Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
By 'Abdu'l-Bahá · 1922 · Bahá'í Publishing Trust
Formative Age (1921–1957) · public domain
Talks delivered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His 1912 American journey.
About 'Abdu'l-Bahá
Eldest son of Bahá'u'lláh and, by His Father's explicit Covenant, the appointed Centre of the Faith and authoritative interpreter of His Writings. Travelled to Egypt, Europe, and North America between 1911 and 1913, founding the Western Bahá'í community.
1844–1921 · Centre of the Covenant
Stories by era covered
Featured figures
“It is better for you to be killed than to kill.”
“And He gave them a standard by which to judge:”
“They are the exact counterpart of each other.”
“there was no trace of the spring left.”
“an educational institution for blacks.”
Memorials of the Faithful
Primary Source'Abdu'l-Bahá · 1915
Some Answered Questions
Primary Source'Abdu'l-Bahá · 1908
Paris Talks
Primary Source'Abdu'l-Bahá · 1912
Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbas
Primary Source'Abdu'l-Bahá · 1909
Bahá'í World Faith
Primary Source'Abdu'l-Bahá · 1943
A Traveler's Narrative
Primary Source'Abdu'l-Bahá · 1886
'Abdu'l-Bahá in London
Primary Source'Abdu'l-Bahá · 1912
Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá
Primary Source'Abdu'l-Bahá
The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation
Cited in Authoritative HistoryNabíl-i-A'ẓam · 1932
God Passes By
Cited in Authoritative HistoryShoghi Effendi · 1944
The Chosen Highway
Secondary RetellingLady Blomfield · 1940
Portals to Freedom
Secondary RetellingHoward Colby Ives · 1937
The Diary of Juliet Thompson
Secondary RetellingJuliet Thompson · 1947
World Order
Secondary RetellingWorld Order Editors · 1935
Speaking in Chicago in November 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told the believers how the Bahá'ís of Yazd, though strong enough to resist, met their executioners without raising a hand, some even offering them sweets.
In New York in 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá declared His station as Centre of the Covenant and named the city the City of the Covenant. Three days before He sailed, He spoke there of the Covenant as Bahá'u'lláh's safeguard against division.
On 13 April 1912, three weeks after Naw-Rúz, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at a New York home about the seasons. The coming of each Manifestation of God, He said, is a divine springtime, and Bahá'u'lláh has renewed that springtime.
On 23 April 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at Howard University in Washington to an audience of Black and white listeners. He told them there are no whites and blacks before God, and compared humanity to a garden of many-colored flowers.
In Washington in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told of Isfandíyár, a black servant of Bahá'u'lláh who, though hunted by the Sháh's officers, stayed in Ṭihrán for a month to pay the family's debts in full before he would leave.
On April 19, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke to several hundred poor and homeless men at the Bowery Mission in New York, called them His friends and comrades, and afterwards placed silver coins in each man's hand.
At the Central Congregational Church in Brooklyn in June 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá praised a pulpit open to every belief, and said that religious discord comes from ancestral imitations, not from the one reality all religions share.
On June 2, 1912, speaking for the second time at the Church of the Ascension in New York, 'Abdu'l-Bahá described the church as a collective center and the Manifestations of God as the real Collective Centers of mankind.
On June 15, 1912, in New York, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told the Bahá'ís that He did not want them distinguished by wealth or worldly success, but by love, justice, steadfastness and service to humanity.
At the Church of the Divine Paternity in New York on May 19, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá taught that religions are many but the reality of religion is one, that religion must agree with science, and that it must bring unity.
At a Washington synagogue on 8 November 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá argued that Christ had spread the Torah and the name of Moses throughout the world, and that Christians and Jews should therefore love one another.
At the Town Hall in Fanwood, New Jersey, on 31 May 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá traced the weakness of religion to the hatred between sects and to blind imitation, and said that the Prophets, as true shepherds, come to unite people.
On 5 December 1912, before sailing from New York, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke to the believers who crowded aboard the Celtic to say goodbye, telling them that the earth is one native land and asking them to offend no heart.
On the morning of 5 November 1912, at the Grand Hotel in Cincinnati, 'Abdu'l-Bahá dictated a statement for the people of America on peace and on Bahá'u'lláh's call for an international conference of the nations.
At Green Acre on 16 August 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá described four ways of reaching knowledge and showed that none is reliable alone, spoke on love and the immortality of the spirit, and prayed for the recovery of Sarah Farmer.
At a reception given by the New York Peace Society at the Hotel Astor on 13 May 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told some two thousand people that there is no greater glory than service in the cause of the Most Great Peace.
At the Hotel Plaza in Chicago on 3 May 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá said that philosophers can educate only a few, while the Prophets of God bestow universal education, and He commended Bahá'u'lláh's Hidden Words.
On April 23, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed Howard University in Washington, D.C., one of the foremost Black universities in the country. Rejoicing to see white and black seated together, He told them that before God there are no whites and blacks, and that humanity is a garden whose many-colored flowers are its adornment.
At the International Peace Forum in New York on May 12, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá expressed the hope that America would be first to raise the banner of peace, since a nation with no colonies to protect could not be suspected of selfish motives.
On April 30, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at Hull House, the Chicago settlement house founded by Jane Addams in 1889. With Miss Addams presiding, He spoke to a crowded hall of white and Black listeners on the unity of the races, whose differences of color He likened to the flowers of one garden.
At the dedication of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár grounds in Wilmette on May 1, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá foretold thousands of Houses of Worship in East and West, described the one at 'Ishqábád, and said the Chicago Temple must be circular, not triangular.
Speaking at the Maxwell home in Montreal on September 2, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá compared human nature left untrained to land overgrown with thorns, and the Prophets of God to Gardeners who turn the wild field into an orchard.
Addressing the NAACP's Fourth Annual Conference in Chicago on April 30, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá said that color is accidental, that the true measure of a person is spirit and intelligence, and that the purity of the heart is what matters.
At the Orient-Occident-Unity Conference in Washington on April 20, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke of a bond between Persia and America, recalled that Bahá'u'lláh called all people leaves of one tree, and hoped America would be first to establish international agreement.
At the Hotel Schenley in Pittsburgh on May 7, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá set out six principles of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings, from the investigation of truth to the equality of man and woman, and said universal peace must come through spiritual power.
On October 7, 1912, at the Japanese Independent Church in Oakland, California, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association that all war has come from prejudice, recalling a religious war He had seen in Rumelia.
At the Krug home on Park Avenue, New York, on July 15, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá contrasted thanks spoken by the tongue with thanks felt in the heart and shown in deeds, and asked the friends to love one another.
Speaking in Sacramento on October 26, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá warned that Europe was like an arsenal that one spark would set aflame, called international peace the greatest need of the day, and said that divine revelation never ceases.
On October 8, 1912, at the invitation of President David Starr Jordan, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at Stanford University on the sovereignty of science and the oneness of all things, and asked why man, endowed with mind, should make war on his fellowman.
On October 12, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco. He praised Moses and asked His Jewish hearers why they, in turn, should not acknowledge Christ and Muḥammad.
About a week after the Titanic sank, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke of the disaster at the Parsons home in Washington, likening the soul's passage through death to an infant's birth into the wider world.
At the Hotel Plaza in Chicago on May 2, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá contrasted true consultation with parliamentary quarrelling, and described the disciples of Christ taking counsel together on the mount after His ascension.
At a dinner at the Parsons home in Washington on April 22, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told how a Zoroastrian high priest lost his prejudice against Muḥammad, and compared it with the power that had brought East and West to one table.
See also: all sources · editorial process · library stats