| ‘Evil' is explained in the Bahá'í Writings as being the absence of good, in the same way that darkness is the absence of light. Evil is not seen as an independent force in its own right. |
| ‘Abdu'l-Bahá explained:'. . . the intellectual realities, such as all the qualities and admirable perfections of man, are purely good, and exist. Evil is simply their non-existence. So ignorance is the want of knowledge, error is the want of guidance, forgetfulness is the want of memory, stupidity is the want of good sense. All these things have no real existence.'21 |
| Although the creation of God is entirely good, man's free will allows him the capacity to use his natural gifts for positive good or to pervert them to evil uses, by following his selfish, baser desires. In a letter written on his behalf, Shoghi Effendi further explained: ‘We know absence of light is darkness, but no one would assert darkness was not a fact. It exists even though it is only the absence of something else. So evil exists too, and we cannot close our eyes to it, even though it is a negative existence. We must seek to supplant it by good, and if we see an evil person is not influenceable by us, then we should shun his company for it is unhealthy.'22 However, Bahá'ís do not believe that people are inherently evil. |
| [BD 81] |
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