Quotes from Baha'i sources:

Prayer for meetings...

O ye friends of mine! Illuminate the meeting with the light of the love of God, make it joyful and happy through the melody of the Kingdom of holiness, and with heavenly food and through the "Lord's Supper"[1] confer life.

[1 A term synonymous with heavenly food.]

Congregate in the utmost joy and happiness and commence with this commune:

O Lord of the Kingdom! Although we are assembled, yet we are Thy scattered ones; captives of Thy Shining Face. Although we are incapable, yet we anticipate the manifestation of Thy Strength and ability. Although we are without capital and commodity, yet we are aided by the treasury of the Kingdom. Although we are a drop, yet we emanate from Thy sea of seas. Although we are an atom, yet are illumined by Thy most Bright Sun.

O Lord! Confirm us so that each one in this gathering become a bright candle, a witness of the meeting, a caller to the Kingdom; that the world of matter become the mirror of heaven.

O ye dear friends of mine! The assemblies of those regions must be connected with one another and must communicate (correspond) with each other. Even communicate with the assemblies of the East, so that this may become the means of the great unity and concord.

O ye spiritual friends! Firmness (constancy) must reach a degree that if all the souls (Bahais) be destroyed by the evil wishers and there remain but one, that one singly and alone should be capable of withstanding all who live on earth, and of spreading the fragrances of holiness.

Therefore, when any terrible news or calamitous tidings reach you from the land of desire (Acca), ye should not grow cold, sad, or be affected thereby. Nay, rather, ye must immediately in the utmost firmness, arise for the service of the Kingdom.

This servant of the Threshold of His Majesty the eternal God, hath always been and is in danger; there hath never been a hope for rest. The utmost of his hopes is that in the arena of martyrdom the cup of grace become replete and the wine of great bounty lend the wondrous ecstasy. This is the utmost of my hopes and desires.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v1, p. 23
 
A Covenant..

His Holiness Abraham, on Him be peace, made a covenant concerning His Holiness Moses and gave the glad-tidings of His coming. His Holiness Moses made a covenant concerning the Promised One, i.e. His Holiness Christ, and announced the good news of His Manifestation to the world.

His Holiness Christ made a covenant concerning the Paraclete and gave the tidings of His coming. His Holiness the Prophet Muhammad made a covenant concerning His Holiness the Báb and the Báb was the One promised by Muhammad, for Muhammad gave the tidings of His coming.

The Báb made a Covenant concerning the Blessed Beauty of Bahá'u'lláh and gave the glad-tidings of His coming for the Blessed Beauty was the One promised by His Holiness the Báb. Bahá'u'lláh made a covenant concerning a promised One who will become manifest after one thousand or thousands of years. He likewise, with His Supreme Pen, entered into a great Covenant and Testament with all the Bahá'ís whereby they were all commanded to follow the Center of the Covenant after His departure, and turn not away even to a hair's breadth from obeying Him.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith p. 358
 
O thou whose heart is soaring in the sky..

O thou whose heart is soaring in the sky of the love of God!

Praise be unto Him whose light hath risen, whose appearance hath become exalted, whose signs are promulgated and whose evidences are fulfilled. The tongue of the realities of all things hath uttered: "Glory be to my God, the El-BAHA!" Thanks for His manifest Beauty and for His Great Splendor! -- for He hath quickened mankind with the spirit of guidance and hath rendered clear the White Path of Gifts, through the arguments which are brilliant and clear to the hearts of the intelligent, and whereby these hearts are moved, enlightened, illuminated and become cognizant of the Mighty Message [1] in this Manifest Day of the Manifestation of the Honorable Station [2] when the mystery of existence flows just as do the souls in the bodies.
[1 The Cause.]
[2 The high station mentioned in the Koran referring to the Manifestation, BAHA'O'LLAH.]

O my God! O my God!

This, Thy servant, hath advanced toward Thee and is passionately wandering in the desert of Thy love and is walking in the path of Thy service, is expecting Thy favors, hoping for Thy bounty, depending upon Thy Kingdom and intoxicated by the wine of Thy gift.

