Let us then, affectionate brothers and sisters, ponder for a while upon
the underlying reason that had made God’s divine Messengers prefer a life of
torture to one of ease, and those blessed martyrs, so many of them cut off in
the springtime and promise of their youth, choose death with faces radiant with
joy. What did the Bab sacrifice His promising youth for except out of a burning
desire to have mankind live in unity and peace; and what was the spirit that
animated those bold and heroic martyrs but love and adoration to a Cause they
wished to triumph? What made Baha’u’llah, born and brought up in opulence,
fling away all earthly possessions and choose upon Himself unspeakable
hardships and deprivation, save for an earnest appeal to the world at large to
turn their hatred for one another into genuine love and to make a world
seething with blood a peaceful home for God’s children; and why did
‘Abdu’l-Baha who could have chosen a life of ease and comfort, prefer to lead a
crusade against the strongholds of human hearts and make a direct appeal to
individuals as well as groups that unless we love one another with all our
might and with all our heart we are absolutely doomed. He carried a crusade not
with a sword of steel but with a sword of love and affection. And if we dare
call ourselves Baha’is it simply means that we have to follow in their wake. It
means that we must always have the public weal in mind and not give up
ourselves wholly to our inclinations and desires, and it means that we must
picture before us the perseverance and self-sacrifice of those early volunteers
and make a whole-hearted effort to be like unto one of them; and it shall be
only in this way that we can safeguard this great Cause of God.
This in brief, is what our beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, is patiently
and eagerly expecting from every single one of us. This, he says, should mark
us from all other men and this should differentiate us from those to whom
religion is something to believe in and not to inspire to action. ...
