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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."
537 stories where steadfastness appears.
In October 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited Charles Tinsley, a Black believer in San Francisco confined to bed with a broken leg, and told him a parable of a ruler who trained through hardship the subject he loved.
Chains, locusts, the bombardments of Haifa and the threat of death could not shake ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s calm. Lua Getsinger wrote of the calm majesty with which He went about among the people, whose only hope and help He was.
“One year before ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd was dethroned, he sent an extremely overbearing, treacherous and insulting committee of investigation. The chairman was one of the governor’s staff, Árif Bey, and with him were three army commanders…
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.
“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;…
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.
At Gallipoli, foreign consuls offered to secure refuge in Western Europe for Bahá’u’lláh and His family, but He would not abandon His followers. Bahíyyih Khánum recalls the hungry, frightened voyage that followed.
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.
The owner of the land for the Báb's Shrine on Mount Carmel, influenced by Covenant-breakers, was unwilling to sell. After a night in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá repeated a prayer of the Báb, the owner came and begged Him to buy it.
O ye beloved of God!
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.
As to the seven qualifications (of the divinely enlightened soul) of which thou hast asked an explanation, it is as follows: KNOWLEDGE.
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.
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 …
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 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.
Praise be to God! that ye are gathered in one assembly like unto the stars of the Pleiades, are illumined with the light of the knowledge of God and through the outpouring of the cloud of the love of God …
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.
‘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.
Ibn-i-Abhar, one of the four Hands of the Cause named by Bahá'u'lláh, was told to seek answers through consultation, counselled by ‘Abdu'l-Bahá on trustworthiness, and sent to Yazd shortly before the upheaval of 1903.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In 1889 Ḥájí Muḥammad-Riḍá Iṣfahání was murdered in the bazaar of Ashkhabad; the Russian authorities tried and convicted the killers, the Bahá’ís interceded for their lives, and the community went on to build its own institutions.
‘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.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Mírzá Músá, Bahá’u’lláh’s faithful brother, who shared every exile from Ṭihrán to ‘Akká, and recalls Bahá’u’lláh’s joy when the fame of the Cause reached Díyárbakr.
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.
‘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.
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.
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.
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.
Imprisoned in Tihrán with other disciples of the Báb, Muḥammad-Ḥusayn-i-Marághi’í would not say a word under torture; at the execution he embraced the body of the friend who had taught him the Faith and begged to be martyred at once.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá remembers Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar, a learned seeker who found the Faith, was chained and jailed again and again in Ṭihrán yet kept safe, and after his death appeared to Him in a dream, saying he had been teaching the Faith.
The second to believe in the Báb carried His message to the shrine cities of Iraq, was tried in Baghdad by Sunni and Shiite clerics, and died at forced labor near Istanbul, the first Bábí to die for his faith.
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.
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.
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.
‘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.
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.
I greatly value your sympathy in my cruel, my irreparable loss.
O leaf that has been stirred by the breeze of God! O victim of oppression in the path of the Abhá Beauty!—may my soul and the souls of the handmaids of God be offered up as a sacrifice for the dust of His Holy Shrine.
Your sweet and touching message imparted strength and solace to my heart.
All praise be to the Abhá Beauty, the Best-Beloved, the Desire of the world, for having enabled His well-assured leaves to remain firm in the Cause of God and steadfast in His love, even as immovable mountains …
The Guardian of the Cause of God has received your letter of 21 July 1932, telling of your and the other friends’ profound distress on receiving word of this calamity, this dire ordeal, that is, the ascension of the Most Exalted Leaf, that brightest fruit of the Eternal Tree.
The Guardian’s anguish, because of this tragic occurrence, is such that it can neither be plumbed nor described in words.
O well-loved friend, The emotions that have possessed my grieving heart are such that they cannot be put into words, and tongue and pen are helpless to describe them.
Weeks after the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Greatest Holy Leaf cabled the American believers (received 14 December 1921): now is a period of great tests; the friends should be firm and united in defending the Cause.
It was through the arrival of these pilgrims, and these alone, that the gloom which had enveloped the disconsolate members of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s family was finally dispelled.
In this day, those holy souls are divinely confirmed who stand firm in the most sacred Cause of the Abhá Beauty, those who are steadfast, and loyal to the Covenant and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
It is not unknown to those who stand firm in the Covenant and Testament of God that the centre of violation and his associates, from the day of the ascension of the Ancient Beauty, may His Great Name be ever exalted …
This dire calamity, this great affliction, the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, may our lives be sacrificed for His meekness, has shaken us to the very depths.
Although that supreme calamity, that great ordeal, the ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, put the torch to the harvest of our hearts, and brought down both our outer and inner beings, wedding us to grief and ceaseless pain, yet praised be God …
O faithful servant of the Best-Beloved, the Most Glorious! O steadfast friend, flourishing in the garden of His luminous Beauty!
O God, my God! Thou seest me immersed in the depths of grief, drowned in my sorrow, my heart on fire with the agony of parting, my inmost self aflame with longing.
The ascension of Him Who was the Temple of the Covenant, the setting of Him Who was the Orb of harmony, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, may our lives be sacrificed for the wrongs He suffered, was the most dire calamity, and the most dread of ordeals.
The good news that the Word of God is being raised up, and His Cause glorified, and that His friends, on fire with love for Him, are arising to spread His sweet savours abroad—is coming in steadily from every quarter of the globe.
All the virtues of humankind are summed up in the one word ‘steadfastness’, if we but act according to its laws.
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.
The deep heart’s love and the longing of the soul of this wronged one for those spiritual beloved ones, and in particular for those who are kin to the peerless Holy Tree of sanctity and oneness, cannot be told in words …
The good news has come that the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, may our lives be sacrificed for His meekness, has been read at the meetings of the friends …
The purport of your letter is highly indicative of your steadfastness in His Cause, of your unswerving constancy in the Covenant, of having set your face toward Shoghi Effendi, the authorized Point to whom all must turn …
At this hour while yet the heart burns with the anguish of sorrow, and the gloom of bereavement still hangs low, my thoughts turn in loving remembrance to my sincere beloved sisters and brothers in the Cause.
