“This is not a
Cause which may be made a plaything for your idle fancies, nor is it a field
for the foolish and faint of heart. By God, this is the arena of insight and
detachment, of vision and upliftment, where none may spur on their chargers
save the valiant horsemen of the Merciful, who have severed all attachment to
the world of being. These, truly, are they that render God victorious on earth,
and are the dawning-places of His sovereign might amidst mankind.”
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 84)
Consultation
is a very specific way to arrive at the truth, and one should enter into the
process of it knowing the responsibilities and qualities required to make it
work, “qualities of an
enlightened citizenry, able to construct a unified world civilization”, as the
House of Justice stated. There
are responsibilities to have the prerequisite spiritual qualities of love,
fellowship, purity of motive, humility, detachment, and the like, in place
prior to consulting. Within consultation
there are intellectual responsibilities to speak the truth of one’s opinion and
to acknowledge another’s opinion, to be tolerant of other views even if they
oppose one’s own, and not to ridicule or censure another’s thought, and to see
consultation as the building of a consensus of opinion, a single reality of thoughts,
views and feelings. There are social and
moral responsibilities to act in concert and obedience to the decision
rendered. Finally, there are
responsibilities to the overarching principle of unity on the part of all to be
humble and accepting of the truth revealed in action, whether the decision was
correct or not, for in unity is social protection, moral guidance and
attraction of divine confirmation.
But
even saying all this about our role in consultation, we should remember that inspired
consultation goes on not just in the divine Presence but with It. As with all
things in this Day of God, there can be an intermingling of the human and the
holy, as Painter, paint and canvas. Consultation works because Baha’u’llah is
the hidden participant, the aid-giver to whoever carries out His counsels. And ‘Abdu’l-Baha, for example, promises that:
“Every meeting which is organized for the purpose of unity and concord will be
conducive to changing strangers into friends, enemies into associates, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá
will be present in His heart and soul with that meeting.” (The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 99)
But, too, in words and phrases such as “as it
is in unity the truth will be revealed and the wrong made right.” Or: “surrender
to His Providence, in whatever way it may be revealed”, and, “not until matters are fully
discussed can the right way be
revealed” and, finally, in the explicit promise of divine aid and assistance, so long as unity is the
human condition, we see the undying Spirit of the Manifestation of God present
and working.
Because
consultation is so central to discovering truth, to the harmony of human
thought and to the maintenance of unity in the process of building vibrant
forms of community, and since human beings are spiritually interconnected so
closely, consultation helps create, as one of its results, what the House of
Justice calls “powers multiplied in unified action.” “Furthermore, those who
enter the Faith must be integrated into vibrant local communities,
characterized by tolerance and love and guided by a strong sense of purpose and
collective will, environments in which the capacities of all components—men,
women, youth and children—are developed and their powers multiplied in unified
action.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1995 Dec 26, Message to Continental Board
of Counsellors re Four Year Plan, p. 2)
This gives the Bahá’i Community an unparalleled moral driving force in
human society.
Yet
another benefit of consultation is set out by Baha’u’llah in the following
statement: “No power can exist except through unity. No welfare and no
well-being can be attained except through consultation.” (Consultation: Compilation of Compilations v. 1: 93) These are intimately related and connected
since “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable
unless and until its unity is firmly established. This unity can never be
achieved so long as the counsels which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed
are suffered to pass unheeded.” (Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 286)
One
of the greatest of His counsels is to engage in consultation on any and all
matters, for, as we read, “an age that sees the people of the world increasingly
gaining access to information of every kind and to a diversity of ideas will
find justice asserting itself as the ruling principle of successful social
organization." (The Prosperity
of Humankind: Section II para: 1) But to fully
embody this quality of justice “a fundamental redefinition of human relationships is
called for... Central to the task of reconceptualizing the system of human
relationships is the process that Bahá’u’lláh refers to as consultation.” (The Prosperity
of Humankind: Section III para: 3) And: “The purpose of justice is the appearance
of unity among men.” (Tablets of
Baha'u'llah: 66)
We
return a last time to spiritual principles, the divine knowledge in the human
world. These are not a system of
abstract philosophical concepts, nor a new legal code bound in thick, black
volumes sitting on a shelf, nor a collection of pithy moral precepts assembled
from the sayings of the wise. They are
powers that empower. Recall, the House
of Justice said that spiritual principles “induce an attitude, a dynamic, a
will, an aspiration.” Spiritual principles infuse energy and will into human
thought and the body politic. They are
creative of life and truth. Of His Laws
Baha’u’llah wrote: “Think not that We have revealed unto you a mere code of
laws. Nay, rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might
and power.” (The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 21) A choice wine unsealed with fingers of might
and power is a dynamic image of heavenly aroma and sparkling taste, of joy and
zest and contentment, and strength. He states in another place, quoting an
Islamic tradition: "Knowledge is all that is knowable; and might and
power, all creation." (The Kitab-i-Iqan:
185)
Elsewhere,
Baha’u’llah wrote: “Every man of insight will, in this day, readily admit that
the counsels which the Pen of this Wronged One hath revealed constitute the
supreme animating power for the advancement of the world and the exaltation of
its peoples.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah:
85)
The
animating power in spiritual principles flows into the human world through the
channel of “that which is immanent in human nature.”
Finally,
we can see a more general pattern of the influence and effects of gathering
together to execute spiritual purposes, even among a few souls coming together
informally, in the following statement from ‘Abdu’l-Baha: “If a small number of
people gather lovingly together, with absolute purity and sanctity, with their
hearts free of the world, experiencing the emotions of the Kingdom and the
powerful magnetic forces of the Divine, and being at one in their happy
fellowship, that gathering will exert its influence over all the earth. The
nature of that band of people, the words they speak, the deeds they do, will
unleash the bestowals of Heaven, and provide a foretaste of eternal bliss. The
hosts of the Company on high will defend them, and the angels of the Abha
Paradise, in continuous succession, will come down to their aid.” (Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá:
81)
Consultation
is a gift from God to humanity in its age of maturity. Free, full, and frank consultation is the
bedrock of the entire Order of Baha’u’llah. Consultation, while being an
educational model and practice that brings forth the higher faculties of the
human reality, is also a process that brings forth truth. These twin processes are, of course,
interrelated, and their interrelation marks the maturity of the gift of
understanding, the turning of conjecture into certitude. Consultation is a
dynamic educational model and a practice for living continuously in truth. Consultation is a most powerful, even
indispensable, means of individual and social transformation. It should play a central role in human
education.
