Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Iran Furutan Muhajir, The Mystery of God, London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1971/1979, bahai-library.com.
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The Mystery of God
compiled by Mrs Iran Fúrútan Muhájir
Revised Edition 1979

BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING TRUST
27 RUTLAND GATE LONDON SW7 1PD
Published by the Bahá’í Publishing Trust
27, Rutland Gate, London SW7 1PD

©Copyright 1971 Mrs Írán Fúrútan Muhájir
Revised edition 1979

First published by the Bahá’í Publishing Trust
of India in commemoration of the fiftieth
anniversary of the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

ISBN 0 900125 44 6

Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Morrison & Gibb Ltd, London and Edinburgh

“Yá ‘Abdu’l-Bahá”
Persian calligraphy by Mishkín-Qalam
Facsimile of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s handwriting.
“Remember, whether or not I be on earth,
My presence will be with you always.”
—’Abdu’l-Bahá

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 309.
Contents
1. Him Whom God hath purposed.. ................................................... . 11
2. The Most Mighty Branch.. ............................................................ . 12
3. Branch of Holiness.. ...................................................................... . 15
4. The most perfect bounty.. .............................................................. . 16
5. The mainspring of the oneness of humanity.................................. . 19
6. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.. ............................................................................... . 20
7. The Centre of the Covenant.. ......................................................... . 23
8. Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablets addressed to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.. ...................... . 43
9. The Master.. ................................................................................... . 55
10. The successor of the Manifestation of God.. ................................. . 66
11. Tumultuous years.. ........................................................................ . 73
12. Entombment of the Báb’s remains on Mount Carmel.. ................. . 91
13. His travels.. .................................................................................... . 113
14. Glimpses of His talks and writings.. .............................................. . 159
15. The war years.. .............................................................................. . 213
16. The passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.. ...................................................... . 228
17. Significance of the station of ‘Abdul-Bahá.. ................................. . 260
18. Extract from the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.. ............... . 269
19. The Greatest Holy Leaf.. ............................................................... . 276
20. Passages from Tablets revealed by Bahá’u’lláh.. .......................... . 287
21. Passages from Tablets revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá......................... . 291
22. The Purest Branch.. ....................................................................... . 303
23. Navváb.. ......................................................................................... . 311
23. The Tablet of Visitation................................................................. . 319
Him Whom God hath purposed

WHEN the ocean of My presence hath ebbed and the Book of My
Revelation is ended, turn your faces toward Him Whom God hath purposed,
Who hath branched from this Ancient Root.
When the Mystic Dove will have winged its flight from its Sanctuary of
Praise and sought its far-off goal, its hidden habitation, refer ye whatsoever
ye understand not in the Book to Him Who hath branched from this mighty
Stock.
—Bahá’u’lláh

Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, para. 121, p. 63.
idem, para. 174, p. 82.
The Most Mighty Branch
THE Will of the divine Testator is this: It is incumbent upon the Aghṣán,
the Afnán and My kindred to turn, one and all, their faces towards the Most
Mighty Branch.
Consider that which We have revealed in Our Most Holy Book: ‘When
the ocean of My presence hath ebbed and the Book of My Revelation is
ended, turn your faces toward Him Whom God hath purposed, Who hath
branched from this Ancient Root.’ The object of this sacred Verse is none
other except the Most Mighty Branch (‘Abdu’l-Bahá).
Thus have We graciously revealed unto you our potent Will, and I am
verily the Gracious, the All Powerful.

Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 221.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Branch of Holiness
THERE hath branched from the Sadratu’l-Muntahá this sacred and
glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that hath sought
His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow. Verily the Limb of the Law of
God hath sprung forth from this root which God Hath firmly implanted in
the Ground of His Will, and Whose Branch hath been so uplifted as to
encompass the whole of creation. Magnified be He, therefore, for this
sublime, this blessed, this mighty, this exalted Handiwork! … A Word hath,
as a token of Our grace, gone forth from the Most Great Tablet—a Word
which God hath adorned with the ornament of His own Self, and made it
sovereign over the earth and all that is therein, and a sign of His greatness
and power among its people.

Bahá’u’lláh in Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 134.
The most perfect bounty
RENDER thanks unto God, O people, for His appearance; for verily He
is the most great Favour unto you, the most perfect bounty upon you; and
through Him every mouldering bone is quickened. Whoso turneth towards
Him hath turned towards God, and whoso turneth away from Him hath
turned away from My Beauty, hath repudiated My Proof, and transgressed
against Me. He is the Trust of God amongst you, His charge within you,
His manifestation unto you and His appearance among His favoured
servants. … We have sent Him down in the form of a human temple. Blest
and sanctified be God Who createth whatsoever He willeth through His
inviolable, His infallible decree. They who deprive themselves of the
Shadow of the Branch, are lost in the wilderness of error, are consumed by
the heat of worldly desires, and are of those who will assuredly perish.

Bahá’u’lláh in Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 135.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Purest branch with friends in Adrianople
The mainspring of the
oneness of humanity
HE is, and should for all time be regarded, first and foremost, as the
Centre and Pivot of Bahá’u’lláh’s peerless and all-enfolding Covenant, His
most exalted handiwork, the stainless Mirror of His light, the perfect
Exemplar of His teachings, the unerring Interpreter of His Word, the
embodiment of every Bahá’í ideal, the incarnation of every Bahá’í virtue,
the Most Mighty Branch sprung from the Ancient Root, the Limb of the
Law of God, the Being “round Whom all names revolve,” the Mainspring of
the Oneness of Humanity, the Ensign of the Most Great Peace, the Moon of
the Central Orb of this most holy Dispensation styles and titles that are
implicit and find their truest, their highest and fairest expression in the
magic name ‘Abdul-Bahá. He is, above and beyond these appellations, the
“Mystery of God”—an expression which Bahá’u’lláh Himself has chosen to
designate Him, and which, while it does not by any means justify us to
assign to Him the station of Prophethood, indicates how in the person of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá the incompatible characteristics of a human nature and
superhuman knowledge and perfection have been blended and are
completely harmonized.

Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 134.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
BUT if any soul asks concerning the station of this Servant; the answer
is—‘Abdu’l-Bahá. If he inquires after the meaning of the Branch, the
answer is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. If he desires to know the significance of the verse
regarding the Branch, the answer is—‘Abdu’l-Bahá. If he insists upon the
explanation of the meaning of “The Branch extended from the Ancient
Root”, the answer is—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
My name is ‘Abdul-Bahá, my qualification is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, my reality is
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, my praise is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, thraldom to the Blessed
Perfection is my glorious and refulgent diadem; and servitude to all the
human race my perpetual religion. … No name, no title, no mention, no
commendation have I, nor will ever have, except ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This is my
longing. This is my supreme apex. This is my greatest yearning. This is my
eternal life. This is my everlasting glory!

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Star of the West, 8:14, p. 186 & 8:15, p. 212.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of Abdul Baha Abbas, vol. 2, p. 429
[Photograph of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá]

[Photograph of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá]
The Centre of the Covenant
IN the Book of Aqdas, He has given positive command in two clear
instances and has explicitly appointed the Interpreter of the Book. Also in
all the Divine Tablets, especially in the Chapter of The Branch—all the
meanings of which mean the Servitude of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that is ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá—all that was needed to explain the Centre of the Covenant and the
Interpreter of the Book has been revealed from the Supreme Pen. Now as
‘Abdu’l-Bahá is the Interpreter of the Book He says that the “Chapter of
The Branch” means ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that is, the Servitude of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
and none other.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 358–9.
IF a soul shall utter a word without the sanction of the Covenant, he is
not firm. Bahá’u’lláh appointed a Covenant to ward off dissensions: so that
no one can have his own opinion—so that the Centre can be referred to.
There were dissensions in the time of Christ because there was no Centre.
This is the reality of the question. Whatever the Centre of the Covenant says
is correct. No one shall speak a word of himself. Bahá’u’lláh has called
down the vengeance of God upon anyone who violates the Covenant.
Beware! Beware! Lest ye be shaken: remain firm even if the people of
heaven try to shake you. Firmness in the Covenant is not mere words. The
command is explicit.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Star of the West, VIII:14, 23 November 1917, p. 189.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
Painting by Munsen
[Photograph]

[Photograph]
THAT which has come out of the Centre of the Covenant you must take
fast hold of. That which issues from my lips and that which is written with
my pen is the reality. With this you can irrigate the vineyard of God. With
this you can make the tree of the Cause of God become verdant. Through
this the name of the Kingdom of God will be spread over the world.
Through this the sun of reality will shine. Through this the clouds of mercy
will pour down.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Star of the West, XI:14, 23 November 1920, p. 243.
BE ye assured with the greatest assurance that, verily, God will help
those who are firm in His Covenant in every matter, through His
confirmation and favour, the lights of which will shine forth unto the east of
the earth, as well as the west thereof. He will make them the signs of
guidance among the creation and as shining and glittering stars from all
horizons.

Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, vol. 1, p. 83.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa garden

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá leaving Pilgrim House
[Photograph]

[Photograph]
THE power of the Covenant is as the heat of the sun which quickeneth
and promoteth the development of all created things on earth. The light of
the Covenant, in like manner, is the educator of the minds, the spirits, the
hearts and souls of men.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 239
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá seated in gateway at 7 HaParsim Street, Haifa.
BUT in this Dispensation of the Blessed Beauty (Bahá’u’lláh) among its
distinctions is that He did not leave people in perplexity. He entered into a
Covenant and Testament with the people. He appointed a Centre of the
Covenant. He wrote with His own pen and revealed it in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
the Book of Laws, and Kitáb-i-’Ahd, the Book of the Covenant, appointing
Him (‘Abdu’l-Bahá) the Expounder of the Book. You must ask Him
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá) regarding the meanings of the texts of the verses.
Whatsoever He says is correct. Outside of this, in numerous Tablets He
(Bahá’u’lláh) has explicitly recorded it, with clear, sufficient, valid, and
forceful statements. In the Tablet of the Branch He explicitly states:
“Whatsoever The Branch says is right, or correct; and every person must
obey The Branch with his life, with his heart, with his tongue. Without His
will, not a word shall anyone utter.” This is an explicit text of the Blessed
Beauty. So there is no excuse left for anybody. No soul shall, of himself,
speak anything. Whatsoever His (‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s) tongue utters,
whatsoever His pen records, that is correct; according to the explicit text of
Bahá’u’lláh in the Tablet of the Branch.

Star of the West, III:14, 23 November 1912, p. 9.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at 7 HaParsim Street, Haifa.
[Photograph]

THE Blessed Beauty is the Sun of Truth, and His light the light of truth.
The Báb is likewise the Sun of Truth, and His light the light of truth …. My
station is the station of servitude—a servitude which is complete, pure and
real, firmly established, enduring, obvious, explicitly revealed and subject to
no interpretation whatever …. I am the Interpreter of the Word of God;
such is my interpretation.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 133.
[Photograph]

[Photograph]
Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablets addressed to
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
O Thou Who art the apple of Mine eye. My glory, the ocean of My
lovingkindness, the sun of My bounty, the heaven of My mercy rest upon
Thee. We pray God to illumine the world through Thy knowledge and
wisdom, to ordain for Thee that which will gladden Thine heart and impart
consolation to Thine eyes.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 135.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá walking in Haifa
WE have made Thee a shelter for all mankind, a shield unto all who are
in heaven and on earth, a stronghold for whosoever hath believed in God,
the Incomparable, the All-Knowing. God grant that through Thee He may
protect them, may enrich and sustain them, that He may inspire Thee with
that which shall be a wellspring of wealth unto all created things, an ocean
of bounty unto all men, and the dayspring of mercy unto all peoples.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 135.
THE glory of God rest upon Thee, and upon whosoever serveth Thee and
circleth around Thee. Woe, great woe, betide him that opposeth and
injureth Thee. Well is it with him that sweareth fealty to Thee; the fire of
hell torment him who is Thine enemy.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 135.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
THOU knowest, O my God, that I desire for Him naught except that
which Thou didst desire, and have chosen Him for no purpose save that
which Thou hadst intended for Him. Render Him victorious, therefore,
through Thy hosts of earth and heaven …. Ordain, I beseech Thee, by the
ardour of My love for Thee and My yearning to manifest Thy Cause, for
Him, as well as for them that love Him, that which Thou hast destined for
thy Messengers and the Trustees of Thy Revelation. Verily, Thou art the
Almighty, the All-powerful.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 136.
ALL the atoms of the earth have announced unto all created things that
from behind the gate of the Prison-city there hath appeared and above its
horizon there hath shone forth the Orb of the beauty of the great, the Most
Mighty Branch of God—His ancient and immutable Mystery—proceeding
on its way to another land. Sorrow, thereby, hath enveloped this Prison-
city, whilst another land rejoiceth. …
Blessed, doubly blessed, is the ground which His footsteps have trodden,
the eye that hath been cheered by the beauty of His countenance, the ear
that hath been honoured by hearkening to His call, the heart that hath
tasted the sweetness of His love, the breast that hath dilated through His
remembrance, the pen that hath voiced His praise, the scroll that hath borne
the testimony of His writings.

Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 227–82.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at 7 HaParsim Street, Haifa.

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Bahjí
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in front yard of Haifa house
The Master
HE it was Whose auspicious birth occurred on that never-to-be-forgotten
night when the Báb laid bare the transcendental character of His Mission to
His first disciple Mullá Ḥusayn. He it was Who, as a mere child, seated on
the lap of Ṭáhirih, had registered the thrilling significance of the stirring
challenge which that indomitable heroine had addressed to her fellow-
disciple, the erudite and far-famed Vaḥíd. He it was Whose tender soul had
been seared with the ineffaceable vision of a Father, haggard, dishevelled,
freighted with chains, on the occasion of a visit, as a boy of nine, to the
Síyáh-Chál of Ṭihrán. Against Him, in His early childhood, whilst His
Father lay a prisoner in that dungeon, had been directed the malice of a mob
of street urchins who pelted Him with stones, vilified Him and
overwhelmed Him with ridicule. His had been the lot to share with His
Father, soon after His release from imprisonment, the rigours and miseries
of a cruel banishment from His native land, and the trials which culminated
in His enforced withdrawal to the mountains of Kurdistán. He it was Who,
in His inconsolable grief at His separation from an adored Father, had
confided to Nabíl, as attested by him in his narrative, that He felt Himself to
have grown old though still but a child of tender

years. His had been the unique distinction of recognizing, while still in His
childhood, the full glory of His Father’s as yet unrevealed station, a
recognition which had impelled Him to throw Himself at His feet and to
spontaneously implore the privilege of laying down His life for His sake.
From His pen, while still in His adolescence in Baghdád, had issued that
superb commentary on a well-known Muhammadan tradition, written at the
suggestion of Bahá’u’lláh, in answer to a request made by ‘Alí-Shawkat
Páshá, which was so illuminating as to excite the unbounded admiration of
its recipient. It was His discussions and discourses with the learned doctors
with whom He came in contact in Baghdád that first aroused that general
admiration for Him and for His knowledge which was steadily to increase as
the circle of His acquaintances was widened, at a later date, first in
Adrianople and then in ‘Akká. It was to Him that the highly accomplished
Khurshíd Páshá, the governor of Adrianople, had been moved to pay a
public and glowing tribute when, in the presence of a number of
distinguished divines of that city, his youthful Guest had, briefly and
amazingly, resolved the intricacies of a problem that had baffled the minds
of the assembled company—an achievement that affected so deeply the
Páshá that from that time onwards he could hardly reconcile himself to that
Youth’s absence from such gatherings.
On Him Bahá’u’lláh, as the scope and influence of His Mission
extended, had been led to
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá riding up Mount Carmel
place an ever greater degree of reliance, by appointing Him, on numerous
occasions, as His deputy, by enabling Him to plead His Cause before the
public, by assigning Him the task of transcribing His Tablets, by allowing
Him to assume the responsibility of shielding Him from His enemies, and
by investing Him with the function of watching over and promoting the
interests of His fellow-exiles and companions. He it was Who had been
commissioned to undertake, as soon as circumstances might permit, the
delicate and all-important task of purchasing the site that was to serve as the
permanent resting-place of the Báb, of insuring the safe transfer of His
remains to the Holy Land, and of erecting for Him a befitting sepulchre on
Mt. Carmel. He it was Who had been chiefly instrumental in providing the
necessary means for Bahá’u’lláh’s release from His nine-year confinement
within the city walls of ‘Akká, and in enabling Him to enjoy, in the evening
of His life, a measure of that peace and security from which He had so long
been debarred. It was through His unremitting efforts that the illustrious
Badí‘ had been granted his memorable interviews with Bahá’u’lláh, that the
hostility evinced by several governors of ‘Akká towards the exiled
community had been transmuted into esteem and admiration, that the
purchase of properties adjoining the Sea of Galilee and the River Jordan had
been effected, and that the ablest and most valuable presentation of the early
history of the Faith and of its tenets had been

