Memorizing the Baha'i Week
By John Taylor
Upcoming Events
Mrs. Javid's Wednesday Fireside
All are welcome to come investigate the Baha'i Faith every Wednesday evening at
Dunnville Monthly Meeting
This month we are combining our Baha'i meeting with Ron's annual celebration of Human Rights Day in memory of his deceased wife, Marylou. The speaker is a recent graduate of the Human Rights Degree Program at
8 PM, Tuesday, 11 December, 2007
Garfield Disher Room of the Dunnville Branch of the Haldimand Public Library.
Memorizing the Baha'i Week
As mentioned, I have been using the New Day Calendar, a computer calendar that orients your day around the Badi' Calendar. My only problem with how they display the weekdays is that they start the week with the second day of the Baha'i week rather than the first. This confused, since I believe the first day would be the day after our day of rest, Istiqlal, Friday. Admittedly, this point of confusion would probably be worse if they actually did start the week with Jalal, or Saturday. Every time you look at the week, you would get lost (I found that I did get lost anyway at first, but I mean more confused, for longer). Seeing the week on the computer every morning made me ashamed that I have not memorized the names of the week. Here was my first attempt at a mnemonic, trying to fit the Arabic virtues into what a typical week is like for me.
1. Jalal, Glory (Saturday)
Jalal is for glory, and since I am not God, I proudly mirror forth the reverse of this virtue, ingloriousness. Jalal day is especially inglorious for me because with the kids bouncing around at home on Saturday there are more interruptions, less chance that I will get an essay out in the morning, which raises the probability of a migraine. Being impaired by a migraine deprives me of my higher faculties, the most inglorious condition imaginable for a human being, believe me.
2. Jamal, Beauty (Sunday)
The day we get to take our kids to attend Baha'i Sunday Classes and in our case we get to participate in no less than two of the the four core activities, since Silvie is a junior youth. Thus we perpetuate beauty into our family's future. And Marie goes to choir practice, singing praises to the beauty of God. Of course the emissions from driving my car so far on this day are how I express the reverse of beautiful, ugly old smog.
3. Kamal, Perfection (Monday)
Ah, perfect, the work and school week begins. I get to come back without interruptions to my perfect activity, writing.
By writing thoughts out in words I have a hand in expressing the evolutionary perfecting activity of God, which is ever unfolding in this plane of existence, though it never changes on His side of the curve of eternity. Looking in that mirror is how I perfect myself, and even if I fail -- my hope is that the service may be accepted as worship in the eyes of God. And what is more perfect than worship?
4. Fidal, Grace (Tuesday)
Tuesday is grace day, the middle day of the week; it has three days before, three after. That makes it a kind of fulcrum.
So, is the virtue of grace a turning point?
Perhaps so, maybe we should practice accepting everything as a free bounty today. I just listened to neurologist Oliver Sacks' latest book, with many stories about the poor souls whose different mental faculties selectively break, as traced by and often cured by music, albeit temporarily. One victim I remember best was a woman who coped with her affliction by accepting it as a gift from God, not to be questioned. Everything that happens is a gift, if we have faith, whether the world thinks it good or evil. Grace day, then, is our chance to put on some music, sit back and thank God for the gracious gifts of the past week.
5. 'Idal, Justice (Wednesday)
Justice is seeing with your own eyes. My wife works evenings most days but usually not on 'Idal. So on justice day I often get to attend the Javid fireside while she takes the kids for the evening. At these meetings I listen in to a report on another believer's vision. Doing that pollinates my own vision, and thus increases the fruits of my own justice. Justice is hearing with your own ears but as Socrates pointed out if you are situated at a distance even with the best eyes and ears you are better off asking the opinion of a person standing close by the source.
6. Istijlal, Majesty (Thursday)
The majesty of God rests in the saying, "He doeth what He will." Every violation of human rights comes about when somebody feels they need to intervene and do His will for Him. The virtue of majesty says, "Let go, let God." He is majestic enough on His own.
This year Thursday has become a free day for the kids and me (unlike past years when our week was booked up with scouts, guides, piano lesson, etc.). While Marie is at work all evening we hang around the house with no agenda. To my surprise I am finding that the kids are very creative left to their own devices, as long as they stay away from the plug-in drug. Silvie (13 years old) has been working on the novelization of a play called "Mongoosy and the Governor General" that she thought up, performed with a cast of stuffed toys and recorded with an old webcam a few years ago. Thomas (8 years old) has, among other things, built a talking robot called "Storage-bot 9000" out of cardboard boxes and an old voice recorder. He taped himself saying "Okay! All right! Yes!" He taped the device inside and by timing his questions engages the robot in a convincing conversation. I found this useful the next morning when he was reluctant to go to school. I took out the recorder and said, "Tomaso, are you ready to jump up and run to school?" His voice responded, "Okay! All right! Yes!" He could not help but laugh, and that got him out of the funk.
7. Istiqlal,
Istiqlal, in spite of the fact that the word, correctly pronounced, puts you in imminent danger of suffocation, is my favorite day of the Baha'i week, and I have written enough about it already. So enough about independence.
As mentioned, pegging the days like this has not yet succeeded in getting them through my thick head. So here is the latest strategy, which I stumbled upon while memorizing a sonnet of Shakespeare for an experimental video project I am preparing. I noticed that the structure of a sonnet, fourteen lines, fits nicely into the seven days of the week if you divide the lines into seven couplets. Here is Shakespeare's twenty-ninth sonnet, categorized under the days of the Badi' week. Judge for yourself whether the sentiment of this, my favorite of the Bard's sonnets, matches each day's divine virtue.
1. Jalal, Glory (Saturday)
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
2. Jamal, Beauty (Sunday)
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
3. Kamal, Perfection (Monday)
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
4. Fidal, Grace (Tuesday)
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
5. 'Idal, Justice (Wednesday)
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
6. Istijlal, Majesty (Thursday)
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
7. Istiqlal,
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Maybe if I memorize a few more sonnets divided up according to the daily virtues the structure would act as a Searlian Chinese room to stick just about anything into memory.
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