…be just! How can this agree with reasons? If a man kills
his brother he is called a murderer; if he crimsons the battlefield with the
blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, he is hailed as a great
conqueror! If a man steals ten dollars from another he is considered to be a
guilty thief, but if he has pillaged a large country he will be known in
history as a patriot. If he destroys with fire one house he is accused of
arson, but if he bombards a city with the fire of cannon he is called a
victorious being. All these events connote the evils of human ignorance, the
blood thirstiness of the nature of man and the lack of faith. For if man
believes in divine Justice he will not consent to the suffering of any soul and
he will not allow the shedding of one drop of blood; nay, rather he will exert
himself day and night to make one soul happy.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk,
November 24, 1911, Paris, France; Star of the West, vol. 2, no. 18, February 7,
1912)