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Bahjí
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

transmitted to posterity. It was through the extraordinarily warm reception
accorded Him during His visit to Beirut, through His contact with Midḥat
Páshá, a former Grand Vizir of Turkey, through his friendship with ‘Azíz
Páshá, whom He had previously known in Adrianople, and who had
subsequently been promoted to the rank of Valí, and through His constant
association with officials, notables and leading ecclesiastics who, in
increasing number, had besought His presence, during the final years of His
Father’s ministry, that He had succeeded in raising the prestige of the Cause
He had championed to a level it had never previously attained.
He alone had been accorded the privilege of being called “the Master”,
an honour from which His Father had strictly excluded all His other sons.
Upon Him that loving and unerring Father had chosen to confer the unique
title of “Sirru’lláh” (the Mystery of God), a designation so appropriate to
One Who, though essentially human and holding a station radically and
fundamentally different from that occupied by Bahá’u’lláh and His
Forerunner, could still claim to be the perfect Exemplar of His Faith, to be
endowed with superhuman knowledge, and to be regarded as the stainless
mirror reflecting His light.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 240–2.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá walking into 7 HaParsim Street

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with friends on Mount Carmel
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

The successor of the Manifestation of God
AND now to crown the inestimable honours, privileges and benefits
showered upon Him, in ever increasing abundance, throughout the forty
years of His Father’s ministry in Baghdád, in Adrianople and in ‘Akká, He
had been elevated to the high office of Centre of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant,
and been made the successor of the Manifestation of God Himself—a
position that was to empower Him to impart an extraordinary impetus to the
international expansion of His Father’s Faith, to amplify its doctrine, to beat
down every barrier that would obstruct its march, and to call into being, and
delineate the features of, its Administrative Order, the Child of the
Covenant, and the Harbinger of that World Order whose establishment must
needs signalize the advent of the Golden Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 243.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s tent

HIS Cause, precious beyond the dreams and hopes of men; enshrining
within its shell that pearl of great price to which the world, since its
foundation, had been looking forward; confronted with colossal tasks of
unimaginable complexity and urgency, was beyond a peradventure in safe
keeping. His own beloved Son, the apple of His eye, His vicegerent on
earth, the Executive of His authority, the Pivot of His Covenant, the
Shepherd of His flock, the Exemplar of His faith, the Image of His
perfections, the Mystery of His Revelation, the Interpreter of His mind, the
Architect of His World Order, the Ensign of His Most Great Peace, the
Focal Point of His unerring guidance—in a word, the occupant of an office
without peer or equal in the entire field of religious history—stood guard
over it, alert, fearless and determined to enlarge its limits, blazon abroad its
fame, champion its interests and consummate its purpose.
The stirring proclamation ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had penned, addressed to the
rank and file of the followers of His Father, on the morrow of His ascension,
as well as the prophecies He Himself had uttered in His Tablets, breathed a
resolve and a confidence which the fruits garnered and the triumphs
achieved in the course of a thirty-year ministry have abundantly justified.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 245.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with friends on Mount Carmel

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Howard McNutt’s garden
AN orphan community had recognized in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in its hour of
desperate need, its Solace, its Guide, its Mainstay and Champion. The Light
that had glowed with such dazzling brightness in the heart of Asia, and had,
in the lifetime of Bahá’u’lláh, spread to the Near East, and illuminated the
fringes of both the European and African continents, was to travel, through
the impelling influence of the newly proclaimed Covenant, and almost
immediately after the death of its Author, as far West as the North American
continent, and from thence diffuse itself to the countries of Europe, and
subsequently shed its radiance over both the Far East and Australasia.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 245.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with friends
Tumultuous years
IT was in 1901, on the fifth day of the month of Jamádíyu’l-Avval AH
1319 (20 August) that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, upon His return from Bahjí where He
had participated in the celebration of the anniversary of the Báb’s
Declaration, was informed, in the course of an interview with the governor
of ‘Akká, of Sulṭán ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd’s instructions ordering that the
restrictions which had been gradually relaxed should be reimposed, and that
He and His brothers should be strictly confined within the walls of that city.
The Sulṭán’s edict was at first rigidly enforced, the freedom of the exiled
community was severely curtailed, while ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had to submit, alone
and unaided, to the prolonged interrogation of judges and officials, who
required His presence for several consecutive days at government
headquarters for the purpose of their investigations. One of His first acts
was to intercede on behalf of His brothers, who had been peremptorily
summoned and informed by the governor of the orders of the sovereign, an
act which failed to soften their hostility or lessen their malevolent activities.
Subsequently, through His intervention with the civil and military
authorities, He succeeded in obtaining the freedom of His followers who
resided in ‘Akká, and in enabling them to con-

tinue to earn, without interference, the means of livelihood.
* * *
The gravity of the situation confronting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; the rumours that
were being set afloat by a population that anticipated the gravest
developments; the hints and allusions to the dangers threatening Him
contained in newspapers published in Egypt and Syria; the aggressive
attitude which His enemies increasingly assumed; the provocative behaviour
of some of the inhabitants of ‘Akká and Haifa who had been emboldened by
the predictions and fabrications of these enemies regarding the fate awaiting
a suspected community and its Leader, led Him to reduce the number of
pilgrims, and even to suspend, for a time, their visits, and to issue special
instructions that His mail be handled through an agent in Egypt rather than
in Haifa; for a time He ordered that it should be held there pending further
advice from Him. He, moreover, directed the believers, as well as His own
secretaries, to collect and remove to a place of safety all the Bahá’í writings
in their possession, and, urging them to transfer their residence to Egypt,
went so far as to forbid their gathering, as was their wont, in His house.
Even His numerous friends and admirers refrained, during the most
turbulent days of this period, from calling upon Him, for fear of being
implicated and of incurring the suspicion of the authorities. On certain days
and nights, when the outlook was

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 264–5.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in California

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America
at its darkest, the house in which He was living, and which had for many
years been a focus of activity, was completely deserted. Spies, secretly and
openly, kept watch around it, observing His every movement and restricting
the freedom of His family.
The construction of the Báb’s sepulchre, whose foundation-stone had
been laid by Him on the site blessed and selected by Bahá’u’lláh, He,
however, refused to suspend, or even interrupt, for however brief a period.
Nor would He allow any obstacle, however formidable, to interfere with the
daily flow of Tablets which poured forth, with prodigious rapidity and ever
increasing volume, from His indefatigable pen, in answer to the vast number
of letters, reports, inquiries, prayers, confessions of faith, apologies and
eulogies received from countless followers and admirers in both the East
and the West. Eye-witnesses have testified that, during that agitated and
perilous period of His life, they had known Him to pen, with His own Hand,
no less than ninety Tablets in a single day, and to pass many a night, from
dusk to dawn, alone in His bed-chamber engaged in a correspondence which
the pressure of His manifold responsibilities had prevented Him from
attending to in the day-time.
It was during these troublous times, the most dramatic period of His
ministry, when, in the hey-day of His life and in the full tide of His power,
He, with inexhaustible energy, marvellous serenity and unshakable
confidence, initiated and resistlessly prosecuted the varied enterprises

associated with that ministry. It was during these times that the plan of the
first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Bahá’í world was conceived by Him, and its
construction undertaken by His followers in the city of ‘Ishqábád in
Turkistán. It was during these times, despite the disturbances that agitated
His native country, that instructions were issued by Him for the restoration
of the holy and historic House of the Báb in Shíráz. It was during these
times that the initial measures, chiefly through His constant encouragement,
were taken which paved the way for the laying of the dedication stone,
which He, in later years, placed with His own hands when visiting the site
of the Mother Temple of the West on the shore of Lake Michigan. It was at
this juncture that that celebrated compilation of His table talks, published
under the title Some Answered Questions, was made, talks given during the
brief time He was able to spare, in the course of which certain fundamental
aspects of His Father’s Faith were elucidated, traditional and rational proofs
of its validity adduced, and a great variety of subjects regarding the
Christian Dispensation, the Prophets of God, Biblical prophecies, the origin
and condition of man and other kindred themes authoritatively explained.
It was during the darkest hours of this period that, in a communication
addressed to the Báb’s cousin, the venerable Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad-Taqí,
the chief builder of the Temple of ‘Ishqábád, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in stirring
terms, proclaimed the immeasurable greatness of the Revelation of
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Bahá’u’lláh, sounded the warnings foreshadowing the turmoil which its
enemies, both far and near, would let loose upon the world, and prophesied
in moving language, the ascendancy which the torchbearers of the Covenant
would ultimately achieve over them. It was at an hour of grave suspense,
during that same period, that He penned His Will and Testament, that
immortal Document wherein He delineated the features of the
Administrative Order which would arise after His passing, and would herald
the establishment of that World Order, the advent of which the Báb had
announced, and the laws and principles of which Bahá’u’lláh had already
formulated. It was in the course of these tumultuous years that, through the
instrumentality of the heralds and champions of a firmly instituted
Covenant, He reared the embryonic institutions, administrative, spiritual,
and educational, of a steadily expanding Faith in Persia, the cradle of that
Faith, in the Great Republic of the West, the cradle of its Administrative
Order, in the Dominion of Canada, in France, in England, in Germany, in
Egypt, in ‘Iráq, in Russia, in India, in Burma, in Japan, and even in the
remote Pacific Islands. It was during these stirring times that a tremendous
impetus was lent by Him to the translation, the publication and
dissemination of Bahá’í literature, whose scope now included a variety of
books and treatises, written in the Persian, the Arabic, the English, the
Turkish, the French, the German, the Russian and Burmese languages. At
His table, in those days, whenever there was a

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
lull in the storm raging about Him, there would gather pilgrims, friends and
inquirers from most of the afore-mentioned countries, representative of the
Christian, the Muslim, the Jewish, the Zoroastrian, the Hindu and Buddhist
Faiths. To the needy thronging His doors and filling the courtyard of His
house every Friday morning, in spite of the perils that environed Him, He
would distribute alms with His own hands, with a regularity and generosity
that won Him the title of “Father of the Poor”. Nothing in those
tempestuous days could shake His confidence, nothing would be allowed to
interfere with His ministrations to the destitute, the orphan, the sick, and the
down-trodden, nothing could prevent Him from calling in person upon those
who were either incapacitated, or ashamed to solicit His aid. Adamant in
His determination to follow the example of both the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh,
nothing would induce Him to flee from His enemies, or escape from
imprisonment, neither the advice tendered Him by the leading members of
the exiled community in ‘Akká, nor the insistent pleas of the Spanish
Consul—a kinsman of the agent of an Italian steamship company—who, in
his love for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and his anxiety to avert the threatening danger,
had gone so far as to place at His disposal an Italian freighter, ready to
provide Him a safe passage to any foreign port He might name.
So imperturbable was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s equanimity that, while rumours
were being bruited about that He might be cast into the sea, or

exiled to Fízán in Tripolitania, or hanged on the gallows, He, to the
amazement of His friends and the amusement of His enemies, was to be
seen planting trees and vines in the garden of His house, whose fruits, when
the storm had blown over, He would bid His faithful gardener, Ismá‘íl Áqá,
pluck and present to those same friends and enemies on the occasion of their
visits to Him.
… it was suddenly observed, one day at about sunset, that the ship,
which had been lying off Haifa, had weighed anchor, and was heading
towards ‘Akká. The news spread rapidly among an excited population that
the members of the Commission had embarked upon it. It was anticipated
that it would stop long enough at ‘Akká to take ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on board, and
then proceed to its destination. Consternation and anguish seized the
members of His family when informed of the approach of the ship. The few
believers who were left wept with grief at their impending separation from
their Master. ‘Abdul-Bahá could be seen, at that tragic hour, pacing, alone
and silent, the courtyard of His house.
As dusk fell, however, it was suddenly noticed that the lights of the ship
had swung round, and the vessel had changed her course. It now became
evident that she was sailing direct for Constantinople. The intelligence was
instantly communicated to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who, in the gathering darkness,
was still pacing His courtyard. Some of the believers who had posted
themselves at different points to watch the progress of the

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 267–9.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in garden at 7 HaParsim Street

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá riding on donkey up Mount Carmel
ship hurried to confirm the joyful tidings. One of the direst perils that had
ever threatened ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s precious life was on that historic day,
suddenly, providentially, and definitely averted.
Soon after the precipitate and wholly unexpected sailing of that ship
news was received that a bomb had exploded in the path of the Sulṭán while
he was returning to his palace from the mosque where he had been offering
his Friday prayers.
A few days after this attempt on his life the Commission submitted its
report to him; but he and his government were too preoccupied to consider
the matter. The case was laid aside, and when, some months later, it was
again brought forward it was abruptly closed forever by an event which,
once and for all, placed the Prisoner of ‘Akká beyond the power of His royal
enemy. The “Young Turk” Revolution, breaking out swiftly and decisively
in 1908, forced a reluctant despot to promulgate the constitution which he
had suspended, and to release all religious and political prisoners held under
the old régime. Even then a telegram had to be sent to Constantinople to
inquire specifically whether ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was included in the category of
these prisoners, to which an affirmative reply was promptly received.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 271–2.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in garden at 7 HaParsim Street
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and young girl
Entombment of the Báb’s
Remains on Mt. Carmel
‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ’S unexpected and dramatic release from His forty-year
confinement dealt a blow to the ambitions cherished by the Covenant-
breakers as devastating as that which, a decade before, had shattered their
hopes of undermining His authority and of ousting Him from His God-given
position. Now, on the very morrow of His triumphant liberation a third
blow befell them as stunning as those which preceded it and hardly less
spectacular than they. Within a few months of the historic decree which set
Him free, in the very year that witnessed the downfall of Sulṭán ‘Abdu’l-
Ḥamíd, that same power from on high which had enabled ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to
preserve inviolate the rights divinely conferred on Him, to establish His
Father’s Faith in the North American continent, and to triumph over His
royal oppressor, enabled Him to achieve one of the most signal acts of His
ministry: the removal of the Báb’s remains from their place of concealment
in Ṭihrán to Mt. Carmel. He Himself testified, on more than one occasion,
that the safe transfer of these remains, the construction of a befitting
mausoleum to receive them, and their final interment with His own hands in
their permanent resting-place constituted one of the three principal
objectives which, ever since the inception of His

mission, He had conceived it His paramount duty to achieve. This act
indeed deserves to rank as one of the outstanding events in the first Bahá’í
century.
… the mangled bodies of the Báb and His fellow-martyr, Mírzá
Muḥammad-‘Alí, were removed in the middle of the second night following
their execution, through the pious intervention of Ḥájí Sulaymán Khán,
from the edge of the moat where they had been cast to a silk factory owned
by one of the believers of Mílán, and were laid the next day in a wooden
casket, and thence carried to a place of safety. Subsequently, according to
Bahá’u’lláh’s instructions, they were transported to Ṭihrán and placed in the
shrine of Imám-Zádih Ḥasan. They were later removed to the residence of
Ḥájí Sulaymán Khán himself in the Sar-Chashmih quarter of the city, and
from his house were taken to the shrine of Imám-Zádih Ma‘ṣúm, where they
remained concealed until the year AH 1284 (1867–1868), when a Tablet,
revealed by Bahá’u’lláh in Adrianople, directed Mullá ‘Alí Akbar-i-
Shahmírzádí and Jamál-i-Burújirdí to transfer them without delay to some
other spot, an instruction which, in view of the subsequent reconstruction of
that shrine, proved to have been providential.
Unable to find a suitable place in the suburb of Sháh ‘Abdu’l-‘Aẓím,
Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar and his companion continued their search until, on the
road leading to Chashmih-‘Alí, they came upon the abandoned and
dilapidated Masjid-i-
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Stamford University, 8 October 1912

