Regarding the question you raised: in the first place every
believer is free to follow the dictates of his own conscience as regards the
manner in which he should spend his own money. Secondly, we must always bear in
mind that there are so few Bahá'ís in the world, relative to the world's
population, and so many people in need, that even if all of us gave all we had,
it would not alleviate more than an infinitesimal amount of suffering. This
does not mean we must not help the needy, we should; but our contributions to
the Faith are the surest way of lifting once and for all time the burden of
hunger and misery from mankind, for it is only through the System of
Bahá'u'lláh — Divine in origin — that the world can be gotten on its feet and
want, fear, hunger, war, etc., be eliminated. Non-Bahá'ís cannot contribute to
our work or do it for us; so really our first obligation is to support our own
teaching work, as this will lead to the healing of the nations.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 8 December 1947 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer,
published in "Bahá'í News" 210, August 1948; The Compilation of
Compilations, vol. I, Baha’i Funds and Contributions)
