Baby girl teaches the Faith!

Baby girl teaches the Faith!

Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum in one of her memories says that she was once in a fireside with a group of Persian and British pioneers. One of the seekers was a black man who was sitting there and was listening carefully.
Suddenly the door opened and the daughter of one of the English pioneers came in with her milk bottle in hand and looked at the audience and went directly to the black man and made it to his laps and managed to sit there, she smiled at him, and kissed him, and started to drink her milk from the bottle.
One of the Persian ladies tried to reach the baby to grab her from the man's laps, but Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum, told her in Persian, "let her be, she is teaching the Faith in her own way."
After the meeting, the man approached the Khánum and told her that he would like to be like her and go wherever she went to teach the Faith. Khánum looked at him and asked if he was a Baha'i? And he said yes, he was. Rúhíyyih Khánum was astonished and asked, "Since when? How and why?"
He said that, "Since an hour ago when that little girl went to me, kissed me, and sat on my laps and slept there with great calm. Since that moment I thought to myself that she had a different and brilliant education where there was no hint of racism. Her parents must have had no prejudice in educating her like that, and then I said this is the Faith I must grasp."
"That is why I am a Baha'i now."

A lovely story

A lovely story to share, for the upcoming celebration of the Day of the Covenant.

 

 It was the custom of Shoghi Effendi to walk on Mount Carmel, and at times he invited the Persian men believers to walk with him.  They would walk a few paces behind him, out of respect.  Ali-Kuli Khan was a member of one of these groups of men, and at one point Shoghi Effendi stopped, and turned to the men, and said, "Although I am Abdu'l-Baha's successor, I am not His equal.  His station is far greater than my own."  Then he turned, and continued walking.  Ali-Kuli Khan burst into tears.  When he finished weeping, one of his fellow pilgrims asked him, "What Shoghi Effendi said was very beautiful, but why did it have such an effect on you?"  Ali-Kuli Khan answered, "Many years ago, I was here on Pilgrimage during the days of Abdu'l-Baha.  One day I was walking with Him on the slopes of Mount Carmel, and He stopped, at that very same spot, and turned to me and said, "Although I am the Successor to Baha'u'llah, I am not His equal.  His station is far, far greater than My own."  And of course, as we were walking behind the beloved Guardian, I recalled the sweetness of that moment.  And then I saw that we were approaching that spot where the Master had spoken, and to my astonishment, Shoghi Effendi stopped, and spoke at that same spot.  And when he said what he did, then I understood the greatness of this Cause."

 

            Ali Kuli Khan (c.1879-1966) and his wife Florence Breed

 

Ali Kuli Han was an eminent Iranian Baha'i who served briefly as 'Abdu'l-Baha’s English-language secretary between 1899-1901. He was subsequently sent to America where he was the first to translate into English some of the most important works of Baha’u’llah, such as the Kitab-i-Iqan, the Seven Valleys and the Glad-Tidings. He also continued to translate 'Abdu'l-Baha’s correspondence with the American Baha'is. Ali-Kuli Khan was appointed Iranian charge d'affaires in Washington in 1910 and later served in various high-ranking diplomatic positions. His marriage to Boston society girl Florence Breed (1875-1950) in 1904 not only caused comments on two continents, but was praised by 'Abdu'l-Baha as the first marriage between East and West, a symbol of the unity taught by the Baha’i Faith. Their daughter, Marzieh Gail (1908-93), also became an eminent Baha'i writer and translator.

--
"There are many mirrors reflecting the Light, but though the mirrors should be shattered the Light would still remain"

Couple marriage

Couple’s marriage a witness to the oneness of humanity

October 12, 2011

by Tracy Simmons, Freelance Religion Reporter

For most people it wasn’t OK that Jack and Farzaneh Guillebeaux fell in love.

In the 1960s, in North Carolina, a romantic relationship between a white woman and a black man was impermissible. Forbidden.

But Baha’is have never seen it that way. Baha’u'llah once said that interracial marriages were a service to mankind, and those words were the driving force behind the couple’s decision to wed in 1965.

The pair met at a Baha’i Fireside (introductory talk) in Asheville, N.C. shortly after Farzaneh immigrated to the U.S. from Iran to go to college.

Jack and Farzaneh Guillebeaux on their wedding day in front of the Baha'i Temple, Wilmette IL, 1965

“My plan was to go to school for four years and then go back home,” she said. “But God had other plans.”

The Asheville Baha’i community supported and nurtured the young couple, giving them them the nest they needed to develop their relationship. At that time it was legal for interracial couples to live together in North Carolina, but not to marry. So they decided to drive 500 miles north to Wilmette, Ill. and wed in the Baha’i Temple.

“We were really poor. I was still a student,” Farzaneh said, “but what else do you do when you’re in love?”

Their family and friends couldn’t make the drive with them, so the Guillebeauxs held a reception at the Asheville YWCA when they returned home.

At the celebration they noticed several unfamiliar faces and Jack said they quickly realized that strangers from the community showed up to see this taboo ceremony for themselves.

“It became very clear that people had never seen this publicly,” Jack said. “For many people in the community this was a really significant event. Some people said that verbally, others waited to see if it was going to last.”

The Guillebeauxs later learned that there had been a bomb threat that night.

People gossiped about the newlyweds, they stared at them, some people even refused to rent them a home. The Guillebeauxs chuckle when they re-tell the stories.

“For us it was mostly funny. Walking down the street we could almost time when to turn around to see everyone else turn back around,” Farzaneh said, giggling.

They weren’t there to prove a point. The Guillebeauxs were there to fight prejudice.

“We could see first hand why Baha’u'llah said it [interracial marriage] was service to humanity, because prejudice is something learned and just by seeing an interracial couple it tends to start erasing that phobia,” Farzaneh said. “And we witnessed this in the changing of attitudes with the people we had contact with.”

