That which beseemeth you is the love of God, and the love of
Him Who is the Manifestation of His Essence, and the observance of whatsoever
He chooseth to prescribe unto you, did ye but know it. 
It is mentioned in the Gospel that a man called His
Holiness, Christ, "Good Master". His Holiness said unto him,
"Why callest thou Me good? None is good save One, that is God." So
'Abdu'l-Bahá wishes a sin covering eye and conceals the people's faults as far
as possible; for he considers himself incapable and deficient in the Servitude
of the Lord. Therefore, being engaged in his own short-comings, he does not
care about the sins of others, but always asks remission and forgiveness for
them, and seeks bounty and grace in their behalf.
O ye believers of God! This day is the day of your
attraction! This day is the day in which you must diffuse the Fragrances of
God! This day is the day that you must unfurl the Banner of the Kingdom of
Abha! This day is the day of Peace and Concord! This day is the day of the
proclamation of the oneness of the world of humanity! This day is the day of
forgiveness and leniency! This day is the day of Truth and righteousness! This
day is the day of conciliation and beatitude! This day is the day of awakening
and enkindlement!
Do not look at thy weakness and impotence; nay, look at the
power of thy Lord, which hath surrounded all regions. The sea of forgiveness
hath moved and the waves of pardon and beneficence have submerged the people of
sin. Be isolated from the grades of self and desire, so that thou mayest
succeed in that which behooveth the service of the Kingdom of God, and that
thou mayest be healed from every disease and sickness.
It is also recorded in the Gospel according to St. Luke,
that on a certain day Jesus passed by a Jew who was sick of the palsy, and lay
upon a couch. When the Jew saw Him, he recognized Him, and cried out for His
help. Jesus said unto him: “Arise from thy bed; thy sins are forgiven thee.”
Certain of the Jews, standing by, protested saying: “Who can forgive sins, but
God alone?” And immediately He perceived their thoughts, Jesus answering said
unto them: “Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, arise, and
take up thy bed, and walk; or to say, thy sins are forgiven thee? that ye may
know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.” [Cf. Luke
5:18–26] This is the real sovereignty, and such is the power of God’s chosen
Ones!
We exhort the loved ones of God to observe justice and
fairness, and to do that which would prompt the friends of God to evince tender
mercy and compassion towards each other.
...every branch of learning, conjoined with the love of God,
is approved and worthy of praise; but bereft of His love, learning is barren —
indeed, it bringeth on madness. Every kind of knowledge, every science, is as a
tree: if the fruit of it be the love of God, then is it a blessed tree, but if
not, that tree is but dried-up wood, and shall only feed the fire.
... If between the friends true love - based on the love of
God - could become manifest, the Cause would spread very rapidly. Love is the
standard which must govern the conduct of one believer towards another. The
administrative order does not change this, but unfortunately sometimes the
friends confuse the two, and try to be a whole spiritual assembly, - with the
discipline and justice and impartiality that body must show, - to each other,
instead of being forgiving, loving and patient to each other as individuals.
It is better to guide one soul than to possess all that is
on earth, for as long as that guided soul is under the shadow of the Tree of
Divine Unity, he and the one who hath guided him will both be recipients of
God's tender mercy, whereas possession of earthly things will cease at the time
of death. The path to guidance is one of love and compassion, not of force and
coercion. This hath been God's method in the past, and shall continue to be in
the future! He causeth him whom He pleaseth to enter the shadow of His Mercy.
Verily, He is the Supreme Protector, the All-Generous.
Under all conditions, whether in adversity or at ease,
whether honoured or afflicted, this Wronged One hath directed all men to show
forth love, affection, compassion and harmony.
I desire distinction for you. The Bahá’ís must be
distinguished from others of humanity. But this distinction must not depend upon
wealth—that they should become more affluent than other people. I do not desire
for you financial distinction. It is not an ordinary distinction I desire; not
scientific, commercial, industrial distinction. For you I desire spiritual
distinction—that is, you must become eminent and distinguished in morals. In
the love of God you must become distinguished from all else. You must become
distinguished for loving humanity, for unity and accord, for love and justice.
