168. Ye have been prohibited from making use of pulpits. Whoso wisheth to recite unto you the verses of his Lord, let him sit on a chair placed upon a dais # 154These provisions have their antecedent in the Persian Bayan. The Bab forbade the use of pulpits for the delivery of sermons and the reading of the Text. He specified, instead, that to enable all to hear the Word of God clearly, a chair for the speaker should be placed upon a platform.
In comments on this law, Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi have made it clear that in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar (where sermons are prohibited and only the words of Holy Scripture may be read) the reader may stand or sit, and if necessary to be better heard, may use a low moveable platform, but that no pulpit is permitted. In the case of meetings in places other than the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, it is also permissible for the reader or speaker to sit or stand, and to use a platform. In one of His Tablets, when reiterating the prohibition of the use of pulpits in any location, Abdu'l-Baha has stressed that when Baha'is deliver their speeches in gatherings, they are to do so in an attitude of utmost humility and self-abnegation.