Baha'i Library Forum

BruceDLimber

Greetings, all! :-) I recently read a bit of P. G. Wodehouse. More recently I've been reading several John Grisham novels, and A. B. Hartley's original Danger UXB book (about how the British dealt with German delayed-action bombs during WW II). And right now I'm enjoying a couple of Scott Adams' ant...

BruceDLimber

Greetings, greetings! I noticed that the distance & bearing to Bahji calculator requires that one knows one's latitude & longitude. Actually, no! All you need to do is find a globe somewhere, and stretch a string or rubber band from your location to Akka; this forms part of the appropriate g...

BruceDLimber

Hi, Ian; it's great to have you here! :-) Since most of your questions have already been addressed here, I'll offer you one other excellent site for asking questions about the Faith and general discussions, and then add one important fact to one of your questions. The best Q & A site I've found ...

BruceDLimber

Greetings! We had someone in our community raise this "cooking off" question 35 years ago, and we asked the US NSA. Their answer is that REGARDLESS of whether the alcohol "cooks off" or not, what is forbidden is the USE of alcoholic beverages at all, not merely the alcohol in the...

BruceDLimber

Hi! Robert Riggs has written a lot about astrology and the Baha'i Faith in Apocalypse Unsealed and its revision, The Apocalypse: An Exegesis , which you can find in the "books" section of http://www.bahai-library.org (While Baha'is aren't into astrology as such, Riggs explains that it's si...

BruceDLimber

Hi again! Here's a list of Baha'i websites: Bruce _ _ _ _ _ For general information about the Baha’i Faith, please visit: • http://www.bahai.org • http://www.usbnc.org • http://www.bahai.us • http://www.info.bahai.org To see our scriptures and related materials, including our Peace Statement, Prospe...

BruceDLimber

Hi, Brittany; I'm very glad you're here! :-) I see a number of your questions have already been answered, so I'll confine myself to just two things: I'll give you a few book recommendations, and I'll provide you with a list of a bunch of Baha'i web sites (the latter will be in the next post). As to ...

BruceDLimber

Greetings! SAQ is definitely the primary source, yes! And in addition I'll commend to you Riggs' Apocalypse Unsealed (the newer edition is The Apocalypse ) and I, Daniel , both of which may be found in the "Books" section of http://www.bahai-library.org A supplementary source might be: htt...

BruceDLimber

Greetings, all! :-) I just ran across this announcement, and am echoing it here for your interest and possible edification. Enjoy! Story of Bahá’í girl’s martyrdom to be shot in Malta The true story of Mona Mahmudnizhad, the courageous young Baha’i teacher who was martyred in 1983 along with 10 othe...

BruceDLimber

Greetings! According to Muqaddama Nukta-tul-Kaaf . . . So sorry, but the Nuqtat'ul-Kaf is well known to be, at best, an extrememly questionable source! I quote Udo Schaefer (a member of the German National Spiritual Assembly and a well-known Baha'i author): "[A certain detractor of the Baha’i F...

BruceDLimber

VIETNAMESE BAHA'IS REACH MILESTONE WITH ELECTION OF NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, 4 April 2008 (BWNS) -- The Baha'is of Vietnam have reached a historic milestone with the election - for the first time in many years - of a national Baha'i administrative body in that nation. ...

BruceDLimber

Brett, another issue related to what you quoted from The Advent of Divine Justice is the way we're advised to treat our enemies. The great problem here, of course, is the travesty of calling other Baha'is "enemies" in the first place! :-( I, for one, would never so use such a term! Bruce

BruceDLimber

jimhabegger wrote:I'd like to help organize the Internet to facilitate networking among all people who are working to spread peace, justice, fellowship, beauty and kindness.

And insofar as these are their goals, I'm sure we all enthusiastically support them! :-)

Peace,

Bruce

BruceDLimber

I named no names in my post, and indeed I have great respect for at least some of the individuals you named! Others I am not famliar with. But my point holds that certain individuals (not necessarily those you named) are unfortunately trying to promote division. And as the House and the US National ...

BruceDLimber

Greetings. The short answer is, most definitely! Indeed, administrative rights may be removed FIRST with the promise of reinstatement IF AND WHEN the individuals in question have a proper Baha'i marriage that meets all the usual requirements. IOW, unless this happened inadvertantly out of ignorance ...

BruceDLimber

. . . that has stifled and defamed a liberation movement in the Baha'i community. A fine example of use of SLANTED LANGUAGE to paint what is--at best!--an extremely questionable "movement" as something noble and praiseworthy when it is, apparently, an attempt to undermine and subvert the ...

