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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."
245 stories on this theme.
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.
After a sleepless night on the train, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá reached Denver on 23 September 1912. Within hours He was meeting reporters, and that evening He spoke to a crowded gathering at the home of Mrs. Roberts.
Before the First World War ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had villagers grow and store corn, which fed the poor of Haifa and ‘Akká through the famine years. After the British occupation He was knighted, in April 1920.
In ‘Akká, where there was no hospital, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá quietly paid a doctor to treat the poor. When a crippled woman named Na'um caught measles and was shunned, He gave her a room, His own bedding and every care.
When war came in 1914, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá moved the Bahá’ís of Haifa to the Druze village of Abú-Sinán, where vegetables He had taught them to grow and corn from ‘Adasíyyih kept many from hunger.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited the sick, sent daily to ask after them, and quietly paid a doctor to care for the poor of ‘Akká. When a poor, crippled woman with measles was shunned, He arranged her care and, at the last, her funeral.
Unwell with a cold on His chest during His second visit to Stuttgart, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was told by physicians to stay indoors, yet He went to the waiting audience, spoke on world peace, and stopped to comfort a weeping woman.
Rúḥíyyih Khánum recalled how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá carried flower-pots two miles in the heat to the tomb of Bahá’u’lláh, and pumped water there until He was too stiff to walk away.
In 1906, on the anniversary of the Báb's Declaration, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá helped prepare a feast for over two hundred guests and, serving them, asked each to forgive anyone who had wounded him during the past year.
During the 1912 American election year, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said in California that a president should be free of ambition for name and fame and should seek the public good, not his own.
Worn out after seeing a hundred and forty people and speaking at the Mortens’ home in New York, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went up to rest, but crowds followed. When Juliet Thompson asked to shut the door, He gently said to let them come.
During 'Abdu'l-Bahá's visit to London in 1911, a painter asked Him whether art was a worthy vocation, and an actor raised the subject of the drama. His answers are recorded in 'Abdu'l-Bahá in London.
Someone asked if the Humanitarian Society was good.—Yes all societies, all organizations, working for the betterment of the human race are good, very good.
“We had no communication whatever with the out-side world. Each loaf of bread was cut open by the guard to see that it contained no message. All who believed in the Bahá’í manifestation, children, men and women, were imprisoned with us.”
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was asked if he recognized the good which the Theosophical Society has done.
On Christmas night 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke to a thousand homeless men at a Salvation Army shelter in London; at New York’s Bowery Mission He spoke to the men and gave each the price of a bed.
In 1919 thirteen-year-old Bahíyyih (Margaret) Randall visited 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Haifa. When she asked how she could serve the Faith, the Master paced the room and answered, "Study. Study. Study."
A high official of the United States government asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá how best to serve his country. He was told to work, as a citizen of the world, to apply the principle of federalism to the relations between nations.
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 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.”
O thou son of the Kingdom! If one possesses the love of God, everything that he undertakes is useful, but if the undertaking is without the love of God, then it is hurtful and the cause of veiling one’s self from the Lord of the Kingdom.
Escaping his captors after the upheaval in Nayríz, Muḥammad-Ibráhím Amír fled to Iraq, copied the sacred verses, and served Bahá'u'lláh day and night through every exile to the Most Great Prison.
Muḥammad-Ibráhím, a coppersmith and poet from Káshán, came to Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, was exiled to Mosul, and spent his last years in Haifa serving travellers. His elegy for the King of Martyrs moved all to tears.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Hájí Muhammad-Ridá of Shíráz, a humble believer who served the Afnán, attended Bahá’u’lláh in the Holy Land, and died in Sidon, often praised by the Blessed Beauty.
Hájí Muhammad-Tahir of Yazd begged Bahá’u’lláh for martyrdom and was told he would live long to teach the Cause. He served for decades as a teacher, historian and protector of the families of Yazd’s martyrs.
Mírzá ‘Abdu’lláh Faráhání, a master of Persian classical music and a believer in Tihrán, was encouraged by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to preserve the old melodies; he recorded them and was still teaching when he died in 1918.
A learned seeker from Yazd became a carpenter in Baghdad, gathered provisions for the exiles on the road to Constantinople, and served in the ‘Akká barracks, where he revived after Bahá’u’lláh bade that the prayer for healing be chanted.
Mírzá Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání completed the first volume of his chronicle of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s 1912 journey in America at the end of 1913; at his sudden death the Guardian cabled that his outstanding services would shine evermore.
A respected scholar of Isfahán gave up every comfort to serve Bahá’u’lláh and the believers in ‘Akká; after Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension, unable to bear His absence, he wasted away and died.
A nephew of Vahid Darabi found certitude after long years of study, visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in ‘Akká, taught the Faith in America and Persia, and served the Cause until his passing in 1959.
