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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."
195 stories on this theme.
With a smile, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told a group in America of a wife who had her husband wipe the dust from her shoes but did not do the same for him, and urged the ladies sometimes to stand up for the rights of men.
Before leaving for Minneapolis, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asked Corinne True to speak about the Faith in public; when she protested that she had no training, He told her to turn her heart wholly toward Him.
At the dedication of the Temple site in Wilmette on 1 May 1912, the golden trowel could not break the ground, so ‘Abdu’l-Bahá swung an axe. Women and people of many races then dug, and He declared the Temple already built.
On her second pilgrimage in 1920, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told Agnes Parsons, a speaker for the Faith who often hosted traveling teachers, to organize a convention for racial unity, a tradition-breaking task for a woman of her social standing.
We have met together to bid farewell to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and to thank God for his example and teaching, and for the power of his prayers to bring Light into confused thought, Hope into the place of dread, Faith where doubt was …
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Fátimih Begum, widow of the King of Martyrs, who bore persecution, poverty and the death of her son with thankfulness, but could not survive her grief at Bahá’u’lláh’s passing.
In London, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asked a suffragist why women should have the vote. When she said humanity cannot soar with only one wing, He playfully offered to prove that woman is the stronger wing.
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.
In the summer of 1848 eighty-one followers of the Báb gathered at Badasht as Bahá’u’lláh’s guests. Táhirih appeared unveiled and called for a break with the past, and Bahá’u’lláh eased the tension that followed.
All the people of the world are, as thou dost observe, in the sleep of negligence.
Ye have written regarding the erection of the Temple and the purchase of the ground, or the finding of a place to be as a home for the gathering of the believers.
This recent war has proved to the world and the people that war is destruction while Universal Peace is construction; war is death while peace is life; war is rapacity and bloodthirstiness while peace is beneficence and humaneness …
In the Mazandaran village of Máhfurúzak, Mullá ‘Alí Ján and his wife ‘Alavíyyih Khánum organized village life around prayer, schools and a cooperative; after his execution in Tehran in 1883 she devoted her life to the Faith.
Ibn-i-Abhar, one of the four Hands of the Cause named by Bahá'u'lláh, was told to seek answers through consultation, counselled by ‘Abdu'l-Bahá on trustworthiness, and sent to Yazd shortly before the upheaval of 1903.
Tahirih Siyavushi, a nurse who served on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Shiraz, was arrested along with her husband, Jamshid. He was hanged two days before her. When she knew she would also be executed, she told her family she was relieved and happy.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s memorial of Táhirih: the learned woman of Qazvín who recognized the Báb, taught boldly in Karbilá and Baghdád, appeared unveiled at Badasht, and was put to death in Tihrán.
Let these exalted words be thy love-song on the tree of Bahá, O thou most holy and resplendent Leaf: ‘God, besides Whom is none other God, the Lord of this world and the next!’
O Leaf of Paradise! Loose your tongue at all times in gratitude for the blessings of the Beloved of the Worlds, for you are always mentioned in His Glorious and Sanctified Presence, and you are ever in the hearts of His maidservants.
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.
Your sweet and touching message imparted strength and solace to my heart.
All praise be to the Abhá Beauty, the Best-Beloved, the Desire of the world, for having enabled His well-assured leaves to remain firm in the Cause of God and steadfast in His love, even as immovable mountains …
My great love for the Greatest Holy Leaf and my attachment to each one of you prompt me to add these few words in person and to express to you my gratitude for the expression of your valued sympathy.
O my spiritual sister! Thou didst go away to Haifa, supposedly for only three or four days. Now it becometh apparent that the spiritual power of the Shrine hath brought thee joy and radiance, and even as a magnet is holding thee fast.
The profound sorrow occasioned by the sudden passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf, as well as the unnumbered messages of sympathy received from friends and believers in East and West, all of which the Guardian acknowledged in person …
At the exalted Threshold of our Lord, the Best-Beloved of the world, I fervently beseech Him to graciously keep that assured leaf and the other handmaids of the Merciful safe and secure under the shelter of His bounty and grace.
O my spiritual sister! God be praised, through the Ancient Beauty’s grace and bounty, we have set foot safe and sound upon this shore, and arrived in this town ...
The Guardian of the Cause of God has received your letter of 21 July 1932, telling of your and the other friends’ profound distress on receiving word of this calamity, this dire ordeal, that is, the ascension of the Most Exalted Leaf, that brightest fruit of the Eternal Tree.
