This review of The Secret of Divine Civilization appeared in Bahá'í News (September 1972, pages 12-13). It has been adapted from its original format. Page numbers referring to the text of the book are given in brackets.
We must now highly resolve to arise and lay hold of all those instrumentalities that promote the peace and well-being and happiness, the knowledge, culture and industry, the dignity, value and station, of the entire human race. Thus, through the restoring waters of pure intention and unselfish effort, the earth of human potentialities will blossom with its own latent excellence and flower into praiseworthy qualities, and bear and flourish until it comes to rival that rosegarden of knowledge which belonged to our forefathers.{4}'Abdu'l-Bahá emphasized the need for good government in order that a backward nation might become advanced, an ignorant people enlightened, an impoverished country wealthy. He praised the Shah for forming Persia's first parliament "by the grace of God and the spiritual influence of His universal manifestation,"{10} but warned that great results cannot be expected from legislatures and parliaments unless the members are qualified. The members of "assemblies of consultation" must be both right-minded and knowledgeable:
First, the elected members must be righteous, God-fearing, high-minded, incorruptible. Second, they must be fully cognizant, in every particular of the laws of God, informed as to the highest principles of law, versed in the rules which govern the management of internal affairs and the conduct of foreign relations, skilled in the useful arts of civilization, and content with their lawful emoluments.{17}And lest we despair of ever finding such members, 'Abdu'l-Bahá assured us that they would not be impossible to find.
...This eminent station is achieved when the individual combines in himself a thorough knowledge of those complex and transcendental realities pertaining to God, of the fundamental truths of Qur'ánic political and religious law, of the contents of the sacred Scriptures of other faiths, and of those regulations and procedures which would contribute to the progress and civilization of this distinguished country. He should in addition be informed as to the laws and principles, the customs, conditions and manners, and the material and moral virtues characterizing the statecraft of other nations, and should be well versed in all the useful branches of learning of the day, and study the historical records of bygone governments and peoples. For if a learned individual has no knowledge of the sacred Scriptures and the entire field of divine and natural science, of religious jurisprudence and the arts of government and the varied learning of the time and the great events of history, he might prove unequal to an emergency, and this is inconsistent with the necessary qualification of comprehensive knowledge.{35-6}But where are we to find the "comprehensively learned individual"? Even 'Abdu'l-Bahá said they were "hard to come by."{37} His solution, until such time as comprehensive education is a fact, is to form a body of scholars, "the various groups of whose membership would each be expert in one of the aforementioned branches of knowledge. This body should with the greatest energy and vigor deliberate as to all present and future requirements, and bring about equilibrium and order."{37}
If the country were built up, the roads repaired, the lot of the helpless improved by various means, the poor rehabilitated, the masses set on the path to progress, the revenues of public wealth increased, the scope of education widened, the government properly organized, and the free exercise of the individual's rights, and the security of his person and property, his dignity and good name, assured...{115}A glittering culture is not the goal of all this striving and change, for civilization is only the means to an end. The end is human happiness. "The primary purpose, the basic objective," said 'Abdu'l-Bahá, "in laying down powerful laws and setting up great principles and institutions dealing with every aspect of civilization, is human happiness."{60} And what is human happiness? He said, "...Human happiness consists only in drawing closer to the Threshold of Almighty God, and in securing the peace and well-being of every individual member, high and low alike, of the human race..."{60}
The highest righteousness of all is for blessed souls to take hold of the hands of the helpless and deliver them out of their ignorance and abasement and poverty, and with pure motives, and only for the sake of God, to arise and energetically devote themselves to the service of the masses, forgetting their own worldly advantage and working only to serve the general good.{103}
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