Sacrifice

A talk by Mrs. Arlene Foster of Portland, Oregon - Given on January 4th, 2007 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Shidrukh's martyrdom

Merat has asked that I say a few things about sacrifice.

A few years ago I attended a workshop on leadership. At one point, the facilitator asked the participants to identify qualities that make a good leader. After about my third attempt to add the virtue of self-sacrificing, I challenged the facilitator for refusing to add it to the list. After lunch, he shared that he had realized that he had resisted the suggestion that sacrifice was a good quality because his reaction to it was negative. He admitted that he had to think about his reaction and realized that his life experience had taught him that sacrifice was a weakness rather than a strength.

I venture to say that the difference in our feelings about sacrifice come from the perspective through which we see the world. His, a material perspective, is defined by gain and loss.

Mine, a spiritual perspective gained through study of the Bahá’í Writings, is that we are spiritual beings defined by our capacity to reflect the attributes of God. Baha’u’llah tells us that our true reality is spiritual and that we are only in this physical world for a short time. The mystery of sacrifice is that you always receive more than you give and one of those gifts is the development spiritual attributes that we will need in our eternal journey after this world

It would be a mistake, however, to believe that we are called upon to reject this material world of which we are a part. What we are called upon is to adopt a new and heroic style of life, defined by spiritual principles, one of which is sacrifice.

In July 2001 at the Kingdom Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Dr. Peter Khan, member of the Universal House of Justice gave a talk, in which he said,

“Our world view is beyond the materialistic world view prevalent in the society around us. We recognize the existence of the material world. We comprehend the material forces that work in the world, we accept the material component of our existence, It is legitimate. It is part of God’s creation. But if our model of the world is entirely a material one, then the voluntary sacrifice of time and resources does not make a great deal of sense. And we will do it in an uncomfortable manner, in a somewhat superfluous way without any genuine commitment. What we need is to acquire a model within us, a model of the world, as representing the interaction of material and spiritual forces. A model of the world, which recognizes that we are beyond the material. That we are essentially spiritual beings residing temporarily in a material world before moving on to other realms of the eternity of creation. And if we are animated by that deep and profound understanding of the spiritual dimension of our lives, then sacrifice will be to us a joy and a pleasure and a means to a higher and a deeper happiness and satisfaction.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote, “…man must renounce his own self… he must renounce his inordinate desires, his selfish purposes and the promptings of his human self, and seek out the holy breathings of the spirit, and follow the yearnings of his higher self, and immerse himself in the sea of sacrifice, with his heart fixed upon the beauty of the All-Glorious.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of)

The ultimate sacrifice in this material world is to give one’s life blood to the Cause of God for the simple act of being a Bahá’í and for not saying the simple phrase, “I am not a Bahá’í” when faced with the choice of life or death.

A martyr is not a person who, in an act of hate, takes the lives of others as well as their own. The act of a martyr is one of pure love, “… with his heart fixed upon the beauty of the All-Glorious.”

“… this plane of sacrifice is the realm of dying to the self, that the radiance of the living God may then shine forth. The martyr’s field is the place of detachment from self, that the anthems of eternity may be upraised.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of)

Shidrukh Baqa was a servant, hosting a meeting of the local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Tehran when she was arrested and a few short weeks later executed for refusing to recant her belief in Baha’u’llah.

The Bahá’í Writings tell us that “It is appropriate and befitting that in this illumined age – the age of the progress of the world of humanity – we should be self-sacrificing and should serve the human race.” We are also taught that humanity has evolved beyond the need for individual salvation and must work towards the salvation of our civilization, the body of humankind. This requires sacrifice.

“Baha’u’llah… hath, during His last days on earth, given the most emphatic promise that, through the outpourings of the grace of God an the aid and assistance vouchsafed from His Kingdom on high, souls will arise and holy beings appear who, as stars, would adorn the firmament of divine Guidance; illumine the dayspring of loving kindness and bounty; manifest the signs of the unity of God; shine with the light of sanctity and purity; receive their full measure of divine inspiration; raise high the sacred torch of faith; stand firm as the rock and immovable as the mountain; and grow to become luminaries in the heavens of His Revelation, mighty channels of His grace, means for the bestowals of God’s bountiful care heralds calling forth the name of the one true God, and establishers of the world’s supreme foundation.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í World Faith)

Mrs. Shidrukh Baqa stood firm and embraced her destiny as one of these holy beings.

“Do all ye can to become wholly weary of self, and bind yourselves to that Countenance of Splendours; and once ye have reached such heights of servitude, ye will find, gathered within your shadow, all created things. This is boundless grace; this is the highest sovereignty; this is the life that dieth not.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of)

May the glory of God rest upon you, and upon Shidrukh Baqa, whose face is illumined with that everlasting light that shineth from His Kingdom of Glory.