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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."
23 stories on this theme.
Though He wept over the sufferings of Bahá’u’lláh and His companions, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá lived His own teaching that the soul who lives in the spiritual Kingdom knows perpetual joy.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá loved laughter. Once He laughed so heartily that His turban became disarranged; He told Juliet Thompson and May Maxwell that they rested Him, and He could not tell one joke for laughing.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalled a believer imprisoned with Bahá’u’lláh in ‘Akká who, with only a rug, a samovar, a cup and a teapot, made his tea each afternoon with such gratitude and joy that every cup seemed better than the last.
At a luncheon in Dublin, New Hampshire, in 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá set leaders of society laughing, and told them how in prison the believers had sought out funny things at the end of each day and laughed together.
On a walk in Vienna in 1913, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave money to charity collectors and to children in the park until He and His attendants had nothing left.
At the Pumpellys’ home in Dublin, New Hampshire, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told a tale with a moral and then a lively Arabian story that filled the room with laughter. On the way home He asked, with a child’s simplicity, whether they were pleased.
As a student at Oxford, Shoghi Effendi loved tennis and excelled at it. His partner J. C. Hill remembered him switching his racket from hand to hand with lightning speed, laughing most of the time.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Hájí Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí, the Afnán, who believed after one reading of the Kitáb-i-Íqán, gave nearly all he owned to build the first Bahá’í House of Worship in ‘Ishqábád, and died near the Shrine of the Báb.
The Bahá’í teaching is based on moderation, not as asceticism.
On his 1901 pilgrimage to 'Akká, young William Dodge knocked soup onto the whiskers of a Persian believer at dinner. 'Abdu'l-Bahá laughed and told him not to worry: it was a blessing.
In 'Akká, after listening kindly to a Western visitor's complaints, 'Abdu'l-Bahá brought in Hájí Mírzá Haydar-'Alí, saying he had had many troubles. Asked about them, he replied that he had never had any.
In April 1913 about fifty children in Esslingen, Germany, lined up with flowers to welcome 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He gave them chocolates and sweets, spoke to them all, and was photographed seated in their midst.
At their first meeting in New York in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá sat knee to knee with Howard Colby Ives, wiped away his tears, told him one must always be happy, and laughed.
In California, despite fatigue and physical ailments, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá welcomed everyone with a beaming smile and asked, ‘Are you happy?’
Rúḥíyyih Khánum recalls that the Guardian as a small boy was the high-spirited ringleader of the children, and that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá once wrote a short sentence about how much he ran about.
At a luncheon where His hostess hoped He would speak on Immortality, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told humorous stories instead and recalled how, in prison, He and His companions laughed together each evening. A hush of reverence settled over the group.
Horace Holley recalled a cheerful dinner with 'Abdu'l-Bahá at Thonon-les-Bains on Lake Geneva, where the Master answered questions, spoke of religion in the West and laughed heartily.
Whether life was relaxed or arduous, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá found humor: in a purring cat, a polar bear in the Paris Zoo, a man reluctant to be seen carrying his own basket, and a letter asking where He was.
Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, who was in the Garden of Riḍván in 1863, recalled the roses heaped each morning in Bahá'u'lláh's tent and the night Bahá'u'lláh spoke of the nightingales.
Asked by a reporter what He thought of America, 'Abdu'l-Bahá said He liked it: Americans are optimistic, always answering "All right!", and this cheerful attitude is good.
Stanwood Cobb recalled that joy was the keynote of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s teaching: He would greet visitors with “Are you happy?”, smile at the tears of the unhappy, and sometimes wipe those tears away with His own hands.
The Master was joyful in circumstances that would have filled most people with sorrow, and He likened sorrow to furrows: the deeper they go, the more fruit they yield.
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was once held in chains, His jailers were amazed to hear Him sing and laugh; He told them they were doing Him a kindness.