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Water Restored to Akka and Service to the Community
As time went on the people of Akka began to see the true character of Bahá’u’lláh and his followers. The initial contempt and hatred with which they had been greeted on entering the city changed into respect and even reliance. Bahá’u’lláh in this period largely ceased the open association he had followed with the people until their time in Adrianople and instead Abdu’l Baha took on the task of the many requests and expectations that were placed on them by a diversity of enquirers. The following from the recollections of Tuba Khanum, a daughter of Abdu’l Baha provides a sense: [Abdu’l Baha] would go first to the Bírúní, a large reception…
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Lua’s Last Journey
Lua Getsinger is a household name among Baha’is. She was among the first Western Baha’is to visit Abdu’l Baha and when he met her said to her “I have given you the power to speak and have loosened your tongue” and indeed she was to go on to become a great teacher of the Baha’i Faith. She travelled to India to support the teaching work there. When Abdu’l Baha was in America he entrusted her with travelling to California ahead of him to arrange his speaking engagements. She was sent by him to deliver a message to the Shah of Persia who was visiting Paris, to implore him to end…
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Arrival in the Prison of Akka: Abdu’l Baha
Abdu’l Baha, Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son, is held up as the best example of what a Baha’i life can be. Most of us struggle to exemplify even occasionally the virtues that were evident in Abdul Baha’s life. Nonetheless, reflection on his life gives us a standard for which to strive, and many stories are told about him. Among those stories, as told by his sister Bahiyyih Khanum, are the first days in the prison of Akka. Initially, conditions were extremely harsh and Baha’u’llah and his followers were confined to the barracks (which were a prison within a prison). As we have seen, in Adrianople, the people, who had come to know Bahá’u’lláh,…
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Into the Prison City: Suffering of the Prophets
Yesterday we read Bahá’u’lláh’s good news. Yet Bahá’u’lláh’s own life was full of suffering. “O the misery of men! No Messenger cometh unto them but they laugh Him to scorn.” …“Each nation hath plotted darkly against their Messenger to lay violent hold on Him, and disputed with vain words to invalidate the truth.”[1] Bahá’u’lláh was exiled from place to place at the whim of absolute rulers who held his life and that of his loved ones in their hands. I have been, most of the days of My life, even as a slave, sitting under a sword hanging on a thread, knowing not whether it would fall soon or late upon him.…
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How Bahá’u’lláh Came to Be in the Holy Land
It is a curious fact of history that it was the successive banishments of Bahá’u’lláh by the Ottoman Sultan, which finally led him to the prison city of Akka, that placed Bahá’u’lláh in the Holy Land. I don’t need to explain where the Holy Land is because the reference is so well known. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all hold the land sacred, as does the Baha’i Faith. For a good proportion of the world the Holy Land is a spiritual heartland. This was the land where the Prophet Isaiah had prophesied, In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it…
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An Outline of Bahá’u’lláh’s Life
The bare facts of anyone’s life don’t do it justice. Yet they help us put the many complex pieces of the puzzle together and foster understanding. In this series we have dived straight in: exploring concepts, events and writings. Here we will step back and think about the outlines of Bahá’u’lláh’s life. There are two tools that I would like to use for this purpose. One is to refer you to the beautiful pictorial display of Bahá’u’lláh’s life maintained by the Baha’i International Community at bahaullah.org. There you will find a brief chronology, images associated with Bahá’u’lláh’s life and a narrative of key events. The second tool I will use is to adopt ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s…
