"For every illness there is a remedy, and for every affliction a relief."

 

"He is God.

O thou maidservant of God! Thy letter was received. Thou didst complain that your Assembly is sore perturbed. For every illness there is a remedy, and for every affliction a relief. The swift remedy for this ill that hath befallen the Assembly is to remember and reflect upon the Covenant and Testament: Hath the Blessed Beauty instituted this Covenant and Testament in order to exact obedience from all, or to bring about disobedience? If the latter is intended, then we have nothing to say; but if obedience and compliance are the goal, then wavering will lead to utter loss, and disobedience and waywardness are grievous error.

Christ—may my soul be a sacrifice to Him—addressed but one statement to Peter, which He did not even write down in His own hand, and it was this: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.”⁹⁷ Although this is one statement—not of such note—and although it was orally reported and not recorded by the Pen of Christ, yet all His Apostles submitted to it humbly and faithfully.

Now the Blessed Beauty hath—in His own hand, inscribed by the Pen of the Most High, and in explicit terms—emphatically enjoined allegiance and obedience upon all. So, one can either claim—God forbid—that the Blessed Beauty was ignorant, and that He erred in commanding all to obey the Centre of the Covenant and in explicitly appointing him as the sole Interpreter of the Book, or one must show forth obedience and allegiance. How strange! What answer will they give to the Blessed Beauty in the divine Kingdom? Such a reflection alone should suffice, were one to gaze with the eye of justice. But if there be no justice and words be guided by iniquity, then that is a different matter entirely.

In brief, these Covenant-breakers and their opposition are all even as the foam on the sea; it shall not endure, but shall pass away and vanish, while the sea itself, which is the cause of life, shall eternally endure. Consider the time after Christ. Regard how many souls arose to sow the seeds of mischief and sedition in His Cause but were eventually doomed to loss and disappointment, while the banner of Truth was raised aloft. So it is with this violation of the Covenant. It is like a mirage and shall soon vanish into utter nothingness. Upon thee be greetings and praise.

Distribute numerous copies of this letter far and wide."

(Light of the World: Selected Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, #57)
www.bahai.org/r/124937985