All the people of the world today are workmen of destruction
or ruin. Everyone as though with an axe is striking at the root of the
foundation of humanity. They hold in their hands great implements of warfare
and destruction. Among the greatest is the axe of religious prejudices or
sectarian bias, as well as that of racial bias; another implement of
destruction is the axe of patriotic bias; another is the axe of political
warfare; another implement of ruin is the persistent accumulation of commercial
benefit or profit; another, the love of conquest of new domains, as is also the
enmity, hatred and bigotry among the nations and tribes. These souls are
entirely inadvertent to the relations of the Kingdom of God, deprived of the
relations of Unity, and despaired of the Life Eternal. Although outwardly they
may be extremely civilized, nevertheless they live in darkness.
Now, God has chosen you from among mankind, and has guided
you to the Kingdom, has enlightened your hearts with the love of God, so that
you may be the cause of guidance to these people, in order that you may become
a cause of guidance to the world of humanity.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Star of the West,
vol. 5. No. 9, August 20, 1914)
