During these travels ‘Abdu’l-Bahá displayed a vitality, a courage, a
single-mindedness, a consecration to the task He had set Himself to
achieve that excited the wonder and admiration of those who had the
privilege of observing at close hand His daily acts. Indifferent to the
sights and curiosities which habitually invite the attention of travelers
and which the members of His entourage often wished Him to visit; careless
alike of His comfort and His health; expending every ounce of His energy
day after day from dawn till late at night; consistently refusing any
gifts or contributions towards the expenses of His travels; unfailing in
His solicitude for the sick, the sorrowful and the down-trodden;
uncompromising in His championship of the underprivileged races and
classes; bountiful as the rain in His generosity to the poor; contemptuous
of the attacks launched against Him by vigilant and fanatical exponents of
orthodoxy and sectarianism; marvelous in His frankness while
demonstrating, from platform and pulpit, the prophetic Mission of Jesus
Christ to the Jews, of the Divine origin of Islám in churches and
synagogues, or the truth of Divine Revelation and the necessity of
religion to materialists, atheists or agnostics; unequivocal in His
glorification of Bahá’u’lláh at all times and within the sanctuaries of
divers sects and denominations; adamant in His refusal, on several
occasions, to curry the favor of people of title and wealth both in
England and in the United States; and last but not least incomparable in
the spontaneity, the genuineness and warmth of His sympathy and
loving-kindness shown to friend and stranger alike, believer and
unbeliever, rich and poor, high and low, whom He met, either intimately or
casually, whether on board ship, or whilst pacing the streets, in parks or
public squares, at receptions or banquets, in slums or mansions, in the
gatherings of His followers or the assemblage of the learned, He, the
incarnation of every Bahá’í virtue and the embodiment of every Bahá’í
ideal, continued for three crowded years to trumpet to a world sunk in
materialism and already in the shadow of war, the healing, the God-given
truths enshrined in His Father’s Revelation.
In the course of His several visits to Egypt He had more than one
interview with the Khedive, Abbás Ḥilmí Pá_sh_á II, was introduced to Lord
Kitchener, met the Muftí, _Sh_ay_kh_ Muḥammad Ba_kh_it, as well as the
Khedive’s Imám, _Sh_ay_kh_ Muḥammad Ra_sh_íd, and associated with several
‘ulamás, pá_sh_ás, Persian notables, members of the Turkish Parliament,
editors of leading newspapers in Cairo and Alexandria, and other leaders
and representatives of well-known institutions, both religious and
secular.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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