…it is illuminating indeed to view the Nineteen Day Feast in
the context in which it was conceived. It is ordained in the
"Kitáb-i-Aqdas" in these words: "It hath been enjoined upon you
once a month to offer hospitality, even should ye serve no more than water, for
God hath willed to bind your hearts together, though it be through heavenly and
earthly means combined". It is clear, then, that the Feast is rooted in
hospitality, with all its implications of friendliness, courtesy, service,
generosity and conviviality. The very idea of hospitality as the sustaining
spirit of so significant an institution introduces a revolutionary new attitude
to the conduct of human affairs at all levels, an attitude which is critical to
that world unity which the Central Figures of our Faith laboured so long and
suffered so much cruelty to bring into being. It is in this divine festival
that the foundation is laid for the realization of so unprecedented a reality.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a
letter dated August 27, 1989)
