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Why is “Allah’u’Abha” repeated each day

When we turn to God with our whole heart and invoke His Name, a spiritual connection is established through which we become a channel of divine influence.
Shoghi Effendi, letter dated 19 October 1925

The Universal House of Justice, in a letter to an individual, also states:

As a devoted believer in Baha’u’llah, you have the privilege of using the Greatest Name and the revealed prayers to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit, which is your shield and your protection through any difficulties and which will bring reassurance and serenity to your heart.
The Universal House of Justice

In Wisdom of the Master: The Spiritual Teachings of Abdu’l-Baha, Steven Scholl writes:

Abdu’l-Baha teaches how the practice of invocation or repetition of ‘The Greatest Name’ (Allah-u-Abha, God is Most Glorious) leads to union with God, illumination and spiritual rebirth. The use of invocation is well developed among the mystics of Islam, the Sufis. The repetition of sacred phrases is called dhikr (pronounced zikr, meaning remembrance). This spiritual practice of invocation is praised by Abdu’l-Baha. He encourages spiritual seekers to ‘recite the Greatest Name at every morn, and (to) turn…unto the kingdom of Abha, until though [sic] mayest apprehend the mysteries.’
Through the invocation of the Greatest Name, Abdu’l-Baha maintains that ‘the doors of the kingdom of God open, illumination is vouchsafed and divine union results…The use of the Greatest Name, and dependence upon it, causes the soul to strip itself of the husks of mortality and to step forth freed, reborn, a new creature.’
Wisdom of the Master: The Spiritual Teachings of Abdu’l-Baha, ed Steven Scholl

Repeating “Allah-u-Abha” 95 times can increase our capacity to focus. Abdu’l-Baha tells us:

One cannot obtain the full force of the sunlight when it is cast on a flat mirror, but once the sun shineth upon a concave mirror, or on a lens that is convex, all its heat will be concentrated on a single point, and that one point will burn the hottest. Thus is it necessary to focus one’s thinking on a single point so that it will become an effective force.
Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha

He also says:

The Greatest Name should be found upon the lips in the first awakening moment of early dawn. It should be fed upon by constant use in daily invocation, in trouble, under opposition, and should be the last word breathed when the head rests upon the pillow at night. It is the name of comfort, protection, happiness, illumination, love and unity.
Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha

There are two ways of healing sickness, material means and spiritual means. The first is by the treatment of physicians; the second consisteth in prayers offered by the spiritual ones to God and in turning to Him. Both means should be used and practised.
(Abdu'l-Bahá: Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Bahá, pp. 151-152)

3.3 HEALING PRAYER
Thou hast written concerning the Tablet of Baka Ya Ali—Baka Ya Vafi (Tablet of Protection). This Tablet is for the healing of ailments. Whenever one is anxious about the recovery of an ill one, he may read this prayer with a melodious voice while in a state of the utmost attention and concentration. (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá v2, p. 469)

"In His Name, the Exalted, the All-Highest, the Most Sublime! Glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! O Thou Who art my God, and my Master, and my Lord, and my Support, and my Hope, and my Refuge, and my Light. I ask of Thee, by Thine Hidden and Treasured Name, that none knoweth save Thine own Self, to protect the bearer of this Tablet from every calamity and pestilence, and from every wicked man and woman; from the evil of the evil-doers, and from the scheming of the unbelievers. Preserve him, moreover, O my God, from every pain and vexation,

O Thou Who holdest in Thy hand the empire of all things. Thou, truly, art powerful over all things. Thou doest as Thou willest, and ordainest as Thou pleasest.

O Thou King of Kings! O Thou kind Lord! O Thou Source of ancient bounty, of grace, of generosity and bestowal! O Thou Healer of sicknesses! O Thou Sufficer of needs! O Thou Light of Light! O Thou Light above all Lights! O Thou Revealer of every Manifestation! O Thou the Compassionate! O Thou the Merciful! Do Thou have mercy upon the bearer of this Tablet, through Thy most great mercy and Thine abundant grace,

O Thou the Gracious, Thou the Bounteous. Guard him, moreover, through Thy protection, from whatsoever his heart and mind may find repugnant. Of those endued with power, Thou, verily, art the most powerful. The Glory of God rest upon thee, O thou rising sun! Do thou testify unto that which God hath testified of His own Self, that there is none other God besides Him, the Almighty, the Best- Beloved.”
(Bahá’u’lláh, from a recently translated tablet from Arabic at the Bahá’í World Centre)

Question: - Some people heal the sick by spiritual means — that is to say, without medicine.  How is this?
Answer: - Know that there are four kinds of curing and healing without medicine. Two are due to material causes, and two to spiritual causes.

