Bahá’í World/Volume 15/The Centenary of the Passing of Mírzá Mihdí
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IV
THE CENTENARY OF THE PASSING OF
MI'RZA MIHDI', THE PUREST BRANCH 1848—1870
1. THE TESTIMONY OF BAHA’U’LLAH
“A T this very moment, My son is being washed before My face, after Our having sacrificed him in the Most Great Prison. Thereat have the dwellers of the Abhá Tabernacle wept with a great weeping, and such as have saflered imprisonment with this Youth in the path of God, the Lord of the promised Day, lamented. Under such conditions My Pen hath not been prevented front remembering its Lord, the Lord of all nations. It summoneth the people unto God, the Almighty, the A ll-Bountiful. This is the day whereon he that was created of the light of Baha' has stiflered martyrdom, at a time when he lay imprisoned at the hands of his enemies.
“Upon thee, 0 Branch of God! be the remembrance of God and His praise, and the praise of all that dwell in the Realms of Immortality and of all the denizens of the Kingdom of Names. Happy art thou in that thou hast been faithful to the C ovenant of God and His Testament, until Thou dia’st sacrifice thyself before the face of thy Lord, the Almighty, the Unconstrained. Thou, in truth, hast been wronged, and to this testifieth the Beauty of Him, the SeIf-Subsisting. T hou didst, in the first days of thy life, bear that which hath caused all things to groan, and made every pillar to tremble. Happy is the one that remembereth thee, and draweth nigh, through
thee, unto God, the Creator of the Mom.”
“Glorified art Thou, 0 Lord my God! Thou seest me in the hands ofMine enemies, and My son blood-stained before Thy face, O Thou in Whose hands is the kingdom of all names. I have, O my Lord, oflered up that which Thou hast given Me, that Thy servants may be quickened and all that dwell on earth be united.”
“Blessed art thou, and blessed he that turneth unto thee, and visiteth thy grave, and draweth nigh, through thee, unto God, the Lord of all that was and shall be. . . I testify that thou didst return in meekness unto thine abode. Great is th y blessedness and the blessedness of them that hold
fast unto the hem of thy outspread robe. . . Thou
art, verily, the trust a/"God and His treasure in this land. Ere long will God reveal through thee that which He hath desired. He, verily, is the Truth, the Knower of things unseen. When thou wast laid to rest in the earth, the earth itself trembled in its longing to meet thee. Thus hath it been decreed, and yet the people perceive not. . . Were We to recount the mysteries of thine ascension, they that are asleep would awaken, and all beings would be set ablaze with the fire of the remembrance of My Name, the Mighty, the Loving.”
2. THE TESTIMONY OF SHOGHI EFFENDI
“TO the galling weight of these tribulations was now added the bitter grief of a sudden tragedy—the premature loss of the noble, the pious Mirzá Mihdi, the Purest Branch, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s twenty—two year old brother, an amanuensis of Bahá’u’lláh and a companion of His exile from the days when, as a child, he was
brought from Ṭihrán to Baghdád to join His father after His return from Sulayméniyyih. He was pacing the roof of the barracks in the twilight, one evening, wrapped in his customary devotions, when he fell through the unguarded skylight onto a wooden crate, standing on the floor beneath, which pierced
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his ribs, and caused twenty—two hours later, his death, on the 23rd of Rabi‘u’l—Avval 1287 A.H. (June 23, 1870). His dying supplication to a grieving Father was that his life might be accepted as a ransom for those who were prevented from attaining the presence of their Beloved. .
“In a highly significant prayer, revealed by Bahá’u’lláh in memory of His son—a prayer that exalts his death to the rank of those great acts of atonement associated with Abraham’s intended sacrifice of His son, with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the martyrdom of the Imam Husayn—we read the following: ‘I have, O my Lord, oflered up that which Thou hast given Me, that Thy servants may be; quickened, and all that dwell on earth be united.’ And, likewise, these prophetic words, addressed to His martyred son: ‘Thou art the Trust of God and His Treasure in this Land. Ere long will God reveal through thee that which He hath desired.’
“After he had been washed in the presence of Baha’u’llah, he ‘that was created of the light of Baha’, to whose ‘meekness’ the Supreme Pen had testified, and of the ‘mysteries’ of whose ascension that same Pen had made mention, was borne forth, escorted by the fortress guards, and laid to rest, beyond the city walls, in a spot adjacent to the shrine of Nabi Sélih, from whence, seventy years later, his remains, simultaneously with those of his illustrious mother, were to be translated to the slopes of Mt. Carmel, in the precincts of the grave of his sister, and under the shadow of the Báb’s holy sepulchre.” (God Passes By, pp. 188—189.)
“And lastly, there should be mentioned, as a further evidence of the blessings flowing from the Divine Plan, the transfer, a few years later, to that same hallowed spot, after a. separation in death of above half a century, and notwithstanding the protests voiced by the brother and lieutenant of the arch-breaker of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, of the remains of the Purest Branch, the Martyred son of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘createdofthe light of Baha", the ‘Trust of God’ and His ‘Treasure’ in the Holy Land, and offered up by his Father as a ‘ransom’ for the regeneration of the world and the unification of its peoples.” (GodPasses By, pp. 347—348.)
