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The law of strict abstinence from party politics seems surprising in a religion which is directed so much towards altering and transforming this world. To many this attitude seems inconsistent and self-contradictory, and quite often the Baha'is are reproached with holding themselves back from the "real problems" of society and of their fellow human beings, and with passively watching the world hastening to its destruction. (31:1) Is this reproach justified? The question is: what is "reality", what is the "real world"? For someone who only accepts as reality what can be perceived, what can be actually experienced or empirically verified, or who sees the reality of society only in its socio-economic conditions, the political abstinence of the Baha'is may appear as a refusal to cooperate in the building of a humane and just world, and a refusal to eliminate the evils of this world. (31:2) The Baha'is know, however, that the visible world is only a part of reality and "that the working of the material world is merely a reflection of spiritual conditions and until the spiritual conditions can be changed there can be no lasting change for the better in material affairs" (Uhj). (31:3) In this context it should be realized that most of those who expect the world to be saved by political action alone themselves "have no clear concept of the sort of world they wish to build, nor how to go about building it. Even those who are concerned to improve conditions are therefore reduced to combating every apparent evil that takes their attention. Willingness to fight against evils, whether in the form of conditions or embodied in evil men, has thus become for most people the touchstone by which they judge a person's moral worth. Baha'is, on the other hand, know the goal they are working towards and know what they must do, step by step, to attain it. Their whole energy is directed towards the building of the good, a good which has such a positive strength that in the face of it the multitude of evils-- which are in essence negative-- will fade away and be no more. To enter into the quixotic tournament of demolishing one by one the evils in the world is, to a Baha'i, a vain waste of time and effort. His whole life is directed towards proclaiming the Message of Baha'u'llah, reviving the spiritual life of his fellow-men, uniting them in a divinely-created World Order, and then, as that Order grows in strength and influence, he will see the power of that Message transforming the whole of human society and progressively solving the problems and removing the injustices which have so long bedeviled the world." (Uhj).
(31:4)
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