…I most urgently request the friends of God to make every
effort, as much as lieth within their competence, along these lines. The harder
they strive to widen the scope of their knowledge, the better and more
gratifying will be the result. Let the loved ones of God, whether young or old,
whether male or female, each according to his capabilities, bestir themselves
and spare no efforts to acquire the various current branches of knowledge, both
spiritual and secular, and of the arts. Whensoever they gather in their
meetings let their conversation be confined to learned subjects and to
information on the knowledge of the day.
If they do thus, they will flood the world with the Manifest
Light, and change this dusty earth into gardens of the Realm of Glory.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha,
from a Tablet; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Baha’i Education)
