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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."
880 stories where faith appears.
Urged to cross to America on the new Titanic, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sailed instead on the slower Cedric. Asked why, He said His heart had not prompted Him to take the Titanic.
Bahíyyih Khánum recalls how, when Bahá’u’lláh was banished from Adrianople, a false report that He would be parted from His family and followers led one of them to try to take his own life, until ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s protest kept them together.
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.
An American mother reached ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s house in Paris two days before He left. Her little daughter had pointed to His photograph on a magazine in a shop and cried that it was the Lord Jesus.
In a Tablet to the Bahá’ís of Canada, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalls how He was warned not to go to Montreal, and how, trusting in God, He went and found every door open and the hearts receptive.
Comforting a woman who still grieved for a baby lost more than twenty-one years before, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told her that when His own four-year-old son died, He did not grieve, for He had given him to God as a trust.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá prayed with His hands held out and slightly bent, palms turned toward His breast, as though already gathering in the blessings He prayed for.
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 Unity Feast in West Englewood in June 1912, a sudden storm broke just as the meal was announced. Juliet Thompson watched ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sit at a distant crossroad, His face upturned to the sky, until the clouds raced away.
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.
Some referred to the teaching of Buddha. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: The real teaching of Buddha is the same as the teaching of Jesus Christ.
How can one increase in faith? You must strive. A child does not know, in learning he obtains knowledge. search for Truth.
To most men who have not heard the message of this teaching, religion seems an outward form, a pretence, merely a seal of respectability.
In an apartment in Cadogan Gardens sits a spiritually illumined Oriental, whose recent advent in London marks the latest junction of the East and West.
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.
After three fruitless years teaching the Faith in Jamestown, New York, Doris and Willard McKay were urged by Dorothy Baker to say the invocation “Yá Alláh El-Mustagáth”; Doris later saw in those prayers the beginnings of the Jamestown Assembly.
Bahá’u’lláh recounts how Muhammad, who had prayed toward Jerusalem, was commanded in the midst of the noontide prayer to turn toward the Ka‘bih, and how this change tested His companions.
Troubled by cables from America, Shoghi Effendi asked Leroy Ioas about a National Assembly meeting, then described the meeting and the spirit behind it himself, explaining that God gave him a feeling in his heart.
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."
Grieving over a family rift, Juliet Thompson’s mother went through a thunderstorm to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. His words of comfort took away her bitterness, and she regarded it as a miracle.
At a meeting in New York in 1912, Ella Goodall Cooper was taken with a woman. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asked what the woman had been saying and told her to be very careful. Ella heeded Him, though she did not then understand.
In May 1940 the Guardian, Rúḥíyyih Khánum and her father tried to reach England from Italy. A British Consul who remembered ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stamped their passport, and after anxious days at St Malo they sailed for Southampton.
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.
O ye beloved of God!
Arise with every power to assist the Covenant of God and serve in His vineyard.
From the death of that beloved youth due to his separation from you the utmost sorrow and grief has been occasioned, for he flew away in the flower of his age and the bloom of his youth, to the heavenly nest.
All the people of the world are, as thou dost observe, in the sleep of negligence.
Regarding the “two wings” of the soul: These signify wings of ascent.
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.
...By materialists, whose belief with regard to Divinity hath been explained, is not meant philosophers in general, but rather that group of materialists of narrow vision that worship that which is sensed, that depend upon the five…
Although a person of good deeds is acceptable at the Threshold of the Almighty, yet it is first “to know,” and then “to do.”
Know that there are two kinds of knowledge: the knowledge of the essence of a thing, and the knowledge of its qualities.
The connection between God and the creatures is that of the creator to the creation; it is like the connection between the sun and the dark bodies of contingent beings, and is the connection between the maker and the things that he has made.
Thou hast written of a verse in the Gospels, asking if at the time of Christ all souls did hear His call.
When we consider beings with the seeing eye, we observe that they are limited to three sorts: that is to say, as a whole, they are either mineral, vegetable, or animal; each of these three classes containing species.
As to the seven qualifications (of the divinely enlightened soul) of which thou hast asked an explanation, it is as follows: KNOWLEDGE.
As to what thou hast written concerning “Reincarnation”: Believing in reincarnation is one of the old tenets held by most nations and creeds, as well as by the Greek and Roman philosophers and wise men, the old Egyptians and the chief Assyrians.
Religion is the outer expression of the divine reality. Therefore it must be living, vitalized, moving and progressive.
It has been before explained that spirit is universally divided into five categories: the vegetable spirit, the animal spirit, the human spirit, the spirit of faith, and the Holy Spirit.
Those souls who have the capacity and ability to receive the outpourings of the Kingdom and the confirmation of the Holy Spirit, they become attracted through one word.
According to divine philosophy, there are two important and universal conditions in the world of material phenomena; one which concerns life, the other concerning death; one relative to existence, the other non-existence; one manifest in composition, the other in decomposition.
If thou wishest the divine knowledge and recognition, purify thy heart from all beside God, be wholly attracted to the ideal, beloved One; search for and choose Him and apply thyself to rational and authoritative arguments.
We have many times demonstrated and established that man is the noblest of beings, the sum of all perfections, and that all beings and all existences are the centers from which the glory of God is reflected, that is to say …
Do ye know in what cycle ye are created and in what age ye exist?
In sooth, there will be found in those regions certain persons like the Pharisees of the time of Christ, who, night and day, will exert themselves with all heart and soul to cast forth doubts, in order that they may deprive the souls of the glad-tidings of the Holy Spirit.
The light hath a center and if one desire to seek it otherwise but from the center, he can never attain to it.
O ye beloved of God, know that steadfastness and firmness in this new and wonderful Covenant is indeed the spirit that quickeneth the hearts which are overflowing with the love of the Glorious Lord; verily …
Every flock of the sheep of God which is protected under the shadow of the Divine Shepherd will not be scattered, but when the sheep are dispersed from the flock, they will necessarily be caught and torn by the wolf.
During my visit to London and Paris last year I had many talks with the materialistic philosophers of Europe.
Know that nothing which exists remains in a state of repose, that is to say, all things are in motion.
Unless the Holy Spirit become intermediary, one cannot attain directly to the bounties of God.
Note that thy Lord hath manifested the Magnet of the souls and hearts in the Pole of the existing world, to which all the sacred hearts are attracted from the far distant lands and countries.
O ye friends of God! ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is day and night thinking of you and mentioning you, for the friends of God are dear to Him.
O ye beloved of God! O ye children of His Kingdom! Verily, verily the new heaven and the new earth are come.
The greatest power in the realm and range of human existence is spirit,—the divine breath which animates and pervades all things.
In the day of Christ all nations were expecting that His Holiness Christ should come from heaven, and He came from heaven, though outwardly He came from the womb of Mary.
The body is composed, in truth, of corporeal elements and every composition is necessarily subject to decomposition; but the spirit is an essence, simple, pure, spiritual, eternal, perpetual and divine.
Thy letter was received. Thou hast written of the organization of an assembly in that city. Look not at the small number; nay, rather seek the pure hearts.
Thou hast questioned how thou canst accept this divine Cause, for thou art a member of the church.
Thank God for guiding thee unto the Straight Path, manifesting unto thee the Evident Light.
In our solar system, the center of illumination is the sun itself.
The Supper of the Lord which His Highness the Spirit ate with the apostles was a heavenly supper and not one of material bread and water, for material objects have no connection with spiritual objects.
All the people have formed a god in the world of thought, and that form of their own imagination they worship; when the fact is that the imagined form is finite and the human mind is infinite.
O maid-servant of God! This prison is indeed more precious and sweet than a garden to me, this fetter is greater than any liberty and the confinement is broader than the most spacious wilderness.
Know thou, that letter sent to thee by me, was only because of my perfect love for thee and my pity upon thee, for I had the desire that the fragrance of the Holy Spirit …
Shouldst thou come with the whole of thy being to God and be attracted to the lights of the Kingdom of God and be enkindled by the fire of the love of God, then wilt thou see that which thou canst not see today …
Verily, I, from this brilliant and Blessed Spot, speak to you face to face, while ye are in that far distant country,…
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.
Mary Maxwell of Montreal married Shoghi Effendi on 25 March 1937 in a simple, private wedding; as Rúḥíyyih Khánum she later served as a Hand of the Cause and travelled to 185 countries and territories.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Áqá ‘Alí of Qazvín, a host and teacher of the early believers who was beaten for his faith, followed Bahá’u’lláh to the prison of ‘Akká, and remained content through poverty and illness.
Four brothers living near Bahá'u'lláh's house in Baghdad were drawn to Him by watching Him come and go, and later bore captivity in Mosul with patience. ‘Abdu'l-Bahá remembers each of them and their uncle.
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.
After a dream, a young Shíráz shopkeeper, ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb, follows Mullá ‘Alíy-i-Basṭámí out of the city. His furious father beats Mullá ‘Alí, but later repents, and after his son’s martyrdom he is taught the Faith by Bahá’u’lláh.
Ḥájí ‘Abdu’lláh left Persia for the Holy Land, farmed for a time at Ghawr near Tiberias while spending much of his time in prayer, then settled near Bahá’u’lláh at Junayna, where he passed away.
Hounded by his own relatives and friends in Ádhirbáyján for his faith, Hájí Áqá of Tabríz fled with his family to Adrianople, shared the exiles’ imprisonment in ‘Akká, and died there near Bahá’u’lláh.
Faraju’lláh of Tafrísh came with his father to Adrianople, followed Bahá’u’lláh into the ‘Akká prison, later prospered in trade, and ended his days in India; his grave is in Bombay.
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.
For decades Ḥájí Abu’l-Ḥasan Ardikání carried the Ḥuqúqu’lláh and the believers’ letters to Bahá’u’lláh, met Him in the public bath at ‘Akká, became trustee of the Ḥuqúqu’lláh, and served on into the ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Mírzá Ḥasan-i-Adíb, a celebrated scholar of Tehran, became a believer in 1889 and was named a Hand of the Cause by Bahá’u’lláh; he served the Tehran Assembly, taught Bahá’í youth and helped found the Tarbiyat School.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Mírzá Ḥasan, the great Afnán, a learned kinsman of the Báb who settled near Bahjí, studied the stars by night, and did not long survive the passing of Bahá’u’lláh.
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.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Ḥájí Muḥammad Khán, a Balúch mystic whose long search for a spiritual guide ended in the presence of Bahá’u’lláh; he settled near Him in the Holy Land and passed away beside the Shrine of the Báb.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Hájí Muhammad-Ridá of Shíráz, a humble believer who served the Afnán, attended Bahá’u’lláh in the Holy Land, and died in Sidon, often praised by the Blessed Beauty.
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.
Hájí Muhammad-Tahir of Yazd begged Bahá’u’lláh for martyrdom and was told he would live long to teach the Cause. He served for decades as a teacher, historian and protector of the families of Yazd’s martyrs.
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.
Driven from Yazd for his faith, Mullá Mihdí set out with his two sons for the Holy Land, teaching along the way. Sick, his feet torn, he reached Mazra‘ih and died close by the Mansion of Bahá’u’lláh.
For forty years Husayn-Áqá kept the coffee service and waited on everyone who came, without ever giving offence; after Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension he and his mother stood firm in the Covenant despite ties of kinship.
A young merchant from Tabríz heard of the new Manifestation in Smyrna, left his business to serve Bahá’u’lláh, and made his home in Haifa a way station for Bahá’í travelers, remaining steadfast after the Ascension.
‘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.
Jináb-i-Muníb, a gifted calligrapher and singer from Káshán, walked beside Bahá’u’lláh’s howdah from Baghdád to Constantinople; later, gravely ill on the exile to ‘Akká, he was put ashore at Smyrna, where his grave lies.
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.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers two believers from Ádhirbáyján who lived near Adrianople, missed the exile to ‘Akká, followed on their own, farmed outside the city, and died of fever giving thanks to God.
Mírzá Abu’l-Faḍl, head of a religious college in Tihrán, became a Bahá’í in 1876, was imprisoned three times, and taught the Faith in Turkmenistan, Egypt and America until his death in Cairo in 1914.
Mírzá Áqáy-i-Rikáb-Sáz, an early believer and calligrapher of Shíráz for whom Bahá’u’lláh revealed the Tablet of the Verse of Light, was betrayed, imprisoned and put to death in his native city.
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.
A learned seeker from Yazd became a carpenter in Baghdad, gathered provisions for the exiles on the road to Constantinople, and served in the ‘Akká barracks, where he revived after Bahá’u’lláh bade that the prayer for healing be chanted.
Bahá’u’lláh’s son Mírzá Mihdí, the Purest Branch, fell through a skylight in the ‘Akká barracks in 1870 and offered his life so that the believers might attain his Father’s presence; in 1939 Shoghi Effendi reburied him on Mount Carmel.
Mocked in Káshán for his faith, the poet Mírzá Mihdí came to Baghdad, stayed behind to guard the Holy House, endured exile in Mosul, and at last reached the ‘Akká prison, where he spent his final days in joy.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalls how He sensed a holy soul in a carriage approaching ‘Akká and went to the city gate to meet the Afnán, and how, after the Afnán died in India, his body was at last laid to rest near Baghdád.
As boys, two brothers of Isfahan served the Báb at their father's banquet. Grown into honest, generous merchants, they were put to death in 1879, and Bahá’u’lláh named them the King of Martyrs and the Beloved of Martyrs.