Jack said prejudice is born out of ignorance and said all interracial couples, and interracial children (they had two), are helping the country move forward.

Jack and Farzaneh Guillebeaux back on the steps of the Baha'i Temple in 2011

A few years later they moved to Georgia, then to Alabama where they currently reside. For their silver anniversary, though, they decided to celebrate at the same Asheville YWCA they had danced at 25 years earlier. Local journalists covered their homecoming, causing the Guillebeauxs to once again be the talk of the town. But this time it was different. People weren’t sneering at them. They were shaking their hands, welcoming them home and assuring them that the community had changed.

People from the local licensing department even apologized for not having allowed them to marry in town.

This summer the couple celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary.

And although society has come a long way since 1965, Jack said interracial couples still don’t go unnoticed.

“People have to think about what they’re looking at and what it means. It’s helping people to understand what the new normal is,” he said.

And that, they added, is a crucial part of what being Baha’i is all about.

“It’s about striving to translate that which has been written into reality and action,” Farzaneh said.

They agreed that they wouldn’t have overcome the racial challenges they faced and wouldn’t have lasted more than four decades together if it wasn’t for their faith. Jack said it’s been their “North Star.”

“It’s helped us through all kinds of questions and positions,” he said. “We knew what the Teachings said, and we weren’t going to deviate.”

Cecilia King Blake

On 25 February 1911 a privileged soul, Cecilia King Blake, came into the world.  She embraced the Baha`i Faith on 20 October 1957 in Panama and almost immediately arose to serve as a pioneer in the Chitre zone where she gave her services with great dedication and efficiency.  In the closing years of the Ten Year Crusade there was an urgent appeal for pioneers to Nicaragua.  In the period between May 1960 and April 1961 a contingent of pioneers arrived, including Cecilia.  She had been on the front lines in the teaching field for more than a decade in Panama and on several occasions served as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly
     Her activities in Nicaragua were described in the Panama Baha`i Bulletin of July 1980:  `A Panamanian pioneer of great enthusiasm and joy, she arose to serve at fifty years of age, leaving Panama to offer her valuable services in Nicaragua and help in the formation of the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Bluefields, a very important factor in making possible the simultaneous election, in the memorable year 1961, of all the National Spiritual Assemblies of Latin America.  From the moment she arrived at her pioneer post, "Miss Cecilia", as she was affectionately called by the local people whose confidence, love and esteem she immediately won, began to work for the Cause of Baha'u'llah, opening up every type of activity, including children's classes, literacy classes and firesides.  She made long-distance, hazardous teaching trips to inhospitable places all along the Nicaraguan coast, carrying high the banner of the Most Great Name and proclaiming the healing message of the Baha`i Faith in mountainous and rural areas.' 
     It is difficult to describe the wonderful work she carried out in the Department of Zelaya, Nicaragua.  There she worked expanding the foundation of the Faith, deepening the believers and consolidating communities which were separated, in some instances, by distances of more than a day's journey over rivers, through jungles and along coastal beaches.  The task was difficult but her spirit was indomitable in the service of the Cause.  By great economic sacrifice she purchased in Rio Escondido a considerable piece of fertile land--a veritable paradise whose silence is broken only by the lapping of the sea waves--and donated it to the National Spiritual Assembly of Nicaragua with the hope that it would in future be the site of a permanent Baha`i Institute. 
     In spite of her health, which was weakened by the difficulties of climate and food and her exhausting work among the indigenous people whom she loved dearly, Cecilia was always ready not only to teach the Baha`i Faith but to defend it, even at the cost of her own life if circumstances should demand it.  Her hand was always extended to assist the sick, protect the helpless and share her meagre bread with the hungry.  She saw all the indigenous people as her children and at any moment would have given her life for them.  Her heart was so large and generous that it almost would not fit in her chest.  So exhausting were the conditions under which she laboured that her health broke down under the strain.  One day we received her at the airport in Managua in a very serious condition and practically unconscious.  It took two months for her to recover from that illness, and as soon as she regained a little strength, in spite of our pleas that she take a rest, she returned to her pioneer post because, she said, her indigenous friends needed her. 
 [Solomon Escalante E. The Baha'i World, World, vol. VIII, pp. 723-724.]

Mulla Sadiq-i-Khurisani:

Vignettes of Remarkable People in the Faith:  Mulla Sadiq-i-Khurisani:

`An eye-witness of this revolting episode, an unbeliever residing in Shiraz, related to me the following: "I was present when Mulla Sadiq was being scourged. I watched his persecutors each in turn apply the lash to his bleeding shoulders, and continue the strokes until he became exhausted. No one believed that Mulla Sadiq, so advanced in age and so frail in body, could possibly survive fifty such savage strokes. We marvelled at his fortitude when we found that, although the number of the strokes of the scourge he had received had already exceeded nine hundred, his face still retained its original serenity and calm. A smile was upon his face, as he held his hand before his mouth. He seemed utterly indifferent to the blows that were being showered upon him. When he was being expelled from the city, I succeeded in approaching him, and asked him why he held his hand before his mouth. I expressed surprise at the smile upon his countenance. He emphatically replied: `The first seven strokes were severely painful; to the rest I seemed to have grown indifferent. I was wondering whether the strokes that followed were being actually applied to my own body. A feeling of joyous exultation had invaded my soul. I was trying to repress my feelings and to restrain my laughter. I can now realise how the almighty Deliverer is able, in the twinkling of an eye, to turn pain into ease, and sorrow into gladness. Immensely exalted is His power above and beyond the idle fancy of His mortal creatures.'" Mulla Sadiq, whom I met years after, confirmed every detail of this moving episode.'
[Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers, pp. 147-148.] 

