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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
58 stories on this theme.
In Paris in 1901, Thomas Breakwell heard a voice in the wind say “Christ has come again!” He learned of Bahá'u'lláh from May Bolles, visited 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká, and gave the rest of his short life to service.
A man who once set out to kill a Bahá'í becomes a believer, walks six months to 'Akká, and passes unseen through the guarded prison gate into the presence of Bahá'u'lláh.
A children's class teacher uses a prism to show how God's attributes are like the colours hidden in white light, then asks each child to live out one attribute during the week.
Moved to tears by verses Nabíl read to him, the unruly youth Áqá Buzurg walks to 'Akká, meets Bahá'u'lláh twice, receives the name Badí, and is given the task of carrying His Tablet to the Sháh.
The youth Buzurg of Nayshábúr walks to 'Akká, is named Badí by Bahá'u'lláh, and carries His Tablet on foot to Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, giving his life rather than betray his fellow believers.
Bahá'u'lláh's family lives happily in Tihrán until the day He is arrested and cast into an underground prison, where He comes to know that God has given Him a mission for the whole world.
Honest Bahá'í pioneers in Egypt build a thriving store and send Bahá'u'lláh a money belt full of gold. When riots leave the store in ashes, the belt comes back to them by post, untouched.
A life of Bahá'u'lláh for children: His boyhood in Tihrán, His refusal of His father's post, the Báb's letter brought by Mullá Ḥusayn, prison and exile, and His declaration in the Garden of Riḍván.
A fable for children: Beebird's endless song keeps the other animals awake, so he looks for a way to sing softly, and becomes the humming Hummingbird.
Elizabeth tries so hard to be Good that she stops playing and exploring. Her Grandma Molly, watching a mother robin teach her babies to fly, shows her that we all need to take some chances.
Lonely on her family's farm, eight-year-old Twinkle prays for a brother or sister. A visit from Sparkle, Aunt Sally's adopted daughter, shows her that loving and being kind to others can make them family.
In 1912 Nettie Tobin, a Chicago Bahá'í with little money, hauled a stone a builder had rejected all the way to the House of Worship site, where 'Abdu'l-Bahá used it at the dedication.
When Bahá'u'lláh was a child, His father dreamed that He swam in a huge ocean while many fishes held on to His hair and followed Him. A wise man explained what the dream meant.
When Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned, His faithful servant Isfandíyár, hunted by officers, stayed in Ṭihrán until he had paid every debt, and later obeyed Bahá'u'lláh by remaining loyal to the minister who had sheltered him.
Born to wealth, Bahá'u'lláh and Ásíyih Khánum chose to care for the poor and became known as the Father of the Poor and the Mother of Consolation. As a boy, 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave away all His Father's sheep.
After Bahá'u'lláh's passing, 'Abdu'l-Bahá made a garden by His Father's Shrine and carried water for it Himself. On Holy Days He led the pilgrims, carrying pots of flowers, to the Shrine.
A children's story with invented characters, based on events in Yazd in 1982: when an official comes to seize the Bahá'ís' furniture, a carpenter and his neighbors gladly give it all up for the sake of God.
A children's introduction to the Báb through the words of people who knew Him: His schoolteacher, a visitor who met Him in Karbilá, and His wife, who saw Him praying late at night.
Running late for Feast, a father tells his son how the merchant ‘Azíz, delayed in Istanbul by unsold goods, met the father of Badí' and became a Bahá'í. When they arrive, they learn why their own delay was a blessing.
At a school club's lunch meeting near Naw-Rúz, children of many faiths compare the spring holy days they celebrate, share Naw-Rúz cookies, and decide to make a library display so everyone can learn about them.
Walking home alone on a cold, wet day, a seven-year-old boy finds a shivering white kitten in the mud and carries it home, where his mother praises his kindness to animals.
On a beach in Oahu at sunset, the old kahuna Koae tells his grandson Keola about the white tropic bird he is named for, and what its high home, white feathers and forked tail can teach about a pure heart.
A fable for children: jealous of her dark twin, Moonshine tells Nightshadow that the creatures fear her, and Nightshadow leaves the sky, until Moonshine learns that each sister is needed and begs her forgiveness.
A grandmother tells Sanam how, as a girl in Tihrán, she saw Bahá'u'lláh led through a hostile crowd, and heard Him tell His guards to let an old woman cast her stone.
Túbá Khánum, a daughter of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, recalls how in 'Akká her grandfather Bahá'u'lláh let the children choose cloth for their frocks, saved sweets for them and promised picnics at the Riḍván.
During an asthma attack, seven-year-old Brently sits on his grandfather's lap and hears how the Báb sent His pens and seals to Bahá'u'lláh, with a blue scroll bearing the word Bahá in 360 forms.
After a summer storm, Kevin and Laura find sea stars stranded all along a beach and a boy carrying them back to the water. They decide to help him.
Shaykh Ahmad becomes sure from the Qur'an that the Promised One will soon appear. He travels far and wide to tell people, and at last asks Siyyid Kazim to carry on his work.
The life of Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb: his mission to Tihrán, his walk to the prison of Máh-Kú, the defense of Fort Shaykh Ṭabarsí, and his death in 1849.
