Guest Author - Sandy Mullins

The 3rd month of the Baha'i Calendar Jamal (Beauty) starts at sundown on April 27. As in past articles about the Baha’i calendar I would like to share how different religions or their Manifestations of God (prophets) have used the word Beauty in their writings. Also, take a moment to stop and take a look around as Spring is starting to show up. The snow has melted here, things are turning green, flowers are getting ready to bloom, birds are singing all around, vast in the beauty of God.

Buddha tell us:
The blight of beauty is laziness, and
carelessness is the blight of a guard.
(Dhammapada - Sayings of the Buddha)

It is not just by fine speech or by flower-like beauty that one is admirable, if one is envious, mean and deceitful, but when that sort of behaviour has been eliminated, rooted out and destroyed, that faultless sage is said to be admirable.
(Dhammapada - Sayings of the Buddha 1)

The Torah tells us:
Ascribe unto the LORD the glory due unto His name; bring an offering, and come before Him; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
(Kesuvim (Writings), Divrei HaYomim (Chronicles))

Honour and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
(Kesuvim (Writings), Tehillim (Psalms))

His branches shall spread, and hisbeauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his fragrance as Lebanon.
(Nev'im (Prophets), Hoshaia (Hosea))

The Bible tells us:
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
(King James Bible, 1 Chronicles)

And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.
(King James Bible, 2 Chronicles)


From the Qur’an we are told:
We have indeed decked the lower heaven with beauty (in) the stars -- (For beauty) and for guard against all obstinate rebellious evil spirits.
(The Qur'an), Surah 37)

Baha’u’llah tells us:
Blessed is the man that hath inhaled the fragrance of the Most Merciful, and turned unto the Dawning-Place of His beauty, in this resplendent Dawn.
(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 60)

Whosoever faceth unto Him, hath surely faced unto God, and whosoever turneth away from Him, hath surely turned away from My Beauty and disbelieved in My Proof and is of
the prodigal
(Compilations, Baha'i Prayers 9, p. 23)


Finally I leave you with this prayer:

AID AND ASSISTANCE

O Thou Whose face is the object of my adoration, Whose beauty is my sanctuary, Whose habitation is my goal, Whose praise is my hope, Whose providence is my companion, Whose love is the cause of my being, Whose mention is my solace, Whose nearness is my desire, Whose presence is my dearest wish and highest aspiration, I entreat Thee not to withhold from me the things Thou didst ordain for the chosen ones among Thy servants. Supply me, then, with the good of this world and of the next.

Thou, truly, art the King of all men. There is no God but Thee, the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Generous.
( Bahá'u'lláh, Compilations, Baha'i Prayers, p. 16)


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