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Mashá’u’lláh, where they deposited, within one of its walls, after dark, their
precious burden, having first re-wrapt the remains in a silken shroud
brought by them for that purpose. Finding, the next day to their
consternation that the hiding-place had been discovered, they clandestinely
carried the casket through the gate of the capital direct to the house of Mírzá
Ḥasan-i-Vazír, a believer and son-in-law of Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid ‘Alíy-i-
Tafríshí, the Majdu’l-Ashráf, where it remained for no less than fourteen
months. The long-guarded secret of its whereabouts becoming known to the
believers, they began to visit the house in such numbers that a
communication had to be addressed by Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar to Bahá’u’lláh,
begging for guidance in the matter. Ḥájí Sháh Muḥammad-i-Manshádí,
surnamed Amínu’l-Bayán, was accordingly commissioned to receive the
Trust from him, and bidden to exercise the utmost secrecy as to its disposal.
Assisted by another believer, Ḥájí Sháh Muḥammad buried the casket
beneath the floor of the inner sanctuary of the shrine of Imám-Zádih Zayd,
where it lay undetected until Mírzá Asadu’lláh-i-Iṣfahání was informed of
its exact location through a chart forwarded to him by Bahá’u’lláh.
Instructed by Bahá’u’lláh to conceal it elsewhere, he first removed the
remains to his own house in Ṭihrán, after which they were deposited in
several other localities such as the house of Ḥusayn-‘Alíy-i-Iṣfahání and that
of Muḥammad-Karím-i-‘Aṭṭár, where they remained hidden until the year
AH 1316 (1899), when,

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá walking up to His room near the Shrine of the Báb
[Photograph]
The Shrine of the Báb during ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s lifetime

in pursuance of directions issued by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, this same Mírzá
Asadu’lláh, together with a number of other believers, transported them by
way of Iṣfahán, Kirmánsháh, Baghdád and Damascus, to Beirut and thence
by sea to ‘Akká, arriving at their destination on the 19th of the month of
Ramaḍán AH 1316 (31 January 1899), fifty lunar years after the Báb’s
execution in Tabríz.
In the same year that this precious Trust reached the shores of the Holy
Land and was delivered into the hands of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, He, … drove to the
recently purchased site which had been blessed and selected by Bahá’u’lláh
on Mt. Carmel, and there laid, with His own hands, the foundation-stone of
the edifice, the construction of which He, a few months later, was to
commence. About that same time, the marble sarcophagus, designed to
receive the body of the Báb, an offering of love from the Bahá’ís of
Rangoon, had, at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s suggestion, been completed and shipped
to Haifa.
No need to dwell on the manifold problems and preoccupations which,
for almost a decade, continued to beset ‘Abdu’l-Bahá until the victorious
hour when He was able to bring to a final consummation the historic task
entrusted to Him by His Father. The risks and perils with which
Bahá’u’lláh and later His Son had been confronted in their efforts to insure,
during half a century, the protection of those remains were but a prelude to
the grave dangers which, at a later period, the Centre of the Covenant
Himself had to
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
face in the course of the construction of the edifice designed to receive
them, and indeed until the hour of His final release from His incarceration.
The long-drawn out negotiations with the shrewd and calculating owner
of the building site of the holy Edifice, who, under the influence of the
Covenant-breakers, refused for a long time to sell; the exorbitant price at
first demanded for the opening of a road leading to that site and
indispensable to the work of construction; the interminable objections raised
by officials, high and low, whose easily aroused suspicions had to be
allayed by repeated explanations and assurances given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Himself; the dangerous situation created by the monstrous accusations
brought by Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí and his associates regarding the
character and purpose of that building; the delays and complications caused
by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s prolonged and enforced absence from Haifa, and His
consequent inability to supervise in person the vast undertaking He had
initiated—all these were among the principal obstacles which He, at so
critical a period in His ministry, had to face and surmount ere He could
execute in its entirety the Plan, the outline of which Bahá’u’lláh had
communicated to Him on the occasion of one of His visits to Mt. Carmel.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 273–5.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
[Photograph]
Painting of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by Sigismond Ivanowski

“EVERY stone of that building, every stone of the road leading to it,” He
many a time was heard to remark, “I have with infinite tears and at
tremendous cost, raised and placed in position.” “One night,” He,
according to an eyewitness, once observed, “I was so hemmed in by My
anxieties that I had no other recourse than to recite and repeat over and
over again a prayer of the Báb which I had in My possession, the recital of
which greatly calmed Me. The next morning the owner of the plot himself
came to Me, apologized and begged Me to purchase his property.”
Finally, in the very year His royal adversary lost his throne, and at the
time of the opening of the first American Bahá’í Convention, convened in
Chicago for the purpose of creating a permanent national organization for
the construction of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá brought His
undertaking to a successful conclusion, in spite of the incessant
machinations of enemies both within and without. On the 28th of the month
of Ṣafar AH 1327, the day of the first Naw-Rúz (1909), which He celebrated
after His release from His confinement, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had the marble
sarcophagus transported with great labour to the vault prepared for it, and in
the evening,
[Photograph]

by the light of a single lamp, He laid within it, with His own hands—in the
presence of believers from the East and from the West and in circumstances
at once solemn and moving—the wooden casket containing the sacred
remains of the Báb and His companion.
When all was finished, and the earthly remains of the Martyr-Prophet of
Shíráz were, at long last, safely deposited for their everlasting rest in the
bosom of God’s holy mountain, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who had cast aside His
turban, removed His shoes and thrown off His cloak, bent low over the still
open sarcophagus, His silver hair waving about His head and His face
transfigured and luminous, rested His forehead on the border of the wooden
casket, and, sobbing aloud, wept with such a weeping that all those who
were present wept with Him. That night He could not sleep, so
overwhelmed was He with emotion.
“The most joyful tidings is this,” He wrote later in a Tablet announcing
to His followers the news of this glorious victory, “that the holy, the
luminous body of the Báb … after having for sixty years been transferred
from place to place, by reason of the ascendancy of the enemy, and from
fear of the malevolent, and having known neither rest nor tranquillity has,
through the mercy of the Abhá Beauty, been ceremoniously deposited, on
the day of Naw-Rúz, within the sacred casket, in the exalted Shrine on Mt.
Carmel. … By a strange coincidence, on that same day of Naw-Rúz, a
cablegram was received
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in England
from Chicago, announcing that the believers in each of the American
centres had elected a delegate and sent to that city … and definitely decided
on the site and construction of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár.”

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 275–6.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in garden surrounding the Shrine of the Bahá’u’lláh at Bahjí
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
Ab on donkey
His travels
‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ was at this time broken in health. He suffered from
several maladies brought on by the strains and stresses of a tragic life spent
almost wholly in exile and imprisonment. He was on the threshold of three-
score years and ten. Yet as soon as He was released from His forty-year-
long captivity, as soon as He had laid the Báb’s body in a safe and
permanent resting-place, and His mind was free of grievous anxieties
connected with the execution of that priceless Trust, He arose with sublime
courage, confidence and resolution to consecrate what little strength
remained to Him, in the evening of His life, to a service of such heroic
proportions that no parallel to it is to be found in the annals of- the first
Bahá’í century.
Indeed His three years of travel, first to Egypt, then to Europe and later
to America, mark, if we would correctly appraise their historic importance,
a turning point of the utmost significance in the history of the century. For
the first time since the inception of the Faith, sixty-six years previously, its
Head and supreme Representative burst asunder the shackles which had
throughout the ministries of both the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh so grievously
fettered its freedom. Though repressive measures still continued to
circumscribe the

activities of the vast majority of its adherents in the land of its birth, its
recognized Leader was now vouchsafed a freedom of action which, with the
exception of a brief interval in the course of the War of 1914–18, He was to
continue to enjoy to the end of His life, and which has never since been
withdrawn from its institutions at its world centre.
So momentous a change in the fortunes of the Faith was the signal for
such an outburst of activity on His part as to dumbfound His followers in
East and West with admiration and wonder, and exercise an imperishable
influence on the course of its future history. He Who, in His own words,
had entered prison as a youth and left it an old man, Who never in His life
had faced a public audience, had attended no school, had never moved in
Western circles, and was unfamiliar with Western customs and language,
had arisen not only to proclaim from pulpit and platform, in some of the
chief capitals of Europe and in the leading cities of the North American
continent, the distinctive varieties enshrined in His Father’s Faith, but to
demonstrate as well the Divine origin of the Prophets gone before Him, and
to disclose the nature of the tie binding them to that Faith.
Inflexibly resolved to undertake this arduous voyage, at whatever cost to
His strength, at whatever risk to His life, He, quietly, and without any
previous warning, on a September afternoon of the year 191o, the year
following that which witnessed the downfall of Sulṭán ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd
[Photograph]

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with children
and the formal entombment of the Báb’s remains on Mt. Carmel, sailed for
Egypt, sojourned for about a month in Port Said, and from thence embarked
with the intention of proceeding to Europe, only to discover that the
condition of His health necessitated His landing again at Alexandria and
postponing His voyage. Fixing His residence in Ramleh, a suburb of
Alexandria, and later visiting Zaytún and Cairo, He, on 11 August of the
ensuing year, sailed with a party of four, on the S. S. Corsica for Marseilles
and proceeded, after a brief stop at Thonon-les-Bains, to London, where He
arrived on 4 September 1911. After a visit of about a month, He went to
Paris, where He stayed for a period of nine weeks, returning to Egypt in
December, 1911. Again taking up His residence in Ramleh, where He
passed the winter, He embarked, on His second journey to the West, on the
steamship Cedric, on 25 March 1912, sailing via Naples direct to New York
where He arrived on 11 April.
During these travels ‘Abdu’l-Bahá displayed a vitality, a courage, a
single-mindedness, a consecration to the task He had set Himself to achieve
that excited the wonder and admiration of those who had the privilege of
observing at close hand His daily acts. Indifferent to the sights and
curiosities which habitually invite the attention of travellers and which the
members of His entourage often wished Him to visit; careless alike of His
comfort and His health; expending every ounce of His energy day after day
from dawn till late at night; consistently refusing any gifts or

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 279–281.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with large group in Germany
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Germany

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with group in Stuttgart, Germany
contributions towards the expenses of His travels; unfailing in His solicitude
for the sick, the sorrowful and the down-trodden; uncompromising in His
championship of the underprivileged races and classes; bountiful as the rain
in His generosity to the poor; contemptuous of the attacks launched against
Him by vigilant and fanatical exponents of orthodoxy and sectarianism;
marvellous in His frankness while demonstrating, from platform and pulpit,
the prophetic Mission of Jesus Christ to the Jews, of the Divine origin of
Islám in churches and synagogues, or the truth of Divine Revelation and the
necessity of religion to materialists, atheists or agnostics; unequivocal in His
glorification of Bahá’u’lláh at all times and within the sanctuaries of divers
sects and denominations; adamant in His refusal, on several occasions, to
curry the favour of people of title and wealth both in England and in the
United States; and last but not least incomparable in the spontaneity, the
genuineness and warmth of His sympathy and loving-kindness shown to
friend and stranger alike, believer and unbeliever, rich and poor, high and
low, whom He met, either intimately or casually, whether on board ship, or
whilst pacing the streets, in parks or public squares, at receptions or
banquets, in slums or mansions, in the gatherings of His followers or the
assemblage of the learned, He, the incarnation of every Bahá’í virtue and
the embodiment of every Bahá’í ideal, continued for three crowded years to
trumpet to a world sunk in materialism and already in the shadow of war,

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Paris
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Paris

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in England
the healing, the God-given truths enshrined in His Father’s Revelation.
* * *
Whilst He sojourned in England the house placed at His disposal in
Cadogan Gardens became a veritable mecca to all sorts and conditions of
men, thronging to visit the Prisoner of ‘Akká Who had chosen their great
city as the first scene of His labours in the West. “O, these pilgrims, these
guests, these visitors!” thus bears witness His devoted hostess during the
time He spent in London, “Remembering those days, our ears are filled with
the sound of their footsteps—as they came from every country in the world.
Every day, all day long, a constant stream, an interminable procession!
Ministers and missionaries, oriental scholars and occult students, practical
men of affairs and mystics, Anglicans, Catholics, and Non-conformists,
Theosophists and Hindus, Christian Scientists and doctors of medicine,
Muslims, Buddhists and Zoroastrians. There also called: politicians,
Salvation Army soldiers, and other workers for human good, women
suffragists, journalists, writers, poets and healers, dressmakers and great
ladies, artists and artisans, poor workless people and prosperous merchants,
members of the dramatic and musical world, these all came; and none were
too lowly, nor too great, to receive the sympathetic consideration of this
holy Messenger, Who was ever giving His life for others’ good.”

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 282–3.
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 283.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Paris, 1912
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the Clifton guest house, Bristol, England, September 1911

[Photograph] Meeting in the hall of Passmore Edwards Settlement, London
“When ‘Abdul-Bahá visited this country for the first time in 1912,” a
commentator on His American travels has written, “He found a large and
sympathetic audience waiting to greet Him personally and to receive from
His own lips His loving and spiritual message. … Beyond the words
spoken there was something indescribable in His personality that impressed
profoundly all who came into His presence. The dome-like head, the
patriarchal beard, the eyes that seemed to have looked beyond the reach of
time and sense, the soft yet clearly penetrating voice, the translucent
humility, the never failing love, but above all, the sense of power mingled
with gentleness that invested His whole being with a rare majesty of
spiritual exaltation that both set Him apart, and yet that brought Him near to
the lowliest soul,—it was all this, and much more that can never be defined,
that have left with His many … friends, memories that are ineffaceable and
unspeakably precious.”
A survey, however inadequate of the varied and immense activities of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His tour of Europe and America cannot leave without
mention some of the strange incidents that would often accompany personal
contact with Him. The bold determination of a certain indomitable youth
who, fearing ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would not be able to visit the Western states,
and unable himself to pay for a train journey to New England, had travelled
all the way from Minneapolis to Maine lying on the rods between the
wheels of a train; the transformation effected in the life of

[Photograph]
Taken on the eve of departure from Budapest to Vienna
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with friends
the son of a country rector in England, who, in his misery and poverty, had
resolved, whilst walking along the banks of the Thames, to put an end to his
existence, and who, at the sight of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s photograph displayed in
a shop window, had inquired about Him, hurried to His residence, and been
so revived by His words of cheer and comfort as to abandon all thought of
self-destruction; the extraordinary experience of a woman whose little girl,
as the result of a dream she had had, insisted that Jesus Christ was in the
world, and who, at the sight of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s picture exposed in the
window of a magazine store, had instantly identified it as that of the Jesus
Christ of her dream—an act which impelled her mother, after reading that
‘Abdul-Bahá was in Paris, to take the next boat for Europe and hasten to
attain His presence; the decision of the editor of a journal printed in Japan to
break his journey to Tokyo at Constantinople, and travel to London for “the
joy of spending one evening in His presence”; the touching scene when
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, receiving from the hands of a Persian friend, recently arrived
in London from ‘Ishqábád, a cotton handkerchief containing a piece of dry
black bread and a shrivelled apple—the offering of a poor Bahá’í workman
in that city—opened it before His assembled guests, and, leaving His
luncheon untouched, broke pieces off that bread, and partaking Himself of it
shared it with those who were present—these are but a few of a host of
incidents that shed a revealing light on some personal aspects of His
memorable journeys.

