Flora Teckie
It is our honour to have a positive role in building a happy family, a better community, a unified nation, and a peaceful world. It is through serving others that we can have such an impact.
Through service the essential principles of social integration, including compassion, tolerance, love, understanding, sacrifice, humility, and commitment to justice are manifested in our communities.
The Bahá’í Writings emphasize the importance of service to humanity, noting that “the honour and distinction of the individual” consist in being “a source of social good,” and that global peace, justice and security will only be firmly established when all people "become united and coordinated in service to the world of humanity”.
To create a better and peaceful world civilization based on principles of justice, prosperity, and continuing advancement, individuals need to be empowered to express their God-given talents and capacities in service to humanity. Serving others with pure intentions, in addition to the positive results for those helped, also immensely enriches our own lives.
The Baháí Writings state: “Is there any greater blessing conceivable for a man, than that he should become the cause of the education, the development, the prosperity and honour of his fellow-creatures? No, by the Lord God! The highest righteousness of all is for blessed souls to take hold of the hands of the helpless … and with pure motives, and only for the sake of God, to arise and energetically devote themselves to the service of the masses, forgetting their own worldly advantage and working only to serve the general good”.
Our motivation to serve humanity should not be the hope of recognition or reward. It should rather be because of our love for humanity. A life of service to humanity requires humility and detachment.
The following words of Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith, provide us with some food for thought: "Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. … Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer to the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts…”.
One of the basic choices that one must make in life is in changing life from being predominately self-interested, to one of sharing and service to others. Serving others, in addition to providing benefits to our families and community, also creates bonds of solidarity and common purpose among those involved.
The Bahá’í Writings state: “Every imperfect soul is self-centered and thinketh only of his own good. But as his thoughts expand a little he will begin to think of the welfare and comfort of his family. If his ideas still more widen, his concern will be the felicity of his fellow citizens; and if still they widen, he will be thinking of the glory of his land and of his race.
But when ideas and views reach the utmost degree of expansion and attain the stage of perfection, then will he be interested in the exaltation of humankind. He will then be the well-wisher of all men and the seeker of the weal and prosperity of all lands. This is indicative of perfection”.
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