One Person Can’t Do Everything
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...
Greedy for God’s Approval
To be approved of God alone should be one's aim. (Words of 'Abdu'l-Baha recorded by Dr. Edward C. Getsinger during his pilgrimage to Haifa in 1905; Star of the West, Vol. VI, No.6, p. 43; Compilation: Lights of Guidance) . . . at all times seeking the approval...
Our Reality as Heroes, Guides and Servants
And remind them that they are the illumined souls envisioned by 'Abdu'l-Baha in His prayer: "Heroes are they, O my Lord, lead them to the field of battle. Guides are they, make them to speak out with arguments and proofs. Ministering servants are they, cause them to...
Creating a Warm Community Atmosphere
Unless and until the believers really come to realize they are one spiritual family, knit together by a bond more lasting than mere physical ties can ever be, they will not be able to create that warm community atmosphere which alone can attract the hearts of...
The Spiritual Forces at Our Disposal
Above all, the friends need to remain ever conscious of the magnitude of the spiritual forces that are at their disposition. They are members of a community "whose world-embracing, continually consolidating activities constitute the one integrating process in a world...
Withstanding Physical, Mental and Emotional Storms
O ye beloved of God! When the winds blow severely, rains fall fiercely, the lightening flashes, the thunder roars, the bolt descends and storms of trial become severe, grieve not; for after this storm, verily, the divine spring will arrive, the hills and fields will...
God is My Companion and Always Near
If the friends and relatives are keeping themselves at a distance from thee, be thou not sad, for God is near to thee. Associate thou, as much as thou canst, with the relatives and strangers; display thou loving kindness; show thou forth the utmost patience and...
Promoting Spiritual Growth
The consultative process itself promotes personal growth and collective solidarity, indispensable elements in true development. (Bahá’í International Community, Report on Rural Poverty Alleviation Efforts in Asia and the Pacific, Focusing on Activities for...
How to Deal with Internet Trolls
In discussions look toward the reality without being self-opinionated. Let no one assert and insist upon his own mere opinion; nay, rather, let each investigate the reality with the greatest love and fellowship. ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Lights of Guidance, p. 177, #581) Has...
Not My Capacity, But God’s
Do you think it is the teachers who make converts and change human hearts? No, surely not. They are only pure souls who take the first step, and then let the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh move them and make use of them. If any one of them should even for a second consider his...
A Prayer for a Favorable End to One’s Life
He is God! O Lord! Grant me such grace and bounty, such protection and support, such kindness and security that the last of my days may excel their beginning, and the end of my life commence the bestowal of manifold favors. May some gift or blessing of Thine reach me...
How Do Baha’is Meditate?
I’ve been meditating one way or another as a Baha’i for nearly 40 years and recently someone told me, quite adamantly, that the things I thought of as meditation were not in fact, meditation. According to her, the only valid form of meditation was focusing on the...
The Relationship Between Sin and Physical Ailments
It is certainly the case that sins are a potent cause of physical ailments. If humankind were free from the defilements of sin and waywardness, and lived according to a natural, inborn equilibrium, without following wherever their passions led, it is undeniable that...
The More Difficulties We Have, The More Perfect We Become
You are encouraged to continue to keep in mind the spiritual dimension of your struggles. We are assured by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the following words: “The more difficulties one sees in the world the more perfect one becomes. The more you plough and dig the ground the more...