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‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London

  • Author:
  • ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

  • Source:
  • UK Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982 reprint
  • Pages:
  • 127
Go to printed page GO
Pages 99-100

At Brooklands

The morning of the second day, a neighbour sent over her car asking if ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would not like to take his guests to the Brooklands aviation ground. Though it was windy, an aviator was on the track, when he heard who the visitor was offered to fly for him. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá left his friends and walked out into the middle of the course, where he stood alone watching the biplane making wide circles above him.
A Hindu who was learning to fly at the school joined ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s friends and asked: “Who is the man in Eastern dress?”
When told, he exclaimed, “Oh I know him very well through his teachings, which I have studied,” and immediately he went to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
They talked together for some time in Arabic, the young man showing great joy at being in his presence. He afterwards said that for many years he had longed for this moment.
While having tea out of doors, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the young Hindu, sitting at the head of the long benches that has been arranged, talked merrily to everyone.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá noticed two of the airmen who 100 were wrestling on the grounds, and when they stopped, he went to them clapping his hands and crying in English, “Bravo! Bravo! that is good exercise.”
Since his return to Egypt, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has sent a kind message of remembrance to the people of Byfleet, saying that he will never forget them.