site logo

125 Should Anyone Acquire One Hundred Mithqals Of Gold Nineteen Mithqals Thereof Are God's And To Be Rendered Unto Him #97

Categories: NOTES
Sources: The Kitab-i-aqdas

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 mithqals 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 mithqals 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.



More

;