Chapter 5: What is a Baha'i
Man must show forth fruits. A fruitless man, in the words of His Holiness the Spirit (i.e. Christ), is like a fruitless tree, and a fruitless tree is fit for fire. - Baha'u'llah, Words of Paradise. (50:1)

Herbert Spencer once remarked that by no political alchemy is it possible to get golden conduct out of leaden instincts, and it is equally true that by no political alchemy is it possible to make a golden society out of leaden individuals. Baha'u'llah, like all previous Prophets, proclaimed this truth and taught that in order to establish the Kingdom of God in the world, it must first be established in the hearts of men. In examining the Baha'i teachings, therefore, we shall commence with the instructions of Baha'u'llah for individual conduct, and try to form a clear picture of what it means to be a Baha'i. (50:3)

Living the Life
When asked on one occasion: "What is a Baha'i?" 'Abdu'l-Baha replied: "To be a Baha'i simply means to love all the world; to love humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal brotherhood." On another occasion He defined a Baha'i as "one endowed with all the perfections of man in activity." In one of His London talks He said that a man may be a Baha'i even if He has never heard the name of Baha'u'llah. He added: (50:4)

The man who lives the life according to the teachings of Baha'u'llah is already a Baha'i. On the other hand, a man may call himself a Baha'i for fifty years, and if he does not live the life he is not a Baha'i. An ugly man may call himself handsome, but he deceives no one, and a black man may call himself white, yet he deceives no one, not even himself. (50:5)

One who does not know God's Messengers, however, is like a plant growing in the shade. Although it knows not the sun, it is, nevertheless, absolutely dependent on it. The great Prophets are spirit suns, and Baha'u'llah is the sun of this "day" in which we live. The suns of former days have warmed and vivified the world, and had those suns not shone, the earth would be cold and dead, but it is the sunshine of today that alone can ripen the fruits which the suns of former days have kissed into life. (50:6)

Devotion to God
In order to attain to the Baha'i life in all its fullness, conscious and direct relations with Baha'u'llah are as necessary as is sunshine for the unfolding of the lily or the rose. The Baha'i worships not the human personality of Baha'u'llah, but the Glory of God manifest through that personality. He reverences Christ and Muhammad and all God's former Messengers to mankind, but he recognizes Baha'u'llah as the bearer of God's Message for the new age in which we live, as the Great World teacher Who has come to carry on and consummate the work of His predecessors. (50:7)

Intellectual assent to a creed does not make a man a Baha'i, nor does outward rectitude of conduct. Baha'u'llah requires of His followers wholehearted and complete devotion. God alone has the right to make such a demand, but Baha'u'llah speaks as the Manifestation of God, and the Revealer of His Will. Previous Manifestations have been equally clear on this point. Christ said: "If any man come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." In different words, all the Divine Manifestations have made this same demand from Their followers, and the history of religion shows clearly that as long as the demand has been frankly recognized and accepted, religion has flourished, despite all earthly opposition, despite affliction, persecution and martyrdom of the believers. On the other hand, whenever compromise has crept in, and "respectability" has taken the place of complete consecration, then religion has decayed. It has become fashionable, but it has lost its power to save and transform, its power to work miracles. True religion has never yet been fashionable. God grant that one day it may become so; but it is still true, as in the days of Christ, that "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." The gateway of spiritual birth, like the gateway of natural birth, admits men only one by one, and without encumbrances. If, in the future, more people succeed in entering that way than in the past, it will not be because of any widening of the gate, but because of a greater disposition on the part of men to make the "great surrender" which God demands; because long and bitter experience has at last brought them to see the folly of choosing their own way instead of God's way. (50:8)

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