BruceDLimber

WHERE in the Book of Certitude does it say reincarnation is not true? YOU brought that book up, not I! _I_ said Some Answered Questions addresses this. 'Abdu'l-Baha, in "Some Answered Questions" says that "human souls" do not return to this planet. The souls of the Prophets are ...

BruceDLimber

brettz9 wrote:I hope you used a digital copy that was already available, such as the one at this site or in Ocean.

I use the copies the project provides me.

I'm sure they have procedures in place to make sure they start with the best available copies!

Regards,

Bruce

BruceDLimber

Steve wrote:Term limits would be a slight restriction....

Precisely!

Aka "the camel's nose coming into the tent!"

Thank you for proving my point.

Peace,

bruce

BruceDLimber

I do wish, though, that we Baha'is would research and collaborate more to save ourselves and others the work of duplicating efforts.... Well, there's at least some coordination underway! There are over 40 Baha'is currently working on the Baha'i Sacred Works Project, which prepares various Baha'i bo...

BruceDLimber

The Book of Certitude nowhere says reincarnation is not true. Eminently irrelevant! BOTH The Book of Certitude and Some Answered Questions are Baha'i scripture, and the latter states explicitly that reincarnation doesn't exist and explains in detail why not! And spiritual "returns" have n...

BruceDLimber

Greetings!

It's made quite clear in the Baha'i scriptures (specifically, The Book of Certitude) that the Divine Messengers are not reincarnations: each is a distinct person who shares the same investiture by the Holy Spirit.

Peace,

Bruce

BruceDLimber

Abdul Baha , in His book : Some answered Questions , page 67 says: In each cycle the guardians and holy souls have been twelve.... But in this glorious manifestation there are twenty-four, double the number of all the others, for the greatness of this manifestation requires it Does anybody know who...

BruceDLimber

Greetings, Gotha. I know Arab Baha'is, and contrary to your accusations, from their statements it seems they have no trouble whatever understanding the Writings of either the Bab or Baha'u'llah! So perhaps you need to speak to some folks of this background, who are clearly in a better position than ...

BruceDLimber

Greetings! Baha'u'llah's Arabic is ... sweet, melodious, mellifluous and eloquent; however, it is just incomparable to the exalted majestic Arabic of the Quran which has given unrivaled literary prestige to Arabic. Anyone with good knowledge of Arabic will acknowledge this plain fact. I fully agree ...

BruceDLimber

- examples of ideas that came out of the movement, that were later widely adopted in the community Meaning no offense, you still don't seem to be making any sense here. As I already pointed out, many of the propposals in the "Modest Proposal" stuff were antithetical to Baha'i administrati...

BruceDLimber

I wonder whether enough time has passed to allow the ideas dreamed up on Talisman to percolate through to the community and to become mainstream. If you read the discussion of Talisman on the bahai-library site you'll doubtless note the fact that many of the "proposals" promulgated on Tal...

BruceDLimber

I do recall in a video the that Ruhiyyih Khanum explained how central the shrine of the Greatest Holy Leaf was to Shoghi Effendi's planning of the gardens.... It's almost literally so given that it's very nearly in the center of the Arc! (A short distance away from the center, but definitely the ne...

BruceDLimber

Correct: the first structure had to have been the Shrine of the Bab because 'Abdu' l-Baha built it, while Bahiyyih Khanum lived into the 1930s.

Regards,

Bruce

BruceDLimber

Greetings!

Ether has an additional meaning these days (long since its original meaning was refuted):

It's now used to refer to the space-time continuum generally.

Regards, :-)

Bruce

BruceDLimber

I think there must be a basic Baha'i perspective on crusades.... Surely the general Baha'i s criptural prohibitions on warfare answer this!: “O people of the earth! “The first Glad-Tidings which the Mother Book hath, in this Most Great Revelation, imparted unto all the peoples of the world is that ...

BruceDLimber

Greetings! What would be the correct response be if a government official asked me to deny my realtionship to our beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi and The Universal House of Justice ? Very simply, the proper response is that governments have NO BUSINESS trying to dictate religious beliefs to individ...

BruceDLimber

Hi again! As I understand it, the Sabaean and Babi faiths still have a few followers and so count on the list. And the others you mention we generally see either as subordinate parts of the great religions like Buddhism or as secular philosophies rather than religions (Shinto would be an example of ...

BruceDLimber

Hi, Loren! Thanks for your excellent comments! :-) As to the "nine religions," it should be remembered that in fact there are at present nine LIVING religions, i.e., religions that still have followers today! There have been many other Divine Revelations in the past that are now extinct, s...

