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Portals to Freedom
Portals To Freedom By HOWARD COLBY IVES With Four Portraits of Abdul-Bahd and a picture of The Bahdi House of Worship Issued in Commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of Abdul-Bahas Visit to the United States of America April to December, 1912 New York E. P. BUTTON COMPANY Publishers Abdu 1-Bahi Washington, D. C., 1912 To SHOGHI EFFENDI The Grandson of ABDUL-BAHA By Him Appointed Guardian of the Bahai Faith and Head of the International House of Justice This book is lovingly dedicated TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction PAGE 13 Chapter One Chapter Tivo Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Retrospect. Spiritual Bankruptcy. A Dawn ing Hope. The Golden Silence 1 8 The Glance that saved the World. A Divine Sincerity. The Masterly Teaching Method. 34 True Wealth, Power and Freedom. The Table of Abdu 1-Baha. Very Great Things. Are you interested in Renunciation . . 50 The Attraction of Perfection. The Boys from the Bowery. A Black Rose and a Black Sweet 60 A Leaf in the Breeze of the Will of God. My Throne is My Mat. Inscription in The Seven Valleys. 69 The Reality and Essence of Brotherhood. Cannot you serve him Once True Brotherhood due to the Breaths of the Holy Spirit. O, you should have Seen Him . 80 An Eternal Bond. The Wedding. The need for Reformation of Laws pertaining to Di vorce. The Laws of BahaUllah. Four Kinds of Love. The Children of the New Day 92 The Most Perfect Gentleman I have ever known. The Master Teacher. The Spir itual Warrior. A Fable. It behooves you to manifest Light. The Gift. The First Tablet 114 7 Table of Contents PAGE Chapter Nine Chapter Ten The American Itinerary. The Power of the Spirit. Her Highness the Cow. TrueGreatness. The Divine Teaching Method. 132 The Universe of BahaUllah. The Evolu tion of Man. The Glory of Self-sacrifice. 149 Chapter Instruction in the Way of Life. What is Eleven Authority The Science of the Love of God. . 167 Chapter The New World Order. A Divine Civili-Tivelve zation. The Kingdom of God on Earth. . 175 Chapter Some Divine Characteristics. The Humil-Thlrteen ity of Servitude. The Station of True Man hood 192 Chapter Abdul-Bahas Last Words in America. Fourteen Seven Distinctive Characteristics of the Teachings. Evidences of the New World Order 211 Chapter By their Fruits shall ye know them. Four Fifteen Tablets 229 Chapter Conclusion 250 Sixteen ILLUSTRATIONS ABDUL-BAHA, WASHINGTON, D. C, 1912 Frontispiece ABDUL-BAHA, WASHINGTON, D. C, 1912 Facing Page 84 THE BAHAI HOUSE OF WORSHIP AT WILMETTE, ILLINOIS, ON LAKE MICHIGAN Facing Page 190 ABDUL-BAHA IN THE GARDEN OF BAHJI Facing Page 211 ABDUL-BAHA STANDING BEFORE HIS HOME HAIFA, PALESTINE Facing Page 248 Portals To Freedom INTRODUCTION I ask Thee, O Ruler of Existence and King of Creation, to transmute the brass of existence into gold by the elixir of Thy Revelation and Wisdom then reveal unto men by a comprehensive Book that which will enrich them by Thy Riches. BahaUllah. WHAT is that mystery underlying human life which gives to events and to persons the power of mutation, of transformation If one had never before seen a seed, nor heard of its latent life, how difficult to believe that only the cold earth, the warm sun, the descending showers and the gardeners care were needed to cause its miraculous transformation into the growing form, the budding beauty, the intoxicating fragrance of the rose Or who can understandthe reason why a chance perusal of a book, the presence of a friend or the meeting with a stranger often alters a determined course of action, profoundly affects our attitude toward life, and, not seldom, so nearly reaches the roots of being and the springs of action that never after is life quite the same It is as if some super-Luther Burbank had, by that 13
260 pages, Paperback
First published January 4, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 11, 2021
Touches your very heart!
Reading about the spiritual journey of Howard Colby Ives and how he came to recognise the Mystery of God, Abdul-Baha. Abdul-Baha was the Son of the Prophet of the Baha’i faith.
The account of their first meeting is soul stirring and depicted in such a way that you feel like like Abdul-Baha’s loving eyes are reading into your very own soul.
Reading about the spiritual journey of Howard Colby Ives and how he came to recognise the Mystery of God, Abdul-Baha. Abdul-Baha was the Son of the Prophet of the Baha’i faith.
The account of their first meeting is soul stirring and depicted in such a way that you feel like like Abdul-Baha’s loving eyes are reading into your very own soul.
January 20, 2026
The best book I’ve ever read— it’s like this Unitarian minister in his forties looked into my soul through Time and Space and diarised my spiritual journey
November 9, 2021
This is one of my most beloved books in the entire world. I first read it when I was in my early twenties and have worn out one print copy and am working on my second. I also have it as an eBook, because I always want it within reach.
This is the autobiographical story of Howard Ives, a Unitarian minister living in New York in the early 1900s and his extraordinary encounters with a man who called himself Abdu'l-Bahá (Servant of Glory). Through Howard's eyes we see a unique individual who taught the elimination of prejudice, gender equality, the harmony of science and religion, and the essential oneness of God and of the human race, and did so in word and in deed.
