Stories of the House of Worship

A major event during the Master's visit to America was the dedication of the land for the first Bahá’í House of Worship of the western hemisphere in Wilmette, Illinois. Mrs. Nettie Tobin lived nearby in Chicago and was anxious to…

‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid the cornerstone of the House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, on 1 May 1912. A temporary tent covered a spot of prairie overlooking Lake Michigan. People from different nationalities were on hand to ceremoniously turn…

‘Abdu’l-Bahá tested both the faith and courage of many of the Bahá’ís He met and Corinne True was one He really challenged. First, He had put her in charge of the Temple project, a woman dealing with many men. Then, as they stood at the…

After the talk, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá let the crowd to the nearby ceremonial site where, in the great amphitheater afforded by the panorama of woods, fields and the expanse of water, ground was to be broken. The Master asked where the center of…

Among those souls that are righteous, that are luminous entities and Divine reflections, was Jinab-i-Muhammad-Taqi, the Afnan. This eminent Bough was an offshoot of the Holy Tree [the Báb's kindred]; in him an excellent character was…

At one point on the parade route, there was a special section roped off. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, with His flowing robes and majestic bearing, walked up to the roped-off section, a reporter quickly took advantage to get a story, which appeared…

Consider the past, so that thou mayest become informed of the mysteries which shall be disclosed in the future. When the disciples were calling in the name of Christ, the Jews scoffed, scorned and laughed at them. They were saying,…

Concerning thy question whether all the souls enjoy eternal life: Know thou those souls partake of the eternal life in whom the spirit of life is breathed from the Presence of God and all beside them are dead—without life, as Christ…

...By materialists, whose belief with regard to Divinity hath been explained, is not meant philosophers in general, but rather that group of materialists of narrow vision that worship that which is sensed, that depend upon the five…

He is the All-Glorious. The world’s great Light, once resplendent upon all mankind, has set to shine everlastingly from the Abhá horizon, His Kingdom of fadeless glory, shedding splendor upon His loved ones from on high, and breathing into…

The greatest bestowal of God in the world of humanity is religion; for assuredly the divine teachings of religion are above all other sources of instruction and development to man. Religion confers upon man eternal life and guides his…

If we look with a perceiving eye upon the world of creation, we find that all existing things may be classified as follows: First—Mineral—that is to say matter or substance appearing in various forms of composition.…

Thy letter was received. Praise be to God it imparted the good news of thy health and safety and indicated that thou art ready to enter into an agricultural school. This is highly suitable. Strive as much as possible to become…

Organize ye Spiritual Assemblies; lay ye the foundation of union and concord in this world; destroy ye the fabric of strife and war from the face of the earth; construct ye the temple of harmony and agreement; enkindle ye the light of…

Ye have written regarding the erection of the Temple and the purchase of the ground, or the finding of a place to be as a home for the gathering of the believers. At this moment that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is immersed in the ocean of calamities,…

In our solar system, the center of illumination is the sun itself. Through the will of God this central luminary is the one source of the existence and development of all phenomenal things. When we observe the organisms of the material…

O my friend, verily the Cause is great and great, and the penetration of the Word of God in the temple of all the regions is similar to the pervasion of the soul in a sound…

‘Abdu’l-Bahá spent His early years in an environment of privilege, wealth, and love. ** ‘Abdu’l-Bahá…

Mullá ‘Alí Ján and ‘Alavíyyih Khánum, not content with the conversion of the inhabitants of Máhfurúzak to the Bahá’í Faith, started to organize the life of the village on a spiritual basis. They encouraged each family to set aside a…

It was the first time in the history of the Baha'i Faith that an attack on one of its members had been dealt with justly. **Haji Muhammad Rida Isfahani Born:** Unknown **Death:** Unknown **Place of Birth:** Isfahan, Iran **Location…

Bahá'í Chronicles records that in the late 1870s, Bahá'u'lláh dispatched Sulaymán Khán-i-Tunúkábání — known as Jamál Effendi — from 'Akká to India, with the charge to establish the Faith on the subcontinent. With Sayyid Muṣṭafá Rúmí, who would later carry the work into Burma, he founded the first Bahá'í communities of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.

