Bahá’í News/Issue 616/Text

←Previous

Bahá’í News Issue 616

Next→

Proofread onceReturn to PDF view

[Page -1]

Bahá’í News

July 1982

Bahá’í Year 139

Baḥíyyih Khánum
‘The Greatest Holy Leaf’
1847-1932

[Page 0]

Bahá’í News

Cables from House of Justice recount more persecutions in Iran	1
Amoz Gibson, member of the House of Justice, dies after long illness	2
A loving tribute to the Greatest Holy Leaf from the beloved Guardian	3
Marjory Morten recalls the unique personality of Baḥíyyih Khánum	8
More on the Greatest Holy Leaf from Keith Ransom-Kehler’s diary	13
Around the world: News from Bahá’í communities all over the world	14

Bahá’í News is published monthly by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States as a news organ reporting current activities of the Bahá’í world community. Manuscripts submitted should be typewritten and double spaced throughout; any footnotes should appear at the end. The contributor should keep a carbon copy. Send materials to the Periodicals Office, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A. Changes of address should be reported to the Office of Membership and Records, Bahá’í National Center. Please attach mailing label. Subscription rates: one year, U.S. $8; two years, U.S. $15. Second class postage paid at Wilmette, IL 60091. Copyright © 1982, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. World rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

[Page 1]

Bahá’ís in Iran experience ‘fresh outburst of persecutions’

AFTER BRIEF LULL AND RELEASE FEW BAHÁ’Í PRISONERS, FRESH OUTBURST PERSECUTIONS AGAINST MEMBERS DEFENCELESS COMMUNITY IN CRADLE FAITH CLEARLY EVIDENT.

HEARTS GRIEVED ANNOUNCE THAT SINCE EARLY APRIL SIX STAUNCH BELIEVERS HAVE OFFERED THEIR LIVES ALTAR SACRIFICE. ALL MERCILESSLY EXECUTED SOLELY DUE THEIR ADHERENCE BELOVED FAITH, BUT OUTWARDLY ON BASIS TRUMPED-UP ACCUSATIONS.

THEIR NAMES ARE:

1. MR. ASKAR MUHAMMADI OF RAHIMKHAN VILLAGE IN BUKAN, KURDISTAN, WHO WAS ASSASSINATED AT HIS HOME IN EARLY APRIL BY REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS AFTER INTRODUCING HIMSELF AS BAHÁ’Í WHILE THEY WERE SEARCHING HOUSES THAT AREA FOR WEAPONS.

2. MR. IHSANU’LLAH KHAYYAMI OF URUMIYYIH, WHO WAS EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD ON 12 APRIL AFTER INTENSE BUT UNSUCCESSFUL PRESSURE TO RECANT HIS FAITH.

3. MR. AZIZU’LLAH GULSHANI OF KASHHAD, KHURASAN, WHO WAS HANGED ON 29 APRIL. COURT VERDICT CLEARLY BASED HIS AFFILIATION FAITH AND BAHÁ’Í ACTIVITIES. NEWSPAPER “KAYHAN” REPORTS VERDICT COURT REFERS TO HIM AS A HERETIC, WHICH IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH. THIS IMPORTANT DOCUMENT PROVES BAHÁ’ÍS ARE BEING KILLED BECAUSE OF THEIR RELIGION.

4. MR. BADI’U’LLAH HAQPAYKAR OF KARAJ NEAR TEHERAN, AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE LOCAL ASSEMBLY, WHO WAS EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD ON 8 MAY.

5. AND 6. MR. MAHMUD FARUHAR AND HIS WIFE ISHRAQIYYIH, HIGHLY QUALIFIED AND EDUCATED ACTIVE BELIEVERS, AND MEMBERS OF THE LOCAL ASSEMBLY, WHO WERE ALSO EXECUTED IN KARAJ ON 8 MAY.

FURTHER, MANY PROMINENT BAHÁ’ÍS, INCLUDING 23 MEMBERS OF LOCAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLIES IN VARIOUS PARTS COUNTRY ARRESTED IN RECENT WEEKS.

ENTREAT FRIENDS EVERYWHERE CONTINUE PRAYERS EFFORTS BEHALF OUR OPPRESSED BRETHREN IRAN, INFORM MEDIA, APPEAL AUTHORITIES, USE ALL MEANS OPEN TO THEM STAY HAND RELENTLESS PERSECUTERS INNOCENT PEACE-LOVING BAHÁ’ÍS IRAN.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
MAY 10, 1982

FURTHER RECENT MESSAGE ON RECRUDESCENCE PERSECUTIONS IRAN, NEWS JUST RECEIVED TWO OTHER STAUNCH BELIEVERS MARTYRED BY FIRING SQUAD IN IRAN. THEY ARE: MR. AGAHU’LLAH CHIZFAHM AND MRS. JALALIYYIH MUSHTAIL. BOTH MEMBERS LOCAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY URUMIYYIH.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
MAY 11, 1982

WITH UTMOST SADNESS ANNOUNCE EXECUTION ON 16 MAY TWO MORE VALIANT SOULS CRADLE FAITH SA’DU’LLAH BABAZADIH AND NASRU’LLAH AMINI, MEMBERS SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY KHANIABAD VILLAGE NEAR TIHRAN. DEATH SENTENCE HANDED DOWN OVER TWO MONTHS AGO, HOWEVER EXECUTION POSTPONED WHILE INTENSE PRESSURE BROUGHT TO BEAR UPON TWO CONDEMNED BAHÁ’ÍS RECANT FAITH OBTAIN FREEDOM. THESE TWO STEADFAST FRIENDS WHO PREFERRED MARTYRDOM TO DENIAL FAITH WERE BURIED UNCEREMONIOUSLY WITHOUT FAMILY FRIENDS BEING INFORMED. AFTER SEVEN DAYS RELATIVES FORTUITOUSLY DISCOVERED EXECUTION THEIR LOVED ONES.

ALTHOUGH FEW BAHÁ’Í PRISONERS RELEASED, ARRESTS CONTINUE THROUGHOUT COUNTRY.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
MAY 26, 1982

[Page 2]

House of Justice sadly laments loss of ‘dearly-loved brother,’ Amoz Gibson

WITH SORROWFUL HEARTS LAMENT LOSS OUR DEARLY-LOVED BROTHER AMOZ GIBSON WHO PASSED AWAY AFTER PROLONGED HEROIC STRUGGLE FATAL ILLNESS. EXEMPLARY SELF-SACRIFICING PROMOTER FAITH ACHIEVED BRILLIANT UNBLEMISHED RECORD CONSTANT SERVICE FOUNDED ON ROCKLIKE STAUNCHNESS AND DEEP INSATIABLE LOVE FOR TEACHING WORK PARTICULARLY AMONG INDIAN AND BLACK MINORITIES WESTERN HEMISPHERE AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AFRICA. HIS NOTABLE WORK ADMINISTRATIVE FIELDS NORTH AMERICA CROWNED FINAL NINETEEN YEARS INCALCULABLE CONTRIBUTION DEVELOPMENT WORLD CENTRE WORLD-EMBRACING FAITH.

PRAYING SHRINES BOUNTIFUL REWARD HIS NOBLE SOUL THROUGHOUT PROGRESS ABHÁ KINGDOM. EXPRESS LOVING SYMPATHY VALIANT BELOVED WIDOW PARTNER HIS SERVICES AND BEREAVED CHILDREN ADVISE HOLD BEFITTING MEMORIAL GATHERINGS EVERYWHERE BAHÁ’Í WORLD AND COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES ALL MASHRIQU’L-ADHKÁRS.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
MAY 15, 1982

OUR HEARTS JOIN YOURS IN SORROW OVER LOSS YOUR COLLEAGUE, AMOZ GIBSON, DEARLY PRIZED SON AMERICAN BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY WHOSE ELEVATION TO MEMBERSHIP FIRST UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE SHED UNERADICABLE SPLENDOR ON HIS NATIVE HOMELAND. HE IS FOREVER PRAYERFULLY ENSHRINED IN OUR GRATEFUL LOVING MEMORY.

NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES
MAY 16, 1982

Amoz Gibson was born August 3, 1918, in Washington, D.C., the son of William and Deborah Jane Gibson who were devoted Bahá’ís.

He obtained his B.S. degree in education, majoring in social studies, from Miner Teachers’ College in Washington.

In 1950-51 he served as a pioneer to Mexico and received his M.A. degree in geography from Mexico City College.

Later, he worked toward a doctoral degree at New York University. He held various teaching posts in Washington, and from 1955-60 taught on the Navajo Indian Reservation at Pinon, Arizona, and at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, where he served in the departments of English and social studies.

From 1960-63 Mr. Gibson was principal of Bread Springs Day School in New Mexico.

He served actively for many years in the Bahá’í community of Washington, D.C., as a member of the Spiritual Assembly and various committees.

In 1955 he was elected a delegate to the U.S. Bahá’í National Convention and subsequently pioneered to the Navajo Indian Reservation.

He was a member of the National Teaching Committee for Africa, and in 1958 represented the National Spiritual Assembly of the U.S. at the dedication of the House of Worship in Kampala, Uganda.

In 1959 he was appointed a member of the Auxiliary Board for protection and was elected to membership on the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly from 1960 until his election in 1963 to the Universal House of Justice.

Mr. Gibson served as a member of the Supreme Body for successive five-year terms until his death on May 14, 1982.

He was buried in the Bahá’í cemetery in Haifa, Israel, in the presence of the Hands of the Cause of God residing in the Holy Land, the members of the Universal House of Justice, members of the World Centre staff, and pilgrims.

Mr. Gibson is survived by his widow, Mary Lane Gibson, whom he married in 1941, and by their three sons and one daughter.

AMOZ GIBSON

[Page 3]

The Guardian’s loving tribute to his ‘chief sustainer, affectionate comforter’

Brethren and Fellow-Mourners in the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh:

A sorrow, reminiscent in its poignancy, of the devastating grief caused by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sudden removal from our midst, has stirred the Bahá’í world to its foundations. The Greatest Holy Leaf, the well-beloved and treasured Remnant of Bahá’u’lláh entrusted to our frail and unworthy hands by our departed Master, has passed to the Great Beyond, leaving a legacy that time can never dim.

The Community of the Most Great Name, in its entirety and to its very core, feels the sting of this cruel loss. Inevitable though this calamitous event appeared to us all, however acute our apprehension of its steady approach, the consciousness of its final consummation at this terrible hour leaves us, we whose souls have been impregnated by the energizing influence of her love, prostrated and disconsolate.

How can my lonely pen, so utterly inadequate to glorify so exalted a station, so impotent to portray the experiences of so sublime a life, so disqualified to recount the blessings she showered upon me since my earliest childhood—how can such a pen repay the great debt of gratitude and love that I owe her whom I regarded as my chief sustainer, my most affectionate comforter, the joy and inspiration of my life? My grief is too immense, my remorse too profound, to be able to give full vent at this moment to the feelings that surge within me.

Only future generations and pens abler than mine can, and will, pay a

---

This tribute to Baḥíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, written after her passing in July 1932 by the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, is reprinted from The Bahá’í World, Vol. V (1932-34), pp. 174-79.

---

worthy tribute to the towering grandeur of her spiritual life, to the unique part she played throughout the tumultuous stages of Bahá’í history, to the expressions of unqualified praise that have streamed from the pen of both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of His Covenant, though unrecorded, and in the main unsuspected by the mass of her passionate admirers in East and West, the share she has had in influencing the course of some of the chief events in the annals of the Faith, the sufferings she bore, the sacrifices she made, the rare gifts of unfailing sympathy she so strikingly displayed—these, and many others, stand so inextricably interwoven with the fabric of the Cause itself that no future historian of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh can afford to ignore or minimize.

As far back as the concluding stages of the heroic age of the Cause, which witnessed the imprisonment of Bahá’u’lláh in the Síyáh-Chál of Ṭihrán, the Greatest Holy Leaf, then still in her infancy, was privileged to taste of the cup of woe which the first believers of that Apostolic Age had quaffed.

How well I remember her recall, at a time when her faculties were still unimpaired, the gnawing suspense that ate into the hearts of those who watched by her side, at the threshold of her pillaged house, expectant to hear at any moment the news of Bahá’u’lláh’s imminent execution! In those sinister hours, she often recounted, her parents had so suddenly lost their earthly possessions that within the space of a single day from being the privileged member of one of the wealthiest families of Ṭihrán she had sunk to the state of a sufferer from unconcealed poverty. Deprived of the means of subsistence, her illustrious mother, the famed Navváb, was constrained to place in the palm of her daughter’s hand a handful of flour and to induce her to accept it as a substitute for her daily bread.

And when at a later time this revered

Greatest Holy Leaf’s immortal spirit winged its flight Great Beyond. Countless lovers her saintly life in East and West seized with pangs of anguish, plunged in unutterable sorrow. Humanity shall erelong recognize its irreparable loss. Our beloved Faith, well nigh crushed by devastating blow of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s unexpected Ascension, now laments passing (of) last remnant of Bahá’u’lláh, its most exalted member. Holy Family cruelly divested (of) its most precious great Adorning. I for my part bewail sudden removal (of) my sole earthly sustainer, the joy and solace of my life. Remains will repose (in the) vicinity (of the) Holy Shrines. So grievous a bereavement necessitates suspension for nine months throughout Bahá’í world every manner religious festivity. Inform Local Assemblies and groups hold (in) befitting manner memorial gatherings (to) extol a life so laden (with) sacred experiences, so rich (in) imperishable memories. Advise holding additional Commemoration Service of strictly devotional character (in the) Auditorium (of the) Mashriqu’l-Adhkár. (Signed) Shoghi July 15, 1932 (From The Bahá’í World, Vol. V (1932-34), p. 169)

[Page 4] and precious member of the Holy Family, then in her teens, came to be entrusted by the guiding hand of her Father with missions that no girl of her age could, or would be willing to, perform, with what spontaneous joy she seized her opportunity and acquitted herself of the task with which she had been entrusted! The delicacy and extreme gravity of such functions as she, from time to time, was called upon to fulfil, when the city of Baghdád was swept by the hurricane which the heedlessness and perversity of Mírzá Yaḥyá had unchained, as well as the tender solicitude which, at so early an age, she evinced during the period of Bahá’u’lláh’s enforced retirement to the mountains of Sulaymáníyyih, marked her as one who was both capable of sharing the burden, and willing to make the sacrifice, which her high birth demanded.

How staunch was her faith, how calm her demeanor, how forgiving her attitude, how severe her trials, at a time when the forces of schism had rent asunder the ties that united the little band of exiles which had settled in Adrianople and whose fortunes seemed then to have sunk to their lowest ebb! It was in this period of extreme anxiety, when the rigours of a winter of exceptional severity, coupled with the privations entailed by unhealthy housing accommodations and dire financial distress, undermined once for all her health and sapped the vitality which she had hitherto so thoroughly enjoyed. The stress and storm of that period made an abiding impression upon her mind, and she retained till the time of her death on her beauteous and angelic face evidences of its intense hardships.

Not until, however, she had been confined in the company of Bahá’u’lláh within the walls of the prison-city of ‘Akká did she display, in the plenitude of her power and in the full abundance of her love for Him, those gifts that single her out, next to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, among the members of the Holy Family, as the brightest embodiment of that love which is born of God and of that human sympathy which few mortals are capable of evincing.

