About
“How blessed are these aims, especially the prevention of backbiting! I hope that you may become confirmed therein, because the worst human quality and the most great sin is backbiting; more especially when it emanates from the tongues of the believers of God. If some means were devised so that the doors of backbiting could be shut eternally and each one of the believers of God unsealed his tongue in the praise of the other, then the teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh would be spread, the hearts illuminated, the spirits glorified and the human world would attain to everlasting felicity.”
Every activity at QuenchNotTheLight is in gratefulness to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for this passionate plea on behalf of our hearts and souls.
Our Vision
We envision a world where families, communities, and individual hearts are free from the habit and harm of backbiting. Where words uplift, relationships heal, and the truth that humanity is one transforms us.
Our Mission
Our mission is to offer spiritually and scientifically informed resources, and practical methods, tools and ideas to inspire individuals, families and communities to shut eternally the doors of backbiting and unseal our tongues in praise of each other.
“Backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul.” ~Bahá’u’lláh: The Kitab-i-iqan, p. 193
“Beware lest ye give ear to the words of those from whom the foul smell of malice and envy can be discerned; pay no heed to them, and stand ye for righteousness.” ~Bahá’u’lláh: The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 199
“Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner. Shouldst thou transgress this command, accursed wouldst thou be, and to this I bear witness.” ~Bahá’u’lláh: The Hidden Words, Arabic 27
“…the most hateful characteristic of man is fault-finding. One must expose the praiseworthy qualities of the souls and not their evil attributes. The friends must overlook their shortcomings and faults and speak only of their virtues and not their defects.” ~‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Lights of Guidance, p. 91
“If any soul speak ill of an absent one, the only result will clearly be this: he will dampen the zeal of the friends and tend to make them indifferent.” ~‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá p. 230
“The worst human quality and the most great sin is backbiting.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Lights of Guidance, p. 88
“Even if what is said against another person be true, the mentioning of his faults to others still comes under the category of backbiting, and is forbidden.” ~Shoghi Effendi: Lights of Guidance, p. 87
“It is obvious that if we listen to those who complain to us about the faults of others we are guilty of complicity in their backbiting. We should therefore, as tactfully as possible, but yet firmly, do our utmost to prevent others from making accusations or complaints against others in our presence.” ~Shoghi Effendi: Lights of Guidance, p. 93
“The friends should understand that they should not only cease backbiting and gossiping, but should cease listening to others who fall into this sin.” ~Universal House of Justice: Developing Distinctive Baháʼí Communities.
“The children’s hearts and souls are like clean mirrors or containers of pure, crystal and translucent water. Every word uttered by us against other friends, like a drop of ink, sinks deep into the transparent hearts. At the beginning, the color may not seem to have changed, but we know that it is absorbed with all its poisonous effects.” ~Hand of the Cause of God, A.Q. Faizi