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Religion Library: Baha'i

Principles of Moral Thought and Action

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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



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