5. Religion must conform with science. Faith and reason must be in full accord.
6. Universal Peace: the establishment of universal League of Nations, of international arbitration and an International Parliament.
7. The adoption of an auxiliary international language which shall be taught in all the schools of the world.
8. Compulsory education especially for girls, who will be the mothers and the first educators of the next generation.
9. Equal opportunities of development and equal rights and privileges for both sexes.
10. Work for all: no idle rich and no idle poor. “Work in the spirit of service is worship.”
11. Abolition of extremes of poverty and wealth: care for the needy.
12. Recognition of the Unity of God and obedience to His commands as revealed through His Divine Manifestations.
The history of the Bahá’í Cause, mirroring as it does the spiritual history of modern times, confirms these principles and shows how they have permeated the minds and hearts of its followers throughout the world.
OUTLINE OF BAHÁ’Í HISTORY
THE history of the past eighty years makes a startling record of momentous events, radical changes and new world issues emerging apparently without definite order and meaning, capable of many conflicting interpretations. But if one observes how action is expressive of thought, how thought is moved by will and desire, and how will and desire are formed by the quality of the personal or group understanding, it will become evident that an era so profoundly active in all directions and on all planes can only be accounted for by the presence of some Influence felt in the very soul of the world.
The history of the Bahá’í Cause is the explanation of this influence—its swift movement and penetration from the heights to the depths of humanity. The Bahá’í Cause is more than an incident in history;—it is a clear Light illuminating the spiritual powers to which peoples consciously or unconsciously, now respond. Apart from the Bahá’í Cause, modern world movements and tendencies seem sinister anarchy; but from within the Cause they assume perfect order and fullness of meaning.
The day will surely come when historians, working in the light of the life and teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, will produce the true and complete narrative of these significant years, a narrative coordinating the visible events with their subtler causes, and bringing into unity the mental and moral as well as social issues involved. Meanwhile, the simplest statement recording the conditions under which the Bahá’í Movement was born and developed will be deeply moving to those who would know life as the pathway to God.
To read this record aright, one must discern the fruit latent in the seed and shaping in the bud. Without Bahá’u’lláh, the episode of the Báb has no lasting result or outcome; without ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the influence of Bahá’u’lláh has no adequate instrument; without the application of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s final instructions His sacrifice would not serve to unify and renovate the world.
The first significant Bahá’í date is May 23, 1844.