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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."
By Various
Bahá'í stories collected on Blogspot since 2008.
Stories by era covered
Featured figures
“Tell Me, dervish, what is it that you are doing?”
“I am cooking God and am burning Him.”
“Thou art the Light of Truth. Unveil Thyself to men, O Revealer of the Truth.”
“must needs be revealed on the Day of Judgment and appear unveiled before the eyes of men. At that moment the voice of the Unseen shall be heard saying: ‘Turn your eyes away from that which ye have seen.’”
“Turn your eyes away, O concourse of people!”
Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá
Primary Source'Abdu'l-Bahá
Selections from the Writings of the Báb
Primary Sourcethe Báb
Bahá'í Chronicles
Secondary RetellingBahá'í Chronicles editors
Bahá'ís of the United States
Secondary RetellingBahá'ís of the United States editors
Recollections of Saichiro Fujita
Pilgrim Note / OralSaichiro Fujita
Riding in the country near Núr, Bahá’u’lláh came upon a lonely young dervish cooking by a brook. After a loving conversation the dervish, Mustafá, recognised His station and followed Him on foot, singing a love-song he had composed.
When the ‘ulamás of Isfáhán condemned the Báb, the governor, Manúchihr Khán, sent Him out of the city with five hundred horsemen, then had Him brought back in secret to his own residence, where he waited on Him in person.
In His own words, Bahá’u’lláh recalls the day at Badasht when Táhirih appeared at His door with her face unveiled, and the consternation that seized the companions, some of whom fled in horror.
Arrested on the way to Fort Shaykh Ṭabarsí and brought before the clergy of Ámul, Bahá’u’lláh interceded for His companions and offered Himself to receive the bastinado in their place.
Told by the Báb to await the promised Husayn in Karbilá, the aged Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunúzí met Bahá'u'lláh there in October 1851 and became one to whom He confided the secret He would later reveal in Baghdád.
A 1969 report from Canadian Bahá'í News on the Saskatoon community, where united prayer, a visit from Hand of the Cause John Robarts and a wave of young believers brought some seventy to eighty declarations in under two years.
On the eve of the Báb's arrival at Káshán in 1847, Hájí Mírzá Jání dreamed that the Báb would be his Guest for three nights. The next day the dream came true, and the escort agreed to leave the Báb in his care over Naw-Rúz.
Wishing to help Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, a learned believer of Yazd took copper vessels from the city's mosques and sold them. Bahá'u'lláh accepted the money, then had it thrown into the river.
On his 1901 pilgrimage to 'Akká, young William Dodge knocked soup onto the whiskers of a Persian believer at dinner. 'Abdu'l-Bahá laughed and told him not to worry: it was a blessing.
In 1955 John and Audrey Robarts gave Shoghi Effendi a springbok-skin kaross from Bechuanaland. After the Guardian's passing, Rúhíyyih Khánum showed John Robarts that it had been his prayer mat.
'Abdu'l-Bahá recounted how a famous mujtahid of Yálrúd told His grandmother of a dream in which Bahá'u'lláh, then the son of a vizier, was closeted with the Qá'im in a house no one else could enter.
A Persian pilgrim in Haifa in 1920 describes how 'Abdu'l-Bahá, burdened with countless letters, signed stacks of registered mail, replied at a bench piled with letters, and dictated answers while walking in the garden.
In 'Akká, after listening kindly to a Western visitor's complaints, 'Abdu'l-Bahá brought in Hájí Mírzá Haydar-'Alí, saying he had had many troubles. Asked about them, he replied that he had never had any.
As the Báb approached Tabríz under guard, one youth ran barefoot from the city to meet Him. The guards let him through, and the Báb dismounted, embraced him and wiped away his tears.
Tarázu'lláh Samandarí, a youth on pilgrimage in the last months of Bahá'u'lláh's life, recalls twice being present as Bahá'u'lláh revealed verses at great speed while His secretary wrote them down.
In New York in June 1912, Valíyu’lláh Varqá told Juliet Thompson and Lua Getsinger how Bahá’u’lláh had taught his father, the poet Varqá, about the power of the Great Ether and the station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
In Pittsburgh in 1912, when the friends kept asking how He liked His fine hotel rooms, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalled how in the barracks of ‘Akká He had lived for about two years in the morgue so that the crowded families could be at ease.
