It befitteth the friends to hold a gathering, a meeting,
where they shall glorify God and fix their hearts upon Him, and read and recite
the Holy Writings of the Blessed Beauty—may my soul be the ransom of His
lovers! The lights of the All-Glorious Realm, the rays of the Supreme Horizon,
will be cast upon such bright assemblages, for these are none other than the Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs,
the Dawning-Points of God’s Remembrance, which must, at the direction of the
Most Exalted Pen, be established in every hamlet and city... These spiritual
gatherings must be held with the utmost purity and consecration, so that from
the site itself, and its earth and the air about it, one will inhale the
fragrant breathings of the Holy Spirit.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the
Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’)