THOUGHTS ON EARTH DAY BY FLORIA PIRNIA-SANAI
Nature
ال
attributes of God are revealed within every created thing. “Nature,” Bahá’u’lláh writes,
"is God’s Will and is its
expression in and through the contingent world.” It is
the embodiment of God’s name, “the
Creator.”
Material
resources will always be required to sustain civilization. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá observed
that humanity will be “constantly taking out of
nature’s laboratory new and wonderful things.” As we learn how best to
utilize the earth’s raw materials in order to advance civilization, we must be
conscious of our attitudes towards the source of our sustenance and wealth.
Seeing
the reflection of God’s attributes in nature and understanding them as an
expression of His will inspires in us a deep respect for the natural world.
This should not be viewed as a call to worship nature. Humankind has the
capacity to emancipate itself from the world of nature; “for as long as man is captive to nature he is a ferocious animal,
as the struggle for existence is one of the exigencies of the world of nature.”
Nevertheless, the natural world is a divine trust for which all members
of the human family—as the
stewards of the planet’s vast resources—are responsible.
“We need a change of heart, a reframing of all our conceptions and
a new orientation of our activities. The inward life of man as well as his
outward environment have to be reshaped if human salvation is to be secured.”
— From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi
Reflective questions:
What is Nature?
How human being is using the nature?
What do we need to take care of the nature?
Are we, human beings, responsible of the nature?