New York

‘Abdu’l- Bahá's words about truth and accuracy weren't always heeded. The New York City Evening Mail reported that ‘Abdu’l- Bahá was met by 'fully 1000 of his followers,' while the New York City Evening World said that 'He was met by a…

On March 25, 1911, at the behest of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Louis Gregory sailed from New York through Europe to Egypt and Palestine to go on pilgrimage. In Palestine, Gregory met with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi and visited the Shrine of…

‘Abdu’l-Bahá inspired the creation of a Local Spiritual Assembly in New York City. Loulie Mathews, one of those present when the friends met to form their first local institution, recalled that they had very little idea of how to proceed.…

‘Abdu’l-Bahá is staying at the Ansonia hotel in New York City. He agreed to speak at the Bowery Mission and asked Juliet Thompson to take a 1000 franc note (about $250) and have it changed to quarters and put in a bag. He handed another…

Alas for the sin of disobedience! He had said "Go and rest." But we were so anxious to write down His words while they were fresh in our minds that we stayed in the dining room until late, and -- shameful to confess after our day in…

27 O thou Greatest and Most Merciful Holy…

‘Abdu’l-Bahá attaches the greatest important to regular meetings of the believers for united worship, for the exposition and study of the teachings and for consultation regarding the progress of the Movement. In one of His Tablets He…

When woman’s point of view receives due consideration and woman’s will is allowed adequate expression in the arrangement of social affairs, we may expect great advancement in matters which have often be grievously neglected under the…

HUDSON MAXIM AWOKE with a swollen cheek and bags under his eyes. A toothache had kept him up for most of the night. He should have gone to the dentist, but there was a puzzle to solve so he went to his lab instead. With his right hand he…

In late May 1912, in New York, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was evicted from His hotel because, as Mahmud noted, of the “coming and going of diverse people” and the “additional labors and troubles” for the staff and the “incessant inquiries” directed to…

In the days when steamships, such as the Mauritania and Franconia, made round-the-world trips, Loulie went several times for the sole purpose of stopping at each port-of-call to make whatever contacts she might to proclaim the coming of…

In the very early days Loulie Mathews came into the Faith while ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was yet imprisoned in Acca. She came in very quickly immediately, really, upon hearing of it, and she came in aflame with enthusiasm. She had been told that…

Juliet Thompson, a devout Bahá’í and a New York artist, was told by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that she taught well. Frankly and lovingly, He said to her: 'I have met many people who have been affected by you, Juliet. You are not eloquent; you are…

Later that day, a group of Californians, including Helen Goodall, Ella Cooper and Harriet Wise, arrived in New York to see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. After a bath and dinner, the women took a taxi to the house where He was staying. Arriving, they…

Later that evening, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called Dr. Zia Bagdadi and Sent him on a wild adventure beginning at nine o'clock at night: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave [Dr. Zia Bagdadi] the key to His New York apartment and asked him to get a Persian rug to give…

Mable Ives, after she married Howard Colby Ives (my father) became known to many who loved her as Rizwanea. For very many years, after they were married, my father and Rizwanea traveled and taught the Faith. It was their entire life. They…

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

On one of His visits to New York He stayed with Juliet Thompson on West 10th Street not far from Fifth Avenue. Two or three doors away and across the street, the poet Khalil Gibran was staying with friends. He and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had met in…

One June day in New York ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was tired and slept long enough to keep His audience waiting. He then told His friends, ‘While I was sleeping I was conversing with you as though speaking at the top of My voice. Then through the…

The day before He was to leave, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá decided He would like to present the president of the Conference with a choice Persian rug which was, unfortunately, in His flat in New York. Dr. Diya Baghdadi performed the seemingly…

'When He reached the Occident, however, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá faced a condition which troubled Him greatly, because it was beyond His power to assuage the misery He saw constantly about Him. Housed luxuriously at Cadogan Gardens, London, He knew…

