If wealth and prosperity become the means of service at
God's Threshold, it is highly meritorious; otherwise it would be better to
avoid them. Turn to the Book of the Covenant, the Hidden Words, and other
Tablets, lest the cord of your salvation become a rope of woe which will lead
to your own destruction. How numerous are those negligent souls, particularly
from among your own compatriots, who have been deprived of the blessings of
faith and true understanding. Witness how, no sooner had they attained their
newly amassed wealth and status, than they became so bewitched by them as to
forget the virtues and true perfections of man's station. They clung to their
empty and fruitless lifestyle. They had naught else but their homes, their
commercial success, and their ornamental trappings of which to be proud. Behold
their ultimate fate. Many a triumphal arch was reduced to a ruin, many an
imperial palace was converted into a barn. Many a day of deceit turned into a
night of despair. Vast treasures changed hands and, at the end of their lives,
they were left only with tears of loss and regret. "... all that perisheth
and changeth is not, and hath never been, worthy of attention, except to a
recognized measure."(Baha’u’llah, ‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after
the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
- The Universal House of Justice (From a message dated 10
February 1980, addressed to the Iranian believers resident in other countries
throughout the world, translated from Persian; ‘Messages from the Universal
House of Justice 1963-1986’)
