Baha'i Library Forum

Interesting points! On questions of cosmology, I often think back to Momen's article "Relativism: A Basis For Bahá'í Metaphysics".

The Baha'i Library hosts a few private email lists and just added three new ones. Because the old lists have been under-the-radar and not publicly announced, even some Baha'i scholars have not been aware of their existence. 1) Tarikh, for studies of history. Our oldest list. Open only to those with ...

I think it's safe to say that Baha'is are not as "strict" as, say, Muslims. While the prohibition on consuming alcohol is explicit, Baha'is also know they are living in a multicultural world where attitudes and behaviors sometimes change slowly, and patience and understanding are often con...

I received this email. Anyone volunteers to look it up? -Jonah I was curious to know if there ever was a case of the UHJ forgiving a person that the Guardian had declared a Covenant breaker? Or a case where the UHJ lifted sanctions on a believer that the Guardian had imposed. This relates to a discu...

I'm passing on this request from Onaldo Alves Pereira, onaldo@live.com [-Jonah] ----- Rio Verde, 2019, August, 17. Dear friend, I hope and pray you are doing well together with yours! I am a professor of philosophy, religion and Portuguese language; I am a writer with four books published. With my s...

I created a World Peace Necklace, in sterling silver and pewter, that has the symbols of all religions and a main charm that has the words "ALL ONE." There is a crystal as well that symbolizes all of the alternative belief groups, so everyone is represented on this necklace. It is a statem...

I don't know where the story is, but I found an email which describes it. The email says: Mr. Kazemzadeh says he got this story from his father, of a Bahai who was captured by some mountain robbers, and kept hostage for some years, and then finally released. Then later, this person met these robbers...

Please see the following two links for information about the Irfan Colloquia happening at Acuto, Italy in 2018:

Persian: http://irfancolloquia.org/152
English: http://irfancolloquia.org/153

I just received this addendum, from Mira-Clair Lepage: I am very glad to see that I’m not the only one that is Baha’i and is interested to Anthroposophy and Rudolf Steiner work. I am a teacher in a Waldorf school since four years and also studying to be a Waldorf teacher at the same time. What bring...

Hi, thank you for the offer! Hopefully someone will take you up on it. :)

This was just pointed out to me: In Arabic Bayan Unity 8, Door 10 (provisional translation), we find: "God forgives you your nocturnal pollutions and masturbation; but you know the value of semen, for this semen is the cause of the creation of a man who adores God. You, keep this semen in exqui...

"Bicentennial Celebration of the Blessed Twin Birthdays" Bicentennial of the blessed Twin Birthdays of the two founders of the Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah and the Báb, will be celebrated at the annual sessions of the ‘Irfán Colloquium in 2017 by presentations of research papers on topics rel...

This was just sent to me: "O Thou Pure and Omnipotent God! O Thou my kind Lord! Grant me such power as to enable me to withstand the onslaught of the peoples and kindreds of the world, and give me such might as to cause the waves of my endeavors, like unto the Pacific Ocean, to reach the shores...

See this announcement in PDF: info_141-142.pdf . Register at irfancolloquium.com . ‘Irfán Colloquium 2016 Louhelen Bahá’í School Davison, Michigan 6-9 October 2016 Centenary of the Tablets of Divine Plan A unique document ushering in the Formative Age of the Baha’i Faith ‘Irfán Colloquium aims at pr...

There's a fair bit to be found online: http://google.com/search?q="joy+stevenson"+baha'i

The next two Colloquia Sessions in Europe are in Acuto Italy. The Persian-language session is June 29 - July 4. See more about this session at http://irfancolloquia.org/138 . The English-language session is July 5 - 8. See more at http://irfancolloquia.org/139 . More on this session is below: Centen...

A high school student has the following questions for her school project. Answers welcomed. :-) ⋅ Does the Baha’i faith accept differing sexualities? (I know that they don’t but I have to ask as if I do not know that.) ⋅ Why doesn’t the faith accept differing sexualities? I’ve do...

CALL FOR PAPERS IMMERSING IN THE OCEAN OF HIS WORDS The annual sessions of the ‘Irfán Colloquium in 2016 will be held in English and Persian at Bosch Bahá'í School in Northern California, Louhelen Bahá'í School in Michigan, and Center for Bahá'í Studies in Acuto, Italy. The `Irfán Colloquium aims a...

Schedule, English: http://irfancolloquia.org/pdf/calendar_2016_english.pdf گردهمائی‌های‌سال‌ : http://irfancolloquia.org/pdf/calendar_2016_persian.pdf The `Irfán Colloquium is a forum on studies related to the fundamental principles of the Bahá’í beliefs, the Writings of the Founders of the Bahá’í ...

I guess no-one around here has heard of it, either. It's not in the Leiden List of all known Tablets: http://bahai-library.com/mcglinn_leiden_list

Thank you! I got a partial digital copy of the book from the old Google Books, which has the full intro and pages 18-20 of the first chapter. I've posted it to http://bahai-library.com/cole_modernity_millennium If the objectionable content is in the Intro or in these first 4 pages of Chapter One, I'...

