…reflect ye carefully. Should the friends be firm in the Covenant, could misunderstandings arise among them? By God, that cannot be, except among those individuals who harbour evil intentions and malice, who cherish the idea of leadership and partisanship. Notwithstanding that these men have written treatises in their own handwriting in which they invoked evil upon the Covenant-breakers, denouncing them as the ones who subvert the institution of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh and affirming that this Covenant is inscribed by the Pen of the Most High and that whoever deviateth in the least from the Centre of the Covenant would be of the malicious and would deserve the wrath of God, yet these men have now themselves become the exponents of violation, inasmuch as they are motivated by malice. Their main object was to secure leadership and acquire wealth, but when they realised that by remaining firm in the Covenant their selfish desires would not be gratified, they deviated therefrom. These men were either first truthful and then became untrue or first were untrue and then became truthful. In either case their lie is manifest. Despite all this, certain people who are not aware of the facts will be sorely shaken by reason of the doubts instilled in their hearts. Therefore it behoveth thee to awaken everyone. Send a copy of this letter to Mr. Remey, Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Goodall. Upon thee be the glory of the All-Glorious!
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a Tablet to Martha Root; ‘Additional Tablets, Extracts and Talks’; online Baha’i Reference Library, Baha’i World Centre)
