Breathe Not the Sins of Others So Long as Thou Art as Center
The Baha'i teachings treat few subjects more emphatically and uncompromisingly than the spiritual requirement to abjure from fault-finding, backbiting, and gossip. In the Hidden Words, Baha'u'llah says:
O Son of Homo! Breathe non the sins of others so long as 1000 art thyself a sinner. Shouldst thou transgress this command, accursed wouldst thou be, and to this I show.
O Son of Beingness! Ascribe not to any soul that which yard wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say non that which thou doest non. This is My command unto thee, practise 1000 discover it.
In both modernistic and indigenous cultures, people gossip. Nosotros talk about the faults of others, often backside their backs. We freely criticize their actions, their choices and their characters, with little regard for how much that kind of activity hurts others.
RELATED: If You Tin can't Say Something Nice…
Modern media has synthetic an unabridged manufacture around gossip and error-finding, especially where it concerns high-profile public figures similar political leaders, entertainers and artists.
This constant and consequent societal drumbeat of bluffing and gossip, and so heartless, corrosive and spiritually harmful, hurts both the recipient and the originator. The Baha'i teachings clearly advise the states:
To be silent concerning the faults of others, to pray for them, through kindness, to correct their faults. To look ever at the good and non at the bad. If a man has ten skillful qualities and one bad one, to look at the 10 and forget the one; and if a man has ten bad qualities and one good one, to look at the one and forget the ten. Never to permit ourselves to speak one unkind give-and-take most some other, even though that other be our enemy.
As in all religions, Baha'u'llah teaches his followers to forgive the sins of others. He says:
He should forgive the sinful, and never despise his depression estate, for none knoweth what his ain terminate shall be. How ofttimes hath a sinner attained, at the hour of death, to the essence of faith, and, quaffing the immortal draught, hath taken his flight unto the Concourse on high!
And Abdu'l-Baha explains:
Baha'u'llah has clearly said in His Tablets that if yous have an enemy, consider him not as an enemy. Practice non just be long-suffering; nay, rather, dearest him. Your handling of him should be that which is becoming to lovers. Do non even say that he is your enemy. Exercise not see whatever enemies. Though he be your murderer, encounter no enemy.
Look upon him with the centre of friendship. Be mindful that you practise not consider him as an enemy and just tolerate him, for that is only stratagem and hypocrisy. To consider a man your enemy and love him is hypocrisy. This is not becoming of any soul. You lot must behold him as a friend. You lot must care for him well. This is right.
RELATED: The Hypocrisy of Frenemies
And then unlike from our current societal practices of shaming, separation and shunning, Abdu'50-Baha taught that no one should return hatred for hatred – that instead, nosotros should endeavor, as spiritual beings, to return dearest for hatred:
. . . if someone oppresses, injures and wrongs another, and the wronged man retaliates, this is vengeance and is censurable. . . . No, rather he must return good for evil, and not merely forgive, only also, if possible, be of service to his oppressor. This carry is worthy of man: for what advantage does he gain by vengeance? The two deportment are equivalent; if one activity is reprehensible, both are reprehensible. The only difference is that one was committed first, the other later on.
Adapted fromOne With All The Earth, © Kalimat Printing 2003, All Rights Reserved.
Source: https://bahaiteachings.org/worst-human-trait-gossip-and-backbiting/