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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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When the World Changed: Gallipoli and the Chief Vizier
The future is hardly ever what we expect it to be. It almost always surprises us. This is proof enough that in any point of time, although we often write history as if it was inevitable, many possible futures stretch out before us. Sometimes there are pivot points in history when things change profoundly from what came before — or from what they might have been. When Baha’u’llah sent his message to the kings – the Suriy-i-Muluk — he warned them that their actions had the power to change the future. If ye pay no heed unto the counsels which, in peerless and unequivocal language, We have revealed in this…
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Waging Peace in the Midst of War
As we have already seen, during World War 1 Abdu’l Baha wrote a series of letters to the Baha’is of North America. While the world was waging war, Abdu’l Baha was waging peace. This is the first of a series of articles with the aim of placing these letters in the context of events occurring in the war about the time the letters were being written. The letters could not be delivered until after the war. 26 March 1916 On this day allied delegates were arriving in Paris for an allied conference. The French government, which had convened the meeting, wished to ensure that no government would separately conclude peace…
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A Stronger Thought of Peace
When a thought of war comes oppose it with a stronger thought of peace. It is such a striking statement that it often comes to mind. It appears in a talk given by Abdu’l Baha in Paris in 1911. I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content. Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness.[1] Often Abdu’l Baha’s words have a simplicity and clarity that bely their depth. It is a…
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Prophet and Seer
Is it possible to see the future? All of us can predict the future to a small degree, simply on the basis of past experience. Yet the idea that someone could see events far into the future raises scepticism. It is outside our common experience. Some of us have subjective experiences of deja vu (a feeling we have seen some event before) or dreams which we see realised sometime in the future. Bahá’u’lláh writes of this phenomenon. Behold how the dream thou hast dreamed is, after the lapse of many years, reenacted before thine eyes. Consider how strange is the mystery of the world that appeareth to thee in thy dream.[1] An instance…
