Principles of Spiritual Economics by Hooshmand Badee

“O army of God! Through the protection and help vouchsafed by the Blessed Beauty–may my life be a sacrifice to His loved ones–ye must conduct yourselves in such a manner that ye may stand out distinguished and brilliant as the sun among other souls. Happy are those that comprehend, and well is it with them that acquire such virtues.” (From a Tablet – translated from the Persian and Arabic). These fair garments are a befitting vesture for every temple.

“Trustworthiness, wisdom and honesty are, of a truth, God’s beauteous adornments for His creatures. (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1988), p. Happy the man that cleaveth fast unto them, and recognizeth their virtue, and woe betide him that denieth their station.” ( Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, rev. Through them man is exalted, and the door of security is unlocked before the face of all creation. Blessed the city that shineth by their light. “O ye friends of God in His cities and His loved ones in His lands! This Wronged One enjoineth on you honesty and piety. They, indeed, are of the lost….( Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, sec. They that follow their lusts and corrupt inclinations, have erred and dissipated their efforts. Be ye the trustees of God amongst His creatures, and the emblems of His generosity amidst His people. Beware, O people, that ye deal not treacherously with any one. “Beautify your tongues, O people, with truthfulness, and adorn your souls with the ornament of honesty.

(Hence the extreme recklessness of attributing a virtue on the basis of a single action.)” See Virtue ethics SEP. To possess a virtue is to be a certain sort of person with a certain complex mindset. It is concerned with many other actions as well, with emotions and emotional reactions, choices, values, desires, perceptions, attitudes, interests, expectations and sensibilities.

It is, indeed a character trait - that is, a disposition which is well entrenched in its possessor, something that, as we say “goes all the way down”, unlike a habit such as being a tea-drinker - but the disposition in question, far from being a single track disposition to do honest actions, or even honest actions for certain reasons, is multi-track. “A virtue such as honesty or generosity is not just a tendency to do what is honest or generous, nor is it to be helpfully specified as a “desirable” or “morally valuable” character trait. Honesty refers to a facet of moral character and denotes positive, virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness along with the absence of lying, cheating, or theft.

Principles of Spiritual Economics by Hooshmand Badee