All kinds of voices proclaim compassion so that it is impossible not to be aware of it, and impossible not to feel the wide mercy encircling everything. How unfortunate are the souls who do not perceive this. Man has a responsibility to show compassion to all living beings as a requirement of being human. The more he displays compassion, the more exalted he becomes, while the more he resorts to wrongdoing, oppression and cruelty, the more he is disgraced and humiliated, becoming a shame to humanity. We hear from the Prophet of Truth that a prostitute went to Paradise because, out of compassion, she gave water to a poor dog dying of thirst, whilst another woman was condemned to the torments of Hell because she left a cat to die of hunger.
Mercy begets mercy.
If one is compassionate on earth, then many good tidings come from heaven. Having perceived this secret, our ancestors founded a great many homes of compassion everywhere including foundations for protecting and feeding animals. We ought to be as compassionate to human beings as our ancestors were to animals. Just as we have not been compassionate to ourselves, so too we have ruined the next generation by showing complete indifference and pitilessness to the earth. We have actually caused the deterioration of the environment, in which it is ever more difficult to live.