Praying to Baha'ullah?

[Rainbow Mage]

I have a question due to something I read in Baha'i children's literature the other day. See my best friend's son is a Baha'i, and he has children's books teaching him about the faith. Well I decided to look through one and I saw a story about a little girl in which it says "she gave thanks to Baha'ullah".

Is this really permissable in the Baha'i faith, praying to Baha'ullah?

Curious

 

[Gaura Priya]

This idea of praying to Baha'u'llah originated with Shoghi Effendi.

From the Lights of Guidance:

1489. Praying to Bahá’u’lláh
"You have asked whether our prayers go beyond Bahá’u’lláh: It all depends whether we pray to Him directly or through Him to God. We may do both, and also can pray directly to God, but our prayers would certainly be more effective and illuminating if they are addressed to Him through His Manifestation, Bahá’u’lláh.
"Under no circumstances, however, can we, while repeating the prayers, insert the name Bahá’u’lláh where the word 'God' is used. This would be tantamount to a blasphemy."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, October 14, 1937)

1490. Praying to Bahá’u’lláh—As the Door

"We cannot know God directly, but only through His Prophets. We can pray to Him realizing that through His Prophets we know Him, or we can address our prayer in thought to Bahá’u’lláh, not as God, but as the Door to our knowing God."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer: High Endeavors: Messages to Alaska, p. 71)

Personally, I do not pray to Baha'u'llah, because although Baha'u'llah's station is high, He is still not and will never be God Almighty, although all the Manifestations are directly the Virtues and Attributes of God on Earth, and the closest to what God's own spiritual qualities would be.

Sometimes people who have a difficult time praying to the Unknowable, Ineffable, Unmanifested Divinity, will need some sort of focus or Centre-Point. The Manifestations would be that Centre of focus, if necessary.

This is why persons of the past have prayed to the Manifestations, such as Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and even asking for Muhammad's intercession. But I have not read in Baha'u'llah's Writings alone where praying to Baha'u'llah is better or more effective than praying to God Himself.

 

[Sen McGlinn]

Baha'u'llah explains:

"The Person of the Manifestation hath ever been the representative and mouthpiece of God...".
(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 68)

and more fully:

...since there can be no tie of direct intercourse to bind the one true God with His creation, and no resemblance whatever can exist between the transient and the Eternal, the contingent and the Absolute, He hath ordained that in every age and dispensation a pure and stainless Soul be made manifest in the kingdoms of earth and heaven. Unto this subtle, this mysterious and ethereal Being He hath assigned a twofold nature; the physical, pertaining to the world of matter, and the spiritual, which is born of the substance of God Himself. He hath, moreover, conferred upon Him a double station. The first station, which is related to His innermost reality, representeth Him as One Whose voice is the voice of God Himself. To this testifieth the tradition: "Manifold and mysterious is My relationship with God. I am He, Himself, and He is I, Myself, except that I am that I am, and He is that He is." ... The second station is the human station, exemplified by the following verses: "I am but a man like you." "Say, praise be to my Lord! Am I more than a man, an apostle?" These Essences of Detachment, these resplendent Realities are the channels of God's all-pervasive grace. Led by the light of unfailing guidance, and invested with supreme sovereignty, They are commissioned to use the inspiration of Their words, the effusions of Their infallible grace and the sanctifying breeze of Their Revelation for the cleansing of every longing heart and receptive spirit from the dross and dust of earthly cares and limitations. Then, and only then, will the Trust of God, latent in the reality of man, emerge, as resplendent as the rising Orb of Divine Revelation, from behind the veil of concealment, and implant the ensign of its revealed glory upon the summits of men's hearts.

