It doesn’t have to be like this…

 

Once again, the prospect of a war between nations in Europe seems possible. In recent years, there have been armed struggles in Eastern Europe and nearby, in the Middle East. But there has been no direct conflict between states in Europe.

In the Bahá’í view, war, as a concept and process, should already have been left behind – consigned to the history books. We should have progressed beyond this. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Bahá’u’lláh’s son) was saddened by the wars which were happening in the early 20^th century and foresaw and warned everyone of the First World War. He asked: “How is it possible for men to fight from morning until evening, killing each other, shedding the blood of their fellow-men: and for what object? To gain possession of a part of the earth! … The highest of created beings fighting to obtain the lowest form of matter, earth! Land belongs not to one people, but to all people. This earth is not man's home, but his tomb.”
Most individuals do not want war. They realise that it only produces suffering. Unfortunately, not all people are able to make their voices heard.

All the human beings on this planet are inter-related, inter-connected. Bahá’u’lláh offered us the vision of re-creating the human race as one family. Love for our fellow-man, love for the world, should be a greater love than for our own country. He said: “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” If we really understood this, there would be no more wars.

In the 1860s, Bahá’u’lláh, writing from a Turkish prison, addressed the most powerful rulers of the time, both collectively and individually, and urged them to organise a universal peace conference. He told them that they should attend in person, or at the very least send their chief ministers. At this conference, they should fix all the boundary disputes, set up rules for behaviour between states, and agree armament levels - sufficient to keep order, but insufficient for aggression. Once these had been agreed upon, the entire world would then have a system designed to prevent any aggression in the future: “Should any king take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him. If this be done, the nations of the world will no longer require any armaments, except for the purpose of preserving the security of their realms and of maintaining internal order within their territories.”

Unfortunately, those rulers took no notice, many wars resulted and they still continue to be fought. At the present time, the world is grappling with a disease pandemic. At the same time, problems such as climate change and loss of biodiversity seem to be getting more urgent. This is a time when we really should be working together as a species, not bringing about destruction. Although most of us are unable to directly affect the immediate political crisis, we can all play a part in improving the world through the way we treat other people - our individual actions, the things we say, our example and the things we write. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: “Peace must first be established among individuals, until it leadeth in the end to peace among nations.” There is no need for the world to stay as it is: it is up to us to help move the world forward.