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The Sun of Truth Appears Again Abdul Baha

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'Abdu'fifty-Bahá 'Abbás (1844–1921)

Eldest son and appointed successor of Bahá'u'lláh, the Heart of His Covenant, and the Head of the Bahá'í Faith from 1892 to 1921; regarded, along with the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh, every bit one of the Key Figures of the Bahá'í Faith.

ARTICLE OUTLINE:

  • Life with Bahá'u'lláh, 1844–92
    • Islamic republic of iran, 1844–53
    • Exile and Imprisonment, 1853–92
  • Ministry, 1892–1921
    • Station
    • Acre Period, 1892–1908
    • Freedom, 1908–21
      • International Travels, 1910–13
      • State of war Years, 1914–18
      • Final Years, 1919–21
    • Achievements
  • Writings
  • Personal Characteristics
  • Death and Funeral

ARTICLE Resource:

  • Notes
  • Other Sources and Related Reading

LIFE WITH BAHÁ'U'LLÁH, 1844–92

Iran, 1844–53

'Abbás Effendi, the eldest of three surviving children of Bahá'u'lláh and His married woman Ásíyyih Khánum, was born in Tehran, Iran, on 23 May 1844, the mean solar day on which the Báb declared His mission in Shiraz (Meet: Letters of the Living.History). 'Abbás Effendi—who, after Bahá'u'lláh passed abroad, added to His given proper noun the title 'Abdu'l-Bahá (the Servant of the Glory)—was named for His paternal grandad, 'Abbás, known as Mírzá Buzurg Núrí. A member of a well-established and distinguished family, Mírzá Buzurg had served the authorities in many capacities, including the governorship of Burujird and Luristan in western Iran, and was much admired for his accomplishments as a calligrapher and respected as a loftier regime official. He was a friend of the famous prime minister, poet, and scholar Mírzá Abu'l-Qásim of Faráhán, the Qá'im Maqám (whose title means "vice-regent").

Bahá'u'lláh, known in His youth every bit Mírzá Husayn-'Alí, was Mírzá Buzurg's eldest surviving son past his 2d wife, Khadíjih Khánum. Showing no involvement in political life and non desiring a position at court, Bahá'u'lláh spent His time dispensing clemency to the poor and discussing philosophical and theological matters with a circle of His father's friends, impressing His interlocutors with the depth of His agreement of abstract issues. For His charitable works, He acquired the appellation "Father of the Poor." He became a follower of the Báb in 1844.

'Abdu'fifty-Bahá's mother, Ásíyyih Khánum, who was known as Navváb, came from a noble family of Mazandaran. She and Bahá'u'lláh married in 1835 and had 7 children, 3 of whom survived to adulthood.

'Abdu'l-Bahá spent His early years in an environment of privilege, wealth, and love. The family unit's Tehran abode and country houses were comfortable and beautifully decorated. 'Abdu'l-Bahá and his younger full siblings—a sister, Bahíyyih, and a brother, Mihdí (See: Mihdí, Mírzá)—had every advantage their station in life could offering.1

'Abdu'l-Bahá's babyhood was presently marked, however, by the persecution of the Bábís, of whom His male parent was one of the about prominent. In Baronial 1852 iii young Bábís, maddened by grief over the execution of the Báb two years earlier, made a misguided, failed attempt on the life of the shah. Bahá'u'lláh, who had no role in the assassination plot, was arrested, as were big numbers of other Bábís, and imprisoned in a subterranean dungeon known as the Síyáh-Chál (Black Pit) in Tehran. Bahá'u'lláh'due south home was looted, and His family had to seek shelter in a rented house in a back aisle.

Only viii years of age, 'Abdu'50-Bahá, who had recently recovered from a potentially fatal bout of tuberculosis, now had to suffer separation from His beloved father, physical impecuniousness, insults, and even attacks by the children of the neighborhood. 60 years afterwards He recollected one such episode, when His female parent had sent Him to His aunt'south house for a little coin to buy nutrient for the family: "On my way home someone recognized me and shouted: 'Hither is a Bábí'; whereupon the children in the street chased me. I found refuge in the entrance to a house . . . There I stayed until nightfall, and when I came out, I was once again pursued by the children who kept yelling at me and pelted me with stones . . . When I reached domicile I was wearied. Female parent wanted to know what had happened to me. I could not utter a word and collapsed."ii

A visit to the dungeon where His male parent and a number of other Bábís were held etched itself deeply in 'Abdu'l-Bahá'southward memory: "Nosotros entered a small, narrow doorway, and went downwardly ii steps, but beyond those 1 could run into zilch. In the middle of the stairway, all of a sudden we heard His blessed vocalisation: 'Practise not bring him in here', and so they took me back. We sat outside, waiting for the prisoners to exist led out. Suddenly they brought the Blest Perfection [Bahá'u'lláh] out of the dungeon. He was chained to several others. What a concatenation! Information technology was very heavy. The prisoners could only move it forth with peachy difficulty. Sad and eye-rending information technology was."iii

Bahá'u'lláh was released after 4 months, different many of His fellow prisoners, who were executed or who succumbed to the deplorable weather condition in the dungeon. His remaining lands and possessions had been confiscated, and He received word almost immediately that He and His family had been banished from Iran. Bahá'u'lláh chose to become to Iraq, then a province in the Ottoman Empire. The exiles fix out for Baghdad on 12 January 1853. 'Abdu'l-Bahá would never encounter His native country again.

Exile and Imprisonment, 1853–92

'Abdu'l-Bahá as a young man.

The long winter journeying from Tehran to Baghdad was hard on the party, which, having been given insufficient time to prepare, was inadequately equipped. The months of travel on treacherous roads over loftier mountains were particularly trying for the children; for Navváb, who was pregnant; and for Bahá'u'lláh, released from prison in devitalized status just a calendar month earlier. 'Abdu'50-Bahá, according to His sister, suffered from frostbite. The family unit also grieved over separation from Mihdí, the youngest child, who had not been well enough to travel. When Bahá'u'lláh and His family reached Baghdad on viii Apr 1853, they were ill and exhausted.

Baghdad proved no safe harbor. Dissension within the small community of Bábí exiles caused Bahá'u'lláh to leave Baghdad in Apr 1854, without telling fifty-fifty His family unit where He planned to get (Encounter: Yahyá, Mírzá.Mírza Yahya.In Iraq, 1853-63). 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and then x years old, endured another painful separation from His father, this fourth dimension for two full years, during which Bahá'u'lláh lived in seclusion in the mountains of Kurdistan. Bahá'u'lláh'due south return to Baghdad in 1856 began a flow of relative stability and comfort for His family and of resurgence for the Bábí community, of which Bahá'u'lláh was generally recognized every bit the leader.

