My Invitation to America

‘Abdu’l-Bahá was released from prison in 1908 because of the revolt of the Young Turks against the Ottoman Sultan ‘Abdu’l-Hamid. Almost immediately, Western believers began petitioning Him to visit their countries. The Americans, in particular, were eager for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to visit their shores, but He made it plain that He would not visit there until the Bahá’í community was united.

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In the spring of 1911, after a period of prayer for unity during the Fast, the American believers sent Him a supplication bearing more than 850 signatures, begging Him to come to America. That summer, at Thonon on the Lake of Geneva, Juliet Thompson was driving with Him when He said, smiling, “If I come to America, will you invite me to see such waterfalls?” “Does your coming,” she smiled in return, “depend on my invitation?” “My invitation to America,” was the reply, “will be the unity of the believers.”

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