Two pilgrims in ‘Akká argued over which kind of martyrdom was best. When they entered ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s room, His words, spoken without any notice of their arrival, affirmed first one choice and then the other.
Sutherland Maxwell, not yet a Bahá’í, planned to lodge ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in a Montreal hotel. The day before He arrived, he bought new furniture for the largest bedroom, and he met the Master at the train and begged Him to stay in his home.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalled how, at nine years old, while Bahá’u’lláh was in prison, He was sent through the streets of Ṭihrán to fetch money from His aunt and was chased home by boys throwing stones.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá told a story of Christ from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh: Jesus helped a seller of thorns marry a king’s daughter, and on his wedding night the young man left everything to follow Him.
In Baghdád the divines of Karbilá and Najaf sent Mullá Hasan ‘Amú to ask Bahá’u’lláh for a miracle. He agreed, if they would first choose one and pledge in writing to accept His Cause; they did not dare.
In London in September 1911 a journalist asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá about His prison life. He told of exile, the first terrible summer in ‘Akká, the Sultan’s hostile committee and His release, and said that freedom is not a matter of place.
On the eve of Naw-Rúz 1848 ‘Alí Khán, warden of the castle where the Báb was held, dreamed that the Prophet Muhammad was coming to visit Him. At sunrise he met Mullá Ḥusayn at the bridge, arriving on foot as in the dream.
Lady Blomfield recalls how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, arriving home very tired after a crowded meeting, suddenly ran up the stairs to the flat and told the astonished friends that through the power of Bahá’u’lláh all things can be done.
At dinner on Christmas Eve 1912 in London, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said playfully that two despotic monarchs of the East had not been able to command Him, but the ladies of America and Europe, because they were free, gave Him orders.
As a young man visiting Yalrud, Bahá’u’lláh resolved a puzzle about a tradition concerning Fatimih that a famed mujtahid’s scholars could not answer, and the next day the mujtahid rebuked his disciples.
In Baghdád Bahá’u’lláh sent gifts to the poor of His neighbourhood, stopped each day to greet an eighty-year-old woman who waited for Him in the road, and arranged a daily allowance for her when He left the city.
A Persian pilgrim brought his wife, who was not a Bahá’í, on the long journey to Haifa. Some travellers were rude to her, but the Greatest Holy Leaf waited outside to embrace her, seated her beside herself and gave her own ring.
Shoghi Effendi told how a coachman at Ramleh demanded an exorbitant fare from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and pulled Him roughly by His sash. The Master stayed calm, refused to give in, and paid exactly what He owed, without the tip.
At a gathering, a Sufi leader esteemed by Muhammad Shah boasted that he would not trouble to see Jesus Christ at his door. Bahá'u'lláh alone answered him, with a question that left all present speechless.
When a covetous governor of 'Akká plotted to imprison the Bahá'í shopkeepers, Bahá'u'lláh told the believers not to open their shops and to leave the matter in God's hands. Next morning a telegram arrived dismissing the governor.
When merchants in Búshihr tried to reopen a finished sale of indigo to win a discount, as was their custom, the Báb refused to bargain and took the goods back rather than yield. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recounted the episode.
On his 1941 pilgrimage, ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan knelt to take off the Guardian's boots when Shoghi Effendi's wrist was bandaged, and found one boot had a hole in it and the other had been repaired.
On the first Western pilgrimage, a young American said she was now an orphan because her parents did not believe. Munírih Khánum embraced her and brought her to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who told her that the ties of the spirit are all.
A man entrusted goods to the Báb to sell at a fixed price and was sent more than he had asked. The Báb explained that the goods had once reached that value, and refused to take back the excess.
When the authorities in Adrianople planned to part Bahá'u'lláh from His family and followers, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá pleaded, persisted and at last vehemently protested, until the governor declared that the exiles could not be separated.
A Bábí who had taken up arms for revenge fled to Hamadán and was arrested. A writing of Bahá'u'lláh forbidding retaliation fell from his collar, and after reading it the governor let him go.
On His way to Mecca, the Báb stopped His servant from chasing a Bedouin who had stolen His writings, explaining that the papers were destined to reach places they could never otherwise have reached.
Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl boasted that he could write a better book than the Kitáb-i-Íqán, then found himself unable to write a simple letter. Years later, after praying with tears, he came to faith and found the book an ocean of knowledge.
