Author: Firoozeh

Exploring the Baha’i Concept of Life After Death

Baha'i Concept Life After Death

Religions are often perceived as a means to answer questions about what happens after we die. Will it be absolute non-existence after our body’s last breath? Is there life after death at all? And if there is, will we remember our life on this earth? Do we really go to heaven or hell?

Shoghi Effendi states:

Evolution in the life of the individual starts with the formation of the human embryo and passes through various stages, and even continues after death in another form.1

In order to understand better the concept of life after death and what could be meant by “another form”, it can be helpful to start by looking at the reality of the human soul.

The soul has its origin in the spiritual worlds of God. It is exalted above matter and the physical world. The individual has his beginning when the soul associates itself with the embryo at the time of conception … The soul does not belong to the material world, and its association with the body is similar to that of a light with a mirror which reflects it. The light which appears in the mirror is not inside it; it comes from an external source … there is a special relationship between it and the body, and together they form a human being.2

Baha’u’llah tells us:

Verily I say, the human soul is, in its essence, one of the signs of God, a mystery among His mysteries.3

To be a “sign of God” can thus mean that the soul is a reflection of the attributes of God and therefore is an expression of His existence. Therefore, the attributes of our soul, such as love, patience, and forgiveness constitute signs of God.
In considering the existence of the soul, we begin to realise that life cannot be seen only as the changes and chances we experience as we go through on this material plane. We understand that this world is only one of many and that the soul is the form through which life continues after our material body perishes.

And now concerning thy question regarding the soul of man and its survival after death. Know thou of a truth that the soul, after its separation from the body, will continue to progress until it attaineth the presence of God…4

A relevant point from this last quote is the idea that the soul will always continue to move towards its Creator. We can then think of life as climbing a mountain. Each step up the path helps us develop our muscles, while simultaneously bringing us a step closer to the top. The very act of expressing an attribute of God, being like Him, brings us closer to Him.

…we learn that nearness to God is possible through devotion to Him, through entrance into the Kingdom and service to humanity; it is attained by unity with mankind and through loving-kindness to all; it is dependent upon investigation of truth, acquisition of praiseworthy virtues, service in the cause of universal peace and personal sanctification. In a word, nearness to God necessitates sacrifice of self, severance and the giving up of all to Him. Nearness is likeness.5

The idea of movement towards God is important to understand as it conveys the Baha’i view with regards to two concepts widely associated with the afterlife – ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’. These are not seen as actual physical spaces people go to, but, considering that the purpose of life is to come closer to God, and to come closer means to be aligning ourselves more with godly attributes, heaven is the state in which a human being has developed its perfections and is then near to God. And hell is the state lacking those divine potentials, thus resulting in remoteness from God. Therefore, when we question, where is Paradise, and where is Hell? The answer may simply be:

The one is reunion with Me; the other thine own self…6

Abdu’l-Baha elaborates:

The difference and distinction will naturally become realized between all men after their departure from this mortal world. But this (distinction) is not in respect to place, but it is in respect to the soul and conscience. For the Kingdom of God is sanctified (or free) from time and place; it is another world and another universe.7

The rewards of the other world are peace, the spiritual graces, the various spiritual gifts in the Kingdom of God, the gaining of the desires of the heart and the soul, and the meeting of God in the world of eternity. In the same way the punishments of the other world, that is to say, the torments of the other world, consist in being deprived of the special divine blessings and the absolute bounties, and falling into the lowest degrees of existence.8

I find it helpful to relate things to what I know and as I have played basketball for over seven years, I use it as another analogy. When I have a game coming up, I will always be sure to have a long warm-up. In that warm-up, I will shoot some balls at the basket, run in the court and stretch my muscles. Although the warm-up doesn’t count as part of the game – as the number of baskets I make before the game starts doesn’t count – it is nonetheless an essential preparation for the game. If not done properly, I could enter the game unfocused, or worse, get injured. I only have one chance to warm-up before the game.

Similarly, as the purpose of the warm-up is in the game that follows, and the purpose of the life of an embryo in the world of matrix is to develop the needed organs for life in this material world, the purpose of our life in this world is to develop the spiritual capacities that we will require in the next.