*Florence Elizabeth Altass

Meeting :Abdu'l-Baha:  

. . . `Abdu'l-Baha was invited to Edinburgh by the Whytes during the course of His visit to the West and remained in that city from 6 to 10 January 1913. During this sojourn Florences* had the bounty of meeting `Abdu'l-Baha at the Whyte's home, although she was not aware that He was to be present. In a recorded interview in later years she recalled, `Of course when I saw Him I knew who He was. Oh, you couldn't mistake Him. And that heavenly smile! It was a perpetual smile, and yet it wasn't, if you can imagine; it looked as though He smiled at everyone, and yet the smile seemed always to be there. And His eyes looked as if they were looking through you. He had the most gentle voice; I've never heard a voice like it. I would like to hear it again. He embraced a good many people; He didn't me. He just shook hands. Several of us He just shook hands with.' Florence wrote of that meeting:  `When `Abdu'l-Baha shook hands with me, He seemed to transmit something to me, and I've never been the same since . . .' <sup>1</sup> Asked if He spoke in English at all, Florence laughingly replied, `No. There was an interpreter--who spoilt the whole show! It wasn't that his voice didn't suit me, it was that although `Abdu'l-Baha spoke in Persian, you understood; you knew what He was saying, somehow. One was so enamoured of His voice that one sort of felt what He was saying. It was as though He delivered His address in English, although He spoke Persian.' So great was the throng seeking admittance to the presence of the Master that Florence refrained from attending subsequent meetings though she was strongly drawn to do so and regretted to the end of her days the loss occasioned by her extraordinary courtesy and consideration for others. Her one meeting with `Abdu'l-Baha formed the theme of many of her poems which she continued to write till the end of her life. ^{2 . . .}
    Ever after having met the Master, Florence felt His presence and inspiration.

^{*Florence Elizabeth Altass}

¹ See U.K. Baha`i Journal, February/March 1967, for a fuller account of this meeting.
<sup>2</sup> See The Baha`i World, vol. XVII, p. 650.

[Cecilia Smith, The Baha'i World, vol. XVIII, p. 789.]

Hand of the Cause of God Martha Root:

Vignettes of Remarkable People in the Faith:  Hand of the Cause of God Martha Root:

     On August 3rd, 1936 I wrote in my diary:

     "A very lovely thing happened this afternoon. Martha Root and Lucy Wilson drove over from Cambridge Springs and we had an hour to visit together. With Martha's dear sympathetic presence I felt expanded. I was simply on fire, happy beyond all belief, eloquent, loving, free of shyness. Oh, to be like that and to make others experience, if only for an hour, eternal life.
     "Something BIG happened.  Abdu'l-Baha had said that He saw His Father's face in the faces of those who came to Him and that was the reason they came forth from His presence radiant. Martha did that to me today and I know that she and Lucy carried away a picture of my true self that few see.
     "It was heavenly. Nothing must ever happen to make me forget."

     Nothing has made me forget that time, and I need to say more about it.
     On that afternoon I was sitting in the garden among the flowers. Except for the stimulation of my own thoughts and meditations, it was a rather typical Jamestown afternoon -rather boring. I looked up and saw two approaching figures, Lucy Wilson and Martha Root. I had known that Martha was coming sometime because of the letters Lucy had shared with us.
     Martha had prayed that her work wouldn't be incapacitated by ill health. That was the word she used, "incapacitated". Now, in the opinion of the Guardian, Martha was in capacitated. She was worn out by a long struggle against ill health combined with tireless exertion. The Guardian left it now, in the hands of a committee of the National Spiritual Assembly to decide when Martha, our most cherished teacher, was to be allowed to start on her trip to India. She was told to recuperate, to rest.
     On the day that they visited, Martha seemed elated to have had a legitimate reason to rest. I was pleased that she was so relaxed and

happy. Later I told Willard that she was like a little girl who needed pampering and I felt a need to do things for her. I discovered that many people were feeling this way. People who were arranging her meetings. People who were working for her. All wanted to spoil her. Our feeling for her was tenderness. With her I felt that the spiritual powers were playing with us as though she were a window through which poured the "all pervading influence". We experienced a different atmosphere., a different vibration. This was sheer magic. Everyone who had contact with her felt a rising spirit. We all seemed to be touched by her power. She looked at us with such love that we would have believed anything she said. She looked at everyone with a look that goes beyond acknowledgement. It was a look of recognition that made us know of ourselves better than normally we thought we were. Her look and love elevated us. This was the atmosphere of the vibrating influence of the Holy Spirit released by her faith and actions. It was very much out of this world and I only wish that I could express it more clearly and credibly.
     Martha and Lucy were like two schoolgirls on vacation, joking and laughing. on the start of a journey. They were looking for something to do that was fun and they invited me to come to Cambridge Springs. There, Martha could show me her life as it had been.
      stayed at Lucy's house but spent hours every day with Martha. In this little town in the Allegheny Hills were the roots of Martha's heart. She was devoted to the memories of her people and to her brother and his family. It had been a keen personal sacrifice to be away for years at a time from this environment and now she was exultant and happy at being home again, so much so that she wanted to share her happiness with Lucy and me.
     Early the first morning Martha came to take me to the Polish college where she used to teach English in her pre-Pittsburgh days. This was one of two Polish institutions in the United States designed tolo keep the culture of the `old-country' alive by educating young men in the language and traditions of Poland. The buildings were in a wooded hilly section and we approached them by a wooden bridge crossing over a ravine. Martha was welcomed by her friend, the bearded principal, who explained that because of the summer vacation, the students and teachers were away. It was an unlikely and dreamlike environment with portraits of Polish heroes staring at us from the walls of the long corridors.
     The next day we sat with Martha's brother and his wife in the Baptist
church where, many years ago, Martha hsd been denounced publicly by the minister of those days - the very place, probably the very pew, where this shattering experience came to Martha. How her heart must have broken when her towns people withdrew from her! 

