Strive ye that this human world may be changed into a
luminous realm and this mound of earth become the Paradise of Abha. Darkness
hath environed the world upon all sides. Savage tempers and inclination
predominate. The human world has become the battlefield of the rapacious
savages and the arena of the heedless and ignorant ones. The souls are either
bloodthirsty wolves or beasts with degenerate reason. They are either deadly
poison, or worthless plants. There are a few souls who in reality have some
humanitarian intentions and are thinking of the well-being and prosperity of
human kind. You must in this instance (that is, service to humanity) sacrifice
your lives, and in sacrificing your lives celebrate happiness and beatitude.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, vol. 1’)