O my God! Increase his fervor in Thy affection, his constancy in Thy praise and his ardor in Thy love.

Verily, thou art the Generous and endued with great bounty. There is no God save Thee, the Forgiving, the Merciful


(Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v1, p. 77)
 
This quickening spirit...

This quickening spirit has spontaneous emanation from the Sun of Truth, from the reality of divinity and is not a revelation or a manifestation. It is like the rays of the sun. The rays are emanations from the sun. This does not mean that the sun has become divisible; that a part of the sun has come out into space. This plant beside me has risen from the seed; therefore it is a manifestation and unfoldment of the seed. The seed, as you can see, has unfolded in manifestation and the result is this plant. Every leaf of the plant is a part of the seed. But the reality of divinity is indivisible and each individual of human kind cannot be a part of it as is often claimed. Nay, rather, the individual realities of mankind when spiritually born are emanations from the reality of divinity, just as the flame, heat and light of the sun are the effulgence of the sun and not a part of the sun itself. Therefore a spirit has emanated from the reality of divinity, and its effulgences have become visible in human entities or realities. This ray and this heat are permanent. There is no cessation in the effulgence. As long as the sun exists the heat and light will exist, and inasmuch as eternality is a property of divinity, this emanation is everlasting. There is no cessation in its outpouring. The more the world of humanity develops, the more the effulgences or emanations of divinity will become revealed, just as the stone when it becomes polished and pure as a mirror will reflect in fuller degree the glory and splendor of the sun.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 261
 
One of the most great gifts of God...

Those souls who have the capacity and ability to receive the outpourings of the Kingdom and the confirmation of the Holy Spirit, they become attracted through one word.

But people who have not the capacity, no matter how much one explain the divine behests and advices or breathe the breath of the Holy Spirit, it will not make an effect; nay, rather they add to their hardness and heedlessness.

No sooner is the oil touched by fire than it is ignited, but the heat of the fire will not make any effect upon the black stone.

Now praise be to God that thou didst have a pure aim and great capacity so that as soon as thou didst hear the "Word" thou didst become attracted. Indeed this is one of the most great gifts of God.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 364
 
"O King! I was but a man like others... "

"O King! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing.

And He bade Me lift up My voice between earth and heaven, and for this there befell Me what hath caused the tears of every man of understanding to flow.


The learning current amongst men I studied not; their schools I entered not.


Ask of the city wherein I dwelt, that thou mayest be well assured that I am not of them who speak falsely.

This is but a leaf which the winds of the will of thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-Praised, have stirred. Can it be still when the tempestuous winds are blowing? Nay, by Him Who is the Lord of all Names and Attributes! They move it as they list.


The evanescent is as nothing before Him Who is the Ever-Abiding. His all-compelling summons hath reached Me, and caused Me to speak His praise amidst all people. I was indeed as one dead when His behest was uttered.

The hand of the will of thy Lord, the Compassionate, the Merciful, transformed Me."


~ Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 11
 
Prayer revealed by Baha'u'llah:

I testify that Thou hast created Thy servants to aid Thy Cause and exalt Thy Word, and yet they have helped Thine enemies.

I beseech Thee, by Thy Cause that hath encompassed the world of being, and by Thy Name wherewith Thou hast subjected the seen and unseen, to adorn the peoples of the earth with the light of Thy justice, and to illuminate their hearts with the brightness of Thy knowledge.

I am, O my Lord, Thy servant and the son of Thy servant. I bear witness unto Thy unity, and Thy oneness, and to the sanctity of Thy self and the purity of Thine Essence.


~ Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 36
 
Numbers and excellence of apparel as criteria...

Should a poor and obscure person, destitute of the attire of the men of learning, address them saying: "Follow ye, O people, the Messengers of God," they would, greatly surprised at such a statement, reply: "What! Meanest thou that all these divines, all these exponents of learning, with all their authority, their pomp, and pageantry, have erred, and failed to distinguish truth from falsehood? Dost thou, and people like thyself, pretend to have comprehended that which they have not understood?"

