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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."
49 stories on this theme.
As the New York friends met to form their first Local Spiritual Assembly, a cablegram from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent them to Matthew 19:30, and they learned a lesson in humility.
When a child asked why all the rivers of the earth flow into the ocean, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá answered that the ocean sets itself lower than them all and so draws them to itself.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá never sought publicity and disliked being photographed, saying a picture of oneself emphasizes the personality; in London He at first refused, then consented to make the reporters and the friends happy.
Leroy Ioas recalls the Guardian's humility: Shoghi Effendi never spoke of "the days of the Guardian", and he stopped Ioas from ever mentioning his name in the same breath as the Master's.
When Yúnis Khán handed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá a poem full of exalted titles, the Master was deeply grieved and said He considered Himself lower than every believer. Seeing Yúnis Khán's distress, He then comforted him.
In Haifa, thirteen-year-old Bahíyyih Randall saw ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tenderly feed the aged Ḥaydar-‘Alí. When she asked him what he had done to serve the Faith, he said he had not done as much as an ant could do in the path of God.
O my dear sister!
While we are commanded to overlook the faults of others, and see their virtues, we are commanded, on the other hand, to find out our own faults and take no account of our virtues.
In Pittsburgh in 1912, when the friends kept asking how He liked His fine hotel rooms, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalled how in the barracks of ‘Akká He had lived for about two years in the morgue so that the crowded families could be at ease.
At a gathering, a Sufi leader esteemed by Muhammad Shah boasted that he would not trouble to see Jesus Christ at his door. Bahá'u'lláh alone answered him, with a question that left all present speechless.
On his 1941 pilgrimage, ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan knelt to take off the Guardian's boots when Shoghi Effendi's wrist was bandaged, and found one boot had a hole in it and the other had been repaired.
Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl boasted that he could write a better book than the Kitáb-i-Íqán, then found himself unable to write a simple letter. Years later, after praying with tears, he came to faith and found the book an ocean of knowledge.
The great scholar Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl credited all his learning to Bahá'u'lláh, and when American pilgrims praised him in the presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, he wept, feeling unworthy of any praise.
Mullá Husayn walked from Mashhad to visit the Báb in the castle of Máh-Kú, arriving at Naw-Rúz 1848. The Báb sent him on to Mázindarán, where, reading a manuscript shown him by his host Quddús, he found “God’s hidden treasure.”
In Isfahán, a city famed for its clergy, the first to accept the Báb was a humble sifter of wheat, who later set out with his sieve to join the defenders of Shaykh Ṭabarsí; the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh both refer to him.
During the First World War 'Abdu'l-Bahá grew wheat near Tiberias to feed the hungry of Haifa and 'Akká. In 1920 the British knighted Him for this work, and He came to the ceremony in His old servant's carriage.
'Abdu'l-Bahá walked rather than rode to visit His Father, saying He would not ride where Christ had walked. Later He insisted on the ordinary stagecoach, asking why He should travel in a carriage when the poor need money.
Thornton Chase, the first Western believer, felt the Bahá'ís were not ready for the Master's visit to California, and died in Los Angeles as He reached San Francisco. He left his Bahá'í papers to John Bosch.
After ‘Abdu’l-Bahá saved Haifa’s people from wartime starvation, the British knighted Him in 1920. He came to the ceremony quietly, not in the elegant car sent for Him but in the horse-drawn carriage that His faithful servant Isfandíyár brought for Him.
In Bahá'u'lláh's house in Baghdad, a Persian prince asked Ismu'lláhu'l-Asdaq who he was. The renowned teacher answered that he was one of the keepers of the door, then gently won the angry prince over as 'Abdu'l-Bahá listened from a room above.
On a train journey from Salt Lake City to California in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke of Peter's spiritual education and remembered seeing, as a child in Tihrán, the learned Vahíd fall at the muddy feet of a servant of the Báb.
Late in August 1912 Harry Randall asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá to help his wife Ruth, who had tuberculosis. The Master visited her that afternoon, and two weeks later her doctor found her well.