'Abdu'l-Bahá attended no school during the Baghdad years, but, inspired and instructed past Bahá'u'lláh, He read avidly and memorized many of the works of the Báb. He also began to write, composing a commentary on a hadith (tradition)—"I was a Subconscious Treasure"—attributed to the Prophet Muhammad that shows, in the words of Bahá'í historian Hasan Balyuzi, "profound knowledge, striking mastery of language, and rare qualities of mind, but above all . . . the nearly profound understanding."iv

While still in His teens, 'Abdu'l-Bahá became His male parent's ambassador, His shield, and His agent, transcribing some of Bahá'u'lláh'southward writings, including the Kitáb-i-Íqán (Book of Certitude). On His father's behalf He began to assume the burden of negotiations with government authorities in Baghdad. When Bahá'u'lláh was summoned to the Ottoman majuscule, Constantinople (Istanbul), in 1863, 'Abdu'l-Bahá played a principal role in making arrangements for the difficult journey beyond Iraq and Anatolia, which took more than three months. "'Abdu'l-Bahá was then a youth of xix, handsome, gracious, agile, zealous to serve, firm with the wilful, generous to all," Balyuzi writes. "He strove difficult to make the toil of a long journey less arduous for others. At night He was amid the first to reach the halting-place, to run across to the comfort of the travellers. Wherever provisions were scarce, He spent the nighttime in search of food. And at dawn He rose early to set the caravan on another day's march. Then the whole twenty-four hour period long He rode by the side of His Father, in constant attendance upon Him."v

'Abdu'l-Bahá's role became even more prominent in the subsequent stages of the family unit's banishment—first during their 4-calendar month-long stay in Constantinople; then in Adrianople (Edirne), where they lived for more than than four years; and finally in the prison house metropolis of Acre in Palestine, where the Ottoman authorities imprisoned them for forty years (Run into: Bahá'í World Center). Afterward Bahá'u'lláh publicly proclaimed His mission in Adrianople in 1867, He withdrew from the general public, leaving 'Abdu'l-Bahá to manage the affairs of the family and of the Bahá'í exiles. Thus 'Abdu'l-Bahá became His begetter's representative in all matters except those internal to the Bahá'í customs.

'Abdu'l-Bahá became widely known for qualities that the renowned British orientalist Edward G. Browne enumerated afterward meeting and conversing with Him in Acre in 1890: "I more than eloquent of spoken communication, more ready of statement, more apt of analogy, more intimately acquainted with the sacred books of the Jews, the Christians, and the Muhammadans, could, I should think, scarcely be found even amid the eloquent, ready, and subtle race to which he belongs. These qualities, combined with a begetting at once majestic and genial, made me cease to wonder at the influence and esteem which he enjoyed fifty-fifty beyond the circle of his father's followers."vi

The years in Acre were filled with difficulties and afflictions. While bearing weighty responsibilities, 'Abdu'50-Bahá witnessed the death of His younger brother, Mihdí, and the suffering of the other exiles. Growing to full maturity during this period of tribulations, He went about the business organisation of life, maintaining His devotion to the Bahá'í Cause, His determination to serve, His essential optimism and sense of humor. In 1872, shortly afterwards having been released from more than two years of harsh confinement in the citadel of Acre, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, at the urging of Bahá'u'lláh, married Munírih Khánum, whose father had been a distinguished early on Bábí from Isfahan. Over the years, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Munírih Khánum had nine children—seven daughters and two sons; but 4 of their children, all daughters, survived to adulthood.

MINISTRY, 1892–1921

Station

'Abdu'l-Bahá.http://www.bahai-biblio.org/centre-photo/gens/abdul-baha/abd-portrait/abdpor~38m~Abdu'l-Baha-portrait.htm#centrer

As early equally the Adrianople years (December 1863–August 1868), Bahá'u'lláh fully revealed to His close disciples 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá'south stature as His main back up and most trusted servant. In the Tablet of the Branch (Súriy-i-Ghusn), written in Adrianople, Bahá'u'lláh extols His eldest son as the "Branch of Holiness": "Return cheers unto God, O people, for His advent; for verily He is the virtually great Favor unto you lot, the most perfect compensation 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."7

Next to the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá occupies the highest station in the Bahá'í Faith. In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (Near Holy Book), Bahá'u'lláh enjoins the Bahá'ís to turn to "Him Whom God hath purposed, Who hath branched from this Ancient Root" 8 and to "refer ye any ye sympathise non in the Volume to Him Who hath branched from this mighty Stock."9 In these texts, in the Tablet of the Branch, and in the Book of the Covenant (Kitáb-i-'Ahd), which constitutes His Will and Testament, Bahá'u'lláh establishes 'Abdu'l-Bahá's authority as the Center of the Covenant (Bahá'u'lláh'south Covenant being the means by which He provided for the succession of leadership and the estimation of His teachings after His passing).

'Abdu'l-Bahá's say-so and His role, however, are non comparable to Bahá'u'lláh'south. On the ground of 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá'south own numerous statements, which are "no less emphatic and binding" than Bahá'u'lláh's, Shoghi Effendi—'Abdu'fifty-Bahá's eldest grandson and His successor as Head of the Bahá'í Organized religion—makes it clear that 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá, "though the successor of His Male parent, . . . does non occupy a cognate station" and is not a Messenger of God.x 'Abdu'l-Bahá declares: "This is . . . my firm, my unshakable conviction. . . . The Blessed Dazzler [Bahá'u'lláh] is the Lord's day of Truth, and His light the light of Truth. The Báb is as well 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."11

Bahá'ís see 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in the words of Shoghi Effendi, as "the stainless Mirror" of Bahá'u'lláh'south lite, "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." 'Abdu'l-Bahá is "the 'Mystery of God'—an expression by which Bahá'u'lláh Himself has chosen to designate Him, and which . . . indicates how in the person of 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá the incompatible characteristics of a man nature and superhuman cognition and perfection have been blended and are completely harmonized."12

Acre Menses, 1892–1908

Despite numerous written and oral statements Bahá'u'lláh had made about 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá's futurity station as His successor, every bit the Caput of the Bahá'í community, and as the authorized interpreter of the sacred writings, the succession of authority afterwards Bahá'u'lláh's passing in May 1892 was turbulent. Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's younger half-brother, presently challenged His position. The terms of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and of Bahá'u'lláh's Volition and Testament—which honored Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí but gave precedence to 'Abdu'l-Bahá—were entirely clear. Just those who trusted Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí every bit Bahá'u'lláh's son constitute their loyalties tested. In the ensuing climate of confusion, a number of Bahá'ís, among them many members of Bahá'u'lláh'south family and some outstanding Bahá'ís in Islamic republic of iran and elsewhere, accustomed Muhammad 'Alí's claims. Their adherence to him precipitated a conflict that lasted for the lifetime of his generation.

