This Is My Glorious Crown

*A retelling based on **The Diary of Juliet Thompson**. Words in quotation marks are quoted from that diary.*

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On the morning of 11 July 1909, in 'Akká, Carrie Kinney ran into the room where Juliet Thompson was sitting. "Come, girls, hurry, something important is going on."

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Juliet followed her to the Kinneys' room. Mr Kinney was there with Mírzá Munír, his brother Amín, 'Ináyatu'lláh and a young Persian whose name she did not know, all looking very grave. One of the American pilgrims had always insisted on calling the Master "Jesus Christ" and gave the Message in that way, which Juliet thought very bad for the Cause. Some of the Persian believers had heard of it. The diary's editor notes that many of the early American believers held this idea, despite 'Abdu'l-Bahá's many denials.

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As Juliet sat down, Mr Kinney whispered to her: "We want to thresh this thing out--about the Master's Station." The Persian believers, he hoped, might convince the pilgrim where the Americans could not.

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"I don't believe," Juliet whispered back, "that the Master would want us to do that. He will straighten it out Himself."

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Almost at once the Master sent for the pilgrim. As far as Juliet knew, He said nothing to her on the subject.

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At luncheon that day He gave a talk that Juliet never forgot. "His Power, as He spoke, I shall never forget. It flashed from Him." His translator could hardly keep up. In the middle of the talk He rose and paced the small room from the door to the barred window, which looked out on the sea, and back again. He wore a black 'abá over His white robes, and a white turban. Among those present was Sydney Sprague, who had just spent a year in Persia.

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The Master said that in the days of the former Manifestations of God no clear warnings had been addressed to kings. Anyone could prophesy that a nation would one day fall, since every nation has its rise and its fall. But Bahá'u'lláh had addressed all the kings. He had addressed Napoleon III in person, and when Sultán 'Abdu'l-'Azíz "was at the climax of his sovereignty", Bahá'u'lláh had arraigned him and foretold the upheaval of his kingdom.

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"When the Blessed Perfection was a prisoner of 'Abdu'l-'Azíz, when He was in the dungeon of his majesty, He prophesied his downfall and arraigned him severely."

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He turned to Persia. At a time when the clergy there seemed all-powerful, the Bahá'í teachers of Ṭihrán, especially Mullá 'Alí-Akbar, had written to Him: "When the clergy of Persia were dispossessed of any power or political influence they persecuted us unmercifully. Now that they have attained this apparent supremacy what will they do to us?" He had answered: "Know ye of a certainty that this seeming influence and power will vanish." And, He said, "Even so it was that suddenly the page turned."

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Then He said:

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"But I did not write this of Myself. Nay, the confirmation of Bahá'u'lláh wrote this! Of Myself I did not write it.

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"Therefore the beloved of God must refer to Me only as 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This is My glorious crown! This is My eternal sovereignty! This is My everlasting life! Whosoever questions Me concerning My Name, My answer is: 'ABDU'L-BAHÁ!

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"And thus it ends!"

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Juliet wrote: "Forevermore shall I love the Name, 'Abdu'l-Bahá. As He spoke it, it sounded so triumphant." The Master left the room quickly.

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After He had gone, Mr Sprague said that when the Master's Tablets foretelling this reversal first arrived, they had been a great test to some of the believers. The clergy had seemed so powerful that it had seemed "against all reason and absolutely impossible that the situation should be reversed."

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In the note on that morning's incident, the diary's editor quotes a Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá on the same question, in which He wrote: "Thraldom to the Blessed Perfection is my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to all the human race my perpetual religion ... No name, no title, no mention, no commendation have I, nor will ever have, except 'Abdu'l-Bahá."

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **The Diary of Juliet Thompson**, entries for 10 and 11 July 1909.*

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