The Chosen Highway/Baghdád

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CHAPTER III

Baghdad

Now our great anxiety was concerning the whereabouts of Jamal-i-Mubarak.

All this time my mother and Mirza Musa made every possible inquiry. My brother’s distress at the prolonged absence was pathetic. On one occasion he prayed the whole night a certain prayer with the one intention, that our father might be restored to us.

The very next day, he and our uncle, Mirza Musa, overheard two people speaking of a marvellous one, living as a dervish in the wild mountain district of Sulaymaniyyih; they described him as “The Nameless One,” who had magnetized the countryside with his love. And they immediately knew that this must be our Beloved.

Here at last was a clue!

Without delay, Shaykh Sultan, our faithful friend, with one of the other disciples, set forth on their quest. Needless to say how our hearts went with them, and that our prayers for their success were unceasing.

Hope now brought its brilliance into the dark shadow of our anxiety, which had saddened our lives for two years.

As these days of intensified waiting passed by, our faith as well as our hope increased and grew. We knew that in the days that were very near at hand, our wanderer, our father, would be once more with us.

My mother had made a coat for him out of some pieces of precious Persian stuff (Tirmih—red cloth),* which she had carefully kept for the purpose out of the remains of her marriage treasures. It was now ready for him to put on.

At last! At last! As my mother, my brother, and I sat in a

• See page 242.

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breathless state of expectancy, we heard a step. It was a dervish. Through the disguise we saw the light of our beloved one’s presence!

Our joy cannot be described as we clung to him.

I can see now my beloved mother, calm and gentle, and my brother holding his father’s hand fast, as though never again could he let him go out of his sight, the lovely boy almost enfolded in the uncouth garment of the dervish disguise. I could never forget this scene, so touching and so happy.

Many were the incidents of that two years’ sojourn in the wilderness, which were told to us; we were never tired of listening.

The food was easy to describe—coarse bread, a little cheese was the usual diet; sometimes, but very rarely, a cup of milk; into this would be put some rice, and a tiny bit of sugar. When boiled together, these scanty rations provided the great treat of a sort of rice pudding.

One day, near a village in the mountains, Baha’u’llah saw a young boy weeping bitterly.

My father, always compassionate for anyone in sorrow, especially if it were a child, said, “Little man, why art thou weeping?”

The boy looked up at the one who spoke, and saw a dervish!

“Oh Sir!” and he fell to weeping afresh. ‘““The schoolmaster has punished me for writing so badly. I cannot write, and now I have no copy! I dare not go back to school!”

“Weep no longer. I will set a copy for thee, and show thee how to imitate it. And now thou canst take this; show it to thy schoolmaster.”

When the schoolmaster saw the writing which the boy had brought, he was astonished, for he recognised it as of the royal penmanship, this amazing script.

“Who gave this to thee?’ said the master.

“He wrote it for me, the dervish on the mountain.”

“He is no dervish the writer of this, but a royal personage,” said the schoolmaster.

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This story being noised abroad, caused certain of the people to set out to find this one, of whom many wonderful things were said. So great was the throng which pressed in upon him, that he had to go further away; again and again, he moved from place to place, hiding himself from the crowds, in the caves of the mountains, and in the desert places of that desolate land.

One evening the Sufis of that country-side, assembled together, were discussing a mystical poem, when a dervish arose in their midst and gave so wonderful an interpretation of its meaning that awe fell upon the gathering. All his hearers were silent for a while, and then they came together close round him and entreated him to come again to teach them.

But his time was not yet.

When one said sorrowfully, “Oh Master! Shall we then see thee no more?”

“In a time to come, but not yet, go to the city of Baghdad, ask for the house of Mirza Musa [rani. There shalt thou hear tidings of me,” the ‘Nameless One” replied.

He went out from their midst and again retreated into the desolate places.

Many were the events of importance to the progress of the Cause that took place during the sojourn at Baghdad.

The following was told by ‘Abdu’l-Baha to the friends at Abu-Sinan in 1915.

Whilst at Baghdad many learned mullas and others came into the Holy Presence, several of whom became His devoted friends; one of those was Kayvan Mirza, grandson of Fath-‘Ali Shah. This gentleman came and asked Mirza Muhit to obtain permission for an audience at some midnight in secret.

The reply was:

“When I was in the wilderness of Kurdistan I composed this poem:

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Tf: peee hast in thine heart one desire for thy life, then come not ither! But shouldst thou be prepared to sacrifice soul, and heart and life, come and bring others! Such is the path if thou desire to enter the Kingdom of Light, If thou art not of those able to walk this path— Begone, and trouble us not!