Raised by Bahá'u'lláh from infancy, His brother Mírzá Muḥammad-Qulí served Him through every exile, pitching the tents and passing around the tea, and remained firm in the Covenant after His ascension.
A respected scholar of Isfahán gave up every comfort to serve Bahá’u’lláh and the believers in ‘Akká; after Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension, unable to bear His absence, he wasted away and died.
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.
A nephew of Vahid Darabi found certitude after long years of study, visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in ‘Akká, taught the Faith in America and Persia, and served the Cause until his passing in 1959.
Muḥammad-‘Alí Ṣabbáq, who could neither read nor write, followed Bahá’u’lláh from Baghdád, spent two lonely years in Constantinople helping believers on their way, and shared the exile to ‘Akká before settling in Sidon.
Áqá Muḥammad of Iṣfahán served the King of Martyrs and the Beloved of Martyrs for years, then emigrated to ‘Akká, where he swept the ground about Bahá’u’lláh’s house and, after His passing, wept and prayed there each dawn.
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.
Muḥammad Labíb survived the 1903 persecution in Yazd, founded a children's savings company that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá blessed, helped Effie Baker photograph the Faith's historic sites in Iran, and later pioneered to Japan and Rhodes.
‘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.
A renowned mujtahid of Najaf met Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdád, then taught the Faith in Qá’in, Ṭihrán, Bukhárá and Ishqábád through persecution and poverty, until he died far from his homeland.
Nabíl of Zarand, poet and teacher, sought Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdád, Adrianople and ‘Akká, waited in a cave on Mount Carmel until the prison gates opened, and could not bear to live after His ascension.
Mullá Muḥammad-‘Alí met Bahá’u’lláh in Ṭihrán before the Báb’s Declaration. Driven from Qá’in for his faith, he lived in poverty in Nazareth, trading needles for eggs, and at last made his home in ‘Akká near Bahá’u’lláh.
The titles the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave to Quddús, with an outline of his life: pilgrimage with the Báb, confinement in Sárí, leadership at Shaykh Ṭabarsí and martyrdom in Bárfurúsh in 1849.
After his father was killed for his faith near Káshán, ‘Alí-Akbar attained Bahá’u’lláh’s presence in ‘Iráq, later crossed deserts and mountains with his wife to reach Him again, and stayed loyal to the Covenant.
A disciple of Siyyid Kázim, Shaykh Ḥasan met the Báb in Karbilá, later served Him as a scribe and go-between, and, as the Báb had promised, met Bahá’u’lláh in Karbilá in 1851.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalls Shaykh Ṣádiq of Yazd, a man of constant prayer in Baghdád, whom He healed at Bahá’u’lláh’s bidding, and who later died on the road to Mosul, longing to reach his Lord.
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.
After the upheaval at Nayríz, the learned Siyyid Ja‘far-i-Yazdí met public humiliation with joy and endured daily beatings. Freed at last, he reached Bahá'u'lláh, Who revealed the Súriy-i-Nush in his honor.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalls Siyyid Muḥammad-Taqí Manshadí, who welcomed pilgrims at his little shop in Haifa, handled the Tablets and the believers' mail, stayed loyal to the Covenant, and carried on that service in Port Sa‘íd until his death.
Won to the Faith by Jamal Effendi, Siyyid Mustafa Rumi spent his life teaching in India and Burma. He was killed at Daidanaw during the Second World War, and in 1945 Shoghi Effendi named him a Hand of the Cause of God.
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.
The life of Thornton Chase, whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called “the first American believer,” from his long spiritual search to his service in Chicago, and the Master’s visit to his grave in 1912.
A master cabinet-maker, poet and mathematician from Yazd entered Bahá’u’lláh’s presence almost daily in Baghdad, endured exile and hardship in Mosul, and spent his last days praying by the tomb of Bahá’u’lláh, longing for reunion.
Two carpenter brothers from Káshán, driven out by persecution, joined Bahá’u’lláh in ‘Iráq; by different roads, one through Adrianople and one through captivity in Mosul, both reached the prison of ‘Akká, where they worked at their craft, joyful and faithful to the end.
A prosperous builder in Ṭihrán left his work and possessions for the Faith, lost even his bride, walked on foot to the Most Great Prison singing an ode Bahá’u’lláh had written down for him, and ended his days content in a cave near Haifa.
A quiet master carpenter from Káshán joined Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdad, endured captivity in Mosul, and after the ascension of Bahá’u’lláh made the glass roof over the inner courtyard of His Shrine.
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.
The Montreal architect William Sutherland Maxwell, husband of May Maxwell, spent his last years serving Shoghi Effendi in Haifa and designed the superstructure of the Shrine of the Báb.
Ali-Kuli Khan, Persia’s representative in Washington, longed for a prayer to say in moments of sudden need. On the drive from the station, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told him how, as a boy, He had cried “Yá Allah el Mustaghas!” all night before Bahá’u’lláh returned to Baghdad.
When Corinne True tearfully told ‘Abdu’l-Bahá of the sad things she had had to bear, His answer brought peace to her heart, and she later became a great support for anyone who had lost a loved one.
Major Tudor Pole recorded, while noting that he could not vouch for it at first hand, how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá foretold that ‘Akká would be surrendered to two unarmed British soldiers, and how that came about.
Your touching words in connection with the sudden removal of the Greatest Holy Leaf from their midst have greatly alleviated the burden of sorrow that weighs so heavily upon their hearts and have demonstrated that in their great and …
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…
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.
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.
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.
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 …
We thank you most sincerely for your kind letters of sympathy, and we appreciate your loving Messages, which are as comforting balm to our wounded hearts.
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.
His grief is too immense and his loss too heavy to be adequately expressed in words.
Although the ascension of the beloved Centre of the Covenant was the ultimate calamity, the severest of ordeals, and the fire of that bereavement consumed our hearts and souls …
The Ancient Beauty, the Most Great Name, has, through the splendours of His grace in this most glorious of all ages, made this world of dust to radiate light.
Regarding the Centre of Sedition and his scrolls of doubt, this individual, for a period of thirty years, both within and without the Cause, was busy with his mischief-making, and planting his seeds of contention and dissension.
It has been demonstrated time and time again that whatever comes to pass only enhances the glory of God’s Faith, and further proclaims His Word.
We beseech God—exalted be His glory—to grant awareness and insight to the men of wisdom as well as to those who hold in their grasp the reins of power in Persia …
Your message of condolence and sympathy, dated July 22nd, 1932 which so fully conveyed your profound grief at the loss occasioned by the unexpected passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf was received and read with great interest.
All praise to the beloved Abhá Beauty, that those nightingales of the gardens of knowledge, those doves of the fragrant bowers of certitude, are singing the holy verses on the boughs of grace and bounty …
It was sometime ago that I received your kind and encouraging letter through your honourable secretary.
You quite well realize, I presume, that Shoghi Effendi has always cherished the fondest hopes for your services to the Cause of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and I am sure that your achievements will be great, shining brilliantly as a star.
The tongue of this lowly and grief-stricken maidservant is powerless to praise those loved ones of God, and the words uttered by her are wholly inadequate to pay a worthy tribute to the staunch firmness and constancy …
82 ...The news of the Memorial Service you had held for the Greatest Holy Leaf gave him the assurance that the friends are faithfully sharing his grief and are demonstrating in a befitting manner their profound devotion to one whose…
Your numerous letters written to the beloved Guardian and myself have all arrived and brought with them the sweet perfume of your devotion, sincerity, strong faith and active and beautiful services you are inexhaustibly rendering to the Cause of God.
It always cheers my heart to hear from the dear friends whose hearts are so full of love and devotion, and desire to serve this Blessed Cause which has been proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh to all the world, so that all national, racial …
My heart is always cheered when I meet or hear from the dear friends in America, for the Beloved Master spoke so much to us about His visit to your land …
PRAY ASSURE AMERICAN BELIEVERS BEHALF HOLY FAMILY MYSELF ABIDING APPRECIATION NUMEROUS EVIDENCES THEIR VALUED SYMPATHY.
The letter from that spiritual friend has reached the beloved Guardian, and he is aware of your bitter grieving over the calamitous news that a most glorious fruit of the Holy Tree, the Most Exalted Leaf, the Remnant of Bahá, has passed away.
Your letter, laden with many a graceful phrase, many a wondrous inner meaning, has been received.
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.
In order that the power of spiritual healing may be brought fully into operation certain requirements are necessary on the part of the patient, of the healer, of the patient’s friends and of the community at large.
The hostility aroused by the claim of Bábhood was redoubled when the young reformer proceeded to declare that He was Himself the Mihdí (Mahdi) Whose coming Muḥammad had foretold.
Amid these troublous times, however, the Cause of God will prosper.
“Prayer,” says ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “is conversation with God.” In order that God may make known His Mind and Will to men, He must speak to them in a language which they can understand, and this He does by the mouths of His Holy Prophets.
God, and God alone, has the power to do whatever He wills, and the greatest proof of a Manifestation of God is the creative power of His word—its effectiveness to change and transform all human affairs and to triumph over all human opposition.
On reaching His twenty-fifth year, in response to divine command, He declared that “God the Exalted had elected Him to the station of Bábhood.”
Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá regard the descriptions of Heaven and Hell given in some of the older religious writings as symbolic, like the Biblical story of the Creation, and not as literally true.
Bahá’u’lláh teaches that everyone endowed with the Station of Prophethood is given sufficient proofs of His Mission, is entitled to claim obedience from all men and has authority to abrogate, alter or add to the teachings of His predecessors.
Bahá’u’lláh tells us that the life in the flesh is but the embryonic stage of our existence, and that escape from the body is like a new birth through which the human spirit enters on a fuller, freer life.
As to the manner of His coming at the end of the age, Christ said:— And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
The following particulars regarding the marriage of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were kindly supplied to the writer by a Persian historian of the Bahá’í Faith:— During the youth of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the question of a suitable marriage for Him was naturally one …
On the 9th of July, 1850, the Báb Himself, Who was then in His thirty-first year, fell a victim to the fanatical fury of His persecutors.
According to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:— A mediator is necessary between man and the Creator—one who receives the full light of the Divine Splendor and radiates it over the human world, as the earth’s atmosphere receives and diffuses the warmth of the sun’s rays.
Devotion to God involves implicit obedience to His revealed Commands even when the reason for these Commands is not understood.
Many find a difficulty in believing in the efficacy of prayer because they think that answers to prayer would involve arbitrary interference with the laws of nature.
The use of prayer is enjoined upon Bahá’ís in no uncertain terms.
According to the Bahá’í view, the problems of human life, individual and social, are so inconceivably complex that the ordinary human intellect is incapable of itself of solving them aright.
The state of the world today surely affords ample evidence that, with rare exceptions, people of all religions need to be reawakened to the real meaning of their religion; and that reawakening is an important part of the work of Bahá’u’lláh.
An important part of the Báb’s teaching is His explanation of the terms Resurrection, Day of Judgment, Paradise and Hell.
In many of His conversations Christ speaks of the future Manifestation of God in the third person, but in others the first person is used.
In the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah are several references to a man called the Branch.
That the world, during the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth centuries, has been passing through the death pangs of an old era and the birth pangs of a new, is evident to all.
The “Coming of the Lord” in the “last days” is the one “far-off divine event” to which all the Prophets look forward, about which Their most glorious songs are sung.
The word “Day” in such phrases as “Day of God” and “Last Day” is interpreted as meaning “Dispensation.”
Christ spoke much in parables about a great Day of Judgment when “the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father ... and ... shall reward every man according to his works” (Matt. xvi, 27).
All the signs of the times indicate that we are at the dawn of a new era in the history of mankind.
The title “Bahá’u’lláh” is the Arabic for “Glory of God,” and this very title is frequently used by the Hebrew prophets for the Promised One Who is to appear in the last days.
The Day of Judgment is also the Day of Resurrection, of the raising of the dead.
If we study the story of the “ascent of man” as recorded in the pages of history, it becomes evident that the leading factor in human progress is the advent, from time to time …
The power of spiritual healing is doubtless common to all mankind in greater or less degree, but, just as some men are endowed with exceptional talent for mathematics or music, so others appear to be endowed with exceptional aptitude for healing.
The most potent means of healing is the Power of the Holy Spirit. ...
What is the cause of this sudden awakening throughout the world?
Like all the other Prophets, Bahá’u’lláh states His own Mission in the most unmistakable terms.
Told by the Báb to await the promised Husayn in Karbilá, the aged Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunúzí met Bahá'u'lláh there in October 1851 and became one to whom He confided the secret He would later reveal in Baghdád.
On the eve of the Báb's arrival at Káshán in 1847, Hájí Mírzá Jání dreamed that the Báb would be his Guest for three nights. The next day the dream came true, and the escort agreed to leave the Báb in his care over Naw-Rúz.
'Abdu'l-Bahá recounted how a famous mujtahid of Yálrúd told His grandmother of a dream in which Bahá'u'lláh, then the son of a vizier, was closeted with the Qá'im in a house no one else could enter.
In New York in June 1912, Valíyu’lláh Varqá told Juliet Thompson and Lua Getsinger how Bahá’u’lláh had taught his father, the poet Varqá, about the power of the Great Ether and the station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Two pilgrims in ‘Akká argued over which kind of martyrdom was best. When they entered ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s room, His words, spoken without any notice of their arrival, affirmed first one choice and then the other.
