Tag: Faith

Friends from Thames Valley attend London gathering

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“O Thou kind Lord!  These are Thy servants who have gathered in this meeting, have turned unto Thy kingdom and are in need of Thy bestowal and blessing.  O Thou God!  Manifest and make evident the signs of Thy oneness which have been deposited in all the realities of life.  Reveal and unfold the virtues which Thou hast made latent and concealed in these human realities.

O God!  We are as plants, and Thy bounty is as the rain; refresh and cause these plants to grow through Thy bestowal.  We are Thy servants; free us from the fetters of material existence.  We are ignorant; make us wise.  We are dead; make us alive.  We are material; endow us with spirit.  We are deprived; make us the intimates of Thy mysteries.  We are needy; enrich and bless us from Thy boundless treasury.  O God!  Resuscitate us; give us sight; give us hearing; familiarize us with the mysteries of life, so that the secrets of Thy kingdom may become revealed to us in this world of existence and we may confess Thy oneness.  Every bestowal emanates from Thee; every benediction is Thine.

Thou art mighty.  Thou art powerful.  Thou art the Giver, and Thou art the Ever-Bounteous.“

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Charity saved him from ill-feted Titanic voyage . . .

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‘Abdu’l-Bahá - who didn't take the ill-feted Titanic voyage.
In 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spent from April to December touring North America. He is shown here (at center) with Bahá’ís at Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA, in 1912. Reprinted with permission of the Bahá’í International Community.

There has been some epic storytelling over the past few weeks marking the one hundred years ago since the “unsinkable” Titanic sank into the North Atlantic, taking with her more than 1,500 lives.

Of all the stories, one of the most extraordinary is that of a 68-year-old Persian who was supposed to be on the ill-fated vessel but wasn’t – it turns out – actually there.

Abbas Effendi – known as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá or “the Servant of God” – was feted by the press in both Europe and the U.S. as a philosopher, a peace apostle, even the return of Christ. His American admirers had sent him thousands of dollars for a ticket on the Titanic, and begged him to ride in the greatest of opulence.

His saving grace for that ill-feted journey was that he declined and gave the money to charity.