Muḥammad-‘Alí Ṣabbáq, who could neither read nor write, followed Bahá’u’lláh from Baghdád, spent two lonely years in Constantinople helping believers on their way, and shared the exile to ‘Akká before settling in Sidon.
Muḥammad-Hádí, a master bookbinder from Iṣfahán, kept the square before Bahá’u’lláh’s house in ‘Akká swept and sprinkled, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalls how a bowl of barley soup once cured his long fever.
Áqá Muḥammad of Iṣfahán served the King of Martyrs and the Beloved of Martyrs for years, then emigrated to ‘Akká, where he swept the ground about Bahá’u’lláh’s house and, after His passing, wept and prayed there each dawn.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalls Siyyid Muḥammad-Taqí Manshadí, who welcomed pilgrims at his little shop in Haifa, handled the Tablets and the believers' mail, stayed loyal to the Covenant, and carried on that service in Port Sa‘íd until his death.
Seeing that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had no time even to bathe, Yúnis Khán and Mírzá Ḥaydar-‘Alí arranged for the pilgrim architect Ustád Áqá Bálá to build a small bath in His house. Three days later the Master asked if it was finished, and answered with a story.
A quiet master carpenter from Káshán joined Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdad, endured captivity in Mosul, and after the ascension of Bahá’u’lláh made the glass roof over the inner courtyard of His Shrine.
Your valued message brought strength and solace to my aching heart.
86 ...He is eagerly awaiting to see the friends as ever burning with the desire to serve a Cause for the sake of which our departed Holy Leaf gave up her entire…
His loss is too immense to be adequately expressed in words.
O leaf that has been stirred by the breeze of God! O victim of oppression in the path of the Abhá Beauty!—may my soul and the souls of the handmaids of God be offered up as a sacrifice for the dust of His Holy Shrine.
To the doves of faithfulness, ever since that most grievous of disasters, the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, this world of dust has become a cage, and a place of torment; and to the unrestrained nightingales it is only a prison, narrow and dark.
Indeed, you have adorned yourself with the qualifications of faithfulness and are striving to fulfil the requirements of servitude to the Abhá Threshold.
In this noblest of all ages the Sun of grace and loving-kindness has shone out from the divine day-spring with such resplendent glory and is casting His beams so bright and far …
At this hour while yet the heart burns with the anguish of sorrow, and the gloom of bereavement still hangs low, my thoughts turn in loving remembrance to my sincere beloved sisters and brothers in the Cause.
Although the ascension of the beloved Centre of the Covenant was the ultimate calamity, the severest of ordeals, and the fire of that bereavement consumed our hearts and souls …
You have offered up thanks to the Lord for appointing the Centre of His Cause and the Guardian of His Covenant, and have voiced your gratitude and expressed your spiritual sentiments, for this favour and grace.
All praise be unto the Court of Holiness, that God has drawn certain blessed souls, entities delicate and pure, unto a realm where they have no desire save the good-pleasure of the Beloved; where …
It is clear and evident that the body of mankind in this day stands in dire need of such members and organs as are capable, useful and active, so that their movements and activities, their bearing and behaviour, their tender feelings …
ENTREAT SORROW STRICKEN AMERICAN BELIEVERS NEVER ALLOW CONSCIOUSNESS THEIR AGONIZING LOSS PARALYZE DETERMINATION PROSECUTE AN ENTERPRISE ON WHICH ADORED OBJECT OUR MOURNING CENTRED HER BRIGHTEST HOPES.
From this hallowed Spot I send heavenly greetings to those two faithful servants of the holy Threshold of the Abhá Beauty.
In this Day nothing is so important as service. Did not ‘Abdu’l-Bahá voluntarily call Himself the ‘Servant’ of Bahá, manifesting also in His life the perfections of servitude to God and man?
It always cheers my heart to hear from the dear friends whose hearts are so full of love and devotion, and desire to serve this Blessed Cause which has been proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh to all the world, so that all national, racial …
Shoghi Effendi's tribute to Bahíyyih Khánum recalls the years of crisis in Baghdád — when Mírzá Yaḥyá's faithlessness had unsettled the Bábí community and Bahá'u'lláh had retreated for two years to the mountains of Sulaymáníyyih — the tender solicitude she showed as a child in His absence, and the delicate, grave missions He entrusted to her in her teens.
During the Great War, Haifa was crowded with the destitute, the orphaned, and the sick. From the household at the foot of Mount Carmel, the Greatest Holy Leaf — already in advanced age — distributed daily food, money, clothing, and remedies she had herself prepared.
When asked on one occasion: “What is a Bahá’í?” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá replied: “To be a Bahá’í simply means to love all the world; to love humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal brotherhood.”
Bahá’u’lláh left instructions that temples of worship should be built by His followers in every country and city.
Bahá’u’lláh, like Muḥammad, forbids His followers to lead lives of monastic seclusion.
