Arise - Baha'i Feast Devotional Program

A compilation from the Baha'i writings on arising to serve mankind to be used as a Baha'i Feast devotional program.

The highest righteousness of all is for blessed souls to take hold of the hands of the helpless and deliver them out of their ignorance and abasement and poverty, and with pure motives, and only for the sake of God, to arise and energetically devote themselves to the service of the masses, forgetting their own worldly advantage and working only to serve the general good. - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Secret of Divine Civilization, par. 182, p. 120.

Let each one of God’s loved ones center his attention on this: to be the Lord’s mercy to man; to be the Lord’s grace. Let him do some good to every person whose path he crosseth, and be of some benefit to him. Let him improve the character of each and all,

and reorient the minds of men.

-‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, no. 1.7, pp. 8-9.

O SON OF EARTH! Wouldst thou have Me, seek none other than Me; and wouldst thou gaze upon My beauty, close thine eyes to the world and all that is therein; for My will and the will of another than Me, even as fire and water, cannot dwell together in one heart. - Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words

The second attribute of perfection is justice and impartiality. This means to have no regard for one’s own personal benefits and selfish advantages, and to carry out the laws of God without the slightest concern for anything else. It means to see one’s self as only one of the servants of God, the All-Possessing, and except for aspiring to spiritual distinction, never attempting to be singled out from the others. It means to consider the welfare of the community as one’s own. It means, in brief, to regard humanity as a single individual, and one’s own self as a member of that corporeal form, and to know of a certainty that if pain or injury afflicts any member of that body, it must inevitably result in suffering for all the rest.

- ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Secret of Divine Civilization, par. 71, pp. 45-46

It behooveth, likewise, the loved ones of God to be forbearing towards their fellowmen, and to be so sanctified and detached from all things, and to evince such sincerity and fairness, that all the peoples of the earth may recognize them as the trustees of God amongst men.

-Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXV, pp. 273-274.

Servitude to God lieth in servitude to the friends. One must be the essence of humility and the embodiment of meekness. One must become evanescence itself and be healed of every disease of the self, in order to become worthy of thraldom to the Threshold of the Almighty. - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Sections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (vol. 2, no. 156, p. 118.)

All the divine Manifestations have proclaimed the oneness of God and the unity of mankind. They have taught that men should love and mutually help each other in order that they might progress. Now if this conception of religion be true, its essential principle is the oneness of humanity. The fundamental truth of the Manifestations is peace. This underlies all religion, all justice. - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 435-37.

My only joy in this swiftly passing world was to tread the stony path of God and to endure hard tests and all material griefs. For otherwise, this earthly life would prove barren and vain, and better would be death. The tree of being would produce no fruit; the sown field of this existence would yield no harvest. Thus it is my hope that once again some circumstance will make my cup of anguish to brim over, and that beauteous Love, that Slayer of souls, will dazzle the beholders again. Then will this heart be blissful, this soul be blessed. - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, no. 190.10, p. 313.

There must needs be some tremendous force to upraise the standard of eternal friendship between nations and this force must come through self-sacrifice and universal service. - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on Divine Philosophy, p. 180.

Soon will our handful of days, our vanishing life, be gone, and we shall pass, empty-handed, into the hollow that is dug for those who speak no more wherefore must we bind our hearts to the manifest Beauty, and cling to the lifeline that faileth never. We must gird ourselves for service, kindle love’s flame, and burn away in its heat. We must loose our tongues till we set the wide world’s heart afire and with bright rays of guidance blot out the armies of the night, and then, for His sake, on the field of sacrifice, fling down our lives. - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, no. 210.4, p. 369.

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