Not fifty-fifty Muhammad 'Alí'south partisans could deny that Bahá'u'lláh had named 'Abdu'50-Bahá the Centre of the Covenant, empowering Him to lead the Bahá'í community. Still Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí and his band of followers violated the provisions of Bahá'u'lláh's testament and tried to usurp 'Abdu'l-Bahá'due south potency. In Iran, Arab republic of egypt, Europe, and America, Muhammad 'Alí'southward agents claimed that 'Abdu'50-Bahá had exceeded His rights and privileges, that He had arrogated to Himself powers that were not His, that He had wrongfully assumed the station of a Manifestation or Messenger of God, and that He had deprived His brothers of their birthright to be honored and cherished by the Bahá'ís. These attacks, although they posed a threat at first and acquired 'Abdu'l-Bahá great pain considering of the disrepute they brought to the Bahá'í Faith, ultimately failed to produce a schism in the community or to damage its unity.

Frustrated in his designs to supplant 'Abdu'l-Bahá every bit Head of the Bahá'í Religion, Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí turned informer, providing false reports designed to poison the attitude of the authorities against his blood brother. In early on 1900 'Abdu'l-Bahá had begun the construction of the mausoleum of the Báb on Mountain Carmel in Haifa (See: Bahá'í Earth Center). Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí and his agents accused 'Abdu'l-Bahá of building a fortress and preparing an insurgence that would overthrow the Ottoman sultan, Abdülhamid Two, and cleave out a kingdom for Himself in Palestine. Alarmed past the charges, the suspicious government of the sultan, struggling against the centrifugal forces that were tearing the weakened Ottoman Empire apart, issued an society in August 1901 that confined 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His brothers within the city limits of Acre. Later the government appointed a commission to investigate the charges. Having been influenced at the commencement by the allegations of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's enemies, the commissioners collected rumors and insinuations but never discovered whatsoever incriminating facts, for none existed.

Rumors circulated in 1907–08 that 'Abdu'l-Bahá had been judged guilty and that He would be removed to Fezzan, an isolated desert region in Tripolitania where He would be sure to perish. Notwithstanding, the commission departed without taking action, and the turmoil in Constantinople, culminating in the Young Turk Revolution, distracted the sultan. In the summertime of 1908 Abdülhamid was deprived of his autocratic powers and compelled to restore the Ottoman constitution and to release the empire'south religious and political prisoners. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was free.

Withal the tumult caused by Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí, 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá persevered in His designated duties equally Head of the Bahá'í Religion and worked to overcome the obstacles information technology faced. His efforts to spread the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh bore fruit quickly, especially in Islamic republic of iran, where the Bahá'í community began to feel rapid growth, and in the West, particularly N America, where the kickoff conversions to the Religion occurred in 1894–95 (Run across: Chase, Thornton.Activities as a Bahá'í).

During Bahá'u'lláh's lifetime, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had helped to revive the shattered Bábí community in Iran and to foster its recognition of Bahá'u'lláh's impunity. Afterwards Bahá'u'lláh'southward passing, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's constant care and encouragement led to a pregnant increase in the number of Bahá'ís in Islamic republic of iran. Because of His leadership and constant encouragement, the Iranian Bahá'ís established elected consultative bodies (later designated as Spiritual Assemblies), the first of which was elected in 1899 (See: Tehran.The Bahá'í Menstruation to 1921). In the words of Century of Light , a survey of the history of the Bahá'í Faith confronting the background of the principal political and social developments of the twentieth century: "The importance of the latter development alone would be impossible to exaggerate. In a land and among a people accustomed for centuries to a patriarchal system that concentrated all decision-making authority in the hands of an absolute monarch or Shí'ih mujtahids, a customs representing a cantankerous section of that society had broken with the past, taking into its ain easily the responsibility for deciding its commonage affairs through consultative activity."13

Equally meaning was 'Abdu'l-Bahá's direction and encouragement of the spread of the Bahá'í Organized religion in the Westward. In late 1898 and early 1899, the commencement groups of American Bahá'í pilgrims, including individuals residing in England and France, arrived in Acre. They and subsequent pilgrims received extensive instruction from 'Abdu'l-Bahá that deepened their understanding of the religion they had recently embraced. In these early on years 'Abdu'50-Bahá began a vast correspondence with North American and European Bahá'ís, explaining the Bahá'í teachings, giving personal guidance, and steering the establishment of Bahá'í communities and embryonic administrative institutions (Run into: Administration, Bahá'í).

Freedom, 1908–21

As early as 1907, 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá began moving His family to Haifa, where He had built a house at the foot of Mount Carmel. Piece of work on the Báb's sepulcher, midway up the mountain gradient, had proceeded in spite of the investigations of 'Abdu'l-Bahá carried out by the Ottoman government. In March 1909 'Abdu'l-Bahá placed the Báb's remains in the Shrine, thereby establishing it as a place of pilgrimage 2nd merely to the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh in Acre. Soon afterwards, 'Abdu'l-Bahá began residing in His house in Haifa, which and so became the administrative middle of the Bahá'í Faith (See: Bahá'í World Center).

International Travels, 1910–13

'Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris, photographed under the Eiffel Tower in 1912. Shown with Him is a small entourage of Persians and a handful of European Bahá'ís. © Bahá'í International Community http://media.bahai.org/subjects/people/abdulbaha/travels/7192/details

The years of confinement and opposition, added to the responsibilities He bore, seriously weakened 'Abdu'l-Bahá's health. Subsequently He suffered several episodes of illness, His doctors urged a modify in His surround. In August 1910 He sailed to Egypt, where He spent the adjacent twelve months. There He met leading intellectuals; some Muslim divines; correspondents and editors of various newspapers and magazines; the Khedive (Turkish viceroy), Abbas Hilmi Two; and the British delegate-general Lord Kitchener (in result, the ruler of Egypt at the fourth dimension). In Baronial 1911 'Abdu'l-Bahá traveled to Europe. He sailed to Marseilles, stopping at the French resort Thonon-les-Bains, on the shores of Lake Geneva, and in Geneva, Switzerland, before traveling to London. On 10 September 1911, from the pulpit of the City Temple, He gave a public address for the beginning fourth dimension. His month-long stay in England, which included a brief visit to Bristol, was filled with public talks, meetings with the press, and interviews with individuals, setting a pattern that He would follow throughout His travels in Europe and Northward America. Side by side He went to Paris, where the first Bahá'í community in Europe had been established a decade before. He spent nine weeks in that location, returning to Arab republic of egypt in early on Dec to rest for the winter.

'Abdu'l-Bahá's second journey to the West was much more extensive in both duration (25 March 1912–17 June 1913) and distance. He devoted almost of this menstruum to the North American continent. Arriving in New York on 11 April 1912, He traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific, visiting a score of cities, among them Washington, Boston, Montreal, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago (where He laid the cornerstone of the first Bahá'í House of Worship in the Western Hemisphere [See: Mashriqu'l-Adhkár.Houses of Worship around the World.Chicago]), Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake Metropolis, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Everywhere He went, 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave interviews to the press and addressed large and pocket-sized gatherings in public halls, churches, universities, and private homes, proclaiming the principles of the Bahá'í Organized religion, stressing the need for religious and racial unity, equality of the sexes, and globe peace.

