Bahá'u'lláh and the New EraEsslemont, J. E. (John Ebenezer)
Religion
Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era
Esslemont, J. E. (John Ebenezer)
Bahai Faith; Bahá'u'lláh, 1817-1892
From the beginning of human history down to the present time
various religions of the world have anathematized one another and
accused one another of falsity.... They have shunned one another
most rigidly, exercising mutual animosity and rancor. Consider the
history of religious warfare.... One of the greatest religious
wars, the Crusaders, extended over a period of 200 years....
Sometimes the Crusaders were successful, killing, pillaging and
taking captive Muḥammadan people; sometimes the Mussulmans were
victorious, inflicting bloodshed and ruin in turn upon the
invaders.
So they continued for two centuries, alternately fighting with
fury and relaxing with weakness until the European religionists
withdrew from the East, leaving ashes of desolation behind them
and finding their own nations in a condition of turbulence and
upheaval.... Yet this was only one of the “Holy wars.”
Religious wars have been many. Nine hundred thousand martyrs of
the Protestant cause was the record of conflict and difference
between that sect of Christians and the Catholics.... How many
languished in prisons! How merciless the treatment of captives!
All in the name of religion!
The Christians and Muḥammadans considered the Jews as satanic and
the enemies of God. Therefore they cursed and persecuted them.
Great numbers of Jews were killed, their houses burnt and
pillaged, their children carried into captivity. The Jews in turn
regarded the Christians as infidels, and the Muḥammadans as
enemies and destroyers of the laws of Moses; therefore they called
down vengeance upon them and curse them even to this day.
When the light of Bahá’u’lláh dawned from the East, He proclaimed
the promise of the oneness of humanity. He addressed all mankind
saying: “Ye are all fruits of one tree. There are not two trees,
one a tree of divine mercy, the other a tree of Satan.” ...
Therefore we must exercise the utmost love toward one another. We
must not consider any people the people of Satan, but know and
recognize all as servants of one God. At most it is this: some do
not know, they must be guided and trained.... Some are ignorant,
they must be informed. Some are as children, they must be helped
to reach maturity. Some are ailing, their moral condition is bad,
they must be treated until their morals are purified. But the sick
man is not to be hated because he is sick; the child must not be
shunned because he is a child, the ignorant one is not to be
despised because he lacks knowledge. They must be treated,
educated, trained and assisted in love. Everything must be done in
order that all humanity may live under the shadow of God in the
utmost security, in happiness of the highest type.
Racial and Patriotic Prejudices
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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