Full Employment and Decent Work (excerpt)

"In all policies aimed at tackling unemployment and providing decent and secure work for all, the conception of work needs to transcend just the economic dimension and encompass also the human and social purpose that employment fulfills.

Work needs to be seen not only as a means to securing an individual and family’s basic needs, but also as a channel to developing one’s craft, refining one’s character, and contributing to the welfare and progress of society. Work, no matter how humble and simple, when performed with an attitude of service, is a means to contribute to the advancement of our communities, countries and global society."

Bahá'í International Community’s Statement to the 46th Commission on Social Development
New York, USA - 11 February 2008
BIC Document #07-0211 - http://bic.org/statements-and-reports (click direct link on left)

"Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes..."

"Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He, through the direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him—a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation…. Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty."

-Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 65

For the Feast of Mulk/Dominion: "The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind."

"The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and centre your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements."
- Baha'u'llah, The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, p. 114

"No thing have I perceived, except that I perceived God within it, God before it, or God after it."

"From that which hath been said it becometh evident that all things, in their inmost reality, testify to the revelation of the names and attributes of God within them. Each according to its capacity, indicateth, and is expressive of, the knowledge of God. So potent and universal is this revelation, that it hath encompassed all things, visible and invisible. Thus hath He revealed: "Hath aught else save Thee a power of revelation which is not possessed by Thee, that it could have manifested Thee? Blind is the eye which doth not perceive Thee." Likewise, hath the eternal King spoken: "No thing have I perceived, except that I perceived God within it, God before it, or God after it." Also in the tradition of Kumayl it is written: "Behold, a light hath shone forth out of the Morn of eternity, and lo! its waves have penetrated the inmost reality of all men." Man, the noblest and most perfect of all created things, excelleth them all in the intensity of this revelation, and is a fuller expression of its glory. And of all men, the most accomplished, the most distinguished and the most excellent are the Manifestations of the Sun of Truth. Nay, all else besides these Manifestations, live by the operation of their Will, and move and have their being through the outpourings of their grace."

-Baha'u'llah, Kitáb-i-Iqán, p. 102

"Our body is like the cage, and the spirit is like the bird."

"In the time of sleep this body is as though dead; it does not see nor hear; it does not feel; it has no consciousness, no perception—that is to say, the powers of man have become inactive, but the spirit lives and subsists. Nay, its penetration is increased, its flight is higher, and its intelligence is greater. 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. We see that without the cage this bird flies in the world of sleep; therefore, 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. In truth, from hell it reaches a paradise of delights because for the thankful birds there is no paradise greater than freedom from the cage. That is why with utmost joy and happiness the martyrs hasten to the plain of sacrifice."


-'Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions p. 228

People of African Descent: The Pupil of the Eye

O thou who hast an illumined heart! Thou art even as the pupil of the eye, the very wellspring of the light, for God's love hath cast its rays upon thine inmost being and thou hast turned thy face toward the Kingdom of thy Lord.

Intense is the hatred, in America, between black and white, but my hope is that the power of the Kingdom will bind these two in friendship, and serve them as a healing balm.

Let them not look upon a man's colour but upon his heart. If the heart be filled with light, that man is nigh unto the threshold of His Lord; but if not, that man is careless of His Lord, be he white or be he black.

-`Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 113

"The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Baha'u'llah..."

"The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Baha'u'llah, implies that establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united...It does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethical origins, of climate, of history, of language and traditions, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. "

-Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah , 203, 41-42