Gradually and Tactfully convert the people.

...the upper classes ... need the right type of people to approach them, and a method that can suit their mentality. Our teaching methods should allow a certain degree of elasticity in establishing contacts with various types of individual seekers. Every inquirer has to be approached from his own angle. Those who are essentially of the mystic type should first be given those teachings of the Cause which emphasize the nature and value of spiritual realities; while those who are practically minded and of a positive type are naturally more ready and inclined to accept the social aspect of the Teachings. But of course, gradually the entire Message, in all its aspects and with the full implications it entails, should be explained to the newcomer. For to be a believer means to accept the Cause in its wholeness, and not to adhere to some of its teachings.

However, as already stated, this ought to be done gradually and tactfully. For conversion is after all a slow process.

(From a letter dated 28 December 1936 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer)

Read More

Covenant of God ... is a lifeboat and ark of salvation

The Covenant of God ... is a lifeboat and ark of salvation. All true followers of the Blessed Perfection are sheltered and protected in this ark. Whoever leaves it, trusting in his own will and strength, will drown and be destroyed.

('Abdu'l-Bahá, quoted in "The Covenant, Daily Readings from the Bahá'í Teachings," {George Ronald: Oxford, 1989} p. 128)

Read More

All Baha'i activities are for teaching the Cause

The cornerstone of the foundation of all Bahá'í activity is teaching the Cause. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has categorically proclaimed in His Will and Testament, ‘the guidance of the nations and peoples of the world’ is ‘the most important of all things’ and “Of all the gifts of God the greatest is the gift of Teaching’.

~ The Universal House of Justice, Baha'i World Centre, March 3, 1977

Read More

World order of Baha'u'llah will be built on the ashes of the Old World Order

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-v7hKI29ok

Watch the video from 5:30

Read More

Only 11% of Baha'u'llah's writings have been translated so far...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-v7hKI29ok

Watch the video from 18:31

and

The total estimated number of tablets that `Abdu'l-Bahá wrote are over 27,000, of which only a fraction have been translated into English. (Wikipedia)

Shoghi Effendi's letters, of which 17,500 have been collected thus far and are believed to number a total of 30,000, ranged from routine correspondence regarding the affairs of Bahá'ís around the world to lengthy letters to the Bahá'ís of the world addressing specific themes. (Wikipedia)

Read More

Domestic violence in Baha'u'llah's home.

With the backing of the Prime Minister and her powerful nephew, his last wife forced through the divorce with such a heavy settlement that he could not pay it immediately: so she had Bahá'u'lláh's father imprisoned in his own house, and set men to beat him daily and torture him to extract the money from him. At last, he was obliged to sell again his houses and furnishings in the capital for a negligible sum, leading to the separation of Bahá'u'lláh from His brother, who went to live near the entrance of a Mosque, whilst Bahá'u'lláh rented a place to live near the Gate of Shimiran, near the theological college where Mulla Husayn would stay on his journey, carrying the message of the Báb to Tihran.

https://bahai-library.com/merrick_holy-days_birth_baha

Read More

All the meetings must be for teaching the Cause and spreading the Message...

Abdul Baha :

All the meetings must be for teaching the Cause and spreading the Message, and suffering the souls to enter in the Kingdom of Baha’u’llah. Look at me. All my thoughts are centered around the proclamation of the Kingdom. I have a Lamp in my hand searching through the lands and seas to find souls who can become heralds of the Cause. Day and night I am engaged in this work. Any other deliberations in the meetings are futile and fruitless. Convey the Message! Attract the hearts! Sow the seeds! Teach the Cause to those who do not know.

http://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/compilations/bahai-meetings/bahai-meetings.docx?a817b671

Read More

Woman is superior to man.

"In some respects woman is superior to man. She is more tender-hearted, more receptive, her intuition is more intense."

- ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, Paris Talks

Read More

Guru Nanak is not a Prophet.

