Women
and Peace
From
the Bahá’í Writings
Today
there is no greater glory for man than that of service in the cause of the
“Most Great “Peace”. Peace is light whereas war is darkness. Peace is
life; war is death. Peace is guidance; war is error. Peace is the foundation of
God; war is satanic institution. Peace is the illumination of the world of
humanity; war is the destroyer of human foundation. When we consider outcomes in
the world of existence we find the peace and fellowship are factors of
upbuilding and betterment whereas war and strife are the causes of destruction
and disintegration. All created things are expressions of the affinity and
cohesion of elementary substances, and non-existence is the absence of their
attraction and agreement. Various elements unite harmoniously in composition but
when these elements become discordant, repelling each other, decomposition and
non-existence results. Everything partakes of this nature and is subject to this
principle, for the creative foundation in all its degrees and kingdom is an
expression or outcome of love.
Consider
the restlessness and agitation of the human world today because of war. Peace is health and construction; war is disease and dissolution. When the banner of truth is raised, peace becomes the cause of the
welfare and advancement of the human world. In all cycles and ages war has been
a factor of derangement and discomfort, whereas peace and brotherhood have
brought security and consideration of human interest. This distinction is
especially pronounced in the present world conditions, for warfare in former
centuries had not attained the degree of savagery and destructiveness which now characterizes it. If two nations were at war in olden times,
ten or twenty thousand would be sacrificed, but in this century the destruction
of one hundred thousand live in a day is quite possible. So perfected has the
science of killing become and so efficient the means and instruments of its
accomplishment that a whole nation can be obliterated in a short time.
Therefore, comparison with the methods and results of ancient warfare is out of
the question.
According
to an intrinsic law, all phenomena os being attain to a summit and degree of
consummation, after which a new order and condition is established. As the instruments and science of war have reached the degree of thoroughness and
proficiency, it is hoped that the transformation of the human world is at hand
and that in the coming centuries all the energies and invention of man will be
utilized in promoting the interests of peace and brotherhood. Therefore, may
this esteemed and worthy society for the establishment of international peace be
confirmed in its sincere intentions and empowered by God. Then will it hasten
the time when the banner of universal agreement will be raised and international
welfare will be proclaimed and consummated so that the darkness which now
encompasses the world shall pass away.
Bahá’i World Faith, Writings of Abdu’l-Baha,
pp.231-233
From the Buddhist
Scriptures
The Blessings of Peace – Buddha’s
advice to the Kings
Protect all those royal families, cities,
lands and provinces, save them, cherish them, guard them, ward off invasion from
them, give them peace and prosperity. Keep them free from all fear, calamity,
and evil portent. Turn back the troops of their enemies and create in all the
earthly kings of India a desire to avoid fighting, attacking, quarrelling, or
disputing with their neighbours … When the eighty-four thousand kings of the
eighty-four thousand cities of India are contented with their own kingly state
and their own hoards of treasure they will not attack one another or raise
mutual strife.
They will gain their thrones by the due
accumulation of the merit of former deeds; they will be satisfied with their own
kingly state, and will not destroy one another, nor show their mettle by laying
waste whole provinces.
When all the eighty-four thousand kings of the
eighty-four thousand capital cities of India think of their mutual welfare and
feel mutual affection and joy, …contended in their own domains,… India will
be prosperous, well-fed, pleasant, and populous. The earth will be fertile, and
the months and seasons and years will all occur at the proper time. Planets and
stars, moon and sun, will duly bring on the days and nights. Rain will fall upon
earth at the proper time. And all living beings in India will be rich with all
manner of riches and corn, very prosperous but not greedy.
Suvarnaprabhasottamama Sutra, 6, pp.73-75
From the Christian Scriptures
The Promise of the Last Days
And it shall come
to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills;
and all nations shall flow unto it.
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and
he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion
shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among the nations, and
shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:2-5
From the Islamic
Scriptures
Blessed be He who has ordained constellations
in the heaven, setting among them a lamp and a moon to give light. It is He who
has made night and day in their sequence, as any perceive who have a will to
take thought or who desire to be grateful.
It is the servants of the all-merciful Lord
who go about the earth in modesty and who answer: ‘Peace’ when accosted by
those who talk to them rudely. It is they who spend the night in their Lord’s
presence, prostrate and standing in prayer and saying: ‘Our Lord, release us
from the anguish of Jahannam. For grievous indeed is the suffering there: it is
a place of dire evil and a wretched haunt.’
True servants, when they expend their wealth,
are neither extravagant nor niggardly, but keep the mean there is between the
two. They do not invoke another god alongside God. They do not take human life
– something God has made unlawful – except for just cause. They do not
commit fornication. He who commits these sins will meet his due penalty and
retribution will be doubled to him on the Day of resurrection, in a perpetual
reproach – the penitent alone being excepted who believes and does what is
right. It is such as these whose wrong-doings God will replace with good deeds,
seeing that God is forgiving and merciful.
Whoever repents and does righteously, his is a true repentance towards
God.
God’s servants are those who do not bear
false witness and when they encounter idle talk maintain an honourable
demeanour. When they are reminded by the signs of their Lord they do not
collapse as if they had neither hearing nor sight. Their prayer is: ‘O Lord,
grant us in our wives and children the joy of our eyes and let us be exemplary
for the God-fearing.’
These will have as the reward for their
steadfastness the high station in heaven, where they will receive the greeting
and welcome of peace, dwelling there eternally. Goodly is that dwelling place
and worthy that abode!
Surah 25.61-77
From the Bahá’í Writings
The emancipation of women, the achievement of full
equality between the sexes, is one of the most important, though less
acknowledged prerequisites of peace. The denial of such equality perpetrates an
injustice against one-half of the world’s population and promotes in men
harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from the family to the workplace,
to political life, and ultimately to international relations.
There are no grounds, moral, practical or biological,
upon which such denial can be justified. Only as women are welcomed into full
partnership in all fields of human endeavour will the moral and psychological
climate be created in which international peace can emerge.
The Promise of World Peace, p.17
Prayer - Protection from Violence
Thou seest, O my God, how the wrongs committed by
such of Thy creatures as have turned their backs to Thee have come in between
Him in Whom Thy Godhead is manifest and Thy servants. Send down upon them, O my
Lord, what will cause them to be busied with each others’ concerns. Let, then,
their violence be confined to their own selves, that the land and they that
dwell therein may find peace.