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá walking near Lincoln Monument, Chicago, 1912
[Photograph]
Group photograph

[Photograph]
At home of Persian Consul-General, Hayozoun Hohannes Topakyan
(1864–1926), Morristown, New Jersey
Nor can certain scenes revolving around that majestic and patriarchal
Figure, as He moved through the cities of Europe and America, be ever
effaced from memory. The remarkable interview at which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
while placing lovingly His hand on the head of Archdeacon Wilberforce,
answered his many questions, whilst that distinguished churchman sat on a
low chair by His side; the still more remarkable scene when that same
Archdeacon, after having knelt with his entire congregation to receive His
benediction at St. John’s the Divine, passed down the aisle to the vestry
hand in hand with his Guest, whilst a hymn was being sung by the entire
assembly standing; the sight of Jalálu’d-Dawlih, fallen prostrate at His feet,
profuse in his apologies and imploring His forgiveness for his past
iniquities; the enthusiastic reception accorded Him at Leland Stanford
University when, before the gaze of well-nigh two thousand professors and
students, He discoursed on some of the noblest truths underlying His
message to the West; the touching spectacle at Bowery Mission when four
hundred of the poor of New York filed past Him, each receiving a piece of
silver from His blessed hands; the acclamation of a Syrian woman in Boston
who, pushing aside the crowd that had gathered around Him, flung herself at
His feet, exclaiming, “I confess that in Thee I have recognized the Spirit of
God and Jesus Christ Himself”; the no less fervent tribute paid Him by two
admiring Arabs who, as He was leaving that city for Dublin, N.H., cast
themselves before

Him, and, sobbing aloud, avowed that He was God’s own Messenger to
mankind; the vast congregation of two thousand Jews assembled in a
synagogue in San Francisco, intently listening to His discourse as He
demonstrated the validity of the claims advanced by both Jesus Christ and
Muḥammad; the gathering He addressed one night in Montreal, at which, in
the course of His speech, His turban fell from His head, so carried away was
He by the theme He was expounding; the boisterous crowd in a very poor
quarter of Paris, who, awed by His presence, reverently and silently made
way for Him as He passed through their midst, while returning from a
Mission Hall whose congregation He had been addressing; the characteristic
gesture of a Zoroastrian physician who, arriving in breathless haste on the
morning of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s departure from London to bid Him farewell,
anointed with fragrant oil first His head and His breast, and then, touching
the hands of all present, placed round His neck and shoulders a garland of
rosebuds and lilies; the crowd of visitors arriving soon after dawn, patiently
waiting on the doorsteps of His house in Cadogan Gardens until the door
would be opened for their admittance; His majestic figure as He paced with
a vigorous step the platform, or stood with hands upraised to pronounce the
benediction, in church and synagogue alike, and before vast audiences of
reverent listeners; the unsolicited mark of respect shown Him by
distinguished society women in London, who would spontaneously curtsy
when ushered
[Photograph]
In Lincoln Park, Chicago, May 1912

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Green Acre
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bennett house

into His presence; the poignant sight when He stooped low to the grave of
His beloved disciple, Thornton Chase, in Inglewood Cemetery, and kissed
his tombstone, an example which all those present hastened to follow; the
distinguished gathering of Christians, Jews and Muslims, men and women
and representative of both the East and the West, assembled to hear His
discourse on world unity in the mosque at Woking—such scenes as these,
even in the cold record of the printed page, must still have much of their
original impressiveness and power.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 290–2.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with children

[Photograph]
Ab with friends, USA
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Green Acre

[Photograph]
At barbecue in honour of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with Persian Consul-General
Topakyan
WHO knows what thoughts flooded the heart of ‘Abdul-Bahá as He
found Himself the central figure of such memorable scenes as these? Who
knows what thoughts were uppermost in His mind as He sat at breakfast
beside the Lord Mayor of London, or was received with extraordinary
deference by the Khedive himself in his palace, or as He listened to the cries
of “Alláh-u-Abhá” and to the hymns of thanksgiving and praise that would
herald His approach to the numerous and brilliant assemblages of His
enthusiastic followers and friends organized in so many cities of the
American continent? Who knows what memories stirred within Him as He
stood before the thundering waters of Niagara, breathing the free air of a far
distant land, or gazed, in the course of a brief and much-needed rest, upon
the green woods and countryside in Glenwood Springs, or moved with a
retinue of Oriental believers along the paths of the Trocadero gardens in
Paris, or walked alone in the evening beside the majestic Hudson on
Riverside Drive in New York, or as He paced the terrace of the Hotel du
Parc at Thonon-les-Bains, overlooking the Lake of Geneva, or as He
watched from Serpentine Bridge in London the pearly chain of Lights
beneath the trees stretching as

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and ladies
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá seated in the garden of the home of Mrs McNutt

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with Dr and Mrs Ali Kuli Khan
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with Rúḥíyyih Jones and two daughters of M. Windust

far as the eye could see? Memories of the sorrows, the poverty, the
overhanging doom of His earlier years; memories of His mother who sold
her gold buttons to provide Him, His brother and His sister with sustenance,
and who was forced, in her darkest hours, to place a handful of dry flour in
the palm of His hand to appease His hunger; of His own childhood when
pursued and derided by a mob of ruffians in the streets of Ṭihrán; of the
damp and gloomy room, formerly a morgue, which He occupied in the
barracks of ‘Akká and of His imprisonment in the dungeon of that city—
memories such as these must surely have thronged His mind. Thoughts,
too, must have visited Him of the Báb’s captivity in the mountain fastnesses
of Ádhirbáyján, when at night time He was refused even a lamp, and of His
cruel and tragic execution when hundreds of bullets riddled His youthful
breast. Above all His thoughts must have centred on Bahá’u’lláh, Whom
He loved so passionately and Whose trials He had witnessed and had shared
from His boyhood. The vermin-infested Síyáh-Chál of Ṭihrán; the
bastinado inflicted upon Him in Ámul; the humble fare which filled His
Kashkúl while He lived for two years the life of a dervish in the mountains
of Kurdistán; the days in Baghdád when He did not even possess a change
of linen, and when His followers subsisted on a handful of dates; His
confinement behind the prison-walls of ‘Akká, when for nine years even the
sight of verdure was denied Him; and the public humiliation to which He
was subjected at
government headquarters in that city—pictures from the tragic past such as
these must have many a time overpowered Him with feelings of mingled
gratitude and sorrow, as He witnessed the many marks of respect, of esteem,
and honour now shown Him and the Faith which He represented. “O
Bahá’u’lláh! What hast Thou done?” He, as reported by the chronicler of
His travels, was heard to exclaim one evening as He was being swiftly
driven to fulfil His third engagement of the day in Washington, “O
Bahá’u’lláh! May my life be sacrificed for Thee! O Bahá’u’lláh! May my
soul be offered up for Thy sake! How full were Thy days with trials and
tribulations! How severe the ordeals Thou didst endure! How solid the
foundation Thou hast finally laid, and how glorious the banner Thou didst
hoist!” “One day, as He was strolling,” that same chronicler has testified,
“He called to remembrance the days of the Blessed Beauty, referring with
sadness to His sojourn in Suláymániyyih, to His loneliness and to the
wrongs inflicted upon Him. Though He had often recounted that episode,
that day He was so overcome with emotion that He sobbed aloud in His
grief. … All His attendants wept with Him, and were plunged into sorrow
as they heard the tale of the woeful trials endured by the Ancient Beauty,
and witnessed the tenderness of heart manifested by His Son.”
A most significant scene in a century-old drama had been enacted. A
glorious chapter in the history of the first Bahá’í century had been written.
Seeds of undreamt-of potentialities had,

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Lincoln Park, Chicago
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with Rúḥíyyih Jones

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá walking on Riverside Drive, New York City
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with an American family

with the hand of the Centre of the Covenant Himself, been sown in some of
the fertile fields of the Western world. Never in the entire range of religious
history had any Figure of comparable stature arisen to perform a labour of
such magnitude and imperishable worth. Forces were unleashed through
those fateful journeys which even now … we are unable to measure or
comprehend. Already a Queen, inspired by the powerful arguments
adduced by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the course of His addresses in support of the
Divinity of Muḥammad, has proclaimed her faith, and borne public
testimony to the Divine origin of the Prophet of Islám. Already a President
of the United States, imbibing some of the principles so clearly enunciated
by Him in His discourses, has incorporated them in a Peace Programme
which stands out as the boldest and noblest proposal yet made for the well-
being and security of mankind. And already, alas! a world which proved
deaf to His warnings and refused to heed His summons has plunged itself
into two global wars of unprecedented severity, the repercussions of which
none as yet can even dimly visualize.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 292–4.
Glimpses of His talks and writings
A meeting such as this seems like a beautiful cluster of precious
jewels—pearls, rubies, diamonds, sapphires. It is a source of joy and
delight. Whatever is conducive to the unity of the world of mankind is most
acceptable and praiseworthy; whatever is the cause of discord and disunion
is saddening and deplorable. Consider the significance of unity and
harmony.
This evening I will speak to you upon the subject of existence and non-
existence, life and death. Existence is the expression and outcome of
composition and combination. Non-existence is the expression and
outcome of division and disintegration. If we study the forms of existence
in the material universe, we find that all created things are the result of
composition. Material elements have grouped together in infinite variety
and endless forms. Each organism is a compound; each object is an
expression of elemental affinity. We find the complex human organism
simply an aggregation of cellular structure; the tree is a composite of plant
cells; the animal a combination and grouping of cellular atoms or units, and
so on. Existence or the expression of being is therefore composition, and
non-existence is decomposition, division, disintegration. When elements
have been brought

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with Rúḥíyyih Jones and Joseph Ioas
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá leading Rúḥíyyih Jones to the light

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at banquet at Great Northern Hotel, New York City, 23
November 1912
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Mr Milburn’s church, Chicago, 1912

together in a certain plan of combination the result is the human organism;
when these elements separate and disperse, the outcome is death and non-
existence. Life is therefore the product of composition, and death signifies
decomposition.
Likewise in the world of minds and souls, fellowship, which is an
expression of composition, is conductive to life; whereas discord, which is
an expression of decomposition, is the equivalent of death. Without
cohesion among the individual elements which compose the body-politic,
disintegration and decay must inevitably follow and life be extinguished.
Ferocious animals have no fellowship. The vultures and tigers are solitary
whereas domestic animals live together in complete harmony. The sheep,
black and white, associate without discord. Birds of various species and
colours wing their flight and feed together without trace of enmity or
disagreement. Therefore in the world of humanity it is wise and seemly that
all the individual members should manifest unity and affinity. In the
clustered jewels of the races, may the coloured people be as sapphires and
rubies, and the whites as diamonds and pearls. The composite beauty of
humanity will be witnessed in their unity and blending. How glorious the
spectacle of real unity among mankind! How conducive to peace,
confidence and happiness if races and nations were united in fellowship and
accord! The prophets of God were sent into the world upon this mission of
unity and agreement; that these long-separated
sheep might flock together. When the sheep separate they are exposed to
danger, but in a flock and under protection of the shepherd they are safe
from the attack of all ferocious enemies.
When the racial elements of the American nation unite in actual
fellowship and accord, the lights of the oneness of humanity will shine, the
day of eternal glory and bliss will dawn, the spirit of God encompass and
the divine favours descend. Under the leadership and training of God the
real shepherd, all will be protected and preserved. He will lead them in
green pastures of happiness and sustenance and they will attain to the real
goal of existence. This is the blessing and benefit of unity; this is the
outcome of love. This is the sign of the “Most Great Peace”; this is the star
of the oneness of the human world. Consider how blessed this condition
will be. I pray for you and ask the confirmation and assistance of God in
your behalf.

Talk given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 24 April 1912, at Home of Mrs Andrew J. Dyer,
1937 Thirteenth Street, NW, Washington, D.C. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The
Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 256–7.
[Photograph]
[Photograph]

TONIGHT I am very happy for I have come here to meet my friends. I
consider you my relatives, my companions; and I am your comrade.
You must be thankful to God that you are poor, for His Holiness Jesus
Christ has said “Blessed are the poor”; He never said blessed are the rich.
He said too that the Kingdom is for the poor and that it is easier for a camel
to enter a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter God’s Kingdom.
Therefore you must be thankful to God that although in this world you are
indigent, yet the treasures of God are within your reach; and although in
the material realms you are poor, yet in the Kingdom of God you are
precious. His Holiness Jesus Himself was poor. He did not belong to the
rich. He passed His time in the desert travelling among the poor, and lived
upon the herbs of the field. He had no place to lay His head; no home. He
was exposed in the open to heat, cold and frost; to inclement weather of all
kinds, yet He chose this rather than riches. If riches were considered a
glory the prophet Moses would have chosen them; Jesus would have been a
rich man. When Jesus Christ appeared it was the poor who first accepted
Him, not the rich. Therefore you are the disciples of Jesus Christ; you are
His comrades
for He outwardly was poor not rich. Even this earth’s happiness does not
depend upon wealth. You will find many of the wealthy exposed to dangers
and troubled by difficulties, and in their last moments upon the bed of death
there remains the regret that they must be separated from that to which their
hearts are so attached. They come into this world naked and they must go
from it naked. All they possess they must leave behind and pass away
solitary, alone. Often at the time of death their souls are filled with
remorse, and worst of all, their hope in the mercy of God is less than ours.
Praise be to God! Our hope is in the mercy of God and there is no doubt
that the divine compassion is bestowed upon the poor. His Holiness Jesus
Christ said so; His holiness Bahá’u’lláh said so. While Bahá’u’lláh was in
Baghdád, still in possession of great wealth, He left all He had and went
alone from the city, living two years among the poor. They were His
comrades. He ate with them, slept with them and gloried in being one of
them. He chose for one of His names the title of “The Poor One”, and often
in His writings refers to Himself as “Dervish”, which in Persian means
“poor”; and of this title He was very proud. He admonished all that we
must be the servants of the poor, helpers of the poor, remember the sorrows
of the poor, associate with them for thereby we may inherit the Kingdom of
Heaven. God has not said that there are mansions prepared for us if we
pass our time associating with the rich but He has said there are many
mansions prepared

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with group in West Englewood, New Jersey, America, 1912

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with Eastern friends at the Shrine of the Báb
for the servants of the poor, for the poor are very dear to God. The mercies
and bounties of God are with them. The rich are mostly negligent,
inattentive, steeped in worldliness, depending upon their means, whereas
the poor are dependent upon God and their reliance is upon him, not upon
themselves. Therefore the poor are nearer the threshold of God and His
throne.
Jesus was a poor man. One night when He was out in the fields the rain
began to fall. He had no place to go for shelter so He lifted His eyes toward
Heaven saying “O Father! for the birds of the air Thou hast created nests,
for the sheep a fold, for the animals dens, for the fishes places of refuge, but
for me Thou hast provided no shelter; there is no place where I may lay my
head; my bed consists of the cold ground, my lamps at night are the stars
and my food is the grass of the field, yet who upon earth is richer than I?
For the greatest blessing Thou hast not given to the rich and mighty but
unto me for Thou hast given me the poor. To me Thou hast granted this
blessing. They are mine. Therefore am I the richest man on earth.”
So my comrades you are following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Your
lives are similar to His life, your attitude is like unto Him, you resemble
Him more than the rich. Therefore we will thank God that we have been so
blest with real riches. And in conclusion I ask you to accept ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
as your servant.

Talk at Bowery Mission given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 19 April 1912, New York. The
Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 32–4.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá leaving New York City on the Celtic, December 1912
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá kissing Sarah Farmer

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in West Englewood, New Jersey, 1912
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Sarah Farmer, Green Acre, 1912

O NOBLE friends, seekers after God! Praise be to God! Today the light
of Truth is shining upon the world in its abundance; the breezes of the
heavenly garden are blowing throughout all regions; the call of the
Kingdom is heard in all lands, and the breath of the Holy Spirit is felt in all
hearts that are faithful. The Spirit of God is giving eternal life. In this
wonderful age the East is enlightened, the West is fragrant, and everywhere
the soul inhales the holy perfume. The sea of the unity of mankind is lifting
up its waves with joy, for there is real communication between the hearts
and minds of men. The banner of the Holy Spirit is uplifted, and men see it,
and are assured with the knowledge that this is a new day.
This is a new cycle of human power. All the horizons of the world are
luminous, and the world will become indeed as a garden and a paradise. It
is the hour of unity of the sons of men and of the drawing together of all
races and all classes. You are loosed from ancient superstitions which have
kept men ignorant, destroying the foundations of true humanity.
The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of
mankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion. War shall cease
between nations, and by the Will of God the
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at boys’ camp

[Photograph]
Taken at Dr Henderson’s camp for boys, near Dublin, New Hampshire, 12
August 1912
[Photograph]
Taken at Roy C. Wilhelm home, West England, New Jersey, about June
1912

[Photograph]
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at dedication of Temple site in Wilmette, Illinois, 1912

Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and
all men will live as brothers.
In the days of old an instinct for warfare was developed in the struggle
with wild animals; this is no longer necessary; nay, rather, co-operation
and mutual understanding are seen to produce the greatest welfare of
mankind. Enmity is now the result of prejudice only.
In the “Hidden Words” Bahá’u’lláh says, “Justice is to be loved above
all.” Praise be to God, in this country the standard of justice has been
raised; a great effort is being made to give all souls an equal and true
place. This is the desire of all noble natures; this is today the teaching for
the East and for the West; therefore the East and the West will understand
each other and reverence each other, and embrace like long-parted lovers
who have found each other.
There is one God; mankind is one; the foundations of religion are one.
Let us worship Him, and give praise. for all His great Prophets and
Messengers who have manifested His brightness and glory.
The blessing of the Eternal One be with you in all its richness, that each
soul according to his measure may take freely of him. Amen.

