’Umra
See Ḥajj
Literally “The Sure Handle, Firm Cord”.
Refers to the Faith of God.
A-Z : ‘Urvatu’l-Vuthqá
The Umana (“Trustees”) Company was formed in Írán to be the registered owner of all Bahá’í properties, both local and national.
Within a few months after the Islamic Republic was established in March 1979, agents of the revolutionary government, acting on the authority of an order from the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Islamic Republic, seized its assets, properties, and furnishings and dismissed its employees.
Among the properties the Umana Company held were holy places, including the House of the Báb in Shíráz, houses of Bahá’u’lláh in Ṭihrán and Tákúr, a temple site, the national Bahá’í headquarters, Bahá’í cemeteries, and a Bahá’í-operated hospital in Ṭihrán.
Powerful Meccan tribe whose idol-trade was damaged by the iconoclastic teachings of Muhammad
(ad 666–751)
Dynastic regime that ruled the Muslim world from Damascus
A-Z : Caliphate
Unity, Letters of
See Letters of Unity
Members of the firstUniversal House of Justice
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Bahá’í International
Community
The supreme governing and legislative body of the Bahá’í Faith.
Elected every five years at an international Bahá’í convention, the Universal House of Justice gives spiritual guidance to and directs the administrative activities of the world-wide Bahá’í community. It is the institution Bahá’u’lláh ordained as the agency invested with authority to legislate on matters not covered in His writings.
In His Will and Testament ‘Abdu’l-Bahá elaborates on its functions and affirms that it is infallibly guided.
The Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice are the twin, crowning institutions of the Bahá’í Administrative Order.
A-Z : Universal ~ House of Justice
Compilation : Regarding The Establishment of The Universal House of Justice; The Universal House of Justice
Loans made with an exhorbitant/excessive interest rates
The Oxford dictionary defines usury as: “Lending of money at exhorbitant or illegal interest;”