baha'u'llah, baha’i writings - princeton...

Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best

interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth.... 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.

Baha'u'llah, Baha’i Writings

These textual reflections were contributed by Seeking Refuge participants.

O God, your holy child Jesus was a refugee in Egypt, fleeing

the violence of Herod. Protect your children today who are

forced to flee violence in its many forms. Bring them to safe

refuge. Awaken hearts and minds to the involuntary

uprooting of peoples across our globe, and help us to re-order

this world in the image of your love. Amen.

Personal Reflection, Christian Tradition


Moses established the six Levitical cities of refuge on both

sides of the Jordan River to serve as havens to escape

common cycles of blood vengeance. Nazarene churches in the

Middle East consider themselves to be fulfilling this role for

refugees. The accessibility, visibility, inclusivity, justice and

mediatorial nature of these cities correspond to their current

engagement. The Hebrew names of the six cities speak of the

setting apart, strengthening, fellowship, security,

encouragement and joy that is intended for refugees.

King David identified with the plight of refugees and sought

solace and strength in a compassionate God of justice and

mercy. The Son of David became a rock of refuge for all

nations, and calls His followers to be innumerable cities of

refuge to those He can identify with in their displacement,

rejection and brokenness.

Hebrew Neviʾim: Joshua 20:1-8 and Hebrew Ketuvim: Psalm

31:1-7


After the retirement of the Pandavas, Maharaja Parikshit began

ruling the earth guided by sages. While Maharaja Parikshit ruled

from his capital, Hastinapura, the symptoms of Kali-yuga began

infiltrating his kingdom. Conflict, addition, meat-eating, and abuse

of women began to spread. Maharaja Parikshit took his chariot and

traveled through his kingdom to establish peace.

During his travels, Maharaja Parikshit came across a bull and cow

conversing on the banks of the river. The bull's legs were broken and

the cow was weeping. The bull inquired, "Sweet lady, why are you

weeping? Are you lamenting for your relatives, torn from their

homes by war? Are you lamenting for me because I have lost my

legs? Are you afraid because the meat-eaters will kill you? Are you

lamenting because people no longer offer prayers to the gods, or

because drought and famine afflicts the earth? Are you feeling

compassion for the poor women and children that have been left

forlorn by unscrupulous men?"

Mother Earth, in the form of a cow, replied, “O Dharma, you were

also maintained on your four legs by the Supreme Lord. Yet in His

absence, all living beings suffer."

The king said: "O Dharma, O Mother Earth, cast off your fear. Who

has harmed you? Due to the rise of irreligion, you are suffering." The

king promised to drive out the forces of chaos that harmed the

people and the earth.

Hindu Tradition


When strangers reside with you in your land, you shall not

wrong them. The strangers who reside with you shall be to

you as your citizens; you shall love each one as yourself, for

you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 19:33-34, Hebrew Bible


THE NEW COLOSSUS

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Emma Lazarus (1883)


Great love ends human suffering. Compassion and kindness

bring joy to the world.

Jing Shi Aphorism


The people who woke up in their own beds one morning, not

so long ago, brushed their teeth, walked to the toilet, woke up

their lovers and children and siblings, and went to begin the

day's work, the people who listened worriedly to the radio in

hopes of getting clarity about this or that political trouble, the

people who argued over rights to this or that fruit tree, the

people who got softly drunk together at twilight as they talked

about memories and plans, all these people will become

knowable to most of us, the global reading public, as "African

refugees," promising objects of academic specialization,

worthy objects of humanitarian attention. In becoming

objects of the philanthropic mode of power, the political,

historical, and biographical specificity of their life worlds

vanishes into a vast register labeled "unknowable, irrelevant,

unconfirmed, unusable." Here, then, is one more dimension

of the architecture of silence that has for so many years had

the effect of dehumanizing and making disappear this small,

worldly, complicated region of the world.

Liisa H Malkki, Purity and Exile (1995)


If we look back in our own stories or our ancestors, we all had

been immigrants once.

Personal Tradition


When the angels take the souls of those who have wronged

themselves, they ask them ‘What circumstances were you in?’