Dedicated life

Banishing from her mind and heart every earthly attachment, renouncing the very idea of matrimony, she, standing resolutely by the side of a Brother whom she was to aid and serve so well, arose to dedicate her life to the service of her Father’s glorious Cause. Whether in the management of the affairs of His household in which she excelled, or in the social relationships which she so assiduously cultivated in order to shield both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, whether in the unfailing attention she paid to the every day needs of her Father, or in the traits of generosity, of affability and kindness, which she manifested, the Greatest Holy Leaf had by that time abundantly demonstrated her worthiness to rank as one of the noblest figures intimately associated with the life-long work of Bahá’u’lláh.

How grievous was the ingratitude, how blind the fanaticism, how persistent the malignity of the officials, their wives, and their subordinates, in return for the manifold bounties which she, in close association with her Brother, so profusely conferred upon them! Her patience, her magnanimity, her undiscriminating benevolence, far from disarming the hostility of that perverse

[Page 5] generation, served only to inflame their rancour, to excite their jealousy, to intensify their fears. The gloom that had settled upon that little band of imprisoned believers, who languished in the Fortress of ‘Akká contrasted with the spirit of confident hope, of deep-rooted optimism that beamed upon her serene countenance. No calamity, however intense, could obscure the brightness of her saintly face, and no agitation, no matter how severe, could disturb the composure of her gracious and dignified behaviour.

That her sensitive heart instantaneously reacted to the slightest injury that befell the least significant of creatures, whether friend or foe, no one who knew her well could doubt. And yet such was the restraining power of her will—a will which her spirit of self-renunciation so often prompted her to suppress—that a superficial observer might well be led to question the intensity of her emotions or to belittle the range of her sympathies. In the school of adversity she, already endowed by Providence with the virtues of meekness and fortitude, learned through the example and exhortations of the Great Sufferer, who was her Father, the lesson she was destined to teach the great mass of His followers for so long after Him.

Armed with the powers with which an intimate and long-standing companionship with Bahá’u’lláh had already equipped her, and benefitting by the magnificent example which the steadily widening range of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s activities afforded her, she was prepared to face the storm which the treacherous conduct of the covenant-breakers had aroused and to withstand its most damaging onslaughts.

Great as had been her sufferings ever since her infancy, the anguish of mind and heart which the ascension of Bahá’u’lláh occasioned nerved her, as never before, to a resolve which no upheaval could bend and which her frail constitution belied. Amidst the dust and heat of the commotion which that faithless and rebellious company engendered she found herself constrained to dissolve ties of family relationship, to sever long-standing and intimate friendships, to discard lesser loyalties for the sake of her supreme allegiance to a cause she had loved so dearly and had served so well.

The disruption which ensued found her ranged by the side of Him Whom her departed Father had appointed as the Center of His Covenant and the authorized Expounder of His Word. Her venerated mother, as well as her distinguished paternal uncle, ’Áqay-l-Kalím—the twin pillars who, all throughout the various stages of Bahá’u’lláh’s exile from the Land of His Birth to the final place of His confinement, had demonstrated, unlike most of the members of His Family, the

---

... but for her sleepless vigilance, her tact, her courtesy, her extreme patience and heroic fortitude, grave complications might have ensued and the load of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s care would have been ... increased.’

---

tenacity of their loyalty—had already passed behind the Veil. Death, in the most tragic circumstances, had also robbed her of the Purest Branch, her only brother besides ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, while still in the prime of youth. She alone of the family of Bahá’u’lláh remained to cheer the heart and reinforce the efforts of the Most Great Branch, against Whom were solidly arrayed the almost entire company of His faithless relatives. In her arduous task she was seconded by the diligent efforts of Munírih Khánum, the Holy Mother, and those of her daughters whose age allowed them to assist in the accomplishment of that stupendous achievement with which the name of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá will forever remain associated. With the passing of Bahá’u’lláh and the fierce onslaught of the forces of disruption that followed in its wake, the Greatest Holy Leaf, now in the hey-day of her life, rose to the height of her great opportunity and acquitted herself worthily of her task. It would take me beyond the compass of the tribute I am moved to pay to her memory were I to dwell upon the incessant machinations to which Muḥammad-‘Alí, the arch-breaker of the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, and his despicable supporters basely resorted, upon the agitation which their cleverly-directed campaign of misrepresentation and calumny produced in quarters directly connected with Sulṭán ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamid and his advisers, upon the trials and investigations to which it gave rise, upon the rigidity of the incarceration it reimposed, and upon the perils it revived. Suffice it to say that but for her sleepless vigilance, her tact, her courtesy, her extreme patience and heroic fortitude, grave complications might have ensued and the load of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s anxious care would have been considerably increased.

And when the storm-cloud that had darkened the horizon of the Holy Land had been finally dissipated and the call raised by our beloved ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had stirred to a new life certain cities of the American and European continents, the Most Exalted Leaf became the recipient of the unbounded affection and blessings of One Who could best estimate her virtues and appreciate her merits.

The decline of her precious life had by that time set in, and the burden of advancing age was beginning to becloud the radiance of her countenance. Forgetful of her own self, disdaining rest and comfort, and undeterred by the obstacles that still stood in her path, she, acting as the honoured hostess to a steadily increasing number of pilgrims who thronged ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s residence from both the East and the West, continued to display those same attributes that had won her, in the preceding phases of her career, so great a measure of admiration and love.

And when, in pursuance of God’s inscrutable wisdom, the ban on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s confinement was lifted and the Plan which He, in the darkest hours of His confinement, had conceived materialized, He with unhesitating confidence, invested His trusted and honoured sister with the responsibility of attending to the multitudinous details arising out of His protracted absence from the Holy Land.

No sooner had ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stepped upon the shores of the European and American continents than our beloved Khánum found herself wellnigh overwhelmed with thrilling messages, each betokening the irresistible advance of the Cause in a manner which, notwithstanding the vast range of her experience, seemed to her almost incredible. The years in which she basked in the sunshine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s

[Page 6] spiritual victories were, perhaps, among the brightest and happiest of her life. Little did she dream when, as a little girl, she was running about, in the courtyard of her Father’s house in Ṭihrán, in the company of Him Whose destiny was to be one day the chosen Center of God’s indestructible Covenant, that such a Brother would be capable of achieving, in realms so distant, and among races so utterly remote, so great and memorable a victory.

Latent energies

The enthusiasm and joy which swelled in her breast as she greeted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on His triumphant return from the West, I will not venture to describe. She was astounded at the vitality of which He had, despite His unimaginable sufferings, proved Himself capable. She was lost in admiration at the magnitude of the forces which His utterances had released. She was filled with thankfulness to Bahá’u’lláh for having enabled her to witness the evidences of such brilliant victory for His Cause no less than for His Son.

The outbreak of the Great War gave her yet another opportunity to reveal the true worth of her character and to release the latent energies of her heart. The residence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa was besieged, all throughout that dreary conflict, by a concourse of famished men, women and children whom the maladministration, the cruelty and neglect of the officials of the Ottoman Government had driven to seek an alleviation to their woes. From the hand of the Greatest Holy Leaf, and out of the abundance of her heart, these hapless victims of a contemptible tyranny, received day after day unforgettable evidences of a love they had learned to envy and admire. Her words of cheer and comfort, the food, the money, the clothing, she freely dispensed, the remedies which, by a process of her own, she herself prepared and diligently applied—all these had their share in comforting the disconsolate, in restoring sight to the blind, in sheltering the orphan, in healing the sick, and in succoring the homeless and the wanderer.

She had reached, amidst the darkness of the war days, the high watermark of her spiritual attainments. Few, if any, among the unnumbered benefactors of society whose privilege has been to allay, in various measures, the hardships and sufferings entailed by that fierce conflict, gave as freely and as disinterestedly as she did; few exercised that undefinable influence upon the beneficiaries of their gifts.

Age seemed to have accentuated the tenderness of her loving heart, and to have widened still further the range of her sympathies. The sight of appalling suffering around her steeled her energies and revealed such potentialities that her most intimate associates had failed to suspect.

The ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, so tragic in its suddenness, was to her a terrible blow from the effects of which she never completely recovered. To her He, Whom she called, “Aqá,” had been a refuge in times of adversity. On Him she had been led to place her sole reliance. In Him she had found ample compensation for the bereavements she had suffered, the desertions she had witnessed, the ingratitude she had been shown by friends and kindreds. No one could ever dream that a woman of her age, so frail in body, so sensitive of heart, so loaded with the cares of almost eighty years of incessant tribulation, could so long survive so shattering a blow. And yet, history, no less than the annals of our immortal Faith, shall record for her a share in the advancement and consolidation of the world-wide community which the hand of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had helped to fashion, which no one among the remnants of His family can rival.

Which of the blessings am I to recount, which in her unfailing solicitude she showered upon me, in the most critical and agitated hours of my life? To me, standing in so dire a need of the vitalizing grace of God, she was the living symbol of many an attribute I had learned to admire in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. She was to me a continual reminder of His inspiring personality, of His calm resignation, of His munificence and magnanimity. To me she was an incarnation of His all-encompassing tenderness and love.

It would take me too long to make even a brief allusion to those incidents of her life, each of which eloquently proclaims her as a daughter, worthy to inherit that priceless heritage bequeathed to her by Bahá’u’lláh. A purity of life that reflected itself in even the minutest details of her daily occupations and activities; a tenderness of heart that obliterated every distinction of creed, class and colour; a resignation and serenity that evoked to the mind the calm and heroic fortitude of the Báb; a natural fondness of flowers and children that was so characteristic of Bahá’u’lláh; an unaffected simplicity of manners; an extreme sociability which made her accessible to all; a generosity, a love, at once disinterested and undiscriminating, that reflected so clearly the attributes of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s character; a sweetness of temper; a cheerfulness that no amount of sorrow could becloud; a quiet and unassuming disposition that served to enhance a thousandfold the prestige of her exalted rank; a forgiving nature that instantly disarmed the most unyielding enemy—these rank among the outstanding attributes of a saintly life which history will acknowledge as having been endowed with a celestial potency that few of the heroes of the past possessed.

Touching tributes

No wonder that in Tablets, which stand as eternal testimonies to the beauty of her character, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have paid touching tributes to those things that testify to her exalted position among the mem-

[Page 7] bers of their Family, that proclaim her as an example to their followers, and as an object worthy of the admiration of all mankind.

I need only, at this juncture, quote the following passage from a Tablet addressed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the Holy Mother, the tone of which reveals unmistakably the character of those ties that bound Him to so precious, so devoted a sister:

“To my honoured and distinguished sister do thou convey the expression of my heartfelt, my intense longing. Day and night she liveth in my remembrance: I dare make no mention of the feelings which separation from her has aroused in my heart, for whatever I should attempt to express in writing will assuredly be effaced by the tears which such sentiments must bring to my eyes.”

‘Mist of tears’

Dearly-beloved Greatest Holy Leaf! Through the mist of tears that fill my eyes I can clearly see, as I pen these lines, thy noble figure before me, and can recognize the serenity of thy kindly face. I can still gaze, though the shadows of the grave separate us, into thy blue, love-deep eyes, and can feel in its calm intensity, the immense love thou did’st bear for the Cause of thine Almighty Father, the attachment that bound thee to the most lowly and insignificant among its followers, the warm affection thou didst cherish for me in thine heart. The memory of the ineffable beauty of thy smile shall ever continue to cheer and hearten me in the thorny path I am destined to pursue. The remembrance of the touch of thine hand shall spur me on to follow steadfastly in thy way, the sweet magic of thy voice shall remind me, when the hour of adversity is at its darkest, to hold fast to the rope thou did’st seize so firmly all the days of thy life.

Bear thou this my message to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, thine exalted and divinely-appointed Brother: If the Cause for which Bahá’u’lláh toiled and laboured, for which thou did’st suffer years of agonizing sorrow, for the sake of which streams of sacred blood have flowed, should, in the days to come, encounter storms more severe than those it has already weathered, do thou continue to overshadow, with thine all-encompassing care and wisdom, thy frail, thy unworthy appointed child.

Intercede, O noble and well-favored scion of a heavenly Father, for me no less than for the toiling masses of thy ardent lovers, who have sworn undying allegiance to thy memory, whose souls have been nourished by the energies of thy love, whose conduct has been moulded by the inspiring example of thy life, and whose imaginations are fired by the imperishable evidences of thy lively faith, thy unshakable constancy, thy invincible heroism, thy great renunciation.

Whatever betide us, however distressing the vicissitudes which the nascent Faith of God may yet experience, we pledge ourselves, before the mercy-seat of thy glorious Father, to hand on, unimpaired and undivided, to generations yet unborn, the glory of that tradition of which thou hast been its most brilliant exemplar.

In the innermost recesses of our hearts, O thou exalted Leaf of the Abhá Paradise, we have reared for thee a shining mansion that the hand of time can never undermine, a shrine which shall frame eternally the matchless beauty of thy countenance, an altar whereon the fire of thy consuming love shall burn forever.

Shoghi

The beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the merciful throughout the West.
July 17, 1932

[Page 8]

‘Others might break the shell with a blow; it was for her to unsheath the kernel with infinite care and skill’

She was the daughter of Bahá’u’lláh and Ásíyih Khánum and the sister of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. She was named Baḥíyyih. To the followers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh she was known and reverenced as the Greatest Holy Leaf. To those she lived among she was “Khánum,” which is to say, Lady. It is this Khánum, the woman, her pervading spirit, who lives on in the hearts of all who knew and loved her—Khánum, moving serene and steadfast through the days; showing goodness in a simple sharing of each day’s portion and leaving for us to take and share in turn precious morsels of the substance that was for her the daily bread of life.

When you think of the traits and ways that made up her lovely behavior she comes to you at first, perhaps, as she welcomed you among her guests—gracefully erect and poised, controlled yet at ease—putting others at ease, without familiarity—and with the mild dignity, simplicity and unselfconsciousness of a great lady. Her graciousness and courtesy reflected the courtly Persia of another day. Even with her family she observed some of the punctilio of that day, gestures that for her were a part of a living ritual rather than a dead form; delicate values of human relationships that outlast all form and fashion and that expressed her innate respect and consideration for every fellow-being.

And those restraining customs which in the East still hedged about a lady of her rank and station you saw as you

This article, “Baḥíyyih Khánum,” by Marjory Morten, is reprinted from The Bahá’í World, Vol. V (1932-34), pp. 181-85.

came to know her that she accepted as she would inclement weather that kept her indoors; saw that she had moulded her life to

---

Her balance, sense of fineness and fitness and practical judgment she displayed in creating order and grace in the household, and all the elements that make for well-being she blended in an ambience of harmony.

---

the bounds of her sphere, pouring into it the resources of her own spirit, and had found scope for all her qualities. Her balance, sense of fineness and fitness and practical judgment she displayed in creating order and grace in the household, and all the elements that make for well-being she blended in an ambience of harmony. Her strong will was never used to override and her decided opinions were never pressed upon another. Her ways were gentle. Others might break the shell with a blow; it was for her to unsheath the kernel with infinite care and skill. In her you met with no exactions, no biddance; she beckoned, smiling, and would have no one come heavy-footed or bent to her will. So quietly did she make her influence felt that you were scarcely conscious of its working.

And she shed her creative sympathy in the form of tender interest in every detail in the lives of those around her, entering into their hours in the small and filling them with happiness. At the moment you did not recognize this sympathy as sympathy, but enjoyed it in pleasure. It is a charming Persian habit to wrap a gift in an embroidered silk or linen cloth, as fine in its way as the thing enclosed. So, always, she gave a gift within the gift. You took the happy warmth of contentment you felt when you were with her and only later came to realize that this was the fine wrapping of a deeper joy, a richer core. One of the endless glimpses of this twofold blessing we had one day when we were with her in ‘Akká and she lay ill of fever, while all the house was filled with hushed preparations for a wedding that evening. Just before the simple ceremony she sent for the young girl—hardly more than a child—who came trembling and tearful. She blessed her with a smile, touched her white cotton dress and the veil and wreath of orange flowers we had improvised for her in western fashion, and said softly, “How very pretty!” The little bride forgot her fears at that word of approval and went to her marriage with a blessing she was not yet able to understand.

