O my spiritual loved ones! At a time when an ocean of trials and
tribulations was surging up and flinging its waves to the heavens, when
multitudes were assailing us and the tyrannical were inflicting upon us
crushing wrongs--at such a time a band of individuals, intent on defaming
us, allied themselves with our unkind brother, brought out a treatise that
was filled with slanderous charges, and levelled accusations and calumnies
against us.
In this way they alarmed and confused the government authorities, and it
is obvious what the condition of this captive then became, in this
dilapidated fortress, and what terrible harm and mischief was done, far
worse than words can tell. In spite of everything, this homeless prisoner
remained inwardly tranquil and secure, trusting in the peerless Lord,
yearning for whatever afflictions might have to be encountered in the
pathway of God's love. For bolts of hate are, in our sight, but a gift of
pearls from Him, and mortal poison but a healing draught.
Such was our state when a letter came to us from the American friends.(62)
They had covenanted together, so they wrote, to remain at one in all
things, and the signatories one and all had pledged themselves to make
sacrifices in the pathway of the love of God, thus to achieve eternal
life. At the very moment when this letter was read, together with the
signatures at its close, 'Abdu'l-Baha experienced a joy so vehement that
no pen can describe it, and thanked God that friends have been raised up
in that country who will live together in perfect harmony, in the best of
fellowship, in full agreement, closely knit, united in their efforts.
The more this compact is reinforced, the happier and the better shall all
things be, for it will draw unto itself the confirmations of God. If the
lovers of the Lord are hoping for grace to win as their friends the
Company on high, they must do all they can to strengthen this compact, for
such an alliance for brotherhood and unity is even as watering the Tree of
Life: it is life everlasting.
O ye lovers of God! Make firm your steps; fulfil your pledge to one
another; go forth in harmony to scatter abroad the sweet savours of God's
love, and to establish His Teachings, until ye breathe a soul into the
dead body of this world, and bring true healing in the physical and
spiritual realms to everyone who aileth.
O ye lovers of God! The world is even as a human being who is diseased and
impotent, whose eyes can see no longer, whose ears have gone deaf, all of
whose powers are corroded and used up. Wherefore must the friends of God
be competent physicians who, following the holy Teachings, will nurse this
patient back to health. Perhaps, God willing, the world will mend, and
become permanently whole, and its exhausted faculties will be restored,
and its person will take on such vigour, freshness and verdancy that it
will shine out with comeliness and grace.
The first remedy of all is to guide the people aright, so that they will
turn themselves unto God, and listen to His counsellings, and go forth
with hearing ears and seeing eyes. Once this speedily effective draught is
given them, then, in accordance with the Teachings, they must be led to
acquire the characteristics and the behaviour of the Concourse on high,
and encouraged to seek out all the bounties of the Abha Realm. They must
cleanse their hearts from even the slightest trace of hatred and spite,
and they must set about being truthful and honest, conciliatory and loving
to all humankind--so that East and West will, even as two lovers, hold each
other close; that hatred and hostility will perish from the earth, and
universal peace be firmly rooted in their place.
O ye lovers of God! Be kind to all peoples; care for every person; do all
ye can to purify the hearts and minds of men; strive ye to gladden every
soul. To every meadow be a shower of grace, to every tree the water of
life; be as sweet musk to the sense of humankind, and to the ailing be a
fresh, restoring breeze. Be pleasing waters to all those who thirst, a
careful guide to all who have lost their way; be father and mother to the
orphan, be loving sons and daughters to the old, be an abundant treasure
to the poor. Think ye of love and good fellowship as the delights of
heaven, think ye of hostility and hatred as the torments of hell.
Indulge not your bodies with rest, but work with all your souls, and with
all your hearts cry out and beg of God to grant you His succour and grace.
Thus may ye make this world the Abha Paradise, and this globe of earth the
parade ground of the realm on high. If only ye exert the effort, it is
certain that these splendours will shine out, these clouds of mercy will
shed down their rain, these life-giving winds will rise and blow, this
sweet-smelling musk will be scattered far and wide.
O ye lovers of God! Do not dwell on what is coming to pass in this holy
place, and be ye in no wise alarmed. Whatsoever may happen is for the
best, because affliction is but the essence of bounty, and sorrow and toil
are mercy unalloyed, and anguish is peace of mind, and to make a sacrifice
is to receive a gift, and whatsoever may come to pass hath issued from
God's grace.
See ye, therefore, to your own tasks: guide ye the people and educate them
in the ways of 'Abdu'l-Baha. Deliver to mankind this joyous message from
the Abha Realm. Rest not, by day or night; seek ye no moment's peace.
Strive ye with all your might to bring to men's ears these happy tidings.
In your love for God and your attachment to 'Abdu'l-Baha, accept ye every
tribulation, every sorrow. Endure the aggressor's taunts, put up with the
enemy's reproaches. Follow in the footsteps of 'Abdu'l-Baha, and in the
pathway of the Abha Beauty, long at every moment to give up your lives.
Shine out like the day-star, be unresting as the sea; even as the clouds
of heaven, shed ye life upon field and hill, and like unto April winds,
blow freshness through those human trees, and bring them to their
blossoming.