Re: Forgiveness and injustice

Alethinos (alethinos@aol.com)
Wed, Apr 12 1995 15:33:15 GMT

Pete:

Abdu'l-Baha' was not suggesting that we overlook or turn away from
injustice. Indeed, we are to do everything we can to stop injustice. But
what He is making reference to, and perhaps what you are being confured
about is the individual's response to the little injustices of life. In
addition to this He, in other places specifically speaks about how, in
community life, the individual should turn over matters of supposed
injustice to the Local Spiritual Assembly. This is so that the unity of
the community can be preserved - if there has been an injustice it is
better that they deal with it so that actions between the two individuals
do not break down into a series of vengful actions etc.

Abdu'l-Baha clearly suggests in Selection of the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha,
that we can never show "kindness" to a liar, a thief or a tyrant, because
they will mistake this display of kindness for weakness and continue in
their ways.(p. 158).

There is a quote from the Baha'yyih Khanum:

We ought to show something more than forgiveness in meeting with the
cruelties and strictures of our own lives. To be hurt and to forgive is
saintly, but far beyond that is the power to comprehend and not be hurt.
This power we may have - acceptence without complaint, and it should
become associated with our name - we ought never be known to complain or
lament. It is not that we would "make the best of things" but that we may
find in everything, even in calamity itself, the germ of enduring wisdom.
We ought not to resist the shocks and upheavals of life, nor run counter
to obstacles, we ought never to be impatient, we ought to be as incapable
of impatience as we would revolt, this not being so much long-suffering as
a quiet awareness of the forces that operate in the hours, days, or years
of waiting and inactivity. Always we ought to move with the larger rhythm,
the wider sweep towards our ultimate goal, in the complete acquiescence,
that perfect accord which underlies the spirit of the Faith itself.

(Baha'i World, vol. 5, p. 185)

Jim Harrison
Jim Harrison, Alethinos@aol.com