True Religion
Religion helps our souls to soar. Religion is our protector.
Religion is the source of bliss, eternal joy and happiness.
Religion is the call for peace and honor and true dignity.
True religion is the enduring foundation
At the heart of civilization.
True religion is the basis of freedom,
Of real virtue, love in God's kingdom.
All religions long to be in harmony.
All religions long for love and unity.
All religions long to be in harmony.
True religion is a mighty sea, surging with true love, grace and God's bounty.
~
Chorus: God is the King of true religion.
God sends us guidance thru His Manifestations of Divine Love.
God is the King of true religion.
God sends us guidance thru His Manifestations of Love,
Thru His Manifestations, His Manifestations of Truth,
Eternal and divine, eternal and divine. (repeat all)
Revelations of His Grace, continuous,
Manifestations of His Spirit, loving us.
Revelations of His supreme Will, guiding us, and always always helping us.
~
True religion seerves humanity, breathing life into the hearts for real prosperity.
~
References:
"It is certain that the greatest of instrumentalities for achieving the advancement and the glory of man, the supreme agency for the enlightenment and the redemption of the world, is love and fellowship and unity among all the members of the human race. Nothing can be effected in the world, not even conceivably, without unity and agreement, and the perfect means for engendering fellowship and union is true religion." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 73)
~
"True religion is the source of love and agreement amongst men, the cause of the development of praiseworthy qualities; but the people are holding to the counterfeit and imitation, negligent of the reality which unifies; so they are bereft and deprived of the radiance of religion. They follow superstitions inherited from their fathers and ancestors.... When the lights of religion become darkened the materialists appear. They are the bats of night. The decline of religion is their time of activity; they seek the shadows when the world is darkened and clouds have spread over it.
His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh has risen from the eastern horizon. Like the glory of the sun He has come into the world. He has reflected the reality of divine religion, dispelled the darkness of imitations, laid the foundation of new teachings and resuscitated the world." (Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 237)
~
"Unquestionably there must be agreement between true religion and science." (Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 240)
~
"...it is likewise evident that the Lord of mankind has bestowed infinite bounties upon the world in this century of maturity and consummation. The ocean of divine mercy is surging, the vernal showers are descending, the Sun of Reality is shining gloriously. Heavenly teachings applicable to the advancement in human conditions have been revealed in this merciful age. This re-formation and renewal of the fundamental reality of religion constitute the true and outworking spirit of modernism, the unmistakable light of the world, the manifest effulgence of the Word of God, the divine remedy for all human ailment and the bounty of eternal life to all mankind." (Abdu'l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 10)
~
"We must not be fettered. If we renounce these fetters we shall agree, for all are seekers of reality. The counterfeit or imitation of true religion has adulterated human belief and the foundations have been lost sight of. The variance of these imitations has produced enmity and strife, war and bloodshed. Now the glorious and brilliant twentieth century has dawned and the divine bounty is radiating universally. The Sun of Truth is shining forth in intense enkindlement. This is verily the century when these imitations must be forsaken, superstitions abandoned and God alone worshiped. We must look at the reality of the prophets and their teachings in order that we may agree.
Praise be to God! the springtime of God is at hand. This century is verily the spring season. The world of mind and the kingdom of soul have become fresh and verdant by its bestowals. It has resuscitated the whole realm of existence. On one hand the lights of reality are shining; on the other the clouds of divine mercy are pouring down the fullness of heavenly bounty. Wonderful material progress is evident and great spiritual discoveries are being made. Truly this can be called 17 the miracle of centuries for it is replete with manifestations of the miraculous. The time has come when all mankind shall be united, when all races shall be loyal to one fatherland, all religions become one religion and racial and religious bias pass away. It is a day in which the oneness of humankind shall uplift its standard and international peace like the true morning flood the world with its light. Therefore we offer supplications to God, asking him to dispel these gloomy clouds and uproot these imitations in order that the East and West may become radiant with love and unity; that the nations of the world shall embrace each other and the ideal spiritual brotherhood illumine the world like the glorious sun of the high heavens."(Abdu'l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 16)
~
"Inasmuch as human interpretations and blind imitations differ widely, religious strife and disagreement have arisen among mankind, the light of true religion has been extinguished and the unity of the world of humanity destroyed. The prophets of God voiced the spirit of unity and agreement. They have been the founders of divine reality. Therefore if the nations of the world forsake imitations and investigate the reality underlying the revealed Word of God they will agree and become reconciled. For reality is one and not multiple." (Abdu'l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 84)
~