Talk given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the City Temple, 1911, London. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in
London, pp. 19–20.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with young man breaking ground at Temple land, Chicago,
1912

DO you know in what Day you are living? Do you realize in what
Dispensation you are alive? Have you not heard in the Holy Scriptures that
at the consummation of the ages there shall appear a Day which is the Sun
of all the past days? This is the Day in which the Lord of Hosts has come
down from Heaven on the clouds of glory! This is the Day in which the
inhabitants of all the world shall enter under the shelter of the Word of God.
This is the Day whose real sovereign is His Highness the Almighty. This
is the Day when the East and the West shall embrace each other like unto
two lovers. This is the Day in which war and contention shall be forgotten.
This is the Day in which nations and governments will enter into an eternal
bond of amity and conciliation. This Century is the fulfilment of the
Promised Century.
This Day is the dawn of the appearances of the traces of the glorious
visions of the past prophets and sages.
Now is the dawn; ere long the effulgent Sun shall rise and station itself
in the meridian of
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá laying cornerstone of the House of Worship, Wilmette, 1912
[Photograph]

its majesty. Then you shall observe the effects of the Sun. Then you shall
behold what heavenly illumination has become manifest. Then you shall
comprehend that these are the infinite bestowals of God! Then you shall see
that this world has become another world. Then you shall perceive that the
Teachings of God have universally spread.
Rest ye assured that this darkness shall be dispelled and these
impenetrable clouds which have darkened the horizon shall be scattered,
and the Sun of Reality shall appear in its full splendour. Its rays shall melt
the icebergs of hatred and differences which have transformed the moving
sea of humanity into hard-frozen immensity. The vices of the world of
nature shall be changed into praiseworthy attributes, and the lights of the
excellences of the Divine realm shall appear.
The principles of Bahá’u’lláh, like unto the spirit, shall penetrate the
dead body of the world, and the Love of God, like unto an artery, shall beat
through the heart of the five continents.
The East shall become illumined, the West perfumed, and the children of
men enter beneath the all-embracing canopy of the oneness of the world of
humanity.
In this Day the rest of the people are asleep. Praise be to God that you
are awakened! They
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá on way to knighthood ceremony, 1920

are all uninformed, but praise be to God you are informed of the mysteries
of God! Thank ye God that in this arena you have preceded others. I hope
that each one of you may become a pillar of the palace of the oneness of the
world of humanity. May each one of you become a luminous star of this
heaven, thus lighting the path of those who are seeking the goal of human
perfection.

Talk given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1913, Paris, France. Bahá’í Scriptures, pp. 266–7.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, knighthood ceremony, 1920

OH, how I long that it could be made possible for me to travel through
these parts, even if necessary on foot and with the utmost poverty, and while
passing through the cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans, cry at
the top of my voice “Yá-Bahá’u’l-Abhá!” and promote the divine teachings.
But now this is not feasible for me; therefore I live in great regret;
perchance, God willing, ye may become assisted therein.
* * *
You have observed that while ‘Abdul-Bahá was in the utmost bodily
weakness and feebleness, while He was indisposed, and had not the power
to move—notwithstanding this physical state He travelled through many
countries, in Europe and America, and in churches, meetings and
conventions, was occupied with the promotion of the divine principles and
summoned the people to the manifestation of the Kingdom of Abhá. You
have also observed how the confirmations of the Blessed Perfection
encompassed all. What result is forthcoming from material rest,
tranquillity, luxury and attachment to this corporeal world! It is evident
that the man who pursues these things will in the end become afflicted with
regret and loss.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í Scriptures, p. 536.
[Photograph]
Taken in Haifa, February 1919

Consequently, one must close his eyes wholly to these thoughts, long for
eternal life, the sublimity of the world of humanity, the celestial
developments, the Holy Spirit, the promotion of the Word of God, the
guidance of the inhabitants of the globe, the promulgation of Universal
Peace and the proclamation of the oneness of the world of humanity! This
is the work! Otherwise like unto other animals and birds one must occupy
himself with the requirements of this physical life, the satisfaction of which
is the highest aspiration of the animal kingdom, and one must stalk across
the earth like unto the quadrupeds.
Consider ye! No matter how much man gains wealth, riches and
opulence in this world, he will not become as independent as a cow. For
these fattened cows roam freely over the vast tableland. All the prairies and
meadows are theirs for grazing, and all the springs and rivers are theirs for
drinking! No matter how much they graze, the fields will not be exhausted!
It is evident that they have earned these material bounties with the utmost
facility.
Still more ideal than this life is the life of the bird. A bird, on the summit
of a mountain, on the high, waving branches, has built for itself a nest more
beautiful than the palaces of the kings! The air is in the utmost purity, the
water cool and clear as crystal, the panorama charming and enchanting. In
such glorious surroundings, he expends his numbered days. All the harvests
of the plain are his possessions, having earned all
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with pilgrims at 7 HaParsim Street

this wealth without the least labour. Hence, no matter how much man may
advance in this world, he shall not attain to the station of this bird! Thus it
becomes evident that in the matters of this world, however much man may
strive and work to the point of death, he will be unable to earn the
abundance, the freedom and the independent life of a small bird. This
proves and establishes the fact that man is not created for the life of this
ephemeral world: nay, rather, is he created for the acquirement of infinite
perfections, for the attainment to the sublimity of the world of humanity, to
be drawn nigh unto the divine threshold, and to sit on the throne of
everlasting sovereignty!
Upon you be Bahá’u’l-Abhá!

Any soul starting on a trip of teaching to various parts, and while
sojourning in strange countries, may peruse the following supplication—day
and night.
O God! O God! Thou seest me enamoured and attracted toward Thy
Kingdom, the El-Abhá, enkindled with the fire of Thy love amongst
mankind, a herald of Thy Kingdom in these vast and spacious countries,
severed from aught else save Thee, relying on Thee, abandoning rest and
comfort, remote from my native home, a wanderer in these regions, a
stranger fallen on the ground, humble before Thy exalted threshold,
submissive toward Thy most high realm, supplicating Thee

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan, pp. 44–6.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá riding on donkey accompanied by two friends

in the middle of nights and in the heart of evenings, entreating and invoking
Thee in the morn and eve, so that Thou mayest assist me in the service of
Thy Cause, the promotion of Thy Teachings and the exaltation of Thy Word
in the Easts of the earth and the Wests thereof.
O Lord! Strengthen my back and confirm me in Thy servitude with all
my powers, and do not leave me alone and by myself in these countries.
O Lord! Associate with me in my loneliness and accompany me in my
journeys through these foreign lands.
Verily, Thou art the confirmer of whomsoever Thou Wiliest in that which
Thou desirest, and verily Thou art the Powerful, the Omnipotent.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í Scriptures, p. 539.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá riding on donkey

O ye kind friends! Uplift your magnanimity and soar high toward the
apex of heaven so that your blessed hearts may become illumined more and
more, day by day, through the Rays of the Sun of Reality, that is, His
Holiness Bahá’u’lláh; at every moment the spirits may obtain a new life,
and the darkness of the world of nature may be entirely dispelled; thus you
may become incarnate light and personified spirit, become entirely unaware
of the sordid matters of this world and in touch with the affairs of the divine
world.
Behold the portals which Bahá’u’lláh hath opened before you! Consider
how exalted and lofty is the station you are destined to attain; how unique
the favours with which you have been endowed. Should we become
intoxicated with this cup, the sovereignty of this globe of earth will become
lower in our estimation than the children’s plays. Should they place in the
arena the crown of the government of the whole world, and invited each one
of us to accept it, undoubtedly we shall not condescend, and shall refuse to
accept it.
To attain to this supreme station is, however, dependent on the
realization of certain conditions:
The first condition is firmness in the Covenant
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Germany

of God. For the power of the Covenant will protect the Cause of
Bahá’u’lláh from the doubts of the people of error. It is the fortified fortress
of the Cause of God and the firm pillar of the religion of God. Today no
power can conserve the oneness of the Bahá’í world save the Covenant of
God; otherwise differences like unto a most great tempest will encompass
the Bahá’í world. It is undubitably clear that the pivot of the oneness of
mankind is nothing else but the power of the Covenant. Had the Covenant
not come to pass, had it not been revealed from the Supreme Pen and had
not the Book of the Covenant, like unto the ray of the Sun of Reality,
illuminated the world, the forces of the Cause of God would have been
utterly scattered and certain souls who were the prisoners of their own
passions and lusts would have taken into their hands an axe, cutting the root
of this Blessed Tree. Every person would have pushed forward his own
desire and every individual aired his own opinion! Notwithstanding this
great Covenant, a few negligent souls galloped with their chargers into the
battlefield, thinking perchance they might be able to weaken the foundation
of the Cause of God: but praise be to God all of them were afflicted with
regret and loss, and ere long they shall see themselves in poignant despair.
Therefore, in the beginning one must make his steps firm in the Covenant so
that the confirmations of Bahá’u’lláh may encircle from all sides, the
cohorts of the Supreme Concourse may become the supporters and the
helpers, and the exhortations and advices of
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, like unto the pictures engraved on stone, may remain
permanent and ineffaceable in the tablets of the hearts.
The second condition: Fellowship and love amongst the believers. The
divine friends must be attracted to and enamoured of each other and ever be
ready and willing to sacrifice their own lives for each other. Should one
soul from amongst the believers meet another, it must be as though a thirsty
one with parched lips has reached to the fountain of the water of life, or a
lover has met his true beloved. For one of the greatest divine wisdoms
regarding the appearance of the Holy Manifestations is this: The souls may
come to know each other and become intimate with each other; the power of
the love of God may make all of them the waves of one sea, the flowers of
one rose garden, and the stars of one heaven. This is the wisdom for the
appearance of the Holy Manifestations! When the most great bestowal
reveals itself in the hearts of the believers, the world of nature will be
transformed, the darkness of the contingent being will vanish, and heavenly
illumination will be obtained. Then the whole world will become the
Paradise of Abhá, every one of the believers of God will become a blessed
tree, producing wonderful fruits.
O ye friends! Fellowship, fellowship! Love, love! Unity, unity! So that
the power of the Bahá’í Cause may appear and become manifest in the
world of existence. My thoughts are turned towards you, and my heart
leaps within me at
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá on Mount Carmel

your mention. Could ye know how my soul gloweth with your love, so great
a happiness would flood your hearts as to cause you to become enamoured
with each other.
The third condition: Teachers must continually travel to all parts of the
continent, nay, rather to all parts of the world, but they must travel like
`Abdul-Bahá, who journeyed throughout the cities of America. He was
sanctified and free from every attachment and in the utmost severance. Just
as His Holiness Christ says, “Shake off the very dust from your feet.”
You have observed that while in America many souls in the utmost of
supplication and entreaty desired to offer some gifts, but this servant, in
accord with the exhortations and behests of the Blessed Perfection, never
accepted a thing, although on certain occasions we were in most straitened
circumstances. But, on the other hand, if a soul for the sake of God,
voluntarily and out of his pure desire, wishes to offer a contribution (toward
the expenses of a teacher) in order to make the contributor happy, the
teacher may accept a small sum, but must live with the utmost contentment.
The aim is this: The intention of the teacher must be pure, his heart
independent, his spirit attracted, his thought at peace, his resolution firm,
his magnanimity exalted and in the love of God a shining torch. Should he
become as such, his sanctified breath will even affect the rock; otherwise
there will be no result whatsoever. As long as a soul is not perfected, how
can he efface

Cf. Matthew 10:14.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in garden at 7 HaParsim Street

the defects of others. Unless he is detached from aught else save God, how
can he teach severance to others!
In short, O ye believers of God! Endeavour ye, so that you may take
hold of every means in the promulgation of the religion of God and the
diffusion of the fragrances of God.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan, pp. 50–4.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
The war years
THE war of 1914–18, repeatedly fore-shadowed by ‘Abdul-Bahá in the
dark warnings He uttered in the course of His western travels, and which
broke out eight months after His return to the Holy Land, once more cast a
shadow of danger over His life, the last that was to darken the years of His
agitated yet glorious ministry.
The late entry of the United States of America in that world-convulsing
conflict, the neutrality of Persia, the remoteness of India and of the Far East
from the theatre of operations, insured the protection of the overwhelming
majority of His followers, who, though for the most part entirely cut off for
a number of years from the spiritual centre of their Faith, were still able to
conduct their affairs and safeguard the fruits of their recent achievements in
comparative safety and freedom.
In the Holy Land, however, though the outcome of that tremendous
struggle was to liberate once and for all the Heart and Centre of the Faith
from the Turkish yoke, a yoke which had imposed for so long upon its
Founder and His Successor such oppressive and humiliating restrictions, yet
severe privations and grave dangers continued to surround its inhabitants
during the major part of that conflict, and renewed, for a time, the perils

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in England
which had confronted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during the years of His incarceration in
‘Akká. The privations inflicted on the inhabitants by the gross
incompetence, the shameful neglect, the cruelty and callous indifference of
both the civil and military authorities, though greatly alleviated through the
bountiful generosity, the foresight and the tender care of ‘Abdul-Bahá, were
aggravated by the rigours of a strict blockade. A bombardment of Haifa by
the Allies was a constant threat, at one time so real that it necessitated the
temporary removal of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His family and members of the local
community to the village of Abú Sinán at the foot of the hills east of ‘Akká.
The Turkish Commander-in-Chief, the brutal, the all-powerful and
unscrupulous, Jamál Páshá, an inveterate enemy of the Faith, through his
own ill-founded suspicions and the instigation of its enemies, had already
grievously afflicted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and even expressed his intention of
crucifying Him and of razing to the ground the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself still suffered from the ill-health and exhaustion
brought on by the fatigues of His three-year journeys. He felt acutely the
virtual stoppage of all communication with most of the Bahá’í centres
throughout the world. Agony filled His soul at the spectacle of human
slaughter precipitated through humanity’s failure to respond to the summons
He had issued, or to heed the warnings He had given. Surely sorrow upon
sorrow was added to the burden of trials and vicissitudes which He, since
His boyhood, had borne so

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá on way to knighthood ceremony, 1920
heroically for the sake, and in the service, of His Father’s Cause.
And yet during these sombre days, the darkness of which was
reminiscent of the tribulations endured during the most dangerous period of
His incarceration in the prison-fortress of ‘Akká, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, whilst in
the precincts of His Father’s Shrine, or when dwelling in the House He
occupied in ‘Akká, or under the shadow of the Báb’s sepulchre on Mt.
Carmel, was moved to confer once again, and for the last time in His life, on
the community of His American followers a signal mark of His special
favour by investing them, on the eve of the termination of His earthly
ministry, through the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, with a
world mission, whose full implications even now... still remain undisclosed,
and whose unfoldment thus far, though as yet in its initial stages, has so
greatly enriched the spiritual as well as the administrative annals of the first
Bahá’í century.
The conclusion of this terrible conflict, the first stage in a titanic
convulsion long predicted by Bahá’u’lláh, not only marked the extinction of
Turkish rule in the Holy Land and sealed the doom of that military despot
who had vowed to destroy ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, but also shattered once and for all
the last hopes still entertained by the remnant of Covenant-breakers who,
untaught by the severe retribution that had already overtaken them, still
aspired to witness the extinction of the light of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant.
Furthermore, it produced those revolutionary changes which, on

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá on terrace in front of the Shrine of the Báb
the one hand, fulfilled the ominous predictions made by Bahá’u’lláh in the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and enabled, according to Scriptural prophecy, so large an
element of the “outcasts of Israel,” the “remnant” of the “flock,” to
“assemble” in the Holy Land, and to be brought back to “their folds” and
“their own border,” beneath the shadow of the “Incomparable Branch,”
referred to by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Some Answered Questions, and which,
on the other hand, gave birth to the institution of the League of Nations, the
precursor of that World Tribunal which, as prophesied by that same
“Incomparable Branch,” the peoples and nations of the earth must needs
unitedly establish.

