Thoughts on the month of Perfection

The Bahá'í month of Perfection (Kamal) is the nineteen day period from August 1 through August 20. Perfection seems to be a word that is easily understood by humans due to its straightforward definition; no fancy explanations or even the need to find a dictionary. Sure enough, Webster tells us that perfection is “…the quality or condition of being perfect; extreme degree of excellence according to a given standard.” Yet, in its simplicity it seems to have alluded most humans so far as the world’s health is considered.

Here is one of the things that `Abdu'l-Bahá has to say about perfection: “Man is in the highest degree of materiality, and at the beginning of spirituality--that is to say, he is the end of imperfection and the beginning of perfection. He is at the last degree of darkness, and at the beginning of light; that is why it has been said that the condition of man is the end of the night and the beginning of day, meaning that he is the sum of all the degrees of imperfection, and that he possesses the degrees of perfection.” -- `Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, p. 235 --

`Abdu'l-Bahá’s statement seems to validate in spades that humans are imperfect.. We additionally know that He has instructed “…the embryo contains from the first all perfections, all the powers--but they are not visible and become so only by degrees…” We may easily confirm, as citizens of this troubled world, that humans are the sum of all degrees of imperfection. History proves that. Oh, there are instances of goodness and progress from man’s acceptance of some of God’s bounties, but it has taken us many thousands of years to arrive where we are now. Overall, few would deny that a vast

improvement needs to come about in order that we may truly recognize the trait of perfection in a preponderance of humans. We know it exists, at least in the embryonic state, since `Abdu'l-Bahá affirms it.

I recall in my early Baha’i years, particularly during the month of Perfection, that anything that happened then had a sort of mystical possibility of perfection attached to it, and that success was practically assured in any venture undertaken or pursued during that time. Pretty naïve, huh? As we all should have learned by now, very little happens automatically out of the ordinary to us individually. While the preponderance of the goodness of God’s bounties happen on a continual basis, such as an abundance of air to breath, day following night, and countless other routine daily events, we give them not a second thought. We have yet to learn that spiritual progress, the only true and lasting progress, comes about through diligence and sustained effort on the part of each of us individually.

As a part of the aging process, and the maturing of us all, we begin to realize that the material gains of this world are so very fleeting and futile. A friend once related that she attended a wealthy friend’s funeral fully expecting that Brinks trucks would arrive during the burial, with loads of gold for its owner to take with him, since he was such a cunning and successful business man. If anyone could do it, he could. We all know that the trucks of gold did not arrive, and that he passed on to the next world in the same manner that we all will, taking only any spiritual qualities that he had managed to develop during his life of material ease. Is a rich man accorded a special blessing as he approaches the Throne of God? Not according to any viable and realistic teaching I know of.

It would seem that the one thing we should come to realize during the month of Kamal is that the only hope of true perfection in this life is related to our attempts to attain the spiritual bounties that Bahá'u'lláh allows us to strive for. He and His Concourse are eager to bestow upon us all sorts of goodness, but we must fervently work to put aside the human tendency for the want of material gain to the detriment of all else, and strive for the spiritual avenues available to us through a life-long study of the Bahá'í Teachings. While we may never achieve the ultimate degree of perfection in this life, knowing that is no excuse not to try with all our heart and soul to do the very best that we possibly can, in honor of His bounties.

Although humans possess the embryonic possibilities of perfection, our only hope to begin to attain some of those qualities is to learn from the life of The Master, `Abdu'l-Bahá, and follow in His footsteps as best we can in an attempt to elevate the human species along the path of His goodness.

By Hand of the Cause of God David Maxwell