Posted by Misagh (47.248.0.41) on December 22, 2002 at 01:04:55:

In Reply to: Re: Before taking in a maid or secretary posted by Stuart Gilman on December 21, 2002 at 21:06:18:

Ahh, good call, my bad. There is mention of a maidservant in the quote from the Kitab-i-Aqdas...

Are you equating maidservant with extra-marital romantic partner by any chance, or simply a regular female servant that usually does indoor work? I think I'm confused by what your understanding of that word is... I just figured that in this quote from the Kitab-i-Aqdas, Baha'u'llah allows us to employ maidservants in the household to help with chores, cleaning, etc., while discouraging us from taking on a mistress, someone with whom one could have extra-marital romantic relationships... (of course, unless otherwise stated, these laws apply mutadis mutandis)

Perhaps (and this is purely my conjecture! I could be wrong!) this was an important enunciation because in the time and place that this was revealed, maidservants as female servants in the household were very rare. From what I gather, it was up to the female members of a family to take on that role, and it was frowned upon to employ extra female helpers for housework. It was considered unchaste to have female maids in the household to do such work. Perhaps this is still the case in parts of the world.

Wow, so much discussion about one small paragraph in the Most Holy Book... :)

Peace,

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