BruceDLimber

Greetings! While I'll happily stipulate that most (if not all) Mormons are wonderful people, in my view there are two fatal flaws in LDS teachings: The first is its historic racism. While this is something that has now apparently been rejected such that the church has move away from it, I can't see ...

BruceDLimber

Hi!

I'm aware of no such guidance, and as you doubtless know, Baha'u'llah has many titles, all of which seem to be equally acceptable!

Best, :-)

Bruce

BruceDLimber

Hi! The original "modest proposal" document was published by a certain specific individual or small group of individuals who were non-conformist to say the least! I won't go so far as to call them enemies of the Faith, but what they've said definitely puts them outside the norm. My impress...

BruceDLimber

Greetings! Are there any guidance letters etc from the Universal house of justice that detail this? I've never heard of one, especially one stating correct Arabic terms; but this may well be because there's no particular reason they'd send something like this to the West, anyway! As to English, He h...

BruceDLimber

portmanteau wrote: (The Universal House of Justice, 1989 Jun 21, 'Dialogue', 'A Modest Proposal' etc.).

Hi!

Do you know if this article is available online, and if so, where?

I looked on bahai-library, but it doesn't seem to be present there.

Thanks! :-)

Bruce

BruceDLimber

I was interested in what Baha'i groups are popular here. One of my personal favorite groups is Smith and Dragoman. http://www.smithanddragoman.com http://www.myspace.com/smithanddragoman Very moving, powerfully orchestrated music with well-crafted lyrics focusing on the the lives of the Bab and Bah...

BruceDLimber

One person has said that Bahaullah is fake because His arabic was rubbish (im obviously paraphrasing) and that its incomparable to the Quran. Small world! :-) As I recall, the same accusation was originally made about Muhammad when He wrote the Qur'an--that He hadn't followed what somebody though w...

BruceDLimber

* Hassan, Steven, Combating Cult Mind Control, Park Street Press, One Park Street, Rochester, Vermont 05767, 1988, ISBN 0-89281-311-3. "The Four Components of Mind Control", pages 59-67. This is the book on Amazon, if anyone is interested: http://www.amazon.com/Combatting-Cult-Mind-Contro...

BruceDLimber

good point. I would love to be able to read many of the Bab's writings or for that matter any of the early Babi's. But, i know how hard it is to translate. I would think that it would be a better use of resources to translate Baha'u'allah's work first. Precisely why the translators at the World Cen...

BruceDLimber

The "big deal" being made over the Bab's Writings not having been fully translated to English also completely ignores the glaring fact that these workss are--and have ALWAYS been--available in the original languages, and that there are many Baha'is (and others) who have read them in those ...

BruceDLimber

Sorry; I don't have it at hand.

Perhaps someone else here does.

Regards,

Bruce

BruceDLimber

The Writings of the Bab, which are Babi scripture, are relatively less important to Baha'is because they're mostly superceded by Baha'i law and Writings. They may well be translated fully someday, but clearly aren't a priority right now. Whatever Quddus wrote isn't (and can't be) Baha'i scripture, a...

BruceDLimber

Greetings! As to the Baha'i opinion of the material posted here, a short quotation from the Baha'i scriptures sums up our position quite satisfactorily!: 37 “Whoso layeth claim to a Revelation direct from God, ere the expiration of a full thousand years, such a man is assuredly a lying impostor. We ...

BruceDLimber

Hi!

You can find many further details on this at:

http://www.bci.org/prophecy-fulfilled

Best, :-)

Bruce

BruceDLimber

Nuqtat-ul Kaf ...( was written by Haji Mirza Jani of Kashan one of the seven persons who were martyred in Tehran in horrific circumstances. His book covers the first eight years of the Babi movement and is considered to be the earliest and most trustworthy account of the events during this period. ...

BruceDLimber

Allah-u-Abha! Bruce - Please post some good links (thanks) I can do better than that! Here's a brief excerpt from a single article, where the discussion is about an enemy of the Faith (Miller) who's using the Nuqtatu'l Kaf as a "reliable source": [quote] ... [T]he principal source used fo...

BruceDLimber

Hi!

There are indeed other Baha'i sources that confirm that the Nuqtatu'l Kaf was a forgery and in no way reflected the true Babi Faith!

And World Order Magazine has carried articles stating this.

Regards,

Bruce

BruceDLimber

As to why so much is symbolic, especially in older religions there are many metaphors and things that, if taken literally, will quickly yield nonsense! More recent religions have less of this, and in the Baha'i scriptures, such symbolism is largely confined to mystical works such as The Seven Valley...