In concluding this chapter it will be well to recall ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s teaching as to the right use of physical health.
Devotion to God implies a life of service to our fellow-creatures.
In consequence of this and other equally unfounded charges, in 1901, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and His family, who for more than twenty years had been allowed the freedom of the country for some miles around Akká, were again, for over seven years …
From that time onwards, He became His father’s closest companion and, as it were, protector.
Wishing to help Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, a learned believer of Yazd took copper vessels from the city's mosques and sold them. Bahá'u'lláh accepted the money, then had it thrown into the river.
A Persian pilgrim in Haifa in 1920 describes how 'Abdu'l-Bahá, burdened with countless letters, signed stacks of registered mail, replied at a bench piled with letters, and dictated answers while walking in the garden.
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.
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.
At ‘Akká in January 1908 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told pilgrims of a king who found a ninety-year-old man planting date trees for the next generation, and whose grateful, witty answers earned him three gifts.
In the prison barracks of 'Akká the devoted Mírzá Ja'far fell ill and breathed his last. Bahá'u'lláh said to chant the prayer "O Thou, the Healer", and before an hour had passed he sat up, laughing and joking.
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.
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.
In a story told by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, a ninety-year-old man planting date seeds tells a king that he plants for the next generation. His answers so please the king that he gives him three pieces of money.
Sent by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to care for a poor, sick friend in 'Akká, Lua Getsinger fled from the filthy house. The Master sternly sent her back to serve him, as He Himself had done many times.
After an afternoon of long conversations with Professor Ignaz Goldziher and other notable visitors, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá reached a public meeting in Budapest barely able to speak, yet He delivered a powerful talk.
Mirza Mihdi, the Purest Branch, served as Bahá’u’lláh’s amanuensis. Aqa Rida remembered him as a pillar of strength to the exiles, reading to them from the Supreme Pen and teaching them courtesy, patience and dignity.
Bahíyyih Khánum recalled how, on the 1863 journey from Baghdád to Constantinople, her brother ‘Abdu’l-Bahá guarded Bahá’u’lláh day and night, snatching sleep ahead of the caravan with His head on His horse’s neck.
In 1922, while Shoghi Effendi was away from Haifa, the Greatest Holy Leaf headed the affairs of the Faith. Her reply to one friend's letter asked for complete unity and looked for his return.
During the First World War, when no one could be found to carry a Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá from Haifa to Tihrán, Hájí Ramaḍán, an Arab believer of seventy-five and nearly blind, asked to go, walked there, and came back.
On 13 May 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá lay ill in New York with a high fever. Asked by Juliet Thompson whether He must still go to the peace meeting at the Hotel Astor, He answered that He worked by the confirmations of the Holy Spirit, and went.
Shoghi Effendi sent Keith Ransom-Kehler to Persia to appeal for the entry of Bahá'í literature. The Shah refused to receive her, and she wrote of her failed mission and of a forget-me-not she had picked in Bárfurúsh before she died in Isfáhán.
In 'Akká, a bookbinder from Iṣfahán kept the square in front of Bahá'u'lláh's house swept and sprinkled at all times, and Bahá'u'lláh would smile and praise what he had made of it.
Arrested in Tihran as a Babi, Shaykh Salman was freed by a merchant who mistook him for someone else, and then told the merchant the truth. For some forty years he carried Tablets of Baha'u'llah on foot and never lost a letter.
In London in 1911 'Abdu'l-Bahá told a society's representative that knowledge must be put into practice, and told of a learned man who said he understood the Bahá'í teachings but flared in anger at a single question.
In 1917, with the usual roads closed by war, Haji Ramadan, a nearly blind believer of seventy-five, offered to carry a Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá on foot from Haifa to Tihrán, and returned with letters and gold.
'Abdu'l-Bahá sent Sulaymán Khán to Qum with a letter promising the banished Prime Minister, Amínu's-Sultán, his return to power. The promise came true, but the Minister later failed to protect the believers of Yazd.
Pilgrims walking from Persia carried plants for Bahá'u'lláh's garden near 'Akká. After nine years within the prison city's walls, He was persuaded to leave them, and the Sultán's farmán against Him became a dead letter.
Muḥammad-Hádí, a bookbinder and illuminator from Iṣfáhán, kept the square before Bahá'u'lláh's house in 'Akká so clean that Bahá'u'lláh said he had turned it into the bridalbower of a palace.
After 'Abdu'l-Bahá settled a Baghdád jeweller's estate among his quarrelling heirs in a single day, the son offered Him a ruby ring. Years later, in 'Akká, He sent it to India to be sold for the sick, and the money never came.
In 1911 a reporter from The Weekly Budget asked 'Abdu'l-Baha in London about His imprisonment. He described the first summer in 'Akka, when all one hundred and fifty prisoners fell ill, and laughed about the broth He had made for them.
