Review On Thoughts Of Abdul BahÇŽ

Bahá'u'lláh appointed 'Abdu'l-Baháas "The Center of His Covenant",and all the followers of Bahai Faith are required to obey the Covenant with absolute devotion. Abdu'l-Baha also according to explicit writings of Bahá'u'lláh is the authorized and sole Interpreter of his Teachings and Writings.We should know Abdu'l-Baha is a very unique figure in human history.Never can we find such kind of personage in previous religions.Even though he is not a prophet or a founder of Bahai Faith,he is one of the "Three Center Figures of this Religion" and that is because the Covenant."The mission of Abdu'l-Baha as the Center of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh is to interpret the Teaching of Bahá'u'lláh,propagate Bahai Faith,consolidate the unity of Baha'ies and expand the influence of the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh worldwide.Owing to his holy and sublime faith,and as the authorized interpreter of the writings of Bahá'u'lláh,profound and wide vision,excellent wisdom,Abdu'l-Baha wrote a large number of tablets and books to clarify a serials of theological and philosophical issues that even has perplexed current people in their search for truth.Abdu'l-Baha in a very clear language illustrates the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah and his teachings in order to assist the believers to understand and proclaim the teachings of Baha'u'llah.Abdu'l-Baha systematically summarized and expanded the teachings of Bahai Faith that is classified into three cores:Oneness of God,Oneness of Humankind,and Oneness of Religion.Based on these,Abdu'l-Baha explained Bahai teachings and pointed out some of its main principles:1.The Search after Truth,2.The Unity of Mankind,3.That religion ought to be a Cause of Love and Affection,4.The Harmony of Religion and Science,5.The Abolition of all Prejudices6.Equalization of the Means of Existence 7.Equality of Men8.Universal Peace9.The Non-interference of Religion with Politics10.Equality of Sex11.The Power of the Holy SpiritAbdu'l-Baha illustrated that there is only one God that is Creator of Universe.In human history,God can manifest himself through the successive holy messengers,such as Abraham(Jewish Ancestor),Krishna(Hinduism),Moses(Judaism),Zoroaster (Zoroastrianism),Sakyamuni(Buddha),Jesus Christ(Christianity),Muhammad(Islam), the Báb(leader of Babi Movement)and Bahá'u'lláh.These devine educators reflect the same purpose of God in the human history in order to educate humankind to know the Creator,and to cultivate the spiritual nature in human,to draw out knowledge and virtues in man,which in turn is paving the way for the process of ever advancing the civilization.The different religions are revealed by various Holy Manifestations according to different requirements of each age and level of human understanding,so that absolute truth gradually manifests itself in the relative and variable world in different stages.The metaphor is widely used in the various religious scriptures, according to different ages and the human understanding.We can find Abdu'l-Baha's some explanations of metaphor in Christian scriptures on the various aspects,such as the baptism of Christ,the necessity of baptism and transforming of Law,the symbolism of the bread and the wine,the resurrection of Christ and the relation between religion and science,the second coming of Christ and the Day of Judgment,the trinity,the preexistence of the Word of God,Adam and Eve, and so on.By expounding the implications of these issues,Abdu'l-Baha concludes that it is very difficult to understand if we take the scriptures literally.It even leads to misunderstanding the meaning of Holy Scripture and producing the paradoxical cognitions.For this reason,he interpreted some of the Biblical metaphors and concepts in a rational way,which can be accepted more easily by modern people.God is the Creator of Universe.The universe whether visible or invisible is unlimited.From low to high,there are six kingdoms of existing:Mineral,vegetable, animal,man,spirit of faith and the Holy Manifestation.Every higher degree of existence includes and covers all of its lower degrees,and has its own special identity which is a unique reality that its lower degree of existence have never had it before.So higher degree existence can hold,discern and control its lower degrees existence,but lower degree of existence can't comprehend its higher degree of existence.Human is the masterpiece of God and is created by God because of His love for man.God is absolute perfection in its essence.Owing to his own perfection,God manifests his attributes on creatures and every creature is reflecting one of his attributes and good quality,except human being which God has chosen him and bestowed upon him,all of His attributes and given the special capacity to recognize and worship him.This special capacity is the gift of understanding(rational soul)that makes man become the noblest among the creature.The purpose of human life