"It is only by the reinforcement of the Holy Spirit that any believer can be of true usefulness to the Kingdom." - Horace Holley

Essential as the element of organization is in this universal Cause, however, we must remember that living the life from day to day and under all circumstances is our supreme privilege and sacred responsibility, and it is only by the reinforcement of the Holy Spirit that any believer can be of true usefulness to the Kingdom. Every Baha’i election or appointment must ever be secondary to this inward spiritual trust borne equally by us all. 

- Horace Holley  (Message from the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States and Canada, Baha’i News, no. 6, July-August 1925)

"Teaching the Cause is disseminating the power of the Holy Spirit" - Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas

Teaching the Cause is disseminating the power of the Holy Spirit, and when you become a teacher of the Cause you become a channel through which the Holy Spirit descends into the world and goes out to those to whom you teach. So actually, the teacher secures greater benefit than the one whom he teaches, because he is then in contact with the power of the Holy Spirit.

- Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas (In the Days of the Guardian –a Talk by Hand of the Cause of God Leroy Ioas in Johannesburg, South Africa,1958)

The significance of one’s participation in Baha’i elections - NSA of USA, 1925

Before participating in the local election this year, let us endeavor to form a clearer conception of the real significance of this Baha’i institution.

If we look for its importance to numbers alone, or to any other worldly standard, these little gatherings might well appear to be without special meaning or importance. But if we consider how for lack of unity the most important affairs of mankind have always been made a prey to jealousy, to partisanship and to self-seeking, then indeed can we realize that as a model for the organization and execution of the world’s myriad activities, the Baha’i method offers the sole solution of the many overwhelming problems by which older civilizations were destroyed, and the present one is seriously threatened.

If each believer will take part in his local election with the consciousness that he is contributing vitally to the spiritualization of all the affairs of daily life, and by his scrupulous adherence to the methods and principles given us by Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha is truly hastening the day of the Most Great Peace, then indeed we may be sure that the Cause is beginning to fulfill its divine mission. 

- Horace Holley  (Message from The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States and Canada to Local Spiritual Assemblies, Baha’i News, no. 4, April 1925)

Shoghi Effendi’s Introduction to Dawn-Breakers, its Footnotes, and Genealogy of the Báb - by Hand of the Cause Ugo Giachery

Outstanding as an example of his historical perspective is the Introduction to the Dawn-Breakers. It contains a concise and brilliant history of Islam, to inform the reader concerning the forms and elements which concurred to set the stage on which the deeply moving drama of the Báb's Revelation was played. Many a time, during his table conversation, to illustrate some points, he would accurately quote from that particular book, or from God Passes By, or some other of his writings, often showing surprise or perplexity at the limited information, or lack of it, of some of his listeners. The footnotes of The Dawn-Breakers, some of which are in French, are another example of his talent in the field of historical research. To appreciate the tremendous background of knowledge he possessed at the time of his translation of that book, it suffices to glance at the titles and authors of the fifty-five books he consulted, as listed in the Appendix. In addition, one finds in his own handwriting the genealogy of the Báb, showing connection with Bahá'u'lláh's descendants, and presented on a fivefold sheet of paper twenty-six inches long.  The genealogy is prepared with scrupulous care, and shows the ramifications of the families, including names known to every Bahá'í as well as names unknown to the average believer, but which Shoghi Effendi brought to mind with great facility. Always amazing was his inexhaustible memory and the ease with which he recalled episodes, placing personages in their proper positions, with all their particulars of names, backgrounds and degrees of relationship. It was like reliving the spellbound days of my childhood when my aged and learned tutor would narrate the legendary feats of Greek mythology, with gods and people brought alive by his fascinating word pictures. 

- Hand of the Cause Ugo Giachery  ('Shoghi Effendi – Recollections’)

Baha’i community’s organic growth and development - by - Paul Lample

Yet another aspect of the Faith that can be grasped more fully as the close of the first century of the Formative Age approaches is the nature and pattern of the organic growth and development of the Bahá’í community. Shoghi Effendi refers to the community’s organic development and to its organic life, which reflects the characteristics it shares with the unfoldment of a living organism and with the coherent, integrated, and harmonious nature of its component parts. He speaks of the “the internal functions of the organic Bahá’í community” (Shoghi Effendi, ‘God Passes By'), explaining that its “embryonic state, shall evolve within the shell of His law, and shall forge ahead, undivided and unimpaired, till it embraces the whole of mankind” (Shoghi Effendi, “The World Order of Baha’u’llah’). The progress of national communities is propelled by “prosecuting specific Plans designed to foster their organic development” (Shoghi Effendi, ‘Messages to Canada’). “Such close interaction, such complete cohesion, such continual harmony and fellowship between the various agencies that contribute to the organic life, and constitute the basic framework, of every properly functioning Bahá’í community,” he states, “is a phenomenon which offers a striking contrast to the disruptive tendencies which the discordant elements of present-day society so tragically manifest” (Shoghi Effendi, ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’). And in one of its earliest messages, the Universal House of Justice writes,