The many evidences of your increasing zeal and activities in the service of our beloved Cause, have to a great measure, relieved my sorrow-laden heart.
O my affectionate sister! God be praised, through His grace and favour, my health and well-being are now restored, but it is very hard for me to bear thine absence.
On my return from Beyrouth I was sorry to find out that you had left for Italy and I missed seeing you before you left.
The Guardian’s anguish, because of this tragic occurrence, is such that it can neither be plumbed nor described in words.
Your highly impressive and touching message brought much relief to my weary soul.
Indeed, the Greatest Holy Leaf, the Trust of Bahá’u’lláh amongst us, was the emblem of His boundless grace, a luminary shining in the heaven of tender mercy and gracious providence …
O my dear sister!
O my dear sister! It is quite a while now, since thou hast left us, and gone away to Nazareth and Haifa. This journey hath lasted too long.
The passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf has filled my heart with unutterable sorrow.
O my cherished sister! Thou art never absent from my thoughts. I speak of thee and call thee to mind at all times.
O well-loved friend, The emotions that have possessed my grieving heart are such that they cannot be put into words, and tongue and pen are helpless to describe them.
The Festival of Ridván is come and the splendour of the light of God is shining from the invisible horizon of His mercy.
The Guardian trusts that the explanation he has given by wire regarding the suspension for a period of nine months of Bahá’í religious festivity has been made clear.
I wish to add a few words in person as a token of my deepfelt appreciation of your loving message of sympathy in the great loss the family of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and myself have sustained.
O my sister in the spirit, and the companion of my heart! God willing, the climate of Haifa hath proved favourable.
The loss of the Greatest Holy Leaf will be bitterly felt by all those friends who had the pleasure and privilege to meet her.
You should not think that the record of those meetings can ever be blotted out from the pages of history or that the memory of those gatherings can fade from the face of the world.
And in this fervent plea, my voice is once more reinforced by the passionate, and perhaps, the last, entreaty, of the Greatest Holy Leaf, whose spirit, now hovering on the edge of the Great Beyond …
I feel prompted to offer my sincere best wishes to you and to express the agony of separation that has deeply affected me.
O My Leaf! Hearken thou unto My Voice: Verily there is none other God but Me, the Almighty, the All-Wise.
O thou my affectionate sister! In the daytime and in the night-season my thoughts ever turn to thee. Not for one moment do I cease to remember thee.
The passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf, so cruel in the feelings of unalterable grief that it has evoked, is, indeed, a tremendous loss to us all and particularly to our Guardian.
Both in the Persian and Arabic Writings of the Primal Point—may the life of all men be offered up for Him—there are several …
Even though during these last years she was weak and most of the time confined to her room, yet she was a source of constant joy and inspiration to those that met her.
I am moved to add a few words with my own pen, to what has been written on my behalf, renewing my plea to you and through you, to each member of your beloved community, to prosecute, with undiminished vigour the enterprise which you have so splendidly inaugurated.
O thou Greatest and Most Merciful Holy Leaf!
The passing away of the Greatest Holy Leaf was a loss every Bahá’í will feel deeply if only he stops to think about it.
The passing of the beloved Khánum has plunged me in unspeakable sorrow.
Even though the Greatest Holy Leaf has left us in body she is with us in spirit, inspiring us in our work and beseeching for us God’s loving mercy and fatherly care.
I greatly value the expression of your loving sympathy and am greatly relieved by the sentiments your message conveyed.
Weeks after the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Greatest Holy Leaf cabled the American believers (received 14 December 1921): now is a period of great tests; the friends should be firm and united in defending the Cause.
I wish to express to your distinguished assembly my gratitude for the action they have taken in reproducing in facsimile my humble tribute to the Greatest Holy Leaf.
The letter in which that leaf had expressed the ardent longing of her heart and revealed the depth of her devotion has received my eager attention.
70 ...as a further testimony to the majestic unfoldment and progressive consolidation of the stupendous undertaking launched by Bahá’u’lláh on that holy mountain, may be mentioned the selection of a portion of the school property…
It is my earnest hope that you, His distinguished leaf, together with the other maidservants of the All-Merciful in that land …
O exalted leaf, O distinguished friend! May the glory of God and His praise, His bounty and blessing rest upon you inasmuch as you have remained faithful to the Covenant of God and His Testament.
May my life be sacrificed for those leaves who are steadfast in the Covenant of God—they whom the slander of the slanderer hinders not from holding fast to His divine Testament.