Among the Persians a mother in admonishing or consoling her child calls it mádar, mother. This tender expression she used generally to all those who were close about her. Her murmur of “mádar ayb nadárad”—“Mother, never mind”—was an assuaging echo in the house. To each one she was comforter. But you would not be content to describe her as motherly. Motherliness is too confining a term. Mother-love embraces and holds, however lightly; has something of possessiveness, something that asks response to the love showered. There was no hint of this in her affection. She left spirit and body alike utterly free, demanding nothing of those she loved. And she would, it seemed, have them unaware of any debt of love. So light was her touch that she woke in them no sense of responsibility or conscious gratitude. Even when she comforted, her caress was feather soft; for she knew that those in sore need can be bruised by the least pressure of compassion. She would give the balm itself and add no weight of her own hand, so that healing and comfort came as a magic gift. At the time you neither knew nor asked its source, and your thankfulness over-

[Page 9] flowed in a happy sharing of the gift.

She would not weigh your worth and reward you according to your deserts; nor would she consider whether your pain were inflicted or self-provoked, as if she knew that suffering has a sanctity of its own. She never sat in judgment and was not concerned with separating the sheep from the goats. Not only did she not single out black from white in the flock, but in the inner fold of your own nature she did not call the fault dark nor see the white lamb in a good action. She would not use criticism and censure. When you brought her your darkness she lit a taper. If you had done wrong or failed in your effort, or even failed to make the effort, she loved you the more, conscious of your chagrin in failure; pitying you for your weakness and defeat and pitying you, too, if you did not suffer and felt no shame in failure.

You were sure that if one tried to hurt her she would wish to console him for his own cruelty. For her love was unconditioned, could penetrate disguise and see hunger behind the mask of fury, and she knew that the most brutal self is secretly hoping to find gentleness in another. She had that rarest heart-courage—to uncover the very quick of tenderness to any need. And so deep was her understanding that she plumbed all the miseries of the human heart and read their significance, blessing both the victim and the valid pain itself.

Service a privilege

So alive was she to the source of all bounty that she had no consciousness of her own bounty. When she made a gift she seemed to be thanking you for it. The prompting included gratitude. When she gave joy she blessed you for it. It was almost as if she did not distinguish giving from receiving; as when, during the last year of her life, she went one summer day to the mountain with the children of her family and sat watching them at their picnic. To have her there with them made the day a festival. This joy that she shed she shared ... And when they came down in the evening she thanked them for her delight in their play and for the happiness their happiness had given her.

Though she was unaware of her own loving-kindness she was moved by the least trace of it in others. To serve her was not duty; it was high privilege. But she took nothing for granted in the way of devoted service and even in her last hours she whispered or smiled her thanks for every littlest ministration. Her generosity was instinctive, not considered; you felt no pause between impulse and act. You knew that her openhandedness was the evidence of an unbroken stream of impelling kindness that flowed through her, that never failed. She delighted in making presents—sweetmeats and goodies and coins for the children, and for others flowers, keepsakes—a vial of attar of roses, a rosary, or some delicate thing that she had used and cared for. Anything that was given her she one day gave to someone else, someone in whom she felt a special need of a special favour. She was channel rather than cup; open treasury, not locked casket.

And as she would not lock away her small treasures, neither would she store up her wisdom and her riches of experience. In her, experience left no bitter ash. Her flame transmuted all of life, even its crude and base particles, into gold. And this gold she spent. Her wisdom was of the heart. She never reduced it to formula or precept—we have no wise sayings of hers that we can hang motto-like on our walls. Just by being what she was she gave us all that she knew. A thousand of the things that cannot be uttered by the human tongue she spoke in smile and glance, and in tender silence.

Often she would sit silent in a hum of voices, but never shut in a shell of silence, never isolated nor aloof. Her stillness was neither empty nor insistent; it did not hush nor summon others to quiet, but made accompaniment to the play of voices around her. How full she was of deep tranquillity; how far removed from mere placidity. She loved laughter and often joined in the eager, merry moods of the younger people who clustered about her. These responsive humours were happy ripples on the sea of her tranquillity.

She was seldom alone. The unity and selflessness that some may win by vigil and withdrawal she reached and maintained in the company of others. Her whole attitude of life was prayer. Her thoughts were kneeling thoughts. She found communion in shared quietude, and privacy in a sunny room where

[Page 10] children played. Her room was the heart of the house. Around the glow of her brazier in winter or when she sat on her window divan in full sunlight, old and young would gather near her, filtering in one by one, slipping out again to work or play, or pausing for a moment in a busy day at the doorway for a glimpse. You left your shoes at the threshold of that room and you left, too, any outer covering of pose or manner you might have made for yourself for protection in a bleak world. Here was no need for pretence and brave showing; here in the light of her shining simplicity you became simple. All fear went out of you, all shyness, all timidity. Insensibly she tempered coldness and warmed indifference. You did not think, How good she is; how selfish I am. For the moment self was forgotten and, in the forgetting, conscious standards of comparison were lost. The current of intent that fed the ego was cut. You were free.

Although for so many years she had been the head of that great household, directing every detail of its ordering, she showed no urge to small activity. When there was something to be done she did it straight away, giving it her full attention. When she sat with folded hands she was wholly there; no part of her mind seemed to be busy with the next step, the duty to come. It was in keeping with her harmony with life that she gave herself in her entirety to her hours of companionship and so made them complete. Islands in time.

And she was not only in harmony with life and those who peopled it for her; she was never in conflict nor at variance within herself. In her inclinations you heard no dissident minority of hesitation, no murmur of reluctance that robs the act of its purity, its generosity. Her personality was so attuned to her spirit that integrity and purity were her natural expression, and her habit of recognizing and choosing the pure in all things was involuntary. She was incorruptible rather than innocent, for she knew the shapes of evil and faced them fearlessly. She regarded all life with something more generous than tolerance and her outlook was uncolored by any slightest tint of prejudice. If you had looked for fault you would have found only human sides of her rare qualities, and these sides linked you with her in understanding and allowed awe to give way to devotion.

She was not learned nor even educated in a worldly sense; she drew her wisdom from hidden springs. Though her intelligence was of the heart, that heart itself was filled from sources deeper than human knowledge. She did not read much or often write but was in a constant state of communication with life. You felt that every object held something of import for her; that every phase of nature and every thing, animate and inanimate, were as letters and syllables formed to a message for her reading. And all that she gathered she translated into ways of living. She did not expound or teach; won you by no argument or triumph of wit; never lent herself to persuasion or appeal. Depth to depth she shared with you a secret that through some alchemy of spirit fed your instant need.

If she found you troubled she would not discuss your difficulties and try to solve your problems. You forgot them. Confusion and complexity were dissolved in her warm clarity. You reached with her a region of consciousness beyond clamour and doubt and beyond questioning. You were reassured. With a word she gave you certainty,

‘... if we dare call ourselves Bahá’ís ...’ The following excerpt from a letter written to the American Bahá’ís in 1924 by the Greatest Holy Leaf is reprinted from The Bahá’í World, Vol. V (1932-34), pp. 22-23. • Let us then, affectionate brothers and sisters, ponder for awhile upon the underlying reason that had made God’s divine Messengers prefer a life of torture to one of ease, and those blessed martyrs, so many of them cut off in the springtime and promise of their youth, choose death with faces radiant with joy. What did the Báb sacrifice His promising youth for except out of a burning desire to have mankind live in unity and peace; and what was the spirit that animated those bold and heroic martyrs but love and adoration to a Cause they wished to triumph? What made Bahá’u’lláh, born and brought up in opulence, fling away all earthly possessions and choose upon Himself unspeakable hardships and deprivation, save for an earnest appeal to the world at large to turn their hatred for one another into genuine love and to make a world seething with blood a peaceful home for God’s children; and why did ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who could have chosen a life of ease and comfort, prefer to lead a crusade against the strongholds of human hearts and make a direct appeal to individuals as well as groups that unless we love one another with all our might and with all our heart we are absolutely doomed. He carried a crusade not with a sword of steel but with a sword of love and affection. And if we dare call ourselves Bahá’ís it simply means that we have to follow in their wake. It means that we must always have the public weal in mind and not give ourselves wholly to our inclinations and desires, and it means that we must picture before us the perseverance and self-sacrifice of those early volunteers and make a whole-hearted effort to be like unto them; and it shall be only in this way that we can safe-guard the Cause of God ...”

and reality of assurance.

