Now the friends and the maidservants in America have written innumerable letters and all of them are pleading that ‘Abdu'l-Baha make a trip to that country. Their supplications and entreaties are insistent. In view of the difference among the friends and the lack of unity among the maidservants of the Merciful, how can ‘Abdu’l-Baha hasten to those parts? Is this possible? No, by God!
If the friends and the maidservants of the Merciful long for the visit of ‘Abdu'l-Baha, they must immediately remove from their midst differences of opinion and be engaged in the practice of infinite love and unity. No Baha’i must open his lips in blaming another one, he must regard backbiting as the greatest sin of humanity, for it is clearly revealed in all the Tablets of Baha’u’llah that backbiting and faultfinding are the fiendish instruments and suggestions of Satan and the destroyers of the foundation of man. A believer will not blame any soul among the strangers, how much less against the friends. Faultfinding and backbiting are the characteristics of the weak minds and not the friends. Self exaltation is the attribute of the stranger and not of the Beloved. It is our hope that the believers and the maid servants of the Merciful in America may become the cause of the union of the East and the West, and unfurl the Standard of the Oneness of the Realm of Humanity. Now, we observe that strangeness, lack of unity and the utmost difference exists among the friends and the maid servants of the Merciful. Under such a condition, how can they arise to guide the people of the world and establish union and harmony between the nations of the earth? His Highness Christ, addressing His disciples, said: ''Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt bath lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?''
O ye friends and maidservants of the Merciful! If ye are yearning for my meeting, and if in reality ye are seeking my visit, ye must close the doors of difference and open the gates of affection, love and friendship. Ye must pulsate as one heart, and throb as one spirit. You must be like the waves, though they are innumerable they constitute the all encircling sea.
O ye friends and maidservants of the Merciful! Praise be to God, ye are the fish of one ocean, the birds of one rose-garden, the trees of one orchard and the flowers of one paradise. Then why this difference? Why this lack of harmony? Wherefore this condition?
Verily, verily, I say unto you, were it not for this difference amongst yell, the inhabitants of America in all those regions would have, by now, been attracted to the Kingdam of God, and would have constituted themselves your helpers and asisters. Is it meet that you sacrifice this most glorious Bounty for worthless imaginations? No, by God! Should you reflect for one moment, you shall become enabled to destroy instantly the foundation of this difference by absolutely refraining from backbiting and faultfinding amongst yourselves. Adorn with infinite love and concord the assemblage of beatitude, bring about the meeting of happiness, establish the banquet of the oneness of the realm of humanity, loosen your tongues in praising each other, and then anticipate the presence of ‘Abdu'l-Baha in your midst.
Aside from all these considerations, some of the nakazeens[Covenant-breakers] have come secretly amongst you and are expressing their firmness in the Covenant and with all kinds of intrigues and strategies are creating disorder and calamities, so that ye might be deprived of the Lights of the Divine Testament and subjected to the darkness of violation.
Is it worthy of you to be engaged with differences amongst you and thereby enabling the nakazeens to spread a noose and chase such firm believers as you are? I beg of God to confirm you in union and concord that you may become the cause of the oneness of the kingdom of humanity. Live and act in accord with the Divine Teachings, be abstracted from all the attachments of the human world, characterized with merciful characteristics, release yourselves from the nether world, become heavenly souls, spiritual beings and the angels of Paradise. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, excerpt from a Tablet addressed to the American believers in 1911, Star of the West, vol.2, no. 4, May 17, 1911)
