Guidance on Family Life

Intercession of Children

Source: Star of the West, 2:19, page 319 (published in 1921)

Often ‘Abdu’l-Baha would consoul those who wrote to Him:

The Prayer for Fathers was revealed by the Master to Albert Windust, … Mr. Windust’s father passed away, so he then wrote to the Master and asked Him to pray for his father, and the Master revealed a Tablet containing this prayer in response. 

Albert Windust was a member of the first Spiritual Assembly in Chicago and served on it until 1954. He was a printer by profession, and one of the founders of the Baha’i Publishing Society which became the Baha’i Publishing Trust. He was the first publisher of the Baha’i Writings in America, and the founder of Star of the West. He collected and published the 3 volumes of Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha Abbas, and he assisted Howard MacNutt in collecting and publishing The Promulgation of Universal Peace. 

Tablet from Abdul-Baha to Albert R. Windust

To Mr. Albert R. Windust, Chicago, IL. — Upon him be Baha’u’llah El-Abha!

He is God!

O Thou Almighty! O Thou Forgiver!

The servant of Thy Threshold, Windust, turns his face toward the Kingdom of Abha and begs for his father [Thomas Windust, printer, born in London, England, 1849 and passed in Chicago, 1913] Thy Grace and bounty. 

O Lord! In this Most Great Dispensation Thou dost accept the intercession of children in behalf of their parents. This is one of the special infinite bestowals of this Dispensation. Therefore, O Thou kind Lord, accept the request of this Thy servant at the threshold of Thy singleness and submerge his father in the ocean of Thy grace, because this son hath arisen to render Thee service and is exerting effort at all times in the pathway of Thy love, Verily, Thou art the Giver, the Forgiver and the Kind!

O thou divine servant!

Be thou not unhappy on account of the death of thy father. All of us will hasten from this world to another world. This mundane life has no importance whatsoever. It is our hope that in the divine world we shall find eternal union and seek everlasting fellowship. Importance lies in this fact. This station is obtained through faith and self-sacrifice in the path of God. Consequently we must make an effort to obtain happiness and joyousness in the other world.

Upon thee be Baha-el-Abha!

(Signed) Abdu’l-Baha Abbas!

(Translated by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, July 4th, 1913, Port Said, Egypt.)