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](https://bahai-library.com/ives_portals_freedom) for Ives's own telling.*

1 / 9

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.

2 / 9

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.

3 / 9

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:

4 / 9

> Why do you not execute?

5 / 9

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?

6 / 9

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*.

7 / 9

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.

8 / 9

*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.*

9 / 9