"As far as the teaching in Punjab among the Sikhs is concerned, the friends should obviously avoid disputation with the beliefs of the people, who believe that Guru Nanak was a Prophet. Guru Nanak was indeed a saintly character who was inspired to reconcile the religions of Hinduism and Islam, the followers of which religions had been in violent conflict. The world has seen many such well-intentioned reformers, who have derived their inspiration from the religions of God, without themselves being Prophets."

UHJ 1985.10.27 (Obtained from the NSA of India by Badi Villar for his master's thesis)

Read More

No man can obtain everlasting life, unless he becomes a Baha'i

No man can obtain everlasting life, unless he embraceth the truth of this inestimable, this wondrous, and sublime Revelation.

- Baha'u'llah

http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/GWB/gwb-92.html

Read More

'Abdu'l-Bahá had always attended the mosque.

Ruhiyyih Khanum :

He [Shoghi Effendi] refused to go to the Mosque. 'Abdu'l-Baha had always attended the mosque. He felt it was wise at that time. The family were virtually prisoners and he felt it was wise not to offend the authorities in the Holy Land.

Everything in [the] Faith is new. The past is destroyed. It is a new age, new Faith, something new and glorious is born. It was all in the teachings but the veil had not been torn in the Holy Land. It was torn in Persia. Then Shoghi Effendi said, "I will not go to the Mosque" and the veil was torn.

https://bahai-library.com/rkhanum_kampala_1958_jan

Read More

Practice of 'Dissimulation' among Baha'is

The topic of taqiyya (dissimulation) among Baha'is is a complex one. Historically it has been alternatively practiced under the name of hikma (wisdom) and condemned. Until the British occupation of Palestine in World War I, Abdu'l-Baha outwardly lived as a Muslim, attending Friday prayers and even writing the Sultan a letter claiming that his tariqa had led many Americans to Islam. Shoghi Effendi, however, denied the voting rights of any Baha'i who denied his religion. Further, after the revolution in Iran, for a period of time any Iranian Baha'i who left Iran via Tehran's airport were denied administrative rights by the Universal House of Justice due to the reason that to able to leave Iran via that route they would have had to deny their affiliation to the Baha'i Faith.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OnThisDateInBahai/

Read More

The ultimate goal of Baha'ism

The ultimate goal of Baha'ism is literal world domination,

"a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united…a world legislature whose members will…ultimately control the entire resources of all the component nations…A world executive, backed by an international Force…A world tribunal…A mechanism of world inter-communication…A world metropolis will act as the nerve center of a world civilization….A world language will either be invented or chosen from among the existing languages…A world script, a world literature…currency…weights and measures…A world federal system, ruling the whole earth and exercising unchallengeable authority over its unimaginably vast resources"

- Shoghi Effendi quoted in The Bahá'is, A Profile of the Bahá'i Faith and its Worldwide Community (Oakham, Leicestershire, UK: Bahá'í International Community, 1994), p. 75

Read More

Miracle of the Bab

I was blessed to attend a very inspiring talk by Dr. Mark Halabi at North England Summer School last August on the Twin Manifestations. Dr Halabi said that in one tablet Abdu'l-Baha inferred that They did not meet, and in another hinted that They met. He also drew our attention to a very interesting incident that took place during escorting the Bab under tight security from Isfahan to Mah Ku, when the caravan spent a night in the outskirts of Tehran. It was reported that the Bab disappeared for sometime and when he was spotted again His face showed unusual radiance. Here an assumption is made that Baha'u'llah must have come halfway from His residence in Tehran to meet the Bab. (Dawn Breakers was cited as the source of this story). Thanks for raising this fascinating point.

Read More

"Equality of men and women, except in some negligible instances, ..."

The Universal House of Justice wrote on 8 January 1981:

Abdu'l-Bahá asserts: 'In this divine age the bounties of God have encompassed the world of women. Equality of men and women, except in some negligible instances, has been fully and categorically announced. Distinctions have bee utterly removed.' That men and women differ from one another in certain characteristics and functions is an inescapable fact of nature; the important thing is that He regards such inequalities as remain between the sexes as being 'negligible'.

One of these negligible instances is the exclusion of women from the Universal House of Justice—the infallible top-governing body of the Baha'i Faith.

Read More