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January 12, 2016

‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Farewell Words to Europe

1 December, 1911
Paris, France

I bid a loving farewell to the people of France and England. I am very much pleased with them. I counsel them that they may day by day strengthen the bond of love and amity to this end - that they may become the sympathetic embodiment of one nation - that they may extend themselves to a universal Brotherhood to guard and protect the interests and rights of all the nations of the East - that they may unfurl the Divine Banner of justice - that they may realize and treat each nation as a family composed of the individual children of God and may know that before the sight of God the rights of all are equal.

For all of us are the children of one Father. God is at peace with all His children:  why should they engage in strife and warfare among themselves? God is showering down kindness; why should the inhabitants of this world exchange unkindness and cruelty?

"Ye are all the leaves of one tree and the fruits of one branch."

Beware!  Beware! Lest ye offend any heart.
Beware!  Beware! Lest ye hurt any soul.
Beware!  Beware! Lest ye deal unkindly toward any person:
Beware!  Beware! Lest ye be the cause of hopelessness to any creature. 
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha  (From a talk, December 1, 1911, Paris, France; ‘Star of the West Vol. 2, no. 16, December 31, 1911)