Bahá'í Prayers website

Sponsored by the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Shoreline, Washington (USA) the Bahá'í Prayers web site was created as a celebration of the beauty of the Bahá'í scriptures.

Recent work has focused on serving both the English-speaking and international communities so there are links to many non-English versions of the Bahá'í Prayers.

Prayers for the English language version of the site are primarily taken from the 2002 edition of Bahá'í Prayers. Several other Bahá'í scriptures are also quoted, especially Prayers and Meditations by Bahá'u'lláh.

There are also links for those who would like to purchase a Bahá'í prayer book.

Ponder and reflect

How ignorant, how inconsistent is humankind! If a man slays another man, we brand him as a murderer and criminal and sentence him to capital punishment, but if he kills one hundred thousand men, he is a military genius, a great celebrity, a Napoleon idolized by his nation. If a man steals one dollar, he is called a thief and put into prison; if he rapes and pillages an innocent country by military invasion, he is crowned a hero. How ignorant is humankind! Ferocity does not belong to the kingdom of man. It is the province of man to confer life, not death. It behooves him to be the cause of human welfare, but inasmuch as he glories in the savagery of animalism, it is an evidence that divine civilization has not been established in human society.

'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 103


How is it possible for men to fight from morning until evening, killing each other, shedding the blood of their fellow-men: And for what object? To gain possession of a part of the earth!... How terrible it is that men, who are of the higher kingdom, can descend to slaying and bringing misery to their fellow-beings, for the possession of a tract of land!

The highest of created beings fighting to obtain the lowest form of matter, earth! Land belongs not to one people, but to all people. This earth is not man's home, but his tomb. It is for their tombs these men are fighting. There is nothing so horrible in this world as the tomb, the abode of the decaying bodies of men.

Abdu'l-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 28


Know thou of a certainty that Love is the secret of God's holy Dispensation, the manifestation of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual outpourings.

Love is heaven's kindly light, the Holy Spirit's eternal breath that vivifieth the human soul.

Love is the cause of God's revelation unto man, the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.

Love is the one means that ensureth true felicity both in this world and the next.

Love is the light that guideth in darkness, the living link that uniteth God with man, that assureth the progress of every illumined soul.

Love is the most great law that ruleth this mighty and heavenly cycle, the unique power that bindeth together the divers elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the
spheres in the celestial realms.

Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe.

Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation.

'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 27

Majesty, Grandeur and Loving Kindness

O SON OF MAN!
My majesty is My gift to thee, and My grandeur the token of My mercy unto thee. That which beseemeth Me none shall understand, nor can anyone recount. Verily, I have preserved it in My hidden storehouses and in the treasuries of My command, as a sign of My loving-kindness unto My servants and My mercy unto My people

The Hidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh, Arabic #65

Raising our standards - character

The root cause of wrongdoing is ignorance, and we must therefore hold fast to the tools of perception and knowledge. Good character must be taught. Light must be spread afar, so that, in the school of humanity, all may acquire the heavenly characteristics of the spirit, and see for themselves beyond any doubt that there is no fiercer hell, no more fiery abyss, than to possess a character that is evil and unsound; no more darksome pit nor loathsome torment than to show forth qualities which deserve to be condemned.

'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 136


Each of us must improve himself, that he may attain nothing short of the best. When one stops, he descends. A bird, when it is flying, soars; but as soon as it stops, it falls. While man is directed upward, he develops. As soon as he stops, he descends. Therefore I wish the beloved
of God always to ascend and develop.

Words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, as recorded in the diary of Juliet Thompson an early American Bahá'í


It is possible so to adjust oneself to the practise of nobility that its atmosphere surrounds and colours every act. When actions are habitually and conscientiously adjusted to noble standards, with no thought of the words that might herald them, then nobility becomes the accent of life. At such a degree of evolution one scarcely needs try any longer to be good - all acts are become the distinctive expression of nobility.

'Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'í Scriptures, p. 450

Raising our standards - one example

....I remember once when a pilgrim, sincerely and modestly remonstrated with the Guardian about the difficulty ordinary people in America had in understanding his writings and suggested he make them a little bit easier. The Guardian pointed out, firmly, that this was not the answer; the answer was for people to raise their standard of English....

Ruhiyyih Khanum, The Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, p. 182

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'í's of South Africa The First 50 Years - Video

Racial and religious harmony were certainly not priorities of the apartheid government. However, it was during South Africa's darkest days that the light of unity was kindled. In the summer of 1956, Baha'is from all over Southern Africa gathered to form an interracial Assembly that promoted the oneness of mankind and religion.

Watch the video here. Both low and high bandwidth versions are available.

Wondrous Paradise

There is no paradise more wondrous for any soul than
to be exposed to God's Manifestation in His Day, to hear
His verses and believe in them, to attain His presence,
which is naught but the presence of God, to sail upon the
sea of the heavenly Kingdom of His good-pleasure, and
to partake of the choice fruits of the paradise of His divine
Oneness.

The Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Báb, p. 77