I hope that the believers of God will shun completely
backbiting, each one praising the other cordially and believe that backbiting
is the cause of Divine Wrath, to such an extent that if a person backbites to
the extent of one word, he may become dishonored among all the people, because
the most hateful characteristic of man is fault-finding. One must expose the
praiseworthy qualities of the souls and not their evil attributes. The friends
must overlook their shortcomings and faults and speak only of their virtues and
not their defects.
('Abdu'l-Bahá: Tablet to Dr. M.G. Skinner, August 12, 1913:
Star of the West, Vol. IV, No. 11, p. 192)