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.
We were delighted to receive your excellent letter ... and read it with joy.
The letter that you wrote in your burning grief, on the passing of the world’s Beloved, the Orb of the Covenant—wrote with weeping eyes and a heart afire, has come.
O exalted leaf, O distinguished friend! May the glory of God and His praise, His bounty and blessing rest upon you inasmuch as you have remained faithful to the Covenant of God and His Testament.
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.
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.
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.
May my life be sacrificed for those leaves who are steadfast in the Covenant of God—they whom the slander of the slanderer hinders not from holding fast to His divine Testament.
The Pen of the divine Ordainer has so decreed that this house of sorrows should be encompassed by unending calamity and pain.
‘O God, My God! Thou hast lighted the lamp of Thy Cause with the oil of wisdom; protect it from contrary winds.
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 …
The question of Avárih has surely come to your attention.
Bahá’u’lláh indicated in many ways that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was to direct the Cause after His own ascension.
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.
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.
This terrible imprisonment lasted four months, but Bahá’u’lláh and His companions remained zealous and enthusiastic, in the greatest of happiness.
When the Báb declared His mission in 1844, Bahá’u’lláh, Who was then in His twenty-seventh year, boldly espoused the Cause of the new Faith, of which He soon became recognized as one of the most powerful and fearless exponents.
At that time Akká (Acre) was a prison city to which the worst criminals were sent from all parts of the Turkish Empire.
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 the year 1869 Bahá’u’lláh wrote to Napoleon III, rebuking him for his lust of war and for the contempt with which he had treated a former letter from Bahá’u’lláh.
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.
After His return from this retirement, His fame became greater than ever and people flocked to Baghdád from far and near to see Him and hear His teachings.
In consequence of these declarations of the Báb and the alarming rapidity with which people of all classes, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, were eagerly responding to His teaching, attempts at suppression became more and more ruthless and determined.
The great Prophets of religion have always been, at Their coming, despised and rejected of men.
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.
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.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá appointed His eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi, to the responsible position of “Guardian of the Cause” (Valiyy-i-Amru’lláh).
In 1904 and 1907 commissions were appointed by the Turkish Government to inquire into the charges against ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and lying witnesses gave evidence against Him.
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.
In London in September 1911 a journalist asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá about His prison life. He told of exile, the first terrible summer in ‘Akká, the Sultan’s hostile committee and His release, and said that freedom is not a matter of place.
When merchants in Búshihr tried to reopen a finished sale of indigo to win a discount, as was their custom, the Báb refused to bargain and took the goods back rather than yield. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recounted the episode.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá told of Mírzá Qurbán-‘Alí, a timid Bábí who, when the Prime Minister asked him to repudiate the Báb, answered with a question and went to his martyrdom with a serene face.
While Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in the Síyáh-Chál, His servant Isfandíyár, though hunted by a hundred officers, found the scattered family and refused to flee until he had paid every debt of the household.
In 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.
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.
Shoghi Effendi brings together Bahá’u’lláh’s own words, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s memory and Nabíl’s record of the months Bahá’u’lláh spent chained in the dark, crowded dungeon of Ṭihrán.
On the morning of His martyrdom in July 1850, the Báb was led through the streets of Tabriz amid insults while three leading clerics, refusing even to see Him, supplied the warrants for His execution.
Mullá Husayn walked from Mashhad to visit the Báb in the castle of Máh-Kú, arriving at Naw-Rúz 1848. The Báb sent him on to Mázindarán, where, reading a manuscript shown him by his host Quddús, he found “God’s hidden treasure.”
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.
Confined in Sari, Quddús wrote a commentary on one letter of a short Súrih that was three times as long as the Qur'án; besieged at Fort Shaykh Tabarsí, he wrote as much again, filling his companions with wonder.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá describes how, at Badasht, Ṭáhirih came forth unveiled, proclaiming the signs of the Day of Resurrection, and how the believers, after days of fear and confusion, regained their composure.
After the murder of Mullá Taqí, her husband's father, Ṭáhirih was held captive in Qazvín by relatives who blamed her for the crime. Bahá'u'lláh had her secretly brought to His home in Tihrán, from where she went on to Badasht.
Bahá’u’lláh recalls how Mírzá ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb-i-Shírází, chained beside Him in the Ṭihrán prison, dreamed of soaring through infinite space, and went to his martyrdom that same morning wearing Bahá’u’lláh’s own shoes.
In 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.
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.
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.
Shoghi Effendi describes how Táhirih, knowing her death was near, dressed as a bride and awaited her martyrdom in prayer, and how at her death she declared, “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”
Ásíyih Khánum shared fifty years of Bahá'u'lláh's life, through exile and imprisonment. Her daughter and granddaughter remember her gentleness, her unselfishness and her simple, prayerful life.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In 1852, while Bahá'u'lláh lay chained in an underground dungeon in Tihrán, His wife went out late at night to learn whether He still lived, and their daughter waited in the dark with her baby brother.
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.
Exiled from Tihrán in midwinter, Bahá'u'lláh's family travelled four weeks to Baghdád. Ásíyih Khánum sold her last treasures for the journey, washed the family's clothes with her own hands, and once, in the dark, made Him a cake with salt instead of sugar.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In July 1848, at the Báb's bidding, Mullá Ḥusayn left Mashhad wearing the Báb's green turban, with the Black Standard carried before him, and led his companions to the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí in Mázindarán.
Before dawn on 2 February 1849, Mullá Ḥusayn led a sortie from the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, was shot in the breast, and was carried back to the fort, where he died after a last conversation with Quddús.
On 2 February 1849, before dawn, Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb, rode out of the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí wearing the Báb's turban. He was shot, carried back into the fort, and died there beside Quddús.
In 1849 the defenders of Fort Ṭabarsí came out on a prince's oath sworn on the Qur'án. The oath was broken, and Quddús was handed over to his enemies in his native town of Bárfurúsh and killed in its public square.
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.
In 1850 fourteen Bábís arrested in Ṭihrán were ordered to recant or die. Seven recanted; the other seven, among them the Báb's uncle and a revered dervish, were put to death. A retelling from Nabíl's Dawn-Breakers.
