The Baha'i Studies Listserv
Sorry but I just got around to reading this thread. Strange that no one
suggested as the Baha'i code of devoutness 'Abdu'l-Baha's message
"To Live the Life"
"To be no cause of grief to anyone.
To be kind to all people and to love them with a pure spirit.
Should opposition or injury happen to us, to bear it, to be as kind as ever can
be, and through all, to love the people. Should calamity exist in the
greatest degree, to rejoice, for these things are the gifts and favors of God.
To be silent concerning the faults of others, to pray for them, and to help
them, through kindness, to correct their faults.
To look always at the good and not at the bad. If a man has ten good qualities
and one bad one, look at the ten and forget the one. And if a man has ten bad
qualities and one good one, to look at the one and forget the ten.
Never to allow ourselves to speak one unkind word about another, even though
that other be our enemy.
To do all of our deeds in kindness.
To cut our hearts from ourselves and from the world.
To be humble.
To be servants of each other, and to know that we are less than anyone else.
To be as one soul in many bodies, for the more we love each other, the nearer
we shall be to God; but to know that our love, our unity, our obedience must
not be by confession, but of reality.
To act with cautiousness and wisdom.
To be truthful.
To be hospitable.
To be reverent.
To be the cause of healing for every sick one,
a comforter for every sorrowful one,
a pleasant water for every thirsty one.
a heavenly table for every hungry one,
a star to every horizon,
a light for every lamp,
a herald to everyone who yearns for the kingdom of God"
`Abdu'l-Bahá
One might also suggest the section from Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, also
cited in Gleanings:
At this moment the shrill voice of the Most Sublime Pen hath been raised, and
hath addressed Me saying: "Admonish the Shaykh even as Thou hast admonished one
of Thy Branches (sons), that haply the breezes of Thine utterance may attract
and draw him nigh unto God, the Lord of the worlds."
"Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust
of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a
treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer to the cry of the
needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judgment, and
guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men.
Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for
the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim
of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a
home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the
fugitive. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the
erring. Be an ornament to the countenance of truth, a crown to the brow of
fidelity, a pillar of the temple of righteousness, a breath of life to the body
of mankind, an ensign of the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of
virtue, a dew to the soil of the human heart, an ark on the ocean of knowledge,
a sun in the heaven of bounty, a gem on the diadem of wisdom, a shining light
in the firmament of thy generation, a fruit upon the tree of humility. We pray
God to protect thee from the heat of jealousy and the cold of hatred. He verily
is nigh, ready to answer." Thus hath My tongue spoken unto one of My Branches
(sons), and We have mentioned it unto such of Our loved ones as have cast away
their idle fancies, and clung unto that which hath been prescribed unto them in
the day whereon the Daystar of Certitude hath shone forth above the horizon of
the will of God, the Lord of the worlds. This is the day on which the Bird of
Utterance hath warbled its melody upon the branches, in the name of its Lord,
the God of Mercy. Blessed is the man that hath, on the wings of longing, soared
towards God, the Lord of the Judgment Day.
(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, pp. 93-94
cf. Gleanings, p.285)
Anyone living up to these admonitions has my vote to be designated "devout",
"spiritual", "religious" or any other adjective of pious praise that a believer
might aspire to!
Peace,
Gary
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