On the eve of Naw-Rúz 1848 ‘Alí Khán, warden of the castle where the Báb was held, dreamed that the Prophet Muhammad was coming to visit Him. At sunrise he met Mullá Ḥusayn at the bridge, arriving on foot as in the dream.
Lady Blomfield recalls how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, arriving home very tired after a crowded meeting, suddenly ran up the stairs to the flat and told the astonished friends that through the power of Bahá’u’lláh all things can be done.
When a covetous governor of 'Akká plotted to imprison the Bahá'í shopkeepers, Bahá'u'lláh told the believers not to open their shops and to leave the matter in God's hands. Next morning a telegram arrived dismissing the governor.
On His way to Mecca, the Báb stopped His servant from chasing a Bedouin who had stolen His writings, explaining that the papers were destined to reach places they could never otherwise have reached.
Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl boasted that he could write a better book than the Kitáb-i-Íqán, then found himself unable to write a simple letter. Years later, after praying with tears, he came to faith and found the book an ocean of knowledge.
‘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.
On 22 April 1863 crowds of believers and admirers wept in the streets of Baghdad as Bahá'u'lláh left His house and was ferried across the river to the garden that His followers named the Garden of Riḍván.
In 1848 Bahá’u’lláh visited Mullá Ḥusayn and his companions at the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí. Mullá Ḥusayn received Him with rapturous love, and He counselled them, sent for Quddús and promised them victory.
On his first pilgrimage, around 1878–79, Varqá heard Bahá’u’lláh’s words recall a forgotten childhood dream, and later Bahá’u’lláh answered a doubt Varqá had never spoken aloud.
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 1847, while held at the village of Kulayn near Tihran on His way into exile, the Báb receives a sealed letter and gifts from Bahá'u'lláh, and His grief gives way to joy and confidence.
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 'Alíy-i-Basṭámí followed Mullá Ḥusayn to Shíráz, sensed that his friend had found the Promised One, and on the third night of prayer was led by a vision to the Báb, becoming one of the Letters of the Living.
Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí recalls going at dawn with his teacher Siyyid Kázim to visit a Youth from Shíráz in Karbilá, and later recognizing that Youth as the Báb.
In his pilgrimage journal of 1911, Louis Gregory recalls a vision he had soon after accepting the Faith and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanation of it as four classes of people.
May Bolles, one of the first Western pilgrims, recalls her journey from Marseilles by way of Port Said to Haifa and the morning she first met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
In 1920, while Shoghi Effendi was resting in Paris on his way to England, the pilgrim Núru’d-Dín Mumtází met him at a gathering, and Shoghi Effendi later visited his party and chanted a prayer for their pilgrimage.
When the Báb asked Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím in Shíráz whether he was seeking the Manifestation, he wept, and later told his friends how a vision of Siyyid Kázim and, years afterward, a white bird that spoke those very words to him in prayer had prepared him for that moment.
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.”
After the death of Siyyid Kázim, Mullá Ḥusayn urged his fellow disciples to scatter in search of the Promised One. He spent forty days in prayer at the Masjid-i-Kufih, then travelled by way of Búshihr to Shíráz.
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.
In July 1850 the Báb and His young follower Anís were suspended before a regiment in the barracks square of Tabríz. The first volley only cut their ropes; the second took their lives, and a dust storm darkened the city.
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.
Moved by the Tablets ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent to America in 1919, Mr. and Mrs. Hyde Dunn left California for Australia with barely fifteen dollars. Martha Root later found Bahá'í centers wherever they had lived, and was struck by their humility and faith.
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.
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 a Tablet for His host in Káshán, the Báb prayed that Hájí Mírzá Jání's tongue be loosed to serve His Cause, and His unschooled host became able to hold his own against the most learned divines of the city.
Told he might visit Bahá’u’lláh once he owed no man anything, the Egyptian merchant ‘Abdu’l-Karím spent five years paying his debts, arrived at Haifa penniless, and was found at the dock by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
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 February 1941, in the middle of the Second World War, ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan and his family travelled from Iran to Haifa. He recalls how Shoghi Effendi welcomed them, encouraged the persecuted Iranian believers and spoke about the station of Islam.
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.
Unable to give money for the Temple, the Chicago seamstress Nettie Tobin hauled a discarded building stone to the Temple site in 1908; on May 1, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá used it when He dedicated the ground.
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.
A retelling of the Báb's life: His childhood in Shiraz, His declaration to Mulla Husayn in 1844, His imprisonment, and His martyrdom in Tabriz in 1850, together with His promise of Him Whom God shall make manifest.
In Baghdad in 1862 the Báb's eldest uncle, still doubtful of his Nephew's claim, brought his questions to Bahá'u'lláh, Who answered them in two days and two nights with the Kitáb-i-Íqán, the Book of Certitude.
Hájí Muhammad-Táhir-i-Malmírí recalls how Bahá'u'lláh answered the question about the Imams he had carried in his heart for months, and how, when he longed for martyrdom, Bahá'u'lláh told him he must live to serve the Cause.
In Paris in 1901, Thomas Breakwell heard a voice in the wind say “Christ has come again!” He learned of Bahá'u'lláh from May Bolles, visited 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká, and gave the rest of his short life to service.
In the prison barracks of 'Akká the devoted Mírzá Ja'far fell ill and breathed his last. Bahá'u'lláh said to chant the prayer "O Thou, the Healer", and before an hour had passed he sat up, laughing and joking.
A man who once set out to kill a Bahá'í becomes a believer, walks six months to 'Akká, and passes unseen through the guarded prison gate into the presence of Bahá'u'lláh.
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.
Honest Bahá'í pioneers in Egypt build a thriving store and send Bahá'u'lláh a money belt full of gold. When riots leave the store in ashes, the belt comes back to them by post, untouched.
A life of Bahá'u'lláh for children: His boyhood in Tihrán, His refusal of His father's post, the Báb's letter brought by Mullá Ḥusayn, prison and exile, and His declaration in the Garden of Riḍván.
In 1912 Nettie Tobin, a Chicago Bahá'í with little money, hauled a stone a builder had rejected all the way to the House of Worship site, where 'Abdu'l-Bahá used it at the dedication.
When Bahá'u'lláh was a child, His father dreamed that He swam in a huge ocean while many fishes held on to His hair and followed Him. A wise man explained what the dream meant.
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.
Running late for Feast, a father tells his son how the merchant ‘Azíz, delayed in Istanbul by unsold goods, met the father of Badí' and became a Bahá'í. When they arrive, they learn why their own delay was a blessing.
During an asthma attack, seven-year-old Brently sits on his grandfather's lap and hears how the Báb sent His pens and seals to Bahá'u'lláh, with a blue scroll bearing the word Bahá in 360 forms.
Shaykh Ahmad becomes sure from the Qur'an that the Promised One will soon appear. He travels far and wide to tell people, and at last asks Siyyid Kazim to carry on his work.
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.
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.
Muhammad Shah sends his most learned servant, Vahíd, to question the Báb. Over three meetings Vahíd's doubts fall away, and when the Báb offers, unasked, to explain the very chapter of the Qur'an he had in mind, he becomes His follower.
A grandfather tells his grandson how the Báb's eldest uncle, unsure that his Nephew could be a Messenger of God, took his questions to Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, and how the Kitáb-i-Íqán was revealed in two days and two nights.
A little girl in America tells her mother that Jesus is in the world again. Out walking, she points to a picture of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in a shop window, and her mother sets out at once for Paris to see Him.
On the morning of His martyrdom in Tabríz, a volley of 750 rifles left the Báb unharmed, and He was found finishing His interrupted conversation. Sám Khán withdrew his regiment, and another regiment carried out the execution.
In a children's class, Ms. Bates uses chains no one can break to explain how Bahá'u'lláh, though still a prisoner, walked out of the prison of 'Akká after nine years and made His home in a mansion.
An Arab shepherd tells Siyyid Kázim of a dream in which Muhammad foretold that Siyyid Kázim would die three days after returning to Karbilá, and that the Promised One would soon make Himself known.
Mama hides five letter cards around the house for Roya and Lanie. The letters spell "truth," and each hiding place shows a way to search for the truth for yourself.
A children's magazine article explains scientists' ideas about how the universe began and how it may end, then shares what Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote: that God's creation has no beginning and no end.
The stern warden 'Alí Khán sees the imprisoned Báb praying by the river, then finds the prison door shut and the Báb seated in His room. His heart is changed, and he brings in the Bábí who had been sleeping outside the town.
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.
The Greatest Holy Leaf tells Lady Blomfield of her family's winter exile from Tihrán to Baghdád: her father still ill from the Síyáh-Chál, the youngest child left behind, and her mother riding a jolting mule through the snow.
In Shíráz in May 1844 Mullá Ḥusayn, searching for the Promised One, was welcomed into the Báb's home. There the Báb showed him the signs he sought and wrote a commentary on the Súrih of Joseph.
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.
Corinne True's son Davis was critically ill when 'Abdu'l-Bahá visited him in Chicago on 30 April. Davis died while the Master kept Corinne busy; yet she was at the Temple site the next day, and the Master later prayed at the cemetery.
Corinne True's daughter Arna feared she had tuberculosis and felt she could not marry Leo Perron. 'Abdu'l-Bahá took her thermometer, broke it in two, and told her she would be well and could marry. She soon recovered.
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.
In Iṣfáhán the Báb was the guest first of the Imám-Jum'ih and then of the governor, Manúchihr Khán. He wrote a commentary on a Súrih of the Qur'án with great speed, and told the governor how His Cause would be preserved.
In 1847 the Báb was taken from Iṣfáhán toward Ṭihrán and then sent to the fortress of Máh-Kú, and later to Chihríq. At both prisons the wardens and the people of the district came to revere Him, and at Máh-Kú He wrote the Persian Bayán.
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 1851 Bahá'u'lláh visited Karbilá. There He met the aged Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí, whom the Báb had sent to wait in that city to see the promised Ḥusayn, and confided His secret to him.
After two young Bábís tried to kill the Sháh in August 1852, Bahá'u'lláh was chained for four months in the Síyáh-Chál, the underground dungeon of Ṭihrán. There, in a dream, He heard the words that announced His mission.
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.
After Mullá Ḥusayn recognised the Báb in Shíráz in May 1844, seventeen more seekers found Him, each by his own search. The last was Quddús, whose arrival the Báb foretold the night before.
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.
At forty, Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í left his home in Baḥrayn to prepare the way for the promised One. Nabíl records that he recognized the meaning of Bahá'u'lláh's birth in 1817 and later entrusted his mission to Siyyid Káẓim.
Nabíl records Siyyid Káẓim's last days: his urging his students to scatter in search of the Promised One, an Arab shepherd's dream foretelling his death, and his passing at Karbilá at the close of 1843.
Muḥammad Sháh sent the learned Siyyid Yaḥyá-i-Dárábí to Shíráz to investigate the Báb. At their third meeting the Báb revealed, unasked, the commentary Siyyid Yaḥyá had silently resolved to request, and he embraced the Báb's Cause.
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.
When Shoghi Effendi, aged five, begged the Master to write something for him, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told him to memorize and chant the prayers of Bahá'u'lláh. The boy chanted them so loudly the whole neighbourhood heard.
Bahíyyih Khánum recalls the order for a new banishment from Adrianople, the believers' grief at a threatened separation from Bahá'u'lláh, the wait at Gallipoli, and the crowded eleven-day voyage that followed.
As British guns prepared to shell Haifa in 1918, frightened Bahá’ís came to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He called them to prayer and assured them all would be well, and the shells passed harmlessly over the town.
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.
At Badasht each believer received a new name without knowing who had given it. Hájí Mullá Ismá'íl-i-Qumí, named there Sirru'l-Vujúd, missed the defence of Tabarsí through illness and later died in Tihrán as one of the Seven Martyrs.
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.
Ḥájí Muḥammad Khán left home young as a wandering dervish in search of a true guide. He found what he sought in the presence of Bahá'u'lláh, told his family not to wait for his return, and later made his home near the Most Great Prison.
In 1925 a Muslim religious court in Upper Egypt annulled the marriages of three Baha'is and, in doing so, declared the Baha'i Faith an independent religion. The Baha'is used the judgment to seek recognition of their 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.
In 1912 the minister Howard Colby Ives received a Tablet from 'Abdu'l-Baha that he took at first for simply a beautiful letter. When his church closed, a second Tablet consoled him with humour and called him to teach the 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 'Akká in July 1909, some believers met to settle how the Master's station should be spoken of. At lunch that day 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke of Bahá'u'lláh's warnings to the kings and ended by declaring that His only name was 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Thornton Chase became a Bahá'í in Chicago in 1894. 'Abdu'l-Bahá named him Thábit, the Steadfast, and in 1912 made a special journey to his grave in Inglewood, California.
In November 1921 Shoghi Effendi, a student at Oxford, learned in London that 'Abdu'l-Bahá had passed away. In January 1922 the Master's Will was read, naming him Guardian of the Cause of God.
In Adrianople a messenger of Bahá'u'lláh foretold to Haji Mirza Haydar-'Ali how a devoted merchant, granted wealth, would fall away, lose everything and at last return to serve the Cause as a poor man.
Trying to live by guidance, Harry Randall walked all afternoon, praying at every corner, until he reached a house where a woman had dreamed the night before of the visitor who would bring her wonderful news.
Taken reluctantly to meet 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Harry Randall found the Master accepting a tea invitation he had never given. At the tea He went straight to Harry's frail wife, Ruth, whose doctor found her healed the next day.