From the foregoing passages and allusions it hath been made indubitably clear that in the kingdoms of earth and heaven there must needs be manifested a Being, an Essence Who shall act as a Manifestation and Vehicle for the transmission of the grace of the Divinity Itself, the Sovereign Lord of all.
(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 65)

and:

The purpose of God in creating man hath been, and will ever be, to enable him to know his Creator and to attain His Presence. To this most excellent aim, this supreme objective, all the heavenly Books and the divinely-revealed and weighty Scriptures unequivocally bear witness. Whoso hath recognized the Day Spring [ie place of rising, the Manifestation] of Divine guidance and entered His holy court hath drawn nigh unto God and attained His Presence, a Presence which is the real Paradise, and of which the loftiest mansions of heaven are but a symbol. (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 70)

So it is not to Baha'u'llah, or Jesus, the historical man that we pray and give thanks, but to the Godliness manifest in them, which is the closest we can come to an understanding of Godself. One can of course pray to God - but there's a strong chance it will be a God of imagination, for if we try to do without a concrete historical figure and His life and words, we can imagine any God we like. who approves of whatever we approve of, and shares our inward thoughts and feelings -- because that 'god' is our selves.

In Bahai teachings, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (to use Christian terms), that is, our spiritual connection to God comes through the Manifestation, not direct:

Say: The Holy Spirit Itself hath been generated through the agency of a single letter revealed by this Most Great Spirit, if ye be of them that comprehend.
(Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 26)

 

[ImmortalPhoenix]

The Baha'u'llah says that God is on the judgment seat, and has no compeers.

 

[hindupridemn]

Baha'u'llah can intercede on our behalf but so can any departed soul, Manifestation or not, Baha'i or not.

 

[monctonia]

I had the same question and found the answer on another website by googling "Baha'u'llah and the Matter of His Divinity".

 

[arthra]

Personally I think the issue of prayer is good to study and focus on..

Here is yet another clarification on the subject from what has already been supplied above:

1486. How to Pray -- One must Start out with the right Concept of God

"...We must not be rigid about praying; there is not a set of rules governing it; the main thing is we must start out with the right concept of God, the Manifestation, the Master, the Guardian -- we can turn, in thought, to any one of them when we pray.

For instance you can ask Bahá'u'lláh for some thing, or, thinking of Him, ask God for it. The same is true of the Master or the Guardian.

You can turn in thought to either of them and then ask their intercession, or pray direct to God. As long as you don't confuse their stations, and make them all equal, it does not matter much how you orient your thoughts."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, July 24, 1946) 457



(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 456)

 

[Sundance]

As a Unitarian Bahai, I do not pray to Bahaullah, or any other prophet or teacher. I give thanks to God for what I learn through their diverse teachings. I refuse to equate any person with The Most High. Not even as a Buddhist do I pray to the Buddha....he NEVER asked to be prayed to.

 

[arthra]

Thanks for your post! I think there may be a misunderstanding regarding prayer to Baha'u'llah... in my understanding and I've been a Baha'i since around 1965, prayers to Baha'u'llah are only in the context of understanding His Station as a Manifestation of God. That means we Baha'is accept a Manifestation of God as a Mediator between God and man.. so it is more understood as what is known as an Intercessor to God than to Baha'u'llah per se...

Guidance was provided on this issue some years ago in the following:

1765. You have asked whether our prayers go beyond Bahá'u'lláh: it all depends whether we pray to Him directly or through Him to God. We may do both, and also can pray directly to God, but our prayers would certainly be more effective and illuminating if they are addressed to Him through His Manifestation, Bahá'u'lláh.

(14 October 1937 to an individual believer)

(Compilations, The Compilation of Compilations vol II, p. 239)

So we pray to God through His Manifestation.

Also if you are familiar with Baha'i prayer and these are the ones in your Prayer Book they are always addressed to God! As examples:

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

(Compilations, Baha'i Prayers)

There is no God but Thee, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful. There is no God but Thee, the Ordainer, both in the beginning and in the end. O God, my God! Thy forgiveness hath emboldened me, and Thy mercy hath strengthened me, and Thy call hath awakened me, and Thy grace hath raised me up and led me unto Thee.

(Compilations, Baha'i Prayers, p. 8)

and so on!