The Transformative, Cohesive Power of Love

It is, therefore, evident that in the world of humanity the greatest king and sovereign is love. If love were extinguished, the power of attraction dispelled, the affinity of human hearts destroyed, the phenomena of human life would disappear.

(The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 255)

How is the Most Great Peace to come about most quickly and effectivly?  What is it founded upon?  The Master states: “This transformation of morals, this improvement of conduct and of words, are they possible otherwise than through the love of God? No, in the name of God. If, by the help of science and knowledge, we wished to introduce these morals and customs, truly it would take a thousand years, and then they would not be spread throughout the masses.

"Today, thanks to the love of God, they are arrived at with the greatest facility.” (Some Answered Questions: 304)

In Paris He stated: “What a power is love! It is the most wonderful, the greatest of all living powers.  Love gives life to the lifeless. Love lights a flame in the heart that is cold. Love brings hope to the hopeless and gladdens the hearts of the sorrowful.  In the world of existence there is indeed no greater power than the power of love. When the heart of man is aglow with the flame of love, he is ready to sacrifice all—even his life. In the Gospel it is said God is love.” (Paris Talks: 179-180)

Love is the foundation and greatest power because individuals do not become just or moral by willing it, or knowing what is just and right, but by loving justice and righteousness.  Similarly with peace.  But the heart must also love spiritual principle and heavenly attributes latent in itself.  This love is no mere affectionate feeling toward something or someone, or toward an ideal or a practical method.  It is faith and conviction, determination and sacrifice. 

The Master states: “May the light of love shine forth and illumine hearts, and may human lives be cemented and connected until all of us may find agreement and tranquillity beneath the same tabernacle and with the standard of the Most Great Peace above us move steadily onward.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 115) “So powerful is the light of unity,” asserts Baha’u’llah, “that it can illuminate the whole earth. The one true God, He Who knoweth all things, Himself testifieth to the truth of these words.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 288)

This is the dawn of a new era.  What the Bahá’i Writings call “a new race of men” is to emerge onto the stage of history to renovate the conditions of existence and transform the world. The Master puts the task and the scope of change this way to the followers of Baha’u’llah: “It is your duty to be exceedingly kind to every human being, and to wish him well; to work for the upliftment of society; to blow the breath of life into the dead; to act in accordance with the instructions of Bahá'u'lláh and walk His path—until ye change the world of man into the world of God.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Bahá: 90

Only the transformed soul can build and live in the Kingdom of God.  The world of God resembles the world of man about as much as the world of man resembles the world of the ant.  All must be changed or transformed, even that which was good in the world of man cannot be lifted intact into the celestial relations characterizing the world of God.  “The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." (From Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Idylls of the King)

With the Revelation of Baha’u’llah such a profound change can be made.  He promises: “The heights which, through the most gracious favor of God, mortal man can attain, in this Day, are as yet unrevealed to his sight. The world of being hath never had, nor doth it yet possess the capacity for such a revelation. The day, however, is approaching when the potentialities of so great a favor will, by virtue of His behest, be manifested unto men.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 214)  And: “The potentialities inherent in the station of man, the full measure of his destiny on earth, the innate excellence of his reality, must all be manifested in this promised Day of God.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 340) Yet He also warns, in words true both for every individual and for humankind’s quest for peace, and which return us to the condition of willing self-abnegation: “There is no peace for thee save by renouncing thyself and turning unto Me; for it behooveth thee to glory in My name, not in thine own; to put thy trust in Me and not in thyself.” (Arabic Hidden Words: 61)

On the knowledge side, what are the essential spiritual principles upon which this great transformation rests?

No better summation exists than this magisterial statement from Shoghi Effendi: “The Revelation proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh, His followers believe, is divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, broad in its outlook, scientific in its method, humanitarian in its principles and dynamic in the influence it exerts on the hearts and minds of men. The mission of the Founder of their Faith, they conceive it to be to proclaim that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is continuous and progressive, that the Founders of all past religions, though different in the non-essential aspects of their teachings, "abide in the same Tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech and proclaim the same Faith." His Cause, they have already demonstrated, stands identified with, and revolves around, the principle of the organic unity of mankind as representing the consummation of the whole process of human evolution. This final stage in this stupendous evolution, they assert, is not only necessary but inevitable, that it is gradually approaching, and that nothing short of the celestial potency with which a divinely ordained Message can claim to be endowed can succeed in establishing it.

“The Bahá'í Faith recognizes the unity of God and of His Prophets, upholds the principle of an unfettered search after truth, condemns all forms of superstition and prejudice, teaches that the fundamental purpose of religion is to promote concord and harmony, that it must go hand-in-hand with science, and that it constitutes the sole and ultimate basis of a peaceful, an ordered and progressive society. It inculcates the principle of equal opportunity, rights and privileges for both sexes, advocates compulsory education, abolishes extremes of poverty and wealth, exalts work performed in the spirit of service to the rank of worship, recommends the adoption of an auxiliary international language, and provides the necessary agencies for the establishment and safeguarding of a permanent and universal peace.” (Shoghi Effendi, From the document: Appreciations of the Baha'i Faith)

These sentences represent not just a statement of belief for Baha’u’llah’s followers, noble and idealistic as they are.  They are the very foundation of the science of the love of God.