A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
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110. We have permitted you to read such sciences as are profitable unto you, not such as end in idle disputation # 77 |
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The Bahá’í Writings enjoin the acquisition of knowledge
and the study of the arts and sciences. Bahá’ís are
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admonished to respect people of learning and accomplishment,
and are warned against the pursuit of studies that are
productive only of futile wrangling.
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In His Tablets Bahá’u’lláh counsels the believers to
study such sciences and arts as are “useful” and would
further “the progress and advancement” of society, and He
cautions against sciences which “begin with words and end
with words”, the pursuit of which leads to “idle disputation”.
Shoghi Effendi, in a letter written on his behalf, likened
sciences that “begin with words and end with words” to
“fruitless excursions into metaphysical hair-splittings”,
and, in another letter, he explained that what Bahá’u’lláh
primarily intended by such “sciences” are “those theological
treatises and commentaries that encumber the human mind
rather than help it to attain the truth”.
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