     That night we went to upper at her home and the neighbours were invited to a meeting. Martha, the world traveller, was treated now with honour and respect, even if the people still held to their old ways and did not accept Baha`u'llah. A few gathered in the country sitting room, but Martha became ill and asked me to speak to the people.
     The next morning she started out, on foot, to show me more of the town. On the way to her brother's grocery store, again she became suddenly ill, had an attack, and had to lean, for a few minutes, against a tree until her strength came back. Then we went on - the same cheerful, enthusias tic Martha! The next day there was dinner at Lucy's with two Baha'is from New Castle, Pennsylvania.
     Twice during the fall and winter Martha came to Jamestown, a short train-ride from Cambridge Springs. She was with us about a month. That winter of 1936 may have been the most difficult test of her entire Baha'i life. She felt impelled to go to India and was slowly getting to feel that perhaps this was not to be. She was disturbed. The lack of physical activity transformed that disturbance into rather unpleasant states. She became more and more depressed and became increasingly restless as she waited to hear from the committee. The power of the spirit around her seemed to have relaxed a bit. She was not getting the rest she was supposed to have. Why was she not told to start, she wondered. Why had not Horace Holley and the others  cor responded? Why did not the Guardian tell her to go? He had always advised her before.
     On her visits to Jamestown, ever self-denying, Martha took the least expensive room in the hotel. She lived on buns and tea made with hot water from the bathroom tap. When I came to see her, I would bring some fruit and we would share the food lying on the bed talking about "the Beloved" and about the Guardian. I have heard that Martha's relationship to him was motherly. They, the two hard-driving workers, were concerned about each other's health. One day I found Martha shedding bitter tears. The hoped-for letter with the permission for her to be on her way, still had not arrived. Martha Root wept in my arms.

  [Doris McKay, Fires in Many Hearts, pp. 260, 261-263.]

Eve Nicklin:

 Eve Nicklin returned in September.  She had been with us for a few days in the spring and, while she was away from the orphan asylum, her supervisor had opened some of her Baha'i mail. Eve was in trouble because her job was with the Methodist Church and the woman who had opened the mail was not very warm about it. She had called in Eve's two assistants, Wreatha (a Baha'i) and Betty (about to become a Baha'i). Eve eventually lost her job with the Church, the job for which she had been trained. Now she was living in Rochester working as a housekeeper. She told us how she had been saving money from her paltry wages; how she had been preparing to offer herself as a pioneer to Peru. As she described her intentions, Willard and I exchanged a glance which needed no words. We gave Eve one of the two hairs of Baha`u'llah that Martha Root had given Willard after his southern tour with Louis Gregory. Eve was leaving Jamestown to consult with members of the National Assembly about pioneering. But this Eve, of the daring black beret and bright red earrings had left her lipstick at home. She fretted, "I'm sure they won't take me without my lipstick."I made a concoction from cinnamon candy which worked as a poor substitute.
     Eve was accepted and became the second pioneer to leave from Jamestown for South America (John Stearns, . . .was the first.) I saw Eve several years ago in the movie, Green Light Expedition. Hand of the Cause, Ruhiyyih Khanum, had called her the "Mother of Peru".
  [Doris McKay, Fires in Many Hearts, pp 263-264.\

Eve Nicklin was among the first American Bahá'í pioneers to South America.

Armed with an unreserved love for humanity, for five decades she spread the all-embracing teachings of the Bahá’í Faith with unswerving dedication and zeal, settling in twelve cities within six South American countries.

A gifted educator, Eve attracted people from all walks of life, from the university professor to the peasant and simple folk, whether a dignitary or a commoner, rich or poor, both the young and the old.

Whenever someone was required to settle in the southernmost and freezing tip of the continent or in the very heart of the Andes - Eve was always the first to joyfully accept the call.

KERMAN Iran (March 1996).

KERMAN  Iran (March 1996).

A young Baha'i had started mandatory military service;

he was approached by a mullah (priest) resident at Military Garrisons providing "spiritual guidance" to soldiers.
The mullah was referred to as Hajji, who had recognized the young man as a Baha'i.

 He instructed the boy to publicly announce at the next morning's prayer assembly he is a Bahá'í so that all would know.

The young Bahá'í obeyed &complied with this instruction.

 At the next morning prayers he announced that he has been instructed by Hadji to announce he is a Baha'i in case anyone would wish not to associate with him.  

Later Hajji in great anger said, "I told you to only say that you are a Baha'i.

I didn't ask you to give a lecture and tell them why, now you will be punished."

So the young Bahá'í was locked up for two weeks in a toilet.

 The young man dreamt of 'Abdu'l-Baha who addressed him with these words:   "You have passed your test very well."

That day soldiers came in great hurry & took our friend to Hajji, who was very shaken, upset and with trembling voice said:

"The reason I release you is: last night I had a very vivid dream, a turbaned siyyid (descendent of Prophet Muhammad)    

-The Master is a siyyid- questioned me asking: Why have you imprisoned my son?

You must release him and ask for his forgiveness."

So I am releasing you and begging for your forgiveness, I will not go until you forgive me." The young Bahá'í said he has forgiven him.
Three days later the Hajji died having told this history to his wife & children.Should we not follow the example of the steadfastness of the friends in Iran?

