Why Humanity Needs an Educator

In Chapter 3 of Some Answered Questions, "The Need of an Educator," 'Abdu'l-Bahá begins with the world of nature. Earth left uncultivated becomes a jungle of useless weeds; tilled by a farmer, it yields crops that nourish living creatures. Trees left without a cultivator bear no fruit; under a gardener's care, through cultivation, fertilization and engrafting, trees whose fruit was bitter yield sweet fruit. An animal that is trained becomes domestic. Of the human being He says:

...man, if he is left without education, becomes bestial, and, moreover, if left under the rule of nature, becomes lower than an animal, whereas if he is educated he becomes an angel.

His reason is that most animals do not devour their own kind, while men have killed and eaten one another. It is education, He says, that produces wonderful industries, spreads the sciences and arts, and makes manifest new discoveries and institutions. "If there were no educator, there would be no such things as comforts, civilization or humanity."

He then distinguishes three kinds of education. Material education concerns the body, its sustenance and comfort, and is common to animals and man. Human education means civilization and progress: government, administration, charitable works, trades, arts, sciences, inventions and institutions. Divine education is that of the Kingdom of God. It consists in acquiring divine perfections, "and this is true education," for in this state man becomes "the focus of divine blessings, the manifestation of the words, 'Let Us make man in Our image, and after Our likeness.'"

Humanity therefore needs an educator who is at once a material, human and spiritual educator. This educator must be perfect in all respects and distinguished above all men, for if he were like the rest of humanity he could not be their educator. Human power, the Master says, is not able to fill so great an office. Yet a Cause which all the governments and peoples of the world, with all their armies, cannot spread, "one Holy Soul can promote without help or support." His example is Christ, Who, "alone and solitary, upraised the standard of peace and righteousness," and removed the differences between Romans, Greeks, Syrians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Israelites and other peoples, becoming the cause of love among them.

The chapter concludes that the Universal Educator must possess a power above the human, and that the world "must be educated through this power which is above human power." The chapters that follow take up Abraham, Moses, Christ, Muḥammad, the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh.

A retelling based on Some Answered Questions. For the fuller account, see the original.

'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1908). *Some Answered Questions*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/some-answered-questions/