Gregory was instrumental in arranging for two major speaking engagements for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Washington DC to an audience of more than a thousand in Rankin Chapel at Howard University, and that evening to a large gathering of the Bethel…

Mirzá ‘Abd’u’lláh had a modest music school in a district of Tihrán called Imám-zádeh Yahyá. A number of so called open minded pupils were following his classes. Music was forbidden in Islamic countries then, therefore the mob had a good…

After he had received the endless bounties showered on him by Bahá’u’lláh, he was given leave to go, and he traveled to China. There, over a considerable period, he spent his days mindful of God and in a manner conformable to Divine good…

During the nineteen days that he remained there he drank his fill from the life-giving draught of the presence of the Master and on daily basis paid homage to the Sacred Shrine of Baha’u’llah. **Mirza Yusuf Vahid Kashfi Born:**…

From his years Billy Sears possessed an inordinate interest in God. He asked his parents, his grandfather, the preacher, the mayor, even the local people he met a myriad of questions: 'Did God have a wife? Where was His house? Could He…

Because of the marked individualism of those days in the Bahá’í community, there were many philosophical differences. The Bahá’ís of that time were immature in the ways of the Faith and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá used Corrine True to begin a…

49 The passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf has filled my heart with unutterable sorrow. My comfort is the thought that the measure of success achieved, under your wise and able leadership, by the collective efforts of the American…

32 GREATEST HOLY LEAF’S IMMORTAL SPIRIT WINGED ITS FLIGHT GREAT BEYOND. COUNTLESS LOVERS HER SAINTLY LIFE IN EAST AND WEST SEIZED WITH PANGS OF ANGUISH, PLUNGED IN UNUTTERABLE SORROW. HUMANITY SHALL ERELONG RECOGNIZE ITS IRREPARABLE…

145 O God, my…

158 The ascension of Him Who was the Temple of the Covenant, the setting of Him Who was the Orb of harmony, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, may our lives be sacrificed for the wrongs He suffered, was the most dire calamity, and the most dread of…

190 Your letter has come, and I myself and the Holy Family were infinitely grieved to learn of the sufferings you have undergone, being made as you were the targets of such injustice, malevolence and…

195 The cheque for the amount of two hundred pounds that you had sent as your contribution to the Temple Fund has been received and duly forwarded to Chicago. Behold what a pervasive power this evidence of co-operation and support,…

205 The Pen of the divine Ordainer has so decreed that this house of sorrows should be encompassed by unending calamity and pain. Even before the dark clouds of one disaster are scattered, the lowering storm of yet a new grief takes…

41 PRAY ASSURE AMERICAN BELIEVERS BEHALF HOLY FAMILY MYSELF ABIDING APPRECIATION NUMEROUS EVIDENCES THEIR VALUED SYMPATHY. OUR SORROW-LADEN HEARTS MUCH RELIEVED FILLED WITH GRATITUDE. OUT OF PANGS OF ANGUISH WHICH BEREAVED AMERICA…

224 Your letter, laden with many a graceful phrase, many a wondrous inner meaning, has been received. Its perusal brought composure and tranquillity to my soul and gladness to my heart, inasmuch as from between its lines I could…

The thing of paramount importance in education is character training. With regard to this, example is more effective than precept, and the lives and characters of the child’s parents, teachers and habitual associates are factors of the…

Under the inspired guidance of Shoghi Effendi the Bahá’í Cause grew steadily in size and in the establishment of its Administrative Order, so that by 1951 there were eleven functioning National Spiritual Assemblies. At that point the…

As to the manner of His coming at the end of the age, Christ said:— And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet.... then…

Bahá’u’lláh left instructions that temples of worship should be built by His followers in every country and city. To these temples He gave the name of “Mashriqu’l-Adhkár,” which means “Dawning Place of God’s Praise.” The…

According to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:— A mediator is necessary between man and the Creator—one who receives the full light of the Divine Splendor and radiates it over the human world, as the earth’s atmosphere receives and diffuses the warmth…

Bahá’u’lláh forbids tyranny and oppression in the most emphatic terms. In Hidden Words He writes:— O Oppressors of Earth! Withdraw your hands from tyranny, for I have pledged Myself not to forgive any man’s injustice. This is My…

Esslemont's *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era* records the surprising recognition of the Bahá'í Faith by Count Leo Tolstoy in his last decade — the great Russian novelist who corresponded with Bahá'í teachers and praised the Faith in letters that reached far beyond the small Russian Bahá'í community of his lifetime.

