The Teaching Prayer for the Southern States was our first choice when we decided that we needed to represent the Tablets of the Divine Plan in the Centenary Collection because its Arabic is so melodious.
The Tablets of the Divine Plan represent the first comprehensive, systematic, long-term plan for expansion and consolidation of the Bahá’í Faith. Shoghi Effendi describes the Tablets of the Divine Plan, together with Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablet of Carmel and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament as three of the “Charters” of the Bahá’í Faith.
For this publication we decided to spotlight three aspects of the Tablets of teh divine pPlan in three separate graphics:
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The first is an infographic that we designed to display in an elegant and visually-telling manner the incredible intensity with which both sets of Tablets of the Divine Plan were revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, at a rate of one every few days in Spring of 1916 and Spring of 1917.
The last three Tablets from 1916 and all the Tablets from 1917 are the ones containing the famous teaching prayers for the United States and Canada.
The one we chose to spotlight, the Teaching Prayer for the Southern States, and the second Tablet to the Southern States were revealed on February 3, 1917.
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The second infographic is a teaser of two extraordinary letters written by the Universal House of Justice on 26 March 2016, exactly 100 years after the first Tablet was sent to the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
The address of the letters themselves are so eloquent and momentous, they are the perfect reminder of this historic, timeless Charter that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave to us over two years, and the most befitting way to remember Him in this year where we commemorate the Centenary of His Ascension:
1. To the chosen recipients of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets of the Divine Plan, the Bahá’ís of the United States and the Bahá’ís of Canada
2. To the Bahá’ís of the World acting under the Mandate of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá
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A graphic highlighting four articles from Brent Poirier’s wonderful blog dedicated to the Tablets of the Divine Plan!
1. A post on archival photographs from the National Archives of the Bahá’ís of the United States (and used with permission) of the first Tablet to the Northeastern States along with further background and photos.
2. A post on archival photographs from the National Archives of the Bahá’ís of the United States (and used with permission) of the first Tablet to the Western States along with further background and photos.
3. An article on the geography book ‘Abdu’l-Bahá used for place names when revealing the Tablets of the Divine Plan
4. A wonderfully written and extremely interesting article entitled « And the Leaves of the Tree were for the Healing of the Nations » about the four individuals named in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, all women: Margaret Green, Agnes Alexander, Alma Knobloch and May Maxwell.
