O thou handmaid aflame with the fire of God’s love! Grieve
thou not over the troubles and hardships of this nether world, nor be thou glad
in times of ease and comfort, for both shall pass away. This present life is
even as a swelling wave, or a mirage, or drifting shadows. Could ever a
distorted image on the desert serve as refreshing waters? No, by the Lord of
Lords! Never can reality and the mere semblance of reality be one, and wide is
the difference between fancy and fact, between truth and the phantom thereof.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’)
