1927: The Western Pilgrim House in Haifa

God is “forgiving and compassionate toward the concourse of the faithful”

O children of men! If ye believe in the one True God, follow Me, this Most Great Remembrance of God sent forth by your Lord, that He may graciously forgive you your sins. Verily He is forgiving and compassionate toward the concourse of the faithful. We, of a truth, choose the Messengers through the potency of Our Word, and We exalt Their offspring, some over others, through the Great Remembrance of God as decreed in the Book and concealed therein...

- The Báb (From the Qayyumu’l-Asma; ‘Selections from the Writings of the Báb)

Prayer for forgiveness (group)

Praise be unto Thee, O Lord. Forgive us our sins, have mercy upon us and enable us to return unto Thee. Suffer us not to rely on aught else besides Thee, and vouchsafe unto us, through Thy bounty, that which Thou lovest and desirest and well beseemeth Thee. Exalt the station of them that have truly believed and forgive them with Thy gracious forgiveness. Verily Thou art the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. 

- The Báb  ('Selections from the Writings of the Báb')

Mirza Músá – Bahá’u’lláh’s faithful brother

Surnamed Aqay-i-Kalim, he was a younger brother of Bahá’u’lláh who remained devoted and faithful to Baha'u'llah and served Him to the end of his life. After the Martyrdom of the Báb, Mirza Músá, at Bahá’u’lláh's instructions, hid the casket containing the remains of the Báb in the Shrine of Imam-Zadih Hasan in Tihran. Mirza Músá accompanied Bahá’u’lláh into exile and often served as His deputy in meeting with government officials and religious leaders, until 'Abdu'l-Baha took on this function. Shoghi Effendi designated him one of the Nineteen Apostles of Bahá’u’lláh. Mirza Músá died in 'Akka in 1887.

- Wendy Momen  ('A Basic Baha'i Dictionary')

Humanity’s immediate response to the New Divine Message

How—we may well ask ourselves—has the world, the object of such Divine solicitude, repaid Him Who sacrificed His all for its sake? What manner of welcome did it accord Him, and what response did His call evoke? A clamor, unparalleled in the history of Shí’ih Islám, greeted, in the land of its birth, the infant light of the Faith, in the midst of a people notorious for its crass ignorance, its fierce fanaticism, its barbaric cruelty, its ingrained prejudices, and the unlimited sway held over the masses by a firmly entrenched ecclesiastical hierarchy. A persecution, kindling a courage which, as attested by no less eminent an authority than the late Lord Curzon of Kedleston, has been unsurpassed by that which the fires of Smithfield evoked, mowed down, with tragic swiftness, no less than twenty thousand of its heroic adherents, who refused to barter their newly born faith for the fleeting honors and security of a mortal life. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

God "hath...deposited within the realities of all created things the emblem of His recognition"

In the Name of God, the Most Exalted, the Most Holy. All praise and glory befitteth the sacred and glorious court of the sovereign Lord, Who from everlasting hath dwelt, and unto everlasting will continue to dwell within the mystery of His Own divine Essence, Who from time immemorial hath abided and will forever continue to abide within His transcendent eternity, exalted above the reach and ken of all created beings. The sign of His matchless Revelation as created by Him and imprinted upon the realities of all beings, is none other but their powerlessness to know Him. The light He hath shed upon all things is none but the splendour of His Own Self. He Himself hath at all times been immeasurably exalted above any association with His creatures. He hath fashioned the entire creation in such wise that all beings may, by virtue of their innate powers, bear witness before God on the Day of Resurrection that He hath no peer or equal and is sanctified from any likeness, similitude or comparison. He hath been and will ever be one and incomparable in the transcendent glory of His divine being and He hath ever been indescribably mighty in the sublimity of His sovereign Lordship. No one hath ever been able befittingly to recognize Him nor will any man succeed at any time in comprehending Him as is truly meet and seemly, for any reality to which the term ‘being’ is applicable hath been created by the sovereign Will of the Almighty, Who hath shed upon it the radiance of His Own Self, shining forth from His most august station. He hath moreover deposited within the realities of all created things the emblem of His recognition, that everyone may know of a certainty that He is the Beginning and the End, the Manifest and the Hidden, the Maker and the Sustainer, the Omnipotent and the All-Knowing, the One Who heareth and perceiveth all things, He Who is invincible in His power and standeth supreme in His Own identity, He Who quickeneth and causeth to die, the All-Powerful, the Inaccessible, the Most Exalted, the Most High. Every revelation of His divine Essence betokens the sublimity of His glory, the loftiness of His sanctity, the inaccessible height of His oneness and the exaltation of His majesty and power. His beginning hath had no beginning other than His Own firstness and His end knoweth no end save His Own lastness. 

