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According to the teachings of the Prophets, disease and all other forms of calamity are due to disobedience to the Divine Commands. Even disasters due to floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes are attributed by 'Abdul-Baha indirectly to this cause. (95:1) The sufferings that follows error is not vindictive, however, but educative and remedial. It is God's Voice proclaiming to man that he has strayed from the right path. If the suffering is terrible, it is only because the danger of wrongdoing is more terrible, for "the wages of sin is death." (95:2) Just as calamity is due to disobedience, so deliverance from calamity can be obtained only by obedience. There is no chance or uncertainty about this matter. Turning from God inevitably brings disaster, and turning to God as inevitably brings blessing. (95:3) As the whole of humanity is one organism.. the welfare of each individual depends not only on his own behavior, but on that of his neighbor. If one does wrong, all suffer in greater or less degree; while if one does well, all benefit. Each of us has to bear his neighbor's burdens.. and the best of mankind are those who bear the biggest burdens. The saints have always suffered abundantly; the Prophets.. superlatively. (95:4) This is not because the saints and Prophets have merited punishment above other men: Nay, they.. 'choose' to suffer for the sake of others.. (95:5) "Grief and sorrow do not come to us by chance, they are sent by the Divine Mercy for our perfecting. When grief and sorrow come, then will man remember his Father Who is in Heaven, Who is able to deliver him from his humiliations. The more a man is chastened, the greater is the harvest of spiritual virtues shown forth by him." ('Abdul-Baha) (96:1) At first sight it may seem very unjust that the innocent should suffer for the guilty, but 'Abdul-Baha assures us that the injustice is only apparent and that, in the long run, perfect justice prevails. He writes:-- (96:2) "As to the subject of babes and children and weak ones who are afflicted by the hands of the oppressors... for those souls there is a recompense in another world... that suffering is the greatest mercy of God. Verily that mercy of the Lord is far better than all the comfort of this world and the growth and development appertaining to this place of mortality." ('Abdul-Baha)
(96:3)
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