The Rest of the Hotel

A retelling based on Mahmúd's Diary by Mírzá Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání. Words in quotation marks are as preserved in that account.

On a day in the first week of July 1912, in New York, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's day began as usual with morning prayers. Then He sent for His companions and gave thanks to the Most Great Name for the help and protection of the Ancient Beauty. Until noon He talked with seekers and visited with friends. For lunch He took a little milk and bread and then rested for a while, while the friends and companions stayed at the table and enjoyed the generous lunch.

In the afternoon a prominent gentleman invited the Master to the Plaza Hotel, which Mahmúd calls "one of the most elegant hotels and a gathering place for the American elite." His companions went along to see the building. The Master sat in one of the small rooms. When the manager of the hotel offered to show Him the rest of the hotel, He did not accept.

Afterwards He said to the friends: "When I see magnificent buildings and beautiful scenery, I contrast them with memories of the prison and of the persecutions suffered by the Blessed Beauty and my heart is deeply moved and I seek to avoid such sightseeing excursions."

Mahmúd set it down without comment. That night, he records, the Master spoke about God and creation: "The Kingdom of God is pre-existent and, since He is the Creator, without doubt He has always had a creation."

The next day was the Fourth of July, the anniversary of American independence, and there were celebrations everywhere. The Master had been invited to the parade, to which the mayor was also invited, and a special messenger had brought the invitation to Him at Montclair. "As it was not a spiritual occasion," Mahmúd writes, the Master did not go. To show His interest He sent His companions instead, wearing their Persian hats and 'abás. They were received with great honour as His representatives and given seats near the mayor's chair.

Mahmúd's diary of that year records other refusals. In Washington, at the end of April, Mrs Parsons offered the Master a sum of money. He told her to distribute it among the poor. She pleaded with Him, and still He would not take it. If they had not had the money needed for the expenses of the voyage, He said, they would have accepted her offer. That same day the Treasurer of the United States came to lunch with Him, and that evening Mrs Parsons gave a reception in His honour for three hundred guests in formal dress.

In May, at the Brotherhood Church in New Jersey, Dr Howard Colby Ives opened the service by speaking of his guest. Since arriving in America, he said, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had stayed at the Hotel Ansonia and "had not accepted any assistance from anyone, bearing all of His expenses personally." He had even given generously to institutions and churches that served the poor.

In Chicago, in September, some of the friends wanted to give Him money. They pleaded and entreated. He would not accept it, and asked that it be given to the poor.

In New York, on the twenty-ninth of November, with His departure near, some of the friends offered Him money, and again He refused, though they pleaded. "Distribute it among the poor on my behalf," He told them. "It will be as though I have given it to them. But the most acceptable gift to me is the unity of the believers, service to the Cause of God, diffusion of the divine fragrances and adherence to the counsels of the Abhá Beauty."

The New York believers had also collected gifts for the women of the Holy Household and for the Greatest Holy Leaf. The next day some of them, who had agreed among themselves to cling to His robe until He accepted, came and begged Him to take their offerings. He thanked them for their services and their hospitality. "In our house they do not wear diamond rings nor do they keep rubies," He said. "That house is sanctified above such adornments." He would take to His family their love, "which is the greatest of all gifts." He said He accepted their gifts, but He entrusted them back to them, to sell and send the proceeds to the fund for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, the House of Worship in Chicago. When they went on pleading, He said: "I want to take from you a present which will endure in the eternal world and a jewel which belongs to the treasuries of the heart. This is better."

However much they pleaded, He asked them all to give to the fund for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár instead. "He did this everywhere He traveled," Mahmúd wrote. Mrs Goodall and Mrs Cooper then asked whether they might at least share His travel expenses, and even wrote to some of His companions asking them to intercede. He refused every entreaty.

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see Mahmúd's Diary by Mírzá Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání.

Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání, M.. (1998). *Mahmúd's Diary: The Diary of Mírzá Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání*.