With regard to the differentiation between Bahá’í and Bahá’í
friend. This differentiation was not one which Bahá’u’lláh and the Master
firmly established but because there are so many people who are attracted to
the Bahá’í Cause just as they are attracted to some society and people who have
not developed spiritually to look at the world and the spiritual elements of
life in the proper light that a Bahá’í would look at it, it has become a habit
of differentiating between what you might call beginners in the Bahá’í Movement
and those who have studied the Movement thoroughly and who know its teachings
exactly and who understand the real spirit that is back of it all. You should
not think, however, that a Bahá’í is one who is superior to a Bahá’í friend,
but only that he has studied the Movement better and realizes well the great
and divine spirit that is at the root of all Bahá’í teachings.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter
dated 15 February 1926 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual
believer; ‘The Light of Divine Guidance’, vol. 2)