In the form of these travels in North America, 'Abdu'l-Bahá met people of all ranks and stations: high authorities officials, business magnates, artists, writers, politicians, scholars, clergy of various denominations, and derelicts in the Bowery. Among the individuals He met were David Starr Jordan, president of Stanford University; Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York City; the inventor Alexander Graham Bong; Jane Addams, the noted social worker; the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was touring America at the time; Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress; the industrialist and humanitarian Andrew Carnegie; Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor; the Arctic explorer Admiral Robert Peary; as well as hundreds of American and Canadian Bahá'ís, recent converts to the religion, whom He instructed and inspired and whose lives were permanently changed past their contact with Him. Many of the latter were women who, encouraged past 'Abdu'l-Bahá, would play an extraordinarily of import role in spreading the Bahá'í Religion in North America and taking it to the far corners of the earth—participating in the building of its administrative institutions (See: Administration, Bahá'í), establishing and teaching in Bahá'í schools, contributing to Bahá'í literature, and leaving their banner on every facet of the development of the Bahá'í customs at abode and abroad.

During His sojourn in the United States, 'Abdu'50-Bahá constantly emphasized in public addresses, private conversations, and written communications the importance of eradicating the racism deeply ingrained in American club. "God maketh no distinction between the white and the black," 'Abdu'l-Bahá told a gathering in New York City. "God is no respecter of persons on business relationship of either colour or race. All colors are acceptable to Him, be they white, blackness, or yellow. Inasmuch as all were created in the image of God, we must bring ourselves to realize that all embody divine possibilities."14

Leaving New York on 5 December 1912, 'Abdu'50-Bahá traveled to England, France, Federal republic of germany, and Austria-hungary. In Europe, equally in Northward America, He spoke at private gatherings and public meetings and met prominent individuals such equally Albert Wilberforce, archdeacon of Westminster; Annie Besant, president of the Theosophical Guild; suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst; orientalists Edward G. Browne of Cambridge University and Arminius Vambery and Ignatius Goldziher of the University of Budapest; as well as two Qajar princes in exile, Mas'ud Mirza Zillu's-Sultan and his son Husayn Mirza Jalalu'd-Dawlih—both of whom, while serving equally governors in Islamic republic of iran, had been responsible for persecuting and executing Bahá'ís, and both of whom now showed respect toward 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

'Abdu'l-Bahá'due south travels in Europe and North America were a major factor in the spread of the Bahá'í Faith in the West, the proclamation of its principles, and the firm establishment of Bahá'í communities on the two continents. Moreover, in His addresses to Western audiences, both to Bahá'ís and the full general public, 'Abdu'50-Bahá demonstrated the application of His begetter'southward teachings to many contemporary issues and problems.

State of war Years, 1914–xviii

Throughout His travels in Europe and North America, 'Abdu'l-Bahá frequently spoke of the historic period-quondam prevalence of warfare, made infinitely more deadly past twentieth-century science, and of the demand to "unlearn the science of war"fifteen and to create the social conditions and the international political instruments necessary to establish peace. "The greatest catastrophe in the world of humanity today is war," He told an audience in Montreal in September 1912:

Europe is a storehouse of explosives pending a spark. All the European nations are on edge, and a unmarried flame will set on fire the whole of that continent. Implements of war and expiry are multiplied and increased to an inconceivable degree, and the brunt of military maintenance is taxing the various countries beyond the signal of endurance. Armies and navies devour the substance and possessions of the people; the toiling poor, the innocent and helpless are forced by tax to provide munitions and armament for governments bent upon conquest of territory and defence confronting powerful rival nations. At that place is no greater or more woeful ordeal in the world of humanity today than impending war. Therefore, international peace is a crucial necessity. An arbitral court of justice shall be established by which international disputes are to be settled. Through this means all possibility of discord and war between the nations will be obviated.xvi

Less than two years later, a spark struck in Sarajevo ignited a conflagration that chop-chop spread beyond the European continent. From November 1914—when the Allied Powers declared war on the Ottoman Empire, which had joined Germany and Austria-hungary—until September 1918, Earth War I almost isolated 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Palestine from Bahá'í communities in the West and in the E. The Ottoman authorities, fearful of the growing hostility of the local population, imposed draconian measures of control on the Holy Land. The commander of Turkish troops on the Egyptian front, Cemal Paşa (Jamál Páshá), was hostile to 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Provoked by the followers of Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí, he threatened to crucify 'Abdu'l-Bahá on Mount Carmel as presently every bit Ottoman victory was achieved. Nevertheless, Cemal Paşa'southward Egyptian campaign failed. He was defeated, forced to retreat in haste, and rendered unable to comport out his threat.

Through the war years, 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá encouraged the Bahá'ís in the Hashemite kingdom of jordan River valley and on the shores of the Sea of Galilee to plant crops. The wheat they produced was distributed to the needy population of Haifa, saving it from starvation. This humanitarian service was recognized past the British, who occupied Haifa at the end of September 1918. The British government knighted 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Apr 1920 and showed Him extraordinary signs of admiration and respect.

While 'Abdu'l-Bahá's contacts with the exterior world were severed during the state of war, He connected to write, producing 1 of the most important works of His ministry: the fourteen letters known every bit the Tablets of the Divine Plan. Written in March–April 1916 and February–March 1917, these letters, or tablets (the English rendering of the Arabic alwáh, plural of lawh), became the charter for the expansion and spread of the Bahá'í Faith over the unabridged globe. 'Abdu'l-Bahá entrusted the mission of initiating this expansion to the Bahá'ís of North America, to whom the Tablets of the Divine Plan were addressed.

Final Years, 1919–21

'Abdu'l-Bahá in Haifa in 1919. Among those seated are Laura and Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney (center) and, to the right, Shoghi Effendi (in white).http://www.bahai-biblio.org/centre-photo/gens/abdul-baha/abd-haifa/abdhai~06m~abd-dreyfus.htm#centrer

The last three years of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's life were spent in correspondence with an ever increasing number of Bahá'í individuals and communities throughout the globe, a correspondence that guided their efforts to establish an organizational framework for the Bahá'í Faith and provided inspiration for its expansion. His interaction with the renewed stream of pilgrims to the Bahá'í shrines in Acre and Haifa provided some other instrument for deepening the agreement of recent converts and veteran Bahá'ís akin. Withal historic period, long years of imprisonment and exile, strenuous travels, and overwork had taken their toll. 'Abdu'l-Bahá foresaw the approaching end. Half dozen months earlier His passing, He wrote in a prayer: "'O Lord! My basic are weakened, and the hoar hairs glisten on My head . . . and I have at present reached former historic period, failing in My powers.' . . . No force is in that location left in Me wherewith to ascend and serve Thy loved ones . . . O Lord, My Lord! Hasten My rise unto Thy sublime Threshold . . . and My inflow at the Door of Thy grace beneath the shadow of Thy most peachy mercy."17

