An Interfaith Exploration of Sustainable Lifestyles

  Saturday, June 6, the ScienceAlliance for Valuing the Environment – SAVE sponsored An Interfaith exploration of Sustainable Lifestyles program at the Sylvania (Ohio) United Church of Christ.  This program was the result of SAVE’s commitment to an Interfaith approach to local sustainability issues affecting our communities.  The program’s content involved not only the why’s of specific and sustainable actions but also the how’s.  Members of the Hindu Temple of Toledo (Ohio), Lourdes University, Sisters of St. Frances, Sylvania (Ohio) Baha’i Community, and Sylvania United Church of Christ brought together diverse presenters with expertise in local sustainable small-scale agriculture, sustainable landscaping for residential areas, and small-scale alternative energy systems for residential applications.  An Interfaith Exploration of Sustainable Lifestyles had an attendance of about 50 local people. Some attendees stated individual interest in similar future programs and events.

Mr. Joe Perlaky, consultant for the Maumee Valley Growers Association, gave the keynote address – “What is Sustainability”.  Joe gave examples of European and local initiatives involving local and urban agricultural programs founded on sustainable systems.  Maumee Valley Growers Association represents a diverse group of growers concerned with local agricultural challenges, food quality, and distribution.  The newest project involves an expanded hydroponic growing system meant to grow select crops during the winter months.  Perlaky also reported on the area’s successful alternative energy installations as well as the related jobs created.  The best example, he said, was the recently completed Photovoltaic (Pv) panel installation at The Toledo Museum of Art.  Multiple Pv panels are installed on the top of the museum car ports and provides electrical energy to the facility.

Dr. Al Compaan, retired Professor of Engineering at The University of Toledo, presented on his

   successes retrofitting his home with Pv panels.  Not only does his residence use the electric power generated, it also charges his electric pick-up truck.  Compaan spoke to the history and direct benefits of the United States using public funds to develop the nation’s physical infrastructure such as the canals, railroads, the Interstate Highway System, and the national Fiber-Optic grid.  Al discussed the various national and state-wide initiatives involved with converting to alternative energy.  A world-wide manufacturer of Pv panels, First Solar in Toledo, is targeting a future cost of $ 0.07 (USD) per Kw and expects to see this soon.

“Raise Chickens!” was the advice offered by Mr. Bryan Ellis, the presenter of Local and Sustainable Urban Agriculture.  Bryan, whose background includes extensive experience in construction, talked about his Urban-Ag projects involving his “appropriate technology” designs and systems.  Ellis talked about his experiences building an expansive Hydroponic growing system installed in the Downtown Toledo Ohio area.  Using low-tech tools, equipment, and gardening methods, food surpluses could be easily achieved and the produced either shared or sold to community members.

  The City of Toledo is actively promoting sustainable practices to its citizens; especially after last    summer’s Lake Erie water crisis affecting some 400,000 area citizens.  A large algae bloom   happening in the Western Basin of Lake Erie made the water toxic – much of the blame going to area farmers and their unsustainable crop treatment.  Ms. Beatrice Miringu, Senior Environmental Specialist City of Toledo, presented on various methods homeowners can employ to reduce the strain on the environment.  Beatrice shared information on the benefits of using native plant species to control rain water runoff.  Miringu also introduced Rain Gardens to the participants and their successful installations around the city.

PowerPoints from the presenters can be downloaded and viewed by going to the SAVE Google Sites webpage.

SAVE, founded by the Sisters of St. Francis and a part of Lourdes University, is celebrating its 25^th year of providing environmental education, scholarships, and recognition of environmental

educators in the Northwest Ohio Area.  Recently, SAVE’s Advisory Board authorized the establishment of the SAVE Interfaith Collaborative.  The group’s sub-committee serves as a focal point for the area’s diverse communities of faith and issues involving community sustainability.  Members of the Hindu Temple of Toledo, Sylvania United Church of Christ, Sisters of St. Francis, and the Sylvania Baha’i Community have join in this endeavor for the common good.  SAVE Interfaith Collaborative works to achieve greater community sustainable working models through individual behavioral changes founded in our core diverse spiritual teachings.  

Slavery and the Baha'i Faith

In the course of this inventory in the International Baha’i Archives, located in Haifa, Israel, Dr. Saiedi made an extraordinary discovery — one of perhaps world-historical proportions, if indeed it is true that Baha’u’llah’s abolition of slavery was the first in the history of the world’s religions. 

Mizra Buzurg

This Tablet, it should be noted, is undated. However, together, Dr. Saiedi and I now propose this theory as to the circumstances of its revelation: 

Known as Mirza Buzurg, Baha’u’llah’s father was a former vizier to the Shah’s twelfth son, then later appointed governor of the province of Luristan in Persia (now Iran). Mirza Buzurg owned a number of slaves. Slaves were common throughout Persia in the 19th century, as elsewhere in the world, including America. 