In 1850 Vaḥíd and his companions held the fort of Khájih near Nayríz against the governor's forces until the besiegers, swearing on a sealed Qur'án, drew him out of the fort, betrayed him and put him to death.
Pioneering to South America, Elizabeth Cheney met illness, failed funds and broken travel plans. When her river boat sank at night, she clung to a floating log and gave the Message to the woman who shared it.
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.
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.
Nabíl-i-Akbar, the only disciple Shaykh Murtadá raised to the rank of mujtahid, was found kneeling humbly before Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad. Driven later from Qá'in, he taught in disguise and died penniless in Bukhárá.
Mishkín-Qalam, the leading calligrapher of Persia, signed his work as a bondsman at the door of Bahá'u'lláh. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's memorial follows him from Adrianople to Constantinople, where he was slandered, to captivity in Famagusta and his last years as the Master's close companion.
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.
In Bahá'u'lláh's house in Baghdad, a Persian prince asked Ismu'lláhu'l-Asdaq who he was. The renowned teacher answered that he was one of the keepers of the door, then gently won the angry prince over as 'Abdu'l-Bahá listened from a room above.
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 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 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.
During the First World War, when no one could be found to carry a Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá from Haifa to Tihrán, Hájí Ramaḍán, an Arab believer of seventy-five and nearly blind, asked to go, walked there, and came back.
Speaking in Chicago in November 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told the believers how the Bahá'ís of Yazd, though strong enough to resist, met their executioners without raising a hand, some even offering them sweets.
In Constantinople Bahá'u'lláh declined to call on the Ottoman ministers or seek their favour. Less than four months later He was banished to Adrianople, and He answered the edict with a Tablet sent to the Grand Vizir.
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 Haifa in July 1909 Juliet Thompson watched 'Abdu'l-Baha dictate Tablets. He answered a believer whose father had driven him out, and told Carrie Kinney, who had said nothing of her own trouble, that the reply was for her too.
Mírzá Aḥmad-i-Azghandí gathered more than twelve thousand traditions into a book for the Cause of the Báb. In Yazd a hostile cleric borrowed it and threw it into a pond, and Mírzá Aḥmad talked his angry uncle out of revenge.
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.
On a summer rest-cure, and again in London in the last days of his life, Shoghi Effendi worked for hours on his own maps of the Ten Year Crusade, filling in their details by hand.
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 1955 a wave of persecution swept the Bahá'ís of Persia. Working alone in Switzerland, Shoghi Effendi took their case to the United Nations, opened a fund for their relief and called for a Mother Temple in Africa.
The Báb asked Muhammad Sháh for an audience and was sent instead to the mountain fortress of Máh-Kú. From His imprisonment He wrote to the King, calling him to account and naming Himself the rightful Sovereign of all men.
In 1868 soldiers surrounded Bahá'u'lláh's house in Adrianople. On the road to Gallipoli He began the Súriy-i-Ra'ís, addressed to the Ottoman Prime Minister, writing that though armed troops surrounded Him He remained in a state of utmost joy.
Badí', a youth of seventeen, carried Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet to Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh on foot from 'Akká to Ṭihrán, delivered it to the king, and was tortured and put to death for it.
On His way to join the besieged Bábís at Shaykh Ṭabarsí, Bahá'u'lláh was arrested at Ámul. He offered Himself to be punished in place of His companions, was beaten until His feet bled, and was stoned by a mob.
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.
On the ninth day after Bahá'u'lláh's passing, His Book of the Covenant was unsealed and read aloud at His Tomb. In it He directed His family and followers to turn to 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
When the Bahá'ís begged for a day to celebrate as His, 'Abdu'l-Bahá would not let it be His birthday, which belonged to the Báb, and gave them 26 November instead. A tablet of His calls the believers to be firm.
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.
Leroy Ioas describes Shoghi Effendi’s day in Haifa: prayer from 5:30 in the morning, his vast mail, the pilgrims from East and West and the International Bahá’í Council, until late at night, every day of the week.
Rúḥíyyih Khánum found almost no mention of the Second World War in her diaries, though it threatened the World Centre and the Guardian himself. She saw that silence as a measure of the pressures he carried in those years.
The Báb and Quddús spent about two months on a rough sea voyage from Búshihr to Jiddah. Through storms and hardship they remained calm, the Báb revealing writings and Quddús taking them down.
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.
Ḥájí Amín served as Trustee of Ḥuqúqu'lláh for forty-seven years. Chained in the prison of Qazvín, he ate without complaint the food his jailers tainted, and with no home of his own he lived among the believers who welcomed him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Muḥammad-Ḥusayn of Marághih, one of the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán, would not say a word to his captors. At the end he embraced the body of the friend who had taught him the Faith and would not be parted from him.
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.
In 1852, while Bahá'u'lláh lay chained in the Black Pit, His wife went out late at night to learn whether He was still alive, and six-year-old Bahíyyih Khánum waited in the dark holding her baby brother.
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.
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 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.
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.
At the Báb's request, Mullá Ḥusayn set out from Mashhad wearing the Báb's green turban, with a black flag carried before him, and led his companions to the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí.
Before dawn on a winter morning in 1849, Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb, rode out of the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí at the head of his companions. He was wounded and died in the fort beside Quddús.
Quddús, the leader of the believers at Fort Ṭabarsí, was betrayed by a broken promise and killed in his home town. On his last day he prayed for the people who hurt him and spoke of his death as his wedding.
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.
Fourteen followers of the Báb in Ṭihrán were told to give up their Faith or die. Seven would not give it up, among them the Báb's own uncle.
In 1850 Vaḥíd and his companions held a small fort near Nayríz against a large army, until the army's leaders tricked him with a promise sworn on the Qur'án and then broke it.
On His way to help Bábís trapped in a fort, Bahá'u'lláh was arrested in the town of Ámul. He asked to be punished in place of His companions, and He alone was beaten.
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.
