It is clear that learning is the greatest bestowal of God;
that knowledge and the acquirement thereof is a blessing from Heaven. Thus is
it incumbent upon the friends of God to exert such an effort and strive with
such eagerness to promote divine knowledge, culture and the sciences, that
erelong those who are schoolchildren today will become the most erudite of all
the fraternity of the wise. This is a service rendered unto God Himself, and it
is one of His inescapable commandments.
('Abdu'l-Bahá,
from a Tablet; The Compilation
of Compilations, vol. I, Excellence in All Things)
