Why Do You Not Execute?

A retelling based on Portals to Freedom by Howard Colby Ives (George Ronald, 1937). The narrative is retold in our own words; the short phrase in quotation marks is verbatim from the book. Read the full text for Ives's own telling.

The believers in New York had formed, as believers will, a committee — an executive committee, charged with carrying forward the practical work of the Cause in that city. And one day 'Abdu'l-Bahá came and sat with them while they met.

For about half an hour He listened. The members deliberated, as committees do — discussing, weighing, considering this point and that, turning the matters over among themselves. The Master said little. He simply sat and took in the proceedings.

Then, quietly, He rose to go. The members watched Him move toward the door. And there, at the threshold, He stopped. He turned and looked at their assembled faces, and after a moment of silence He asked them a single question — gentle, almost playful, and utterly disarming:

Why do you not execute?

That was all. You call yourselves an executive committee, the question implied — but where are the deeds? You have spent this half hour in excellent discussion; when does the doing begin?

Howard Colby Ives, who set the moment down, recognized it as pure 'Abdu'l-Bahá: a whole teaching delivered not as a lecture but as one quiet, smiling question that opened a window and let the fresh air in. He did not scold them. He simply named, with a touch of humor, the very thing every committee in the world is tempted to forget — that talk, however wise, is only the beginning, and that the purpose of deliberation is, in the end, to act.

The members surely laughed, and surely also felt the gentle point of it go home. For the word lingers, as He meant it to: a kindly nudge to all of us who are so good at meeting and planning and discussing — and who must, sooner or later, get up from the table and execute.

This account is retold for the Bahai Story Library; it is a paraphrase, not the original text. The quoted phrase is verbatim from Portals to Freedom (Howard Colby Ives, George Ronald, 1937). See the source for Ives's complete telling.

Ives, H. C.. (1937). *Portals to Freedom*. George Ronald. https://bahai-library.com/ives_portals_freedom