’Idál, 10 Masá’il (Questions), 179 B.E
The Nine Year Plan: 2022-2031
One of the most striking and inspiring features of this twenty-five-year period has been the service rendered by Bahá’í youth, who with faith and valour have assumed their rightful place in the forefront of the community’s efforts. As teachers of the Cause and educators of the young, as mobile tutors and homefront pioneers, as cluster coordinators and members of Bahá’í agencies, youth on five continents have arisen to serve their communities with devotion and sacrifice. The maturity they have demonstrated, in the discharge of duties upon which depends the advancement of the Divine Plan, is expressive of their spiritual vitality and their commitment to safeguarding humanity’s future. In recognition of this increasingly evident maturity, we have decided that, immediately following this Riḍván, while the age at which a believer becomes eligible to serve on a Spiritual Assembly shall remain twenty-one, the age at which a believer may vote in Bahá’í elections shall be lowered to eighteen. We have no doubt that Bahá’í youth everywhere who are of age will vindicate our confidence in their ability to fulfil “conscientiously and diligently” the “sacred duty” to which every Bahá’í elector is called. 1 2
Tablets of the Divine Plan
Praise be to God that through the divine bounty and providence, in that region the field of service is vast, the minds are in the utmost degree of intelligence and progress, sciences and arts are being promoted, the hearts like unto mirrors are in the utmost state of purity and translucency, and the friends of God are in perfect attraction. Therefore it is hoped that meetings for teaching will be organized and instituted, and for the diffusion of the fragrances of God wise teachers may be sent to cities, even to villages.
The teachers of the Cause must be heavenly, lordly and radiant. They must be embodied spirit, personified intellect, and arise in service with the utmost firmness, steadfastness and self-sacrifice. In their journeys they must not be attached to food and clothing. They must concentrate their thoughts on the outpourings of the Kingdom of God and beg for the confirmations of the Holy Spirit. With a divine power, with an attraction of consciousness, with heavenly glad tidings and celestial holiness they must perfume the nostrils with the fragrances of the Paradise of Abhá. 3
- Universal House of Justice. The Nine Year Plan: 2022-2031. 1st ed. Wilmette, Illinois: Baha’i Publishing, 2022, 12-13. ↩
- Universal House of Justice. “Riḍván 2021 – To the Bahá’ís of the World.” Bahá’í Reference Library. Accessed April 20, 2021.
https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20210420_001/1#561189860. ↩ - ’Abdu’l-Bahá. Tablets of the Divine Plan. 1959. Reprint, Wilmette, Ill: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1976, 49. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/tablets-divine-plan/13#091323741 ↩
Frameworks for Understanding the World 