O thou handmaid who art a captive of the beauty of the
All-Glorious:
I have received thy letter, including thy question as to the
wisdom of capital punishment, it being the most odious of all things in such a
holy Dispensation as this, that hath come down as a mercy to all mankind.
Know thou, it is an established principle that man hath not
the right to seek revenge, for vengeance is verily a thing blameworthy and
detestable in the sight of God. He chastiseth whomsoever He willeth, with
whatsoever means He chooseth. But legal punishment, far from being an act of
vengeance, is in reality a bounty, and kindness itself. Although to outward
seeming it is vengeance, it is like the requital by a father who punisheth his
son for the son's wrongdoing: seemingly infliction, but truly benediction. For
this kind of torment proceedeth from the father's tender and pitying heart,
warding off from his child all that is base, driving him on to all excellence;
and from it, step by step, will the cherished son be led into perfections and
all good ways of life.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a Tablet; included in a Memorandum
from the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice dated 23 May
1991, forwarded to an individual believer by the Department of the Secretariat
of the Universal House of Justice)