In April 1912 John Bosch set out to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and, after a detour to Washington, found Him in New York. The Master told him that with him it was the heart that speaks, and welcomed him as one of the family.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá told of Mírzá Qurbán-‘Alí, a timid Bábí who, when the Prime Minister asked him to repudiate the Báb, answered with a question and went to his martyrdom with a serene face.
On 22 April 1863 crowds of believers and admirers wept in the streets of Baghdad as Bahá'u'lláh left His house and was ferried across the river to the garden that His followers named the Garden of Riḍván.
When Bahá’u’lláh was a child, His father dreamed that He swam in a limitless ocean with a multitude of fishes clinging to His hair. A renowned soothsayer interpreted the dream as a sign of His future ascendancy.
In 1835 Bahá’u’lláh married Ásíyih Khánum. Known as the Father of the Poor and the Mother of Consolation, they cared for the needy while His father's fortunes collapsed and the family moved to a rented house in Tehrán.
While Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in the Síyáh-Chál, His servant Isfandíyár, though hunted by a hundred officers, found the scattered family and refused to flee until he had paid every debt of the household.
In 1848 Bahá’u’lláh visited Mullá Ḥusayn and his companions at the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí. Mullá Ḥusayn received Him with rapturous love, and He counselled them, sent for Quddús and promised them victory.
On pilgrimage to 'Akká in 1901, William and Wendell Dodge were told to bow, clasp their hands and avoid smiling before the Master. When they came in smiling instead, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá embraced them and told them to be natural.
During a visit to 'Akká, Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥaydar-'Alí was allowed into Bahá'u'lláh's presence while verses were being revealed, and he left a brief account of that memorable occasion.
On his first pilgrimage, around 1878–79, Varqá heard Bahá’u’lláh’s words recall a forgotten childhood dream, and later Bahá’u’lláh answered a doubt Varqá had never spoken aloud.
In ‘Akká, Dr. Yúnis Khán watched ‘Abdu’l-Bahá dictate a long Arabic Tablet that two visiting Muslim divines had asked to carry to Iran, then overheard the visitors marvelling at what they had witnessed.
On her 1906 pilgrimage to ‘Akká, Florence Khan longed to gaze fully upon ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s face; that evening, as He paced His room revealing Tablets, He twice stood still in the doorway.
When companions of Ṭáhirih were held prisoner in Ṭihrán, Bahá’u’lláh sent them help; greedy officials then accused Him of complicity and held Him for a few days, His first imprisonment for the Cause.
In Ṭihrán around 1850, the young Nabíl was asked to take six-year-old ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to school; the child took his hand and said, “We shall walk together.”
In 1845 Mullá Ṣádiq and Quddús were punished in Shíráz for proclaiming the Báb’s Cause; an onlooker told Nabíl how the aged Mullá Ṣádiq kept smiling through more than nine hundred lashes.
Bahá’u’lláh recalls how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá served the Cause in Adrianople and ‘Akká, facing the world on His Father’s behalf and securing the mansions of Mazra‘ih and Bahjí.
Shoghi Effendi brings together Bahá’u’lláh’s own words, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s memory and Nabíl’s record of the months Bahá’u’lláh spent chained in the dark, crowded dungeon of Ṭihrán.
Two brothers of Isfahan who met the Báb as boys and later Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdad became prosperous merchants, renowned for their honesty and for spending their wealth on the poor and on Bahá’u’lláh’s companions.
In 1847, while held at the village of Kulayn near Tihran on His way into exile, the Báb receives a sealed letter and gifts from Bahá'u'lláh, and His grief gives way to joy and confidence.
As a boy newly arrived in Tehran from Qum, the future Hand of the Cause Faizi enrolls at the Bahá'í Tarbiyat School and, following his friends, finds his way to a Friday Bahá'í class that shapes his whole life.
When the Grand Vizier Hájí Mírzá Áqásí tries to take Bahá'u'lláh's village of Quch-Hisar by fraud, the estate passes to the Sháh's sister, and Bahá'u'lláh answers the minister's accusations about His generous hospitality.
In Mashhad in 1848 Mullá Ḥusayn's attendant is cruelly paraded through the streets; after the ensuing uproar Prince Hamzih Mírzá receives Mullá Ḥusayn as a guest, and an admiring officer gives him a sword and a horse.
