Are Baha’is presenting the Cause of God backwards? When we speak to non-Baha’is about the equality of men and women, a universal ancillary language, and other principles of the Faith, are we offering them the essential Truth of God, or a lifeless husk? Are we giving of our finest, which is directions to an intimate, personal, knowledge of God? For if a man first knows God, the matter of the equality of women and men, universal education, and the other social principles will seem obvious to that man, through his spiritual perception of his relationship to his brothers. For true brotherhood can only occur through the Spirit of God working in the lives of individuals.

As we know, all divine religions are of two parts:

“The religion of God consists of two parts: One is the very foundation and belongs to the spiritual realm; that is, it pertains to spiritual virtues and divine qualities. This part suffers neither change nor alteration: It is the Holy of Holies, which constitutes the essence of the religion of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, Muḥammad, the Báb, and Bahá’u’lláh, and which will endure throughout all the prophetic Dispensations.”

(Abdu’l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, 2014)

“The second classification or division comprises social laws and regulations applicable to human conduct. This is not the essential spiritual quality of religion. It is subject to change and transformation according to the exigencies and requirements of time and place.” (Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 364)

The second part of the Faith, Abdu’l-Baha termed secondary, mundane, or accidental. As one would expect, that which is secondary, should not come first.

The foundation of all Divine religions is the same. And you cannot build unless you have a strong, solid foundation. The foundation of true religion, we are told, is our individual relationship with, knowledge of, and trust in, our God and Master.

“Time changes conditions, and laws change to suit conditions. We must remember that these changing laws are not the essentials; they are the accidentals of religion. The essential ordinances established by a Manifestation of God are spiritual; they concern moralities, the ethical development of man and faith in God. They are ideal and necessarily permanent — expressions of the one foundation and not amenable to change or transformation. Therefore, the fundamental basis of the revealed religion of God is immutable, unchanging throughout the centuries, not subject to the varying conditions of the human world.” (Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 365)

God has created man in order that he may be a dove of the Kingdom, a heavenly candle, a recipient of eternal life. God has created man in order that he may be resuscitated through the breaths of the Holy Spirit and become the light of the world.

(Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 185)

If the true call of God is for each man to know and worship his Creator, as the short Obligatory Prayer tells us, why are Baha’is presenting to the world the secondary “accidentals” of the Faith? Should we not be telling seekers-after-righteousness of the path to their Beloved, unchanging through the ages, rather than presenting laws, principles, and ordinances that are for Baha’is only? For it would seem that once one has begun to be spiritually transformed through his union with God in His Spirit, the matter of equality of men and women, the oneness of mankind, and the other laws and principles, are the perfect stones to place upon the individual’s foundation of faith in God’s love. The reverse, however, is not true. To present the principles to the world – which already acknowledges most of them as a desirable end – will not lead to a spiritual transformation of the individual. In truth, it is likely that the person who recognizes those principles first and walks in his own strength, rather than depending upon God’s power (see Short Obligatory Prayer), will see no need for God. Thus, by presenting the secondary aspects of the Baha’i Faith immediately, we may be secularizing, and destroying, the religion of God for this age.