The Chosen Highway/The Story of Shaykh Maḥmúd

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Tue Story or SHAYKH Maumup Totp By His GRANDDAUGHTER, Now Livinc In ‘AKKA, 1922

The following story had an atmosphere of its own, spoken in Arabic, by a sweet-faced woman with a beautiful voice fraught with enthusiasm and sincerity, as she was sitting on the floor, near the feet of Munirih Khanum, the wife of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. Listening to the translation by Munavvar Khanum, as the pictures were unfolded scene by scene, that morning, at the house of the Beloved Master, the occasion was one of those experiences most deeply engraved on my mind as I wrote the following:

It was the time of Ramadan in the year 1850. The Shaykh and his family had fasted until sundown. Then they had their accustomed meal. When they had finished, my grandfather, then a little boy, cried out “Look! Look! The sun is risen again, the sun has come back!”

The whole family stood looking at the western sky, where a brilliant gleam was shining. It seemed to them miraculous, after the darkness which was there when they sat down to break their fast.

My great-grandfather hurried to consult an old Shaykh who was a much-revered friend. In a state of great distress he related to his friend the episode of the seeming return of the sun, being full of anxiety lest he and his family should have broken the law which requires them to fast until the setting of the sun.

The aged Shaykh made answer:

“You have not broken the law, but a terrible crime has this day been committed in a far-off city of Persia; they have murdered the Mihdi, for whom we have been waiting, who has come to herald the coming of the ‘Great One’ into this mortal world in fulfilment of the prophecies!

“Oh, the miserable blindness of man! How can such things be?”

On the next day the old Shaykh came to see my great 239 [Page 240]THE CHOSEN HIGHWAY

grandfather. He called the young son (my grandfather, Shaykh Mahmud) and said to him:

‘“‘Hearken unto me, my child:

“Unto this city of ‘Akka will come one day the ‘Great One,’ He will abide in a high house with many, many steps. His sustenance will be provided by the Government (i.e., a prisoner). Now thou wilt be here, in this city, when He cometh. I and thy father will have passed from this mortal world, but mark well what I now say unto thee:

“We charge thee to deliver the salutation of our hearts’ devoted worship unto Him, mine and thy father’s.”

My grandfather, Shaykh Mahmud, told us that, although still a child, his father and his friend, the old Shaykh, spoke often to him, charging him to keep this, their command, ever in his mind, and to obey “‘when the time should have come.”

Meanwhile, after many days had gone by, the terrible tidings came to us that, on the day of the episode of the return gleam of the sun, His Holiness the Bab had been shot to death in the market-place of Tabriz in Persia.

Time flowed on. The old Shaykh and my great-grandfather, Shaykh Qasim ‘Arabi, died, and my grandfather, Shaykh Mahmud, grew up into manhood, being always full of love and devotion to his religion, that of Islam.

In the year 1868, my grandfather was told that a powerful enemy of Islam had been brought to ‘Akka, where he was imprisoned in a little room at the top of a high-flight of steps. My grandfather thought it was his duty to kill such an enemy of his beloved religion.

Accordingly, he armed himself with a weapon secretly hidden beneath his ‘abd (cloak).

He then requested to be permitted to speak with the Prisoner. The reply came:

“Thou hast permission to approach when thou shalt have cast away thy weapon!”

Shaykh Mahmud was greatly astonished at the mention of the weapon, of which he had spoken to nobody.

My grandfather then said within himself, “I am a strong man, I am able to kill this enemy by the strength of my hands, without the aid of a weapon.”

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Again he sent his request to be received by the Prisoner. To which the reply came:

“When thou shalt have purified thy heart, then thou mayest come.”

Again my grandfather more greatly marvelled.

Then a dream came. The old Shaykh and his father appeared to Shaykh Mahmud and thus spoke to him:

“Go to the gathering-place of the friends of this Prisoner and say unto them:

“Allah-u-Abha.

“They will take no heed of thee at first, then say a second time: “Allah-u-Abha.

“Still they will ignore thee.

“Then cry aloud for the third time: “Allah-u-Abha.

“Now one will question thee: ‘What meanest thou by this word?’ Then shalt thou speak of our charge unto thee, years ‘ago, to deliver the salutations of our hearts’ devoted worship.”

As he heard these words, the eyes of my grandfather, Shaykh Mahmud, were opened, and he remembered all that the old Shaykh and his own father, Shaykh Qasim ‘Arabi, had said to him of the ‘‘Great One” Who should come, even to ‘Akka, and how He should abide in a tall dwelling at the top of a long flight of steps.

My grandfather sought out the gathering-together place of the friends of the Prisoner, the ““Most Great Prisoner’; he was allowed to enter, and all things took place in accordance with the command given in his dream.

The one Who said to him: ‘What meanest thou by this word, Allah-u-Abha?”’ was our beloved Master, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, through Whom my grandfather, Shaykh Mahmud, was permitted to deliver the salutation of their hearts’ devoted worship, the old Shaykhs’ and that of my great-grandfather, Shaykh Qasim ‘Arabi. And my grandfather, Shaykh Mahmud, believed, and all his family.

(Written down by Sitarih Khanum (Lady Blomfield), 7th January, 1922. Mansion of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Haifa, Palestine.)

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