It is better to have one Bahá'í who understands the Teachings and is wholeheartedly convinced of their truth, than a number of Bahá'ís, who are not well aware of the Cause, and deep-rooted in the Covenant.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 22 January 1955 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, Guidelines for Teaching)
You have asked whether our prayers go beyond Bahá’u’lláh: it all depends whether we pray to Him directly or through Him to God. We may do both, and also can pray directly to God, but our prayers would certainly be more effective and illuminating if they are addressed to Him through His Manifestation, Bahá’u’lláh.
Under no circumstances, however, can we, while repeating the prayers, insert the name Bahá’u’lláh where the word “God” is used. This would be tantamount to a blasphemy.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 14 October 1937 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; compilation: ‘Prayer and Devotional Life’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, February 2019)
The Bahá’ís must learn to forget personalities and to overcome the desire—so natural in people—to take sides and fight about it. They must also learn to really make use of the great principle of consultation. There is a time set aside at the 19 Day Feasts for the Community to express its views and make suggestions to its Assembly; the Assembly and the believers should look forward to this happy period of discussion, and neither fear it nor suppress it. Likewise the Assembly members should fully consult, and in their decisions put the interests of the Cause first and not personalities, the will of the majority prevailing.
Over and over, in going through the correspondence he received from your Assembly, he was struck by the fact that the friends acted so unadministratively. Instead of taking up their accusations and problems and unhappy feelings with their local Assembly, or the National Assembly, they referred to individuals or individual members of the Assembly, or they refused to meet with the Assembly. The first thing a believer should do is to turn to an Assembly—That is why we have assemblies! He feels this trouble would never have arisen if the Bahá’ís utilized their assemblies as they should. One of the healing remedies Bahá’u’lláh has given to a sick world is the Assembly (which in future will become a House of Justice); its members have very sacred and heavy responsibilities, its power to steer the Community, to protect and assist its members is likewise very great.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 30 June 1949 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the NSA of Germany; ‘The Light of Divine Guidance, vol. 1’)
A successor or vicegerent the Báb never named, an interpreter of His teachings He refrained from appointing. So transparently clear were His references to the Promised One, so brief was to be the duration of His own Dispensation, that neither the one nor the other was deemed necessary. All He did was, according to the testimony of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in "A Traveller's Narrative," to nominate, on the advice of Bahá'u'lláh and of another disciple, Mirza Yahya, who would act solely as a figure-head pending the manifestation of the Promised One, thus enabling Bahá'u'lláh to promote, in relative security, the Cause so dear to His heart.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
It was about an hour after sunset when my youthful Host began to converse with me. “Whom, after Siyyid Kázim,” He asked me, “do you regard as his successor and your leader?” “At the hour of his death,” I replied, “our departed teacher insistently exhorted us to forsake our homes, to scatter far and wide, in quest of the promised Beloved. I have, accordingly, journeyed to Persia, have arisen to accomplish his will, and am still engaged in my quest.” “Has your teacher,” He further enquired, “given you any detailed indications as to the distinguishing features of the promised One?” “Yes,” I replied, “He is of a pure lineage, is of illustrious descent, and of the seed of Fátimih. As to His age, He is more than twenty and less than thirty. He is endowed with innate knowledge. He is of medium height, abstains from smoking, and is free from bodily deficiency.” He paused for a while and then with vibrant voice declared: “Behold, all these signs are manifest in Me!” He then considered each of the above-mentioned signs separately, and conclusively demonstrated that each and all were applicable to His person.
- Mulla Husayn (Quoted by Nabil in ‘The Dawn-Breakers', translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)
He was also very glad to see that the believers are studying the Covenant of the Master. For in the Master’s Will and Testament are enshrined the principles underlying the World Order, and unless the believers fully grasp the greatness, functions, and purpose of the institutions outlined in that Testament (and elaborated by the Guardian in his book “The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh”) they will not be able to properly function as Bahá’ís individually or collectively. The… friends need to acquire a profound understanding of the Bahá’í Administrative Order to enable them to function as a Community, according to Bahá’í laws, and to protect them from tests and the attacks of the enemies of the Faith....
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 3 July 1949 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi; ‘The Light of Divine Guidance, vol. 1’)
… the Spirit of God reaches us through the Souls of the Manifestations. We must learn to commune with Their Souls and this is what the martyrs seemed to have done, and what brought them such ecstasy of joy that life became nothing. This is the true mysticism, and the secret, inner meaning of life, which humanity has at present drifted so far from.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 28 July 1950 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the Local Spiritual Assembly of Manchester, England; compilation: ‘Prayer and Devotional Life’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, February 2019)
It is of course clear to you, long-standing servants of the Abhá Beauty, that the revolution in the ordered life of the world and the chaos in the affairs of humanity are evidence of the advent of a new chapter in the never-ending story of the evolution of the social life of the human race. The suffering and pain currently afflicting the world are the inevitable labour pains of the birth of the next stage in the development of humanity from childhood to maturity, which is the realization of the unity of humankind and the establishment of a world civilization. The infinite bounties bestowed upon the world by the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh make possible the attainment of that stage, so that universal peace may be firmly established, the earth become the mirror of the highest paradise, and the Most Great Justice, awaited with hope by all peoples throughout the ages and centuries, become manifest. As He states in the Kitáb-i-Íqán:
“The universe is pregnant with these manifold bounties, awaiting the hour when the effects of Its unseen gifts will be made manifest in this world, when the languishing and sore athirst will attain the living Kawthar of their Well-Beloved, and the erring wanderer, lost in the wilds of remoteness and nothingness, will enter the tabernacle of life, and attain reunion with his heart’s desire. In the soil of whose heart will these holy seeds germinate? From the garden of whose soul will the blossoms of the invisible realities spring forth?“
- The Universal House of Justice (Naw-Ruz 2023 message to the Baha’is in Iran)
“Chaos and confusion are daily increasing in the world. They will attain such intensity as to render the frame of mankind unable to bear them. Then will men be awakened and become aware that religion is the impregnable stronghold and the manifest light of the world, and its laws, exhortations and teachings the source of life on earth.”