After Bahá'u'lláh passed away, a document He had written and sealed was opened and read aloud. In it He told everyone to turn to His eldest Son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The friends wanted to celebrate 'Abdu'l-Bahá's birthday, but that day belonged to the Báb. So He gave them 26 November, the Day of the Covenant. In one of His tablets He urged the believers to be firm.
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.
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.
After a long, tiring day, 'Abdu'l-Bahá came home so weak that His friends had to help Him inside. Fifteen minutes later His strong voice rang through the house again.
In 1921 Shoghi Effendi, a student in England, walked into an office in London and read a cable on the desk telling of the passing of his grandfather, 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
On the winter journey into exile from Tihrán to Baghdád, Ásíyih Khánum cared for her family with her own hands, and one night made Bahá'u'lláh a cake in the dark, using salt instead of sugar.
In 1907 a Commission of investigation came to ‘Akká, and a ship stood ready to carry ‘Abdu’l-Bahá away. As His dream had foretold, the danger passed; the ship sailed for Constantinople, and in 1908 He was freed.
In Haifa, where shootings were common, Yúnis Khán secretly followed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá home one night. Three shots rang out, yet the Master walked on at the same pace, quietly praying, and bade him goodbye at His gate.
For 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.
Another among the prisoners was Abu’l-Qásim of Sulṭán-Ábád, the traveling companion of Áqá Faraj.
Also among the emigrants and near neighbors was Áqá ‘Alí Najaf-Ábádí.
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.
'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers His uncle Mírzá Músá, Áqáy-i-Kalím, the true brother of Bahá'u'lláh, who shared His exiles from Ṭihrán to 'Akká and remained steadfast to the very end.
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.
One of the emigrants who died along the way to the Holy Land was Zaynu’l-Ábidín of Yazd.
Ṭúbá Khánum, a granddaughter of Bahá'u'lláh, recalls His last illness at Bahjí in 1892, His final words to the believers and the family, and the nine days of mourning the Master arranged after His passing.
Bahíyyih Khánum, daughter of Bahá'u'lláh, describes the underground prison in Tihrán where her father lay chained for four months in 1852, and her mother's struggle to get food to Him.
Na'ím was beaten, imprisoned and exiled from his village near Iṣfahán for his faith. In Ṭihrán he copied the Writings in poverty, later prospered as a teacher, and served the Cause devotedly all his life.
Nabíl-i-Zarandí left his family in youth, sought out Bahá'u'lláh, and spent his life travelling and teaching at His direction. 'Abdu'l-Bahá records his devotion and his grief at Bahá'u'lláh's passing.
Bahíyyih Khánum, daughter of Bahá'u'lláh, recalls to Lady Blomfield her childhood of danger and exile, her work at her mother's side, and her choice to remain unmarried so as to serve her family.
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.
In 1909 'Abdu'l-Bahá laid the remains of the Báb in the Shrine He had built on Mount Carmel. Twelve years later, after His own funeral, His coffin was lowered into a vault beside that of the Báb in the same Shrine.
After the Great War lifted the danger to His life, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spent His last three years receiving pilgrims, revealing Tablets and helping the poor, until He passed away in November 1921.
On the Friday before His passing in November 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá went to the noonday prayer and afterward, despite great fatigue, gave alms to the poor of Haifa as was His custom.
After 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing, Shoghi Effendi, stricken with grief, left the Holy Land for a time and placed the affairs of the Faith under the headship of the Greatest Holy Leaf, Bahíyyih Khánum, who administered them in consultation with the Holy Family.
'Údí Khammár built the Mansion of Bahjí for his own family. After an epidemic, 'Abdu'l-Bahá rented it for Bahá'u'lláh, who lived there from 1879 until His ascension in 1892.
'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá Baghdádí, a fearless believer of Iraq who settled in Beirut to help pilgrims on their way to and from 'Akká, and who stood firm in the Covenant after Bahá'u'lláh's ascension.
Bahá'u'lláh wrote His Will and Testament, the Kitáb-i-'Ahd, in His own hand and entrusted it to 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His last illness. Opened nine days after His ascension, it directed His family and followers to turn to the Most Mighty Branch.
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.
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.
Mírzá Músá, known as Áqáy-i-Kalím, was Bahá'u'lláh's brother and went with Him into every exile. 'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers his devotion and a day in Baghdád when Bahá'u'lláh called out to him in joy.
In His Will 'Abdu'l-Bahá named His grandson Shoghi Effendi "the sign of God, the chosen branch, the Guardian of the Cause of God." Shoghi Effendi asked the believers to call him only by the name his Grandfather had used.
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.
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.
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.
About 1873, still a prisoner in 'Akká under a sentence of perpetual banishment, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, which Shoghi Effendi calls the Mother Book of His Dispensation and the Charter of His New World Order.
When Bahá'u'lláh was arrested after the attempt on the Sháh's life in 1852, the Russian Minister in Ṭihrán refused to surrender Him to the Sháh's officers, pressed for His innocence to be established, and later offered Him refuge in Russia, which He declined.
On the death of the Ottoman Foreign Minister Fu'ád Páshá in 1869, Bahá'u'lláh, a prisoner in 'Akká, foretold the fall of the Grand Vizier and of Sultán 'Abdu'l-'Azíz. When the Sultán was deposed and killed in 1876, the fulfilled prophecy led the scholar Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl to accept the Faith.
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.
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.
After Bahá'u'lláh's passing, enemies within His own family slandered 'Abdu'l-Bahá to Ottoman officials. The Chosen Highway recalls the Commission of Inquiry, the family's anxious waiting, and the Master's release in 1908.
In New York in 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá declared His station as Centre of the Covenant and named the city the City of the Covenant. Three days before He sailed, He spoke there of the Covenant as Bahá'u'lláh's safeguard against division.
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.
In December 1898 the first pilgrims from the West began to reach 'Akká to meet 'Abdu'l-Bahá. One of them, Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper, later described entering the prison-city by night with Phoebe Hearst and being led up to the Master by candlelight.
On her 1905 pilgrimage to 'Akká, Julia Grundy wrote down a talk of 'Abdu'l-Bahá on obedience, in which He likened the Covenant of God to a Lifeboat and an Ark of Salvation, and the believers to fishes in the sea.
