Is the Principle of Compulsory Universal Education New?
Abdul Baha: All mankind should attain knowledge and acquire education. This is a characteristically new teaching of Bahaullah in this dispensation.
("Bahaullah declares that all mankind should attain knowledge and acquire an education. This is a necessary principle of religious belief and observance, characteristically new in this dispensation," Abdul Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 455.)

Shia Islam: The Prophet, Muhammad, says: "Acquiring knowledge is compulsory for every man and woman."
(Al-Majlisi, Bihar al-anwar (Beirut: Mu’assisat al-Wafa, 1404 AH), vol. 1, p.170)

Abdul Baha: The Prophets have come to nurture and educate mankind.
("The honored prophets have come to nurture and educate mankind, to turn men into the manifestation of light, inform them about the truth of secrets, and to elevate the human world materialistically and spiritually," Abdul Baha, Khatabat (Egypt), vol. 1, p. 99)

Is Education the Same for All or Dependent on Capacity?
Abdul Baha: All humankind must receive the same education with the same guidelines and the same methods.
("It is necessary that the guidelines and laws of education be the same [everywhere] so that all humankind are given the same education. This means education and nurturing must be the same in all schools. All elements and methods must be the same," Abdul Baha, Khatabat (Tehran), vol. 2, p. 148)

Abdul Baha: Everyone cannot be a scientist. Only educate people according to their capacity and needs!
("Among other teachings and principles Bahaullah counsels the education of all members of society. No individual should be denied or deprived of intellectual training, although each should receive according to capacity. None must be left in the grades of ignorance, for ignorance is a defect in the human world. All mankind must be given a knowledge of science and philosophy-that is, as much as may be deemed necessary. All cannot be scientists and philosophers, but each should be educated according to his needs and deserts," Abdul Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p.108)

Loving Laws That Promote Ignorance or Claiming That All People Must Be Educated?
Bahaullah: There must be universal compulsory education.

The Bab in the Bayan: Destroy all non-Babi books, teach nothing but the Bayan, and do not own more than nineteen books.
("Chapter six of the sixth unit which is about destroying all books but those that have been written or will be written about this order (meaning the Bab’s creed)," The Bab, Farsi Bayan, unit 6, chap. 6.
"Teaching a book other than the book of Bayan is not allowed unless it has in it what is related to theology (kalam). [Teaching] those [sciences] which have been invented such as logic (man?iq), principles [of Jurisprudence] (u?ul), and other [sciences], is not permitted for those who have faith," The Bab, Farsi Bayan, unit 4, chap. 10.
"You have been prohibited in the Bayan from having more than nineteen books. If you do so, you will be fined 19 mithqals of gold," The Bab, Arabic Bayan, unit 11, chap. 7)

Bahaullah: A single letter from the Bayan is more dear to me than everything that is in the skies and the earth.
("I [swear by] He who in His hand is my soul and my essence, a single letter from the Bayan is dearer to me than everything that is in the heavens and the earth," Asad-Allah Fazil Mazandarani, Asrar al-athar khususi, vol. 5, p. 333)

Will Education Dispel Ignorance?
Reason and common-sense: Education will dispel ignorance.

Bahaullah: If you have all the knowledge on earth but do not become a Baha’i you are ignorant.
("If today, someone grasps all of the knowledge on earth but stops at the word ‘yes’ (meaning does not become a Baha’i), the Lord will not pay attention to him (ladi l-haqq madhkur na) and he will be considered as the most ignorant amongst the people," Bahaullah, Iqtidarat wa chand lau? digar, p. 111; -From now on nobody is to be called knowledgeable, except those who have decorated themselves with the garment of this New Affair (meaning those who have become Baha’is)," Bahaullah, Badi`, pp. 138-139)

The Criterion for Being a True Prophet: Good Nurturing and Education of People
Abdul Baha: A prophet who cannot nurture people is not a prophet.
("Prophets are public teachers. If we want to see that prophets are teachers we must independently seek the truth. If [prophets] nurture the souls and take them from the depths of ignorance to the peaks of knowledge, then they are surely true prophets," Abdul-Hamid Ishraq Khawari, Payam-i malakut, pp. 203-204)

The result of Abdul Baha being nurtured by his father: My enemies are "senile like arrogant fools and not seashells full of gems. They are ecstatic from the smell of garbage like dung beetles."
(Abdul Baha, Makatib (Egypt), vol. 1, pp. 442-443)

Are Baha'is Allowed to Attend Non-Baha'i Schools?
Abdul Baha: You are absolutely prohibited from sending your children to non-Baha’i schools for they will be a cause of humiliation and disgrace to the faith.
("It is absolutely prohibited for the children of the friends to go to the schools of others (meaning non-Baha’is) for this is [a cause of] humiliation for the Cause of God and they will be completely deprived of the Blessed Beauty’s graces. Because they will be educated/nurtured elsewise and they will disgrace the Baha’is," Abdul Baha, Makatib (probably Tehran), vol. 5, p. 170)

Abdul Baha sends Shoghi to attend the best non-Baha’i schools in Palestine.
("It was here that Shoghi Effendi had a very significant dream which he recounted to me and which I wrote down. He said that when he was nine or ten years old, living with his nurse in this house and attending school in Haifa, he dreamed that he and another child, an Arab schoolmate, were in the room in which Abdul Baha used to receive His guests in the house in Akka . . . Shoghi Effendi entered the best school in Haifa, the College des Freres, conducted by the Jesuits . . . Abdul Baha decided to send him to Beirut where he attended another Catholic school as a boarder . . . Abdul Baha Who then had arrangements made for Shoghi Effendi to enter the Syrian Protestant College, which had a school as well as a university," Ruhiyyih Rabbani, The Priceless Pearl, pp. 16-17)

Must Foreign Languages Be Taught at Schools?
Abdul Baha: Teach foreign languages at school.
("And further, as well as in the ideals of character, instruction in such arts and sciences as are of benefit, and in foreign tongues," Helen Bassett Hornby, Lights of Guidance: A Baha’i Reference File, chap. VIII, no. 494)

Bahaullah: Reduce all languages to one and only teach that language at school!
("Languages must be reduced to one common language to be taught in all the schools of the world.," Bahaullah, Tablets of Bahaullah Revealed After the Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 90)

A Summary and Conclusion of the Three Perspectives:

Is Universal Compulsory Education a New Principle?
Before Bahaullah, education up to a specific class or age had become compulsory in many countries like Germany and Japan. Even before that, many religions advocated education and learning of knowledge and sciences. Thus, this teaching is not new.

Did the Leaders of Baha'ism Act upon This Principle?
In accordance with this teaching, Abdul Baha had prohibited his followers from sending their children to non-Baha’i schools. At the same time, he himself had sent Shoghi to the best non-Baha’i schools in Haifa. Furthermore, in the Baha’i creed, no single curriculum has been provided to achieve the goal of identical education for all people.

Is This Principle Rational and Logical?
This teaching is logical but the extreme version put forward by Abdul Baha in which he prohibits his followers from going to non-Baha’i schools is unreasonable.

• Universal Compulsory Education
• Is This A New Concept?
• Did the Founders Follow This Principle?
• Is This Principle Logical?
• Conclusions of the Eighth Principle

The articles have been based on the book "Avaze Dohol" - the Beating of the Drum by Masoud Basiti, Zahra Moradi.