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And yet during these somber days, the darkness of which was reminiscent of the tribulations endured during the most dangerous period of His incarceration in the prison- fortress of Akka, Abdu'l- Baha, whilst in the precincts of His Father's Shrine, or when dwelling in the House He occupied in Akka, or under the shadow of the Bab's sepulcher on Mt. Carmel, was moved to confer once again, and for the last time in His life, on the community of His American followers a signal mark of His special favor by investing them, on the eve of the termination of His earthly ministry, through the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, with a world mission, whose full implications even now, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, still remain undisclosed, and whose unfoldment thus far, though as yet in its initial stages, has so greatly enriched the spiritual as well as the administrative annals of the first Baha'i century. (305:1) The conclusion of this terrible conflict, the first stage in a titanic convulsion long predicted by Baha'u'llah, not only marked the extinction of Turkish rule in the Holy Land and sealed the doom of that military despot who had vowed to destroy Abdu'l- Baha, but also shattered once and for all the last hopes still entertained by the remnant of Covenant- breakers who, untaught by the severe retribution that had already overtaken them, still aspired to witness the extinction of the light of Baha'u'llah's Covenant. Furthermore, it produced those revolutionary changes which, on the one hand, fulfilled the ominous predictions made by Baha'u'llah in the Kitab- i- Aqdas, and enabled, according to Scriptural prophecy, so large an element of the "outcasts of Israel," the "remnant" of the "flock," to "assemble" in the Holy Land, and to be brought back to "their folds" and "their own border," beneath the shadow of the "Incomparable Branch," referred to by Abdu'l- Baha in His "Some Answered Questions," and which, on the other hand, gave birth to the institution of the League of Nations, the precursor of that World Tribunal which, as prophesied by that same "Incomparable Branch," the peoples and nations of the earth must needs unitedly establish. (305:2) No need to dwell on the energetic steps which the English believers as soon as they had been apprized of the dire peril threatening the life of Abdu'l- Baha undertook to insure His security; on the measures independently taken whereby Lord Curzon and others in the British Cabinet were advised as to the critical situation at Haifa; on the prompt intervention of Lord Lamington, who immediately wrote to the Foreign Office to "explain the importance of Abdu'l- Baha's position;" on the despatch which the Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, on the day of the receipt of this letter, sent to General Allenby, instructing him to "extend every protection and consideration to Abdu'l- Baha, His family and His friends;" on the cablegram subsequently sent by the General, after the capture of Haifa, to London, requesting the authorities to "notify the world that Abdu'l- Baha is safe;" on the orders which that same General issued to the General Commanding Officer in command of the Haifa operations to insure Abdu'l- Baha's safety, thus frustrating the express intention of the Turkish Commander- in- Chief (according to information which had reached the British Intelligence Service) to "crucify Abdu'l- Baha and His family on Mt. Carmel" in the event of the Turkish army being compelled to evacuate Haifa and retreat northwards.
(305:3)
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