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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."
80 stories on this theme.
O ye friends of God! Today is the day of union and this age is the age of harmony in the world of existence. “Verily, God loveth those who are working in His path in groups, for they are a solid foundation.”
Praise be to God! that ye are gathered in one assembly like unto the stars of the Pleiades, are illumined with the light of the knowledge of God and through the outpouring of the cloud of the love of God …
May the Light of Union radiate with greater clearness and brilliancy day by day among the people in your great country—for to this country God has given much and much is expected from it.
We rejoiced greatly to learn of the unity among the friends, their staunchness, their ardour, and the fact that they have established a Spiritual Assembly.
The letter you have written was received with the utmost joy for it was to us not only a message of love and unity but a message of humble devotion and servitude at the divine Threshold.
The cheque for the amount of two hundred pounds that you had sent as your contribution to the Temple Fund has been received and duly forwarded to Chicago.
Praise be to God that through the gracious assistance of the Abhá Kingdom those devoted friends have been enabled to achieve that which befits the glory of the Cause of God and the protection of the community of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh.
The prayers which Bahá’u’lláh has ordained as a daily obligation for Bahá’ís are to be said privately.
The work of healing the sick, however, is a matter that concerns not the patient and the practitioner only, but everyone.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá attaches the greatest importance to regular meetings of the believers for united worship, for the exposition and study of the teachings and for consultation regarding the progress of the Movement.
Unfortunately it is impossible, within the space at our disposal, to describe in detail the progress of the Bahá’í Faith throughout the world.
Before ‘Abdu’l-Bahá completed His earthly mission, He had laid a basis for the development of the administrative order established in Bahá’u’lláh’s Writings.
It has been the general characteristic of religion that organization marks the interruption of the true spiritual influence and serves to prevent the original impulse from being carried into the world.
With the development of the Bahá’í administrative order since the ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Nineteen Day Feast, observed on the first day of each Bahá’í month, has assumed a very special importance …
A 1969 report from Canadian Bahá'í News on the Saskatoon community, where united prayer, a visit from Hand of the Cause John Robarts and a wave of young believers brought some seventy to eighty declarations in under two years.
In 1925 a Muslim religious court in Upper Egypt annulled the marriages of three Baha'is and, in doing so, declared the Baha'i Faith an independent religion. The Baha'is used the judgment to seek recognition of their Faith.
In 1903 the Bahá'ís of Chicago asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá's permission to build a House of Worship in America. Shoghi Effendi traces the forty years, through economic crisis and war, until its eighteen outer steps were set in place in December 1942.
How the Nineteen Day Feast, held on the first day of each Bahá'í month, came to combine prayer and reading from the Holy Writings, consultation with the Spiritual Assembly, and fellowship.
On pilgrimage in 1909, Ethel Rosenberg asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá how the friends could increase their numbers. He answered that they should love each other very much, for love is the foundation of everything.
On the morning of 20 September 1912, before leaving Minneapolis, 'Abdu'l-Bahá urged the friends to love one another, visit each other and act on God's commandments rather than be Bahá'ís in word alone.
Once every Bahá'í month the friends gather for the Nineteen Day Feast. They pray and read from the Holy Books, talk over the work of their community, and then spend time together.
'Abdu'l-Bahá could stay only two days in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In that time He spoke at His hotel, a club, a synagogue and two friends' homes.
After traveling across America and back, 'Abdu'l-Bahá returned to New York in November 1912 and welcomed the many friends and visitors who came to see Him before He sailed away.
In September 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá spent two days in Minneapolis and St. Paul, speaking at His hotel, the Commercial Club, a synagogue and the homes of Albert Hall and Dr Clement Woolson.
After His journey to California and back, 'Abdu'l-Bahá returned to New York in November 1912 and received crowds of friends and seekers until He sailed on the Celtic on 5 December.
As financial secretary of Bahai Temple Unity, Corinne True of Chicago gathered gifts from across America and the East for the House of Worship at Wilmette. She lived to see it dedicated in 1953 and was known as the Mother of the Temple.
In 'Ishqábád, in Russian Turkistán, the Bahá'ís raised the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world, begun in 1902 under 'Abdu'l-Bahá's guidance, with a school, a travellers' house and a building for a hospital in its garden.
In 1894 Sarah Farmer opened Green Acre in Eliot, Maine, as a summer platform for speakers of every religion. After her pilgrimage to 'Akká in 1900 she offered it to the Bahá'ís, and in 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá spent a week there and prayed for her.
In March 1909 thirty-nine delegates from thirty-six cities met in Chicago and formed Bahá'í Temple Unity, the national body that would hold the land and raise the funds for the first House of Worship in the West.
Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad-Taqí, the Vakílu'd-Dawlih, a cousin of the Báb, gave up his business and estates to build the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of 'Ishqábád, the first Bahá'í House of Worship, spending almost everything he owned on it.
Thornton Chase, the first American believer, served the young Chicago community for years through its House of Spirituality and its publishing work. When he died in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá travelled to Los Angeles to visit his grave.
Returning to Baghdád from Kurdistán in 1856, Bahá'u'lláh found the Bábí community dispirited and divided. Through His counsels and His writings He restored its faith and reformed its conduct.
November 4th All over Europe today one hears of meetings and assemblies, and societies of all kinds are formed.
