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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."
274 stories where patience appears.
On the voyage to Mecca a jealous shaykh abused the passengers, and the Báb most of all. When the captain ordered him thrown overboard, the Báb held on to him and begged the captain to forgive him.
When the landlord in New York complained about His many visitors, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá did not argue but moved out, showering the staff with such love that they felt ashamed and begged Him to stay.
As His party waited to leave London by train, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went on calmly writing. Then a man arrived with a garland and, in the name of the disciples of Zoroaster, hailed Him as the promised Sháh Bahrám.
In a 1974 talk in Wilmette, Hand of the Cause Abu’l-Qásim Faizí recalled ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanation that the earth is faithful, generous and patient while fire is greedy, and urged Bahá’í youth to be like the earth.
Howard Colby Ives recalled how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá listened patiently to a clergyman's long questions, then spoke to him with such love that the visitor was transformed, and sent him off with an armful of roses.
Told he could come on pilgrimage once his debts were paid, an Egyptian merchant spent five years clearing them. Arriving unrecognized in Haifa, he was found by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who spent the night praying beside him.
When a merchant in ‘Akká seized the exiles’ charcoal, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sat quietly in his shop for three hours. Their talk about Christ won the merchant’s respect; he paid back the money and became a lifelong friend.
Worn out after seeing a hundred and forty people and speaking at the Mortens’ home in New York, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went up to rest, but crowds followed. When Juliet Thompson asked to shut the door, He gently said to let them come.
“After two years of the strictest confinement permission was granted me to find a house so that we could live outside the prison walls but still within the fortifications. Many believers came from Persia to join us but they were not…
“We had no communication whatever with the out-side world. Each loaf of bread was cut open by the guard to see that it contained no message. All who believed in the Bahá’í manifestation, children, men and women, were imprisoned with us.”
“With the advent of the Young Turks’ supremacy, realized through the Society of Union and Progress, all the political prisoners of the Ottoman Empire were set free. Events took the chains from my neck and placed them about Hamíd’s;…
‘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.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave a fine wool cloak to a poor man who asked for a garment. The man complained that it was cotton and not good; the Master reproved him, then had him given a coin as well.
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.
It behoveth thee to sever thyself from all desires save thy Lord, the Supreme, expecting no help or aid from anyone in the universe, not even from thy father or children.
The beginning of the existence of man on the terrestrial globe resembles his formation in the womb of the mother.
The necessity and the particularity of the assured and believing ones is to be firm in the Cause of God and withstand the hidden and evident tests.
‘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.
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.
When a Persian Consul pressed him to testify that thieves had stolen far more than his few goods, the Tabríz merchant ‘Alí-‘Askar refused to lie; later, in the ‘Akká prison with his stricken family, he never ceased giving thanks.
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.
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.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Ismu’lláhu’l-Asdaq, who was led through Shíráz by a halter, survived the siege of Fort Tabarsí, and in Baghdád gently won over a furious Persian prince within a quarter of an hour.
Born in Charleston to formerly enslaved parents, Louis G. Gregory became a Bahá'í in 1909, was seated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá at His right in Washington, gave decades to teaching and race unity, and was posthumously named a Hand of the Cause.
‘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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shaykh Salmán slipped out of arrest in Tihrán when a stranger mistook him for someone else. Every year afterwards he walked from Persia to Bahá'u'lláh, carrying the believers' letters and bringing back His Tablets.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
O my well-beloved, deeply spiritual sister! Day and night thou livest in my memory. Whenever I remember thee my heart swelleth with sadness and my regret groweth more intense.
O my well-beloved sister, O Most Exalted Leaf! Thou didst leave for Akká to remain but two days or so and then return, but now thou hast been gone from us for quite a while.
The letter dated 5 August 1932, from that spiritual friend has been received by the Guardian of the Cause of God, may our lives be sacrificed for him …
O thou my sister, my dear sister! Divine wisdom hath decreed this temporary separation, but I long more and more to be with thee again.
What you had written concerning the memorial gatherings of men and women believers to mourn the Most Exalted Leaf, who was the peerless fruit of the Holy Tree …
Indeed, the Greatest Holy Leaf, the Trust of Bahá’u’lláh amongst us, was the emblem of His boundless grace, a luminary shining in the heaven of tender mercy and gracious providence …
Even though the Greatest Holy Leaf has left us in body she is with us in spirit, inspiring us in our work and beseeching for us God’s loving mercy and fatherly care.