Late in August 1912 Harry Randall asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá to help his wife Ruth, who had tuberculosis. The Master visited her that afternoon, and two weeks later her doctor found her well.
Nabíl's account of the evening of 22 May 1844, when the Báb met Mullá Ḥusayn outside the gate of Shíráz, brought him to His house, and declared His mission to him, the first to believe in Him.
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.
Wary after years of disappointed hopes, Howard Colby Ives was persuaded to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the Hotel Ansonia, where he was called into the Master's room and, in a long silence with Him, found the faith he had sought.
When Howard Colby Ives's Brotherhood Church in Jersey City had to close for lack of funds, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote to him that this had happened so that he might be free to call the people to the Kingdom.
The ninth Hidden Word in Arabic — Bahá'u'lláh's image of His love as a stronghold: he that entereth therein is safe and secure, and he that turneth away shall surely stray and perish.
Howard Colby Ives asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá why he should believe in Bahá’u’lláh. After a long silence the Master spoke of the sincerity a minister's heart must have, and only months later did Ives realize his question had been answered.
Hand of the Cause John Robarts told of a Toronto friend who prayed all the way to the airport, missed his flight to a Chicago wedding, and still arrived on time on another plane while the first was grounded in Detroit.
Leroy Ioas praised the way Shoghi Effendi had built the Administrative Order. The Guardian answered that he had no blueprint: God guided him one step at a time, and the Bahá’ís must share his confidence in that guidance.
John Robarts tells of friends who say they do not pray, and of a young man, sure God could never forgive him, who was comforted by the words “Prayer is a ladder by which everyone can ascend to heaven.”
Reluctantly brought to hear ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Boston in 1912, William Randall carried Him some grape juice and was asked to sit. After twenty restless minutes the Master spoke words that became a turning point in his life.
Dr. Florian Krug raged against his wife Grace’s new faith and threatened to have ‘Abdu’l-Bahá thrown out of his house. When the Master came, He asked him, ‘Dr. Krug, are you happy?’ and his opposition ended.
On a drive through Montreal in 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stopped at the quiet Roman Catholic cathedral and went in. There He spoke of the sacrifice of Christ’s disciples, which had carried their faith so far, and urged His companions to follow in their footsteps.
Though the Báb's writings convinced him, Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥaydar-'Alí was tormented by doubts whenever he was alone, until a dream left him assured, joyous and thankful.
Loulie Mathews tried to teach the Faith in Paris through elegant teas, until a visitor scarred by the chains of prison with his Lord showed her how much she had to learn. 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote that she would one day be a lion roaring through the Cause of God.
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.
In New York in 1912, Lua Getsinger told Grace Robarts that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wished her to marry Harlan Ober, a man she scarcely knew. Grace obeyed, and the Master Himself performed their marriage.
With four months left in the Nine Year Plan, Dr Muhájir sent Jenabe Caldwell to Germany. A letter from the National Assembly drew forty-five German volunteers, who joined fifteen Alaskans in street teaching that succeeded once they prayed for loving hearts.
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.
Áqá ‘Alí worked all day and had friends to supper almost every night, teaching them the Faith. Later, poor in ‘Akká, he lived on bread and brook water and was content, because he could come into Bahá'u'lláh's presence.
When Áqá Faraj first heard of Bahá'u'lláh, he clapped his hands for joy and hurried to Iraq to meet Him. Later he went on foot to Adrianople and followed Bahá'u'lláh into the prison of ‘Akká, where he served Him faithfully.
Four brothers in Baghdad came to love Bahá'u'lláh by watching Him come and go near their house. They accepted the Faith at once, and later bore captivity and famine in Mosul with patience.
Two brothers followed Bahá'u'lláh from Adrianople into the prison of 'Akká, where both fell ill and died on the same night. Bahá'u'lláh had the prayer carpet from under His feet sold to pay the guards for their burial.
Seized by his persecutors after the upheaval in Nayríz, Muḥammad-Ibráhím Amír broke free and escaped to Iraq. There he copied sacred verses, and he served in Bahá'u'lláh's household through every exile to 'Akká.
Áqá Muḥammad-Ibráhím, a coppersmith and poet from Káshán, met Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, was exiled to Mosul, and later served the believers and travellers in Haifa, spending what he earned on friends and strangers.
After a dream, young ‘Abdu’l-Vahhab left his shop in Shíráz to follow Mullá ‘Alí, a disciple of the Báb. His angry father beat Mullá ‘Alí, but years later Bahá'u'lláh brought the father to the Faith and he was forgiven.
Ḥájí ‘Abdu’lláh left Persia for the Holy Land, farmed for a time at Ghawr near Tiberias while spending much of his time in prayer, and then settled near Bahá'u'lláh at Junayna.
When thieves stole a little merchandise from ‘Alí-‘Askar, the Persian Consul wanted him to say the loss was enormous. He refused to lie, even when the Consul threatened him.
Hájí Áqáy-i-Tabrízí was driven from his home in Ádhirbáyján because of his faith. He fled to Adrianople, went with Bahá'u'lláh as a prisoner to ‘Akká, and died there.
For decades Abu'l-Hasan of Ardikan carried the believers' letters and offerings to Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'lláh made him Trustee of the Ḥuqúqu'lláh, and the Bahá'ís came to call him Hájí Amín.
Mirza Hasan-i-Adib, a learned teacher and writer in Tihrán, became a Bahá'í in 1889. Bahá'u'lláh named him a Hand of the Cause, and he served the Faith as a teacher and poet and helped found the Tarbiyat School.
The Báb's three uncles came to His Faith at different times: one early, who died among the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán; one after Bahá'u'lláh answered his questions in the Kitáb-i-Íqán; and one some years later.
Ḥájí Muḥammad Khán, a wandering seeker from Sístán, found what he had long searched for when he heard the call of Bahá'u'lláh. He shared the news with his old friends and then came to live near Bahá'u'lláh.
Ḥájí Muḥammad-Riḍá of Shíráz served one of the Báb's relatives for many years, then came to the Holy Land and spent a long time near Bahá'u'lláh, Who often spoke in his praise.
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.
Ḥájí Muḥammad-Ṭáhir, a weaver of Yazd, asked Bahá'u'lláh to let him die as a martyr and was told he would live long to teach the Cause. He lived to be a hundred, teaching and caring for the families of the martyrs.
Ḥájí Mullá Ismá'íl of Faráhán searched for the truth from his youth and found it in the Báb. He was the third of the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán, and before he died he forgave his executioner.
Ḥájí Mullá Mihdí, who made rose-water in Yazd, was driven from his city for his faith. He set out with two of his sons to reach Bahá'u'lláh, teaching along the way, and died at Mazra'ih, close to the Mansion.
Husayn Effendi, a young merchant from Tabríz, heard of Bahá'u'lláh in Smyrna, left his business to serve Him, and later made his home in Haifa a resting place for Bahá'í travellers.
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.
Jináb-i-Muníb, a poet and calligrapher who had once loved an easy life, walked with Bahá'u'lláh's party from Baghdad to Constantinople, and later, though gravely ill, went with Him into exile and died at Smyrna.
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.
Mashhadí Faṭṭáḥ lost everything he owned, yet he lived content in the prison of 'Akká, always remembering God. When Bahá'u'lláh passed away, he died of grief.
Two believers from Ádhirbáyján followed Bahá'u'lláh to Adrianople and then to 'Akká, where they farmed, fell ill in the heat, and died giving thanks to God.
A learned head of a religious college in Iran saw Bahá'u'lláh's prophecies come true and became a Bahá'í. As Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl he taught the Faith in Iran, Egypt, Paris and America.
Mírzá Áqáy-i-Rikáb-Sáz of Shíráz asked Bahá'u'lláh to explain the isolated letters of the Qur'án, and received the Tablet of the Verse of Light. He was later martyred for his faith.
From a rooftop in 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá saw a distant carriage and sensed that a holy being was in it. It was the Afnán, Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí, whose burial years later near Baghdád 'Abdu'l-Bahá guided by letter.
As boys, two brothers of Isfahan served the Báb at their father's banquet. They grew up to be honest, generous merchants and devoted Bahá'ís, were put to death in 1879, and were named by Bahá'u'lláh the King and the Beloved of Martyrs.
Bahá'u'lláh's younger brother, Mírzá Muḥammad-Qulí, served Him quietly all his life: passing the tea, pitching the tents on the road to Constantinople, and sharing His exile in ‘Akká.
Mírzá Qurbán-‘Alí, a much-loved man of Mázindarán, accepted the Báb through Mullá Husayn. Arrested in Tihrán, he told the chief minister that he had judged the Báb fairly, and he gave his life as one of the Seven Martyrs.
Mirza Yusuf, nephew of the martyr Vahid, searched for years before becoming a Bahá'í. In 1902 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent him to teach in America, and later gave him his uncle's name.
Muḥammad-‘Alí of Iṣfahán followed Bahá'u'lláh from Baghdád to Adrianople and into the prison of ‘Akká. A prisoner for the rest of his life, he was known there for his contentment and joy.
Muḥammad-Hádí, a gifted bookbinder from Iṣfahán, left his home to live near Bahá'u'lláh in ‘Akká. He kept the square in front of Bahá'u'lláh's house so clean that Bahá'u'lláh praised him for it.
Áqá Muḥammad of Iṣfahán served the King of Martyrs and the Beloved of Martyrs, then went to ‘Akká, where he was given the honor of sweeping the ground at Bahá'u'lláh's door.
Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar studied for years without finding joy until he found the new Faith. Mocked and often arrested in Ṭihrán, he stayed calm and faithful, and he was kept safe from harm.
After years of searching, Mullá ‘Alí became the second to believe in the Báb. Sent to announce His coming in Iraq, he was arrested, tried and imprisoned, and he died the first Bábí to give his life for his faith.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembers the freezing winter journey her family made from Tihrán to Baghdád when she was six, and how her mother never complained.
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.
In Iṣfáhán the Báb stayed with the city's chief religious leader and then with its governor. He wrote an explanation of a chapter of the Qur'án with amazing speed, and told the governor how God's Cause would be kept safe.
The Báb was sent to a far-off mountain castle so that His followers could not reach Him. Instead, the warden and the townspeople came to love Him, and the same thing happened at a second prison.
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.
The Báb told Shaykh Ḥasan to wait in Karbilá, where he would see the promised Ḥusayn. Years later, at the gate of a shrine there, Bahá'u'lláh took him by the hand.
In 1852 Bahá'u'lláh was chained for four months in the Síyáh-Chál, an underground prison in Ṭihrán. There, in a dream, He heard the words that told Him of His Mission.
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.
One by one, eighteen seekers found the Báb, each by his own search, and became His first followers, the Letters of the Living.
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.
At forty, Shaykh Aḥmad left his home in Bahrayn to prepare people for the coming of the Promised One. In Ṭihrán he understood the meaning of Bahá'u'lláh's birth, and before he died he passed his work to Siyyid Káẓim.
Near the end of his life, Siyyid Káẓim urged his students to go and search for the Promised One. A shepherd's dream foretold the day of his death, and soon afterwards Mullá Ḥusayn found the Báb.
Sent by the king to test the Báb, the scholar Siyyid Yaḥyá silently resolved to ask for a commentary on the Súrih of Kawthar. At their third meeting the Báb offered to reveal exactly that.
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.
Thornton Chase of Chicago became the first American Bahá'í in 1894. 'Abdu'l-Bahá called him Thábit, the Steadfast, and in 1912 visited his grave in California.
Shoghi Effendi was a student in England when 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away. He hurried home to Haifa, and his grandfather's Will named him Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith.
Mullá Ḥusayn was searching for the Promised One. Outside the gate of Shíráz a Youth in a green turban welcomed him, took him home, and that night declared that He was the Báb.
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.
Mullá Ḥusayn had been searching for the Promised One. Outside the gate of Shíráz he was welcomed by the Báb, who invited him home and showed him the signs he was looking for.
In 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá sailed from Egypt to New York on the ship Cedric. He cared for His companions, spoke to the passengers, and had to say goodbye to three friends, Shoghi Effendi among them, at Naples.
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.
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.
For eighteen years after her first pilgrimage in 1898, Lua Getsinger was taught and sent on teaching missions by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Sending her to India, He urged her never to let outward circumstances worry her.
Mahmúd's Diary records 'Abdu'l-Bahá's voyage on the Cedric from Alexandria to New York in March and April 1912, including the day at Naples when three of His companions, Shoghi Effendi among them, had to leave the ship.
This was a patient and long-enduring man, a native of Káshán.
Two brothers of Pahlaván Riḍá, brought as captives to 'Akká, died on the same night in each other's arms. Bahá'u'lláh gave the prayer carpet from beneath His feet to be sold to pay the guards, and the brothers share one grave.
This man of God came from the district of Tafrísh. He was detached from the world, fearless, independent of kindred and stranger alike.
Fáṭimih Begum, widow of the King of Martyrs, was orphaned young and left destitute when her husband was martyred. She bore every loss with thanks, until the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh proved more than she could endure.
Áqá Ṣidq-‘Alí was yet one more of those who left their native land, journeyed to Bahá’u’lláh and were put in the Prison.
Ḥájí ‘Abdu’r-Raḥím of Yazd was a precious soul, from his earliest years virtuous and God-fearing, and known among the people as a holy man, peerless in observing his religious duties, mindful as to his acts. His strong religious faith…
Yet another of the emigrants and settlers was the valiant Jamshíd-i-Gurjí, who came from Georgia, but grew up in the city of Káshán.
