God maketh
no distinction between the white and the black. If the hearts are pure both are
acceptable unto Him. God is no respecter of persons on account of either color
or race. All colors are acceptable to Him, be they white, black, or yellow.
Inasmuch as all were created in the image of God, we must bring ourselves to
realize that all embody divine possibilities. If you go into a garden and find
all the flowers alike in form, species and color, the effect is wearisome to the
eye. The garden is more beautiful when the flowers are many-colored and
different; the variety lends charm and adornment. In a flock of doves some are
white, some black, red, blue; yet they make no distinction among themselves. All
are doves no matter what the color.
(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 112)
1.5.5
Community – Love of country and the world
"Freedom
is not a matter of place. It is a condition. I was thankful for the prison, and
the lack of liberty was very pleasing to me, for those days were passed in the
path of service, under the utmost difficulties and trials, bearing fruits and
results.
"Unless
one accepts dire vicissitudes, he will not attain. To me prison is freedom,
troubles rest me, death is life, and to be despised is honour. Therefore, I was
happy all that time in prison. When one is released from the prison of self,
that is indeed release, for that is the greater prison. When this release takes
place, then one cannot be outwardly imprisoned. When they put my feet in stocks,
I would say to the guard, 'You cannot imprison me, for here I have light and air
and bread and water. There will come a time when my body will be in the ground,
and I shall have neither light nor air nor food nor water, but even then I shall
not be imprisoned.' The afflictions which come to humanity sometimes tend to
centre the consciousness upon the limitations, and this is a veritable prison.
Release comes by making of the will a Door through which the confirmations of
the Spirit come."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 119)
1.5.10
Community – Integration and disintegration
A twofold
process, however, can be distinguished, each tending, in its own way and with an
accelerated momentum, to bring to a climax the forces that are transforming the
face of our planet. The first is essentially an integrating process, while the
second is fundamentally disruptive. The former, as it steadily evolves, unfolds
a System which may well serve as a pattern for that world polity towards which a
strangely-disordered world is continually advancing; while the latter, as its
disintegrating influence deepens, tends to tear down, with increasing violence,
the antiquated barriers that seek to block humanity's progress towards its
destined goal. The constructive process stands associated with the nascent Faith
of Bahá'u'lláh, and is the harbinger of the New World Order that Faith must
erelong establish. The destructive forces that characterize the other should be
identified with a civilization that has refused to answer to the expectation of
a new age, and is consequently falling into chaos and decline.
(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 170)
1.5.11
Community - Liberty
Liberty
must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench. Thus warneth
you He Who is the Reckoner, the All-Knowing. Know ye that the embodiment of
liberty and its symbol is the animal. That which beseemeth man is submission
unto such restraints as will protect him from his own ignorance, and guard him
against the harm of the mischief-maker. Liberty causeth man to overstep the
bounds of propriety, and to infringe on the dignity of his station. It debaseth
him to the level of extreme depravity and wickedness.
Regard men
as a flock of sheep that need a shepherd for their protection. This, verily, is
the truth, the certain truth. We approve of liberty in certain circumstances,
and refuse to sanction it in others. We, verily, are the All-Knowing.
Say: True
liberty consisteth in man's submission unto My commandments, little as ye know
it. Were men to observe that which We have sent down unto them from the Heaven
of Revelation, they would, of a certainty, attain unto perfect liberty. Happy is
the man that hath apprehended the Purpose of God in whatever He hath revealed
from the Heaven of His Will, that pervadeth all created things. Say: The liberty
that profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete servitude unto God,
the Eternal Truth. Whoso hath tasted of its sweetness will refuse to barter it
for all the dominion of earth and heaven.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 335)
1.5.12
Community – One common Faith
That which
the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the
healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause,
one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a
skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and
all else naught but error....
(Baha'u'llah, The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, p. 67)
1.5.13
Community – The mention of God
By the
righteousness of God! Whoso openeth his lips in this Day and maketh mention of
the name of his Lord, the hosts of Divine inspiration shall descend upon him
from the heaven of My name, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. On him shall also
descend the Concourse on high, each bearing aloft a chalice of pure light. Thus
hath it been foreordained in the realm of God's Revelation, by the behest of Him
Who is the All-Glorious, the Most Powerful.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 280)
1.5.14
Community – Upright conduct
Whoso
ariseth, in this Day, to aid Our Cause, and summoneth to his assistance the
hosts of a praiseworthy character and upright conduct, the influence flowing
from such an action will, most certainly, be diffused throughout the whole
world.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 287)
1.5.15
Community – The common source of all religions
The
Purpose of the one true God, exalted be His glory, in revealing Himself unto men
is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the mine of their true and
inmost selves. That the divers communions of the earth, and the manifold systems
of religious belief, should never be allowed to foster the feelings of animosity
among men, is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God and His Religion.
These principles and laws, these firmly-established and mighty systems, have
proceeded from one Source, and are the rays of one Light. That they differ one
from another is to be attributed to the varying requirements of the ages in
which they were promulgated.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 287)