The fortieth Hidden Word in Arabic — Bahá'u'lláh's image of the soul's rest: that no journey through space and no traversal of the heavens can bring it, save submission to His command and humbleness before His Face.
When Dr Yúnis Khán handed the Master a believer's poem addressing Him in exalted terms, 'Abdu'l-Bahá was grieved and affirmed His servitude, then comforted him with such loving words that his anguish turned to joy.
At a Washington reception in April 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá congratulated Admiral Peary on reaching the North Pole and gently observed that, having found nothing there, he had relieved the public mind. Juliet Thompson recorded the scene.
Muḥammad Sháh sent Siyyid Yaḥyá-i-Dárábí, the most learned divine in Persia, to investigate the Báb. After three meetings in Shíráz he became a believer, and the Báb named him Vaḥíd.
Lady Blomfield recalls meals with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in her London home: He served guests with His own hands, shared a poor workman’s gift of dry bread, and seated the humblest guests at His right hand.
On 23 May 1912 Alice Breed baked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá a cake with sixty-eight candles; but He, who had forbidden the celebration of His birthday, spoke only of the Báb’s Declaration and soon left the festivities.
Travelling from ‘Akká to Haifa, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá took a seat in the stage coach rather than a private carriage, and gave five francs to a fisherwoman whose family was hungry.
On a twelve-hour train journey from Pittsburgh to Washington in May 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's companions begged Him to take a special compartment or a berth, but He refused.
On May 23, 1912, over a hundred guests gathered at the Breed home in Cambridge, where a cake with sixty-eight candles awaited 'Abdu'l-Bahá; He spoke only of the Báb's Declaration and soon left.
Stanwood Cobb took his elderly father to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Boston and was shocked when his father spent the interview expounding his own spiritual views. The Master smiled and listened, and the father came away feeling he had had a wonderful interview.
O thou favored maid-servant of God! Thy letter was received. Thou hast expressed joy on account of thy visit to the friends of Chicago.
O thou maid-servant of God who art attracted to the Fragrances of God!
O thou that mirror in which the Light of Guidance is printed!
O thou who art honored and dear! Thy letter was received and was the source of pleasure, for thou hast not forgotten this imprisoned one and remembered Acca.
O thou who art marching onward to God! I have read thy beautiful letter which contained delicate meanings, and I am made glad by its contents which expressed spiritual feelings.
O thou who art submissive and humble before the Holy Threshold!
O thou whose heart is moved by a breeze blowing from the Garden of El-Abha!
An imposing motor-car was sent to bring ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the ceremony at which He was knighted, but seeing the sorrow of His old coachman Isfandiyar, He went in His own carriage instead.
Though Bahá’u’lláh conferred exalted titles on Him, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá never applied them to Himself; after the Ascension He took the name ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Servant of Bahá, and urged the believers to call Him only by it.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá seldom spoke in the first person. Once, while Lua Getsinger and Georgie Ralston talked on during a drive with Him, He opened His eyes and laughed at their words.
At table with His guests, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá received a poor workman's dinner of dry bread and a shrivelled apple, left His own luncheon untasted, and shared the gift with everyone present.
'Abdu'l-Bahá desired no title but His own name, 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He forbade pilgrims to fall at His feet, cooked for His fellow prisoners in 'Akká, and sometimes served His guests Himself.
'Abdu'l-Bahá disliked photographs of Himself and allowed them only to please His friends, explaining that the personality is merely the lamp, while the light within it alone has real significance.
Grace Robarts begged to serve in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s household in New York. For days He ignored her as she worked from five in the morning until long after midnight; when she grasped the spirit of true service, He welcomed her.
A man in Haifa who disliked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá proudly announced, “I am Moses.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá invited him to serve the people as Moses did; after three long days of His work, the man gave up the name.
Early one morning in Dublin, New Hampshire, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called over a ragged old man passing the inn, stepped into the shadow of the porch, and gave him His own trousers.
When wealthy Western visitors prepared an elaborate hand-washing ceremony for 'Abdu'l-Bahá, He washed at a small water-trough, dried His hands on the gardener's cloth, and used their preparations for His guests instead.