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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
Set in 'Akká, Bahjí, Haifa, and Mount Carmel — the heart of the Bahá'í World Centre.
A delightful story is told of a Mademoiselle Letitia, who had come from a poor family in Haifa to live in the Master's home in 'Akka to teach French to the children. She was happy there, though she was a Catholic and the nuns in the…
A woman visited the Master in Haifa, in May 1910. She later wrote about this visit, saying: ‘As He talked with me, I felt my heart soften under the influence of his goodness and kindness, and the tears came to my eyes. He asked me about…
‘Abdu’l-Bahá anticipated that conditions of hardship would appear with these events, and began to instruct people in the villages of Nughayb, Samrih and ‘Adasiyyih in Palestine to grow prolific quantities of corn, much of which was…
‘Abdu’l-Bahá believed in using medicine as well as spiritual healing. As there was no hospital in Akka, He hired a doctor by the name of Nikolaki Bey. He gave teh doctor a regular salary to look after the very poor, and He asked the doctor…
‘Abdu’l-Bahá's kind heart went out to those who were ill. If He could alleviate a pain or discomfort, he set about to do so. We are told that one old couple who were ill in bed for a month had twenty visits from the Master during that time…
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s love of God and Bahá’u’lláh brought a calm and a serenity which adverse circumstances could not shake, whether it be shots fired in the night, chains, locusts, bombardments of Haifa, or the threat of death. For example, He…
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s prayerfulness aided Him to sustain equanimity even in times of deep sorrow and dire anguish. His ‘love for God was the ground and cause of an equanimity which no circumstance could shake and of an inner happiness which no…
‘Abdu’l-Bahá's recipe for pilau: Lamb-cut in very small pieces-cutting away all fat, bone, gristle. Put butter in frying pan and when it bubbles, stir in the meat and continue to stir constantly until the meat is done. Season with salt.…
‘Abdu’l-Bahá would refuse generous sums of money meant for Himself but would accept a small token of love, such as a handkershief. In London a lady said to the Master, 'I have here a cheque from a friend, who begs its acceptance to buy a…
After arriving in Port Said, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had initially planned to continue immediately to Europe, but His poor health forced him to stay in Port Said it for a month. While there, he asked Siyyid Asadu'llah-i-Qumi: Do you realize now the…
After Bahá’u’lláh's confinement in the Most Great Prison in 'Akka had ended, but while He was yet residing in the town, an Egyptian merchant, ‘Abdu’l-Karim, afire with God's latest message, desired to visit Him. He wrote for permission to…
“One year before ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd was dethroned, he sent an extremely overbearing, treacherous and insulting committee of investigation. The chairman was one of the governor’s staff, Árif Bey, and with him were three army commanders…
Already in AB's day relief funds had been established. He encouraged the Save the Children Fund. The Haifa Relief Fund had been created to alleviate the misery of the local population -- twice the Master contributed fifty Egyptian…
Although ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was a serious expounder of the Bahá’í Faith He had a fine sense of humor. One day at dinner, we were eating soup, a nice thick soup. Leaving my spoon in the plate I raised my hand to adjust my collar. As I brought…
An American family once wrote to the Master, asking if they might visit Him. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who had travelled so far without comforts, replied, 'When you may travel in comfort, then you may come.' So, in 1919, after the first World War,…
‘An American friend who had enjoyed the privilege of more than one visit to ‘Akka during the days of the exile of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, related an incident that took place at His table. With her sat persons of varied races, some of them…
And yet, as you know, when he passed away in England, I had many cables from him, many letters from him letting me know the things he wanted to be done, the things he wanted finished by the time he got back because of the things he wanted…
Another governor of 'Akka was dismissed from his duties and sent to Beirut to a new post. He had been very unkind and had not permitted the Bahá’ís to visit their Master, but with characteristic big-heartedness, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, hearing of…
Another instance of His generosity concerned a rug, which was among 'the most exquisite' ever created in Persia. Woven of 'purest silk, patterned as a rose garden and bordered with heavy twisted cord of real gold', it was bought from…
At one time enemies of the Master, Covenant-breakers who lived in the Mansion next to the Shrine, offered one of Bahá’u’lláh’s cloaks and a pair of His spectacles to the governor of Haifa. They encouraged him to go and visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá…
At the time my father was invited by the Guardian to come and live with us in the Holy Land, after my mother's unexpected death in Argentina in March 1940, Shoghi Effendi decided, for reasons of his own, to go to England. For those who…
Bahá’u’lláh could trust ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with the most difficult of tasks as He knew He would never waver. One such task was that of building a Shrine for the Báb on Mount Carmel, above what was then the small town of Haifa, facing the…
Bahiyyih Randall was only thirteen years old when she went to Haifa to see the Master. She recalled that ‘there was a perfectly wonderful person who always sat on the right of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at dinner. His name was Haydar-‘Ali and he had…
Over his mother's signature, but drafted by the Guardian, the following cable was sent to America: “Announce Assemblies celebration marriage beloved Guardian. Inestimable honour conferred upon handmaid of Baha'u'llah Ruhiyyih Khanum Miss…
He took up a staff and wandered away; over the mountains he went, across the plains, seeking and finding the mystics, his friends. **…
Haji Muhammad Tihir was a brilliant debater and speaker. It is difficult to convey the pleasure one derived from his inspiring conversation which ranged from humorous trifles to weighty pronouncements. His knowledge of the history and…
Let lovers be warned by his story; let them know how he gambled away his life in his yearning after the Light of the World. May God give him to drink of a brimming cup in the everlasting gardens; in the Supreme Assemblage, may God shed…
During all that time Husayn-Áqá never offended a soul, nor did anyone, where he was concerned, utter a single complaint. This was truly a miracle, and no one else could have established such a record of service. He was always smiling,…
He shouted aloud, was frenzied, was drunk with the music of the new message. He escaped from his debits and credits, set out to meet the Lord of his heart, and entered the presence of Bahá’u’lláh. ** Husayn Effendi…
Bahá'í Chronicles preserves the biographical record of John Ebenezer Esslemont — the Aberdeen physician who, after encountering the Cause in 1914, wrote the introductory work *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era,* moved to Haifa to serve at the Master's side, and was named by Shoghi Effendi a Hand of the Cause after his early death in 1925.
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…
Mirza Abu’l-Fadl was imprisioned on three different times.…
He stationed himself by the Holy Threshold, carefully sweeping it and keeping watch. Through his constant efforts, the square in front of Bahá’u’lláh’s house was at all times swept, sprinkled and immaculate. **…
He received a long poem of which 127 of 2000 verses were preserved ** Shaykh…
Ultimately he became the intermediary through whom Tablets could be sent away and mail from the believers could come in. ** Siyyid Muḥammad-Taqí…
Ustad ‘Ali Ashraf was a well-known architect, who designed and built most of the big governmental and national buildings (‘Qafqaziyyih’, 1867). 'Abdu'l-Bahá named one of the exterior doors to the Shrine of Bab after Ustad ‘Ali Ashraf.…
The architect Aqa Bala, who was in 'Akka on pilgrimage at the time, should beg 'Abdu'l-Bahá's permission to build a small bath in His house. And so he submitted his request. Since he was one of the pure in heart, his request was granted.…
He was made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. ** William Sutherland…
Before a winter's cold took hold of 'Akka, the Master would go to a clothing shop where He would arrange that a number of the poor should come to receive their annual cloaks. He would adjust the garments over some of those poor shoulders.…
Before the fall of Haifa, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was discussing the British campaign with a few of His followers in His garden one day. He then predicted that, contrary to the general expectation, the taking of Haifa and the walled town of 'Akka…
14 O my well-beloved sister, O Most Exalted…
19 O my spiritual…
24 O my dear…
26 O my sister in the spirit, and the companion of my…
141 It is not unknown to those who stand firm in the Covenant and Testament of God that the centre of violation and his associates, from the day of the ascension of the Ancient Beauty, may His Great Name be ever exalted, have been…
198 Your letter of 12th October 1922 is just received and refreshed in our memory the many beautiful days that you spent here when the Beloved Lord, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, was still on this earth. Those are days that many events of history…
203 It was sometime ago that I received your kind and encouraging letter through your honourable secretary. And although in a joyless world, the love and unity of the friends in Yonkers imparted the utmost joy to this bereaved family.…
During the Great War, Haifa was crowded with the destitute, the orphaned, and the sick. From the household at the foot of Mount Carmel, the Greatest Holy Leaf — already in advanced age — distributed daily food, money, clothing, and remedies she had herself prepared.
In *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*, Esslemont describes the proximity of the Persian believers in 'Akká to the great Mansion of Bahjí — the pilgrim who, after the long road, would silently ascend the path each morning to be near the windows of the Master, then sit beneath the trees, then descend at dusk having barely spoken.
In *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*, Esslemont preserves the famous 1890 account by the Cambridge orientalist Edward Granville Browne — the only Westerner ever to record his impressions of meeting Bahá'u'lláh. The short paragraph was written in plain academic English. It has never been surpassed.
Bahá’u’lláh indicated in many ways the ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was to direct the Cause after His own ascension. Many years before His death He declared this in a veiled manner in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas. He referred to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on many occasions as…
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…
At that time Akká (Acre) was a prison city to which the worst criminals were sent from all parts of the Turkish Empire. On arriving there, after a miserable sea journey, Bahá’u’lláh and His followers, about eighty to eighty-four in…
During the winter of 1919–1920 the writer had the great privilege of spending two and half months as the guest of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Haifa and intimately observing His daily life. At that time, although nearly seventy-six years of age, He…
About this time Bahá’u’lláh wrote His famous letter to the Sulṭán of Turkey, many of the crowned heads of Europe, the Pope, and the Sháh of Persia. Later, in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas16 He addressed other sovereigns, the rulers and Presidents…
Having in His earlier years of hardship shown how to glorify God in a state of poverty and ignominy, Bahá’u’lláh in His later years at Bahjí showed how to glorify God in a state of honor and affluence. The offering of hundreds of…
In *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*, J. E. Esslemont preserves the small, heartbreaking image of Persian believers who walked thousands of miles to the prison-city of 'Akká, were refused admittance at the gates, and contented themselves with standing on the plain beyond the third moat, looking up at the windows of the Blessed Beauty's quarters.
Even when the imprisonment was at its worst, the Bahá’ís were not dismayed, and their serene confidence was never shaken. While in the barracks at Akká, Bahá’u’lláh wrote to some friends, “Fear not. These doors shall be opened. My tent…
In *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*, Esslemont preserves a small story of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's strategic kindness — how He arranged for a respected local shaykh to plead with His Father for an outing into the countryside, and how the Master's quiet diplomacy ended decades of strict confinement.
Both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on many occasions foretold with surprising accuracy the coming of the Great War of 1914–1918. At Sacramento, California, on October 26, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said:—“Today the European continent is like an…
A remarkable instance of the foresight of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was supplied during the months immediately preceding the war. During peacetimes there was usually a large number of pilgrims at Haifa, from Persia and other regions of the globe.…
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…
The Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá are very numerous and are mostly in the form of letter to believers and inquirers. A great many of His talks and addresses have also been recorded and many have been published. Of the thousands of pilgrims…
Although ‘Abdu’l-Baha was a serious expounder of the Baha’i Faith He had a fine sense of humor. One day at dinner, we were eating soup, a nice thick soup.
