"With shattered hearts, we have received news of the destruction of the Most Great House--the House of Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdad."

TO: All National Spiritual Assemblies 

DATE: 27 June 2013 

" With shattered hearts, we have received news of the destruction of the Most Great House--the House of Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdad. While the precise circumstances attending this outrageous violation are as yet unclear, its immediate consequence is without doubt, and must be emphatically stated: 

 The peoples of the world have been robbed of a sanctuary of incalculable sacredness. 

 So deplorable an act, coming on the eve of the unprecedented worldwide convocation of Bahá’u’lláh's young followers and their friends, calls to mind that mysterious interplay of crisis and victory through which His indestructible, irrepressible, inexorable purpose will finally be consummated. 

We supplicate the Blessed Beauty to confer upon His faithful followers throughout the world 

fortitude and resolve in the face of this grievous blow. 

 More information will be provided as it becomes available."

    The Universal House of Justice 

 "Praised be Thou, O Lord my God! Thou art He the excellence of Whose glory hath exalted them who are the sources of authority and honor, the potency of Whose might hath empowered them who are the fountain-heads of energy and strength, the dominion of Whose will hath elevated the Exponents of Thy Cause above all that are in heaven and on earth, and the life-giving effusions of Whose Pen have quickened the souls of the denizens of the kingdom of creation.

I am he, O my Lord, who, wholly for Thy sake, hath turned his face unto Thee, and who, while acknowledging Thy power and Thy sovereignty, hath directed his steps towards Thy dearly-loved Sanctuary, and Thine adored and hallowed Court. In this state I have reached the City (Baghdád) wherein, in the full glory of Thy names, Thou didst reveal Thy Self unto all created things. In it I have communed with Thy loved ones, and from the House within its walls I have inhaled the breaths of Thy holiness and perceived the fragrances of Thy fellowship.

Cast me not from Thy presence, O my Lord, neither do Thou drive me away from the shores of Thy love and Thy good-pleasure. For the poor can find no refuge unless he knocketh at the door of Thy wealth, and the outcast can find no peace until he be admitted to the court of Thy favor.

 Magnified be Thy name, O my Lord, for Thou hast enabled me to recognize the Manifestation of Thine own Self, and hast caused me to be assured of the truth of the verses which have descended upon Thee. Empower me, I implore Thee, to cling steadfastly unto whatsoever Thou hast bidden me observe. Help me to guard the pearls of Thy love which, by Thy decree, Thou hast enshrined within my heart. Send down, moreover, every moment of my life, O my God, that which will preserve me from any one but Thee, and will set my feet firm in Thy Cause.

Thou art, verily, the God of glory, the God of power, the God of knowledge and wisdom. No God is there beside Thee, the Great Giver, the All-Bountiful, the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving.

 Praised be God, the All-Glorious, the All-Compelling."

-Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh, CV, pp. 175-177