When a fig is plucked very early in the morning before the sun has warmed it, it holds a clear honeyed drop at the base. Its sweetness, distilled during the night, is condensed at dawn into a single globule suspended from the cool globe of the fruit—the soul of the fruit ... So she gave you the essence together with the solid body of the fact.

And as she showed us love in all the manifold workings of its guiding power and in the countless shades of its reflected glory—yielding herself utterly to its breath and so making it plain to our eyes, as a tree in abandoning itself to the wind becomes the breeze made visible—so, too, she made us feel that back of love itself is a mightier force, its Essence, which we are not yet able to bear in all its fulness.

When you went to her unsatisfied and restless you discovered that your unrest and discontent were really homelessness of spirit. Over the next hill and the next you had gone, searching for sanctuary and peace. Here in her white room you found them. You

[Page 11] found the way to bring heaven to little things, to compass the infinite with four walls. Here was home.

She seemed not to separate this plane from the next, nor to long—for all the rigours of her years—to escape to the bright wonder of the future life. In her daily round she carried the commonplace to the edge of dream and showed you wonder in the trivial and the fugitive. Small things were not small to her; they were fragments of the vast. She gave you, not hope of bliss to come, but realization of present happiness. With her you felt marvel in every tiniest aspect of life around you—a flower, a shadow on the wall, a fold of her veil, a voice in the garden below; all these were touched with enchantment. You became aware of the mystery of the spirit animating all things, and of the preciousness of every instant. This moment, this now, was tinged with the beauty of the eternal and held an atom of happiness, absolute and eternal.

Though she had nothing of luxury and her possessions were few and of no great intrinsic value, she made none of the denial of life of the ascetic. She loved beauty. You would say that she lent to her surroundings her sense of order, fragrance and exquisiteness, but you look in vain for words to describe that inner sensibility of which these were the outer gossamer traces. Ever after to those who had known her any lovely thing, any perfection of refinement was a reminder of her. She was

The prison-city of ‘Akká to which Bahá’u’lláh was brought in chains in 1868. His imprisonment was shared by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Baḥíyyih Khánum and others of His Family and followers.

The Shrine of the Greatest Holy Leaf in Haifa, Israel.

immortalized in all beauty. In the moth-green and silver of spring you find something of her fragrance and delicacy; in the fountain jet that is the voice of the garden you hear her. You remember her in the sound of the sea, and in the laughter of children. Wherever happiness is or friendship, she is there.

We in the West knew her only in the latter days of her life. But we could not find it in our hearts to wish that we had known her in her youth or earlier womanhood rather than in the time of her fulfillment. She had none of the habits of mind which we have come to associate with age. We see old age musing, looking over its shoulder; sighing over memories flattened between pages turned with the years—distinct, perhaps, and sharp in outline, but dried of the fullness and colour of living emotions. She had no need to turn back the leaves, to recapture any shreds of vanished hours. The essential filaments of the past were woven with the threads of the present into today’s pattern. Her now embodied all her yesterdays.

And you would not say that she was still beautiful, for that implies a preserving lacquer of time. Her beauty, too, was fulfillment, not vestige of former loveliness. A luminous tenderness played over her face, mobilizing its strength and nobleness of modeling. Though her clear tints had paled—except the colouring of her eyes that were still clearly blue—and her soft contours were carved away, she was more than beautiful in extreme slenderness and fragility, in fineness of texture and structure, and in grace that was long union of gracious thought and act. Her gestures were filled with meaning; her hovering hand blessed you before you felt its pressure.

She had the swift response of youth and the ageless vital power of adding the charm of her own quality to the spoken word. In telling a little story, a simple picturing of some simple thing, she would pause, smile, hold the image; warm it before she gave it to you. When we begged her to tell us of the scenes of tumult and outrage that crowded her childhood or of the long hardship in exile and imprisonment, she would not try to recreate in part that drama too great for any telling, or even to bring to the surface an episode out of the troubled past. She would simply allow to emerge from her still depths some living impression, some poignant detail, and so move you with this glimpse that you felt all the seasons of her grief and the full measure of her pain; and you knew, too, that this grief, this pain, were never for herself. She could convey anguish itself in a look. And in this charged look you first saw human suffering, and then beneath that an intimation of woe im-

[Page 12] measurable for the darkened understanding of those who had caused the suffering.

Her burdens appeared light because she did not bend under them, and she approached great tasks without apparent effort. She seemed never to search nor to strive because she showed no trace of tension and strain. In all her life she had known none of the hot, dusty moments of human struggle, nor its breathless, small achievements, but had gone forward unfaltering, with a tranquil lifting of the heart in action, to meet a succession of difficult days.

Her life could not be called martyrdom, for she did not recognize it as such. She was not shaken by the transports of rapture of the martyr and had no urge to raise the banner, to rush to encounter, to offer up with heroic valour. Her ardour burned with a steady flame. In the face of test and danger she neither hurried nor held back, but entered the perilous way with quiet breath. Her courage was born of her understanding faith, and it was this faith, this understanding, that carried her serene through years of incessant labour and meticulous service, and through times of waiting empty-handed—and through the bearing of irremediable sorrow and loss.

Something greater than forgiveness

Above: Some articles of clothing worn by the Greatest Holy Leaf. Right: A photo taken near the end of her earthly life.

she had shown in meeting the cruelties and strictures in her own life. To be hurt and to forgive is saintly but far beyond this is the power to comprehend and not be hurt. This power she had. The word maẓlúm, which signifies acceptance without complaint, has come to be associated with her name. She was never known to complain or lament. It was not that she made the best of things, but that she found in everything, even in calamity itself, the germs of enduring wisdom. She did not resist the shocks and upheavals of life and she did not run counter to obstacles. She was never impatient. She was as incapable of impatience as she was of revolt. But this was not so much long-sufferance as it was quiet awareness of the forces that operate in the hours of waiting and inactivity.

Always she moved with the larger rhythm, the wider sweep, toward the ultimate goal. Surely, confidently, she followed the circle of her orbit round the Sun of her existence, in that complete acquiescence, that perfect accord, which underlies faith itself.

So she was in life. And when she came to die her failing faculties threw into sharper and intenser relief the nature of her heart and spirit. It was as if she first let slip away the mechanical devices of the mind and the transient sense perceptions while holding fast to the end the essential elements of her being, unclouded by extremity of bodily weakness and pain. Still her smile spoke strength, serenity, tenderness and the love that is both recognition and bestowal. And so she left for remembrance a last clear record of the pattern of her life.

[Page 13]

Keith Ransom-Kehler warmly recalls the undying spirit of Baḥíyyih Khánum

“From the Greatest Holy Leaf streamed an effulgence of beauty and heavenly love that I have never witnessed from any human being. To come into her presence was to hush and exalt the soul. She was like a bird at dawn, the coming of spring, a city on a far horizon; everything that wakes our wonder and reveals the depths and not the tumults of the heart.

“On two occasions she removed my Bahá’í ring and after holding it for some time replaced it reversed. Twice she blew on the palm of my hand, a sweet, cool, delicious breath and then exultantly exclaimed: ‘It is all right now.’