Jináb-i-Muníb, a calligrapher, poet and singer of Káshán, walked beside Bahá'u'lláh's howdah from Baghdád to Constantinople. Gravely ill on the voyage to 'Akká, he was put ashore at Smyrna, where his grave lies.
Among the exiles, neighbors, and prisoners there was also a second Mír Imád, the eminent calligrapher, Mishkín-Qalam.
In the flower of tender youth, Muḥammad-‘Alí, the illumined, heard the cry of God, and lost his heart to heavenly grace.
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.
The late Pidar-Ján was among those believers who emigrated to Baghdád.
Sháh-Muḥammad, who had the title of Amín, the Trusted One, was among the earliest of believers, and most deeply enamored.
Khurshíd Begum, who was given the title of Shamsu’d-Ḍuḥá, the Morning Sun, was mother-in-law to the King of Martyrs.
Sulaymán Khán was the emigrant and settler who was given the title of Jamálí’d-Dín.
One of the emigrants who died along the way to the Holy Land was Zaynu’l-Ábidín of Yazd.
This distinguished man was one of the greatest of all the Báb’s companions and all the loved ones of Bahá’u’lláh.
When Muriel Ives met 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1912, at fifteen, He told her she would grow like a tree and have many branches. Twenty years later she declared her belief in Bahá'u'lláh, and she came to have four children and fifteen grandchildren.
On pilgrimage to 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá noticed that Robert Turner, Phoebe Hearst's butler, was absent, asked for him, and rose to greet him with words of love. Shoghi Effendi later praised the tenacity of his faith.
Munírih Khánum, wife of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, recalls losing five children in 'Akká, the words Bahá'u'lláh wrote to her when her little son Ḥusayn died, and the wisdom she came to see in it.
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.
Mírzá Asadu'lláh, a government official of Khuy, accepted the Báb after He described a dream Asadu'lláh had told no one. The Báb named him Dayyán and "the third Letter to believe in Him Whom God shall make manifest," and he later attained Bahá'u'lláh's presence in Baghdád.
The Báb sent Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí to live in Karbilá, promising that he would behold "the promised Husayn." In 1851, in Karbilá, Bahá'u'lláh took the old man by the hand and told him the promise had been fulfilled.
Mishkín-Qalam, the leading calligrapher of Persia, left fame and favour to follow Bahá'u'lláh. He was imprisoned for years on Cyprus, then served in 'Akká, and remained firm in the Covenant after Bahá'u'lláh's ascension.
About two months before His passing, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told His family of a dream in which He raised the call to prayer in a great mosque. Weeks later He dreamed that Bahá'u'lláh came and said to Him, "Destroy this room."
On Friday, 25 November 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá went to the noon prayer and gave alms to the poor. On Sunday, unable to leave the house, He received the Muftí and the Mayor of Haifa, and early on Monday He passed away.
On the night He declared His mission in Shíráz, the Báb called Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in Him, the Bábu'l-Báb, "the gate of that Gate." Mullá Ḥusayn went on to carry the Báb's message to Tihrán and Khurásán, and fell at Shaykh Ṭabarsí.
Quddús was the last of the Letters of the Living and the Báb's chosen companion on His pilgrimage to Mecca. At Badasht Bahá'u'lláh gave him the name Quddús. The Báb gave him the title of the Last Name of God.
Nabíl of Zarand left his home as a youth to teach the new Faith, wrote odes in praise of Bahá'u'lláh and travelled on His errands. From 1888 he wrote the chronicle published in English as The Dawn-Breakers.
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 Baghdád in 1862 an uncle of the Báb brought Bahá'u'lláh his written questions about the promised Qá'im. In two days and two nights Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Íqán, the Book of Certitude, in reply.
Toward the end of 1871, while still a prisoner in 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh answered a letter from a devoted believer in Persia with the Fire Tablet, in which He laments His sufferings and then replies to Himself as the Tongue of Grandeur.
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.
On the evening of 22 May 1844 the Báb met Mullá Ḥusayn outside the gate of Shíráz and took him to His house. That night He declared that He was the One Mullá Ḥusayn had been seeking, and revealed the first chapter of His commentary on the Súrih of Joseph.
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.
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells how the Báb, in His twenty-fifth year, declared Himself the Gate, the channel of grace from a great Person still hidden, and how most opposed Him while a few seekers arose to spread His Cause.
In Shíráz in 1844 Mullá Ḥusayn would not tell Mullá ‘Alíy-i-Bastámí whom he had found. Mullá ‘Alí prayed for three nights until a vision led him to the Báb, Who then sent him out as "the first to leave the House of God."
In Iṣfahán in 1844 Mullá Ṣádiq asked Mullá Ḥusayn to name the Promised One. Told only that God's door is never closed to a seeker, he prayed alone, and in a vision saw the face of a Youth he had often seen praying in Karbilá.
In Ṭihrán in 1844 Mullá Ḥusayn learned from a young student of Núr about a son of Mírzá Buzurg who fed the hungry and befriended the poor. He sent Him a scroll by the student's hand, and Bahá'u'lláh, reading it, affirmed its truth.
In Karbilá, Siyyid Káẓim took his disciple Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí to visit a Youth from Shíráz whom he treated with deep reverence. Years later, when Shaykh Ḥasan heard the call of the Báb, he knew at once that it was the same Youth.
After Siyyid Káẓim's death, Mullá Ḥusayn urged his fellow disciples to scatter and search for the Promised One, spent forty days in prayer and fasting at the mosque of Kúfih, and then travelled by way of Búshihr to Shíráz.
Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í gave his life to preparing people for the coming of the Promised One and chose Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí to carry on his work. Before he died, Siyyid Káẓim urged his disciples to scatter far and wide in search of Him.
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.
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.
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.
In 1870 Mírzá Mihdí, the Purest Branch, fell through a skylight while praying on the roof of the barracks of 'Akká. Dying, he asked Bahá'u'lláh to accept his life as a ransom for the believers who could not reach His presence.
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 Iṣfahán in 1879 two merchant brothers known for their honesty and generosity were denounced as Bábís by a cleric who owed them money. They refused to recant and were beheaded. Bahá'u'lláh mourned them in His Tablets for years.
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.
In Ṭihrán in 1844 Mullá Ḥusayn gave a student from Núr a scroll to hand to Bahá'u'lláh at dawn. Bahá'u'lláh read it aloud, declared that its words had the same regenerating power as the Qur'án, and sent Mullá Ḥusayn a gift of tea and sugar.
While a prisoner in the mountain fortress of Máh-Kú, the Báb revealed the Dalá'il-i-Sab'ih, the Seven Proofs, in answer to a questioner. Shoghi Effendi calls it the most important of the Báb's polemical works.
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.
Mishkín-Qalam, the leading calligrapher of Persia, heard of the Faith and set out to find Bahá'u'lláh in Adrianople, wrote the Most Great Name in many forms, endured years of imprisonment in Cyprus, and remained firm in the Covenant.
In A Traveller's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá records the Grand Vizier's order, the volleys that left the Báb unharmed, His death under a second regiment, and how persecution only made the Faith grow.
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.
Forty days before He was taken from Chihríq to Tabríz, the Báb gave His writings, pen-case, seals and rings to Mullá Báqir, a Letter of the Living, to be passed through Mírzá Aḥmad to Bahá'u'lláh in Ṭihrán.
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.
Mírzá Taqí Khán, the Amír-Niẓám, ordered the Báb's execution against the advice of his own counsellors. Within two years he lost the Sháh's favour and was put to death in the bath of Fín, near Káshán.
In the summer of 1901 a young Englishman met May Bolles in Paris and within three days accepted the Bahá'í Faith. On pilgrimage to 'Akká he told 'Abdu'l-Bahá that the mill he worked for relied on child labour, and resigned at the Master's word.
Jamshíd-i-Gurjí was chained in Constantinople and sent under guard toward Persia to be put to death. Thrown into a pit one night, he called out the next morning that these depths were the heights of the Lord.
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.
Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad-Taqí, the Vakílu'd-Dawlih, a cousin of the Báb, gave up his business and estates to build the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of 'Ishqábád, the first Bahá'í House of Worship, spending almost everything he owned on it.
On 13 April 1912, three weeks after Naw-Rúz, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at a New York home about the seasons. The coming of each Manifestation of God, He said, is a divine springtime, and Bahá'u'lláh has renewed that springtime.
In two Tablets, one written in 1906 to American believers who had sent Him a New Year's greeting, 'Abdu'l-Bahá described a new cycle and a spiritual springtime, and hoped the believers would become "a new people."
Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í and his successor Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí spent their lives preparing disciples for the Promised One. Before he died in 1843 the Siyyid urged them to scatter and seek Him, and within months Mullá Ḥusayn found the Báb in Shíráz.
Howard Colby Ives, an unhappy minister, met 'Abdu'l-Bahá in New York in 1912. Months of study and turmoil followed, and when his Brotherhood Church had to close, 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote to him that it had happened to free him to call people to the Kingdom.
In the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Bahá'u'lláh recalls the four months He spent chained in the underground dungeon of Ṭihrán in 1852, and the first stirrings there of His Revelation.
Sent by the Báb to Ṭihrán in 1844, Mullá Ḥusayn entrusted a scroll of the Báb's writings to a student from Núr, who carried it at dawn to Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'lláh at once affirmed its truth, and the news brought the Báb great joy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mullá Ṣádiq, a revered divine of Khurásán, was scourged and led by a halter through Shíráz, among the first believers persecuted in Persia. He survived Ṭabarsí and taught the Faith for the rest of his life.
Sent by Muḥammad Sháh to investigate the Báb, the learned Vaḥíd resolved to ask, only in his heart, for a commentary on the Súrih of Kawthar. At their third meeting the Báb offered it unasked and wrote it before him.
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.
Moved from Máh-Kú to the castle of Chihríq under a warden ordered to admit no one, the Báb won over both the warden, Yaḥyá Khán, and the Kurds of the district, and seekers again came to Him in numbers.
In London in 1911 the journalist Isabel Fraser asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá how He had felt in prison. He told her the story of His exile and imprisonment and said He had been happy all that time, for the prison of self is the greater prison.
Robert Turner, Phoebe Hearst's butler, went with her party on the first Western pilgrimage to 'Akká. When he was missing from a gathering, 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked for him, rose to greet him and had him sit with the other pilgrims.
Ustád Ismá'íl, a prosperous builder in Ṭihrán, lost his work, his possessions and his bride for the Faith. He ended his days peddling trinkets from a cave near Haifa, always giving thanks to God.
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá records how the beatings, banishments and killings of the Báb's followers in Persia made the new Faith more widely known, and explains why force fails against matters of conscience.
In a 1974 talk, Hand of the Cause John Robarts told the parable of a teacher who held a young man’s head under water to show him that prayer is as important as breathing.
At the Masonic Temple in Chicago in 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told Mrs. Dealy, who was going blind, that she must choose between spiritual and physical sight. She chose spiritual sight, as Leroy Ioas, seated beside her, witnessed.
In New York in 1912 a grieving young woman told ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that the more she trusted in God, the worse things became. He told her that to pray is to trust in God, and urged her to be a strong ship.
On pilgrimage to ‘Akká in 1909, Charles Haney told ‘Abdu’l-Bahá he feared “Spiritual indigestion” from all he was receiving. The Master assured him that the One who gives the food also gives the power to digest it.
In London 'Abdu'l-Bahá described how people have always complained that the Prophets took away their pleasures, and how the Prophets have always answered them.
In September 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá missed a connecting train on the way to Kenosha, telling His friends there was wisdom in it. The train they missed was later damaged in a collision.
Kept in Paris at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's wish, May Maxwell met Thomas Breakwell and gave him the Message. On the evening of the day he wrote his supplication to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a cablegram arrived for her: ‘You may leave Paris.’
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.
After 'Abdu'l-Bahá blessed a youth by patting his shoulder, a seeker at the same table silently wished for the same sign; the Master left the room, then returned and placed His hands on the seeker's shoulders.
In The Promised Day Is Come, written in 1941 during the Second World War, Shoghi Effendi described the upheaval of his time as a judgment of God, at once a punishment and a cleansing, and as the birth pangs of a new Order.
'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.
4 Avenue de Camöens, Paris, November 12th ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: I have spoken to you of some of the principles of Bahá’u’lláh: The Search after Truth and The Unity of Mankind.
Friday evening, October 20th ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: Numerous meetings are held in Paris every day for different purposes, to discuss politics, commerce, education, art, science and many other subjects.
November 8th All over the world one hears beautiful sayings extolled and noble precepts admired.
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.
4 Avenue de Camöens, Paris, November 17th In the conduct of life, man is actuated by two main motives: ‘The Hope for Reward’ and ‘The Fear of Punishment’.
Monday, November 20th From the beginning of the world until the present time each ‘Manifestation’ sent from God has been opposed by an embodiment of the ‘Powers of Darkness’.
October 27th The basis of the teaching of Bahá’u’lláh is the Unity of Mankind, and his greatest desire was that love and goodwill should live in the heart of men.
November 19th How joyful it is to see such a meeting as this, for it is in truth a gathering together of ‘heavenly men’.
4 Avenue de Camöens, Morning of Friday, October 27th The day is fine, the air is pure, the sun shines, no mist nor cloud obscures its radiance.