Achievements

Shoghi Effendi states in appreciation of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's achievements that He had taken the Bahá'í Organized religion to the Westward; had disclosed its graphic symbol and purpose before vast audiences in Europe and North America; had brought the mortal remains of the Báb to the Holy Land and enshrined them on Mount Carmel; had inspired the erection of the commencement Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world in Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) and had laid the cornerstone of the 2nd in Wilmette, Illinois (Run into: Mashriqu'50-Adhkár.Houses of Worship around the World.Ashgabat–Chicago); and had routed the breakers of His father's Covenant. "Through His ['Abdu'l-Bahá's] unremitting labors," Shoghi Effendi states, "as reflected in the treatises He composed, the thousands of Tablets He revealed, the discourses He delivered, the prayers, poems and commentaries He left to posterity . . . , the laws and principles, constituting the warp and woof of His Father'south Revelation, had been elucidated, its fundamentals restated and interpreted, its tenets given detailed application and the validity and indispensability of its verities fully and publicly demonstrated."18

Throughout His ministry of xx-nine years, 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá labored to spread the Bahá'í Faith to every part of the world and fostered the development of the administrative institutions (See: Administration, Bahá'í) ordained by Bahá'u'lláh. Under His guidance there grew in Iran a network of Spiritual Assemblies that managed the affairs of communities, organized schools, provided for the sick and the orphans, promoted health measures, resolved conflicts among individuals, and engaged in teaching the Bahá'í Faith.

The institution in Islamic republic of iran of Bahá'í schools, with particular concern for the education of girls, the improvement of individual standards of health, and the moral transformation of believers, which gradually gained them a reputation for integrity and trustworthiness, testified to the effectiveness of 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá's leadership. He encouraged the advancement of women, who began to participate in customs activities and, in the decades after His passing, attained equality with men equally members of Spiritual Assemblies, both local and national, in Iran.

'Abdu'50-Bahá also inspired the spread of the Bahá'í Religion in the Caucasus and Russian Cardinal Asia, where Ashgabat with its Temple, schools, and publications, unhampered by authorities restrictions, became a model Bahá'í community (See: Mashriqu'50-Adhkár.Houses of Worship around the Globe.Chicago). Egypt, which had greatly benefited from 'Abdu'l-Bahá's sojourn in that country, too witnessed the growth of a Bahá'í community that included both Muslim and Copt converts as well as Iranians, Kurds, and Armenians. In Turkey, Ottoman Iraq, Tunisia, and fifty-fifty distant Communist china and Japan, Bahá'í communities sprang up or were strengthened at 'Abdu'l-Bahá's behest.

The continents of Europe and North America were the stage for 'Abdu'l-Bahá'southward own teaching activities. The Bahá'í communities of Europe and Due north America, established entirely during His ministry building, were a direct result of His unceasing efforts. He paid detail attention to the development of the Bahá'í Faith and its institutions in the Usa and Canada and entrusted to the Bahá'ís of North America the task of conveying the teachings and spirit of Bahá'u'lláh to most of the rest of the earth. In the last years of His ministry, at His urging and in response to His Tablets of the Divine Plan, the first Bahá'ís reached South America and Australia (Come across: Dunn, Clara, and Dunn, John Henry Hyde).

WRITINGS

'Abdu'l-Bahá in Haifa, probably signing a letter transcribed by a secretary.http://www.bahai-biblio.org/centre-photo/gens/abdul-baha/abd-haifa/abdhai~11m~abd-tablette.htm#centrer

Although 'Abdu'l-Bahá carried out many of His activities through personal contact with visitors and pilgrims and through His travels, He conducted almost of His work through a vast and varied correspondence. The Bahá'í World Center currently holds nearly sixteen thousand of His letters to individuals and institutions. The writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá also incorporate essays, poems, prayers, and books. It has been estimated that four-fifths of them are in Persian and the balance in Standard arabic, with a very few in Ottoman Turkish. The messages have been described equally "masterpieces of Persian epistolary genre" that "are marked past directness, intimacy, warmth, love, sense of humour, forbearance, and a myriad other qualities that reveal the exemplary perfection of His personality."xix

Some of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's messages addressed to individuals deal with bug of full general interest; transcending the personal, they constitute essays on a variety of themes. One of the about widely known is 'Abdu'l-Bahá'due south Tablet to August Forel, a Swiss scientist, in which 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá discusses the nature of God and of human beings. 'Abdu'l-Bahá also wrote to Bahá'í communities, offer guidance and inspiration to the recipients and to hereafter generations. The Tablets of the Divine Program, the charter for global expansion that 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed to the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, are preeminent in this category. They plant a certificate of fundamental importance in the development of the Bahá'í world customs, spelling out the steps in the global spread of the Faith and serving as the basis for all subsequent plans for growth. 'Abdu'l-Bahá likewise wrote to organizations, such as the Primal Organisation for a Durable Peace at The Hague, and occasionally to newspapers, such as the Christian Commonwealth.

'Abdu'fifty-Bahá's Volition and Testament occupies a special place among His writings. Shoghi Effendi states that, like the Tablets of the Divine Program, it is 1 of the charters of the Bahá'í lodge.twenty 'Abdu'l-Bahá composed its start department, and possibly the entire document, in the period betwixt 1901 and 1908, when the Ottoman government, incited by Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí and his followers, threatened 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá'due south life. The document establishes the Bahá'í Administrative Guild, Shoghi Effendi observes, and "may be regarded in some of its features as supplementary to no less weighty a Book than the Kitáb-i-Aqdas." He points out that information technology creates the establishment of the Guardianship; provides "measures for the election of the International House of Justice"; prescribes the obligations and responsibilities of the Easily of the Cause of God; provides for the protection of the Bahá'í Faith against disunity and schism; and summons the followers of Bahá'u'lláh "to arise unitedly to propagate His Faith, to disperse far and broad, to labor tirelessly and to follow the heroic example of the Apostles of Jesus Christ."21

'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote a large number of prayers (munáját), mostly in Western farsi and Arabic, with a few in Turkish. The "chief distinguishing quality" of these brief communions with God has been described as "the sustained and expanding expression of human's experience of the Holy by ways of poetic language."22

In addition to longer tablets, 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá produced three monographs during the years when His responsibilities withal allowed Him to devote time to book-length works: The Hush-hush of Divine Civilization and A Traveler's Narrative , both written during Bahá'u'lláh'south lifetime, and A Treatise on Politics. The Secret of Divine Civilisation is the first of these major works. Written in 1875, addressed to the Iranian people, and published anonymously, it is an outstanding example of the awarding of Bahá'u'lláh'southward principles to a specific state of affairs: the modernization of Iran. Historian Amin Banani writes that, in this pioneer piece of work, which anticipates and offers solutions to many issues that modernizing societies have faced,

'Abdu'50-Bahá presents a coherent program for the regeneration of Farsi society. The program is predicated on universal education and eradication of ignorance and fanaticism. It calls for responsibility and participation of the people in government through a representative assembly. It seeks to safeguard their rights and liberties through codified of laws and institutionalization of justice. It argues for the humane benefits of modern scientific discipline and technology. It condemns militarism and underscores the immorality of heavy expenditures for armaments. It promulgates a more than equitable sharing of the wealth of the nation.23

The second of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's books, A Traveler's Narrative, is a brief history of the Báb intended for a general audience. Written in or around 1886, information technology was translated into English language by Edward G. Browne and published by Cambridge University Press in 1891. The third work, A Treatise on Politics, written in 1892–93, may exist considered a sequel to The Secret of Divine Culture; it has not been translated and is bachelor but in the original Persian.

