Have we Baha’is established certain practices, which are in their essence unnecessary and purely traditional? [The question is not so much one of shoes but rather of customs and Divine Law.]
One such instance is the removal of shoes as we enter the Holy Shrines of the Bab, Baha’u'llah, and ‘Abdu’l-Baha. [It must also be said, that this is a policy of the Universal House of Justice. Nevertheless...] It is true that in many cultures it is a sign of respect, even humility, to take off one’s shoes as you proceed through the doorway of your host. But there do exist cultures in which the removal of shoes would reflect nothing but rudeness towards the host. So why is it a policy to take off one’s shoes?
Some would say: ‘Because the Bab and Baha’u'llah were Persians, and in their culture this is the appropriate custom.’ This is an irrelevant statement as the Prophets did not come to ‘persianize’ the world, but to bring about a unity in diversity.
Others say: ‘It is a sign of respect and humility.’ Well guess what: not in every culture!
It could be wiser to say: It is Divine Law. I came across a Text in Exodus which discusses the topic of shoes at Holy Places. It refers to Moses on Mount Sinai.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
(Exodus 3:3-6 /KJB)
We conclude that it is not an ancient tradition enforced by Baha’is, but has a spiritual import and is Divine Law.
religion: an official source of peace in sports.
June 19, 2007
And i read the headline: ‘Steaua paymaster calls religious tune’. [June 7, 2007, International Herald Tribune]. And the fascinating articles reads:
Gigli Becali, the owner of Steaua Bucharest, hopes to wipe out hooliganism and on-field violence by playing religious music at games.He said Wednesday that the former European champion would play ‘only religious songs before the matches, because I’m the one who pays, and this is the way I like it.’
He said he would stop the club from playing Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’.
‘Why play that song?,’ he asked. ‘ So the players kill each other?’
He added, ‘Whoever wants devil’s music should not come to my stadium.’
Becali, a real estate millionaire, heads an extreme nationalist party and ranks second in some presidential polls.
Becali also said he would introduce ‘fines for sad faces.’ ‘All my players must be happy,’ he said.
An interesting contribution to the process of integration I would say. It calls to mind ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s words on the teachings of Baha’u'llah:
They uphold the principle that religion must be the cause of amity, union and harmony among men. (SWA71)
And Baha’u'llah’s Own exhortation:
Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness and justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine. (TOB1Ishraq)
searching the Baha’i world: Majnun
June 2, 2007
I was always unsatisfied, having to search various Bahai websites to find the content I needed. Google always mixed in unnecessary and irrelevant results.
God bless. The Majnun search engine searches Bahai-related content only. It runs on a directory of 600 websites, all of which have been approved. It features three types of search: the standard web search, the blog search (searching Bahai blogs only), and the book search (searching Bahai book stores only).
Why the name Majnun? In Seven Valleys, Baha’u'llah relates: “It is related that one day they came upon Majnún sifting the dust, and his tears flowing down. They said, ‘What doest thou?’ He said, ‘I seek for Layli.’ They cried, ‘Alas for thee! Layli is of pure spirit, and thou seekest her in the dust!’ He said, ‘I seek her everywhere; haply somewhere I shall find her.’ Yea, although to the wise it be shameful to seek the Lord of Lords in the dust, yet this betokeneth intense ardor in searching. ‘Whoso seeketh out a thing with zeal shall find it.’”
the donkey and the farmer
May 29, 2007
One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.
Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.
As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.
Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
God bless.
In 1852 Baha’u'llah took on the mission of treating humanity’s diseasing state. He claimed that the solution he provided had a Divine source. Two challenging questions face us:
Is humanity in need of Divine guidance?
Is the solution that Baha’u'llah provides not rather quixotic?
Our current belief, be we Baha’i or not, is irrelevant to answer such a question. With an open and challenging mind and heart, let us answer these questions.
Does humanity even have a problem to be solved?
Denial of the conditions we find ourselves in would be foolish. Our problems are evident. All forms of abuse and crime are reported daily. Environmental concerns, such as global warming, are substantiated beyond any doubt. [Not only through scientific opinion: I found my lawn at home in the continental Czech Republic dry in the month of April! In expectance of the dry season on Trinidad, we received nothing but clouds and rain.] Political corruption is widespread and can be found not only in developing countries. Read the rest of this entry »
My grandfather told me a story the other day. I will recount it here and, although the words might differ, the meaning is of far greater value. A lady once said: “Mirza Abul Fadl [the great Baha'i scholar] taught me how to teach.” He had told her this: When a farmer first steps upon an untouched field, he encounters masses of weed which will impair the growth of useful plants. He thus first ploughs the field, uprooting the weed, and turning the soil to expose the roots. It is then the power of the sunlight that dries these roots. The farmer now begins to sow the seeds. And it is again by the power of the sunlight that a strong and capable plant develops. The same applies to teaching our beloved Faith. We have to help people to uproot their traditions, imaginings, and sometimes unbelief. ["In this age the peoples of the world need the arguments of reason." - 'Abdu'l-Baha] It is then the sunlight of our love towards them that burns away the veils. When the seed of the Revelation is planted [by means of reason], it is again our love that enables the Tree of Revelation to firmly take root in their hearts. It is this balance of reason and showers of love that assists a person in accepting Baha’u'llah.
Again and again I fail to truly embrace this counsel: “Let this be the paramount and most urgent duty of every Baha’i. Let us make it the dominating passion of our life.” A most astonishing concept and a great challenge to fully integrate into our lives. I mean absolutely integrate. The Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, wrote this in the context of teaching the Faith. We might ask ourselves this same question: “Do I live by these words? Have I made it the dominating DOMINATING passion of my life.”