Bahá’u’lláh enjoins justice on all His followers and defines it as:—“The freedom of man from superstition and imitation, so that he may discern the Manifestations of God with the eyes of Oneness, and consider all affairs with keen…

Bahá’u’lláh constantly urges men to realize and give full expression to the perfections latent within them—the true inner self as distinguished from the limited outer self, which at best is but the temple, and too often is the prison…

Before ‘Abdu’l-Bahá completed His earthly mission, He had laid a basis for the development of the administrative order established in Bahá’u’lláh’s Writings. To show the high importance to be attributed to the institution of the…

It has been the general characteristic of religion that organization marks the interruption of the true spiritual influence and serves to prevent the original impulse from being carried into the world. The organization has invariably…

The “Coming of the Lord” in the “last days” is the one “far-off divine event” to which all the Prophets look forward, about which Their most glorious songs are sung. Now what is meant by the “Coming of the Lord”? Surely God is at all…

Bahá’u’lláh says in the Tablet of Tarazát:— Verily, Honesty is the door of tranquillity to all in the world, and the sign of glory from the presence of the Merciful One. Whosoever attains thereto has attained to treasures of wealth…

After His release, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá continued the same holy life of ceaseless activity in teaching, correspondence, ministering to the poor and the sick, with merely the change from Akká to Haifa and from Haifa to Alexandria, until August…

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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On a hot June day in the year 1892, a middle-aged woman sat in a crowded lecture hall. Despite the heat, her face looked peaceful as she listened to the speaker talk about the life of the…

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A short paraphrase from the bahaistories.com archive on the daily evening walks of 'Abdu'l-Bahá along the slopes of Mount Carmel — the small habitual route, the people of every faith who would join the procession, and the steady greeting He gave to each.

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In *The Chosen Highway* Lady Blomfield records the days in September 1911 when 'Abdu'l-Bahá lodged in her own house at 97 Cadogan Gardens — and one September evening when the Master, hearing the bells of Westminster across the city, stepped out onto the balcony to listen.

Corinne True had desperately wish to meet ‘Abdu’l- Bahá when He landed in New York, but her son Davis was critically ill. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá finally arrived in Chicago, one of the first things He did on the morning of 30, April was to go…

Corinne True made one of her nine pilgrimages to the Bahá’í Holy Places in Palestine ‘during the time of the Second Commission of Investigation by the Turks, when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had again been confined as a prisoner to ‘Akka by order of the…

During ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s last days in America, the Bahá’ís were eager to show their love and gratitude by contributions of money, but these He refused. ‘I am pleased with your services,’ He told them, ‘and I am grateful for all you have done…

Shoghi Effendi's narration, in *God Passes By*, of the Master's laying of the cornerstone of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár at Wilmette in May 1912 — a moment the Guardian describes as the inauguration of the construction of the first House of Worship of the Bahá'í Dispensation in the Western world.

The fifth Hidden Word in Arabic — Bahá'u'lláh's image of the human heart as His own mansion, and His invitation to sanctify it for His descent.

The seventh Hidden Word in Arabic — Bahá'u'lláh's call to the son of man to forsake all but Him, that he may attain to His presence and abide in His company.

It was a short time after Grace told me this story that she went on the teaching trip through the nearsouthern states that I mentioned above. The teaching trip ended in time for her to reach Wilmette and attend the Convention in the spring…

It was the last four months of the nine-year plan and I [Jenabe Caldwell] had just come out of India. As usual when I was anywhere near Israel, I would stop for a three day visit, go to the Shrines and thank Bahá’u’lláh for His blessings…

Mahmúd's Diary records 'Abdu'l-Bahá's days in Boston in late July and August 1912, including His talk at the Free Religious Association and the unusually warm reception of Boston's Unitarian ministers. Boston, the city of Emerson and the Transcendentalists, recognised in the Master a kindred root.

Mahmúd's Diary records that on May 1, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá travelled from Chicago to the small lakeside village of Wilmette to dedicate the cornerstone of the future House of Worship of the Western world. He laid the stone with His own hand and invited each delegate of the gathering to place upon it a stone of his own.

Mahmúd's Diary records the spring of 1912 when 'Abdu'l-Bahá travelled west of the Alleghenies for the first time, holding meetings in Cleveland and Pittsburgh and then continuing to Chicago. In Pittsburgh the smoke of the steel mills hung over the talks; in Cleveland the believers gathered in private homes.

On October 12, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed an audience of approximately 2,000 at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco — the largest synagogue on the Pacific coast — and asked the gathered Jews, with all the courtesy of a guest and all the firmness of a prophet's son, why they had not yet honoured Christ and Muḥammad as the heirs of Moses.

On May 1, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá traveled north of Chicago to lay the cornerstone of the first Bahá'í House of Worship in the West. Many stones had been sent from Bahá'í communities for the ceremony. Only one — found in a builders' rejection pile and dragged to the site by Nettie Tobin, a Chicago seamstress — had actually arrived. The Master asked for hers.

