The City of Brotherly Love

A retelling for children, based on Mahmúd's Diary (entry for 9 June 1912).

One June morning, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His friends rode a train into a city called Philadelphia. They would only stay two days, and there was so much to do! But there was something special about this city, hidden right inside its name. Philadelphia means "brotherly love." It was a city named for love.

The very next afternoon, 'Abdu'l-Bahá was invited to speak at an enormous church on Broad Street. It was one of the most famous churches in the whole country. So many people crowded in to listen that there were more than a thousand of them — more than you could count if you tried all day. They gave 'Abdu'l-Bahá a full hour to speak, and they leaned in to hear every word.

Now, 'Abdu'l-Bahá could have begun by telling them all the new things they had never heard before. Instead, He started by praising the good they were already doing. He spoke kindly about their church and the wonderful work it did — its hospital that cared for the sick, its schools, and all the help it gave to poor families nearby. He praised their city, too, for welcoming people of different beliefs and letting them live together in peace.

Then, very gently, He showed them how their love could grow even bigger. Brotherly love, He said, should not stop with the people who pray the same way you do, or who look the same way you do. In this new age, that love was meant to reach every person in the whole human family — every single one, without leaving anybody out. This, He explained, was exactly what Bahá'u'lláh had come to teach the world.

This city is named for brotherly love. May it become, in our own time, the practice of the name.

When 'Abdu'l-Bahá finished, the church's own minister stood up. He thanked Him warmly and told everyone that it was the finest talk a visitor had given there in many years. He even asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá to please come back again someday.

It was only a short stop, just two days in one city. But think of what happened there. 'Abdu'l-Bahá had stood in a city named for love and shown its people how to truly live their name. And that is the gentle lesson He left behind: it is not enough only to call ourselves loving — real love is something we practice, by caring for everyone, with no one left outside.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Philadelphia: 'Abdu'l-Bahá at the Baptist Temple".

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