Ruhi Institute

RUHI BOOKS

“The content of the books of the Ruhi Institute are unjustified, the only valid way to teach the Baha’I Faith to the peoples of the world is through the use of the scriptures of their respective religions.

Bahá’u’lláh’s message be delivered to the masses of humanity on the basis of the Holy Scriptures of the past.”

“I do hope somehow that all friends become more and more deepened by Ruhi or otherwise. Personally I do not count much on Ruhi.”

“That's true; the parents everywhere would like to send their children to a good school with professional teachers. But the point is that doing 1 or 2 Ruhi courses does not make one professional in teaching children classes. I have done book 3 (just out of obedience to our institutions) but believe me I cannot handle a children class. I am not so good with children education even though I am actually in academic field and teaching at university level. But my wife who has not done book 3 yet is so good with children and children classes that I see it's in her nature to be an educator of children.

Meaning that children’s class teacher is a job, is a position for which people can be assigned, can be asked, or can volunteer. To look for the best person means one is looking for skills and characteristics, and in the world today a lot of people think that qualifications, having done a certain course indicate that that person has the skills needed for the job.”

“At this time when we have lack of human resources, it would be much better for all of us to make use of our resources to best of our abilities. I have seen some places where they had such requirement, the number of children classes in fact reduced as there were not enough children class teachers who have finished book 3. So the LSA of that place was urging friends there to come and study book 3 to be able to offer more children classes.”

“To me it shows stupidity of a decision by an LSA to require all children class teachers to pass Book 3 or now a days Book 5.

It would be similar to tell a Baha'i Teacher not to teach the Faith unless he/she has finished book 2 and book 6.”

Ruhi’i’zation of Baha’i community

The whole of the Baha’i community is infected by Ruhi book courses. It looks like The Ruhi'i'zation of Baha’i community is the sole aim of Universal House of Justice.

“It seems strange to expect that materials developed for largely uneducated rurally based Colombians would transplant well into other places in the world. Unfortunately, since the same group (Arbab, Correa, Lample, etc.) that created and promoted Ruhi are now in the highest positions within the Baha’i Administration, it will be long time until we put it all behind us. For this small group of persons, there is just too much personal interest at stake. I can empathize. It’s never easy to admit that one is wrong. That’s just human. But usually when we fall prey to this defect of human nature, it is only ourselves that we hurt. But in the case of Ruhi, the whole Baha’i community is suffering.

What is notable is that there has been no critical discussion of Ruhi books or study circles in any Baha’i periodicals. Differences of opinion are not tolerated well by many Baha’is, who mistake the concept of unity with quashing all dissent. But there are deeper problems caused by the way that uncomfortable discussions on internet lists were handled and individual Baha’is reprimanded that has presumably scared most thinking Baha’is from speaking out critically about this or any community-related issue.

Only counting Baha’is and non-Baha’is participating in courses is not the way of Evaluation. The Baha’i Administration gives the message that Ruhi content should not be evaluated, it should only be implemented.

Any criticism of the weaknesses of Ruhi is interpreted as a direct criticism or attack on the House of Justice and the ITC.

It is conveyed to the Baha’is clearly in no uncertain terms that disliking study circles means having problems with covenant and branded as covenantally weak.

The poisonous effects of this on the Baha’i world community are already apparent and will get even more pronounced with time.Those Bahais who are expelled from the community for criticism of Ruhi have become real powerhouses since their expulsion. Think how amazingly vibrant the Baha’i faith could become if the House would remove just 1% of the Baha’is from membership, let alone 10% or 100%.

The Ruhi-system is treated tantamount to a revelation from God. It is perfect and suitable, nothing to change about it: it just needs to be implemented. If it doesn’t work, it’s not the material that’s wrong. We were just too dumb to use it. Any question about Ruhi will be counter by sanction of Administrative Right followed by threat to be declared a Covenant breaker.

So the destiny of every Baha’i is either Ruhi book graduates or a Covenant breaker

Ruhi Books : A failed Idea

Despite repeated assurances by UHJ that “entry by troops” was just around the corner, the numbers of Baha’is worldwide declined drastically.The glaring example is of India where the claim of 2.2 millions Bahais is in fact only 11,324. In the United States and other parts of the world, the number of Baha’is have also gone down drastically.

Evidence for this partly comes from the numbers of Local Spiritual Assemblies, which is arguably the best way to evaluate the presence of a functioning community. As it turns out, LSA numbers have actually dropped in Africa, Asia, South America since the 1980s. Infact in India where the Bahais always claim to be the largest Baha’i community, there the condition is miserable and pathetic. The number of LSAs from 10,000 in 1984 came down to only 500 in 2009, which is just 0nly 5% of LSAs.

A few reasons for this sudden collapse are :

• The claims of Baha’i Administration was highly exaggerated if not fraudulent.
• Many of these new Baha’is did not remain active, and drifted back to their traditional religious and cultural belief systems.
• Excessive control of the Persian Bahais over the Baha’i Administration including UHJ which antagonized the non Persian Bahais.This control also gave the idea of Hidden Persian Imperialism agenda behind Ruhi Book courses and Baha’i Faith.

In response to this situation of low growth and poor community development, the Universal House of Justice requested all national communities to develop their human resources through systems of systematic training and group study. The intention was to enthuse Baha’is to teach more and develop their community life, which would in turn attract new converts to the religion. And importantly, it provided new converts with a system of learning, so they would not drift away from the religion after their initial enthusiasm.

