The Principle of Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is the foundation of all human virtue and the foundation upon which all social and commercial life depends.
Bahá'u'lláh declared trustworthiness — keeping one's word, being reliable, fulfilling obligations — to be the foundation of all virtue and of social order itself. Without trustworthiness, no commercial, political, or personal relationship can function. All Bahá'í ethics are built on this foundational commitment.
Trustworthiness is the greatest portal leading unto the tranquility and security of the people.
The Bahá'í emphasis on trustworthiness echoes Francis Fukuyama's book Trust (1995), which argues that social trust underpins a society's prosperity.
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh
Written about in
- What the Bahá'í Faith says about justice
Trustworthiness is treated as the base on which social and commercial life stands. It is the unheroic daily form of justice: doing what you said you would do.
- What the Bahá'í Faith says about what to say and what to leave unsaid
Bahá'u'lláh made trustworthiness — keeping your word, fulfilling obligations — the foundation of commercial, political and personal life alike. It reframes speech as a promise-making act: the question is not only what harm a sentence does now but what it commits you to later.