Patterns of Activity - Weekly

Events or Activities for Specific Days of the Week

Sunday School

• (See also perhaps "meetings for teaching" below for another weekly study class (though with an emphasis on youth))

Friday as the (Future) Day of Rest

"Abdu'l-Bahá gives no reason whatever why Friday has been chosen as the day of rest in the Bahá'í calendar. He just affirms it."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, July 10, 1939: Bahá'í News, No. 162, April 1943, p. 5, in Lights of Guidance, no. 372)

Friday Alms

'Abdu'l-Bahá gave alms to the poor each Friday (see Passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 4), but this has not been indicated as a duty for all Bahá'ís, and it may even have simply been a tradition for Him alone. (And Shoghi Effendi discontinued this practice.) However it is mentioned here for the sake of completeness.

Events or Activities to be Weekly in General (or possibly even more frequently)

Meetings for teaching

“Once in every week, gather ye the steadfast friends together in a meeting place, and there let them engage in praising and glorifying the Lord.”

('Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá’í Meetings/The Nineteen Day Feast , p. 6)

"Likewise the public meetings in which one day during the week the believers gather to be engaged in the commemoration of God, to read Communes and deliver effective speeches is acceptable and beloved."

('Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'í World Faith, p. 411)

“9. Can regular meetings for the benefit of the local friends be held? If so, how often and when?...’Abdu’l-Bahá exhorts the friends to hold such meetings as a “constant” activity, and praises weekly meetings. He repeatedly counsels the believers to read and recite the Holy Word in such meetings and deliver speeches on the teachings, the proofs and the history of the Faith.”

(Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly in a letter December 24, 1975 giving suggested goals for Local Spiritual Assemblies)

(However, these have been held more frequently:)

"Beginning in approximately 1904, a learned Iranian believer known as Sadru's-Sudúr established the first teacher-training class for Bahá'í youth in Tehran with 'Abdu'l-Bahá's encouragement. The classes met daily, and the graduates, who had been trained in the beliefs of other religions as well as various aspects of the Bahá'í Faith, contributed greatly to the expansion and consolidation of the Cause in their native land."

(Bahá'í World Centre, Century of Light, Note 127 for p. 109)

See also

• Meeting for teaching

Devotional meetings (ideally daily, at least in the future, but can be weekly at first)

"We have been watching with profound interest the manner in which the goal of encouraging the friends to meet for dawn prayers is being carried out. In some rural areas this has become already an established practice of the friends and indeed a source of blessing and benefit to them as they pursue their activities during the day, as well as increasing the consciousness of community solidarity. In other areas, the friends have found that, because of the distances involved, better results are obtained by meeting for prayer in smaller groups. In yet other areas, as a first step, plans have been made to meet for dawn prayers once a week."

(Universal House of Justice, Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-86, p. 311)

See also

• Devotional meetings

Law to Bathe at least once a week (more frequently for the feet)

• Bathing (at least once a week)
• Washing feet (at least once every 3 days in the winter and once a day in the summer)