Refining Utterance (41-44)

What should be our response as an individual if we are the target of slander?

41) "Let us take for our example the great and sacred Tree of the exalted Bab—may my life be offered up for Him. Like Him let us bare our breasts to the shaft of agony, like Him make our hearts to be targets for the spears decreed by God. Let us, like candles, burn away; as moths let us scorch our wings; as the field larks, vent our plaintive cries; as the nightingales, burst forth in lamentations.

"Even as the clouds let us shed down our tears, and as the lightning flashes let us laugh at our coursings through east and west. By day, by night, let us think but of spreading the sweet savours of God. Let us not keep on forever with our analyzing and interpreting and circulating of complex dubieties. Let us put aside all thoughts of self; let us close our eyes to all on earth, let us neither make known our sufferings nor complain of our wrongs. Rather let us become oblivious of our own selves, and drinking down the wine of heavenly grace, let us cry out our joy, and lose ourselves in the beauty of the All-Glorious."

(Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 236)

42) "Should any come to blows with you, seek to be friends with him; should any stab you to the heart, be ye a healing salve unto his sores; should any taunt and mock at you, meet him with love. Should any heap his blame upon you, praise ye him; should he offer you a deadly poison, give him the choicest honey in exchange; and should he threaten your life, grant him a remedy that will heal him evermore. Should he be pain itself, be ye his medicine; should he thorns, be ye his roses and sweet herbs. Perchance such ways and words from you will make this darksome world turn bright at last', will make this dusty earth turn heavenly, this devilish prison place become a royal palace of the Lord - so that war and strife will pass and be no more, and love and trust will pitch their tents on the summits of the world."

(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 34)

43) "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..."

(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, pp. 245-246)

44) "We must never dwell too much on the attitudes and feelings of our fellow-believers towards us. What is most important is to foster love and harmony and ignore any rebuffs we may receive; in this way the weaknesses of human nature and the peculiarity or attitude of any particular person is not magnified, but pales into insignificance in comparison with our joint service to the Faith we all love."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, September 19, 1948)

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