Thou didst write of reincarnation. A belief in reincarnation
goeth far back into the ancient history of almost all peoples, and was held
even by the philosophers of Greece, the Roman sages, the ancient Egyptians, and
the great Assyrians. Nevertheless such superstitions and sayings are but
absurdities in the sight of God.
The major argument of the reincarnationists was this, that
according to the justice of God, each must receive his due: whenever a man is
afflicted with some calamity, for example, this is because of some wrong he
hath committed. But take a child that is still in its mother’s womb, the embryo
but newly formed, and that child is blind, deaf, lame, defective—what sin hath
such a child committed, to deserve its afflictions? They answer that, although
to outward seeming the child, still in the womb, is guilty of no
sin—nevertheless he perpetrated some wrong when in his previous form, and thus
he came to deserve his punishment.
These individuals, however, have overlooked the following
point. If creation went forward according to only one rule, how could the
all-encompassing Power make Itself felt? How could the Almighty be the One Who
‘doeth as He pleaseth and ordaineth as He willeth’?
It may be said, for instance, that this lamplight is last
night’s come back again, or that last year’s rose hath returned to the garden
this year. Here the reference is not to the individual reality, the fixed
identity, the specialized being of that other rose, rather doth it mean that
the qualities, the distinctive characteristics of that other light, that other
flower, are present now, in these. Those perfections, that is, those graces and
gifts of a former springtime are back again this year. We say, for example,
that this fruit is the same as last year’s; but we are thinking only of the
delicacy, bloom and freshness, and the sweet taste of it; for it is obvious
that that impregnable centre of reality, that specific identity, can never
return.
What peace, what ease and comfort did the Holy Ones of God
ever discover during Their sojourn in this nether world, that They should
continually seek to come back and live this life again? Doth not a single turn
at this anguish, these afflictions, these calamities, these body blows, these
dire straits, suffice, that They should wish for repeated visits to the life of
this world? This cup was not so sweet that one would care to drink of it a
second time.
Therefore do the lovers of the Abhá Beauty wish for no other
recompense but to reach that station where they may gaze upon Him in the Realm
of Glory, and they walk no other path save over desert sands of longing for
those exalted heights. They seek that ease and solace which will abide forever,
and those bestowals that are sanctified beyond the understanding of the worldly
mind.
When thou lookest about thee with a perceptive eye, thou
wilt note that on this dusty earth all humankind are suffering. Here no man is
at rest as a reward for what he hath performed in former lives; nor is there
anyone so blissful as seemingly to pluck the fruit of bygone anguish. And if a
human life, with its spiritual being, were limited to this earthly span, then
what would be the harvest of creation? Indeed, what would be the effects and
the outcomes of Divinity Itself? Were such a notion true, then all created
things, all contingent realities, and this whole world of being—all would be
meaningless. God forbid that one should hold to such a fiction and gross error.
For just as the effects and the fruitage of the uterine life
are not to be found in that dark and narrow place, and only when the child is
transferred to this wide earth do the benefits and uses of growth and
development in that previous world become revealed—so likewise reward and
punishment, heaven and hell, requital and retribution for actions done in this
present life, will stand revealed in that other world beyond. And just as, if
human life in the womb were limited to that uterine world, existence there
would be nonsensical, irrelevant—so too if the life of this world, the deeds
here done and their fruitage, did not come forth in the world beyond, the whole
process would be irrational and foolish.
Know then that the Lord God possesseth invisible realms
which the human intellect can never hope to fathom nor the mind of man
conceive. When once thou hast cleansed the channel of thy spiritual sense from
the pollution of this worldly life, then wilt thou breathe in the sweet scents
of holiness that blow from the blissful bowers of that heavenly land.
The Glory rest upon thee, and upon whosoever turneth toward
and gazeth on the Kingdom of the All-Glorious, which the Lord hath sanctified
beyond the understanding of those who are neglectful of Him, and hath hid from
the eyes of those who show Him pride.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the
Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’)