From this hallowed and snow-white Spot, this blessed, heavenly Garden, wherefrom the fragrance of God is diffused to all regions, I hail you with salutations, most tender, most wondrous, and most glorious, and impart to you the most joyful tiding.
Shoghi Effendi's tribute to Bahíyyih Khánum records the cost of the Adrianople exile to her own body — a winter of exceptional severity, a poor and unhealthy lodging, and dire financial distress that left her, as a young woman, with a permanent loss of vitality and a shadow on her face that would remain until the end of her life.
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.
Shoghi Effendi's tribute to Bahíyyih Khánum preserves a single small image from her childhood in Tihrán: when Bahá'u'lláh was thrown into the Síyáh-Chál and the family's wealth was seized within the space of a single day, Navváb — the mother — placed a handful of dry flour into the hand of her young daughter as the substitute for daily bread.
One of the social principles to which Bahá’u’lláh attaches great importance is that women should be regarded as the equals of men and should enjoy equal rights and privileges, equal education and equal opportunities.
In bringing about the emancipation of women as in other matters, Bahá’u’lláh counsels His followers to avoid methods of violence.
In His Writings the Báb tells His followers that they must be distinguished by brotherly love and courtesy.
When woman’s point of view receives due consideration and woman’s will is allowed adequate expression in the arrangement of social affairs …
In His own words, Bahá’u’lláh recalls the day at Badasht when Táhirih appeared at His door with her face unveiled, and the consternation that seized the companions, some of whom fled in horror.
On the first Western pilgrimage, a young American said she was now an orphan because her parents did not believe. Munírih Khánum embraced her and brought her to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who told her that the ties of the spirit are all.
In London on 22 December 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told how Mary Magdalene went to the emperor of Rome on behalf of the Christians and asked that no one exact vengeance for the death of Christ.
Born in Bushruyih in 1813 to a wealthy father and a mother known as a poetess, Mullá Ḥusayn studied in Mashhad and was drawn to Siyyid Kázim. At eighteen he set out for Karbilá, with most of his family, to study with him.
Sarah Farmer's vision of Green Acre as a place of peace and learning for all races and religions found its true purpose when she met 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká in 1900, and He visited Green Acre in 1912.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá describes how, at Badasht, Ṭáhirih came forth unveiled, proclaiming the signs of the Day of Resurrection, and how the believers, after days of fear and confusion, regained their composure.
After the murder of Mullá Taqí, her husband's father, Ṭáhirih was held captive in Qazvín by relatives who blamed her for the crime. Bahá'u'lláh had her secretly brought to His home in Tihrán, from where she went on to Badasht.
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.
In 'Akká 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked May Maxwell whether she would like a child, and she answered that she chose whatever God chose. In 1910 her daughter Mary was born, and the Master urged her to raise the child as a real Bahá'í.
Confined in her father's house in Qazvín and blamed for her father-in-law's murder, Ṭáhirih foretells her deliverance within nine days. Before the time is up, Bahá'u'lláh has her brought secretly to His home in Ṭihrán.
Khadíjih Bagum, the wife of the Báb, tells Munírih Khánum of the night in 1846 when the chief of police seized the Báb from their home in Shíráz, and of the years of isolation that followed.
Shoghi Effendi describes how Táhirih, knowing her death was near, dressed as a bride and awaited her martyrdom in prayer, and how at her death she declared, “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”
Ásíyih Khánum shared fifty years of Bahá'u'lláh's life, through exile and imprisonment. Her daughter and granddaughter remember her gentleness, her unselfishness and her simple, prayerful life.
Born to wealth, Bahá'u'lláh and Ásíyih Khánum chose to care for the poor and became known as the Father of the Poor and the Mother of Consolation. As a boy, 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave away all His Father's sheep.
Ṭáhirih studies the books of Shaykh Ahmad, travels to Karbilá, and sees the Báb in a dream. Without ever meeting Him, she sends Him a message and becomes the only woman among the Letters of the Living.
In the summer of 1848 eighty-one Bábís gathered at Badasht as the guests of Bahá'u'lláh. There Táhirih appeared unveiled and declared that the fetters of the past were burst asunder.
As a small boy sitting on Ṭáhirih's knee in Tihrán, 'Abdu'l-Bahá heard her call out to a learned believer debating with Bahá'u'lláh that the time for words had passed and the time for deeds had come.
