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How Baha’is Would Eliminate the Extremes of Wealth and Poverty

Kenneth E. Bowers | Jul 17, 2017

PART 72 IN SERIES God Speaks Again

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the official views of the Baha'i Faith.

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Kenneth E. Bowers | Jul 17, 2017

PART 72 IN SERIES God Speaks Again

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the official views of the Baha'i Faith.

The Baha’i teachings say that every person has a responsibility to engage in some occupation—and that every person also has the right to a fair means of livelihood.

Those rights and responsibilities apply universally. To ensure them, Baha’is believe that society must guard against the extremes of wealth and poverty, conditions that inevitably produce unfair advantages for some and deprivation for others. Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, severely condemned the rulers of his day for ignoring the rights of the poor.

This does not mean that complete economic equality can be realized, nor that it is even desirable. However, extremes must be avoided so that none will suffer from dire want while others wallow in excess. The Baha’i teachings recommend accomplishing these goals through a combination of legislation and voluntary sharing. Both are necessary.

On the subject of economic legislation, Abdu’l-Baha said to an audience in Paris:

We see amongst us men who are overburdened with riches on the one hand, and on the other those unfortunate ones who starve with nothing; those who possess several stately palaces, and those who have not where to lay their head. Some we find with numerous courses of costly and dainty food; whilst others can scarce find sufficient crusts to keep them alive. Whilst some are clothed in velvets, furs and fine linen, others have insufficient, poor and thin garments with which to protect them from the cold.

This condition of affairs is wrong, and must be remedied. Now the remedy must be carefully undertaken. It cannot be done by bringing to pass absolute equality between men ….

Certainly, some being enormously rich and others lamentably poor, an organization is necessary to control and improve this state of affairs. It is important to limit riches, as it is also of importance to limit poverty. Either extreme is not good. To be seated in the mean is most desirable. If it be right for a capitalist to possess a large fortune, it is equally just that his workman should have a sufficient means of existence ….

There must be special laws made, dealing with these extremes of riches and of want. The members of the Government should consider the laws of God when they are framing plans for the ruling of the people. The general rights of mankind must be guarded and preserved. – Paris Talks, p. 153.

But legal measures alone do not ensure social welfare. From a Baha’i perspective, it is essential for people with an abundance of resources to give charitably to others out of a true sense of loving compassion. Such voluntary sharing occurs when the members of a society have developed a high sense of their spiritual and material obligations to each other, and also realize that in so doing they incur the good pleasure of God. Voluntary sharing of wealth in philanthropic and charitable causes is an important element of a healthy and prosperous society:

Man reacheth perfection through good deeds, voluntarily performed, not through good deeds the doing of which was forced upon him. And sharing is a personally chosen righteous act: that is, the rich should extend assistance to the poor, they should expend their substance for the poor, but of their own free will, and not because the poor have gained this end by force. For the harvest of force is turmoil and the ruin of the social order. On the other hand voluntary sharing, the freely-chosen expending of one’s substance, leadeth to society’s comfort and peace. It lighteth up the world; it bestoweth honor upon humankind. – Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 115.

Importantly, the Baha’i teachings emphasize that wealth itself is not condemned:

Wealth is praiseworthy in the highest degree, if it is acquired by an individual’s own efforts and the grace of God, in commerce, agriculture, art and industry, and if it be expended for philanthropic purposes. Above all, if a judicious and resourceful individual should initiate measures which would universally enrich the masses of the people, there could be no undertaking greater than this, and it would rank in the sight of God as the supreme achievement, for such a benefactor would supply the needs and insure the comfort and well-being of a great multitude. Wealth is most commendable, provided the entire population is wealthy. If, however, a few have inordinate riches while the rest are impoverished, and no fruit or benefit accrues from that wealth, then it is only a liability to its possessor. If, on the other hand, it is expended for the promotion of knowledge, the founding of elementary and other schools, the encouragement of art and industry, the training of orphans and the poor—in brief, if it is dedicated to the welfare of society— its possessor will stand out before God and man as the most excellent of all who live on earth and will be accounted as one of the people of paradise. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 24.

