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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."
67 stories on this theme.
While Bahá'u'lláh lived in solitude in the mountains, His family in Baghdad heard of a dervish who had comforted a weeping schoolboy and written him a beautiful copy. Bahíyyih Khánum recalled how they became convinced it was their father.
On the voyage into exile at ‘Akká, Jinab-i-Munib fell gravely ill. The Master and Mirza Musa carried him to a hospital at Smyrna, but when the Master returned with fruit for him, he had died.
While living in the house of Bahá’u’lláh’s brother in ‘Akká before her marriage, Munírih Khánum could watch ‘Abdu’l-Bahá swimming in the sea from her window. She remembered Him as a strong and graceful swimmer.
At Gallipoli, foreign consuls offered to secure refuge in Western Europe for Bahá’u’lláh and His family, but He would not abandon His followers. Bahíyyih Khánum recalls the hungry, frightened voyage that followed.
After his father’s death, Áqá Ḥusayn-i-Áshchí was taken into Bahá’u’lláh’s household and became its cook; he recalled the meagre meals in Adrianople and how Bahá’u’lláh smiled on learning that he counted the coal for each brazier.
Bahá’u’lláh’s son Mírzá Mihdí, the Purest Branch, fell through a skylight in the ‘Akká barracks in 1870 and offered his life so that the believers might attain his Father’s presence; in 1939 Shoghi Effendi reburied him on Mount Carmel.
On the evening of her wedding Munírih Khánum received Bahá’u’lláh’s blessing, then awaited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the bridal room. The service was very simple, with no choir, decorations or cake, just cups of tea.
BLESSED REMAINS PUREST BRANCH AND MASTER’S MOTHER SAFELY TRANSFERRED HALLOWED PRECINCTS SHRINES MOUNT CARMEL.
Dear and deeply spiritual sister!
O loved ones of God, These two precious and most exalted treasures, these two keepsakes of the sacred Beauty of Abhá, have now been joined to the third trust from Him, that is, to the daughter of Bahá and His remnant, the token of the Master’s Remembrance.
His nine-year-old son, later surnamed the ‘Most Great Branch’, destined to become the Centre of His Covenant and authorized Interpreter of His teachings, together with His seven-year-old sister …
Dear sister, beloved of my heart and soul! The news of thy safe arrival and pleasant stay in the land of Egypt has reached me and filled my heart with exceeding gladness.
O thou my loving, my deeply spiritual sister! I trust that by the grace and loving-kindness of the one true God thou art, and wilt be, kept safe and secure beneath the sheltering shadow of the Blessed Beauty.
O ye who burn in the flames of bereavement! By the Day-star of the World, my bereaved and longing heart is afire with a grief that is beyond my description.
Brethren and fellow-mourners in the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh! A sorrow, reminiscent in its poignancy, of the devastating grief caused by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sudden removal from our midst, has stirred the Bahá’í world to its foundations.
O Díyá! It is incumbent upon thee, throughout the journey, to be a close, a constant and cheerful companion to my honoured and distinguished sister.
O thou my affectionate sister! God be praised, according to what we hear the climate in that land hath proved not unfavourable.
The following particulars regarding the marriage of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were kindly supplied to the writer by a Persian historian of the Bahá’í Faith:— During the youth of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the question of a suitable marriage for Him was naturally one …
In 1835 Bahá’u’lláh married Ásíyih Khánum. Known as the Father of the Poor and the Mother of Consolation, they cared for the needy while His father's fortunes collapsed and the family moved to a rented house in Tehrán.
While Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in the Síyáh-Chál, His servant Isfandíyár, though hunted by a hundred officers, found the scattered family and refused to flee until he had paid every debt of the household.
In Ṭihrán around 1850, the young Nabíl was asked to take six-year-old ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to school; the child took his hand and said, “We shall walk together.”
Bahá’u’lláh recalls how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá served the Cause in Adrianople and ‘Akká, facing the world on His Father’s behalf and securing the mansions of Mazra‘ih and Bahjí.
When the infant Shoghi Effendi woke crying one night, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had him brought so that He could comfort him, and told the Greatest Holy Leaf, “See, already he has dreams!”
