Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
By Lady Blomfield · 1940 · Bahá'í Publishing Trust
Formative Age (1921–1957) · public domain
First-person accounts of the Holy Family from a close Western disciple.
About Lady Blomfield
Sara Louisa, Lady Blomfield. English social reformer and one of the first European Bahá'ís. Hosted 'Abdu'l-Bahá at her London residence during His Western tours and recorded much of His teaching there.
1859–1939
Stories by era covered
Featured figures
“I wish you could have seen her as I first remember her, tall, slender,”
“graceful, eyes of dark blue - a pearl, a flower amongst women.”
“The Greatest Holy Leaf, her eyes charged with memories, was with us while”
“we listened. She had been there in that terrible time, and was sick of”
“that same fever, from the effects of which she has occasionally suffered”
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
Portals to Freedom
Secondary RetellingHoward Colby Ives · 1937
The Diary of Juliet Thompson
Secondary RetellingJuliet Thompson · 1947
World Order
Secondary RetellingWorld Order Editors · 1935
The Promised Day Is Come
Cited in Authoritative HistoryShoghi Effendi · 1941
Bahíyyih Khánum recalls her mother Ásíyih Khánum's marriage to Bahá'u'lláh, her forty mules of wedding treasures, and their life of caring for the poor. The jewelled buttons were later exchanged for bread on the road to exile.
In May 1922 the Greatest Holy Leaf went with Lady Blomfield and a party of ladies to the barracks of 'Akká, where she and her family had once been imprisoned, and listened as the rooms of the captivity were described.
The Greatest Holy Leaf tells Lady Blomfield of her family's winter exile from Tihrán to Baghdád: her father still ill from the Síyáh-Chál, the youngest child left behind, and her mother riding a jolting mule through the snow.
On 17 September 1911, at the invitation of Archdeacon Wilberforce, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed the congregation of St. John the Divine, Westminster, and the congregation knelt to receive His blessing.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembered the day in 1852 when a servant brought word that her father had been arrested, and the four months her mother spent in hiding with the children while He lay chained in the dungeon of Tihrán.
Visiting 'Akká in May 1922, Lady Blomfield wrote to her daughter about the small house where Bahá'u'lláh and His family had lived, and about sleeping in the room that had been Ásíyih Khánum's.
During the First World War, when no one could be found to carry a Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá from Haifa to Tihrán, Hájí Ramaḍán, an Arab believer of seventy-five and nearly blind, asked to go, walked there, and came back.
In the village of Manshad a boy heard chanting at secret meetings and asked the Babi doctor Radiu'r-Ruh what it meant. The doctor warned that telling him could cost many lives, then taught him; later he was poisoned for his faith.
In Paris in 1911 'Abdu'l-Bahá told an artist that all true art is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The artist's questions led to the blind eyes that cannot see the Sun of Truth, and the Master answered with a prayer.
Bahá'u'lláh granted Khadíjih-Bagum, the widow of the Báb, permission to make the pilgrimage to 'Akká. When danger closed the road through Shíráz, she fell ill and died with words of praise.
In 1917, with the usual roads closed by war, Haji Ramadan, a nearly blind believer of seventy-five, offered to carry a Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá on foot from Haifa to Tihrán, and returned with letters and gold.
Pilgrims walking from Persia carried plants for Bahá'u'lláh's garden near 'Akká. After nine years within the prison city's walls, He was persuaded to leave them, and the Sultán's farmán against Him became a dead letter.
In Baghdad a secret midnight audience with Bahá'u'lláh was requested. The reply was a verse He had composed in the wilderness of Kurdistan, and it told plainly what coming to Him would cost.
Early in 1916, though tired and unwell, 'Abdu'l-Bahá drove from Haifa to Nazareth to meet Jamál Páshá. On the way He prayed for a gravely ill girl in the village of Majdal, and in Nazareth the general who had been His enemy treated Him with every courtesy.
A pasha exiled to 'Akká from Yemen, near death, entrusted 'Abdu'l-Bahá with a bag of gold for his daughter. The Master paid for his funeral Himself and sent a dervish to Ṣan'á, who put the gold into her own hands.
When Ásíyih Khánum married Bahá'u'lláh, forty mules carried her wedding treasures. Together they cared for the poor, and when hard times came, her jewels paid for food and her gold buttons were traded for bread.
In May 1922 the Greatest Holy Leaf visited the old barracks in 'Akká where her family had been imprisoned, and Lady Blomfield wrote that her eyes were charged with memories.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembers the freezing winter journey her family made from Tihrán to Baghdád when she was six, and how her mother never complained.
