It is true that there are foolish individuals who have never
properly examined the fundamentals of the Divine religions, who have taken as
their criterion the behavior of a few religious hypocrites and measured all
religious persons by that yardstick, and have on this account concluded that
religions are an obstacle to progress, a divisive factor and a cause of
malevolence and enmity among peoples. They have not even observed this much,
that the principles of the Divine religions can hardly be evaluated by the acts
of those who only claim to follow them. For every excellent thing, peerless
though it may be, can still be diverted to the wrong ends. A lighted lamp in
the hands of an ignorant child or of the blind will not dispel the surrounding
darkness nor light up the house—it will set both the bearer and the house on
fire. Can we, in such an instance, blame the lamp? No, by the Lord God! To the
seeing, a lamp is a guide and will show him his path; but it is a disaster to
the blind.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘The Secret of Divine Civilization’)
