Jalál, 08 Kalimát (Words), 182 B.E.
Social Action: The Nature of Bahá’í Social and Economic Development
Quotes for Reflection:
The believers must not take their eyes off their own immediate tasks of patiently consolidating their administrative institutions, building up new Assemblies … and labouring to perfect the Bahá’í pattern of life, for these are things that no other group of people in the world can do or will do, and they alone are able to provide the spiritual foundation and example on which the larger world schemes must ultimately rest. At the same time every effort should be made to broadcast the Teachings at this time, and correlate them to the plight of humanity and the plans for its future. — Shoghi Effendi 1
Question for Consideration
What immediate tasks are believers doing to perfect the Bahá’í pattern of life that no other group of people in the world can do or will do?
Perplexity Pro Response 2
The unique tasks that Bahá’ís are steadily pursuing to perfect the Bahá’í pattern of life—tasks which no other group can or will do—center on building a spiritually based community that integrates material and spiritual progress. Here are the main immediate tasks as described in Bahá’í guidance:
Consolidating Administrative Institutions
- Establishing and nurturing Local and National Spiritual Assemblies.
- Developing consultative processes to manage community affairs, resolve disputes, and guide collective action.
- Training members in principles of unity, justice, and collective decision-making, all grounded in Bahá’í teachings, to serve as models for society [1].
Building Up New Assemblies
- Expanding the Faith by inviting people from diverse backgrounds to join and participate.
- Ensuring the diversity and vitality of Assembly membership, so that communities reflect the oneness of humanity.
- Supporting the creation and maturation of Assemblies in villages, towns, and cities around the world [1].
Creating and Sustaining a Distinct Pattern of Community Life
- Implementing “core activities” such as:
- Classes for the spiritual education of children
- Groups for the empowerment of junior youth
- Study circles for adults to learn and serve together
- Devotional gatherings for collective worship
- Fostering organic, grassroots social action, addressing local needs in education, health, agriculture, and community development.
- Promoting justice, universal participation, and service to others as everyday practices [1].
Promoting a Coherence of Material and Spiritual Life
- Integrating the principles of science and religion in community decisions and social projects.
- Addressing both spiritual and material needs consciously—striving for a civilization that unites both dimensions [1].
Providing a Living Example and Spiritual Foundation
- Consistently striving for unity across racial, national, class, and gender lines.
- Modeling patterns of consultation, cooperation, and mutual support at all levels of community life.
- Demonstrating how a community can operate without clergy or partisanship, relying instead on spiritual principles, elected bodies, and service [1].
Broadcasting the Teachings and Relating Them to Humanity’s Plight
- Openly sharing Bahá’í principles—such as the oneness of humankind, equality of women and men, elimination of prejudice, and the harmony of science and religion—with both individuals and society at large.
- Engaging in conversations and discourses that connect spiritual principles to social issues and the future of humanity [1].
Why Are These Tasks Unique?
No other group is systematically and universally tasked with:
- Building an organic world community founded explicitly on spiritual laws revealed by Bahá’u’lláh.
- Creating administrative institutions at the local, national, and global level with these particular spiritual and consultative foundations.
- Establishing a pattern of community life that purposely seeks to model the future spiritual civilization foretold in Bahá’í writings.
- Serving as the spiritual leaven for the transformation of humanity, providing example and spirit needed for global change and unity.
Other groups may engage in worthwhile social, educational, or religious efforts, but the Bahá’í community’s explicit fusion of spiritual principles, administrative structure, social action, and universal inclusivity is unique in both scope and intent. The vision is to provide—as no other community can—the spiritual structure and example that enables the larger projects of world unity and civilization to advance [1].
Citations
Follow-Up Approaches Proposed by Perplexity
- Explore ways to strengthen Bahá’í administrative institutions.
- Identify methods to build new Bahá’í Assemblies effectively.
- Investigate how to integrate spiritual principles in daily life.
- Develop strategies for broadcasting the Bahá’í Teachings widely.
- Correlate Bahá’í teachings with current global humanitarian issues.
- Research Department of the Universal House of Justice. “Social Action.” Bahá’í Reference Library, August 2020. https://www.bahai.org/r/226621659. ↩
- Perplexity Pro. “Immediate Tasks Believers Are Doing to Perfect the Bahá’í Pattern of Life.” Edited by Steve Bosserman. July 18, 2025. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/the-believers-must-not-take-th-oNGf7SNSTKq0v9OaC1HkaQ. ↩
Frameworks for Understanding the World 