Archives

Compilations regarding[edit]

Topics[edit]

Letters[edit]

https://bahai-library.com/uhj_bahai_archives_texts

Archives should be brought together with other components of the local and national Hazíratu'l-Quds; will contribute to the Hazíratu'l-Quds becoming a focus of Bahá'í administrative activity and symbolizing the ideal of service[edit]

"...the institution of the Haziratu'l-Quds - the seat of the Baha'i National Assembly and pivot of all Baha'i administrative activity in future ... Complementary in its functions to those of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar - an edifice exclusively reserved for Baha'i worship - this institution, whether local or national, will, as its component parts, such as the Secretariat, the Treasury, the Archives, the Library, the Publishing Office, the Assembly Hall, the Council Chamber, the Pilgrims' Hostel, are brought together and made jointly to operate in one spot, be increasingly regarded as the focus of all Baha'i administrative activity, and symbolize, in a befitting manner, the ideal of service animating the Baha'i community in its relation alike to the Faith and to mankind in general."

(Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 339-340)

From Lights of Guidance (uncategorized)[edit]

Bahá'í Archives, Institution of[edit]

"The importance of the institution of Bahá'í Archives is not due only to the many teaching facilities it procures, but is essentially to be found in the vast amount of historical data and information it offers both to the present day administrators of the Cause, and to the Bahá'í historians of the future. The institution of Bahá'í Archives is indeed a most valuable storehouse of information regarding all aspects of the Faith, historical, administrative as well as doctrinal."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, September 25, 1936, in Lights of Guidance, no. 328)

Future Generations Will Appreciate Archives[edit]

"...Future generations of believers will be surely in a better position than we are to truly and adequately appreciate the many advantages and facilities which the institution of the Archives offers to individual believers and also to the community at large."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, September 25, 1936, in Lights of Guidance, no. 329)

All Assembly Members Should Have Access to the Files--Certain Items Can Be Listed as "Confidential"[edit]

"In reply to your letter of May 13th, 1976 the Universal House of Justice instructs us to say that all members of the Spiritual Assembly are equal and should have access to the files and minutes of the Assembly of which they are members. It is, however, within the discretion of any Spiritual Assembly to so organize its files and records that certain items could be listed as 'confidential' and access to those so classified could only be had by a specific decision of the Assembly itself."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Assembly of Ireland, June 8, 1976, in Lights of Guidance, no. 330)

Bahá'í Archives to be Established in Each Bahá'í Administrative Centre[edit]

"Another necessary and highly commendable undertaking is the founding of a Bahá'í Archives in each of the Bahá'í provincial administrative centres. ...Anyone who, spontaneously and of his own free will, donates material to the Archives of his National Spiritual Assembly--whether this be Tablets, books, pictures, objects or the like--and especially if his inheritors are not accounted of the people of Baha, or are not considered by him as trustworthy or reliable, will have performed a highly meritorious act in the sight of God, and his name will be perpetuated in the records of the Spiritual Assemblies and his memory enshrined in the Archives for ever."

(From a letter of Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá'ís of the East, July 1925, translated from the Persian: Ibid., p. 2, in Lights of Guidance, no. 332)