Having grown up in the tradition of the Baha\u2019i Faith, regular daily devotions were always part of our household practice \u2013 including my parents saying prayers with me from a young age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Baha\u2019i book of laws \u2013 Baha\u2019u\u2019llah\u2019s Most Holy Book<\/em> \u2013 includes a directive to \u201crecite ye the verses of God every morn and eventide.<\/strong>\u201d Prayer, the Baha\u2019i writings say, is one of the primary laws and teachings proclaimed in every religion. In his Book of Certitude<\/em>, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah<\/a> wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 in every Dispensation the law concerning prayer hath been emphasized and universally enforced. To this testify the recorded traditions ascribed to the lights that have emanated from the Daystar of Truth \u2026<\/strong><\/p> The traditions established the fact that in all Dispensations the law of prayer hath constituted a fundamental element of the Revelation of all the Prophets of God \u2013 a law the form and the manner of which hath been adapted to the varying requirements of every age.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n RELATED: Nothing Sweeter: Nurturing a Practice of Prayer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Admittedly, I have \u201cfallen off the wagon\u201d of prayer a bit recently, because of a new, young dog that takes my time in the mornings \u2013 but writing this article is reminding me of the importance of this spiritual guidance. I recall a framed saying of my mothers with similar advice: \u201cwhen your day is hemmed with prayer, it is less likely to unravel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The directives regarding prayer from Baha\u2019u\u2019llah\u2019s Most Holy Book<\/em> say<\/a> that we should:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 read ye the sacred verses in such measure that ye be not overcome by languor and despondency. Lay not upon your souls that which will weary them and weigh them down, but rather what will lighten and uplift them, so that they may soar on the wings of Divine verses towards the Dawning-place of His manifest signs.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I interpret this to mean that prayer and worship should not become a chore or a burden, but a time that we look forward to \u2013 to say specific prayers, to center ourselves, to be in silence, to mindfully meditate, or to commune with spirit in our own unique ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other parts of the Baha\u2019i<\/a> writings say, in effect, that meditating on a short verse with joy is preferable to reading copious scriptures with boredom. I like the practical nature of this advice, which focuses more on the attitude that we should try to aspire to instead of just adopting a rote practice. For me personally, seeing the grandeur of God in a natural environment or listening to beautiful, spiritually uplifting music often connects me more to the divine than reading words on a page. Either way, it\u2019s that daily \u201ctuning in\u201d that is important. Here is another passage from the Baha\u2019i writings along those lines, written<\/a> by Abdu\u2019l-Baha<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a lover, there is no greater pleasure than to converse with his beloved, and for a seeker, there is no greater bounty than intimacy with the object of his desire. It is the greatest longing of every soul who is attracted to the Kingdom of God to find time to turn with entire devotion to his Beloved, so as to seek His bounty and blessing and immerse himself in the ocean of communion, entreaty and supplication. Moreover, obligatory prayer and fasting produce awareness and awakening in man, and are conducive to his protection and preservation from tests.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The Baha\u2019i teachings further define the \u201cverses of God<\/strong>\u201d as \u201call that hath been sent down from the Heaven of Divine Utterance.<\/strong>\u201d As a student of humanity\u2019s spiritual heritage (see my website at www.thesoulsalons.com<\/a>), I love the openness in the Baha\u2019i Faith to the long history of divine guidance from all religions. Baha\u2019is believe that religion is progressive or, in other words, that the teachings of all the world\u2019s major religions build on each other along our individual and collective paths to spiritual growth. I often read scriptures from other faiths and find so many common themes among them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n RELATED: 6 Tips for Your Daily Prayers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Prayer, including obligatory prayers said at certain times of the day, is a regular practice for Baha\u2019is, but worship and prayer is a central tenet of most faith traditions. In the words of Thomas Merton, a prominent Catholic monk and philosopher:<\/p>\n\n\n\n All religious traditions have ways of integrating the senses, on their own level, into higher forms of prayer. The great mystical literature speaks not only of \u2018darkness\u2019 and \u2018unknowing\u2019 but also, and almost in the same breath, of an extraordinary flowering of \u2018spiritual senses\u2019 \u2026 and more direct union with God \u2018beyond experience.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also quite like a saying from Islam about prayer \u2013 called a hadith \u2013 that I came across recently: \u201cThere is a polish for everything that becomes rusty, and the polish for the heart is the remembrance of God.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prayer really does polish the soul. The concept of cleansing the mirror of the heart from the dross and dust of worldly desires and attachments constitutes a common theme in the world\u2019s spiritual literature. Our latent potentialities can be revealed when we consciously choose to polish that mirror each day. As the Baha\u2019i writings<\/a> say, \u201cO My Brother! A pure heart is as a mirror; cleanse it with the burnish of love and severance from all save God, that the true sun may shine therein and the eternal morning dawn.<\/strong>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n A different version of this article first appeared as a guest column in The Arizona Republic newspaper.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Having grown up in the tradition of the Baha\u2019i Faith, regular daily devotions were always part of our household practice \u2013 including my parents saying prayers with me from a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":78918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2998,3188],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88050,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78916\/revisions\/88050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78916"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=78916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}