The Ship Beyond the Horizon

Between 1901 and 1905 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl to teach in the United States, and Ali Kuli Khan went with him as his interpreter. At the end of one teaching trip, Dr. Khan reminded Abu'l-Fadl that, day after day, he had offered service to the best of his ability and, in view of this, would Abu'l-Fadl answer just one question: What really happened to the soul after death? Abu'l-Fadl looked at Khan very thoughtfully - and changed the subject. A few days later, as they were nearing Washington, Dr. Khan repeated his question - "Please tell me - what does happen to the soul after death?" Abu'l-Fadl glanced at Khan and changed the subject. Finally they reached Washington and the day before Abu'l-Fadl was to return to Acca. Dr. Khan asked the question for the third time. Abu'l-Fadl smiled and went away. Two or three years went by and one day Khan was sitting on a beach, looking at the sea. On the horizon was a ship, and as first the hull and then the sails slipped out of sight - suddenly, gloriously, Khan knew what happened to the soul after death. For, to those on board that ship nothing had happened - they were still on their familiar ship sailing the same sea. So, some time later when Ali Kuli Khan met Abu'l-Fadl in Acca he told him of this experience and added - "Why was it you refused, when I first asked you, to answer my question?" Abu'l-Fadl said, lovingly, "If, my dear friend, you would have been able to understand my answer, you would never have asked the question."

Source: Reginald Grant Barrow, Mother's Stories: Stories of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Early Believers told by Muriel Ives Barrow Newhall to her son, pp. 7–8, as told to her by Ali Kuli Khan in New York about 1934.

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: teaching).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/teaching