No need to dwell on the energetic steps which the English believers as
soon as they had been apprized of the dire peril threatening the life of
‘Abdul-Bahá undertook to insure His security; on the measures
independently taken whereby Lord Curzon and others in the British Cabinet
were advised as to the critical situation at Haifa; on the prompt intervention
of Lord Lamington, who immediately wrote to the Foreign Office to
“explain the importance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s position;” on the despatch which
the Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, on the day of the receipt of this letter,
sent to General Allenby, instructing him to “extend every protection and
consideration to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His family and His friends;” on the
cablegram subsequently sent by the General, after the capture of Haifa, to

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, knighthood ceremony, 1920
clearer recognition of the institutions of the Cause. Nor were the British
authorities slow to express their appreciation of the role which ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá had played in allaying the burden of suffering that had oppressed the
inhabitants of the Holy Land during the dark days of that distressing
conflict. The conferment of a knighthood upon Him at a ceremony specially
held for His sake in Haifa, at the residence of the British Governor, at which
notables of various communities had assembled; the visit paid Him by
General and Lady Allenby, who were His guests at luncheon in Bahjí, and
whom He conducted to the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh; the interview at His Haifa
residence between Him and King Feisal who shortly after became the ruler
of ‘Iráq; the several calls paid Him by Sir Herbert Samuel (later Viscount
Samuel of Carmel) both before and after his appointment as High
Commissioner for Palestine; His meeting with Lord Lamington who,
likewise, called upon Him in Haifa, as well as with the then Governor of
Jerusalem, Sir Ronald Storrs; the multiplying evidences of the recognition
of His high and unique position by all religious communities, whether
Muslim, Christian or Jewish; the influx of pilgrims who, from East and
West, flocked to the Holy Land in comparative ease and safety to visit the
Holy Tombs in ‘Akká and Haifa, to pay their share of homage to Him, to
celebrate the signal protection vouchsafed by Providence to the Faith and its
followers, and to give thanks for the final emancipation of its Head and
world Centre from Turkish yoke—these

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
clearer recognition of the institutions of the Cause. Nor were the British
authorities slow to express their appreciation of the role which ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá had played in allaying the burden of suffering that had oppressed the
inhabitants of the Holy Land during the dark days of that distressing
conflict. The conferment of a knighthood upon Him at a ceremony specially
held for His sake in Haifa, at the residence of the British Governor, at which
notables of various communities had assembled; the visit paid Him by
General and Lady Allenby, who were His guests at luncheon in Bahjí, and
whom He conducted to the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh; the interview at His Haifa
residence between Him and King Feisal who shortly after became the ruler
of ‘Iráq; the several calls paid Him by Sir Herbert Samuel (later Viscount
Samuel of Carmel) both before and after his appointment as High
Commissioner for Palestine; His meeting with Lord Lamington who,
likewise, called upon Him in Haifa, as well as with the then Governor of
Jerusalem, Sir Ronald Storrs; the multiplying evidences of the recognition
of His high and unique position by all religious communities, whether
Muslim, Christian or Jewish; the influx of pilgrims who, from East and
West, flocked to the Holy Land in comparative ease and safety to visit the
Holy Tombs in ‘Akká and Haifa, to pay their share of homage to Him, to
celebrate the signal protection vouchsafed by Providence to the Faith and its
followers, and to give thanks for the final emancipation of its Head and
world Centre from Turkish yoke—these

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
contributed, each in its own way, to heighten the prestige which the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh had been steadily and gradually acquiring through the inspired
leadership of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 303–7.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Regard not the person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, for He will eventually take His
leave of you all; nay, fix your gaze upon the Word of God. … The loved
ones of God must arise with such steadfastness that should, in one moment,
hundreds of souls even as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself be made a target for the
darts of woe, nothing whatsoever shall affect or lessen their firm resolve, …
their service to the Cause of God.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Star of the West, XIII:9, December 1922, p. 236.
The passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ’s great work was now ended. The historic Mission
with which His Father had, twenty-nine years previously, invested Him had
been gloriously consummated. A memorable chapter in the history of the
first Bahá’í century had been written. The Heroic Age of the Bahá’í
Dispensation, in which He had participated since its inception, and played
so unique a role, had drawn to a close. He had suffered as no disciple of the
Faith, who had drained the cup of martyrdom, had suffered, He had
laboured as none of its greatest heroes had laboured. He had witnessed
triumphs such as neither the Herald of the Faith nor its Author had ever
witnessed.
At the close of His strenuous Western tours, which had called forth the
last ounce of His ebbing strength, He had written: “Friends, the time is
coming when I shall be no longer with you. I have done all that could be
done. I have served the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh to the utmost of My ability. I
have laboured night and day all the years of My life. O how I long to see
the believers shouldering the responsibilities of the Cause! … My days are
numbered, and save this there remains none other joy for me.” Several
years before He had thus alluded to His passing: “O ye My faithful loved
ones! Should at any time afflicting events come to pass in the Holy Land,
never feel
[Photograph]

[Photograph]
At 7 HaParsim Street
disturbed or agitated. Fear not, neither grieve. For whatsoever thing
happeneth will cause the Word of God to be exalted, and His Divine
fragrances to be diffused.” And again: “Remember, whether or not I be on
earth, My presence will be with you always.”
In a Tablet addressed to the American believers, a few days before He
passed away, He thus vented His pent-up longing to depart from this world:
“I have renounced the world and the people thereof …. In the cage of this
world I flutter even as a frightened bird, and yearn every day to take My
flight unto Thy Kingdom. I’d Bahá’u’l-Abhá! Make Me drink of the cup of
sacrifice, and set Me free.” He revealed a prayer less than six months
before His ascension in honour of a kinsman of the Báb, and in it wrote:
“‘O Lord! My bones are weakened, and the hoar hairs glisten on my head
… and I have now reached old age, failing in my powers.’ … No strength is
there left in Me wherewith to arise and serve Thy loved ones …. O Lord,
My Lord! Hasten My ascension unto Thy sublime Threshold … and My
arrival at the Door of Thy grace beneath the shadow of Thy most great
mercy ….”
Through the dreams He dreamed, through the conversations He held,
through the Tablets He revealed, it became increasingly evident that His end
was fast approaching. Two months before His passing He told His family
of a dream he had had. “I seemed,” He said, “to be standing within a great
mosque, in the inmost shrine, facing the Qiblih, in the place of the Imám
himself. I became aware that a large number of people were flocking into
the mosque. More and yet more crowded in,

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
taking their places in rows behind Me, until there was a vast multitude. As I
stood I raised loudly the call to prayer. Suddenly the thought came to Me to
go forth from the mosque. When I found Myself outside I said within
Myself: ‘For what reason came I forth, not having led the prayer? But it
matters not; now that I have uttered the Call to prayer, the vast multitude
will of themselves chant the prayer’.” A few weeks later, whilst occupying
a solitary room in the garden of His house, He recounted another dream to
those around Him. “I dreamed a dream,” He said, “and behold, the Blessed
Beauty (Bahá’u’lláh) came and said to Me: ‘Destroy this room’.” None of
those present comprehended the significance of this dream until He Himself
had soon after passed away, when it became clear to them all that by the
“room” was meant the temple of His body.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 310–11.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá coming to Pilgrim House, 19 November 1921
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in garden at 7 HaParsim Street

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and friends in horse-drawn carriage
ON the last Friday morning of His stay on earth (25 November) He said
to His daughters: “The wedding of Khusraw must take place today. If you
are too much occupied, I myself will make the necessary preparations, for it
must take place this day.” (Khusraw was one of the favoured and trusted
servants of the Master’s Household.)
‘Abdu’l-Bahá attended the noonday prayer at the Mosque. When He
came out He found the poor waiting for the alms, which it was His custom
to give every Friday. This day, as usual, He stood, in spite of very great
fatigue, whilst He gave a coin to everyone with His own hands.
After lunch He dictated some Tablets. His last ones …. When He had
rested He walked in the garden. He seemed to be in a deep reverie.
His good and faithful servant, Ismá‘íl Áqá, relates the following:
“Some time about twenty days before my Master passed away I was near
the garden when I heard Him summon an old believer saying:
“‘Come with me that we may admire together the beauty of the garden.
Behold, what the spirit of devotion is able to achieve! This

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
flourishing place was, a few years ago, but a heap of stones, and now it is
verdant with foliage and flowers. My desire is that after I am gone the
loved ones may all arise to serve the Divine Cause and, please God, so shall
be. Ere long men will arise who shall bring life to the world.’”
“A few days after this He said: ‘I am so fatigued! The hour is come
when I must leave everything and take my flight. I am too weary to walk.’
Then He said: ‘It was during the closing days of the Blessed Beauty, when I
was engaged in gathering together His papers, which were strewn over the
sofa in His writing chamber in Bahjí that He turned to me and said: ‘It is of
no use to gather them, I must leave them and flee away.’
“‘I also have finished my work, I can do nothing more. Therefore must I
leave it, and take my departure.’
“Three days before His ascension, whilst seated in the garden, He called
me and said, ‘I am sick with fatigue. Bring two of your oranges for me that
I may eat them for your sake.’ This I did, and He having eaten them turned
to me, saying, ‘Have you any of your sweet lemons?’ He bade me fetch a
few. … Whilst I was plucking them, He came over to the tree saying, ‘Nay,
but I must gather them with my own hands.’ Having eaten of the fruit He
turned to me and asked, ‘Do you desire anything more?’ Then with a
pathetic gesture of His hands,

[Photograph]
He touchingly, emphatically and deliberately said:
“‘Now it is finished, it is finished!’
“These significant words penetrated my very soul. I felt each time He
uttered them as if a knife were struck into my heart. I understood His
meaning but never dreamed His end was so nigh.”
____________________________
Later in the evening of Friday He [‘Abdu’l-Bahá] blessed the bride and
bridegroom who had just been married. He spoke impressively to them.
“Khusraw,” He said, “you have spent your childhood and youth in the
service of this house; it is my hope that you will grow old under the same
roof, ever and always serving God.”
During the evening He attended the usual meeting of the friends in His
own audience chamber.
In the morning of Saturday, 26 November, He arose early, came to the
tea-room and had some tea. He asked for the fur-lined coat which had
belonged to Bahá’u’lláh. He often put on this coat when He was cold or did
not feel well. He so loved it. He then withdrew to His room, lay down on
His bed and said, “Cover me up. I am very cold. Last night I did not sleep
well, I felt cold. This is serious, it is the beginning.”
After more blankets had been put on, He asked for the fur coat He had
taken off to be placed over Him. That day He was rather feverish. In the
evening His temperature rose still higher, but during the night the fever left
Him. After midnight He asked for some tea.

Shoghi Effendi and Lady Bloomfield, The Passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, pp. 5–6.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Stanford University
On Sunday morning (27 November) He said: “I am quite well and will
get up as usual and have tea with you in the tea-room.” After He had
dressed He was persuaded to remain on the sofa in His room.
In the afternoon He sent all the friends up to the Tomb of the Báb,
where, on the occasion of the anniversary of the declaration of the Covenant
a feast was being held, offered by a Pársí pilgrim who had lately arrived
from India.
At four in the afternoon, being on the sofa in His room, He said: “Ask
my sister and all the family to come and have tea with me.”
After tea the Muftí of Haifa and the head of the Municipality, with
another visitor, were received by Him. They remained about an hour. He
spoke to them about Bahá’u’lláh, related to them His second dream, showed
them extraordinary kindness and even more than his usual courtesy. He
then bade them farewell, walking with them to the outer door in spite of
their pleading that He should remain resting on His sofa. He then received a
visit from the head of the police, an Englishman, who, too, had his share of
the Master’s gracious kindness. To him He gave some silk hand-woven
Persian handkerchiefs which he very greatly appreciated.
…
The same evening He asked after the health of every member of the
Household, of the pilgrims and of the friends in Haifa. “Very good, very
good,” He said when told that none were ill. This was His very last
utterance concerning His friends.

Áqá Rustam Ardashír.
At eight in the evening He retired to bed, after taking a little
nourishment, saying: “I am quite well.”
He told all the family to go to bed and rest. Two of His daughters
however stayed with Him. That night the Master had gone to sleep very
calmly, quite free from fever. He awoke about 1.15 a.m., got up, and
walked across to a table where He drank some water. He took off an outer
night garment, saying: “I am too warm.” He went back to bed and when
His daughter Rúḥá Khánum, later on approached, she found Him lying
peacefully and, as He looked into her face, He asked her to lift up the net
curtains, saying:
“I have difficulty in breathing, give me more air.” Some rose-water was
brought to Him, of which he drank, sitting up in bed to do so, without any
help. He again lay down, and as some food was offered Him, He remarked
in a clear and distinct voice:
“You wish me to take some food, and I am going?” He gave them a
beautiful look. His face was so calm, His expression so serene, they thought
Him asleep. …
He had gone from the gaze of His loved ones!
The eyes that had always looked out with loving kindness upon
humanity, whether friends or foes, were now closed. The hands that had
ever been stretched forth to give alms to the poor and the needy, the halt and
the maimed, the blind, the orphan and the widow, had now
[Photograph]
Funeral of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1921

[Photograph]
At funeral of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1921
[Photograph]
Funeral of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1921

finished their labour. The feet that, with untiring zeal, had gone upon the
ceaseless errands of the Lord of Compassion were now at rest. The lips that
had so eloquently championed the cause of the suffering sons of men, were
now hushed in silence. The heart that had so powerfully throbbed with
wondrous love for the children of God was now stilled. His glorious spirit
had passed from the life on earth, from the persecutions of the enemies of
righteousness, from the storm and stress of well-nigh eighty years of
indefatigable toil for the good of others.
His long martyrdom was ended!
Whilst yet the gloom of their bereavement was hanging darkly over
disconsolate ladies of the Household, a grand-daughter of the Master had a
wondrous dream of Him; He was speaking with His beloved sister, the
Greatest Holy Leaf, in the very room where, in the early hours of the day, it
was the custom of the ladies to assemble in His presence, chanting the
morning prayers, and to take their morning tea. He turned to her and said:
“Wherefore are ye all perturbed; why lament and be sorrowful? With you
all I am well pleased. For a long time have I desired to join my Father, the
Blessed Beauty. I was ever beseeching Him to take me to His Rose-garden
above, and now that my prayer is granted, how happy, how joyous, how
rested I am! Therefore grieve not.” He then counselled them in many
ways, exhorting them to follow at all times the commandments of
Bahá’u’lláh.
Early on Monday morning 28 November the news of this
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s funeral, 1921

sudden calamity had spread over the city, causing an unprecedented stir and
tumult, and filling all hearts with unutterable grief.
The next morning, Tuesday 29 November, the funeral took place, a
funeral the like of which Haifa, nay Palestine itself, had surely never seen
… so deep was the feeling that brought so many thousands of mourners
together, representative of so many religions, races and tongues.
On this day there was no cloud in the sky, nor any sound in all the town
and surrounding country through which they went, save only the soft, slow,
rhythmic chanting of Islám in the Call to Prayer, or the convulsed sobbing
moan of those helpless ones, bewailing the loss of their one friend, who had
protected them in all their difficulties and sorrows, whose generous bounty
had saved them and their little ones from starvation through the terrible
years of the “Great Woe”.
“O God, my God!” the people wailed with one accord, “Our father has
left us, our father has left us!”
O the wonder of that great throng! Peoples of every religion and race
and colour, united in heart through the Manifestation of Servitude in the
lifelong work of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá!
As they slowly wended their way up Mount Carmel, the Vineyard of
God, the casket appeared in the distance to be borne aloft by invisible hands,
so high above the heads of the people was it carried. After two hours
walking, they reached the garden of the Tomb of the

Shoghi Effendi and Lady Bloomfield, The Passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, pp. 6–9.
[Photograph]

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Green Acre, 1912
Báb. Tenderly was the sacred coffin placed upon a plain table covered with
a fair white linen cloth. As the vast concourse pressed round the Tabernacle
of His body, waiting to be laid in its resting place, within the vault, next to
that of the Báb, representatives of the various denominations, Moslems,
Christians and Jews, all hearts being ablaze with fervent love of ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá, some on the impulse of the moment, others prepared, raised their
voices in eulogy and regret, paying their last homage of farewell to their
loved one. So united were they in their acclamation of him, as the wise
educator and reconciler of the human race in this perplexed and sorrowful
age, that there seemed to be nothing left for the Bahá’ís to say.

