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...
Plowing our own Fields
If we allow our attention and energy to be taken up in efforts to keep others right and remedy their faults, we are wasting precious time. We are like ploughmen each of whom has his team to manage and his plough to direct, and in order to keep his furrow straight he...
Showing our Aloofness
Increasingly, as time goes by, the characteristics of the Bahá’ís will be that which captures the attention of their fellow-citizens. They must show their aloofness from the hatreds and recriminations which are tearing at the heart of humanity, and demonstrate by deed...
Understanding the Tests in our Communities
Often these trials and tests which all Bahá’í communities inevitably pass through seem terrible, at the moment, but in retrospect we understand that they were due to the frailty of human nature, to misunderstandings, and to the growing pains which every Bahá’í...
Self Image
O Son of Spirit! Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created. (Bahá'u'lláh, Hidden Words, Arabic 22) Recently I was studying the long obligatory prayer with a Bahá’í friend and we noted that in the preface...
The Importance of Faith
When the light of faith is kindled in the lamp of the heart and soul, its spreading rays illumine every limb of the body. When this resplendent light shineth forth through the medium of the tongue, it is made manifest in the powers of speech and utterance. When its...
Cleansing our Hearts of Estrangement and Conflict
Root out the sources of dissension and raise up the foundations of harmony. Cling tenaciously to the hem of the love of God and cleanse your hearts of any trace of estrangement or conflict. Thus may the light of divine bestowal shine resplendent, and ye become the...