Editing Ba'ath Party (section)

====Arab Nation====
[[File:Ba'ath Constitution.jpg|thumb|right|Part of the 1947 Ba'ath Party constitution]]
For more than 2 decades, [[Michel Aflaq]]'s essay compilation titled "''Fi Sabil al-Ba'ath''" (translation: "The Road to Renaissance") was the primary ideological book of the Ba'ath party. The work was published by Aflaq in 1940.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Michel Aflaq|url=https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/michel-aflaq|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021035254/https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/michel-aflaq|archive-date=21 October 2020|website=harvard.edu}}</ref> From its very beginning, the party was a manifestation of [[Arab nationalism|Arab nationalist]] thought, with the party describing itself as "The Party of Arab Unity".{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=134}}  The pan-Arab tendencies of the party's predecessor, the [[Arab Ba'ath Movement]], were strengthened in 1945–1947 by recruiting members from [[Zaki al-Arsuzi]]'s Arab Ba'ath.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=135}} The first article of the party's constitution stated that: "...the Arabs form one nation. This nation has the natural right to live in a single state. [As such,] the Arab fatherland constitutes an indivisible political and economic unit. No Arab can live apart from the others."{{sfn|Claessen|2010|p=24}}

To express his heartfelt belief in Arab nationalism, Aflaq coined the term "one Arab nation with an eternal message" ({{langx|ar|ummah arabiyyah wahidah thatu risalah khalidah}}).{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=30}} Party ideology, and Ba'athism in general, was not based on concepts such as the purity of the Arab race or ethnic chauvinism, but on idealistic concepts borrowed from the [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment era]].{{sfn|Seale|1990|pp=30–31}} According to author Tabitha Petran, the basic tenet of the party's ideology was:{{sfn|Moaddel|2005|p=229}}

<blockquote>...that the Arab nation is a permanent entity in history. The Arab nation is considered, philosophically speaking, not as a social and economic formation, but as a transcendent fact inspiring different forms, one of its highest contributions taking the form of [[Islam]]. It was not Islam that modeled the peoples of Arabia, the [[Fertile Crescent]], and [[North Africa]], equipping them with Islamic values, especially the Arabic language and the Arabic culture, but the Arab nation which created Islam. This conception of the Arab nation implicitly advantages the Arab contribution to history. On the other hand, Arab decadence can be overcome through a purifying and spiritual action, not religious but moral.{{sfn|Moaddel|2005|p=229}}</blockquote>