Justice

O SON OF SPIRIT! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

Hidden Word #2 Arabic

In the Bahá'í Faith, the greatest gift is the gift of teaching; it is the first obligation of every Bahá'í. Teaching does not mean campaigning and forcing people to accept the Faith. Rather, it is the act of informing people of the unification of all of humanity in one universal cause and one common faith; where people are united together to progress in a spirit of harmony and achieve a more perfect and better working society. This is where justice comes in.

Much like teaching, justice is a gift of God, a sign of His loving-kindness. In the world today, we view justice as either revenge based-if somebody does you wrong, you want to be compensated. Such compensation comes in two forms: violent or in the court of law. The first one is intolerable for a society based on unity. Violence simly spawns disunity, thus it should be left behind. But what about the court of law?

Let us return to the quote. The first sentence makes it clear that justice is extremely important. The second statement however is much more obscure. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Essentially the idea that can be understood from this phrase is through the aid of justice, we will not be influenced by the bias of others.

Before continuing, it is important to note a very important teaching of the Bahá'í Faith. There is an idea called the Independent Investigation of the Truth. The first sentence of the Kitab-i-Iqan begins as follows: No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth. This phrase explains it all. In order to gain the underlying idea behind anything, one must leave his bias behind him and, with an open mind, seek the truth. Bias blinds us from the truth because we tend to focus on the ideas from our past which keep us from progressing. This relates back to the sentence, By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. By detaching oneself from our previous thoughts and investigating the truth, true justice will be able to be achieved. We should not let the opinions of others affect our decision in the slightest.

Returning to the court of law. How can one be compensated for an injustice in a court of law? In the American Justice System, we try to remove bias by creating a jury who will hold no bias towards the person due to the color of their skin, religion, beliefs, education, status, etc. Of course, this is near impossible; prejudice, whether we like it or not, still exists in our society and needs must be eradicated. In the end, the judge must look through evidence, witness testimonials and logical arguments to come to a conclusion.

What I ask of you: Using the Hidden Word, what can be concluded of the American Justice System? Is it corrupted and if so, how is it fixed using true justice?