O thou possessor of a seeing heart! Although, materially speaking, thou art deprived of physical sight, yet, praise be to God, spiritual insight is thine.
O thou who hast sought illumination from the light of guidance!
O thou maidservant of God!
The first Bahá'í House of Worship was begun about 1902 at 'Ishqábád in Russian Central Asia. In 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá held it up to the American believers as the example for their own Temple.
O God! O God!
O God! Grant Washington happiness and peace! Illuminate that land with the light of the faces of the friends, make it a paradise of Glory, let it become an envy of the green gardens of the earth!
O maid-servant of God who art swayed like a strong branch by the breeze of God!
O my God! O my God!
O my God! O my God! These are servants who have turned to Thy Kingdom and hearkened unto Thy voice.
O my Lord, my Hope! Praise be unto Thee, for Thou hast sent down unto us this spiritual table, supreme benefit and heavenly blessing.
O servants of the Blessed Beauty! It is a well known fact that, owing to the frequency of disturbances, the work of delivering the Message hath been for a short time discontinued.
O Spiritual Assembly! Everything produces an impression in existence and results in the course of ages.
O thou bearer of the Great-tidings of the Kingdom of God! Thy letter was received.
O thou beloved and benevolent daughter of the Kingdom of God!
O Thou kind God! That scattered assembly is Thine, and that gathering of friends is of Thee. Their eyes are opened, their hearts in tune with Thy love, and their ears in communion with Thy hidden mysteries.
O thou kind maid-servant of God! Truly, I say, thou art worthy of the service in the Kingdom and art meriting to be a maid-servant in the threshold of the love of the realm of Might.
O thou my dear friend! I am now viewing the flowers in the little garden and remembering thy rose-like face. This material rose, although it is beautiful and fragrant, yet it cannot be compared with the beauty of the friends.
O thou my spiritual companion! Two letter have reached me from you, and the contents of both I have considered.
O Thou Pure God! Gaze providently at the beloved ones and the dear maid-servants in Chicago. Confer upon them Thy bounty and grace.
O thou Secretary of the meanings emanated from the hearts of the people of the Kingdom.
O thou servant of the True One! Thy letter was received. The meeting which was arranged with the utmost union in the studio of Miss ......... was in reality spiritual, merciful and illumined.
O thou servant who art near and dear to the Glorious Threshold!
O thou slave of the Beauty of ABHA! Thy letter was received. Praise be to God! It indicated thy firmness and steadfastness in the love of God—therefore, it was the cause of happiness.
O thou spiritual friend!
O thou spiritual man and merciful being! I have read thy brilliant letter which showeth the utterance of thy praise upon the Beauty of El-ABHA, the Most Glorious.
O thou who are firm in the Covenant! Thou has written regarding the articles and papers which are written by the believers of God and the forwarding of them to this land for correction.
O thou who art enkindled by the fire of the Love of God!
O thou who art gazing toward the Kingdom! Thy letter was received. Its contents became known. Thank thou God that thy house became the shelter and the nest of the birds of the Kingdom.
O thou who art longing for the Orb of the Horizons!
O ye beloved! O ye maid-servants of the Merciful! What a wonderful meeting ye have arranged and longed for the beauty of service and have arisen to spread the fragrances of God!
O ye dear friends and maid-servants of God! A good fragrance is coming from the rose-garden of Kenosha and a pleasing breeze is blowing from the orchard of the hearts of the friends and maid-servants of the Merciful.
O ye dear friends of Abdul-Baha! The blessed letter indicating the election of the Spiritual Meeting was received and proved a source of joy.
O ye firm ones in the Covenant! The report of [your meeting] was noted. All the arrangements of the meeting are suitable and acceptable.
O ye friends of this prisoner!
O ye maid-servants of His Majesty, the Lord—daughters and sons of the Kingdom!
O ye members of the shining assembly! Each one of you must resist doubts (or false rumors) in those parts like unto a great barrier, until the invisible confirmations may appear and merciful assistance may become manifest.
O ye members of the shining assembly! The letter which was written by you, was not a letter, but a musk sack.
O ye my dear friends! Your letter was received and its contents were wonderful and beautiful for it evinced the spreading of the light of Guidance.
O ye real friends of Abdul-Baha! From the gathering of those illuminated faces and flowers of the rose-garden (of God) in Camp Mineola utmost joy and fragrance (to me) was the result.
O ye servants of the Threshold of God! The weekly reports of ........ were received and I was informed of their beautiful meanings which proved firmness and steadfastness in the Cause of God and solidity in the Covenant of God.
O ye sincere ones! O ye favored ones! O ye beseeching ones! O ye supplicating ones!
O ye spiritual assembly! As ye were gathered in the meeting of hospitality with the utmost longing for the knowledge of God, that meeting was mentioned in the divine Kingdom and you became favored with special bounty.
O ye two kind and beloved maid-servants of God! A splendour from the Supper of the Lord was cast upon the table that ye have spread and the spiritual food descended.
O ye who are attracted! O ye who are united! O ye who are believers and assured!
O ye who are sincere! O ye who are firm in the Covenant of God in this new cycle! Verily I praise God for that He confirmed you in the service of the Cause of God in His great vineyard.
Your letters have been received.
When the lease on Thomas Breakwell's grave lapsed, his remains were moved to the cemetery's charnel house; later the French Bahá'ís placed a simple stone on the vacant site, which has become a focal point of pilgrimage.