Meat-eating in the writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha

By Sen McGlinn

There is quite a lot on meat-eating in the writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha, beginning with the Aqdas:

"If ye should hunt with beasts or birds of prey, invoke ye the Name of God when ye send them to pursue their quarry; for then whatever they catch shall be lawful unto you, even should ye find it to have died."

This is expanded in Questions and Answers no. 24:

Other means, such as bows and arrows, guns, and similar equipment employed in hunting, are also included. If, however, traps or snares are used, and the game dieth before it can be reached, it is unlawful for consumption.

So the basic rule is, one should recite the name of God over the animal before slaughtering it, and the meat is then halal. The first exception is that reciting the name of God before releasing the hawk or firing the gun is also acceptable: the meat is halal. The exception to the exception is that meat taken from fatal forms of traps and snares is not halal, even if one recited the name of God over the trap. Because furs are not haram for Bahais, traps could still be used to catch animals for fur - but in my opinion the kind that trap one foot of the animal (gin traps) should be banned as dangerous to children and cruel to animals. But cruelty to animals is another topic.

Before you start wondering whether there is a Jewish or halal butcher in your neighbourhood, note that this is among the laws not at present binding on the Bahais in the West.

Baha'u'llah also writes:

O concourse of priests and monks! Eat ye of that which God hath made lawful unto you and do not shun meat. God hath, as a token of His grace, granted you leave to partake thereof save during a brief period.

(Summons of the Lord of Hosts 154; Athar-e Qalam-e 'a`ali, volume 1 p. 50 from line 6. )

"A brief period" is an interpretive translation - it says "certain days" which might refer to Fridays just as well as Lent. There are similar tablets of Abdu'l-Baha in Amr wa Khalq, saying not to abstain from eating meat and there is this section in Tablets of Abdu'l- Baha:

Reflect upon the inner realities of the universe, the secret wisdoms involved, the enigmas, the inter-relationships, the rules that govern all. For every part of the universe is connected with every other part by ties that are very powerful and admit of no imbalance, nor any slackening whatever. In the physical realm of creation, all things are eaters and eaten: the plant drinketh in the mineral, the animal doth crop and swallow down the plant, man doth feed upon the animal, and the mineral devoureth the body of man. Physical bodies are transferred past one barrier after another, from one life to another, and all things are subject to transformation and change, save only the essence of existence itself -- since it is constant and immutable, and upon it is founded the life of every species and kind, of every contingent reality throughout the whole of creation.

Whensoever thou dost examine, through a microscope, the water man drinketh, the air he doth breathe, thou wilt see that with every breath of air, man taketh in an abundance of animal life, and with every draught of water, he also swalloweth down a great variety of animals. How could it ever be possible to put a stop to this process? For all creatures are eaters and eaten, and the very fabric of life is reared upon this fact. Were it not so, the ties that interlace all created things within the universe would be unravelled.

(Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 157)

On the other hand, there's a report from Abdu'l-Baha (not my translation, I suspect it might be by Ahang Rabbani) that says:

Regarding the eating of animal flesh and abstinence therefrom, know thou of a certainty that, in the beginning of creation, God determined the food of every living being, and to eat contrary to that determination is not approved. For instance, beasts of prey, such as wolf, lion and leopard, are endowed with ferocious, tearing instruments, such as hooked talons and claws. From this it is evident that the food of such beasts is meat. If they were to attempt to graze, their teeth would not cut the grass, neither could they chew the cud, for they do not have molars. Likewise, God hath given to the four-footed grazing animals such teeth as reap the grass like a sickle, and from this we understand that the food of these species of animal is vegetable. They cannot chase and hunt down other animals. The falcon hath a hooked beak and sharp talons; the hooked beak prevents him from grazing, therefore his food also is meat. 

But now coming to man, we see he hath neither hooked teeth or sharp nails or claws, or teeth like iron sickles. From this it becomes evident and manifest that the food of man is cereals and fruit. Some of the teeth of man are like millstones to grind the grain, and some are sharp to cut the fruit. Therefore he is not in need of meat, nor is he obliged to eat it. Even without eating meat he would live with the utmost vigor and energy. For example, the community of the Brahmins in India does not eat meat; notwithstanding this they are not inferior to other nations in strength, power, vigor, outward senses or intellectual virtues. Truly, the killing of animals and the eating of their meat is somewhat contrary to pity and compassion, and if one can content oneself with cereals, fruit, oil and nuts, such as pistachios, almonds and so on, it would undoubtedly be better and more pleasing.

 "Khatirat-i Habib" p. 297

http://bahaiforums.com/general-discussion/13309-abdul-baha-contradictions.html