The Chosen Highway/‘Abdu’l-Bahá

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CHAPTER II

© Abdu’l-Baha

The following is a paraphrase of what Munirih Khanum related to me about the early life of the Master.

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‘Abdu’l-Baha, even in early childhood, shared in the woes of His family, upon whom the most terrible troubles descended.

The teaching of the Bab had caused a great turmoil in all the land of Persia. The Babis, feeling forced to defend themselves and their families, took refuge in various towns and forts of Mazindaran, Zanjan, and Nayriz. Being besieged, their supplies of food were diminished and they were in dire straits.

Baha’u’ll4h, Who had become a disciple of the Bab, led rescue parties, carrying food and money to the brave and sorely pressed garrisons.

He thereby incurred the hatred of the most fanatical of the mullas. These men were unscrupulous in their methods, employing spies to watch, so that some pretext might be found for the active persecutions which they were plotting.

When the insane youth shot at the Shah, the fanatics rejoiced. Here was a grand opportunity!

‘Abdu’l-Baha, then only eight years old, was broken-hearted at the ruthless treatment of His adored Father. The child suffered agonies, as a description of the tortures was related in His hearing—the cruel scourging of the feet, the long miles Baha’u’llah had to walk afterwards, barefooted, heavy chains cutting into the delicate flesh, the loathsome prison; the excruciating anxiety lest His very life should be taken—made a load of suffering, piteous for so young and sensitive a child to endure.

All the former luxury of the family was at an end, deserted as they were by relations and friends. Homeless, utterly

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impoverished, engulfed in trouble, sorrow, and misery, suffering from sheer want and extraordinary privations—such were the conditions under which His childhood’s life was spent.

These things counted not at all whilst He was with His Father; so that the exile and the earlier days in Baghdad were happy, in spite of outside miseries. But when Baha’u’llah retreated into the wilderness of Sulaymaniyyih the dear child was beside Himself with grief.

He occupied Himself with copying those Tablets of the Bab which had remained with them. He tried to help His dear mother, Astyih Khanum, in her arduous tasks.

During this time He was taken by His uncle, Mirza Musa, to some of the meetings of the friends. There He spoke to them with a marvellous eloquence, even at that early age of eleven or twelve years. The friends wondered at His wisdom and the beauty of His person, which equalled that of His mind.

He prayed without ceasing for the return of Baha’u’llah. He would sometimes spend a whole night through praying a certain prayer. One day after a night so spent they found a clue! Very soon the Beloved One returned!

Now His joy was as great as His grief had been!

Many were the gatherings of the friends on the banks of the Tigris, to which the young boy was taken by His Father. These meetings, necessarily secret, were now His greatest pleasure. He drank in the teaching of divine things which were to educate the world, with an understanding of universal conceptions astounding in such a young child.

So life went on; He grew into a beautiful youth, beloved by all who knew Him.

And now came fresh sorrow!

The ever-active enemies, fearing the growing influence of Baha’u’llah, petitioned that He, with His disciples, should be again exiled.

The Governor of Baghdad requested Baha’u’llah to attend at the Court House, to hear a Farman read, which had been sent by the Sultan. The Governor was loath to inform Baha’u’llah of the decree, being unwilling that any discourtesy should beshown to the kingly exile, for Whom he himself felt a profound reverence.

The reply came:

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“My mission is not with the rulers of this world, neither with their statesmen, nor their officials. For what reason, therefore, should I enter their Court House?”

The Governor was bewildered, and knew not what to do in his perplexity. At length, he said within himself:

“Tf I invite Him to the mosque, He will surely come, for is it not the House of God? In the holy place the Farman can be read to Him.”

Baha’u’llah consented to go to the mosque, where the decree was announced to Him, that He and His family were to be exiled from Baghdad to an unknown destination.

The family and the friends were very sad at this new uprooting.

The preparations for the journey were extremely difficult.

The Master, as He was now called, shielded His adored Father in all ways that lay in His power from undesirable intruders, from the world’s insistence, and from those who merely wanted idly to see and to hear something new.

He made the arrangements for the Beloved One to go to the Ridvan, there to abide until the family should have been able to make preparations for the departure.

Whilst He tarried in the Ridvan, the appointed time had arrived for the momentous proclamation.

Baha’u’llah confided to the eldest son, ‘Abbas, the Master, that He Himself was “He Whom God shall make Manifest,” heralded by the Forerunner, the Bab.

As the Master heard the soul-stirring words, and realized that His own beloved Father was He Who should educate mankind in universal conceptions, abolish prejudices, bring unity and the most Great Peace into the distracted world, establish the Kingdom of God upon this sad earth, by making religion again a healing spring for all woes of the world, He understood why the Manifestation had once again become the cause of evil men’s hatred and malignant persecution.

As these things were pondered by the Master, His‘mind, wellendowed with a peculiar receptiveness that was inborn, and strengthened by the education given to Him by His Father, saw, as in a radiant vision, the world of the future, when the divine Message, having become known and comprehended by “men of goodwill,” would change the heart of the world, and

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the Kingdom where God’s will shall be done on earth—for which we have been praying for nigh two thousand years— would be established.

Henceforth a new joy and increased devotion to His Father, Baha’u’llah (The Glory of God) took possession of Him. He consecrated Himself, body and soul and spirit, to the sacred work of the Baha’i Cause, spreading abroad the new message of Love and Justice, that message which His Holiness the Lord Christ had brought to man, and which man had grown to disregard, forgetting his loyalty to the Lord of Compassion, and, as of old, worshipping the Golden Calf.

And now the preparations being completed, they set forth on their journey of exile to an unknown destination.

Baha’u’llah, the Master, and the ladies of the family rode horses and mules, and some were in Kajavihs, a sort of erection (of the most jolting description) on the back of a mule, and the rest rode horses and mules.

They were escorted by some Turkish soldiers, who behaved very respectfully to the exiles, although they were prisoners. So great was the influence of the majestic personality of Baha’u’llah, that it affected all who came within its lines of force. Discourtesy shrank abashed from His Presence.

At length the tedious journey by land from Baghdad to Constantinople was accomplished—that being the “unknown destination.”

Many were attracted to Baha’u’llah at Constantinople, and again the enemy, fearing anew His influence, plotted the further exile to Adrianople.

The account of the sojourn in this place, and the intrigues of another type of enemy, Baha’u’llah’s half-brother, Subh-i-Azal, are written in another place.

Henceforth, His bitterest and most unscrupulous foe was “‘of His own kindred, and His own Father’s house.”

Consumed with the burning flame of jealousy, as soon as Baha’u’llah sent the Tablet of Declaration to this half-brother, acquainting him with the proclamation of His station as the Chosen One, every mischief which wounded vanity, joined with cunning and ruthless hatred, could devise was plotted and carried out.

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