What the Bahá'í Faith says about suffering
There is no concept named gratitude among this tradition's 108 in the library, so this page takes up the nearest question people actually ask: what the Bahá'í writings say about suffering. The answer is not consoling in the usual way. Difficulty is described as useful, joy is described as a spiritual quality, and the two are expected to occupy the same life. Among the ten entries below is one prayer written from inside real despair.
Divine Tests
Trials are described as gifts that develop character and draw a person closer to God. It is a strong claim, and the concept offers trust and contentment as the response rather than an explanation.
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh
Patience and Endurance
Patience in adversity is called a divine quality. The instruction is to be patient as Bahá'u'lláh was patient, which locates the standard in a person rather than in a rule.
Hidden Words
Trust in God
Reliance on God's wisdom even in adversity, summed up as thy will is my will. Whether that is peace or resignation is the honest question, and the concept treats it as peace.
Prayers and Meditations
Overcoming the Lower Self
The greatest struggle is named as the struggle against oneself. That moves some suffering out of the category of things that happen to you and into work you are doing.
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh
Detachment from the Material World
Detachment is defined as freedom within the world rather than withdrawal from it. A person keeps their duties and loosens their grip.
Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Bahá
Turning to God
The basic spiritual act is turning the heart towards God, and it is described as available in any circumstance. Its appeal is that it requires no preconditions, not even a good week.
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh
The Fire Tablet
A prayer revealed in Bahá'u'lláh's darkest period, written as a dialogue between a soul in extremity and God. It does not resolve neatly, which is part of why people return to it.
Fire Tablet
Joy and Radiance
Abdu'l-Bahá is described as joyful through decades of imprisonment, and joy is treated here as a spiritual quality rather than a mood. Reading this beside the Fire Tablet is more interesting than reading either alone.
Bahá'í World Faith
Progressive Development of the Soul
The soul is said to keep developing after death, with no final fixed state. Present difficulty is placed inside a much longer arc.
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh
The Long Suffering and Perseverance of the Bahá'ís in Iran
Bahá'ís in Iran have been persecuted since the faith began, and their steadfastness is held up within the community as evidence of what conviction can carry. This is the tradition's own account of its own history, and it is included here as that.
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh
Two things sit side by side in this set and are never reconciled: suffering is called a gift, and a prayer written in agony is kept in the prayer book unedited. A tradition that holds both is at least not pretending. Anyone who finds the first claim hard is in the company of its own scripture.