“The Purest Branch, the martyred son, the companion, and amanuensis of Baha’u’llah, that pious and holy youth, who in the darkest
THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
days of Baha’u’llah’s incarceration in the barracks of ‘Akká entreated, on his death-bed, his Father to accept him as a ransom for those of His loved ones who yearned for, but were unable to attain, His presence, and the saintly mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, surnamed Navvab by Bahá’u’lláh, and the first recipient of the honoured and familiar title of ‘the Most Exalted Leaf’, separated in death above half a century, and forced to suffer the humiliation of an alien burial-ground, are now at long last reunited with the Greatest Holy Leaf1 with whom they had so abundantly shared the tribulations of one of the most distressing episodes of the Heroic Age of the Faith of Baha’u’llah.” (Messages to America 1932—1946, p. 31.)
“The conjunction of these three restingplaces, under the shadow of the Báb’s own Tomb, embosomed in the heart of Carmel, facing the snow—white city across the bay of ‘Akká, the Qiblih of the Bahá’í world, set in a garden of exquisite beauty, reinforces, if we would correctly estimate its significance, the spiritual potencies of a spot, designated by Bahá’u’lláh Himself the seat of God’s throne. It marks, too, a further milestone in the road leading eventually to the establishment of that permanent world Administrative Centre of the future Bahá’í Commonwealth, destined never to be separated from, and to function in the proximity of, the Spiritual Centre of that Faith, in a land already revered and held sacred alike by the adherents of three of the world’s outstanding religious systems.” (GodPasses By.)
“For such as might undertake, in the days to come, the meritorious and highly enviable pilgrimage to these blessed shrines, as well as for the benefit of the less privileged who, aware of the greatness of their virtue and the preeminence of their lineage, desire to commune with their spirits, and to strive to acquire an added insight into the glory of their position, and to follow in their footsteps, let these testimonies written by Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá be their inspiration and guidance in their noble quest.” (Guidance fbr Today and T0morrow, p. 72.)
1 Bahíyyih Khánum, “well-beloved” sister of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. See “In Memoriam”, The Bahá’í World, vol. v, pp. 169—188.
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CENTENARY OF THE PASSING OF Misz MIHDi
MiRZA MIHDi The Purest Branch
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THE Bahá’í WORLD
the centenary of the passing of Mirzd Mihdi, June 23, 1970.
3. THE MESSAGE OF THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE—A CALL FOR PRAYER
ON March 25, 1970, the Universal House of Justice addressed the following message to all National Spiritual Assemblies:
In commemoration of the centenary of the martyrdom of the Purest Branch, which falls on June 23, 1970, we call upon the Bahá’ís Of the world to unite in prayer for “the regeneration of the world and the unification of its peoples.”
During those days one hundred years ago Baha’u’llah was enduring His imprisonment in the Barracks of ‘Akká. Upon the tribulations which weighed Him down was heaped the fatal accident which befell His young son, His companion and amanuensis, Mirza Mihdi, the Purest Branch, whose dying supplication to his Father was to accept his life “as a ransom for those of His loved ones who yearned for but were unable to attain His presence.” In a Tablet
revealed in that grievous hour Bahá’u’lláh sorrows that This is the day whereon he that was created of the light of Bahd has suffered martyrdom, at a time when he lay imprisoned at the hands ofhis enemies. Yet He makes clear that the youth’s passing has a far profounder meaning than His acceptance of the simple request, declaring that Thou art, verily, the trust of God and His treasure in this land. Ere long will God reveal through thee that which He hath desired, In a prayer revealed for His son He proclaims the purpose underlying the tragedy: I have, 0 my Lord, oflered up that which Thou hast given Me, that Thy servants may be quickened, and all that dwell on earth be united. Thus upon a youth of consummate devotion who demonstrated such beauty of spirit, and total dedication was conferred a unique station in the Cause of God.
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CENTENARY OF THE PASSING OF MiRZA MIHDI'
In your recalling the bereavement of Bahá’u’lláh upon the loss of His loved son, and honouring a highly significant event in the Faith, we leave it to the discretion of the Assemblies whether they choose to hold special gatherings of prayer. In the Holy Land at the World
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Centre on Mt. Carmel there will be an observance at the grave of Mirzá Mihdl', at which time his pure example and sacrifice for all mankind will be remembered through the words of his glorious Father.
4. THE COMMEMORATION AT THE WORLD CENTRE
ON the morning of June 23, 1970, the hundredth anniversary of the tragic death of Mirzá Mihdi, the Purest Branch, the Hand of the Cause Paul Haney, and members of the Universal House of J ustice, gathered at the barracks in the prison city of ‘Akká to offer prayers in the cell which Bahá’u’lláh had occupied for two years, two months and five days following His arrival in ‘Akká in 1868. The scene of the martyrdom was also visited and a prayer chanted there.
Immediately afterwards the party proceeded to Bahjí where they joined others serving at the World Centre and approximately eighty pilgrims who came from many countries. All walked around the Ḥaram-i-Aqdas and down
the path to the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh where the Tablet of Visitation was recited.
Towards sunset the friends assembled on Mt. Carmel at the twin monuments of the Purest Branch and his saintly mother, Navvéb, to conclude the programme commemorating the centenary of the martyrdom. Prayers and verses appropriate to the occasion were read and chanted.
Thus at the spiritual heart of the Bahá’í world was honoured the memory of a blessed youth whose life was offered up for the quickening of the spirits of the servants of Bahá’u’lláh and hastening of the unity and promised redemption of mankind.