Told by Mullá Ḥusayn that the name of the Promised One could not be revealed, Mullá Ṣádiq-i-Muqaddas withdrew to pray in Iṣfahán and, in a vision, recognized the face of a Youth he had seen weeping in prayer at Karbilá.
On the morning of His martyrdom in July 1850, the Báb was led through the streets of Tabriz amid insults while three leading clerics, refusing even to see Him, supplied the warrants for His execution.
Mullá 'Alíy-i-Basṭámí followed Mullá Ḥusayn to Shíráz, sensed that his friend had found the Promised One, and on the third night of prayer was led by a vision to the Báb, becoming one of the Letters of the Living.
The great scholar Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl credited all his learning to Bahá'u'lláh, and when American pilgrims praised him in the presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, he wept, feeling unworthy of any praise.
Imprisoned in Chihríq, the Báb was so grieved by news of the fate of the defenders of Ṭabarsí that He languished in sorrow for five months; He then wrote in praise of Mullá Ḥusayn, Quddús and their companions.
Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí recalls going at dawn with his teacher Siyyid Kázim to visit a Youth from Shíráz in Karbilá, and later recognizing that Youth as the Báb.
Speaking to the Esperanto Society in Edinburgh in January 1913, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told of two friends in Baghdad whose gestures were misunderstood because they had no language in common.
In New York in 1912, John Bosch rode beside ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on the way to a luncheon at the Kinneys’ home, and the Master slept on his shoulder for the whole drive.
In his pilgrimage journal of 1911, Louis Gregory recalls a vision he had soon after accepting the Faith and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanation of it as four classes of people.
In London on 22 December 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told how Mary Magdalene went to the emperor of Rome on behalf of the Christians and asked that no one exact vengeance for the death of Christ.
May Bolles, one of the first Western pilgrims, recalls her journey from Marseilles by way of Port Said to Haifa and the morning she first met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
In 1920, while Shoghi Effendi was resting in Paris on his way to England, the pilgrim Núru’d-Dín Mumtází met him at a gathering, and Shoghi Effendi later visited his party and chanted a prayer for their pilgrimage.
Muhammad Big, who led the escort taking the Báb to Tabríz, recalled how at Milán an old woman brought a sick child to the Báb, the child was healed, and about two hundred people there believed.
When the Báb asked Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím in Shíráz whether he was seeking the Manifestation, he wept, and later told his friends how a vision of Siyyid Kázim and, years afterward, a white bird that spoke those very words to him in prayer had prepared him for that moment.
Mullá Husayn walked from Mashhad to visit the Báb in the castle of Máh-Kú, arriving at Naw-Rúz 1848. The Báb sent him on to Mázindarán, where, reading a manuscript shown him by his host Quddús, he found “God’s hidden treasure.”
After the death of Siyyid Kázim, Mullá Ḥusayn urged his fellow disciples to scatter in search of the Promised One. He spent forty days in prayer at the Masjid-i-Kufih, then travelled by way of Búshihr to Shíráz.
Born in Bushruyih in 1813 to a wealthy father and a mother known as a poetess, Mullá Ḥusayn studied in Mashhad and was drawn to Siyyid Kázim. At eighteen he set out for Karbilá, with most of his family, to study with him.
Siyyid Kázim sent his young disciple Mullá Ḥusayn to Iṣfahán to win back the support of a leading cleric. Mullá Ḥusayn obtained a written testimony to Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Kázim, and returned the money the cleric sent him.
In July 1850 the Báb and His young follower Anís were suspended before a regiment in the barracks square of Tabríz. The first volley only cut their ropes; the second took their lives, and a dust storm darkened the city.
Speaking at the Bowery Mission in New York in 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told of a rainy night when Jesus, with no shelter, called Himself the richest man on earth because God had given Him the poor.
Bahá'u'lláh intended His niece Shahr-Banu Khanum to marry His eldest Son, but relatives in Tihran prevented the match and forced her into another marriage, which left her in lasting grief.
Confined in Sari, Quddús wrote a commentary on one letter of a short Súrih that was three times as long as the Qur'án; besieged at Fort Shaykh Tabarsí, he wrote as much again, filling his companions with wonder.