When the young Shoghi Effendi took up 'Abdu'l-Bahá's pen and tried to write, the Master drew him close and told him it was time to play, for he would write a lot in the future.
Visiting ‘Akká in 1905, the American pilgrim Mary Lucas watched ‘Abdu’l-Bahá listen gravely to His two-year-old granddaughter's troubles, and gently prompt her when she forgot a word while chanting Him a Tablet.
In June 1870 Mírzá Mihdí, the Purest Branch, fell through a skylight while praying on the roof of the barracks in 'Akká. Offered recovery by Bahá'u'lláh, he asked instead that his life be accepted as a ransom so that the believers might enter His presence.
Ásíyih Khánum shared fifty years of Bahá'u'lláh's life, through exile and imprisonment. Her daughter and granddaughter remember her gentleness, her unselfishness and her simple, prayerful life.
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.
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.
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.
Bahíyyih Khánum recalls her mother Ásíyih Khánum's marriage to Bahá'u'lláh, her forty mules of wedding treasures, and their life of caring for the poor. The jewelled buttons were later exchanged for bread on the road to exile.
In May 1922 the Greatest Holy Leaf went with Lady Blomfield and a party of ladies to the barracks of 'Akká, where she and her family had once been imprisoned, and listened as the rooms of the captivity were described.
The Greatest Holy Leaf tells Lady Blomfield of her family's winter exile from Tihrán to Baghdád: her father still ill from the Síyáh-Chál, the youngest child left behind, and her mother riding a jolting mule through the snow.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembered the day in 1852 when a servant brought word that her father had been arrested, and the four months her mother spent in hiding with the children while He lay chained in the dungeon of Tihrán.
Visiting 'Akká in May 1922, Lady Blomfield wrote to her daughter about the small house where Bahá'u'lláh and His family had lived, and about sleeping in the room that had been Ásíyih Khánum's.
Julia Grundy visits the Riḍván garden near 'Akká with the daughters of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and kneels at Bahá'u'lláh's chair. Its old gardener, Abu'l-Qásim, told May Maxwell what Bahá'u'lláh said of the garden and of the locusts.
In Shoghi Effendi’s childhood the family rose at dawn to pray and take breakfast with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His room. The children sat quietly and chanted when asked, and Shoghi Effendi learned to be always the first up and on time.
Mírzá Mihdí, the youngest son of Bahá'u'lláh, fell through a skylight in the prison of 'Akká and, as he lay dying, asked that his life be accepted as a sacrifice so that pilgrims could reach his Father.
When Ásíyih Khánum married Bahá'u'lláh, forty mules carried her wedding treasures. Together they cared for the poor, and when hard times came, her jewels paid for food and her gold buttons were traded for bread.
In May 1922 the Greatest Holy Leaf visited the old barracks in 'Akká where her family had been imprisoned, and Lady Blomfield wrote that her eyes were charged with memories.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembers the freezing winter journey her family made from Tihrán to Baghdád when she was six, and how her mother never complained.
When Bahá'u'lláh was arrested and chained in a dark prison in Tihrán, His wife Ásíyih Khánum hid their three children and went out at night to learn whether He was still alive.
On a visit to 'Akká in 1922, Lady Blomfield slept in the room that had belonged to Ásíyih Khánum, the wife of Bahá'u'lláh, and wrote to her daughter about the peaceful feeling of that room.
Bahíyyih Khánum, daughter of Bahá'u'lláh, recalls to Lady Blomfield her childhood of danger and exile, her work at her mother's side, and her choice to remain unmarried so as to serve her family.
On Friday, 25 November 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá went to the noon prayer and gave alms to the poor. On Sunday, unable to leave the house, He received the Muftí and the Mayor of Haifa, and early on Monday He passed away.
After 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing, Shoghi Effendi, stricken with grief, left the Holy Land for a time and placed the affairs of the Faith under the headship of the Greatest Holy Leaf, Bahíyyih Khánum, who administered them in consultation with the Holy Family.
