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Courtesy and Reverence |
O people of God! I exhort you to courtesy. Courtesy
is indeed … the lord of all virtues. Blessed is he who is
adorned with the mantle of Uprightness and illumined
with the light of Courtesy. He who is endowed with Courtesy
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(or Reverence) is endowed with a great station. It
is hoped that this Wronged One, and all, will attain to it,
hold unto it and observe it. This is the Irrefutable Command
which hath flowed from the pen of the Greatest
Name.—Tablet of the World.
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Beware! Beware! Lest ye offend any heart! Beware! Beware! Lest ye hurt any soul! Beware! Beware! Lest ye deal unkindly toward any person! Beware! Beware! Lest ye be the cause of hopelessness to any creature! Should one become the cause of grief to any one heart, or of despondency to any one soul, it were better to hide oneself in the lowest depths of the earth than to walk upon the earth. |
He teaches that as the flower is hidden in the bud, so a spirit
from God dwells in the heart of every man, no matter how hard
and unlovely his exterior. The true Bahá’í will treat every man,
therefore, as the gardener tends a rare and beautiful plant. He
knows that no impatient interference on his part can open the
bud into a blossom; only God’s sunshine can do that, therefore
his aim is to bring that life-giving sunshine into all
darkened hearts and homes.
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Among the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is one requiring
man, under all conditions and circumstances, to be forgiving,
to love his enemy and to consider an ill-wisher as a
well-wisher. Not that one should consider another as an
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enemy and then put up with him … and be forbearing
toward him. This is hypocrisy and not real love. Nay,
rather, you must see your enemies as friends, your ill-wishers
as well-wishers and treat them accordingly. Your
love and kindness must be real … not merely forbearance,
for forbearance, if not of the heart, is hypocrisy.
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Such counsel appears unintelligible and self-contradictory
until we realize that while the outer carnal man may be a
hater and ill-wisher, there is in everyone an inner, spiritual
nature which is the real man, from whom only love and goodwill
can proceed. It is to this real, inner man in each of our
neighbors that we must direct our thought and love. When he
awakens into activity, the outer man will be transformed and
renewed.
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