August 6, 1912

Dublin, NH: day 13 of 23; the Blessings of Exile 

Mahmud wrote: "In the morning while pacing back and forth in the drawing room of His residence, the Master said:

When Persians want to record any important matter, they say, `Write this down in the twenty-ninth section.' Now, as the Persians say, write this in the twenty-ninth section of your book. Whatever occurs is the cause of the elevation of the Word of God and the victory of the divine Cause, even though outwardly it may appear to be a great affliction and hardship. What hardship, grief or affliction could be greater than that which occurred at the time when the Blessed Beauty was exiled from Tihrán? Hearts of stone were melted. All the relatives were weeping and lamenting. All were in utter despair. But that exile became the cause of the raising of the Call and exalting the Word of God, of fulfilling the prophecies of the Prophets and of guiding the people of the world. Had it not been for this exile, these things would not have appeared and these great events would not have occurred.

Consider the case of Abraham. Had He not been exiled, He would not have received that greatest blessing; neither a Jacob nor an Isaac would have risen; the fame of the beauty of Joseph would not have been spread throughout the world. He would not have become the ruler of Egypt; no Moses would have appeared; no Muhammad, the divine Messenger, would have come. All these are a result of the blessings of that exile. It is the same now.

Later He spoke about the harmful effects of disunity and discord among the emperors of the East and the West:

For example, the separation between the eastern and western empires and the disagreement between the eastern and western churches in Christianity caused a great weakness. Notwithstanding this, the people still do not take heed.

In the afternoon He gave a talk on the oneness of the foundation of religion." 

In Dublin, NH

The Master must have been sad to think about these things--the suffering necessary in religious history and the fact that people do not heed the importance of it all.  Will our age be different? We are potentially transforming humans--yet can easily fall into the same pitfalls as the rest of humanity.  He knew this but tried to bring forth our potential in so many ways. . . . 

This pensive side of the Master offsets those lovely portraits of Him in Dublin, with the smiling face.  His multi-faceted nature defies description!  Maybe that's why we are so drawn to Him. 

Oh, Agnes! We can't forget her in these musings. She simply writes that she brought some people to hear 'Abdu'l-Bahá: Miss Rose Lamb, Mrs. Mauran, Mrs. Pettres, and Mrs. Merritt, who had a little private talk with Him. Did these women realize how lucky they were?