No sane person can at this time deny the fact that war is the most dreadful calamity in the world of humanity, that war is the cause of eternal death, that war is conducive to the destruction of populous, progressive cities, that war is the world-consuming fire, and that war is the most ruinous catastrophe and the most deplorable adversity.
The cries and lamentations are raised from every part to the Supreme Apex. The moanings and shriekings have thrown a mighty reverberation through the column of the world. The civilized countries are being overthrown. Eyes are shedding tears, hearing the weeping of the fatherless children. The heart’s are burning and being consumed by piercing sobbing and uncontrollable wailing of helpless, wandering women. The spirits of hopeless mothers are torn by rayless grief and endless sorrows, and the nerve-racking sighs and the just complaints of the fathers ascend to the throne of the Almighty.
Ah me! The world of creation is totally deprived of its normal rests. The clash of arms and the sound of murderous guns and cannons are being heard like the roaring of thunder across the heavenly track, and the explosive materials have changed the battlefields into yawning graveyards, burying for eternity the dead corpses of thousands upon thousands of youths, the flowers of many countries, who have been evolving factors in the civilization of the future.
The results of this crime committed against humanity is still worse than whatever I may say, and can never be adequately described by pen or by tongue.
O ye governments of the world! Be ye pitiful toward mankind!
O ye nations of the earth, behold ye the battlefields of slaughter and carnage!
O ye sages of humanity! Investgate sympathetically the conditions of the oppressed!
O ye philosophers of the West! Study profoundly the causes that led to this gigantic, unparalelled struggle!
O ye wise leaders of the globe! Reflect deeply so that ye may find an antidote for the suppression of this chronic, devastating disease!
O ye individuals of humanity! Now is the appointed time! Now is the opportune time! Arise ye, show ye an effort, put ye forward an extraordinary force, and unfurl ye the flag of universal peace and dam the irrestible force of this raging torrent which is wreaking havoc and ruin everywhere!
Although this captive has been in the prison of despotism for forty years, yet he has never been so sad and stricken with regret as in these days. My spirit is aflame and burning. My heart is broken, mournful, heavy, and despondent. My eyes are weeping and my soul is on fire. Oh! I am so bowed doom and sorrowful!
O people, weep and cry, lament and bemoan your fate. Then hasten ye, hasten ye, perchance ye may become able to extinguish with the water of the newborn ideals of spiritual Democracy and celestial Freedom this many-flamed, world-consuming fire, and through your heaven-inspired resolution you may usher in the golden era of international solidarity and world confederation.
Abdu’l-Baha Abbas, October 11, 1914 Akka, Palestine