{"id":587,"date":"2010-08-08T19:31:40","date_gmt":"2010-08-08T19:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/?p=587"},"modified":"2011-01-30T05:07:20","modified_gmt":"2011-01-30T05:07:20","slug":"abdul-bahas-visit-to-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/centenary\/abdul-bahas-visit-to-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Centenary of ‘Abdu’l-Bah\u00e1’s Arrival in Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Summary: <\/em>A hundred years have passed since the arrival of \u2018Abdu\u2019l-Bah\u00e1 in Egypt on His way to the western hemisphere. Before continuing His journey, He was obliged for health reasons to stop for a few months in Egypt, during which time He illumined the political and intellectual leadership, and changed their suspicious attitude to a friendly one. His visit was welcomed by the government of Egypt and its leaders. On the occasion of the centenary of this historic event, we are highlighting its importance and summarizing some of its spiritual effects, which still radiate light and energy upon the horizons of the world.
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'Abdu'l-Bah\u00e1 (Reproduced with permission of the Bah\u00e1'\u00ed International Community)<\/p><\/div>\n

D<\/span>estiny determined that Alexandria become a home for ‘Abdu’l-Bah\u00e1 and a stopover for His comings and goings during His travels in western countries over a period of three years. During those inter- vals, He regained His strength and bestowed on the people and thinkers of Egypt His wisdom, whose present burgeoning is re- viving our hope, and ach- ieving the realization of God\u2019s promise to change the earth. We recall now, on this first centenary of that historic event, some of the abundant bounties of those days.
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‘Abdu’l-Bah\u00e1 (known in the literature of Egypt as ‘Abb\u00e1s Effendi) received a warm welcome and exp- ressions of appreciation from the Egyptian gov- ernment and population, when upon His arrival He was able to dispel the misconceptions and doubts that a vicious consul of Iran had disseminated in government circles and a- mong Muslim scholars to tarnish the good name of the Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed Faith and suppress its truth. During His stay, He gave bountifully to all of that boundless knowledge, magnanimity and love, of which He was unique bearer, and which He would carry, during the course of His journey, as far as the Pacific coast. It was a gift immeasurably great and far-reaching, wrapped in outward events\u2014the doors now humbly opening our perception.<\/div>\n
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In 1910, on the 19th of September, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram published news of the unannounced visit to their country of the \u201cleader of the Babi Faith\u201d. The news article stated: \u201cAbbas Effendi left his residence in the city of \u2018Akk\u00e1 a few days ago for Port-Said, an event that has precipitated his Persian followers residing in Egypt to hasten to that city to be blessed by visiting him. This surprise visit has given rise to speculation and controversial claims between his opponents and supporters about its motive. The former have alleged he left \u2018Akk\u00e1 out of fear of what may come upon him from the new constitutional Turkish regime. \u2018His followers, strongly deny these uncorroborated allegations. In fact, he came to Egypt for health reasons because the air of Egypt is indicated as a cure for his asthmatic attacks caused by his long incarceration.\u2019\u201d The paper\u2019s editor hoped that the days to come would bring out the true reasons for this unexpected move.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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In those days, neither the truth of the \u201cBab\u00ed movement\u201d nor of \u201cAbbas Effendi\u201d, Who is also named \u2018Abdu\u2019l-Bah\u00e1\u2014meaning the servant of the Ancient Beauty, were known to the Egyptian layman. In all likelihood, this news item was a mere reminder for the readers of the calumnious accusations they had heard made against the Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed Faith, hearsay they would then quickly forget as they returned to their preoccupations. There were in fact many other subjects occupying the mind of ordinary Egyptians. \u201cThe gift of the Nile\u201d was at that time the theatre of opposite policies and clashing political movements.<\/p>\n

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On one side, Britain was actively pursuing its plans to establish stronger control over the country\u2019s affairs. On the other, a growing national consciousness nourished the Egyptian desire to acquire complete freedom. An ideological struggle was growing up between those who believed in following the western pattern of development to ensure a better future for Egypt and those who wanted help from the staggering Sultanate of Turkey to realize a \u201cMuslim Union\u201d, as acclaimed by Jam\u00e1lu\u2019d-D\u00edn-i-Afgh\u00e1n\u00ed. For their part, the Egyptian Christian Copts were hoping that the appointment of Butrus Gh\u00e1l\u00ed Bash\u00e1 as prime minister would end the discriminatory policy in appointments to public office, hopes dashed when his assassination, which came on the heels of accusations that he had betrayed Egypt, rekindled religious strife and hate just a few months before \u2018Abdu\u2019l-Bah\u00e1\u2019s visit to Egypt.<\/p>\n


\nNEXT ARTICLE: The Significance of ‘Abdu’l-Bah\u00e1’s Journey to the West
\nDATE: First week of September, 2010<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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In this tumultuous atmosphere and religious unrest, \u2018Abdu\u2019l-Bah\u00e1\u2019s visit to that land came as a salubrious breeze and healing remedy. His talks about the coming of a new world comforted the people by affirming that the crises that now surrounded them were but the lingering shackles of an old world, which is being superseded by a new day\u2014that will end political strife and sectarian conflict, a day which He is now promulgating and gathering supporters for from every corner of the world. Those who today read the article published in Al-Ahram on September 19th, 1910, or the memories of the meeting with \u2018Abdu\u2019l-Bah\u00e1 recounted by ‘Abb\u00e1s Mahm\u00fad Al-‘Aqqad and published in the January 1930 issue of Al-Hil\u00e1l will see the importance \u2018Abdu\u2019l-Bah\u00e1 gave to the matter of unity among people, which He considered necessary for people\u2019s happiness and peace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A hundred years have passed since the arrival of \u2018Abdu\u2019l-Bah\u00e1 in Egypt on His way to the western hemisphere. Before continuing His journey, He was obliged for health reasons to stop for a few months in Egypt, during which time He illumined the political and intellectual leadership, and changed their suspicious attitude to a friendly one. His visit was welcomed by the government of Egypt and its leaders. On the occasion of the centenary of this historic event, we are highlighting its importance and summarizing some of its spiritual effects, which still radiate light and energy upon the horizons of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[15,26],"class_list":["post-587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-centenary","tag-abbas-effendi","tag-abdul-baha-in-egypt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":589,"href":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions\/589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.farstretchingriver.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}