The Bahá’í World
Volume 2 : 1926-1928
with the holy ecstasy of the grace of Bahá, that ignorance, enmity, hate and malice may vanish from the world and the darkness of estrangement amidst the peoples and kindreds of the world may be turned into the light of unity. Should other peoples and nations be unfaithful, show fidelity unto them; should they be unjust, be just unto them; should they avoid you, attract them; should they show enmity, be friendly; should they poison you, sweeten their lives; should they inflict a wound upon you, be a salve to their sores. Such are the attributes of the sincere! Such are the attributes of the truthful! . . .
The disciples of Christ forgot themselves and all earthly things, forsook all their cares and belongings, purged themselves of self and passion, and with absolute detachment scattered far and wide, and engaged in calling the peoples of the world to the Light of Guidance, till at last they made the world another world, illumined the surface of the earth, and even to their last hour proved self-sacrificing in the pathway of that beloved One of God. Finally in various lands, they suffered glorious martyrdom. Let them that are men of action follow in their footsteps!
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Will and Testament.)
SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT AND THE ESSENCE
OF DIVINITY
Excerpts from a Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Dr. August Forel,
European Scientist and Scholar.
MENTAL faculties are in truth of the inherent properties of the soul, even as the radiation of light is the essential property of the sun. The rays of the sun are renewed but the sun itself is ever the same and unchanged. Consider how the human intellect develops and weakens, and may at times come to naught, whereas the soul changes not. For the mind to manifest itself, the human body must be whole; and a sound mind cannot be but in a sound body, whereas the soul depends not upon the body. It is through the power of the soul that the mind comprehends, imagines and exerts its influence, while the soul is a power that is free. The mind comprehends the abstract by the aid of the concrete, but the soul has limitless manifestations of its own. The mind is circumscribed, the soul limitless. It is by the aid of such senses as those of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, that the mind comprehends, whereas the soul is free from all agencies. The soul, as you observe, whether it be in sleep or waking, is in motion and ever active. Possibly it may, while in a dream, unravel an intricate problem, incapable of solution in the waking state. The mind, moreover, understands not while the senses have ceased to function, and in the embryonic stage and in early infancy the reasoning power is totally absent, whereas the soul is ever endowed with full strength. In short, the proofs are many that go to show that despite the loss of reason, the power of the soul would still continue to exist. The spirit, however, possesses various grades and stations.
As to the existence of spirit in the mineral: it is indubitable that minerals are endowed with a spirit and life according to the requirements of that stage. This unknown secret, too, has become known unto the materialists who now maintain that all beings are endowed with life, even as He said in the Qur’án, “All things are living.”
In the vegetable world too, there is the power of growth, and that power of growth is the spirit. In the animal world there is the sense of feeling, but in the human world there is an all-embracing power. In all the preceding stages the power of reason is absent, but the soul exists and reveals itself. The sense of
