Speaker Prep

Giving a fireside, devotional, or talk? Pick a theme, get a curated brief: relevant stories, key quotes, citations, and recommended sequencing.

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A talk on philosophy

Suggested sequencing: open with a powerful story, deepen with a reflective one, close with one of joyful resolution. Adjust to your audience.

Opening

The Tablet of Wisdom: Bahá'u'lláh on Philosophy

Adib Taherzadeh's account, in *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh*, of the *Lawḥ-i-Ḥikmat* — the *Tablet of Wisdom* — addressed by Bahá'u'lláh to Nabíl-i-Akbar in Egypt, in which He surveys the lineage of Greek and Persian philosophy and the proper relation between divine Revelation and human inquiry.

The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh (Vol. 4 — Mazra'ih and Bahjí 1877-92) · Adib Taherzadeh

Middle

Nature: The Composition and Decomposition of All Things

In the opening chapter of *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá takes up Laura Clifford Barney's question about nature itself — and gives, in one sentence, a sweeping definition: nature is the appearance of composition and decomposition, the meeting and parting of life and death, governed by a single universal law.

Some Answered Questions · 'Abdu'l-Bahá

Closing

Miracles: Proofs for the Eyewitness Only

In *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá takes up the question of miracles with characteristic clarity: extraordinary events may have occurred and may yet occur, but they are not the proofs by which a Manifestation of God is finally known. *Miracles are proofs for the eyewitness only*.

Some Answered Questions · 'Abdu'l-Bahá

Click into any story to see the full text with extracted quotes — copy what you need for your talk.

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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."