Why Do Children Have to Suffer from Evil?
On this plane of existence, there are many injustices that the human mind cannot fathom. Among these are heart-rending trials of the innocent …. With regard to the spiritual significance of the suffering of children 'who are afflicted at the hands of the oppressor',...
How We Meditate
It is incumbent upon you to ponder in your hearts and meditate upon His words, and humbly to call upon Him, and to put away self in His heavenly Cause. These are the things that will make of you signs of guidance unto all mankind, and brilliant stars shining down from...
Inviting Others to Help with Decision Making
Now Available on Amazon! A Bahá’í who has a problem may wish to make his own decision upon it after prayer and after weighing all the aspects of it in his own mind; . . . he may prefer to seek the council of individual friends or of professional counselors such as his...
Consultation Needs Several Voices
Now Available on Amazon! The purpose of consultation is to show that the views of several individuals are assuredly preferable to one man, even as the power of a number of men is of course greater than the power of one man. (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Lights of Guidance, p. 176,...
Trials are Essential for Establishing the Will of God
"In such an afflicted time, when mankind is bewildered and the wisest of men are perplexed as to the remedy, the people of Bahá, who have confidence in His unfailing grace and divine guidance, are assured that each of these tormenting trials has a cause, a purpose,...
The Darkness of this Gloomy Night Shall Pass Away
The darkness of this gloomy night shall pass away. Again the Sun of Reality will dawn from the horizon of the hearts. Have patience, wait but do not sit idle; work while you are waiting; smile when you are wearied with monotony; be firm while everything around you is...
Showing Our Love by Obedience
On no subject are the Bahá’í teachings more emphatic than on the necessity to abstain from faultfinding and backbiting while being ever eager to discover and root out our own faults and overcome our own failings. If we profess loyalty to Bahá’u’lláh, to our Beloved...
Drawing on Each Other’s Love
Indeed the believers have not yet fully learned to draw on each other’s love for strength and consolation in time of need. The Cause of God is endowed with tremendous powers, and the reason the believers do not gain more from it is because they have not learned to...
Re-Engaging Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic
This week I had an email from a reader in Pakistan, asking me to reflect on these four subjects: 1) What have we learned from the COVID-19 ?? 2) Our youths are sleeping until noon/afternoon and are active on social media (cell phone) during the whole night. Any...
Praying for Ourselves as Well as Our Oppressors
Cleanse them, then, O my God, from all idle fancies and vain imaginations, that they may inhale the fragrances of sanctity from the robe of Thy Revelation and Thy commandment, that haply they may cease to inflict upon me what will deprive their souls of the fragrances...
Caroline Lehmann – First Baha’i in Our Cluster from 1916-1940
By Heidi Lakshman Presentation on the 25th Anniversary of the Gravenhurst Bahá'í Community, 25 March 2000 There are different milestones in the evolution of a Bahá'í community, and today we remember the arrival 25 years ago of the first Bahá'í pioneer, Francis Cowan,...
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?
What is true love? The essence of love is for man to turn his heart to the Beloved One, and sever himself from all else but Him, and desire naught save that which is the desire of his Lord. (Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 155) The real and great love is the...
Children Learn First to Obey their Parents, and then to Obey God
Parents must exert every effort to rear their offspring to be religious, for should the children not attain this greatest of adornments, they will not obey their parents, which in a certain sense means that they will not obey God. (Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’í Education, p. 6)...
A Problem That Can’t be Easily or Immediately Resolved
It is difficult for the friends always to remember that in matter[s] where race enters, a hundred times more consideration and wisdom in handling situations is necessary than when an issue is not complicated by this factor. (Shoghi Effendi, Pupil of the Eye, p. 87) A...