4 Avenue de Camöens, Paris, November 18th In the teaching of Bahá’u’lláh, it is written: ‘By the Power of the Holy Spirit alone is man able to progress, for the power of man is limited and the Divine Power is boundless.’
November 3rd Paris is becoming very cold, so cold that I shall soon be obliged to go away, but the warmth of your love still keeps me here.
15 Rue Greuze, Paris, November 10th ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: Tonight I will speak of the evolution or progress of the spirit.
97 Cadogan Gardens, London, Saturday, January 4th, 1913 What a power is love!
4 Avenue de Camöens, October 31st The Divine Reality is Unthinkable, Limitless, Eternal, Immortal and Invisible.
15 Rue Greuze, Paris, December 1st When I arrived in Paris some time ago for the first time, I looked around me with much interest, and in my mind I likened this beautiful city to a large garden.
Monday, October 23rd When a man has found the joy of life in one place, he returns to that same spot to find more joy.
November 4th All over Europe today one hears of meetings and assemblies, and societies of all kinds are formed.
October 30th In the Bible there are prophecies of the coming of Christ.
November 5th Today the weather is gloomy and dull! In the East there is continual sunshine, the stars are never veiled, and there are very few clouds.
November 21st Ferocity and savagery are natural to animals, but men should show forth the qualities of love and affection.
November 25th When Christ appeared He manifested Himself at Jerusalem.
About a week after the Titanic sank, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke of the disaster at the Parsons home in Washington, likening the soul's passage through death to an infant's birth into the wider world.
The last illness and ascension of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí on 29 May 1892, His farewell to the friends, His burial, and the reading of the Kitáb-i-'Ahd nine days later.
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.
At Naw-Rúz 1863, in His tent outside Baghdád, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Tablet of the Holy Mariner. His companions were filled with sorrow when they heard it, and the next day He was told He must go to Constantinople.
Rúhíyyih Khánum dreamed of a great flood and begged ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to help her save the drowning. Without stopping His work, He smiled and said He was building the machine to stop the flood.
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.
Today, at table, let us speak for a little of proofs.
In the beginning of the eleventh chapter of the Revelation of St.
Question.—The Christ said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.”
Question.—It is recorded that miracles were performed by Christ.
Question.—What is the meaning of Christ’s resurrection after three days?
Question.—In the Gospel Christ said: “Many are called, but few are chosen,” and in the Qur’án it is written: “He will confer particular mercy on whom He pleaseth.”
Know that, speaking generally, there are five divisions of the spirit.
One of those Who possessed this power and was assisted by it was Abraham.
In *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá comments on the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, with its Branch out of the stem of Jesse and its peaceable kingdom of the wolf and the lamb, and applies its verses to Bahá'u'lláh and His cycle.
Moses was for a long time a shepherd in the wilderness. Regarded outwardly, He was a Man brought up in a tyrannical household, and was known among men as One Who had committed a murder and become a shepherd.
Having shown that the spirit of man exists, we must prove its immortality.
Yesterday we were occupied in discussing the immortality of the spirit.
Question.—It is said in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas “...whoso is deprived thereof, hath gone astray, though he be the author of every righteous deed.”
Question.—After the body is put aside and the spirit has obtained freedom, in what way will the rational soul exist?
In a series of chapters of *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá offers rational proofs that the human spirit survives the death of the body, and teaches that, because the perfections of humanity are endless, the soul can continue to progress after leaving this world.
Question.—Some people heal the sick by spiritual means—that is to say, without medicine.
May the glances of Him Whom God shall make manifest illumine this letter at the primary school.
This is an epistle from this lowly servant to the All-Glorious Lord—He Who hath been aforetime and will be hereafter made manifest.
O ‘Abdu’s-Sáhib! Verily God and every created thing testify that there is none other God but Me, the Almighty, the Best Beloved...
This is an Epistle from God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting, unto Sulaymán in the land of Masqát, to the right of the Sea.
All praise be to God Who hath, through the power of Truth, sent down this Book unto His servant, that it may serve as a shining light for all mankind...
Are ye wickedly scheming, according to your selfish fancies, an evil plot against Him Who is the Most Great Remembrance of God?
As to those who deny Him Who is the Sublime Gate of God, for them We have prepared, as justly decreed by God, a sore torment.
As to those who have debarred themselves from the Revelation of God, they have indeed failed to understand the significance of a single letter of the Qur’án, nor have they obtained the slightest notion of the Faith of Islám …
At the time of the appearance of Him Whom God shall make manifest, wert thou to perform thy deeds for the sake of the Point of the Bayán, they would be regarded as performed for one other than God …
At the time of the manifestation of Him Whom God shall make manifest everyone should be well trained in the teachings of the Bayán, so that none of the followers may outwardly cling to the Bayán and thus forfeit their allegiance unto Him.
Be thou content with the commandment of God, the True One, inasmuch as sovereignty, as recorded in the Mother Book by the hand of God, is surely invested in Him Who is His Remembrance...
Better is it for a person to write down but one of His verses than to transcribe the whole of the Bayán and all the books which have been written in the Dispensation of the Bayán.
By My glory!
Consider how at the time of the appearance of every Revelation, those who open their hearts to the Author of that Revelation recognize the Truth, while the hearts of those who fail to apprehend the Truth are straitened by reason of their shutting themselves out from Him.
Do men imagine that We are far distant from the people of the world?
Doth it seem strange to the people that We should have revealed the Book to a man from among themselves in order to purge them and give them the good tidings that they shall be rewarded with a sure stance in the presence of their Lord?
O Sherif!...
Fear ye God and breathe not a word concerning His Most Great Remembrance other than what hath been ordained by God, inasmuch as We have established a separate covenant regarding Him with every Prophet and His followers.
He is God, the Supreme Ruler, the Sovereign Truth, He Whose help is implored by all.
Glory be to Thee, O God! Thou art the God Who hath existed before all things, Who will exist after all things and will last beyond all things.
He is the Almighty. Glory be unto Him Who is the Lord of all that are in the heavens and on the earth; He is the All-Wise, the All-Informed.
Glory be unto Thee, O Lord my God! I beg Thee to forgive me and those who support Thy Faith. Verily Thou art the sovereign Lord, the Forgiver, the Most Generous.
Glory be unto Thee, O Lord, Thou Who hast brought into being all created things, through the power of Thy behest.
God, besides Whom there is none other true God, saith: Indeed, whoso visiteth the Remembrance of God after His passing, it is as though he hath attained the presence of the Lord, seated upon His mighty Throne.
God is sanctified from His servants and no direct relationship ever existeth between Him and any created thing, while ye have all arisen at His bidding.
God testifieth that there is none other God but Him. His are the kingdoms in the heavens and on the earth and all that is between them.
God testifieth that there is none other God but Him, the Almighty, the Best Beloved.
In the Name of God, the Lord of overpowering majesty, the All-Compelling.
How great the number of people who deck themselves with robes of silk all their lives, while clad in the garb of fire, inasmuch as they have divested themselves of the raiment of divine guidance and righteousness …
How vast the number of people who are well versed in every science, yet it is their adherence to the holy Word of God which will determine their faith …
How veiled are ye, O My creatures, ... who, without any right, have consigned Him unto a mountain [Mákú], not one of whose inhabitants is worthy of mention...
I adjure Thee by Thy might, O my God! Let no harm beset me in times of tests, and in moments of heedlessness guide my steps aright through Thine inspiration.
I swear by the most holy Essence of God—exalted and glorified be He—that in the Day of the appearance of Him Whom God shall make manifest a thousand perusals of the Bayán cannot equal the perusal of a single verse to be revealed by Him Whom God shall make manifest.
A short prayer of the Báb, the last of the prayers given in Selections from the Writings of the Báb, beginning "Is there any Remover of difficulties save God?"
Know thou that in the Bayán purification is regarded as the most acceptable means for attaining nearness unto God and as the most meritorious of all deeds.
Lauded be Thy Name, O Lord our God! Thou art in truth the Knower of things unseen. Ordain for us such good as Thine all-embracing knowledge can measure.
Let Me set forth some rational arguments for thee. If someone desireth to embrace the Faith of Islám today, would the testimony of God prove conclusive for him?
Likewise consider the manifestation of the Point of the Bayán.
Magnified be Thy Name, O God. Thine in truth are the Kingdoms of Creation and Revelation, and verily in our Lord have we placed our whole trust.
No created thing shall ever attain its paradise unless it appeareth in its highest prescribed degree of perfection.
O Concourse of the faithful!
O Hour of the Dawn! Ere the resplendent glory of the divine Luminary sheddeth its radiance from the Dayspring of this Gate, call thou to mind that the appointed Day of God will indeed be at hand in less than the twinkling of an eye.
O King of Islám!
O Lord! Enable all the peoples of the earth to gain admittance into the Paradise of Thy Faith, so that no created being may remain beyond the bounds of Thy good-pleasure.
O Lord! Thou art the Remover of every anguish and the Dispeller of every affliction. Thou art He Who banisheth every sorrow and setteth free every slave, the Redeemer of every soul.
O Lord! Unto Thee I repair for refuge and toward all Thy signs I set my heart. O Lord! Whether travelling or at home, and in my occupation or in my work, I place my whole trust in Thee.
O My servants! This is God’s appointed Day which the merciful Lord hath promised you in His Book; wherefore, in very truth, glorify ye abundantly the name of God while treading the Path of the Most Great Remembrance...
O People of Persia! Are ye not satisfied with this glorious honour which the supreme Remembrance of God hath conferred upon you?
O People of the Bayán! Be on your guard; for on the Day of Resurrection no one shall find a place to flee to. He will shine forth suddenly, and will pronounce judgement as He pleaseth.
O People of the Bayán! If ye believe in Him Whom God shall make manifest, to your own behoof do ye believe. He hath been and ever will remain independent of all men.
O People of the earth! To attain the ultimate retreat in God, the True One, are we to seek a Gate other than this exalted Being?...
O People of the Qur’án! Ye are as nothing unless ye submit unto the Remembrance of God and unto this Book.
O Peoples of the earth!
O Peoples of the earth!
O Peoples of the earth! Verily the true God calleth saying: He Who is the Remembrance is indeed the sovereign Truth from God, and naught remaineth beyond truth but error, and naught is there beyond error save fire, irrevocably ordained...
O Qurratu’l-‘Ayn! I recognize in Thee none other except the ‘Great Announcement’—the Announcement voiced by the Concourse on high.
O Qurratu’l-‘Ayn! Say: Verily I am the One Who is hailed in the Mother Book as the ‘Great Announcement’.
O Qurratu’l-‘ayn!
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 ye concourse of the believers! Utter not words of denial against Me once the Truth is made manifest, for indeed the mandate of the Báb hath befittingly been proclaimed unto you in the Qur’án aforetime.
O ye kinsmen of the Most Great Remembrance!
O ye peoples of the earth!
O ye peoples of the earth! During the time of My absence I sent down the Gates unto you. However the believers, except for a handful, obeyed them not.
O ye peoples of the earth! Hearken unto My call, ringing forth from the precincts of this sacred Tree—a Tree set ablaze by the pre-existent Fire: There is no God but Him; He is the Exalted, the All-Wise.
O ye servants of God! Verily, be not grieved if a thing ye asked of Him remaineth unanswered, inasmuch as He hath been commanded by God to observe silence, a silence which is in truth praiseworthy.
O Ye unto whom the Bayán is given!
O Ye who are invested with the Bayán!
O Ye who are invested with the Bayán! Ye shall be put to proof, even as those unto whom the Qur’án was given.
On the Day of Resurrection when He Whom God will make manifest cometh unto you, invested with conclusive proofs, ye shall hold His Cause as being devoid of truth …
The Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', the Báb's commentary on the Súrih of Joseph, whose first chapter He revealed on the night of His Declaration in May 1844, and its opening words as given in Selections from the Writings of the Báb.
Praise be to God that He hath enabled us to become cognizant of Him Whom God shall make manifest in the Day of Resurrection, so that we may derive benefit from the fruit of our existence and be not deprived of attaining the presence of God.
Praise be to Thee, O Lord, my Best Beloved! Make me steadfast in Thy Cause and grant that I may be reckoned among those who have not violated Thy Covenant nor followed the gods of their own idle fancy.
Rid thou thyself of all attachments to aught except God, enrich thyself in God by dispensing with all else besides Him, and recite this prayer: Say: God sufficeth all things above all things …
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.
Say, God shall of a truth cause your hearts to be given to perversity if ye fail to recognize Him Whom God shall make manifest; but if ye do recognize Him God shall banish perversity from your hearts...
Say, He Whom God shall make manifest will surely redeem the rights of those who truly believe in God and in His signs, for they are the ones who merit reward from His presence.
He is God, the Sovereign Lord, the All-Glorious. Say: Praise be to God Who graciously enableth whomsoever He willeth to adore Him.
Say, verily God hath caused all created things to enter beneath the shade of the tree of affirmation, except those who are endowed with the faculty of understanding.
Should it be Our wish, it is in Our power to compel, through the agency of but one letter of Our Revelation, the world and all that is therein to recognize, in less than the twinkling of an eye, the truth of Our Cause....
Since that Day is a great Day it would be sorely trying for thee to identify thyself with the believers.
Since thou hast faithfully obeyed the true religion of God in the past, it behooveth thee to follow His true religion hereafter, inasmuch as every religion proceedeth from God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
This is that which We have revealed for the First Believer in Him Whom God shall make manifest, that it may serve as an admonition from Our presence unto all mankind.