A pasha exiled to 'Akká from Yemen, near death, entrusted 'Abdu'l-Bahá with a bag of gold for his daughter. The Master paid for his funeral Himself and sent a dervish to Ṣan'á, who put the gold into her own hands.
After Bahá'u'lláh's passing, His eldest Son set aside the exalted titles His Father had given Him and asked to be known only as 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Servant of Bahá.
In 1912, on the Feast of Naw-Rúz in Alexandria, Egypt, 'Abdu'l-Bahá explained the meaning of the blessed days appointed in every dispensation — days for rejoicing together, for unity, and for leaving "tangible philanthropic or ideal traces" reaching all mankind.
In Montclair, New Jersey, in June 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá went to the market, oversaw the kitchen and often cooked for His guests, while for Himself a piece of bread and some cheese sufficed.
On His third visit to Paris, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was often too weak to go to meetings in the Bahá’ís’ homes, yet He kept receiving visitors at His hotel, saying that Bahá’u’lláh had trained Him to shoulder the burdens of others.
When a car given to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá reached port as a weekend began, Shoghi Effendi went to officials' homes for their signatures and had it at the Master's door though it was not a business day.
Leroy Ioas describes Shoghi Effendi’s day in Haifa: prayer from 5:30 in the morning, his vast mail, the pilgrims from East and West and the International Bahá’í Council, until late at night, every day of the week.
Ali Nakhjavani tells believers in South Africa of a short Tablet in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá hopes their relationship to the Cause will be like a ray’s to the sun rather than a flower’s to a garden, and reflects on why.
Myron Phelps, a visitor to ‘Akká, describes a crowd of the poor, blind and aged waiting in the street, and the Master coming out to give each of them coins and a kindly word.
In 1914 The Christian Commonwealth described ‘Abdu’l-Bahá going about ‘Akká doing good, honoured by the officials who visited Him, and working from sunrise till midnight despite broken health.
In ‘Akká the Master kept giving His own bed to feverish people He found lying on bare ground, sleeping on the floor or the roof Himself until His situation was discovered and a kind friend gave Him another.
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá heard in San Francisco in 1912 that Thornton Chase, the first Bahá’í in America, had passed away, He spoke of the fruitfulness of his life, and later prayed at his grave.
On 19 April 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke to three hundred homeless men at the Bowery Mission in New York, then stood at the end of the aisle and pressed coins into the hand of each man as he filed past.
In June 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá sat for the painter Juliet Thompson in New York. At the first sitting, in a cramped and dark entrance hall, He asked her to paint His Servitude to God.
Julia Grundy, an early pilgrim, described a simple supper in ‘Akká at which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá welcomed and seated each guest, anointed them with attar of rose and served them Himself.
In Adrianople, where food was scarce, Áqá Ḥusayn, Bahá'u'lláh's cook, saved meat and oil until he could cook a meal, and measured the coal for every brazier. When Bahá'u'lláh heard of it, He was amused and agreed such care was needed.
Muḥammad-Hádí, a gifted bookbinder from Iṣfahán, left his home to live near Bahá'u'lláh in ‘Akká. He kept the square in front of Bahá'u'lláh's house so clean that Bahá'u'lláh praised him for it.
Áqá Muḥammad of Iṣfahán served the King of Martyrs and the Beloved of Martyrs, then went to ‘Akká, where he was given the honor of sweeping the ground at Bahá'u'lláh's door.
At a mission hall in New York, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke to three hundred homeless men, then shook each man's hand and gave him coins for a night's bed.
After Bahá'u'lláh passed away, His eldest Son set aside the high titles He had been given and asked to be called by one name only: 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Servant of Bahá.
At Naw-Rúz in Alexandria in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá said that a holy day should bring people together and leave behind something good that reaches everyone, not only Bahá'ís.
Before leaving Mrs Phoebe Hearst's house in California, 'Abdu'l-Bahá called for the maids, cooks and butler, thanked them, and gave each of them a gift.
When 'Abdu'l-Bahá left Minneapolis, His friends went with Him to the train. Before He left, He asked them to be kind to the poor and help them.
Nettie Tobin wanted to give something for the new temple, so she brought a rejected stone from Chicago in an old baby carriage. 'Abdu'l-Bahá chose it as the cornerstone.
'Abdu'l-Bahá visited about four hundred poor men at the Bowery Mission, called them His friends and companions, and placed a coin in every hand.
'Abdu'l-Bahá asked Lua Getsinger to take food to a sick, poor man and care for him. She ran from the dirty house, and He sent her back, telling her He had done it for the man many times.
After a long, tiring day, 'Abdu'l-Bahá came home so weak that His friends had to help Him inside. Fifteen minutes later His strong voice rang through the house again.
Early one morning a lady looked out of her window and saw 'Abdu'l-Bahá give a poor old man the trousers He was wearing.
