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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."
27 stories on this theme.
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.
Near the end of a long address at Stanford University in 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asked why anyone would fight and kill over the earth, which is in the end only our grave.
O people of the world! The dawn of the Sun of Reality is assuredly for the illumination of the world and for the manifestation of mercy.
Although Bahá’u’lláh, like Christ, counsels His follows as individuals and as a religious body to adopt an attitude of nonresistance and forgiveness toward their enemies, He teaches that it is the duty of the community to prevent injustice and oppression.
Many are the wars which have been fought over pieces of territory whose possession has been coveted by two or more rival nations.
Both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on many occasions foretold with surprising accuracy the coming of the Great War of 1914–1918.
A remarkable instance of the foresight of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was supplied during the months immediately preceding the war.
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.
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.
Early in 1916, though tired and unwell, 'Abdu'l-Bahá drove from Haifa to Nazareth to meet Jamál Páshá. On the way He prayed for a gravely ill girl in the village of Majdal, and in Nazareth the general who had been His enemy treated Him with every courtesy.
In April 1912 the explosives inventor Hudson Maxim argued the case for modern weapons with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the Hotel Ansonia; the Master urged him instead to practise the science of peace and invent “guns of love.”
Rúḥíyyih Khánum found almost no mention of the Second World War in her diaries, though it threatened the World Centre and the Guardian himself. She saw that silence as a measure of the pressures he carried in those years.
In San Francisco on 22 October 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá foretold a great war and said the generality of mankind would one day reproach statesmen who send them into war while they themselves live in comfort.
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.
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.
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 24th ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: I have just been told that there has been a terrible accident in this country.
October 21st ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: I hope you are all happy and well.
November 21st Ferocity and savagery are natural to animals, but men should show forth the qualities of love and affection.
O peoples of the world! The Sun of Truth hath risen to illumine the whole earth, and to spiritualize the community of man.
O ye lovers of truth, ye servants of humankind! Out of the flowering of your thoughts and hopes, fragrant emanations have come my way, wherefore an inner sense of obligation compelleth me to pen these words.
The Lord of all mankind hath fashioned this human realm to be a Garden of Eden, an earthly paradise.
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.
In October 1918, soon after British forces took Haifa, the *Star of the West* printed a telegram with the news the American Bahá'ís had waited for through the war: *Master well and protected.*
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.
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.
When war came and Haifa feared bombardment, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá accepted a Druze chief’s invitation and moved the Bahá’ís to the village of Abu-Sinan, where they lived simply, regained their health and were kept from hunger.