The Hand of the Cause Tarázu'lláh Samandarí undertook his pilgrimage to the Holy Land when he was a youth. It took place during the last months of Bahá'u'lláh's life.
North-west building of prison complex Akka 1922 The dear friends in this city [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1912] engaged an apartment on the seventh floor of the Schenley Hotel and were…
Some thirty years ago when 'Abdu'l-Baha was surrounded by His bitter enemies; when they were instigating the Turkish Government to illtreat Him; when in His confined place of 'Akka He had a very…
In the days of Bahá’u’lláh, during the worst times in the Most Great Prison, they would not permit any of the friends either to leave the Fortress or to come in from the outside.
While in Edinburgh ‘Abdu’l-Baha is reported to have mentioned the following account to a group of Baha’is: ‘Abdu’l-Baha spoke to us about Miss Wardlaw Ramsey, a Scottish Christian missionary in Akka.
During the time that Bahá'u'lláh resided in the house of 'Abbud, His fellow exiles had fully settled down in the city of 'Akká, and most of them were successful in their humble professions.
May Maxwell, who was among the first group of Western pilgrims to visit ‘Abdu’l-Baha in Akka in 1898-99, has left a brief description of a touching and heart-warming incident.
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was about twenty-four years old, the most terrible crisis which Bahá'u'lláh and His family ever had to meet, developed in Adrianople, when once again they were on the eve of…
Wendell [Dodge] and I [William Dodge] were so glad to be with ‘Abdu’l-Baha [in ‘Akka, in 1901]. At some times we were quite jolly. We were mere boys of 18 and 21.
Notable among those who had attained the station of true knowledge was Mirza Abu'l-Fadl, the great Baha'i scholar and one of the Apostles of Baha'u'llah.
A short paraphrase from the Baha'i Stories Blog about a letter the young Guardian sent in early 1922 to the small Bahá'í community of Australia, then concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne — one of the first messages sent in the new ministry, encouraging the friends to hold steadily through the change.
May Bolles Maxwell was one of the first group of pilgrims from the West who, in 1898-99, visited ‘Abdu’l-Baha while He was still a prisoner in ‘Akka.
In the ‘Priceless Pearl’ Ruhiyyih Khanum tells us how in 1920 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent Shoghi Effendi abroad for his studies, in the company of Lotfullah Hakim who was returning to England after his first…
The next morning while I [Ali Kuli Khan] was in our room with my family [in Akka, during their pilgrimage in 1906], a gentle rapping attracted me to the door.
Ruhiyyih Khanum often described her first encounter with the youthful Guardian [when she was 13 years old].
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 spirit.
In 1919, 'Abdu'l-Baha, The Center of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah, sent Tablets (letters) to America outlining a great plan for a spiritual divine civilization for the whole world.
Abdu’l-Karim was an Egyptian merchant of considerable wealth, who had heard the story of the new Revelation, and accepted it with the ardor of his eager temperament.
In 1902 the late Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper in company with a group of friends made the pilgrimage to Haifa.
A great king, walking in his garden one day, noticed a man, about ninety years old, planting some trees. The king asked what he was doing and the old man answered that he was planting date trees.
When the idea of constructing a Baha’i Temple in America was first proposed in 1903 there were very few Baha’is in the United States and Canada.
During His prison life in ‘Akka, ‘Abdu’l-Baha often gave His bed to those who had none, and He always refused to own more than one coat.
Haji Muhammad-Tahir-i-Malmiri, who was a historian, a teacher of wide repute and the father of Adib Taherzadeh, attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh in 'Akká.
A short paraphrase from the bahaistories.com archive on 'Abdu'l-Bahá's particular love for the flowers that pilgrims brought Him in 'Akká, His unhurried inspection of each, and His habit of asking the giver to name the flower in their own language.
A short paraphrase from the bahaistories.com archive: 'Abdu'l-Bahá's particular love for children, His habit of stopping in the street to greet them, and His insistence that the youngest of His visitors be received with the same gravity He gave to ambassadors.
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.
A short paraphrase from the bahaistories.com archive on the small recurring scene of 'Abdu'l-Bahá visiting Western pilgrims who fell ill in 'Akká, sitting at the bedside until the fever passed, and writing personally to the family at home.
A short paraphrase from the bahaistories.com archive on the characteristic shape of the dining table in the household of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká: every visitor at the same level, no servants treated as inferior, the Master Himself rising to refill the cup of any guest who needed it.
A short paraphrase from the bahaistories.com archive on the steady, almost invisible presence of Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, at the elbow of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká: the running of the household, the receiving of women pilgrims, the small reassurances the Master Himself relied on.
On a hot summer day in 1901, a young man named Thomas Breakwell walked the quiet streets of Paris, France, where he was visiting. The day was very still.
The August sun burned down on the stone walls of 'Akka as the sailboat rocked roughly into the harbor. The Baha'is had come a long way. They were hot, hungry, and thirsty.
When you stand in the gardens at Mazra'ih near 'Akka, you can see the mountains that hold the Druze village of Abu-Sinan, where the Baha'is of the Holy Land lived during the most dangerous times of…
All the Bahá'ís of 'Akka knew that Bahá'u'lláh would soon move from His home in 'Akka to the Mansion of Bahji out in the country. His family was already there, making everything ready for Him.
Some of the Governors of ‘Akka were very kind to 'Abdu'l-Baha, but others listened more to His enemies than to His friends and did very cruel things.
Once Baha'u'llah had passed from this earthly realm, there remained at least one special way to honor Him. 'Abdu'l-Baha grieved for His Father.
A short story for children, paraphrased from the Baha'i Stories for Children blog: a small stray puppy that wandered into the Master's garden in 'Akká, the bowl of milk He set out, and the puppy that stayed for the rest of its life.
As the neighborhood was preparing for the Muslim Fast of Ramadan, one household near the prison of 'Akka was already celebrating a happy event.
Julie felt it happening. Surprising things often happened during Baha’i class that made her heart race fast. And it was happening again—ARRRGH! YAAAAAHHEE!
For many years of His life, 'Abdu'l-Baha lived in the Holy Land, in the city of Akka. For much of this time He was a prisoner and could not leave the city.
Abdu'l-Baha aboard Cedric New York April 11 1912 When His Father was alive and dwelt outside the city of Akka among the mountains, 'Abdu'l-Baha frequently visited Him.
A lady in Akka told this story about ‘Abdu’l-Baha and her little daughter: The Master came to visit her child when she was sick.
In Bahá'í World Faith, a short passage of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's writings sets out one of His characteristic teachings: the same sun shines on every object, but the mirror that has been polished receives the light, and the mirror that is dusty does not. Spiritual receptivity, the Master insists, is a matter of the inward instrument we have made ourselves.
In Bahá'í World Faith, 'Abdu'l-Bahá uses the simple image of a seed unfolding into a tree, and the tree producing seeds that will become more trees, to teach that each human being carries within itself the same potential of multiplication — capable of becoming, in due time, a source of life to many.
In a passage preserved in Bahá'í World Faith, 'Abdu'l-Bahá lays out a short, plain principle: the sick are not to be neglected because they are ill, the child is not to be censured because it is undeveloped. Healing and patient training are the first responses; judgment is not.
In *The Chosen Highway* Lady Blomfield gives a quiet description, written from her 1922 pilgrimage to Haifa, of the Greatest Holy Leaf in old age — a small bent figure in white, whose eyes, Lady Blomfield writes, were *charged with memories* of a Cause she had carried since the age of six.
In *The Chosen Highway* Lady Blomfield describes a pilgrim's stay in the small house in 'Akká where Bahá'u'lláh and His family had lived for twelve years — thirteen people sometimes sleeping in a single room — and a Western visitor's testimony that the chamber once occupied by Ásíyih Khánum was filled, even decades later, with a benign atmosphere that could be felt at night.
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…
Day by day friends brought offerings of flowers and fruit, so that the dinner table was laden with these beautiful tokens of love for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Whilst cutting off bunches of grapes and giving them to various guests, He talked to us of…
Dr J. E. Esslemont, author of the often-printed Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s guest in Haifa for two and a half months in the winter of 1919-20. He observed, ‘Both at lunch and supper He used to entertain a number of…
During the British advance from the south, field batteries were placed in position on high ground immediately to the south-east of Mount Carmel, the intention being to shell Haifa at long range over Mount Carmel itself. Some of the Eastern…
During World War I when a blockade threatened the lives of many civilians in Haifa, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá saved them from starvation. ‘He personally organized extensive agricultural operations near Tiberias, thus securing a great supply of wheat ’…
Early in 1904 Ethel Rosenberg made her second pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Still confined to the city of Akka the Master and His family were living in the prison house. For eight months Ethel stayed there as His guest. She wrote, ‘To sit…
Early in the days of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s imprisonment in the barracks in ‘Akka, news of His wisdom spread from a butcher’s shop. He and a few of Bahá’u’lláh’s companions had left the barracks to procure food and other necessary items from the…
Elizabeth Greenleaf was a tall, aristocratic and very lovely lady who, for very many summers, occupied the cottage at Green Acre that was known as the tea house. It was in the living room of this cottage that she told this story. It seems…
In the *Epistle to the Son of the Wolf*, Bahá'u'lláh devotes a substantial passage to the spiritual significance of trustworthiness — naming it as the foundation of the Cause's standing in the world and as the mark by which the true believer is recognised.
In the *Epistle to the Son of the Wolf*, Bahá'u'lláh recounts the persecutions launched against the believers of Iṣfáhán by Áqá Najafí, the powerful Iṣfahání cleric who instigated the martyrdoms of the *King of Martyrs* and the *Beloved of Martyrs* in 1879.
In the *Epistle to the Son of the Wolf*, Bahá'u'lláh briefly recalls the conditions of His four-month imprisonment in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán in 1852 — the underground dungeon in which the first intimations of His Revelation came to Him.
For ‘Abdu’l-Bahá inexpensive clothes were sufficient. One day He was to entertain the Governor of 'Akka. His wife felt that His coat was hardly worthy of the occasion. Well ahead of time she went to the tailor where she ordered a fine…
For many years during the Master’s late life there occurred a constant ‘flow of pilgrims’ who ‘transmitted the verbal messages and special instructions of a vigilant Master’. World War I brought a rude halt to these heavenly journeys. ‘A…
A seventeen-year-old boy asked for one thing: to carry a letter from Bahá'u'lláh to the king of Persia. He walked for months to deliver it — and gave his life with a smile that no one who saw it could forget.
In the prison of 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh's young son fell while lost in prayer. Given the chance to ask for his life back, he asked instead that his death open the prison doors to others.
Nine days after Bahá'u'lláh passed, His own sealed Will was opened and read aloud — and a grieving community learned exactly where to turn.
When Bahá'u'lláh passed away, His Son could have borne any title in the world. He asked to be known by only one: the Servant of Bahá.
Shoghi Effendi's own narration, in *God Passes By*, of the events of late 1921 and early 1922 — the Master's passing, the discovery of the Will and Testament naming the young Shoghi as Guardian, and the formal beginning of the Formative Age of the Faith.
Grace very much wanted to attend the Unity Feast at West Englewood, the Feast given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and now commemorated every year. But Dr Krug said Saturday was his only free day, and he wanted her to play golf with him. She asked the…
Gracious God! That royal edifice was once splendidly decked forth and fair. But there are spiders' webs today, where hung the curtains of gold brocade, and where the king's drums beat and his musicians played, the only sound is the harsh…
On November 28, 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá ascended at His home in Haifa. The next day, before a procession of ten thousand mourners — Muslims, Christians, Jews, Druze — He was carried up the slopes of Mount Carmel to the Shrine of the Báb, where nine speakers from three faiths delivered His funeral orations.