- The Báb  (From the Persian Bayan, ‘Selections from the Writings of the Báb’)

Dr. Zia Baghdadi and wife Zinat

DR. Zia Bagdadi. Named Zíá at birth by Bahá’u’lláh (in later life called "Mabsoot"— the happy one—by Bahá’u’lláh). Following his arrival in America in 1909 (as a medical student; graduating in 1911), he became associate editor of the Star of the West magazine in 1911, and in later years he prepared the Persian pages section of that same magazine. He remained in America until his death in 1937 in Augusta, Georgia. He was a stalwart of the community, often consulted and called upon over the years to counter Covenant-breaker activities. Shoghi Effendi sent the following cable on learning of his passing: “Distressed sudden passing dearly beloved Dr. Baghdadi. Loss inflicted national interests faith irreparable. His exemplary faith audacity unquestioning loyalty indefatigable exertion unforgettable.” 

(‘Historical Dictionary of the Baha'i Faith by Hugh Adamson’)

Religious temples should be viewed as symbols of the divine uniting force

Among the institutes of the Holy Books is that of the foundation of places of worship. That is to say, an edifice or temple is to be built in order that humanity might find a place of meeting, and this is to be conducive to unity and fellowship among them. The real temple is the very Word of God; for to it all humanity must turn, and it is the center of unity for all mankind. It is the collective center, the cause of accord and communion of hearts, the sign of the solidarity of the human race, the source of eternal life. Temples are the symbols of the divine uniting force so that when the people gather there in the House of God they may recall the fact that the law has been revealed for them and that the law is to unite them. They will realize that just as this temple was founded for the unification of mankind, the law preceding and creating it came forth in the manifest Word. Jesus Christ, addressing Peter, said, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." This utterance was indicative of the faith of Peter, signifying: This faith of thine, O Peter, is the very cause and message of unity to the nations; it shall be the bond of union between the hearts of men and the foundation of the oneness of the world of humanity.

A suggested quote to memorize: To remember one’s own faults and not the faults of others

O Emigrants! The tongue I have designed for the mention of Me, defile it not with detraction. If the fire of self overcome you, remember your own faults and not the faults of My creatures, inasmuch as every one of you knoweth his own self better than he knoweth others.  

- Baha'u'llah (‘The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah’)

“the impulse to pray is a natural one springing from man's love to God”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá was asked if prayer was necessary since presumably God knows the wishes of all our hearts

‘Abdu'l-Bahá: If one friend feels love for another he will wish to say so. Though he knows that the friend is aware that he loves him, he will still wish to say so. If there is anyone that you love do you not seek an opportunity to speak with him, to speak lovingly with him, to bring him gifts, to write him letters? If you do not feel such a desire it would be that you did not love your friend. God knows the wishes of all hearts. But the impulse to pray is a natural one springing from man's love to God. 

- 'Abdu'l-Baha (Words of ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, from an article in The Fortnightly Review, June, 1911, by Miss E. S. Stevens; Star of the West, vol. 8, May 17, 1917)

“The Most Great Peace…conceived by Bahá’u’lláh”: “a peace that must inevitably follow as the practical consequence of the spiritualization of the world and the fusion of all its races, creeds, classes and nations”

The Most Great Peace, on the other hand, as conceived by Bahá’u’lláh—a peace that must inevitably follow as the practical consequence of the spiritualization of the world and the fusion of all its races, creeds, classes and nations—can rest on no other basis, and can be preserved through no other agency, except the divinely appointed ordinances that are implicit in the World Order that stands associated with His Holy Name. In His Tablet, revealed almost seventy years ago to Queen Victoria, Bahá’u’lláh, alluding to this Most Great Peace, has declared: “That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and all else naught but error… Consider these days in which the Ancient Beauty, He Who is the Most Great Name, hath been sent down to regenerate and unify mankind. Behold how with drawn swords they rose against Him, and committed that which caused the Faithful Spirit to tremble. And whenever We said unto them: ‘Lo, the World Reformer is come,’ they made reply: ‘He, in truth, is one of the stirrers of mischief.’” “It beseemeth all men in this Day,” He, in another Tablet, asserts, “to take firm hold on the Most Great Name, and to establish the unity of all mankind. There is no place to flee to, no refuge that any one can seek, except Him.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’, included in ‘The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh)

Human voice “connects itself with the spirit” and “the spirit can be uplifted” by human voice

In the world of existence physical things have a connection with spiritual realities. One of these things is the voice, which connects itself with the spirit; and the spirit can be uplifted by this means -- for though it is a physical thing, it is one of the material, natural organizations -- therefore, it is effective.  

- 'Abdu'l-Bahá's (From an address quoted by to Mary L. Lucas in "A Brief Account of My Visit to Acca"; The Compilation of Compilations vol II)

1924: Martha Root with some Baha'is in Melbourne, Australia

Front row, left to right: Mrs. Laws, and Martha Root; second row, left to right, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Thornton,
Miss McLughlin; standing, left to right, Miss Hastings,Mrs. Harris, and Mrs. Dinson.

