Other names
Abdullah (Neville's teacher)
Events involving this person
6 December 1933
The steamship company could only offer him third class; Abdullah rebuked him — "you went first class" — and on the morning of sailing the agent told him a cancellation had freed a first-class berth.
Neville describes Abdullah's Ethiopian birth and religious background
Description
Neville describes his teacher and old friend Abdullah: born in Ethiopia, a black man raised in the Jewish faith who understood Christianity and the law better than any man he met.
Persons
Location
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
before 6 December 1933
(probable)
Told
after 6 December 1933
Sources
- Source: All Imagination Lecture ¶7 (He was born, so I am told, in Ethiopia. He was a black man, raised in the Jewish faith, but really understood Christianity as few men that I ever met understood it.)
- Source: Abdullah How We Got Together Qa (Neville describes Abdullah as North African, born to Jewish parents and raised Orthodox Jewish.)
6 December 1933
The steamship company could only give Neville third-class sleeping accommodation; Abdullah refused to accept it, saying he had already gone first class, and on the morning of sailing the ticket agent
1934
Returning to New York in 1934 after three months in Barbados, he drank and smoked and did everything he had abstained from for years, remembering Abdullah's remark that he was "good for nothing", and
between March 1934 and March 1934
(probable)
Before Neville's Barbados trip, Abdullah told him he would 'have died' by the time he returned.
22 April 1935
The song 'Somewhere, A Song of Trust in the Absolute' was published April 22, 1935, co-credited to Abdullah and Marjorie Cameron MacLean.
between 1931 and 1936
(probable)
After studying under Neville, Flood's next teacher was the mystic Abdullah, described in the source as being from Africa.
Person: Winifred Maccardell Flood
before 1953
(possible)
Abdullah asked Neville whether he had ever seen a picture of the Sphinx, explained it embodies the four fixed quarters of the universe, and told him whoever modelled its human head must have been a ne
before 1953
(possible)
Neville describes the standing Abdullah had — scientists, doctors, lawyers and bankers sought an audience with him and thought themselves honoured to be received — and quotes his instruction to start
c. 1956
(probable)
Neville stated in a 1964 Q&A that the last time he saw Abdullah was about eight years earlier, placing their final meeting around 1956 in New York City.
Place: New York City
c. 1956
Neville recounted meeting Abdullah's secretary about seven years before his 1964 lecture, who told him Abdullah planned to return to Ethiopia; Neville said he never heard from either again.
c. 1957
(probable)
Neville recalls that the last time he saw Abdullah in person was about eight years before this lecture, in New York City.
c. 1957
(possible)
Abdullah's secretary reportedly told Neville that Abdullah went to Ethiopia to die in 1957; author estimates he would have been about 109.
Place: Ethiopia
Person: Abdullah
c. 1957
(possible)
Abdullah is presumed to have died around 1957-1958 after returning to Ethiopia.
Place: Ethiopia
Person: Abdullah
Ruling: accepted as possible, Rudi 2026-07-23
Abdullah advises stripping important people of prestige
Description
He recalls a saying of his old teacher Ab (Abdullah) about stripping any man you think important and letting him perform the normal functions of life.
Persons
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
- before 1959 (possible)
- before 13 November 1959
Told
13 November 1959
Sources
- Source: Esau and Jacob ¶18 (If my old teacher, Ab, were here, he would frighten you to death. He used to say, “If anyone stands before you, and you think him so important, strip him and let him perform the normal functions of life - and you will turn your back on him.”)
before 1963
(possible)
He describes the exercise his old friend Abdullah taught him in New York City: sitting in his living room chair, assuming he was down the hallway at the telephone he could not see, viewing his own cha
1959
Autobiographical memory recalled by Neville in his lectures. Year derived: age 59 + birth 1905 = 1964. Told 2 times (1964).
Abdullah says his racial appearance is only an Ethiopian garment
Description
Abdullah never claimed to be a Negro, only that he had picked up that garment in Ethiopia ninety-odd years earlier.
Persons
Location
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
- before 1964 (possible)
- before 10 March 1964
Told
10 March 1964
Sources
- Source: Who Are the Condemned ¶7 (Never once for one moment made any other claim, he would only say to me, “I picked up this garment ninety-odd years ago in Ethiopia.”)
before 1964
(possible)
Neville recalls the saying his old friend and teacher Abdullah used repeatedly about persisting in willing until the thing willed is expressed.
before 9 January 1964
After Abdullah instructed him to assume he was already in Barbados, Neville persisted in that assumption from late October through November 1933.
10 March 1964
In a vision Neville met Abdullah, now gone from this world, appearing as a majestic Caucasian man of about fifty and 6'5"; Abdullah showed him a little tape instrument that echoed back whatever Nevill
before 1965
(possible)
Asked about Abdullah's teaching on symbolism, Neville recalls that to Abdullah everything in the world was a symbol, and that Abdullah would make him skry — look through a lampshade rather than at it
Abdullah demonstrates the pronunciation of the divine name
Description
Neville recalls his old friend and teacher Abdullah trying to show him how to pronounce the unpronounceable name Yod He Vau He, which required a belch.
Persons
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
- before 1965 (possible)
- before 1965 (possible)
- before 5 January 1965
Told
- 5 January 1965
- 19 January 1965
Sources
- Source: The Real Man ¶16 (my old friend Abdullah in trying to show me how to pronounce it he would have to belch)
- Source: This My Name Forever I Am ¶9 (My old friend Ab tried to explain to me how to sound it, but he couldn’t sound it.)