They reply, ‘We were oppressed in this land,’ and the angels say,

‘But was God’s earth not spacious enough for you to migrate to

some other place?’

Qu’ran 4:97


Whoever fulfilled the needs of his brother, God will fulfill his

needs; whoever brought his brother out of discomfort, God

will bring him out of the discomforts of the Day of

Resurrection, and whoever screened [provided sanctuary to]

a Muslim, God will screen [provide a sanctuary] to him on the

Day of Resurrection.

Islamic Hadith (Bukhari)


Have you seen the one who denies the Recompense? For that

is the one who drives away the orphan and does not

encourage the feeding of the poor. So woe to those who pray

[but] who are heedless of their prayer - those who make show

[of their deeds] and withhold [simple] assistance.

Qu’ran 107:1-7


Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of

a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 23:9, Hebrew Bible


For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was

thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger

and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I

was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came

to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see

you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to

drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or

needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in

prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one

of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for

me.’

Matthew 25:35-40, New Testament


Home

No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark. You only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well. Your neighbours running faster than you, the boy you went to school with who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory is holding a gun bigger than his body, you only leave home when home won't let you stay. No one would leave home unless home chased you, fire under feet, hot blood in your belly. It's not something you ever thought about doing, and so when you did - you carried the anthem under your breath, waiting until the airport toilet to tear up the passport and swallow, each mouthful of paper making it clear that you would not be going back. you have to understand, no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land. Who would choose to spend days and nights in the stomach of a truck unless the miles travelled meant something more than journey. No one would choose to crawl under fences, be beaten until your shadow leaves you, raped, then drowned, forced to the bottom of the boat because you are darker, be sold, starved, shot at the border like a sick animal, be pitied, lose your name, lose your family, make a refugee camp a home for a year or two or ten, stripped and searched, find prison everywhere and if you survive and you are greeted on the other side with go home blacks, refugees dirty immigrants, asylum seekers sucking our country dry of milk, dark, with their hands out smell strange, savage - look what they've done to their own countries, what will they do to ours? The dirty looks in the street softer than a limb torn off, the indignity of everyday life more tender than fourteen men who look like your father, between your legs, insults easier to swallow than rubble, than your child's body in pieces - for now, forget about pride your survival is more important. I want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark, home is the barrel of the gun and no one would leave home unless home chased you to the shore unless home tells you to leave what you could not behind, even if it was human. No one leaves home until home is a damp voice in your ear saying leave, run now, I don't know what i've become.

Warsan Shire


O children of men! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created.

Baha'u'llah, Baha’i Writings


May you all be united, may you be agreed, may you serve the

solidarity of mankind. May you be well-wishers of all humanity.

May you be assistants of every poor one. May you be nurses for

the sick. May you be sources of comfort to the broken in heart.

May you be a refuge for the wanderer. May you be a source of

courage to the affrighted one. Thus, through the favor and

assistance of God may the standard of the happiness of

humanity be held aloft in the center of the world and the ensign

of universal agreement be unfurled.

‘Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace


Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and

Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him,

crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My

daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and

urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she

said.

He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss

it to the dogs.”

“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that

fall from their master’s table.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your

request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that

moment.

Matthew 15:21-28


That is the ultimate ideal of hospitality, and perhaps the

greatest challenge for interreligious dialogue in our times, to

facilitate the discovery of the Divine presence in each and every

person, all created in the Divine Image and to receive them

accordingly.

Rabbi David Rosen


Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the

homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide

from relatives who need your help.

Isaiah 58:7, Hebrew Bible


The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry. The coat

unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it. The

shoes rotting in your closet belong to one who has no shoes. The

money which you put in the bank belongs to the poor.

Basil, Bishop of Caesarea (330-379)


The man who sees me in everything and everything within me

will not be lost to me, nor will I ever be lost to him...When he

sees all being as equal

in suffering or in joy because they are like himself, that man has

grown perfect in yoga.

Bhagavad Gita


Those who believed and those who suffered exile and fought

(and strove and struggled) in the path of Allah, they have the

hope of the Mercy of Allah. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most

Merciful.

Qu’ran 2:218 These textual reflections were contributed by Seeking Refuge participants.

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