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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."
320 stories where courage appears.
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.
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.
In The Advent of Divine Justice, Shoghi Effendi called racial prejudice the most vital and challenging issue before the American Bahá'ís, asked both races for a supreme effort, and gave minorities priority when votes or qualifications were equal.
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.
“One year before ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd was dethroned, he sent an extremely overbearing, treacherous and insulting committee of investigation. The chairman was one of the governor’s staff, Árif Bey, and with him were three army commanders…
During 'Abdu'l-Bahá's visit to segregated Washington, D.C., He shocked white socialites by insisting that Louis Gregory, an African-American Bahá'í and lawyer, be seated next to Him at a society luncheon, and He asked the Bahá'ís to hold integrated meetings.
In a time of danger in ‘Akká, the Spanish Consul offered ‘Abdu’l-Bahá an Italian ship on which to escape by night. He refused, sending word that the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh had not run away, and neither would He.
The Washington Bahá’ís were divided by the racial customs of the day. When a Unity Feast was booked at a hotel that refused Black guests, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá insisted that all attend, and they sat side by side.
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.
Arise with every power to assist the Covenant of God and serve in His vineyard.
A fire from the Kingdom hath been kindled in the heart of the world, in the Blessed Tree, whose flame shall ere long set aglow the pillars of the earth and its rays illumine the horizons of the nations.
Two brothers who shared Bahá'u'lláh's exile died in each other's arms in the ‘Akká barracks, and He gave up His prayer carpet to pay for their burial. ‘Abdu'l-Bahá also recalls their brother Pahlaván Riḍá.
Escaping his captors after the upheaval in Nayríz, Muḥammad-Ibráhím Amír fled to Iraq, copied the sacred verses, and served Bahá'u'lláh day and night through every exile to the Most Great Prison.
Three brothers from Tabríz gave their hearts to Bahá’u’lláh: Hájí Hasan was killed for proclaiming the Faith in Ádhirbáyján, while Hájí Ja‘far and Hájí Taqí followed Him into the ‘Akká prison.
The Báb’s three maternal uncles took different paths: Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid ‘Alí raised Him and died one of the Seven Martyrs of Tehran; Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad received the Kitáb-i-Íqán; the youngest believed some years later.
A Kirmán merchant who embraced the Faith through the Báb’s uncle, and a Zanján merchant whose brother had fought beside Mullá Ḥusayn, were among the Seven Martyrs of Tihrán, both eager to lay down their lives.
Ḥájí Mullá Ismá‘íl-i-Qumí, a disciple of Siyyid Káẓim named Sirru’l-Vujúd at Badasht, was kept from Ṭabarsí by illness and later met martyrdom in Tihrán, forgiving his executioner.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Ismu’lláhu’l-Asdaq, who was led through Shíráz by a halter, survived the siege of Fort Tabarsí, and in Baghdád gently won over a furious Persian prince within a quarter of an hour.
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.
Mírzá Asadu’lláh Fáḍil of Mázindarán, a scholar who became a Bahá’í in Tihrán, carried out a dangerous mission for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Najaf, taught across America, India and Persia, and wrote a nine-volume history of the Faith.
Mírzá Mustafá of Naráq, a believer since the days of the Báb, teaches the Faith openly in Tabríz with Shaykh Ahmad-i-Khurásání; when captured he reveals who he is, and at the place of execution asks to die first.
Mirza Qurban-‘Ali, a revered dervish of Barfurush who embraced the Cause through Mulla Husayn, was arrested in Tihran, boldly defended his faith before the Amir-Nizam, and was beheaded as the second of the Seven Martyrs.
Imprisoned in Tihrán with other disciples of the Báb, Muḥammad-Ḥusayn-i-Marághi’í would not say a word under torture; at the execution he embraced the body of the friend who had taught him the Faith and begged to be martyred at once.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar, a learned seeker who found the Faith, was chained and jailed again and again in Ṭihrán yet kept safe, and after his death appeared to Him in a dream, saying he had been teaching the Faith.
The second to believe in the Báb carried His message to the shrine cities of Iraq, was tried in Baghdad by Sunni and Shiite clerics, and died at forced labor near Istanbul, the first Bábí to die for his faith.
After Siyyid Kázim's death, Mullá Ḥusayn returned to Karbilá, urged his fellow disciples to scatter in search of the Promised One, and refused their offer to accept him instead. He became the first to believe in the Báb.
In Nayríz, Vaḥíd's doorkeeper Mullá Muḥammad-Riḍá led six companions out to scatter the mob massed around Vaḥíd's house. That night Vaḥíd told his wife he had built the house so that it might be demolished in the path of the Cause.
Siyyid Husayn-i-Turshízí, a mujtahid trained in Najaf, was converted to the Báb's Cause by a merchant friend. Led out to die with the Seven Martyrs of Tihrán, he offered to prove its truth before the city's divines, but an officer stabbed him dead.
Sent by Muhammad Shah to investigate the Báb, the renowned divine Siyyid Yahya of Darab met Him three times in Shiraz and was won over by His commentary on the Surih of Kawthar. He later gave his life at Nayriz.
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.
An overview of the Báb’s mission, from His declaration in 1844 and His call to prepare for “Him Whom God shall make manifest” to His martyrdom in the barracks square of Tabríz in 1850.
Led to the Faith by childhood dreams of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the broadcaster William Sears gave up his career to pioneer to South Africa, met the Guardian on pilgrimage in 1954 and was appointed a Hand of the Cause in 1957.
86 ...He is eagerly awaiting to see the friends as ever burning with the desire to serve a Cause for the sake of which our departed Holy Leaf gave up her entire…
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.
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.
You should be very happy to have had the privilege of meeting her upon this physical plane of existence …
He fully appreciates the deep sorrow that you, as well as the other friends, feel for the passing away of the Greatest Holy Leaf.
The ascension of the Greatest Holy Leaf is, indeed, an irreparable loss to us all and will continue to be deeply felt for many, many long years.
It is a very long time since we have had any news from you and we are quite longing to have one of your interesting and beautiful letters, that brings us always comfort because of your sincerity, your love for the Cause and your constant energy in the work for the Cause.
