Directives From the Guardian
85 FUNERAL (Bahá'í Funeral Service)
"Regarding the Bahá'í funeral service: It is extremely
simple, as it consists only of a congregational prayer to be read
before burial. This prayer will be made available to the friends
when the Aqdas is translated and published. In the meantime
your N.S.A. should take great care lest any uniform procedure
or ritual in this matter be adopted or imposed upon
the friends. The danger in this, as in some other cases regarding
Bahá'í worship, is that a definite system of rigid rituals and
practices be developed among the believers. The utmost simplicity
and flexibility should be observed, and a selection from the
Bahá'í Sacred Writing should serve the purpose at the present
time, provided this selection is not rigidly and uniformly
adopted on all such occasions."
"There is no objection whatsoever to non-Bahá'ís being
present when the long prayer for the dead is read, as long as
they respect our manner of reading it by rising and standing
as the Bahá'ís do on this occasion. Nor, indeed, is there any
objection to non-Bahá'ís being present during the reading of
any Bahá'í prayer for the departed.
"An official Bahá'í funeral service should only be given for
a believer, but there is no objection to the reading of Bahá'í
prayers, or indeed, to a Bahá'í conducting the funeral service
of a non-Baha'i if this has been requested."
Directives From the Guardian
pages 32-33
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