I Blog Poetry and Prose

Memorizing the Word of God

Jalal (Glory), 6 Izzat (Might) 177 B.E. - Saturday, September 12, 2020

I just finished reading Why We Should Memorize the Verses of God   by Jennifer Boles, and it brought back memories of memorizing verses from the Holy Bible. In the summer, we attended Vacation Bible School at the First Southern Baptist Mission. The Mission (as we called it) was located in the city of Blackwell, Oklahoma, in the Smelter Heights. Two of the verse, I memorized was Psalms 23 and the Lord's Prayer. After becoming a Baha'i one of the first verses I memorized was Baha'u'llah's introduction to The Hidden Words, which I can still repeat from memory.

"He Is the Glory of Glories

This is that which hath descended from the realm of glory, uttered by the tongue of power and might, and revealed unto the Prophets of old. We have taken the inner essence thereof and clothed it in the garment of brevity, as a token of grace unto the righteous, that they may stand faithful unto the Covenant of God, may fulfill in their lives His trust, and in the realm of spirit obtain the gem of divine virtue."

Baha'u'llah12

My method of memorizing the verses of The Hidden Words is to begin, at night before I go to sleep, with a prayer revealed by either The Bab, Baha'u'llah, or 'Abdu'l-Baha. Next I read, aloud, the verse I'm memorizing over several time, and attempt to repeat it by memory several times. If I can repeat it by memory, I repeat the verse I memorized before it. Once I can repeat those several time I go on the the next verse. Sometimes I go to sleep before I finish repeating the verses. Once I have the verses memorized (I know I have them memorized with I can repeat the silently without a mistake), I go on to the next verse.

Footnotes
1  The Hidden Words, Part One: From the Arabic
2  {link:}www.bahai.org/r/592851358}