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.
When the Báb declared His mission in 1844, Bahá’u’lláh, Who was then in His twenty-seventh year, boldly espoused the Cause of the new Faith, of which He soon became recognized as one of the most powerful and fearless exponents.
As a religious body, Bahá’ís have, at the express command of Bahá’u’lláh, entirely abandoned the use of armed force in their own interests, even for strictly defensive purposes.
In consequence of these declarations of the Báb and the alarming rapidity with which people of all classes, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, were eagerly responding to His teaching, attempts at suppression became more and more ruthless and determined.
The great Prophets of religion have always been, at Their coming, despised and rejected of men.
Unfortunately it is impossible, within the space at our disposal, to describe in detail the progress of the Bahá’í Faith throughout the world.
The first eighteen disciples of the Báb (with Himself as nineteenth) became known as “Letters of the Living.”
Like all the other Prophets, Bahá’u’lláh states His own Mission in the most unmistakable terms.
After the Báb’s martyrdom, His remains, with those of His devoted companion, were thrown on the edge of the moat outside the city wall.
In 1904 and 1907 commissions were appointed by the Turkish Government to inquire into the charges against ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and lying witnesses gave evidence against Him.
When the ‘ulamás of Isfáhán condemned the Báb, the governor, Manúchihr Khán, sent Him out of the city with five hundred horsemen, then had Him brought back in secret to his own residence, where he waited on Him in person.
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.
Arrested on the way to Fort Shaykh Ṭabarsí and brought before the clergy of Ámul, Bahá’u’lláh interceded for His companions and offered Himself to receive the bastinado in their place.
As the Báb approached Tabríz under guard, one youth ran barefoot from the city to meet Him. The guards let him through, and the Báb dismounted, embraced him and wiped away his tears.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalled how, at nine years old, while Bahá’u’lláh was in prison, He was sent through the streets of Ṭihrán to fetch money from His aunt and was chased home by boys throwing stones.
At a gathering, a Sufi leader esteemed by Muhammad Shah boasted that he would not trouble to see Jesus Christ at his door. Bahá'u'lláh alone answered him, with a question that left all present speechless.
When the authorities in Adrianople planned to part Bahá'u'lláh from His family and followers, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá pleaded, persisted and at last vehemently protested, until the governor declared that the exiles could not be separated.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá told of Mírzá Qurbán-‘Alí, a timid Bábí who, when the Prime Minister asked him to repudiate the Báb, answered with a question and went to his martyrdom with a serene face.
While Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in the Síyáh-Chál, His servant Isfandíyár, though hunted by a hundred officers, found the scattered family and refused to flee until he had paid every debt of the household.
In 1845 Mullá Ṣádiq and Quddús were punished in Shíráz for proclaiming the Báb’s Cause; an onlooker told Nabíl how the aged Mullá Ṣádiq kept smiling through more than nine hundred lashes.
In Mashhad in 1848 Mullá Ḥusayn's attendant is cruelly paraded through the streets; after the ensuing uproar Prince Hamzih Mírzá receives Mullá Ḥusayn as a guest, and an admiring officer gives him a sword and a horse.
On the morning of His martyrdom in July 1850, the Báb was led through the streets of Tabriz amid insults while three leading clerics, refusing even to see Him, supplied the warrants for His execution.
Mullá Husayn walked from Mashhad to visit the Báb in the castle of Máh-Kú, arriving at Naw-Rúz 1848. The Báb sent him on to Mázindarán, where, reading a manuscript shown him by his host Quddús, he found “God’s hidden treasure.”
Siyyid Kázim sent his young disciple Mullá Ḥusayn to Iṣfahán to win back the support of a leading cleric. Mullá Ḥusayn obtained a written testimony to Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Kázim, and returned the money the cleric sent him.
On the day before His martyrdom in Tabríz, a youth, Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí, surnamed Anís, forced his way through the crowd and begged to follow the Báb. That night the Báb chose him to share His martyrdom.
‘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.
Though the Báb was under guard in Tabríz, Ḥájí ‘Alí-‘Askar was admitted to His presence again and again, fulfilling Mullá Ḥusayn's promise that he would meet the Báb seven times.
Sent by the governor of Fárs to arrest the Báb, the leader of an armed escort met Him on the road. Moved by His words, he begged the Báb to flee, but the Báb gave Himself up and rode ahead of His escort to Shíráz.
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.
Bahá’u’lláh recalls how Mírzá ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb-i-Shírází, chained beside Him in the Ṭihrán prison, dreamed of soaring through infinite space, and went to his martyrdom that same morning wearing Bahá’u’lláh’s own shoes.
In July 1848 Mullá Ḥusayn raised the Black Standard and set out from Mashhad with his companions. Attacked near Bárfurúsh, he held back until the enemy had killed several of them, then charged, and a single stroke of his sword put the attackers to flight.
In Isfahán, a city famed for its clergy, the first to accept the Báb was a humble sifter of wheat, who later set out with his sieve to join the defenders of Shaykh Ṭabarsí; the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh both refer to him.
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.
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.”
Born at sunrise in Tihrán into a noble family, Bahá'u'lláh never went to school, yet as a youth He explained a question a famous scholar's students could not, and rode to Tihrán to stop an injustice against His father.
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.
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.
The youth Buzurg of Nayshábúr walks to 'Akká, is named Badí by Bahá'u'lláh, and carries His Tablet on foot to Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, giving his life rather than betray his fellow believers.
Elizabeth tries so hard to be Good that she stops playing and exploring. Her Grandma Molly, watching a mother robin teach her babies to fly, shows her that we all need to take some chances.
When Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned, His faithful servant Isfandíyár, hunted by officers, stayed in Ṭihrán until he had paid every debt, and later obeyed Bahá'u'lláh by remaining loyal to the minister who had sheltered him.
A children's story with invented characters, based on events in Yazd in 1982: when an official comes to seize the Bahá'ís' furniture, a carpenter and his neighbors gladly give it all up for the sake of God.
The life of Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb: his mission to Tihrán, his walk to the prison of Máh-Kú, the defense of Fort Shaykh Ṭabarsí, and his death in 1849.
