A reminder about Pilgrim's Notes

A reminder about Pilgrim's notes - they are quite fascinating, often inspiring and beautiful, some might even be completely accurate, but they do not and never can constitute Baha'i belief:


From: Compilation on Pilgrim's Notes

"Thou has written concerning the pilgrims and pilgrims' notes. Any narrative that is not authenticated by a Text should not be trusted. Narratives, even if true, cause confusion. For the people of Bahá, the Text, and only the Text, is authentic."

     - Abdu'l- Bahá: from a previously untranslated Tablet


"The instructions of the Master and the Guardian make it very clear that Pilgrims' notes are hearsay and cannot claim the authority and binding power of the Sacred Text.... Moreover, the fact that the pilgrim writing of his experience is a reliable or well-known believer, or that the reported statement seems to be repeated in the notes of several pilgrims, does not in itself confer authority upon the pilgrim's note in question."

     - From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, January 23, 1980


"According to the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh no authority can be attached to a mere hearsay, no matter through whom it may come. The Tablets that bear the seal or signature of Bahá'u'lláh and the Master are the only parts of the literature that have any authority and that constitute the basis of our belief. All other forms of literature may bear points of interest but they cannot be considered as authentic.."

     - From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, November 18, 1931