Rising Place of Rememberance

Mashriqu'l-Adhkar means 'rising place of rememberance', where 'rising place' has connotations of the East and thus of the dawn, and 'remembrance' connotes dhikr and more broadly acts of worship which change our consciousness and being. So the same word is applied appropriately to the radiant heart, the physical building, and meetings for worship, particularly at dawn. Many western communities try in a disultory manner to organize dawn prayers, but few seem able to carry it through consistently. 

From the experience in our own community (South Limburg) it appears that it is difficult to sustain the dawn prayers as simply one activity among all those worthy activities that go with 'being Bahá'í', and that it becomes rather easier when they are understood as one form of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and thus as a response to the Aqdas' command:
 "Build ye houses of worship throughout the lands in the name of Him Who is the Lord of all religions" and an integral part - in fact, the central part - of the whole structure of the community. Various kinds of Mashriq meeting are possible: community meetings for prayers and meditation, more experimental liturgies with chanting and the recitation of dhikr, 'firesides' which consist primarily of meditation and chanting and include the answering of questions as these arise, dawn prayers and after-work moments of silence, short lunchtime meetings to say the shorter obligatory prayer and share a smile and some fellowship, longer evening gatherings for the heavy meditation and the long obligatory prayer (see Jackson's book, and also a tablet of Abdu'l-Bahá to the Spiritual Assembly of Bushruyih in Ganjinih Hudud va Ahkam p. 230), 

The meetings of orders of Bahá'í dervishes using particular devotional arts (Memorials of the Faithful p. 38), or meetings for particular liturgical forms (Gregorian morning song, Vespers with 3-part harmony, Arabic chanting, African drumming). Each of these can be called a 'rising place' for praise and thus a Mashriqul-Adhkar, though perhaps the daily morning prayers have a particular priority in relation to the way in which the inspiration derived in the Mashriq is expressed in action during the day (God Passes By, pp. 339-340) and because they are specifically endorsed by Bahá'u'lláh in the Aqdas para 11 5:

Birth of Baha’u’llah

We congratulate you on this auspicious occasion and invite to you to pay attention to the following as sincere Baha’i and true seeker of truths.

They say:

“The covenant of Baha’u’llah , explores two interwoven themes:

One is the concept of a center to which all must turn,

 And the other concerns the standard of conduct that Baha’u’llah expects us to follow when we accept Him and enter into the Tabernacle of His Covenant”.

And they explain the above as under:

“Of course we know that the centre to which all Baha’is turn today is the Universal House of Justice. Baha’u’llah Himself ordained the institution of the Universal House of justice in the Kitab-i-Aqdas and Abdu’l’Baha confirms its authority in His will and Testament”.

We say:

Of course you don’t know that:

 The Headless Universal House of Justice is not the centre to which all Baha’is should turn.

The entity currently to be a Universal House of Justice cannot be an “authoritative” source of guidance for true Bahá’ís because the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha grants the following authority to the Guardian with respect to the UHJ, an authority that is totally lacking in his absence from the so called UHJ.

At the end:

Pay attention to the Will of beloved Master Abdu’l Baha:

“The mighty stronghold shall remain impregnable and safe through obedience to him who is the guardian of the Cause of God. It is incumbent upon the members of the House of Justice, upon all the Aghsán, the Afnán, the Hands of the Cause of God to show their obedience, submissiveness and subordination unto the guardian of the Cause of God, to turn unto him and be lowly before him. He that opposeth him hath opposed the True One, will make a breach in the Cause of God, will subvert His word and will become a manifestation of the Center of Sedition”.

Dr. A. Parikh,

Hand of the Cause of God,

Member of the Third International Baha’i Council,

The secretary of National Baha’i Council of India.