Formatted by Jonah Winters

This course on The Hidden Words is dedicated with great love and gratitude to the Universal House of Justice and its Four-Year Plan--may my life become a ransom for its complete success--for which this course was created in response to and in obedience to its call for training institutes. This course has passed review from the Review Office of the U.S. Bahá'í National Center, and can therefore be freely distributed. The author can be contacted at d-bradford@juno.com.

[Deepening Project, presented as a homework assignment for the "Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh" Course, year one: January 1998.]

Course Title: Some Lessons from the Hidden Words
Required Text: The Hidden Words by Bahá'u'lláh
Weekly Assignments: Read and Study the Hidden Words assigned for the upcoming class, with the topic in mind and Memorize one of them
Recommended Class Length: 8 weeks of classes at 4 hours./week. Recommended is to allow appr. 2 hours. for each topic.

Week 1: Introduction

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: Introduction

Topics:
(1) Justice

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 2, 28

From the Persian: # 64

(2) Backbiting & Faultfinding

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 26, 27, 29

From the Persian: # 44, 66

Week 2: Topics:

(1) God's Love & Our Relationship to Him

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 40, 58, 59, 60, 64, 65, 69, 70, 71

(2) Our Relationship to Each Other

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 30, 68

From the Persian: # 3, 5, 43, 44, 48, 49, 54, 56

Week 3: Topics:

(1) Death & Eternal Life

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 6, 14, 18, 23, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 63, 64

From the Persian: # 7, 39, 44, 58, 70

(2) Martyrdom

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 45, 46, 47, 71

From the Persian: # 17

Week 4: Topics:

(1) Teaching

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 41, 42, 43

From the Persian: # 36

(2) Deeds Not Words

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 31, 68,

From the Persian: # 5, 35, 59, 60, 65, 67, 69, 76

Week 5: Topics:

(1) Poverty & Wealth

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 25, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 68

From the Persian: # 11, 49, 51, 53, 54, 55, 80, 81, 82

(2) Contentment & Detachment

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 8, 17, 18, 38, 49, 55

From the Persian: # 10, 12, 55, Epilogue

Week 6: Topics:

(1) Choices

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 13, 21, 22, 23, 37, 62

From the Persian: # 2, 21, 22, 29, 79

(2) Virtues

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # Introduction, 27, 42

From the Persian: # 3, 6, 38, 42, 47, 49, 50, 55, 77

Week 7: Topics:

(1) Tests & Difficulties

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 48, 49, 50, 51, 55

From the Persian: # 25, 35, 69

(2) Idle Fancies & Vain Imaginings

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 56, 62, 63

From the Persian: # 23, 29, 45, 79

Week 8: Topics:

(1) The Purging of Self

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 38, 39, 40, 42

From the Persian: # 22, 32, 38, 40, 69, 72

(2) Purity of Heart

Reading Assignment:

From the Arabic: # 1, 59

From the Persian: # 8, 10, 17, 25, 26, 27, 31, 33, 35, 41, 42, 44, 45, 52, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 78