We come on to this planet once only. Our life here is like the baby in the womb of its mother, which develops in that state what is necessary for its entire life after it is born. The same is true of us. Spiritually we must develop here what we will require for the life after death. In that future life, God, through His Mercy, can help us to evolve characteristics which we neglected to develop while we were on this earthly plane.9

Death is then a change of condition in this process of the soul’s movement towards God. It starts while man is in the embryonic form, carries on through our material life, and continues after our body’s death.

To consider that after the death of the body the spirit perishes, is like imagining that a bird in a cage will be destroyed if the cage is broken, though the bird has nothing to fear from the destruction of the cage. Our body is like the cage, and the spirit is like the bird … if the cage becomes broken, the bird will continue and exist: its feelings will be even more powerful, its perceptions greater, and its happiness increased.10

And as we continue this journey, the experiences and the life we have in this earthly plane are not forgotten:

As to the question whether the souls will recognize each other in the spiritual world: This (fact) is certain; for the Kingdom is the world of vision (i. e., things are visible in it), where all concealed realities will become disclosed … Likewise will they find all the friends of God, both those of the former and recent times, present in the heavenly assemblage … Likewise, a love that one may have entertained for any one will not be forgotten in the world of the Kingdom. Likewise, thou wilt not forget (there) the life that thou hast had in the material world.11

In exploring the nature of our souls, it is perhaps essential to remember that our understanding of this ‘mystery’ will always fall short:

The mysteries of man’s physical death and of his return have not been divulged, and still remain unread.12

And:

Thou hast asked Me concerning the nature of the soul. Know, verily, that the soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel.13

  1. Shoghi Effendi in a letter to an individual believer, November 26, 1939 in Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 536 [↩]
  2. Section 1, Unit 3, Reflections on the Life of the Spirit – Ruhi Institute [↩]
  3. Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 160 [↩]
  4. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah LXXXI, pp. 155-56 [↩]
  5. Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 148 [↩]
  6. Baha’u’llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 132 [↩]
  7. Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha v1, p. 205 [↩]
  8. Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 324 [↩]
  9. From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, April 22, 1954 in Lights of Guidance, p. 537 [↩]
  10. Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 326 [↩]
  11. Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha v1, p. 205 [↩]
  12. Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 345 [↩]
  13. Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 158 [↩]

 By Iko

I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity.

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Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule. – Buddha

I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content. Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness… If you desire with all your heart, friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger, until it reaches the minds of all men. – Abdu’l-Baha,Paris Talks, pp. 29-30.

Know thou of a certainty that Love is the secret of God’s holy Dispensation, the manifestation of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual outpourings. Love is heaven’s kindly light, the Holy Spirit’s eternal breath that vivifieth the human soul. Love is the cause of God’s revelation unto man, the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things. Love is the one means that ensureth true felicity both in this world and the next. Love is the light that guideth in darkness, the living link that uniteth God with man, that assureth the progress of every illumined soul. Love is the most great law that ruleth this mighty and heavenly cycle, the unique power that bindeth together the diverse elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms. Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe. Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation. – Abdu’l-Baha,Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 27.

The message of the holy, divine Manifestations is love; the phenomena of creation are based upon love; the radiance of the world is due to love; the well-being and happiness of the world depend upon it. Therefore, I admonish you that you must strive throughout the human world to diffuse the light of love. The people of this world are thinking of warfare; you must be peacemakers. The nations are self-centered; you must be thoughtful of others rather than yourselves. They are neglectful; you must be mindful. They are asleep; you should be awake and alert. May each one of you be as a shining star in the horizon of eternal glory. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 337.

Involvement in the Life of Society

What Bahá’ís Do

Involvement in the Life of Society

Social Action

Bahá’í efforts of social action seek to promote the social and material well-being of people of all walks of life, whatever their beliefs or background. Such efforts are motivated by the desire to serve humanity and contribute to constructive social change. Together they represent a growing process of learning concerned with the application of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, along with knowledge accumulated in different fields of human endeavour, to social reality.

