The Justification of the Binding Nature of Bahá'í Ethics

By Fiona Missaghian-Moghaddam

First presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #62
Centre for Bahá'í Studies: Acuto, Italy
July 8–12, 2005
(see list of papers from #62)


    Since human beings make conscious decisions, there have been questions such as "What is right and what is wrong thing to do?" or "How should I be?" Ethics are of no use, however, if people do not feel bound to adhere to them. So a different set of questions goes like this: "Why should I do the right thing?" Philosophers and religious thinkers have been trying to answer these questions for thousands of years-in many different ways. In this presentation we will look at the Bahá'í justification of the binding nature of ethics. Based on Bahá'u'lláh's Kitáb-i-Aqdas we will define reasons that make a Bahá'í "do the right thing".

this paper is not yet online