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The Sin-covering Eye
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Pages 82-83
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The Sin-covering Eye
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1 |
On no subject are the Bahá'í teaching more imperative and
uncompromising than on the requirement to abstain from
faultfinding. Christ spoke very strongly on the same subject,
but it has now become usual to regard the Sermon on the
Mount as embodying "Counsels of Perfection" which the
ordinary Christian cannot be expected to live up to. Both
Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá are at great pains to make it
clear that on this subject They mean all They say. We read in
the Hidden Words: --
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O Son of Man!
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Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself
a sinner. Shouldst thou transgress this command, accursed
wouldst thou be, and to this I bear witness.
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4 |
O Son of Being!
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Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not
have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest
not. This is My command unto thee, do thou observe it.
`Abdu'l-Bahá tells us: --
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6 |
To be silent concerning the faults of others, to pray for
them, and to help them, through kindness, to correct
their faults.
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To look always at the good and not at the bad. If a
man has ten good qualities and one bad one, to look at the
ten and forget the one; and if a man has ten bad qualities
and one good one, to look at the one and forget the ten.
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8 |
Never to allow ourselves to speak one unkind word
about another, even though that other be our enemy.
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To an American friend He writes: --
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The worst human quality and the most great sin is
backbiting, more especially when it emanates from the
tongues of the believers of God. If some means were
devised so that the doors of backbiting could be shut eternally,
and each one of the believers of God unsealed his
lips in praise of others, then the teachings of His Holiness
Bahá'u'lláh would be spread, the hearts illumined, the
spirits glorified, and the human world would attain to
everlasting felicity.
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