Friday, May 25, 2007

Muhajir

Biography of Rahmat Muhajir

By John Taylor; 2007 May 25


Dr Muhajir, Hand of the Cause of God, Knight of Baha'u'llah, by Iran Furutan Muhajir, Baha'i Publishing Trust, New Delhi, India, Rev. Ed., 2005


When I found out that this biography was written by the subject's wife, I was disappointed. I had just read "A Radiant Gem," a life written by the subject's daughter that suffers from a lack of a hint of critical objectivity. It is true that an objective viewpoint is often a pretense, but it is a comforting one. In the case of Dr Muhajir, I need not have worried. His wife is a more than competent biographer, and she often adds details, more often than not grueling and hair-raising details, about the daily life of these two pioneers to Malaysia in the 1950's that a husband would not appreciate as forcefully.

I now see why our Iranian friends reflexively respect and revere any returning pioneer. I think I will do so too, for reading about the travails of these two Knights of Baha'u'llah, their bouts with malaria and other, less pronounceable tropical diseases, the danger, isolation, loneliness, the struggle she went through just to get water to cook, I can appreciate what this high title of "Knight" means in the Order of Baha'u'llah.

I attended a meeting where Dr Muhajir spoke in the mid-1970's, and he impressed me with his humility, which was palpable. He was an inspiring speaker who made you want to go right out and teach the masses. Indeed, now that I think of it, he was the most humble soul I have ever met, and having had this direct experience with him I see why the word "humble" turns up so often among those who knew him. A childhood friend of Rahmat Muhajir wrote the author about the subject's youth, telling how he decided that the Baha'i youth needed to learn about the Administrative Order, how he arranged for the teachers and accompanied every youth, on foot or by bicycle, to and from every meeting.

"He often advised us to memorize the Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah and other Writings. He said that scientists believe that the more we exercise our brain the stronger memory we will have. Dr Muhajir, from that early age, believed in actions rather than words. When he noticed a youth struggling with his studies, he would find someone who could tutor him or her and would bring them over himself. He was not just another youth; he was our guide, our adviser, our teacher, and the one who gave us encouragement. He was our leader. However, he was all these things without being aware of his effect on us, always with humility and detachment." (Dr Muhajir, p. 12)

This same person tells of an early Crise de Foi,

"One night, while we were walking to the meeting together, I talked to him about my doubts on how to conduct my life. I told him, `If I live according to the teachings of the Faith, my friends consider me gutless, simple and stupid. If I pay attention to material and worldly things, I feel guilty.' Although Dr Muhajir still had not studied medicine, he explained to me the function of the human body like an expert physiologist. He then continued to explain about the soul, and its role and progress in this world and the next. He then smilingly advised me to have moderation in all spheres of my life. This conversation instilled such calm and confidence in my soul that from then onwards I did not worry anymore." (Id.)

The educational theorist John Dewey recommended taking time off for travel or to briefly enter into the work force; such breaks during one's education enrich one's studies and make for a more rounded personality. Dr Muhajir seems to have either heard of Dewey's ideas or come up with a variation of it on his own, for he in his own schooling took time off to serve the needs of the Faith in a remote region of Iran, and advised other youth to do the same. So it is to Rahmat Muhajir, it seems, that we the now-familiar pioneering "year of service" program for teens and pre-teens. Speaking of the Baha'i classes on the Admistration that Muhajir organized, our biographer writes,

"Many of those who participated in the classes later pioneered to various parts of the world, most of them encouraged by their boyhood friend. He even accompanied some of them to their destinations and assisted them to settle in their posts. It was also in that year that encouraged his friends to take a year off from their studies in order to visit and inspire the Baha'is around the country. This concept of a year of service, which he had conceived as a youth, was always dear to his heart. In later years he shared it with the Baha'i youth of many parts of the world and inspired them to rise to service. When their parents objected, he would often go to meet with them and calm their fears by telling them of his own experiences. He believed that a year in the life of an 18 year old was only significant if it was spent in the service of the Faith. A youth could always go back to his or her studies, often with a much clearer understanding of the importance of education, but he or she could never recapture the opportunity to serve at a moment when it was needed." (Ibid., pp. 12-13)

Later on, after he graduated from medical school, Muhajir and a young aristocratic wife who had had servants all her life and did not even know how to cook, pioneered to a mud hut village in the middle of nowhere. Muhajir soon learns that individuals do not convert to another in this region, only entire villages did. This only makes sense in view of the almost universal illiteracy there. Having the village elders go over the pros and cons of every proposal allowed for a level-headed decision-making process. Muhajir, after the spilling of much blood, sweat and tears, converts his first village.

Muhajir soon finds out that the "expatriots" (outsiders and foreign immigrants) are openly exploiting the poor, naive natives. They trade cheap cigarettes for the locals' valuable plants and handicraft. The fags are slowly killing the villagers. Muhajir makes himself very unpopular with the expates by telling them what their bartering goods are really worth, and encouraging them to trade for items that they also really need, not just cigarettes. He works to make selling cigarettes to minors illegal, and explains the concept of money. In other words, like any good Baha'i, he upholds the polity, and does not exploit the information deficit caused by the language barrier.

As the biographer comments at one point, describing her extreme difficulties in learning the local language, only then did she understand why Baha'u'llah had laid such emphasis on the need for an international language. We native speakers of English have no idea; I only learned this when I began to correspond in Esperanto. For the first time in my life I spoke to foreigners on an equal, neutral basis. We think of New York and Hollywood as the centers of world culture as if it were some natural right, rather than the artificial result of English being forced down the world's throat as a De Facto world language. English is no more the world language than the World Bank is, well, the world's bank. If you doubt, just try to open an account at the World Bank.

Now that the Internet is upon us, I see a tremendous potential for good in networking the far-flung pioneers of the world, good not only for the Faith but the world polity in general. Dr Muhajir was able to do a great deal as a doctor and social reformer in isolation, but imagine what he could have done if all the pioneers of the world were working together, intimately, using an organized information exchange, such as can easily be done now through the Web. And let there be no mistake, the challenge before us is daunting. Think of how the Master quietly saved the local population from starvation during the Great War by cultivating and storing a few crops. Think of the cataclysm that is facing us now, the prospect of hundreds of millions of climate refugees driven from their homes. With the same prescience that the Master showed, our pioneers could save many, many more lives and help save the world from the worst of the trauma and dislocation fast approaching.

This is an almost 600 page biography and I have no idea if I will have time to finish it, but I have certainly read enough to recommend it with full confidence that it is worthwhile, uplifting, interesting reading. To read the exploits of this Hand of God's Cause is almost as inspiring as it must have been to have the young Rahmat Muhajir as a childhood friend.

 

No comments: