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"No lines sector off the sky so high above, though all the nations of the Earth be bound about with borders."

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  • Bahá’u’lláh is freed from the Prison City

    The circumstances in which Bahá’u’lláh was freed from the prison city of Akka provide a remarkable contrast from the circumstances in which he was condemned to perpetual exile within its walls. Secular and religious opponents had brought it about. Nine years had passed since that imprisonment and over the years he had become a revered and loved figure in the prison city. Now, both secular and religious leaders assisted in bringing about Bahá’u’lláh’s release from the prison city – notwithstanding that he was still a condemned prisoner. Abdu’l Baha tells the story of how his departure from the city came about. Bahá’u’lláh loved the beauty and verdure of the country.…

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    Hands of the Cause

    Faithful Stewards – And a Debt of Gratitude Beyond Estimation

    July 4, 2017

    Bahá’u’lláh’s Call for a Common Language for the World

    May 11, 2017
    literal interpretation - religious texts

    Taking Things Too Literally vs. Interpreting Texts for the Oneness of Humanity

    June 6, 2017
  • Seat of the Universal House of Justice

    The Universal House of Justice and an ever changing world

    The writings of Bahá’u’lláh are a very considerable religious corpus. Yet within those writings Bahá’u’lláh provides for the guidance and unfoldment of the Baha’i community over the centuries that would follow his passing. Thus in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, his book of laws, he writes: Let not your hearts be perturbed, O people, when the glory of My Presence is withdrawn, and the ocean of My utterance is stilled. In My presence amongst you there is a wisdom, and in My absence there is yet another, inscrutable to all but God, the Incomparable, the All-Knowing. Verily, We behold you from Our realm of glory, and will aid whosoever will arise for the triumph of Our Cause with the hosts of the…

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    tree courage

    Courage

    June 3, 2017

    Mona Mahmudnizhad – Speaking Truth to Power

    May 27, 2017
    the world and the self

    The World and the Self

    October 16, 2017
  • the Word of God

    The Word of God

    Words are in some sense like seeds. They germinate as thoughts in the minds of readers or hearers. The exact form that the thought takes in the world of individual imagination differs depending on the soil of that heart and mind. As we have seen words also have power – to heal or harm – and care is thus required in their use.  Thus Bahá’u’lláh states: One word is like unto springtime causing the tender saplings of the rose-garden of knowledge to become verdant and flourishing, while another word is even as a deadly poison. It behooveth a prudent man of wisdom to speak with utmost leniency and forbearance so…

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    tablet of ahmad adrianople

    O Ahmad, be thou so steadfast in my love that thy heart shall not waver …

    August 13, 2017
    Universal House of Justice and Arc

    The Tablet of Carmel – Charter for the Spiritual and Administrative Centre of the Baha’i Faith

    October 20, 2017
    200th anniversary of birth of Baha'u'llah

    What’s Happening in October? 200th Anniversary Celebrations

    August 4, 2017
  • render unto caesar

    Render unto Caesar …

    The phrase is famous and the story well-known. When the religious scholars of his day were seeking to entrap Jesus they asked him whether it was lawful to pay tax to the Emperor. Jesus asked them to bring him a coin. They showed him a denarius and he asked them “Whose image is on the coin”. They replied, “Caesar’s” Then he said to them: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” In Christianity, the phrase has come to be seen as a principle for ordering the relationship between civil government and religion, although as Christ spoke in allegorical terms –…

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    people speaking - the power of speech

    As Mild As Milk – The Human Power of Speech

    April 16, 2017
    mountain of roses - story of ridvan

    A Mountain of Roses: The Ridvan Festival

    April 20, 2017
    manifestation of god

    Manifestation of God and the Relativity of Religious Truth

    September 9, 2017
  • sunrise - baha'u'llah as law reformer

    Bahá’u’lláh as Law Reformer

    Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, like the teachings of all prophets, arise in a particular time and place in history. The language used is conditioned by the language which that time and place can hear. Jesus is believed to have spoken Aramaic (a common language of his time and place). His teachings speak to the realities of the people around him – whose daily lives were mediated through Judaic custom, law and teachings. Jesus necessarily spoke in a language connected with those realities — for otherwise it would have been impossible for the people to understand him at all. Nevertheless, we see that although the symbols used are particular to time and place —…

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    akka aqueduct restoring water

    Water Restored to Akka and Service to the Community

    September 11, 2017
    crushed terracotta path bahji - do no harm

    Bahá’u’lláh’s counsel to do no harm

    October 14, 2017
    oneness of humanity - feast - water

    Oneness of Humanity: A Sense of Community and a Glass of Water — the Baha’i Feast

    May 16, 2017
  • gender and the divine

    Gender and the Divine World

    In Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, God has no gender. Indeed, to think of God in anthropomorphic terms (as a kind of “super human”) is entirely imaginary. To every discerning and illuminated heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the Divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. …[1] However, the topic presents us with complexities. First, we have to pause to clarify our thinking about what we mean by “gender”. Gender has layered biological and cultural aspects and it is easy to mix them up. Aspects of gender such as “pink” and “blue” for example are recent – and purely cultural inventions,…

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    Green Island - Trustworthiness

    The Green Island and the Angel of Trustworthiness

    September 25, 2017
    crushed terracotta path bahji - do no harm

    Bahá’u’lláh’s counsel to do no harm

    October 14, 2017
    tilled earth humility

    The Humility of the Earth

    October 17, 2017
  • tabernacle of unity - zoroastrian symbol

    Bridging East and West – Bahá’u’lláh’s Dialogue with a Zoroastrian Leader

    Zoroastrianism is one of the world’s most ancient faiths. One of its leaders wrote to Bahá’u’lláh. His reply was an exploration of the oneness of religion and the needs of today. Although not well-known in the English speaking world, beyond the fact of its existence, it was once the faith of a great civilization that stretched from Central Asia to Greece. It comes from the same part of the world in which Bahá’u’lláh was born and there was in his day, and still today a Zoroastrian community in Iran. When visiting America, Abdu’l Baha would sometimes comment on the effects of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings. Communities which had kept apart for hundreds of…

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    a french regiment entrenched at Verdun

    Waging Peace in the Midst of War

    August 6, 2017
    manifestation of god

    Manifestation of God and the Relativity of Religious Truth

    September 9, 2017
    religious scholar accused of being a babi - avicenna memorial

    The religious scholar accused of being a follower of the Bab

    August 16, 2017
  • Czar Alexander II coronation

    Czar Alexander II – Living in a Tomb

    Much of Bahá’u’lláh’s letter to Czar Alexander II is concerned with proclaiming Bahá’u’lláh’s mission and calling on the Czar to respond to it. But one aspect of the letter unfolds a thematic exploration. When the letter is written Bahá’u’lláh is, to external appearances, a prisoner in one of the Ottoman Empires worst prisons (indeed he is in the citadel of Akka – a prison within a prison). Despite those persecutions, Baha’u’llah wrote to the Czar: My spirit is filled with a gladness with which all the joys of the earth can never compare.[1] Later he continues: O proud ones of the earth! Do ye believe yourselves to be abiding in…

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    crushed terracotta path bahji - do no harm

    Bahá’u’lláh’s counsel to do no harm

    October 14, 2017
    world language

    Further Reflections on a World Language

    October 4, 2017
    a wall of chains - abolition fo slavery

    Bahá’u’lláh’s Abolition of Slavery

    May 8, 2017
  • Queen Victoria

    Bahá’u’lláh’s letter to Queen Victoria: Reform the World

    Of all the sovereigns who received letters from Bahá’u’lláh, the only one who is recorded to have responded thoughtfully was Queen Victoria. She is reported to have said, “If this is of God it will endure; if not, it can do no harm.”  Bahá’u’lláh’s letter to her was written around 1868, after his arrival in Akka, and is one of the letters that Baha’u’llah compiled together with the Suriy-i-Haykal (the Tablet of the Temple). In Bahá’u’lláh’s words to Queen Victoria we see another unfolding dimension of Bahá’u’lláh’s mission and teachings. As in letters to the other sovereigns to whom he wrote, Bahá’u’lláh explicitly sets out the purpose of his mission: to “quicken…

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    House of Abbud - Kitab-i-Aqdas

    The Kitab-i-Aqdas: A Spiritual Life

    September 4, 2017

    Human Nature: What Does It Mean to Be Human?

    April 15, 2017
    individual, community and institutions

    Three Protagonists Generating the Future: Individual, Community and Institutions

    June 13, 2017
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