“Her mind was never quite clear except on the occasion of my parting.

“She would reach out her delicate hand and, pressing my cheek close against her own, would make some lover-like exclamation. I was dissolved by her sweetness.

“For the most part she would chant in a low delicious voice some glorious Tablet or poem, smoothing my hand or holding me under the chin as she sang.

“ ‘Does she remember me? Does she know who I am?’ I asked.

“ ‘Who is this, Khánum?’ asked Díyá.

“ ‘Mu‘allimih’ (teacher) she answered.

“On the eve of my departure I went to tea with the ladies of the Household. Khánum was very feeble, her visit to the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh on the ascension night had been very hard for her. Every Sunday she insisted on going to

These excerpts from the diary of Mrs. Keith Ransom-Kehler, the last among Western pilgrims to see the Greatest Holy Leaf during the closing days of her life, are reprinted from The Bahá’í World, Vol. V (1932-34), p. 187.

the meeting on Mt. Carmel: she had to be lifted in and out of the car ...

“Her thoughtfulness, her loving kindness, her self-mastery, her complete dedication to the things of the spirit, never ceased to the last hour that I saw her, just a month and a day before her ascension.

KEITH RANSOM-KEHLER

“As I was making my farewells Díyá assisted her to her feet in spite of my protests. She folded me oh, so tenderly in her precious arms and said: ‘When you are come to Persia, I want you to give my love to every Bahá’í in all that land, to the men the same as the women. And when you reach the holy city of Ṭihrán enter it in my name, and teach there in my name.’

“How blind I was not to realize that she was sending her last message to Persia!

“One morning as I lay on my bed I suddenly burst into hysterical weeping.

I could not control myself for half an hour. It seemed so unreasonable for I had not any idea what I was weeping for. Raḥmat suddenly did the same thing. When the telegram came the next day we realized that this occurred at the time of her passing.

“How greatly I prize the ring stone, a coin from the pocket of Bahá’u’lláh, some rock candy and a broken phial (not broken when she presented it) of attar of roses that she had given me. Her spirit will always seem gloriously near because of these last heavenly meetings with her.

“Beautiful Khánum, in your grace, kindness and love implore God’s forgiveness for my faults and failings and intercede that the priceless gift of love which you so consistently taught us may descend into my cold and untenanted heart. This is my supreme petition that the gift of love may be mine once more.”

(Editor’s note: During her difficult and strenuous mission to Iran on behalf of the Bahá’í communities of the U.S. and Canada, Mrs. Ransom-Kehler contracted smallpox and died in Isfáhán on October 23, 1933. In a message to the American Bahá’í community informing its members of her passing, the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, said: “American believers grateful and proud of the memory of their first and distinguished martyr ... I urge the Local Assemblies befittingly to organize memorial gatherings in memory of one whose international services entitled her to an eminent rank among the Hands of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.”)

[Page 14]

Around the world

12-year-old girl in Korea proves age is no barrier to teaching the Faith

By HA-TAEK JEONG
Secretary, National Spiritual Assembly of Korea

A jewel has shone forth in the Bahá’í community of Korea in the person of 12-year-old Sahba Mithaqiyan whose family has pioneered for more than 15 years in Laos, Hong Kong and now Korea.

Sahba spent a recent vacation from school proclaiming the Faith to all levels of society including prominent citizens and various public officials throughout Korea.

Fluent in Korean, English and Farsi, Sahba has been acting as a translator for her parents and at Bahá’í children’s classes in her community.

When Farideh Paymani, a Bahá’í who has traveled extensively doing proclamation work in various countries arrived in Korea, Sahba overheard talk of her plans to travel in that country to proclaim the Faith.

Immediately, she pleaded with her parents for permission to go along for the first 10 days, promising not to get in the way and to do her winter vacation homework.

Some expressed doubts about a child accompanying a proclamation team, but the doubts soon yielded to her enthusiasm.

What was intended to be a 10-day journey without her parents became nearly two months of constant movement, inquiries and interviews for Sahba, who also translated for Miss Paymani. The 12-year-old was the only member of the entourage who was able to match Miss Paymani’s renowned courage and tireless energy.

All who meet Sahba are at first startled to hear flawless Korean stream from a young foreigner.

The next shock comes when she says she is only 12, speaks three languages and attends a Korean public school, a rare circumstance for any foreigner in the country.

Enchantment follows when the clear and simple language of a child explains the highest of principles, and the softest of smiles touches her listeners’ hearts.

The trip by Sahba and Miss Paymani resulted in 265 interviews with governors, mayors, chief justices, chiefs of police, superintendents of schools, newspaper and magazine editors, radio and television reporters, and various local government officials.

Among the most significant results of the trip were four TV broadcasts about the Faith totaling nearly 20 minutes. The highlight was a 13-minute live interview on a popular nationally broadcast program that included the first part of the film “The Pilgrimage” showing Bahá’í Holy Places at the World Centre and the five Bahá’í Houses of Worship.

To save translating time during the interview, Sahba answered most of the interviewer’s questions herself in Korean, and she greatly impressed the directors of the program with her accurate information and her maturity at such a young age.

Other results of the proclamation effort include 11 articles about the Faith published by local and national newspapers as well as 40 minutes of interviews recorded by two radio stations.

These two believers interviewed 49 members of the Korean National Assembly along with the country’s secretary-general. They also presented a half-hour talk to the Women’s Committee of the Korean Democratic Party, these last two events being unprecedented in Korean Bahá’í history.

Sahba ended her full-time proclamation work to return to school at the end of her vacation, but she has offered her help on a temporary basis to those proclaiming the Faith in hitherto untouched areas.

Her sparkle and bubble still remain to tell us that she is ready to go almost anywhere any time the need arises.

Switzerland

Shown are delegates and guests at the Bahá’í National Convention of Switzerland, held May 1-2 in Berne.

[Page 15]

Dominican Republic

Shown here are some of the approximately 90 people who attended a Bahá’í school held last December 21-28 at Licey al Medio, Dominican Republic. This year’s program, which was notable for the number of youth attending, included a course on direct teaching and a ‘final exam’ that tested participants’ general knowledge of the Faith. A two-week teaching project was begun at the close of the school session.

More than 80 people attended a Bahá’í National Youth Conference held last February 20-21 at the city hall in San Juan de la Maguana, Dominican Republic. The conference, announced in advance by three local radio stations, began with an outdoor picnic in nearby Corral de los Indios. The gathering was planned and carried out by the youth themselves. A high point was the Saturday night unity feast. The conference ended with the happy news that two local youth had declared their belief in Bahá’u’lláh.

Liberia

About 40 people, more than half of whom were not Bahá’ís, attended a special public meeting March 21 in Todean Village near Monrovia, Liberia.

The participants included four members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Liberia and Guinea and three other believers from Monrovia.

The meeting, arranged by the Bahá’í Group of Todean Village, was attended by the assistant village chief who offered a warm welcome to the Bahá’ís, about 15 village elders, and three visitors from another village.

The many questions asked about the Faith were answered by the members of the National Spiritual Assembly.

After a luncheon prepared by local Bahá’ís, those present visited a nearby farm that was created by the Todean Bahá’í Group to earn money for the future Local Spiritual Assembly of Todean Village.

Portugal

The Spiritual Assembly of Carcavelos, Portugal, was formed recently, bringing to 28 the number of Assemblies in that country. The formation was made possible through the efforts of pioneers, most of whom arrived recently from Iran. Assembly members are (back row left to right) Nosrat Dehghan, Mashiyyat Ashraf, Amin Zarghami, Leon Caraco, and (front row left to right) Shiva Dehghan, Taroneh Ashraf, Parvin Sami, Atri Sami, Tina Caraco.

[Page 16]

Faroe Islands

The first official meeting between a representative of the Faith and the prime minister of the Faroe Islands, a self-governing protectorate of Denmark, took place February 8 when Roy Philbrow, an assistant to Auxiliary Board member Halldór Borgeirsson of Iceland, met with Prime Minister Pauli Ellefsen.