--

--FROM MY BROTHER MERDAD OF CHILLI

Glimpsing Early Bahá'í Pilgrimages

...via Marsha Rule, of Sylvania, Ohio... as shared in the monthly Sylvania Baha'i newsletter she prepares

---

Glimpsing Early Bahá'í Pilgrimages
by Annamarie Honnold

Pilgrimage Began in the Days of Bahá'u'llah

Centuries before the advent of Bahá'u'lláh, the Arabian Prophet uttered these words: "Blessed the man that hath visited 'Akka, and blessed he that hath visited the visitor of 'Akká."  Bahá'u'lláh confirmed these words -- words which could not be understood for centuries.  Muhammad said, too, that, "A month in 'Akká is better than a thousand years elsewhere."
           Bahá'í Holy Places at the World Centre
           The Universal House of Justice, p. 10

During Bahá'u'lláh's confinement in the Most Great Prison in 'Akká, visitors were not permitted.  "Several of the Bahá'ís of Irán came all the way on foot for the purpose of seeing their beloved Leader, but were refused admittance within the city walls.  They used to go to a place on the plain outside the third moat, from which they could see the windows of Bahá'u'lláh's quarters.  He would show Himself to them at one of the windows and after gazing on Him from afar, they would weep and return to their homes, fired with new zeal for sacrifice and service."
           Ibid, p. 6

Conditions changed after Bahá'u'lláh was permitted to leave the barracks.  While He was yet in 'Akká an Egyptian merchant, affluent and afire with God's latest message, desired to visit Him.  Abdel Kerim wrote for permission to go on pilgrimage.  He must have been greatly surprised when the reply arrived:  he might go on pilgrimage but only after all his debts were paid.

He had been in business for many years.  His caravans crossed the desert with precious cargo.  He had quite naturally been interested in expanding his business, but now his consuming interest was to, "owe no man anything."  It followed that when he received a payment, instead of investing it for further gain, he paid off a debt.  This continued for five years when at last he was debt-free.

His business shrank.  No longer did "love of wealth" consume him.  When all his debts were paid, he had only enough to keep his family going in his absence and to pay for deck passage on a ship bound for Haifa.

Formerly he would have traveled first-class.  Now he had neither bed nor warm stateroom.  Never mind!  He was going to see Bahá'u'lláh.  As he crossed the gangplank, his shawl slipped into the water.  The night would be chilly, but his heart was glad and he felt "alive with prayer."

Bahá'u'lláh informed His family that He was expecting an honored guest.  A carriage was sent to Haifa to pick up the merchant, but the attendant received no description of this very special guest.  As the passengers disembarked, he watched them very carefully -- surely he would recognize someone so distinguished.  But the passengers appeared quite ordinary and in due time he returned to 'Akká with word that Bahá'u'lláh's visitor had not arrived.

The merchant had expected to be met.  No money remained to hire a carriage.  Bitterly disappointed, he seated himself on a bench, feeling forlorn and destitute.

Bahá'u'lláh knew that His distinguished guest had arrived even though he had not been recognized.  This time He sent 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who recognized in the twilight "the distinguished figure huddled upon the bench."

Quickly, the Master introduced Himself and explained what had happened.  Then He asked him if he would like to go to 'Akká that very night or if he would prefer to wait until morning.  The merchant had already spent hours in prayer in preparation for his meeting with Bahá'u'lláh.  But he found that bitterness had now come into his heart because he had felt so forgotten and alone upon his arrival in Haifa.  He had even begun to wonder about the very station of Bahá'u'lláh.  For what had he given up his fortune?  He was in torment.

Now in the presence of this welcome and gentle Man doubts and suspicions ebbed out of his soul, but he felt the need of hours of prayer to feel ready spiritually to meet God's Emissary.

As the story is told, 'Abbás Effendi knew instinctively that His new friend would not wish to seek a hotel at His expense, so finding that he preferred to wait until morning for the journey to 'Akká, He unbuttoned the long cloak that enveloped Him, seated Himself beside the pilgrim, and wrapped both in its ample folds.  So they passed the night praying together, lost in that ecstasy of prayer that brings realization.

The next morning they proceeded toward the prison-city of 'Akká.  At long last the Egyptian appeared before Bahá'u'lláh with a glad heart, purified through five years of testing.

                The Oriental Rose, Mary Hanford Ford, pp. 94-99

---

Three stories of martyrdom – one in the days of the Bab, another after the Declaration of Baha’u’llah, and a third early in the 20th Century

Three stories of martyrdom – one in the days of the Bab, another after the Declaration of Baha’u’llah, and a third early in the 20th Century

The first story indicates that Haji Nasir could not call himself a Babi unless he was prepared to die if the enemy rose up against him.4    He underwent a spiritual self-examination and decided he could call himself a Babi.  The enemy did arise against him several times.  He left his native city and later returned to it; he was imprisoned and released and later imprisoned again, and again, eventually dying of old age, unable to endure the rigours of prison life.  This is not a person seeking death, but only steadfast in his determination to teach the Cause of God.

Here is his story:
Haji Nasir was a well-known merchant and held in high esteem by his fellow citizens until he embraced the Bábí Faith. From that time onwards, he suffered persecutions and was bitterly opposed by the people. He recognized the divine origin of the Message of the Báb through Mulla Jalil-i-Urumi, one of the Letters of the Living.[1] It is reported that when Haji Nasir had acknowledged the authenticity of the claims of the Báb, Mulla Jalil warned him that a mere acknowledgement was not sufficient in this day, that he could not call himself a Bábí unless he were prepared to lay down his life willingly in the path of God, should the enemy rise up against him. He bade him go home and search his heart to see whether he had sufficient faith to remain steadfast in the face of tortures and martyrdom. If he did, he was a Bábí, and otherwise not. Haji Nasir responded to the words of Mulla Jalil by spending the whole night in prayer and meditation. At the hour of dawn, he felt possessed of such faith and detachment as to be ready to sacrifice his life in the path of his Beloved. Overnight, he became endowed with a new zeal and radiance which sustained him throughout his eventful life.

