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THE Body oF THE BAB
The bodies of the Bab and of His faithful disciple, Aqé Muhammad-‘Ali, were taken in the dead of night, wrapped in one ‘aba, to the house of Rahim Khan-i-Kalantar.
The devoted Babi, who achieved this task with the wonderful courage and promptitude necessary to its success, Mirza Sulayman Khan, was afterwards martyred in the most cruel manner—lighted candles were inserted into the skin of various parts of his body; whilst they burned, and his torturers gloated over his sufferings, he sang praises to God, and chanted prayers with his last breath.
From the house of the Kalantar, the two bodies being put into one wooden case, were taken and hidden in the warehouse of one Mirza Ahmad-i-Milani, a place of concealment little likely to be discovered. Here they remained until Baha’u’llah
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THE BAB
requested Mirza Sulayman Khan to undertake again the dangerous guardianship of the revered bodies, and to bring them to Tihran.
This was done, and they were successfully placed with great secrecy in the tomb of a descendant of an Imam. In this appropriate resting-place they were hidden for some years.
At length ‘Abdu’l-Baha arranged for the precious remains to be brought to Mount Carmel, near Haifa.
Those who were charged with the transportation had many obstacles to encounter on their way. To have taken it on board a ship, or on to any train, would have led to the disaster of discovery. Accordingly, they hired mules, and riding in a “Takht-i-Ravan” (similar to a howdah), with the box, they brought it all the way by land from Tihran through Baghdad, and at length arrived in safety at Haifa.
Here it remained in secret, first in one house, then being taken for greater security to another hiding-place.
After some years it was placed in the mausoleum (tomb shrine), which had been especially built by ‘Abdu’l-Baha on Mount Carmel.
The body of the faithful “companion,” Aqa Muhammad-‘Ali, was now mingled with that of the Bab, his head resting on the breast of his beloved Master. Thus even in the earthly bodies, the promise, given the night before their martyrdom, was fulfilled.
“T say unto thee that never shalt thou be separated from me; thou shalt be for ever with me.”
Immediately upon His release from the prison of ‘Akka, ‘Abdu’l-Baha began to build a shrine for the body of the Bab, which had been kept so long in a secret place. Having with much difficulty, self-sacrifice, and great trouble accomplished this, He proceeded to have the sacred remains of the martyred Herald, and the beloved disciple, laid in a marble casket, which was placed in the shrine with great and solemn reverence.
Several persons who were present on the moving occasion of that sacred ceremony have tried to describe to the writer what they saw, and above all, what they felt.
“But it is impossible to find the words with which to tell you
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THE CHOSEN HIGHWAY
of the event of that great day. Perhaps you may touch the spirit of it with your spirit. The Master, bare-headed, with His hair like a halo of silver, His white robe falling round Him, His feet bare, descended into the tomb. His beautiful voice rose and fell in the cadence of the funeral chant, His face all shining and glorious, as though it were lighted from within.
“He Himself placed the earthly body of His Holiness the Bab, with that of His beloved and faithful disciple, in the marble sarcophagus.
“And when He spoke to us of the meaning of that day’s event—of sacrifice, of love, of steadfastness, of heroism, shown all down the ages by those Great Messengers of God—our hearts, you can imagine, were too full for any utterance. We could but feel, Oh, the blindness of humanity! How it is unworthy of those whom it tortures and martyrs. And Oh, the stupendous love which came and endured for the sake of that same humanity!”
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