At the 1912 Lake Mohonk Peace Conference, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent Dr Zia Bagdadi overnight to New York for a Persian rug to give Albert Smiley, who received it with joy just as the Master was leaving.
In ‘Akká, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent Lua Getsinger to care for a poor, sick friend of His. When she fled the filthy house, He sent her back to clean it, bathe the man and feed him, as He Himself had done many times.
Bahíyyih Khánum recalls the caravan of about seventy-five people that set out from Baghdad with Bahá’u’lláh in 1863, and how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá guarded His father day and night on the journey.
May Maxwell died only weeks after arriving in South America as a pioneer. The Guardian wrote that she laid down her life in a spirit that merited the crown of martyrdom.
Taking leave of Phoebe Hearst's house near Pleasanton, California, 'Abdu'l-Bahá called for the maids, orderlies, cooks and butler, thanked them, and gave each a gift, while the guests stood by, astonished.
On September 20, 1912, the friends went with 'Abdu'l-Bahá to the station as He left Minneapolis. His parting words asked them to love and help the poor.
On 1 May 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá dedicated the site of the first Bahá'í House of Worship in the West. For the cornerstone He chose a rejected building stone that Nettie Tobin had brought from Chicago by baby carriage and streetcar.
In April 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at the Bowery Mission in New York to about four hundred poor men, telling them that Jesus Himself had been poor and that the poor are very dear to God. Then He stood at the door and gave each man a coin.
These two blessed souls, Mírzá Maḥmúd of Káshán and Áqá Riḍá of Shíráz, were like two lamps lit with God’s love from the oil of His knowledge.
'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers Áqá Riḍá of Shíráz and Mírzá Maḥmúd of Káshán, who walked ahead of Bahá'u'lláh's howdah from Baghdád to Constantinople, cooked and cared for the exiles each night, and served for fifty-five years.
Nabíl-i-Zarandí left his family in youth, sought out Bahá'u'lláh, and spent his life travelling and teaching at His direction. 'Abdu'l-Bahá records his devotion and his grief at Bahá'u'lláh's passing.
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.
Shoghi Effendi sent the American believer Keith Ransom-Kehler to Persia to plead for the freedom of the persecuted Bahá'ís there. The Sháh never received her, but she stirred the Persian community, and when she died in Iṣfáhán in 1933 the Guardian called her the first American martyr.
After the Great War lifted the danger to His life, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spent His last three years receiving pilgrims, revealing Tablets and helping the poor, until He passed away in November 1921.
On the Friday before His passing in November 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá went to the noonday prayer and afterward, despite great fatigue, gave alms to the poor of Haifa as was His custom.
Túbá Khánum, a daughter of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, remembers Bahá'u'lláh's last illness at Bahjí, His farewell to the family, and the nine days of mourning in which the Master received more than five hundred guests and gave to the poor.
Mullá Zaynu'l-'Ábidín, once the leading cleric of Najaf-Ábád, became a follower of the Báb and of Bahá'u'lláh, who named him Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín. His careful copies of Bahá'u'lláh's Tablets became a standard for checking published texts.
Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan of Ardikán was the first pilgrim to see Bahá'u'lláh in 'Akká. From 1881 until his death in 1928 he served as Trustee of the Ḥuqúqu'lláh, travelling among the believers and keeping nothing for himself.
Every year for some forty years Shaykh Salmán walked from Persia to Bahá'u'lláh with the believers' letters and carried His Tablets home, never losing one. After the ascension he served 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the same way.
When Agnes Parsons made her pilgrimage in 1920, 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked her to arrange a convention in Washington for amity between the white and colored races. It met in May 1921, and Mountfort Mills read a message from the Master to it.
In 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent Lua Getsinger to care for a poor, sick friend of His. She fled the filthy house, and He sent her back to clean it and to bathe and feed the man, telling her to see in him the image and likeness of God.
On Christmas night 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke to about a thousand homeless men at the Salvation Army shelter in Westminster, and left money so that they could have another dinner on New Year's night.
When the believers in 'Iráq were hiding their faith, Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá Baghdádí openly served Bahá'u'lláh, later hosted pilgrims in Beirut, and stayed firm in the Covenant, as 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls in Memorials of the Faithful.
Shoghi Effendi went to Oxford to perfect his English so that he could translate the Bahá'í writings. Rúḥíyyih Khánum describes his notebooks, his reading and the care with which he chose every word.
Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl, head of a religious college in Ṭihrán, became a Bahá'í in 1876 and spent the rest of his life teaching the Faith, from Egypt to Paris to Green Acre, yet he wept when believers praised him.
Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí, the Báb's amanuensis, spent His last night with Him in the barracks of Tabríz and was told not to confess his faith, so that he could later tell what he alone knew. In 1852 he was martyred in Ṭihrán.
