|
It is the custom of 'Abdu'l-Baha each week, on Friday morning, to distribute alms to the poor. From his own scanty store he gives a little to each one of the needy who come to ask assistance. This morning about one hundred were ranged in line, seated and crouching upon the ground in the open street of the courts where 'Abdu'l-Baha's house stands. And such a nondescript collection of humanity they were. All kinds of men, women and children - poor, wretched, hopeless in aspect, half-clothed, many of them crippled and blind, beggars indeed, poor beyond expression - waiting expectant - until from the doorway came 'Abdu'l-Baha.. Quickly moving from one to another, stopping sometimes to leave a word of sympathy and encouragement, dropping small coins into each eager outstretched palm, touching the face of a child, taking the hand of an old woman who held fast to the hem of his garment as he passed along, speaking words of light to old men with sightless eyes, inquiring after those too feeble and wretched to come for their pittance of help, and sending them their portion with a message of love and uplift. - Glimpses of 'Abdu'l-Baha, M. J. M., p. 13.
(41:6)
|