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praises acquisition of wealth provided that two conditions are met. First, it should be gained
through individual’s own productive activities in commerce, agriculture, art, and industry.
Secondly it must be accompanied by a sense of moral responsibility towards other humans and
used in philanthropic ways.
While ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in this text does not explicitly raise the question of capitalism or socialism,
His position is already clear. He calls for equitable income distribution in society, which means
that He neither supports total income equality and elimination of competition in civil society, nor
that He accepts unlimited competitive capitalist liberalism and excessive inequality. In His other
writings, however, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá deals with this question directly and explicitly. It is clear that for
‘Abdu’l-Bahá both ideological extremes are unacceptable. He calls for elimination of poverty and
excess of wealth, but accepts moderate economic competition in the context of a new approach to
the meaning of work, commitment to moral and spiritual principles of oneness of humankind and
community solidarity, emphasis on agriculture, decentralized fiscal, economic, and administrative
structures, welfare measures for the poor, and harmony and cooperation of the public and private
sectors. It is interesting that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asks Iranians to note the economic and technological
changes happening in Japan as one of the examples of economic reform.
30
The significance of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ideas on economic questions will be further discussed in the next section.
However, the moral framework of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s concept of wealth is evident in
The Secret
. He
writes:
Wealth is most commendable, provided the entire population is wealthy. If, however, a few
have inordinate riches while the rest are impoverished, and no fruit or benefit accrues from
that wealth, then it is only a liability to its possessor. If, on the other hand, it is expended
for the promotion of knowledge, the founding of elementary and other schools, the
encouragement of art and industry, the training of orphans and the poor—in brief, if it is
dedicated to the welfare of society—its possessor will stand out before God and man as
most excellent of all who live on earth and will be accounted as one of the people of
paradise.
31
Another important area discussed by
The Secret
is educational rationalization. He even mentions
the possibility of His writing a second volume on the question of educational reform.
32
Elements
of this reform include universal education, concentration on beneficial and scientific disciplines,
and avoidance of scholastic controversies which are harmful to social harmony and scientific
productivity. He argues that effective attainment of social justice in society is dependent on the
presence of an enlightened and educated population.
33
It must be noted, however, that ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá’s call for scientific education and His warning against scholastic controversies should not be
interpreted as a rejection of the need for moral education. On the contrary, for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá what
is crucial is the harmony and cooperation of both moral and technical education.
Finally, I should refer to the question of religious rationalization in
The Secret
. The focus of the
text is in fact an affirmation of the need for religious reform in Iran. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá mentions
Protestant Reformation and calls on the Muslim clergy to learn from the lessons of that historical
experience.
34
However, the longest part of
The Secret
is devoted to the refutation of the
traditionalist claims of the conservative ‘ulama who argued that Islam is opposed to learning
modern science and institutional norms. The Muslim ‘ulama have usually rejected the adoption of
Western practices as heretical innovations contrary to Islam. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá provides forceful