'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)