Soon the persecutions started; the first onslaught began when Haji Nasir became the target of attacks by a blood-thirsty mob in Qazvin. They plundered all his possessions and he was temporarily forced to leave his native city. When the situation calmed down he returned home. From there, in obedience to the call of the Báb, he proceeded to Khurasan. He was privileged to attend the conference of Badasht where, some historians have stated, he acted as a guard at the entrance of the garden which was reserved for Bahá'u'lláh's residence. From Badasht he proceeded to Mazindaran and was one of the defenders of the fortress of Shaykh Tabarsi.[1] As history records, hundreds of his fellow disciples were massacred in that upheaval, but the hand of divine power spared Haji Nasir's life and enabled him to render further services to the Cause of God.

He returned to Qazvin and engaged in his work once again, but soon another upheaval engulfed the believers. The attempt on the life of Násiri'd-Dín Sháh in 1852[1] unleashed a wave of persecution against the Bábís. Haji Nasir was arrested in Qazvin and put in prison. But after some time he was released. Another imprisonment he suffered was in Tihran, where he was chained and fettered. When released from his ordeal, he found that all his possessions were gone. It was through the help and co-operation of Shaykh Kazim-i-Samandar[2] that, in spite of much harassment by the enemy, Haji Nasir continued to earn a living, but he had to move his residence to the city of Rasht.

The crowning glory of his life was to attain the presence of Bahá'u'lláh in 'Akká. On this pilgrimage he was accompanied by the above-named Shaykh Kazim. Bahá'u'lláh showered His bounties upon him and assured him of His loving-kindness. He spent the latter part of his life in the city of Rasht and was engaged in teaching the Cause of God by day and night. The enemies once again cast him into prison. This time, because of old age, he could not endure the rigours of prison life and his soul, after so many years of toil and suffering, took its flight to the abode of the Beloved. He died a martyr's death in the prison of Rasht in the year 1300 A.H. (1888).

[1 See The Dawn-Breakers.]
[2 One of the Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh. We shall refer to him in more detail in vol. III.]
(Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha'u'llah v 2, p. 245-6)
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The second story, in a later period, makes it clear that there are different kinds of martyrdom:
“...Ibn-i-Asdaq often accompanied his father on his teaching tours throughout Persia. Thus he became imbued with the spirit of service to the Cause of Baha’u’llah and eventually developed a passionate love for Him, a love that knew no bounds. He was about thirty years of age when he sent a letter to the presence of Bahá'u'lláh and, among other things, begged Him to confer upon him a station wherein he might become completely detached from such realms as 'life and death', 'body and soul', 'existence and nothingness', 'reputation and honour'.

“The gist of everything Ibn-i-Asdaq requested in this letter was the attainment of the station of 'utter self-sacrifice'; a plea for martyrdom, a state in which the individual in his love for his Beloved will offer up everything he possesses. ...

“In response Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet to Ibn-i-Asdaq. This was in January 1880. In this Tablet... He states that service to the Cause is the greatest of all deeds, and that those who are the symbols of certitude ought to be engaged in teaching with the utmost wisdom. He further explains that martyrdom is not confined to the shedding of blood, as it is possible to live and yet be counted as a martyr in the sight of God. In this Tablet Baha’u’llah showers upon him His blessings, for he had offered up his all to his Lord.”
        Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha’u’llah,  vol. 3, pp. 266  - - 7.
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The third story is that of the life of May Maxwell, the mother of Ruhiyyih Khanum, who died only a few weeks after pioneering to South America, and was declared a martyr by Shoghi Effendi.  (Her story can be read in the Baha’i World, Vol. VIII, pp. 631-642.)  There is no question that May Maxwell devoted her entire life, subsequent to learning of the Faith, to teaching and serving it.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha said of her: “May Maxwell is really a Baha’i...She breathed no breath and uttered no word save in service to the Cause of God.” (p. 638)

The words of the Guardian make very clear for us why she was named a martyr:

    And now as this year, so memorable in the annals of the Faith, was drawing to a close, there befell the American Baha'i community, through the dramatic and sudden death of May Maxwell, yet another loss, which viewed in retrospect will come to be regarded as a potent blessing conferred upon the campaign now being so diligently conducted by its members. 5 Laden with the fruits garnered through well-nigh half a century of toilsome service to the Cause she so greatly loved, heedless of the warnings of age and ill-health, and afire with the longing to worthily demonstrate her gratitude in her overwhelming awareness of the bounties of her Lord and Master, she set her face towards the southern outpost of the Faith in the New World, and laid down her life in such a spirit of consecration and self-sacrifice as has truly merited the crown of martyrdom.
(Shoghi Effendi:  Messages to America, Pages: 39-40)

From these words we can easily see that the sudden death and the entire life of May Maxwell, so gloriously dedicated to the service of the Faith, was a blessing not only for her but for all her co-workers labouring for the spread of the Faith.

Let us return now to the challenge: how do we share stories of the utterly amazing, unique, and inspiring history of our Faith?   Clearly, 20,000 martyrs were not believers who simply dedicated their lives to teaching the Faith.  They were believers who, refusing to deny their Faith and to cease from teaching, were killed.  They were no threat to anyone unless you consider, as a threat, belief in teachings revealed by the Bab and Baha’u’llah that all the Manifestations of God were created by the one and only God Who has created all humanity, loves all humanity,  and revealed His will to all of us progressively throughout the ages, and that, in this day and age, it is His will that we recognize our oneness and the oneness of religion, and live together in unity and peace.