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Comments

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  • Faizi Crofts
    Sep 13, 2019
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    I think the powerful thing about the story at least as told is this idea that he stood for and with something - not that he espoused a noble sentiment. He stood a risk - it seems to me of being attacked himself and he would have known that. There was power in the action, in the example and - perhaps only because these were presence - precisely in the fewness of Jesus words. They were impact because they were few and because they were re-enforced by brave, audacious action (as it would have been in that ...cultural context). Another example - we love that Jesus had said "Love thy neighbor". But what if his actions had contradicted the noble sentiment? Without thinking about it ..
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  • Faizi Crofts
    Sep 13, 2019
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    OK this is going to be multiple posts because I am being long-winded here: Mr. Boyle I think you have a really good point, and I echo your sentiments. Too often we Bahai's fail to live up to the principles we espouse in active ways or to live up to the example of `Abdu'l-Bahá (to whom we are asked to look as our example). In religion, here is something that interests me very much: It is the power of example and action. So for instance, a well known reference is Jesus. Imagine if instead ...of standing in front of Mary Mandolin before the lynch mob and saying what he said - he had merely stood aside and given a nice long speech (however eloquent - it doesn't really matter).
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    • Faizi Crofts
      Sep 13, 2019
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      And of course a principle and sentiment have no live until they are brought in to action. How many religious hypocryts can we find out there who repeat nice ideas and behave in contradictory ways? History and society today is filled with it. Bahai's are not magically any different. Individuals may behave admirably or not. Religion can be a great vehicle for moral development. Then again - for my money - Socrates was a wonderful moral exponent as well and exemplified the same self-sacrifice, valor, virtue and love we are talking about and he ...wasn't a part of any organized religion (though like many today - he still had certain spiritual pretensions and ideas of one sort or another)
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    • Faizi Crofts
      Sep 13, 2019
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      .. I believe it is the way the story ends- with him on a Cross praying on behalf of his tormentors "forgive them, for they know not what they do" which makes the sentiment so impactful for a great many reasons which there is not space for here. But for starters, the example and the actions he offered lend credibility to the intimations of his beautiful heart, and furthermore, they also furnish us with a sense of the what and the how- that is, with a sense that it is actually possible to love someone who hates, torments and ...endeavors to destroy you (because we see him doing that) and how that may be done. That is partly why example and action are essential as much as is pirinciple and sentiment.
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  • Charles Boyle
    Jan 29, 2019
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    Great article, but "would" solve these problems seems not to admit to the possibility of solutions and actions arising through the organic and unforeseeable challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for us all. Inspirational verses and wisdom are wonderful to read, but what tangible examples are there of how the Baha'is have responded to these writings and reduced the extremes of wealth and poverty?
  • Pete Jorgensen
    Jul 22, 2017
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    Thanks for bringing up this important theme, that we want neither economic equality nor economic extremes. Unfortunately as it stands the idea makes no sense --that as soon as we eliminate the richest and poorest levels we end up being stuck w/ new extremes on the next tier over. We either have a bell shaped curve or we have one econ spike.
    The solution is with changing our understanding and not with the Sacred Text. Let's instead say that the extremes we're talking about take the form of many poor, many rich, and few in ...the middle because nobody can move from one group to the other. It's a polarized 'two-humped' distribution that in today's world is being systematically eliminated by economic realities; namely, as foretold.
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  • Pieter B. Ruiter
    Jul 19, 2017
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    In addition, might I suggest the Bahá'í law of Huqúqu'lláh (the so-called Right of God) as a chief instrument and cornerstone of Bahá'u'lláh's injunction to eradicate the extremes of wealth and poverty?
  • Robert Green
    Jul 19, 2017
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    "This article, the first part of a three-part series, contains selected excerpts from the first portion of a February 25, 2017 letter from the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, the democratically-elected U.S. national Baha’i administrative body, to the American Baha’i community. In some places, quotes from the Baha’i writings have been appended. The next two articles will contain excerpts from the middle and final portion of the letter."
    I can't find the third installment, and its nagging at me :)
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