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What is Law?
Bahá’u’lláh’s purpose throughout his mission was to promote the oneness of humankind but, he notes, that “At one time We spoke in the language of the lawgiver; at another in that of the truth-seeker and the mystic.“[1] If “law” is interchangeable with “mystic truth” it begs the question: what is law? It’s a question that has engaged legal philosophers for centuries – and prominent among their theories is that laws are “commands” – they are “rules” that we have to obey. But, it quickly gets complicated. As legal scholars ask – why can we say that the commands of the head of a criminal gang are not “law” but the…
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Right Livelihood: The Case of Thomas Breakwell
Buddhism has a beautiful way of summarising “the good life”. It is symbolised by an eight-spoked wheel. Each spoke of the wheel represents a right way of being – qualities such as “right speech”, “right conduct” and “right mindfulness”. Among the spokes is “right livelihood” and this is where we pick up the story of Thomas Breakwell, for the principle concerns him. Thomas Breakwell became a Baha’i in 1901, one of the earliest westerners to enter the Baha’i Faith. He was a young man aged only 30. He was born in 1872, the son of an ironmonger. He was raised a Methodist and later his family had emigrated to the…
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Into the Prison City: Suffering of the Prophets
Yesterday we read Bahá’u’lláh’s good news. Yet Bahá’u’lláh’s own life was full of suffering. “O the misery of men! No Messenger cometh unto them but they laugh Him to scorn.” …“Each nation hath plotted darkly against their Messenger to lay violent hold on Him, and disputed with vain words to invalidate the truth.”[1] Bahá’u’lláh was exiled from place to place at the whim of absolute rulers who held his life and that of his loved ones in their hands. I have been, most of the days of My life, even as a slave, sitting under a sword hanging on a thread, knowing not whether it would fall soon or late upon him.…
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Seeker
For me, it was like the lifting of a darkness of which I had previously been unaware. The lights were on; a new beauty and truth was in the world, and there was no going back. The journey the seeker follows to faith is not an easy one. It is really impossible to describe. For some it is completed in an instant. For some (as in my case) it can take time – a long time. It is a journey that is never really completed. And to those who haven’t made the journey, it may seem like a bewildering and impossible road. It is a search that demands something of us. It…
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No Human Being is Unclean
Bahá’u’lláh abolishes the concept of “uncleanness”. In different cultures, at different times, human beings and things have been held to be “unclean” – in the specific case of religion, “ritually unclean”. In 1873, Bahá’u’lláh wrote: God hath … abolished the concept of “uncleanness,” whereby divers things and peoples have been held to be impure.… Verily, all created things were immersed in the sea of purification when, on that first day of Riḍván, We shed upon the whole of creation the splendors of Our most excellent Names and Our most exalted Attributes.[1] Bahá’u’lláh’s purpose in doing so is suggested in the words that follow shortly after: Consort ye then with the followers of all…