If numbers and excellence of apparel be regarded as the criterions of learning and truth, the peoples of a bygone age, whom those of today have never surpassed in numbers, magnificence and power, should certainly be accounted a superior and worthier people....

~ Baha'u'llah, Baha'i World Faith, p. 63
 
Give to the people ... cleanliness and holiness..

O Lord! Give to the people of Baha' cleanliness and holiness in all conditions, purify and free them from all defilement, deliver them from the use of all that is execrated, liberate them from the chains of habits, so that they may be pure and free, clean and spotless, that they may be worthy servants of the Sacred Threshold and may deserve to enter into relation with God.

Deliver them from alcohol and tobacco, and save them from opium, the purveyor of madness! Make them companions of the holy breezes, in order that they may know the pleasures of the wine of the love of God, and that they may attain to the joy and the happiness of attraction to the Kingdom of ABHA!

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v3, p. 584
 
Causes of war and duty to strive for peace...

THE PITIFUL CAUSES OF WAR, AND THE DUTY
OF EVERYONE TO STRIVE FOR PEACE


October 21st


'Abdu'l-Bahá said:


I hope you are all happy and well. I am not happy, but very sad. The news of the Battle of Benghazi grieves my heart. I wonder at the human savagery that still exists in the world! How is it possible for men to fight from morning until evening, killing each other, shedding the blood of their fellow-men: And for what object? To gain possession of a part of the earth!

Even the animals, when they fight, have an immediate and more reasonable cause for their attacks! How terrible it is that men, who are of the higher kingdom, can descend to slaying and bringing misery to their fellow-beings, for the possession of a tract of land!

The highest of created beings fighting to obtain the lowest form of matter, earth! Land belongs not to one people, but to all people. This earth is not man's home, but his tomb. It is for their tombs these men are fighting. There is nothing so horrible in this world as the tomb, the abode of the decaying bodies of men.


However great the conqueror, however many countries he may reduce to slavery, he is unable to retain any part of these devastated lands but one tiny portion -- his tomb! If more land is required for the improvement of the condition of the people, for the spread of civilization (for the substitution of just laws for brutal customs) -- surely it would be possible to acquire peaceably the necessary extension of territory.


But war is made for the satisfaction of men's ambition; for the sake of worldly gain to the few, terrible misery is brought to numberless homes, breaking the hearts of hundreds of men and women!

How many widows mourn their husbands, how many stories of savage cruelty do we hear! How many little orphaned children are crying for their dead fathers, how many women are weeping for their slain sons!
There is nothing so heart-breaking and terrible as an outburst of human savagery!


I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace.

A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content.
Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness.


When soldiers of the world draw their swords to kill, soldiers of God clasp each other's hands! So may all the savagery of man disappear by the Mercy of God, working through the pure in heart and the sincere of soul. Do not think the peace of the world an ideal impossible to attain!
Nothing is impossible to the Divine Benevolence of God.

If you desire with all your heart, friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger, until it reaches the minds of all men.


Do not despair! Work steadily. Sincerity and love will conquer hate. How many seemingly impossible events are coming to pass in these days! Set your faces steadily towards the Light of the World. Show love to all; 'Love is the breath of the Holy Spirit in the heart of Man'. Take courage! God never forsakes His children who strive and work and pray! Let your hearts be filled with the strenuous desire that tranquillity and harmony may encircle all this warring world. So will success crown your efforts, and with the universal brotherhood will come the Kingdom of God in peace and goodwill.


In this room today are members of many races, French, American, English, German, Italian, brothers and sisters meeting in friendship and harmony! Let this gathering be a foreshadowing of what will, in very truth, take place in this world, when every child of God realizes that they are leaves of one tree, flowers in one garden, drops in one ocean, and sons and daughters of one Father, whose name is love!


~ Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 28
 
Among His teachings was independent investigation...