From 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Memorials of the Faithful: when Bahá'u'lláh ascended in 1892 at Bahjí, His chronicler Nabíl-i-Zarandí was inconsolable. He calculated the numerical value of the word "shidád" — "year of stress" — at 309, and found that Bahá'u'lláh had foretold the date in His own writings.
After His ascension, Bahá'u'lláh appointed 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the Centre of His Covenant. When friends in the East asked if a day might be observed in the Master's honor, He refused — His birthday already belonged to the Declaration of the Báb — and gave them, instead, the day of His own appointment as Centre of the Covenant. Here is a tablet from that period in which He calls the friends to be firm in that Covenant.
In *A Heavenly Vista* Louis G. Gregory describes the afternoon in April 1911 when, having travelled from Egypt, he was rowed across the bay to 'Akká for the first time — and the small wooden landing-stair at the foot of the prison walls that received the first African American Bahá'í pilgrim.
Imagine that we are in the ancient house of the still more ancient city of Akka, which was for a month my home. The room in which we are faces the opposite wall of a narrow paved street, which an active man might clear at a single bound.…
In 1909 Ethel Rosenberg made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Although He was free, the Master had not yet left ‘Akka to live in Haifa. Ethel asked Him what the friends could do to increase their numbers and to make their work more…
In 1914 the Master wrote to the friends in Denver concerning how to convey the message of Bahá’u’lláh: ‘The three conditions of teaching the Cause of God are the science of sociability, purity of deeds and sweetness of speech. I hope…
In 1919, when Margaret Randall, who came to be known as Bahiyyih, was but thirteen years of age, she went to Haifa with her parents and others to see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Bahiyyih has recounted some of her experiences: 'One night we were…
In a final touching tribute to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's generosity this true story emerged in the 1990s, some 70 years after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's passing. The Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing Council of the Bahá’í world community,…
In 'Akka the Master's room often contained not even a bed as He was continually giving His own to those more needy than He. Wrapped in a blanket, He would lie on the floor or even on the roof of His home. It was not possible to buy a bed…
In ‘Akka there lived a man who so hated ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that he would turn his back when he met Him, fearing lest he lost his hatred. One day they met in such a narrow street that the enemy was forced to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá face to face.…
In London ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had an interview with a representative from the Weekly Budget. He spoke of His first summer in ‘Akka: ‘’Akka is a fever-ridden town. It was said that a bird attempting to fly over it would drop dead. The food was…
In Minneapolis a Jewish Rabbi came to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with a request that He speak in his synagogue. Part of their conversation reveals the Master’s radiant acquiescence in time of adversity. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá began speaking to him by saying, ‘I…
In the early summer of 1923 Shoghi Effendi again left Haifa and sought some restoration of health and solace in the solitude of the high mountains of Switzerland. But, unlike later years, when he continued to keep in constant touch with…
In the spring of 1918, I was much startled and deeply disturbed by a telephone message: "‘Abdu’l-Bahá in serious danger. Take immediate action." It came from an authoritative source. There was not a moment to be lost. Every available power…
It is related of Shaykh Mahmud of 'Akka that he 'hated the Bahá’ís. While many of his fellow-townsmen had gradually come to realize how very wrong they had been and were speaking of the prisoners in terms of appreciation and praise,…
It was at the home of the Kinneys that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stayed the second time he came to New York and it was from this home that He left to return to Haifa. The day before He was to take ship to leave He asked Mr. Kinney if there was…
Julia Gundy, an early pilgrim, described a beautiful supper at which many friends were welcomed by the Master Himself in Akka. He passed out napkins, embraced and found plates for each. All were individually anointed with attar of rose. He…
Juliet Thompson has given us a sweet picture of the Master in 'Akka: 'He had sent for us that afternoon to meet Mr. Sprague and the Persian believers and, not being ready, I put on a dress I could slip into easily. As I passed the Master…
Just before Mrs C left the household of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in ‘Akka, ‘He came into her room to say farewell, and seating Himself by the window looked off upon the sea in silence for so long a time that His guest began to wonder if He had…
A visitor slept one night in a tiny old room in 'Akká, and woke up sure that the love of the family who once lived there was still in the air.
When the friends were sad and unsure what to do, a sealed letter was opened and read aloud — and at last they knew exactly where to turn.
When everyone wanted to give 'Abdu'l-Bahá the grandest title in the world, He picked the humblest name He could find — and made it beautiful.
A man named Nabíl spent his whole life searching for Bahá'u'lláh and following Him — and his great love for Him is still remembered today.
When friends wanted a special day to honor 'Abdu'l-Bahá, He gave His own birthday away and chose, instead, the day He promised to keep everyone together.
At family meals in 'Akká, the children watched and waited for one special spoonful that always tasted better than anything else — because it was given with love.
A small barefoot boy stood in a doorway watching his grandfather, 'Abdu'l-Bahá — and the gentle nod he was given held a secret no one could quite put into words.
Later, in 1907, four members of a second Commission of investigation arrived by ship from Turkey. ‘A few days before its arrival ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had a dream, which He recounted to the believers, in which He saw a ship cast anchor off ‘Akka,…
‘Life at ‘Akka and Haifa in the reign of ‘Abdu’l-Hamid was full of tension and danger. Palestine was a tinder box. Tribes fought each other. Crime was rampant. The streets of ‘Akka were too narrow for bandits to roam free, but in Haifa…
Lua Getsinger spiritual mother of both Mrs Hearst and May Bolles (Maxwell) was a member of a pilgrim group, late in 1898. For the following eighteen years she returned time and again to ‘Akka and Haifa. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá entrusted her…
Maria Ioas longed to be the recipient of a flower from 'Abdu-l-Bahá. She hade been tempted to ask pilgrims going to 'Akka to bring one to her, if at all possible. Yet, somehow, she felt she would receive one if the Master so desired.…
Mary Lucas, a pilgrim to Akka in 1905, found that the Master usually ate but one simple meal a day. In eight days He was present at most meals, often coming just to add joy to the occasion, though He was not hungry. If He knew of someone…
Mary Lucas, a pilgrim to 'Akka in 1905, found that the Master gave away all the many gifts which were sent to Him. 'A story is told of a beautiful silver service which was presented to Him, and He did not even look at it. One and another…
Mirza Abu’l-Fadl was an outstanding Bahá’í scholar. Early in this century the Master sent him to the United States of America both to teach and to help the believers to deepen. ‘After his return, he and a number of American pilgrims were…
Another of those who left their homeland to become our neighbors and fellow prisoners was ‘Abdu’l-Ghaffár of Iṣfáhán. He was a highly perceptive individual who, on commercial business, had traveled about Asia Minor for many years. He…
Among those who emigrated and were companions in the Most Great Prison was Áqá ‘Abdu’s-Ṣáliḥ. This excellent soul, a child of early believers, came from Iṣfáhán. His noble-hearted father died, and this child grew up an orphan. There…
'Abdu'l-Bahá's tribute to Áqá Ḥusayn-i-Áshchí — the household cook of Bahá'u'lláh through the long years of exile, whose patient service in the kitchen sustained the daily life of the prophetic Household for decades.
Two brothers from Káshán who emigrated to Adrianople with the community of believers, were arrested with the exiles and brought to 'Akká, and there both fell ill and died on the same night. Without permission for proper burial, the friends sold a prayer carpet to pay for their interment, and the two brothers were laid in a single grave, beneath the earth as in life embraced.
'Abdu'l-Bahá's tribute to Áqá Riḍá of Shíráz — the steadfast companion who served the household of Bahá'u'lláh through the years of exile from Baghdád to 'Akká, never failing in his attendance on his Lord.
Fáṭimih Begum, widow of the King of Martyrs of Iṣfáhán, lost her father at Badasht in childhood, married a husband whose faith would cost him his life, was stripped of every possession by the government, and ended her years in 'Akká, where the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh proved more than her heart could bear.
Ḥájí ‘Abdu’r-Raḥím of Yazd was a precious soul, from his earliest years virtuous and God-fearing, and known among the people as a holy man, peerless in observing his religious duties, mindful as to his acts. His strong religious faith…
In *Memorials of the Faithful* 'Abdu'l-Bahá portrays His own paternal uncle, Mírzá Músá — known as Áqáy-i-Kalím — the loyal full brother of Bahá'u'lláh, who shared in His every exile, sought without success to restrain the rebellion of their half-brother Mírzá Yaḥyá, and bore witness to the moment the fame of the Cause of God reached as far as Díyárbakr.
Two pure souls of Ádhirbáyján who freed themselves from the superstitions that had blinded them, left their province for Adrianople, and at length followed the exiles to 'Akká, where they died together of the fever that took so many of the early prisoners. Their two luminous tombs are in 'Akká.
In the flower of tender youth, Muḥammad-‘Alí, the illumined, heard the cry of God, and lost his heart to heavenly grace. He entered the service of the Afnán, offshoot of the Holy Tree, and lived happy and content. This was how he came…
My mother was the one who had first known Shoghi Effendi as a child, when she came to the Holy Land at the end of the last century; she had come again, in 1909, with my father but I do not know how much contact, if any, they had at that…
No matter how relaxed or arduous life might be, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá always found or recalled a humorous situation. A cat purring beside His chair would amuse Him: this cat, He remarked, is indeed joyous, so carefree, so free of fear. A donkey…
No mere mortal in His day could claim to be His teacher. He learned well and thoroughly. When, late in His life, Bahá’u’lláh took up residence at Bahji, the Master remained in ‘Akka to attend to a multitude of details, which otherwise…
For most of His life 'Abdu'l-Bahá had been a prisoner of the state. When He passed in Haifa in 1921, the very governments that had once exiled and confined Him hastened to do Him honour — telegrams of condolence from Winston Churchill and the British Crown, from Viscount Allenby, from the ministers of 'Iráq, and the High Commissioner himself standing among the mourners.
When the Great War ended, the partial freedom of His last years brought 'Abdu'l-Bahá not rest but an even heavier round of labour — pilgrims streaming back to His door, Tablets flowing out to the believers of every land, the poor of Haifa still waiting each morning. He poured out the last of His strength in the work of the Cause until, worn and longing for home, He laid the burden down.
In an early classic of Bahá'í literature, the Scottish physician J. E. Esslemont set down for the West the account of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing — how peacefully He went, how every community of the land walked behind His coffin, and how that gathering of Jew, Christian, and Muslim was itself a living proof that His lifelong labour for unity had not been in vain.
On the Friday before His passing in 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá rose, attended the noonday congregational prayer, and then — as He had done for as long as anyone could remember — distributed alms to the poor of Haifa with His own hand. It was His last public act of the service that had filled His whole life.
In the weeks before His passing, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told His family of two dreams. In one He stood in a great mosque and raised the call to prayer before a vast multitude; in the other Bahá'u'lláh came to Him and said, "Destroy this room." Only after His ascension did those around Him understand what the dreams had foretold.
On Friday the 25th of November 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá attended the noon prayer, gave alms to the poor, and that afternoon received the notables of Haifa. Two nights later, surrounded by His family, He spoke His last quiet words and passed peacefully in the small hours of the 28th of November.