Pioneering to South America, Elizabeth Cheney met illness, failed funds and broken travel plans. When her river boat sank at night, she clung to a floating log and gave the Message to the woman who shared it.
Visiting the poet Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne and her invalid husband, Dr T. K. Cheyne, in Oxford, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was moved to tears by her loving care and called her an angelic woman.
Tahirih taught the Bab's Faith openly in Karbila until guards were set on her house. In Baghdad she silenced a delegation of Shi'ih, Sunni, Christian and Jewish leaders, and was lodged in the Mufti's house, where she defended her faith.
Shamsu'd-Ḍuḥá, Ṭáhirih's companion in Karbilá, was once beaten by a mob that took her for Ṭáhirih. Decades later in Iṣfáhán, where she was known as the Bahá'ís' Lady of Light, the Governor beat her until she fainted.
In March 1916 Agnes Alexander wrote from Tokyo of new people at her Friday meeting, students at her door, a blind Russian friend hearing Some Answered Questions, and Bahá'í books placed in a library, one of which a stranger had already found.
At the conference of Badasht in 1848, Ṭáhirih appeared unveiled before the assembled Bábís and proclaimed that a new Dispensation had begun, breaking openly with the laws of the past.
In a village in northern Iran, Mullá ‘Alí Ján and ‘Alavíyyih Khánum started family prayer, schools for girls and boys, and a cooperative. He was martyred in 1883; she spent the rest of her life teaching the Faith.
Mary Maxwell, who grew up in Montreal, married Shoghi Effendi in Haifa in 1937 with no celebration and no elaborate ceremony. Known afterwards as Rúḥíyyih Khánum, she served the Faith for the rest of her life.
When Ibn-i-Abhar, a Hand of the Cause, asked Bahá'u'lláh for guidance, Bahá'u'lláh told him to consult with steadfast believers and act on their decision. He later taught across Persia, the Caucasus and India and promoted the education of women.
At a gathering of the Báb's followers in the village of Badasht, Ṭáhirih appeared without her veil and announced that a new age of religion had begun.
While a learned visitor argued with Bahá'u'lláh in the next room, Ṭáhirih, with the little boy 'Abbás on her knee, called out that it was the time for deeds.
For weeks Mable Rice-Wray felt an unexplained urge to leave her Baltimore streetcar halfway down a long hill. When she finally did, a woman in a small shop there told her of the Bahá’í Faith.
Khurshíd Begum, who was given the title of Shamsu’d-Ḍuḥá, the Morning Sun, was mother-in-law to the King of Martyrs.
In 1872, on her way to 'Akká, Munírih Khánum stayed in Shíráz and asked Khadíjih-Bagum, the wife of the Báb, about her marriage. She recalled her dreams, her life with the Báb, and the night Mullá Ḥusayn came.
Rúḥíyyih Khánum recalls how her mother, May Maxwell, was broken by grief after the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and how a pilgrimage to Haifa in 1923 to meet Shoghi Effendi restored her.
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.
Siyyid Káẓim addressed the young scholar of Qazvín as Qurratu'l-'Ayn, "Solace of the Eyes." At Badasht in 1848 Bahá'u'lláh gave her the name Táhirih, the Pure One, and the Báb addressed her by it.
During the siege of Zanján a village girl named Zaynab disguised herself as a man and fought at the barricades. Ḥujjat recognised her and granted her request. She fought for five months until she was killed.
In 1852 Ṭáhirih, held in the house of the Kalantar of Ṭihrán, dressed in white silk and told her hostess that her death was near. That night she was taken to a garden outside the city and strangled with a silken kerchief she had set aside for the purpose.
Ashraf was born in the besieged fort of Zanján. Years later, when he was condemned for his faith, his enemies brought his mother to persuade him to recant. She urged him to stand firm instead, and Bahá'u'lláh praised her in a Tablet.
Ṭáhirih's learning made her father wish she had been a son. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls how she studied, debated, recognized the Báb through a dream, and taught His Cause in Karbilá and Baghdád.
A gifted student of Siyyid Káẓim, Ṭáhirih sent a sealed letter to the Promised One by a relative who had set out to find Him. On receiving it, the Báb named her one of the Letters of the Living, though she never met Him.
Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, shared the sufferings of Bahá'u'lláh's family from early childhood until her passing in 1932. Shoghi Effendi's tributes describe the calm and trust in God with which she bore them.
