The pain and sting of death consists in the dissolution of
what was composed and its passage from one condition to another. When one is accustomed to composition, then
decomposition is a painful torment; when one is used to a certain degree and
station, it is difficult to take leave of it.
It is therefore clear that death is merely the passage from one
condition to another. Thus if a
predatory animal devours another animal, the latter has in reality not been
abased but has been decomposed and recomposed, found a renewed existence, and
passed from one body to another. This
motion and renewal of beings gives rise to the orderly arrangement and
interconnectedness of all things, and were it not for these passages across the
vegetable, animal, and human realms, the chain of being would be broken and the
innate order of nature would be disrupted.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk, new
resources prepared by the Baha’i World Center, 2019; Baha’i Reference Library)