In 1844 eighteen disciples came, each by their own search, to believe in the Báb. Before they dispersed He called them together, spoke of the greatness of the new Day, and gave each of them a task.
In December 1844 the Báb reached Mecca on pilgrimage with Quddús and there openly declared His mission. On His return to Persia the news stirred both devotion and fierce opposition, and His years of imprisonment and exile began.
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 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.
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.
The poet Varqá and his twelve-year-old son Rúḥu'lláh were imprisoned in Ṭihrán. After the Sháh's assassination in 1896, the Ḥájibu'd-Dawlih killed Varqá before the boy's eyes, then had Rúḥu'lláh strangled when he refused to recant.
During the siege of Zanján a village girl named Zaynab disguised herself as a man and fought at the barricades. Ḥujjat recognised her and granted her request. She fought for five months until she was killed.
In 1889 Ḥájí Muḥammad-Riḍáy-i-Iṣfahání was stabbed to death in the bazaar of ʻIshqábád. A Russian military court condemned his killers, and the Bahá'ís interceded for their lives, a deed Bahá'u'lláh praised.
Mullá ʻAlí-Akbar, known as Ḥájí Ákhúnd, taught the Faith so openly in Ṭihrán that he was the first to be arrested whenever trouble broke out. 'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers his chains, his composure and his constancy: he was never vanquished.
Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl headed a religious college in Ṭihrán when he first met the Bahá'ís. After months of argument he accepted the Faith in 1876, lost his post, was twice imprisoned, and spent the rest of his life teaching and defending the Cause.
Badíʻ, a seventeen-year-old believer, asked Bahá'u'lláh for the honour of carrying His Tablet to Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh. He walked alone to Ṭihrán, brought it to the king, and was tortured and killed. Bahá'u'lláh named him the Pride of Martyrs.
The Báb sent Mullá ʻAlíy-i-Bastámí, one of the Letters of the Living, to Najaf and Karbilá, telling him he would be the first to suffer for God's sake. He proclaimed the new Revelation, was denounced, chained, tried in Baghdád and sent away as a prisoner, never to be seen again.
Mírzá Qurbán-ʻAlí, a dervish revered by many, was arrested in Ṭihrán in 1850. Officials pleaded for his life and the Amír-Niẓám was loath to condemn him, but he would not deny the Báb, and he became one of the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán.
In 1904 and 1907 Ottoman commissions came to 'Akká to investigate false charges against 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He declared Himself ready for any sentence, refused an offer of escape, and went on with His daily life until the 1908 revolution set Him free.
Mullá Ṣádiq, later known as Ismu'lláhu'l-Asdaq, taught the new Faith so openly in Shíráz that a halter was hung on him and he was led through the streets and bázárs. 'Abdu'l-Bahá records that he kept on speaking to the people, composed and smiling.
Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb, led the defence of the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí. Before dawn on 2 February 1849 he rode out against the besieging army, was shot, and died in the fort after a last conversation with Quddús.
Vaḥíd, the learned divine whom Muḥammad Sháh sent to investigate the Báb, became His follower. In 1850 he taught openly in Nayríz, was besieged in the Fort of Khájih, and was killed after his enemies broke an oath sworn on the Qur'án.
How Mullá Muḥammad-'Alí of Zanján, called Ḥujjat, accepted the Báb after reading His writings, and how the believers of Zanján, besieged by the army, were at last deceived by oaths sworn on the Qur'án and put to death.
'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers Mullá Ṣádiq, Ismu'lláhu'l-Aṣdaq: led through Shíráz with a halter for teaching the Báb's Faith, starved at Fort Ṭabarsí, rescued from execution, and a teacher of the Faith for the rest of his life.
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.
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.
When the believers in 'Iráq were hiding their faith, Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá Baghdádí openly served Bahá'u'lláh, later hosted pilgrims in Beirut, and stayed firm in the Covenant, as 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls in Memorials of the Faithful.
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.
Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alíy-i-Zunúzí, called Anís, was confined by his stepfather for his love of the Báb. In a vision the Báb promised that he would share His martyrdom, and on 9 July 1850 he died beside Him in Tabríz.
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.
After the martyrdom of the Báb in 1850, believers hid His remains in shrines and houses in Ṭihrán for nearly fifty years, then carried them to the Holy Land, where 'Abdu'l-Bahá laid them to rest on Mount Carmel in 1909.
Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí, the Báb's amanuensis, spent His last night with Him in the barracks of Tabríz and was told not to confess his faith, so that he could later tell what he alone knew. In 1852 he was martyred in Ṭihrán.
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.
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.
Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í and his successor Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí taught that the Promised One would soon appear. Before he died, Siyyid Káẓim urged his disciples to scatter and seek Him, and in 1844 Mullá Ḥusayn's search ended in Shíráz.
George Townshend, a Canon of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, became a Bahá'í in 1921 and served Shoghi Effendi as literary adviser. At seventy he renounced his orders in the Anglican Church, and in 1951 he was named a Hand of the Cause.
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.
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.
As financial secretary of Bahai Temple Unity, Corinne True of Chicago gathered gifts from across America and the East for the House of Worship at Wilmette. She lived to see it dedicated in 1953 and was known as the Mother of the Temple.
In December 1898 the first of fifteen Western pilgrims, travelling in three parties arranged by Phoebe Hearst, reached 'Akká and met 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Shoghi Effendi saw in their visit the opening of a new epoch for the Faith in the West.
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.
In April 1863 Bahíyyih Khánum, then in her teens, helped the household prepare for exile while Bahá'u'lláh stayed in the Garden of Riḍván. The Tigris overflowed, and only on the ninth day could the family join Him there.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Brought from Chihríq to Tabríz in 1848, the Báb appeared before the Crown Prince and the leading clergy of Ádhirbayján and openly declared Himself the Promised One. Afterwards He was beaten and sent back to Chihríq.
Attacked on the road to Bárfurúsh in 1848, Mullá Ḥusayn held his companions back until the enemy had killed seven of them. That evening, in the town's caravanserai, three youths in turn climbed to the roof to sound the call to prayer, and each was shot.
