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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."
58 stories where knowledge appears.
Regarding the “two wings” of the soul: These signify wings of ascent.
In man five outer powers exist, which are the agents of perception, that is to say, through these five powers man perceives material beings.
...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.”
Certain European philosophers agree that the species grows and develops, and that even change and alteration are also possible.
From the time of the creation of Adam to this day there have been two pathways in the world of humanity; one the natural or materialistic, the other the religious or spiritual.
The beginning of the existence of man on the terrestrial globe resembles his formation in the womb of the mother.
Know that there are two kinds of knowledge: the knowledge of the essence of a thing, and the knowledge of its qualities.
We have now come to the question of the modification of species and of organic development: that is to say, to the point of inquiring whether man’s descent is from the animal.
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.
If we look with a perceiving eye upon the world of creation, we find that all existing things may be classified as follows: First—Mineral—that is to say matter or substance appearing in various forms of composition.
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.
Shaykh Ismá‘íl, a Sufi leader of Kurdistán, persuaded Bahá’u’lláh to come to Sulaymáníyyih, where he and his disciples asked Him for the poem that became the Qasídiy-i-Varqá’íyyih.
The Writings of Bahá’u’lláh are most comprehensive in their range, dealing with every phase of human life, individual and social, with things material and things spiritual, with the interpretation of ancient and modern scriptures …
But if the essence is unknowable, the manifestations of its bounty are everywhere apparent.
As a young man visiting Yalrud, Bahá’u’lláh resolved a puzzle about a tradition concerning Fatimih that a famed mujtahid’s scholars could not answer, and the next day the mujtahid rebuked his disciples.
As a child of five or six on a visit to Beirut, Shoghi Effendi watched Dr. Baghdadi dissect a wildcat and afterwards repeated the main points of the lesson word for word.
As a youth visiting Núr, Bahá'u'lláh explained a question that a famous mujtahid's two hundred students could not answer. The mujtahid then told his students of two dreams he had had about Him.
Bahíyyih Khánum recalls how, as a youth in Baghdád, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá argued with the learned men in the mosques, who came to call Him the youthful sage. Asked who His teacher was, He answered that His Father had taught Him.
Tahirih taught the Bab's Faith openly in Karbila until guards were set on her house. In Baghdad she silenced a delegation of Shi'ih, Sunni, Christian and Jewish leaders, and was lodged in the Mufti's house, where she defended her faith.
Siyyid Káẓim addressed the young scholar of Qazvín as Qurratu'l-'Ayn, "Solace of the Eyes." At Badasht in 1848 Bahá'u'lláh gave her the name Táhirih, the Pure One, and the Báb addressed her by it.
In Baghdád in 1862 an uncle of the Báb brought Bahá'u'lláh a list of questions about the promised Qá'im. In two days and two nights Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Íqán in reply, and the uncle's doubts were dispelled.
Esslemont records that the Báb composed His voluminous Writings with great rapidity, without study or premeditation. He went on writing while confined in the mountain fortresses of Máh-Kú and Chihríq, and in His Writings He called Himself a dew-drop from a limitless ocean.
Before the Báb declared His mission, Bahá'u'lláh stopped to listen to the celebrated mujtahid of Núr and explained a theory none of his disciples could. Afterwards the mujtahid told his students of two dreams about Bahá'u'lláh.
Between 1904 and 1906 Laura Clifford Barney put her questions to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká, often at the lunch table. His answers were taken down in Persian, and He corrected the text twice in His own hand before it was published in 1908.
After Siyyid Káẓim's death, Mullá Ḥusayn refused his fellow disciples' offer to accept him as the promised One, spent forty days in prayer and fasting at the mosque of Kúfih, and set out on the search that led him to the Báb.
When the scholar Nabíl-i-Akbar came on pilgrimage to 'Akká around 1873–74, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Tablet of Wisdom in his honour. In it He answers Nabíl's question about the origin of creation, speaks of the sages of Greece, and counsels him on how to teach.
In 1920 Shoghi Effendi entered Balliol College, Oxford, to perfect his English so that he could better translate the Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. The Master's passing in November 1921 cut his studies short.
A Paris lawyer who heard of the Faith in 1901 became the first French Bahá'í. He left the law to study Persian and Arabic, translated the Writings into French, travelled widely for the Faith and served 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris.
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.
During her long visits to 'Akká between 1904 and 1906, Laura Clifford Barney put her questions to 'Abdu'l-Bahá at His table. His answers became Some Answered Questions, which includes His talk on the four ways people seek to understand the truth.
A doctor at a Bournemouth sanatorium first met the Bahá'í teachings in December 1914 and set out to write a book about them. 'Abdu'l-Bahá corrected part of the manuscript, and Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era appeared in 1923.
Áqá Muḥammad-i-Qá'iní, the one disciple Shaykh Murtaḍá raised to the rank of mujtahid, met Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád and became Nabíl-i-Akbar. He spent the rest of his life teaching the Faith, hunted and poor, and died far from home.
Alain Locke, the first Black Rhodes Scholar and a Harvard-trained philosopher, played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance. After becoming a Bahá'í he served for years on the Faith's race amity committees.
In Paris in 1913 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked the teacher Stanwood Cobb what he taught, then asked, "Do you teach the spiritual things?" Cobb counted it his most important interview with the Master.
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.
About two years before His passing, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kalimát-i-Firdawsíyyih, the Words of Paradise, in honour of Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥaydar-'Alí. Its "leaves" set out counsels on the fear of God, religion, justice, unity, education and peace.
In September 1921 'Abdu'l-Bahá answered a letter from the Swiss scientist Auguste Forel with a Tablet on the soul, the mind and the existence of God. Shoghi Effendi records that Forel was converted to the Faith through it.
Quddús, the last of the eighteen Letters of the Living, went with the Báb on His pilgrimage to Mecca. Held captive in Sárí and later besieged at Shaykh Ṭabarsí, he wrote a vast commentary on a single letter of the Qur'án.
Ṭáhirih's learning made her father wish she had been a son. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls how she studied, debated, recognized the Báb through a dream, and taught His Cause in Karbilá and Baghdád.
Muḥammad Sháh sent Siyyid Yaḥyá-i-Dárábí, the most learned divine in Persia, to investigate the Báb. After three meetings in Shíráz he became a believer, and the Báb named him Vaḥíd.
Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl, head of a religious college in Ṭihrán, became a Bahá'í in 1876 and spent the rest of his life teaching the Faith, from Egypt to Paris to Green Acre, yet he wept when believers praised him.
Between 1904 and 1906 Laura Clifford Barney made several long visits to 'Akká and put her questions to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, often at the lunch table. His replies, written down and corrected by Him, became Some Answered Questions.
Speaking with physicians in San Francisco in October 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said that dogmas contrary to science and reason are a chief cause of irreligion, and He quoted Bahá’u’lláh's words that such matters are an obstacle to progress.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: You are very welcome! From Eastern lands I have come to the West to sojourn awhile among you.
Speaking at the Maxwell home in Montreal on September 2, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá compared human nature left untrained to land overgrown with thorns, and the Prophets of God to Gardeners who turn the wild field into an orchard.
When the philosopher Nabíl-i-Akbar visited 'Akká around 1873-74, Bahá'u'lláh revealed for him the Tablet of Wisdom, which speaks of the origin of creation and of the ancient sages who learned from the Prophets.
In a group of chapters of *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá takes up the theory that man is descended from the animal, and teaches that although humanity's form developed gradually, like an embryo in the womb, man was from the beginning a distinct species, with mind and spirit present though hidden.
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.
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.
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 …
Thou hast asked concerning the fundamentals of religion and its ordinances: Know thou that first and foremost in religion is the knowledge of God.
As to thy question regarding the education of children: it behoveth thee to nurture them at the breast of the love of God, and urge them onward to the things of the spirit, that they may turn their faces unto God …
Thou didst write as to the question of spiritual discoveries.
O thou illumined youth! Thank thou God, for that the tongues spoke in thy praise and the pends moved with thy love, thy knowledge and thy enkindlement by the fire of the love of God.
O thou leaf who art moved by the Breeze of God!