I’m not a historian: I’m interested mainly in the timeless task of understanding the Bahai teachings, leaving history to those able, and crystal-ball gazing to those interested. But those who don’t know their history, will repeat mistakes in understanding quite needlessly, so sometimes we need to look back at the history of an idea in the Bahai community, especially where it is a mistaken idea that keeps resurfacing. In this case I am looking at some words attributed to Abdu’l-Baha, Read the rest of this entry »
Posts Tagged ‘Bahai lore’
‘You can never organize the Bahai Cause’
Posted by Sen on December 16, 2010
Posted in Community, Theology | Tagged: Abdu'l-Baha, Administrative Order, Agnes Parsons, Annie Boylan, Baha’i Faith in America, Bahai Administration, Bahai lore, bahai theology, Helen Goodall, House of Justice, Isabel Fraser, Louis Gregory, Mariam Haney, Mason Remey, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, Mountfort Mills, North Shore Review, Oliver Scharbrodt, organisation, Percy Woodcock, Peter Smith, pilgrim's notes, Remey, Robert Stockman, Ruth White, Shoghi Effendi, Sohrab, Sohrab's diary, Spiritual Assembly, Thornton Chase, Y.S. Tsao | 10 Comments »
O God, refresh and gladden my spirit
Posted by Sen on May 13, 2010
One of the friends asked for the Persian text of the well-known prayer that begins, “O God! Refresh and gladden my spirit. Purify my heart. Illumine my powers. I lay all my affairs in Thy hand….”
I had to disappoint him: there is no Persian original for this. It comes from the Diary of Mirza Ahmad Sohrab for May 9, 1914. He would write his diary in Persian, and later translate parts of it into English and distribute the translations. In this case, his handwritten English translation has survived in manuscript (a friend has a copy), and contains this prayer, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Bahai Writings, Devotions | Tagged: Abdu'l-Baha, Bahai lore, Bahai prayers, pilgrim's notes, Star of the West, بهائیت, عبدالبهاء | 4 Comments »
The mystery of sacrifice
Posted by Sen on October 16, 2009
One of the friends said:
Long ago I picked up a supposed quote from the Bab, “The mystery of sacrifice is there is no sacrifice.” Now I can’t find a source. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Community | Tagged: Bahai Faith, Bahai lore, Louise Waite, Mystery of sacrifice, Seals & Crofts, بهائی, بهائیت | 2 Comments »
Instant, exact and complete?
Posted by Sen on October 12, 2009
In a discussion group, one of the participants recalled that Shoghi Effendi had said that the requirement for appointment as a Hand of the Cause was “instant, exact and complete obedience.” It’s a familiar phrase in Bahai discourse, but is it from the words of Shoghi Effendi? Is it about the Hands of the Cause?
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Posted in Community | Tagged: Bahai Faith, Bahai lore, Bahais, Hands of the Cause, Helene Blavatsky, Obedience, Shoghi Effendi, theosophists, بهائی, بهائیت, شوقی افندی | Leave a Comment »
The world’s a stage
Posted by Sen on April 26, 2009
One of the friends said:
… an elderly lady once told me that Shoghi Effendi had said that the earth would “fall off its axis and spin wildly for three days”… well, I’ve searched and searched for anything even close…
Posted in Bahai Writings, Community, Translations | Tagged: Abdu'l-Baha, Ahmad Sohrab, Apocalypticism, Bahai Faith, Bahai lore, causes of World War I, militarism, polar shift, Ruth Moffet, Star of the West, survivalism, World War 1, WWI, بهائی, بهائیت | 2 Comments »
Century’s end – my two cents
Posted by Sen on January 12, 2009
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
The word ‘century’ appears unproblematic: a period of a hundred years, which in common usage begins with the year 00 (although sticklers will insist that the century begins in the year 01, so that the 21st century began on 1 January 2001). But in reading the Bahai texts, things are not so simple. In this post I want to look at the peculiar significance Bahais have mistakenly attached to the 20th century and what can be learned from the whole affair; in the next posting I will look at what the Bahai writings really say about the ‘century’ (not the 20th century).
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Posted in Community, Theology | Tagged: 1 Corinthians 13:11, 20th century, 7 candles of unity, Adib Taherzadeh, Bahai Faith, Bahai lore, bahai theology, golden calf, Kheirella, Lesser Peace, millennium, Paris Talks, pilgrim's notes, Promulgation of Universal Peace, Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, twentieth century, Universal House of Justice, world unity, y2k, بهائیت, شوقی افندی, عبدالبهاء | 35 Comments »
Red Tulips
Posted by Sen on December 20, 2008
I have a lovely story to share, told to me by Brent Poirier and shared with his permission. He heard it around 1980 from Inez Greeven, whose sister was India Haggarty, the subject of our story. India Haggarty was a Bahai living in Paris in 1931. I will let Brent tell the story:
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Posted in Community | Tagged: Abdu'l-Baha, Bahai, Bahai Faith, Bahai lore, Brent Poirier, creativity, doors of perception, dreams, India Haggarty, Inez Greeven, inspiration in dreams, بهائیت, عبدالبهاء | 2 Comments »
How theocracy happened
Posted by Sen on December 2, 2008
A person investigating the Bahai Faith had encountered theocratic ideas among the Bahais she met, and asked if these were correct, and where they came from. But in fact, she seemed to know already that these ideas must be wrong. She wrote:
> I have to say that the idea of a one-world government run by a
> religious institution of any sort whatsoever, is what I can only
> call a total nightmare. I cannot believe for one second that this
> is what Bahaullah envisaged,
She was quite right. This is certainly not what Baha’u’llah envisioned!
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Posted in Church and State, History | Tagged: A Traveler's Narrative, Abdu'l-Baha, Bahai, Bahai Faith, Bahai lore, bahai theology, Church and State, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Hippolyte Dreyfus, Horace Holley, Kitab-i Iqan, Luke 20:20-26, Mark 12:13-17, Matt. 22:15-22, millenialism, one-world government, render to Caesar, Risaleh-ye Siyasiyyah, Shoghi Effendi, Supreme Tribunal, The Art of Governance, The Promised Day is Come, theocracy, Universal House of Justice, World Order of Baha'u'llah, بهائیت, شوقی افندی, عبدالبهاء | 20 Comments »