When 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed in 1921, His grandson and appointed successor, Shoghi Effendi, was a grief-stricken young man not yet able to take up his burden. In that hour the Greatest Holy Leaf, Bahíyyih Khánum — who had served the Cause since she was a child of six — steadied the whole community and held its affairs in her hands.
Years before His passing, in days of great danger, 'Abdu'l-Bahá set down in His own hand a Will and Testament. Opened after His ascension in 1921, it appointed Shoghi Effendi as Guardian, provided for the Universal House of Justice, and laid the foundations of the Administrative Order — His parting gift to a community He would not leave unguided.
At three in the morning on the anniversary of His ascension, and whenever a pilgrim enters the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh, Bahá'ís chant the Tablet of Visitation. Adib Taherzadeh recounts how this most beloved of devotional texts came to be — gathered, in the days of mourning, by the grief-stricken chronicler Nabíl from Bahá'u'lláh's own revealed words, and given authority by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
For years Bahá'u'lláh was a prisoner within the barred gates of 'Akká. Yet His earthly life ended not behind those walls but in a green and gracious house in the countryside beyond — the Mansion of Bahjí. Adib Taherzadeh recounts how the prison terms eased, how 'Abdu'l-Bahá secured the Mansion for His Father, and how the closing years unfolded in a place that fulfilled a prophecy spoken long before.
In Memorials of the Faithful, 'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá Baghdádí — famed in Iraq for his love of Bahá'u'lláh, who settled near the coast and made himself the host and helper of every pilgrim journeying to attain the presence of the Blessed Beauty. When the Sun of Bahá set, he stood unshaken, loyal to the Covenant, "a blazing light" to the end.
In The Chosen Highway, the women of the Holy Family remember the days that followed Bahá'u'lláh's ascension in 1892. Their grief was beyond words — yet through it all moved one steady figure. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Most Great Branch, took upon Himself the care of the family, the friends, and the Cause, chanting the funeral prayer, feeding hundreds for nine days, and giving to the poor.
Bahá'ís do not call the twenty-ninth of May the day of Bahá'u'lláh's death. They call it His Ascension. Drawing on Esslemont's Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, this retelling reflects on the serene close of His earthly life, on the Tomb at Bahjí that became the Qiblih of a world religion, and on why the language of a rising Sun and a homeward journey, rather than of ending, is the truer way to speak of His passing.
Six days before His ascension in 1892, Bahá'u'lláh — already weakened by fever — summoned the entire company of believers and pilgrims gathered at the Mansion of Bahjí into His presence one last time. Leaning against one of His sons, He thanked them for their services, urged them to remain united, and gave them His final blessing.
In His final years at Bahjí, Bahá'u'lláh did what no Founder of a world religion had ever done before: He wrote out, in His own hand, a Will and Testament naming His successor. The Kitáb-i-'Ahd — the Book of the Covenant — turned every believing heart toward the Most Mighty Branch, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and made division impossible for anyone who chose to remain faithful.
In the small hours of the twenty-ninth of May, 1892, Bahá'u'lláh ascended at Bahjí in the seventy-fifth year of His age. A telegram bearing the words "the Sun of Bahá has set" carried the news to the Sultan; and for a full week, mourners of every faith and station — Muslim and Christian, Jew and Druze, rich and poor — gathered at the Mansion to grieve and to pay tribute.
In His final year at Bahjí, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the last major work of His pen — the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf — addressed to a cleric of Isfáhán whose father had ordered the deaths of two of the most beloved believers. Into it Bahá'u'lláh gathered passages from across His own Writings, leaving, near the end of His life, a summing-up of the Cause He had brought.
Bahá'u'lláh's loyal full brother, Mírzá Músá, shared in His every exile and carried, in silence, the burdens no one else would bear. The title by which the believers knew him — Áqáy-i-Kalím, drawn from the ancient name of Moses, "He Who conversed with God" — honoured a man who sought no rank and shone, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's words, like a bright lamp within the holy Household.
Bahá'u'lláh bestowed upon His eldest Son a constellation of titles unique in religious history — the Most Great Branch, the Master, and, most mysterious of all, Sirru'lláh, the Mystery of God. Shoghi Effendi unfolds what these names mean, and how the One on whom they were conferred chose, in the end, to be known by a single humble name of His own.
In His Will and Testament 'Abdu'l-Bahá named His grandson Shoghi Effendi the Guardian of the Cause of God — "the sign of God," "the chosen branch," "the priceless pearl that doth gleam from out the Twin Surging Seas." The young man who received this towering station asked only to be known by the simple name his Grandfather had used, and signed himself, in lifelong humility, the servant of the threshold.
A respected jurist of Najaf-Ábád gave up rank and safety to follow Bahá'u'lláh, and devoted the rest of his life to copying out the sacred Writings in a hand so exact that his transcriptions became the standard by which others are verified to this day. Bahá'u'lláh named him Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín — the Ornament of the Near Ones.
From within the prison-city of 'Akká — held under a sentence of perpetual confinement — Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book: the charter of a future world civilization, set down by a Prisoner whom the powers of the earth had meant to silence forever.
In 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súrih of the Temple — the Súriy-i-Haykal — and gathered into its body the mighty messages He had already sent to the Pope, the Emperor of France, the Sháh, the Czar, the Queen, and the rulers of the earth, fashioning of His proclamation a living "Temple" of the Word.
In the closing years of His life, from the neighbourhood of 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Tablet of Ishráqát — the "Splendours" — setting forth, like rays breaking from a single rising Sun, the principles by which a divided world might be remade. Bahá'ís keep the very first month of their year, and its Feast, under the name this Tablet exalts: Bahá, the Splendour.
From within His imprisonment, on the death of one of the Ottoman ministers who had persecuted Him, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Tablet of Fu'ád — and in it foretold, in order, the downfall of the other minister who shared the guilt and of the Sulṭán above them both. Within a few years it had all come to pass. The sovereignty of His Word over the mightiest powers of the age is a splendour the Feast of Bahá remembers.
From within the prison-city of 'Akká — where the world's authorities had hoped His Cause would die — Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book. Out of the most desolate confinement came the charter of a future world civilization: its laws, its institutions, and its summons to the unity of humankind.
In the bitterest days of His imprisonment in 'Akká — His sons fallen, His companions scattered, the gates barred against Him — Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Lawḥ-i-Qad-Iḥtaraqa'l-Mukhliṣún, the Fire Tablet. Its verses move through a long lament over the world's wrongs and then break, at the end, into the certainty of the dawn: the glory of His Cause shining out from the very depth of His affliction.
Across forty years of exile, imprisonment, and persecution, Bahá'u'lláh poured forth a sea of revealed verses unmatched in religious history — Tablets, prayers, and books in such abundance that those who tried to record them could scarcely keep pace. Shoghi Effendi gathers the testimony of that torrent as one of the surest signs of the glory of His Revelation.
The Power that had banished Bahá'u'lláh to the worst prison in its empire could not keep Him there. In His last years the walls of 'Akká opened, and the once reviled Prisoner lived out His days in a mansion at Bahjí, honoured by pilgrims and notables alike — having shown, His family recalled, how to glorify God in abasement and how to glorify Him again in honour.
The friends longed to keep 'Abdu'l-Bahá's birthday as a festival of His own. He refused — that day, the twenty-third of May, belonged wholly to the Declaration of the Báb — and turned their devotion instead toward the Covenant, giving them the fourth of Qawl as the day of His appointment as its Centre. Years later, Star of the West would carry word of a Convention of the Covenant in which that same redirection of love bore extraordinary fruit.
About a year before His ascension, Bahá'u'lláh set down in His own hand the Kitáb-i-'Ahd — His Book of the Covenant, His Will and Testament. During His final illness He placed it in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's keeping, and nine days after His passing it was read aloud to the gathered believers. In it, in words beyond all dispute, Bahá'u'lláh bade His family and His kindred turn their faces toward the Most Mighty Branch.
When Bahá'u'lláh ascended, His Covenant was at once attacked from within. His younger son, Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alí, refused 'Abdu'l-Bahá's appointed authority and set himself against the Centre of the Covenant — even carrying false accusations to the Ottoman court that nearly cost the Master His life. In The Chosen Highway, the women of the household remember how, through years of danger, they stood utterly firm at His side.
For some forty years Shaykh Salmán walked, once each year, from Persia to the Holy Land and back — carrying the believers' letters to Bahá'u'lláh and bearing His Tablets home again, never losing a single one. In Memorials of the Faithful, 'Abdu'l-Bahá honours him as a courier without equal, a living thread of the Covenant binding the scattered friends to their Lord.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book, Bahá'u'lláh wrote a single luminous verse pointing the believers, after His passing, toward "Him Whom God hath purposed, Who hath branched from this Ancient Root." In His Book of the Covenant He made the meaning unmistakable: the object of that verse was none other than 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Most Mighty Branch.
In the winter of 1898, a small band of American believers crossed the ocean to the prison-city of 'Akká — the first Bahá'ís of the West ever to reach the Centre of the Covenant. They came with little but their longing, and they returned having found in 'Abdu'l-Bahá the living heart toward which Bahá'u'lláh had bidden every soul to turn.
During a pilgrimage to 'Akká in 1905, a visitor wrote down 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own words about the Covenant of God — that it is a Lifeboat and an Ark of Salvation, that the believers are as fishes in its sea, and that Bahá'u'lláh wrote His Testament with His own Pen so that none who obeyed it could ever go astray.
Between 1904 and 1906, at the dinner table of His house in 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá answered the questions of an American believer, Laura Clifford Barney, on the deepest matters of God and the soul. He corrected the notes twice in His own hand — and in doing so showed the world the very office Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant had conferred on Him: the authorized, unerring Interpreter of the Word of God.
Bahá'ís did not invent the supreme rank of Riḍván — Bahá'u'lláh Himself conferred it. In His Most Holy Book He named those days the first of the "two Most Great Festivals," and tradition has hailed Riḍván as the "King of Festivals," the days whereon, in His own words, "all created things were immersed in the sea of purification."
Late in His life in the Holy Land, Bahá'u'lláh answered a question put to Him by the learned Bábí scholar Nabíl-i-Akbar about the place the philosophy of Greece and Persia should hold among the believers. The reply, the Tablet of Wisdom, surveys the great philosophers by name, traces the lineage of their light, and sets out the proper relation between human inquiry and divine Revelation — a charter for the life of the mind.
A young American woman travelled again and again to the prison-city of 'Akká, sat at 'Abdu'l-Bahá's table, and asked Him question after question — about God, the soul, the prophets, the meaning of the Scriptures. Out of three years of patient asking came *Some Answered Questions,* a book that includes the Master's teaching on the four ways human beings try to know the truth — and why only one of them is sure.
An Aberdeen physician in failing health, trained to weigh evidence and trust nothing he could not examine, found a small pamphlet about the Bahá'í Faith in a sanatorium. He did not simply believe it. He studied for years, learned Persian late in life to read the Writings in the original, and wrote the careful introduction by which the English-speaking world would come to know the Cause.
From His prison in 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh addressed a Tablet to Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh, the king of Persia. A seventeen-year-old believer named Badíʻ asked for the honour of carrying it. Alone and on foot he crossed an empire, stood in plain sight before the royal camp, and delivered it — then bore three days of torture with a serenity his executioners could not break.
When a commission of the Ottoman government arrived in 'Akká empowered to recommend His exile or execution, 'Abdu'l-Bahá met the threat without a trace of fear. He declared His readiness to submit to any sentence they chose, refused a consul's offer of escape, and went on planting trees and presiding at a wedding feast — until the empire that menaced Him collapsed and He was set free.
