自由使人堕落

【生命诚可贵，爱情价更高。若为自由故，两者皆可抛。这是樊笼里的人对自由的向往。有了自由的人切不可滥用自由，以下是巴哈欧拉这位被囚禁40年的伟大思想家对滥用自由者的忠告：】

让我们看看人类观念之藐小，他们求取对他们有害的东西，撇开了对他们有益的事物。这些人乃属于彻底迷失的一群。我们看到一些人渴望得到自由，并以此为荣。这些人处于愚昧的深谷里。

自由到了最后，必然会带来诱惑，而诱惑是一把无人可以扑灭的火焰。因而，那位乃是计算者、全知的祂给了你这样的警告。当知，动物乃是自由的体现和象征。而服从于约制，保护自己不受本身的愚昧所害，提防自己免于遭受那肇事者殃祸，才是人所适宜者。自由使人跨越礼的界线，侵犯了作为人的尊严。它贬低人，至极度堕落和邪恶的地步。——巴哈欧拉

（2015年）

Consider the pettiness of men's minds. They ask for that which injureth them, and cast away the thing that profiteth them. They are, indeed, of those that are far astray. We find some men desiring liberty, and priding themselves therein. Such men are in the depths of ignorance.

Liberty must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench. Thus warneth you He Who is the Reckoner, the All-Knowing. Know ye that the embodiment of liberty and its symbol is the animal. That which beseemeth man is submission unto such restraints as will protect him from his own ignorance, and guard him against the harm of the mischief-maker. Liberty causeth man to overstep the bounds of propriety, and to infringe on the dignity of his station. It debaseth him to the level of extreme depravity and wickedness.

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 335)

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