Consultation: Concluding Reflections

“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.