Therefore His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh, fifty years ago, expounded this question of Universal Peace at a time when he was confined in the fortress of 'Akká and was wronged and imprisoned. He wrote about this important matter of Universal Peace to all the great sovereigns of the world, and established it among his friends in the Orient. The horizon of the East was in utter darkness, nations displayed the utmost hatred and enmity towards each other, religions thirsted for each other's blood, and it was darkness upon darkness. At such a time His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh shone forth like the sun from the horizon of the East and illumined Persia with the lights of these teachings.

Among his teachings was the declaration of Universal Peace. People of different nations, religions and sects who followed him came together to such an extent that remarkable gatherings were instituted consisting of the various nations and religions of the East. Every soul who entered these gatherings saw but one nation, one teaching, one pathway, one order, for the teachings of His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh were not limited to the establishment of Universal Peace.

They embraced many teachings which supplemented and supported that of Universal Peace.


Among these teachings was the independent investigation of reality so that the world of humanity may be saved from the darkness of imitation and attain to the truth; may tear off and cast away this ragged and outgrown garment of 1,000 years ago and may put on the robe woven in the utmost purity and holiness in the loom of reality. As reality is one and cannot admit of multiplicity, therefore different opinions must ultimately become fused into one.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to the Hague, p. 4
 
Every man may testify, in himself, by himself...

In the Name of God, the Clement, the Merciful.

Praise be to God Who hath made being to come forth from nothingness; graven upon the tablet of man the secrets of preexistence;

taught him from the mysteries of divine utterance that which he knew not; made him a Luminous Book unto those who believed and surrendered themselves;

caused him to witness the creation of all things (Kullu Shay') in this black and ruinous age, and to speak forth from the apex of eternity with a wondrous voice in the Excellent Temple:

to the end that every man may testify, in himself, by himself, in the station of the Manifestation of his Lord, that verily there is no God save Him, and that every man may thereby win his way to the summit of realities, until none shall contemplate anything whatsoever but that he shall see God therein.

~ Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 1
 
Whenever the True Counselor uttered a word...

Behold the disturbances which, for many a long year, have afflicted the earth, and the perturbation that hath seized its peoples. It hath either been ravaged by war, or tormented by sudden and unforeseen calamities. Though the world is encompassed with misery and distress, yet no man hath paused to reflect what the cause or source of that may be.

Whenever the True Counsellor uttered a word in admonishment, lo, they all denounced Him as a mover of mischief and rejected His claim. How bewildering, how confusing is such behaviour! No two men can be found 164 who may be said to be outwardly and inwardly united. The evidences of discord and malice are apparent everywhere, though all were made for harmony and union. The Great Being saith:

O well-beloved ones! The tabernacle of unity hath been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers.

Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. We cherish the hope that the light of justice may shine upon the world and sanctify it from tyranny. If the rulers and kings of the earth, the symbols of the power of God, exalted be His glory, arise and resolve to dedicate themselves to whatever will promote the highest interests of the whole of humanity, the reign of justice will assuredly be established amongst the children of men, and the effulgence of its light will envelop the whole earth.

~ Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 163
 
Contemplate with thine inward eye...

Contemplate with thine inward eye the chain of successive Revelations that hath linked the Manifestation of Adam with that of the Báb. I testify before God that each one of these Manifestations hath been sent down through the operation of the Divine Will and Purpose, that each hath been the bearer of a specific Message, that each hath been entrusted with a divinely-revealed Book and been commissioned to unravel the mysteries of a mighty Tablet.

The measure of the Revelation with which every one of them hath been identified had been definitely fore-ordained. This, verily, is a token of Our favor unto them, if ye be of those that comprehend this truth.... And when this process of progressive Revelation culminated in the stage at which His peerless, His most sacred, and exalted Countenance was to be unveiled to men's eyes, He chose to hide His own Self behind a thousand veils, lest profane and mortal eyes discover His glory.

~ Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 74


 
The soul as a Divine Tree..

When a soul has in it the life of the spirit, then does it bring forth good fruit and become a Divine tree. I wish you to try to understand this example.

I hope that the unspeakable goodness of God will so strengthen you that the celestial quality of your soul, which relates it to the spirit, will for ever dominate the material side, so entirely ruling the senses that your soul will approach the perfections of the Heavenly Kingdom.

