2. O SON OF SPIRIT!

The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

word definition:
justice: the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness. / the moral principle determining just conduct. (I chose those definitions of justice as I think they are mostly relevant to this Hidden Word.)
confide: to have full trust; have faith.
loving-kindness: tender kindness motivated by or expressing affection.

so after being told to have a pure, kindly and radiant heart, the next step is in how to act - being given free will, we can choose to act morally righteous, doing the right thing. seeing with our own eyes, knowing through our own knowledge, we must independently investigate for the truth, without relying upon others or following old traditions.
I find it interesting that justice is God's gift to us, and a sign of His kindness and affection for us (more on that in next Hidden Word). if we equal this to adminitions of our behavior, we might even say that justice leads to liberty:

Say: True liberty consisteth in man's submission unto My commandments, little as ye know it. Were men to observe that which We have sent down unto them from the Heaven of Revelation, they would, of a certainty, attain unto perfect liberty. (Kitáb-i-Aqdas, verse 125)

there are probably lots more of interesting points to be made here, do you have any thoughts?

to do-list

here's a useful tip in case you have a tendency to easily forget things you have to do. I usually write a note on my cellphone with things to do, and have it posted over my background picture (the option is called "show in standby"). that way it's always reminding me of what I need to do, and I can add/remove things as soon as I come up with anything or finish it. works perfectly!

it's live!

finally! okay, it's been sneaking around and been available online for a while, and if you've been attentive enough you might've even seen the link to the right...

I started on this project almost three months ago, mentioned it here a week after, and then last month I sort of promised that there would be an update coming up if I made it to 10000 visitors by 15th of february. well, I made it, so here goes the update and the real info.

the goal has been to provide an adequate study tool for the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book of the Bahá'í Faith:

The Kitáb-i-Aqdas is referred to as "the Mother-Book" of the Bahá'í teachings, and the "Charter of the future world civilization" (God Passes By, p. 213 [2]). It is not, however, only a ‘book of laws’: much of the content deals with other matters, notably ethical exhortations and addresses to various individuals, groups, and places. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas also discusses the establishment of Bahá'í administrative institutions, Bahá'í religious practices, laws of personal status, criminal law, ethical exhortations, social principles, miscellaneous laws and abrogations, and prophecies.

it's been a long journey, a lot of work, and it's not completely done yet. I have a list of a few things I want to change, and a few functions/features that I might want to add. but there's quite a lot of information to access already now, and I hope that it will hopefully be helpful. the original idea was to connect the Synopsis and Codification to the verses, questions and answers, and notes to enable an easier overview of what's in the Aqdas and how everything is related and connected.

as I had to enter all the text in the database, I realized that almost everything from the book was already there, so I decided to go on and add the foreword/introduction, supplementary texts, and index, so that basically everything in the Aqdas was available here as well. the advantage is that it's easier to find things, and you don't have to turn any pages to find adjacent texts. there are also some other functions that are not available in the book: search (still needs to be improved), cross-referencing (as I said, the entire reason the project got started) and fullindex (enables to see all references related to an index term).

there are so many people to thank for their help, support and encouragement that to mention them all would be impossible. I have named a few on the about page, and also grouped some together. it's been an awesome journey for me, I have learned a lot, and I hope that it will be useful for many others. I am happy to have been able to follow through with the project, and to hear my parents say they're proud of me means the world to me.

click the logo to visit www.theaqdas.org:

Happy Ayyám-i-Há!

it is that time of the year again, the happy days of Ayyám-i-Há! joy, happiness, sharing and caring. it usually entails giving gifts, enjoying delicious foods in great company, before the month of fasting. I don't think I'll be as extravagant this year as last year, even though that was a lot of fun. maybe some small acts of random kindness here and there. but it will be very different to spend it here, together with 700 others who are in the same situation. we'll see how it goes :)

"Ayyám-i-Há" means literally the "Days of Há" ("há" is an Arabic letter), and in the Bahá'í calendar they form the intercalary days that fill out the 365 or 366 days of the solar year. The Bahá'í calendar consists of 19 months of 19 days each, giving 361 days, requiring the addition of four or five more days.

