Functioning of the Universal House of Justice – by ‘Abdu’l-Baha

From: Baha’i tablets – provisional translations

-- provisional translation by Moojan Momen

He is the All-Glorious!

O you who are clinging fast to the hem of Covenant, your letter was read and your detailed questions were noted. Although calamities, like deadly poison, have affected my limbs, my members and my joints, such that my pen is prevented from writing and my tongue from speaking, and my tasks are so many that it is not possible to describe them, yet nevertheless, out of the great love that this servant has for that gentleman, a spiritual answer will be given, which will be compatible with Divine wisdom, concise and illuminating, perfectly explaining the matter. It will be a comprehensive explanation concerning this question and will contain acceptable and sought-after insights such that by this explanation, clarification, analysis, allusion, commentary and spiritual interpretation, one hundred doors will be opened up by each of its doors. Otherwise, were the horizons to become pages, it would not be enough to encompass [this theme].

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song: Fort Tabarsi

From: Baha'i Songs and Poems

Fort Tabarsi, by Gordie Munro

Secret to happiness

From: Gems of Insight from ‘Abdu’l-Baha

“Human happiness is founded upon spiritual behaviour …”

(‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’)

Baha’u’llah demonstrates how one’s attitude towards the Manifestations of God should be

From: Baha’i Stories

One day the youthful Blessed Beauty [Baha'u'llah] was present at a gathering convened by Mirza Nazar-'Ali, the Sufi murshid (spiritual guide) who was more highly esteemed at the court of Muhammad Shah [the Persian reigning monarch] than the prime minister himself, Haji Mirza Aqasi. The discourse of Mirza Nazar-'Ali had developed to the point of claiming: 'I shall be the last to hold the seat of mystical learning; the succession of great occupants will end with me, for I have attained such a degree of resignation that should Jesus Christ Himself suddenly appear in the doorway, it would cause no change in my state.'

Everyone nodded and murmured assent except Baha'u'llah, Who addressed the speaker: 'Jinab-i-Hakim, [your honor, the wise one] I shall ask you a question, and I urge you to give a truthful reply. If, without your consent, the curtain should be raised and the royal executioner enter, sword in hand and advancing towards you, would this affect your composure?'

After a moment's reflection Mirza Nazar - 'Ali replied, 'Yes, it would affect me.'

‘In that case’, Baha’u’llah stated, ‘you should not have made such a claim.’

(Recorded by Nabil; Stories of Baha’u’llah, compiled by Ali-Akbar Furutan)