'Abdu'l-Bahá approved for publication ii compilations of His talks: Some Answered Questions and Memorials of the Faithful . Published in 1908, Some Answered Questions is a record of table talks on the spiritual teachings of the Bahá'í Faith and on some Christian subjects; the talks were given in response to questions posed past an American pilgrim, Laura Clifford Barney. Memorials of the Faithful, dating from 1915, is a series of spiritual portraits of more than than seventy early Bahá'ís that 'Abdu'l-Bahá presented to weekly gatherings of Bahá'ís in His habitation in Haifa.

Many of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's talks in Europe and America have been compiled in The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His Visit to the United states of america and Canada in 1912; 'Abdu'l-Bahá in London ; 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Canada; and Paris Talks . These books incorporate a wealth of fabric and further amplify Bahá'u'lláh's teachings on many contemporary problems, peculiarly those faced in the W.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

'Abdu'l-Bahá'due south person made a deep impression on all who met Him. Friends and strangers, Europeans, Americans, and Asians testified to His gentleness and kindness, His welcoming grin, His exquisite courtesy, and His delightful sense of humor. Edward 1000. Browne of Cambridge University wrote after coming together 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1890:

Seldom accept I seen i whose advent impressed me more. A tall strongly-built man holding himself direct as an arrow, with white turban and raiment, long black locks reaching almost to the shoulder, broad powerful forehead indicating a strong intellect combined with an unswerving will, optics slap-up as a hawk's, and strongly marked but pleasing features—such was my beginning impression of 'Abbás Efendí, "the master" (Áká) as he par excellence is called by the Bábís [i.e., the Bahá'ís]. Subsequent chat with him served only to heighten the respect with which his appearance had from the first inspired me. . . . About the greatness of this man and his power no one who had seen him could entertain a doubt.24

Horace Holley, an American who met 'Abdu'l-Bahá in France, felt the spirit that emanated from Him. "I yielded to a feeling of reverence," Holley writes, "which contained more than the solution of intellectual or moral problems. To look upon so wonderful a man being, to reply utterly to the amuse of His presence—this brought me continual happiness. . . . Patriarchal, majestic, strong, nonetheless infinitely kind, he appeared like some just king that very moment descended from his throne to mingle with a devoted people."25

'Abdu'l-Bahá's chapters for piece of work, His disregard for personal comfort, His ability to endure hardship, His generosity, His honey for children, His sense of sense of humor, His concern for the poor and the ill, His love for nature and beauty, combined with an atomic number 26 will, an unswerving devotion to truth and justice, and an all-consuming sense of duty toward the community entrusted to Him by Bahá'u'lláh, were characteristics noted past hundreds of observers.

Decease AND FUNERAL

Funeral procession leaving 'Abdu'l-Bahá's home.http://www.bahai-biblio.org/centre-photo/gens/abdul-baha/abd-deces/abdfun~02m+abd-deces.htm#centrer

'Abdu'50-Bahá passed away in Haifa at the age of seventy-seven in the early hours of the morning on 28 Nov 1921. The funeral, held the adjacent solar day and attended by thousands of mourners, was a spontaneous tribute to 'Abdu'l-Bahá's person. Representatives of the Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches and of the Muslim, Jewish, and Druze faiths; officials, led past the British High Commissioner for Palestine and the governors of Jerusalem and Phoenicia; Arabs, Jews, Kurds, Turks, Europeans, and Americans followed the coffin upwardly the slopes of Mount Carmel to the Shrine of the Báb, in ane of whose chambers 'Abdu'l-Bahá's mortal remains were laid to residuum. His death marked the stop of the Heroic or Churchly Age of the Bahá'í Faith, which began with the Bab'south proclamation on 23 May 1844, the appointment of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's birth.26

Author: Firuz Kazemzadeh

© 2009 National Spiritual Associates of the Bahá'ís of the United States. Terms of Employ.

Notes:

  1. 1. 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá had five one-half-siblings who grew into adulthood. Ásíyyih Khánum was the first of Bahá'u'lláh's three wives, whom He married in accordance with Islamic law and prevailing community. His second marriage, which took place in Tehran in 1849, produced six children, four of whom survived, and His third, contracted in Baghdad before 1863, produced one.
  2. two. 'Abdu'l-Bahá quoted in Mahmúd Zarqání, Kitáb-i-Badáyi'u'l-Áthár, vol. two. (1921; Hofheim–Langenhain, Ger.: Bahá'í-Verlag, 1982) 187, 205–06, quoted and translated in H. Thousand. Balyuzi, 'Abdu'50-Bahá: The Centre of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh, 2nd ed. (Oxford: George Ronald, 1987) 10.
  3. three. 'Abdu'l-Bahá quoted in Zarqání, Badáyi'u'l-Áthár 206, as quoted and translated in Balyuzi, 'Abdu'l-Bahá eleven–12.
  4. 4. Balyuzi, Abdu'l-Bahá 14.
  5. v. Balyuzi, 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá 17.
  6. vi. Edward G. Browne, introduction, A Traveller's Narrative Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Báb, by 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá (1930; Los Angeles: Kalimát, 2004) xxxvi.
  7. vii. Bahá'u'lláh quoted in Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh: Selected Messages, 1st pocket-size ed. (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1991, 2000 printing) 135.
  8. 8. Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book, 1st pocket-size ed. (Wilmette, IL, U.s.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1993, 2005 printing) ¶121:63.
  9. 9. Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas ¶174:82.
  10. x. Shoghi Effendi, World Order 132–33.
  11. 11. 'Abdu'l-Bahá quoted in Shoghi Effendi, World Order 133.
  12. 12. Shoghi Effendi, Globe Order 134.
  13. 13. Century of Low-cal, prepared under the direction of the Universal House of Justice (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 2001, 2003 printing) 10.
  14. 14. 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912, comp. Howard MacNutt, new ed. (Wilmette, IL, U.s.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 2007) 1.8: 155–56.
  15. fifteen. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation 6.4: 321.
  16. 16. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation half dozen.11: 451.
  17. 17. 'Abdu'l-Bahá quoted in Shoghi Effendi, God Passes Past, new ed. (Wilmette, IL, U.s.a.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1974, 2004 printing) 310.
  18. xviii. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 314–15.
  19. nineteen. Amin Banani, "The Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá," World Order ns 6.1 (1971): 69–70.
  20. 20. Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Bahá'í Globe, 1950–1957(Wilmette, IL, Usa: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1971, 1999 printing) 84.
  21. 21. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 328.
  22. 22. Banani, "Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá" 70.
  23. 23. Banani, "Writings of 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá" 72.
  24. 24. Browne, introduction, Traveller's Narrative, xxxvi.
  25. 25. Horace Holley, Religion for Mankind (Oxford: George Ronald, 1976) 233.
  26. 26. Shoghi Effendi sets out various stages of Bahá'í history, the offset being the Heroic or Apostolic Age, in God Passes By xiii–xiv.

