|
The long- drawn out negotiations with the shrewd and calculating owner of the building- site of the holy Edifice, who, under the influence of the Covenant- breakers, refused for a long time to sell; the exorbitant price at first demanded for the opening of a road leading to that site and indispensable to the work of construction; the interminable objections raised by officials, high and low, whose easily aroused suspicions had to be allayed by repeated explanations and assurances given by Abdu'l- Baha Himself; the dangerous situation created by the monstrous accusations brought by Mirza Muhammad- 'Ali and his associates regarding the character and purpose of that building; the delays and complications caused by Abdu'l- Baha's prolonged and enforced absence from Haifa, and His consequent inability to supervise in person the vast undertaking He had initiated-- all these were among the principal obstacles which He, at so critical a period in His ministry, had to face and surmount ere He could execute in its entirety the Plan, the outline of which Baha'u'llah had communicated to Him on the occasion of one of His visits to Mt. Carmel.
(275:2)
|