“Too much SOAP dirties your soul!”
It is a mark of ‘modern’ life – and the fall of the old world order – that gossip and back-biting have been on the increase for decades. Indeed it is a fact that most story lines in all ‘soaps’ on TV and Radio are packed with gossip and filled with back-biting and revenge. Because of this continuous ‘drip-feed’ it is so very easy for us all to fall into patterns of copying this. So often it needs strong conscious effort, on the part of each of us, to reverse the trend of society and build that new world we all want. It is a subject that merits wider discussion and deepening. Here is something our Beloved Master said on the subject. Perhaps this will inspire us to stop at all times and think: “Is what I am about to say going to damage any soul?”
“O beloved of the Lord! If any soul speak ill of an absent one, the only result will clearly be this: he will dampen the zeal of the friends and tend to make them indifferent. For backbiting is divisive, it is the leading cause, among the friends, of a disposition to withdraw. If any individual should speak ill of one who is absent, it is incumbent on his hearers, in a spiritual and friendly manner, to stop him, and say, in effect, would this detraction serve any useful purpose? Would it please the Blessed Beauty, contribute to the lasting honour of the friends, promote the holy Faith, support the Covenant, or be of any possible benefit to any soul? No Never! On the contrary, it would make the dust to settle so thickly on the heart that the ears would near no more, the eyes would no longer behold the light of truth.”
[ Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p.231]
(Written on behalf of the Council by Keith Munro)