With all of His spiritual knowledge and vision ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was extremely practical. On His third visit to New York He stayed with the Kinneys at their home on West End Avenue. This was only one block from Riverside Drive, where, often, He…

A few days before ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's journey to Boston, the landlord of the Hudson Apartment House had complained about the excessive comings and goings of the visitors. The Master had therefore decided that large meetings would take place at…

A ‘Mrs C’ was an early believer who went to ‘Akká. She belonged to a wealthy and fashionable group of people in New York. Her life had been conventional and rather unsatisfying. She had been a sincere Christian, but somehow had not…

‘Abdu’l-Bahá appeared as the guest of honor at a meeting of the New York Peace Society held at the Hotel Astor. Before the meeting, the Master had a high fever and was in bed. Juliet Thompson tried to get Him to stay and rest, but He…

‘Abdu’l-Bahá one day went to Schenectady, New York, where He visited the General Electric's Works along with Stanwood Cobb and Rev. Moore. His guide was Charles Steinmetz, known as the "Wizard of Electricity" because of his development of…

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

“With the advent of the Young Turks’ supremacy, realized through the Society of Union and Progress, all the political prisoners of the Ottoman Empire were set free. Events took the chains from my neck and placed them about Hamíd’s;…

Among the most touching contacts the Master had with the poor in the Occident were surely His visits to the Salvation Army headquarters in London and to the Bowery Mission in New York City. 'On Christmas night, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited…

At the time of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s second visit to Newark, He spoke in my Father's Brotherhood Church in Jersey City. My father had begged Him to do this, and at once Abdu'1-Bahá had consented, but He would set no date. Father was eager and…

<div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On one of the occasions when the Master was in New York City in 1912 there were three automobiles awaiting Him and His party to take them from Hotel Ansonia to the…

A short paraphrase from the Baha'i Stories Blog about a small encounter from the Master's New York days: a Greek immigrant greengrocer who would not accept payment, and the Master's gentle insistence that the gift be reframed as an exchange of friendship.

<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Jesus was a poor man. One night when He was out in the fields, the rain began to fall. He had no place to go for shelter so He lifted His eyes toward heaven, saying, “O Father! For the birds of the…

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A brief paraphrase from the bahaistories.com archive on the small recurring practice of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in His American cities: the warm conversation with each cab driver who carried Him, the personal inquiry into the driver's family, and the larger tip than the fare required.

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Howard Colby Ives (my father) first heard of the Faith through Clarence Moore (the father of Emily Kalantar) and, from the very first mention, he was skeptically reluctant to put such faith in this wonderful Message. For years he had put…

In New York City a young supporter of tax-reform asked, ‘What message shall I take to my friends?’ The Master laughed with delighted humour: ‘Tell them to come into the Kingdom of God. There they will find plenty of land – and there are…

It was not long after this that Lua came to Grace and told her that it was the wish of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that she marry Harlan Ober. Grace was shocked. 'Why I don't really know that man! I've only met him a few times and that very casually.…

John took the first train East, fretting because it didn't go fast enough. In Washington he phoned one of the believers and learned that the Master was still in New York. John left on the night train. At five-thirty the next morning he was…

In *The Diary of Juliet Thompson* the painter records the evening in 1912 when 'Abdu'l-Bahá visited her dying friend Marjorie Morten in her sickroom — and the strange peace that, by the next morning, had taken the place of the household's prepared grief.

In *The Diary of Juliet Thompson* the painter records an evening in New York in the summer of 1912 when, after one of the great public meetings, she found herself walking beside 'Abdu'l-Bahá through the dark streets — and the silence in which the most carrying conversations sometimes pass.

In June 1912 in New York, the painter Juliet Thompson was given an unprecedented privilege: 'Abdu'l-Bahá agreed to sit for her. The Diary preserves the moment He stopped her on the street, took her hand, and said *come tomorrow and paint;* and the cramped basement studio where He asked her to paint not the man but the *Servitude.*

In *The Diary of Juliet Thompson* the painter records a small scene in New York in 1912 when, having confessed to the Master one of her own besetting sins, she expected reproof — and received instead the quiet laughter that, in His mouth, was the most disarming form of mercy.