The calendar was established by the Báb, the prophet who was the forerunner of the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh. But it was Bahá'u'lláh who specified that the Days of Há should be inserted in the calendar just before the month of fasting.

Bahá'u'lláh said of Ayyám-i-Há: "It behoveth the people of Bahá, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name." (from Bahá'í World News Service)

six degrees, facebook, and unity of mankind

if you are on facebook, there's a big chance that you're a member of the group Six Degrees Of Separation - The Experiment. after all, more than 4 million facebook users are. its aim:

"Using the Six Degrees of Separation theory, I want to see if it's possible to contact every single person on facebook. The theory states that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people." (my linking)

the creator of the group, Steve Jackson, recently wrote a report on the progress of the group, which he ended by saying:

"Have I managed to contact every single person on Facebook? I like to think so, but unfortunately I have no way of knowing that for sure. The fact is that more than four million of you took the time to join, and that is nothing short of a miracle. As progress marches on, the world gets smaller. That’s inevitable. Whether we’re separated by six degrees or ten degrees or one degree isn’t important. What is important is the idea that we are connected."

this got me to think of a quotation by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, from more than 100 years ago, talking about the different "candles of unity":

"The first candle is unity in the political realm, the early glimmerings of which can now be discerned. The second candle is unity of thought in world undertakings, the consummation of which will erelong be witnessed. The third candle is unity in freedom which will surely come to pass. The fourth candle is unity in religion which is the corner-stone of the foundation itself, and which, by the power of God, will be revealed in all its splendour. The fifth candle is the unity of nations -- a unity which in this century will be securely established, causing all the peoples of the world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland. The sixth candle is unity of races, making of all that dwell on earth peoples and kindreds of one race. The seventh candle is unity of language, i.e., the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples will be instructed and converse. Each and every one of these will inevitably come to pass, inasmuch as the power of the Kingdom of God will aid and assist in their realization."

the idea is surely spreading!

when a 20 seconds problem takes you 5 hours...

... it's not fun. blargh. new day tomorrow at least.

my room smells of smoke again

it's been almost two months since our last barbeque, but yesterday it was time again. we have a new flatmate and decided to have a nice bbq for the entire orientation. and it turned out really well:


we had some absolutely delicous marinated chicken on the grill, together with mashed potatoes, salad, roasted almonds, beans, and some awesome tadig (literally "bottom of pot"):

  

both potato and corn flakes, turned out really, really well. it wasn't as massive as the last one, but we had a lot of fun, some great desserts, and rounded up the evening with a nice devotional. both food for the body and soul, and a great end to the week.

maybe this should be a tradition too?

update: the entire album can obviously be viewed here

1. O SON OF SPIRIT!

My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.

word definition:
sovereignty: the status, dominion, power, or authority of a sovereign; royalty.

this is the very first Hidden Word, and I like that the very first counsel we get is about our heart. if our heart is pure, kindly and radiant, we will have the same status as royalty. and I will believe that the sovereignty referred to is not in this mortal world...

flower cute animal

so this morning I got this picture sent to me, and forwarded it to a few more friends:


and one of my friend asked me how I found it, if I googled it or what. I said obviously no, how would I be able to find that picture? she suggested I'd search for rose cute animal - no luck.
so... she said I should do for flower cute animal - and sure enough. not only is it on the first page, it's the very first picture! insane google skills! :)

what a beautiful night!

we had no clouds and full moon last night (which was proceeded by a lunar eclipse), and it just turned out to be a beautiful night to take some pictures. since it was quite late, I only took a couple, but it turned out quite nicely:


the pictures are taken just after midnight, with no flash. I even managed to take a picture of my own shadow, and some other shots of the buildings on the Arc, as well as the Shrine of the Báb. check them out here!