Ethics and Community

Principles of Moral Thought and Action

The Baha'i Faith is much more focused on morality than on theology and metaphysics. The purpose of a system of ethics is to achieve human happiness through right human action. This involves "drawing closer to the Threshold of Almighty God," which means acquiring the divine attributes such that human actions are more closely aligned to the divine standard. Acting in accordance with the divine attributes such as trustworthiness, truthfulness, purity of heart, and patience, is according to Baha'u'llah, "the highest and most laudable of all acts." To follow this path enables human beings to discover their true selves, which are spiritual.

The Baha'i moral code, while claiming to be rational and reasonable, does not base its authority on this. Rather the Baha'i scriptures are the foundation and inspiration of Baha'i ethics. Baha'u'llah stated that scripture is the "unerring balance," the standard for what is good and evil, and that the commands in the scripture are in agreement with the reality of things. While individual morality and the virtues that human beings are urged to acquire remain much the same over successive religious dispensations, human society changes and evolves and so the social virtues are in need of adjustment from time to time. This is one of the main reasons for the succession of prophets through the ages. But within each age, the word of the Manifestation of God (the founders of the world religions) is the authority even for social laws. Human beings do not have the right to change these; if they need to be changed, God sends a new Manifestation. This general rule in the history of humanity has been altered to some extent in the Baha'i Faith with the institution of the Universal House of Justice, to which Baha'u'llah gave the authority to lay down and abrogate social legislation, supplementary to what is in the Baha'i scriptures.

On Virtue:
From Baha'u'llah's Writings


The Baha'i scriptures do not lay out a Holy Law giving humanity detailed instructions on what to do in each situation. Rather they list and describe a large number of spiritual qualities that human beings are urged to acquire in the course of their lives. One way of classifying these spiritual qualities would be to divide them into three areas:

  1. Those that relate to God include such attributes as love of God, trust in God, submissiveness before God, self-surrender (surrendering one's own will to that of God), steadfastness (fortitude and courage in keeping to the path laid down by God), patience (reliance on God in times of trial), servitude toward God (which paradoxically becomes the true source of human liberty), humility before God (which paradoxically becomes the source of human exaltation and glory), and piety.
  2. There are also the virtues associated with making spiritual progress. These include detachment (from the things of the world and turning toward the spiritual realm), purity (of mind and heart, of motives and intentions), and chastity (control of one's passions and desires).
  3. Finally, there are the virtues that apply in a human being's relationships with other humans. These include truthfulness (regarded as the foundation of all human virtues), sincerity and honesty (which manifest truthfulness in dealings with others), trustworthiness (which is regarded as the supreme instrument for the prosperity of the world), justice (through which one can know of one's own knowledge and not through the knowledge of others), moderation, wisdom, love, mercy, and compassion. This classification is not however clear-cut. Steadfastness and patience, for example, while listed as virtues that relate to God are also needed in one's relations toward other human beings. Furthermore certain inner moral qualities are associated with certain outward attributes; for example, inner purity is associated with personal cleanliness. The actual list of virtues in the Baha'i scriptures is much longer than these few mentioned here, however.
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