In Bahá'u'lláh's house in Ṭihrán, Táhirih listened from behind a curtain as the learned Vahíd spoke on the proofs of the new Revelation, then interrupted him with a call to deeds. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, then a child, was sitting on her lap.
Besieged and starving in the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, the companions of Quddús listened each morning and evening to verses from his commentary on the Ṣád of Ṣamad. One of them later said the words made them forget their hunger.
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 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.
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.
Returning to Baghdád from Kurdistán in 1856, Bahá'u'lláh found the Bábí community dispirited and divided. Through His counsels and His writings He restored its faith and reformed its conduct.
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.
Mishkín-Qalam, the leading calligrapher of Persia, set out to find Bahá'u'lláh and reached Him in Adrianople. Slandered as an agitator in Constantinople, he was held captive for years on Cyprus, and afterwards stayed loyal to the Covenant.
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.
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.
When thieves took Ḥájí ʻAlí-ʻAskar's few goods, the Persian Consul wanted him to testify to a far larger loss. Threatened with prison and banishment, he refused to lie. Bahá'u'lláh later said of him, "I am pleased with him."
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.
Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in the barracks of 'Akká. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalled how, in later years at Bahjí, governors and generals humbly asked to be received by Him, and how all bore witness that He was no prisoner, but a King of Kings.
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.
Ḥusayn Khán, governor of Fárs, had two of the Báb's disciples tortured and ordered the Báb struck in his presence. Later, on the night he had the Báb arrested again, plague broke out in Shíráz and the governor fled.
In the First World War the Ottoman commander Jamál Páshá, turned against 'Abdu'l-Bahá by false accusations, threatened to crucify Him. The threat was never carried out: the general's campaigns failed and he fled in defeat.
When Bahá'u'lláh's convoy left Baghdád for Constantinople in 1863, Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá Baghdádí remained in the city. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls how he stayed loyal, withstood the enemies of the Faith and taught it openly.
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.
Summoned to Constantinople, Bahá'u'lláh spent twelve days in the Garden of Riḍván while a caravan was prepared. Then He set out with members of His family and twenty-six disciples on a journey of three to four months.
Exiled in chains from Egypt to the Sudan, Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥaydar-‘Alí and his companions were tied in pairs to the sides of camels, and despite the pain they could not help laughing at the sight.
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.
After an exhausting day of speaking, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had to be almost carried into the house. Within fifteen minutes He was calling for His secretary with more than His usual energy. An incident recorded by Howard Colby Ives.
On 29 November 1921 Shoghi Effendi, a student at Oxford, learned of the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá by reading the cable that lay open on a desk in Wellesley Tudor Pole's London office.
Even in prison ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote that His prison was His garden and paradise. Through illness, exile, imprisonment and the death of His sons He remained cheerful, teaching that happiness in hardship is the proof of nobility.
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’.
4 Avenue de Camöens, October 27th God alone ordereth all things and is all-powerful.
4 Avenue de Camöens, Wednesday, October 25th I regret much that I have kept you waiting this morning, but I have so much to do in a short time for the Cause of the love of God.
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.
October 22nd ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: It is a lovely day, the sun shines brightly upon the earth, giving light and warmth to all creatures.
November 25th When Christ appeared He manifested Himself at Jerusalem.
On June 15, 1912, in New York, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told the Bahá'ís that He did not want them distinguished by wealth or worldly success, but by love, justice, steadfastness and service to humanity.
The calligrapher Mishkín-Qalam, sent by Bahá'u'lláh from Adrianople to Constantinople, was arrested through the Persian ambassador's slanders and held for about nine years at Famagusta in Cyprus before he was freed and went to 'Akká.
In the beginning of the eleventh chapter of the Revelation of St.
Question.—What is the meaning of Christ’s resurrection after three days?
Question.—What is the manner, and what is the meaning, of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, as described in the Gospel?
One of those Who possessed this power and was assisted by it was Abraham.
Afterward Christ came, saying, “I am born of the Holy Spirit.”
You question about eternal life and the entrance into the Kingdom.
Are ye wickedly scheming, according to your selfish fancies, an evil plot against Him Who is the Most Great Remembrance of God?
Do not say, ‘How can He speak of God while in truth His age is no more than twenty-five?’
The substance wherewith God hath created Me is not the clay out of which others have been formed.
Glory be unto Thee, O Lord, Thou Who hast brought into being all created things, through the power of Thy behest.
How can I praise Thee, O Lord, for the evidences of Thy mighty splendour and for Thy wondrous sweet savours which Thou hast imparted to Me in this fortress, in such measure that nothing in the heavens or on the earth can compare with them?
How numerous the souls raised to life who were exposed to dire humiliation in Thy Path for exalting Thy Word and for glorifying Thy divine Unity!
Thou art God, no God is there but Thee. Lauded and glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! Thou art supreme over the realm of being and Thy power pervadeth all created things.
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.
Praised and glorified art Thou, O God! Grant that the day of attaining Thy holy presence may be fast approaching.
He is God, the Sovereign Lord, the All-Glorious. Say: Praise be to God Who graciously enableth whomsoever He willeth to adore Him.
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...
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...
O thou dear handmaid of God! Thy letter hath been received and its contents noted. Thou didst ask for a rule whereby to guide thy life.
The Sunday school for the children in which the Tablets and Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are read, and the Word of God is recited for the children is indeed a blessed thing.
O thou yearning flame, thou who art afire with the love of God!
O thou flame of God’s love! What thou hast written hath brought great joy, for thy letter was as a garden from which roses of inner meanings spread abroad the sweet exhalations of the love of God.
O ye 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 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.
O thou who art firm in the Covenant! Thy letter was received. Thou hast expressed satisfaction with the Convention, that this gathering hath been the means of the elevation of the Cause of God and the demonstration of the power of His Word.
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.
O thou who hast been sore afflicted on the pathway of the Covenant!
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 exalted bough of the divine Lote-Tree! ...When thou art disdained and rejected by the wicked doers be not cast down; and at the power and stiffneckedness of the presumptuous be neither vexed nor sick at heart; for such is the way of heedless souls, from time out of mind.