BruceDLimber

Hi! I can provide a quick-and-easy reply to this topic! Here it is. Best, :-) Bruce - - - - - Based on Combating Cult Mind Control" by Steven Hassan, here are the criteria for determining "cults": 1. How new members are found. Dangerous Cults: With many cults, you don't get to know wh...

BruceDLimber

Greetings, GGM; good to have you with us! :-) You needn't necessarily "declare in front of an assembly" to be a Baha'i! The key thing is whether or not you accept Baha'u'llah as being Who He says He is. In many countries (but not all) you formally enroll by signing a declaration card, but ...

BruceDLimber

Hi! As was mentioned, the House of Justice clearly exists and is functioning! Becaue it's no longer possible to appoint a Guardian due to the stipulateions 'Abdu'l-Baha placed upon it, the Guardianship now exists as the voluminous body of work and interpretatins which Shoghi Effendi created during h...

BruceDLimber

Sigh.

Yet again, the standard assertion-without-evidence sort of put-down from the usual source. :-(

Bruce

BruceDLimber

The founders of Bahai Faith has explicitly stated that women and men are equal. But women are excluded from service on the UHJ, in spite of the religion’s clear teaching on the equality of the sexes. Why? Please present a reasonable answer. I'll give you a reasonable, direct, and complete answer: N...

BruceDLimber

Hi! You've already made a good start! I would suggest two additions: - Prefix the first quote (about the two pillars of justice) with the Hidden Word stating justice is the best-beloved thing in God's sight, and - Add the passage about the worst torment being non knowing where to turn for spiritual ...

BruceDLimber

Fortunately, we Baha'is have far clearer guidance in the 200 volumes of our own scriptures! They tend to reduce ambiguity tremendously and leave very little room for quibbling. You can see these, BTW, at: www.bahai-library.org (click Writings), http://www.reference.bahai.org (this site is multilingu...

BruceDLimber

Yes: It's amazing how far off the mark some nominal Christians can be (true, of course, of every one of us in whatever religion!). I think a good example is how many people and groups insist on "original sin" in clear contradiction of the verses in Ezekiel 18:14-20 rejecting inheritance of...

BruceDLimber

Greetings!

Personally, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a Baha'i who doesn't love and revere Jesus--not to mention Christianity and the Bible!

(I just hope you're equally respectful of God's other Divine Messengers, too.)

Peace,

Bruce

BruceDLimber

Greetings! Another thing to remember is that both spirituality and becoming fully Baha'i are ongoing processes, not overnight miracles! So we all strive to improve and, eventually, to "arrive" at what we truly should be and attain. (BTW, you'll have to think about getting yourself another ...

BruceDLimber

Greetings!

The BCI website does indeed state that BCI is under the formal sponsorhip of a Baha'i organization, so yes, it is indeed an official site!

Peace,

Bruce

BruceDLimber

For example (to name just two errors): - Baha'is share the same view of Heaven and hell as many Christians, namely that they are spiritual conditions rather than places. - And sin is definitely a concept in the Baha'i Faith. Perhaps asking Baha'is what they believe rather than going to some random ...

BruceDLimber

Which is sacred book or sacred writing of bahai's i mean name of that holy book or sacred writing? Hi! In fact, the Baha'i Faith has about 200 volumes of scripture, each with its own title! (About half of these were written by Baha'u'llah, our Founder.) You can see these at: www.bahai-library.org (...

BruceDLimber

I agree this doesn't appear to be in the standard format used by the US NSA.

But in any case you can ask directly simply by emailing:

secretariat@usbnc.org

and asking whether this is their document and if so, its date.

Peace,

Bruce

BruceDLimber

I suggest you learn more about the Baha'i faith before you consitor joining. one of the first, basic things I learns was that there isn't a believe in the standard heaven and hell, or any sort of "sin" (which is a concept really only in Christianity.) No, Baha'is do not believe it is a ch...

BruceDLimber

Hi again, BB! :-) The passage you mentioned about disastrous events may well exist, but I'm not aware of it offhand.... As to God-sent tests, the scriptures of multiple religions say: "Do men think when they say 'we believe,' they will be let alone and not put to proof?!" and "God ver...

BruceDLimber

Greetings! I'd say the answer to this question falls into three parts: Some tests are indeed God-sent to evaluate us and to help us grow spiritually. As various scriptures say, "Do men think when they say 'we believe,' they will be let alone and not put to proof?!" and "God verily wil...

BruceDLimber

Friends, for those who'd enjoy hearing it, here are two videos of our recent (200-voice) performance of "Salvation is Created" (from the Russian Orthodox tradition) at the North American Baha'i House of Worship in Wilmette, IL last month: http://www.youtube.com/usBahaiFaith http://www.yout...

Search found 189 matches