Concerning thy question whether all the souls enjoy Eternal Life: Know thou, those souls partake of the Eternal Life in whom the Spirit of Life is breathed from the Presence of God; and all beside them are dead, without life—Christ has explained (this matter) in the texts of the Gospel. Any person whose insight is opened by God, sees the souls in their stations after the disintegration of the bodies—Verily, they are living and are subsisting before their Lord!—and sees also the dead souls submerged in the gulfs of mortality. Then know thou, verily, all the souls are created according to the nature of God, and all are in the state of (unconscious) purity at the time of their birth. But afterward they differ from one another in so far as they acquire excellencies or defects. Nevertheless, the creatures have different degrees in existence in so far as the creation goes; for capacities are many, but all of them are good and pure (in their essence); then afterward they are polluted and defiled. Although there are different states of creation, yet all of them are beneficial. Glance thou over the temple of man, its members and its parts: Among them is the eye, the ear, smelling and taste, hands and fingers. Notwithstanding the differences between these organs, all of them are useful in their proper sphere. But if one of them is out of order, there is need of a remedy, and if the medicine does not heal, then the amputation of that member becomes necessary.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a Tablet; ‘Star of the West’, vol. 5, no. 19, March 2, 1915)