During their 1906 pilgrimage to 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá came to Ali Kuli Khan's door with a handkerchief full of white roses for his wife Florence, fulfilling her long prayer to receive a rose from His hand.
On March 25, 1912, with His daughter Rúhá Khánum seriously ill, 'Abdu'l-Bahá bade farewell to the grieving friends at Alexandria and sailed on the S. S. Cedric with six companions, among them Shoghi Effendi.
On her first pilgrimage in 1923, the twelve-year-old Mary Maxwell stood guard at the door of her sleeping mother, May Maxwell, only to learn that the visitor she had challenged was Shoghi Effendi.
Sarah Farmer's vision of Green Acre as a place of peace and learning for all races and religions found its true purpose when she met 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká in 1900, and He visited Green Acre in 1912.
When the infant Shoghi Effendi woke crying one night, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had him brought so that He could comfort him, and told the Greatest Holy Leaf, “See, already he has dreams!”
When the young Shoghi Effendi took up 'Abdu'l-Bahá's pen and tried to write, the Master drew him close and told him it was time to play, for he would write a lot in the future.
Moved by the Tablets ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent to America in 1919, Mr. and Mrs. Hyde Dunn left California for Australia with barely fifteen dollars. Martha Root later found Bahá'í centers wherever they had lived, and was struck by their humility and faith.
On the day before His martyrdom in Tabríz, a youth, Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí, surnamed Anís, forced his way through the crowd and begged to follow the Báb. That night the Báb chose him to share His martyrdom.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá describes how, at Badasht, Ṭáhirih came forth unveiled, proclaiming the signs of the Day of Resurrection, and how the believers, after days of fear and confusion, regained their composure.
After the murder of Mullá Taqí, her husband's father, Ṭáhirih was held captive in Qazvín by relatives who blamed her for the crime. Bahá'u'lláh had her secretly brought to His home in Tihrán, from where she went on to Badasht.
Though the Báb was under guard in Tabríz, Ḥájí ‘Alí-‘Askar was admitted to His presence again and again, fulfilling Mullá Ḥusayn's promise that he would meet the Báb seven times.
Sent by the governor of Fárs to arrest the Báb, the leader of an armed escort met Him on the road. Moved by His words, he begged the Báb to flee, but the Báb gave Himself up and rode ahead of His escort to Shíráz.
‘Alí Khán, the harsh warden of the castle of Máh-Kú, saw the Báb praying by the river at dawn while the gates were still shut, then found Him seated in His room. The Báb's words changed his heart, and his severity gave way to humility.
At the Conference of Badasht in the summer of 1848, Ṭáhirih appeared before the assembled Bábís with her face unveiled, and the break of the new Dispensation from the laws of the past was proclaimed.
Bahá’u’lláh recalls how Mírzá ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb-i-Shírází, chained beside Him in the Ṭihrán prison, dreamed of soaring through infinite space, and went to his martyrdom that same morning wearing Bahá’u’lláh’s own shoes.
In a Tablet for His host in Káshán, the Báb prayed that Hájí Mírzá Jání's tongue be loosed to serve His Cause, and His unschooled host became able to hold his own against the most learned divines of the city.
Told he might visit Bahá’u’lláh once he owed no man anything, the Egyptian merchant ‘Abdu’l-Karím spent five years paying his debts, arrived at Haifa penniless, and was found at the dock by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
In July 1848 Mullá Ḥusayn raised the Black Standard and set out from Mashhad with his companions. Attacked near Bárfurúsh, he held back until the enemy had killed several of them, then charged, and a single stroke of his sword put the attackers to flight.
In February 1941, in the middle of the Second World War, ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan and his family travelled from Iran to Haifa. He recalls how Shoghi Effendi welcomed them, encouraged the persecuted Iranian believers and spoke about the station of Islam.
Adib Taherzadeh retells a Persian story: a king gives up his palace to follow a dervish, only to find the dervish unable to leave behind his small basket. Attachment, he explains, is not only to wealth.
At ‘Akká in January 1908 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told pilgrims of a king who found a ninety-year-old man planting date trees for the next generation, and whose grateful, witty answers earned him three gifts.
Muḥammad Sháh summoned the Báb from Iṣfahán to Ṭihrán, but his Prime Minister, Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí, had Him halted at Kulayn and sent instead to the fortress of Máh-Kú. On the way to Tabríz His escort came to love Him.