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.
A boy in a wheelchair, rescued from bullies one Halloween, remembers his friendship with Isfandiyar, a Bahá'í named after the faithful servant of Bahá'u'lláh whom 'Abdu'l-Bahá praised.
In 1846 the Báb was warmly welcomed in Isfahán. When jealous clerics called for His death, the governor, Manúchihr Khán, secretly sheltered Him; after the governor died, the Báb was sent to Máh-Kú.
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.
Curious about the Zoroastrian fire temple near his school, Ashok travels back in his Time Capsule to see Zarathustra heal King Vishtaspa's horse and teach good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
On 9 July 1850 the Báb and His companion were suspended before a regiment in Tabríz. When the smoke of the first volley cleared, the Báb was gone from the wall, untouched.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembered the day in 1852 when a servant brought word that her father had been arrested, and the four months her mother spent in hiding with the children while He lay chained in the dungeon of Tihrán.
In 1852, while Bahá'u'lláh lay chained in an underground dungeon in Tihrán, His wife went out late at night to learn whether He still lived, and their daughter waited in the dark with her baby brother.
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.
In the summer of 1848 the Báb was brought from Chihríq to Tabríz and questioned before the Crown Prince and the leading divines. He declared Himself the promised One, and was afterwards beaten on the feet at the home of the Shaykhu'l-Islám.
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.
On 9 July 1850 in Tabríz, the first volley fired at the Báb and Anís cut only their ropes, and the Báb was found back in His room finishing a conversation. A second regiment carried out the execution.
In 1844 the Báb sailed with Quddús from Búshihr to Arabia. On the road to Mecca a Bedouin stole His writings, and beside the Black Stone He declared His station to the Shaykhí scholar Mírzá Muḥíṭ-i-Kirmání.
In 1850 Ḥujjat and his companions took refuge in the fort of 'Alí-Mardán Khán at Zanján and held out for months against the Sháh's regiments. Nabíl tells of the women who served beside them, of the maiden Zaynab, and of Ḥujjat's death.
In July 1848, at the Báb's bidding, Mullá Ḥusayn left Mashhad wearing the Báb's green turban, with the Black Standard carried before him, and led his companions to the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí in Mázindarán.
Before dawn on 2 February 1849, Mullá Ḥusayn led a sortie from the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, was shot in the breast, and was carried back to the fort, where he died after a last conversation with Quddús.
On 2 February 1849, before dawn, Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb, rode out of the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí wearing the Báb's turban. He was shot, carried back into the fort, and died there beside Quddús.
In 1849 the defenders of Fort Ṭabarsí came out on a prince's oath sworn on the Qur'án. The oath was broken, and Quddús was handed over to his enemies in his native town of Bárfurúsh and killed in its public square.
In the summer of 1848, eighty-one Bábís gathered at Badasht as guests of Bahá'u'lláh. There Ṭáhirih appeared before the assembled men without her veil and proclaimed that the fetters of the past were burst asunder.
Brought before the clergy of Tabríz and the heir to the throne in 1848, the Báb took the seat reserved for the prince and declared Himself the promised One. A retelling from Nabíl's Dawn-Breakers.
Shaykh Sálih, an Arab of Karbilá who accepted the Báb's Cause through Ṭáhirih, was falsely accused of murder and put to death in Ṭihrán, the first believer to shed his blood on Persian soil. A retelling from Nabíl's Dawn-Breakers.
In 1850 fourteen Bábís arrested in Ṭihrán were ordered to recant or die. Seven recanted; the other seven, among them the Báb's uncle and a revered dervish, were put to death. A retelling from Nabíl's Dawn-Breakers.
In 1850 Vaḥíd and his companions held the fort of Khájih near Nayríz against the governor's forces until the besiegers, swearing on a sealed Qur'án, drew him out of the fort, betrayed him and put him to death.
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.
In the *Epistle to the Son of the Wolf*, Bahá'u'lláh briefly recalls the conditions of His four-month imprisonment in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán in 1852 — the underground dungeon in which the first intimations of His Revelation came to Him.
The chief divine of Núr sent two of his ablest doctors, Mullá 'Abbás and Mírzá Abu'l-Qásim, to overcome Bahá'u'lláh in argument. They heard Him, gave up their pulpits and standing, and served His Cause; the divine himself declined to debate Him.
In Baghdád a Persian consul and hostile shaykhs summoned the divines of Karbilá and Najaf to move against Bahá'u'lláh and His fellow exiles. The foremost of them, Shaykh Murtadá, refused to pronounce them infidels, and the scheme failed.
Siyyid Baṣír, a blind and learned man of Mooltan in India, accepted the Báb's message as soon as he heard it. He travelled to Persia, met Bahá'u'lláh at Núr, taught fearlessly among the learned, and was put to death by a prince.
In Káshán a tradesman thought to be unlettered asked the Shaykhí leader Hájí Muhammad-Karím Khán to show him the Fourth Pillar that the Hájí's own book said every believer must know.
Mullá Muhammad-'Alí, a learned divine of Zanján, sent a trusted disciple to Shíráz to look into the claims of the Báb. When he read the writings the man brought back, he declared his faith and closed his books.
During the First World War, when no one could be found to carry a Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá from Haifa to Tihrán, Hájí Ramaḍán, an Arab believer of seventy-five and nearly blind, asked to go, walked there, and came back.
Speaking in Chicago in November 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told the believers how the Bahá'ís of Yazd, though strong enough to resist, met their executioners without raising a hand, some even offering them sweets.
When war broke out, Shoghi Effendi advised Marion Jack, a pioneer in Sofia, to return to Canada. She begged to stay at her post, and he changed his instructions and wired: "Advise remain Sofia love."
Shoghi Effendi sent Keith Ransom-Kehler to Persia to appeal for the entry of Bahá'í literature. The Shah refused to receive her, and she wrote of her failed mission and of a forget-me-not she had picked in Bárfurúsh before she died in Isfáhán.
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.
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.
Nabíl-i-A'zam tells how, as a young shepherd of Zarand, he first heard of the Báb in a village mosque, and how his search led him to Qum and Tihrán just as the struggle at the fort of Tabarsí ended.
