…the friends are stars in the high heavens of guidance,
celestial bodies in the skies of divine grace, who with all their powers put
the dark to flight. They break down the foundations of malevolence and hate.
They cherish but one desire for the world and all its peoples: well-being and
peace. By them, the ramparts of warfare and aggression are battered down. They
have truthfulness and honest dealing and friendship for their goal, and
kindness even toward a vicious foe; until at last they change this prison of
treachery, the world, into a mansion of utmost trust, and turn this gaol-house
of hatred and malevolence and spite, into God’s Paradise.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha)
