Gender neutral language

Articles written for this website generally try to employ gender neutral language, although sometimes this policy may be stretched for the sake of avoiding clumsy constructions. An explanation is offered regarding extracts from the writings of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that are quoted on the site. These writings, when translated into English from the original Arabic and Persian, use the masculine pronoun for references to God, and use words such as “man” to refer to a human being regardless of gender, or the human race as a whole. No male bias should be read into this. Bahá'u'lláh's teachings make clear that no gender can be attached to the Creator. ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated: “The truth is that all mankind are the creatures and servants of one God, and in His estimate all are human. Man is a generic term applying to all humanity.” Translations of the Bahá’í sacred writings use a style of English similar to that of the King James version of the Bible, and follow classical English usage.This style is intended as a bridge between modern English and the eloquent Persian and Arabic in which Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote.

Place names

From about 1925, the ancient name, "Iran", replaced the designation "Persia". On this site, "Persia" is used in describing events of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and "Iran" in reference to more recent ones. There are other similar cases, such as "Istanbul", which was known in English in the nineteenth century as "Constantinople".

Sources of quotations

Instead of traditional footnotes to show sources of quotations, this site provides links to the relevant passages published on the Bahá'í Reference Library website. These links are provided at the end of each article. In some cases, the links will lead to not just one source document, but to a list of several books. This will occur, for example, in a number of cases where words of Bahá'u'lláh have been quoted in other Bahá'í writings contained in the Reference Library.