Naw-Rúz at Bahjí and Feasts for the Poor

*A retelling based on **The Chosen Highway** by Lady Blomfield, which records the spoken memories of the women of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's family, among them His daughter Túbá Khánum, together with Lady Blomfield's own letters from 'Akká. Words in quotation marks are from that book.*

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Túbá Khánum, a daughter of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, told Lady Blomfield how her father cared for the people of 'Akká. When an elderly couple were ill in bed for a month, He visited them twenty times. To every sick person He sent a servant each day to ask: "Did you sleep? How are you?

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Do you need anything?" There was no hospital in 'Akká, so He paid a doctor, Nikolaki Bey, a regular salary to look after the very poor, and asked him not to say who was paying. "The poor were always His first care," she said. Sweets, fruit and cakes that were sent to Him He took to the friends. The Arabs called Him the "Lord of Generosity."

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During the First World War the family took refuge in the Druze village of Abu Sinan. Túbá Khánum remembered a Naw-Rúz from those years. "'Abdu'l-Bahá prepared the feast at Bahji, the shrine of Bahá'u'lláh. He Himself cooked it. All the friends were bidden." They walked the few miles from Abu Sinan to Bahjí, and He explained the day to His guests:

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"Before this vernal season, the earth, mountains, and gardens are as dead; this season brings life. In Persia the great vernal feast has been respected from far-off ages."

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At the end of the feast He chanted prayers at the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh, and at sunset the family and friends walked back to Abu Sinan.

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In May 1922, after 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing, Lady Blomfield visited 'Akká with the ladies of the family. They showed her the old Khan, built around a large courtyard. "Here the Master's custom was to assemble all the poor, especially the children, of 'Akka, on Feast Days, both Christian and Muslim, also on the anniversary of the Sultan's coronation. Here He regaled them with sweets, cakes, fruit, and tea. He had the middle fountain filled with sharbat, which was a great treat."

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At the great mosque she saw the courtyard where the poor gathered every Friday to receive alms from their "Beloved Father of the Poor." The people there said of Him: "He was Comforter, Protector, and Benefactor to all!"

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **The Chosen Highway** by Lady Blomfield.*

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