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.
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.
In Baghdad a secret midnight audience with Bahá'u'lláh was requested. The reply was a verse He had composed in the wilderness of Kurdistan, and it told plainly what coming to Him would cost.
In August 1868, exiled from Adrianople to Gallipoli with no one sure where they would be sent next, Bahá'u'lláh gave the departing escort officer a message for the Sultan and warned His companions of the hardships ahead.
In Washington in 1912, while Juliet Thompson waited at Mrs Parsons' house, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told her that her heart, not her eloquence, was what taught, and promised that her tongue would be loosed.
In June 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá said He had spoken in America according to the capacity of His hearers. On 16 June, in a Congregational church in Brooklyn, He spoke on the truth of Islam, and no one offered a single objection.
In 1955 a wave of persecution swept the Bahá'ís of Persia. Working alone in Switzerland, Shoghi Effendi took their case to the United Nations, opened a fund for their relief and called for a Mother Temple in Africa.
After the martyrdom of the King of Martyrs, his mother-in-law Shamsu'd-Duha was hunted and beaten in Isfahan. Her brother, who was not a Baha'i, won her release by promising her silence, but she went on teaching.
Horsemen sent to bring the Báb to Shíráz in chains met Him on the road from Búshihr. Their captain hid their errand, but the Báb told them plainly who He was, refused the captain's offer of escape, and rode ahead of them to Shíráz.
The Báb asked Muhammad Sháh for an audience and was sent instead to the mountain fortress of Máh-Kú. From His imprisonment He wrote to the King, calling him to account and naming Himself the rightful Sovereign of all men.
In 1868 soldiers surrounded Bahá'u'lláh's house in Adrianople. On the road to Gallipoli He began the Súriy-i-Ra'ís, addressed to the Ottoman Prime Minister, writing that though armed troops surrounded Him He remained in a state of utmost joy.
In 1930 Queen Marie of Rumania sailed for Haifa, and the Greatest Holy Leaf waited hour after hour in the Master's house to receive her. The Queen was met at the boat and taken out of Palestine.
Badí', a youth of seventeen, carried Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet to Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh on foot from 'Akká to Ṭihrán, delivered it to the king, and was tortured and put to death for it.
On His way to join the besieged Bábís at Shaykh Ṭabarsí, Bahá'u'lláh was arrested at Ámul. He offered Himself to be punished in place of His companions, was beaten until His feet bled, and was stoned by a mob.
In Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh began to proclaim His Mission to the kings of the world in the Súriy-i-Mulúk and other Tablets, and from the prison of 'Akká He wrote to Napoleon III, Queen Victoria, the Czar and the Pope.
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 Tabríz on July 9, 1850, the young believer Anís begged to die with the Báb. The first volley only cut their ropes; before the second, the Báb held up the youth's example to the watching crowd.
In a 1912 talk in Washington, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalled Isfandíyár, the black servant of Bahá’u’lláh, who, though hunted by the Sháh's officers while Bahá’u’lláh was in prison, would not flee until he had paid every debt of the household.
Rúḥíyyih Khánum recalls that the Guardian as a small boy was the high-spirited ringleader of the children, and that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá once wrote a short sentence about how much he ran about.
When the Báb was brought to Tabríz in 1847, crowds acclaimed Him and a crier warned that anyone who approached Him would be imprisoned. Yet Ḥájí ‘Alí-‘Askar was admitted to His presence seven times, as Mullá Ḥusayn had foretold.
Bahíyyih Khánum recalls how, while Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in Ṭihrán in 1852, Mírzá Yúsif, a Russian subject, helped her mother send Him food and hid the family in two little rooms near the prison.
Ḥájí Amín served as Trustee of Ḥuqúqu'lláh for forty-seven years. Chained in the prison of Qazvín, he ate without complaint the food his jailers tainted, and with no home of his own he lived among the believers who welcomed him.
When 'Abdu'l-Bahá was eight, His father was imprisoned and the family lost everything. Sent to His aunt's house for money, He was chased and pelted with stones, and reached home too exhausted to speak.
Ḥájí Muḥammad-Taqí, a merchant of Kirmán, and Siyyid Murtaḍá, a merchant of Zanján, were among the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán in 1850. At the end, each asked to give his life before the others.
Mullá Ṣádiq was led through the streets of Shíráz with a halter for teaching the Faith, yet kept smiling and speaking. He survived the siege of Fort Ṭabarsí and taught for the rest of his life.
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.
Mírzá Mustafá of Naráq gave up everything for the Faith and taught it openly in Tabríz. When the men sent to arrest him doubted they had the right man, he took off his hat to show his long hair and said, "I am the one."
Muḥammad-Ḥusayn of Marághih, one of the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán, would not say a word to his captors. At the end he embraced the body of the friend who had taught him the Faith and would not be parted from him.
When Bahá'u'lláh was arrested and chained in a dark prison in Tihrán, His wife Ásíyih Khánum hid their three children and went out at night to learn whether He was still alive.
In 1852, while Bahá'u'lláh lay chained in the Black Pit, His wife went out late at night to learn whether He was still alive, and six-year-old Bahíyyih Khánum waited in the dark holding her baby brother.
When the Báb was brought to Tabríz to be questioned by the leading religious scholars, He told them plainly that He was the promised One, and He did not take back His words.
'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.
In Tabríz in 1850 a regiment fired at the Báb and His young follower Anís, but the bullets only cut their ropes. The Báb was found in His room, calmly finishing a conversation.
The Báb sailed for two months with Quddús to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. On the way a thief took His writings, and in Mecca He told a well-known scholar who He was.
In 1850 Ḥujjat and his fellow believers took shelter in an old fort in the city of Zanján and held out against the Sháh's soldiers for many months.
At the Báb's request, Mullá Ḥusayn set out from Mashhad wearing the Báb's green turban, with a black flag carried before him, and led his companions to the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí.
Before dawn on a winter morning in 1849, Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb, rode out of the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí at the head of his companions. He was wounded and died in the fort beside Quddús.
Quddús, the leader of the believers at Fort Ṭabarsí, was betrayed by a broken promise and killed in his home town. On his last day he prayed for the people who hurt him and spoke of his death as his wedding.