Visiting ‘Akká in 1905, the American pilgrim Mary Lucas watched ‘Abdu’l-Bahá listen gravely to His two-year-old granddaughter's troubles, and gently prompt her when she forgot a word while chanting Him a Tablet.
In Káshán the learned Siyyid ‘Abdu’l-Báqí heard the Báb revealing verses yet was unmoved and never asked who He was; when he learned days later, the Báb had gone, and he lived out his days in seclusion.
In Isfahán, a city famed for its clergy, the first to accept the Báb was a humble sifter of wheat, who later set out with his sieve to join the defenders of Shaykh Ṭabarsí; the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh both refer to him.
Unable to give money for the Temple, the Chicago seamstress Nettie Tobin hauled a discarded building stone to the Temple site in 1908; on May 1, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá used it when He dedicated the ground.
Jináb-i-Fáḍil's 1924 account of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's life, from His birth on the night of the Báb's declaration through the exiles and His years in 'Akká to His release by the Young Turk revolution of 1908.
In 'Akká 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked May Maxwell whether she would like a child, and she answered that she chose whatever God chose. In 1910 her daughter Mary was born, and the Master urged her to raise the child as a real Bahá'í.
Challenged by Fatḥ-'Alí Sháh to match a celebrated master's calligraphy, Mírzá 'Abbás-i-Núrí, the father of Bahá'u'lláh, copied it, added lines of his own, and was honoured with the name Mírzá Buzurg.
In Tihrán, a student from Núr visits Mullá Husayn at midnight. Hearing of a son of Mírzá Buzurg who feeds the hungry, Mullá Husayn sends Him a scroll; Bahá'u'lláh reads from it and sends back a gift.
Confined in her father's house in Qazvín and blamed for her father-in-law's murder, Ṭáhirih foretells her deliverance within nine days. Before the time is up, Bahá'u'lláh has her brought secretly to His home in Ṭihrán.
A retelling of the Báb's life: His childhood in Shiraz, His declaration to Mulla Husayn in 1844, His imprisonment, and His martyrdom in Tabriz in 1850, together with His promise of Him Whom God shall make manifest.
In Baghdad in 1862 the Báb's eldest uncle, still doubtful of his Nephew's claim, brought his questions to Bahá'u'lláh, Who answered them in two days and two nights with the Kitáb-i-Íqán, the Book of Certitude.
Khadíjih Bagum, the wife of the Báb, tells Munírih Khánum of the night in 1846 when the chief of police seized the Báb from their home in Shíráz, and of the years of isolation that followed.
In June 1870 Mírzá Mihdí, the Purest Branch, fell through a skylight while praying on the roof of the barracks in 'Akká. Offered recovery by Bahá'u'lláh, he asked instead that his life be accepted as a ransom so that the believers might enter His presence.
As a child of five or six on a visit to Beirut, Shoghi Effendi watched Dr. Baghdadi dissect a wildcat and afterwards repeated the main points of the lesson word for word.
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's wife had a fine new coat made for Him before a visit from the Governor of ‘Akká, He asked her to send it back and have five ordinary coats made for the same price, four of them to give away.
Tarázu'lláh Samandarí recalls hearing Bahá'u'lláh chant the Tablet of the Sultán on the First Day of Riḍván and handing roses to the friends at His bidding, and a later Riḍván in the Garden of Riḍván.
In the last months of His life ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told of two dreams: in one He raised the call to prayer before a vast multitude and went out; in the other Bahá’u’lláh told Him, “Destroy this room.”
Hájí Muhammad-Táhir-i-Malmírí recalls how Bahá'u'lláh answered the question about the Imams he had carried in his heart for months, and how, when he longed for martyrdom, Bahá'u'lláh told him he must live to serve the Cause.
On the evening of April 21, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá toured the Library of Congress with the Parsons and insisted on seeing each part thoroughly, until the superintendent ordered that the lights be left on.
After Sám Khán's regiment failed to harm the Báb, the Nasiri regiment carried out His execution in Tabríz in 1850. Nabíl records how, within three years, every member of that regiment had perished.
Shoghi Effendi describes how Táhirih, knowing her death was near, dressed as a bride and awaited her martyrdom in prayer, and how at her death she declared, “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”
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