Relative

Letters

• https://bahai-library.com/uhj_non-bahai_relatives_death

Treat relations with entire trustworthiness and integrity; fantasy to suggest it is only with strangers that one should be trustworthy

"You have written on the question of how the friends should proceed in their business dealings with one another. This is a question of the greatest importance and a matter that deserveth the liveliest concern. In relations of this kind, the friends of God should act with the utmost trustworthiness and integrity. To be remiss in this area would be to turn one's face away from the counsels of the Blessed Beauty and the holy precepts of God. If a man in his own home doth not treat his relations and friends with entire trustworthiness and integrity, his dealings with the outside world--no matter how much trustworthiness and honesty he may bring to them--will prove barren and unproductive. First one should order one's own domestic affairs, then attend to one's business with the public. One should certainly not argue that the friends need not be treated with undue care, or that it is unnecessary for them to attach too great importance to the practice of trustworthiness in their dealings with one another, but that it is in their relations with strangers that correct behaviour is essential. Talk like this is sheer fantasy and will lead to detriment and loss. Blessed be the soul that shineth with the light of trustworthiness among the people and becometh a sign of perfection amidst all men."

('Abdu'l-Bahá, From a Tablet - translated from the Persian; Trustworthiness: A Cardinal Bahá'í Virtue, no. 2059)

The kin of those who have recognized and embraced this Revelation will be invested with forgiveness if they have not harmed Him or His loved ones

"One of the distinguishing characteristics of this most great Dispensation is that the kin of such as have recognized and embraced the truth of this Revelation and have, in the glory of His name, the Sovereign Lord, quaffed the choice, sealed wine from the chalice of the love of the one true God, will, upon their death, if they are outwardly non-believers, be graciously invested with divine forgiveness and partake of the ocean of His Mercy.

"This bounty, however, will be vouchsafed only to such souls as have inflicted no harm upon Him Who is the Sovereign Truth nor upon His loved ones. Thus hath it been ordained by Him Who is the Lord of the Throne on High and the Ruler of this world and of the world to come."

(Bahá'u'lláh, from a Tablet-translated from the Persian, Family Life (compilation), no. 6)

See also

• Occasions for preference to blood relatives