On the exile journey from Baghdád to Constantinople, Mírzá Maḥmúd and Áqá Riḍá walked ahead of Bahá'u'lláh's howdah each day, then cooked and washed up for the believers until midnight. 'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers their humility and contentment.
While the Sultán's commissions of inquiry threatened 'Abdu'l-Bahá with exile or death, He refused every offer of escape and went on serenely with His work, until the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 set Him free.
Darvísh Ṣidq-'Alí, a Súfí poet, found Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád and begged to go with Him into exile as a groom. He walked beside the convoy by day, tended the horses at night, and served Him faithfully all the way to the prison of 'Akká.
In 'Akká 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave coins to the poor in the street, a warm garment each winter to every poor person in the town, and help to the sick of every faith. During the First World War He saved the civilians of Haifa from starvation.
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.
From 1919 until her death in Honolulu in 1939, Martha Root travelled four times around the world teaching the Bahá'í Faith, from South American cities to the palace of Queen Marie of Romania. Shoghi Effendi called her the foremost Hand of the first Bahá'í century.
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.
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.
In 1920 the American Bahá'ís chose Louis Bourgeois's design for the House of Worship at Wilmette. He then showed his drawings to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who called the design "the most beautiful in the world."
During the First World War 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself cooked the Naw-Rúz feast for the friends at Bahjí. On feast days He gathered the poor children of 'Akká for sweets and sharbat.
Mírzá Asadu'lláh Káshání and other companions pitched Bahá'u'lláh's tent in the Garden of Riḍván, cooked and made tea, held the tent ropes through days of wind, and kept watch at night during the twelve days of 1863.
In 1910 the American Bahá'í physician Dr. Susan I. Moody wrote home from Tehran about her medical work, the Bahá'í women she met, and the community's plans for a girls' school, which it raised funds to open.
Years before the First World War, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had Bahá'í villagers near the Jordan grow and store grain. In the famine years He fed the poor of Haifa, 'Akká and the surrounding district, and afterwards the British Government conferred a knighthood on Him.
During His years of strict confinement in 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá visited the sick in their homes, brought doctors and medicine to the poor, and gave the city's poor warm clothing each winter, whatever their religion.
During His nine weeks in Paris in 1911, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke to a poor congregation in a mission hall, walked through a rowdy crowd that parted for Him, and comforted a weeping widow whose son faced a dangerous operation.
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.
In Washington in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told of Isfandíyár, a black servant of Bahá'u'lláh who, though hunted by the Sháh's officers, stayed in Ṭihrán for a month to pay the family's debts in full before he would leave.
Every year for nearly forty years Shaykh Salmán walked from Persia to Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád, Adrianople or 'Akká and back, carrying the believers' letters and His Tablets, and never lost one.
Mírzá Muḥammad, a scholar of good family in Iṣfáhán, gave up a life of comfort to go to the prison of 'Akká, where he served Bahá'u'lláh, the believers and the travelling pilgrims day and night.
In the First World War the Ottoman commander Jamál Páshá, turned against 'Abdu'l-Bahá by false accusations, threatened to crucify Him. The threat was never carried out: the general's campaigns failed and he fled in defeat.
After leaving the Garden of Riḍván on 3 May 1863, Bahá'u'lláh travelled with His family and twenty-six companions across eastern Anatolia to Constantinople. Officials and villagers welcomed Him along the way, and His companions served Him on foot.
In Baghdád 'Abdu'l-Bahá grew into a youth beloved by all who knew Him. The Chosen Highway records how, before the exile of 1863, He shielded His Father, arranged His move to the Garden of Riḍván and set out with Him on the journey to Constantinople.
John Bosch, a Swiss-born believer who felt he could not be a speaker, told ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that all he did was give away pamphlets and books; the Master assured him that with him it was the heart that speaks.
On Christmas night 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke to a thousand homeless men at a Salvation Army shelter in London and left money to buy them a similar dinner on New Year’s night.
Asked what a Bahá’í is, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá answered that it means to love all the world, to love and serve humanity, and to work for universal peace and brotherhood.
Georgiana Dean had left California at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s request to care for the blind Mrs. Dealy. Homesick, she took her trouble to Him; He asked her to stay as long as needed, and within days she was free to return.
On pilgrimage in 'Akká, Lua Getsinger was sent by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to care for a sick, poor friend of His, and fled from the filthy house. He sent her back, telling her He had done this for the man many times.
After an exhausting day of speaking, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had to be almost carried into the house. Within fifteen minutes He was calling for His secretary with more than His usual energy. An incident recorded by Howard Colby Ives.
Early one morning in Dublin, New Hampshire, a guest at the inn saw 'Abdu'l-Bahá call back a ragged old man and give him the trousers He was wearing.
Before the war ‘Abdu’l-Bahá taught the people of three villages how to grow corn, and with the stored harvest He fed the poor of Haifa and ‘Akká through the famine years. When the British arrived, He had corn for their army too.
