O ye handmaids of the merciful Lord! How many queens of this
world laid down their heads on a pillow of dust and disappeared. No fruit was
left of them, no trace, no sign, not even their names. For them, no more
granting of bestowals; for them, no more living at all. Not so the handmaids
who ministered at the Threshold of God; these have shone forth like glittering
stars in the skies of ancient glory, shedding their splendours across all the
reaches of time. These have fulfilled their dearest hopes in the Abhá Paradise;
they have tasted the honey of reunion in the congregation of the Lord. Such
souls as these profited from their existence here on earth: they plucked the
fruit of life. As for the rest, ‘There surely came upon them a time when they
were a thing not spoken of.’ (‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’)