Mirza Buzurg died in 1839. Baha’u’llah never purchased nor owned slaves, but probably inherited his father’s slaves, considered property that would be passed from father to son. Mirza Buzurg Baha’u’llah strongly disapproved of slavery. So what did Baha’u’llah do with these slaves, upon Mirza Buzurg’s death? Baha’u’llah set them free! In the 1830’s, an action like this was unheard of, especially in Persia. 

How do we know this? Dr. Saiedi has discovered a key piece of evidence — Baha’u’llah’s written, autobiographical account, which has not only historical value but remarkable spiritual value, as well. Most of the Arabic text has been carefully transcribed by Dr. Saiedi, who now offers his provisional translation into English, published here for the very first time. 

What is even more interesting is that this remarkable Tablet is cast in the form of a prayer, to God: 

Sanctified art Thou, O my God! At this moment, one slave (mamlūk) is standing before another slave and seeks, from him, his freedom. 

Yet his owner, himself, is naught but a slave of Thee, a servant in Thy Threshold, and absolute nothingness before the manifestations of Thy Lordship. 

Standing before Thee, I bear witness, at this very moment, to that which Thou hast testified by Thyself for Thyself, that verily Thou art God and there is none other God but Thee … 

All mighty kings are mere slaves before the gate of Thy grace, and all the wealthy are the essence of poverty in the shore of Thy holy dominion, and all the exalted are abject lowliness within the glorified court of Thy bounty. 

Notwithstanding this, how then can this slave claim for himself ownership of any other human being? Nay, his existence is a mere crime, graver than any sin in Thy kingdom … 

And now, O my God, since that servant hath asked from this servant his freedom, therefore, I call Thee to witness, at this moment, that I am setting him free in Thy path, liberating him in Thy name, and emancipating his neck from the chain of servitude, so that he may serve Thee in the daytime and in the night season, longing that my neck would never be relieved from the cord of Thy servitude. 

This verily is my most cherished desire and my supreme end. – Baha’u’llah, unpublished Tablet (A08212). Provisional translation by Nader Saiedi, Ph.D. 

Who is this slave Baha’u’llah sets free? Dr. Saiedi believes that it is none other than Isfandiyar, whose story I told in “The Races – Robed in Black or White: The Universal Emancipation Proclamation, Part 4.” 

Again, the year is 1839. Mirza Buzurg had just died. Isfandiyar stands before Baha’u’llah. Isfandiyar asks Baha’u’llah to set him free. 

Baha’u’llah grants Isfandiyar’s wish, but does so in a most extraordinary way, in dignified humility, clearly showing that both Isfandiyar and Baha’u’llah himself, as human beings, are equals in the sight of God. 

Thus this unpublished Tablet predates what we have previously referred to as Baha’u’llah’s “Universal Emancipation Proclamation” of 1873, by some 33 or 34 years. In fact, Baha’u’llah uses the very same reasoning that he would use when promulgating the first formal prohibition of slavery in the history of religion, in this divine decree: 

It is forbidden you to trade in slaves, be they men or women. It is not for him who is himself a servant to buy another of God’s servants, and this hath been prohibited in His Holy Tablet. Thus, by His mercy, hath the commandment been recorded by the Pen of justice. Let no man exalt himself above another; all are but bondslaves before the Lord, and all exemplify the truth that there is none other God but Him. He, verily, is the All-Wise, Whose wisdom encompasseth all things. – Baha’u’llah, Kitab-i-Aqdas, Par. 72. 1840 engraving depicting the Amistad revolt. 

According to Abdu’l-Baha, Isfandiyar, now gratefully freed from the bonds of slavery, chose to remain as Baha’u’llah’s faithful servant, until 1852, when Baha’u’llah was imprisoned in Tehran’s “Black Pit,” and Isfandiyar’s life was placed in mortal danger. (See “The Universal Emancipation Proclamation: Part 1.”) 

Thanks to the resourcefulness of Baha’u’llah’s wife, Navvab, the Governor of Mazandaran, Mirza Yahya Khan, gave Isfandiyar shelter and protection. The Governor then engaged Isfandiyar as his head servant, placing him in charge of all the affairs of his household — a privileged and prestigious position that Isfandiyar held for the rest of his life. 

The Schooner Amistad

On July 1, 1839, 53 Africans from Sierra Leone — captured by Portuguese slavers — seized the Cuban schooner, Amistad, destined for a Caribbean plantation. On August 24, 1839, the Amistad was seized off Long Island, NY. Imprisoned, their case was heard by the Supreme Court in January 1841. Former President John Quincy Adams defended the Africans’ right to fight to regain their freedom. 

In 1839, the transatlantic slave trade was illegal. But ownership of slaves was perfectly acceptable. So Baha’u’llah’s 1839 liberation of Isfandiyar was well in advance of developments in the rest of the world. 

Read the previous article in the series: The “Lincoln of the Spirit” and the “Black Plato” 

 ©2014 by Christopher Buck. The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BahaiTeachings.org or any institution of the Baha’i Faith.

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