November 23rd ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: You should all be very happy and thankful to God for the great privilege that is yours.
On June 15, 1912, in New York, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told the Bahá'ís that He did not want them distinguished by wealth or worldly success, but by love, justice, steadfastness and service to humanity.
In Montreal in September 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed a Socialist Club. An address on economics He gave in Montreal compares humanity to one family and one body, and proposes a village storehouse so that no one remains in want.
On April 30, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at Hull House, the Chicago settlement house founded by Jane Addams in 1889. With Miss Addams presiding, He spoke to a crowded hall of white and Black listeners on the unity of the races, whose differences of color He likened to the flowers of one garden.
At the Krug home on Park Avenue, New York, on July 15, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá contrasted thanks spoken by the tongue with thanks felt in the heart and shown in deeds, and asked the friends to love one another.
Aḥmad of Yazd lived near Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád and later set out to reach Him in Adrianople. In Constantinople he received the Tablet of Aḥmad, and instead of going on, he returned to Persia to teach.
Ella Cooper recalled glimpsing Bahíyyih Khánum in the kitchen, dividing a lamb into broth, meals and portions for the poor, and realizing the hours of work that went into caring for the visitors.
An early pilgrim describes ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Friday mornings in ‘Akká, when He gave a coin and a kind word to each of a hundred or more poor people, and His early-morning visits to the sick.
Rúhíyyih Khánum dreamed of a great flood and begged ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to help her save the drowning. Without stopping His work, He smiled and said He was building the machine to stop the flood.
O peoples of the world! The Sun of Truth hath risen to illumine the whole earth, and to spiritualize the community of man.
O thou dear handmaid of God! Thy letter hath been received and its contents noted. Thou didst ask for a rule whereby to guide thy life.
O thou daughter of the Kingdom! Thy letters were received. Their contents indicated that thy mother hath ascended to the invisible realm and that thou hast been left alone.
O my dear children! Your letter was received.
O thou lady of the Kingdom! Praise thou God that in this age, the age of the dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh, thou hast been awakened, hast been made aware of the Manifestation of the Lord of Hosts.
O ye servants of the Sacred Threshold!
O ye sons and daughters of the Kingdom! Your letter was received. From its contents it was known that, praise be to God, your hearts are in the utmost purity and your souls rejoice in the glad tidings of God.
O thou servant of God! Thy letter was received. Its contents were lofty and sublime, and its aim high and far-reaching.
The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár is one of the most vital institutions in the world, and it hath many subsidiary branches.
O thou revered maidservant of God! Thy letter from Los Angeles was received.
O thou who art turning thy face to God! Thy letter was received. From its contents it became known that thy wish is to serve the poor.
Those souls who during the war have served the poor and have been in the Red Cross Mission work, their services are accepted at the Kingdom of God and are the cause of their everlasting life.
Walking home with Shoghi Effendi in Haifa, Leroy Ioas heard the Guardian describe the burdens weighing on him and offered to take on his papers. With tears in his eyes, the Guardian answered that only God could give him relief.
In January 1927 the Star of the West printed the obituary of Howard MacNutt, the early New York believer who died on December 26, 1926, and who had compiled, at the request of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Master's American addresses published as The Promulgation of Universal Peace.
Juliet Thompson's diary records how, in April 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had her change a thousand-franc note into quarters for the men of New York's Bowery Mission, and how He gave the coins that were left to a hotel chambermaid.
On 27 April 1920 'Abdu'l-Bahá was knighted at Haifa for His relief of famine in the Holy Land during the First World War. The Star of the West printed a Persian believer's account of the ceremony.
In March 1911 the Star of the West reported that the Persian-American Educational Society had sent seven hundred dollars to Tehran and enrolled sixty-three scholarships, and printed 'Abdu'l-Bahá's request for two American teachers for the Tarbíyat School.
In June 1913 the Star of the West printed Edward Theodore Hall's tribute to Sarah Ann Ridgway, a silk weaver of Pendleton and the first Bahá'í in Manchester, who taught the Faith there quietly for many years.
At Los Angeles on October 19, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told the believers not to look at their small number: if they attained faith, firmness and self-sacrifice, even two people would be equivalent in strength of character to the whole world.
Announce on my behalf respectful greeting to the maid-servant of God, Madam ........., and say …
300 Convey my respectful greeting to Mr. ......... and say: “Praise be to God! that there exists in thee capacity and endowment to enter into the Kingdom of God, and that thy wisdom and intelligence are known to the republic.301…
Express my affection to Mrs. ... and say: “The grace of God hath chosen thee and distinguished thee for His love, that thou mayest thank Him, a thousand times in every moment. Because of this bounty, you must choose to serve the maid-servants of the Merciful.”