Understanding the Citations
Citing Bahá'í Encyclopedia Project Manufactures

Other Sources and Related Reading:

  • For general biographical, historical, and bibliographical information and discussions of 'Abdu'50-Bahá's ministry, see Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, especially chapters 14–21, 235–320; George Townshend, 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá, The Master: A Compilation from the Writings of George Townshend, annotated by David Hofman (Oxford: George Ronald, 1987); Adib Taherzadeh, The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh (Oxford: George Ronald, 1992) 99–279, and The Child of the Covenant: A Written report Guide to the Volition and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá (Oxford: George Ronald, 2000); commemorative issue on "'Abdu'l-Bahá: Fiftieth Ceremony of His Passing," World Order ns 6.1 (1971); Firuz Kazemzadeh, "'Abdu'l-Bahá: Middle of Bahá'u'lláh'southward Covenant," World Order ns 25.1 (1993) 7–11.
  • For encyclopedia entries on 'Abdu'l-Bahá, see D[enis] MacEoin and A[lessandro] Bausani "'Abd al-Bahā," Encyclopedia Iranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater,http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-baha (accessed eighteen Oct. 2012); Moojan Momen, "'Abdu'50-Baha," Holy People of the Globe: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia, ed. Phyllis Jestice, 3 vols. (Santa Barbara, CA, USA: ABC–CLIO, 2004) 1: 3–4; William McCants, "Abd al-Baha (1844–1921)," Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, ed. Richard C. Martin, vol. 1 (New York: Macmillan, 2004) 1–2.
  • See also, Lady [Sara Louisa] Blomfield, The Chosen Highway (London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1940; Oxford: George Ronald, 2007) 133–228; Annamarie Honnold, ed., Vignettes from the Life of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, rev. ed. (Oxford: George Ronald, 1991); Elham Afnan, "'Abdu'l-Bahá and Ezra Pound's Circumvolve," Journal of Bahá'í Studies 6.2 (1994) 1–xiv; Emogene Hoagg, "Letter of the alphabet from Haifa in the Mourning Time," Globe Order ns half-dozen.2 (1971–72) 34–37; Florian and Grace Krug, "Accounts of the Passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá," World Society ns 7.2 (1972–73) 38–41; Gary L. Morrison, "'Abdu'fifty-Bahá and the Early American Bahá'ís," World Guild ns 6.3 (1972) 31–44; R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram, Written in Calorie-free: 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá and the American Bahá'í Community, 1898–1921 (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 1998); Gayle Morrison, "To Motility the World: Louis Gregory and 'Abdu'l-Bahá," World Society ns 14.i (1979) 11–30; Ahang Rabbani, "'Abdu'l-Bahá's Meetings with Two Prominent Iranians," Globe Order ns xxx.1 (1998) 35–46; and "The Holy Land, 1918–1922: Some Historical Messages," Bahá'í Studies Review 11 (2003) 96–99.
  • Writings by 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá, translated into English language and published in book form, include: The Secret of Divine Culture, trans. Marzieh Gail in consultation with Ali-Kuli Khan, 1st small-scale ed. (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1990, 2006 printing); Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá, comp. Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, trans. Committee at the Bahá'í Earth Center and Marzieh Gail, 1st pocket-size ed. (Wilmette, IL, Usa: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1996, 2004 printing); Tablets of the Divine Program, 1st pocket-sized ed. (Wilmette, IL, The states: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1993, 2006 printing); A Traveler'south Narrative Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Báb, trans. Edward Thousand. Browne, new and corr. ed. (Wilmette, IL, United states of america: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1980); Volition and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá (Wilmette, IL, U.s.a.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1944, 1997 press).
  • Collections of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's talks, translated into English language and published in book class, include: 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Canada, rev. ed. (Thornhill, ON, Can.: Bahá'í Canada, 1987); 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá in London: Addresses and Notes of Conversations, commemorative ed. (London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1987); Memorials of the True-blue, trans. Marzieh Gail, 1st softcover ed. (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1997); Paris Talks: Addresses Given past 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá in Paris in 1911-1912 (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá'í Publishing, 2006); The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His Visit to the Us and Canada in 1912, comp. Howard MacNutt, new ed. (Wilmette, IL, Us: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 2007); Some Answered Questions, comp. and trans. Laura Clifford Barney, 1st pocket-sized ed. (Wilmette, IL, Us: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1984, 2008 printing). Encounter besides 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Stories Told by 'Abdu'50-Bahá, comp. Amin Badiei (Oxford: George Ronald, 2003).
  • The growing literature on 'Abdu'l-Bahá'southward writings and thought, often published in conjunction with conditional translations of various texts, includes: Keven Chocolate-brown and Eberhard von Kitzing, Evolution and Bahá'í Belief: 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá's Response to Nineteenth-Century Darwinism, Studies in the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions 12 (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 2001); Franklin Lewis, "Discourses of Knowledge," Search for Values: Ethics in Bahá'í Thought, ed. John Danesh and Seena Fazel, Studies in the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions xv (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 2004) 45–78; Moojan Momen, "'Abdu'l-Bahá's Commentary on the Islamic Tradition: 'I Was a Subconscious Treasure...,'" Bahá'í Studies Bulletin 3.4 (1985) 4–64; Necati Alkan, introd. and trans., "'By the Fig and the Olive': 'Abdu'l-Bahá'south Commentary in Ottoman Turkish on the Qur'ánic Sura 95—Notes and Provisional Translation," Bahá'í Studies Review 10 (2001–02) 115–28; 'Abdu'l-Bahá,"'Abdu'l-Bahá on Christ and Christianity," introd. Seena Fazel, Bahá'í Studies Review 3 (1993) ane–17; Firuz Kazemzadeh, "The Tablet to the Hague," Globe Gild ns 4.ii (1969–70) 4–11; Peter Terry, "'Abdu'l-Bahá'southward Caption of the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh: Tablets and Talks Translated into English (1911–1920)," Lights of 'Irfán: Papers Presented at the 'Irfán Colloquia and Seminars, Book 1 (Evanston, IL, USA: Haj Mehdi Arjmand Memorial Fund, 2000) 143–63; Moojan Momen, "'Abdu'l-Bahá's Commentary on the Quránic Verses Concerning the Overthrow of the Byzantines: The Stages of the Soul" [including a provisional translation of the text], Lights of 'Irfán: Papers Presented at the 'Irfán Colloquia and Seminars, Book 2 (Evanston, IL, USA: Haj Mehdi Arjmand Memorial Fund, 2001) 99–117; Moojan Momen, "'Abdu'fifty-Bahá's Commentary on the Qur'anic Verses Apropos the Overthrow of the Byzantines: The Stages of the Soul," Bahá'í Studies Review 12 (2004) 67–ninety; Maryam Afshar, "Images of Christ in the Writings of 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá," Lights of 'Irfán: Papers Presented at the 'Irfán Colloquia and Seminars, Book 5 (Evanston, IL, United states: Haj Mehdi Arjmand Memorial Fund, 2004) 1–sixteen; Necati Alkan, "'Abdu'l-Bahá's Commentary on the Islamic Tradition 'God Doth Requite Victory to This Religion by Ways of a Wicked Human being': A Conditional Translation and Notes," Bahá'í Studies Review 11 (2003) 53–57; Manooher Mofidi, "'Abdu'50-Bahá's Tablet of the Two Calls: Civilizing Boorishness," Lights of 'Irfán: Papers Presented at the 'Irfán Colloquia and Seminars, Book half-dozen (Evanston, IL, USA: Haj Mehdi Arjmand Memorial Fund, 2005) 161–72.
  • For accounts of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's travels, run into Mahmúd Zarqání, Mahmúd's Diary: The Diary of Mírzá Mahmúd-i-Zarqání Chronicling 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Journeying to America, trans. Mohi Sobhani and Shirley Macias (Oxford: George Ronald, 1998); Allan L. Ward, 239 Days: 'Abdu'l-Bahá'due south Journey in America (Wilmette, IL, United states of america: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1979); Anjam Khursheed, The Seven Candles of Unity: The Story of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Edinburgh (London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1991); Eliane Lacroix-Hopson, 'Abdu'l-Bahá in New York, The City of the Covenant, 2nd ed. (Northward.p.: Bahá'í Publications Australia, 2005); and György Lederer, "'Abdu'l-Bahá in Budapest," Bahá'ís in the West, ed. Peter Smith, Studies in the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions 14 (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 2004) 109–26.
  • Many individuals who knew 'Abdu'50-Bahá take written of Him in their personal memoirs. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's wife, Munírih Khánum, penned a short business relationship published in Munírih Khánum: Memoirs and Messages, trans. Sammireh Anwar Smith (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 1986). The experience of meeting 'Abdu'50-Bahá, whether in the Holy Land or during His travels, is recorded in many accounts, including: In His Presence, Visits to 'Abdu'50-Baha: Memoirs of Roy Wilhelm, Stanwood Cobb, Genevieve 50. Coy (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 1989); Rúhá Asdaq, One Life, Ane Retention: In the Presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Haifa, January 1914, asst. Lameah Khodadoost, trans. Shahbaz Fatheazam (Oxford: George Ronald, 1999); Ramona Allen Dark-brown, Memories of 'Abdu'l-Bahá: Recollections of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Religion in California (Wilmette, IL, U.s.a.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1980); Thornton Chase, "Impressions of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His Station," introd. Robert H. Stockman, Globe Guild ns 25.1 (1993); 13–22; Thornton Hunt and Arthur Agnew, In Galilee, and, In Wonderland (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 1985); Marzieh Gail, The Sheltering Co-operative (Oxford: George Ronald, 1978) and Summon Up Remembrance (Oxford: George Ronald, 1987); Helen S. Goodall and Ella Goodall Cooper, Daily Lessons Received at 'Akká, January 1908 (Wilmette, IL, The states: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1979); Louis G. Gregory, A Heavenly Vista: The Pilgrimage of Louis Thou. Gregory (Washington: n.p., n.d.), reprinted as A Heavenly Vista, 1997 ed. (Fernale, MI, USA: Alpha, 1997) and available online at http://bahai-library.com/pilgrims/louis.html(accessed ii February. 2009); Julia K. Grundy, Ten Days in the Light of 'Akká, rev. ed. (Wilmette, IL, United states: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1979); Howard Colby Ives, Portals to Liberty (Oxford: George Ronald, 1990); May Maxwell, An Early Pilgrimage (Oxford: George Ronald, 1976); Agnes S. Parsons, 'Abdu'l-Bahá in America: Agnes Parsons' Diary, Apr eleven, 1912–Nov 11, 1912, Supplemented with Episodes from Mahmud'southward Diary, ed. Richard Hollinger (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 1996); Myron H. Phelps, The Main in 'Akká: Including the Recollections of the Greatest Holy Leaf, rev. and annotated Marzieh Gail (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 1985); Juanita Storch, "'You are Happy Because You Have Seen 'Abdu'l-Bahá,'" World Guild ns 25.i (1993) 25–42; Juliet Thompson, The Diary of Juliet Thompson (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 1983); Bahiyyih Randall Winckler, My Pilgrimage to Haifa, November 1919 (Wilmette, IL, U.s.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1996); Ali M. Yazdi, Blessings Beyond Measure: Recollections of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi (Wilmette, IL, The states: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1988); Sweet and Enchanting Stories, comp. Aziz Rohani (New Liskeard, ON, Can.: White Mountain, 2004); Marion Carpenter Yazdi, Youth in the Vanguard: Memoirs and Letters Nerveless by the First Bahá'í Pupil at Berkeley and at Stanford University (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1982); Youness Afroukhteh, Memories of Nine Years in 'Akká, trans. Riaz Masrour (Oxford: George Ronald, 2003).
  • See as well the following works in Persian: Yúnis Afrúkhtih, Khátirát-i-Nuh-Sálih, new ed. (Darmstadt, Ger.: 'Asr-i Jadíd, 2003); 'Abdu'l-Husayn Áyatí [Ávárih], Kavakibu'd-Durriyyih, vol. two (Cairo: al-Matba'ah as-Sa'ádah, 1342/1924); Habíb Mu'ayyad, Khátirát-i-Habíb, vol. 2 (Tehran: Mu'assasiy-i-Millíy-i-Matbú'át-i-Amrí, 129/1972–73); Mahmúd Zarqání, Kitáb-i-Badáyi'u'l-Áthár, ii vols. (1914–21; Hofheim–Langenhain, Ger.: Bahá'í-Verlag, 1982); Muhammad 'Ali Faydi, Hayát-i- Hadrat-i-'Abdu'l-Bahá, rev. ed. (1971; Hofheim–Langenhain, Ger.: Bahá'í-Verlag, 1986); Hushang Mahmudi, Yád-dashtiháy-i-darbárih-Hadrat-i-'Abdu'l-Bahá, ii vols. (Tehran: Mu'assasiy-i-Millíy-i-Matbú'át-i-Amrí, 130/1973–74).

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