It is also a question of prioritization. How much time to we waste cooking wonderful (often unnecessary) dinners (but who can resist a chello kebab, God forgive), how much time to we waste sleeping in (come nah, it’s the weekend!, God forgive)? What really is the dominating DOMINATING passion of my life?
“We look with expectant eyes to the day when teaching is the dominating passion in the life of every believer and when the unity of the community is so strong as to enable this state of enkindlement to express itself in unremitting action in the field of service. This, then, is our ardent hope for you and the object of our most fervent prayers at the Sacred Threshold.” – Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2007
Please excuse me for writing about the station of so exalted a figure in the history of our Faith. My being is highly inadequate for describing this indescribable Personage. Many of the references were provided by R.Mehrabkhani, who assisted me with his knowledge and understanding.
Quddus is known as the eighteenth “Letter of the Living“, as designated by the Bab, but his station is far exalted above the first seventeen, and remains a mysterium for us as normal immortals. He is also referred to as the “Last Point” and the “Last Name of God” in the Dispensation of the Bab. Anecdotes of his life are recounted in Nabil’s Narrative, and a more complete biography, along with some of his writings, can be found in the third volume of Fadil-i-Mazandarani’s comprehensive nine-volume work on the Faith (at present only available in persian). We can assume that he was older than 22 (as Nabil mentions), when he met the Bab, as at this stage he had already been a student of Siyyid Kazim and had had courageous religious disputes with a mulla in Mazandaran. He later was actively involved in the incidents of Badasht, when Tahirih proclaimed the unfoldment of a new Era, and there also received his title of Quddus. He suffered martyrdom at the hands of the persian army at the fortress of Tabarsi, where so many of the early heroes of the Faith laid down their lives in the path of our Beloved.
Not only is there relatively little information about his life, but it is also impossible to comprehend his station and the position he assumes in the Babi Faith. Bahá’u'lláh elevated Quddus to a rank second to none except that of the Herald of His Revelation; on whose (Quddus) “detachment and the sincerity of whose devotion to God’s will God prideth Himself amidst the Concourse on high“. Nevertheless, the following presents several instances by which we can gain a better, yet highly incomplete understanding of his station. It refers to mentions of Quddus in the Holy Writings, historical evidence such as the exceptional humility shown towards him by Mulla Husayn, and explains a misconception in which he is regarded as a Manifestation of God.
Just a few hours ago, CNN published the following news:
“Judge orders shoplifters to wear ‘I am a thief’ signs
Shoppers entering the Wal-Mart Supercenter here got a reminder not to try anything funny: Two shoplifters stood outside with signs reading, “I am a thief; I stole from Wal-Mart.”
Attalla City Judge Kenneth Robertson Jr. ordered the two people to wear the signs for four hours each during two successive Saturdays.”
extract [complete article: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/LAW/05/07/shoplifter.sign.ap/]
To mind comes a verse of the Kitab-i-Aqdas:
“Exile and imprisonment are decreed for the thief, and, on the third offence, place ye a mark upon his brow so that, thus identified, he may not be accepted in the cities of God and His countries.” (Baha’u'llah, K45)
The following is an extract of responses to questions I had posed to R. Mehrabkhani, a well-known Baha’i scholar, and Dr. Friedo Zölzer, an expert on Zoroastrianism. The questions concerned the “Tabernacle of Unity” publication, which comprises several tablets of Baha’u'llah to Zoroastrians.
In Bahá’u’lláh’s responses to questions of Manikchi Sahib from a Tablet to Mirza Abul-Fadl, the secretary of Manikchi Sahib, Baha’u'llah mentions the Prophets of Mahabad, which, together with Zoroaster, constitute twenty-eight in number. Who are these Prophets?
(Zölzer) It is not Bahá’u'lláh that mentioned the prophets of Mahabad, but this is a quote from the question posed by Manikchi Sahib. “Mahabad” according to Wikipedia, “is believed to be a pre-Zoroastrian Prophet. He also called “Azar Hooshang” (the Fire of Wisdom). He was the first of fifteen successive prophets, the thirteenth of whom was Zoroaster and the last was Sasan, from whom the Sassanian Dynasty may be supposed to trace their descent. Their writings are said to be collected in the Dasatir-i-Asmani.” The Dasatir, however, is a very tricky source. Again, if you look it up in Wikipedia, you find the following: “The Dasatir-i-Asmani is an old Zoroastrian work. It contains fifteen sections which are said to have been revealed to fifteen successive prophets, the first of whom is Mahabad and the last Sasan. At the end of each section, with the exception of the last one, there is a prophecy about the next prophet. A translation of it into the old Dari dialect of Persian language is supposed to have been discovered in Persia early in the 19th century, and was edited by Mulla Firuz of Bombay. The dating of the Dari translation is held to be the time of Khosrau II (590-628 A.D.).”
Only a few tens of years back, a crowd assembled at a county fair to guess the “slaughtered and dressed” weight of an ox. Francis Galton, a strong advocate of every crowd’s stupidity, averaged all individual guesses, by farmers, butchers, visitors, and randoms alike. to his surprise, the average was closer to the ox’s butchered weight than the estimates of all crowd members, even cattle experts. could it be that the crowd was really more intelligent than the few experts? did the experiment show the absolute truth? and could a similar concept of butchered cow estimates exist in the Baha’i community?
The Wisdom of Crowds by Surowiecki, although not great read with its unnecessary amount of anecdotes and lack of convincing conclusion, argues that the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group. The book relates to diverse collections of independently-deciding individuals, rather than crowd psychology, as traditionally understood. Quite convincing arguments are presented, but taking a closer look, you will find that Surowiecki simply presents an anti-thesis to the traditional thought of the absolute intelligence of field experts, and a crowd’s lack of the mentioned. And once again we are in need of a sweetspot between the two theories, and without a doubt it is presented to us in the Baha’i Writings.