Glory be unto Thee, O Thou whose mercy hath encompassed all things, whose gift is made perfect, whose power hath encircled the world, whose proof is demonstrated, whose signs have become manifest, whose words are promulgated …
Honorable Dr. ......... According to what is heard you have received the permission of medication and the certificate of graduation (diploma) from the College of Medicine.
My Lord! My Lord! Thou hast caused me to hear the Call, guided me unto the sea of favor, awakened me through Thy fragrant breeze, and quickened me by the spirit of Thy greatest guidance.
O attracted maid-servant of God! The epistle written (and sent) through Mirza...... was received.
O God who art without likeness! The servant of Thy Kingdom, Mr. ........, reached the Holy Threshold in the utmost of sincerity and longing and sought Thy good will.
O heavenly one! The maid-servant of God ... hath praised thee!
O my God, my God! I am a servant attracted to Thee, humbly coming to the door of Thy Oneness and addressing the kingdom of Thy mercy.
O thou attracted one of the Kingdom! The epistle was received; likewise the enclosed epistle was read. The personage (Mr. .........) is in reality enraptured with the truth and seeketh the discovery of the mysteries of God.
O thou confident leaf!
O thou confident soul who art content and patient!
O thou dear servant of God! Thy letter was received and its contents noted.
O thou esteemed maid-servant of the Word of God! Praise be to God! upon thy departure from Acca, thou hast been assisted and rendered successful in serving the Kingdom of God.
O thou fortunate and righteous, sincere and pious! Thank thou God for that by reason of which the breath of God hath awakened thee and the spirit of God hath quickened thee and raised thee from among the dead with a joyful spirit of life.
O thou ignited candle! The real light is the light of the love o God.
O thou tree planted in the Garden of the Love of God! Although thou art absent in body, yet, praise God! thou art present in spirit and art illuminated by the lights of the Divine Love.
O thou who art advancing towards God! I have already read thy letter sent to his honor, .....
O thou who art advancing unto the Kingdom of God!
O thou who art arisen for the service of the Cause of God!
O thou who art attracted by the Speech of Abdul-Baha! Verily I speak unto thee through the tongue of my spirit, from the spiritual direction, and explain for thee the mysteries of the kingdom and the meanings of the sacred, heavenly books.
O thou who art attracted to the Light of the Kingdom!
O thou who art awakened from the sleep of negligence and forgetfulness!
O thou who art controlled by the attraction of the Holy fragrances of the gardens of God’s Kingdom!
O thou who art rejoiced at the Kingdom of God! The letter indicating thy great wish to be a maid-servant of the Cause of God in His wonderful and excellent vineyard, was received.
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 beloved ones! It is the moment of the ecstasy of the soul and consciousness and the season of running in the arena of sacrifice!
O ye blessed souls! On the night of the feast ye entertained the beloved and were occupied in the service of the friends of God and the maid-servants of the Merciful One.
O ye sincere ones! O ye favored ones! O ye beseeching ones! O ye supplicating ones!
Tonight we met ‘Abdu'l-Bahá and a large number of believers from all parts of the East at the Feast, or Supper, under the shadow of the Blessed Perfection.
We looked again at the faces of the Blessed Perfection and the Báb in the inner room.
In Julia Grundy's pilgrim notes from 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá is asked how we can love someone whose personality is unpleasant. His answer points to Christ, who loved even those who crucified Him, and to the tree whose fruit is love.
‘Abdu'l-Bahá sent for me. I found Him in a little room opening from the courtyard. He was sitting upon a raised chair, His beautiful face, majestic in repose and strength, turned toward the only window.
Túbá Khánum recalls her little sister Rúḥ-Angíz, who longed to follow Bahá'u'lláh to Heaven and passed away the year after Him, while the Master's time was taken up by the needs of the poor.
John David Bosch felt he could not be a speaker and instead circulated pamphlets and books. 'Abdu'l-Bahá assured him that he was doing better than talking, for with him it was the heart that spoke.
'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.
During the First World War, when the breadwinners of ‘Akká and Haifa had been taken for the army, the Master kept the poor from starvation, opened a dispensary at Abú-Sinán and arranged schools for the children.
In Budapest, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was about to leave for Vienna when the president of the Turanian Society asked Him to stay for a meeting already advertised. He agreed, and that evening addressed a large and appreciative gathering.
At the Bowery Mission in New York, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá addressed some four hundred of the city’s poorest men, shook every hand and placed coins in each palm; back at His hotel a moved chambermaid resolved to give as He had given.
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.
When the Báb set out on a camel from Jaddih to Mecca, Quddús chose to walk beside Him all the way, holding the bridle by day and keeping watch over Him every night.
Provisions 'Abdu'l-Bahá had grown and stored from 1912 onward saved Haifa's civilians from starvation in 1917 and 1918, and the British Government conferred a knighthood on Him, which He accepted as a gift "from a just king."