Baha'ism

Practices

Houses of Worship

In al-Kitab al-Aqdas, Baha’ Allah specified that houses of worship should be built in every locale.81 The mashriq al-adhkar ‘Dawning-place for the Mention of God’ is a special building or place where Baha’is gather for prayer. ‘Abd al-Baha’ further described the mashriq al-adhkar as a religious complex which would include a house of worship; hospital; pharmacy; travellers’ hospice; school and university. Furthermore the mashriq al-adhkar is to be open to all people, not just Baha’is.

The Mashriqu’l-Adhkar is one of the most vital institutions in the world, and it hath many subsidiary branches. Although it is a House of Worship, it is also connected with a hospital, a drug dispensary, a traveller’s hospice, a school for orphans, and a university for advanced studies. Every Mashriqu’l-Adhkar is connected with these five things.82

To date, a number of formal houses of worship have been built around the world in Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan (which was demolished in 1963); Wilmette, Illinois; Kampala, Uganda; Sydney, Australia; Frankfurt, Germany; Panama City, Panama; Apia, Samoa and New Delhi, India.

Similar to mosques, houses of worship may not be decorated with images nor may musical instruments be played within its walls, however a capella singing is allowed. The design of formal houses of worship includes nine sides with nine doors giving them a rotund appearance.

Although references to the mashriq al-adhkar are usually taken to mean the formal houses of worship as described above, the phrase also describes an institutional concept: of special devotional prayer meetings which can be held in any building.

On the face of it, there is a large gap between the model of what a Baha’i community should be, with a Mashriqu’l-Adhkar in its midst as the centre of community life, and the reality that the Baha’i community does not have the means to erect more than a few such specially-designed buildings. However there are other Baha’i texts, equally authoritative, which are more relaxed about both the physical requirements for a Mashriqu’l-Adhkar and the possibility of other uses.83

Baha’i scholar Sen McGlinn has proposed that this concept of the mashriq al-adhkar in every locale is the spiritual heart and focus of the community.

If we stand in the Mashriqu’l-Adhkar and look at all things in the light of the Mashriq, then it appears that the House of Worship is the centre of the community and the House of Justice is first among the institutions which cluster around it…84

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References

81Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas 29.

82‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, trans. Marzieh Gail and committee, (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1978) 99.

83McGlinn, Sen, Exploring the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, 9 June 2003, .

84McGlinn, Exploring the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár.

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