Daily Frameworks for 12 January 2023

Istijlál, 13 Sharaf (Honor), 179 B.E

The Nine Year Plan: 2022-2031

The passage of time has not diminished the awe with which we regard “the rôle and character of One Who, not only in the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh but in the entire field of religious history, fulfils a unique function.” ¹ And as Shoghi Effendi has further affirmed of Him:

“He is, and should for all time be regarded, first and foremost, as the Centre and Pivot of Bahá’u’lláh’s peerless and all-enfolding Covenant, His most exalted handiwork, the stainless Mirror of His light, the perfect Exemplar of His teachings, the unerring Interpreter of His Word, the embodiment of every Bahá’í ideal, the incarnation of every Bahá’í virtue, the Most Mighty Branch sprung from the Ancient Root, the Limb of the Law of God, the Being “round Whom all names revolve”, the Mainspring of the Oneness of Humanity, the Ensign of the Most Great Peace, the Moon of the Central Orb of this most holy Dispensation—styles and titles that are implicit and find their truest, their highest and fairest expression in the magic name ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He is, above and beyond these appellations, the “Mystery of God”—an expression by which Bahá’u’lláh Himself has chosen to designate Him, and which, while it does not by any means justify us to assign to Him the station of Prophethood, indicates how in the person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the incompatible characteristics of a human nature and superhuman knowledge and perfection have been blended and are completely harmonized.” ^{2 3 4}

Light of the World

These Tablets are thus doubly precious: Who better to tell us about Bahá’u’lláh, and to impart to us His “lessons of the spirit in the school of insight”, than His most cherished Son, Who shared, as His closest associate, His life of exile, imprisonment, and persecution, and Who, titled by His Father the “Mystery of God”, stood in a unique relationship to the Author of the Revelation as “the image of His perfections”, “the Interpreter of His mind”, “the Focal Point of His unerring guidance”, “the stainless mirror reflecting His light”? ⁵

Say: O hapless one! That Sun shall never set, nor shall that Day-Star of the Realm of Glory ever wane. The setting of the sun is only in relation to the dwellers of the earth, for how can there be any daybreak or nightfall in the sun itself? It remaineth ever shining in its meridian splendour, ever glowing and luminous, at the sublime apex of bounty. The Glory of Glories rest upon thee. ⁶

1. Effendi, Shoghi. The World Order of Baháʾuʾlláh: Selected Letters. 2nd Revised Edition 1974, Reprinted 1982. Wilmette, Ill: Bahaʾi Publishing Trust, 1982, 131. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-effendi/world-order-bahaullah/8#819792966 ↩
2. Effendi, Shoghi. The World Order of Baháʾuʾlláh: Selected Letters. 2nd Revised Edition 1974, Reprinted 1982. Wilmette, Ill: Bahaʾi Publishing Trust, 1982, 134. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-effendi/world-order-bahaullah/8#305127046 ↩
3. Universal House of Justice. The Nine Year Plan: 2022-2031. 1st ed. Wilmette, Illinois: Baha’i Publishing, 2022, 33-34. ↩
4. 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#422353087. ↩
5. ’Abdu’l-Bahá. Light of the World: Selected Tablets of ’Abdu’l-Bahá. 1st ed. Haifa: Bahá’í World Center, 2021. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/light-of-the-world/2#857533651 ↩
6. ’Abdu’l-Bahá. Light of the World: Selected Tablets of ’Abdu’l-Bahá. 1st ed. Haifa: Bahá’í World Center, 2021. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/light-of-the-world/5#300013784. ↩