The Bahá’í World
Volume 2 : 1926-1928
 THE BAHÁ’Í RELIGION239
PAPER II
By
Ruḥí Effendi Afnán
THE speaker who preceded me gave you a sketch of the history of the Bahá’í Movement as well as a statement of some of its fundamental principles and teachings. It now rests with me to explain briefly the significance of those principles and teachings and to describe the profound changes they have wrought in the lives of their followers.
At a time when the spirit of materialism was spreading all over Europe, when internal revolutions, diplomatic intrigues, political strife and economic rivalries were darkening the horizon of an agitated and suffering world, Bahá’u’lláh, from the prison city of ‘Akká, addressed a number of Epistles to the monarchs and rulers of the world to whom He declared His teachings and principles.
To the Bahá’ís these teachings stand out as the only remedy for the divers ills of the present age and the only solution of its manifold problems.
Bahá’u’lláh saw the world like the surface of a glacier hopelessly divided by innumerable fissures and dark and deep crevasses. The development of modern science had opened the eyes of men to the bigotry and prejudice that existed in religion and had so alienated them from it that even its pure and fundamental truths seemed, to their minds, to be darkened. The gulf existing between man and God was widening and agnosticism was the fashion of the day.
The spirit of nationalism, embittered by fierce economic and political rivalries, had so widened the chasms separating the nations, that nothing less than a great world war could be foreseen.
Within the individual nations also, new lines of cleavage accentuated the divisions and differences of men, and class hatred and economic unrest were spreading fast over the European continent.
Bahá’u’lláh conceived the glorious vision of the Oneness of Mankind and set before Himself the task of healing, by aid of His fundamental principles, every sore that afflicted the body of humanity. He knew well that unless all the crevasses were bridged over and all the differences removed, unity and universal peace would not prove enduring, nor even attainable.
To bring back man to God and at the same time to enable him to appreciate the advantages which science provides, He declared that true religion and science cannot possibly be antagonistic. For both, in their essence, are truths, and between truths there can be no conflict. Moreover, to reconcile the religious, he laid it down, as a guiding principle, that the purpose of Religion is to provide a social bond, to create a new force in man’s life, to infuse in him the love of his neighbor. If, therefore, a religion, which He likened to a medicine, should aggravate the disease, it is far better to be without it.
In adjusting international difficulties He did not advocate political methods. He knew that war is only the result of a state of mind, a spirit of blind and narrow nationalism inherent in man’s heart. He, therefore, dealt His first blow by declaring that “Glory is not his who loves his country, but glory is his who loves his kind.” All men are the sheep of one fold and God the divine and loving Shepherd. Why, therefore, slay each other?
As one of the sources of misunderstanding is multiplicity of languages, He called upon the members of the International House of Justice, either to create a new auxiliary language or to choose one of those already existing and to have it taught in all the schools of the world, so that ideas might be more easily diffused and the risk of grave misunderstanding lessened. He then laid down the broad lines that should direct the formation of the International House of Justice, a supreme and all-inclusive body whose members shall be fully accredited representa-