Principles for Baha'i Scholarship
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Robert Sarracino, Principles for Baha'i Scholarship, bahai-library.com.
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Principles for Bahá'í Scholarship

Robert Sarracino

1999

I. Introduction

Some years ago, when I
was about to enter graduate school, my father, who was not a Baha'i, advised me
not to tell my professors about my religious beliefs. "Because", he said, "it takes a very intelligent
person to be a Baha'i, and you should not assume that level of
intelligence in your professors!"

The use and
development of the intellect is extremely important in the Baha’i Faith. In the Hidden Words we read:

O Son of Man! Write
all that We have revealed unto thee with the ink of light upon the tablet of
thy spirit. – Baha’u’llah (1)

What is this light but
the light of understanding, which ‘Abdu’l-Baha has called “God’s greatest gift to man”? There
exists an intimate connection between the material and the spiritual; between
the advancement of material civilization and the development of spiritual
civilization. Our writings tell us, for
instance, that although cleanliness is only physical, it nevertheless has an
influence on the human soul. Work -
physical work which would result in an increase in the material wealth of
society, and in the betterment of our own material circumstances - is
worship. We read in the Hidden Words, “I have ordained for thy training every atom
in existence and the essence of all created things” (2)

When we delve into the
writings of our Faith we find a deep connection between the intellectual and the
spiritual which, in the fullness and clarity of its expression, is new with
Baha’u’llah: knowledge, continuously
gained in an ongoing process, correctly integrated, and appropriately
subordinated in the human psyche, is a means - the only means, really - for
journeying closer to God - which itself, is the reason we have been brought
into existence by an almighty Creator. “Science is . . . the means by which
man finds a pathway to God”, we are told by ‘Abdu’l-Baha (3). As this idea begins to permeate into the
minds of men a great new civilization, embracing both the material and the
spiritual, will come into being.

What is
scholarship? Webster’s New
Collegiate Dictionary defines scholarship as “the fund of knowledge and
learning”. A scholar is “one who has
done advanced study in a special field. A learned person. ”Scholarship,
then, is connected with both generalized learning and specialized
knowledge, two very different things, but both intimately linked with what
I consider to be the four pillars of material civilization:

1. Research,
or creating new knowledge

2. Learning,
or the consolidation of existing knowledge

3. Teaching,
or the imparting of knowledge; and

4. Work, or
the application of knowledge.

The station of the
scientist, the craftsman, the scholar, who has pursued his or her profession to
an advanced degree of perfection, is very high.

Great indeed is the claim of scientists and craftsmen upon
the peoples of the world. – Baha’u’llah
(4)

and,

The man of consummate learning and the
sage endowed with penetrating wisdom are the two eyes to the body of
mankind. God willing, the earth shall
never be deprived of these two greatest gifts. – Baha’u’llah (5)

Notice the phrase consummate
learning. Consummate: “Complete in every detail: perfect. Extremely skilled and accomplished. Of the highest excellence or greatest
degree. ”

II. The Importance of Scholarship

With the publication of the compilation
on scholarship the Universal House of Justice, in its covering letter,
expresses hope for “a further development
of Baha’i scholarship” and calls upon us to “strive to develop and offer to humanity a new model of scholarly
activity” (6). Why is this
important? In light of the crying needs
of humanity for food, shelter, protection, security, is not learning a luxury
which we cannot afford at present? The
short answer is simple: humanity’s problems are spiritual in origin,
not material. And the intellect, the unique power of the human
spirit through which the human soul comes into contact with the Spirit of
Faith, is the agent in bringing spiritual
solutions to bear on the otherwise overwhelming problems facing us.

As part of the long answer two reasons come to mind, both
connected with acceleration of the twin processes of integration and disintegration
which the beloved Guardian emphasized throughout his writings and the Universal
House of Justice has recalled in many of its messages.

A. Our
civilization is going through a crisis, as we all know, and mankind is in grave
danger. We are traversing the last
stages of what the beloved Guardian called “the
dark heart of the age of transition”. What
lies ahead for the human race, before the Lesser Peace dawns on the horizon of
this afflicted civilization? A crisis
which will bring mankind "to its knees". ". . . and when the
appointed hour is come there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the
limbs of mankind to quake" (7).

As we move through this dark heart, we
see our institutions buckling - and among them, inevitably, the institutions
centered around science and learning. The great cancer of materialism which has invaded those institutions is
increasingly subverting them to ends other than the progress of civilization. The materialistic pressures being put on
academics, such as increasing pressures to find their own funding, to produce a
continuous, uninterrupted stream of publications, to produce 'acceptable'
results which conform to artificial and often superficial expectations; these
pressures are increasing. They have
always been there, to a greater or lesser degree, throughout the long history
of scholarship,but never in the modern
period have these pressures been as severe as now. The result is an increasing preoccupation with short-term gain -
sometimes in the form of outright fraud, when the researcher, reporting results
which would require such long hours and involved procedures to verify, thinks
he will simply be able to get away with it - short-term gain at the expense of
long-term planning designed to unveil the precious secrets contained within a
Nature which, in the words of Baha'u'llah, "will acquaint thee with that which is within it and upon it".