Ásíyih Khánum, whom Bahá'u'lláh called Navváb, came to her marriage with forty mule-loads of wedding treasures. Her daughter remembered how she sold them for the family's exile, did the hardest work in poverty and prison, and never uttered a word of complaint.
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 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.
Ásíyih Khánum, whom Bahá'u'lláh called Navváb, lost her wealth and home when He was imprisoned in Ṭihrán, and shared His exile. In 1863 she and the rest of the family joined Him in the Garden of Riḍván on the ninth day.
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.
Ṭáhirih never met the Báb. She sent a sealed letter with her sister's husband to the Promised One he was sure to meet, and on receiving it the Báb named her one of the Letters of the Living.
In Bahá'u'lláh's house in Ṭihrán, Táhirih listened from behind a curtain as the learned Vahíd spoke on the proofs of the new Revelation, then interrupted him with a call to deeds. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, then a child, was sitting on her lap.
In 1902, when Muẓaffari'd-Dín Sháh of Persia was in Paris, Lua Getsinger, received at first only by his Grand Vizier, persisted until she could hand the Sháh a petition asking him to protect the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Returning to Paris from her 1898–99 pilgrimage to 'Akká, May Bolles established, at 'Abdu'l-Bahá's instruction, the first Bahá'í centre on the European continent, where Thomas Breakwell, Hippolyte Dreyfus and Laura Barney came to the Faith.
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.
Pauline Hannen once feared Black people, but studying Bahá'u'lláh's writings changed her; she taught the Faith to her washerwoman, and she and Joseph began inviting Black people to meetings in their home.
August 28th, 1913 O Thou my beloved daughter! Thine eloquent and fluent letter was perused in a garden, under the cool shade of a tree, while the gentle breeze was wafting.
4 Avenue de Camöens, Paris, November 14th The Tenth Principle of the teaching of Bahá’u’lláh is the equality of the sexes.
O Thou the Supreme Word of God!
O Thou who art the chosen one among women! He is God; glorified is the splendour of His light.
O leaf upon the Tree of Life! The Tree of Life, of which mention is made in the Bible, is Bahá’u’lláh, and the daughters of the Kingdom are the leaves upon that blessed Tree.
O ye two favoured handmaids of the Lord! The letter from Mother Beecher hath been received, and truly it spoke for you both, wherefore I address the two of you together.
O handmaid of God, who tremblest even as a fresh and tender branch in the winds of the love of God!
O ye blessed souls! The letter ye had written to Rahmatu’lláh hath been perused.
O thou maidservant of God!
O handmaids of the beauty of Abhá! Your letter hath come, and its perusal brought great joy.
O handmaids of the Lord! The spiritual assemblage that ye established in that illumined city is most propitious.
O handmaids of the Merciful! Render ye thanks unto the Ancient Beauty that ye have been raised up and gathered together in this mightiest of centuries, this most illumined of ages.
In 1914 'Abdu'l-Bahá advised Agnes Alexander to go to Japan. Her 1916 letter from Tokyo, printed in the Star of the West, tells of her weekly meetings, the students who came to her, and the Esperantists who helped spread the teachings.
In a Tablet to Mrs. Harriet Cline of Los Angeles, printed in the Star of the West in 1913, 'Abdu'l-Bahá praised her firmness in the Covenant and asked her to make others firm in it.
In June 1917 the Star of the West looked ahead to the summer at Green Acre, the Maine conference ground founded by Sarah Farmer, and printed words 'Abdu'l-Bahá had spoken after His return to the Holy Land, praising the place for offering *a free and unrestricted platform* to people of every nation and religion.
In a letter printed in March 1912, May Maxwell described Montreal's preparation for 'Abdu'l-Bahá's visit: talks heard by socialists and labour groups, and a friendly article in the leading Canadian newspaper.
The first issues of the Star of the West in 1910 carried letters from Tehran about Dr. Susan I. Moody: a reception in her honour, and her own news of a hospital, a Mashriqu'l-Adhkár and a school for girls.
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.
In April 1919 the Star of the West printed part of a letter Elizabeth H. Stewart wrote in Tehran in November 1918, describing teaching meetings, a luncheon to which every Persian man brought his wife, and the hardships of the war years.
O maid-servant of God, thou who hast given up thy life to the service of the Kingdom of God!
O maid-servant of God who art swayed like a strong branch by the breeze of God!
O my Lord, my Beloved, my Desire!
O thou beloved maid-servant of God! The letter, which thou hast forwarded through Mrs. ........ was received.
O thou bird warbling in the Garden of the Love of God!
