Page 12 - Prayers and Extracts from the Baha'i Writings

COLLABORATION

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O SON OF SPIRIT! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away

therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid
thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt

know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor.
Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee

and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words, Arabic No. 2

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Knowledge is as wings to man’s life, and a ladder for his ascent. Its acquisition is

incumbent upon everyone. The knowledge of such sciences, however, should be
acquired as can profit the peoples of the earth, and not those which begin with words
and end with words. Great indeed is the claim of scientists and craftsmen on the

peoples of the world.

Bahá’u’lláh, Tajallíyát

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And the honor and distinction of the individual consist in this, that he among all the
world’s multitudes should become a source of social good. Is any larger bounty
conceivable than this, that an individual, looking within himself, should find that by

the confirming grace of God he has become the cause of peace and well-being, of
happiness and advantage to his fellow men? No, by the one true God, there is no

greater bliss, no more complete delight.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Secret of Divine Civilization

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We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that

once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the
world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it.

The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result
of these mutual reactions.

Letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, To an individual believer, 17 February 1933

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