The Chosen Highway/Preface
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PREFACE
Shortly before her passing on the last day of the year 1939, Lady Blomfield asked me to write this preface. To my infinite regret, it was not prepared in time to obtain her approval. And now I feel that I cannot let this opportunity go without paying my share of humble tribute to the shining memory of a gracious lady who served the Cause of Baha’u’llah with never-failing vigour and devotion. It is indeed hard to believe that Sitarih Khanum is no longer with us in her earthly temple. The contagion of her enthusiasm and the brilliance of her talk and description, her close association with the Master and His family, her unique privileges in the service of the Cause, the intense light of her faith and the captivating charm of her presence, to enumerate some of her qualities and qualifications, made her loved and revered by all. It is a great joy that she was permitted to bring this book to its conclusion before her departure to realms beyond.
The Chosen Highway will forever remain the greatest monument to the achievements of its author. Those who have met Sitarih Khanum in person will cherish this book in the tenderness of her remembrance. To others who know of her work, it will convey a vivid portrait of her gifts of the spirit. And to generations unborn it will hand a message rich in enlightenment.
The avowed adherent of Baha’u’ll4h cannot be alone in feeling incalculable gratitude to Sitarih Khanum. Every earnest student of the Baha’i Faith will find in The Chosen Highway a wealth of material essential to the study of history. In my possession are two letters written by Professor Edward Granville Browne, of Pembroke College, Cambridge, to my father, in which he makes enquiries regarding the life and the origins of the Bab. Urging his correspondent to help him in his research, he states: “I am very anxious to get as accurate an account of all the details connected with the Babi Movement as possible, for in my eyes the whole seems one of the most
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interesting and important events that has occurred since the
rise of Christianity and Muhammadanism, and I feel it my
duty, as well as pleasure, to try as far as in me lies to bring the
matter to the notice of my countrymen, that they may consider
it . . . for suppose anyone could tell us more about the childhood and early life and appearance of Christ, for instance, how
glad we should be to know it. Now it is impossible to find out
much . . . but in the case of the Bab it zs possible. . . . So
let us earn the thanks of posterity, and provide against that
day now.”
Sitarih Khanum’s work provides the intimate detail, which Edward Browne meant to seek and record, within the limits set by the author herself. The Chosen Highway offers every seeker a real feast of knowledge. It cannot but eternally merit the esteem of the historian.
But the true greatness of this work does not lie in its compendium of narrative and chronicle. It is the spiritual purport of The Chosen Highway, the pattern of love, justice, charity, and sacrifice that it weaves and depicts, the chord of harmony that it strikes, which place it in prominent relief. To a world shaken to its depths, it brings the assurance that evil can never achieve the final, the abiding victory.
H. M. Batryuzi. Lonpon, March 1940.