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of humans, which defines their true identity and perfection and constitutes
their final reward, is heaven. Yet the followers of previous religions mis-
understood the metaphors of their scriptures in a literal way. The result
was a consciousness that defined the ultimate reward of human beings as
incessant objectifying sex without love and an infinite hedonism of insa-
tiable consumption without work and creativity. This ultimate abject
reduction of humans to the level of animals was understood as the final
realization of the truth, destiny, and perfection of human nature.
In addition, the traditional conception of the Day of Resurrection is a
thesis of the end of history—another strategy that deprives human beings
of their humanity. The Báb argued differently. Heaven becomes a new
stage of the ever-advancing march of human spiritual advancement. It is
the discovery of the new values and spiritual culture that defines the
Resurrection of the past culture. Human are defined as spirit, as spiritual
capacities, and their heaven is also inseparable from this spiritual process.
Heaven is a process of the realization of our spiritual potentialities, and
that is the true meaning of attaining the presence of God. It is amazing
that the Báb extended the idea of heaven and hell to not only humans but
to all beings. The heaven of anything is the stage of the realization of its
potentialities. Hell is its deprivation from such a realization. All things
have the right to attain their paradise and it is the duty of humans to
ensure that all beings, to the extent possible, achieve their heaven.
3
Human
transcendence from nature, in other words, becomes the very process of
protecting the sanctity of nature and preserving the environment as well.
T
HE
B
IRTH OF THE
H
UMAN
B
EING IN THE
W
RITINGS OF
B
AHÁ
’
U
’
LLÁH
The most complex and explicit affirmation of the birth of the human
being is found in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. It is obvious that the main
source of almost all the major problems that have afflicted human beings
is the conscious or unconscious reduction of human beings to the level of
nature, body, objects, and instruments. Defining humans in terms of spir-
it, reason, love, and other spiritual attributes requires a perspective that
consists of three principles. First is a spiritual definition of human beings,
The Birth of the Human Being
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