The Bahá'ís must learn to forget personalities and to
overcome the desire — so natural in people — to take sides and fight about it.
They must also learn to really make use of the great principle of consultation.
There is a time set aside at the Nineteen Day Feasts for the Community to
express its views and make suggestions to its Assembly; the Assembly and the
believers should look forward to this happy period of discussion, and neither
fear it nor suppress it. Likewise the Assembly members should fully consult,
and in their decisions put the interests of the Cause first and not
personalities, the will of the majority prevailing.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter written on
behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 30 June 1949 to the National Spiritual Assembly of
Germany and Austria; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Nineteen Day
Feast)