O thou blooming rose in the garden of the Love of God! Verily, the heavenly angels address thee from the Supreme Horizon, saying …
O thou confident leaf!
O thou dear maid-servant of God! Thy likeness (photograph) was received through Mrs. .......... and was seen. The light of faith shone in thy brow and the smile of the Kingdom in thy face.
O thou dear sister! The letter arrived at a time when—praise be to God! —calamities and sufferings in the path of God have surrounded us from every direction and arrows and darts are flying from every bow.
O thou honored friend! Verily the sight of Providence is far reaching and the divine glance is perfect. Thou hast always been a recipient of favors and the object of the bounty of the glorious Beauty of Abha.
O thou maid-servant of God, who art guided to the Light of Guidance!
O thou servant of the Beauty of Abha! We considered all that thou hast written. It seems that the maid-servant of God, Mrs. ........., hath arisen to deliver (the truth).
O thou sign of the Kingdom and the bird singing with the most wonderful melodies in the rose-garden of Paradise!
O thou spiritual leaf who art verdant and well-watered by the outpouring from the Kingdom of God!
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 that virtuous soul and individual who art ready for the confirmation of the Holy Spirit!
O thou who are enkindled by the fire of the Love of God! Verily, I received thy good and beautiful letter and I found it to be a sign of thy love and an evidence of thy being attracted to the Beauty of El-ABHA.
O thou who art acknowledging the Oneness of God!
O thou who art advancing toward the Kingdom of God!
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 calling in the Name of God and heralding unto the Kingdom of God!
O thou who art gazing toward…
O thou who art longing for the Kingdom! Mr. ......... in thy behalf hath made a great endeavor.
O thou who art made happy by the Fragrances of God! Verily, I have not forgotten thee and will never forget thee.
O thou who art partaking of the Heavenly Food!
O thou who art remembered by Abdul-Baha!
O thou who art set aglow with the Fire burning in the Tree of Sinai!
O thou who art shining with the Kingdom’s Lights! Verily, I am informed of thine earnest desire for the Kingdom of God, thy sparkling by the love of God and thy longing for the service of the sacred and effulgent Threshold.
O thou who art speaking the praise of god in that vast and extensive region!
O thou who art submissive and humble before the Holy Threshold!
O thou who art wholly advancing unto God!
O thou who hast gained illumination from the Light of Guidance!
O thou yearner after the Kingdom of God! The maid-servant of God, Aseyeh, hath mentioned thy name in her letter, praising and commending thee.
O ye beloved servants of Abdul-Baha and the maid-servants of the Merciful One!
O ye blessed maid-servant of the Beauty of Abha! If ye have written letters to Abdul-Baha and answers to them are delayed, know ye of a certainty that untold hindrances have been the cause.
O ye leaves of the Paradise of El-ABHA, and the maid-servants of the Merciful!
O ye maid-servants of God and leaves of the Tree of Eternal Life!
O ye maid-servants of the Merciful! Leaves of the Tree of Life!
O ye maid-servants of the Merciful!
O ye verdant and flourishing leaves of the Blessed Tree!
O ye who are attracted! O ye who are united! O ye who are believers and assured!
O ye who are set aglow with the fire of God’s Love! Blessed are ye for having been chosen by God for His love, in this new age, and joy be to you for having been guided to the Great Kingdom!
Thou has written concerning the Board of Consultation.
Bahíyyih Khánum recalls how a daughter born after the Báb's prayer for a childless follower came to the Holy Family, and how, at Bahá'u'lláh's request, 'Abdu'l-Bahá took her as His wife.
The day after her son Davis died, Corinne True came to the dedication of the Temple site in Wilmette, where ‘Abdu’l-Bahá singled her out for a short drive and then broke ground for the House of Worship.
Mary Hanford Ford describes the practical skill of the women of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's household in 'Akká, and how the Greatest Holy Leaf sewed a simple print dress for a finely dressed Western visitor who had arrived without a trunk.
In a prayer for a memorial gathering, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalls Fáṭimih Begum, widow of the King of Martyrs: her sufferings after his martyrdom, her patience, and her years of humble service in the Holy Land.
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.
Asked what He thought about women’s fashions, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá replied that He looked not at the dress but at the wearer: her chastity, culture and heavenly morality.
While Bahá’u’lláh was imprisoned in Ṭihrán, His wife Navváb fled with their three children, lived in fear for His life, and later sold her wedding treasures to provide for the journey into exile.