The angels and the spirits, arrayed rank upon rank, descend, by the leave of God, upon this Gate ...’ and circle round this Focal Point in a far-stretching line.
The Bayán shall constitute God’s unerring balance till the Day of Resurrection which is the Day of Him Whom God will make manifest.
The Day of Resurrection is a day on which the sun riseth and setteth like unto any other day.
The divine Revelation associated with the advent of Him Who is your promised Mihdí hath proved far more wondrous than the Revelation wherewith Muḥammad, the Apostle of God, was invested.
The evidence set forth by God can never be compared with the evidences produced by any one of the peoples and kindreds of the earth; and beyond a shadow of doubt no evidence is set forth by God save through the One Who is appointed as His supreme Testimony.
The evidences which the people demanded from the Apostle of God through their idle fancy have mostly been rejected in the Qur’án, even as in the Súrih of the Children of Israel [Súrih XVII] it hath been revealed: ‘And they say …
The Lord hath, in truth, inspired Me: Verily, verily, I am God, He besides Whom there is none other God, and I am indeed the Ancient of Days...
The One true God may be compared unto the sun and the believer unto a mirror.
The recognition of Him Who is the Bearer of divine Truth is none other than the recognition of God, and loving Him is none other than loving God.
There is no doubt that the Almighty hath sent down these verses unto Him [the Báb], even as He sent down unto the Apostle of God.
This Book which We have sent down is indeed abounding in blessings and beareth witness to the Truth, so that the people may realize that the conclusive Proof of God in favour of His Remembrance is similar to the one wherewith Muḥammad …
This Remembrance is indeed the glorious Remnant of the Light of God, and He will be best for you, if ye in very truth remain faithful to God, the Most Exalted...
Thou beholdest how vast is the number of people who go to Mecca each year on pilgrimage and engage in circumambulation, while He, through the potency of Whose Word the Ka’bah [the sanctuary in Mecca] hath become the object of adoration, is forsaken in this mountain.
Thou knowest full well, O my God, that tribulations have showered upon me from all directions and that no one can dispel or transmute them except Thee.
Unto every people We have sent down the Book in their own language.
Verily God hath caused the people of the Bayán to be called into being through the power of Him unto Whom the Bayán was revealed, in preparation for the Day when they will return to their Lord.
In the Name of God, the Most Exalted, the Most High. Verily I am God, no God is there but Me, and aught except Me is but My creation.
Verily, on the First Day We flung open the gates of Paradise unto all the peoples of the world, and exclaimed: ‘O all ye created things!
Whenever the faithful hear the verses of this Book being recited, their eyes will overflow with tears and their hearts will be deeply touched by Him Who is the Most Great Remembrance for the love they cherish for God, the All-Praised.
O handmaid of God!... To the mothers must be given the divine Teachings and effective counsel, and they must be encouraged and made eager to train their children, for the mother is the first educator of the child.
There are two ways of healing sickness, material means and spiritual means.
O thou who art voicing the praises of thy Lord! I have read thy letter, wherein thou didst express astonishment at some of the laws of God, such as that concerning the hunting of innocent animals, creatures who are guilty of no wrong.
O thou handmaid of God! The heavenly glad tidings must be delivered with the utmost dignity and magnanimity. And until a soul ariseth with qualities which are essential for the bearer of these tidings, his words will take no effect.
O ye two blessed souls! Your letters were received.
O thou yearning flame, thou who art afire with the love of God!
O thou who hast drawn nigh unto the spirit of Christ in the Kingdom of God!
Thou didst write as to the question of spiritual discoveries.
O thou who hast eyes to see! That which thou didst witness is the very truth, and it pertaineth to the realm of vision.
O thou handmaid aflame with the fire of God’s love! Grieve thou not over the troubles and hardships of this nether world, nor be thou glad in times of ease and comfort, for both shall pass away.
O ye who are strongly attracted! O ye who are mindful! O ye who are advancing unto the Kingdom of God!
O ye illumined loved ones and ye handmaids of the Merciful!
O thou sincere and loyal handmaid of the Lord! I have read thy letter. Thou art truly attached to the Kingdom and devoted to the All-Glorious Horizon.
O thou who seekest the Kingdom of heaven! This world is even as the body of man, and the Kingdom of God is as the spirit of life.
O ye two seekers after truth! Your letter was received and its contents noted.
O ye two faithful and assured souls! The letter was received. Praise be to God, it imparted good tidings. California is ready for the promulgation of the Teachings of God.
O my God! O my God!
O ye two patient souls! Your letter was received.
O ye who are the chosen ones of the Abhá Kingdom!
O thou beloved maidservant of God, although the loss of a son is indeed heart-breaking and beyond the limits of human endurance, yet one who knoweth and understandeth is assured that the son hath not been lost but, rather …
Mortal charm shall fade away, roses shall give way to thorns, and beauty and youth shall live their day and be no more.
O thou who art attracted to the Kingdom of God! Every soul seeketh an object and cherisheth a desire, and day and night striveth to attain his aim.
O thou possessor of a seeing heart! Although, materially speaking, thou art deprived of physical sight, yet, praise be to God, spiritual insight is thine.
O ye who are holding fast unto the Covenant and Testament! This day, from the realms of the All-Glorious, from the Kingdom of Holiness where hosannas of glorification and praise rise up, the Company on high direct their gaze upon you.
O thou daughter of the Kingdom! Thy letter was received. It was like the melody of the divine nightingale, whose song delighteth the hearts.
O ye blessed souls!
O ye friends and maidservants of the Merciful! From the Spiritual Assembly of Los Angeles a letter hath been received.
O thou who art firm in the Covenant! Three consecutive letters have been received from thee.
Today, every wise, vigilant and foresighted person is awakened, and to him are unveiled the mysteries of the future which show that nothing save the power of the Covenant is able to stir and move the heart of humanity …
Praise be to Him through Whose splendours the earth and the heavens are aglow, through Whose fragrant breathings the gardens of holiness that adorn the hearts of the chosen are trembling for joy, to Him Who hath shed His light and brightened the face of the firmament.
Today, the Lord of Hosts is the defender of the Covenant, the forces of the Kingdom protect it, heavenly souls tender their services, and heavenly angels promulgate and spread it broadcast.
O thou who art enamoured of the Covenant!
Rest assured that the breathings of the Holy Spirit will loosen thy tongue.
O thou who art turning thy face towards God! Close thine eyes to all things else, and open them to the realm of the All-Glorious.
O sincere servant of the True One! I hear thou art grieved and distressed at the happenings of the world and the vicissitudes of fortune.
O thou who dost search after truth! Thy letter of 13 December 1920 hath come.
O thou who art dear, and wise! Thy letter dated 27 May 1906 hath been received and its contents are most pleasing and have brought great joy.
O handmaid of God! Thy letter hath been received, bringing its news that an Assembly hath been established in that city.
Praise be to Him Who hath made the world of being, and hath fashioned all that is, Him Who hath raised up the sincere to a station of honour and hath made the invisible world to appear on the plane of the visible—yet still, in their drunken stupor, do men wander and stray.
The world’s great Light, once resplendent upon all mankind, hath set, to shine everlastingly from the Abhá Horizon, His Kingdom of fadeless glory, shedding splendour upon His loved ones from on high and breathing into their hearts and souls the breath of eternal life.
O ye peoples of the Kingdom!
O thou who hast sought illumination from the light of guidance!
O ye who are firm in the Covenant and the Testament! Your letter was received and your blessed names were one by one perused.
O God, my God!
O handmaids of the beauty of Abhá! Your letter hath come, and its perusal brought great joy.
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 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.
Leroy Ioas recalled that Shoghi Effendi lived only for the Cause of God, rejoicing at news of the believers' victories and grieving at their sufferings, his heart like a mirror reflecting all parts of the world.
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.
Aḥmad of Yazd set out from Baghdád to reach Bahá'u'lláh in Adrianople. In Constantinople he received the Tablet revealed for him, and instead of going on he returned to Persia to teach.
Walking home with Shoghi Effendi in Haifa, Leroy Ioas heard the Guardian describe the burdens weighing on him and offered to take on his papers. With tears in his eyes, the Guardian answered that only God could give him relief.
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 October 1918, soon after British forces took Haifa, the *Star of the West* printed a telegram with the news the American Bahá'ís had waited for through the war: *Master well and protected.*
The Star of the West reproduced the one-line cable in which the Greatest Holy Leaf announced 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing, and in later issues printed accounts of His last days and funeral.
In early 1922 the Star of the West printed the first detailed American accounts of the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Haifa on 28 November 1921 and of His funeral on Mount Carmel.
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.
In New York on 19 June 1912, as Juliet Thompson painted His portrait, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá appointed Lua Getsinger the Herald of the Covenant and declared Himself the Covenant appointed by Bahá’u’lláh.
In a Tablet to the House of Spirituality of Chicago, 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells the friends not to grieve at storms of trial, for after the storm "the divine spring will arrive."
317 Convey my respectful greeting to Mrs. ......... and say: “We hope that day by day thou mayest take higher flights, attain to greater spiritual attractions, thy word become more penetrative through the power of the Spirit and…
Convey my respectful greetings to [Dr.] ... and say: “Have confidence in heavenly bounty and be sure of the favor of the Lord of the Kingdom. Soon thou shalt see that the East hath embraced the West and that the Occident and Orient are…
El-Baha, praise, light, blessing and peace be upon thee, O thou fire of the Love of God, thou light of the Kingdom of God, thou radiance of the Gift of God, thou peerless pearl in the Sea of the Mercy of God, thou sturdy lion in the Jungle of the Guidance of God!
“In reality thou art spiritually hungry and athirst for the Water of Life. Therefore I send thee spiritual food and bestow upon thee the Water of Life Eternal. That food is the divine advices and exhortations revealed in the Tablets and…
O bird without a nest! It is reported thy home and shelter is burnt, thy resting place and habitation is become desolate.
O dear servant of God! Observe how dear thou wert that He guided thee to the Kingdom of Light, and how near to His Threshold, that He granted thee admission into His Court.
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 supplicating unto the Sublime Kingdom!
O seeker of the truth! There are two ways of healing diseases, the material way and the spiritual way. The first is the remedies of the physician; the second prayers and turning one’s self to God.
O thou believer in God! Thy letter was received and from its contents happiness was realized. It was a proof of faith and assurance and of firmness in the Covenant and Testament.
O thou bird of the Rose-garden of the Love of God!
O thou bird who art warbling in the Garden of the Guidance of God!
O thou child of the Kingdom and firm in the Covenant!
O thou dear and honorable! I received thy last letter through his honor ........ and its contents imparted to me spiritual joy, for it indicated the high and good friendship between thee and the respectful maid-servant of God, .........
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 effulgence of the Kingdom! I read thy letter and was informed of thy speech, the contents of which were full of the feelings within thy consciousness, and of thy spiritual sympathies.
O thou faithful and confident! Thanks be to God that thou hast obtained that which was sought by all prophets and holy souls; namely, the knowledge of God and the love of god.
O thou faithful maid-servant of God! What thou has written me hath been seen. Indeed thou belongest to the Kingdom and thou turnest towards the Horizon of Abha.
O thou faithful one!
O thou faithful servant of the True One! I received thy letter and its contents caused the utmost joy and fragrance within me, because it showed thy firmness in the Cause of God and proved thy steadfastness in the love of the Word of God.
O thou fortunate and righteous, sincere and pious! Thank thou God for that by reason of which the breath of God hath awakened thee and the spirit of God hath quickened thee and raised thee from among the dead with a joyful spirit of life.
O thou fresh, slender branch saturated with the abundant rain of His bounty!
O thou friend of old and O thou incomparable companion! Many letters have so far been received from thee and lengthy answers have been written to them, but it is strange that they have not reached thee.
O thou heavenly, brilliant and precious pearl!
O thou honorable lady! Verily, I received thy excellent letter and read it and my heart was gladdened with its content, which shows thy guidance.
O thou kind friend! Thy letter was received and its contents considered. Man must, under all conditions, be thankful to God, the One, for it is said in the blessed text: “If ye be thankful I will increase thee.”
O thou kind maid-servant of God! Truly, I say, thou art worthy of the service in the Kingdom and art meriting to be a maid-servant in the threshold of the love of the realm of Might.
O thou lamp who art enkindled with the fire of the Love of God!
O thou leaf who art moved by the Breeze of God!
O thou leaf who art well watered through the out-pouring of the cloud of favor from God!
O thou maid-servant of God, who art guided to the Light of Guidance!
O thou maid-servant of God! Thy writing was considered.
O thou peerless, matchless, glorious martyr!
O thou plant of the Garden of the Love of God! Thy letter was received. Its content was of utmost grace and sweetness.
O thou rose of the Rose-Garden of the Love of God! His Holiness Christ—may my spirit be His sacrifice! —said in the Gospel, “Many are called, but few chosen.”
O thou seeker after the Beauty of the True One! What thou hast written was perused. It indicated thy yearning and advancement toward the Kingdom of God.
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 Love of God!
O thou sincere servant of Baha’o’llah! Thy letter was received and its content was the cause of infinite happiness, for it was an indication of thy firmness in the faith and thy steadfastness in the Covenant and Testament.
O thou spiritual leaf who art verdant and well-watered by the outpouring from the Kingdom of God!