At a gathering of the Báb's followers in the village of Badasht, Ṭáhirih came before the believers without her veil and told them that a new day had begun.
Brought before the religious leaders of Tabríz and the young prince, the Báb sat in the seat kept for the prince and told them that He was the promised One.
Shaykh Sálih, a follower of the Báb who had learned of the Faith from Ṭáhirih, was blamed for a crime he did not commit and went joyfully to his death.
Fourteen followers of the Báb in Ṭihrán were told to give up their Faith or die. Seven would not give it up, among them the Báb's own uncle.
In 1850 Vaḥíd and his companions held a small fort near Nayríz against a large army, until the army's leaders tricked him with a promise sworn on the Qur'án and then broke it.
On His way to help Bábís trapped in a fort, Bahá'u'lláh was arrested in the town of Ámul. He asked to be punished in place of His companions, and He alone was beaten.
From exile in Adrianople, and then from prison in 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh wrote to the kings and rulers of the world, calling them to justice and to God.
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.
Anís, a young believer in Tabríz, begged to stay with the Báb to the end. Before He was martyred, the Báb told the watching crowd that they should have followed the youth's example.
In a San Francisco synagogue, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke about Moses and then asked His Jewish listeners why they should not also praise Christ and Muḥammad.
Louis Gregory had not been invited to a luncheon for 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Washington, but 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked for him and gave him the seat of honor beside Himself.
Mullá Ḥusayn, the first person to believe in the Báb, put on the turban the Báb had sent him and rode out of Fort Ṭabarsí against the army surrounding it. He was wounded and died in the fort beside Quddús.
While studying in England, Shoghi Effendi learned that his grandfather 'Abdu'l-Bahá had passed away; back home in Haifa, he learned from the Master's Will that he had been chosen as Guardian.
Soon after he became Guardian, Shoghi Effendi went away for a time to gather his strength, walking for long hours, usually alone, in the mountains of Switzerland, while the Greatest Holy Leaf looked after the Faith.
Shoghi Effendi planned a ten-year Crusade to carry the Faith to 131 new countries and territories, and in its very first year Bahá'ís settled in one hundred of them.
When soldiers in Tabríz fired at the Báb, the bullets only cut the ropes, and He was found in another room. The soldiers laid down their arms and would not fire again.
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.
In Haifa, where shootings were common, Yúnis Khán secretly followed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá home one night. Three shots rang out, yet the Master walked on at the same pace, quietly praying, and bade him goodbye at His gate.
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.
On October 12, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke to some two thousand people at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco. He honoured Moses, showed how Christ and Muḥammad had upheld Him, and asked why Jews should not now praise Them in turn.
On April 23, 1912, at a Washington luncheon given in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's honor by Ali-Kuli Khan, the Master asked for Louis Gregory, who had not been invited, and gave him the seat of honor at His right.
This man, noble and high-minded, was the son of the respected ‘Abdu’l-Faṭṭaḥ who was in the Akká prison.
Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá was a blazing light.
'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers Mullá Ṣádiq of Khurásán, Ismu'lláhu'l-Aṣdaq, who was led by a halter through Shíráz with Quddús, survived capture at Fort Ṭabarsí, and taught the Faith cheerfully all his life.
In 1852, after Bahá'u'lláh's imprisonment, His family was left without food. 'Abdu'l-Bahá later recalled being sent as a child to His aunt for a few coins, and being recognized as a Bábí and chased and stoned by children.
Bahíyyih Khánum, daughter of Bahá'u'lláh, describes the underground prison in Tihrán where her father lay chained for four months in 1852, and her mother's struggle to get food to Him.
Shoghi Effendi sent the American believer Keith Ransom-Kehler to Persia to plead for the freedom of the persecuted Bahá'ís there. The Sháh never received her, but she stirred the Persian community, and when she died in Iṣfáhán in 1933 the Guardian called her the first American martyr.
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.
In 1920 Hyde Dunn, then in his sixties, and his wife Clara answered 'Abdu'l-Bahá's call and settled in Australia. Working as a travelling salesman, he carried the Bahá'í message to hundreds of towns, and the couple became known as "Father" and "Mother" Dunn.
In Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Mulúk, the Súrih of Kings, in which He addressed the monarchs of East and West together for the first time, called them to justice, and described His own banishment.
Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Haykal in Adrianople and recast it in 'Akká, joining to it His messages to Pope Pius IX, Napoleon III, Czar Alexander II, Queen Victoria and Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh, and had the whole written in the shape of a pentacle.
When Bahá'u'lláh was arrested after the attempt on the Sháh's life in 1852, the Russian Minister in Ṭihrán refused to surrender Him to the Sháh's officers, pressed for His innocence to be established, and later offered Him refuge in Russia, which He declined.
A Traveller's Narrative describes Bahá'u'lláh's youth in Ṭihrán, His learning without schooling, and how, when the Báb's Cause became known, He taught it to His family and friends and then carried it to Mázindarán.
Soon after He embraced the Báb's Cause in 1844, Bahá'u'lláh carried it to His ancestral home in Núr. Many officials and notables responded, and two envoys sent by the local mujtahid to investigate became His followers.
After Bahá'u'lláh's passing, enemies within His own family slandered 'Abdu'l-Bahá to Ottoman officials. The Chosen Highway recalls the Commission of Inquiry, the family's anxious waiting, and the Master's release in 1908.
In 1844 eighteen disciples came, each by their own search, to believe in the Báb. Before they dispersed He called them together, spoke of the greatness of the new Day, and gave each of them a task.
In December 1844 the Báb reached Mecca on pilgrimage with Quddús and there openly declared His mission. On His return to Persia the news stirred both devotion and fierce opposition, and His years of imprisonment and exile began.
The poet Varqá and his twelve-year-old son Rúḥu'lláh were imprisoned in Ṭihrán. After the Sháh's assassination in 1896, the Ḥájibu'd-Dawlih killed Varqá before the boy's eyes, then had Rúḥu'lláh strangled when he refused to recant.
