Regarding your questions concerning the condition of the
soul during illness. The passages in the "Gleanings" make it quite
clear that physical ailments, no matter how severe, cannot bring any change in
the inherent condition of the soul, As Baha'u'llah says: 'The spirit is
permanent and steadfast in its station'. The veil or hindrance that interposes
between soul and body during physical disease is sickness itself. Sickness
reveals a lack of balance in human organism, an absence of equilibrium in the
forces essential for the normal functioning of the human body." (From a letter written on
behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, March 8, 1936;
compilation: ‘Lights of Guidance’)