Thomas Breakwell

Thomas Breakwell – ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s “dear one”

(by May Maxwell)

How poignant are the records of the early days of the Baha'i Faith in the West, when the freshness and beauty of the spiritual Springtime awakened the souls and led them, quickened and aflame to the knowledge of Baha’u’llah, often to the very Presence of ‘Abdu'l-Baha in the Prison of ‘Akka. Such is the record, the divine significance of the conversion of Thomas Breakwell, a young Englishman living in the Southern States of America, holding an important position in a cotton mill, spending his long summer vacations in Europe. During his vacation of 1891 he crossed on the steamer with Mrs. M., and as she found him interested in Theosophy she mentioned a group of friends in Paris whom she said were interested in kindred subjects. Although she knew nothing of the Baha’i teaching and had closed her ears to its message, yet she was impelled to bring this youth to see me on their arrival. I was at that time in a small apartment connected with the beautiful home of Mrs. Jackson – which she had placed at my disposal, when my family had left for the summer.

My dear Mother -- although broad and fine in all matters, had resented my constant work in the service of the Baha'i Cause, especially since my pilgrimage to the Prison of ‘Akka, and when ‘Abdu'l-Baha had refused, at her urgent appeal, to permit me to accompany her during the summer to Brittany, saying that I must on no account absent myself from Paris, my unhappy and indignant Mother had closed our home and left me alone.

Thus it was on a lovely summer day that, in response to a knock I found Mrs. M. and Thomas Breakwell standing at my door, and my attention was riveted on this youth; of medium height, slender, erect and graceful, with intense eyes and an indescribable charm. As they entered, Mrs. M. said smiling, "He was a stranger and she took him in." We spoke together for about half an hour of Theosophy -- his work, his projected trip through Europe, and I discerned a very rare person of high standing and culture, simple, natural, intensely real in his attitude toward life and his fellowmen. Although no word of the divine Revelation was spoken, and he assumed I was interested in Theosophy, yet he studied me with a searching gaze, and as they left, he asked me if he might see me the following day. He arrived the next morning in a strangely exalted mood, no veil of materiality covered this radiant soul – his eyes burned with a hidden fire, and looking at me earnestly he asked if I noticed anything strange about him. Seeing his condition I bade him be seated, and reassured him, saying he looked very happy.

"When I was here yesterday he said I felt a power, an influence that I had felt once before in my life, when for a period of three months I was continually in communion with God. I felt during that time like one moving in a rarefied atmosphere of light and beauty. My heart was afire with love for the supreme Beloved, I felt at peace, at one with all my fellow-men. Yesterday when I left you I went alone down the Champs Elysees, the air was warn and heavy, not a leaf was stirring, when suddenly a wind struck me and whirled around me, and in that wind a voice said, with an indescribable sweetness and penetration, 'Christ has come again! Christ has come again!' "

With wide startled eyes he looked at me and asked if I thought he had gone crazy. "No," I said smiling, "you are just becoming sane."

What hours we spent together; how readily he grasped the full import of the Message; how his thirsty soul drank in every word; I told him of the youthful Bab , His exalted Mission, His early martyrdom, of the thousands of martyrs in whose sacred blood the Faith was established; I told him of Baha’u’llah, the Blessed Beauty Who upon the world as the Sun of eternity, Who had given to mankind the law of God for this age – the consummation of all past ages and cycles.

I gave him all the little we had to read, and told him of my visit to the Prison of ‘Akka, the days spent in the presence of the Master, until his heart was filled with such longing that all his former life was swept away, he gave up his journey, canceled his plans, and had but one hope in life, to be permitted to go himself and behold the face of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.

At that time a young Baha’i, Herbert Hopper, had received permission to go to ‘Akka, thus they planned to travel together, and Thomas Breakwell wrote the fallowing supplication to the Master.

"My Lord, I believe, forgive me,
Thy servant Thomas Breakwell."

In its depth and simplicity this petition was characteristic of his whole short and vivid life, although not until later did I learn the full significance of his appeal for forgiveness.

I Wrote the Master enclosing the words of Breakwell, begging Him to send his reply to Port Said, to which Port these two young pilgrims eagerly embarked.

That evening I went to the Concierge of our apartment to get my mail, and there lay a little blue cablegram from 'Abdu'l-Baha! With what wonder and awe I read His Words. "You may leave Paris at any time!" Thus by implicit and unquestioning obedience in the face of all opposition the Master’s Will had been fulfilled, and I had been the link in the chain of His mighty purpose.

My feet were winged as I returned to tell the good news to Mrs. Jackson, and to prepare to leave the following morning.

How gratefully my heart dwells on the divine compassion of the Master, on the joy and wonder of my mother as I told her everything, and when she read the Master's cablegram she burst into tears and exclaimed, “You have, indeed, a wonderful Master.”

When in the autumn we gathered once more in Paris, the influence of Breakwell made itself felt in ever widening circle of friends.

Those days in the Prison of ‘Akka, when the Master's all consuming love and perfect wisdom had produced that mystic change of heart and soul which enabled him to rapidly free himself from all earthly entanglement, and to passionately attach himself to the world of reality, brought great fruits to the Faith.

He had become the guiding star of our group, his calmness and strength, his intense fervor, his immediate and all penetrating grasp of the vast import to mankind in this age of the Revelation of Baha’u’llah, released among us forces which constituted a new Epoch in the Cause in France. In the meetings he spoke with a simplicity and eloquence which won the hearts and the souls, and the secret of his potent influence lay in his supreme recognition of the Manifestation of God in the Bab and in Baha’u’llah, and of the sublime Center of the Covenant, ‘Abdu'l-Baha. Not by reason but by faith did he triumph.

