At the Newcastle Bahá’í Centre, we have recently started a monthly open deepening/fireside, exploring different themes within the Faith. It all started with some deepening’s we received from the NSA on the fund and we kind of carried it on. Having had deepening’s on Marriage, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, our next one which is on the 27th is on Unity.

I am facilitating the February one which is on the 24th, and when deciding what to use as a theme, I didn’t really need to think very hard. I decided to focus on Fairtrade and how we can approach it from the perspective of the Bahá’í Faith. Its also fantastic that it falls in Fairtrade Fortnight as well!

You see this year instead of making silly New Years resolutions that would be all forgotten about by the 2nd January, I instead made a single resolution, to try and really put into practice the principles of the Faith.

One principle which I think that I, and indeed all Bahá’ís can really put into practice in a very practical way is the elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty, and one of the good ways to put this into action is to buy Fairtrade products.

Late last year my LSA decided to go Fairtrade and purchase only Fairtrade tea & coffee, and I guess since then I have really been thinking about Fairtrade a lot, and what does the Faith have to say about it.

Clearly during the time of Bahá’u'lláh and `Abdu’l-Bahá, the concept of Fairtrade that we have today did not exist. So when looking at the writings, I didn’t expect to come across a bit saying, “oh and by the way, Fairtrade is good”!

But when reading the Writings a particular Hidden Word springs to mind straight away.

“O YE RICH ONES ON EARTH!

The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease.”

Bahá’u'lláh, The Persian Hidden Words No. 54

So this is Bahá’u'lláh saying that if you are well off, just looking after your own needs is not good enough. We have a responsibility to look after the poor as well, and if we remember that in his youth in Tehran he was known as “Father of the Poor”, then we should realise already have an example that we must follow.

Talking of examples, we have ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as The Perfect Exemplar, the person whose behaviour we should look to emulate, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was very kind to the poor. One of the things that really speaks to me are the stories of the Master giving away coats to the poor and needy of Acre, one in particular speaks to me:-

The wife of the Master was about to depart on a journey. Fearing that her husband would give away his cloak and so be left without one for himself, she left a second cloak with her daughter, charging her not to inform her father of it. Not long after her departure, the Master, suspecting, it would seem, what had been done, said to his daughter, “Have I another cloak?” The daughter could not deny it, but told her father of her mother’s charge. The Master replied, “How could I be happy having two cloaks, knowing that there are those that have none?” Nor would he be content until he had given the second cloak away.”

His reasoning can be applied to Fairtrade. How can we be happy sitting at home drinking our cuppas made with bargain tea bags, when the farmer who grew that tea is having to sell some of his land as he can’t afford to grow on it all, thanks to the low prices that tea buyers demand, even though he has already pulled his daughter out of school, and is skipping as many meals as possible, in order to ensure he is able to survive?

We Bahá’ís also believe that productive work is a form of worship and Bahá’u'lláh instructs us to work:-

“Please God, the poor may exert themselves and strive to earn the means of livelihood. This is a duty which, in this most great Revelation, hath been prescribed unto every one, and is accounted in the sight of God as a goodly deed. “

Bahá’u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh, p. 202

But he says “strive to earn the means of livelihood”, now an awful lot of the world live in poverty, because we won’t pay a little bit more for our tea, these people are working and are trying to earn a livelihood. But because of our insatiable demand for cheaper and cheaper products, they are denied the ability to earn a fair income, and Fairtrade products look to redress that. Bahá’u'lláh wrote:-

“They who are possessed of riches, however, must have the utmost regard for the poor”

Bahá’u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh, p. 202

‘Abdu’l-Bahá also said:-

“Service to the friends is service to the Kingdom of God, and consideration shown to the poor is one of the greatest teachings of God.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 27

So from two of our central figures we can quite clearly see that we have a real obligation to help and assist the poor amongst us, and remembering that Baha’u'llah also wrote:-

“It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”

Bahá’u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh, p. 250

So it is not just about helping the poor in our country, it’s about helping all the poor in the world. And that’s what Fairtrade is all about. By making that choice to spend a little bit more on our tea, coffee and even our rubber gloves, we can all play a part in working to close the gap between the rich and the poor.

But I think we can pretty much sum it all up when we think of the “Golden Rule”, a value which is present in all of the major world religions, and in the Bahá’í Faith, its:-

“Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself.”

Bahá’u'lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u'lláh, p. 71

But in Christianity, you will recognise it as

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Matthew 7:12

And in Islam as:-

“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”

Sunnah

So going forward the theme for the February evening will be “Fairtrade – A Bahá’í Perspective”. I have some samples of Fairtrade products that I am going to take along for people to try, and hopefully I will show the friends, and other members of the wider community, why we should use Fairtrade products where we can.

Fairtrade isn’t the answer to the problem of poverty, its only part of the solution. In order to fully eradicate it we need to work towards eliminating poor governance, an end to the marginalisation of women, halting environmental degradation, and the provision of universal education. And only when we have achieved all of these goals, will the eradication of the extremes of wealth and poverty be possible.

But let’s start with this small step.

God Bless

Michael