The recollections of the Holy Family, preserved in The Chosen Highway, tell of Mírzá Mihdí — the gentle younger brother of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, known as the Purest Branch — who fell through a skylight while pacing the prison roof of 'Akká wrapped in prayer. Mortally hurt and offered by his Father whatever he might wish, he asked not to be healed but that his death be accepted as a ransom, so that the pilgrims barred from Bahá'u'lláh's presence might one day attain it.
On pilgrimage to 'Akká, Lua Getsinger longed to serve 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He gave her the chance — and sent her to a poor, sick, friendless man in the filthiest quarter of the city. When she recoiled from the squalor, the Master taught her the hardest and most beautiful lesson of her life: whoever would serve God must serve his fellow man, for in every human being is the image and likeness of God.
When pilgrims from the West reached 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the prison-city of 'Akká, they found themselves seated at His table beside believers of other nations, races, and stations — and were told plainly why. At this table, the Master said, we are joined in spiritual relationship; we are all of one family. It was the oneness of humankind, made visible over a shared meal.
As the First World War ended, an organization in The Hague devoted to building a durable peace wrote to 'Abdu'l-Bahá. From the Holy Land, only newly released from a lifetime of confinement, He answered with one of the great Tablets of His ministry — setting out, for the world's peace-workers, the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh on the oneness of humanity and the true foundations on which a lasting peace must rest.
The vast ocean of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation lay almost entirely in Persian and Arabic, beyond the reach of the growing communities of the West. Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Faith, set himself to gather from that ocean and to render its waters into a stately, faithful English — producing, in *Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh*, a book through which the West could at last drink directly from the Word.
Late in His ministry, from the neighbourhood of 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kalimát-i-Firdawsíyyih — the "Words of Paradise" — a Tablet of luminous leaves of counsel on the fear of God, the building of a just society, education, the trustworthiness that adorns the human race, and the world-renewing power of His Word.
From the Holy Land, during the dark years of the First World War, 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote a series of Tablets to the Bahá'ís of North America summoning them to carry the Faith to the ends of the earth. Unveiled in New York in 1919, these Words transformed a small community into a teaching force that would belt the globe.
An eminent Swiss scientist, long an unbeliever, sent his deepest questions about God and the soul to 'Abdu'l-Bahá. The reply — one of the last great Tablets of the Master's life — answered him so fully that Auguste Forel, near the end of his days, embraced the Faith whose Word had reached him.
Through the long years in 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá was surrounded not only by friends but by enemies — men who slandered Him, plotted against Him, and even schemed for His death. The recollections preserved in The Chosen Highway show how He answered them: with unfailing courtesy, with help sent quietly to their households, and with kindness returned for every injury — the perfection of a character that would not let another's evil change its own goodness.
Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, brought to everything he touched a standard of exactness and beauty that those closest to him never forgot. The Priceless Pearl preserves the portrait: a young man who taught himself English to perfection in quiet Oxford rooms, then laboured year after year by lamplight to render the Sacred Writings in cadenced, faultless prose — showing that the patient pursuit of excellence can itself be a form of worship.
Ustád Báqir and Ustád Aḥmad were two carpenter-brothers from Káshán who followed Bahá'u'lláh into exile and imprisonment. In the Most Great Prison of 'Akká they kept faithfully at their craft — tranquil, dignified, and joyful — and 'Abdu'l-Bahá remembered them with a single luminous testimony: through all those long prison years they were "never neglectful of duty, never at fault."
A young American woman came to 'Akká with a notebook and a head full of questions — about God and the soul, evil and free will, the prophets and the life to come — and over visits stretching across the years 1904 to 1906 she laid them, one by one, before 'Abdu'l-Bahá at the lunch table. The answers He gave her, recorded and reviewed, became one of the best-loved books of the Faith: Some Answered Questions.
A Scottish doctor heard of the Bahá'í Faith in 1914 and did what a careful physician does with any new claim: he investigated it methodically. He read, he learned Persian, he wrote out what he understood — and then he travelled to Haifa and laid his manuscript before 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself for correction. The book that resulted, Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, has since carried answers to seekers in some sixty languages.
Mírzá Muḥammad-Qulí, a loyal younger brother of Bahá'u'lláh, spent his whole life within the shelter of the Blessed Beauty — and shared every stage of His exile from Persia to the prison-fortress of 'Akká. In 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own reminiscence, he accepted all that came his way — comfort and torment, hardship and respite, sickness and health — in one and the same spirit, returning thanks with a free heart and a face that shone like the sun.
Jamshíd-i-Gurjí, a valiant believer who came from Georgia and grew up in Káshán, was falsely denounced, chained, and dragged toward the Persian frontier to be handed over for execution. Thrown one night into a pit, he did not lament but proclaimed that the very depths into which his enemies had cast him were the heights of the Lord — and 'Abdu'l-Bahá records that he lived out his days tranquil and at peace, well-pleased with God and answering the call to return with a glad "Yea, verily!"
For forty years 'Abdu'l-Bahá was a prisoner of the Ottoman state, and through every threat of exile to the deserts of North Africa and every renewed tightening of His confinement He remained serene, accepting each turn as the will of God. When in 1908 the gates of 'Akká at last swung open and He walked free, He met the long-awaited liberation with the very same tranquillity He had shown in captivity.
Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, shared every exile, imprisonment, and bereavement that fell upon the Holy Family across nearly eighty years — the loss of her childhood home, the death of her little brother in the prison of 'Akká, the passing of her Father and then of her beloved Brother. Through all of it she remained, in the testimony of those who knew her, the very emblem of radiant submission to the will of God.
Ásíyih Khánum — the lady Bahá'u'lláh named Navváb — was born to wealth and rank, a Persian noblewoman of such beauty she was called the Daughter of the Beautiful. When the storms of persecution stripped her household of everything, she let it all go without complaint and embraced a lifetime of poverty, exile, and loss at her Husband's side, accepting each stage of the descent as the will of God.
Through the long years of His confinement in the prison-city of 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá made the care of the poor and the sick His own daily work — a Friday almsgiving at the gate, a warm garment each winter for every one of the city's poor, and morning rounds to the bedsides of the feeble, the forgotten, and the dying.
Near the end of His earthly life, from the green countryside outside the prison-city of 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Lawḥ-i-Dunyá — the Tablet of the World — a charter for the ordering and betterment of human society, in which the Lord of manifest dominion turned the eyes of His followers away from themselves and toward the welfare of all mankind.
In the winter of 1898, fifteen Western believers — gathered and largely financed by Phoebe Hearst, and travelling in small parties to avoid notice — made their way to the prison-city of 'Akká to attain the presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Shoghi Effendi marks their visit as the opening of a new epoch in the rise of the Faith in the West.
In the prison-city of 'Akká and later in Haifa, 'Abdu'l-Bahá kept the festivals of the Bahá'í year — and Naw-Rúz above all — in a way that turned joy outward: toward the hungry, the sick, the widow and the stranger. The Greatest Holy Leaf and the ladies of the household, whose memories Lady Blomfield gathered, remembered a home where the new year was a season of open doors and open hands.
In His writings Bahá'u'lláh gave Naw-Rúz a meaning far deeper than the turning of a season. In a prayer revealed for the festival, He blessed the day He had ordained for those who had kept the Fast for love of Him; and through His larger teaching, traced by Adib Taherzadeh, the spring equinox becomes a sign of the spiritual resurrection that the coming of a Manifestation works upon a dead world.
Esslemont, gathering the ordinances of the Bahá'í year, shows how Bahá'u'lláh framed Naw-Rúz with exquisite care: a handful of intercalary days given to hospitality and the poor, then the nineteen-day Fast of inward devotion, and then, at the spring equinox, the new year breaking in joy. The festival is the bright morning that the whole shape of the year is built to reach.
Across the years of His ministry, 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote to the believers of East and West at the turning of each Bahá'í year, drawing again and again on a single great image: that as the material world is renewed at the spring equinox, so the coming of a Manifestation of God renews the whole inner world of humanity. "The new year hath appeared," He wrote, "and the spiritual springtime is at hand."
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book of His Revelation, Bahá'u'lláh confirmed the calendar the Báb had ordained and set His own seal upon Naw-Rúz — joining it forever to the close of the Fast, fixing it to the moment the sun enters the sign of Aries, and designating the new year of the spring equinox as a festival for all the people of the world.
A learned man of 'Akká nursed a settled hatred for the Bahá'í prisoners, and one day, unable to bear hearing 'Abdu'l-Bahá praised, he stormed into the mosque to expose Him and laid violent hands on Him. The Master answered with a single sentence — and the enemy's wrath, and his hatred, simply left him. A story of the power of God to overturn a heart in a moment.
Through the years of the Great War, with a naval blockade strangling the coast and famine stalking the Holy Land, 'Abdu'l-Bahá — Himself again a prisoner — fed the hungry of every religion in 'Akká and Haifa. The grain He had quietly stored against the crisis kept a whole region alive; for it, a victorious empire offered Him a knighthood, which He accepted and quietly laid aside.
'Abdu'l-Bahá spent forty years a prisoner in the fortress-city of 'Akká — exiled as a child, freed only as an old Man when the empire that held Him at last fell. Asked in London how He had borne it, He answered that He had been happy the whole time; that prison had been freedom to Him; and that there is no prison anywhere but the prison of the self.
An official set over the prisoners of 'Akká repaid 'Abdu'l-Bahá's every kindness with slander, fresh restrictions, and harassment. Yet when the man demanded the Master's coat, 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave him the only one He owned — and promised to buy him a better — forgiving all the wrong done to Himself even as it was being done.
For thirty-six years Shoghi Effendi carried the cares of the entire Bahá'í world from a small room in Haifa. The Priceless Pearl preserves the compassion at the heart of that labor — a Guardian who felt the believers' sorrows as his own, answered each in his own hand, and spent his strength without stint to comfort and protect them.
In the prison-city of 'Akká, where disease festered in the damp and the poor died unattended, 'Abdu'l-Bahá made the care of the sick His personal calling. He brought physicians to the bedsides of the destitute, paid for their medicines, sat with the dying, and ministered to the bodies and spirits of the people the city had abandoned — winning, by mercy alone, the love of an entire town.
In the last great Tablet of His life, Bahá'u'lláh wrote to a man whose family had hounded and slain His followers — Shaykh Muḥammad-Taqí, son of the cleric remembered as "the Wolf." He neither flattered the persecutor nor cursed him. He counselled him, reasoned with him, called him to justice and to God, and held open to him, even then, the door of forgiveness.
Through exile, imprisonment, famine, and bereavement, Bahíyyih Khánum — the Greatest Holy Leaf, daughter of Bahá'u'lláh — made herself the tender refuge of everyone around her: nursing the sick, consoling the grieving, sharing what little the household had with the poor, and binding up the sorrows of a whole community with a mercy that asked nothing for itself.
Bahá'u'lláh and His companions were banished to 'Akká as the worst of criminals, shut in a foul barracks where nearly all fell sick and several died. The empire meant to strip them of every dignity and let the Cause rot behind those walls. Instead, as Shoghi Effendi recounts in God Passes By, the exiles bore their degradation with such serenity that the prison itself became a place of honour, and the city that had cursed them came at last to revere them.
