A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
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The Passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá |
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‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s manifold activities continued with little
abatement despite increasing bodily weakness and weariness
up till the last day or two of His life. On Friday, November 25,
1921, He attended the noonday prayer at the Mosque in Haifa,
and afterwards distributed alms to the poor with His own
hands, as was His wont. After lunch He dictated some letters.
When He had rested He walked in the garden and had a talk
with the gardener. In the evening He gave His blessing and
counsel to a loved and faithful servant of the household who
had been married that day, and afterwards He attended the
usual meeting of the friends in His own salon. Less that three
days later, about 1:30 A.M. on Monday, November 28, He
passed away so peacefully that, to the two daughters watching
by His bedside, it seemed as if He had gone quietly to sleep.
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The High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, the
Governor or Jerusalem, the Governor of Phoenicia, the
Chief Officials of the Government, the Consuls of the
various countries, resident in Haifa, the heads of the various
religious communities, the notables of Palestine, Jews,
Christians, Moslems, Druses, Egyptians, Greeks, Turks,
Kurds, and a host of his American, European and native
friends, men, women and children, both of high and low
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degree … all, about ten thousand in number, mourning
the loss of their Beloved One. …
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“O God, my God!” the people wailed with one accord,
“Our father has left us, our father has left us!”
… they slowly wended their way up Mount Carmel,
the Vineyard of God. … After two hours’ walking, they
reached the garden of the Tomb of the Báb. … As the
vast concourse pressed round … representatives of the
various denominations, Moslems, Christians and Jews, all
hearts being ablaze with fervent love of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, some
on the impulse of the moment, other prepared, raised
their voices in eulogy and regret, paying their last homage
of farewell to their loved one. So united were they in their
acclamation of him, as the wise educator and reconciler of
the human race in this perplexed and sorrowful age, that
there seemed to be nothing left for the Bahá’ís to
say.—The Passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, by Lady Blomfield and
Shoghi Effendi, pp. 11, 12.
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Nine speakers, all of them prominent representatives of the
Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities, bore eloquent
and moving witness to their love and admiration of the pure
and noble life which had just drawn to its close. Then the
casket was slowly passed to its simple and hallowed resting-place.
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Surely here was a fitting tribute to the memory of One Who
had labored all His life for unity of religions, of races, of
tongues—a tribute, and also a proof, that His lifework had not
been in vain, that the ideals of Bahá’u’lláh, which were His
inspiration, nay, His very life, were already beginning to
permeate the world and to break down the barriers of sect and
caste that for centuries had alienated Muslim, Christian, Jew,
and the other diverse factions into which the human family has
been riven.
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