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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."
18 stories on this theme.
In a 1974 talk in Wilmette, Hand of the Cause Abu’l-Qásim Faizí recalled ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanation that the earth is faithful, generous and patient while fire is greedy, and urged Bahá’í youth to be like the earth.
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."
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.
From that time onwards, He became His father’s closest companion and, as it were, protector.
A 1969 report from Canadian Bahá'í News on the Saskatoon community, where united prayer, a visit from Hand of the Cause John Robarts and a wave of young believers brought some seventy to eighty declarations in under two years.
On pilgrimage to 'Akká in 1901, William and Wendell Dodge were told to bow, clasp their hands and avoid smiling before the Master. When they came in smiling instead, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá embraced them and told them to be natural.
In the village of Manshad a boy heard chanting at secret meetings and asked the Babi doctor Radiu'r-Ruh what it meant. The doctor warned that telling him could cost many lives, then taught him; later he was poisoned for his faith.
In 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá meant to take His grandson Shoghi Effendi, then fifteen, with Him to America. At Naples, doctors ordered the boy off the ship, and the Master asked him to obey, saying there was a wisdom in it.
Visiting Haifa at thirteen in 1919, Margaret (Bahíyyih) Randall was told by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that her name means light, but that there is no light without something within. Asked how she could serve, He answered, “Study. Study. Study.”
Before the Báb declared His mission, Bahá'u'lláh stopped to listen to the celebrated mujtahid of Núr and explained a theory none of his disciples could. Afterwards the mujtahid told his students of two dreams about Bahá'u'lláh.
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá describes the Báb's early years in a few lines: raised in Shíráz by His uncle, a merchant in Búshihr, and known for godliness and piety long before He made any claim.
In Búshihr a man left goods with the Báb to be sold at a fixed price. The Báb sent him more than that price, because the goods had once been worth more, and refused to take back the difference.
In Karbilá, Siyyid Káẓim broke off his lesson when the young Báb sat down by the door, and said the Truth was more manifest than the ray of light on that lap. He would not say the name, and his students did not understand.
J. E. Esslemont describes the young Báb as noted for beauty, charm of manner, piety and nobility of character, faithful in prayer and fasting, and living in the spirit of the Prophet's teachings as well as the letter.
The Báb told Mullá Ḥusayn that the last of His first eighteen disciples would arrive the next night. The next evening a travel-stained youth recognised the Báb in the street by His gait. He was Quddús, the last of the Letters of the Living and the first in rank.
In His youth the Báb worked as a merchant in Búshihr. A visitor recalled His humility and courtesy, and told how He insisted on paying a client the full value of an article, above the price the man had asked.
O thou who art exhilarated by the Wine of the Love of God—young in age and old in soul!
O thou who art sweet tongued! Thy poem is a wonder to the minds and intellects and thy composition an evidence of the gift of the great Lord.