The American Bahá’í community was suffering from three ailments during those early years of the century: covenant breaking, the cult of the individual and racism. The first problem was due to Abraham Kheiralla's. He learned of the Bahá’í faith in Cairo, then went to America in 1892 to teach the new faith, settling in Chicago. Kheiralla was an effective teacher and, together with Thornton Chase, the first American Bahá’í , he taught, raised up the community of a few hundred spiritually enlightened souls. Kheiralla’s teachings, unfortunately, included many of his own beliefs, including reincarnation, dream interpretation, and occultism. This great success, however, quickly inflated Kheiralla’s already overlarge ego and resulted in him hoping to split the leadership of the Bahá’í world with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. From Kheiralla’s viewpoint, since he was so successful in America, it seemed only right that he be the one to guide and administer the faith there, while ‘Abdu’l-Bahá could lead the rest of the world's Bahá’í community. Meeting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa in 1898 was a huge blow to Kheiralla because it became obvious that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would have no part in his desire for leadership. That frustration led him to Mírzá Muhammad-Ali, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's half-brother and Arch breaker of Bahá’u’lláh's covenant. Mírzá Muhammad-Ali sent his eldest son Shu’á’u’lláh to America to aid Kheiralla. Kheiralla had written a book which was theoretically about the Faith, but also included his superstitions and mistaken ideas. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told him not to publish his book he did so anyway, resulting in a split in the American Bahá’í community.