A reference to the Iranian province of K{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}h{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}urasan and neighbouring areas,
which include the city of Is{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}h{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}qabad (Ashkhabad).
125. Should anyone acquire one hundred mit{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}h{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}qals of gold, nineteen
mit{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}h{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}qals thereof are God's and to be rendered unto Him #97
This verse establishes Huququ'llah, the Right of God, the offering of a
fixed portion of the value of the believer's possessions. This offering
was made to Baha'u'llah as the Manifestation of God and then, following
His Ascension, to 'Abdu'l-Baha as the Centre of the Covenant. In His Will
and Testament, 'Abdu'l-Baha provided that the Huququ'llah was to be
offered "through the Guardian of the Cause of God". There now being no
Guardian, it is offered through the Universal House of Justice as the Head
of the Faith. This fund is used for the promotion of the Faith of God and
its interests as well as for various philanthropic purposes. The offering
of the Huququ'llah is a spiritual obligation, the fulfilment of which has
been left to the conscience of each Baha'i. While the community is
reminded of the requirements of the law of Huquq, no believer may be
approached individually to pay it.
A number of items in Questions and Answers further elaborate this law. The
payment of Huququ'llah is based on the calculation of the value of the
individual's possessions. If a person has possessions equal in value to at
least nineteen mit{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}h{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}qals of gold (Q and A 8), it is a spiritual
obligation to pay nineteen percent of the total amount, once only, as
Huququ'llah (Q and A 89). Thereafter, whenever one's income, after all
expenses have been paid, increases the value of one's possessions by the
amount of at least nineteen mit{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}h{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}qals of gold, one is to pay nineteen
percent of this increase, and so on for each further increase (Q and A 8,
90).
Certain categories of possessions, such as one's residence, are exempt
from the payment of Huququ'llah (Q and A 8, 42, 95), and specific
provisions are outlined to cover cases of financial loss (Q and A 44, 45),
the failure of investments to yield a profit (Q and A 102) and for the
payment of Huquq in the event of the person's death (Q and A 9, 69, 80).
(In this latter case, see note 47.)
Extensive extracts from Tablets, Questions and Answers, and other Writings
concerning the spiritual significance of Huququ'llah and the details of
its application have been published in a compilation entitled Huququ'llah.
126. Various petitions have come before Our throne from the believers,
concerning laws from God... We have, in consequence, revealed this Holy
Tablet and arrayed it with the mantle of His Law that haply the people may
keep the commandments of their Lord. #98
"For a number of years", Baha'u'llah states in one of His Tablets,
"petitions reached the Most Holy Presence from various lands begging for
the laws of God, but We held back the Pen ere the appointed time had
come." Not until twenty years from the birth of His Prophetic Mission in
the Siyah-C{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}h{~COMBINING MACRON BELOW~}al of Tihran had elapsed did Baha'u'llah reveal the
Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Repository of the laws of His Dispensation. Even after
its revelation the Aqdas was withheld by Him for some time before it was
sent to the friends in Persia. This divinely purposed delay in the
revelation of the basic laws of God for this age, and the subsequent
gradual implementation of their provisions, illustrate the principle of
progressive revelation which applies even within the ministry of each
Prophet.