7 Aug | a.m

O SON OF MAN!

If adversity befall thee not in My path, how canst thou walk in the ways of them that are content with My pleasure? If trials afflict thee not in thy longing to meet Me, how wilt thou attain the light in thy love for My beauty?

- Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words, no. 50

Every believer needs to remember that an essential characteristic of this physical world is that we are constantly faced with trials, tribulations, hardships and sufferings and that by overcoming them we achieve our moral and spiritual development; that we must seek to accomplish in the future what we may have failed to do in the past...

- From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, January 9, 1977

6 Aug | p.m

O SON OF MAN!

My calamity is My providence, outwardly it is fire and vengeance, but inwardly it is light and mercy. Hasten thereunto that thou mayest become an eternal light and an immortal spirit. This is My command unto thee, do thou observe it.

- Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words, no. 51

6 Aug | a.m

Yea, such things as throw consternation into the hearts of all men come to pass only that each soul may be tested by the touchstone of God, that the true may be known and distinguished from the false.

- Baha'u'llah, The Kitáb-i-Íqán, p. 52

The necessity and the particularity of the assured and believing ones is to be firm in the Cause of God and withstand the hidden and evident tests.…Anybody can be happy in the state of comfort, ease, health, success, pleasure and joy; but if one will be happy and contented in the time of trouble, hardship and prevailing disease, it is the proof of nobility.

- Abdu’l-Bahá, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu’l-Bahá Section, p. 363

5 Aug | p.m

A single breeze of His affluence doth suffice to adorn all mankind with the robe of wealth; and one drop out of the ocean of His bountiful grace is enough to confer upon all beings the glory of everlasting life. But inasmuch as the divine Purpose hath decreed that the true should be known from the false, and the sun from the shadow, He hath, therefore, in every season sent down upon mankind the showers of tests from His realm of glory.

- Baha'u'llah, The Kitáb-i-Íqán, p. 53

5 Aug | a.m

O SON OF BEING!

Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.

- Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words, no. 55

Tests are benefits from God, for which we should thank Him. Grief and sorrow do not come to us by chance, they are sent to us by the Divine Mercy for our own perfecting.

- Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 50

2 Aug | a.m

Say: Because He bore injustice, justice hath appeared on earth, and because He accepted abasement, the majesty of God hath shone forth amidst mankind.

- Baha'u'llah, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p. 76

Know that to do justice is to give to everyone according to his deserts… but when he [workman] has done no work and taken no trouble, he is given a gift: this is bounty… So Christ besought forgiveness for his murderers: this is called bounty.

- Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, p. 265

1 Aug | p.m

We exhort the loved ones of God to observe justice and fairness, and to do that which would prompt the friends of God to evince tender mercy and compassion towards each other. He is in truth the Counsellor, the Compassionate, the All-Bountiful. God grant that all men may be graciously aided to observe that which the Tongue of the One true God hath uttered.

- Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 134