The Baha'i Studies Listserv > Hi, could any kindly person explain the logic of: "western bahá'ís do/apply > some bahá'í laws and eastern bahá'ís, no yet". In present, which laws are > obligatory only for eastern bahá'ís?, and why? >
Dear Hasan, It is the other way around. Iranian Baha'is obey certain laws which are not yet obligatory upon Baha'is in the West. A lot of these are marriage laws such as the dowry, the limitation of 95 days for an engagement, etc. The only law I know of which Western Baha'is follow which I have not been enforced in the East is the law stipulating that the couples and not parents should arrange marriages. In India arranged marriages are still common in the Baha'i community, or at least they were when I was there in 1985. Another difference is in the Baha'i calendar. Western Baha'is commemorate all the Baha'i Holy Days according to the solar calendar but in the East some, such as the birthday of the Bab and Baha'u'llah are celebrated by the lunar calendar. After the Aqdas was revealed some of the Baha'is wanted to form Houses of Justice immediately. Baha'u'llah revealed a Tablet which Taherzadeh summarizes with the following: "Bahá'u'lláh responded by stating that the application of any of His laws was conditional upon the exercise of wisdom. He explained that the establishment of this institution was not timely, because should the enemies of the Cause discover it, they would create a commotion, the elected members would become targets and their lives would be in great danger. He envisaged that these institutions would be formed at a later time when conditions became more favourable. Furthermore, He affirmed that because of the immaturity and perversity of the public, and for the protection of the believers, He had not required them to implement most of the laws of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas." (Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha'u'llah v 4, p. 320) warmest, Susan __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[email protected] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
