Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
67 stories on this theme.
Haji Mirza Haydar-'Ali tells of a man so afraid of being found with the Kitáb-i-Íqán that he hid it in a stable manger, until he reflected on the fearlessness of its Author and became a believer.
A woman asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for a special work. He entrusted to her the orphaned son of her worst enemy, and she wept that she now knew what the Bahá’í Cause means.
After a dream, a young Shíráz shopkeeper, ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb, follows Mullá ‘Alíy-i-Basṭámí out of the city. His furious father beats Mullá ‘Alí, but later repents, and after his son’s martyrdom he is taught the Faith by Bahá’u’lláh.
Born in Charleston to formerly enslaved parents, Louis G. Gregory became a Bahá'í in 1909, was seated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá at His right in Washington, gave decades to teaching and race unity, and was posthumously named a Hand of the Cause.
Siyyid Ismá‘íl of Zavárih swept the doorstep of Bahá'u'lláh's house in Baghdad with his own turban each dawn. Transformed by His words, he at last gave up his life beside the river, an act Bahá'u'lláh recalls in the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf.
The life of Thornton Chase, whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called “the first American believer,” from his long spiritual search to his service in Chicago, and the Master’s visit to his grave in 1912.
Education and religion are alike based on the assumption that it is possible to change human nature.
Bahá’u’lláh teaches that everyone endowed with the Station of Prophethood is given sufficient proofs of His Mission, is entitled to claim obedience from all men and has authority to abrogate, alter or add to the teachings of His predecessors.
That the world, during the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth centuries, has been passing through the death pangs of an old era and the birth pangs of a new, is evident to all.
What is the cause of this sudden awakening throughout the world?
‘Alí Khán, the harsh warden of the castle of Máh-Kú, saw the Báb praying by the river at dawn while the gates were still shut, then found Him seated in His room. The Báb's words changed his heart, and his severity gave way to humility.
At the Conference of Badasht in the summer of 1848, Ṭáhirih appeared before the assembled Bábís with her face unveiled, and the break of the new Dispensation from the laws of the past was proclaimed.
A man who once set out to kill a Bahá'í becomes a believer, walks six months to 'Akká, and passes unseen through the guarded prison gate into the presence of Bahá'u'lláh.
Moved to tears by verses Nabíl read to him, the unruly youth Áqá Buzurg walks to 'Akká, meets Bahá'u'lláh twice, receives the name Badí, and is given the task of carrying His Tablet to the Sháh.
Tammy finds a cocoon in the woods and wishes it were not so ugly. Her mother asks her to be patient, and that night Tammy wakes to find a bright blue butterfly on her finger.
The stern warden 'Alí Khán sees the imprisoned Báb praying by the river, then finds the prison door shut and the Báb seated in His room. His heart is changed, and he brings in the Bábí who had been sleeping outside the town.
Gran'pa tells George and Ann how, as a homeless man with no purpose, he walked thirty miles to see 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and how the Master's loving welcome gave him a new life of work and service.
During the Báb's nine months in the castle of Máh-Kú, its strict warden, 'Alí Khán, saw Him at prayer outside the locked castle, came to Him in humility, and opened the castle to His visitors.
In October 1912 'Abdu'l-Baha stayed three nights at Phoebe Hearst's house near Pleasanton, California. On the last evening she asked Him to speak to her relatives and guests about the Faith, and He read them a prayer in Arabic.
Ordered to keep the Báb in strict confinement at Máh-Kú, the warden 'Alí Khán watched the local people come to love his Prisoner, and after a strange vision he relaxed his discipline and let pilgrims in.
Longing to be perfect yet despairing of his own weakness, Howard Colby Ives asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá how he could ever reach so high a goal. The Master answered that it is accomplished little by little.
Reluctantly brought to hear ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Boston in 1912, William Randall carried Him some grape juice and was asked to sit. After twenty restless minutes the Master spoke words that became a turning point in his life.
A man in ‘Akká hated ‘Abdu’l-Bahá so much that he turned his back whenever they met. When a narrow street forced them face to face, the Master told him his hatred could never be as strong as His love.
Dr. Florian Krug raged against his wife Grace’s new faith and threatened to have ‘Abdu’l-Bahá thrown out of his house. When the Master came, He asked him, ‘Dr. Krug, are you happy?’ and his opposition ended.
At Thonon in 1911 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá embraced the exiled prince Ẓillu’s-Sulṭán, whose family had persecuted the Bahá’ís, and asked to meet his sons; the elder of them later became a Bahá’í.
Shaykh Maḥmúd of ‘Akká hated the Bahá’ís and laid hands on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the mosque, but the Master’s serene reply turned his anger into shame, and he became a devoted Bahá’í.
With four months left in the Nine Year Plan, Dr Muhájir sent Jenabe Caldwell to Germany. A letter from the National Assembly drew forty-five German volunteers, who joined fifteen Alaskans in street teaching that succeeded once they prayed for loving hearts.
After a dream, young ‘Abdu’l-Vahhab left his shop in Shíráz to follow Mullá ‘Alí, a disciple of the Báb. His angry father beat Mullá ‘Alí, but years later Bahá'u'lláh brought the father to the Faith and he was forgiven.
Louis Gregory, a Black lawyer from Charleston whose parents had been enslaved, became a Bahá'í in 1909. 'Abdu'l-Bahá seated him in the place of honor at a Washington luncheon, and he spent his life working for unity between the races.
