Sixth Reflection

persecuted, harmed even killed by the very people who were weeping for the advent of their promised one, is that people did not think for themselves. They followed the clerics, the traditions and prejudices of society, the judgment of others. The dominant school of Shi’ism in Iran during 19 th century, called Usuli school, was precisely based upon the idea that ordinary people cannot think for themselves. They are like children who should blindly follow the dictates of the clerics. While that clerical outlook ultimately led to the rise of a clerical theocracy in Iran, the message of Baha’u’llah was the very exact opposite. His writings argued that all humans are endowed by God with the gift of consciousness and the duty to think for themselves. Obeying and blindly following others is renunciation of the gift of God to human beings. Such spiritual bondage is the essence of rejection of God and spiritual truth. For Baha’u’llah, the worldview of the clerics is usually those of traditionalism, which is opposed to reason, democracy, social progress, human rights, social justice, and individual empowerment. Therefore, it is precisely becoming detached from the judgments and authority of the clerics, the celebrities, and the prevalent tribal, cultural, and political prejudices, which is the real detachment from all else but God. Such detachment, therefore, is the necessary condition for investigation of truth. Humans have constructed for themselves all kinds of illusory walls of separation through various ideologies that justify separation, hatred and discrimination. It is ultimately the universal habit of independent thinking that can shatter these illusions and unite the hearts of humanity.