What Is Luck?
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Youness Khan Afroukhteh, What Is Luck?, bahai-library.com.
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What Is "Luck"?

Youness Khan Afroukhteh

Riaz Masrour, translator
published in Memories of Nine Years in Akka pp. 403-404

1952/2003

'Abdu'l-Bahá's utterances, as far as I can recall after these many years, were as follows [provisional translation]:

In Bahá'í philosophy, luck is the same as divine confirmation, which is ceaseless and continuous, never subject to interruption or suspension. It is not limited to some to the exclusion of others. The capacity for its manifestation must be created. Showers of divine bounty and confirmation are always falling; if any spot experiences a suspension or delay, other areas shall receive these effusions. The clouds of divine bounty bestow blessings on all. It is sanctified of exclusivity. The significant point is that he who sows a seed or plants a sapling becomes the recipient of bounty, he becomes the possessor of good fortune, otherwise he remains deprived. The sun of mercy is eternal and ever-abiding; it is not specific to some. The loved ones of God must strive to become worthy of divine confirmations. Misfortune has no true existence. It is simply deprivation of divine bounty. absence of light, otherwise darkness has no outer reality. Darkness should be eliminated through the light of the recognition of God. For example, a storm is a universal blessing. It is a prelude to cool and temperate weather. It is one of nature's features, an essential part of natural phenomena. However, if it strikes a ship which is incapable of resisting its force, this is not due to the ship's misfortune. The storm did not come to sink the ship but to follow its own natural course. Now, the more substantial and sturdy the ship, the better it can endure the force of the storm. Tests of the world of nature are of the same kind.

"So good fortune, or luck, is the ceaseless bounty of God, and misfortune is a chance event that represents its absence. Praise be to God that all of you are fortunate. What fortune is greater than divine knowledge? What fortune is greater than the love of God, which is the source of all divine effusions?"

In short, He spoke in this vein for some time as we all sat utterly spellbound.

[from Memories of Nine Years in Akka, p. 404]

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-- What Is Luck? (Used by permission of the curator)