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| At Clifton Guest House, 1911 |
‘Abdu’l-Bahá returned to the Clifton Guest House in Bristol on 15 January, this time accompanied by the Persian Ambassador, Dúst-Muhammad Khán. At a meeting that evening with many outstanding people in attendance, Mírzá Mahmúd was struck by the sight of the Ambassador, whose tears flowed down his face as he watched people of all walks of life bowing and curtseying. ‘That moved me so much that I was greatly affected, and wept and rejoiced too’, wrote Mahmúd:
In Britain, at large gatherings, I had
noticed time and again the same reaction from men of his standing . . . who
kept saying: ‘What great glory God
conferred upon us . . . what a Sun of grandeur and felicity rose from the
horizon of the East, but alas, alas, we did not heed it . . ‘. [i]
In the evening, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá met a group at
the Guest House. Interspersed in the crowd, ‘Here and
there was seen a scarlet fez which denoted the presence of eastern students,
some of whom He had met there in 1911’. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá greeted them by
raising His palms to His forehead, then told them that He had ‘come to Clifton this time via Las Angeles and Chicago’.
Although the Master began His talk seated, He was soon on His feet ‘occasionally walking to and fro, and sometimes emphasizing
a fact with upraised hand or standing still with eyes closed and his silver
voice low’.[ii]
In
the Clifton Chronicle and Directory
of 22 January it was reported that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told Wellesley Tudor-Pole that of all the places He had visited in Europe
and America, He found the climate to be the most pleasant in Denver and
Clifton. He also complimented the people of Clifton and encouraged them to ‘become the means of creating good fellowship between the
children of men. May they relinquish those blind dogmas which have created
strife in the world of humanity. May they become instrumental in putting into
practice the Heavenly teaching’.[iii]
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