Shoghi Effendi and Lady Bloomfield, The Passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 10.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Haifa

[Photograph]
Taken in Haifa on 3 March 1921
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

The passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, … marks the closing of the Heroic and
Apostolic Age of this same Dispensation—that primitive period of our Faith
the splendors of which can never be rivaled, much less be eclipsed, by the
magnificence that must needs distinguish the future victories of Bahá'u'lláh's
Revelation.

Shoghi Effendi, The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh in The World Order of
Bahá’u’lláh, p. 143.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá walking with Persian pilgrims on Mount Carmel

Significance of the station of ‘Abdul-Bahá
AN attempt I strongly feel should now be made to clarify our minds
regarding the station occupied by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the significance of His
position in this holy Dispensation. It would indeed be difficult for us, who
stand so close to such a tremendous figure and are drawn by the mysterious
power of so magnetic a personality, to obtain a clear and exact
understanding of the role and character of One Who, not only in the
Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh but in the entire field of religious history, fulfils
a unique function. Though moving in a sphere of His own and holding a
rank radically different from that of the Author and the Forerunner of the
Bahá’í Revelation, He, by virtue of the station ordained for Him through the
Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, forms together with Them what may be termed
the Three Central Figures of a Faith that stands unapproached in the world’s
spiritual history. He towers, in conjunction with Them, above the destinies
of this infant Faith of God from a level to which no individual or body
ministering to its needs after Him, and for no less a period than a full
thousand years, can ever hope to rise. To degrade His lofty rank by
identifying His station with or by regarding it as roughly equivalent to, the
position of those on whom the mantle of His
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi with a group of pilgrims

[Photograph]
Taken in front of 7 HaParsim Street
authority has fallen would be an act of impiety as grave as the no less
heretical belief that inclines to exalt Him to a state of absolute equality with
either the central Figure or Forerunner of our Faith. For wide as is the gulf
that separates ‘Abdu’l-Bahá from Him Who is the Source of an independent
Revelation, it can never be regarded as commensurate with the greater
distance that stands between Him Who is the Centre of the Covenant and
His ministers who are to carry on His work, whatever be their name, their
rank, their functions or their future achievements. Let those who have
known ‘Abdul-Bahá, who through their contact with His magnetic
personality have come to cherish for Him so fervent an admiration, reflect,
in the light of this statement, on the greatness of One Who is so far above
Him in station.
That ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is not a Manifestation of God, that, though the
successor of His Father, He does not occupy a cognate station, that no one
else except the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh can ever lay claim to such a station
before the expiration of a full thousand years—are verities which lie
embedded in the specific utterances of both the Founder of our Faith and the
Interpreter of His teachings.
“Whoso layeth claim to a Revelation direct from God,” is the express
warning uttered in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, “ere the expiration of a full thousand
years, such a man is assuredly a lying impostor. We pray God that He may
graciously assist him to retract and repudiate such claim. Should he repent,
God will

no doubt forgive him. If, however, he persists in his error, God will
assuredly send down one who will deal mercilessly with him. Terrible
indeed is God in punishing.” “Whosoever,” He adds as a further emphasis,
“interpreteth this verse otherwise than its obvious meaning is deprived of
the Spirit of God and of His mercy which encompasseth all created things.”
“Should a man appear,” is yet another conclusive statement, “ere the lapse
of a full thousand years—each year consisting of twelve months according
to the Qur’án, and of nineteen months of nineteen days each, according to
the Bayán—and if such a man reveal to your eyes all the signs of God,
unhesitatingly reject him!”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who incarnates an institution for which we can find no
parallel whatsoever in any of the world’s recognized religious systems, may
be said to have closed the Age to which He Himself belonged and opened
the one in which we are now labouring. His Will and Testament should thus
be regarded as the perpetual, the indissoluble link which the mind of Him
Who is the Mystery of God has conceived in order to ensure the continuity
of the three ages that constitute the component parts of the Bahá’í
Dispensation. The period in which the seed of the Faith had been slowly
germinating is thus intertwined both with the one which must witness its
efflorescence and the subsequent age in which that seed will have finally
yielded its golden fruit.

Shoghi Effendi, The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh in The World Order of
Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 131–2.
Shoghi Effendi, The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh in The World Order of
Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 143–4.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with German officers in Haifa

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi at 7 HaParsim Street
[Photograph]
Greatest Holy Leaf, circa 1890

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Bahjí
Extract from the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá
O ye that stand fast in the Covenant! When the hour cometh that this
wronged and broken-winged bird will have taken its flight unto the Celestial
concourse, when it will have hastened to the Realm of the Unseen and its
mortal frame will have been either lost or hidden neath the dust, it is
incumbent upon the Afnán, that are steadfast in the Covenant of God, and
have branched from the Tree of Holiness; the Hands (pillars) of the Cause
of God (the glory of the Lord rest upon them), and all the friends and loved
ones, one and all to bestir themselves and arise with heart and soul and in
one accord, to diffuse the sweet savours of God, to teach His Cause, and to
promote His Faith. It behooveth them not to rest for a moment, neither to
seek repose. They must disperse themselves in every land, pass by every
clime, and travel throughout all regions. Bestirred, without rest, and
steadfast to the end they must raise in every land the triumphal cry “O Thou
the Glory of Glories!” (Yá Bahá’u’l-Abhá), must achieve renown in the
world wherever they go, must burn brightly even as a candle in every
meeting, and must kindle the flame of Divine love in every assembly; that
the light of truth may rise resplendent in

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
the midmost heart of the world, that throughout the East and throughout the
West a vast concourse may gather under the shadow of the Word of God,
that the sweet savours of holiness may be diffused, that faces may shine
radiantly, hearts be filled with the Divine spirit, and souls be made
heavenly.
In these days, the most important of all things is the guidance of the
nations and peoples of the world. Teaching the Cause is of utmost
importance for it is the head corner-stone of the foundation itself. This
wronged servant has spent his days and nights in promoting the Cause and
urging the peoples to service. He rested not a moment, till the fame of the
Cause of God was noised abroad in the world and the Celestial strains from
the Abhá Kingdom roused the East and West. The beloved of God must also
follow the same example. This is the secret of faithfulness, this is the
requirement of servitude to the Threshold of Bahá!
The disciples of Christ forgot themselves and all earthly things, forsook
all their cares and belongings, purged themselves of self and passion, and
with absolute detachment scattered far and wide and engaged in calling the
peoples of the world to the Divine Guidance, till at last they made the world
another world, illumined the surface of the earth, and even to their last hour
proved self-sacrificing in the pathway of that Beloved One of God. Finally
in various lands they suffered glorious martyrdom. Let them that are men of
action follow in their footsteps!

[Photograph]
At 7 HaParsim Street
O my loving friends! After the passing away of this wronged one, it is
incumbent upon the Aghṣán (Branches), the Afnán (Twigs) of the Sacred
Lote-Tree, the Hands (pillars) of the Cause of God, and the loved ones of
the Abhá Beauty to turn unto Shoghi Effendi—the youthful branch branched
from the Two hallowed and sacred Lote-trees and the fruit grown from the
union of the Two offshoots of the Tree of Holiness—as he is the sign of God,
the chosen branch, the guardian of the Cause of God, he unto whom all the
Aghṣán, the Afnán, the Hands of the Cause of God, and His loved ones must
turn. He is the expounder of the words of God and after him will succeed
the first born of his lineal descendants.
The sacred and youthful branch, the guardian of the Cause of God as
well as the Universal House of Justice, to be universally elected and
established, are both under the care and protection of the Abhá Beauty,
under the shelter and unerring guidance of His Holiness, the Exalted One
(may my life be offered up for them both). Whatsoever they decide is of
God. Whoso obeyeth him not, neither obeyeth them, hath not obeyed God;
whoso rebelleth against him and against them hath rebelled against God;
whoso opposeth him hath opposed God; whoso contendeth with them hath
contended with God; whoso disputeth with him hath disputeth with God;
whoso denieth him hath denied God; whoso disbelieveth in him hath
disbelieved in God; whoso deviateth, separateth himself, and turneth aside
from him hath in truth deviated,

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with child outside His house in Haifa
separated himself, and turned aside from God. May the wrath, the fierce
indignation, the vengeance of God rest upon him! The mighty stronghold
shall remain impregnable and safe through obedience to him who is the
guardian of the Cause of God. It is incumbent upon the House of Justice,
upon all the members of the Aghṣán, the Afnán, the Hands of the Cause of
God to show their obedience, submissiveness, and subordination unto the
guardian of the Cause of God, to turn unto him and be lowly before him.

The Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, pp. 10–1.
The Greatest Holy Leaf
AS far back as the concluding stages of the heroic age of the Cause,
which witnessed the imprisonment of Bahá’u’lláh in the Síyáh-Chál of
Ṭihrán, the Greatest Holy Leaf, then still in her infancy, was privileged to
taste of the cup of woe which the first believers of that apostolic age had
quaffed.
The stress and storm of that period made an abiding impression upon her
mind, and she retained till the time of her death on her beauteous and
angelic face evidences of its intense hardships.
Not until, however, she had been confined in the company of
Bahá’u’lláh within the walls of the prison-city of ‘Akká did she display, in
the plenitude of her power and in the full abundance of her love for Him,
more gifts that single her out, next to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, among the members of
the Holy Family, as the brightest embodiment of that love which is born of
God and of that human sympathy which few mortals are capable of
evincing.
Banishing from her mind and heart every earthly attachment, renouncing
the very idea of matrimony, she, standing resolutely by the side of a Brother
whom she was to aid and serve so

Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’í Administration, p. 188.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá arriving at 7 HaParsim Street

well, arose to dedicate her life to the service of her Father’s glorious Cause.
Whether in the management of the affairs of His Household in which she
excelled, or in the social relationships which she so assiduously cultivated in
order to shield both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, whether in the unfailing
attention she paid to the everyday needs of her Father, or in the traits of
generosity, of affability and kindness, which she manifested, the Greatest
Holy Leaf had by that time abundantly demonstrated her worthiness to rank
as one of the noblest figures intimately associated with the lifelong work of
Bahá’u’lláh.
And when, in pursuance of God’s inscrutable Wisdom the ban on
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s confinement was lifted and the Plan which He, in the
darkest hours of His confinement, had conceived materialized, He, with
unhesitating confidence, invested His trusted and honoured sister With the
responsibility of attending to the multitudinous details arising out of His
protracted absence from the Holy Land.
No sooner had ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stepped upon the shores of the European
and American continents than our beloved Khánum found herself well-nigh
overwhelmed with thrilling messages, each betokening the irresistible
advance of the Cause in a manner which, notwithstanding the vast range of
her experience, seemed to her almost incredible. The years in which she
basked in the sunshine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s spiritual victories were, perhaps,

Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’í Administration, p. 189.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa

among the brightest and happiest of her life. Little did she dream when, as a
little girl, she was running about, in the courtyard of her Father’s house in
Ṭihrán, in the company of Him Whose destiny was to be one day the chosen
Centre of God’s indestructible Covenant, that such a Brother would be
capable of achieving, in realms so distant, and among races so utterly
remote, so great and memorable a victory.
The enthusiasm and joy which swelled in her breast as she greeted
‘Abdu’l-Bahá on His triumphant return from the West I will not venture to
describe. She was astounded at the vitality of which He had, despite His
unimaginable sufferings, proved Himself capable. She was lost in
admiration at the magnitude of the forces which His utterances had released.
She was filled with thankfulness to Bahá’u’lláh for having enabled her to
witness the evidences of such brilliant victory for His Cause no less than for
His Son.
The ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, so tragic in its suddenness, was to her a
terrific blow, from the effects of which she never completely recovered. To
her He, whom she called “Áqá”, had been a refuge in times of adversity.
On Him she had been led to place her sole reliance. In Him she had found
ample compensation for the bereavements she had suffered, the desertions
she had witnessed, the ingratitude she had been shown by friends and
kindred. No one could ever dream

Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’í Administration, pp. 192–3.
[Photograph]
Taken from the gate of 7 HaParsim Street

that a woman of her age, so frail in body, so sensitive of heart, so loaded
with the cares of almost eighty years of incessant tribulation, could so long
survive so shattering a blow. And yet history, no less than the annals of our
immortal Faith, shall record for her a share in the advancement and
consolidation of the world-wide community which the hand of ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá had helped to fashion, which no one among the remnants of His
Family can rival.
It would take me too long to make even a brief allusion to those
incidents of her life, each of which eloquently proclaims her as a daughter
worthy to inherit that priceless heritage bequeathed to her by Bahá’u’lláh.
A purity of life that reflected itself in even the minutest details of her daily
occupations and activities; a tenderness of heart that obliterated every
distinction of creed, class, and colour; a resignation and serenity that evoked
to the mind the calm and heroic fortitude of the Báb; a natural fondness for
flowers and children that was so characteristic of Bahá’u’lláh; an unaffected
simplicity of manners; an extreme sociability which made her accessible to
all; a generosity, a love, at once disinterested and undiscriminating, that
reflected so clearly the attributes of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s character; a sweetness
of temper; a cheerfulness that no amount of sorrow could becloud; a quiet
and unassuming disposition that served to enhance a thousandfold the
prestige of her exalted rank; a forgiving nature

Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’í Administration, pp. 193–4.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

that instantly disarmed the most unyielding enemy these rank among the
outstanding attributes of a saintly life which history will acknowledge as
having been endowed with a celestial potency that few of the heroes of the
past possessed.
No wonder that in Tablets, which stand as eternal testimonies to the
beauty of her character, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have paid touching
tributes to those things that testify to her exalted position among the
members of their Family, that proclaim her as an example to their followers,
and as an object worthy of the admiration of all mankind.

Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’í Administration, pp. 194–5.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

MOREOVER, as a further testimony to the majestic unfoldment and
progressive consolidation of the stupendous undertaking launched by
Bahá’u’lláh on that holy mountain, may be mentioned the selection of a
portion of the school property situated in the precincts of the Shrine of the
Báb as a permanent resting-place for the Greatest Holy Leaf, the “well-
beloved” sister of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the “Leaf that hath sprung” from the “Pre-
existent Root,” the “fragrance” of Bahá’u’lláh’s “shining robe,” elevated by
Him to a “station such as none other woman hath surpassed,” and
comparable in rank to those immortal heroines such as Sarah, Ásíyih, the
Virgin Mary, Fáṭimih and Ṭáhirih, each of whom has outshone every
member of her sex in previous Dispensations.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 347.
Passages from Tablets
revealed by Bahá’u’lláh
HE is the Eternal! This is My testimony for her who hath heard My
voice and drawn nigh unto Me. Verily, she is a leaf that hath sprung from
this Pre-existent Root. She hath revealed herself in My name and tasted of
the sweet savours of My holy, My wondrous pleasure. At one time We gave
her to drink from My honeyed Mouth, at another caused her to partake of
My mighty, My luminous Kawthar. Upon her rest the glory of My name and
the fragrance of My shining robe.
Let these exalted words be thy love-song on the tree of Bahá, O thou
most holy and resplendent Leaf: ‘God, besides Whom is none other God,
the Lord of this world and the next!’ Verily, We have elevated thee to the
rank of one of the most distinguished among thy sex, and granted thee, in
My court, a station such as none other woman hath surpassed. Thus have
We preferred thee and raised thee above the rest, as a sign of grace from
Him Who is the Lord of the throne on high and earth below. We have
created thine eyes to behold the light of My countenance, thine ears to
hearken unto the melody of My words, thy body to pay homage before My
throne. Do thou render thanks unto God, thy Lord, the Lord of all the
world.
How high is the testimony of the Sadratu’l-

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá entering His garden

Muntahá for its leaf; how exalted the witness of the Tree of Life unto its
fruit! Through My remembrance of her a fragrance laden with the perfume
of musk hath been diffused; well is it with him that hath inhaled it and
exclaimed: ‘All praise be to Thee, O God, my Lord the most glorious!’ How
sweet thy presence before Me; how sweet to gaze upon thy face to bestow
upon thee My loving-kindness, to favour thee with My tender care, to make
mention of thee in this, My Tablet—a Tablet which I have ordained as a
token of My hidden and manifest grace unto thee.