Issues of social and economic development can be complex, and the efforts of Bahá’ís to engage in social action are, by comparison, modest. They are usually carried out by small groups of individuals in a locality where the courses of the training institute are being widely offered. Efforts emerge out of growing collective consciousness. Most are projects of a fixed duration. They come to a close when their objectives have been met. They may be related to any one of a variety of fields, for example, health, sanitation, education, agriculture or environmental protection. Whatever their nature, they aim at improving some aspect of the life of the local population. In a few cases, those engaged in grassroots social action are able to extend the range of their activities in an organic fashion, and their efforts evolve into projects of a more sustained nature, with administrative structure.In such cases, a non-profit, non-governmental organization may be established by a group of Bahá’ís, often with like-minded colleagues, to address one or another issue of social and economic development. Operating on the principles of the Bahá’í Faith, it is generally called a “Bahá’í-inspired organization”. It provides institutional capacity in a country or region to deal with the generation, application and diffusion of knowledge about development. Typically, such an organization will begin with one primary line of action and will allow its efforts to increase in complexity over time.
For communities in most regions, one of the first concerns is to ensure that their children and youth have access to a sound academic education. Currently, there are a few Bahá’í-inspired organizations that have devised well-defined programmes, particularly in the field of education, and members of local communities all over the world can, with ongoing training in the use of materials, adopt their methods and approaches. Many capable young men and women, who might otherwise be forced to leave their villages and neighbourhoods in search of employment, benefit in particular. To the capacity they have developed through the study of institute courses are added new knowledge and skills. And they become the catalysts for further progress: capacity rises within the community, if only moderately, to take collective action in fields such as education, health and food production and to resist the influence of destructive forces tearing at the social fabric.In this environment, the local governing council or Local Spiritual Assembly serves as the voice of moral authority. It interacts with social and political structures in the locality, consulting with them about the work Bahá’ís are doing for the progress of the village or neighbourhood. It also makes certain that, as small groups strive to improve local conditions, the integrity of their endeavours is not compromised. Overly ambitious projects that would consume energies and ultimately arrest progress are avoided. Efforts grow in keeping with the capacity of the local population to carry them forward. Sustainability is a natural consequence of the process itself.For Bahá’ís, social action is pursued with the conviction that every population should be able to trace the path of its own progress. Social change is not a project that one group of people carries out for the benefit of another.

http://www.bahai.org/   

Elaha Mabooda Maghsooda

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKyWmW0zFzw&list=PL8yK8MiOG7d_wst6QNRkGa1GIyRla1n63&index=63

This beautiful video of a Baha’i prayer is sung by Ava Bowers. Here is the English translation-

“My God, the Object of my adoration, the Goal of my desire, the All-Bountiful, the Most Compassionate! All life is of Thee, and all power lieth within the grasp of Thine omnipotence. Whosoever Thou exaltest is raised above the angels, and attaineth the station: ‘Verily, We uplifted him to a place on high!’; and whosoever Thou dost abase is made lower than dust, nay, less than nothing. O Divine Providence! Though wicked, sinful, and intemperate, we still seek from Thee a ‘seat of truth,’ and long to behold the countenance of the Omnipotent King. It is Thine to command, and all sovereignty belongeth to Thee, and the realm of might boweth before Thy behest. Everything Thou doest is pure justice, nay, the very essence of grace. One gleam from the splendors of Thy Name, the All-Merciful, sufficeth to banish and blot out every trace of sinfulness from the world, and a single breath from the breezes of the Day of Thy Revelation is enough to adorn all mankind with a fresh attire. Vouchsafe Thy strength, O Almighty One, unto Thy weak creatures, and quicken them who are as dead, that haply they may find Thee, and may be led unto the ocean of Thy guidance, and may remain steadfast in Thy Cause. Should the fragrance of Thy praise be shed abroad by any of the divers tongues of the world, out of the East or out of the West, it would, verily, be prized and greatly cherished. If such tongues, however, be deprived of that fragrance, they assuredly would be unworthy of any mention, in word or yet in thought. We beg of Thee, O Providence, to show Thy way unto all men, and to guide them aright. Thou art, verily, the Almighty, the Most Powerful, the All-Knowing, the All-Seeing.”

(Baha’u’llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 9)