The recollections gathered in The Chosen Highway preserve a way of living that astonished every visitor to 'Abdu'l-Bahá's household: He treated servants as honoured family, received the poorest as cherished guests, and accepted no deference for Himself. To the people the world overlooked, He gave the one thing they were never given — dignity. It is a portrait of honour not claimed but bestowed.
In an age when a Black man in America was offered little honour, Robert Turner — a butler in a wealthy household — became the first of his race in the West to embrace the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá rose to greet him, telling him that God had given him a black skin but a heart white as snow.
An unlettered villager of no rank or wealth, Shaykh Salmán walked on foot from Persia to Baghdád, to Adrianople, and to the prison of 'Akká once every year for some forty years, carrying the letters of the believers and the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh — until 'Abdu'l-Bahá declared there had never in history been a courier so worthy of trust.
Mírzá Muḥammad was a man of gentle birth and high learning, accustomed to being waited upon. For the love of Bahá'u'lláh he left every comfort behind, walked to the prison of 'Akká, and spent himself as a servant at the believers' hospice — he who had been the master was now the servant, and counted it the highest honour of his life.
Ustád Ismá'íl was a master builder of high standing in Ṭihrán, prosperous and well regarded by all. For the love of Bahá'u'lláh he lost his work, his wealth, and even his bride, and ended his days peddling trinkets from a cave outside Haifa — counting himself, in that poverty, more honoured than he had ever been in his prosperity.
From the prison-city of 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh addressed the supreme spiritual sovereign of the West — Pope Pius IX, who reigned over the Catholic world from Rome. In the Lawḥ-i-Páp He called the Pontiff to leave his palace, sell the jewelled ornaments of his office for the sake of God, and arise to recognize the Day of God. It was a summons from a Prisoner with nothing to a prelate with everything — and within a few years the Pope's own temporal kingdom had vanished from the earth.
Two empires shut Bahá'u'lláh inside the prison-city of 'Akká, meaning to bury His Cause behind stone. Yet within those very walls a sovereignty shone that no decree could touch: governors and generals came humbly to His door, pilgrims crossed the world to reach Him, and from His captivity He addressed the emperors who held Him as a King addresses His subjects. Esslemont's account shows that the Captive of 'Akká was, in reality, no prisoner at all, but a King of Kings.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book revealed in the prison-city of 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh turned to the assembled monarchs of the earth and addressed them in words of staggering majesty. He told them that the sovereign Lord of all had come, that they were but vassals, and that the King of Kings had appeared and was summoning them unto Himself. A reflection on the verses in which the sovereignty of God is proclaimed over every throne on earth.
From His prison in 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh addressed a Tablet to the Emperor of all the Russias — one of the great Tablets to the Kings. It acknowledged a past kindness shown by the Russian minister in the darkest hour of the Síyáh-Chál, summoned the Czar to recognise the One Who had appeared, and warned that earthly sovereignty endures only when it bows to the sovereignty of God.
The longest of all the Tablets Bahá'u'lláh addressed to a single sovereign was sent from His prison to Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh, the king of Persia. In it the Prisoner sought nothing for Himself, pleaded the cause of the oppressed believers, and made the king an astonishing offer — to be brought face to face with the divines, that the truth might be settled before the throne itself.
During the First World War the military governor of the region, Jamál Páshá, one of the most feared men in the Ottoman Empire, vowed to crucify 'Abdu'l-Bahá on Mount Carmel and raze the Bahá'í holy places. The Master met the threat with perfect calm — and before the general could carry it out, his army was routed and his power swept away.
On August 20th there arrived at Green Acre a young man, dishevelled, tremulous. His name was Fred Mortensen. Let him tell his story in his own words. He wrote it for the magazine, The Star of the West: In my youth my environment was not…
On the day I arrived at Haifa I was ill with a dysentery which I had picked up in the course of my travels. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent His own physician to me, and visited me Himself. He said, “I would that I could take your illness upon Myself.” I…
On the night of 20 August, a horrifying young man came to a meeting at the Kinney's house. From head to foot he was covered with soot. His blue eyes stared out from a dark gray face. This was Fred Mortensen, a reformed criminal. When…
One day ‘a man passing by the gates of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s house in Haifa, carrying a basket, put it down as soon as he saw Him, saying that he could not find a porter and had to carry the basket himself. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá remarked afterwards that…
One day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was asked how one should live. His reply was, 'Be kind to everyone.' One must not 'belittle the thought of another'. This kindness must reach out even to those who may suffer mental illness, as the Master so…
One day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was going from Akka to Haifa and asked for a seat in the stage coach. The driver, surprised, said ‘Your Excellency surely wishes a private carriage.’ ‘No.’ replied the Master. While He was still in the coach in Haifa,…
One day during a school vacation, some Bahá’í students who were attending school in Beirut were visiting Haifa. One of them had a geography book. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá looked at it and asked if He could keep it, and the student gladly consented.…
One day, in London, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was out driving with Lady Blomfield and Mrs Thornburgh-Cropper, the first Bahá’í in England. Mrs Cropper asked Him, ‘Master, are you not longing to be back at Haifa with your beloved family?’ He smiled…
One of interesting incidents I remember well is about a parrot which was presented to the Master. He had put it in the Pilgrim House. My uncle, who was the steward of the Pilgrim House taught the parrot to say ‘Allah-u-Abhá’ to whoever…
One of the greatest privileges we had during our visit was to be present when the Ashes of the Báb were moved to their final resting place on Mt. Carmel. It is beyond me to depict the beauty and solemnity of that scene. Our Lord was…
One of the most striking examples of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s imperturbability was His reaction to possible personal tragedy, further exile or execution. His troubles stemmed from the Covenant-breakers, those Bahá’ís who did not accept…
One of those 'unspiritual people' was at that moment a member of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's party, Dr. Amin Fareed, who had already tried to fraudulently get money out of her [Phoebe Hearst]. It was probably during ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's stay at the Hearst…
One well-known story involves teaching Mountfort Mills how to pray: when ‘Abdu’l- Bahá was in New York, He called to Him an ardent Bahá’í and said, "If you will come to me at dawn tomorrow, I will teach you to pray." Delighted, Mr. M…
Pilgrims’ notes tell us that one day Lua Getsinger was walking with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and some of the friends on the white sands of the sea near ‘Akka. Lua, it is said, suddenly became aware of the Master’s tracks in the soft sand. She was…
In *The Priceless Pearl* Rúḥíyyih Khánum tells the story of her own marriage to Shoghi Effendi in the spring of 1937 — a private ceremony in the room of the Greatest Holy Leaf, witnessed by a handful of family members, that joined two streams of the Cause and was deliberately kept free of fanfare.
In *The Priceless Pearl* Rúḥíyyih Khánum describes a small ritual at the family table in 'Akká: Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, would spoon a small bite from her own plate — *the mouthful of Khánum* — to one of the grandchildren, and the grandchildren would watch for whose turn it was.
In *The Priceless Pearl* Rúḥíyyih Khánum describes the small household office from which Shoghi Effendi guided the Bahá'í world for thirty-six years — a room with a typewriter, a stack of cables, a Hebrew-Arabic-Persian shelf of dictionaries, and a Guardian who answered each letter himself in the long hours after Haifa had gone to sleep.
Rúḥíyyih Khánum's *The Priceless Pearl* preserves a moment from Shoghi Effendi's boyhood in 'Akká: a small barefoot figure in a doorway, eyes on his grandfather, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá's slow nod of recognition that the bond between them was not only physical, but something else.
In *The Priceless Pearl* Rúḥíyyih Khánum describes the moment in the spring of 1953 when Shoghi Effendi, looking out from the newly completed Shrine of the Báb on the centenary of its Founder's enthronement, summoned the Bahá'í world to the most ambitious teaching plan in its history — to settle believers in every remaining unopened country and territory of the planet.
In *The Priceless Pearl* Rúḥíyyih Khánum describes the years of patient nightly labour by which Shoghi Effendi rendered Nabíl's Persian chronicle of the Bábí period into the cadenced English that became *The Dawn-Breakers* — the volume that, more than any other, made the heroic story of the Báb's followers available to the Western world.
In *The Priceless Pearl* Rúḥíyyih Khánum describes the slow, exacting labour by which Shoghi Effendi rendered Bahá'u'lláh's *Hidden Words* into the English in which generations of Western believers have come to know them — a translation built one aphorism at a time, in the silent hours of his Haifa office.
Preparation for war conditions had been made by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá even before His return to Palestine, after His world tour. The people of the villages Nughayb, Samrih, and 'Adasiyyih were instructed by the Master how to grow corn, so as to…
Adib Taherzadeh's account, in the closing chapters of *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh*, of the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh on 29 May 1892 in the mansion of Bahjí — the closing of the prophetic ministry of which the rest of Bahá'í history would become the unfolding.
Adib Taherzadeh's account, in *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh*, of the Tablet known as the *Lawḥ-i-Aqdas* — the *Most Holy Tablet* — addressed by Bahá'u'lláh from the prison-city of 'Akká to the Christians of the world.
In *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh* Adib Taherzadeh recounts the Tablet of Carmel — the Tablet revealed by Bahá'u'lláh on one of His four visits to Mount Carmel in the closing years of His life. The Tablet is read as the charter of the future Bahá'í World Centre.
Adib Taherzadeh's account, in *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh*, of the *Lawḥ-i-Ḥikmat* — the *Tablet of Wisdom* — addressed by Bahá'u'lláh to Nabíl-i-Akbar in Egypt, in which He surveys the lineage of Greek and Persian philosophy and the proper relation between divine Revelation and human inquiry.
In *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh* Adib Taherzadeh recounts the second of two Tablets that Bahá'u'lláh addressed to Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. The first had been received with disdain. The second, sent in 1869, contained the explicit prophecy that Napoleon's empire would be wrested from him by failure of arms. Within a year the prophecy was fulfilled.
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.
In *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh* Adib Taherzadeh recounts the context of one of the great Tablets to the Kings: the Tablet addressed by Bahá'u'lláh from 'Akká to Queen Victoria of Britain in the early 1870s. The Tablet praised her abolition of slavery and her elective parliamentary system, and called upon all rulers to lay down their arms in favour of collective security.
Roy Wilhelm, an early pilgrim to the Master in Akka observed the esteem ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had won from even those who were not Bahá’ís: ‘Our room fronted upon a little garden in which was a fountain, and nearby a tent in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá…
From Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, a Tablet on the spiritual practice of detachment — not the rejection of the world but the freedom of the soul from the bondage of its desires, so that the heart may be ready for the indwelling of the Beloved.
From Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, a Tablet setting out the central purpose of religion: not the formal observance of ritual, but the unification of hearts, the elevation of human character, and the establishment of the kingdom of justice and fellowship in the visible world.
From Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, a Tablet on the proper character of the spiritual meeting — the gathering of believers in private homes for prayer and consultation, which the Master holds out as the true seedbed of the Bahá'í community life.
From Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, a Tablet addressed to the women of the East and the West setting out the principle of the equality of women and men as a foundational teaching of the Bahá'í Dispensation.
In the opening chapter of *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá takes up Laura Clifford Barney's question about nature itself — and gives, in one sentence, a sweeping definition: nature is the appearance of composition and decomposition, the meeting and parting of life and death, governed by a single universal law.
In *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá takes up the question of miracles with characteristic clarity: extraordinary events may have occurred and may yet occur, but they are not the proofs by which a Manifestation of God is finally known. *Miracles are proofs for the eyewitness only*.