"In the human body, every cell, every organ, every nerve has its part to play. When all do so the body is healthy, vigorous, radiant, ready for every call made upon it. No cell, however humble, lives apart from the body, whether in serving it or receiving from it. This is true of the body of mankind in which God “hast endowed each and all with talents and faculties,” and is supremely true of the body of the Bahá’í World Community, for this body is already an organism, united in its aspirations, unified in its methods, seeking assistance and confirmation from the same Source, and illumined with the conscious knowledge of its unity. . . . The Bahá’í World Community, growing like a healthy new body, develops new cells, new organs, new functions and powers as it presses on to its maturity, when every soul, living for the Cause of God, will receive from that Cause, health, assurance and the overflowing bounties of Bahá’u’lláh which are diffused through His divinely ordained order." (The Universal House of Justice, from a message dated September 1964)

The Most Distinguished Heroine of the Bahá’í dispensation - by Baharieh Rouhani Ma’ani

The human perfections that Bahíyyih Khánum exemplified, the heavenly attributes that she embodied, the laudable services that she rendered during the ministry of Bahá’u’lláh and her tremendous capacity for selfless service throughout her life won her from the Supreme Pen the appellation of the Most Distinguished Heroine of the Bahá’í dispensation:

“Verily, we have elevated thee to the rank of one of the most distinguished among thy sex and granted thee, in My court, a station such as none other woman hath surpassed. Thus have We preferred thee and raised thee above the rest, as a sign of grace from Him Who is the Lord of the throne on high and earth below … How high is the testimony of the Sadratu’l-Muntaha for its leaf; how exalted the witness of the Tree of Life unto its fruit!” (‘BAHÍYYIH KHÁNUM’, A compilation from Bahá'í sacred texts and writings of the Guardian of the Faith and Bahíyyih Khánum's own letters, made by the Research department at the Bahá'í World Centre) 

- Baharieh Rouhani Ma’ani (Excerpt from an article presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #121 [English], Louhelen Bahá'í Center: Davison, Michigan, USA, October 10–13, 2013 published in Lights of Irfan, volume 15)

…read the entire article

Transformation of Canada - by Douglas Martin

Here, we touch with that mystery that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá termed “the secret of Divine civilization”. Increasingly, Bahá’ís will feel impelled to consider the impact on Canadian consciousness of Shoghi Effendi’s messages and the long term effects on the nation’s life. Prior to World War II it might well have been impossible to identify a society more provincial, more resolutely self-absorbed than that of Canada. Today, in its place, stands a nation for whom a global perspective is the norm, that has established a perhaps unparalleled record of service to the cause of international peacekeeping, and that is justly renowned for its willingness to provide economic assistance without attaching to it political or other conditions. 

- Douglas Martin  (28 February 1998, forward to ‘Messages to Canada’) 

Understanding the Book of Aqdas may be challenging for some due to one’s unfamiliarity with past religions - by- Hand of the Cause Abu’l-Qasim Faizi

The Book of Aqdas is also difficult to understand, but not because of language in which it is revealed. The language is lucid, very clear and direct, but some sentences are peepholes through which one must see the panorama of the past religions, religious beliefs, customs, etc. Should the reader be a stranger to this background, such sentences would remain meaningless and the reader will be startled as to why and what they stand for in such a mighty book. To understand such references, we must know that in the past religions of God, the people had many rules about hair, clothes, the place of their prayers and worship, engaging servants, and many other petty problems, and they were all sticking to these unnecessary details of their religious life. We must know that there are man-made interpretations about customs, habits, rituals and rules which the followers of the religions take them as the revealed Words of God. Bahá'u'lláh abrogated all such man-made interpretations which stood between man and his Creator, and Bahá'u'lláh, at the same time, paves the way for us to approach God in worship and servitude only with pure, radiant and kindly hearts. It is for these and some other reasons that the beloved Guardian made the codification of the Book of Aqdas as one of the goals of his Ten Year Plan, and not its direct translation. 

- Hand of the Cause Abu’l-Qasim Faizi  (Excerpt from a talk: Commentary on the Kitab-i-Aqdas)

The power of prayer - by Dr. J.E. Esslemont

Many find a difficulty in believing in the efficacy of prayer because they think that answers to prayer would involve arbitrary interference with the laws of nature. An analogy may help to remove this difficulty. If a magnet be held over some iron filings the latter will fly upwards and cling to it, but this involves no interference with the law of gravitation. The force of gravity continues to act on the filings just as before. What has happened is that a superior force has been brought into play -- another force whose action is just as regular and calculable as that of gravity.

The Bahá'í view is that prayer brings into action higher forces, as yet comparatively little known; but there seems no reason to believe that these forces are more arbitrary in their action than the physical forces. The difference is that they have not yet been fully studied and experimentally investigated, and their action appears mysterious and incalculable because of our ignorance.

Another difficulty which some find perplexing is that prayer seems too feeble a force to produce the great results often claimed to it. Analogy may serve to clear up this difficulty also. A small force, when applied to the sluice gate of a reservoir, may release and regulate an enormous flow of water-power, or, when applied to the steering gear of an ocean liner, may control the course of the huge vessel.

In the Bahá'í view, the power that brings about answers to prayer is the inexhaustible Power of God. The part of the suppliant is only to exert the feeble force necessary to release the flow or determine the course of the Divine Bounty, which is ever ready to serve those who have learned how to draw upon it. 

- Dr. J.E. Esslemont  (‘Baha'u'llah and the New Era’)