O ye who share my anguish and are my comforters in my distress and bereavement!
The letter in which that leaf had expressed the ardent longing of her heart and revealed the depth of her devotion has received my eager attention.
That supreme affliction, the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, was the direst of ordeals; it was an anguish of mourning.
His grief is too immense and his loss too heavy to be adequately expressed in words.
It is clear how that most dire of calamities, that most great disaster which was the ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, may our souls be sacrificed for His meekness, has set our hearts on fire and dissolved our very limbs and members in grief.
O ye who burn in the flames of bereavement! By the Day-star of the World, my bereaved and longing heart is afire with a grief that is beyond my description.
After the construction of the Báb’s Shrine on Mount Carmel, it was the wish and intention of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—may our lives be sacrificed for His holy dust—to open a path that would lead directly from the Shrine to the German Avenue.
Brethren and fellow-mourners in the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh! A sorrow, reminiscent in its poignancy, of the devastating grief caused by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sudden removal from our midst, has stirred the Bahá’í world to its foundations.
Your letter has come, and I myself and the Holy Family were infinitely grieved to learn of the sufferings you have undergone, being made as you were the targets of such injustice, malevolence and aggression.
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.
Your kind and loving letter written with an unbounded love and a sincere devotion for our beloved ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and His Cause has been duly received.
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.
Shoghi Effendi's tribute to Bahíyyih Khánum records the cost of the Adrianople exile to her own body — a winter of exceptional severity, a poor and unhealthy lodging, and dire financial distress that left her, as a young woman, with a permanent loss of vitality and a shadow on her face that would remain until the end of her life.
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 journey to Constantinople lasted between three and four months, the party consisting of Bahá’u’lláh with members of His family and twenty-six disciples.
According to the teaching of the Prophets, disease and all other forms of calamity are due to disobedience to the Divine Commands.
In the matter of divorce, as in that of marriage, the instructions of the Prophets have varied in accordance with the circumstances of the times.
In the Bahá’í view the child’s nature is not like so much wax that can be molded indifferently to any shape according to the will of the teacher.
During the winter of 1919–1920 the writer had the great privilege of spending two and half months as the guest of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Haifa and intimately observing His daily life.
About this time Bahá’u’lláh wrote His famous letter to the Sulṭán of Turkey, many of the crowned heads of Europe, the Pope, and the Sháh of Persia.
In bringing about the emancipation of women as in other matters, Bahá’u’lláh counsels His followers to avoid methods of violence.
As a religious body, Bahá’ís have, at the express command of Bahá’u’lláh, entirely abandoned the use of armed force in their own interests, even for strictly defensive purposes.
Esslemont quotes Bahá'u'lláh's own description, from the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, of the dungeon in Tihrán where He was held for four months in 1852, with nearly a hundred and fifty fellow-prisoners.
Even when the imprisonment was at its worst, the Bahá’ís were not dismayed, and their serene confidence was never shaken.
Unfortunately it is impossible, within the space at our disposal, to describe in detail the progress of the Bahá’í Faith throughout the world.
At last the imprisonment was mitigated. A mobilization of Turkish troops occurred and the barracks were required for soldiers.
In an account by 'Abdu'l-Bahá quoted in *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*, the Master tells how, after Bahá'u'lláh three times declined to leave 'Akká with the words "I am a prisoner," an Arab shaykh of the city pleaded with Him for a whole hour until He consented to go to the mansion of Mazra'ih.
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.
Shoghi Effendi told how a coachman at Ramleh demanded an exorbitant fare from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and pulled Him roughly by His sash. The Master stayed calm, refused to give in, and paid exactly what He owed, without the tip.
A Bábí who had taken up arms for revenge fled to Hamadán and was arrested. A writing of Bahá'u'lláh forbidding retaliation fell from his collar, and after reading it the governor let him go.
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.
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.
Told by Mullá Ḥusayn that the name of the Promised One could not be revealed, Mullá Ṣádiq-i-Muqaddas withdrew to pray in Iṣfahán and, in a vision, recognized the face of a Youth he had seen weeping in prayer at Karbilá.
Visiting ‘Akká in 1905, the American pilgrim Mary Lucas watched ‘Abdu’l-Bahá listen gravely to His two-year-old granddaughter's troubles, and gently prompt her when she forgot a word while chanting Him a Tablet.
Khadíjih Bagum, the wife of the Báb, tells Munírih Khánum of the night in 1846 when the chief of police seized the Báb from their home in Shíráz, and of the years of isolation that followed.
When Bahá'u'lláh withdrew to the mountains for two years, the young 'Abdu'l-Bahá prayed, read the writings of the Báb and helped His family. After His Father returned, He helped Him by receiving those who came to visit.
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.
As a small Mohawk boy in Ontario, Jim Loft was waved to by 'Abdu'l-Bahá from a passing train. Years later, as a Bahá'í, he returned to his reserve at the Guardian's request to teach the Faith.
Tammy finds a cocoon in the woods and wishes it were not so ugly. Her mother asks her to be patient, and that night Tammy wakes to find a bright blue butterfly on her finger.
When a little girl was ill, 'Abdu'l-Bahá brought her two pink roses. After she passed away, He consoled her mother by describing the Garden of God, where the Divine Gardener transplants a little tree to a more beautiful place.
At the Baptist Temple in Philadelphia on 9 June 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá explained the unity of mankind: the child must be patiently trained rather than censured, and the sick must be given compassion and healing, not neglected.
In May 1922 the Greatest Holy Leaf went with Lady Blomfield and a party of ladies to the barracks of 'Akká, where she and her family had once been imprisoned, and listened as the rooms of the captivity were described.
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.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembered the day in 1852 when a servant brought word that her father had been arrested, and the four months her mother spent in hiding with the children while He lay chained in the dungeon of Tihrán.
For two years after Bahá'u'lláh withdrew from Baghdád, His family did not know where He was. His daughter Bahíyyih Khánum remembered those hard years and the day He came home dressed as a dervish.
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.
During the Báb's nine months in the castle of Máh-Kú, its strict warden, 'Alí Khán, saw Him at prayer outside the locked castle, came to Him in humility, and opened the castle to His visitors.
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.
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.
Mirza Mihdi, the Purest Branch, served as Bahá’u’lláh’s amanuensis. Aqa Rida remembered him as a pillar of strength to the exiles, reading to them from the Supreme Pen and teaching them courtesy, patience and dignity.
During Ethel Rosenberg’s eight-month stay in ‘Akká in 1904, she asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá why He had to endure such suffering. He answered that God’s teachers could not guide others unless they themselves underwent every kind of suffering.
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.
Florence Khánum recalls two sayings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “Be patient, be as I am,” and, to someone discouraged about acquiring every virtue, “Little by little; day by day.”
Through the spring and summer of 1912 the California Bahá’ís longed for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to come west, while His messages wavered between hope and doubt, until in August He wired John Bosch that He would travel to the West.
When thieves stole his few goods, Ḥájí ‘Alí-‘Askar refused the Persian Consul's demand that he swear to a far larger loss. Later, a prisoner with his family in 'Akká, he gave thanks to God even when all of them lay ill.
In 1922, while Shoghi Effendi was away from Haifa, the Greatest Holy Leaf headed the affairs of the Faith. Her reply to one friend's letter asked for complete unity and looked for his return.
In Dublin, New Hampshire, in August 1912, the minister Howard Colby Ives spent a Sunday with 'Abdu'l-Bahá and said he would never doubt again. He later wrote that he had spoken many months too soon.
In 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá meant to take His grandson Shoghi Effendi, then fifteen, with Him to America. At Naples, doctors ordered the boy off the ship, and the Master asked him to obey, saying there was a wisdom in it.
Bahá'u'lláh granted Khadíjih-Bagum, the widow of the Báb, permission to make the pilgrimage to 'Akká. When danger closed the road through Shíráz, she fell ill and died with words of praise.
'Abdu'l-Bahá wished to open a path from the Shrine of the Báb down to the German Avenue, but a settler's house and landowners holding out for a fortune blocked it for years. The Greatest Holy Leaf tells how the way was opened.
In March 1916 Agnes Alexander wrote from Tokyo of new people at her Friday meeting, students at her door, a blind Russian friend hearing Some Answered Questions, and Bahá'í books placed in a library, one of which a stranger had already found.
In 1911 a reporter from The Weekly Budget asked 'Abdu'l-Baha in London about His imprisonment. He described the first summer in 'Akka, when all one hundred and fifty prisoners fell ill, and laughed about the broth He had made for them.
In 1930 Queen Marie of Rumania sailed for Haifa, and the Greatest Holy Leaf waited hour after hour in the Master's house to receive her. The Queen was met at the boat and taken out of Palestine.
Bahá'u'lláh entered the Garden of Riḍván outside Baghdád on April 22, 1863. The river overflowed, and His family could not join Him there until the ninth day, which Bahá'ís now keep as a Holy Day.
Myron Phelps tells how 'Abdu'l-Bahá met a man in 'Akká who denounced Him for twenty-four years with food, clothing and care, until the man came weeping to ask His forgiveness.
Longing to be perfect yet despairing of his own weakness, Howard Colby Ives asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá how he could ever reach so high a goal. The Master answered that it is accomplished little by little.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalls how a grave illness at the age of seven kept Him in Tehran while Bahá’u’lláh was imprisoned there, so that He was able to go with Him into exile in Iraq.
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.
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came to Egypt, some newspapers wrote against Him. Rather than let the Bahá’ís answer them, He called the papers heralds of the Kingdom, and events turned out as He had said.
Shaykh Maḥmúd of ‘Akká hated the Bahá’ís and laid hands on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the mosque, but the Master’s serene reply turned his anger into shame, and he became a devoted Bahá’í.
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.
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.
Faraju'lláh of Tafrísh and his father left Persia to live near Bahá'u'lláh in Adrianople. He went with Bahá'u'lláh to the prison of ‘Akká, and later lived for many years in India.
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.
Mírzá Mihdí, the youngest son of Bahá'u'lláh, fell through a skylight in the prison of 'Akká and, as he lay dying, asked that his life be accepted as a sacrifice so that pilgrims could reach his Father.
Mírzá Mihdí of Káshán was mocked in his home town for his faith, went to Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád, endured exile in Mosul, and at last reached the prison of 'Akká, where he died.
Muḥammad-‘Alí Ṣabbáq could not read or write, but he followed Bahá'u'lláh from Baghdád to Constantinople, Adrianople and ‘Akká. He spent his last years near Bahá'u'lláh's Shrine.
In May 1922 the Greatest Holy Leaf visited the old barracks in 'Akká where her family had been imprisoned, and Lady Blomfield wrote that her eyes were charged with memories.
Bahíyyih Khánum remembers the freezing winter journey her family made from Tihrán to Baghdád when she was six, and how her mother never complained.
For two years Bahíyyih Khánum and her family did not know where Bahá'u'lláh had gone, until news of a holy dervish in the mountains led to His return.
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.
'Alí Khán, the strict warden of the fortress of Máh-Kú, let almost no one see his Prisoner, the Báb, until something he saw one morning at dawn changed his heart.
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.
When Bahá'u'lláh went to the Garden of Riḍván, the river overflowed, and His family could not join Him there until the ninth day.
When 'Abdu'l-Bahá's ship reached New York in April 1912, reporters came on board to ask why He had come. He told them He had come for universal peace and the unity of humankind.
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.
After traveling across America and back, 'Abdu'l-Bahá returned to New York in November 1912 and welcomed the many friends and visitors who came to see Him before He sailed away.
Shoghi Effendi drew a great curving line on Mount Carmel where, one day, the buildings of the Bahá'í World Centre would stand. He lived to see only the first of them.
Soon after he became Guardian, Shoghi Effendi went away for a time to gather his strength, walking for long hours, usually alone, in the mountains of Switzerland, while the Greatest Holy Leaf looked after the Faith.
Shoghi Effendi translated The Hidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh into English, and worked hard all his life to make his English as good as it could be.
Maria Ioas longed for a flower from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. On His first day in Chicago she waited all afternoon at His hotel, and He invited her in and gave her a rose.
When the Cedric reached New York on 11 April 1912, reporters came aboard to ask 'Abdu'l-Bahá why He had come. He told them His object was universal peace and the unity of humankind.
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.
After His journey to California and back, 'Abdu'l-Bahá returned to New York in November 1912 and received crowds of friends and seekers until He sailed on the Celtic on 5 December.
Another of those who left their homeland to become our neighbors and fellow prisoners was ‘Abdu’l-Ghaffár of Iṣfáhán.
This was a patient and long-enduring man, a native of Káshán.
In all these straits, Áqá Faraj was the companion of Abu’l-Qásim.
'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers Áqá Riḍá of Shíráz and Mírzá Maḥmúd of Káshán, who walked ahead of Bahá'u'lláh's howdah from Baghdád to Constantinople, cooked and cared for the exiles each night, and served for fifty-five years.
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.
Among the exiles, neighbors, and prisoners there was also a second Mír Imád, the eminent calligrapher, Mishkín-Qalam.
'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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bahá'u'lláh entered the Garden of Riḍván on 22 April 1863. That same day the Tigris overflowed, and the rest of His family could not join Him until the ninth day, which Bahá'ís now keep as a Holy Day.
Shoghi Effendi went to Oxford to perfect his English for translating the sacred Writings. In 1935 he published Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, a selection of passages he had translated, which Professor Norman Bentwich and Queen Marie of Romania, among others, praised.
Ustád Báqir and Ustád Aḥmad, carpenter brothers from Káshán, followed Bahá'u'lláh into exile and worked at their craft in the prison of 'Akká. 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote that they were never neglectful of duty, never at fault.
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.
Mírzá Muḥammad-Qulí, a younger brother of Bahá'u'lláh, served Him through every stage of His exile. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls that in the prison of 'Akká he accepted comfort and torment alike and gave thanks with a face that shone like the sun.
Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, shared the sufferings of Bahá'u'lláh's family from early childhood until her passing in 1932. Shoghi Effendi's tributes describe the calm and trust in God with which she bore them.
Ásíyih Khánum, whom Bahá'u'lláh called Navváb, came to her marriage with forty mule-loads of wedding treasures. Her daughter remembered how she sold them for the family's exile, did the hardest work in poverty and prison, and never uttered a word of complaint.
Thornton Chase, the first American believer, served the young Chicago community for years through its House of Spirituality and its publishing work. When he died in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá travelled to Los Angeles to visit his grave.
On 22 April 1863 Bahá'u'lláh was ferried across the Tigris to the Garden of Riḍván. That same day the river overflowed, and His family could not join Him there until the ninth day.
Bahá'u'lláh crossed the Tigris to the Garden of Riḍván on 22 April 1863 with three of His sons. The river overflowed that day, and the rest of His family joined Him only on the ninth day, 30 April.
When Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in Ṭihrán in 1852, His family was left destitute, and they shared His winter exile to Baghdád. In 1863 a flooded river kept them from joining Him in the Garden of Riḍván until the ninth day.
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.
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.
Imprisoned in the frontier castle of Máh-Kú, the Báb won the hearts of the townspeople. The stern warden, 'Alí Khán, was changed by a vision of the Báb at prayer and came to let His followers visit Him freely.
Bahíyyih Khánum, daughter of Bahá'u'lláh, knew poverty and exile from early childhood. Shoghi Effendi recalls her kindness in 'Akká, her care for the hungry who came to 'Abdu'l-Bahá's house during the First World War, and the support she gave him after 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing.
In His letter to the Sháh of Persia, quoted in A Traveller's Narrative, Bahá'u'lláh wrote that for nearly fifteen years His persecuted followers had assailed no one, and explained that true victory means conquering one's own heart.
Bahá'u'lláh and about seventy companions were locked in the barracks of 'Akká, where nearly all fell sick and three died. Over the following years the hostility of the town gave way, step by step, to respect and reverence.
In the Garden of Riḍván, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Ṣabr, the Tablet of Patience, in honour of Ḥájí Muḥammad-Taqí, a survivor of Nayríz whom He named Ayyúb (Job). It praised the steadfast and prepared the believers of 'Iráq for His departure.
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.
When Howard Colby Ives, then a Unitarian minister, impatiently disputed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s interpretation of Christ’s words, the Master looked at him with love and said softly that Ives should try his way and He would try His.
Ali Kuli Khan, interpreter for Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl in America, three times asked him what happens to the soul after death. Years later a ship slipping over the horizon gave him the answer.
When a discouraged believer despaired of ever acquiring the virtues Bahá'ís are required to possess, 'Abdu'l-Bahá answered with the greatest compassion and encouragement: "little by little; day by day."
Rúḥíyyih Khánum describes how Shoghi Effendi drew an arc on Mount Carmel above the graves of the Greatest Holy Leaf, her mother and her brother, as the site for the Faith's future administrative buildings.
Overwhelmed by grief and by his appointment as Guardian, Shoghi Effendi left Haifa in April 1922 with the Greatest Holy Leaf in charge, and in the early years of his ministry sought healing in long, solitary walks in the Swiss mountains.
Rúḥíyyih Khánum records that early in his ministry Shoghi Effendi sent the American believers his revised translation of The Hidden Words, and describes the long study of English behind his translations.
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 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, October 27th God alone ordereth all things and is all-powerful.
‘Does the soul progress more through sorrow or through the joy in this world?’
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.
At the Hotel Plaza in Chicago on May 2, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá contrasted true consultation with parliamentary quarrelling, and described the disciples of Christ taking counsel together on the mount after His ascension.
When Ridvaniyyih Khánum’s little daughter died, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá comforted her with the image of a Divine Gardener moving a young tree to a better place. Lady Blomfield adds that after her own mother died, a friend dreamed of seeing her young and joyful in a garden.
Be Thou patient, O Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, for God hath indeed pledged to establish Thy sovereignty throughout all countries and over the people that dwell therein.
Everyone is eagerly awaiting His appearance, yet since their inner eyes are not directed towards Him sorrow must needs befall Him.
The substance wherewith God hath created Me is not the clay out of which others have been formed.
Glory be unto Him Who knoweth all that is in the heavens and in the earth.
Glorified is He besides Whom there is none other God. In His grasp He holdeth the source of authority, and verily God is powerful over all things.
He is God, the Supreme Ruler, the Sovereign Truth, He Whose help is implored by all.
God had, in truth, proposed Our Mission unto the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it and were afraid thereof.
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.
O Lord! Render victorious Thy forbearing servants in Thy days by granting them a befitting victory, inasmuch as they have sought martyrdom in Thy path.
O Peoples of the earth!
O ye kinsmen of the Most Great Remembrance!
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.
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....
This Religion is indeed, in the sight of God, the essence of the Faith of Muḥammad; haste ye then to attain the celestial Paradise and the all-highest Garden of His good-pleasure in the presence of the One True God …
Thou art aware, O My God, that since the day Thou didst call Me into being out of the water of Thy love till I reached fifteen years of age I lived in the land which witnessed My birth [Shíráz].
O ye two patient souls! Your letter was received.
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 …
O ye the sincere loved ones of the Abhá Beauty! In these days the Cause of God, the world over, is fast growing in power and, day by day, is spreading further and further to the utmost bounds of the earth.
O thou who art steadfast in the Covenant! Thy letter of 9 September 1909 hath been received. Be thou neither grieved nor despondent over what hath come to pass.
O thou servant of God! Do not grieve at the afflictions and calamities that have befallen thee. All calamities and afflictions have been created for man so that he may spurn this mortal world—a world to which he is much attached.
The teaching work should under all conditions be actively pursued by the believers because divine confirmations are dependent upon it.
O army of God! A letter signed jointly by all of you hath been received. It was most eloquent and full of flavour, and reading it was a delight.
The prime requisites for them that take counsel together are purity of motive, radiance of spirit, detachment from all else save God, attraction to His Divine Fragrances, humility and lowliness amongst His loved ones …
O thou who art firm in the Covenant, thy letter was received.
O thou who art firm in the Covenant! The letter thou hadst written on 2 May 1919 was received. Praise thou God that in tests thou art firm and steadfast and art holding fast to the Abhá Kingdom.
Lady Blomfield describes how Ásíyih Khánum, Bahíyyih Khánum, Munírih Khánum and the Master’s daughters bore the long years of privation in ‘Akká without complaint, meeting every hardship with radiant acquiescence.
Chained in two rows in the Síyáh-Chál in 1852, Bahá'u'lláh's fellow prisoners chanted each night the verses He had taught them, until the sound carried to the Sháh's palace nearby.
In 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 words printed in the Star of the West in June 1913, 'Abdu'l-Bahá described three kinds of persecution He met in 'Akká. The chains and the accusations of spies were easy to bear; the bitter words and criticisms of the friends were not.
Stanwood Cobb took his elderly father to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Boston and was shocked when his father spent the interview expounding his own spiritual views. The Master smiled and listened, and the father came away feeling he had had a wonderful interview.
Stanwood Cobb recalls ‘Abdu’l-Bahá teaching that Bahá’ís must endure people even when they are unendurable, and beaming as He said it, as if such patience would be a joy.
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."
O bird of the Rose-garden of Fidelity! Be of no cheerless heart; have no wing nor feather broken; sigh not, neither do thou wail, and sit not chilled in a corner.
O maid-servant of God, who art supplicating unto the Sublime Kingdom!
O thou confident soul who art content and patient!
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 sincere servant of the True One! Thy letter caused joy to the hearts. Its meanings perfumed the nostrils like unto a tender flower and a red rose.
O thou son of the associate and companion of Abdul-Baha! You brought many letters with you from those regions, but on account of the great disturbance it was not possible to write the answers.
O thou spiritual maid-servant of God! Thy letter was received and its contents became known. God willing, the vision will become actualized.
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 who art advanced toward the Kingdom! Thy letter was received and its contents created joy, for it showed thy faith and assurance.
O thou who art advancing toward the Threshold of Mercifulness!
O thou who art afflicted by a visitation by which thine eyes are overflowing with tears!
O thou who art attracted to the Fire of the Love of God! I am cognizant of all thou hast written in thy letters.
O thou who art attracted to the Fragrances of the Garden of the Covenant and art speaking the praise of the Orb of the Universe!
O thou who art attracted toward the Kingdom!
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 confessing the Oneness of God!
O thou who art enkindled with the Fire of the Love of God! Thy letter was received and I was informed of the contents.
O thou who art firm in the love of God! Verily I read thy recent letter \\\ and I praised God for His glorious mercy and His blessings which are successively poured into the pure hearts.
O thou who art imploring God!
O thou who art patient and resigning thyself to the judgment (of God)!
O thou who art seeking fire from the Fire of the Love of God!
O thou who hast addressed Abdul-Baha!
O thou who hast spread the Fragrance of God!—may God confirm thee!
O ye blessed maid-servant of the Beauty of Abha! If ye have written letters to Abdul-Baha and answers to them are delayed, know ye of a certainty that untold hindrances have been the cause.
O ye Cohorts of God! A letter which was signed by you in general was received. Its content was of the utmost beauty, sweetness, eloquence and perfection.
O ye my divine friends!
O ye who are considering the Kingdom of your august Savior! I know the ardor which enflames you both with the desire to present yourselves in the Sacred Place and I desire, also, to see you both.
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!
Thy letters were received.
In a brief Tablet to the Secretary of the House of Spirituality of Chicago, 'Abdu'l-Bahá warns that those who come claiming faith should be trusted only after careful investigation and a long period of waiting.
In Julia Grundy's pilgrim notes from 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá is asked how we can love someone whose personality is unpleasant. His answer points to Christ, who loved even those who crucified Him, and to the tree whose fruit is love.
'Abdu'l-Bahá helped carry the coffin of a beloved friend who had taken his own life. He taught that God never gives us a burden greater than we can carry, and that in hard times we should remember that this too will pass.
'Abdu'l-Bahá placed His affairs in God's hands. When the military commanders of Jerusalem and Damascus invited Him to Jerusalem, He answered, 'Inshá'lláh' (If God is willing).
The Master was joyful in circumstances that would have filled most people with sorrow, and He likened sorrow to furrows: the deeper they go, the more fruit they yield.
Grace Robarts begged to serve in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s household in New York. For days He ignored her as she worked from five in the morning until long after midnight; when she grasped the spirit of true service, He welcomed her.
John Robarts tells of George, an African Bahá’í whose wife opposed the Faith. With only one room in their house, she waited under the banana tree during his meetings, and became a Bahá’í during the rainy season.
A Christian merchant in ‘Akká seized charcoal the Bahá’ís had bought. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá waited three hours in his office to ask for it; His patient answers won the merchant’s respect, and he became a firm supporter.
In a parable from The Seven Valleys, a lover fleeing a watchman scales a garden wall and finds his beloved there, and sees that what seemed tyranny was a hidden mercy.
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.
Hurrying to breakfast without her morning prayers, Lua Getsinger met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the hallway, and He told her never to eat material food in the morning until she had had spiritual food.
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.
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.
Harry Randall did not want to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, but he carried Him a glass of grape juice and was told to sit down. After twenty restless minutes the Master spoke to him of the intellect and the heart.
In San Francisco ‘Abdu’l-Bahá kept delaying His departure for a reception in Berkeley, to His hostess’s dismay, until a poor stranger who had walked fifteen miles to see Him rang the bell.
A woman who had enjoyed a talk by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in America complained that He repeated Himself; smiling, He asked her what it was He repeated, and she could not tell Him.
In the Súriy-i-Haykal, Bahá'u'lláh recounts how He moved to another house, hoping the flame of envy in His brother's breast might be quenched, and how His brother answered with the pen of calumny.