Bahá’í Community Life/Individual Devotion
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2. Individual Devotion
A very important contribution to healthy Baha’i community life is each individual’s devotion to God. Baha’u’llah says that man’s basic purpose in life is to know and to love God/ One of the obligatory prayers states, ‘‘7 bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship Thee.”’® All men depend on God for spiritual life. Man’s soul longs for nearness to God. One cannot be happy until he recognizes his need for God and begins to reach out toward Him. Bahda’u’llah warns that God’s love cannot reach man and change him until he begins to love God: ‘‘O Son of Being! Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.’ *
Man’s natural love for God increases when he remembers gratefully that God has sent Bahda’u’llah. God has promised always to give His guidance to mankind and never to leave man
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alone. He has sent many great Teachers: Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. A little over a hundred years ago God sent Baha'u'llah. :
One’s love for God should grow to embrace all of God’s creatures because in each person one sees reflections of God’s nature. When one sees a loving person, he is reminded of God’s great love and is attracted to that person. If he knows someone
who is just, he likes to be near him because he remembers God’s Justice to all people. ‘Abdu’l-Baha describes the believers in this way: ‘‘Each sees in the other the beauty of God reflected in the soul, and finding this point of similarity, they are attracted to one another in love.’’* Such love for each other enriches Baha’ i community life.
When a Baha’! is devoted to God, he will support his Baha’ i community in every way possible: giving firesides, teaching children’s classes, bringing refreshments for meetings, hosting Feasts, giving rides to people who have no cars, working on
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committees. If each believer tries to do his part in the work of the Faith, the community as a whole will be strong and healthy. But if no one contributes much time, love, or energy, the community will be weakened. An individual may have a talent which no one else in his community has, such as playing a musical instrument. If he does not contribute this talent, the community is deprived of his gift. Even if one is unable to do more, he can pray. Prayers are a great assistance to the growth of the Faith. A healthy Baha’i community needs the support of each individual’s devotion to God.