Sixth Reflection

Muqarrabin), Baha’u’llah addresses the question of detachment from work and economic activity. He explains that detachment is one’s work for earning a living and the very process of employment and labor. He argues that work and occupation are the realization of detachment because it is through work that you would be saved from begging, dependence on others, abasement before the unjust, and degradation before the rich and powerful. This detachment, he continues, is binding on all. This inversion of the traditional concept of detachment is really liberation of the idea of detachment from an amazing hypocrisy. A person who does not work is using the product of the work of other human beings. If no one works, all would die from starvation. Not working and becoming dependent on others is not detachment from people. It is the essence of dependence on others. In addition, it is completely immoral. If one can work and refuses to work, expecting others to finance him or her, one is exploiting others. Exploitation, as Marx correctly understood, is appropriation by the idle of the surplus that is produced by others. It is for this reason that work, when performed in a spirit of service and in utmost excellence possible for that individual is nothing but true worship of God. Labor and industry, performed in a spirit of serving and helping humanity, is an exemplary spiritual activity. 2. Detachment as Spiritual Orientation The writings of Baha’u’llah frequently call for detachment from all but God. But as we noted in the previous discussion, this is not a negation or demonization of this world. On the contrary, for Baha’u’llah the truth of everything is spiritual. All things are mirrors that reflect divine names and attributes. Baha’u’llah does not call for withdrawal from the world. Instead, he finds religion and spirituality inseparable from engaging in this world, transforming the world, and realizing the spiritual potential of nature and society. The opposition, therefore, is not between the celestial world and this world. Rather it is the opposition between looking at the world as a holistic interconnected reality which is reflection of God and sacred, on the one hand, and perceiving the world as a set of solid, isolated, and independent thing and selfish persons, on the other. Detachment from the world is detachment from a selfish and isolated conception of the world. But such conception is not the real world, it is just an illusion. Detachment is detachment from this illusion, and turning towards the truth of the world, a spiritual reflection of God, where everything is interdependent, sacred and endowed with rights. Detachment, therefore, means that in our approach to the world we should be liberated from selfish and ego-centered narcissistic social construction of reality. Not only we should not withdraw from the world. We should actively engage in the world to transform the world, to realize the paradise in this world, which is harmony between nature and culture, universal peace, oneness of humankind, and justice and prosperity for all nations and all peoples. 3. Detachment as Independent Thinking But the most important meaning of detachment offered by Baha’u’llah, is an entirely unique and novel idea. Baha’u’llah’s statement quoted at the beginning of this paper is the very beginning of one of his most important books, the Book of Certitude. He writes: “ No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth.” Here, detachment becomes the method of independent investigation of truth. According to Baha’u’llah, the precondition of attaining truth is one’s liberation from the ideas and prejudices prevalent in the world. To know any kind of truth, and especially the spiritual truth, one must not become dependent on thinking and judgment of others. Instead, one has to develop the habit to think independently, to look at reality with one’s own eyes, and not through the eyes of others. The reason that all prophets of God were