BURNS NIGHT

All over the world (even here in Leicester) all sorts of people will be celebrating Burns Night: the 251st anniversary of the birth of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns (1759–96). I've never been to a Burns Supper, the traditional way of celebrating this occasion. But then, as a teetotal vegetarian who can't stomach turnips (or "neeps" as they're called for this purpose), I might be considered a bit picky over the fare on offer at such an occasion. And I've never worn a kilt. I did manage to get a vegetarian haggis though, from Green & Pleasant on Queens Road; that will do for a celebration of my national cultural heritage, washed down with some Diet Irn Bru.

Back in 1979, when I was just 19, the Bahá'ís whom I first got to know in Glasgow often spoke about the perceived connection between the unity and solidarity of the whole human race that is expressed in Burns's poetry and the same core teaching of the Bahá'í Faith. Of course, all sorts of people and ideologies - religious, political, secular, social and more - claim ownership of Burns, or have hitched their wagon to his star. His universalism (which is but one facet of his writing) took on particular significance for me when I was working on a book about 'Abdu'l-Bahá's 1913 visit to Edinburgh. The Seven Candles of Unity (1991) by Anjam Khursheed, acknowledges the resonance that Scots Bahá'ís feel with the spirit of Burns. In that context it quotes his well-known words which foretell the inevitable overturning of prejudice and tyranny and the coming together of all the world's peoples:

Then let us pray that come it may,

As come it will for a' that

That Sense and Worth o'er a' the earth

Shall bear the gree an' a' that,

For a' that an' a' that,

It's comin' yet for a' that,

That man to man, the world o'er

Shall brithers be for a' that.

I could go on, faithful reader (I usually do). But if any words should be allowed to speak for themselves, they're the words of Robert Burns.

Find out more about Robert Burns at the official Robert Burns website.

Read Scots poet Don Paterson's introduction to the poetry of Robert Burns on the Guardian website.