is to make soul to achieve various branches of knowledge,to develop human virtues through the teachings of the Devine Educators in various conditions of life which will pave the way for the next stage of soul,as well as development of human civilization by perceiving and transforming the material world.The last and the highest degree of existence is the kingdom of the Manifestations of God.The Divine ManifestationS have three stations. The first station is the physical or flesh;The second station is individual substance, which is that of the rational soul;The third station is that of the divine appearance and heavenly splendor:it is the reason that the life can exist,it is the reason that soul can be civilized,it is the reason that human can be guided,and it is the reason that the mundane world can be enlightened.God is unknowable essence,and through His Holy Manifestation he can be known.There is only one truth and man needs search for truth independently.The four traditionally claimed standards of truth are unreliable: sensibility,reason,tradition,and inspiration.Abdu'l-Baha enlightened human that one of the most important courses of one's life is to learn how to combine these aptitudes; meanwhile,one can be immune from his or her own shortcoming.From the view of Bahai Faith,individual development and social development are the process of two interdependent and mutual relationships.One can learn the measure of something through surrounding,so that it is helpful for him to search truth and practice virtues.By this way one can not only contribute to our society,but also advance the spiritual growth. God creates human for love,so there is nonexistence of evil.Good is existence of reality, but evil is the want of good or nonexistence of good.If every one purifies his or her heart,detaches from mundane world and pursues supreme good,human will eliminate all prejudices and unite under the shadow of love of God in order to construct the new world order.With the improvement of culture and knowledge,people gradually depend on scientific technology in modern society,but religion doesn't lose its existing values, more and more people believe in religion around the world.Science and religion are respectively searching for truth,but there is only one truth.If one religion is contrary to science,we claim that it absolutely belongs to superstition.For human,science and religion are the two wings with which humanity can make progress.One wing is not enough.Science can provide the instrument to cognize things while religion can teach human how to use it.Worldly education can provide human scientific culture and knowledge,spiritual education can instruct people how to correctly use the knowledge. One is the entity of knowledge;another is the principle of it.Both of them are different dimension of one truth and depend on each other.Abdu'l-Baha has many new ideas and put forward the more detailed and concrete thoughts of education in some aspects,such as the mode of education,the types of education,universality of education,and so on.In order to emphasize the importance of education,he gave the demonstration of rationalization,elaborates the great influence of education on human,and proposes universal education and permanent education.Abdu'l-Baha thought that education is of three kinds:material,human and spiritual.Material and human education can bear the fruits of material civilization,but spiritual education can give birth to the fruits of divine civilization which will enrich the spiritual lives,improve moral standard and purify the heart of human.As to the difference between that material civilization now prevailing, and the future divine civilization in the role of our society,Abdu'l-Baha made a contrast and further expounded:"material civilization,through the power of punitive and retaliatory laws,restrains the people from criminal acts." "Divine civilization,however, so trains every member of society that no one,with the exception of a negligible few, will undertake to commit a crime.There is thus a great difference between the prevention of crime through measures that are violent and retaliatory,and so training the people,and enlightening them,and spiritualizing them,that without any fear of punishment or vengeance to come,they will shun all criminal acts.They will,indeed, look upon the very commission of a crime as a great disgrace and in itself the harshest of punishments." See then how wide is the difference between material civilization and divine.With force and punishments,material civilization seeks to restrain the people from mischief,from inflicting harm on society and committing crimes.But in a divine civilization,the individual is so conditioned that with no fear of punishment,he shuns the perpetration of crimes,sees the crime itself as the severest of torments,and with alacrity and joy,sets himself to acquiring the virtues of humankind,to furthering human progress.Bahai education may change one person,and then transform the whole human society.