O thou spiritual person and heavenly man—may God confirm thee!
O thou spiritual son! Verily I have received thy lettter … and its contents were known. I supplicate God to open to thee a way and prepare for thee and guide thee in thy affair.
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 Thahbet (Firm) in the Covenant! Thy letter was received. It indicated firmness and steadfastness; therefore, it gave me joy and gladness.
O thou that virtuous soul and individual who art ready for the confirmation of the Holy Spirit!
O thou tree planted in the Vineyard of God!
O thou who art ablaze with the fire of the Love of God!
O thou who art acknowledging the Oneness of God!
O thou who art advanced toward God! Thy letter was received. Its contents indicated that thou hast become alive through the spiritual breaths of his honor, Mr. .........
O thou who art advancing to the Kingdom of God! I have considered thy writing, which indicates brightness of heart and the love of God.
O thou who art advancing toward the Kingdom of God! Thy letter was read; its contents had bearing upon Guidance.
O thou who art advancing toward the Kingdom! Thy letter was received.
O thou who art advancing towards the Shining Orb of the Horizons!
O thou who art always calling on God! Thank thou God for He hath guided thee to the path of His Kingdom and provided thee with the fruit of the Tree of Life, which is planted in the middle of the Ferdowee (i.e., the highest Paradise).
O thou who art anticipating the appearance of the Gift of God!
O thou who art assured in God! Verily we read thy letter and asked for thee confirmation. Verily thy Lord will strengthen thee in great spirituality and cause thy heart to overflow with the gifts of God.
O thou who art attracted by the Fragrances of the Kingdom of El-Abha!
O thou who art attracted by the Word of god to the Kingdom of God!
O thou who art attracted to the Beauty of Abha! For a period of time no news hath been outwardly received from thee, but spiritual communications are continual (between us).
O thou who art attracted to the Beauty of the Deity!
O thou who art attracted to the Call of the Kingdom! Thy letter was presented and I was informed of thy expression.
O thou who art attracted to the Kingdom! Thy letter contained meanings full of sweetness. I therefore took it in my hand with the utmost love and became informed of thy desire.
O thou who art attracted to the Light of Guidance!
O thou who art calling in the Name of God and heralding unto the Kingdom of God!
O thou who art cheered through the Fragrances of God!
O thou who art cheerfully moving by the Fragrances of God!
O thou who art commemorating the Name of God! Verily, I read thy interesting letter and my heart was made happy by its beautiful contents.
O thou who art controlled by the attractions of the Fragrance of God!
O thou who art directed unto God! Thy revered wife, Mrs. ........, is indeed confirmed by the fragrances of the spirit and rendered victorious by the hosts of the Kingdom.
O thou who art honorable and faithful to God! How many men and women awaited the manifestation of the Messiah after Moses?
O thou who art hoping for the Kingdom! Thank thou God that He hath guided thee, led thee to the Kingdom of Being, ushered thee under the shade of the bounties of the Lord of Hosts, and that thou hast stepped into the Paradise of ABHA.
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 art longing for the Orb of the Horizons!
O thou who art longing to witness the lights from the Beauty of El-ABHA!
O thou who art nurtured from the breasts of the Kingdom of God, who wert brought up in the lap of the Guidance of God!
O thou who art patient and resigning thyself to the judgment (of God)!
O thou who art rejoiced by the Appearance of God!
O thou who art rejoiced by the Divine Glad-tidings! Verily I have received thy last letter and thanked God that thou didst reach Paris protected and guarded (by Him).
O thou who art rejoicing at the Glad-tidings of God! Thank thou God for that by reason of which He hath enabled thee to traverse the seas and countries and come safe to a Spot wherein the lights are shining with great brilliancy.
O thou who art rejoicing by the Glad-tidings of God! The contents of thy letter clearly show that thou art drawn by the love of God, pondering over the Cause of God and that the cover hath been removed from off thine eyes.
O thou who art set aglow with the Fire of the Love of God! Thy letter reached me and I noted its beautiful contents.
O thou who art supplicating unto the Kingdom of God!
O thou who art tested with a great calamity!
O thou who art tranquilized by the Call of the Kingdom at this time!
O thou who art turning unto the Kingdom of God, and looking unto the Day-spring of the lights of God!
O thou who art witnessing the Light of Guidance!
O thou who dost believe in the Unity of God! Know verily nothing will benefit a person save the love of the Merciful One.
O thou who has turned towards the Lights of the Alliance!
O thou who hast confessed and believed in the Words of God!
O thou who hast prayed to the Kingdom of God! I have read thy letter and I have taken knowledge of God as to thy conduct towards the Kingdom of God and also thy conflagration with the fire of God’s love.
O thou who hast sought illumination from the Light of the Guidance of God!
O thou whose breast is dilated with the Fragrances of God! I received thy letter which showed thine advance toward the Kingdom of God.
O thou whose heart is attracted and whose breast is dilated with joy by the Holy Fragrances!
O thou whose heart is filled with the Love of God! I was informed of thy longing for meeting (me) and that thy breast is boiling with the love of God.
O thou yearner after the Kingdom! Thy letter was received. It was brief and expressive of meaning.
O visitant of the Resort of spirits (who are) sincere in the Religion of God!
O ye beloved of God and His sincere friends! By the life of God!
O ye brilliant realities!
O ye friends! Thank God that the Light of Truth shone in that city, the bounty of guidance was granted, the fire of the love of God was ignited and the veil of superstition was burned away.
O ye illumined faces! O ye divine souls! and O ye spiritual temples!
O ye longing ones! O ye cheered ones! O ye attracted ones! O ye who are beseeching the Kingdom of God!
O ye maid-servants of God and leaves of the Tree of Eternal Life!
O ye maid-servants of His Majesty, the Lord—daughters and sons of the Kingdom!
O ye my dear friends! Your letter was received and its contents were wonderful and beautiful for it evinced the spreading of the light of Guidance.
O ye seekers of Truth! Your letter was received and its contents became known. The new Kingdom hath raised its tents in all regions and hath enveloped East and West, but the blind ones cannot see and the deaf ones cannot hear.
O ye shining Assembly! The meeting that you organized hath attracted the divine gaze and the subject of your conversation was the divine commemoration.
O ye sincere, O ye firm and steadfast in the Testament of God!
O ye sincere ones and ye who are attracted and moved by the breeze of the favor of God!
O ye two birds warbling in the Garden of Wisdom. Verily, I saw your photographs, whose beauty proved the turning of your hearts unto the Center of Guidance and the dilation of your breasts by the appearance of the Kingdom of God.
O ye two doves, flying in the verdant Gardens of the Kingdom!
O ye two lamps of the Love of God! Your letter to ........ was read and its contents considered. Its meanings expressed the feelings of spiritual hearts and emanated from the spring of the conscience.
O ye two revered persons, ye servants in the vineyard of God!
O ye two singing birds in the Garden of Belief!
O ye two truthful believers! Your letter was received. Its contents were faith, certainty and sincerity. It was an evidence of perceiving eyes, attentive ears and acute mind.
O ye who are advancing towards the Kingdom of God!
O ye who are attracted! O ye who are remembered! O ye who are directed unto the Kingdom of God!
O ye who are longing for the beauty of El-ABHA!
O ye whom God hath chosen from among those who are called!—know that “many are called but few are chosen”!—upon whom He caused the evident Light to descend; whom He guided into the right Path, and to whom He gave the Glad-tidings of the Great Success!
To him who is looking unto God! O thou who art gazing unto the Center of the Covenant—may God confirm thee!
To the beloved of God in Persia! O ye dear friends of Abdul-Baha! It is some time since any heart-thrilling melody hath reached the ear of life from certain countries, and life and conscience have not found happiness and joy.
Verily I approach Thee, O my God, in the darkest hour of this dark night, and pray Thee with my inmost heart, while I am moving by Thy fragrances, which are being diffused from Thy Kingdom of Abha, and say: O my Lord …
When an American guest apologized for eating so much at His table, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told her that virtue lies in true faith in God, not in appetite, and recalled that Ṭáhirih had a good appetite.
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…
“Moral life consists in the government of one's self. Immortality is government of a human soul by the Divine Will.”
“What is meant by 'Heaven' in the Bible?” “Christ said that nothing could ascend into Heaven except that which came down from Heaven. He also said, 'I came from Heaven and will return to Heaven,' and 'The Son of Man is in Heaven.' He…
“Today we will speak about Obedience! The Manifestation of God is a perfect example of real obedience. Like Him, we must sacrifice everything; every plan, every longing and ideal must be given up completely to the Will of God. We must…
"In the Book of Íqán we can read the Word of God concerning the true Reincarnation, which is the Return of the Spiritual Qualities in the Servants of God.[3] In the Gospel it is written that they asked John the Baptist if he was Elijah…
(Compiled from ‘Abdu'l-Bahá's Teachings) Soul is the human will to live temporally.
‘Abdu'l-Bahá sent for me. I found Him in a little room opening from the courtyard. He was sitting upon a raised chair, His beautiful face, majestic in repose and strength, turned toward the only window.
“When you give the Message of this Manifestation many say, 'This is nothing new—I prefer the home of my old religious belief which has been so serviceable and trustworthy.'” ‘Abdu'l-Bahá answered …
“What is the Second Coming of Christ in this Dispensation?” ‘Abdu'l-Bahá answered: “In the Book of the Zend-Avesta the Zoroastrians are awaiting the Coming of two Manifestations. Also, in the Old Testament Scriptures there is the…
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.
Learning that Juliet Thompson's mother was grieving, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent for her in the midst of a thunderstorm. Though exhausted, He welcomed and comforted her, and the next day she said all her bitterness had gone.
Walking on the beach with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Lua Getsinger stepped in His footprints and three times said she wished to follow in them. A tarantula then bit her, and when fever and delirium set in, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá healed her.
A coal miner who had walked many miles to hear ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in California grew impatient with the interpreter, insisting that nothing ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said needed translating.
Jináb-i-Fádil, disowned by his father for becoming a Bahá’í, thought of asking ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to forgive him; the next day the Master told him that many souls would be forgiven because of his faith.
While Bahá’u’lláh lived as a dervish in the mountains, His family in Baghdád sold their only rug to buy a donkey for a Bábí who set out to find Him; months later He came home.
From Paris, the ailing Thomas Breakwell wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá through Dr Yúnis Khán, refused to leave his post, asked the Master to pray for his parents, and soon reported that his father had become a Bahá’í.
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.
Dick Grover recalls Zylpha Gray of Springfield, Massachusetts, who told an Underground Railroad story and how a childhood question about salvation was answered years later when she heard God's Prophets described as branches of one tree.
When Bahá’u’lláh taught the Cause of the Báb in Núr, the local mujtahid sent two of his leading disciples to question Him; on hearing Him, both vowed to remain and serve Him.
Thomas Breakwell died in June 1902, hardly a year after becoming a Bahá’í. Yúnis Khán recalls how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told him of the death, though no news of it had passed through his hands, and wrote a prayer of visitation for Breakwell.
Ill with tuberculosis, Thomas Breakwell sent ever more joyful letters to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, never asked to be healed, and told the other patients he was not going to die but merely departing for the Kingdom of God.
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells how the Báb was sent to the mountain castle of Máh-Kú and held there nine months, and how its warden, 'Alí Khán, out of love for the family of the Prophet, let some people speak with Him.
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá records how in 1844, in His twenty-fifth year, the Báb began in Shíráz to declare Himself the Gate, and how a few Shaykhí divines turned to Him while most of the learned opposed Him.
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.
When he reached Hamadán his character became known, and, as he was of the clerical class, the doctors vehemently pursued him, handed him over to the government, and ordered chastisement to be inflicted.
Then the Royal Command was issued that their Reverences the learned doctors and honorable and accomplished divines should write a reply to that epistle.
I know not how long they shall ride the steed of desire and wander erringly in the desert of heedlessness and error.
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.
Two days before ‘Abdu’l-Bahá left Paris, a mother arrived from America. Her small daughter had pointed at His picture in a magazine store window, and she had caught a boat that same night.
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.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá retells an Arabian chronicle: Hanzala, pledged to die on King Nu'man's Day of Evil, returned to keep his word, and his faithfulness brought the king and his ministers to faith in God.
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.
Sent by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Chicago in 1901, Mírzá Abu’l-Faḍl and ‘Alí-Kuli Khán found believers confused by dream-reading and the occult, and taught them to weigh every inner prompting against the revealed Teachings.
In Stuttgart in 1913 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalled how, as a child of eight or nine, He taught an educated man who was not convinced, and told him to go and receive seeing eyes and hearing ears.
Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas recalls the contrast between Shoghi Effendi's slight, refined frame and the power with which he spoke, and how closely the Guardian resembled 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
On board the steamship Celtic, a woman told 'Abdu'l-Bahá that she was afraid of death. He urged her to enter the Divine Kingdom and spoke of the need to ride in the Ship of God.
A newly declared believer asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá what he should do and was told to study the Teachings. Eighteen years later he asked again, and received the same answer.
A pilgrim from Khusf who had seen nothing extraordinary in his first days in 'Akká was overwhelmed in Bahá’u’lláh's presence. Bahá’u’lláh then explained, with the example of a parrot and a mirror, why the Manifestations appear in human form.
In a 1934 letter to Doris McKay, Howard Colby Ives explained how he and his wife accepted a life without a settled home, trusting that God provides a heavenly home for those who accept His Will.