The Kitáb-i-Aqdas
Notes
been customary to eat with the hands from a communal bowl.
74.Adopt ye such usages as are most in keeping with refinement.
¶46
This is the first of several passages referring to the importance of refinement and cleanliness. The original Arabic word “laṭáfah”, rendered here as “refinement”, has a wide range of meanings with both spiritual and physical implications, such as elegance, gracefulness, cleanliness, civility, politeness, gentleness, delicacy and graciousness, as well as being subtle, refined, sanctified and pure. In accordance with the context of the various passages where it occurs in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, it has been translated either as “refinement” or “cleanliness”.
75.He Who is the Dawning-place of God’s Cause hath no partner in the Most Great Infallibility.
¶47
Chapter 45 in
Some Answered Questions is devoted to an explanation by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá of this verse of the Aqdas. In this chapter He stresses, among other things, the inseparability of essential “
infallibility” from the Manifestations of God, and asserts that “
whatever emanates from Them is identical with the truth, and conformable to reality”, that “
They are not under the shadow of the former laws”, and “
Whatever They say is the word of God, and whatever They perform is an upright action”.
76.Unto every father hath been enjoined the instruction of his son and daughter in the art of reading and writing
¶48
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in His
Tablets, not only calls attention to the responsibility of parents to educate all their children, but He also clearly specifies that the “
training and culture of daughters is more necessary than that of sons”, for girls will one
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