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.
O thou who art enamoured of the breaths of God! I have read thy letter, which cried out with thy love for God and thine irresistible attraction to His Beauty, and its wondrous theme did cheer my heart.
O ye sincere ones, ye longing ones, ye who are drawn as if magnetized, ye who have risen up to serve the Cause of God, to exalt His Word and scatter His sweet savours far and wide!
O my Lord!
O thou who art enamoured of the Covenant!
Praise be to Him Who hath rent the dark asunder, hath blotted out the night, hath drawn aside the coverings and torn away the veils; Whose light thereupon shone out, Whose signs and tokens were spread abroad, and His mysteries laid bare.
O ye who have turned your faces toward the Exalted Beauty!
O ye sons and daughters of the Kingdom! Your letter, which was surely inspired of heaven, hath been received. Its contents were most pleasing, its sentiments arising out of luminous hearts.
O ye who are steadfast in the Covenant!
O ye homeless and wanderers in the Path of God!
O ye concourse of the Kingdom of Abhá!
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 respected personage! Thy second letter dated 19 December 1918 was received.
O ye faithful friends, O ye sincere servants of Bahá’u’lláh!
O thou who art enraptured by the sweet breathings of the Lord!
O thou who seekest the Kingdom of Heaven! Thy letter hath been received and its contents noted. The Holy Manifestations of God possess two stations: one is the physical station, and one the spiritual.
O ye co-workers who are supported by armies from the realm of the All-Glorious!
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 thou lady of the Kingdom! Thy letter sent from New York hath been received.
O thou ignited candle! 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.
Before travelling to the West of America, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wished first to visit Montreal, where May Maxwell, founder of the first Bahá’í community in France, had established the first permanent Bahá’í community in Canada.
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 June 1913 the Star of the West printed Edward Theodore Hall's tribute to Sarah Ann Ridgway, a silk weaver of Pendleton and the first Bahá'í in Manchester, who taught the Faith there quietly for many years.
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.
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.
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!
Glory be unto Thee, O Thou whose mercy hath encompassed all things, whose gift is made perfect, whose power hath encircled the world, whose proof is demonstrated, whose signs have become manifest, whose words are promulgated …
He is God! O ye heavenly Assemblage! Your letter was received and its contents became known. Ye have written concerning the printing and publication of the Tablets.
My God! My God! I am a servant, miserable, humbled, submissive and low at the door of Thy Oneness, supplicating Thee with a heart full of Thy love and a face rejoiced at Thy glad-tidings!
“O Compassionate God! Thanks be to Thee for Thou hast awakened and made (me) conscious. Thou hast given me a seeing eye and favored me with a hearing ear; hast led me to Thy Kingdom and guided me to Thy Path. Thou hast shown me the…
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 God! O thou Attracted of the hearts of the favored ones toward the Manifest Horizon!
O my spiritual friends! What you have written is perused, all of which was an entreaty and invocation unto God and a desire for devotion unto the Most High.
O Spiritual Assembly! Everything produces an impression in existence and results in the course of ages.
O thou advancing maid-servant of God! Thy letter was received and I was informed of its contents. Thanks be to God! thou art guided to the Light of guidance and hast attained to this most great gift.
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 candle shining by the light of the Love of God! That which thou hast inscribed and conceived of in thy mind was manifest and clear.
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 one! Blessed art thou, for thou hast entered into the bosom of the training of God and drunk the cup of knowledge while thou art young in age among girls.
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 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 flower perfumed by the Breaths of the Love of God!
O thou Godlike person and spiritual friend!
O thou herald of the Kingdom! Thou wast not alone in the trip that thou didst undertake in various places. The spirit and soul of Abdul-Baha was with thee.
O thou 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 of the Love of God!
O thou lamp who art illuminated with the light of the Love of God!
O thou loving torch, flaming by the fire of the Love of God!
O thou maid-servant of God who art attracted unto Him! Verily, I read thy letter and was informed of its words.
O Thou Pure God! Gaze providently at the beloved ones and the dear maid-servants in Chicago. Confer upon them Thy bounty and grace.
O thou pure soul who hath turned with a submissive heart to the Kingdom of God!
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 seeker of Truth! I received the photograph of thy shining figure and I looked at it with thorough attention.
O thou servant who art near and dear to the Glorious Threshold!
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 slave of the Beauty of ABHA! Thy letter was received. Praise be to God! It indicated thy firmness and steadfastness in the love of God—therefore, it was the cause of happiness.
O thou speaker in the remembrance of God! Verily I say unto thee, O servant of God!
O thou spiritual lad! May God uphold thee and edify thee in the flower of thy youth and in the spring-time of thy life and may He illumine thy face with the lights of advancement unto God and turning unto the Kingdom of God.
O thou spiritual leaf who art verdant and well-watered by the outpouring from the Kingdom of God!
O thou spiritual youth and merciful young man!
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 tree, developed in the garden of the Love 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 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 Kingdom of God!
O thou who art advancing unto the Kingdom of God!
O thou who art anticipating the appearance of the Gift of God!
O thou who art attracted by a Breath that passed upon thee from the Holy Garden, the Blessed Spot—the Paradise of El-Abha!
O thou who art attracted by the Breaths of God! —may God confirm thee!
O thou who art attracted to the Bounty of El-ABHA!
O thou who art attracted to the Holy Spirit! It is some time since news hath come from thee, though I have the utmost kindness toward that favored maid-servant of the Threshold of the Almighty.
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 Spirit of Truth! In whatsoever matter man wisheth to engage, he must first acquire some capability and make provisions and preparations therefor.
O thou who art awakened from the sleep of negligence and forgetfulness!
O thou who art awakened to the Cause of God!
O thou who art calling in the Name of God and heralding unto the Kingdom of God!
O thou who art confessing the Oneness of God!
O thou who art conscious! At last thou didst learn of the path of salvation and didst find the straight way. Now remain firm that thou mayest attain confirmation and victory.
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 drawn unto God and kindled by the Fire which burned on Mt.
