…you must be perfectly agreed and united to the extent and
limit of sacrificing life. Your utmost desire must be to confer happiness upon
each other. Each one must be the servant of the others, thoughtful of their
comfort and welfare. In the path of God one must forget himself entirely. He
must not consider his own pleasure but seek the pleasure of others. He must not
desire glory nor gifts of bounty for himself but seek these gifts and blessings
for his brothers and sisters. It is my hope that you may become like this, that
you may attain to the supreme bestowal and be imbued with such spiritual
qualities as to forget yourselves entirely and with heart and soul offer
yourselves as sacrifices for the Blessed Perfection. You should have neither
will nor desire of your own but seek everything for the beloved of God and live
together in complete love and fellowship. May the favors of Bahá’u’lláh
surround you from all directions. This is the greatest bestowal and supreme
bounty. These are the infinite favors of God.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, from a talk, West Englewood, New Jersey,
29 June 1912; ‘The Promulgation of
Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His Visit to the United
States and Canada in 1912’)
