Development and Role of Local Spiritual Assembly During the Nine Year Plan - Guidance from the Universal House of Justice

A compilation of excerpts from messages dated December 31,2025, December 30, 2021, and December 28, 2010

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‘Abdu’l-Baha lived in deed and truth the kind of life that Jesus of Nazareth led and bade His followers to lead

To live today in deed and truth the kind of life that Jesus of Nazareth led and bade His followers lead; to love God wholeheartedly, and for God’s sake to love all mankind, even one’s slanderers and enemies; to give consistently good for evil, blessings for curses, kindness for cruelty and, through a career darkened along its entire length by tragic misrepresentation and persecution, to preserve one’s courage, one’s sweetness and calm faith in God - to do all this and yet to play the man in a world of men, sharing at home and in business the common life of humanity, administering when occasion arose affairs large and small and handling complex situations with foresight and firmness — to live in such a manner throughout a long and arduous life, and when, in the fullness of time, death came, to leave to multitudes of mourners a sense of desolation and to be remembered and loved by them all as the servant of God - to how many men is such an achievement given as it has been given in this age of ours to ‘Abdu’l-Baha? 

- George Townshend (Hand of the Cause of God [Sometime Cannon of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland]; World Order magazine, October 1936)

The correct way of reciting the Prayer for the Dead

The correct way of reciting the Prayer for the Dead is as follows:

Alláh-u-Abhá (once)

We all, verily, worship God (19 times)

Alláh-u-Abhá (once)

We all, verily, bow down before God (19 times)

Alláh-u-Abhá (once)

We all, verily, are devoted unto God (19 times)

Alláh-u-Abhá (once)

We all, verily, give praise unto God (19 times)

Alláh-u-Abhá (once)

We all, verily, yield thanks unto God (19 times)

Alláh-u-Abhá (once)

We all, verily, are patient in God (19 times)

When the Kitáb-i-Aqdas was being translated it was noted that the English translation of the instructions which form part of the Prayer for the Dead could be understood in more than one way. Therefore, when Note 11 was formulated it was expressed in a way that was intended to clarify the ambiguity, namely: “the repetition of the greeting ‘Alláh-u-Abhá‘ (God is the All Glorious) six times, each followed by nineteen repetitions of one of the six specifically revealed verses.”

- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 13 September 1993, written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to Maison d’Éditions Bahá’íes; Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1986-2001)