Generally, an agreement or contract between two or more people, usually formal, solemn, and binding. The Universal House of justice explains, in a letter dated 23 March 1975, that a religious covenant is “a binding agreement between God and man, whereby God requires of man certain behavior in return for which He guarantees certain blessings, or whereby He gives man certain bounties in return for which He takes from those who accept them an undertaking to behave in a certain way.” The Universal House of Justice also explains that there are two types of religious covenant: “There is ... the Greater Covenant which every Manifestation of God makes with His followers, promising that in the fullness of time a new Manifestation will be sent, and taking from them the undertaking to accept Him when this occurs. There is also the Lesser Covenant that a Manifestation of God makes with His followers that they will accept His appointed successor after Him. If they do so, the Faith can remain united and pure. If not, the Faith becomes divided and its force spent.” In the Baha’i Dispensation the Greater Covenant refers to the renewal of God’s ancient Covenant through the appearance of the twin Manifestations of God, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, and the promise of another Manifestation to come in the future after the passage of at least one thousand years. The Lesser Covenant, in this case, refers to Baha’u’llah’s Covenant with His followers, which establishes ‘Abdu’l-Baha as the Center of the Covenant. It confers upon Abdu’l-Baha the authority to interpret Baha’u’llah’s writings in order “to perpetuate the influence” of the Faith and to “insure its integrity, safeguard it from schism, and stimulate its world-wide expansion.” The Lesser Covenant also establishes the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice as the twin successors of Bahá’u’lláh and Abdu’l-Baha.

Hidden Words

He has written a book entitled the Hidden Words. The preface announces that it contains the essences of the words of the Prophets of the past, clothed in the garment of brevity, for the teaching and spiritual guidance of the people of the world. Read it that you may understand the true foundations of religion and reflect upon the inspiration of the Messengers of God. It is light upon light.

(Abdu’l-Baha: Promulgation of Universal Peace)

Read ye The Hidden Words, ponder the inner meanings thereof, act in accord therewith.

(Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings)

It behoveth us one and all to recite day and night both the Persian and Arabic Hidden Words, to pray fervently and supplicate tearfully that we may be enabled to conduct ourselves in accordance with these divine counsels. These holy Words have not been revealed to be heard but to be practiced.

(The Importance of Deepening)

We should memorize the Hidden Words, follow the exhortations of the Incomparable Lord, and conduct ourselves in a manner which befitteth our servitude at the threshold of the one true God.

(The Importance of Deepening)