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µþ²¹³óá'í worship

µþ²¹³óá'ís see themselves as a people with a mission to bring harmony and unity in the world, and this is reflected in their spiritual practice.

The main purpose of life for µþ²¹³óá'ís is to know and love God.

Prayer, fasting and meditation are the main ways of achieving this and for making spiritual progress.

Service to others is worship

µþ²¹³óá'í texts state that work performed in the spirit of service to humanity is a form of worship.

Absence of ritual

The µþ²¹³óá'í faith has no clergy or sacraments, and virtually no rituals.

There are only three µþ²¹³óá'í rituals:

• Obligatory daily prayers
• Reciting the prayer for the dead at a funeral
• The simple marriage rite

There are two reasons µþ²¹³óá'ís avoid ritual:

• Rituals can easily degenerate and become meaningless, so that people carry them out for the sake of the ritual and forget the spiritual purpose behind them
• Rituals can be a form of cultural imperialism, imposing the same rituals across different cultures and destroying their rich diversity

Shoghi Effendi wrote in 1949...

Events and celebrations

Doing without rituals does not mean doing without celebrations or special events.

Communal worship

µþ²¹³óá'ís have no liturgy, since the minimising of ritual makes it impossible to develop one.

The emphasis on prayer and meditation, and on social action in µþ²¹³óá'í thinking means that congregational worship plays a much smaller part in µþ²¹³óá'í life than it does in other faiths.

µþ²¹³óá'í services are very simple with readings from the scriptures, along with interpretations of them and prayers. Hymns and poetry are allowed, but not common. The atmosphere is usually dignified.

µþ²¹³óá'í are encouraged to come together in communal worship, but there are no congregational prayers. One person will recite prayers on behalf of everyone present.

This is because prayer is seen essentially as a private duty, and because there are no professional clergy within the µþ²¹³óá'í faith.

Morning prayer

µþ²¹³óá'í scripture recommends that the community should meet together for prayer each morning, although this is not commonly done by modern µþ²¹³óá'ís.

Nineteen day feast

For modern µþ²¹³óá'í the main occasion for group worship is the devotional portion of the nineteen day feast.

Holy days

µþ²¹³óá'ís usually hold special worship events on holy days and festivals.

Find out more

• µþ²¹³óá'í holy days
• µþ²¹³óá'í prayer