From Oppression to Empowerment

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The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 25.3 2015

True liberation and empowerment, therefore, is realized when the op- pressed refuse to permit the oppressor to succeed in controlling their heart and spirit. As was seen in Bahá’u’lláh’s re- sponse to oppression in His three dec- larations, being subjected to tyranny and injustice was not the occasion for despair and surrender to dehuman- ization but rather for turning crisis into the crucible from which victory emerges. Thus, the Bahá’í approach to oppression is characterized by hope. Such a view of the relationship of oppression and empowerment is only understandable within the context of a spiritual worldview because, in the end, that relationship is a mystical par- adox. Even as the delicate and pure lo- tus rises out of the crude and impure mud, so too the human spirit, when it refuses to surrender to the instinc- tual forces of nature, rises out of its encounter with oppression liberated and transcendent. But the emergence of the lotus is impossible without the mud: It is by reason of the cruelty of the enemies that the fire of divine love is enkindled within the hearts and souls, and it is the oppression of the adversaries that hastens the souls unto the Faith of God. It is by reason of the cruelty of the enemies that the lofty station of the friends is revealed amongst the people, and it is the oppres- sion of the adversaries that makes manifest the exalted rank of the

lovers of the Most Holy Abhá Beauty of God. Blessed is the one who achieves it and attains unto that which has always been the de- sire of the devoted ones through- out centuries and ages. Therefore, the oppression of the tyrants is a bounty from God to His favored servants. For it is by reason of such cruelty that their station is exalted, they are enabled to draw nigh unto His sanctified and lumi- nous Threshold, and the tongues of the righteous greet those who have attained it, gained admit- tance, entered the paradise of His good pleasure, and been counted as among the sincere servants. 21

21 From a previously untranslated let- ter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi; provisional translation.