During the cordial meeting Mr. Ellefsen was told of the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran and given reports on the situation there that were prepared by the Bahá’í International Community.

The prime minister also was given a copy of a draft resolution condemning the treatment of Bahá’ís in Iran that was adopted unanimously by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Mr. Ellefsen received a copy of “Faroes and the Bahá’í Faith,” an introductory booklet published recently by the Spiritual Assembly of Tórshavn.

The meeting with the prime minister, the first radio program in the Faroes about the Faith, and two articles in newspapers there were the result of Mr. Borgeirsson’s visit to the Faroes on his return to Iceland from a meeting of the Council of Europe at which he served as representative of the National Spiritual Assembly of Iceland. The Faroes are a Seven Year Plan goal assigned to Iceland.

The Faroese Broadcasting Corporation requested an interview with a representative of the Bahá’í community for a half-hour program to be used as part of a series on religious life in the Faroes.

Mr. Philbrow participated in the interview that was scheduled for broadcast on March 11 and was to be repeated later.

Nigeria

Some of the 40 people who attended an Ayyám-i-Há party last February 28 in Nsukka, Anambra State, Nigeria, gathered for this photo. Those present came from Nsukka and Enugu in Anambra State and from Ochaja and Ugbokolo in Benue State. The party was held in the auditorium of the music department at the University of Nigeria at Nsukka where Don Addison (kneeling at right), a pioneer from the United States, teaches ethnomusicology.

Michael Forchu, secretary of the National Youth Committee and an assistant to an Auxiliary Board member in Nigeria, represented the Faith last February 27 in a panel discussion about life after death before a mostly Muslim audience of more than 300 at Ife University.

Appearing with Christian and Muslim panelists who hold doctorate degrees in religion and science, Mr. Forchu, who is a student at the University of Nigeria at Nsukka, quoted from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh.

In answer to a question about the Station of Bahá’u’lláh and Muḥammad being the Seal of the Prophets, Mr. Forchu replied that it was his understanding that Muslims are awaiting the return of Christ. This resulted in shouts from the audience about his ignorance of Muslim teachings.

It was one of the Muslim speakers who quieted the audience by confirming that Mr. Forchu’s understanding was correct. He admonished the audience to learn the teachings of their own faith as well as this Bahá’í youth knows the teachings of his.

Zimbabwe

Approximately 225 people from Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Italy, Ireland and Germany attended a Bahá’í summer school last December 26-January 3 near Bulawayo in Essexvale, Zimbabwe.

The school was dedicated to the recent Bahá’í martyrs in Iran.

Classes covered living the Bahá’í life; Bahá’í history, administration and community life; child education; the Covenant, and Bahá’í literature. Workshops were held on the enrichment of Bahá’í community life.

Separate children’s classes were held for 5- to 12-year-olds. The children were taught about Bahá’í history, Holy Days, and spiritual attributes. They also enjoyed craft projects and recreation.

Evening programs included music and talent shows.

Thirteen members of the Continental Board of Counsellors in Africa attended the final day of the school and presented inspiring talks. They also participated in a reception that was attended by the mayor of Bulawayo.

The following cable was received from the Universal House of Justice:

“DELIGHTED NEWS SUMMER SCHOOL WELCOME EXCELLENT ATTENDANCE PRAYING SHRINES OUTSTANDING VICTORIES.”

[Page 17]

Denmark

Several large newspapers in Denmark have published articles during the past year about the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran.

In March, Gerald Knight, the alternate representative to the United Nations for the Bahá’í International Community, and Giovanni Ballerio, the Baha’i International Community’s representative to the UN at Geneva, visited Denmark where they were interviewed on nationwide radio and television news programs.

During the interviews, Mr. Knight was able to explain the current persecutions in Iran and to describe the Faith as an independent world religion.

The visit to Denmark by Mr. Knight and Mr. Ballerio followed their participation in a meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Representatives of Danish national television said they are preparing a program on human rights, one section of which is to focus on the Bahá’ís in Iran. The National Spiritual Assembly of the United Kingdom has supplied Danish television with film for this program.

During the past two years the National Spiritual Assembly of Denmark has sent information about the persecutions in Iran to prominent Danish citizens, government officials, and members of parliament. Personal contacts also were arranged.

Crew members from Danish national television prepare to interview Gerald Knight (right), the alternate representative to the United Nations for the Bahá’í International Community, during his visit to Denmark in March following his participation in a meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. Knight also was interviewed on Danish radio.

Many Danish libraries have purchased copies of the re-translated and re-published Danish version of Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era. Copies of the book were sent to newspaper editors who also regularly receive press releases from the National Spiritual Assembly regarding the persecutions in Iran.

The National Assembly has begun a proclamation campaign in which copies of the book Call to the Nations is being sent to government officials and others in authority.

One result was an offer from a man employed by Danish radio to produce a series of five radio programs on the Faith for a weekly series entitled “At the Beginning of the Day.”

Finland

Shown here are Bahá’ís who attended the annual Border Teaching Conference in February in the Aland Islands of Finland. Participants, who came from both Finland and Sweden, included a member of the Auxiliary Board from each country. Also present were some Bahá’ís from Greenland. The special topic for consultation this year was reaching the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland.

United States

More than 500 Bahá’ís and their guests attended the fifth annual Riḍván picnic May 2 sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Fairfax County South, in northern Virginia.

The picnic, held as in past years at Fort Hunt State Park, a lovely facility on the shores of the Potomac River about three miles north of George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, drew people from as far away as Baltimore, Maryland, and Richmond, Virginia.

Although there was no formal program, the visitors had an opportunity to enjoy the spirit of Bahá’í fellowship and unity, and to have their questions about the Faith answered by the friends.

[Page 18]

The life story of the first black Hand of the Cause of God

Louis G. Gregory
and the Advancement
of Racial Unity
in America

TO MOVE
THE WORLD

“At the heart of the most challenging issue for the American Bahá’í community—the problem of obliterating racial prejudice—stands Louis George Gregory.”

So begins Gayle Morrison’s biography of Louis Gregory, son of a Georgia slave who became a Hand of the Cause of God. But To Move the World is more than a biography. It brings into sharp focus a number of strands: the life of Louis Gregory, the social and racial forces at work in the United States during his lifetime (1874-1951), and the dynamics of the Bahá’í Faith that were shaping, often against the wishes of individual members, a community unequivocally committed to the oneness of mankind and the elimination of racial prejudice.

Because the threads of his life cannot be easily separated, Louis Gregory’s story presents a rich tapestry that invites deep and thoughtful study. He was a lawyer, one of the “talented tenth”; yet he gave up a promising career to devote his energies full-time to spreading the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith.

He knew and associated with virtually all of the black leaders of his day and many leading whites as well. He was repeatedly elected to national Bahá’í office by a predominantly white membership. He was widely known as a lecturer and writer on racial unity and other progressive principles.

But whether as writer, lecturer, or administrator, Louis G. Gregory stood in the forefront of every struggle the American Bahá’ís made to establish racial amity. Today, some thirty years after his death, “noble-minded, golden-hearted” Louis Gregory still stands as a beacon and a tower of strength who bequeathed a legacy showing how it is possible to eliminate racial prejudice from our lives and, in so doing, to move the world.

---

Gayle Morrison is an educator, business woman, and an historian. She has published a guide to books on Southeast Asian history, a number of articles on a variety of topics, and has served on the Editorial Board of World Order magazine. She lives with her husband and two children in Hawaii.

---

Cloth edition. Foreword by Glenford E. Mitchell.
xxviii + 320 pages, notes, index, 28 photographs.
Catalog No. 332-072. $16.00*

*Valid only in 48 contiguous states of the United States. All others write for prices and ordering and shipping instructions.

Available in cloth only from
Bahá’í Publishing Trust
415 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, IL 60091