In September 1911 Archdeacon Wilberforce invited 'Abdu'l-Bahá to speak at his London church, and the whole congregation knelt to receive His blessing.
When Bahá'u'lláh was arrested and chained in a dark prison in Tihrán, His wife Ásíyih Khánum hid their three children and went out at night to learn whether He was still alive.
On a visit to 'Akká in 1922, Lady Blomfield slept in the room that had belonged to Ásíyih Khánum, the wife of Bahá'u'lláh, and wrote to her daughter about the peaceful feeling of that room.
Bahíyyih Khánum, daughter of Bahá'u'lláh, recalls to Lady Blomfield her childhood of danger and exile, her work at her mother's side, and her choice to remain unmarried so as to serve her family.
Túbá Khánum, a daughter of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, remembers Bahá'u'lláh's last illness at Bahjí, His farewell to the family, and the nine days of mourning in which the Master received more than five hundred guests and gave to the poor.
Before His exile, Bahá'u'lláh and His wife Navváb spent their wealth caring for the poor of Ṭihrán. Their daughter recalled that nobody was turned away from their door, and that the people called Him "The Father of the Poor."
Bahíyyih Khánum remembered her mother, Ásíyih Khánum, who married Bahá'u'lláh in 1835: her wealth as a bride, her gentleness, and the care for the poor that led people to call her the Mother of Consolation.
After Bahá'u'lláh's passing, enemies within His own family slandered 'Abdu'l-Bahá to Ottoman officials. The Chosen Highway recalls the Commission of Inquiry, the family's anxious waiting, and the Master's release in 1908.
In December 1898 the first pilgrims from the West began to reach 'Akká to meet 'Abdu'l-Bahá. One of them, Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper, later described entering the prison-city by night with Phoebe Hearst and being led up to the Master by candlelight.
'Abdu'l-Bahá, then eighteen, arranged His Father's stay in the Garden of Riḍván and crossed the Tigris with Him. There, The Chosen Highway relates, Bahá'u'lláh confided to Him that He was "He Whom God shall make Manifest."
A Governor of 'Akká tried to close the Bahá'ís' shops and was dismissed from office the same morning. 'Abdu'l-Bahá comforted him and sent his family safely to Damascus, and the Governor wrote asking His pardon.
Ásíyih Khánum, whom Bahá'u'lláh called Navváb, came to her marriage with forty mule-loads of wedding treasures. Her daughter remembered how she sold them for the family's exile, did the hardest work in poverty and prison, and never uttered a word of complaint.
In 'Akká 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave coins to the poor in the street, a warm garment each winter to every poor person in the town, and help to the sick of every faith. During the First World War He saved the civilians of Haifa from starvation.
During the First World War 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself cooked the Naw-Rúz feast for the friends at Bahjí. On feast days He gathered the poor children of 'Akká for sweets and sharbat.
In April 1863 Bahíyyih Khánum, then in her teens, helped the household prepare for exile while Bahá'u'lláh stayed in the Garden of Riḍván. The Tigris overflowed, and only on the ninth day could the family join Him there.
Mírzá Asadu'lláh Káshání and other companions pitched Bahá'u'lláh's tent in the Garden of Riḍván, cooked and made tea, held the tent ropes through days of wind, and kept watch at night during the twelve days of 1863.
Ásíyih Khánum, whom Bahá'u'lláh called Navváb, lost her wealth and home when He was imprisoned in Ṭihrán, and shared His exile. In 1863 she and the rest of the family joined Him in the Garden of Riḍván on the ninth day.
Years before the First World War, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had Bahá'í villagers near the Jordan grow and store grain. In the famine years He fed the poor of Haifa, 'Akká and the surrounding district, and afterwards the British Government conferred a knighthood on Him.
When an unfriendly governor of 'Akká fell from office, 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent him a precious ring and His good wishes. When another official asked for His cloak, He offered the only one He had.
During His nine weeks in Paris in 1911, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke to a poor congregation in a mission hall, walked through a rowdy crowd that parted for Him, and comforted a weeping widow whose son faced a dangerous operation.
In Baghdád 'Abdu'l-Bahá grew into a youth beloved by all who knew Him. The Chosen Highway records how, before the exile of 1863, He shielded His Father, arranged His move to the Garden of Riḍván and set out with Him on the journey to Constantinople.
See also: all sources · editorial process · library stats