Mirza Muhit conveyed this reply to Kayvan Mirza. He chose to ‘‘Begone,” his heart failed him!

Of another kind was Aqa Siyyid Mujtahid, who also desired to be admitted to the Holy Presence at the secret midnight hour.

He stayed until morning, and accepted the teaching.

“Well, what thinkest thou?” asked his friend.

Aga Siyyid Mujtahid said: “I had been told that these Babis were wine-bibbers, that there was much wine in the room of Baha’u’llah, that, moreover, they had no moral principles whatsoever!

I went to investigate for myself and found Purity within Purity. I was filled with amazement at the sanctity of that place, and bewildered to find the exact opposite of that which I had heard. I am firmly convinced that

“THIS IS THE TRUTH.”

Now followed a period when we might have had a little peace. The Governor had become a friend; the fanatics did not dare to show openly a very fierce hostility. Some of the proceeds of our property, which our friends had succeeded in rescuing and keeping for us, had begun to arrive from Persia. Several of the faithful Babis, who had followed Baha’u’llah and his family into exile, had opened little shops, where their absolute honesty had begun to attract buyers.

Many learned and interesting people gathered round Baha’u’llah, appreciating his wisdom, and the helpful counsel he gave when different perplexing problems were laid before him: “Surely his knowledge must be from Heaven!” the people said. As he spoke to them of the ‘““Most Great Peace”

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which will come to the world, and shewed his kindness to all who were in trouble and in want, and became known to the poor as “Our Father of Compassion,” they understood how it was that for the teaching of true peace and brotherhood and loving-kindness he was driven into exile, and all his vast possessions taken from him. As the truth of the matter was gradually realized, more and yet more people came to him from all the surrounding country.

‘There is something of another world in this Majestic Person,” they said.

Accounts of what had taken place during his sojourn in the wilderness of Sulaymaniyyih were also told abroad.

As the people pondered on these things, many were amazed, and reverenced the mysterious and majestic guest who tarried in their midst.

When his ever-watchful enemies, the most fanatical and bigoted of the mullds, became aware of the influence of his mere presence on all who came to him, and of the profound impression he had made in the land, they again set themselves to work against him.

The authorities at Constantinople were approached with sundry plausible tales of the harm that was being done by him to the religion of the people, and requests that he might be driven from Baghdad.

At length the Governor came to Baha’u’llah in great distress, telling him that a decree had arrived from Constantinople. By this decree Baha’u’ll4h was commanded to leave Baghdad; He would be escorted by Turkish soldiers to an unknown destination.

Our peace was at an end!

When it became known that this departure was to take place, great was the consternation among the friends. We had to make preparation for a journey, we knew not how long, to a place we knew not where. The friends came weeping helplessly, “‘What shall we do? What is going to happen to our Beloved? What?”

There was such turmoil that we could not proceed with our preparations.

At this juncture Najib Pasha, who had become a reverent

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admirer of Bahda’u’llah, invited him to bring some of the friends, and come to stay in his garden, a short distance outside Baghdad.

This relieved some of the turmoil, and we worked hard to make ready for the departure.

It was during Baha’u’llah’s stay in this garden that the declaration was made to His eldest son, ‘Abbas Effendi, and a few friends, that He was ‘“Him Whom God shall make Manifest,” and in commemoration of this event the Feast of Ridvan (meaning Feast of Paradise) was instituted, and continues to be observed annually by the Baha’is throughout the world.

The story of this Declaration is told by H. M. Balyuzi in his short biography Bahdwlldh. The following is an extract:

“Baha’u’'ll4h moved to the garden of Ridvan, outside the gates of Baghdad. The Babis thronged there to see the last of their Beloved so cruelly torn from their midst. It was the twenty-first day of April. With tears in their eyes they gathered around Him. He was calm, serene, and unruffled. The hour had struck. To that company Baha’u’llah revealed Himself— He was the Promised One in Whose path the Bab had sacrificed His life, ‘Him Whom God will make Manifest,’ the Shah Bahram, the Fifth Buddha, the Lord of Hosts, the Return of Christ, the Master of the Day of Judgment. A deep silence fell upon the audience. Heads were bent as the immensity of that Declaration touched the consciousness of men. Not a breath of dissent—one and all they threw themselves at His feet. Sadness had vanished; joy, celestial joy, prevailed.”

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