Let not the stranger, the envious and the enemy have cause
to attribute the sublimity of the Faith in the past and in its early days to
the appearance of outstanding and sanctified souls and the perseverance of
martyrs whose absence today implies the necessary decline, weakening,
scattering and annihilation of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Quoted by
the Universal House of Justice in a message dated 10 February 1980 addressed to
the Iranian believers resident in other countries throughout the world)