'Alí Khán, the strict warden of the fortress of Máh-Kú, let almost no one see his Prisoner, the Báb, until something he saw one morning at dawn changed his heart.
The warden of Máh-Kú was ordered to keep the Báb shut away. The people nearby came to love the Prisoner, and after a strange vision the warden himself became gentle and let visitors in.
For eighteen years after her first pilgrimage in 1898, Lua Getsinger was taught and sent on teaching missions by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Sending her to India, He urged her never to let outward circumstances worry her.
When he was very young, people thought of ‘Abdu’lláh Baghdádí as a libertine, solely devoted to pleasure.
Howard Colby Ives, a minister who had long searched for God without finding Him, met 'Abdu'l-Bahá in New York in 1912. His doubts did not end that day; certainty came months later, after the Master had left America.
In the summer of 1901 a young Englishman met May Bolles in Paris and within three days accepted the Bahá'í Faith. On pilgrimage to 'Akká he told 'Abdu'l-Bahá that the mill he worked for relied on child labour, and resigned at the Master's word.
George Townshend, a Canon of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, became a Bahá'í in 1921 and served Shoghi Effendi as literary adviser. At seventy he renounced his orders in the Anglican Church, and in 1951 he was named a Hand of the Cause.
Confined in 1847 in the remote fortress of Máh-Kú, the Báb won the love of the people of the district, who looked each morning for a glimpse of Him, and of its stern warden, 'Alí Khán, who after a strange vision relaxed his discipline.
Shaykh Maḥmúd of 'Akká hated the Bahá'ís. Angered to hear 'Abdu'l-Bahá praised, he went to the mosque and laid hands on Him. The Master's calm reply took away his anger; days later he begged forgiveness and became a devoted Bahá'í.
Sent by Muḥammad Sháh to investigate the Báb, the learned Vaḥíd resolved to ask, only in his heart, for a commentary on the Súrih of Kawthar. At their third meeting the Báb offered it unasked and wrote it before him.
Moved from Máh-Kú to the castle of Chihríq under a warden ordered to admit no one, the Báb won over both the warden, Yaḥyá Khán, and the Kurds of the district, and seekers again came to Him in numbers.
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.
Imprisoned in the frontier castle of Máh-Kú, the Báb won the hearts of the townspeople. The stern warden, 'Alí Khán, was changed by a vision of the Báb at prayer and came to let His followers visit Him freely.
Fred Mortensen, a former street tough, rode under and on top of railway trains to reach Green Acre and meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who, on hearing how he had come, kissed his cheeks and his dirty hat.
Question.—It is said in the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 3, verses 13, 14, 15: “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest…
Question.—The Christ said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.”
Question.—What is the manner, and what is the meaning, of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, as described in the Gospel?
Question.—In verse 22 of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians it is written: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
O Sherif!...
I hope that in this nether world thou shalt attain unto heavenly light, thou wilt free the souls from the gloom of nature, which is the animal kingdom, and cause them to reach lofty stations in the human kingdom.
O ye servants of the Blessed Beauty!... It is clear that in this day, confirmations from the unseen world are encompassing all those who deliver the divine Message.
O thou servant of God! Thy letter was received. Its contents were lofty and sublime, and its aim high and far-reaching.
O thou fresh, slender branch saturated with the abundant rain of His bounty!
O thou heavenly, brilliant and precious pearl!
O thou plant in the Garden of the Kingdom! God created man in the utmost perfection, for He inscribed the edict of the divine likeness on his brow.
O thou revered sincere one! Know thou, verily, the brilliant realities and sanctified spirits are likened to a shining crescent.
O thou spiritual maid-servant of God! Thy letter was received and its contents became known. God willing, the vision will become actualized.
O thou who art awakened from the sleep of negligence and forgetfulness!
O ye beloved servants of Abdul-Baha and the maid-servants of the Merciful One!
O ye children of the Kingdom! It is New Year; that is to say, the rounding of the cycle of the year.
O ye illumined faces! O ye divine souls! and O ye spiritual temples!
The night before the battle, Hurr, the commander who had blocked every road to Husayn, was overcome with remorse. At dawn he rode to the Imam to beg forgiveness, and was killed by the soldiers he had once commanded.
On her pilgrimage in 1901, Ethel Rosenberg, the first English woman to embrace the Bahá'í Faith in England, heard 'Abdu'l-Bahá say that we must strive to change our bad qualities into good ones.
The mention of Mary Magdalene always brought joy to the face of Bahá’u’lláh. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained to Ethel Rosenberg what the "seven devils" cast out of her meant, and why she was greater than all the disciples.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá retells an Arabian chronicle: Hanzala, pledged to die on King Nu'man's Day of Evil, returned to keep his word, and his faithfulness brought the king and his ministers to faith in God.
Harry Randall did not want to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, but he carried Him a glass of grape juice and was told to sit down. After twenty restless minutes the Master spoke to him of the intellect and the heart.
Riding in the countryside of Núr, Bahá’u’lláh met a dervish cooking his food. After Bahá’u’lláh spoke with him tenderly about the true nature of God, the dervish left his utensils behind and followed His horse, singing for joy.
A pilgrim from Khusf who had seen nothing extraordinary in his first days in 'Akká was overwhelmed in Bahá’u’lláh's presence. Bahá’u’lláh then explained, with the example of a parrot and a mirror, why the Manifestations appear in human form.