"Blessed is the spot,
and the house and the place,
and the city, and the heart, and the mountain,
and the refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land,
and the sea, and the island, and the meadow
where mention of God hath
been made, and His praise
glorified."

Bahá'u'lláh, Bahá'í Prayerbook.


Prayer and Meditation

Text to come, looking at the importance of prayer, etc. In the meantime.

Link to dhikr
Read a few Bahá´í Prayers

Some of Bahá'u'lláh's Writings
often used for meditation
   
see also Bahá´í Books


The Hidden Words by Bahá'u'lláh     Written c. 1858
Translated into many languages and printed in various compilations as well as separately as a small book. These are 153 short sayings or invocations, translated from the Persian and the Arabic. Here is the first one:
"O Son of Spirit!
My first counsel is this: Possess a pure kindly and radiant heart that thine my be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting."


The Seven Valleys by Bahá'u'lláh     Written c. 1863
Translated into many languages and printed in various compilations as well as separately as a small book. Composed in reponse to a sufi's questions it adapts Sufi metaphors for the progress of the soul in seven stages.
It is a timeless piece of mystical writing.

" ...One must judge of search by the standard of the Majnun of Love. It is related that one day they came upon Majnun sifting the dust, and his tears flowing down. They said, "What doest thou?" He said, "I seek for Layli." They cried, "Alas, for thee! Layli is of pure spirit, and thou seekest her in the dust!" He said, "I seek her everywhere; haply somewhere I shall find her."
Yea to the wise it be shameful to seek the Lord of Lords in the dust, yet this betokeneth intense ardor in searching. "Whose seeketh out a thing with zeal shall find it..."
(from the Valley of Search)

The Four Valleys by Bahá'u'lláh     Written c. 1855
Translated into many languages and printed in various compilations, often together with the Seven Valleys. This is an epistle which sets out four ways the Unseen is seen. The four ways of the human heart, and the four kinds of mystic wayfarers searching for the Beloved.

"...The death of self is needed here, not rhetoric: Be nothing, then, and walk upon the waves..."
(from the First Valley)


The Tablet of the Holy Mariner by Bahá'u'lláh     Written 1863
[[INFO TO COME>>>>Translated into many languages and printed in various compilations. Kalimat Press brought out a book of this in 2001

The Fire Tablet (Lawh-i-Qad ihtaraqa'l-mukhlisún)
by Bahá'u'lláh
    Written c. 1871
[[INFO TO COME>>>>Translated into many languages and printed in various compilations

The Tablet of Ahmad
by Bahá'u'lláh
    Written c. 1865
[[INFO TO COME>>>>Translated into many languages and printed in various compilations.

There are various collections of Bahá´í Prayers in many languages. Below are some unusual or new selections:

Prayers of Ecstasy from the Bahá´í Sacred Writings
Kalimát Press, U.S.A. 2001, ISBN: 1-890688-13-4.

" ...Call it a conference of holy souls; a convocation of those who love the Lord; a retreat
for the people of the All-Merciful; a palace-hall
for all who sing His praise... "
'Abdul-Bahá, page 75.

Meditation by Wendi Momen,
George Ronald Publishing, Oxford, U.K.
ISBN: 0-85398-407-7.
-Approaches on what is meditation, meditation techniques, selections to meditate on.


I beheld a Maiden...
The Bahá´í Faith and the life of the spirit

by Terry Culhane,
Kalimát Press, U.S.A. 2001,
ISBN: 1-890688-10-X.
-Essays on the divine feminine, the covenant and commonwealth, mysticism, and Bahá'u'lláh and the philosophy of Ken Wilber.


You can order books and view other books on
Bahá´í related topics from these publishers