Thy letter has been received. Due to scarcity of time, I
write the answer briefly: The body of man, which has been formed gradually,
must similarly be decomposed gradually. This is according to the real and
natural order and divine law. If it had been better for it to be burned after
death, in its very creation it would have been so planned that the body would
automatically become ignited after death, be consumed and turned into ashes.
But the divine order formulated by the heavenly ordinance is that after death,
this body shall be transferred from one stage to another different from the
preceding one, so that according to the relations which exist in the world, it
may gradually combine and mix other elements, thus going through stages until
it arrives in the vegetable kingdom, there turning into plants and flowers,
developing into trees of the highest paradise, becoming perfumed and attaining
the beauty of colour.
Cremation suppresses it speedily from attainment to these
transformations, the elements becoming so quickly decomposed that
transformation to these various stages is checked.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Star of the
West Volume XI, No. 19, quoted in a letter from the Universal House of Justice
dated to an individual believer dated 6 June 1971; compilation: ‘Lights of
Guidance’)
