It is enjoined upon every one of you to engage in some form
of occupation, such as crafts, trades and the like. We have graciously exalted
your engagement in such work to the rank of worship unto God, the True One.
Ponder ye in your hearts the grace and the blessings of God and render thanks
unto Him at eventide and at dawn. Waste not your time in idleness and sloth.
Occupy yourselves with that which profiteth yourselves and others. Thus hath it
been decreed in this Tablet from whose horizon the day-star of wisdom and
utterance shineth resplendent.
The most despised of men in the sight of God are those who
sit idly and beg. Hold ye fast unto the cord of material means, placing your
whole trust in God, the Provider of all means. When anyone occupieth himself in
a craft or trade, such occupation itself is regarded in the estimation of God
as an act of worship; and this is naught but a token of His infinite and
all-pervasive bounty.
- Bahá'u'lláh ('Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas'; The Compilation of
Compilations, vol. III, Social and Economic Development)
