Bahá'í Fund - contribution responsibilities

From Lights of Guidance (to subcategorize)

To Give and to be Generous

"...To give and to be generous are attributes of Mine; well is it with him that adorneth himself with My virtues."

(Bahá'u'lláh, Hidden Words, Persian No. 49, in Lights of Guidance, no. 835)

God Does Not Ask from Any Soul Except According to His Ability

"...God does not ask from any soul except according to his ability. This contribution must come from all cities and villages from all the believers of God...

"...whosoever comes with one good act, God will give him tenfold. There is no doubt that the living Lord shall assist and confirm the generous soul."

('Abdu'l-Bahá to the friends in the East and the West: Star of the West, Vol. VI, No. 17, p. 139, in Lights of Guidance, no. 836)

Responsibility of Every Bahá'í

"...Every Bahá'í, no matter how poor, must realize what a grave responsibility he has to shoulder in this connection, and should have confidence that his spiritual progress as a believer in the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh will largely depend upon the measure in which he proves, in deeds, his readiness to support materially the Divine institutions of his Faith."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of India, July 17, 1937: Extracts from a compilation of the Guardian's letters on Bahá'í Funds and Contributions published in Bahá'í Funds: Contributions and Administration, Canada, in Lights of Guidance, no. 837)

There Can Be No Limit to One's Contributions

"...There can be no limit to one's contributions to the national fund. The more one can give the better it is, specially when such offerings necessitate the sacrifice of other wants and desires on the part of the donor. The harder the sacrifice the more meritorious will it be, of course, in the sight of God. For after all it is not so much the quantity of one's offerings that matters, but rather the measure of deprivation that such offerings entail...."

(From a letter of the Guardian to an individual believer, December 31, 1935: Life-blood of the Cause, p. 10, in Lights of Guidance, no. 838)

Service Every Believer Can Render

"...Contributing to the Fund is a service that every believer can render, be he poor or wealthy; for this is a spiritual responsibility in which the amount given is not important. It is the degree of the sacrifice of the giver, the love with which he makes his gift, and the unity of all the friends in this service which bring spiritual confirmations....

"Much of the present rapid expansion of the Faith is taking place in areas of great poverty where the believers, however much they sacrifice, cannot produce sufficient funds to sustain the work. It is these very areas which are the most fruitful in teaching, and a sum of money spent here will produce ten times--even a hundred times--the results obtainable in other parts of the world. Yet in the past months the Universal House of Justice has had to refuse a number of appeals for assistance from such areas because there just was not enough money in the International Fund.

"It should therefore be the aim of every local and national community to become not only self-supporting, but to expend its funds with such wisdom and economy as to be able to contribute substantially to the Bahá'í International Fund, thus enabling the House of Justice to aid the work in fruitful but impoverished areas, to assist new National Assemblies to start their work, to contribute to major international undertakings...."

(From a letter of the Universal House of Justice to Bahá'ís of the East and West, December 18, 1963: Wellspring of Guidance, pp. 19-20, in Lights of Guidance, no. 839)

Commerce, Agriculture and Industries Blessed Many Times

"In brief, O ye friends of God, rest assured that in place of this contribution, your commerce, your agriculture and industries shall be blessed many times...."

('Abdu'l-Bahá to the friends in the East and the West: Star of the West, Vol. VI, No. 17, p. 139, in Lights of Guidance, no. 840)

Believers Alone Have Bounty of Contributing

"The overwhelming majority of the Bahá'ís in the world are poor people, but it is to the believers, and to the believers alone, that Bahá'u'lláh has given the bounty of contributing the material things of this world for the progress of His Faith. It is not the amount of the contribution which is important, but the degree of self-sacrifice that it entails--for it is this that attracts the confirmations of God."

(From a letter of the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies receiving assistance from the Bahá'í International Fund, April 13, 1975, in Lights of Guidance, no. 841)

Should Not Incur Debts for Purpose of Contributing to Fund

"Even though Shoghi Effendi would urge every believer to sacrifice as much as possible for the sake of contributing towards the fund of the National Assembly, yet he would discourage the friends to incur debts for that purpose. We are asked to give what we have, not what we do not possess, especially if such an act causes suffering to others. In such matters we should use judgement and wisdom and take into our confidence other devoted Bahá'ís."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian, dated May 4, 1932, to an individual believer: Bahá'í Funds: Contributions and Administration, Canada, p. 7, in Lights of Guidance, no. 842)