Question—Suppose you reason out something, and your reason tells you it is true. In the "Seven Valleys" it is said that when the "fire of Love becomes ablaze, the harvest of reason is consumed." How is this?
Abdu’l-Baha—That is not to be taken literally. It has an inner meaning. It refers to ordinary reasoning. For example: a soul in Persia who became a believer endangered his very life. Now, what would the ordinary intellect say? Preserve your life! Preserve your property! But he who is set on fire with God's love will forego all possessions. On such occasions his actions appear insane; but he is in a sacrificial state. Honor, glory, everything pertaining to himself, is sacrificed. Baha’u’llah means that the harvest of reason becomes consumed by the fire of faith. In such a state a man appears insane. Those who see him under such circumstances would say: "Here is a man who has good position, who has honor, affluence, influence,—a man of competence, and he has sacrificed all of these in the path of some mysterious thing!"
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha to a group of Baha’is at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur P. Dodge, New York City, April 16, 1912; Star of the West, vol. 3, no. 10, September 8, 1912)