Page 18 - Selection of Writings - 2022

COLLABORATION

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Regarding reciprocity and cooperation, each member of the body politic should live in the

utmost comfort and welfare because each individual member of humanity is a member of the

body politic, and if one member is in distress or is a icted with some disease, all the other
members must necessarily su er. For example, a member of the human organism is the eye. If

the eye should be a ected, that a iction would a ect the whole nervous system. Hence, if a

member of the body politic becomes a icted, in reality, from the standpoint of sympathetic

connection, all will share that a iction since this [one a icted] is a member of the group of

members, a part of the whole. Is it possible for one member or part to be in distress and the

other members to be at ease? It is impossible! Hence, God has desired that in the body politic

of humanity each one shall enjoy perfect welfare and comfort.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, No 102

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The supreme need of humanity is cooperation and reciprocity. The stronger the ties of

fellowship and solidarity amongst men, the greater will be the power of constructiveness and

accomplishment in all the planes of human activity. Without cooperation and reciprocal

attitude the individual member of human society remains self-centered, uninspired by

altruistic purposes, limited and solitary in development like the animal and plant organisms of

the lower kingdoms.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, No. 108

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