What Makes Abdu'l-Baha Special? A New Children's Book

Tahirih Lemon has penned a new children’s book to introduce young audiences to the Station and Personage of Abdu’l-Baha! Tahirih is prolific: in the past, we’ve chatted about her picture book Signs of God’s Love , and we’ve shared about her books for older children and junior youth such as The Independent Investigator series, Aalia’s Guardian Angel , and Soul Travelling . In this post, she tells us about the lovely twins who inspired her to write this book and how it all came about. Could you please tell us a little about What Makes Abdu’l-Baha Special ? It’s about a boy, Benjamin, whose interest in Abdu’l-Baha is piqued when attending his children’s neighbourhood classes. What inspired you to write it? Over several weeks I built a relationship with a recently widowed mother and her eight-year-old twin daughters in my neighbourhood. I invited them to the Baha’i Holy Day, the Day of the Covenant, being celebrated in our home, following a potluck dinner. Shortly afterwards, I started a new children’s neighbourhood class for her twins, Helen and Irene. During our first class, I narrated a story illustrating the importance of having a pure heart. I used props–a couple of glasses and a jug of water. Afterwards, Irene exclaimed, “Wow, Abdu’l-Baha was magical! He knew what was in people’s hearts.” Her expression suddenly became more solemn. She said, “It’s sad a bomb went off on Abdu’l-Baha’s birthday. And that’s why you don’t celebrate it.” Initially, puzzled, I realised because she had never heard of the Bab, her mind tried to find a word that fit with what she was familiar with and came up with bomb! You see, Abdu’l-Baha was born on the same day that the Bab declared His mission to Mulla Husayn. Abdu’l-Baha forbade the Baha’is from celebrating His birthday. But when Abdu’l-Baha was travelling through the United States over a century ago, the American believers repeatedly expressed their desire to commemorate His life. He eventually allowed the Baha’is to choose a date that was furthest away from the date when Bahaʼu’llah passed away and to use that day to celebrate the establishment of Bahaʼu’llah’s Covenant with humanity. As Bahaʼu’llah passed away on May 29 th , 1892, the Baha’i community chose the 26 th of November, 182 days away from the day of Bahaʼu’llah’s passing, as the Day of the Covenant. Following this class, it dawned on me, children and their parents who were not Baha’is, wouldn’t know who Abdu’l-Baha was, yet most of the stories in Ruhi Book 3, Grades 1-2 are about Him. I let the idea simmer in the back of my mind. Once morning at 4:00 am the idea came to me, and I sat down and started writing, What Makes Abdu’l-Baha Special. Helen and Irene, the twins who inspired author Tahirih Lemon to write What Makes Abdu’l-Baha Special Who is its audience? Children who attend the children’s neighbourhood classes aged 5-8 years and their parents. It’s also a resource teachers can use in class to introduce Abdu’l-Baha. What do you hope readers will take away with them? I hope it reinforces how special Abdu’l-Baha was. And although there are many people who are loving, kind, and generous in the world, Abdu’l-Baha is the Perfect Exemplar. Author Tahirih Lemon Why is creativity and artistic expression important to you? Or important to the world? I worked with the talented watercolour artist, Liza Polovynkina, from Ukraine. More, and more books are illustrated using AI. Ethically, I could not go down this road. Artists spend years honing their skills and deserve to be supported and their work celebrated. Art and creativity feed the soul. Thank you so much, Tahirih, for sharing this with us! You can purchase What Makes Abdu’l-Baha Special from a variety of book retailers including Baha’i Books Australia and from Tahirih’s website .