As to thy question concerning the husband and wife, the tie between them, and the children given to them by God, know thou, verily, the husband is one who has sincerely turned unto God, is awakened by the call of the Beauty of Abha and chants the verses of oneness in the great assemblies. The wife is a being who wishes to be overflowing with and seeks after the attributes of God and His names; and the tie between them is no other than the Word of God. Verily, it (the Word of God) causes the multitudes to assemble together, and the remote ones to be united. Thus the husband and wife are brought into affinity, are united and harmonized, even as though they were one person. Through their mutual union, companionship and love great results are produced in the world, both material and spiritual. The spiritual result is the appearance of divine bounties. The material result is the children who are born in the cradle of the love of God, who are nurtured by the breast of the knowledge of God, are brought up in the bosom of the gift of God and are fostered in the lap of the training of God. Such children are those of whom it was said by Christ: "Verily, they are the children of the Kingdom.
Consequently, O thou maidservant of God, reach the maidservants of the Merciful One, and tell them from the tongue of ‘Abdu’l-Baha: O maidservants of the Merciful! It is incumbent upon you to train the children from their earliest babyhood! It is incumbent upon you to beautify their morals! It is incumbent upon you to attend to them under all aspects and circumstances! Inasmuch as God—glorified and exalted is He!—hath ordained mothers as the primary trainers of children and infants; this is a great and important affair and a high and exalted position, and it is not allowable to slacken therein at all.
If thou walkest in this right path thou wilt become a real mother to the children, both spiritually and materially.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Star of the West, vol. 9, no. 7, July 13,
1918)