Of the two kinds of material healing, one is due to the fact that in man both health and sickness are contagious. The contagion of disease is violent and rapid, while that of health is extremely weak and slow. If two bodies are brought into contact with each other, it is certain that microbic particles will pass from one to the other. In the same way that disease is transferred from one body to another with rapid and strong contagion, it may be that the strong health of a healthy man will alleviate a very slight malady in a sick person. That is to say, the contagion of disease is violent and has a rapid effect, while that of health is very slow and has a small effect, and it is only in very slight diseases that it has even this small effect. The strong power of a healthy body can overcome a slight weakness of a sick body, and health results. This is one kind of healing.

The other kind of healing without medicine is through the magnetic force which acts from one body on another and becomes the cause of cure. This force also has only a slight effect. Sometimes one can benefit a sick person by placing one's hand upon his head or upon his heart. Why? Because of the effect of the magnetism, and of the mental impression made upon the sick person, which causes the disease to vanish. But this effect is also very slight and weak.

Of the two other kinds of healing which are spiritual — that is to say, where the means of cure is a spiritual power — one results from the entire concentration of the mind of a strong person upon a sick person, when the latter expects with all his concentrated faith that a cure will be effected from the spiritual power of the strong person, to such an extent that there will be a cordial connection between the strong person and the invalid. The strong person makes every effort to cure the sick patient, and the sick patient is then sure of receiving a cure. 

From the effect of these mental impressions an excitement of the nerves is produced, and this impression and this excitement of the nerves will become the cause of the recovery of the sick person. So when a sick person has a strong desire and intense hope for something and hears suddenly the tidings of its realization, a nervous excitement is produced which will make the malady entirely disappear. In the same way, if a cause of terror suddenly occurs, perhaps an excitement may be produced in the nerves of a strong person which will immediately cause a malady. The cause of the sickness will be no material thing, for that person has not eaten anything, and nothing harmful has touched him; the excitement of the nerves is then the only cause of the illness. In the same way the sudden realization of a chief desire will give such joy that the nerves will be excited by it, and this excitement may produce health.

To conclude, the complete and perfect connection between the spiritual doctor and the sick person — that is, a connection of such a kind that the spiritual doctor entirely concentrates himself, and all the attention of the sick person is given to the spiritual doctor from whom he expects to realize health — causes an excitement of the nerves, and health is produced. But all this has effect only to a certain extent, and that not always. For if someone is afflicted with a very violent disease, or is wounded, these means will not remove the disease nor close and heal the wound — that is to say, these means have no power in severe maladies, unless the constitution helps, because a strong constitution often overcomes disease. This is the third kind of healing.

But the fourth kind of healing is produced through the power of the Holy Spirit. This does not depend on contact, nor on sight, nor upon presence; it is not dependent upon any condition. Whether the disease be light or severe, whether there be a contact of bodies or not, whether a personal connection be established between the sick person and the healer or not, this healing takes place through the power of the Holy Spirit.
2) ('Abdu'l-Bahá, "Some Answered Questions", pp. 254-256)

"Be thankful to God for having enabled you to recognize His Cause. Whoever has received this blessing must, prior to his acceptance, have performed some deed which, though he himself was unaware of its character, was ordained by God as a means whereby he has been guided to find and embrace the Truth. 

As to those who have remained deprived of such a blessing, their acts alone have hindered them from recognising the truth of this Revelation. 

We cherish the hope that you, who have attained to this light, will exert your utmost to banish the darkness of superstition and unbelief from the midst of the people. 

May your deeds proclaim your faith and enable you to lead the erring into the paths of eternal salvation. 

The memory of this night will never be forgotten. May it never be effaced by the passage of time, and may its mention linger for ever on the lips of men."   (Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 586)  

All over the world one hears beautiful sayings extolled and noble precepts admired. All men say they love what is good, and hate everything that is evil! Sincerity is to be admired, whilst lying is despicable.

Faith is a virtue, and treachery is a disgrace to humanity. It is a blessed thing to gladden the hearts of men, and wrong to be the cause of pain. To be kind and merciful is right, while to hate is sinful. Justice is a noble quality and injustice an iniquity. That it is one's duty to be pitiful and harm no one, and to avoid jealousy and malice at all costs. Wisdom is the glory of man, not ignorance; light, not darkness! It is a good thing to turn one's face toward God, and foolishness to ignore Him. That it is our duty to guide man upward, and not to mislead him and be the cause of his downfall. There are many more examples like unto these.  

