Daily Frameworks for 09 January 2023

Kamál, 10 Sharaf (Honor), 179 B.E

The Nine Year Plan: 2022-2031

A century has now elapsed since the noble spirit of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá ascended to its eternal home. His birth had coincided with the dawn of the Faith’s Heroic Age, and His passing signalled the setting of the sun upon its final epoch. No clearer demonstration could be imagined of how He embodied the forces of unity than the sight of His funeral, at which a vast crowd of mourners from every creed in this land came together to grieve their common loss. In His day, so many of the friends who embraced the Faith absorbed the spirit of the divine teachings simply by observing Him; still today, if we wish to align our lives with that same spirit, we look to the example set by the Master, Whose word and deed reflected the brilliance of the light that shone from Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation. ^{1 2}

The Kitáb-i-Aqdas

This year, the 149th of the Bahá’í era, marks the Centenary of the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh, Bearer of the universal Revelation of God destined to lead humanity to its collective coming of age. That this occasion should be observed by a community of believers representing a cross-section of the entire human race and established, in the course of a century and a half, in the most remote corners of the globe, is a token of the forces of unity released by Bahá’u’lláh’s advent. A further testimony to the operation of these same forces can be seen in the extent to which Bahá’u’lláh’s vision has prefigured contemporary human experience in so many of its aspects. It is a propitious moment for the publication of this first authorized translation into English of the Mother Book of His Revelation, His “Most Holy Book,” the Book in which He sets forth the Laws of God for a Dispensation destined to endure for no less than a thousand years. ³

1. Universal House of Justice. The Nine Year Plan: 2022-2031. 1st ed. Wilmette, Illinois: Baha’i Publishing, 2022, 31. ↩
2. Universal House of Justice. “On the Occasion of the Centenary Commemoration of the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.” Bahá’í Reference Library, November 27, 2021.
   https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20211127_001/1#422353084. ↩
3. Bahá’u’lláh. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book. Haifa: Baháʾi World Centre, 1992, 1. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/kitab-i-aqdas/3#331207233 ↩