tag name: Materialism type: Miscellaneous; Philosophy; Science: natural, social, and applied web link: bahai-library.com/tags/Materialism related tags: – Concepts, Philosophical; – Concepts, Science; Attachment; Spirituality; Tests and difficulties referring tags: Capitalism; Communism; Competition; Consumerism; Gold; Greed; Individualism; Moderation Inventory subject: Greed; envy; covetousness; attachment to the world; Materialism; material vs. spiritual civilization; Transcending the material condition; Worldliness vs. other-worldliness notes: "Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants."
"Thou dost wish for gold and I desire thy freedom from it. Thou thinkest thyself rich in its possession, and I recognize thy wealth in thy sanctity therefrom. By My life! This is My knowledge, and that is thy fancy; how can My way accord with thine?"
– Bahá'u'lláh, Hidden Words, Arabic, #55 and 56 (BH00386)
"Ask not of Me that which We desire not for thee, then be content with what We have ordained for thy sake, for this is that which profiteth thee, if therewith thou dost content thyself."
– Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, Arabic #39
"... In earthly riches fear is hidden and peril is concealed. ... Fleeting are the riches of the world; all that perisheth and changeth is not, and hath never been, worthy of attention, except to a recognized measure..."
– Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-‘Ahd (Book of the Covenant), ¶1
"... Parallel with this, and pervading all departments of life—an evil which the nation, and indeed all those within the capitalist system, though to a lesser degree, share with that state and its satellites regarded as the sworn enemies of that system—is the crass materialism, which lays excessive and ever-increasing emphasis on material well-being, forgetful of those things of the spirit on which alone a sure and stable foundation can be laid for human society. It is this same cancerous materialism, born originally in Europe, carried to excess in the North American continent, contaminating the Asiatic peoples and nations, spreading its ominous tentacles to the borders of Africa, and now invading its very heart, which Bahá’u’lláh in unequivocal and emphatic language denounced in His Writings, comparing it to a devouring flame and regarding it as the chief factor in precipitating the dire ordeals and world-shaking crises that must necessarily involve the burning of cities and the spread of terror and consternation in the hearts of men. Indeed a foretaste of the devastation which this consuming fire will wreak upon the world, and with which it will lay waste the cities of the nations participating in this tragic world-engulfing contest, has been afforded by the last World War, marking the second stage in the global havoc which humanity, forgetful of its God and heedless of the clear warnings uttered by His appointed Messenger for this day, must, alas, inevitably experience. It is this same all-pervasive, pernicious materialism against which the voice of the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant was raised, with pathetic persistence, from platform and pulpit, in His addresses to the heedless multitudes, which, on the morrow of His fateful visit to both Europe and America, found themselves suddenly swept into the vortex of a tempest which in its range and severity was unsurpassed in the world’s history..."
– Shoghi Effendi, from a letter dated 23 July 1954 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, cited in Citadel of Faith: Messages to America, 1947–1957, p. 124-125
"... Whether as world-view or simple appetite, materialism’s effect is to leach out of human motivation—and even interest—the spiritual impulses that distinguish the rational soul. “For self-love,” ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá has said, “is kneaded into the very clay of man, and it is not possible that, without any hope of a substantial reward, he should neglect his own present material good.” In the absence of conviction about the spiritual nature of reality and the fulfilment it alone offers, it is not surprising to find at the very heart of the current crisis of civilization a cult of individualism that increasingly admits of no restraint and that elevates acquisition and personal advancement to the status of major cultural values. The resulting atomization of society has marked a new stage in the process of disintegration about which the writings of Shoghi Effendi speak so urgently..."
– Century of Light, prepared under the supervision of the Universal House of Justice
See also:
– Bahá'í Sacred Writings, chapter 7, section "Attitude Towards Material Possessions" (Bahá'u'lláh), chapter 13, section Progress in the Material World" and chapter 18, sections Material Prosperity" and "Eliminating Extremes of Wealth and Poverty" ('Abdu'l-Bahá)
references: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialism_(disambiguation); bahaiquotes.com/subject/materialism; www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/search#q=Materialism
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