Refining Utterance (45-56)

Quarreling, harsh criticism, and hurt feelings within a Baha'i community have serious implications.

45) "Nothing whatever can, in this Day, inflict a greater harm upon this Cause than dissension and strife, contention, estrangement and apathy, among the loved ones of God. Flee them, through the power of God and His sovereign aid, and strive ye to knit together the hearts of men, in His Name, the Unifer, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 9)

46) "Conflict and contention are categorically forbidden in His Book. This is a decree of God in this Most Great Revelation. It is divinely preserved from annulment and is invested by Him with the splendour of His Confirmation. Verily He is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 221)

47) "We have forbidden you dissension and conflict in My Books, and My Scriptures, and My Scrolls, and My Tablets and have wished thereby naught else save your exaltation and advancement. Unto this testify the heavens and the stars thereof, and the sun and the radiance thereof, and the trees and the leaves thereof, and the seas and the waves thereof, and the earth and the treasures thereof."

(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 135)

48) "Be not the cause of grief, much less of discord and strife."

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 27)

49) "Strife and conflict befit the beasts of the wild."

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 85)

50) "Beware lest ye sow tares of dissension among men or plant thorns of doubt in pure and radiant hearts. O ye beloved of the Lord! Commit not that which defileth the limpid stream of love or destroyeth the sweet fragrance of friendship. By the righteousness of the Lord! Ye were created to show love one to another and not perversity and rancour."

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 296)

51) "Beware lest ye prefer yourselves above your neighbours."

Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 315)

52) "O ye beloved of the Lord! In this sacred Dispensation, conflict and contention are in no wise permitted. Every aggressor deprives himself of God's grace."

(Abdu’l-Baha, Will and Testament of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 73)

53) "Again have the prideful devised all manner of plots and schemes to completely disable the Cause of God and to erase the name of Abdu'l-Baha from the Book of Life.

"And now, added to all these tribulations, these miseries, these enemy attacks, there hath arisen a dust cloud of ill will amongst the believers themselves. This in spite of the fact that the Cause of the Ancient Beauty is the very essence of love, the very channel of oneness, existing only that all may become the waves of one sea, and bright stars of the same endless sky, and pearls within the shell of singleness, and gleaming jewels quarried from the mines of unity; that they may become servants one to another, adore one another, bless one another, praise one another; that each one may loose his tongue and extol the rest without exception, each one voice his gratitude to all the rest; that all should lift up their eyes to the horizon of glory, and remember that they are linked to the Holy Threshold; that they should see nothing but good in one another, hear nothing but praise of one another, and speak no word of one another save only to praise.

"There are indeed certain ones who tread this way of righteousness, and God be thanked, these are strengthened and supported by heavenly power in every land. But others have not arisen as they ought to this gloried and exalted station, and this doth lay upon the heart of Abdu'l-Baha a heavy burden of grief, of inconceivable grief. For no tempest more perilous than this could ever assail the Cause of God, nor could anything else so diminish the influence of His Word."

(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writing of Abdu'l-Baha, pp. 229-230)

54) "The Lord of all mankind hath fashioned this human realm to be a Garden of Eden, an earthly paradise. If, as it must, it findeth the way to harmony and peace, to love and mutual trust, it will become a true abode of bliss, a place of manifold blessings and unending delights. Therein shall the rays of the Sun of Truth shine forth on every hand.

"Remember how Adam and the others once dwelt together in Eden. No sooner, however, did a quarrel break out between Adam and Satan than they were, one and all, banished from the Garden, and this was meant as a warning to the human race, a means of telling humankind that dissension—even with the Devil—is the way to bitter loss. This is why, in our illumined age, God teacheth that conflicts and disputes are not allowable, not even with Satan himself."

(Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writing of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 275)

55) "O ye friends of God! Beware! Beware of differences! By differences the Temple of God is razed to its very foundation, and by the blowing of the winds of disagreement the Blessed Tree is prevented from producing any fruit. By the intense cold of the diversity of opinions the rose-garden of unity is withered, and the fire of the love of God is extinguished."

(Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas, Vol. 2, p. 431)

56) "Endeavor ye as much as possible that differences may not arise in the affairs; let not every insignificant matter become the cause of disagreement. If such conditions exist the end will be complete dispersion."

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 417)

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