art
5 stories on this theme.
Art Is Worship: A Painter's Question in London
In London in September 1911, a painter came to ask 'Abdu'l-Bahá whether art was a worthy vocation. The Master answered in three words. Then an actor asked about drama, and the conversation widened into a memory of a Mystery Play that, as a child, had kept Him sleepless for nights.
Paint My Servitude to God: Juliet Thompson and the Portrait
In June 1912 in New York, the painter Juliet Thompson was given an unprecedented privilege: 'Abdu'l-Bahá agreed to sit for her. The Diary preserves the moment He stopped her on the street, took her hand, and said *come tomorrow and paint;* and the cramped basement studio where He asked her to paint not the man but the *Servitude.*
A Compendium of Perfections: Mishkín-Qalam and the Perfected Craft
Mishkín-Qalam was the foremost calligrapher of Persia, his pen "the wonder of all calligraphers." He could have kept his comfort, his fame, and the favour of princes. Instead he crossed deserts and seas to find Bahá'u'lláh, and turned his perfected art into an act of worship — writing the Most Great Name in countless beautiful forms even from prison, until 'Abdu'l-Bahá called him "a compendium of perfections."
The Faithful Pen: Mishkín-Qalam
Mishkín-Qalam was the foremost calligrapher of Persia, welcomed in the courts of Ṭihrán and famed across Asia. He laid all of it down for the love of Bahá'u'lláh, was slandered as a dangerous agitator, and spent nine years a prisoner in the citadel of Famagusta — yet remained, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's words, mild and submissive, peerless for sincerity and loyalty. His was an honour the world could neither give him nor take away.
The Musk-Scented Pen Sent to Constantinople
Adib Taherzadeh, in *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh*, traces the mission of Mishkín-Qalam — Bahá'u'lláh's celebrated calligrapher — sent from Adrianople to Constantinople to teach by his art, then arrested through court intrigue and exiled to Cyprus, where he remained imprisoned for nine years.