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 1889 Ḥájí Muḥammad-Riḍáy-i-Iṣfahání was stabbed to death in the bazaar of ʻIshqábád. A Russian military court condemned his killers, and the Bahá'ís interceded for their lives, a deed Bahá'u'lláh praised.
Mullá ʻAlí-Akbar, known as Ḥájí Ákhúnd, taught the Faith so openly in Ṭihrán that he was the first to be arrested whenever trouble broke out. 'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers his chains, his composure and his constancy: he was never vanquished.
Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl headed a religious college in Ṭihrán when he first met the Bahá'ís. After months of argument he accepted the Faith in 1876, lost his post, was twice imprisoned, and spent the rest of his life teaching and defending the Cause.
Badíʻ, a seventeen-year-old believer, asked Bahá'u'lláh for the honour of carrying His Tablet to Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh. He walked alone to Ṭihrán, brought it to the king, and was tortured and killed. Bahá'u'lláh named him the Pride of Martyrs.
The Báb sent Mullá ʻAlíy-i-Bastámí, one of the Letters of the Living, to Najaf and Karbilá, telling him he would be the first to suffer for God's sake. He proclaimed the new Revelation, was denounced, chained, tried in Baghdád and sent away as a prisoner, never to be seen again.
Mírzá Qurbán-ʻAlí, a dervish revered by many, was arrested in Ṭihrán in 1850. Officials pleaded for his life and the Amír-Niẓám was loath to condemn him, but he would not deny the Báb, and he became one of the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán.
In 1904 and 1907 Ottoman commissions came to 'Akká to investigate false charges against 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He declared Himself ready for any sentence, refused an offer of escape, and went on with His daily life until the 1908 revolution set Him free.
Mullá Ṣádiq, later known as Ismu'lláhu'l-Asdaq, taught the new Faith so openly in Shíráz that a halter was hung on him and he was led through the streets and bázárs. 'Abdu'l-Bahá records that he kept on speaking to the people, composed and smiling.
Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb, led the defence of the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí. Before dawn on 2 February 1849 he rode out against the besieging army, was shot, and died in the fort after a last conversation with Quddús.
Vaḥíd, the learned divine whom Muḥammad Sháh sent to investigate the Báb, became His follower. In 1850 he taught openly in Nayríz, was besieged in the Fort of Khájih, and was killed after his enemies broke an oath sworn on the Qur'án.
How Mullá Muḥammad-'Alí of Zanján, called Ḥujjat, accepted the Báb after reading His writings, and how the believers of Zanján, besieged by the army, were at last deceived by oaths sworn on the Qur'án and put to death.
'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers Mullá Ṣádiq, Ismu'lláhu'l-Aṣdaq: led through Shíráz with a halter for teaching the Báb's Faith, starved at Fort Ṭabarsí, rescued from execution, and a teacher of the Faith for the rest of his life.
Arrested in Ṭihrán in 1852, Ḥájí Sulaymán Khán refused to recant and was allowed to choose how he would die. He asked that lighted candles be set in wounds in his flesh, and walked through the bazaar praising the Báb.
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.
Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid ʻAlí, the uncle who had raised the Báb, was among fourteen believers arrested in Ṭihrán in 1850. He refused a ransom and the Grand Vazír's offer of freedom, and asked to be the first of the Seven Martyrs to die.
Louis Gregory, an African American lawyer, and Louisa Mathew, an Englishwoman, met as pilgrims in 1911. 'Abdu'l-Bahá expressed the wish that they marry, and on 27 September 1912 they became the first interracial Bahá'í couple in America.
In January 1926 Martha Root sent Queen Marie of Romania a copy of Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era. The Queen read it into the small hours, received her two days later, and that year published three testimonies to the Bahá'í teachings.
During the First World War 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote fourteen Tablets to the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, giving them a mission to carry the Faith to every land. They were unveiled in New York in April 1919.
When the believers in 'Iráq were hiding their faith, Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá Baghdádí openly served Bahá'u'lláh, later hosted pilgrims in Beirut, and stayed firm in the Covenant, as 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls in Memorials of the Faithful.
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.
Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alíy-i-Zunúzí, called Anís, was confined by his stepfather for his love of the Báb. In a vision the Báb promised that he would share His martyrdom, and on 9 July 1850 he died beside Him in Tabríz.
After the martyrdom of the Báb in 1850, believers hid His remains in shrines and houses in Ṭihrán for nearly fifty years, then carried them to the Holy Land, where 'Abdu'l-Bahá laid them to rest on Mount Carmel in 1909.
In Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, Dr. J. E. Esslemont told English-speaking readers how the Báb and a young follower were suspended in the barrack square of Tabríz, survived the first volley, and were killed by a second regiment.
After the martyrdom, the bodies of the Báb and His companion were left under guard beside the moat of Tabríz. Ḥájí Sulaymán Khán had them carried away by night, and at Bahá'u'lláh's instruction they were later brought to Ṭihrán and kept hidden.
Sám Khán, the Christian colonel ordered to execute the Báb, begged to be freed from shedding His blood. When his regiment's volley left the Báb unharmed, he marched his men out of the barracks and swore never to take part again.
On the night before His martyrdom, in a cell in the barracks of Tabríz, the Báb spoke with His companions with joy and cheerfulness, and chose the youth Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alí to share His martyrdom.
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.
When news of the Báb reached Zanján, the learned Mullá Muḥammad-'Alí sent a trusted disciple to Shíráz to investigate. When the disciple returned, Mullá Muḥammad-'Alí refused to let another's verdict decide his belief; he read the Báb's words for himself and accepted the new Faith.
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.
While the Sultán's commissions of inquiry threatened 'Abdu'l-Bahá with exile or death, He refused every offer of escape and went on serenely with His work, until the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 set Him free.
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 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.
Brought from Chihríq to Tabríz in 1848, the Báb appeared before the Crown Prince and the leading clergy of Ádhirbayján and openly declared Himself the Promised One. Afterwards He was beaten and sent back to Chihríq.
Attacked on the road to Bárfurúsh in 1848, Mullá Ḥusayn held his companions back until the enemy had killed seven of them. That evening, in the town's caravanserai, three youths in turn climbed to the roof to sound the call to prayer, and each was shot.
