Like the Earth, Not Like the Fire

In a talk given at Foundation Hall in the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette on 25 August 1974, Hand of the Cause of God Abu’l-Qásim Faizí said:

‘Abdu’l-Bahá has explained many things in His writings, in His tablets, in His addresses, and even in His oral conversations with people, the explanation of the difference between two elements is the most excellent ever written by any pen on the pages of paper in the whole history of mankind. He says the earth is faithful, the earth is generous and the earth is very patient. These three characters of the earth are given by the pen of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Fire is greedy. Now He explains one by one. He says that the earth is faithful because you open the earth and entrust with the most valuable treasures, and cover it, and come back after half a century, it will give you back exactly as you have given it. It will not devour it. It will not spoil it. It will give you as you have given it. It is generous, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, because you give the earth one grain and it will give you back a harvest. You plant a stem, and the earth will give you back a fruitful tree. And it is patient, because you break the breast of the earth from all sides, and it gives you more fruit, more seeds. But as to the fire, He says its devours. Its tongues are stretched on all sides, and wants more and more. Give to the fire all the oil of the world, still it says “I want more.” If you don’t control it, it will destroy a village within some minutes, a town within hours, and perhaps the whole world. Therefore, this is the foremost duty of every Bahá’í youth to start life with a certain discipline which will give everyone of us a nature, an attitude, that we will be like the earth, not like the fire. Fire never achieves anything. But being like earth, then we will achieve many things in life.

Source: Talk by Hand of the Cause of God Abu’l-Qásim Faizí, Foundation Hall, Bahá’í House of Worship, Wilmette, 25 August 1974; published in Conqueror of Hearts: Talks by Hand of the Cause of God Abu’l-Qásim Faizí (2002).

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: prayer).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/prayer