JANUARY 15, 2009
Corporal Mnemonics
The Changing Times Blog offers an essay that starts off like this,
"Kitab-i-Hearsay
`"I hear a lot of things from a lot of people who are absolutely sure they know what they're talking about. "Shoghi Effendi said 2/3 of the world's population would be wiped out before the lesser peace is established." Mmm. "'Abdu'l-Bahá used to smack people." Really. "You can have your pets with you in the next world." Aha. "There could be women on the House of Justice someday." Is that so? Where did you read that? "Umm… I think it's in, like, God Passes By." Are you sure? "No, I haven't read it…maybe it was in pilgrim's notes…" Pilgrim's notes. "Or a talk or something. I remember someone saying that." Someone.'
I could not resist offering the following comment on this confident statement on that blog:
John Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 11:52 am
As for your comment: "'Abdu'l-Bahá used to smack people.' Really.", I would answer, really.
I do not want to repeat the references, but go on Ocean and use the keyword "slap." On at least two occasions just that happened, both done not out of anger but to protect the Cause from folly. Both references are documented and legitimate. And don't get me started on the wallop He gave a young Shoghi Effendi who had been late for prayers, as mentioned in Priceless Pearl.
For a whole book full of hearsay, see Piff's "Baha'i Lore." I found it amusing to go around memorizing parts of it and quoting passages to staid older believers as if it were an authority.
I would add right now that the fact that the purpose of politics is peace does not mean that there cannot be a just war; similarly, the fact that a teacher is most effective most of the time using what Baha'u'llah calls "words of milk" does not mean that there are not times when "words of fire," and even blows, are necessary. Sometimes, as one of these incidents implies, it is necessary to hit someone who is endangering everybody.
And it is not unknown to use blows in teaching.
I often mention an anecdote about a teacher whose memoire I once read who taught in a school in remote, rural Iran. His students would not respect their teacher without fear, because they were used to being hit routinely at home. So he had to adapt. He found that this worked: on the first day of school he would suddenly hit a kid (one that he knew could take it) in front of everybody for no good reason. For the rest of the year they would treat him with the utmost respect. They were model students and no further violence was necessary.
As another example, some Ancient Greek philosophers would haul off and smack one of their students just after making an important point in order to be sure that the student would remember it forever, and for sure. Call it corporal mnemonics. Corporal punishment is bad, but corporal mnemonics is legit.
Anyway, here are the full quotes that I mentioned indirectly in that response:
"Many years before, in the days of Bahá'u'lláh, 'Akká had had an official, in charge of the secretariat, named Mustafa Effendi, who constantly incited the Governor to make life unbearable for the Bahá'ís. And the Governor was not averse to using the occasion for personal gain. To his various stratagems 'Abdu'l-Bahá paid no attention. The Governor hit upon the idea of forcing the Bahá'í shopkeepers to close down. 'Abdu'l-Bahá forestalled him and advised them to stop trading. Baulked, the Governor called a meeting in his residence of the notables and the divines who were hostile towards the Bahá'ís. It was intended to concert a plan of action. In the meantime, Sa'da'd-Din Ramadan, the chief of the merchants, hurried to see 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He begged for money. Only money, he pleaded, would make the Governor give up his machinations; there was no time to lose. 'Abdu'l-Bahá kept him waiting, while he thought that 'Abdu'l-Bahá was filling a purse with gold that he might take it to the Governor. For his pains he had only a hard slap in the face from 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and was told not to tarry there, as money had already been sent to the Governor. But what the Governor of 'Akká received was a telegram from the Vali in Beirut, dismissing him and other officials. Three months later this ex-Governor was further humiliated and banished to Damascus. He had to leave his family behind in 'Akká. 'Abdu'l-Bahá provided both for him and his family; and in due time, meeting all the expenses, He arranged to reunite them. Thus did 'Abdu'l-Bahá treat the fallen adversary." (H.M. Balyuzi, Abdu'l-Baha - The Centre of the Covenant, p. 115-116)
'The first night of our arrival we suffered because of lack of water The water in the pool had become malodorous. We wanted to go out and procure fresh water, but they would not permit us. From the house of 'Abdu'l-Hadi Pasha, the Mutasarrif of 'Akká, they brought some cooked rice, but it was not enough. The next day, officials came to see what was happening to us. They went into the presence of the Blessed Perfection, and to them He spoke such words of knowledge and wisdom that, in that very first meeting, they realized that here were people endowed with erudition, wisdom and rare understanding One of them had said, there and then, that never before had such pure and sanctified souls set foot in 'Akká. Some days later they brought Haji Ja'far and his brother, Haji Taqi.'
The ration for each person, according to Aqa Rida and Aqa Husayn-i-Ashchi, was three loaves of black bread, salty and inedible. So revolting was this ration that Aqa Husayn, young and headstrong as he was, made rude and insulting remarks about it in Turkish, directed to the Mutasarrif. This earned him a sharp slap in the face from the Most Great Branch. But it also caused the Mutasarrif, Aqa Husayn says, to take note of the situation. Soon the officials discontinued this ration; instead they gave the exiles a sum of money each day, which was shared by all the companions." (H.M. Balyuzi, Baha'u'llah - The King of Glory, p. 275-277)
This is the reference to the "chastisement" given to the Guardian:
"In those days of Shoghi Effendi's childhood it was the custom to rise about dawn and spend the first hour of the day in the Master's room, where prayers were said and the family all had breakfast with Him. The children sat on the floor, their legs folded under them, they would chant for 'Abdu'l-Bahá; there was no shouting or unseemly conduct. Breakfast consisted of tea, brewed on the bubbling Russian brass samovar and served in little crystal glasses, very hot and very sweet, pure wheat bread and goat's milk cheese. Dr Zia Baghdadi, an intimate of the family, in his recollections of these days records that Shoghi Effendi was always the first to get up and be on time - after receiving one good chastisement from no other hand than that of his grandfather!" (Ruhiyyih Khanum, The Priceless Pearl, p. 7)
John Taylor
email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
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