Authoritative Writings

These writings and letters are all considered to be the authoritative sources of information in the Bahá'í Faith. While other documents may have been approved for publication by one of the institutions in the Bahá'í Administrative Order, they still may not be entirely accurate. If any dispute or question should come up, these writings should be deferred to.

Many works will not appear in here because there must exist an original manuscript for a document to be considered authoritative; i.e. the various talks by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, while excellent, were not edited by Him or even read over--furthermore, the translations may be imperfect. Therefore, while they may contain wonderful advice, this advice is not considered authoritative or law. The same goes for Pilgrim's Notes.

In addition, another level exists: that of scripture. Robert Stockman, in his article on Bahá'í scripture, writes:

In fact, Shoghi Effendi implies that the term "Bahá'í scripture" applies to the writings of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh, and `Abdu'l-Bahá alone, and not to his own writings or those of the Universal House of Justice (even though their works are authoritative and binding on the Bahá'ís) (Lights of Guidance, 2d ed., 112).

Outside of these Bahá'í scriptures, only the Qur'án is considered to be wholly authentic. Nevertheless, "scriptural" works from other religions are still considered to be scripture and have a separate page listing them.

All Bahá'í scripture can be found within these pages. If I have made any error in separating 'Abdu'l-Bahá's material between authoritative and non-authoritative, please let me know immediately.

The Báb

Selections from the Writings of the Báb

Bahá'u'lláh

'Abdu'l-Bahá

Shoghi Effendi

Universal House of Justice

The Constitution of the Universal House of Justice

Letters from the Universal House of Justice

The Promise of World Peace

 

Index of Writings (alphabetical list of all books and tablets hosted by Spirit of Glory)