Mobarek Tour

Experience Mobarek Anderson's Journey from Liberation to Confirmation

From the moment you board the luxury tour bus at 9am at the Sandy Spring Friends Meeting House, you will be transported through time to some of the most consequential moments in Mobarek Anderson's Family's Life leading up to her being named 'Blessed' by the Son of the Prophet Founder of the Baha'i Faith - 'Abdu'l-Baha during his historic visit to Washington DC in April 1912. Never before had the son of a founder of a global Faith visited the American South. During these travels ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá displayed a vitality, a courage, a single-mindedness, a consecration to the task He had set Himself to achieve that excited the wonder and admiration of those who had the privilege of observing at close hand His daily acts. Indifferent to the sights and curiosities which habitually invite the attention of travelers and which the members of His entourage often wished Him to visit; careless alike of His comfort and His health; expending every ounce of His energy day after day from dawn till late at night; consistently refusing any gifts or contributions towards the expenses of His travels; unfailing in His solicitude for the sick, the sorrowful and the down-trodden; uncompromising in His championship of the underprivileged races and classes; bountiful as the rain in His generosity to the poor; contemptuous of the attacks launched against Him by vigilant and fanatical exponents of orthodoxy and sectarianism; marvelous in His frankness while demonstrating, from platform and pulpit, the prophetic Mission of Jesus Christ to the Jews, of the Divine origin of Islám in churches and synagogues, or the truth of Divine Revelation and the necessity of religion to materialists, atheists or agnostics; unequivocal in His glorification of Bahá’u’lláh at all times and within the sanctuaries of divers sects and denominations; adamant in His refusal, on several occasions, to curry the favor of people of title and wealth both in England and in the United States; and last but not least incomparable in the spontaneity, the genuineness and warmth of His sympathy and loving-kindness shown to friend and stranger alike, believer and unbeliever, rich and poor, high and low, whom He met, either intimately or casually, whether on board ship, or whilst pacing the streets, in parks or public squares, at receptions or banquets, in slums or mansions, in the gatherings of His followers or the assemblage of the learned, He, the incarnation of every Bahá’í virtue and the embodiment of every Bahá’í ideal, continued for three crowded years to trumpet to a world sunk in materialism and already in the shadow of war, the healing, the God-given truths enshrined in His Father’s Revelation.

Your experience begins at the location of the first mass liberation of Freedom Seekers in Montgomery, Maryland History occuring in 1806. So influenced, the Hill family of Mobarek's mother was liberated in Sandy Spring Maryland by Richard Thomas. There without delay, they helped found the first Liberation Community Church in Sandy Spring in the Methodist Episcopal tradition, together with a burial society, a cemetery, and a faternal order establishing a pattern of interracial fellowship and mutual advancement for America. We will proceed from experiencing Mobarek's maternal family life to her paternal side, 80 years later, to the dramatic moment when American President Arthur Chester asked the Mobarek's paternal grandparents to name their baby, Mobarek's father, born at the White House Stables after him, which they did! Then after the 1908 marriage of the Hill and Anderson families in Alan and Jeanette's marriage, we travel to the "Candlestick" fireside where Mobarek's Father's Faith was confirmed, at the famous Carrie York Firesides. Four years after their marriage, on April 23 1912, we will attend the dramatic moment where Mobarek received the blessed name (Mobarek means Blessed) by 'Abdu'l-Baha while in Jeanette Hill's arms. We will then proceed to the unveiling of a bronze gravemarker upon Mobarek's Grave where she passed away in 1995, to celebrate her eternal soul with her family.

Time Travel Tours is a hands-on-tour. We encourage time travelers to experience and immerse themselves in events visited.

Other Tours

This tour is honored to be joined by Jeanette Hill's family. Mobarek's mother's family is amongt the first mass liberated in Montgomery County Maryland history. Jeanette's uncle Remus Hill is pictured. By 1790 the Sandy Spring Maryland Society of Friends had declared itself free of the sin of enslavement. Quaker Evan Thomas had taken the first step, recording the first Manumission in Montgomery County history in 1780. By 1806, Jeanette's great grandparents Hazel and Margery Hill were liberated in the first mass liberation of 112 Freedom Seekers. This interracial cooperative step for mutual development was further enhanced when their grandson Charles Thomas Hill and his wife Lucy Virginia Hill purchased 150 acres on Norwood Road from the same Society of Friends, Robert H Miller and his wife Mariana Miller continued to break Maryland common practice and agreed to sell to the Hill family their land. The Hill family continues to live on this land to this day. The tour will visit this history community of Interracial cooperation.

Alan Arthur Anderson First, Second and Third

This tour is also honored to be joined by Alan Arthur Anderson the Third, who is pictured here with Alan Arthur Anderson the First and Second to his right. Mobarek's father was among the first Americans of African Descent to declare his Faith in Baha'u'llah. In response to his declaration, 'Abdu'l-Baha wrote a letter to him which is enshrined in the well known Baha'i Book: "Selections of the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha," as letter number 76 therein. The letter reads as follows: 'O thou who hast an illumined heart! Thou art even as the pupil of the eye, the very wellspring of the light, for God's love hath cast its rays upon thine inmost being and thou hast turned thy face toward the Kingdom of thy Lord.

Intense is the hatred, in America, between black and white, but my hope is that the power of the Kingdom will bind these two in friendship, and serve them as a healing balm.

Let them look not upon a man's color but upon his heart. If the heart be filled with light, that man is nigh unto the threshold of his Lord; but if not, that man is careless of his Lord, be he white or be he black.' The tour will visit his birth site, his declaration site, and his grave site.

This tour will visit the resting place of Mobarek Anderson who said this of her being honored by 'Abdu'l-Baha with the name Mobarek in 1912: "I am fully aware of the Great Blessing bestowed upon me. This again shows the great love of Abdu'l-Baha for all of mankind. I was a black child, a baby of no distinction, that this great man took time from His busy programs to name." There we will unveil her grave's headstone to honor her. The tour will also visit the location where 'Abdu'l-Baha blessed her with a name.