In past centuries the
nations of the world have imagined that the law of God demanded blind imitation
of ancestral forms of belief and worship. For example, the Jews were captives
of hereditary racial religious observances. The Muslims, likewise, have been
held in the bondage of traditionary forms and ceremonials. The Christians also
have been implicit followers of ancient tradition and hereditary teaching. At
the same time the basic foundation of the religion of God, which was ever the
principle of love, unity and the fellowship of humanity, has been forsaken and
cast aside, each religious system holding tenaciously to imitations of
ancestral forms as the supreme essential. Therefore, hatred and hostility have
appeared in the world instead of the divine fruitage of unity and love. By
reason of this it has been impossible for the followers of religion to meet
together in fellowship and agreement. Even contact and communication have been
considered contaminating, and the outcome has been a condition of complete
alienation and mutual bigotry. There has been no investigation of the essential
underlying basis of reality. One whose father was a Jew invariably proved to be
a Jew, a Muslim was born of a Muslim, a Buddhist was a Buddhist because of the
faith of his father before him, and so on. In brief, religion was a heritage
descending from father to son, ancestry to posterity, without investigation of
the fundamental reality; consequently, all religionists were veiled, obscured
and at variance.
Praise be to God! We are
living in this most radiant century wherein human
perceptions have developed and investigations of real foundations characterize
mankind. Individually and collectively man is proving and penetrating into the
reality of outer and inner conditions. Therefore, it has come to pass that we
are renouncing all that savors of blind imitation, and impartially and
independently investigating truth.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha,
from a talk, November 18, 1912, New York; ‘The Promulgation of Universal
Peace’)