May your faces, being steadfastly set towards the Divine Light, become so luminous that all your thoughts, words and actions will shine with the Spiritual Radiance dominating your souls, so that in the gatherings of the world you will show perfection in your life.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 97
 
Accepting dire vicissitudes...

"Unless one accepts dire vicissitudes, he will not attain.

To me prison is freedom, troubles rest me, death is life, and to be despised is honour. Therefore, I was happy all that time in prison.

When one is released from the prison of self, that is indeed release, for that is the greater prison.

When this release takes place, then one cannot be outwardly imprisoned.

When they put my feet in stocks, I would say to the guard, 'You cannot imprison me, for here I have light and air and bread and water.

There will come a time when my body will be in the ground, and I shall have neither light nor air nor food nor water, but even then I shall not be imprisoned.'

The afflictions which come to humanity sometimes tend to centre the consciousness upon the limitations, and this is a veritable prison.

Release comes by making of the will a Door through which the confirmations of the Spirit come."

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 119
 
Man is the sum of creation...

The Creator of all is One God.

From this same God all creation sprang into existence, and He is the one goal, towards which everything in nature yearns. This conception was embodied in the words of Christ, when He said, 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end'. Man is the sum of Creation, and the Perfect Man is the expression of the complete thought of the Creator -- the Word of God.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 50
 
Know that the firmament of the bright sun...

Know that the firmament of the bright sun of the world of possibilities is divided into twelve sections, according to mathematical principles, which are called the twelve constellations; likewise, the Sun of Truth manifests and pours forth His bounty in twelve constellations of holiness. By these constellations are meant holy souls who are the manifestations of purity and the dawning-points of the lights of Unity.

Observe that in the day of His Holiness the Speaker of God (Moses), there were twelve holy souls who were the leaders of the Truth. In like manner, in the cycle of His Holiness the Spirit (Jesus Christ), note that there were twelve apostles under the shadow of the light of the Most High, and the Sun of Truth was manifested through those bright dawning-places like unto the phenomenal sun. Likewise, in the time of His Holiness Mohammed, consider that there were twelve dawning points of holiness who were the manifestations of confirmation. Such is the case.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v1, p. 92)
 
Messageto the Baha'is of London...

Message to the London Bahá'ís for the
Day of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

Specially given to Mrs. Enthoven.

GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS!
The doors of the Kingdom of God are open!
GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! Armies of Angels are descending from Heaven!
GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! The Sun of Truth is rising!
GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! Heavenly food is being sent from above!
GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! The Trumpet is sounding!
GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! The Banner of the Great Peace is floating far and wide!
GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! The Light of the Lamp of the Oneness of Humanity is shining bright!
GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! The fire of the Love of God is blazing!
GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! The Holy Spirit is being outpoured!
GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! For Everlasting Life is here!
O Ye that sleep, Awake!
O ye heedless ones, Learn wisdom!
O Blind, receive your sight! 127
O Deaf, Hear!
O Dumb, Speak!
O Dead, Arise!
Be Happy!
Be Happy!
Be full of Joy!
This is the day of the Proclamation of the Bab! It is the Festival of the Forerunner of the Blessed Beauty (Bahá'u'lláh). It is the day of the dawning of the Morning of Guidance.
 
"Create in me a pure heart...."

Create in me a pure heart, O my God, and renew a tranquil conscience within me, O my Hope! Through the spirit of power confirm Thou me in Thy Cause, O my Best-Beloved, and by the light of Thy glory reveal unto me Thy path, O Thou the Goal of my desire! Through the power of Thy transcendent might lift me up unto the heaven of Thy holiness, O Source of my being, 142 and by the breezes of Thine eternity gladden me, O Thou Who art my God! Let Thine everlasting melodies breathe tranquillity on me, O my Companion, and let the riches of Thine ancient countenance deliver me from all except Thee, O my Master, and let the tidings of the revelation of Thine incorruptible Essence bring me joy, O Thou Who art the most manifest of the manifest and the most hidden of the hidden!

- Bahá'u'lláh (Compilations, Baha'i Prayers, p. 139)
 
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