Nobody remarks on a lamp while it burns; only when the room goes dark does everyone exclaim what a good thing a lamp is. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá uses such homely observations to open a principle that runs through creation: things are known by their opposites. A person who has lived beside a river does not know what thirst is; sight is valued in the company of the blind; the world itself is a theatre of heat and cold, sickness and health, prison and freedom, and we are to watch every drama. Yet he draws a careful distinction. Darkness is not a thing but the absence of light, poverty the want of wealth, oppression the want of justice, so that the opposites which teach us are in reality non-existences, and in the realm of the sun there is no night. The Dao De Jing’s pairing of beauty and ugliness, difficult and easy, offers a kindred and different way of thinking about contrast [1]. From here the path leads into the pairs built into creation, into composition and decomposition, and into the mystery of evil and suffering, where the recognition of a good through its absence meets the duty to relieve it.
This world contains opposites - sometimes there is abundance and sometimes hardship, sometimes joy and sometimes sorrow and tribulation, sometimes the season of youth and sometimes the time of weakness. It does not remain in one state.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1916-Dec-21, to Rabb, Mr et al -- AB04365)
02
Man must observe every drama. There is the drama of heat and the drama of cold: the drama of Spring and the drama of Summer--the drama of happiness and of sorrow, of sickness and of health, of shame and of glory, of freedom and of prison--Yes: indeed the world is a great theatre, and man must observe each of these plays."
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken in Dec. 1912 in London -- ABU2945)
03
We know things by their opposites. Knowledge is more appreciated when we observe the stultifying influence of ignorance. Sight and hearing is more thought of when we see the conditions of the blind and the deaf ones. A person living on the border of a flowing river all his life does not know what thirst is.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to the Master's entourage, spoken at Baltimore Hotel on 1913-May-23 -- ABU0844)
04
Everything is made manifest through its opposite.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1906 ca., to Lua Getsinger -- AB04043)
05
Among the proofs of the existence of a divine power is this: that things are often known by their opposites. Were it not for darkness, light could not be sensed. Were it not for death, life could not be known. If ignorance did not exist, knowledge would not be a reality. It is necessary that each should exist in order that the other should have reality.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Plaza Hotel on 1912-May-02 -- ABU0122)
06
To make it plainer for you, if there were no wealth in the world, you would not have poverty. If there were no light in the world, you could not conceive of darkness, for we know things philosophically by their antitheses. We know, for example, that poverty is the lack of wealth. Where there is no knowledge, there is no ignorance. What is ignorance? It is the absence of knowledge.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Parsons home on 1912-Nov-10 -- ABU0102)
07
Want of wealth is poverty; absence of justice is oppression; want of perfection is deficiency. All of these opposites imply non-existence and not existence.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Answer to questions, Dublin, 1912-Aug-09 -- ABU3139)
08
For example, I can say that there is no darkness in the sun because darkness is the absence of light and has no existence in itself. Oppression is the absence of justice and ignorance is the lack of knowledge.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to a Christian Scientist, spoken at Kinney home on 1912-Nov-14 -- ABU2463)
09
And since change, transformation, decomposition and composition are necessary, opposites appear, but in reality there is no opposition. Just as in the realm of the sun there is no darkness and no east and west, but the requirements of this world are night and day, and light and darkness.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken at Plaza Hotel in Chicago, 1912-May-04 -- ABU1436)
10
Things are known by their opposites. Until the darkness of the darkest night appears, the lights of the Sun of Truth will not be visible.
With the appearance of truth the point of Opposition raises its head. The former gains signal victory, the other goes into crushing defeat; the first upraises the standard of guidance, the other unfurls the banner of error; One is divine revelation, another is satanic suggestion; the first leads us into the paradise of Peace, the second hurls us headlong into the hell of war.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1913-Jul-02 in Port Said -- ABU3163)
12
You know which path to follow: you cannot be mistaken, for there's a great distinction between God and evil, between Light and darkness, Truth and falsehood, Love and hatred, Generosity and meanness, Education and ignorance, Faith in God and superstition, good Laws and unjust laws.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken in Sep. 1911 in London -- ABU3323)
13
For example, so long as this lamp is burning in this room, irradiating ligh[t] to all directions, no one is especially moved to make a comment upon it, but if we are suddenly plunged into a great darkness, we will all exclai[m] what a good and valuable thing a lamp is! … The fish disports itself quite heedlessly in the water, never suspecting tha[t] it alone is the preserver of its life, but when it is thrown out of the water, it realizes the truth.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to some friends, spoken on 1914-Dec-28 -- ABU0682)