Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
7 stories where contentment appears.
On a summer day in the Swiss countryside, 'Abdu'l-Bahá rode out to a forest, bought the violets of a swarm of peasant children, and stood entranced before a waterfall. When Juliet wished the days could last forever, He gave her a gentle answer. A retelling from the Diary of Juliet Thompson.
On a sunny day in the Swiss countryside, 'Abdu'l-Bahá bought every flower a group of children were selling — and then taught His friends a simple secret about being happy.
Mírzá Muḥammad-Qulí, a loyal younger brother of Bahá'u'lláh, spent his whole life within the shelter of the Blessed Beauty — and shared every stage of His exile from Persia to the prison-fortress of 'Akká. In 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own reminiscence, he accepted all that came his way — comfort and torment, hardship and respite, sickness and health — in one and the same spirit, returning thanks with a free heart and a face that shone like the sun.
Mírzá Maḥmúd of Káshán and Áqá Riḍá of Shíráz walked on foot beside the howdah of Bahá'u'lláh from Baghdád to Constantinople, through famine and exhaustion, cooking and serving the believers far into each night and rising again at dawn. In poverty so deep that seven of them once dined on a single handful of dates, they counted themselves in Heaven — for, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's account, their sole desire was to please Bahá'u'lláh, and they were perfectly content with whatever the will of God sent them.
Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan-i-Amín — the Trustee of the Right of God — spent some fifty years travelling the length of Persia on foot and by mule, sustaining the financial life of the Cause and carrying nothing of his own. Twice imprisoned for his open faith, he bore each captivity with the very same calm and good cheer with which he bore the endless roads, and after every release returned quietly to his work — content, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's tribute, with whatever the will of God appointed for him.
Ustád Ismá'íl was a master builder of high standing in Ṭihrán, prosperous and well regarded by all. For the love of Bahá'u'lláh he lost his work, his wealth, and even his bride, and ended his days peddling trinkets from a cave outside Haifa — counting himself, in that poverty, more honoured than he had ever been in his prosperity.
Among the parables 'Abdu'l-Bahá would offer to those who came to Him troubled about poverty and station was the story of a king who envied a shoemaker's sleep — and a shoemaker who would not trade his small contented evenings for the king's heavy throne.