As a small Mohawk boy in Ontario, Jim Loft was waved to by 'Abdu'l-Bahá from a passing train. Years later, as a Bahá'í, he returned to his reserve at the Guardian's request to teach the Faith.
Shoghi Effendi's boyhood in the household of his grandfather 'Abdu'l-Bahá: his name, morning prayers and breakfast with the Master, the Tablet telling him to memorize and chant prayers, and the surname Rabbani.
During His two years in the mountains of Kurdistan, Bahá'u'lláh, dressed as a dervish, comforts a weeping schoolboy and writes out a copy for him. The teacher sees that the writing is royal penmanship.
Ṭáhirih studies the books of Shaykh Ahmad, travels to Karbilá, and sees the Báb in a dream. Without ever meeting Him, she sends Him a message and becomes the only woman among the Letters of the Living.
Tammy finds a cocoon in the woods and wishes it were not so ugly. Her mother asks her to be patient, and that night Tammy wakes to find a bright blue butterfly on her finger.
A boy in a wheelchair, rescued from bullies one Halloween, remembers his friendship with Isfandiyar, a Bahá'í named after the faithful servant of Bahá'u'lláh whom 'Abdu'l-Bahá praised.
In 1846 the Báb was warmly welcomed in Isfahán. When jealous clerics called for His death, the governor, Manúchihr Khán, secretly sheltered Him; after the governor died, the Báb was sent to Máh-Kú.
In the summer of 1848 eighty-one Bábís gathered at Badasht as the guests of Bahá'u'lláh. There Táhirih appeared unveiled and declared that the fetters of the past were burst asunder.
Boys who had shouted and thrown sticks at 'Abdu'l-Bahá's party in New York came to meet Him. He welcomed each one, called the only black boy a black rose, and gave them all chocolates.
Riding in the countryside, Bahá'u'lláh met a dervish who said he was cooking God. After Bahá'u'lláh spoke with him, the dervish left his cooking things behind to follow Him, chanting a love-song he had made in His praise.
Curious about the Zoroastrian fire temple near his school, Ashok travels back in his Time Capsule to see Zarathustra heal King Vishtaspa's horse and teach good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
Carrie's family must sell her mare, Lady, who is to be given away in a drawing at the horse show. Carrie spends her savings on tickets and loses, but the winner, an old school friend of her father's, asks her to keep and care for Lady.
Muhammad Shah sends his most learned servant, Vahíd, to question the Báb. Over three meetings Vahíd's doubts fall away, and when the Báb offers, unasked, to explain the very chapter of the Qur'an he had in mind, he becomes His follower.
A grandfather tells his grandson how the Báb's eldest uncle, unsure that his Nephew could be a Messenger of God, took his questions to Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, and how the Kitáb-i-Íqán was revealed in two days and two nights.
A little girl in America tells her mother that Jesus is in the world again. Out walking, she points to a picture of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in a shop window, and her mother sets out at once for Paris to see Him.
Jerry takes home a hungry stray kitten and cares for her himself. When she has three kittens his family cannot keep, he finds each of them a good home.
Jealous courtiers tell a king that his favoured servant creeps each night to a far room with a bundle. The king follows and learns the bundle holds the servant's old rags, which he wears each night so that he will always stay grateful.
An Arab shepherd tells Siyyid Kázim of a dream in which Muhammad foretold that Siyyid Kázim would die three days after returning to Karbilá, and that the Promised One would soon make Himself known.
Mama hides five letter cards around the house for Roya and Lanie. The letters spell "truth," and each hiding place shows a way to search for the truth for yourself.
A children's magazine article explains scientists' ideas about how the universe began and how it may end, then shares what Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote: that God's creation has no beginning and no end.
At dawn in Karbilá, Siyyid Kázim takes a friend to visit a Youth in a green turban. Three days later he points to a ray of sunlight on that Youth's lap, and the friend later learns He was the Báb.
Theresa cannot go to the party for Bahá'u'lláh's Birthday, so she shares the day with the animals on her family's farm and finds them, for once, all gathered together in peace.
Silly travels in his Time Capsule to Kapilavastu and watches Prince Siddhartha save a swan, leave his palace to seek the meaning of suffering, and become the Buddha, teaching people to be loving, humble, kind and generous.
After his old cat dies, Tommy takes comfort in words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. When his friend Adam's mother dies, Tommy finds the courage to tell Adam he is sorry, and the two boys go back to building their fort.
When a little girl was ill, 'Abdu'l-Bahá brought her two pink roses. After she passed away, He consoled her mother by describing the Garden of God, where the Divine Gardener transplants a little tree to a more beautiful place.
During a day in the Garden of Junaynih with the pilgrims, Bahá'u'lláh sends them to welcome 'Abdu'l-Bahá as He arrives from 'Akká, and says that with the Master's presence the garden has become truly most delightful.
The stern warden 'Alí Khán sees the imprisoned Báb praying by the river, then finds the prison door shut and the Báb seated in His room. His heart is changed, and he brings in the Bábí who had been sleeping outside the town.
Tommy, a poor boy with no money for a gift, asks God to help him. He rakes an old lady's leaves and asks for her roses instead of pay, so that he can give them to the teacher he loves.
Gran'pa tells George and Ann how, as a homeless man with no purpose, he walked thirty miles to see 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and how the Master's loving welcome gave him a new life of work and service.