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 gazing toward…
O thou who art illuminated by the Light of Knowledge! Verily, I beseech God and supplicate Him to increase thine assurance, thy knowledge and thine attraction and enkindlement by the fire of the love of God, day by day.
O thou who art marching unto God! Thy letter was read. Its contents indicated thy devotion to the Horizon of the Living God and thy love for the Promised Perfection.
O thou who art partaking of the Heavenly Food!
O thou who art preparing to receive knowledge from the Herald of the Kingdom!
O thou who art quickened by the Divine Fragrances! I considered thy letter. Its expression was wonderful and indicated the brilliancy of thy heart and conscience.
O thou who art seeking fire from the Fire of the Love of God!
O thou who art set aglow with the Fire of the Love of God! Verily, I read thy long letter and was informed of thy visions, which art for whosoever follows the path of the Kingdom of God.
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 tranquilized by the Call of the Kingdom at this time!
O thou who art turning thy heart unto the Kingdom of God! Verily, I read thy recent letter and praised God for having blessed thee with two babes, as a mercy on His part.
O thou who hast approached the Kingdom of God and hast looked toward the Center of the Covenant!
O thou who hast gained illumination from the Light of Guidance!
O thou who hast humbled thyself before the Kingdom of God! Blessed art thou that thine heart is attracted to the Beauty of God, is illumined with the light of knowledge and the ray of the Kingdom hath shone within it.
O thou who hast turned thy face toward the Kingdom of God!
O thou who in truth art attracted through the Breaths of the Holy Spirit!
O thou whose face is illumined with the Light of the Love of God!
O thou whose heart is attracted and whose breast is dilated with joy by the Holy Fragrances!
O ye beloved! O ye maid-servants of the Merciful! What a wonderful meeting ye have arranged and longed for the beauty of service and have arisen to spread the fragrances of God!
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 crying voices in the region of America! Make level the path of the Covenant of God! Be firm in the Alliance of God!
O ye dear friends of Abdul-Baha! The blessed letter indicating the election of the Spiritual Meeting was received and proved a source of joy.
O ye members of the shining assembly! Each one of you must resist doubts (or false rumors) in those parts like unto a great barrier, until the invisible confirmations may appear and merciful assistance may become manifest.
O ye members of the shining assembly! The letter which was written by you, was not a letter, but a musk sack.
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 servants of the Threshold of God! The weekly reports of ........ were received and I was informed of their beautiful meanings which proved firmness and steadfastness in the Cause of God and solidity in the Covenant of God.
O ye servants of the True One and the maid-servants of the Merciful!
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 shining faces and spiritual beings! Verily, I was rejoiced at beholding those merciful faces in whose brows the lights of guidance shine on account of their turning unto the Kingdom of El-Abha!
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 sincere ones! O ye firm ones! O ye heralds of the Kingdom of God! Fly away with joy! Flutter in the open of the Kingdom!
O ye sons of the Kingdom! At a time when conditions were most difficult and oppressive and the reception of letters hard and impracticable, your letter was received.
O ye spiritual ones! O ye heavenly ones! The assembly which you have established in that city is a splendor from the congregation of the Supreme Concourse.
O ye two maid-servants of God! The Lord of the Kingdom hath invited, chosen and guided you through His pure favor, feeding you from the heavenly table of divine knowledge!
O ye two merciful assemblies! Praise be to God! that through the outpouring of guidance, India is rapidly becoming a Rose-garden of Abha, for many souls have lately embraced the truth and are in the utmost attraction and enkindlement.
O ye two pilgrims of the Holy Shrine! The news of your protected and safe arrival in Paris, France, reached here and made me glad and happy.
O ye two revered persons, ye servants in the vineyard of God!
O ye who are attracted! O ye who are united! O ye who are believers and assured!
O ye who are attracted to the Heavenly Kingdom! O ye who are enlightened by the Light of Guidance! O ye lamps lighted by the Light of Love and Affection!
O ye who are sincere! O ye who are attracted! O ye who are yearning! O ye who are arising for service to the Cause of God, for the promotion of the Word of God and the spreading of the Fragrances of God!
O ye who are sincere! O ye who are firm! O ye who are steadfast! Verily, I received a letter from that brilliant body and Spiritual Gathering—those who have arisen and called out for the Kingdom of God among the peoples of America.
O ye who have advanced! O ye who are rejoiced!
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!
The first light which shone forth from the horizon of Eternity, the first radiance which was cast forth from the Morn of Guidance, and the first mercy which descended from the Kingdom of Heaven, be upon thee, O thou manifest light …
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 …
‘Abdu'l-Bahá sent for me. I went to Him in the little room where He writes. He said, “Be strong! Be firm! You are not leaving Me; it is only your body that is going away. Your spirit will always be here. I shall always see you. There is…
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…
“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…
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.
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was once held in chains, His jailers were amazed to hear Him sing and laugh; He told them they were doing Him a kindness.
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.
Bahíyyih Khánum recalls the day soldiers surrounded the family's house in Adrianople with orders to separate Bahá’u’lláh from His family, and the week ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spent pleading until the family was allowed to go with Him.
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells of the Báb's martyrdom in the barrack square of Tabríz in 1850. The first regiment's volleys left Him and His young companion unharmed; a second regiment then carried out the sentence.
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.
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.
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.
At Gallipoli the exiles learned of an order to separate Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the family and the followers. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told the Governor they would not submit, and after a week He won the concession that they remain together.
Bahá’u’lláh recalled how, chained in the dark dungeon of the Síyáh-Chál, He taught His fellow-prisoners verses which they chanted every night, until the sound reached the ears of Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh.
On pilgrimage in 1907 Corinne True brought ‘Abdu’l-Bahá a petition from Chicago to build a House of Worship. He described the Temple’s design, warned her she would suffer, and asked her to work for it.
Bahíyyih Khánum recalls how the Bábís handed over to the populace for torture remained unflinching, chanting prayers and asking God to pardon and bless their murderers.
While Bahá’u’lláh was imprisoned in Ṭihrán, His wife Navváb fled with their three children, lived in fear for His life, and later sold her wedding treasures to provide for the journey into exile.