Death
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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