Dear David, With respect, I urge you to consider the wisdom of what Khazeh has tried to explain to you below. Did you read it? I do not see any indication that you did, and I never saw any acknowledgement that you did. Dean Betts
----- Original Message ----- From: "Khazeh Fananapazir" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Baha'i Studies" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 1:43 AM Subject: AGAIN LOSING SPIRITUAL FOCUS Dear David Once again in all humility and lowliness this servant would beg of thee not to raise matters which presently and transiently engage your attention and thought and contemplation on an open list like this. The Faith of Baha'u'llah is being attacked on so many fronts, on so many issues by so many inveterate foes. Of course in the hundred volumes He has revealed there are many questions and there are many issues related to Sex and Sexuality. But dear friends these are early days of the Faith. In the land of its birth 289 souls [saints and heroes] have been martyred have been slain in horrendous circumstances. Imagine if they [those martyrs] were to reflect ere their martyrdom that issues which preoccupy purported believers in this same Revelation [the Cynosure of all Past Dispensations] are exactly the same issues that pre-occupy the 'ulama of Qom and Najaf and the authors of Humanae Vitae of the Vatican and about which volumes used to be written Dear Friends we must transcend these issues for the moment. The Iqan reveals that we need a new mind a new heart **Then will the manifold favours and outpouring grace of the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind. (Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Iqan, Page: 196) ** why don't we attain this new mind this new ear this new eye? Why don't we transform our entire outlook? Again He the Divine Revealer reveals: **** And yet, is not the object of every Revelation to effect a transformation in the whole character of mankind, a transformation that shall manifest itself both outwardly and inwardly, that shall affect both its inner life and external conditions? For if the character of mankind be not changed, the futility of God's universal Manifestations would be apparent. (Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Iqan, Pages: 240-241) **** And when we read the life giving latest Letters of the Universal House of Justice again that Institution [ordained in that same Most Holy Book] we see |They are emphasising different issues from the issues that pre-occupy this list All the time the focus is on Individual Regeneration and Teaching IN fact the Guardian calls it His FERVENT PLEA On this list and others too we keep losing our focus and becoming bereft of vision and yet how strongly how vehemently the Guardian of the Faith wrote about useless studies! How clearly He foresaw the futility of interminable discussions! ***Their madrasihs (seminaries), with their medieval learning, are deserted and dilapidated. The innumerable tomes of theological commentaries, super-commentaries, glosses, and notes, unreadable, unprofitable, the product of misdirected ingenuity and toil, and pronounced by one of the most enlightened Islamic thinkers in modern times as works obscuring sound knowledge, breeding maggots, and fit for fire, are now buried away, overspread with cobwebs, and forgotten. Their abstruse dissertations, their vehement controversies, their interminable discussions, are outmoded and abandoned. (Shoghi Effendi: The Promised Day is Come, Page: 93) *** from a deeply saddened fellow believer khazeh **** In all of this great endeavour -- pursuing large-scale expansion and consolidation, furthering the work of external affairs and carrying out activities of social and economic development -- you must be driven by a passion to teach the Faith. Let regular study of the Writings feed the flame of your enthusiasm. Let His Words so shape your thoughts that the most pressing obligation of your lives becomes the sharing of His Message with others. (The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 153, 1996 - Latin America and the Caribbean) 217. The teacher, when teaching, must be himself fully enkindled, so that his utterance, like unto a flame of fire, may exert influence and consume the veil of self and passion. He must also be utterly humble and lowly so that others may be edified, and be totally self-effaced and evanescent so that he may teach with the melody of the Concourse on high -- otherwise his teaching will have no effect. (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 270) Chief among the requirements for motivating believers and nurturing a culture of growth is the capacity to foster an encouraging environment where, as the Universal House of Justice wrote in its 9 January message, "teaching is the dominating passion of the lives of the believers" and "mutual support, commitment to learning, and appreciation of diversity of action are the prevailing norms." In the same message, the House of Justice also stated that an upsurge in teaching activity depends on "sustained encouragement." (ITC, Building Momentum - ITC 2003-04-23, p. 13) Having grasped the significance of these words, having obtained a clear understanding of the true character of our mission, the methods to adopt, the course to pursue, and having attained sufficiently the individual regeneration -- the essential requisite of teaching -- let us arise to teach His Cause with righteousness, conviction, understanding and vigour. Let this be the paramount and most urgent duty of every Bahá'í. Let us make it the dominating passion of our life. Let us... sacrifice our personal interests, comforts, tastes and pleasures; mingle with the divers kindreds and peoples of the world; familiarise ourselves with their manners, traditions, thoughts and customs; arouse, stimulate and maintain universal interest in the Movement, and at the same time endeavor by all the means in our power, by concentrated and persistent attention, to enlist the unreserved allegiance and the active support of the more hopeful and receptive among our hearers. Let us too bear in mind the example which our beloved Master has clearly set before us. Wise and tactful in His approach, wakeful and attentive in His early intercourse, broad and liberal in all His public utterances, cautious and gradual in the unfolding of the essential verities of the Cause, passionate in His 70 appeal yet sober in argument, confident in tone, unswerving in conviction, dignified in His manners -- such were the distinguishing features of our Beloved's noble presentation of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh. If we all choose to tread faithfully His path, surely the day is not far distant when our beloved Cause will have emerged from the inevitable obscurity of a young and struggling Faith into the broad daylight of universal recognition. This is our duty, our first obligation. Therein lies the secret of the success of the Cause we love so well. Therein lies the hope, the salvation of mankind. Are we fully conscious of our responsibilities? Do we realize the urgency, the sacredness, the immensity, the glory of our task? I entreat you, dear friends, to continue, nay, to redouble your efforts, to keep your vision clear, your hopes undimmed, your determination unshaken, so that the power of God within us may fill the world with all its glory. In this fervent plea joins me the Greatest Holy Leaf. Though chagrined in the evening of her life at the sorrowful tales of repression in Persia, she still turns with the deepest longings of her heart to your land where freedom reigns, eager and expectant to behold, ere she is called away, the signs of the universal triumph of the Cause she loves so dearly. SHOGHI. Haifa, Palestine, November 24th, 1924. (Shoghi Effendi, Baha'i Administration, p. 69) ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Friedman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Baha'i Studies" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: 18 September 2003 02:33 Subject: Virgin brides > QUESTION: Supposing that a man hath wed a certain > woman believing her to be a .... > (Baha'u'llah: Aqdas: Questions and Answers, Page: 121) ---------- You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://list.jccc.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=bahai-st news://list.jccc.net/bahai-st http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist (public) http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (public) ---------- You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://list.jccc.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=bahai-st news://list.jccc.net/bahai-st http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist (public) http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (public)
