"The primary, the most urgent requirement is the
promotion of education. It is inconceivable that any nation should achieve
prosperity and success unless this paramount, this fundamental concern is
carried forward. The principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples is
ignorance."
(Abdu'l-Baha, ‘The Secret of Divine Civilization’)
(Abdu'l-Baha, ‘The Secret of Divine Civilization’)
"… education is of three kinds: material, human and
spiritual. Material education is concerned with the progress and development of
the body, through gaining its sustenance, its material comfort and ease. This
education is common to animals and man. Human education signifies civilization
and progress -- that is to say, government, administration, charitable works,
trades, arts and handicrafts, sciences, great inventions and discoveries and
elaborate institutions, which are the activities essential to man as
distinguished from the animal. Divine education is that of the Kingdom of God:
it consists in acquiring divine perfections, and this is true education; for in
this state man becomes the focus of divine blessings, the manifestation of the
words, 'Let Us make man in Our image, and after Our likeness.'[Genesis. 1:26] This
is the goal of the world of humanity."
(‘Abdu'l-Baha, ‘Some Answered Questions’)
(‘Abdu'l-Baha, ‘Some Answered Questions’)
