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...
How Bad is Lying?
If the sum of all sins were to be weighed in the balance, falsehood would, on its own, countervail them; nay its evils would even outweigh them and its detriment prove greater. It were better for thee that thou shouldst be a blasphemer and tell the truth than that...
White Privilege in the Face of Injustice
Let the white make a supreme effort in their resolve to contribute their share to the solution of this problem, to abandon once for all their usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority, to correct their tendency towards revealing a patronizing...
Service May Look Different if You’re an Introvert
A unity in diversity of actions is called for, a condition in which different individuals will concentrate on different activities, appreciating the salutary effect of the aggregate on the growth and development of the Faith, because each person cannot do everything...
The Power of God’s Healing
Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy. Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion. Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the world to come. Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful, the...
Baha’i Inheritance Laws
In a previous article, Taking Care of your Will and Testament, I failed to mention the laws of inheritance outlined in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, and I’m grateful to the reader who pointed it out. Rather than add it to that article, I decided it deserved a posting all of its...
Funeral Prayers and Readings
At times of death, in the midst of grief, many people are at a loss about what prayers and readings they want to have said for their loved one. They don't have the mental wherewithal to be able to search the Writings for their favorite quotes to uplift those who...
Living Wills and Assisted Death
During this COVID-19 pandemic, many people are wondering “what if?”. Now might be a good time to think about what’s really important in terms of a living will or euthanasia. Many people have asked me for a copy of what I’ve written to use as a model, and I’m happy...
Putting Your Affairs in Order
In these days of uncertainty, with the COVID-19 death toll rising daily, many people are wondering about how to put their affairs in order “just in case”. Although there is no relevant guidance to consider from the Baha’i Writings, making our final wishes known is a...
Taking Care of Your Will and Testament
As you may know, the writing of a will is obligatory for Baha’is and failure to draw it up is considered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as "disobedience" to the command of Bahá’u’lláh: Bahá’u’lláh clearly establishes the making of a will as one of His laws. In the Kitab-i-Aqdas,...
Perfecting Our Life and Character
Each of us is responsible for one life only, and that is our own. Each of us is immeasurably far from being “perfect as our heavenly father is perfect” and the task of perfecting our own life and character is one that requires all our attention, our will-power and...
True Service
Let each one of you become the servant of the other; let each sacrifice himself for the sake of the other. (From a Tablet of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—translated from the Persian, from Give me Thy Grace to Serve Thy Loved Ones, Compilation for the 2018 Counsellors’ Conference,...
Becoming More Steadfast
I supplicate God that day by day thou mayest become more steadfast, so that like unto an impregnable stronghold thou mayest withstand the surging of the ocean of tests and trials. The people of the world are like unto trees. Those that are rootless are toppled by the...