1- Baha’is and Compulsory Education

`Abdu’l-Bahā had insisted that all people everywhere should be educated using the exact same manner and system:

It is necessary that the guidelines and laws of education be the same [everywhere] so that all humankind are given the same education. This means education and nurturing must be the same in all schools. All elements and methods must be the same.[1]

This method has not been implemented in Baha’i communities to any extent. Baha’is receive the same tutoring and education that all non-Baha’is receive. There exists no compulsion nor equality in the methods and degrees of education a Baha’i receives. Since this teaching is completely impractical using the aforementioned format, `Abdu’l-Bahā changed his mind and announced that there is no need for equal methods and degrees of education for all, rather education must be according to capacity:

Among other teachings and principles Bahā’u’llāh counsels the education of all members of society. No individual should be denied or deprived of intellectual training, although each should receive according to capacity. None must be left in the grades of ignorance, for ignorance is a defect in the human world. All mankind must be given a knowledge of science and philosophy—that is, as much as may be deemed necessary. All cannot be scientists and philosophers, but each should be educated according to his needs and deserts.[2]

There is nothing exciting or outstanding about this order. All systems of education have been and still are based on the capacity of the student. How `Abdu’l-Bahā hadn’t come by this order in the first place—with all his superhuman knowledge—is a question that the Baha’is must answer.

2- The Bābī Meaning of Education

The predecessor of Bahā’u’llāh, had he succeeded in spreading his creed, would have limited education to a few mere topics uttered in his own books. For he had given orders to destroy all non-Bābī books,[3] had prohibited teaching anything but the Bayān,[4] and had prohibited owning more than nineteen books.[5] The leader of a creed that goes about claiming that a single letter from these laws is more dear to him than everything that is in the skies and the earth,[6] cannot exactly boast about being a promoter of education.

3- Education and Nurturing Will Not Dispel Ignorance

In the Baha’i creed the criterion for ignorance and non-ignorance is not education. The criterion is accepting Baha’ism or rejecting it. We will repeat here what we have quoted many times:

If today, someone grasps all of the knowledge on earth but stops at the word ‘yes’ (meaning does not become a Baha’i), the Lord will not pay attention to him (ladī l-Ḥaqq madhkūr na) and he will be considered as the most ignorant amongst the people.[7]

From now on nobody is to be called knowledgeable, except those who have decorated themselves with the garment of this New Affair (meaning those who have become Baha’is).[8]

The general criterion is what we mentioned and any soul who has success in it, meaning recognizes and realizes the Sunrise of Manifestation (meaning himself), will be mentioned in the Divine Book as someone who possesses reason or else he will be (mentioned as) ignorant even if he himself thinks that his reason equals that of the whole world.[9]

4- The Outcome of the Education Baha’i Leaders Received

As we showed in Chapter 4, the result of the education Baha’i leaders received was the utterance of facts that were contrary to established sciences like physics, history, biology, and astrology. For example, they believe aliens live on all stars and planets, some creatures are created by spontaneous generation, and that Bahā’u’llāh was the creator of multiple Gods.

5- The Manners of Bahā’u’llāh and `Abdu’l-Bahā as Two Examples of Baha’i Education and Nurturing

Bahā’u’llāh’s manners are a clear example of the intended result of Baha’i education and nurturing. He called those who opposed him donkeys [10] and called his brother polytheist, calf, scarab (dung beetle), tyrant, and Satan.[11] He even went as far as calling non-Baha’is bastards[12] and animals.[13]

We should point out again that this degree of manners and politeness emanates from the same Bahā’u’llāh that says:

Politeness is one of mankind’s traits that distinguishes him from other [creatures]. He who has no success in [being polite] then his demise certainly has—and will have—priority over his existence.[14]

`Abdu’l-Bahā followed his father’s example and used the same rude trend of name-calling towards his opponents:

They are senile like arrogant fools and not seashells full of gems. They are ecstatic from the smell of garbage like dung beetles and not from the scent of a flower of gardens. They are lowly earthworms buried beneath the great earth not high flying birds. They are bats of darkness not the searchlights of clear horizons. They always make excuses and like ravens, have nested in the landfills of fall (autumn) . . . so you Oh true friend and spiritual helper . . . attack these unjust foxes and like a high soaring eagle drive away these hateful ravens from this field.[15]

The words of `Abdu’l-Bahā best describe this situation:

We should be fair. How can we expect a person that has failed in nurturing his children, spouse, and family to succeed in nurturing the people of the world? Is there any doubt or uncertainty about this issue? By God, no![16]

How can someone be a promoter of universal compulsory education when he fails to educate himself and his children?! According to `Abdu’l-Bahā, the validity of a prophet’s claim can be verified by observing his ability in educating and nurturing human kind:

Prophets are public teachers. If we want to see that prophets are teachers we must independently seek the truth. If [prophets] nurture the souls and take them from the depths of ignorance to the peaks of knowledge, then they are surely true prophets.[17]  

6- Baha’is Must be Educated Only in Baha’i Schools

`Abdu’l-Bahā gives strict orders to his followers to not send their children to non-Baha’i schools:

It is absolutely prohibited for the children of the friends to go to the schools of others (meaning non-Baha’is).[18]

Is this the meaning of the Oneness of Humanity and not having prejudice? Why is this distinction made between Baha’is and non-Baha’is?

