One day in London the Master gave His listeners an unusual, imaginative, yet…
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Studio narration for this story is coming — it’ll be generated by the cloud-TTS pipeline (voice: auto-selected from the source author).
When in Bahá'í history
London (today: London, UK)
One day in London the Master gave His listeners an unusual, imaginative, yet realistic dialogue between the Prophets and men: ‘Always, man has confronted the Prophets with this: “We are enjoying ourselves, and living according to our own opinions and desires. We ate; we slept; we sang; we danced. We had no fear of God, no hope of Heaven; we liked what we were doing, we had our own way. And then you came. You took away our pleasures. You told us now of the wrath of God, again of the fear of punishment and the hope of reward. You upset our good way of life.” ‘The Prophets of God have always replied: “You were content to stay in the animal world, We wanted to make you human beings. You were dark, We wanted you illumined; you were dead, We wanted you alive. You were earthly, We wanted you heavenly.”’
Source: Honnold, Annamarie, Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 141
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: tests).
Discuss this story
For adults
- Read the closing lines once more. What single phrase stays with you?
- What might 'Abdu'l-Bahá's example ask of us in our own circumstances?
- If you were to share this story aloud at a devotional gathering, which sentence would you read first?
For teens
- If you were in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's place, what might you have done?
- What does this story teach about hope?
Reflection
- What single image from this story will stay with you?
- Where in your own life are you being asked to practice hope?
- Read the passage a second time, slowly. What did you notice that you missed the first time?
Comprehension quiz
Which source is "One day in London the Master gave His listeners an unusual, imaginative, yet…" drawn from?
Where does this story take place?
What period of Bahá'í history does this story belong to?
Which historical figure is featured most prominently in this story?
Which virtue does this story most clearly illustrate?
Cite this story
Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/tests
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