Every discerning eye clearly sees that the early stages of this chaos have daily manifestations affecting the structure of human society; its destructive forces are uprooting time-honoured institutions which were a haven and refuge for the inhabitants of the earth in bygone days and centuries, and around which revolved all human affairs.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a message dated 10 February 1980 to the Iranian believers resident in other countries throughout the world)
As regards your question: Bahá’u’lláh is, of course, not God and not the Creator; but through Him we can know God, and because of this position of Divine Intermediary, in a sense, He is all (or the other Prophets) we can ever know of that Infinite Essence which is God. Therefore, we address ourselves in prayer and thought to Him, or through Him to that Infinite Essence behind and beyond Him.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 4 June 1951 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to individual believers; compilation: ‘Prayer and Devotional Life’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, February 2019)
He [the Guardian] wrote the ... Assembly urging upon them the necessity of cooperating with the National Assembly. He also pointed out to them that the attitude of “all for one and one for all” was very incorrect. An assembly constitutes within its area of jurisdiction the Trustees of the Faith. Its members must at all times put the interests of the Faith above personality and impartially go into any matter brought to its attention. Theoretically it is always possible for a member of an assembly to be unworthy or insincere. To take the attitude that any blame cast upon or any charge made against an assembly member is a charge against the body itself is very wrong. An assembly must protect the Faith and neither blindly accuse nor blindly defend one of its members. The ... Assembly has taken the attitude that the remarks referring to ... are an insult to the entire Assembly; at the same time it accuses the National Body of being dominated by one individual, an accusation which because of its own attitude could equally well be aimed at itself! The Guardian feels that all this is only evidence of the immaturity of the friends in relation to their Administrative Order.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 30 June 1949 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the NSA of Germany; ‘The Light of Divine Guidance, vol. 1’)
We must not pray to the Guardian as to God; whoever we turn to when we pray, we must have the correct concept of the station of that person: Bahá’u’lláh as the Supreme Manifestation of God, the Master as the Perfect Man, the Centre of the Covenant, the Guardian as his functions are defined in the Master’s Will. The friends need only read the Writings; the answers are all in them; we have no priests in this Faith to interpret or answer for us.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 23 April 1957 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; compilation: ‘Prayer and Devotional Life’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, February 2019)
[the Kitáb-i-Aqdas] Revealed soon after Bahá'u'lláh had been transferred to the house of 'Udi Khammar [1] (circa 1873), at a time when He was still encompassed by the tribulations that had afflicted Him, through the acts committed by His enemies and the professed adherents of His Faith, this Book, this treasury enshrining the priceless gems of His Revelation, stands out, by virtue of the principles it inculcates, the administrative institutions it ordains and the function with which it invests the appointed Successor of its Author, unique and incomparable among the world's sacred Scriptures. For, . . . the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, revealed from first to last by the Author of the Dispensation Himself, not only preserves for posterity the basic laws and ordinances on which the fabric of His future World Order must rest, but ordains, in addition to the function of interpretation which it confers upon His Successor, the necessary institutions through which the integrity and unity of His Faith can alone be safeguarded.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, quoted by the Universal
House of Justice in the Introduction to the ‘Synopsis and Codification of the
Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
[1 This house was later joined to the adjacent house of
'Abbud, by which name both are now known.]
Events of the most profound significance are taking place in the world. The river of human history is flowing at a bewildering speed. Age-old institutions are collapsing. Traditional ways are being forgotten, and newly-born ideologies which were fondly expected to take their place, are withering and decaying before the eyes of their disillusioned adherents. Amidst this decay and disruption, assailed from every side by the turmoil of the age, the Order of Bahá’u’lláh, unshakably founded on the Word of God, protected by the shield of the Covenant and assisted by the hosts of the Concourse on High, is rising in every part of the world.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a message dated 3 November 1980 to the Bahá’ís of the World)
It is abundantly clear that many of the aspirations of the people of the world and their legitimate demands have become aligned with the teachings of God and that which the Supreme Pen has decreed for the betterment of the world and the building of a new civilization. They have become crystallized in such ideals as the equality of the rights of women and men, the equality of all people, the truthfulness and trustworthiness of rulers, social justice, the eradication of poverty on the one hand and of the extreme and uncontrollable wealth in the hands of a few on the other, the protection of the environment, the abolition of ethnic and religious prejudices, and the elimination of racism.
- The Universal House of Justice (Naw-Ruz 2023 message to the Baha’is in Iran)