Timing of Use of Talks and Hymns Not Consisting of the Writings during the Nineteen Day Feast

Dear Bahá’í Friend,

Your emails of 2 November 2023 and 9 March 2024 addressed to the Universal House of Justice, raising questions, respectively, about the Nineteen Day Feast and online postings of images of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, have been received at the Bahá’í World Centre and passed to our Office for response.

As to your queries regarding when talks and hymns not consisting of the Writings may be used during the Nineteen Day Feast, the following have been provided in reply to similar issues:

We have noted in your Minutes … a statement, “It was agreed to advise the friends in … that it was not correct to sing a song composed by a Bahá’í at the devotional part of the Nineteen Day Feast.”

It is not clear what your framework of reference for consultation happened to be, nor if a direct question was referred to your National Assembly for decision. However, we feel that it will be helpful to you to know that songs whose words are the primary Writings of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh or ‘Abdu’l-Bahá are all quite fitting for the devotional portion of the Feast. Indeed, the Persian chants are such songs, out of a different tradition; they are a way of giving music to the holy Word, and each person who chants does it in a way which mirrors his feeling and expression of the Words he is uttering. As for songs whose words are poetic and the composition of persons other than the Figures of the Faith, these may be desirable but in their proper place, for, as you know, “music is the language of the spirit.”

      (From a letter dated 22 February 1971 written by the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly)

As you know, in all Bahá’í meetings, including the Nineteen Day Feasts, for the devotional parts of such gatherings, prayers and readings from the Sacred Texts are read or chanted aloud. If speeches are included in the program of a Nineteen Day Feast they should not, and do not, form part of the devotional part of the Feast.

      (From a letter dated 14 August 1996 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)

Concerning your question regarding the permissibility of circulating photographs of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá online, enclosed is an extract from a memorandum dated 29 January 2024 prepared by the Research Department at the request of the House of Justice in response to a related query.

With loving Bahá’í greetings,
Office of Correspondence

Enclosure