Signet Ring of Abdul Baha

Signet Ring of the Bab

One of those ‘unspiritual people’ was at that moment a member of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s party, Dr. Amin Fareed, who had already tried to fraudulently get money out of her [Phoebe Hearst]. It was probably during ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s stay at the Hearst residence that His signet ring disappeared. That theft and some of other activities of Dr. Fareed were described by Marzieh Gail in her book, “Arches of the Years": 

‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s signet ring disappeared during his Western journey. The Master had confided His loss to Florence and Khan, and named the thief but He did not wish them to speak of it. We in the family always thought that it took place during his stay at the Hacienda … Thereafter the Master signed all his tablets instead of using a seal, capitalizing neither abdu’l nor abbas but only Bahá.

Fareed’s efforts to destroy the Master (who had seen to his education from childhood) make a page of triple darkness … Fareed was capable of whispering to the rich in the United States that although ‘Abdu’l-Bahá needed funds He would not openly accept them, but if they would pass over the money to him, Fareed, he would deliver it to the Master … After returning to the Holy Land ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent Dr. Baghdadi a Tablet, and directed that copies be distributed to every community so that all could read it. 

The Master wrote here that during His stay in America He had forgiven a certain member of His suite four times, but that He would forgive the man’s misdeeds no longer. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá returned to Haifa, He proceeded directly to the room with 
His wife, Munirih Khanum, and said in a feeble voice, “Dr. Fareed has ground me down!”

(Earl Redman, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Their Midst, p. 228)