Daily Frameworks for 23 December 2022

Istiqlál, 12 Masá’il (Questions), 179 B.E

The Nine Year Plan: 2022-2031

Regardless of a community’s starting point, it has advanced the process of growth when it has combined qualities of faith, perseverance and commitment with a readiness to learn. In fact, a cherished legacy of this series of Plans is the widespread recognition that any effort to advance begins with an orientation towards learning. The simplicity of this precept belies the significance of the implications that follow from it. We do not doubt that every cluster, given time, will progress along the continuum of development; the communities that have advanced most quickly, relative to those whose circumstances and possibilities were similar, have shown an ability to foster unity of thought and to learn about effective action. And they did so without hesitating to act. ^{1 2}

Light of the World

O ye beloved of the Lord and handmaids of the All-Merciful! No sooner had the Sun of Truth shone forth from the heaven of sanctity than it shed upon the horizons of the world the light of unity of thought, unity of opinion, unity of belief, and unity of truth. And this, so that humankind might come together at one single point with respect to thoughts and beliefs; that quarrels, disputes, and conflicts might wholly disappear from amongst humankind; and that the same Light radiating from the Sun of Truth might illumine every heart. For the sake of this complete unity, this perfect harmony, His blessed Being endured every woe and all manner of trial and tribulation in such wise that eyes weep and hearts are for evermore consumed. ³

1. Universal House of Justice. The Nine Year Plan: 2022-2031. 1st ed. Wilmette, Illinois: Baha’i Publishing, 2022, 13-14. ↩
2. 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#561189863. ↩
3. ’Abdu’l-Bahá. Light of the World: Selected Tablets of ’Abdu’l-Bahá. 1st ed. Haifa: Bahá’í World Center, 2021, https://bahaiebooks.org/publications/lightoftheworld/.
   https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/light-of-the-world/5#457095173 ↩