Lua came to Grace and told her that it was the wish of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that she marry Harlan Ober. Grace was shocked . . . "How could I think of marrying Harlan Ober?" Lua smiled, "I'm only repeating ‘Abdu’l- Bahá's request", she said…

Mahmúd's Diary records the first hours of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in America: the SS Cedric pulling into New York harbor on April 11, 1912; the rush of newspaper reporters at the dock seeking to know His purpose; and His steady answer that He had crossed an ocean for *the unity of humankind*.

On December 5, 1912, Mahmúd's Diary records, the SS *Celtic* lay at her berth in New York harbor as 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed the small band of friends who had come to see Him sail. He left them with one sentence that summarised the eight months of His American teaching: the whole earth is one globe, and all nations one family.

Mahmúd's Diary records 'Abdu'l-Bahá's visit to Columbia University in New York on April 19, 1912. The Master spoke to the assembled faculty and students on the immortality of the soul and the inseparability of scientific investigation from spiritual enlightenment.

Mahmúd's Diary preserves, alongside the public talks, the ordinary domestic hours of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's American journey: the meals He ate, the way He served the friends with His own hand, the laughter He brought to a tired room, the way He cleared the table afterwards.

Mahmúd's Diary preserves a recurring theme of the 1912 American tour: the Master's particular attention to the children who came with their parents to the meetings. He would pause the proceedings to greet them. He would set them on His knee. He would ask their names, kiss their cheeks, and send them away with a sweet from His pocket.

Mahmúd's Diary records that on the evening of April 19, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá interrupted His program of formal receptions to go in person to the Bowery Mission in New York. He spoke to four hundred poor men, distributed coins to each from His own hand, and returned to His hotel near midnight.

Mahmúd's Diary preserves the small domestic record of an ordinary day in the New York apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Kinney — the Master at His correspondence, at His tea, in brief conversation with the household, the rhythm of the hours unmarked by any public event.

Mahmúd's Diary records 'Abdu'l-Bahá's return to New York in late November 1912, after the long western swing — the re-engagement with the established New York friends, the receiving of a long backlog of pilgrims, and the preparation for the journey home.

Mrs. Gibbons, a Bahá’í, had written the Master before His coming to the United States, requesting that her own daughter be allowed to paint His portrait. In His reply He consented to this request and added, according to Mrs. Gibbons, that…

On the evening of the same day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke briefly again to a group of Bahá’í friends of the subject which, on these last days seemed very close to His heart and lips - the station to which those who had accepted the teachings of…

One day, during the Master’s visit to New York City, He paid a visit to Central Park. After spending several hours in the Museum of Natural History, He came out to rest under the trees. A solicitous little old watchman inquired, ‘”Would…

One day in 1912 the beloved Master was very stern while in New York. He held the book of the Hidden Words in His hand and walked back and forth and then lifted the book high and said, 'Whosoever does not live up to these Words is not of…

In *Portals to Freedom* Howard Colby Ives recalls a moment in New York in 1912 when 'Abdu'l-Bahá publicly greeted a Black boy in a crowd with the loud, unmistakable proclamation that he was *a black rose* — a phrase that, in the racially stratified America of the day, was a small revolution.

In *Portals to Freedom* Howard Colby Ives recounts an evening in May 1912 when, having sat through one of the great public meetings, he was invited into the Master's private room for a small cup of tea — and a quiet conversation that addressed, without his having spoken them, the very fears he had carried in.

In one of the closing chapters of *Portals to Freedom,* Howard Colby Ives describes the gathering on December 2, 1912, in the days before 'Abdu'l-Bahá sailed from America. The Master's parting counsel — to manifest complete love and to count no soul beneath one's own — fell on Ives, he writes, like a *stream of spiritual energy* he could almost not bear.