Hi, I'm sorry for the lack of reply, I was out of town. Alas, everything Dr. Rabbani had to share he already set me and is online. I neglected to back up his Google page before he made it private. When I inquired a year ago I was told that his family members are indeed going through his archives and...

I imagine it's online here, in Arabic: http://reference.bahai.org/ar/

P.S. For background on Eihana9's question, note that the very few quotes we could find on the topic of tattoos are posted at viewtopic.php?t=5211

Hi, I've received the following question and don't know what to suggest: I have been asked by a Publishing Trust to assist in a project designed to increase the presence of the Faith on the internet in Asia. The help they most need at the moment is to find as many references to the Faith by famous a...

With huge thanks to Glenn Cameron for sharing and George Ronald for permission, Glenn's A Basic Baha'i Chronology is now coming online: bahai-library.com/chronology We need help adding tags and locations. This is easy work which does not require any HTML or coding -- all you have to do is copy-and-p...

From their About page: info@bahaiq.com . I don't know who runs the site.

Schedule, English: http://irfancolloquia.org/pdf/info_2015_english.pdf گردهمائی‌های‌سال‌ : http://irfancolloquia.org/pdf/info_2015_persian.pdf The `Irfán Colloquium is a forum on studies related to the fundamental principles of the Bahá’í beliefs, the Writings of the Founders of the Bahá’í Faith, t...

Thanks! I'm pretty confident they'll be migrating all the material from the old site to the new.

In the meantime, I think everything is archived on archive.org, e.g. http://wayback.archive.org/web/20140802 ... ai.org/fa/

Yes, I see the rest of the site www.bahaiq.com seems to be working, but the glossary is offline. They either changed the name or password of their database or have an error in their code, should be easy to fix. I emailed their webmaster.

Excellent finds, Emma, thank you! Some of those I hadn't seen. There often seem to be new (old) gems on archive.org just waiting to be discovered. Let us know if you find more! (I'm keeping a running total of things-to-download from archive at http://bahai-library.com/archive_new_documents )

Thanks for sharing! I've been meaning to post that, and another dozen theses, this year....

These documents are now online, edited and formatted, with permission of all recipients: http://bahai-library.com/kalimat_distri ... i_agencies

I wish I had the time to craft a good reply, Emma -- but to be honest, I'm not 100% sure how to answer the question myself. I know the common Baha'i answers (e.g., yes we should be active in our polis , our community's affairs, but not in partisanship), but there is a certain grey area. In the meant...

I'm working with the editors at Kalimat to assemble the relevant letters and discussion, dating from 2006-2008. I should be able to post them all this weekend. Most are online elsewhere, e.g .bahaiadmin.blogspot.ca , http://bahairants.com , and http://senmcglinn.wordpress.com , but it's time for the...

Hi Jennifer, and others reading this. Your post deserves a good and thorough response, as it touches on a few different issues, but I can't respond today. I (or others, maybe, and possibly Tony from Kalimat) can help clarify/expand on it this weekend.

> How do you understand that verse if the dead have not risen and we are still here? Personally — and this is just my position, not necessarily a "Baha'i" one — I think a lot of such teachings and texts are meant to be parables or metaphors, not necessarily literal. For example (and again,...

This is much shorter than the "Basic Baha'i Dictionary," but it still has lots of entries. (Warning: it also has some scanning errors, like "Qbsim" for "Qásim".)
Bahá'í Glossary, Dictionary & Biographical Notes, at scribd.com

However if you truly understand your faith you should be able to give a brief summary which leaves nothing out. I appreciate that challenge, Christian Troll! (I like your nick name.) :-) A brief summary, leaving nothing out, would indeed prove one's understanding. I'm personally at a loss how to st...

Great question. Perhaps you haven't gotten an answer in 3 days because there's just so much to say. I spent 2 years in grad school studying it, and barely scratched the surface. To start, check out this short overview, with many links in the notes for more reading: http://bahai-library.com/bahai_fai...

If only it were online: http://grbooks.com/george-ronald-publis ... 1318240078

Hi, see if this encyclopedia article answers your question: http://bahai-library.com/buck_celebrations_day_covenant

Best, -Jonah

I'm sure it's not dodgy, and had no problems with this Mac version.

He probably removed the link because of too many copyright issues.

Good find, thanks! Yes, I see working links to both the Mac and Windows versions. Chad must have overlooked this page ...

Thanks, I didn't realize this app had been pulled. Last I heard, I thought the creator of it had removed the infringing material and made it available again, guess I was wrong. But all of Ocean's content should be at bahai-library.com, save the books still available for purchase from George Ronald e...

Baha'i author Brad Miller, who published on the " Seneca Falls First Woman's Rights Convention of 1848 " in Journal of Baha'i Studies (1998), has a new book for sale on Amazon , The Soul of the Maine House: For Those Seeking a Spiritual Home in America: A Radical Religious Reflection . Her...

Yes ... it's a well-known humor website in the States. Used to be a newspaper, for many decades, till they stopped printing recently. But their articles are often misinterpreted as real by the foreign press. The article is of interest here because The Onion must think enough people know about the Ba...