In *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addresses Laura Clifford Barney's question on the creation of the human being — distinguishing the *species* from the *individual* and explaining the eternal pre-existence of humanity in the divine knowledge.
In *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá presses the case that humanity, left to itself, does not by some natural process improve. It *requires* an educator of universal scope — and the Manifestations of God are precisely the educators sent for that purpose.
In *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addresses Laura Clifford Barney's question on the prophecies of Isaiah — identifying specific passages of the Hebrew prophet that, in His reading, speak of the Bahá'í Revelation and the age it inaugurates.
In *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addresses Laura Clifford Barney's question on the immortality of the human soul — explaining the soul's continuance after the death of the body and the nature of its progress in the further worlds of God.
Sarah Farmer had a vision of Green Acre as a peaceful and beautiful place where people could study all the various religions in order to create a more spiritual world. In 1894, she dedicated Green Acre to the ideals of peace and religious…
O thou daughter of the Kingdom! Thy letter dated 5 December 1918 was received. It contained the good news that the friends of God and the maidservants of the Merciful have gathered in summer at Green Acre, have been engaged day and…
O thou who art dear, and wise! Thy letter dated 27 May 1906 hath been received and its contents are most pleasing and have brought great…
Among the household recollections Mr. Furutan preserves in *Stories of Bahá'u'lláh* is the simple memory of how Bahá'u'lláh, in His own house, would set aside His writing to receive the children — would ask after their small concerns, would laugh at their jokes, and would send them away with blessings they remembered to the end of their lives.
In *Stories of Bahá'u'lláh* Mr. Furutan preserves the household memory of how Bahá'u'lláh, during the years in Bahjí, would step out into the small garden each afternoon with a handful of grain in His hand for the wild pigeons of the plain — and the gentleness of a creature who, in His own words, *did not wish to disappoint* the birds.
Mr. Furutan, in *Stories of Bahá'u'lláh,* preserves the recollection of Shaykh Maḥmúd-i-‘Arrábí — the Sunní mufti of ‘Akká who, having sworn to kill Bahá'u'lláh as a heretic upon His arrival, came to His door, was received, and walked out a servant of the Cause for the rest of his life.
A short story preserved by Hand of the Cause Furutan in *Stories of Bahá'u'lláh*: an aged believer who set out on foot from Persia to attain the presence of Bahá'u'lláh in 'Akká, and the welcome that met him at the door when he arrived, exhausted, decades younger in his soul.
Among the 'Akká stories Mr. Furutan preserves in *Stories of Bahá'u'lláh* is the recollection of a prison guard, originally hostile, who came over time to weep in the stone corridor when he heard the voices of the Holy Family — and who one day, in open contradiction of his orders, fell at Bahá'u'lláh's feet.
Sometime later, I usually had the privilege of walking home with the Guardian after he left the pilgrims, and very often he talked further about the subject which we had been discussing at dinner, and gave further amplification, which, of…
Soon after the arrival of Bahá’u’lláh and His party in 'Akka the Governor visited the barracks for inspection. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, accompanied by a few believers, went to see him. But the Governor was discourteous and spoke to them in a…
Soon after the outbreak [of the war], Haifa, which was still under Turkish rule, was panic-stricken. Most of the inhabitants fled inland, fearing bombardment by the Allies. Those Bahá’í friends who were merchants suffered great losses,…
In a 1913 issue of the Star of the West, the Master praised the American journalist Mrs. Fraser for her newspaper articles on the Bahá'í Cause and gave her a charge that would echo through the vocations of many later teachers: *You must become like a burning torch, that you may melt mountains of snow.*
In April 1918 the Star of the West printed an account from talks of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the Holy Land in early 1914 — a small, vivid scene of the Master mediating a long-standing quarrel between two local Arab notables in 'Akká, with His characteristic humour, and turning the household into a place of open laughter and reconciliation.
In the autumn of 1918 the *Star of the West* carried the first reliable news of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's safety after the British liberation of Haifa from Ottoman rule, ending three and a half years of intermittent silence between the American friends and the war-strained Holy Land.
In 1920 the Star of the West printed Genevieve Coy's pilgrimage notes from her stay with 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Haifa — one of the small group of Western believers who reached the Master in the months after the war ended and found Him still in His house on the slope of Mount Carmel.
In June 1921 the Star of the West reported on the small school for Bahá'í children that had begun on the slope of Mount Carmel — a visible answer to one of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's most insistent themes: the universal education of children, irrespective of station or means.
In an early issue of the Star of the West, Helen Goodall — the matriarch of the Oakland Bahá'í community — published her pilgrimage notes from her visit to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká in 1908, preserving the Master's words on the equality of women and men in His own household.
In April 1914 the Star of the West reprinted, from M. Holbach's article in the Christian Commonwealth, a striking observation about the pilgrims at Haifa: young Hindus of high caste were lodging in the same house, eating at the same table, with Zoroastrians, Jews, and Muslim pilgrims — *crossing the rubicon* of caste in a way no other movement in the East had achieved.
In 1920 the *Star of the West* carried the news of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's investiture as a Knight of the British Empire — an honour conferred in recognition of His humanitarian work in feeding the population of Haifa and surrounding districts during the food crisis of the First World War.
In the December 1921 and January 1922 issues of the Star of the West, the editors gave their readers the bare cable that had reached Chicago on the 29th of November and then, in the issues that followed, the fuller accounts of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's last days written by the household in Haifa.
In 1922 the Star of the West printed Mountfort Mills' account of his visit to Haifa in the months following 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing — the first encounter of a Western pilgrim with the new Guardian of the Cause, Shoghi Effendi, then only twenty-five years old and already, in Mills' words, *the center of the world today.*
In the Naw-Rúz issue of the Star of the West for 1916, the editors printed a Tablet from 'Abdu'l-Bahá received during the year — a brief message of cheer and exhortation to the American believers, written during the war years when communication between Haifa and the West had become difficult.
In the early weeks of 1922 the *Star of the West* carried the first detailed American accounts of the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Haifa on 28 November 1921 and of the great funeral procession that wound up Mount Carmel to His resting place near the Shrine of the Báb.
The opening issue of the Star of the West, March 21, 1910, carried a memorial account of Mírzá Mihdí — the Purest Branch — younger brother of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who fell from the roof of the barracks in 'Akká in 1870 and used his dying breaths to plead that the believers be admitted to see Bahá'u'lláh.
In the spring of 1916 the *Star of the West* carried the first published Tablets of the Divine Plan, sent by 'Abdu'l-Bahá from the war-strained Holy Land to the American believers — eight letters that would prove to be the charter of the Bahá'í teaching enterprise of the twentieth century.
In 1913 the Star of the West printed words spoken by 'Abdu'l-Bahá about His own imprisonment. He distinguished three kinds of persecution He had endured — physical chains, governmental restriction, and the bitter words and criticisms of the believers themselves — and named the third as the hardest.
In the spring of 1918 the Star of the West printed news that thrilled the American Bahá'ís: Major Wellesley Tudor Pole had sent a cable from Jerusalem advising that 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His household, then in Haifa, were in personal danger from the retreating Turkish forces — and that the British forces were being asked to ensure their safety.
In August 1914 — the very month Europe collapsed into the Great War — the Star of the West printed a Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to American women on their particular duties in the work of universal peace. The capacity of women to *advance and to take power*, the Master argued, would accomplish what was, in 1914, plainly beyond the capacity of the men's world.
Among the small images 'Abdu'l-Bahá used in conversation with the friends was the parable of a bird with a broken wing — a creature who, having tried every other refuge, at last laid itself in the hand of the One who had made it, and was healed.
'Abdu'l-Bahá would sometimes draw, in His talks with friends, on the great Persian-Turkish folk humour of Mulla Nasrudin — including the famous tale of a man searching for his key in the wrong place because the light there was better, and the searching lesson He drew from it.
Among the household stories 'Abdu'l-Bahá would tell was the account of why He no longer took sugar with His tea — because the believers in a certain Persian village had nothing but black tea, and He could not bring Himself to take a sweetness His friends could not share.
Among the Gospel images 'Abdu'l-Bahá would explain to inquirers was Christ's saying about the camel and the eye of the needle — the small *needle gate* in the wall of an ancient city, the kneeling of the camel, and what the image asks of the rich.
Among the agricultural parables 'Abdu'l-Bahá used in His conversations was the story of a farmer who, having sown his field, dug up the seeds the next morning to see whether they had grown — and the lesson He drew from his disappointment.
Among the parables 'Abdu'l-Bahá would offer to those who came to Him troubled about poverty and station was the story of a king who envied a shoemaker's sleep — and a shoemaker who would not trade his small contented evenings for the king's heavy throne.
Among the Quranic images 'Abdu'l-Bahá would unfold to inquirers was the Verse of Light — the lamp in the glass in the niche — and the careful explanation He would give of how the human heart is at once the niche, the glass, and the lamp's keeper.
Among the small stories 'Abdu'l-Bahá would offer to teach the hidden dignity of the poor was the account of an old village woman who walked seven kos for a load of firewood — and a passing prince who learned, in a single conversation with her, what his court had not been able to teach him.
Among the Biblical and Quranic prophets 'Abdu'l-Bahá would recount in His talks was Joseph — and the moment of His re-encounter with the brothers who had sold Him into slavery, which the Master would draw upon to teach the discipline of pure forgiveness.
Among the conversion stories 'Abdu'l-Bahá would tell to illustrate the suddenness with which a heart can turn was the account of a thief who climbed to a holy man's roof with the intention of robbing him — and came down, before morning, a different man.
Among the parables 'Abdu'l-Bahá used in conversation with friends was the story of three ducks who set off across a meadow to find the great river of which their elders had spoken — and how their different ways of seeking shaped what each one finally found.
Among the parables 'Abdu'l-Bahá told to the friends was the brief story of a wise man and a fool who walked the same road in opposite directions — and the question of which of them was in fact going somewhere.
Surely the simplicity of the marriage of Shoghi Effendi - reminiscent of the simplicity of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's own marriage in the prison-city of 'Akká - should provide a thought-provoking example to the Bahá’ís everywhere. No one, with the…
Sydney Sprague was on pilgrimage in Haifa in September 1910. One afternoon, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, visited with Mr. Sprague in the other pilgrims. Everything seemed normal. But that evening, as usual, the believers gathered before the house of…
In a Tablet preserved in *Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbas* (1909), the Master writes to friends under the pressure of opposition and persecution: the storms they were enduring would in time be remembered as the necessary precursor of a *divine spring* — the same logic by which winter precedes the verdant fields and orchards.
130 Inquire after the health of Miss .........., send her my greeting and say: “Many ideas rise up in the human mind; some of them concern truth and some untruth. Among such ideas those which owe their source to the Light of Truth will…
O bird without a…
O thou artery pulsating in the body of the…
O thou dear wise…
O thou esteemed maid-servant of the Loving…
O thou who art attracted by the Fragrances of God and enkindled with the Fire wherein Moses, the Speaker, found…
O thou who art attracted to the Fragrances of the Garden of the Covenant and art speaking the praise of the Orb of the…
O thou who art attracted to the Word of…
An early Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to a Western servant of God, preserved in *Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbas* (1909), gives a careful warning about the kind of association into which the Bahá'í community should be drawn — and the patient discernment by which trust should be extended.
