This verse establishes Ḥuqúqu’lláh, the Right of God, the offering of a
fixed portion of the value of the believer’s possessions. This offering
was made to Bahá’u’lláh as the Manifestation of God and then, following
His Ascension, to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as the Centre of the Covenant. In His Will
and Testament, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá provided that the Ḥuqúqu’lláh 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 Ḥuqúqu’lláh is a spiritual obligation, the fulfilment of which has
been left to the conscience of each Bahá’í. While the community is
reminded of the requirements of the law of Ḥuqúq, no believer may be
approached individually to pay it.
A number of items in Questions and Answers further elaborate this law. The
payment of Ḥuqúqu’lláh 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 miṯẖqáls of gold (Q and A 8), it is a spiritual
obligation to pay nineteen percent of the total amount, once only, as
Ḥuqúqu’lláh (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 miṯẖqáls 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 Ḥuqúqu’lláh (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 Ḥuqúq 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 Ḥuqúqu’lláh and the details of
its application have been published in a compilation entitled Ḥuqúqu’lláh.
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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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