Not Even a Salad

*A retelling based on **The Diary of Juliet Thompson** (Kalimát Press; diary entry dated 25 April 1912). The narrative is retold in our own words; the short lines in quotation marks are verbatim from the Diary. Read the [full text](https://bahai-library.com/thompson_diary) for Juliet's own account.*

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It was the 25th of April, 1912, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá was a guest at the Turkish Embassy in Washington. The table was a beautiful one — laden, Juliet Thompson noted, with hundreds of roses — and around it sat a distinguished company, including the Turkish Minister, Díyá Páshá.

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Díyá Páshá was a devout Muslim and a seasoned diplomat, a man who had once seemed cool, even skeptical, toward the Bahá'í teachings. Yet now, seated across from 'Abdu'l-Bahá, he found himself with tears in his eyes.

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During the meal the conversation turned to a weighty question: could spiritual power heal even the most extreme physical conditions — could it, say, mend a broken bone? It was the kind of question that can tie a table in knots, inviting either overclaiming or awkward denial.

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'Abdu'l-Bahá answered it with a smile. A great bowl of salad happened to be sitting before Him. He gestured, in effect, toward it, and observed:

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> If all the spirits in the air were to congregate together, they could not create a salad!

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The table surely laughed — and in laughing, understood. He had punctured, in one stroke, the confusion between the spiritual and the material: each realm has its own laws and its own proper work, and it is no insult to the power of the spirit to say that a salad belongs to the kitchen. Profound truth had arrived dressed as a joke, and everyone was the wiser and the lighter for it.

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There was a deeper note, too. After dinner, the old diplomat rose, deeply moved, and addressed 'Abdu'l-Bahá in soaring words — calling Him the Light of the world, the Unique One of the age. And the Master, who could have simply received the homage, answered with four quiet words:

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> I am not worthy of this.

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That humility, set beside the playful wit of the salad, completed the portrait. Later, saying goodnight to Juliet, Díyá Páshá — the once-skeptical diplomat — could only shake his head through his tears and say of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, *Truly, He is a Saint.* He had come to a formal dinner; he left having met, in one evening of laughter and lowliness, a soul that overturned all his expectations.

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*This account is retold for the Bahai Story Library; it is a paraphrase, not the original text. The quoted lines are verbatim from The Diary of Juliet Thompson. See the source for Juliet's complete entry.*

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