________________
Devotion and Worship in the Baha'i Faith
.....arts, sciences and all crafts are counted as worship ..... Briefly, all effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives ..... This is worship: to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is prayer. A physician ministering to the sick, gently, tenderly, free from prejudice and believing in the solidarity of the human race, is giving praise.
[Baha'ullah and the New Era)
Congregational Prayer
As there is no clergy in the Baha'i Faith, there is no congregational prayer of the type found in some other world faiths, where the prayers are led by the priest and the congregation join in the responses.
There is only one instance in which Baha'u'llah commanded 'congregational' prayer and that is the Prayer for the Dead, in which one believer recites the prayer whilst all others present are required to stand. Apart from the Prayer for the Dead, congregational prayer is forbidden by Baha'u'llah.
This does not mean to say that Baha'is do not gather together for shared worship, but that they would not recite prayer in unison. Rather, each one reads in turn from the prayers and writings revealed by Baha'u'llah, His forerunner The Bab, and His son, 'Abdu'l-Baha. An exception to this is found where prayers are set to music: choral arrangements of Baha'i prayers are permitted.
Types of prayer in the Baha'i Faith
As a tenet of faith, Baha'is believe that all the major world religions have come from the same Source and are part of one, evolving, progressive Revelation. In their private devotions, therefore, and from time to time during shared worship, Baha'is will also read from the revealed Scriptures of other Faiths.
An individual Baha'i may, in his private prayer, use his own words directly from the heart, but would not normally do so in shared worship. To Baha'is, the revealed Word of God is seen as having the greater power and efficacy.
Baha'is pray together frequently at many types of event. They hold meetings of a purely devotional nature. They may gather together to pray for a specific purpose: for the wellbeing of a member of the community who is sick, for example. There is very little ritual in the
- 33 -
