The Hands of the Cause of God - Volume One

Published on Dec 13, 2012. A documentary in style, this video recounts the lives of the Hands of the Cause of God within the historical context of the Baha'i Faith. This volume covers the where and why of these heroic souls' first appointment by Baha'u'llah during the latter part of His Ministry, to whom he referred as "the chosen ones", the "detached souls" and the "pure in spirit". The story of the sacrifice and daring of the four Hands appointed by Him is followed by the accounts of those special individuals referred to as Hands by His son 'Abdu'l-Baha on their passing. During the Ministry of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian also elevated a number of outstanding individuals to the rand of Hand of the Cause, posthumously. The story of these heroes and heroines of the Baha'i Faith who "diffused the divine fragrances" and "promoted learning" is told.

دستاویز فرقه گرائی برای نفی گزارش احمد شهید، بهروز ثابت

در امر بهائی وسیله و هدف یکی هستند. دروغ گوئی سرمنشاء همه رذائل اخلاقی محسوب شده است. تقیه حرام است. اگر 

دین باعث تفرقه و دشمنی شود بی دینی مرجح است. احترام به پدر و مادر واجب است. میان خدمت به جامعه بهائی و خدمت به پدر و مادر ارجحیت به والدین داده شده است.

اقای محمد جواد لاریجانی دبیر ستاد حقوق بشر ایران با حمله به گزارش اخیر احمد شهید، گزارش‌گر ویژه حقوق بشر سازمان ملل متحد گفته است: از نظر ما بهائیت اقلیت مذهبی نیست. بهائیت یک فرقه است. فرقه گرایی در همه کشورهای دنیا ممنوع است. در آمریکا و فرانسه قانون مبارزه با فرقه گرایی دارند. تشکیل فرقه جرم است. ایشان قبلا هم در شورای حقوق سازمان ملل درژنو درپاسخ به و سوالات و اعثراضا ت نمایند گان شورا به سرکوب بهائیان در ایران گفته بود که بهائیان از نظر عقیده آزادند و فقط به جهت فعالیتهای فرقه ای تحت تعقیب قانونی قرار میگیرند. اقای لاریجانی در نشست ژنو در توصیف آئین بهائی لغت انگلیسی کالت (cult) را به کار برده بود. استفاده ایشان از لغت کالت در حقیقت ترجمان همان فرقه ضاله است که بهائی ستیزان از بدو تا سیس این دیا نت در ایران به کار برده اند تا اذهان عموم رامشوش سازند و با تکرار این اصطلاح و اتهام موهن وسخیف بر قطر تابوی فرهنگی بر علیه جامعه بهائی بیفزایند.

http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2013/03/156628.php

Question regarding the creation of man...

And now, concerning thy question regarding the creation of man. Know thou that all men have been created in the nature made by God, the Guardian, the Self-Subsisting. Unto each one hath been prescribed a pre-ordained measure, as decreed in God’s mighty and guarded Tablets. All that which ye potentially possess can, however, be manifested only as a result of your own volition. Your own acts testify to this truth. Consider, for instance, that which hath been forbidden, in the Bayán, unto men. God hath in that Book, and by His behest, decreed as lawful whatsoever He hath pleased to decree, and hath, through the power of His sovereign might, forbidden whatsoever He elected to forbid. To this testifieth the text of that Book. Will ye not bear witness? Men, however, have wittingly broken His law. Is such a behavior to be attributed to God, or to their proper selves? Be fair in your judgment. Every good thing is of God, and every evil thing is from yourselves. Will ye not comprehend? This same truth hath been revealed in all the Scriptures, if ye be of them that understand. Every act ye meditate is as clear to Him as is that act when already accomplished. There is none other God besides Him. His is all creation and its empire. All stands revealed before Him; all is recorded in His holy and hidden Tablets. This fore-knowledge of God, however, should not be regarded as having caused the actions of men, just as your own previous knowledge that a certain event is to occur, or your desire that it should happen, is not and can never be the reason for its occurrence.

Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh

The emancipation of women, ...

The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is one of the most important, though less acknowledged prerequisites of peace. The denial of such equality perpetrates an injustice against one half of the world’s population and promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from the family to the workplace, to political life, and ultimately to international relations. There are no grounds, moral, practical, or biological, upon which such denial can be justified. Only as women are welcomed into full partnership in all fields of human endeavour will the moral and psychological climate be created in which international peace can emerge.

 The Universal House of Justice, Compilation on Women, 

Some people lay stress on fasting ...