What do Baha'is have
to offer to help resolve this mounting crisis in the world of learning? The high standards of integrity and equity
enjoined in the writings of Baha'u'llah.

The crisis in science
is also precipitated by the increasing complexity of knowledge. So much more is known now than even a few
decades ago that we are, in a sense, becoming drowned in the ocean of our own
scientific success. We are rapidly
reaching the end of the road in our ability to expand our scientific
frontiers. Traditional means whereby
knowledge is consolidated are no longer adequate, and our institutions
of learning seem not to be up to the new challenge. Our manner of handling and processing knowledge must evolve, and
Baha'is stand to make great contributions in this evolution, either indirectly
through example and inspiration, or directly. For Baha'u'llah teaches us to think in universals, and through study,
absorption and internalization of the writings of our Faith, deep wells of
creativity are opened.

A few years ago George
Duvall, in the Department of Physics at Washington State University, outlined
the problem in this fashion:

“Physics has become a
very difficult subject. The expansion
of the field in both depth and breadth during the last forty years is almost
incomprehensible. The coherence which
has characterized physics in the past is slipping away, and too little effort
is being made to prevent it. There are
three legitimate activities for the academic: research, teaching, and scholarship. The last of these is not properly recognized by university
administrators, yet it plays a key role in science. It is the scholar who keeps up with progress on a broad front, who digests new results, synthesizes
and simplifies them, integrates them with existing knowledge, and makes them
available to his fellows and comprehensible to his students. To accomplish this is an intellectual feat
of the greatest magnitude, and it is a natural companion to teaching. Unfortunately, scholarship of this kind does
not mature quickly, it does not lead to large numbers of publications, and its
merit is not easily evaluated. By
failing to recognize the value of scholarship and to learn how to evaluate it,
universities are doing a great disservice to students, the faculty, the
professions, and the nation. ”(8)

Note the trinity of
teaching, scholarship and research. Teaching: imparting existing knowledge; research: creating new
knowledge; scholarship: the link between the two, the codification of knowledge
which allows research to proceed with a dynamic and vital efficiency, and which
makes effective teaching possible.

B. The Baha’i Faith itself has entered a
period of great opportunity. There
exists a marvellous analogy in our writings, comparing the Faith to the seed
evolving within the fruit of present-day civilization. In the life of the plant, the instant the
seed becomes mature - the instant it develops to the point at which it is ready
to produce a new plant - at that instant, the fruit surrounding it which has
protected it during its development, begins to decay. The decay continues until the fruit falls from the tree; it
continues still until, finally, the seed is released onto the soil. And throughout this period, the seed remains impervious to the rot of
the fruit. The instant the call of
Baha'u'llah was raised, forces of disintegration were released into the world
and all systems on the planet, some in dynamic evolution, others which had been
in place unchanged for hundreds of years - all systems began to decay. As society disintegrates the Faith gains
power, and we must be aware of this twin process: that although we, as individuals, are inevitably affected by the
decay of society, the Faith with which we
identify is immune; on the contrary, it becomes stronger and more
vibrant. What lies ahead in the near
future? Entry by troops, almost
certainly, which will be accompanied by entry into the Faith of large numbers
of people of capacity and prominence; the maturation of the Baha’i
administrative institutions;an
increasingly direct role in ‘solving critical social problems’. All of these developments will require
increased effort in the field of scholarship.

We are coming to the
end of a momentous Plan whose focus has been an advance in the process of entry
by troops. We stand on the eve of a
series of new plans which will carry us to the end of the first century of the Formative
Age of the Faith, and which “will
continue to focus on advancing the process of entry by troops and on its
systematic acceleration”. In the
past three and a half years we have seen “an
impressive network of training institutes on a scale but dimly imagined at the
start of the Plan” (9).

Development of human
resources in the Faith, with Institutes developing into Centres of Learning,
will continue as an integral part of these momentous plans. Clearly, then, learning and intellectual
development – raising the overall intellectual level of the Baha'i community in
addition to stimulating some to attain the highest degrees of development in
specialized areas or fields – is integral to the advancement in the process of
entry by troops; itself vital to the rescue of this planet and its inhabitants.

III. The Pursuit of Scholarship

At the core of
science, the foundation upon which science is built, is a ‘world view’ which is
based on faith and which serves both
as a philosophical foundation and a motivating impulse. Is Western science built upon such a
foundation of faith? The philosopher
and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead was convinced it was, and explained it
in this way:

“I
mean [by faith] the inexpugnable belief that every detailed occurrence can be
correlated with its antecedents in a perfectly definite manner, exemplifying
general principles. Without this belief
the incredible labours of scientists would be without hope. It is this instinctive conviction, vividly
poised before the imagination, which is the motive power of research: that there is a secret, a secret which can
be unveiled. How has this conviction
been so vividly implanted in the European mind?

“. . . there
seems but one source for its origin. It
must come from the medieval insistence on the rationality of God, conceived as
with the personal energy of Jehovah and with the rationality of a Greek
philosopher. Every detail was
supervised and ordered: the search into
nature could only result in the vindication of the faith in rationality. . . . I am not talking of the explicit beliefs
of a few individuals. . . [but] the impress on the European mind arising from the
unquestioned faith of centuries. ”(10)

What, then, is the
animating force behind Baha’i scholarship? In the words of the Universal House of Justice, Baha’i scholarship is “animated by the spirit of inquiry into the
limitless meaning of the Divine teachings. ” (6)

Who is it for? Certainly not for everyone, one might
think. In the world at large, a world
which has come to accept that literacy is for everyone, scholarship has
remained, nevertheless, an activity for only a select few. The Universal House of Justice has made it
clear, however, that Baha’i scholarship, in marked contrast, is for

“members
of the community of the Greatest Name, young and old, men and women alike”(6)

Those categories
include just about one out of every one of us.

What characterizes the
Baha’i pursuit of scholarship?

“the
welcome it offers to all who wish to be involved in it, each in his or her own
way”; . . . “young and old, men and women alike”. (6)

I would like to give an example of a
particular arena of service which we can enter, as Baha’i scholars.

Two of the most destabilizing prejudices
in the world today are prejudices of gender and of race. The first step in overcoming these, is the
desire to rid oneself of prejudice. Without this basic willingness prejudice cannot be overcome. But the desire or willingness,
unfortunately, is not sufficient – not if we wish to be faithful to the call of
God’s Manifestation for today. Passions
are very strong; ingrained habits and patterns of thought work insidiously on
our psyche; generations of miseducation conspire to subvert our impartiality and
cloud our judgment. With regard to race
relations, for instance, the Guardian warned white Americans against
condescension, which in some ways is worse than outright prejudice. He warns them against impatience with a
people who have “received such slow-healing wounds”. With regard to the way men treat women, the Universal House of
Justice has said that in our Feasts, an atmosphere in which women are reluctant
to voice their heartfelt views out of fear of belittlement or disapproval from
men – that this itself is an oppression against women.

Scholarship can become a powerful force
in rooting out prejudice, for the second necessary step in overcoming prejudice
is the conscious acquisition of knowledge.

For instance, consider this statement, by
Basil Davidson in his book The Africans, published some 30 years ago,
and consider what effect his insight, based on knowledge accumulated from years
of research and scholarship, could have had on reversing deeply ingrained and
assiduously cultivated prejudices about Africa:

“Insofar as
one can hope to trace the origins of African civilization, it is . . . in this
direction one must look: to the
formative problems and solutions found by small groups faced with the destiny
of peopling one of the world’s largest and physically most testing land masses.
Here it is that one may . . . trace the
source of attitudes which have stubbornly combined a firm respect for precedent
with a restless onward-shifting readiness for experiment; which have instilled
a capacity, greater perhaps than that of any other major civilization, for the
optimism which comes from living always on a frontier, on the edge of‘somewhere else’, on the verge of ‘something
different’, where anything may be possible as long as human courage and endeavour
are prepared to make it so:as long,
indeed, as a man’s inner force or dynamism can avail to drive him
forward. ”(11)

No one who studies the
history and character of African civilization can fail to appreciate its great
triumphs, or come to admire, for their inherited attributes, and otherwise, the
people who were its creators and are its products.

‘Abdu’l-Baha, when in America, praised the American white people
for having fought a war to make black people free. If one studies the American Civil War, including the pattern of
events leading up to it and the single-minded determination with which the war
was pursued, one cannot fail to be impressed with how the American population,
despite strong personal racist attitudes and beliefs even among the enemies of
slavery, nevertheless sacrificed hundreds of thousands of lives on the
battlefield so that African Americans could be free.

Our writings tell us that women have
always been oppressed. A study of the
history of women, and of the patterns of male dominance in the world today,
cannot but create in the mind of any male Baha’i who wishes to see
Baha’u’llah’s principle realized in the world, a much deeper appreciation of
the issues around the advancement of women, and a greatly changed attitude
towards women. Is this necessary? Is there really a problem?