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.
Besieged and starving in the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, the companions of Quddús listened each morning and evening to verses from his commentary on the Ṣád of Ṣamad. One of them later said the words made them forget their hunger.
On 23 April 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at Howard University in Washington to an audience of Black and white listeners. He told them there are no whites and blacks before God, and compared humanity to a garden of many-colored flowers.
At 'Abdu'l-Bahá's instruction, Agnes Parsons organized a convention for amity between the white and colored races, held in Washington in May 1921. There Mountfort Mills read the Master's message to the gathering.
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.
After reading a single page of the Báb's writings, Mullá Muḥammad-'Alí of Zanján pledged his allegiance before the city's assembled clergy. Named Ḥujjat by the Báb and told to proclaim His teachings from the pulpit, he did so and was held in Tehran for it.
After the governor of Fárs had Him arrested and brought to Shíráz, the Báb was called by the Imám-Jum'ih, Shaykh Abú-Turáb, into the pulpit of the Masjid-i-Vakíl on a Friday to answer before the congregation the charges spread against Him.
In Iṣfáhán, a city famed for its divines, the first to accept the Báb's message was a sifter of wheat. Years later, sieve in hand, he set out to join the defenders of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, where he was martyred.
In Ṭihrán in 1850, fourteen followers of the Báb were told to recant or die. Seven recanted and went free; seven refused, among them the Báb's uncle and a revered dervish, and were put to death.
For eleven months in 1848–49, some three hundred followers of the Báb, most of them students, defended themselves at the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí against a royal army. The siege ended only when the prince broke his oath on the Qur'án.
In Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh wrote His longest letter to any single king, asking Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh for justice and for a meeting with the divines in his presence. The youth Badí' carried it to the Sháh and was put to death.
When Bahá'u'lláh reached Constantinople in 1863, He would not make the calls on the Sultan's chief ministers expected of every government guest. The Persian Ambassador used this against Him, and within four months He was banished to Adrianople.
Ḥusayn Khán, governor of Fárs, had two of the Báb's disciples tortured and ordered the Báb struck in his presence. Later, on the night he had the Báb arrested again, plague broke out in Shíráz and the governor fled.
When Bahá'u'lláh's convoy left Baghdád for Constantinople in 1863, Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá Baghdádí remained in the city. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls how he stayed loyal, withstood the enemies of the Faith and taught it openly.
When Black friends decided to stay away from a Unity Feast arranged at a hotel known for racial exclusion, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá insisted that all attend, and the banquet passed in happiness without one unpleasant incident.
When false accusations brought a Commission of enquiry and threats of exile or execution, 'Abdu'l-Bahá stayed serene, kept the work on the Báb's Shrine going, wrote tirelessly and planted trees and vines in His garden.
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.
'Abdu'l-Bahá recalled hearing a cleric tell of Ḥájí Muḥammad-Taqí of Kirmán, a Bábí of Karbilá whose goodness even his opponents admitted, and of the verse the clergy's own test produced at the Shrine of Ḥusayn.
In November 1921 Shoghi Effendi, a student at Oxford, learned from a cable in a London office that 'Abdu'l-Bahá had passed away; back in Haifa, the Master's Will told him he had been appointed Guardian.
Overwhelmed by grief and by his appointment as Guardian, Shoghi Effendi left Haifa in April 1922 with the Greatest Holy Leaf in charge, and in the early years of his ministry sought healing in long, solitary walks in the Swiss mountains.
Shoghi Effendi made public the Ten Year Crusade at the start of the Holy Year in 1952 and launched it at four Intercontinental Teaching Conferences in 1953; in its first year one hundred new territories were opened to the Faith.
November 7th ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: I will speak to you today of Bahá’u’lláh.
November 6th This is in truth a Bahá’í house. Every time such a house or meeting place is founded it becomes one of the greatest aids to the general development of the town and country to which it belongs.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: You are very welcome! From Eastern lands I have come to the West to sojourn awhile among you.
November 19th How joyful it is to see such a meeting as this, for it is in truth a gathering together of ‘heavenly men’.
October 21st ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: I hope you are all happy and well.
In the Lawḥ-i-Aqdas, the Tablet to the Christians, Bahá'u'lláh tells the followers of Christ that the Father has come, and calls on their bishops, priests and monks to recognize Him.
In Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Mulúk, His first address to the kings of the world as a body, calling them to rule with justice, to settle their differences and to reduce their armaments.
Napoleon III left Bahá'u'lláh's first Tablet unanswered. The second, sent from 'Akká in 1869, warned that his empire would pass from his hands. In 1870 he was defeated at Sedan and taken prisoner, and his empire fell.
Around 1869, while a prisoner in 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet to Pope Pius IX, calling him to leave his palaces and abandon his kingdom unto the kings. In 1870 the Pope lost his temporal rule.
Chained in the underground Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán among nearly 150 prisoners, Bahá’u’lláh taught His companions verses to chant each night, and those called to their deaths went forth with hope and joy.
One of those Who possessed this power and was assisted by it was Abraham.
As for the Báb—may my soul be His sacrifice!—at a youthful age, that is to say, when He had reached the twenty-fifth year of His blessed life, He stood forth to proclaim His Cause.
This is an Epistle from Him Who is the true, the undoubted Leader.
Glory be unto Him Who knoweth all that is in the heavens and in the earth.
O Thou the Supreme Word of God!
Say, God is the Lord and all are worshippers unto Him. Say, God is the True One and all pay homage unto Him. This is God, your Lord, and unto Him shall ye return.
O thou flame of God’s love! What thou hast written hath brought great joy, for thy letter was as a garden from which roses of inner meanings spread abroad the sweet exhalations of the love of God.
O ye servants of the Sacred Threshold!
O ye roses in the garden of God’s love! O ye bright lamps in the assemblage of His knowledge! May the soft breathings of God pass over you, may the Glory of God illumine the horizon of your hearts.
It is at such times that the friends of God avail themselves of the occasion, seize the opportunity, rush forth and win the prize.
Rest assured that the breathings of the Holy Spirit will loosen thy tongue.
O thou favoured handmaid of the heavenly Kingdom! Thy letter hath been received.
