The Greatest Power

*A retelling for children, based on **Portals to Freedom** by Howard Colby Ives (George Ronald, 1937). The words in quotation marks are 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own, as Ives wrote them down.*

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There was a wedding, and it was a happy one.

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Two believers named Harlan and Grace were getting married, and the room was full of friends — but not only friends from nearby. People had come from all over the world to be there: from Paris and London, from Tehran and Bombay, from cities across America. Under one roof, the East and the West sat side by side, smiling together. It was a little picture of the whole human family in one room.

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And 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself had come to bless the marriage. He wore robes the color of cream and a white cap, and when it was time, He rose and lifted His hands and closed His eyes and chanted a beautiful prayer in Persian for the two of them.

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Howard, who was there to help, did not understand the Persian words. But he did not need to. The music of the chanting filled the quiet room and went straight into every heart, carrying its blessing past any need for translation.

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And of all the powers in the world, 'Abdu'l-Bahá taught that day, there is one that is the greatest of all:

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> The greatest king and sovereign is love.

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He did not mean it only for the bride and groom. He meant it for everyone in that room — for the friends from a dozen faraway lands, for the East and West sitting together, and for us, too. The same love that joins two people in marriage is the love that can join the whole world into one family. Love is the gentlest thing there is — and also the strongest.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["The Greatest Sovereign Is Love"](/stories/pf-the-greatest-sovereign-is-love).*

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