Bahai Faith; Peace -- Religious aspects -- Bahai Faith
The imperfect members of society, the weak souls in humanity, follow their
natural trend. Their lives and actions are in accord with their natural
propensities; they are captives of physical susceptibilities; they are not
in touch or in tune with the spiritual bounties. Man has two aspects: the
physical, which is subject to nature, and the merciful or divine, which is
connected with God. If the physical or natural disposition in him should
overcome the heavenly and merciful, he is, then, the most degraded of
animal beings; and if the divine and spiritual should triumph over the
human and natural, he is, verily, an angel. The Prophets come into the
world to guide and educate humanity so that the animal nature of man may
disappear and the divinity of his powers become awakened. The divine
aspect or spiritual nature consists of the breaths of the Holy Spirit. The
second birth of which Jesus has spoken refers to the appearance of this
heavenly nature in man. It is expressed in the baptism of the Holy Spirit,
and he who is baptized by the Holy Spirit is a veritable manifestation of
divine mercy to mankind. Then he becomes just and kind to all humanity; he
entertains prejudice and ill will toward none; he shuns no nation or
people.
The foundations of the divine religions are one. If we investigate these
foundations, we discover much ground for agreement, but if we consider the
imitations of forms and ancestral beliefs, we find points of disagreement
and division; for these imitations differ, while the sources and
foundations are one and the same. That is to say, the fundamentals are
conducive to unity, but imitations are the cause of disunion and
dismemberment. Whosoever is lacking in love for humanity or manifests
hatred and bigotry toward any part of it violates the foundation and
source of his own belief and is holding to forms and imitations. Jesus
Christ declares that the sun rises upon the evil and the good, and the
rain descends upon the just and the unjust—upon all humanity alike. Christ
was a divine mercy which shone upon all mankind, the medium for the
descent of the bounty of God, and the bounty of God is transcendent,
unrestricted, universal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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