O thou lady of the Kingdom! Thy letter sent from New York hath been received.
In the first chapter of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', revealed on the night of His Declaration in 1844, the Báb calls on the kings to carry His verses to the peoples of Turkey and India and to lands in the East and the West.
Lady Blomfield describes how Ásíyih Khánum, Bahíyyih Khánum, Munírih Khánum and the Master’s daughters bore the long years of privation in ‘Akká without complaint, meeting every hardship with radiant acquiescence.
Shaykh Maḥmúd, a religious leader of 'Akká, went to the barracks to kill Bahá'u'lláh and was twice turned back by messages that read his intentions. After a dream recalled a childhood prophecy, he returned and became a devoted believer.
In the Síyáh-Chál in 1852, Bahá'u'lláh's fellow prisoners were called out one by one to their deaths. The executioner, who had grown friendly to Him, would afterwards tell Him how each had died.
Chained in two rows in the Síyáh-Chál in 1852, Bahá'u'lláh's fellow prisoners chanted each night the verses He had taught them, until the sound carried to the Sháh's palace nearby.
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 1914 the Star of the West reprinted a letter from 'Akká describing Indian pilgrims at Haifa, among them a young Hindu of high caste, living in the pilgrim house with Zoroastrians, Jews and Muslims, and the Master's daily service to the people of 'Akká.
Keith Ransom-Kehler went to Persia in 1932 to appeal for the lifting of the ban on Bahá'í literature. She died of smallpox in Isfahán in October 1933, and the Guardian called her the American believers' first and distinguished martyr.
In 1911 Louis G. Gregory spent four days in London on his way home from visiting 'Abdu'l-Bahá. The London Bahá'ís wrote that a few such men, aflame with God's Word, could change the problems between the races.
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.
At Los Angeles on October 19, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told the believers not to look at their small number: if they attained faith, firmness and self-sacrifice, even two people would be equivalent in strength of character to the whole world.
Sending Lua Getsinger to India in 1913, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told her that no storm could change His purpose, and urged her to strive day and night for the same firmness.
O thou child of the Kingdom and firm in the Covenant!
O thou flame of the Love of God! What thou hast written caused joy, for that letter was like unto a rose-garden whose roses of significances bestowed the sweet odor of the love of God upon the nostrils.
O thou herald of the Kingdom! Thou wast not alone in the trip that thou didst undertake in various places. The spirit and soul of Abdul-Baha was with thee.
O thou lamp who art enkindled with the fire of the Love of God!
O thou spiritual youth! Japan hath made wonderful progress in material civilization, but she will become perfect when she also becometh spiritually developed and the power of the Kingdom becometh manifest in her.
O thou who art gazing toward…
O thou who art illuminated by the Light of Knowledge! Verily, I beseech God and supplicate Him to increase thine assurance, thy knowledge and thine attraction and enkindlement by the fire of the love of God, day by day.
O thou who in truth art attracted through the Breaths of the Holy Spirit!
O ye members of the shining assembly! Each one of you must resist doubts (or false rumors) in those parts like unto a great barrier, until the invisible confirmations may appear and merciful assistance may become manifest.
O ye sincere, O ye firm and steadfast in the Testament of God!
O ye sincere ones! O ye firm ones! O ye heralds of the Kingdom of God! Fly away with joy! Flutter in the open of the Kingdom!
O ye two revered persons, ye servants in the vineyard of God!
The question was asked, “What is real Faith?” “Faith outwardly means to believe the Message a Manifestation brings to the world and accept the fulfillment in Him of that which the Prophets have announced. But, in reality, Faith embodies…
At a Washington luncheon held in His honour in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked for Louis Gregory, who had not been on the guest list, and seated him at His right hand before the meal began.
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.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembers 1852 in Ṭihrán: at six she held her little brother Mihdí in the dark while her mother, often with ‘Abbás, went out to learn whether Bahá’u’lláh was still alive.
When the Governor of 'Akká read Him the Sultán's edict condemning the exiles to prison for ever, 'Abdu'l-Bahá called it meaningless, since sooner or later the captives would leave the prison, dead or alive.
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells of the Báb's martyrdom in the barrack square of Tabríz in 1850. The first regiment's volleys left Him and His young companion unharmed; a second regiment then carried out the sentence.
Touching the individual known as the Báb and the true nature of this sect diverse tales are on the tongues and in the mouths of men, and various accounts are contained in the pages of Persian history and the leaves of European chronicles.
These things have been put to the proof, and the greatest proof is this very transaction.
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells how Siyyid Yaḥyá of Dáráb, sent by Muḥammad Sháh to investigate the Báb, met Him three times in Shíráz and was won over when the Báb wrote a commentary on the Súrih of Kawthar in his presence.
At Gallipoli the exiles learned of an order to separate Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the family and the followers. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told the Governor they would not submit, and after a week He won the concession that they remain together.
Bahá’u’lláh recalled how, chained in the dark dungeon of the Síyáh-Chál, He taught His fellow-prisoners verses which they chanted every night, until the sound reached the ears of Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh.
On pilgrimage in 1907 Corinne True brought ‘Abdu’l-Bahá a petition from Chicago to build a House of Worship. He described the Temple’s design, warned her she would suffer, and asked her to work for it.
As the Shrine of the Báb neared completion, Shoghi Effendi placed plaster from the Báb's prison cell at Máh-Kú beneath a tile of the dome; when Leroy Ioas offered to test the scaffolding first, the Guardian reminded him he was a mountaineer.
Warned in Paris of danger if He visited a certain country, 'Abdu'l-Bahá smilingly told Lady Blomfield that He had never been a day out of danger, and that His enemies had no power over His life.
Confined in the home of Mírzá Muḥammad-Taqí in Sárí, Quddús spoke to him boldly about the Báb's Revelation, yet so courteously and with such humour that no one took offence, and his host even protected him.
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.
Keith Ransom-Kehler, sent by Shoghi Effendi to Persia, pleaded the cause of its persecuted Bahá'ís before the authorities and died in Iṣfáhán in 1933. The Guardian called her the American believers' first and distinguished martyr.