Question: What will be the food of the future?

Answer: "Fruit and grains. The time will come when meat will no longer be eaten. Medical science is only in its infancy, yet it has shown that our natural diet is that which grows out of the ground. The people will gradually develop up to the condition of this natural food." 

' Abdu'l-Baha  (Words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, recorded by Julia M. Grundy. "Ten Days in the Light of 'Akká"; The Compilation of Compilations vol. I)

Steadfastness = faith, knowledge, obedience

In the spring of 1920 Emogene Hoagg, an early American believer, sailed for Haifa to report to her beloved ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. One day He called her to Him and asked her to tell Him about the Faith in America. After recounting some of her experiences and observations she asked Him why there was not more unity among the American Bahá’ís. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid His hand on a book beside Him, and said, 

"In this book is a story of a man who went to a doctor for treatment. He told the doctor his symptoms. First, he told him of the pains in his head, and of his not being able to sleep. To which the doctor replied, 'That is due to old age.'

Then, the man told him that he had a great deal of pain in his stomach, and couldn't digest his food. The doctor replied, 'This is also due to old age.'

'Oh, but my arms and legs and back pain me constantly,' said the man testily. And the doctor said, 'This, too, is old age.'

Then the man grew very angry, and asked how it was possible that a doctor, who had studied for years to learn how to cure people of their ills, had nothing more to say to a patient than that his illness is due to old age. And the doctor replied, 'Your anger, too, is due to old age.' "

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, rising, replied to Emogene's question as to the cause of the lack of unity in America, "The condition in America is due to lack of steadfastness." And He strode out of the room.

When relating this story, Emogene added, "Steadfastness means faith, knowledge, obedience." 

(Emogen Hoagg, quoted by Amine De Mille, Baha’i News October, 1973)

The Tablet of Visitation for the Báb and Baha’u’llah

The Visitation Tablet for the Tombs of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh is in three parts: first part was revealed by Bahá'u'lláh to a believer who could not make the Pilgrimage. A few days after the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh The Master asked Nabil to arrange selections to be chanted in the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh. Of the Tablet of Visitation the first part is not addressed to God but to Bahá'u'lláh Himself. The second part is a prayer revealed by Bahá'u'lláh addressing God and the remaining paragraphs refer again to Bahá'u'lláh and not to God directly. It has been used ever since as the Visitation Tablet. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Comments by Shoghi Effendi, recorded by Mary Maxwell [Ruhiyyih Khanum] during pilgrimage with May Maxwell, 1937; “Haifa Notes”)

Question: Why did God allow evil to exist in the world?

Answer: A satisfactory explanation has never, and can never be given. Surely God could have created some other scheme that would have allowed less evil. His motives, the way He works, are beyond us. It would cease to be a Revelation if Americans could resolve all these mysteries - it would be a product of the American mind. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Comments by Shoghi Effendi, recorded by Mary Maxwell [Ruhiyyih Khanum] during pilgrimage with May Maxwell, 1937; “Haifa Notes”)

To abstain from meat and be content with vegetables

If one should wholly abstain from meat and be contented with vegetables, it would be much better. And how difficult it is for a man to kill an animal and to prepare the food for himself. But as it is already killed and we find it in the market we buy it. As it is now killed, it is better to take and eat it than to leave it to become out of use. But it is very hard for a soul to take a lamb and kill it and to make of it a certain dish for a meal. If the people could bear it, the prophets would prohibit the eating of flesh. 

- 'Abdu'l-Baha  (Words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, October 1909, Akka, recorded by Miss Wilson of Boston, Mass., Miss Engelhorn of Portland, Ore., Miss Stewart of Philadephia, Pa, and Mrs. Brittingham of Brooklyn, NY)

An example of the existence of a spiritual link between the Guardian and the invisible world of God

One evening, as I entered the dining-room, the Guardian was already seated at his place at the table, his face shining with an inner jubilation which he could neither control nor conceal. At his side, upon the table, stood a small bundle, an object wrapped in a coloured silk handkerchief, typical of the East and of Iran in particular. As soon as we were all seated and attentive, even before dinner was served, he said that a pilgrim had that day arrived from Tihrán, bringing with him one of the most precious documents to be placed in the archives. He untied the handkerchief and with great reverence lifted out a manuscript in book form, and, placing it in a position that everyone could see, added that it contained two original Tablets in the handwriting of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. One was the Íqán and the other was a Tablet the name of which I do not now remember.

These manuscripts, Shoghi Effendi stated, were transcribed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in His beautiful calligraphy, when He was about eighteen years old, and bore some additions in the Hand of Bahá'u'lláh, insertions which He had written on the margins of many pages in reviewing the manuscripts. Shoghi Effendi had never before seen the original of the Íqán and was deeply astonished to discover that the phrase he had chosen from this book and placed on the title page of his translation of Nabíl's Narrative, The Dawn-Breakers, was an after-reflection of Bahá'u'lláh's, written by Himself, on the margin of one page. The phrase in question is the one starting: 'I stand, life in hand, ready; that perchance...'