Excerpts from "Abdul-Baha in Egypt":

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A long out of print book concerned the travels and talks of "Abdul-Baha in Egypt" Here are some excerpts:

Talk on Religion and Atheism by an Illiterate Bahai

This morning our new Pilgrim—Haji Mohammed from Beirut—carried on a long discussion with me.

"Religion and atheism; faith and agnosticism are like two streams which have been flowing from unknown sources since the genesis of mankind. The former is sweet and the latter is bitter. When the stream of religion becomes active, the stream of atheism is dried up;

therefore the fresh stream of faith must ever be strong and aromatic, in order to consume the bitter stream of unfaith which is tasteless.

In this day Baha-Ullah from the inaccessible heights of the mountains of revelation has sent down upon the valley of humanity fresh and sweeping torrents of Faith to swell the volume of the stream of religion, and to irrigate the network of the brooks of materialism.

Each Bahai is a new torrent and must roar with the power of reality. This stream of truth is greater than an ocean. It clears the path from all thorns and thistles and leaves behind it culture and civilization."

To hear from the tongue of a simple man such a dis- sertation was an extraordinary thing.

 

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In the Bahai Cause No One Holds Religious Offices, Titles and Ceremonies
....

"The Blessed Perfection has torn up the root of the tree of superstition and religious offices. In the past the ambitious leaders of religion have been the reasons of the ignorance and the retrogression of nations. In this Cause there is no religious title, no ceremony of ordination. One is not respected simply because one wears a peculiar dress or has been given a religious title or has inherited one from Patriarchs of the Church. No! These are not marks of distinction."

- Abdul-Baha in Egypt p. 87