The Manchester Spiritual Assembly
Dear Bahá’í Friends,
Your letter has been received, dated June 6th, and our beloved Guardian has instructed me to answer you on his behalf.
He feels that the questions of ... could be answered by a better understanding of the teachings—however, for the sake of his sincere services to the Faith, he will answer them here:
(1) Christ received the kiss of Judas, in fact He said one of His disciples would betray Him. It is not a question of these Holy Souls seeing the future, but of what, in Their wisdom, They deem it necessary to accept in the Path of sacrifice. If we are going to question the wisdom of the Prophets we can question God’s Wisdom too, and the advisability of the whole system we live in.
(2) Nabil’s suicide was not insanity but love. He loved Bahá’u’lláh too much to go on in a world that no longer held Him.
(3) The “sacrifice” of goats has nothing to do with the Faith. Bahá’u’lláh was surrounded by Muslim admirers and friends, and they merely followed the custom of their people on such an occasion, when many hundreds gathered to console His bereaved family.
(4) We cannot, not knowing the factors Bahá’u’lláh weighed in His own mind, judge of the wisdom of His withdrawal to Kurdistan. But, studying His life and teachings, we should see in it an act of wisdom, and not superficially measure Him by our standards.
(5) Love is certainly the attribute we associate par excellence with our Maker. But has He no justice and does not justice fall on the back of the evil doer as a scourge?
(6) This question seems to imply a lack of understanding of love. There is very little Divine love in the world to-day, but a great deal of intellectual reasoning, which is an entirely different thing, and springs from the mind and not the heart. The Martyrs—most of them died because of their love for the Báb, for Bahá’u’lláh, and through Them for God. The veil between the inner and outer world was very thin, and to tear it, and be free to be near the Beloved, was very sweet. But it takes love, not reason to understand these things. We must also remember the Martyrs were called upon to deny their faith or die, as men of principle they preferred to die.