Perhaps the most extraordinary things among all the extraordinary things about Abdu'l-Bahá was the time frame in which he taught these things (he presided over the wedding of a black man and a white woman at a time when miscegenation laws were appearing across the country) and the fact that he taught them eloquently and in great depth though he had been a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire for almost his entire life. Howard Colby Ives's introduction to Abdu'l-Bahá came during Abdu'l-Bahá's travels across the United States, travels that took him from New York all the way to California with speaking engagements in churches and synagogues, at philosophical societies and universities (he spoke at Stanford). Every talk was delivered with the same humility and loving kindness that marked his interactions with people of all races and social strata.
Above all, Portals to Freedom is a labor of love—a love letter, fact. Which I think is one of the reasons I read it repeatedly and find something new in its pages every time.
This is the autobiographical story of Howard Ives, a Unitarian minister living in New York in the early 1900s and his extraordinary encounters with a man who called himself Abdu'l-Bahá (Servant of Glory). Through Howard's eyes we see a unique individual who taught the elimination of prejudice, gender equality, the harmony of science and religion, and the essential oneness of God and of the human race, and did so in word and in deed.
Perhaps the most extraordinary things among all the extraordinary things about Abdu'l-Bahá was the time frame in which he taught these things (he presided over the wedding of a black man and a white woman at a time when miscegenation laws were appearing across the country) and the fact that he taught them eloquently and in great depth though he had been a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire for almost his entire life. Howard Colby Ives's introduction to Abdu'l-Bahá came during Abdu'l-Bahá's travels across the United States, travels that took him from New York all the way to California with speaking engagements in churches and synagogues, at philosophical societies and universities (he spoke at Stanford). Every talk was delivered with the same humility and loving kindness that marked his interactions with people of all races and social strata.
Above all, Portals to Freedom is a labor of love—a love letter, fact. Which I think is one of the reasons I read it repeatedly and find something new in its pages every time.
July 24, 2021
A true soul-piercer.
This biography-esque book is an emphatic account of the visit of Abdu’l-Baha — the son of the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith, and the Perfect Exemplar for millions of Baha’is around the world — to the United States, through the lens of an American Christian clergyman. It beautifully traces the spiritual journey of the author (Howard Colby Ives) as he learns the Baha’i teachings of oneness, equality and unity alongside a number of stories reflecting the love, kindness and humour of Abdu’l-Baha.
‘Portals to Freedom’ had been recommended to me SO many times but I never expected such a full, inspiring and spiritually uplifting piece of lit. I don’t know what else to write other than READ IT.
Here is a thought-provoking snippet from the last chapter:
“We (Humans) have been revolving around such limited centers, such petty interests, that our horizons have been circumscribed to such an extent that it is all but impossible for us to conceive a "Most Great Center" attaining to which we view the "Universe of God" spread before our wondering eyes, and scan a "Supreme Horizon" including all the sons of men; in the Light of which, the Glory of which, all problems are solved, all flames of strife extinguished in that unity and love which is the basis of the Laws of the universe.”
This biography-esque book is an emphatic account of the visit of Abdu’l-Baha — the son of the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith, and the Perfect Exemplar for millions of Baha’is around the world — to the United States, through the lens of an American Christian clergyman. It beautifully traces the spiritual journey of the author (Howard Colby Ives) as he learns the Baha’i teachings of oneness, equality and unity alongside a number of stories reflecting the love, kindness and humour of Abdu’l-Baha.
‘Portals to Freedom’ had been recommended to me SO many times but I never expected such a full, inspiring and spiritually uplifting piece of lit. I don’t know what else to write other than READ IT.
Here is a thought-provoking snippet from the last chapter:
“We (Humans) have been revolving around such limited centers, such petty interests, that our horizons have been circumscribed to such an extent that it is all but impossible for us to conceive a "Most Great Center" attaining to which we view the "Universe of God" spread before our wondering eyes, and scan a "Supreme Horizon" including all the sons of men; in the Light of which, the Glory of which, all problems are solved, all flames of strife extinguished in that unity and love which is the basis of the Laws of the universe.”
March 21, 2021
My favorite book of my life this is really the number 1
July 2, 2021
Wonderful story of 'Abdu'l-Baha's time in America. Made me feel like I was there.
December 17, 2025
In some non-quantifiable sense, this irrefutably altered my being beyond measure and beyond words—no doubt this being attributed to Howard Colby Ives’ ability to provide the reader the experience of being in the presence of the Mystery of God.
This book ranks among one the most wonderful I have had the privilege to read in my youth.
This book ranks among one the most wonderful I have had the privilege to read in my youth.
September 24, 2014
Page 169 of Portals to Freedom will remain in my heart and on the wall of my room forever. This is a good book if you seeking to understand the Baha'i faith and also if you are trying to imagine why Abdul Baha is repeatedly called the perfect man. This book could also serve those hearts that are investigating spirituality.
January 5, 2008
wonderful snippits of Abdu'l-Baha
June 13, 2009
Erica Toussaints Grandfather
August 9, 2011
Certain pasages in this book - about the author's meeting `Abdu'l-Baha - have influenced me more than anything else I ever read
December 20, 2012
Amazing first-hand encounter with a man who seems to embody Perfection. Inspiring read. Wonderful stories.
February 12, 2017
It is a book worth reading because he actually met the man. His candid descriptions of the impact Abdul B aha had on him are fascinating and most affecting.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews