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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."
110 stories where reverence appears.
British guns were trained on Jerusalem, then held by the Turks. Reluctant to fire on the holy city, the British command asked headquarters what to do and was told to pray. Not a gun was fired.
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.
During 'Abdu'l-Bahá's visit to London in 1911, a painter asked Him whether art was a worthy vocation, and an actor raised the subject of the drama. His answers are recorded in 'Abdu'l-Bahá in London.
On 13 September 1911, nine days after arriving in London, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at the home of Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper and described the meeting as a reflection of the heavenly concourse.
O loved ones of God, These two precious and most exalted treasures, these two keepsakes of the sacred Beauty of Abhá, have now been joined to the third trust from Him, that is, to the daughter of Bahá and His remnant, the token of the Master’s Remembrance.
In *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*, Esslemont quotes the Cambridge orientalist Edward Granville Browne's account of meeting Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí in 1890: the face he could never forget, and the words he recalled hearing.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá attaches the greatest importance to regular meetings of the believers for united worship, for the exposition and study of the teachings and for consultation regarding the progress of the Movement.
The Bahá’í teaching is at one with science and philosophy in declaring the essential nature of God to be entirely beyond human comprehension.
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.
Tarázu'lláh Samandarí, a youth on pilgrimage in the last months of Bahá'u'lláh's life, recalls twice being present as Bahá'u'lláh revealed verses at great speed while His secretary wrote them down.
During a visit to 'Akká, Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥaydar-'Alí was allowed into Bahá'u'lláh's presence while verses were being revealed, and he left a brief account of that memorable occasion.
In ‘Akká, Dr. Yúnis Khán watched ‘Abdu’l-Bahá dictate a long Arabic Tablet that two visiting Muslim divines had asked to carry to Iran, then overheard the visitors marvelling at what they had witnessed.
On her 1906 pilgrimage to ‘Akká, Florence Khan longed to gaze fully upon ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s face; that evening, as He paced His room revealing Tablets, He twice stood still in the doorway.
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.
On her first pilgrimage in 1923, the twelve-year-old Mary Maxwell stood guard at the door of her sleeping mother, May Maxwell, only to learn that the visitor she had challenged was Shoghi Effendi.
Tarázu'lláh Samandarí recalls hearing Bahá'u'lláh chant the Tablet of the Sultán on the First Day of Riḍván and handing roses to the friends at His bidding, and a later Riḍván in the Garden of Riḍván.
On the night Bahá'u'lláh moved to the Mansion of Bahjí, Nabíl and Hájí Muḥammad-Ṭáhir followed Him to circumambulate it and found its paths crowded with a mysterious throng. Bahá'u'lláh later named them Bulbul and Bahháj.
Shoghi Effendi's boyhood in the household of his grandfather 'Abdu'l-Bahá: his name, morning prayers and breakfast with the Master, the Tablet telling him to memorize and chant prayers, and the surname Rabbani.
At a New York meeting on 14 April 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá compared hearts to mirrors that receive the same sunlight in different degrees, and said that our duty is to polish the mirrors of our hearts.
On 17 September 1911, at the invitation of Archdeacon Wilberforce, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed the congregation of St. John the Divine, Westminster, and the congregation knelt to receive His blessing.
Visiting 'Akká in May 1922, Lady Blomfield wrote to her daughter about the small house where Bahá'u'lláh and His family had lived, and about sleeping in the room that had been Ásíyih Khánum's.
As a child in Shíráz, the Báb would not recite the opening words of the Qur'án until He knew their meaning, then explained them so well that His teacher brought Him back to His uncle, saying He needed no teachers.
Driving back to Thonon in 1911, 'Abdu'l-Bahá stopped the car to sit above a spectacular waterfall and delighted in the beauty of the countryside. He then told Juliet Thompson that His invitation to America would be the unity of the believers.
On His way from Chihríq to Tabríz, the Báb was the guest of Malik Qásim Mírzá at Urúmíyyih. The prince offered Him one of his wildest horses, and before the whole town the horse stood still beneath Him.
In December 1939 Shoghi Effendi moved the remains of the Purest Branch and of his mother, Navváb, from their graves in 'Akká to Mount Carmel, near the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf.
On a train journey from Salt Lake City to California in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke of Peter's spiritual education and remembered seeing, as a child in Tihrán, the learned Vahíd fall at the muddy feet of a servant of the Báb.
Julia Grundy visits the Riḍván garden near 'Akká with the daughters of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and kneels at Bahá'u'lláh's chair. Its old gardener, Abu'l-Qásim, told May Maxwell what Bahá'u'lláh said of the garden and of the locusts.
In 1952 Shoghi Effendi directed the levelling of land around the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh, changed his design after viewing it from a ruined building's roof, and then moved his meetings to the edge of the new garden out of respect for the Shrine.
Believers who came into the presence of Bahá'u'lláh found they could not look steadily at His face. One pilgrim spilt his tea without noticing, and a Cambridge scholar wrote that he could never forget it.
Ordered to keep the Báb in strict confinement at Máh-Kú, the warden 'Alí Khán watched the local people come to love his Prisoner, and after a strange vision he relaxed his discipline and let pilgrims in.
Howard Colby Ives explains that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's courtesy was really reverence for the soul in every person, and recalls how the husband of His hostess in Dublin called Him the most perfect gentleman he had ever known.
On April 10, 1911, the day he landed at Alexandria, Louis G. Gregory of Washington met 'Abdu'l-Bahá for the first time. The Master kissed his head, asked after his health and told him, "I am happy to have you here."
In April 1911 Louis G. Gregory visited the Tomb of the Báb on Mount Carmel, where the pilgrims removed their shoes and heard prayers chanted, and that evening met the believers of Haifa.
In Shoghi Effendi’s childhood the family rose at dawn to pray and take breakfast with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His room. The children sat quietly and chanted when asked, and Shoghi Effendi learned to be always the first up and on time.
In June 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá sat for the painter Juliet Thompson in New York. At the first sitting, in a cramped and dark entrance hall, He asked her to paint His Servitude to God.
In September 1911 Archdeacon Wilberforce invited 'Abdu'l-Bahá to speak at his London church, and the whole congregation knelt to receive His blessing.
On a visit to 'Akká in 1922, Lady Blomfield slept in the room that had belonged to Ásíyih Khánum, the wife of Bahá'u'lláh, and wrote to her daughter about the peaceful feeling of that room.
As a child in Shíráz, the Báb would not recite the first words of the Qur'án until He knew their meaning, and then He explained them so well that His teacher took Him home to His uncle.
The warden of Máh-Kú was ordered to keep the Báb shut away. The people nearby came to love the Prisoner, and after a strange vision the warden himself became gentle and let visitors in.
At the edge of Niagara Falls, 'Abdu'l-Bahá remembered the waterfalls Bahá'u'lláh had loved, and told His companions why He could not stay even half a day.
Howard Colby Ives wished he could meet 'Abdu'l-Bahá alone, without even an interpreter. At a crowded New York hotel, 'Abdu'l-Bahá called him over, sent everyone out, and sat with him in silence.
In 'Akká a small boy, Shoghi, walked up to his grandfather 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who greeted him with a quiet nod; the boy kissed the hem of His robe and ran off to play.
On 10 September 1912, during His stay in Buffalo, 'Abdu'l-Bahá took the trolley to Niagara Falls, recalled the small waterfalls Bahá'u'lláh had loved in Mázindarán, and told His companions He could not stay even half a day.
After Bahá'u'lláh's ascension, 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked the chronicler Nabíl to select passages from Bahá'u'lláh's Writings to form the Tablet of Visitation, the text now recited in the Shrines of Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb.
Bahá'u'lláh ascended at Bahjí at dawn on 29 May 1892. A telegram beginning "the Sun of Bahá has set" carried the news to the Sultan, and for a week mourners of many faiths gathered at Bahjí to grieve with His family.
In Adrianople, years before His ascension, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Ghuṣn, the Tablet of the Branch, which praises the station of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and calls Him "the Limb of the Law of God" and "the Trust of God."
Bahá'u'lláh was born at dawn in Tihrán on 12 November 1817. Shoghi Effendi traces His descent to Abraham, Zoroaster, the last Sasanian king and Jesse, and names the Promised One of each earlier faith whom He fulfils.
Years later, the wife of the Báb told Munírih Khánum of the dreams that came before their marriage, of His hours of prayer, and of the night Mullá Ḥusayn came to their home in Shíráz.
The Báb and Bahá'u'lláh were born two years apart but on consecutive days of the lunar calendar. In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá'u'lláh names Their births among the four great festivals and says the two days are accounted as one.
Khadíjih Bagum, the wife of the Báb, told Munírih Khánum how His uncles and aunts revered Him before His Declaration, and how He called the papers He asked for each evening the Book of the accounts of all the peoples of the world.
The Báb, Siyyid 'Alí-Muḥammad, was born in Shíráz on 20 October 1819 to parents who were both descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad. His father died while He was an infant, and His maternal uncle raised Him.
In Karbilá, Siyyid Káẓim broke off his lesson when the young Báb sat down by the door, and said the Truth was more manifest than the ray of light on that lap. He would not say the name, and his students did not understand.
J. E. Esslemont describes the young Báb as noted for beauty, charm of manner, piety and nobility of character, faithful in prayer and fasting, and living in the spirit of the Prophet's teachings as well as the letter.
Bahá'u'lláh wrote His Will, the Kitáb-i-'Ahd, in His own hand and entrusted it to 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His last illness. On the ninth day after His ascension it was read aloud, naming the Most Mighty Branch as the One to whom all must turn.
In Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Ghuṣn, the Tablet of the Branch, which extols 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the "Branch of Holiness" and the "Trust of God" and foreshadows His appointment as Centre of the Covenant.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá'u'lláh told the believers to turn, after His passing, to "Him Whom God hath purposed." In His Book of the Covenant He wrote that this verse meant the Most Mighty Branch, 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
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.
As Bahá'u'lláh left Baghdád for Constantinople in 1863, people of every class came to bid Him farewell. The Muftí and the governor visited Him in the Najíbíyyih Garden, and as He rode away crowds bowed to the dust before His horse.
Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, who was in the Garden of Riḍván in 1863, recalled the roses heaped each morning in Bahá'u'lláh's tent and the night Bahá'u'lláh spoke of the nightingales.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá'u'lláh named the days of Riḍván the first of the two Most Great Festivals and called the Most Great Festival "the King of Festivals." He wrote that on the first day of Riḍván "all created things were immersed in the sea of purification."
The Báb gave His followers a new calendar of nineteen months of nineteen days, each month named after an attribute of God, with Naw-Rúz as its first day. Bahá'u'lláh confirmed it in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and fixed the place of the extra days before the Fast.
The Báb inaugurated a new calendar of nineteen months, named after the attributes of God. In the Bayán He made the last month the month of fasting, set Naw-Rúz at its close, and designated Naw-Rúz the Day of God.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá'u'lláh confirmed the Báb's calendar of nineteen months and made Naw-Rúz the feast that closes the Fast. He later explained that it falls on the day the sun enters Aries.
Confined in 1847 in the remote fortress of Máh-Kú, the Báb won the love of the people of the district, who looked each morning for a glimpse of Him, and of its stern warden, 'Alí Khán, who after a strange vision relaxed his discipline.
For nearly sixty years believers kept the remains of the Báb hidden from His enemies. On Naw-Rúz 1909 'Abdu'l-Bahá laid them with His own hands in a tomb on Mount Carmel, on the spot Bahá'u'lláh had chosen, and wept over the casket.
A Western pilgrim describes ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on Mount Carmel in 1909 moving the remains of the Báb into the marble sarcophagus with His own hands, and weeping aloud as the believers wept with Him.
In April 1912 Howard Colby Ives went without an appointment to the Hotel Ansonia in New York. 'Abdu'l-Bahá beckoned him across a crowded room, sent everyone else out, and sat with him alone.
In 'Akká in 1899 the American pilgrim Ella Goodall Cooper watched the small Shoghi Effendi walk up to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who greeted him with a silent nod; the boy kissed the hem of His robe and ran off to play.
On June 2, 1912, speaking for the second time at the Church of the Ascension in New York, 'Abdu'l-Bahá described the church as a collective center and the Manifestations of God as the real Collective Centers of mankind.
On April 23, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed Howard University in Washington, D.C., one of the foremost Black universities in the country. Rejoicing to see white and black seated together, He told them that before God there are no whites and blacks, and that humanity is a garden whose many-colored flowers are its adornment.
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.
During His last visit to Haifa in 1891, Bahá'u'lláh pitched His tent near the Carmelite monastery on Mount Carmel and revealed the Tablet of Carmel, which is considered the charter of the Bahá'í World Centre.
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.
In the opening chapter of *Some Answered Questions*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá defines nature as the composition and decomposition of all things and shows that nature, though governed by one universal law, has neither will nor intelligence.
Nature is that condition, that reality, which in appearance consists in life and death, or, in other words, in the composition and decomposition of all things.
A great man is a great man, whether born of a human father or not.
One of the proofs and demonstrations of the existence of God is the fact that man did not create himself: nay, his creator and designer is another than himself.
Question.—What connection has the Reality of Divinity with the Lordly Rising-places and the Divine Dawning-points?
Know that the Holy Manifestations, though They have the degrees of endless perfections, yet, speaking generally, have only three stations.
We said that the Manifestations have three planes.
As this physical frame is the throne of the inner temple, whatever occurs to the former is felt by the latter.
From the beginning that hath no beginning all men have bowed in adoration before Him Whom God shall make manifest and will continue to do so until the end that hath no end.
Glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! Thou art in truth the King of kings. Thou dost confer sovereignty upon whomsoever Thou willest and dost seize it from whomsoever Thou willest.
Glory be unto Thee, O Lord my God!
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 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.
In the Name of God, the Most Exalted, the Most Holy.
It is not permissible to ask questions from Him Whom God will make manifest, except that which well beseemeth Him.
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.
O People of the earth!
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.
The glory of glories and the most resplendent light rest upon Thee, O my God.
The glory of Him Whom God shall make manifest is immeasurably above every other glory, and His majesty is far above every other majesty.
The revelation of the Divine Reality hath everlastingly been identical with its concealment and its concealment identical with its revelation.
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.
It befitteth the friends to hold a gathering, a meeting, where they shall glorify God and fix their hearts upon Him, and read and recite the Holy Writings of the Blessed Beauty—may my soul be the ransom of His lovers!
Although to outward seeming the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár is a material structure, yet it hath a spiritual effect.
Thou didst write as to the children: from the very beginning, the children must receive divine education and must continually be reminded to remember their God.
In the Persian Bayán, revealed in the fortress of Máh-Kú, the Báb asks the believer, after each prayer, to beg God's mercy and forgiveness for his parents, and promises a thousandfold recompense.
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.
Back from Haifa in the spring of 1922, Mountfort Mills told the American Bahá'ís at their convention about meeting Shoghi Effendi, the young Guardian appointed in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Will.
O thou who art advancing towards the Shining Orb of the Horizons!
O ye maid-servants of His Majesty, the Lord—daughters and sons of the Kingdom!
O ye real companions! Day and night Abdul-Baha is engaged in the remembrances of the friends, and time after time doth he associate with them and behold their blessed faces.
Julia Grundy describes her party's 1905 visit to the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí: the shoes removed at the entrance, the silent prayer at the Tomb, and the tea served afterward in a small side room.
We went to the Ridván with the holy daughters of ‘Abdu'l-Bahá.
A Canadian pilgrim asked whether translators could replace the nightingale and the rose for readers in the Arctic; Shoghi Effendi said the sacred texts must be translated exactly, then gave her attar of rose for the friends in Canada and for the Inuit.
Each week ‘Abdu’l-Bahá walked from ‘Akká to visit Bahá’u’lláh at Bahjí. When His Father asked Him to ride, He rode, but dismounted as soon as He sighted the Mansion.
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.
As the Shrine of the Báb neared completion, Shoghi Effendi placed plaster from the Báb's prison cell at Máh-Kú beneath a tile of the dome; when Leroy Ioas offered to test the scaffolding first, the Guardian reminded him he was a mountaineer.