The Family as Heaven

Abstract

The Grand Mogul Akbar, who lived about 700 years ago, wanted to know which was mankind’s innate language. To find this out, he decreed that a number of infants be separated from their parents and be raised in such a way that their caretakers would provide the necessary food and care but not speak with them or give them special attention. The results were shocking. When the children were released, they did not have a command of any language an were unable to adapt themselves to one. They were so incapable of being educated or trained that even the attempt to utilize them in the army proved to be futile (Stokvis, 1965). In a similar experiment carried out by Friedrich von Hohenstaufen, children who were raised without language and evidence of love turned out to be very vulnerable and died in a relatively short time (Mitscherlin, 1967).

If love and agreement are manifest in a single family, that family will advance, become illumined and spiritual; but if enmity and hatred exist within it, destruction and dispersion are inevitable.

—Abdu’l Bahá