Mahmúd's Diary records 'Abdu'l-Bahá's brief visit to Philadelphia on June 9, 1912, including His afternoon address at the Baptist Temple on Broad Street — a great evangelical Protestant pulpit then known for its commitment to the social gospel.

On 17 August He spoke of true knowledge: in cities like New York the people are submerged in the sea of materialism. Their sensibilities are attuned to material forces, their perceptions purely physical. The animal energies predominate…

On the [day] of the first Naw-Rúz (1909), which He celebrated after His release from His confinement, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had the marble sarcophagus transported with great labor to the vault prepared for it, and in the evening, by the light of a…

One brief incident that made a lasting impression on Leroy illustrates this power of the Master. It occurred one evening when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke at the Masonic Temple [in Chicago]. More than a thousand people were present. The Ioas and…

One day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá learned that a lady had cut her lovely hair in order to contribute to the building of the House of Worship in Wilmette. He wrote to her with loving appreciation: ‘On the one hand, I was deeply touched, for thou hadst…

Monday, November…

October 27th The basis of the teaching of Bahá’u’lláh is the Unity of Mankind, and his greatest desire was that love and goodwill should live in the heart of men. As He exhorted the people to do away with strife and discord, so I wish to…

On the second of June, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá entered the Church of the Ascension at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street in Manhattan, and addressed an Episcopal congregation on the *Collective Center* — the Manifestation of God around whom every people, of every race and belief, can become a single melody.

On the evening of November 8, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed the congregation of the Eighth Street Temple in Washington — and reframed the long history of Jewish-Christian misunderstanding by arguing that it was through Christ that the Torah travelled into six hundred languages.

At the dedication of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár grounds in Wilmette on May 1, 1912 — the same gathering at which Nettie Tobin's stone was laid as the cornerstone — 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke about the future Houses of Worship that would arise across the world, and gave the specific architectural instruction that the building must be *circular,* never triangular.

On October 12, 1912, the Reform Jewish congregation of Temple Emmanu-El in San Francisco received an unprecedented visitor: 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who had come to speak of Bahá'u'lláh and of Christ from a synagogue pulpit. His subject was the common purpose of every revealed religion: the bond of love among human beings.

In *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh* Adib Taherzadeh recounts the Tablet that Bahá'u'lláh, prisoner in the fortress of 'Akká, addressed in 1868 to Pope Pius IX in the Vatican. The Tablet proclaimed that the Father had come, summoned the Pope to recognise Him, and counselled him to renounce temporal authority in favour of the spiritual ministry of his calling.

Today, at table, let us speak for a little of proofs. If you had come to this blessed place in the days of the manifestation of the evident Light,29 if you had attained to the court of His presence, and had witnessed His luminous…

In the beginning of the eleventh chapter of the Revelation of St. John it is…

As this physical frame is the throne of the inner temple, whatever occurs to the former is felt by the latter. In reality that which takes delight in joy or is saddened by pain is the inner temple of the body, not the body itself. Since…

O thou who art firm in the Covenant! Thy letter was received. Thou hast expressed satisfaction with the Convention, that this gathering hath been the means of the elevation of the Cause of God and the demonstration of the power of His…

O ye concourse of the Kingdom of Abhá! Two calls to success and prosperity are being raised from the heights of the happiness of mankind, awakening the slumbering, granting sight to the blind, causing the heedless to become mindful,…

Praise be to Him Who hath made the world of being, and hath fashioned all that is, Him Who hath raised up the sincere to a station of honour4 and hath made the invisible world to appear on the plane of the visible—yet still, in their…

It befitteth the friends to hold a gathering, a meeting, where they shall glorify God and fix their hearts upon Him, and read and recite the Holy Writings of the Blessed Beauty—may my soul be the ransom of His lovers! The lights of the…

Although to outward seeming the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár is a material structure, yet it hath a spiritual effect. It forgeth bonds of unity from heart to heart; it is a collective centre for men’s souls. Every city in which, during the days of…

O Lord, O Thou Who dost bless all those who stand firm in the Covenant by enabling them, out of their love for the Light of the World, to expend what they have as an offering to the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, the dayspring of Thy wide-spread…

O my well-beloved daughter of the Kingdom! The letter thou hadst written to Dr. Esslemont was forwarded by him to the Land of Desire [The Holy Land]. I read it all through with the greatest attention. On the one hand, I was deeply…

O ye blessed souls!31 The letter ye had written to Rahmatu’lláh hath been perused. Many and various were the joyful tidings it conveyed, namely, that through the power of faith and constancy in the Covenant, numerous gatherings have…

