Inspired
by the
Baha’i Faith
The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the official views of the Baha'i Faith. The official website of the Baha'i Faith is: Bahai.org. The official website of the Baha'is of the United States can be found here: Bahai.us.
GOT IT
The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the official views of the Baha'i Faith.
How do I become Baha’i?
Spirituality

If God, then Justice

John Hatcher | Jul 20, 2017

PART 60 IN SERIES Understanding Death–The Most Important Event of Your Life

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

Interested in Other Topics?

We’ve got something for everyone.
John Hatcher | Jul 20, 2017

PART 60 IN SERIES Understanding Death–The Most Important Event of Your Life

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

If God exists, I reasoned as a boy, then there must be justice.

Later in my life, while working on my PhD, I realized that the ancient Roman philosopher and poet Boethius had said precisely the same thing in his Consolation of Philosophy, which he wrote in 524 CE while awaiting his own execution for something he didn’t do—a great motivator for trying to figure out how there can be divine justice in a physical world ostensibly run by heartless idiots:

If God is, whence come evil things? If He is not, whence come good? – Boethius

Later on, about a decade later, I would begin the journey of writing a series of books explicating how the Baha’i teachings advance these concepts even more explicitly.

In the previous essay in this series, we read the letter Abdu’l-Baha penned to two bereaved parents. In it, he gave them no palliative, no “sorry-for-your-loss” hallmark card sort of consolation. Instead, he gave them a very plausible explanation for what had happened, and he then exhorted them to attempt to “attain utmost patience, composure and resignation” until such time as they are apprised of the love and logic and justice underlying this seeming injustice.

Abdu’l-Baha was not callous. He certainly didn’t tell the grieving parents who lost their son to be elated, nor did he chide them for grieving. But his assurance that they will in time understand the meaning of this act, even if not in this lifetime, at least assuaged any temptation they might have to ponder how a loving God could allow such an event to occur. This realization, if the parents can fully grasp it, helps them to appreciate that they really grieve for themselves, for their separation from the child, however temporary and temporal that separation might be.

But Abdu’l-Baha also gave them a specific exercise to practice, so that their sole recourse is not simply to wait for time to assuage their pain. He told them that they could assist their son by praying for his spiritual progress.

This is a particularly powerful exercise, inasmuch as it accomplishes two tasks at once. First, it points the parents in the direction of the most important conclusion they can reach—that their son is still alive, still growing and progressing, even though they are temporarily prevented from communicating directly with him or sharing the joy of observing his progress firsthand. Second, it enables the parents to continue the work they had begun by way of assisting in the child’s development. They can still have a direct influence on his continued development, maturation and ascent as a human soul.

In another, similar letter to a grieving mother, Abdu’l-Baha expressed understanding about the incredible weight of grief, but he also assured her that her son “hath not been lost but, rather, hath stepped from this world into another” and that she “will find him in the divine realm. That reunion shall be for eternity, while in this world separation is inevitable and bringeth with it a burning grief.”Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 200.

Even more interesting in the advice Abdu’l-Baha gives in this same letter is the following exhortation:

Therefore be thou not disconsolate, do not languish, do not sigh, neither wail nor weep; for agitation and mourning deeply affect his soul in the divine realm. – Ibid.

This statement actually presents us with another Baha’i axiom about such unfortunate deaths and our part as parents in grieving—that the soul of the child is aware of the parents’ sorrow, and that their excess of grief will actually impede the felicity of the soul and its ability to make progress in its new environment, because the child will feel the weight of the parents’ pain and lamentation.

Finally, Abdu’l-Baha offers what are probably the most profound statements regarding this most egregious of griefs—the lamentation for a child or for someone who, through no fault of their own, suffers from emotional, physical, or mental handicaps. These consolations are stated in the forms of axiomatic verities regarding such conditions and, like the previously mentioned statement of Baha’u’llah regarding the fact that no physical or mental condition can impair the soul itself, are articulated succinctly and with a tone of authority and certitude.

Asked “What happens to children who die before reaching the age of maturity or before the appointed time of birth,” Abdu’l-Baha explained that “these children abide under the shadow of the Divine Providence” and that, inasmuch as they:

… are unsullied by the defilements of the world of nature, they will become the manifestations of divine bounty, and the glances of the eye of divine mercy will be directed towards them. – Some Answered Questions, newly revised edition, pp. 277-278.

You May Also Like

Dawn Prayers on Zoom: Beginning Each Day Spiritually
Spirituality

Dawn Prayers on Zoom: Beginning Each Day Spiritually

Prepare for the Next Life—Or Improve this One?
Spirituality

Prepare for the Next Life—Or Improve this One?

How to Foster a Spiritual Curiosity
Spirituality

How to Foster a Spiritual Curiosity


Comments

characters remaining
  • Alison Richmond
    Oct 12, 2019
    -
    This was beautiful
  • Mark David Vinzens
    Jul 21, 2017
    -
    The definition of Divine Justice: "Yet those who journey in the garden land of knowledge, because they see the end in the beginning, see peace in war and friendliness in anger" (The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys)
  • Melanie Black
    Jul 20, 2017
    -
    I am impressed by your sensitive treatment of this subject, as well as your personal experiences and what you learned from them. This makes your essays such profound and interesting reading for me. I have thought about the subject of death and dying for a long time because it was such a mystery, and became determined to face my fear about it. I had read that Buddhist monks meditated on their own deaths, so I did the same (some time ago). It has taken me a long time and much soul searching, but I have mangaged some degree of freedom ...from this fear. I guess the real test will yet come. Thank you, again.
    Read more...
x
x
Connect with Baha’is in your area
Welcome!
What's your name?
Thanks my friend ! We want to connect you with a Baha’i in your area, where would that be?
Thank you so much! How can they best reach you?
To put you in touch with a Baha’i in your area who can answer your questions, we would like to kindly ask for a few details about yourself.
Connect with Baha’is in your area
Connect with Baha’is in your area
Get in touch with the Baha’is in your community.