So since 1996, the House of Justice has requested all national communities set up “training institutes.” These institutes use a decentralized system of locally based group learning, “study circles”, which are led by a trained tutor. Study circles are supposed to develop the “spiritual insights, knowledge, and skills” that are needed for the large-scale growth of the Baha’i community. Baha’i communities, encouraged by institutions such as the International Teaching Centre, have used the “Ruhi” books as the curriculum for these study circles. Currently, there are eight such books: “Reflections on the life of the spirit,” “Arising to serve,” “Teaching children’s grade 1,” “The Twin Manifestations,” “Teaching children’s grade 2,” “Teaching the Cause,” “Walking together on a path of service,” “Covenant” and Baha’is are encouraged to complete them all in a consecutive fashion.

The Problem with the "Ruhi Books"

There has been no critical discussion of Ruhi books or study circles in any Baha’i periodicals - differences of opinion are not tolerated well by many Baha’is, who mistake the concept of unity with quashing all dissent. But there are deeper problems caused by the way that uncomfortable discussions on internet lists are handled and individual Baha’is reprimanded that has presumably scared most thinking Baha’is from speaking out critically about this or any community-related issue. As the Ruhi books are the most important and prevalent activity of Baha’i communities, this is all the more alarming.

But there are two objectionable issues that are major factors in the "Ruhi problem":

1) One is the very idea of a uniform system that is supposed to be used not only by each and every believer in the whole world, which is in itself objectionable.

What is even more dangerous is that each and every "seeker" in the whole wide world is supposed to fit in the narrow Ruhi-framework and be converted through it. We are asked to invite our friends and colleagues, regardless of their cultural, academic, social background to Ruhi Book 1! This is something that is never going to work. And it will do a lot of damage to the reputation of the Faith. It also fail to see how this fits in the statement of the House of Justice back in 1996 or so, speaking about a variety of Institute programs that need to be implemented, each serving different national and even regional needs.

This demand for uniformity has become coercive in the Baha’i community. I recall overhearing a conversation between two Baha’is in which one said that she did not like the Ruhi study circles and the other responded that such reservations meant that she had problems with the Covenant. Another Baha’i, in an e-mail conversation, wondered how one might offer criticisms of the Ruhi system without appearing to attack the Covenant.

2) The second issue is the way we "evaluate." There is no critical assessment that would allow for a modification and adaptation or, if necessary, substitution of study-materials. Evaluation, here, means only counting Baha’is and non-Baha’is participating in courses. If the number is higher than X we move on to another category. In other words, the content is not evaluated, only the implementation. The Ruhi-system is treated tantamount to a revelation from God. It is perfect and suitable, nothing to change about it: it just needs to be implemented. If it doesn’t work, it’s not the material that’s wrong. We were just too dumb to use it.

In the long run, I see two problems:

One is, the community will be split, a number of activities have already ceased, a number of friends have pulled back from activities, because of the perceived attitude "either you’re with Ruhi, or you’re not working with us". You can't even be supportive of the process and suggest changes. You will immediately be seen as "Anti-Ruhi" and having problem with covenant even if you have served a member of National spiritual Assembly or given your services as a counselor for number of years.

The other is: should Ruhi prove to not be such a success after all, frustration might spread in large parts of the community.

There are serious misunderstandings creeping in the minds of Baha’i Intellectuals who convey there ideas in hidden fearing from being excommunicated and branded as covenant breakers.

Ruhi Books are useless !

It seems strange to expect that materials developed for largely uneducated rurally based Colombians would transplant well into other places in the world. A closer look at the Ruhi books would support this view – for example, the recommendation that participants visit families in Book 2 would be inappropriate to most Westerners. But there are more serious problems with these books.

First, they promote one way of reading scripture that focuses on a plain, outward, and acontextualized understanding of a quotation. A quotation from a Baha’i source is cited, without any historical or other context, and the participants are asked a series of questions about it – some in the form of multiple-choice yes/no questions. Other approaches to reading texts are not introduced, which undermines Baha’i approaches to interpretation that promotes a multiplicity of methods.

Second, some of the passages that are used for reflection are not from authoritative sources - for example, in Book 1, there are passages from Star of the West and Promulgation of Universal Peace where Abdu'l-Bahá's terminology may not be accurately reflected in the English translations used (or, for that matter, ‘Abdu'l-Bahá's words may not have been accurately recalled).

Third, there is commentary in the books written by those that developed it that is not necessarily consistent with Bahá'í thought. In Book 1, for example, in the sections on prayer, it states that we should not move abruptly from prayer into another activity. This makes sense for most people, but it is not true to imply that it is a Bahá'í practice.

Structural issues

Much emphasis is placed on a county in South Florida where a core number of Baha’is have completed the sequence, and around 40-50 individuals who were not Baha’is have converted having undertaken some study circles.

It is proposed that this forms a model of how the Ruhi books can advance the process of “entry by troops”. There are three problems with this approach.

First, we have no way of knowing whether it is the study circles or something indirectly related to these courses that has been the factor that enabled these individuals to convert. It is possible that mobilizing Baha’is to do anything in large numbers will attract non-Baha’is, and it is the non-specific aspects of the study circles that work, such as socializing with Baha’is. If that is the case, then it would argue for increased numbers of deepenings, firesides, and a myriad of other activities, rather than solely study circles.

Second, we have no way of knowing if these individuals would have become Baha’is anyway, irrespective of study circles or not.

Third, we have no way of knowing if the study circles put off other individuals who may have become Baha’is but didn’t. It has been suggested that intellectuals and prominent people would not find this approach positive.

Fourth, there may be other clusters that have met similar criteria as South Florida, and yet have not experienced any growth. Information on all “A-Clusters” could be released and discussed.