Abdu'l-Baha's place in Baha'i belief is carefully defined and distinctive. He is not regarded as a Manifestation of God or a prophet, that line ended with Baha'u'llah, but as the perfect exemplar of his father's teachings, the flawless human embodiment of the Baha'i life, and the one infallible interpreter of the revealed word. Baha'is look to his conduct as the model of how the teachings are to be lived.
Freed at last, and despite advancing age and poor health, he undertook a series of remarkable journeys between 1911 and 1913, travelling through Egypt, Europe and North America to proclaim his father's message. He addressed churches, synagogues, universities and peace societies from London and Paris to New York, Chicago and California, speaking on the oneness of humanity, the elimination of prejudice, he spoke pointedly on racial unity in the United States, the equality of women and men, and the necessity of world peace, warning of the great war he saw approaching.
During the famine in Palestine in the First World War he organized relief for the population regardless of creed, and in 1920 the British administration conferred a knighthood upon him for this humanitarian work, an honour he accepted while declining the style that went with it.