Parents Consent for Baha'i Marriage

Purpose of Consent:

"Baha'u'llah has clearly stated the consent of all living parents is required for a Baha'i marriage.... This great law He has laid down to strengthen the social fabric, to knit closer the ties of the home, to place a certain gratitude and respect in the hearts of children for those who have given them life and sent their souls out on the eternal journey towards their Creator."
Written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, October 25, 1947.

"It hath been laid down in the Bayan that marriage is dependent upon the consent of both parties. Desiring to establish love, unity, and harmoney amidst Our servants, We have conditioned it, once the couple's with is known, upon the permission of their parents, lest enmity and rancor should arise amongst them."
Baha'u'llah, Kitab Alaqdas Par. 65


Consent Requirements:

"As for the question regarding marriage under the Law of God: first thou must choose one who is pleasing to thee, then the matter is subject to the consent of father and mother. Before thou makest thy choice, they have no right to interfere."
Abdu'l Baha, Selections from the Writtings of Abdu'l Baha p. 118

"In many cases of breach of marriage laws the believers apparently look upon the law requiring consent of parents before marriage as a mere adminstrative requlation, and do not seem to realize that this is a law of great imprtance affecting the very foundations of human society. Moreover they seem not to appreciate that in the Baha'i Faith the spiritual and administrative aspects are complementary and that the social laws of the Faith are as binding as the purely spiritual ones."

THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF BAHA'I MARRIAGE

Baha’i marriage is an everlasting relationship between a husband and a wife; their aim is to become one united family materially and spiritually and to achieve spiritual growth throughout there live in this world and the world to come.

“ Thus the husband and wife are brought into affinity, are united and harmonized, even as though they were one person. Through their mutual union, companionship and love great results are produced in the world, both material and spiritual. The spiritual result is the appearance of divine bounties. The material result is the children who are born in the cradle of the love of God, who are nurtured by the breast of the knowledge of God, who are brought up in the bosom of the gift of God, and who are fostered in the lap of the training of God. Such children are those of whom it was said by Christ, ‘Verily, they are the children of the Kingdom!"
Abdu’l-Baha (Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas III, 605-06)

“ Baha’i marriage is union and cordial affection between the two parties. They must, however, exercise the utmost care and become acquainted with each other’s character. This eternal bond should be made secure by a firm covenant, and the intention should be to foster harmony, fellowship and unity to attain everlasting life”
Abdu’l-Baha (Published in Baha’I World Faith, P. 372)

If the marriage was based on spiritual principles then it will be an everlasting marriage and the husband and wife will be with each other eternally.

“Among the majority of the people marriage consists of physical relationship and this union and relationship is temporary for at the end physical separation is destined and ordained. But the marriage of the people of Baha must consist of both physical and spiritual relationship for both of them are intoxicated with the wine of one cup, are attracted by one Peerless Countenance, are quickened with one Life and are illumined with one Light. This is the spiritual relationship and everlasting union. Likewise in the physical world they are bound together with strong and unbreakable ties."
Abdu’l-Baha (Published in Baha’I World Faith, PP. 372-73)

“When, therefore, the people of Baha undertake to marry, the union must be a true relationship, a spiritual coming together as well as a physical one, so that throughout every phase of life, and in all the worlds of God, their union will endure; for this real oneness is a gleaming out of the love of God.”
Abdu’l-Baha

The physical relationship must be established on the spiritual relationship.

“It should not happen that upon the occurrence of a slight friction of displeasure between husband and wife, the husband would think of union with some other woman or, God forbid, the wife also think of another husband. This is contrary to the standard of heavenly value and true chastity. The friends of God must so live and conduct themselves, and evince such excellence of character and conduct, as to make others astonished. The love between husband and wife should not be purely physical, nay rather it must be spiritual and heavenly. These two souls should be considered as one soul. How difficult it would be to divide a single soul! Nay, great would be the difficulty!"
Abdu’l-Baha

The marriage vow

When a man and a woman marry in the Baha’i marriage, each says to the other, before witnesses:

“We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God.”

Baha’u’llah

There is a relationship that the husband and wife will establish when they say the marriage vow that each one of them accepting the other one and they all abided by God’s will. God is witnessing and supporting them for the successes of their marriage if both husband and wife are sincer on this relationship, and then it will be an everlasting marriage.

We only can understand Baha’i marriage from the Baha’i writings.

“The true marriage…of Baha’is is this, that husband and wife should be united both physically and spiritually, that they may ever improve the spiritual life of each other, and may enjoy everlasting unity throughout all the worlds of God. This is Baha’I Marriage."
Abdu’l-Baha

"Such a chaste and holy life, with its implications of modesty, purity, temperance, decency, and clean-mindedness, involves no less than the exercise of moderation in all that pertains to dress, language, amusements, and all artistic and literary avocations. It demands daily vigilance in the control of one’s carnal desires and corrupt inclinations. It calls for the abandonment of a frivolous conduct, with its excessive attachment to trivial and often misdirected pleasures. It requires total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks, from opium, and from similar habit-forming drugs. It condemns the prostitution of art and of literature, marriage, infidelity in marital relationships, and all manner of promiscuity, of easy familiarity, and of sexual vices. It can tolerate no compromise with the theories, the standards, the habits, and the excesses of a decadent age. Nay rather it seeks to demonstrate, through the dynamic force of its example, the pernicious character of such theories, the falsity of such standards, the hollowness of such claims, the perversity of such habits, and the sacrilegious character of such excesses."
Shoghi Effendi (The advent of Divine Justice, P. 25)