5/15/18
5/6/18
Adelaide Sharp – the first woman to be elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran
Born in Texas in
1896, Adelaide
Sharp spent her childhood in Mexico, moved in company of her mother to
California to pursue her studies, and after graduation from college
took up teaching work in the Italian quarter of San Francisco. Her
father, Horace M. Sharp who died during Adelaide's infancy, was a Christian but
Adelaide, when still young, received the Message of Baha'u'llah from her
mother, Clara Sharp - a devoted Baha'i - and accepted it.
In 1929, when the
distinguished Baha'i, Dr. Susan I. Moody, who was then seventy-seven years of
age, undertook to emigrate to Persia a second time at the Guardian's request,
she received his permission and hearty approval to take Adelaide along with her
to serve at the Tarbiyat School in the capital. The two pioneers covered the
first stretch of their journey by ship to the Holy Land where the glory of
pilgrimage to the Holy Shrines for twelve precious days was heightened by the
guidance and spiritual strength received from the beloved Guardian, a bounty
that would be their mainstay during the long and difficult years ahead.
5/1/18
One of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s secretaries recalled how the Master revealed the first Tablet of the Divine Plan
On Monday morning, March 26, 1916, he was sitting peacefully
in his room in Bahji, now and then looking out of the window over the olive
grove, beyond the sea and far it seemed into the infinitude. Suddenly he turned
his wonderful, penetrating eyes upon me and asked me to chant one of the
prayers of Baha’u’llah. As I continued my chant I felt a strange consciousness
coming over me a realization of my unworthiness in being permitted to live so
long and so near the divine presence of Abdu’l-Baha. When I finished the prayer
he looked at me with charming sweetness, that soft, dancing light in his eyes
and said: "Thou must be infinitely grateful to Baha’u’llah that He has
chosen thee to be with me for so long a time. Surely it must be for a great
purpose that is not apparent at the present time. It will become clear in the
future. Now bring pen, paper and ink and I will dictate a Tablet for America.
- Ahmad Sohrab (From a talk by Ahmad
Sohrab at the Eleventh Annual Mashriqu’l-Adhkar Convention and Baha’i Congress,
held in McAlpin Hotel, New York City, April 26th 30th, 1919; Star of the West,
vol. 10, no.4, May 17, 1919)
The original Tablet was addressed to Mr. Hooper Harris, New
York City, N. Y. care J. H. Hannen,
Washington, D. C. Received August 19, 1916 (Star of the West, vol. 7, no.10,
September 8, 1916)
This Tablet was first printed in Star of the West, Vol. 7,
No. 10, September 8, 1916.
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