“Some people lay stress on fasting. They affirm that in augmenting the weakness of the body they develop a spiritual sensibility and thus they think to approach God.
 Weakening one’s self physically does not necessarily contribute to spiritual progress. Humility, kindness, resignation, and all these spiritual attributes emanating from great physical strength are acceptable to God. That an enfeebled man cannot fight is not accounted a virtue. Were physical weakness a virtue the dead would be perfect, for they can do nothing.

 If a man be just, kind, humble and merciful and his qualities are acquired through the will-power — this is Godlike. A child cannot kill a man; but a Bonaparte can abstain from war, from shedding blood, from devastating countries. A dumb person will not speak ill of any one, a paralyzed hand cannot strike; but a strong arm can refrain from striking. Justice, love and kindness must be the instruments of strength, not of weakness.

 Exaggerated fasting destroys the divine forces. God has created man in a way that cannot be surpassed; we must not try to change his creation. Strive to attain nearness to reality through the acquisition of strength of character, through morality, through good works and helping the poor, through being consumed with the fire of the love of God and in discovering each day new spiritual mysteries. This is the path of intimate approach.”

Abdu’l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, pp. 98-99

... outwardly the Fast is difficult and toilsome,

Even though outwardly the Fast is difficult and toilsome, yet inwardly it is bounty and tranquillity. Purification and training are conditioned and dependent only on such rigorous exercises as are in accord with the Book of God and sanctioned by Divine law… Whatsoever God hath revealed is beloved of the soul.
Bahá’u’lláh, The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting, XVI

 `Abdu’l-Bahá also explained:
The mind and spirit of man advance when he is tried by suffering. The more the ground is ploughed the better the seed will grow, the better the harvest will be. Just as the plough furrows the earth deeply, purifying it of weeds and thistles, so suffering and tribulation free man from the petty affairs of this worldly life until he arrives at a state of complete detachment. His attitude in this world will be that of divine happiness. Man is, so to speak, unripe: the heat of the fire of suffering will mature him. Look back to the times past and you will find that the greatest men have suffered most.
Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Increasing violence against Iranian Baha'is engineered by government

GENEVA, 6 March 2013.
 In a report released today, the Baha'i International Community documents hundreds of incidents of torture, physical assault, arson, vandalism, cemetery desecration and the abuse of schoolchildren directed against the Iranian Baha'i community since 2005 - all carried out with utter impunity by attackers.
 "The entire situation puts the Baha'is in an impossible position because they must ask for justice and protection from the same authorities who are systematically inciting hatred against them and from a judicial system that treats virtually every Baha'i who is arrested as an enemy of the state," said Diane Ala'i, the Baha'i International Community's representative to the United Nations in Geneva.
 "This report shows that attacks on Baha'is are engineered by government agents and actively encouraged by the authorities and the Muslim clergy in Iran - and that attackers are well aware that they will go unpunished," added Ms. Ala'i. Titled "Violence with Impunity: Acts of aggression against Iran's Baha'i community," the 45-page report provides case studies and statistics that document a rising tide of violence against Baha'is - and the complete absence of prosecution for attackers.

More at : http://news.bahai.org/story/942

I beseech Thee, O my God,

...

Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahji Acre, Israel.

I beseech Thee, O my God, by Thy Name which Thou hast made the King of Names, by which all who are in heaven and all who are on earth have been enraptured, to enable me to gaze on the Daystar of Thy Beauty, and to supply me with the wine of Thine utterance. Thou seest me, O my God, holding to Thy Name, the Most Holy, the Most Luminous, the Most Mighty, the Most Great, the Most Exalted, the Most Glorious, and clinging to the hem of the robe to which have clung all in this world and in the world to come.
I beseech Thee, O my God, by the Tabernacle of Thy majesty upon the loftiest summits, and the Canopy of Thy Revelation on the highest hills, to graciously aid me to do what Thy will hath desired and Thy purpose hath manifested. Thou seest me, O my God, holding to Thy Name, the Most Holy, the Most Luminous, the Most Mighty, the Most Great, the Most Exalted, the Most Glorious, and clinging to the hem of the robe to which have clung all in this world and in the world to come. ...

A Selection of Prayers Revealed by Bahá’u’lláh

In the Prayer of Fasting ...

In the Prayer of Fasting We have revealed: "Should Thy Will decree that out of Thy mouth these words proceed and be addressed unto them, 'Observe, for My Beauty's sake, the fast, O people, and set no limit to its duration,' I swear by the majesty of Thy glory, that every one of them will faithfully observe it, will abstain from whatsoever will violate Thy law, and will continue to do so until they yield up their souls unto Thee." In this consisteth the complete surrender of one's will to the Will of God. Meditate on this, that thou mayest drink in the waters of everlasting life which flow through the words of the Lord of all mankind, and mayest testify that the one true God hath ever been immeasurably exalted above His creatures. He, verily, is the Incomparable, the Ever-Abiding, the Omniscient, the All-Wise. The station of absolute self-surrender transcendeth, and will ever remain exalted above, every other station.

Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, 

بخشی از ترجمه پیام بیت العدل اعظم دربارهٔ رویکرد بهائیان به سیاست:

بخشی از ترجمه پیام بیت العدل اعظم دربارهٔ رویکرد بهائیان به سیاست:

احبّای عزیز الهی در مهد امر الله ملاحظه فرمایند دوستان عزیز و محبوب، ظلم و ستمی که جامعۀ ممتحن و غیور اسم اعظم در سرزمین مقدّس ایران در طیّ سی و چهار سال گذشته با آن مواجه بوده دنبالۀ حملاتی است که در تاریخ صد و شصت و نه سالۀ آیین بهائی همواره با شدّتی کمتر یا بیشتر ادامه داشته است. بر خلاف انتظار کسانی که مصمّم بر تضعیف جمع پیروان حضرت بهاءالله در زادگاه آیین مقدّسش می‌باشند، دسیسه‌های دشمنان بالمآل موجب تقویت روح ایمان احبّا و تحکیم بنیان جامعه شده است. ایرانیان گرامی که خود قربانی مظالم فراوانند نه تنها بر بی‌عدالتی‌های وارده بر بهائیان واقفند بلکه در خدمات خالصانه و مستمرّ این جامعه نیرویی سازنده در جهت تغییر و احیای ایران عزیز مشاهده می‌کنند. با افزایش احساس هم‌دردی ملّت نسبت به هم‌وطنان بهائی خود، ندای مردم شریف آن سرزمین برای رفع موانعی که شما را از مشارکت در عرصه‌های مختلف حیات اجتماع باز می‌دارد بلندتر می‌شود. پس جای تعجّب نیست اگر سؤالات مربوط به موضع بهائیان نسبت به امور سیاسی اهمّیّت بیشتری ‌بیابد.

در طول تاریخ، جامعۀ بهائی ایران در ارتباط با امور سیاسی با موقعیّت خاصّی رو به رو بوده است بدین معنی که از یک طرف به‌ غلط مورد اتّهاماتی چون داشتن انگیزه‌های سیاسی، جبهه‌گیری علیه حکومت وقت و یا جاسوسی برای قدرت‌های خارجی قرار گرفته و از طرف دیگر در نظر برخی، تمسّک محکم بهائیان به اصل عدم دخالت در سیاست‌های حزبی به بی‌توجّهی آنان نسبت به مصالح هم‌میهنان‌شان تعبیر شده است. حال که اهداف واقعی مخالفین آیین بهائی برملا گردیده شایسته است که به علاقۀ روز‌افزون ایرانیان به درک نگرش بهائیان نسبت به سیاست پاسخ گویید مبادا سوء‌ تفاهمات موجب سستی پیوندهای دوستی و رفاقتی گردد که با نفوس بی‌شماری برقرار ‌ساخته‌اید. سزاوار آنست که در این پاسخ فقط به چند جملۀ کوتاه، هرچند مهم، در بارۀ محبّت‌ و یگانگی اکتفا نکنید بلکه تصویری از چارچوبی که رویکرد جامعۀ بهائی را نسبت به این موضوع شکل می‌دهد برای هم‌وطنان عزیز خود ترسیم نمایید.

http://www.payamha-iran12.info/payam/2013-03-01.html

"sun" and "moon"

Moreover, in the traditions the terms "sun" and "moon" have been applied to prayer and fasting, even as it is said: "Fasting is illumination, prayer is light." One day, a well-known divine came to visit Us. While We were conversing with him, he referred to the above-quoted tradition. He said: "Inasmuch as fasting causeth the heat of the body to increase, it hath therefore been likened unto the light of the sun; and as the prayer of the night-season refresheth man, it hath been compared unto the radiance of the moon." Thereupon We realized that that poor man had not been favoured with a single drop of the ocean of true understanding, and had strayed far from the burning Bush of divine wisdom. We then politely observed to him saying: "The interpretation your honour hath given to this tradition is the one current amongst the people. Could it not be interpreted differently?" He asked Us: "What could it be?" We made reply: "Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets, and the most distinguished of God's chosen Ones, hath likened the Dispensation of the Qur'an unto heaven, by reason of its loftiness, its paramount influence, its majesty, and the fact that it comprehendeth all religions. And as the sun and moon constitute the brightest and most prominent luminaries in the heavens, similarly in the heaven of the religion of God two shining orbs have been ordained -- fasting and prayer. 'Islam is heaven; fasting is its sun, prayer, its moon.'"

Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan,