“… evil is the non-existence of good.”

A number of the friends, both old and new, were present at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s house. One of their questions was whether the existence of evil proceeds from God. He replied:

There is no evil in existence. Evil is non-existence. All that is created is good. Ignorance is evil and it is the non-existence of knowledge; it has no existence of its own. Hence, evil is the non-existence of good. Want of wealth is poverty; absence of justice is oppression; want of perfection is deficiency. All of these opposites imply non-existence and not existence.