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Death

Sources: 'abdu'l-baha In London

A friend asked: How should one look forward to death?



'Abdu'l-Baha answered: How does one look forward to the goal of any

journey? With hope and with expectation. It is even so with the end of

this earthly journey. In the next world, man will find himself freed from

many of the disabilities under which he now suffers. Those who have passed

on through death, have a sphere of their own. It is not removed from ours;

their work, the work of the Kingdom, is ours; but it is sanctified from

what we call 'time and place.' Time with us is measured by the sun. When

there is no more sunrise, and no more sunset, that kind of time does not

exist for man. Those who have ascended have different attributes from

those who are still on earth, yet there is no real separation.



In prayer there is a mingling of station, a mingling of condition. Pray

for them as they pray for you! When you do not know it, and are in a

receptive attitude, they are able to make suggestions to you, if you are

in difficulty. This sometimes happens in sleep, but there is no phenomenal

intercourse! That which seems like phenomenal intercourse has another

explanation. The questioner exclaimed; But I have heard a voice!

'Abdu'l-Baha said: Yes, that is possible; we hear voices clearly in

dreams. It is not with the physical ear that you heard; the spirit of

those that have passed on are freed from sense-life, and do not use

physical means. It is not possible to put these great matters into human

words; the language of man is the language of children, and man's

explanation often leads astray.



Someone present asked how it was that in prayer and meditation the heart

often turns with instinctive appeal to some friend who has passed into the

next life.



'Abdu'l-Baha answered: It is a law of God's creation that the weak should

lean upon the strong. Those to whom you turn may be the mediators of God's

power to you, even as when on earth. But it is the One Holy Spirit that

strengthens all men. Hereupon another friend referred to the communing of

Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah; and

'Abdu'l-Baha said: The faithful are ever sustained by the presence of the

Supreme Concourse. In the Supreme Concourse are Jesus, and Moses, and

Elijah, and Baha'u'llah, and other supreme Souls: there, also, are the

martyrs.



When asked about the individual persistence of the animal's personality

after death, 'Abdu'l-Baha said: Even the most developed dog has not the

immortal soul of the man; yet the dog is perfect in its own place. You do

not quarrel with a rose-tree because it cannot sing!



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