The world of the past has been
ruled by force, and man has dominated over woman by reason of his more forceful
and aggressive qualities both of
body and mind. (12)

So, yes, there is a
problem. But is there a problem in the
Baha’i community?

The aggressiveness and
competiveness which animate a dominantly capitalist culture. . . have come to
exert too great a sway over the manner of management in the Baha’i community
and over the behavior of portions of its rank and file in relation to the
Cause. (13)

Yes, there is a
problem, at least in the American Baha’i community. And my guess is that if there is a problem in the American Baha’i
community, there is probably one in other Baha’i communities as well. Is this a men’s issue or a women’s
issue? After all, one might think, it
is women who have to gain their equality.

. . . the assumption of
superiority by man will continue to be depressing to the ambition of woman. . .
woman’s aspiration toward advancement will be checked by it, and she will
gradually become hopeless. – ‘Abdu’l-Baha (14)

and,

When men own the equality of
women there will be no need for them to struggle for their rights!- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (15)

So, yes, it is a men’s
issue. It’s an issue for all of us.

Finally, I would like
to touch upon a feature of Baha’i scholarship which makes it outstandingly
different and which, if understood and taken to heart, will make scholarship of
the future exert a far greater positive influence on society than it has in the
past. In the past, in fact, it has been
the ‘learned’ who, all unwittingly, have been chiefly responsible for
subverting the religion of God and weakening its influence over the hearts of
men. This is why, in this dispensation,
the institutions of the ‘learned’ and the ‘rulers’ have been separated, so that
the learned may rise to their true station, and “pulsate even as the throbbing artery in the body of mankind” (16).

Every one of us has a
station within the Kingdom of Names. And the station of the learned in that Kingdom is high. However, our station within that Kingdom is
independent of our spiritual station. It may define and prescribe our sphere of activity, material and even
spiritual, while in this world, but in the deepest sense, it does not determine
our spiritual state in the next world. One of the primary and most far-reaching features of Baha’i scholarship
is detachment from the Kingdom of Names.

O
people of God! Righteous men of
learning who dedicate themselves to the guidance of others and are freed and
well guarded from the promptings of a base and covetous nature are, in the
sight of Him Who is the desire of the world, stars of the heaven of true
knowledge. They must be treated with
deference. --Baha’u’llah (17)

IV. Conclusion

Although scholarship
has been encouraged throughout this Dispensation, the Universal House of
Justice has called the Baha’i community to a new endeavour. Although each of us has his own arena of
service to the Faith and to mankind – each of us teaches the Faith, each of us
studies the Writings and strives to gain a deeper understanding – each of us
also has unique insights into those Writings. Because of this each of us, to a lesser or greater degree, becomes a
scholar of the Faith. So, scholarship
is a natural activity for Baha’is – like breathing, really.

The world needs the
models which we, from our privileged position of having accepted God’s
Manifestation, can provide. It needs
that rare brand of intellectual development which emanates from an unbiased
mind motivated purely by the love of God – and this is something which we, if
we develop the capacity Baha’u’llah has placed within His servants, can offer.

Consider. . .
the revelation of the light of the Name of God, the Educator. . . . This education is of two kinds. The one is universal. Its influence pervadeth all things and
sustaineth them. . . . The other is
confined to them that have come under the shadow of this Name, and sought the
shelter of this most mighty Revelation. They, however, that have failed to seek this shelter, have deprived
themselves of this privilege, and are powerless to benefit from the spiritual
sustenance that hath been sent down through the heavenly grace of this Most
Great Name. --Baha'u'llah(18)

REFERENCES

1. Baha'u'llah, Hidden Words,Arabic 71

2. Baha'u'llah, Hidden Words,Persian 29

3. ' Abdu'l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity,
60

4. Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah,
58

5. Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah,
171

6. The Universal House of Justice, covering letter
to the compilation on Scholarship

7. Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings
of Baha'u'llah,

8. George Duvall, "Three Blind Men and an
Elephant", from Shock Compression of Condensed Matter (1989)

9. The Universal House of Justice, 26 November
1999.

10. Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the
Modern World, 12 (1967)

11. Basil Davidson, The Africans, 29
(1969)

12. 'Abdu'l-Baha,
Compilation on Women, 12

13. The Universal
House of Justice, letter to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of
the United States, 19 May 1994

14. 'Abdu'l-Baha,
Compilation on Women, 44

15. 'Abdu'l-Baha,
Compilation on Women, 46

16. Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Aqdas,
K173

17. Baha'u'llah, Tablets
of Baha'u'llah, 96, 97

18. Baha'u'llah, Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, 190

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-- Principles for Baha'i Scholarship (Used by permission of the curator)