Need to start family
It is Important for Man to Raise a Family; avoid youthful complacency and avoid future source of regret[edit]
"It is highly important for man to raise a family. So long as he is young, because of youthful self-complacency, he does not realize its significance, but this will be a source of regret when he grows old..."
- (From a talk of Abdu'l-Bahá: Family Life, A Compilation of the Universal House of Justice, p. 13, no. 43, in Lights of Guidance, no. 733)
Can truly have a family life only when there is a child[edit]
"The new child which will soon be given to you by God is, indeed, a divine blessing, of which you should feel proud, and of the manifold responsibilities and obligations which it necessarily entails you should become fully aware. It is now that you can truly say that you have a family life. Without a child there can be no family, and through him the bonds of love and of service can be truly and strongly maintained between the wife and husband."
- (On behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 4 November 1933, at https://bahai-library.com/compilation_naming_babies )
Baha'u'llah and the Bab emphasize the need of children in marriage[edit]
"Both Baha'u'llah and the Bab emphasize the need of children in marriage. The latter, for example, states that to beget children is the highest physical fruit of man's existence. But neither say whether the number of children should be limited or not. Or if it is to be limited what is the proper method to be used."
- (On behalf of Shoghi Effendi, letter dated 2/3/32 to Mabel Hyde Paine, in Lights of Guidance 260, cited in Unrestrained as the Wind, p. 132)
Notes[edit]
- Regarding last two quotes, there is also the following, however:
"A couple who are physically incapable of having children may, of course, marry, since the procreation of children is not the only purpose of marriage. However, it would be contrary to the spirit of the Teachings for a couple to decide voluntarily never to have any children."
- (From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, November 3, 1982; in Lights of Guidance, no. 1269)