Bahá'u'lláh called His eldest Son the Most Mighty Branch, the Master and the Mystery of God. Shoghi Effendi explains what the last title means, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in His own words, asks to be known only as the Servant of Bahá.
After nine years within the walls of 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh was persuaded to move to the country, first to Mazra'ih and then to the mansion of Bahjí, where, though still nominally a prisoner, He was honoured by officials and visitors.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembered her mother, Ásíyih Khánum, who married Bahá'u'lláh in 1835: her wealth as a bride, her gentleness, and the care for the poor that led people to call her the Mother of Consolation.
Bahá'u'lláh entered the Garden of Riḍván on 22 April 1863. That same day the Tigris overflowed, and the rest of His family could not join Him until the ninth day, which Bahá'ís now keep as a Holy Day.
'Abdu'l-Bahá, then eighteen, arranged His Father's stay in the Garden of Riḍván and crossed the Tigris with Him. There, The Chosen Highway relates, Bahá'u'lláh confided to Him that He was "He Whom God shall make Manifest."
In 1870 Mírzá Mihdí, the Purest Branch, fell through a skylight while praying on the roof of the barracks of 'Akká. Dying, he asked Bahá'u'lláh to accept his life as a ransom for the believers who could not reach His presence.
As a child, 'Abdu'l-Bahá was taken to see His Father's flocks. Told that He must leave the shepherds a present, and having nothing else to give, He gave them the sheep. Bahá'u'lláh laughed when He heard of it.
Mírzá Muḥammad-Qulí, a younger brother of Bahá'u'lláh, served Him through every stage of His exile. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls that in the prison of 'Akká he accepted comfort and torment alike and gave thanks with a face that shone like the sun.
Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, shared the sufferings of Bahá'u'lláh's family from early childhood until her passing in 1932. Shoghi Effendi's tributes describe the calm and trust in God with which she bore them.
Ásíyih Khánum, whom Bahá'u'lláh called Navváb, came to her marriage with forty mule-loads of wedding treasures. Her daughter remembered how she sold them for the family's exile, did the hardest work in poverty and prison, and never uttered a word of complaint.
In April 1863 Bahíyyih Khánum, then in her teens, helped the household prepare for exile while Bahá'u'lláh stayed in the Garden of Riḍván. The Tigris overflowed, and only on the ninth day could the family join Him there.
On 22 April 1863 Bahá'u'lláh was ferried across the Tigris to the Garden of Riḍván. That same day the river overflowed, and His family could not join Him there until the ninth day.
Bahá'u'lláh crossed the Tigris to the Garden of Riḍván on 22 April 1863 with three of His sons. The river overflowed that day, and the rest of His family joined Him only on the ninth day, 30 April.
'Abdu'l-Bahá was eighteen when He crossed the Tigris with Bahá'u'lláh to the Garden of Riḍván in 1863. Shoghi Effendi records that He had recognized His Father's station while still a child.
Ásíyih Khánum, whom Bahá'u'lláh called Navváb, lost her wealth and home when He was imprisoned in Ṭihrán, and shared His exile. In 1863 she and the rest of the family joined Him in the Garden of Riḍván on the ninth day.
When Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in Ṭihrán in 1852, His family was left destitute, and they shared His winter exile to Baghdád. In 1863 a flooded river kept them from joining Him in the Garden of Riḍván until the ninth day.
Bahíyyih Khánum, daughter of Bahá'u'lláh, knew poverty and exile from early childhood. Shoghi Effendi recalls her kindness in 'Akká, her care for the hungry who came to 'Abdu'l-Bahá's house during the First World War, and the support she gave him after 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing.
As a small child, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was sent by Bahá’u’lláh to inspect His flocks. Having nothing else to give the shepherds, He gave them the sheep, and Bahá’u’lláh remarked that someday He would give Himself away.
While Bahá’u’lláh lived as a dervish in the mountains, His family in Baghdád sold their only rug to buy a donkey for a Bábí who set out to find Him; months later He came home.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembers 1852 in Ṭihrán: at six she held her little brother Mihdí in the dark while her mother, often with ‘Abbás, went out to learn whether Bahá’u’lláh was still alive.