The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár is one of the most vital institutions in the world, and it hath many subsidiary branches. Although it is a House of Worship, it is also connected with a hospital, a drug dispensary, a traveller’s hospice, a school…

Shortly after his arrival ‘Abdu’l-Bahá met the Rev. R. J. Campbell of the City Temple, together with the editor of the Christian Commonwealth newspaper. The editor noted that when Rev. Campbell entered the room, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá rose from…

*Star of the West* records the dedication, in 1908, of the first Bahá'í House of Worship in the world — at 'Ishqábád (Ashgabat) in Russian Turkmenistan. The community of Persian exiles and emigrants on the steppe had built, with their own hands and from a fund collected over a generation, a nine-sided dome that would for forty years be the model for every subsequent Mashriqu'l-Adhkár.

In 1920 the Star of the West printed Corinne True's report on the acquisition of the Temple property at Wilmette, on the shore of Lake Michigan — the small group of acres on which, by the Master's direction, the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the West would in time be raised.

In 1925 the *Star of the West* carried the announcement of the formation of the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada — the inaugural national institution of the American Faith, elected in convention at the Wilmette Temple grounds.

O thou favored maid-servant of the Kingdom of…

O thou honored…

O thou near servant to the Threshold of…

O thou sign of the Kingdom and the bird singing with the most wonderful melodies in the rose-garden of…

O thou spiritual temple whose heart is drawn unto the Horizon of…

O thou who art attracted to the Beauty of…

O thou who art confident in the appearance of the Kingdom of God! Verily I read thy letter, which was beautifully composed and which proved thy great love, the extent of thy knowledge and the illumination of thy sight, by witnessing the…

O thou who art rejoiced by the Divine…

O thou who art supplicating unto…

O thou who art turning unto the Kingdom of…

O thou who hast arisen to render service to the Cause of God in His Great…

O ye196 beloved friends of…

O ye187 brilliant…

O ye305 dear servants of…

O ye77 illumined faces! O ye divine souls! and O ye spiritual…

O ye my divine friends!32…

***O ye118 shining faces and spiritual…

O ye146 sincere ones! O ye firm ones! O ye heralds of the Kingdom of…

O ye200 sons of the…

O ye two237 advancers towards the Kingdom of…

O ye who are attracted! O ye who are firm! O ye who are zealous in the service of the Cause of God and are sacrificers of possessions and lives for the promotion of the Word of…

O ye who are chosen! O ye who are firm! O ye who are calling! O ye who are…

“What is the Second Coming of Christ in this Dispensation?” ‘Abdu'l-Bahá answered: “In the Book of the Zend-Avesta the Zoroastrians are awaiting the Coming of two Manifestations. Also, in the Old Testament Scriptures there is the…

“Why are women so favored in this Revelation?” “Women in Persia were treated badly in former times by the Muhammadans. When speaking evil of a man, they would say, 'He is just like a woman.' When they wished to lower a man's pride, they…

The day after Davis's[Corinne True’s son] death Corinne was present at the Temple site at the corner of Linden Avenue and Sheridan Road in Wilmette. Being there was difficult. Her last son - gone. Would the human tragedy that seemed to…

The final meeting was the Bahá’í Temple Unity Convention where 1000 people heard the Master speak on the significance of the Temple. From His talk, Corrine realized that the Temple wasn't something to unite the American Bahá’ís, but an…

The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), a nationwide, biracial organization that would fight to achieve African American civil rights had invited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to address their Fourth Annual Conference in…

There was a pilgrim from the United States, a Mrs.True, the American Bahá’ís who are here, of course, remember her very well. One of the early of the Cause and one of the great workers for the Bahá’í temple, and one of the great pillars of…

Thornton Chase, named by the Master as the first American Bahá’í, along with Carl Scheffler and Arthur Agnew, members of Chicago's House of Spirituality, arrived in the Holy Land, right after Corrine True had departed and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá…

When Corinne True was on pilgrimage in 1907, she brought with her a petition from the Chicago House of Spirituality (an early form of what would become a Bahá’í Spiritual Assembly), with the list of signatures of those who wish to build a…

While ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was walking in the rose-garden he passed by Hájí Mullah Abou Taleb, the very old man with stooped shoulders and long beard. He looked at him, then at others, and smiled. “Hájí Mullah Abou Taleb is my friend,” [he said].…

While on pilgrimage in Haifa in 1909, Alice Breed asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: if we build the Temple (the American House of Worship) quickly and send a ship for You, will You come to America? Qbdul-Bahá responded: I will come of my own volition…