In *Portals to Freedom* Howard Colby Ives describes the first morning in April 1912 when, summoned to the Ansonia Hotel in New York, he climbed the stair and entered the room where 'Abdu'l-Bahá was receiving — and found that all the arguments of his Unitarian ministry suddenly fell silent.

On April 19, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed the men of the Bowery Mission in lower Manhattan — several hundred of New York's poorest, many homeless, gathered in the Mission hall for the evening service. The Master spoke to them as the equals of any king and gave them, at the close of the address, a silver quarter from His own hand.

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

On June 15, 1912, in a home on West Seventy-eighth Street in New York, 'Abdu'l-Bahá explained the kind of distinction He wished for the Bahá'ís — not financial or worldly eminence, but a distinction of love, character, and steadfast service.

At the Church of the Divine Paternity on Central Park West on May 19, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told a New York congregation that religion has many forms but one reality: as the days are many but the sun is one, so the Manifestations are many but the Truth they reveal is single. If religion sets itself against science, it becomes mere superstition; if it becomes a cause of hatred and strife, its absence would be preferable.

At a reception given in His honor by the New York Peace Society at the Hotel Astor on May 13, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá took the platform with one of His most quoted sentences: peace is light, war is darkness — and asked the assembled American peace movement to lead the world into the new century as the century of lights.

At a meeting of the International Peace Forum at Grace Methodist Episcopal Church on West 104th Street, New York, on May 12, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá argued that the United States was uniquely positioned to lead the world toward disarmament — precisely because she carried no imperial baggage.

At the home of Dr. and Mrs. Florian Krug on Park Avenue in New York on July 15, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá distinguished between thanks given by the tongue and thanks given by the conduct of a life — and asked the friends to send Him away from New York with the sight of unity among them.

O thou lady of the Kingdom! Thy letter sent from New York hath been received. Its contents imparted joy and gladness for they indicated that with a firm resolve and a pure intention thou hast determined to travel to Paris, that thou…

Juliet Thompson's diary entries, printed in the Star of the West in April 1917, preserve a small image from the Master's first days in New York in April 1912 — His insistence on distributing silver quarters from His own hand to the men of the Bowery Mission, with the brief direction: *Surely, give to the poor!*

In the spring and summer of 1919 the Star of the West gave its pages to the unveiling of the Tablets of the Divine Plan — the Master's great charter of teaching addressed to the North American believers, formally proclaimed at the New York convention in April 1919.

Suddenly, with a great flash like lightning he opened his eyes in the room seemed to rock like a ship in a storm with the power released. The Master was blazing. The veils of glory, the thousand veils, had shriveled away and in that…

O thou attracted one of the…

O ye196 beloved friends of…

An early Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to the New York believers, preserved in the 1909 *Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbas* — addressing the city of New York as the eventual centre through which the Cause will reach the New World and exhorting the friends to prepare for that destiny.

The believers had planned to show the city to the Master; the stores, hotels, banks; to give Him a good time seeing New York. Just as I stepped into the machine and was seated, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá looked at me. He just looked at me, and all at…

The first person singular seldom crept into the Master’s speech. He once told group of New York friends that in the future the words ‘I’ and ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’ would be regarded as profane. Lua Getsinger reported that one day she and…

The following delightful story about an incident during ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s stay in New York illustrates the fact that He was not ‘colour-blind’, but rather He found racial differences a thing of beauty. When the Master was on His way to speak…

The Master also dearly loved His devoted disciple, Juliet Thompson. In her diary she wrote about a visit with Him in New York City in November 1912. One day she wrote, 'I had been very naughty with Mamma that day and had grieved her. My…

Two ladies had an interview with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in New York City. Ella Quant wrote about that occasion: ‘He told Margaret He prayed for her parents (who had passed into the life beyond some months before). Her eyes filled with tears and…

In 1926 the Star of the West printed the obituary of Howard MacNutt, the early New York believer who had compiled and edited The Promulgation of Universal Peace from the stenographic records of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's American talks of 1912.