Bahá'í World Centre

Urgent request for assistance

Mount Carmel Projects Manager writes to the National Spiritual Assembly -

Dear Bahá'í Friends,

Your willing assistance to the Arc and Terraces Projects over the construction years has been greatly appreciated and together with continuing practical support from the Bahá'í World in general, has given a valuable sense of sharing to the Project team, and me personally, in motivating the speedy and effective completion of the various works being undertaken.

Now that the Projects are in the final stage of completion and as part of the project initiative, we intend to hand over to the Universal House of Justice fully staffed and technically competent maintenance divisions to undertake the continuing responsibilities for the care and upkeep of the Arc Buildings and new terrace gardens. In this respect, we have for some time been looking for skilled people within the Bahá'í world community to fill vacant positions in many of the technical disciplines associated with the maintenance work.

With less than 10 months till inauguration we still have many vacancies and are finding it quite difficult to locate friends who have the appropriate skills to fill these critical functions of service at the World Centre.

I would very much appreciate any assistance you are able to give that may encourage applications for the following positions –

Horticulturists – qualified academically or by practical experience

Garden Supervisors – with several years of practical experience in gardens including managing staff

Gardens Assistant Manager – with some background in horticulture and, more importantly, management experience

Secretaries – with experience in administration, accounting functions, payroll, file management, and good computer skills

Equipment Manager – with experience in management and qualifications in mechanical and vehicle repairs

Plumbers – with experience in plumbing and irrigaltion

Should you be able to encourage applications for any of these positions, I would be pleased if you could advise candidates to write directly to the Mount Carmel Projectss Office by way of Fax: 972 4831 330 or e-mail: carmel@bwc.org

All enquiries will be treated with the utmost urgency.

Please accept my grateful thanks for your continuing support of these Projects and your kind attention to this request that may succeed in filling these critical positions.

With loving Baha’I greetings, F. Sahb – Project Manager

 

A decorative lamp along the way to the Centre for the Study of the Texts on the Arc of Mount Carmel.

 

 

 

This beautiful sculptured eagle graces the first of the terraces leading to the Shrine of the Bab.

Institution of Huqúqu'lláh

Huqúqu'lláh: The keys to the prison of self

Though imagining ourselves to be free because we come and go at will, in truth we are all prisoners. We are prisoners of superstition, of fashion, and our self-image. We are prisoners of worry and anger and limited time. But we are imprisoned most of all by our wants, which grow into needs and take over our lives. We build this prison with our own hands, stone by stone, and then carry it around with us. We prisoners, looking out from the bars, find life bewildering, burdensome, and lacking in satisfaction.

Speech is the medium by which we express our thoughts, but money is the medium by which we express our choices in life, what we want, what we value, and how much one thing is worth relative to others. But we are uncomfortable being too aware of our spending as then our foolishness and our selfishness become  too  obvious.  To  protect ourselves from too much self-disclosure, we covertly mutate our wants into needs. Needs must be met, and as such we tend to view them not as choices at all, but as externally imposed necessities. We do not, for example, view breathing as a "choice" since we must breathe. It is easy to make this word switch, turning wants into needs, and small children do it all the time when lobbying for some toy. What is surprising is how easily we fool ourselves with this little shell game.

Our wants transmogrified into needs are the stones out of which we build our prison. Needs, of course, are not negotiable, are fixed and must be met. We tie them in as essential clauses in our contract for happiness. The failure to meet any one of these needs then threatens our whole concept of fairness, of fulfilment, and of happiness itself. The rigidity of the self-contract for needs fulfilment leads to desperation. The prisoner not only strives to get a promotion, but he must have a promotion, even if it means spreading discord and lies about others. The prisoner does not merely wish to show leadership qualities, but must lead at all costs.  This desperation is the excuse for trampling the weak, ignoring family duties, and stepping outside ethical bounds. The desperate person despises the  weak and slow, has no time to listen to those with troubled hearts, and is impatient with the slow and subtle processes of spiritual development. Because our wants only grow with their own fulfillment, they can never be satisfied, and identifying them as needs only creates a gnawing hunger that is never filled. Thus envy becomes a constant companion. The happiness or success of others is then merely a reminder that one's own needs are so far from being met.

Such is the havoc wreaked by this little self-deception, this dodging of culpability for our own grasping and avarice.  Bahá'u'lláh has provided a shield against this skulduggery: the law of Huqúqu'lláh. This mighty law forces us to make the distinction between what we need, and what we merely want; it is only the latter that is subject to the Huqúq. In the process of making this distinction, the sham of false "needs" is exposed. We cannot truthfully say that 100 pairs of shoes is a "need", nor can we really claim that we were compelled to spend a large fraction of our annual income getting ready for carnival. We are not forbidden to spend on these things, just to be clear about what we are doing.  This is crucial, because only when we are honest about what is a want and what is a need can we rein in our wants rather than letting them rule us. Then the walls of the prison begin to crumble. When we recognise this critical distinction, it also disarms our desperation and envy. Not only do we realise that we do not really "need" many of the things that drive us, but even more significantly, we recognise that a portion of the expenditure for that item belongs to God. As such, we owe it to Him to sanctify that expenditure. Does He want us to trample others to obtain funds to be spent in His path? Can we justify ignoring our family duties to make a contribution? When we stop to think, we see that clearly this is not what He wishes, and thus the absurdity of our desperation becomes evident. With this perspective, we can no longer use artificial "needs" to justify our unethical acts, our envy is disarmed, and we are freed from the prison of self.

Dr Craig Loehle

Information on Huqúqu'lláh

Please make specific queries and requests for deepening programmes to the Representatives covering your area at their home telephone numbers.

Post, payments and general enquiries can be directed to: Office of Huqúqu'lláh, 3rd Floor, Bridge House, 97-101 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1DR Tel: 01732 770207  Fax: 01732 369733 e-mail: mailto:huquq@bahai.org.ukCheques should be made payable to: NSA of the Bahá'ís - Huqúqu'lláh

Calculation: One Huqúq Unit = 2.224563 troy oz of gold. Value of gold on 1st September 2000 was £190.00 per oz So one Huqúq Unit = £422.67

Once a believer's non-exempt assets reach or exceed one Huqúqu'lláh Unit, Huqúqu'lláh is payable at 19% of each Unit. 19% of £422.67 = £80.31 The current value of gold can be found in newspapers and on the Web site: http://www.goldline.co.uk/

Board of Trustees of Huqúqu'lláh for the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom

Mrs Val McGinley, Rep of Ireland - 00353 662 0442 Dr Wendi Momen, England 01767 627626 Mr Hadi Rahmani, England  - 01672 516205 Dr Ramin Khadem, Secretary, England - 0171 7947641

Representatives

Mr Andrew Goodwin Scotland: 019755 63640 Mrs Azar Melville - Wales: 01558 822184 Mrs Rena Roohipour - N Ireland: 00169 373 8363 Mr Farzin Yourtchi - England: 01732 508616