Bahá’u’lláh in Bahá’í World 1932–1934, vol. 5, p. 171.
Passages from Tablets
revealed by ‘Abdul-Bahá
O my well-beloved, deeply spiritual sister! Day and night thou livest in
my memory. Whenever I remember thee my heart swelleth with sadness and
my regret groweth more intense. Grieve not, for I am thy true, thy unfailing
comforter. Let neither despondency nor despair becloud the serenity of thy
life, or restrain thy freedom. These days shall pass away. We will, please
God, in the ‘Abhá Kingdom and beneath the sheltering shadow of the
Blessed Beauty, forget all these our earthly cares and will find each one of
these base calumnies amply compensated by His expressions of praise and
favour. From the beginning of time sorrow and anxiety, regret and
tribulation, have always been the lot of every loyal servant of God. Ponder
this in thine heart and consider how very true it is. Wherefore, set thine
heart on the tender mercies of the Ancient Beauty and be thou filled with
abiding joy and intense gladness ….

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World 1932–1934, vol. 5, pp. 171–2.
[Photograph]
Greatest Holy Leaf as a young woman
[Photograph]
Greatest Holy Leaf

O thou my affectionate sister! In the day-time and in the night-season
my thoughts ever turn to thee. Not for one moment do I cease to remember
thee. My sorrow and regret concern not myself; they centre around thee.
Whenever I recall thine afflictions, tears that I cannot repress rain down
from mine eyes ….

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World 1932–1934, vol. 5, p. 172.
DEAR and deeply spiritual sister! At morn and eventide, with the utmost
ardour and humility, I supplicate at the Divine Threshold, and offer this, my
prayer:
“Grant, O Thou my God, the Compassionate, that that pure and blessed
Leaf may be comforted by Thy sweet savours of holiness and sustained by
the reviving breeze of Thy loving care and mercy. Reinforce her spirit with
the signs of Thy Kingdom, and gladden her soul with the testimonies of Thy
everlasting dominion. Comfort, O my God, her sorrowful heart with the
remembrance of Thy face, initiate her into Thy hidden mysteries, and inspire
her with the revealed splendours of Thy heavenly light. Manifold are her
sorrows, and infinitely grievous her distress. Bestow continually upon her
the favour of Thy sustaining grace, and with every fleeting breath, grant her
the blessing of Thy bounty. Her hopes and expectations are centred in
Thee; open Thou to her face the portals of Thy tender mercies and lead her
into the ways of Thy wondrous benevolence. Thou art the Generous, the
All-loving, the Sustainer, the All-bountiful.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World 1932–1934, vol. 5, p. 172.
[Photograph]
Greatest Holy Leaf
[Photograph]
Greatest Holy Leaf with Lady Blomfield, 22 May 1922

DEAR sister, beloved of my heart and soul! The news of thy safe arrival
and pleasant stay in the land of Egypt has reached me and filled my heart
with exceeding gladness. I am thankful to Bahá’u’lláh for the good health
thou dost enjoy and for the happiness He hath imparted to the hearts of the
loved ones in that land. Shouldst thou wish to know of the condition of this
servant of the Threshold of the Abhá Beauty, praise be to Him for having
enabled me to inhale the fragrance of His tender mercy and partake of the
delights of His loving-kindness and blessings. I am being continually
reinforced by the energizing rays of His grace, and feel upheld by the
uninterrupted aid of the victorious hosts of His Kingdom. My physical
health is also improving. God be praised that from every quarter I receive
the glad-tidings of the growing ascendancy of the Cause of God, and can
witness evidences of the increasing influence of its spread.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World 1932–1934, vol. 5, p. 172.
MY sister and beloved of my soul! I can never, never forget thee.
However great the distance that separates us, we still feel as though we
were seated under the same roof, in one and the same gathering, for are we
not all under the shadow of the Tabernacle of God and beneath the canopy
of His infinite grace and mercy?

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World 1932–1934, vol. 5, p. 172.
[Photograph]
Greatest Holy Leaf, 1931
[Photograph]
Last photograph of the Greatest Holy Leaf, taken by Effie Baker

O thou my loving, my deeply spiritual sister! I trust that by the grace
and loving-kindness of the one true God thou art, and wilt be, kept safe and
secure beneath the sheltering shadow of the Blessed Beauty. Night and day
thy countenance appeareth before mine eyes, and in my mind are engraved
the traits of thy character.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World 1932–1934, vol. 5, p. 172.
The Purest Branch
TO the galling weight of these tribulations was now added the bitter
grief of a sudden tragedy the premature loss of the noble, the pious Mírzá
Mihdí, the Purest Branch, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s twenty-two-year-old brother, an
amanuensis of Bahá’u’lláh and a companion of His exile from the days
when, as a child, he was brought from Ṭihrán to Baghdád to join His father
after His return from Sulaymániyyih. He was pacing the roof of the
barracks in the twilight, one evening, wrapped in his customary devotions,
when he fell through the unguarded skylight on to a wooden crate, standing
on the floor beneath, which pierced his ribs, and caused, twenty-two hours
later, his death, on the 23 of Rabí‘u’l-Avval 1287 AH (23 June 1870). His
dying supplication to a grieving Father was that his life might be accepted as
a ransom for those who were prevented from attaining the presence of their
Beloved.
In a highly significant prayer, revealed by Bahá’u’lláh in memory of His
son—a prayer that exalts his death to the rank of those great acts of
atonement associated with Abraham’s intended sacrifice of His son, with the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the martyrdom of the Imám Ḥusayn—we
read the following: ‘I have, O my Lord, offered up that which Thou hast
given Me, that

Thy servants may be quickened, and all that dwell on earth be united.’ And,
likewise, these prophetic words, addressed to His martyred son: ‘Thou art
the Trust of God and His Treasure in this Land. Erelong will God reveal
through thee that which He hath desired.’
After he had been washed in the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, he ‘that was
created of the light of Bahá,’ to whose ‘meekness’ the Supreme Pen had
testified, and of the ‘mysteries’ of whose ascension that same Pen had made
mention, was borne forth, escorted by the fortress guards, and laid to rest,
beyond the city walls, in a spot adjacent to the shrine of Nabí Ṣáliḥ, from
whence, seventy years later, his remains, simultaneously with those of his
illustrious mother, were to be translated to the slopes of Mt. Carmel, in the
precincts of the grave of his sister, and under the shadow of the Báb’s holy
sepulcher.

Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 188–9.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with the Purest Branch

[Photograph]
Taken at Pilgrim House, 11 April 1921
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
“AT this very moment,” Bahá’u’lláh testifies, “My son is being washed
before My face after Our having sacrificed him in the Most Great Prison.
Thereat have the dwellers of the Abhá Tabernacle wept with a great
weeping, and such as have suffered imprisonment with this Youth in the path
of God, the Lord of the promised Day, lamented. Under such conditions My
Pen hath not been prevented from remembering its Lord, the Lord of all
nations. It summoneth the people unto God, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful.
This is the day whereon he that was created of the light of Bahá has suffered
martyrdom, at a time when he lay imprisoned at the hands of his enemies.”
“Upon thee, O Branch of God!” He solemnly and most touchingly, in
that same Tablet, bestows upon him His benediction, “be the remembrance
of God and His praise, and the praise of all that dwell in the Realms of
Immortality and of all the denizens of the Kingdom of Names. Happy art
thou in that thou hast been faithful to the Covenant of God and His
Testament, until Thou didst sacrifice thyself before the face of thy Lord, the
Almighty, the Unconstrained. Thou, in truth, hast been wronged, and to this
testfieth the Beauty of Him, the Self-Subsisting. Thou didst, in the first days
of my life, bear that which hath caused all things to groan, and made every
pillar to tremble. Happy is the one that remembereth thee, and draweth
nigh, through thee, unto God, the Creator of the Morn.”
“Gloried art Thou, O Lord My God!” He, in a prayer, astoundingly
proclaims, “Thou seest me in the hands of Mine enemies, and My son blood-
stained before Thy face, O Thou in Whose hands is the kingdom

of all names, I have, O my Lord, offered up that which Thou hast given Me,
that Thy servants may be quickened and all that dwell on earth be united.”
“Blessed art thou,” He, in another Tablet, affirms, “and blessed he that
turneth unto thee, and visiteth thy grave, and draweth nigh, through thee,
unto God, the Lord of all that was and shall be. … I testify that thou didst
return in meekness unto thine abode. Great is thy blessedness and the
blessedness of them that hold fast unto the hem of thy outspread robe. …
Thou art, verily, the trust of God and His treasure in this land. Ere long
will God reveal through thee that which He hath desired. He, verily, is the
Truth, the Knower of things unseen. When thou wast laid to rest in the
earth, the earth itself trembled in its longing to meet thee. Thus hath it been
decreed, and yet the people perceive not ... Were We to recount the
mysteries of thine ascension, they that are asleep would awaken, and all
beings would be set ablaze with the fire of the remembrance of My Name,
the Mighty, the Loving.”
Navváb
CONCERNING the Most Exalted Leaf, the mother of ‘Abdul-Bahá,
Bahá’u’lláh has written: “The first Spirit through which all spirits were
revealed, and the first Light by which all lights shone forth, rest upon thee,
O Most Exalted Leaf, thou who hast been mentioned in the Crimson Book!
Thou art the one whom God created to arise and serve His own Self, and the
Manifestation of His Cause, and the Dayspring of His Revelation, and the
Dawning-Place of His signs, and the Source of His commandments: and
Who so aided thee that thou didst turn with thy whole being unto Him, at a
time when His servants and handmaidens had turned away from His face. …
Happy art thou, O my handmaiden, and My leaf, and the one mentioned in
My Book, and inscribed by My Pen of Glory in My Scrolls and Tablets. …
Rejoice thou, at this moment, in the most exalted Station and the All-highest
Paradise, and the Abhá Horizon, inasmuch as He Who is the Lord of Names
hath remembered thee. We bear witness that thou didst attain unto all good,
and that God hath so exalted thee, that all honour and glory circled around
thee.”
“O Navváb!” He thus, in another Tablet, addresses her, “O Leaf that
hath sprung from My Tree, and been My companion! My glory be upon
thee, and My loving-kindness and My mercy that hath surpassed all beings.
We announce unto thee that which will

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá on way to Mosque, 27 October 1921
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa garden

gladden thine eye, and assure thy soul, and rejoice thine heart. Verily, thy
Lord is the Compassionate, the All-Bountiful. God hath been and will be
pleased with thee, and hath singled thee out for His own Self, and chosen
thee from among His hand-maidens to serve Him, and hath made thee the
companion of His Person in the daytime and in the night-season.”
“Hear thou Me once again,” He reassures her, “God is well pleased with
thee, as a token of His grace and a sign of His mercy. He hath made thee to
be His companion in every one of His worlds and hath nourished thee with
His meeting and presence, so long as His Name, and His Remembrance,
and His Kingdom, and His Empire shall endure. Happy is the handmaid
that hath mentioned thee, and sought thy good pleasure, and humbled
herself before thee, and held fast unto the cord of thy love. Woe betide him
that denieth thy exalted station, and things ordained for thee from God, the
Lord of all names, and him that hath turned away from thee, and rejected
thy station before God, the Lord of the mighty throne.”
“O faithful ones!” Bahá’u’lláh specifically enjoins, “Should ye visit the
resting place of the Most Exalted Leaf, who hath ascended unto the
Glorious Companion, stand ye and say: ‘Salutation and blessing and glory
upon thee, O Holy Leaf that hath sprung from the Divine Lote-Tree! I bear
witness that thou hast believed in God and in His signs, and answered His
Call, and turned unto Him, and held fast unto His cord, and clung to the
hem of His grace, and fled thy home in His path, and chosen to live as a
stranger, out of love for His presence and in thy longing to serve Him. May
God have mercy upon him that draweth nigh unto thee, and
remembereth thee through the things which My Pen hath voiced in this, the
most great station. We pray God that He may forgive us, and forgive them
that have turned unto thee, and grant their desires, and bestow upon them,
through His wondrous grace, whatever be their wish. He, verily, is the
Bountiful, the Generous. Praise be to God, He Who is the Desire of all
worlds, and the Beloved of all who recognize Him.’”
And finally, ‘Abdul-Bahá Himself in one of His remarkably significant
Tablets, has borne witness not only to the exalted station of one whose
“seed shall inherit the Gentiles”, whose Husband is the Lord of Hosts, but
also the sufferings endured by her who was His beloved mother. “As to thy
question concerning the” 54th chapter of Isaiah,” He writes, “This chapter
refers to the Most Exalted Leaf, the mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. As a proof of
this it is said: ‘For more are the children of the desolate, than the children
of the married wife.’ Reflect upon this statement and then upon the
following: ‘And thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate
cities to be inhabited.’ And truly the humiliation and reproach which she
suffered in the path of God is a fact which no one can refute. For the
calamities and afflictions mentioned in the whole chapter are such
afflictions which she suffered in the path of God, all of which she endured
with patience and thanked God therefor and praised Him, because He had
enabled her to endure afflictions for the sake of Bahá. During all this time,
the men and women (Covenant-breakers) persecuted her in an incomparable
manner, while she was patient, God fearing, calm, humble, and contented
through the favour of her Lord and by the bounty of her Creator.”

Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour , pp. 47–9.
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
The Tablet of Visitation
Whoso reciteth this prayer with lowliness and fervour will bring
gladness and joy to the heart of this servant; it will be even as meeting Him
face to face.
HE is the All Glorious!
O God, my God! Lowly and tearful, I raise my suppliant hands to Thee
and cover my face in the dust of that Threshold of Thine, exalted above the
knowledge of the learned, and the praise of all that glorify Thee.
Graciously look upon Thy servant, humble and lowly at Thy door, with the
glances of the eye of Thy mercy, and immerse him in the Ocean of Thine
eternal grace.
Lord! He is a poor and lowly servant of Thine, enthralled and imploring
Thee, captive in Thy hand, praying fervently to Thee, trusting in Thee, in
tears before Thy face, calling to Thee and beseeching Thee, saying:
O Lord, my God! Give me Thy grace to serve Thy loved ones,
strengthen me in my servitude to Thee, illumine my brow with the light of
adoration in Thy court of holiness, and of prayer to Thy Kingdom of
grandeur. Help me to be selfless at the heavenly entrance of Thy gate, and
aid me to be detached from all things within Thy holy precincts. Lord!
Give me to

[Photograph]
[Photograph]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá

drink from the chalice of selflessness; with its robe clothe me, and in its
ocean immerse me. Make me as dust in the pathway of Thy loved ones, and
grant that I may offer up my soul for the earth ennobled by the footsteps of
Thy chosen ones in Thy path, O Lord of Glory in the Highest.
With this prayer doth Thy servant call Thee, at dawn-tide, and in the
night season. Fulfil his heart’s desire, O Lord! Illumine his heart, gladden
his bosom, kindle his light, that he may serve Thy Cause and Thy servants.
Thou art the Bestower, the Pitiful, the Most Bountiful, the Gracious, the
Merciful, the Compassionate!
—‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, pp. 319–20.
“I am the lamp and the love of God is my light.”
—‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas, vol. 3, p. 674.

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