# The Mystery of God

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> 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.
>
> — *The Mystery of God (Used by permission of the curator)*