One could certainly make that case, I think! I wish I could offer more insight, but I haven't thought much about the topic in the 18 years since I wrote that paper. To be honest, I chose that topic and wrote about it largely because I had to work through my own feelings and thoughts about the Faith'...

IMMERSING IN THE OCEAN OF HIS WORDS The annual sessions of the ‘Irfán* Colloquium in 2014 will be held in English and Persian at Louhelen Bahá'í School in Michigan, October 9 to 12. `Irfán Colloquium aims at promoting deeper and systematic studies in the scriptures of the world's religions from the ...

I've read all the Castaneda books a few times, but don't see much in the way of correspondences between them and the Baha'i Faith... There are no documents about the paranormal that I can find at bahai-library.com, but there is a brief discussion of psychic powers here: http://bahai-library.com/uhj_...

Thank you for your well-researched and considered replies.

Thanks for the feedback. One person feels that the quotations above indicate that, if a man isn't financially secure or doesn't have a job, then he shouldn't get married until he can afford to have a wife and family, whom he is obligated to support. Is it accurate, do you think, to consider the wife...

I've recently heard about a couple contemplating marriage, one Iranian and the other North American, who is finding some difficulty with this part of the Baha'i teachings. It was news to me. Are there other sides to the story, so to speak? (I'm sure this topic has already been addressed in articles ...

Google isn't helping me so far... Yes, that's on purpose, we wanted it to be by referral only. But I'll let this forum post remain, so at least its keywords will show up in Google. For those interested in the Tarikh, the admins would ask: Do you have any published works in Baha'i scholarship or his...

Thank you for sharing these fascinating experiences. My own interpretation — this is not from the Baha'i teachings, but just my own thoughts — I think that intuition and our sense of conscience might have the same source as the light which the Manifestations reflect. That is, if we didn't have some ...

I've implemented a rudimentary tagging system, see http://bahai-library.com/tags/ . If you have a favorite topic or name that sometimes is hard to search for, and can contribute a few minutes of your time to tagging the relevant documents, please pm or email me at http://bahai-library.com/contact Ta...

Presenters and topics of the 2014 Irfan Colloquia in English ----- Come to Bosch Baha'i School (Santa Cruz), May 22–25, 2014, to hear the following papers: "Bábí-Bahá'í Scripture and Belief in E. G. Browne's A Year Amongst the Persians", by Sholeh Quinn "Comparative Study of Súriy-i-S...

Yes, they are all over the internet. For anyone looking for links, the real site is http://universalhouseofjustice.bahai.org/ — uhj.net is NOT legit.

I've just been sent the following press release for Religious Pluralism and the Trinity Absolute . The book looks interesting, and according to a preview it has at least some mentions of the Faith: https://www.google.com/search?q=baha'i+site%3Areligiouspluralism.ca%3a If you are interested in some n...

Most of the ones online, if not all of them, are at http://bahai-library.com/UHJ-letters and http://bahai-library.com/UHJ-documents . Some have also started appearing at the new site http://universalhouseofjustice.bahai.org/

Hi, I doubt that they've been sent to a Review board, as no mention was made of that. But they sound pretty harmless, plus of course there's no requirement to send online material through Review.

Thank you as always for your careful concern.

I've received the following, and the books look good. -Jonah Dear friends, This is to inform you that 2 valuable books are available both in PDF and Word formats on the following site: http://rouhollah-samandari.com/ One book, Ayát-i-Bayyinát, is a collection of 393 tablets revealed by Bahá'u'lláh a...

Thanks!

I have Cameron's whole Chronology waiting to go online, permissions secured. Coming soon!

Good find!

A search http://bahai-library.com/search/?q=atonement turned up a couple other things, e.g. two articles by Robert Stockman and also this: http://bahai-library.com/woodlock_dying_our_sins

And here's Susan's intro to rapprochement with Islam: http://bahai-islam.blogspot.ca

Thanks, Don

Here's a longer discussion of the subject, from an official source. At the end it has an email address and phone number for the US Office of Review. http://american.bahai.us/news/2013/marc ... lications/

Thanks to Matthew's pointing this out, the link has been removed. For those curious, it was in one of Darrick Evenson's posts, http://bahai-library.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=923#p4818 . (There's no harm in clicking that link now or reading Evenson's work, as I doubt he'll challenge anyone's faith. H...

Hi, can you point me to the link? You can email me privately, jonahwinters@gmail.com. I'll remove the link right away. Neither I nor our other moderators on this Forum noticed there was a link to a site espousing Covenant-Breaker views. [EDIT, later the same day: the link has been found and removed....

I can't find the quote, but I'm 90% sure I once read that ID cards were originally instituted to allow Baha'is to declare themselves "conscientious objectors" to avoid military service. As far as I've heard, cards have never been made mandatory. Community practice and tradition, of course,...

Thank you for sharing all this. You've had quite a journey. I look forward to others chiming in with some thoughts or suggestions.

It's my understanding that you don't need to "do" anything to be, or return to being, a Baha'i. As long as you believe in Baha'u'llah and don't undermine the Covenant (e.g. by questioning the legitimacy of the Institutions), I think you're good to go. This quote from the Aqdas, which you'v...

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