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When an embryo is developing in its mother’s womb, it has no concept of the life outside the womb that it is preparing for. In the same way, we are preparing ourselves in this physical life for a spiritual life that we can’t fully understand yet. Just as the embryo needs to develop physical limbs and senses for physical life, so our souls must grow and prepare for the next life by developing our spiritual qualities such as kindness and love. In the Bahá’í view then, this life is a preparation for the life hereafter. We are told that our souls will continue to live on after physical death, on an eternal journey towards God.
Because we are spiritual beings, we need to recognise that true happiness is based on spiritual behaviour. We have been created noble and can choose to do good deeds which are worthy of our nobility or focus only on our own selfish desires which bring us down and ultimately lead to unhappiness. Bahá’u’lláh defined prayer as food for the soul – we need its nourishment every day. There are many hundreds of prayers revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, `Abdu’l-Bahá and the Báb, which Bahá’ís may choose to use at any time. Details of obligatory prayer and fasting can be found in the topic “Bahá’í Way of Life – for the Individual”.
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The soul emanates from God and eventually returns to God.
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The qualities of the soul only gradually become apparent as the child grows.
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He also said that God created us out of His love for us.
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This is not only an invocation of God, it also helps to induce a state of meditation. It should be said whilst sitting down and turning towards God.
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`Abdu’l-Bahá said “Meditation is the key to opening the doors of mysteries.” He said that when you meditate you are speaking with your own spirit. If you turn your mind towards practical things, you will receive knowledge about these. If you concentrate on spiritual things, you will learn about those. There is no particular form of Bahá’í meditation other than those mentioned above.
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Tests can be either stumbling blocks or stepping stones, depending on how we respond to them. They are an opportunity to learn and to develop our good qualities.
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Evil is the absence of good, in the same way that darkness is the absence of light. Sometimes the Bahá’í scriptures refer to the “Evil One” but this generally refers to the self, which seeks to place its own needs above those of others. In this way, every human being has the potential to help the world by doing good, or to cause suffering by choosing not to do good.
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Through this teaching, Bahá’u’lláh explains that we do not need to spend all our time in prayer in order to be spiritual. Bahá’ís do not believe in shutting ourselves away from the world; on the contrary, we should do our best to contribute, through our daily life, to the well-being of all. Our occupation is one way of doing this, however humble it may be.
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The soul will cease to be associated with the body and will continue to progress through all the worlds of God.
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Our nearness to God in the next world depends on how we progress in this world. When we reach the next world, we will realise how much spiritual progress we have achieved in this world. We will also recognise people we have known and loved. In the meantime we can pray for those who have passed on, and they can pray for us. We can also perform good deeds in their name.
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