December 1863: Exceptionally cold weather during which Baha’u’llah and His Family were exiled to Adrianople

Pursuant to the peremptory orders issued for the immediate departure of the already twice banished exiles, Bahá'u'lláh, His family, and His companions, some riding in wagons, others mounted on pack animals, with their belongings piled in carts drawn by oxen, set out, accompanied by Turkish officers, on a cold December morning, amidst the weeping of the friends they were leaving behind, on their twelve-day journey, across a bleak and windswept country, to a city characterized by Bahá'u'lláh as "the place which none entereth except such as have rebelled against the authority of the sovereign." "They expelled Us," is His own testimony in the Suriy-i-Mulúk, "from thy city (Constantinople) with an abasement with which no abasement on earth can compare." "Neither My family, nor those who accompanied Me," He further states, "had the necessary raiment to protect them from the cold in that freezing weather." And again: "The eyes of Our enemies wept over Us, and beyond them those of every discerning person." "A banishment," laments Nabil, "endured with such meekness that the pen sheddeth tears when recounting it, and the page is ashamed to bear its description." "A cold of such intensity," that same chronicler records, "prevailed that year, that nonagenarians could not recall its like. In some regions, in both Turkey and Persia, animals succumbed to its severity and perished in the snows. The upper reaches of the Euphrates, in Ma'dan-Nuqrih, were covered with ice for several days -- an unprecedented phenomenon -- while in Diyar-Bakr the river froze over for no less than forty days." "To obtain water from the springs," one of the exiles of Adrianople recounts, "a great fire had to be lighted in their immediate neighborhood, and kept burning for a couple of hours before they thawed out."

Traveling through rain and storm, at times even making night marches, the weary travelers, after brief halts at Kuchik-Chakmachih, Buyuk-Chakmachih, Salvari, Birkas, and Baba-Iski, arrived at their destination, on the first of Rajab 1280 A.H. (December 12, 1863) 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Robe of the Báb

The Char-a-Banc of 'Abdu'l-Baha in Holy Land

What we would do if we knew what the Manifestation of God already knows…

I swear by the truth of God! Wert thou to know that which I know, thou wouldst forgo the sovereignty of this world and of the next, that thou mightest attain My good-pleasure, through thine obedience unto the True One.… Wert thou to refuse, the Lord of the world would raise up one who would exalt His Cause, and the Command of God would, verily, be carried into effect. 

- The Báb  (From a Tablet to Muhammad Shah; ‘Selections from the Writings of the Báb)

The source of evil thoughts

Question: What is the source of evil thoughts that disturb those who do not wish to entertain them?

Answer: They come from other minds; they are reflected. One should not become a mirror for them - to reflect them; neither should one try to control them, for this is impossible; it only aggravates the difficulty, causing more to appear.

One should constantly turn the mirror of his heart squarely toward God so that the Light of the Sun of Truth may be reflected there. This is the only cure for attacks of evil thoughts. The face of the mirror should be turned toward God, and the back of the mirror toward the evil thoughts.

- 'Abdu'l-Baha  (From a table talk by ‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Daily Lessons Received at Akka January 1908”, by Helen Goodall and Ella Goodall Cooper)

“Prayer verily bestoweth life, particularly when offered in private”

Praise be to God, thy heart is engaged in the commemoration of God, thy soul is gladdened by the glad tidings of God and thou art absorbed in prayer. The state of prayer is the best of conditions, for man is then associating with God. Prayer verily bestoweth life, particularly when offered in private and at times, such as midnight, when freed from daily cares. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha’; The Compilation of Compilations, Vol. II, The Importance of Prayer, Meditation and the Devotional Attitude) 

Signs in the visible and invisible heavens “when the hour of the Revelation of Jesus drew nigh”

…when the hour of the Revelation of Jesus drew nigh, a few of the Magi, aware that the star of Jesus had appeared in heaven, sought and followed it, till they came unto the city which was the seat of the Kingdom of Herod. The sway of his sovereignty in those days embraced the whole of that land.

These Magi said: “Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east and are come to worship Him!” [Matthew 2:2] When they had searched, they found out that in Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, the Child had been born. This was the sign that was manifested in the visible heaven. As to the sign in the invisible heaven—the heaven of divine knowledge and understanding—it was Yahyá, son of Zachariah, who gave unto the people the tidings of the Manifestation of Jesus. Even as He hath revealed: “God announceth Yahyá to thee, who shall bear witness unto the Word from God, and a great one and chaste.” [Qur’án 3:39] By the term “Word” is meant Jesus, Whose coming Yahyá foretold. Moreover, in the heavenly Scriptures it is written: “John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye: for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” [Matthew 3:1–2] By John is meant Yahyá.

- Baha'u'llah ('The Kitab-i-Iqan')