"Still another cause of disagreement and dissension has been the formation of religious sects and denominations. Bahá'u'lláh said that God has sent religion for the purpose of establishing fellowship among humankind and not to create strife and discord, for all religion is founded upon the love of humanity. Abraham promulgated this principle, Moses summoned all to its recognition, Christ established it, and Muhammad directed mankind to its standard. This is the reality of religion. If we abandon hearsay and investigate the reality and inner significance of the heavenly teachings, we will find the same divine foundation of love for humanity. The purport is that religion is intended to be the cause of unity, love and fellowship and not discord, enmity and estrangement. Man has forsaken the foundation of divine religion and adhered to blind imitations. Each nation has clung to its own imitations, and because these are at variance, warfare, bloodshed and destruction of the foundation of humanity have resulted. True religion is based upon love and agreement. Bahá'u'lláh has said, "If religion and faith are the causes of enmity and sedition, it is far better to be nonreligious, and the absence of religion would be preferable; for we desire religion to be the cause of amity and fellowship. If enmity and hatred exist, irreligion is preferable." Therefore, the removal of this dissension has been specialized in Bahá'u'lláh, for religion is the divine remedy for human antagonism and discord. But when we make the remedy the cause of the disease, it would be better to do without the remedy." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 231)
~
"Our purpose is to show how true religion promotes the civilization and honor, the prosperity and prestige, the learning and advancement of a people once abject, enslaved and ignorant, and how, when it falls into the hands of religious leaders who are foolish and fanatical, it is diverted to the wrong ends, until this greatest of splendors turns into blackest night." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 80)
~
"Hence, these superannuated, tattered dogmas, which are current among present day religions, must be totally given up; and thus, free from past traditions, the people must investigate the real objects of divine religion—when the true religion of God shall become unveiled in the utmost beauty and sublimity in the assemblage of the world." (Compilations, Baha'i Scriptures, p. 448)
~
"Human nature is made up of possibilities for both good and evil. True religion can enable it to soar in the highest realm of the spirit, while its abscence can, as we already witness around us, cause it to fall to the lowest depth of degradation and misery." (From a letter written on behalf of Shogi Effendi to Alfred Lunt, 1936) (Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 208)
~
"Divorced from true religion, morals lose their effectiveness and cease to guide and control man's individual and social life. But when true religion is combined with true ethics, then moral progress becomes a possibility and not a mere ideal. "The need of our modern youth is for such a type of ethics founded on pure religious faith. Not until these two are rightly combined and brought into full action can there be any hope for the future of the race." (From a letter Written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, April 17, 1926, Bahá'í Youth, pp. 8-9)" (Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 630)
~
"The number nine, which in itself is the number of perfection, is considered by the Bahá'ís as sacred because it is symbolic of the perfection of the Bahá'í Revelation, which constitutes the ninth in the line of existing religions, the latest and fullest Revelation which mankind has ever known. The eighth is the Religion of the Báb, and the remaining seven are: Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the religion of the Sabaeans. These religions are not the only true religions that have appeared in the world, but are the only ones which are still existing. There have always been divine prophets and messengers, to many of whom the Qur'án refers. But the only ones existing are those mentioned above. (Letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 28 July 1936) (Compilations, The Compilation of Compilations vol. I, p. 19)
~
"The materialism, the lack of true religion and the consequent baser forces in human nature which are being released, have brought the whole world to the brink of probably the greatest crisis it has ever faced or will have to face." (Compilations, Unlocking the Power of Action)
~
"Who can doubt that the essence of true religion is love; the love of the Creator for His creature, the love of that shadowy creature for his Eternal Beloved, the love of men for all mankind? What greater moment during our lives will ever come than this moment to shower the love Bahá'u'lláh has brought to this world on each other and on our fellow-men, bewildered, fearful, misled, ignorant, cold in a world of hatred, tension, misunderstanding, prejudice and bigotry? He Himself testified that "a spark of the fire of Thy love is enough to set ablaze a whole world." Let us pour out from our hearts, now overflowing in gratitude to Him and thanksgiving for His appearance in our midst, a measure of love upon our fellow-men which will quicken their souls and draw them to the shores of this Most Great Ocean to drink their fill and quench the fire of their separation and longing. Each one of us can do this, this lies within the power of each of us." (Custodians, Ministry of the Custodians, p. 384)
~
'Since thou hast faithfully obeyed the true religion of God in the past, it behooveth thee to follow His true religion hereafter, inasmuch as every religion proceedeth from God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting." (The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 138)
"A Bahá'í who has studied the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, who has accepted His claim to be the Manifestation of God for this Age, and who has seen His Teachings at work in his daily life, knows as the result of rational investigation, confirmed by actual experience, that true religion, far from being the product solely of human striving after truth, is the fruit of the creative Word of God which, with divine power, transforms human thought and action." (The Universal House of Justice, Messages 1963 to 1986, p. 389)
~
"Mankind is dying for lack of true religion and this is what we have to offer to humanity. It is the love of God, manifest in the appearance of Bahá'u'lláh, which will feed the hungry souls of the world and eventually lead the peoples out of the present morass into the orderly, uplifting, and soul-inspiring task of establishing God's Kingdom on earth." (The Universal House of Justice, Messages 1963 to 1986, p. 479)