News of the Master's Passing
Star of the West Editors, Star of the West, (1922), Bahai News Service · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
Haifa (today: Haifa, Israel)
'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away in Haifa in the early hours of 28 November 1921. A cablegram addressed to Roy Wilhelm in New York carried the news to America. It was signed by the Greatest Holy Leaf, Bahíyyih Khánum, the sister of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and it was one line long:
His Holiness Abdul-Baha ascended to Abha Kingdom. Inform friends.
The Star of the West printed a facsimile of the cablegram in its issue of 12 December 1921. Beneath it, under the heading "The Night has come," the editors wrote that with these words the Bahá'ís of the whole world were stunned, and they recalled words the Master had spoken some years before:
These great days are swiftly passing and once gone can never be recalled, so while the rays of the Sun of Truth are still shining and the Center of the Covenant of God is manifest, let us go forth to work, for after awhile the night will come and the way to the Vineyard will not then be so easy to find.
The issue of 19 January 1922 reprinted an article from the Haifa newspaper Annafir. It told how 'Abdu'l-Bahá had felt unwell only three days before His passing. At five o'clock on His last evening two notables of Haifa visited Him and asked whether He would like to change His room. He answered:
I saw in a dream that I should occupy this room and not choose another one. I have now stopped building on the surface of the earth and I will build within the earth.
He walked to the door with His visitors to bid them farewell. The article went on to describe the funeral on the morning of 29 November: the crowds that filled the road up Mount Carmel, the High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, walking behind the casket, and the eulogies spoken at the Tomb of the Báb by Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders of the Holy Land.
The same issue opened with a cable from the Greatest Holy Leaf dated 16 January 1922, announcing that in His Will 'Abdu'l-Bahá had appointed His grandson, Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Cause. The issues of February and March printed letters about the Master's passing from His daughter Munavvar Khánum and from several believers.
A retelling based on Star of the West, Volume 12, Nos. 15–19 (December 1921 – March 1922). For the fuller account, see the original.
Cite this story
Editors, S. O. T. W.. (1922). *Star of the West*. Bahai News Service. https://bahai-library.com/star_of_the_west_volume_12
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