Flora Teckie
Flora Teckie
We belong to one human family, varied only in the secondary aspects of our lives.
It is because of the differences in the human family that the earth is a beautiful place in which to live.
March 21, observed,as the Human Rights Day, was an opportunity to reflect on the fact that a genuine commitment to human rights is only possible through recognizing, and in fact embracing, the principle of the oneness of humanity.
The Baháí Writings affirm that: “Every human creature is the servant of God. All have been created and reared by the power and favour of God; all have been blessed with the bounties of the same Sun of divine truth; all have quaffed from the fountain of the infinite mercy of God; and all in His estimation and love are equal as servants. He is beneficent and kind to all. Therefore, no one should glorify himself over another; no one should manifest pride or superiority toward another; no one should look upon another with scorn and contempt; and no one should deprive or oppress a fellow creature”.
March 20 was celebrated globally as the Baháí New Year. The realisation of the principle of the oneness of humanity is the goal and the operating principle of the Baháí Faith. It is the Bahá’í view that humanity is one, that the diversity of ethnic backgrounds adds to the beauty and perfection of the whole, and that the day has come for the unification of humanity into one global society.
Recognition of the principle of the oneness of humanity gives rise to an elevated concept of human rights, one that includes the assurance of dignity for each person and the realisation of each individual’s potential. It has the power to inspire the transformation of individual and collective values, attitudes, and behaviour.
The Baháí New Year, known as Naw-Ruz, coincides with the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere, the vernal equinox. Naw-Ruz is celebrated as an annual feast of renewal, as the spiritual and physical springtime.
The Bahá’í Faith – the youngest of the world’s independent religions – has a new calendar based on the solar year. The year is divided into nineteen months of nineteen days each month. Four intercalary days are added (and in the leap years a fifth day) to make up the year.
The months are named after some of the attributes of God such as might, glory and grandeur.
The Bahá’í calendar dates its years from 1844, which marks the beginning of the Bahá’í Era.
This year is 181 B.E. (Bahá’í Era).
Baháláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Era Faith, compared the world to the human body, to which one can look as a model. Our communities are composed of not only a mass of diverse people, but of associations of individuals, each one of whom is bestowed with intelligence and will. The main principle operating in the human body is that of unity in diversity. This diversity of form and function is necessary for the life of any complex, well-developed organic entity, such as a human being. No cell lives apart from the body, whether in contributing to functioning of the body or benefitting from the well-being of the whole. The perfect functioning of the human body is due to the unity of diverse cells and organs.
In the same way the well-being and well-functioning of the body of mankind depends on the unity of its diverse elements – of all races, nations, religions, and ethnic groups.
Pretoria News
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