Daily Frameworks for 31 May 2023

’Idál, 15 ‘Azamat (Grandeur), 180 B.E.

Employment and Beyond: Drawing on the Capacities of All to Contribute to Society

3.2 To affirm that capacity is inherent in all is not to deny a host of very real challenges. Many capacities are latent and must be developed through appropriate training and education. Structural obstacles and biases must be removed. Practical opportunities must also be created for large numbers to contribute their share to the development of society. The role to be played by the state, as steward and guardian of the common good, ¹ is vital in this regard. Economic and political tools such as tax policy, permitting requirements, labor standards, and other legal structures will need to be organized around the overarching aim of developing and drawing on the capacities inherent in populations—and not simply providing services, necessary as that can be. Put simply, state action should focus on fostering and releasing the capacity of individuals and communities to contribute to the advancement of society. ²

The Secret of Divine Civilization

Sincerity is the foundation-stone of faith. That is, a religious individual must disregard his personal desires and seek in whatever way he can wholeheartedly to serve the public interest; and it is impossible for a human being to turn aside from his own selfish advantages and sacrifice his own good for the good of the community except through true religious faith. For self-love is kneaded into the very clay of man, and it is not possible that, without any hope of a substantial reward, he should neglect his own present material good. That individual, however, who puts his faith in God and believes in the words of God—because he is promised and certain of a plentiful reward in the next life, and because worldly benefits as compared to the abiding joy and glory of future planes of existence are nothing to him—will for the sake of God abandon his own peace and profit and will freely consecrate his heart and soul to the common good. “A man, too, there is who selleth his very self out of desire to please God.” (Qur’án 2:203) ³

1. “Again, is there any deed in the world that would be nobler than service to the common good? Is there any greater blessing conceivable for a man, than that he should become the cause of the education, the development, the prosperity and honor of his fellow-creatures? No, by the Lord God! The highest righteousness of all is for blessed souls to take hold of the hands of the helpless and deliver them out of their ignorance and abasement and poverty, and with pure motives, and only for the sake of God, to arise and energetically devote themselves to the service of the masses, forgetting their own worldly advantage and working only to serve the general good. “They prefer them before themselves, though poverty be their own lot.”72 “The best of men are those who serve the people; the worst of men are those who harm the people.””
   ’Abdu’l-Bahá. The Secret of Divine Civilization. Translated by Marzieh Gail. 2nd Edition | Reprint. Wilmette, Ill: Baháʾí Publishing Trust, 1975, 103. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/secret-divine-civilization/4#555673920. ↩
2. Bahá’í International Community Staff. “Employment and Beyond: Drawing on the Capacities of All to Contribute to Society.” Bahá’í International Community, January 12, 2023. https://www.bic.org/statements/employment-and-beyond-drawing-capacities-all-contribute-society. ↩
3. ’Abdu’l-Bahá. The Secret of Divine Civilization. Translated by Marzieh Gail. 2nd Edition | Reprint. Wilmette, Ill: Baháʾí Publishing Trust, 1975, 96-97. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/secret-divine-civilization/4#219775018. ↩