When he and Herbert Hopper arrived in the Prison of 'Akka, they were ushered into a spacious room, at one end of which stood a group of men in oriental garb. Herbert Hopper's face became irradiated with the joy of instant recognition, but Breakwell discerned no one in particular among these men. Feeling suddenly ill and weak, he seated himself near a table, with a sense of crushing defeat. Wild and desperate thoughts rushed through his mind, his first great test, for without such tests the soul will never be unveiled.

Sitting thus he bitterly lamented: Why had he come here? Why had he abandoned his projected journey and come to this remote prison, seeking – he knew not what? Sorrow and despair filled his heart, when suddenly a door opened, and in that opening he beheld what seemed to him the rising Sun. So brilliant was this orb, so intense the light that he sprang to his feet and saw approaching him out of this dazzling splendor the form of ‘Abdu'l-Baha.

He seldom mentioned this experience which transformed and transfigured his life. In the course of his interview with the Master, he told Him briefly of his position in the cotton mills of the South, his large salary, his responsibility, and his sudden conviction of sin, for he said, "These mills are run on child labor." The Master looked at him gravely and sadly for a while, and then said, "Cable your resignation." Relieved of a crushing burden, Breakwell eagerly obeyed, and with one blow cut all his bridges behind him.

He seemed to have no care for his future, burning like a white light in the darkness of Paris, he served his fellow-men with a power and passion to the last breath of his life.

So abandoned was he to the mighty creative forces latent in the revelatian of Baha’u’llah, that he was moved spontaneously in the smallest actions of his daily life to pour out that spirit of love and oneness to all.

Well I remember the day we were crossing a bridge over the Seine on the top of a bus, when he spied an old woman laboriously pushing an apple-cart up an incline; excusing himself with a smile, he climbed down off the bus, joined the old woman, and in the most natural way put his hands on the bar and helped her over the bridge. The rock foundation on which the Baha’i Revelation rests, "the oneness of mankind," had penetrated his soul like an essence, taking on every form of human relationship, imbuing him with an insight and penetration into human needs, an intense sympathy and genuine love which made him a hope and refuge to all. Those afflicted with sorrow and difficulties, beset with human problems, were drawn to him as to a magnet, and left him with shining eyes and uplifted head.

He was the first in the West to pay the Huquq, the tithes of the Baha’i Religion, and living in a cheap and distant part of Paris he walked miles to the meetings and to the homes of friends to save his fare and make his contribution to the diffusion of the teachings.

Although we were fellow Baha’is and devoted friends, with everything in common, yet when he came to our home he gave his whole loving attention to my beautiful Mother, with but a scant word for me, yet as he took my hand in farewell, he slipped a little folded note into my palm with words of cheer and comfort, usually Words of Baha’u’llah. He knew well secret of imparting happiness, and, was the very embodiment of the Master's Words, "The star of happiness is in every heart. We must remove the veils, so that it may shine forth radiantly." He burned with such a fire of love that his frail body seemed to be gradually consumed; he in the deepest sense shed his life for the Cause by which he was enthralled, and in a few brief months shattered the cage of existence and abandoned this mortal world. His traces are imperishable, his spirit, alive forevermore with the Attributes of God, lives, not alone in the hearts and memories of Baha’is, but is welded into the very structure of the World Order, which has arisen an the foundation of such lives.
(The Baha’i World, volume 7)

Tablet of Visitation for Thomas Breakwell – Revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Baha
(Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha pp. 187-189)

Grieve thou not over the ascension of my beloved Breakwell, for he hath risen unto a rose garden of splendours within the Abha Paradise, sheltered by the mercy of his mighty Lord, and he is crying at the top of his voice: 'O that my people could know how graciously my Lord hath forgiven me, and made me to be of those who have attained His Presence!'

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Where now is thy fair face? Where is thy fluent tongue? Where thy clear brow? Where thy bright comeliness?

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Where is thy fire, blazing with God's love? Where is thy rapture at His holy breaths? Where are thy praises, lifted unto Him? Where is thy rising up to serve His Cause?

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Where are thy beauteous eyes? Thy smiling lips? The princely cheek? The graceful form?

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Thou hast quit this earthly world and risen upward to the Kingdom, thou hast reached unto the grace of the invisible realm, and offered thyself at the threshold of its Lord.

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Thou hast left the lamp that was thy body here, the glass that was thy human form, thy earthy elements, thy way of life below.

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Thou hast lit a flame within the lamp of the Company on high, thou hast set foot in the Abha Paradise, thou hast found a shelter in the shadow of the Blessed Tree, thou hast attained His meeting in the haven of Heaven.

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Thou art now a bird of Heaven, thou hast quit thine earthly nest, and soared away to a garden of holiness in the kingdom of thy Lord. Thou hast risen to a station filled with light.

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Thy song is even as birdsong now, thou pourest forth verses as to the mercy of thy Lord; of Him Who forgiveth ever, thou wert a thankful servant, wherefore hast thou entered into exceeding bliss.

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Thy Lord hath verily singled thee out for His love, and hath led thee into His precincts of holiness, and made thee to enter the garden of those who are His close companions, and hath blessed thee with beholding His beauty.

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Thou hast won eternal life, and the bounty that faileth never, and a life to please thee well, and plenteous grace.

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
Thou art become a star in the supernal sky, and a lamp amid the angels of high Heaven; a living spirit in the most exalted Kingdom, throned in eternity.

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
I ask of God to draw thee ever closer, hold thee ever faster; to rejoice thy heart with nearness to His presence, to fill thee with light and still more light, to grant thee still more beauty, and to bestow upon thee power and great glory.

O Breakwell, O my dear one!
At all times do I call thee to mind. I shall never forget thee. I pray for thee by day, by night; I see thee plain before me, as if in open day.

O Breakwell, O my dear one!

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A PRAYER TO OUR PEERLESS LORD Please Lord make me able to visit His grave one day