What is more interesting is the fact that `Abdu’l-Bahā, as usual, did not mind not practicing what he preached. Although he strictly ordered Baha’is to not enroll their children in non-Baha’i schools, he enrolled Shoghi in non-Baha’i schools himself:

It was here that Shoghi Effendi had a very significant dream which he recounted to me and which I wrote down.  He said that when he was nine or ten years old, living with his nurse in this house and attending school in Haifa, he dreamed that he and another child, an Arab schoolmate, were in the room in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahā used to receive His guests in the house in Akka . . .[19]

This trend continued until Shoghi finished high school and college:

Shoghi Effendi entered the best school in Haifa, the College des  Freres, conducted by the Jesuits.  He told me he had been very unhappy there.  Indeed, I gathered from him that he never was really happy in either school or university.  In spite of his innately joyous nature, his sensitivity and his background – so different from that of others in every way – could not but set him apart and give rise to many a heart-ache; indeed, he was one of those people whose open and innocent hearts, keen minds and affectionate nature seem to combine to bring upon them more shocks and suffering in life than is the lot of most men.  Because of his unhappiness in this school ‘Abdu’l-Baha decided to send him to Beirut where he attended another Catholic school as a boarder, and where he was equally unhappy.  Learning of this in Haifa the family sent a trusted Baha’i woman to rent a home for Shoghi Effendi in Beirut and take care of and wait on him.  It was not long before she wrote to his father that he was very unhappy at school, would refuse to go to it sometimes for days, and was getting thin and run down.  His father showed this letter to ‘Abdu’l-Baha Who then had arrangements made for Shoghi Effendi to enter the Syrian Protestant College, which had a school as well as a university, later known as the American College in Beirut, and which the Guardian entered when he finished what was then equivalent to the high school.[20]

[1] `Abdu’l-Bahā, Khaṭābāt (Tehran), vol. 2, p. 148.

[2] `Abdu’l-Bahā, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p.108.

[3] “Chapter six of the sixth unit which is about destroying all books but those that have been written or will be written about this order (meaning the Bab’s creed),” The Bāb, Farsi Bayān, unit 6, chap. 6.

[4] “Teaching a book other than the book of Bayān is not allowed unless it has in it what is related to theology (kalām). [Teaching] those [sciences] which have been invented such as logic (manṭiq), principles [of Jurisprudence] (uṣūl), and other [sciences], is not permitted for those who have faith,” The Bāb, Farsi Bayān, unit 4, chap. 10.

[5] “You have been prohibited in the Bayān from having more than nineteen books. If you do so, you will be fined 19 mithqāls of gold,” The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 11, chap. 7.

[6] “I [swear by] He who in His hand is my soul and my essence, a single letter from the Bayān is dearer to me than everything that is in the heavens and the earth,” Asad-Allāh Fāḍil Māzandarānī, Asrār al-āthār khuṣūṣī, vol. 5, p. 333.

[7] Bahā’u’llāh, Iqtidārāt wa chand lauḥ dīgar, p. 111.

[8] Bahā’u’llāh, Badī`, pp. 138–139.

[9] `Abd a l-Ḥamīd Ishrāq Khāwarī, Mā’idiy-i āsimānī (Tehran: Mu’assisiyi Millī Maṭbū`āt Amrī, 129 Badī`), vol. 7, p. 160. In the scanned image of this book available at reference.bahai.org this page has been incorrectly replaced with the same page from vol. 8 of the book. The typed file in Microsoft Word format does not have this error.

[10] “Oh you donkeys! Whatever God says is the truth and will not become void by the words of the polytheists,” Bahā’u’llāh, Badī`, p. 174.

[11] “When Mīrzā Yaḥyā Azal started opposing the works, deeds, and words of his esteemed brother (Bahā’u’llāh) in Edirne[11] . . . he dropped down from his [high] stature and the rank of union and agreement [that he had with Bahā’u’llāh] and was gradually—in the tablets, works, and revelations [from Bahā’u’llāh]—referred to with codes, references, and names such as the polytheist, the calf, the scarab (dung beetle), the tyrant, the Satan, the devil, the foul swamp, the buzzing of a fly, and similar names,” Asad-Allāh Fāḍil Māzandarānī, Asrār al-āthār khuṣūṣī, vol. 5, p. 345–346.

[12] “Whoever denies this apparent exalted luminous grace (meaning Baha’ism), it is worthy that he asks his state from his mother and he will soon be returned to the bottom of hell,” `Abd al-Ḥamīd Ishrāq Khāwarī, Mā’idiy-i āsimānī, vol. 4, pp. 355 and `Abd al-Ḥamīd Ishrāq Khāwarī, Ganj-i shāygān, p. 78; “Whoever has the enmity of this servant (meaning Bahā’u’llāh) in his heart, certainly Satan has entered their mother’s bed,” `Abd al-Ḥamīd Ishrāq Khāwarī, Ganj-i shāygān, p. 79.

[13] For example, “Today, according to the decree of the Point of Bayān (meaning the Bāb), those individuals who turn away from this Novel Affair (meaning Baha’ism) are deprived of the garb of being called and described [as humans?] and are assembled and mentioned as animals in the presence of God,” Bahā’u’llāh, Badī`, p. 213.

[14]Bahā’u’llāh, Badī`, p. 203–204.

[15] `Abdu’l-Bahā, Makātīb (Egypt), vol. 1, pp. 442–443.

[16]`Abdu’l-Bahā, Makātīb (Egypt), vol. 2, p. 182.

[17] `Abd al-Ḥamīd Ishrāq Khāwarī, Payām-i malakūt, pp. 203–204.

[18] `Abdu’l-Bahā, Makātīb (probably Tehran), vol. 5, p. 170.

[19] Rūhīyyih Rabbani, The Priceless Pearl (London: Bahā’ī Publishing Trust, 1969), p. 16.

[20] Rūhīyyih Rabbani, The Priceless Pearl, p. 17.