idle fancies; lust and passion
Editorial introduction
A king may conquer East and West, his name a terror to other rulers, and still be a horse ridden by his own greed and lust. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s picture of a conqueror who cannot govern himself opens a question that outward success never settles: what actually commands a life? Desire here is more than bodily appetite. It includes avarice, pride, self-serving speech, and the expectations that veil a person from recognising truth when it arrives in an unhoped-for form; Bahá’u’lláh observes that when one veil is torn away a larger one is often found behind it. The qualities that are no fault in an animal become sins in a human being, because a human being can choose, and the commanding self gives no respite unless divine protection is sought. Epictetus advised pausing before an anticipated pleasure to consider its aftermath [1], an exercise of attention that sits beside the Bahá’í reliance on knowledge, love, education and prayer. The severity of the teaching is matched by its confidence that something precious lies hidden beneath the clay, like steel in ore. From here the inquiry turns to chastity and purity, and to the harm of unchastity.
Consider the condition of a King who has overcome and conquered the East and the West, whose fame has encircled the globe, whose very name strikes terror at the hearts of other rulers but his reason ruled by passion and his heart defeated by greed and list, He is like unto a horse on whose back these malevolent qualities are riding, causing him to gallop through marshy fields of heedlessness and craggy heights of egotism.
And further ... man and woman should truly be friends and should be in sympathy with each other. Their understanding should have a basis in reality and not be based upon passion and desire. In the latter case, they might live together for a few years, but afterwards, differences may arise... Each should seek to comfort and assist the other...
O My loved one! The world hath been laid waste by vain imaginings. The world hath but one Builder, one Destroyer. The Command is in God's hands, the Lord of lords. The people are seen to be so heedless that one is astonished. If one veil is rent asunder, they are found to be afflicted with another veil greater than the first.
Among the people are those who have turned away from the truth by following the creation, and among them are those who have gone astray in the valley of passions after We showed them this exalted path, and among them are those who are occupied with wealth, heedless of their final end, and among them are those who gather but know not for whom they gather - verily they do not understand.
Abdul-Baha answered: "In the world of humanity, every person is stimulated by a certain objective point. … The objective point of a forth soul is to satisfy his selfish appetites and lust. He thinks of no other things save those elements which might contribute to the gratification of his animal propensities.
O seeker of truth! Human souls are absorbed in desires and passions and are captives of the world of nature.
O servant of the Most Glorious Beauty! What you wrote is truly the exact reality. Man is constantly under the dominion of the commanding self. It gives not a moment's opportunity nor grants any respite before the hosts of passion and desire launch their assault. What can poor man do alone and solitary against this endless army, unless the protection and shelter of the Divine Unity provides a solution and guards against the evil of this cruel oppressor?
But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed."
As to thy question about the hidden pearl in the Hidden Words, addressing the contemptible rabble: "Deprive not thyself of that which is imperishable through a momentary indulgence" - that is, deprive not thyself of divine gifts, merciful bestowals, abundant bounties and praiseworthy rewards by following carnal desires, physical pleasures and satanic fantasies. The "indulgence" is a metaphor for following lusts and committing sins of whatever kind.
But they are unmindful of the treasury of the Kingdom, the spiritual affluence and the wealth of mind; therefore, thou findest them subject to the rage of lusts and under the influence of egotistic and selfish desires, sinking into intemperance and engaged in drinking the cup of lust.
Days in any case come to an end, but there is a great difference between them. One person's life passes in the defilement of lusts, while another's time passes in hardship and difficulty in the path of the Lord of Signs. How great is the difference between them!
But if he indulgeth in his passions and desires, he will be hopeless, fall into deep despair, experience profound regret, and become afflicted with the torment of hell.
Those who dissipate their lives by lust and passion cause their souls to drown in the whirlpools of this world.
Likewise, it is a place for falling into carnal perils and descending into the darkness of passion.
They have conceived a transient fireplace to be an eternal garden and known an extinguished candle as a radiant flame.
Therefore they have become immersed in passions and drowned in the sea of darkness. They have become content with a putrid drop of fleeting life and turned away from eternal life in the Most Glorious Kingdom.
In the world of creation, if a seeing person falls into a dark pit it proves his blindness, and if a rational person casts himself into the abyss of passion it demonstrates his ignorance and madness.
The words of many speakers are mixed with the lusts of their souls and their worldly appetites; therefore they will have neither authority nor success.
Any soul from whom signs of wickedness and lust become manifest, such a one is not and hath never been of the True One.
When passion comes, man's work is rendered vain. How regrettable it would be for one who dwells beneath the shade of the Blessed Beauty to sully himself with dust and besmear himself with clay.
Enjoin ye the truth and guidance, then restrain yourselves from desire.
The All-Glorious forbiddeth vain desire and commandeth you to observe that which the Lord of all beings hath revealed in His perspicuous Book.
O My Afnan! Baha forbids vain desire and commands all to turn to the Lord of earth and heaven, and bears witness that you have turned to the Most Exalted Horizon and have attained unto the Call when it was raised between earth and heaven.
Beware lest the intimations of such as have been heedless of God through following the promptings of self and desire debar you.
And woe unto him whom vain desires have kept back from God, the Lord of the first and the last.
They that follow their passions have no way to reach unto God. Leave those who have denied their Lord to their vain imaginings, and commune with them whom the breathings of thy Lord's mercy have stirred.
Were I to explain in detail, a book would not suffice and I would not be able to fulfill it, just as that divine mystic and knower of divine mysteries, the lordly Imam, mentioned a drop from these stations in defining the world of the heart, which has surely come to your noble attention - that the final rank of these three stations is the journey from God unto God. In this station and rank, existence is effaced from self and subsists through the Truth. All are from God and unto God shall they return, and "Say: All things are from God" is sufficient witness and adequate proof of this point, as the mystic of Rum has said:
His attributes are annihilated in the attributes of Him While His essence remains through the survival of His essence
This station certainly has no rules and seeks no customs, meaning all His deeds are pure justice even if outwardly they appear as injustice, and pure knowledge even if in form they appear as ignorance.
With the sword of divine knowledge, the spear of the All-Merciful's love, and the arrows and darts of godly virtues, put to flight the stubborn forces of passion and desire.
We beseech God to protect His loved ones from the hosts of self and passion, draw them nigh unto the Most Exalted Horizon, and inspire them with that which will make them daysprings of steadfastness amidst all created things.
Our hope is that they be delivered from the clutches of their carnal desires and emancipated from the bondage of self and passion.
We have forbidden all from the promptings of self and passion, and have enjoined upon them that which shall profit them in the world to come and in this world.
Man must not follow the dictate of his passion and lust but always be engaged in that which is honorable and enduring.
O people of the Bayan! Strive within yourselves lest the clay of desires become mixed with the water of your being. Fear God and be of the God-fearing. Sanctify yourselves from the clay of self and passion that there may appear from you what God hath deposited within you of precious pearls of glory.
Remember Him with joy and radiance that the people of the contingent world may be attracted thereby - they who have been seized by the intoxication of their desires in such wise as to be shut out from the straight path of God.
Further quotations · supplied wording and references
Man is even as steel, the essence of which is hidden: through admonition and explanation, good counsel and education, that essence will be brought to light. If, however, he be allowed to remain in his original condition, the corrosion of lusts and appetites will effectively destroy him.
Disencumber yourselves of all attachment to this world and the vanities thereof. Beware that ye approach them not, inasmuch as they prompt you to walk after your own lusts and covetous desires, and hinder you from entering the straight and glorious Path.
For thought and discussion