Treasure the companionship of the righteous and eschew all fellowship with the ungodly. (Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words, Persian 3)
Shoghi Effendi explains this better than I can:
In the passage ‘eschew all fellowship with the ungodly, ‘Bahá’u’lláh means that we should shun the company of those who disbelieve in God and are wayward. The word ‘ungodly’ is a reference to such perverse people. The words ‘Be thou as a flame of fire to My enemies and a river of life eternal to My loved ones’, should flee from the enemies of God and instead seek the fellowship of His lovers. (Shoghi Effendi: Dawn of a New Day, p. 200)
Before reading Shoghi Effendi’s explanation, I used this Hidden Word to consider whether or how much time I should spend with the people who’d abused me so terribly in childhood. Because I didn’t deem their behavior “righteous” or “godly”, I felt as if this was giving me permission to avoid them. However, these people were Godly in that they made sure I learned about God, so I could see there was a difference between what they believed and how they lived their lives, which was confusing.
I like Shoghi Effendi’s second part of this quote, where we “seek the fellowship of His lovers”, which reminds me to spend my time with other Bahá’ís and those whose behavior matches their beliefs. This is easier to follow!
Spending my time with God’s lovers makes me feel safe and loved and protected, and I am grateful!
What jumped out for you as you read today’s meditation? I’d love it if you would share so we can all expand our knowledge of the Writings!
If you liked this meditation, you might also like my book Violence and Abuse: Reasons and Remedies on Kindle
You might also like to read Who are the Ungodly and Why Should We Avoid Them?
Dear Susan, firstly I am so much thankful for your wonderful posts. About this post I thought to share few of my thoughts. I feel there is a deeper underlining meaning in this. So many people through out history committed horrifying crimes in the name of God and religion, I do not believe we could call them believers. In fact they caused people to move away from the one true, Loving, Just Creator. Baha’u’llah in His writings warns humanity against their idle fancies and vain imaginings. A believer in God will lead people towards creator, usually not with what they say, but mostly with showing Divine Attributes in their actions. In our teachings the only way to know God is through the Manifestations of God. These Manifestations of God exhibit God’s character and attributes, acting as his messengers. Since God is unknowable, the Manifestations of God represent God’s divine presence, and transmit grace and heavenly knowledge to mankind. A believer is the one who endeavor to reflect His grace and love in his/her daily life and therefore becomes a guide to others. So knowledge of God is through obedience to His will and teachings. The people who profess their believe in God but hurt others and behave in ungodly manners mostly they lead people away from God. If few even though exposed to ungodly behaviors turn out to be good and kind individuals believing in their creator, I would think it is thank to the grace of God and their own merits rather than because of those people who hurt and abused in His name. And not always a none believer in God is an ungodly person. I have talked to many kind people who think they do not believe in God. they, in essence do not believe in the God of idle imagining of others who committed crimes in His name and disillusioned them. many when they become familiar with Baha’u’llah’s writings they start to believe. Of course this subject is too deep to be analyzed in a short paragraph. But my humble conclusion is that a believer in God refer to in the Holy writings, are the ones who are aware of heavenly and Divine attributes and in their own lives they try to reflect them and they influence people around them in doing the same not by preaching but by leading by example. Ungodliness is acting in a way that is not pleasing to God and is moving others also away from the Creator regardless the person call him/herself believer or not. Thank you again for sharing these wonderful posts.
Yasmin
Wow, Yasmin! Thank you so much for this eloquent elaboration. You’re spot on!
Thank you for this post. I, too, have wondered what it might personally mean to me. I was first suicidal when I was two. That person, though, did NOT teach me about God, quite the contrary. I did not have much contact with her, but I did see her (very briefly) a few times a year. She is dead now and I have a whole different set of conflicting emotions. The last week of her life she show more affection than she had in the sixty-plus years previous. When she was bed-fast, and could not attack me, I was able to step back from my pain – and see her pain. She had been abused since she was a toddler. She knew nothing else. She didn’t know how to be a mother. I can now envision her young, healthy and happy in the Abha Kingdom. I believe, now, that she didn’t hate me, she was trapped in her pain – and I was simply born into it.
Yes, that’s such an important point Duane and I’m sorry for your loss. It was a lot easier to love and forgive my parents once they were in the Abha Kingdom and could no longer hurt me and I’m glad we’re told to pray for our parents. I still don’t want them meeting me at the Pearly Gates, but I’m at peace with what happened to me as a child. As I’ve learned recently, it’s “hurt people who hurt people.”