The Báb’s social and ethical teachings

Oct 18

Oct 18 The Báb’s social and ethical teachings

The following is a short extract from Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era by J.E. Esslemont, in English and te reo Māori. This extract has been selected in honour of the bicentenary of the Birth of the Báb.

SOCIAL AND ETHICAL TEACHINGS

In His Writings the Báb tells His followers that they must be distinguished by brotherly love and courtesy. Useful arts and crafts must be cultivated. Elementary education should be general. In the new and wondrous Dispensation now commencing, women are to have fuller freedom. The poor are to be provided for out of the common treasury, but begging is strictly forbidden, as is the use of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes.

The guiding motive of the true Bábí must be pure love, without hope of reward or fear of punishment. Thus He says in the Bayán:—

So worship God that if the recompense of thy worship of Him were to be the Fire, no alteration in thy worship of Him would be produced. If you worship from fear, that is unworthy of the threshold of the holiness of God….So also, if your gaze is on Paradise, and if you worship in hope of that; for then you have made God’s creation a partner with Him.

AKORANGA Ā PĀPORI, Ā TIKANGA HOKI

He whakaaturanga a te Báb, i roto o Āna Tuhinga, ki āna wheao me whai rongonui rātou ki te aroha tētahi ki tētahi, me te whakaaro atawhai. Kia ākina hoki ngā kōwaiwai haratau. Me whānui te mātauranga māmā. Me whai mana te hunga wāhine ki roto o te Whakawāteatanga hōu, mīharo hoki kātahi anō nei ka tīmata. Kia manaakitia ngā rawakore mā te tahua ā-whenua, whakakāhoretia kahatia ana te pīnono me te whakamahi i te waipiro hei inuinu.

Ko te tohutohu mātapono o te Báb i tūturu, ko te aroha pū, kāore he whakaaro ki te whakautua, ki te whiunga rānei. Arā, mai te Bayān:—

Nō reira whakapaingia Te Atua mē he whāngainga kit e Ahi to utu mō te koropiko ki a Ia, te huanga mai kāore he rerekē o tāu nā koropiko ki a ia. Ki te koropiko koe me te wehi kau, kāore he painga o te paepae o te tapu o Te Atua…. Nō reira, kei te Wāhi Tau Rawa tō titiro, ā, mā te tūmanako ki reira tō koropiko, kua whakaea e koe te hanganga a Te Atua hei Hoa Mōna.