Tahirih loved pretty clothes, and perfumes, and she loved to eat. She could eat sweets all day long. Once, years after Tahirih had gone, an American woman traveled to 'Akka and sat at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's Table; the food was good; and she ate…
‘Abdu'l-Bahá sent for me. I went to Him in the little room where He writes. He said, “Be strong! Be firm! You are not leaving Me; it is only your body that is going away. Your spirit will always be here. I shall always see you. There is…
‘Abdu'l-Bahá came in to see us unexpectedly. He said, “I wish I might he with you always, hut unfortunately other things claim My time and keep Me sway from you. But My heart is filled with love and the thought of you. The important…
‘Akká is the home of exiles and prisoners of the Turkish Government. A few merchants and bazaars comprise its present meager commerce, although in former times it was an important market for Syrian products. It is the residence of a…
Tonight we met ‘Abdu'l-Bahá and a large number of believers from all parts of the East at the Feast, or Supper, under the shadow of the Blessed Perfection. As we entered the large hall, ‘Abdu'l-Bahá greeted us, extending both hands and…
Julia Grundy's pilgrim notes preserve the small ceremonial details of a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí — the shoes left at the door, the long Persian rugs underfoot, the kneeling at the marble threshold, and the tea served afterward by the women of the household.
In her 1905 pilgrim notes Julia Grundy preserves a meal at the Master's table — His Eastern way of eating with the fingers, His easy explanation to Western visitors, and His turning of the moment into a teaching about the food that brings life and the food that does not.
The question was asked, “What is real Faith?” “Faith outwardly means to believe the Message a Manifestation brings to the world and accept the fulfillment in Him of that which the Prophets have announced. But, in reality, Faith embodies…
Before there were Bahá'í books, pamphlets, periodicals—before there were, properly speaking, Bahá'í administrative institutions; before ‘Abdu'l-Bahá made His historic voyage to America; before Shoghi Effendi transmitted to the English…
She said, “I regret indeed that I cannot speak your language. You also feel your need of Persian. Persian is most important in this Day as it is the language of the Word. We will understand each other perfectly in the spiritual world. A…
“Moral life consists in the government of one's self. Immortality is government of a human soul by the Divine Will.” “The soul is the Sanctuary of God; Reason is His Throne.” “Our Actions reveal what we are, no matter what the…
“What is meant by 'Heaven' in the Bible?” “Christ said that nothing could ascend into Heaven except that which came down from Heaven. He also said, 'I came from Heaven and will return to Heaven,' and 'The Son of Man is in Heaven.' He…
“God has favored us by bringing us together again at His Table. May His Mercy and Bounty make night as day and make the Day everlasting! For night and day are according to the motions of the earth, but, in relation to the sun, day and…
We looked again at the faces of the Blessed Perfection and the Báb in the inner room. In the Blessed Perfection is the composite of all the Power sand Love of the universe. The eyes seemed to scrutinize the very depths of my soul. In…
I realize that the doors of a new Life are opening within me and that I have been awakened as if from a sleep. Now it seems that never again can I go back to the life which is so trivial, unsatisfying, and without eternal purpose. It is…
In Julia Grundy's pilgrim notes from 'Akká in 1905, the Master takes up the practical question every believer must eventually face: how do you love the person who is unpleasant, ungrateful, or actively hostile? His answer points to Christ as the standard, and to the tree as the model.
“How can we love another whose personality is unpleasant?” “See how the enemies of Christ persecuted and crucified Him, yet He loved them all. Man is like a tree. The tree lives to produce fruit. The fruit of man is love. It is easy for…
“The history of Mount Carmel is holy history. A spiritual atmosphere surrounds this 'Mountain of God.' Elijah and Jesus spent part of their precious lives upon it. ‘Abdu'l-Bahá loves Mount Carmel and has often visited it, sometimes…
“Today we will speak about Obedience! The Manifestation of God is a perfect example of real obedience. Like Him, we must sacrifice everything; every plan, every longing and ideal must be given up completely to the Will of God. We must…
In *Ten Days in the Light of 'Akká* Julia Grundy preserves a private audience with 'Abdu'l-Bahá near the end of her 1905 pilgrimage. He spoke with her about her spiritual progress, told her she would become a source of guidance to others, and consoled her with a promise that has carried many pilgrims home: *you will never be absent now.*
"In the Book of Íqán we can read the Word of God concerning the true Reincarnation, which is the Return of the Spiritual Qualities in the Servants of God.[3] In the Gospel it is written that they asked John the Baptist if he was Elijah…
(*Compiled from ‘Abdu'l-Bahá's Teachings*) Soul is the human will to live temporally. Spirit is the Divine Will to live forever. Salvation is the quickening of soul into Spirit. All souls are alike in essence or quality as created.…
‘Abdu'l-Bahá sent for me. I found Him in a little room opening from the courtyard. He was sitting upon a raised chair, His beautiful face, majestic in repose and strength, turned toward the only window. He greeted me joyfully. Both the…
At dinner a violent rainstorm swept in from the sea. “May we all live in the Sea of Reality and be filled with the Love of God. Thank God we are in the Ark of the Covenant. See what great blessings God has showered upon us. How many…
“Persian is the language of the Word because Bahá‘u'lláh revealed Himself in it. God be praised that you have come to ‘Akká! Mr. M. is a teacher. It is well that he has come to ‘Abdu'l-Bahá. As a pupil he should come to learn how…
“Soon it will be the time of Spring. Already the signs of the flowers may be seen upon the mountains and in the valleys. When Spring comes, there is a Divine Wisdom in its appearance. God has a special object in renewing the earth with…
“The House of Justice must be obeyed in all things because it has been established by the Blessed Perfection. The Council of Constantine decided many things wisely, but its power and influence did not continue because it was not…
“When you give the Message of this Manifestation many say, 'This is nothing new—I prefer the home of my old religious belief which has been so serviceable and trustworthy.'” ‘Abdu'l-Bahá answered: “Bahá‘u'lláh is the same Light in a…
“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…
“The disciples of Jesus, passing along the road and seeing a dead dog, remarked how offensive and disgusting a spectacle it was. Then Christ turning to them said, 'Yes, but see how white and beautiful are his teeth'—thus teaching that…
We went to the Ridván with the holy daughters of ‘Abdu'l-Bahá. Driving through the city and passing out the gates we saw the barracks where ‘Abdu'l-Bahá was once imprisoned. Then along the roadway bordered by fine trees we went until…
In the afternoon we drove to the Tomb of the Blessed Perfection, passing out through the narrow gateway of the city and following the road toward the Ridván for a short distance. Then a sharp turn to the left toward the Lebanons took us…
The Báb, during his life, had a certain follower who was specially devoted to him. On one occasion he visited this man in his home. His host said to him that his visit filled him with the greatest happiness of his life; but that he had one…
The dignitaries of the British crown from Jerusalem were gathered in Haifa, eager to do honour to the Master, Whom everyone had come to love and reverence for His life of unselfish service. An imposing motor-car had been sent to bring…
The Governor was reluctant to tell Bahá’u’lláh that the order had come for still another banishment. He explained this to Sarkar-i-Aqa* (‘Abdu’l-Bahá), and we were told that we had three days to prepare for the journey to `Akka. Then we…
The Master’s humility was shown in many ways. He desired no name or title except that of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the Servant of God. He forbade pilgrims to fall at His feet. In the early days in Akka, He cooked for His fellow prisoners, and later,…
The Master said to Mary Hanford Ford, alluding to the restriction of His and His family’s life in ‘Akka: ‘. . . we are all happy because we have the love of God in our hearts. When the heart is full of the love of God it loses…
The Master's concern for others endured to the very end of His earthly life. During the afternoon of 27 November 1921, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent His friends to the Shrine of the Báb to celebrate the Day of the Covenant. His family had tea with…
The Master's life was very full at this time. Not only did He care for the friends of Abu-Sinan, but in `Akká and Haifa all the poor looked to Him for their daily bread. Even before the war the spectre of starvation had not been very far…
The story of Green Acre itself is intensely interesting. The beautiful property the rolling meadows, the dear wide-verandahed Inn and, now, all the cottages surrounding it, together with the Tea House at the entrance leading from the…
There are many stories of Lua Getsinger. This one was told me by Grace Ober, who heard it from Lua herself. It happened on one of Lua's several visits to Acca and Haifa when she and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were walking together on the beach. Lua…
There was a Christian merchant in Akka who, like many of his fellow citizens, held the Bahá’ís in scant respect. It happened that he came upon a load of charcoal which some of the Bahá’ís had been permitted to buy outside Akka. (Inside the…
There was a man in Haifa who disliked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Whenever he saw the Master, he crossed the street to avoid Him. Finally, one day he approached ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and said, ‘So You are called the Servant of God.’ ‘Yes,’ said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,…
There was a time when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was in chains. The jailers were amazed that the Master sang and laughed. He informed them they were doing Him a kindness He had wanted to know the feelings of a man in chains. Now He…
There was a time when the Covenant-Breakers 'gave away the garments and personal effects of Bahá’u’lláh to government functionaries, to serve as chattels of bribery and to provide as well the means of humiliating ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. At their…
Thomas Breakwell, the first English believer, went to the prison city of ‘Akka as a pilgrim. In conversation with the Master, he described his position in the cotton mills of the South in the United States. Breakwell told ‘Abdu’l-Bahá…
‘Three days after the arrival of Bahá’u’lláh and His companions in ‘Akka, the edict of the Sultan condemning Him to life imprisonment was read out in the Mosque. The prisoners were introduced as criminals who had corrupted the morals of…
Two pilgrims were at the Master’s luncheon table one day in 1908. He asked them if they were glad to be in Akka and if they were happy. They replied that they were very happy to be there with Him, but unhappy when they thought of their…
Wendell [Dodge] and I [William Dodge] were so glad to be with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá [in ‘Akka, in 1901]. At some times we were quite jolly. We were mere boys of 18 and 21. Our interpreter, Ameen Fareed, told us that we must be reverent, that when…
What had happened in Chicago was this: the Syrian, Khayru'llah, had been teaching the Cause, adding to the Faith many beliefs of his own, such as reincarnation, dream interpretation, occultism and the like. He had written a book…
When a Turkish man, living in Haifa, lost his position, he, his wife and children were in desperate need. They went to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for help and were naturally greatly aided. When the poor man became ill, again the Master stood ready to…
When Aqa Ali Akbar was on his way to embark from Haifa, the Governor ordered his effects to be brought back and himself prevented from leaving! This was indeed very strange. The Governor then had his effects minutely examined, and the only…
When Bahá’u’lláh lived at Bahji and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Akka the Master would visit His Father once a week. He liked to do this on foot and when asked why He did not ride to Bahji He responded by asking, ‘ who am I that I should ride where…
When my father fell desperately ill in the winter of 1949-50 his condition was despaired of by his doctors. He reached a point where he seemed to have no conscious mind left, could not recognize me, his only and idolized child, at all, and…
When the British arrived in Haifa, where the blockade had caused a perilous condition for the inhabitants, it was discovered that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had saved the civilian population from starvation. Provisions which He had grown, buried in…
While ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was a prisoner in Akka, there was a man in that city who behaved very badly towards Him. The ignorant man believed that he was following the teachings of Muhammad. He thought that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was not a good man and…
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…
Why Do Manifestations Appear in Human Form? Janaab-i-Muhammad Quli Khan-i-Nakha’ee, was an influential and rich local man, who believed in Bahá’u’lláh, and lived in Khusef which is part of Birjand. As a result of his acceptance of the…
416 stories in this collection. The collection grows automatically as new matching stories are ingested.