted to the university in 1921). Dodge himself noted that the list did not
> include the many Bahá'ís who spent time at the university but never graduated.
> Dodge detailed three distinguishing qualities of the Bahá'í students:
> 
> In the First place, they have acquired from their parents an enviable
> refinement and courtesy. As far as I can tell, all of them have been easy to
> get along with, good natured with their friends, and polite to their teachers.
> Their reputation for good manners and breeding is well established.
> 
> In the second place, the Bahá'í students have been marked by clean living
> and honesty. The older men have had a good influence on the younger ones,
> so that it is a tradition that they avoid bad habits. Every Sunday afternoon
> they meet together for devotional and social purposes at the house of Adib
> Husayn Effendi Iqbal. The older students are able to keep in touch with
> what the younger ones are doing and their influence is worth as much as a
> whole faculty of teachers.
> 
> In the third place, the Bahá'ís intuitively understand internationalism.
> They mix with all sorts of companions without prejudice and help to develop
> a spirit of fraternity on the campus… 84
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá's qualified encouragement of modern education bore fruit in the
> activities of these Bahá'í students. While taking advantage of their academic
> opportunities, they were also guided by moral principles, perceiving no conflict
> between their scientific and religious education. While highly cohesive and
> united as a group, they sought to be a unifying force at the school, promoting
> the oneness of humanity and universal peace among their classmates "without
> prejudice." Becoming an established presence at a time when SPC was
> liberalizing its approach to religious education, the Bahá'í students found the
> college a receptive space in which to express their identities as Bahá'ís, and,
> inspired by the example and teachings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, it is clear that they
> made an important contribution to the life of the college. Their example shows,
> moreover, that when a group like the Bahá'í students is empowered in such a
> setting, significant results can accrue for the whole.
>
> — *'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Bahá'í Students (Used by permission of the curator)*