Guest Author - Sandy Mullins

The 16th month of Baha'i calendarSharaf or(Honor) starts on December 30 at sundown. The Baha'i (Badi) Calendar months are named after attributes or qualities of God. Though out all the writings of the Manifestations of God (Prophets) these qualities and/or terms are used through out.

From Buddha we have the words:
“Let the mendicant, the disciple of Buddha, learn this, and not strive for honor but seek wisdom."
(Buddhist, Dhammapada - Sayings of the Buddha 2

Next from the Hebrew writings we have these words:
“But if ye declare the dream and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour; only declare unto me the dream and the interpretation thereof."
Kesuvim (Writings), Daniel 2.6

From The New Testament we hear:
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."
King James Bible, 1 Peter 1.6-9

Then with Muhammed in the Qu’ran:
“Those apostles We endowed with gifts, some above others: to one of them Allah spoke; others He raised to degrees of honor); to Jesus the son of Mary, We gave clear (Signs), and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit.”
The Qur'an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah 2

“So it is those who believe in him, honor him, help him, and follow the light which is sent down with him, it is they who will prosper."
The Qur'an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah 7

“Say: "O my Lord! let my entry be by the Gate of Truth and Honor, and likewise my exit by the Gate of Truth and Honor; and grant me from Thy Presence an authority to aid (me)."
The Qur'an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah 17

Baha’u’llah, the latest manifestation of God tells us:
“Praised be Thou, therefore, O my God, inasmuch as Thou hast graciously enabled us to recognize Him and to acknowledge whatsoever hath been sent down unto Him, and conferred upon us the honor of attaining the presence of the One Whom Thou didst promise in Thy Book and in Thy Tablets."
Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 81

“And when the sanctified souls rend asunder the veils of all earthly attachments and worldly conditions, and hasten to the stage of gazing on the beauty of the Divine Presence and are honoured by recognizing the Manifestation and are able to witness the splendour of God's Most Great Sign in their hearts, then will the purpose of creation, which is the knowledge of Him Who is the Eternal Truth, become manifest."
Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 176/

Abdu’l-Baha (Eldest son of Baha’u’llah) tells us:
"That Thou shouldst give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great"[1] -- that is to say, He will distinguish the righteous by endless bounty, making them shine on the horizon of eternal <honor, like the stars of heaven”
Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 591

“Every lasting glory, honor, grace and beauty which comes to man comes through nearness to God.”
Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 147

“Now must we, likewise, bind ourselves together in the utmost unity, be kind and loving to each other, sacrificing all our possessions, our honor, yea, even our lives for each other.”
Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 156

“They were the source of advancement to the body politic and the cause of the honor and divine civilization of humanity, the foundation of which is one and the same in every dispensation.”
Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 366

“An essential principle of Bahá'u'lláh's teaching is that religion must be the cause of unity and love amongst men; that it is the supreme effulgence of Divinity, the stimulus of life, the source of honor and productive of eternal existence.”
Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 394

“And yet, if we ponder the lessons of history it will become evident that this very sense of honor and dignity is itself one of the bounties deriving from the instructions of the Prophets of God.”
Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 97

Finally from Baha’u’llah:
All praise to the unity of God, and all honor to Him, the sovereign Lord, the incomparable and all-glorious Ruler of the universe, Who, out of utter nothingness, hath created the reality of all  65  things, Who, from naught, hath brought into being the most refined and subtle elements of His creation, and Who, rescuing His creatures from the abasement of remoteness and the perils of ultimate extinction, hath received them into His kingdom of incorruptible glory. Nothing short of His all-encompassing grace, His all-pervading mercy, could have possibly achieved it. How could it, otherwise, have been possible for sheer nothingness to have acquired by itself the worthiness and capacity to emerge from its state of non-existence into the realm of being?
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 64)

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