In brief, you must become distinguished in all the virtues of the human
world—for faithfulness and sincerity, for justice and fidelity, for firmness
and steadfastness, for philanthropic deeds and service to the human world, for
love toward every human being, for unity and accord with all people, for
removing prejudices and promoting international peace. Finally, you must become
distinguished for heavenly illumination and for acquiring the bestowals of God.
I desire this distinction for you. This must be the point of distinction among
you.
Among the teachings of Baha'u'llah is one requiring man, under
all conditions and circumstances, to be forgiving, to love his enemy and to
consider an ill-wisher as a well-wisher. Not that he should consider one as
being an enemy and then put up with him, or to simply endure him, or to
consider one as inimical and be forbearing toward him. This is declared to be
hypocrisy. This love is not real. Nay, rather, you must see your enemies as
friends, ill-wishers as well wishers and treat them accordingly. That is to
say, your love and kindness must be real. Your well-wishing must be reality,
not merely forbearance, for forbearance, if not of the heart, is hypocrisy. The
people of Reality will not accept it.
…there is a distinction drawn in the Faith between the
attitudes which should characterize individuals in their relationship to other
people, namely, loving forgiveness, forbearance, and concern with one's own
sins, not the sins of others, and those attitudes which should be shown by the
Spiritual Assemblies, whose duty is to administer the law of God with justice.
We are forbidden to confess to any person, as do the
Catholics to their priests, our sins and shortcomings, or to do so in public,
as some religious sects do. However, if we spontaneously desire to acknowledge
we have been wrong in something, or that we have some fault of character, and
ask another person's forgiveness or pardon, we are quite free to do so. The
Guardian wants to point out, however, that we are not obliged to do so. It
rests entirely with the individual.
All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing
civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the
field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance,
mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of
the earth.
In the Tablet of Visitation He saith: "I beseech God,
by Thee and by them whose faces have been illumined with the splendours of the
light of Thy countenance, and who, for love of Thee, have observed all
whereunto they were bidden." He declareth that observance of the commands
of God deriveth from love for the beauty of the Best-Beloved. The seeker, when
immersed in the ocean of the love of God, will be moved by intense longing and
will arise to carry out the laws of God. Thus, it is impossible that a heart which
containeth the fragrance of God's love should yet fail to worship Him, except
under conditions when such an action would agitate the enemies and stir up
dissension and mischief. Otherwise, a lover of the Abhá Beauty will assuredly
and continually demonstrate perseverance in the worship of the Lord.
Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of mankind,
the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the shedder of
imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation.
O ye believers of God! This day is the day of your
attraction! This day is the day in which you must diffuse the Fragrances of
God! This day is the day that you must unfurl the Banner of the Kingdom of
Abha! This day is the day of Peace and Concord! This day is the day of the
proclamation of the oneness of the world of humanity! This
day is the day of forgiveness and leniency! This day is the day of Truth
and righteousness! This day is the day of conciliation and beatitude! This day
is the day of awakening and enkindlement!
The beginning of religion is love for God and for His Chosen
Ones, and its end is to manifest that love to His servants.
Verily in this Day all that dwell on earth are the servants
of God. As to those who truly believe in God and are well assured in the signs
revealed by Him, perchance He will graciously forgive them the things their
hands have committed, and will grant them admission into the precincts of His
mercy. He, in truth, is the Ever-Forgiving, the Compassionate. But the verdict
of divine chastisement is pronounced against those who have turned away
disdainfully from Me and have repudiated the conclusive proofs and the unerring
Book with which God hath invested Me, and on the Day of Severing they shall
find no protector or helper.
