When He reached the Occident, however, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá faced a
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When in Bahá'í history
New York (today: New York, USA)
'When He reached the Occident, however, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá faced a condition which troubled Him greatly, because it was beyond His power to assuage the misery He saw constantly about Him. Housed luxuriously at Cadogan Gardens, London, He knew that within a stone's throw of Him were people who had never had enough to eat -- and in New York there was exactly the same situation. These things made Him exceedingly sad, and He said: "The time will come in the near future when humanity will become so much more sensitive than at present that the man of great wealth will not enjoy his luxury, in comparison with the deplorable poverty about him. He will be forced, for his own happiness, to expend his wealth to procure better conditions for the community in which he lives."'
Source: Honnold, Annamarie, Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 67
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: poverty).
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