26.2 But all these sayings are but words and we see very few of them carried into the world of action. On the contrary, we perceive that men are carried away by passion and selfishness, each man thinking only of what will benefit himself even if it means the ruin of his brother. They are all anxious to make their fortune and care little or nothing for the welfare of others. They are concerned about their own peace and comfort, while the condition of their fellows troubles them not at all.  

26.3 Unhappily this is the road most men tread.  

26.4 But Bahá'ís must not be thus; they must rise above this condition. Actions must be more to them than words. By their actions they must be merciful and not merely by their words. They must on all occasions confirm by their actions what they proclaim in words. Their deeds must prove their fidelity, and their actions must show forth Divine light.  

26.5 Let your actions cry aloud to the world that you are indeed Bahá'ís, for it is actions that speak to the world and are the cause of the progress of humanity.  

26.6 If we are true Bahá'ís speech is not needed. Our actions will help on the world, will spread civilization, will help the progress of science, and cause the arts to develop. Without action nothing in the material world can be accomplished, neither can words unaided advance a man in the spiritual Kingdom. It is not through lip-service only that the elect of God have attained to holiness, but by patient lives of active service they have brought light into the world.  

26.7 Therefore strive that your actions day by day may be beautiful prayers. 

>Turn towards God, and 

>seek always to do that which is right and noble. 

>Enrich the poor, raise the fallen, 

>comfort the sorrowful, 

>bring healing to the sick, 

>reassure the fearful, 

>rescue the oppressed, 

>bring hope to the hopeless,

> shelter the destitute!  

26.8 This is the work of a true Bahá'í, and this is what is expected of him. If we strive to do all this, then are we true Bahá'ís, but if we neglect it, we are not followers of the Light, and we have no right to the name. 

 26.9 God, who sees all hearts, knows how far our lives are the fulfilment of our words.   (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 79)  

Indeed, the laws of God are like unto the ocean and the children of men as fish, did they but know it. However, in observing them one must exercise tact and wisdom... Since most people are feeble and far-removed from the purpose of God, therefore one must observe tact and prudence under all conditions, so that nothing might happen that could cause disturbance and dissension or raise clamour among the heedless. Verily, His bounty hath surpassed the whole universe and His bestowals encompassed all that dwell on earth. One must guide mankind to the ocean of true understanding in a spirit of love and tolerance. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas itself beareth eloquent testimony to the loving providence of God.  

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 6)  

Man has two planes: the physical and the intellectual. The divine revelators have three: their physical condition, which is shared by all mankind - they eat, they sleep, they are sometimes ill, they become well again, they become fatigued, they undergo all that man can undergo; their intellectual degree and their holy reality which surrounds all beings and comprehends secrets. Their horizons enfold the universe, for they are the suns of real truth illuminating all the regions of thought, dispersing the darkness, uplifting the world of mankind and making the material world heavenly. 

Were it not for these divine messengers there would be no consciousness of continuity.  They are the focal points of all the human and divine attainments, for they bring eternal life and the promise of its fulfillment.  Other men, although able to evolve to a high degree, are still in the second condition; this third state is alone partaken of by the divine messengers although great saints have attained extraordinary pre-eminence and reflect the splendor of the sun.  May you be of those who have believed and obeyed; may you be of the few that are chosen rather than of the many that are called!  

In the same way consider the body of man. It must be composed of different organs, parts and members. Human beauty and perfection require the existence of the ear, the eye, the brain and even that of the nails and hair; if man were all brain, eyes or ears, it would be equivalent to imperfection. So the absence of hair, eyelashes, teeth and nails would be an absolute defect, though in comparison with the eye they are without feeling, and in this resemble the mineral and plant; but their absence in the body of man is necessarily faulty and displeasing.  As the degrees of existence are different and various, some beings are higher in the scale than others. Therefore, it is by the will and wish of God that some creatures are chosen for the highest degree, as man, and some others are placed in the middle degree, as the vegetable, and some are left in the lowest degree, like the mineral.  

It is from the bounty of God that man is selected for the highest degree; and the differences which exist between men in regard to spiritual progress and heavenly perfections are also due to the choice of the Compassionate One. For faith, which is life eternal, is the sign of bounty, and not the result of justice. 

The flame of the fire of love, in this world of earth and water, comes through the power of attraction and not by effort and striving. 

Nevertheless, by effort and perseverance, knowledge, science and other perfections can be acquired; but only the light of the Divine Beauty can transport and move the spirits through the force of attraction. 

Therefore, it is said: "Many are called, but few are chosen."[1] [1 Matt. 22:14.]   (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 130)  

(Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, p. 59)