…when man does not open his mind and heart to the blessing
of the spirit, but turns his soul towards the material side, towards the bodily
part of his nature, then is he fallen from his high place and he becomes
inferior to the inhabitants of the lower animal kingdom. In this case the man
is in a sorry plight! For if the spiritual qualities of the soul, open to the
breath of the Divine Spirit, are never used, they become atrophied, enfeebled,
and at last incapable; whilst the soul’s material qualities alone being
exercised, they become terribly powerful—and the unhappy, misguided man,
becomes more savage, more unjust, more vile, more cruel, more malevolent than
the lower animals themselves. All his aspirations and desires being
strengthened by the lower side of the soul’s nature, he becomes more and more
brutal, until his whole being is in no way superior to that of the beasts that
perish. Men such as this, plan to work evil, to hurt and to destroy; they are
entirely without the spirit of Divine compassion, for the celestial quality of
the soul has been dominated by that of the material.
If one friend feels love for another, he will wish to say
so. Though he knows that the friend is aware that he loves him, he will still
wish to say so.... God knows the wishes of all hearts. But the impulse to
prayer is a natural one, springing from man's love to God.
O children of men! If ye believe in the one True God, follow
Me, this Most Great Remembrance of God sent forth by your Lord, that He may
graciously forgive you your sins. Verily He is forgiving and compassionate
toward the concourse of the faithful. We, of a truth, choose the Messengers
through the potency of Our Word, and We exalt Their offspring, some over
others, through the Great Remembrance of God as decreed in the Book and
concealed therein...
O ye loved ones of the Lord! This is the hour when ye must
associate with all the earth's peoples in extreme kindliness and love, and be
to them the signs and tokens of God's great mercy. Ye must become the very soul
of the world, the living spirit in the body of the children of men.
O My brother! When a true seeker determineth to take the
step of search in the path leading unto the knowledge of the Ancient of Days, he
must … so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger
therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him
away from the truth. Even as thou dost witness in this Day how most of the
people, because of such love and hate, are bereft of the immortal Face, have
strayed far from the Embodiments of the Divine mysteries, and, shepherdless,
are roaming through the wilderness of oblivion and error.
Bahá’u’lláh teaches that the Mercy of God exceeds His
Justice. Ultimately there is hope for every soul of progress and forgiveness.
But at the same time to turn aside from this Cause, once we have really
contacted its spirit, is a grave error and one not to be minimized. But
although we Bahá’ís know this, we cannot thrust such a statement on
non-Bahá’ís. We must always teach constructively, and be very sure that none of
us, through disagreement among ourselves or indiscretion, cool off the souls of
the seekers.
If the heart turns away from the blessings God offers how
can it hope for happiness? If it does not put its hope and trust in God’s
Mercy, where can it find rest? Oh, trust in God! for His Bounty is everlasting,
and in His Blessings, for they are superb. Oh! put your faith in the Almighty,
for He faileth not and His goodness endureth forever! His Sun giveth Light
continually, and the Clouds of His Mercy are full of the Waters of Compassion
with which He waters the hearts of all who trust in Him. His refreshing Breeze
ever carries healing in its wings to the parched souls of men! Is it wise to
turn away from such a loving Father, Who showers His blessings upon us, and to
choose rather to be slaves of matter
As a devoted believer you are urged to strive to develop
forgiveness in your heart toward your parents who have abused you in so
disgraceful a manner, and to attain a level of insight which sees them as
captives of their lower nature, whose actions can only lead them deeper into
unhappiness and separation from God. By this means, you can liberate yourself
from the anger to which you refer in your letter, and foster your own spiritual
development. The peerless example of 'Abdu'l-Baha merits close scrutiny in your
quest for a sense of forgiveness; His abiding love for humanity, despite its
waywardness and perversity enabled Him to manifest sincere compassion and
magnanimity to those who had brought Him distress and hardship.
O ye beloved of the Lord! The Kingdom of God is founded upon
equity and justice, and also upon mercy, compassion, and kindness to every
living soul. Strive ye then with all your heart to treat compassionately all
humankind—except for those who have some selfish, private motive, or some
disease of the soul. Kindness cannot be shown the tyrant, the deceiver, or the
thief, because, far from awakening them to the error of their ways, it maketh
them to continue in their perversity as before. No matter how much kindliness
ye may expend upon the liar, he will but lie the more, for he believeth you to
be deceived, while ye understand him but too well, and only remain silent out
of your extreme compassion.
The real and great love is the love of God. That is holy
above the imaginations and thoughts of men.