`Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris, 1911.

`Abdu'l-Bahá as a young man.

`Abdu'l-Bahá in Germany in 1913.

`Abdu'l-Bahá was the guest of honor at a banquet at the Great Northern Hotel in New York City on 13 November 1912. His visit to North America that year was crucial in helping to strengthen the Bahá'í community in the West, laying the groundwork for its expansion worldwide.

During his North American tour in 1912, `Abdu'l-Bahá spoke to numerous prominent groups and organizations. In Washington, D.C., for example, He spoke at the Universalist Church, at Howard University, and before such groups as the Bethel Literary Society, and the Theosophical Society. `Abdu'l-Bahá is shown here with a group of Bahá'ís in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois, on 3 May 1912.

A Century of Growth and Expansion

Maintaining the unity of the Bahá'í Faith after Bahá'u'lláh

The question of religious succession has been crucial to all faiths. Failure to resolve this question has inevitably led to schisms. Alone among world religions, the Bahá'í Faith has resisted any fragmentation.

At the time of the passing of Bahá'u'lláh a century ago in 1892, there were perhaps 50,000 Bahá'ís in the world. The Faith had spread to most of the countries and territories in the Middle East and to the Indian-subcontinent. In Europe, the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, Australasia, and most of Asia, however, Bahá'u'lláh and His teachings were known.

Today, the Bahá'í Faith is the most geographically widespread independent religion after Christianity, with communities in at least 205 countries and major dependent territories. There are more than five million Bahá'ís in the world, an increase of a hundredfold in 100 years.

The story of this growth and expansion is intimately tied to two major figures in the Bahá'í Faith: `Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, who headed the Faith successively after the passing of Bahá'u'lláh in 1892.

As noted in the last section, the governance of the Bahá'í Faith is in the hands of democratically elected bodies. The achievement of Bahá'u'lláh's purpose in the regard was the work of these two hereditary leaders. The role they played in maintaining the essential unity of the Bahá'í Faith is without parallel in religious history.

"My object is none other than the betterment of the world and the tranquillity of its peoples." -- Bahá'u'lláh

The question of religious succession has been crucial to all Faiths. Failure to resolve this question has inevitably led to enduring schisms. Today, there are more than 2,000 sects of Christianity, 1,000 or more in Islam, and comparable divisions in Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism. Many of these sects emerged because of disagreements over who had final authority over the interpretation of sacred scripture.

Bahá'u'lláh prevented schism in the Bahá'í Faith through a seemingly simple device: a will and testament. In that will, Bahá'u'lláh not only appointed His oldest son to succeed him but passed to Him. clear-cut authority to interpret His writings and to be the focal point for unifying the community.

`Abdu'l-Bahá: The Master

In retrospect, it became clear that from the start Bahá'u'lláh had carefully prepared `Abdu'l-Bahá to succeed Him. He was born on May 23, 1844, the very night of the Báb's declaration. As a child, He suffered along with His Father during the first round of persecutions against the Bábis.

"The religion of God is for love and unity; make it not the cause of enmity and dissension." -- Bahá'u'lláh

`Abdu'l-Bahá was eight when Bahá'u'lláh was thrown into prison. He visited Him there and saw the iron collar and chains around His Father's neck.

As He grew older, `Abdu'l-Bahá became His Father's closest companion and carried out for Him many important at tasks. He interviewed in advance, for example, the numerous visitors who came to see His Father and protected Him from frivolous or ill-intentioned impositions on His work.

In Acre, when nearly the entire group of Bahá'ís there became ill with typhoid fever, malaria and dysentery, `Abdu'l-Bahá washed, nursed and fed the patients, taking no rest for Himself. Finally, exhausted, He took ill Himself, suffering in critical condition for nearly a month.

These qualities of selflessness, erudition and great humility, along with Bahá'u'lláh's own obvious admiration, soon won for `Abdu'l-Bahá the title of "the Master." It is a term still used today by Bahá'ís in referring to `Abdu'l-Bahá.

Despite the explicit terms of Bahá'u'lláh's will and testament, some envious relatives attempted to usurp `Abdu'l-Bahá's position after Bahá'u'lláh's passing. Repeated attempts were made by these ambitious individuals to create followings of their own.

It is significant, in view of the swift emergence of schisms in the world's other religions, that none of the resulting dissident groups were able to maintain themselves or create a division of the Bahá'í Faith. Ultimately, each group disintegrated with the death of the leader who had tried to establish it and no sects or denominations have endured. Bahá'ís attribute this unity to the power of the "Covenant." [See page 49.]

`Abdu'l-Baha also played a key role in explaining the world-embracing vision of His Father in terms that the Western world could understand, an accomplishment that greatly accelerated the transformation of the Bahá'í Faith from a small, Middle Eastern movement into the worldwide religion it is today.

Following the passing of His Father, `Abdu'l-Bahá remained a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire. Via letters and through direct contact with early Western believers who traveled to Palestine, He guided the Faith's spread outside the Middle East.

After the revolution of the Young Turks, `Abdu'l-Bahá became free to travel. In August 1911, He left the Holy Land on a four-month visit to the Western world, stopping in London and Paris. There He met with early Western believers and gave daily talks on the Bahá'í Faith and its principles.

The following spring, `Abdu'l-Bahá embarked on a year-long tour, again to Europe, and then to the United States and Canada. The visit greatly stimulated the spread of the Bahá'í Faith in those two countries.

During visits to more than 40 cities in North America, He was greeted with respect and acclaim, by both the believers and non-believers alike. In city after city, He was invited to speak at churches and synagogues, and before distinguished groups and organizations.

The net effect was to establish the Bahá'í Faith as a major new force for social reform and religious renewal. The message of Bahá'u'lláh--with its great call for a new and peaceful human society--had been proclaimed in the industrialized world and a new generation of firm believers had been enlisted.

`Abdu'l-Bahá established an on-going plan for the internationalization of the Faith. In a series of letters to believers in North America, He asked them to spread out around the world to promulgate the Bahá'í Faith and its principles.

By the outbreak of World War I, `Abdu'l-Bahá was back in the Holy Land. In His addresses in the West, He had warned about the coming conflagration, and He had spoken unceasingly about the need to establish some form of world commonwealth which might forestall such a war.

During the war, `Abdu'l-Bahá spent His time acting on the principles that He and His father had preached. He personally organized, for example, an extensive agricultural project near Tiberias, which provided an important source of wheat to the region and helped to avert a famine in the area. `Abdu'l-Bahá was knighted by the British Government after the war.